Hong Kong: Lazy Lion gets HK moving

With his endearing appearance, Lazy Lion portrays the impact of physical inactivity on a persons health. He has come up with many reasons and excuses to avoid doing some exercise.

Centre for Health Protection Senior Medical & Health Officer Dr Karen Lee explained that when people interact with mascots it generally leaves a positive impression on them. This inspired the team to create a mascot that was an anti-hero promoting an active lifestyle as an inactive character.

Lazy Lion is a reflection of the (sedentary) lifestyle of our population, where we are often similar to Lazy Lion. We always find (an) excuse not to do physical activities. We also took the time in designing Lazy Lions physical shape ensuring that he has a protruding stomach to represent problems of central obesity in Hong Kong.

They also hoped that such a cute character would resonate with people of all ages and show them that if Lazy Lion could change his ways, so could they.

Fitness motivator

To boost Lazy Lions popularity in the community, the Centre for Health Protection created an upbeat theme song with punchy lyrics for him, to encourage residents to get up and move.

The Department of Health launched the large-scale HEALTHY HONG KONG 2025 | Move for Health" Campaign, with Lazy Lion as its mascot in December 2018, to help prevent non-communicable diseases by encouraging people to exercise more.

World Health Organization guidelines recommend that children and youths aged five to 17 should do at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day, while adults aged 18 or above should engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week.

I would encourage our general population to incorporate physical activities in their daily life, such as (walking) more. They also can help with the housework. For example, they can help to clean the windows and also to mop the floor, and also take care of the children, Dr Lee said.

In addition to helping out around the home, people can take part in flash mobs and roadshows organised under the campaign.

It is also easy to keep up to date with what Lazy Lion is up to through his social media accounts.

This story has been published on: 2019-04-21. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.In addition to the fact that limousine travel is very glamorous, it is also the most comfortable trip you can...Kathmandu, April 21

Three weeks after the governments flagship Nepal Investment Summit, Investment Board of Nepal has received applications for developing 26 of the 77 projects showcased during the event.

Investors have expressed a lot of interest in projects related to transportation infrastructure. Investors have also shown interest in five projects not showcased at the summit.

During the investment summit held from March 29-30, a total of 77 projects (50 private sector-backed and 27 government-backed) were presented before investors. According to the board, six proposals have been received to develop the Nijgadh International Airport, four for the Outer Ring Road, Two for the Dhangadhi Regjonal Airport and two for the International Convention Centre in Bhaktapur.

The Notre Dame fire is a global tragedy, and it's also raising complicated questions about our present moment, including trenchant inquiries into which church fires merit global outpourings and whose sacred sites get mourned when they are destroyed.



In France, the political conversation has been dominated by the Gilets Jaunes, whose yellow vests have become a global symbol of unrest, with both the right and the left vying to define the movement. The French Yellow Vests have never stopped demonstrating, despite brutal suppression tactics by French police, who have terrorized and maimed protesters with impunity while the neoliberal Macron continues his billionaire-friendly policies.





Those billionaires are at the center of the French controversy over Notre Dame. Though members of the Gilets Jaunes were among those mourning the damage to a national symbol when Notre Dame burned, the fact that a handful of French super-rich oligarchs were able to pledge all the money necessary to rebuild by fishing in the sofa cushions for their lost pocket-change has reinvigorated the debate over France's priorities.





This weekend's Gilet Jaunes demonstrations are full of signs making wry references to the billionaires' outpourings: "Victor Hugo thanks all the generous donors ready to save Notre Dame and proposes that they do the same thing with Les Miserables."

As wealth inequality has increased and faith in social mobility and fairness has waned, we've seen the growth of both left- and right-wing anti-establishment movements. Famously, both the Occupy and Tea Party movements kicked off around the same time, tapping into the same concerns, with very different political valences (and of course the Tea Party was lavishly funded by oligarchs who saw them as useful idiots who would vote for the politicians who would accelerate inequality).

I think of the Gilet Jaunes as a kind of Occupy/Tea Party fusion: both left- and right-wing elements marching together on a limited set of goals, but diverging on wider social analysis and priorities. It's not without precedent: I remember pro-labor demonstrations in Toronto where people carried "solidarnosc" banners is solidarity with independent trade unions in Poland, where the right-wing counterdemonstrators also carried solidarnosc banners in sympathy with Polish independence from the USSR.





Mass movements always have a tension between breadth  how many people can be brought into the tent  and depth  how crisply defined the movement's goals are. The more you define what you're there for, the more people will decide it's not for them; but if you don't define a cause well, then no one will be mobilized by it.





Occupy showed that you could rally much larger groups of people with much less defined goals than ever before, thanks to networks, which let people find each other and mobilize independently. Occupy was a grab-bag of left-wing politics with anarchists and socialists and liberals of all description; now, it seems to me, the Gilets Jaunes are doing the same thing, but even more broadly, creating a group of anti-establishment activists from across the political spectrum.





This is powerfuland dangerous. As we saw with the Arab Spring, unity among opposition elements can topple a seemingly unassailable autocracy, but the ensuing power vacuum won't necessarily be filled by anything the left wing would be happy about.



The demonstrators' concerns about prioritizing Notre Dame's reconstruction over the needs of low-income French households have been echoed in the U.S., where many criticized the Trump administration for offering aid to France to help rebuild the damaged church. After some called attention in the days after the Notre Dame fire to a number of historically black churches that have been burned recently in the American Southsome allegedly in attacks by white nationalists$1.9 million in donations poured in to help those churches.

Yellow Vests Demonstrate in Paris as Notre Dame Donations Highlight Wealth Inequality [Common Dreams]





(via Naked Capitalism)





(Image: Antoninnnnn, CC-BY-SA)News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

Exiled former cabinet Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has come under fire from a prominent Bulawayo pastor Anglistone Themba Sibanda who is accusing him of grandstanding over Gukurahundi genocide.Moyo has of late been questioning President Emmerson Mnangagwa's sincerity in resolving the Gukurahunding question.Said Pastor Sibanda, "Jonathan Moyo has been crying about burying his father since 2014, now that opportunity is availed, he is throwing tantrums looking for political relevance. He should just shut up and come and burry his father."Sibanda further accused Moyo of working with ZANU PF to silence dissenting voices over the years when he was an acting member of the party."Zimbabwe is moving on and there is no time for tantrums. We are moving on while he barks from hiding. He worked hard to build ZANU PF and to destroy opposition and Civic Society. The NGO Bill that even Mugabe rejected was his idea to destroy NGOs and Civil Society. He must keep his mouth shut." Sibanda added.Mnangagwa recently met a grouping on Matabeleland activist who are branded as the Matabeleland Collective and together they agreed on a way forward in resolving the Gukurahundi question.Mnangagwa later on sent the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry on Justice Virginia Mabhiza to inform the activists that the government will avail free healthcare, documentation and assist in the reburial of Gukurahundi victims.The engagement between Mnangagwa and the activists has been received with mixed feelings by Zimbabweans with MDC Deputy National Chairperson Tendai Biti calling for an International Commission to t he genocide.News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

Siphosami Malunga the Open Society Initiatives of Southern Africa Director and son of the late veteran nationalist Sydney Malunga says President Emmerson Mnangagwa and MDC leader Nelson Chamisa should urgently convene a dialogue to resolve the economic challenges bedeviling the country."If ever there was a moment to show leadership for President Mnangagwa and opposition leaders including Nelson Chamisa, civil society leaders and all Zimbabweans, it is now. The alternative is too ghastly to contemplate. But without dialogue it will happen."The economic crisis in Zimbabwe is unlikely to go away without any serious intervention on the political and civic front. This is because the crises has its roots in the political and governance crises the country faces. Unaddressed I have no doubt that it will ultimately implode."Malunga said the dialogue should not be viewed as a way of giving power to the opposition MDC but it must be seen as a platform to create lasting solutions to Zimbabwe's problems."Zimbabwe needs an all-inclusive dialogue - right away. Dialogue is not a benevolent or gracious act to help opposition access power. Nor is it a way to save Zanu PF from complete demise. It is about agreeing on reconfiguring our political and economic system, addressing key and long outstanding national problems and equitably sharing power and resources across society. It is about giving ordinary Zimbabweans a chance to say how they want their future to be. It is about national interest."Dialogue provides the possibility for an orderly transition of the political and economic system. It pushes the radical and fringe elements in Zanu PF, MDC and elsewhere, who are benefitting from the economic and political crises out."Political, social and economic change is a constant in every context. The real stuff of leadership is steering and managing change. If leaders fail to manage change, it happens without them and they are often its casualty. At this rate, in Zimbabwe, nothing short of an inclusive dialogue will help us address our decades old political, human rights and economic crises. There are many ready to assist or facilitate this if the key political and civic actors are serious."President Mnangagwa called for a national dialogue of all opposition political parties in January but Chamiss snubbed it saying it was not a genuine and credible platform.As the world continues to suffer from climate change impacts, decarbonisation of the global economy is one of the most urgent needs faced by governments. This, though, will never be the only axis on which strategic political and economic decisions are taken.

With more than a billion people still living in extreme poverty, and another substantial number living just above the poverty line, rapid economic development will remain a priority for many countries. One of the key factors linking these two issues is the need for electricity, which has been identified by some countries, like China, as a basic human right.One ways to square this circle is renewable energy, in which hydropower plays an oversize role. Developed early, and championed by state governments in both developed and developing countries, it has long dominated the renewable sector. Often seen as a win-win solution which allowed not just the generation of clean energy, large hydropower dams were also seen as a way to manage uneven water flows to deal with both floods and droughts, as well as provide sustained irrigation to the agriculture. Leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias first Prime Minister, described dams as the temples of modern India.

While some of these perceptions still exist, over the decades, dams have come under sustained criticism  even Nehru would rue the focus on gargantuan solutions that created problems of displacement, corruption, and conflict. While these criticisms have been around for some time, they have often been specific to projects or, at most, countries. A new paper titled Internationalizing the political economy of hydroelectricity: security, development and sustainability in hydropower states by Benjamin K Sovacoola and Gotz Walter looks at them globally.

Published in the Review of International Political Economy, the paper examines the key criticisms of hydropower, and its impact on conflict, poverty, slow economic growth, state indebtedness, and environmental degradation. Bringing their expertise from the disciplines they teach, Sovacoola from the School of Business, Management, and Economics at the University of Sussex in Britain and Walter from the International School of Management in Munich, Germany compare the performance of countries that derive more than 70% of their power from hydroelectricity to the oil-producing OPEC nations, as well as non-hydro and non-OPEC countries. The analysis, using data sets from 1985-1994, 1995-2004 and 2005-2014, does two things: compares the performance of states dependent on hydropower with those not dependent on hydropower on these variables, as well as the impact of producing hydropower on these variables.

The study is huge. The authors write, In the first timeframe, our data analysis encompassed 113 countries, followed by 137 countries in timeframe 2 and 140 countries in timeframe 3, with lower case numbers due to missing data, mostly related to islands or microstates. To put these numbers in perspective, the United Nations currently has 193 member states. Nonetheless, the countries included in our analysis still account for 91.6% of the world population in timeframe 1, 96.2% of the world population in timeframe 2and 96.0% of the world population in timeframe 3, respectively.

In real terms, it is hard to imagine a more comprehensive analysis, but the scale of hydropower in the global economy demands it. Sovacoola and Walter write, According to the International Energy Agency (2016), hydropower provided about 16.3% of the worlds electricity and about 85% of its renewable power in 2015. Hydroelectric dams generated at least some grid-connected hydroelectricity in more than 150 countries: at least 50% of total electricity in more than 60 countries and greater than 90% in more than 20 countries (Hancock & Sovacool, 2018). Haas (2008, p. 86) argues that dams are the types of infrastructure that most fundamentally affect human settlement patterns, livelihoods, health, and the environment, given that they impound about 14% of all global water runoff and operate on 60% of the worlds 227 largest rivers.

The results that their study produced are interesting. On two of the six variables they tested, the data did not support the criticisms. Despite large scale displacement and security interests associated with large hydropower dams, levels of internal conflicts  though higher than in non-hydropower countries and lower than in OPEC countries  was not statistically significant. The other criticism that failed to hold up  a recent one  was that hydropower created more carbon than it offsets. In fact, the cumulative impact of hydropower did tend to  as its proponents suggest  decarbonise the economy, though at a slower rate.

In contrast, the data at least partially supported the four other points of criticism. It seems that hydropower increases to some extent poverty, decrease GDP per capita, increase public debt and increase corruption, the authors note, adding, It is especially noteworthy that we found that hydropower influences a countrys governance, economic and development indicators significantly  even though it plays such a small part of the respective countries economies.

What was even more interesting was that the countries dominated by hydropower did little better than the OPEC countries, often seen as having a resource curse. Sovacoola and Walter are clear, though, that not all hydropower projects need to be similar, nor their impacts. In other words, Indias large reservoir-based hydropower projects which have displaced millions  often without compensation or resettlement  are not comparable to Bhutans run-of-the-river dam that has displaced 30 families, all of whom have been resettled. Instead they that based on the data available, it is clear that hydropower presents some benefits and many costs, and the benefits may go to one set of people in urban areas far away, while the costs are largely borne by the indigenous people whose lands are flooded and livelihoods destroyed, exacerbating wealth gaps and slowing overall growth of the economy.

Both the winners and losers have to be recognised, and some form of equitable treatment is needed if hydropower power projects go forward. This should mean a much closer examination of hydropower projects in the pipeline. The purely positive ways that they have been portrayed by actors such as the World Bank and the International Energy Agency, which projected in 2012 that hydropower would double by 2050, have to be reassessed. Otherwise, while the world may get some decarbonisation, it will be at the cost of further poverty, slower growth in poor countries, higher corruption, and much greater debt for nations that can least afford it.

This story was first published on thethirdpole.net. Read the original story here.News / National

by Staff reporter

WHITE commercial farmers can only be paid after they settle their outstanding debts with farm workers as agreed in terms of S16 of 2002, a farm workers' official has said.Government, which has committed to compensate former farm owners for farm improvements, allocated RTGS$53 million in the 2019 National Budget for interim advance payments.These interim advance payments will be made to former farm owners affected by the land reform programme and who are in financial distress."The registration process and list of farmers should be completed by the end of April 2019, after which the interim advance payments will be paid directly to former farm owners," the ministries of Finance and Agriculture said in a joint statement.Government emphasised that it will only pay compensation for infrastructure and improvements on farms and not for the land.Progressive Agriculture and Allied industries Workers Union of Zimbabwe (Paawuz) secretary-general Raymond Sixpence said this is good news as it will also benefit farm workers made redundant then.Sixpence told the Daily News that it was agreed that in terms of S16 of 2002 that no farmer should be compensated before he pays what he owes farm workers who lost their jobs at the time."The farmers were saying they could only pay farm workers once they received their compensation and we have been waiting for this time. Maybe they thought they would never be paid, but is happening."They have to pay farm workers three months' salary plus two months' salary for every year one was employed. This is apart from the leave days and gratuity," said Sixpence.He said there are over 30 000 farm workers who are eagerly waiting compensation.Paawuz has over the years been fighting to have farm workers paid their dues.Two decades ago, former president Robert Mugabe's government carried out often violent evictions of 4 500 white farmers and redistributed the land to around 300 000 black families, arguing it was redressing imbalances from the colonial era.News / National

by Staff reporter

FORMER Cabinet minister and liberation struggle icon, Rugare Gumbo, has flatly refused to accept President Emmerson Mnangagwa's invitation to re-join Zanu-PF - insisting that it was beneath him to re-apply for party membership of an organisation which he had helped to build.Gumbo - who was controversially fired from the ruling party in the run-up to Zanu-PF's sham congress of December 2014, at the height of the party's factional, succession and tribal wars - added that it was absurd for him to be invited to return to an organisation that he had been part of from his teenage years.As a result, the respected octogenarian told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday that he was happy to remain "in the terraces" and concentrate on his farming interests in his home province of Midlands - where he hails from together with Mnangagwa.Speaking in a no-holds-barred interview with the newspaper, Gumbo said categorically that he was not prepared to re-join Zanu-PF as a card-carrying member as he was among the party's founders.He argued further that he had only been sacked from the party by former president Robert Mugabe because of Zanu-PF's then unresolved leadership succession wars."I am not concerned at all about re-joining Zanu-PF. Some have gone back but mumwe nemumwe anoita zvaanoda (we all have the right to do as we please)."I am enjoying myself in the terraces, and I am quite comfortable. I am off politics and I will not apply to re-join a party that I suffered for since I was a kid," Gumbo told the Daily News on Sunday.This comes as Mnangagwa has been reaching out to many of his erstwhile Zanu-PF comrades-turned-political rivals - whose relationship with him was destroyed at the height of the ruling party's deadly factional and succession wars a few years ago.Among the expelled Zanu-PF members who have since been re-admitted back into the party, as a result of this new initiative to reunite the former liberation movement, are former senior Cabinet minister and party secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa, and retired securocrat Ambrose Mutinhiri - who briefly led Mugabe's failed political project, the National Patriotic Front (NPF) last year.At the same time, the Daily News on Sunday's sister paper, the Daily News, has also reported that Mugabe himself could make a sensational return to Zanu-PF - one-and-a-half years after the frail nonagenarian was swept from power by a military coup - if he accepts the party's overtures towards him.Gumbo added that instead of him returning to active politics, it was time his fellow comrades in Zanu-PF also paved the way for a younger generation to take the country forward.He said the liberation war generation had played an important role to bring about independence, but now risked sullying its heroic contributions if it did not allow the new generation to bring in fresh ideas."Independence is very important for the people of Zimbabwe. It is now a critical moment for reflection of what we achieved and missed."We lost a number of people during the liberation struggle. The estimates put the number at 50 000, but it could be higher than that," Gumbo said."There are a number of things that we need to ask ourselves as we celebrate Independence Day. The economy is in a quagmire to begin with."This means that we are not enjoying the fruits of independence, maybe because of commissions or omissions on our part as nationalists."But there is no doubt that we have to take responsibility for our generational failure. We failed to mentor the young people to take over."We nationalists don't accept that we are old and should pass on the leadership baton. Zimbabweans deserve better than what we are getting now," the forthright Gumbo."The situation now is such that most of the people are going through hell. We must accept that we are old."We must accept that young people should now lead. We should just let them take over. We need to empower the younger generation," he added.Gumbo was sent packing from Zanu-PF in 2014, together with Mutasa and former vice president Joice Mujuru, at the height of the ruling party's deadly factional, succession and tribal wars - on untested allegations of wanting to topple Mugabe from power.He is among the small remaining group of decorated liberation war heroes despite having a love-hate relationship with Mugabe during and after the war of independence.In a previous interview with our sister publication the Daily News, Gumbo claimed that Mugabe wanted to wipe out leading freedom fighters, in particular leaders of the liberation war council that was known as Dare reChimurenga "so as to assume total control of Zanu-PF."The former spokesperson of Zanu-PF said he and other members of Dare reChimurenga had clashed with Mugabe over the direction of the liberation struggle, leading to his barbaric detention in Mozambique, where he - together with other comrades - were kept in dungeons."We were treated like dogs. We spent at least three months detained in holes dug in an open place which were closed from the top at about 5pm, only to be reopened the following morning."The holes were six metres deep and four metres wide. It was hell on earth and we all thought we were going to die."At one point the holes were filled with soil and only our heads were left protruding out. But we all survived the ordeal," said Gumbo then.He went through that harrowing ordeal together with the likes of the late Henry Hamadziripi, former police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri, former ZBC chief executive Happison Muchechetere and Mukudzei Mudzi.Opinion / Columnist

I do not usually respond to people who veer off the road to focus on personalities, however, allow me to respectfully respond to Dr Multiverse Dungani's wild, baseless and incoherent claims he made in response to my article 'Does Nelson Chamisa deserve an opportunity from Ndebeles?'. In my article I spelt out clearly the factors which people claim should make Ndebeles to bow before him like a God and those factors which pointed out that they should run away from him as if he was Satan the devil uqobo lwakhe.Firstly, Dr Dungani claims that he knows me, maybe he does, but he goes on to say we are compatriots, the truth is I do not know this Dr Dungani. Of course it is clear that he is using a pseudonym, I have my suspicions as to who Dr Dungani is. A man I respect. A man I had thought had transcended the tribal divide. A man I viewed as my role model.Dr Multiverse categorically claims that I have a passion for Zimbabwe to succeed. This is not true, the only passion I have is for Mthwakazi. Having said that this does not mean that I do not wish Zimbabwe well, of course I do. One day Zimbabwe would be our nearest neighbour and the closest in terms of trade. AS is Zimbabwe is going nowhere because of the genocide and inhuman treatment which it has subjected Mthwakazi to. This has become a proverbial albatross around Zimbabwe's neck. Even if Zimbabwe wishes to become a truly open society on practical terms it can not do so for fear of prosecutions against crimes against Mthwakazi. The liberation of Mthwakazi will lead to Zimbabwe's liberation.You claim with certainty that I am of Zulu origin, I know why you raised this point, you wanted to make me feel like a foreigner in my motherland -Mthwakazi. The Mthwakazi struggle has never been about tribes or misguided silos. In an independent Mthwakazi we will still have Shona speaking peoples. You went on to say that I hate Shonas, this is a mother of all misrepresentation. I have never hated Shonas and I will never hate Shonas, however, if telling the truth is equated to hatred of Shona people then let it be. If demanding freedom for my people amounts to Shona hatred then let it be. If pointing out to the glaring mistakes which Shona people are doing which is destroying the country equals to Shona hatred then let it be. Dr Multiverse, let me tell you something you did not ask but claimed to know, I have lived in South Africa for some years and nobody ever called me a Kwerekwere. It is a lie that nobody from Mthwakazi can hold a public office in SA. I can give you a list of very successful Mthwakazians in SA, but I won't as I do not want to expose them. The beauty of being a Mthwakazian in SA is that you can become 100% Zulu, 100% Sotho, 100% Xhosa etc. If I had associated myself to Shona origin you would be praising me for being a consciously astute individual who does not suffer any identity crisis. I have never at any given point in my life ever felt as if Zimbabwean. My identity is very clear, I am of the Hlubi nation and in my veins I have Kalanga blood from my great grandmothers' side. So you can call me Kalanga if you want and I am happy to be called a Kalanga.I agree with you 100% Zimbabwe has harshly treated Mthwakazi to date, however, your incoherent piece-meal solution which is cushioned in sophisticated language and which you propose as panacea to Mthwakazi problems is way off the mark. Firstly, I do not seek destruction of the entity called Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe should live but it should not continue to live at the expense of Mthwakazi. What needs to happen is the separation of Mthwakazi from Zimbabwe, just as simple as that. Zimbabwe continues to exist, whether in our absence you will push yourselves over the cliff edge or not that should not be the reason to attempt to deny Mthwakazi her freedom. Mthwakazi will be better pleased to help you not to jump over the cliff edge. I am against your suggested incremental changes and probably negligible changes, I demand radical and revolutionary changes right now.One thing that truly exposes you Dr Multiverse is your statistics which you plucked from the air in terms of demographics. Do you know what I call this?, I call it gukurahundi philosophy or ideology which sough to erase the existence of Mthwakazi from the face of the earth and from memory. Both these have failed, Mthwakazi continues to resurface, and Mthwakazi continues to survive. Even a demented individual from eNgutsheni will not believe your politically motivated statistics, they will say hawu kanti usuhlanya. Dr Multiverse we are comfortable in our skins, we are comfortable in our diversity, we have never viewed our diversity as a threat but always viewed it as our eternal strength. Thanks to our Kings Mzilikazi and Lobhengula who valued diversity and respected differences. Even if Mthwakazi constituted 2% in Zimbabwe that 2% is 100% in Mthwakazi and nobody should come and try to eliminate us just because we are 2% in the context of Zimbabwe.You cleverly try to associate me with a non-existent MLP. As far as I know there is no political party like that. You also try to make me look like I am a secessionist, this is not true, I am a restorationist. I seek to restore the independence and sovereignty of Mthwakazi.I realise that in your long article you did not really marshall a convincing argument on why Mthwakazi should support Mr Nelson Chamisa. I remain opposed to supporting Chamisa and unconvinced that he may be our saviour. Actually I do not want him to be our saviour. We need to be our saviour.Dr Multiverse I invite you to a civilised discourse not to one which will seek to focus on me, our subject is Chamisa and on how Mthwakazi will benefit from supporting him. At first they said let us remove Mugabe first, then progressed to Tswangirayi is the only our who can remove Mugabe and now the song is let us help Nelson he will remember us in his kingdom of God. When are we going to say let us support George Mkhwanazi, let us support Mqondisi Moyo let us support Nkala etec?Upwards momentum

Ask around and nearly everyone will tell you that Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (TSX:CM)(NYSE:CM) is offering the best dividend to investors among Canadas Big Five commercial banks.

Mind you, its not even so much that CIBC stock is even offering investors the best long-term risk-reward potential so much as its CIBCs dividend yield, which currently sits atop its peer group.

Not to mention that the companys board of directors has done an exemplary job of allocating capital and raising the dividend payout over the past decade.

But at the same time, its also worthwhile to be on the lookout for other options.

And although most will agree that theres a lot of comfort to be had in buying stock of Canadas largest financial institutions, sometimes it can also make sense to diversify into smaller and sometimes unrelated markets.

In this post well look at three companies from Canadas financial sector that can easily make the claim of having their own dividends, which are at least as good, if not even better than larger rival CIBC.

Ive written several posts for the Motley Fool in recent weeks espousing the virtues of investing in Canadas investment management sector right now.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc was bought out by private equity firm for $445 million, a nearly 30% premium over where the shares had traded prior to the deal.

And I wouldnt be at all surprised if there was more M&A activity about to come down the pike.

In this respect, AGF Management Limited (TSX:AGF.B) would in my view make for a prime takeover candidate.

At a market capitalization of just $432 million, AGF could easily be gobbled up by a larger competitor without the purchase doing much to move the needle of a prospective acquirer.

AGF was founded way back in 1957, but given the current market environment and the eagerness on the part of financial institutions to acquire recurring fee revenue streams, it would seem that now could be an opportune time for AGFs board of directors to be considering an exit strategy.

Story continues

AGF shares were yielding 5.78% as of Wednesdays close.

Quebec-based Laurentian Bank of Canada (TSX:LB) has been dealing with an ongoing and problematic labour dispute amongst a portion of its unionized workforce that dates back to 2016.

Uncertainty around how or if the issue could be resolved has kept sentiment around the shares muted over the past year and a half, but the good news is that shareholders can finally breathe a sigh of relief and move on.

Laurentian recently released a press release stating that the two sides have agreed to come together on a deal that it hopes will ensure the banks future is a successful one.

The bank is coming off a disappointing first quarter earnings result, but the LB shares yielding more than 6% annually are representing solid long-term value at current levels.

Power Financial Corp (TSX:PWF) is a diversified financial management and holding company whose portfolio of assets includes the likes of Great-West Lifeco Inc (TSX:GWO) and IGM Financial Inc. (TSX:IGM), among others.

Investors are free to buy either of the GWO or IGM shares outright should they choose to do so.

Both companies are independently listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, yielding 4.81% and 6.16%, respectively.

However, for investors in search of a more diversified play that encompasses the entire spectrum of the Power Financial portfolio, the PWF shares will pay them 5.56% annually.

More reading

Fool contributor Jason Phillips has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2019Businessmen teamwork brainstorming meeting.

In March I highlighted how Canada Goose Holdings Inc (TSX:GOOS)(NYSE:GOOS) stock could double in price. But just because its possible doesnt mean that there wont be hurdles along the way.

Now trading at 48 times trailing earnings, the stock market is betting heavily that Canada Goose will execute. If the company stumbles, the valuation multiple will undoubtedly compress, potentially leading to 50% downside or more.

While I continue to believe in the companys future, every Canada Goose investor will want to monitor these three risks.

Global expansion efforts

One of the biggest growth stories for Canada Goose lies is its opportunity to tap global markets. Impressively, 52 out of every 1,000 Canadians own a Canada Goose jacket. Thats an unheard level of penetration, one that is unmatched by nearly any other high-end brand.

The companys penetration internationally, however, leaves plenty of room for growth.

In Japan and South Korea, for example, only 10 people in a thousand own a Canada Goose jacket. In the U.S. and Europe, the figure is only five to six people out of every thousand. In China, only 0.1% of the population owns a Canada Goose jacket.

Replicating its success in Canada wont be easy, however, especially with trade wars threatening Canadas exports. By the end of this year, expect to see improvements on the penetration rates listed above.

Customer retention rate

Another metric that Canada Goose touts is its intent to repurchase rate. According to the company, 84% of its customers intend to purchase another Canada Goose item the next time theyre shopping for a high-end jacket.

As I wrote in March, For every new customer, the company can expect a lifetime of purchases that total well into the thousands of dollars. That will only be true if the 84% customer retention rate holds as the company continues to expand.

Watch for this metric during the next annual earnings released. If it stays above 80%, that would be quite a feat. If the company fails to report the figure, the stock market may be overestimating the companys true brand power.

Story continues

Valuation

Canada Goose stock is expensive, but for good reason.

This year EPS should come in around $1.30. Over the next five years, Wall Street expects EPS to grow by more than 25% per year. If that happens, EPS would surpass $4.00 per share by 2024.

If the current valuation multiples hold, Canada Goose stock could return more than 300% over the next few years. As the company grows larger, however, it will become more difficult to maintain this breakneck pace.

Over the next couple of years, I would expect the stocks valuation of 48 times earnings to compress. It wont collapse completely as the underlying business still has plenty of room to run, but even a multiple of 30 times earnings, its pricey given that it represents a 50% premium versus the market.

If the company executes in the years to come but its valuation multiple remains sky-high, its likely time to take profits. Always keep in mind that investments pay off not only in the cash flows they produce, but also in the price that other investors are willing to pay.

More reading

Fool contributor Ryan Vanzo has no position in any stocks mentioned.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2019An Alberta activist is setting off on a months-long journey to bring a message about climate change to parliament hill  that it's happening, and it's time to pay attention.

"We're in the middle of a climate crisis and our government is not responding and most people in this country have no idea what's going on or the extent of it," says Tanya Bucknor, who goes by the name Ann Cognito.

"There is not time to sit around like this. There just isn't. People need to know what's happening and our government needs to step up."

Cognito set off from Chestermere, Alta., on Saturday on her kickbike, towing a dog carrier full of camping equipment and supplies.

The carrier will double as a place for her trusty companion Mr. Myrtle to ride when his paws get tired.

She'll follow the Trans-Canada highway for more than 3,300 kilometres, camping and living as low-carbon as possible along the way.

Cognito, the leader of local climate action group Extinction Rebellion YYC, said the plan came about from the idea that "doing something crazy" would be the best way to raise awareness.

Lucie Edwardson/CBC

She's carrying a letter and petition for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asking him to take further action to reduce the country's carbon emissions and to declare a climate emergency.

"There's so many people who are just completely unaware of the extent of what is actually going on," she said.

"There was a headline a couple months ago that summed it up better than I can. It said, 'the world is burning and most Albertans want more lighters.'"BERLIN (AP)  The parents of celebrated Austrian climber David Lama said Friday that he had "lived his dream," as hopes he and two other top climbers survived an avalanche in the Canadian Rockies faded.

Lama, fellow Austrian Hansjorg Auer and American climber Jess Roskelley have been missing in Alberta's Banff National Park since Wednesday. Their sponsor, outdoor apparel company The North Face, said the three members of its Global Athlete Team are presumed dead following an avalanche.

"David dedicated his life to the mountains and his passion for climbing and alpinism shaped and accompanied our family," Claudia and Rinzi Lama said in a statement posted on their son's website. "He always followed his own path and lived his dream. We will accept what now happened as a part of that."

The family expressed gratitude for the support it received "from near and far" and asked that their son be remembered "for his zest for life, his enthusiasm."

Earlier, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Lama and Auer had "shaped the international climbing and alpinist scene in recent years with many achievements."

Lama, 28, was feted for achieving the first free ascent in 2012 of the Compressor Route of the Cerro Torre, one of the most striking peaks in the Andes. The feat was captured in the 2013 documentary "Cerro Torre - A Snowball's Chance in Hell."

The son of a Nepalese mountain guide and an Austrian nurse, Lama had also won numerous climbing competitions in his younger years before devoting himself full-time to mountaineering in 2011.

Auer, 35, became the first person to free solo climb Italy's Marmolada peak via the south face in 2007.

Parks Canada said the three men were attempting to climb the east face of Howse Peak on the Icefields Parkway on Wednesday.

Officials said safety specialists immediately responded by air and observed signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment.

Story continues

Roskelley climbed Mount Everest in 2003 at age 20. At the time he was the youngest American to climb the world's highest peak.

His father, John Roskelley, told The Spokesman-Review, that the route his son and the other climbers were attempting was first done in 2000.

In the 2013 documentary, Lama addressed the constant peril extreme climbers are exposed to, insisting that the risks were carefully calculated  more like a game of poker than Russian roulette.

"I think it's important to be aware of the risks, but in the end there will always be things that are out of our hands," he said.A Calgary man has been on a mission for nine months to find a kidney for a sick friend and he hopes National Organ and Tissue Donation Week, which begins Sunday, will motivate people to sign up to be living donors.

Mohan Balachandran has put up dozens of signs around the city, and handed out bumper stickers to try and find a donor for his friend Sarjoon Abdul-Cader.

"Kidney donor needed. My friend, an award winning scientist suffering from kidney failure. Please call 587-664-HELP," the bumper stickers read.

Abdul-Cader is halfway through his PhD studies at the University of Calgary, but had to stop due to kidney failure. He's currently on home dialysis for about 10 hours a day, and is staring down a 10-year wait for a kidney donor.

"It's limiting everything. Family happiness, societal involvement, community involvement, education involvement, everything is now limited," he said.

Many people are aware they can sign up to donate their organs after death by ticking a box on their driver's licence, but fewer realize they only need one kidney to live and can donate the second, said Balachandran.

"It's the awareness that's the problem," he said.

Mike Symington/CBC

Since Balachandran started his campaign, he's heard from other people in need of donors.

If a donor comes forward, they can join Canada's kidney paired donor program. The hope is that if enough people join the program, Abdul-Cader and others stand a better chance of receiving a kidney.

About 4,500 Canadians are currently waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant. Only one-in-five Canadians have registered their decision to be a donor and about 250 Canadians die each year waiting.

"There are so many Canadians who are affected by this," said Balachandran.

The paired donor program is filled with donors and patients who need kidneys, who aren't compatible matches. Three times a year a computer algorithm creates as many matched pairs of kidney donors and recipients as possible  meaning that if a donor joins the program without someone they hope to donate to, they could kick off a chain, leading to multiple people receiving kidneys.

Those interested in learning more about becoming a donor can call the living donor program at Calgary's Foothills hospital at 403-944-4635..  ()              ()  2:0           ...SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's press and publication regulator has issued new rules on applications for publishing online games in China, signaling a possible acceleration in the handing out of formal approvals. China stopped granting licenses to monetize online games in March 2018, hurting the industry and developers such as Tencent Holdings Ltd and NetEase Inc. It started up approvals again in December, only to ask local governments to pause on submitting applications in February. The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television released the new rules late on Friday. Under the guidelines, games will undergo content vetting and the number of games allowed on to the market will be controlled. Gaming market research and consulting firm Niko Partners said the administration had explained the new rules to industry insiders earlier in the month, saying it was grinding through a backlog of applications submitted last year. Chinese gaming publishers were being encouraged to develop titles with China's "core social values" in mind, including games that promote traditional culture, Niko said. Niko said the administration would take new submissions from Monday, April 22, under the new application process. "With a new more transparent approval process set to go live soon, we have a positive outlook for China's digital games market in 2019," it said. (The story refiles to fix name of consultancy to Niko Partners in paragraph 5.) (Reporting by John Ruwitch and Li Pei; Editing by Nick Macfie)Jason Kenney won the majority of Albertans' votes with his campaign promises to build pipelines, create jobs and better the province's economy.

But a Canadian economics professor says the premier-designate could face some barriers on the way to addressing those key issues in coming months and years.

Kenney unveiled his platform promises in a 117-page document while campaigning in March.

"It's one of those things that looks really nice on the campaign trail, where you make a lot of promises. You know the facts on the ground will prove whether it's actually a program that can be implemented and implemented the way that he says," said Moshe Lander, an economics professor at Concordia University in Montreal, who often teaches in Calgary. Lander spoke on CBC Calgary News at 11 on Thursday.

Jason Franson/Canadian Press

Kenney had previously said he would get to work undoing NDP policies, most notably cutting the carbon tax.

Lander said undoing the carbon tax could mean it will come back in a different capacity.

"He's going to be on the losing side of history there," Lander said.

"Even if this is a short-term gain, it's going to be long-term loss. The best thing is to accept that that's reality and work within the constraints of that carbon policy, rather than trying to repeal it," he said.

Ottawa is applying its own carbon tax on fossil fuels in Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, provinces that do not have their own carbon pricing scheme.

Pipelines

Lander said pipelines are necessary, but because the federal government owns the Trans Mountain Pipeline, they're the only body that can put that can put it into play.

"At the end of the day, the biggest issue in [Alberta] is not the oil in the ground. It's once the oil is out of the ground, where do you send it?"

"If Jason Kenney wants to start picking fights with B.C., with threats to turn off the taps, or asking politely in French for the Premier of Quebec to welcome the oil and gas, that's great, but that doesn't make it a reality that the fact is that the government federally are the owners of Trans Mountain," Lander said.

Story continues

However, when Canada's Finance Minister Bill Morneau was in Calgary in March he reaffirmed that the government wants to move the pipeline back into private hands.

Countdown to federal election

While on the campaign trail, Kenney spoke about frustration with Ottawa, and stood beside Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer at a pre-election rally.

Kenney has federal cabinet experience and is now premier of one of the strongest provinces in Canada, Lander said.

"He's [going to] become the mouthpiece for Andrew Scheer and the federal Conservatives in a very attractive sort of way to the Prairies, Western Canada," he said.

Lander said he expects Kenney will become a player in the federal election in the same way that Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford is expected to be.

Unofficial results from Elections Alberta show the United Conservative Party taking 63 seats to the NDP's 24.

Canadian economics professor Moshe Lander was on CBC Calgary News at 11 Thursday. Full episode below.B.C. nurse in Saskatoon to help others identify victims of human trafficking

New numbers from Statistics Canada show shelters for victims of abuse across the country admitted 68,106 people in 2017/18, 60.3 per cent of whom were women. Their accompanying children made up 39.6 per cent and just 0.1 per cent were men.

StatsCan did a snapshot day, meant to represent a typical day of operations at a shelter.

On that day, 3,565 women, 3,137 accompanying children, and eight men were living in shelters. In all 78 per cent of short-term beds were occupied and 36 per cent of short-term facilities were considered full on that day.

The study found nine out of 10 people who showed up at shelters were there due to abuse, and on the snapshot day 669 women were turned away, the majority of them because the shelter was full.

Kaitlin Bardswich, communications and development coordinator at Women's Shelters Canada, said shelters are struggling.

"They're also having to deal with staff turnover as well as over-burdened staff who are underpaid and dealing with very significant issues on a day-to-day basis," she said.

The StatsCan survey data appear to reinforce that.

Residents said two of their main roadblocks were lack of affordable, long-term housing after leaving the shelter and low incomes or underemployment. Facilities said two of their main concerns were funding and lack of permanent housing in their respective communities.

Indigenous women and immigrant women are also over represented in shelter demographics.

Bardswich said Indigenous women are more likely to be victims of violence.

Speaking of immigrant and refugee women, she said: "They often, generally speaking, don't have the same number of friends or family in the country or in their community that they can rely on. They don't have that support system."

"If they don't have permanent residency, [they] don't have access to social services such as social assistance, housing, healthcare."

Bardswich said she is always hoping for a bigger budget and more beds.

Story continues

Jo-Anne Dusel, executive director of the Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan (PATHS), said housing is a big issue in Saskatchewan

While the province has a decent vacancy rate, women fleeing violence often have to turn to social assistance to live, says Dusel, who adds Saskatchewan had the highest percentage of full shelters on snapshot day of all the provinces.

Dusel said the social assistance in the province isn't enough to sustain a family.

"If they were a family with one or two children, they could just barely afford a bachelor apartment in Regina at the average rental rate," she said.

Even a family with five or more children would not even be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment on social assistance, without taking from money meant for other necessities, said Dusel.A popular travelling carnival has cut northern B.C. from its route for the first time in decades, citing the cost of getting there  another sign of how times are changing for such businesses.

Stephany Buttazoni, one of the owners of West Coast Amusements, said the carnival won't be making it's usual stops in Prince Rupert, Terrace or Kitimat this year, as it's simply too far north.

"The biggest concern is [hiring] drivers," Buttazoni said.

"And the cost of fuel to transport and move that equipment that far north."

Instead, the carnival has extended its stay in the Lower Mainland.

"Unfortunately, we might not be able to head up north at all in the future but hopefully that's not the case," Buttazoni told CBC's Daybreak North.

More rides, fewer shows

The family-operated West Coast Amusements, which has been running for four generations, isn't the only one facing a shifting landscape.

Erin Fawcett, with the Carnival Museum in Ontario, says a lot has changed since the era of carnivals, which she described as the 1920s to 1940s.

"The biggest difference between the old days of the carnivals and now is this: it's gotten way more expensive," she said.

West Coast Amusements/Facebook

In particular, tor travelling carnivals that bounce between towns, the cost of frequently relocating can be crippling.

But that's not the only change.

"Carnivals back in the 20th century, they were more about the shows," Fawcett said.

"The freak shows, or the animal sideshows, or pretty much anything out there that people haven't seen before that they find interesting."

A societal shift away from things like animal performances, combined with the arrival of television and then the internet, killed off those shows.

Now, it's all about the rides  and that also comes with a higher cost.

But that doesn't take away from the popularity of carnivals, or the sentimentality around them.

"There's nothing that replaces a carnival ride," Fawcett said. " but I am concerned that it's going to be increasingly hard over time."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.

.

..Gatestone Institute..17 April '19..April 15 marked the 18th anniversary of the firing of the first Hamas rocket toward Israel. On this day, 18 years ago, Hamas's military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, launched its first rocket attack at Israeli population centers near their border with the Gaza Strip.On the eve of this occasion, Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader of the Gaza Strip, threatened that his movement will continue to fire rockets at Israel. The rockets, he said, will be fired at Israeli "settlements" not only near the border with the Gaza Strip, but also at supposed "settlements" in the Israeli cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod and Tel Aviv.Sinwar said that the recent Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire understandings between Hamas and Israel are not a peace agreement. The understandings, he explained, do not require Hamas to disarm or halt, near the border with Israel, the weekly demonstrations, also known as the "Great March of Return.""The understandings do not have any political dimension," the Hamas leader said. "I promise that if a war is imposed on us, the occupation will have to evacuate its settlements, not only near the Gaza Strip, but also in Ashdod, Ashkelon, the Negev and even Tel Aviv. Remember this promise."Sinwar's threats serve as a reminder that Hamas and other Palestinian terror group consider Israel one big settlement that needs to be annihilated. Hamas and the other terror groups do not see a difference between a Jew living in the West Bank and a Jew living in Tel Aviv or Ashkelon. To terror groups, all these Jews, regardless of whether they live in the West Bank or in Israel proper, are "settlers" and "colonists."For them, Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Ashdod and all Israeli cities are no different than Jewish communities and neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. That's why Hamas and the terror groups consider all "settlements" -- inside Israel and in the West Bank -- as legitimate targets for their rockets.Photo - Jordan River

The announced Judgements as revealed in the Scriptures are very specific, along with some surprises with a careful reading of the Biblical text.

Much of what is in the Old Testament's Major and Minor Prophets relates to Israel's judgement for her own sins. Yet at the same time, that same judgement is invariably in relation to the judgement of Israel's surrounding nations.

The theme of judgement is throughout the Bible. God initiated a covenant with Noah that He would never again destroy all flesh. God did not say that He wouldn't destroy, punish or discipline nations (individuals or collectively). He just said he would not destroy ALL. For example, in Exodus 34 verse 7 God promised not to leave the guilty unpunished; and Jeremiah chapter 50 verse 7 states that God is the Habitation of Justice.

Christians affirm this is God's word, that we make individual and corporate choices and we recognise His rules, and therefore the consequences are correlated to our decisions.

Further, the Prophets exposed the sins of the surrounding nations, which served as a warning to other nations - against inviting the same judgements.

Interestingly, the judgements included sins against Israel which "created the heaviest judgement". Yet, in many instances repentance stayed God's hand (as in Nineveh with Jonah).

Photo - Dr Mark and Delma Tronson standing on Jerichos Tell

Israel

Israel, which is synonymous with the Jewish peoples, are God's chosen; a special treasure above all the nations (Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6). This is also a burden because, being God's chosen also incurs a stricter judgement as they have a greater 'light'.

The people of Israel were twice exiled from their land.

First: "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters for they rejected the Living God from whom came their well-being and gave attention to idols," (Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13); and

Second: "Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust", as only a few thousand survived the Assyrians and Babylonians, (Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 13).

Christians believe that some 560 years after God returned them from exile the descendants of the survivors added to their situation by rejecting the Messiah, as in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 3 "He was despised, and we did not esteem Him". He is the spring of living water and Jesus came to quench spiritual thirst, as explained in John chapter 4 verse 14.

And their descendants cried out, as recorded in John chapter 19 verse 15 "Away with Him, Crucify Him!". Then every attempt was made to stop the spread of the Gospel, I Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 16 "Wrath came upon [Israel] to the uttermost".

Yet there are also indeed serious costs for anti-Semitism. In Genesis chapter 12 verse 3: "And I will curse him who holds you lightly in esteem", and in the book of Esther where Haman is punished (Esther chapter 8 verse 7).

The Old Testament shows how judgements on the surrounding nations are severe, yet Syria's judgement is light. Isaiah chapter 17 verse 1 says, "Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap" (this is not the nation of Syria, only one city).

Syria once included Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, parts of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Syria itself has been a prize for conquerors and traders, and Syria has always enjoyed an array of architecture, art, culture and ambience. Syria was a cultured and rich part of the Roman Empire with many wealthy merchants.

Damascus' temple to Zeus was altered in focus by Theodosius 1 into the Church of St John the Baptist. Later again it was altered into the Great Mosque. There are beautiful and extraordinary churches still functioning in Syria which were built in the 400's.

Syria was the centre of earliest Christianity.

Paul's conversion was in Syria. It was in Syrian Antioch that the followers of Christ were first called Christians, and from where Paul's team was sent on missionary journeys.

Photo - Dead Sea

Pluralism

Syria is one of the last Middle East societies in which pluralism is intact, it was never partitioned like Palestine, it never had an expulsion of Christians as in Turkey. The Christian quarters in Syria are intact, Syrian Orthodox Priests are regularly seen in possessions carrying the cross. The Christian churches are in back streets and an integral part of the community.

There are plenty of Christian car stickers seen on Syrian motor vehicles, such as the fish, and some congregations still use the Aramaic language, the language of Jesus' time, the 1st Century (as in the movie produced by Mel Gibson on the blood thirsty crucifixion of Jesus).

Syria was the centre of the third and fourth century super-saints (the celebrities of the time). Simeon the Stylite stood on a pillar for 40 years in devotion to the Lord; The Younger for 68 years; Rulers sought his blessing and asked advice. John of Damascus' influence as a Christian leader was so significant that it led to the Muslims developing their own systematised understanding of God.

Syria's mix of religion and politics past and present has set it aside with an internal religious (tolerance come appeasement), as an Arab nationalist ideology, rather than one based on Islam, although there are radical elements circulating in Syria that modern commentators have traced to ISIS.

It may be a surprise for many to learn that Michel Aflaq, the founder of the modern nationalist Syria in the 1950s, was a Christian who drew together a broad coalition. This resulted in an authoritarian regime, but it allowed open religious pluralism.

Indeed, the Acts of the Apostles is the story of Salvation for Gentiles, and Syria and Syrians had a precious part to play in this. It may be another surprise to many, that today, Salvation includes Syrians who have fallen at the feet of Jesus' Cross in repentance, accepting Him as Lord.

This OpenDoors article from this past weekend speaks of the Syrian Christians

Syrian Believers proclaim Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Syria maintains a fierce independence and have with military diligence fought off ISIS and the separatist groups who are against both Syria and ISIS. I put the case, the Biblical judgements are far broader than one might first imagine.

Photo - Dr Mark Tronson in Bethlehem

Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.

Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html

Rule #1: You can never ask too many questions.









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.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In 2018, Chicagoland Blue Dog Dan Lipinski-- who is virulently anti-Choice, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-healthcare-- and who has a solid voting record for a moderate Republican-- was on the verge of defeat in the primary. One poll had the 2 candidates within the margin of error and the other showed progressive challenger Marie Newman beating Lipinski by 5 points. At that point, the Republican version of EMILY's List (the Susan B. Anthony List) started spending big to support Lipinski and the web of dark money super-PACS run by Mark Penn and his wife, Nancy Jacobson , through No Labels let loose a $975,894 direct mail and television campaign smearing Newman with baseless charges. The result was a swing towards Lipinski the week before election day and a narrow 51.1% win for Lipinski. (Last night Newman told me that "We now know that No Labels extreme lies were tightly tied to the Lipinski campaign and if Congressman Lipinski wants to continue his very close relationship with them, it will simply continue to eliminate what is left of his credibility.")





In every part of the country, Penn and Jacobson jumped in to back Republican-lite Blue Dog and New Dem candidates against progressives, spending immense amounts of money-- almost all of it coming from Republican plutocrats, like the Murdoch family, and Wall Street Democrats. You've heard the term "Fox Democrat," right? Mark Penn is the prototype. Politically he's another Bill and Hillary Clinton-Tony Blair fox in the henhouse, always working to pull the Democratic Party rightward-- for which he gets paid-- and handsomely so-- by wealthy conservatives. They are the couple from hell behind the corporately-funded No Labels cabals and SuperPACs that finance the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. And they make their living by taking a cut from every penny that comes in.





Penn spreads his poisonous corrupt conservatism all over the world-- supporting right-wing candidates from Menachem Begin in Israel, Carlos Andres Perez (El Gocho) in Venezuela and Belisario Betancur in Colombia to Tony Blair, Ed Koch and, of course, the Clintons. Here in the U.S. their sewer money-- from charter school fanatics, hedge fund managers and GOP financiers-- that flooded into Democrat primaries against Marie Newman, Alan Grayson in Orlando, Deb Haaland in Albuquerque, Matt Heinz in Tucson and Susan Wild in the Philly suburbs was spent through shady conservative PACs like United for Progress, United Together, Forward Not Back, Progress Tomorrow, Patriotic Americans PAC, Citizens for a Strong America, etc, entirely funded by contributions from 5 and 6-figure right wing donors, sleaze bags trying to turn the Democratic Party into another corporately-owned arm of Wall Street, just like the GOP. Most recently, Penn's and Jaconson's No Labels operation was behind the failed Seth Moulton coup plot against Pelosi.





The Hill, This weekend's OpEd was the all-to-predictable, all from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, many on their way to the same inevitable "metamorphosis" Penn is in the midst of, it doesn't really matter anyway; does it? These are the ones who call themselves Democrats: Please consider contributing to progressive Democrats battling Penn's Blue Dogs and New Dems by clicking on the 2020 primaries thermometer on the right. And pushing the Republican wing of the Democratic Party isn't the only thing Penn is up to these days. He's a regular contributor to the influential right-of-center Beltway rag,, This weekend's OpEd was the all-to-predictable, Mueller's done, and Dems should be too-- because Trump is no Nixon . This is what the right-wing of the Democratic Party has to say in defense of Trump, voiced by the venal Penn: "There was, at the end of the day, no evidence whatsoever of any collusion-- and there was nothing but a president frustrated at being wrongly accused and wrongly investigated over a very effective hoax." Before going any further with his bullshit, I just want to list the members of the so-called Problem Solvers Caucus, which Penn and Jacobson control. They once had Trump address the group. Most of the GOP problem-makers were defeated in November, so the group, which prides itself on having an even number of Dems and Republicans is now way over-balanced with Dems, but since they're virtuallyfrom the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, many on their way to the same inevitable "metamorphosis" Penn is in the midst of, it doesn't really matter anyway; does it? These are the ones who call themselves Democrats:

 Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)

 Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)

 Julia Brownley (New Dem-CA)

 Salud Carbajal (New Dem-CA)

 Tony Cardenas (D-CA)

 Andre Carson (New Dem-IN)

 Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)

 Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)

 Charlie Crist (Blue Dog-FL)

 Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)

 Debbie Dingell (D-MI)

 Vicente Gonzalez (Blue Dog-TX)

 Josh Gottheimer, chairman (Blue Dog-NJ)

 Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA)

 Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)

 Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)

 Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)

 Eleanor Norton (D-DC)

 Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ)

 Jimmy Panetta (D-CA)

 Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)

 Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)

 Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)

 Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)

 Brad Schneider (Blue Dog-IL)

 Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)

 Darren Soto (New Dem-FL)

 Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)

 Tom Suozzi (New Dem-NY)

 Jeff Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ)

 Peter Welch (D-VT)









Salon, explained Mueller's purpose-- Yesterday, Digby, writing for, explained Mueller's purpose-- a roadmap Democrats now need to pick up , real Democrats,not the Mark Penn variety. "No matter how many times," she wrote, "Trump and his minion Barr say the words 'no collusion, no obstruction' over and over again like a couple of malfunctioning robots, the report shows something very different. The Trump campaign clearly 'colluded.' Its officials clearly knew a hostile power was helping them by sabotaging their rival and they never reported it to the authorities. Indeed, they welcomed it and eagerly encouraged more of it. There is apparently no law against doing that, largely because, I suspect, no one ever anticipated that a presidential nominee for a major political party could possibly do such a thing. But it was an ethical lapse of epic proportions, and the belated recognition of that fact partially explains the president's frenzied denials that the interference and sabotage ever happened. He has shown in dozens of different ways that he believes that he can manipulate reality by repeatedly denying that it exists... Mueller concluded that his investigation didn't establish that Trump and company conspired and coordinated with the Russians. But the detail he provided shows that Trump's dishonesty and unfitness for the office he holds is indisputable. And the second section shows that despite Barr's contention that Trump was just frustrated (as if that were a valid excuse) and couldn't have committed obstruction of justice because he had committed no underlying crime, he had ample, serious motivation to try to cover it up." Penn has an entirely different persopective. I wonder how many of his Problem Solvers agree. Here's more of his defense of the Trumpist interpretation of the Mueller report:

Most people dont understand what it is to not only to be personally investigated for something you didnt do but to have your friends, family members and associates placed in legal jeopardy over it. Special counsel Robert Muellers team systematically targeted the people around the president, squeezing them like lemons, indicting them on mostly process crimes created by the investigation itself. They reviewed everyones emails, text messages, phone calls, bank statements-- and yet, their conclusion on collusion was clear and definitive. It has to be believed.



I was there working with President Clinton in 1998 when he pondered whether to send missiles against Osama bin Laden but was concerned it would be viewed as wagging the dog. We missed bin Laden that day. It was symbolic of how everything in the White House was affected by the Monica Lewinsky investigation; it changed everything we did. And, yes, there was a good bit of cursing then, too.



The big difference between today and what happened in 1998 or during the Nixon era is that, at the end of the day, the Mueller investigators found no stained dress, no break-in, no hush money, no enemies list. There never was a crime, and what seemed far-fetched was simply that-- this time, a duly elected president was investigated for a crime that never even existed. In fact, evidence is mounting that the investigation itself was launched on phony grounds.



And so, the screaming partisan antics of Democrats in the House are likely to set the Democratic Party back a decade if they do not get a grip on themselves. In partisan unison, with scripted talking points, they keep calling everyone else partisan. It simply does not pass the laugh test at this point.



But the problem is that Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are congressmen from safe districts who are nobodies if they have no investigations to launch. Its in the interest of their egos to keep it all going so that they can have daily press availabilities. And they are whipping up their political bases. It will take some Democrats of courage to turn this off and stop the abuse of going after the presidents financial records. These are the kinds of things Nixon was doing, and there is no justification for those in Congress to be doing exactly those things for which Nixon resigned from office-- going after his political enemies.



...Its time for Democrats and the country to move past the Russia collusion narrative, and for the media to fess up. If we are not going to respect the outcome of the Mueller report, then what was the point of the whole exercise? They found no collusion and they did not charge obstruction.



The cloud under which the president and his associates have lived for more than two years deserves to be lifted. The officials who launched this aborted investigation should be held accountable for their actions. And the country deserves a Congress focused, not on investigations, but on issues like health care, infrastructure and immigration.

The hell with Mark Penn. That's not a Democrat-- and hasn't been for a very long time. Are his "Problem Solvers?" Go over that list above again. Let's face it-- that's largely where the opposition to impeachment is coming from. Any of them yours?The Marina Complex project has almost completed filling land up to the 731-meter embankment, and work on building infrastructure has begun. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

Da Nang has solicited expert advice on the Marina Complex project that experts say would disrupt the Han Rivers flow.

Da Nang Vice Chairman Dang Viet Dung recently asked the city's construction department and relevant units to tell investors of the Marina Complex project to "suspend its implementation to check and review legal records."

Dung said the project is being suspended following instructions from the Standing Committee of the municipal Party Committee and in the wake of public opinions expressed in the past few days.

The city's People's Committee has also requested that the construction department quickly consult experts, scientists and the central government's relevant ministries and departments regarding the project's implementation and report the results before May 3.

The real estate and marina development project would be built at the end of the extended Tran Hung Dao Street, which is now Le Van Duyet Street in Son Tra District. It would face the Han River on three sides and have a total area of over 17 hectares (42 acres), including 6 hectares on the river.

The city's authorities adjusted the projects plan several times. In 2017, the people's committee approved the project's environmental impact assessment and brought its total area down to over 11 hectares by reducing the area over the river to just one hectare.

Additionally, the planning of the area along the river was also adjusted to replace 13 high-rise (16-33 stories) buildings with just two. It would still have 57 mansions and a public walkway with a width of 8 meters (26 feet) along the riverbank.

Authorities also demanded that the project's investor not build walls and gates for the walkway so the public could access the riverbank area. Previously, it was planned that the area would be enclosed.

However, work on the embankment for the project's riverside began around five years ago and many hectares of water surface were filled with land. Currently the project has almost completed filling land up to the 731-meter embankment, and work on building infrastructure has begun.

Many experts and Da Nang residents have voiced opposition to the project over concerns it would affect the river's flow.

While the consulting units that had recommended the city to approve the project have asserted that "the project does not encroach on the river and does not affect the flow," some irrigation experts have disputed this.

Particularly, Assoc. Prof., Dr. Vu Trong Hong, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and chairman of the Vietnam Water Resources Development Association, stressed that "the Da Nang government should not let companies pour land into the Han River for real estate projects, especially in the current context of climate change."The Coffee King cannot be stopped from filing cases in overseas courts against instant coffee products sold abroad by his ex-wife.

A HCMC Court Friday revoked its earlier order restraining the founder of Trung Nguyen Group, Dang Le Nguyen Vu, from filing suits in overseas courts relating to instant coffee products marketed by his ex-wife Le Hoang Diep Thao.

The court had issued the restraining order in mid-April after Thao sued Vu, demanding that he stops calling her instant coffee products fake and claiming they are not part of the Trung Nguyen brand.

The G7 brand instant coffee is made by the Trung Nguyen Instant Coffee Company, which is a subsidiary of Trung Nguyen Investment, in which Thao has a 30 percent stake. Trung Nguyen Investment owns a majority stake in the Trung Nguyen Group.

Vu had previously sued foreign entities for distributing the instant coffee products in Taiwan and South Korea, saying that the distribution of these products was a violation of Trung Nguyens intellectual property rights.

After Thao filed the suit, the HCMC Peoples Court ordered Vu to suspend his lawsuits and stop sending warning letters to overseas distributors until it hands down a verdict in other related cases.

Dang Le Nguyen Vu is the founder and chairman of Trung Nguyen Group. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen

Vu appealed the courts order, saying that as the chairman of the company, he has the right to represent the company in filing lawsuits to protect the companys benefits.

After Vus appeal, the court scrapped its own order, saying that Thao had not provided evidence showing how Vus lawsuits in overseas courts relate to her demand for him to stop calling her products fake and not part of Trung Nguyen brand.

In this the court appeared to agree with Vu that the lawsuits he launches overseas should be decided by those courts and Thao cannot ask Vietnamese courts to restrain such actions.

This is the 19th lawsuit involving Vu, Thao and Trung Nguyen.

In a separate lawsuit, the same court last month granted a divorce and ordered that assets of the Trung Nguyen Coffee Group be split 60:40 in Vus favor, and that their lands and buildings are shared equally.

It also ordered Vu to buy out Thaos shares in the company with cash, following which she would cease to be a Trung Nguyen shareholder.

However, the HCMC prosecutors office last week called for the verdict to be quashed claiming it was rife with errors and unfair to Thao.

Trung Nguyen Group earned revenues of VND3.95 trillion ($170.5 million) and pretax profits of VND681 billion ($29.4 million) in 2017.A gas station has been closed for five days due to lack of supply. Photo by VnExpress/Thach Thao

Ly Son Island residents are hunting for petrol after the island's tankers were banned from sailing on safety considerations.

On Saturday morning, cans in hand, many residents of Ly Son in Quang Ngai Province made their way to the Nhien Phuong gas station on the island's An Vinh Commune in hope of buying some gasoline over fears of an impending fuel shortage.

However, the station had none left to sell.

Tran Thi Phuong, the station's owner, said her company has two wooden ships and the Tien Tri 07, a logistics ship, for transporting gasoline, but border guards have blocked them from returning to the mainland for more supplies.

This has pushed many residents to stockpile gasoline for nearly a week, she said.

Nguyen Xiem, owner of another gas station that has been closed for five days without supplies, said the authorities only allowed the transport of oil, not gasoline.

"We have been serving oil and gasoline to the people for nearly 30 years, but the ban was so sudden that we didn't have enough time to manage," he said.

According to Quang Ngai's transport department, Ly Son is currently home to over 100 seafaring vessels, most of which are gasoline-powered. The gasoline shortage during the tourist season has affected the transport of passengers.

The owner of a canoe that ferries people between islands in the area said many of his peers have had to stop operating, due to lack of gasoline.

A homestay owner on the Small Island complained that customers whove made bookings were unable to come because the canoes to the island were not operating.

Huynh Cong Tri, director of Ly Son Port's management board, explained that the island has just three wooden ships belonging to two private businesses that are used to transport gasoline from the mainland.

Following the sinking of a cargo ship in an accident last month, Quang Ngai authorities ordered all cargo ships using the Sa Ky-Ly Son sea route to be re-inspected.

As all three of the ships used for transporting gasoline to Ly Son failed to meet safety requirements, the border guards have forced them to stop operating.

According to Nguyen Viet Vy, Party secretary of Ly Son District, the province's Department of Industry and Trade, border guards and Ly Son authorities have held a meeting to find solutions.

As an immediate measure, the district has allowed logistics ship Tien Tri 07 to transport 30,000 liters (6,600 gallons) of gasoline from the mainland to the island on Saturday.

Other ships would be allowed to transport gasoline once they meet safety requirements.

Local business owners, meanwhile, have asked the authorities to give them a few more months so they could buy metal ships/boats that meet the safety requirements for transporting gasoline.Thousands of households in the Mekong Delta face a crippling water shortage. Photo by VnExpress/Cuu Long

Due to a prolonged drought, seawater has intruded deep into rivers in the Mekong Delta, leaving thousands of households facing a water shortage.

Freshwater is sold in certain areas for VND200,000 ($8.6) per cubic metre, and local authorities use tanker trucks to deliver water to households.

For more than a month Tran Minh Chinh of Can Giuoc District in Long An Province has had to buy from trucks for his family of five. He says the annual rainfall is a month late, causing all freshwater reservoirs in the area to dry up.

"The price of water is now VND60,000-200,000 ($2.6-8.6) for one cubic metre. A family of 4 to 5 members has to pay about VND1 million ($43) for water monthly."

People have to conserve water by every means possible. Water used for rice rinsing is saved for plants and livestock, bathing is done using salt water followed by a quick rinse with freshwater.

Nguyen Van Minh, a farmer, said: "Some areas are far away from provincial centres and inaccessible by trucks, so people there may not have water to use despite having money."

Due to the long drought, seawater has intruded 80km inland from the Vam Co Dong estuary.

The Long An Provinces military command has deployed three tanker trucks to deliver 20 cubic metres of water to affected wards.

People in other provinces across the delta too are struggling with drought.

Sitting by his harvested crop, Duong Van Chau, 70, a farmer in Chau Thanh District, Tra Vinh Province, is unable to hide his concern about the lack of water for the summer-autumn crop seeding.

"Freshwater in the irrigation system is stagnant and contaminated by chemicals from fertilisers, pesticides and residual pathogens. We have to wait for rainfall to seed the fields, which is at least a month away."

Water for daily requirements is drawn from wells.

According to local governments, saltwater intrusion is more severe this year than in previous years and salinity levels in major canals are high at 10-30 parts per thousand (ppt).

In Kien Giang Province, estuaries near Rach Gia city have salinity levels of 28-32 ppt.

Authorities have closed dams and sewers to prevent saltwater from entering agricultural areas.

According to Le Anh Tuan, deputy director of the Institute of Climate Change Research, Can Tho University, the recent drought is due to the El Nino phenomenon though it is not as intense as in 2016.

The effects of climate change are exacerbating the impacts, he said.

In 2016 an unprecedented drought, and saltwater intrusion, caused water shortages for 600,000 households and salinized 160,000 hectares of land, causing losses worth VND5.5 trillion ($237 million).A screenshot from CCTV camera showed Nguyen Huu Linh laying his arm around a young girls neck inside an elevator at an apartment building in HCMC.

Child molestation charges will be brought against Nguyen Huu Linh after an elevator camera in HCMC caught him in the act.

On April 21, HCMCs District 4 police ratified child molestation investigation against 61-year-old Nguyen Huu Linh, a retired deputy chief prosecutor in the central city of Da Nang.

Pham Xuan Thao, deputy police chief of District 4 said that after 18 days of investigation, they have gathered enough evidence to press charges against Linh.

Linh, who lives in Da Nang, visited his son in an apartment building in District 4. On the evening of April 1, a girl of around five walked into the elevator followed by Linh, who was focused on his phone. A security guard helped the girl select her floor before exiting.

As soon as the elevator door closed, Linh wrapped his arms around the girls neck and kissed her. When the girl moved away from him, Linh grabbed her again and only let her go when the door opened. She ran away in panic.

After seeing the girl in an unusual state, her family requested to review the elevator camera and the footage showed that Linh had behaved inappropriately with the girl.

When summoned by HCMC police for questioning, Linh said that on seeing a cute little girl, he had merely "petted" her. He also said that he drunk a beer before going to the apartment building and did kiss the girl twice because he found her cute, but had no intention of molesting her.

The family didnt want to make a big fuss because they were worried about how it would affect the little girl, so they chose to reconcile and not pursue the incident further. Linh returned to Da Nang soon after.

When the camera footage surfaced online, an outraged public demanded action, remarking on his status as a former prosecutor.

Linhs actions, if deemed molestation of a person under 16, is punishable by six months to three years in prison under the Penal Code.

About 2,000 cases of child abuse are discovered in Vietnam every year, according to data from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Over 1,500 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in the country in both 2018 and 2017, only showing slight improvements in child protection, a labor ministry report stated.Foreign drug cartels functioning under the guise of normal businesses have turned HCMC into a trafficking hub.

On April 19, police seized 500 kilograms of meth stashed in loudspeakers and arrested two Taiwanese men and a Vietnamese man in HCMC.

They suspect that the seizure is connected to a previous case a month earlier, when 300 kilograms of meth headed for Taiwan were seized.

Ten days later, 895 packs of heroin were found in a truck on the city's outskirts. In that instance, police arrested two Taiwanese men and a Vietnamese driver.

The drugs seized in all the cases came from the infamous Golden Triangle (where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar intersect), one of the largest drug producing areas in Asia. They made their way into HCMC through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

From HCMC, the drugs are transported to other countries by sea, police say.

The drug gangs are led by foreigners from Taiwan, China and Malaysia, and they control the business in HCMC from overseas. Before setting up their operations, they send people to look around and rent warehouses for a short time (1-3 months). The warehouses are leased under the cover of a normal business. They even hire Vietnamese workers to avoid arousing suspicion.

Thef meth seized by Ho Chi Minh City police on Friday. Photo courtesy of the city's police.

In the case of 300 kilograms of meth seized in March, the ringleader opened a clothing company in a deserted area of Binh Tan District in HCMC in the name of his mistress. They used it as a place to store the drugs before transporting it overseas. They hid the drugs in bags filled with plastic beads to make it through the Vietnam Customs.

The Taiwanese mastermind involved in the seizure of 895 packs of heroin had his affiliates rent a warehouse in Binh Duong Province, 30 kilometers away from HCMC. In this operation, after the drugs arrived from the Golden Triangle, they were moved to another warehouse in city used by a company selling glue. The heroin was packed in normal carton boxes and shipped in containers to Taiwan.

"Drug cartels from overseas choose Ho Chi Minh City as their trafficking hub because it has many ports that can connect quickly to other countries. Also, our customs do not do a good job in managing the checkpoints. I think that the next cases will be bigger than the previous ones," said Phan Anh Minh, deputy police chief of Ho Chi Minh City.

HCMC police also warned people to be careful with the warehouses, storages and logistics enterprises in their area. They should inform the police as soon as they see anything abnormal, the police said.

The loudspeakers where meth are stashed. Photo courtesy of the city's police.

To Lam, the Minister of Public Security, noted that all the big drug cases busted recently involved foreign investment. They opened companies in HCMC, but did not produce much, because it was just a front.

Lam also said that as the economic hub of the country, import-export activity occurs at a fast pace in HCMC by all modes of transportation - air, by land or by sea. This makes it an ideal place for foreign drug criminals to take advantage of, especially the sea routes that are not very strictly administered.

Vietnam has become a hub both for drug use and drug trafficking, as evidenced by the increasing frequency and volume of narcotic hauls.

Three big busts were made in March alone. On March 20, police seized 300 kilos of meth that were on the way to Taiwan. Police said the ring, led by a Chinese man, operated nationwide and was linked to two seizures of around 300 kilos each in central Vietnam last October and this February. They also discovered that the gang transported meth to the Philippines.

On March 22, Vietnamese customs and the Philippine police seized 270 kilos of meth the gang had transported to the Philippines by sea.

Five days later, police arrested two Taiwanese men and a Vietnamese driver who were transporting more than 300 kilos of heroin on the citys outskirts.

Vietnam has some of the worlds toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or cocaine or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine could face the death penalty.

The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death.Police officers in Thai Binh Province stand on guard to ensure security at the trial on Friday. Photo by VnExpress

A former senior police officer and three other men were given jail terms of 2-5 years for raping an eighth-grade girl.

A Thai Binh court found the men guilty of "engaging in sexual intercourse or other sexual activities with a person aged 13 to under 16," and "molestation of a person under 16."

Colonel Pham Van Lam, 43, former deputy chief of Thai Binh Provinces Economic Police Department, got three years in prison, while Tu Minh Tuyen, 47, and Pham Duc Viet, 44, received jail terms of two years and two years and six months in prison respectively.

The fourth person, Pham Nhu Hien, 45, identified as the gangs leader, was sentenced to five years in prison.

According to the indictment, police began criminal investigation into a gang rape in September last year after they received a complaint from the girls family, saying that she had gone out with her friends and hadnt returned home for several days and was not reachable by phone.

As the police searched for the girl, she returned home in a weakened and traumatized state.

She told the police she had been gang raped by the men at a hotel on Tran Nhan Tong Street. Based on the victims testimony and camera footage of the hotel, police arrested the four suspects a month later.

According to United Nations reports, approximately one in four children in Vietnam is a victim of sex abuse and at least 1,300 cases of sexual violence against children are reported each year. The organization stated that the true numbers could be higher and consistently alarming.

Having sex with a child under 13 years of age is considered rape, punishable by death under Vietnams Penal Code.

Vietnam recorded 1,547 child sex abuse cases in 2018, down 2.8 percent from a year ago, according to figures from the Ministry of Public Security.

However, the public and experts have repeatedly complained that persons guilty of rape and other forms of sexual harassment are receiving excessive leniency in terms of their punishment.

The latest sexual harassment case that sparked outrage involved Nguyen Huu Linh, former deputy chief prosecutor of Da Nang, who was caught on camera molesting a little girl in a Saigon apartment buildings elevator. The case is being investigated.A Saigonese has asked the authorities to pay him for physical and mental damage he had suffered from 390 days in jail 24 years ago.

Falsely accused Chu Quang Hung (L) and Nguyen Van Tan, vice head of the People's Procuracy of HCMC. Photo by VnExpress/Hai Duyen

The People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City on Friday held a public ceremony to apologize to Chu Quang Hung, who was wrongly imprisoned for 390 days for a crime he did not commit.

The apology came 24 years after the wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

Nguyen Van Tan, vice head of the People's Procuracy of HCMC, said the wrongful conviction of Hung was caused by the mistakes and negligence of judicial authorities. The people's procuracy will also fulfill Hungs other demands, including publicizing the apology on media and compensating for damage in accordance with the law, he said.

"This is rather late and cannot make up for the damage you and your family have experienced. But we hope that it will partly relieve the pain that you have suffered for a long time and soon stabilize your life with your family," Tan told Hung and asked local authorities to assist Hung in exercising his civil rights.

However, Hung firmly announced that he "will not accept a mere apology." He wanted a compensation of "VND1 for his honor and VND99 billion ($4.26 million) for the physical and mental damage that he and his family have suffered" for the last 24 years.

The procuracy has not revealed the amount it will offer him.

Tan said the public apology was the first thing to be done while the compensation amount is waiting for approval from higher levels.

In 1994, Hung, then 47, sold a house in HCMC's District 5 to a man named Nam. Conflicts arose from the deal, leading to Hung filing a lawsuit against Nam. A district court opened the trial several times, but it kept being postponed because the defendant never showed up.

In November 1995, Hung was arrested for "obtaining others property by fraud." The case was later transferred to another court, but it was not accepted there for lack of information. Hung was released in December 1996 after one year imprisonment, but was banned from leaving his residence.

In 2005, the People's Procuracy of HCMC suspended the investigation because it decided that the case did not constitute a crime and transactions in the sale were determined to be civil in nature.

The HCMC People's Court discovered same year that judge Nguyen Lam had directly intervened in the purchase and the case, resulting in an unjust conviction. Lam was later reprimanded and did not get reappointed to the court.

Lam admitted to his wrongdoing, saying he was upset by the financial loss suffered by his relative, Nam, and decided to intervene.

Apart from Lam, seven other officials were also reprimanded. The investigator of the case was demoted.

In 1999, police, the HCMC People's Procuracy and the HCMC People's Court worked with Hung in turn, informing him of the injustice and delivered an apology with the expectation that he would "sympathize" with the situation.

Hung did not concur, saying the handling of the situation was not strict and suggested that those involved be treated as criminals. He wanted a public apology and compensation for the pain he and his family suffered.

Over the years, Hung has submitted dozens of petitions to the Law Committee of the National Assembly, the Supreme People's Procuracy and the Supreme People's Court.

Hung is not an isolated case.

In 1998, Huynh Van Nen of Binh Thuan Province was falsely imprisoned for life - the first and only person in Vietnams judicial history to be wrongfully charged with two murders.

He was released 17 years later and received a public apology from the Peoples Court of Binh Thuan after they found the real murderer. Nen was finally compensated with VND10 billion ($431,000) after seven turns of negotiations with the court, VND7 billion less than his original demand.

In 1990, a mother and two sons in Dien Bien Province were wrongfully convicted for murder of their father. While the mother Dang Thi Nga, then 51, did not have to serve jail time, her two sons did and were only released 28 months later, following a termination of the case and a request from the court to reinvestigate.

After years of requesting an acknowledgement of the false verdict, in 2017, Ngas family finally received an apology from the Peoples Court of Dien Bien Province.

The family was relieved, but the unsolved case of the fathers death still burdens their hearts. One of the jailed sons fell ill due to the immense stress caused by the conviction and passed away.

The court only offered Ngas family a compensation of VND3 billion ($129,000), one-sixth the VND18 billion that the family had asked for.A Huawei logo is pictured during the media day for the Shanghai auto show in Shanghai, China April 16, 2019. Photo by REUTERS/Aly Song.

U.S. intelligence has accused Huawei Technologies of being funded by Chinese state security, The Times said on Saturday.

The CIA accused Huawei of receiving funding from Chinas National Security Commission, the Peoples Liberation Army and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network, the British newspaper reported, citing a source.

Earlier this year, U.S. intelligence shared its claims with other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group, which includes Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, according to the report.

Huawei dismissed the allegations in a statement cited by the newspaper.

"Huawei does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources," a Huawei representative told The Times.

The company, the CIA and Chinas Foreign Ministry did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

The accusation comes at a time of trade tensions between Washington and Beijing and amid concerns in the United States that Huaweis equipment could be used for espionage. The company has said the concerns are unfounded.

Authorities in the United States are probing Huawei for alleged sanctions violations.

Meng Wanzhou, Huaweis chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the United States on charges of bank and wire fraud in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

She denies wrongdoing and her father has previously said the arrest was "politically motivated".

Amid such charges, top educational institutions in the West have recently severed ties with Huawei to avoid losing federal funding.

Another Chinese technology company, ZTE Corp 0763.HK, 000063.SZ, has also been at the center of similar controversies in the United States.

U.S. sanctions forced ZTE to stop most business between April and July last year after Commerce Department officials said it broke a pact and was caught illegally shipping U.S.-origin goods to Iran and North Korea. The sanctions were lifted after ZTE paid $1.4 billion in penalties.

Reuters reported earlier this week that the United States will push its allies at a meeting in Prague next month to adopt shared security and policy measures that will make it more difficult for Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks.The Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal has refused to cancel the registration of Volodymyr Zelensky as a presidential candidate in Ukraine.

The court made the corresponding decision at a meeting in the early hours of Sunday.

Thus, the court rejected the lawsuit filed by election observer from the public organization "Ukrainian Shareholders Association" Andriy Hilko.

It was reported that at 9 p.m. on Saturday the Sixth Court of Appeals would start hearing Hilko's lawsuit seeking "recognition of instances of voter-bribing violation and the overturning of the CEC [Central Election Commission] resolution 153 of January 30, 2019, to register Zelensky as a candidate."

In his opinion, the distribution of free tickets to the debates at the NSC Olympiyskiy on April 19 by Zelensky's team on a special website was a "voters' bribing."

The court ruled that the claimant's demands on the issue of free-of-charge tickets for debates, coordinated by the two presidential candidates, to be recognized as voters' bribing, are unreasonable and cannot be allowed.A resident of Crimea has been jailed for six years for terrorism-inciting posts on the Russian social-networking site VKontakte, a lawyer from the international human rights group Agora told Interfax on Friday.

"Today the North Caucasus district military court found Yevgeny Karakashev, a Crimean activist, guilty of public justification of terrorism and calls to terrorist activities using the Internet (parts one and two of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced him to six years of imprisonment," Alexei Ladin said.

Karakayev's prosecution was prompted by a video file, texts and comments in online chat rooms, he said.

"According to the inquiry, the teletext submitted for analysis... contains linguistic and psychological signs of incitement to commit violent, destructive acts'. These, investigators concluded, amounted to calls for terrorism," Ladin said.

Karakashev himself thinks that his arrest and prosecution were to do with "his opposition to a resort development project near Yevpatoria, around the salt lake," Ladin said.

The inquiry was launched on January 31, 2018, and on February 1, when public hearings were held on the development issue, Karakashev was arrested.U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine urges all eligible Ukrainians actively participate in their democracy today by voting

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine hopes for the active participation of Ukrainian citizens in the second round of presidential election, which is taking place on Sunday.

The message appeared on the U.S. embassy's Facebook on Sunday, citing U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

"My colleagues and I at the U.S. Embassy join the people of Ukraine in expecting democratic and peaceful elections today that reflect the will of Ukraine's citizens. I hope all eligible Ukrainians actively participate in their democracy today by voting," Yovanovitch said.The head of the Georgian presidential administration, Lasha Zhvania, on Friday announced his decision to step down.

He tendered his resignation back in March and will formally quit from May 1, Zhvania wrote on Facebook.

Zhvania intends to continue working for the patriarchy, in particular devoting his whole time as head of a charitable foundation of the Georgian patriarch, he said.

"For me, it does not matter where I serve my country, but it is better where I have not yet fully realized myself," Zhvania said, while thanking the president for placing big trust in him.

He did not mention his possible successor.

The former ambassador to Israel and Cyprus had previously led the patriarch's charity.Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky, has said her Facebook post in 2014 was a repost of information by Russian propagandists that angered her. She said the social media platform did not display her comment, only the link to Russian propaganda.

"Day of silence? For me, it turned out to be too loud! Today people reposted screenshots from my [Facebook] page. Screenshots from 2014. Then I didn't know all the technical features of Facebook. I didn't know how to express my indignation at Russian propagandists. Because Facebook didn't post my comment, just the link I referred to I didn't know, and didn't have time to figure it out during those days. We were all shocked by what was happening in our country. That Crimea was taken away. It didn't fit in my head! It was scary that the war was beginning. I don't even remember the friend whose link I reposted," she said on Facebook on Saturday.

Zelenska said on Saturday, the "day of silence" (before the second run-off round in Ukraine's presidential election), people tried to make her post the news of the day.

"I invited everyone to my page. To see what I wrote about what and then. What I reposted. What I thought about. There are many posts, including from our opponents, who did just that. They then denied the "news of the day "and apologized. For that I want to thank them," she said.

"This is a long post. I never write such posts. Perhaps by this post I'm saying goodbye to Facebook. I can communicate with my real friends in real life. And the rest ... sorry, but I'm tired!" Zelenska said.Police registered on "silence day" 97 reports of violations related to the electoral process, and one criminal case was opened.

The largest number of appeals and reports of violations on the eve of voting day was registered by police in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Donetsk and Mykolaiv regions, deputy head of the National Police of Ukraine Oleksandr Fatsevych reported on Saturday.

"A criminal case was opened according to one report. Five administrative protocols were issued. I stress that the police respond to all reports related to violations of the electoral legislation. We urge all participants in the electoral process to comply with the law," said Fatsevych.

Thus, the majority of messages concerned the placement of campaign posters and billboards. Such facts were recorded in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Odesa, Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Donetsk, Volyn, Chernihiv and Ternopil regions.

In addition, in Rivne region, the police received a message from the chairman of the polling station about finding a threatening letter near his apartment.

Also, in the city of Poltava, a message is being checked that unknown persons hand out campaign leaflets against one of the presidential candidates.

Since the beginning of the election process, police have registered 9,500 reports and messages related to the elections. Some 391 criminal proceedings were opened on the basis of these facts. Some 818 protocols on administrative offenses were drawn up.The panel of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has opened constitutional proceedings on the proposal of 49 deputies regarding the constitutionality of the law of Ukraine obliging the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to indicate in its name that it belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

"The case is being prepared for consideration at a plenary session of the Chamber of the Court," the website of the Constitutional Court said.

As reported, on January 18, 2019, Opposition Bloc faction parliament deputies and a number of extra-factional parliamentarians asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the compliance of the Constitution with the law on renaming the UOC (MP). The constitutional representation was signed by 49 deputies.Kyiv's Pechersky district court on April 20 terminated the agreement on the contract of personal bail of businessman Ihor Kolomoisky on PrivatBank's refinancing loans received prior to its nationalization. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will appeal this decision.

"The National Bank is concerned about the results of court cases in the courts of first instance as this is the third decision [on disputes related to PrivatBank] not in favor of the state over the past three days," the NBU said on Facebook on Saturday evening.

The information says that in 2015 Kolomoisky, who at that time was a co-owner of the bank, concluded personal surety agreements with the NBU on repayment of five refinancing loans of PrivatBank received during the period 2008-2014.

"In fact, he assumed personal obligations to pay off the bank's debt to the NBU, which today stands at UAH 9.2 billion," the NBU stressed.

"Kolomoisky showed unwillingness to fulfill his obligations voluntarily, despite the dire consequences that the Ukrainian state was forced to incur as a result of his actions. In order to avoid joint responsibility, in September 2017 he appealed to the court with a request to terminate the specified guarantee agreements. Today's court decision in favor of Kolomoisky has not entered into legal force and, of course, will be appealed," NBU Claims Department head Viktor Hryhorchuk said.

He also said that the court decision creates legal uncertainty and, consequently, potential risks for financial stability in Ukraine in the future.

"This court ruling complicates the protection of state interests in lawsuits in other jurisdictions for damages caused to the bank and the state by the former owners of PrivatBank," he said.

In 2018, the NBU filed four lawsuits in Ukrainian courts and one lawsuit in Switzerland against Kolomoisky.

"The NBU will continue to take the legal measures necessary for the repayment of these funds by Kolomoisky", the NBU said.

As reported, Ukraine's government, at the recommendation of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and former shareholders of PrivatBank, the largest of which at that time were Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov, on December 18, 2016 decided to nationalize PrivatBank, the largest Ukrainian financial institution at the time.

Kyiv's district administrative court on April 18, 2019 recognized the nationalization of the bank as illegal based on a law suit filed by Kolomoisky. The NBU and Finance Ministry said they would appeal the ruling after publication by the court of its ruling. Both institutions said the decision to nationalize PrivatBank was correct.

According to the NBU, on January 1, 2019, PrivatBank ranked first in terms of total assets (UAH 525.248 billion) among 77 banks operating in the county.Over the past 24 hours, militants of illegal armed groups fired at the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces 10 times, there were no casualties among Ukrainian servicemen, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation reported.

"On April 20, the armed forces of the Russian Federation violated the cease-fire 10 times, including four with the weapons forbidden by the Minsk agreements. They fired 61 mortar rounds using 120 and 82 mm caliber guns, large-caliber machine guns and small arms... There were no casualties among the military personnel," reads the report on the Facebook page on Sunday morning.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, on April 20, four militants were killed, six wounded.

No enemy attacks have been registered today, the JFO press center reported.Polling station in Donetsk region closed due to lack of commission members

A polling station in Lebedynske, Donetsk region, did not open because a commission was not formed, Ukraine's Interior Ministry has said.

"The polling station's commission was not present," Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said during a briefing on Sunday.

Interior Ministry advisor Zorian Shkyriak said Ukraine's Central Election Commission is currently taking measures to ensure voters there will be able to cast their ballots.Some 18.04% of voters cast their ballot at Ukraine's presidential election as of 11:00  CEC data from 194 electoral districts

Voter turnout at the presidential elections of Ukraine as of 11:00 on Sunday was 18.04%, according to data from 194 electoral districts out of a total of 199, the website of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC) has reported.Some 18.04% of voters cast their ballot at Ukraine's presidential election as of 11:00  CEC data from 194 electoral districts

Voter turnout at the presidential elections of Ukraine as of 11:00 on Sunday was 18.04%, according to data from 194 electoral districts out of a total of 199, the website of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC) has reported.

Voter turnout in Vinnytsia region stood at 17.06%, in the Volyn region at 13.99%, in Dnipropetrovsk region at 22.86%, in Donetsk region at 20.89%, in Zhytomyr region at 16.94%, in Zakarpattia region 8.64%, Zaporizhia region at 24.62%, in Ivano-Frankivsk region at 10.81%, in the Kyiv region at 19.43%, in Kirovohrad region at 21.35%, in Luhansk region at 22.71%, in Lviv region at 12.14%, and in Mykolaiv region at 22.95%.

The run-off has drawn a voter turnout of 17.42% in Odesa region, 22.53% in Poltava region, 13.84% in Rivne region, 20.54% in Sumy region, 11.6% in Ternopil region, 19.63% in Kharkiv region, 20.06% in Kherson region, 15.89% in Khmelnytsky region, 20.63% in Cherkasy region, 10.9% in Chernivtsi region, 20.14% in Chernihiv region, and 16.45% in Kyiv.

During the March 31 first round, voter turnout stood at 16.63% at 11:00, based on data from 195 electoral districts. Consequently, voter turnout in the run-off at 11:00 is 1.41% higher than in the first round at that point.A female activist naked to the waist staged protest at a polling station in Kyiv's Obolon district where presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky cast his ballot.

The woman yelled, "Stop raping Ukraine!" and took off her shirt when Zelensky arrived at the polling station to vote.

A picture of a pig's head with the words "Pig in a poke" was drawn on the woman's stomach.

The woman shouted that Zelensky may be "a mistake for Ukraine." The woman added she was also against incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

Instead of arresting the woman, police counselled her, the police said.Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has praised the organization of the elections of the head of state.

"I am proud of how the elections have been organized this year. Citizens freely exercise their right to vote. We have a democratic tradition. This marks Ukraine as a European state," Poroshenko told journalists after casting his ballot at the presidential runoff in Kyiv on Sunday.

Over the past five years, Ukraine has made a tremendous progress in its integration and return into the family of European nations, the head of state said.

"I firmly believe that during these elections we must do everything possible so that our European progress and, most importantly, Euro-Atlantic integration should not stop. We will not allow anyone to do this, not even to slow down us on the path of our European and Euro-Atlantic reforms," the president said.

He said Ukrainians should be guided by reason during the voting, because "it's not funny".

"This may seem funny at first. But then it may hurt," Poroshenko explained.

According to the president, during the voting Ukrainian citizens should protect all the country has achieved over the previous five years.

"Who will be elected is not important. What matters is the strategy and the path that the nation and the state should continue. And it's crucial not to lose the country. Today's choice is no less important than the one we made in 2014," Poroshenko said.Ukraine's Interior Ministry has said the number of anonymous callers phoning in bomb threats at infrastructure sites in Ukraine is increasing and that most are coming from Russia and Russia-occupied areas of Ukraine.

"There is one accent characteristic of today. There is activity on the part of Russia and its satellites in Russia-occupied territories regarding "explosive objects" in the territory controlled by Ukraine: social infrastructure sites and places where citizens gather. These are airports, and shopping centers," Interior Minister advisor Ivan Varchenko said during a briefing in Kyiv on Sunday.

Varchenko said the ministry has a clear understanding that "the messages originate from Russia-occupied territories. The messages are from there."

Varchenko said law-enforcement agencies have prepared for the bomb scares.

"We understand that the enemy will use every opportunity. Our bomb technicians are now working, checking each threat," he said.Police hand over administrative offence report to Zelensky for showing his filled-out ballot paper

Law enforcement officers have handed over to presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky a protocol on administrative violation for showing public the filled-out ballot paper.

"New president means new rules. Everyone must abide with the law! Zelensky has been handed a report on administrative violation for showing his filled-out ballot paper," Dmytro Razumkov, a spokesman for Zelensky's election headquarters, wrote on Facebook.

He illustrated his post with photographs showing police representatives filling out relevant documents in the presence of the candidate.

During the voting, Zelensky demonstrated a filled-in ballot with a "cross" standing opposite his name to those present at the polling station.Police hand over administrative offence report to Zelensky for showing his filled-out ballot paper

Law enforcement officers have handed over to presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky a protocol on administrative violation for showing public the filled-out ballot paper.

"New president means new rules. Everyone must abide with the law! Zelensky has been handed a report on administrative violation for showing his filled-out ballot paper," Dmytro Razumkov, a spokesman for Zelensky's election headquarters, wrote on Facebook.

He illustrated his post with photographs showing police representatives filling out relevant documents in the presence of the candidate.

During the voting, Zelensky demonstrated a filled-in ballot with a "cross" standing opposite his name to those present at the polling station.

The Interior Ministry said that police are verifying information that candidate Zelensky demonstrated his filled-out ballot paper and will then give a legal assessment of what happened.

"We have just seen it in the media. Therefore, of course, these facts will be checked, as we did last time, and an appropriate judicial assessment will be given," the Ukrainian interior minister's advisor Zoryan Shkiryak said at a press briefing on Sunday, when asked whether the Interior Ministry will give a legal assessment of Zelensky's demonstration of his ballot paper.

"Of course, we will give a legal assessment after examining all of the circumstances," chief of the Ukrainian National Police department for Kyiv Andriy Kryschenko said.Police have finished searching Kharkiv International Airport and the Auchan shopping center in Kharkiv. No bombs were found.

"On the territory of the Kharkiv airport about 15,000 square meters and about 30,000 square meters of adjacent territory were examined, 600 people were evacuated Law enforcement officers examined 10,000 square meters of shopping center premises and 1,000 of the adjacent territory, evacuated about 5,000. No explosive devices or dangerous substances were found," Kyiv region's National Police said.

Whether to enter the bomb scares into the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations is being discussed.

As reported, at about 13:00 the police received a message about laying explosives in the airport, the Premier Palace Hotel Kharkiv, as well as the Ave Plaza and Auchan shopping centers. The check of the hotel and the Ave Plaza shopping center is ongoing.Voting in the run-off second round of Ukraine's presidential election at the Akademik Vernadsky Station in Antarctica has concluded. All participants in the twenty-fourth Antarctic expedition  12 persons  cast ballots, Ukraine's Education and Science Ministry has said.

"Turnout was 100%," the ministry said.

The head of the expedition Ihor Diky was chairman of the station's voting commission. Protocols with the results will be made public after voting ends in Ukraine.

As reported, on March 31, 34 Ukrainian explorers voted in the first round of elections at the station Akademik Vernadsky.

Members of the Ukrainian Antarctic expeditions have had the opportunity to exercise their right to vote at the station Akademik Vernadsky since 1998. They can take part in the election of the president and parliament, but do not vote for candidates in majoritarian election districts and do not participate in local elections.Oleksandr Danyliuk, a member of the team of candidate for the presidency of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, is convinced that PrivatBank will work steadily, despite any court decisions.

"PrivatBank is a state-owned stable bank, and this is the main thing. Clients do not have to worry, the state will ensure complete financial stability," he told reporters at Zelensky's headquarters on Sunday.

Danyliuk noted that PrivatBank cannot be "denationalized."

"I was asked this question a few months ago and I said that it was impossible. But so many experts in Ukraine, including those at public posts, said it was possible, but now everyone acknowledged that it was legally impossible to return PrivatBank to the former owners. And all state leaders have now confirmed this. I am glad that they have heeded me," he stressed.Illegal armed groups since the beginning of the day on Sunday have once violated the ceasefire regime in the area of the joint forces operations, one Ukrainian soldier was wounded, the press center of the JFO headquarters has reported.

"Since the beginning of the day, the enemy has once violated the ceasefire regime  As a result of the shelling, one soldier of the JFO was injured," according to the report on Facebook.

"The situation in the JFO area remains under control," the headquarters said.Some judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine have shifted to new power and plan to annul electronic declaration for officials, which was a condition for the provision of visa free regime with the European Union for Ukraine, candidate for the post of President of Ukraine, incumbent head of state Petro Poroshenko has said.

"Our team will protect visa-free regime, because some members of the Constitutional Court very quickly shifted to new power and now they are planning to declare electronic declaration unconstitutional, while it was the condition for visa-free regime. We will protect visa-free regime," Poroshenko said at his headquarters on Sunday after the announcement of the results of exit polls, according to which Volodymyr Zelensky wins the election.Poroshenko calls on intl community to support Ukraine on its way to EU and NATO, no matter what

The candidate for the presidency of Ukraine, incumbent head of state Petro Poroshenko has called on the international community to support the Euro-Atlantic course of Ukraine given the vague situation in view of the victory of Volodymyr Zelensky in the presidential election.

"I want to urge the international community to help Ukraine retain the choice that Ukraine has made, follow the course towards the EU and NATO: please stay with Ukraine, no matter what," Poroshenko told foreign journalists at his headquarters on Sunday.

He noted that the results of the presidential election put Ukraine in an uncertain situation, the development of which is difficult to predict.Volodymyr Zelensky, the winner of the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine according to the results of exit polls, has announced the start of an information campaign, the aim of which is to cease fighting in Donbas.

"We will be making a very powerful information war to cease fire in Donbas," Zelensky said at a briefing in Kyiv on Sunday evening.

At the same time, he urged the journalists present at the press conference to take part in this.

"We will need your help, and this will be soon," he said.

"We will tell you our plan of action," he added.Showman Volodymyr Zelensky is the leader of the presidential election of Ukraine with 73% of voter's support, and incumbent head of state Petro Poroshenko has 25.5% of votes, according to the national exit poll.

The results of the exit poll as of 20:00 were presented at a press conference in Kyiv on Sunday.

Some 87.3% of voters in the east cast their votes in favor of Zelensky, voters from the south  85.4% and voters from the center of Ukraine  70.2%.

The incumbent head of state gained 11.5%, 13.5% and 28% of voters' support in the areas.

Some 56.9% of voters backed Zelensky and 41.3%  Poroshenko.

As for spoiled ballots, the total share of them is 1.5%. Some 1.8% of voters spoiled them in the west, 1.7% in the center of the country and 1.1% each in the south and in the east of the country.

A total of 14,561 respondents at 300 polling stations were polled. The secret ballot method was used. Statistical sampling errors do not exceed 3%.

The national exit poll was conducted by a consortium, which includes Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) and Oleksandr Razumkov Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies.Former prime minister of Lithuania, Seim deputy Andrius Kubilius has said that the new president of Ukraine should continue the European way of Ukraine and prepare for an examination from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The most important thing for the new president is to continue the same European way, not to be tempted by the big internal battles with the former [government representatives]. Second, you need to be prepared that Mr. Putin will do some kind of exam very quickly. You need to prepare for it," Kubilius told Interfax-Ukraine on Sunday in the headquarters of the Ze! Team.

He also said that he had not personally met with Volodymyr Zelensky, the presidential candidate of Ukraine, who is a winner of the election according to the results of exit polls.

"We do not know if we will be able to meet this time. We know some people from his team, and they know our plans," Kubilius said.

The Seim deputy also said that the West should not leave Ukraine. "From our experience, in 1993, the EU immediately after our unexpected elections, said very clearly that there is an opportunity for us to become a member of the European Union, and for us this became the basis of inter-party consensus," the former Lithuanian prime minister said.

He also said that the Lithuanian delegation will meet with Western partners. "We will also meet with the Western ambassadors, regarding what the West should do. That after such elections one cannot stand back and leave Ukraine," Kubilius said.The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has congratulated the newly elected President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and expressed hope for the continuation of the strong Ukraine-U.S. partnership.

"We congratulate President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky and thank all those who contributed to ensuring Ukraine's presidential election was conducted in a peaceful manner. We thank President Petro Poroshenko for his efforts over the past five years to strengthen Ukraine's security, prosperity and democracy, and to strengthen our bilateral relationship. We look forward to continuing the strong U.S.-Ukraine partnership with President-elect Zelensky," the embassy said on Facebook.NATO Secretary General congratulates Zelensky on his victory in presidential elections in Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has congratulated Volodymyr Zelensky on his victory in the presidential elections in Ukraine and expressed hope for continuation of cooperation.

"Congratulations to Volodymyr Zelensky on winning Ukraine's presidential elections. Ukraine is a valued NATO partner and we look forward to continuing our cooperation," he said on Twitter.EC President Tusk congratulates Zelensky on his victory in presidential elections in Ukraine

President of the European Council Donald Tusk has congratulated Volodymyr Zelensky on his victory in the presidential elections in Ukraine and assured him of further support from the European Union.

"A decisive day for Ukraine. Free elections and peaceful change of power  strong Ukrainian democracy. Congratulations to Volodymyr Zelensky. The EU is determined to continue its support," he said on Twitter.Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan began his first official visit to Iran on Sunday for talks set to focus on strengthening ties and countering terrorism, state media reported.

Khan began his two-day visit with a stop in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, Iran's second largest and home to the shrine of Imam Reza who is revered by Shiite muslims, state television said in a live broadcast.

After visiting the shrine, Khan was to fly to Tehran where on Monday he is expected to hold talks with President Hassan Rouhani and other top officials.

The state-run IRNA news agency said Khan's trip was expected to help "develop ties between the two countries, especially those related to regional cooperation in fighting terrorism and safeguarding borders".

Iran and Pakistan share a long border that runs nears the volatile southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan which has witnessed over the years numerous attacks on Iran's security forces.

In March, Rouhani demanded Pakistan act "decisively against anti-Iranian terrorists", following a February attack that killed 27 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchistan.

Iran has said a Pakistani suicide bomber was behind the attack, which was claimed by the Sunni jihadist group, Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which Tehran says operates mostly out of bases in Pakistan.

Khan's visit to Iran, the first since he took office last year, also comes days after gunmen killed 14 members of Pakistan's security forces in the Balochistan province.

On Saturday Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Islamabad had evidence the "terrorist outfits" that carried out the attack have "training and logistic camps inside Iranian areas bordering Pakistan".

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan's poorest province and the largest by landmass, with Islamist as well as ethnic Baloch separatists active there.Tehran has denied it took part in negotiations over possible limitations on its missile program, prior to the U.S. withdrawal in May 2018 from the Iran nuclear agreement .

Earlier, the French ambassador to the U.S., Gerard Araud, had asserted that before Washington's withdrawal, there were talks underway to reach an agreement over Tehran's missile program, and adding it as a supplement to the JCPOA, or the nuclear agreement.

"The Islamic Republic has never been a party to such talks, and whatever said on the subject is pure imagination of other parties," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told the state-run Young Journalists Club (YJC) on Saturday.

At the end of his nearly five-year tenure in Washington on April 19, Araud told the Atlantic magazine that some of the U.S. President Donald Trump's decisions, including his withdrawal from JCPOA and the Paris Agreement (on climate change), had surprised him.

"We were negotiating with the administration on an agreement to complement the Iran deal, on missiles, terrorism, and Irans regional activities. And we were close to an agreement," Araud said, adding, "There was absolutely no crisis in the negotiation. And suddenly overnight, everything was over. It was decided overnight; it was decided by Trump. Nobody was warned, and the day after, nobody was able to tell us what it meant for us.

While Araud insists that "people" told him that the final deal with Iran was 90 percent close, he does not explicitly mention the other parties to the talks.

Iranian authorities have repeatedly insisted that Tehran's missile program is "absolutely non-negotiable" and have prohibited officials from negotiating about it.

Nevertheless, a veteran lawmaker in Iran recently claimed that President Hassan Rouhani's administration has indeed negotiated over the missile program with France.

The official news website of Iranian Parliament (Majles) on April 4 quoted Javad Karimi Qoddousi (Ghoddusi), an outspoken conservative lawmaker, as having said that the Rouhani administration has negotiated with France over Iran's missile capabilities.

Qoddousi, who is known for making controversial claims that are often refuted, also said that "a recording of the negotiations is available."

Reacting to the Foreign Ministry's denial of his similar claims in the past, Qoddousi said: "I told Mr. Zarif that there is a recording of the negotiations," and then he quoted Zarif as having accepted his claims to be true but insisting that we do not negotiate, we talk."

Qoddousi reiterated, "Mr. Zarif and I have a difference on keywords: Talks and negotiations."

Recently, France, Germany, and the U.K. sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, calling on him to present a full report on Iran's recent missile activities, including attempts to launch a satellite and displaying its ballistic missiles.

Moreover, on March 29, 2016, the United States, the UK, France, and Germany wrote a joint letter to Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon accusing Iran of "defying" Security Council Resolution 2231 through missile tests conducted since the deal. The letter said the missiles were "inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons." However, the letter stopped short of saying the tests were illegal. Annex B of Resolution 2231 calls for Iran to refrain from activity related to nuclear-capable missiles.

"Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology" Annex B, asserts but according to diplomats the language is not legally binding and cannot be enforced with punitive measures.

Iran has repeatedly insisted that its missiles are designed exclusively for defensive purposes and none of them are nuclear-capable.Iran's imports from South Korea has dramatically dropped during the past two years according to figures released by the joint Iran-Korea chamber of commerce.

Meanwhile, Iran's export to South Korea has dropped from $4386 in 2017 million to $1806 million during the first 11 months of 2018.

This is a record low since 2015 when Iran and the West made a nuclear agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program and lift international sanctions on Iran in return.

Iran's international trade grew during 2016 and 2017 up to May 2018 when the United States pulled out of the nuclear agreement and later re-imposed new sanctions on Tehran.

Two rounds of sanctions in August and November 2018 hit Iran's economy, most notably its international banking and foreign trade.

Pouya Firouzi, the secretary general of Iran and South Korea's joint chamber of commerce has told Fars news agency on Saturday April 20 that problems in the areas of transportation and insurance have led to a decline in trade between Iran and South Korea.The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)s naval force commander Alireza Tangsiri has defended the deployment of foreign militia in Irans flood-hit areas after two weeks of silence in the face of harsh criticism by members of Iranian Parliament (Majles )and Iranians on social media.

Tangsiri told IRGC's Fars news agency on Sunday April 21, "Eight Iraqi Hashd al Sha'bi vessels were sent to help us," with flood relief.

He further explained: "The commanders of Hashd al-Sha'bi have fought alongside IRGC troops during the war with Saddam Hussain's Iraq" in the 1980s. "They have had a major part in sorting out the problems caused by floods. Their vessels were efficient."

However, Tangsiri charged that those who are against Hashd al-Sha'bi's presence in Khouzestan are either ill-informed or they are linked to strangers."

The arrival of IRGC-trained foreign militias from Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan in Iran triggered a lot of criticism and anger in Iran as they were voiced on social media, and by political activists in flood-hit Lorestan and Khouzestan provinces.

The militia are mainly affiliated with the Iraqi Hashd al-Sha'bi and Al-Nojaba groups and the Afghan Fatemiyoun battalions.

Ali Sari, an MP for Ahvaz in Khouzestan told reporters that he was not able to comment on the presence of Iraqi militia and their military equipment in Iran as he was unaware about how they were allowed to enter Iran.

However, hardline daily newspaper Kayhan in Tehran reported that the Iraqi forces have arrived in Iran upon an invitation made by IRGC's Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani.

Later, pictures were released on Iranian news agency websites showing Hashd al-Sha'bi Leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis sitting next to Soleimani in a Crisis Management Headquarters meeting in Khouzestan.

Iranian analyst Reza Haghighatnezhad, wrote about the body language of those present in the picture in a tweet, opining that in the absence of the Rouhani administration, Soleimani and the Iraqi commander are making the decisions.

Al-Muhandis is a major Iran-backed Iraqi commander. Previously, he became known to international press for his comments about his men's role in creating a Shiite passage to strengthen Tehran's influence from Iran to Lebanon.

While several members of Iranian Parliament criticized foreign militia's presence in Iran last week, on Sunday, Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, an MP and a member of the Majles National Security and Foreign Relations Committee defended the Iraqi militia's presence saying, "We helped Iraq in the past. Now they are helping us."

He added: "Iraq is our neighbour. We should be concerned about the presence of Americans, the French and the Europeans. The Iraqis are simply here to help."

This comes while there is still no report about the Iraqi government's approval of deployment of Hashd al-Sha'bi into Iran. There is also no report about an Iranian official permission to allow the entry of foreign militia into Iran. Based on the Iranian Constitutional Law, such a measure should be approved by the Majles or the Supreme National Security Council beforehand.

Abdolkarim Hassanzadeh, MP for Naqadeh, and Bahram Parsai, MP for Shiraz, have already noted the violation of Constitutional Law.

Meanwhile, Karoun Newspaper in Ahvaz wrote in a commentary that "Iraqi militia's presence in Khouzestan is questionable." A comment Iranian journalist Shahram Rafizadeh says the editors of Tehran's conservative press are not brave enough to make.

Also, in videos posted on social media, several local residents in Khouzestan protested to foreign militia's presence in their hometowns.

Earlier, chairman of Tehran's revolutionary court, Mousa Ghazanfarabadi had warned that "If we fail to help the revolution, Iraq's Hashd al-Sha'bi, Afghan Fatemiyoun and Pakistani Zaynabiyoun will do the job."Iranian artist Monir Farmanfarmaian has passed away at the age of 97, according to ISNA news agency.

A versatile artist Monir participated in the Iran Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1958, 1964, and 1966. She also had solo exhibitions in New York and Paris during her distinguished career.

Born in Iran in the northern province of Qazvin in 1924, Monir wanted to study art in Paris but this was not possible because of World War II. Monir was able to get to the United States and study at Cornell University and at the prominent Parsons School for Design where she received a certificate in fashion illustration. After 12 years in New York she returned to Iran where she actively participated in local art scene.

Monir was known for her micro-mosaic and glass sculptures, but she also worked alongside with Andy Warhol as an illustrator at the Bonwit Teller luxury department store in the 1950s. During Warhol's visit to Tehran in 1976 Monir presented him with her Mirror Ballworks.

She did not return to Iran after the 1979 revolution, as many of her works and her home were confiscated including an extensive collection of folk art that she acquired during her vast travel around Iran.

She returned to Iran in 2004 and in 2017 The Monir Museum opened in Tehran which features over fifty pieces of her work. This was a first museum in Iran that was dedicated to the work of a female artist.

Source:The New School of Design,Mehr News Agency, Gugenhaime andartasiapacific.com, RFE/RL, The Monir MuseumBEIRUT/MOSCOW, April 20 (Reuters)

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met senior officials from his strongest ally Russia in Damascus on Friday and Saturday to discuss upcoming peace talks, renting out Tartus port and trade between the two countries, state media in Syria reported.

Russia has helped Assad's forces to take back most of the country but the eight-year-long war continues. Swathes of the northeast and northwest are out of his control, while sanctions and a fuel shortage are constricting the economy.

Moscow has pushed for a political process involving talks on a new constitution and elections as a way to end the conflict, but Assad has played down the possibility that the Turkey-backed opposition or foreign countries might participate.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said late on Friday that Assad had met Moscow's Syria envoy Alexander Lavrentiev, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin and several Russian Defence Ministry officials.

However, while it said they had discussed the formation of a constitutional committee, which Syria's opposition last year agreed to join under U.N. auspices after a Russian-hosted peace conference, Syrian state media did not mention it.

Syria's official SANA news agency said meetings had focused on the next round of talks in Kazakhstan involving Syria, its allies Russia and Iran, and the rebels' backer Turkey.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria's war and about half the pre-conflict population of 22 million has been displaced.

Russia launched a military intervention to support Assad in 2015, turning the tide of the fighting in his favour.

On Saturday, SANA said Assad had met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov to discuss trade and economic cooperation, "particularly in the fields of energy, industry and increasing trade".

CONTRACT "WITHIN A WEEK"

TASS news agency cited Borisov as saying that a contract on renting Tartus port by Russia was expected to be signed soon.

In 2017, the Russian parliament ratified a deal with Damascus to cement Russia's foothold in the country and pave the way for establishing a permanent military presence at naval and air bases in Syria.

It was also agreed that Russia would expand and modernize the port's supply of facilities for its fleet.

Borisov said Russia now hoped to sign the deal to rent the port within a week, according to TASS.

"We have advanced quite substantially on this issue and hope that the contract will be signed within a week and the port Tartus will be transferred for the Russian business usage," he was quoted as saying. The Tartus naval facility is Russia's only naval foothold in the Mediterranean.

SANA news agency said Assad and Borisov discussed mechanisms to overcome obstacles including those "resulting from the sanctions which countries against the Syrian people imposed on Syria".

The United States and European Union imposed tough sanctions on Syria early in the conflict over what they described as atrocities carried out by the government, which it denies.

This week, Syrian state media reported that a fuel shortage which has resulted in rationing and long queues at petrol stations came in the context of difficulty in importing fuel and the halting of a credit line from Iran.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem said on Saturday that "Syria is always coordinating with Iran".

(Reporting by Angus McDowall and Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by Alison Williams and Helen Popper)Baku, Azerbaijan, April 21

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 22 times, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry informed on April 21, Trend reports.

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, April 21

Trend:

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemns terror attacks in Sri Lanka, Trend reports on April 21.

"We condemn the devastating terrorist attacks in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka killing and injuring many innocent people. We express our deepest condolences to the families of victims and the people of Sri Lanka, wish a speedy recovery to the injured," reads a message on the ministrys Twitter page.Baku, Azerbaijan, April 21

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The delimitation process of the Azerbaijani-Georgian state border continues in accordance with the good intentions of the parties, aimed at achieving the results that will satisfy both countries, spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva said in an interview with Trend on April 21.

Abdullayeva noted that a regular round of political consultations between the delegations headed by Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Ramiz Hasanov and Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia Lasha Darsalia took place on April 17 in Baku. A useful exchange of views took place on several aspects of mutually beneficial relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia, which are neighbors and strategic partners.

During the meeting, as Leyla Abdullayeva notes, Deputy Minister Ramiz Hasanov, together with his Georgian counterpart, also discussed the process of delimiting the state border. This issue is discussed at the level of the relevant state commission, as well as experts. In general, she added, Azerbaijan sees no obstacles to the continuation of negotiations and is ready for discussions.

According to Abdullayeva, the parties discussed energy, transport and other regional projects implemented with the participation of Azerbaijan and Georgia, which provide the basis for economic development in the region, as well as serve to ensuring security and stability. Thus, the sides exchanged views on the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, the Southern Gas Corridor, a game-changer project, which envisages the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe. The meeting participants also discussed gas supplies through the Trans-Anatolian and Trans-Adriatic pipelines, which are integral parts of this project, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, East-West and South-West transport corridors.

"The sides discussed protracted conflicts on the territory of countries that are the main threat to security and sustainable development in the region and the current stage of their resolution. Representatives of Azerbaijan and Georgia also discussed such

issues as the further development of cooperation in the fields of economy, tourism, culture and humanitarian sphere, continued cooperation on tripartite and multilateral platforms. Inter-MFA political consultations are a very useful platform for discussing issues on the agenda of the two countries, consider the ways of further developing ties, as well as to exchange views on issues that have not yet been resolved, and to discuss possible ways to solve them. It's an effective tool to ensure the continued development of relations,"- she added.

Abdullayeva stressed that relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia have reached the level of strategic partnership. In this regard, of course, the political dialogue that continues on an ongoing basis between the two countries at the level of heads of state and government has a crucial role. For information, Ill say that 109 documents have been signed between the two countries and the texts of a number of agreements are currently under review, which shows a steady development of cooperation."

Speaking about the results of the meeting, Abdullayeva noted that the parties stressed the role of the joint intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation and the organization of business forums in giving additional impetus for the effective use of the rich potential of bilateral cooperation. In this regard, suggestions were made.

"The successful completion of practical work on specific projects, in particular, in the field of tourism promotion, which holds an important place in the development of the two countries, was also emphasized. In addition, an exchange of views was held on the Days of Azerbaijani Culture, which will be organized in Batumi in June of this year that will give new impetus to cooperation in the humanitarian sphere," Abdullayeva said.

At the same time, the official representative of the Foreign Ministry stressed that both countries on all international platforms come out from a position of supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states within internationally recognized borders and demonstrate the same position in the fight against aggressive separatism.

"Our countries cooperate in the framework of international organizations and trilateral formats. In particular, trilateral cooperation in the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey format continues, which, complementing our bilateral relations, creates a condition for its development at a qualitatively new level. The last meeting in this format, the seventh meeting was held last October in Turkey. Azerbaijan and Georgia also cooperate in the framework of the United Nations and other international organizations. At the last consultations we also discussed the prospects for the provision of mutual support in the framework of international organizations and an agreement was reached to continue joint efforts in this direction," she said.Baku, Azerbaijan, April 21

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

Various products worth $57.6 million were exported from Malayer county of Irans Hamadan province to around 30 countries last Iranian year (started on March 21, 2018), Nassir Turkashvend, head of the customs office of Malayer county, said.

The volume of exported products slightly decreased last Iranian year compared to the previous year, Turkashvend added, Trend reports referring to IRNA.

He said that about 40,000 tons of 20 types of products were exported from Malayer county to some countries last Iranian year.

Various types of raisins, dairy products, pickles, beans, paraffin, cement, hospital clothing, vegetable oil, sulfur, cardboard and furniture have been exported, Turkashvend said.

The goods are exported to Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Russia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, Belarus, Sudan, Kuwait, Syria, Poland, India, Malaysia, Georgia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Indonesia and Austria.Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has appointed Hossein Salami, a senior commander of Irans Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), as the new chief commander of the military elite force, promoting him to the rank of major general, Trend reported citing Press TV.

In his decree on Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei stated that the installation was made in view of Salami's commitment and valuable work experience in macro management and different posts in the IRGC.

The Leader urged Salami to promote the IRGC's all-out capabilities and preparedness in all fields, boost its prudence and expand management based on the capabilities of experts.

Ayatollah Khamenei called for major steps towards improvement of the IRGC.

Ayatollah Khamenei also thanked Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, who had previously held the post, for his great efforts and services.

In another decree, the Leader appointed Jafari as head of Hadhrat Baqiatollah al-Azam Cultural and Social Headquarters.Baku, Azerbaijan, April 21

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

The water level of Urmia Lake has reached 1,271.42 meters as a result of the recent rainfall in Iran, Aqil Agdasi, director of the Water Resources Research Center of Irans East Azerbaijan province, told reporters.

The water level increased by 70 centimeters this Iranian year compared to last Iranian year (started on March 21, 2018), Agdasi added, Trend reports referring to IRNA.

The current water level of Urmia Lake increased by 1.17 meters in September of this Iranian year compared to September of last Iranian year, he said.

The current water area of the Urmia Lake is 647 kilometers this Iranian year compared to last Iranian year which is 1,201 square kilometres more compared to September of last Iranian year.

The water volume of the Urmia Lake was 1.94 billion cubic meters in September of last Iranian year. To date, this figure has increased by 3.84 billion cubic meters.Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said on Sunday they had agreed to send Sudan $3 billion worth of aid, throwing a lifeline to the countrys new military leaders after protests led to the ousting of president Omar al-Bashir, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The two Gulf Arab countries will deposit $500 million with the Sudanese central bank and send the rest in the form of food, medicine and petroleum products, their state news agencies said in parallel statements.

But in a potential setback to efforts to form a new government, a coalition of protesters and opposition groups said it was suspending contacts with the political committee of the military rulers Transitional Military Council, accusing it of being composed of remnants of the ousted regime.

Our dealings with the political committee had been positive but it deals with us in the same old manner, which prompted us to suspend dealings with it, a leader of the group known as Forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, told Reuters.

Sudans TMC is under pressure from protesters who have kept up a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry since Bashir was ousted on April 11. They demonstrated in large numbers over the past three days, pressing for a rapid handover to civilian rule.

TMC head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told state TV that the council had received many blueprints on how to manage the transitional period and that the formation of a joint military-civilian council - one of the demands put forward by Sudanese activists - was being considered.

The issue has been put forward for discussion and a vision has yet to be reached, he said.

The role of the military council complements the uprising and the blessed revolution, said Burhan, adding that the TMC was committed to handing power over to the people.China had built a team of nearly 3.61 million medical doctors as of the end of 2018, sustaining the world's largest healthcare system, the country's top health official said Sunday, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

These medical doctors treat about 8.3 billion patients on average every year, said Ma Xiaowei, head of the National Health Commission, in a report submitted to China's top legislature for review at its ongoing bimonthly session.More than 750 climate change activists blocking roads at some of Londons most famous landmarks have been arrested over the last six days, police said on Saturday, up from a Friday total of 682, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The protests, organized by climate group Extinction Rebellion, have for several days disrupted travel through parts of central London, including at Marble Arch and Waterloo Bridge.

The activists had also blocked the Oxford Circus shopping district, but by 1700 GMT the roads had been cleared by police and traffic was flowing again.

Extinction Rebellion has called for non-violent civil disobedience to force the British government to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025 and stop what it calls a global climate crisis.

Twenty-eight of those arrested had been charged with offences, Londons Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told BBC News that the protests had caused miserable disruption. She said there were now 1,500 police officers, up from 1,000 previously, working to clear the roads.

On Waterloo Bridge, which connects south and central London, a Reuters journalist said police had cleared away banners and obstructions like bales of hay and even a sofa.

But as of 1720 GMT, the area was still packed with activists, who remained good-humored.

The police reiterated that protests were only allowed to continue at Marble Arch.

Ive got one message for the protesters and that is: Please, go to Marble Arch where you can protest lawfully. Stop your unlawful protest, and if you dont want to go to Marble Arch, then go home, Dick said.

On Friday, well-known actor Emma Thompson joined activists at Oxford Circus, at the heart of one of the capitals most popular shopping districts, to read poetry praising Earths bounties.Israel offered condolences and support to Sri Lanka after bomb attacks on churches and hotels have left at least 185 people dead on Sunday, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack in a statement issued by his office. "On behalf of the citizens of Israel... (I) express deep shock at the murderous attacks against innocent civilians in Sri Lanka," he said.

He added that Israel is ready to assist the authorities in Sri Lanka. "The entire world must unite in the struggle against the plague of terror," he said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin denounced that attacks as "despicable crime."

"We are all children of God; an attack on one religion is an attack on us all," he said on Twitter.

The Association of Baptist Churches in Israel released a statement of condolence to the victims and their relatives. "The news is sad, painful, and outrageous," the statement read. "We pray in memory of the souls of the dead and wish speedy recovery for the wounded."

Multiple bomb attacks in churches and hotels were reported on Easter Day, where hundreds of worshipers gathered.

No organization immediately assumed responsibility.A group of unidentified gunmen in the early hours of Saturday invaded a recreational center in Kaduna state, north Nigeria, and killed two tourists, including a woman, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

The gunmen armed with dangerous weapons abducted three other tourists and made away with them to an unknown destination, according to local police.

State police spokesman Yakubu Sabo confirmed the incident in a statement made available to journalists in the state capital on Saturday.

Sabo said some gunmen stormed the recreational resort called "Kajuru Castle" where they opened fire on guests, killing two on the spot.

The spokesman said a patrol team have evacuated the victims, believed to be tourists from Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub, to the St. Gerard Catholic Hospital in Kaduna metropolis.Over 200 people were killed and at least 450 injured in bomb blasts that ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago, Trend reported citing Reuters.

Seven people were arrested and three police officers were killed during a security forces raid on a house in the Sri Lankan capital several hours after the rash of attacks, some of which officials said were suicide bombs.

The government declared a curfew in Colombo and blocked access to social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp. It was unclear when the curfew would be lifted.

Altogether, we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters.

Three churches in various parts of the country and four hotels in Colombo were hit. At least 27 of the dead were foreigners, including people from Turkey, China, India and Holland, officials and media reports said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009, a time when bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Local Christian groups have said they faced increasing intimidation from some extremist Buddhist monks in recent years. Last year, there were clashes between the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community and minority Muslims, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam.

Dozens were killed in one of the blasts at St. Sebastians Gothic-style Catholic church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo. Gunasekera said the police suspected a suicide attack there. Pictures from the site showed bodies on the ground, blood on the church pews and a destroyed roof.

Local media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on an evangelical church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The hotels hit in Colombo were the Shangri-La, the Kingsbury, the Cinnamon Grand and the Tropical Inn near the national zoo. There was no word on casualties in the hotels, but a witness told local TV he saw some body parts, including a severed head, lying on the ground beside the Tropical Inn.

The first six explosions were all reported within a short period in the morning just as church services were starting.

One of the explosions was at St. Anthonys Shrine, a Catholic church in Kochcikade, Colombo, a tourist landmark.

The explosion at the Tropical Inn happened later and there was an eighth explosion at a house in Colombo. Police and media said that three officers were killed and seven people detained during a raid on this location.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong, he said in a Tweet.

Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.

President Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered the police special task force and military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda.

The military was deployed, a military spokesman said, and security stepped up at Colombos international airport.

14:10 (GMT+4) Sri Lankan authorities said on Sunday that the death toll from the explosions which shook the Sri Lankan capital earlier in the day had risen to 185 while 469 others were injured, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

Local media quoting police and hospital sources said that nine foreigners were among those killed and 13 others were injured.

Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara told Xinhua that a seventh explosion was reported from opposite the Dehiwala Zoo in Colombo on Sunday afternoon.

10:57 (GMT+4) Easter Day bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels killed 138 people and wounded more than 400, hospital and police officials said, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago, Trend reported citing Reuters.

In just one church, St. Sebastians in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, more than 50 people had been killed, a police official told Reuters, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews and a destroyed roof.

Media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on a church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The three hotels hit were the Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel and Cinnamon Grand Colombo. It was unclear whether there were any casualties in the hotels.

Nine foreigners were among the dead, the officials said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

One of the explosions was at St Anthonys Church in Kochcikade, Colombo.

Our people are engaged in evacuating the casualties, a source with the bomb squad said.

St. Sebastians church posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), which represents more than 200 churches and other Christian organizations.

This year, the NCEASL recorded 26 such incidents, including one in which Buddhist monks allegedly attempted to disrupt a Sunday worship service, with the last one reported on March 25.

Out of Sri Lankas total population of around 22 million, 70 percent are Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim, and 7.6 percent Christian, according to the countrys 2012 census.

In its 2018 report on Sri Lankas human rights, the U.S. State Department noted that some Christian groups and churches reported they had been pressured to end worship activities after authorities classified them as unauthorized gatherings.

The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship, citing unidentified sources.

10:06 (GMT+4) At least 20 people were killed and another 280 were wounded in a series of six explosions that hit Sri Lanka during Easter celebrations, Trend reported citing Tass.

AFP reported citing police that the blasts targeted three luxury hotels and a church in Colombo, and also two churches in a suburb of Negombo.

No extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

09:19 (GMT+4) Two Sri Lankan churches and two hotels were hit by explosions on Easter Sunday, wounding several people, police sources said, Trend reported citing Reuters.

The hotels and one of the churches are in the nations capital Colombo. The other church is in Negombo, north of Colombo.

A source in the police bomb squad said that one of the explosions was at St Anthonys Church in Kochcikade, Colombo. Our people are engaged in evacuating the casualties, the source said.

Sources from two leading tourist hotels in Colombo also confirmed the explosions but did not give any details.

Colombo National hospital said several wounded had been brought in for treatment.

St. Sebastians church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.The Sri Lankan government declared a curfew with immediate effect, junior defense minister Ruwan Wijewardene said on Sunday, following eight explosions that killed nearly 140 people, and mostly targeted churches and hotels, Trend reported citing Reuters.

A curfew will be imposed until things settle down, he told reporters in Colombo.

Government officials also said major social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, have been blocked inside the country to prevent misinformation and rumors.Gunmen attacked a Malian army base in a dawn raid on Sunday, killing 11 soldiers and burning the camp in west-central Mali, the army and a local lawmaker said, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Central Mali has in the past few years been overrun by jihadists with links to al Qaeda.

The unidentified armed assailants attacked the base in Guire district at 0500 local time (0500 GMT) after approaching in a convoy of 11 vehicles, local lawmaker Niame Keita said.

They burnt the camp and took equipment, he said.

In a statement, the defense ministry confirmed the attack and said 11 soldiers were killed and more were wounded. Keita had earlier said 12 were reported killed.

In March, an al Qaeda affiliate said it was behind a similar overnight attack on an army base in the central region of Mopti in which 16 soldiers were killed.

Escalating violence led to the resignation last week of the entire Malian government. The authorities have come under fire for failing to beat back militants and disarm militias, after a massacre of 157 villagers by an ethnic vigilante group shocked the nation in March.

Both Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso have been hit by the spike in hostilities fueled by Islamist militants seeking to extend their influence over the Sahel, an arid region between Africas northern Sahara desert and its southern savannas.South Korean President Moon Jae-in was set to hold meetings with Kazakhstan's incumbent and former leaders Monday to discuss ways to improve the countries' bilateral ties and boost economic cooperation, Trend reports citing Yonhap.

Moon will first hold a summit with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, marking his first meeting with a Kazakh head of state since he took office in May 2017. It will also come about a month after the new Kazakh leader took office late last month.

The summit will follow a welcome ceremony to be hosted by President Tokayev.

The South Korean president is on a three-day state visit that began Sunday in Almaty, the largest city of Kazakhstan. He arrived in the country's capital, formerly called Astana, later in the day.

Moon will later hold a meeting with Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is said to still hold a significant amount of political influence in the Central Asian country despite his resignation last month.

Kazakhstan is South Korea's largest trade partner in Central Asia, with their bilateral trade reaching US$2.2 billion last year.

Moon seeks to further expand his country's trade and economic cooperation with Kazakhstan and other countries in the region under his New Northern Policy, which aims to build a network of cooperation with countries north of South Korea and those in Eurasia, such as Russia.

The South Korean president is on a three-nation tour that earlier took him to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

He will return home Tuesday, wrapping up his eight-day tour that began last Tuesday.Main Opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kilichdaroglu was attacked by a group of men during the funeral of a fallen soldier who was killed while fighting PKK terrorists near the Turkey-Iraq border, Trend reported citing Daily Sabah.

The attack took place in Turkey's capital Ankara when the group of men started protesting again Kilichdaroglu and punched and kicked him for his alleged secretive alliance with the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) during the local elections.

They were attending the funeral of Infantryman Yener Krkchi in Chubuk district.

Security forces escorted the Kilichdaroglu to a nearby house after the attack. Later he was driven by armored vehicle away from the scene.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials condemned the attack and wished a speedy recovery for Kilichdaroglu.

"We condemn all types of violence," party spokesman Omer Chelik said, adding that the perpetrators will be found and held accountable for their crime.

Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul also condemned the attack, saying that they will not allow violence to cast a shadow on politics.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahcheli said it was "impossible" to be comfortable with the attack against Kilichdaroglu.Two female students at a Florida middle school were arrested this week after a teacher discovered their plans to kill at least nine people, police say, Trend reports referring to Fox News.

The teacher reportedly became suspicious when she noticed the two 14-year-old girls acting "hysterical" while looking for a folder at Avon Park Middle School in central Florida. The teacher later found the folder, which was labeled "private info," "do not open," and "Project 11/9," according to Fox 13.

Inside, the teacher found eight pieces of paper which made reference to guns and listed nine people by their full names or initials that the girls allegedly wanted to kill.

The girls, who are not being named because of their ages, were arrested after school on Wednesday when the teacher reported her findings to police.

The folder reportedly included detailed notes about what the girls would wear as they carried out their plans, with hand-written additions such as "no nails," and "no hair showing from the moment we put on our clothes," WTSP reports.

An incident report by the Highlands County Sherriff's office said that "the plans were written in great detail as to how they would lure the victims, kill the victims, and dispose of the victims' bodies." The plans reportedly revealed that the girls would pick up three individuals and kill them, and another six were also to be killed.

The teacher who reported the girls said that she heard one say that she would say it was a "prank" if the folder was found and connected to her.

A parent of a different child at the school said that she was particularly surprised to hear which two girls were involved with the alleged "hit list," because they were considered popular and well-liked at Avon Park Middle School.

Its scary not knowing if your kid was on that list or not, Vicky Setters told Fox 13. [One of the suspects] was real friendly and everything. They said that it didnt seem like it would be her, either one of them, they were both real friends and popular in school.

Both girls were taken to a juvenile justice facility in nearby Bartow, and are facing nine counts each for conspiracy to commit premeditated homicide, and three counts of conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

This isn't the first time police have uncovered alleged murder plots by underage students in the area. Two girls aged 11 and 12 were arrested about 30 miles away from Avon Park Middle School in October after they were found to be connected to a plan to kill at least 15 people with an array of weapons, including a pizza cutter, and allegedly wanted to drink their victims' blood.After Batti Gul Meter Chalu, Shahid Kapoor will be seen in his rowdy avatar for upcoming film Kabir Singh. The Sandeep Vanga directorial wrapped up its final schedule on April 11 and the cast and crew celebrated the occasion with a cake. And soon after finishing shooting for this film, Shahid took off to London for a much needed break with wife Mira Rajput.

Shahid Kapoors Kabir Singh new poster out, check it out here

In the latest photo couple seems to have traveled to Spain and Mira has put up some more fun pictures from their holiday. Out of them, one particular picture that we adored is the one with Shahid Kapoor with his arm around Mira as they pose with another couple. Shahid and Meera are giving couple goals to their fans.

Amitabh Bachchan cracks a hilarious 'pati-patni' joke, check it out here

Talking about Kabir Singh, it is an official remake of the Telugu superhit film Arjun Reddy which starred Vijay Deverakonda is making quite buzz since the release of its teaser. Earlier this month, makers of Kabir Singh released a teaser for the film and Shahid impressed us as the hot-headed Kabir. Now, the makers have released the new poster of the film. Kabir Singh is also directed by Sandeep Vanga who has directed the orginal telgu one. Jointly produced by Cine1 Studios and T-Series, the remake of Arjun Reddy will mostly stick to the original film's plot.WASHINGTON -- For the first time, researchers have successfully 3D printed chalcogenide glass, a unique material used to make optical components that operate at mid-infrared wavelengths. The ability to 3D print this glass could make it possible to manufacture complex glass components and optical fibers for new types of low-cost sensors, telecommunications components and biomedical devices.

In The Optical Society (OSA) journal Optical Materials Express, researchers from the Centre d'Optique, Photonique et Laser (COPL) at Universite Laval in Canada, Patrick Larochelle and his colleagues, describe how they modified a commercially available 3D printer for glass extrusion. The new method is based on the commonly used technique of fused deposition modeling, in which a plastic filament is melted and then extruded layer-by-layer to create detailed 3D objects.

"3D printing of optical materials will pave the way for a new era of designing and combining materials to produce the photonic components and fibers of the future," said Yannick Ledemi, a member of the research team. "This new method could potentially result in a breakthrough for efficient manufacturing of infrared optical components at a low cost."

Printing glass

Chalcogenide glass softens at a relatively low temperature compared to other glass. The research team therefore increased the maximum extruding temperature of a commercial 3D printer from around 260 C to 330 C to enable chalcogenide glass extrusion. They produced chalcogenide glass filaments with dimensions similar to the commercial plastic filaments normally used with the 3D printer. Finally, the printer was programed to create two samples with complex shapes and dimensions.

"Our approach is very well suited for soft chalcogenide glass, but alternative approaches are also being explored to print other types of glass," said Ledemi. "This could allow fabrication of components made of multiple materials. Glass could also be combined with polymers with specialized electro-conductive or optical properties to produce multi-functional 3D printed devices."

3D printing would also be useful for making fiber preforms - a piece of glass that is pulled into a fiber - with complex geometries or multiple materials, or a combination of both. Once the design and fabrication techniques are fine-tuned, the researchers say that 3D printing could be used for inexpensive manufacturing of high volumes of infrared glass components or fiber preforms.

"3D printed chalcogenide-based components would be useful for infrared thermal imaging for defense and security applications," continued Ledemi. "They would also enable sensors for pollutant monitoring, biomedicine and other applications where the infrared chemical signature of molecules is used for detection and diagnosis."

The researchers are now working to improve the design of the printer to increase its performance and enable additive manufacturing of complex parts or components made of chalcogenide glass. They also want to add new extruders to enable co-printing with polymers for the development of multi-material components.

###

The research is part of the PRinting of exotic multi-maTErial fibers, or PROTEus, project conducted within the frame of the International Associated Laboratory 'Lumiere Matiere Aquitaine Quebec (LIA-LuMAQ). PROTEus brings together researchers from Canada and France to develop new ways to use additive manufacturing and direct laser writing methods to combine multiple materials to make fiber-based photonic components and devices.

Paper: E. Baudet, Y. Ledemi, P. Larochelle, S. Morency, Y. Messaddeq, "3D-printing of arsenic sulfide chalcogenide glasses," Opt. Mater. Express 9, 5, 2307-2317 (2019).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.9.002307

About Optical Materials Express

Optical Materials Express (OMEx) is an open-access journal focusing on the synthesis, processing and characterization of materials for applications in optics and photonics. OMEx, which launched in April 2011, primarily emphasizes advances in novel optical materials, their properties, modeling, synthesis and fabrication techniques; how such materials contribute to novel optical behavior; and how they enable new or improved optical devices. The editor-in-chief for OMEx is Alexandra Boltasseva from Purdue University. For more information, visit: OSA Publishing.

About The Optical Society

Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional organization for scientists, engineers, students and business leaders who fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned publications, meetings and membership initiatives, OSA provides quality research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its extensive global network of optics and photonics experts. For more information, visit osa.org.

Media Contact:

mediarelations@osa.orgSat., Dec. 18, 7-8:30 p.m.

Mason City Limits Comedy Club 114 E. Chestnut St., Mason City Central Illinois

Theater & Comedy

Based out of New York City, Kevin McCaffrey made his network TV debut on The Late Show with David Letterman in November of 2013 (after which he was hired as a warm-up comic for the show.) He appears every week on truTV's Greatest Ever series, and truTV Presents: World's Dumbest. Kevin is a regular on Comedy Knockout on truTV and previous television appearances include VH1's I Love the 2000s, History Channel's I Love the 1880s, as well as The Edge & Christian Show and The List on the WWE Network. 217-482-5233Renee Hutchins, Susan Freiwald, and Thomas Geu.

Renee Hutchins, Susan Freiwald and Thomas Geu.



Two years ago, the bar pass rate for first-time test takers at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law sank to 38 percent. Although the school has never had a particularly high first-time pass rate, the plunge to less than 40 percent was a red flag for administrators.



We have taken this as seriously as a heart attack, because its that important, said Katherine Shelley Broderick, who was dean at the time.



To help reverse the trend, the school introduced a myriad of initiatives, which included requiring those who take on leadership roles with student organizations to have a grade-point average of 2.5 or higher. Administrators worried that weaker students were devoting too much time to those groups at the expense of their bar preparation.



But incoming dean Renee Hutchins acknowledges that it will take far more than that to solve the schools bar exam woeswhich they maintain is the law schools top priorityand she is hopeful that a multifaceted approach will soon tip the scales.



How to reverse sliding bar exam pass rates is a puzzle that law deans across the country are trying to solve. The national average score on the Multistate Bar Examthe multiple choice portion of the examhit a 34-year low last July, and thousands of law graduates each year are failing to make the cut.





The Big Fail

Law.com analyzed the bar pass rates reported by schools to the American Bar Association between 2013 and 2017the 2018 results weren't available when the numbers were crunchedand found that 35 of the 203 ABA-accredited law schools had pass rates decreases of more than 20 percent in those four years. Further, 42 of the ABA-accredited law schools saw their pass rate fall anywhere from 10 to 20 percent. (Still other schools, primarily the higher-ranked ones, have seen little change in their pass rates.)



There is plenty of debate about why pass rates have fallen, but most experts agree that the 36-percent decline in law school applicants between 2010 and 2016 played a major role. Many schools dipped deeper into their applicant pool and enrolled students with lower LSAT scores and undergraduate grades. Other elements such changing law school pedagogy and the rise of online bar exam preparation are also at play, they say.







Because the reasons for dropping pass rates are complex, schools are taking a variety of approaches to addressing the problem. Some schools are emphasizing the identification of students who need extra support early ona trend National Conference of Bar Examiners president Judith Gundersen said has taken off in recent years. Others are hiring outside bar preparation providers to lead classes, or are making third-year bar preparation class mandatory. Some are encouraging professors to focus on bar exam topics during their courses and even retooling their curriculum to emphasize what is tested.



And many schools, including UDC, are trying elements of all those approaches. Located on a historically black college and university campus, UDC considers itself an access school, giving students with nontraditional backgrounds and lower LSAT scores the opportunity to pursue legal careers. Those students often need more than one try to pass the bar exam, but the school is aiming to up the percentage of students passing on the first try.



Administrators have rolled out numerous changes. New student orientation is now more focused on the rigors of law school, after a survey revealed that students werent studying enough for classes.



Gone are most of the fun orientation activities, replaced by instruction on things like how to properly brief a case. UDC Law also administers a diagnostic test early on to help identify students who need additional academic support.





Story continues





Part I of The Big Fail explores the reasons why bar pass rates across the country have dropped precipitously over the past five years. Read it here.









Starting in 2015, every UDC student is required to take a practice bar exam in both their first and second years, and now every third-year student must complete a bar preparation course where they practice writing essay questions.



The school bolstered its academic support department and reduced the size of its incoming class in light of the correlation between first-year grades and bar passage. The smaller classes allow faculty to give students more feedback, especially in the first year.



Its a little bit of changing the culture, Broderick said. We were hearing from far too many students: You know, Im just going to take the bar. I know I may not pass it the first time, but Im going get used to it. Im like, Hello? Thats not the way you approach the bar. Its like marriage. Better done once.



Those efforts are only beginning to bear fruit, given the three-year lag time between when students start law school and when they take the bar. UDCs combined first-time pass rate on the February and July 2018 bar exams was up nearly 7 percent from the previous year, to 45 percent, according to Hutchins.





Crucial to the School





Susan Freiwald is hoping that the University of San Francisco School of Law will soon see its bar pass rate improve as well. The school, where she is interim dean, saw its first-time bar pass rate drop from 75 percent in 2013 to 52 percent in 2017, landing it among the biggest decliners during that period.



The bar exam is crucial to the school, Freiwald said. The students come to law school, largely, to be lawyers. They have to be able to pass the bar. Its essential that we get our bar pass up.



To that end, San Francisco has restructured its first-year curriculum to place more emphasis on the core subjects tested on the bar. Starting in the fall of 2018 class including contracts, civil procedure and property went from four credits over one semester to six credits over two semesters, reversing an earlier change that had been made to allow students to take more electives.



The school has also made civil procedure mandatory and added a required legal drafting course intended to provide practice on bar exam essay questions. The school offers a variety of optional bar prep programs, as well as required academic counseling. However, it will take another three years to see if retooling the curriculum results in higher bar pass rates.



Freiwald cautioned she doesnt want to see the school focused solely on the bar exam at the expense of the many other facets of a solid legal education.



You want to make sure they are getting practical skills they need to be good lawyers, she said. Clinics are important, elective are important. And of course we need to teach them to policies behind the law, and help them do pro bono work. You dont want to cut all that out just so they can pass the bar.



Law School Admission Council president Kellye Testy said she, too, is concerned about some schools becoming overly focused on the bar exam.



I worry that the very students who might need the most help in developing the critical thinking skills that being an effective lawyer requires have less time devoted to that now, and more time getting all the doctrine that the bar exam tests. Theyre probably picking bar exam classes over clinics and more rigorous classes such as securities regulation. Im worried that were giving less because were focused so narrowly on bar skills.





Precipitous Decline





A precipitous decline in the first-time in-state bar pass rate at the University of South Dakota School of Law also prompted administrators to rethink their approach to bar prep. That rate went from 98 percent in 2013 to 36 in 2017, before rising to 82 in July of 2018. (The state increased the exam cut score from 130 to 135 in 2015, then lowered it to 133.)



But that recovery has been painful. The school significantly decreased the size of its incoming class from about 70 to 50 in order to bring in students with higher credentials, which took a financial toll. The law school is essentially responsible for covering its own operating budget, so fewer students and tuition dollars mean fewer funds overall, said former dean Thomas Geu.



South Dakota has also instituted curricular changes and hired a full-time bar prep instructor. In 2017 it launched a mandatory bar preparation course in the third year, which was important to removing any stigma from students opting ina sign to others that they may be struggling.



And a recent inquiry into whether the school should relocate to a larger city led the state and university to pledge a combined $600,000 to innovate the schools curriculum, and donors have stepped up to fund 15 full-ride scholarships, amounting to $650,000 annually. (The task force recommended against relocating.)



Those scholarships are helping the law school recruit students with higher LSAT scores and undergraduate grades, Geu said. He hopes that will help bring up the bar pass rate and keep talented local students from leaving South Dakota for law school.



It's the kind of turnaround that deans such as UDCs Hutchins and San Franciscos Freiwald are hoping for amid a larger shift in how legal education treats the bar exam.



When I was in law school I dont remember a faculty member ever mentioning the bar exam and helping us prepare for that, Hutchins said. I dont think they viewed it as part of their rolewhether we passed. That was like this thing that happened after law school, and it was disconnected from what we were learning. I think we as legal academyand UDCare getting a better understanding for the reality that bar passage is dependent on a structure, the three-year sequenced curriculum that helps students understand what the rules are.









Data collection by Ben Hancock. Chart by David Palmer.







"People [are] taking a more ethical approach to their investing. That has been more tied to environmental issues, primarily in Europe and the United States," says Paul O'Brien, former deputy CIO of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages more than $700 billion in assets. "But, really, ethics applies to countries, too."

Bloomberg News reported last month that Pharo Management, a UK-based hedge fund, returned $300 million to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of the Saudi government.

Investors will soon apply environmental, social and governance standards to global governments as the role of ethics grows in the investing world, according to Paul O'Brien, the former deputy CIO of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages more than $700 billion in assets .

"People [are] taking a more ethical approach to their investing. That has been more tied to environmental issues, primarily in Europe and the United States," O'Brien told CNBC on the sidelines of the Ned Davis Research conference earlier this month. "But, really, ethics applies to countries, too."

One example of this was seen earlier this year. Pharo Management, a UK-based hedge fund, returned $300 million to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of the Saudi government, Bloomberg News reported.

The report, which cited a person familiar with the matter, said founder Guillaume Fonkenell told some of the fund's investors he gave back the money as a matter of principle. Pharo Management declined CNBC's request to comment.

"I suspect we will see more of that," O'Brien said. "It's not confined to Saudi Arabia. You might be concerned about any number of countries. You might be concerned about Venezuela, Israel, you might be concerned about the United States, depending on where you are."

Story continues

The popularity around ESG investing  which refers to making investments that could lead to a positive impact in society  led to record inflows into so-called sustainable funds last year, according to Morningstar data. The numbers show investors pushed nearly $5.5 billion into these funds, bringing their assets under management to $89 billion.

Critics of ESG investing argue that, while taking into account these factors can mitigate investment risk, it can also lead to lower investment returns.

But O'Brien thinks ESG will become more popular moving forward, particularly as it relates to the actions of sovereign governments and how investors react to them.

"The world is breaking up a little bit. You're getting this multi-polar world; countries are going in different directions in things like technology, internet privacy, even economic and political systems. So, that's going to be an interesting challenge for investors," he said.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.





More From CNBC

Harvest Health & Recreation, Inc. (OTC: HRVSF) CEO Steve White joined Yahoo's Jeff Lagerquist onstage Thursday at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference to discuss consolidation in the marijuana industry.

The Discussion

When asked if the industry is in a land-grab type situation. White said that it is.

Harvest has employed two methods of acquiring assets, the CEO said: the licensing process and M&A.

Harvest increased its M&A activity around the time it went public, White said.

"What we told people at the time was we understand the phase that we're in, and so we will do acquisitions faster than any other company in the U.S."

Lagerquist asked about Harvest's $850-million acquisition of Verano. The cannabis exec considers the deal a big one, adding that Verano is a fantastic operator in highly competitive markets.

For us, it made all the sense in the world because the assets paired beautifully with what we have [and] what we're looking for.

Another hot topic Thursday: the .4-billion deal for Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE: CGC) to acquire Acreage Holdings Inc (OTC: ACRGF).

White heaped praise on Canopy for being the first to do what he said everyone in Canada should be doing.

They did it first, again, the CEO said. It was a fantastic deal for Canopy. It was also a fantastic deal for Acreage.

The CEO described the deal as a "blueprint" for consumer packaged goods, alcohol and retail companies to buy into the U.S. cannabis market.

The Canopy-Acreage deal is structured to give Canopy the right to buy Acreage's shares if and when cannabis is federally legalized in the U.S.

A First-To-Market Advantage For Canada?

White pushed back on the notion that Canadian LPs have an insurmountable advantage.

While noting that it is an advantage, White said the Canadian market is the size of one state  California.

We have 49 other states and territories that are currently undergoing changes."

Related Links:

Harvest Health & Recreation Buys Verano Holdings In 0M All-Stock Deal

Story continues

Harvest Health & Recreation Aims To Become 'Largest Cannabis Company In The World'

Harvest Health & Recreation CEO Steve White speaks Thursday at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Toronto. Photo by Juil Yoon.

See more from Benzinga

 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.Party City Holdco Inc. (NYSE:PRTY), which is in the specialty retail business, and is based in United States, saw significant share price movement during recent months on the NYSE, rising to highs of $12.31 and falling to the lows of $7.75. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Party City Holdco's current trading price of $8.15 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at Party City Holdcos outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

Check out our latest analysis for Party City Holdco

Is Party City Holdco still cheap?

Great news for investors  Party City Holdco is still trading at a fairly cheap price. My valuation model shows that the intrinsic value for the stock is $15.18, but it is currently trading at US$8.15 on the share market, meaning that there is still an opportunity to buy now. Although, there may be another chance to buy again in the future. This is because Party City Holdcos beta (a measure of share price volatility) is high, meaning its price movements will be exaggerated relative to the rest of the market. If the market is bearish, the company's shares will likely fall by more than the rest of the market, providing a prime buying opportunity.

What kind of growth will Party City Holdco generate?

NYSE:PRTY Past and Future Earnings, April 21st 2019

Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to grow by 48% over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for Party City Holdco. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

Story continues

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? Since PRTY is currently undervalued, it may be a great time to accumulate more of your holdings in the stock. With a positive outlook on the horizon, it seems like this growth has not yet been fully factored into the share price. However, there are also other factors such as capital structure to consider, which could explain the current undervaluation.

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on PRTY for a while, now might be the time to enter the stock. Its prosperous future outlook isnt fully reflected in the current share price yet, which means its not too late to buy PRTY. But before you make any investment decisions, consider other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to make a well-informed investment decision.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on Party City Holdco. You can find everything you need to know about Party City Holdco in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Party City Holdco, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

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.COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  The Latest on explosions in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday (all times local):

5 a.m.

Japan is confirming one of its citizens was killed in the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka and at least four were wounded.

Foreign Minister Taro Kono offered his condolences to all the victims of the attacks and expressed Japan's commitment in "combatting terrorism" and solidarity with Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's defense minister has blamed the attacks on religious extremists but no group has yet claimed responsibility.

Japan also issued a safety warning, telling Japanese people in Sri Lanka to avoid churches, mosques, public places like malls and nightclubs, and government offices related to public security.

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry has said at least 27 foreigners were among the more than 200 people killed. Other foreign victims were confirmed from the United States, Britain, China and Portugal. The nine bombings Sunday was the deadliest violence in the South Asian island country since the end of the civil war in 2009.

___

11:45 p.m.

A group that monitors internet censorship says Sri Lankan authorities have blocked most social media services in the country following attacks that killed more than 200 people on Easter Sunday.

The NetBlocks observatory says it detected an intentional nationwide blackout of popular services including Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Sri Lankan officials said Sunday they are temporarily blocking social media to curtail the spread of false information and ease tensions until their investigation is concluded.

NetBlocks director Alp Toker says such post-attack shutdowns are often ineffective and can end up creating an information vacuum that's easily exploited. The group says the country is also blocking messaging apps.

Facebook says in a statement that people rely on its services to communicate with loved ones and it's committing to maintaining service in the country.

Story continues

___

11 p.m.

Britain's Foreign Office is confirming that British nationals died in the Sri Lanka attacks but is not specifying the number, which Sri Lankan officials say was five.

A Foreign Office statement released Sunday evening in London said British nationals were among those killed.

Officials say UK staff is supporting the relatives of the victims and trying to obtain more information.

Sri Lanka is a popular holiday destination for Britons and also home to many who hold dual nationality.

The attacks killed more than 200 people on Easter Sunday.

___

10:45 p.m.

A police spokesman says 13 suspects have been arrested in connection with the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people on Easter Sunday.

In a statement, Ruwan Gunasekara also said police have a vehicle they suspect was used to transport the suspects into Colombo.

Police have also found a safe house used by the attackers.

___

10:10 p.m.

The secretary general of the world's largest organization of Muslim nations has condemned the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people on Easter Sunday.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation's chief Yousef al-Othaimeen described them as "cowardly attacks" that targeted innocent worshippers and civilians. Some 57 nations are part of the OIC, which is headquartered in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jiddah.

Saudi Arabia also denounced the attacks in Sri Lanka and described them as "terrorist explosions," saying the kingdom extends its condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Sri Lanka.

Earlier Sunday, other Arab Gulf nations issued similar statements condemning the attack.

___

10 p.m.

New York City police have implemented tightened security measures in the wake of attacks in Sri Lanka that have killed more than 200 people -- including some Americans.

Sgt. Brendan Ryan is a spokesman for the New York Police Department. He says authorities "will make periodic visits to all houses of worship, giving special attention to those with Easter services."

Ryan said the teams deployed to houses of worship will include resources from the department's critical response command and strategic response group, which focus on quick response to incidents such as terror attacks.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack that Sri Lankan officials have blamed on religious extremists.

___

9:50 p.m.

The United States says that "several" American citizens have been killed in the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka.

More than 200 people have died in a series of blasts against churches and hotels that the Sri Lankan government is blaming on religious extremists. And U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (pahm-PAY'-oh) in a statement says that even as details of the attacks are still emerging, the U.S. government can confirm that Americans are among the casualties.

Pompeo says the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, the capital, is working to assist U.S. citizens and their families.

America's top diplomat says "these vile attacks are a stark reminder of why the United States remains resolved in our fight to defeat terrorism"

He says targeting "innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear."

___

8:30 p.m.

The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is condemning "this great evil" that targeted Easter Sunday worshippers and others with deadly blasts in Sri Lanka.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo in a statement offers prayers for the victims and says the attack cannot "overcome the hope" found in the holiday.

The near-simultaneous explosions at churches and hotels killed more than 200 people. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack that Sri Lankan officials have blamed on religious extremists.

___

8:15 p.m.

Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka are condemning the attacks on churches and hotels in the country on Easter Sunday that killed more than 200 people.

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka says it mourns the loss of innocent people in the blasts by extremists who seek to divide religious and ethnic groups.

The All Ceylon Jammiyyathul Ulama a body of Muslim clerics, says targeting Christian places of worship cannot be accepted.

Muslims make up about 10% of Sri Lanka's population of 23 million.

No one has claimed responsibility for what Sri Lankan officials have described as a terrorist attack by religious extremists.

___

8:05 p.m.

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry says the nationalities of 11 foreigners killed in the Easter Sunday blasts have been verified.

They include three Indians, one Portuguese national, two Turkish nationals, three British nationals and two holding U.S. and British nationalities.

The statement also says nine foreigners are reported missing.

A Dutch national and a Chinese national also have been reported among the victims.

The blasts that targeted hotels and churches killed more than 200 people.

___

7:55 p.m.

The United Nations secretary-general says he is "outraged by the terrorist attacks" in Sri Lanka.

A statement by the spokesman for Antonio Guterres notes the "sanctity of all places of worship" and hopes the perpetrators will be quickly brought to justice.

He also commends the unity of the Sri Lankan people after the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels that killed more than 200 people.

___

7:05 p.m.

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok says a Dutch national is among the dead after a series of blasts in Sri Lanka.

Blok in a Twitter posts gives no details and says he is "horrified by the terrible attacks."

More than 200 people were killed in the Easter Sunday blasts that targeted churches and hotels popular with foreigners.

No one has claimed responsibility for what Sri Lankan officials have described as a terrorist attack by religious extremists.

___

6:50 p.m.

The British high commissioner to Sri Lanka says the UK government understands that "some British citizens were caught in the blasts" but it is too soon to say how many might have been affected.

James Dauris is urging Britons to get in touch with family members to let them know they are safe.

The Easter Sunday blasts targeting churches and hotels popular with foreigners killed more than 200 people.

___

6:45 p.m.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expressing "deep shock" over the deadly attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people.

Netanyahu issued a statement on Sunday saying that "Israel stands ready to assist the authorities in Sri Lanka at this difficult time."

The prime minister says that "the entire world must unite in the battle against the scourge of terrorism."

___

6:35 p.m.

Sri Lanka's defense minister says most of the eight blasts that rocked the capital and surrounding areas are suspected suicide attacks.

Police say 207 people were killed and 450 wounded in Sunday's explosions, whose targets included at least three churches and three luxury hotels.

No one has taken responsibility for the attacks, but officials say seven suspects have been arrested.

The attacks are the worst chaos Sri Lanka has seen since a bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

___

6:10 p.m.

Sri Lankan police say 207 people were killed and 450 wounded in a series of blasts in and around the country's capital.

Six nearly simultaneous blasts went off Sunday morning in three churches where worshippers were celebrating Easter and in three luxury hotels frequented by foreign tourists.

Hours later, a blast at a guesthouse killed at least two people. After an eighth explosion near an overpass in the area of Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo, the capital, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara says three police officers were killed when they went to question suspects following a tip.

Two blasts went off shortly after the officers entered a house in Dematagoda.

Officials say seven suspects have been arrested.

___

5:45 p.m.

Chinese state media report that a Chinese citizen has died in the Sri Lanka attacks.

Earlier, China's embassy said four Chinese nationals were hospitalized and in stable condition. It is not clear if the deceased was among them.

And Portugal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that one victim was a Portuguese citizen.

The ministry in a Twitter post offers condolences to the family.

The attacks on hotels and churches on Easter Sunday killed at least 190 people.

___

5:35 p.m.

SriLankan Airlines is telling passengers booked on flights out of the country that they will be able to fly despite the curfew imposed after deadly Easter Sunday attacks.

The carrier says in a statement that travelers on all airlines operating out of Bandaranaike International Airport can access the airport by showing their tickets and passports at checkpoints.

The airline says security has been tightened at the airport, and it advises passengers to arrive four hours before their scheduled flights.

Authorities have imposed a 12-hour overnight curfew beginning at 6 p.m. after a series of coordinated deadly blasts rocked the heavily touristed island nation.

___

5:25 p.m.

Sri Lanka's government has imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. following a series of blasts in and around the capital that killed at least 190 people.

Shops were closed and streets were deserted in Colombo, the capital, ahead of the curfew Sunday.

At least three churches, three luxury hotels and a guesthouse were among the targets of the Easter Sunday attacks.

___

5:25 p.m.

Chinese state media say one Chinese citizen has died in a series of terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka that killed at least 190 people.

The People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper, said Sunday evening that one Chinese national has been confirmed dead.

Earlier, China's embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, said four Chinese nationals were sent to the hospital and were in stable condition after the attacks. It is not clear if the deceased was among the four.

The Chinese Embassy issued a safety reminder to local Chinese-funded enterprises, overseas Chinese and visiting Chinese delegations.

___

5:20 p.m.

Sri Lankan officials say the death toll in eight bomb blasts that struck in and just outside of the capital, Colombo, on Easter Sunday has climbed to 190, and that several suspects have been arrested.

The foreign minister says at least 27 foreigners were among those killed and that two police officers were killed during an operation to capture suspects from a safehouse in Dematagoda, the area outside Colombo where the eighth blast occurred.

At least three churches, three luxury hotels and a guesthouse were among the targets of the attacks.

The defense minister says seven suspects linked to the blasts have been arrested.

___

4:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump is offering "heartfelt condolences" after the attacks in Sri Lanka but mistakenly says 138 million people have been killed.

The U.S. president in a Twitter post cited the "horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more."

The death toll at the time of the tweet was at least 138 people.

Trump says America stands ready to help Sri Lanka cope.

___

4:10 p.m.

Foreign tourists in Sri Lanka have hurriedly contacted loved ones around the world to say they were OK after attacks on churches and hotels killed over 130 people.

Tour operators warn that access to Facebook and Twitter would be cut by the government and that a curfew likely would be put into place.

Local tourism workers were shocked and dismayed by the attacks.

"After so many years we've started again," said Gamini Francis, a longtime hotel worker. "A lot of people are going to lose their jobs. 100% sure. It's tragic. Crazy people killing innocent people."

___

4 p.m.

Iran's foreign minister says he is "terribly saddened" by the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that have killed at least 138 people.

Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that "terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally."

Lebanon's prime minister calls the attacks "blind terrorism" and offers solidarity to Sri Lanka's people.

Saad Hariri in a tweet asks for mercy for the "innocent victims" and speedy recovery for the injured.

The series of blasts is the worst violence in Sri Lanka since the South Asian country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

___

3:55 p.m.

Pope Francis is denouncing the "cruel violence" of the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka and is praying for all those who are suffering from the bloodshed.

Francis added an appeal at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing to address the massacre which killed more than 130 people.

Speaking from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, Francis said: "I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence."

He added: "I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event."

___

3:45 p.m.

A Sri Lankan military spokesman has confirmed two more explosions just outside the capital, hours after six nearly simultaneous blasts rocked churches and luxury hotels, killing at least 138 people.

The spokesman, Brig. Atapattu, says a seventh blast occurred at a guesthouse in Dehiwala, killing at least two people. Atapattu says an eighth blast occurred in Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo. He did not have details on the Dematagoda blast.

Earlier Sunday, a series of blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people.

It's the worst bout of violence in Sri Lanka since the South Asian country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

___

3:45 p.m.

Sri Lanka's defense minister has blamed religious extremists for what he called the "unfortunate terrorist incident" involving a series of blasts at churches celebrating Easter Sunday services and luxury hotels.

Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena told reporters that he believed police and military forces had identified the perpetrators of the blasts that killed at least 138 people and wounded hundreds more.

He said those "involved in this unfortunate terrorist incident will be taken into custody as soon as possible."

___

3:10 p.m.

The archbishop of Paris and parishioners of fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral are mourning the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka.

Archbishop Michel Aupetit tweeted: "Why so much hate on this day when we celebrate love? On this Easter day, we are in communion with our murdered brethren of Sri Lanka."

Aupetit celebrated Easter Mass for worshippers displaced from normal services at Notre Dame because of Monday's fire.

A soldier and several police guarded the building. It was unclear whether the extra security was linked to the Sri Lanka attack, but parishioner Monique Pigere said "I understand why" security is needed, lamenting the "terrible" news.

___

3:05 p.m.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has condemned the "devastating" attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

In a statement, Ardern referred to the March 15 shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in which 50 died.

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil," Ardern said. "New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely."

The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says 115 New Zealanders are registered as being in Sri Lanka but more are likely to be there. There is no indication New Zealanders are among the victims.

___

3 p.m.

European leaders are expressing horror at the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a message to his Sri Lankan counterpart that he was "stunned and horrified" by the "cowardly terror attacks." Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply shaken and concerned by (the) devious terrorist attacks."

The head of the European Union's executive Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he learned of the bombings "with horror and sadness."

___

2:50 p.m.

Three Gulf Arab nations have condemned the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that have killed at least 138 people.

Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all issued statements via their foreign ministries over the attack.

The UAE called upon "the international community to close ranks and uproot the scourge of terrorism in order to ensure international peace and security."

Qatar said it wanted to stress its "its firm stance on rejecting violence and terrorism."

Bahrain, meanwhile, said "these acts of terrorism are incompatible with religious principles and human and moral values."

The series of blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people. It's the worst bout of violence in Sri Lanka since the South Asian country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

___

2:40 p.m.

British Prime Minister Teresa May has condemned what she called the "truly appalling" attacks in Sri Lanka.

May said on Twitter that "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time."

She added, "We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to (practice) their faith in fear."

The series of blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people. It's the worst bout of violence in Sri Lanka since the South Asian country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

___

2:30 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced a series of attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka as "cruel and cynical."

In a telegram of condolences sent to his Sri Lankan counterpart, the Russian leader said Moscow remains a "reliable partner of Sri Lanka in the fight against international terrorism."

He added that the Russians "share the grief of the relatives of those killed and wish a quick recovery to all those who were wounded" after the Easter Sunday blasts that killed at least 138 people.

Putin voiced confidence that "the perpetrators and the masterminds of such a cruel and cynical crime committed amid the Easter festivities will take the punishment they deserve."

___

2:25 p.m.

The Archbishop of Colombo is calling for those responsible for the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka to be punished "mercilessly."

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith called on Sri Lanka's government to launch a "very impartial strong inquiry" and to punish those found responsible "mercilessly because only animals can behave like that."

The series of blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people. It's the worst bout of violence in Sri Lanka since the South Asian country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was meeting top military officials and tweeted earlier Sunday that "the government is taking immediate steps to contain the situation."

___

2:10 p.m.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, calling them "an assault on all of humanity."

In comments posted on Twitter, Erdogan offered his condolences to families of the victims and to the people of Sri Lanka.

The near simultaneous attacks against three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people, according to a security official. It was the worst violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "Regardless of the motive, the attack in Sri Lanka is the same as the traitorous attack in Christchurch: cowardly, barbaric and cruel."

He was referring to last month's attacks against two mosques in New Zealand during Friday prayers that killed 50 people.

___

1:50 p.m.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has convened Sri Lanka's top military officials at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council following a series of Easter Sunday blasts.

A senior official says at least 138 people died in the blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels. Hundreds of others have been hospitalized. The violence is the worst since Sri Lanka's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

The official says at least two of the blasts were suspected to have been caused by suicide bombers.

Earlier, Wickremesinghe tweeted that "the government is taking immediate steps to contain the situation."

___

1:50 p.m.

Pakistan's foreign ministry has condemned explosions and terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal said in a statement that the people and government of Pakistan stand by Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday blasts that killed at least 138 people.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka enjoy close relations. Pakistan helped train Sri Lankan army officers in the civil war battle against Tamil rebels.

___

11:10 a.m.

A Sri Lanka hospital spokesman says several blasts on Easter Sunday have killed at least 30 people and wounded 283 others.

National Hospital spokesman Dr. Samindi Samarakoon says the nearly 300 wounded have been admitted to the capital Colombo's main hospital.

A security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters says that six near simultaneous explosions hit three churches and three hotels frequented by foreign tourists.

The official suspects at least two of the blasts were caused by suicide bombers.

___

10:50 a.m.

A security official says six near simultaneous blasts have hit three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

The official says the explosions have caused multiple fatalities among worshippers and hotel guests.

The official says they suspect the blasts at two churches were carried out by suicide bombers.

One church, St. Anthony's Shrine, and the three hotels are in Colombo and are frequented by foreign tourists. The other two churches are in Negombo, a Catholic majority town north of Colombo, and the eastern town of Batticaloa.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

___

10:10 a.m.

Witnesses are reporting two explosions have hit two churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, causing casualties among worshippers.

The first blast ripped through St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo.

Alex Agileson who was in the vicinity says buildings in the surrounding area shook with the blast.

He says a number of injured were carried in ambulances.

A second explosion was reported at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a Catholic majority town north of Colombo.

The church has appealed for help on its Facebook page.

Sri Lankan security officials say they are checking for details.There's one issue the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates almost all agree on: removing marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances.

Ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use and more states have signaled they're interested in doing so.

Critics of recreational marijuana fear it would make the drug too accessible and could promote misuse, but supporters cite increased tax revenues and racial imbalances in criminal sentences for drug offenders as reasons for legalization.

There's one topic almost every 2020 Democratic presidential candidate agrees on: removing marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances.

Nearly every candidate has offered support for the federal legalization of recreational marijuana and many have called to expunge federal charges for those prosecuted for pot use.

Ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use and more states have signaled interest in doing so. Public opinion has shifted in favor of legalization, with 61% of Americans believing marijuana should be legal. Democrats support it even more, with 76% favoring legal marijuana, according to a 2018 poll of 2,348 American adults.

Critics of recreational marijuana fear it would make the drug too accessible and could promote misuse, but supporters cite increased tax revenues and racial imbalances in criminal sentences for drug offenders as reasons for legalization.

Here is what the Democratic presidential candidates have said and done about legalization:

The Marijuana Justice Act

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey reintroduced a bill in February that would legalize marijuana nationwide, expunge federal convictions and allow those prosecuted for use to petition the courts for shorter sentences. Booker first introduced the Marijuana Justice Act in 2017, but it was not taken up for a vote.

Other Democratic presidential candidates have offered support for the proposal, with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders co-sponsoring the bill.

Story continues

Sanders has been a major supporter of marijuana legalization and introduced the Senate's first-ever bill to end the federal prohibition on marijuana in 2015.

Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who announced his candidacy earlier this month, and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard also signed on to the Marijuana Justice Act's companion bill in the House.

Though Booker's proposal has support from a number of Democrats, it faces a tough road in the Senate. Last year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he does "not have any plans to endorse the legalization of marijuana," when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a bill that would decriminalize the drug.

Republicans hold a 53-47 edge in the Senate, although Democrats control the House.

Other legalization bills

The Marijuana Justice Act is only the most recent bill that candidates have supported.

In January, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced plans to pardon thousands of citizens with misdemeanor marijuana possession charges after his state was one of the first to legalize recreational pot. Inslee also told CBS News Radio that "it's time for the nation to legalize marijuana."

Warren sponsored the STATES Act , which would prevent the federal government from intervening in states that have legalized pot. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who recently said in a statement to The Washington Post that she supports legalization, is a co-sponsor.

During his time in Congress, Beto O'Rourke of Texas signed onto bills that sought to end federal marijuana prohibition and protect states that legalized marijuana from federal intervention. After announcing his candidacy, O'Rourke called for the end of federal marijuana interdiction.

California Rep. Eric Swalwell is a co-sponsor of the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, which would reclassify marijuana at the federal level and protect pot users in states that choose to legalize it.

Former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland co-sponsored cannabis-related bills during his time in Congress, including one that sought to protect individuals in states that legalized marijuana from federal interference. During a CNN Town Hall in March, Delaney said marijuana should be reclassified at the federal level.

Though some candidates have not signed onto marijuana-related bills, they've still voiced support for legalization.

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said "the safe, regulated and legal sale of marijuana is an idea whose time has come for the United States," according to The Boston Globe.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro tweeted that marijuana should be legalized and that the records of those in prison for marijuana use should be expunged.

Long-shot candidate Andrew Yang, who has no political experience, has also called for federal legalization .

Letting states decide

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper initially condemned his state's decision to legalize recreational pot, calling it "reckless." Since then, he signed a number of cannabis-related bills into law, but he's stopped short of supporting the end of federal prohibition.

Hickenlooper said during a CNN Town Hall in March that he wouldn't call for the federal government to legalize marijuana and would instead let the states decide for themselves.





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The Oklahoma attorney general and Purdue Pharma have agreed to a $270 million settlement to resolve claims that the company played a major role in creating the nationwide opioid crisis.



The announcement Tuesday from Oklahoma Attorney General Michael Hunter comes several weeks after news broke that Purdue was exploring bankruptcy to address its growing liabilities over the opioid epidemic.



During a press conference Tuesday, Hunter said the money will provide funding for treatment across the state and nationally.



We are out of time with regard to the responsibility we have to deal with this crisis, Hunter said.



According to Hunter, the settlement will provide $125 million to the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Center for Wellness & Recovery, with an additional $15 million annually for the next five years, to establish an endowment fund. Hunter said an additional $12 million will go directly toward abatement efforts in towns and municipalities across the Sooner State.



The company will also pay $60 million to offset legal costs, Hunter said Tuesday.



The settlement was also announced the day after the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied the companys efforts to delay what is set to be the first trial focusing on claims that opioid makers played a key role in oversupplying and overprescribing the opioid drugs. A Chapter 11 filing would halt the lawsuits, folding them into bankruptcy court. Purdue then sought to delay the trial until September, citing a belated tidal wave of documents.



The trial is still scheduled to begin May 28 in Oklahoma.



Hunter said Tuesday there would be court-ordered mediation in the coming weeks, but his office would continue to prepare for trial.



Were ready to go to trial today, Hunter said.



The opioid cases name dozens of companies and individuals with varying alleged roles in the crisis, from drug manufacturers and distributors to doctors and clinics. Counties have spearheaded the opioid cases.



The case, filed in 2017, alleged that Purdue and two other opioid manufacturers, Johnson & Johnsons Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, helped create an epidemic over the prescription painkillers by marketing them as a safe and nonaddictive treatment for chronic pain.



The case alleges that Purdueand, more specifically, its private owners, the Sackler familycreated the epidemic when they introduced OxyContin in 1996.



More than 1,600 cases are pending in a consolidated federal litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, with Judge Dan Polster overseeing things.



Purdues lawyers in the case are Sanford Coats of Crowe & Dunlevy in Oklahoma City and Mark Cheffo, a partner in Decherts New York office.



A spokesman for Purdue did not return a call seeking comment.



Neither Teva attorney Robert McCampbell of GableGotwals in Oklahoma City, nor Johnson & Johnsons lawyer, Benjamin Odom of Odom Sparks & Jones in Norman, Oklahoma, responded to a request for comment.(Adds France, Israel, corrects spelling of pope's name)

April 21 (Reuters) - Easter Day bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and four hotels killed 138 people and wounded more than 400, hospital and police officials said, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

Politicians and religious leaders were united in their shock and condemnation. Here are some of their reactions.

POPE FRANCIS

"I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka," he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square to hear his Easter Sunday message.

"I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence."

WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS PRESIDENT RONALD S. LAUDER

"World Jewry - in fact all civilized people - denounce this heinous outrage and appeal for zero tolerance of those who use terror to advance their objectives. This truly barbarous assault on peaceful worshippers on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar serves as a painful reminder that the war against terror must be at the top of the international agenda and pursued relentlessly," he said in a statement.

U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels," he tweeted. "... We stand ready to help!"

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL

"It is shocking that people who had gathered to celebrate Easter were the deliberate target of vicious attacks," she wrote in a letter of condolence to Sri Lanka's president.

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON

Deep sorrow following the terrorist attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. We firmly condemn these heinous acts. All our solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka and our thoughts go out to all victims relatives on this Easter Day, he said on Twitter.

Story continues

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time. We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear," she tweeted.

SPANISH PRIME MINISTER PEDRO SANCHEZ

"Terror and barbarity will never defeat us," he wrote on Twitter.

LUXEMBOURG PREMIER XAVIER BETTEL

"Even on Easter Sunday, there are those who sow hatred and reap death. The attacks in Sri Lanka churches testify to a real genocide perpetrated against Christians. Let us pray for the innocent victims and work towards religious freedom around the world," he said on Twitter.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER

"It was with horror and sadness that I heard of the bombings in Sri Lanka costing the lives of so many people. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country. We stand ready to support," he said on Twitter.

ISRAELI PRESIDENT REUVEN RIVLIN

"The attacks in Sri Lanka, including those at prayer celebrating Easter Sunday are a despicable crime. We are all children of God; an attack on one religion is an attack on us all," he said on Twitter.

TURKISH PRESIDENT TAYYIP ERDOGAN

"I condemn in the strongest terms possible the Easter terror attacks in Sri Lanka. This is an assault on all of humanity," he tweeted.

IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF

"Terribly saddened by terrorist attacks on Sri Lankan worshippers during Easter. Condolences to friendly govt & people of Sri Lanka. Our thoughts & prayers with the victims & their families. Terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally," he said on Twitter.

NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN

New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating, she said in a written statement.

"New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence." (Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Editing by Alison Williams and Nick Macfie)Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that there's 'nothing wrong' with taking information from Russians, after the Mueller report laid out extensive ties between the Trump campaign and Russians during the 2016 election campaign.

He told CNN's Jake Tapper, "Any candidate in the world would take information," even as Tapper noted the information came from a "hostile foreign source."

Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that there's 'nothing wrong' with taking information from Russians, after the Mueller report laid out extensive ties between the Trump campaign and Russians during the 2016 election campaign.

The president's lawyer told CNN's Jake Tapper, "any candidate in the world would take information," even as Tapper noted the information came from a "hostile foreign source."

The comments came as Giuliani slammed a statement made by Sen. Mitt Romney criticizing Trump after a redacted version of the 448-page Mueller report was released on Thursday. The report found that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election but it could not conclude that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. On obstruction it did not find the president guilty, but it also did not "exonerate" him.

Romney's statement read in part: "I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia  including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement; and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting Russian interests in Ukraine."

Romney Tweet

The statement referred to the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Trump campaign officials including Donald Trump Jr. , Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort agreed to sit down with Russians offering dirt on their Democratic rival Hillary Clinton .

Giuliani called Romney a hypocrite. "Stop the bull. Stop this pious act that you weren't trying to dig up dirt on people," Giuliani said of Romney, who ran for president in 2012 against Barack Obama . Giuliani noted that he had run in the Republican primary against Romney.

Story continues

He added, "Who says it's even illegal" to get opposition research from foreigners, though he said he would have advised against it and "probably" would not have done it himself.

The Romney statement didn't sit well with the president either. He pinned a tweet mocking the Utah senator to his own Twitter feed.

"If @MittRomney spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)!" it said.

Tweet





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Sofia, Bulgaria. 17th April 2019  ternity Ventures, the investment arm of decentralised smart contracts platform ternity, has successfully concluded the first round of its 2019 Starfleet initiative by selecting four blockchain startups it will fund and mentor through its accelerator programme. At a time when few investors or VCs are committing funds to the market, the Starfleet accelerator programme continues to make long-term venture investments having successfully supported nine seed stage blockchain startups in 2018 with a total investment of $1.3 million investment. The four teams chosen for the first round of the 2019 programme were selected from eight finalists, ranging from a ticketing provider to a trading card game company. They impressed the judges, made up of leading

Sofia, Bulgaria. 17th April 2019  ternity Ventures, the investment arm of decentralised smart contracts platform ternity, has successfully concluded the first round of its 2019 Starfleet initiative by selecting four blockchain startups it will fund and mentor through its accelerator programme.

At a time when few investors or VCs are committing funds to the market, the Starfleet accelerator programme continues to make long-term venture investments having successfully supported nine seed stage blockchain startups in 2018 with a total investment of $1.3 million investment.

The four teams chosen for the first round of the 2019 programme were selected from eight finalists, ranging from a ticketing provider to a trading card game company. They impressed the judges, made up of leading crypto experts, VCs, funds, media and blockchain enthusiasts with their potential to scale, the strength of the team, the clarity of their business idea and their fit with the ternity blockchain.

When we founded ternity Ventures, our mission was to enrich the blockchain space and ensure that the ideas worth hearing could be heard, says Nikola Stojanow, CEO of ternity Ventures and CBO of ternity. Its still a nascent business, but were thrilled to be able to collaborate with new teams and continue to educate and invest in companies on the bleeding-edge of this new technology.

A staggering amount of applications were received from around the world  perhaps most notable was the increase in applications from Africa-based blockchain startups, no doubt a direct result of the hard work put in by ternitys African Hub in educating businesses via hackathons and meetups. Also represented were a number of German startups, as well as some promising projects from the Balkans, thanks in part to the recent launch of ternitys co-sponsored Blockchain from the Bloc(k) podcast.

The eight finalists were selected during Genesis Week in March, and after four weeks of mentoring and daily workshops with ternitys team, four blockchain startups successfully secured funding offers and mentoring those projects were:

Story continues

Abend

Almost everyone has experienced the disappointment of failing to get tickets for their favourite band, either because of a poorly managed ticketing system or the efforts of professional ticket touts. For event organisers, the frustrations are exactly the same, with no standout solutions for ensuring their tickets get the real fans they want them to. Step forward, Abend from Germany, which enables event organisers to do away with a flawed model for distributing and verifying tickets, in favour of a cashless and vastly more secure digital offering. Its Beta will be launched in the next two months.

Cryptic Legends

Digital collectables are one of the most talked about use cases for tokens and cryptocurrencies. Malta-based trading card game company, Crypto Legends, is building momentum with its trading card game, where collectable cards (depicting various heroes) can be traded on an open market and used across games. Each legend/hero brings a piece of a unique story and you can collect the right ones for your party, pieces of ancient scriptures and engage in legendary tournaments.

Cryptotask

Through platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, freelancing has already been transformed by the internet economy. However, blockchain networks can provide a new wave of security and functionality, with stored work histories, better tracking for distributed projects and lower transaction costs. Croatian-based, Cryptotask is a decentralised task-oriented blockchain platform looking to disrupt current systems via blockchain. One key innovation it is introducing is a reviewer board selection mechanism which includes an escalation option.

Homeport

With companies such as SpaceX aiming to put thousands of new satellites in space over the coming years, the possibilities that will be enabled by this new data are unimaginably large. Homeport, is an ambitious Bulgarian-based project working towards the efficient collection of satellite data. From earth imaging and atmospheric data to broadband internet and maritime communications, all through a decentralised global hub built atop the ternity blockchain. With an innovative system of smart contracts, Homeport is an open marketplace for data storage and ground station capacity.

Zdravko Dimitrov, founder of Homeport says: The Starfleet Blockchain accelerator was an awesome experience. We advanced our product significantly, stepping up what we did during incubation, and were now ready for lift-off. It was an invaluable growth process for everyone involved.

A special community award was presented to Cryptic Legends by Mattia Martinez  Manager House Of Blockchain, who flew in for the event from Liechtenstein. They were voted the most popular team among the community online votes. In addition, the ternity team presented all teams with a sum of 10,000 ae tokens which will be distributed according to the online vote.

All projects will be built on the ternity Blockchain that combines decentralized oracles, a naming system and state channels for private and instant transactions. It aims to become the blockchain network of choice for everything from small projects to large businesses backends.

Congratulations to the ternity Ventures team for another successful edition of Starfleet accelerator and for selecting four high quality projects with a potential to disrupt industries on a global scale. Their contribution will have a meaningful impact on the entire ecosystem and I am excited to see them develop and thrive on the aeternity Blockchain, concludes Yanislav Malahov, ternitys founder and visionary.

The post ternitys Starfleet blockchain accelerator names startups it will fund In 2019 appeared first on Coin Rivet."The U.S. Embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families," Pompeo said.

More than 200 people were killed and 450 injured in a series of bomb blasts that hit churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Some of the attacks were suicide bombs, authorities said.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

British, Danish, Turkish, Dutch, Indian and Chinese nationals were also killed in the attacks.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that several U.S. citizens were among those killed in a string of attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on the Easter holiday, blaming "radical terrorists" for the devastating blasts.



"The U.S. Embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families," Pompeo said.



More than 200 people were killed and 450 injured in a series of bomb blasts that hit churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Some of the attacks were suicide bombs, authorities said.

"Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security," Pompeo said.



Sri Lankan security forces arrested seven people in a raid on a house in the capital hours after the attacks. Three police officers died in the raid.



Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks.



British, Danish, Turkish, Dutch, Indian and Chinese nationals were also killed in the attacks.

"We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they confront violent extremism and have offered our assistance as they work to bring the perpetrators to justice," Pompeo said.



President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the people of Sri Lanka and said the U.S. stands ready to help.

Story continues

Here is the full statement from Pompeo:

The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter morning. Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security.

The United States offers our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and wishes a quick recovery to all who were injured. While many details of the attacks are still emerging, we can confirm that several U.S. citizens were among those killed. The U.S. Embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families.

These vile attacks are a stark reminder of why the United States remains resolved in our fight to defeat terrorism. We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they confront violent extremism and have offered our assistance as they work to bring the perpetrators to justice.

-- Reuters contributed to this report





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The Persian celebration of Norouz welcomes spring in many countries around the world. In Kyrgyzstan, the joy spills out into the streets of the capital, Bishkek.Afghanistan and Pakistan have jointly inaugurated a 200-bed, state-of-the-art hospital in Kabul, one of three major health care facilities being built and funded by Islamabad as its contribution to reconstruction efforts in the war-ravaged neighboring country.

Named after the founder of Pakistan, the Muhammad Ali Jinnah Hospital took 12 years to finish at a cost of more than $24 million. Officials in both countries cited deteriorating Afghan security, continued mutual political acrimony and institutional as well as bureaucratic inefficiencies for the delay in the completion of the second-largest hospital in Afghanistan.

Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish, Afghan Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz, and a visiting senior-level Pakistani delegation headed by Cabinet Minister Ali Muhammad Khan attended the April 20 inaugural ceremony where Pakistan officially handed over the multispecialty facility to the Kabul government.

"It opens a new chapter in the friendship of the two countries.  This is the second-largest hospital [in Afghanistan] built with your support that will serve the needy," Feroz told the gathering. He added that a second Pakistan-funded, 100-bed hospital costing $19 million and a major kidney center were near completion and would be inaugurated soon in the eastern Afghan cities of Logar and Jalalabad, respectively.

Polio Fight

The Afghan minister also emphasized the need for the two countries to enhance cooperation in fighting the wild polio virus. The United Nations says Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries in the world where the disease is still crippling children.

Visiting Minister Khan noted in his speech that Pakistan has pledged an overall $1 billion in development assistance to Kabul "in pursuance of Pakistan's policy objective of deepening and broadening people-to-people connections between the two countries." He said the newly built hospital would "contribute immensely" to improving the Afghan health sector, noting the completion of three hospitals and 14 mobile medical units would conclude Pakistan's assistance to Afghanistan in the health sector.

Pakistani officials say they are also working to enhance capacity and manpower at their diplomatic missions and major border crossings with Afghanistan to speed up issuing visas and make it faster to enter the country to help Afghans seeking medical treatment in Pakistani hospitals.

Bilateral relations remain fragile and tense over Afghan allegations that Islamabad covertly supports and shelters leaders of the Taliban insurgency, while Pakistan officials allege anti-state militants are using volatile border areas in the neighboring country to plot terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.

U.S.-Taliban Talks

Pakistan takes credit for arranging an ongoing direct dialogue between the Taliban and the United States to help end the 18-year-old war in Afghanistan. The months-long U.S.-Taliban talks are the first serious engagement between the two adversaries, raising expectations it could lead to an intra-Afghan peace dialogue to end years of hostilities.

But Afghans remain skeptical about Islamabad's intentions and insist the neighboring country is trying to help the Taliban regain power in Kabul to continue its alleged meddling in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

Pakistan, which still hosts about 3 million Afghan refugees, rejects the allegations as unfounded and politically motivated.

The two countries share a 2,600-kilometer border, and tens of thousands of people move daily in both directions.

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View ResultsGarcias death highlights Peru corruption scandals



Former president was one of five accused of graft as country tries to clean up politics



Gideon Long, Andean Correspondent





Alan Garcia is reported to have received more than $100,000 in kickbacks from Odebrecht during his second spell as president  AFP





As police converged on his home in Lima on Wednesday, former Peruvian president Alan Garcia shot himself in the head rather than submit to arrest in a corruption case.



His death, hours later, was the latest tragic chapter of a long tale of graft scandals in the Latin American country.



The past five presidents, who together governed for 33 years, have each been investigated or jailed for corruption. Current president Martin Vizcarra took power last year on a promise to clean up politics following the gargantuan Odebrecht corruption scandal which implicated four of the former leaders.



One, Ollanta Humala, is in Lima awaiting trial. Another, 80-year-old Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, is in intensive care with high blood pressure after being arrested last week. A third, Alejandro Toledo, is on the run in the US where he spent a night in a police cell last month for being drunk in public.



Prosecutors believe the fourth, Mr Garcia, received more than $100,000 in kickbacks from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company, during his second spell as president from 2006 to 2011. He denied the charges. I never sold myself, and thats been proven, he wrote on Tuesday in his final tweet before his death.Peru, more than any country other than Brazil, has been shaken to its core by the Odebrecht revelations. The company admits it paid nearly $800m in bribes in 12 countries to win contracts for infrastructure projects, some $30m of it in Peru.



Some in Peru see the pursuit of the four former leaders as evidence that Peru is more corrupt that its neighbours. Others take the investigations as proof that authorities are doing their job  in contrast to other Latin American countries where progress in the Odebrecht probe has been slow.



The lesson from Peru is that judges can go after graft, however deeply ingrained, and without destabilising the economy, a senior International Monetary Fund official said. The key variable is that the macroeconomic accounts have to be in good shape.



While corruption scandals have dragged down the economy and hit business sentiment in Brazil, Perus economy seems less susceptible to the political and judicial intrigue in Lima.



Antonia Eklund, senior analyst at Control Risks, said that while corruption shaved an estimated 0.8 per cent off Peruvian gross domestic product in 2017, in Brazil the figure was 23 per cent.



Perus economy grew 4 per cent last year, compared to Brazils 1.1 per cent and South Americas 0.1 per cent, according to the World Bank. It predicts another 3.8 per cent of growth this year and 3.9 per cent in 2020.



Running like a Shakespearean subplot below tales of corruption in Peru is the story of the Fujimori family, a powerful and controversial political clan. Alberto Fujimori, the authoritarian ruler from 1990 to 2000, spent 12 years in jail for ordering killings and kidnappings as well as embezzlement, only to be pardoned on health grounds by Mr Kuczynski on Christmas Eve 2017.



In a memorable video, Mr Fujimori, dressed in a white hospital gown and connected to tubes, addressed the nation from his hospital bed and asked his detractors for forgiveness with all my heart. But the Supreme Court overturned the pardon and the frail 80-year-old was sent back to jail this January. The end of my life is close, he tweeted alongside a mournful, handwritten letter posted on his feed.



Albertos daughter Keiko Fujimori, leader of the opposition, is also in prison, in preventive custody, accused of accepting more than $1m in illegal funding from Odebrecht.



Adding sibling rivalry to the family saga, she has distanced herself from her brother Kenji Fujimori, a congressman who quit her party over support for Mr Kuczynski. He said his sister harboured a criminal attitude and her party lacked moral authority.The first was the long Atlantic coast. Both the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies were funded by British investors who sought to profit from primarily agricultural goods produced along the coast that could be shipped to Britain. Over time, the long coastline allowed for more extensive settlement, the development of a North American shipping industry and an orientation to Europe. The colonies were therefore an extension of Britain not only politically but also economically. The second defining feature was the flow of major rivers in the colonies. In the south, the west-east flow of most rivers from the Appalachians to the Atlantic meant that north-south transportation, and even communication, was difficult. As a result, the southern colonies were isolated from the northern colonies and from each other. They saw themselves as distinct because of the lack of river transport and the lack of a road system, which would have been expensive to build. The northern colonies were less fractured. The rivers there ran north-south, the area was much smaller, overland transportation was much easier and the colonies were less distant and distinct. The third and, by far, most important geographic feature was the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachians were extraordinarily rugged, not because of their heights but because of their vegetation. The mountains were steep in places, and the vegetation made the area almost impassable except at a few points. It wasnt until after the American Revolution that passages along the mountain range were forged by men like Daniel Boone. The Appalachians were, until then, the western boundary of both the northern and southern colonies. One of the most important characteristics of the Appalachians is the curve toward the coast as they stretch north of Maryland. Its here that the terrain of the mountain range becomes much hillier and rockier compared to the south. South of Maryland, the Appalachians are a couple of hundred miles from the coast, and a large, relatively flat plain emerges between them and the Atlantic. Thus, the south, unlike the north, provides perfect conditions for large agricultural undertakings, including plantations. This geographic distinction led to the primordial divide in the colonies. Plantation farming requires low-cost labor. In Europe, this was provided, prior to the Industrial Revolution, by a social system that created a large class of serfs legally bound to the land. But in the colonies, such a system did not exist, and migrants from Europe werent willing to take on such a role. The alternative solution was the importation of African slaves. But this solution was applied only in the south. In the north, there was no slavery because the economy couldnt support it. The economy there was built around small farms, shipbuilding, crafts and finance. The roots of the Civil War were shaped by this geography. The question of slavery was embedded in the different economic and social structures that evolved in the colonies. But before the Civil War, there was the American Revolution, which also turned on the Appalachians. The French, allied with indigenous nations, controlled much of the area west of the Appalachians but didnt settle there as export of massive agricultural products would have been impossible. They instead traded primarily with indigenous groups for furs. During the Seven Years War, called the French and Indian War in the United States, the French sought to cross east, over the Appalachians and into the British colonies. They were stopped by the rugged mountains and also by American militias. British forces, trained for battle on the North European Plain, could not manage combat in the Appalachians, though they held the colonial troops in contempt for the way they fought while also suffering disastrous defeats themselves. That was the moment that the concept of America as a distinct nation was forged. Americans like George Washington realized that the defense of the colonies depended on them and that the British were of little help and much annoyance. At the same time, they knew an economic break with Britain was impossible but, if it did occur, it could not be on British terms. They also knew they couldnt protect the long Atlantic coast against the British navy. To have any chance of survival, they had to build many roads running north to south so they could mass a defense along the length of the colonies. Geography has thus defined much of Americas history  both during and after the colonial era. The story I laid out here is obviously incomplete; its not intended to be the definitive history of the colonies by any means. But it is intended to begin to show geographys effect on history. As always, this is just a fragment of the full story.Market pressure blurs the line between US asset and wealth managers



Should regulators step in? Time will tell and no doubt there will be some bad actors



Gabriel Altbach





James Gorman intends to double the size of MSIM to at least $1tn in assets (Giulia Marchi/Bloomberg)







American colleagues often say Europe is about proprietary distribution via bank networks, while the US is all rough-and-tumble, survival-of-the-fittest open architecture.



They point to the disproportionate share of fund flows that go to bank-owned asset managers in some of Europes largest markets, notably Germany and Italy, and the USs predominantly third-party marketplace.



But times are changing.



In the US in the mid-2000s, the big full-service wealth managers had sizeable asset management units that pushed their products largely internally. But starting in 2005, many were offloaded due to regulatory pressure (ie, the conflict of an adviser recommending their own firms more profitable product over an outside one) as well as in response to the financial crisis. Merrill Lynch sold its money management business to BlackRock while Morgan Stanley offloaded Van Kampen to Invesco.



Few US asset managers sold direct to retail consumers and the overwhelming majority of flows were via intermediaries. There were a few exceptions, including Fidelity, Vanguard and T Rowe Price, but in general the roles were clearly defined: the asset managers, as manufacturers sold on a wholesale basis to the broker-dealers, the distributors that owned the retail relationships.



A similar, stark demarcation existed in the institutional arena: asset managers forged relationships with investment consultants who, in turn, advised public and private pension funds.



Now the lines have blurred due to developments including the growth of passively run ETFs and downward pressure on fees, greater regulation and technology. Even so, little attention is paid to how the various players increasingly sidle on to each others turf and the implications of that.



More and more, the companies that own the relationship with end-investors focus on expanding their own asset management capability  a reversal of the accepted wisdom at the time of the financial crisis. Examples abound, including Raymond James Carillon Tower Advisers arm, Edward Jones rapidly growing Bridge Builder fund line-up, and Charles Schwabs Laudus funds.



The point is best made by looking at Morgan Stanley and its Morgan Stanley Investment Management business. James Gorman, Morgan Stanley chief executive, has said he intends to double the size of MSIM to at least $1tn in assets, and that selling Van Kampen was a strategic mistake.



Not unrelatedly, more asset managers have forged relationships with end investors and sell directly to them.



The size of direct-to-consumer businesses at Fidelity and Vanguard has grown dramatically, while in December BlackRock and Microsoft announced a partnership to bring technology-based investment and planning solutions to address Americas vexing retirement savings shortfall. Details of this venture are scant but my bet is it will involve investors being offered BlackRock products and services on a direct basis supported by a seamless technology platform developed by Microsoft.



The industry is seeing the change. According to Strategic Insight, of the top 10 asset managers in the US ranked by 2018 net inflows, five are either part of an institution that owns the client relationship or are companies that primarily sell direct to the consumer (not counting MSIM in 11th place).



Some of this reflects a tug of war over shrinking revenues associated with managing portfolios of investors of all stripes.



As with any industry, if the ultimate price the customer is willing to pay shrinks, providers need to cut costs to preserve margins. Wealth managers have shrunk the shelf space for outside managers and increased the price of entry to their systems, in addition to slowly taking on asset management activities. Likewise, asset managers have sought out new ways to distribute their capabilities.



Is all this a cause for concern? Do regulators need to save investors from conniving asset and wealth managers driven to bend fiduciary obligations? Time will tell, and no doubt there will be some bad actors.



Most of these developments, however, serve to lower the cost borne by investors, and the response to declining margins will more often be the consolidation of small and midsized providers, rather than anything nefarious.



There is no doubt that the environment is now more complex for asset managers. Chief executives will have to put more focus on corporate strategy and how to deploy finite resources. Some will be up for the challenge while others will wither, probably to be acquired.



Squint just right and the US asset management industry is beginning to resemble that of Europe.







Gabriel Altbach is founding principal at Asset Management InsightsGrand Old Partisan commemorates the Oregon Republican Party's first convention after statehood. This day of 1859, fifty-three delegates gathered at the courthouse in Salem. They drafted an anti-slavery platform and nominated their candidate for Congress.

State chairman William Matlock, a carpenter from Tennessee and former territorial legislator, had gaveled them to order. He would be federal receiver of monies during the Lincoln administration and then county judge.

The convention also named delegates for the 1860 Republican National Convention. They were selected so far in advance because it would take many weeks for news of the date and site of the convention to reach the Pacific coast and for delegates to get there in time.

Henry Corbett, a merchant from Massachusetts, was elected the new state party chairman. He would become a U.S. Senator.

Here is a Video Version of this article on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mxlWKPgdd5g

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

"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"" " Steve Russell/Toronto Star/Getty Images Kevin Edwards is the chief marketing officer for the Movember Foundation , a men's health organization that helps raise money towards prostate and testicular cancer research, among other efforts.

Testicular cancer probably isn't something that concerns a lot of young men, but it should be on their minds. According to the National Cancer Institute, the affliction is most common among young adult males, with 56 percent of U.S. cases occurring before age 35. Even seemingly super-healthy professional athletes have developed it. And although testicular cancer is highly treatable, more than a third of young men with the disease die from it, in large part because it's not detected early enough.

British medical researchers have made a discovery that might cut into those grim statistics. They've found that genetic testing can identify the small portion of the male population  about 1 percent of men  who are 10 times more likely to develop the disease than other men.

Advertisement

Scientists at the Institute for Cancer Research in London studied the DNA of about 30,000 subjects  including about 7,300 with testicular cancer  and identified 19 previously undiscovered genetic variations associated with the disease. When they added that new information to testing for 25 other previously identified genetic warning signs, they devised a test capable of spotting the men most at risk.

The researchers are still hoping to make the testing even more precise. "Further studies are needed to understand how these genetic changes interact over time to influence the biology of the cell and lead to development of cancer," said Dr. Claire Turnbill, a senior researcher in genetics and epidemiology at the institute, in a press release.

Now That's Important Performing a regular testicular cancer self-exam is a relatively simple and painless procedure." " The highest-risk areas, such as Florida, have already been doing the testing that the FDA started recommending last week. Sujata Jana/EyeEm/Getty

Every year, nearly 14 million units of blood are collected from donors across the U.S., says the American Red Cross. It's a literal lifeline that accident victims, cancer patients and those heading into the operating room depend on daily. Every two seconds or so, in fact.

Which is why nobody wants the Zika virus swimming around in the blood supply.

Advertisement

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took the extraordinary step of recommending that all blood donations be tested for the rapidly spreading and potentially deadly virus. The FDA outlined a program that will implement testing in all states and territories within the next 12 weeks.

But what about the blood already on hand? With hundreds of thousands of bags sitting around in coolers, is it possible that the Zika virus already has entered the U.S. blood supply?

Does that need to be tested, too?

"There is no recommendation to go back and test the supply on hand, because the actual recommendation is extremely precautionary," says Dr. Steven Kleinman, the senior medical adviser to the AABB (formerly the American Association of Blood Banks), the group that provides standards for transfusion medicine and cellular therapies and works closely with organizations like the Red Cross. "Right now we think the risk of contracting Zika virus from a blood transfusion in the U.S., under the current FDA guidance, is thought to be very, very low."

Why's that?

"No. 1, we have procedures in place to ask donors to defer themselves [not give blood] if they meet certain criteria," Kleinman says. "In addition, a number of states, such as Florida, are already doing the testing that is being recommended by FDA going forward. In the highest-risk areas, testing has already been implemented. Those two things together say that blood on the shelf is really quite safe."

The Zika virus, primarily spread by mosquitoes, is passed on through sexual contact of infected individuals and from mother to unborn child. It's been linked to severe brain damage in children in Brazil and, recently, to some neurological conditions in adults. Many people, however, have mild symptoms and don't even know they have it.

Zika probably can be spread through blood transfusions, too, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though the CDC says the virus currently poses a "low risk" of getting into the blood supply, the FDA clearly is taking no chances.

The FDA first issued guidance in February to protect the blood supply, calling for prescreening of potential donors. Those who wish to donate are asked about their travel to areas with Zika outbreaks and about contact with those who have been infected with the disease. Those deemed to be risks are turned away and asked not to donate for at least four weeks.

Then, in March, the first blood screen for Zika became available. Another was made available in June.

Last week's recommendations  that all donated whole blood and blood components undergo universal testing for Zika  was the latest step. It's necessary "in order to help maintain the safety of the U.S. blood supply," Luciana Borio, the FDA's acting chief scientist, said in a statement.

If the ambitious plan outlined by the FDA holds up, in 12 weeks every unit of blood donated in the U.S. will undergo testing for Zika virus. But that brings up another question or two: What about between now and then? Could the Zika virus still slip in?

It's extremely unlikely, Kleinman says. The prescreening and the actual blood testing for Zika that already is happening in places like Florida are effective. Rollouts for tests in other states where Zika could pop up  warmer, mosquito-friendly places  are scheduled soon, in the next four weeks. In 12 weeks, much of the U.S. will be in winter and out of mosquito season, when Zika is most likely to spread and, potentially, be spread to the blood supply.

All the concern over Zika isn't unprecedented. Several tests already are done on donated blood for infectious diseases including hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, West Nile virus and syphilis. Those tests have proven extremely effective in keeping the blood supply clean and stopping the possible spread of those diseases via blood transfusions.

"To put it in perspective, based on what we currently know about the amount of Zika virus transmission in the U.S, as well as from returning travelers [from Zika-infected areas], I would say contracting Zika virus from a blood transfusion is less likely than contracting some of the other agents that we have been concerned about over the last 10-15 years, 20 years, and have also put in interventions for," Kleinman says. "I think West Nile virus was more of a risk. Certainly, if we go back years and years, hepatitis C and HIV were more of a risk."

So Zika might be scary, sure. But if you must worry, worry less about that blood transfusion you may need and more about finding some good mosquito repellent.

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING According to the Red Cross, the average adult has about 10 pints of blood in his body. About a pint is given in a donation. A healthy donor can give red blood cells every 56 days. A donor can give platelets as often as every seven days.



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- Anne Curtis answered Instagram users who commented about her weight gain

- She was with her husband Erwann Heusaff on a Holy Week break in the states

- Anne promised to get back in shape when her personal trainer

PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed!

Anne Curtis went on a vacation on Holy week break with husband Erwann Heussaff. They shared their Instagram-worthy pictures on Instagram and updated their followers about their trip.

Being the known as always confident in posing for a picture, Anne shared why she got shy to pose for husband Erwan Heussaff.

Erwan: Go. Face me. Me: No. Erwan: Why? Anne: May burger pa sa tummy ko," she wrote.

This post elicited comments from their followers. One of them noticed the actress gaining weight.

Usually, a celebrity would take this negatively and treat the comment as body shaming but Anne replied, I [know]! Food is life e.

Kapag kumain po ba ako ng burger magiging ganyan din katawan ko? Matry nga," said another Instagram user.

The TV host-actress replied, Trust me! Hindi ako maka frontal! Kita talaga ang burger!

The actress had been working hard to stay fit recently. She previously gained weight over the Holidays when she traveled with her husband for their honeymoon, a year after getting married.

Anne promised to get back in shape when her personal trainer, Arnold Aninion commented that they have work to do.

Anne Curtis is considered as one of the most prominent celebrities in the Philippines. Year 2018 was a blast for her since she starred in three movies including Sid & Aya, Buybust, and Aurora.

Source: Kami.com.ph- Fumiya Sankai and Yamyam Gucong opened up about their jobs before

- The Boholano recalled his working experience in order to help his family

- On the other hand, Fumiya talked about his work as a bellman

PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed

Spiritual brothers Fumiya Sankai and Yamyam Gucong did not hesitate to talk about their jobs before entering the Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) house.

KAMI learned that the confession was made during the duo's recent guesting in the late-night talk show, Tonight with Boy Abunda.

The host initially commended the two housemates for valuing education so much then he proceeded by asking Yamyam about his educational background.

Yamyam narrated that as early as Grade 5, he stopped studying and decided to work instead so that he could help his parents.

The gentleman from Bohol narrated that he travelled to Cebu just to find available jobs to be able to help his parents.

"Pumunta ako ng [Cebu] at iba't ibang raket [ang] pinasukan: Delivery ng tubig, tinapay, liha, furniture, tapos carwash boy. Tapos yung maid -- pero boy," he recalled.

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!

Yamyam claimed that he sacrificed his studies to earn money and to ease the financial burden of his mother and father.

Meanwhile, Fumiya also shared that he worked as a bellman in a hotel but he later on resigned in order to study English in the Philippines.

The Japanese vlogger said that he did not have enough money to go to Canada or United States, hence he went to this country.

He stated that his friend's uncle taught him about the language and that he decided to do vlogging not long after.

Here is the video of the interview:

In a previous article by , many social media users reacted upon hearing Fumiya and Yamyams term of endearment.

Fumiya Sankai and Yamyam Gucong, better known as FumiYam, are part of the second batch of PBB Otso's Adult Big Four alongside Lou Yanong and Andrei Brouillette.

POPULAR: Read more news about PBB Otso!

Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

Which food delivery app is the best? We tested three famous food delivery apps: Panda, GrabFood and Honestbee - to check which of them is the coolest. What is your experience with ordering food using these apps?  on HumanMeter!

Source: Kami.com.phNepali workers in Qatar struggle for jobs after being duped with lucrative pay and free visa promises

Nepalis who go to Qatar on free visacommonly known as Aazad Visawhich the agents claim would provide them with the freedom to work with any employer in Qatar, are often stranded without any jobs in the Gulf nation.by James Scott Bell

@jamesscottbell

Happy Easter! And what better time for the reappearance of Americas favorite vigilante nun, Sister Justicia Marie of the Sisters of Perpetual Justice?

Yes, its finally here: FORCE OF HABIT 5: HOT CROSS NUNS. I had the title first. All I needed was the story to go with it. A hot cross  hmm  a stolen cross? But how big a deal would that be?

Then it hit me. Mrs. B and I love going to the Hollywood Bowl in the summer. We bring a picnic dinner and sit in an area that gives us a view of iconic Hollywood buildings, like Capitol Records, The Roosevelt Hotel (where, it said, the ghost of Marilyn Monroe hangs out), and the old, rugged Hollywood Cross. That was it! The perfect MacGuffin for the title.

A little L.A. history is in order:

[T] cross was conceived  as a memorial to one of Hollywoods pioneers, Christine Wetherell Stevenson, the heiress to the Pittsburgh Paint fortune who helped arrange construction of the Hollywood Bowl. She was also an aspiring playwright who wrote The Pilgrimage Play, a pageant about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. In 1920, Stevenson chose 29 acres across the Cahuenga Pass from the Hollywood Bowl and helped carry stones from the nearby hills to build the open-air Pilgrimage Theater. She died two years later and in 1923, her admirers memorialized her by planting the cross on the hill above the theater. Within six years, a brush fire destroyed the original theater and in 1931 Stevensons drama reopened in a concrete theater designed in what was described as an ancient Judaic style. For many years, the cross was lighted only at Easter and during the annual Pilgrimage Play season. But the publics affection for the landmark grew and soon Sunday school children were donating money to keep the cross lit. Ultimately, Southern California Edison Co. assumed that expense and bore it until 1941, when the theater and cross were donated to the county. After the county supervisors accepted the gift, they renamed the theater after Supervisor John Anson Ford, recognizing his 24 years of service to the district in which the theater is located. The play continued its annual run until 1964, when the first in a series of lawsuits triggered by the facilitys religious uses forced an end to the performances. The cross was damaged by fire a year later. The county replaced it with a steel and Plexiglas structure and operated it routinely for years. But the tradition came under legal fire in 1978, when a California Supreme Court ruling ended Los Angeles 30-year practice of lighting City Hall windows to form a cross at Christmas and Easter. Two years later, a college professor successfully argued in court that the county was violating the constitutional separation of church and state by maintaining the cross The cross, however, remaineddark and unguarded, abused and unused. Vandals chipped away at its foundation until a windstorm knocked it over it 1984. Afterward, a small group of crusaders began raising funds for a new cross by doing a video documentary, recording a song, The Ballad of the Hollywood Cross by Mindas Masiulis, and collaborating with the Hollywood Heritage preservation group. Almost 10 years later, with little fanfare, a new cross was erected on the small hilltop patch after the group purchased the site from the county.

So how could this landmark possibly be stolen? Who would do such a thing? And why? Find out in FORCE OF HABIT 5: HOT CROSS NUNS, on sale now for 99. Like the other novelettes in the series, it can be read as a stand-alone. The other entries are:

FORCE OF HABIT

FORCE OF HABIT 2: AND THEN THERE WERE NUNS

FORCE OF HABIT 3: NUN THE WISER

FORCE OF HABIT 4: THE NUN ALSO RISES

I love seeing landmarks in fiction and film. Who will ever forget the chase over Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest? Or King Kong atop the Empire State Building? Or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man stepping on Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Ghostbusters, bringing forth Bill Murrays classic line: Nobody steps on a church in my town!

The landmark doesnt even have to be world famous. For example, theres Top Notch Hamburgers in Austin, TX. Thats where Matthew All right, all right, all right McConaughey made his mark in Dazed and Confused.

So whats a landmark in your home town? You do have one, you know. Even Takoma Park, Maryland has Roscoe the Rooster. So share yours!Sunday, April 21, 2019

CNN reports that t he FBI has arrested a member of an armed militia that had detained hundreds of migrants at the border this week, the New Mexico attorney general's office said yesterday.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins is a member of an armed group that had reportedly detained migrants near Sunland Park, New Mexico, state Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement. He was arrested on felony charges of being in possession of firearms and ammunition, according to a statement from the FBI's Albuquerque field office.

Earlier this week, videos posted online purported to show migrants being held by a militia known as the United Constitutional Patriots before being turned over to US Border Patrol.

The footage prompted a condemnation from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, which sent a letter to the Governor and Attorney General of New Mexico. The letter states in part:

"Two nights ago, on April 16, 2019, an armed fascist militia organization describing itself as the United Constitutional Patriots arrested nearly three hundred people seeking safety in the United States, including young children, near Sunland Park, New Mexico. Other videos appear to show arrests in the past few hours. The vigilante members of the organization, . . . who posted videos and photographs of the unlawful arrests to social media, are not police or law enforcement and they have no authority under New Mexico or federal law to detain or arrest migrants in the United States. Their actions undermine the legitimate efforts of our states law enforcement officials to keep New Mexico families safe and they erode community trust." (footnotes omitted).

KJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2019/04/fbi-arrests-member-of-militia-group-detaining-migrants-.htmlSaturday, December 18, 2021

December 18 is International Migrants Day. The United Nations has declared that the 2021 theme is HARNESSING THE POTENTIAL OF HUMAN MOBILITY:

"Migrants contribute with their knowledge, networks, and skills to build stronger, more resilient communities. The global social and economic landscape can be shaped through impactful decisions to address the challenges and opportunities presented by global mobility and people on the move.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) offers the opportunity and guidance to actualize human mobility and seize the opportunities it presents.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has assisted millions of migrants since it emerged 70 years ago to assist the vast number of Europeans displaced by the Second World War and continues to lead the way in promoting a humane and orderly management of migration for the benefit of all, including the communities of origin, transit and destination."

KJ

December 18, 2021 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)Ten years ago, the Macuxi people won a legal battle to expel rice planters from their homeland in northern Brazil. Now, their control over ancestral lands is under attack, this time from Brazils new president, Jair Bolsonaro.

The 1.7 million hectares of grassland lies along the border with Venezuela and Guyana. The area is called Raposa Serra do Sol. It is home to 25,000 native people, many of whom raise cattle.

But the land is considered highly desirable by farmers and miners. They believe it is rich in minerals such as gold, diamonds, copper and niobium. Niobium is a metal used to strengthen steel that Bolsonaro considers strategic.

Chief Aldenir Lima is the leader of the 70 Macuxi communities in Raposa Serra do Sol. He told the Reuters news agency, In the fight for our land rights, 21 of us died. Since then, we recovered what we had lost and today, the farmers rice plantations have been replaced by our cattle...

But that could change if Bolsonaro follows through on his promise to reexamine the areas borders. He wants to overturn a ban on industrial farming and mining on indigenous lands.

Bolsonaros first move after becoming president in January was to put indigenous land decisions under Brazils Ministry of Agriculture. That government office is under the control of farm industry representatives who want to open up new areas to extensive farming.

The Macuxi fear the return of illegal gold miners and hunters on their lands.

Community leader Tereza Pereira de Souza told Reuters, I want to ask the new president, Jair Bolsonaro, to respect indigenous people and our constitutional rights.

She added: It took us 30 years to get our land borders legally recognized and registered.

Brazils 900,000 indigenous people make up less than 1 percent of the population. They live on areas of land that make up 13 percent of Brazil.

Any attempt to change the reservations legal standing would likely face opposition from the Supreme Court. Brazils 1988 Constitution protects indigenous land rights.

Some experts warn that removing that protection would destroy the traditions and languages of the Macuxi and four other tribes in the area.

Martinho de Souza is a Macuxi spiritual leader. He said, Nature is our life, our blood and our spiritwe were born on this land, we live here and we will die here.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Bruno Kelly and Sergio Queiroz reported this story for the Reuters news service. Jonathan Evans adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

cattle  n. large farm animals; cows

strategic  adj. related to long-term goals or interests

indigenous  n. produced, living, or existing naturally in a particular region or environmentIsraeli researchers say they have created the worlds first three-dimensional ,or 3D-printed heart using a patients own cells.

The researchers, from Tel Aviv University, recently announced the experiment and showed off the new 3D printed heart. Their findings were published in the journal Advanced Science. They described the experiment as a major medical breakthrough.

The lead researcher on the project was university professor Tal Dvir. He said in a statement that it was the first time that human cells had been used with 3D printing technology to successfully create a whole heart. Dvir added that the printed heart contains blood vessels which are needed to pump blood.

Until recently, scientists working on medical methods combining biology and technology were only successful in 3D printing simple tissues without blood vessels, the research team said.

The engineered heart introduced by the Israeli team was not big enough to be transplanted into a human. "At this stage, our 3D heart is small, the size of a rabbit's heart," Dvir explained. "But larger human hearts require the same technology."

The development marks a step forward for 3D printing in the medical field. The technology has already expanded into many industries and has been developed to produce devices like guns, cars and homes.

The researchers wrote that they took samples of fatty tissue from patients. This material was then used to develop ink for the 3D printing process. First, the researchers created patches of tissue from the patients own cells. Later, they used that same process to create a small version of a whole heart.

Dvir says using the patient's own cells is important to reduce the risk that the bodys system to fight infection will reject a transplanted organ.

The goal, the researchers said, is to treat heart disease. The World Health Organization reports that heart disease is by far the leading cause of death worldwide. For patients with severe heart disease, a heart transplant is currently the main treatment available. The researchers hope their invention can help ease the demand for heart transplant donors.

Dvir says that the newly-created heart represents great progress. However, more research and development is needed to produce a fully operating, transplantable organ. For example, he said the heart cells will need to fully form parts that can work together to effectively pump blood.

One of the biggest challenges for the engineering team will be finding a way to create a human-sized heart.

Dvir said his team plans to transplant heart models designed for animals, possibly within the next year. He added that, for human use, simpler organs will likely be produced before hearts.

"Maybe, in ten years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world, Dvir said. He added that he hopes such methods will be used routinely to produce organs in the future.

In 2017, the Israeli health ministry formed a group to examine the issues related to the use of 3D printing technology in the medical field, Israels newspaper Haaretz reported.

One of the groups members was Samer Srouji, who works at Galilee Medical Center in the coastal city of Nahariya. He told the newspaper that while 3D printing in medicine offers great promise, it can also present problems.

There were also cases that ended up with complications, causing infection and harm to the patient, he said. This area requires regulation, with protocols and clear guidelines in place, he added.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Tel Aviv University, Agence France-Presse and Haaretz online. Mario Ritter was the editor.

What are your thoughts on the use of such technology to improve medicine? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Quiz - Researchers in Israel Create First 3D-Printed Heart Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz



_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

three-dimensional  adj. having or seeming to have length, width, depth

breakthrough  n. an important discovery or development

vessel  n. small tube that carries blood through the body

transplant  v. operation in which a new organ is put into someones body

patch  n. piece of material use to repair damaged parts of something

challenge  n. a difficult task or problem

routinely  adv. regularly or often

complication  n. a new medical problem that develops when someone is being treated for an illness

regulation  n. an official rule that controls how something is done

protocol  n. rules about what you must do and how you must behave in official situationsIs it possible for a business to legally own a word from a native culture and prevent its use by members of the native community?

This question is being considered in the American state of Hawaii. Some Hawaiians were surprised to learn that an American company had trademarked a business name that includes aloha -- one of the most common native Hawaiian words.

The Chicago-based eaterys full name is Aloha Poke.

Aloha is a native Hawaiian word commonly used as a friendly greeting. It can also mean love or kindness and is used by Native Hawaiians and others to describe the way of life in Hawaii.

The word poke is a traditional Hawaiian salad usually made from pieces of fish, rice and vegetables. American restaurants offering poke meals have increased in popularity in recent years.

Aloha Poke Company operates restaurants in several American cities. The company has sent letters to some other businesses that it discovered were using poke and aloha in their names. The letters stated that Aloha Poke was a trademarked name. It demanded that other businesses stop using the words or face legal action.

One of the targeted businesses was Aloha Poke Shop in Honolulu, Hawaiis capital. Business co-owner Jeff Sampson told Hawaiis News Now that at first, he thought the letter must be a joke. Because I didn't think you could trademark 'aloha' or 'poke' or them together in any shape or form."

Sampson said he ended up ignoring the letter after contacting lawyers and deciding that making a name change or launching a legal effort would be too costly for his business.

Sampson told the Associated Press he also explained to Aloha Poke Company that his Hawaii-based restaurant should not be considered a threat because it was too far away from the U.S. mainland.

Jarrett Keohokalole is a Native Hawaiian state senator. He said he was shocked at the audacity of people from outside of our community who seemed to be trying to prevent the use of symbols and words that are important to our culture.

Aloha Poke Company issued a statement to Hawaiis News Now explaining its position. In the statement, business chief Chris Birkinshaw denied that his company had attempted to own the words aloha or poke.

However, he said the company does hold two federal trademarks for its company design logo and the words "Aloha Poke" for use with its restaurant business. The statement added that this gives the company the "exclusive right to use those words together in connection with restaurant services within the U.S."

The legal fight over Aloha Poke has increased publicity about a plan by some lawmakers in Hawaii to seek new legal measures that would protect Native Hawaiian cultural intellectual property.

A legislative proposal calls on Hawaiian state agencies and Native Hawaiian organizations to form a group to study legal ways to recognize and protect such property. If approved, the group would provide its legislative suggestions within three years.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted it for VOA Learning English, with additional material from Hawaii News Now. 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

trademark  v. secure an official registration for ownership of a product or idea

greeting  n. something friendly people say to each other when they meet

audacity  adj. showing too much confidence in ones own behavior in a way that other people find shocking or rude

symbol  n. a sign or object used to represent something

logo  n. design or symbol used by a company to advertise its products

exclusive  adj. not shared with other people or organizations

intellectual property  n. something such as an idea, invention or process that comes from a persons mindVietnam could be one of the biggest winners or biggest losers in a changing global economy. That finding comes from Moody's Investors Services, a financial company.

Recently, Moody's announced findings of a study that looked at 23 countries across the Asia Pacific region. It found that Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam were the most likely to gain from trade moving away from China.

But, Vietnam was among the countries that could be most hurt by a trade slowdown, too.

The Southeast Asian country has been searching for a way to gain from trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

But those gains might not last, especially if a trade war between the world's two biggest economies reduces global trade overall.

Analysts say that Vietnam, a trade-dependent country, needs to be ready.

Sian Fenner is a lead economist at Oxford Economics in Singapore. She wrote that Vietnam's "dependence on foreign investor flows also makes it vulnerable to changing global sentiment."

Fenner added, As a small, open economy heavily dependent on external trade, an increase in protectionism and slower global trade would have significant  effects for Vietnam, even if it is not the direct target of increased tariffs.

U.S. President Donald Trump put tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products last summer, citing the countrys unfair trade practices. China responded with its own import taxes on U.S. goods. Government officials from both sides are supposed to meet this month to resolve the dispute.

However, observers are divided on how likely a resolution to the conflict will be.

The trade war, combined with similar trade protectionism around the world, raises the chances of global economic instability.

While Vietnam cannot do much about the trade policies of other countries, it has received a number of recommendations on how to help itself. Advisers urge Vietnam to make reforms to its economy, for one.

Three experts, Tuan Ho, Trang Thi Ngoc Nguyen, and Tho Ngoc Tran, wrote in a report for Yusof Ishak Institute that the Vietnamese government should get serious about privatizing some state owned companies. They also suggested support for small businesses, such as through loans, and tougher screening of foreign investments.

The three noted that economic reform and wise public investments would help Vietnam deal with economic problems in the future. "That is particularly important in the context of a long-lasting global trade tension," they conclude.

I'm John Russell.

Ha Nguyen reported on this story for VOA News. John Russell adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

tension  n. a state in which people, groups, countries, etc., disagree with and feel anger toward each other

vulnerable  adj. open to attack, harm, or damage

screening  n. the act of examining people or things in order to decide if they are suitable for a particular purpose

context -- n. the situation in which something happens : the group of conditions that exist where and when something happens

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.Have writer's block? Hopefully this resource will help librarians identify publishing and presentation opportunities in library & information science, as well as other related fields. I will include calls for papers, presentations, participation, reviewers, and other relevant notices that I find on the web. If you find anything to be posted, please drop me a note. thanks -- Corey Seeman, University of Michigan(cseeman@umich.edu)Nataliya Naumenko

Northwestern Ph.D, Brown post doc, Joel Mokyr student. Here is her job market paper:

Job Market Paper The Political Economy of Famine: the Ukrainian Famine of 1933 Download Job Market Paper (pdf) Abstract: The famine of 19321933 in Ukraine killed as many as 2.6 million people out of a population of approximately 30 million. Three main explanations have been offered: negative weather shock, poor economic policies, and genocide. This paper uses variation in exposure to poor government policies and in ethnic composition within Ukraine to study the impact of policies on mortality, and the relationship between ethnic composition and mortality. It documents that (1) the data do not support the negative weather shock explanation: 1931 and 1932 weather predicts harvest roughly equal to the 1925  1929 average; (2) bad government policies (collectivization and the lack of favored industries) significantly increased mortality; (3) collectivization increased mortality due to drop in production on collective farms and not due to overextraction from collectives (although the evidence is indirect); (4) back-of-the-envelope calculations show that collectivization explains at least 31\% of excess deaths; (5) ethnic Ukrainians seem more likely to die, even after controlling for exposure to poor Soviet economic policies; (6) Ukrainians were more exposed to policies that later led to mortality (collectivization and the lack of favored industries); (7) enforcement of government policies did not vary with ethnic composition (e.g., there is no evidence that collectivization was enforced more harshly on Ukrainians). These results provide several important takeaways. Most importantly, the evidence is consistent with both sides of the debate (economic policies vs genocide). (1) backs those arguing that the famine was man-made. (2)  (4) support those who argue that mortality was due to bad policy. (5) is consistent with those who argue that ethnic Ukrainians were targeted. For (6) and (7) to support genocide, it has to be the case that Stalin had the foresight that his policies would fail and lead to famine mortality years after they were introduced (and therefore disproportionately exposed Ukrainians to them).

Jonathan Schulz

Cultural economics and economic history, St. Gallen Ph.D, Harvard post doc, co-author with Joe Henrich.

Job market paper, Catholic Church, Kin Networks, and Institutional Development:

Political institutions vary widely around the world, yet the origin of this variation is not well understood. This study tests the hypothesis that the Catholic Churchs medieval marriage policies dissolved extended kin networks and thereby fostered inclusive institutions. In a difference-in-difference setting, I demonstrate that exposure to the Church predicts the formation of inclusive, self-governed commune cities before the year 1500CE. Moreover, within medieval Christian Europe, stricter regional and temporal cousin marriage prohibitions are likewise positively associated with communes. Strengthening this finding, I show that longer Church exposure predicts lower cousin marriage rates; in turn, lower cousin marriage rates predict higher civicness and more inclusive institutions today. These associations hold at the regional, ethnicity and country level. Twentieth-century cousin marriage rates explain more than 50 percent of variation in democracy across countries today.

Jonathan P. Beauchamp

Harvard Ph.D, assistant professor of economics at University of Toronto, he works in the new field genonomics and has co-authored with David Cesarini. Here is his presentation on GWAS of risk tolerance:

Here is his paper (with co-authors) Genome-wide association analyses of risk tolerance and risky behaviors in over one million individuals identify hundreds of loci and shared genetic influences.

I am very much looking forward to their arrival, they all seem like great colleagues, and I am honored to have played a role on the recruiting committee.Israeli Craft Beer Saga * The Beer Bazaar has been in touch with me, and I hope to have a proper visit in the near future. I must say that they really seem to care ...

Bye, Bye Cafe Rimon For as long as I remember Jerusalem, going on forty-nine 49 years, there has always been a restaurant, or two, called "Rimon" just...

the easiest cake recipe Plain Cake, Simply Delicious! This is the basis for all sorts of cakes, including chocolate, apple, chocolate chip, etc. It can be multipl...

Best Salad Deal in Jerusalem The other day my friend and I needed a quick lunch before going to our "next stop/event." All I wanted to eat was a salad, and she...

Jerusalem Light Festival 2018, Rather Dull The other night I went to the Jerusalem Light Festival 2018, even though I couldn't find anyone to go with. There were thousands of othe...

Piccolino Friday Brunch, What Took Me So Long? For years I had been hearing about the Friday Brunch served at Piccolino , but it took me until last Friday to finally experience it. The oc...

Newly Decorated "Tunnel" Last night, when my husband and I got off of the bus that had taken us from Ashdod to Jerusalem, I wondered how we were going to cross the ...

Totally Amazing Challah Shaping Tutorial I found this on facebook. It's making the rounds. I hope this works for all of you. I learned a lot watching it and didn't ev...Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.Numerous Ford owners are complaining that valuables were stolen out of their vehicles because of their cars poor security systems.

According to these Ford drivers, the lock system used for their vehicles makes it easy for criminals to open their cars.

Many of the victims have taken to social media to complain about the issue, but they say Ford is ignoring their concerns.

The Facebook group My Ford was broken into South Africa has grown to 8,331 members as a result, with 6,488 people joining the group over the last 30 days.

Ford vehicles targeted

According to Ford owner Briony Simon Ford has chosen to ignore their customer complaints about their locks clearly not being effective.

She said daily posts of peoples Ford cars being broken into through the lock have been posted online, but the company is not responding to these posts.

She posted a photo of two Ford Fiestas and a Ford Focus which were targeted at Centurion Mall recently. These are also reports of Ford Rangers which have been hit.

Fixing the lock system

Habitat Payments director and former Dimension Data solutions architect Matthew Parker said he has helped 345 Ford vehicles because of Fords defective locking system.

Carte Blanche will be running a video with me next week to expose how easy it is to break in and hopefully Ford will now take action, he said.

Breaking in literally takes seconds and customers are shocked at how easy it is.

Parker told The Star that the lock complies with the correct standards but the guys use a tool that puts stress on the lock.

When they use that tool, all the locks open on the Ford and the alarm doesnt go off. I dont know why, he said.

According to Parker the poor lock system issue occurs mostly in the Fiesta, Focus, Ranger, and Figo.

Videos were also circulated which show how criminals targeted Ford vehicles with the allegedly poor locking system.

Ford responds

Ford spokesperson Minesh Bhagaloo said the companys team of security engineers and crime-prevention specialists continuously investigate ways that vehicles are being targeted.

With this information we assess whether there are additional deterrence enhancements we can make to our vehicles in response, said Bhagaloo.

He confirmed that additional security solutions are currently being investigated for previous-generation Fiesta and EcoSport owners.

He did not mention all the models Parker said suffer from a poor lock system, but did say that customers safety and security was important to Ford.We want to see action from ...The United States is experiencing its second-highest number of measles cases in nearly two decades. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the diagnosed cases have climbed to 465. At least 20 states have reported cases of the highly contagious virus. New York City officials have ordered mandatory measles vaccinations to halt an outbreak. The outbreaks are linked to people who traveled from countries such as Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines, where large measles outbreaks are occurring. The disease is spreading in U.S. communities that have relatively high numbers of people who have not been vaccinated against measles. Here are some answers to commonly asked questions about measles, which can cause serious complications among all age groups, especially young children, adults with weakened immune systems, and the very elderly.

Do I need another dose of the measles vaccine?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends children get two doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second dose at 4 to 6 years of age. For adults, if you were born before 1957, the CDC says it is unlikely you need more MMR shots. Thats because most people born before then caught measles and thus have natural immunity.

If you have no written documentation anywhere that you have had an MMR shot, talk with your doctor. People born between 1957 and 1989 generally only had one MMR dose. One dose is about 93 percent effective at preventing measles, but anyone in that age group can still get a second dose, says Russell Faust, medical director for Michigans Oakland County health department. The county, part of metropolitan Detroit, has an ongoing measles outbreak with 39 cases reported. Two doses are about 97 percent effective. Even if you had two doses (or cant remember), its okay to get a third dose, he says.

Theres no downside to getting an MMR, especially during an outbreak, says Faust.

How dangerous is measles for adults?

Adults who have weakened or impaired immune systems caused by diseases, cancers or medications, or those who may have altered immunity such as the very elderly, are at higher risk for severe complications from measles, including pneumonia. They are also at higher risk for adverse reactions to the vaccine, and they should talk with their doctor. Faust says protection with a protein injection called immune serum globulin may be more appropriate.

How long does it take for the body to develop immunity after getting an MMR shot?

It takes seven to 21 days for the body to mount the maximum immune response, and can be as long as one to two months, Faust says.

How does measles spread?

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases on Earth. It is a respiratory infection caused by a virus. The virus lives in the nose and throat of an infected person. It can spread by direct contact with infectious droplets or through the air when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The measles virus can remain infectious in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area. If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses or mouths, they can become infected. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, up to 90 percent of the people close to that person or who walk through the same area and are not immune also may become infected.

Infected people can spread measles to others from four days before through four days after the appearance of a rash.

Thats why many health officials in places experiencing outbreaks, such as New Yorks Rockland County and New York City and Washington state, have declared public health emergencies. Rockland County executives tried to ban unvaccinated minors from public places, including churches, schools and shopping centers. New York City just announced mandatory vaccinations in affected Zip codes.

Can antibiotics treat measles?

No. Antibiotics are used for infections caused by bacteria. Measles is caused by a virus. There is no specific treatment for measles. Health-care professionals try to prevent the disease by administering the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine to children. Nonimmunized people, including infants, may be given the measles vaccination within 72 hours of exposure to the virus to provide protection against the disease. Pregnant women, infants and people with weakened immune systems who are exposed to the virus may receive a protein injection called immune serum globulin within six days of exposure to prevent measles or reduce the symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic.

-- How dangerous is measles?

Measles can be deadly, especially for babies and young children. Some people may have severe complications, such as pneumonia (infection of the lungs) and encephalitis (swelling of the brain), which can lead to hospitalization and death. Measles may cause pregnant woman to give birth prematurely or have a low-birth-weight baby. According to the CDC:

As many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children.

About one child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis, which can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disabilities.

For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die from it.

Recent findings from researchers in California indicate a rare neurological complication that kills children years after they have been infected by the measles virus is more common than previously thought. The neurological disorder can lie dormant for years, and then is 100 percent fatal. There is no cure. For babies who get measles before being vaccinated, the rate is one in 609.

-- How effective is the measles vaccine?

The MMR vaccine is very effective. One dose is about 93 percent effective at preventing measles. Two doses are about 97 percent effective. The CDC recommends children get two MMR doses, starting with the first dose at 12 through 15 months of age and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age.

-- What about pregnant women?

If you are pregnant, clinicians say to wait to get the MMR shot until after the baby is born. It is safe for women who are breast-feeding to get a measles shot, according to Wendy Sue Swanson, a Seattle pediatrician.

-- Why are infants at risk of measles?

If a babys mother has had her MMR shots or had a measles infection in her life, she passed antibodies to her baby during fetal development. Those antibodies provide protection for young infants and typically are thought to protect infants for up to six months or more, but researchers dont really know the length of protection. Immunity wanes for these babies as they age and the moms antibodies fail to persist.

-- Does the measles vaccine cause autism?

No, there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine. This has been carefully examined by many doctors and scientists from around the world in large and thorough studies. Scientists are studying what does make a child more likely to have autism, such as genes or an older father.

-- How did the idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism originate?

The debunked claim that there is a relationship between vaccines and autism largely stems from the late 1990s. At the time, autism diagnoses had been increasing, and doctors did not know why. In 1998, British researcher Andrew Wakefield published a fraudulent paper, which was subsequently retracted, linking autism to the MMR vaccine. Evidence emerged that Wakefield had been paid by attorneys for parents who were suing MMR manufacturers and that Wakefields data were fraudulent. The Lancet retracted his study in February 2010. That year, Wakefield was found guilty of professional misconduct by Britains General Medical Council, and his license was revoked.

-- How are vaccines tested for safety?

Vaccines are among the most thoroughly tested medical products available in the United States. Before a vaccine can be considered for approval by the Food and Drug Administration, the manufacturer must show it is safe and effective through clinical trials. This scientific process can take over a decade and cost millions of dollars. The FDA then examines these studies and determines whether a vaccine is safe, effective and ready to be licensed for use. The FDA licenses only those vaccines that have data showing their benefits outweigh the potential risks. If there is any question about the data, or any holes in the data, the FDA will request further studies before approving the vaccine.

Vaccinate Your Family, the nations largest nonprofit dedicated to advocating for vaccinations, provides a good explanation of the four systems in the United States that work together to help scientists monitor the safety of vaccines and identify any rare side effects that may not have been found in clinical trials. For example, some side effects may happen only in 1 in 100,000 or 1 in 500,000 people. Vaccine trials may not include certain populations, such as pregnant women or people with specific medical conditions who might have different types of side effects or who might have a higher risk of side effects than the volunteers who got the vaccine during clinical trials.

One system, known as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, relies on individuals to report vaccine reactions. Anyone can report a reaction or injury, including health-care providers, patients and patients representatives, such as caregivers or attorneys. The system is co-managed by the FDA and the CDC. The purpose of VAERS is to see whether unexpected or unusual patterns emerge, potentially indicating a vaccine safety issue that needs to be researched further.

Another system, called the Vaccine Safety Datalink, is a collaboration between the CDCs Immunization Safety Office and eight large health-care organizations across the country. It conducts studies based on questions or concerns raised from the medical literature and reports to VAERS. In addition, when new vaccines are recommended or if changes are made in how a vaccine is recommended, the VSD will monitor the safety of these vaccines. The system has information on the kind of vaccine given to each patient, the date of vaccination and other vaccinations given on the same day. It also uses information on medical illnesses that have been diagnosed at doctors offices, urgent-care visits, emergency department visits and hospital stays.

A third system, called the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Project, or CISA, is a national network of vaccine safety experts from the Immunization Safety Office, seven medical research centers and other partners. It also addresses vaccine safety issues and conducts clinical research.

A fourth system, called the Post-Licensure Rapid Immunization Safety Monitoring, or PRISM, is a partnership between the FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and leading health insurance companies. It actively monitors and analyzes data from a representative subset of the general population.

-- Are religions opposed to vaccines?

No. Scholars believe no major religious group advocates against vaccinations on the basis of official doctrine, and experts say the majority support vaccinations. Large majorities of Americans from all major religious groups say healthy children should be required to receive vaccinations to attend school, according to the Pew Research Center. However, some individuals from various faith traditions believe vaccinating goes against their religious beliefs.A Benicia man arrested Saturday night in American Canyon was found with materials forbidden for a convicted felon to own, according to police.

At 10:31 p.m., officers were called to the Wal-Mart at 7011 Main St. after reports of a suspicious RV parked outside the store, according to Sgt. Jeff Matlock.

Police contacted 36-year-old Kenneth Dale Brooks and then searched the RV, finding ammunition, a canister of pepper spray, suspected methamphetamine and several methamphetamine pipes, as well as lock-picking tools and a butterfly knife, Matlock said.

Brooks was detained and booked into the Napa County jail on suspicion of ammunition possession by a felon and misuse of tear gas, both felony counts. He also faces misdemeanor counts of possessing a controlled substance, drug paraphernalia, burglary tools and a switchblade.

Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.The Napa Valley Vintners took their agenda to Capitol Hill earlier this month, convening with the countrys lawmakers on issues from tariffs to tax relief.

The NVV delegation, which included leaders from 10 Napa wineries and several NVV staff, took part in dozens of meetings and several trade tastings over four days in Washington, D.C. The NVV serves as the main advocate for upwards of 550 Napa Valley wineries and visits the Capitol to talk policy with lawmakers once a year.

Among the groups Congressional audience was Ambassador CJ Mahoney, deputy U.S. Trade Representative, who discussed the ongoing tariff situation that has mired U.S. trade with China and hobbled Napa wineries efforts to grow in that market.

In early April, the Wine Institute reported total U.S. wine exports, 90 percent of which come from California, were down nearly 5 percent in value and 1.2 percent in volume, in part because of the retaliatory tariffs. At a value of $59 million, China is among the top 10 export markets for California wine, according to the Wine Institute.

The NVV delegation also discussed upcoming changes to bottle labeling rules with John Manfreda, administrator of the Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), and conferred with USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agriculture Affairs Ted McKinney on the ins and outs of the market access program.

The NVV has long led efforts to reserve the use of the Napa Valley brand strictly for wines made from grapes grown in the Napa American Viticultural Area (AVA). In recent years, the group has worked to further limit the use of the Napa brand to those making wine in Napa and excluding those who buy grapes grown in the AVA, but make their wine elsewhere through a loophole of sorts in todays current regulations. A proposed rule to curb the practice is currently making its way through the TTB.

The NVV group also used the trip to court a corner of the Washington, D.C. market, holding a tasting of 30 Napa wines for members of the local wine trade and a tasting reception for Congressional members and staff, hosted alongside representatives of the Oregon and Washington wine industries.

In a news release from the NVV, Bruce Cakebread of Cakebread Cellars, past chairman of the NVV board pointed out, Washington, D.C. has an impressive number of steakhouses where cab is king  Its important that we be here.

David Pearson, chairman of the NVV Board of Directors, also noted in the groups release, Napa Valley is a national treasure and through our ongoing advocacy and marketing efforts, we are making progress on issues of importance to our members and the overall strength of the wine industrydespite only representing 4 percent of the wine production in California, Napa Valley produces 33 percent of the economic value in the state.

Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.For one morning a year, a 19th-century landmark becomes a place to celebrate the story of Jesus rising from the dead while watching the risingOne hundred years ago, contemporaneous to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, a new aggressor was on the world scene. Virulent in its ravages upon humankind, it sprang up from different places, with the potential extinction of people as its goal. It had earlier appeared in March 1918, in Haskell County, Kansas.

Violent head- and body-aches, fever, and coughing were symptoms. Occurring within the wholesome American heartland of livestock raising and wheat cultivation, it felled people as dominoes fall. Its origin was as enigmatic as that of the Great War.

It used people to convey itself from one to the next person. To residents of the Hawkeye State, it seemed as if they were not in Kansas anymore. Yet, they were. Invisible to the eye and even the conventional microscope, the new killer took no quarter.

Overcrowded areas, such as Camp Funston near Fort Riley, Kansas, were to its delight. The camps 56,000 new recruits, in spring of 1918, were to be trained and shipped Over There. This new enemy attacked a camp cook as its first victim. Hundreds more doughboys soon followed.

There was no antidote or cure, but hope. A new last stand occurred at Camp Custer, Michigan, where in a single day, 1,810 doughboys reported sick. (Army Surgeon General William Gorgass pleas to thin camps went unheeded.)

Railing soldiers to city ports, trains were rolling coffins. The microscopic hordes also preyed upon civilians. As 1918 continued, Americas great urban centers came under attack. They knew no class distinctions in their devastating, unrelenting universal assault upon rich, poor, and middle-class.

One theory held that the attacker was a secret weapon imported to the U.S. by Germany. Yet, as the invader popped up in Germany, France, Spain, China, India, and elsewhere, it became obvious that there was now a greater foe than each other.

The sidewalks and streets of New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, became largely vacant, except for city workers and police. Layered white gauze masks, worn by those who ventured outdoors, were symbols of defiance and patriotism. Whether the masks worked in protection of its wearers was debatable.

One could not use a streetcar without a mask. Casualties still came in the thousands. To spit was subject to a $60 fine, under the mantra, spitting equals death.

Doctors, nurses. Red Cross workers, and civilian volunteers were lost in hundreds. Cities of death and houses of the dead were commonplace refrains. But fear silenced the use of the word plague. Yet, plague was upon the minds of many.

Social workers discovered children and older persons alive in apartments and houses. The onslaught focused on young adults in the prime of life, ages 20 to 40. Flu-stricken pregnant women had 47 percent deaths, 26 percent surviving with miscarriages.

Human civilization was beginning to creak at its joints. The innumerable pinpricks of the microscopic offensive against humans became epidemics at Brest, San Sebastian, Paris, Berlin, and more. By fall of 1918, they spread globally as a great pandemic.

Overcrowded troopships became death ships. Many doughboys perished to the nearly ubiquitous invader before they disembarked in France and could fire a shot in combat. The invader also impeded the huge German 1918 spring offensive.

The attacker was killing U.S. reinforcements. Should troop convoys and drafts be halted?

The commandeered former German luxury liner, the Vaterland, had a capacity to transport up to 11,000 doughboys. Rechristened Leviathan, it landed in France on October 8, 1918, and disembarked 700 who were waylaid with sickness, of whom 67 had perished during the voyage.

To make troop numbers more efficient, doughboys on board transports shared two-to-a-cot hot bunks, undoubtedly accentuating the spread of illness. Sailors on troopships had a case fatality of 1.5 percent, while doughboys aboard suffered 6.43 percent fatalities. Doughboy density was greater.

U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Peyton March, felt that the human-versus-human war took precedence over combating the illness.

Rationalizing that doughboys perishing on convoy ships en route to Europe had died just as purposefully as those in battle, he persuaded President Woodrow Wilson not to curtail the troopships, lest Germany suspect a lapse of American will. Four thousand doughboys died during voyage.

At 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, an Armistice took effect, ending the Great War.

The microscopic enemy did not sign it. Nature, maintained its own place and time. Released POWs were virtual walking dead men, as many, were infiltrated by the invader. Returning to their home countries  Russia, China, Vietnam, Senegal, and many others  they helped carry the invader back to further fan out and decimate.

In a kind of reverse War of the Worlds; microorganisms did not ally with, but were fighting humans. However, this was not a fiction; it was a deadly reality.

A new wave of the invisible attacker in early April 1919, incapacitated President Woodrow Wilson in Paris for four-and-one-half days. While in heated argument with Frances Clemenceau over post-World War fate of the Rhine/Palatinate and the Saaras war prizes or notthe latter had walked out of the peace talks, accusing Wilson of being pro-German. U.S.-Allied unity was at stake. Wilson took to bed.

From April 3-7, 1919, he lay within the attackers embrace. On the 8th it relaxed its grip. Wilson emerged conciliatory rather than still adamant. The Allies and the U.S. would occupy the west bank of the Rhine and France would get the Saar mines.

Was Wilsons mind badly affected or did he gain new flexibility? Nature was mute.

The war to end all wars had taken at least 14 million lives, nine million military and five million civilians-in four years. On land, the Allied Expeditionary Force lost 116,000, 53,000 in combat and 63,000 because of other causes, including disease.

The U.S. Navy lost twice as many sailors to the microscopic attacker than to the U-boat menace. In the U.S., 550,000 died from a population of 105 million. The unseen enemy offensive, before petering out under its own lessening of momentum, claimed at least about 50 million lives in one year, from spring 1918 to spring 1919, out of Earths 1.8 billion people. India alone, suffered 20 million deaths.

In that time span, it conquered most of the world, a feat, human armies and navies did not achieve.

Untouched remained American Samoa, New Caledonia, St. Helena Island, and Majaro Island (Brazil), all of which, via strict quarantines, avoided the invaders ravages. Antarctica was the only continent not touched by the invisible enemy.

The influence of the dread global pandemic remained unsurpassed, although somewhat overshadowed by the publicity of the Great War and the ensuing Paris Peace Conference. The influenza, or influence of the cold, had uniquely ravaged in both summer and fall, as well as in winter and spring. Its unsigned armistice with humans in spring 1919, left an uneasy and tenuous global ceasefire to present-day.

Futini is a Napa-based history enthusiast. This is the latest in an occasional series marking the 100th anniversary of the First World War and its world-shaping aftermath.The middle aged woman sitting in my exam chair had a patch of white gauze taped to the side of her neck. Years ago she had had skin cancer, and now had a sore that wasnt healing. I gingerly removed her homemade dressing and was shocked to see her carotid artery exposed and pulsating in a deep, open wound in her neck where cancer had eroded the skin, the fat, and the muscles that protect the artery. It would not be long before the artery ruptured.

She needed university care for treatment, but for some it can take weeks to get a visit approved. She didnt have time to wait. I sent her to the Emergency Department at Queen of the Valley Medical Center and called a consultant friend at UCSF. My patient spent many hours in the emergency room, and after multiple phone calls she was able to receive her needed care.

How do people get to this point in America? Inability to afford health insurance? Job loss? Too young for Medicare and ineligible for Medicaid? This is just one story. We doctors have many such stories. Most of you know someone who has delayed care due to no insurance or a high deductible, or incurred large medical bills despite insurance. All of the money we spend on premiums, deductibles, patient portions, medications, and out-of-network care can add up to enormous sums annually for many individuals and families. Medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S. Health insurance is a major expense for employers, too, which slows business growth and reduces our incomes.

Australia, Canada, Taiwan and Spain have had successful single payer systems for years. Everyone is covered from birth to death. Health care, like police and fire services, is paid for through taxes. Everyone needs health care, and everyone pays into a fund. When health insurance is a choice, as it is now, many people opt out, and the unpaid costs of the care they ultimately need is shifted to our hospitals. This drives up prices for the insured and has resulted in bankruptcy and closure of many hospitals and emergency rooms.

Our health care dollars provide large profits for health insurance companies. In 2017 Blue Cross Blue Shield alone made $1.3 billion in profits. $908 million was spent on brokers commissions and $41 million on advertising. Kaisers profits in 2017 were $3.8 billion. We pay insurance companies to issue denials, limit medication access, and process authorizations, referrals and claims  slowly. This requires medical offices and hospitals to hire employees to get authorizations, appeal denials, check eligibilities, and collect patient portions. We are No. 1 in the world in administrative costs.

What if that money were spent on providing health care?

Single payer health care for all minimizes administrative costs and eliminates insurance profits, leaving more money for health care. Single payer encourages preventive care and early care, which results in better community health and is significantly less expensive than treating an advanced illness like my patient had. Single payer eliminates restrictive insurance panels. You have the freedom to choose any physician or specialist. Hospitals and physician practices are still privately owned  there is no government takeover  but all reimbursement is from the government.

Our elderly and our poor have government-funded health care. We need to extend those benefits to working families who may be working multiple jobs to get health benefits. Part time workers are not entitled to employer covered health care and may be least able to afford it. Many families must change insurance plans and their doctors with a job change, and job changes are much more frequent now than 70 years ago when health insurance was first tied to employment as a benefit.

Recent polls have demonstrated a growing interest in the United States for single payer Medicare for all. A new bill in Congress, HR 1384, provides for changing our system to single payer to allow us to join other countries with lower costs and better health care outcomes. 107 members of Congress have signed support for the bill, including our districts Mike Thompson. Thousands of physicians nationwide are supporting Single Payer Medicare for All.

Wed like to invite you to our Napa community forum: Single Payer/Medicare for All: What it means for your family, your doctor, and your community. Guest speakers include Napas public health physician Dr. Karen Relucio; pediatrician Dr. Ana Malinow; and me. The forum is Wednesday, May 8 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 625 Randolph St. Participation is free. Please come with your questions.

Single payer may be a new concept for many of us, but it has a proven record in other countries. Single payer is more humane, more efficient, and less costly. Single payer is simply the right thing to do.

Dr. Kathleen M. Healey is a Napa-based physician.Ex-president says Armenian people will not beg for peace on humiliating terms

Guterres urges Lebanese politicians to put people's interests first

I went to premiere: Continuous emotions - " Spider-Man: No Way Home" (NO SPOILERS)

Aliyev says Baku is ready to increase gas supplies to Europe

Armenia plans to restore 45 km of railway section leading to Azerbaijan

Edinson Cavani to accept Barcelona's offer

Jennifer Garner's friends upset by Ben Affleck's words

Russian peacekeepers ensure safe passage of over 400 vehicles to and from Nagorno-Karabakh per day

Expert forecasts inflation rate in Armenia by the end of the year

US Air Force hypersonic missile test reportedly failed

Apple online store in Turkey raises gadget prices by 25% again due to falling lira

Lewandowski surpasses Gerd Muller's record, repeating Ronaldo's record

Netflix to release a reality show about Tik Tok

Inter defeat Salernitana 5-0

Voice of America: Warlick: Issue of status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved

India, France discuss co-production of defense equipment

European diplomats say 'some technical progress' has been made in talks over Iran nuclear deal

Belarusian FM thanks Azerbaijani counterpart for stance that Azerbaijan expressed at Eastern Partnership Summit

Armenia Investigative Committee chairman Argishti Kyramyan awarded Medal for Merit in Karabakh

Lazio beat Genoa

Armenia Ombudsman issues statement about his term of office and claims of the authorities

Armenia ex-MP Rafik Petrosyan dies at 81

Mayor of Armenia's Kajaran Manvel Paramazyan is released on bail

Ex-mayor of Armenia's Abovyan appointed Water Committee Chairman

Messi, Mbappe, Neymar, Ramos congratulate on occasion of Qatar National Day

Armenia ruling party's candidate Diana Gasparyan assumes position of Mayor of Vagharshapat

Armenia's Sevan has new mayor

Peskov on friendly ties between Putin and Erdogan

Edinson Cavani wants to move to FC Barcelona

Peskov: Putin and Biden are not friends

Karabakh President meets with representatives of 3 parliamentary factions

9 teams of South America to join UEFA Nations League

Armenian army generals express willingness to be personal guarantor for Ashot Minasyan

Deputy Mayor of Armenia's Goris Menua Hovsepyan released on bail

Yerevan Council of Elders to convene special session to express lack of confidence in mayor on Dec. 22

NEWS.am daily digest: 17.06.21

Weigand briefs Sarkissian on UNICEF Armenia programs

23 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

Armenia ruling party MP Armen Khachatryan summoned to National Security Service

Dollar rises again after long drop in Armenia

Dutch figures receive state awards of Armenia

Coordinating committee set up for implementation of Armenia obligations under ECHR

Another trial against captured Armenians in Baku

Armenia Ombudsman candidate refuses to comment on parliamentary speaker's and PM's statements on POWs

Armenia's Varazdat Lalayan becomes silver medalist, Gor Minasyan takes home bronze medal

Azerbaijan army tanks fail to defeat 2 Armenian soldiers

Wearing face masks outdoors no longer mandatory in Armenia

Opposition 'Armenia' Faction MP: We are launching process of resignation of Prosecutor General

Demonstration in front of Armenia Prosecutor General's Office concludes

Sole candidate is elected Yerevan State University rector

Opposition Prosperous Armenia Party candidate is elected mayor of Abovyan

Protest underway outside Armenia attorney general's office

Armenia ruling party candidate is elected mayor of Talin town

Earthquake hits Armenia-Georgia border zone

Demonstrators march to Armenia Prosecutor General's Office

Henrikh Mkhitaryan: If we can maintain our spot in B League, it won't be bad

Aliyev, Overchuk discuss Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan trilateral commission activities

Armenia MFA on discussions of granting Azerbaijan observer status in EEU: That issue requires consensus decision

Ronaldo and Rodriguez reveal genders of twins

US court orders Alec Baldwin to provide law enforcement officers with access to data on the phone

Protest against recent arrests being held outside Armenia Supreme Judicial Council building

Karabakh President receives Armenia Investigative Committee chief

Sex and the City star accused of rape

US official lauds Armenia participation in Summit for Democracy

Armenia new ombudsperson candidate matter debated on in parliament committee

Yerevan State University electing new rector, protest being staged at main building

Ned Price: US welcomes Armenia PM-Azerbaijan president meetings in Brussels

Large number of police forces on duty in Armenias Talin

Yerevan city council opposition Luys Faction to not join no-confidence motion against mayor

193 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

World gold prices going up

Russia peacekeepers in Artsakh take anti-Covid measures at observation posts

World oil prices dropping

Armenia Security Council chief in US, meets with analysts at Atlantic Council event

Famous Mexico actress killed while waiting for son

Newspaper: Armenia natural increase drops, mortality increases

Newspaper: Mayor Marutyan negotiating with Yerevan city council members

Which foods increase risk of developing dementia, Alzheimer's?

Yerevan Mayor: I have never met with ex-President Robert Kocharyan

Copa del Rey: Cadiz reach Round of 32, with Armenias Haroyan

Premier League: Liverpool beat Newcastle

Premier League: Chelsea, Everton play draw

5 Australia schoolchildren die after falling from bouncy castle

Copa del Rey: Valencia win in extra time

Armen Ashotyan: No provision on use of force against Armenia, Artsakh in Eastern Partnership Summit resolution

"My Step" faction of Yerevan Council of Elders nominates deputy mayor to replace Hayk Marutyan

Stratfor: Normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations will essentially increase Turkey's influence in the region

Head of ruling faction of Yerevan Council of Elders: Mayor left Civil Contract Party a year ago

Armenia Parliament Speaker announces end of second sitting of 8th convocation of National Assembly

Armenia-Russia Interparliamentary Committee holds 33rd session, regional issues touched upon as well

US releases about 1,500 John F. Kennedy assassination documents

Armenia government to pay salaries and benefits of employees of Nairit Factory

Armenia government to provide assistance to citizens having lost property in Shurnukh and Vorotan for 5 more months

Armenia Deputy PM Hambardzum Matevosyan receives Russia Ambassador

Armenia Parliament Deputy Speaker discusses return of POWs, Artsakh status with Poland Ambassador

Armenia citizen tries to approach PM, apprehended

Mayoral candidate of Armenia's Vanadzor Mamikon Aslanyan is arrested

Four more members of Real Madrid test positive for COVID-19

NEWS.am daily digest: 16.12.21

Roma want to purchase Hoffenheim's midfielderDeath toll in Sri Lanka blasts has risen to 160 as a result of six blasts that targeted hotels and churches in Sri Lanka, News First reported.

According to AP, the number of injured reached 500. An official told AP that at least two of the blasts were suspected to have been caused by suicide bombers.

Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe said he strongly condemns the cowardly attacks on the Sri Lanka people today.

I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation, he tweeted.

Education minister of Sri Lanka said the lessons in schools and universities have been canceled.

Minister of economic reforms Harsha de Silva tweeted there are many casualties including foreigners.

The blasts occurred in a Catholic church and three hotels in Colombo as well as in two churches in Negombo and Batticaloa.Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II delivered a message on the occasion of the Feast of the Resuccection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In the Name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

God has risen, and all of his enemies have been scattered.

(Book of Hours)

Dearly beloved faithful,

The joy of the Feast of the Holy Resurrection has filled our souls, and the victorious exuberance of the Resurrection is to be found everywhere: in our surroundings, our churches, our families, the entire Christian world, as well as in the budding nature. Christ has triumphantly arisen from the sealed cave, and the angel announces the Good News of His Resurrection from the empty tomb. The chains of sin and death have been shattered by the victory of the Saviour, the doors to the Heavenly Kingdom have been opened, and divine grace is offered to humanity  the priceless gift of inheriting eternal life. I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11.25-26).

The path of eternal life and resurrection in Christ begins in this world. It begins with a change in the life of the person, the rejection of sin and evil, and with a movement toward a way of holiness and perfection. Indeed, wherever human souls are exposed to the light of Christs resurrection, there also the darkness of God-rejecting evil thoughts, corrupting ideologies, divisions and polarizations, intolerance, enmity and dissensions retreat and are scattered. In their stead, cooperation and agreement, faithfulness, holiness, love and happiness are established. God has risen, and all of his enemies have been scattered, proclaims the prayer.

Those paths, which reject renewal in Christ, making life captive to sin and subject to corrosion and destruction, are antithetical to peace in the world, the public welfare, the harmonious coexistence of humanity, the strengthening of families, and all that is good.

The Good News of the resurrection of Christ is an invitation to all  to live in the graces bestowed upon us by the Saviour as a new person, as the Apostle exhorts and says, put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4.22-24). To believe in the resurrection of Christ and our resurrection through Christ as well as transformation of our life, means not only to overcome sin, addictions and spiritual error, but also to be filled with love toward all and to reject everything that tramples justice, dignity and all that is human. It also means striving to spread care and general goodwill as did Christ, who came and saved all creatures (Sharakan - Hymnal). Greed, theft, violence, hatred, enmity and other manifestations of blindness to Gods commandments have no place in the life of the Christian who has received the grace of the Resurrection. Such deeds reject the grace of freedom in Christ from sin and death, they destroy good and undermine the well-being of the human person, the family unit, and national life. Freedom is given in order to choose good and not as a pretense for evil and unruliness (cf. 1 Peter 2.16). Truly, being an heir of the grace of the Resurrection is made apparent in ones lifestyle and deeds, not only personal and familial, but in the help rendered and efforts brought in the life of the public, nation and humanity. Faith is made radiant and fruit-bearing, hope increases, love of others is affirmed as we move forward together.

The passions and resurrection of Christ for our sake and for all humanity, are the expression of divine, boundless love. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (2 Cor 5.15). Love, dearly beloved, does not focus on the self, it does not look for its own benefit (1 Cor 13.5), but rather it is expressed in dedication toward one another and is the foundation of flourishing, ascension and resurrection. It is this great message that Our Lord and Saviour passes on to humanity through His own example. The resurrection of the Lord manifests the mystery of solidarity, community and accord to the world. Christ brought his service to all, and in a similar manner we too must live with each other in a spirit of service, dedication and commitment. It is with this understanding, that we will be able to overcome the difficulties that afflict our state and pan-national life, to solve the problems befallen to us, to strengthen families, to defend steadfastly and build up both our homeland and our diasporan national life. Our peoplewhich accepted Christ as its Saviour and have risen from the ashes of history in faithfulness and the love of the Lord  will today with that same faith and strength continue to fortify its victories and accomplishments. Now, dearly beloved, let us always keep the light and power of Christs resurrection in our lives and in our land, sanctified by the descent of Christ, and continually be renewed by the grace bestowed upon us by our Saviour. Doing so, we will be able to join together toward a revival of a strong homeland and toward new horizons in our life, testifying, that we are a people resurrected in Christ; we are the people of Christ, Gods own people.

In the exuberant Good News of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, We convey our greetings to the incumbents of the hierarchical sees of our Apostolic Holy Church: His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Abp. Nourhan Manougian, the Vicar General of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, His Eminence Abp. Aram Ateshian, to the spiritual leaders of our sister Churches in supplication for the fruitfulness of their service. With patriarchal blessing we greet and bring our well-wishes to the President of the Republic of Armenia, Mr. Armen Sarkissian and to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Mr. Nikol Pashinyan. We extend our greetings to the President of the Republic of Artsakh, Mr. Bako Sahakyan, and to the state officials of Armenia. On this graceful occasion of the Resurrection we convey our best wishes to the representatives of the diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia. We express Our love and blessings to the clergy of our Holy Church and to all our faithful people.

On this grace-filled day of the Holy Resurrection we pray, that the grace of our Saviours Resurrection work miracles in the world; that people be renewed by the good intensions and fulfillment of life, peace and unity and that they may be one family under divine blessing. We ask again that in this year, dedicated to the family, our family ties may become strong and radiant with the light of Christs resurrection, full of love, solidarity and happiness. May the Lord protect our people in his boundless love, and keep the light and joy of the resurrection aflame in our hearts, in our country and in the entire world.

May the grace, love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ remain with us and with all. Amen

Christ is risen from the dead,

Blessed is the Resurrection of ChristSeven people were arrested over explosions in Sri Lanka, local News First website reported not giving other details.

The death toll in eight explosions has risen to 190, over 500 people were injured. According to reports, 35 foreigners.

As reported by AFP, the last explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber, three police officers were killed as well.

A curfew has been declared in Sri Lanka, classes in schools and universities have been canceled.

The authorities decided to temporarily bloc the access to social media and messengers to prevent distribution of unverified and false reports.

World leaders extended condolences to the leadership and people of Sri Lanka. Donald Trump said the United States are ready to provide assistance.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned the coward attack and said they are clarifying whether Armenian nationals were affected.YEREVAN.  Armenias Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has sent a condolence cable to President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena on the acts of terrorism carried out during Easter celebrations, which left hundreds of innocent people dead or injured.

The letter of condolence reads, in part: I express my deepest condolences to you and to the friendly people of Sri Lanka on the horrific terrorist acts perpetrated during Easter celebrations that left hundreds of innocent people dead or injured.

The Republic of Armenia strongly condemns these appalling crimes and reaffirms its commitment to counter the growing tide of evil with the international community.

In this difficult time for Sri Lanka, I express my deepest condolences to you and to the families of the victims, wishing them fortitude and endurance, as well as quick recovery - to the wounded.Armenias Honorary Consul in Fresno, Berj Apkarian believes President Trump is the best chance for the U.S. to finally recognize the Armenian Genocide.

If we have any chance for this to happen, this is the moment, he said in an interview with KSEE television.

Apkarian emphasized that President Trump is known for his non-traditional approach in terms of solving sovereign issues, such as moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and proclaiming Israels sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

He is not there to pay tribute to special interests, and he knows what is the rights thing to do, he said.

He pointed to some momentum in relationship between the United States and Turkey and Washingtons dismay over purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia.

Apkarian emphasized that changes in relationship could cause major fraction which could trigger president Trump to do the right thing.

Armenias Honorary Consul does not share the view that some American politicians treat the Armenian Genocide commemoration events as a fundraiser. He added that especially congressional representatives from LA area and Central Valley care about the matter, they are sympathetic and they want the issue to be resolved.The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]Silver Shadow, a foreign passenger cruise with around 400 tourists from United States & United Kingdom at Porbandar Port.

The foreign tourists pay a visit to Mahatma Gandhis birthplace KirtiMandir in Porbandar & also experiences # Gujarati culture in & around the vicinity.

Silver Shadow,a foreign passenger cruise with around 400 tourists from US & UK arrived at @ports_gmb Jetty on Porbandar Port. The foreign tourists pay a visit to Mahatma Gandhis birthplace #KirtiMandir in Porbandar & also experiences #Gujarati culture in & around the vicinity. pic.twitter.com/KmTULJEUVv  Gujarat Tourism (@GujaratTourism) April 20, 2019

Silver Shadow is a cruise ship that entered service in 2000, With passenger capacity is 382 passengers & 295 crew members. The ship was built by the Mariotti Shipyard in Genoa, Italy.The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has strongly condemned the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured, the Prime Minister said.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019(Adds defense ministry comment, updates number of casualties)

BAMAKO, April 21 (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked a Malian army base in a dawn raid on Sunday, killing 11 soldiers and burning the camp in west-central Mali, the army and a local lawmaker said.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Central Mali has in the past few years been overrun by jihadists with links to al Qaeda.

The unidentified armed assailants attacked the base in Guire district at 0500 local time (0500 GMT) after approaching in a convoy of 11 vehicles, local lawmaker Niame Keita said.

"They burnt the camp and took equipment," he said.

In a statement, the defense ministry confirmed the attack and said 11 soldiers were killed and more were wounded. Keita had earlier said 12 were reported killed.

In March, an al Qaeda affiliate said it was behind a similar overnight attack on an army base in the central region of Mopti in which 16 soldiers were killed.

Escalating violence led to the resignation last week of the entire Malian government. The authorities have come under fire for failing to beat back militants and disarm militias, after a massacre of 157 villagers by an ethnic vigilante group shocked the nation in March.

Both Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso have been hit by the spike in hostilities fueled by Islamist militants seeking to extend their influence over the Sahel, an arid region between Africa's northern Sahara desert and its southern savannas.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Souleymane Ag AnaraWriting by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Louise Heavens, William Maclean)(Adds remarks from conference)

BAGHDAD, April 20 (Reuters) - Iraq hosted senior parliamentary officials from arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran on Saturday as Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi sought to bolster his country's nascent role as a mediator in the region.

Delegations including the heads of parliament from Turkey, Kuwait, Syria and Jordan also attended the one-day conference in the Iraqi capital to discuss regional security, diplomacy and economic issues.

Abdul Mahdi recently returned from visits to Iran and Saudi Arabia, both oil-super-powers that have long been vying for dominance in the Middle East. It is unusual for Saudi and Iranian officials to attend the same events.

The Iraqi premier has said Iraq will maintain strong ties with Iran, but also with Washington and regional neighbors, many of which, like Saudi Arabia, consider Tehran a foe.

That message was echoed on Saturday by parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halboosi, who chaired the gathering in Baghdad.

"What binds us to our neighbors is our common geographical destiny and common interests," he said in a statement.

The visiting officials pledged support for reconstruction and development efforts in Iraq and for the country's continued stability following its victory over Islamic State, after three years of war, the statement said.

Abdul Mahdi met King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Riyadh, his first official trip to the kingdom since taking office six months ago.

Iraq and Saudi Arabia have been at loggerheads since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, but they have recently undertaken a diplomatic push to improve ties.

Abdul Mahdi's visit to Riyadh came 10 days after he visited Iran. During his trip to Tehran, he met President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Many of Iraq's leaders, from its Shi'ite majority, have close ties with Iran, the main Shi'ite power in the Middle East. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Raya Jalabi Writing by Raya Jalabi Editing by Helen Popper)(Updates with departure from scene; adds comments, political context)

By Jonathan Spicer

ISTANBUL, April 21 (Reuters) - The leader of Turkey's main opposition party was attacked at a soldier's funeral in Ankara before security guards led him away, in the latest fallout from contested local elections three weeks ago.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) that pulled off victories in the March 31 vote, had attended a funeral for one of four Turkish soldiers killed on Friday in clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, whose AK Party wants the election results annulled in Istanbul, had repeatedly warned during last month's campaign that PKK members were among the CHP's list of candidates.

The PKK clashes in the country's southeast on Friday prompted several pro-government newspapers to tie the soldiers' deaths to the CHP. "PKK out" was among the slogans shouted at Kilicdaroglu on Sunday, according to video footage of the incident.

Several TV broadcasters showed video in which Kilicdaroglu was hit on the head at least twice as a clutch of security guards and a police officer attempted to keep dozens of fist-pumping men away, some of whom were shouting "shame on you" and "God damn you."

Kilicdaroglu edged through the crowd to a nearby house, outside of which a crowd chanted "PKK out," according to broadcaster NTV. More than an hour later he was driven away in an armored vehicle by police officers.

"They don't want me to go to our martyrs' funerals," Kilicdaroglu, who had been attacked after a funeral in 2016, told supporters outside CHP headquarters. "They think I will step back if they attack me. I will not even take one step back."

Ankara's chief prosecutor, Yuksel Kocaman, said six attackers were identified and investigators are looking into whether the incident is terrorism related, according to state-run news agency Anadolu.

Story continues

"The incident is under control... Investigations started," said Suleyman Soylu, Turkey's interior minister. Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, also of the ruling AK Party, said: "We will not allow any kind of violence to cast a shadow on democratic politics."

UNSETTLED ELECTION

Initial results and a series of recounts showed that the CHP's mayoral candidates in Ankara and Istanbul defeated those from the AK Party (AKP), painful losses for Erdogan.

Yet the AKP has submitted two petitions to cancel and re-run the vote in Istanbul, citing irregularities and illegal votes and voters.

Kilicdaroglu was attending the funeral of soldier Yener Kirikci, who was among those killed Friday when PKK insurgents attacked a military base in the mountainous Hakkari province near the Iraq border. The Turkish military said six other soldiers were wounded and 20 PKK members killed in the clashes.

The PKK has waged an insurgency for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast since 1984, and is deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

One pro-government newspaper, Gunes, ran a headline on Sunday that said: "6 dead and 4 wounded, Are you happy Ekrem?" - referring to the CHP's new Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

While the High Election Board has not yet ruled on the AKP challenges, Imamoglu took office as Istanbul mayor on Wednesday. "Those who carried out the attack are not our citizens, those who did this acted upon orders," he told an Istanbul crowd on Sunday.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Yesim Dikmen and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Editing by Alison Williams and Louise Heavens)War-ravaged Afghanistan is reportedly looking to issue a sovereign bitcoin bond. | Source: Shutterstock

By CCN.com: A war-torn country left to dust and drabbles is attempting to rise back with dignity. And it plans to use bitcoin as its stick.

Afghanistan asserted at a recent Spring Meetings summit that it was looking to issue sovereign bonds to raise $5.8 billion for its infrastructure projects. Khalil Sediq, the governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, told Asia Times that it would attempt to couple bitcoin with its mostly untapped, $3 million worth Lithium market. The outcome would be a digitally signed government bond that could be issued to investors over the blockchain.

Bitcoin against Three Decades of Turmoil

The announcement followed Afghanistans economic turmoil for the last three decades. It started with a political coup in the 1970s that led to the assassination of then-president Mohammed Dauod Khan. The tensions made way for the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan. By the late 1980s, the country had become victim to the power struggles between the Soviets and the US.

When the Soviets lost in 1989, the US left Afghanistan in the hands of its then-allies, the Taliban. The Wahabbi Islamist group left no stone unturned to push the nation to the stone age. They later became the mastermind behind the shocking September 11 attacks in the US. That prompted Washington to launch one of its longest wars against the Taliban in an already-shredded Afghanistan. The conflict is now in its eighteenth year.

Such constant turmoils robbed the country of its potential economic opportunities. Afghanistans GDP fell substantially during the 1980s owing to the loss of capital, labor, infrastructure, trade, and transport. The nations 25-percent population is now unemployed and lives under poverty.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wrote in an analysis, published November 21, 2017, that Afghanistans external debt was at high risks. The report revealed that the countrys debt sustainability largely hinged on donor grants inflows  which was 39-percent of the total GDP  against substantial fiscal and external deficits. It read:

Read the full story on CCN.com.By Lamine Chikhi and Hamid Ould Ahmed ALGIERS (Reuters) - An Algerian court has summoned former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and current Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal, two close associates of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in a probe into the wasting of public money, state TV said on Saturday. They are being investigated over "dissipation of public money" and "illegal privilege," state TV said. No other details were immediately available. The move comes after army chief, Lieutenant General Gaid Salah, said last week he expected members of the ruling elite in the major oil and natural gas-producing country to be prosecuted for corruption. Bouteflika stepped down two weeks ago after 20 years in power, bowing to pressure from the army and weeks of demonstrations mainly by young people seeking change in the country. But the protests, which began on Feb. 22 and have been largely peaceful, have continued as many want the removal of an elite that has governed Algeria since independence from France in 1962 and the prosecution of people they see as corrupt. Ouyahia served several times as prime minister under Bouteflika and also heads the RND party, the coalition partner of Bouteflika's ruling FLN party. Loukal was central bank governor under the former president. Bouteflika has been replaced by Abdelkader Bensalah, head of the upper house of parliament, as interim president for 90 days until a presidential election on July 4. Hundreds of thousands protested on Friday to demand the resignation of Bensalah and other top officials. Bensalah appointed Ammar Haiwani as acting central bank governor, state TV earlier said. The position had been vacant since Loukal was made finance minister by Bouteflika before he had resigned. The army has so far patiently monitored the mostly peaceful protests that at times have swelled to hundreds of thousands of people. It remains the most powerful institution in Algeria, having swayed politics from the shadows for decades. On Tuesday Salah said the military was considering all options to resolve the national political crisis and warned that "time is running out." It was a hint that the military was losing patience with the popular upheaval shaking Algeria, a major oil and natural-gas exporter and an important security partner for the West against Islamist militants in north and west Africa. Salah did not specify measures the army could take but added, "We have no ambition but to protect our nation." (Reporting by Hesham Hajali, Lamine Chikhi and Hamid Ould AhmedWriting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Richard Chang)Miami (AFP) - Police arrested a Florida man on Friday on suspicion of threatening to kill three Democratic lawmakers and expressing his hatred for controversial Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, prosecutors said.

John Kless, 49, of Broward County, is accused of leaving expletive-strewn voicemailed death threats at the Washington offices of California Representative Eric Swalwell, Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.

He allegedly said in his message to presidential hopeful Booker that "you government officials will be in the graves where you... belong."

Kless is said to have racially abused Omar, a Somali-American former refugee, referencing a recent controversy in which she was accused -- falsely, according to her defenders -- of downplaying the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The freshman congresswoman has found herself in hot water since arriving in Washington for comments seen by critics as anti-Semitic.

Kless, who reportedly defended Donald Trump in the messages and warned the lawmakers to stop criticizing the president, has been charged with making threatening communications.

Some analysts have pointed to the US president's heated rhetoric as the catalyst for a toxic atmosphere encouraging such behavior -- a possibility the White House has rejected.

Trump recently tweeted out a video of Omar featuring footage of the World Trade Center burning juxtaposed with her comments, taken out of context to portray her attitude to the 9/11 attacks as glib.

The president's language was also criticized following an anti-Semitic massacre in Pittsburgh last year -- and during a week-long mail bombing spree that saw another Florida man target high-profile liberal political figures, Trump critics and the news outlet CNN.

Prosecutors say Kless used homophobic slurs in his message to Swalwell -- who supports same-sex marriage rights and gun control and is also vying for the presidency.

"The day you come after our guns... is the day you'll be dead," Kless is alleged to have warned the lawmaker.Vienna (AFP) - When it comes to the problem of online hate speech, the culprits behind the keyboards and smartphones can take some surprising forms -- just take 74-year-old Viennese retiree Ms H.

Angered by an article she read on the internet a year ago, the outwardly unassuming former midwife reacted with a Facebook outburst in which she said all immigrants should be poisoned on arrival in Austria.

She said the comment was "spontaneous", written in the heat of the moment.

But in the eyes of the law it could have amounted to the criminal offence of "incitement to hatred and violence".

"The police summoned me and said I didn't have the right to write that," says Ms H, adding: "I thought it wouldn't go any further than that".

However, the Austrian authorities are trying to crack down on hate speech online, a phenomenon which countries across Europe are trying to grapple with -- not least ahead of May's European elections.

Since the end of 2017, several Austrian jurisdictions -- including Vienna -- have been trying to fight online abuse through a pilot programme called "Dialogue instead of hate" ("Dialog statt Hass").

Instead of taking cases to court, prosecutors can now refer offenders to the programme, which aims to cultivate media literacy and respectful behaviour online.

- Offenders 'emboldened' -

The programme consists of a six-month course of 15 modules, covering topics such as disinformation, human rights, the workings of Facebook's news feed algorithm and dissecting tabloid headlines.

The aim is to show participants how to "express one's point of view without denigrating others," explains Nikolaus Tsekas, head of the Vienna branch of Neustart, the crime prevention and rehabilitation NGO behind the course.

The initiative comes amid rising international concern over the conduct of political campaigns online.

In Austria the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), the junior party in the governing coalition, has been accused by the opposition and by rights activists of stoking tensions with hostile rhetoric towards immigrants and asylum seekers.

Story continues

The anti-racist NGO SOS Mitmensch has collated 20 messages from FPOe officials in the space of a year which could be considered Islamophobic.

The instructors at Neustart says those messages embolden others to repeat the same language.

"We often see people who say: 'Politicians say it, why can't I?'," says Tsekas.

Last November, a local FPOe politician was himself sent on an online course run by Neustart after a racist, homophobic Facebook post.

- No brainwashing -

Along with homophobic comments, use of racist and Islamophobic language leads to the vast majority of referrals to Neustart so far.

Most of those sent for training are men between the ages of 40 and 60 and the first steps are often tricky.

Speaking to AFP at her fifth session, Ms H was still of the belief that "there's no freedom of speech, we don't have the right to say what we think".

Her adviser Wioletta Ruehrer says this a typical reaction.

Her work with Ms H will consist primarily of "understanding her life story, her fears, seeing whether she herself has ever been discriminated against".

In this way she hopes to create empathy for the targets of abusive language.

Another Neustart client tells of how he was a reluctant participant at the beginning of the course but ended up wanting further sessions.

"My opinions, my points of view haven't changed," says the voluble middle-aged Viennese man.

"But the conversations with the advisor were interesting, they made me reflect and I understand how some language can be degrading," he adds.

The advisor in question, Dana Pajkovic, explains that "it was new for him to be confronted with different opinions".

The client says that since the training he has learnt to "take a step back from the articles.

"I don't get carried away with the titles, I say to myself: 'They're trying to wind you up again!'"

"Taking the time to recognise these difference, to listen to these people, is crucial," says Tsekas.

"The idea isn't to transform FPOe voters into left-wing activists."

But the programme has a long way to go -- despite the torrent of abusive comments posted online, "Dialogue instead of hate" only dealt with 73 cases in 2018.

It will be rolled out across Austria this summer.

The government is also considering making it mandatory for big internet platforms to register users to prevent anonymous hate postings -- although both of the clients who spoke to AFP posted under their own names.The Daily Beast

Doug Mills/GettyWhen it comes to pulling off coups in 2021, Donald Trump is 0 for 2. The latest, of course, being his failed effort to depose Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.I recently documented how Trumps political endorsements dont matter much in the outside game of GOP primary elections. It turns out, neither do his condemnations in the inside game of Senate leadership contests. At least, thats what this Politico headline suggests: GOP blows off Trumps bid to oust McConnell.As tThe 19th century had steel. The 20th century had petroleum. It's still early, but it appears the 21st century might just be shaped and molded by lithium. The white metal is increasingly important for energy storage devices and electric vehicles, and it's even an important component in the lightweight alloys used to manufacture fuel tanks for SpaceX rockets.

If that doesn't draw investors to the lithium value chain, then it might only take one look at the growth trajectory. Global demand for lithium is expected to climb from only 175,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in 2015 to as much as 1.2 million metric tons of LCE by 2025.

When it comes to investment opportunities, investors are sure to come across two of the largest lithium producers on the planet: Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) and Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) (NYSE: SQM). But one business is better positioned to meet the growing needs of customers than the other.

A businessman wearing boxing gloves.

Image source: Getty Images.

The matchup

Albemarle turned in a solid year of operations in 2018. Total revenue and gross profit each grew 10% year over year, while operating profit climbed 23%, excluding gains from asset sales. As has been the case for the past several years, the business is being driven by its lithium segment.

While the lithium segment made up 36% of total revenue, it was responsible for 47.5% of total adjusted EBITDA. Albemarle's other segments, bromine specialties and catalysts, weren't exactly slouches; it's simply that strong selling prices for lithium products are providing incredible margins. Thanks to the rapid build-out of battery manufacturing facilities across the globe by automakers and their joint venture partners, the strong fundamentals of the lithium market are expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future.

That's also driving capital investment decisions among lithium producers. Albemarle has seven separate expansion projects on tap that are expected to come online between this year and 2025 -- or sooner, depending on market demand. The first wave will boost annual production capacity from 65,000 metric tons of LCE at the end of 2018 to as much as 175,000 metric tons by the end of 2021, while the second wave could increase that up to 350,000 metric tons by 2025. Considering that a significant amount of the expansion capacity is already entered into long-term offtake agreements, investors should feel pretty good about the company's long-term future.

Story continues

A lithium brine mining operation.

A lithium brine mining operation. Image source: Getty Images.

SQM didn't enjoy the same all-around operational strength in 2018 as Albemarle, but it achieved growth where it mattered most. Revenue from its lithium segment grew 14% year over year, outpacing total revenue growth of 5% in that span. Recovering selling prices for agricultural fertilizers led to a 12% year-over-year increase in revenue for the segment, the company's largest, while expansion efforts in the iodine business paid off with 29% revenue growth compared with 2017.

That said, the lithium segment remains the driving force for the company, accounting for 53% of total gross profit for it last year. SQM estimates the global lithium market grew 27% year over year in 2018 and anticipates at least 20% growth in 2019.

Soaring demand for lithium underpins the expansion strategy of SQM, too. The company sold 45,100 metric tons of LCE in 2018 -- a nearly 5% decline from 2017, believe it or not -- but has plans to grow annual production capacity to 180,000 metric tons by the mid-2020s.

A man crunching numbers on a calculator.

Image source: Getty Images.

By the numbers

Both Albemarle and SQM are enjoying impressive growth from their lithium segments. Both businesses have plans for impressive expansion. But, somewhat curiously, despite having a smaller overall operational footprint, SQM is the larger company ranked by market cap right now. Perhaps Chile's lithium leader is being rewarded for its higher dividend yield or its more diverse operations. Or, most likely, because it has consistently delivered higher rates of return on invested capital than its peer since at least 2005. But that gap has begun to close in the last 12 months (albeit, it's just 12 months), and there's no denying SQM is more expensive than Albemarle in several important valuation metrics.

Metric Albemarle SQM Market cap $8.7 billion $9.9 billion 5-year stock return (including dividends) 36% 49% Dividend yield 1.8% 3.2% Forward PE 12.1 16.8 PEG ratio 1.0 2.7 Price to sales 2.6 4.3

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

The discrepancy in current valuations makes even less sense when investors consider the expected divergence in lithium production just over the horizon. While both companies exited 2018 with roughly the same annual production capacity, Albemarle could have close to double SQM's lithium output by 2025. That might settle the score for investors with a long-term mindset.

The better buy is...

Based on valuation metrics and a more ambitious expansion in lithium, Albemarle is the better buy in this matchup. Although SQM pays a higher dividend yield, and could be sitting on a gold mine should fertilizer prices reach historic levels in the next decade, Albemarle's plan to absolutely dominate the global lithium market by 2025 is a significant advantage that outweighs just about everything else in this comparison. It just has to execute its expansion strategy and bring new production capacity online on time and on budget.

More From The Motley Fool

Maxx Chatsko has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Many investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE). To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX:BSL).

Over the last twelve months BlueScope Steel has recorded a ROE of 25%. Another way to think of that is that for every A$1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn A$0.25.

View our latest analysis for BlueScope Steel

How Do I Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit  Shareholders' Equity

Or for BlueScope Steel:

25% = AU$1.8b  AU$7.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.)

Most readers would understand what net profit is, but its worth explaining the concept of shareholders equity. It is all the money paid into the company from shareholders, plus any earnings retained. You can calculate shareholders' equity by subtracting the company's total liabilities from its total assets.

What Does ROE Signify?

ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, all else being equal, a high ROE is better than a low one. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses.

Does BlueScope Steel Have A Good Return On Equity?

Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. However, this method is only useful as a rough check, because companies do differ quite a bit within the same industry classification. As you can see in the graphic below, BlueScope Steel has a higher ROE than the average (14%) in the Metals and Mining industry.

ASX:BSL Past Revenue and Net Income, April 20th 2019

That is a good sign. I usually take a closer look when a company has a better ROE than industry peers. For example you might check if insiders are buying shares.

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How Does Debt Impact ROE?

Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking.

Combining BlueScope Steel's Debt And Its 25% Return On Equity

Although BlueScope Steel does use debt, its debt to equity ratio of 0.13 is still low. Its ROE is very impressive, and given only modest debt, this suggests the business is high quality. Judicious use of debt to improve returns can certainly be a good thing, although it does elevate risk slightly and reduce future optionality.

But It's Just One Metric

Return on equity is useful for comparing the quality of different businesses. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. All else being equal, a higher ROE is better.

Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. So you might want to take a peek at this data-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company.

But note: BlueScope Steel may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

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.Cardi B, charged with multiple counts of assault and reckless endangerment in connection with a brawl in a Queens strip club last summer, appeared in court in New York on Friday and rejected a plea deal that would have kept her out of jail.

The Queens District Attorney's Office said the platinum-selling and Grammy-winning rapper rejected a deal that would have allowed her to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count and be released under certain conditions instead of serving time in jail.

It was not clear why she rejected the deal. Her lawyer, Jeff Kern, did not return calls from USA TODAY.

Cardi B arrives at Queens Criminal Court in New York for a hearing on her alleged involvement in a strip club brawl, on April 19, 2019.

Her next court date is May 31.

She posted a picture of herself on Instagram in her go-to-court outfit, featuring a white tunic and palazzo pants with white sandals.

Belcalis Almanzar (her real name), 26, was arrested and charged last October with multiple misdemeanor counts stemming from an early morning melee at Angels Gentlemen's Club in Queens in August. Police said she instigated the fight and members of her entourage carried it out.

The police report says a fight broke out during which chairs, bottles and hookah water pipes were thrown, injuring two women, including the bartender.

Her rejection of the plea deal means the original charges against her remain. Also, she has been ordered not to have any contact with the two injured employees, including comments on social media.

If she is convicted, she could face up to one year in jail.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cardi B rejects plea deal in strip club brawl case, facing up to one year in jailLeoben (Austria) (AFP) - Every two weeks, Alena Konecna packs her bags to leave her own mother and daughter at home in Slovakia and travel some 400 kilometres (250 miles) across the border into Austria to take care of someone else's mother.

As citizens across the continent prepare to vote in May's European Parliament elections, 40-year-old Konecna is an example of those who regularly take advantage of one of the EU's most important pillars: the free movement of labour.

She's one of more than 65,000 people -- mostly women from Slovakia and Romania -- who form the backbone of Austria's domestic care sector.

For two weeks at a time, Konecna stays with the 89-year-old bedridden woman to cook and care for her.

"Without care workers from abroad, the 24-hour care system would break down... No one (in Austria) wants to do it," says Klaus Katzianka, who runs the agency that found Konecna her current job and who himself needs round-the-clock care due to a disability.

But the arrangement may be coming under strain.

- Demographic time bomb -

Austria -- along with other countries such as Germany, Greece and Italy -- looked to poorer neighbouring states after the fall of communism to meet the need for carers generated by an ageing population and changing family structures.

But it is "problematic to build a system on this," says Kai Leichsenring, executive director of the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research.

As eastern European nations become richer and their own populations age, workers there may increasingly choose to stay put, he warns.

Western European nations would then have to look further afield -- to Ukraine or China, for example -- to meet the ever-growing demand.

In Konecna's case, she started to work as a caregiver more than two years ago in the town of Leoben, nestled amid mountains in the Austrian countryside, which reminds her of her home in Banska Bystrica in Slovakia.

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Previously the single mother worked in a factory in the car industry.

Fed up with the long shifts and inspired by her mother's erstwhile career as a nurse, in 2015 she took a three-month course in first aid and care skills, including some practical experience in nursing homes.

She also took a one-month German course, allowing her to watch TV with her employer and read newspapers to her.

Care workers can earn roughly double as much in Austria than in Slovakia, although Konecna says it's hard to leave behind her daughter, now 19.

"My daughter was often sick when I was away. And I have missed things like my daughter's birthday," she says, adding she would prefer working in Slovakia if wages were better there.

- 'Italy syndrome' -

Besides being separated from their families, there are other problems in how the sector works across Europe.

A study by the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz found inadequate training, extreme working hours and salaries below the legal minimum wage.

Up to 300,000 caregivers are estimated to work in private homes in Germany, mostly illegally. They previously hailed mostly from Poland but now increasingly come from poorer EU states such as Romania and Slovakia.

Konecna was put off going to Germany by the more gruelling cycle which is common there, with workers staying three months at a time.

For many of those from poorer EU member states working in the West, workplace conditions can leave lasting effects.

In Romania, more than 150 women were hospitalised at Socola Psychiatric Hospital in the country's northeast last year alone, their mental health having suffered after caring for the elderly abroad -- what has become known as the "Italy syndrome".

"I had the misfortune to work all the time for elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's so I spent most of my time between four walls, under constant pressure," says one former hospital patient, a 58-year-old mother of two who worked in Italy from 2002 until 2014.

"I devoted the most beautiful years of my life to elderly Italians."

- 'Big minus' -

Added to the stress of such jobs, there are signs that EU migrant workers like Konecna may come under fire from their host governments.

Last year in Austria for example, the right-wing government decided to cut the amount of child benefit paid to foreigners who work in Austria but whose children live abroad in lower income countries.

With a monthly salary of about 1,200 euros ($1,400), Konecna says the changes have meant an effective pay cut of 80 euros, a "big minus" for her.

Katzianka, who fears difficulties to find carers from Slovakia now, has hired a lawyer for Konecna to contest the change.

Romania has also protested to the European Commission over the change, saying it violates EU principles of equal treatment.

burs-jza/jsk/rlREUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

A series of coordinated bomb blasts at churches and hotels across Sri Lanka killed more than 200 people and left hundreds more injured on Easter Sunday in one of the worst bouts of violence in the island nation since civil war ended a decade ago.

Four luxury hotels and three Catholic churches were among the highly populated areas that were targeted, according to the Associated Press. Officials told the AP that at least two of the blasts were carried out by suicide bombers.

Late Sunday, Sri Lankas Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena said authorities apprehended several people suspected of being involved in the attacks, according to the Associated Press. Three police officers were reportedly killed during operations to arrest the suspects.

A further improvised device was found at Bandaranaike International Airport by the Sri Lankan Air Force overnight Sunday. A PVC pipe which was six feet in length containing explosives in it was discovered, Air Force Spokesman Gihan Seneviratne told Sri Lankas main newspaper the Sunday Times.

Two senior intelligence officials told The Daily Beast that a Sri Lankan police official had alerted security officials in an advisory ten days ago about a threat on churches though it remains unseen what, if any, safety measures were taken to protect worshipers. The document, which has been reviewed by The Daily Beast is written in Sinhala, but is dated April 11 and clearly states in English in all caps, Information of an alleged plan attack.

Sri Lankas prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said he had not been informed, underscoring tensions within the government, the New York Times reported. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the calculated attacks.

Both the Associated Press and AFP quoted local Sri Lankan intelligence officials that they had received warnings that terrorist elements, including the radical Islamic organization NTJ, would carry out a suicide attack in certain churches during Easter.

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement Sunday confirming that several Americans had been killed in the attacks. While many details of the attacks are still emerging, we can confirm that several U.S. citizens were among those killed, he wrote in a statement. These vile attacks are a stark reminder of why the United States remains resolved in our fight to defeat terrorism.

Officials told the Associated Press that at least nine foreigners are among those killed in Colombo, including two people who are dual citizens of the United States and the U.K. At least one American is among those reported missing, the news site said citing the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The dead include one Portuguese citizen and two U.K. citizens, the ministry said.

Chinese State Media has confirmed death of one of its citizens, per the AP. All of the foreigners were killed in attacks on hotels.

Emergency officials were still combing through the bomb sites for victims as night set in Sunday, but more tourists and foreign nationals are considered to be among the dead.

The New York Times reports that the deadliest attack occurred at 8:45 a.m. at the St. Sebastian Catholic Church in the city of Negombo about 20 miles from the capital city of Colombo. Survivors posted photos on social media and described seeing bodies blown to bits, with flesh splattered on the church walls.

It was a river of blood, a witness named N. A. Sumanapala, t0ld the Times. The priest came out and he was covered in blood.

The Catholic churches of St. Anthonys Shrine in Colombo and the Zion Church in Batticaloa on the eastern side of the island were also bombed, according to reports.

Pope Francis, who visited the country four years ago to minister to the island nations Christian minority, expressed his condolences in his Easter Sunday mass in St. Peters Square in Rome. I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence, he said. I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event.

Local media showed images of damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels. One report showed the second-floor restaurant of the Shangri-La gutted.

Sri Lanka has not seen such violence since the end of a 26-year civil war that ended over a decade ago. Then, rebels from the Tamil Tigers sought independence from the countrys Sinhala Buddhist majority.

Sri Lankas prime minsiter Ranil Wickremesinghe called for calm on Twitter. I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong, he wrote. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.

The BBC reported that British nationals were among the injured. Prime Minister Theresa May called the attacks truly appalling adding no one should ever have to practice their faith in fear.

U.S. President Donald Trump also tweeted his condolences, The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!

The attacks sent officials around the world into high gear taking precautions at churches in preparation for Easter celebrations.

A spokesperson for the NYPD confirmed to The Daily Beast that the department has ramped up domestic security measures in the wake of the attacks, and that officers will be visiting all houses of worship, with a focus Sunday on those offering Easter services.

With reporting from Pervaiz Shallwani and Victoria Albert

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereWASHINGTON  Top House Democrats said Sunday they will decide soon whether to pursue impeachment against President Donald Trump, while Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani argued that it would have been OK for the president to have accepted Russia's help during the 2016 election.

"Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, adding that he wants to see where the facts lead.

Giuliani, meanwhile, said there would not have been anything necessarily wrong with Trump and campaign aides receiving opposition research from the Russians about Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Giuliani also said Trump would have been within his rights to have Mueller fired, a key event behind claims that Trump tried to obstruct justice.

There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians," Giuliani said on CNN's State of the Union. "It depends on where it came from.

Donald Trump and Robert Mueller

Trump aides and Democratic leaders took to the Sunday interview shows to debate the Mueller report, which said that there was no evidence of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russians who sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

The report also said Trump and his campaign welcomed the help from the Russians, including stolen emails from Democrats and the use of social media to push fake news about Clinton.

The report listed 10 episodes in which Trump tried to interfere in the investigation, including his demands to aides at one point that Mueller be removed from his post. Mueller's team said it did not determine whether Trump's actions amounted to obstruction of justice in a legal sense, and suggested Congress might want to take up the issue.

Describing parts of the Mueller report as "warped" and "biased," Giuliani said there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He also said there would be no problem with a campaign accepting documents stolen by another country, even an adversary like Russia.

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"It depends on the stolen material," Giuliani said on NBC's Meet The Press. He compared it to the 1971 media publications of the Pentagon Papers, Vietnam-era documents that had been stolen from the government by a third party.

Giuliani's comments drew criticism across the political spectrum.

"Legitimate opposition researchers never take help from foreign adversaries," said John J. Pitney, Jr., who did research for the Republicans back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Now a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College, Pitney said that "if I had pulled that kind of stunt, my boss would have called the FBI and fired me."

At another point, Giuliani defended Trump's past praise of WikiLeaks, which did release stolen Democratic emails and thereby provided fodder for the Trump campaign. "They were putting out things that were true and very, very damaging to Hillary Clinton," he said on NBC.

In a series of contentious Sunday show interviews, Giuliani also said the president had the right to fire Mueller because he had staff members who were pro-Clinton and biased against Trump. Had that happened, he said, Trump would have expected a new person come in and take over the investigation.

"There's an alternative explanation," Trump told Fox News Sunday.

House Democrats disputed Giuliani's analysis, and said they would hold hearings on the Mueller report, including one featuring the special counsel himself. Nadler, who wants to see portions of the report that were redacted by Attorney General William Barr, said Democrats will be meeting in the coming days to plan the next steps of investigation.

"We have to hear from Barr, we have to hear from Mueller," Nadler said to NBC's Meet The Press. "We have to get the entire report."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC's This Week that impeachment is a difficult decision. One reason: Even if the Democratic-run House votes to impeach the president, it is highly unlikely the Republican-run Senate would vote to convict and remove him from office; it may not even take up the matter.

"I think what we are going to have to decide as a (Democratic) caucus is, what is the best thing for the country?" Schiff said. "Is it the best thing for the country to take up an impeachment proceeding because to do otherwise sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with office? Or is it in the best interest of the country not to take up impeachment that we know will not be successful because the Republican leadership will not do its duty?"

As he has throughout the weekend, Trump himself  who initially hailed the Mueller report as vindication  continued to attack some of its critical findings.

"The Trump Haters and Angry Democrats who wrote the Mueller Report were devastated by the No Collusion finding!" he tweeted on Easter Sunday from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "Nothing but a total 'hit job' which should never have been allowed to start in the first place!"

In another tweet, Trump predicted that upcoming hearings would hurt the Democrats politically: "The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time. This is costing our Country greatly, and will cost the Dems big time in 2020!"

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats 'may' pursue impeachment against Donald Trump as Giuliani defends presidentIf you own shares in Dalian Port (PDA) Company Limited (HKG:2880) then it's worth thinking about how it contributes to the volatility of your portfolio, overall. In finance, Beta is a measure of volatility. Modern finance theory considers volatility to be a measure of risk, and there are two main types of price volatility. The first category is company specific volatility. This can be dealt with by limiting your exposure to any particular stock. The other type, which cannot be diversified away, is the volatility of the entire market. Every stock in the market is exposed to this volatility, which is linked to the fact that stocks prices are correlated in an efficient market.

Some stocks see their prices move in concert with the market. Others tend towards stronger, gentler or unrelated price movements. Some investors use beta as a measure of how much a certain stock is impacted by market risk (volatility). While we should keep in mind that Warren Buffett has cautioned that 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk', beta is still a useful factor to consider. To make good use of it you must first know that the beta of the overall market is one. A stock with a beta below one is either less volatile than the market, or more volatile but not corellated with the overall market. In comparison a stock with a beta of over one tends to be move in a similar direction to the market in the long term, but with greater changes in price.

See our latest analysis for Dalian Port (PDA)

What we can learn from 2880's beta value

Zooming in on Dalian Port (PDA), we see it has a five year beta of 0.85. This is below 1, so historically its share price has been rather independent from the market. This suggests that including it in your portfolio will reduce volatility arising from broader market movements, assuming your portfolio's weighted average beta is higher than 0.85. Share price volatility is well worth considering, but most long term investors consider the history of revenue and earnings growth to be more important. Take a look at how Dalian Port (PDA) fares in that regard, below.

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SEHK:2880 Income Statement, April 21st 2019

Could 2880's size cause it to be more volatile?

Dalian Port (PDA) is a fairly large company. It has a market capitalisation of HK$28b, which means it is probably on the radar of most investors. It is a little unusual to see big companies like this trade on low beta values. Oftentimes there is some other clear influence on the share price, overshadowing market volatility.

What this means for you:

The Dalian Port (PDA) doesn't usually show much sensitivity to the broader market. This could be for a variety of reasons. Typically, smaller companies have a low beta if their share price tends to move a lot due to company specific developments. Alternatively, an strong dividend payer might move less than the market because investors are valuing it for its income stream. In order to fully understand whether 2880 is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Dalian Port (PDA)s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 2880s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 2880s outlook. Past Track Record: Has 2880 been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of 2880's historicals for more clarity. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how 2880 measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with this free list of prospective options.

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.Donald Trump has lamented that no one on the White House legal team is his kind of lawyer: a bulldog who will protect him. Over the past two years, hes said he wanted lawyers who will safeguard his interests the way he believes John F. Kennedys brother Robert did as attorney general. Wheres my Roy Cohn? he reportedly asked once, referencing the notorious lawyer he worked with earlier in his career.

Don McGahn is nothing like Cohn. As White House counsel, he regularly frustrated Trump by pushing back on his ideas, in some cases flatly refusing to carry out orders, according to the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But as much as they displeased the president, McGahns efforts may have saved Trump from his worst enemy: himself.

Muellers report details how McGahn kept Trump from making potentially catastrophic decisions on how to respond to the investigation. McGahn defended Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusal from the probe, stage-managed the firing of FBI Director James Comey, declined to order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller  twice  and refused to lie to reporters about the firing attempts. Trump has not emerged unscathed from the Mueller investigation, but the fact that he has so far avoided some of the worst-case scenarios is in large part a testament to McGahn.

McGahns decisions during the Mueller probe are just one reason why he is likely to be viewed in hindsight as one of the pivotal players of Trumps first term. The former White House counsel, who left the administration last fall, also successfully shepherded two conservative judges onto the Supreme Court as well as scores of lower court judges, helping to reshape the direction of the nations judiciary. And he was one of the primary architects of the administrations push to slash a wide range of federal regulations.

The fact that McGahns recollections are in the Mueller report in such great detail is remarkable on its own. It is unusual for a lawyer to share so openly with investigators probing his client. (The New York Times reported in 2018 that McGahn was interviewed by Muellers team for more than 30 hours.) And the White House chose not to try to redact any of his testimony by asserting executive privilege. His interviews reveal numerous high-stakes battles with the President behind the scenes.

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On March 3, 2017, Trump called McGahn into the Oval Office after Sessions had recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. The President blamed McGahn, and he wanted McGahn to talk to Sessions about the recusal, according to the report. But the lawyer resisted, arguing that the Justice Department found the recusal was proper. McGahn told the President that DOJ ethics officials had weighed in on Sessionss decision to recuse, the report says. Trump was so angry that he screamed at McGahn, according to former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who was present at the meeting.

That wasnt the only time McGahn was chewed out by his boss for offering sound advice. Just one month later, on April 11, 2017, Trump admitted to McGahn that he had twice asked the FBI director to publicly announce that Trump wasnt under investigation. The President acknowledged that McGahn would not approve of the outreach to Comey, the report states, because McGahn had previously cautioned the President that he should not talk to Comey directly to prevent any perception that the White House was interfering with investigations.

After Trump fired Comey and Mueller was appointed special counsel, the fights between the President and his lawyer grew more intense. Trump was angered when Justice Department ethics officials officially cleared Mueller to serve as special counsel on May 23, and he told McGahn to call Rosenstein, who was in charge of overseeing the investigation. McGahn told the President that he would not call Rosenstein and that he would suggest that the President not make such a call either, the report said, citing contemporaneous notes taken by one of McGahns aides. McGahn advised that the President could discuss the issue with his personal attorney but it would look like he was trying to meddle in the investigation and could be used against him in an obstruction-of-justice case.

The most consequential clash between Trump and McGahn came soon after, on June 17. Trump, who was at Camp David, called McGahn at home and ordered him to have Mueller fired. According to McGahns interviews with Muellers team, Trump called him twice, both times insisting he call Rosenstein and tell him that Mueller had conflicts preventing him from serving as special counsel.

McGahn was perturbed by the call and did not intend to act on the request, the report states of McGahns feelings after the first call. The lawyer was worried the Presidents request could tip off a Saturday Night Massacre situation at the Department of Justice, akin to the famous series of resignations under President Richard Nixon. Feeling trapped, McGahn told his lawyer, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Bannon that he was resigning, according to the report. He even packed up his office. But Trump never asked him if he had followed through on the call to Rosenstein, and McGahn wound up staying on for more than a year.

On January 25, 2018, the New York Times broke the story that Trump had ordered McGahn to have Mueller fired, and that McGahn threatened to quit instead. The following day, Trump pressured McGahn to put out a statement denying the story, according to the report, but McGahn refused. Days later, another White House staffer told McGahn that Trump might fire him if he didnt refute the Times story, but McGahn dismissed the threat, saying that the optics would be terrible if the President followed through with firing him on that basis, the report says. The following day, Trump met with McGahn in the Oval Office and asked him to issue a correction. McGahn thought the President was testing his mettle, according to the report, and never publicly denied the story.

McGahn left his post in October with relatively little fanfare, shortly after Justice Brett Kavanaughs controversial Supreme Court confirmation. Though Trump butted heads with his counsel, the Mueller report makes clear how critical McGahns judgment proved to be. The Presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, the report states, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.Meghan and her mother Doria on the eve of her wedding last May [Photo: PA]

Its the news the whole world is waiting for, and now it seems we could be just days away from a royal baby announcement.

Prince Harry and Meghan are expecting their first child any day now, and while they are wanting to keep the birth as private as possible, Meghans mum Doria Ragland is thought to have finally arrived in the UK to be by her daughters side.

Sources close to the family have revealed the social worker left her bungalow in Los Angeles last week, has hired a dog-sitter, and cancelled a senior citizens yoga class she teaches.

It didn't take long for tongues to start wagging that perhaps the royal birth was responsible, a source told The Sun On Sunday.

While she has a strained relationship with her father Thomas Markle Snr, its no surprise that Meghan would want her mum there for the birth of her first child.

Doria joined Meghan and Harry for the launch of the Hubb community kitchen cookbook last September [Photo: PA]

Another source confirmed that Doria wants to spend as much time as possible with her first grandchild and is expected to stay in the UK for an extended period of time.

READ MORE: The Queen is joined by Kate, William and Harry at Easter Sunday service

It is believed she has hired a live-in-sitter to walk her pitbull cross and Yorkie dogs twice a day.

She has sometimes worried about being so far away but she is absolutely going to be there for her at the birth, the source told the publication.

A home for Doria

The royal mum-to-be and her own mother have always had a close bond. So much so that the royal couple have reportedly renovated one of Frogmore Cottages outhouses into a cosy cottage exclusively for Meghans mum to stay in when she visits.

Council documents obtained by The Express revealed the outhouse renovation, as well as a total estimated spend of over 3 million on the renovation efforts on Harry and Meghans historic Frogmore Cottage.

Meghan and Harry [Photo: PA]

Earlier reports by Vanity Fair quoted a source who hinted at the renovations, and pointed to the likelihood of Doria settling in as a semi-permanent guest.

Doria plans to be around a lot when the baby arrives, and there are plans for her to have a dedicated space at their new home, the source said.

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She wants to be on hand to help Meghan and Harry with the baby.

History-making birth

This will be the first time in history that a senior member of the UK royal familys child will have both a British parent and an American-born parent.

That means that the baby will automatically hold British citizenship, after being born in the UK, but they may be able to hold dual US citizenship  depending on Meghans citizenship status.

While its not clear whether the baby will be a dual citizen, Its widely expected that when the baby is born, he or she will not be referred to as His or Her Royal Highness (HRH), and unlike cousins George, Charlotte and Louis, wont be called prince or princess.* In Easter address, pope also calls warns of budding arms race

* Urges politicians to help refugees fleeing hunger and violence

* Calls for peaceful solutions in Libya, Syria, Venezuela

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, April 21 (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in his Easter Sunday address, condemned as "such cruel violence" the bombings in Sri Lanka that killed more than 100 people and were timed to coincide with the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar.

Francis, speaking to a crowd of about 70,000 people in St. Peter's Square, also urged politicians to shun a new arms race that was budding and to welcome refugees fleeing hunger and human rights violations.

The blasts in Sri Lanka, which hospital and police officials said killed at least 138 people and wounded more than 400 people, followed a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

"I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka," Francis said in his traditional Easter Sunday "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message.

"I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence," the pope, who visited Sri Lanka in 2015, said.

Speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, he appealed for peace in conflict areas.

"Before the many sufferings of our time, may the Lord of life not find us cold and indifferent," he said, speaking in Italian after celebrating a Mass in the square.

"May he make us builders of bridges, not walls. May the One who gives us his peace end the roar of arms, both in areas of conflict and in our cities, and inspire the leaders of nations to work for an end to the arms race and the troubling spread of weaponry, especially in the economically more advanced countries," he said.

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Francis has made defense of migrants a key feature of his pontificate and has clashed over the immigration with politicians such as U.S. President Donald Trump and Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini who leads the anti-immigrant League party and has closed Italy's ports to rescue ships operated by charities.

Easter commemorates the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead.

"May the Risen Christ, who flung open the doors of the tomb, open our hearts to the needs of the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the poor, the unemployed, the marginalized, and all those who knock at our door in search of bread, refuge, and the recognition of their dignity," Francis said.

He called for a solution to the conflict in Syria that responds to "people's legitimate hopes for freedom, peace and justice" and favors the return of refugees.

Francis urged dialog in order to end fighting in Libya, appealing to both sides to "choose dialog over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability."

He called for politicians in Venezuela "to end social injustices, abuses and acts of violence, and take the concrete steps needed to heal divisions and offer the population the help they need."

Francis encouraged the fragile peace process in mostly Christian South Sudan, whose leaders attended an unprecedented spiritual retreat earlier this month at the Vatican where he begged them to avoid returning to a civil war. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Susan Fenton)84 Dalit families to get homes under housing programme

Eighty-four impoverished Dalit families in Bajura are now hopeful of possessing houses of their own as the government authorities decided to build shelter for them under Peoples Housing Programme (PHP).Does the April share price for AptarGroup, Inc. (NYSE:ATR) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. I will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Check out our latest analysis for AptarGroup

Crunching the numbers

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow are will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$219 US$306 US$364 US$414 US$458 US$496 US$528 US$557 US$583 US$606 Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x4 Analyst x2 Est @ 18.72% Est @ 13.92% Est @ 10.56% Est @ 8.21% Est @ 6.57% Est @ 5.42% Est @ 4.61% Est @ 4.05% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 8.79% US$202 US$259 US$283 US$296 US$301 US$299 US$293 US$284 US$273 US$261

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= $2.75b

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"Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St

We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 10-year government bond rate (2.7%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 8.8%.

Terminal Value (TV) = FCF 2029  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$606m  (1 + 2.7%)  (8.8%  2.7%) = US$10b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV) = TV / (1 + r)10 = $US$10b  ( 1 + 8.8%)10 = $4.42b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is $7.17b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. This results in an intrinsic value estimate of $113.85. Compared to the current share price of $108.21, the company appears about fair value at a 5.0% discount to what it is available for right now. DCFs are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

NYSE:ATR Intrinsic value, April 21st 2019

Important assumptions

Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at AptarGroup as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.8%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.017. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business.

Next Steps:

Whilst important, DCF calculation shouldnt be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For AptarGroup, There are three fundamental factors you should further examine:

Financial Health: Does ATR have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk. Future Earnings: How does ATR's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of ATR? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every US stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search 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.KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghanistan's former President Hamid Karzai said Friday that peace in his homeland, ravaged by more than 17 years of war, will only be possible when Afghans from all sectors of society sit together and negotiate  including the Taliban.

Karzai expressed disappointment that a scheduled gathering for Afghan-to-Afghan talks in Qatar was postponed indefinitely after a falling out over who should attend. It would have marked the first time that Taliban and Kabul government officials sat together.

The talks, which were to start Friday in Doha, where the Taliban maintain an office, were considered a significant first step toward finding a negotiated end to the war in Afghanistan, America's longest conflict, and the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.

The Taliban had previously refused to hold direct talks with the Afghan government, calling it a puppet of the U.S. They subsequently gave in to pressure and agreed to talks that included Kabul representatives, though they said they would recognize them only as ordinary Afghans, rather than government officials or ministers.

On Thursday, however, Qatar's Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, which sponsors the talks, announced the postponement, saying "this is unfortunately necessary to further build consensus as to who should participate in the conference."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Karzai would not blame either side for the cancellation, instead urging the United States to "put force behind it to make it (talks) happen."

He also praised Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad as "the very best person for the job" of resolving the Afghan crisis.

"I believe the United States wants some sort of settlement in Afghanistan," Karzai told The Associated Press. "I do believe that, but I want the U.S. to be much clearer about its roadmap ... to do everything it can to make the process move forward."

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Plans for the talks went awry when the Qatari hosts said the government side could bring 243 people to the talks. Their lists differed from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's list of 250 people, which included many more women, according to a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In a statement Friday, the Taliban said Ghani had sabotaged the talks by declaring the people on his list were government representatives. Ghani in turn blamed the Taliban for scuttling the talks by getting Qatar to allow a different list, one that had dropped several government ministers and 44 women.

Karzai was not among those planning to attend Qatar talks but he had attended a round table in February in Moscow in which the Taliban met with dozens of prominent Afghans.

While government representatives were not sent by Ghani to Moscow, there were some senior officials present, including a deputy to Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, as well as a member of a government- appointed High Peace Council. Ghani was critical of the Moscow meeting.

The organizers in Qatar could take lessons from the Moscow meeting, said Karzai.

"Together with the Taliban we all sat together under the Afghan flag," he said. "We discussed the constitution, women's rights. Why couldn't this happen this time?"

Karzai said he has pressed the Taliban to talk directly with the government, but urged the government to be the bigger side, and look at an intra-Afghan dialogue that does not have an official government seal as a possible precursor to direct talks.

"The process has to continue," said Karzai. "I am sad today, but still hopeful as ever that we will definitely ensure an intra-Afghan dialogue takes place."

"This is what Afghans want. They want peace. We need to be united," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.By Lesley Wroughton, Arshad Mohammed, Jonathan Landay and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has largely carved out exceptions so that foreign governments, firms and NGOs do not automatically face U.S. sanctions for dealing with Iran's Revolutionary Guards after the group's designation by Washington as a foreign terrorist group, according to three current and three former U.S. officials. The exemptions, granted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and described by a State Department spokesman in response to questions from Reuters, mean officials from countries such as Iraq who may have dealings with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, would not necessarily be denied U.S. visas. The IRGC is a powerful faction in Iran that controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces. The exceptions to U.S. sanctions would also permit foreign executives who do business in Iran, where the IRGC is a major economic force, as well as humanitarian groups working in regions such as northern Syria, Iraq and Yemen, to do so without fear they will automatically trigger U.S. laws on dealing with a foreign terrorist group. However, the U.S. government also created an exception to the carve-out, retaining the right to sanction any individual in a foreign government, company or NGO who themselves provides "material support" to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO). The move is the latest in which the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has staked out a hardline position on Iran, insisting for example that Iran's oil customers cut their imports of Iranian petroleum to zero, only to grant waivers allowing them keep buying it. 'WHY BE SO OPAQUE?' Pompeo designated the IRGC as an FTO on April 15, creating a problem for foreigners who deal with it and its companies, and for U.S. diplomats and military officers in Iraq and Syria, whose interlocutors may work with the IRGC. The move - the first time the United States had formally labeled part of another sovereign government as a terrorist group - created confusion among U.S. officials who initially had no guidance on how to proceed and on whether they were still allowed to deal with such interlocutors, three U.S. officials said. American officials have long said they fear the designation could endanger U.S. forces in places such as Syria or Iraq, where they may operate in close proximity to IRGC-allied groups. The State Department's Near Eastern and South and Central Asian bureaus, wrote a rare joint memo to Pompeo before the designation expressing concerns about its potential impact, but were overruled, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity. The action was also taken over the objections of the Defense and Homeland Security Departments, a congressional aide said. "Simply engaging in conversations with IRGC officials generally does not constitute terrorist activity," the State Department spokesman said when asked what repercussions U.S.-allied countries could face if they had contact with the IRGC. "Our ultimate goal is to get other states and non-state entities to stop doing business the IRGC," the State Department spokesman, who declined to be identified by name, added without specifying the countries or entities targeted. Separately, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has replaced the head of the IRGC, Iranian state TV reported on Sunday, appointing Brigadier General Hossein Salami to replace Mohammad Ali Jafari. Pompeo's carve-outs appear designed to limit the potential liability for foreign governments, companies and NGOs, while leaving open the possibility that individuals within those groups could be punished for helping the IRGC. "Under the first group exemption, the secretary determined that, generally - but with one important exception - a ministry, department, agency, division, or other group or sub-group of any foreign government will not be treated as a Tier III terrorist organization," the State Department spokesman said. A Tier III terrorist group is one that has not formally been designated as an FTO or a terrorist group under other laws, but that the U.S. government deems to have engaged in "terrorist activity," and hence, its members may not enter the United States. This exemption, a congressional aide and two former U.S. State Department lawyers said, appeared designed to ensure that the rest of the Iranian government, as well as officials from partner governments such as Iraq and Oman who may deal with the IRGC, would not automatically be tainted by its FTO designation. Under U.S. law, someone who provides "material support" to terrorist groups is subject to extensive penalties. Material support is defined widely and can cover anything from providing funds, transportation or counterfeit documents to giving food, helping to set up tents or distributing literature, the Department of Homeland Security's website shows. A former State Department lawyer said the guidance quoted above seemed to signal visa officers should not reflexively deny applications from officials of foreign governments or businesses that might deal with the IRGC, but called the language unclear. "Frankly, a lot of people are going to have questions about the impact of these exemptions. Why be so opaque about it?" asked the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The State Department declined requests to explain the guidance language. A SPLASH, BUT NOT A POLICY CHANGE? "Under the second group exemption, the secretary determined that, generally, a non-governmental business, organization, or group that provided material support to any sub-entity of a foreign government that has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization ... will not be treated as a Tier III terrorist organization," the State Department spokesman said. A congressional aide suggested the Trump administration wanted to signal it was ratcheting up pressure on Iran by targeting the IRGC, but not to disrupt diplomacy of U.S. allies. "I got the sense that the administration was looking for a splash, but not a policy change," said the congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They are not necessarily looking to punish anyone. They are looking to scare people." However, the State Department also made clear it could go after individuals in exempted groups if they wished. "The exemptions do not benefit members of an exempted group who themselves provided material support ... or had other relevant ties to a non-exempt terrorist organization," the agency spokesman said. "This FTO designation, like other sanctions actions, has a number of unintended consequences that if left to play out in their natural way, would harm U.S. interests," said former State Department lawyer Peter Harrell, alluding to the potential denial of U.S. visas to officials from partner countries. "The State Department is trying to in a reasonable way limit those consequences," he said. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, Arshad Mohammed, Phil Stewart and Jonathan Landayj; writing by Arshad Mohammed; editing by Mary Milliken and G Crosse)"Viper" and "Stinger," of the United Constitutional Patriots-New Mexico Border Ops, patrol where the bollard fence in Anapra, N.M., ends. The group has been camped out on the border for a few months. Members say they are helping the Border Patrol.

FARMINGTON, N.M.  The FBI arrested a New Mexico man Saturday on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammo as controversy continues over his groups deployment of armed volunteer border patrollers who have detained undocumented immigrants crossing into the U.S.

An FBI release said agents and Sunland Park police arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, of Flora Vista, who is also known as Johnny Horton Jr., on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.

Shortly before 4 p.m. the United Constitutional Patriots declared an "emergency" on their Facebook page, stating that their commander had been arrested at their camp near the Mexican border, and asking for donations to a fundraising account.

Dona Ana County records indicate Hopkins was arrested at 11:55 a.m. on the federal warrant and is being held without bond. Hopkins is expected to appear in the U.S. District Court in Las Cruces on Monday morning.

More: Armed civilians are detaining migrants at the border. The ACLU wants them investigated

Hopkins was with the United Constitutional Patriots, a group that drew the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union and New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas after it began detaining people they encounter who crossed into U.S. territory.

This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families, Balderas said Saturday in a statement. Todays arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.

The FBI declined comment about Hopkins' role in the group, stating more public information will be available Monday after Hopkins appears in court. Hopkins identified himself as the national commander of the militia group in an interview last month with El Paso ABC television affiliate KVIA.

The Facebook page for United Constitutional Patriots, linked to by Hopkins on his Facebook page, states that United Constitutional Patriots is for Americans that believe in the constitution and the rights of every American that will stand up for there (sic) rights in unity and help keep America safe.

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The Associated Press reported that U.S. authorities Friday warned private groups to avoid policing the border after a string of videos on social media showed armed civilians detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico.

The videos posted over the last several days show members of United Constitutional Patriots ordering family groups as small as seven and as large as several hundred to sit on the dirt with their children, some toddlers, waiting until Border Patrol agents arrive.

Customs and Border Protection said it "does not endorse or condone private groups or organizations that take enforcement matters into their own hands.

"Interference by civilians in law enforcement matters could have public safety and legal consequences for all parties involved," the agency said on its Twitter account.

Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the group, said members assist a "stressed and overstrained Border Patrol" and there are no issues with its actions. One video shows a Border Patrol agent arriving after the group tells a small group to sit and wait.

We are actively working with @NewMexicoOAG as well as local and state police. Menacing or threatening migrant families and asylum-seekers is absolutely unacceptable and must cease. https://t.co/yYXf8G5m2O  Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) April 19, 2019

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said Friday that she was actively working with state and local police to address the armed groups. "Menacing or threatening migrant families and asylum-seekers is absolutely unacceptable and must cease," she wrote on Twitter.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico on Thursday wrote Lujan Grisham and state Attorney General Hector Balderas on Thursday, urging them to investigate the incidents, including what it said was the detention of nearly 300 people on Tuesday near Sunland Park.

"This has no place in our state: we cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum," the ACLU wrote.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: FBI arrests member of armed civilian group that detained migrantsSkopje (Republic of North Macedonia) (AFP) - Less than half the electorate of North Macedonia participated Sunday in the first round of the first presidential election since the European country changed its name.

The turnout of 41 percent of the 1.8-million voters, given by the electoral commission, was the lowest recorded in the six presidential elections the former Yugoslav republic has experienced since independence in 1991.

That figure appeared to have barely passed the 40-percent threshold of voters needed for the second round of the election to be held on May 5 to be considered valid.

With nearly all ballots counted, the candidates of the left and right were neck-in-neck and likely headed for a runoff vote in two weeks.

Stevo Pendarovski, 56, backed by the ruling leftwing government, was on 42.63 percent of the vote with rival Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, 62, of the rightwing opposition on 42.39 percent. Belrim Reka, 59, from the country's ethnic Albanian minority garnered around 11 percent, according to the preliminary results.

The vote for the largely ceremonial post of president comes less than three months after a deal with Greece on the name change came into force, ending a decades-long identity dispute between the neighbours.

That cleared an obstacle for North Macedonia's ambition to join the European Union. Greece, an EU state with veto power over new members, had objected to its neighbour being known simply as "Macedonia" because it has a province of the same name.

However, for the winner of the runoff to succeed Gjorge Ivanov, the outgoing nationalist president who was not able to run again having served the maximum two terms, there again must be a voter turnout of at least 40 percent.

- 'Won't change anything' -

Many voters were disillusioned with what they see as a corrupt political system, and with lack of progress on better economic prospects and jobs.

"I came to vote out of a sense of duty, but I don't think there is any point," said Pavlina Gosheva, a 53-year old nurse from Skopje. "For us ordinary mortals it won't change anything."

Story continues

North Macedonia's unemployment rate is running at more than 20 percent, the average monthly wage is stuck at around 400 euros ($450) and many people have emigrated, demoralised by what they see as a lack of opportunities for people without the right connections.

Ljupco Nikovski, a 58-year-old police officer backing the opposition rightwing VMRO-DPMNE, said he had "never felt so desperate".

Emilija Stojanoska, 49, said protests she joined against the previous rightwing administration had not achieved anything. The arrival of the Social Democrats in power with the backing of the country's ethnic Albanian parties had not resulted in any positive changes, she said.

With apathy running wide and threatening to force a re-run of the presidential vote, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev emphasised that "voting is an honour, a right and a civic duty".

He earlier talked down the risks of a low turnout, but also set out possible solutions to such a scenario. They include a re-run of the election, doing away with the 40-percent minimum threshold, or even giving parliament the power to appoint a president.

- 'Immense' voter apathy -

A referendum backed the country's name change to North Macedonia last September, but the result was undermined by turnout failing to reach 40 percent.

Since it was only consultative, the government and parliament were free to go ahead with the historic name change anyway to settle the dispute with Greece.

Nazim Rashidi, senior editor of the Albanian-language channel TV Alsat, said of Sunday's election: "The apathy ... in particular that of young people, Macedonian and Albanians, is immense."

Politicians had failed to tackle unemployment, widespread corruption and nepotism or to launch much-needed judicial reforms, he added.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

He lost me at no collusion.

I have been withholding judgment on Attorney General William Barr, believing that someone who has previously served in the Department of Justice as he did would respect the institution and the rule of law. His conduct before and after his confirmation had provided some reason to question his motives, but I still held out hope that he would lead honorably in handling the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Barr confirmed my worst suspicions when he stood at the podium to discuss the release of Muellers report into Russian election interference. Instead of using the language of a prosecutor, Barr parroted President Donald Trumps favorite talking point of no collusion four times. And it got worse from there.

Muellers report specifically stated that he was not using the term collusion because collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability nor a term of art used in federal law. Instead, Mueller stated that his team analyzed the facts under the law of conspiracy. For Barr to repeatedly use the term collusion when Mueller deliberately avoided it gave the appearance that Barr had coordinated his message with the White House. Barr seemed more like a defense attorney for Trump than the lawyer for the people.

Moreover, during his remarks, Barr diverged from the language of the report in other ways. The report stated that the investigation did not establish conspiracy. Instead, Barr said that the special counsel found no evidence that any American participated in the conspiracy to interfere with the election. These are two very different things. In fact, Mueller seemed to anticipate that some might misread his findings, including in his report the following language: A statement that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there was no evidence of those facts. He likely did not expect the person to misconstrue his findings would be the attorney general of the United States.

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Barr then went on.

In assessing the Presidents actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the Presidents personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the Special Counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks.

A motive of frustration or anger does not excuse obstruction of justice. In fact, most defendants who commit obstruction of justice experience frustration and anger. These motives are not exonerating, and Barrs reference to them sounds like the kinds of excuses you might hear from a lawyer representing the accused.

Perhaps the most egregious remark that Barr made during the press conference made was when he said that the White House fully cooperated in the investigation. Barr made this statement despite the fact that Trump refused to participate in an interview with Mueller, something Muellers team sought for a year. Muellers report noted the problems that resulted from allowing Trump to respond to written questions, responding more than 30 times that he did not recall the answer. Trumps failure to sit for an interview prevented Muellers team from asking follow-up questions or attempting to refresh his recollection with documents.

Mueller gave up on the idea of an interview because he believed that Trump would resort to lengthy constitutional litigation that would unduly delay the investigation. The report also shows that in addition to refusing to participate in an interview, Trump engaged in obstructive behavior throughout the investigation, attempting to fire Mueller, editing a press release in a misleading way, directing White House Counsel Don McGahn to lie, and seven other episodes of obstructive behavior. That hardly sounds like full cooperation.

If Barrs language is not enough to tarnish his legacy, then his conduct certainly is. Barrs March 24 letter to Congress stated that Muellers inability to decide the obstruction of justice issue leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime. We learned yesterday that the report contains no indication that Mueller intended for Barr to decide the obstruction issue.

Mueller stated that he followed the DOJ opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted, and so fairness counseled against concluding that President Trump committed crimes because he could not avail himself of the normal adversary process for public name-clearing before an impartial adjudicator.

In other words, Mueller was refraining from recommending charges against Trump because he is the president, not for lack of evidence. Mueller further stated that he decided to preserve the evidence when memories were fresh and documentary materials were available, suggesting that he was leaving the decision to pursue charges to Congress or to prosecutors in a time when Trump is no longer president. By substituting his view for that of the special counsel, Barr circumvented the very purpose for having a special counsel, to insulate the decision-maker from conflicts of interest that exist for those in the executive branch chain of command.

We had a warning about Barr last summer, before he was attorney general, when he submitted an unsolicited 19-page memo to the Justice Department arguing that a president cannot obstruct justice as a matter of law when he is exercising executive power. Mueller and his team rejected that position in their report, but as attorney general, Barr gets the last word.

When former Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, Trump was angry that he did not have a protector. He asked then, wheres my Roy Cohn, a mob lawyer who used aggressive and legally questionable tactics to help his clients prevail.

For future presidents, the question may be wheres my Bill Barr?

Read more at The Daily Beast.BEIJING, April 21 (Reuters) - Germany's Leica Camera AG has distanced itself from a promotional video that depicts a news photographer covering democracy protests at Tiananmen Square amid a backlash on social media and broad censorship of the brand's name. The five-minute video, called "The Hunt," includes a dramatized scene in which a photographer runs from Chinese-speaking policemen before capturing the iconic "tank-man" photograph of a protester standing in front of a convoy of tanks to block their path.

Mention of the June 4, 1989, event is heavily censored in Chinese news and social media, as well as related dates, names and symbols. The ruling Communist Party has never declared how many protesters were killed in the crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square, with many analysts putting the toll in the hundreds.

A spokesman for Leica, Dirk Groe-Leege, said in a statement "the video was not commissioned, financed or approved by any company in the Leica Group. We expressly regret any confusion and will take further legal steps to prevent unauthorized use of our brand."

Leica did not clarify how the promotional video was conceived, or comment on the company's relationship with the Brazilian ad agency that created it, F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi.

F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, which previously produced promotional videos for Leica, produced "The Hunt" video and published the video on its Twitter account on April 16.

F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi did not respond to requests for comment, however a spokeswoman for the ad firm, Carolina Aranha, was quoted by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post as saying the video was approved by Leica.

The backlash against the video in Chinese social media comes at a particularly sensitive time, ahead of the 30th anniversary of the protests.

Hundreds of people using Chinese social media site Weibo left comments on Leica's recent posts, condemning the video before mentions of the company's name were swiftly censored. (Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)



As the White House mounted a furious assault on the Mueller report and critics of a president not found to have conspired with Russia but not cleared of obstruction of justice, the chair of the House judiciary committee said obstruction, if proven, would be [an] impeachable offence.

Related: Trump and impeachment: where Democrats stand after Mueller

Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani toured the Sunday talk shows, arguing with interviewers in a series of chaotic encounters.

On Fox News Sunday, he claimed Robert Muellers 448-page report, which was released with redactions on Thursday, was full of calumny, lies and distortion.

On CNNs State of the Union, the former New York mayor called one of Muellers lawyers a hitman and claimed the special counsels team came close to torturing people in questioning and confining Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who was convicted and sentenced on financial charges.

Asked on NBCs Meet the Press why Trump was so angry at Mueller and former White House counsel Don McGahn, a key witness, Giuliani replied: Because they tried to frame him.

Theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians. It depends on where it came from Rudy Giuliani

The first volume of Muellers report concerns Russian election interference and the Trump campaigns warm reception to offers of assistance including an infamous June 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Giuliani told CNN: Theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians. It depends on where it came from.

On ABCs This Week, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, who previously called the inquiry a a political proctology exam, took a different tone, saying: The campaign I managed in those last few months did not welcome help from Russia. In fact, I dont recall getting, being offered help from Russia. It would have been a ridiculous prospect.

In his second volume, Mueller considers potential obstruction of justice by Trump or his campaign, of which 11 instances are listed. He passed judgment on the issue to Congress.

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House judiciary committee chair Jerrold Nadler told NBC that if evidence shows Trump obstructed justice, some of this would be impeachable, yes. He added that Democrats plan to go where the evidence leads.

Democrats remain split on impeachment, which would begin in the House they control but almost certainly fail in the Republican Senate. Some fear it would galvanise Trumps supporters and win him sympathy among independents.

On Fox, House intelligence chair Adam Schiff said to impeach or not to impeach was going to be a very consequential decision and one Im going to reserve judgment on until we have a chance to fully deliberate on it.

Oversight chair Elijah Cummings told CBSs Face the Nation he could foresee [impeachment] possibly coming. But he said: We have to be very careful here. The American people, a lot of them clearly still dont believe that President Trump is doing things to destroy our democracy and has done a lot of things very poorly.

He also said he thought history would smile upon us for standing up for the constitution.

The American people, a lot of them clearly still dont believe President Trump is doing things to destroy our democracy Elijah Cummings

Giuliani fiercely attacked McGahn, who is cited by Mueller in descriptions of orders from Trump to fire the special counsel, which McGahn did not do.

McGahns recollections were wrong, Giuliani said on CNN, claiming the experienced lawyer was confused [and] cannot be relied upon. Mueller depicts McGahn taking notes of meetings with Trump, a practice Trump is said to have questioned. The Trump campaign has severed links with the law firm to which McGahn returned.

An incensed Giuliani made the hitman claim about Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor Trump allies claim is too close to the Clintons.

I have no problem with investigating Russian interference in the election, Giuliani said, adding: The reality is, you think this is the first time the Russians have interfered with a presidential election?

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his wife Ann Cabell Standish leave St Johns Episcopal Church in Washington.

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his wife Ann Cabell Standish leave St Johns Episcopal Church in Washington.Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

Giuliani was pressed on criticism of Trump by the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, who said he was sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the president.

Stop the bull, stop this pious act, Giuliani said, adding: Who says [taking information from Russians is] even illegal?  And then does the information turn out to be false, by the way?

Referring to Democratic party emails hacked by Russia and obtained by WikiLeaks, he said: The information that was gleaned and disseminated, every newspaper printed it. Why did the Washington Post print the information that came from a foreign source, when they knew it was hacked? Arent they just as wrong for doing that as the campaign wanting to use it?

Of Giulianis claim there was nothing wrong with taking information from Russians, former US attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by Trump in 2017, told CNN: Thats an extraordinary statement and I would hope he would retract it.

Related: Trump tampered with witnesses. These Senate Republicans voted to oust Bill Clinton for doing just that

Giuliani ran against Romney for the 2008 Republican nomination, both losing to John McCain. Asked if he would have accepted such information, Giuliani said: I probably wouldnt. I wasnt asked. I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, dont do it. He also accused Romney of doing things very similar, although he did not elaborate.

Asked if Trump thought Russian interference helped him win, Giuliani told NBC: Whether he did or he didnt, I think its quite clear that there are a lot of factors that go into any election and the reality is he was elected president.

Conway told ABC Trump didnt need WikiLeaks. We had Wisconsin. He won because he was the better candidate.

Trump has repeatedly claimed Muellers investigation exonerated him, which it did not, and called the inquiry a hoax. He continued to tweet on Sunday, from his club in Florida.

Attending church, the president was asked if he felt betrayed by staffers who spoke to Mueller. According to the White House pool report, he clearly heard the question but just smiled and turned away.An independent group of students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has surfaced data on the outcomes of disciplinary cases from the university in the last three years.

The move comes amid public outcry over communications undergraduate Monica Baey being filmed in the campus shower and calls by Monica and other members of the public for NUS to strengthen sexual harassment policies and victim support.

The data

Data on the disciplinary cases showed that in the last three academic years not including the current one, only one student was expelled for outrage of modesty.

In total, there were 20 reported cases of either insulting or outrage of modesty in the last three academic years not counting the current academic year.

There were also six other sexually-related assault or harassment cases that were reported in that same time period, according to the data shown.

The data is hosted on a Google Drive folder (and is accessible at this link) attributed to a group of students who go by the group NUS Students United.

According to a statement provided by the groups spokesperson to Coconuts Singapore, the group is not affiliated to the NUS Students Union and is an independent group of past and present NUS students. The group has, in fact, criticized the decisions made by NUS on previous occasions on its Facebook page.

The group was started as a spoof of the NUS Students Union during last years student union elections, said the spokesperson.

The group said the data was found on NUS internal student portal and they simply logged in, downloaded them and shared it on the Internet.

Dont see why it should be confidential, said the spokesperson.

The expelled student who came back

In the case of the student who was expelled, he was only expelled after a second incident; in the first incident, he was caught trespassing into the female toilet and peeping at a female student while she showered.

Story continues

As a result of the first incident, he was only barred from campus housing for the remainder of his university term and was asked to complete 30 hours of community-based work.

In a second incident, he had outraged the modesty of a female student and admitted to the act when the victim confronted him.

Although his case was under review by the police when the NUS discipline board convened on the matter, he was given an immediate expulsion from his programme and the university.

However, he appealed over his psychiatric disorder and was allowed to return to the university but he was suspended for 18 months and was not allowed to graduate during that time.

The other cases

Other cases involving insulting or outrage of modesty on women and men, as well as sexually-related assault or harassment cases revealed a similar method of punishment.

Most cases involved receiving an official reprimand and a fine of between $500 to $1,000, and orders for the offenders to undergo mandatory counseling and psychological assessment.

Some of these cases involved the offenders writing reflection statements and apology letters to victims as part of the sentencing as well as completing a stipulated number of hours of community-based work.

Such cases also involved suspension from the school for a period between one to two semesters, and a ban on such perpetrators to enter campus housing if the incident happened in campus halls.

In one particular case in the academic year 2015/2016, a student was barred access to the university campus because he had trespassed into female toilets in NUS and had filmed videos of females on multiple occasions, including filming up-skirt videos.

In all the other cases, the offenders were not barred from campus premises despite having suspended semesters.

NUS has said that it would convene a committee to review current frameworks for disciplinary action and victim support and aimed to reveal its findings in the next academic year which is in four months time.

This article, Group of NUS students surface past disciplinary cases: Only one student expelled in last three years for outrage of modesty, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!Beauty over brains

The very notion of what constitutes beauty needs to be unpacked.On the 24 May 2019, Churchill China plc (LON:CHH) will be paying shareholders an upcoming dividend amount of UK0.20 per share. However, investors must have bought the company's stock before 25 April 2019 in order to qualify for the payment. That means you have only 3 days left! Should you diversify into Churchill China and boost your portfolio income stream? Well, keep on reading because today, I'm going to look at the latest data and analyze the stock and its dividend property in further detail.

View our latest analysis for Churchill China

How I analyze a dividend stock

When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:

Is their annual yield among the top 25% of dividend payers?

Does it consistently pay out dividends without missing a payment of significantly cutting payout?

Has dividend per share amount increased over the past?

Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?

Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?

AIM:CHH Historical Dividend Yield, April 21st 2019

How well does Churchill China fit our criteria?

The company currently pays out 44% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a payout ratio of 42% which, assuming the share price stays the same, leads to a dividend yield of around 2.3%.

When thinking about whether a dividend is sustainable, another factor to consider is the cash flow. A business with strong cash flow can sustain a higher divided payout ratio than a company with weak cash flow.

Reliablity is an important factor for dividend stocks, particularly for income investors who want a strong track record of payment and a positive outlook for future payout. In the case of CHH it has increased its DPS from 0.14 to 0.29 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. This is an impressive feat, which makes CHH a true dividend rockstar.

Story continues

In terms of its peers, Churchill China has a yield of 1.9%, which is on the low-side for Consumer Durables stocks.

Next Steps:

Considering the dividend attributes we analyzed above, Churchill China is definitely worth keeping an eye on for someone looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. I've put together three important factors you should further examine:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for CHHs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for CHHs outlook. Valuation: What is CHH worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, it's not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether CHH is currently mispriced by the market. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out 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.Investors who want to cash in on TT Electronics plc's (LON:TTG) upcoming dividend of UK0.045 per share have only 3 days left to buy the shares before its ex-dividend date, 25 April 2019, in time for dividends payable on the 17 May 2019. Is this future income stream a compelling catalyst for dividend investors to think about the stock as an investment today? Let's take a look at TT Electronics's most recent financial data to examine its dividend characteristics in more detail.

Check out our latest analysis for TT Electronics

5 questions to ask before buying a dividend stock

If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics:

Does it pay an annual yield higher than 75% of dividend payers?

Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?

Has dividend per share risen in the past couple of years?

Does earnings amply cover its dividend payments?

Based on future earnings growth, will it be able to continue to payout dividend at the current rate?

LSE:TTG Historical Dividend Yield, April 21st 2019

How well does TT Electronics fit our criteria?

TT Electronics has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 81%, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. However, going forward, analysts expect TTG's payout to fall to 40% of its earnings. Assuming a constant share price, this equates to a dividend yield of 3.2%. However, EPS should increase to 0.13, meaning that the lower payout ratio does not necessarily implicate a lower dividend payment.

When considering the sustainability of dividends, it is also worth checking the cash flow of a company. A company with strong cash flow, relative to earnings, can sometimes sustain a high pay out ratio.

If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, it's dividend stocks and their constant income stream. The reality is that it is too early to consider TT Electronics as a dividend investment. It has only been consistently paying dividends for 9 years, however, standard practice for reliable payers is to look for a 10-year minimum track record.

Story continues

Relative to peers, TT Electronics has a yield of 2.6%, which is high for Electronic stocks but still below the market's top dividend payers.

Next Steps:

Taking all the above into account, TT Electronics is a complicated pick for dividend investors given that there are a couple of positive things about it as well as negative. However, if you are not strictly just a dividend investor, the stock could still offer some interesting investment opportunities. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, you should always research extensively before deciding whether or not a stock is an appropriate investment for you. I always recommend analysing the company's fundamentals and underlying business before making an investment decision. Below, I've compiled three pertinent aspects you should look at:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for TTGs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for TTGs outlook. Valuation: What is TTG worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, it's not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether TTG is currently mispriced by the market. Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out 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.Tehran (AFP) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appointed a new head of the Revolutionary Guards, the country's ideological military force, Khamenei's official website reported late Sunday.

Major General Hossein Salami, 58, replaces Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, who had headed the Guards since September 2007.

The move comes less than two weeks after the United States branded Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "foreign terrorist organisation", adding it to a blacklist.

"Considering your capabilities and significant experience with different revolutionary responsibilities ... I promote you to major general and commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards," Khamenei's statement read.

Salami, who had served as deputy head of the corps for nine years, is a veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. He had also led the corps' airforce before becoming the second-in-command.

The shuffle was caused by the "necessity of a change in Sepah's (the Guards' Farsi name) leadership" requested by Jafari himself, according to the leader.

Born in 1957 and majoring in architecture before the 1979 Islamic revolution, Jafari became a member of the Guards in 1981 and was promoted to the corps' head in 2007.

Quoted by ultraconservative Fars news agency, then Brigadier-General Salami advised Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October "to practice swimming in the Mediterranean because soon you will have no choice, but flee into the sea."

Salami also reportedly said that day that Israel could be destroyed by Iran's Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

"They are not at the level of being a threat for us. Hezbollah is enough for destroying them," Fars quoted him as saying.

Formed shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Guards are estimated to be about 125,000 strong by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

They answer to Khamenei and boast their own ground, naval and air forces.

Working in parallel to the regular army, the corps' mission is to "guard the (Islamic) revolution and its achievements" as well as "to realise holy ideals and to propagate the rule of God's law".Istanbul (AFP) - Istanbul's new mayor rallied hundreds of thousands of supporters on Sunday to celebrate a "new beginning", urging people to unite after his highly contested win against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.

Ekrem Imamoglu, 49, of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), narrowly edged out his rival to capture the Istanbul mayor's office, a stinging setback to Erdogan's AKP after a decade and a half in power.

As Imamoglu addressed the Istanbul rally, over in Ankara the CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was punched and kicked by a mob during a funeral for a soldier killed in clashes with Kurdish rebels.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) is still seeking a rerun of the March 31 Istanbul ballot, but electoral authorities last week handed Imamoglu his mandate after he won a slim 13,000-vote lead over AKP's Binali Yildirim.

Waving Turkish flags and portraits of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, thousands of Imamoglu supporters packed the vast Maltepe shoreside area on the Asian side of Istanbul for the rally.

Imamoglu, a soft-spoken former district mayor who struck a conciliatory tone throughout the heated race, has vowed to serve all citizens of the 16-million strong city, regardless of their political inclinations.

"I will work, produce solutions and achieve results. This is my promise to each and every one of the 16 million Istanbul people," he told the rally.

"Nobody will be discriminated against."

Imamoglu vowed an "accountable and transparent municipality," saying: "We will not waste a single penny."

Imamoglu, who will govern the city for the next five years, said the Maltepe rally was not a political gathering, but a way to introduce the city's new administration to the people of Istanbul.

"He is a man who can easily talk with people and never turns his back on them. He is a man of the people," said Refika, a 70-year-old woman who joined the rally.

Story continues

For his supporters, Erdogan remains the strong leader Turkey needs and one who speaks for religiously conservative Turks.

His critics say he has undermined rule of law with a crackdown on dissent and sowed division by portraying his opponents as enemies of the state.

- Blows, kicks -

Earlier on Sunday, in Ankara, CHP chief Kilicdaroglu was attacked by a crowd during a soldier's funeral, and was taken to a nearby house by security forces for his protection, his party said. The crowd hurled stones at the house, according to Turkish media reports.

Video of the incident on social media showed a mob pushing and shoving around Kilicdaroglu as he makes his way through the crowd.

"Kilicdaroglu is at the CHP headquarters right now. He is fine," a party official said.

In an address to a crowd of around 1,000 supporters outside the party, Kilicdaroglu said the attack targeted Turkey's unity.

"The assailants have no respect for the martyr (dead soldier)," he said. "They are not geniune Muslims."

Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into the incident.

In the run-up to the local elections, Erdogan often accused the CHP leader of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terror group by Ankara.

- Legal battle -

The loss of Istanbul was a major blow to Turkey's combative leader Erdogan who once said winning the city was like winning Turkey -- as his party and its political predecessors ruled the city for the past 25 years.

Erdogan's party also lost Ankara to the opposition.

A former mayor of Istanbul himself, Erdogan has often boasted of the ambitious projects under his rule including a new international airport and a third bridge in Istanbul -- the country's economic hub.

Erdogan's party has applied to the country's Higher Election Board (YSK) for an "extraordinary" appeal to redo the election in Istanbul in the last attempt to overturn the result.

Imamoglu secured a narrow win following a recount of votes for two weeks. His lead narrowed from around 20,000 after a recount of invalid ballots in several Istanbul districts.

The AKP on Saturday presented a new petition to the YSK to cancel the Istanbul vote on the grounds that some ballot box observers were former civil servants dismissed from their public service jobs under the presidential decree, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

On the election trail, Imamoglu ran a low-key campaign going door to door, whereas Erdogan and his right-wing nationalist ally MHP party often held large rallies in what the president said was a battle for survival.Tokyo (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday sent a ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, seen by Asian neighbours as a symbol of Japan's militarist past.

The Tokyo shrine honours 2.5 million war dead but also top World War II criminals and has frequently been a source of sour relations with countries that suffered from Japan's military atrocities.

The conservative premier sent a sacred "masakaki" tree at the start of an annual spring festival.

"The prime minister, the speakers of the upper and lower houses, and the welfare minister" made offerings, said a shrine spokeswoman.

Abe last visited the shrine in December 2013 to mark his first year in power, sparking fury in Beijing and Seoul and earning a diplomatic rebuke from close ally the United States.

He has since stayed away however as the leaders of both China and Japan attempt to maintain their improving but delicate relations.

Abe, the host of this year's G20 summit, wants Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Japan for the first time as a national leader.

China gave only muted reactions to Abe's past offerings of masakaki.BEVERLY HILLS, CA  OCTOBER 06: Joan Collins and Percy Gibson attend the 2018 Carousel of Hope Ball at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 6, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Hollywood icon Dame Joan Collins has said shes lucky to be alive, after her husband Percy Gibson bravely fought the fire which engulfed part the couples home.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Collins, aged 85, described her hubby as a hero after he used a fire extinguisher to fight a blaze which broke out at their London flat on 13 April.

The former Dynasty star said: The thing is, if Percy hadnt gone in with the extinguisher the entire flat would have been consumed by flames.

LOS ANGELES, CA  MARCH 25: Jennifer Meyer is seen on March 25, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by gotpap/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

What he did, in fact, was save the whole building. Percys a hero. I know a lot of guys who wouldnt have gone in. He made a great sacrifice.

And were lucky to be alive. I keep thinking: What if wed been asleep and hadnt heard the alarm? What if wed gone to a movie?.

Read more: Joan Collins flees London flat as sun on mirror sparks bathroom fire

Gibson, a 53-year-old film and theatre producer, said: I couldnt really see much, so I was spraying blindly. It was very hot, my eyes were stinging and I couldnt breathe very well.

It was overwhelming and terrifying because the smoke was acrid and cloying. I had to gasp for air.





Firefighters say the blaze started after rays from the sun reflected off a mirror and onto some blinds. Crew manager Chucks Abili, who was at the scene, said: These fires are not as rare as you think and this shows fires can happen in anyones home.

At this time of year, the sun is low in the sky so the concentrated rays can set light to nearby items. Weve seen fires caused by glass doorknobs, jars and bottles on sills, and hanging crystals.

Read more: Joan Collins thanks firefighters after London apartment fire

After the incident, Collins took to social media to display her gratitude to those who helped fight the fire. She tweeted: THANK U from the bottom of my heart to the marvelous @LondonFire who attended the terrifying fire. My hero Percy had already doused the flames consuming the entire wall with extinguisher.Justin Bieber is a huge Toronto Maple Leafs fan. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)

The Toronto Maple Leafs are on the verge of advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004 and itd be difficult to find anyone more fired up than Justin Bieber.

Bieber showed love to the Leafs on Instagram, following the teams 2-1 victory in Game 5 against the Boston Bruins on Friday, posting a photo of the teams logo without a caption.

Although it was a fairly innocuous post, Biebers mentions predictably took a turn for the worst and the pop superstar responded to a relentless Winnipeg Jets fan who insisted on using the comments section to profess their love for their club.

Bieber tried his best to be polite, informing the fan that hed block them if they kept it up. The interaction quickly devolved however, and Bieber eventually told the user f you and the Jets which drew nothing but support from his legion of fans.

The Jets took notice and asked Bieber if theyre still friends. In any event, its too late now to say sorry.

Bieber has been a regular fixture at Leafs games, taking in a November game against the Philadelphia Flyers with his wife, Hailey.

More NHL coverage from Yahoo SportsButwal organises function to commemorate Jitgadhi victory

Butwal Sub-metropolitan City in Rupandehi district organised a function on Saturday to commemorate the historic victory at Jitgadhi, a fort during the Anglo-Nepal war (1814-16).Beirut (AFP) - Islamic State group jihadists have killed 35 pro-Damascus fighters in Syria, in what a monitoring group described Saturday as their deadliest operation since the fall of the "caliphate".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four senior Syrian army officers were among the troops and allied militiamen killed in the desert east of Homs province over the past 48 hours.

The Amaq propaganda arm of IS, which lost the last vestige of its "caliphate" to Kurdish-led forces last month but retains desert and mountain hideouts in both Syria and Iraq, said its fighters carried out the operation.

Another eight soldiers and militiamen, including two officers, were killed in a separate attack in neighbouring Deir Ezzor province on Thursday night, the Observatory said.

The attack targeted a desert village south of the city of Mayadeen, upstream from the stretch of the Euphrates Valley where IS made a desperate last stand for its "caliphate", the Britain-based war monitor said.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman described it as the "biggest attack and the highest death toll among regime forces since the caliphate was declared defeated".

Six IS fighters were killed in the clashes, the Observatory said.

Amaq said that IS had launched its assault on Thursday evening after government forces tried to track down its fighters.

The vast Syrian desert, known in Arabic as the Badia, stretches all the way from the capital Damascus and the cities of Homs and Hama to its north to the Euphrates Valley near the Iraq border, where the "caliphate" was defeated in the village of Baghouz last month.

Commanders of the US-led coalition, which provided air and artillery support for the Kurdish-led operation, have warned repeatedly that the jihadists' loss of their last piece of territory did not mean their elimination as a fighting force.

Analysts have said that continuing search and destroy operations by the multiple alliances lined up against the jihadists would be necessary to prevent them mounting a comeback from their desert hideouts.Dubai (AFP) - Bahrain's king Sunday ordered the citizenship of 551 Bahrainis to be restored, after his country was harshly criticised by the UN and rights groups for revoking people's nationalities.

"His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has issued an order, reinstating the citizenship of 551 convicts whose nationality had been revoked as per court rulings," state-run Bahrain News Agency reported.

US ally Bahrain has been gripped by bouts of unrest since 2011, when authorities cracked down on Shiite-led protests demanding political reform.

Since then, hundreds of protesters have been jailed and those convicted of terrorism offences have been stripped of their nationality.

Bahrain has accused Iran of training and backing demonstrators in order to topple the government, charges Tehran denies.

BNA news agency said King Hamad, who can reverse court decisions, requested that the competent authorities take into account "the nature of crimes committed".

He has instructed the interior ministry to examine each case and prepare a list of those whose nationalities can be reinstated.

Human rights groups estimate that 990 mainly Shiite people have had their citizenship revoked since the start of judicial proceedings in 2012 against those who took part in the protests.

Ruled for more than two centuries by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, Bahrain has a majority Shiite Muslim population, according to unofficial estimates contested by the government.

Sunday's decision comes after a Bahraini court on Tuesday sentenced 138 people to prison terms and revoked their citizenship, at the end of a mass trial denounced by rights group Amnesty International.

Those convicted -- Shiite Bahraini citizens, according to a judicial source -- belonged to a group of 169 people accused of forming a "terror" group with links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

- 'Serious concerns' -

This was the biggest group of people to have been convicted and to have lost their citizenship as a result of a single trial since 2012, according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.

Story continues

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday expressed alarm about the court's decision.

"Tuesday's convictions give rise to serious concerns about the application of the law, particularly through a mass trial that reportedly lacked the procedural safeguards necessary to ensure a fair trial," rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

"Deprevation of nationality must not be arbitrary, especially on discriminatory grounds," she said, stressing that "arbitrary deprivation of nationality places the individuals concerned and their family members in a situation of increased vulnerability to human rights violations."

Bahraini authorities have repeatedly denied taking discriminatory measures against citizens of the kingdom, and say they are facing violence from Iran-backed groups despite denials from Tehran of any involvement.

Since 2011 all opposition groups have been banned and disbanded.

In January, Bahrain's supreme court upheld a life term against Sheikh Ali Salman, the head of the main Shiite opposition group Al-Wefaq, for allegedly spying for rival Qatar.

Prominent rights defender Nabeel Rajab in December lost his final appeal against a five-year jail term for writing tweets deemed offensive to the state.

And last year King Hamad signed off on a decree allowing military courts to try civilians accused of "terrorism".By Jonathan Spicer ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The leader of Turkey's main opposition party was attacked at a soldier's funeral in Ankara before security guards led him away, in the latest fallout from contested local elections three weeks ago. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) that pulled off victories in the March 31 vote, had attended a funeral for one of four Turkish soldiers killed on Friday in clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, whose AK Party wants the election results annulled in Istanbul, had repeatedly warned during last month's campaign that PKK members were among the CHP's list of candidates. The PKK clashes in the country's southeast on Friday prompted several pro-government newspapers to tie the soldiers' deaths to the CHP. "PKK out" was among the slogans shouted at Kilicdaroglu on Sunday, according to video footage of the incident. Several TV broadcasters showed video in which Kilicdaroglu was hit on the head at least twice as a clutch of security guards and a police officer attempted to keep dozens of fist-pumping men away, some of whom were shouting "shame on you" and "God damn you." Kilicdaroglu edged through the crowd to a nearby house, outside of which a crowd chanted "PKK out," according to broadcaster NTV. More than an hour later he was driven away in an armoured vehicle by police officers. "They don't want me to go to our martyrs' funerals," Kilicdaroglu, who had been attacked after a funeral in 2016, told supporters outside CHP headquarters. "They think I will step back if they attack me. I will not even take one step back." Ankara's chief prosecutor, Yuksel Kocaman, said six attackers were identified and investigators are looking into whether the incident is terrorism related, according to state-run news agency Anadolu. "The incident is under control... Investigations started," said Suleyman Soylu, Turkey's interior minister. Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, also of the ruling AK Party, said: "We will not allow any kind of violence to cast a shadow on democratic politics." UNSETTLED ELECTION Initial results and a series of recounts showed that the CHP's mayoral candidates in Ankara and Istanbul defeated those from the AK Party (AKP), painful losses for Erdogan. Yet the AKP has submitted two petitions to cancel and re-run the vote in Istanbul, citing irregularities and illegal votes and voters. Kilicdaroglu was attending the funeral of soldier Yener Kirikci, who was among those killed Friday when PKK insurgents attacked a military base in the mountainous Hakkari province near the Iraq border. The Turkish military said six other soldiers were wounded and 20 PKK members killed in the clashes. The PKK has waged an insurgency for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast since 1984, and is deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. One pro-government newspaper, Gunes, ran a headline on Sunday that said: "6 dead and 4 wounded, Are you happy Ekrem?" - referring to the CHP's new Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. While the High Election Board has not yet ruled on the AKP challenges, Imamoglu took office as Istanbul mayor on Wednesday. "Those who carried out the attack are not our citizens, those who did this acted upon orders," he told an Istanbul crowd on Sunday. (Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Yesim Dikmen and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Editing by Alison Williams and Louise Heavens)Carrie Parsley begged the first emergency room worker she saw for answers about her youngest daughter: Is she OK? Is she still alive?

She is for now, was all the woman would say.

Parsley soon learned the terrible truth: Her 22-year-old daughter, Veronica Jecker, lay silent and still in a hospital bed, brain-dead from an overdose of fentanyl.

Parsley prayed for a miracle.

I didnt want her to suffer. But I was willing to feed her. I was willing to help her walk. I was willing to do whatever it took, she said. I said Id give my life for her. And it wasnt an option.

All Parsley could do was hold her daughters hand for a few more days, brush her hair and say goodbye.

But from unspeakable tragedy came renewed life.

Jecker, who died two years ago in July, donated her organs to save three lives  a 39-year-old carpenter and father who needed a kidney, a 13-year-old girl who needed a liver and a 56-year-old grandfather who needed a kidney and pancreas.

Im thankful  for part of my daughter living on and helping other people, said Parsley, 46, of Louisville. She was such a caring person. She loved so deeply.

Stories like Jecker's are increasingly common.

One-in-five Kentucky organ donors died with drugs in their systems, said Shelley Snyder, executive director of the Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks Trust for Life, a nonprofit organization that promotes organ and tissue donation.

April 17: 60 doctors, pharmacists charged in opioid crisis bust across five states

More: Where are we with the opioid epidemic?

Overdoses killed 11% of Kentucky donors last year, compared with less than 1% in 2000.

As the opioid crisis rages, the Trust for Life, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates and Volunteers of America Mid-States are entering into one of the only partnerships of its kind in the nation. They hope to promote more organ donation among families affected by addiction.

Organs harvested from people who die of overdoses are considered increased risk organs" because the donors lived lives that made them more prone to drug-fueled diseases like hepatitis C and HIV.

Story continues

But organs are tested, and unless they come from donors known to be infected, theres only a tiny chance of contracting a disease through a transplant.

And despite common misconceptions, drug cravings are never transferred by organs.

Addiction is a neuro issue. Its all in the brain, and were not transplanting the brain, said Dr. Christopher Jones, a transplant surgeon who serves on the KODA board.

Organs from overdose victims are very safe. Theyre just like any other organ you would get, honestly.

Since Jecker's death, Parsley has made it a mission to share the message of organ donation  and the dangers of drug use.

I really feel this is something that she would want me to do, because she would want people to learn from her mistakes and try to understand what happened to her could happen to them, Parsley said, choking up. I think about her every day, sometimes all day long. I want other people to remember her.  I want everybody to know this is something she wants.

"She wants to save people as much as she can.

A young life lost to drugs

Jecker struggled with drugs for nearly half her life. A relative started giving her the opioid Lortab for menstrual cramps, her mom said, and she got hooked. It just snowballed from there."

Jecker began smoking pot and abusing the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, hiding her drug use from Parsley and her husband.

In her later teen years, Jecker gave birth to a daughter and dropped out of high school. But she managed to get a GED and land a job working the line at Ford, where Parsley also works as a crane operator.

Parsley said addiction never eclipsed Jecker's caring spirit. When she turned 18, she excitedly told her mom that shed signed her drivers license to become an organ donor because it might help someone in the future.

At 21, Jecker finally admitted to her mom she had a problem with pills.

One day in May 2017, Jecker texted Parsley from work: "Mom, if you dont hear from me for a few days, dont be alarmed. Im OK."

She told Parsley that shed approached a union representative asking for help, and Ford paid to get her a taxi to The Brook, which offers addiction treatment. She left straight from the plant.

She stayed 30 days, then relapsed soon after she got out. She went back again.

Parsley tried to support her recovery. A few days before Jecker died, Parsley went to The Brook to bring her daughter a bag of clothes and some cigarettes. Jecker came out, dressed in black and wrapped in a blanket.

Parsley worried she might be sick and asked if she was OK. Jecker said she just felt a little cold.

Parsley sensed something more was wrong and choked up. Jecker told her not to cry.

I cant help it, Parsley replied. I just want you to get better.

Mama, she said, thats what Im doing.

They hugged each other goodbye. Neither knew it would be for the last time.

Later that day, Parsley called The Brook to check on her daughter. She got nervous when she didnt hear back.

April 9: Virginia drug company charged in billion-dollar opioid marketing fraud scheme aimed at addicts

April 15: Fentanyl: 10 questions about the hidden drug that kills people every day

The next morning, she was awakened by a phone call from Norton Womens and Childrens Hospital.

The woman at the other end of the line told her Jecker was there, and she should come quickly. Parsley sped all the way to the hospital.

She later learned that Jecker had met a young man who was also struggling with addiction and at one point signed herself out of rehab. She overdosed on a couch in his grandmother's apartment surrounded by other people.

Paramedics gave her Narcan to try and revive her. It started her heart but could not bring her back.

At the hospital, Parsley said, doctors kept her daughter alive for a few days to get the drugs out of her system before harvesting her organs.

Parsley treasures those days  a little more time to touch her and talk to her and hold her hand.

Organs from overdose victims save lives

Jecker was lucky enough never to contract a disease like hepatitis C or HIV from drug use. But others who struggle with addiction do, and Jones, the transplant surgeon, said those who receive their organs are told about the risk of disease.

Organs are tested, but in some cases a donor contracts a virus so close to the time of death that it doesn't yet show up.

Theres only a one in 12,000 to one in 15,000 chance that the testing KODA does doesnt pick up a communicable disease, Jones said, adding that the risk of dying on the transplant list is much, much higher.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, an average of 18 patients a day across the nation died waiting for a transplant in 2017.

Some transplant centers will use organs that test positive for disease in certain circumstances, with the recipients consent. A recipient may choose to take an organ even if the donor had hepatitis C, for example, knowing it can be cured.

Often, the doctor said, overdose recipients die young, meaning their organs are generally in good shape overall.

"People tend to do very well with them, Jones said.

The new partnership between Volunteers of America, KODA and Trust for Life seeks to share such facts with more families. Through the effort, KODA is educating VOA staff as well as clients about joining the national organ donor registry and inviting donor families affected by addiction to share their stories.

Trust For Lifes Snyder, who is also vice president of strategic partnerships for KODA, said the initiative comes as Kentucky faces a potential shortage of organs. This follows changes in state rules about driver's license renewals, when most people sign up to become organ donors.

Kentucky is moving toward an eight-year driver's license renewal cycle, and by summer 2023, residents will no longer be able to get the current four-year licenses. Snyder said that means fewer chances to sign up as an organ donor.

Becoming an organ donor gives families an opportunity to memorialize their loved ones in a meaningful way, said Jennifer Hancock, president and CEO of VOA Mid-States.

April 2: These medications can reduce opioid deaths. Why aren't they being used more?

March 26: Oxycontin maker reaches $270M settlement with Oklahoma for painkiller's role in opioid crisis

For families in grief and mourning," she said, "its somewhat gratifying to know people have an opportunity to live because of that ultimate gift.

Parsley tears up when she thinks about her daughter's organs working within other peoples' bodies. She keeps a letter from KODA, sent the month after Jecker's death, describing the circumstances of their lives.

It says the grandfather who got her left kidney and pancreas had suffered from Type 1 diabetes and chronic high blood pressure but was doing well after the transplant. The father who got Jecker's right kidney was looking forward to returning to work as a carpenter. And the young teen was getting ready to start eighth grade.

Parsley views the organs inside them as kind of part of my child.

Carrie Parsley lost her 22-year-old daughter, Veronica Jecker, to an overdose in 2017 but takes comfort knowing that she lives on in others through her organ donations. April 14, 2019

But Jecker left another legacy, too  her 6-year-old daughter, Raelyn.

Parsley plans to spend Easter weekend with Raelyn, the first full weekend theyve spent together since her mother's death. Raelyn will get a huge Easter basket full of goodies.

Parsley has told Raelyn about Jecker's drug use in terms she can understand.

"She knows (Jecker) took too much medicine, Parsley said. She knows her moms in heaven, and it's something she did that she wasnt supposed to do, and that it was drugs.

But Parsley also tells Raelyn that her mom was awesome and loved everybody. A large, framed selfie of Jecker hangs in her living room. It shows her smiling widely in front of rolling hills and woods, her kind eyes sparkling.

I let her know that her mom was the one who chose to give her organs to people who are sick.

Although Raelyn is too young to fully grasp the concept of organ donation, Parsley knows she's imparting a lesson the little girl can understand: That a simple act of kindness and generosity can save lives.

Follow Laura Ungar on Twitter: @laura_ungar

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Life out of tragedy: Organs donated by overdose victims are saving livesLondon (AFP) - Climate change protesters who have brought parts of London to a standstill said Sunday they were prepared to call a halt if the British government will discuss their demands.

Some 963 arrests have been made and 42 people charged in connection with the ongoing Extinction Rebellion protests.

On the seventh day of demonstrations that have occupied key spots in the British capital, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the demonstrators, telling them: "Humanity is standing at a crossroads."

Organisers said they were willing to switch tactics from disruption to dialogue next week -- if the government enters talks.

"We are prepared to pause, should the government come to the negotiating table," Extinction Rebellion spokesman James Fox told AFP.

"What the pause looks like is us stopping an escalation.

"We can discuss leaving if they are willing to discuss our demands.

"At the moment, we haven't received a response from the government... so we're waiting on that."

Extinction Rebellion was established last year in Britain by academics and has become one of the world's fastest-growing environmental movements.

Campaigners want governments to declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025, halt biodiversity loss and be led by new "citizens' assemblies on climate and ecological justice.

"We're giving them an opportunity now to come and speak to us," Fox told AFP.

"If they refuse to come and negotiate with us, then this is going to continue and this is going to escalate in different, diverse and very creative ways."

- Thunberg: 'ecological crisis' -

Thunberg, the 16-year-old activist who has inspired pupils worldwide to boycott classes to join climate protests, addressed the cheering crowds at the Marble Arch landmark, the only authorised demonstration site.

"For way too long the politicians and people in power have got away with not doing anything at all to fight the climate crisis and ecological crisis," she said.

Story continues

"But we will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer."

She continued: "How do we want the future living conditions for all living species to be like?

"Humanity is now standing at a crossroads. We must now decide which path we want to take.

"We are waiting for the others to follow our example."

Police said they had managed to clear the protesters from Parliament Square and the Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus junctions.

Those charged range in age from 19 to 77. They hail from around England and Wales, with one person from France charged.

The charges are for various offences including breaching public order laws, obstructing a highway and obstructing police.

- Mayor: time to stop -

Calling for an end to the protests, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said more than 9,000 police officers had been responding to the demonstrations, which had left the force as a whole overstretched.

"This is now taking a real toll on our city... this is counter-productive to the cause," he said.

"I'm extremely concerned about the impact the protests are having on our ability to tackle issues like violent crime.

"You must now let London return to business as usual."

In the blazing sunshine on Waterloo Bridge, police lifted protesters and carried them off to waiting police vans.

"I'm genuinely terrified. I think about it all the time. I'm so scared for the world. I feel like there is going to be calamity in my lifetime," student Amber Gray told AFP.

"I don't even feel comfortable bringing children into this world knowing that that is coming.

"And I don't want people in the future to say to me, 'why didn't you do anything?'."SIBY (Mali) (AFP) - For five months straight the farm hands in the Malian village of Siby walk out together to the cotton fields, a clean sack in hand, for a long day of the meticulous work of picking the crop.

In this field not far from the border with Guinea, several teams are out from daybreak to sunset, the first link in a global production chain that takes the cotton from the plantation to consumers.

"For each hectare, we invest more than 100,000 CFA francs (around 150 euros, $170) and after the harvest we can recoup that investment and have 150,000 CFA francs in profit," said the owner of the field, Daouda Camara.

"But we need the cotton to be of good quality," he added.

With record production of more than 700,000 tonnes the past two seasons, Mali has retaken the title of Africa's cotton champion. The crop supports four million people, a quarter of the population.

The latest season, which runs from November to March, has just ended, but the cotton industry isn't resting on the laurels of its latest success.

The cotton farmers confederation set an ambitious objective of raising output to one million tonnes next season at its latest meeting, which was at attended by Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga before he resigned this week over his government's handling of violence in the centre of the country.

But political and economic leaders also publicly bemoan that Mali, like other African producers, only processes a tiny fraction of its production. Most of the cotton is exported raw.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, at a recent conference on emerging African nations, lamented that Mali processes only two percent of its cotton. "Pitiful! Shameful!" he told attendees.

The association of African cotton growers called on him to help convince others leaders to boost the processing of raw cotton into textiles in order to capture more of the added value.

- Inputs: fertiliser and credit -

Story continues

The role of the state in supporting the cotton industry is already considerable, particularly via the state-owned Malian Textile Development Company (CMDT), which buys cotton from farmers.

Camara said cotton farmers benefit from subsidised fertiliser, unlike farmers of other crops. They also have easier access to credit.

"With cotton farming the returns from a good season allow us to get good equipment," he said.

The CMDT has made progress in recent years in getting value out of byproducts of separating the cotton fibre from seeds.

"Ten years ago the cotton seeds would rot in the courtyard of the CMDT," said Bakary Togola, head of the APCAM association which unites farmers' organisations across the nation.

"Today, there are facilities which transform the cotton seeds into oil," he said, even if there are not enough yet.

But even rarer are facilities which take the tufts of cotton and spin them into yarn, let alone weave the yarn into cloth, steps in the production chain where there is more economic value to capture.

- 'Flooded' with imports -

Experts in the sector say potential investors aiming to transform cotton in Mali face a series of obstacles including high energy costs, a lack of trained workers, and a small domestic market.

One only has to look at the Mali Textile Company, also known as Comatex. Created in 1968, the Mali state only now holds a 20 percent stake with 80 percent in the hands of the China Overseas Engineering Group (COVEC), to see it is tough going.

Its factory in the central city of Segou is the only one in the country to process cotton from the beginning to end.

"We transform the cotton from CMDT into thread, yarn to be woven, unbleached cloth, printed cloth," said Issa Sangare, Comatex's deputy CEO.

Yet the firm is facing severe financial difficulties.

"The market is flooded with imported textiles that are cheaper," he said.WOODLAND PARK, N.J.  The same day a fire nearly destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral, a New Jersey man was arrested for allegedly refusing to leave a New Jersey church.

Just two days later, that same man, Marc Lamparello, was arrested in St. Patrick's Cathedral, in New York, carrying two gas cans, two bottles of lighter fluid and two lighters, police said.

Lamparello had purchased a one-way ticket to Rome that was scheduled to depart Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday evening. But Thursday, he was in police custody.

Here's what we know.

How he was found in St. Patrick's

At about 8 p.m. Wednesday, Lamparello walked into the cathedral with four gallons of gasoline, lighter fluid and lighters, police said.

When he was stopped by security and told he could not come in with those items, Lamparello put one of the cans down, spilling some gasoline on the floor. When he left, the usher alerted the counterterrorism bureau critical response command striker team.

During questioning Wednesday night, Lamparello told police his minivan had run out of gas and that he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue, police said. When police checked Lamparello's car, it was not out of gas, police said.

The incident does not appear to be terrorism-related, said John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism of the New York City Police Department. At no point did Lamparello refer to the Notre Dame fire, police said.

Who is Marc Lamparello?

Lamparello, 37, is a college professor who lives in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. He graduated from Boston College, police said. He is currently a City University of New York (CUNY) student seeking a Ph.D. in philosophy.

Lamparello lives with his parents, said Dolores, his mother. A family friend Salvatore Altomare described the Lamparellos as a good, religious family.

April 19: 'Still alive!': Notre Dame's 180,000 bees survive cathedral fire

April 18: Man charged with attempted arson after bringing gas cans into St. Patrick's Cathedral, police say

Story continues

Lamparello was not always at that home, but Altomare recalled him and his brother Adam going with their parents to St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in East Rutherford. To Altomare, there were no hints of dysfunction in Lamparello.

Lamparello was an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and part-time professor at Lehman College.

A Seton Hall spokeswoman said he started in spring 2018 but is no longer part of the faculty, though she could not confirm whether he has been fired.

Lamparello taught online at Lehman starting in the 2018-19 academic year.

Although Altomare described the family as devoutly Catholic, Lamparello's mother Dolores described the family as "regular Catholics."

One-way ticket to Rome

While it is unclear why Lamparello went into St. Patrick's Cathedral and what he would have done had he not been apprehended, he had already canceled class and had booked a flight out of the country.

Lamparello had purchased a $2,800 one-way airplane ticket to Rome, from Newark Liberty International Airport. The flight was scheduled to leave Thursday evening.

He also was scheduled to teach at Seton Hall on Wednesday night but canceled through an email that said he was sick, according to Seton Hall's student newspaper, The Setonian.

Previous church incident

Lamparello's arrest in New York was just two days after he was arrested for reportedly refusing to leave the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.

At about 10 p.m. Monday, Lamparello arrived at the cathedral, removed his cap, made the sign of the cross, and sat down in one of the front pews, said Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura.

April 18: Massive Notre Dame Cathedral donations draw high-profile backlash

April 16: Views of the Notre Dame Cathedral before, after, and during blaze

When officers approached Lamparello later in the night, Lamparello refused to leave, despite repeated requests, Fontoura said.

Even after an assistant bishop and a priest held special prayers with Lamparello, he refused to leave, throwing himself on the floor and telling police that the only way he would leave was in handcuffs.

Lamparello was ultimately charged with trespassing, obstructing the administration of law and resisting arrest, Fontoura said. He was due in court May 1.

Follow Rodrigo Torrejon on Twitter: @rod_torrejon

This article originally appeared on North Jersey Record: Man arrested in St. Patrick's Cathedral case had bought one-way ticket to RomeIstanbul (AFP) - Istanbul's new mayor on Sunday called for a rally to celebrate a "new beginning" urging people to unite after he won a highly contested race against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.

Ekrem Imamoglu, 49, of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), narrowly edged out his rival to capture Istanbul mayor's office in a stinging setback to Erdogan's ruling AKP after a decade and a half in power.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) is still seeking a rerun of the March 31 Istanbul ballot, but electoral authorities on Wednesday handed Imamoglu his mandate after he won a slim 13,000-vote lead over AKP's Binali Yildirim.

Imamoglu supporters were expected to pack the vast Maltepe shoreside area on the Asian side of Istanbul for the rally.

Imamoglu, a soft-spoken former district mayor who struck a conciliatory tone throughout the heated race, has vowed to serve all citizens of the 16-million strong city, regardless of their political inclinations.

"We are united now. The whole of Istanbul is meeting in Maltepe for a 'new beginning'," the new mayor announced on his official Twitter account on Saturday.

Imamoglu, who will govern the city for the next five years, said the Maltepe rally was not a political gathering, but a way to introduce the city's new administration to the people of Istanbul.

"I want you to know that a new beginning is very valuable," he said. "The coming five years is not only five years for the mayor but also for 16 million people."

- Legal battle -

The loss of Istanbul was a major blow to Turkey's combative leader Erdogan who once said winning the city was like winning Turkey -- as his party and its political predecessors ruled the city for the past 25 years.

A former mayor of Istanbul himself, Erdogan has often boasted of the ambitious projects under his rule including a new international airport and a third bridge in Istanbul -- the country's economic hub.

Story continues

Erdogan's party has applied to the country's Higher Election Board (YSK) for an "extraordinary" appeal to redo the election in Istanbul in the last attempt to overturn the result.

Imamoglu secured a narrow win following a recount of votes for two weeks. His lead narrowed from around 20,000 after a recount of invalid ballots in several Istanbul districts.

The AKP on Saturday presented a new petition to the YSK to cancel the Istanbul vote on the grounds that some ballot box observers were former civil servants dismissed from their public service jobs under the presidential decree, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Erdogan met with AKP's municipal council members as well as district heads at his party's Istanbul headquarters. The meeting was closed to the press.

On the election trail, Imamoglu ran a low-key campaign going door to door, whereas Erdogan and his right-wing nationalist ally MHP party often held large rallies in what the president said was a battle for survival.MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico said on Saturday it had "deep concern" about armed groups that intimidate and extort migrants on the border, shortly after the ACLU and Democratic senators called for a probe into such citizen efforts to block migrants from crossing.

"These types of practices can drive human rights abuses of people who migrate or request asylum or refuge in the United States," Mexico's Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement, referring to "militia groups" in New Mexico.

It added that patrols "on the margins" of the law create risks for the safety of migrants.

On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico condemned the United Constitutional Patriots, which patrols the southern U.S. border in New Mexico, as a "fascist militia organization" operating outside the law.

The group has posted videos showing members dressed in camouflage and armed with semi-automatic rifles holding groups of migrants, many Central American families seeking asylum, until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrive.

The small volunteer group says it is helping the Border Patrol deal with a surge in undocumented migrants at the southern border. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has toughened various policies and put pressure on Mexico in an attempt to discourage people from attempting to cross into the United States illegally.

Along with the ACLU, New Mexico Democratic senators Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall also called for an investigation into the border group.

"Threatening innocent children and families fleeing violence and seeking asylum is unacceptable and flies in the face of our values as a state and a nation," they said in a joint statement on Twitter on Friday.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Richard Chang)Complex identities and the future of our children in a global society

Our children are caught in the middle of parental demands to succeed academically and professionally in Britain whilst firmly embracing our cultural heritage.SAN FRANCISCO  The backlash against the tech industry-wide push to hire more women and minorities has flared again  this time at Microsoft.

Some employees on an internal message board questioned the tech giant's efforts to shift the demographics of its largely white and Asian male workforce, asking for evidence that a diverse workforce benefits Microsoft. Eighty-seven percent of Microsoft employees are white or Asian, and more than 73 percent are men, according to the company's most recent diversity report.

"Does Microsoft have any plans to end the current policy that financially incentivizes discriminatory hiring practices?" asks one post written by a female engineer on Yammer, the internal message board. "To be clear, I am referring to the fact that senior leadership is awarded more money if they discriminate against Asians and white men."

The criticism, first reported by online news service Quartz, is similar to a highly publicized dust-up at Google in 2017 when James Damore was fired from his engineering job after writing a controversial memo on an internal message board taking issue with the search company's efforts to address the shortage of women and underrepresented minorities in its ranks, arguing that the low number of women in engineering roles reflected biological differences.

Growing the ranks of women and people of color is a pressing challenge for the tech industry, whose customers are increasingly diverse. Research is piling up that companies with diverse workforces fetch a higher market value and returns. Tech companies say they need more workers from different backgrounds to brainstorm and build better products for a global marketplace.

At the same time, people from underrepresented groups are being excluded from technical and non-technical positions in one of the nations wealthiest, fastest-growing and highest-paying sectors. Yet the nation's largest technology companies have struggled to reverse decades of hiring practices and to make their corporate cultures more welcoming to women and people of color.

Story continues

The debate on an internal message board at Microsoft, which began simmering late last year and earlier this year, highlights ongoing tensions in the tech industry over diversity and inclusion programs.

"We still lack any empirical evidence that the demographic distribution in tech is rationally and logically detrimental to the success of the business in this industry," one Microsoft employee posted, according to Quartz. "We have a plethora of data available that demonstrate women are less likely to be interested in engineering AT ALL than men, and it's not because of any *ism or *phobia or 'unconscious bias'  it's because men and women think very differently from each other, and the specific types of thought process and problem solving required for engineering of all kinds (software or otherwise) are simply less prevalent among women."

After Damore's firing from Google, some employees accused the company of penalizing him for expressing his personal beliefs. His dismissal was widely condemned by conservatives who accused the company of silencing dissenting viewpoints.

Other employees argued Google had done too little to advance women and other underrepresented groups or to regulate hate speech and harassment at Google. And they accused Google of not doing enough to shield them from a harassment campaign that subjected them to hateful comments and violent threats.

The incident sparked a culture war inside the company. Damore filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Google. Another former employee sued, claiming the diversity push discriminated against white and Asian men.

The anti-diversity messages on Microsoft's internal message board come at a difficult time for the company. In recent weeks, women employees began sharing stories of harassment, discrimination and unequal pay on the message board, alleging the company had done too little to resolve these issues.

On Monday, CEO Satya Nadella responded in a company-wide memo to 130,000 employees. Im disappointed to hear about any behavior in our workplace that falls short of the diverse and inclusive culture we are striving to create, he wrote. But Im encouraged that people feel empowered to speak up and demand change.

He pledged a number of steps including overhauling how human resources investigates these cases. He also warned employees that they would all be held accountable for making Microsoft a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

"This past year, we increased our commitment with a new core priority on inclusion for every employee," he wrote. "If you are not helping to create an inclusive culture, your rewards, your career trajectory and possibly even your employment will be impacted," he wrote.

Microsoft declined to comment on the message board threads but told USA TODAY many of the comments were made by two dozen or so employees. Three executives posted responses on the internal message board, which also contained comments that were supportive of the company's diversity efforts, according to Microsoft. Quartz reported that one of the most active threads challenging the diversity efforts had more than 800 comments.

Internally, some employees criticized Microsoft for not challenging or taking down their colleagues' comments. HR, Satya, all the leadership are sending out emails that they want to have an inclusive culture, but theyre not willing to take any action other than talk about it, one employee told Quartz. They allow people to post these damaging, stereotypical things about women and minorities, and they do nothing about it.

Read more USA TODAY coverage: Diversity, equity and inclusion in the tech industry

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Some Microsoft employees allege policies 'discriminate' against Asians, white men



Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday several US citizens died in a series of explosions in Sri Lanka that killed at least 290 people and left 500 injured. That toll was expected to rise.

Related: Sri Lanka death toll expected to rise as leaders condemn killings

Thirty-six foreigners were reported to be among those killed in attacks that targeted churches and hotels and were thought to have been caused by suicide bombers. No group immediately claimed responsibility. Sri Lankan authorities have arrested 24 people.

In a statement around noon US eastern time, Pompeo said: While many details of the attacks are still emerging, we can confirm that several US citizens were among those killed. The US embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families.

The Sri Lankan foreign ministry said two US-UK dual nationals, three Britons, one Dutch national, three Indians, one Portuguese, three Danes and two Turks were among the dead.

A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan national hospital said citizens of the US, Denmark, China, Japan, Pakistan, Morocco, India and Bangladesh were among casualties.

Pompeo added: The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter morning. Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security.

The United States offers our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and wishes a quick recovery to all who were injured.

On Sunday morning, Donald Trump tweeted the message that the United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!

Related: Social media shut down in Sri Lanka in bid to stem misinformation

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The presidents first tweet on the subject was deleted after it misstated the reported death toll at the time, 138, as 138 million.

Vice-president Mike Pence tweeted he and Trump were monitoring the horrific attacks on those celebrating Easter in Sri Lanka.

This atrocity is an attack on Christianity [and] religious freedom everywhere, he wrote. No one should ever be in fear in a house of worship.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement: We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they bring to justice the perpetrators of these despicable and senseless acts.Washington (AFP) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russian interference in US democracy is done, but the investigation isn't finished.

The final report from the probe, released on Thursday, made clear that more than a dozen other cases, most of them secret, remain in the pipeline.

About 10 percent of the 448-page report was blacked out, with many of the redactions explained as being information on "ongoing matters" -- unspecified cases still under probe by the Justice Department and the FBI.

Some ongoing matters are known. Of all the charges lodged by Mueller's team, 26 are against Russian individuals and three against Russian companies that are out of the reach of US prosecutors. The cases remain open and active, the report says.

Of the eight others charged by Mueller, five have been sentenced, two await sentencing and one -- Roger Stone, a former consultant to President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign -- is awaiting trial after his arrest in January. Some details of his case remain secret.

In a case spun off by Mueller, US businessman Bijan Rafekian and Turkish national Kamil Ekim Alptekin face charges of illegally acting as agents of Turkey and lying to investigators.

Beyond that, the Mueller report indicates another 15 ongoing investigations linked to the original Russia meddling probe.

Two are developed cases that Mueller's now-shuttered office transferred to the FBI and Justice Department.

One, the report indicates, involves "individuals and entities" related to the case of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Manafort was sentenced to 90 months in prison on charges mostly related to payments for his work for the Russia-backed Ukraine government years ago.

There are no hints about the second transferred case. It could be an investigation only known to involve an unnamed foreign, government-owned company.

That company has been fighting a grand jury subpoena of its records, and has been ordered to pay a $50,000-a-day fine until it hands them over.

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- 12 mysterious investigations -

In addition, the Mueller report lists 14 investigations he referred to other federal prosecutors.

Two are known: the already completed case of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who admitted multiple charges and was sentenced to three years in prison; and lawyer Greg Craig, recently charged with illegal lobbying for the Ukraine government in relation to Manafort's activities.

The other 12 referred cases were listed with no identifying information. They could involve many things, including Trump's finances and business practices, and possibly the business of other members of his campaign.

They could target specific Russians involved in Moscow's 2016 election meddling effort.

One possible indication is the redactions in Mueller's report. The largest amount of blacked-out information relates to Moscow's interference activities -- hacking by the GRU intelligence agency and social media manipulation by the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm.

Mueller indicted 25 Russians for conspiracy in those operations, but the "ongoing matters" redactions suggest that prosecutors have more in their sights.

Another group of redactions appears to involve WikiLeaks, which published the GRU-hacked material and coordinated its actions with the Trump campaign, in part through Stone.

The Justice Department is already seeking the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain on charges related to leaks of US secrets in 2010.

But the government could also be weighing charges related to the 2016 election.The release of the 400-page, redacted version of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian election meddling and possible links to Donald Trumps presidential campaign is one of the most eagerly-awaited events of his first term.

Following the release of attorney general William Barrs summary of the report last month, many have been waiting for a more detailed look at Mr Muellers findings.

There have been particular questions still lingering over the issue of possible obstruction of justice by Mr Trump since the release of that summary.

Here are the key points in the report, which has been split into two volumes.

The first section covered the issue of Russian election interference and the second deals with the evidence surrounding possible obstruction.

[[gallery-0]]

The instances of possible obstruction by the president

Mr Muellers report makes clear that he did not feel able to pass a traditional legal judgement on whether Mr Trump obstructed justice, but the report does not exonerate him with a number of episodes of possible obstruction examined. There were at least 10 such episodes, such of which will be explained in greater detail later in this article. They include:

The Trump campaigns response to reports about Russian support for the would-be president

Conduct involving FBI Director James Comey, who initially led the Russia investigation until Mr Trump fired him in May 2017, and former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn

Mr Trumps reaction to the Russia investigation as it was taking place  including angry tweets deriding the investigation

The presidents termination of Mr Comey

The appointment of Mr Mueller special counsel and efforts to remove him. This includes attempts to have White House lawyer Don McGahn deny that Mr Trump ordered him to have Mr Mueller removed

Efforts to curtail Mr Muellers investigation

Efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence that could prove useful to the investigation

Further efforts to have the attorney general take control of the Russia investigation

Conduct towards Mr Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and another redacted individual

Conduct involving Mr Trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen

Mr Muellers says at the start of the report: A statement that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there no evidence of the facts.

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Mr Barr and attorney general Rod Rosenstein have decided that none of this evidence passes the threshold required to bring a criminal case.

The investigation team involved dozens of investigators and lawyers

At its height, the investigation had 19 attorneys, five from private practice, and 14 from the Department of Justice. There was also a number of other lawyers used to shift possible evidence. There were also three paralegal staff, nine administrative staff and more than 40 other FBI workers. There were 500 witnesses, 80 of whom were out in front of a grand jury.

Trump thought he was f***** after Mr Mueller was appointed

The president did not react too kindly to Mr Mueller being given the job as special counsel by Mr Rosenstein. The president is said to have slumped back in his chair and said: Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. Im f*****.

Trumps campaign expected help from Russia but nobody conspired

The report concludes that Russia definitely interfered in the 2016 election, but there was no conspiring between those on Trumps team and people connected to Russia  despite a number of links between individuals.

Here is what the report says: [T]he investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.

The investigation was slowed by messages being deleted, including by Trump campaign officials

As well as numerous guilty pleas from a number of people over lies told to Congress and the FBI during the Muller investigation, the report also registers the seeming frustration of the Mueller team that a number of potentially useful communications were deleted by those investigated. This included some people in the Trump campaign.

Some of the individuals we interviewed or whose conduct we investigated  including some associated with the Trump campaign  deleted relevant communications or communicated using applications that feature encryption, the report says.

Mueller chose not to subpoena Trump

The report states that the written responses by the president to questions from investigators were inadequate, including that possible questions over obstruction of justice being left unanswered.

However Mr Mueller said that due to the late stage of the investigation at the time, calling the president for testimony would cause a substantial delay and therefore one would not be issued.

Trumps attempts to fire Mr Mueller and influence Jeff Sessions were stopped

Mr Mueller reports that aides and advisors in the White House refused to carry out orders from the president, preventing him from influencing the special counsels investigation through there own efforts.

The presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests, the report says.

White House counsel Don McGahn received a phone call at home from Mr Trump on 17 June, 2017 directing him to call Mr Rosenstein and tell him Mr Mueller had conflicts of interest and must be removed. Mr McGahn is said to have refused and responded he would rather resign.

In another section, a message from Mr Trump to then-attorney Jeff Sessions about limiting the special counsels investigation to future election interference was not passed on as the White House official involved, Rick Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task.

Mueller decided not to prosecute Trump Jr or Jared Kushner over Trump Tower meeting

Mr Mueller decided that prosecuting either Donald Trump Jr, or White House advisor, and President Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner over actions in accepting and attending a meeting in June 2016 at Trump Tower with a Russian national who promised damaging information about election rival Hillary Clinton.

Investigators could not prove Trump Jr or the other campaign officials at the meeting willfully violated the law.

The other Trump official at the meeting was campaign chair Paul Manafort, who agreed to meet with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The special counsel concluded that prosecuting the campaign officials present for campaign-finance violations would be too difficult to pursue.

Mueller has left door open for Congress to investigate

As part of the special counsels constitutional justification for its own investigation, it also points out that Congress can also apply obstruction laws in investigating and impeaching a sitting president.

The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the presidents corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law, the report states.WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani insisted Sunday there was "nothing wrong" with the president's 2016 campaign taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller's report .

Giuliani called the Trump campaign's effort to get political help from representatives of the Russian government possibly ill-advised but not illegal.

"There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians," Giuliani said, referring to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Trump's son Donald Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a lawyer linked to Russia. The Trump campaign was seeking harmful information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The Sunday news shows offered the latest back and forth following the long-anticipated release on Thursday of Mueller's 448-page redacted report on his two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller found no evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign and made no decision on obstruction of justice.

Giuliani rebutted Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who said in a statement on Twitter Friday he was "sickened" by the findings in Mueller's report that cited details on how the Trump campaign welcomed political dirt from Russia.

Giuliani said Romney should "stop the bull," saying that accepting negative information about a political opponent is common. "I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, don't do it," he said. Nevertheless, "there's no crime."

Pressed about whether there is a something wrong about using information stolen by foreign adversaries, Giuliani said, "It depends on the stolen material."

Trump, who spent the holiday weekend at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, asserted in tweets Sunday that he had been fully cleared by Mueller's report and that Democrats' continued efforts to investigate him will prove politically costly.

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"Despite No Collusion, No Obstruction, The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time. This is costing our Country greatly, and will cost the Dems big time in 2020!" he tweeted.

Mueller explicitly did not exonerate Trump in the report on the question of obstruction, citing in part Justice Department guidelines that a sitting president shouldn't be indicted.

Not ruling out impeachment, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who chairs the House committee that would hold impeachment hearings, said he remained puzzled why Mueller did not bring charges of criminal conspiracy against those in the Trump Tower meeting.

"All you have to prove for conspiracy is that they entered into a meeting of the minds to do something wrong and had one overt act. They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting to get stolen material on Hillary (Clinton). They went to the meeting. That's conspiracy right there," said Nadler, D-N.Y.

Nadler said it was now up to Congress to investigate after the special counsel said it did not establish enough evidence to bring charges of criminal conspiracy, yet detailed 10 allegations of Trump's attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation that left open whether Trump broke the law.

Asked whether the offenses are impeachable, Nadler told NBC, "If proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes." He said Democrats' current focus is to "go where the evidence leads us."

Nadler has subpoenaed the Justice Department for the full, unredacted report and said Sunday he was adding former White House counsel Don McGahn to the list of people he would call to testify before his committee, along with Mueller and Attorney General William Barr. According to the special counsel's report, McGahn was among the Trump aides who effectively halted Trump's efforts to influence the Russia investigation, rebuffing his demand to set Mueller's firing in motion.

Nadler has said he expects the Justice Department to comply with the subpoena for the full report by May 1, the same day Barr is to testify before a Senate committee and one day before Barr is to appear before Nadler's panel. Nadler summoned Mueller to testify by May 23.

Democratic leaders are under mounting pressure from the party's rising stars and some 2020 presidential contenders, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Julian Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development secretary, to start impeachment proceedings.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is pushing for a step-by-step approach to the House's oversight of Trump and has refused to consider impeachment without public support, including Republicans. Pelosi is convening House Democrats on Monday to assess next steps.

Sen. Mike Lee, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said it would be a "mistake" for Democrats to pursue further investigations that could lead to impeachment proceedings, arguing that the American public won't stand for it after Mueller failed to conclude that crimes had been committed.

"It's time to move on," said Lee, R-Utah.

Giuliani said Trump's legal team was weighing whether it would release a detailed written rebuttal to the Mueller report.

"It may become necessary, whether they go ahead with the hearings or not, whether other issues are raised by different people  there's probably a point at which we'll use it. Right now we think the public debate is playing out about as well as it can," he said.

In the redacted report, Mueller said he considered bringing charges over the Trump Tower meeting but ultimately did not obtain admissible evidence that the campaign officials involved knew the actions were illegal. The meeting had raised questions about whether Trump Jr. and others violated the federal ban on foreign contributions to American political campaigns.

"On the facts here, the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the June 9 meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful," the report stated. "The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context."

Giuliani spoke on CNN's "State of the Union," ''Fox News Sunday" and NBC's "Meet the Press." Nadler also appeared on NBC. Lee was on CBS' "Face the Nation."

___

For complete coverage of the Mueller report, go to https://www.apnews.com/TrumpInvestigationsSEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea on Saturday issued a relatively mild criticism of White House national security adviser John Bolton for calling on North Korea to show more evidence of its disarmament commitment before a possible third leaders' summit.

North Korea's criticism appears to be a continuation of its frustration at deadlocked nuclear negotiations with the United States. Earlier in the week, the North tested a new weapon and demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from the nuclear negotiations. But the country is still avoiding directing harsh rhetoric toward the U.S. and directly criticizing President Donald Trump in an apparent effort to keep diplomacy alive.

On Saturday, state media cited First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui as criticizing Bolton over his recent interview with Bloomberg News. In the interview, Bolton said the U.S. would need more evidence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is ready to give up his nuclear weapons before Trump would meet with him for a third summit.

Choe described Bolton's comments as having "no charm" and being "dim-sighted," and said the United States has nothing to gain with such remarks. But she stopped short of asking Washington to remove Bolton from the nuclear talks.

Her criticism was much softer than the North's past fiery rhetoric directed at the U.S. and South Korea in tense times. In 2003, North Korea's state media called Bolton "human scum" after he described then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim Jong Un, as a "tyrannical dictator."

Earlier this week, North Korea test-fired what it called a new type of "tactical guided weapon," but many foreign experts say it wasn't a prohibited test of a medium- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle the nuclear negotiations.

In her Saturday statement, Choe said Bolton "should at least have understood about what kinds of substantive communications are made between the top leaders concerning the third round of summit before he had ever opened his mouth." South Korean media quickly speculated that there might be some sort communication between the U.S. and North Korea over a third Trump-Kim summit.

Kim and Trump had two summits  the first in Singapore in June last year and the second in Vietnam in February. The second summit collapsed due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on the North. Kim is to visit Russia for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month.AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - One Dutch person was among those killed in the bomb attacks that struck Sri Lanka on Sunday, Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok said in a statement. Blok said he was horrified by the Easter attacks, in which more than 200 people have been killed, according to a police spokesman. "Our thoughts are with the victims, including one Dutch national at this moment," he said. (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Mark Potter)Tehran (AFP) - Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan began his first official visit to Iran on Sunday for talks set to focus on strengthening ties and countering terrorism, state media reported.

Khan began his two-day visit with a stop in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, Iran's second largest and home to the shrine of Imam Reza who is revered by Shiite muslims, state television said in a live broadcast.

After visiting the shrine, Khan was to fly to Tehran where on Monday he is expected to hold talks with President Hassan Rouhani and other top officials.

The state-run IRNA news agency said Khan's trip was expected to help "develop ties between the two countries, especially those related to regional cooperation in fighting terrorism and safeguarding borders".

Iran and Pakistan share a long border that runs nears the volatile southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan which has witnessed over the years numerous attacks on Iran's security forces.

In March, Rouhani demanded Pakistan act "decisively against anti-Iranian terrorists", following a February attack that killed 27 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchistan.

Iran has said a Pakistani suicide bomber was behind the attack, which was claimed by the Sunni jihadist group, Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which Tehran says operates mostly out of bases in Pakistan.

Khan's visit to Iran, the first since he took office last year, also comes days after gunmen killed 14 members of Pakistan's security forces in the Balochistan province.

On Saturday Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Islamabad had evidence the "terrorist outfits" that carried out the attack have "training and logistic camps inside Iranian areas bordering Pakistan".

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan's poorest province and the largest by landmass, with Islamist as well as ethnic Baloch separatists active there.At least 100 people killed in a series of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka

The blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels killed about100 people and wounded more than 400, a hospital director and police officials said, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.The gunmen who killed 14 members of Pakistan's security forces in the country's southwest earlier this week came from Iran to carry out the attack, officials said Saturday.

Some 20 people wearing uniforms from the paramilitary Frontier Corps stopped buses in Balochistan province, which were travelling along the coast to megacity Karachi, before gunning down the security officials.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan had evidence the "terrorist outfits" that carried out the attack have "training and logistic camps inside Iranian areas bordering Pakistan".

Those killed included ten serving with the navy, 3 with the air force and one with the coastguard.

"We have shared this actionable evidence with Iran after due authentication and identified (the) location of the camps," Qureshi said.

Pakistan has created a new southern Frontier Corps with its headquarters in the southwestern city of Turbat to more effectively control its 950-kilometre long border with Iran, he said.

The construction of a fence along the border has already begun, he added.

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan's poorest province and the largest by landmass, with Islamist as well as ethnic Baloch separatists active there.

"We have clearly told Iranian authorities about the elements involved in the attack".

"Pakistan hopes they will take a swift action against the Baloch terrorist outfits," Qureshi said, referring to his telephone conversation with Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.

"We also hope that our Afghan brethren will... take necessary action because these Baloch terrorist outfits also have links in Afghanistan," he added.

"Zarif also assured me that his government would help Pakistan bring them to justice".

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will make an official visit to Tehran from Sunday, with topics of discussion to include ways to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future.

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Qureshi said the two countries would set up joint border controls with "mutual consultations to ensure peace".

Pakistani security forces have been targeting insurgents in Balochistan since 2004, and have also been repeatedly accused by international rights groups of abuses there. The military denies the allegations.

Balochistan is also host to a number of major projects under the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The massive infrastructure project seeks to connect the western Chinese province of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan.

But it has also drawn its share of criticism, particularly by separatists who have long complained that residents do not receive a fair share of profits from the province's resources.

Violence in Pakistan has dropped significantly since the country's deadliest-ever militant attack, an assault on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed more than 150 people -- most of them children.

But militants still retain the ability to carry out attacks, and analysts have long warned that Pakistan is yet to tackle the root causes of extremism.ISLAMABAD (AP)  A group of militants crossed the border from neighboring Iran earlier this week and carried out a deadly attack against Pakistan armed forces in southwestern Baluchistan province, killing 14, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The ministry said in a letter to the Iranian government that the assailants were from a newly formed Baluch separatist group, Raji Aajoi Sangar, and that they were based in Iran's adjacent Baluchistan province.

It urged Iran to act against the attackers who had fled back across the border.

Groups operating within Pakistan's and Iran's Baluchistan provinces, which share a long border, seek independence from both countries.

The ministry said the "killing of 14 innocent Pakistanis by terrorist groups based in Iran is a very serious incident that Pakistan protests strongly."

The announcement came a day before Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to Iran.

Despite lodging a protest with Tehran over the attack, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters that the planned two-day visit, beginning Sunday, was intact and that Khan will take up the matter of Thursday's killings with Iranian authorities.

Qureshi said he spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Saturday to share initial findings of a Pakistani probe into the killing of security personnel with him. He said he demanded action against those responsible.

He said Pakistan had already shared actionable intelligence with Tehran about the hideouts and training facilities of those Baluch separatists who carried out the attack and that an Iranian response was still awaited.

Qureshi said Pakistan will deploy more troops at the border and enhance air surveillance, which he said would benefit both sides.

Though militants based along the border region often target Iranian guards, it is the first time in recent years that Pakistan publicly accused Iran of "inaction" against Baluch groups responsible for the killing of Pakistani security forces.

Thursday's killing of Pakistani security personnel took place when they were traveling in three or four buses on the Makran coastal highway between the port city of Karachi and the Gwadar port in the southwest.

Qureshi said 10 personnel from the Navy, three from air force and one from the coast guard were forced out of the buses by Baluch separatists who tied their hands and killed them.By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis led the world's Roman Catholics into Easter at a vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday night, urging the faithful to live not for transient things like wealth and success but for God.

The largest church in Christendom was dark at the start of the long service as the pope carved into a candle the numbers of the year 2019 and the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet - Alpha and Omega - signifying that God is the beginning and end of all things.

Easter, the most important day in the Church's liturgical calendar, commemorates the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead.

Francis, marking his seventh Easter season as pope, wove his homily around the Bible account of the women who went to Jesus' tomb only to find it empty and the large stone that had sealed it had been cast away.

"God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes and expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness," he said.

"There is another stone that often seals the heart shut: the stone of sin. Sin seduces; it promises things easy and quick, prosperity and success, but then leaves behind only solitude and death. Sin is looking for life among the dead, for the meaning of life in things that pass away," he said.

During the Mass, Francis welcomed eight adult converts into the Church, conferring on them the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. They were from Italy, Albania, Ecuador, Indonesia and Peru.

On Sunday, the 82-year-old leader of the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics is due to say a Mass in St. Peter's Square and read the traditional "Urbi et Orbi" (To The City and The World) message.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Hugh Lawson)Are Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Getting A Manny?

Prince Harry and Meghan have sent a touching birthday message to the Queen on her 93rd birthday.

The Duke and Duchess used their new Instagram account to post a series of throwback snaps of the monarch  and some showing Harry in his younger days.

Expectant parents Harry and Meghan were among those wishing her well, writing on Instagram: Happy Birthday Your Majesty, Maam, Granny. Wishing you the most wonderful day! Harry & Meghan.

Elizabeth II, who has a strong faith and is head of the Church of England, usually celebrates Easter at Windsor Castle by joining members of her family at a service in St Georges Chapel.

At Buckingham Palace, the Band of the Irish Guards will perform a rendition of Happy Birthday in her honour on the forecourt as part of the Changing of the Guard ceremony.

April 21  the day the Queen was born  is the first of the monarchs two birthdays.

The Queen also celebrates her official birthday in June, which is marked with the Trooping the Colour parade.

Gun salutes are also fired as a mark of respect to the Queen  though never on a Sunday, so this year they will be delayed by one day.

Tomorrow, the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery will ride their horses and gun carriages past Buckingham Palace en route to Hyde Park to stage a 41 Gun Royal Salute at noon.

A 62-gun salute will also be performed by the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London at 1pm the same day.

The Queen traditionally spends a month-long residence at Windsor Castle, known as Easter Court, each year.





Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born at 2.40am on April 21 1926, the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York, at 17 Bruton Street, the Mayfair home of her mothers parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore.

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She was never expected to be Queen, though the abdication of her uncle Edward VIII in 1936 resulted in her father George VI taking the throne, and changed her path for good.

Elizabeth II, who has been monarch for more than 67 years, is Head of State, the Armed Forces and the Commonwealth, and has been married to the Duke of Edinburgh for more than 71 years.

She became Britains longest-reigning monarch, passing her great-great grandmother Queen Victorias record, in September 2015.

Following the death of 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand in 2016, the Queen currently holds the record for the worlds longest-reigning living monarch.The most distinguished son of Pocahontas, Iowa, Father James V. Schall, S.J., died at age 91 on April 17, just as Lent 2019 was drawing to a close and Easter was visible on the horizon.

Father Schall was whats usually referred to as an old-school Jesuit  meaning (to my mind) that he was the kind of Jesuit St. Ignatius Loyola imagined when he founded the Society of Jesus in the 16th century. Jim Schall was both a man of rock-solid Catholic faith and a first-rate intellectual, a distinguished political philosopher at home with political theory from Plato through the moderns. His faith informed his intellectual work, as his intellect refined his faith. He was an exceptionally gifted teacher; before he was put out to pasture by Jesuit superiors who didnt seem to grasp what a magnet he was for the students they ought to be recruiting, his last lecture at Georgetown University was attended by hundreds, who spilled out of venerable Gaston Hall into the surrounding corridors. He was a devoted priest, a masterful spiritual director, and a counselor who encouraged his students to think vocationally, whether about the priesthood or consecrated religious life, marriage, or their professional careers.

He was also an ascetic, whom self-denial, religious disciplines, and  in his last decade, illness  had whittled down, so that in his eighties he looked something like a lean, mean pirate in a Roman collar (which he always wore). But there was no meanness in the man, only a sweetness of temperament wed to a bracing, unblinking honesty about the state of the Church, the world, and the Society to which he had given his life. His suffering from cancer and his being blinded in one eye did make his legion of friends and proteges wonder about Gods ways with his most devoted servants; Father Schall would have said that suffering is good for you, because if you conform your sufferings to those of Christ in his Passion, then Gods grace helps you grow through suffering into the imitation of Christ that every Christian should be.

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Father Schalls life and holy death invite a reflection on the gamble that the Catholic Church took in approving Saint Ignatiuss proposal, during the cultural tsunami of the Reformation, to create an elite corps of priestly guerrillas, formed by his Spiritual Exercises, whom Ignatius would deploy to set the world ablaze (as the inscription on the base of his statue at the Jesuit GHQ in Rome reminds us). As my friend Russell Hittinger once put it, the Exercises were a spirituality invented for European intellectuals paddling canoes up rivers in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by what were then known as savages. The Exercises were thus very much a me-and-God affair; the gamble was that they would not lead to a radical, delusory subjectivism, because a well-formed Jesuit would also be unshakeable in his commitment to the truth of Catholic faith and to the teaching authority of the Church. Cut that tether to truth and ecclesiastical authority, and trouble would begin.

And then there was that quite deliberate Ignatian elitism. Self-defined and self-constructed elites are almost always trouble within a complex institution. They risk becoming what C. S. Lewis called an Inner Ring, which imagines itself composed of superior types to whom others must defer, and who are, because of their superiority, absolved from some of the myriad loyalties that bind others to the institution. The Jesuits stern, unbending fidelity  embodied in their famous fourth vow and its promise of radical obedience to the pope and radical availability for any mission the pope decreed  would, it was hoped, prevent this elite corps from decomposing into something akin to its own church, marching to the beat of its own, self-consciously superior drummers.

The Churchs gamble paid off in the life of men such as Father Jim Schall, for whom radical commitment to the full symphony of Catholic truth was liberating rather than confining  especially when that commitment was intellectually refined by a lifelong immersion in the great books of Western civilization. Whether that gamble has paid off in respect of the entire Society of Jesus as the Catholic Church experiences it today is a question that caused Father Schall more than a little anxiety over the course of his long life.

In addition to his asceticism, his brilliance, and that unfailing twinkle in his (remaining) eye, Father Schall was an attractive and compelling human personality  and a great teacher and mentor  because, while he took the spiritual life and the life of the mind with great seriousness, he never took himself seriously. Thus he could poke gentle fun at the intellectual life, at its best and at its contemporary worst, with a book whose double-barreled subtitle alone ought to have won Schall a National Book Award: Another Sort of Learning: Selected Contrary Essays on How Finally to Acquire an Education While Still at College or Anywhere Else  Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found.

These are tough days for Catholic priests, whose reputation as a group is being damaged by revelations of the perfidy of some 4 percent of their number. From his present station in the Communion of Saints, I am confident that my friend Father Jim Schall, a priest to the core whose priesthood was indeed an icon of the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ, is interceding for priests, for the reform of the Church, and for the reform of the Society of which he was an exemplary, if too often unappreciated, member. Thank you, Jim, for being a true man for others. Thank you for your tireless example of priestly holiness and intellectual integrity. Requiescat in pace.

More from National ReviewA string of bombings at churches, luxury hotels and other sites on Easter Sunday killed at least 290 people, including "several" Americans, in an attack on the South Asian island of Sri Lanka.

A police spokesman said more than 500 people were injured.

The attacks were carried out by seven suicide bombers from a domestic militant group named National Thowfeek Jamaath, a government official said Monday.

All of the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens, but authorities suspect foreign links, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said at a news conference.

Earlier, Ariyananda Welianga, a government forensic crime investigator, said an analysis of the attackers body parts made clear that they were suicide bombers, according to the Associated Press. He said most of the attacks were carried out by a single bomber, with two at Colombos Shangri-La Hotel.

Sri Lankan security personnel and police investigators look through debris outside Zion Church on April 21, 2019 following an explosion in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter morning," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement released by the State Department. "Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security."

The investigation into Sunday's bombings will examine reports that the intelligence community failed to detect or warn of possible suicide attacks before the violence, police said.

Six nearly simultaneous explosions hit hotels and churches as worshipers gathered for Easter services in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa,. Hours later, there were two more blasts, one at a guesthouse that killed two people and another near an overpass in the area of Dematagoda on the outskirts of the capital of Colombo, according to a Sri Lankan military spokesman, Brig. Sumith Atapattu.

People were being dragged out, said Bhanuka Harischandra, of Colombo, a 24-year-old founder of a tech marketing company who was going to the citys Shangri-La Hotel for a meeting when it was bombed. People didnt know what was going on. It was panic mode.

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He added: There was blood everywhere.

In a ninth explosion, three police officers were killed during a search at a suspected safe house on the outskirts of Colombo when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, authorities said.

Names of the U.S. victims have not been released.

At least 27 foreigners were among the dead in Colombo, according to Anil Jasinghe, director general of health services. Among them were two who were citizens of both the U.S. and United Kingdom. Other foreign victims were confirmed from Britain, China, Japan and Portugal.

It's the deadliest spout of violence in Sri Lanka since the country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago. The island nation of about 21 million people off the southern tip of India has been relatively peaceful since the war ended, though its various factions continued to jostle for power.

The majority are Sinhalese, mostly Buddhist. The minority Tamil are Hindu, Muslim and Christian. Christians, targeted in Sunday's attacks, have a lower profile than some of the other factions.

The Sri Lankan government lifted a nationwide curfew that was imposed from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., on Monday. But most social media remained blocked Monday after officials said they needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension.

The Associated Press noted the streets in the capital, Colombo, were largely deserted Monday morning, with most shops closed and a heavy deployment of soldiers and police. Stunned clergy and onlookers gathered at St. Anthonys Shrine, looking past the soldiers to the damaged church that was targeted in one of the blasts.

In his Easter Sunday message in Vatican City, Pope Francis noted the "cruel violence" of targeting Christians who had come together in prayer.

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I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence, Francis told a crowd of about 70,000 people in St. Peters Square. I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event.

Sri Lankan officials inspect St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka after an explosion on April 21, 2019.

The first blast rang through St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo. Alex Agileson, who was in the vicinity, said buildings in the surrounding area shook with the blast, according to the AP.

A second explosion was reported at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a Catholic majority town north of Colombo.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attacks and warned against spreading unverified reports in a statement issued on Twitter.

"I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation," he said. "The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences to the victims early Sunday morning, initially stating that the explosions killed "at least 138 million people." The inaccurate tweet stayed up for about 20 minutes before it was deleted, and a new statement was issued with the same pledge to help and the accurate number of fatalities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed deep shock over the attacks and said, The entire world must unite in the battle against the scourge of terrorism.

In a statement issued by spokesman Stephane Dujarric Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed outrage over the terrorist attacks on the churches and hotels on a "sacred day for Christians around the world" and hoped the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sri Lanka says militant group National Thowfeek Jamaath is suspected in Easter Sunday bombingsMany investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE). By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of On the Beach Group plc (LON:OTB).

Our data shows On the Beach Group has a return on equity of 18% for the last year. That means that for every 1 worth of shareholders' equity, it generated 0.18 in profit.

See our latest analysis for On the Beach Group

How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

The formula for return on equity is:

Return on Equity = Net Profit  Shareholders' Equity

Or for On the Beach Group:

18% = UK22m  UK118m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2018.)

Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. You can calculate shareholders' equity by subtracting the company's total liabilities from its total assets.

What Does Return On Equity Signify?

Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, as a general rule, a high ROE is a good thing. Clearly, then, one can use ROE to compare different companies.

Does On the Beach Group Have A Good Return On Equity?

By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. You can see in the graphic below that On the Beach Group has an ROE that is fairly close to the average for the Online Retail industry (18%).

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LSE:OTB Past Revenue and Net Income, April 21st 2019

That's not overly surprising. ROE can give us a view about company quality, but many investors also look to other factors, such as whether there are insiders buying shares. I will like On the Beach Group better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

The Importance Of Debt To Return On Equity

Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking.

Combining On the Beach Group's Debt And Its 18% Return On Equity

Shareholders will be pleased to learn that On the Beach Group has not one iota of net debt! Its ROE suggests it is a decent business; and the fact it is not leveraging returns indicates it is well worth watching. At the end of the day, when a company has zero debt, it is in a better position to take future growth opportunities.

The Bottom Line On ROE

Return on equity is useful for comparing the quality of different businesses. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE.

But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So I think it may be worth checking this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

Of course On the Beach Group may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt.

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.Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

China finds more cases of African swine fever on Hainan island

China has detected new cases of African swine fever in six farms across four locations in Hainan province, the agriculture ministry said on Sunday, adding to two earlier cases of the contagious disease identified in the province on Friday. The disease, which is fatal to pigs but harmless in humans, has spread to every province on the Chinese mainland since its initial detection in August 2018.

FDA approves Teva's generic nasal spray to treat opioid overdose

Generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd on Friday received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its generic nasal spray for opioid overdose, the health regulator said. This is the first approval of a generic naloxone nasal spray for use in a community setting by individuals without medical training, the FDA said in a statement.

Older people feel more youthful when they also feel in control

Older adults may feel younger than their age on days when they feel most in control of their lives, a small study suggests. People who believe they can influence the outcomes and events in their daily lives generally do feel a greater sense of control than those who feel more helpless, and previous research has linked a strong sense of control to better wellbeing, researchers note in Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

Second death in Novartis gene therapy trials under investigation

Novartis AG, which this week announced positive interim trial results for its experimental gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, on Friday said investigation is underway into whether a second trial death could be related to the treatment. Novartis has filed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the gene therapy, Zolgensma, and a decision is expected within weeks. The FDA submission was based on findings from a trial of 15 babies treated with Zolgensma.

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China draws up tighter rules on human gene and embryo trials: Xinhua

China's top legislature will consider tougher rules on research involving human genes and embryos, the first such move since a Chinese scientist sparked controversy last year by announcing he had made the world's first "gene-edited" babies. He Jiankui, associate professor at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, attracted condemnation from the global scientific community when he said he had used a technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the embryonic genes of twin girls born in November.

Sleep myths may hinder good sleep and health

Widespread beliefs about sleeping include advice on how much sleep is enough, what quality sleep means and how to achieve it, but when these pronouncements are wrong, they can do more harm than good, researchers argue. The study team gathered the most common sleep "myths" and asked sleep-science experts to rank them according to how wrong they were, and how bad it might be for a person's health to follow the advice.

Higher state minimum wage tied to lower suicide rates

Suicide rates grow more slowly in states that increase their minimum wage, according to a U.S. study that suggests this might be one strategy for curbing deaths by suicide. Although a small proportion of the population works for minimum wage, people living in low-income households have a higher risk of suicide than more affluent people, researchers note in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Raising the minimum wage has been linked to a number of positive outcomes for low-income Americans including higher odds of graduating high school and lower odds of having unmet medical needs.Enrolment drive a ritual if poor families dont get support, experts say

The governments annual school enrolment campaign is more of a ritual and it lacks substance as, despite claims, the drive fails to bring all out-of-school children to the education system, experts and stakeholders say.Riyadh (AFP) - Two Saudis vent their opinions publicly. One is detained, the other is acquitted after the right to free speech is invoked. Such inconsistencies are provoking confusion over the kingdom's ever-shifting "red lines".

Sex, religion and politics were once clearly delineated as no-go areas in Saudi Arabia, part of an unwritten but well-known social code of conduct for staying out of trouble in the absolute monarchy.

But as fast-paced social reforms shake up the petro-state and aggressive nationalism takes root, inconsistent state responses to perceived transgressions are muddying public understanding of where the boundaries lie.

This month, a criminal court in Jeddah acquitted an unnamed Snapchat influencer accused of insulting fellow Saudis, saying every citizen had the right to express his opinion, local media reported without offering specific details.

The much-hyped case, which followed a broad government crackdown on dissenters and critics, drew both cheers and bewilderment in the kingdom.

"Freedom of expression guaranteed," screamed a headline in bold red letters in the pro-government Okaz daily.

That freedom did not appear to be guaranteed to academic Anas al-Mazrou, who campaigners say was detained last month after he voiced solidarity with jailed women activists during a panel discussion at the Riyadh book fair.

Saudi Arabia's media ministry did not respond to a request to explain the contradiction, one of many across to kingdom.

In February, a comedian was summoned by prosecutors and apparently forced to apologise for poking fun at the now-toothless religious police. But observers say other comedians have gotten away with it.

- 'Push and pull' -

One Jeddah cafe was recently shut down by authorities for not enforcing gender segregation.

But that prompted perplexity among the managers of other venues, where in recent years the sexes have been allowed to mingle.

Last year, officials arrested a hotel worker who appeared in what they described as an "offensive" video, eating breakfast with a female co-worker.

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That left office workers who routinely share meals scratching their heads.

"The system is full of contradictions. It has no definite shape, and we don't know what is right and what is wrong," said Noah al-Ghamdi, a civil engineer.

"Maybe you do something spontaneous and one official doesn't like it and decides to crush you," he wrote on Twitter.

Saudi political cartoonist Jabertoon recently captured the sentiment in a cartoon depicting a puzzled citizen boxed in by zigzagging red lines and being grilled by an official.

All this has raised questions over what is acceptable as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman carries out a sweeping liberalisation drive, which one official said aims to drag the kingdom "kicking and screaming into the 21st century".

The overhaul, popular with the youth, has ended decades-long bans on women driving and cinemas, and allowed mixed-gender concerts for the first time -- at the risk of riling hardliners.

It has so far not provoked any major backlash, but officials warn that reforming a society steeped in conservatism is fraught with peril.

The inconsistencies underscore a "push and pull strategy" as the kingdom attempts to roll out reforms without sowing turmoil, said Ali Shihabi who founded Arabia Foundation, a pro-Saudi think tank.

Often the government reaction depends on social media reactions, observers say. If an act goes viral online and creates a scandal, it stands the risk of a crackdown.

"You keep on pushing the envelope while being very alert of public pushback, and react accordingly," Shihabi told AFP.

"Public and social media reaction has an impact, as it should, and it shows that the government is pushing forward while treading carefully at the same time."

- 'Grey zone' -

Holding citizens to different or vague standards, however, could prove unsustainable in the long run.

"The Saudi government has gone to great lengths to forward its social modernisation project," Eman Alhussein and Sara Almohamadi wrote in a report for the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

"However, without setting clear parameters for what is acceptable, the grey zone is likely to stretch further and could jeopardise social reform."

Most baffling perhaps is Saudi Arabia's crackdown on liberals in the midst of a liberalisation drive.

This month campaigners said nearly a dozen writers, bloggers and academics were swept up in a new wave of arrests without any public explanation by the government.

Such arbitrary crackdowns are amplifying public fears as Saudi Arabia appears to pivot from austere religion to a form of hyper-nationalism that promotes veneration of rulers.

In a televised debate last year, Shura Council member Abdallah al-Fawzan said Saudis had the right to brand someone a "traitor" if that person fails to defend the country or chooses to remain silent.

Such rhetoric and confusion over red lines has prompted many liberals to shut down their Twitter accounts -- including those engaged constructively in critiquing the reforms.Jaden Schwartz had a hat trick and rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington made 18 saves as the host St. Louis Blues eliminated the Winnipeg Jets with a 3-2 victory in Game 6 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series Saturday.

The Blues will face the winner of the Dallas-Nashville series in the next round of the playoffs. Dallas took a 3-2 lead in that series with a 5-3 victory Saturday in Nashville.

The Blues became the first home team to win a game in the series, and the first winning team that didn't need to overcome a deficit.

Dustin Byfuglien and Bryan Little scored for Winnipeg, and goalie Connor Hellebuyck stopped 33 of 36 shots.

Both of the Jets' goals came in the second half of the third period, after they were down 3-0.

Byfuglien's goal came as he poked a rebound of a Kevin Hayes shot past Binnington at 12:17 of the third to cut into the three-goal deficit. Little tallied at 19:22, but the Jets were unable to tie the score.

Schwartz opened the scoring just 23 seconds into the first period. After a Winnipeg turnover in its own end, Hellebuyck was able to stop Brayden Schenn's shot, but the puck trickled behind him. Schwartz, waiting at the far post, was able to sweep it over the goal line.

The Jets challenged the call, claiming Schenn had interfered with Hellebuyck after driving to the net, but the goal was upheld.

Schwartz's second goal came on the power play at 12:36 of the second. His shot from the top of the left faceoff circle went wide of the net, but Tyler Bozak recovered the puck and sent it right back to Schwartz, whose second try found the back of the net.

At 3:55 of the third, Schwartz scored again, prompting a downpour of hats from the St. Louis crowd. Schwartz skated down the right wing, deked a defender and crossed the ice before taking the puck to the net.

Binnington was hardly tested, as the Jets put just six shots on goal through the first two periods and were outshot 36-20 overall. His best save came on the only shot he faced in the second, a glove stop on a wrist shot from the high slot by Winnipeg's Josh Morrissey midway through the period.

--Field Level MediaMELBOURNE, Fla.  A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule suffered an anomaly Saturday afternoon during a routine engine test firing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station , company and 45th Space Wing officials confirmed.

"On April 20, 2019, an anomaly occurred at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the Dragon 2 static test fire," wing spokesman Jim Williams told Florida Today. "The anomaly was contained and there were no injuries."

Florida Today photographer Craig Bailey, who was covering an event in nearby Cocoa Beach, captured an image of orange plumes rising from SpaceX facilities at the cape at around 3:30 p.m.

Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida," SpaceX said in a statement. "The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.

"Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting anomalies like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test. Our teams are investigating and working closely with our NASA partners," the company said.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon, also referred to as Dragon 2, is designed to take humans to the International Space Station and successfully flew for the first time in March. The company was planning to launch a crewed version of the spacecraft no earlier than July, but was also planning an in-flight abort test, or a demonstration of its life-saving abort capabilities, sometime before then.

It is unknown which Crew Dragon was involved in the Saturday anomaly, but each spacecraft has thrusters designed to be used as a launch abort system. They require occasional test firings to evaluate readiness and performance.

SpaceX's timeline to return crews to the ISS from the U.S. will likely be revised to include a first launch sometime later in the year.

Follow Emre Kelly on Twitter: @EmreKelly.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Smoke seen for miles as SpaceX Crew Dragon suffers 'anomaly' at Cape CanaveralMADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Socialists increased their lead in a poll published on Saturday in newspaper El Pais with 28.8 percent of votes, equivalent to 129 seats in the 350-seat parliament, but far-right newcomer Vox also gained support ahead of a general election on April 28.

In a sign of Spain's growing political fragmentation, both the Socialists and its main ally anti-austerity Podemos, and a coalition of three right-wing parties - People's Party (PP), Ciudadanos and Vox- would fall short of a parliamentary majority, according to the poll.

The Socialists' votes increased by 1.7 percentage points from a poll published by the same newspaper on March 24 and they would gain 44 new seats in parliament.

Podemos' support also grew from 12.3 percent of votes in the previous poll to 13.2 now, but they would still lose 38 seats in parliament from the previous election in 2016.

On the conservative parties' side, PP's support decreased from 19.3 percent to 17.8. The main right-wing Spanish party would have 75 seats in parliament, its worst results ever.

Centre-right Ciudadanos is also seeing its support slim, from 17.7 percent of votes in March's poll to 14.1 now. The party would still gain 17 seats in the chamber.

Vox is the only conservative party that grows in the poll, from 10.2 percent of votes a month ago to 12.5 now, equivalent to 32 seats, being the first time in nearly four decades that far-right lawmakers would be elected to Spains parliament.

A coalition of PP, Ciudadanos and Vox would get 44.4 percent of votes, equivalent to 156 seats, 20 seats short of the 176 needed to secure a parliamentary majority.

The Socialists and Podemos together would hold 162 seats in parliament, also below the majority threshold.

But Socialist Pedro Sanchez could be reelected as prime minister if he manages to form another parliamentary majority with the support of the array of parties, including Podemos and Catalan pro-independence parties, that backed him last June when he won a vote of confidence against PP's government at the time.

El Pais' poll was conducted by 40db with 2,000 respondents between April 15 and 18. It had a margin of error of 2.24 percentage points.

(Reporting by Joan Faus; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)KHARTOUM, April 21 (Reuters) - A Sudanese delegation will visit the United States soon to discuss Sudan's removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, state news agency SUNA reported on Sunday.

"The delegation could be formed and travel to the United States this week or next week for discussions about lifting Sudan's name from the list of nations supporting terrorism," SUNA quoted the head of the Sudan's Transitional Military Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, as saying. (Reporting by Omar Fahmy, Writing by Aidan Lewis, Editing by William Maclean)Rabat (AFP) - Thousands of people demonstrated Sunday in the Moroccan capital Rabat, calling for the release of dozens of activists jailed for up to 20 years over their role in a protest movement.

"The people want the release of the detainees" demonstrators shouted as they marched behind a banner supporting activists linked to the Hirak movement.

Earlier this month a court upheld the ruling against 42 people linked to the Al-Hirak al-Shaabi -- or "Popular Movement" -- protests which took hold of the marginalised Rif region in October 2016.

The rally, dubbed the "march of the Moroccan people: stop political injustice", was organised by detainees' families along with political and rights groups.

AFP reporters saw thousands of people in the streets, some clutching photographs of those serving jail terms ranging from one to 20 years.

"We call for an end to political arrests and for the release of all detainees (linked to) social movements and a response to their legitimate demands," said activist Boubaker al-Jawhari.

The sentences first handed down last June were upheld on April 6 by the Casablanca court of appeal, sparking criticism from rights groups.

Moroccan authorities insist the judicial process has followed international standards.

Social unrest in the Rif region was sparked by the death of a fisherman and escalated into a wave of protests demanding more development, and against corruption and unemployment.

The movement's leader Nasser Zefzafi and three others received prison terms of 20 years for threatening the security of the state.

Prison authorities say the activists were moved on April 11 from Casablanca to a facility in northern Morocco to be "close to their families".

"They were transferred to the worst prisons in the kingdom" and "started a hunger strike," said Ahmed Zefzafi, father of Nasser.

Addressing a press conference after the Sunday demonstration, he called on "decision-makers to find a way out of this crisis".

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Prison authorities said Friday the detainees' health was being very closely monitored.

Other family members confirmed that their detained relatives are protesting against the conditions they are being held in.

Beyond the 20-year sentences, other prison terms confirmed on appeal ranged from one to 15 years.

Eleven others were pardoned last year by King Mohammed VI.Washington (AFP) - A leading Democratic lawmaker said Sunday that his party would likely decide within a few weeks whether a move to impeach President Donald Trump would be "the best course for the country."

Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said that since Republicans control the Senate -- and would likely block an effort to oust Trump -- Democrats face a quandary after special counsel Robert Mueller found no coordination between Russia and the Trump election campaign but cited 10 episodes of potential obstruction involving Trump.

"We will have to decide, do we nonetheless go through an impeachment -- because to do otherwise would signal that somehow this president's conduct is okay, that future presidents can engage in this kind of corruption without consequence -- or do we decide that we are better off doing oversight ... rather than a formal impeachment?"

"That's going to be a very consequential decision" and one that would be made "over the next couple weeks," Schiff said on "Fox News Sunday."

The mixed message from the 448-page Mueller report has left Democrats weighing difficult options.

Some say impeachment -- which requires a simple-majority vote in the Democratic-controlled House, but then a two-thirds vote in the Republican Senate -- would give Trump a chance to rally his base supporters behind claims he has been vindicated and is now being unfairly harassed.

They point to the 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton, which fell short in the Senate but left that Democratic president more popular than ever.

Other Democrats say that Mueller provided sufficient evidence of Trump's obstructive intent that it would be a failure of Democrats' will and civic duty not to seek impeachment.

But Representative Jerry Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, equivocated when asked on NBC about impeachment. "We may get to that, we may not," he said, adding that lawmakers needed first to "go through all the evidence."

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So far, only two of the 18 declared Democratic presidential candidates -- Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Obama cabinet member Julian Castro -- have called for impeachment.

"To ignore a President's repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country," Warren said in a tweet Friday.

But House speaker Nancy Pelosi has been wary of taking such an explosive step, urging fellow Democrats to wait until they are able to see a full and unredacted version of the Mueller report.Government comes up with wildlife friendly road design to prevent roadkill

All the roadsincluding major national highwayswhich traverse through forest areas and protected parks of the country will have to maintain a set of standards for ensuring the safety of wildlife, according to a new model developed for infrastructure projects.By Hani Amara and Ulf Laessing TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government have pushed their eastern opponents back on parts of the frontline south of Tripoli, despite the attackers flying overnight air strikes on the capital, witnesses said on Sunday. The Libyan National Army (LNA) force loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar allied to a parallel government in the east started an offensive more two weeks ago but has been unable to breach the southern defenses of the Tripoli government. The latest flare-up in the cycle of anarchy gripping Libya since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011 threatens to disrupt oil flows, foment migration across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, and allow jihadists to exploit the chaos. Forces loyal to Tripoli managed to push back the LNA several km (miles) in the southern Ain Zara suburb, Reuters reporters visiting the area said. They managed to go several km further south than when they visited the same frontline a few days ago. Still, if a ceasefire was called as demanded by the United Nations, the LNA would have gained a considerable amount of territory, as they still control much of the area south of Tripoli including a forward base in Gharyan, a mountainous town some 80 km south of Tripoli. LNA spokesman Ahmed Mismari denied his forces had retreated, telling reporters they had actual gained territory after what he called a successful air strike. The attackers had late on Saturday flown air strikes on southern areas of Tripoli, with residents blaming drones after listening for almost an hour the typical summing of an unmanned aircraft. Reuters was unable to confirm whether an aircraft or unmanned drone was behind the strike which triggered heavy anti aircraft fire. Explosions heard in the city center this time were louder than in previous days. If a drone strike was confirmed this would point to more sophisticated warfare. The LNA has so far mainly used aging Soviet-made jets from the air force of Gaddafi, lacking precision firepower and helicopters, according to residents and military sources. In the past the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have supported Haftar with air strikes during campaigns to take eastern Libya. Both countries flew air strikes on Tripoli in 2014 during a different conflict to help a Haftar-allied force, U.S. officials said at the time. Since 2014 the UAE and Egypt have also provided the LNA with military equipment such as aircraft and helicopters, helping Haftar to gain the upper hand in Libya's eight-year conflict, past U.N. reports have established. The UAE even built an air base in Al Khadim in eastern Libya, one such report said in 2017. Fighting over Tripoli spiked after the White House said on Friday that President Donald Trump spoke to Haftar on Monday. The disclosure of the call and a U.S. statement that it "recognized Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources" has boosted the commander's supporters and enraged his opponents. Western powers and the Gulf have been divided over a push by Haftar's forces to seize Tripoli, undermining calls by the United Nations for a ceasefire. On Thursday, both the United States and Russia said they could not support a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a Libya ceasefire at this time. (Writing by Ulf Laessing, Editing by William Maclean)Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump's top lawyer on Sunday attacked "calumny, lies and distortions" in the Mueller investigation report, and said there is "nothing wrong" with taking hacked information from Russia.

Rudy Giuliani mounted a combative defense of the president in Sunday talk show appearances that took aim at Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, the evidence they amassed and the witnesses they cited.

The former New York mayor heaped special scorn on Senator Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate who said Friday he was "sickened" by the report's findings and "appalled" that Trump's election campaign "welcomed help from Russia."

"What a hypocrite. What a hypocrite. Any candidate in the whole world in America would take information," Giuliani said of Romney on CNN's "State of the Union."

He was referring to Democratic emails that were hacked by Russian operatives and disseminated by WikiLeaks in 2016 to hurt Trump presidential rival Hillary Clinton.

"Who says it's even illegal?" Giuliani added. "Does the information turn out to be false, by the way? The information that was gleaned and disseminated, every newspaper printed it."

Trump publicly encouraged Russia and WikiLeaks while top campaign officials, including his son and son-in-law, met in Trump Tower with a Russian promising dirt on Clinton.

"There is nothing wrong with taking information from the Russians. It depends on where it came from," Giuliani said, adding that as a lawyer he would have advised against it.

"This didn't become an international scandal because of immorality. It became an international scandal because the president was accused of violating the law falsely," he said.

His comments echoed Trump, who mocked Romney on Twitter Sunday, after lashing out Friday at the "bullshit" Mueller report. The president was in Palm Beach, Florida where he attended Easter services.

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- Democrats mull impeachment -

The special counsel's 22-month-long investigation concluded that Trump and his team did not collude with the Russian effort to sway the elections in his favor.

But it detailed 10 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump, including his firing of FBI director James Comey and demands that Mueller himself be removed.

The special counsel declined to bring charges, however, and Attorney General Bill Barr, a Trump appointee, said that cleared the president.

Democrats, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, now are considering whether to move to impeach the president, an effort likely to fail because Republicans control the Senate.

"We will have to decide, do we nonetheless go through an impeachment -- because to do otherwise would signal that somehow this president's conduct is okay, that future presidents can engage in this kind of corruption without consequence -- or do we decide that we are better off doing oversight ... rather than a formal impeachment?" Representative Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday."

"That's going to be a very consequential decision" and one that would be made "over the next couple weeks," he said.

Representative Jerry Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, equivocated when asked on NBC about impeachment. "We may get to that, we may not," he said, adding that lawmakers needed first to "go through all the evidence."

So far, only two of the 18 declared Democratic presidential candidates -- Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Obama cabinet member Julian Castro -- have called for impeachment.

- On the attack -

The White House's strategy, meanwhile, was on bristling display in Giuliani's talk show appearances: attack the investigators as biased and the witness testimony as self-serving and untruthful.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Giuliani called the report "a prosecutor's version of what happened."

"It's two or three pages of calumny, lies and distortion," he said. "Half of it is not true."

Some of the most damaging episodes detailed in the report came from former White House counsel Don McGahn, who described to investigators Trump's escalating demands that Mueller be removed.

McGahn refused to do so and threatened to resign but was talked out of it.

"I'm telling you he's confused. He gave three different versions," Giuliani said on CNN.

The White House has prepared a rebuttal of the Mueller report but has yet to release it.

"We're ready to put it out when we have to," the president's lawyer said.In expressing his condolences to those impacted by the Sri Lanka blasts, President Donald Trump initially claimed incorrectly that millions had died in the South Asia country on Easter Sunday.

At least 138 people were killed in what appears to be coordinated attacks as the death toll is expected to increase, according to multiple media reports. Hundreds were wounded in a series of explosions that targeted churches and hotels frequented by tourists around the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, the Associated Press and CNN report.

Sri Lankan security personnel and investigators look through debris outside Zion Church following an explosion in Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka.

Trump offered support for Sri Lanka in the early morning tweet. "Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more. We stand ready to help," the president said.

The president deleted the original tweet and added a corrected version with the nearly 140 people dead figure in the blasts.

Trump mistakenly said millions had died in the Sri Lanka Easter explosions

Trump's tweets come hours after Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe issued his own statement on Twitter cautioning against spreading unverified reports.

"I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation," Wickremesinghe said. "The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

138 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, with more that 600 badly injured, in a terrorist attack on churches and hotels. The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2019

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump mistakenly tweets millions dead in Sri Lanka explosions on Easter SundayPhoto Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Photos from Getty

For two years now, President Trump has promoted the narrative that he has been singled out for persecution by the special counsel and by his political opponents. The Mueller probe, he has vented, is a form of Presidential Harassment, a Witch Hunt aimed at unseating your favorite President. In the presidents apparent view, no other personand certainly no other presidentwould have been treated so harshly.

In the wake of the Mueller Report, and Trumps exoneration by Attorney General Barr, it is now clear that the truth is exactly the opposite: No other personand no other presidentcould have escaped prosecution for obstruction of justice, or at least impeachment, on facts like these.

Lets start with what separates Donald J. Trump from almost everyone else: He is the president. For Bob Mueller, Trumps status as president gave Trump a double leg-up: First, under Department of Justice guidance, Mueller could not indict the president so long as he remains in office. To that extent, of course, Trump was treated like any other sitting president elected since the issuance of the original Office of Legal Counsel memo. But Mueller took that immunity a critical (and, in my view, mistaken) step further: He reasoned that, because the president could not be indicted, it would be unfair even to reach a judgment about whether Trump had committed obstruction. As a result, Mueller declined to make a formal obstruction finding and instead handed the case off to Attorney General Barr.

Barr, of course, had auditioned for his current job by writing a memo contending that the entire suite of offenses identified by Mueller could never constitute obstruction, given the scope of the presidents Article II powers. Barr has also contended that the absence of an underlying offensehere, the failure to find that Trump actually colluded with the Russians in destabilizing the 2016 electionis an important reason to reject any obstruction charge.

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(That proposition, by the way, would be news to at least two of my former clientsScooter Libby and David Safavian, both high-ranking officials in Republican Administrations. Both were indicted for obstruction; neither of them was ever alleged, or could have been alleged, to have committed some underlying offense.)

Barr, who acknowledged in his press conference (though not in his four-page letter) that he had not relied solely on his legal views in making his decision, unsurprisingly dismissed any possible obstruction within 48 hours of receiving the 400-page report.

So its nice to be president. But Donald J. Trump is not just any president. Hes also a president whose attorney general was, by his own admission, prepared to discount the wealth of evidence of palpably obstructive conduct found by Mueller on the ground that Trump was angry and acted as he did in the sincere belief that he was the unprecedented victim of illegitimate accusations of wrongdoing.

Can you imagine Attorney General Reno making the same claim for President Clinton, regarding his false testimony during the Paula Jones deposition (on which Kenneth Starr predicated an impeachment recommendation)? Can you imagine Reno rejecting any perjury or obstruction charges by taking a page from Barrs playbook:

In assessing the Presidents testimony, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Clinton faced an unprecedented situation. Opposing counsel in the Jones deposition was inquiring into the most intimate details of Mr. Clintons personal life about which few, if any, of us would wish to be questioned, much less under oath. The President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that these questions were undermining his presidency.

Yet in the name of Trumps supposedly sincere belief, all manner of plainly obstructive conduct was exonerated by Attorney General Barr.

Or how about President Nixons obstructive conduct in Watergate? Can you imagine Attorney General Mitchell or Attorney General Kleindienst defending the presidents conduct by arguing that Nixon sincerely believed that his enemies were out to get him? Or arguing that, because there was no evidence that the president planned the underlying Watergate break-in, Nixon could not be lawfully charged with obstructing the investigation of that event? (Actually, one can imagine Mitchell and Kleindienst making those arguments, which is hardly a ringing endorsement of Barrs defense of Trump).

Despite Mr. Trumps protestations of wrongful persecution, the fact of the matter is this: On the facts found in Volume II of the Mueller Report, any other president would now be facing impeachment, and any non-president would be fitted for an orange jumpsuit.

Read more at The Daily Beast.A Virgin Atlantic flight narrowly avoided a drone when they landed at Heathrow Airport. (GETTY)

An aeroplane missed crashing into two drones by 90 feet when it was coming to land at Heathrow Airport.

Airline chiefs have taken renewed calls to crackdown on drones after the near-miss, which happened shortly before 5pm on February 14.

The drones would have had the capacity to disable the engine and smash the windscreen, which could have injured the pilots.

The B787-9 Dreamliner was transporting 264 passengers as it flew over Brentford in Essex.

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A report into the incident said: The first drone was slightly low and a bit further out, whereas the second was close in at the same level and seemed to take avoiding action.

The current law states drones should be flying lower than 400 feet and drone operators who endanger the safety of an aircraft can be jailed for five years or get life imprisonment.

The incident was rated as Category A, which is the most serious category.

The drones could have caused disaster if they had hit the plane. (GETTY)

A Virgin Atlantic spokesman said: Virgin Atlantic can confirm that pilots operating flight VS301 from Delhi to London on 14 February 2019 reported seeing two drones as they flew over Essex.

The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our priority, and the pilots immediately reported the incident to Air Traffic Control. Its vital action is taken to further regulate the use of drones, and we urge the Government to consider additional proposals.

Last December two unauthorised drones were sighted near Gatwick Airport, which forced authorities to cancel flights for 36 hours sparking chaos for 140,000 passengers.

Since the incident, the RAF have spent 5 million to prevent future attacks.Nyborg (Denmark) (AFP) - For first-time Danish voter Josepha Pultz Nielsen, voting in the upcoming European Parliament elections goes without saying, but disillusioned Juraj Martiny of Slovakia says he'll abstain because he has no faith in the system.

The two illustrate how voter turnout in European elections varies widely, with northern nations at the top and eastern countries at the bottom. It is also often a reflection of citizens' satisfaction with the bloc's institutions.

Denmark and Slovakia will each elect 13 representatives to the European Parliament between May 23 and 26.

Around 76 percent of Denmark's 4.2 million eligible voters say they plan to vote, compared to just 27 percent of Slovakia's 4.8 million. In the last EU elections in 2014, only 13 percent of Slovaks voted -- the weakest turnout in Europe.

Far from Denmark's bustling capital of Copenhagen, in the small central town of Nyborg, 21-year-old Josepha Pultz Nielsen plans to cast her ballot even though the European Union remains an abstract construction for her.

"I don't think there is a lot of focus on the EU. In school, we don't learn much about it," says the shy young woman who works as an after-school care teacher.

While she sees freedom of movement as a clear benefit of European Union membership, she is primarily attracted to the idea of an open and welcoming bloc that can work together to address major issues.

"We have to change the world and help each other with global warming," she says.

- Pseudo-democracy? -

More than 350 million Europeans will vote to elect 751 members to the European Parliament in May.

Danes are much more interested in the European elections than people in the rest of the EU, notes Catharina Sorensen, head of research at the think tank Europa.

In the Scandinavian country, the general thinking is that "you simply have to go and vote if you support democracy in your country," she says.

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"In other countries there is less of a sense that it is a democratic duty to go and vote."

Pultz Nielsen agreed. "It's better to go and vote with a blank vote than not vote."

Meanwhile only 25 percent of Slovaks vote regularly, according to Eurobarometer.

Danes also tend to have confidence in institutions, be they national or European, with 60 percent saying they have faith in the EU.

This compares to only 43 percent of Slovaks, according to Eurostat.

"I do not like this institution," 42-year-old Slovak Juraj Martiny says of the European parliament, sitting at a cafe in Bratislava.

The director of a public relations firm, he won't be going to the polls in the May elections, though he did vote five years ago.

He says the European Parliament is a pseudo-democracy.

"Decisions are being made by the European Commission, which - as opposed to the members of the European Parliament - has not been directly elected."

He also feels the parliament is too far removed from the daily lives of Europeans in general, and Slovaks in particular.

It can't even "approve unambiguous legislation that would ensure that a jar of Nutella bought in Paris would be the same as one bought in Budapest or Bratislava," he says, referring to tests conducted in 2017 revealing that big Western brands use cheaper ingredients in food products sold in former communist countries.

More than half of Slovaks, 54 percent, said last year they would abstain from the May elections because "their vote does not make a difference", according to Eurobarometer.

- Europe a la carte -

Contrary to Denmark, voters in other EU countries have "much more utilitarian concerns, (such as) 'does the EU provide enough benefit to us'," says Sorensen.

A recent poll showed that 63 percent of Slovaks saw no advantages to being a member of the EU.

Meanwhile Denmark, which joined the bloc at the same time as Britain in 1973, is a largely europhile country -- as long as it can have its Europe a la carte.

The Scandinavian country has zealously guarded its sovereignty, negotiating four key opt-outs to EU cooperation: on security and defence, citizenship, police and justice, and the adoption of the euro.

In 2014, 56 percent of Danes voted in the EU elections, official statistics show.

This year, the number is likely to be higher.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen must call a general election before mid-June, and many political observers suspect he will hold it at the same time as the European elections, to avoid voter fatigue.

Holding the two votes at the same time will "most likely boost turnout," researcher Sorensen added, but would also likely make Europe "quite absent from the campaign".By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) - Vulnerable House Democrats, mindful of President Donald Trump's continued strength among Republican voters, are using caution in how they respond to the special counsel's report, which detailed Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation into Russian efforts to help him win the White House.

More than 30 Democratic representatives, many of whom are in their first term, represent districts that supported Trump in 2016. The party's chances of keeping control of the U.S. House of Representatives likely hinge its ability to defend those seats.

In the report released on Thursday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller said Trump may have obstructed justice and portrayed a president bent on stopping the probe into Russian meddling. But Mueller stopped short of concluding that a crime was committed, leaving it to Congress to make its own determination.

That is putting pressure on congressional Democrats to decide whether to pursue impeachment charges against Trump, whose continued popularity with his Republican base could weigh heavily on Democratic lawmakers in swing districts.

Those incumbent Democrats may have to strike a delicate balance on the campaign trail next year. Too much bashing of the president could turn off voters more interested in kitchen-table issues and motivate Trump sympathizers to rally around him.

Hours after Mueller's findings were released, Abby Spanberger, a Democratic congresswoman from Virginia, held a town hall that saw virtually no discussion of the report. She knocked off a Republican incumbent last year in a district that favored Trump by more than 6 percentage points in 2016.

The 39-year-old representative told reporters before the event that she was more interested in preventing Russia from attacking the electoral process than in "re-litigating" the 2016 presidential contest.

"Regardless of what actions the president did or didn't take ... understanding in far greater detail the aggression of a foreign adversary nation against our election's infrastructure should ideally help us avoid such circumstances in the future," she said.

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Other Democrats facing reelection in swing districts also reacted cautiously, saying they would reserve judgment until after reading the voluminous report, or emphasizing the threat of Russian interference rather than Trump's behavior.

"If the conclusion remains that there is no further criminal wrongdoing, I think we should, as a country, move on and ensure that Russia cannot interfere again," said Ben McAdams, a freshman Utah Democrat in a Republican-leaning district.

INTERNAL DEBATE

The 448-page report's release has sparked an internal debate within the Democratic Party on how to move forward.

Party leaders played down talk of impeachment, even as they said they would pursue a full, unredacted copy of the report and bring Mueller himself to Capitol Hill to testify under oath. At the same time, some liberal members of the caucus, including Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, expressed support for starting an impeachment inquiry.

U.S. Representative Cheri Bustos, the Illinois Democrat who chairs the party's House campaign arm, set the tone for her most endangered colleagues on Thursday. In a statement, she said she would read the report carefully, then pivoted to other issues.

"As we review this report, I also remain committed to continuing my efforts to bring down the cost of health care, invest in our infrastructure and clean up the mess in Washington," Bustos said.

Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat who won her first term last fall in a district that voted for Trump in 2016, told Reuters many Democrats were elected because "voters want checks and balances and a return to good government and government we can trust."

Still, speaking after a town hall on Thursday evening, the 35-year-old emphasized that most voters going into 2020 are more concerned about issues such as health care, education and infrastructure.

One of her constituents, Joy Marie Zug, said she voted for Trump in 2016 after having supported Democratic President Barack Obama. Zug says she has since soured on Trump due to his "lies."

The 46-year-old adult education administrator said Democrats should consider impeachment, based on the mountain of evidence in the Mueller report. But in a reflection of the difficulty of the strategic choice facing Democrats, she also said they should avoid making it a top campaign issue.

"I don't think this is something they need to run on," she said. "I just wish this wasn't the end."

WEIGHING PRIORITIES

Democrats looking to 2020 must also weigh whether voters' views on the Russia probe are even susceptible to persuasion, given the country's deep partisan divides.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Thursday and Friday after the report came out found 50 percent of Americans agreed that Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia during the campaign, and 58 percent of respondents said they believed Trump tried to stop investigations into the campaign's conduct.

Those figures, which split heavily along party lines, were fairly similar to previous polls.

One senior Democratic strategist involved in shaping the campaign message for 2020 House candidates, who asked for anonymity when discussing the party's internal thinking, said the party's own research showed the Russia probe was not particularly resonant for voters.

Still, he said Mueller's findings would create the background "mood music" when Democrats talk in broad terms about corruption and government accountability.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Additional reporting by Steve Friess in Livonia, Michigan; Gary Robertson in Henrico, Virginia; Susan Cornwell in Washington; and Chris Kahn in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Marla Dickerson)WASHINGTON (AP)  Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday became the first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to make a full-throated call for the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report.

Mueller, who investigated whether Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 election and whether the president tried to interfere with the inquiry, found no evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign and made no verdict on obstruction of justice. Mueller did find, however, that Trump made numerous attempts to interfere with the investigation but was largely foiled by those around him.

In a series of tweets, Warren said it would be damaging to "ignore a President's repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior" and would give license to future presidents to act in the same way.

"The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States," Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, tweeted.

Other 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, while supportive of the idea of impeachment, were more circumspect in their responses.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro said Friday on CNN that it would be "perfectly reasonable for Congress to open up those proceedings."

Both Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California said the question of impeachment should not be taken off the table.

Other Democratic candidates, including Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, indicated it was too soon to initiate impeachment proceedings.

"We don't have an unredacted version of the report. We don't have the underlying materials that that report was written upon. We haven't had yet an opportunity to have hearings where we interview Mueller," Booker said during a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada.

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Sen. Kamala Harris of California was asked Thursday night on MSNBC to comment on House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's remarks that impeachment hearings against Trump would not be "worthwhile" because the 2020 election is coming up and voters can decide if they want to keep Trump in office.

"I think that's there definitely a conversation to be had on that subject," Harris said, referring to impeachment, "but first I want to hear from Bob Mueller and really understand what exactly is the evidence that supports the summary that we've been given."

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said the best recourse for Trump's actions as president would be to vote him out.

"If we really want to send Trumpism into the history books, the best thing we can do is defeat it decisively at the ballot box in 2020," Buttigieg said on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

___

Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.Investment Summits progress report card: 48 applications for 31 projects

Nijgadh Airport has received the highest number of applications from prospective investors after being showcased at the Nepal Investment Forum last month.A Washington state lawmaker is facing backlash from nurses  including multiple online petitions, one calling for her resignation  after saying nurses in smaller, rural hospitals may spend much of their time playing cards.

Republican state Sen. Maureen Walsh made the comments last week during a debate on a bill proposing uninterrupted meal and rest breaks for nurses, as well as further protections against mandatory overtime.

"By putting these types of mandates on a critical access hospital that literally serves a handful of individuals, I would submit to you those nurses probably do get breaks," Walsh said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "They probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day."

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About 525,000 people signed an online petition for Walsh to shadow a local nurse for a 12-hour shift. Another 5,000, as of Sunday evening, have called for Walsh to resign in another petition.

The hashtags #maureenwalsh and #nursesplaycards also trended on social media, drawing a comment from comedian Kathy Griffin, who said her mom worked in a hospital.

Thank you of alerting me to a group that even I am not stupid enough to piss off. Ever, Griffin tweeted.

The Washington State Nurses Association website crashed on Friday after too many people viewed a blog post describing Walsh's comments as disrespectful and patronizing.

Want news from USA TODAY on WhatsApp? Click this link on your mobile device to get started

Walsh told the Tri-City Herald on Saturday she did not have malicious intentions.

I was tired, she said. I said something I wish I hadnt.

In this Jan. 9, 2017 file photo, Sen. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, right, takes the oath of office on the opening day of the 2017 legislative session at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Sen. Walsh has angered nurses by commenting in a speech that some nurses may spend a lot of time playing cards in rural hospitals.

The Walla Walla County lawmaker still opposes the bill, however, and supports an amendment that would exclude nurses at hospitals with fewer than 25 beds from uninterrupted breaks.

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While the bill passed the state Senate with the amendment, the House passed it without the amendment. Lawmakers will have to reconcile the different versions before it can become law.

The state nursing association said recruiting nurses to rural hospitals is already challenging. Denying them uninterrupted breaks and imposing mandatory overtime would further complicate the hiring process, the association said.

Rest breaks also reduce fatigue, which can lead to medical errors, the association said.

The bill would require nurses and staff such as surgical technologists receive uninterrupted meal and rest periods, except under unforeseeable circumstances. If a 10-minute break is interrupted, the bill would require an additional 10-minute break.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Washington state lawmaker angers nurses after saying some 'probably play cards' in rural areasWhat do Nike and Google have in common? Both faced European Union (EU) antitrust fines in March  $14 million for Nike, $1.7 billion for Google.

Whenever companies get slammed with fines, people get confused, presuming bad behavior. Thats true sometimes  BPs penalties related to 2010s oil spill come to mind. So do bank fines for employees opening fake customer accounts and the LIBOR rigging scandal. But often, penalties symbolize a government taking its cut  an alternate form of taxation. The government put time and money into an investigation and wants pay-out to avoid embarrassment.

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Its a basic fact of life: When a business grows large, governments start seeking ways to squeeze it. A few million here, a couple billion there. Lather, rinse, repeat every few years. Google has suffered three EU fines since 2017. The one in March wont be the last. Apple suffered a $15.3 billion EU fine in 2016 over tax grievances. Facebook may be hit with roughly $1.6 billion in EU fines over data breaches.

These amounts sound big. To these companies, a couple billion is tiny. The $1.7 billion was a teensy 0.2% of Googles market cap the day the EU fined it. Apples $15.3 billion fine, announced in 2016, was 2.7% of market cap. Nikes fine? It was 0.01%. Peanuts, all.

Usually, when a firm pays 1% to 3% of its value in fines, it probably did nothing critically wrong. Governments have extortive capabilities to say, Pay or well run you through the ringer! America has done this for eons. Europe has ratcheted it up lately, often on tech companies that slip through its tax net.

The process is mostly pomp and circumstance. Theres always an investigation, but they usually find little justifying prosecution and lengthy court proceedings. If they really had something, theyd identify perpetrators, bring charges and pursue due process through court. Fines would be far bigger.

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The governments effectively say, pay this, without admitting or denying guilt, and well leave you alone for a while. Otherwise, well hassle you for years, and youll spend more fighting it than you would on the fine, and well hurt your reputation. Companies rarely appeal and fight. Most are content to simply pay the pests to go away. Fighting back could make the company look like the bad guy. Nike wants to sell sneakers, not be perceived as sneaky.

For investors, small fines are good news. They put the investigation and uncertainty behind everyone. This is especially true when the issues are foggy and alleged misdeeds unclear. A fine totaling roughly 1% to 3%, or less, of market cap means theres no "there" there. Markets price this "tax" near instantly  and move on.

Even with substantive issues, bigger fines are usually backward-looking confirmation of past troubles. The Justice Department announced BPs final fines in October 2015  right before its stock soared after years seesawing sideways. An extreme example, but illustrative.

Yes, there is real wrongdoing sometimes. But the huge majority of teensy tech fines currently are signs of success for the businesses in question. Governments know where the cash is! They also suggest, intuitively, that political wailing for Big Tech to get broken up wont fly anytime soon. Companies would fight that hard, via lobbying and court. Governments would look bad if they lost ... and they probably would.

So while campaigning politicians will talk tough, governments instead will keep taking their cut. As a stock investor, always see these relatively small fines as the buy signal they really are.

Ken Fisher is founder and executive chairman of Fisher Investments, author of 11 books, four of which were New York Times bestsellers, and is No. 200 on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Follow him on Twitter: @KennethLFisher

The views and opinions expressed in this column are the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why fines against Google, Nike are a good thing for company stocksThe Queen turns 93 on April 21. Photo: Getty

Queen Elizabeth II turned 93 years old on Sunday, and to celebrate the occasion the Palace has shared a series of photos looking back at the monarchs life.

The slideshow includes a photograph from each decade of the Queens life, including an image of her as a baby in 1926.

Happy 93rd birthday to Her Majesty The Queen!



Our video includes a photograph from each decade of The Queens life, from an image of her as a baby in 1926, to her visit to Kings College last month. #QueensBirthday #HappyBirthdayHerMajesty pic.twitter.com/E2J8c5rziD  The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 21, 2019

Queen Elizabeth II took the throne on 6 February 1952 following the death of her father, King George VI.

The then 25-year-old, christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, was staying in a remote part of Kenya when she received the news.

She immediately flew back home to Britain as Queen, where she was greeted by Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Photos: Twitter/theroyalfamily

Her coronation took place on 2 June 1953, and was broadcast on television for the very first time.

During her reign, she has travelled more widely than any other monarch in history.

She has links with more than 600 charities, military associations, professional bodies and public service organisations

Three facts about the Queen

Longevity

In September 2015, she became the longest-reigning UK monarch in history.

Over 80 percent of Britons have not experienced life under any other monarch, having not been born when Elizabeth ascended the throne on February 6, 1952, according to the UK Office of National Statistics.

She has reigned over 14 prime ministers, coming to the throne during the tenure of Winston Churchill.

Story continues

She has also met with 11 of the 12 US presidents in office and signed more than 3,500 bills into law.

On her birthday, the Queen will be 11 years and four months older than any British monarch in history, and at 67 years and 74 days, will be the longest serving by three years and 224 days.

Queen Elizabeth II visits childrens charity Coram in December 2018. Photo: Getty Images

Birth

The Queen was born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in London's upmarket Mayfair neighbourhood, which is now a high-end Chinese restaurant whose signature dishes include "Roasted silver cod with Champagne".

She has another official birthday on the second Saturday in June, to celebrate the landmark publicly.

The double birthday tradition was started by King George II in 1748, who wanted to have a summer celebration.

The Queen celebrates a second birthday in June. Photo: Getty Images

Tech savvy

Despite the tradition and pomp of the family, the Queen has been comfortable with developing technologies ever since serving as a truck mechanic in World War II.

She sent her first email in 1976, sent a message taken to the moon by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, first tweeted in 2014 and made her first Instagram post last month.

Her 1953 coronation was the first to be televised and, in 2012, her annual Christmas speech was made available on podcast.

With additional reporting by Matilda Long and AFP.

Got a story tip? Send it to lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com

Want more lifestyle and celebrity news? Follow Yahoo Lifestyle on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram.

Or sign up to our daily newsletter here.Ministers ignore wards under educational guardianship

The month-long Student Enrolment Campaign launched by the government in mid-April last year had created a buzz in the country after a number of ministers, including Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, undertook the educational guardianship of impoverished children.Do these people not know how incredibly difficult it is to commit someone against their will? Even suicidal people can only be held for 48-72 hours.



**IF** she has been committed against her will, she needs to be there. The amount of checks and balances made in circumstances like this are so numerous there's no way she'd be kept unless there is a real need.

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it's not that hard to manipulate a vulnerable person into checking into a treatment facility. they might have threatened her with other severe consequences to her freedom if she didn't voluntarily check herself in ie. keeping her children away, taking her career away, not allowing her to have a boyfriend, keeping her money from her. we really don't know if she was actually involuntarily committed or the details surrounding any of this, but it is not hard to trick someone into treatment, even if she wasn't on a psych hold.

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When so much money is involved, nothing would surprise me.

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Mte

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For real

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yep

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This is true for most people but from my understanding the conservatorship basically gives Britney the legal rights of a child... and so it may be a lot easier for her to be involuntarily held at the behest of her "conservatorship team" than someone with full legal rights.

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if they're in a c-ship which regulate such decisions, it's very easy, that's the entire point of such a legal relationship

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I dont like any of this but you very much can be coerced into voluntarily admitting yourself. My therapist did it and when I decided I wanted to leave during the initial check-in the nurse said if I asked the psych would put me on a 72 hour hold without even meeting me first. She straight up said she didnt think I needed to be there but too bad.



Edited at 2019-04-21 09:10 pm (UTC)

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Uh when money is involved its hard to get checked out of a mental health facility. My partner went in voluntarily and after the first week to balance out he tried to leave and the psychiatrist basically held him because the insurance would pay for 3-4 weeks and they wanted as much money out of the insurance company as possible. My partner had to take them to court to be allowed to leave and they still stole a bunch of his belongings he had in there. And this is the highest ranked facility in our large metroplex. :-/

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Are these also the same people talking too Sam Lufti? I'm seriously questioning their motives at this point.

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Yepppp

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I bet the end goal for some of them are some more Blackout leaks.



The fact that Sam Lutfi is in any realm an ally for this hashtag...

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this is exactly the reason why i'm so skeptical of this entire ~movement~

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They're talking to that creep? JFC

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I heard it was the Breathe Heavy ppl that are talking to him not BritneysGram... That's disappointing tho if Britney gram are allowing his input

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They love the drama of it more than anything, it's clearly a game to them.

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i can't fathom anyone thinking sam lufti has credibility - what a fucked move

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Yeah that twitter user @emailmypussy has been getting info from Sam Lufti which is like the lowest of the low. I dont get how they call themselves fans at this points



Edited at 2019-04-21 10:41 pm (UTC)

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They're associated with HIM??? Nope. Giving no credibility to this whatsoever. Why can't that man stay out of her life?

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everything is so counfusing.....but I think the fans are being too invasive at this point.

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i agree. i feel terrible for her

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yup

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this is quickly devolved into a Kony2012 situation

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It was a lot of people getting quickly up in arms after seeing one video and having no further info or context and ultimately doing more harm than good. this feels a lot like that.

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Wow, that feels like such a good description because I had no idea what was going on with that (and still don't) and I have no actual idea what's going on here either.

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I was just thinking about that clusterfuck the other day

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I totally forgot about that. God I wish I could go back to 2012.

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2012 was such a different time lol

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Talk about throwback reference LMAO

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holy shit I forgot about kony

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The wiki is just an entire clusterfuck of wtf tldr who did what now

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For real.

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There are so many fucked up layers to this. We are talking about someones mental health and there is only hearsay about it and people are doing protests? And all these anonymous sources. I know everyone is saying this is out of concern for Britney but we still have a long ways to go because this is sf tacky. Now, there is a lot of confusion about why shes still in it all these years later but people are going way too far and being super invasive.

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Yeah, this is like 2007 again but now we have so called fans enabling a dangerous environment, we dont know anything about her mental issues and all of these years have been pure speculation but the hashtag really crossed the line.

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Mfte

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ITA. I mean.. obviously I dont want this to be true, and if it is it deserves to be screamed about. But right now thats a big if that people really ought to care about more than they seem to right now. The cost of them being wrong falls on Britney as much as the cost of ignoring it if it turns out to be right would

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Mte. It's so disconcerting to see how far they are taking this and how convinced they are that they have figured out the situation and are doing the right thing. They are crazy.

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Wouldn't it be lovely if ONTD took a stand and decided not to publish speculative updates on this, and waited 'til Britney or her team actually said something? From the comments it seems most of us don't agree with this.

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That'd be nice. Along with that confirmation, we can go ahead with that stepping stone

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It's clearly gone beyond concern for her at this point.

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LYNNE SPEARS JUST LIKED A COMMENT THAT ACCUSES JAMIE LYNN Of DOING NOTHING TO HELP BRITNEY!!!



Really? So we can expect a legal challenge to the conservatorship from Lynne any day now? Because so far I don't see any evidence of her doing jack shit to change how things are for Britney, so unless she's actually doing something it's real fucked up to insinuate that Jamie Lynne should choose sides between her father and her sister.



Real stellar parenting there, woman who signed off on Really? So we can expect a legal challenge to the conservatorship from Lynne any day now? Because so far I don't see any evidence of her doing jack shit to change how things are for Britney, so unless she's actuallysomething it's real fucked up to insinuate that Jamie Lynne should choose sides between her father and her sister.Real stellar parenting there, woman who signed off on this photo shoot . And This one

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Lynne would have more legal authority than Jamie Lynn would to change stuff. Its odd.

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"Inside the heart, mind & bedroom of a teen dream."

I feel sick. :(

Also, wow that was 20 years ago.



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Yeahhh Lynne has always been a shit parent.

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how do we know any of this is legit?

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We don't. This is ally literally based off of that podcast. I cannot.

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Now that i think of it ONTD is the only place i see posting about this.

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It's here, at Exhale, and ATRL. Everyone else sees how fucked up this is and has left it alone.

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Its everywhere. It was even on E! News, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, and The Talk.

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Tinashe commented about it

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A #FreeBritney protest is taking place in California.





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awwwm kitteh

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FreeBritney is disgusting. I cannot with "fans" acting like Sam Lutfi is a good guy and talking to him and trying to drag him back into Britney's life.

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all i can say is i hope she's well and safe

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From zero concrete knowledge of the situation, this has become so invasive. Jamie Lynne is being harassed by fans on Twitter calling her a bad sister. People claim to care for Britney but have no sense of responsibility towards the possibility that if theyre wrong in all this speculation, thats damaging to her too. Even that statement which starts off by going on about Britneys right to privacy in her mental health ends it with a veiled challenge for info about her health.



And if anybody is talking to Sam Lufti, fuck them.

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Totally agree with you. The speculation and subsequent campaign is beyond depraved.

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Also, they believe emails and texts (even everything about the texts are shady) that Sam is giving them. They really are going way too far.

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I was surprised (but was I really, let's be real) that these fans who supposedly care for Britney published the unreleased photograph of her and her children. That's private (as are her emails) and not intended for us. There's a strange entitlement fans have over Britney's personal life.

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They don't care! I saw a tweet that said "the gays going to save Britney to get more bops" and that is what this boils down to. They don't care that they are trying to get a violent manipulator back into her life, or are publishing her private info...they just want her "free" to make more bops. They think the cship is stopping that.

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ONTD should ban this subject. Giving this movement publicity is disgusting and wrong. This is damaging and invasive to her mental health and its harassing her family. Like, just stop.

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I agree with you.

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Love your icon even if you don't have my fav in there.

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yep

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Agreed. Tired of these posts saying nothing.

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Yep. And all of this coming from the same OP is gross.

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ITA

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It's total exploitation with no basis in reality.

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LinkIn a sharp reversal of longstanding US policy which recognizes only the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli as the legitimate authority over Libya, the White House on Friday said President Trump spoke by phone this week to Benghazi based commander Khalifa Haftar, pledging support to the general and his Libyan National Army (LNA) as it lays siege to the capital.

The White House statement said Trump recognized Field Marshal Haftars significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libyas oil resources, and the two discussed a shared vision for Libyas transition to a stable, democratic political system.

Khalifa Haftar, center, leader of the Libyan National Army, via AFP/Getty

The call took place on Monday, but was only revealed at the end of this week amid ongoing fighting in and around Tripoli, under assault for the past two weeks by Haftar's forces, which early this month led to the withdrawal of a contingency of US Marines, citing the deteriorating security situation.

The White House readout said the two discussed ongoing counterterrorism efforts and the need to achieve peace and stability in Libya.

Interestingly in early April Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had urged in a statement for Haftar to halt his advance: We have made clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftars forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital, Pompeo said at the time.

Haftar  who solidified control of Eastern Libya over the past two years and swept through the south in January, seeks to capture Tripoli and seize military control of the entire country, and has over the past weeks made inroads into the capital.

Related: Chinas Newest Oil Hotspot Is In Americas Backyard

NEW: #Haftars advance into #Tripoli threatens not only the stability of #Libyas largest city, but of the entire country.@mel_pavlik, @MENASTREAM, @a_carboni, and Kars de Bruijne map the offensive and unpack ACLED's latest data on the fighting: https://t.co/AgZC3lb5A7 pic.twitter.com/0JCS1Q0vmq  Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (@ACLEDINFO) April 19, 2019

He's long been described by many analysts as "the CIA's man in Libya"  given he spent a couple decades living in exile a mere few minutes from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia during Gaddafi's rule.

On Thursday the US and Russia blocked a UN Security Council effort to call for a ceasefire in Libya  this as air power has recently been used during increasingly intense fighting in Tripoli. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), fighting between the LNA and GNA has resulted in 205 deaths and 900 wounded, with about 20 civilians among the dead.

Given Trump's praise of Haftar for "securing Libyas oil resources" in the telephone call this week, it appears that the renegade Libyan general has indeed been "the CIA's man in Libya" this whole time.

By Zerohedge.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Australias second largest independent gas producer, Santos Ltd., has posted a Q1 production record. The Adelaide-based company said production for the first quarter ending March 31 rose to a record 18.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), up from 13.8 mmboe for the same quarter last year, a 33 percent increase. Revenue came in at $1.02 billion, the second-highest quarterly revenue on record, it said. However, revenue growth was slightly held back by lower oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, with domestic gas prices also more economical due to pricing adjustments on a contract booked in the previous quarter and cyclone-related shutdowns, Santos added. Santos reports its financials in U.S. dollars, not Australian dollars.

Santos impressive Q1 results, however, didnt come from just more gas production but from the acquisition of an oil production companys assets. Santos said its production was boosted by its $2.5 billion acquisition of Quadrant Energy assets last year, including an 80 percent stake in Quadrants Dorado oil find. The Dorado offshore discovery is one of the largest ever oil discoveries in Australias North Western Shelf, containing some 171 million barrels of oil. "In the second quarter, we look forward to continued drilling success, including commencing appraisal of the ... Dorado oil discovery offshore Western Australia" said Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher. According to Carnarvon Petroleum, Quadrants partner before the acquisition last year, oil fields of this scale are not often found, with the recent large field discovery on the North West Shelf being around 30 years ago.

Santos turn-around continues

Santos performance marks a steady turn-around from just a few years ago when the company was bloodied in the 2014-2016 roil in global oil and gas markets that saw oil prices plunge from over $100 per barrel in mid-2014 to breaching the low $30s price point in early 2016. At the same time, the company was also building its massive CAPEX intensive Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project in Queensland and increasing debt levels, resulting in a plunge in its stock on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) at the time, from a peak of AUS$13.24 to below AUS$3 per share in 2016. Related: The Worlds Most Unorthodox Oil Nation

As a result of its low valuation, Santos became a target for a number of take-overs. However, early last year Santos, under new CEO Kevin Gallagher, fended off an aggressive takeover attempt by U.S. private equity firm Harbour Energy which had offered AUS $6.95 a share, valuing the company at AUS$14.45 billion at the time. Gallagher rejected the offer in favor of internal growth. After the Harbour Energy offer rejection, the price of Santos stock plummeted some 8.5 percent. However, strong oil prices and over performance at GLNG, as well as reliable predictions for its South Australian Cooper basin project, boosted the companys share price again, pricing it above what most firms were willing to pay for its acquisition. In other words, the days of bottom fishing from hostile firms due to Santos low stock valuation had finally come to an end.

Going forward, Santos still needs to reduce debt levels, but the current spike in global oil prices will help the company continue its turn-around as will better management and a continued focus on internal growth. Oil prices for both global benchmarks, London-traded Brent Crude futures, and U.S.-oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude have hit five-month highs amid a drying up of global oil supply from the OPEC+ production cut agreement put in place in January, as well as oil production curbs in Iran, and Venezuela due to U.S. sanctions, as well as oil production cuts in Libya as fighting persists around Tripoli. Shares for Santos stock have risen around 29 percent since the start of the year.

By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:After rallying more than 30 percent year to date, oil prices could be set for a further upside in coming weeks as a combination of near-term bullish supply-side factors could push prices higher than current levels.

Over the next few weeks, several critical geopolitical events could set the trend for even higher oil prices in coming months. These events, combined with a tightening global oil market, could leave prices vulnerable to any sudden supply outage on top of the production cuts by OPEC and its Russia-led non-OPEC allies.

Experts who have recently spoken to CNBC recognize the fact that the oil market may be set for a major disruption on the supply side, although they diverge on who the single biggest disruptor may be.

The three top candidates are Iran, Venezuela, and Libya. All three OPEC producers were exempted from the cartels production cuts that began in January and are expected to last at least until June. And all three have shown so far this year that there was good reason to be exemptedtheir respective production has been either falling or volatile, and set for further disruptions in coming weeks and months.

According to Stephen Brennock, an oil analyst with PVM Oil Associates, its Libya that will pose the biggest geopolitical risk to oil markets.

Eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftar ordered earlier this month his Libyan National Army (LNA) to march on the capital Tripoli. The self-styled army has been clashing with troops of the UN-backed government in a renewed confrontation that could escalate and threaten to disrupt, once again, Libyas oil production and exports.

Oil production in the country has yet to be disrupted however I suspect it is a matter of when not if. General Haftar and his eastern Libyan forces are determined to seize Tripoli and with it comes the inevitable risk of supply outages, Brennock told CNBC in an email.

Cailin Birch, global economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), believes that its Iran and the U.S. sanctions on its oil industry that is the most important supply-side issue. The unpredictability of the U.S. Administrations policy could result in the U.S. cutting off waivers for Iranian oil customers due to expire in early May, Birch told CNBC.

Many other analysts, however, believe that the U.S.despite its continued talk of maximum pressure on Tehran and zero exports from Iranwill be more lenient, again, toward the key Iranian oil buyers. The reasonfear of driving oil (and gasoline) prices too high.

Some analysts say that with the focus on tightening the sanctions on Venezuela and Nicolas Maduros regime, the U.S. could go softer again on Iranian customers, because those two supply disruptions combined, plus a possible outage in Libya, could tighten the market too much and result in oil prices overshooting.

Related: Oil Could Fall To $40 If OPEC Abandons Its Deal

This may turn out to be a black swan event as it would force the OPEC+ alliance to reopen the oil spigots, Brennock tells CNBC.

Speaking of a black swan event, Goldman Sachs head of commodities research Jeff Currie told CNBC earlier this month that such an even would more likely be economic and monetary policy changes in a major economy, such as China or the United States.

Goldman Sachs is one of the investment banks that dont see oil prices reaching $80 a barrel as they did in Q3 last year because theres only modest upside to price gains.

Citigroup, however, sees more upside than downside in oil prices.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch says the risk of a Brent crude oil price spike is significantly higher than options markets suggest, as the new regulations by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to cap the sulfur content in ship fuel are bound to further disrupt the oil and refining markets by the end of this year.

Crude oils near-40% rally from the December low has resulted in both WTI and Brent clawing back half the losses seen between October and December. With global demand growth holding up despite the prospect for lower global growth, the market has instead been left to focus on a near-perfect storm of price-supportive supply news, Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, wrote in the banks Q2 2019 Quarterly Outlook.

With Opec+ continuing to cut production and the US forcing down exports from Iran and Venezuela, only a major change in the outlook for demand will alter the current positive sentiment, Saxo Banks expert noted in early April.

Saudi Arabia and several other OPEC producers need oil prices above $80 for budget purposes and are unlikely to be happy with only $70 a barrel Brent, Hansen said, adding:

On that basis, we expect supply to be kept tight over the coming months, thereby supporting a potential extension towards $75/b before it eventually runs out of steam amid renewed concerns about the negative impact to global growth.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

National rights body objects to bill to amend National Human Rights Act

The National Human Rights Commission has objected to a bill to amend the National Human Rights Commission Act-2012, saying the government is trying to undermine the rights bodys authority by forcing it to recommend the cases it has investigated to the attorney general.Nepal Airlines grounds Chinese-made planes for lack of instructor pilot

All four Chinese-made Y12e and one MA60 planes of Nepal Airlines has been grounded for a long time, causing the state-owned carrier millions in losses.The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed May 17 to deliver judgment on the suit seeking to set aside the six-count charge of non-assets declaration against the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen.

The suit filed by the Attorney General of Cross River State on behalf of the state government is challenging the suspension and trial of Mr Onnoghen at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

Mr Onnoghen is from Cross River State.

The suit marked SC/45/2019 and dated January 22, 2019, has the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as defendants.

But the Federal Government has asked the apex court to dismiss the suit as the plaintiff has no right to institute it.

When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, counsel for the plaintiff, Locius Nwosu (SAN), adopted his brief of argument, urging the court to grant the reliefs sought by the state.

On his part, counsel representing the defendants, Dayo Akpata argued his notice of preliminary objection urging the court to dismiss the suit on the ground that the plaintiff lacked the to institute right the action.

Legal fireworks

In a notice of preliminary objections filed by the AGF, Abubakar Malami, the Federal Government further challenged the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter on the grounds that there is no dispute between the defendants in this suit and the plaintiff as envisaged under section 232(1) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

It is also the contention of the Federal Government that the subject matter of this suit is personal to Hon. Justice Onnoghen Nkanu Walter Samuel and does not in any way affects the Cross River State government as to confer it with the locus to institute this suit.

The reliefs and claims made herein by the plaintiff are not for the benefit of Cross River State but personal to Hon Justice Onnoghen Nkanu Walter Samuel.

Mr Akpata informed the apex court that the subject matter of the suit is already before the Court of Appeal which has reserved judgment.

He submitted that the action of the Cross River State amounted to forum shopping and an abuse of court process.

Counter-argument

Regardless, Mr Nwosu insisted that the case of his client is different from the appeal filed by Mr Onnoghen at the Court of Appeal.

My lords, the suit is not about Justice Onnoghen but about the interpretation of the constitution.

It is for the interpretation of the provisions of the 1999 constitution, particularly sections 4,5,6, 153(1), 158(1), Paragraph 21(b) of Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution (as amended), the purported filling of the charge in charge No. CCT/ABJ/01/19 between FGN vs Hon. Justice Onnoghen Nkanu Walter Samuel before the Code of Conduct Tribunal against a Judicial officer who in this case is the Chief Justice of Nigeria, without any formal complaint having been made against him to the National Judicial Council (NJC) robbed the tribunal of jurisdiction to try the charge, and all the proceedings relating thereto are null and void, a nullity.

After taking all the arguments for and against the suit, the seven-member panel led by Bode Rhodes Vivour accordingly adjourned the case to May 17 for judgment.

Other Justices of the panel include Olukayode Ariwoola, Mary Odili, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Musa Mohammed and Dauda Sidi.

Mr Onnoghen was taken to the CCT on January 14, for failing to declare his bank accounts used for the transfer of foreign currencies after his appointment as CJN.

Mr Onnoghen pleaded not guilty to the allegations and was released on bail on self-recognition.

His trial is expected to resume before the CCT on March 11.Pressure mounts on ruling party to initiate action against its general secretary

Pressure is mounting on the ruling communist party from its own leaders to initiate action against Bishnu Poudel, general secretary of the party who has been embroiled in a controversy for buying a piece of land in Baluwatar in January 2005." " Children collect hidden chocolate eggs at Easter, a longstanding custom in Europe and North America. Ariel Skelley/Getty Images

Every year as Easter approaches, stores are filled with jelly beans, candy eggs, egg-coloring kits, bunnies of all types, and baskets for carrying all of this bounty. However, most of us know that Easter isn't simply a commercial festival about dyeing and hiding eggs or wearing new spring attire. Easter is the Christian observance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his resurrection days later. It's the central festival of the Christian church and, after the Sabbath, it's the oldest Christian observance. 

Unlike festivals such as Christmas, Easter has been celebrated without interruption since New Testament times. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Advertisement

"...western Christians celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon (the paschal moon) that occurs on or next after the vernal equinox on March 21. If the paschal moon, which is calculated from a system of golden numbers and epacts and does not necessarily coincide with the astronomical full moon, occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday."

The U.S. Naval Observatory's Astronomical Applications Department says that Easter is determined by the "ecclesiastical moon" as defined by church-constructed tables to be used permanently for calculating the phase of the moon. This full moon isn't necessarily the same as the astronomical full moon. This means that Easter is not necessarily the Sunday after a full moon -- it could be the next Sunday after the ecclesiastical moon. This happened in 1876.

Because of these calculations, Easter can fall between March 22 and April 25. This was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 as part of the Gregorian calendar.

In New Testament times, the Christian church celebrated Easter when the Jews observed Passover. By the middle of the second century, Easter was celebrated on the Sunday after Passover. The Council of Nicaea decided in 325 A.D. that all churches should celebrate it together on a Sunday.

The Eastern Orthodox church may celebrate Easter up to a month later, since its calculation of the date is based on the Julian calendar, which is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. In 1865 and 1963, Easter observance in both Eastern and Western churches coincided.

In this article, we will explain the significance of the Easter holiday. We'll also explore the traditions behind it, including rolling -- and even throwing -- eggs.THE National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has removed over 650,000 campaign materials all over Metro Manila.NCRPO Director Major General Guillermo Eleazar urged the candidates to also do their

THE Philippines would do well to set up more business continuity programs to prepare the community, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide, for disaster management, according to a business leader.

Clarine Tobias, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) regional governor for Region 5, emphasized at a recent conference on disaster resilience that MSMEs have to be given more assistance in adopting a business continuity plan (BCP) in preparation for calamities, as most of them are not well informed about what a BCP is and why it is important to have one.

Tobias also shared how local business chambers are being capacitated and strengthened to engage in disaster management through cross-sectoral collaborations and partnerships. These links, she explained, involve collaborations with local government units, non-profit organizations and civil and interfaith organizations on getting everyone ready for when disaster strikes.

She added, for example, that some regions now have a one-page BCP in anticipation of any impending emergency or crisis.

We already know what are the things that we are supposed to do, and who are in charge of these. We have identified the centers for all the churches, schoolsand also the people who will be contacted.

Tobias said they are in close coordination with the media and the Office of Civil Defense for any eventuality, and have partnered with the Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management or A-PAD, a trans-national aid platform.

She stressed how it is a necessity for everyone to become part of the disaster resilience movement.

I think we have no choice but to be involved because we are the ones who are really affected, especially MSMEs, she said.

What is also crucial now, Tobias added, is more government funding and support for business continuity programs because not all of the micro and small (enterprises) are aware of it, and they are not really informed about the BCP.

I think we have to partner and we have to localize everything. But right now its still lacking. We need more business continuity programs and workshops to capacitate our micro and small business owners. (PHILEXPORT NEWS AND FEATURES)PENNSYLVANIA is getting an official amphibian, a nocturnal, unsightly salamander thats sometimes known as a snot otter, lasagna lizard or mud devil.The House voted 191-6 Tuesday to grant the honor to

PENNSYLVANIA is getting an official amphibian, a nocturnal, unsightly salamander thats sometimes known as a snot otter, lasagna lizard or mud devil.

The House voted 191-6 Tuesday to grant the honor to the Eastern hellbender, which can grow to be more than a half meter long and is battling declining numbers across much of its range in the United States.

The path to legislative recognition was not smooth, as the Eastern hellbender faced a stiff challenge from another amphibian called Wehrles salamander.

Rep. Garth Everett, R-Lycoming, who helped shepherd the bill through the House, said hellbenders had been on decline.

Not many people have actually seen hellbenders, Everett said after the vote. They live only in very clean streams, and they live under rocks.

They are the largest North American amphibian, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, and their jarring appearance has inspired a colorful set of nicknames that also include devil dog, ground puppy and Allegheny alligator.

Members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundations student leadership council began the campaign to designate it as the states official amphibian, and their efforts were aided by Lycoming Colleges Clean Water Institute.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation said hellbenders were plentiful in Pennsylvania as recently as 1990. Their numbers have since been decimated in Eastern states by pollution and sedimentation, researchers say.

Their range generally covers the Appalachian Mountains, from southern New York to northern Georgia.

Among the factors researchers also worry about are disease and warming water temperatures caused by climate change.

Hellbenders do not have federal protected status, and while some states give them protected status, Pennsylvania does not.

Wehrles salamander, which is common, is named after the late naturalist R.W. Wehrle, of Indiana, Pennsylvania. (AP)Hong Kongs mainland affairs minister said he was disappointed that pro-democracy lawmakers boycotted the city legislatures four-day mainland trip, which started on Sunday, saying they should not politicise the visit.

All seven pro-democracy lawmakers who signed up for the official visit to Shanghai and Hangzhou decided to drop out earlier this month, as they said the political atmosphere had turned sour over the bill which would allow the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions the city lacks an extradition deal with, including mainland China, Macau and Taiwan.

The pro-democracy camp opposes the amendment, saying it could result in people being extradited to places where a fair trial is not guaranteed, such as the mainland.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, who is part of the delegation along with three other top city officials, said it was a pity to see the pan-democrats boycott it, adding that he believed the mainland officials involved in the planning of it would also be disappointed.

If the visits are purely business and duty-based with no politics involved, politics should not be brought into play

Patrick Nip, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs

If the visits are purely business and duty-based with no politics involved, politics should not be brought into play, Nip said, hoping lawmakers would think about relations between the two systems under the governing principle of one country, two systems. He believed those relations should not be confrontational.

Legislative Council president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen echoed his disappointment.

Some of our meetings in Shanghai were added at the request of the pan-democrats. For example, Ip Kin-yuen requested to visit Fudan University. This is a technical visit, and is not at all political in nature, Leung said, referring to the education sector lawmaker.

Leung hoped that during the trip, lawmakers might examine how Hong Kong can learn from Shanghai and Hangzhou, and explore how Hong Kong could work closer with the two mainland cities.

Story continues

However, the pan-democrats argued that the government was to blame for degrading the political atmosphere with the introduction of the controversial amendment to Hong Kongs extradition law.

Ip said: The extradition law is a critical issue putting freedoms in Hong Kong under threat. We wanted to go but the issue forced us to change our mind.

The Civic Partys Jeremy Tam Man-ho, who did not sign up for the trip but had suggested visiting an aircraft manufacturing plant, said their attendance was always a barometer of relations between pan-democrats and the mainland or Hong Kong government.

There is no way there can be a normal duty visit, given that the extradition amendment was introduced in the middle of it all, he said.

The Democratic Partys Andrew Wan Siu-Kin added: It is the government who provoked this conflict and polarised society. I am surprised Nip was trying to blame this on us.

On Sunday the 22-lawmaker delegation visited the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, which has been building Chinas home-grown narrow-body passenger jet, the C919, and Fudan University after their flight was delayed by two hours.

They will also visit the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Hangzhou Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, and Alibaba Group, the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

At the first meeting of a committee scrutinising the extradition bill on Wednesday, pan-democrats were accused of filibustering and blocking the election of a chairman for the body.

With the voting process to resume on April 30, pro-government lawmakers were mulling the removal of opposition lawmaker James To Kun-sun as presiding chairman and even threatened to bypass scrutiny by the Bills Committee entirely if the election dragged on too long.

But Legco president Leung and another pro-establishment lawmaker, Paul Tse Wai-chun, said on Sunday that it would be foolish to bypass the entire scrutiny process.

Tse said: This suggestion is the nuclear option, and both camps would be hurt if we chose it. Are we going to turn the legislature into a mere rubber stamp by allowing certain committees to be bypassed?

Leung also said: As this bill is so controversial, it should follow the usual procedure and go through a bills committee first.

But Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Kwok Wai-keung, speaking in Shanghai on Sunday night, insisted the pro-establishment camp should prepare itself for the move if the next meeting still failed to elect a chairman.

Special tactics have to be adopted in special times, he said.

This article Hong Kong mainland affairs minister bemoans pro-democracy lawmakers boycott of Shanghai and Hangzhou trip first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.THE National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has removed over 650,000 campaign materials all over Metro Manila.NCRPO Director Major General Guillermo Eleazar urged the candidates to also do their

THE Philippines and South Korea agreed to pursue a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) to strengthen economic ties and expand trade between the two countries.

In a meeting held in Manila last Wednesday, April 17, Philippine Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez and South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee declared their readiness to commence negotiations upon the completion of their respective domestic procedures.

Once concluded, the bilateral FTA will pave the way for an enhanced market access for products of interest of the two countries. It is also viewed that the agreement will provide a more stable and predictable economic environment necessary to generate more trade and investments.

Merchandise trade between the Philippines and South Korea reached US$13.7 billion in 2018, making South Korea the fifth largest trading partner of the Philppines.

The countrys top exports to South Korea include bananas, pineapples and copper. Philippine imports mainly industrial products from Korea. Investments from South Korea in 2019 totaled $35.79 million, primarily on real estate activities and manufacturing.

The Philippines and South Korea share longstanding ties characterized by mutual trust and support since the Korean war. The two countries will celebrate the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations in November and announce the conclusion of the FTA negotiations. (PR)ASIDE from selling seaweeds to processors, seaweed farmers can augment their income by selling fresh guso (eucheuma) to restaurants and other dining establishments.Seaweed Industry Association of the

ASIDE from selling seaweeds to processors, seaweed farmers can augment their income by selling fresh guso (eucheuma) to restaurants and other dining establishments.

Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (Siap) chairman Max Ricohermoso said fresh guso could be an added item in the vegetable salad menu of restaurants in Cebu.

He said not only will it expand the food options of the growing health-conscious market, it will also expand the income potential of the countrys seaweed farmers, who have been traditionally selling seaweeds to industrial buyers to be processed and exported to the US and Europe.

Fresh guso as salad is increasing. It is getting popular as a healthy food, said Ricohermoso.

Guso is a good source of protein, fat-free, low in calories, and is full of vitamins and minerals.

Ricohermoso stressed that the local opportunity for seaweed is as big as in export, but only if seaweed farmers are given additional support, not only in funding but also in accessing the market.

He said serving fresh guso in dining establishments as an alternative salad has not been exploited since only a few restaurants and eateries carry this dish in their menus.

According to Ricohermoso, seaweed farmers need to be connected to the local fresh seaweed market, particularly restaurants, for the seaweed industry not to be solely dependent on the export market.

He said seaweed processors have embarked on new applications for seaweed in cosmetics, nutraceuticals and health care, among others.

Seaweed is one of the most important aquaculture commodities in the Philippines.

Farmers usually enjoy a good harvest from January to June, which are considered peak months for seaweed farming.

The Siap official said the industry aims to maintain 90 to 100 metric tons of seaweed production this year. Export demand is maintained in China, Europe and the United States.

Seaweed prices, according to Ricohermoso, are maintained at a reasonably high levelabout P80 per kilogram for eucheuma cottonii and P30 per kilogram for eucheuma spinosum.

Story continues

Cottonii and spinosum are varieties of seaweed from which carageenan, a gelatinous substance used in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, is derived.

There are about 200,000 Filipino farmers who are reliant on seaweed.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources targets to increase seaweed production by at least five percent annually from the year 2017 to 2022.Phil Parker

I've been making models most of my life starting with a bag of balsa offcuts and a trail of badly painted Airfix kits.Nowadays I build and exhibit model railways and boats which have appeared in many magazines. This blog is a record of my activites both for personal projects and models built for other people.Time is ticking: Ghantaghar may just give up due to the lack of technical support and the governments indifference

For the past 124 years, Ghantaghar has been projecting accurate timewith occasional dysfunctionsthroughout the years. But that may change soon, as the man who ensured that the monumental time teller is up and running is set to retire.Authorities have warned visitors in the past that dingoes are wild animals and need to be treated with caution

Australia on Sunday ordered a urgent review into the management of dingoes on a popular tourist island after a spate of attacks by the wild dogs this year.

The Queensland state government announced the review three days after a father rescued his toddler from a dingo's jaws. The boy had been dragged from a parked campervan in a remote part of Fraser Island off the Queensland coast.

The 14-month-old's skull was fractured and he suffered multiple puncture wounds to his neck and head, his parents told national broadcaster ABC.

Queensland's Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch said she was bringing forward a review into dingo management on the island.

"The management of dingoes on K'gari (Fraser Island) is complex, and the government is committed to supporting a sustainable and healthy dingo population, while minimising the risks to human safety and dingo welfare," she said in a statement.

The number of rangers patrolling the island would be boosted, while more efforts would be made to educate visitors about the dangers of dingoes, Enoch added.

The attack on the toddler is the third this year on World Heritage-listed Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island and a popular tourist destination that attracts up to 400,000 visitors each year.

Two dingoes were put down in March after a French mother and son were mauled on the island.

In January, a six-year-old boy was attacked as he ran up a dune on the island.

Authorities have warned visitors in the past that dingoes are wild animals and need to be treated with caution.

Native to Australia, dingoes came under the spotlight with the disappearance of baby Azaria Chamberlain at Uluru, or Ayers Rock, in 1980 for which her mother Lindy was convicted of murder and her father, Michael, of being an accessory.

The convictions were overturned in 1988 after the chance discovery of a piece of Azaria's clothing near a dingo lair.

A court ruling in 2012 found that a dingo snatched their baby from a tent.

Explore further Dingoes should remain a distinct species in Australia

 2019 AFPA flooded park in the Canadian town of Laval, north of Montreal

Flooding in eastern Canada forced the evacuation of 1,200 people while more than 600 troops have been deployed in response, authorities said Sunday.

Warming weather over the Easter weekend has brought spring floods due to heavy rains and snowmelt from Ontario to southern Quebec and New Brunswick.

A man was killed Saturday in Pontiac, Quebec after he failed to see that a bridge had been swept away by the floods and drove his vehicle into the water.

Authorities, who initially feared a repeat of catastrophic 2017 floods in Quebec, the worst in half a century, appeared more confident about the situation on Sunday.

"We are optimistic about the coming days," civil security spokesperson Eric Houde told AFP.

"There will be significant floods but globally not at the level of 2017, except in certain areas like Lake St. Pierre," a widening of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, he said.

"The big difference from 2017 is the level of preparation of municipalities and citizens," he added.

Over the past several days, towns have mobilized volunteers and distributed tens of thousands of sandbags to erect barriers or protect houses in threatened areas.

The areas most affected Sunday were the region around Ottawa, and Beauce, a region south of Quebec City where nearly 800 people were evacuated. As of midday Sunday, about 1,000 homes had been affected by the flooding in Quebec.

Residents in Laval, just north of Montreal, erected barriers with sandbags to ward off flooding

The provincial governments of Quebec and New Brunswick asked for reinforcements from the military. About 200 soldiers had deployed in Quebec by Saturday night, and 400 others near Ottawa; in Laval, just north of Montreal; and in Trois-Rivieres between Montreal and Quebec City.

About 120 additional soldiers were available to be mobilized in New Brunswick.

Explore further Canada flood damage worsens but heavy rains subsiding

 2019 AFPUnfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.Unification of ruling party said to conclude soon

The ruling communist party leadership could announce the conclusion of the unification process between the erstwhile CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) on Monday, coinciding with the establishment day of the Nepal Communist Party seven decades ago.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Why development efforts in the country go down the drainalmost always?

The road section in front of the Amrit Science College in Lainchaur is a work in progressperennially The Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited fixes water leakage in the area and the Department of Roads fixes the road every 15 days.1. Yes. Patrol cars in the lot and armed officers inside would deter would-be criminals.

2. Yes. Police should announce their plans and be highly visible during store hours.

3. No. The citys police officers have other obligations. More private security is the answer.

4. No. Perhaps, but installing more surveillance cameras would be a better deterrent.

5. Unsure. More police might help, but it could also stretch KPDs resources too thin.

Vote

View ResultsBeset by months by scandals and setbacks, Facebook Inc. founder, chairman and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is in the hot seat once again. This time around, hes is in the Feds crosshairs, with regulators considering whether to hold him personally liable for serious lapses regarding how his company has been handling personal data by its 2.2 billion users.

The idea arose during the FTCs settlement with Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

It would be the first time that the FTC has gone after tech companies for their indiscretions, but going after executives is a rare move that would send shockwaves through the industry.

In other words, it would be a very loud warning to other tech companies amid a growing backlash over mishandling of private data.

Losing public confidence

At the root of the matter is the question of whether Facebook violated a 2011 agreement with the FTC to safeguard the privacy of its users by allowing Cambridge Analytica to improperly gain access to private data of users in the US.

Specifically, FB is required to answer to allegations that it allowed Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm, to illegally access data from 87 million users leading to the 2016 U.S. general elections. The Trump campaign allegedly used the Cambridge Analytica data to target voters.

FB and Zuckerberg have more than the Fed to contend with over Cambridge, though. In December, Washington DCs AG filed a lawsuit against Facebook over the same misconduct.

Facebook certainly does seem to have a seriously flawed privacy culture--its litany of data scandals never seem to end and could eventually make the public lose confidence in the company.

On Thursday, FB rattled the world again after admitting that it stored millions of passwords by Instagram users in plain text thus exposing them to theft. That revelation came hot on the heels of the companys admission to similar malpractice about a month ago. Facebook estimates that anywhere from 200-600 million FB passwords could have been inadvertently exposed.

Whats particularly unsettling is the fact that in both instances, Facebook seems to have been blindsided by events and only discovered the breaches during standard security reviews. It would therefore probably take some serious forensic investigative work to establish whether any passwords landed in the wrong hands.

Does Anyone Want to Invest in Facebook Now?

Cambridge Analytica and the latest password scandals are by no means isolated cases.

Related: Silver Demand Set To Grow Significantly In 2019

Facebook has had to defend itself against allegations of allowing more than 150 companies access to users personal data including private messages. Facebooks defense has been:



The data sharing was quid pro quo that allowed users to access their FB accounts or features on platforms built by other companies

None of the partnerships allowed companies to access user information without their permission

While that defense seems fair enough, it has not stopped investors from worrying that the sequence of private data issues would eventually devalue the brand and lead to loss of valuable users.

But so far theres little evidence to suggest that Facebooks stock has suffered given the continued healthy user growth trends.

(Click to enlarge)

Source: Facebook Earnings Slides

What had put FB stock under severe pressure last year was the unlucky timing of other unrelated issues including GDPR, news feed changes and an exodus of top executives. GDPR (Data Protection Regulation) alone hit FB really hard with the shares tanking nearly 20 percent after revealing a decline of 3 million daily users in Europe shortly after the introduction of the tough regulation.

That blip though appears to be firmly in the back mirror.

FB shares appear to have found a bottom, and its safe to assume most of the bad news has already been baked in. The shares are boasting a 36 percent Y/Y gain, more than double the market average of 15.8 percent.

Facebook vs. S&P 500 ETF (SPY) YTD Return

(Click to enlarge)

Source: CNN Money

Facebook has been negotiating a multi-billion fine with the FTC over its privacy practices. But with new scandals popping up right, left and center, its going to be interesting to see how much the trade watchdog will demand as settlement.

Related: Greed Is Ruling The Markets Once Again

A fine in the ballpark of Volkswagens $14.7 billion over the infamous emissions scam of 2016 could put Facebook in a profit hole for years, and will almost certainly sink FB stock.

Nevertheless, given the latest reset; the companys still very wide moat, the fact that its still growing revenue at 30 percent-plus and earnings projected to grow at 16 percent CAGR over the next five years, FB stock remains a good contrarian play for long-term investors-- data scandals notwithstanding.

(Click to enlarge)

Source: Pew Research Center

By Alex Kimani for SafeHaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:" " HowStuffWorks Now: Is Chinas space station falling? HowStuffWorks

When China launched the Tiangong-1 (literally, the Heavenly Palace-1) space station module in 2011, it was with the understanding that the lab would one day be destroyed upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere. But according to some experts, the process may end up being an uncontrolled mess.

The space module concluded its primary mission in 2013 and has been running in sleep mode ever since. In March 2016, the Chinese space program formally decommissioned the space lab and said it would lose speed over the course of several months before entering Earth's atmosphere. At that point, most of the space station would burn up, with a few pieces falling to Earth, presumably in a safe location such as the Pacific Ocean.

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But according to satellite tracker Thomas Dorman, that might be out of the space agency's hands. In June 2016, Dorman told Space.com that his observations of Tiangong-1 indicated the Chinese space program had lost control of the facility. That means we have no way of knowing when or where the station will begin re-entry.

This shouldn't be a cause for a panic  the pieces most likely to survive re-entry are denser ones like the rocket engines, which could withstand the intense forces the module will encounter during descent. The engines aren't so large as to pose a threat to entire regions. That being said, they're big enough and will be traveling fast enough to tear through the roof of a house or crush a car, for example.

The odds of that happening are very low. The vast majority of Earth's surface is covered with water and unpopulated by humans The chances of a piece from Tiangong-1 hitting a populated area are pretty slim. But there's still a chance.

This isn't the first time a man-made satellite has caused a headache. In 1979, America's first manned space station, Skylab, ended its service by falling back to Earth. This posed something of a problem  NASA hadn't designed a system to allow for a controlled descent. The space agency had dedicated nearly all its resources to getting the space station into orbit rather than worrying about how to get it out again.

As Skylab's demise approached, people threw parties, marketed novelty insurance plans and held ridiculous contests related to the space station. When the space station deorbited, most of it ended up in the ocean, but several pieces fell in Western Australia. No one was injured as a result. One Australian park official issued a ticket to the NASA for $400. The charge? Littering.

Contrast that with the deorbiting of the Russian space station Mir. In 2001, the 15-year-old station broke apart in re-entry and fell into the South Pacific Ocean as planned. The space station's rocket engines fired at a specific time, applying the brakes to Mir's orbit. The facility's journey ended just the way Russian engineers intended it to.

Chinese representatives haven't outright admitted that they no longer have control of Tiangong-1. It's possible that a controlled descent may still happen. But several experts in satellite tracking think that's unlikely. The module should start its fall in 2017. So keep your eyes on the skies!

Now That's Interesting The $400 littering fine was meant as a good-natured joke, and NASA never paid the bill. A California radio DJ named Scott Barley decided in 2009 that this injustice could not stand and urged his listeners to help raise the money to pay off the fee (despite Australian officials saying it was unnecessary). Barleys listeners pulled through, and the town of Esperance, Australia, invited the DJ to visit and receive the key to the city." " The Faint Young Star Paradox: Solar Storms May Have Been Key to Life on Earth NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein

We all know that the Sun's heat and light is necessary for our day-to-day existence on Earth. But data gathered by NASA's Kepler space observatory also indicates that four billion years ago, the sun may actually have stimulated the beginnings of life itself.

In a recent article in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers reported using Kepler to study "superflares"  enormous explosions that frequently occur on the surfaces of young stars. Some of those stars produced as many as 10 massive eruptions per day.

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According to the scientists, those stars are similar to the sun's state about four billion years ago. But while the sun was indeed volatile, its average output of energy back then was only about 70 percent of what it is now.

"That means Earth should have been an icy ball," Vladimir Airapetian, lead author of the article and a solar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, explained in a press release. "Instead, geological evidence says it was a warm globe with liquid water."

The scientists call that the Faint Young Sun Paradox, as the NASA video above details. But the Kepler data pointed them to an explanation for it: "Solar storms could have been central to warming Earth," said Airapetian.

Back then, the young Earth had a weaker magnetic field, the scientists say. That enabled the solar storms' radiation to pack a more powerful punch.

As the charged particles from the solar flares traveled down the magnetic field lines, they would have slammed into abundant nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere, said Airapetian. That, in turn, would have started a chain of collisions that resulted in the creation of large amounts of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas some 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And that would have enabled the Earth's atmosphere to trap more of the Sun's energy and warm up ... eventually leading to our existence today.

" " An image of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from 2012 that took four days to reach Earth's magnetic field, causing aurorae in the atmosphere; an image of Earth was inserted to show scale. NASA/GSFC/SDO

The scientists also think that the early bursts of solar radiation may have caused chemical reactions that led to the formation of RNA and DNA, which cells use to carry the genetic information needed to sustain life.

Now That's Interesting A separate study into Earth's early days suggests that multiple massive impacts asteroids into our primordial planet may have released sulfur and carbon gases, creating a greenhouse environment that allowed for warmer temperatures.Security researcher discovered a database belonging to a ride-hailing company operating in Iran that was left exposed online containing over 6.7M records.

Security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered a database belonging to a ride-hailing company operating in Iran that was left exposed online without protection.

The MongoDB instance named doroshke-invoice-production contained over 6.7 million records of Iranian drivers.

Exposed records include driver first name and last name, SSN (10-digits Iranian ID number in plain text), phone number, and invoice date.

The expert discovered the database using the BinaryEdge search engine that indexes data available on the internet.

Security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered the database named doroshke-invoice-production using BinaryEdge search engine that allows

to scan the entire internet space and acquiring data.

On April 18th, during our regular security audit of nonSql databases with BinaryEdge search engine, I have discovered an open and publicly available MongoDB instance which contained astonishingly sensitive information on Iranian drivers. reads a blog post published by the expert.

The database included two collections with invoices split by year:

invoice95 (all the invoices from year 1395, which corresponds to 2017 in Gregorian calendar), with total number of records: 740,952

invoice96 (all the invoices from year 1396, which corresponds to 2018 in Gregorian calendar), with total number of records: 6,031,317

The MongoDB contained a large number of duplicates, the researcher estimates that the unique number of entries is between one and two million.

At the time of writing the owner of the archive is still unknown, fortunately, it has secured the instance.

Diachenko reported its discovery to the Iranian CERT and also attempt to alert researchers in Iran to discover the owner.

We were able to get in touch with a couple of drivers with an attempt to identify the owner of the database. At the same time, my colleagues have reached out to the biggest ride-hailing companies in Iran to confirm data origin.  concludes Diachenko.

While I did not receive an official confirmation or comment from either company, we can only guess if this data was part of their infrastructure. However, no matter who owned it, the fact alone that such highly sensitive PII ( personally identifiable information) was available in the wild for at least 3 days, is scary.

Pierluigi Paganini

( SecurityAffairs  data leak,ride-hailing company)

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Share OnA few weeks ago, I visited the exhibition of the latest URA Draft Master Plan 2019 at URA Centre. Strolling through the gallery, I was amazed at what Singapore has been able to accomplish in just one generation since its independence in 1965, transforming from a swamp-covered island to what the country is today. The Master Plan ensures it never rest on its laurels with its bold imagination of what is possible over the next 10-15 years.



Bernard Tong studying the Draft Master Plan 2019 at the URA Centre (Pictures: Albert Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)



I enjoyed the hour-long presentation by an eloquent NUS intern. By now, we are accustomed to the headline news - development of Greater Southern Waterfront, additional housing for CBD and going underground to free up surface land. But the 2019 Master Plan actually goes beyond these and is centred on five key themes - liveable and inclusive, mobility, local and global connectivity, rejuvenation and sustainability. Each theme is given adequate consideration and serves as the pillar for what Singapore aspires to be.

At times, the plan for EdgeProp Singapore resembles the microcosm of the Master Plans themes. Being the new-kid-on-the-block in the space we are competing in, we have to be inclusive, building a platform that caters to the needs of the different stakeholders (property-seekers, developers, builders, agents) and collaborating with relevant partners. For instance, we partner with DBS where we share our property listings and proprietary Edge Fair Value calculator to provide instantaneous indicative valuations. Our original content is also distributed by our content partners like Yahoo and Newsloop.

In our second year, we discovered that we have more users on mobile devices than desktop, and this trend will likely continue. That is when we decided to double-down our resources on being mobile-first, prioritising mobile technology over desktop to build scalable platform for mobility. Today, our users on mobile application are six times more engaged and send 1.5 times more enquiries.

Story continues



(Picture: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)



As a property hub, EdgeProp plays an important role to improve connectivity of information. The annual EdgeProp Excellence Awards, which is now entering its third year, was created to recognise local and international developers which strive to build better homes. This year in May, we will be hosting our very first International Property Show, a curation of the most discernible overseas properties for investment.

My favourite 2019 Master Plan theme is Rejuvenating Familiar Places. With the frantic pace of development, it is sometimes easy to lose our sense of identity. Therefore, it is admirable to have in place a plan to retain Singapores unique values by rejuvenating familiar and nostalgic places such as Holland Village, Toa Payoh and Dakota Crescent, towns that have seen and will see tremendous progress over the coming years.

Rejuvenation is central to our plan at EdgeProp to produce a series of informal, lifestyle content to portray fresh perspectives on communal living in these towns.



Bernard Tong envisioning the future



As I took a break from the URA tour on a makeshift chair of the alphabet E, which forms part of the word DREAM, I couldnt help but ponder what the next 10-15 years at EdgeProp will look like. Since this is our 100th issue, I also took the time to envision where we will be when the 200th, 500th and 1,000th issues come around. Thats when I realised that we must never waver from our underlying principles in building a sustainable and resilient organisation: editorial integrity, delivering insightful content, prioritising readers/users first and retaining key decision makers.

Lastly, I want to thank our readers for being with us over the last 100 issues. We apologise for any mistakes we have made along the way and will always, always strive to do better. We have come a long way since we first started, yet we are only scratching the surface in terms of helping our users find their dream homes. To get there, we must be bold in our imagination, ambitious in our dreams, relentless in our execution, and develop our very own Master Plan as the compass for future growth.

See Also:





Logo and crest of NUS seen on a flag. (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

SINGAPORE  A group of 489 students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) on Sunday (21 April) issued a statement to the top management of NUS to express their deep concerns about the universitys approach towards sexual harassment, particularly in relation to the incident involving NUS undergraduate student Monica Baey.

Baey had expressed anger over what she perceived to be lenient punishment meted out to a male NUS student after the latter had filmed her showering without her consent. The offenders action was caught on CCTV footage.

The NUS Board of Discipline ordered the offender to be suspended for one semester, banned into entering housing premises on campus, undergo counselling, write a letter of apology, among other punishments. The first-time offender was also given a 12-month conditional warning by the police.

The NUS students, however, said in their statement that they find the punishment meted out (by NUS) in this case problematic because it signals to the NUS community at large that

i) our University does not credibly enforce its stance against sexual voyeurism as a serious offence;

ii) those who commit such an offence can arguably expect to receive a relatively light sentence; and

iii) survivors of sexual violence and harassment will not receive adequate institutional and social support even if they voice their concerns to the relevant authorities.

The NUS students want the university to take a stronger stance against sexual harassment and set a positive example for other universities around the world in the statement, which was also supported by 194 students from other universities and educational institutions.

They proposed four sets of recommendations for NUS to implement in order to address their concerns on the matter.

For a start, NUS should provide stronger immediate redressal for Baey by making a stronger statement against sexual harassment on campus and providing greater transparency on its investigations into the case, they said.

Story continues

Another recommendation is the setting up of an Office of Sexual Harassment Prevention, Reporting, and Response with a 24/7 emergency hotline service for survivors, and improving rehabilitative support for survivors of sexual harassment such as providing counselling services for survivors of sexual harassment and assault.

NUS should also implement preventive measures such as providing anti-sexual harassment training programmes and campaigns in the university, particularly in residences, the students proposed.

In addition, NUS should also follow the footsteps of leading institutions such as The University of Oxford and The University of Cambridge in publicly and explicitly committing to a zero-tolerance campaign against sexual harassment, they said.

The students want NUS to institutionalise tiers of penalties applicable to the different types of sexual harassment offences under the University Code of Student Conduct.

They also called for the organisation of a town hall meeting and meaningful student representation in a committee set up to review disciplinary procedures against sexual harassment.

Beyond the call for immediate redressal for Ms Baey, there is a broader need to address the various systemic issues relating to sexual offences that occur within NUS. Through the detailing of various remedial, preventive and developmental measures above, this statement hopes to provide a good ground for conversation and review to take root and grow, they added.

Related stories

The Monica Baey Case Reveals NUS Severe Incompetence in Handling Sexual Misconduct

Mother of undergrad Monica Baey filmed in campus shower speaks up: Trust in university is now broken

Group of NUS students surface past disciplinary cases: Only one student expelled in last three years for outrage of modestyEvery two weeks, Alena Konecna packs her bags to leave her own mother and daughter at home in Slovakia and travel some 400 kilometres (250 miles) across the border into Austria to take care of someone else's mother. As citizens across the continent prepare to vote in May's European Parliament elections, 40-year-old Konecna is an example of those who regularly take advantage of one of the EU's most important pillars: the free movement of labour. She's one of more than 65,000 people -- mostly women from Slovakia and Romania -- who form the backbone of Austria's domestic care sector. For two weeks at a time, Konecna stays with the 89-year-old bedridden woman to cook and care for her. "Without care workers from abroad, the 24-hour care system would break down... No one (in Austria) wants to do it," says Klaus Katzianka, who runs the agency that found Konecna her current job and who himself needs round-the-clock care due to a disability. But the arrangement may be coming under strain. - Demographic time bomb - Austria -- along with other countries such as Germany, Greece and Italy -- looked to poorer neighbouring states after the fall of communism to meet the need for carers generated by an ageing population and changing family structures. But it is "problematic to build a system on this," says Kai Leichsenring, executive director of the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research. As eastern European nations become richer and their own populations age, workers there may increasingly choose to stay put, he warns. Western European nations would then have to look further afield -- to Ukraine or China, for example -- to meet the ever-growing demand. In Konecna's case, she started to work as a caregiver more than two years ago in the town of Leoben, nestled amid mountains in the Austrian countryside, which reminds her of her home in Banska Bystrica in Slovakia. Previously the single mother worked in a factory in the car industry. Fed up with the long shifts and inspired by her mother's erstwhile career as a nurse, in 2015 she took a three-month course in first aid and care skills, including some practical experience in nursing homes. She also took a one-month German course, allowing her to watch TV with her employer and read newspapers to her. Care workers can earn roughly double as much in Austria than in Slovakia, although Konecna says it's hard to leave behind her daughter, now 19. "My daughter was often sick when I was away. And I have missed things like my daughter's birthday," she says, adding she would prefer working in Slovakia if wages were better there. - 'Italy syndrome' - Besides being separated from their families, there are other problems in how the sector works across Europe. A study by the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz found inadequate training, extreme working hours and salaries below the legal minimum wage. Up to 300,000 caregivers are estimated to work in private homes in Germany, mostly illegally. They previously hailed mostly from Poland but now increasingly come from poorer EU states such as Romania and Slovakia. Konecna was put off going to Germany by the more gruelling cycle which is common there, with workers staying three months at a time. For many of those from poorer EU member states working in the West, workplace conditions can leave lasting effects. In Romania, more than 150 women were hospitalised at Socola Psychiatric Hospital in the country's northeast last year alone, their mental health having suffered after caring for the elderly abroad -- what has become known as the "Italy syndrome". "I had the misfortune to work all the time for elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's so I spent most of my time between four walls, under constant pressure," says one former hospital patient, a 58-year-old mother of two who worked in Italy from 2002 until 2014. "I devoted the most beautiful years of my life to elderly Italians." - 'Big minus' - Added to the stress of such jobs, there are signs that EU migrant workers like Konecna may come under fire from their host governments. Last year in Austria for example, the right-wing government decided to cut the amount of child benefit paid to foreigners who work in Austria but whose children live abroad in lower income countries. With a monthly salary of about 1,200 euros ($1,400), Konecna says the changes have meant an effective pay cut of 80 euros, a "big minus" for her. Katzianka, who fears difficulties to find carers from Slovakia now, has hired a lawyer for Konecna to contest the change. Romania has also protested to the European Commission over the change, saying it violates EU principles of equal treatment. burs-jza/jsk/rlFILE PHOTO: A model of the nuclear reactor "Hualong One" is pictured at the booth of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) at an expo in Beijing, China April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

By David Stanway

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China plans to gamble on the bulk deployment of its untested "Hualong One" nuclear reactor, squeezing out foreign designs, as it resumes a long-delayed nuclear programme aimed at meeting its clean energy goals, government and industry officials said.

China, the world's biggest energy consumer, was once seen as a "shop window" for big nuclear developers to show off new technologies, with Beijing embarking on a programme to build plants based on designs from France, the United States, Russia and Canada.

But after years of construction delays, overseas models such as Westinghouse's AP1000 and France's "Evolutionary Pressurised Reactor" (EPR) are now set to lose out in favour of new localised technologies, industry experts and officials said.

China signed a technology transfer deal with the United States in 2006 that put the AP1000 at the "core" of its atomic energy programme. It also pledged to use advanced third-generation technology in its safety review after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

But by the time the world's first AP1000 and EPR made their debuts in China last year, Chinese designs had become just as viable.

Though China has yet to complete its first Hualong One, officials are confident it will not encounter the delays suffered by rivals, and say it can compete on safety and cost.

Beijing has already decided to use the Hualong One for its first newly commissioned nuclear project in three years, set to begin construction later this year at Zhangzhou, a site originally earmarked for the AP1000.

"The problem with AP1000  the delays, the design changes, the supply chain issues and then the trade problems  has forced their hand, and it has become Hualong," said Li Ning, a nuclear scientist and dean of the College of Energy at Xiamen University.

He added that China's licensing procedures would also be an advantage for the home grown tech. "For the Hualong, there are four reactors already under construction and one of them is near completion already. It is a Chinese design so it wouldn't be very hard to license the next four," he said.

Story continues

EDF, France's state-run utility, which helped build the EPR project at Taishan in Guangdong province, declined to comment. Westinghouse, now owned by Brookfield after entering bankruptcy restructuring, also did not respond to a request for comment.

INTERNATIONAL AMBITIONS

China's ambitions for the Hualong One extend overseas as well. The first foreign project using the reactor is under construction in Pakistan and the model is in the running for projects in Argentina and Britain.

"(Hualong One) is competitive," said Li Xiaoming, assistant general manager of the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). "The technologies are now just about the same as those of the United States, France and Russia."

"This is the foundation that we will rely on for our future survival and our international competitiveness," Li said.

China already has four Hualong Ones under construction, with the first, in the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, set to go into operation late next year, ahead of schedule, said Huang Feng, a member of the expert committee of the China Nuclear Energy Association.

"China has already become one of the small number of countries that has independently mastered third-generation nuclear power technology, and it has the conditions and comparative advantages to scale up and go into mass production," he told an industry conference.

As Beijing gets ready to commission eight reactors a year in order to meet its 2030 clean energy and emissions targets, construction speed will be a crucial consideration, benefiting local developers.

Huang said the estimated costs of Hualong One and the AP1000 were now roughly the same, and much now depended on scaling up production to cut costs and allow the Chinese design to compete not only with other reactors, but also with coal-fired power.

Li of CNNC said while foreign-designed projects would still be built, it would "make no sense" to rely on foreign technology if China's own domestic reactors were equally safe and reliable.

"There are probably some technologies where we will continue to cooperate, but overall we will gradually turn to our own," he said.

($1 = 6.7139 yuan)

(Reporting by David Stanway; editing by Christian Schmollinger)Chinas state broadcaster has aired footage of the countrys new aircraft carrier, revealing details for the first time of the home-grown warships interior.

While the new aircraft carrier is not expected to take part in a fleet review marking the PLA Navys 70th anniversary on Tuesday, a CCTV report has offered a rare glimpse of the vessel in footage taken during its most recent sea trial.

The naval parade will include 32 Chinese warships  including its first and only operational aircraft carrier the Liaoning  and 20 foreign vessels from 10 countries, deputy naval commander Qiu Yanpeng said on Saturday.

The new warship, the Type 001A, is the first Chinese-built aircraft carrier. Its design is based on the Liaoning, an unfinished Soviet Kutznetsov-class vessel Beijing bought from Ukraine in 1998 and retrofitted.

In the 23 seconds of footage shown in the report, several operators are seen standing on the bridge, while a team of technicians sit at the control panels.

The warship is also seen moving at high speed, and it shows the bridge and ski-jump flight deck without any aircraft on board.

A close-up shows the vessels advanced active phased array radar with an integrated mast structure  a significant upgrade from the Liaonings set-up  and its close-in weapon system to counter incoming artillery and rockets.

According to the report, the warship underwent full testing and demonstration of its command system and combat capabilities during the recent sea trial, its fifth so far, from February 27 to March 5 in the Yellow Sea off the coast of Dalian, where it was built.

Testing of its docking, power, combat and logistics functions had already been completed, it said.

But military experts said the aircraft carrier may not be fully combat ready, and it was not expected to join the naval parade this week.

One is enough for the same class of carrier,  said Yue Gang, a military commentator and retired Peoples Liberation Army colonel. But the new carrier will surely be presented as a huge gift for National Day in October to mark the 70th anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China.

Story continues

The fleet review off the coast of Qingdao, Shandong province is expected to be the fifth military parade inspected by President Xi Jinping since he took power in late 2012.

Last years naval parade in the South China Sea  the Chinese navys biggest ever fleet review  involved 48 vessels, including the Liaoning, 76 aircraft and 10,000 troops.

With a bigger hangar, the new aircraft carrier can accommodate up to 32 J-15 fighter jets  compared with 26 on the Liaoning. Other redesigned elements include a bridge on two levels rather than one, with bigger windows.

Its conventional steam turbines give the Type 001A a top speed of 31 knots, a little slower than the Liaonings 32 knots. But it has a full displacement of 70,000 tonnes, compared to the Liaonings 58,600 tonnes. The Type 001A, which has yet to be named, made its maiden voyage in May last year.

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Details of new Chinese aircraft carrier revealed in sea trial footage aired on state TV first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.Less than half the electorate of North Macedonia participated Sunday in the first round of the first presidential election since the European country changed its name. The turnout of 41 percent of the 1.8-million voters, given by the electoral commission, was the lowest recorded in the six presidential elections the former Yugoslav republic has experienced since independence in 1991. That figure appeared to have barely passed the 40-percent threshold of voters needed for the second round of the election to be held on May 5 to be considered valid. With nearly all ballots counted, the candidates of the left and right were neck-in-neck and likely headed for a runoff vote in two weeks. Stevo Pendarovski, 56, backed by the ruling leftwing government, was on 42.63 percent of the vote with rival Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, 62, of the rightwing opposition on 42.39 percent. Belrim Reka, 59, from the country's ethnic Albanian minority garnered around 11 percent, according to the preliminary results. The vote for the largely ceremonial post of president comes less than three months after a deal with Greece on the name change came into force, ending a decades-long identity dispute between the neighbours. That cleared an obstacle for North Macedonia's ambition to join the European Union. Greece, an EU state with veto power over new members, had objected to its neighbour being known simply as "Macedonia" because it has a province of the same name. However, for the winner of the runoff to succeed Gjorge Ivanov, the outgoing nationalist president who was not able to run again having served the maximum two terms, there again must be a voter turnout of at least 40 percent. - 'Won't change anything' - Many voters were disillusioned with what they see as a corrupt political system, and with lack of progress on better economic prospects and jobs. "I came to vote out of a sense of duty, but I don't think there is any point," said Pavlina Gosheva, a 53-year old nurse from Skopje. "For us ordinary mortals it won't change anything." North Macedonia's unemployment rate is running at more than 20 percent, the average monthly wage is stuck at around 400 euros ($450) and many people have emigrated, demoralised by what they see as a lack of opportunities for people without the right connections. Ljupco Nikovski, a 58-year-old police officer backing the opposition rightwing VMRO-DPMNE, said he had "never felt so desperate". Emilija Stojanoska, 49, said protests she joined against the previous rightwing administration had not achieved anything. The arrival of the Social Democrats in power with the backing of the country's ethnic Albanian parties had not resulted in any positive changes, she said. With apathy running wide and threatening to force a re-run of the presidential vote, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev emphasised that "voting is an honour, a right and a civic duty". He earlier talked down the risks of a low turnout, but also set out possible solutions to such a scenario. They include a re-run of the election, doing away with the 40-percent minimum threshold, or even giving parliament the power to appoint a president. - 'Immense' voter apathy - A referendum backed the country's name change to North Macedonia last September, but the result was undermined by turnout failing to reach 40 percent. Since it was only consultative, the government and parliament were free to go ahead with the historic name change anyway to settle the dispute with Greece. Nazim Rashidi, senior editor of the Albanian-language channel TV Alsat, said of Sunday's election: "The apathy ... in particular that of young people, Macedonian and Albanians, is immense." Politicians had failed to tackle unemployment, widespread corruption and nepotism or to launch much-needed judicial reforms, he added.Two Chinese nationals reported dead in Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bombings that killed scores of people, but Hong Kong tour groups and flight crews are safe Two Chinese nationals reported dead in Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bombings that killed scores of people, but Hong Kong tour groups and flight crews are safe

Two mainland Chinese national were among more than 200 people reported killed in deadly Easter Sunday terror attacks across Sri Lanka.

More than 20 Hong Kong members of a tour group, plus a number of Cathay Pacific pilots and cabin crew, have all been accounted for and are safe after multiple bomb blasts across at least eight locations, in churches and popular hotels frequented by foreign visitors.

The Travel Industry Council, which regulates and oversees package holidays in Hong Kong, said it had two tour groups in Colombo, and a total of 22 people were reported safe.

The Hong Kong Immigration Department said it had not received any requests for help from Hong Kong tourists in the aftermath of the deadly bombings, which targeted three churches and three hotels popular with foreign visitors.

The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka had earlier said four Chinese nationals were hospitalised and in a stable condition, suffering from undisclosed injuries sustained in the explosions in Colombo.

State-run newspaper China Daily said that two Chinese nationals were dead. It is unclear if the deceased were among those reported injured earlier.

The Chinese embassy activated its emergency response plan to the bombings and was checking the locations and conditions of Chinese nationals, the statement said.

Chinese companies, travellers and tour groups were advised to remain cautious. Phone calls to the Chinese embassy in Colombo went unanswered.

China is the second biggest source of tourists for Sri Lanka. Last year, about 265,000 visitors came from the mainland, or about 11.5 per cent of total tourists, according to the Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority. A breakdown of tourist numbers for Hong Kong was not available.

Cathay Pacific flew 58,427 passengers into the country in 2017, according to the Sri Lankan tourist board.

Local television footage showed devastation across the country and at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo.

Story continues

Cathay Pacific aircrew stay at the nearby Movenpick Colombo hotel.

Hong Kong authorities said they had not received requests for help from citizens through its special hotline set up to handle overseas events, such as natural disasters or terror attacks.

[The] Hong Kong Immigration Department has not received request for help, a spokesman for the Immigration Department said.

Cathay Pacific Airways, which operates a daily service between Hong Kong and the capital Colombo, offered condolence over the attacks.

All overnighting crew in Colombo have been accounted for and are safe. Safety is in the consideration of everything we do and we will watch the situation closely, an airline spokeswoman said.

The company issued special ticketing arrangements for passengers travelling up to April 23, and has offered to postpone or divert to an alternative destination for free for travel on or before May 10. Travellers can also cancel tickets and get a refund, but fees and charges would apply.

Sri Lanka, home to 21.5 million people, was plunged back into chaos on Sunday after a near decade of peace following a long-running civil war.

The island nation is popular with foreign visitors for its balmy climate, golden sandy beaches and countryside tea plantations.

The country was destabilised last year after President Maithripala Sirisena sacked his prime minister, triggering political turmoil and denting tourism numbers.

Additional reporting by Zhou Xin

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Two Chinese nationals reported dead in Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bombings that killed scores of people, but Hong Kong tour groups and flight crews are safe first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale will travel to Beijing on Sunday amid tensions between India and China over Beijings refusal to sanction a Pakistani militant leader and its infrastructure push in the disputed Kashmir region.

Gokhales two-day visit is part of regular exchanges between the two nations, the Indian embassy in Beijing said on Saturday.

During his stay, Gokhale is expected to meet Chinese deputy foreign minister Kong Xuanyou and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

He will return to India on Monday, three days before the second Belt and Road Forum begins in the Chinese capital. Forty foreign leaders will attend the summit on Beijings global trade and infrastructure scheme, the Belt and Road Initiative, but India is not taking part.

Wang on Friday called on India, and other countries sceptical of the initiative, to join up, dismissing claims that it is a geopolitical tool. He also said China was ready to hold a leaders summit with India like the informal meeting held between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Wuhan, Hubei province last year.

Gokhale visited Beijing in February last year, and the Wuhan summit happened two months later. That meeting was seen as a breakthrough in the China-India relationship after a 73-day military stand-off over the Doklam plateau.

But the progress was overshadowed in February after a terror strike on Indian security forces in the Jammu and Kashmir province, which killed 40 Indian soldiers. The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group claimed responsibility for the attack. India has long wanted to designate its leader, Masood Azhar, as a terrorist under international law, but China has opposed the move.

During a visit to Pakistan in March, Kong said Beijing and Islamabad were all-weather strategic partners and would support each other on issues to do with their core interests.

Story continues

Wang Dehua, head of the Institute for South and Central Asia Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Centre for International Studies, said China and India were looking to prevent their bilateral relations from deteriorating further.

Both nations will elaborate on their stance on this matter, and China will probably deliver a message that the China-India relationship should not be affected by the dispute over Masood Azhar, he said. The positive sentiment out of Wuhan has been affected, and the two sides are seeking ways to continue the spirit of that informal summit.

Du Youkang, director of Fudan Universitys Pakistan Study Centre in Shanghai, said preparations for another informal summit of the nations leaders would only begin after Indias general election was over. Polling is being held in seven phases ending on May 19.

Gokhales trip would mainly be a chance to see how the two nations can push forward bilateral ties amid their disputes, Du said.

In addition to Azhar, India is also dismayed that some of Chinas belt and road projects pass through the Pakistan-administered section of the disputed Kashmir region.

But Wang told reporters on Friday that the initiative did not target any third country, and that relations between China and India had improved after the Wuhan summit.

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Indian foreign secretary heads to China for talks amid tense relations first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.Hong Kongs leader, medical schools and health department have joined hands to shoot down the latest proposal aimed at luring overseas-trained doctors to ease a chronic manpower shortage at public hospitals.

In a rare move, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor openly slammed the plan, saying it would give the impression doctors were being treated unequally depending on whether they worked at government hospitals, university medical schools or the Department of Health.

The proposal suggests imported doctors be allowed to practise freely anywhere in the city only after completing a period of service in the public sector, the length of which would be shorter if employed by the Hospital Authority, which manages all of Hong Kongs government hospitals.

The plan was formulated after in-depth discussion among frontline doctors from a number of professional groups. But Lam said such differential treatment could impact efforts to recruit overseas-trained specialists for the health department, which is 40 per cent short of doctors for its child development assessment service.

I hope the Medical Council will pass a plan that provides equal treatment for all doctors who come from abroad, Lam said. I understand the medical sector might want to set different requirements based on clinical considerations, but that would give a bad impression.

The chief executive said she had asked health minister Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee to talk with the different stakeholders and come up with a better plan before the council, the citys medical watchdog, considered several proposals on May 8.

I dont want overseas doctors, especially paediatricians, working for the health department to feel inferior because the period they have to stay in the public sector will be longer, she said.

Her views were later echoed by the health department and the citys two medical schools.

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A spokesman for the department said some doctors groups did not fully understand the specialist services offered and job nature of many practitioners at the department, nor the severe manpower shortage it faced.

The latest row comes after the council, which regulates the citys doctors, faced a barrage of criticism earlier this month for failing to pass any of four proposals to relax the internship requirement currently placed on overseas-trained practitioners.

Completion of the internship, during which doctors learn about the operation of city hospitals, is required before doctors are allowed to practise freely, but the four plans proposed foreign physicians skip it.

The citys largest doctors group, the Medical Association, then gave its approval for the fifth proposal on Thursday.

The association controls seven votes in the 32-member Medical Council. The two medical schools together hold four, and the department and public hospitals each have one representative.

Dr Au Yiu-kai, a former member of the associations governing team, said so far 16 members of the council had shown support for the latest plan.

It proposes foreign doctors at public hospitals be offered the internship exemption after three years  some 18 months after they would pass the citys licensing exam. Those at the medical schools however would need to wait at least three years after their exam, and at least four at the Department of Health.

The department spokesman said there were 59 doctors positions vacant as of April 1 in a variety of disciplines, including the child assessment service, forensic pathology and social hygiene. He expected vacancies to increase to 120 in the 2019-20 financial year.

The medical school at Chinese University said it also did not agree with the plan.

This is no different from classifying doctors, and would send a very wrong message to the public that doctors working at the medical schools and the Department of Health are inferior or have less clinical experience, it said.

A negative impression would be created of Hong Kongs medical sector that experts in public health and medical research were not valued or respected, the school added.

The University of Hong Kongs medical school said it welcomed plans that would help alleviate the manpower shortage and treat overseas doctors fairly.

Dr David Lam Tzit-yuen, vice-president of the Medical Association and a member of the council, defended the proposal. This is an option we think is more feasible ... and down-to-earth, he said.

Many doctors agreed it was important to consider the amount of clinical work involved in different positions at the three types of public health facility, rather than just the period of time worked, Lam added. A doctor could be said to have reached a certain standard after accumulating a sufficient volume and variety of clinical work, he said. The governments Food and Health Bureau said it had set up a platform with key stakeholders to discuss the issue.

This article Latest Hong Kong plan to lure overseas doctors is unequal treatment, says city leader Carrie Lam first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.DUBAI (Reuters) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Iran on Sunday to discuss security and regional issues, Iranian state TV reported, a day after Islamabad urged Tehran to act against militants behind killings in Pakistan's Baluchistan province.

A new umbrella group representing various insurgent groups operating in Baluchistan claimed responsibility for an attack on Thursday when 14 passengers were killed after being kidnapped from buses in the province, which borders Iran.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Saturday the training and logistical camps of the new alliance that carried out the attack were inside Iran and called for Iran to take action against the insurgents.

Iranian TV said that Khan began his two-day visit to Iran, the first since he took office last August, with a stop in the northeastern holy Shi'ite city of Mashhad.

Khan will meet Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, as well as other officials, in Tehran on Monday.

"During the meetings, improving bilateral ties, border security, countering terrorism and regional issues will be discussed," state TV said.

Relations between Iran and Pakistan have been strained in recent months, with both sides accusing each other of not doing enough to stamp out militants allegedly sheltering across the border.

Shi'ite Muslim Iran says militant groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan and has repeatedly called on Islamabad to crack down on them.

Tehran has stepped up security along its long border with Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed 27 members of Irans elite Revolutionary Guards in mid-February in southeastern Iran, with Iranian officials saying the attackers were based inside Pakistan.

The Sunni group Jaish al Adl (Army of Justice), which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for the ethnic Baloch minority, claimed responsibility for that attack.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Susan Fenton)Donald Trump's top lawyer on Sunday attacked "calumny, lies and distortions" in the Mueller investigation report, and said there is "nothing wrong" with taking hacked information from Russia. Rudy Giuliani mounted a combative defense of the president in Sunday talk show appearances that took aim at Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, the evidence they amassed and the witnesses they cited. The former New York mayor heaped special scorn on Senator Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate who said Friday he was "sickened" by the report's findings and "appalled" that Trump's election campaign "welcomed help from Russia." "What a hypocrite. What a hypocrite. Any candidate in the whole world in America would take information," Giuliani said of Romney on CNN's "State of the Union." He was referring to Democratic emails that were hacked by Russian operatives and disseminated by WikiLeaks in 2016 to hurt Trump presidential rival Hillary Clinton. "Who says it's even illegal?" Giuliani added. "Does the information turn out to be false, by the way? The information that was gleaned and disseminated, every newspaper printed it." Trump publicly encouraged Russia and WikiLeaks while top campaign officials, including his son and son-in-law, met in Trump Tower with a Russian promising dirt on Clinton. "There is nothing wrong with taking information from the Russians. It depends on where it came from," Giuliani said, adding that as a lawyer he would have advised against it. "This didn't become an international scandal because of immorality. It became an international scandal because the president was accused of violating the law falsely," he said. His comments echoed Trump, who mocked Romney on Twitter Sunday, after lashing out Friday at the "bullshit" Mueller report. The president was in Palm Beach, Florida where he attended Easter services. - Democrats mull impeachment - The special counsel's 22-month-long investigation concluded that Trump and his team did not collude with the Russian effort to sway the elections in his favor. But it detailed 10 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump, including his firing of FBI director James Comey and demands that Mueller himself be removed. The special counsel declined to bring charges, however, and Attorney General Bill Barr, a Trump appointee, said that cleared the president. Democrats, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, now are considering whether to move to impeach the president, an effort likely to fail because Republicans control the Senate. "We will have to decide, do we nonetheless go through an impeachment -- because to do otherwise would signal that somehow this president's conduct is okay, that future presidents can engage in this kind of corruption without consequence -- or do we decide that we are better off doing oversight ... rather than a formal impeachment?" Representative Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday." "That's going to be a very consequential decision" and one that would be made "over the next couple weeks," he said. Representative Jerry Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, equivocated when asked on NBC about impeachment. "We may get to that, we may not," he said, adding that lawmakers needed first to "go through all the evidence." So far, only two of the 18 declared Democratic presidential candidates -- Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Obama cabinet member Julian Castro -- have called for impeachment. - On the attack - The White House's strategy, meanwhile, was on bristling display in Giuliani's talk show appearances: attack the investigators as biased and the witness testimony as self-serving and untruthful. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Giuliani called the report "a prosecutor's version of what happened." "It's two or three pages of calumny, lies and distortion," he said. "Half of it is not true." Some of the most damaging episodes detailed in the report came from former White House counsel Don McGahn, who described to investigators Trump's escalating demands that Mueller be removed. McGahn refused to do so and threatened to resign but was talked out of it. "I'm telling you he's confused. He gave three different versions," Giuliani said on CNN. The White House has prepared a rebuttal of the Mueller report but has yet to release it. "We're ready to put it out when we have to," the president's lawyer said.Two young men have been arrested over the killing of a journalist shot dead in Northern Ireland, police said Saturday, after the murder triggered international condemnation. The 18- and 19-year-old men were arrested in Derry, also known as Londonderry, under anti-terror laws and taken to Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. Journalist Lyra McKee, 29, was shot in the head late Thursday in Derry by, police believe, dissident republicans linked to the New IRA paramilitary group as they clashed with police in Northern Ireland's second city. Detectives hunting the gunman released security camera footage of the rioting on Derry's Creggan estate, hoping its publication would help trace her killers. The footage showed McKee standing with other reporters by a police vehicle, and the suspected gunman coming around a corner. Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, who is leading the investigation, said Saturday that police conducted a number of searches as part of the probe. "Lyra was murdered by terrorists. I believe that the people responsible are members of the New IRA," he said. Murphy said there was a "new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks". He added that the situation was very worrying and "the brutal nature of the attack has sent shockwaves around the world." "Lyra was killed by shots that were fired indiscriminately," he said. "The shots were fired in a residential area at a time when there were large numbers of local people on the street including children. The gunman showed no thought for who may have been killed or injured." He said McKee's family and partner were "absolutely devastated" and appealed to the public for help to find those who killed her. - 'Fragile peace' - The "New IRA" is a republican paramilitary group opposed to the shift towards non-violent tactics to bring about a united Ireland. Catholic priest Father Joseph Gormley, who read the last rites for McKee, told BBC radio: "This rioting was clearly orchestrated. I have no problems saying that: everybody in our community knows that. "We have a small group of people who want to play political games with our lives." The IRA sought Northern Ireland's integration into the Republic of Ireland through violence. The group called a final ceasefire in 1997 and announced an end to its armed campaign in 2005, stating that it would seek to achieve its aims through peaceful political means. Dissident splinter groups have sought to continue. The 1998 Good Friday peace deal largely brought an end to three decades of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland between republican and unionist paramilitaries, as well as British armed forces, in a period known as "the Troubles". There have been concerns that paramilitaries could be seeking to exploit the current political turbulence over Northern Ireland and its border with the Republic of Ireland caused by Brexit. Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, said the killing was "a reminder of how fragile peace still is in Northern Ireland. We must all work to preserve the achievements of the Good Friday Agreement." Former US president Bill Clinton tweeted: "Heartbroken by the murder of Lyra McKee and the violence in Derry. "The challenges in NI today are real-but we cannot let go of the last 21 years of hard-won peace and progress. This tragedy is a reminder of how much everyone has to lose if we do."The university of an undergraduate who spoke about her sexual harassment ordeal on campus has issued a statement apologizing for the students experience and pledging to form a committee to review campus disciplinary and support frameworks by the next academic year.

The next academic year begins in August, about four months from now.

The apology

National University of Singapore (NUS) dean of students Associate Professor Peter Pang released a statement on Saturday evening apologizing for the distressing experience of third-year communications undergraduate Monica Baey being filmed in the campus shower by another male undergraduate.

We are sorry for Miss Monica Baeys distressing experience, which is of extreme concern to the university, said Assoc Prof Pang. We are in the process of reaching out to her to offer our support and assistance.

The university recognized the public outcry that happened during the weekend over the incident and has pledged to review its frameworks for disciplinary action and victim support.

(The) NUS president will convene a committee to review the current disciplinary and support frameworks, said Assoc Prof Pang.

He added that the committee will include members from the NUS trustee board and will study the approaches taken by other international institutions, and solicit views from various stakeholders.

We expect to share the findings of the study and follow up actions in the new academic year, he said.

The news did not go down well with concerned students and members of the public, as many chided the university board on their Facebook page for merely setting up a committee.

One particular commenter who received over 1,000 reactions to his Facebook comment urged the academic body to conduct a town hall in two weeks before the current academic year ends.

(Photo: Facebook screengrab)

The student union speaks

The NUS Students Union executive committee has also chimed in on the matter, releasing a statement on Sunday saying they respect the discipline boards judgment in good faith as they had conducted themselves according to existing precedent and due process.

Story continues

However, NUSSU Exco is in the process of considering whether for future cases, as a matter of general policy against sexual harassment, there should be heavier punishments as a matter of deterrence, and for retributive justice for victims, said a students union spokesperson.

In particular, the spokesperson noted how various areas of current university policy could be reviewed further, including improving social-psychological support for victims of sexual harassment and creating a safer environment to report such cases to NUS.

The spokesperson said a proposal has been mooted to conduct a survey regarding sexual harassment on campus and the union is currently conceiving an action plan to better address issues of sexual harassment.

The action plan would include the drafting of a report by the union on whether existing sentencing guidelines should be revised.

Coconuts Singapore is aware that Monica has identified the perpetrator in her Instagram Stories but his name is not identified in this report as there are no active charges against him as of present and the move is in view of the current mob mentality surrounding the perpetrator.

This article, Undergrad Monica Baey filmed in shower: Netizens chide university decision to form committee, student exco speaks up, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!By Monitor Team

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

The Gulu Archdiocese bishop John Baptist Odama, has asked government to justify to the nation the purpose and implication of the constitutional amendment on presidential age limit.

In his Easter sermon to the congregation at St Josephs Cathedral in Gulu town earlier today, the prelate said talks among the population before and after the Supreme Court ruling over age limit amendment has not gone down and could compromise the spirit of love, unity and peace that the country has at the moment.

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that constitutional amendments that scrapped the upper and lower age limitations were rightly done by parliament last year.

The judges also concurred that Article 102(b) did not fall under those articles that form the basic stricture doctrine of the constitution which can only be amended by the citizens by way of a referendum.

However, Bishop Odama stated that the level of bickering and criticism among the people signals that they are yet to understand what the amendment means.

Elsewhere, the need for peace and reconciliation amid challenges in the country has today dominated church messages during Easter prayers across the country.

Various religious leaders called for reconciliation, harmony and asked the people across divide to work for peace and development.

At Rubaga Cathedral, newly appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Uganda, Archbishop Luigi Bianco asked believers to use the resurrection of Christ to promote peace and harmony.

Archbishop Bianco emphasized that the significance of the resurrection of Jesus, saying that it brought peace to the world.

What does it mean? It is not commemorating the day of the past. It is to celebrate that Jesus is always with us hence we should let him enter our hearts and minds, but also emulate him to promote peace, unity, love and reconciliation among ourselves, the prelate said.

He added: If we promote peace, love, kindness and reconciliation, we shall be commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We should always ask the Holy Spirit to guide us .

Earlier on, Fr Deogratius Kiibi asked Christians to remain hopeful no matter what tribulations they go through.

When Jesus started carrying the cross, he was hopeful that his Father would see Him through all the challenges. We must therefore learn to emulate Jesus Christ by being hopeful even if we are carrying a lot of burdens, Fr Kiibi said.

At St. Pauls Cathedral, Namirembe, Bishop Wilberforce Kityo Luwalira asked believers to work and seek for peace despite the growing challenges in the country.

There are so many troubles that have robbed us of our peace. At this moment, the message of peace requires people to understand Jesus as the master and giver of peace, said Bishop Luwalira.

He blamed people, wealth, politics, land disputes, domestic violence and greed as major elements that rob peace from people.

There are so many things causing fear. Injustice, child abuse and early marriages, lack of investigation reports in the murder cases, corruption at its highest and witchcraft. But brethren, amid all these challenges, we have to thank God for the word is alive and bringing us peace, he said amid applause.

At the All Saints Cathedral, Nakasero, the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali called for measures to end the rampant land grabbing gruesome murders in the country.

Archbishop Ntagali said that the Resurrection of Jesus brought love and peace in the world but there are situations that are taking away peace from people.

Jesus died that we may enjoy life to its fullness. He gave us peace and life but today, there is no peace in the country because of misery. There is a lot of land grabbing and murders in the country which should stop, said the Archbishop.

The primate added that it is ungodly for Christians to destroy the happiness of a community because of greed which is all due to selfishness.

And at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Mubende, the Parish priest, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Mwerikande warned politicians against use of hate speeches as a mode to lure electorates to vote them in the forthcoming 2021 elections.

Fr. Mwerikande said that it is a pity that some politicians are using negative propaganda against their opponents to prove to their point to the electorates.

Let us be kin and desist from such politicians with negative propaganda against their opponents and deny them our votes but focus on those who are explaining to us their good intentions of seeking our votes on the various positions, he added.

Fr Mwerikande also condemned the rampant land evictions in Mubende District which has led to a number of death of innocent people saying there is need for the security agencies and courts of law to work together to bring culprits book.

While in Masaka, At Kitovu Cathedral, Apostolic Administrator Bishop John Baptist Kaggwa condemned the increasing family planning use among women saying it is against the bible teachings.

Many Women say they give birth to children they can cater for. Is that what our parents did or they worked tirelessly for us to live? Bishop Kaggwa wondered.

He said that many Ugandans use family planning because they do not want to work hard yet their parents produced many children and catered for them.

Bishop also asked leaders who have clocked the age of 75 as per the Constitution to retire in order to bring peace in the country.

The church is doing well in respect to the age limit. If world leaders could also do this, peace would obviously be in many countries, he added.

In Wakiso district, Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine asked believers at Our lady gates of Heaven Luteete, to watch out for right things, follow them and reject the bad people with their deeds.

Mr Kyagulanyi who donated 40 chairs and Shs1m to the church his constituency also called on the people to live responsibly in the festive seasons.

Rev. Fr Charles Ssentongo who led the prayers asked people to join theirs leaders in fighting for justice so that peace can be restored in the country.

We have seen many leaders whom we so much admire and we are asking that you should join them and support them in the fight for justice and peace, Fr Ssentongo.

In Luwero, the Anglican and Catholic bishops of Luweero and Kakasana-Luweero Dioceses have rallied Christians against the persistent corruption that is crippling service delivery.

They also castigated the increasing acts of brutality and criminality in society.

Bishop Paul Ssemogerere of Kasana-Luwero Diocese said that corruption is not only in public places and government offices but the entire society is now eaten up with every single service now tagged on unsolicited payments before a service is delivered.

Luweero Diocese Bishop Elidard Nsubuga decried the rising cases of brutality and criminal acts orchestrated by individuals who take drugs.

At Nyamitanga Cathedral, Parish Priest Rev. Fr. John Baptist Tumusiime encouraged Ugandans to keep fighting for better causes in Uganda in order to help people receive services.

Fr. Tumusiime said people should not be discouraged on the good causes they have for the country but rather need to be more encouraged in order to make Uganda a better place to live.

At St. Mathew Cathedral, Kyamate, the Bishop of South Ankole Nathan Ahimbisibwe asked believers to pray for leaders and the country so that sanity can return in all aspects of life and bring end the increasing criminality.

He also asked Christians to desist from anger, condemnation of leaders and judgment but rather concentrate on work and self-development in Christ.

Reported by E. Kasozi, A. Ngwomoya, J. Nnabbaale, S. Otage, G. Mutyaba, K. Atuhaire, Derrick Wandera, Dan Wandera, F. Ainebyoona, E. Karenzi, P. RumanziThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Mike and Zara Tindall attend the Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel, Windsor [Photo: Getty]

The Queen was joined by members of the Royal Family as she attended the annual Easter Sunday service on her 93rd birthday at St Georges Chapel in Windsor.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were among the royals who joined Her Majesty.

Kate, 37, wore a repeat dove grey Alexander McQueen coat with a matching hat - echoing a look she wore during her Australia tour in 2014. Husband William, 36, sported a navy suit with a patterned tie.

They arrived with Williams cousin Zara Tindall, 37, and husband Mike, 40. Its believed that the Cambridges spent the Easter break with their three children George, Charlotte and Louis at their Norfolk home Anmer Hall.

Photos of the family and the Tindalls at the Burnham Market international horse trials emerged last weekend.

The Duke of Sussex arrives with Peter and Autumn Phillips [Photo: Getty]

The Duke of Sussex, 34, arrived with his cousin Peter Phillips, 41, and wife Autumn, 40.

The Duchess of Sussex was absent from the service, as shes set to give birth to the couples first child within the coming days.

READ MORE: Latest royal baby news

Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Princess Beatrice and the Earl and Countess of Wessex were also among the royals who greeted the Queen as she arrived.

The Duchess of Cambridge curtsies to the Queen as she arrives for the Easter Sunday service [Photo: Getty]

Her Majesty stood out in a pastel blue ensemble with a fuchsia trimmed hat. The Duke of Edinburgh was not present for the service, as he retired from public duties in summer 2017.

Harry and Meghan were among the social-media savvy royals to wish Granny a happy birthday.

The couple took to their new Instagram account to post a carousel of photos, which included images of the Queen as a young woman, with William and Harry when they were children and one with Meghan during their joint visit to Cheshire last year.

The caption read: Happy Birthday Your Majesty, Maam, Granny. Wishing you the most wonderful day! Harry & Meghan.

READ MORE: Why does the Queen have two birthdays?

Story continues

William and Kate also shared a photo of them with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and the Queen from Trooping the Colour 2016 on their @KensingtonRoyal account.

Their message said: Wishing a very happy 93rd birthday to Her Majesty The Queen!

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, who were not at the service, also posted a series of photos, new and old, on their Instagram account @ClarenceHouse.Theres a different form of winter wonderland in Yucatan, Mexico, and it comes in pink. Every year during the fall and winter seasons thousands of flamingos settle in the beautiful Ecological Reserve of Celestun, which is only 64 miles southwest of Merida. Although theres a permanent colony of these birds all year, its from late November to early March that the waters of the estuary are filled with the eye-catching creatures.

The number of flamingos present varies from year to year, but some locals say they have seen up to 10,000 at a time. The reason behind this is that during the warmer months they fly to an area in Yucatan called Rio Lagartos to have their babies, and then travel back to Celestun during winter with their young. All year the younger ones stay in this paradise, making sure birdwatchers have their dose of pink.

Christin Parcerisa Vigueras

Although tourism to Celestun has grown since it was proclaimed a natural reserve, it has retained its charm as a small fishing town with friendly residents and beachfront eateries. A narrow road covered by dense vegetation that eventually transitions from pavement to dirt will take you to the core of the Celestun Estuary Biosphere Reserve (also known as Ria Celestun Biosphere Reserve). Although the road is unpaved  visitors first hint at the importance of keeping this place as natural as possible  it is easy enough to drive deeper into the park.

The only hotel in the reserve is called Xixim, and it was built over 20 years ago, before it was decreed a Natural Protected Area in 2000. The luxurious hotel is eco-friendly and even hosts workshops to teach locals how to care for the estuary and keep it clear of trash.

There are two ways to go birdwatching. Celestun only has one dock, where both fishermen and tour guides park their boats. Another way is to hire a private tour at the Xixim Hotel, where a local guide will drive the party to the dock, and then, in a boat, will go deep into the estuary, all the way to the flamingos eating site, and Bird Island, a spot in the stream where all types of birds gather. Whichever you prefer, navigating through the estuary is a nature lovers dream come true. The water is crystal clear and there are lush red mangroves wherever you turn. There are over 300 different species of birds, but during winter the number rises, since Celestun is one of migratory birds favorite destinations. Herons, pelicans, albatross, vultures, and ducks are all regulars. Although birds are the main inhabitants, there are also jaguars, spider monkeys, and wild cats living in the area. Of course, theres also plenty of aquatic life, including octopus, and a very unique type of shrimp that can only exist where freshwater meets saltwater.

Story continues

Although the scene is idyllic, you might want to stay in the boat, since all of these animals are free to roam, including two species of crocodiles. Should you be yearning for a dip, however, 81,000 hectares of mangrove caves are filled with clear water thats safe for swimming. During the rainy season the color of the water is an intense turquoise, and during the dry season a profound red, thanks to the secretion that gives red mangroves their name.

Theres also the opportunity to get into the water at Hotel Xixims secret beach. Xixim comes from a Mayan combination of words that means remnants of seashells, and the romantic name is a hint at what youll find. If you stand right where the gentle waves break, youll notice a unique sound: Just beneath the waters surface there are thousands of small seashells dragged in from the ocean that chime like sleigh bells as they move with each wave.

Between the tranquil solitude, the warm sun, and the mesmerizing melody of the sea, youll most likely fall asleep on the hammocks hung along the beach. But dont worry, the aroma of fresh seafood will wake you just in time for dinner.John Singleton, the screenwriter and director whose 1991 feature debut Boyz n the Hood was a centerpiece of the black film renaissance of the 1990s, was hospitalized earlier this week after suffering a stroke, Variety reports. Singleton checked himself into the hospital after his leg started hurting on a flight to the United States from Costa Rica. Doctors described the stroke as mild, according to TMZ. His family confirmed Singletons hospitalization in a statement on Saturday:

John is currently in the ICU and under great medical care. We ask that privacy be given to him and our family at this time and appreciate all of the prayers that have been pouring in from his fans, friends, and colleagues.

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Singleton was the first African-American to be nominated for the Best Director Academy Award for Boyz n the Hood, ultimately losing out to Jonathan Demme for The Silence of the Lambs. His other feature films include Higher Learning, Poetic Justice, the 2000 remake of Shaft, and 2 Fast 2 Furious. In television, he directed the 9-minute music video for Michael Jacksons Remember the Time, co-created FXs Snowfall, directed episodes of Empire and Billions and received an Emmy nomination for directing an episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. In a statement, FX Networks wrote that they were hopeful for a complete and speedy recovery. Singletons past collaborators have also been wishing him well on social media, including Snoop Dogg (Baby Boy), Omar Epps (Higher Learning), and Nia Long (Boyz n the Hood):

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Prayers up for @SHAFT6816 

Pull thru brother! The world needs your voice and vision. Prayers up for your family as well   OMAR EPPS (@omarepps) April 20, 2019

Praying hard this morning for my friend @johnsingleton PULL THROUGH BABY  pic.twitter.com/neYNnRFmX4  Nia Long (@NiaLong) April 20, 2019

Singleton is 51.Speaking on the Sunday talk show circuit, key Democrats refused to be pinned down one way or another when it came to the question of whether they will be pursuing impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump following the release of the redacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller. Thats going to be a very consequential decision and one that Im going to reserve judgment on until we have a chance to deliberate about it, Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News Sunday.

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.@RepAdamSchiff talks impeachment and what congress will do now that the full Mueller Report is out pic.twitter.com/1s7D8sQaIR  FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) April 21, 2019

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Speaking on ABCs This Week, Schiff said that the reality is that the Republican-controlled Senate would mean any impeachment effort would be unsuccessful. But that ultimately may not be a deal breaker. I think what we are going to have to decide as a caucus is, what is the best thing for the country? Schiff said. Is it the best thing for the country to take up an impeachment proceeding because to do otherwise sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with office? Or is it in the best interest of the country not to take up impeachment that we know will not be successful because the Republican leadership will not do its duty?

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JUST IN: Rep. Adam Schiff tells @MarthaRaddatz congressional Democrats "may" take up impeachment in the wake of special counsel Mueller's report, and that the decision will be made based on "what is the best thing for the country" https://t.co/A40N3k8AwK pic.twitter.com/DcMQX34k7h  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 21, 2019

On NBCs Meet the Press, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler also refused to rule out the prospect of impeachment. Before that question can be answered Congress would first have to get the unredacted report and hear testimony from Attorney General William Barr and Mueller. Some of this would be impeachable, Nadler, whose committee would oversee any impeachment proceedings, said. Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable.

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WATCH: Chuck Todd asks Rep. Nadler if he thinks the Mueller Report includes grounds for impeachment@chucktodd: Do you think this is impeachable?@RepJerryNadler: Yeah, I do obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable. pic.twitter.com/gH9Hm47joj  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 21, 2019

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House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, meanwhile, cautioned that Congress has to be careful but did say he could foresee impeachment proceedings in the future. Personally though, he insisted he was not there yet, suggesting that much of the pubic likely falls in that category. The American people, a lot of them, clearly still dont believe that President Trump is doing things to destroy our democracy and has done a lot of things very poorly, Cummings said on CBS Face the Nation. And so I think that number one, we need to make sure the Congress has all the information and then we need to be able to have the public know that information so that they can see that they have a president that basically has been about the business, I think, of doing great harm not only to our country but to our democracy.

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AdvertisementPresident Donald Trumps personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani pushed the message Sunday that there was nothing inherently wrong with a political campaign using information from a foreign adversary to help win an election. He would have personally advised against it, mind you, but that doesnt mean its wrong. Giuliani uttered the words while answering a question from CNNs Jake Tapper regarding Sen. Mitt Romneys statement in which he says he was appalled that fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia.

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Giuliani quickly fired back and accused Romney of being a hypocrite. Stop the bull, Giuliani said. Stop this pious act. The former mayor said Romney was trying to dig up dirt on people, putting dirt out on people when he was running for president. When Tapper pushed back to say there was a difference between opposition research and accepting information from a foreign adversary, Giuliani suggests its all the same. What a hypocrite. Any candidate in the whole worldin Americawould take information, Giuliani said. Who says its even illegal? He then insisted that theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians and says it all depends on where it came from.

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Despite the insistence on the legality of the move, Giuliani said he probably wouldnt have taken information from a Russian source. I wasnt asked, he said. I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, dont do it.

Appearing on NBCs Meet the Press, Giuliani also refused to give a clear cut answer on whether it was acceptable for a political campaign to use material stolen by foreign adversaries. It depends on the stolen material, he said. Giuliani also suggested that the hacking of Democratic emails may have been good for voters. They shouldnt have stolen it, but the American people were just given more information about how deceptive, how manipulative her campaign was, Giuliani said. I wonder if there isnt an argument that the people had a right to know that about Hillary Clinton.

AdvertisementBombs struck three churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday and three luxury hotels popular with foreign tourists, killing at least 207 people and wounding 450 in what are being described as a series of coordinated terrorist attacks. The death toll has been increasing in quick succession since the blasts and the latest number comes from law enforcement officials. A seventh and eighth bombing Sunday afternoon that took place at private house and another hotel appear to have been carried out by suspects as they were fleeing from police. Seven suspects have been arrested in the attacks that officials say were mostly suicide bombings and marked the deadliest violence to strike the country since the end of the civil war a decade ago. There were at least 27 foreigners, including British, Dutch, and American citizens, among the dead, according to hospital officials.

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Some of the bombings, which were mostly carried out in or around the capital city of Colombo, at the churches appear to have been timed to hit the highest number of worshippers possible. So far the deadliest explosion appears to have taken place at St. Sebastians Church in Negombo, which is about 20 miles north of Colombo. More than 50 people were killed in that blast that blew out much of the churchs roof. The church posted horrific photos showing the aftermath of the blast on Facebook as it appealed for help. The other bombed churches were St. Anthonys Shrine in Colombo and Zion Church in the eastern city of Batticaloa. It was a river of blood, N. A. Sumanapala, a shopkeeper near St. Anthonys said. The priest came out and he was covered in blood. As panic spread to other churches, most stopped or canceled their Easter services. The three high-end hotels targeted in Colombo were: the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury.

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Sri Lankan authorities imposed a curfew and blocked social media networks as they launched a massive security operation to locate the culprits. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena blamed religious extremists for the blasts that rocked a country that once regularly saw bombings in Colombo during a decades-long war with Tamil separatists. Around 70 percent of Sri Lankas population of around 22 million are Buddhist, 12.6 percent are Hindu, 9.7 percent, Muslim, and 7.6 percent Christian, according to the 2012 census.

Overwhelming response at National Blood Centre. Its so overcrowded they cannot control the crowd. Currently they are sending back people who have come after taking down name, contact and blood group. Dont rush there now go leisurely as the crowd subsides #LKA pic.twitter.com/EAvYyr73kH  Usman Ali  (@usmanali_la) April 21, 2019

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The archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on the public to join forces to support the victims and demanded a very impartial strong inquiry from the government to punish those found responsible mercilessly because only animals can behave like that. The Muslim council of Sri Lanka issued a statement condemning the attack on our Christian brothers and sisters on their holy day of Easter, as well as on the hotels in Colombo.

138 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, with more that 600 badly injured, in a terrorist attack on churches and hotels. The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2019

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Leaders around the world also rushed to condemn the bombings. New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in reference to the March 15 shootings at two mosques in Christchurch. New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. President Donald Trump also offered condolences on Twitter. The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka, Trump wrote. We stand ready to help! British Prime Minister Theresa May called the attacks truly appalling and offered her sympathies to the victims. We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear, May tweeted.

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AdvertisementThe FBI arrested on Saturday the head of a right-wing militia that had been detaining migrant families at gunpoint. Law enforcement officers arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who went by the alias Johnny Horton Jr., in New Mexico on charges of firearms possession by a felon. Hopkins had previously been arrested in 2006 on charges of impersonating an officer and for felony firearm possession.

This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families, the New Mexico attorney general, Hector Balderas, said in a statement. Todays arrest by the F.B.I. indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes. Although the charge isnt particularly serious, it could open the door to other investigations and sends a clear message regarding the type of vigilante justice the group has been carrying out along the border.

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Please see below release: pic.twitter.com/hFte1F1vNQ  NM Attorney General (@NewMexicoOAG) April 20, 2019

The arrest came mere days after it was reported that the United Constitutional Patriots were publishing videos on social media showing how they were illegally detaining migrant families. On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union had denounced the actions of the militia and called for authorities to investigate. We cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum, two ACLU lawyers wrote in a letter to government officials.

In the videos that had been published online, the militia members spoke in favor of a border wall and referred to the arrival of migrants as an invasion, echoing language used by President Donald Trump. Some members of the group had set up camp near the border since November and claim theyve detained more than 3,000 migrants since then.A comedian with no hint of political experience besides playing a president on television easily won Ukraines presidential election. Exit polls gave Volodymyr Zelensky more than 70 percent of the vote, leading incumbent Petro Poroshenko to concede defeat. The victory for Zelensky, 41, means a man with no political experience now leads a country that is at the center of the Wests standoff with Russia regarding the annexation of Crimea.

Speaking at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Zelensky apperead to suggest other former Soviet states could follow Ukraines example to change politics as usual. As long as I am not officially a president, I can say as a citizen of Ukraine to all countries of the post-Soviet Union: Look at usanything is possible, he said.

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The election of Zelensky is seen as a rebuke not just of Poroshenko but also of the countrys entire political establishment. It also appeared to send a message that Ukrainians care more about their internal problems than any threat from Russia. But Zelensky has said his top priority would be to secure the release of around 170 members of Ukraines military who are being held in the east or in Russia. Beyond a promise to end the war in the eastern Donbass region and fight against corruption, Zelensky has been vague about his plans. Since there is complete uncertainty about the economic policy of the person who will become president, we simply dont know what is going to happen and that worries the financial community, Serhiy Fursa, an investment banker at Dragon Capital in Kiev, tells Reuters.

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Before the election, Zelensky was best known for his role in the long-running show Servant of the People in which he plays a teacher who unexpectedly wins a presidential election after students post one of his angry rants about corruption online and it goes viral. Throughout the campaign he used his on-screen character to his advantage as he spoke broadly about combating corruption without offering many specifics about how he would run his government. This feels like a massive protest vote, writes BBCs Jonah Fisher. Supporters acknowledged that while they may not believe all of Zelenskys promises, at least he represents change. I have grown up under the old politicians and only have seen empty promises, lies and corruption, a 22-year-old who voted for Zelensky told the Associated Press. Its time to change that.Over the long Easter weekend, I wanted to share a few excerpts from my financial history book, Panic, Progress, and Prosperity. Heres todays piece:

The stunning bull market in precious metals in the late 1970s, followed by its swift collapse, has a fascinating and remarkable history. The roots of the event date back to the dark days of the Great Depression, when President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 which outlawed the hoarding (that is, the ownership in almost any form) of gold by any person or other entity within the United States.

Prior to this order, gold was intricately intertwined in the nations currency. U.S. dollars were convertible into gold on demand, and this convertibility had helped constrict the velocity of money severely. Roosevelt recognized that inflating the money supply was essential to turning the economy around, so he took the extraordinary step of criminalizing private ownership of gold as one of the steps to decouple the precious metal from the nations currency.

The President signed the order on April 5, 1933, only weeks after his first term in office began, and it gave the nations citizens until May 1 to turn in all their gold in exchange for $20.67 per ounce in cash. This seems like an extraordinarily low price today, but in inflated-adjusted dollars, it equals about $400 per ounce. Some exceptions were made to the order: those who used gold as a component of a professional service (such as artists, dentists, and jewelers) could buy and use gold, and rare, collectible coins were spared the melt-down process that other coins would undergo.

Although they were supposed to obediently turn in their coins, the wealthier citizens of America who had meaningful amounts of gold simply stored it away overseas, usually to Switzerland. In spite of the severe penalties sanctioned in the order, there actually wasnt a single successful prosecution of anyone in the country for violating the order.

The U.S. Mint had been producing gold coins, as it had for many years, including a $20 gold coin designed in 1907 by famed sculptor August Saint-Gaudens. The coin was called a Double Eagle, and it is considered to this day to be the most beautiful coin ever minted by the United States. It was 90% gold and 10% copper, and its gold content was equal to its $20 face value.

Many of the coins had been minted since the design was completed in 1907, and they were still being produced by the U.S. Mint even after the executive order banning gold had been signed by the President. The new coins were not distributed, however, and by late 1934 all but two of the coins had been ordered to be melted down. The two officially-saved coins were presented to the U.S. National Numismatic Collection and, as far as the U.S. Mint knew, those were the only 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle coins in existence, as the others had been assumed melted back into gold bars already.

After May 1 passed and the Treasury had paid everyone their $20.67/ounce for the gold that was turned in, the Treasury ratcheted up the official price of the metal to $35 per ounce, an increase of 70%. This had two immediate effects: first, it meant that all the citizens who had dutifully turned in their gold found themselves with paper money that was suddenly worth a lot less, and second, the government had an instant 70% profit on all the gold it had bought from the citizens. The profits were used to fund the Exchange Stabilization Fund that was sanctioned by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. One individual who failed to submit his substantial gold holdings (5,000 ounces) to the government was an attorney named Frederick Campbell. The federal government charged Campbell with his failure to turn in his gold, but the judge refused to prosecute Campbell with the crime based on a technicality: since the order was signed the President Roosevelt, as opposed to the Secretary of the Treasury, it was deemed invalid. Campbell did ultimately have to sell his gold to the Treasury, but he did not have to endure a criminal prosecution for his initial failure to do so.

The double eagle gold coins from 1933 should have been completely lost to history, with the exception of the two specimens saved by the U.S. government, having been melted down by government order. It turns out, however, that a small number of the coins found their way out of the U.S. Mint, and one of them eventually become the most expensive coin sold in history.

The circuitous, multi-decade route of the escaped coins is an interesting tale in itself. It seems that someone at the U.S. Mint with access to the gold coins  perhaps the Mint Cashier, although no one will ever know for sure  pilfered at least twenty coins and got them into the hands of Israel Swift, a jeweler in Philadelphia. This went unnoticed for years, until one of the coins appeared at a coin auction.

A reporter was intrigued by the appearance of this coin which wasnt supposed to exist, so he contacted the U.S. Mint as part of his research. In turn, the Mint notified the Secret Service, which opened up a case to investigate the matter.

One would not normally think that a single coin from over a decade ago would have been a matter of national interest, but the Secret Service took the matter very seriously and wound up tracking down seven different coins, each of which were doomed to be melted at the Mint, as they should have been ten years earlier. Because of the age of the crime, Israel Swift had the statute of limitations to thank, since he could not be prosecuted.

Unknown to the Secret Service, there was another 1933 Double Eagle sitting in Egypt, owned by none other than King Farouk, who was an enthusiastic collector of all kinds of objects and treasures. He had, in 1944, purchased the coin and had actually taken great care to follow the letter of the law and fill out all the export paperwork so that the purchase and shipment of the coin was legal and proper. This all took place just a few days before the Israel Swift matter came to light, and the export license was granted.

Although the Treasury Department tried to get the coin back through diplomatic channels, the King saw no reason to hand over his legally-acquired property. In 1952, he was deposed from his throne, with his many treasures seized and put up for public auction. The Treasury Department asked the new Egyptian government to hand over the coin, and the government agreed that it would. Strangely, however, the coin once again vanished.

Decades later, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, the U.S. Secret Service arrested British coin dealer Stephen Fenton, and among his holdings was the very Double Eagle that King Farouk had possessed so long before. A court battle ensued, and it was decided that the coin belonged to the government of the United States and that it could be sold at auction. In an interesting settlement, it was also decided that, unlike all the other Double Eagles, this one would be made into legal tender (that is, monetized), as originally intended in 1933.

The story of this small, single coin becomes more interesting still: when deciding where to store this singularly valuable coin, the Treasury officials settled on the vaults of the World Trade Center. In July 2001, only a few months before terrorist attacks would destroy the building complex, the coin was moved to Fort Knox.

Finally, on July 30, 2002, the coin was put up for auction at Sothebys and sold for $6,600,000. A 15% surcharge was tacked on by Sothebys plus  almost comically  a $20 fee in exchange for the intrinsic $20 monetized value of the coin as legal tender (although it can safely be said the coin would never be spent in exchange for $20 in goods or services).

Thus, the final bill of $7,590,020 was the final bill for the coin, with half the cash (plus the intrinsic value of $20) going to the U.S. Treasury and the other half going to coin dealer Stephen Fenton. After over 70 years of making its way all over the world, the coin finally found a permanent home to an anonymous buyer after only nine minutes of bidding. Finally, it should be noted that ten more Double Eagles have been uncovered  again, emanating from the actions of Israel Swift  but that lengthy litigation has determined that these too are the property of the U.S. Government. They remain securely stored at Fort Knox and, as of this writing, their fate has not been determined.

https://slopeofhope.com/2019/04/double-eagle.html

Double Eagle

In order to comment on this blog, you must have JavaScript installed and enabled.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.Driver Dan Dube and trainer Rene Allard collected their third-consecutive titletheir fourth in the last five yearsin the George Morton Levy Series as 1-5 favourite Western Fame blew out his competition in the $663,260 final, winning in a stakes-record-equalling 1:50.4 on Saturday, April 20 at Yonkers Raceway.

Western Fame wasted no time when taking the front, pacing to the first quarter in :26.4 with Jj Flynn sitting the pocket. Ideal Jimmy, leaving from post eight, sat fourth before edging off the rail heading to a :55.3 half tracked by More The Better N.

Jj Flynn dropped out of contention through the backstretch, leaving room for Ideal Jimmy to duck to the pylons while Western Fame sped to three-quarters in 1:22.3. The six-year-old Western Ideal stallion widened his advantage around the final turn and through the lane to win by open lengths while Rodeo Rock rallied from off the pace to take the photo for second while More The Better N and Ideal Jimmy settled for third and fourth respectively.

[Keystone Velocity and Western Fame] are about even right nowKeystone won twice in this race and [Western Fame] is something special too, driver Dan Dube said after the race. Those fractions look kind of fast, [but] for him he does it nice and easy. Turning for home he gave me another runhes so nice to drive; he just doesnt get tired.

Compiling $1.4 million in earnings, Western Fame races for owners Go Fast Stable, Stephen Klunowski, B And I Stables LLC and Gilbert Short. He won his fifth race from seven starts this season and his 21st from 74 overall. Rene Allard trains the $2.50 winner.

I think we had the best horse this year going in[to the Levy], Rene Allard said after the race. Its a bit of a stressful thing [to race them] every week. The one week where he got second he tied up, so the thing about it is you got to come back the week after and the week after. Now hes definitely getting a week off, thats for sure.

Trainer Jim King Jr. took the top two spots in the $402,060 Blue Chip Matchmaker Final as Shartin N defended her title with a 1:52.1 victory over her stablemate Bettor Joy N.

Sent the even-money favourite, Shartin N floated into fourth around the first turn while Feelin Red Hot battled Apple Bottom Jeans for the lead. Apple Bottom Jeans soon circled to the top past a :27.2 quarter as Shartin N angled off the rail and brushed to the top before a :55.2 half.

Left unchallenged on the lead, Shartin N led loose pocket-sitter Apple Bottom Jeans to a 1:23.3 third quarter. Bettor Joy N, from third over, rushed three wide into the final turn and stormed through the stretch to take second from Apple Bottom Jeans as Shartin N strolled to the wire two lengths in front.

Ive put her in spots before where I didnt think she would reach and she just digs down and finds something, driver Tim Tetrick said after the race. When I [saw] Corey had to go hard to get the lead, let George [Brennan on Feelin Red Hot] go and retake, I thought Id take my chance and push the envelope and he let me go.

Shes a great mare; shes proven it time in and time out, Tetrick also said. Shes got big lungs and shes a tough S.O.B., thats for sure. For her to do what shes donemake a million dollars last yearit speaks for itself.

A six-year-old mare by Tintin In America, Shartin N, paying $4.00 to win, won her 30th race from 42 starts, accruing nearly $1.4 million in earnings. She races for owners Richard Poillucci, Jo Ann Looney King and Tim Tetrick LLC.

Richard Banca-trainee Somewhere In L A stalked a fast tempo on cover and overpowered late leader Pacing Major N to take the $100,000 George Morton Levy Consolation in 1:51.2.

Lyons Steel, the 7-5 favourite, led Bettors Fire N to a :26.4 opening quarter and kept the pace quick to a :55.1 half. Pacing Major N, sitting third, flushed first over into the clubhouse turn and supplied cover to Somewhere In L A moving to the backstretch.

Pacing Major N bore into Lyons Steel through the backside and eventually crossed to command past a 1:22.2 third quarter. Somewhere In L A advanced uncovered around the turn while Lyons Steel faded out of contention moving into the stretch. Pacing Major N clung to the lead all through the lane but got nosed in the final stride by Somewhere In L A. Endeavor, from third over, took third while Macs Jackpot finished fourth.

Looking at the race, I thought we were in a great spot, driver Jason Bartlett said after the race. There were enough leavers inside of usI knew three or four were going to go out of thereand I knew if he was good enough he could pick them off. I especially thought it was going to be a dogfight in the lane but my horse just never quits, thats for sure.

Owned by Delegance Stable lx, Carmen Iannacone, T L P Stable and The Gandolfo Stables, Somewhere In L A won his 41st race from 145 starts, surpassing $1.7 million in earnings. Richard Banca trains the eight-year-old Somebeachsomewhere gelding and paid $18.80 to win.

When you get on him, its a pleasure, Bartlett also said. Every time you go behind the gate he gives you what hes got each and every week, so hes just been a great horse to drive.

Driver Tim Tetrick took control with 3-5 favourite Newborn Sassy heading to the quarter and maintained the helm to take the $75,000 Blue Chip Matchmaker Consolation in 1:54.

Launching from post eight, Twinkle cleared command early while Newborn Sassy waited until the backside to circle to the top. The Jim King Jr.-trained mare brushed to the front heading to a :27.4 opening quarter and slowed the pace towards a :57.1 half.

Caviart Cherie pulled first over on the second circuit with Camera Lady in tow. Newborn Sassy continued to race with a length-and-a-quarter lead through the backstretch while advancing to a 1:25.1 third quarter. Caviart Cherie retreated into the turn, leaving room for Twinkle to tip off the pylons. Medusa slid into the pocket through the stretch and chased Newborn Sassy to the wire, settling for second at the inside while Twinkle took third.

Winning her 33rd race from 92 starts, Newborn Sassy, paying $3.50 to win, competes for Tim Tetrick LLC and Jo Ann Looney-King. The victory pushes the six-year-old Western Ideal mare closer to $1.1 million in earnings. Tetrick later confirmed that Newborn Sassy would retire from racing following the win and be bred this season to Captaintreacherous.

A pair of $50,000 consolations for Levy eligibles began the Saturday night stakes. Luciano N lunged to a 53-1 win in the first split by sitting pocket to pacesetter Nocturnal Bluechip and first-over challenger Rock The Nite.

Driver Brent Holland angled the Paul Blumenfeld trainee off the rail into the final turn, fanned three wide and nosed Rock The Nite on the wire in 1:53.1. Weona Sizzler A came from third over for third while Nocturnal Bluechip, sent the 8-5 favourite, faded to fourth. Luciano N, an eight-year-old Bettors Delight gelding racing for Boss Racing Usa, returned $109.00 to win while collecting his 10th victory from 102 tries.

Dr J Hanover dashed to a wire-to-wire win in the second division, ending his six-race losing streak to start 2019. The six-year-old Somebeachsomewhere gelding grabbed the lead from rail-starter Bellows Binge and posted fractions of :27.4, :56.2 and 1:24.3 before uncorking through the stretch to win by two-and-a-half lengths in 1:52.1. Tony Alagna conditions the $5.20 winner, who collected his 20th victory from 72 starts, for owners Brad Grant, Robert LeBlanc, Steven Wienick and Isft. Tim Tetrick sat in the sulky.

Odds-on favourite Smalltownthrowdown secured the lead early and posted soft fractions to wire his competition in the $44,000 Open Trot while under pursuit late. Eye Ofa Tiger As slipped through a seam at the pylons to take second narrowly while New Heaven came from last for third. The Rene Allard-trained six-year-old Cash Hall gelding paid $3.70 to win while nabbing his 26th victory from 74 starts. Dan Dube sat in the sulky for owners Allard Racing Inc., Yves Sarrazin, VIP Internet Stable LLC and Bruce Soulsby.BRADENTON  The Florida Humanities Council and Manatee Libraries have combined on a way for you to learn more about Bradenton. The Old Manatee Walking Tour is the latest installment of the Florida Stories app, which offers cultural, historical and architectural walking tours for select Florida communities.





Old Manatee (the original Town of Manatee) consisted of several nineteenth and early twentieth century structures, some of which are featured on the tour. The tour includes Manatee Village Historical Park, Pelot's Pharmacy, the original Central Hotel building, the old Manatee Burying Grounds and information on Angola, where escaped slaves living with Seminoles sought refuge in the pre-Civil War era in what is now Manatee Mineral Springs Park. Angola was designated recently as a site on the National Park Service's Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.





The Old Manatee Walking Tour will go live on the Florida Stories app on Friday, April 26. Tours on the app are all self-paced; this tour is 0.7 miles and is expected to take about 90-120 minutes using the app's audio descriptions at the stops. On April 26, you can join the kickoff celebration at Manatee Village Historical Park from 1-3:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served, courtesy of Central Cade, The Farm House Donuts, Realize Bradenton and the Friends of the Central Library.



Looking for the vulture assist with Neolithic burials

1 year ago3 hours ago

Ransomware persists even as high-profile attacks have slowed

WASHINGTON (AP)  In the months since President Joe Biden warned Russia's Vladimir Putin that he needed to crack down on ransomware gangs in his country, there hasnt been a massive attack like the one last May that resulted in gasoline shortages.

Read ArticleCountry

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Liquid Blood Found In Remains Of 42,000-Year-Old Mummified Foal LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 465734

04-21-2019 07:47 AM











Post: #1 Liquid Blood Found In Remains Of 42,000-Year-Old Mummified Foal

Advertisement Quote: Bringing back extinct animals by cloning through ancient DNA is the dream of many  from conservationists to Spielberg  but it has not come to fruition yet. However, we may be a step closer thanks to an incredible discovery made in Siberia.

Scientists have reportedly managed to extract liquid blood from the mummified remains of a 42,000-year-old extinct baby horse.

In August last year, the perfectly preserved remains of the young male foal were discovered in the Batagaika crater in Yakutia, northern Russia.

The tiny fossilized specimen is thought to be a foal of the long-extinct Lenskaya horses that roamed Yakutia, the coldest region in Russia, back in the Upper Paleolithic (Late Stone Age). It was only one or two weeks old when it died, and remained in such amazing condition that even its hair was preserved.



Now, researchers at the Mammoth Museum, part of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, discovered much of its insides were also kept in incredible condition, thanks to its favorable burial conditions  soft mud that then froze. So much so that they managed to take liquid blood samples from heart vessels, which they are now calling the oldest blood in the world.

https://www.physics-astronomy.org/2019/0...42000.html LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 498404

04-21-2019 07:56 AM











Post: #2 RE: Liquid Blood Found In Remains Of 42,000-Year-Old Mummified Foal

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-21-2019 07:47 AM) Quote: Bringing back extinct animals by cloning through ancient DNA is the dream of many  from conservationists to Spielberg  but it has not come to fruition yet. However, we may be a step closer thanks to an incredible discovery made in Siberia.

Scientists have reportedly managed to extract liquid blood from the mummified remains of a 42,000-year-old extinct baby horse.

In August last year, the perfectly preserved remains of the young male foal were discovered in the Batagaika crater in Yakutia, northern Russia.

The tiny fossilized specimen is thought to be a foal of the long-extinct Lenskaya horses that roamed Yakutia, the coldest region in Russia, back in the Upper Paleolithic (Late Stone Age). It was only one or two weeks old when it died, and remained in such amazing condition that even its hair was preserved.



Now, researchers at the Mammoth Museum, part of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, discovered much of its insides were also kept in incredible condition, thanks to its favorable burial conditions  soft mud that then froze. So much so that they managed to take liquid blood samples from heart vessels, which they are now calling the oldest blood in the world.

https://www.physics-astronomy.org/2019/0...42000.html

only problem with this fake news story is if they could bring something back to life that was that old its biological immunity would be 42000 year behind the rest and would probably die with in days if not hours! only problem with this fake news story is if they could bring something back to life that was that old its biological immunity would be 42000 year behind the rest and would probably die with in days if not hours!

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Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.Username: Password: or Register

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Page: 1 2 3 Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology. LoP Guest

lop guest

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04-21-2019 07:43 PM











Post: #1 Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Advertisement



A protest against Zionism [File photo]



Asa Winstanley



@AsaWinstanley



April 20, 2019 at 3:42 pm



38



SHARES



Labours Shadow Justice Minister Richard Burgon expressed regret this week for having stated in a speech some years ago that Zionism is the enemy of peace. He should not have apologised. His 2014 comments were a simple matter of historical fact, and he should have stood by them.



Liberal and left Zionists argue that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus increasingly far-right government is a corruption of the so-called Zionist dream. This vision represents an egalitarian haven for the worlds oppressed Jewish peoples, we are told.



This is an ahistorical fantasy.



The movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine  a country overwhelmingly non-Jewish  was, from its very inception, an exclusionary, racist project. From its earliest days, Zionism was imbued with the same racist attitudes of other European settler-colonial movements. The liberal Zionist conception of equality within Palestine, in reality, excludes Palestinian Arabs, the indigenous people of the land. Such willful blindness is a common feature of colonial movements.



As the renowned Palestinian scholar Nur Masalha explained decades agohis masterful study Expulsion of the Palestinians, the Zionist movement, in fact, understood that there were actually people already living in Palestine. However, they chose not to see them as full human beings worthy of rights equal to Jewish settlers.



Masalha wrote that early Zionist Israel Zangwills infamous slogan a land without a people for a people without a land was not intended as a literal demographic assessment. Zionists did not mean that there were no people in Palestine, but that there were no people worth considering within the framework of the notions of European supremacy that then held sway.



OPINION: Gantz, Zionism and the two-state compromise



These notions of white supremacy, which at that time went unquestioned by European elites, were a common feature of colonial projects of all types. How, then, could Zionism be any different?



The answer is that it was not, no matter how much of a leftist cast Labor Zionists put on their colonial movement. Western European Labour movements in colonial metropoles, after all, were often explicitly pro-empire in orientation; arguably none more so than the British Labour Party.



Jeremy Corbyns history of support for some of the most basic of Palestinian human rights actually represents a historical rupture with the Labour Partys long-standing, almost unbroken, record of vehemently anti-Palestinian policies.



Take Richard Crossman for example, a minister in Harold Wilsons government of the 1960s and later editor of the New Statesman. He was a towering figure of the Labour left at the time, yet was one of the most fanatical of Zionists in the entire party. In a 1959 lecture in Israel, he stated that no one, until the 20th century, seriously challenged the right or duty of what he termed the white man in Africa and the Americas to civilize these continents by physically occupying them, even at the cost of wiping out the aboriginal population.



Genocide, in other words.



Crossman also lamented that Jewish settlers in Palestine had not achieved their majority before 1914, and that the Palestinians regarded them as white settlers, come to occupy the Middle East. One should note that his doyen of the Labour left did not express condemnation of the white settlers who did, in fact, come to occupy Palestine by force while displacing the indigenous people. He only regretted that Palestinians recognised the Zionist movement for what it really was and thus opposed it.



OPINION: Kahanism  the logical conclusion of Zionism



No wonder, then, that the Labour government of 1945 had, as part of its election platform, a plank explicitly calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine in order to make way for a Jewish state. The document claimed there was a necessity in Palestine for [the] transfer of population. Let the Arabs be encouraged to move out, as the Jews move in.



The document even went further, advocating future expansion of the borders of the prospective Jewish state by annexing parts of Transjordan, Egypt or Syria by agreement. In reality, Egypt and the future state of Jordan were then British puppet regimes.









https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/201904...-ideology/ Why Zionism has always been a racist ideologyA protest against Zionism [File photo]Asa Winstanley@AsaWinstanleyApril 20, 2019 at 3:42 pm38SHARESLabours Shadow Justice Minister Richard Burgon expressed regret this week for having stated in a speech some years ago that Zionism is the enemy of peace. He should not have apologised. His 2014 comments were a simple matter of historical fact, and he should have stood by them.Liberal and left Zionists argue that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus increasingly far-right government is a corruption of the so-called Zionist dream. This vision represents an egalitarian haven for the worlds oppressed Jewish peoples, we are told.This is an ahistorical fantasy.The movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine  a country overwhelmingly non-Jewish  was, from its very inception, an exclusionary, racist project. From its earliest days, Zionism was imbued with the same racist attitudes of other European settler-colonial movements. The liberal Zionist conception of equality within Palestine, in reality, excludes Palestinian Arabs, the indigenous people of the land. Such willful blindness is a common feature of colonial movements.As the renowned Palestinian scholar Nur Masalha explained decades agohis masterful study Expulsion of the Palestinians, the Zionist movement, in fact, understood that there were actually people already living in Palestine. However, they chose not to see them as full human beings worthy of rights equal to Jewish settlers.Masalha wrote that early Zionist Israel Zangwills infamous slogan a land without a people for a people without a land was not intended as a literal demographic assessment. Zionists did not mean that there were no people in Palestine, but that there were no people worth considering within the framework of the notions of European supremacy that then held sway.OPINION: Gantz, Zionism and the two-state compromiseThese notions of white supremacy, which at that time went unquestioned by European elites, were a common feature of colonial projects of all types. How, then, could Zionism be any different?The answer is that it was not, no matter how much of a leftist cast Labor Zionists put on their colonial movement. Western European Labour movements in colonial metropoles, after all, were often explicitly pro-empire in orientation; arguably none more so than the British Labour Party.Jeremy Corbyns history of support for some of the most basic of Palestinian human rights actually represents a historical rupture with the Labour Partys long-standing, almost unbroken, record of vehemently anti-Palestinian policies.Take Richard Crossman for example, a minister in Harold Wilsons government of the 1960s and later editor of the New Statesman. He was a towering figure of the Labour left at the time, yet was one of the most fanatical of Zionists in the entire party. In a 1959 lecture in Israel, he stated that no one, until the 20th century, seriously challenged the right or duty of what he termed the white man in Africa and the Americas to civilize these continents by physically occupying them, even at the cost of wiping out the aboriginal population.Genocide, in other words.Crossman also lamented that Jewish settlers in Palestine had not achieved their majority before 1914, and that the Palestinians regarded them as white settlers, come to occupy the Middle East. One should note that his doyen of the Labour left did not express condemnation of the white settlers who did, in fact, come to occupy Palestine by force while displacing the indigenous people. He only regretted that Palestinians recognised the Zionist movement for what it really was and thus opposed it.OPINION: Kahanism  the logical conclusion of ZionismNo wonder, then, that the Labour government of 1945 had, as part of its election platform, a plank explicitly calling for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine in order to make way for a Jewish state. The document claimed there was a necessity in Palestine for [the] transfer of population. Let the Arabs be encouraged to move out, as the Jews move in.The document even went further, advocating future expansion of the borders of the prospective Jewish state by annexing parts of Transjordan, Egypt or Syria by agreement. In reality, Egypt and the future state of Jordan were then British puppet regimes. 1110.00)

lop guest

User ID: 480427

04-21-2019 07:46 PM











Post: #2 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Television is Zionist. It is why everybody is hostage to Zionism/Islam now. 1110.00)

lop guest

User ID: 480427

04-21-2019 07:47 PM











Post: #3 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

1110.00) Wrote: (04-21-2019 07:46 PM) Television is Zionist. It is why everybody is hostage to Zionism/Islam now.

Zionism/Islam/Catholic ...



TV made people stupid and docile. Zionism/Islam/Catholic ...TV made people stupid and docile. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 498435

04-21-2019 07:49 PM











Post: #4 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Levi tension is best tension. Or forgotten le vision. Famous smart people have dissected the effects of Zionism. Strategos

Against Dystopia

User ID: 455233

04-21-2019 08:18 PM



Posts: 10,107









Post: #5 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 453675

04-21-2019 08:27 PM











Post: #6 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

If zionism is racists than the entire religion of islam is too.



Same theology. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 453675

04-21-2019 08:28 PM











Post: #7 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Strategos Wrote: (04-21-2019 08:18 PM) link to image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tz8Y9E_TsyI/TO...6817_n.jpg

Look a stolen valor liar. Look a stolen valor liar. Strategos

Against Dystopia

User ID: 455233

04-21-2019 08:34 PM



Posts: 10,107









Post: #8 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-21-2019 08:27 PM) If zionism is racists than the entire religion of islam is too.



Same theology.

Don't care for Islam.



Palestinians are also Christians, and, Druze, and Samaritans. Don't care for Islam.Palestinians are also Christians, and, Druze, and Samaritans. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 453675

04-21-2019 08:35 PM











Post: #9 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Strategos Wrote: (04-21-2019 08:34 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-21-2019 08:27 PM) If zionism is racists than the entire religion of islam is too.



Same theology.

Don't care for Islam.



Palestinians are also Christians, and, Druze, and Samaritans.

Dont bother stolen valor. Dont bother stolen valor. Strategos

Against Dystopia

User ID: 455233

04-21-2019 09:44 PM



Posts: 10,107









Post: #10 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

LoP Guest Wrote: (04-21-2019 08:28 PM) Strategos Wrote: (04-21-2019 08:18 PM) link to image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tz8Y9E_TsyI/TO...6817_n.jpg

Look a stolen valor liar.

When you can't win on facts, attack the messenger. With libel, in your case. When you can't win on facts, attack the messenger. With libel, in your case. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 498492

04-21-2019 09:55 PM











Post: #11 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Strategos Wrote: (04-21-2019 09:44 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-21-2019 08:28 PM) Look a stolen valor liar.

When you can't win on facts, attack the messenger. With libel, in your case.

Lol, cant debate with a liar.



http://lunaticoutpost.com/thread-121172.html Lol, cant debate with a liar. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 498492

04-21-2019 09:56 PM











Post: #12 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Strategos Wrote: (04-21-2019 09:44 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (04-21-2019 08:28 PM) Look a stolen valor liar.

When you can't win on facts, attack the messenger. With libel, in your case.

AKO name or gtfo. AKO name or gtfo. Flic Vange

Registered User

User ID: 400136

04-21-2019 10:12 PM



Posts: 1,778









Post: #13 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Voltaire: I detest your views but I would give my life to protect your rights to express them.

LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 498496

04-21-2019 10:31 PM











Post: #14 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

Randy-Lal Wrote: (04-21-2019 10:12 PM) link to image: https://i.imgur.com/w987ycl.gif

See I uses to think the same thing. However it was pointed out to me that I can become an israeli through marriage or a one generation recorded religious convertion. I can not become white or black with either. Its about religion, not race. See I uses to think the same thing. However it was pointed out to me that I can become an israeli through marriage or a one generation recorded religious convertion. I can not become white or black with either. Its about religion, not race. Strategos

Against Dystopia

User ID: 476328

04-24-2019 03:50 AM



Posts: 10,107









Post: #15 RE: Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bernie-san...tanyahus-r Quote: Sanders: Israel now run by a right wing  dare I say  racist government acist-government/

Not just now, Bernie, since 1948. Not just now, Bernie, since 1948. Advertisement



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A Vietnamese shipping company will officially launch its first direct flight from a north-central province to Da Nang next month, while the firm also intends to offer a new sightseeing flight service.

The first direct flight from Dong Hoi, the capital of Quang Binh Province, to Da Nang was announced by the Department of Tourism of Quang Binh Province on Saturday.

The department added that the service will be provided by Ho Chi Minh City-based Seagull Shipping Company (SESCO) from May 4, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

For the new air route, Cessna Caravan 208B-EX will be used with its capacity of 14 seats, including two pilots and 12 passengers.

The American aircraft model is highly evaluated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as the biggest single-engine aircraft.

Other advantages of the Caravan 208B-EX include a high level of safety when landing on water, stability standards, resource efficiency, and overall safety levels.

The airplane typically seats nine passengers with a single pilot, although with a Federal Aviation Regulations Part 23 waiver it can seat up to fourteen passengers and is also used as a cargo carrier.

The Dong Hoi - Da Nang flights are going to land and take off at Dong Hoi Airport and the VIP section of Da Nang International Airport, with the services only offered on weekends.

As proposed, an hour-long flight will be operated during weekdays through the air charter service for an estimated price of US$3,300.

According to SESCO, the first tickets will be sold at $300, which is a promotional price offered from May 4, when the service launches, until September 30.

The company will update passengers on new rates for the route after Septemper 30

So as to be well prepared for the launch of the new air route, many high-ranking officials and representatives from the Peoples Committee, Department of Tourism, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources of Quang Binh, among others, were present on a successful pilot flight from Dong Hoi to Da Nang.

In addition to the new air route, the Department of Tourism and Peoples Committee of Quang Binh also support SESCO's intention to provide sightseeing flight services in the province ahead of the upcoming cave festival in 2019, which will be Vietnam's first.

The transport company is completing the procedure for official approval for the above-mentioned service.

The service is believed to boost local tourism by providing customers with unique experiences as they get to see the sight of the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park, sightseeing spots of Quang Binh, and the most famous tourist destinations including Phong Nha Cave, Thien Duong Cave, and Son Doong Cave, among others.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Your browser does not support the audio element.

A Vietnamese food producer company is being condemned by netizens for recreating a model of the mausoleum of Vietnams great leader Ho Chi Minh at a supermarket in Hanoi in an effort to promote its products, even though the company claims to have no knowledge of this event.

Photos of a promotion stand of the Chin-su chilli sauce, made by Masan Group, modeled after the Chairman Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum started spreading across Internet on Saturday, followed by many opposing comments from Facebook users.

If you consume Chin-su products, youll be given a whole mausoleum? Such a disrespectful and offensive message to our great leader, Nguyen Thi Bich Hau wrote on Facebook.

The promotion stand made of Chin-su chilli sauce bottles was displayed in Lotte Mart Lieu Giai in Hanoi, which belongs to Korean multinational corporation Lotte.

After the incident, a Masan Group representative told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the food producer had worked with the sales and promotion staff of the supermarket to discontinue the form of promotion, while also requiring those involved to write reports of the issue.

The representative went on to explain that as Reunification Day (April 30), one of Vietnams major national holidays, is approaching, Lotte Mart Lieu Giai has encouraged the promotion staff to decorate their stands to celebrate it.

Hence, the Chin-su promotion stand was not the only one re-decorated as other goods at the supermarket were also arranged in different shapes like a tank, national flag, and the above-mentioned mausoleum.

A user opposes shaping the 'chilli sauce mausoleum' on Facebook.

According to the Masan Group representative, right after acknowledging the event, the food producer required the team to discontinue the arrangement of the promotion stand, admitting that the thoughtless action of the staff triggered a negative reaction from consumers.

This is a personal mistake, but Masan still wants to send an apology to our consumers, the representative said, adding that the company is ready to be held fully accountable while also being open to consumers constructive comments.

We will work with Lotte Corporation to further inquire about the issue and learn from this mistake to avoid future repetitions, the representative reassured.

Right after the incident, the supermarket contacted the food producer to require the discontinuation of the stand.

The Masan Group representative also assured that the model of the Chin-su mausoleum is no longer present at any outlet across the country.

While Masan claims they were not aware of the actions of their promotion employees, a representative of Lotte Mart said vendors usually rent spots in the supermarket to promote and introduce their products like Chin-su did in the event.

Such vendors are always required to send promotion models to the supermarket operator before receiving approval from Lotte Mart, according to Lotte representative.

In this case, the vendor has ingored the supermarket and acted upon their own will, the representative claimed.

The Chairman Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is the final resting place of Ho Chi Minh, former chairman of Vietnam, after he passed away in 1969.

The mausoleum is considered one of the most respected national heritage sites in Vietnam.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A celebration to commemorate 1,080 years of independence from Chinese domination was held on Saturday at Co Loa Citadel in Hanoi with the participation of many high-ranking officials, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The event was organized by Hanoi authorities, including the Peoples Committee, Fatherland Front Committee, and Party Committee, among others, to celebrate the day national hero and former king Ngo Quyen claimed back the peace of Vietnam after over a thousand years of Chinese rule.

Ngo Quyen founded the Ngo dynasty and moved the capital to Co Loa, located on the outskirts of current Hanoi, after he was proclaimed king of the nation in 939.

The former king chose Co Loa as the capital in respect for the previous kings and the ancestry of the nation, according to Associated Professor Tran Duc Cuong.

The event played a crucial role in the countrys history not only for bringing peace and freedom to the people but also for foiling the Chineses evil plan of assimilating the Vietnamese.

Defeating the Chinese marked the preservation of Vietnamese traditions and culture, both of which were at risk of disappearing forever.

The Chinese rule, also called Belonging to the North [China]," began in 111 BC and is considered to have ended in 938 AD as a relatively brief 20-year punitive invasion by the Ming dynasty from 1407 to 1427 is usually excluded.

Despite his great contribution and the people's love, the former king only ruled for six years before passing away at the age of 47 after the country gained full independence and governmental autonomy acknowledged by the surrounding nations.

During the celebration, deputy chairman of Hanoi Ngo Van Quy retold the story of the national hero while also reminding people of the contribution he made for the country.

The celebration emphasized the historical importance of Ngo Quyen both as a national hero and a king, nourishing patriotism among Vietnamese, Quy said in his speech.

High-ranking officials of Hanoi applaud a performance during the celebration of 1,080 years of independence from the Chinese at Co Loa Citadel in Hanoi on April 20, 2019. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

Associated Professor Tran Duc Cuong, director of a Vietnamese association studying history, could not hide his happiness to see that the former king was properly commemorated in the celebration, while also expressing his desire that more similar events will be held in the near future so the selfless contributions of the national hero can be well appreciated.

Moreover, the expert hopes that the city is going to build a shrine to Ngo Quyen in Co Loa Citadel.

Other activities of the celebratory event included a performance of Vietnamese traditional drums and a historical re-enactment of Ngo Quyens achievements.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Here are todays leading news stories:

Society

-- Vietnams Ministry of Public Security has arrested and initiated legal proceedings against five former leaders of the Thai Nguyen Steel Company, located in the namesake northern province, for being involved in violations regarding a VND8.1 trillion (US$348.3) expansion project.

-- Temperature in Thua Thien-Hue Province, located in central Vietnam, reached 40 degrees Celsius on Saturday as the dry season has reached its peak in the region.

-- A doctor at a general hospital in the north-central province of Nghe An has recently been assaulted by two family members of a young patient after they thought he did not know how to examine the patient. Police have arrested one of the attackers and are hunting for the other.

-- A total of 31 Vietnamese, Australian, and Malaysian people were caught using drugs inside a tourist villa in Vung Tau, a popular beach city in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, on Friday night, police confirmed on Saturday.

-- The average amount of household garbage in Vietnam is 27 million metric tons a year and surges by five percent on a yearly basis, the Center for Environment and Community Research reported at a conference in Hanoi on Saturday, adding that the amount of plastic waste has risen tenfold over the past 25 years.

-- A traffic police officer in Ho Chi Minh City has been caught on CCTV pointing his gun at two illegal street racers and beating one of them on the night of April 17. A city police official confirmed they are verifying the incident and identifying the officer in the video.

-- Heavy downpours accompanied by hail occurred in Da Lat, a tourist city in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, on Saturday afternoon, causing multiple neighborhoods to be seriously inundated.

Business

-- The Peoples Committee in the south-central province of Binh Thuan on Saturday put into operation the VND2.3 trillion ($98.9 million) Vinh Tan International Port, which covers more than 140 hectares in Vinh Tan Commune, Tuy Phong District.

-- Hundreds of people gathered at the headquarters of Hoang Quan Real Estate Company in the south-central city of Nha Trang on Saturday and said they would live there after the developer failed to deliver the apartments they had bought on time.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Your browser does not support the audio element.

Police in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday initiated legal proceedings against Nguyen Huu Linh, a former procuracy official in central Da Nang City, for molesting an under 16-year-old person, 20 days after he was caught on camera groping and forcefully kissing a young girl in an apartment elevator.

The police unit and Peoples Procuracy in District 4 confirmed they had filed charges against Linh, 61, a resident of Hai Chau District, Da Nang, who retired as deputy head of the municipal Peoples Procuracy in June last year.

He is charged for molesting an under 16-year-old person, a crime punishable by six months to three years in prison in accordance with Vietnams Penal Code.

Linh has yet to be arrested, but he is required not to leave his place of residence.

The alleged sexual harassment occurred at around 9:10 pm on April 1 and was caught on CCTV installed in an elevator of an apartment building in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City.

In the video, Linh can be seen grabbing and kissing a young girl, estimated to be somewhere between five and seven years old.

He was visiting a relative who lives at the Galaxy 9 apartment building on the day of the incident.

In a brief interview with Phap Luat Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Law) newspaper on April 4, Linh said he was just petting the young girl and refused to provide further information.

The management board of the Galaxy 9 on Wednesday submitted a petition to the municipal Peoples Committee and Peoples Procuracy, demanding that legal proceedings be launched against Linh.

The document had previously been signed by many people living at the apartment complex, as no update regarding Linhs charges was announced at the time.

The identity of the child has not been revealed so far to protect her.

The family of the victim claimed they had reached a consensus with Linh so they did not want him to be criminally charged.

But the Vietnamese law allows police to overrule the family's desire to press charges against the suspect, given the clear video evidence.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Temperature reached up to 40 degrees Celsius in central Vietnam on Saturday as the dry season has entered its peak in the region.

The highest temperature in Hue City, located in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, was 40 degrees Celsius, the provincial steering committee for national disaster prevention reported.

Mercury in other localities of the province was between 36 and 39 degrees Celsius, it continued, adding that the dry season has peaked in the region.

The iconic Truong Tien Bridge in Hue at noon. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

Along such streets that are normally busy as Tran Hung Dao, very few vehicles were spotted, especially at noon, according to the observation of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters.

Those who had to go outside tried to cover themselves with as many types of protective clothing as they could.

A resident takes a nap on a hammock at a park in Hue City. Photo: Nhat Linh / Tuoi Tre

Local workers would find shade at parks or under bridges and overpasses during this time of the day.

Such high temperature is not unprecedented, but it feels much more unpleasant this year, Phan Thi Nga, a scrap collector, said.

Commuters wear protective clothing in the central city of Da Nang on April 20, 2019. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

In Da Nang, temperature reached 38 to 39 degrees Celsius.

Demand for electric fans and air conditioners in the city has also been rising as local residents look for a way to endure the scorching weather.

Commuters wear protective clothing in the central city of Da Nang on April 20, 2019. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

Local authorities warned that the dry season could be harsher this year as the city is facing water shortage.

This could also be the hottest year in Da Nangs history, they added.

Commuters wear protective clothing in the central city of Da Nang on April 20, 2019. Photo: Tan Luc / Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Your browser does not support the audio element.

A traffic police officer in Ho Chi Minh City has been caught on camera pointing his gun at two illegal street racers and beating them, an action that has subjected him to criticism on social media.

The traffic police division under the municipal Department of Police has verified the case and identified the policeman in the video clip, a source close to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper confirmed on Saturday.

The identity of the officer, however, has yet to be publicized.

The incident happened along a section of National Highway 1 in District 12 at around 9:40 pm on Wednesday.

A team of traffic cops were patrolling in the neighborhood when they spotted a group of men who were about to participate in an illegal street race.

The men fled the scene as soon as the officers arrived.

Two of them got on a motorbike and traveled in the wrong the direction as they ran away and were pursued by police forces.

They were running at high speed before crashing into a motorcyclist. The collision knocked them off the vehicle.

In the 30-second CCTV footage, a traffic police officer was seen first hitting one of the street racers in his face and then going on to kick him.

He then pointed his gun at the other suspect before kicking him in the face.

The video clip was then uploaded to social media and attracted a lot of attention.

Many viewers believed it was inappropriate for the officer to have such violent actions.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Your browser does not support the audio element.

Police in southern Vietnam have seized more than a tonne of methamphetamine after uncovering a smuggling operation involving at least two Taiwanese and a Vietnamese man, the third massive bust in a week in the country.

Officers discovered two trucks and a parked car -- driven by two Taiwanese men -- "showing signs of carrying illegal goods" in a Ho Chi Minh City district on April 12, said a police statement released late Friday.

The trucks held "extremely heavy" loudspeakers, which prompted suspicion when police found the drivers lacked legal papers to transport the equipment.

Stashed in the speakers were 600 gold-coloured Chinese tea packets, carrying 606 kilograms (1,336 pounds) of meth.

"Police discovered that each loudspeaker carried 10 tea packets... all of them containing methamphetamine", the statement said.

The police traced the trucks' route, which led them to a Vietnamese man, Bui Nguyen Vu, who had more loudspeakers filled with meth and ketamine.

"In total, the city police confiscated 103 loudspeakers with 1,110.26 kilograms of methamphetamine and 998.68 kilograms of ketamine for domestic consumption and re-export," the statement said.

"The two Taiwanese men and Bui Nguyen Vu have been arrested for investigation."

News of the bust comes on the heels of two massive drug hauls in central Nghe An province, where 600 kilograms of meth was discovered stuffed in speaker boxes in the home of an elderly couple and 900 kilograms was found abandoned on the side of a road earlier this week.

Vietnam is both a hub for drug use and a popular thoroughfare for shipments of illicit narcotics, with the number of large-scale hauls increasing in frequency and volume.

Much of the country's illegal supply floods in from the lawless "Golden Triangle" zone that straddles Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

Though older users in Vietnam have long prefered opium and heroin as their narcotic of choice, younger people are increasingly turning to party drugs such as meth, ketamine and ecstasy.

The Southeast Asian country has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. Anyone caught with more than 600 grams (21 ounces) of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine can face the death penalty.Your browser does not support the audio element.

A total of 31 Vietnamese and foreigners have been caught using drugs by the swimming pool inside a rented villa in Vung Tau, a popular beach city in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Officers from the municipal Department of Police carried out a raid on a villa in Ward 1 at around 11:30 pm on Friday.

Thirteen men and 18 women were showing signs of being high on drugs by the swimming pool inside the venue and were escorted to the police station.

Among them, eight men, including a Vietnamese and seven Australian and Malaysian nationals, and seven women tested positive for drugs.

Officers also confiscated seven green pills and 14 blue tablets which were alleged synthetic drugs, along with three plastic bags containing a type of white crystal.

Further investigation is ongoing.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!President Trumps April 17 veto of the Congressional resolution calling for the ending of US support to the Saudi war in Yemen, it seems, wont end the conflict in that country, regardless of what side youre on. Trump claimed that the US has a "duty to protect the safety of the more than 80,000 Americans who reside in certain coalition countries that have been subject to Houthi attacks from Yemen. He gave Saudi Arabia as one example where he said the Houthis, supported by Iran, have used missiles, armed drones, and explosive boats to attack civilian and military targets in those coalition countries. Never mind that the Houthi rocket attacks are solely a response to the unrelenting Saudi bombing campaign that has killed thousands of civilians and wrecked Yemens ability to feed itself.

The unanswered question at this point is to what degree was John Bolton responsible for Trumps decision to veto the resolution. On April 13, that is, four days prior to the veto, the Washington Examiner reported that backers of the resolution had sent a letter to Trump asking for a meeting to discuss it, but that the White House ahd not responded. While the White House staff had recommended vetoing the bill, Trump himself had been more open to it, saying earlier that the matter was "very serious" and that he would have more to say later. Sponsors of the legislation believed Trump was willing to sign the bill, but was being told by his staff, led Bolton, that he should not. "I think his advisers are at odds with where he is ... advisers in the administration have their own interests and may not be giving him the full picture," said Ro Khanna D-Calif., one of the key sponsors of the bill in the House. Trump allies including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, signed the letter requesting a meeting, as did Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, i-Vt. "I really believe if Rand Paul, myself, Matt Gaetz, and Mike Lee got in a room with him, we would persuade the president. The challenge is, are his advisers going to allow us to do it?" Khanna said.

"The president's a dove. He has dovish tendencies," Gaetz told Vice News this week. "I think that if we get some time with him, we can make our argument about how the war in Yemen runs afoul of the Trump doctrine."

Even after the veto, Khanna was conciliatory towards Trump but vowed to continue the fight. From a president elected on the promise of putting a stop to our endless wars, this veto is a painful missed opportunity, Khanna said. "The Yemen War Powers Resolution was a bipartisan, bicameral effort to end the worlds largest humanitarian crisis and supported by some of the presidents most trusted Republican allies."

In Sanaa, the veto is being seen as a betrayal Yemeni civilians and a sign that the Saudi bombing campaign will continue. In an article written by a Yemeni journalist in Sana'a, Mintpress News reports that tens of thousands of Yemenis held demonstrations in the countrys capital, Sana`a, Hodeida, Sada`a and others provinces on Friday to condemn Trump's veto of the resolution. My message is only to the American people: is spilling more Yemeni blood acceptable to you? a man in his seventies told MintPress. Yemenis who spoke to MintPress about the move said they view Trumps veto against ending U.S. involvement in their country as immoral and fear that it will enable the Saudi-led Coalition to commit more crimes against their people, who they insist have done nothing to the U.S. and pose no threat to it.

Fighting between the Houthis and the forces of the Saudi/UAE backed government has intensified in recent weeks, but UN Envoy Martin Griffiths expressed optimism about the situation in Hodeidah during an April 15 briefing to the UN Security Council. He said that while the process has been slow and protracted, progress is being made on the mutual withdrawal from Hodeidah that both sides agreed to in Sweden last December. I am happy to announce to you Mr. President that both parties have now accepted the detailed redeployment plan, prepared by General Michael Lollesgaard [the retired Danish general who heads the UN monitoring mission] for phase one of the redeployments in Hodeida," he said. "And we will now move with all speed towards resolving the final outstanding issues related to the operational plans for phase two, redeployments and also the issue of the status of local security forces we're introducing in the coming days." He not only praised Lollesgaard for this progress but also both Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, the Saudi puppet president, and Abdul Malik al Houthi, the leader of Ansar Allah in Sana'a.

Griffiths stressed two other inter-related points: While the search for a political solution to the war has been more or less on hold while the Hodeidah cease fire is being worked out, progress in Hodeidah is vital for that eventual political solution. At the same time, the groundwork for political consultations must be laid because the war in the rest of the country shows no signs of abating.A new Madonna song & clips is a bit of an event.

Madonna will exclusively unveil the world premiere of her video and single Medellin with Maluma, during a globally televised MTV music event, MTV Presents Madonna Live & Exclusive: Medellin Video World Premiere on Thursday, April 25 at 6.00am AEST.

It will be repeated at 6pm.

Madonna will join British DJ Trevor Nelson and fans live from London for a conversation about the influences of her new album, and the creative forces behind her transcendent career. Medellin collaborator and Global Latin Superstar Maluma will join live from Miami. Madonna will also take questions during the global event via satellite from MTVs Sway Calloway and fans in New York City, with additional MTV-hosted events in Milan (hosted by MTV Italy Riccanza star Tommaso Zorzi) and Sao Paulo (hosted by Brazilian entertainer Hugo Gloss).

Fans of Madonna can also win the opportunity to be in the studio audience for the London, New York, Milan and Sao Paulo events. Visit Madonna.com for further information and details.

The 30-minute special will debut live across MTVs digital platforms and linear channels in nearly 180 countries.

Madonna and MTV have been intrinsically tied since their respective youths, said Bruce Gillmer, global head of music and talent, Viacom, and co-brand head, MTV International. As Madonna continues to rule the world, were thrilled to be with her once again live from our Camden studios to world premiere her incredible collaboration with Maluma, Medellin.

Madonna and MTV have shared a history starting with the early premieres of the pop superstars boundary-pushing music videos. Madonna has been honored with 24 MTV awards between the MTV Video Music Awards and the MTV EMAs. Additionally, it was at the inaugural VMAs where the pop icon graced the stage in a wedding dress to perform, Like a Virgin, in her first major award show performance.The retailer recently stockpiled 15 million of its most popular goods to prepare for a chaotic Brexit.

The founder and boss of online retailer AO World has condemned the groups hefty bill for no-deal Brexit planning as wasted money after revealing 15 million of stockpiling efforts.

John Roberts, who recently swooped back in to take the helm after a two-year hiatus, said the group had invested heavily and has done everything we can to prepare for a chaotic Brexit, both in the UK and Germany, where it launched in 2014.

But the no-nonsense northerner told the Press Association the cash could have been better spent elsewhere.

He said: We feel very ready and have spent a lot of money. Id class that as wasted a lot of money.

Mr Roberts added: We could have invested that money on much (more) positive things.

The retailer  which imports the majority of its electrical goods  recently confirmed it has boosted stocks of its most popular products by around 15 million in the past three months to prepare for Brexit.

It came as the group also warned it was likely to slump to an underlying loss for the year to March 31.

Mr Roberts jumped back into the hot seat in January after chief executive Steve Caunce quit to step back to a less demanding business role.

The Bolton-headquartered firm has been battling against tough markets in the UK and Germany and slumped to an 11.7 million operating loss for the six months to September 30.

Its shares have fallen to all-time lows, having plunged 36% in the past six months.

Mr Roberts said Brexit had without a shadow of a doubt been a significant factor in recent trading challenges.

He said the market is down by at least 15%, having been hit hard since the EU referendum nearly three years ago.

Electricals are largely imported, which meant the pounds plunge since the Brexit vote has sent costs soaring.

The sectors fortunes are also closely linked to the housing market, with many white goods purchases made alongside house moves, but this has stalled as buyers sit on the sidelines waiting for Brexit clarity.

Story continues

Its recent full-year trading update saw the group warn that underlying earnings are set to come in towards the lower end of City expectations  for between a loss of 400,000 to a profit of 2 million.

But Mr Roberts said he had lots of reasons to be cheerful, with a raft of new initiatives, including plans to launch its mobile phone offering within months.

AO Mobile will launch in the summer, with the group using its recent 32.5 million takeover of the Mobile Phones Direct business as a launchpad for the new operation.

The firm also recently unveiled its first step into the white goods rental market.

It is trialling the scheme with two housing associations in England and Scotland, offering cash-squeezed millennials the option to rent a washing machine for 2 a week.

Mr Roberts  who founded AO World in 2000 and still owns a 23% shareholding  said he is absolutely loving being back in charge.

Since handing over the reins to Mr Caunce in February 2016, he had been focusing on innovation and development projects, although he has remained on the board.

I have been involved, but theres nothing quite like being right at the cut and thrust.

Its a class A drug all of its own, he said.(Bloomberg) -- Reading Robert Muellers report, its hard not to feel like that frog who gets slowly boiled alive. Many of its most incendiary allegations had already been published elsewhere. We knew most of it, but now we really know: President Donald Trump really did order the White House counsel to have Mueller fired. Trump really was working on a Trump Tower Moscow project through at least June 2016. A Russian lawyer really met with campaign officials, including Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr., after promising an intermediary to deliver "official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary."Others will weigh in on what it all means for the Trump presidency. As a technology reporter reading the report, I realized that I was partially submerged in another pot of boiling water. Several pages of the findings remind us that U.S. social media companies played an essential role in the Russian interference operation during the 2016 election.

Muellers report is unambiguous about that fact. On page four it says, The Internet Research Agency (IRA) carried out the earliest Russian interference operations identified by the investigationa social media campaign designed to provoke and amplify political and social discord in the United States.

The report says that interference began in 2014 and then evolved into an effort to support then-candidate Trump by early 2016. Facebook Inc. said that as many as 126 million people may have been touched by IRA. And Twitter Inc. alerted 1.4 million people that it believed had interacted with an IRA account, the report says.Facebook is mentioned 81 times. Twitter gets 71 mentions. Kudos to Google which only gets six mentionsmostly in the context of Trump administration officials naively googling people. For example: After receiving Papadopoulos's name from [campaign official Joy] Lutes, [campaign co-chairman Sam] Clovis performed a Google search on Papadopoulos, learned that he had worked at the Hudson Institute, and believed that he had credibility on energy issues. Very thorough.

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In all seriousness, the broader findings raise a question thats every bit as serious as the search for proof of collusion: Are U.S. social media companies prepared for the next election?

Facebook and Twitter have so far focused their preparation efforts on banning accounts, and deleting groups controlled by Russian agents. But that seems to be sort of a whack-a-mole approach, knocking out bad actors only after theyve made an impact.This seems like a time when we should be asking more fundamental questions about how Facebook and Twitter operate. And one central issue is that online, people often arent who they say they areand as a result, act with impunity.

In some ways, thats liberating. Anonymity allows people who might otherwise be repressed or fearful to express their ideas. Its one of the wonders of the internet.

But it also enables people, Russian or not, to act in all sorts of disingenuous ways. As a reporter interacting with trolls online, it can be frustrating to face accounts without any discernible identity. For instance, Id love to know whether people who Tweet on $TSLA and $TSLAQ are long or short the electric car companyand whether they're earnest observers or users spinning their own mini-propaganda machines for their respective bets.

While thats a silly example, there are far more terrifying ones. Countries like Venezuela, Iran and Bangladesh have all tried their hands at their own social media disinformation campaigns. And neo-Nazis have taken to impersonating Jews and other minorities online.

The push and pull over online identity comes back to the central question of free speech online. But the alternative to anonymity isnt necessarily some central government-accessible database like were seeing in China. Its possible to imagine, for example, a sort of scaled-up version of verified Tweets. Social media companies could give people who prove that they run their Twitter account a bigger audience or more power to appear in replies. Twitter could even reward people who dont publish their name publicly, but are willing to prove that they live in the country they say they do.

This isnt a fully baked plan, of course, and there are plenty of tradeoffs to be weighed. But the Mueller report should be a reminder that the status quo is not working, and probably wont be before votes are cast 2020. After all these years one central tenant of the internet has held true, proving far more insidious than it once appeared: On the internet, nobody knows youre a dog. Maybe they should.

This article also ran in Bloomberg Technologys Fully Charged newsletter. Sign up here.

And heres what you need to know in global technology news

Maybe we shouldn't count on Facebook to fix much of anything. The company decided to announce that actually it had stored millionsnot tens of thousandsof unencrypted Instagram passwords, right as the world was poring over the Mueller report. Facebook also announced that it had "unintentionally" scooped up the email contacts of 1.5 million users without consent.

Zoom and Pinterest both started trading on a good note. Pinterest shares climbed more than 30 percent on their first day as a public company. Also noteworthy: Zoom's CEO was refused a visa eight times. Now he's a billionaire.

Amazon and Google called a truce. Finally your Fire TV will be able to play YouTube and your Chromecast will play Amazon Prime Video. If you needed your weekly reminder that your creature comforts hang on petty conflicts between a handful of technology billionaires, there it is.

Join Bloomberg's flagship tech event, Sooner Than You Think 2019, on June 11 to 12 in London. Learn and be inspired by the world's most influential tech leaders. View the website here, and apply to attend.

To contact the author of this story: Eric Newcomer in New York at enewcomer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anne VanderMey at avandermey@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.By Ulf Laessing and Hani Amara

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Explosions shook the Libyan capital Tripoli late on Saturday after an air strike, residents said, in an escalation of a two-week offensive by eastern forces on the city held by the internationally recognised government.

A Reuters reporter and several residents said they saw an aircraft circling for more than 10 minutes over the capital with a humming sound before opening fire on a southern suburb, scene of the heaviest fighting between the rival forces.

Reuters was unable to confirm whether an aircraft or unmanned drone was behind the strike which triggered heavy anti aircraft fire. Residents had reported drone strikes in the past days but there has been no confirmation and explosions heard in the city centre this time were louder than in previous days.

Residents counted several missile strikes which apparently hit a military camp of forces loyal to Tripoli in the Sabaa district. Authorities had closed Tripoli's only functioning airport but reopened it hours later, the airport's website said.

The Libyan National Army (LNA) force loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar started an offensive two weeks ago but has been unable to breach the government's southern defences.

If a drone strike was confirmed this would point to more sophisticated warfare. The LNA has so far mainly used ageing Soviet-made jets from the air force of Muammar Gaddafi, toppled in 2011, lacking precision firepower and helicopters, according to residents and military sources.

In the past the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have supported Haftar with air strikes during campaigns to take eastern Libya. Both countries flew air strikes on Tripoli in 2014 during a different conflict to help a Haftar-allied force, U.S. officials said at the time.

Since 2014 the UAE and Egypt have provided the LNA with military equipment such as aircraft and helicopters, helping Haftar to gain the upper hand in Libya's eight-year conflict, past U.N. reports have established.

Story continues

The UAE even built an air base in Al Khadim in eastern Libya, one such report said in 2017.

The air strikes, which were also filmed by residents in video posted online, came after a day of heavy clashes in southern districts, with shelling audible in the city centre.

TRUMP

The violence spiked after the White House said on Friday that President Donald Trump spoke by with Haftar earlier in the week.

The disclosure of the call and a U.S. statement that it "recognised Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources" has boosted the commander's supporters and enraged his opponents.

Western powers and the Gulf have been divided over a push by Haftar's forces to seize Tripoli, undermining calls by the United Nations for a ceasefire.

Both sides claimed progress in southern Tripoli on Saturday, but no more details were immediately available.

A Reuters TV cameraman visiting the southern Khalat Furgan suburb on Saturday heard heavy shelling but saw no apparent change in the frontline. Shelling continued in the southern outskirts of the capital on Sunday.

On Friday, two children were killed in shelling in southern Tripoli, residents said. The fighting has killed 220 people and wounded 1,066, the World Heath organization (WHO) said.

It was unclear why the White House waited several days to announce Monday's phone call.

On Thursday, both the United States and Russia said they could not support a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time.

Russia objects to the British-drafted resolution blaming Haftar for the latest flare-up in violence when his LNA advanced to the outskirts of Tripoli earlier this month, diplomats said.

The United States did not give a reason for its decision not to support the draft resolution, which would also call on countries with influence over the warring parties to ensure compliance and for unconditional humanitarian aid access in Libya.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing, Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli; Editing by William Maclean and Alison Williams)The landmark Free Derry Corner has been repainted to reflect revulsion felt at the killing of Lyra McKee.

The famous civil rights-era slogan on a gable wall is regularly altered to reflect community sentiment in the Bogside estate in Londonderry.

The citys Catholic bishop has said the nationalist community needs to be liberated from dissident republicans blamed for Miss McKees shooting on Thursday evening.

A message at Free Derry Corner said: Not in our name, RIP Lyra with a heart painted beside it.

Police have arrested two teenagers they suspect are members of the dissident republican New IRA involved in shooting the young journalist in the head.

A gunman aiming to kill police hit the 29-year-old. He fired indiscriminately during disturbances in the Creggan estate.

Bishop Donal McKeown told BBC Radio Ulsters Sunday Sequence programme: The one liberation they require in that community is liberation from Saoradh.

Saoradh, translating to liberation in Irish, is a grouping which has the support of the dissident republican group the New IRA.

Bishop McKeown added: We dont want to be laboured with a reputation that comes from a small group that represents a small number of people but is actually a danger to all of us.

Floral tributes have been piling up at the lamppost where Miss McKee fell, including one written to beautiful Lyra from her partner Sara Canning.

A close friend said her death leaves a void which will never be filled, but she hopes it will bring an end to gun violence in the city and meet the expectations of the victims peace process generation.

Tributes have been left where Miss McKee died (Michael McHugh/PA)

A new breed of terrorist is coming through the ranks in Northern Ireland, the detective leading the hunt for her killers has said.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said terrorists are lurking in the shadows, frightening and holding to ransom those they claim to represent.

Story continues

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy from the Major Investigation Team & Derry City & Strabane District Commander Alan Hutton provide media with an update on the investigation into the murder investigation of Lyra McKee. pic.twitter.com/OQBkUQ71kd  PSNI (@PoliceServiceNI) April 20, 2019

He said there has been a sea-change in community attitudes towards the gunmen.

The New IRA is an amalgam of armed groups opposed to the peace process and it recently claimed responsibility for parcel bombs sent to London and Glasgow in March.

Mr Murphy conceded there remains fear of reprisals from the shadowy gunmen for giving information to police.

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley has signed the book of condolence to Miss McKee (Brian Lawless/PA)

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley was among those signing a book of condolence opened at the citys Guildhall, describing her death as a tragic loss of one with such potential.

Police believe the violence was orchestrated in response to an earlier search by officers aimed at averting imminent trouble associated with this weeks anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Around 50 petrol bombs were thrown in the confrontation and two cars were burned out.

Former US president Bill Clinton, whose administration played an integral peace process role, and the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier are among those to condemn the violence.The killers of murdered journalist Lyra McKee have been urged to disband.

A demonstration by republicans who embrace the peace process said their violent dissident counterparts were caught in a futile and antiquated time warp.

The journalist and published author, 29, died after she was shot in the head by a member of the New IRA during a Londonderry riot.

Her funeral will be held in her native Belfast on Wednesday.

The landmark Free Derry Corner has been repainted to include the words not in our name  RIP Lyra to reflect community revulsion felt at the killing.

A message of condolence for 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee (Joe Boland/PA)

Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle ONeill said: To those young people circling these people consider what type of future you want for your kids and grandkids  there are two futures on offer  one of peace, opportunity and Irish reunification.

Or one of death, imprisonment which serves no cause, community or people.

Ask yourself what type of life and what type of Ireland do you want to be part of?

It is high time these people disbanded and ended their futile actions which are a barrier to achieving Irish unity.

She addressed a commemoration of the Easter Rising battle for Irish independence at the City cemetery in Londonderry on Sunday.

Republicans carried photos of former IRA members killed during the 30-year conflict.

Police have arrested two teenagers they suspect are members of the dissident republican gang involved in shooting Miss McKee.

A gunman aiming to kill police hit her after firing indiscriminately during disturbances in the Creggan estate.

Mrs ONeill said: Sadly, what we have here is a small number of people caught in a time warp who have self appointed themselves to carry out actions which are pointless, anti-peace, anti-community and frankly, antiquated.

Among those to lay a wreath for republican dead was Tiernan Heaney, aged 23, whose IRA uncle Dennis Heaney was shot in the city by British soldiers in 1978 when he went to commandeer a vehicle.

Story continues

Mr Heaney said he identified with LGBTQI activist Miss McKee as he himself is gay.

He said: It is absolutely disgusting that that life was there and then it was just taken away by some stupid act.

There is palpable anger in the Creggan area and all over the city and across the north of Ireland and the island.

It is horrific, it should never have happened.

Journalist Lyra McKee who was shot and killed when guns were fired and petrol bombs were thrown in Londonderry (Family handout/PA)

The people who brought guns on to the street, and those who organised them do not represent any version of Irish republicanism, Ms ONeill told those gathered at the commemoration.

They have no politics, no strategy, and no popular support amongst the vast number of ordinary people from this city, or anywhere else in the country.

Sara Canning, the partner of 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee (Brian Lawless/PA)

Catholic bishop Donal McKeown addressed Mass-goers on Sunday at a church just yards from where Miss McKee and her partner Sara Canning had made their home.

He said: So, on this Easter morning, we gather with deep sadness in our hearts and without any simplistic message about the Resurrection.

But we gather with faith in a God who can write straight on crooked lines  and for whom love is always stronger than hatred.

The New IRA is an amalgam of armed groups opposed to the peace process and it recently claimed responsibility for parcel bombs sent to London and Glasgow in March.

Police believe the violence was orchestrated in response to an earlier search by officers aimed at averting imminent trouble associated with this weeks anniversary of the Rising.Sky News

More than 10,000 new Omicron cases have been reported in the UK in the highest increase so far - as the number of overall COVID infections exceeded 90,000 for the second day running. The UK Health Security Agency confirmed an additional 10,059 cases of the new variant, three times as many as yesterday (3,201) and taking the total number detected to 24,968. Another 90,418 overall COVID infections have also been reported - an end to three successive rises, but only the second time cases have been higher than 90,000.The Irish President has led a commemoration to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin.

Michael D Higgins was joined by Irish premier Leo Varadkar and defence minister Paul Kehoe at the state ceremony outside the GPO on OConnell Street, the landmark building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

Guard of Honour marching into place for the 103rd Anniversary of the 1916 Rising at the GPO. Ceremony starts at 12.00 #easter1916 #StrengthenTheNation pic.twitter.com/vk9fJZL0Es  Oglaigh na hEireann (@defenceforces) April 21, 2019

Members of the Irish Defence Forces including representatives from the Army, Air Corps and Navy also took part in the commemorations.

The event began with the lowering of the Irish tricolour.

A prayer was read and a piper played a lament before the Proclamation of Independence was read by a Defence Forces officer.

Defence forces Captain Paul Conlon holds his four-year-old son Senan after reading the Proclamation (Liam McBurnley/PA)

Mr Higgins laid a wreath to commemorate all those who died in 1916.

A minutes silence was also held.

The official ceremony concluded with the raising of the tricolour, the playing of the Irish national anthem  Amhran na bhFiann  and a fly-past by the Irish Air Corps.

Three Irish Air Corp PC9s fly over The Spire of Dublin during the National commemoration to mark the 103rd anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising at the GPO in Dublin (Liam McBurney/PA)

On Easter Monday 1916, rebel leader Patrick Pearse stood outside the GPO and read out the proclamation to herald the start of the insurrection against British rule.

The Easter Rising was a military failure for the revolutionaries, who included poets, journalists and teachers, but it sparked a chain of events that ultimately led to the partition of Ireland and the creation of an independent Republic as well as Northern Ireland.

Story continues

On Sunday morning Culture Minister Josepha Madigan led a remembrance ceremony at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin for all those who died in the rebellion.

Honoured to lead the annual Easter Rising Commemoration this morning at Glasnevin Cemetery, paying tribute to those who died for Irish freedom 103 years ago.. The ceremony also remembers creator of the tricolour, Edward Hollywood & National Anthem composer, Peadar Kearney. pic.twitter.com/z59pyImtyw  Josepha Madigan (@josephamadigan) April 21, 2019

The centrepiece of the event was the raising of the tricolour by members of the Irish Defence Forces and the national anthem being played by a lone piper.

Ms Madigan laid a wreath at Sigerson Monument.

Laurel wreaths were also laid at the graves of Edward Hollywood, the man who delivered the first tricolour flag to Ireland from France, and Peadar Kearney, the composer of countrys national anthem.

Ms Madigan was joined by Counsellor Catherine Page from the British Embassy, Brigadier General Howard Berney, members of the Irish Defence Forces, and Ambassador Stephane Crouzat on behalf of the French Embassy in Ireland.

A relative of Peadar Kearneys, Ciara Considine, sang the anthem.

Ms Madigan said: Over the past 187 years, people have gathered here in Glasnevin Cemetery to mark the passing of one and a half million individuals.

The cemetery has been a place for solemn and significant occasions, commemorations and the burial place of key persons in Irish history. 

She added: The sacrifice of those who died for Irish freedom is acknowledged and perhaps better understood today, and the legacy of 1916 has passed on to new generations and informed and guided our path to independence and the first 100 years of the latest chapter in Irelands history.

John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: Its hugely important that we continue to remember the young men and women who perished Easter week 1916.

A member of the Black Raven pipe band plays in Glasnevin cemetery (PA)

Its remembrance days like these at Glasnevin Cemetery, where so many men and women of the Easter Rising of 1916 are buried, that allow us the chance to reflect on our history as a nation.

Its a privilege for us to honour both those who lost their lives in 1916, as well as the Irish citizens that contributed in different ways like Peader Kearney and Edward Hollywood.

A granite memorial incorporating the names of all those who died in the Rising, including rebellion leaders and British soldiers, was unveiled in Glasnevin as part of the centenary commemorations in 2016.

Almost 500 people were killed in the uprising, the majority of them  268  were civilians caught up in the violence. A total of 119 British soldiers died.Religious and world leaders expressed shock after a series of blasts in Sri Lanka killed nearly 300 people on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners  with British, Dutch, Chinese and American citizens believed to be among them. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attacks  the worst act of violence since the end of Sri Lanka's civil war a decade ago  as "cowardly", as the government imposed an immediate and indefinite curfew across the entire country of 21 million people.The powerful blasts  six in quick succession and then two more hours later  left hundreds injured and wrought devastation, including at the capital's well-known St Anthony's Shrine, a historic Catholic Church.Sri Lankan police say 290 people were killed and 500 wounded.Religious and world leaders have condemned the attacks.'No place for such barbarism'Pope Francis expressed his sadness over the attacks during his traditional Easter address at the Vatican."I want to express my affectionate closeness with the Christian community, attacked while it was at prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence," he said.The Catholic Church in Jerusalem had said in an earlier statement: "We pray for the souls of the victims and ask for speedy recovery of the injured, and ask God to inspire the terrorists to repent of their killing and intimidation."Deep sorrow following the terrorist attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. We firmly condemn these heinous acts. All our solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka and our thoughts go out to all victims relatives on this Easter Day, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter.It is shocking that people who had gathered to celebrate Easter were the deliberate target of vicious attacks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote in a letter of condolence to Sri Lankas president.British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling"."The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted. "We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear."Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels, US President Donald Trump tweeted. ... We stand ready to help!Narendra Modi, the leader of neighbouring India, said his thoughts are with the bereaved families."There is no place for such barbarism in our region," he tweeted. "India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka."Pakistan's leader Imran Khan offered his "profound condolences" to Sri Lanka."Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured," he tweeted."My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief."Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed "deep shock" over the attacks. In a statement issued on Sunday, he said that "Israel stands ready to assist the authorities in Sri Lanka at this difficult time".The prime minister said that "the entire world must unite in the battle against the scourge of terrorism".Iran's foreign minister said he is "terribly saddened" by the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that have killed at least 138 people. Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that "terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally".Lebanon's prime minister called the attacks "blind terrorism" and offers solidarity to Sri Lanka's people. Saad Hariri in a tweet asked for mercy for the "innocent victims" and speedy recovery for the injured.EU commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his "horror and sadness" at the blasts, while EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the attacks marked "a truly sad day for the country and for the world"."Such acts of violence on this holy day are acts of violence against all beliefs and denominations, and against all those who value the freedom of religion and the choice to worship," she added in a statement.The US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz, tweeted: "Deeply saddened by the senseless attacks in Sri Lanka today. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand with Sri Lanka's people at this terrible moment."(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

Religious and world leaders expressed shock after a series of blasts in Sri Lanka killed nearly 300 people on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners  with British, Dutch, Chinese and American citizens believed to be among them.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attacks  the worst act of violence since the end of Sri Lanka's civil war a decade ago  as "cowardly", as the government imposed an immediate and indefinite curfew across the entire country of 21 million people.

The powerful blasts  six in quick succession and then two more hours later  left hundreds injured and wrought devastation, including at the capital's well-known St Anthony's Shrine, a historic Catholic Church.

Sri Lankan police say 290 people were killed and 500 wounded.

Religious and world leaders have condemned the attacks.

'No place for such barbarism'

Pope Francis expressed his sadness over the attacks during his traditional Easter address at the Vatican.

"I want to express my affectionate closeness with the Christian community, attacked while it was at prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence," he said.

The Catholic Church in Jerusalem had said in an earlier statement: "We pray for the souls of the victims and ask for speedy recovery of the injured, and ask God to inspire the terrorists to repent of their killing and intimidation."

Deep sorrow following the terrorist attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. We firmly condemn these heinous acts. All our solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka and our thoughts go out to all victims relatives on this Easter Day, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter.

It is shocking that people who had gathered to celebrate Easter were the deliberate target of vicious attacks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote in a letter of condolence to Sri Lankas president.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling".

Story continues

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear."

Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels, US President Donald Trump tweeted. ... We stand ready to help!

Narendra Modi, the leader of neighbouring India, said his thoughts are with the bereaved families.

"There is no place for such barbarism in our region," he tweeted. "India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka."

Pakistan's leader Imran Khan offered his "profound condolences" to Sri Lanka.

"Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured," he tweeted.

"My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief."

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed "deep shock" over the attacks. In a statement issued on Sunday, he said that "Israel stands ready to assist the authorities in Sri Lanka at this difficult time".

The prime minister said that "the entire world must unite in the battle against the scourge of terrorism".

Iran's foreign minister said he is "terribly saddened" by the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that have killed at least 138 people. Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that "terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally".

Lebanon's prime minister called the attacks "blind terrorism" and offers solidarity to Sri Lanka's people. Saad Hariri in a tweet asked for mercy for the "innocent victims" and speedy recovery for the injured.

EU commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his "horror and sadness" at the blasts, while EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the attacks marked "a truly sad day for the country and for the world".

"Such acts of violence on this holy day are acts of violence against all beliefs and denominations, and against all those who value the freedom of religion and the choice to worship," she added in a statement.

The US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz, tweeted: "Deeply saddened by the senseless attacks in Sri Lanka today. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand with Sri Lanka's people at this terrible moment."

(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)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.According to the State Department, Secretary of State Pompeo announced that President Trump's administration will no longer suspend Title III. Effective May 2, the right to bring an action under Title III of the Libertad Act will be implemented in full. According to CBS, the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also known as Libertad was passed in 1996. Title III of the act was suspended in hopes it would put pressure on Cuba to shift more rapidly to democracy. It has been more than 22 years that the Cuban Americans and Americans have been waiting for justice and the right to file suit against Cuba for confiscated property and assets by the Castro regime.

The 22-year wait

President Trump and his administration live in today's world and it is very clear that Cuba has not changed its behavior in the last 22 years. The Cuban government continues to repress its people, keeping them from basic freedoms and holds them back from achieving their dreams. Secretary Pompeo noted that the Cuban government embraces the Communist Party as its only political party and anyone who opposes it in any way gets harassed, beaten, and/or detained. Cuba's dictatorship threats the security and stability of other countries in the region, as well as our own. An example of this is their involvement in Venezuela, as their military intelligence and state security services support keeping the failed Maduro regime in power.

Title III lawsuits

By lifting the suspension on Title III the Cuban Americans and Americans will have a chance for long-awaited justice and the relief of compensation on property seized during the Castro regime. It will enable the filing of lawsuits for the first time against those who seized property and robbed assets during Castro's rule.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

Secretary Pompeo added that persons or companies doing business in Cuba not only could be connected to property stolen unrightfully but could very well be encouraging Cuba's abuse of their own people. He encourages friends and allies to stand with the Cuban people and join the United States in advancing human rights, openness and good government.

Cuba policy changes

National Security Adviser John Bolton announced; according to CBS, just hours after Secretary Pompeo announcement on Wednesday, that the Department of the Treasury made regulatory changes to the limits on the amount of remittances Cuban families in the United States could send back to Cuba. The new limit is $1,000 per person per quarter. He also stated that the United States will further impose restrictions on non-family travel to Cuba, in order to cut tourism money Americans spend in Cuba. This is not the first time President Trump changed policies concerning Cuba. In 2017, restrictions were placed on business and personal travel to Cuba. Also at that time, the administration listed about 180 businesses in Cuba that were barred from doing business with United States citizens and companies.The failure of the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi has probably forced Kim Jong-un to look around for other leaders who can help him to break out of the shackles of his hermit kingdom. The economic sanctions are hurting him and that is the main bone of contention for the failed Hanoi summit. Kims priority is the ease of sanctions which conflicts with Trumps focus on denuclearization. It is possible Kim could revert to his old nuclear tactics. There are reports in the media that he had inspected and directed a "new tactical guided weapons firing test."

Kim Jong Un will visit Russia later this month, the Kremlin said Thursday, in a meeting that offers President Vladimir Putin an opportunity to emerge as a broker in the long-running nuclear standoff and raise Russia's profile in regional affairs. https://t.co/k6Cewm5c63  NBC Montana (@NBCMontana) April 18, 2019

CNN goes on to add that the timing of the meeting between Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin coincides with the failure of the nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington in Hanoi.

It has gone as far as North Korea's foreign ministry demanding that the United States replace its Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before they would move ahead with any further negotiations. They blame Pompeo for making loose, reckless remarks that have led to the present situation.

Kim Jong-un could renew weapon testing

North Korea derives their confidence from the nuclear weapons in their armory and they conducted their last "tactical" weapons test in November 2018. In January 2019, Kim Jong-un began talks of peace and tried to mend fences with South Korea by participating in the Winter Olympics. Then came the first summit with Donald Trump in Singapore followed by the second one in Hanoi.

However, the positives in the first made way for disappointment in the second, which ended abruptly within minutes. America must now modify its strategy.

The #Kremlin did not provide details on the exact date or location of the meeting, but Russian, South Korean and Japanese media earlier reported it would be in Russia's Far Easthttps://t.co/Nwbi7RGn2b  WION (@WIONews) April 18, 2019

On this subject, CNN says the accusations against Mike Pompeo came after an announcement in NK state media about Kim inspecting a new weapon that fell in the category of a guided weapon. There were no details released regarding the kind of weapon or its potential range.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

From the vague description provided by KCNA, it could be a tactical weapon for use on the battlefield and not a long-range armament. Kim has described it as a great historic event in strengthening the combat capability of the People's Army." U.S. authorities that monitor such activities confirmed that there was no missile launch.

Vladimir Putin has invited Kim Jong-un

According to The Guardian, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will visit Russia in late April at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting will be held in the second half of April and the Kremlin has not provided details of the exact date or location. However, media reports suggest it would be in Russias far east. The visit of an official of Pyongyang to the train station in the far eastern city of Vladivostok lends credence to this because the station is in close proximity of Russias border with North Korea.

Vladimir Putin has wanted to meet with Kim Jong-un for a long time. Russia has good relations with the reclusive regime and provides them with aid. The last summit, between heads of the two states, was in 2011 when Kims father, Kim Jong-il, had met the then-president Dmitry Medvedev in Siberia.Thanks for visiting !

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Thank you for your support!In 2018, manufacturing remained the driving force of the economy with an increase of 12.98% year-on-year, contributing 2.55 percentage points to Vietnams 10-year high economic growth of 7.08%.

Vietnam economy forecast to grow by more than 7% in 2019

Low productivity poses risks to Vietnam economy

The manufacturing sector ended 2018 being the bright spot of Vietnams economy, and is expected to achieve higher growth this year amid uncertainties surrounding the world economy, the governmental portal reported.

In 2018, manufacturing remained the driving force of the economy with an increase of 12.98% year-on-year, contributing 2.55 percentage points to Vietnams 10-year high economic growth of 7.08%.

Vietnams exports of industrial goods reached US$201.7 billion, up 15.7% year-on-year and accounting for 82.8% of total exports. Of the total, 22 categories of goods recorded over US$1 billion in export revenue, including phones and accessories worth US$49 billion, textile US$30.5 billion, computers, electronic devices US$29.3 billion, equipment and parts US$16.5 billion, footwear US$16.2 billion, transportation vehicles US$7.9 billion, camera and parts US$5.2 billion, steels US$4.5 billion and fiber US$4 billion.

Among those goods, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) reckons the textile and garment industry has much room for growth in 2019. The sector grew by 16.7% year-on-year to reach export turnover of US$30.5 billion, in which almost all major markets witnessed strong growth, including the US with 11.6%, Japan 22.6%, South Korea 24.9%, China 39.6% and the EU 9.9%.

Vice Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh said uncertainties surrounding the US  China trade tension as well as impacts of free trade agreements (FTAs) are having positive implications on Vietnams exports. However, there remain concerns over potential changes in economic policies from countries applying trade protection measures, Khanh added.

Additionally, footwear exports are expected to boom in the coming time, mainly thanks to the upcoming signing of the EU  Vietnam FTA (EVFTA), especially as Vietnam is currently the worlds second largest footwear exporter, behind China.

Phan Thi Thanh Xuan, general secretary of the Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO), said the sector targets export growth of 10% year-on-year to US$21.5 billion in 2019.

Xuan attributed greater outlook of the sector to increasing demand in Vietnams major markets, while China is shifting its investment priority on high tech sectors, instead of labor-intensive fields.

However, Vice Minister Khanh said the added value of the sector is still at modest level due to the low integration of domestic enterprises in the global value chain.

Statistics from the MoIT revealed phones and parts claimed the top spot among Vietnams export staples, reaching US$49 billion, marking a 12.63% year-on-year increase.

Such high growth was thanks to significant contribution from the FDI sector, such as Samsung or LG, while local tech companies remain weak in terms of technology application and production capacity.

Vice Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong said the important point is to shift the structure of the industrial sector towards the development of processing and manufacturing, instead of assembling and outsourcing, while facilitating the growth of support industries and a greater localization rate.

In 2019, the MoIT targeted the growth of Vietnams index of industrial production (IIP) at 9  10% year-on-year, that of the manufacturing at 13% and mining down 9%.

HanoitimesVietnams GDP growth looks set to slow over the next couple of years, but the country is likely to remain one of the regions best performing economies, according to Capital Economics.

An employee works at an electronics complex owned by South Koreas tech giant Samsung in northern Vietnam. Capital Economics forecast that slower export demand and tighter fiscal policy will weigh on economic growth in Vietnam

Capital Economics said in its recent Emerging Asia Economic Outlook report that over the long term, the integration of Vietnams export sector into Chinese supply chains suggests that exports should continue to outperform those from the rest of Asia.

Vietnams low wages mean it is well-placed to gain market share as low-end manufacturing continues to leave China in search of cheaper locations, according to the firm.

Vietnam could also benefit if an intensification of the trade war leads to the further relocation of manufacturing capacity from China to Vietnam.

The firm stressed that for Asias poorest economies, the key to achieving faster productivity growth is in developing a competitive manufacturing sector. The country best placed to perform strongly over the coming decades is Vietnam. Improvements to its business environment, political stability and low wages all bode well for the future.

However, the countrys near-term prospects are less positive. A key drag will come from the export sector. Weaker global demand and a downturn in the technology sector have contributed to a slowdown in export growth over the past few months and are likely to weigh on exports over the next couple of quarters.

Meanwhile, credit growth has started to slow. On the plus side, weaker credit demand is needed to reduce risks in the financial sector and put the economy on a more sustainable footing. But in the near term, a slowdown in credit growth will drag on consumption and investment growth.

Fiscal policy is also likely to become less supportive. Vietnam has one of the highest levels of public debt and the largest budget deficit in the region. The firm noted that tighter policies are needed to reduce debt to more sustainable levels.

Putting all this together, Capital Economics forecast that the countrys GDP growth will slow from 7.1% last year to 6% in 2019 and 2020. The consensus is for growth of some 6.5% over the next couple of years.

Founded in 1999, Capital Economics has become one of the leading independent economic research companies in the world. Its large team of more than 60 experienced economists provides award-winning macroeconomic, financial market and sectoral analyses, forecasts and consultancy from its offices in London, New York, Toronto, Sydney and Singapore.Politburo member and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan hosted a reception on April 20 for a US Senate delegation, led by Senator Patrick Leahy, Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

Giang cafe becomes more popular since 2nd DPRK-USA Summit

Vietnamese firms encounter numerous trade barriers in US market

Vietnam stands out as beneficiary from US-China trade war

Politburo member and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan (R) presents a keepsake to US Senator Patrick Leahy, Vice Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations

Vietnam and the US are carrying out a series of activities in the lead up to the 25th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2020, Nhan said, adding that the two nations have engaged in multifaceted cooperation and made efforts for mutual development.

The official said, on his position, he has worked to boost bilateral cooperative ties in the fields of education, science, and technology.

Nhan expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the US in general and Leahy in particular, in the settlement of war aftermath in Vietnam, including Agent Orange/dioxin-related issues.

Regarding the matter of energy, Nhan informed his guests that Vietnam has yet to widely use renewable energy like wind or solar power in the daily life partly due to their high costs.

He said the country is hoping that there will soon be solutions to boosting the use of renewable energy in the daily life and production.

For his part, Leahy said the current trip helps his delegation understand more about Vietnam, and as such, know what should be done to propel the bilateral collaboration forward.

He noted that to solve the issue of energy and other matters, the most important thing is the way of cooperation between the two sides.-VNAProfessor Nguyen Thanh Hiep, named one of the countrys top physicians in 2018 by the Vietnamese Young Doctors Association, talks to Suc Khoe & oi song (Health & Life) newspaper on the need to develop the family doctor model.

Pregnancy check up at a family doctor clinic model in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo sggp.org. vn

Many Vietnamese people see the family doctor model as for rich people. How do you respond to that?

I have studied family physicians since 2005. But in the last few years, a pilot project named Family Doctor was launched by the Ministry of Health to share the burden of overloaded patients in many public hospitals in the country. In such a situation, many Vietnamese policymakers support developing grassroots healthcare clinics. Such clinics aim to give primary healthcare for people living in certain areas.

However, in reality, many people think the function of these family doctors is to give on-demand health checks for wealthy families. In reality, giving health treatment at home is only a small part of the mission of the family practice. It is indisputable that family doctor idea has brought big benefits to everyone, particularly people with low incomes.

You have studied on some models of family doctors in developed countries. What lessons could be applied to Vietnam?

In many developed nations, they have drawn quite a few lessons on the model of family doctor, particularly in preventive medicine. One of the things that they have concluded is that preventive medicine helps cut the cost of medical treatment for many diseases for the next 10-20 years. For example, in Belgium, the family doctor model is divided into three tiers; the grassroots level, middle level and the highest level.

In Belgium, whenever someone is ill, the first thing they do is seek help from their family doctor and that medical service is covered by their health insurance. Further, in Belgium, when a doctor opens his/her own clinic, he/she will enjoy financial benefits from the Government.

When a patient goes to a family doctor clinic, what benefits will they enjoy?

As I have mentioned above, a family doctor is the first medical person to give healthcare to the patient. In minor cases, the doctor would prescribe medicine. However, in more severe cases, the patient will be referred to the hospital for treatment.

A novel practice offered by a family doctor is that patients with chronic diseases, including heart problems, diabetes or high blood pressure will be frequently checked and given medical treatment.

Another positive with a family doctor is that he/she would constantly improve his/her medical knowledge through giving daily medical checks to patients. Meanwhile, they also help lessen the workload for doctors in hospitals.

The family doctor system has been practiced in Vietnam for six years, but many patients still prefer to go to major hospitals for their treatment. Why is this?

There are several reasons. The first is the poor equipment in many family clinics and the professional skills of their staff, including doctors are not up to patients expectation.

The second reason is that many people dont have a habit of consulting medical workers when they are sick. They simply go to drug stores to buy drugs without a prescription. On the other extreme, when some people have an upset stomach they go directly to the Gastroenterology Department in a hospital for treatment.

Last but not the least, few Vietnamese medical students want to be family doctors.

What should the Government do to recruit more family doctors?

We need good policies to attract graduate doctors to work as family practitioners.

Second, the Government should pour more investment to upgrade essential medical equipment and facilities in family clinics.

Last but not least, all family doctors should regularly receive further training to improve their skills.

VNS

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Doctors quietly fight rare diseasesHCMC police confirmed on April 19 that they have arrested members of a large drug trafficking ring in District 5, seizing more than 1.1 tons of drugs transported by two Taiwanese, Yeh Ching Wei, 33, and Chiang Wei Chih, 31.

Piles of tea packets containing drugs are seized by police in HCMC - PHOTO: HCMC DEPARTMENT OF POLICE

According to officials, police in District 5 noticed three vehicles parked at a T-section linking Huynh Man Dat and Vo Van Kiet streets to transfer suspected banned goods on April 12. The vehicles included a seven-seat car and two trucks.

The police inspected one truck and teamed with other agencies to chase and apprehend the remaining car and truck, bringing the occupants to a local police station for questioning, along with the two Taiwanese.

After inspecting one truck, which transported 60 cartons containing abnormally heavy black portable loudspeakers, police seized over 600 kilograms of methamphetamine disguised as 600 tea packets, which were hidden in the loudspeakers.

The police then launched raids on the rooms of the two Taiwanese at the Liberty Hotel, as well as at a rented house in the southern province of Dong Nai, but found no evidence related to the case.

According to investigation results, a Chinese previously directed Yeh Ching Wei and Chiang Wei Chih to transport handicraft and electronic products on a truck on April 10, said the police. Officials also said Chiang Wei Chih entered Vietnam from Taiwan three times since last year via HCMC-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport, while this was the first time Yeh Ching Wei came to Vietnam.

Chih and Wei then booked two rooms at the Liberty Hotel and hired the seven-seat car.

On the following day, April 11, Chih rented a house in Dong Nais Long Thanh District to stay for two days. Then a truck driver transported Chih to HCMC on April 12, while Wei drove the car behind them.

Upon their arrival at Kelly Hotel, Chih contacted two foreign men, whose identifications remained unknown, and asked the truck driver to drive to the Huynh Man Dat street to deliver the so-called electronic items.

The investigation revealed that Ngoc Van Logistics company was in charge of delivering the 60 boxes from Thailand to the customer at the Kelly Hotel, and five other boxes to Bui Nguyen Huy Vu, 37, residing in HCMCs Phu Nhuan District.

The police arrested Vu and seized nearly 50 kilograms of synthetic drugs hidden in five portable loudspeakers, a gun, and four bullets in his house. Also, Vu was caught in the act of storing some three kilograms of synthetic drugs and nearly one ton of ketamine in the house, under direction of a suspect residing in Laos.

On being informed that an owner of these boxes from Thailand had been ordered to disperse the remaining loudspeakers stored at the Ngoc Van company, the police immediately carried out a raid on the firms warehouse and seized 38 more loudspeakers and over 450 kilograms of methamphetamine.

Accordingly, the HCMC police seized over 1.1 tons of meth, nearly one ton of ketamine, and detained three suspects.

The municipal police are working with other agencies under the Ministry of Public Security and police in the north-central province of Nghe An to clarify the relation between the recently-seized drugs in HCMC and another drug trafficking ring captured in Nghe An, as well as to investigate the roles played by foreign nationals. SGTEco-tourism and travel have been steadily rising in popularity, and for great reasons.

Vietnam in a nutshell: A guide for tourists

Airlines raise Vietnam tourism on global stage

Foreign tourists spending in Vietnam remains low

Vietnam has been named among great eco-friendly destinations for you to consider on this World Earth Day, according to a list released by RCI, a world of vacation exchange and travel opportunity to create a lifetime of memories.

Thanks to its sunny climates, rich culture, exotic foods and very affordable prices, is it any surprise Vietnam is such a hot spot to visit right now. And this county isnt just a pretty face; its protected national parks, incredible coral reefs and one of the largest lagoons in the world, make it an eco-tourism gold mine, according to RCI.

Best Sapa Biking Tour, Best Ha Giant Trekking Tour, Cao Son Eco-adventure, and Babe National Park Tour and Mekong Biking tour are some of the incredible eco activities Vietnam has on offer. During your trip in Vietnam, choose to stay with an amazing offering by RCI, Coco Ocean Resort, with its prime location near the beautiful seaside city, you can walk to the beach and take advantage of living amidst nature.

British Columbia in Canada tops the list, followed by Uruguay, Switzerland, Vietnam, and Costa Rica in Central America.

Earlier, Vietnam has been predicted to lead Asia Pacific destinations in terms of average annual growth rate over the next five years, according to the just-released Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2019 - 2023 report.

The report forecasts an average growth rate of 14% in international tourists arrival in Vietnam during 2019 compared to 2018.

Vietnam will be followed by Papua New Guinea and Lao PDR, each of which has average annual growth rates well in excess of the Asia Pacific average of 5.5% between 2018 and 2023. These figures show that Vietnam has increasingly affirmed its position on the worlds tourist map with positive signals.

The number of foreign holidaymakers to Vietnam in the first quarter of 2019 is estimated at 4.5 million, a rise of 7% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

HanoitimesIan McEwan at Edge:

Whats been preoccupying me the last two or three years is what it would be like to live with a fully embodied artificial consciousness, which means leaping over every difficulty that weve heard described this morning by Rod Brooks. The building of such a thing is probably scientifically useless, much like putting a man on the moon when you could put a machine there, but it has an ancient history.

Then of course you had Frankensteins monster, which shifted the debate into what it means to conjure up a version of ourselves. Now, you have the contemporary TV series of Westworld and movies like Blade Runner specifically addressing the notion of what it would be like to have an artificial being aware of its own mortality.In medieval churches or cathedrals, you will find wax effigies of the Virgin Mary that, on certain occasions, weep or shed blood. As anyone whos been on the Kurfurstendamm in Berlin will know, theres a Virgin Mary that bleeds. Throughout the 18th century you had water-powered android figures, figures driven by levers and cogs, and as clockwork got more sophisticated in the 18th century, such figures remained a matter of profound interest and fascination.

Ive been thinking about what it would be like to live alongside someone we made who is artificial and who claims to have consciousness, about which wed be very skeptical and to which wed be applying a constant form of Turing tests.

More here.Hal Hodson in 1843 Magazine:

One afternoon in August 2010, in a conference hall perched on the edge of San Francisco Bay, a 34-year-old Londoner called Demis Hassabis took to the stage. Walking to the podium with the deliberate gait of a man trying to control his nerves, he pursed his lips into a brief smile and began to speak: So today Im going to be talking about different approaches to building He stalled, as though just realising that he was stating his momentous ambition out loud. And then he said it:  AGI . AGI stands for artificial general intelligence, a hypothetical computer program that can perform intellectual tasks as well as, or better than, a human. AGI will be able to complete discrete tasks, such as recognising photos or translating languages, which are the single-minded focus of the multitude of artificial intelligences ( AI s) that inhabit our phones and computers. But it will also add, subtract, play chess and speak French. It will also understand physics papers, compose novels, devise investment strategies and make delightful conversation with strangers. It will monitor nuclear reactions, manage electricity grids and traffic flow, and effortlessly succeed at everything else. AGI will make todays most advanced AI s look like pocket calculators.

The only intelligence that can currently attempt all these tasks is the kind that humans are endowed with. But human intelligence is limited by the size of the skull that houses the brain. Its power is restricted by the puny amount of energy that the body is able to provide. Because AGI will run on computers, it will suffer none of these constraints. Its intelligence will be limited only by the number of processors available. AGI may start by monitoring nuclear reactions. But soon enough it will discover new sources of energy by digesting more physics papers in a second than a human could in a thousand lifetimes. Human-level intelligence, coupled with the speed and scalability of computers, will make problems that currently appear insoluble disappear. Hassabis told the Observer, a British newspaper, that he expected AGI to master, among other disciplines, cancer, climate change, energy, genomics, macro-economics [and] financial systems.

More here.Jonathan Shaw in Harvard Magazine:

WHEN JAL MEHTA and Sarah Fine embarked on a six-year study of 30 of the most effective public high schools in the United States, what they found among students was largely bored, disengaged compliance, Mehta recalls. The dominant pattern of instruction is rote transmission: worksheets, multiple-choice questions, and teachers lecturing. Objective comparisons to other countries confirm the mediocrity of this model: U.S. high-school students score near the bottom in math, and are just middling in reading and science. Not surprisingly, he says, students consistently called lectures a very disengaging mode. But there were bright spots: classrooms where teachers had moved away from that by dint of their own skill and inventiveness.

In every school, the researchers found at least one or two settings where students were engaged and inspired by what they were learningoften in activities outside the classroom. By the end of their studys first year, Mehta, an associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Fine, who began the project as Mehtas doctoral student (and is now director of a teacher preparation program associated with a network of schools in San Diego), decided to focus on the bright spots. Their book about the project, In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School (Harvard), weaves analysis and richly descriptive vignettes together in the most comprehensive assessment of the topic since the 1980s.

The authors offer a thoughtful critique of three of the most successful schools, pseudonymously named Dewey High, No Excuses High, and I.B. High. The first, which follows the pedagogical philosophy of John Dewey, LL.D. 32, is characterized by project-based learning that works because it actively engages students in their own education. No Excuses High is strict, demanding, and goal-oriented.

More here.Stephen Marche in The Guardian:

The great surprise of this debate turned out to be how much in common the old-school Marxist and the Canadian identity politics refusenik had.

One hated communism. The other hated communism but thought that capitalism possessed inherent contradictions. The first one agreed that capitalism possessed inherent contradictions. And that was basically it. They both wanted the same thing: capitalism with regulation, which is what every sane person wants. The Peterson-Zizek encounter was the ultra-rare case of a debate in 2019 that was perhaps too civil.

They needed enemies, needed combat, because in their solitudes, they had so little to offer. Peterson is neither a racist nor a misogynist. He is a conservative. He seemed, in person, quite gentle. But when youve said that, youve said everything. Somehow hectoring mobs have managed to turn him into an icon of all they are not. Remove him from his enemies and he is a very poor example of a very old thing  the type of writer whom, from Samuel Smiles Self-Help to Eckhart Tolles The Power of Now, have promised simple answers to complex problems. Rules for Life, as if there were such things.

The mere dumb presence of the celebrities on the stage mattered vastly more than anything they said, naturally. But there was one truly fascinating moment in the evening. It came right at the end of Zizeks opening 30-minute remarks.

More here.Good location, food and shops close by Reviewed 13 January 2016 (Kiwitraveling, Phuket) 2016/01/13 I have stayed here 3 times now while travelling in and out of Wellington, I find it more enjoyable staying in Petone and getting up early to get to the airport for a flight than staying by the airport. On this occasion I had been travelling for 48 hours and arrived early with no booking. They happily gave us a room and let us sleep. The beach and wharf are over the road with views of Wellington and Petone's main street with plenty of cafes, clothes and second hand shops less than 10 minutes walk away. There are other motels in Petone but this would be the closest to the cafe region and supermarket. Rooms are clean, tidy and quiet. Plenty of off street parking.

Very nice Reviewed 3 November 2015 (CountrySherry, Melbourne) 2015/11/03 Very nice accommodation. We stayed in the two bedroom suite, very spacious and clean. The people that run the property are very nice and helpful. The breakfast was really yum too! I found the accommodation to be very quiet as well. It's also a short walk to Jackson street.

A Great Experience From Beginning To End Reviewed 14 June 2015 (Jimmy_Two_Socks, Parksville BC) 2015/06/14 We booked early and were not able to get a 2-bedroom unit for our entire stay, as it was the rugby "Sevens" weekend, so we booked two single bedroom units for part of the stay. Heather promised to keep us in mind if they had cancellations, and on our arrival we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was a cancellation and we had the 2-bedroom unit for our entire stay. Our room was behind the main building, and despite being on a busy road, we found the room quieter than we had anticipated. The motel is very centrally located, within walking distance of grocery stores, cafes, Jackson Street shops and the Petone railway station (for travel into Wellington). The room was very clean, serviced daily and met all our expectations. I would certainly recommend 83 By The Sea for great stay in Petone.

Another great stay!!! Reviewed 24 May 2015 (MBrownie23, Tauranga) 2015/05/24 Many thanks to the team @ 83 by the sea for another great stay! Nice to be recognized as a returning customer.We loved the new decor, best beds we have slept in. Nice to get a fine Welly weekend , walks along the beach and wharf. Tried La Bella Italian restaurant just around the corner- recommended by Garry and Heather .Very nice as was the Butcher and Brewer pub on Jackson Street. Looking forward to our next years trip to Petone. Thanks for the loyalty card for other ASURE Motels.South Dakota State's playoff run ends at Montana State

Montana State will take on North Dakota State in the FCS title game in Frisco, Texas.Copyright  2019 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA TERESA  New construction is expected to begin on a border barrier in New Mexico next month despite several lawsuits challenging President Donald Trumps emergency declaration to fund his wall.

The vast majority of the new wall will be built along New Mexicos southern border.

The Trump administrations declaration calls for $1 billion being diverted from military projects to build 57 miles of bollard barriers, with 46 of those miles in New Mexicos Dona Ana and Luna counties.

Much of the construction will replace vehicle barriers with new structures that are 18 to 30 feet tall. The Army Corps of Engineers in Albuquerque awarded $789 million to SLSCO Ltd, a Texas company, to do the work in New Mexico.

New Mexico has become the latest legal battleground over the wall with the announcement it is the site of one of the first construction projects paid for with Department of Defense funds.

People need to realize this is extremely harmful to wildlife, said Kevin Bixby, director of the Southwest Environmental Center. The Las Cruces-based organization joined the Southern Border Communities Coalition, American Civil Liberties Union and Sierra Club in a lawsuit that seeks to halt construction of the wall by having a court find the national emergency declaration an unconstitutional attempt to circumvent Congress.

New Mexico is among 20 states that filed suit immediately over diverting military funds to pay for the wall.

President Trump has repeatedly said he needs a wall to stem the flow of illegal drugs and human smuggling crossing the border, as well as the crisis created by the influx of thousands of migrant families and children on their own arriving at the border seeking asylum.

The president declared a national emergency to divert the funds after Congress refused to approve the $5.7 billion the president wanted to pay to wall off other sections of the border.

We dont need a wall to deal with that crisis, Bixby said of the asylum seekers. We need people at the border to process those asylum requests.

The organization argues the wall will cut off a critical wildlife corridor, but wont stop humans from illegally crossing the border or drug smugglers.

Currently, the tall bollard-style barrier continues from El Paso several miles west into New Mexico past Santa Teresa. The $789 million SLSCO Ltd. contract will extend that type of wall  with a few small breaks  west just past Columbus.

A second proposal to use Department of Defense funding would add sections of barriers along the border farther to and into the Bootheel region. Those barriers have yet to be funded.

They dont make sense out in these remote areas because people can get over these walls, desperate people or ingenious people, people motivated to make money. These are speed bumps, Bixby said.

In the El Paso and Sunland Park area, hundreds of migrant families have approached existing border fencing and waited for Border Patrol agents to take them into custody because they are on U.S. soil. All of the barriers are in the U.S. rather than on the international boundary because the federal government needs access to maintain the structures and along much of the Texas border, the U.S.-Mexico boundary is the middle of the Rio Grande.

Hailed by some

But in New Mexico, some farmers and ranchers on the border believe a wall will help them. I am ecstatic that were fixing to get a wall, said James Johnson, a Columbus-area farmer.

The construction plan includes more than four miles of new barrier on his border land.

Its basically going to end just west of our farm, Johnson said. The fourth-generation farmer said vehicle barriers are not enough to stop the long-standing problem he has with cross border thieves stealing crops.

Weve had alfalfa stolen, weve had chile stolen, weve had onions stolen, Johnson said.

He worries border security is suffering because Border Patrol agents, rather than being in the field, are busy with the surge in asylum-seeking families and children arriving in New Mexico.

From October through March, Border Patrol agents have taken 53,565 families and 7,565 unaccompanied children into custody in the El Paso sector alone, which includes all of New Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Now, its taken the Border Patrol agents and its put them basically baby sitting, Johnson said.

Border Patrol staffing concerns other border ranchers and farmers. Theyve got everybody called in processing illegals as they come through, said Caren Cowan, executive director of New Mexico Cattle Growers and Wool Growers Associations.

Our main concern is the safety of our members and their families along the border, Cowan said. Most ranchers in her organization want a wall, but others prefer more boots on the ground to secure the border, according to Cowan.

She is in favor of a wall and brushes off concerns about the barrier cutting off a wildlife corridor.

Some animals may be stranded on one side or the other, but theres habitat  equal habitat  on one side or the other for them to live, Cowan said. To me its not a big deal. Wildlife lives on both sides of the border now, and I feel quite confident they will continue to do so.

Habitat fragmentation

A common misconception I hear a lot is that animals will adapt to the border wall, said Amanda Munro, field organizer with the Southwest Environmental Center.

The populations that are on both sides of the wall are then smaller so then they are at a higher risk of going locally extinct, Munro said.

Habitat fragmentation is among the biggest modern-day threats to wildlife and the wall would prevent animals from going back and forth to find water, food and mates, she said.

The Southwest Environmental Center is especially concerned about a plan to build a wall in the Bootheel area, one of the most critical wildlife corridors that we have, especially for animals like jaguars, which historically have inhabited that area and have come up in the past through that corridor, Munro said.

The U.S. and Mexico are working on joint conservation projects for a variety of mammals including wolves and jaguars that need large swaths of borderland habitat.

In Santa Teresa, when construction crews began work last year to extend the border barrier 20 miles west from the port of entry, the Southwest Environmental Center set up motion-triggered cameras that snapped photos and video of a variety animals coming back and forth across the border. Funding for that border project had been approved earlier.

Mountain lions, javelinas, bobcats, gray foxes, badgers. So theres all kinds of critters out here and all those species, they cant pass through that wall, Bixby said, standing next to where the structure ends and vehicle barriers begin on a remote stretch of border in Dona Ana County.

The Southwest Environmental Center is trying to raise money to again install wildlife cameras on the border in the area where new construction will begin next month to document the animals in the region before theyre walled off.

Even as multiple groups mount legal challenges, construction is quickly moving forward.

Thats exactly what happened last time with Santa Teresa, Munro said. That case we sued on is still going on and the wall has already been completed.Copyright  2019 Albuquerque Journal

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Mark Correll said efforts to rid the groundwater of jet fuel contamination at Kirtland Air Force Base would continue for years to come, and he noted that there are no funding issues with the project.

He told the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority on Wednesday that funding fluctuates from year to year based on project needs. The Air Force has spent $125 million so far toward the cleanup, he said.

Correll said the Air Force remained committed to make sure no one in this city or on Kirtland Air Force Base will drink water that is EDB (ethylene dibromide) contaminated.

He said the military branch met or exceeded all of the commitments it made when he first appeared before the authority in 2014. Correll said no fuel leak contamination has been found in wells used to detect problems or drinking water wells, noting that drinking water wells are tested monthly.

The leak was discovered in 1999 after jet fuel was found on the surface near a base fueling facility. It was eventually found that holes had worn in underground pipes used to carry jet fuel from delivery tankers to storage tanks and that millions of gallons had been slowly leaking, undetected, for decades.

Correll said the Air Force had stopped and has started to collapse the 7,000 feet EDB plume caused by the contamination. He showed images of the collapse to the water authority.

The pump-and-treat interim measure that we put into place to stop the EDB plume north of Ridgecrest Drive has had a significant effect, Corrall said.

He said there were 159 wells monitoring the plume.

They have in our opinion determined the length, width and depth of the plume, Corrall said.

He said 24 sentinel wells have been installed between the plume and drinking water wells and none of them have detected any contamination.

Correll said 15 new wells were installed to address the rise in the water table, which submerged some of the monitoring wells. He said there were 43 functional water table wells.

He said the rise in the water table did not affect the plume footprint.

To date, Correll said 615 million gallons of groundwater had been treated. He said 86% of the mass of EDB has been removed from the target area north of Ridgecrest Road.

Water authority board member and Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins asked Correll how long the pump-and-treat measure would be in place.

If the question is, Are we going to shut the pump-and-treat measure down? we are not going to shut it down, Correll said, adding that the measure would be in place until it is no longer needed. But you dont want to run it forever.

He said monitoring would continue if the decision was made that the pump-and-treat measure was no longer needed.

Hart Stebbins also asked if extraction wells would be used for the plume south of Ridgecrest Drive. Correll said that would be determined in the Corrective Measures Evaluation, or CME. It could be that, or it could be something else.

Correll said he would like to have the CME started in 2021. He said it could take a couple of years to complete. Correll said the CME would be completed after a period of public comment and a robust investigation.

Correll informed the water authority of two pilot programs that have been started, one of which addresses the soil-vapor contamination. He said more than 4,800 tons of soil had been removed from the source area.

The water authority is expected to respond to Corrells report at its meeting in May. New Mexico Environment Department officials are expected to be invited to the meeting.

There will also be a public meeting hosted by the NMED on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the African American Performing Arts Center, 310 San Pedro NE, to update the public on the cleanup.Copyright  2019 Albuquerque Journal

The city of Albuquerque boasts about 6,000 employees, but New Mexicos largest municipal government is also powered in part by volunteer service.

Mayor Tim Keller has celebrated the impact of volunteerism  Albuquerque has a network of about 4,000 to 6,000 citizen helpers  and the citys website currently features dozens of solicitations for assistance with tasks both ordinary (litter clean-up) and specialized (pedestrian modeling) across city government.

But some of those advertised opportunities may not actually exist.

One posting tied to the Planning Department seeks volunteers to assist code enforcement with home inspections.

Planning spokeswoman Carmelina Hart said the department  which has about 30 employees with the technical expertise to inspect properties  (does) not have any volunteer code inspectors working with the Planning Department right now.

In fact, Planning Department managers were unaware of that posting and others postings associated with the department.

We did not know that these were volunteer opportunities that were available through our division, said Hart, who referred follow-up questions to the mayors office.

Jessie Damazyn, a Keller spokeswoman, said some of the volunteer positions listed on the citys website may have been posted prematurely by the citys former director of community engagement. She noted that the code inspection position, for example, was contingent on some other developments.

He knew some of those things could be coming down the pipeline  and thought of some opportunities (that) might come up and be available in the future, Damazyn said of the former director, who has moved to a different position in city government. And some of those just havent come to fruition.

Others postings are simply outdated.

Help APD increase public safety by assisting in DNA Lab, reads another listing that police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said is old and should have been removed.

The lab does have some current volunteers who perform what he called light cleaning  case filing and general office duties.

Damazyn said the city will update the listings when it hires a new community engagement director, and that he or she would consult directly with departments.

I know going forward, well work directly with each department to make sure what we have up is a good representation of what we need help with in the community, she said.

In some cases, thats expert help.

While the city is seeking unpaid manpower for more general duties  like busing tables after meal service to seniors or greeting guests at the ABQ BioPark  there are other more technical requests.

One listing offers the public a chance to work with staff regarding aspects of Environmental Compliance and Regulation at the Cerro Colorado Landfill. A Solid Waste spokeswoman said the goal was to recruit a college intern from an applicable field of study.

The student volunteer would work directly with our Environmental Compliance Coordinator to learn all aspects of this position, Diane Wikler said in an email.

Nobody is volunteering at the landfill yet, she said.

Another city listing requests help with a resiliency and equity analysis of the impact of climate change on disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Damazyn said the intent is not to have volunteers replace staff but rather supplement employees work and specialized skills would be welcome.

We do have a community full of experts; we have people who work at Sandia (National Laboratories) or other places around Albuquerque and it makes sense for us to try to tap into their expertise and skills and kind of utilize what theyre good at, she said.

Some positions do require volunteers to undergo background checks or training, Damazyn said.U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small believes bipartisan solutions can be reached on border security if members of Congress and some Trump administration officials would worry less about scoring political points.

The first-term Democrat whose district stretches to the southern border used the effort to end the partial government shutdown as an example of what could be accomplished. The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, was forced because of a standoff over President Donald Trumps proposed border wall.

It shows we can find solutions if we work together, Torres Small told the Journal.

Torres Small is frustrated that part of the agreement to keep the government running hasnt come to fruition. She said funding was included for additional immigration judges but none have been hired.

The agreement included $1.4 billion for additional barriers along the border, but Trump later declared a national emergency to obtain additional funding for his proposed wall. He had sought $5.7 billion from Congress. Additional funding could come from projects at military bases around the U.S.

Obviously, theres not a national emergency at the border, Torres Small said. But she said there are problems that need to be addressed.

Shes been trying to educate other lawmakers about whats been going on in rural areas.

Torres Small, who is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, voiced a concern about the lack of leadership in the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

But she voiced optimism based on her conversations with Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan.

We talked about potential ways we can work together, Torres Small said. I pressed him about the need to invest in the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador).

McAleenan visited the Antelope Wells Port of Entry and Lordsburg Border Patrol station last December following the death of 7-year-old migrant Jakelin Caal, who arrived with her father and other people from Central America seeking asylum.

During that trip, he saw first hand the challenges we face along our border, especially in our most rural and remote regions, Torres Small said.

Torres Small has co-sponsored bipartisan border security legislation with Republican Texas Congressman Will Hurd.

Her bill seeking to improve recruitment and retention of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol officers recently passed its first committee.

HAALAND BUSY DURING BREAK: Congress may not have been in session last week, but U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland was by no means on a vacation. She and fellow Democrat Ben Ray Lujan hosted a field hearing last weekend on the impact of oil and gas drilling near sacred sites that included a tour of Chaco Culture Historical National Park.

She also served as the commencement speaker at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, took part in a question-and-answer session with students at Del Norte High School, delivered the keynote address at a Government Alliance on Race and Equity and attended a Green New Deal town hall in Santa Fe. And that was just on Thursday.

I think the people of District 1 deserve to have someone who is accessible, Haaland said. I want to make sure that I am.  Im out and about as much as I can be.

Scott Turner: sturner@abqjournal.comWASHINGTON  President Donald Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani insisted Sunday there was nothing wrong with the presidents 2016 campaign taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in special counsel Robert Muellers report .

Giuliani called the Trump campaigns effort to get political help from representatives of the Russian government possibly ill-advised but not illegal.

Theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians, Giuliani said, referring to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Trumps son Donald Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a lawyer linked to Russia. The Trump campaign was seeking harmful information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The Sunday news shows offered the latest back and forth following the long-anticipated release on Thursday of Muellers 448-page redacted report on his two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller found no evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign and made no decision on obstruction of justice.

Giuliani rebutted Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who said in a statement on Twitter Friday he was sickened by the findings in Muellers report that cited details on how the Trump campaign welcomed political dirt from Russia.

Giuliani said Romney should stop the bull, saying that accepting negative information about a political opponent is common. I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, dont do it, he said. Nevertheless, theres no crime.

Pressed about whether there is a something wrong about using information stolen by foreign adversaries, Giuliani said, It depends on the stolen material.

Trump, who spent the holiday weekend at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, asserted in tweets Sunday that he had been fully cleared by Muellers report and that Democrats continued efforts to investigate him will prove politically costly.

Despite No Collusion, No Obstruction, The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time. This is costing our Country greatly, and will cost the Dems big time in 2020! he tweeted.

Mueller explicitly did not exonerate Trump in the report on the question of obstruction, citing in part Justice Department guidelines that a sitting president shouldnt be indicted.

Not ruling out impeachment, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who chairs the House committee that would hold impeachment hearings, said he remained puzzled why Mueller did not bring charges of criminal conspiracy against those in the Trump Tower meeting.

All you have to prove for conspiracy is that they entered into a meeting of the minds to do something wrong and had one overt act. They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting to get stolen material on Hillary (Clinton). They went to the meeting. Thats conspiracy right there, said Nadler, D-N.Y.

Nadler said it was now up to Congress to investigate after the special counsel said it did not establish enough evidence to bring charges of criminal conspiracy, yet detailed 10 allegations of Trumps attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation that left open whether Trump broke the law.

Asked whether the offenses are impeachable, Nadler told NBC, If proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes. He said Democrats current focus is to go where the evidence leads us.

Nadler has subpoenaed the Justice Department for the full, unredacted report and said Sunday he was adding former White House counsel Don McGahn to the list of people he would call to testify before his committee, along with Mueller and Attorney General William Barr. According to the special counsels report, McGahn was among the Trump aides who effectively halted Trumps efforts to influence the Russia investigation, rebuffing his demand to set Muellers firing in motion.

Nadler has said he expects the Justice Department to comply with the subpoena for the full report by May 1, the same day Barr is to testify before a Senate committee and one day before Barr is to appear before Nadlers panel. Nadler summoned Mueller to testify by May 23.

Democratic leaders are under mounting pressure from the partys rising stars and some 2020 presidential contenders, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Julian Castro, a former Housing and Urban Development secretary, to start impeachment proceedings.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is pushing for a step-by-step approach to the Houses oversight of Trump and has refused to consider impeachment without public support, including Republicans. Pelosi is convening House Democrats on Monday to assess next steps.

Sen. Mike Lee, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said it would be a mistake for Democrats to pursue further investigations that could lead to impeachment proceedings, arguing that the American public wont stand for it after Mueller failed to conclude that crimes had been committed.

Its time to move on, said Lee, R-Utah.

Giuliani said Trumps legal team was weighing whether it would release a detailed written rebuttal to the Mueller report.

It may become necessary, whether they go ahead with the hearings or not, whether other issues are raised by different people  theres probably a point at which well use it. Right now we think the public debate is playing out about as well as it can, he said.

In the redacted report, Mueller said he considered bringing charges over the Trump Tower meeting but ultimately did not obtain admissible evidence that the campaign officials involved knew the actions were illegal. The meeting had raised questions about whether Trump Jr. and others violated the federal ban on foreign contributions to American political campaigns.

On the facts here, the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the June 9 meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful, the report stated. The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context.

Giuliani spoke on CNNs State of the Union, Fox News Sunday and NBCs Meet the Press. Nadler also appeared on NBC. Lee was on CBS Face the Nation.

___

For complete coverage of the Mueller report, go to https://www.apnews.com/TrumpInvestigationsREDDING, Calif. - A man from Illinois was arrested early Sunday morning in Redding for burglarizing the 76 gas station on E. Cypress Avenue, but later criminal threat charges were added when the arrested suspect threatened to kill officers and jail staff.

At approximately 2:37 a.m. Sunday officers with the Redding Police Department responded to a burglar alarm at the 76 gas station at 482 E. Cypress Avenue.

A security guard in the area had observed a man breaking into the business through a window. The witness told police they then saw the man carrying merchandise from the store as he was leaving. This security guard provided a description of the suspect and direction of travel to police.

Officers quickly located a trail of merchandise leading away from the business and into a yard located nearby. There officers found a man matching the description provided by the security guard hiding in a vehicle in the driveway of that residence.

The man was identified as Alex Wojciechowski, age 31 of Illinois.

Police said that when he was taken into custody he had stolen property on his person that belonged to the owner of the vehicle he was caught hiding in.

Wojciewchosxki was positively identified by the security guard as the subject who broke into the 76 gas station. The business owner arrived and confirmed the business had been burglarized and the merchandise was returned.

Wojciechowski was transported to the Shasta County jail and booked on two counts of burglary. Police said that while at the jail Wojciechowski threatened to kill officers and jail staff so was also booked on criminal threats.Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?

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Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.RAMALLAH, West Bank  The victory of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party in the April 9 elections comes much to the dismay of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and leaves it with a lot to lose.

Following initial election results, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat tweeted April 9, "Israelis have voted to maintain the status quo, as far as the occupation of Palestine. They voted for apartheid, and [for] an endless occupation. Exit polls show that only 18 members of the 120-seat Knesset support two states [based] on the 1967 borders."

The Israeli media discussed and analyzed the PAs dissatisfaction with Netanyahus victory, though some PA officials claimed to have no favorite candidate.

In an article published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Israeli journalist Yoni Ben Menachem wrote that the PA was deeply disappointed and frustrated with the results of the Israeli elections, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fears that Netanyahu will impose Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.

Ben Menachem quoted undisclosed Palestinian officials as saying they have no practical means to prevent such a measure.

Three days before the elections, Netanyahu told Channel 12 that he would start extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and annex West Bank settlements if he was reelected. He said he had discussed the issue with representatives of US President Donald Trump.

The PA is also wary of Trumps peace plan for the Middle East, which he is likely to reveal once Netanyahu finishes forming his government coalition.

The Palestinian leadership saw the Israeli election results coming, based on its reading of Israeli society, which is biased toward the right wing. These elections have proved that Israel has completely eliminated the two-state solution, PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi told Al-Monitor.

Our priority now is to strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land as Israel seeks to control the land and get rid of its people because of the demographic danger they pose. Palestinians ought to take a major step at the internal level, which is to achieve unity and end division.

She added that the leadership will address the international community, Palestines allies and its friends around the world and take steps within the framework of international law and its institutions.

The PA still has a card up its sleeve, Ashrawi said: finally insisting on implementing the long-delayed decisions of the PLO central and national councils. This, however, remains far-fetched for the near future.

In March 2015, the PLO Central Council decided to define relations with Israel politically and economically and stop all security coordination with it. In October 2018, the council reiterated the same decision, but it still remains unimplemented. Meanwhile, the Palestinian National Council had decided in May 2018 to direct the PLO Executive Committee to stop recognizing Israel until Israel recognizes the State of Palestine according to 1967 borders  another decision that has yet to be carried out.

Several decisions have been made to this effect, but they can't be applied all at once. Implementing these decisions requires preparation and debate at the level of the leadership, Ashrawi said.

Nabil Shaath, Abbas adviser for international relations, told Al-Monitor, The implementation of these decisions is subject to the presidents political assessments. The PA is considering all options and alternatives in the face of Israel.

Palestinians now must "galvanize efforts at the popular and international levels, Shaath said, noting that Abbas has always said the Oslo Accords and all agreements signed with Israel will be revisited, given Israels failure to abide by them. Shaath has said the PA will look at the US peace plan that Trump is preparing to announce, but expects to find it unsatisfactory.

He added that Israel's election results were expected and denied claims that the PA had a favored candidate in the elections.

The Israeli elections mean nothing to us. The competition between the Israeli parties was on who can oppress the Palestinians more. There were no fundamental differences between candidates, especially since there is no Israeli left wing, Shaath said.

However, Ahmed Rafiq Awad, a political science professor at Al-Quds University, told Al-Monitor, Netanyahu was the PA's least-favorite candidate, as his election program was based on ending the two-state solution and promoting settlements. This would further exacerbate the already-tense situation and cause a confrontation, which the PA is not ready for.

He added, The PAs options are now limited. Its reactions to the Israeli policies have always been delayed, in the absence of a clear strategy and its dependency on the toothless Arab regimes [when it comes to the Palestinian issue], mediators and the international community." All these efforts have proved futile.

Ghassan al-Khatib, director of the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center and a former PA planning minister, told Al-Monitor, The PA will have a hard time dealing with Israel, not because the latter seems to have abandoned the peace process and bilateral diplomatic relations, but because Palestinians have lost many of their strong points. The Arab situation is fragile and the division is deeper than ever, and all the while the US continues to take a clearly hostile stance [against Palestinians].

He added, The PA ought to focus on ending the division, strengthen the Palestinians steadfastness and ready them to face future pressures that will rise at all levels. Meanwhile, there should be efforts to galvanize the international community into taking action in favor of Palestinians, while focusing on international law and work at the popular level, mainly through the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement" against Israel.

Netanyahus threats to annex parts of the West Bank and intensify settlement-building are the coup de grace to the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state. This places the PA in the embarrassing predicament of having to prove the viability of its existence.CAIRO  Passers-by in Abdel Moneim Riad Square in downtown Cairo were shocked April 11 to see a banner hung from a bridge there that read Egypt is no ones property; No to the constitutional amendments; #Freedom_ForEgypt.

It's unusual for Egyptians to see such banners in light of the repression of those opposing the amendments, which would expand President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's powers and could extend his term until 2030.

That morning, Freedom for Egypt members had taken on the extraordinary task of swiftly hanging banners and taking pictures of what was hung before fleeing in a cab out of fear of being seen or chased by the police.

The secretive movement surfaced in early March to oppose the April 20-22 referendum on the amendments. Each night the members, mostly in their 20s, secretly scrawl NO to the constitutional amendments as graffiti in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, el-Mansoura, Tanta and other cities. Covering their heads with hats, they distribute leaflets with the same slogan to drivers and passers-by in these cities at dawn.

Speaking to Al-Monitor using a pseudonym, Mohamed Samir said, We are a group of youths who believe that the solution resides in taking actions on the ground to counter the amendments and raise awareness among the people of their gravity. He added that the group is independent, not like the regulated and publicized political movements in Egypt.

The group started in Dakahlia, ash-Sharqiya, Alexandria and Cairo before expanding its activities to other governorates such as Qena, Sohag and Kafr el-Sheikh. Samir said it's hard to identify how many followers the movement has, but more than 5,000 have joined since the group launched its Facebook page March 6.

The movement criticizes the constitutional amendments for seeking to keep Sisi in office for 11 more years (he has served since 2014) and for granting him broader powers, especially in the judiciary, such as presiding over the Supreme Judiciary Council and appointing the presidents of the major courts and general prosecutors. In addition, opponents say the amendments would retain policies that have led to poverty and rising prices.

Samir said Freedom for Egypt criticizes the state for cracking down on political parties, repressing oppositionists and preventing power rotation and change. The movement is demanding the release of political prisoners and protesters.

We have hung 5,000 posters opposing the amendments on the houses walls in Cairo and in other governorates in the Nile Delta region since mid-March, Samir said. We have also distributed to citizens 15,000 leaflets. The movement has no links to any political group, he added.

Samir noted how authorities are replacing banners that the movement hangs. He said, Last week, we placed a large banner in al-Galaa Square in Giza. The police, however, took it down and replaced it with two banners in support [of the amendments] instead.

The streets and squares of Cairo and other Egyptian cities are brimming with banners supporting the amendments, using slogans such as Yes to the amendments and Toward a better future. Some oppositionists suspect that the authorities are forcing business owners to hang these posters.

Moreover, the state is mobilizing a large-scale media campaign saying the amendments are important for continuing economic reform.

Ahmed Taha, a taxi driver in Sheikh Zayed, a city in the northern part of Greater Cairo, told Al-Monitor that parliamentarians are giving 1,500 Egyptian pounds (about $87) to drivers in the microbus stations to transport citizens to polling places during the referendum.

Samir explained that the movement can't hold meetings, given its lack of a budget and the security restrictions.

Those opposing the constitutional amendments are subject to a campaign of arrests and intimidation by Egyptian authorities. On Feb. 22, police arrested four members of the Constitution Party, which is spearheading opposition to the amendments in parliament. Mohammad Mohiuddin, a former parliament member, was also arrested that day for the same reason.

Others, including two parliamentarians, have become the targets of lawsuits and defamation campaigns that include leaked sex tapes and recorded phone conversations circulated in February. Some of those targeted have since changed their positions and now support the amendments.

Magdi Abdel-Hamid, spokesman for the Civil Democratic Movement, told Al-Monitor that it's very hard for oppositionists to act on the ground or convey to the public the risks the amendments pose. We are contenting ourselves with press conferences and statements, because any action on the ground could be very costly, including being subjected to arrests.

Abdel-Hamid said his movement applied March 24 to the Interior Ministry for a permit to stage a protest in front of parliament against the constitutional amendments, but the application was rejected. He also said the civil movement and opposition were marginalized during community meetings parliament sponsored to discuss the amendments: only a few opposition representatives were invited.

Three members of Freedom for Egypt were about to be arrested as they were hanging banners in Mansoura last week, but they managed to escape police patrol, according to Samir. Members believe authorities could be behind attempts to hack the group's Facebook page and social media calls to boycott the group.In September 2017, at the rear of a dormitory in the so-called Hot Bay at the medium-security Bibb Correctional Facility, two inmates stabbed another.

The wounded inmate, far from help, began screaming, hoping that the security staff would hear. No one came. He then crawled toward the front doors of the dormitory, while fellow inmates banged on the locked doors, making a racket to get guards attention.

Still, no one came.

When an officer finally got there, the inmate was lying on the floor, blood flowing from his chest. He eventually bled to death.

One Hot Bay resident told us that he could still hear the prisoners screams in his sleep, the summary of the incident reads.

That summary is contained in a horrific 57-page report on of Alabamas prison conditions complied by the U.S. Department of Justice and released on April 3.

State Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, chairman of a key prison oversight committee, and a longtime advocate for justice-system reforms, describes himself as appalled by the reports findings. And, from his bully pulpit at the Statehouse, hes been doing some preaching about it.

In comments to AL.com and to NPR, Ward has wondered aloud how a proud Bible-believing state can countenance such shameful prisons in its midst.

No one in this state should read this report and just roll their eyes, Ward said to AL.com. Its a disgrace to our state. I know everyone says, They are criminals and Who cares? We profess to be the most Christian state in the country, but no Christian would allow their fellow man to be treated the way that they are said to be treated. That may not be the popular view, but its the truth.

In an April 4 interview with NPR, the day after the DOJ report was released, Ward said, We pride ourselves on being a biblical state, very Christian state, but yet, you treat your fellow man this way, and that is clearly hypocritical.

Eye rolling

In Alabama, 86 percent of the population professes to be Christian, according to surveys, and nearly half identify as evangelical Protestants. For that reason alone, Wards comments would appear to have the potential to stir conversation and reflection inside sanctuaries around Alabama after Christians celebrate its holiest of weeks with Easter Sunday services.

Ward said hes yet to hear any reaction toward his comments. He suggested that the prison issue was laying heavy on his heart: From my personal view as a Christian, we should care more about the treatment of our fellow man and speak out on the issue.

At least one observer believes Wards opinions may be a bit misleading.

Scott Dawson, a youth pastor from Birmingham who ran as a Republican for governor last year, said the eye-rolling should be reserved for efforts pushed by lawmakers like Ward to spend $800 million or more to build new prisons.

The masses may roll their eyes at the conditions of our prisons, but theres not a group of people involved in prisons greater than Christians, Dawson said. The promotion of building $800 million of new prisons causes our eyes to roll, not about the condition of the prisons.

He added, The deplorable situations described in Alabama are a result of neglect and irresponsible budgeting from our state leaders. It has caused us to be in this situation and now the church is being characterized as not caring.

Dawson that Christians who minister inside prisons are often motivated to do more, and that there are many churches participating in those efforts.

Once a Christian engages with prisons and those who are incarcerated, you are moved to help, said Dawson. There are many churches already engaged in weekly Bible studies, worship, and job training in every prison facility in our state.

Aaron Griffith, postdoctoral research associate at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, said the most illustrative example of this movement was by the late Charles Colson, a former aide to President Richard Nixon who was imprisoned on Watergate-era charges and served seven months at the federal prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery.

Said Griffith, It was that brutal experience in the Alabama facility, along with his newfound faith after having a born again conversion experience, that pushed him into prison ministry and criminal justice reform activism from the late 1970s until his death in 2012.

Griffith said Wards comments sound very much like something Colson would say. Colson founded Prison Fellowship in 1976, which has since gone on to become the largest Christian non-profit serving prisoners, former prisoners and their families.

Punitive politics

But Griffith said that Alabamas lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key politics have long hampered any true prison reform.

Alabama has many evangelicals who want to minister to and help incarcerated people, but it also is a state where punitive politics is the norm and where fiscal conservatism prevents investment in improving prison conditions or programs, Griffith said. Evangelicals consistently support the candidates who promote these policies that lead to prison growth and the tragic conditions within them.

Griffith continued, Senator Ward is on to something here in that Alabamas prisons are clearly a disgrace and hes voicing many of the same sentiments that evangelicals have voiced before concerning the humanitarian plight of prisoners in this country. However, Ward and other likeminded politicians and Christian advocates for reform have to take stock of the fact that it was evangelical Christians who helped build this same system, often with appeals to the righteousness of their cause.

Some recent polling suggest that theres much public skepticism about Gov. Kay Iveys call to undertake a giant campaign of prison construction.

A recent Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama study shows that 58% of Alabamians oppose building new prisons to address overcrowding.

A gubernatorial spokeswoman said last week that Iveys office is serious about taking action to the long-standing challenges of the prison system highlighted by the Justice Departments scathing report.

Spoke not a word

Wayne Flynt, a historian and author of the exhaustively-researched, Alabama Baptists: Southern Baptists in the Heart of Dixie, heard Wards interview with NPR and came away impressed.

I thought Cams statement was as Biblically-based as any political statement in quite some time, said Flynt, a professor emeritus at Auburn University.

Flynt said that Christianity has always struggled with the intersection of religion and politics, but he said that modern white evangelicals are focused more on issues about which Jesus in the Gospels spoke not a word, such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

Said Flynt, In short, Christians historically and in our own times, cite only those parts of the Bible which correspond to their secular culture.

In Flynts other book, Alabama in the Twentieth Century, he recalls a story about a law school students thesis written on tax reform based on biblical and Judeo-Christian beliefs. The student, a relative newcomer to Alabama who would go on to become a law school professor, could not understand how a Legislature with 136 professed Christians out of 140 members could ignore the unfairness of a regressive tax system and the historic neglect for the poor.

Said Flynt, in writing within the book, The answer  was simple. Like most Alabama Christians, legislators believe that Christian ethics consisted of private moral actions, not creation of a just society.

Take responsibility

There are signs of that criminal justice reform is winning more supporters in Alabama.

According to the same PARCA survey in which a majority of Alabamians frown upon the construction of new prisons, 83% say they approve moving people with nonviolent convictions back into the community. Another 86% support expanded rehabilitation and re-entry programs for prisoners.

Evangelical leaders played an instrumental role in the federal bipartisan approval of criminal justice reform, otherwise known as the First Step Act, signed by President Donald Trump a few weeks ago.

The law aims to give prisoners who exhibit good behavior to shorten their sentences, particularly nonviolent drug users.

Dawson said the law also challenges churches to take responsibility toward helping a prisoner transition back into society.

We need to make Alabama churches aware of this initiative and have churches take a more active role in prison reform, he said.

The Rev. James Henderson, former head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama with 20 years of working in prison ministry, said Alabama needs to extend its work-release programs to more churches, creating ministries he believes can be effective toward reducing recidivism.

Ive had inmates come to my church on a Saturday to work and it would turn into a ministry itself, Henderson said. Not all were skilled or properly motivated, but most of them were. We had them for a year and it was good thing for us, and a good thing for them. They werent used to working in a Christian environment where people respected them and cared about them.

Michael Altman, a professor of religious studies at the University of Alabama, said there is an overall lack of attention to the terrible prison conditions from conservative Protestants in Alabama, which is reflective of their larger disinterest in criminal justice issues.

In fact, a national survey commissioned by Prison Fellowship in 2017 showed that 53 percent of practicing Christians who attended church services at least once a month agreed with the following statement: Its important to make an example out of someone for certain crimes, even if it means giving them a more severe punishment than their crime deserves.

White evangelicals have been among the most fervent advocates for tough-on-crime policies and law and order, especially since the 1960s, said Griffith. However, at the same time, some evangelicals have recognized the horrors of prison life and the need for reform.

The key, he said, is to get more of the church-going population throughout Alabama more invested in prison reform.

(Evangelicals) who have ventured into the prisons to minister to incarcerated people have regularly been shocked at what they see there, he said.Bills on a lottery and jail food money, the Cahaba River Park ribbon cutting and a proposed plastic bag ban in Birmingham are a few Alabama news stories to look out for this week.

Cahaba River Park opening

A new park along the Cahaba River in Shelby County will officially open after a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday afternoon.

The Park, named Cahaba River Park, features more than 12 miles of single track and more than five miles of double track hiking and biking trails. Restrooms and pavilion facilities are also available for visitors to enjoy the view of the Cahaba River.

The park is at 2793 River Road in Helena.

New sporting event coming to Birmingham

On Monday, officials with the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex and the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau will announce a new sporting event coming to Birmingham in Spring 2020.

The announcement will be made at 3 p.m.

New 'green NASA building opening in Huntsville

On Monday, NASA will host grand opening event for its new environmentally-friendly facility at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. The building will provide offices and workspaces for 440 employees.

The new building 4221 was designed and built to meet federal standards of energy and water efficiency. The entire structure is specially insulated, with much of the exterior covered in low-emissivity glass that deflects heat to reduce cooling costs within. Rooftop solar-power units absorb energy to augment electrical power, and the building will have 99 percent LED, or light-emitting diode, lighting.

Technology and economic development in Montgomery

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange will make an announcement on technology and economic development in the city Monday morning. Other partners in the effort, including Montgomery county officials, chamber of commerce officials, Montgomery Public Schools, Alabama Power Company and military officials will also be part of the announcement.

Plastic bags banned in Birmingham?

On Tuesday, Birmingham city councilor Darrell OQuinn plans to present a city ordinance that would ban plastic bags and other types of single-use containers from Birmingham retailers.

OQuinn said the recent state legislature bill that would ban local governments from banning plastic bags was the final straw that pushed him to present the ordinance.

We want to let the state legislature know we dont want them to pass an unfunded mandate forcing us, the city of Birmingham, to deal with this type of waste. Plastic bags, Styrofoam cups and other forms of single use containers are majority of the litter that you see in the city, OQuinn said. I felt it necessary to move forward.

Lottery, gun permits and jail food money in the legislature

On Tuesday the Senate Tourism Committee will consider a bill by Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, proposing a constitutional amendment to establish a state lottery. Also, the Tourism Committee will consider the bill by Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, to repeal the requirement for a permit to carry a concealed pistol.

On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee will consider a bill to block sheriffs from pocketing money intended to feed inmates. The bill, by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, has already passed the Senate.

Getting help to those who need it in west Alabama

On Wednesday, law enforcement agencies in west Alabama are hosting a summit with the aim of connecting faith-based leaders with social service agencies.

More than 300 church leaders have been invited. The summit will cover various resources available in the Tuscaloosa area to connect people with help for such problems as financial difficulty, substance abuse and mental illness.

"We strive mightily to assure Tuscaloosa County is its very best and very safest with traditional locking up the bad guys, but also by thinking in non-traditionally, outside-the-box kinds of ways," Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Hays Webb said.

We hope these services can be provided to people before it gets to crisis stage for them, and certainly before it gets to the criminal stage, he said.

Missed the news last week? Check out last weeks top Alabama news stories.TUSCALOOSA, Ala.  Law enforcement agencies in west Alabama are hosting a summit with the aim of connecting faith-based leaders with social service agencies.

The aim is to provide services to people in need of help, The Tuscaloosa News reported.

More than 300 church leaders have been invited to attend the Faith-based Community Resources Summit on Wednesday.

The summit will cover various resources available in the Tuscaloosa area to connect people with help for such problems as financial difficulty, substance abuse and mental illness.

"We strive mightily to assure Tuscaloosa County is its very best and very safest with traditional locking up the bad guys, but also by thinking in non-traditionally, outside-the-box kinds of ways," Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Hays Webb said.

"We hope these services can be provided to people before it gets to crisis stage for them, and certainly before it gets to the criminal stage," he said.

Webb made the comments at a recent news conference as he and others reached out to church leaders and members of the public who wish to attend.

Parishioners struggling with various issues often go to their church leaders, who are "not necessarily armed or equipped to deal with those problems by themselves," Webb said.

Ultimately, one goal is to reach people before they find themselves entangled in the legal system, authorities said.

"We can find ways to reach someone before they commit and crime and end up in our jail," Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy said.

And this can also be a way to help people once they get out of our facility, Abernathy said. Anything we can do to prevent crime in any measure or bring a better quality of life, we need to attempt to do.Following a decade-long insurgency and a tumultuous peace process, a new conflict might be in the making in Nepal.

About a decade ago it seemed as if Nepal was marching into a new era. After a devastating decade-long war between Maoists and the government, an all-party Peoples Movement took to the streets of Kathmandu in April 2006 and forced King Gyanendra to reinstate the parliament. In the following months, a seven-party coalition took control of the government, stripped the king of most of his powers and accepted an interim constitution.

In May 2008, the monarchy was officially abolished, and Nepal became a federal democratic republic, thanks to movements for equality from its marginalised groups such as the Madhesis. For the first time in Nepals recent history, all segments of the population, including the Maoists, were participating in the democratic process. Every Nepalese citizen felt as if they had a voice in the parliament, if not the streets. There was hope in the air.

What followed was years of protracted negotiation over a new constitution. In April 2015, Nepal was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed over 9,000 people and injured tens of thousands of others. Using the unprecedented devastation experienced by the population as an excuse, the dominant parties in parliament subdued all opposition voices and fast-tracked a new constitution and two years later held a controversial election.

Having ignored opposition protests and popular grievances for years, Nepals new leadership is now facing a major threat. A new Maoist force, fed by popular disillusionment and anger, is growing in strength. As a result, Nepal once again appears to be heading towards a national conflict.

Simmering discontent

Dream big, the new Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, long-time leader of the Marxist Communist Party of Nepal, told the nation when he took office in February 2018. Nepals rise is inevitable, he said.

And since taking office, he has made some controversial, and perhaps illogical, steps to show the Nepalese people and the world that he is determined to transform Kathmandu into a global trade capital. In a land-locked country, nestled between the Indian plains and the Tibetan plateau, he inaugurated a shipping office with much fanfare, claiming that it will help study ways to develop inland waterways. He also signed an agreement with China to build a railway link connecting Tibet with Kathmandu through the arduous Himalayan terrain.

Such fantasy projects should have raised eyebrows in one of the poorest countries in the world where the government struggles to provide most basic necessities like public schools, hospitals and housing. However, the government managed to present these mega projects as symbols of national pride. Massive corruption scandals involving ministers and senior politicians from the party were met with indifference while questioning the necessity of such expensive and unrealistic endeavours became tantamount to being unpatriotic.

As the government continued with its plans to connect Nepal to the world and make Kathmandu a global hub, however, discontent among some Maoists was simmering below the glossy surface.

Back in 2012, as their former comrades were ascending to positions of power and wealth, a group had splintered away from the Maoist Party, which is now part of the ruling coalition. They had rejected the peace process and started planning a new unified revolution.

The splinter Maoist group, which calls itself the Communist Party of Nepal and is led by Netra Bikram Chand Biplab, has been engaging in both peaceful and violent activities with the goal of completing the revolution that it says was abandoned when the Maoists joined democratic politics at the end of the war.

During the 2017 election held under the new constitution, Biplabs party detonated over a hundred improvised explosives, targeting rallies of prominent politicians across the country. The splinter Maoist group did not end its violent activities following the victory of a Communist coalition  which included its former allies  in the election.

In April 2018, members of the group also planted a bomb at the office of Arun III Hydro Project, which is being developed by an Indian company, in an attempt to make its views on foreign direct investment clear.

On February 22 this year, it targeted Ncell, a telecommunications giant that has been flouting a court order to pay the national treasury more than half a billion dollars in unpaid taxes. The group openly accepted responsibility for the attack but apologised for the killing of a bystander.

In early March, it also bombed the empty house of Rohan Gurung, the chairman of a union of labour exporting firms, after calling him a human smuggler.

A new Maoist conflict on the horizon

On March 12, the Nepalese government officially declared the Biplabs party a criminal group and banned all its activities. The ban was the clearest signal to date that Nepali polity is once again headed towards a confrontation that could potentially spiral out of control. Ominously, the prime minister has tried to give himself the sole authority to deploy the army, overriding the constitution.

While the ban came on the back of an established pattern of violence, it still carries the risk of escalating the situation into a full-blown insurgency. In the past, similar hard-line attitudes by the political elite and brutality by the security forces helped fuel an armed rebellion.

After the end of the Maoist war, successive governments failed to deliver transitional justice to the victims of the conflict and many war crimes went unpunished. Moreover, the security forces that participated in countless human rights abuses failed to reform.

As a result, following the ban imposed on Biplabs party, many fear a new wave of abuse will be unleashed on the groups supporters, including those who have not engaged in violent activity, further fuelling the Maoist discontent.

A number of Biplab supporters have already been arrested across the country since the ban was put in place and the security forces have been accused of torturing the detainees.

As the confrontation between the banned Maoist party and the government escalates, it is possible that history will repeat itself and we will witness another wave of human rights abuses.

The way to peace

Despite the governments efforts to cast Biplabs party as a radical, criminal organisation, the group enjoys the support of many within Nepals disadvantaged and marginalised communities frustrated by casteism, corruption, underdevelopment and injustice, which the current government has made no serious attempts to address.

It has a nation-wide organisation and can lay credible claims to have regrouped a chunk of the Maoist Peoples Army that once waged a deadly war against the state. In fact, many local Maoist leaders have at least some sympathy for Biplabs party. They started to understand and support Biplab as their disillusionment grew with Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, the former Maoist supremo who, in a show of great opportunism, merged his party (Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)) with an opposing Marxist/Leninist group and became the co-chair of the Communist coalition currently ruling the country.

It is true that Biplabs party doesnt have the clear ideological demands of the Maoists avatars operating in the 1990s under a feudal Hindu monarchy. But what they lack in ideology, they can make up with resentment against a deeply corrupt system oblivious to the interests of the common people.

Banning a political party is unconstitutional and, as Nepalese history has shown, it tends to bolster the popularity of the banned organisation. In fact, all the prime ministers in Nepals republican era, including the current one, come from parties once banned. More importantly, a ban can escalate tensions even further.

The last thing Nepal needs after a decade-long insurgency, a tumultuous peace process and a disastrous earthquake is a second Maoist war. The sensible option for the government would be to make an honest effort to invite such opposition groups for talks, maintain law and order, and undertake massive reforms to address the inequalities that contribute to hordes of disillusioned youth joining violent groups.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.A series of coordinated bombings struck churches and hotels on Easter Sunday killing more than 200 people.

Sinan M Salahuddin, 29, bid farewell to his uncle on Saturday night as he left for home after spending the day together. Little did he know it would be their final goodbye.

Early on Sunday, a series of eight coordinated bomb blasts struck churches and hotels killing more than 200 people and wounding at least 450 people in Sri Lanka.

190421110546592

The first blast was reported at St Anthonys Shrine, an historic Roman Catholic church in the capital, Colombo. The other two occurred at St Sebastian Catholic Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo.

A few minutes after the second explosion, blasts ripped through three high-end hotels in the capital  the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri-La, and the Kingsbury.

Salahuddin lost his uncle Mohamed Rishard, 43, at the Shangri-La hotel.

He was my mentor, my guardian. It is a huge loss for us, he told Al Jazeera.

Rishard, the owner of the automobile dealership Exotic Cars, left behind his wife, three daughters and a son.

He started his business in 2010 and since then has seen success as it flourished across the country.

Blood stains are seen inside a church after a bomb blast in Negombo [Reuters]

He started his business from scratch, he was a self-made man and always wanted to help others who were in need. He was a mentor to many, Salahuddin said.

Rishards body was identified in Colombos hospital a few hours after the blasts. His funeral prayers will be held on Monday morning. According to Salahuddin, Rishard went to the gym at the Shangri-La hotel and was killed at the restaurant serving breakfast.

But no one can dry our tears today, Salahuddin said.

No immediate claim of responsibility was made for the attack in the country. More than a dozen people have been arrested in connection with the blasts and the government declared a curfew in Colombo, blocking access to social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp to prevent misinformation and rumours.

The streets are very quiet, no one is going out. I was very close to the blast when it happened, Saima Saleem, a Colombo resident, told Al Jazeera.

Security personnel check Muslims at the entrance of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque as security has been increased after the series of blasts [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

We ran to take cover and the closest place was my husbands friends house, so we are here for the moment until the curfew is lifted. We are all in shock, my kids are scared and we are very worried for our friends and family across the country.

Sri Lankas foreign ministry said dozens of the dead were foreigners including three Indians, one Portuguese national, two Turkish citizens, three Britons, and two holding dual US-British nationalities. A Dutch citizen and Chinese national were also reported among the victims.

Loud screams and weeping

Yasmin Chiristina Rodrigo, 31, returned home from Australia for a brief Easter holiday with her family. She was at St Anthonys Shrine in Colombo to attend morning mass at the famous church.

I was seated in one of the middle rows and heard a sudden noise. I felt numb as small pieces of brick and soot-covered my body. I held on to my brothers hand and tried to scramble out of the church as panic struck the entire congregation. Suddenly there were loud screams and weeping, Yasmina told Al Jazeera.

For minutes, I could not understand that the church had suffered a massive attack. I managed to get out of the pew, I saw a pile of people lying on the floor, soaked in blood and soot.

A relative of a victim of the explosion at St Anthonys Shrine, Kochchikade church, reacts at the police mortuary in Colombo [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Ashan, who asked for his real name not be used for security reasons, was among the first responders when an explosion took place at St Sebastian Church in Negombo.

The 35-year-old said he was late to go to church but his family went before him and were present at the time of the attack.

I just entered the church compound and the noise shook me. I saw a pool of blood, a mass of entangled bodies and people trying to scramble out of the devastated place, Ashan told Al Jazeera.

Two of my family members were injured and are currently being treated at the Negombo District Hospital.

I rushed and tried to assist those who were trying to get the people out of the church. The police arrived almost immediately, he said.

World leaders expressed shock and condemnation over the deadly blasts with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying he is outraged by the terrorist attacks.

A view of St Sebastians Church damaged in the blast in Negombo, north of Colombo [Chamila Karunarathne/AP]

Pope Francis also expressed condolences at his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.

I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka, he told tens of thousands of people in St Peters Square.

The attack is called the worst in Sri Lanka since the end of the 27-year civil war, which claimed as many as 100,000 lives.

The Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Buddhist-majority country but were defeated by the government in 2009.

Three-quarters of the 23 million people in Sri Lanka are ethnic Sinhalese, followed by the second-largest ethnic group, the Tamils, who make up more than 15 percent of the population. Muslims represent about 10 percent and Christians about six percent.

It will be very difficult for the people of this country to recover from this mindless terrorism, Naushad Hameed, a non-resident in Sri Lanka, told Al Jazeera.

But we all stand united.

With additional reporting by Dilrukshi Handunnetti from Colombo



Local resident in Guire says there was heavy gunfire and the military was taken by surprise in the attack.

Fighters killed at least 12 soldiers in an attack on Sunday in central Mali.

The military outpost at Guire was attacked at about 5am, a source told AFP news agency.

The terrorists came out of the forest. They were on motorcycles and pick-up trucks. They burned vehicles and took away others, said the source, who asked not to be named.

The new toll is at least 12 dead, including the post commander, a captain.

The Mali armed forces confirmed the attack on Twitter, without saying how many soldiers had been killed. They said reinforcements were sent to the Nara sector, about 370km north of the capital, Bamako.

A local resident said there had been heavy gunfire and the military was taken by surprise in the attack.

I saw two terrorists put their motorcycles in an army vehicle and drive off with it, he said.

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Attacks continue

Malian and foreign troops are regularly targeted by militia.

Fighters killed 21 Malian soldiers last month in a raid on another army camp in Dioura, central Mali.

On Saturday a UN peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded when a mine exploded as their convoy passed through a central region.

The UN mission was established in Mali after militias seized the north of the country in 2012 before being pushed back by French troops in 2013.

A peace agreement signed in 2015 by the government and armed groups was aimed at restoring stability. But the accord has failed to stop the violence.

The latest attacks came as President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita pursued consultations to pick a new prime minister.

The last one, Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, resigned with his entire cabinet resigned after coming under fire from the ruling and opposition parties for failing to clamp down on the unrest.Officials say at least 227 people have been killed and 1,125 wounded in the weeks-long violence in Libya.

Explosions rocked Libyas capital Tripoli following air raids in an escalation of a two-week offensive by eastern forces on the city held by the internationally recognised government.

Powerful blasts, believed to be caused by air strikes, were reported on Sunday across Tripolis southern districts, with residents saying they saw an aircraft circling for more than 10 minutes over the city before opening fire on a southern district.

It is unclear whether an unmanned drone or fighter jet was behind the air attack.





Residents reported drone attacks in the past days, but there has been no confirmation. They said explosions heard in the city centre this time were louder than in previous days.

Government of National Accord spokesman Mustafa al-Mejii told AFP news agency on Sunday that after a long day of military success, our forces are consolidating their [new] positions.

Some witnesses spoke of drone strikes, but Mejii said the blasts were caused by air raids from Libyan National Army (LNA) helicopters aimed at terrorising civilians.

He said they had not caused any casualties but had taken place away from the frontlines, without offering any further details.

Military sources said the ageing Soviet and Russian fighter jets used by both sides are not equipped to carry out night time strikes, but Mejii said Haftars forces have a helicopter with night vision capabilities.

Residents counted several missile attacks that apparently hit a military camp belonging to forces loyal to Tripoli in the Sabaa district.

Libya has for years been split between the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) in its west and a rival administration in the east allied to renegade General Khalifa Haftar.

Haftars LNA launched the offensive to seize Tripoli on April 4 but has been stopped on the citys southern outskirts by forces allied to the GNA.

Haftar, 75, said the military campaign was aimed at cleansing Libyas western region of remaining terrorist groups.

This has raised fears of a full-blown civil war in the oil-rich country, which has been mired in chaos since the NATO-backed toppling of long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

30,000 displaced

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday said more than 30,000 people have been displaced due to ongoing fighting in and around the city.

The UN agency wrote on Twitter on Sunday that at least 227 people have been killed and more than 1,125 injured in the violence.

The fighting resulted in the temporary closure of Tripolis Mitiga airport, the citys only functioning airport after the main airport was destroyed in 2014.

Analysts said a phone call between President Donald Trump and Haftar earlier this week, in which the US leader praised the commanders significant role in fighting terrorism, was likely to have emboldened the LNA further.

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The US and Russia declined on Thursday to support a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya. Moscow said it objected to the British-drafted resolution blaming Haftar for the latest flare-up in violence, and the US did not give a reason for its decision.

About 2,000 residents of Tripoli staged a protest in the citys central Martyrs Square on Friday to condemn Haftars push on the city as well as world powers that back him, which they say include France, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Russia, and now the US.The opposition rejects any possibility for a unity government, and is asking the president to also step down.

Malis Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga resigned on Thursday after protests in Bamako earlier this month.

With threats of more unrest, the president is now in talks with the opposition to form a new government.

Al Jazeeras Nicolas Haque reports from Bamako.Easter processions see people remember those who died during protests against President Daniel Ortega.

Easter week in Nicaragua falls on the first anniversary of mass protests when rallies for social security reform turned into a movement against the government of President Daniel Ortega.

More than 300 people died and tens of thousands fled the country.

A year later, the country is reflecting on the ultimate cost of the crisis.

Al Jazeeras John Holman reports from Masaya, Nicaragua.Border security and regional issues on the agenda as Pakistans Imran Khan set to meet Iranian leaders on two-day visit.

Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in neighbouring Iran for bilateral talks, a day after Islamabad urged Tehran to act against armed groups behind the killings in Pakistans Balochistan province earlier this week.

Khan began his official two-day visit to Iran, the first since he took office last year, with a stop in the northeastern holy Shia city of Mashhad on Sunday.

Khan will meet Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, as well as other officials in Tehran on Monday.

During the meetings, improving bilateral ties, border security, countering terrorism and regional issues will be discussed, Iranian state TV said.

Prime Minister Imran Khan visits Shrine of Imam Raza at Mashhad and offers Fateha. He also prays for the progress, prosperity of the people and the country. pic.twitter.com/smEifQlbo7  Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) April 21, 2019

A statement by Pakistans foreign ministry said relations between the two countries are marked by close historic and cultural linkages and strong people to people exchanges.

The prime ministers visit to Iran will further strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries, it added.

Border security

Ties between Iran and Pakistan have been strained in recent months, with both sides accusing each other of not doing enough to stamp out armed groups allegedly sheltering across the border.

A new umbrella group representing various armed groups operating in Pakistans southwestern Balochistan province claimed responsibility for an attack on Thursday when 14 passengers were killed after being kidnapped from buses in the province, which borders Iran.

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Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistans foreign minister, said on Saturday the training and logistical camps of the new alliance that carried out the attack were inside Iran and called for Tehran to take action against the fighters.

Meanwhile, predominantly Shia Muslim Iran says armed groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan and has repeatedly called on Islamabad to crack down on them.

Tehran has stepped up security along its long border with Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed 27 members of Irans elite Revolutionary Guard in mid-February in southeastern Iran, with Iranian officials saying the attackers were based inside Pakistan.

The Sunni group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for the ethnic Baloch minority, claimed responsibility for that attack.Ukrainians expected to pick comic Volodymyr Zelensky as president, punishing the incumbent for failure with corruption.

Kiev, Ukraine  Polls have closed in Ukraines presidential runoff poll between anti-establishment political novice Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

Sundays election has about 35 million eligible voters, but several million in Russian-annexed Crimea and rebel-held parts of eastern Ukraine are either unable or unwilling to cast their ballots.

An early count is expected overnight on Monday.

The opinion polls predict a humiliating defeat for Poroshenko, who came to power five years ago with 55 percent support after a deadly pro-West uprising removed his Russia-backed predecessor Viktor Yanukovich in 2014.

He has been projecting himself as Ukraines passionate commander-in-chief since the so-called Revolution of Dignity resulted in the war between Moscow-backed separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and the Ukrainian army. The conflict has killed more than 13,000 people.

During the election campaign, Poroshenko told Ukrainians that Zelensky would fail to protect them from Russias President Vladimir Putin.

Svitlana Kravchenko, 62, told Al Jazeera in Kiev that Poroshenko might have made mistakes over the last five years, but his achievements should not be overlooked.

He secured the independence of Ukraines Orthodox Church from Moscow, visa-free travel agreement [with the European Union and many other things that everyone knows about, she said. Who doesnt make mistakes? Everyone does. But his main course is right.

Most Ukrainians hold Poroshenko responsible for the failure to tackle corruption [Efrem Lukatsky/AP]

Nataliia Sytnyk, 59, also voted for the incumbent despite her doubts about him.

[Poroshenko] appeals to me because he has some weight on the international arena, she told Al Jazeera. But if Zelensky wins, it will not be a tragedy for the country because the important thing is that our country is already on the right path.

But the majority of the population holds Poroshenko responsible for the governments failure to tackle endemic corruption and deteriorating living conditions.

Volodymyr Hryhorovych, 70, said Poroshenkos government was corrupt to the core and Ukraine needed a complete overhaul of the system.

I voted for Zelensky in both rounds, because [under Poroshenko] five years have passed and almost nothing changed. With Zelensky, at least there is hope that this new authority will not be corrupt.

Volodymyr Zelensky

More than 72 percent of voters are expected to support the comic, who has been playing a corruption-busting president on TV for the last three years.

In the first round of voting held on March 31, Zelensky came first among 39 presidential candidates with more than 30 percent of ballots  double what Poroshenko secured.

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The millionaire comic of Jewish descent benefited from the support of Ukrainians seemingly tired of mainstream politicians.

The father of two from the industrial city of Krivy Rig in central Ukraine has shunned campaign rallies in favour of comedy shows, and prefers to get his message across through YouTube clips and social media updates.

Many people fear if Zelensky becomes president, the country will be run from the shadows by self-exiled oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.

Kolomoisky, who has been living in Israel since Ukraine started investigating alleged financial wrongdoings in his now-nationalised PrivatBank, owns the television channel that airs Zelenskys shows.A series of bombings struck churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday killing more than 250 people.

A series of coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday rocked Sri Lanka, killing at least 257 people (with the death toll revised down from 359 by authorities) and wounding 500 others.

The attacks were the deadliest on the island nation since the end of its civil war 10 years ago, and targeted three churches as well as four hotels in the capital, Colombo.

Nearly all victims were Sri Lankan, many of them Christian worshippers attending Easter mass. Dozens of foreigners were also killed.

Authorities said the attacks were carried out by two little-known Muslim organisations.

Here are the latest updates:

Thursday, May 2:

Sri Lanka attacks death toll rises to 257

The death toll from the Easter suicide bomb attacks has risen to 257, authorities said, warning that the final number of dead would rise further.

The death toll stands at 257 as of now, Anil Jasinghe, government director general of health services, told the AFP news agency.

According to the latest count, 496 injured were admitted to hospitals, with 47 still being treated and 12 of those in intensive care.

Catholic services in Colombo cancelled for second week

Catholic services are being cancelled for a second weekend in Sri Lankas capital after the government warned of more possible attacks.

Revered Edmund Tillakaratne, spokesperson for the Colombo diocese, said on Thursday that Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith cancelled all Sunday services in the diocese based on the latest security reports.

Last week, Muslims were told to stay home for Friday prayers and all of Sri Lankas Catholic churches were closed. Instead of the usual Sunday Mass, Ranjith delivered a homily before clergy and national leaders at his residence that aired on television.

Tuesday, April 30:

Saudi embassy advises Saudis to leave Sri Lanka

Saudi Arabia advised its nationals to leave Sri Lanka, Al Ekhbariya state TV said, citing the kingdoms embassy in Colombo.





Due to the current security situation in the Republic of Sri Lanka, the embassy advises citizens in Sri Lanka to leave, the embassy said in a tweet.

Sri Lankan minister warns of more attacks

Rajitha Senaratne, Sri Lankas minister of health, said he and seven others have received intelligence that the group behind the Easter Sunday bombings could strike again

Senaratne said government ministers were warned that they have been identified as targets of possible additional suicide attacks.

He said he was told by intelligence officials to stay at home on Sunday and Monday because of the threat of another attack.

Sri Lanka to resume mass on Sunday: cardinal

Sri Lankas Catholic Church said public mass will resume on Sunday, two weeks after Easter Sunday bombings killed 253 people at three churches and three luxury hotels.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, has been a vocal critic of the governments apparent failure to share near-specific intelligence [Danish Siddiqui/Reuters]

On the 5th of May we are going to begin masses, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told AFP on Tuesday. But we will start with a smaller number of masses and see if we can slowly increase it depending on how the situation develops.

US warns of more possible attacks

The United States believes members of the group blamed for Sri Lankas Easter Sunday attacks may be at large and planning more assaults, the US ambassador to Sri Lanka said on Tuesday.





We do believe that the terrorist threat is ongoing and there may be active plotters. Active members of the attack group that carried out the terror attacks on Easter Sunday may still be at large, Ambassador Alaina Teplitz told Reuters in an interview.

We certainly have reason to believe that the active attack group has not been fully rendered inactive. We do believe that there is active planning underway.

Sri Lanka lifts social media ban

Sri Lankas president has lifted a nationwide social media ban that was imposed after the Easter suicide bomb attacks that killed over 250 people.

A government statement on Tuesday said that President Maithripala Sirisena had lifted the ban that blocked Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and other popular sites.

It asked the public to act in a responsible manner on social media.

At least 42 foreigners dead: Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan authorities have identified 42 foreign nationals among the 253 people killed in the string of Easter suicide bombings, officials said on Tuesday.

Another 12 foreigners remain unaccounted for and could be among still unidentified bodies at Colombos police morgue, foreign ministry officials said.

Monday, April 29:

Tourist arrivals to drop by 50 percent: Tourism chief

Tourist arrivals in Colombo are expected to fall by 50 percent in the next two months following the Easter bombings that killed more than 250 people, Sri Lankas Tourism Development Authority Chairman Kishu Gomes said on Monday.





Tourist arrivals in areas outside Colombo will drop by about 30 percent over the same period, he added.

Sri Lanka police chief refuses to quit

Sri Lankas incumbent police chief has refused to step down over the Easter attacks despite President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday naming his successor.

Sirisena said on Friday that police chief Pujith Jayasundara had resigned but Jayasundara never sent the letter, officials said, and has remained in his government residence.

The president has now named Deputy Inspector-General Chandana Wickramaratne as acting police chief, an official involved in the process said.

Sri Lanka on alert

Sri Lankan security officials have warned that those behind Easter Sundays deadly suicide bombings were planning more attacks imminently, using a van and bombers disguised in military uniforms.

There could be another wave of attacks, the head of ministerial security division (MSD), a unit of the police, said in a letter to politicians and security officials seen by Reuters on Monday.

The relevant information further notes that persons dressed in military uniforms and using a van could be involved in the attacks, the letter said.

The government had said it was seeking to curb the spread of misinformation when it blocked social media after the attacks [Manish Swarup/AP]

Sri Lanka bans face coverings

President Maithripala Sirisena has banned all kinds of face coverings that may conceal peoples identities a week after the Easter Sunday bombings.

No one should obscure their faces to make identification difficult, a statement from presidential office said.

The law that takes effect from Monday did not specifically name veils worn by many Muslim women.

Sunday, April 28:

Cardinal fears attacks probe may flop

The head of Sri Lankas Roman Catholic Church has expressed concern that an official investigation into the Easter bombings will end up being a flop.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith slammed what he described as Sri Lankas culture of impunity, saying many high-profile assassinations over the past 30 years remained largely unsolved.

There is a certain amount of suspicion among our people that there will be no more follow-up, only words If they [the authorities] are sincere, they must have a thorough investigation, he said.

The cardinal said he had heard that President Maithripala Sirisena had appointed a commission of inquiry into the massacre.





Most attackers killed or arrested: PM

Sri Lankan forces have killed or arrested most of those linked to the Easter suicide bombings and the country is ready to return to normality, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

But the prime minister said the government had planned tougher laws to deal with extremists and foreign clerics teaching in Sri Lanka illegally will be expelled.

The Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people were carried out by a small, but a well-organised group, Wickremesinghe said in a statement.

Most of them have been arrested. Some have died, he said. Now we are able to return to normality. We should all now help restore the normal life of the community.

Security personnel stand guard in front of St Anthonys Shrine [Danish Siddiqui/Reuters]

Wickremesinghe added jihad terrorism must be ended immediately.

There are several foreigners working as teachers in our country without work visas. In consultation with the Muslim religious affairs ministry and the home ministry, we will expel them from the country, he said.

Wickremesinghe did not give a number or the nationalities of the clerics. The prime minister also thanked the minority Muslim community for tipping off authorities about dangerous individuals.

Sri Lankan police raid National Thowheed Jamath HQ

Armed police have raided the headquarters of the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), suspected of being behind the suicide bombings on churches and hotels that killed more than 250 people, a Reuters witness said.

The raid took place at the NTJs base in the eastern town of Kattankudy a day after the group was banned under new emergency laws.





Police believe that Zahran Hashim, the alleged mastermind of the Easter Sunday attacks, led the group or a splinter faction to mount the attacks in Colombo as well as on a church in Batticaloa in the east.

Father, brothers of bombings mastermind killed: Relative, police

The father and two brothers of the suspected mastermind of Easter Sunday bombings were killed when security forces stormed their safe house two days ago, police sources and a relative of the suicide bombers have told Reuters news agency.

Zainee Hashim, Rilwan Hashim and their father Mohamed Hashim, who were seen in a social media video calling for all-out war against non believers, were among 15 killed in a fierce gun battle with the military on the east coast on Friday, four police sources said.

Niyaz Sharif, brother-in-law of Zahran Hashim, the suspected ringleader of Sunday bombings, told Reuters the video showed Hashims two brothers and father.

Cardinal calls suicide attacks insult to humanity

Sri Lankas Roman Catholic leader has condemned the Easter attacks as an insult to humanity as the tense and grief-stricken country marks a week from the suicide attack.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, held a private mass after cancelling all public services amid fears of a repeat of the bombings that killed 253 people.

A heavily-guarded vigil was held outside St Anthonys Shrine in Colombo at 8:45am, the moment a bomber struck the church last week, killing dozens of worshippers.

A candle burns outside St. Anthonys Shrine a week after the suicide attacks [Thomas Peter/Reuters]

Security high as Sri Lanka marks one week from attacks

The tense and grief-stricken South Asian country has marked a week since suicide bombers attacked three churches and four hotels.

The Sri Lankan military is still hunting for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS)-linked fighters and security across the country remains high.

Thousands of Sri Lankan troops remained on the streets, guarding churches and mosques for the symbolic day.

Saturday, April 27:

Sri Lanka bans two groups linked to Easter bombings

President Sirisena has banned two groups linked to the Easter bombings  the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim (JMI)  under emergency powers that came into effect on Tuesday.

Dharmasri Ekanayake, a spokesman for the president, said the move allowed the government to confiscate any property belonging to the two organisations.

Relatives of suicide bombings mastermind wounded in gun battle

The wife and a daughter of the suspected mastermind behind the suicide attacks on churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka were wounded in a gun battle in the east of the country, according to police and the suspects sister.

The shootout took place at a safe house on Friday in Sainthamaruthu in the Ampara district as police hunted for people linked to Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran, who has been named as the ringleader of the Easter Sunday bombings.

I was asked to come to identify them but I am not sure I can go, Mohamed Hashim Mathaniya, sister of Zahran, told Reuters from the town of Kattankudy in the east.

Security personnel seen at the site of an overnight gun battle between troops and suspected fighters on the east coast of Sri Lanka, in Kalmunai [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Indian police uncovered a plot, but Sri Lanka didnt act

Indian police stumbled upon a detailed plot for the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Police managed to break into National Towheed Jamaths communications and began tapping into the plot, according to Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi.

That is why the kind of detailing of the incident they received was very, very specific, Sahni said. They knew the group, they knew the targets, they knew the time, they knew the whereabouts of the suicide bombers, and all of this was communicated to the Sri Lankan government.

Top Sri Lankan officials have acknowledged that some of the island nations intelligence units were given advance notice about the attacks and that little was done to prevent them.

Pakistans under-19 cricket teams visit postponed

Sri Lanka has postponed a tour of Pakistans under-19 team following the Easter Sunday bombings, a source at the national cricket board told Reuters news agency.

The Pakistan under-19 side, captained by Rohail Nazir, was scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka on April 30 to play two four-day matches, followed by three one dayers.

Police chief refusing to quit despite presidents request

Pujith Jayasundara, Sri Lankas police chief, has refused a request by President Sirisena to step down over the failure to thwart the Easter Sunday attacks, two sources at the presidents office told Reuters.

Sirisena blamed Jayasundara and Hemasiri Fernando, the defence secretary, for not sharing advance warnings of the attacks with him.

Fernando resigned earlier in the week, but Jayasundara was holding on, the two officials told Reuters news agency. Under Sri Lankas constitution, only parliament can remove the police chief.

Girl, woman survive bloody Sri Lanka raid

A girl and a woman survived a fiery explosion at a suspected safe house in eastern Sri Lanka that killed 15 people during a raid linked to the Easter bombings.

Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara said the woman and girl are critically injured and are being treated at a nearby hospital in Ampara District.

Security forces have been clearing the safe house following an overnight gunbattle between soldiers and suspects. Authorities say the suspects set off three explosions and opened fire.

Fifteen dead in overnight raid on suspects hideout

Fifteen people, including six children, have died during a Sri Lankan security forces operation as three suicide bombers blow themselves up and others were shot dead, police said.

The three men set off explosives, also killing three women and six children inside what was believed to a safe house near the eastern town of Kalmunai on Friday night.

Three other men, also believed to be suicide bombers, were found dead outside the house, police said in a statement, adding that they had been shot.

Read more here

Security forces sealed off the site of an overnight gun battle in Kalmunai [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Friday, April 26:

Soldiers in gun battle with Easter bombings suspects

Soldiers were engaged in a gun battle with suspects after attempting to raid a building in Sri Lankas Eastern Province as part of an ongoing investigation into the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks, a military spokesman said.

The clashes took place in the coastal town of Sammanthurai, 325km from Colombo, according to Brigadier Sumith Atapattu.

Police found suicide vests, detonators, metal balls and an ISIL banner, according to Al Jazeeras Minelle Fernandez.

Journalists allowed in to bombed Colombo church

Catholic priests allowed journalists inside St Anthonys Church in the capital for the first time since it was targeted on Easter Sunday.

Broken glass littered the sanctuarys damaged pews and blood still stained the floor. Shoes left by panicked worshippers remained in the darkened church, and broken bottles of holy water and flowers were strewn on the floor.

A clergyman talks to the media inside St. Anthonys Shrine [Thomas Peter/Reuters]

Catholic churches cancel all Sunday masses

The Archbishop of Colombo said there will be no Sunday masses until further notice after the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith appealed for financial support to rebuild the lives of the affected people and reconstruct the churches targeted in the bombings.

I assured the Muslim community not to have any fears after the attacks, he said, adding that all four major religions in Sri Lanka have a very good relationship.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, attends a news conference at his residence in Colombo [Thomas Peter/ Reuters]

Sri Lanka fears $1.5bn tourism losses

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka could drop by up to 30 percent in the wake of Easter Sunday bombings, with losses of $1.5bn this year.

Tourism will be the worst affected, Samaraweera told reporters. We expect a 30 percent drop in arrivals and that means a loss of about $1.5 billion in foreign exchange.

Samaraweera said the country could take up to two years to fully recover the attacks

Every household in the country will be checked

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has revealed his short and long-term measures to bring back normalcy to the island nation coming to terms with the Easter bombings.

Every household in the country will be checked. The lists of permanent residents of every house will be established to ensure no unknown person could live anywhere, he said, pointing out that during the fight against LTTE, similar methods were adopted.

Sirisena acknowledged a serious lapse on the part of the countrys defence secretary and top police official, who failed to inform him about an April 4 letter from a friendly foreign country warning about a possible attack.

A Muslim walks past a banner on a mosque wall during the Friday prayers in Colombo [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Guarded by soldiers, Sri Lankas Muslims pray for peace

As soldiers armed with assault rifles guarded Colombos golden-domed Kollupitiya Jummah Masjid, hundreds of Muslims defied government calls to stay at home and attended a service they said was focused on a call for people of all religions to help return peace to Sri Lanka.

We work with Christians, Buddhists, Hindus. It has been a threat for all of us because of what these few people have done to this beautiful country, said 28-year-old sales worker Raees Ulhaq.

Every day since this carnage happened, me, my family, and all, we are praying to God, please bring us peace, Abdul Waheed Mohamed, a 43-year-old engineer, said after leaving the Friday prayers.

Muslims attend prayers at the Kollupitiya Jummah Masjid in Colombo [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Police wrongly identify American Muslim over attack

Sri Lankan police have been left red-faced after wrongly identifying female American Muslim activist Amara Majeed as a suspect in the deadly Easter bombings.

Police issued a flyer with the names and photos of six wanted people, including one Abdul Cader Fathima Khadhiya, whose photo showed Majeed in a headscarf.

Hello everyone! I have this morning been FALSELY identified by the Sri Lankan government as one of the ISIS Easter attackers in Sri Lanka, Majeed wrote on her Facebook page.

Police later said the photo alongside Khadhiya was not of the suspect.

Easter attack leader died in hotel bombing: President

The suspected leader believed to have played a key role in Sri Lankas deadly Easter bombings has died, President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday.

What intelligence agencies have told me is that Zahran was killed during the Shangri-La attack, Sirisena told reporters, referring to Zahran Hashim (also called Mohamed Zahran), leader of a local Muslim hardline group.

Sri Lanka police chief resigns: President

Sri Lankas top police official, Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, has resigned over failures that led to the deadly Easter bomb attacks, the countrys president said on Friday.

Ill nominate a new IGP soon, President Maithripala Sirisena told reporters.

Sirisenas nominee has to be confirmed by a constitutional council.

The resignation comes after the countrys top defence ministry official, defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando resigned on Thursday.

Police looking for 140 people with ISIL links

Sri Lankan police is looking for 140 people with links to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS), according to President Maithripala Sirisena.

Sirisena told reporters on Friday that some Sri Lankan youth had been involved with the group since 2013, and that top defence and police chiefs had not shared information with him about the impending attacks.

Increased security amid threats of further attacks

Heavy security is out on the streets of Sri Lankas capital after warnings of further attacks.

At St. Anthonys Church, one of those struck in the attacks on Easter Sunday, there were more soldiers than normal on Friday. Shops nearby remained closed.

Authorities told Muslims to pray at home rather than attend communal Friday prayers.

A soldier stands guard outside the Grand Mosque in Negombo, Sri Lanka [Reuters]

Thursday, April 25:

Death toll revised down to 253

Sri Lankas health ministry has revised the death toll from Sundays bombings down from 359 to 253 saying some of the badly mutilated bodies had been double-counted.

In a statement, the ministry said once all autopsies were completed and cross-referenced with DNA samples, an earlier toll released by the police was reduced by 106.

The ministry did not break down the new tally in terms of locals and foreigners.

UK warns against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka

The British foreign office has advised UK citizens against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka, warning terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in the country.

Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners, the updated travel advice said.

Following the horrific attacks on Easter Sunday, and the ongoing Sri Lankan security operation, I have  decided to update the travel advice to British nationals to Sri Lanka to advise against all but essential travel, said Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary.

Father of suspected Easter suicide bombers arrested

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told The Associated Press news agency that the father of two of Sundays alleged suicide bombers has been arrested on suspicion of aiding his sons in carrying out the attacks.

Wickremesinghe said the father is a leading businessman and active in politics.

He also warned that some people believed by authorities to be linked with the attacks were still at large and may possess explosives, despite police having already detained a lot of suspects.

A Sri Lankan navy soldier searches a truck at a check point in Colombo [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Defence secretary steps down

Hemasiri Fernando, Sri Lankas defence secretary, has resigned following the security forces failure to stop the deadly church and hotel attacks on Easter Sunday.

He said that while there had been no failure on his own part, he was taking responsibility for failures of some institutions he headed as the secretary of defence.

I decided to resign on my own volition, he told Sri Lankan channel News First. Until a suitable person is found, I will continue to help. I dont think there were failures at the defence ministry. But some agencies under the ministrys purview appear to have failed in coordination.

The office of Sri Lankas President Maithripala Sirisena confirmed Fernando would serve in the post until a replacement is appointed.

Muslim refugees in Negombo attacked

Sri Lankas prime minister told The Associated Press news agency that minority Ahmadi Muslims who are refugees from Pakistan have faced attacks since the Easter bombings.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said security forces were trying to help the Ahmadis but a few have been attacked due to some people becoming suspicious of foreigners, not of Muslims per se  in the heat of the moment.

About 500 Ahmadis have fled their homes in Negombo and are living some 30 kilometres away under police protection. Others are living under police and military protection at the Ahmadi mosque in Negombo.

A member of the Civil Defence Force keeps watch outside Negombo Grand Mosque [Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters]

US embassy tells people to avoid places of worship in Sri Lanka

The US embassy in Sri Lanka warned people against attending places of worship this weekend following warnings from local authorities over possible additional attacks on such locations.

Continue to remain vigilant and avoid large crowds, the embassy cautioned in a post on Twitter.

Sri Lankan authorities are reporting that additional attacks may occur targeting places of worship. Avoid these areas over the weekend, starting tomorrow, April 26th through Sunday, April 28th. Continue to remain vigilant and avoid large crowds. #srilanka pic.twitter.com/4kjd57Dcty  U.S. Embassy Colombo (@USEmbSL) April 25, 2019

Authorities urge media caution on bomb attacks coverage

Authorities in Sri Lanka asked media organisations reporting on developments related to Sundays attacks to only use material confirmed by official spokespeople for police, the armed forces, or the Department of Government Information.

A notice issued by the department said caution was necessary to prevent the spread of false information.

The guidelines came as the Sri Lankan government maintained a social media ban, saying it would stop the spread of false reports that might incite violence.

A soldier stands guard at St. Anthonys Shrine in Colombo [Thomas Peter/Reuters]

Catholic church services suspended

All Catholic churches in the country have been instructed to stay closed and suspend services until security improves, the AFP news agency reported. There will be no religious gatherings at Catholic churches on Thursday.

On the advice of the security forces we are keeping all churches closed, a priest told AFP.

Security has been beefed up for Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and for the Bishops House in Colombo, sources have told Al Jazeera.

Sri Lanka suspends visa-free plan for 39 countries

Sri Lankas government said Thursday it was suspending plans to grant citizens of 39 countries visa-free entry during the countrys tourism low season in the wake of the deadly Easter bombings.

Investigations have revealed foreign links to the [Easter] attacks and we dont want this programme to be abused, Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said in a statement.

Israel tells citizens to leave Sri Lanka

Israel urged its citizens travelling in Sri Lanka to leave the country, citing an elevated concrete threat following bomb attacks on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.

Israels counter-terrorism bureau said it was issuing the warning in view of the deterioration in the security situation and the fear that the events have not yet ended or that there is a chance of their recurrence in the near future.

A coffin containing the body of Kaori Takahashi, a Japanese woman killed in the bombings in Sri Lanka, arrives at Narita international airport in Japan [Kyodo/via Reuters]

Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath denies involvement in attacks

Sri Lanka Thowheed Jamath, which is separate from the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) group linked to the Easter Sunday attacks, has condemned the reprehensible acts of violence in the country.

The evil crimes perpetrated through serial blasts can never be justified by any means, and the resultant catastrophe, mainly the loss of lives and suffering, only brings immense pain and heartache to everyone in Sri Lanka and around the globe, the organisation said in a statement.

Minor explosion in Pugoda

A minor explosion has occurred in the town of Pugoda, about 40km east of the capital Colombo, according to police and residents.

No casualties were reported in the blast near a magistrates court.

Authorities ban use of drones

Sri Lankas civil aviation authority has banned the use of drones and other unmanned aircraft in its airspace until further notice.

Wednesday, April 24:

Sri Lanka president asks security officials to stand down

Sri Lankas president has moved to replace the defence secretary and the national police chief after security forces failed to act on warnings before the Easter suicide bombings.

President Maithripala Sirisenas office announced that he requested the resignations of defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando and Inspector General of Police, Pujith Jayasundara. It wasnt immediately clear who would replace them.

A Muslim group in Sri Lanka says it alerted security officials about one of the suspects in the Easter Sunday bombings  three years ago. pic.twitter.com/KKu8Zch4Px  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 24, 2019

Sri Lanka police defuse bombs

Sri Lankas Special Task Force in the Katana area successfully defused an explosive device, police sources told Al Jazeera. The region, some 6.7 kilometres from Katuwapitiya, was the scene of one of the Easter Sunday attacks.

Police also attempted to defuse a second bomb before it detonated in Pettah, a neighbourhood in Colombo. The device was attached to an unattended motorcycle, according to police.

Sri Lanka Muslim groups denounce attackers

Sri Lankas Muslim civil society movements and associations called upon authorities to immediately arrest and punish the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday bombings, saying extremism in the name of Islam does not represent the religion.

The groups  including All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, the Muslim Council, Jamaathe Islami, the Memon Association of Sri Lanka and Anjuman-E Saifi  said in a joint statement that authorities should also apprehend those who aided and abetted the attackers through incitement, financing and other support.

The statement added that neither the National Thowheed Jamath, a little-known local Muslim organisation blamed for the bombings by the government, nor any other group found to be responsible for the attacks represent Islam or reflect Muslim beliefs.

Buddhist monks take part in a prayer ceremony for the victims in Colombo [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Leader among nine suicide bombers: Minister

The leader of one of the groups behind the Easter Sunday attacks was believed to be one of the suicide bombers, which also included a woman, state minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardena said.

Speaking at a news conference in Colombo, Wijewardena said security forces believed that the bombers were well educated individuals, adding that one of them studied in the UK and Australia.

Wijewardena said there were nine suicide bombers, of which eight have been identified. Two safe houses were found after the attacks and at least 60 people were arrested in connection with the bombings, the minister added.

Death toll rises to 359

The death toll from the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka has risen to 359, police said.

Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekera released the toll on Wednesday but did not give a breakdown of casualties from the three churches and four hotels hit by suicide bombers.

Tuesday, April 23:

President to change defence heads after attacks

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said he expected to change the heads of the countrys defence forces within a day following their failure to prevent the Easter Sunday bombings, despite the fact they had prior information about the attacks.

I will completely restructure the police and security forces in the coming weeks. I expect to change the heads of defence establishments within next 24 hours, Sirisena said in a televised address to the nation.

The security officials who got the intelligence report from a foreign nation did not share it with me. Appropriate actions would have been taken. I have decided to take stern action against these officials.

ISIL claims responsibility

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group has claimed responsibility for the bombings via its Amaq news portal.

Those who carried out the attack that targeted the citizens of the coalition and Christians in Sri Lanka the day before yesterday were Islamic State fighters, the group said in a statement.

In a later statement, the group gave the noms de guerre of seven people who it said were behind the blessed attack that targeted Christians during their blasphemous holiday, referring to Easter. It also released a photo of eight men it said were behind the blasts.

A man mourns at a grave of a victim at Sellakanda Catholic cemetery in Negombo [Thomas Peter/Reuters]

Sri Lanka PM warns more explosives out there

Sri Lankas Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned more explosives and would-be attackers remain out there after Sundays bombings.

Wickremesinghe told reporters at a press conference that some officials were likely to lose their jobs over intelligence lapses surrounding the attacks and acknowledged there was a prior warning about the bombings.

He added that Indias embassy was eyed as a potential target.

Ardern aware of comments on NZ-Sri Lanka links

The office of New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement she was aware of comments linking Sri Lankas bombings to the mosque attacks last month in Christchurch, in which 50 Muslims were shot dead.

Self-confessed white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, 28, has been charged with 50 counts of murder over the mosque shootings.

Arderns office also added that it understood the Sri Lankan investigation into the attack is in its early stages.

Nuns attend a prayer meeting to show solidarity with the victims of Sri Lankas bomb blasts, outside a church in Kolkata, India [Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters]

FBI assisting Sri Lanka authorities with probe

A spokeswoman for the United Statess FBI said the law enforcement agency was assisting Sri Lankan authorities with their investigation into the bomb attacks over the Easter weekend, Reuters news agency reported.

The Washington Post had earlier reported that the FBI had offered expertise to test evidence and that analysts were scouring databases for information regarding the attacks.

Suspected suicide bomber caught on camera

New footage of a suspected suicide bomber entering St Sebastians Church in Negombo has emerged online.

In the video, a young bearded man with a backpack can be seen outside the building.

The video does not show the explosion that followed.

#WATCH Colombo: CCTV footage of suspected suicide bomber (carrying a backpack) walking into St Sebastian church on Easter Sunday. #SriLankaBombings (Video courtesy- Siyatha TV) pic.twitter.com/YAe089D72h  ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2019

Two brothers were hotel suicide bombers: AFP sources

Two brothers played a key role in the Easter Sunday blasts, police sources told AFP news agency.

The brothers, sons of a wealthy Colombo spice trader, blew themselves up as guests queued for breakfast at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the capital, the source said.

The sources also said that a fourth hotel was targeted in the string of bombings, but the attack failed.

At least 45 children killed in Sri Lanka attacks: UN

At least 45 children were among the more than 320 people killed in the bomb attacks, the UN said.

The total now is 45 children who died, UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac told reporters in Geneva.

He added that the toll could rise as many other minors are wounded and are now fighting for their lives in intensive care units across the country.

Mass funerals were taking place in Negombo, two days after the attacks [Thomas Peter/Reuters]

Attacks in retaliation for Christchurch: dep. defence minister

An initial probe into deadly suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka shows it was retaliation for Christchurch, the countrys state minister of defence said.

The preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch, Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament.

Fifty people were killed in shooting attacks on two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15.

A little known Muslim organisation, National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), has been linked to the worst attacks on the Indian Ocean island since its civil war ended a decade ago.

Wijewardene said that along with NTJ, another local group, Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim (JMI) was also believed to be involved in the attacks.

It was done by National Thowheed Jamath along with JMI, he said.

Death toll climbs to 321: Defence minister

The death toll of the Easter Sunday bombings has climbed further to 321, state Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene announced.

Speaking in parliament in Colombo, Wijewardene said the toll included 38 foreigners.

About 375 people are still being treated in hospital.

Mass burial for bombings victims

The first mass burial for the victims of the Easter Sunday bombings took place in Colombo.

Mourners and relatives of the victims brought flowers to the memorial service and prayed with the clergy as coffins were being carried in and out of the church.

Funeral ceremonies were held in Negombo for the victims of the attacks [Chamila Karunarathne/Anadolu]

Death toll reaches 310

The death toll from Sri Lankas Easter Sunday bombings has now reached 310 with several people succumbing to their injuries, according to a police spokesperson.

About 500 people were wounded in the blasts, Ruwan Gunasekera said in a statement, adding that 40 people were now under arrest in connection with the attacks.

Tuesday has been declared a national day of mourning in Sri Lanka.

State of emergency enforced

Sri Lanka has been placed under a state of emergency as authorities aimed to maintain security and essential services during investigations into the bombings.

President Maithripala Sirisena made the declaration which gives security forces special powers, including the right to search and arrest individuals.

The country is also observing April 23 as a national day of mourning, a decision taken during a meeting of the National Security Council chaired by President Sirisena.

Sri Lanka's health minister has revealed that parts of the government were warned on April 4 of a potential attack. pic.twitter.com/FjoG1KemI5  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 22, 2019

We never expected this

A man whose Australian wife and only child died in a bomb blast in a Sri Lanka church on Sunday said he walked out ahead of his family moments before the explosion.

Sudesh Kolonne saw his 10-year-old daughter Alexendria dead on the floor of St Sebastian Catholic Church. Her mother Manik Suriaaratchi was also killed.

I dont know what to do, Kolonne told Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

We used to go to that church every Sunday. We never expected this.

Monday, April 22:

Sri Lanka military granted special powers

Sri Lankas President Maithripala Sirisena declared a nationwide emergency from midnight onward on Monday, giving the military a wider berth to detain and arrest suspects  powers that were used during the civil war, but withdrawn when it ended.

The presidents media unit said the measure would be confined to dealing with terrorism and would not impinge on freedom of expression.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, meanwhile, said he feared Sundays massacre could unleash instability, and he vowed to vest all necessary powers with the defence forces to act against those responsible.

A woman mourns next to two coffins during a mass burial at a cemetery near St. Sebastians Church in Negombo [Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters]

Thirty-one foreign nationals killed

The bodies of 31 foreign nationals killed on Sunday have been identified, Sri Lankas foreign ministry said in a statement, with 14 others unaccounted for and feared dead.

Among those killed were eight Indian nationals, eight United Kingdom nationals, two Saudi Arabian nationals and two Chinese nationals.

Sadly, we can now confirm that at least 8 British Nationals were killed in yesterdays horrific attacks in #Srilanka. Our deepest condolences go to all those who lost loved ones and have been affected by this tragedy.  UK in Sri Lanka (@UKinSriLanka) April 22, 2019

The ministry also said 17 foreign nationals wounded in the attacks were receiving treatment at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka in Colombo and a separate private hospital in the capital.

Nearly 300 people were killed in Sundays attacks [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Spanish foreign ministry confirms two nationals killed

Spains foreign ministry said two Spanish nationals were killed in the Sri Lanka bombings.

The ministry said in a statement that a man and a woman had died, without providing further details.

The Spanish embassy in India is trying to obtain their death certificates, the ministrys statement said.

Four United States nationals killed: State Department

At least four US nationals were killed in the Sri Lanka attacks, AFP news agency reported, citing an unnamed official from the US State Department.

Several other US citizens were also seriously injured in the assault on churches and luxury hotels, the official said.

UN: Evil must be held accountable

The evil perpetrators of the attacks must be held accountable for their actions, a spokesperson for the current president of the United Nations General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, said.

Espinosas spokesperson called the attacks senseless acts of violence and also said there is no justification for terrorism and the world must unite to tackle it once for all.

The bodies of 31 foreign nationals killed on Sunday have been identified, according to Sri Lankas foreign ministry [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Sri Lankas UN ambassador urges social media caution

Amrith Rohan Perera, Sri Lankas ambassador to the United Nations, urged Sri Lankans overseas to to use social media responsibly in the wake of the Easter Sunday attacks.

Pereras statement on Monday came after his government shut down most social sites within the island nation, a move the ambassador said would help prevent speculative and mischievous attempts to spread rumours until investigations are concluded.

Trump calls Sri Lankan PM

US President Donald Trump called Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to express his condolences.

Trump pledged the United States support in bringing the perpetrators of the attacks to justice, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said.

Three churches were targeted in Sundays attacks [File: AP]

Opposition MP denounces intelligence-sharing accusations

Namal Rajapaksa, an opposition member of the Sri Lankan parliament for the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, told Al Jazeera the aftermath of the attacks must not become a political game.

We are shocked to hear that the prime minister is claiming that he wasnt aware of the security threat and of course trying to play the initial blame game and put the blame on to the president or the armed forces, this is not acceptable, the government and the prime minister are part of one government, they are part of one coalition, Rajapaksa said.

We want to keep the political differences aside, but we want the government to work together, the president and the prime minister, and take action because it is clearly a lack of security that has taken place here, he added.

Interpol sends team to Sri Lanka

International criminal police organisation Interpol said it was deploying a team of investigators, including experts in disaster-victim identification, to Sri Lanka in order to assist local authorities.

The Incident Response Team, sent at the request of local authorities, also includes specialists with expertise in crime scene examination, explosives, [and] counter-terrorism, Interpol said in a statement.

The #INTERPOL Incident Response Team being deployed to #SriLanka includes specialists with expertise in crime scene examination, explosives, counter-#terrorism, disaster victim identification and analysis. pic.twitter.com/sqfG5gLVEg  INTERPOL (@INTERPOL_HQ) April 22, 2019

The families and friends of the victims of these bombings, as with every terrorist attack, require and deserve the full support of the global law enforcement community, Jurgen Stock, Interpols secretary general, said.

Five Indian political party workers killed

At least five workers from an Indian political party on a break after working on Indias general election were among those killed in Sri Lanka, a government official told Reuters news agency.

Another two from a seven-member group from the Janata Dal (Secular) party were missing, the official said.

The group was on an outing after voting took place on Thursday in Indias general election in the southern state of Karnataka and were staying at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo.

Pompeo vows fight on Islamic radical terrorism

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States will keep fighting radical Islamic terror in the wake of the Sri Lanka attacks.

Radical Islamic terror remains a threat, Pompeo told reporters. This is Americas fight, too.

The US State Department has warned of further attacks in Sri Lanka in a revised travel advisory, urging increased caution and adding, Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan police clear an area in Colombo, Sri Lanka [Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Pope condemns inhuman acts

Pope Francis called for universal condemnation of what he said were terrorist acts, inhuman acts that could never be justified.

It was the second straight day that the Roman Catholic pope condemned the attacks, which hit many Christians on the most important Christian feast day.

Google searches for Notre Dame outnumbered Sri Lanka attacks 7:1

The fire that ravaged Frances iconic Notre Dame Cathedral received seven times more searches on Google than the bombings that rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday and killed nearly 300 people.

According to data retrieved from Google Trends, search results for both disasters have since plateaued, but comparisons between both stories reveal that worldwide search interest was at least seven times greater for the keywords Notre Dame over Sri Lanka during this past week.

Blast near church while Sri Lanka bomb squad was trying to defuse device  witness

An explosion went off in a van near St Anthonys church in Colombo, where scores were killed on Monday when bomb squad officials were trying to defuse an explosive, a witness told Reuters news agency.

The van exploded when the bomb defusing unit tried to defuse the bomb, the witness said. Security forces spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

No injuries have been reported.

Bomb detonators found at Colombo bus station: police

Police said they had found 87 bomb detonators at a Colombo bus station.

A statement said police found the detonators at the Bastian Mawatha Private bus stand, 12 of them scattered on the ground and another 75 in a garbage dump nearby.

Sri Lanka to seek help tracking international links to attacks

President Maithripala Sirisena will ask for foreign assistance to track international links to the Easter Sunday bombings, his office said.

The intelligence reports (indicate) that foreign terrorist organisations are behind the local terrorists. Therefore, the president is to seek the assistance of the foreign countries, it said in a statement.

April 23 declared day of national mourning

Sri Lankas government has declared Tuesday, April 23 a day of national mourning, the Presidents Media Division announced.

Sri Lanka government orders new curfew

Authorities have ordered a new curfew in Colombo on Monday from 8pm to 4am on Tuesday, the Government Information Department announced.

The department said tensions remained high in the capital following Sundays bombings.

Health minister: National Thowheed Jamath involved in bombings

Cabinet spokesperson and health minister Rajitha Senaratne blamed the bombings on National Thowheed Jamath, a little-known Muslim organisation, without elaborating on evidence.

Speaking at Temple Trees, the official residence of the prime minister, Senaratne said that all the suicide bombers were Sri Lankan nationals, and that police officials were aware of information regarding possible attacks during Easter.

Intelligence reports said that during this Easter period, these types of attacks can take place, and they also mentioned that Christian places of worship and places of tourist interest may be targeted, Senaratne said.

Senaratne said the attacks were carried out with the help of an international network.

We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country, Senaratne said. There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.





Retired Supreme Court judge to head investigation

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a three-member committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate the Easter Sunday bombings.

Judge Vijith Malalgoda will chair the committee, assisted by former Inspector General of Police N K Illangakoon, and P Jayamanna, a retired senior public servant.

Seven suicide bombers carried out church, hotel attacks

A Sri Lankan government forensic analyst told AP news agency that six of the bombings of churches and hotels on Sunday were carried out by seven suicide bombers.

Death toll rises to 290: police

The death toll from the Easter Sunday explosions in Sri Lanka has risen to 290 with almost 500 people wounded, a police spokesperson said on Monday.

The police added that the investigation into the bombings will examine reports that the intelligence community failed to detect or warn of possible suicide attacks before the violence.





Authorities also lifted a curfew that was in place overnight following the bombings. The streets in the capital, Colombo, were largely deserted on Monday morning, with most shops closed and a heavy deployment of soldiers and police.

#Colombo at 8.00 am.

Usually Fort and Pettah roads will be flooded by vehicles at this time.

Literally no vehicles at all in the road. It's like unofficial curfew.#SriLanka #SriLankaAttacks #SriLankaBlasts pic.twitter.com/CPIPbGCu4q  Loshan  ARVLOSHAN (@ARVLoshan) April 22, 2019

More arrests made by the police

Police say they have now arrested at least 24 people in connection with Sundays bombings.

Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara said that the individuals arrested, all locals, were being questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department.

Improvised bomb defused near Colombo airport: police

An improvised pipe bomb discovered close to Colombos main airport has been successfully defused, according to police.

The homemade pipe bomb was found late on Sunday on a road leading towards the main terminal, which remains open with heavy security after deadly attacks on churches and hotels.

Sunday, April 21:

No one can dry our tears today

Sinan M Salahuddins uncle, 43-year-old Mohamed Rishard, was killed when an explosion hit the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo. He was my mentor, my guardian. It is a huge loss for us, he told Al Jazeera.

Rishard, the owner of the automobile dealership Exotic Cars, left behind his wife, three teenage daughters and an 11-year-old son. He started his business from scratch, he was a self-made man and always wanted to help others in need. He was a mentor to many, said 29-year-old Salahuddin.

His wife is devastated  No one can dry our tears today, he said.

Read more here

Police say 13 suspects arrested

Ruwan Gunasekara, a police spokesperson, said 13 suspects have been arrested in connection with the bombings in Sri Lanka

In a statement, Gunasekara said police have obtained a vehicle they suspect was used to transport the suspects into Colombo. Police also found a safe house used by the attackers, the statement added.

Govt alerted to possible attacks before bombings

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has acknowledged that information was there about possible attacks before bomb blasts ripped through churches and hotels in Colombo and two other towns.

While this goes on we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken, he said.

Eight people have so far been arrested in connection with the deadly blasts, Wickremesinghe said.

So far the names that have come up are local, he said, adding that investigators would look into whether the attackers had any overseas links.

Read more here.

Muslim groups condemn attacks

Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the attacks on churches and hotels in the country on Easter Sunday that killed more than 200 people.

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka said it mourns the loss of innocent people in the blasts by violent elements who seek to divide religious and ethnic groups.

People light candles for the victims of Sri Lankas serial bomb blasts in Karachi, Pakistan [Akhtar Soomro/Reuters]

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama , a body of Muslim scholars, said targeting Christian places of worship was unacceptable.

Anglican Bishop of Colombo Diloraj Canagasabay calls for calm following multiple bomb attacks in Sri Lanka #srilanka #lka #EasterSundayAttacks #EasterSundayAttacksLK pic.twitter.com/fzxEEJ0Z51  Colombo Gazette (@colombogazette) April 21, 2019

Indians, Turks, Britons among victims

The nationalities of 11 foreigners killed in the Easter Sunday blasts have been verified, Sri Lankas foreign ministry said.

They include three Indians, one Portuguese national, two Turkish nationals, three British nationals and two holding US and British nationalities.

Nine foreigners were reported missing, the statement added.

Heart-wrenching scenes

Family members of victims were given a chance to identify the bodies of their loved ones, as body bags were lined up outside the St Anthonys Shrine in Colombo late on Sunday evening.

There were absolutely heart-wrenching scenes, said Al Jazeeras Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the church. Hundreds of people were wailing at the top of their voices as families who were looking for missing loved ones were allowed to look at the fatalities from this church.

Many of the people still do not where their loved ones are, she added.





UK says citizens caught in bombings

The British high commissioner to Sri Lanka said the UK government understands that some British citizens were caught in the blasts but it is too soon to say how many might have been affected.

James Dauris urged Britons to get in touch with family members to let them know they are safe.

Two Turkish engineers killed in blasts

Two Turkish citizens were among those killed in bomb blasts at three churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka, according to Turkeys state media service, the Anadolu Agency.

The Turks were engineers working on a project in Sri Lanka, Anadolu reported.

Chinese national killed in attacks

One Chinese national was killed during the attacks on Sri Lankan churches and hotels on Sunday, Chinese state newspaper Peoples Daily said.

Earlier, the state news agency Xinhua said four Chinese nationals were injured, but were in a stable condition in hospital.

Seven suspects arrested

The defence minister says seven suspects linked to the blasts have been arrested as security was stepped up at Sri Lankas international airport.

PM calls emergency meeting

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has convened Sri Lankas top military officials at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council following the blasts. He has also called for an emergency convening of the nations parliament on Monday.

Death toll rises to 185 people

Dr Anil Jasinghe, the health ministrys director-general of health services, told Al Jazeera that 185 people have died in the attacks that targeted different parts of the country. The government has yet to confirm the new death toll.

Temporary social media ban

Sri Lankas government said on Sunday it would impose a temporary social media ban in the wake of the blasts.

Social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, have been blocked.

The government has decided to block all social media platforms in order to prevent incorrect and wrong information being spread. This is only a temporary measure Udaya R Seneviratne, secretary to the president, said in a statement.

#Srilanka: SL Muslim council condemns Sunday's deadly attacks targeting churches, hotels in & around Colombo, & Batticaloa. Over 100 persons killed, several hundred injured. No verified information/official word yet on those behind attacks#lka via @the_hindu #SrilankaBlasts pic.twitter.com/IOPo63Uh4r  Meera Srinivasan (@Meerasrini) April 21, 2019

Nationwide curfew imposed

Sri Lankas government imposed a nationwide curfew on Sunday that police said would go into effect immediately and would last until further notice, in the wake of coordinated attacks.

Overwhelming response at National Blood Centre. Its so overcrowded they cannot control the crowd. Currently they are sending back people who have come after taking down name, contact and blood group. Dont rush there now go leisurely as the crowd subsides #LKA pic.twitter.com/EAvYyr73kH  Usman Ali (@usmanali_la) April 21, 2019

Sri Lankas defence ministry initially said the curfew would be imposed overnight, but the police subsequently said it would go into effect straight away.

Pope condemns Easter attacks

Pope Francis on Sunday condemned attacks that killed at least 156 people in three churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka as such cruel violence and said he was close to the Christian community, hit while celebrating Easter.

The blasts, which hospital and police officials said wounded more than 400 people.

Eighth blast suicide bomb: Police

The eighth blast in a string of explosions that hit Sri Lanka on Sunday was carried out by a suicide bomber and killed three police officers, a police source told AFP news agency.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suicide bomber detonated his explosives when police entered a house in a northern suburb of the capital Colombo to carry out a search.

The upper floor of the house collapsed in the blast, killing the police officers. The blast was the latest in a string targeting mostly hotels and churches that have killed at least 156 people in a single day.

Pictures of destruction

Sri Lanka, a popular tourist destination, is reeling from its worst attacks in a decade.

At least 75 people were killed in attacks on two churches  St Sebastians gothic-style Catholic church north of Colombo and an evangelical church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews and a destroyed roof.

Read more here.

PM condemns bombings

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has condemned the attacks, saying they are  an attempt to make the country and its economy unstable.

On behalf of the Government, I would like to offer my deepest sympathies to the injured persons and the relations of the deceased consequent to the recent attacks occurred this morning, his statement said.

I condemn these attacks which targeted religious places and some hotels. We all should join hands to protect law and order. I have already instructed the Secretary / Defence, Tri Forces Commanders and the Inspector General of Police to take stringent action to ensure law and order in the country, Wickremesinghes statement added.Prime minister says government failed to take adequate precautions despite being warned of potential church attacks.

Sri Lankas government was aware of information regarding a possible attack before a series of deadly bomb blasts rocked hotels and churches in the capital Colombo and two other cities, according to the countrys prime minister.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, speaking to reporters late on Sunday, acknowledged that information was there about possible attacks.

We must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken, he said.

The coordinated assaults, which killed at least 290 people and wounded almost 500 others, was the worst violence in the Indian Ocean island nation since its civil war ended a decade ago.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.

A police spokesman said 13 suspects were arrested in connection to the bombings.

Wickremesinghe said the names that have come up are local, but said investigators will look into whether the attackers had any overseas links. World leaders offered help in the probe, he added.

Al Jazeeras Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Colombo, described the prime ministers statement as a dig at President Maithripala Sirisena, who heads the security forces.





Ties between the two leaders are at an all-time low following Sirisenas sacking of Wickremesinghe in October. The move triggered a weeks-long political crisis that ended only when the Supreme Court overturned that decision.

Turbulent relationship

Fernandez said Wickremesinghes statement on receiving a warning reflects the rather turbulent relationship between the two leaders following Octobers constitutional crisis.

The president retained charge of the police, but the prime minister said neither he nor his ministers had been informed of this information that was available, she said.

For his part, Sirisena earlier on Sunday said he ordered a special police task force and the military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda.

A relative of a victim of the explosion at St Anthonys Shrine mourns at the police mortuary in Colombo [Dinuka Liyanawatte/ Reuters]

The government declared a curfew in Colombo and blocked access to social media messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp. The military was deployed and security was stepped up at Colombos international airport.

Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lankas defence minister, described the bombings as a terrorist attack by religious groups.

We believe these were coordinated attacks, and one group was behind them, he said. Most of the explosions were believed to have been suicide attacks.

Six nearly simultaneous blasts took place in the morning in Colombo at St Anthonys Shrine, just as church services began, and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels. The powerful explosions collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms.

Victims were carried out of blood-spattered pews.

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People were being dragged out, said Bhanuka Harischandra of Colombo, a 24-year-old founder of a tech marketing company who was going to the citys Shangri-La Hotel for a meeting when it was bombed. People didnt know what was going on. It was panic mode.

He added, There was blood everywhere.

Merciless punishment

After a lull of a few hours, two more explosions occurred at St Sebastian Catholic church in Negombo, a mostly Catholic town 37km north of Colombo, and at the Protestant Zion church in the town of Batticaloa, about 300km to the east.

Three police officers were killed while conducting a search at a suspected safe house in Dematagoda, on the outskirts of Colombo, when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, according to the defence minister.

Sri Lankan security personnel walk past dead bodies covered with blankets amid blast debris at St Anthonys Shrine [Ishara S Kodikara/ AFP]

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Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three hotels and one of the churches, St Anthonys Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lankas Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a number of countries were recovered.

The US said several of its citizens were among the dead, while Britain and China said they, too, lost nationals.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on Sri Lankas government to mercilessly punish those responsible because only animals can behave like that.

Bloody civil war

The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of Sri Lankas 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Buddhist-majority country. During the war, the Tigers and other rebels carried out a multitude of bombings. The Tamils are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

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Mangala Karunaratne, a resident of Colombo, said: During the 30 years of civil war we had lots of explosions in Colombo. We are used to the airport getting blown up and the central bank, things like that. But its been 10 years of peace and we got used to that. So thats why its really surprising and shocking.

Rajiva Wijesinha, a former member of Sri Lankas parliament, called the attacks extremely chilling.

The range of these attacks and the concentration on the Christian churches and then the hotels as well suggest we are dealing with something really quite horrible, he said.

Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the church attacks, as did countries around the world. Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.

I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence, Francis said.But opposition alliance says its cutting contact with military council because its not serious about ceding power.

Khartoum, Sudan  Sudans interim leader said the transitional military council that has run the country since the overthrow of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir is committed to handing power to a civilian authority.

But opposition leaders said on Sunday they suspended talking with the military rulers because they didnt believe their pledge to transfer control of the North African country.

The transitional military council is complementary to the uprising and the revolution. The council is committed to handing over power to the people, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told state TV on Sunday.

We are not greedy at all to want to stay in power more than the time we agreed upon with the opposition parties. We are waiting for the opposition to submit their proposal.

But opposition leaders later told supporters at a major rally in the capital Khartoum the military had failed to meet their demands and negotiations would be replaced with further demonstrations.

The military council is still not serious about handing power over to civilians. This [military] council is also representing part of the old regime, said Mohamed al-Amin Abdulaziz, the spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA).

We will continue our protests and we will escalate our protests. We will boycott talks with the military council, he said.



Al-Burhan also said Khartoum will send a delegation to Washington to seek the removal of Sudan from the USs state sponsors of terrorism list.

The United States has asked us to send a delegation for talks regarding the issue of removing Sudans name from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, he said. This delegation has been formed and will travel to the United States this week or next week.

Too much time





Meanwhile, thousands of protesters gathered outside the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, late on Sunday vowing to stay at the sit-in site until a civil government is installed.

Im happy the military council is saying they will hand over power, Amru Ahmed al-Dayib, 41, an oil company technician, told Al Jazeera.

We want them to hand over to people who are independent. I think Burhan is honest. But I will continue with the protest until that happens.

Tafaul Awad, 25, a teaching assistant at Khartoum University, expressed scepticism at the militarys promise.

I dont trust Burhan. We want power to be fully handed to civilians, but Burhan is taking too much time. All indications are he has other intentions. I dont think the military is interested in handing power over to a civilian authority.

Concessions given

Protests in the northeast African country of more than 40 million people started in December after Khartoum increased the price of bread.

Demonstrators then started calling for al-Bashir and his government to step aside.

The military removed al-Bashir  who had been in office for three decades  from power on April 11.

The military council has made some concessions to protesters, including the removal of the countrys three highest-ranking public prosecutors, and the appointment of a new intelligence chief.

Protest organisers and political parties have also been invited by the army to decide on a civilian prime minister. But the army said it will hold on to control over the interior and defence ministries.Kiev, Ukraine  Comic Volodymyr Zelenskyy has won Ukraines presidential runoff vote, defeating incumbent President Petro Poroshenko with more than 73 percent of the vote against about 25, according to official preliminary results.

Poroshenko conceded defeat on Sunday at a press conference minutes after the exit polls were announced, saying he would help the new president prepare for the role between the official announcement of the election results and his inauguration.

Next month, I will leave the office of the head of state. This is the decision of the majority of Ukrainian people. I accept this decision. I am leaving the office, but I want to highlight that I am not leaving politics. I will fight for Ukraine, he said.

My team and I are ready to support the president in everything that gets us close to the European Union and NATO. And between the official announcement of election results and his inauguration, I am ready to spend any length of time without any restrictions on helping the new president get up to speed, said Poroshenko.

We succeeded to ensure free, fair, democratic and competitive elections. No doubt that Ukraine has put a new high standard for the democratic electoral campaign. I will accept the will of Ukrainian people.    (@poroshenko) April 21, 2019

On his part, Zelenskyy promised his supporters never to let them down.

He also said: While I am not formally president yet, as a citizen of Ukraine I can tell all post-Soviet countries: Look at us! Everything is possible!

Fiction turns real

Zelenskyy, the star of the Servant of the People television sitcom, where he fights corruption as a teacher-turned-president, benefited from the Ukrainians fatigue of mainstream politicians.

The majority of the population hold Poroshenko responsible for the governments failure to tackle endemic corruption in the country.

Low living standards and corruption are problems you will suffer from no matter where you live in Ukraine  Kherson, Lviv or Donetsk. People migrate to Poland in droves. Why does Poland live better than us? Inna Bellenko told Al Jazeera in the capital, Kiev.

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The new generation [Zelenskyys team] will hopefully bring new ideas and strength to raise our country from its knees. I believe he is truly committed to improving Ukraine, she said.

Olesia, a 34-year-old mother-of-three who did not want to give her surname, said she understood that Ukraine was taking a big risk by bringing an untested president to power.

But we have no choice, she said. We have to either live in the past or try something new. He seems like a decent person. We trust him more. I would like all the people to live well, not only a small part [of the population].

Tetyana Alekseieva, a 26 year old who also voted for Zelenskyy, said: I hope this change is for the good. Hopefully, the war will end.

We dont know whether Zelenskyy will be better than the previous presidents, but I prefer to give someone new a chance, she said. We need to stop corruption which is everywhere now. I hope this president will help.

Yuriy Kulinich, 40, who voted for Poroshenko, said he feared uncertainty.

Zelenskyy has not provided us with his action plan and it is very unclear what will he do. There is a particular fear that Ukraine can roll back to the [Viktor] Yanukovich times of pre-Maidan Ukraine, he said, referring to the Russian-backed president of Ukraine overthrown in the pro-West uprising in 2014.

There will be a revenge of [Yanukovichs] Party of Regions members  pro-Russian forces  and it is causing tension. This is the worst case [scenario]. In the best case, we will just stall and again we will just lose this time. There is no time left though.

Follow Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter: @tamila87vIndia, Germany, UK and other nations express shock over a series of bombings that killed more than 200 people.

World leaders expressed shock and condemnation over the deadly blasts in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people and wounded hundreds of others.

Dozens of foreign nationals were among the dead in the near simultaneous blasts, which targeted Catholic church worshippers on Easter Sunday as well as luxury hotels in the heart of the capital, Colombo.

American, Indian, British, Chinese, Turkish and Dutch citizens were among those killed in the blasts.

Here is how political leaders around the world reacted to Sundays bloodshed.

United Nations

The United Nations secretary-general said he is outraged by the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.

A statement by the spokesman for Antonio Guterres noted the sanctity of all places of worship adding he hoped the perpetrators will be quickly brought to justice.

United States

President Donald Trump condemned the horrible terrorist attacks and said the US offered heartfelt condolences to the Sri Lankan people and stood ready to help.

India

Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the horrific blasts and said his country stands with the people of Sri Lanka.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured, Modi said on Twitter.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

Pakistan

Pakistan also condemned the attacks. Prime Minister Imran Khan said Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka.

Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief.  Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 21, 2019

Its foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal also issued a statement condemning the explosions.

Germany

German Chancellor Angel Merkel said: Terrorism, religious hatred and intolerance cannot be allowed to win.

Were horrified by the news that Christians in Sri Lanka were attacked and killed during Easter services, wrote Merkels spokesperson on Twitter. We mourn them and pray for the injured and their family members.

The German Foreign Offices crisis response centre wrote the situation in Sri Lanka was unclear and it was trying to determine whether German nationals were affected by the attacks.

United Kingdom

British Prime Minister Theresa May also decried the attacks.

The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time, May said on Twitter.

We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear.

The British high commissioner to Sri Lanka said the UK government understands that some British citizens were caught in the blasts, but it was too soon to say how many. James Dauris urged Britons to get in touch with family members to let them know they are safe.

Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attacks an assault on all of humanity.

The Turkish foreign minister also condemned the deadly attacks, which broke a nearly 10-year lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war on the South Asian island nation.

European Union

EU commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his horror and sadness after the deadly Easter Sunday attacks ripped through Sri Lanka.

It was with horror and sadness that I heard of the bombings in Sri Lanka costing the lives of so many people, Juncker said on Twitter, adding the European Union stood ready to help.

I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country, Juncker said.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the attacks marked a truly sad day for the country and for the world.

Such acts of violence on this holy day are acts of violence against all beliefs and denominations, and against all those who value the freedom of religion and the choice to worship, she added in a statement.

New Zealand

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned the devastating attacks.

In a statement, Ardern referred to the March 15 shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in which 50 died.

New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil, Ardern said.

New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely.

The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says 115 New Zealanders are registered as being in Sri Lanka but more are likely to be there. There is no indication New Zealanders are among the victims.

Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin also denounced the attacks as cruel and cynical.

In a telegram of condolences sent to his Sri Lankan counterpart, the Russian leader said Moscow remains a reliable partner of Sri Lanka in the fight against international terrorism.

He added that the Russians share the grief of the relatives of those killed and wish a quick recovery to all those who were wounded after the Easter Sunday blasts.

Putin voiced confidence that the perpetrators and the masterminds of such a cruel and cynical crime committed amid the Easter festivities will take the punishment they deserve.

Pope Francis

I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka, Pope Francis told tens of thousands of people in St. Peters Square to hear his Easter Sunday message.

I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence.

Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shared condolences.

Terribly saddened by terrorist attacks on Sri Lankan worshippers during Easter. Condolences to friendly govt & people of Sri Lanka, Zarif said on Twitter.

Our thoughts & prayers with the victims & their families. Terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally.

GCC countries

Three Gulf nations condemned the Easter Sunday bombings  Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates  all of whom issued statements via their foreign ministries over the attack.

Qatar said it wanted to stress its firm stance on rejecting violence and terrorism.

The UAE called upon the international community to close ranks and uproot the scourge of terrorism in order to ensure international peace and security.

Bahrain, meanwhile, said these acts of terrorism are incompatible with religious principles and human and moral values.

Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expressing deep shock over the deadly attacks. Netanyahu issued a statement saying Israel stands ready to assist the authorities in Sri Lanka at this difficult time.

The prime minister said the entire world must unite in the battle against the scourge of terrorism.About the show

A weekly programme that examines and dissects the worlds media, how they operate and the stories they cover. Watch The Listening Post every Saturday at 0830GMTPolitical leaders make decisions constantly. Theyre about either policy or politics; doing things to benefit the nation, or doing things to gain and keep power. The former is policy, the latter is politics.

Amnesty, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently stated Republicans are now open to supporting, is bad on both fronts: bad for the country, and bad for the GOP. Partly because the policy argument against amnesty has been covered so well elsewhere, and partly because Republicans so often place politics above the good of the country, Ill focus on amnestys bad politics. In sum, if the GOP truly wants to gain the respect (and votes) of Hispanic-Americans, they can do so, but only by not giving in on this issue.

If the past nine general elections are anything to go by, Republicans will not be rewarded for getting behind the latest amnesty bill introduced last month by House Democrats -- Lindsey Graham and Dick Durban have since introduced their own Senate version. The Hispanic electorate wont shower them with their votes, nor will the amnesty-beneficiaries themselves after they naturalize.

Ever since the first Reagan election, when Hispanic exit-polling began, Hispanics have voted fairly consistently for Democrats on an over 2-to-1 basis. Even after President Reagan signed a sprawling (and fraud-ridden) congressional amnesty in 1986, that ratio didnt change. When George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988, he received only 30 percent of the Hispanic vote; 7 points lower than what Reagan got in 1984 before the amnesty. Moreover, the provision of an additional amnesty in 1990 only led to more demands from Hispanic and open-borders activists; a theme that continued with six more amnesties that followed and now seems to get louder every year.

That 2-to-1 ratio might even worsen for the GOP. Many of those GOP-voting Hispanics are third-plus-generation Mexican-Americans; an aging and increasingly small demographic among the broader Hispanic electorate. In their place will be young Hispanics, many of whom have been incubated in schools where the dominating narrative is that the Southwest was stolen and that immigration is justice. As education writer Ernesto Caravantes has said, [universities] have become havens of a reverse-racism in which the white Anglo-Saxon establishment is always seen in an unflattering light [this makes Hispanic students] feel sorry for themselves for perceived wrong-doings in the past [and] perpetuates an activist and negative mentality in [them]

Then theres question about Democrats united push for amnesty (and mass immigration in general). If it would truly reward the GOP, why would Democrats be driving so hard for it? They know the above voting trends and the replacement effects mass immigration has on the conservative electorate. The corporate sector, of course, replaces their workforce all the time. Sometimes with immigrants, sometimes by relocating factories abroad; all in order to keep wages low, unions weak, and expensive investments in innovation unnecessary. Today at least, the political sector is just as ruthless.

Former Democratic congressman Luis Gutierrez explicitly spoke about replacing the old America for the benefit of his party, when he told colleagues in Congress, if millions of [Hispanics] naturalize [and] become citizens [theyll join] the New American Coalition that will dominate politics for decades to come. (emphasis mine).

Diluting the electorate isnt specific to the U.S. Years ago, it was revealed that the UK Labor party under Tony Blair had designed a giant surge in immigration specifically to bring in more left-wing voters and rub the Rights nose in diversity. Political scientists have a name for the practice: demographic engineering. Oft-cited examples include Soviet Russia and China which respectively inundated the Baltics and Tibet with their own nationals in order to quell separatist urges there. As the Dalai Lama stated about China in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech years back:

The issue of most urgent concern at this time is the massive influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet... this development, which threatens the very survival of the Tibetan nation, its culture and spiritual heritage, can still be stopped and reversed. But this must be done now before it is too late.

Well-financed Hispanic activist groups will also help ensure that no rewards go to Republicans if they push amnesty. So extreme are these organizations, theyre lobbying Twitter and Facebook to have pro-immigration-enforcement groups banned from their platforms. Single-issue pro-amnesty groups, in particular, will, of course, not close up shop once their sole reason for existing is rendered moot. Without a doubt these groups will persist in demonizing the GOP and simply find a new group of illegal aliens to demand amnesty for (such as the new waves who will inevitably cross our borders in anticipation of another amnesty). To use GOP consultant parlance, amnesty will not take the issue off the table and Republicans will go on being denigrated as usual -- not congratulated.

Fundamentally, those in the GOP who think amnesty is good politics must believe that weakness garners respect. As we saw in the midterms, most of those Republican congressmen who yielded to the open-borders lobby and went against the President during last years amnesty fight are now gone (while most who stood firm remain). Weakness will only lead to more demands, not rewards. This will be true for the direct beneficiaries of amnesty as well as the immediate and extended family members they bring in.

The bottom line is that the President and the GOP should have faith in the DACA aliens and their capacity to adapt. They should ask these aliens (and others included in the Democrats bill) to return to Mexico and Central America and agitate for reforms there. They also should tell them that relying on the American people is wrong and remind them what the American people themselves did to create the freest and fairest nation on the planet -- e.g. they rebelled against unaccountable power and broke up corporate monopolies and criminal syndicates, etc. By asking something from them, something admirable, the GOP will get respect from the Hispanic people, certainly more respect than if theyve caved out of weakness.

By recognizing their strength, ignoring Democratic intimidation, staying consistent on messaging and strong on the rule of law, the GOP may lose votes from some left-leaning independents, but theyll gain more from right-leaning ones, including Hispanics. Its strength, not weakness, that is good politics.Following the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report by Attorney General William Barr, an unusual television interview was held by former President Obama's director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. A fantastic phrase came from his mouth: "If there was no active collusion proven, then I think what we have here is a case of passive collusion."

In addition to the significant contribution to Orwellian left-wing Newspeak, the terms "active collusion" and "passive collusion" suggest that there is another side to the "collusion." Which one? The answer is provided by the Mueller Report (there is also a convenient searchable WikiLeaks version). Starting on page 144, the Mueller Report begins to resemble a good comedy script. It turns out that immediately after Trump's victory in the November 8, 2016 elections, the Putin administration was trying to establish contact with the newly elected president by hook or by crook.

Mueller's report tells us that on election night (at 3 A.M.!), Trump's press secretary, Hope Hicks, received a call from an unknown person. Her correspondent, in very bad English, said something to her, but she understood only the word "Putin." She asked him to send all of what he told her by e-mail. The next day, she received an email from Sergei Kuznetsov, who turned out to be an employee of the Russian embassy in Washington. The letter was sent from his private (!) Google Mail account. The letter was congratulations to Trump from Putin.

Hicks questioned the authenticity of the letter and decided to consult with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner recommended an inquiry at the Russian embassy, but it turned out that he did not even know the name of the Russian ambassador in Washington. They eventually learned the name of the Russian ambassador through some acquaintances and contacted him, and only after that did Trump get informed of Putin's congratulations.

It was the supposed "conspiracy" between them.

I am at a loss to answer the question of whether this conspiracy was "active" or "passive," but, as Mueller's investigation showed, there were no other suspicious contacts between Putin and Trump  neither before nor after the election. There were also no secret communication channels. There was no coordination of joint action. There was an attempt by the Russian intelligence services to penetrate Trump's campaign headquarters before the elections, but this attempt failed. (However, the Russian attempt to penetrate Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters was a success.)

The tumultuous activities of the Russian side (again, I do not know what exactly in the Newspeak they were  "active" or "passive") began immediately after the elections. The Kremlin realized that he had put the wrong horse (Russia was working against Clinton and Trump, trying to bring 75-year-old communist Bernie Sanders to power in America) and decided to improve relations with the new administration.

Mueller's investigators found that it was not only Putin's entourage trying to establish such contacts, but also major Russian businessmen. According to Peter Aven, the head of Russia's largest Alfa Bank (and who was interrogated by Mueller's team), Putin complained that he could not manage to establish any contact with the new president's team. According to Aven, Putin bitterly stated that the Kremlin does not even know whom to contact to get to Trump or someone close to him.

That such Putin puppet was Trump.

Mueller's report also tells of other desperate attempts by numerous Russian citizens to establish contacts with Trump and his inner circle after the 2016 elections. There were attempts by Kirill Dmitriev, a major Russian financier; the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak; Sergey Gorkov, the head of the Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank; and also Peter Aven. All of these attempts remained just that: attempts.

It seems that both the U.S. intelligence services, under the leadership of Obama, who worked against Trump in 2016, and the Russian intelligence services under the leadership of Putin, who also worked against Trump, are flooded with idiots. It is still unknown if they are active or passive idiots.

The entire Mueller Report is written in such a way that it becomes immediately apparent that it is not designed for the one to whom it was originally intended by law: the U.S. attorney general. It is clearly intended not for a legal, but a political effect from its publication. This farce with the Mueller investigation had purely political goals from the very beginning.

The Mueller Report goes on to say the bulk of the investigative work  interrogation of several accused and numerous witnesses  was completed around the end of summer of 2018. In other words, the absence of corpus delicti was known to Mueller's team a few months before the November 2018 election. Nevertheless, Mueller remained silent and allowed the "Russiagate" card to play against the Republicans in the midterm elections, as it was intended to by the Democrats, and allowed them to seize the majority in the House of Representatives.

Then, in 2018, the idea of fictitious "active collusion" was being exaggerated by the Democrats, and now, on the eve of the elections of 2020, from their point of view, the time of "passive collusion" has come.

Do the Democrats know that the publication of the Mueller Report is a catastrophe for them? Perhaps the Democrats would prefer to use the word "Nakba," which is better known to their current electorate, instead of the word "catastrophe."

Gary Gindler, Ph.D. is a conservative blogger at Gary Gindler Chronicles. Follow him on Twitter.France's yellow vest protesters hit the streets for the 23rd straight weekend with a new target for their anger.

While most protesters are saddened by the fire that nearly destroyed the ancient cathedral of Notre Dame, they are apparently enraged at the elites donating a billion dollars for its reconstruction.

Fox News:

Many protesters are frustrated that the international effort to help Notre Dame has drawn more attention than their five-month-old Yellow Vest movement against wealth inequality, The Associated Press reported. Many protesters were deeply saddened by the fire at a national monument. But many are angry at the $1 billion in Notre Dame donations that poured in from tycoons while their own demands remain largely unmet and they struggle to make ends meet. Authorities deployed 5,000 police around Paris and warned protesters to keep away from Notre Dame and the banks of the Seine. The Paris police headquarters said authorities detained 126 people by early afternoon and carried out spot checks of more than 11,000 people trying to enter the capital for Saturday's protests.

The protesters aren't necessarily objecting to rebuilding Notre Dame. They are objecting to the elites giving massive amounts of money to the effort while ignoring the plight of the middle and lower working classes. These are the people being taxed into poverty by the French government - with the support of the economic and cultural elites who can afford to pay the high taxes, or know how to avoid them.

President Macron says he has a new plan to try and meet some of the demands of the protesters. He was going to announce it earlier this week, until the Notre Dame fire put it on hold. I think we can be sure it won't be enough and the yellow vests will be in the streets of Paris next weekend.Becky Bond, a key aide to Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign who helped run his unsuccessful Senate bid against Ted Cruz, has left the campaign BuzzFeed has confirmed.

Bond's deputy, Zack Malitz, also departed.

Bond is a hard left activist from San Francisco who worked for Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016. But she lacked the experience to run a national campaign and O'Rourke, looking to professionalize his operation, brought in a seasoned pro.

The departures come as ORourke, the former Texas congressman, has sought to professionalize a campaign operation that was, in its earliest days, small and freewheeling. ORourke announced his run for the presidency less than a month ago. In March, he recruited Jen OMalley Dillon, a veteran operative who served in top leadership roles for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, to serve as his campaign manager. In Washington, OMalley Dillons hiring was taken as a sign that ORourkes once-skeletal campaign was taking on a more professional cast, moving past the relatively small team that had helped propel him to his narrow loss in the Texas Senate race. Democratic strategists see OMalley Dillon as an organized and even-handed counterbalance to ORourke, who is known for his spontaneity and rejection of traditional campaign tactics, like the use of consultants and pollsters. Chris Evans, a spokesman for ORourke, did not address questions about the reasons for the departures or whether Bond and Malitz left voluntarily. Evans said that Bond and Malitz, who worked for ORourke during the 2018 Senate race, only served as employees the campaign in a temporary one-month basis. Democratic operatives who have worked with Bond this year say she considered herself a central part of ORourkes 2020 operation.

So much for the "temporary employee" narrative. So there is definitely something else going on that caused Bond to leave. O'Rourke is the former media golden boy, being supplanted by South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg as an object of worship by the press. Bond's radicalism may have proved to be too much for O'Rourke who is tacking to the middle after his announcement.

As a presidential candidate, ORourke has tacked more towards the center of the party, saying early in his campaign that he was no longer sure that the single-payer Medicare for All bill written by Sanders, which he said he supported in his Senate race, was the fastest way to achieve universal health care. He's instead backed a plan that gives people the option to buy into Medicare.

Beto is on the way down and is casting about for ways to jump start his campaign again. Mayor Pete has sucked most of the oxygen out of the race - at least to this point - and the O'Rourke campaign is suffering because of it. Perhaps a professional at the top of the campaign can reinvigorate the troops and get Beto back on track.For those of us who value art, culture, Christianity, history, pretty much every humanity and liberal art, the biggest fear isn't the fire that devoured the roof of Notre Dame last April 15. It's what they're going to do now. What do France's secular leaders mean when they say they are going to 'rebuild?'

Given that President Emmanuel Macron has put out a global contest for architects to send in their designs for rebuilding, what's obvious from Twitter, at least, is that people are getting the creeps. Get a load of these choice morsels:

Plans for Notre Dame keep coming in pic.twitter.com/N5n1Kc2I6O  Bruno Macaes (@MacaesBruno) April 20, 2019

And so it begins..



"The new spire on Notre Dame could be a 'super-slender needle touching heavens clouds', a minaret or a work of art composed entirely of light, according to some of Britains leading architects"



Keep architects away from Notre-Dame!



Restoration, not redesign pic.twitter.com/EtWOw8MdRQ  ArchitecturalRevival (@Arch_Revival_) April 20, 2019

Pictured: Modernist architects trying to redesign the Notre Dame. pic.twitter.com/qJ3zIkeu4h  Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 20, 2019

Many who want to destroy the original beauty of Notre Dame & rebuild it in their own image will do so under the guise of inclusivity or sticking it to the Alt-Right but its actually just a big Fuck You to Catholics about one of our most beautiful buildings during HolyWeek.  Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) April 20, 2019

Restoration, not redesign!



Modernist architects, who have no regard for heritage, beauty, or tradition, must be kept away from Notre-Dame Cathedral pic.twitter.com/pWccP3Hk2V  ArchitecturalRevival (@Arch_Revival_) April 20, 2019

New conspiracy theory: Notre Dame was set on fire by Big Art to ruin yet another building with their bad taste.  Crimson (@xCrimson_) April 20, 2019

Imagine this: the Notre Dame cathedral roof is restored as a massive plastic gerbil gym, stained glass made traversable. Behold the bewildering glory of God! The twisting pipes of piety! Labyrinths even the angels get lost in



Thus concludes my application for leading architect  neotene (@ctrlcreep) April 21, 2019

Here is my very favorite of all the tweets, summing up the whole barfy picture:

It would be a great feat if architects considered notre dame a place of worship for Catholics around the world and not just some design contest to put their shit on and market their brand  Peggy (@phfaucheux) April 20, 2019

Damn right, most of us want the place simply rebuilt. Normally, you rebuild to attract tourist and visitor income. But Notre Dame doesn't need tourists - it already gets more tourist visits than any place in Europe, and quite possibly the world, with 13 million visitors. As Christians, isn't adding glass cubes and spiky drama more about redesigning than rebuilding? And from a Christian perspective, isn't rebuilding my church what God commanded of St. Francis of Assisi, making him eventually realize it was about more than a building in need of being rebuilt, but the building was to be rebuilt all the same? Aren't there warnings about going into the church for the marketing and glory obvious enough (and I write this as a Catholic) from the Bible itself, in Jesus's temptation on the mount, and in Jesus's Transfiguration -- telling the Apostles to knock it off about building tourist tents?

Rebuilding is what makes sense, partly because it honors the intentions of the great artists of the original masterpiece, and even more so because these original builders were doing it as their collective prayer -- without ego, just eyes to giving glory to God. The building of the cathedral was actually done as a collective prayer, and God was the star of this, not particular indivduals. The cathedral's existence then permeated the entire civilization in the long run. Some ego-tripper wanting to put his stamp on the cathedral in order to make it now 'modern' is just plain disgusting. And this being the storied Notre Dame, which was built to be here for longer than any of us, the one thing you can be sure of is that what is modern now is not going to stay modern.

Now, I'm a realist about this. There are some things that maybe can't be done. The scholars, for one, don't entirely know all the ways the cathedral has been constructed, so any new reconstruction will need to rely on high technology for a comparable result. And just as difficult, the materials needed are no longer there - France is an old, old, civilization and no longer has the old-growth oaks of the size it needs to create the enormous beams. Some space-travel-grade ultra-fireproof graphite, which will ensure that there never, never, never is another roof fire to worry about, maybe with a veneer of oak to preserve the look, might be one answer. Some practicalities are very likely going to be necessary.

But a remodel is very nasty stuff, and will only make people angry. The house-flipper-style talk of 'opening up' the cathedral through the reconstruction of a glass roof is particularly nauseating. How, exactly, would anyone be able to connect with the Medieval mind that could respect the idea of darkness. How would anyone be able to stand in awe of the rose windows.

Which brings me to my last point. That everyone is out there mocking what they think the architects will cook up is a bad sign for what is considered progress. The shock of the new has worn off and everyone is in on it. The marketing has been going on a long time and people are no longer fooled. When your idea of what is most modern and progressive is reduced to a meme and cliche, you know you've gotten passe. You know you aren't.

That's the biggest reason to proceed with caution on any redesign for ego's sake. There probably will have to be some based on engineering and materials factors. There may be a little via incrementalism - the cathedral has many styles and changes over the years and the spire was a 19th century addition. But a wholesale redesign is revolting. The bad thing is, nobody trusts Macron not to do it.

Image credit: LibreShot, public domainSchool teachers are the largest single occupational group contributing to socialist Bernie Sanderss presidential campaign. As Breitbart notes, A disproportionate number of those to whom we have entrusted the task of passing our values on to the next generation disagree with those values and would prefer a revolution.

So many school teachers in North Carolina joined Marxist May Day protests organized by #RedforEd, the four largest school districts shut down for the day.

#RedforEd talks about higher wages and Medicare for all. They pretend to be bi-partisan. They are anything but mainstream:

A well-funded and subversive leftist movement of teachers in the United States threatens to tilt the political balance nationwide in the direction of Democrats across the country as Republicans barely hang on in key states that they need to hold for President Donald Trump to win re-election and for Republicans to have a shot at retaking the House and holding onto their Senate majority. This teachers union effort, called #RedforEd, has its roots in the very same socialism that President Trump vowed in his 2019 State of the Union address to stop, and it began in its current form in early 2018 in a far-flung corner of the country before spreading nationally. Its stated goalshigher teacher pay and better education conditionsare overshadowed by a more malevolent political agenda: a leftist Democrat uprising designed to flip purple or red states to blue, using the might of a significant part of the education system as its lever, Breitbart News noted.

The socialist 24-year-old leading #RedforEd never passed the test on the U.S. Constitution that Arizona requires of educators and only has a provisional license.

Arizona teachers march. Photo by Gage Skidmore for the Arizona Education Association

Why isnt this movement being reported on?In large part for demographic reasons, I am pessimistic about the future for America and the West.

My mother died recently, just shy of 94 years old. She left seven grandchildren: two medical doctors, one doctor of physical therapy; and biomedical engineer; one specialist in digital photography; one management trainee and one student. I am older (70) than her husband, my father, was when he passed. I have one grandchild and am unlikely to have more. The night my eldest (now a cardiologist) was married, he called me aside at the reception say his wife did not want to have children. Maybe one, maybe someday.

As years went by, I continued to raise the subject, not always with tact and finesse. His father in law called me one night to remind me of his significantly greater net worth. I have more money than you do, so you have no say in the matter, his f-i-l said.

My response (to my son) wasnt very repeatable, and what had been a rocky relationship has since become nonexistent. In time they did have a child, the only one on either side. The other in-laws shower her with stuff.

This conflict led me to Ben Wattenbergs excellent 1987 book, The Birth Dearth. It also brought to my attention the insufficient rates of fertility in much of Western society.

Only one democracy is producing enough children to avoid demographic disappearance. That country is Israel.

The investment analyst and writer, David P. Goldman, who writes under the pseudonym Spengler, connects the implosion of national populations to the abandonment of belief. Belief in the nation, belief in God.

As it happens. I belong to a synagogue where the senior rabbi was raised in a Reform household, trained in a Reform seminary, and converted mid-life to the Conservative denomination. He describes us non-Orthodox Jews as Progressive Jews.

Ive written to him laying out the mathematical consequences of women having fewer than two children. His response is to de-friend and block me from social media.

This rabbi is a featured blogger in a major publication, and acknowledges that while his maternal grandparents (who were Holocaust survivors) had three children, the second generation had 1.3 children per couple, and the third generation (which includes him) has on average one child per couple. I know how politically incorrect it is, but Ive said that if he encourages one of the latest generation to have a same sex partner, it wont help the continuity of our people. He hasnt answered.

It doesn't take a graduate degree in economic statistics (which I have) to see that families with only single children lead to falling numbers. My maternal grandfather was one of eight, and his wife, my grandmother, was one of 13. Anecdotally, people say this was common a century ago.

Conversely, the modern couple with more than two children is a rarity. Perhaps people of my age and older have more to believe in.

An article in The Forward which this week, describes the future of American Jewry as Not Orthodox, Not Reform, Just Jewish. Also known as Jews of No Religion. Perhaps no one told them that absent something to believe in, Civilizations Die.

Harvard scientist Steven Pinker in his book, Enlightenment Now, notes in graphic form the inverse relationship between a respondents age and his/her likelihood of casting votes for Donald Trump (in America) or Brexit (in Europe.) The lesson seems to be: those longer in the tooth are more apt to believe in national borders, that they are a part of one distinct nation, one people.

This is a critically important week for all segments of the Judeo-Christian culture: Jews, such as myself, are called upon to retell the history of our people. Christians bear witness to the holiness of their history. I am firmly convinced that it makes us, and the societies in which we live, far better for it. I wish you all a joyous and meaningful holiday.

Graphic credit: PixabayAll terrorist attacks are vile, despicable, cowardly and evil, the work of human garbage, but the Easter attack in Sri Lanka that greeted us this Sunday morning, with 156 207 dead, and nearly 500 injured, had some intensifiers. Perhaps the biggest is a simple one - it's because Sri Lanka's churches are so good. Here is the awful thing that happened, according to the Sun, which has detailed and updated reporting, and many pictures:

BRITS are believed to be among 156 killed in an Easter Sunday terror attack on eight churches and five-star hotels in Sri Lanka today. Nearly 500 are thought to have been injured when blasts ripped through multiple buildings in Colombo - where tourists were staying and worshippers had gathered for morning mass. Among the dead are 35 foreigners, local reports say, including nationals from the UK, US, Netherlands and Portugal. Three churches and three hotels - the luxury Shangri-La Hotel, Cinnamon Grand and The Kingsbury Colombo - were targeted in the devastating attacks. Hours after the first six were reported, there have been two more fatal blasts in the city - an explosion at a hotel in Dehiwala which killed two, and another in a flats in Dematagoda which reportedly killed three police officers and led to arrests, taking the shocking attacks up to eight. Two of the explosions this morning - as Christians attended Easter mass - were carried out by suicide bombers, according to a security official.

First, it was an attack on a place of worship, which is a disturbing trend, if you can call it that, among terrorists. For awhile there, they were doing shopping malls, and places of commerce. They've tried military targets. They've gone after places of transport. Now they are assaulting places of worship, which are easy and trusting places (try getting past security at, say, Goldman Sachs, compared to a church or synogogue), and because places of worship are full of people, where they can get large numbers of casualties, maximizing the shock factor, which they seek. We have already seen horrific such attacks by Muslim militants on Christians in Pakistan and Egypt, and on Jews in the United States and well beyond the U.S. Muslim terrorists aren't the only ones going after houses of worship - a stray crazy committed mass murder in mosques in New Zealand, another godless lowlife burned several black churches in the Deep South, and a maniac was caught with a gas can in St. Patrick's Cathedral on a day after the Notre Dame de Paris inferno, whose origins are still being investigated. There was also the monster who opened fire on the Sutherland Springs church in Texas in 2017, and the murderous attacker who targeted the Pittsburgh synogogue who was a Nazi. There's something awful about the growing attacks on peoples of faith, as if faith can't coexist in the modern world full of Internet-obsessed lunatics.

The attacks on the Christians and Jews are notable because they are organized efforts, the work of Muslim militants, and they seem to be intensifying. Sadly, Islam itself is a petri dish for this, because it is a decentralized religion and with a lot of ancient thinking throughout its writings, which enables a lot of discontented miserable people of the modern world who feel like failures otherwise to read it the way they want to read it - sometimes murderously. The latest result is this Islamist attack in Sri Lanka on Christians on their holiest day of the year. And it's not the first of such Easter attacks - we have been horrified to see other Easter attacks on Christians in Egypt and elsewhere with very large numbers of casualties.

What can we say about the specific attack on Sri Lanka? The Islamist attacks on the Colombo, Batticaloa, and Negombo churches were attacks on a vibrant church that's growing by leaps and bounds. According to this Breitbart report, the growth of Christianity in Sri Lanka has been very important in breaking up the ethnic loyalties of Sri Lanka's home country of India (Hindu Tamils and Buddhist Sinhalese) and helping the country come together as one country. Obviously, this doesn't serve the aims of Islamic militants who thrive on conflict and chaos.

For me, the attack was especially horrible because the church there is notable for its attendence by the poor. I've spent time in Sri Lanka and visited the Negombo cathedral, which was one of the attacked churches, a majestic old cathedral of traditional Gothic style out among the palm trees and beach of tourist-friendly Negombo. I've also visited a Sri Lankan mission church, learning much about one near the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka in late 1997. I remember vividly what a vibrant Catholic church it was, growing by leaps and bounds, led by a local priest who was very devoted to the Virgin Mary, and full of new converts, people spilling out the doorways as they came to attend mass. When I say poor, I mean really poor - the lives of the tea pickers there horrified me with its poverty and backbreaking labor. The Sri Lankan Christians were very poor indeed, but they came literally in their thousands, walking long miles to attend the mass, and vividly to me, wearing their best clothes, the best they could scrape together. It was quite a beautiful spectacle to see how much effort was put into these Christian communities, which as it turns out were very poor and in need of support, and I gladly gave. What's more, their act of worship certainly hasn't been without influence on the rest of the world - any time I don't feel like showing up to mass on a Sunday, I think of this church, which put my lukewarm-ness as a cradle Catholic to shame...and go to mass. In this small way, they brought me closer to the broader Christian community, too. The church made a difference because they made me a better Christian, and undoubtedly others.

According to the background reports, the terrorists who attacked this place of worship were likely Islamists, given that warnings about their intentions were given earlier. The Muslim community is only about 12% of the population there, but there were a certain number of ISIS recruits from, shockingly, prominent wealthy Muslim families. It's likely they are now the attackers. Rich people, attacking the poor? It sounds like someone's rice bowl is threatened, and with Sri Lanka a country that has seen growth by leaps and bounds, one can't help but wondering if there is a class warfare element to these attacks. A group of people is rising in the world. Another group is threatened. Some of the rich kids get terrorist training. It looks like this may be about more than just religion.

But what stands out is that it was a attack on the good. Evil rarely attacks other evil, it has a partiality for attacking the good.US Prez Donald Trump repeatedly claimed India is a 'tariff king' and imposes 'tremendously high' import duties on American goods.

Biswajit Dhar, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that the US allegations are completely unfounded.

New Delhi: India is not a 'tariff king' and it has all the right to take appropriate measures to protect the interest of specific sectors like agriculture, international trade experts have said.

Rejecting the US allegation that India's import duties are one of the highest in the world, experts said that several developed countries and regions including Japan, South Korea, European Union, and America maintain "extremely high" tariffs primarily on agriculture products.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that India is a 'tariff king' and imposes 'tremendously high' import duties on American goods.

Biswajit Dhar, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that the US allegations are completely unfounded.

"In fact, the US import duties on several of their products are quite high such as on tobacco it is about 350 per cent and 164 per cent on peanuts. They too maintain reasonably high duties," Dhar said.

Sharing similar views, Professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Rakesh Mohan Joshi said that the US allegations are not correct and in fact, they should rationalise their duty structure being a developed nation.

Trade Promotion Council of India Chairman Mohit Singla said that the assertion of the US is not factually correct.

He said that the allegation of Trump that India is a tariff king does not hold true and is unjustified.

"Like other nations, India has the right to take appropriate measures to protect its domestic interests in specific sectors as and when it is deemed fit. Moreover, there are many countries which have much higher tariff as compared to India. Being a signatory and member of WTO, India remains committed to free, fair, and predictable trade," Singla added.

Geneva-based 164-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a multilateral body which frames global trade norms.

Singla claimed that countries like Japan levy 736 per cent duty on certain products; while Korea imposes 807 per cent on some goods.

Federation of Indian Exports Organisation (FIEO) said that product-specific high tariffs, like 150 per cent on alcoholic beverages, 100 per cent on coffee, and 60-75 per cent on automobiles have made India a villain in the eyes of the US President.

However, many countries in the world including Japan, South Korea, the EU, the US maintain an extremely high tariff primarily on agriculture products, FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai said.

"India's average WTO bound tariff is 48.5 per cent while average applied tariff is 13.4 per cent. The wide gap between the two clearly shows that India is not a tariff king else it would have pushed the applied tariff very close to the bound rates," Sahai said.

While bound tariffs or duties refer to the ceiling, the applied tariff is the duty which is currently in place.

Another expert, who did not wish to be named, said that the US should not level any allegation of discrimination at tariff front vis-a-vis developing countries like India as America has emerged as one of the richest nations in the world with per capita income of about USD 60,000 per annum.

"Repeated mention of India as a tariff king with cherry-picked examples like motorbikes and whiskey is disingenuous, as it conveniently ignores the overall tariff structure of the country, apart from India's developing status," the expert said.

He added that India has complied with all tariff commitments under the WTO and has made sincere efforts to reduce applied duties suo-moto to 13.7 per cent today over a period of time.

Recently, the US decided to withdraw incentives being provided to Indian exporters under the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) programme. However, India has stated that it would not impact domestic exporters as the benefits were only about USD 190 million annually.

Despite the fact that India and the US were working on a trade package, the US decided to go ahead with its decision.

The package was covering all concerns related to bilateral trade with the US on sectors including medical devices, dairy products and agricultural goods. America also wants a cut on duties on certain ICT products.

According to sources, India was ready to address the US concerns regarding these sectors.

The bilateral trade between India and the US has increased to USD 74.5 billion in 2017-18 from USD 64.5 billion in 2016-17.

Although India has a trade surplus with the US, India is a thriving market for US defence firms, e-commerce and technology companies.The film will be premiered on a digital platform and will not have a theatrical release.

After announcing his next film, the director of Jaan-E-Mann and Joker Shirish Kunder is now readying to start his next film titled Mrs Serial Killer.

A while ago, Shirish had gone back to a content-driven idea and had made a short film called Kriti, which won him a lot of accolades. It featured Manoj Bajpayee and Radhika Apte. Now, Shirish is getting Manoj back for his feature film. And, opposite Manoj would be Jacqueline Fernandez who quickly agreed when she heard Shirishs script.

After Joker, Shirish wanted to be double sure about what he was doing and which is why he went back to make a short film like Kriti. He had also signed up Amitabh Bachchan a while ago for a film idea that was called Common Man but never got around to making it. Shirishs wife and director Farah is backing this film Mrs Serial Killer as a producer, informs our source.

Mrs. Serial Killer will be filmed in the next few months in and around Mumbai. The other actors in the film are expected to be cast soon. The film will be premiered on a digital platform and will not have a theatrical release.

 Sanskriti MediaA woman from Kerala, who had settled in Dubai, also died in the explosion, reported news agency IANS.

Foreign External Minister Sushma Swaraj in a series of tweet confirmed that the Indian High Commission in Colombo conveyed that National Hospital has informed about the death of three Indian nationals. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Foreign External Minister Sushma Swaraj in a series of tweet confirmed that the Indian High Commission in Colombo conveyed that National Hospital has informed about the death of three Indian nationals.

The names of Indian that got killed in the series of blast in Sri Lanka on Sunday Easter are Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

Swaraj tweeted, "Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh. We are ascertaining further details."

Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh. We are ascertaining further details. /3  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

"I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well," read another tweet from Swaraj.

I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well.  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

A woman from Kerala, who had settled in Dubai, also died in the explosion, reported news agency IANS.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka.

"We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789," the High Commission tweeted.

"In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176," it said.

The powerful blasts - six in quick succession and then two more hours later -- wrought devastation, including at the capital's well-known St Anthony's Shrine, a historic Catholic Church.

The eight explosions, some of which officials said were suicide bomb attacks, led to an immediate clampdown, with the government declaring a curfew and blocking access to major social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp.

Seven people were arrested and three police officers were killed during a raid on a house in Colombo on Sunday as the death toll from a rash of bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka rose past 200, police and local media said.Chief Justice Gogoi said he would continue to perform his duties without fear or favour till the end of his tenure and would not be cowed down.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Saturday held an extraordinary hearing after a former employee of the apex court accused the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, of sexual harassment on two occasions in October last year and persecution after she resisted his alleged sexual advances.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Gogoi himself, was constituted to deal with the matter following a notice by the courts registry that the sitting was to deal with a matter of great public importance touching upon the independence of the judiciary.

At the special hearing  prompted by the fact that copies of a sworn affidavit by the woman sent to the residences of 22 apex court judges became public on Saturday  Justice Gogoi rubbished the allegations as unbelievable and hinted that there may be a bigger force behind this that wants to deactivate the office of CJI.

CJI Gogoi also hinted that the allegations of sexual harassment against him could be due to the fact that the Bench led by him will deal with many, many sensitive cases next week.

Supreme Court judges have held press conferences in the past, or issued a statement to the press to refute personal charges. That the CJI choose to sit in his own court, with two male judges, to deny allegations of sexual harassment and more drew a lot of criticism from lawyers and judicial activists on social media.

This is unbelievable. I dont think I should stoop low even to deny these allegation, CJI Gogoi said, adding, There has to be bigger force behind this, they want to deactivate the office of CJI.

`6.8 lakhs is all I have as bank balance... They cannot catch me on money, so they have brought up this. This is the reward a Chief Justice of India gets after 20 years and a bank balance of Rs 6.8 lakh. Independence of judiciary is under very serious threat. I had to tel this from the judicial seat, he said.

When I had become a judge, I had much more. If judges have to work under these conditions then, I have always said in my public meetings, that good people will not come forward to take up the job. My peon has got more money than me.

The womans detailed allegations were carried by several news websites on Saturday, along with a response from the Supreme Courts secretary general who refuted the allegations, saying the charges are completely and absolutely false and scurrilous.

The womans affidavit provides a detailed account of the apparent victimisation she, her husband and their family have undergone over the past few months after she spurned what she claimed were inappropriate advances last October.

The 35-year-old woman was appointed junior court assistant in May 2014 and was later deputed to work in Justice Gogois court in October 2016 when another junior court assistant was on leave.

The alleged incidents of harassment happened on October 10 and 11, 2018. The woman has since been dismissed from service, and was arrested in a case of bribery that was registered in March 2019.

Her husband and one of her brothers-in-law  both employed with the Delhi police  have also been suspended. And another brother-in-law, who was appointed a junior court attendant through CJI Gogois discretionary quota on October 10, 2018  a week after he became the CJI  was also dismissed from service.

During the sitting in which CJI presided over a Bench which also included Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna, he said, I have taken this unusual and extraordinary step of sitting in court today because things have gone too far.

I believe there is a bigger plot behind this to deactivate the office of CJI. No judge is going to decide cases if this is the kind of attack we get. Reputation is only thing we get. Even that is attacked. Why do you think a person decides to become a judge? Reputation is all that matters for a judge. If that is also under attack, what is left? the CJI asked.

Justice Arun Mishra described the allegation as wild and baseless.

Chief Justice Gogoi said he would continue to perform his duties without fear or favour till the end of his tenure and would not be cowed down.

At the end of the half-hour hearing, the CJI said he would not pass any judicial order in the matter and left it to Justice Mishra to take the lead and do what was necessary.

A brief order signed by two other judges (without the CJI) said, Having considered the matter, we refrain from passing any judicial order at this moment leaving it to the wisdom of the media to show restraint, act responsibly as is expected from them and accordingly decide what should or should not be published as wild and scandalous allegations undermine and irreparably damage the reputation and negate independence of judiciary. We would therefore at this juncture leave it to the media to take off such material which is undesirable.

The woman  who is a mother of an eight year old girl  in her affidavit has sought protection from any coercive action by the Delhi police and claimed a grave threat to her life besides the lives of her family members.

She has requested all teh sitting judges of the Supreme Court to constitute an independent external committee to inquire into her charges.

Both Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta were present in the courtroom along with Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate Rakesh Khanna. Mr. Mehta at whose instance the sitting was called termed the allegation rubbish. He said the allegations are a blackmail technique.Her husband was working as a driver there.

Begum has requested EAM Sushma Swaraj to rescue her husband who is jail for the last seven months. (Photo: ANI)

Hyderabad: Alleging that her husband has been jailed by Saudi authorities on false allegations of theft, Hyderabad resident Salam Begum has sought assistance from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

"My husband Syed Asif went to Saudi Arabia on 19 January 2016 through an agent here in Hyderabad. He was promised 1800 Saudi Riyal as salary but was paid only 1200 Saudi Riyal. He was working as a driver there, said Begum.

"Even after working for two years, my husband's employer didnt give him leave to come back to India. He was not allowed to come even when my mother-in-law expired. He then approached the Indian Embassy in Saudi and was returning to Hyderabad when he was arrested at the airport on charges of stealing 65,000 Saudi Riyal from his employer," she added.

Begum has requested EAM Sushma Swaraj to rescue her husband who is jail for the last seven months.As soon as the news about Maliks illness spread, traders in Srinagars Maisuma area and its neighbourhood downed their shutters as mark of protest.

Srinagar: Kashmiri separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik has fallen seriously ill and has been shifted to a hospital from Delhis Tihar Jail where he was on a hungerstrike for past many days, his family claimed on Saturday.

While addressing the media here, Mr Maliks mother and sisters said that they have been informed by their lawyer that he (Malik) has been shifted to hospital in view of his serious condition. In fact, the authorities were forced to inform his lawyer that his condition is very serious for he has been on hunger strike for past twelve days against him being sent on illegal remand, one of his sisters said.

As soon as the news about Mr Maliks illness spread, traders in Srinagars Maisuma area and its neighbourhood downed their shutters as mark of protest.

Mr Malik, who is the chairman of the main faction of pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was detained by the J&K police under the States stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) and shifted to Kot Balwal jail in the peripheries of winter capital Jammu in March this year.

Subsequently, he shifted to the Tihar Jail as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court had issued a production warrant against him. The NIA had sought his remand for custodial interrogation in an alleged terror funding case.

Mr Malik is also facing charges of kidnapping and murder for being allegedly involved in abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, in 1989 and killing of four Indian Air Force personnel in the early part of 1990. The J&K high court has reserved its judgment on a plea of the CBI for re-opening three-decade-old cases. The JKLF was recently banned by the home ministry under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.Approximately 300 NRIs have arrived in the state and are using their influence to secure votes for Modi and the BJP.

Ahmedabad: Voters in Gujarat are seeing a number of non-resident Indians (NRIs) approaching them to ask for a vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

These NRIs normally visit the state in November-December, but have retuned home mid-summer to seek support for Mr Modi, whom they passionately back.

A group of non-resident Gujaratis led by US-based Dr Vasudev Patel and Mr Govind Patel is travelling to the remote areas and towns and campaigning for Mr Modi.

I have known Modiji for 40 years. As Prime Minister he has made us proud. He has done tremendous work for Gujarat and India. As a Gujarati we feel that we must support him, said Dr Vasudev Patel, who has been in the US for 35 years and is associated with the overseas wing of the BJP.

Mr Govind Patel said, I have been taking part in the campaign since 1990s. Modi ji, after he became PM, has addressed our issues. Today, wherever we go, we notice that the Indian passport holder gets respect. Our country has a special standing in the world.

Approximately 300 NRIs have arrived in the state and are using their influence to secure votes for Mr Modi and the BJP.

They have come from more than 20 countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai and from African nations.

Gujarat has a large number of natives spread across the globe. Some NRIs are making 20 telephone calls a day to their relatives and friends in the state and appealing them to to vote for Mr Modi.

No one in this group is ready to hear anything against Mr Modi. Asked about the Congress allegation of corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal, Dr Vasudev Patel said, These are not issues at all. Modiji is working round the clock for the welfare of the nation. These are baseless allegations.

Another staunch supporter of Mr Modi, US-based Anar Mehta said, We are not going to listen to this. How can you level such nonsense allegations against him when he is working hard and that too selflessly,

Running an NGO for women empowerment, Ms Mehta is in the state for twomonths and is campaigning for Mr Modi.

These groups will also visit Varanasi, from where Mr Modi is expectedto contest, and others will be travelling to UP to campaign after theGujarat election on April 23.

Political observers believe that during his tenure as Prime Minister, Mr Modi has made every effort to meet and interact with people of Indian origin settled abroad when he is on foreign tours. Thats why he is able to garner huge support from the NRI community.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.Crime branch officials questioned Shekhar's wife Apoorva for over eight hours, sources said.

New Delhi: A day after Crime Branch of Delhi police registered a case of murder in Rohit Shekhar Tiwari death, his mother Ujjwala alleged that his son did not share a cordial relationship with his wife and was apparently upset over his political career not taking off.

Meanwhile, the Delhi police crime branch on Saturday questioned the wife and family members of Rohit Shekhar into his unnatural death case.

Crime branch officials questioned Shekhar's wife Apoorva for over eight hours, sources said.

Rohit Shekhar Tiwari (40) was the son of Narain Dutt Tiwari, former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. According to Ujjwala, Rohit and she went to Haldwani to cast their vote on April 11. They were supposed to return to Delhi on April 12, but changed their plan after Rohit said he wanted to meet his people.

On April 15, the mother-son duo returned to Delhi. While Rohit went to his residence in Defence Colony, Ujjwala went to Tilak Lane and returned later.

When I came back, I asked Apoorva (Rohits wife) about him, she told me he was tired, so he had dinner and went to sleep, said Ujjwala.

I left for Tilak Lane at around 11.30 pm that day and returned around 2 pm the next day but could not meet her son. I had severe pain in my thumb, so I immediately took an appointment at Max Hospital. Before leaving, I asked Apoorva about Rohit. She told me he was sleeping and I thought I shouldnt disturb him, she said.

I trusted Apoorva and did not question her as to why was Rohit sleeping till so late, she said.

Ujjwala said she reached Max Hospital around 4.30 pm and went to the emergency ward. Rajeev (who was accompanying her to the hospital) received a call from a domestic help who said Rohit was smeared in blood and asked us to come with an ambulance. My car was parked near an ambulance. I ensured that an ambulance left for my home immediately, she recalled.

Ujjwala said that while on her way home, she dialed Dr Sumit Sethi, who had been treating Shekhar since 2007 when he first suffered a heart attack. Apoorva and Rohit tied the nuptial knot in 2018. It was a love marriage. Before that, they were seeing each other for a year, Ujjwala said.

Delhi Police Thursday registered a case of murder into the death of Rohit, hours after his autopsy report stated that he died of asphyxia due to strangulation.

The medical board unanimously concluded that the cause of death in this case is asphyxia as a result of strangulation and smothering. It is a sudden unnatural death, said Dr Sudhir Gupta, the head of the AIIMS forensic department.

Crime Branch officials on Friday visited Rohit Shekhars house in Defence Colony and questioned his family members and domestic helps. A forensics team too visited the house.Sometimes, he appears as a Bengali Babu and sometimes as a common Telugu man and communicates with them in their respective languages.

Puri: The Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Lok Sabha candidate for Puri, Dr Sambit Patra, knows how to strike an emotional chord with the voters within shortest possible time.

Knowing it quite well that the constituency has a diverse demographic profile that includes Odia, Bengali and Telugu speaking people, Dr Patra, who is also the saffron partys national spokesperson, has been appearing in new and different avatars almost everyday.

Sometimes, he appears as a Bengali Babu and sometimes as a common Telugu man and communicates with them in their respective languages.

In his latest avatar, Dr Patra appeared in complete Telugu costume and sang a Telugu song at Puri beach. The song has gone viral on social media.

While campaigning at Telegu-dominated Penthakata area in Puri on Friday evening, Dr Patra received admiration and appreciation of audiences by singing Telusa Manasa, the Telugu version of evergreen Hindi hit number Tu Mile Dil Khile from Hindi movie Criminal.

Puri has a sizeable Telugu Population as well. While campaigning amidst them sang a famous Telugu number on demand. The frenzy in the crowd was palpable, dont believe? A must watch! Lots of love to my adorable Telugu friends, he tweeted.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.Amit Shah met the actor to convince him to contest from Amritsar, sources said.

New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah met actor Sunny Deol in the national capital on Friday. The meeting set off political speculation on whether Deol is likely to be fielded from a seat in Punjab. The meeting comes as the BJP is yet to announce candidates for the three seats in Punjab for the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

Mr Shah met the actor to convince him to contest from Amritsar, sources said. However, no announcement has been made so far. I heard about it (rumours about joining politics). I just met him (Amit Shah) and we took a photograph, thats it, Sunny Deol told a news channel.

The BJP, that has formed an alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal, is fighting three of the 13 parliamentary seats in Punjab: Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur. Sunny Deol, 62, is best known for his action hero roles in films like Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, Himmat, Ghatak and Border.

For Amritsar, the BJP had also contemplated the names of actor Poonam Dhillon and Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina. Poonam Dhillon was appointed as the vice-president of the BJPs Mumbai unit last year. Gurdaspur seat is likely to go to actor and former lawmakers Vinod Khannas wife Kavita Khanna or his son, actor Akshaye Khanna.

Sunny Deols father, veteran actor Dharmendra, had a brief stint in politics about ten years ago, when he contested the 2004 national election from Rajasthans Bikaner on BJP ticket and won. Last week, the veteran actor campaigned for his wife, actor and BJP lawmaker Hema Malini, in Uttar Pradeshs Mathura.

The legendary Bollywood couple addressed a rally for the Jat community where a massive crowd turned up. Punjab will vote in a single phase, on May 19.Sources said that Tejashwi Yadavs absence from the event gave NDA a chance to raise questions on the unity of grand alliance in Bihar.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi being garlanded by Congress candidate Ranjit Ranjan during an election rally in Supaul, Bihar, on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: Tejashwi Yadav skipping AICC president Rahul Gandhis public meeting on Saturday has fuelled speculations about a rift in the Grand Alliance.

This was Rahul Gandhis fourth public meeting in Bihar since election dates were announced. Mr Gandhi was in Supaul to campaign for Congress nominee Ranjeet Ranjan where he targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on various issues.

He (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is trying hard but people of Bihar and people of this country have made up their mind to stop chowkidar this time, AICC president Rahul Gandhi said while addressing a public meeting in Supaul on Saturday.

He also asked people to vote for Congress candidate from Supaul Ranjeet Ranjan and defeat the JD-U nominee.

Ranjeet Ranjan has the potential, please vote for her. She needs your blessings to defeat the NDA. Mr Gandhi said while addressing the masses in Supaul.

Sources said that Tejashwi Yadavs absence from the event gave NDA a chance to raise questions on the unity of grand alliance in Bihar.

Reports suggest that the ongoing tension between RJD and Congress over Ranjeet Ranjans husband Pappu Yadav candidature in Madhepura was one of the reasons behind Tejashwi Yadavs absence from the event.

Questions were also raised when RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, who was present on the stage with Rahul Gandhi, asked people to vote for Ranjeet Ranjan in Supaul but support veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav in Madhepura.

Ranjeet Ranjans husband Pappu Yadav had contested on RJD ticket and won in 2014 from the seat but a year later he was expelled from the party for engaging in anti-party activities. Sources said the Congress party had earlier tried to persuade Ranjeet Ranjan to convince her husband not to contest from Madhepura but he filed his nominations from the seat.

There are also reports that RJDs district president and Pipra MLA Yaduvansh Kumar Yadav has decided to support an independent candidate from the seat.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.The Prime Minister renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up the president and the premier of Sri Lanka and conveyed heartfelt condolences over the loss of over 160 lives in terrorist attacks in the island nation on Sunday.

During his conversations with Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Modi condemned the serial terrorist attacks in the strongest terms, perpetrated at sites including religious places and during a religious festival, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

Describing the attacks as "cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts", Modi said these attacks were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world.

The Prime Minister renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka for ensuring its security against the challenges such as those posed by terrorism, the PMO statement said. He also wished the injured speedy recovery and offered any required assistance for their treatment.

Condemning the blasts, Modi said there is no place for barbarism in the region and that India stands in solidarity with the people of the island nation.

"Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region," he tweeted. "My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," Modi said.

"Hundreds of innocent people were killed by terrorist in Sri Lanka. They were doing prayers in Church and celebrating Easter, at that time, terrorists killed scores of people including children and women. I express my condolence," Modi said later addressing a public meeting in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh.

"India is standing by Sri Lanka and is ready for any help in the time of crisis," he said. Expressing concern over the menace of terrorism, Modi also took this opportunity to stress on voting in favour of the BJP to strengthen the fight against terrorism in India.Warning by Indian intelligence sent on April 7 went unheeded.

Bengaluru: Hours after the first six bombs tore through some of the Sri Lankan capitals most revered Christian shrines, followed by two more, shattering a 10-year hiatus from a 30-year-long bloody campaign by the Tamil Tigers, the island nation may be facing a fresh and far more virulent threat posed by a radical Muslim group in the form of the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ). Six members of the NTJ were reportedly arrested when the police homed in one of their hideouts in the city.

A warning by Indian intelligence that NTJ, a virulently anti-Buddhist group that was linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues, would target churches in Colombo as well as the Indian high commission and possibly the Indian-owned Taj Samudra hotel, only minutes away from the Cinnamon Grand and ShangriLa hotels  both of which were attacked  was sent to the Sri Lankan authorities on April 7.

A letter, seen by this newspaper, from Sri Lankan police chief Pujuth Jayasundara, dated April 11, to his officers, in which he sends out a nationwide alert and clearly states that suicide bombers planned to blow up prominent churches and the Indian high commission, remained unheeded. One of the two suicide missions targeted the Cinnamon Grand on Sunday morning.

The government of President Maithripala Sirisena which is run by his arch-rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that they had been informed of the alert, but only after the Sri Lankan capital faced an attack that is now being compared in scale to 9/11. Mr Wickremesinghe said he did not know why he wasnt informed of the threat. High-level diplomats in Sri Lankan missions told this newspaper that they had no knowledge of the alert.

However, in January, the Sri Lankan police seized a haul of explosives and detonators stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from NTJ, the newly-formed radical Muslim group.

The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has been largely peaceful, distancing itself from the Tamil separatists, among whom were a number of Christians. Tensions between the Buddhist and Muslims had boiled over in 2014, when riots broke in Kalutara, after the Bodhu Bala Sena, a Buddhist group, incited a rampage against Muslims, and a blanket ban was imposed on reporting the incidents.

Intelligence sources, however, said Sundays Easter Day bombings may have been the NTJs payback for the Christchurch massacre. Some reports suggest that ISIS, which has no presence in Sri Lanka, but does operate in the Maldives, saw the Easter Sunday congregations as the perfect target to level scores.Thakur is pitted against senior Congress leader Digvijiya Singh from the Bhopal seat.

Thakur is out on bail in the 2008 blast case and she is under fire for claiming that IPS officer Hemant Karkare was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack as she had cursed him for torturing her. (Photo: File)

Balodabazar: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel Saturday alleged that the BJP had no one with a "clean image" and so it had to field Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.

Thakur is out on bail in the 2008 blast case and she is under fire for claiming that IPS officer Hemant Karkare was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her.

Thakur, who is pitted against senior Congress leader Digvijiya Singh from the Bhopal seat, has apologised for her remarks.

"She has filed her nomination against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.The BJP did not have any other candidate so it has fielded a 'gunda mavali' (goon) who had indulged in spreading terror," Baghel said while addressing an election rally at Chhattisgarh's Tundra here.

Baghel was campaigning for Congress candidate from the Janjgir-Champa Lok Sabha constituency Ravi Bharadwaj.

On Thakur's remark on Karkare, he said, "She had said that Karkare died because she cursed him.Terrorists had killed him. It seems she was hand in glove with the terrorists."

Speaking to reporters after the rally, Baghel alleged that Thakur had attacked a man with a knife when she was living in Bilaigarh town in Balodabazar district in 2001-2002 and claimed local people had also told him about the incident.

The BJP has refuted the charges, saying Baghel was making baseless allegation for "political gains".

"She has been jailed for her acts. For the first time, she was jailed in Madhya Pradesh in 2008 during chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's tenure. The BJP does not even have an appropriate candidate who has a clean image," Bhagel said.

He said that a person, who has been "involved in violent and terrorist activities and wanted to divide the nation, has been made a candidate by the party (BJP)". "What are they (BJP) doing," Baghel said.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah should apologise to the nation for her statement on Hemant Karkare. The entire country salutes the martyrdom of Hemant Karkare," he said.

However, BJP state spokesperson Sanjay Shrivastav refuted the charges, saying Baghel has levelled false allegations for "political gains".

"The allegations are false. Sadhvi Pragyaji had given a statement before public and now has taken it back. The matter is over now. The CM is levelling false charges on her for political gain," he told PTI.

Thakur had made the remarks on Karkare in an election rally in Bhopal on Friday and apologised for her comments in a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh's Berasai area the day after.

Thakur has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 blast case, but is still facing trial under other criminal provisions, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.'My govt will come back to power' Modi said.

'When Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I said (to Pakistan) that If anything happens to our pilot, we will not leave you,' Modi said. (Photo: ANI)

Patan: Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up his campaign against terror on Sunday  a day that saw the deaths of over 200 people in horrific attacks in neighbouring Sri Lanka.

At a rally in Gujarat, Modi said: I have decided either I will be alive or terrorists even if I no longer have the Prime Ministers chair,'' Modi said.

He targeted Pakistan over the release of IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman after the recent dogfight between the two countries. He said the neighbouring country was forced to release him or would have faced severe retaliation. "We warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, they would keep telling the world that Modi had done this to them," he said.

"A senior American official said the second day that Modi had 12 missiles ready and might attack. The situation would deteriorate. Pakistan returned the pilot on the second day, else it would have been a qatal ki raat'," Modi said. "This was said by America, not me. I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak when the time will come," he added.

Taking a swipe at NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who on Saturday said he was "terribly afraid" what Modi would do next, he said: If he is unaware of what Modi would do tomorrow, how would Imran Khan know?

Modi urged Gujarat voters to elect the "son of their soil" with full-majority in forming the next government.

My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give all 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 would be on why I failed on home turf," he said.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.Hitting out at the previous BJP government in the state, he charged they 'kicked the farmer in the stomach and pointed a gun at his chest.'

Tear my son's clothes if he does not deliver, says Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath as he campaigns for his son Nakul who is fighting his first elections from Chhindwara. (Photo: File)

Dhanora: Tear my son's clothes if he does not deliver, says Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath as he campaigns for his son Nakul who is fighting his first elections from Chhindwara.

Invoking his 40-year-old association with the region, Nath says he has now entrusted the task to serve the people of Chhindwara to his son so that he can work for Madhya Pradesh. "I am where I am because of the love and strength you gave me," Nath said.

"Nakul is not here today but he will serve you. I have given him the responsibility. Take him to the task and tear his clothes if he does not deliver," the 72-year-old Congress leader told the locals on Sunday.

He was speaking at an election rally on Saturday in Dhanora village which comes under the Amarwada assembly seat, about 65 kms from Chhindwara district headquarters. "We will start a new journey and create history," he told the locals.

Nath has been the longest-serving Member of Parliament (MP) from this Lok Sabha constituency as he served for nine terms and he has now vacated the seat for his son.

The chief minister is also contesting bypoll in the Chhindwara assembly constituency as per the legal requirement of being a member of legislative assembly (MLA) for running the state government. Nath says due to his efforts the district has a "distinct identity" when it comes to development.

He hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his promises of ensuring Rs 15 lakh in every Indian citizen's bank account, steps against black money and the decision of demonetisation were just "gimmicks and frauds".

"They (Modi and Chouhan) scream we did this, we did that but tell me if they did anything for you?" Nath said, alleging that the two leaders misled the people. "I want to tell Modiji that while there are no 'acche din' (good days) for the common man, his (Modi's) days are going to end soon," he said.

Modi "harassed" every section of society and under BJP government's watch, farmers in Madhya Pradesh were shot at and their livelihood was hit too, Nath alleged.

Hitting out at the previous BJP government in the state, he charged they "kicked the farmer in the stomach and pointed a gun at his chest".

The chief minister said his government in the state has shown its intent by delivering on the promises made before the 2018 assembly polls.

"As promised, we initiated waiver of loans of the farmers as soon as we took charge in Bhopal and till now I have done so for 22 lakh farmers. Thirty-eight lakh more farmers will be benefitted soon who have a loan of up to Rs 2 lakh," he said.

"We have done the loan waiver in 35-40 per cent cases and I promise it will be done in 100 per cent cases soon," he said.

Nath said the new Congress government in the state has also reduced the cost incurred by poor people to pay electricity bills.

Chhindwara will vote on April 29 along with the single bypoll for the constituency. In the last general elections, the BJP had won 26 and the Congress secured three seats.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.Mr Sawant pointed out that Ms Thakur had earlier called Mr Karkare a traitor.



Mumbai: The state unit of the Congress on Saturday alleged that the way the Bharatiya Jamata Party (BJP) was supporting Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast, it could be inferred that the party would have offered candidature to Nathuram Godse, had he been alive.

Congress spokesperson and general secretary of the state, Sachin Sawant, claimed that fielding Ms Thakur from Bhopal proved that the BJP stealthily supported terrorism and that is how it worked.

Help provided to Thakur in the court, and almost no action against Sanatan show BJPs ideology. By the same token, if Nathuram Godse was alive, the BJP would have given him candidature. In future, BJP will give candidature to the killers of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh too, he said.

Earlier, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had demanded that Ms Thakur be sacked from the BJP.

The Opposition had also sought an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Amid this, the BJP leadership distanced itself from Ms Thakurs statement, in which she claimed that former ATS chief Hemant Karkare died due to her curse, saying that it was her personal statement.

Mr Sawant said, This is not just the humiliation of one martyr Mr Karkare, but of the whole nation. After uproar from all over the country, Ms Thakur has apologised. The BJP is trying to save itself by saying it is her personal opinion. But the BJP will not get salvation without the removal of Ms Thakur from the party and an apology from the PM.

Mr Sawant pointed out that Ms Thakur had earlier called Mr Karkare a traitor.

BJPs star campaigners and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who were asking for votes in the name of the soldiers sacrifice, did not feel the need to apologise to the nation.

BJP was shamelessly supporting the candidature of a person accused of terrorism, he said.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.The FOB, which was constructed around 40 years ago, collapsed on March 14, 2019.

Mumbai: A sessions court on Saturday rejected the bail applications of two Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) engineers and the auditor, who had conducted structural audit of the Himalaya Bridge outside Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), which collapsed on March 14 killing six people.

Neeraj Desai, the auditor had contended that a structural audit is valid only for six months and the foot overbridge (FOB) outside CSMT collapsed two years after his firm carried out an audit. While the BMC engineers had contended that they have been falsely implicated in the case.

The police had arrested the trio  Neeraj Kumar Desai, a structural engineer, and BMC engineers Anil Patil and S.F. Kakulte of the BMC bridges department last month and they had moved the bail pleas before the session court after the magistrate court rejected their bail pleas.

Public prosecutor Mangesh Arote had opposed the bail applications saying that prima facie a case has been registered against the applicants and at this stage, they shouldnt be granted bail. He had also argued that the applicants have good relations with the BMC officials and the probe into the case was still underway and hence the possibility of tampering with witnesses and evidence cannot be ruled out.

According to police, Desais firm declared the bridge safe despite spotting some corrosion. While Desai contended that the bridge collapsed two years after he carried out the audit and hence he could not be blamed, as there were two monsoons thereafter and many more other climate factors that could have caused the collapse.

After hearing the arguments, additional sessions judge M.S. Azmi on Saturday rejected bail pleas of all three persons. The FOB, which was constructed around 40 years ago, collapsed on March 14, 2019. Six persons were killed and several others were injured when the FOB collapsed during the evening rush hour.Prime Minister Narendra Modi keeps on talking about Pakistan, forgetting that the elections are being fought in India, says Kapil Sibal.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP KAPIL SIBAL has been at the forefront of the legal fight against the BJP as well as exposing the "scams" behind demonetisation. In a free-wheeling interview to SREEPARNA CHAKRABARTY, the top lawyer says he has serious doubts about EVMs and also claims that though the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was signally responsible for the decline of UPA, a Congress-AAP alliance in Delhi is being explored to keep the BJP out.

Recently you carried out a series of exposes on demonetisation, calling it the biggest scam in recent years. Do you think it has found resonance on the ground?

It is. There are two ways in which such a thing has resonance. One is when the mainstream electronic media takes it up, which has not happened. But what has happened is that it has gone viral on social networks. For example, the press conference as I talk to you has had 4,70,000 views. It has gone completely viral. Anywhere in the country you go they have seen it.

Do you think demonetisation will be an issue in these elections?

It will be a silent issue. People have not forgotten it. The kind of suffering they went through  they had to stand in lines, their businesses were destroyed  people never forget that. They never knew what was happening behind the scenes. Why did this happen? Now they have exposure to the real intent behind it.

What do you think are the issues on which these elections are being fought?

It is unfortunate that the issues these elections are being fought on have nothing to do with the people of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi keeps on talking about Pakistan, forgetting that the elections are being fought in India.

He is using Pakistan for domestic advantage instead of informing people whether he has delivered on the promises he had made in 2014. He has forgotten all about ache din, black money, about saying give me 60 months, you gave the Congress 60 years... Now he is saying 2022 and 2030. In fact, I asked several people this question, give me one scheme which he has taken up on his own initiative. All schemes are renamed. There is nothing like Make in India. It is a very big disaster. Start-up India is a disaster. You go to any market  there is nothing from India.

What does he have to show for five years except demonetisation and GST... both of which were disasters? Therefore, he is now talking about Pakistan and patriotism and nationalism.

Is fielding Pragya Thakur a desperate act?

They have to themselves explain to the people of India. We dont want to get into that controversy. If their conscience allows them to do what they are doing, good for them. People of India are getting cynical about the politics that is being played.

Look at the Main Bhi Chowidar movement. These are not things which behove the status of the Prime Minister of India. Cabinet ministers are calling themselves Main Bhi Chowkidar. What kind of chowkidari have they done if, under their noses, these scams took place (demonetisation)?

The myth of a strong leader  Which field has he shown his strength in?  apart from the fact that he can deliberately make mis-statements to the people of this country. Untruths stated again and again is part of his dialogue with the people of this country.

Do you think the Ram temple issue has been put on the back-burner?

Mohan Bhagwat has made a statement that this is not an issue in these elections and we will talk in July.

Last year there was a move to impeach the then Chief Justice. You were a part of it. What do you feel about it retrospectively?

I think we did the right thing as a political party. At least we sent a message that howsoever high you might be, if there are serious allegations against you, political parties will take it up. Of course they politically managed not to take it forward. The Vice-President as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha dismissed the petition, which he did not have any jurisdiction to do. I did not want to take it forward at that point of time for the simple reason that all that we are going to get is a hearing in the Supreme Court and nothing coming out of it.

So I think the point had been made and we stand by what we did.

The Congress is right now in the midst of negotiating an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). What is your opinion on that and the tie-ups by your party in general?

The Congress Party has done a pretty good job on alliances. Take all the alliances that we had in previous polls. We are steadfast in all of them. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, NCP in Maharashtra  all are intact. Which are the alliances we are not going with? We were never in alliance with the SP-BSP together. We never had an alliance with the AAP. If you ask me, the AAP was signally responsible for the decline of the UPA.

Why is then your party exploring an alliance with AAP now?

Because I think what is happening is that in Delhi we feel that if we get together, the BJP will lose all seven seats. But then there are conditionalities attached. If it was only Delhi I dont know what would have happened. But there are issues that have muddied the waters.

How do you expect the post-poll scenario to be?

It is difficult to say at this point of time. It depends on what the tally of the Congress Party is on May 23... how well the regional parties have done, like in West Bengal and Tami Nadu. Then, of course, the KCR, Jagan and the Naidu factors.

What is your assessment on the numbers based on ground feedback?

I doubt whether the NDA will come back to power. It is my personal assessment. In the two phases that are over, they are in decline and the Prime Ministers popularity is in decline.

You have also raised concerns over Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

I have great concern. Ultimately, when the matter came to court, the rationale given was that 50 per cent VVPAT trail will delay the result by five-six days. I dont buy that. But let us assume it does. That means convenience is more important than an election which is not manipulated. I fundamentally dont agree with that.

Second, EVM voting, in principle, has two elements. A voter presses the button against the name, but when the vote is counted, it is being done by a machine. I favour any system other than a machine. A machine should not be used to count my vote. That is why the US and Europe also use ballots.

Are you fighting elections this time?

If my party decides. So far not decided.Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said all Easter masses in the Colombo district had been cancelled.

A view of St. Sebastians Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo on Sunday. (Photo: AP)

Colombo: A string of eight devastating blasts, including suicide attacks, struck churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 215 people, including three Indians, and shattering a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

The blasts  one of the deadliest attacks in the countrys history  targeted St. Anthonys Church in Colombo, St. Sebastians Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am as Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Explosions were reported from three five-star hotels  the ShangriLa, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

Mr Gunasekera confirmed 207 deaths. However, News 1st channel said that 215 people had died in the blasts.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced Sunday evening that eight people had been arrested over the deadly blasts. He said so far the names that have come up are local, but investigators would look into whether the attackers had any overseas links. He also acknowledged that information was there about possible attacks.

While this goes on we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken, he said, but added that the governments first priority would be to apprehend the terrorists.

Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Kishu Gomes said 33 foreign nationals were killed in the coordinated attacks believed to be carried out by a single group. National Hospital director Anil Jasinghe identified 12 of the 33 foreign nationals, which include three Indians, two Chinese and one each from Poland, Denmark, Japan, Pakistan, America, Morocco and Bangladesh. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in Washington that several Americans had been killed in the blasts.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sun-days attacks. However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Briefing reporters, Mr Gunasekera said the police was not able to confirm if these were all suicide attacks. He, however, said that one of the blasts at the Katuwapitiya (Negombo) church has signs of being what looked like a suicide attack.

An unnamed official said a suicide bomber blew himself up at the restaurant of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.

Mr Gunasekara said 66 bodies were kept at the National Hospital while 260 of the injured were getting treatment there, and 104 bodies were placed at Negombo Hospital and 100 injured were receiving treatment at the hospital.

Later in the day, a powerful blast in the capitals southern suburb near Colombo Zoo killed two persons, Mr Gunasekera said.

When a police team entered a house in the Colombo north suburb of Orugodawatta to conduct a search, a suicide bomber blew himself up, causing a concrete floor of a two-storey building to crash on them, killing three policemen in the eighth blast, the police said.

Soon after the eighth blast, the government imposed curfew with immediate effect. The curfew will be in force indefinitely until further notice, officials said.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm. I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary, Mr Sirisena said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as cowardly attacks and said his government was working to contain the situation. He tweeted: I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong... The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.

Security has been intensified around the religious places across Colombo. The government has temporarily blocked all social media platforms.

Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over, said Harsha de Silva, Sri Lankas minister of economic reforms and public distribution.

The first blasts were reported at St. Anthonys Church in Colombo and St. Sebastians Church in Negombo just outside the capital. A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there, read a post on the Facebook page of St. Sebastians Church.

Images circulated on the social media showed severely damaged St. Sebastians Church, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews.

The riot police and the Special Task Force, extra police security has been deployed around the Bandaranaike International Airport, the state-run Daily News reported.

All state universities were closed until further notice. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said all Easter masses in the Colombo district had been cancelled.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership the Sri Lankan Army crushed the LTTE, termed the attack as barbaric.Dozens of foreign nationals were feared to have been killed in the near simultaneous blasts, which took place in Sri Lanka on Easter

'The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time,'British PM said.

London: Countries from across the globe, including the US, the UK, Russia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh expressed shock and condemnation over the deadly blasts at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that left over 200 people dead.

Dozens of foreign nationals were feared to have been killed in the near simultaneous blasts, which targeted Catholic church worshippers on Easter Sunday as well as luxury hotels in Colombo.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday offered "heartfelt condolences" to the people of Sri Lanka.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels... We stand ready to help!," Trump tweeted.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling".

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a "horrific terrorist attack".

"To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support - and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need," he said in a statement.

A month after dozens of Muslims were killed in a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as "devastating".

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating".

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the barbaric attacks. "Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," he tweeted.

Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli condemned the "heinous" terror attacks and extended condolences to the people of Sri Lanka.

"I am deeply saddened by multiple bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in Sri Lanka. I express my condolence to Ranil Wickramasinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and bereaved families of victims of the brutality," Oli said in a tweet while wishing speedy recovery to the injured people.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her deep concerns over the explosions which took place on Sunday morning.

In the message, she prayed for peace and salvation of the departed souls and offered her condolences to the grieving families.

Hasina also hoped for a quick recovery of the injured.

European leaders are expressing horror at the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a message to his Sri Lankan counterpart that he was "stunned and horrified" by the "cowardly terror attacks."

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply shaken and concerned by (the) devious terrorist attacks."

German Chancellor Angel Merkel said: "Terrorism, religious hatred and intolerance cannot be allowed to win."

"We're horrified by the news that Christians in Sri Lanka were attacked and killed during Easter services," wrote Merkel's spokesperson on Twitter. "We mourn them and pray for the injured and their family members."

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attacks "an assault on all of humanity".

Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all issued statements via their foreign ministries condemning the attack.Thank you for reading!

Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) sees his role as "not just the center of the resistance" against President Trump but as a "positive alternative" to him, he told CNN's "The Van Jones Show" Saturday.

What he's saying: "If he attacks our diversity, if he attacks people, demeans them and dehumanizes people, Im going to stand up for them," Newsom told host Van Jones, adding he'd do the same on efforts against clean air, clean water and the Affordable Care Act. "I do govern the most un-Trump state in America ..."

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

Why it matters: As California spearheads liberal states' fight against Trump in the lead-up to the 2020 elections, Newsom and the president have clashed on several issues.Laissez-faire capitalism works very well in theory. The government sets clearly-defined rules, within which corporations compete for profits. Companies win by providing the best products at the lowest price; investors win by allocating scarce capital where it can be put to best use; the country as a whole reaps the benefit.

In an age of corruption anxiety, however, laissez-faire often means that companies themselves get to set the rules.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has lost all its teeth , as Nicholas Confessore reports in today's NYT Magazine. The agency was created to work for and be answerable to consumers, but then Mick Mulvaney took over, and now it seems to answer mostly to payday lenders.

, as Nicholas Confessore reports in today's NYT Magazine. The agency was created to work for and be answerable to consumers, but then Mick Mulvaney took over, and now it seems to answer mostly to payday lenders. The CFPB's new head , hand-picked by Mulvaney, is Kathleen Kraninger. (Mulvaney himself has moved up to become the White House chief of staff.) Kraninger's first big speech this week was described as "the latest nail in the coffin of the CFPB" by LA Times consumer advocate David Lazarus.

, hand-picked by Mulvaney, is Kathleen Kraninger. (Mulvaney himself has moved up to become the White House chief of staff.) Kraninger's first big speech this week was described as "the latest nail in the coffin of the CFPB" by LA Times consumer advocate David Lazarus. Kraninger referred 11 times to "stakeholders" , including "a continued commitment to engagement with all of our stakeholders". Those stakeholders emphatically include financial institutions, who don't need to worry about being sued: the CFPB's rules "are not best articulated on a case-by-case basis through enforcement actions," says the agency's new head.

, including "a continued commitment to engagement with all of our stakeholders". Those stakeholders emphatically include financial institutions, who don't need to worry about being sued: the CFPB's rules "are not best articulated on a case-by-case basis through enforcement actions," says the agency's new head. A group of payday lenders called NDG Enterprise illegally threatened borrowers with arrest and imprisonment, per Confessore. The CFPB recently settled its three-year prosecution of NDG; the fine was exactly $0.

The big picture: When corporations capture their regulators, laissez-faire fails.

Driving the news: Corporations must not be allowed to influence bankruptcy proceedings without fully revealing their conflicts. But that's exactly what McKinsey is being accused of. Now, McKinsey itself has been given the job of drawing up new conflict-of-interest guidelines  guidelines that "could serve as a model for all bankruptcy practitioners". A spokeswoman for McKinsey told the WSJ that the firm is looking to address "ambiguities" in the existing rules.

Corporations literally write laws now. An investigation by USA Today, The Arizona Republic, and the Center for Public Integrity found at least 10,000 bills drafted by corporate interests being introduced in the past 8 years, of which more than 2,100 were signed into law.

Why it matters: Regulatory stakes are high, sometimes life-and-death. Ali Bahrami, for example, the top safety regulator at the FAA, got that job after previously urging the agency to allow Boeing to self-certify the safety of it jets. (Boeing is back in the news this weekend, with a report of safety lapses at its North Carolina Dreamliner factory.) More insidiously, corporate capture of the government apparatus reduces faith in all institutions.

Go deeper: Michael Lewis's new podcast, Against The Rules, is all about the ways in which referees are no longer trusted. Episode 2 dives into the CFPB.More than 290 people died and 500 more were injured in explosions at churches and hotels frequented by foreign tourists in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday  which Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe described as "cowardly attacks."

The latest: A Sri Lankan government forensic analyst said 7 suicide bombers caused 6 of the blasts, AP and Reuters report. Police arrested 24 suspects by Monday over the attacks, which killed at least 37 foreigners, including several U.S. citizens. Authorities were warned of possible attacks 2 weeks ago, the government said Monday. The U.S. State Department warned plotters planned more attacks.

Details: Authorities were warned of possible "acts of terror" on April 4, said Sri Lanka's Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, who is responsible for national security and intelligence, at a news conference. The national intelligence chief wrote a letter on April 9 names of a terrorist organization, he said.

The prime minister was not informed [of] these letters and revelations."

 Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne

The first wave of attacks occurred in quick succession, with churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa targeted during Easter services. In central Colombo, there were blasts at the luxury hotels the Shangri La, the Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury.

Sri Lankan authorities imposed a curfew in as 2 more blasts were reported in the capital, Colombo. It was lifted Monday morning but brought in again for that night.

An improvised bomb discovered at the main airport in Colombo was defused.

The 7th and 8th blasts in Colombo appear to have happened as the attackers fled police, Sri Lankan MP Harsha de Silva said, citing a press conference. In the first explosion at a smaller hotel near a zoo, 2 people were reported to have died.

Social media use has been temporarily banned in the island nation.

One of the biggest massacre sites was at St. Sebastians Catholic church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, where 50 people died, a police official told Reuters.

At the conclusion of his Easter address, Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims of the "cruel violence" in Sri Lanka.

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

The big picture: Religious minorities are protected by the constitution of Sri Lanka, where 70% of the country is Buddhist, 12.6% Hindu, 9.7% Muslim and 7.6% Christian, according to the 2012 census. However, tensions have been a constant of Sri Lankan life, especially after the end of the long-running Sri Lankan civil war in 2009.

The backdrop: Christians reported an increase in violence and discrimination against them last year. The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka said there were 86 reported incidents against Christians in 2018.The FBI said Saturday its agents arrested a member of a militia group in New Mexico that's been stopping migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

Details: United Constitutional Patriots leader Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, of Flora Vista, New Mexico, was arrested for being a felon in possession of a weapon, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said.

What they're saying: Balderas called Hopkins a "dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families."

"Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes."

The backdrop: The UCP says its actions "stand up" for the rights of Americans to "help keep America safe," but the American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday called the group a "fascist militia organization" that unlawfully arrests migrants. New Mexicos Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) launched an investigation into the UCP.

The other side: UCP spokesman Jim Benvie blamed Grisham for Hopkins' arrest, according to Reuters. "Were not worried about it, hes going to be cleared," he told the news agency.In a closed-door meeting with Iranian-American community leaders last Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration is "not going to do a military exercise inside Iran" to expedite a regime change, according to three sources who were in the room, including one who took detailed contemporaneous notes and shared them with me.

Pompeo also sought to distance the Trump administration from a controversial Iranian resistance group that has welcomed John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani as speakers in a private capacity.

Behind the scenes: Pompeo met with around 15 Iranian-American community leaders on Monday morning in a conference room at the Renaissance Dallas Hotel. The secretary gave brief opening remarks and then spent most of the session listening and answering questions.

The most provocative question he fielded, according to the sources, was: "If regime change does not occur internally what is the endgame?"

Pompeo replied, "We're careful not to use the language of regime change." He then told the group that the administration would not intervene militarily in Iran.

Another participant asked, "Has the idea of a coup been considered?" Pompeo joked that "Even if we did, would I be telling you guys about it?" and the room broke out in laughter.

Pompeo used euphemisms and diplo-speak to describe the administration's position on Iran.

"Our mission set is to give them the opportunity ... capacity to create opportunity, create that and provide transitional support," he said, per the notes.

... capacity to create opportunity, create that and provide transitional support," he said, per the notes. "Our best interest is a non-revolutionary set of leaders leading Iran," he added, according to the notes.

Between the lines: Pompeo said the Trump administration would have handled the 2009 Green Movement uprising against the regime very differently than the Obama administration did. But he did not say how.

Pompeo also said there is "no such thing as a moderate inside the Iranian regime anywhere today."

And when asked how he could guarantee that the Trump administration's tough new sanctions wouldn't hurt the people of Iran, he replied: "There are no guarantees."

Pompeo also distanced the administration from the People's Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq), an anti-regime group that the U.S. once designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

Several people in the room told Pompeo they worried about what message it sent for close Trump allies  National Security Adviser John Bolton and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani among them  to appear friendly with the MEK, whom some in the room described as worse than the current regime.

"Let's not beat around the bush," Pompeo replied, according to one source's notes. "Ambassador Bolton spoke at an MEK rally. President Trump and I have not."

Pompeo replied, according to one source's notes. "He acknowledged that John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani had connections or ties, whatever you want to call it ... with the MEK, but he did say that he and the president did not," confirmed another person in the room, Texas attorney Michael Payma.

Why this matters: With Trump as president, Bolton as national security adviser and Pompeo as secretary of state  the American people have never had a government so hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran.Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, who plays president on a popular television show, has defeated incumbent President Petro Poroshenko with more than 70% of the vote to win Ukraine's presidential election, according to exit polls.

The big picture: This was Ukraine's first presidential election without a clear pro-Kremlin candidate, reflecting a shift for a country that has been increasingly drawn toward the West since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Zelensky, who lacked any sort of a formal campaign, has promised that as a fresh face on the political scene, he can shepherd lasting structural change that career politicians cannot.

The incumbent Poroshenko's unpopularity is tied to his failure to tackle corruption. Poroshenko has suggested the inexperienced Zelensky would be a dream come true for Vladimir Putin.

Claire Kaiser, an expert on Eastern Europe at McLarty Associates, tells Axios that Zelensky will have to build a strong national security team and send an early signal he has a handle on foreign policy.By Trend

Azerbaijan is an important node in New Silk Road, Charles Stevens, the founder of The New Silk Road Project (www.thenewsilkroadproject.com), told Trend.

Stevens pointed out that Baku sits at the crossroad of developing north-south and east-west transportation routes.

"These span from Russia to India, via the newly developed Astara rail bridge, and China to Europe respectively. As synergies are created and scale brings cost efficiencies, Azerbaijan is well placed to benefit from a strategy which will help diversify its economy. Azerbaijan is an increasingly important node in this growing multimodal network with the development of Baku Port at Alat," he added.

Stevens noted that over the past five years, the implementation of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative has been opaque and unevenly dispersed across Eurasia.

"There is minimal clarity as to what foreign investment constitutes a BRI project or not and those that are BRI projects seem to be concentrated around the India Ocean littoral. This centres on East Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and Southeast Asia. The implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, in the regions contiguous with the major arteries of the ancient Silk Road, are underdeveloped. This includes Kazakhstan, Iran, the South Caucasus, and Turkey," he said.

He believes that the Belt and Road Initiative can bring great opportunities but also a multitude of challenges.

"Each country needs to assess the benefits of potential projects on their individual merits. These may include financial terms, labour agreements, public benefits, environmental impact, and long term economic benefits," noted Stevens.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemns terror attacks in Sri Lanka, Trend reports on April 21.

"We condemn the devastating terrorist attacks in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka killing and injuring many innocent people. We express our deepest condolences to the families of victims and the people of Sri Lanka, wish a speedy recovery to the injured," reads a message on the ministrys Twitter page.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Sri Lankan authorities said on Sunday that the death toll from the explosions which shook the Sri Lankan capital earlier in the day had risen to 185 while 469 others were injured, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

Local media quoting police and hospital sources said that nine foreigners were among those killed and 13 others were injured.

Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara told Xinhua that a seventh explosion was reported from opposite the Dehiwala Zoo in Colombo on Sunday afternoon.

10:57 (GMT+4) Easter Day bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels killed 138 people and wounded more than 400, hospital and police officials said, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago, Trend reported citing Reuters.

In just one church, St. Sebastians in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, more than 50 people had been killed, a police official told Reuters, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews and a destroyed roof.

Media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on a church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The three hotels hit were the Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel and Cinnamon Grand Colombo. It was unclear whether there were any casualties in the hotels.

Nine foreigners were among the dead, the officials said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

One of the explosions was at St Anthonys Church in Kochcikade, Colombo.

Our people are engaged in evacuating the casualties, a source with the bomb squad said.

St. Sebastians church posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), which represents more than 200 churches and other Christian organizations.

This year, the NCEASL recorded 26 such incidents, including one in which Buddhist monks allegedly attempted to disrupt a Sunday worship service, with the last one reported on March 25.

Out of Sri Lankas total population of around 22 million, 70 percent are Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim, and 7.6 percent Christian, according to the countrys 2012 census.

In its 2018 report on Sri Lankas human rights, the U.S. State Department noted that some Christian groups and churches reported they had been pressured to end worship activities after authorities classified them as unauthorized gatherings.

The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship, citing unidentified sources.

10:06 (GMT+4) At least 20 people were killed and another 280 were wounded in a series of six explosions that hit Sri Lanka during Easter celebrations, Trend reported citing Tass.

AFP reported citing police that the blasts targeted three luxury hotels and a church in Colombo, and also two churches in a suburb of Negombo.

No extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

09:19 (GMT+4) Two Sri Lankan churches and two hotels were hit by explosions on Easter Sunday, wounding several people, police sources said, Trend reported citing Reuters.

The hotels and one of the churches are in the nations capital Colombo. The other church is in Negombo, north of Colombo.

A source in the police bomb squad said that one of the explosions was at St Anthonys Church in Kochcikade, Colombo. Our people are engaged in evacuating the casualties, the source said.

Sources from two leading tourist hotels in Colombo also confirmed the explosions but did not give any details.

Colombo National hospital said several wounded had been brought in for treatment.

St. Sebastians church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The water level of Urmia Lake has reached 1,271.42 meters as a result of the recent rainfall in Iran, Aqil Agdasi, director of the Water Resources Research Center of Irans East Azerbaijan province, told reporters.

The water level increased by 70 centimeters this Iranian year compared to last Iranian year (started on March 21, 2018), Agdasi added, Trend reports referring to IRNA.

The current water level of Urmia Lake increased by 1.17 meters in September of this Iranian year compared to September of last Iranian year, he said.

The current water area of the Urmia Lake is 647 kilometers this Iranian year compared to last Iranian year which is 1,201 square kilometres more compared to September of last Iranian year.

The water volume of the Urmia Lake was 1.94 billion cubic meters in September of last Iranian year. To date, this figure has increased by 3.84 billion cubic meters.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzFor 20 minutes after he was sentenced to die, John William Bill King wasnt simply a symbol of racial hatred and evil.

His heartbroken father, sitting in a wheelchair with an oxygen tube in his nose, had urged a Jasper County jury not to give his son the death penalty. But the jurors  11 white and one black  decided otherwise, deliberating for just three hours before recommending execution.

After ordering the sentence, state District Judge Joe Bob Golden did something he had not done previously in the trial. He allowed Bill King, 24, to spend 20 minutes with his dad, Ronald King, 69, before being taken away back to jail and then to death row.

> > RELATED: Jasper awaits Wednesday execution of James Byrd slayer

The entire 20 minutes, Bill wouldnt take his hand off of his father, the Rev. Ron Foshage recalled. He just kept rubbing Ronalds arm and then his leg. He knelt beside him  a father and son. Bill became that little boy who loved without hate.

Because at one time, Foshage added, Bill King was just a boy.

* * *

The man set to die Wednesday night in Huntsville for one of Texas most awful murders was adopted at 2 months of age and raised in Jasper by Ronald and Jean King.

As a child, those who know him from that time say, he made friends with ease.

My boys liked him, said Capt. James Carter, an African-American man who grew up in Jasper and has served the Jasper County Sheriffs Office for 30 years. He came and spent the night with us often.

King and Carters own two children were just boys doing what boys do, he said. They wrestled in the front yard, played ball, explored the neighborhood.

I treated him like my own," Carter said.

On June 7, 1998, it fell to Carter and his boss to tell the family of James Byrd Jr. that three men  Bill King, Shawn Berry and Lawrence Russell Brewer  had chained Byrd, 49, to the bumper of a truck and dragged him three miles down a country road. It was a modern-day lynching that shocked the nation.

The Byrd familys pastor recalls how hard the news fell on the dead mans mother.

She couldnt believe how horrific it was, her sons last minutes here on Earth being dragged, said the Rev. Kenneth Lyons of Greater New Bethel Baptist Church. And the reports said he tried to ... you could see where his hands had been scarred as they were dragging him.

Eyes closed, Lyons lightly raked his fingernails across the table as he spoke.

And they just kept dragging him. How could another man do that to a human being?

* * *

Among those who had a different recollection of Bill King before the horrific Byrd murder  a crime that inspired hate-crime legislation in Texas and nationally  is Louis Berry.

He knew Bill King as his younger brother Shawn Berrys good friend.

Ol Bill, folks would say, according to Berry, hell give you the shirt off his back. I bet they made that saying after him.

Kids were just kids back then, added Paul Brister, who was with the Jasper Police Department at the time of the slaying. There was no internet, no cell phones, no online stuff. Teenagers just rode around town, they went to the movies, hung out at the movie theater and the skating rink.

Jasper Twin Cinema, once a popular spot, closed in 2013, leaving behind a dilapidated building on South Fletcher Street.

Shawn Berry worked there. Police found a tire from Berrys Ford pickup there. It was used as evidence in the trials.

I never knew (Bill) to be racist until after he was in Beto, Louis Berry said.

He wasnt the only one to remark on the change that seemed to occur at the George Beto I Unit near Palestine in the late 90s. At 20 years old, a series of burglaries had sent King to prison for the first time.

Something certainly happened at Beto I, Foshage said, before sharing words spoken by Kings father two decades prior.

Something happened to my boy in prison. Something bad, Ronald King had told his priest. He never had this kind of hate in his heart.

While there, he had been sexually assaulted by a black man. He refused to discuss it, Foshage said. While there, he also forged a friendship with Brewer, a white supremacist from Sulphur Springs.

> > PHOTOS: Scenes from Lawrence Russell Brewer's execution

He was a monster when he got out of the pen, Carter said.

* * *

Bill Kings descent started with the theft of alcohol and cigarettes.

To be honest, he was just a guy committing crimes, said Mike Wilson, lead investigator with the Jasper County District Attorneys Office during the trials.

He wasnt a very good criminal, Wilson said. He was running with the wrong crowd as he got into his late teens. His dad tried to get him on the right track. Just a typical good kid gone bad.

Foshage pegs the beginning of Kings downward spiral to his 16th birthday, the day his mother died.

Ronald told me that Jean spoiled him, the priest said. She doted on him. They were very close. He was devastated. I know he missed her terribly.

King began veering off, Carter said. His two children distanced themselves, and others followed.

The kids backed off of him, Carter said. The kids in the neighborhood backed off of him. Even his friends. The friend he had (Berry)  you see what happened.

Kings first arrest was in 1992, and he got 10 years probation for burglary of a building. Another burglary that same year put him in prison for three months. A second probation violation in 1995 sent him to the Beto Unit.

Thats where he met Brewer and they decided to form their own branch of the KKK or some group like that, Wilson said.

King was paroled in June 1997. The self-described exalted cyclops of the Confederate Knights of America left prison with a body full of tattoos. One depicted a black man hanging from a tree. He returned home and moved into an apartment with Shawn Berry.

Two months later, Brewer left Beto and headed for Jasper to find his former cellmate.

In the small, one-bedroom apartment near the local Walmart, King introduced Berry  a young man with a 1982 Ford pickup  and Brewer, a white supremacist paroled with what officials termed an unidentified mental illness.

Less than a year later, their names became inextricably linked. Eight months after King was tried, convicted and sentenced to death, Brewer also received the death penalty. Berry was sentenced to life in prison.

* * *

For the most part, Ronald King attended his sons capital murder trial alone. His wife was gone; his three other children had cut ties with their brother.

I cry a lot, Ronald King told The Enterprise in 1999. Im lost myself. I dont know where I stand. Im going through something I never expected to go through.

Another family in the courtroom understood his struggle.

The Byrd family was so kind to Ronald, Foshage said. Every day after the trial had ended for the day, Mr. Byrd and other members of the Byrd family would touch Ronald on the arm as they were leaving. He was so grateful for their kindness.

At one of the trials, Byrds father took Ronald Kings hand.

We as parents raise our children to do the right thing and not hate, said Louvon Harris, James Byrd Jr.s older sister. But once theyre not in your control anymore, were not sure what kids will grow up to be.

There were no winners in this. We felt their pain, as well.

Even as evidence uncovered Byrds blood on shoes found in Kings apartment and cigarettes at the crime scene with Kings DNA, Ronald King stood by his son. After the verdict, the man suffering from emphysema made sure his child had access to a radio, a television and stamps in prison.

He was doing without medicine that he desperately needed so Bill could have these things, Foshage said.

King reportedly had several tantrums in the months surrounding the trial  sometimes over his court-appointed attorneys, sometimes over the jailers, and sometimes for no reason at all.

During one fit, he smashed the radio against the wall.

* * *

Ronald King died at Jasper Nursing and Rehabilitation nine months before Brewer was executed in 2011. Before his death, he bought a plot for his son in the Jasper City Cemetery.

The bodies of whites and blacks had been buried separately since the 1830s. Days before Kings trial began, members of the community gathered in peace and prayer to tear down the fence that segregated the graveyard.

By Wednesday, King will be asked to decide whether he wants his remains brought back to Jasper, interred in the plot his father bought for him.

If they are, hell be buried next to his parents and just 100 yards from James Byrd Jr.

mbatson@beaumontenterprise.com

awhitney@jaspernewsboy.comMost average voters, even those who are disgusted with President Trumps lying and antics, realize that impeachment is off the table. The release of Robert Muellers report concludes that no collusion with Russia took place, even if the president came close to obstructing justice and did all kinds of other sketchy things during the campaign.

The bottom line is that no laws were broken, and thats basically the bar for impeachment. If a president hasnt committed high crimes or misdemeanors, he gets to keep his job. After all, he was chosen by the voters, and the voters decision should not be reversed without compelling reasons.

But some Democrats in Congress are not most voters. They still want to proceed with impeachment because they believe, not without reason, that Trump has violated the norms and practices of the most important job on earth.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., a member of the Intelligence Committee, said, Once you start reading the report, its very clear that Mueller is jumping up and down and saying Congress, do what I cant do! 

Bill Yeomans, a senior justice fellow at the Alliance for Justice, said, Failure to move toward impeachment runs the risk of alienating the Democrats base and making the party look weak and indecisive. He believes, the Mueller report demonstrates that Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct that is far worse than anything Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton dared attempt.

If other House Democrats adopt this hardline view, they would ironically promote their worst nightmare  a second term for Trump.

Any move in that direction looks vindictive and would allow Trump to portray himself as a victim of partisan harassment. There just isnt anything to hang it on, even if impeachment is primarily a political process, not a legal one. Democrats still need to put down reasons for it, and Trump acting like a jerk does not qualify.

On top of everything, there is the political reality that while it takes only a simple majority in the House to send impeachment to the Senate, a two-thirds vote is needed there to remove a president from office.

There is no way in Hades that a Republican-controlled Senate (53-47) would even come close to that. Heck, its not clear that hardline senators like our own Ted Cruz would vote to impeach Trump even if he were convicted of legitimate crimes. There is too much us-against-them in Washington now, and it must be noted, Democratic senators did not vote to impeach President Clinton even though he lied under oath. Their view was that his fibs, no matter how distasteful, were about a secondary matter (his sexual escapades) not sufficient to undo the voters choice.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demonized by some red-staters, but shes a pragmatic, old-school politician. She realizes that impeachment is a non-starter for most voters  and a distraction to real issues that Democrats can campaign on, like better health care.

But the 2018 election brought in a wave of aggressively leftist Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who want to take Trump on at every opportunity. At a minimum, they want to continue congressional investigations of Trump (which are justified and could turn up more misdeeds) and will almost certainly propose impeachment sooner than later.

Party leaders have to find a way to defer that, as do Democratic presidential candidates. If they dont, Trump and Fox News will use impeachment as the perfect fodder for a thousand tweets and speeches about how unfair the Dems have become. That will resonate with some swing voters in an election that will likely be won by a tight margin.

Democrats should view impeachment like that second piece of chocolate cake  it looks delicious, but deep down inside, you know its bad for you.  Put down the fork, and slowly step away.

Thomas Taschinger, TTaschinger@BeaumontEnterprise.com, is the editorial page editor of The Beaumont Enterprise. Follow him at twitter.com/@PoliticalTomThe landmark Free Derry corner has been repainted to reflect revulsion felt at the killing of Lyra McKee (Joe Boland/PA)

The landmark Free Derry Corner has been repainted to reflect revulsion felt at the killing of Lyra McKee.

The famous civil rights-era slogan on a gable wall is regularly altered to reflect community sentiment in the Bogside estate in Londonderry.

The citys Catholic bishop has said the nationalist community needs to be liberated from dissident republicans blamed for Miss McKees shooting on Thursday evening.

A message at Free Derry Corner said: Not in our name, RIP Lyra with a heart painted beside it.

Police have arrested two teenagers they suspect are members of the dissident republican New IRA involved in shooting the young journalist in the head.

A gunman aiming to kill police hit the 29-year-old. He fired indiscriminately during disturbances in the Creggan estate.

Bishop Donal McKeown told BBC Radio Ulsters Sunday Sequence programme: The one liberation they require in that community is liberation from Saoradh.

Saoradh, translating to liberation in Irish, is a grouping which has the support of the dissident republican group the New IRA.

Bishop McKeown added: We dont want to be laboured with a reputation that comes from a small group that represents a small number of people but is actually a danger to all of us.

Floral tributes have been piling up at the lamppost where Miss McKee fell, including one written to beautiful Lyra from her partner Sara Canning.

A close friend said her death leaves a void which will never be filled, but she hopes it will bring an end to gun violence in the city and meet the expectations of the victims peace process generation.

Expand Close Standing beside the pile of floral tributes her friend Kathleen Bradley said she was a breath of fresh air when she moved from Belfast to the city to be with her partner Sara (Michael McHugh/PA). / Facebook

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Whatsapp Standing beside the pile of floral tributes her friend Kathleen Bradley said she was a breath of fresh air when she moved from Belfast to the city to be with her partner Sara (Michael McHugh/PA).

A new breed of terrorist is coming through the ranks in Northern Ireland, the detective leading the hunt for her killers has said.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said terrorists are lurking in the shadows, frightening and holding to ransom those they claim to represent.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy from the Major Investigation Team & Derry City & Strabane District Commander Alan Hutton provide media with an update on the investigation into the murder investigation of Lyra McKee. pic.twitter.com/OQBkUQ71kd  Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) April 20, 2019

He said there has been a sea-change in community attitudes towards the gunmen.

The New IRA is an amalgam of armed groups opposed to the peace process and it recently claimed responsibility for parcel bombs sent to London and Glasgow in March.

Mr Murphy conceded there remains fear of reprisals from the shadowy gunmen for giving information to police.

Expand Close Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley has signed the book of condolence to Miss McKee (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley has signed the book of condolence to Miss McKee (Brian Lawless/PA)

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley was among those signing a book of condolence opened at the citys Guildhall, describing her death as a tragic loss of one with such potential.

Police believe the violence was orchestrated in response to an earlier search by officers aimed at averting imminent trouble associated with this weeks anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Around 50 petrol bombs were thrown in the confrontation and two cars were burned out.

Former US president Bill Clinton, whose administration played an integral peace process role, and the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier are among those to condemn the violence.The killers of murdered journalist Lyra McKee have been urged to disband.

A demonstration by republicans who embrace the peace process said their violent dissident counterparts were caught in a futile and antiquated time warp.

The journalist and published author, 29, died after she was shot in the head by a member of the New IRA during a Londonderry riot.

Her funeral will be held in her native Belfast on Wednesday.

The landmark Free Derry Corner has been repainted to include the words not in our name  RIP Lyra to reflect community revulsion felt at the killing.

Expand Close A message of condolence for 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee (Joe Boland/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle ONeill said: To those young people circling these people consider what type of future you want for your kids and grandkids  there are two futures on offer  one of peace, opportunity and Irish reunification.

Or one of death, imprisonment which serves no cause, community or people.

Ask yourself what type of life and what type of Ireland do you want to be part of?

It is high time these people disbanded and ended their futile actions which are a barrier to achieving Irish unity.

She addressed a commemoration of the Easter Rising battle for Irish independence at the City cemetery in Londonderry on Sunday.

Republicans carried photos of former IRA members killed during the 30-year conflict.

Police have arrested two teenagers they suspect are members of the dissident republican gang involved in shooting Miss McKee.

A gunman aiming to kill police hit her after firing indiscriminately during disturbances in the Creggan estate.

Mrs ONeill said: Sadly, what we have here is a small number of people caught in a time warp who have self appointed themselves to carry out actions which are pointless, anti-peace, anti-community and frankly, antiquated.

Among those to lay a wreath for republican dead was Tiernan Heaney, aged 23, whose IRA uncle Dennis Heaney was shot in the city by British soldiers in 1978 when he went to commandeer a vehicle.

It is absolutely disgusting that that life was there and then it was just taken away by some stupid actTiernan Heaney

Mr Heaney said he identified with LGBTQI activist Miss McKee as he himself is gay.

He said: It is absolutely disgusting that that life was there and then it was just taken away by some stupid act.

There is palpable anger in the Creggan area and all over the city and across the north of Ireland and the island.

It is horrific, it should never have happened.

Expand Close Journalist Lyra McKee who was shot and killed when guns were fired and petrol bombs were thrown in Londonderry (Family handout/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook

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The people who brought guns on to the street, and those who organised them do not represent any version of Irish republicanism, Ms ONeill told those gathered at the commemoration.

They have no politics, no strategy, and no popular support amongst the vast number of ordinary people from this city, or anywhere else in the country.

Expand Close Sara Canning, the partner of 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Catholic bishop Donal McKeown addressed Mass-goers on Sunday at a church just yards from where Miss McKee and her partner Sara Canning had made their home.

He said: So, on this Easter morning, we gather with deep sadness in our hearts and without any simplistic message about the Resurrection.

But we gather with faith in a God who can write straight on crooked lines  and for whom love is always stronger than hatred.

The New IRA is an amalgam of armed groups opposed to the peace process and it recently claimed responsibility for parcel bombs sent to London and Glasgow in March.

Police believe the violence was orchestrated in response to an earlier search by officers aimed at averting imminent trouble associated with this weeks anniversary of the Rising.The number of crimes recorded in Northern Ireland has increased this year

A 33-year-old man has been charged with grievous bodily harm after a 48-year-old man had part of his ear bitten off during an assault in Omagh.

At around 8pm on Saturday an altercation took place in the Bridge Street area of the town.

The suspect is due to appear at Omagh Magistrates Court on Monday.

As is normal procedure all charges are reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service.

Detective Inspector Trevor Stevenson appealed for anyone who witnessed the altercation or who has any information which could assist officers with their enquiries to contact detectives in Omagh on 101 quoting reference 1326 20/04/19.Journalist Lyra McKee who was shot and killed when guns were fired and petrol bombs were thrown in Londonderry (Family handout/PA)

The funeral of journalist Lyra McKee will be held in Belfast on Wednesday, it has been announced.

Lyra, who was 29, was shot during disturbances in the Creggan area of Londonderry on Thursday night. Police have blamed the New IRA for her murder.

Read More

Her funeral service will be held at 1pm in St Anne's Cathedral on Donegall Street in Belfast, followed by burial in Carnmoney Cemetery.

A gunman aiming to kill police hit the talented 29-year-old in the head. He fired indiscriminately during disturbances in the Creggan estate.

An 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old man arrested in connection with the murder were released without charge on Sunday evening.Snow and ice could cause problems

The road has been closed.

Follow the latest updates from our travel feed below

The Dobbin Road in Armagh has been reopend folowing an earlier crash.

Diversions are in place and traffic is being diverted onto the Vicarage Road, delays are expected.

Our live updates from across Northern Ireland are compiled by @TrafficwatchNI, @BBCNITravel and @PSNITraffic.Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have each enjoyed their warmest Easter Sunday on record, the Met Office said.

Temperatures reached 23.4C at both Cardiff Bute Park, Wales, and at Scotlands Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden, while 21C was recorded at Helens Bay in Northern Ireland.

These beat the temperatures of 21.6C in Brynamman, Wales, in 1984, along with 20.7C in Aboyne, Scotland, in 2015, and 19.4C in Armagh in Northern Ireland dating back to 1924 which were the warmest Easter Sundays for those countries.

BREAKING NEWS!!!! 3 out of the 4 UK nations have now reached their highest #temperature on record for #EasterSunday. Just England to go now, and we need to beat this one to see our UK warmest Easter Day... we'll update you later pic.twitter.com/HCD0osKanS  Met Office (@metoffice) April 21, 2019

The highest temperature of this bright, sunny and dry Easter Sunday in England was the 24.6C, which was reached Heathrow.

This was still shy of the top Easter Sunday temperature from 2011 when the mercury reached 25.3C in the Solent.

Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna said: We have got high pressure moving at the moment giving most of the UK a lot of fine weather, this combined with the fact that the high pressure has dominated for the past few days is allowing the temperatures to heat and build.

It is allowing some record breaking temperatures to be set today and potentially tomorrow as we are looking at a high of 25C or 26C.

Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook

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He also suggested that the temperatures may also be helped by the fact that Easter has fallen a little later in the calendar this year.

He said: The later in the year that Easter falls, the higher the sun is in the sky and the stronger it is.

As most people basked in Easter sunshine, firefighters tackled a large wildfire on Yorkshires famous Ilkley Moor.

A helicopter was brought in on Sunday to drop tonnes of water onto the smouldering moorland just to the south of the town in West Yorkshire.

Expand Close Firefighters use a helicopter to drop water as they tackle a large fire (Danny Lawson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Firefighters use a helicopter to drop water as they tackle a large fire (Danny Lawson/PA)

More than 100 firefighters tackled the fire in sweltering conditions at its height on Saturday afternoon.

The dry, sunny and very warm temperatures have brought high risk of wildfires in Yorkshire and north-west England, and a moderate likelihood for Wales and south-west England, according to the Met Office.

Expand Close A large fire is continuing to burn on Ilkley Moor (Danny Lawson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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It comes after Easter Saturday became the warmest day of the year so far when the temperature hit 25.5C in Gosport, Hampshire.

The UKs warmest Easter temperature was the 29.4C recorded at Camden Square in London on Easter Saturday in 1949.

The other warmest Easter weekend days include the 26.9C recorded at Londons St Jamess Park on Good Friday in 2011  when the mercury also reached 25.3C on Easter Sunday and 24C on Easter Monday, both in the Solent.

Met Office meteorologist Dean Hall said that in stark contrast to the dry and sunny conditions in the UK, Spain and the Mediterranean are seeing showers and heavy downpours.

He added: Spain is very unsettled as we go into Easter Monday. There are temperatures of 17C to 16C in Barcelona. There are certainly cooler conditions there compared to the UK.Bomb squad officers at the scene of a security alert in Creggan in Londonderry. Credit: Leona O'Neill

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with ta suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with ta suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with ta suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with a suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly on Inishcarn `Road, Creggan, Derry.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with a suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly on Inishcarn `Road, Creggan, Derry.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with a suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly on Inishcarn `Road, Creggan, Derry.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with ta suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with ta suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with ta suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with ta suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with ta suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly.

Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 21st April 2019 - Photo by Lorcan Doherty / Press Eye. PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with a suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly on Inishcarn `Road, Creggan, Derry.

PSNI and Army Technical Officers deal with a suspect device left at the home of local Councillor Gary Donnelly on Inishcarn `Road, Creggan, Derry.

Army Technical Officer at the scene of a security alert in Creggan. Credit: Press Eye

Four security alerts in Londonderry have ended after a day of disruption on Easter Sunday.

The security alerts were in Insicarn Road, Harty Court, Moss Park and Strand Road in the city.

A number of items have been removed from a house in Moss Park, while devices found in Insicarn Road and Harty Court were found not to be viable. A car involved in the Strand Road alert was examined but nothing untoward was found.

It is understood one of the devices was left outside Independent councillor Gary Donnelly's home in Iniscarn Road in Creggan.

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Police investigating the security alerts have arrested a 39-year-old man. He has been taken to the Serious Crime Suite at Musgrave Police Station for questioning.

Expand Close Republican councillor Gary Donnelly. / Facebook

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Police have said they are treating the security alerts as criminal rather than terrorist related.

The security alerts come just days after the murder of investigative journalist Lyra McKee in the Creggan area on Thursday night.

Expand Close Police officers on Iniscarn Drive in Creggan. Credit: Leona O'Neill / Facebook

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Police believe she was shot by members of the New IRA. Two teenage men have been arrested by detectives investigating the shooting.

A PSNI spokesman said: "A number of homes in the area have been evacuated and local diversions are in place.

"There are no further details at this time."

Four security alerts in #Derry today. In Creggan a device has been left outside Councillor Gary Donnellys home. Another device outside a home in Hardy Court in Ballymagroarty. Strand Road Police Station is also cordoned off as police examine a car. Fourth alert in Moss Park pic.twitter.com/06HV9CGgVo  Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) April 21, 2019

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood told those responsible for the security alerts to "get off the people of Derry's backs".

"Those responsible for dragging families out of their homes onto the street on Easter Sunday morning are nothing but thugs," he said.

"Its well past time these faceless cowards went away and got of the backs of the people in Derry.

Army Technical Officers have carried out a controlled explosion on a device left on a doorstep of a home in Hardy Court in Ballymagroarty. Dozens of families have been evacuated. Police say they are not linking todays security alerts to the murder of journalist Lyra McKee #Derry pic.twitter.com/zfWQ1AyxKD  Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) April 21, 2019

The Foyle MLA added: Derry is a wonderful city filled to the brim with talent and hardworking people trying to get on in life - yet these hoods think they can drag us back and continue to limit the opportunities for our people. They need to wise up and grow up.

"There is no place for them in Derry and if the events of the past few days showed anything, its that this City is done with the past and is united in our condemnation of these thugs.Two teenagers arrested in connection with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee have been released without charge.

The males, aged 18 and 19, were released on Sunday evening, the PSNI confirmed.

Lyra was shot in the head during disturbances in the Creggan area of Londonderry on Thursday evening.

Detectives from PSNI Major Investigation Team continue to appeal for help from the local community in Creggan.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: We have received very positive support from the community but we need to convert this support into tangible evidence that will enable us to bring Lyras killers to justice.

"We will continue to work positively and sensitively with the local community to achieve this.

I am continuing to appeal for those people who were in Fanad Drive and Central Drive on Thursday night and who have mobile phone footage to please come and speak with my detectives and provide us with your mobile phone footage.

"We do not need to hold on to your phone, we have necessary equipment that will allow us to download the footage quickly. Alternatively, you can use the Major Incident Public Portal at www.MIPP.police.uk<http://www.mipp.police.uk/> to upload footage or to tell us what they know.

I know there will be some people who know what happened but are scared to come forward but if you have information, no matter how small, please contact detectives in the incident room on 101 or via the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.Irish defence forces during the National commemoration to mark the 103rd anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, at the GPO in Dublin (Liam McBurney/PA)

The Irish President has led a commemoration to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin.

Michael D Higgins was joined by Irish premier Leo Varadkar and defence minister Paul Kehoe at the state ceremony outside the GPO on OConnell Street, the landmark building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

Guard of Honour marching into place for the 103rd Anniversary of the 1916 Rising at the GPO. Ceremony starts at 12.00 #easter1916 #StrengthenTheNation pic.twitter.com/vk9fJZL0Es  Oglaigh na hEireann (@defenceforces) April 21, 2019

Members of the Irish Defence Forces including representatives from the Army, Air Corps and Navy also took part in the commemorations.

The event began with the lowering of the Irish tricolour.

A prayer was read and a piper played a lament before the Proclamation of Independence was read by a Defence Forces officer.

Expand Close Defence forces Captain Paul Conlon holds his four-year-old son Senan after reading the Proclamation (Liam McBurnley/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Defence forces Captain Paul Conlon holds his four-year-old son Senan after reading the Proclamation (Liam McBurnley/PA)

Mr Higgins laid a wreath to commemorate all those who died in 1916.

A minutes silence was also held.

The official ceremony concluded with the raising of the tricolour, the playing of the Irish national anthem  Amhran na bhFiann  and a fly-past by the Irish Air Corps.

Expand Close Three Irish Air Corp PC9s fly over The Spire of Dublin during the National commemoration to mark the 103rd anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising at the GPO in Dublin (Liam McBurney/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Three Irish Air Corp PC9s fly over The Spire of Dublin during the National commemoration to mark the 103rd anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising at the GPO in Dublin (Liam McBurney/PA)

On Easter Monday 1916, rebel leader Patrick Pearse stood outside the GPO and read out the proclamation to herald the start of the insurrection against British rule.

The Easter Rising was a military failure for the revolutionaries, who included poets, journalists and teachers, but it sparked a chain of events that ultimately led to the partition of Ireland and the creation of an independent Republic as well as Northern Ireland.

On Sunday morning Culture Minister Josepha Madigan led a remembrance ceremony at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin for all those who died in the rebellion.

Honoured to lead the annual Easter Rising Commemoration this morning at Glasnevin Cemetery, paying tribute to those who died for Irish freedom 103 years ago..



The ceremony also remembers creator of the tricolour, Edward Hollywood & National Anthem composer, Peadar Kearney. pic.twitter.com/z59pyImtyw  Josepha Madigan  (@josephamadigan) April 21, 2019

The centrepiece of the event was the raising of the tricolour by members of the Irish Defence Forces and the national anthem being played by a lone piper.

Ms Madigan laid a wreath at Sigerson Monument.

Laurel wreaths were also laid at the graves of Edward Hollywood, the man who delivered the first tricolour flag to Ireland from France, and Peadar Kearney, the composer of countrys national anthem.

Ms Madigan was joined by Counsellor Catherine Page from the British Embassy, Brigadier General Howard Berney, members of the Irish Defence Forces, and Ambassador Stephane Crouzat on behalf of the French Embassy in Ireland.

The sacrifice of those who died for Irish freedom is acknowledged and perhaps better understood today, and the legacy of 1916 has passed on to new generationsJosepha Madigan

A relative of Peadar Kearneys, Ciara Considine, sang the anthem.

Ms Madigan said: Over the past 187 years, people have gathered here in Glasnevin Cemetery to mark the passing of one and a half million individuals.

The cemetery has been a place for solemn and significant occasions, commemorations and the burial place of key persons in Irish history. 

She added: The sacrifice of those who died for Irish freedom is acknowledged and perhaps better understood today, and the legacy of 1916 has passed on to new generations and informed and guided our path to independence and the first 100 years of the latest chapter in Irelands history.

John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: Its hugely important that we continue to remember the young men and women who perished Easter week 1916.

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Its remembrance days like these at Glasnevin Cemetery, where so many men and women of the Easter Rising of 1916 are buried, that allow us the chance to reflect on our history as a nation.

Its a privilege for us to honour both those who lost their lives in 1916, as well as the Irish citizens that contributed in different ways like Peader Kearney and Edward Hollywood.

A granite memorial incorporating the names of all those who died in the Rising, including rebellion leaders and British soldiers, was unveiled in Glasnevin as part of the centenary commemorations in 2016.

Almost 500 people were killed in the uprising, the majority of them  268  were civilians caught up in the violence. A total of 119 British soldiers died.The Colour Party marches along OConnell Street during the Saoradh Easter Commemoration in Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin 20/4/2019

The political republican group that issued a statement absolving the "IRA volunteer" who shot Lyra McKee marched on the streets of Dublin within 48 hours of her murder.

Up to 150 men and women in military fatigues, their faces covered by berets and sunglasses, paraded outside the GPO.

Saoradh, which denies it is a mouthpiece for the New IRA, issued a self-serving statement within 12 hours of Ms McKee's murder, blaming it on "Crown Forces".

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Yesterday the group's chairman and spokesperson, Brian Kenna, hit out at the "irresponsible PSNI who went into a nationalist area on Thursday night and provoked a young community".

Fine Gael senator Neale Richmond said Saoradh had "no place on the streets of the capital".

Last night police in Belfast were continuing to question two suspected teenage members of the New IRA about the murder of the 29-year-old journalist in Derry.

The men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested in Derry under anti-terrorism legislation and were brought to a police station in Belfast, the PSNI said.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, who is leading the inquiry, said he believed both men were involved in the shooting. "Clearly my consideration is whether those two individuals acted in isolation or in collusion with other individuals, and I am keen for the community to come forward and help me answer that question," he added.

Ms McKee was killed in the Creggan estate in Derry after she was shot in the head by a gunman who fired toward police as rioting raged. Mobile phone and CCTV images captured chilling footage of a masked man pointing a handgun in the direction of police, close to where Ms McKee was standing among a crowd of bystanders.

Her partner, Sara Canning, led tributes to the investigative journalist, published author and LGBTQIA activist, saying her "amazing potential was snuffed out by this single barbaric act".

Mr Murphy added: "People saw the gunman and people saw those who goaded young people out on to the streets, people know who they are.

"What we are seeing is a new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks and that for me is a very worrying situation."

He said Ms McKee's murder had created "a sea change" in the community and asked people to have confidence to come forward with information.

He added that the individuals responsible for her murder continued to "hide in the shadows" but his officers had identified "palpable" change in support of the police.

"This will be Lyra's legacy. Lyra's murder was not just an attack on Lyra, it was an attack on the fabric of this community. Lyra's killers have succeeded in only one thing, and that is in uniting the entire community in condemnation," he said.

A statement on Saoradh's website last Friday said a "republican volunteer attempted to defend people" from the PSNI and the RUC and that "tragically a young journalist, Lyra McKee, was killed accidentally".

Despite releasing a statement, Saoradh chairman Mr Kenna, who is a former employee of the HSE, told the Sunday Independent he had no knowledge about the shooting. He said the information was "passed" to Saoradh. "We would act responsibly in passing on information from republican sources," he said, while adding that he had "no information" to pass to gardai.

Saoradh secretary Ger Devereux said he did not see the statement before it went out. "I don't necessarily agree with it," he said. "But I can state quite categorically to you that we had no involvement in that [shooting]."

Both men said they were shocked by the shooting.The Extinction Rebellion movement is here to stay, will not go away, and is set to keep growing, wildlife television presenter Chris Packham has said.

Speaking on Waterloo Bridge in London, after addressing the activists still gathered on the River Thames crossing from the top of a bus shelter, he said the movement has already achieved change.

Asked by the Press Association if he thought the Government would listen to their demands, Mr Packham said: Well if they dont listen next week theyll listen next time, because we are not going away, this movement is here to stay.

If our government doesn't do something soon, we may not see this plaque... Join #ExtinctionRebellion and demand that government acts now to ensure we have a future. https://t.co/r7XI1M1CM5  Extinction Rebellion (@ExtinctionR) April 21, 2019

We will continue to peacefully demonstrate our concerns and the Government will eventually come to the table  we know these things work, its worked all the way throughout history.

This is the most important time in our planets history to make things work.

He praised the efforts of the XR movement and the campaigners who have glued and locked themselves on to surfaces, and said that because of its success he is absolutely certain it will grow.

It is very important that the movement makes sure it keeps public support on its side, the 57-year-old broadcaster said.

Therefore we need to change our plans, we also need to gather more public support and to do that we need to be more imaginative, when we do something next time it has got to be different.

Asked whether he had a message for Prime Minister Theresa May or Environment Secretary Michael Gove, Mr Packham said: Come and say hello, we are nice people, we are really polite.

He added: I really hope that our politicians look at us and think this has not been a mob, this has not been a riot, its not been a rabble, this is a rational collection of people who want to talk, that is it basically.

So please come to the table and show us that we can begin to trust you again when it comes to making effective and instant changes and when it comes to protecting our climate.

Asked which animal species he would compare the XR movement with, Mr Packham said it was a very human affair.

It is very resourceful, its very adaptable, its very intelligent and intellectual  it is a human movement, he said.

But of course that movement is responsible for looking after other species on the planet, and thats one of the principal reasons I am here as well.

I love life, all life, not just humans or butterflies or birds, all life.

And to protect that beauty of life on our planet we need our politicians to act and we need to do it now.Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthonys Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, April 21, 2019. A Sri Lanka hospital spokesman says several blasts on Easter Sunday have killed dozens of people. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

At least five Britons are among more than 200 people killed in a series of bombings which ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the Easter Sunday massacre was truly appalling, and no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear.

Sri Lankas foreign ministry said three Britons and two holding joint US and British nationalities were killed.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: We can confirm that British nationals were among those killed in todays horrific attacks in Sri Lanka.

Our staff are supporting the relatives of the victims and are continuing to work with the relevant authorities to obtain further information. We extend our deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones and all those affected by this senseless tragedy.

James Dauris, UKs High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, visited injured Britons in hospital and condemned the deplorable violence.

I've been speaking this afternoon with Brits in hospital who have been affected by today's senseless attacks. My team's and my thoughts go out to all those people who are suffering as a result of the deplorable violence #SriLanka has witnessed this Easter Sunday.  James Dauris (@JamesDauris) April 21, 2019

Six nearly simultaneous explosions at churches and hotels killed scores of people in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.

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Hours later, there were further explosions in Dehiwala and Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.

The authorities said 207 were killed and 450 injured in the attacks, most of which were being blamed on suspected suicide bombers.

No one has taken responsibility for the killings, but officials say seven suspects have been arrested.

The Easter attacks are the worst bloodshed Sri Lanka has seen since its brutal civil war ended a decade ago.

Mr Dauris said: Ive been speaking this afternoon with Brits in hospital who have been affected by todays senseless attacks.

My teams and my thoughts go out to all those people who are suffering as a result of the deplorable violence Sri Lanka has witnessed this Easter Sunday.

The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time.



We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear.  Theresa May (@theresa_may) April 21, 2019

Mrs May said: The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time.

We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear.

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Britons in Sri Lanka who need help were urged to call the High Commission in Colombo on +94 11 5390639, while people in the UK worried about friends or family should call the Foreign Office on 020 7008 1500.

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for unity, love and respect to combat hatred.

He said: Im appalled by the horrific attacks in Sri Lanka, on Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.

Im appalled by the horrific attacks in Sri Lanka, on Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar. I stand with the victims, their families, the people of Sri Lanka and Christians around the world. We must defeat this hatred with unity, love and respect.  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 21, 2019

I stand with the victims, their families, the people of Sri Lanka and Christians around the world. We must defeat this hatred with unity, love and respect.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the attacks were horrifying, and to target those gathered for worship on Easter Sunday is particularly wicked.

Im deeply shocked and saddened by the horrifying attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka today. To target those gathered for worship on Easter Sunday is particularly wicked. My prayers are with the victims and their families, and with those assisting in the response. https://t.co/a8UaOLFviv  Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) April 21, 2019

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: On this holy day, let us stand with the people of Sri Lanka in prayer, condolence and solidarity as we reject all violence, all hatred and all division.

On this holy day, let us stand with the people of Sri Lanka in prayer, condolence and solidarity as we reject all violence, all hatred and all division.  Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) April 21, 2019

Sri Lankas prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the cowardly attacks on our people.

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.  Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019

In Colombo, St Anthonys Shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels were targeted in the first wave of explosions.

Other blasts were reported at St Sebastians Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

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Nisanga Mayadunne, who studied at the University of London according to her Facebook profile, and her mother Shantha, a TV chef, are reported to be among the dead.

Nisanga posted a photo of her family eating breakfast in the Shangri-La on Easter Sunday.

Julian Emmanuel and his family, from Surrey, were staying at the Cinnamon Grand when the bomb went off.

He told the BBC: We were in our room and heard a large explosion. It woke us up. There were ambulances, fire crews, police sirens.

I came out of the room to see whats happening, we were ushered downstairs.

We were told there had been a bomb. Staff said some people were killed. One member of staff told me it was a suicide bomber.Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie has called on the Scottish Government to develop a Green New Deal (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Patrick Harvie has called on the Scottish Government to develop a Green New Deal policy for Scotland.

The Scottish Green party co-convener will bring forward a debate at Holyrood this week urging MSPs to back an agenda which addresses climate change and invests in green jobs and industries.

Climate protesters this week took action in cities across the UK calling on government and councils to declare a climate emergency.

Protesters held a series of peaceful demonstrations, including occupying key sites such as Oxford Circus and Waterloo Bridge in London.

Last month, a motion by the Scottish Greens calling for the Scottish Parliament to declare a climate emergency was defeated.

In the United States, a Green New Deal plan was put forward by Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Surprise!



For months weve been working on a very special + secret #GreenNewDeal project.



Now its ready to drop tomorrow morning.



Heres a sneak peek  pic.twitter.com/jEcjTE8t7e  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 16, 2019

Mr Harvie indicated that there is growing interest in Scotland and across the world in bringing forward a Green New Deal.

Mr Harvie said: Last month the Greens brought forward a vote calling on the Scottish Parliament to declare a climate emergency.

This proposition was voted down by SNP, Tory, Labour and Lib Dem MSPs. The other parties cannot conceive of a positive vision for Scotlands future after we leave the fossil fuel age behind.

But, we quite simply cannot afford to continue with our over-reliance on oil and gas.

Climate science tells us there is just over a decade to act if we are to prevent climate breakdown, while the inspirational school climate strikers demand that we act urgently to secure their future.

A Green New Deal for Scotland is a practical way to transform Scotlands economy, create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in clean, green industries and tackle the huge inequality that still exists within our communities.

So far, ministers have been reluctant to take the bold and urgent action that is required to tackle the climate crisis. I hope theyll take the chance this week to back our plans and set in motion the process of creating a Green New Deal for Scotland.

We recognise that the transition to a carbon-neutral economy brings both economic opportunities and challenges. Scottish Government

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: In 2017, the Scottish low-carbon and renewable energy sector supported over 46,000 jobs, and generated over 11 billion in turnover. This is a significant result and confirms our commitment to ensuring that Scotland maximises economic opportunity of the transition to a low-carbon economy.

We recognise that the transition to a carbon-neutral economy brings both economic opportunities and challenges.

We have established a Just Transition Commission to provide ministers with practical advice on promoting a fair, inclusive jobs market as we move to a carbon-neutral economy. We want constructive dialogue to be the central pillar of our approach to Just Transition.

In addition, the Scottish National Investment Bank will support the transition to a carbon-neutral society.

This transition will provide opportunities across Scotland. Developments have already been made in areas like battery storage and smart grids and Scotland is home to technological breakthroughs, like floating offshore windfarms and tidal power developments.Mr Watson said his party could not look as if it half-agreed with Nigel Farage (Yui Mok/PA)

Labour must back a second Brexit referendum in order to respond to the electoral challenge posed by Nigel Farage, the partys deputy leader Tom Watson said.

He said the party could not sit on the fence on the biggest issue facing the country, in comments which appear aimed at putting pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to make a second referendum a red line issue in Brexit talks with Theresa May.

A confirmatory referendum on any deal was the very least that voters should expect, Mr Watson said.

Labour wont defeat Nigel Farage by being mealy-mouthed and sounding as if we half agree with him. We wont win if we sit on the fence about the most crucial issue that has faced our country for many generations. https://t.co/qtsMd68EOE  Tom Watson (@tom_watson) April 20, 2019

Writing in the Observer, the Labour deputy leader said: Labour wont defeat Farage by being mealy-mouthed and sounding as if we half agree with him.

We wont beat him unless we can inspire the millions crying out for a different direction.

We wont win if we sit on the fence about the most crucial issue that has faced our country for a generation.

He added: Now that we know a bit more about what Brexit means, the very least that Leavers and Remainers deserve is a final say  a confirmatory referendum  on any deal.

They deserve a Labour party that offers clarity on this issue, as well as the radical vision for a new political economy achieved by working with our socialist allies inside the EU.

And, above all, they deserve better than Nigel Farages promise of a far-right Brexit that would solve nothing.

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Mr Farage accused Mr Watson of breaking his promise to the British people, claiming a second referendum would be a total insult to five million Labour Leave voters.

I now intend to wholeheartedly target Labour lies and dishonesty in the weeks ahead, he warned.

Tom Watson has broken his promises to the people.



The second referendum that he backs is a total insult to 5 million Brexit Labour voters.



I now intend to wholeheartedly target Labour lies and dishonesty in the weeks ahead. https://t.co/5f5hhm8BxR  Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) April 20, 2019

The momentum generated by Mr Farages Brexit Party has also sent shockwaves through the Conservative Party.

A survey of 781 Conservative councillors for the Mail On Sunday found 40% were planning to back the Brexit Party at the May 23 European elections.

Just over half  52%  said they would vote Tory at the European election, a figure that would rise to 65% if Theresa May was replaced by Brexiteer Boris Johnson, the Survation poll for the Mail On Sunday found.

Some 15% of those surveyed said they believed Mr Farage would be the best leader of the Conservative Party  only Mr Johnson was ahead of him on 19%.Results from nearly all polling stations show that TV star Volodymyr Zelenskiy has won the Ukrainian presidential run-off vote in a landslide.

The Central Election Commission said on Monday that the popular comedian has won 73% of the vote, while incumbent President Petro Poroshenko got just 24% support with more than 95% of the ballots counted.

Unlike in most of the elections in Ukraines post-Soviet history, Mr Zelenskiy appears to have won in both Ukraines west and east, areas that have been traditionally polarised.

One of the campaign slogans of the star, who has no previous political experience, was to unify Ukraine, which has been hit by bitter debates over its identity as well as the separatist conflict in the east that is fuelled by neighbouring Russia.

Even before results started trickling in, Mr Poroshenko accepted defeat, saying: I am leaving office, but I want to firmly underline that I am not leaving politics.

Mr Zelenskiy, for his part, promised wide changes at the top echelons of government and said his number one task would be securing the release of about 170 Ukrainian military members taken prisoner in the east or in Russia.

Ukraine has been plagued by rampant corruption, a sickly economy and a grinding, five-year war with Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country that has killed more than 13,000 people.

After his apparent election, Mr Zelenskiy said he would engage Russia to try to end the conflict.

He also said, without giving details, that we will make a very powerful information war in order to stop the fighting.

He also suggested, in a remark that could grate on Russia, that his victory could be a model for other former Soviet states that want to move forward from ossified politics.

To all the countries of the former Soviet Union  look at us, everything is possible.

Although the early results were a small fraction of the vote, the US Embassy in Ukraine congratulated Mr Zelenskiy, as did Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg.

Mr Zelenskiy, 41, became famous nationwide for his comic portrayal in a Ukrainian TV series of a high school teacher who becomes president after a video rant against corruption goes viral.

In a case of life imitating television, Mr Zelenskiy denounced corruption as a real candidate.

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Although Mr Zelenskiy was criticised for a vague campaign platform and never holding public office, voters appeared to cast aside those concerns in favour of a thorough sweep of Ukraines political leadership.

I have grown up under the old politicians and only have seen empty promises, lies and corruption, said Lyudmila Potrebko, a 22-year-old computer programmer who voted for Zelenskiy.

Its time to change that.

Mr Poroshenko was a billionaire sweet magnate and former foreign minister before he took office in 2014 after huge street protests drove his Russia-friendly predecessor to flee the country.

Although he instituted some reforms, critics said he had not done nearly enough to curb corruption.

As one of the key political leaders in Ukraine, I will remain at Ukraines service and will keep championing EU and NATO integration agenda, decentralization, security and anticorruption reforms.    (@poroshenko) April 21, 2019

Mr Poroshenko positioned himself as a president who could stand up to Russia and said Zelenskiy would be easy prey for Moscow.

Although the Kremlin despises Poroshenko, Mr Zelenskiys apparent victory was greeted noncommittally in Russia.

We do not yet associate hopes with the winner, Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian Parliament, was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass.

Millions of people living in the rebel-controlled east and in Russia-annexed Crimea were unable to vote.

Russia seized Crimea in 2014, and fighting in the east erupted that same year.

Mr Poroshenko campaigned on the same promise he made when he was elected in 2014: to lead the nation of 42 million into the European Union and Nato.

Mr Zelenskiy pledged likewise to keep Ukraine on a Westward course but said the country should only join Nato if voters give their approval in a referendum.

Mr Poroshenkos five years in office saw the creation of a new Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of Moscows church, a schism he championed.

Also, Ukraine reached a visa-free deal with the EU that led to the exodus of millions of skilled workers for better living conditions elsewhere in Europe.

Poroshenko has done a lot of good things for the country  creating its own church, getting the visa-free deal and taking Ukraine away from the empire, said 44-year-old businessman Volodymyr Andreichenko, who voted for him.

But Mr Poroshenkos message fell flat with many voters struggling to survive on meagre wages and pay soaring utility bills.

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We have grown poor under Poroshenko and have to save to buy food and clothing, said 55-year-old sales clerk Irina Fakhova.

We have had enough of them getting mired in corruption and filling their pockets and treating us as fools.

Mr Zelenskiys image has been shadowed by his admission that he had commercial interests in Russia through a holding company, and by his business ties to self-exiled Ukrainian billionaire businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi.

Mr Kolomoyskyi owns the TV station that aired the actors sitcom, Servant of the People, and his other comedy shows.The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka has condemned evil attacks which have killed more than 100 people in the country on Easter Sunday.

Three churches and three hotels in the country were the site of near-simultaneous blasts, with two suspected to be caused by suicide bombers.

Reports from Colombo say 138 people have died while more than 500 are in hospital.

James Dauris said he was in Colombo with his family at a church service which was cut short by the attacks.

The Easter Day service my family and I were at in Colombo today was cut short following explosions in churches and hotels.



Our prayers for the victims of these evil attacks, and for their families. Our thoughts are with the medical staff, police and all involved in the response.  James Dauris (@JamesDauris) April 21, 2019

He tweeted: Our prayers for the victims of these evil attacks, and for their families. Our thoughts are with the medical staff, police and all involved in the response.

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was deeply shocked and saddened by the horrifying attacks.

He added: To target those gathered for worship on Easter Sunday is particularly wicked.

My prayers are with the victims and their families, and with those assisting in the response.

Im deeply shocked and saddened by the horrifying attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka today. To target those gathered for worship on Easter Sunday is particularly wicked. My prayers are with the victims and their families, and with those assisting in the response. https://t.co/a8UaOLFviv  Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) April 21, 2019

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner wrote: Shocked and saddened by news of church and hotel bombings in Sri Lanka. Profound condolences to those who suffered in this terrorist attack, another attack on innocent people, truly awful news.

Her Labour colleague Mary Creagh posted on Twitter: Sickening #EasterSunday #SriLanka terrorist attacks on churches & hotels. Terrible to target Christians celebrating our greatest feast day. My prayers are with victims, their families & everyone caught up in this cruel violence.

Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley, wrote: To target Christians on this their most sacred day is evil. Sending love to Sri Lankans caught in this terror.

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Brexit minister James Cleverly wrote: Sad and shocking news from Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the Sri Lankan community both here in the UK and around the world and to those who have lost friends or family in these terrible attacks.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: We are aware of reports of a number of explosions in Sri Lanka, including Colombo, and we are urgently seeking information from the local authorities.

British nationals in Sri Lanka should follow the instructions of the local authorities and check FCO travel advice for updates.Pope Francis delivers his Urbi Et Orbi (to the city and the world) blessing on Easter Sunday (Andrew Medichini/AP)

Pope Francis denounced the cruel violence of the Easter Sunday slaughter of Christians and foreigners in Sri Lanka as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting the bloodshed and political violence afflicting many parts of the world.

Francis skipped his homily during Easter Mass but delivered his traditional Urbi Et Orbi (To The City And The World) speech highlighting conflicts in the Mideast, Africa and the Americas and demanding that political leaders put aside their differences and work instead for peace.

I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic eventPope Francis

May the one who gives us his peace end the roar of arms, both in areas of conflict and in our cities, and inspire the leaders of nations to work for an end to the arms race and the troubling spread of weaponry, especially in the economically more advanced countries, Francis said from the loggia of St Peters Basilica overlooking the flower-decked square below.

In a special appeal at the end, Francis lamented the grave attacks on Sri Lankan hotels and churches, which occurred just as the Christian faithful were celebrating Easter Mass that marks the resurrection of Christ following his crucifixion.

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I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence, Francis said.

I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event.

More than 130 people were killed and hundreds wounded following near-simultaneous blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners.

Today we contemplate the empty tomb of Christ and we hear the words of the angel: "Do not be afraid! He is risen!" #Easter  Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 21, 2019

In his roundup of global conflicts, Francis warned that the world was increasingly becoming resigned to the ongoing conflict in Syria.

He called for a renewed commitment for a political solution that would respond to Syrians need for freedom, peace and justice and allow for millions of refugees to return home.

In Yemen, he lamented how children in particular are exhausted by hunger and war, while in North Africa, Libyans are enduring a fresh round of fighting between rival forces battling for control of Tripoli, the capital

I urge the parties involved to choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability, he said of Libyan leaders.

Francis said he hoped the political and religious leaders of South Sudan would open a new page in the history of the country and work for reconciliation. Francis hosted South Sudans president and opposition leader for a remarkable retreat at the Vatican earlier this month, during which the pope bowed down and kissed their feet, begging them to work for peace.

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And historys first Latin American pope also offered prayers for Venezuelans and Nicaraguans experiencing political and economic hardship and all those who lack the minimal conditions for leading a dignified and secure life due to a crisis that endures and worsens.

The Vatican said popes sometimes either deliver an off-the-cuff homily on Easter Sunday or skip it altogether, given the lengthy speech and blessing that follows.

The 82-year-old Francis has just completed an exhausting few days of Holy Week commemorations, including travelling to a prison outside Rome to wash the feet of inmates on Holy Thursday, presiding over the Way Of The Cross procession at Romes Colosseum on Good Friday and celebrating the Easter Vigil late Saturday night in St Peters Basilica.Protesters have assaulted the leader of Turkeys main opposition party during a funeral held for a soldier who was killed during clashes with Kurdish rebels.

The politician was not hurt, party officials said.

People threw punches at Republican Peoples Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu as security officials tried to escort him away from Sundays funeral in a village outside of Ankara, television footage showed.

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An angry crowd then surrounded a house where he was taken for safety.

Mr Kilicdaroglu was later driven out of the village in an armoured vehicle.

Expand Close Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party, leaves after being attacked by protesters (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party, leaves after being attacked by protesters (AP)

The soldier was among four killed Saturday in a clash against the rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party rebels, or PKK, near Turkeys border with Iraq.

The group is considered a terror organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The Ankara governors office said legal action had been launched against the assailants.

Expand Close Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party, CHP, addresses CHP members (Burhan Ozbilici/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples Party, CHP, addresses CHP members (Burhan Ozbilici/AP)

Mr Kilicdaroglus pro-secular Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, won control of Ankara and Istanbul during local elections on March 31.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling party previously governed in the two cities.

Mr Erdogan led the Justice and Development partys divisive election campaign, portraying the local races as a matter of national survival and equating opposition parties with terrorists.

The funeral assault cast a shadow on a rally organised in Istanbul to celebrate the CHP mayoral candidates win, which ended the ruling partys and its Islamist predecessors 25-year hold on the city of 15 million.

Expand Close Bodyguards protect Kemal Kilicdaroglu (DHA via AP Photo) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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The ruling party is now seeking a rerun of the election, claiming widespread irregularities.

Turkeys top electoral body is considering the ruling partys appeal.

Ekrem Imamoglu, 48, was confirmed as mayor on Wednesday following two weeks of appeals and recounts requested by the ruling party.

He has taken a conciliatory tone, promising to bring people together following the polarising elections.We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.Reciba en su email: noticias de ultima hora, analisis tecnicos o el cierre de mercado

Email no valido Nombre requerido Recibira las informaciones mas relevantes del dia en tiempo real Que informacion desea recibir? Noticias de Ultima hora Boletin Cierre de Mercado Boletin analisis tecnico Boletin Fundsnews Debe seleccionar un tipo de boletin Acepto la Politica de privacidad Debe aceptar la politica de privacidad Responsable EMPRESAS DEL GRUPO WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Finalidad La remision de informacion, novedades y promociones Establecimiento o mantenimiento de Relaciones Comerciales. Legitimacion Consentimiento del interesado. Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACIONUS President Donald Trump held a phone conversation with Libyas Renegade general Khalifa Haftar whose forces launched an offensive to take Tripoli.

During the call, Trump praised Haftar for fighting terrorism and protecting Libyas oil, a comment that diverges from US policy in the war-torn country.

The two discussed a shared vision for Libyas transition to a stable, democratic political system, said the department of state in a statement, indicating a reversal in the US position on Libya.

Amid heavy fighting that threatens all-out urban warfare in Tripoli, the United Nations and many countries  including the United States  have called for an immediate cease-fire.

The phone call, which may have taken place last Monday, came a day after both the US and Russia said they could not support a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time.

Russia objected to the British-drafted resolution blaming Haftar for the latest flare-up in violence, but the US did not give a reason for its decision.

Haftar is supported by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, key allies in the Middle East. Meanwhile, other countries in the region and in Europe were divided on Haftars offensive on Tripoli.

France also gave an umbrella of legitimacy to Haftar when President Emmanuel Macron invited him to a peace summit in Paros.

No solution through arms

Khalifa Haftar has proven adept at using the narrative of the global war on terror to consolidate power. But taking Tripoli will not bring peace.

Haftar has so far displayed authoritarian penchant by denouncing all opposition to his consolidation of power as jihadist, which has led to repression and prolonged fighting within his own eastern base

Haftars other tactic was to form alliances with Salafist groups who, despite their religious puritanism, are not currently interested in seizing political power and can be appeased with positions that allow them to influence (and Islamize) society.

But observers on the ground see that Haftars offensive is largely inflated by a misinformation campaign and that it is too early to speak of significant gains.

Haftar is backed by a formidable electronic army, which has artfully combined misinformation with selected facts to amplify and exaggerate the LNAs influence, writes the guardian.Morocco is preparing for the launch of a new mining strategy that aims at creating 30,000 additional jobs and raising the exploration budget to 4 billion dirhams as well as revenues by 15 billion dirhams in six years, energy minister Aziz Rebbah said in Marrakech.

The minister said that his department will launch soon Moroccos mining plan in order to ensure sustainable development in territories and develop output.

Speaking at the Marrakech Mining Convention, the minister said that Moroccos mining sector produced 35.11 million tons in 2017, of which phosphates accounted for more than 90%.

The same year, investments in the mining sector totaled 14 billion dirhams making Moroccos mining sector the second biggest in the Middle East and North Africa, thanks to the performance by its phosphates sector as well as gold, silver, zinc, copper and cobalt mining activity.

The Mining sector contributes 21% of the value of export remittances and employs about 39,225 people.

Globally, Morocco is the worlds second largest producer of phosphates, harboring about 75% of the worlds estimated reserves.BANFF, Alta. - The bodies have been recovered of three renowned mountain climbers who were believed to have been caught in a large avalanche in Banff National Park last week.

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This article was published 21/4/2019 (972 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

American Jess Roskelley (centre) and Austrians David Lama (left) and Hansjorg Auer (right) are shown in these handout photos. The bodies have been recovered of the three renowned mountain climbers who were believed to have been caught in a large avalanche in Banff National Park last week. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-The North Face, *MANDATORY CREDIT*

BANFF, Alta. - The bodies have been recovered of three renowned mountain climbers who were believed to have been caught in a large avalanche in Banff National Park last week.

Efforts to find the men  American Jess Roskelley and Austrians David Lama and Hansjorg Auer  had been hampered by poor weather and dangerous conditions.

But on Sunday afternoon, Parks Canada said in a statement that all three had been found dead.

The men disappeared while attempting to climb the east face of Howse Peak in the Icefields Parkway and were reported overdue on Wednesday.

Parks Canada's mountain safety team responded by helicopter and saw signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment, but a further search was put on hold until conditions improved.

"Parks Canada extends our sincere condolences to their families, friends and loved ones. We would also like to acknowledge the impact that this has had on the tight-knit, local and international climbing communities," the agency said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

"Our thoughts are with families, friends and all those who have been affected by this tragic incident."

A visitor safety specialist with the agency said last week that the slide was believed to be a Size 3 avalanche, which is big enough to bury a car or destroy a small building.

The men's sponsor, outdoor apparel company The North Face, had said the three members of its Global Athlete Team were presumed dead.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said last week that Lama and Auer had "shaped the international climbing and alpinist scene in recent years with many achievements."

Lama, 28, was feted for achieving the first free ascent in 2012 of the Compressor Route of the Cerro Torre, one of the most striking peaks in the Andes. The feat was captured in the 2013 documentary "Cerro Torre  A Snowball's Chance in Hell."

The son of a Nepalese mountain guide and an Austrian nurse, Lama had also won numerous climbing competitions in his younger years before devoting himself full-time to mountaineering in 2011.

Auer, 35, became the first person to free solo climb Italy's Marmolada peak via the south face in 2007.

Roskelley climbed Mount Everest in 2003 at age 20. At the time he was the youngest American to climb the world's highest peak.

The east face of Howse Peak is remote and Parks Canada said its mixed rock and ice routes make it an exceptionally difficult climb.

A separate avalanche in the Rocky Mountains resulted in another death over the weekend. Parks Canada confirmed Sunday that a person who was airlifted to hospital in Calgary following an avalanche in Yoho National Park died.

The agency says a male who was among a party of three back-country skiers was involved in an avalanche Saturday afternoon on Des Poilus Glacier, which is on the Wapta Icefield, approximately 180 kilometres northwest of Calgary.

With files from APOTTAWA - Canadian security officials have turned to their U.S. counterparts for advice on revamping Ottawa's troublesome no-fly list that has ensnared young children trying to check in at the airport.

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This article was published 21/4/2019 (972 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA - Canadian security officials have turned to their U.S. counterparts for advice on revamping Ottawa's troublesome no-fly list that has ensnared young children trying to check in at the airport.

Newly released memos show Canadian representatives held a series of consultations with American officials to learn from their experiences implementing a new passenger screening and redress system a decade ago.

The Public Safety Canada memos, released under the Access to Information Act, detail the steps being taken to redesign Canadian no-fly procedures  from legislative and regulatory changes to hefty information-technology investments.

"It's important to note that implementing the enhanced passenger protect program is a substantial undertaking that will take time," says one memo. "It involves the passage of legislation, new regulations, the development and testing of IT systems, and domestic air carriers adopting the new system."

The changes have been spurred in large measure by parents of children who have repeatedly endured nerve-wracking airport delays because a youngster's name matches one on the no-fly list.

A bill currently before the Senate would allow federal officials to electronically screen air-passenger information against the list, a process now handled by the airlines.

The system is expected to closely mirror the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's Secure Flight screening program in place since 2009  changes that flowed from recommendations of the inquiry into the 9/11 airliner attacks on New York and Washington.

As with the U.S. system, Canadian travellers who have experienced difficulties would be given a unique "redress number" to help avoid mismatches.

The airline would give the number along with the passenger's date of birth and gender to the government for screening against the Secure Air Travel Act watchlist. Federal officials would then let the carrier know of any additional screening requirements or an outright prohibition on allowing the person to fly.

Canadian officials visited Washington in February 2017 for an overview of the Secure Flight program and associated technology and costs, the internal memos say. Public Safety officials made a second trip to the U.S. capital in November of that year to discuss the program further with the Department of Homeland Security.

Officials from Public Safety, Transport Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency took part in a call with U.S. counterparts in February 2018, the notes indicate. That was followed by another visit to Washington two month later to discuss "a number of outstanding questions," the documents say.

In addition to learning about the U.S. experience with redress numbers, it has been useful to hear about Washington's dealings with air carriers  the majority of which serve both the Canadian and U.S. market, said Zarah Malik, a Public Safety Canada spokeswoman.

Canadian officials have also talked to the Americans about the identity documents being accepted for U.S. domestic air travel, as well as how officials there have dealt with computer-system outages working in a near round-the-clock environment, she added.

In addition, consultations have taken place with civil society groups, international and domestic airlines and the broader travel industry.

Civil liberties advocates have criticized the no-fly regime as overly secretive and lacking due process for those who contest their inclusion on the list.

Once legislation governing the new program passes, regulations would be introduced to help flesh out procedures. "The regulatory process can be a lengthy one as it includes numerous steps," says an internal memo.

Project implementation will start with development of information-technology systems by both the air carriers and the government, a process expected to take several month, the memo adds. "These systems will be tested thoroughly to ensure the future success of the program."

 Follow @JimBronskill on TwitterThe killers of murdered journalist Lyra McKee have been urged to disband.

A demonstration by republicans who embrace the peace process said their violent dissident counterparts were caught in a futile and antiquated time warp.

The journalist and published author, 29, died after she was shot in the head by a member of the New IRA during a Derry riot.

Her funeral will be held in her native Belfast on Wednesday, while mourners are being asked to wear Harry Potter items, to reflect Ms McKee's love of books.

The landmark Free Derry Corner has been repainted to include the words "not in our name - RIP Lyra" to reflect community revulsion felt at the killing.

Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said: "To those young people circling these people consider what type of future you want for your kids and grandkids - there are two futures on offer - one of peace, opportunity and Irish reunification.

"Or one of death, imprisonment which serves no cause, community or people.

Ask yourself what type of life and what type of Ireland do you want to be part of?

"It is high time these people disbanded and ended their futile actions which are a barrier to achieving Irish unity."

She addressed a commemoration of the Easter Rising battle for Irish independence at the City cemetery in Derry today.

Republicans carried photos of former IRA members killed during the 30-year conflict.

Police have arrested two teenagers they suspect are members of the dissident republican gang involved in shooting Ms McKee.

A gunman aiming to kill police hit her after firing indiscriminately during disturbances in the Creggan estate.

Mrs O'Neill said: "Sadly, what we have here is a small number of people caught in a time warp who have self appointed themselves to carry out actions which are pointless, anti-peace, anti-community and frankly, antiquated."

Among those to lay a wreath for republican dead was Tiernan Heaney, aged 23, whose IRA uncle Dennis Heaney was shot in the city by British soldiers in 1978 when he went to "commandeer" a vehicle.

Mr Heaney said he identified with LGBTQI activist Miss McKee as he himself is gay.

He said: "It is absolutely disgusting that that life was there and then it was just taken away by some stupid act.

"There is palpable anger in the Creggan area and all over the city and across the north of Ireland and the island. It is horrific, it should never have happened."

Catholic bishop Donal McKeown addressed Mass-goers today at a church just yards from where Ms McKee and her partner Sara Canning had made their home.

He said: "So, on this Easter morning, we gather with deep sadness in our hearts and without any simplistic message about the Resurrection.

"But we gather with faith in a God who can write straight on crooked lines - and for whom love is always stronger than hatred."

The New IRA is an amalgam of armed groups opposed to the peace process and it recently claimed responsibility for parcel bombs sent to London and Glasgow in March.

Police believe the violence was orchestrated in response to an earlier search by officers aimed at averting imminent trouble associated with this week's anniversary of the Rising.

PAManagement at a leading leisure centre chain has apologised to parents of sick children in Co Donegal after they wrongly claimed they had made a full recovery and had been released from hospital.

The children remain under observation at Letterkenny University Hospital after backwash water was allowed back into a swimming pool at the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny yesterday.

A total of six children were admitted to the hospital after becoming ill when the water became contaminated.

More than 80 people were in the pool area at the time of the incident.

Management at the hospital triggered their Emergency Response Plan as fire tenders and ambulance personnel rushed to the scene.

Most were treated at the scene but six children had to be taken to hospital for additional treatment.

Management at the Aura claimed last night that all children had been released from hospital.

The spokesperson has said:

The emergency services responded very quickly, and several children were brought to hospital for further assessment. We are pleased to report they have since been released.

However, the family of one of two children who remained in hospital slammed the statement as inaccurate.

This morning the Aura apologised to the families for any distress caused and said they will be keeping close contact with the families throughout the day.

In speaking this morning with the parents of the children who were brought to the regional hospital yesterday, we learned that, contrary to what we had been advised by the hospital yesterday afternoon, two children were in fact retained for observation overnight.

We deeply regret the misleading statement yesterday that said all the children had been discharged, and any upset caused to the parents and children involved.

The safety and wellbeing of the children in question is of our utmost concern.

The company explained that an issue arose where backwash (which is pool water that is contained in the filtration system) leaked back into the pool which caused some cloudiness and gave rise to foul odours.

They said that in line with their safety procedures, as a precautionary safety measure, they evacuated the pool and notified the emergency services to ensure that every person in the pool was checked for any reactionary medical issues.

A statement added:

The emergency services responded very quickly, and several children were brought to hospital for further assessment.

"We are pleased to report they have since been released. We would like to thank the Emergency Services and the staff of Letterkenny Hospital for their prompt response and professionalism.

While todays response might be criticised as an overreaction to the cloudy water conditions, it is reassuring that the Emergency Services and the Hospital share our safety first policy  "Its better to be safe than to be sorry".

The pool has now fully reopened and we wish to apologise for any anxiety that may have been caused to children and parents this morning; again, a safety first policy means that we take no shortcuts when it comes to protecting our customers and staff.

"Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Local county councillor Gerry McMonagle, who was at the scene, said staff and emergency services should be commended for their rap[id response.

However, he added that a full investigation needed to be carried out to prevent a similar accident happening again.A Sunday service will operate for rail commuters today with some minor changes.

Irish Rail has said there will be extra DARTs for Leinster versus Toulouse which takes place at the Aviva in Dublin at 3.15pm today.

It comes as alterations to the Galway and Mayo rail service continues this weekend due to the construction of an underpass.

Reminder: Service arrangements today, Sunday 21st



- Malahide to Clongriffin track works continue today

- Dublin to Galway/ Westport line works  today until Easter Monday 22nd April

(lunchtime)

- Revised timetables operating



Full information: https://t.co/SYOfBkVjjG  Iarnrod Eireann #StaySafe (@IrishRail) April 21, 2019

Irish Rail spokesperson Jane Cregan said:

"Nothern Commuter services are operating between Drogheda and Malahide with a bus transfer between Malahide and the city centre.

"Belfast Enterprise services are operating with a bus transfer from Connolly to Drogheda."Doughnut company Krispy Kreme is on the hunt for a new location in Ireland.

The Sunday Business Post quotes sources in the commercial property industry who have said that the company is eyeing up new premises in Dublin city centre.President Michael D. Higgins, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and Minister with responsibility for Defence Paul Kehoe will lead a ceremony in Dublin today to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Rising.

The Easter Rising ceremony will place on O'Connell Street from noon when the National Flag on top of the GPO will be lowered and the 1916 Proclamation read by an Officer from the Defence Forces.Two men remain in custody this morning in connection with the shooting of journalist Lyra McKee in the Creggan area of Derry on Thursday night.

The PSNI is concerned the person who shot dead the 29-year-old is a new breed of terrorist.

Detective superintendent Jason Murphy said terrorists were lurking in the shadows.

What we are seeing is a new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks and that for me is a very worrying situation.

Both who are being held are aged 18 and 19 and are being questioned under Northern Ireland's terrorist act.

The PSNI issued footage of the masked shooter who shot into a crowd of police and civilians.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, who is leading the investigation into the murder of 29-year-old Lyra McKee in Derry/Londonderry tells media of a palpable sea change in the sentiment towards community policing. pic.twitter.com/g7WKcReYzC  Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) April 20, 2019

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy also made an appeal for those who had mobile phones in the area.

"I know that a large number of people were in the area of Fanad Drive and Central Drive on Thursday night.

Many of these people were clearly using their mobile phones to record footage of the disorder and may have captured vital footage on their mobile phones.

"I would ask those individuals to please come and speak to my detectives with regards the events of Thursday night and to allow us to examine the video footage on their mobile phones."A schoolboy has captured a stunning photograph of a dolphin frolicking in calm waters off Cork as whale watchers report a surge in marine wildlife activity over the balmy bank holiday weekend.

Jamie Casey, 11, from Sandycove in Dublin, captured this gorgeous image of a dolphin some 300-yards from Fastnet Rock lighthouse yesterday.

Sea conditions in the area at the time were described as calm and tranquil.

Jamie, who is visiting his grandparents in Baltimore for the Easter holidays, was on a rib with his brother Harry and their grandfather, Stuart Musgrave, when they spotted dolphins feeding in the waters around Fastnet just after noon.

Jamie Casey

Jamie waited for just the right to moment to capture this image with his Samsung phone.

The image was shared on social media widely over the weekend. Cork Whale Watch described the waters off Cork as positively saturated in marine wildlife at the moment.

On Saturday, they said they saw around a dozen harbour porpoises, about 20 basking sharks, hundreds of common dolphins, 40 minke whales and at least six humpback whales, all in the same area during their tours.

The humpbacks were feeding together with dolphins.

Conditions at sea were described as very calm and tranquil.Two men who were arrested in connection with the murder of Lyra McKee have been released without charge.

The men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested by PSNI detectives yesterday morning under the Terrorism Act.

Ms McKee, a 29-year-old published author from Belfast, was shot in the head during riots in the Creggan Estate on Thursday night.

Police said on Friday they believe the attack was carried out by dissident republicans linked to the New IRA.

Detectives are continuing to appeal for information from the local community in Creggan.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: We have received very positive support from the community but we need to convert this support into tangible evidence that will enable us to bring Lyras killers to justice.

We will continue to work positively and sensitively with the local community to achieve this.

I am continuing to appeal for those people who were in Fanad Drive and Central Drive on Thursday night and who have mobile phone footage to please come and speak with my detectives and provide us with your mobile phone footage.

"We do not need to hold on to your phone, we have necessary equipment that will allow us to download the footage quickly. Alternatively, you can use the Major Incident Public Portal to upload footage or to tell us what they know.

I know there will be some people who know what happened but are scared to come forward but if you have information, no matter how small, please contact detectives in the incident room on 101 or via the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.

Ms McKee's killers have been urged to disband today, with Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill saying they were caught in a futile and antiquated time warp.

Ms McKee's funeral will be held in her native Belfast on Wednesday.Leinster refuse to be a team that limits their eggs to the one basket.

This Heineken Champions Cup semi-final win over the Top 14 leaders leaves the Irish province fighting on two fronts yet again as May approaches. The double double is once again in their grasp, just 11 months after their claimed PRO14 and European honours.

This was far easier than anyone could have imagined given Toulouse shipped up on the back of an exemplary run of form since September, had beaten them once already this season and the home side's less-than-ideal run in to this fixture.

Fortunate to beat Ulster in the last eight, Leinster had chopped and changed their XV in recent weeks having already booked their home berth for the league semi-finals and a handful of key players harboured questions over their form coming in to this Easter weekend.

Jonathan Sexton was one of those but he ended the afternoon having been named man-of-the-match and speaking about the ruthless element to his side's display in scoring three tries and conceding none. They were clinical.

All of which earns them a shot at Saracens in the final in Newcastle's St James' Park on May 11. Sarries have been Europe's best team this season but the manner of Leinster's display here suggests that there will be little between these giants in England's northeast.

Dublin borrowed a beautiful summer's day from the south of France especially for this occasion but Leinster's superiority meant that the anticipated battle between two of Europe's finest sides didn't quite live up to the backdrop, the weather and the pre-match hype.

Toulouse started brightly and claimed an early lead via a Thomas Ramos penalty but Leinster dominated large tracts of the first-half, drawing level with a Jonathan Sexton penalty before kicking through the gears to wrest control of the scoreboard.

The first try arrived on 14 minutes, a brilliantly executed multi-phase effort that criss-crossed the pitch and involved a quartet of half-line breaks before Sean O'Brien fed James Lowe on the wing. The Kiwi did what he does best, bouncing off two tackles and touching down.

Sexton nailed the extra two and they continued to press to such an extent that Richie Gray stuck out an ill-advised arm from the bottom of a ruck in his own 22 just as Luke McGrath was about to play it. That earned the Scot a yellow card and set Leinster up perfectly for another strike.

It came from the resultant lineout, Scott Fardy the man dotting down off the back of a maul from five metres out and another Sexton conversion made it 17-3. So far so very good for the reigning champions but that was until they lost Robbie Henshaw to the sin bin.

Toulouse looked poised to score their opening try, camped as they were on the Leinster try line and with Charlie Faumuina thundering in to take a pass, until Henshaw stuck out an arm and diverted the ball forward. It was clear and it was deliberate and the yellow was merited.

The Top 14 side settled for a penalty rather than turning the screw and that's how it stayed at the interval, 17-6, thanks to a second Lowe try being erased by the TMO on the basis of a fairly flagrant spot of obstruction by Jack Conan on Sofiane Guitoune in the build-up.

A third Ramos penalty cut that deficit to eight shortly after the break but Leinster crushed any nascent comeback on 53 minutes with a second try from Scott Fardy after another period of pressure inside the Toulouse 22.

Sexton tacked on the extras again to increase the province's wiggle room and they managed to keep their own line intact when limiting Toulouse to a fourth penalty, this time from Romain Ntamack, and again shortly after when Garry Ringrose beat Maxime Medard to a touch down.

Another Sexton penalty took Leinster 15  more than two scores - clear on the hour and the sense of a job being all but done was confirmed when the home side withdrew the out-half with just under a quarter of an hour to play.

Ross Byrne wrapped up the scoring shortly before the end with another three-pointer, Straightforward for Leinster and that's quite the statement given the opposition and the stakes involved.

Newcastle awaits.

Leinster: R Kearney; J Larmour, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; J Sexton, L McGrath; C Healy, S Cronin, T Furlong; D Toner, J Ryan; S Fardy, S O'Brien, J Conan. Replacements: J Tracy for Cronin (34); M Deegan for Fardy (42-51) and for Conan (79); E Byrne for Healy (60); M Bent for Furlong and R Byrne for Sexton (both 66); R O'Loughlin for Henshaw, H O'Sullivan for McGrath, C Doris for Ryan (all 78).

Toulouse: T Ramos; Y Huget, S Guitoune, P Ahki, C Kolbe; A Dupont, S Bezy; C Castets, P Mauvaka, C Faumuina; R Arnold, R Gray; R Elstadt, J Tekori, J Kaino. Replacements: C Baille for Castets, S Tolofua for Kaino, M van Dyk for Faumuina, P Faasalele for Tekori (all 51); M Medard for Ramos and R Ntamack for Bezy (both 54); F Cros for Arnold (60); G Marchand for Mauvaka (62).

Referee: W Barnes (Eng).Immigrants preparing to become American citizens at a naturalization service earlier this year. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Immigrants with ties to marijuana, including in states where it has been legalized, can be denied U.S. citizenship, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Friday. The new policy guidance is but the latest hard-line stance taken toward immigrants and immigration by the Trump administration  though USCIS framed the move as a rule-of-law issue. The agency warns of immigration consequences for any immigrant possessing, distributing, dispensing, or manufacturing cannabis, explaining how they may lack good moral character  something required for citizenship  if they are found to have violated federal law, even if such activity has been decriminalized under applicable state laws.

Documented, otherwise law-abiding immigrants who have worked in the ever-growing $10.5 billion U.S. marijuana industry, or who have used medical marijuana, could thus be denied naturalization even if an applicant does not have a conviction or make a valid admission to a marijuana-related offense, the agency wrote, leaving what appears to be a lot of wiggle room to deny a naturalization request. The only exception in the updated policy, according to Marijuana Moment, is for a single offense of simple possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana, or, as of Friday, for paraphernalia offenses related to that level of possession (though its worth noting that the Trump administration is hardly known for making exceptions when it comes to immigrants).

USCIS is using the war on drugs to go after migrant community and thats what theyve been doing since day one, the Drug Policy Alliances Michael Collins told NBC News following the announcement. Indeed, there have been reports that immigrants working in the marijuana industry have already been denied citizenship on good moral character grounds prior to the policy announcement, and its well known that the war on drugs has been used to disproportionally target people of color in America for as long as there has been a war on drugs.

The new policy also perpetuates the antiquated notion that smoking weed is somehow immoral, yet comes at a time when Americans are signaling historically high levels of acceptance toward the drug. A new CBS poll released on Friday found that a record 65 percent of Americans now favor the legalization of marijuana, and a record 55 percent now admit having tried it. Furthermore, 56 percent of Republicans now support legalization, as well as a majority of people ages 65 or older, which has always been the most weed-wary demographic. A majority of Americans in both parties (62 percent overall) dont want the federal government to try to curtail marijuana sales in states where it has been legalized.

Good moral character measures up to the standards of average citizens of the community in which the applicant resides, according to USCIS. That means a green-card holder working at a cannabis dispensary in Colorado is probably more deserving of U.S. naturalization than a nativist policy-maker who persecutes someone who has done nothing wrong in the eyes of a bipartisan majority of Americans.A Busselton nursery is celebrating two and a half years of paying nothing for its electricity usage after installing an industrial size battery and small solar array on its block two hours south of Perth.

Lucy Stuart and her husband Ian installed a 10kW power 100kWh vanadium redox flow battery at their native tree nursery in 2016 and since then has not paid for any of the energy its used.

Lucy Stuart installed a vanadium battery at her Busselton nursery.

The battery is the size of a shipping container and is charged by a 15kw solar system. When called on, it can provide enough power to run at maximum output for 10 hours straight.

The farm is still connected to the grid but the the Stuart's haven't had to use it.Brisbane is fast becoming a favourable place for filmmakers to produce Hollywood films, commercials and music videos as south-east Queensland reaps the economic benefits.

The industry has injected more than $73 million into the regional economy in just one year, according to the Brisbane City Council's lifestyle and community services committee report.

Thor actor Chris Hemsworth tweeted this photo of himself with Tom Hiddleston (Loki) from Brisbane's CBD. Credit:Twitter/Chris Hemsworth

The report, presented by lifestyle and community services customer manager Shane Hackett, showed filming was increasing every year, with approvals doubling in five years.

"Compared to the filming approvals in Brisbane in 2011 to 2012, the number of approvals has doubled for 2017 to 2018, having progressively increased each year," he said.Detectives have tracked down the car allegedly used moments before a doctor was fatally shot in the chest on Brisbane's southside.

A home in the Logan suburb of Kingston was raided on Saturday as investigations continued into the alleged murder of Dr Luping Zeng.

Dr Luping Zeng was shot dead in his MacGregor home in April 2019.

Upon a search of the Gloxinia Street property, the allegedly stolen 2013 Hyundai Elantra police claim was used to transport the accused murderers to the doctors address was found in the backyard.

The vehicle has been seized and towed for forensic examination. Police are yet to locate a weapon in their investigations.Father and son Ross and Andy Powell tragically died while rescuing a tourist near Port Campbell on Sunday. Credit:Rob Gunstone

A father and son who drowned trying to rescue a tourist from rough waters near Port Campbell on Sunday have been described as selfless members of the local community and "like peas in a pod".

Ross, 71, and Andrew Powell, 32, were life-long members of the Port Campbell Surf Life Saving Club and were prominent figures in the local dairy farming industry.

They, along with one other lifesaver, were attempting to save a tourist at Sherbrook River, near the Twelve Apostles on Victoria's south-west coast, on Sunday morning when their boat flipped.

The father and son were declared dead at the scene, while the third lifesaver was seriously injured and airlifted to The Alfred hospital.Sri Lankan soldiers standing inside St. Sebastians Church in Negombo, north of Colombo, after multiple explosions targeting churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019. Photo: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

At least 290 people have been killed and around 500 injured in Sri Lanka after suicide bombers from a religious extremist group struck churches and hotels in multiple cities on Sunday morning. Three Catholic churches were targeted while their Easter services were under way, and three five-star hotels were attacked in and around the countrys capital, Colombo. It is the worst violence the country since the end of a brutal 26-year civil war a decade ago, and the largest targeted attack on Christians in South Asia in memory  let alone on the faiths holiest day. Below is a running account of what we know so far.

Sri Lankan security personnel walk past dead bodies covered with blankets amid blast debris at St. Anthonys Shrine, following an explosion in the church, in Kochchikade in Colombo on April 21, 2019. Photo: ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images

What Happened, Where

Suicide bombers struck three Roman Catholic churches in three separate cities and three five-star hotels in and around the capital city of Colombo. The attacks started just before 9 A.M. local time when Easter Sunday services were underway at the churches: St. Anthonys Shrine in Colombo, the capitals largest Catholic congregation, as well as one of the countrys oldest and best-known Christian houses of worship; St. Sebastians Church in Negombo; and Zion Church in Batticaloa on the countrys East Coast. The hotels targeted in the attacks were the Shangri-La Hotel, Cinnamon Grand Colombo, and Kingsbury Colombo Hotel.

Its not yet clear precisely how the attacks were carried out, but images from inside the bombed churches  which show smashed pews and scarred walls and ceilings  seem to indicate that the bombers were able to enter the cathedrals before detonating. A man who arrived at St. Anthonys Shrine immediately after the attack told the New York Times that he saw a river of blood inside the church, and that Ash was falling like snow.

Restaurants appear to have been the targets in at least two of the hotels. At the Shangri-La Hotel, the bomber reportedly targeted a third-floor restaurant where brunch was underway, according to a witness. Two blasts were heard there. A ground-floor restaurant was attacked at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.

Sri Lankan police stand at the site of an explosion in a restaurant area of the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo. Photo: ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images

There were six explosions in the initial attacks, followed by another two afterward, amid law enforcement authorities search for suspects. One of those explosions was at a housing complex in the Dematagoda suburb of Colombo, where police engaged in a firefight with suspected terrorists and found explosives in at least one apartment, which may have been where the attacks were planned. Three police officers were reportedly killed in that blast, which was apparently detonated by a suspect while he was being questioned. Another explosion happened at a guest house near the Dehiwala zoo.

St. Sebastians Church in Negombo, north of Colombo, after multiple explosions targeting churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019. Photo: Stringer/Getty Images

The Attackers

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but 13 people have been arrested, according to Sri Lankan authorities, and the government says it has identified the attackers  who are being described as religious extremists. The countrys defense minister has said that they believe these were coordinated attacks, and one group was behind them.

So far the names that have come up are local, Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced at a press conference, adding that they are looking to see if any foreign elements were involved.

Sri Lankan authorities have asked media organizations to not publish the names of the attackers or give extremists a voice  noting that groups may seek to inflame tensions and spark violence in the aftermath of the attack.

The Apparently Missed Warning

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe also said that there had been advance warning of a possible attack, but that it was not acted upon, and its not yet clear why. The New York Times reports that:

A top police official alerted security officials in an advisory 10 days ago about a threat to prominent churches from a radical Islamist group, National Thowheeth Jamaath. But it was unclear what safeguards, if any, were taken, or if in the end the group played any role in Sundays violence. And on Sunday, reflecting frictions within the government, the prime minister pointedly said he had not been informed.



Prime Minister @RW_UNP says information about these attacks had been received in advance. "We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken. Neither I nor the Ministers were kept informed"  Navamani Newspaper (@NavamaniLK) April 21, 2019

Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. What my father heard was also from an intelligence officer. Serious action need to be taken as to why this warning was ignored. I was in Badulla last night pic.twitter.com/ssJyItJF1x  Harin Fernando (@fernandoharin) April 21, 2019

Sri Lankan security personnel and police investigators look through debris outside Zion Church following an explosion in Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019. Photo: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images

The Dead and Injured

So far, authorities have confirmed that at least 207 people have been killed in the attacks, and another 450 injured. Almost all of the victims were Sri Lankans, but dozens of foreigners, including several U.S. citizens  according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo  were among the dead as well.

Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside St. Anthonys Shrine in Kochchikade in Colombo on April 21, 2019. Photo: ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images

The Response and Social Media Blackout

Sri Lankan authorities set a nationwide curfew following the attack, and blocked access to social media and messaging sites in order to prevent the spread of viral misinformation  and the ethnic violence it is now well known to cause in Sri Lanka and other countries. Facebook, Instagram, Viber, and WhatsApp were all reportedly blocked after the attacks. Though there is no known social media component to Sundays terrorism as of yet, there have been multiple reports of misinformation being shared about the identities of the attackers in what may be attempts to sow additional strife.

As the Guardian points out, the practice of blocking social media sites following these types of events is becoming more and more normal:

The social media blackout is becoming a common occurrence in the region in the aftermath of violence. In March last year, the Sri Lankan government banned Facebook and other social media sites after reports of an attack on a Buddhist temple in Abathanna triggered deadly anti-Muslim riots across Kandy, in which hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed by hardline Buddhist groups. In neighbouring India, WhatsApp has been blamed for fuelling a spate of murders and violence linked to rumours spread on the messaging app relating to alleged child kidnappers.

Facebook has released a statement insisting it is doing everything it can to assist authorities.

Schools and universities in the country were also closed until further notice.

Sri Lankas History

Sri Lankas brutal 26-year civil war, fought between the government and the Tamil Tigers  a violent separatist group comprised of members of the countrys Tamil ethnic minority  ended a decade ago. It was a bloody period for the country in which as many as 80,000 people were killed. Bombings were a regular feature of the war, though nothing near Sundays scale.

Sri Lanka is a majority Buddhist nation, but large numbers of Muslims, Hindus, and Christians live in the country as well, and in relative harmony. Most of the countrys 1.5 million Christians are Roman Catholic. Speaking with the Washington Post, Amnesty Internationals Biraj Patnaik explained that there has been an increase in hostility between religious groups in the country  mostly directed at Christians and Muslims  but Sundays violence was unprecedented.

Hundreds of people of all faiths reportedly rushed to donate blood following news of the attacks.

This post has been updated throughout to reflect new details in a developing news story.Opening hours at the state's first injecting facility will be extended and security around the area beefed up, with the Andrews government saying it has listened to local residents who claim drug dealers and users have flocked to the area since the facility opened.

The injecting room will soon be open from 7am until 9pm on weekdays and from 8am until 7pm on weekends.

Medical supplies at the safe injecting room. Credit:Darrian Traynor

The changes mean the facility will be open for three hours more every day, so that drug users are less likely to shoot up in public and loiter around the area.

More than 100 Richmond residents met at a charged public meeting two weeks ago to express anger about the impact the facility had on the area, amid reports that more than half of drug users are shunning the facility to shoot up in public.Little Jaxon is raring to put on his big boy pants and start school next year.

Jaxon recently turned 5 and attends kindergarten and playgroup.

Under Victorian rules, he could start prep in 2021. But Jaxon's parents and kindergarten teachers have concluded there is no point keeping him back.

Hes a big boy, so physically hes always been ready for school, Jaxon's father Leigh Whitten said.He has called my wife and I many things  mainly expletives of all descriptions, and "the absolute worst parents in the world". He even reported me to the police saying I was a paedophile, so I had to go into the station for a humiliating interview. This was all in private of course, but there were more public things. We would worry what the neighbours would think after they saw the police outside our house yet again. What would they think when they heard the fights and yelling coming from the house? What if they saw the arguments that took to the street? The doors slamming, the glass breaking, the constant stream of workmen coming to repair bits of the house? What would the ambulance service think when they were called  again  to come and pick him up from wherever he was because he was suffering psychosis?

Loading Hed tell them he thought he was going to die, and they'd call us to let us know he was going to hospital again. But then, the hospital would release him. Usually it was after a psychotic episode and while he was still clearly drug-affected, and hed walk home from the hospital at 2am. We'd pay a psychologist $200-$300 per hour to tell us he needed rehabilitation, only for him to be released into our care when the hour was up.

And the bills kept coming, even when he was at home. And when that was the case, things around the house would start to go missing. So wed suffer the pain of having to kick him out again, and the guilt would come. We know he often has nowhere to stay, no regular meals, and ready access to more meth. When the front door would close, wed often wonder when we'd get the phone call to tell us he was dead. Sometimes, I catch myself thinking what Ive done so wrong for this to happen to our family. We're tough, we have gone through our ups and downs, but we stick together. It hasnt been easy and its still not over. It wont be for a while, and when people tell me to call a helpline, I want to tell them thats not what we need.Sri Lankan officials failed to heed warnings from intelligence agencies about the threat of an attack by a domestic radical Muslim group that officials blame for Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 200 people, the country's health minister said Monday.

International intelligence agencies warned of the attacks several times starting April 4, Mr Senaratne said. On April 9, the defence ministry wrote to the police chief with intelligence that included the group's name, he said. And on April 11, he said police wrote to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division.

It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response. Authorities said little was known about the group except that its name had appeared in intelligence reports.

Because of political dysfunction within the government, Seranatne said, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet were kept in the dark about the intelligence until after the attacks.

President Maithrela Sirisena, who was out of the country at the time of the attacks, ousted Wickremesinghe in late October and dissolved the Cabinet. The Supreme Court eventually reversed his actions, but the prime minister has not been allowed into meetings of the Security Council since October.

ReutersWashington: The explosions in Sri Lanka on Sunday, which killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds, were the deadliest violence in the country since its civil war ended a decade ago.

The Easter Sunday blasts were different from the violence that characterised the civil war. That war was fought largely along national and ethnic lines. On Sunday, churches were among the sites targeted.

Pakistanis hold a vigil for the for victims of the Sri Lanka attacks, in Karachi, Pakistan. Credit:AP

The civil war had its roots in colonial times, during which the British were seen by the Sinhalese majority as favouring the Tamil minority. When British colonial rule ended in 1948, the Sinhalese majority disenfranchised Tamil plantation workers, made Sinhala the country's official language and made Buddhism the country's primary religion (the majority of Sinhalese are Buddhist; the majority of Tamils are Hindu).After the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild the church, a promise followed by an outpouring of pledges of money from private individuals and companies, in France and elsewhere. While long overdue and very welcome, it is also a reminder that it too often takes a catastrophic accident like this to elicit the funding to preserve artistic treasures like Notre-Dame, a tendency that unfortunately makes such tragedies seem necessary to save historic monuments. Equally troubling is Macron's intimation that we can just "rebuild" the church. Such simplistic bravado speaks volumes about our own disposable culture, which apparently allows us to dispose of, recycle, replace or, indeed, clone anything. But what has burned at Notre-Dame is now lost to history and cannot simply be recovered or replicated  any attempt to restore the structure must acknowledge that.

Notre-Dame as it was before the fire. Credit:Veronique Mandray

So, after the debris is cleared and the damage assessed, what is next? First, work must be done to arrest further degradation. The building was already undergoing urgent conservation, because the interventions of 19th-century restorers Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and JeanBaptiste Lassus  including the spire they rebuilt  were causing damage. The stones they had replaced in the walls and on the flying buttresses were also eroding at a faster pace than the 12th-century stones they had left in place, so the building's structural integrity was compromised. In the short-term, Notre Dame must be stabilised against further degradation, and a new roof will be required so that the stone vaults that cover the nave of the church do not remain exposed to the elements and susceptible to further degradation.

Only after this basic work is well underway should any consideration be given to replacing the 19th-century spire, which dramatically collapsed. The restoration ahead raises questions about what history to preserve. The spire that stood on Notre-Dame on Monday dated to 1859 and replaced a 13th-century spire that was dismantled in 1786. It was not a copy of the medieval spire, for which there were no extant plans. Rather, this neo-Gothic fantasy's artistic merit lay in its conveyance of 19th-century values concerning the unified French nation based on a rationalised form of medieval architecture. While that design could be reproduced today, why should it? This line of thought quickly spirals into endless possibilities for a Disney-like creative reconstruction of the past. Should the 19th-century techniques that were employed to build it also be reproduced? If an earlier spire is to be recreated, why not make a spire truer to the first spire at Notre-Dame? Which of its nearly nine centuries should be privileged? What should be done about the fact that much of the original building was lost in the French Revolution? Should its pre-revolutionary state be reconstituted, as well? Should we also remove the electric lights in the building? Any of these fantastic possibilities would constitute a false reproduction of history, for they would nevertheless be done with contemporary techniques and bear the date of the year in which they were made  presumably 2024, the time Macron has promised to complete the reconstruction.

While some cultures and countries, such as Japan, do rebuild their historic monuments anew in the style of the past, they prioritise the endurance of the craft over the permanence of the material and have regulated the techniques for such reconstructions. Western culture typically places greater value on the original material, which is why people pay hundreds of millions of dollars for an authentic da Vinci rather than a good copy of the Mona Lisa. Concerning Notre-Dame, we must preserve its past as it is to carry its value forward transparently to the future.Londonderry: Two men have been arrested in Northern Ireland over the killing of a journalist during a riot, police said, with politicians calling for calm after the shooting added to concerns about the stability of the region's 21-year-old peace deal.

Lyra McKee, 29, an award-winning journalist who was writing a book on the disappearance of young people during decades of violence in Northern Ireland, was shot dead on Thursday as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

Uneasy calm: A woman stops by a tribute for journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry. Credit:PA

Her death, which follows a large car bomb in the city in January, raised fears that small marginalised militant groups are trying to exploit political tensions caused by Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

Northern Ireland's political parties, which are broadly split between Irish nationalists aspiring to unite the British region with Ireland and unionists who want it to remain British, issued a joint call for calm.Sri Lankan churches and hotels were hit by six explosions on Easter Sunday, wounding several people, police sources said. According to reports, 185 people are dead and 400 injured. The death toll also includes 35 foreigners. As per police spokesperson, two blasts took place, hours later. Sri Lankan government has declared curfew. It is not clear till when the curfew will be implemented. Temporary ban on social media imposed as well.

The three hotels hit are the Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo and the Cinnamon Grand Colombo and the three churches are in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa. The seventh blast was reported in Dehiwela, near the capital. Colombo National hospital said several wounded had been brought in for treatment.

Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, "I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation. - Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019

St. Sebastian's church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj said that she is in constant communication with the Indian High Commissioner there. "I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation," she said.

Indian citizens in need of assistance, help or seeking clarification can call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789. In addition to those, Indian citizens can get in touch with authorities in the following numbers In addition to aforementioned numbers, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification can also call the following numbers: +94777902082 +94772234176.

Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789 - India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) April 21, 2019

Condolences poured in from India after the ghastly attacks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured."

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured. - Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

President Kovind also spoke about the tragedy and said, "India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country. Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in civilised society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka."

"Deeply saddened by the bomb blasts in Colombo SriLanka and killing of innocent people there. Such ghastly acts of violence are highly condemnable. My thoughts & prayers are with the bereaved families. Pray for speedy recovery of injured," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

(With Reuters inputs)

Also read: Sri Lanka blasts: Two more explosions rock Colombo hours after serial blasts

Also read: Sri Lanka blasts: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj assures Indians of assistance; says monitoring situationDear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Digital EditorWarships from India, Australia and several other nations arrived in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao on Sunday to attend a naval parade, part of a goodwill visit as China extends the hand of friendship despite regional tensions and suspicions. China on Tuesday will mark 70 years since the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy, where it will show off new warships including nuclear submarines and destroyers at a major review in the waters off Qingdao. China says warships from about a dozen nations are also taking part - one diplomatic source with direct knowledge ...The last date for submitting a financial bid for the helicopter company expired last month and the government has been unable to extend the date due to the model code of conduct rules during the elections. Although there were a couple of companies which had expressed interest, no one submitted a binding financial bid, a government official aware of the development said. This is the second time the ...

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.



Digital EditorThe Election Commissions recent flip-flop in the Supreme Court over the powers it has  and does not have  pertaining to violations of the Model Code of Conduct has taken legal experts by surprise. In its submissions before the top court on April 14, the poll panel had said that it does not have powers beyond reprimanding politicians in cases of hate speech and code of conduct violations.

That had prompted the chief justice of India to note that the apex court would examine the ECs powers in this regard. However, within 24 hours, the poll panel banned four ...More than 200 people, including three Indians, were killed and at least 450 injured in bomb blasts that ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago. Seven people were arrested and three police officers were killed during a security forces raid on a house in the Sri Lankan capital several hours after the rash of attacks, some of which officials said were suicide bombs. The government declared a curfew in Colombo and blocked access to social media and messaging ...Phase 3 of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 is just a day away. Ahead of the polls that will be conducted in 116 constituencies across 15 states, campaigns are also underway in full force. To begin with, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rally in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh. He criticised the Congress and asked people who were they willing to vote - "Congress that weakens the country or a BJP that strengthens it." Before that he held a rally in Gujarat's Patan. Bringing up Balakot strike, the Prime Minister said that he warned Pakistan of dire consequences if something happened to captured pilot of the Indian Air Force, Wing Commander Abhinandan. PM Modi will hold a rally in Rajasthan also.

Meanwhile, an FIR has been registered against Congress's South Mumbai candidate Milind Deora under Section 171 of IPC and Section 125 of Presentation of People's Act.

In yet another development, controversial BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya said in an interview to Aaj Tak that she is proud of demolishing Babri Masjid and that it has "awakened the self-respect of our country". She added that they will construct a grand Ram Temple.

Follow the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 LIVE updates on the BusinessToday.in blog here:

7:40pm: BJP has released list of candidates for Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Dr Harsh Vardhan to contest from Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, Pravesh Verma from West Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi.

Bharatiya Janata Party releases list of candidates for Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and UP; Dr Harsh Vardhan to contest from Delhi's Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari- North East Delhi, Pravesh Verma- West Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri -South Delhi and Hardeep Puri from Amritsar pic.twitter.com/VDaivg0A7n  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

6:38pm: A bench of the Allahabad High Court has issued notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Congress Party, seeking explanations on the NYAY scheme.

6:06pm: BJP's Mukul Roy writes to Chief Election Officer, West Bengal over Bangladeshi actors campaigning for Trinamool Congress.

#WestBengal: BJP's Mukul Roy writes to CEO West Bengal over campaigning by Bangladeshi actors for Trinamool Congress, states, "No foreign hand can be allowed to meddle in India's electoral process. TMC ought to be de-recognised as a political party with immediate effect."  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

6:05pm: At a rally in Barmer, Rajasthan, PM Narendra Modi said that India has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats.

#WATCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Barmer, Rajasthan: India has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats. Every other day they used to say "We've nuclear button, we've nuclear button".....What do we have then? Have we kept it for Diwali? pic.twitter.com/cgSLoO8nma  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

3:50pm: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on whether she will contest from Varanasi: If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest.

3:43pm: PM Modi had a telephonic conversation with the President and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. He conveyed heart-felt condolences from his side and also on behalf of all Indians at the loss of more than one hundred and fifty lives in today's terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. Terming the attacks cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts, PM Modi pointed out that these attacks were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to humanity by terrorism in the world.

3:40pm: PM Narendra Modi in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan: "India stands with the citizens of Sri Lanka, in such a crisis India will do whatever it can to help Sri Lanka."

3:20pm: Priyanka Gandhi meets the family of Pulwama martyr VV Vasantha Kumar.

Kerala: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra meets Late V V Vasantha Kumar's family members in Makkamkunnu, Wayanad. Kumar had lost his life in Pulwama terror attack on February 14. pic.twitter.com/QnxyAKFMia  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

3:15pm: Supporters of Congress leader Mahabal Mishra protest outside All India Congress Committee headquarters, demanding a ticket for him from West Delhi constituency.

Delhi: Supporters of Congress leader Mahabal Mishra protest outside All India Congress Committee headquarters, demanding a ticket for him from West Delhi constituency. #LokSabhaElection2019pic.twitter.com/oPQfY1ARsM  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

2:45pm: PM Modi said at a rally in Chittorgarh, "Do you want to see an India that gives reply to Pak or one that bows down to them? An India that gives a strong reply to terrorists or an India that stays mum after terrorist attacks? A Congress that weakens the country or a BJP that strengthens it?"

1:59pm: Visuals from Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's roadshow in Wayanad.

Kerala: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds a roadshow in Sultan Bathery, Wayanad. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/Vk5HPkWIQK  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

1:45pm: Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) Chief Shivpal Singh Yadav called the SP-BSP mahagathbandhan 'a flop show'. "The SP-BSP alliance is a flop show. It has taken shape only for convenience as they knew their existence was threatened. Otherwise they have been sworn enemies for the past 25 years. Now, how come they have come together?" he said.

1:30pm: At a rally in Gujarat's Patan, PM Modi said, "My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 will be why it happened."

1:20pm: Prime Minister Modi said in Gujarat's Patan, "It is the duty of people of my home state to take care of the 'son of the soil', give all 26 seats in Gujarat to me."

1:16pm: While campaigning for his son Nakul in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said,"I am where I am because of the love and strength you gave me. Nakul is not here today but he will serve you. I have given him responsibility. Take him to the task and tear his clothes if he does not deliver."

1:11pm: Visuals from BJP chief Amit Shah's roadshow in Gujarat.

BJP President Amit Shah holds a roadshow in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. #LokSabhaElections2019pic.twitter.com/CLXF04fDT0  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

1:00pm: While campaigning for Jaya Prada in Rampur, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said, "If anyone stands with Azam Khan, she/he, too, will be a culprit. When I was made chief minister, I took up the work to ensure safety to women and for people like Azam Khan, we created an Anti Romeo Squad in UP. I want to ask Akhilesh Yadav - how can he even share the stage with such a man who is ill-mannered? How can he ask for votes for a man like that?"

12:45pm: Condemning the Sri Lanka blasts, PM Modi said, "No place for such barbarism in our region."

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

12:40pm: Lt General (Retd) DS Hooda on Pragya Thakur's remark on late Hemant Karkare: Yes it does hurt when such things are said about a martyr, be it from the Army or the Police, full respect should be given. These utterances are not good.

12:10pm: Aam Aadmi Party declares candidates for 3 seats in Haryana - Naveen Jaihind from Faridabad, Prithviraj from Ambala and Krishan Kumar Agarwal from Karnal.

12:00pm: At a rally in Gujarat's Patan, Modi said that when Wing Commander Abhinandan was captured after the Balakot strike, he told Pakistan that if anything happens to the pilot, he won't leave them.

PM Narendra Modi in Patan,Gujarat: When #Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I said(to Pakistan) that If anything happens to our pilot then we will not leave you pic.twitter.com/0Vlcb7I1A6  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

11:40am: Congress condoles the Sri Lanka blasts on Easter Sunday.

We are deeply saddened by the terrible attacks on several churches in #SriLanka on the holy day of Easter. We stand with the people in their time of grief & pray for their recovery.  Congress (@INCIndia) April 21, 2019

11:19am: Bhopal District Election Officer issued a notice to BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur and sought explanation within a day for her remarks, "I had demolished the structure (in Ayodhya). I will go there & help in the construction of Ram temple": ANI.

10:55am: BSP supremo Mayawati said, "Narendra Modi is roaming around in UP and saying that the UP has made him the PM of the country, which is true, but why did he betray 22 million people of UP? If the UP can make them PM, then they can also remove him from the post." She also added that BSP's alliance with SP and RLD has made people happy, which has shocked the BJP.

                      ,  --       ,                          Mayawati (@Mayawati) April 21, 2019

10:32am: On Saturday West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress demanded from the Election Commission the removal of Special Observer Ajay Nayak following his comment that the state's present condition is same to what it was in Bihar 10-15 years ago.

10:30am: Sadhvi Pragya said, "Yes, I had gone there (Ayodhya), I had said it yesterday too, not denying it. I had demolished the structure. I will go there and help in the construction of Ram temple, nobody can stop us from doing that, Ram rashtra hain, rashtra Ram hain."

10:26am: Supporters of Senior Delhi Congress leader Raj Kumar Chauhan protest outside Rahul Gandhi's residence alleging that Chauhan is being denied a Lok Sabha ticket.

Supporters of Senior Delhi Congress leader Raj Kumar Chauhan protest outside Rahul Gandhi's residence alleging that Chauhan is being denied a Lok Sabha ticket pic.twitter.com/qXDg5AYAO4  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

10:25am: PM Modi tweeted, "In Rajasthan, there is a sense of betrayal and despondency after Congress came to power. People will reject Congress."

Heading westwards today. Will join rallies in Patan (Gujarat), Chittorgarh and Barmer (Rajasthan).



Gujarat and Rajasthan have seen the pioneering work of BJP.



In Rajasthan, there is a sense of betrayal and despondency after Congress came to power. People will reject Congress.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

10:20am: In an interview to Aaj Tak, BJP's Bhopal candidate, Sadhvi Pragya said that she is proud of the Babri Masjid demolition. "Why would we regret the demolition of the Babri Masjid? We are, in fact, proud of it. There were some waste products of the Ram temple and we removed it. This has awakened the self-respect of our country and we will construct a grand Ram temple," she said.

"The Congress has ruled for 70 years and look what it has done. Even our temples were not secure. By gathering and demolishing the structure of the Babri Masjid, the Hindus have awakened the self-respect of the country. Where will the Ram temple be constructed if not in this country?" she said.

Sadhvi Pragya further added, "The public is with me. My candidature has motivated them. Everyone is telling me that their confidence has doubled ever since my name was declared for the Lok Sabha election in Bhopal."

10:15am: FIR registered against Congress candidate from South Mumbai Milind Deora under section 171 of IPC (giving false statements for elections) and section 125 of the Presentation of People's Act (promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections): ANI.Type address separated by commas

Your Email:A top member of Prime Minister Theresa Mays Conservative Party will tell her in the coming week that she must step down by the end of June or her lawmakers will try again to depose her, the Sunday Times reported, without citing sources. May survived a vote of no confidence in December and although party rules mean lawmakers cannot challenge her again until a year has passed, lawmaker Graham Brady will tell her the rules will be changed unless she quits, the newspaper said. Brady, who chairs the Conservative Partys influential 1922 Committee of backbench lawmakers, ...1. Connect this journal launched in the early 20th century that was known to have expressed unqualified admiration for big corporations and the "Captains of finance and Industry" and the Father of Corporate Public relations and what do you arrive at? Name both the journal and the person.

The World's Work (1900-1932), Arthur Wilson Page 2. The employees of this company brand themselves as very peculiar people and this attitude became the inspiration for naming their corporate mascot also. The company also has registered a colour in the Pantone series named after it. ...A person was killed while ten others sustained injuries after a tree fell on them due to heavy rainfall at Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad, police said on Sunday.

The government has announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased.

Following the incident, which took place on Saturday evening, the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital for first aid. "Yesterday evening at around 4 pm, several trees including neem, tamarind, babul, cassia and gulmohar fell down due to heavy rains and strong winds. It caused extensive damage to the powerlines, parking area and visitor pathways etc," zoo officials said. "Immediate measures were taken by the staff members to rescue the visitors. However, a woman lost her life in the mishap," they added.The deceased has been identified as Nikath Sultana.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lashed out at the Congress party for missing a "golden opportunity" of solving Jammu and Kashmir issue by letting off 90,000 prisoners of war and the land of Pakistan due to "international pressure" during the 1971 war.

"There are a lot of soldiers from here who took part in the 1971 war. At that time, due to our soldiers' bravery a big part of Pakistani land came in our possession. 90,000 Pakistani soldiers were also in our custody, but what did we do in Shimla? The then government squandered everything that our jawans had won due to international pressure. Imagine if Modi would have been there in 1971? They gave back their 90,000 soldiers and the land too," Prime Minister Modi said while addressing an election rally here.

"Wo sunehra mauka tha. Us 90,000 yudh kediyo ke badle me Jammu and Kashmir ki samasya ko hal karna, ghuspeth ki samasya ko hamesha ke liye hal karna... Bharat ke haath me trupt ka patta tha. Lekin mauka gawa diya. Parinaam pura bharat aaj bhugat raha hai," said Prime Minister Modi.

The Prime Minister went on to add: "If you look at today's situation, without any war, India has destroyed the terror camps inside Pakistan. The whole world is with India today. This is what strong government is all about."

Further criticising the Congress party, Prime Minister Modi said that they have not done anything to strengthen the armed forces.

"Even during its last tenure, the Congress party did nothing besides corruption. Even they did defence deals to earn money...Besides this, the last government also did a helicopter scam. Regarding the same, I have brought 'Michel mama' to India," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As part of its commitment to remain Ghanas most welcoming bank, GCB Bank Ltd has outdoored the GCB Cool Banking campaign to promote the banks digital products and other convenient services among its key target groups.



The activation which is the first of many is aimed at raising awareness about GCBs digital products and new services. The bank commenced the campaign with an activation at the annual Hall Week of the Republic Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.



GCB is focused on offering accessible financial support to meet the needs of customers following its Bigger and Better brand campaign last year. The campaign is also geared towards staying up-to-date with the latest digital technology in banking.



Thyra Oboubi, the Head of Corporate Affairs at GCB expressed optimism about the cool campaign and the mileage it will offer the bank.



Over the last few years, the bank has embarked on various process rationalization and digitization to improve the fluidity of the service delivery process. We have also improved upon our digital banking to give a fresh look to the bank. The cool campaign is another way of introducing our digital products to our young and middle class market while attracting new customers, she explained.



Aside from assisting students to open accounts and providing updates on GCBs services, the bank also included fun activities like a wheel of fortune and ring toss which afforded students the opportunity to win several souvenirs instantly.



GCB Bank is Ghanas largest bank in terms of operating assets and branch network and spread with over 180 branches and over 300 ATMs nationwide. Regarded as Ghanas safest bank and one of the safest in Africa, GCBs 2019 communications strategy is to strongly communicate the banks new digital offerings anchored by the banks fundamental strengths to entrench the banks market position, attract new market segments, improve brand affection and also cause customers of existing banks to switch.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoExternal Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has confirmed that three Indian nationals are amongst those who lost their lives in eight deadly terror blasts which rocked Sri Lanka on Sunday.

"Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that the National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar, and Ramesh. We are ascertaining further details," Swaraj tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Special Task Force raided a house in Colombo's Orugodawatta in connection with the blasts, as per CNN. Seven people were also arrested in relation to the attacks by the authorities earlier.

At least 207 lost their lives and around 450 were wounded when the explosions went off in the Sri Lankan cities of Colombo, Negombo, Kochchikade and Batticaloa as the Christian community celebrated Easter Sunday.

Out of the deceased, at least 30 people are believed to be foreigners, according to the authorities.

Two Chinese civilians are also amongst the deceased, Chinese state media confirmed. Their bodies have been identified by their families.

A 12-hour curfew will be enforced in Sri Lanka on Sunday evening, which will remain in force till 6 am on Monday in the wake of devastating blasts, according to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's secretary, Udaya R Seneviratne.

Schools across the island nation will also remain shut until Wednesday due to security concerns.

In a bid to curb fake news, Sri Lankan government has temporarily blocked popular social networking sites including Facebook and Instagram, CNN reported quoting officials.

No group has claimed the responsibility for the attacks as yet.

The international community has condemned the multiple blasts, with leaders from the United Kingdom, India, Nepal, and the European Union expressing their grief due to the bombings.

Former US President Barack Obama labelled the incident as an "attack on humanity." "The attacks on tourists and Easter worshippers in Sri Lanka are an attack on humanity. On a day devoted to love, redemption, and renewal, we pray for the victims and stand with the people of Sri Lanka," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday blamed the Congress for unsuccessful alliance talks between the two parties, saying they tried hard but the Congress 'backtracked'.

"We tried very hard to forge an alliance with the Congress. We were ready to accept their every demand for Haryana and Punjab, but still, they backtracked. We cannot do anything more, the talks of alliance with Congress are over. We know, this will help BJP, but we simply don't have any choice left," said AAP leader Gopal Rai at a press conference here.

Rai also said the Congress is trying to divide the votes of the opposition, which will help the BJP. However, he expressed hope that the voters of Delhi will not pay any heed to the Congress and hand over a complete washout to the party like it did in 2015 assembly elections.

"By dividing votes of the opposition, like in Uttar Pradesh and other states too, the Congress wants to benefit BJP. Despite our best intentions, Congress has gone back to its old ways and seeking to snatch some votes from us in Delhi. But, the voters have now realized their tricks and will ensure their total wipeout from Delhi," Rai said.

A day earlier, Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia, signaled that the Congress' stance on seat-sharing was making the situation 'hopeless.'

Congress leader PC Chacko also had said that the alliance talks weren't fruitful between the two parties.

After failing to convince the Congress to enter into an alliance, AAP will fight in Delhi on its own. However, it has entered into a coalition with Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) for elections in Haryana.

Both Delhi and Haryana will see voting in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 12. The counting of votes will begin on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bollywood powerhouse Ayushmann Khurrana is all set to team up with his 'Vicky Donor' co-star Annu Kapoor for his upcoming film.

Khurrana, who marked his Bollywood debut with the 2012 hit 'Vicky Donor', gave everyone not just a comedy film with a serious takeaway, but also gave us a chance to witness a fun-filled camaraderie he shared with Annu Kapoor, who played the role of Dr. Baldev Chaddha in the film.

Ayushmann celebrated seven years of his cinematic journey on Saturday by sharing various pictures on his Instagram Story reminiscing his old days on the sets of 'Vicky Donor'.

Interestingly, on the day Ayushmann completed seven years of his debut film, he shot with Annu for their next film 'Dream Girl', where the veteran actor plays the father of the 'Andhadhun' actor.

Taking to his Twitter handle, Ayushmann shared two pictures with the veteran actor.

He wrote alongside the photos, "It was quite surreal that the day we completed #7yearsofVickyDonor, we shot together for #Dreamgirl where Annu kapoor sir plays my father."

In December, the first poster of 'Dream Girl' was unveiled by Ayushmann on his Instagram account.

In the poster, Ayushmann was seen sitting on a scooter wearing a yellow coloured saree over a white tee. He was also wearing a set of bangles and rubber slippers.

In the same post, Ayushmann announced the commencement of shooting for the film in Mathura.

The upcoming film has aroused curiosity among the audience ever since it was announced with a promo video in November. The video showed Ayushmann discussing what to work on next with his team. While they come up with overdone content, the waiter suggests a script which the actor ends up loving and choosing for his next film.

Apart from Ayushmann and Annu, the film also stars 'Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety' fame Nushrat Bharucha. The two will be seen sharing screen space for the first time in 'Dream Girl'.

The film will also see Manjot Singh, who was last seen in the 'Fukrey' franchise, playing Ayushmann's best friend.

Backed by Ekta Kapoor, the film is being helmed by Raaj Shaandilyaa, and is slated to hit the big screens on September 13, this year.

.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister Piyush Goyal has demanded an apology from Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on behalf of his party for allegedly equating the Hindu community with 'terror'.

On Saturday, Chavan had demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fielding Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal in the ensuing polls. He had also asked for the Prime Minister to withdraw Thakur's candidature.

Responding to Chavan's remarks, Goyal, while speaking to ANI, said, "I think Prithviraj Chavan should apologise for Congress' shameful act of terming the whole Hindu community as 'terror'. They attempted to defame a whole community. Congress is an issueless and directionless party. Congress worked towards dividing society and sheltering the terrorists. People of India will never forgive them for the seditious acts committed by them."

BJP fielding Thakur from Bhopal against Congress' Digvijaya Singh has led to a fresh war of words between the party and the Opposition.

Yesterday, Congress leader Devendra Singh Yadav filed a police complaint against Thakur for her comment on late Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare.

Bhopal will go to polls on May 12. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the Congress party was giving water to Pakistan, which was meant for India, and he promised to set up a separate ministry to address water-related issues.

"What is the Congress party's attitude towards water? The Congress party took a vote from you, but they kept giving the water of your share to Pakistan. You were thirsty and the Congress kept worrying about quenching Pakistan's thirst," the Prime Minister said while addressing an election rally here.

"If the Congress had stopped the water from our share according to the Indus Waters Treaty flowing into Pakistan, then Rajasthan would not have had the water shortage. Now after so many years, our government has started working on a dam project to check the water going to Pakistan. In the coming time, you will get water of your right, not Pakistan," he said.

The Prime Minister announced that a separate ministry will be created for water if the BJP is voted to power after the ongoing elections.

"In the coming five years, we want to work in the field of water as we have done in the field of electricity. For water, we will create 'Jal Shakti Mantralay.' We will work towards giving water to drought-affected areas through technology including making use of sea water," he said.

Highlighting the success of BJP-led government, Prime Minister Modi said that his government emphasised on the skill, scale and speed in implementing welfare schemes.

"Our government not only started the schemes but also implemented them as well. Otherwise, we have seen such governments which started schemes but failed to implement these. Many schemes were pending for decades. This is why we emphasised on skill, scale and speed in our working culture," he said.

"Everyday 70,000 people are getting a free gas connection. Under Saubhagya scheme, around 50,000 houses are being electrified. Under the PM Awas Yojana, more than 11,000 houses are being constructed. Around 10,000 people are receiving treatment benefit under the Ayushman scheme," he said.

Modi also attacked Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in the state for not waiving farm debts as promised by them during the Assembly elections.

"Big people had been crying here saying the farmers' debts will be waived off within 10 days after coming to power. Have the debts been waived off here? But it is being said everywhere that the debt of farmers in Rajasthan was waived off," he said.

Speaking further about farmers, he said: "Farmers have lathicharged for urea. In the past five years, no problem of urea was there in any part of the country. But as soon as the Congress formed the government here, the batteries of middlemen were charged again."

Rajasthan, where 25 Parliamentary seats are at stake, will go to polls in the fourth and fifth phase on April 29 and May 6 respectively. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A grandson of late Hyundai Group founder, Chung Ju-Yung, was arrested on Sunday on the charges of using illegal drugs.

The 28-year-old, who is the eldest son of Chung Mong-il, CEO of Hyundai M Partners Co, was detained at around 9:30 am (local time) upon his arrival at Incheon International Airport, police said.

The Hyundai scion was suspected of illegally using a liquid variety of marijuana on several occasions at his house in Seoul last year. He also allegedly smoked marijuana with the arrested 31-year-old grandson of the late founder of SK Group.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday expressed his condolences to the victims of bomb blasts that hit several hotels and churches across Sri Lanka killing at least 138 people and injuring over 560.

"Today, the festival of Easter is being celebrated all over the world. In such a time, many bomb blasts have been carried out by the terrorists in churches and hotels in our friend-country Sri Lanka. Hundreds of innocents praying in the church were killed by terrorists," Prime Minister said while addressing an election rally here.

"India stands firmly with Sri Lanka. India is ready to help them with anything. I express my condolences," he said.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Modi had telephone conversations with President and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. He conveyed his heartfelt condolences on his behalf and that of all Indians.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iran on Saturday strongly condemned United States' decision to declare Israel's sovereignty on Golan Heights.

"Iran strongly condemns the US President Donald Trump's decision on Golan Heights," Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliamentary delegation in the Iraqi parliamentary summit, as saying.

Boroujerdi made these remarks at Iraq's parliamentary summit which kicked off in Baghdad on Saturday.

The US faced global condemnation after President Trump signed an official decree in Washington DC on March 26, in the presence of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recognising Israel's sovereignty on Golan Heights.

The proclamation escalated tensions between Syria and Israel. Scores of Syrians hit the streets to protest against the US decision.

Israel had formally annexed the territory in 1981 after capturing the region from Syria during the six-day war in 1967. The Israeli annexation has long been decried by the community which regards Golan Heights as an occupied territory and Israeli settlements in the region illegal as per international law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Exiled Pakistani politician and founder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain has claimed that Pakistan's military and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) may have a hand in the multiple blasts which shook Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

"Hussain appealed to the UN Secretary-General and all democratic countries that they should never ignore the possibility of the involvement of Pakistani military and ISI in this horrific Colombo terror blasts at the Churches and hotels as almost every single incident of terrorism globally had its foundation originating from Pakistan," an MQM press release stated.

He severely condemned the eight blasts, which killed at least 207 people and left around 450 wounded in Sri Lankan cities of Colombo, Negombo, Kochchikade, and Batticaloa on April 21.

"In his message of strong condemnation, he said that each and every worker of MQM stands in solidarity and is severely saddened on the loss of precious lives," the release quoted Hussain as saying.

"This extremism has become a universal menace that has to be completely eradicated from this world, we have to stand united with only one agenda, which is to completely eliminate extremism, the nurseries of extremism and the patrons of extremism," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after the charges of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi surfaced, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said stressed the need to "stand up with judiciary."

"The incident of a junior ex-lady employee of the Supreme Court making harassment charges against the Chief Justice of India has acquired a disproportionate magnitude. When the complainant distributes copies of her representation to other Judges of the Supreme Court and the media in order to sensationalise her allegations, it ceases to be routine," Finance Minister Jaitley said in a blog titled "It's Time to Stand up With the Judiciary."

"When four digital media organisations with an unparalleled track record of 'institutional disruption' send similar questionnaires to the Chief Justice of India, there is obviously something more than what meets the eye," Jaitley said.

Terming CJI Ranjan Gogoi as well-regarded in terms of personal decency, values, ethics, and integrity, Jaitley said: "Even when critics disagree with his judicial view, his value system has never been questioned."

"Lending shoulder to completely unverified allegations coming from a disgruntled person with a not-so-glorious track record is aiding the process of destabilisation of the institution of the Chief Justice of India," the Finance Minister said.

Hitting out at "institutional destabilisers," the Finance Minister said, "The last few years have witnessed the consolidation of 'institution destabilisers' in a major way. Many of these destabilizers represent Left or ultra-Left views. They have no electoral base or popular support."

Jaitley claimed that they have taken refuge in digital media and social media after being ousted from the mainstream media.

"They continue to believe in the old Marxian philosophy of 'wrecking the system from within.' They use free speech to destroy the judicial institution," said the Finance Minister.

The Union Minister also alleged that "this section" exploits the judicial refrain of excessively using the power of contempt.

"They go public against individual judges, including the Chief Justice, when they fail to get a favourable order. They carry on social media campaigns against judges who write judgments adverse to them," the Union Minister alleged.

"They have little regard for truth but masquerade as protectors of public interest. Their behaviour in courts is offensive both to the Bench and their opponents. They threaten walkouts if judges are in disagreement," he said.

The Minister said that it is "regrettable" that a section of the Members of the Bar affiliated to the Congress party tends to join them.

"Frequent attempts are made to get some Parliamentarians to sign Motion of Impeachment against judges and even the Chief Justice on unsustainable grounds. What has always puzzled me is the Congress lending support to such fringe campaigns," he said.

Insisting that India has witnessed a series of attacks by the 'institution disruptors' against judges who are unwilling to agree with them, the Finance Minister said: "It may not be an exaggeration to say that today both in Court and by creating an environment outside, a mass-intimidation of Judges is on."

He also alleged that some of the lawyers were using this intimidatory behaviour as a tactic to expand their practice.

"An intimidated judge can fear consequences of a possible view that he is taking. It is, therefore, essential that all well-meaning persons stand with the judicial institution when destabilisers get ready for an assault," said the Union Minister.

Jaitley said that if those who peddle falsehood to destroy the institution are not dealt with in an exemplary manner, this trend will only accelerate.

"Since the case relating to this is pending in judicial side before the Bench of a Court, we should leave it to the wisdom of the Court as to how they intend to deal with it. But let it be remembered that this is not the first case of the 'institutional destabilizers' nor will it be the last," he said.

"If those who peddle falsehood to destroy the institution are not dealt with in an exemplary manner, this trend will only accelerate," he said.

The Special Bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday met for a special sitting to discuss online media reports of sexual harassment allegations against Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, saying that independence of the judiciary is under "very serious threat" and there is a "larger conspiracy" to destabilise the judiciary.

"The independence of the judiciary is under very serious threat and there is a larger conspiracy to destabilise the judiciary," the Bench had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Welcome Guest! You Are Here:Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Sunday said that the Jet Airways debacle seemed to be a "scam", taking place in the run-up to the elections and also asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter.

"I can smell and see it is a big scam. The collapse of Jet Airways appears to be a scam which was well thought out and was being executed in the name of elections so that nobody will ask questions to the concerned authorities," Sharma said at a press conference here.

Thousands of employees of Jet Airways have been rendered jobless after the airline's decision to cease all operations owing to a huge accumulation of debt and falling revenue.

Sharma also demanded that the matter be "re-investigated" and criminal responsibility should be fixed for "ruining thousands of jobs".

He also added that the centre had in the past saved other businesses, which had huge amounts of debts by restructuring them and pondered as to why was the government not keen on doing the same in the case of Jet.

"The central government had rescued other businesses by re-structuring debts to the tune of Rs 30,000-40,000 crore. Compared to this, the amount (debt) of Jet Airways is much smaller. Moreover, there was a resolution (accepted) by the lenders to save jobs and the airline," Sharma said.

Sharma also added that BJP's manifesto was a box full of lies and BJP should apologise to the Indian voters for destroying the faith bestowed on them by the youth and farmers of the country.

"They owe an apology to the youth, to the farmers for betraying their trust. BJP's Sankalp Patra (manifesto) is an insult to the wisdom of the Indian voters when you have violated the 2014 pledge how can you come up with another one. They need to apologise to the Indian voter for betraying their trust," Sharma said.

He also accused the government of abusing powers bestowed on the central government machinery, powers given to the Prime Minister and institutions like Income Tax and investigative agencies.

"It has never happened in a democracy that from Tamil Nadu to Kolkata to Uttar Pradesh, raids are being conducted at the houses of prominent leaders of political parties who are in the opposition. These raids will definitely have an impact on the fairness of the elections," he said.

Terming these to be a grave threat to the Indian democracy, Sharma said: "Congress is the party which has been resisting these forces. After 5 years, the Prime Minister should be asked to answer for his failures, but he is deflecting them on to the opposition parties."

He also said that Congress didn't need any certificate of patriotism from Modi or BJP and they don't even have a right to grant one while adding that his party had fought terrorism and protected the integrity of the nation like no one else had.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Forces loyal to Libya Unity Government on Saturday launched a counterattack against renegade General Khalifa Haftar's fighters, who earlier this month launched an offensive on Tripoli.

"We have launched a new phase of the attack. Orders were given early this morning to advance and gain ground," Al-Arabiya quoted Mustafa al-Mejii, a spokesman for the military operation of Libya Unity Government as saying.

Soon after the announcement, the residents said they heard rocket and artillery fire in several districts of the capital Tripoli.

This comes days after US President Donald Trump praised Haftar for his role in fighting terrorism.

Trump "recognised Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources, and the two discussed a shared vision for Libya's transition to a stable, democratic political system," the White House said on Friday.Trump, however, did not mention Haftar's frequent military offensive on Tripoli.More than 200 people have lost their lives and 913 have been wounded ever since clashes erupted in the region as Haftar's Libyan National Army advanced towards Tripoli.

Libya has been largely divided into two factions ever since the death of its dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The LNA-backed parliament controls the east of Libya, while the UN-backed interim Government of National Accord (GNA) governs Libya's western region from Tripoli.While the US government has primarily backed the GNA which is led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, American diplomats and military officers have maintained contacts with Russia backed Haftar.

Most of the international community has urged for a peaceful resolution to the intense fighting which has ensued in the African nation for long.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The (AAP) on Sunday declared candidates for three seats in for the The Arvind Kejriwal-led party fielded Naveen Jaihind from Faridabad, Prithviraj from Ambala, and advocate Krishan Kumar Agarwal from Karnal.

"The AAP will fight in on three seats; Naveen Jaihind will be the party's candidate from Faridabad, social worker Prithviraj from Ambala and advocate Krishna Kumar Agarwal from Karnal seat," said AAP leader at a joint press conference here.

"The names of the remaining candidates of the AAP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) alliance will be out by the evening," he added.

JJP leader and Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala, who was also present at the press briefing, said the two parties will jointly organise road shows, which would be attended by Chief Minister and prominent JJP leaders.

"There are two days left for filing nominations. The AAP and JJP candidates will be announced by today evening. Subsequently, we will jointly organise two mega road shows with and our party leaders," Chautala said.

The JJP already announced four candidates including Dushyant Chautala, who will seek re-election from Hisar, Pradeep Deswala from Rohtak, Nirmal Singh Malhadi from Sirsa, and Swati Yadav from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. It will announce three more names for the remaining seats in

Talking about AAP- alliance, Rai said all the doors of an alliance with the party were shut now. He accused of breaking down coalition talks and strengthening the BJP by weakening the opposition.

"There are no hopes left for an alliance with Congress. We tried our best, but they kept on behaving in a manner which will help the BJP. By dividing votes of the opposition, like in and other states, they want to benefit BJP. Despite our best intentions, Congress has gone back to its old ways and seeking to snatch some votes from us in Delhi," said Rai.

Haryana will see polling for all 10 seats on May 12 in the sixth phase of the The counting of votes will begin on May 23.A flying squad of the Election Commission of India (ECI) seized Rs 6.5 lakh unaccounted cash from a man in Ulhasnagar town of Thane district on Saturday.

The seizure was made ahead of polling for 14 Lok Sabha seats -- Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Aurangabad, Raigad, Pune, Baramati, Ahmednagar, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Kolhapur and Hatkanangle -- in Maharashtra on April 23.

A huge amount of unaccounted money has been found in raids and searches by authorities across the country since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect with the announcement of the poll dates on March 10.

Teams of central agencies and the ECI have been conducting raids and searches across the states to ensure illegal money is not used to influence voters in the general elections.

Over Rs 135 crore unaccounted cash was recently seized during raids by the Income Tax (IT) department and the ECI across Tamil Nadu.

In a related development, the ECI cancelled the election in Vellore parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu after over Rs 11.48 crore unaccounted cash was unearthed during an IT raid at a DMK leader's house. The state, which has 39 Lok Sabha seats, went to polls on April 18.

Voting for the first two phases of elections in Maharashtra, which has 48 parliamentary constituencies, was held on April 11 and 18. The next two stages of polling in the state are due on April 23 and 29.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An FIR has been registered at LT Marg Police Station against Mumbai Congress president Milind Deora for violating Model Code of Conduct (MCC), police said on Sunday. This comes two days after the Maharashtra State Election had asked LT Marg police to file an FIR against Deora after his comments on the Jain community were found "false and religiously sensitive". The EC looked into the matter after it received a complaint from a Shiv Sena leader. On April 4, Deora, while addressing an event at Zhaveri Bazar, had accused Shiv Sena of hurting religious sentiments of Jain followers. The Mumbai Congress president urged the community to teach them a lesson by not voting for the party in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections."Shiv Sena has been against the minorities. A few years ago, the party insulted the Jain religion by cooking meat outside Jain temples during Paryushana festival. Remember, you have to teach them a lesson through your votes," he had said at an event.The FIR has been registered under section 171 of Indian Penal Code (giving a false statement for elections) and section 125 of the Representation of People Act (RPA), 1951 ( promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections).

Speaking to ANI, Advocate Dharmendra Mishra, who is a complainant in the case, said: "We complained to Ashwin Kumar who is a collector and returning officer. By taking a Suo Motu action in the matter, he has proved that the MCC is not a toothless law.""It does not matter how big politician you are, if you violate poll conduct then action will be taken against you. I have been registering complaints for the past four years in the cases of MCC violation. But for the first time, an action has been taken against a politician," he said.

Mishra further said that he has also a complaint against Congress as he has taken full advantage of his political legacy. "A defamation case has been filed against Deora in the court, which is scheduled to be heard on Monday," he said."Jain people were targeted by Deora to take advantage in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. A private complaint has been filed by me under section 153 A of the RPA (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion," advocate Sunny Jain told ANI. "I have an appeal to all politicians to not contest elections on religious sentiments but on their work and productivity," he said. Paryushana, an annual event where Jain community observes fast for a period of eight days, is usually celebrated in August or September.The Lok Sabha polls for 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra began on April 11. It has been staggered in four phases till April 29. The results will be declared on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One UN peacekeeper was killed and four others suffered injuries when an improvised road mine exploded hitting the peacekeeping convoy in the Mopti region of Mali on Saturday morning.

In a statement, the United Nations said that the peacekeeper who lost his life, was an Egyptian. The UN convoy was en route to Douentza from Boni in southern-central Mali.

"The UN Secretary-General expresses his deepest condolences to the family of the victim and to the Government of Egypt. He wishes a speedy recovery to those injured," it said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres, in the statement, that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may "constitute war crimes under international law" and urged the Malian authorities to take swift action to identify the perpetrators of this attack and bring them to justice.

The statement noted that the attack against the UN convoy carrying members of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) happened close to the border with Burkina Faso.

MINUSMA's mandate from the UN Security Council began after extremist militias seized control of northern Mali in 2012, which following a failed coup, were repulsed by French military action a year later, it said.

An UN-backed peace agreement in 2015 was signed between the Government of Mali and various armed groups, which however failed to stabilise the febrile central and northern regions of the northwest African country.

According to state media, Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga put down his resignation along with his Cabinet members last week after facing widespread criticism from across the political spectrum, over the failure to make inroads against the continuing violence to the north.

Since the deployment of MINUSMA in 2013, more than 190 peacekeepers have died in Mali, including close to 120 killed during hostilities, the statement said.

Guterres said that the latest casualties "will not diminish the resolve of the United Nations to continue supporting the people and the Government of Mali in their quest for peace and stability".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], Apr 21 (ANI): Breaking his silence on family friend and a former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik listed out three main reasons for severing ties with the Kendrapara MP in an exclusive interview to ANI.

Patnaik alleged that a rumour campaign was spearheaded by Mr Panda that came as a "shock" to the former.

When asked on the sequence of events that led to the estrangement of the former family friends, Naveen Patnaik mentioned three instances that led to Panda quitting the BJD and shifting alliances to the BJP. "I was pursuing the development of railways in Kendrapara. It is the only district in the coast which has no rail development. A former Railways Minister laughed and said that 'you are pursuing development of railways in Kendrapara but your MP (Jay Panda) is only concerned about railway development to his mining companies.' This shocked me," exclaimed Naveen Patnaik.

He went on to add that this was just the first instance where he felt let down by the Kendrapara MP. There was a second incident that further soured relations. "After 2014, a number of my friends from Delhi rang up very concerned because they thought I was in bad health. But my health has always been good and I told them so. They told me that this is what Baijayant Panda was spreading. This was a shock," said the Odisha CM in an interview to ANI.

On April 5, Naveen Patnaik's office released an exercise video of the Odisha CM working out in his residence to counter what they allege was a whisper campaign mounted by the BJP to portray the CM's health in a negative light. Patnaik now has gone a step ahead and blamed Baijayant Panda directly for spearheading this rumour campaign.

In his interview, Naveen Patnaik listed a third reason which led the Patnaik-Panda relationship to a point of no return.

"He (Baijayant Panda) wanted to be Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance Committee. Our party did not have sufficient numbers so he thought he would get the support of the BJP. I didn't think this was a good idea and I didn't support him because of the financial dealings of his company. I didn't think this would be a good precedent," said Naveen Patnaik.

He also questioned the credibility of companies owned by Mr Panda. "Their companies have always had a shady reputation," added Patnaik.

Baijayant Jay Panda, who is currently campaigning in Kendrapara under the BJP flag, is pulling out all the stops to retain this crucial Lok Sabha seat. Panda, who was recently elevated in the BJP to the post of Vice President, refuted allegations against his companies in past media interactions and denied any conflict of interest during his time as an MP that could have benefited his companies or those run by his family.

Voting for the Kendrapara constituency is to be held in the fourth phase of polling on April 29. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be campaigning for Jay Panda on April 22.

When asked if he tried to reach out to Jay Panda for a possible rapprochement, Patnaik said that he did but it did not work. "He (Jay Panda) has big political ambitions. He started doing a number of anti-party activities and he was strongly leaning towards the BJP...that's how it all ended," said Naveen Patnaik in an interview to ANI.

He also said that PM Modi was looking to make a "dent" in the East of India in these Lok Sabha elections but he would not succeed in doing so in Odisha. When asked on the nature of his relationship with PM Modi, Patnaik said that he had a "perfectly civil" relationship with the Prime Minister.

Naveen Patnaik also added that he had never met Rahul Gandhi and that the close relationship his father Biju Patnaik and the Gandhi family once enjoyed did not carry into the next generation. He stressed post the Lok Sabha polls, the BJD would support any party which took care of the interests of Odisha.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Taking a jibe at former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi over her 'life threat to Lalu Prasad' claim, Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said the Centre has nothing to do with Lalu being jailed.

Rabri had claimed on Saturday that the Centre wants to kill her jailed husband by poisoning him.

"No GST is imposed on allegations," Goyal told ANI while responding to the claims.

"Lalu Prasad is in jail because of the legal proceedings. He is an accused in the fodder scam and he must answer the people of the country. We have not kept him in jail," he added.

Rabri had alleged that her son Tejashwi Yadav was not allowed to meet Lalu in jail, adding that the life of her spouse is in danger.

She further warned the state and central governments that the people of Bihar and Jharkhand will come out on roads if anything untoward happens to her husband.

"Tejashwi went to meet Lalu ji today but he was not allowed to meet him. People of Bihar and Jharkhand will take to the roads if anything happens to him. If state and central government want to kill him by poisoning, if they want to kill the entire Lalu family, they can do that, but this dictatorship won't work," Rabri said on Saturday.

Tejashwi had on April 7 alleged that the BJP government did not permit him to meet his father, who is admitted in Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi.

In a series of tweets, Tejaswi attacked the BJP for not allowing him to meet his father while alleging that Lalu is not receiving proper medication.

"I was not allowed to meet my father on Saturday at RIMS. I tried calling superintendent but he was not responding to my call and I waited for his call till morning. I don't know the reason but as per the jail manual, family members can meet if the Superintendent of Police wants," he had told ANI.

"RIMS doctors were saying that they want to do X-ray of Lalu Prasad but they are not being allowed. We want justice," Tejashwi added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A girl was found dead in an apartment complex here on Saturday, prompting protests by locals who alleged foul play and blocked a key crossing in the city.

The deceased was the daughter of house-help who works in different flats in Quality Enclave Apartments in Buddha colony where the incident occurred.

Following allegations of foul play by the locals, a senior police official said, "We have initiated a probe and the flat in which she was present prior to her death has been examined by a forensic team."

He said the police are examining the circumstances in the case and have detained some people based on the complaints.

"CCTV footage has been examined and the girl is seen climbing the staircase leading to the terrace. She died after she fell off the roof. The girl's mobile was found from the terrace," the official said.

Following the incident, the locals, carrying the body, demanded a fair probe.

"The girl was lured by her female friend into a house on some pretext. There is a lot of blood in the apartment from where she is said to have fallen. We believe she was raped by a security guard and five other people. The administration is doing nothing and we demand justice." alleged Roopa Raj, who was among the protesters.

The police had to use mild force to disperse the protesters and clear the crossing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday said BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur was a 'habitual criminal' involved in incidents of stabbing in the state.

"One person says that she (Pragya) had stabbed him in the chest. I also enquired with some other people. They told me that she used to live here with her brother-in-law. People also say she was involved in stabbing incidents," the Chief Minister told reporters here.

"This means that Pragya Thakur is a habitual criminal looking at her behaviour. She stabbed people here nineteen years ago, she was also involved in fights and used to quarrel over small things. She is of a quarrelsome nature from the beginning," he claimed.

BJP has fielded Thakur from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.

Thakur was recently served two notices by the Election Commission on her comments on former Mumbai ATS chief late Hemant Karkare and Babri Masjid.

Thakur is among the seven accused facing trial in Malegaon blast case, wherein six people were killed and a dozen others were injured when a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded in Maharashtra's Malegaon on September 29, 2008.

Out of the 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh, polls have been conducted on four seats and polling on rest seven seats will be conducted on April 23. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Malegaon blast accused and BJP's Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on Sunday said she is "proud" to accept that she was involved in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

The Babri Masjid, built by Mughal emperor Babur in 1578 in Ayodhya, was on December 6, 1992, pulled down allegedly by a group of Hindu activists, claiming that the mosque was constructed after demolishing a Ram temple that stood there.

On being asked about her involvement in the demolition of Babri Masjid and if she would play a major role in building a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Thakur said: "I will go to make the Ram Temple. I have said it yesterday and I am not denying it that I had gone there. I have demolished Babri structure. He is my Ram ji and no one can stop me from making a grand Ram temple. The nation is Ram, Ram is a nation""We all will soon prepare a vision for it," she added.

The 2008 Malegaon blast accused, who had joined the BJP on April 16, also accepted that she received two notices from the Election Commission, including on the issue of Ram mandir. "I will respond to it lawfully," she said. On her candidature from Bhopal, she said, "The public is with me. I will work for the development, peace, and prosperity of Bhopal."Responding to her Bhopal opponent and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh's remark that the word 'Hindu' doesn't exist in his dictionary, Thakur said, "This is what I'm saying, 'Hindu' word is not in his dictionary. He is trying to prove that he is a Hindu, a true Hindu. But, these are double meaning talks.""Enemies will stand against us and they will give us tough fight but Dharm will always win," she added. Thakur also said that she has made an official account on Twitter, which is being operated from her office. On Saturday, Congress leader Devendra Singh Yadav had filed a police complaint against Thakur for her comment on late Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare.Thakur had said earlier that Karkare lost his life because she had cursed him."I called Hemant Karkare and asked him to let me go if there is no evidence (against me). He (Karkare) said that he will bring evidence but will not leave me. I told him -- You will be ruined," Thakur had said.

Polls in Bhopal will be held on May 12, and counting of votes will take place on May 23.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Even as the Delhi Police continued with its investigations for the third day in a row in the Rohit Shekhar murder case, his mother Ujjawala Sharma on Sunday accused Rohit's wife Apoorva and her family of trying to usurp the property of her two sons--Rohit and Sidhhartha.

Rohit Shekhar Tiwari was found dead on April 16 under mysterious circumstances.

"Apoorva and her family wanted to usurp the property of my sons- Rohit and Siddharth because the property was close to the Supreme Court where Apoorva does practice," she said.

"Apoorva's family is greedy of money, you will get to know. She was having relations with someone else prior to her marriage," Ujjawala alleged.

Accusing Apoorva's family of being money-minded, she said, "It is not right to suspect my relative Rajeev and his wife. Apoorva has some problem with Rajeev's wife. Apoorva's family is money minded. I will reveal this at the right time."

She further claimed that Siddhartha wanted to give a share of his property to Rajeev's (OSD of late governor ND Tiwari) son, Karthik, which made Apoorva unhappy.

"Apoorva's father is lying. Siddharth wanted to give his property share to Rajeev's son Kartik. This made Apoorva unhappy. Rajeev and his wife are serving us and ND Tiwari for forty years," she said.

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police questioned Apoorva on April 20 in connection to the case.

The questioning took place at Rohit's residence in Defence Colony in South Delhi.

"There was tension between Rohit and his wife since the first day of marriage. It was a love marriage; Currently, Delhi crime branch is questioning the wife of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari," Rohit's mother Ujjwala Tiwari had told reporters then.

On Friday, the Delhi Police had registered a murder case in connection with the death of Rohit, who was the son of late Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Chief Minister ND Tiwari. The case was registered under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Rohit was declared brought dead to the Max Hospital in Saket on April 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Malegaon blast accused and BJP's candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur does not believe in the Constitution and law, said SP president Akhilesh Singh Yadav on Sunday here.

"Sadhvi Pragya and people like her do not believe in the Constitution and law. Those who do not believe in the Constitution and law, they do not have the right to get support from the people," said Yadav here.

Thakur had said on April 18 that Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare lost his life because she had cursed him.

"I called Hemant Karkare and asked him to let me go if there is no evidence (against me). He (Karkare) said that he will bring evidence but will not leave me. I told him -- You will be ruined," Thakur had said. She is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Thakur has also said that she is "proud" to accept that she was involved in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The Babri Masjid, built by Mughal emperor Babur in 1578 in Ayodhya, was on December 6, 1992, pulled down allegedly by a group of Hindu activists, claiming that the mosque was constructed after demolishing a Ram temple that stood there.

On being asked about her involvement in the demolition of Babri Masjid and if she would play a major role in building a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Thakur said: "I will go to make the Ram temple. I have said it and I am not denying it that I had gone there."

"I have demolished Babri structure. He is my Ram ji and no one can stop me from making a grand Ram temple. The nation is Ram, Ram is a nation. We all will soon prepare a vision for it," she said.

Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is pitted against former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, whom the Congress has fielded from Bhopal.

Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats at stake, will go to polls during all seven phases of parliamentary polls, ending on May 19. Sixteen seats have already gone to polls during first two phases on April 11 and 18. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least seven people were killed and 34 others were injured after a bus rammed into a truck on Agra-Lucknow Expressway in the wee hours of Sunday, a police official said.

"This was a Volvo bus travelling from Delhi to Banaras. The bus rammed into a trolley, which was moving ahead of it, at the 78th milestone near Mainpuri. In the accident, two staff members and five passengers have died," Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Om Prakash Singh said.

The injured were shifted to the hospital, while police have sent the bodies of deceased for postmortem.

There were two Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) among those injured in the accident.

Last month, on March 29, eight people had lost their lives, while 30 others sustained injuries after a bus they were travelling in, collided with a truck on the Yamuna Expressway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 12-hour curfew period will come into force in Sri Lanka from 6 pm on Sunday until 6 am Monday morning, in the wake of the devastating blasts which have caused multiple casualties in the island nation, according to President's secretary, Udaya R. Seneviratne.

Eight explosions rattled various suburbs in the Sri Lankan cities of Colombo, Negombo, Kochchikade and Batticaloa as the Christian community celebrated Easter Sunday on April 21. Over 150 people have lost their lives until now, as more than 560 people have been injured. Out of the deceased, around 20 people have been identified as foreigners, reported CNN.

Extending his "heartfelt condolences," Prime Minister Narendra Modi held telephonic conversations with the President and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

"Prime Minister Shri Modi condemned in the strongest terms the serial terrorist attacks, perpetrated at sites including religious places and during a religious festival. Terming them as cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts, he pointed out that these attacks were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world," an official release by the Prime Minister's Office outlined.

"The Prime Minister renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka for ensuring its security against the challenges such as those posed by terrorism. He also wished the injured speedy recovery and offered any required assistance for their treatment," the statement added.

The international community has also condemned the multiple blasts, with leaders from the United Kingdom, Nepal, European Union expressing their grief due to the bombings.

"It was with horror and sadness that I heard of the bombings in #SriLanka costing the lives of so many people. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country. We stand ready to support," Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted on Sunday.

The blasts hit a string of high-end hotels and churches on Sunday, as the Christian community marked the occasion of Easter Sunday. Before commencing the Easter Mass, the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, brought attention to the gruesome incident.

"We're thinking of our brothers in Sri Lanka, who were slaughtered this morning," he said.

Schools across Sri Lanka have been ordered shut until Wednesday, citing security concerns, in the midst of the devastating attacks.

Rising to the occasion, several Sri Lankans have come forward to donate their blood at the National Blood Bank to help the victims of the blasts.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet.

The External Affairs Ministry has asked Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka to keep a "close watch" on the situation. To assist people in need, the High Commissioner has floated helpline numbers for Indian citizens in need of assistance and for seeking clarification.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Pannerselvam on Sunday condemned the bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, which claimed the lives of around 150 people.

"AIADMK condemns this deadly attack in Sri Lanka that has happened during the Easter festival. We have been condemning violence and terrorist attack wherever it has happened," he said while talking to reporters here.

The Deputy Chief Minister also expressed deep condolences to the victims and their family members.

"We also express our deep condolences to victims and their family members," he said.

Around 150 people were killed and several hundred others were injured after eight coordinated bomb blasts hit a number of high-end hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Sunday.

Sri Lankan authorities told CNN that more than 560 people were injured in the bomb blasts which took place near churches in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa, as well as Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo around 8:45 am (local time).

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have also condemned the incidents and said India stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka against such barbaric activities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after Rabri Devi alleged that her son Tejashwi Yadav was not allowed to meet Lalu Yadav in jail, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday termed it as a political conspiracy while asserting that it has been done on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"This is a political conspiracy. This all has been done on the feedback of Sushil Modi and Nitish Kumar, and on the instructions of Narendra Modi. Have you seen anything like this anywhere?" Tejashwi asked.

Former chief minister Rabri Devi on Saturday alleged that Tejashwi was not allowed to meet Lalu Yadav in jail and that the life of her husband, the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) chief is in danger.

"What is the reason that has been giving citing law and order? Will the law and order situation deteriorate if three persons meet Lalu ji? Tejaswi asked.

Speaking to reporters here, the RJD leader said: "People are not letting him get the treatment. Doctors are saying that he is not allowed to be shifted from one room to another for the test. Who will be accountable for this? What is this mentality?"

"If they do something more, people will come to streets and then they will run away crying 'baap baap'," he said.

Earlier, Rabri had said: "Tejashwi went to meet Lalu ji today but he was not allowed to meet him. People of Bihar and Jharkhand will take to the roads if anything happens to him. If state and central government want to kill him by poisoning, if they want to kill the entire Lalu family, they can do that, but this dictatorship won't work."

Tejashwi Yadav had on April 7 alleged that the BJP government did not permit him to meet his father Lalu Prasad, who is admitted in the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US peace deal for Israel-Palestine conflict will be "very close to what Israelis want," and 99 per cent "doomed to fail", claimed France's outgoing ambassador to the US, Gerard Araud.

He also claimed that US President Donald Trump has, so far, been "uniquely" successful to "push the Israelis".

"The White House plan, engineered by Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, will be very close to what the Israelis want and is 99 per cent doomed to fail," The Times of Israel quoted Araud as saying.

"But one per cent, you never forget the one per cent. Trump is uniquely able to push the Israelis because he is so popular in Israel," he said on Friday.

Notably, Araud has also served as French ambassador to Israel from 2003 to 2006. Claiming, Kushner, who has engineered the peace plan, has "no guts", Araud said: "Kushner does not know the history [of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict], and in a sense, it is good -- we are not here to say who is right, who is wrong; we are trying to find a way [toward a solution]."

In an interview given to a US-based magazine, Araud claimed that the White House is relying on Trump's popularity in Israel to get the peace plan cleared.

"Trump, he said, is more popular than Netanyahu [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] in Israel, so they trust him. That is the first bet, Kushner told me. The second is that the Palestinians may consider it is their last chance to get limited sovereignty. And the third element is, Kushner is going to pour money on the Palestinians. Do not forget, the Arabs are behind the Americans. The plan is 50 pages, we were told, very precise; we do not know what is in the plan. But we will see," he said.

Meanwhile, Kushner on Wednesday announced that the peace plan will not be unveiled until June at the earliest. So far speculation is that the deal does not include a two-state solution, which was promoted by several countries.

West Bank is a disputed territory, with Israel and Palestine equally claiming it. Over 400,000 Jews live in West Bank settlements. Another 200,000-plus live in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods annexed by Israel after the 1967 war.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP leader Mukul Roy on Sunday wrote to Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, over campaigning by Bangladeshi actors for Trinamool Congress in the state.

"Campaigning by Bangladeshi actors, namely Ferdous Ahmed and Ghazi Abdul Noor, is unprecedented, unheard and a grave threat to the sovereignty of India and integrity of India's elections," Roy stated in the subject of the letter.

"No foreign hand can be allowed to meddle in India's electoral process. TMC ought to be de-recognised as a political party with immediate effect," Roy said.

Earlier in the day, Roy claimed that the ruling TMC is planning to invite Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to campaign for the party in West Bengal.

"I have information that TMC has invited Imran Khan as ex- Pakistan player to come and campaign for TMC in Bengal," Roy said.

"I have written a letter to EC Delhi to cancel the registration of TMC," he added.

Bangladeshi actors--Ghazi Ahmed Noor and Ferdous Ahmed participated in election rallies of the Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee-led TMC, following which they were asked to leave India.

The Lok Sabha polls for the 42 seats of the state are scheduled to be conducted in all the seven phases. Five seats went to polls on April 11 and April 18. The counting of votes will be done on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said that she will contest the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi if the party president Rahul Gandhi asks her to do so.

Speaking to media here on Sunday, Priyanka while replying to whether she will be contesting from Varanasi, said, "If the Congress president asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest."

Earlier Priyanka Gandhi met the family members of Pulwama terror attack martyr VV Vasant Kumar in Makkamkunnu.

The Congress leader interacted with the family members of Kumar for quite some time who lost his life in Pulwama terror attack on February 24, in which 40 CRPF jawans lost their lives after a suicide bomber of Pak-based terror outfit JeM rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into their convoy in south Kashmir.

Before meeting the martyr's family, Gandhi also expressed her condolences for the victims of serial bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, which took place earlier in the day. "People were celebrating a day of happiness, but now they are in immense grief. My condolences to all of them and support to all their families," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sameer Kulkarni, one of the accused in 2008 Malegaon blast case has said that he would never support any statement against martyrs, irrespective of who makes it.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, Kulkarni was referring to Pragya Singh Thakur's remarks against former Mumbai ATC chief late Hemant Karkare.

Pragya Singh had earlier said that Hemant Karkare died because she had cursed him.

Kulkarni said, "Not only Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur but if anyone else makes such a statement against martyrs, I would never ever supported it".

Kulkarni said that he, along with Pragya Singh Thakur was inhumanly beaten up in jail. "I was arrested for no reason. I am still alive because the media reported about my arrest. Without issuing an arrest warrant, Mumbai ATS arrested so many people in Malegaon blast case."

"We were beaten inhumanly in jail and even Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was beaten so much that she could not stand on her own," he added.

He further said, "It took 10 years for us to open up in public. Nobody could come to meet us in 10 years time."

He also narrated that he donated blood for 27 times while he was lodged in jail. "I protested and requested the court to let me donate blood...The court gave me permission to do so. Hence, I say that we are not the people who do bloodshed instead we are the ones who donate blood," he added.

"I heard the word bomb blast for the first time when I was arrested and in spite of having no role in Malegaon blast case, I was put behind the bars for nine years," he said.

He further added, "Hemant Karkare had told me that you may not have any role in this matter but I want to do some tests on you...The day he did our tests and said you have no role in this case, no one from the police department had beaten us up from the next day."

"If Karkare would have been alive I would have been acquitted long back," he added.

Rakesh Dhawade another accused of Malegaon blast case said, "I have been tortured for 62 days and I was beaten inhumanly."

"Nobody even human rights organisation came to my help. I was kept arrested 5-6 days without any producing any documents, " he added.

Dhawade said, "If these politicians come in power again then whatever happened to me may happen with anyone else again. I only want to say that that time the government has harassed me for long hence I urge all to not let this government come in power again.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday accused the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for ignoring the plight of the farmers and the poor law and order situation, during the tenure of the respective governments.

"Under BJP, we have been working under the plank of development. Infrastructural development has boomed in the last five years. New highways, roads and rail lines have been built. But under SP and BSP, farmers were ignored and their lands were usurped. Our girls were also not safe and violence used to happen often," Adityanath said in a rally here.

He claimed that the BJP improved the law and order situation in the last two years after his government came to power and took a tough stand against miscreants.

"We waived off farmers' loans for small and marginal farmers. We have initiated work for giving pensions to small traders. We have given free power connections to one crore poor. We have provided 24 lakh houses to the poor in just two years. Compare this with 55 years of Congress' rule and when BSP and SP were in power," Adityanath said while accusing the three parties of not doing enough to develop Uttar Pradesh.

He claimed that the people wanted to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi come to power for a second time.

"The first two phases of polling has been done in 16 seats out of 80 seats here. Voters have already made up their mind that BJP will win in all the 16 constituencies. They have also made up their mind that they want to see Modi ji as Prime Minister again," said Adityanath.

Accusing the Congress of not taking a tough stand on terror, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that the BJP made security a priority, besides focusing on development.

"Congress in its manifesto said it will review AFSPA and remove sedition law if they are voted to power. This is just to appease those who are against our nation." Adityanath further said.

The remaining 64 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in the next five phases of elections, and counting of votes will take place on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Election Commission on Sunday issued a show cause notice to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the BJP candidate from Bhopal, for her controversial remarks about the Babri Masjid demolition.

This is the second poll panel notice against Thakur since the saffron party announced her candidature on Wednesday. She has been asked to reply by Monday.

In an interview to a television channel over the weekend, Thakur said that she was among the people who demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 and that she was "proud" of it.

"We removed a blot from the country. We went to demolish the structure. I feel extremely proud that God gave me this opportunity and I could do that. We will make sure a Ram temple is constructed at that site," Thakur told the channel.

The first notice against Thakur was issued after she bragged that former ATS Chief Hemant Karkare died at the hands of terrorists during the 26/11 attack in Mumbai because she "cursed" him.

Following a backlash, Thakur apologised admitting that Karkare was a "martyr". The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) distanced itself from her remark.

The 49-year-old is an accused in the Malegaon blasts case in which six people died and around 100 were injured in 2006. She is currently out on bail and her candidature has been challenged in court by the father of one of the men who died in Malegaon.

--IANS

hindi/rtp/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four Indians were among those killed in the suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, while many others, including a leading Tamil actress, had a narrow escape.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj quoted the Indian High Commission as saying that it had been informed by the National Hospital in Colombo about the death of three Indian nationals -- Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar, Ramesh.

"We are ascertaining further details," the Minister said.

A fourth casualty was reported by authorities in Kerala, who said that a woman hailing from the state was killed in Colombo where she was holidaying.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed condolences over the death of 58-year-old P.S. Raseena, who arrived in the Sri Lankan capital along with her husband to meet their relatives engaged in business in Colombo.

Raseena and her husband, who hail from Kasargode in Kerala, live in Dubai and were staying at one of the three hotels in Colombo targeted by the suicide bombers.

Meanwhile, noted Indian Tamil actress Radikaa Sarathkumar had left one of the three hotels in Colombo just before it was bombed.

Radikaa tweeted that she was staying at the Cinnamon Grand, located near the official residence of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister.

"OMG bomb blasts in SL, God be with all. I just left Cinnamon Grand hotel and it has been bombed. Can't believe this. Shocking," she tweeted.

Five persons from Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district too had a narrow escape in the serial bomb blasts.

Amilineni Surendra Babu, who heads the SR Construction firm, sustained minor injuries while his friends escaped unhurt when a bomb went off at the Shangri La Hotel in Colombo, where they were staying.

The group, which was on a tour to Sri Lanka, was having breakfast at the hotel when a bomb ripped through the premises.

In the stampede that followed, Surendra Babu sustained minor injuries. The group later moved to a safer place. Some pictures of the injured were posted on the social media.

A police officer in Anantapur district said they did not succeed in contacting the businessmen as the communication network in the island nation was down after the serial blasts.

At least 207 people were killed and 469 injured when eight suicide bombings struck luxury hotels and churches across Sri Lanka, mainly in Colombo, on Easter Sunday in the island's bloodiest day since the civil war ended a decade ago.

--IANS

arm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Residents of 72 villages in Gurugram's IMT Maneser area may boycott the Lok Sabha elections after the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) served notices to take back Rs 35 lakh from a compensation amount given to the farmers for land acquisition.

The notices were served to meet the directives of a February 8 Supreme Court order to reverse the compensation amount in a time bound manner till June 30, 2019.

The villagers have decided to hold a Mahapanchayat on the issue in Dhana village on April 21.

They have also threatened that the residents of 72 villages in the Maneser area would boycott the Lok Sabha elections on May 12 if Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and sitting BJP MP from Gurugram Rao Inderjit Singh do not sort out the matter.

According to Moolchand, the sarpanch of Dhana village, HSIIDC had acquired 1,700 acres of land for the Phase 1 of IMT Maneser in 2002-03, fixing a compensation amount of Rs 75 lakh per acre.

"Since the compensation amount was low as compared to the market price, we challenged the HSIIDC decision at the court of the Additional District Judge (ADJ). The court on January 27, 2010 ruled in favour of the farmers and enhanced the compensation amount to Rs 2.81 crore per acre," Moolchand said.

"But since we had challenged the HSIIDC decision seven years ago in 2003, during which the market price of the said land had zoomed further, the farmers moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court which further enhanced the per acre compensation amount by Rs 37.4 lakh," he added.

But since the farmers felt that the compensation amount was still lower than the market rate, they moved the Supreme Court in 2013. On March 3, 2018, the apex court enhanced the per acre compensation amount by a further Rs 4 lakh.

"The farmers took the revised compensation amount from the HSIIDC, but a private company went to the apex court, urging that the compensation given was too high compared to the current market price," said Devender Master of Baskusla village.

"The Supreme Court on February 8, 2019 directed the HSIIDC to take back the additional compensation amount of Rs 35 lakh per acre. This reversal of the court order is unacceptable. We have written to the permanent residents of 72 villages in the area, urging them to participate in the Mahapanchayat on April 21," Master said.

According to another villager Suraj Pal Chauhan, each village has 7,000 to 8,000 permanent residents belonging to several castes, including Jats, Rajputs and Yadavs, who have the potential to disturb the political equation in the region, especially for the BJP.

The villagers also claimed that they had written to and personally met Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh for help in the matter, but he had done nothing.

--IANS

str/arm/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Election Commission (EC) has made unprecedented security arrangements, including deployment of over 9,300 troopers, for the deferred voting to the Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday, officials said here on Sunday.

"Over 5,300 central para-military forces and 4,000 Tripura State Rifles (TSR) troopers are being deployed to conduct free, fair and smooth voting in the Tripura East seat," a senior police official told IANS.

The central forces included the Border Security Force (BSF), the Assam Rifles, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The TSR is a counter-insurgency force.

"The central forces would be deployed at most of the 1,645 polling booths in 1,349 locations, spread across six districts, for the April 23 vote," Vikas Singh, Returning Officer to the parliamentary constituency, told IANS.

Singh, also the District Magistrate and Collector of the Dhalai district, said as part of confidence-building measures, the central forces have conducted intensive patrolling in all vulnerable, sensitive and remote places.

In an unprecedented move, the EC has appointed three central police observers and a special central police observer to oversee deployment of security forces during the vote in the constituency.

Citing "non-conducive security situation", following reports by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti, Special Central Police Observer Mrinal Kanti Das (former Manipur DGP), the Returning Officer and other intelligence inputs, the poll panel early last week had deferred voting to the seat from April 18 to April 23,

The CEO said all polling agents, candidates and, if necessary, 1,257,944 voters that include 620,291 women, would be provided security to facilitate free and fair polling.

Taranikanti said restrictions on movement of private vehicles and political activists in and around the polling stations would be followed strictly.

Another EC official said: "Senior EC officials are frequently having video conference with the CEO, Director General of Police (DGP) Akhil Kumar Shukla and the Returning Officer to review preparations for the polling."

A senior police official said the DGP and other top police officials would camp in the Tripura East constituency to supervise security measures.

The EC, after deferring voting, had replaced Additional DGP (Law and Order) Rajiv Singh with V.S. Yadav. As Yadav is on leave, IGP (Crime Branch) Puneet Rastogi is looking after law and order.

Tripura has two Lok Sabha constituencies. Polling in the Tripura West seat was held on April 11.

There are 10 contestants, including two women, in the Tripura East seat. But three main contenders are Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) sitting MP Jitendra Choudhury, Bharatiya Janata Party's Rebati Tripura and Maharaj Kumari Pragya Deb Barman (Congress), elder sister of state Congress chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman.

Since 1952, the Left parties have won the East Tripura seat 12 times and the Congress four times.

Tripura, which has traditionally witnessed a direct or triangular contest, will for the first time see a multi-cornered battle in the Tripura East constituency as the BJP has emerged as a potent political force after the 2018 Assembly polls.

--IANS

sc/mag/pcj

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Going by the poll manifestos published by major political parties, the use of digital technology is likely to get a boost under the new government that will come to power after the Lok Sabha election results on May 23.

While most political parties have promised greater implementation of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data and Blockchain technologies to drive the growth of the economy, some have also assured punishment for those who misuse digital and social media.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which pushed digital transactions in a major way during its five-year rule ending this year, said it would further increase the ongoing incentives to expand digital transactions if voted to power again.

The BJP said it would create a new data-sharing framework that builds on the success of 'Jan Dhan' and Aadhaar platforms while ensuring data privacy and security. "With this scheme, we will ensure that every Indian has access to banking facilities within a radius of 5 km," the BJP manifesto said.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by the BJP faced severe criticism from the Opposition for the use of Aadhaar biometric identification system in distribution of benefits to the people. They followed up the criticism in their manifestos as well.

While the Congress promised an amendment to the Aadhaar Act in order to restrict its use, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said it would push for scrapping of the use of Aadhaar and biometrics for all social welfare measures if voted to power.

The Congress manifesto even devoted a section on 'Digital Rights of Every Citizen' to affirm "its belief that every Indian shall enjoy digital rights and freely access the digital world."

From promising access to all persons to high-quality Internet at affordable rates, to passing a law to protect the personal data of all persons and uphold the right to privacy, the Congress is promising the common man quite a lot of digital benefits.

"We will establish a National Mission focused on sunrise technologies such as Big Data, Machine Learning, Internet of Things, 3-D Printing and Manufacturing, and Knowledge Networks," read the Congress manifesto.

The BJP manifesto promises a "Science Mission" with two submissions, focused on Artificial Intelligence and robotic research. The BJP's 'Sankalp Patra' also puts a lot of emphasis on using technology for helping farmers and improving agricultural output.

"We will enable development of young agri-scientists to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain technology, Big Data analytics etc. for more predictive and profitable precision agriculture," the BJP said.

While adoption of digital technologies has increased dramatically over the years, the poll manifestos of the political parties also suggest that stricter regulations for social media could be in the offing.

The Congress, which was earlier linked to hundreds of fake Facebook pages and accounts, said it would pass regulations to stop the spread of fake news and hate speech and punish those who misuse digital and social media.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) went a step ahead and stated that if voted to power, it will urge the Union government to bring in a law to prevent all types of social media from publishing any kind of obscene content.

The poll manifestos suggest that irrespective of the parties that could come to power for the next five year, there will be no halt in the digital journey that the country has embarked on.

(Gokul Bhagabati can be reached at gokul.b@ians.in)

--IANS

gb/prs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Special Poll Observer Ajay Nayak's comments, comparing the current election scenario in West Bengal to that of Bihar over 10 to 15 years ago, has kicked up a political storm in the state with an angry Trinamool Congress seeking his recall and an elated opposition going hammer and tongs at the state's ruling party.

Objecting to Nayak's "partial statements", Trinamool General Secretary Subrata Bakshi shot off a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora demanding Nayak's immediate removal to ensure free and fair elections in Bengal in the remaining phases.

Following Nayak's comment, all major state opposition parties, including BJP, the Left and Congress described his observation as "correct" and said it was "unfortunate and shameful for Bengal" that an Election Commission (EC) appointed observer had to make such remarks.

State Congress Vice President Om Prakash Misra accused the Trinamool of reducing the election process in the state to a "farce".

"It is unfortunate that the EC observer had to make such an observation but in the context of law and order, especially with regards to the conduct of elections, it is very much correct. Bengal has long witnessed violence during elections but everything has been put to shame under the current regime," Misra told IANS.

When asked whether his party agrees to Trinamool's allegation that Nayak is not conducting the election impartially, he said: "We also have many questions about EC's conducts. It is true that BJP is trying to use its power at the Centre. But I do not agree to Trinamool's claims. They have reduced the election to a joke here."

Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty echoed Misra.

According to the CPI-M's Chakraborty, Nayak was " hundred per cent correct". However, it was "shameful" that Bengal, that was once at the helm, has been reduced to such depths by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party, he said.

"We used to refer to Bihar and UP (Uttar Pradesh) to describe misrule, once. Unfortunately Bengal has now taken that place. Irrespective of Nayaka's statement, the condition is such that poll workers are agitating everywhere to press their demand for deployment of Central forces. This means people have lost faith in the state administration," Chakraborty told IANS.

"Everyone has seen that, in the first two phases, there wass no problem in the booths where Central forces had been deployed. But the bloody memory of the last Panchayat elections came back to haunt the voters in booths being guarded by state police.

"It clearly shows the pathetic condition of law and order in Bengal and the Chief Minister should be blamed for this," he said.

BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha, however, claimed that the comment by Nayak was "an understatement" as the real political scenario in Bengal is much worse.

"I think his statement is not entirely correct. In reality Bengal's current situation is ten times worse than that of Bihar 10 years ago. There used to be incidents of booth capturing and rigging in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but it never saw such a scale of organised violence like Bengal where the state administration itself is involved," Sinha told IANS.

"Were close to 200 people ever killed in Bihar during state rural body elections? Did so many seats ever go uncontested? The answer is no. So I think Nayak has made an understatement. The actual condition here is so volatile that emergency should be imposed," he claimed.

During an off-camera interaction with reporters on Saturday, Nayak had compared the election scenario in West Bengal to that of Bihar over 10 to 15 years ago, and claimed that its people "do not have any faith in the state police".

He said such heavy deployment of Central forces in polling stations has not been required in any other state.

Speaking to electronic media a little later, however, Nayak toned down his comments, saying "things are improving in terms of election management" in the state.

"Bengal is progressing and things are improving in terms of election management. Bengal's elections are going to be absolutely peaceful and fair with more than 92 per cent booths to be covered by Central forces.

"This is to the satisfaction of all political parties. We do not expect any kind of trouble in the coming phases," the Bengal Special Poll Observer said.

--IANS

mgr/ssp/bc

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have expressed confidence of winning the two Lok Sabha polls and three Assembly by-elections, campaigning for which concluded at 5 p.m. on Sunday. The seats will go to polls on April 23.

Congress state president and North Goa Lok Sabha candidate Girish Chodankar said, here on Sunday, the April 23 round of polls is the first since the BJP "snatched" the people's mandate after the 2017 Assembly elections. Voters would vote in revenge against the BJP in all the five seats, he added.

"The Congress will win Lok Sabha polls and Assembly by-elections by 5-0," Chodankar said.

Chodankar said voters would "unleash" their fury against the BJP, which snatched power in Goa despite emerging as the second-largest party behind the Congress in the 2017 Assembly polls. It had failed to act on key issues, including the resumption of mining, he added.

"The BJP has been unable to resolve the mining row despite being in power in Goa as well as the Centre. The entire mining belt will show their anger against the BJP on April 23," Chodankar said.

The Congress has tied up with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), a former BJP ally, for the two Lok Sabha constituencies and one Assembly seat. Midway through the electioneering, the MGP extended support to the Congress for Lok Sabha seats and Mapusa Assembly constituency.

The MGP is contesting Shiroda Assembly by-election, where its party President Deepak Dhavalikar has emerged as a key contender against BJP's Subhash Shirodkar.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, addressing the media on Sunday, said the Lok Sabha elections were about voting for a "new India" under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and the BJP had convinced voters about the need for electing Modi as the Prime Minister.

"These elections are about nation-building, for a new India and we have convinced people that there is a need to vote for the BJP and elect Modi as the Prime Minister," Sawant said.

"Initially, some people said we would be lagging in South Goa. But Narendra Sawaikar canvassed in all 20 constituencies with such an energy that victory will be ours," he said.

He also expressed confidence about the three Assembly by-elections on account of the state BJP government's performance.

Leaders of other political parties too, which includes Aam Aadmi Party Convenor Elvis Gomes, expressed confidence of winning the two Lok Sabha polls and three Assembly by-elections.

--IANS

maya/mag/pcj

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)



COLOMBO (Reuters) - Easter Day bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and four hotels killed 138 people and wounded more than 400, hospital and police officials said, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.





The explosions, some of which officials said were suicide bomb attacks, led to an immediate clampdown, with the government declaring a curfew and blocking access to most major social media and messaging sites.





It was unclear when the curfew would be lifted.





More than 50 people were killed in St. Sebastians gothic-style Catholic church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, a police official told Reuters, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews and a destroyed roof.





Media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on an evangelical church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.





The three hotels hit were the Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo and the Cinnamon Grand Colombo. It was unclear whether there were any casualties in the hotels.





The first six explosions were all reported within a short period in the morning just as church services were starting.





Nine foreigners were among the dead, the officials said.





Early in the afternoon, police reported there had been two more explosions. One was at a hotel near the national zoo in the Dehiwela area near Colombo.





A witness told local TV he saw some body parts, including a severed head, lying on the ground near the hotel.





The other explosion was in a house in Colombo, authorities said.





There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.





Christian groups say they have faced increasing intimidation from some extremist Buddhist monks in recent years. And last year, there were clashes between the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community and minority Muslims, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam.





Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.





I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong, he said in a Tweet.





Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.





President Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered the police special task force and military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda.





The military had been deployed, according to a military spokesman, and security stepped up at Colombos international airport.





ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS





One of the explosions was at St. Anthonys Shrine, a Catholic Church in Kochcikade, Colombo, a tourist landmark.





St. Sebastians posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.





Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), which represents more than 200 churches and other Christian organizations.





This year, the NCEASL recorded 26 such incidents, including one in which Buddhist monks allegedly attempted to disrupt a Sunday worship service, with the last one reported on March 25.





Out of Sri Lankas total population of around 22 million, 70 percent are Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim and 7.6 percent Christian, according to the countrys 2012 census.





In its 2018 report on Sri Lankas human rights, the U.S. State Department noted that some Christian groups and churches reported they had been pressured to end worship meetings after authorities classified them as unauthorized gatherings.





The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship, citing unidentified sources.





Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, told local TV that the public should remain calm and asked authorities to bring those responsible for the attacks before the law. He also requested the public donate blood for the injured.





Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam announced that all schools would be closed on Monday and Tuesday.





The heads of major governments condemned the attacks. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there is no place for such barbarism in our region. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in a tweet that this is an assault on all of humanity.



The third phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for Tuesday will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in a single phase -- 117 across 15 states and Union Territories.

It will also be a test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which will aim to defend the maximum number of seats at 62.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 62 of the 115 seats in the third phase, and its performance in this phase will be crucial in deciding its political fortunes.

The Congress had won 16 seats, while the remaining seats were divided between BJD (6), CPI-M (7), NCP (4), Samajwadi Party (3), Shiv Sena (2), RJD (2), AIUDF (2), IUML (2), LJP (1), PDP (1), RSP (1), Kerala Congress-M (1), CPI (1), Swabhimani Paksha (1) and Trinamool Congress (1). Three seats were won by Independent candidates.

This time the BJP will be tested in its bastion Gujarat -- where polling will be held for all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state -- apart from Karanataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had done well in 2014.

In 2014, the BJP won all the 26 seats in Gujarat, 11 of 14 in Karnataka, 8 of 10 in Uttar Pradesh, 6 of 7 in Chhattisgarh, 6 of 14 in Maharashtra, both the seats in Goa and one seat each in Assam, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The Presidents of the two main political parties are in fray in the third phase with BJP chief Amit Shah making his Lok Sabha election debut from Gandhinagar and Congress President Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad.

Gujarat being the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP would again look for clean sweep in the state. However, the Congress, which gave a tough fight to the BJP in the Assembly polls held in 2017, is hoping to win 10 to 15 seats this time.

The three young Gujarat leaders -- Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani -- whose positions had helped the Congress build a narrative against the BJP during the Assembly elections, are not in the fray for the Lok Sabha polls.

Patidar agitation leader Patel, who joined the Congress last month, cannot contest due to his conviction in a rioting case, while Thakor quit the Congress earlier this month.

In Karnataka, the BJP is considered to have strong footing in many of the 14 seats going to the polls on Tuesday. However, the saffron party faces tough challenge from the Congress-JD-S combine.

Moreover, its vote share too dipped in the Assembly polls held in Karnataka last year as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the Assembly elections, the BJP had polled lesser votes than the Congress but got more seats.

The BJP faces a strong challenge in Uttar Pradesh, as the third phase of Lok Sabha elections will be fought in the "Yadav belt".

The Samajwadi Party (SP) strongholds of Mainpuri, Badaun and Sambhal will go to the polls on Tuesday and the party's prospects have received a considerabe boost following its alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The Congress too is also likely to cut into BJP votes.

Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) President Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is contesting from Firozabad against his nephew and SP candidate Akshay Yadav, has been cautioning the people against the SP-BSP combine.

SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is contesting from Mainpuri. The joint rally held in the constituency on Friday, in which BSP supremo Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav shared the stage, is likely to boost the prospects of the SP candidates.

In Maharashtra, the third phase of polling will be held in some NCP strongholds, including Baramati, Madha, Kolahpur and Satara. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is contesting from the party's bastion in Baramati.

The Congress and the NCP have dominated the local bodies and cooperatives in the sugar belt of the state, which has of late been challenged by the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. The Lok Sabha results will show if the NCP is able to regain its earlier dominance in the region.

In Chhattisgarh, the BJP has sought to beat the anti-incumbency wave against its sitting MPs by replacing all of them. Here the saffron party faces a renewed challenge from the Congress, which returned to power in the state in 2018 after 15 years. The Congress is focusing more on local issues, telling the voters that its government has quickly delivered on its promises.

Of the five seats in Bihar, the BJP had won only one in 2014 and it is again contesting one seat this time. Janata Dal (United), the BJP's ally in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is contesting three seats while the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is contesting one seat.

As part of the grand alliance, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is contesting three seats, while the Congress and the Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) are contesting one seat each.

The key contest is in Madhepura, where sitting MP Pappu Yadav, who had won on a RJD ticket in 2014, is contesting for the Jan Adhikar Party, a political outfit floated by him in 2015. He is up against RJD candidate Sharad Yadav.

In Odisha, the third phase of elections will witness a battle between several political heavyweights as well as former bureaucrats.

Puri will witness a triangular fight between spokespersons of three major political parties, as two-time sitting MP and BJD spokesman Pinaki Mishra will cross swords with BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra and state Congress media cell Chairman Satya Prakash Nayak. Dhenkanal is also expected to witness a triangular fight.

In the four constituencies of lower Assam that will go to the polls on Tuesday, both the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front ((AIUDF) are seeking to gain votes by targeting the BJP over its stance in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The AIUDF has accused the Congress of not adhering to "gentleman's agreement" between the two parties under which the regional party did not put up candidates on 11 seats and was expecting the Congress to field "weak candidates". Congress, however, has said that it had no such arrangement.

The Congress will look to swell its tally in Kerala with Rahul Gandhi in the fray from Wayanad. The party had won 8 of the 20 seats in 2014 while a few more were won by its allies. The BJP too is seeing a realistic chance to win four seats in the southern state.

The Congress will also seek to at least retain the three seats it won in West Bengal in 2014, though it faces a multi-cornered challenge from the Trinamool Congress, the BJP and the CPI-M.

(The writer can be contacted at prashant.s@ians.in)

--IANS

ps/arm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaigning concluded on Sunday for 5 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar going to polls in the third phase on Tuesday. The constituencies going to vote in this phase are Madhepura, Supaul, Jhanjharpur, Khagaria and Araria in the flood-prone Seemanchal.

Para-military forces have been deployed at all polling booths and drones will be used, for the first time, for surveillance, officials said.

Madhepura, where four-time MP Sharad Yadav is contesting as a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate against JD-U's Dinesh Chandra Yadav and independent Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, is among the most keenly watched battles in this phase.

While Dinesh Chandra Yadav, a minister in the state, is the NDA candidate, former RJD MP Rajesh Ranjan was denied ticket this time by the Lalu Prasad's party.

Sharad Yadav is facing a survival battle with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar camping in the area and personally monitoring the campaign against his friend-turned-foe, who revolted against him in 2017 after the former dumped the pre-poll RJD-Congress alliance to join hands with the BJP and form a government. An election defeat may send Sharad Yadav into political oblivion.

Over 88 lakh voters will decide the fate of 82 candidates in this phase.

According to political activists, in many places, caste equations will influence the voters' choice more than any other issue. While the NDA is banking on the upper castes, EBCs, OBCs and Dalits; the Grand Alliance's hopes lie with OBCs, EBCs, Muslims and Dalits.

Maoist-affected constituencies of Gaya, Nawada, Jamui and Aurangabad went to polls in the first phase on April 11. Kishanganj, Purnea, Katihar, Bhagalpur and Banka constituencies polled in the second phase on April 18.

--IANS

ik/rtp/pcj

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaigning came to an end on Sunday in 117 constituencies spread over 15 States and Union Territories, which will go to the polls on Tuesday in the third phase of the mega seven-phase electoral exercise.

Since poll timings vary in different seats, the campaigning period also ended at different times between 3 p.m and 6 p.m., 48 hours before the voting closure time at each constituency.

The 48-hour period preceding the conclusion of voting is called the "silence period" during which any kind of political campaigning is prohibited.

Earlier, 115 constituencies were to go to polls in the third phase, while polling will be held in one phase of Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag constituency. Polling to Tripura East, which was slated in the second phase, was deferred to the third phase on security concerns.

As the silence period began, the election rallies and street corner meetings ended in 26 seats of Gujarat, all 20 in Kerala, 14 seats each in Karnataka and Maharashtra, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, seven in Chhattisgarh, six in Odisha, five each in Bihar and West Bengal, four in Assam, two in Goa, and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Tripura, and the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

--IANS

vv/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress on Sunday accused the Centre of stirring a row over the number of terrorists killed in the air strike by India on a JeM camp at Balakot in Pakistan.

Addressing the media here, former Finance Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram said: "After the air strike, Congress President (Rahul Gandhi) was first to say I salute the Indian Air Force as there was a statement by the military spokesperson saying that air strike did not result any civilian or military casualties."

He said the matter should have ended there.

"And it is not the Congress or the opposition which started the controversy. The controversy was started when someone in the government privately briefed the press to say 300 or 350 militants were killed. And all the papers next day carried that number," he said.

Chidambaram's remarks came in response to a question over the opposition questioning the success of the air strike targeting militant camps in Balakot.

Chidambaram said even then the Congress did not react. "It is only when the foreign press started to question the number and not the air strike."

Attacking the Modi government, the Congress leader said: "What was the government's answer? The answer was to abuse us, it ranged from 350 to 0.

"(Union Minister S.S.) Ahluwalia said casualties were 0 and someone in the government said it was 350. The controversy was kicked up by the government at a private briefing, they put out a number which was first questioned by the foreign press.

"Congress has saluted and complimented the air force for the strike," he added.

The air strikes in Balakot were carried out 12 days after a suicide bombing on a Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama killed 40 troopers.

--IANS

aks/ksk/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday condemned the terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, terming it a "diabolical act of terrorism".

Congress leader P. Chidambaram added that India's security depended to a large extent on the security of the neighbouring countries and that India would do everything in its power to help its neighbours.

"I'm saddened and disturbed by reports of multiple bomb blasts in Colombo in which over 100 people have died and more than 300 injured. I strongly condemn this diabolical act of terrorism. My condolences to the families of the victims. I pray the injured make a speedy recovery," Gandhi said in a tweet.

However, the death toll had reached 192 with the number of injured also increasing to 470 by evening as Sri Lanka declared a nationwide curfew after suicide bombers carried out a string of well-planned deadly explosions in the island's bloodiest day since the civil war ended a decade ago.

Answering a question on the issue during a press conference, Chidambaram said "if the neighbourhood is conflicted, then India will also face conflicts".

"We condemn the attack and we will do everything in our power and authority to help our neighbours protect their national security and help our neighbours maintain peace in their countries," he said.

--IANS

vv/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress on Sunday released its plan on national security which emphasises on five key issues - assuming India's rightful place in global affairs, securing the neighbourhood, internal security, protecting people and strengthening capabilities.

The report, titled 'India's National Security Strategy', was drafted by Lt. Gen. (Retd.) D.S. Hooda, who was the Northern Army Commander in September 2016 when Indian troops carried out surgical strikes across the border after the Uri terror attack.

Addressing a joint press conference together with Hooda and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said that if the party is voted to power, it would try to implement these five key points on national security.

However, these plans would undergo further expansion and revision as the government has several institutional structures - National Security Advisory Board, National Security Council and the Cabinet Committee on Security - Chidambaram said.

"The final decision will be taken by the government when the plan goes through these institutional structures," he said.

"Our approach is not ad-hoc. Our approach is not impulsive. Our approach is that after careful study and deliberation, we will take necessary measures to protect our national security." Chidambaram said.

According to him, the party has taken several features of Hooda's plan, while its views on national security were reflected in the manifesto released earlier this month.

"'Jan Suraksha' - the main goal of national security - is protecting our people. We need to solve the climate change crisis, as well as the job crisis that harms people," Hooda said elaborating on the focus on public safety.

"What will be the place of India in the world. How are our relationships with the world's powers," he said.

He added that India must get a permanent place in the Security Council.

In its plan on National Security, the Congress said the party has always displayed zero tolerance on terrorism.

"As Lt. Gen (Retd.) D.S. Hooda recently noted, the Indian Army was always given a free hand, without any political interference, to deal with Pakistan and cross-border terrorism," it said.

"It is unfortunate that national security and the armed forces are being blatantly

politicised by the current government. The Congress party strongly condemns all such efforts of the Prime Minister and his colleagues."

The party said that as an emerging global power and the largest democracy in the world, India faces multiple security challenges that include transnational terrorism, a troubled neighbourhood marred by outstanding border disputes with Pakistan and China, internal militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, left-wing extremism in some parts of the country, threats to the data and privacy of our citizens, economic threats, and climate change and environmental threats.

It said the last five years has witnessed an alarming erosion in our military capabilities and defence preparedness, even as political rhetoric on national security has scaled new heights.

The document has cited the fall in the share of India's defence budget, the 1.5-fold rise in cross-border infiltration and a five-fold rise in ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the last 5 years.

The Congress said that the roadmap for enhancing India's hard power would include securing land and maritime borders, taking steps to adopt the principle of "one border, one force" and a "smart fence" on the Myanmar border that combines technology with a physical barrier to check infiltration and smuggling.

The party said that a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) will be immediately appointed as the principal adviser to the government on matters relating to defence.

It will also focus on indigenisation of defence production and reinvigorating the intelligence apparatus, besides working on forming a clear policy on cyber attacks, as well as upgrading the Defence Cyber Agency to a full-fledged Cyber Command.

--IANS

ak/bc

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hollywood actress Elle Fanning, known for films like "Teen Spirit", "Maleficent" and "We Bought a Zoo", dreams of becoming a pop star.

"It's definitely crossed my mind. That's not out of the question and I feel like I did get a taste of maybe what pop stars go through with the performance element because also there would be days where I would have to just sing like the song 30 times," Fanning told website Consequence of Sound.

She added: "That element of it I was like, 'Whew'. That's an element people don't think of when they think of pop stars. The strength of having to go on tour ... that would be a lot but I don't know, maybe an album or something of songs would be cool. Country songs to surprise everybody!"

Fanning also said she has been a huge music fan since her youth, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

She said: "My first concert I ever went to was Gwen Stefani when I was nine, and it was in Budapest. It was just insane. I was a little nine year old in glasses. I had curled my hair, I wore this like crazy red dress. I remember exactly what I wore. I was so excited to go.

"I danced probably harder than I've ever danced. Like, my little body, I was so sweaty. I remember I was just like throwing myself. It was crazy. I was like with my grandmother and she was just sitting down and letting me dance. It was just so funny.

"Even now, that was such a visceral experience for being so young, you are like ... you can't believe what's happening in front of you. I do remember that."

--IANS

dc/rs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Explosions were reported on Sunday at three churches in Sri Lanka as Christians celebrated Easter and also in two five-star hotels, the media reported.

The blasts took place at the St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Kotahena, the St. Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya in Katana and a third in Batticaloa, reports the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The daily said that there were reports of several casualties including foreign tourists.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Italy's Fabio Fognini has pulled off a big upset here, ending Rafa Nadal's bid for a record-extending 12th Monte Carlo title with a straight set win over the Spaniard in the semifinal.

The San Remo-born Fognini, ranked number 18 in the world, on Saturday defeated Nadal 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 37 minutes, only his fourth win over the Spanish great in their 15th encounter, Efe news reported.

Disturbed by the winds swirling over centre court at Monte-Carlo Country Club, Nadal never looked comfortable.

Nadal had survived a scare at the hands of Guido Pella of Argentina, who pushed the Spaniard hard in their quarterfinal clash, but he had no answers against Fognini, who ended the world number 2's run of 18 back-to-back wins at Monte-Carlo, including 25 consecutive sets.

Both players had a slow start, with four out of the first five games going against serve as Nadal took a 3-1 lead, only to see Fognini rally back to 4-4 before winning two straight games to take the set.

Fognini pushed the pedal to the floor in the second set, racing to a 5-0 lead against a sub-par Nadal and survived a late rally by the Spaniard to prevail 6-2 and advance to his first-ever final in a Masters 1000 tournament.

"I played one of my worst matches on clay in 14 years," Nadal said afterward. "It's difficult to find any positives - I deserved to lose."

Nadal, 32, was playing his first tournament in a month after taking time off for the sake of his aching knees.

"I played a very bad match against a good player. In that situation, you have to lose," he said.

"I had a bad feeling, it was a tough day. I'm coming from low moments in terms of injuries, and in terms of the mental side it has not been easy to accept all the things that have been going on during recent weeks," Nadal said.

The 31-year-old Fognini will take on Serbia's Dusan Lajovic, another debutant in a Masters 1000 final, who defeated Daniil Medvedev of Russia 7-5, 6-1 in a little more than 90 minutes in Saturday's other semifinal.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Sunday expressed outrage over the Easter bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka and called for "swift justice" to the perpetrators.

"The Secretary General reiterates the support and solidarity of the United Nations with the people and the Government of Sri Lanka in this difficult moment for the nation", Guterres's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

"He commends the leadership demonstrated by the authorities and unity of the people of Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks."

Dujarric said: "The Secretary-General is outraged by the terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, a sacred day for Christians around the world. He recalls the sanctity of all places of worship. He hopes the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice."

More than 200 people have been killed and over 500 wounded in the series of at least eight coordinated suicide bombings in Colombo and two other places targeting churches.

As of Sunday night in Sri Lanka, no group has taken responsibility for the attacks.

Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump has offered to help Sri Lanka.

"The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka," he tweeted. "We stand ready to help!"

Other US politicians also expressed their condolences.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney tweeted: "As we celebrate the miracle of Easter, we hold in our hearts the victims of the senseless violence in Sri Lanka and their loved ones. We pray that they may experience God's eternal grace, comfort, and love."

"Today's heartbreaking attacks in Sri Lanka come as the country has worked hard to build a common future after years of war," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat tweeted. "Our thoughts are with the injured & the families of those killed in today's Easter Sunday attacks."

Senator Kamala Harris tweeted: "I am horrified by the attacks in Sri Lanka, where so many families were celebrating such a joyous day. Praying for the victims and their loved ones."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

--IANS

al/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)



MUMBAI:The chief justice of Indias Supreme Court, Ranjan Gogoi, on Saturday denied allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances towards a junior court assistant who worked in an office at his home and that she was subsequently victimised.





This is unbelievable, Gogoi, Indias most powerful judge, told a special hearing of the court he called on Saturday so that the allegations could be addressed. I should not stoop low even in denying it.





Gogoi said the events showed that Indias judiciary was under serious threat and was being destabilised by a larger conspiracy, without elaborating.





There is some bigger force behind the woman, he said.





The allegations, dating from October, were carried in full by a number of major Indian online publications on Saturday.





The 35-year-old woman, whose identity has not been publicly disclosed, wrote a letter to all 22 of the Supreme Court judges along with an affidavit detailing her allegations on Friday.





Those included a series of allegations that the woman and her family were victimised by a series of related actions by the authorities, including the termination of her employment, and the suspension of her husband and his brother, who worked in the Delhi police force.





She also says another brother of her husbands had his Supreme Court job terminated and she also faced a false and frivolous bribery complaint, leading to her arrest and subsequent bail.





Me and my familys victimisation is a consequence of my not agreeing to the sexual advances made by the Chief Justice of India, Justice Rangan Gogoi, she said in the letter to the judges.





Justice Arun Mishra, who joined Gogoi on the bench for the special hearing, said the allegations were wild and baseless.



India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale arrived here on Sunday to hold talks with China's State Councillor and the country's top diplomat, Wang Yi, in which the vexed issue of blacklisting Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azhar at the UN panel is likely to figure.

Gokhale is scheduled to hold regular consultation on Monday with Wang, who is also the Chinese Foreign Minister.

His visit comes at a time when the Chinese are under intense pressure to declare Azhar an international terrorist, who is wanted in India for plotting dastardly attacks.

China is Pakistan's closest ally and has put a "technical hold" on a resolution against Azhar each time it has been moved by India, the US, Britain and France at the UN 1267 sanctions committee.

The top Indian diplomat is visiting China the same week when Beijing holds the second edition of the Belt and Road forum, which New Delhi is highly likely to skip over the issue of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The issues of Beijing shielding Azhar and India opposing China's ambitious connectivity project have put a strain on the Sino-Indian ties.

China's repeated blocking of all the resolutions seeking a ban on Azhar has frustrated New Delhi, which calls itself a victim of terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

China's latest technical hold on the resolution at the UN 1267 committee prompted the US to go directly to the UN Security Council and move and circulate a new resolution at the agency.

This has angered Beijing which says the US bypassing the 1267 panel will complicate matters when "positive progress" on the issue has already been made.

Washington's move has put Beijing in a bind as it might have to explain its stance at the UN Security Council if it vetoes the resolution. At the UN 1267 committee, a member can do so without explaining.

Besides, it is also to be seen if India's opposition to the Belt and Road forum will figure in the talks.

India is likely to skip for the second straight year China's Belt and Road forum, a mega event that Beijing claims will be attended by the heads of 37 countries and over 100 international organisations.

The Belt and Road is a trillion-dollar project that aims to connect Asia, Africa and Europe through a network of highways, sea lanes and ports.

India opposes its key artery, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as it cuts through the disputed part of Kashmir held by Islamabad.

In 2017, India had boycotted the launch of the forum over the same issue.

(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com)

--IANS

gsh/ksk/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India is no longer afraid of Pakistan's nuclear threats as today it is among the world powers with capability to carry out nuclear attacks across all three media - land, water, and air.

Addressing a poll rally here, he said: "The NDA government has instilled fear in the minds and hearts of terrorists. We hit terrorists getting right into their homes. Now India is no more afraid of Pakistan threats."

"There was a time when Pakistan used to threaten India every second day saying 'We have the nuclear button, we have the nuclear button', which was also reported by our media.

"Then what do we have? Is it (India's nuclear arsenal) for Diwali?" he asked as the crowd applauded and started chanting his name.

Attacking the Congress and other opposition parties, he said: "We forced Pakistan to beg around the world. You think that I did what was right, but Congress and its allies think it was not right.

"They think terrorism and national security is just not the issue to discuss. They think that Modi should not talk of Indian honour and valour. Why? Am I here to attend a Bhajan Mandali (hymn singing session)?"

Citing his government's record on terrorism, particularly the Balakot air strike following the Pulwama attack on February 14 that left 40 CRPF men dead, he mocked the opposition's response.

"We went into their (terrorists') homes to attack them and they (Congress) are asking for proof. As we the hit terrorists, pains were felt in their hearts."

Modi also accused the Congress of losing the upper hand after the 1971 war with Pakistan by surrendering the opportunity at the Shimla Round Table Conference and giving back the land it had won as well returning 90,000 captured Pakistanis soldiers.

"At that time, the Kashmir problem could have been discussed and resolved. However, the Congress government bowed to the world pressure and did not discuss anything significant. Had Modi been there, he would never have lost this opportunity," he said.

"There is one more reason why Congress doesn't want to talk on national security," he added.

He also accused of Congress of indulging in the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter scam. "With Michael mama (alleged middleman Christian Michael), they looted honest people"s income. However, as you had elected a 'mazboot' government, we contacted France for Rafale (fighter jets), leaving aside Congress agents. These aircraft will soon be seen in Indian skies," he said.

"We speeded up the process to manufacture Tejas aircrafts, even the most advanced rifle is being manufactured in India, the bullet-proof jackets which soldiers eagerly awaited for under the Congress government are now being manufactured in India," he said.

He also accused Congress of spreading lies and depriving the people of Rajasthan from availing major benefits under PM Kisan Nidhi Yojana, the economically backward class quota and Ayushmaan Bharat scheme by not sharing names of beneficiaries.

Modi had earlier addressed a rally in the state's Chittorgarh, where he, citing the terror attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, called on the people to vote for him and his party for the "complete eradication of terrorism".

--IANS

arc/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on condemned the mass killings by suicide bombers in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, saying India stood in solidarity with the island nation.

"India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country," Kovind tweeted.

"Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in civilised society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka."

Modi added: "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured."

A string of explosions rocked churches and hotels in Colombo and elsewhere during Easter Sunday.

--IANS

mr/pg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The way Kings XI Punjab opener Chris Gayle was batting against the Delhi Capitals at the Feroz Shah Kotla here, it needed something magical from the hosts to dismiss the West Indian. And it was Colin Ingram's brilliance in the outfield that ended Gayle's blistering knock.

On Saturday, Gayle, who top-scored with 69 off 37 balls against Delhi, was looking to be in an threatening form as he was scoring boundaries at will and help Punjab post a huge total. He hit six fours and five monstrous sixes before becoming Sandeep Lamichhane's victim.

It was in the 12th over of the Kings XI inning that the big-hitting Jamaican, while trying to hit his sixth maximum of the inning, was caught brilliantly at the boundary.

South Africa's Ingram, standing at deep mid-wicket, leapt to take the catch. However, with the momentum taking him over the rope, he showed great presence of mind and threw the ball -- while being himself in the air with force -- towards Axar Patel standing near long-on, thus completing a great relay catch.

The official Twitter handle of the Indian Premier League posted the video of the catch along with the caption: "Ingram-Axar's perfect relay catch."

Saturday's game saw Delhi Capitals defeat the Punjab-based franchise by five wickets.

--IANS

aak/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leaders from India and other countries on Sunday condemned the series of attacks on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka which have killed 190 people and injured more than 450 amid Easter celebrations in the country.

Indian President Ram Nath Kovind said: "India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country.

"Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in civilized society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his thoughts were with the victims and their families. "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region.

"India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka," he said.

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," British Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practice their faith in fear," she added.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez added: "I most vehemently condemn the terrible attacks in Sri Lanka. It makes us weep to think of the dozens of victims who were celebrating Easter. The terror and barbarity will never crush us."

The President of the European Council said Europe stood ready to support Sri Lanka at this juncture.

"I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country," the official tweeted.

The Catholic Churches in the Holy Land on Sunday too expressed shock.

"How difficult, angry, and sad these news are, especially as these attacks came while Christians celebrate Easter," Wadie Abunassar, advisor to Church leaders in the Holy Land, said in a statement from Jerusalem.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted: "Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost and hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren."

Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli posted: "I am deeply saddened by multiple bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in Sri Lanka."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Invigorate Foods on Sunday said it would invest Rs 60 crore in India in three years to manufacture soya milk products.

"Invigorate Foods is planning to invest Rs 600 million (60 crore) in the next three years in plant, equipment and other capital goods required for manufacturing soya milk products in India," the Japanese company said in a statement.

The company launched "Genki-Ya Tofu", a product prepared with fresh soya milk extracts, here. The company "plans to launch other soya milk products like Genki-ya Silken Tofu, Genki-ya Firm Tofu, Genki-ya Extra-Firm Tofu, Fresh Soy Milk, Flavoured Soy milk, yogurts and donuts," it said.

The products would be manufactured maintaining high quality international standards, it said.

Invigorate Foods, a soya milk products manufacturing company, was incorporated in 2018. Its parent company is patented under the name Takeda Global in Japan.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) strongly condemned the deadly bomb attacks in Sri Lanka.

The ISESCO said in a statement on Sunday that this heinous act is a crime against humanity and an ugly face of hatred and extremism, Xinhua news agency reported.

The attacks "hamper international efforts to promote the values of peace, coexistence and respect among followers of religions," it added.

Sri Lankan police said that 13 people had been arrested over a series of blasts which killed 228 people across the nation.

--IANS

rs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Islamist extremists carried out the first six major suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, The Daily Mirror reported.

Investigators said that two terrorists had on Saturday checked into Room 616 of The Shangri-La hotel, one of the three Colombo hotels where blasts took place in quick succession, the English language daily reported.

Close circuit television camera (CCTV) footage revealed that the suspects detonated the bombs in the cafeteria and on the corridor of the hotel, it said.

Investigators suspect that C-4 explosives weighing 25 kg were used for the bombings at the hotel, it said.

The investigators who broke into the room found materials used by "radical Islamic extremists", the daily quoted sources as saying.

It was unclear if the bombers were locals or international terrorists who arrived on tourist visa to the island nation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lt Gen (retired) D.S. Hooda on Sunday said he was hurt by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sadhvi Pragya Thakur's remarks on police officer Hemant Karkare, killed in the 26/11 terror attack.

Hooda's statement came at a press conference, organised by the Congress to release its national security paln, prepared by him.

"Yes, it does hurt when such things are said about a martyr, be it from the army or the police. Full respect should be shown to them. These utterances are not good," said Hooda, the former Commander of Northern Army, which carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan in September 2016 after the Uri terror attack.

Thakur had said Karkare died during the attack as she had "cursed" him for torturing her. "I had told him you will be finished, and he was killed by terrorists in less than two months," she said.

However, on Friday Thakur, BJP nominee from the Bhopal parliamentary seat, apologised and retract her statement.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three wickets from left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed helped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) restrict Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to 159/8 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, here on Sunday.

Put in to bat, KKR had a brisk start with openers Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn scoring 42 runs in just 2.4 overs before the West Indian fell prey to Khaleel. After collecting 14 runs off the first three deliveries of Khaleel, Narine missed the slower ball and got bowled at 25 (8 balls, 4x3, 6x2).

Shubhman Gill who came in to bat at number three couldn't stay longer at the crease and became the second victim of Khaleel. Gill scored just three runs of four deliveries.

Nitish Rana (11), coming after Gill's dismissal, battled sensibly alongside Lynn and the duo took the score to 61-2 at the end of the powerplay. But his stay at the wicket was ended by Bhuvneshwar Kumar by getting him caught behind with a spectacular delivery.

Skipper Dinesh Karthik (6) yet again failed to deliver and was run out while trying to snatch a second run off Shabaz Nadeem, leaving KKR reeling at 73/4 in the ninth over.

Rinku Singh, included in the side in place of Robin Uthappa, stitched a good partnership with the Australian and both took the score to 116/4 after 15 overs. But while trying to accelerate scoring and go for big hits, Singh (30) got out after Rashid Khan took a good, sliding catch at the mid-wicket boundary with the team score being 124.

Meanwhile, Lynn kept his composure and contributed a well-played 50 to the team before becoming the third victim of Khaleel.

What KKR needed was another late flourish from big-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell. But it didn't turn out to be the case as Russell departed after scoring 15 off nine balls (6x2, 0x4).

In the last over, bowled by Rashid, KKR collected 13 runs to post a 160-run target for the hosts.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 159/8 (Chris Lynn 51, Rinku Singh 30; Khaleel Ahmed 3/33) vs Kolkata Knight Riders.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kathmandu, Nepal April21, 2019: Nepal government has condemned the series of terror attacks in Sri Lanka.





Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pradeep Gyanwali have expressed condolence in a separate message.





I am deeply saddened by multiple bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in Sri Lanka. I express my condolence with Rt. Hon'ble Ranil Wickramasinghe, PM of SriLanka and bereaved families of victims of brutality. I wish speedy recovery of the injured, Prime Minister Oli has said.



West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday expressed grief and concern over the blasts in Sri Lanka in which at least 138 people were killed and more than 400 injured.

"Saddened and shocked at the disturbing news coming in from Sri Lanka. All forms of violence are unacceptable," Banerjee tweeted.

She wrote: "Easter is a Festival of peace. My thoughts and prayers with the grieving families."

--IANS

bnd/mag/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, condemning the terror attacks on Sri Lanka on the holy occasion of Easter, asked people to vote for his BJP to eradicate terror.

Addressing a poll rally here, he said that when the entire world was remembering Jesus Christ and his message of peace, terrorists killed many innocent including children and women.

"We strongly condemn these attacks and are ready to extend all our help to Sri Lanka at this need of hour," he said.

As people said 'yes' as he asked them if they think that terrorism should be completely wiped off, he asked if there can be anyone other than Modi who can fight terrorism.

Modi also asked if the people wanted a "mazboot (strong) sarkar" or "majboor (weak) sarkar", if they wanted India which can give a befitting reply to Pakistan or India which sits quiet, if they want a government which can make the country stronger or keep it weak.

The Prime Minister also asked new voters to press on BJP's symbol "lotus" to build a new India, mentioning the NDA's drive against poverty, illiteracy, black money, corruption, and disease.

Listing flagship schemes like the PM Ujjawala Yojana, the Saubhagya Yojana, the Jan-Dhan scheme, the Mudra Yojana, and the toilet construction scheme, Modi said: "We started many ambitious projects and ensured they reached their end point, unlike the former government who did not know how to finish projects successfully."

Attacking the Congress, he and said that had it been honest, it could have done much but only did "vote bank politics" and continued to lie to people and cheat them.

As he asked if farmers' loans have been waived in ten days, as promised by the Congress government, people shouted no and shook their heads in denial.

"This is the lie being spread all across Rajasthan," he added.

"Since the last seven decades, they have been lying to people, They have just three facts to their credit - they stand for a 'Namdaar' family (dynasty), bhrashtachar (corruption) and jhoote wadon ki bharmaar (slew of promises)," he said.

Modi promised that his next government, if he is voted back, will set up a 'Jal Shakti Mantralaya' to work for smooth supply of water in areas suffering scanty water supply here.

"In next five years we will work on water, Jal Shakti ministry will be coming up which will ensure that rainwater reaches to dry areas via new techniques," he said.

He also accused Congress of sharing water, meant for Indians, with Pakistan.

"Congress took your vote but your water was being sent to Pakistan. You were thirsty but Congress was worried about quenching Pakistan's thirst," he said.

"Now, BJP has started a new dam project on water flowing towards Pakistan and with this dam, you shall have water of your share," he added.

--IANS

arc/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the terror attacks on Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday and said that India stands with the neighbouring nation at this hour of crisis.

Addressing a poll rally in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh, he said that when the entire world was remembering Jesus Christ and his message of peace, the terrorists killed many innocent including kids and women.

"We strongly condemn these attacks and are ready to extend all our help to Sri Lanka at this hour of need," he said.

At least 186 people were killed as a string of explosions rocked churches and hotels in Colombo and elsewhere during Easter Sunday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday asserted that the country had made up its mind to bring him back to power but said the victory will have little meaning if Gujarat did not repeat the 26-out-of-26 performance of 2014.

Stating that it was the responsibility of Gujarat "to protect your son", Modi said that loss of even one seat from here would invite taunts and questions from the media. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had bagged all 26 seats from the state in 2014.

"They will not talk about the victory at the national level but would question me what went wrong in Gujarat," he said, delivering his last election speech in his home state where campaigning ends on Sunday evening.

Raising the son-of-the-soil pitch, Modi asked a jam-packed rally in Gujarati: "Isn't it your responsibility to protect your son? Will you not take up this responsibility?"

The crowds replied in the affirmative when he asked, "If you have a right over me, don't I have a right over you?"

The Prime Minister exhorted the people to pick the BJP candidates, stating that "every vote to them is a direct vote for me". BJP candidates from Mehsana, Patan and Banskantha Lok Sabha seats and for Unjha assembly by-election seat were present.

Modi said he had been asked by the party not to come to Gujarat and focus energies on the entire nation, "but I have come here so that I can meet you all," he said.

He added he had come to seek "the blessings of the elders like we do on important occasions. Bestow such blessings on me that the country does not get an opportunity to taunt me later."

The Prime Minister was speaking in Patan in North Gujarat which is about an hour's drive from his birthplace Vadnagar. He tried to drew a connect with the town and nearby areas and even named the places he might have stayed in the past.

Modi even recalled the name of a photographer, Natwarlal Suthar of Patan, in whose studio he claimed to have had his first formal picture done.

He also recalled how he had got the Rani ki Vaav (step-well) printed on currency notes after it was declared a world heritage site. "There was no need for anyone to give the Prime Minister a memorandum to do this. It happened because your son was at the Centre," he said.

--IANS

desai/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 207 people were killed and 469 injured when eight suicide bombings, mainly in Colombo, ravaged Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday in the island's bloodiest day since the civil war ended a decade ago. An Indian woman was among the dead.

Sri Lanka declared a nationwide curfew and placed curbs on social media to kill fake news after suicide bombers carried out a string of well-planned explosions targeting luxury hotels and Catholic churches in Colombo and elsewhere, triggering international outrage.

The first of six blasts took place in the morning in three luxury hotels in the heart of Colombo and in a church each in Colombo, Negombo, 30 km from here, and in the Tamil-majority Batticaloa town in the island's east that was once a Tamil Tiger stronghold.

In the afternoon, another blast hit a guest house near the zoo in Dehiwala in Colombo, killing two persons, and a housing complex at Dematogoda in the city leaving three policemen dead.

A total of 27 foreigners, including a woman from Kerala and also people from Turkey, the US, Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal and China, perished in the mayhem. Authorities said a total of seven suspects had been arrested but gave no further details.

Officials and survivors painted a horrific picture of what happened.

Kieran Arasaratnam, who was staying in the Shangri-La, one of the three hotels, said he heard what sounded like a "thunder", forcing him to sprint all the way down from the 17th floor, BBC reported.

He saw the second floor restaurant gutted and realized he was alive only because he delayed his breakfast.

The bloodbath started around 8.30 a.m. at the St Anthony's Shrine at Kochchikade in Colombo during Easter Mass where one man said he heard a booming explosion and saw virtually the whole roof come crashing down. "We just ran," he told the media.

The other places hit were St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, the Zion Church in Batticaloa, 250 km east of Colombo, the Cinnamon Grand hotel, located near the official residence of the Prime Minister, and Kingsbury Hotel.

Photos and videos circulating on social media showed the roof of one church had been almost fully blown away in the blast. The floor was littered with a mixture of roof tiles, splintered wood and blood, media reports said.

Many people could be seen covered in blood. Some helped those with more serious injuries. Ambulances, their sirens wailing, rushed the dead and seriously injured to hospitals -- once a familiar sight in Colombo.

Minister of Economic Reforms Harsha de Silva described the carnage. "Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over," he said.

No one claimed responsibility for the bloodbath but AFP reported that Sri Lankan Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara had issued a nationwide alert 10 days ago warning that suicide bombers planned to hit prominent Catholic churches.

The Daily Mirror newspaper quoted the findings of initial investigations as saying that the first six major blasts were caused by suicide bombers and added that two of them had checked a day earlier into the Shangri-La Hotel.

It said that the investigators who broke into Room No 616 "had recovered materials used by radical" Islamist extremists. The Mirror said it was not clear if the bombers were Sri Lankans or foreigners.

The government declared a state of emergency, imposed indefinite curfew across the nation and temporarily blocked Facebook and Instagram to curb the spread of fake news. All schools were ordered shut until Tuesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on phone with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, called the terror attacks "cold-blooded and pre-planned" barbarism and offered all help from New Delhi.

Condemnation was fast and swift from across the world: China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Ireland, Britain, Germany, Singapore, the Philippines, Israel, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Egypt, New Zealand, Canada and the European Commission denounced the killings.

A Sri Lankan Tamil journalist, V. Thanabalasingham, told IANS that a sense of panic had gripped Colombo, which had given up its overbearing security cover ever since the Tamil Tigers were crushed in May 2009, leading to a decade of peace.

President Sirisena urged the public to be calm and cooperate with the authorities to conduct swift investigations into the blasts. "I am shocked and saddened by the situation."

AFP said a foreign intelligence agency had reported that the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), a Muslim group blamed for attacks on Buddhist shrines, was planning to carry out suicide attacks against prominent churches as well as the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

Although Christians form only around 7 per cent of the Sri Lanka's mainly Buddhist population, they are found both in the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil communities.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Sunday said that if India wants to change Pakistan's behaviour towards it, it should examine and change some of its conduct towards the neighbouring country.

The former Finance Minister, speaking at a discussion on national security at 'Beyond politics: Debating a New Security Manifesto', also said that if both the countries continue to demonize each other, the situation will never improve.

"We have to make Pakistan change its behaviour, which means we must also change our behaviour towards Pakistan," he said.

The Congress leader also said that successive Prime Ministers have said that we can change our friends but not neighbours.

"If Pakistan demonize India and in turn India demonizes Pakistan, and this is the narrative in both the countries, we can never be friends. We can never put an end to border disputes and infiltration."

In an apparent attack on the Modi government, he said the ground reality was different from what was being portrayed.

"We have been mesmerized by the phase 'strong leader', 'strong government' and 'muscular policy' but the real test is on the ground.

"We saw more infiltration in 2018 than in the last 15 years. More successful infiltrators, more civilian and military casualties in 2018 than before. So how do you claim these policies are a success?"

He said that, in a sense, "we are forbidden to ask these questions", adding that without asking questions, one can never replace a bad policy with a good policy.

"We must ask questions. more and more people must ask questions."

The leader also said every problem doesn't have a political solution, including the situation in Jammu and Kashmir as it will have an impact on national security.

He said he was in school when the two countries had the first war.

"Here I am 50 years later and we are still talking about war with Pakistan. So what has improved in the past 50 years? Are we going to live like this for next 50 years and the next 50 years?"

He said the two countries should not embrace each other every day, "but we should normalize the situation with Pakistan".

He added that if we want to change Pakistan's behaviour towards India, India will have to examine its behaviour vis-a-vis Pakistan and change some of them.

"I am not saying all that we have done is wrong or that all that the present government has done is wrong.

"We must find a way to normalize the India-Pakistan relationship."

He also said there was no reason why one day an Indian Prime Minister and a Pakistani Prime Minister cannot walk into each other's territory and shake hands. "I hope it happens one day. But we have to change our behaviour," he emphasised.

He also said before talking about wars, we must realise that all our neighbouring countries, apart from China, were developing nations.

He said war was not an option and those who were making people believe that it was an option "are misleading" them.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actress Kriti Sanon, currently shooting for the film "Panipat", says she never thought she would be a part of such a "massive film".

"We've shot in Jaipur. We've shot in ND studios in Karjat and are going to be shooting in Mumbai. It's shaping up wonderfully and is truly a magical experience," Kriti told IANS in an e-mail interview about the movie, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker.

"This film transports you to a different era. I never thought I would be a part of such a massive film," said the 28-year-old actress.

"Panipat" will tell the story as what led to the third Battle of Panipat. It is being produced by Sunita Gowariker under their home banner AGPPL in association with Vision World.

The film, slated for release on December 6, also stars Arjun Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt in pivotal roles. National Award-winning music director duo Ajay-Atul are creating tunes for the film.

--IANS

dc/pcj

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The District Electoral Officer of Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency on Sunday reviewed the final preparedness for first phase of polling in the seat on April 23.

Due to the highly volatile law and order situation, the poll process in Anantnag is being held in three phases - on April 23, April 29 and May 6.

The meeting, chaired by District Electoral Officer Khalid Jahangir, was attended by the General Observers, the Police Observer, the Assistant Returning Officers, the nodal officers, and the Zonal and Sector Magistrates.

Jahangir stressed that officers should put in their best efforts to ensure that elections are conducted in a smooth and fair manner in accordance with Election Commission's directions. He emphasized proper implementation of plans so that no room is left for any laxity or lapses.

Zonal and Sectoral Magistrates were re-sensitized to that they ensure assured minimum facilities, arrangements for polling parties, conduct of mock polls, carrying of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) as per standard operating procedure, law and order, keep a close watch on the situation and also ensure that no intimidation to voters, booth capturing or any other malpractice takes place.

Officers concerned were asked to ensure strict adherence to all the aspects of these plans and directed to ensure timely, safe and secure induction and re-induction of polling parties, according to standard operating procedure.

The Election Commission has rescheduled the poll timings in the constituency from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

An additional 100 companies of central armed police forces (CAPF) arrived in Anantnag on Saturday to augment the strength of already existing CAPF companies and the state police deployed on poll duties.

Anantnag Lok Sabha seat is spread over four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts.

Polling will be held on April 23 only in Anantnag district. On April 29, polling will be held in Kulgam and in Shopian and Pulwama districts on May 6.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Aviation in India has attracted entrepreneurs like moths to a flame but only a few have managed to survive and thrive in a sector which has become the graveyard of all kinds of airline business models -- budget, full service and hybrid.

Kingfisher was one of the biggest private initiatives but it failed. Jet Airways, which is considered an iconic brand, has come crashing down. Before that, many airlines folded up within few years of their launch and initial success. Notable among these are East-West, ModiLuft, Damania Airways and Madurai-based Paramount Airways. The reasons of closure ranged from rift with partners (in case of ModiLuft) to cash crunch and regulatory challenges.

The collapse of Jet Airways, which was the industry mascot not so long ago, is indicative of the larger menace in the system that has led to many private carriers down the path to oblivion.

So far, this full service airline had been the longest-running private carrier, having established itself as a formidable brand that is recognised internationally. At its peak, Jet operated a fleet of 124 aircraft till a few months ago.

The sudden collapse of Jet Airways has come as a big surprise to many aviation experts as the airline had said just a year back that it would consider bidding for a stake in debt-laden Air India.

A year is certainly a long time in aviation given that even a small shock can pull an airline down. India, however, is a different market and notorious for its high operating costs and low airfares.

"Fares offered by Indian carriers are among the lowest in the world. Even 10-15 years ago the fare was the same or even higher than today!" said Rajan Mehra, former India head of Qatar Airways and an aviation veteran.

The high operating costs and pricing wars definitely are the key reasons for the fall of many carriers but there are other causes too. Deloitte India Partner Peeyush Naidu believes that the management of individual companies are ultimately responsible for their airlines' success and failures.

"While there certainly are some industry-wide factors impacting costs and performance for airlines in India - like sudden, sustained increase in crude oil prices, taxes on ATF (jet fuel), infrastructure bottlenecks at certain key airports - for an airline to compete in a commercial space based on government bailouts, the management of individual airlines has a more important bearing on ensuring viability and growth.

"IndiGo airlines would be a case in point in the Indian context," Naidu said.

"One thing certain, however, is that promoters need deep pockets to run an airline business in India. The public sector Air India is there because government has pumped in thousands of crores into the company," said an executive of a low-cost airline suggesting, thereby, that huge subsidies distort the market.

In spite of cost-heavy structure, the national carrier has been in the business for decades, while casualties in the private sector mount. While Air India has continued to remain in the business, major private carriers -- Air Deccan, Kingfisher, Air Sahara (acquired by Jet Airways and rechristened JetLite) and Jet Airways -- have gone with the wind.

(Nirbhay Kumar can be contacted at nirbhay.k@ians.in)

--IANS

nk/sn/bc

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaign for the Lok Sabha elections came to a close across Kerala at 6 p.m. on Sunday amid reports of skirmishes between workers of the three rival political parties coming in from several parts of the state.

A record 227 candidates will fight it out for the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, which go to the polls in the third phase of polling on Tuesday.

A total of 25,408,711 voters, including 13,111,189 women, 12,297,403 men and 119 belonging to the 'other' gender, will exercise their franchise in 24,970 polling stations spread across 14 districts.

Among those affected by the skirmishes were senior Congress leader A.K. Antony and the party's candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, who were was stopped by angry Left workers near here and had to taken to safety by their security officials.

A peeved Antony later said that this was the first time that he encountered such a fracas and that it happened in front of the police.

"If this is the fate of the leaders, how will a free and fair election be held? Both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are responsible for unleashing violence," Antony said.

In Vadakara, where an intense poll battle is on the cards between Congress' K. Muraleedharan and CPI-M strongman P. Jayarajan, the Kozhikode District Collector has clamped Section 144 at five places in the constituency from 6 p.m. on April 23 to 10 p.m. on April 24 to ensure peaceful atmosphere.

In the Pathanamthitta constituency, the vehicle of BJP candidate K. Surendran was blocked by Left workers.

In Ponanni, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) workers created trouble for Left-backed Independent candidate and sitting MLA P.V. Anwar.

The other places where party workers clashed with each other were Alappuzha, Kottayam and Idukki.

In Kochi, the police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the workers of the Left and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).

The CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front is hoping to do well in the Lok Sabha elections as it feels the people will vote for the Left in appreciation of the three-year rule of the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

"Our candidates will win big, as our good governance is being felt by more and more people. At several places, there is an unholy alliance between the Congress, the BJP and the Indian Union Muslim League, which will see the end of the UDF," Vijayan said.

"The UDF will make it 20 out of 20 in Kerala. That's what I could sense as I travelled all across the state. The BJP will be ousted from power," said Ramesh Chennithala, Congress leader and leader of the Opposition in the state.

BJP state President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said: "The development agenda set out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been widely accepted, and it will be there to be seen on May 23," said Pillai.

--IANS

sg/arm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)On 18 April 2019, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, comprising of several activists and representatives of member organisations, released the report of fact-finding inquiry into the mob attack on Dumri blocks Adivasis. The press conference was addressed by Afzal Anees, Bharat Bhushan Choudhary, Saroj Hembrom, Shadab Ansri, Taramani Sahu and Ziaullah.

Jharkhandas Adivasi lynched to death by mob chanting Jai Shri Ram

On 10 April 2019, Prakash Lakda, a 50-year old Adivasi of Jurmu village of Gumlaas Dumri block, was lynched to death by a mob of men from the Sahu community of neighbouring Jairagi village. Three other victims from Jurmu a Peter Kerketta, Belarius Minj and Janerius Minj a sustained severe injuries due to the beating by the mob. A fact-finding team of Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, comprising of several activists and representatives of member organisations, conducted a fact-finding inquiry into the incident on 14-15 April.

The team learnt that the four victims, along with other men and children of their village, were carving a dead ox on the bank of a river that flows near their village. The adivasis and other communities (such as Ghasis and Lohras) of this area traditionally eat beef. Some people from Jurmu were told by the owner of the dead ox to carve it for meat and its hide. While the Adivasis were doing so, they were attacked by a mob of about 35-40 persons from Jairagi. The mob was led by Sandeep Sahu, Santosh Sahu, Sanjay Sahu and his sons. While others managed to flee, Prakash, Peter, Belarius and Janerius were caught by the mob and beaten with lathis. They were beaten all the way to Jairagi chowk, about a kilometre away from the place where the violence started. The mob chanted slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Jai Bajrang Bali and also forced the victims to chant the slogans. They were beaten for refusing to chant the slogans or not chanting them loud enough.

After being beaten for around three hours, the victims were dumped by the perpetrators in front of the Dumri police thana at midnight. The perpetrators met the thana police and left. Instead of immediately rushing the victims to a hospital, the police made them wait outside in the cold for around four hours. By the time they were taken to the local health centre, Prakash had already succumbed to his injuries. The doctor at the centre confirmed that Prakash was brought dead to the health centre and had probably died an hour before reaching the centre. He also shared that the police in-charge Amit Kumar tried to force him to make an entry in the centre register that Prakash was alive when he was brought to the hospital. However, the doctor refused and noted that Prakash was brought dead.

The actions of the local police raise several questions. While the victims kept saying that they were carving an ox that had died, the police filed an FIR against them and 20-25 unnamed persons of their village on charges of cow slaughter. According to Amit Kumar, the FIR was filed on the basis of the thana chowkidaras testimony, who was sent to the spot early morning on 11 April. Amit Kumar was unable to recall the sequence of events after the lynching and there were several discrepancies between his account and those given by the victims and the doctor at the health centre. Of the seven perpetrators named by the victims, only two were arrested by 15 April.

According to the Adivasis of Jurmu, people of other communities (including Sahus) routinely ask them to take away dead bovines. Dispute over the consumption of bovine meat never took place amongst the different communities of the village in the past.

This is one more incident in the long list of lynchings in Jharkhand. Over the last five years, at least 11 persons (nine Muslims and two Adivasis) were lynched and eight more beaten by mobs in the name of cow protection or over other communal issues. The roles of the local administration and police in most of the cases leave a lot to be desired. This violence is also an attack on peopleas right to eat the food of their choice, which itself endangers the right to life. Beef is one of cheapest sources of proteins available to people in Jharkhand, who suffer from alarming levels of hunger and undernutrition.

Last year, perpetrators of a mob lynching in Ramgarh and Godda were felicitated by Jayant Sinha, a union minister and Nishikant Dubey a Member of Parliament from the BJP respectively. The current Lok Sabha MP from the constituency of Jurmu, Surarshan Bhagat from BJP, is yet to meet the victimsa families or visit the village. No BJP leader has even condemned the incident till now. The silence of the BJP indicates its tacit approval of the incident It is another example of the rising intolerance and repression against the Adivasis, Dalits and religious minorities under the BJP rule. It also exposes the plans of the party to polarise votes in the Lok Sabha elections on religious lines.

Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha demands that the government immediately 1) withdraws the false case of cow slaughter filed against the Adivasis of Jurmu, 2) arrests all the perpetrators involved in the mob violence and file charges against them under The Scheduled Castes And The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, 3) takes action against the local police for its long delay in arranging medical treatment for the victims and filing of false case of cow slaughter, 4) provides interim compensation of Rs 15 lakh to the deceasedas family and Rs. 10 lakhs each to the injured victims, 5) complies with the recent Supreme Court judgement on lynching, 6) repeals the Bovine Animal Prohibition of Slaughter Act as it is a direct attack on peopleas livelihood and right to eat food of their choice 7) protects peopleas right to food of oneas choice.

Mahasabha also demands the opposition mahagathbandhan which has kept quiet on this incidence to rise up to the occasion and stand with the Adivasis.

Testimony of victims, doctor and ox-owner can be seen at https://youtu.be/yqJXrnYtCEs . The fact-finding report, doctoras reports and photographs can be downloaded from https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Tfzq9Xvbr_pJCSk6kjVrE0izavKjjIYW .For more details, please contact Afzal Anees (9234982712), Bharat Bhushan Choudhary (7838001177), Saroj Hembrom (8987447623), Shadab Ansari (9835044441), Siraj (9939819763), Taramani Sahu (9430742215) or Ziaullah (7979852347) or write at jharkhand.janadhikar.mahasabha[at]gmail.comThick plumes of smoke rose over a SpaceX facility in Florida during a test fire of a Crew Dragon spacecraft and the issue was serious, it could derail plans to fly astronauts aboard the capsule later this year, the media reported.

SpaceX, which was founded by billionaire businessman Elon Musk in 2002, said the craft was undergoing a "series of engine tests" at a facility in Cape Canaveral on Saturday, and something went wrong during the final stretch, CNN reported.

SpaceX will work with NASA to determine what caused the issue. No injuries were reported.

"Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting (issues) like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test," SpaceX said in a statement.

Crew Dragon is already overdue and more delays could make things tricky for NASA.

It was scheduled to conduct a key test of its emergency abort system in June. And its first crewed mission, which will carry astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, was slated for July, though NASA recently said that timeline was under review.

The US has not had the technology to fly humans to orbit since the space shuttle programme ended in 2011. Meanwhile, NASA has paid Russia about $80 million per seat to send astronauts to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz capsules.

NASA has also decided to ask the private sector to design and build a new generation of spacecrafts.

SpaceX and Boeing, which is building a vehicle called Starliner, were awarded contracts worth up to $2.6 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively, in 2014. Both capsules were supposed to start flying in 2017, but they have been hampered with delays.

Federal oversight authorities warned NASA last year that more delays could leave US astronauts stranded if the new capsules were not ready to fly in 2019.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Electric vehicle (EV)-maker Tesla has slammed Randeep Hothi -- one of the short-sellers of the company and also its prominent Twitter critic -- with a restraining order on charges of stalking, harassing and endangering company employees.

In its complaint, Tesla claimed that three of its employees who were driving a 'Model 3' car on a Bay Area highway last week were pursued by the California resident for about 35 minutes where he drove ahead of, beside and behind the car, swerving dangerously close to the vehicle, The Verge reported on Saturday.

The company also claimed that Hothi even swerved so close to the car that its crash avoidance safety feature was triggered.

While Hothi, under the username @skabooshka, published images of the 'Model 3' car on Twitter earlier on April 18, confirming his presence at the scene.

He claimed he saw the car violate speed limits, and noted it performed simple tasks like lane changes, implying Tesla might misrepresent the footage later.

Now in compliance with the restraining order, Hothi is required to stay at least 100 yards away from Tesla's Fremont factory in California as well as its employees.

In addition, he also has to stay 10 yards away from any Tesla vehicle with manufacturer plates within five miles of the factory.

The restraining order is effective until May 7, when a hearing is scheduled.

Tesla also took the opportunity to note that Hothi "has a history of trespassing at Tesla's facilities". The company said one time Hothi "unlawfully" took photos and videos of Tesla facilities and uploaded them on Twitter.

The car-maker also claimed that, in February, Hothi struck one of its employees while trespassing and surveilling the company's Fremont factory and "fled the scene", the report added.

Later on Saturday, Hothi took to Twitter and wrote to his 6,800 followers - "I will not rest. This is my promise. Tesla is a zero. @elonmusk will go to prison."

--IANS

rp/mag/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Indians are among those killed in the suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced.

The Minister quoted the Indian High Commission as saying that it had been informed by the National Hospital in Colombo about the death of three Indian nationals: Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

"We are ascertaining further details," the Minister said.

Earlier reports from Kerala said that a woman from the state who was holidaying in Colombo with her husband was killed in the terror attack.

--IANS

mr/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With a long pending railway project, lack of development, scarce job opportunities and rampant infiltration and smuggling in the region, West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has its task cut out in retaining the Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency in the face of formidable challenge from the BJP and the traditionally strong Left outfit, RSP.

The Balurghat Parliamentary constituency, close to the India-Bangladesh border, represents mostly the South Dinajpur district and has over a million electorates.

Of its seven Assembly segments -- Kushmandi, Kumarganj, Balurghat, Tapan, Harirampur and Gangarampur -- come under South Dinajpur, while Itahar is part of the neighbouring North Dinajpur district. The constituency votes in the third phase of Lok sabha elections on Tuesday.

The constituency was dominated by the Left parties, including the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), which won for 10 straight terms from here before finally losing out to Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Arpita Ghosh in 2014.

Ghosh defeated her closest rival Bimalendu Sarkar of the RSP by more than 1.6 lakh votes. Bishwapriya Roychowdhury of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged third, while senior Congress leader Om Prakash Misra finished a distant fourth.

This year, Trinamool has fielded Ghosh again from the seat, while the RSP has gone back to its four-time MP Ranen Barman (1996-2009). BJP's Sukanta Majumdar and Congress' Abdus Sadeq Sarkar are also in the fray, making Balurghat a four-cornered battle.

Ghosh, a theatre activist, seemed a perfect match for Balurghat, which is known for its distinguished taste in culture, especially theatre. However, her candidature met with stiff opposition from within the Trinamool's local unit due to her alleged absence from the constituency over the last five years.

The incumbent MP calls it a "temporary confusion", which is over now. "It was a temporary problem. Right now we are working as a unit. There is no more confusion after our leader Mamata Banerjee talked to the party's district leadership and conveyed her message. We are working together. This time our margin of victory will increase further," she said.

Meanwhile, the BJP, which increased its vote share in the constituency by more than 14 per cent in the last Lok Sabha polls, is sure of winning the seat "provided the people of Balurghat are allowed to cast their votes".

"People of Balurghat were not allowed to vote in the last state rural body elections. Hopefully the situation will change this time. If people are able to cast their votes freely, the BJP will surely emerge victorious from here," said BJP candidate Sukanta Majumdar, a reputed botanist from Gour Banga University.

The party is banking on its increased organisational strength, people's displeasure over infiltration from Bangladesh and the lack of an alliance between the Left and the Congress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent election rally in Buniyadpur proved that Balurghat is on the priority list of the saffron party, along with a number of other north Bengal seats.

The Left Front, which bagged three out of the six seats in South Dinajpur in the Assembly polls and still boasts of a well-knit booth level organisation in the area, is hoping to emerge as the dark horse.

Its candidate Ranen Barman belongs to the Rajbanshi community, which comprises a major chunk of the population in South Dinajpur.

People complain of scarce job opportunity and lack of industries in the area. "We want jobs. Most of us have to move to Kolkata or other cities to pursue higher education and jobs as there are no opportunities here. We need factories here so that more people get employment," said Tapan Mal, a local youth.

Rampant infiltration from Bangladesh and smuggling through the porus borders are also big concerns and the Border Security Force (BSF) has banned jute cultivation within 500 metres of the border fence to prevent movement of outsiders through the fields.

"With the ban on jute cultivation, many farmers like us who stay near the border had to switch to growing paddy," said Imtiaz Ali Mondal, a local farmer.

A long pending demand of the people of the constituency is the completion of the Eklakhi-Balurghat railway project, including the 29 kilometre railway track between Balurghat and Hili near the Bangladesh border.

Proposed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her tenure as Railway Minister, the foundation stone for the project was laid in 2010, but not much work has been done since. The Opposition parties blame the Trinamool government for the delay.

"Land for the proposed project was marked, posts were installed and construction of a railway bridge started long back. But nothing has materialised so far. The land acquisition is still due," a local complained.

(Milinda Ghosh Roy can be contacted at milinda.r@ians.in)

--IANS

mgr/ssp/rtp/arm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam as well as DMK President M.K. Stalin condemned the mass killings by suicide bombers in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

In a joint statement issued here, the AIADMK leaders said: "We condemn the attack on the churches where a large number of Tamil Christians live."

They said it was shocking that innocents who had congregated to pray were attacked.

Stalin said the multiple blasts in churches and hotels on Easter was "heart crushing".

He said the bomb blasts also instilled fear in the minds of religious minorities in the island nation.

PMK founder S. Ramadoss also expressed his shock over the killings.

--IANS

vj/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ukrainians voted on Sunday in the second round of the country's presidential election, with incumbent leader Petro Poroshenko seeking re-election, while TV comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy is making his foray into mainstream for the first time.

Polling stations opened 8 a.m. and will close 12 hours later, the BBC reported.

Sunday's election comes after the two candidates on Friday appeared at Kiev's Olympic stadium to debate for the first time.

Zelensky, 41, who is best known for starring in a political satirical drama called "Servant of the People" where he plays a teacher who accidentally becomes the Ukrainian President, won the first round on March 31 with more than 30 per cent of the vote, almost double what Poroshenko got when he finished in second place with 15.95 per cent.

With no previous political experience, Zelensky's campaign has focused on his difference to others rather than on any concrete policy ideas.

The 53-year-old incumbent president, one of Ukraine's wealthiest oligarchs, was elected in a snap vote after former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled in the February 2014 Maidan Revolution, which was followed by Moscow's annexation of Crimea and insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

The next President will inherit a deadlocked conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists in the east, while Ukraine strives to fulfil EU requirements for closer economic ties.

The EU has said that about 12 per cent of Ukraine's 44 million people are disenfranchised, largely those who live in Russia and in Crimea.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Valiant knocks by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) openers David Warner (67 off 38) and Jonny Bairstow's (80 unbeaten off 43) guided the team to a massive nine-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) tie, here on Sunday.

The duo forged a crucial 131-run partnership for the opening wicket to help Hyderabad run away with the contest with five overs to spare as all the KOlkata bowlers struggled to pick wickets beside leaking runs right from the start.

Hyderabad now sits at the fourth spot in the points-table, while Kolkata slipped to the sixth place following the huge defeat, also their fifth straight loss this season.

Chasing a modest 160-run target, Warner and Bairstow dominated right from the word go. As the openers started hammering Kolkata bowlers, Hyderabad was comfortably placed at 32/0 in the first three overs before they crossed the 50-run mark in just 4.3 overs.

The openers steered thier side past the three-digit mark in 8.4 overs. Warner and Bairstow also notched up their respective half-centuries in the next over. The duo kept on clobbering KKR bowlers all around the park and hammered Sunil Narine for 16 runs in the 12th over with Hyderabad just 30-runs away from victory.

The lone wicket of the Orange Army fell in the 13th over when Warner became victim of Yarra Prithviraj. The Australian's innings was laced with three boundaries and five hits into the stands.

Despite Warner's dismissal, there was no stopping for Bairstow who seemed in a hurry to finish things off. Bairstow kept the scoreboard ticking with incoming batsman Kane Williamson (8 unbeaten off 9) before slamming Piyush Chawla for 19 runs in the 14th over to seal a comfortable victory for Hyderabad.

Bairstow's knock contained seven fours and four sixes.

Earlier, three wickets from left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed helped Hyderabad (SRH) restrict KKR to 159/8.

Put in to bat, KKR had a brisk start with openers Narine and Chris Lynn scoring 42 runs in just 2.4 overs before the West Indian fell prey to Khaleel. After collecting 14 runs off the first three deliveries of Khaleel, Narine missed the slower ball and got bowled at 25 (8 balls, 4x3, 6x2).

Shubhman Gill who came in to bat at number three couldn't stay longer at the crease and became the second victim of Khaleel. Gill scored just three runs of four deliveries.

Nitish Rana (11), coming after Gill's dismissal, battled sensibly alongside Lynn and the duo took the score to 61-2 at the end of the powerplay. But his stay at the wicket was ended by Bhuvneshwar Kumar by getting him caught behind with a spectacular delivery.

Skipper Dinesh Karthik (6) yet again failed to deliver and was run out while trying to snatch a second run off Shabaz Nadeem, leaving KKR reeling at 73/4 in the ninth over.

Rinku Singh, included in the side in place of Robin Uthappa, stitched a good partnership with the Australian and both took the score to 116/4 after 15 overs. But while trying to accelerate scoring and go for big hits, Singh (30) got out after Rashid Khan took a good, sliding catch at the mid-wicket boundary with the team score being 124.

Meanwhile, Lynn kept his composure and contributed a well-played 50 to the team before becoming the third victim of Khaleel.

What KKR needed was another late flourish from big-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell. But it didn't turn out to be the case as Russell departed after scoring 15 off nine balls (6x2, 0x4). In the last over, bowled by Rashid, KKR collected 13 runs to post a 160-run target for the hosts.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 161/1 in 15 overs (Jonny Bairstow 80 not out, David Warner 67; Yarra Prithviraj 1/29) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 159/8 in 20 overs (Chris Lynn 51, Rinku Singh 30; Khaleel Ahmed 3/33) by 9 wickets.

--IANS

kk/pcj

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)From the moment it was announced that Congress President Rahul Gandhi will contest the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, for many his victory was a foregone conclusion. The opposition disagrees.

For those who insist that Gandhi's victory from this hilly region is a certainty, the only point of debate is his victory margin.

The 20 parliamentary constituencies in Kerala, including Wayanad, go to the polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.

There was a period of indecision after former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy first talked about Gandhi's candidature from Wayanad, with the CPI-M-led Left and the BJP-led NDA taking potshots at the proposed move.

But when the announcement finally came, the Congress leadership and its rank and file were ecstatic.

This became evident when Gandhi, accompanied by his sister and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, arrived here on April 4 to file his nomination.

While there are 19 other contestants in Wayanad apart from Gandhi, the highest among all the other Lok Sabha seats in the state, his main opponents are P.P. Suneer of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the NDA-backed Bharath Dharma Jana Sena's (BDJS) Thushar Vellapally.

The constituency has around 1,325,788 voters, including 670,002 women and 655,786 men. In 2014, the seat was won by M.I. Shanavas of the Congress who beat CPI's Sathyan Mokeri by 20,870 votes.

Chandy told IANS that Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad had made every party opposed to the Congress jittery. He said that on the last day of campaign, there was a Gandhi wave, not just in Wayanad, but across Kerala as well as the neighbouring states.

"The only drawback of our campaign is that we never had the resources like what is being pumped in by the Left and NDA in Wayanad. All I can tell you now is that he (Gandhi) will come out with flying colours and win by the biggest ever margin," said Chandy.

The Wayanad Lok Sabha seat came into being in 2009 when it was carved out of the erstwhile Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram constituencies.

In 2009, Wayanad handed Congress' late M.I. Shanavas, who hailed from Kochi, his first electoral victory after the veteran tasted defeat in a number of elections from different constituencies in the state.

Shanavas defeated M. Rahmathulla of the CPI by over 1.5 lakh votes.

Though Shanavas was re-elected from Wayanad in 2014, his victory margin was reduced to 20,870 votes as there was a general impression that he failed to live up to the expectations of the people.

Shanavas (67) passed away in November 2018 and since then the Wayanad seat was vacant.

However, M.V. Shreyams Kumar, one of the campaign managers for the Left in Wayanad and a Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) leader, doesn't see a Gandhi wave in the region.

"I don't see any wave favouring Gandhi. We held a roadshow here on Saturday and the turnout was massive. The morale of the Left cadres is high. The Congress has failed to live up to the electorate's expectations in the past 10 years," said Kumar, a media baron and two-time former legislator who represented the Kalpetta Assembly constituency in Wayanad.

However, Jayan Komath, who is managing Gandhi's war room here, is confident that a Gandhi wave is sweeping the constituency.

"The mood is definitely palpable and one can sense it... The icing on the cake was Priyanka's visit on Saturday. She touched people's hearts with her frank opinions about her brother. We are predicting a victory margin beyond the four-lakh mark," said Komath.

Meanwhile, CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has slammed Gandhi, saying that despite winning from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in 2014, the Congress President failed to help his party win even a single Assembly constituency from there.

"There is no Gandhi wave. It has now been proved that the Congress can never be an alternative to the BJP. The one reason why Gandhi decided to run away from Amethi and contest from here is the guilt for the wrong policies of the Congress, which has sounded the death knell for the farmers," Balakrishnan said.

--IANS

sg/arm/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday said she will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi if asked by her brother and party President Rahul Gandhi.

She said this just before departing from here on a helicopter after winding up her two-day trip to the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency from where Rahul Gandhi is contesting, apart from his Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh.

"I am ready to contest and will contest from Varanasi if Rahul Gandhi asks me," said Priyanka Gandhi, just before departing from here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is again contesting from Varanasi.

--IANS

sg/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The international community has strongly condemned the multiple blasts at different locations in Sri Lanka, mostly in Colombo, which left at least 185 people dead and over 400 injured on Easter Sunday.

India has strongly condemned the serial blasts with President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that New Delhi stood in solidarity with the island nation.

The External Affairs Ministry added that there can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terror.

Alaina B. Teplitz, the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, said in a tweet: "Deeply saddened by the senseless attacks in Sri Lanka today. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. We stand with Sri Lanka's people at this terrible moment."

The US Embassy in Colombo has also put out the helpline numbers on Twitter.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a series of tweets that his country "stood in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in its hour of grief".

"My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," Khan tweeted.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, too have condemned the attacks.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practice their faith in fear," May posted on Twitter.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker expressed "horror and sadness" over the string of blasts in the island nation.

The French Embassy in Colombo has asked its citizens to avoid public places.

A string of explosions rocked churches and hotels in Colombo and elsewhere during Easter Sunday, causing the worst mayhem since the end of the civil war a decade ago.

--IANS

ksk/arm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As the last flight of what once was Indias second-largest private airline landed in Mumbai at 12.30 am on Wednesday last week, the pilots message said: We hope to fly again soon.

When we do, do book with us. It was a poignant moment for 25-year-old Jet Airways, but the indefinite suspension of operations was hardly surprising for an airline that had only five functional planes after starting the year with 119. With Rs 8,400 crore of debt, and the failure to receive a stopgap loan from its lenders as part of a rescue deal agreed in late March, Jets wings ...The civil aviation industry in India, for about a decade now, is passing through the most complex phase. Many players have fallen like a pack of cards, unable to meet their debt obligations owing to a variety of reasons.

That is serious and does not augur well for the industry and the country. The latest on the list is the cash strapped Jet Airways that has announced a temporary shutdown of its operations after the lenders thoughtfully turned down the airlines demand for emergency funding. It may be stated here that, to give a boost to the domestic aviation sector, the ...At least nine foreigners were among 160 people killed in six near simultaneous and coordinated explosions that rocked three churches and three luxury hotels frequented by tourists in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, in one of the deadliest blasts in the country's history, officials said.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

Harsha de Silva, Sri Lanka's Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, said that there have been "many casualties including foreigners."



"45 people died in Colombo where three hotels and a church were hit, while more than 90 were killed in Negombo and 27 in Batticaloa," hospital sources said, adding that more than 450 people were injured in the blasts.

Among the 45 bodies at the Colombo National Hospital there are nine foreigners, they said, adding that Americans and British citizens were among the dead.

The Colombo National Hospital spokesperson, Dr Samindi Samarakoon, said more than 300 people have been admitted with injuries.

Dr Kalanidhi Ganeshalingam, the spokesperson for the Batticaloa hospital, said over 100 have been admitted with injuries from St Michael's Church explosion.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm.

"I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary," Sirisena said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as "cowardly attacks" and said his government was working to "contain the situation."



"I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong... The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation," he tweeted.

The Sri Lankan government has summoned an emergency meeting. All necessary emergency steps have been taken by the government, Harsha de Silva said.

"Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over. Emergency crews are at all locations in full force. We, at 1990 also have close to 20 units at the various locations. We took multiple casualties to hospital. Hopefully saved many lives," he said.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka.

"We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789," the High Commission tweeted.

"In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176," it said.

The first blasts were reported at St Anthony's church in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in Negombo just outside the capital.

"A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there," read a post in English on the Facebook page of the St Sebastian's Church.

The blasts were followed by explosions at three hotels in Colombo and the church in Batticaloa.

Images circulated on social media and TV channels showed severely damaged St Sebastian's church building, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews.

Heavy security has been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport after the multiple explosions in the country. The riot police and the Special Task Force, extra police security has been deployed around the airport, state-run Daily Times reported.

Leave of all police personnel has been cancelled in the wake of blasts.

Doctors, nurses and health officials who were on leave have been asked to report to work, Health Ministry sources said.

The government schools have been closed for Monday and Tuesday.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership the Lankan Army crushed the LTTE, termed the attack as "absolutely barbaric".

"It is absolutely barbaric to see such violent attacks on such a holy day. Whoever is behind these attacks must be dealt with immediately. My thoughts and prayers are with the families that lost loved ones and all of Sri Lanka," he said.

"We will not tolerate such violence, such acts of terrorism, of cowardice within our borders once again. We will stand together and rise up against it as one voice. We will stand united as a nation," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Suicide bombers were involved in at least two of the eight attacks that struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 188 people and injuring around 500 others, shattering a decade of peace in the island nation after the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

The blasts - one of the deadliest in the island nation's history - targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and a church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Explosions were reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo Sunday morning.

According to officials, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the restaurant of the Cinnamon Grand hotel.

Harsha de Silva, Sri Lanka's Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, said that there have been "many casualties including foreigners."



The death toll following eight blasts has risen to 188, hospital sources said, adding that more than 450 people have been injured in these attacks.

At least 11 foreigners, including two Chinese, were reported killed in the attacks, they said. Americans and British citizens were also among the dead.

The Colombo National Hospital spokesperson, Dr Samindi Samarakoon, said more than 300 people have been admitted with injuries.

Dr Kalanidhi Ganeshalingam, the spokesperson for the Batticaloa hospital, said over 100 have been admitted with injuries from St Michael's Church explosion.

Local media reported that tourists from India, Pakistan, US, Morocco and Bangladesh are also reported to have been injured in the explosions.

Later in the day, a powerful blast in the capital's southern suburb near the Colombo Zoo killed two persons, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

When a police team entered a house in the Colombo north suburb of Orugodawatta to conduct a search, a suicide bomber blew himself up causing a concrete floor of a two-storey building to crash on them, killing three policemen in the eighth blast, police said.

One suspect has been arrested in connection with the blast near the Zoo. The suspect is being questioned by police, local TV reported.

Soon after the eighth blast, the government imposed curfew with immediate effect. The curfew will be in force indefinitely until further notice.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm.

"I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary," Sirisena said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as "cowardly attacks" and said his government was working to "contain the situation."



"I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong... The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation," he tweeted.

Security has been intensified around the religious places across the capital. The government has temporarily blocked all social media platforms.

All necessary emergency steps have been taken by the government, Harsha de Silva said.

"Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over," he said.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka.

"We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789," the High Commission tweeted.

"In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176," it said.

The first blasts were reported at St Anthony's church in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in Negombo just outside the capital.

"A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there," read a post in English on the Facebook page of the St Sebastian's Church.

Images circulated on social media showed severely damaged St Sebastian's church, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews.

Heavy security has been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport. The riot police and the Special Task Force, extra police security has been deployed around the airport, state-run Daily reported.

Leave of all police personnel has been cancelled in the wake of blasts.

Doctors, nurses and health officials who were on leave have been asked to report to work, Health Ministry sources said.

The government schools have been closed for Monday and Tuesday.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said all Easter masses in the Colombo District have been cancelled.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership the Lankan Army crushed the LTTE, termed the attack as "absolutely barbaric".

"We will not tolerate such violence, such acts of terrorism, of cowardice within our borders once again. We will stand together and rise up against it as one voice. We will stand united as a nation," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least two Chinese nationals were killed in the multiple blasts that struck churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said.

The embassy is verifying the number of Chinese injured in the attacks.

Earlier, the embassy said that four Chinese nationals were injured in the multiple explosions that ripped through the island nation.

The Chinese mission activated emergency response mechanism immediately after the blasts, and embassy officials have visited the injured who were in hospital for treatment, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The Chinese Embassy has reminded Chinese citizens and businesses in Sri Lanka to watch out for safety, it added.

At least 207 people were killed and around 500 others injured in a string of eight powerful blasts, including suicide attacks, that struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 207 people were killed and around 500 others injured in a string of eight powerful blasts, including suicide attacks, that struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, shattering a decade of peace in the island nation after the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

The blasts - one of the deadliest attacks in the island nation's history - targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and a church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Explosions were reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

"At least 207 people have died in the blasts," Gunasekera told reporters.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Briefing reporters, Gunasekera said the police was not able to confirm at the moment if they were all suicide attacks. He, however, said that one of the blasts at the Katuwapitiya (Negombo) church has signs of being what looked like a suicide attack.

An unnamed official said a suicide bomber blew himself up at the restaurant of the Cinnamon Grand hotel.

Gunasekara said that 66 bodies were kept at the National Hospital while 260 injured were receiving treatment there and 104 bodies were placed at the Negombo Hospital and 100 injured were receiving treatment at the Hospital.

"We have arrested three people on suspicion," he said.

Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Ariyasinghe said at least 27 foreigners were killed in the explosions.

Nearly 500 people have been injured in the blasts, police said.

Local media reported that tourists from India, Pakistan, US, Morocco and Bangladesh are also reported to have been injured in the explosions.

Later in the day, a powerful blast in the capital's southern suburb near the Colombo Zoo killed two persons, Gunasekera said.

When a police team entered a house in the Colombo north suburb of Orugodawatta to conduct a search, a suicide bomber blew himself up causing a concrete floor of a two-storey building to crash on them, killing three policemen in the eighth blast, police said.

Soon after the eighth blast, the government imposed curfew with immediate effect. The curfew will be in force indefinitely until further notice.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm.

"I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary," Sirisena said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as "cowardly attacks" and said his government was working to "contain the situation."



"I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong... The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation," he tweeted.

Security has been intensified around the religious places across the capital. The government has temporarily blocked all social media platforms.

All necessary emergency steps have been taken by the government, said Harsha de Silva, Sri Lanka's Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution.

"Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over," he said.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka.

"We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789," the High Commission tweeted.

"In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176," it said.

The first blasts were reported at St Anthony's church in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in Negombo just outside the capital.

"A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there," read a post in English on the Facebook page of the St Sebastian's Church.

Images circulated on social media showed severely damaged St Sebastian's church, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews.

Heavy security has been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport. The riot police and the Special Task Force, extra police security has been deployed around the airport, state-run Daily reported.

Leave of all police personnel has been cancelled in the wake of blasts.

Doctors, nurses and health officials who were on leave have been asked to report to work, Health Ministry sources said.

The government schools have been closed for Monday and Tuesday. All state Universities have been closed until further notice.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said all Easter masses in the Colombo District have been cancelled.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership the Lankan Army crushed the LTTE, termed the attack as "absolutely barbaric".

"We will not tolerate such violence, such acts of terrorism, of cowardice within our borders once again. We will stand together and rise up against it as one voice. We will stand united as a nation," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Eight former top police officers Sunday strongly condemned the "despicable" remark of BJP's Bhopal Lok Sabha seat candidate Pragya Singh Thakur that her "curse" killed Hemant Karkare, and demanded those who laid down their lives for the country be respected.

In a statement, the former DGPs said the country owes Karkare, who headed the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad and was killed during the 26/11 terror attack, a huge debt of gratitude and anything that detracts from this is worthy of strong condemnation.

"This despicable and regrettable statement of Pragya Thakur only serves to highlight the need to publicly recognise the supreme sacrifice made by the 35,000 police personnel from all corners of India who since Independence have laid down their lives in the line of duty," the statement said.

Those who signed the statement include: former Punjab DGP Julio Ribeiro, former BSF chief and UP and Assam DGP Prakash Singh, former Kerala DGPs PKH Tharakan and Jacob Punoose, former National Police Academy (Hyderabad) DGP Kamal Kumar, former Maharashtra DGP Sanjeev Dayal, former Assam DGP and NSG DG Jayanto N. Choudhury, and N Ramachandran, ex-DGP Meghalaya.

The former police officers said Sadhvi Pragya, a contestant from the Bhopal constituency, made some unfortunate remarks referring to the late Karkare.

She has since retracted.

"Karkare would probably be alive today had he not volunteered to return to the Maharashtra cadre from a plum posting at the Centre with the specific intention of working with the Anti-Terror Squad to prevent and investigate the activities of terrorists so that the rest of us could sleep safe in our beds," the statement said.

The former police officers said the brave policemen and women have unflinchingly answered the call of duty, even offering the ultimate sacrifice, despite being under-resourced and often working 24x7 in the most challenging conditions.

"As former DGPs from across the country, we urge all candidates in these Lok Sabha elections to seek out and honour the families of these martyrs who live in their constituencies.

"We also urge them to commit, to engaging with every effort to improve the delivery of policing services to their constituents."



Addressing BJP workers in Bhopal last week, Thakur had claimed that Karkare died during the attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her when he probed the Malegaon blast case as the chief of the ATS.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 80 people were injured when multiple explosions hit two churches in Sri Lanka on Sunday as worshippers attended Easter services, officials and police said.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

One of the blasts hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade of the capital, Colombo.

The Colombo National Hospital said at least 80 people have been admitted with injuries.

It was not immediately clear if the blasts had caused casualties.

"A bomb attack to our church, please come and help," read a facebook post from St Sebasitian's Church at Katuwapitiutya, in the Western coastal town of Negombo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Families of nine of the 16 miners trapped inside an illegal rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya since December, have given consent to the district adminitration to stop the ongoing search operations which entered its 130th day on Sunday, officials said.

The bodies of only two victims one from nearby Lumthari village and another from Assam, have been retrieved from the mine in East Jaintia Hills district early this year.

"We have received letters of consent from the families to stop the ongoing search operations. The letters, submitted by families to the district administration, have been sent to the state government and the same will be submitted to the Supreme Court for granting necessary approval," a senior official told PTI.

Those who have written to the administration include families of two miners hailing from Lumthari village in East Jaintia Hills and the rest from Assam, the official said.

The miners were trapped after water from the nearby Lytein river gushed into the 370-feet deep mine in Lumthari village in the Ksan area on December 13 last year.

On January 28, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre and the Meghalaya government to continue their multi-agency operations to rescue the miners.

The families, however, have requested that the compensation be increased, he said.

East Jaintia Hills district deputy commissioner F M Dopth had submitted all the letters to the state government on April 16 last and cited that the operation be called off as there had been no tangible result.

Dopth also informed that there was no reduction of water level at the main shaft where the miners are trapped even after several crores litre of water had been discharged.

Currently, submersible pumps of Coal India Ltd, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd and KSB are engaged in pumping out water from the ill-fated mine and nearby mines on a daily basis.

The ongoing operation involves the NDRF, the Indian Navy, the Army and the Air Force besides the states disaster response team and the fire services.

The Supreme Court monitors the operation on a weekly basis.

The district administration has paid Rs 3 lakh interim relief to the families of the 16 miners trapped in the mine at Ksan area but the families have demanded the relief amount be increased, Dopth said.

Of the 21 miners who went down on the morning of December 13 last year, 5 narrowly escaped the flooded mine and the rest were trapped.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Aam Aadmi Party, which is in alliance with the JJP, Sunday announced its candidates for three Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, fielding party's state unit chief Naveen Jaihind from the Faridabad parliamentary constituency.

The AAP is contesting on three seats, while the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) is fighting on the remaining seven seats in the state.

Besides Jaihind, who is considered a confidant of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP has named Prithvi Raj, a retired DGP, as its candidate from Ambala reserved constituency and Krishan Kumar Agarwal, an advocate, from the Karnal seat.

Their names were announced at a joint press conference of the AAP and the JJP in the national capital, a JJP spokesman said here.

Among the JJP candidates announced earlier, sitting MP Dushyant Chautala is seeking re-election from the Hisar seat.

The AAP had Saturday said that an alliance just in Delhi was not possible, after the Congress refused to have a tie-up with the party anywhere else.

The JJP was formed after a split in the Indian National Lok Dal following a family feud in the Chautala clan.

The feud saw Ajay Chautala and his sons, Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala, being expelled from the Haryana-based party by Om Prakash Chautala, who threw his weight behind his younger son Abhay Singh Chautala.

With his father serving a sentence, Dushyant Chautala, launched the JJP in December last year.

The AAP had extended its support to JJP candidate Digvijay Chautala in the Jind bypolls earlier this year, in which Digvijay was the runner-up while the ruling BJP had won the seat.

The filing of nominations for all the 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana began on April 16 and will close on April 23. The polling for the seats will be held in the sixth phase on May 12.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RTHK: Death toll from Sri Lanka blasts rises to 207

A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing at least 207 people, including dozens of foreigners.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attacks -- the worst act of violence since the end of Sri Lanka's civil war a decade ago -- as "cowardly", as the government imposed an immediate and indefinite curfew across the entire country of 21 million people.

The powerful blasts -- six in quick succession and then two more hours later -- left hundreds injured and wrought devastation, including at the capital's well-known St Anthony's Shrine, a historic Catholic Church.

At least two of the explosions were carried out by suicide bombers, according to police sources and a hotel official.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said the death toll had risen to at least 207, with over 450 people wounded and that three people had been arrested.

Ravinatha Aryasinha, secretary to the foreign ministry, told reporters there were 27 bodies of suspected foreign nationals in the Colombo National Hospital.

A police official said earlier that 35 foreigners were among the dead and hospital sources said British, Dutch and American citizens had been killed, with Britons and Japanese also injured. A Portuguese man and two Chinese citizens were among the dead, news agencies in their countries reported.

An AFP photographer at the scene at St Anthony's saw bodies lying on the floor. Much of the church roof was blown out in the explosion, with roof tiles, glass and splintered wood littering the floor along with pools of blood.

N. A. Sumanapala was at his shop near the church when the blast happened.

"I ran inside to help. The priest came out and he was covered in blood," he told AFP.

"It was a river of blood."

The blasts gutted restaurants at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotel, and devastated the St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of the capital.

Gabriel, who declined to give his family name, told AFP his brother was at mass at the church when the explosion ripped through it.

"A piece of roof fell on his head, and he was bleeding heavily from his ear," he said.

"We are all in shock. We don't want the country to go back to that dark past where we had to live in fear of suicide blasts all the time."

Sri Lanka's Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, Harsha de Silva, said he had been to two of the attacked hotels and was at the scene at St Anthony's, where he described "horrible scenes".

"I saw many body parts strewn all over," he tweeted, adding that there were "many casualties including foreigners".

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the blasts, but documents seen by AFP show that Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers 10 days ago, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit "prominent churches".

"A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo," the alert said.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that was linked last year to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.

The government ordered an immediate nationwide curfew "until further notice", and a "temporary" social media ban "in order to prevent incorrect and wrong information being spread".

The first blast was reported at St Anthony's, followed by a second deadly explosion at St Sebastian's in Negombo.

Soon after, police confirmed that a third church in the east-coast town of Batticaloa had been hit, along with three high-end hotels in the capital -- the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri-La and the Kingsbury.

A manager at the Cinnamon Grand, near the prime minister's official residence in Colombo, said a suicide bomber blew himself up at the hotel's restaurant.

"He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast," he told AFP.

Later in the afternoon, two died in a strike at a hotel in the south of Colombo, while a police source said a suicide bomber killed three officers in the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital.

President Maithripala Sirisena said in an address that he was shocked by the explosions and appealed for calm.

On Twitter, Wickremesinghe wrote: "I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today.

"I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong."

The Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith, described those behind the attacks as "animals" and called on the authorities to "punish them mercilessly".

US President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences on the "horrible terrorist attacks", and Pope Francis in his Easter address at the Vatican spoke of his "affectionate closeness with the Christian community, attacked while it was at prayer".

Embassies in Colombo warned their citizens to shelter in place, and Sri Lankan Airlines told customers to arrive at the airport four hours ahead of flights because of ramped-up security in the wake of the attacks.

Only around six percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka is Catholic, but the religion is seen as a unifying force because it includes people from both the Tamil and majority Sinhalese ethnic groups. (AFP)

Last updated: 2019-04-21 HKT 22:37

This story has been published on: 2019-04-21. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Air India Express, the international budget arm of Air India, is examining the possibility of leasing some Boeing 737 aircraft of grounded carrier Jet Airways, which are parked at different airports due to non-payment, through a firm decision is yet to be taken, a top company official said Sunday.

Before halting operations temporarily mid-last week due to severe cash-drought, the private carrier was forced to ground 69 planes owing to non-payment of rentals to lessors.

Later, on April 16, it grounded the rest of the planes in its fleet, when it decided to temporarily suspend all its domestic and international services.

Air India Express parent, Air India, is already discussing a proposal to lease five of Jet Airways wide-body planes, Boeing 777s.

"We are looking at leasing (B737 of Jet Airways) aircraft but there is no firm decision on this issue so far. As a matter-of-fact, there are a lot of other things that have to be looked at, like slots, sectors and timings, among others," Air India Express chief executive officer Shyam K Sunder told PTI over phone from Kochi, the airline's headquarter.

When asked about the number of planes that his airline could induct from Jet Airways, he said, "We don't have a target number."



Air India Express, has its operations largely out of Kerala to the Gulf and South-east Asia. Besides, it also operates some flights to these regions from North and Western India as well as on some domestic routes.

It has a fleet of 25 Boeing 737 planes, of which 17 are owned and rest 18 are on lease. The now out-of operations, Jet Airways also has B737s in the fleet.

Shyam Sunder also said the airline plans to recruit 50 commanders from Jet Airways, of which 20 have already been hired.

"We have already recruited a lot of pilots. We have about 20 of them already, all from Jet Airways as at present only Jet pilots are available in the market. Our intention is hire up to 50 pilots. So we will be inducting another 25-30 pilots going forward," he said.

The AIE official, however, ruled out hiring of first officers at this stage, adding that the airline may look at it if there was any requirement for them in the future.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a controversial remark, Uttar Pradesh Education Minister Anupama Jaiswal Sunday equated BSP supremo Mayawati's party with the "shit" of her poll symbol elephant, saying SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is carrying it on his head due to his "misdeeds".

"Akhilesh used to say his 'Kam bolta hai' (work speaks), but the BJP youths say it's not your 'kaam', (but) your 'karnama' (misdeeds) that speaks. Had your work spoken, you did not have to carry elephant's shit with you," Jaiswal is purportedly heard saying in a video gone viral here.

"What was the need to carry elephant's shit on your head?" she is heard asking.

The video with Jaiswal's controversial remark has gone viral on various social media platforms here.

Anupama Jaiswal, who the basic education minister in the Adityanath government had been campaigning in Gonda for the BJP candidate Kirtivardhan Singh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The number of 18- to 26-year-old students who report suffering from anxiety disorder has doubled since 2008, possibly due to rising financial stress and increased time spent on digital devices, a study has found.

The percentage of all students nationally who reported being diagnosed with or treated for anxiety disorder climbed from 10 per cent in 2008 to 20 per cent in 2018, according to researchers from University of California - Berkeley in the US.

Rates of anxiety disorder grew at higher rates for students who identified as transgender, Latinx and black, and they increased the closer all students got to graduation.

"It is what I am calling a 'new epidemic,' and that the data supports using that term, on college campuses. We need a heightened national awareness of this very serious epidemic," said Richard Scheffler, a professor at UC Berkeley.

The team examined nine years of data from nationwide examinations of student well-being. The group also conducted 45-minute interviews with 30 UC Berkeley students who identified as suffering from anxiety.

While Scheffler said he cannot firmly establish the causes for the rise in anxiety, he found strong correlations between anxiety disorder and financial instability, the amount of leisure time spent on digital devices and the level of education attained by a young adult's mother.

"The correlations and the data are pretty powerful," he said.

Young adults who come from families that have trouble paying bills are 2.7 times more likely to have anxiety than students who come from families that have no difficulty paying bills, researchers said.

Those who spend more than 20 hours of leisure time per week on digital devices were 53 per cent more likely to have anxiety than young adults who spend fewer than five hours a week on digital devices.

Young adults with mothers who had at least an undergraduate degree had a 45 per cent greater chance of having anxiety than young adults whose mothers had less than a college degree.

Scheffler also found that anxiety is associated with other serious problems beyond the overwhelming feelings of worry or nervousness associated with the disorder.

A student with anxiety is 3.2 times more likely to abuse alcohol or drugs, the findings show. Other negative outcomes correlated with anxiety included increased probability of having been sexually assaulted or attempting suicide.

All factors being equal, Scheffler also found that between 2008 and 2014, young adults with anxiety earned 11 per cent less than those without anxiety.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Andhra Pradesh government Sunday ordered an inquiry into the controversy surrounding the seizure, by Election Commission authorities, of gold belonging to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams in Tamil Nadu last week.

Chief Secretary L V Subrahmanyam directed Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) Manmohan Singh to conduct a probe into the security and procedural lapses in the transportation of temple gold, which led to the seizure by election authorities.

Official sources here said the Chief Secretary directed the Special CS to inquire into the conduct of TTD as well as its vigilance wing officials in the whole episode.

During routine searches ahead of the April 18 elections in Tamil Nadu, ECI flying squad intercepted a van in Tiruvallur district and found about 1,381 kgs of gold.

The occupants of the vehicle had claimed that the gold belonged to the TTD and was being transported to Tirupati from Chennai's Punjab National Bank, where it lay deposited for three years.

The gold was subsequently released after verification of facts but the TTD came under criticism over the manner in which the entire issue was handled.

Taking a serious note of it, the Chief Secretary appointed the Revenue Special CS to inquire into the matter, the sources said.

The Special CS has been asked to visit Tirumala, conduct the inquiry and submit a report by April 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jonny Bairstow and David Warner continued their stellar run at the top as they powered Sunrisers Hyderbad to a nine-wicket win over struggling Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL encounter here Sunday.

Chasing a target of 160, Warner struck 67 off 38 balls hitting three fours and five sixes while Englishman Bairstow punished the hapless KKR attack with seven boundaries and four maximums in his unbeaten knock of 80 off 43 balls.

The openers looked in command as the target was achieved in 15 overs largely due to their 131-run stand. This was KKR's fifth successive loss in the tournament.

This is the fourth time that the opening partnership of Warner and Bairstow paved the way for a Sunrisers victory this season. The duo had guided SRH to victories against Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals in similar fashion.

KKR were sloppy in the field and ended up paying heavily for their mistakes. Bairstow was dropped twice, once on 5 by Cariappa off debutant Prithviraj's delivery in the second over and then again on 58 by Piyush Chawla off Sunil Narine.

The troika of spinners were the reason for KKR's downfall as Sunil Narine (0/34 in 4 overs), KC Cariappa (0/34 in 2 overs) and Piyush Chawla (0/38 in 3 overs) gave away 106 runs in nine overs. Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav was dropped from the playing XI.

Prithvi (1/29) got the only breakthrough for KKR dismissing the threatening Australian but it was a little too late as the hosts needed just 29 runs off 40 balls.

With Warner gone, Kane Williamson (8 off 9 balls) walked in but the captain had little to do with Bairstow hitting a four and two sixes to seal the victory.

With the win, Sunrisers Hyderabad jumped to the fourth spot with 10 points from nine matches while KKR remain on the sixth spot with eight points from 10 games.

Earlier, young left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed grabbed three wickets in an impressive spell. The 21-year-old speedster removed Sunil Narine (25 off 7 balls), who was looking dangerous in his first spell and then came back to dismiss Shubman Gill (3) and Chris Lynn (51) in his corresponding spells to keep KKR in check.

Senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with the figures of 2/35 while leg-spinner Rashid Khan (1/23) and seamer Sandeep Sharma (1/37) took a wicket apiece with the Sunrisers' bowlers making life difficult for the KKR batsmen.

For KKR, Lynn was the top-scored with a dogged 47-ball 51. Rinku Singh was the other notable contributer with a 25-ball 30.

Put in to bat, Lynn and Sunil Narine took the opposition to the cleaners. Both openers hitting boundaries of their first balls. The duo quickly stitched a 42-run partnership before Ahmed dismissed Narine in the third over.

Narine's blistering innings of 24 runs off eight balls was laced with three boundaries and two maximums.

With the wicket of Narine, the momentum shifted in SRH's favour. In Khaleel's next over, he dismissed Gill (3). Nitish Rana (11) and captain Dinesh Karthik (6) also returned to the dressing room in quick succession.

Rinku and Lynn shared a 51-run stand for the fifth wicket to stabilise the innings before Sandeep Sharma dismissed the 21-year-old Indian. Big-hitter Andre Russel scored 15 off 9 balls.

He hit two sixes off Kumar before the right-arm seamer dismissed the Jamaican in the penultimate over.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bangladesh has ordered some 27,000 schools to set up committees to prevent sexual violence, an official said Sunday, after a teenager who accused a teacher of sexual harassment was burned to death.

The killing of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi has sparked outrage across the South Asian nation of 165 million people and put police action in the case under the spotlight. Protesters in the capital Dhaka staged demonstrations for an 11th day on Sunday, seeking "exemplary punishment" for the killers of the girl.

Police say she was lured to the rooftop of the Islamic seminary she attended in Feni, south of the capital, where her attackers ordered her to withdraw a police complaint against the head of the school.

When she refused, she was doused in kerosene and set on fire.

Rafi died in hospital on April 10 after suffering 80 per cent burns. At least 20 people, including the head teacher, have been arrested.

Activists say the murder has exposed a "culture of impunity" surrounding sex crimes against women and children, and that fact that those who report harassment often suffer a backlash.

Amid nationwide protests, the Bangladesh government has ordered more than 27,000 schools and colleges to form five-member committee to prevent sexual violence, an official said.

"The committee will be led by female teachers. They will take steps to prevent sexual harassment and take up any complaints," the director of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, Shahedul Khabir Chowdhury, told AFP.

He said the committees were being formed by an order from the country's high court, which in 2009 laid down a set of guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women and children at workplaces, schools and on the streets.

Rafi went to police in late March to report the harassment and a leaked video shows the local police station chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as "not a big deal".

Police said at least five of those under arrest, including three of Rafi's classmates, tied her up with a scarf before setting her on fire. They had planned to pass off the death as a suicide.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed that all those involved will face action and police say they are investigating why more was not done to protect Rafi.

More than 100 protesters at the country's elite Dhaka University held hands to form a human chain as part of continued demonstrations over the grisly murder.

"I joined the protest because Nusrat Rafi's murder was a wake-up call for all our women," Dhaka University student Antara Labiba told AFP.

"I am also a victim of sexual harassment. I think most women in Bangladesh face sexual harassment in their families, schools, markets and workplaces," she said.

The Manusher Jonno Foundation, a non-government group, says there have been at least 39 cases of children under 18 being raped in Bangladesh since April 2.

Another eight have been subjected to sexual harassment, the group says.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leading basmati rice exporter GRM Overseas Ltd has decided to foray into the domestic market and will invest around Rs 50 crore over the next two years to expand its business across the country.

The company sees tremendous growth potential in the domestic market where the demand for packaged branded basmati rice is rising at a rapid pace, its MD Atul Garg said.

GRM Overseas, a listed entity with around Rs 950 crore turnover in the 2017-18 fiscal year, has two processing plants at Panipat in Haryana and recently acquired a plant in Gujarat.

"We are the third largest basmati rice exporter in the country. Now, we are entering the domestic market under our brand Tanoush," he told PTI.

Garg said the company would be launching three-four variants of branded basmati rice in a price range of Rs 50-120 per kg.

He said the company will be investing about Rs 50 crore over the next two years for the domestic market business.

This investment includes acquiring a plant near Mudra port in Gujarat and establishing distribution and retail network across the country.

The Gujarat plant will cater to exports while the two plants in Panipat have been earmarked to serve the domestic market.

"We have set a target to achieve Rs 1,000 crore turnover in the domestic market in the next five years," Garg said, adding that the total market size of branded basmati rice in India is around Rs 14,000 crore.

India Gate, Daawat and Tilda are the leading basmati rice brands in the country.

Asked about exports, Garg said the company is estimated to have exported around 1.4 lakh tonnes last fiscal worth around Rs 1100 crore.

It exports basmati rice to 32 countries, with Middle East as a key market, under private labels as well as its own brand.

GRM functions through a network of sales and distribution offices in the UK, US and Middle East and has tied up with 1,800 stores globally to reach its customers.

Last week, it formed a strategic alliance with MAN Consumer to distribute its brand Tanoush in 22 Carrefour hypermarket stores across the UAE.

GRM is also present in large retail stores such as TESCO, ASDA (Walmart UK) and T.J. Morris in the UK, Albert Heign in Holland and Metro in Poland.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)It was a "difficult decision" to join TMC, said Mausam Noor, sitting behind her desk in her ancestral home, a legacy of Ghani Khan Choudhary, her uncle and veteran Congress leader from Malda, who represented it eight-times in Parliament.

But Noor says she has no regrets. Noor is among three members from Ghani Khan's family contesting the General Elections this time on different party tickets. Isha Khan, her cousin and sitting MLA from Sujapur legislative segment in Malda-North constituency, is contesting this Lok Sabha election against her on a Congress ticket.

Noor's uncle and Isha Khan's father, Abu Hashem Choudhary, is a three-time MP from Malda-South and contesting from there again.

The father-son duo is trying to appropriate the legacy of Ghani Khan, who has considerable influence on the psyche of voters in the area even a decade after his death.

After Noor decided to fight against her cousin, a wall has been erected at the ancestral home, sending a clear message to visitors to weigh their options before entering the compound.

A series of chairs are lined up near the wall and large photos of Ghani Khan and his sister Ruby Noor, Mausam Noor's mother, hang over them.

Visitors are forewarned against sitting on one of the chairs, a weathered leather high-back chair. "Ghani Khan used to sit there," a family loyalist said.

It is this loyalty, Congress hopes, would win it the two seats in Malda to the father-son duo. Noor had won Malda-North constituency in 2014 on a Congress ticket. She joined the Trinamool Congress in January this year.

Malda, about 350 km from West Bengal capital Kolkata, has been a Congress bastion for decades. After Noor joined TMC, the wall was built, dividing the compound where Ghani Khan used to meet his supporters and assured them his support.

Family feuds are not new in politics. But this wall may mark the end of an era for Congress, which has not shied from seeking votes in Ghani Khan's name in the two constituencies Malda (North, South) for four decades.

Congress workers fear Noor may divide Muslim voters, who have traditionally stood behind the family and have been a deciding factor in previous elections.

"It was a difficult choice. A difficult decision," Noor told PTI. "I made this decision after consulting my supporters, advisors and even my family. It was a situation when I thought the only way to confront BJP was to form an alliance of the opposition. But that did not happen.

"The only next option available was joining TMC as only didi (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) is able to stop the religious polarisation happening here, she said, explaining why she does not "regret" her decision.

What about the family? Did not her decision divide the family of Ghani Khan? Noor maintains her decision to join TMC has not harmed her personal relations with her cousin or her uncle.

She may be right. Isha Khan's wife was looking after Noor's children as they rode bikes inside the campus when reporters visited the ancestral home. But voters do not seem convinced, they see her decision to quit Congress as selfish.

"This wall upsets me," said Jamarul, who came to meet Isha Khan. "For years, this building stood for something security, safety and continuity. That is lost now. How could she do this? It could split Muslim votes benefiting the BJP," he said, appearing disappointed with the split in the family.

Despite the political divide, supporters said, the family members have managed to live in the same compound. They also share their kitchen. "There is one kitchen, food is served from there. However, during elections, Noor and her children's food is being cooked separately," said Renu Roy, who has worked for the family for 40 years.

Noor's decision is "just politics", she added. Abu Hasem Khan refused to speak on Noor's defection to TMC, saying only that it will not "affect us".

"TMC has tried to campaign that Noor's desertion will harm us. However, her decision will harm her own reputation and not of our family," Isha Khan said, confident that Congress will retain both the seats.

While Noor is a candidate from Malda-North, her vote is in Malda-South, where her uncle is pitted against TMC's Md Moazzem Hossain.

Will she vote for her uncle on April 23, when the constituencies go to polling? That's not clear yet. Also, it is difficult to objectively analyse the consequence of Noor's decision to join TMC until its outcomes are clearly visible. That will take a month when the general election results are declared on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Big names like Maneka Gandhi have represented Aonla constituency in Uttar Pradesh but they were never bothered about its development, BSP Lok Sabha candidate Ruchi Vira said, holding the BJP responsible for the "backwardness" of the region.

The 57-year-old, who has served as an MLA in nearby Bijnor district, said Aonla is considered a BJP stronghold but lacks basic facilities like proper roads, colleges for girls and faces problems of unemployment and farm distress.

"Although some famous people have represented this seat, Aonla still remains a backward area. These famous people never returned here and did not do what was needed. If you go around, you'd not even see basic facilities like bus stops, hospitals. There is a need for a sugar mill in the area, the sugarcane farmers have to transport their produce to far off mills," she told PTI in an interview.

Aonla, which votes on April 23 during the third leg of the seven-phase elections, had elected BJP's Maneka Gandhi to the Lok Sabha in 2009. She had then moved to Pilibhit and BJP's Dharmenra Kashyap had won from Aonla in 2014. He is seeking a re-election this time.

"Maneka Gandhi was such a big name and she could have done a lot for Aonla but it is the people here who say that she never came back for them. Now there is Kashyap ji, he is the MP but he probably never raised a question about his constituency in Parliament," she claimed.

"When they only don't care for development, what else there is to say? It is also embarrassing and insulting for locals to know that their MPs failed to use their funds (MPLADs) in constituency," said Vira, whose candidature is also supported by BSP's alliance partners Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal.

She said a bridge that was to connect Aonla and Mirpur is lying incomplete despite the BJP government being in power, from local MLA to MP, and in the state and the Centre as well.

"The BJP is in power everywhere but giving a push to development works has not been a priority for them in Aonla. This has been a traditional seat for BJP yet the roads are in poor conditions," she claimed.

Fighting the label of "parachute candidate" in Aonla, Vira cites the example of Mother Teresa to say that those who want to serve the people are unaffected by the place where they work.

She also asserted fighting from any place of her choice as her right, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi fighting from two seats in 2014, one in Gujarat and the other in UP.

"I have a track record as someone who works. I am in with a sentiment... I have worked in Bijnor and been with the public all the time. If I get an opportunity here, I will do my best," she said.

"When Modi ji being from Gujarat can fight from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, why can't I? Also Bijnor is just one district away from Aonla. I believe when you want to work for people, these issues don't matter," Vira added.

She claimed that the mega alliance of the BSP-SP-RLD would work in her favour against BJP's Kashyap and Congress' Kunwar Sarvraj Singh and 11 other candidates, including two independent in the fray, from Aonla.

"Now everybody is aware of the ganthbandhan which I think will definitely help us. Our leaders Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav and Ajit Singh coming together is certainly a gain for us, and has won people's confidence. The coalition will more significantly benefit from the anti-incumbency of the BJP in Aonla," Vira said.

She also slammed the BJP government at the Centre for making "unending promises" and the job situation.

In 2014, BJP's Kashyap had got 4.09 lakh of the 9.95 lakh votes polled, to win with 41.16 per cent votes. SP's Kunwar Sarvraj Singh had got 2.71 lakh votes, BSP's Sunita Shakya 1.92 lakh, and Congress' Saleem Iqbal Sherwani 93,823 votes.

In 2009, Maneka Gandhi had won from Aonla after a close fight with Dharmendra Kumar, who was then in the SP. She had got 2.16 lakh votes, while Kumar got 2.08 lakh votes that year, a victory margin of less than one per cent.

Kumar the sitting MP from BJP has earlier had a stint with the BSP also.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP on Sunday claimed that that the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) was campaigning in favour of the Congress in the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency, where polling was rescheduled from April 18 to April 23.

The saffron party has also filed a complaint with the Election Commission in this regard.

"NLFT's self-styled secretary Utpal Debbarma alias Uthai has asked people to vote for the Congress. We have got records of his appeal," BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya told a press conference here.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti said his office has received a complaint from the BJP on the issue, and necessary action would be taken after scrutinising the documents.

Bhattacharya also alleged that state Congress president Pradyot Kishore Debburman was spotted with Ranjit Debbarma, a former underground leader and supremo of the banned All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) during poll campaigns.

Pragya Deb Burman, sister of the TPCC president, is contesting from the constituency for the first time.

The EC had postponed voting in the constituency to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there was not conducive for holding free and fair polls.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Arindam Nath said that a general diary (GD) was registered at Champahower police station in Khowai district about threats issued from a self- styled insurgent leader, which was telecast on a local channel.

When contacted, Congress vice-president Tapas Dey said, "The allegations are completely baseless, fictitious and aimed at maligning the Congress, because the BJP is certain that it would be defeated. These are all signs of frustration.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Uttar Pradesh Minister and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar attacked the BJP leadership on Sunday, saying it had been captured by "Gujarati people".

He challenged the party to sack him as minister. "The BJP has not remained Atal-ji's party. It has been captured by Gujarati people. I will not resign as minister now. Let the BJP sack me," Rajbhar told reporters here.

He said in eastern UP his party would wipe out the BJP, and by the election's sixth and seven phase conclusion the BJP would "faint" on the election battlefield.

Speaking on the Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat, Rajbhar said BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirhua will face defeat at the hands of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Rajbhar, whose party has fielded 39 LS candidates, said he would campaign for all party hopefuls.

Rajbhar's party has four MLAs in the 403-member state assembly.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Bihar chief minister and RJD national vice-president Rabri Devi has accused the BJP of hatching a conspiring to poison her husband and party supremo Lalu Prasad, a charge dismissed by the saffron party as "baseless".

Prasad, who has been serving term in a Ranchi prison following his conviction in fodder scam cases, is currently undergoing treatment for multiple ailments at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Jharkhand capital.

"The BJP government wants to kill Lalu ji by poisoning him in the hospital.

"If the Centre as well as the state governments of Bihar and Jharkhand want to kill him, if they want to kill the entire family of Lalu Prasad, they can do so, but their dictatorship will not be accepted," Rabri Devi said in a minute-long video clip posted on her Twitter handle Saturday.

The people of Bihar and Jharkhand will come out on streets if anything untoward happens to Prasad, the senior RJD leader asserted.

"Tejashwi had gone to meet Prasad yesterday, but he was not allowed to do so. The autocratic government came out with an order (yesterday) as per which three persons, usually allowed to meet Lalu ji on Saturdays, were stopped from visiting him yesterday," said Rabri Devi.

The Jharkhand's Birsa Munda jail authorities barred visitors from meeting the incarcerated RJD chief, citing law and order problem.

As per jail norms, Prasad is allowed to meet a maximum of three visitors every Saturday at the Ranchi hospital.

Earlier on April 7, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly and the RJD chief's son, Tejashwi Yadav, had alleged he was not allowed to meet Prasad in jail by the "autocratic" BJP government in the neighbouring state.

Tejashwi, who was deputy chief minister in the Bihar's erstwhile Grand Alliance government, also claimed that "a conspiracy was being hatched against Lalu ji. He is in a hospital undergoing treatment amid security, but his room is being raided every day."



Reacting to Rabri Devi's allegations, Bihar BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said the charges were "baseless and absurd" and that there was no threat to Lalu Prasad's life.

"It is the RJD politics, not Lalu Prasad, which is under threat after two rounds of elections. The Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) is going to be wiped out completely," he said.

Stating that Prasad has been given full security and adequate medical facilities, Anand said, "If they (Lalu's family) think that their legitimate rights are being violated, then they can approach the court to redress their grievances."



The Supreme Court, on April 10, had dismissed a bail plea of the RJD supremo in the multi-crore fodder scam cases.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice Rajan Gogoi, had rejected arguments by that he had served 24 months, saying "24 months was nothing compared to the 14-year sentence awarded to him".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaign ended on Sunday evening for Odisha's six Lok Sabha and 42 assembly seats where polling will be held in the third phase on April 23.

Leaders of political parties like the BJP and the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) undertook whirlwind tours of the constituencies, mostly situated in coastal and central Odisha.

Polling in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seats and 42 assembly segments coming under these constituencies will be held on Tuesday under tight security.

Spearheading the campaign for the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah crisscrossed the poll-bound segments addressing a host of rallies. BJP leaders including Union Ministers Uma Bharti, Nitin Gadkari, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Piyush Goyal also hit the campaign trail in these seats.

Apart from addressing rallies in Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar on April 16, Modi had also led a massive roadshow in the state capital the same day to bolster the prospects of the BJP at the hustings.

Similar roadshows had been held by Amit Shah in the seaside pilgrim town of Puri and the millennium city of Cuttack as part of BJP's electioneering.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who hails from Odisha, is virtually camping in the state as the BJP is making all out efforts to put up a formidable challenge to the BJD, which has been in power since 2000.

Star campaigners of the Congress were absent in this phase and electioneering was steered by leaders like Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik.

For the ruling BJD, party president and state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, seeking a fifth term this time, was at the centre stage undertaking extensive tours of the poll-bound areas and holding roadshows.

While the Congress and the BJP accused the BJD of having failed to ensure development in the state despite being in power for 19 years, the ruling party charged the two parties with adopting step-motherly approach towards Odisha and ignoring its genuine demands.

The third phase polling will decide the electoral fortune of 417 candidates - 61 in six Lok Sabha seats and 356 in 42 assembly constituencies.

While there are six women candidates in the six Lok Sabha seats, 38 women are in the fray for the 42 assembly segments.

The state has 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats.

Prominent candidates in the third phase are BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab who is seeking re-election from Cuttack Lok Sabha seat, and sitting BJD MP from Puri Pinaki Mishra, who is fightng to retain the parliamentary constituency.

In Puri, Pinaki Mishra is facing a stiff challenge from BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra.

It has turned out to be an uphill task for Mahtab in Cuttack where the BJP has pitted retired IPS officer and former Director General of CRPF and ex-DGP of Odisha, Prakash Mishra against him. Also in the race in the Lok Sahha segment is Congress nominee and ex-minister, Panchanan Kanungo.

Campaign had also assumed a feverish pitch in the prestigious Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat which is witnessing an interesting fight with where former IAS officer and BJP nominee Aparajita Sarangi is crossing swords with retired IPS officer and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik, who is in the fray as BJD candidate.

As several areas going to the polls have been identified as critical, tight security arrangements have been made to ensure free, fair and peaceful poll, a senior police official said.

DGP (in-charge) B K Sharma has reviewed the prepardness for the third phase polls and directed police officials to take all necessary steps to ensure a free, fair and peaceful election.

As many as 92,56,922 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the third phase.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaign ended on Sunday for five Lok Sabha seats in Bihar Madhepura, Supaul, Araria, Jhanjharpur and Khagaria all of which go to polls in the third phase of general elections on April 23.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi held rallies at Araria and Supaul respectively, barely 50 kilometres apart, on the penultimate day of campaigning on Saturday.

In Madhepura, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh held a rally about a fortnight ago. The BJPs ally JD(U), headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has fielded state minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav from the seat named after the district, which also happens to be the birth place of Mandal Commission architect B P Mandal.

Yadav is engaged in a three-cornered contest with Pappu Yadav, who won the seat for RJD five years ago but later got expelled by the party and Sharad Yadav who was the runner-up for the JD-U last time but is contesting on the RJD symbol this time.

The seat has become a prestige issue for Nitish Kumar who stayed several consecutive nights in the district, covering other constituencies during the daytime, understandably preparing strategy to ensure that his candidate does not lose to associate-turned-adversary Sharad Yadav, who revolted when the party boss decided to return to the BJP-led NDA a couple of years ago.

Araria is held by RJDs Sarfaraz Alam, who won in a by-election necessitated by the death of his father Mohd Taslmuddin a local strongman. The BJP has retained its faith in former MP Pradip Singh, though he sustained a huge defeat in 2014 and failed to wrest it back in the by-poll.

In Supaul, the cohesiveness of the opposition 'Mahagathbandhan' is being tested as sitting MP Ranjeet Ranjan of the Congress is facing rebellion from a local RJD leader contesting as an Independent and enjoying support of the local unit.

The bone of contention between the two parties has been Pappu Yadav, married to the Congress MP, defending his Madhepura seat against the RJD candidate.

In Jhanjharpur, the BJP gave up its sitting seat in favour of the JD(U), which has fielded Ram Prit Mandal, who is locked in a virtual straight contest with Gulab Yadav of RJD.

In Khagaria, sitting MP Mehboob Ali Kaiser, fielded by Ram Vilas Paswans LJP is being challenged by Mukesh Sahni for the opposition alliance. He gave up his career of Bollywood set designer to emerge as a leader of the sizeable Nishad community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaign ended on Sunday evening for elections to Goa's two Lok Sabha constituencies and bypolls to three Assembly seats to be held on April 23.

Polling will be held in a single phase for North Goa and South Goa Lok Sabha constituencies and Shiroda, Mapusa and Mandrem Assembly seats.

The by-elections in Shiroda and Mandrem were necessitated after their sitting Congress MLAs resigned and joined the ruling BJP. The Mapusa seat fell vacant following the death of its sitting BJP MLA Francis D'Souza.

Total 12 candidates are in the fray for the two Lok Sabha constituencies while there are 18 nominees for the three Assembly seats.

The campaigns of main rivals BJP and Congress were laced with allegations and counter allegations over various issues, including mining suspension and fall in tourism revenue in the coastal state.

While the BJP brought in its top campaigners, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanavis, the Congress' big leaders were largely absent from the campaign scene.

Former actor and Congress leader Nagma canvassed for her party candidates in the coastal state.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal also addressed a public meeting at Margao in support of his party candidates.

The BJP has fielded its sitting MP and Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik from North Goa against Congress' nominee Girish Chodankar, who is the opposition party's state chief.

The AAP has nominated its state general secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar from the seat.

In South Goa, BJP's sitting MP Narendra Sawaikar is pitted against Congress' former parliamentarian Francis Sardinha, AAP's Goa convenor Elvis Gomes and Shiv Sena state vice president Rakhi Prabhudesai Naik.

In the Shiroda Assembly seat bypoll, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) president Deepak Dhavalikar is locked in a battle against BJP candidate Subhash Shirodkar, Congress' Mahadev Naik, AAP nominee Yogesh Khandeparkar and Santosh Satarkar of the Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM).

In Mapusa Assembly seat, BJP's Joshua D'Souza is pitted against Congress nominee Sudhir Kandolkar, GSM's Nandan Sawant and AAP's Shekhar Naik.

Besides, in Mandrem Assembly seat, BJP candidate Dayanand Sopte is fighting against Congress' Babi Bagkar, Independent candidate Jit Arolkar and GSM's Swaroop Naik.

During the poll campaigning, the state chief electoral officer received several complaints, including against a Christian priest, of violation of the code code of conduct.

The priest later issued an apology over his remarks against BJP president Amit Shah, Modi and Goa's late chief minister Manohar Parrikar.

The Election Commission gave a clean chit to Kejriwal following complaint by a local BJP leader that he tried to incite religious sentiments and create fear among the state's Muslims and Christians.

After the enforcement over the model code of conduct, the flying squads seized cash, liquor and drugs worth around Rs 2.8 crore across the state.

More than 1,600 polling booths have been set up for the elections in Goa which would be guarded by the state police and paramilitary forces.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The high-decibel campaign for the third phase of Lok Sabha polls in Chhattisgarh's seven seats ended on Sunday, which saw acrimonious exchanges between the main rivals BJP and Congress over issues like corruption, poverty and farmers' woes.

The third phase of polling on April 23 will mark the completion of Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Total 123 candidates are in the fray in seven Lok Sabha seats Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur, Korba, Janjgir-Champa (SC), Surguja (ST) and Raigarh (ST) - that will go to polls in the third phase, state chief electoral officer (CEO) Subrat Sahoo said in a statement.

"The campaign for the seven seats ended at 5 pm on Sunday," he said.

Raipur and Bilaspur seats have the maximum 25 candidates each, followed by Durg-21, Jangir-Champa - 15, Raigarh -14, Korba-13 and Surguja-10, he said.

Total 1,27,13,816 voters, including 64,16,252 men, 62,96,992 women and 572 members of third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the third phase for which 15,408 polling booths have been set up.

Voting for total 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state was scheduled in three phases.

The Naxal-hit Bastar (ST) constituency went to polls in the first phase on April 11, while voting in three other seats - Rajanandgaon, Kanker (ST) and Mahasamund - was held in the second phase on April 18.

In the 2004, 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls held after the formation of Chhattisgarh, the BJP won 10 out of the 11 seats all the three times.

This time, the Congress, buoyed by its victory in the Assembly elections last year after a 15-year gap, is hoping to improve its tally in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh campaigned for the saffron party in the third phase.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and state chief minister Bhupesh Baghel also held rallies in support of their party candidates.

Gandhi did not campaign for the first two phases, in which Baghel mainly led the canvassing for his party.

The BJP top brass targeted the Congress over issues like poverty and national security and also attacked the Gandhi family.

The Congress highlighted benefits of its poll promise of minimum guarantee scheme, besides the farm loan waiver granted by the party government in the state after coming to power last year, and assuring a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,500 to paddy cultivators.

The Congress leaders also attacked Modi over the Rafale jet deal issue and accused him of betraying people by not fulfilling his promises.

In the high-profile Durg seat, the Congress has fielded its former MLA Pratima Chandrakar, who belongs to the influential Kurmi OBC community.

Durg is the only Lok Sabha seat which the Congress won in the state in the 2014 general elections.

After the Congress' win in the last year's Assembly polls, its Durg MP Tamradhwaj Sahu was inducted into the state cabinet as Home minister.

The BJP has fielded its former MLA Vijay Baghel, who also belongs to the Kurmi community, in Durg.

In Raipur seat, the BJP has fielded Sunil Soni, incumbent vice president of the state unit, while denying ticket to seven-term MP Ramesh Bais.

Soni is pitted against Congress' Pramod Dubey, the incumbent mayor of the Raipur Municipal Corporation.

In the tribal-dominated Raigarh seat, the BJP denied renomination to its MP and Union minister Vishnu Deo Sai, and fielded a fresh face - Gomtee Sai.

The Congress has pinned its hopes on sitting party MLA Laljeet Singh Rathiya.

In Surguja (ST), the BJP chose former MLA and minister Renuka Singh, who is pitted against sitting Congress legislator and prominent tribal leader Khelsai Singh.

In Korba seat, the Congress has fielded Jyotsana Mahant, wife of incumbent state Assembly speaker Charandas Mahant, while the BJP has pinned its hopes on a fresh face, Jyotinand Dubey.

In Bilaspur, the Congress has nominated Atal Shrivastav, its state unit general secretary, who is locked in a battle with BJP's Arun Sao.

The Janjgir-Champa seat, reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, is likely to witness a triangular fight among Congress' Ravi Bhardwaj, BJP nominee Guharam Ajgale and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Dauram Ratnankar.

The Mayawti-led party and it ally Janata Congress Chhattigsarh (J) of former chief minister Ajit Jogi have been focusing on this seat.

The BSP forged an alliance with the JCC(J) during the state Assembly elections last year.

In the 90-member Assembly, the JCC (J) won five seats while the BSP bagged two seats last year.

Jogi's party has not fielded any candidate for the Lok Sabha polls and is supporting BSP's nominees in all seats of the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaigning for the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency, where Lok Sabha polls were rescheduled from April 18 to April 23, ended at 5 pm on Sunday, a top election official said.

The Election Commission had postponed voting in the constituency to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there was not conducive for holding free and fair polls.

East Tripura constituency is spread across 30 assembly segments and six districts, where an electorate of 12,54,944 will decide the fate of 10 candidates, including those of the ruling BJP, the Congress and the CPI(M).

Ruling BJP candidate Rebati Mohan Tripura, sitting MP Jitendra Chowdhury of the CPI(M) and Pragya Dev Burman of the Congress are among those contesting from the seat.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti said a total of 1,645 polling stations have been set up, of which 30 are all-women booths.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri have campaigned in the last few days in the constituency.

Dhalai district SP Sudipta Das said sufficient security deployment has been made to ensure free and fair polling on April 23.

"Central and state forces are on duty round-the-clock, and CCTV cameras will be installed in polling stations. There will be sector officers from both civil and police administration, apart from flying squads," Das said.

The BSF has also intensified vigilance along the Indo-Bangladesh border, which would be completely sealed ahead of polling, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The election campaign in Anantnag district, which is part of the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency going to polls in three phases, ended Sunday as nearly 5.30 lakh voters will register their choice of the representative on Tuesday.

"The election campaigning in Anantnag district came to an end this (Sunday) evening but will continue in Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian districts which form the Lok Sabha constituency," an election official said.

He said the electioneering in the district remained by and large peaceful.

Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency is spread over four districts of Anantnag, Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama with 16 assembly segments.

The Lok Sabha polls to the constituency are being held in three phases due to security reasons.

While Anantnag district will go to polls on Tuesday, voting in Kulgam district will be on April 29. Pulwama and Shopian districts will go to polls on May 6.

The Election Commission has curtailed the polling duration for Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency by two hours following a request from the state police to this effect.

The polling will be held in south Kashmir areas from 7 am to 4 am.

The Election Commission has set-up 1,842 polling stations to facilitate smooth polling, the official said.

The constituency has 13,97,272 registered voters, including 7,20,337 males, 672879 females and 35 transgenders.

Anantnag district has 5,29,256 electors, including 2,69,603 males, 257540 females, 2102 service electors and 11 transgender voters.

For the smooth polling, the EC has set-up 714 polling stations in the district.

There are 18 candidates in the fray for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, including PDP president and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti.

The Congress has fielded its state president Ghulam Ahmad Mir, while former High Court judge Hasnain Masoodi is contesting on the National Conference ticket.

The other candidates in the fray include former MLC Sofi Yousuf (BJP), Nisar Ahmad Wani (National Panthers Party), Zaffar Ali (People's Conference), Sanjay Kumar Dhar (Manav Adhikar Party) and Surinder Singh (Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party).

Independent candidates contesting the election include Imtiyaz Ahmad Rather, Ridwana Sanam, Riyaz Ahmad Bhat, Zubair Masoodi, Shamas Khwaja, Ali Mohammad Wani, Gh Mohammad Wani, Kyasir Ahmed Shiekh, Manzoor Ahmed Khan and Mirza Sajad Hussain Beigh complete the field.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaigning for the third phase of polling in 116 parliamentary constituencies on April 23 ended Sunday with top leaders making a last-gasp effort to sway voters in favour of their respective parties.

Polling will be held in the 115 seats, spread across 14 States and Union Territories.

All seats in Gujarat (26), Kerala (20), Goa (2), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1) and Daman and Diu (1) go to polls in the third of the seven-phase election.

Besides, polling will be held in four seats in Assam, five in Bihar, seven in Chhattisgarh, one in Jammu and Kashmir, 14 in Karnataka, 14 in Maharashtra, six in Odisha, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, and five in West Bengal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and a host of Union ministers among others canvassed for their party candidates in the past few days, undertaking whirlwind tours of constituencies.

Among the key contestants in the fray are BJP chief Amit Shah (Gandhinagar, Gujarat), Congress president Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad, Kerala), and Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri, UP).

During campaigning in Gujarat, the two principal parties -- the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress -- exchanged acrimonious barbs, with leaders from both groups exuding confidence of a good showing. The BJP had swept all 26 seats in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In Maharashtra, the prominent seats in the third phase include Jalna, where state BJP president Raosaheb Danveis in the fray against Vilas Autade of the Congress, and Baramati, where Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, is contesting against BJP's Kanchan Kul.

Another keenly watched seat will be Ahmednagar where Sujay Vikhe Patil is the BJP's nominee. He is the son of Congress veteran and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil. Sujay Vikhe Patil joined the BJP in the run-up to the polls, after the NCP refused to vacate the Ahmednagar seat for the Congress. He is now pitted against NCP's Sangram Jagtap.

Key constituencies in Karnataka to be watched out for during the polls include Gulbarga, where Mallikarjun Kharge is pitted against Umesh Jadhav, who ahead of polls joined the BJP quitting Congress and as MLA; and Shimogga, where former chief Minister Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra is pitted against another former chief minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa.

In 14 constituencies that will go to the polls in the second phase on April 23, BJP is contesting all the seats. Congress and JD(S) that are facing the polls in alliance have fielded their candidates in 12 and two constituencies respectively.

The BJP has a huge stake in this phase in Uttar Pradesh with the party having won seven out of the ten seats in the region in 2014, leaving three for the Samajwadi Party, but facing a tough challenge from SP-BSP-RLD combine here.

The campaigning for the phase witnessed a new low with SP leader Azam Khan making an "indecent" remark, targeting his opponent Jaya Prada in Rampur by allegedly speculating on the colour of her underwear and attracting the saffron party's wrath, besides that of the National Commission for Women.

Khan, who also faced a 72-hour ban by the Election Commission of India on his campaigning after making the underwear jibe, was among the three other leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BSP supremo Mayawati, who faced the poll panel's wrath for making "provocative" speeches.

The political heavyweights, whose fate will be decided in the third phase of elections here, include Mulayam Singh Yadav, Union minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who is fighting from Bareilly and BJP's Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.

The Lok Sabha polls are being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The election results will be declared on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Campaigning for the third phase of polling scheduled for April 23 in 116 parliamentary constituencies ended Sunday with top leaders making a last-gasp effort to sway voters in favour of their respective parties.

Polling will be held in the 116 seats, spread across 14 states and Union Territories.

All seats in Gujarat (26), Kerala (20), Goa (2), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1) and Daman and Diu (1) go to polls in the third of the seven-phase election.

Besides, polling will be held in four seats in Assam, five in Bihar, seven in Chhattisgarh, one in Jammu and Kashmir, 14 in Karnataka, 14 in Maharashtra, six in Odisha, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, and five in West Bengal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and a host of Union ministers among others canvassed for their party candidates over the past few days, undertaking whirlwind tours of constituencies.

Among the key contestants in the fray are BJP chief Amit Shah (Gandhinagar, Gujarat), Congress president Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad, Kerala), and Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri, UP).

In Kerala, the campaign was marred by a spate of incidents of violence Sunday involving members of all the three major fronts. The roadshow of senior Congress leader A K Antony at Thiruvananthapuram was allegedly blocked by a group of LDF activists forcing the former union minister to return.

Over 30 people, including a policeman, were injured at Thiruvalla, in Pathanamthitta district where the activists of the BJP and the Left clashed, police said adding they made a lathicharge to disperse the stone-pelting crowd. Stone-pelting was reported from the Alathur constituency, where the convoy of UDF candidate Ramya Haridas was allegedly pelted with stones.

During campaigning in Gujarat, the two principal parties -- the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress -- exchanged acrimonious barbs, with leaders from both groups exuding confidence of a good showing. The BJP had swept all 26 seats in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In Maharashtra, the prominent seats in the third phase include Jalna, where state BJP president Raosaheb Danveis in the fray against Vilas Autade of the Congress, and Baramati, where Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, is contesting against BJP's Kanchan Kul.

Another keenly watched seat will be Ahmednagar where Sujay Vikhe Patil is the BJP's nominee. He is the son of Congress veteran and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil. Sujay Vikhe Patil joined the BJP in the run-up to the polls, after the NCP refused to vacate the Ahmednagar seat for the Congress. He is now pitted against NCP's Sangram Jagtap.

Key constituencies in Karnataka include Gulbarga, where Mallikarjun Kharge is pitted against Umesh Jadhav, who ahead of polls joined the BJP quitting Congress and as MLA; and Shimogga, where former chief Minister Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra is pitted against another former chief minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa.

In 14 constituencies that will go to the polls in the second phase on April 23, the BJP is contesting all the seats. Congress and JD(S) that are facing the polls in alliance have fielded their candidates in 12 and two constituencies respectively.

The BJP has a huge stake in this phase in Uttar Pradesh with the party having won seven out of the 10 seats in the region in 2014 (three went to the Samajwadi Party), but is facing a tough challenge from SP-BSP-RLD combine here.

The campaigning for the phase witnessed a new low with SP leader Azam Khan making an "indecent" remark, targeting his opponent Jaya Prada in Rampur by allegedly speculating on the colour of her underwear and attracting the saffron party's wrath, besides that of the National Commission for Women.

Khan was among the three other leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BSP supremo Mayawati, who faced the poll panel's wrath for making "provocative" speeches.

The political heavyweights, whose fate will be decided in the third phase of elections here, include Mulayam Singh Yadav, Union minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who is fighting from Bareilly and BJP's Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the campaign in the Anantnag district, which is part of the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency going to polls in three phases, ended.

The Lok Sabha polls are being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The election results will be declared on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

SubmitChloe Grace Moretz says her upcoming film "Shadow in the Cloud" has been "rewritten" after screenwriter Max Landis was accused of sexual misconduct.

In an interview with The Guardian, the 22-year-old actor said the cast and crew of the film, being directed by Roseanne Liang, have completely "distanced" themselves from Landis in the aftermath of the revelations.

"We've completely distanced ourselves from him. We've rewritten it several times now. His name is kind of far away from the project. Communication is key and being held accountable is key. It's a really horrific thing to hear those stories," Moretz said.

In 2017, several women took to social media to accuse the writer of sexual harassment and misconduct.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is described as an "action horror" and will feature Moretz as a pilot aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress.

"As she puts up with jeers from the leery, all-male crew, strange happenings begin to occur and they realise that something is lurking within the shadows. Crushed between an oncoming Japanese ambush and an evil prowling within, she must push her limits to save the hapless crew and to protect her mysterious cargo," read the plotline.

Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger have produced the project, alongside Kelly McCormick and Tom Hern.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)There were no celebrations on Sunday on the occasion of Civil Services Day due to ongoing general elections, a senior official said here.

The civil services day is celebrated on April 21 every year when bureaucrats rededicate themselves to public service, and awards for excellence in public administration are also conferred.

Prime Minister gives away awards of excellence to the civil servants for their exemplary work in promoting good governance and the government's programmes.

"The civil services day is not being observed due to the general elections. Its date will be decided once the new government takes over," said V Srinivas, Additional Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

He said the government may consider clubbing this year's celebrations with the next year's programme.

Srinivas said though the award for excellence in public administration may be held after the formation of new government.

Civil servants and their association took to social media to greet their fraternity and inform them about the contribution of bureaucrats.

"Happy Civil Services Day. It was on this day that Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, addressed the first batch of civil servants in Independent India at the Metcalf House where he referred to civil servants as the 'steel frame of India'," the central IAS association said.

The IPS association resolved to remain true to values of the "Steel Frame" that our founding fathers enunciated.

"Our gratitude are due to citizens, whose support & respect motivate us to face challenges & sacrifice, to defend our country & the constitution," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Emphasising the inevitability of a post poll alliance between the Congress and the SP-BSP-RLD combine, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid says the Uttar Pradesh 'gathbandhan' will have no choice but to forge a tie-up with his party after the election results.

Khurshid, who has been the chief of Congress' UP unit twice in the past, said the party is "well placed" in the state as people are getting disenchanted with the alternatives, both regional as well as national.

The Congress was very keen to take on the BJP together with the gathbandhan' parties, he said.

Had that happened, the BJP's miserable performance would have been a foregone conclusion, Khurshid told PTI in an interview at his residence in Kaimganj.

But even if they (the BJP) increase their numbers because of the fact that our vote is divided, I think people will vote very sensibly and the people will vote with a clear calculation of what they need to do to get rid of the BJP, he said.

Khurshid, who is the Congress' candidate from Farrukhabad, of which Kaimganj assembly segment is a part, is locked in a triangular contest with BJP's sitting MP Mukesh Rajpoot and BSP's Manoj Agarwal.

Asked if the Congress and the SP-BSP-RLD could come together following the Lok Sabha polls, the former Union minister responded with a counter question. Is there a reason why they won't get together? If the Congress and the UP gathbandhan don't come together, what does it say for these (the gathbandhan') people? They will then be left out.

We are quite certain they will be party to the alliance. I think that is what their intention is. But, obviously a little bit short-sighted in terms of the overall objectives that we are trying to achieve, he added.

On whether both the Congress and the UP gathbandhan' could play a key role in forming the government at the Centre together, he said it is the inevitable conclusion if the SP-BSP-RLD combine is consistent with what it says to the people.

The UP gathbandhan' parties have said they want to remove the BJP and for that it is not rocket science they have to be with the Congress, the 66-year-old leader said.

If they don't want to talk about it today, it is understandable as they are fighting an election, but I think come the 23rd of May, there is no other choice for them and for anyone else, but to say that we'll all have to be together, Khurshid said.

His remarks come days after AICC general secretary in-charge Uttar Pradesh West Jyotiraditya Scindia said the option to be a part of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance is open for the Congress after the Lok Sabha polls.

Reacting to Scindia's remarks, sources in the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had said the alliance will take a call on taking the Congress along based on the post-poll scenario.

Khurshid hailed Congress' young leadership of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Scindia, saying the party is looking forward to an effective period ahead.

People are getting disenchanted with the alternatives, both regional as well as nationwide, and therefore the Congress is well placed, he said.

The former External Affairs minister also hit out at the BJP for repeatedly raising Pakistan in its poll campaign, saying it has brought the debate on foreign policy down to ridiculous levels.

Now a huge number of sensible people, including those who have served in the armed forces, are beginning to come out openly against this extremely short sighted and the very perverse manner in which foreign policy, defence strategy, and the armed forces... are being reduced to the level of street bickering just in order to seek political advantage," he said.

The Lok Sabha polls are being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The election results will be declared on May 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP on Sunday accused the Congress of acting as an external public relations arm of the Pakistan government, saying it was speaking the language of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao, while attacking Congress leader P Chidambaram, said rather than targeting Pakistan for exporting terrorism to India and indulging in anti-India activities, "the Congress party is blaming the Indian government for taking multi-pronged punitive steps against Pakistan including some trade related initiatives".

"It seems that the Congress party is not happy that the military and non-military punitive steps initiated by the Indian government have silenced Pakistan and forced it to mend ways," Rao said in a statement.

The Congress party, he alleged, "had lent perverse support to Pakistan time and again betraying Indian interests".

He claimed the Congress was acting as an external public relations arm of the Pakistan government and it was speaking the language of the Pakistani prime minister.

Rao said the statements of several Congress leaders sound like music to a cornered Pakistan that has lost all credibility internationally.

"It is unfortunate and condemnable that there is a race among the Congress and other opposition leaders to make pro-Pakistan statements at a time when the whole country is rallying behind our government and security forces in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack and air strikes in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan," he said.

The BJP Rajya Sabha MP cited Congress and other opposition leaders, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram, Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal, Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, as being "the cheerleaders of Imran Khan".

"They will be handed an exemplary punishment for betrayal by the Indian electorate in the ongoing elections," it said.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram Sunday said that in order to bring a change in Pakistan's behaviour, India must also change its behaviour towards the neighbouring country.

The former home minister also said that a way must be found to normalise India-Pakistan relations so as to answer the country's "biggest external challenge" in terms of security and various other aspects.

"Whatever we do, we have to make Pakistan change its behaviour. That means we must also change our behaviour towards Pakistan. These attitudinal changes will happen over a period of time. But we must make an effort," he said at a discussion titled -- "Beyond Politics: Debating a new Security Manifesto", organised by think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress on Sunday condemned the serial blasts at multiple locations in Sri Lanka, with party president Rahul Gandhi terming it a "diabolical act of terrorism".

More than 160 people were killed and over 450 injured in a string of near simultaneous blasts at churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

"I'm saddened and disturbed by reports of multiple bomb blasts in Colombo in which over 100 people have died and more than 300 injured, Gandhi tweeted.

"I strongly condemn this diabolical act of terrorism. My condolences to the families of the victims. I pray the injured make a speedy recovery," he said.

The Congress said on its official Twitter handle, "We are deeply saddened by the terrible attacks on several churches in SriLanka on the holy day of Easter. We stand with the people in their time of grief and pray for their recovery."



Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik and former state chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah also condemned the attacks.

Expressing shock and anguish over the blasts, Malik said it was a heinous act which attempts to spread fear and hatred. He added that the whole world needs to stand united in the fight against terrorism.

Abdullah said it was hoped that end of the war with the Tamil Tigers would also see the end of terror attacks on the Emerald Isle but sadly that hope was shattered.

"While condemning these horrible attacks, designed to cause massive loss of life on a day that was to be celebrated, my prayers for the deceased and injured as also for their loved ones," the National Conference vice president said.

Mufti said she was pained to hear about the horrific serial blasts. "The sole purpose of these barbaric acts is to create panic and hatred amongst people. It would help not to draw conclusions by floating irresponsible and baseless theories," the PDP president tweeted.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma Sunday described the Congress and the NCP as "paper tigers", who he said would be wiped out in the Lok Sabha elections which are being held in seven phases.

Addressing a press conference here, Sharma said the BJP would improve its tally of Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra under the leadership of state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

In 2014 general elections, the BJP had won 23 out of total 48 seats in Maharashtra while its ally Shiv Sena bagged 18 seats.

Sharma, who was in the city to campaign for BJP candidates in the fray from three out of total six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai, also attacked Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam, who is contesting from Mumbai North West.

"Nirupam was first among those to seek proof of (the cross-border) surgical strike which was conducted after Uri terror attack (in 2016). After the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, Nirupam was seeking peace with Pakistan," Sharma said.

Mumbai region is set to vote in the final phase on April 29.

Responding to a query on regional affinity of voters, Sharma said regional and caste considerations don't matter in the current scenario but the work done by a political leader.

He also said there was no vacancy for PM's post till 2024.

"We are confident that Maharashtra will lead the country in giving a direction to the national political course after polls," he said.

On the challenge posed by the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Sharma said they are like "paper tigers" who are set to lose.

Speaking about emerging political scenario in Uttar Pradesh, Sharmapredicted the BJPwould win 74 out of total 80 constituencies in the politically crucial state.

"The trends of first two phases show that people have voted for a strong and stable government," he said.

He also described the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh as an "opportunist" combine.

"The Opposition in UP is scared because the combination of Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set new benchmarks of development," he said.

In 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) had formed an alliance while Mayawati-led BSP stayed out to eat into the votes of the BJP, he said.

"The scenario is changed this time with 'UP ke ladke' (a reference to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav) being replaced by 'buaji' (Mayawati), whereas the Congress has taken her place," he said.

Hinting at a tacit understanding between the SP and the Congress, he said despite Akhilesh terming Congress a "cheater", the SP is not contesting in Amethi and Raibareli seats, the pocketboroughs of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, respectively.

"Similarly, the Congress has not fielded candidates in Ferozabad, Kannauj and Azamgarh constituencies (which are traditional bastions of the SP).

"Moreover, Congress' Patnasahib nominee ShatrughanSinha is campaigning for a SP contestant while his wife Poonam Sinha is fighting on SP ticket from Lucknow," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi Police on Sunday took into custody Rohit Shekhar Tiwari's wife Apoorva and two house helps for interrogation.

Sources said police are looking at Apoorva as the prime suspect in the murder case.

The Delhi Police Thursday registered a case of murder into the death of Rohit Shekhar, hours after his autopsy report stated that he died of asphyxia due to strangulation. The case has been transferred to the Crime Branch for investigation.

The Crime Branch had questioned Apoorva for over eight hours on Saturday at Rohit Shekhar's residence in South Delhi's Defence Colony area, they said.

On Sunday, Rohit Shekhar's mother Ujjawla hit out at Apoorva and her parents alleging they had their eyes on his property.

"Apoorva's family wanted to take control of the properties of my both sons -- Siddharth and Rohit -- because this house is nearer to the Supreme Court where Apoorva was practising law," she said.

Refuting rumours that Rohit and Apoorva met in the Supreme Court complex, Ujjawla said that they both had met in Lucknow through a matrimonial website in 2017.

They were seeing each other for a year and later took a break in between. Rohit Shekhar maintained distance from her and said he did not want to marry her, she said.

They were not in touch from January to March, 2018. But on April 2 they came to me and expressed their wish to get married, Ujjwala said.

They also discussed mutual divorce several times and later decided to end their marriage in June, she added.

Ujjwala said Apoorva was also against giving a share of property to son of Rajiv Kumar, a relative and aide of Tiwari.

Apoorva always had issues with Rajiv and his wife, Ujjawla said, adding that reports of Rohit Shekhar having affair with Rajiv's wife is "baseless and false".

"My elder son Siddharth expressed his wish to give a share to Rajiv's son Kartik Raj but Apoorva was disappointed and expressed her displeasure over this," she said.

Rohit died on April 16 under mysterious circumstances.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)When Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose Varanasi as his parliamentary constituency in 2014, artists of the famed Benaras Gharana had but one aspiration to revive this ancient city's musical heritage and to get a state-of-the-art academy.

Five years on, as another election comes around, they say their expectation from the prime minister remains the same.

The unfulfilled promise of a music academy to preserve and carry on a musical heritage strikes a discordant note in a city that has produced legends like Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Girija Devi, Siddheshwari Devi and Pandit Anokhe Lal.

Please don't let the music fade away, is the fervent hope of a cross-section of artists, who said they are still waiting for their 'Kashi Kala Dham'. It may not be an electoral issue for the general public but is clearly an issue of utmost importance for the music fraternity.

According to Padma Bhushan awardee and renowned vocalist Pandit Channu Lal Mishra, a lot of work has been done in the city since Modi became MP and the community of musicians is again pressing for a music academy.

Varanasi votes on May 19, the last round of the seven-phase elections.

"A lot of work such as cleanliness, beautification of ghats and cleaning of the Ganga has been done in the city in the last five years. But we now wish to have an academy dedicated to the Benaras Gharana," Mishra said.

"Otherwise, our music will die as there are only a few veterans left. The new generation should know about the depth of Benarasi 'sangeet'. Today, vocalists sing only two types of thumri while there are 12 types in total. Thumri, dadra, khayal, hori, chaiti, kajri the list is long. Who will teach them. Girija Devi is no more and I am already 83," he added.

The irony that a city that gave name to an entire school of music does not have an academy to carry on the tradition is deeply felt by others too.

After Varanasi joined UNESCO's 'Cities of Music' bandwagon in 2015, it was proposed to establish a 'guru-shishya' (teacher-disciple) tradition based 'Kala Dhaam' in the city.

Several Padma awardees met Varanasi Municipal Corporation and state government officials in this regard and were given an assurance that the demand would be met.

However, nothing has been done on the issue so far. State government sources said they have sent the file to centre after completing all the ground work and the delay is not from their side.

Rajan and Sajan Mishra, the foremost exponents of the khayal style of singing, said the the city of music and its musicians deserve their due.

"There are so many Padma awardee artists and two Bharat Ratnas (Bismillah Khan and Ravi Shankar) from Benaras but it is strange that the city does not have a state-of-the-art music academy. We gave a written memorandum a couple of years back but nothing has been done. We can also preserve instruments and recordings of legendary musicians in such an academy," said Rajan Mishra.

The demand was raised two years ago as well when Bismillah Khan's shehnai was stolen from his home.

"There should also be some facilities for classical musicians like concessions in railway and air tickets, exemption from GST and service tax, pension etc. We hope Modiji will take initiatives to revive our musical heritage," Rajan Mishra added.

Late Girija Devi had expressed her wish to have an academy in Varanasi in her last interview to PTI after Modi's win in last general elections.

"If there would have been such an academy in Varanasi, I would not have gone to Kolkata," the legendary vocalist, who was a faculty member at Kolkata based ITC Music Research Academy, had said.

"My mother's soul is still in Varanasi. If we have one such academy there, which she always wished, her soul will rest in peace," Sudha Dutta, Girija Devi's daughter, told PTI from Kolkata.

Malini Awasthi, Padma Shri awardee and Girija Devi's disciple, said mainstream institutions are now focusing on Benaras because of the prime minister. This, she added, is a boost for upcoming artists.

"Kashi is a city which never needed any political patronage. But when we started losing our legends and feeling the vacuum, Modi chose this city as his constituency, Now mainstream institutions are giving platform to upcoming artists also," she said.

"The Sangeet Natak Academy has adopted many schools and is teaching classical music apart from Vedic studies. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Art also has a new centre here now," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Easter celebrations began with pomp and gaiety in the northeast on Sunday with people taking part in candlelight processions and prayer services.

In Nagaland capital Kohima, thousands of devotees attended the sunrise service at the historic World War-II Cemetery to mark the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

Delivering his Easter message, the general secretary of Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, Rev. Vesekhoyi Tetseo, said, "Jesus Christ is the hope for those who acknowledge their shortcomings and repent."



He called upon the people to seek God's mercy to attain "eternal salvation".

Extending his greetings, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said it was time to rejoice and be thankful for the gift of life, love and joy.

"The greatest act of love on #GoodFriday is followed by the greatest act of power on #EasterSunday - #Resurrection. The miracle of #Easter brings hope and it is a time to rejoice and be thankful for the gift of life, love and joy. Have a blessed Easter Sunday. #EasterWeekend2019," he tweeted.

Nagaland Governor P B Acharya encouraged people to work for peace, harmony and brotherhood.

"The resurrection of Christ signifies that truth triumphs over evil and love is always stronger than hatred," the governor said.

Similar celebrations were also held in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, where people woke up to musical bands playing 'He's Arisen' to mark the beginning of Easter Sunday.

Devotees across the state were seen exchanging greetings and goodies to mark the occasion.

Presbyterian Church priest Rev. B S Thanga said arrangements have been made for special prayer services in Aizawl as well as other parts of Mizoram.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Egypt's Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's foremost religious institution, on Sunday condemned "terrorist" attacks in Sri Lanka against hotels and churches celebrating Easter that killed more than 200 people.

"I cannot imagine a human being could target the peaceful on their celebration day," said Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the institution's grand imam.

"Those terrorists' perverted disposition goes against the teachings of all religions," he said in comments published on Al-Azhar's Twitter account.

At least 207 people were killed Sunday in a series of eight devastating bomb blasts, which ripped through hotels and churches where Christians were celebrating Easter.

"I pray that God grants patience to the families of the casualties and recovery to the injured," added Sheikh Tayeb.

Al-Azhar frequently denounces jihadist movements and regularly reaches out to the Christian faith.

In February, Pope Francis and Sheikh Tayeb signed a document on "human fraternity for world peace", hailed by the Vatican as an "important step forward in the dialogue between Christians and Muslims".

But some intellectuals have accused Al-Azhar's scholarly institutions of feeding fundamentalism and intolerance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Egyptians voted for a second day on Sunday in a referendum on proposed constitutional amendments aimed at cementing the rule of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Sisi is widely expected to win backing for changes making it possible for him to stay in power until 2030, boosting his control over the judiciary and giving the military even greater influence in political life.

Egyptian media outlets, tightly controlled by the state, have carried images of packed voting stations, while dissenting voices from the opposition and rights groups against the measures have been largely restricted to the internet.

Some voters say their employers have encouraged them to vote, while others say they have received food coupons from unidentified people.

In their initial report on the first day of the nationwide electoral process, an international observer team said "there were no hurdles to voting".

The three-day referendum bucks the trend of North Africa's renewed uprisings, in which mass pro-democracy protests this month swept away veteran presidents in Algeria and Sudan.

Former defence minister Sisi took power in 2013 and was elected president in 2014 after leading the army's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

He was re-elected for another four-year term in 2018 with more than 97 percent of the vote.

The proposed constitutional changes would allow him to extend his current term by two years and to run for another six-year term.

Since Sisi took power, rights campaigners have regularly accused his government of abuses including mass trials and torture, as well as a clampdown on opposition and the press.

Human Rights Watch has slammed the proposed changes, saying they would "entrench repression".

In a statement Saturday, the New York-based watchdog criticised the "grossly unfree, rights-abusive environment" of the vote.

Supporters of the amendments say they will help ensure Egypt's political stability, security and economic development.

The results are expected to be announced on April 27.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale arrived here on Sunday to hold talks on key issues concerning India-China relations with top Chinese officials and Foreign Minister Wang Yi as the two countries grapple with a host of issues, including Beijing's continuous attempts to block efforts to list Jaish-e-Mohammed's chief Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist".

Gokhale is scheduled to hold bilateral consultations with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou on Monday and call on Wang, who is also the State Councillor, a high-level post in the hierarchy of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), official sources said.

India-China relations gathered positive momentum after last year's informal summit at Wuhan between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

However, China's move to block Pakistan-based Azhar's designation as a "global terrorist" following the February 14 Pulawama terror attack carried out by a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, caused disappointment on the Indian side.

The US, the UK and France moved a proposal under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council (UNSC).

China stalled it for the fourth time by putting a technical hold on the resolution, a move India termed as disappointing.

The visit of Gokhale, who served as India's envoy to Beijing before his elevation as foreign secretary last year, also assumes significance as China holds its biggest international event, the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) to showcase its trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in which the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project.

India has protested to China over the CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

India, like the first BRF held in 2017, will not be attending its second edition being held here from April 25-27.

Wang told media here on Friday that 37 heads of state government and representatives from 150 countries and international organisations confirmed their participation in the event.

Wang also said differences over the BRI would not come in the way of the development of India-China relations and China is preparing for a Wuhan-style summit meeting this year.

Asked if India's opposition to the BRI would undermine the new momentum generated by last year's informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Wang said the two leaders had a very successful meeting at Wuhan last year.

"Particularly they have established mutual trust between the leadership and they jointly planned for the future of improvement and strengthening of China-India relations.

"After the Wuhan summit, we see all areas or progress between the two countries and we have bright prospect for this relationship. We are now preparing for the next summit of our leaders," he said without specifying any time line.

He also urged India to reconsider its stand on the BRI economic project, saying it had nothing to do with sovereignty issues.

"One of our differences is how to look at the BRI. The Indian side has their concerns. We understand that and that is why we have stated clearly on many occasions that the BRI including the CPEC is only an economic initiative and it does not target any third country and has nothing to do with the sovereign and territorial disputes left from history between any two countries," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Society's expectations about gender roles alter the human brain at the cellular level, scientists say.

Though the terms 'sex' and 'gender' are often used interchangeably by the average person, for neuroscientists, they mean different things, according to Nancy Forger, a professor at Georgia State University in the US.

"We are just starting to understand and study the ways in which gender identity, rather than sex, may cause the brain to differ in males and females," said Forger.

Sex is based on biological factors such as sex chromosomes and reproductive organs," whereas gender has a social component and involves expectations and behaviours based on an individual's perceived sex, researchers said.

These behaviours and expectations around gender identity can be seen in "epigenetic marks" in the brain, which drive biological functions and features as diverse as memory, development and disease susceptibility.

Forger said that epigenetic marks help determine which genes are expressed and are sometimes passed on from cell to cell as they divide. They also can be passed down from one generation to the next, she added.

"While we are accustomed to thinking about differences between the brains of males and females, we are much less used to thinking about the biological implications of gender identity," Forger said in a statement.

"There is now sufficient evidence to suggest that an epigenetic imprint for gender is a logical conclusion. It would be strange if this were not the case, because all environmental influences of any importance can epigenetically change the brain," he said.

Scientists reviewed previous studies of epigenetics and sexual differentiation in rodents, along with new studies in which gendered experiences among humans have also been associated with changes in the brain.

"Given our lifetimes of layered gendered experiences, and their inevitable, iterative interactions with sex, it may never be possible to completely disentangle the effects of sex and gender on the human brain," Forger said.

"We can start, however, by including gender in our thinking any time a difference between the brain functioning of men and women is reported," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma Sunday said the collapse of Jet Airways appears to be a "scam" being executed in the run-up to elections, and demanded intervention of the supreme court in registration of an FIR in the matter.

Weighed down by huge debt and falling revenue, Jet Airways recently announced suspension of its entire operations, leaving thousands of employees jobless.

A State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders is now running the airline under a debt recast plan.

"I can smell and see that it is a big scam. Collapse of Jet Airways appears to be a scam which was well thought out and being executed in the name of elections, so that nobody will ask questions," alleged Sharma in a press conference.

He further demanded that the apex court take note of the issue and direct registration of an FIR in the "entire scandal".

Sharma also demanded that the matter be "re-investigated" and criminal responsibility and accountability be fixed for "ruining thousands of jobs". "Since this is election period, nobody has talked about it," the Rajya Sabha MP said.

Referring to the lenders' consortium's refusal to infuse emergency funds in the airline, Sharma claimed that the debt burden of Jet Airways was "much smaller" compared to other businesses which were rescued by the Centre.

The over 25-year-old airline had sought a Rs 400-crore emergency fund from its lenders to whom it already owes over Rs 8,500 crore, but was refused as the airline was not ready to offer more collaterals.

"The Central government had rescued other businesses by re-structuring debts to the tune of Rs 30,000-40,000 crore. Compared to this, the amount (debt) of Jet Airways was much smaller. Moreover there was a resolution (accepted) by the lenders to save jobs and to save the airline," Sharma said.

"Once the resolution plan was accepted then the management and promoters moved out (but as) banks did not put money the fleet was grounded," he said, adding that the brand value of running the airline stood destroyed.

The Congress leader alleged that the consortium of banks has failed to adhere to the resolution plan accepted by it, and is responsible for "ruining" the lives of thousands of employees of Jet Airways.

"We are now told that the Airlines was registered in India and it has been deregistered and re-registered again. Who are the people who are re-registering it so that the value would be brought down. You will find out that they are close to the ruling establishment," the Congress leader claimed.

SBI-led banks had invited bids for selling anywhere between 31 and 75 per cent stake in the airline and have already received four initial bids from Jet Airways' foreign partner Etihad Airways, the sovereign wealth fund NIIF, and two private equity funds--TPG Capital and Indigo Partners.

Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, who, along with his wife Anita, was forced out of the airline late last month by the banks, had also put in bids, but was asked to withdraw after the four bidders threatened to walk out. The banks hope to complete the sale process by May 10.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue, Sharma said, "finally, the so-called job creating PM has reconfirmed during his last few weeks that he is a job destroyer".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"Jhumka", "surma", "maanjha" and "baans" the four specialty trades of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh were hit by demonetisation and the Goods and Service Tax (GST), leading to closure of some businesses but are far from being a Lok Sabha poll issues.

Two of the most significant economic policy decisions of the Narendra Modi government, the overnight scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in 2016 and the launch of GST in 2017 that subsumed all other taxes, did not bring the expected respite to traders, locals said.

There are around 450 registered jewellers here with an estimated daily business of Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore, Sudesh Agarwal, president of the Bareilly Sarafa Committee, claimed.

"There were obvious problems after the note ban but the traders here accepted that. The GST is a good decision but has been very confusing. It was billed on the theme of 'one nation, on tax' but now there are different slab rates," he told PTI outside his shop in Sahukara market.

"In the run-up to GST's implementation, workshops were conducted here for traders in which jewellers were assured that corruption would end and it would benefit the community. The benefits that the ordinary traders should have got are yet to be seen, GST has only increased our return filings and paper work, Agarwal, also the Mahamantri of the regional traders association, Bareilly, said.

However,Agarwal asserted that "we are traditional backers of the BJP".

Bareilly, which goes to voting on April 23 during the third-leg of the seven-phase elections, has repeatedly elected BJP's Santosh Gangwar to the Lok Sabha since 1989 except for 2009-2014, when Congress's Pravin Singh Aron was elected.

Gangwar is again seeking a re-election from the seat.

Bareilly is home to one of the finest "surma" (traditional eye cosmetic) manufacturers in the country but some marginal operators shut shop in the after-effect of the note ban, as did some cane traders in the city also referred to as "Baans Bareilly".

Mohammed Naved Hashmi, 42, of the Taj Marka Surma Company, founded in 1794, told PTI that note ban had caused difficulty to all manufacturers, around eight to 10 in Bareilly.

"This is a traditional work and needs skilled labour dedicated for different works like crushing the stone, mixing the herbs and jewels in the powder and then packaging the surma. It takes about three months for surma to make, he told PTI at his retail shop in Garhaiya.

He recalled that making payments to the labourers had become difficult after the note ban. However, he said the issue would not make any difference in the polls.

"The bitter truth is that it has impacted business. The GST did more impact than the note ban. Sales and profits both have gone down due to the GST. Maybe drop by 25 per cent. Some smaller shops even had to shut down, a worker at a 'surma' shop said, wishing not to be named.

Once a famous spot, the baans mandi (bamboo market)in the city now has less than 10 dealers of cane products, down from double till some years ago. Most of the business is now held in Nariyawal, about 6-8 km off the city, where wholesale and retailers deal in desi (local) and Assamese canes.

Asim Hussain, 25, said note ban caused his business more than the GST, which has only caused confusion.

Earlier an estimated 80 trucks (1,500 canes in each truck) worth cane was cut from jungles daily. Demonetisation caused months of gap, year-long loss. The daily labour won't work without payments and in this business from contactor to dealer, everything works on advance payments," Hussain said.

Hussain, however is happy with Gangwar, saying his MP has always supported the local people despite being a minister and helped them in times of need.

"I once needed a letter from him on his official letter head, and he immediately helped me. He never talks about communal politics and is only interested in work," he said.

The city is also famous for its 'maanjha' (kite string) with Gujarat, Rajasthan and other parts of UP being a major market for the Bareilly's special kite thread.

A major concern for its dealers and labourers has been imposition of GST on the maanjha, a product which earlier attracted no tax. The cotton thread, produced in factories and used for making maanjha, however attracted tax always, traders said.

"There's a five per cent GST on maanjha. It's a loss for our business. The cotton thread also has a similar tax," said Talat Syed, 49, owner of Talak Kite Centre.

He said the other cause of concern for the dwindling market is the decreasing skilled labour, which he said is caused due to low wages and rise of gaming on mobile phones.

"It's the youth who is mostly into kite-flying. But now they remain glued to their mobile phones playing PUBG. Also since the profit margins have gone down, labourers are not getting into maanjha making because of low payments, Rs 150 (for unskilled) to Rs 350 (for highly skilled) labourer per day, Syed told PTI.

He said synthetic maanjha, popular as Chinese maanjha, should be banned in letter and spirit to give the traditional business a push.

"If the plastic thread, which is officially banned, but still available in open markets is banned seriously then wages for labour would improve and more youth wold join the business and expand the trade," he suggested.

Spread over Bareilly, Bareilly Cantonment, Bhojipura, Meerganj and Nawabganj assembly segments, Bareilly parliamentary constituency has an electorate of around 18 lakh, including 8.15 lakh women and 83 third gender voters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress has begun the process to get disgruntled leader Alpesh Thakor expelled as an MLA for anti-party activities, Gujarat unit chief Amit Chavda said Sunday.

Thakor, a prominent OBC leader who was elected from Radhanpur seat on a Congress ticket in 2017 Assembly polls, had resigned from all party posts on April 10 claiming he and his Thakor community had received insults and betrayal at the hands of the Congress.

However, Thakor, who heads community outfit Thakor Sena, is yet to resign from the primary membership of the Congress nor has he quit the Assembly.

At the time of his resignation from party posts, Thakor was AICC secretary in charge of Bihar, and was a member of all key committees of the Gujarat Congress for the Lok Sabha polls.

After resigning, Thakor had started campaigning for Thakor Sena candidates who are contesting as Independents from Banaskantha Lok Sabha and Unjha Assembly seats, the latter having a bypoll.

"In a very short time, Congress gave him important posts in the party. This was unprecedented in Gujarat's However, despite getting such respect from the party, he chose to put his personal ambitions ahead of party interests. There is no place for such a person in the party," Chavda told reporters here.

He said that instead of thanking the party for giving so much importance to him, Thakor is acting against the interests of the party.

"We have learnt he is campaigning against Congress candidates. Thus, we have already started our process to get him expelled as an MLA. If he is not interested in working for the party, then he should tender his resignation from Radhanpur seat (in Patan district)," Chavda added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharatiya Tribal Party chief Chhotu Vasava Sunday said Schedule V of the Constitution, which allows certain areas with a preponderance of tribal population to be declared as "scheduled areas", should be implemented across the country.

He said it would allow tribals to have rights to their own lands, especially when they are getting displaced in large numbers due to various projects.

"During the construction of Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river, tribals from 526 villages were evacuated. Similarly during the building of the Sardar Patel Memorial at Kevadiya, tribals from 72 villages lost their land. Is it justified," he told PTI.

"Tribals are the real inhabitants of this land and they are being made migrants in the name of development," he claimed.

Vasava, currently an MLA from Jhagadiya, is contesting from Bharuch Lok Sabha seat where he is pitted against the BJP's Mansukh Vasava and Congress' Sher Khan Pathan.

He said the party, which is contesting from seven seats in the state, will have at least one Lok Sabha from Gujarat and three seats from neighbouring Rajasthan.

The party had won two seats in the 2017 Assembly polls in Gujarat.

The BTP will contest from Dahod, Chhota Udepur, Bardoli and Valsad Lok Sabha seats, all reserved for Scheduled Tribes, Ahmedabad West (Scheduled Caste) seat as well as Sabarkantha and Bharuch, both of which have sizable tribal presence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Forces backing Libya's unity government battled to push back an offensive by strongman Khalifa Haftar on Sunday as his troops approached the gates of Tripoli after air raids overnight.

Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, galvanised by victories in its eastern stronghold and in the country's desert south, announced an offensive early this month to seize the capital from the UN-recognised administration of Fayez al-Sarraj.

But his forces have faced fierce resistance from armed groups backing the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), including powerful factions from the western city of Misrata.

The bloodshed has derailed efforts to bring peace to a country where jihadists and people smugglers have exploited the chaos unleashed by the NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

At least 227 people have been killed since Haftar's forces launched their offensive, the World Health Organisation said Sunday, adding that a further 1,128 have been wounded.

Clashes intensified on Saturday when forces loyal to the GNA announced a counter-attack.

"We have launched a new phase of attack. Orders were given early this morning to advance and gain ground," said Mustafa al-Mejii, a spokesman for GNA forces.

Sustained rocket and shellfire could be heard in several districts of Tripoli on Saturday, after several days of less intense fighting and stalemate on the ground.

Explosions were heard from the city centre overnight, and some witnesses reported air strikes.

Pope Francis, delivering his traditional Easter message, called for an end to "conflict and bloodshed" that was killing "defenceless people" in Libya.

"I urge the parties involved to choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability," he said.

Tripoli air traffic was suspended overnight to Sunday for "security reasons", the city's only operating airport said Sunday.

At least two flights were re-routed from Mitiga airport to Misrata, more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) to the east, the airport's authorities said on their Facebook page.

They said flights had resumed early in the morning to Mitiga, east of the capital.

The former military airbase was hit by an air strike on April 8, claimed by the LNA, and has since only operated between 5:00 pm and 8:00 am (1500 and 0600 GMT).

The GNA counter-attack put pro-government forces back in control of Ain Zara, in the southern suburbs of Tripoli, where an AFP team confirmed pro-GNA forces had advanced, shifting the front line a few kilometres south.

GNA spokesman Mejii told AFP on Sunday morning that "after a long day of military success, our forces are consolidating their (new) positions."



Some witnesses spoke of air raids and drones, but Mejii said the blasts were caused by strikes from LNA helicopters aimed at "terrorising civilians".

He said they had not caused any casualties but had taken place away from the front lines, without offering any further details.

Military sources say the ageing Soviet and Russian fighter jets used by both sides are not equipped to carry out night time strikes, but Mejii said Haftar's forces have a helicopter with night vision capabilities.

The UN's Libya envoy warned Thursday of "a widening conflagration" in the North African country.

Ghassan Salame told AFP that "international divisions" prior to the assault on Tripoli had emboldened Haftar, who is backed by Russia and seen by his allies Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as a bulwark against Islamists.

The White House revealed Friday that US President Donald Trump reached out personally to Haftar, as a push at the United Nations to broker a ceasefire hit trouble.

A statement said that Trump "recognised Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources," adding that "the two discussed a shared vision for Libya's transition to a stable, democratic political system."



Observers saw Trump's words of praise for the strongman as evidence of US support that explains Haftar's determination to pursue his offensive to seize Tripoli.

On Thursday, Russia and the United States opposed a British bid backed by France and Germany at the UN Security Council to demand a ceasefire in Libya.

Russia insisted on having no criticism of Haftar in the proposed resolution, while the United States said it wanted more time to consider the situation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)California Sen Kamala Harris has described her experience as a student at a historically black college as "one of the most important aspects" of her life. Now, her Democratic presidential campaign is using that experience to connect with voters.

Not only is she one of only two black candidates in a field that's expected to grow to more than 20 candidates, she's also the only candidate who attended a historically black college or university, commonly called an HBCU.

And she's the first major-party candidate to have graduated from an HBCU Washington's Howard University since Jesse Jackson ran for president in the 1980s.

To be sure, she is not the only candidate focusing on such institutions.

Massachusetts Sen Elizabeth Warren, New York Sen Kirsten Gillibrand and former Texas Rep Beto O'Rourke have campaigned at historically black colleges. So has the other black candidate in the 2020 race, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

At a CNN town hall last month in Orangeburg, home to two of South Carolina's HBCUs, Booker noted that his parents and grandparents were educated at historically black institutions and that "the majority of black doctors, black lawyers, black generals are produced by HBCUs."



But Harris's campaign has visited more historically black colleges than any candidate, and she is burnishing her personal ties to this community, and not just to current students.

"Presidential candidates are recognising HBCUs as a political and cultural center for the broader black community," said Aimee Allison, the founder of the political network She The People, which plans a candidate forum Wednesday at Texas Southern University, a historically black college.

Allison said that holding events at these schools is an "essential part of a long-term strategy to build trust and relationships" with black voters.

Harris's focus on historically black colleges could be particularly important in South Carolina, home to eight HBCUs. Black voters are vital to success for Democratic primary candidates anxious to win the South's first primary.

In Orangeburg, Harris's town hall Saturday night was moderated by Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state representative who recently endorsed her campaign.

Turning to a group of South Carolina State students seated on bleachers, Harris talked briefly about the value of attending a historically black institution.

"At an HBCU, everything you are told is that you can be whatever you want to be, and there will be no barriers to that success," she said.

"And you are told as a young black student that you do not need to make choices and fit into anyone's narrow definition of what it means to be a young black person in America."



Harris added later that historically black colleges "teach us that there will always be a community that will support us, whatever we will decide to do," Including, perhaps, running for president.

Joann Berry, a 66-year-old who worked at South Carolina State for more than two decades, said that historically black colleges don't just give diplomas, "they're more like family."



She said that the fact that Harris had attended an HBCU could give her an advantage with connecting here.

While Berry has yet to decide who to support in South Carolina's primary, she said Harris is among the candidates she's considering.

"I'm proud of her. I have faith in her just like I had faith in Barack Obama," said Berry.

"A lot of people said he couldn't do it and he won."



Harris' campaign has made a number of overt appeals, in South Carolina and elsewhere, to the network of HBCUs.

One of Harris's early congressional backers, California Rep. Barbara Lee, held events at Benedict College in Columbia on her behalf.

Harris also waded into the local issue of Denmark Technical College, which primarily serves residents of rural Allendale, Bamberg and Barnwell counties, and has been battling declining enrollment.

Her first significant policy rollout, aimed at increasing teacher pay nationwide, specifically calls for the federal government to support programs dedicated to teacher recruitment, training and professional development, particularly at HBCUs.

Harris's first conference as a presidential candidate was held at her alma mater, with the leaders of the Howard University Student Association on hand.

She recalled that she had run her first political campaign as freshman class representative.

"This is where it all began," she said.

On Twitter, her campaign even took note of Beyonce's "Homecoming," which was released this past week and paid homage to the musical legacy of historically black colleges.

Harris said "Homecoming" ''exemplifies and rightly celebrates the spirit and legacy of HBCUs." "She brought our culture and tradition to the world stage and as a proud Howard graduate, I can't wait to watch," Harris wrote.

Other times, the exchanges come unprompted.

On an earlier trip to South Carolina, Harris was addressing a gathering of more than a dozen female leaders in Columbia when 83-year-old Marjorie Hammock arrived.

Hammock, wearing a crew-neck Howard University sweat shirt, slowly made her way through a throng of reporters and onlookers.

When Harris noticed her, she immediately called to her.

"Hey, Bison, I know you," Harris said, referencing Howard's mascot, as the women laughed.

"We both went to Howard," said Harris, 54, and joked, "I was there before her."



Hammock, who attended Howard in the 1950s, said later that Harris's campaign "gives me also hope for this country" and that seeing a Howard graduate run for president "reinforces the fact that the legacy continues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Health Ministry is grappling with paucity of meningitis vaccines for Haj pilgrims as the only firm manufacturing them was asked to stop production last year after contamination was detected in their oral polio vaccines.

According to sources in the Health Ministry, the only firm which manufactured the vaccines and provided it to the government, was asked to stop production of all human vaccines after type-2 polio virus contamination was detected in oral polio vaccines.

Following the ban on the Ghaziabad-based pharmaceutical company Biomed Pvt Ltd, the ministry is now looking for options to arrange the vaccines in time for vaccinating the pilgrims, the sources said.

Around 1.27 lakh people are expected to go for the annual Haj pilgrimage in July this year for which the ministry will have to arrange for at least 1.47 Lakh doses.

Extra vaccines are kept as some are rendered ineffective in the process of delivery to the states.

The Health Ministry is already in talks with two firms which import the vaccines, the sources said.

Those going to Saudi Arabia for the purpose of Umra or pilgrimage are required to submit a certificate of vaccination with the quadrivalent (ACYW 135) vaccine against meningitis, proving the vaccine was administered no more than 3 years ago and no less than 10 days before arrival in the country.

Biomed Pvt Ltd was a licensed indigenous manufacturer for Meningococcal Polysaccharide vaccine while two firms M/s Sanofi Pastuer India Pvt Lt, Mumbai and M/s GlaxoSmithkline Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Mumbai are importers for quadrivalent Meningcoccal Meningitis Conjugate Vaccine in the country.

"Earlier with Biomed Pvt Ltd providing the vaccines, government spent Rs 250 for each vaccine but now if they have to buy from companies which import the vaccines, they may have to shell out around Rs 1500 per dose. The Health Ministry is already in talks with the two firms which import the vaccines," the sources said.

Biomed Pvt Ltd was directed to stop the manufacture, sale and distribution of all human vaccines including the Quadrivalent Meningococcal Meningitis vaccine aftertype-2 polio virus was found in the sewage and stool samples in Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh in September last year.

The polio drops were sent for testing which confirmed that some of them were contaminated with type-2 virus, a strain believed to have been eradicated in 2016.

The managing director of Biomed Pvt Ltd., which was supplying polio vaccines for only government-run immunisation programmes, was arrested after the central drug regulator filed a complaint and an FIR was registered.

The destruction of traces of type-2 polio virus was ordered by the central drug regulator to all manufacturers in 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The vitriol-filled campaign for 14 Lok Sabha seats that will go to the polls during the second phase in Karnataka on April 23, ended Sunday, with top leaders of the BJP and Congress-JD(S) alliance making a last-gasp effort to sway the voters in their favour.

Though the campaign for second phase that covers northern districts was not as fierce compared to the first phase encompassing southern districts, the nationalism debate, corruption allegations, personal attacks, dynasty politics, Lingayat issue- the electoral potboiler had it all.

The campaign for the second phase also gained momentum only after electioneering ended for the first phase, where polling was held on April 18.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi helmed the BJP's adrenaline-charged campaign in the state, the partys national President Amit Shah, several Union Ministers,including Nirmala Sitaraman, Smriti Irani and also state leaders, including B S Yeddyurappa are among those who campaigned extensively.

For the Congress-JD(S) combine, it was Congress President Rahul Gandhi, JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and coalition coordination committee chief Siddaramaiah who led the charge, backed also by Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.

Though local developmental issues were major part of the campaign, with most part of northern districts, especially Hyderabad-Karnataka region still being backward, concerns like the "turbulent" Congress-JD(S) government grappling with dissidence and Lingayt religion made headlines, with Modi himself spearheading the attack.

Modi during his recent rallies hit out at the coalition government in the state, calling it "majboor" (helpless) and also accused the Congress of trying to split communities for political gains, pointing at the demand to accord religious minority status to the dominant Lingayat community.

While the state BJP, including its chief B S Yeddyurappa, too accused the Congress leadership of hatching a "divisive" conspiracy for political gains, adding to this was the public spat between two senior Ministers from the grand old party, D K Shivakumar and M B Patil, over the Lingayat issue.

Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga leader, during a recent election rally had apologized for Congress venturing into the religious issue, which had irked M B Patil, who was at the forefront of the movement demanding religious minority status to the Lingayat community.

The then Congress government's decision to recommend the status to Lingayat community is said to be one of the reasons for the partys debacle in the May 2018 assembly polls.

The BJP also raked up the Lingayat issue to further consolidate the community votes that is dominant in northern districts and is considered as the strong base of the saffron party.

In the second phase, among the prominent contestants are Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga, Union Ministers Ananth Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada and Ramesh Jigajinagi from Bijapur, Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra and former Chief Minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa of JD(S) from Shimogga, among others.

Key constituencies to be watched out for during the polls include Gulbarga, where Kharge is pitted against Umesh Jadhav, who ahead of polls joined the BJP quitting Congress and as MLA; Shimogga, where former chief Minister Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra is pitted against another former chief minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa.

The spotlight is also on Belgaum, where Congress is facing dissidence, with rebel MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi not campaigning for the party candidate and skipping Rahul Gandhi's event of Friday.

In 14 constituencies that will go to the polls in the second phase on April 23, BJP is contesting all the seats.

Congress and JD(S) that are facing the polls in alliance have fielded their candidates in 12 and two constituencies respectively.

While the Congress currently has its hold on only four out of 14 seats that will go to the polls in the second phase- Chikkodi, Gulbarga, Bellary, Raichur; BJP has its sitting MPs in 10 seats.

A total of 237 candidates are in the field in the second phase.

Belgaum with 57 has the maximum number of candidates, while Raichur with five has the lowest in the second phase, as well as in both phases on the whole.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Catholic Church in the Holy Land has voiced support for Sri Lanka's Christians and condemned Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels there that killed at least 156 people.

A statement issued in Jerusalem said the blasts were particularly sad as they "came while Christians celebrate Easter."



"We pray for the souls of the victims and ask for speedy recovery of the injured, and ask God to inspire the terrorists to repent of their killing and intimidation," the statement said.

"We also express our solidarity with Sri Lanka and all its inhabitants in their various religious and ethnic backgrounds." A string of blasts ripped through churches and high-end hotels as worshippers attended Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday.

The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no immediate claims of responsibility.

Only around six per cent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka is Catholic.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) has for the fifth consecutive quarter listed its majority ONGC as a public and not its promoter, but it will face a real test when the vacant posts of directors on the company board are filled.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) in January last year bought the government's entire 51.11 per cent stake in for Rs 36,915 crore. thereafter became its subsidiary but management has continuously refused to recognise ONGC as its promoter.

In a regulatory filing on shareholding pattern at the end of March quarter, HPCL on April 18 listed " of India" as its promoter with "zero" per cent shareholding. ONGC was listed as "public shareholder", owning "77.88 crores" shares or "51.11 per cent" shareholding of the company.

Sources said HPCL may be taking shield of technicalities to not list ONGC as its promoter but it will face a real test when interviews to fill the post of Director (Finance) are conducted.

The chairman of ONGC, as a result of the company being the holding company of HPCL, should by rules be on the interview panel to select the directors and that would in a way end all the wrangling over promoter issue, they said.

HPCL Director (Finance) J Ramaswamy retired on February 28 but interviews for the post haven't been done yet by the government headhunter Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB).

For selecting a director of a company where the government or its controlled company has more than 50 per cent stake, a PESB panel holders interview from among shortlisted candidates. The panel is assisted by the Secretary of the administrative ministry and the chairman of the company concerned.

The Department of Personnel guidelines state "in the case of subsidiaries, the full-time Chairman of the holding Company is invited to assist the Board."



Sources said going by these guidelines, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director should sit on the interview panel to select HPCL Director (Finance).

They said Ltd governance structure, which the HPCL management has so often cited, clearly provides for the holding company chairman to sit on the panel for selecting directors of subsidiary

Ltd is a holding company and has seven subsidiaries. The board of each of the subsidiaries is headed by a Chairman and Coal too has a Chairman and Managing Director to head the board. But on PESB panel to select director or even chairman of subsidiary companies, Coal India Chairman and Managing Director is invited.

Sources said the government had earlier this year asked HPCL to add ONGC as its co-promoter but the oil refining company sought to delay it by seeking further clarifications.

While the promoter tag does not bring any specific privileges to ONGC, a lack of it keeps it out of insider trading regulations as it get full agenda of every board meeting of HPCL and can be aware of price sensitive information.

ONGC, which had to borrow Rs 24,876 crore for the acquisition that helped the government meet its disinvestment target for the 2017-18 fiscal, first raised the issue of being formally recognised as a promoter of HPCL in August last year.

When the issue first arose in August 2018, Oil Minister had clearly stated that ONGC is the new promoter of HPCL.

ONGC, he had said, had invested in acquiring a majority stake in the company and so it is the promoter. "ONGC is the promoter of HPCL," he had said.

After ONGC bought out government stake, HPCL became its subsidiary. Since ONGC takeover in January 2018, HPCL has made five stock exchange filings about the shareholding pattern of the company -- the first on April 20, 2018, then on July 12, 2018, then on October 19, 2018, then on January 21, 2019 and finally on April 18, 2019. In all four, ONGC is shown as the public and of India listed as the promoter.

According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India's rules, the entity that owns the controlling stake should be listed as promoter even if it was not the original promoter of the company.

When (IOC) had bought the government's stake in fuel retailer IBP Co Ltd, it was listed as the latter's promoter in every instance after the deal. The same was the case when IOC acquired a majority stake in (CPCL).

HPCL Chairman and Managing Director M K Surana has retained the title of Chairman and Managing Director despite corporate governance structure require a group having just one chairman and subsidiaries being run by managing directors and CEOs.

ONGC's overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd, is headed by a Managing Director and CEO. Its refinery subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), which is listed on BSE, too is led by a Managing Director and CEO. ONGC Chairman is the head of boards of both the

Since acquiring a majority stake in HPCL, ONGC has only been able to appoint one director to that firm's board.South Korean auto major is looking at various options for sourcing electric vehicle (EV) components in India, including local manufacturing of battery parts, a top company official said.

The automaker, which is present in through its wholly-owned subsidiary Motor Ltd (HMIL), said it is also looking for further clarity in government policy to drive in hybrid models in the country.

"We are studying various options, not only us (HMIL) in India, but even Motor Company (HMC) procurement division is looking at it," HMIL MD and S S Kim told when asked if the company plans to locally manufacture batteries for EVs.

The company's parent HMC is even contacting suppliers in for battery components, he added.

Hyundai plans to drive in its first EV in a complete knock-down (CKD) form in the country this year. The vehicle would be assembled at Hyundai's Chennai-based manufacturing plant.

With the government pushing for local sourcing of EV components, along with its partners is already in the process of constructing an automotive lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant at Hansalpur in

and are also actively pursuing EV segment in the country.

Kim said government support is critical to support growth of EVs in the personal mobility space.

"In many countries where the EVs are sold to private customers, they are supported by the government in terms of subsidies ... if OEMs need to push EV mobility, government push is critical, so we are expecting some more support," he added.

Under the FAME-II scheme with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore, the government is primarily focusing on electrification of public

When asked about launching hybrid vehicles in the country, Kim said the company will take a decision after further policy clarity on the segment from the government.

"Once the hybrid policy and its framework is readied by the government we will also plan our activity accordingly," he said.

On establishing a new factory, Kim said the installed capacity at the company's plant is currently enough to take care of the demand.

The company has added an additional capacity of 50,000 units, taking the total installed capacity at the plant to 7.5 lakh units per annum, he added.

(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.)Amid speculations she could be pitted against Prime Minister in seat, General Secretary Vadra Sunday said she will be happy to contest if asked by party

"You will find out. If my tells me to contest, I will be happy to contest," Priyanka Gandhi, sister of Rahul Gandhi, told reporters here.

She was responding to a question whether she will contest the poll from in from where Modi is seeking re-election.

Last month, had thrown a hint that she is not averse to taking on Modi in

"Shouldn't I fight from Varanasi?" Vadra said when a party worker asked her to contest from Rae Bareli, setting of speculations about her possible candidature.

Earlier, the had also said she would contest the election if the party wanted her to do so.

In her media interaction here, dismissed BJP and union minister Uma Bharati's controversial remarks that the country will see her the way it views a "thief's wife".

"From my grandmother, grandfather, father, mother, they have said one thing or the other about all of my family. They will keep on saying such things. But we will keep on doing our job," she responded with a smile.

When asked to comment on the impact Priyanka could have on the poll outcome, Bharati had last week said: "Nothing. Why will she have an impact... Whose husband is facing theft charges. She will be seen the way sees a thief's wife."



Priyanka Gandhi, Congress general secretary in-charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, was in for the last two days canvassing votes for Rahul Gandhi, who is contesting in Wayanad constituency besides in Amethi in

(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.)Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram Sunday said that in order to bring a change in Pakistan's behaviour, India must also change its behaviour towards the neighbouring country.

The former home minister also said that a way must be found to normalise the India-Pakistan relations so as to answer the country's "biggest external challenge" in terms of security and various other aspects.

"Whatever we do, we have to make Pakistan change its behaviour. That means we must also change our behaviour towards Pakistan. These attitudinal changes will happen over a period of time. But we must make an effort," he said at a discussion titled -- "Beyond Politics: Debating a new Security Manifesto", organised by think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) here.

Retired Lt General DS Hooda, while presenting salient features of his report "India's National Security Strategy", contended that "one surgical strike or air strike cannot change the behaviour of Pakistan."



Chidambaram disagreed with him. "We build strong armies not to win a war but to avoid the war. If that is kept in mind everything will fall in place," the Congress leader said.

There has to be some "radical" thinking, a departure in conventional thinking by which "we can find ways in which India and Pakistan can have normal relations", he said.

"We may have tried everything and failed, but we have to try and try and try until we have a break. There is no reason why one day an Indian prime minister and a Pakistan prime minister cannot walk into each other's territory and shake hands."



Chidambaram suggested that efforts should be made to resolve issue which are easy to sort out and batted for increased mutual visits by the people of the two countries.

He said people are "mesmerised" by phrases like "strong leader, strong government, muscular policy" but how can such a policy be called successful if the number of crossborder infiltrations, military and casualties have been the "highest" in the past 15 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India Sunday strongly condemned the serial blasts on multiple locations in Sri Lanka while Prime Minister Narendra Modi held telephonic conversations with the president and the premier of the island nation offering all possible help and assistance to deal with the situation.

In his conversation with the Sri Lankan leadership, Modi termed the serial blasts as a "cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts" and pointed out that the attacks were another grave reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said there can be no justification for any act of terror and called for concerted global action to effectively deal with the menace, including cross-border terrorism.

Over 200 people were killed and around 500 others were injured in a series of blasts at several locations in Sri Lanka in which suicide bombers were involved in at least two of the eight attacks that struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners on Easter Sunday.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Sri Lanka. We wish speedy recovery to those injured in the attacks," the MEA statement said.

The ministry said India has always opposed and rejected terrorism in all forms and manifestations and there can be no justification for any kind of terror.

"We call for perpetrators of such ghastly and heinous act and those who provide them support to be brought to justice expeditiously," the ministry said.

"We strongly condemn the serial blasts on multiple locations in Sri Lanka today morning in which many people have been killed and injured.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Sri Lanka. We wish speedy recovery to those injured in the attacks," the MEA statement said.

In his telephonic conversation with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Modi conveyed his heartfelt condolences on his own behalf as well as on behalf of all Indians, over the loss of over 200 lives in the terrorist action, a government release said.

It said Modi condemned in the strongest terms the serial terrorist attacks perpetrated at various places, including religious places and during a religious festival, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

The Prime Minister renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka for ensuring its security against the challenges such as those posed by terrorism, the release said. The Prime Minister also wished a speedy recovery for the injured and offered any kind of medical assistance for treatment of the injured.

Sources said Modi spoke to the Sri Lankan leadership while he was himself travelling across the country for his political campaign. The sources said the PM spoke to the Lankan President even as the latter is currently in Singapore.

Condemning the blasts, Modi earlier said there is no place for barbarism in the region and that India stands in solidarity with the people of the island nation.

"Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region," he tweeted.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also said India was keeping a close watch on the situation.

"Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL," Swaraj tweeted.

"India has always opposed and rejected terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and has urged concerted action by the international community against terrorism, including cross-border terrorism. There can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terror," the MEA said in the statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)is not a ' king' and it has all the right to take appropriate measures to protect the interest of specific sectors like agriculture, international trade experts have said.

Rejecting the US allegation that India's import duties are one of the highest in the world, experts said that several developed countries and regions including Japan, South Korea, European Union, and maintain "extremely high" tariffs primarily on

The US has repeatedly claimed that is a " king" and imposes "tremendously high" import duties on American goods.

Biswajit Dhar, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that the US allegations are completely unfounded.

"In fact, the US import duties on several of their products are quite high such as on tobacco it is about 350 per cent and 164 per cent on peanuts. They too maintain reasonably high duties," Dhar said.

Sharing similar views, Professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Rakesh Mohan Joshi said that the US allegations are not correct and in fact, they should rationalise their duty structure being a developed nation.

Trade Promotion Council of Chairman Mohit Singla said that the assertion of the US is not factually correct.

He said that the allegation of Trump that India is a king does not hold true and is unjustified.

"Like other nations, India has the right to take appropriate measures to protect its domestic interests in specific sectors as and when it is deemed fit. Moreover, there are many countries which have much higher tariff as compared to India. Being a signatory and member of WTO, India remains committed to free, fair, and predictable trade," Singla added.

Geneva-based 164-member (WTO) is a multilateral body which frames global trade norms.

Singla claimed that countries like levy 736 per cent duty on certain products; while Korea imposes 807 per cent on some goods.

Federation of Indian Exports Organisation (FIEO) said that product-specific high tariffs, like 150 per cent on alcoholic beverages, 100 per cent on coffee, and 60-75 per cent on automobiles have made India a villain in the eyes of the US

However, many countries in the world including Japan, South Korea, the EU, the US maintain an extremely high tariff primarily on agriculture products, FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai said.

"India's average bound tariff is 48.5 per cent while average applied tariff is 13.4 per cent. The wide gap between the two clearly shows that India is not a tariff king else it would have pushed the applied tariff very close to the bound rates," Sahai said.

While bound tariffs or duties refer to the ceiling, the applied tariff is the duty which is currently in place.

Another expert, who did not wish to be named, said that the US should not level any allegation of discrimination at tariff front vis-a-vis developing countries like India as has emerged as one of the richest nations in the world with per capita income of about $60,000 per annum.

"Repeated mention of India as a tariff king with cherry-picked examples like motorbikes and whiskey is disingenuous, as it conveniently ignores the overall tariff structure of the country, apart from India's developing status," the expert said.

He added that India has complied with all tariff commitments under the and has made sincere efforts to reduce applied duties suo-moto to 13.7 per cent today over a period of time.

Recently, the US decided to withdraw incentives being provided to Indian exporters under the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) programme. However, India has stated that it would not impact domestic exporters as the benefits were only about USD 190 million annually.

Despite the fact that India and the US were working on a trade package, the US decided to go ahead with its decision.

The package was covering all concerns related to bilateral trade with the US on sectors including medical devices, and agricultural goods. also wants a cut on duties on certain ICT products.

According to sources, India was ready to address the US concerns regarding these sectors.

The bilateral trade between India and the US has increased to $74.5 billion in 2017-18 from $64.5 billion in 2016-17.

Although India has a trade surplus with the US, India is a thriving market for US defence firms, and companies.Prime minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said India missed an "golden opportunity" to resolve Kashmir dispute during 1971 war when "under global pressure" it released hundreds of Pakistani troops who were in the custody of Indian army.

Speaking at an election rally here, Modi said then Congress government signed Shimla agreement (in 1972) "under global pressure" and released over 90,000 prisoners of war (PoW) instead of resolving the Kashmir dispute "in lieu of the PoW."



"Pak troops were in our custody. A big area of Pakistan was also captured by Indian forces during 1971 war but the Congress government lost it on table in Shimla agreement and they were released," he said.

"The government crumbled under global pressure and signed the Shimla agreement and the matter was closed. PoW and the capture land were released. That was a golden opportunity to resolve the Kashmir dispute in lieu of the PoW," he said.

The prime minister said that it was a trump card in the hands of the government but the chance was missed and the entire country is facing its result today.

Modi said it was the reason why Congress leaders do not want nationalism to be an issue.

The statement from Modi came after Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot in his recent election rallies highlighted that a new nation (Bangladesh) was created by dividing Pakistan by Indian armed forces during the rule of former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1971.

The prime minister also said India no more afraid of nuclear threats from Pakistan.

"Otherwise, Pakistan used to give nuclear threats. What do we have? Have we kept it for 'Diwali' (Warna aay din nuclear button hai, ye kehte the. Hamare paas kya hai. Ye diwali ke liye rakha hai kya), Modi commented.

He said Indian forces killed terrorists across the border without engaging in a war.

"This is called a strong government. We have created fear among terrorist," the PM said.

The Indian Army had conducted a surgical strike across against several terror launch pads across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in September 2016, ten days after a terror attack at an Army camp in Uri in which 19 soldiers had been killed.

In February this year, the Indian Air Force struck at a terror camp in Balakote after a terrorist attack in Pulwama, which had left 40 CRPF personnel dead.

Modi said his government crushed the ego of Pakistan and "forced the neighbouring country to roam in world with begging bowl."



"Hamne Pakistan ki sari hekdi nika di. Use katora leke dunia me ghumne ko mene majboor kar diya hai, he said.

The prime minister said people were happy and think the Modi government has done good but it is not the case with Congress leaders and its alliance partners.

He said his government fulfilled long pending demands during Congress rule like One Rank, One Pension for the forces and National War Memorial in Delhi.

"There was a long pending demand for war memorial but Congress built memorial for their family. They built 'Samadhi' for their family but did not built war memorial in the memory of jawans who sacrificed life for the country, he said.

Targeting the chief minister of Congress-JDS led Karnataka government, Modi said the CM had said that "those who are hungry and do not get two-time meals get into army," which, he said, was the insult of jawans and their family members.

He said that scams in defence sector used to happen during the former Congress governments' rule and the defence forces lacked modern equipments and weapons.

"Therefore they (Congress) do not want to talk about national security, Modi said.

The PM said there was no progress in Rafale deal during Congress rule, Mig planes kept on crashing but they did nothing to enhance the power of the forces.

Referring to the issue of Pak refugees in India, Modi said that Hindus who are in minority in Pakistan face discrimination there and the government of India made efforts to get citizenship amendment bill passed.

"The Chowkidaar has also made efforts to get citizenship amendment law passed for those having faith in the country (Maa Bharati). The people of this country who chose to live in Pakistan at the time of partition .... started facing atrocities because their faith and the way of revering god was different, he said.

The PM said that efforts will be made to complete the long pending work after the government formation on May 23.

Modi said that the upcoming polls are also "very important" for those who are going to vote for the first time.

"I understand your dreams and ready to sacrifice my dreams for you, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India has said its commitment of USD 3 billion in development assistance to Sri Lanka is inspired by rationale of South-South Cooperation, underscoring that New Delhi's "unique" development cooperation with Colombo is built on foundations of political understanding and geographic realities.

"Sri Lanka has a special place in Indian hearts, given the time-tested bonds, going back almost to the very beginning of recorded history in the subcontinent. Our relationship is built upon the strong foundations of a shared cultural and socio-economic heritage and extensive people-to-people interactions over millennia," India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu said.

Participating in the Peacebuilding Commission Informal Meeting on Sri Lanka here last week, Naidu said India's development cooperation with Sri Lanka is "unique" and is built on foundations of political understanding, a historic past, geographic realities and socio-cultural empathy.

"India's commitment of USD 3 billion in development assistance to Sri Lanka is entirely based on the priorities set out by the Government and the people of Sri Lanka," he said, adding that these development projects, guided and inspired by the rationale of South-South Cooperation, focus especially on capacity-building, human resources development, uplifting of weaker sections as well as infrastructure development.

India's portfolio of development projects encompasses virtually all major sectors of the economy, including housing, infrastructure, education, health, agriculture, fisheries, industry, handicrafts, culture and sports.

Naidu noted that the development projects have been widely appreciated for their transparent approach and timely implementation through recourse to local materials and manpower, in a manner that supports the local economy.

The diplomat reiterated India's commitment to stand with Sri Lanka in its efforts to build a future that accommodates the aspirations of all sections of society for "a life of equality, justice, and dignity and convey our sincere support and good wishes for Sri Lanka's journey of peace, reconciliation and progress."



Naidu said the collaboration between Sri Lanka and the Peacebuilding Commission, operating under the principle of national ownership, is a classic example of a fruitful partnership.

The development of the Peacebuilding Priority Plan (PPP) by the Sri Lankan Government in close consultation with Peacebuilding Support Office, UN Country Team and civil society representatives in November 2015, has had a multiplier effect in galvanizing on Sri Lankan government's efforts.

"The continued commitment of the Government of Sri Lanka to peacebuilding and transitional justice is evident from its recent decision to co-sponsor a two-year extension to implement the Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 that established the framework by which the government, victims and civil society can address the root causes of the past conflict," Naidu said, referring to the resolution adopted by the HRC on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka.

Naidu said the establishment of the Office for Missing Persons and the resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons, and the budget allocation of 11.3 billion rupees for reconciliation efforts in 2018 and 15.3 billion rupees in 2019 demonstrates the Sri Lankan governments strong commitment to lasting and sustainable peace.

The introduction of the UN Joint Programme for Peace (JPP) in Sri Lanka aimed at harnessing assistance from multiple partners for strategic, coherent and sustainable support in the areas of transitional justice, reconciliation, good governance and durable resettlement should be supported by the international community, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four persons of a family, including an infant, were killedand two others injured Sunday when their car rammed into a truck near Shirur on Pune-Ahmednagar highway in Maharashtra.

The ill-fated car was headed towards Pune when the tragedy struck in the wee hours.

The family members were returning to Pune from Nanded with the infant, who was born 20 days ago to Pushpa Hake (25), a police officer said.

After the accident, locals rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to hospital, he said.

The deceased have been identified as Vimla Hake, 60, Kishore Hake, 32, and Shubham Hake, 25, all residents of Wagholi area of Pune. The baby was yet to be named.

Mother of the infant Pushpa Hake (25) and a four-year-old girl survived.

"They are currently undergoing treatment at hospital," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iraq's judiciary condemned to death four Islamic State group members on Sunday, the first known sentence for hundreds of Iraqi jihadists repatriated in recent months from neighbouring Syria.

In early April, Iraq's specialised terrorism courts began preparing cases against nearly 900 Iraqis accused of joining IS.

They had been caught in Syria by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, and transferred to Iraqi authorities.

On Sunday, the judiciary said it had tried four Iraqis "accused of belonging to Daesh (IS) and carrying out crimes against innocent civilians in order to destabilise Iraq and Syria." They were sentenced to "death by hanging" in accordance with Iraq's 2005 counter-terror law, the statement said.

The sentence was the first one of its kind for accused jihadists from Iraq who were caught in Syria.

Additional Iraqi suspects are in SDF custody and are awaiting repatriation, a security source told AFP earlier this month.

Iraq has already tried thousands of its own nationals arrested on home soil for joining IS - including women -- and has sentenced hundreds to death.

The country remains in the top five "executioner" nations in the world, according to an Amnesty International report released last week.

The number of death sentences issued by Iraqi courts more than quadrupled from 65 in 2017 to at least 271 last year.

But fewer were actually carried out, according to Amnesty, with 52 executions in 2018 compared to 125 in 2017.

In addition to locals, Iraq has also tried hundreds of foreigners, condemning many to life in prison and others to death, although no foreign IS members have yet been executed.

Among those awaiting trial in Baghdad are 12 accused French IS members, who were caught in Syria and transferred to Iraqi custody in February.

Rights groups including Human Rights Watch have criticised the trials, which they say often rely on circumstantial evidence or confessions obtained under torture.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four men were killed Sunday in an attack on a Saudi security services base north of the capital Riyadh, official media said, as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the assault.

Quoting a spokesman for the state security services, the Saudi Press Agency said three policemen were also wounded in the morning attack in the Zulfi province north of Riyadh. It said a "group of terrorists" tried to "storm the building" but security authorities repelled them, killing four.

An investigation was launched to identify the assailants as well as the type of "explosive material" they had in their possession, SPA said.

The London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper earlier reported that the attack targeted state security forces in the town of Zulfi, 260 kilometres north of the capital. It said the attackers had rammed a vehicle into a security barrier around the base in an attempt to gain entry.

Two gunmen then stepped out of the vehicle and opened fire, sparking a gun battle with police, who killed them, the paper reported. A third was gunned down as he attempted to flee while a fourth died as he tried to set off an explosive belt, the paper said.

The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al-Arabiya also reported four people died during an attack, but gave no details.

IS, in a statement carried by its propaganda arm Amaq, said "the attack on the security services base in the town of Zulfi northwest of Riyadh was carried out by Islamic State group fighters". It gave no further details.

The kingdom has seen numerous attacks in recent years by jihadists, including Al-Qaeda and IS, against security forces. It has also seen clashes between Shiite militants and security forces in the eastern provinces.

IS' elusive supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had in recent years called for attacks on Saudi Arabia, which is part of a US-led coalition that has been battling the jihadists in Syria and Iraq since 2014.

The Sunni extremist group has claimed previous attacks in Saudi Arabia, targeting mostly security forces and members of the Shiite community who they view as heretics.

On April 7, two men armed with explosives were killed and two others arrested as they attacked a security checkpoint in a predominantly Shiite region in eastern Saudi Arabia, which has seen years of demonstrations against the Sunni royal family.

Sunday's attack took place in a majority Sunni region. An estimated 10-15 percent of the ultra-conservative kingdom's 32 million population are Shiite, although no official figures exist.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Islamic State group Sunday claimed responsibility for a deadly attack that kept some 2,000 people trapped for hours inside the communications ministry in the Afghan capital the previous day.

Four IS jihadists detonated explosives near the ministry, then entered and "battled Afghan security forces with machine guns and hand grenades for numerous hours", the group said in a statement on its social media channels.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Accusing institutional disrupters' of destabilising the institution of of (CJI) by lending shoulder to unverified allegations against the head of the apex court, Finance Minister Sunday suggested that those who peddle falsehood should be dealt in an exemplary manner.

"It's Time to Stand up With the Judiciary", Jaitley said in his blog, a day after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against CJI

The even held an extraordinary hearing on Saturday after a former employee of the apex court accused the CJI of sexual harassment and persecution. The former employee has described two incidents of alleged molestation by Gogoi in her affidavit, both of which allegedly took place in October 2018, only days after he was appointed as the CJI.

Jaitley said: "In terms of personal decency, values, ethics and integrity, the present of is extremely well regarded. Even when critics disagree with his judicial view, his value system has never been questioned. Lending shoulder to completely unverified allegations coming from a disgruntled person with a not-so-glorious track record is aiding the process of destabilisation of the institution of the of

The minister further said that those who peddle falsehood to destroy the institution are not dealt with in an exemplary manner, this trend will only accelerate.

The incident of a junior ex-lady employee of the making harassment charges against the Chief Justice of India has acquired a disproportionate magnitude, Jaitley said.

Such complaints, when they are made in the ordinary course of any administrative functioning, are referred to the appropriate Committee. However, when the complainant distributes copies of her representation to other Judges of the and the media in order to sensationalise her allegations, it ceases to be routine.

When four digital media organisations with an unparalleled track record of institutional disruption' send similar questionnaires to the Chief Justice of India, there is obviously something more than what meets the eye, the minister added.

Jaitley regretted that last few years have witnessed the consolidation of institution destabilizers' in a major way. For the institutional disruptors' there are no red lines, he wrote.

Many of these destabilizers represent Left or ultra-Left views. They have no electoral base or popular support. However, they still have a disproportionate presence in the media and academia. When ousted for mainstream media, they have taken refuge in the digital and social media



Even though most of them subscribe to fringe ideologies and ideas, it is regrettable that a section of the Members of the Bar affiliated to the tends to join them. Frequent attempts are made to get some Parliamentarians to sign Motion of Impeachment against judges and even the Chief Justice on unsustainable grounds. What has always puzzled me is the Congress lending support to such fringe campaigns, the minister said.

Justice Gogoi was sworn in as the 46th Chief Justice of India on October 3, 2018. He retires on November 17, 2019.

Jaitley said India has witnessed a series of attacks by the institution disruptors' against judges who are unwilling to agree with them.

It may not be an exaggeration to say that today both in Court and by creating an environment outside, a mass-intimidation of Judges is on, he said.

Stating that reputation is an integral part of a person's fundamental right to live with dignity, Jaitley said an intimidated judge can fear consequences of a possible view that he is taking.

It is, therefore, essential that all well-meaning persons stand with the judicial institution when destabilizers get ready for an assault, he said.The residents of Jangpura Extension protested on Sunday against the recent spate of theft, snatching and drug-related incidents in the area.

Scores of residents from different parts of the posh southeast Delhi locality assembled outside the Jangpura Extension police post and raised slogans against the local police for their alleged "apathy".

"In the last 15 days, nearly 100 cases of snatching, theft at houses and of items like stereos, tyres and other accessories from vehicles have taken place but the police has failed to do anything," fumed Kapil Kakkar, president of Jangpura Extension Residents Welfare Association.

Kakkar said lack of police patrolling in different parts of their locality has given way to drug menace, with youngsters falling prey to it.

"Youths can be seen taking drugs in the bylanes and in their vehicles without any hesitation, since police presence is negligible. Also, free access leads to entry of anti-social elements who involve in crimes like snatching, because there are no police barricades or patrolling," he charged.

Last week, the residents lodged a complaint against rampant crimes in the area with the South East Delhi DCP after which police can be seen patrolling, locals said.

"Patrolling has increased now, but it should continue. Also, police should keep check on free movement in various parts of the locality to identify and act against anti-social elements," Kakkar said.

A senior police officer said reports of theft and snatching were acted on, when there was a complaint, and dismissed reports of police not acknowledging petty crimes.

Patrolling has been intensified in the area and the police is working in coordination with local residents to keep a watch on activities of strangers, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jenna Dewan says the past one year following her separation from former husband Channing Tatum was "very intense".

Dewan said she wrote about her experiences in the book "Gracefully You: How to Live Your Best Life Every Day".

"It's kind of a combination of a lot of things. It's no secret that I had a very intense year and a lot of change," the 38-year-old actor said.

She was in conversation with actor John Cena, who filled in for host Ellen DeGeneres on her show.

Dewan and Tatum, 38, who started dating after they starred opposite each other in the 2006 dance film "Step Up", announced their split in 2018.

They separated after eight years of marriage and share five-year-old daughter, Everly.

"I'm a hippie at heart. I'm sort of a seeker. I like to do practices and rituals and things that sort of connect me to something greater than myself, bigger than myself.

"Through that, I used a lot of those techniques to help me through change. There's a lot of personal stories; there's a lot that I go into... It was really cathartic and fun to write this," Dewan said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Supporters of CPI candidate from Bihar's Begusarai Lok Sabha seat Kanhaiya Kumar and a group of locals clashed on Sunday, after the former JNU students' union president was shown black flags here during a roadshow, police said.

The incident occurred when more than a dozen local youths raised slogans against Kumar and waved black flags at him, while he was taking out a road show at Koray village in Gadhpura block of the constituency, a police officer said.

A police team reached the spot and brought the situation under control, he said.

No FIR has been lodged in this connection so far, the officer said.

Kumar is pitted against Union minister and firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh.Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal condemned the terror attack in Sri Lanka on Sunday in "strongest terms", saying enemies of humanity cannot be allowed to succeed.

Six near simultaneous explosions rocked three churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday morning, killing more than 140 people and injuring over 400 others, in one of the deadliest blasts in the island nation's history.

"Extremely sad from Sri Lanka on Easter. Enemies of humanity cannot be allowed to succeed in any part of the world and acts of terror should be condemned in strongest terms," he said in a tweet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)King Hamad has ordered that the citizenship of 551 Bahrainis revoked by courts be restored, official media said Sunday, days after a senior UN official expressed concern about the punishment.

The king, who can reverse court decisions, requested that the competent authorities take into account "the nature of crimes committed", the Bahrain Agency reported.

The interior ministry has been instructed to examine files and prepare lists of those to be freed.

Human rights groups estimate that 990 mainly Shiite people have had their citizenship revoked since protests against the government early this decade.

Ruled for more than two centuries by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, Bahrain has a majority Shiite Muslim population, according to unofficial estimates contested by the government.

A Bahraini court on Tuesday revoked the citizenship of 138 people and jailed 139, at the end of a mass trial denounced by rights group Amnesty International.

Those convicted -- Shiite Bahraini citizens, according to a judicial source -- belonged to a group of 169 people accused of forming a "terror" group with links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

This was the biggest group of people to have been convicted and to have lost their citizenship as a result of a single trial since the start of judicial proceedings in 2012 against people who took part in a protest movement, according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday expressed alarm about the court's decision.

"Tuesday's convictions give rise to serious concerns about the application of the law, particularly through a mass trial that reportedly lacked the procedural safeguards necessary to ensure a fair trial," rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

"Deprevation of nationality must not be arbitrary, especially on discriminatory grounds," she said, stressing that "arbitrary deprivation of nationality places the individuals concerned and their family members in a situation of increased vulnerability to human rights violations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britons were among those killed in the deadly Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka, the Foreign Office in London said.

"We can confirm that British nationals were among those killed in today's horrific attacks in Sri Lanka," a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman told AFP.

"Our staff are supporting the relatives of the victims and are continuing to work with the relevant authorities to obtain further information.

"We extend our deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones and all those affected by this senseless tragedy."



The spokeswoman did not give a figure for the Britons killed, but a government ministry source said London was aware of at least five British fatalities.

A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services, killing more than 200 people, including dozens of foreigners.

James Dauris, Britain's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, was attending an Easter Day church service in Colombo that was cut short by the attacks. He visited UK nationals in hospital in the capital and called the attacks "evil".

British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the blasts, saying on Twitter: "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear."



In her Easter message released just hours before the blasts, May -- the daughter of an Anglican vicar -- offered her support to Christians around the world who face "huge danger" because of their faith.

She said: "Churches have been attacked. Christians murdered. Families forced to flee their homes.

"That is why the government has launched a global review into the persecution of Christians.

"We must stand up for the right of everyone, no matter what their religion, to practise their faith in peace." Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt also condemned the Sir Lanka blasts.

He tweeted: "I'm deeply shocked and saddened by the horrifying attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

"To target those gathered for worship on Easter Sunday is particularly wicked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has called a May 27 referendum on changing the constitution, to do away with the country's Senate and give more powers to the regions.

Rajoelina made both issues part of his campaign platform in the run-up to his election in December.

A statement issued over the weekend announced the referendum to change the constitution, which he himself introduced in 2010 during his first term as president.

The date set is the same on which the country will vote in legislative elections, in what the official statement said was designed to cut the "exorbitant costs" of holding them separately.

Rajoelina first ruled from 2009 until 2014 after he was installed by the army when then president Ravalomanana was ousted following violent protests.

In his inaugural address Rajoelina pledged to fight corruption in the Indian Ocean island nation, which is a former French colony.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A case was filed against the Congress' Mumbai South Lok Sabha candidate Milind Deora at Lokmanya Tilak Marg police station here on the direction of the Election Commission for violation of the model code of conduct, an official said Sunday.

Deora, while campaigning in Zaveri Bazar area on April 4, had made an appeal to the Jain community to not vote for the Shiv Sena as it had hurt their religious sentiments earlier.

Following the remarks, Sena supporters had filed a complaint with the Election Commission on April 8.

Deora is pitted against Sena's sitting MP Arvind Sawant for the seat.

"We registered an offence on Saturday against Deora under section 125 of the Representation of the People Act and section 171 of the Indian Penal Code," Dnyaneshwar Chavan, Zone II Deputy Commissioner of Police said Sunday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up the president and the premier of Sri Lanka and conveyed heartfelt condolences over the loss of over 160 lives in terrorist attacks in the island nation on Sunday.

During his conversations with Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Modi condemned the serial terrorist attacks in the strongest terms, perpetrated at sites including religious places and during a religious festival, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

Describing the attacks as "cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts", Modi said these attacks were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world.

The Prime Minister renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka for ensuring its security against the challenges such as those posed by terrorism, the PMO statement said.

He also wished the injured speedy recovery and offered any required assistance for their treatment.

Condemning the blasts, Modi said there is no place for barbarism in the region and that India stands in solidarity with the people of the island nation.

"Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region," he tweeted.

"My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," Modi said.

"Hundreds of innocent people were killed by terrorist in Sri Lanka. They were doing prayers in Church and celebrating Easter, at that time, terrorists killed scores of people including children and women. I express my condolence," Modi said later addressing a public meeting in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh.

"India is standing by Sri Lanka and is ready for any help in the time of crisis," he said.

Expressing concern over the menace of terrorism, Modi also took this opportunity to stress on voting in favour of the BJP to strengthen the fight against terrorism in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The near-simultaneous blasts targeting three churches and as many luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday may have an "adverse impact" on the upcoming summer holiday season in the country, a well-known tourist destination, tour operators and hoteliers said.

A string of near simultaneous blasts struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing more than 160 people and injuring over 450 others, shattering a decade of peace in the country after the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

India is the largest source market for Sri Lanka, which received 2.3 million tourists from around the world in 2018.

Around 450,000 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka last year and the island nation was expecting the total Indian tourist arrivals to cross one million mark in 2019.

The explosions at the start of the travel season is likely to impact the annual tourist footfalls. The tourism authorities said they were worried that the attacks will affect the industry in the coming months.

Tourism revenues in Sri Lanka increased to USD 362.7 million in November from USD 284 million in October 2018, according to a media report.

"There will be a downward trend, Tourism will get affected. There may be fund outflows," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) President Harith Perera said it was the first time that hotels have been directly attacked, asserting that it was unprecedented and had not happened even during the 30-year-old brutal conflict.

He said the attacks were likely to have an "adverse impact" on the summer holiday season that is coming up, the Sunday Times reported.

The three five-star hotels targeted in the blasts were the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury.

Asked whether security has been beefed up at the other city hotels, Perera said the authorities were "still waking up from what has happened."



"This will create a lot of instability and send the wrong message," he said.

Hoteliers Association President Sanath Ukwatte said the attacks seemed to indicate that it was targeted at the Easter celebrations and Easter Mass.

"None of us are sure of what is happening," Ukwatte said.

He said all hotels have taken necessary precautions following the attacks.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm following the attacks.

"I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary," Sirisena said.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as "cowardly attacks" and said his government was working to "contain the situation."



Sri Lanka's tourism industry faced a difficult time until a decade back due to the civil war with the LTTE which claimed at least 100,000 lives. However, in the recent years the island nation has emerged as a top tourism destination in Asia.

The island nation has developed the Ramayana circuit to woo Indian tourists by identifying several places connected with the ancient Indian epic.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four people, including a senior National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official were Sunday arrested by the CBI for allegedly taking bribe to the tune of Rs 27 lakh for clearing bills of an infrastructure firm, undertaking a highway project in Tamil Nadu.

The CBI's Anti-Corruption wing registered a case Saturday under relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC against the General Manager (Tech) of NHAI, Madurai, who is a resident of Hyderabad and against three others.

The senior official had demanded Rs 27 lakhs on April 17 for clearing the bills pertaining to the ongoing work at NH 7 MaduraiKanyakumari stretch of Tamil Nadu, a CBI release said.

All the four accused have been arrested, it said adding searches were conducted at six places including the office and residential premises of the accused at Hyderabad, Kadappa and Madurai.

The release further said the accused would be produced before a Special Court for CBI cases here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The citizenship bill does not require any changes if Clause 6 of the Assam Accord is implemented properly, says Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal about the proposed legislation which the top BJP leadership has vowed to bring back if voted back to power.

In an interview to PTI, the student leader-turned politician said the bill will be brought after arriving at a consensus with all stakeholders.

"It (amending the Act) is not a new thing as amendments were taken up nine times before this also. This is a continuous process since 1950," he said, adding the BJP will ensure constitutional safeguards to Northeast's political, cultural, social and linguistic identity.

When asked if the Assam government will request the Centre to make necessary changes in the existing bill to allay apprehensions of the people here, Sonowal said that is not needed if the Clause 6 of the Assam Accord is implemented properly.

The Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, which was signed in 1985 after the Assam Agitation of 1979-85, envisages that appropriate constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, should be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the people of Assam.

"If Clause 6 is implemented in letter and spirit, then the indigenous people of Assam are well guarded and protected. That was the agenda ought to be taken up on priority by earlier governments, but it was never seriously considered, Sonowal said.

"Now the prime minister has taken up the matter with sincerity, commitment and dedication. So, I believe once it is implemented, we have nothing to worry. If Clause 6 is implemented, we have no issue with the citizenship bill, even if it comes in the current form, he added.

Several groups and parties have opposed the bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on January 8 but was not tabled in Rajya Sabha and seeks to provide Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India even if they do not possess any document.

Interestingly, though the BJP top brass has been talking about the citizenship bill in poll rallies, the state leaders have not raised the issue in their meetings and speeches.

State minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had earlier said that the citizenship bill was a non-issue in the state and the people are more concerned about national issues.

Sonowal also took a dig at the proposed 'mahagathbandhan' of opposition parties saying the ambitious grouping is dreaming of dethroning Prime Minister Narendra Modi but will "collapse soon" as it does not have any policy on patriotism, integration and service to the nation.

He claimed the constituents of this 'grand alliance' are together during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections only for their vested interests.

"They do not have any policy of integration, service to nation and patriotism. The 'mahagathbandhan' is mainly just to get power. They are all with vested interest," he said.

The members usually stay different, but sometimes they come on the same platform but with different self interests, he added.

"So, there is no national interest in it. I have not seen any national interest within themselves. That is why, I firmly believe that it will collapse soon," he asserted.

Sonowal was once president of the influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU), which has been at the forefront of the protests against the citizenship bill across the Northeast in the past several months.

When told out that the concerns raised by people of Assam and the Northeast were not taken into account while drafting the bill, he disagreed and said the Clause 6 has been taken at the highest level for the first time in the history.

"It is Modi ji who has taken it up and ultimately constituted a high-level committee by the Union Cabinet comprising only Assamese people from different fields. It was given very clear terms of references. The committee has been asked to prepare a report on how Constitutional safeguards can be ensured in best possible manner," he added.

The existence of the nine-member committee is in a lurch with its fifth member and chairman M P Bezbaruah withdrawing from it in January. The other four members refused to be a part of it in protest of the Citizenship Bill, are a representative of the AASU, eminent litterateurs Nagen Saikia and Rong Bong Terang along with educationist Mukunda Rajbongshi.

On resignation of the eminent personalities from the high-level committee, the chief minister said, "It is because of chaos and unnecessary false propaganda by Congress, Leftists and some section intellectuals and media."



Asked about the BJP's prospects in Assam in this Lok Sabha elections, Sonowal claimed the saffron party along with its allies AGP and BPF will bag at least 12 seats out of 14 in the state.

In 2014, the BJP won seven out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam, the Congress and the AIUDF had three MPs each and one member was an Independent.

The two BJP allies, BPF and AGP, had no representation in the Lower House of Parliament.

Sonowal strongly refuted allegation of Modi failing to fulfill the promises made in 2014 elections, especially on deporting the illegal infiltrators from Assam, and claimed that update work of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and steps to implement the Assam Accord are being done to accomplish the task.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An employee speaks over his phone as he sits at the front desk inside the office of Ola cab service in Gurugram (Photo: Reuters)

Ride-hailing platform is in discussions with luxury carmakers, including Audi, and BMW, to launch a subscription-based service under its self-drive offering, according to sources.

has been running a small-scale pilot of the self-drive service in currently, and is expected to launch the offering in the next few weeks through Fleet Technologies.

The company is also believed to have earmarked an investment of up to USD 500 million (including debt) for the self-drive service.

According to sources privy to the development, the company is in talks with carmakers like Audi, and to bring to a model where users can get access to luxury cars by paying a subscription fee.

Email queries sent to Ola, Audi, and did not elicit any response.

One of the persons said the format is available in developed markets like the US, but given the high cost of luxury vehicles in India, a direct-to-customer model may not be not feasible in the country.

The person added that Ola sees a lot of potential in bringing this model to given its scale of operations across multiple categories and cities.

Ola already allows customers to book rides in luxury cars through its 'Lux' offering. In October 2016, the Bengaluru-based company had partnered with for expanding the category.

The company, which competes with the US-based in and international markets like Australia, has been aggressively ramping up its rides business as well as food delivery operations (through Foodpanda).

It had recently announced that and are investing USD 300 million in the company.

Ola, which counts names like and China's among its investors, had received Rs 650 crore funding from co-founder in February this year.

Ola's electric mobility arm Ola Electric Mobility has also raised Rs 400 crore from Tiger Global, Matrix India and others.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The political turmoil in Tripura shows no sign of abating with opposition parties demanding fresh polls in Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency, claiming that the April 11 election in the state was "heavily rigged" by the ruling BJP.

Denying the charge, the saffron party said the allegations were "baseless and politically motivated".

Around 77.6 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first phase of election in West Tripura.

Seeking a "thorough scrutiny" of CCTV footages collected from 1,679 polling booths of the parliamentary seat, both the Congress and the CPI(M) said Sunday they would want their party representatives to be present at the election office during the process.

Gautam Das, the state secretary of the CPI(M), told reporters that his party has submitted a memorandum to the returning officer of Tripura West, Sandeep Mahatme, on Saturday, demanding a re-poll in the seat.

He claimed that elections were rigged in 846 out of the 1,679 booths in the constituency.

"There was rampant proxy voting by the supporters and activists of the BJP. In most cases, they blocked out or disabled the CCTVS. Many voters were intimidated a day before the polls and some were forcefully driven out of the polling stations by the goons," Das told reporters Sunday.

The party would welcome fresh elections in the constituency, he said.

"We could identify 846 booths, where polls were rigged, but the number could go higher. The Election Commission has the machinery to find out what exactly happened in the first phase of polls.

"The party will welcome fresh elections in West Tripura. If that isn't the case, the EC should at least make arrangements for re-polling in those 846 booths," Das said.

The Congress, too, brought similar allegations against the BJP, contending that the state election office, in connivance with the saffron party leaders, might be trying to suppress the matter.

Congress secretary Rahul Saha said that a delegation of his party has met Deputy Chief Election Commissioner Sudip Jain in Delhi to lodge a complaint against the BJP.

"None of our party representatives was invited during the initial scrutiny of the video footages by the chief electoral officer of Tripura, Sriram Taranikanti.

"We are of the opinion that the state election office submitted the report to the poll panel with the intention of suppressing the facts related to mass-rigging. We demand a fresh poll in the West Tripura constituency," Saha asserted.

Earlier this week, Tripura Congress president Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman said he would knock the door of the Supreme Court if the Election Commission refuses its party access to the CCTV footages.

Rebutting the allegations, BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya said the saffron party was not involved in any unfair practices.

"The opposition parties are making baseless allegations against the BJP. The charges are bereft of truth and politically motivated," he added.

Chief Electoral Officer S Taranikanti, who had earlier admitted 'irregularities' in the poll process after initial scrutiny of the CCTV recordings, said he has received 800 complaints in the matter so far.

The other Lok Sabha seat in the state, East Tripura, was scheduled to go to polls on April 18, but the Election commission (EC) postponed the date to April 23, asserting that the prevailing law-and-order situation is not conducive for holding free and fair polls.

The EC also shunted out Additional Director General of Police, Rajiv Singh, for his alleged failure to thwart incidents pertaining to law and order in the lead up to the parliamentary polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday arrived on his first-ever two-day official visit to Iran to promote bilateral relations, amid tensions in ties over the killing of 14 Pakistani security personnel by militants who allegedly came from the neighbouring country.

Unidentified gunmen donning uniforms of paramilitary soldiers Thursday massacred 14 security personnel, mostly from the Pakistan Navy, after forcing them to disembark from buses on a highway in the restive Balochistan province.

The victims were not initially identified and it was speculated they could be Shia Muslims and ethnic workers from Punjab, but later it emerged that they were security personnel, most of them associated with the Pakistan Navy.

Prime minister Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party in a series of tweets gave updates about his visit to Iran on the invitation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

"This is first visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Iran," the party said.

He was accompanied by Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari, Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi, Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Razak Dawood and other officials, it said.

The Prime Minister will call on Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, besides holding detailed consultations with President Rouhani.

He will also meet members of the Iranian and Pakistani business community in Iran.

Pakistan's relations with Iran are marked by close historic and cultural linkages and strong people to people exchanges, Pakistan Foreign Office said.

Pakistan and Iran are also members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The Foreign Office said the Prime Minister's visit to Iran will further the close bilateral relationship between the two countries.

However, the relations received a jolt after the April 18 attack on Pakistan security personnel in Ormara area of Balochistan.

Pakistan complained that over a dozen Baloch ethnic attackers had come from the hideouts in Tehran and demanded action against them.

"Killing of 14 innocent Pakistanis by terrorist groups based in Iran is a very serious incident that Pakistan protests strongly. Pakistan awaits Iran's response to its request for action against the groups based in Iran, whose locations have been identified by Pakistan a number of times," the Foreign Office said in a protest letter to Iran.

Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif condemned the attack, saying enemies of Pakistan-Iran ties were responsible for it.

"Strongly condemning the recent terrorist attack in Pakistan, just as PM Imran Khan embarks on his first, historic visit to Iran. Terrorists, extremists and their sponsors are terrified by close relations between Muslim states," he tweeted.

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan's largest and poorest province, rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan condemned terror attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that killed160 people and injured over 450.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said on social media that Pakistan stands with the people of Sri Lanka.

"Pakistan condemns explosions and terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka at Churches & Hotels, that have led to numerous casualties and immense loss. People and Government of Pakistan stand by people and Government of Sri Lanka at this moment of tragedy and against terror," he said in a tweet.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the barbaric attacks.

"Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," he tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The archbishop of Paris and parishioners of fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral are mourning the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka.

Archbishop Michel Aupetit tweeted: "Why so much hate on this day when we celebrate love? On this Easter day, we are in communion with our murdered brethren of Sri Lanka." Aupetit celebrated Easter Mass for worshippers displaced from normal services at Notre Dame because of Monday's fire.

A soldier and several police guarded the building. It was unclear whether the extra security was linked to the Sri Lanka attack, but parishioner Monique Pigere said "I understand why" security is needed, lamenting the "terrible"

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has condemned the "devastating" attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

In a statement, Ardern referred to the March 15 shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in which 50 died.

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil," Ardern said.

"New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely." The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says 115 New Zealanders are registered as being in Sri Lanka but more are likely to be there. There is no indication New Zealanders are among the victims.

European leaders are expressing horror at the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a message to his Sri Lankan counterpart that he was "stunned and horrified" by the "cowardly terror attacks." Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply shaken and concerned by (the) devious terrorist attacks."



The head of the European Union's executive Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he learned of the bombings "with horror and sadness."



Three Gulf Arab nations have condemned the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that have killed at least 138 people.

Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all issued statements via their foreign ministries over the attack.

The UAE called upon "the international community to close ranks and uproot the scourge of terrorism in order to ensure international peace and security."



Qatar said it wanted to stress its "its firm stance on rejecting violence and terrorism." Bahrain, meanwhile, said "these acts of terrorism are incompatible with religious principles and human and moral values."



The series of blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people. It's the worst spout of violence in Sri Lanka since the South Asian country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

British Prime Minister Teresa May has condemned what she called the "truly appalling" attacks in Sri Lanka.

May said on Twitter that "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time."



She added, "We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to (practice) their faith in fear." The series of blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people. It's the worst spout of violence in Sri Lanka since the South Asian country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced a series of attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka as "cruel and cynical."



In a telegram of condolences sent to his Sri Lankan counterpart, the Russian leader said Moscow remains a "reliable partner of Sri Lanka in the fight against international terrorism."



He added that the Russians "share the grief of the relatives of those killed and wish a quick recovery to all those who were wounded" after the Easter Sunday blasts that killed at least 138 people.

Putin voiced confidence that "the perpetrators and the masterminds of such a cruel and cynical crime committed amid the Easter festivities will take the punishment they deserve."



Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, calling them "an assault on all of humanity." In comments posted on Twitter, Erdogan offered his condolences to families of the victims and to the people of Sri Lanka.

The near simultaneous attacks against three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people, according to a security official. It was the worst violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "Regardless of the motive, the attack in Sri Lanka is the same as the traitorous attack in Christchurch: cowardly, barbaric and cruel." He was referring to last month's attacks against two mosques in New Zealand during Friday prayers that killed 50 people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court has sought responses of the Centre and the AAP government on a PIL seeking implementation of a law mandating issuance of caste certificates to those scheduled caste (SC) persons who converted to Buddhism.

The plea has claimed that the implementation of the Constitution (Schedule Caste) Order (Amendment) Act of 1990 would enable scheduled caste persons who have embraced Buddhism to get caste certificates, a benefit which is available to them only in Maharasthra.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani issued notices to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Delhi government seeking their stands on the issue raised in the petition filed by lawyer Rahul Mohod.

The petitioner has claimed that the Act has been in existence for over 28 years, but has not yet been implemented anywhere in the country except for Maharashtra.

"In spite of the clear mandate under the aforesaid law, the public authorities in the pretext of not having appropriate order denied to execute the Constitution (Schedule Caste)order (Amendment) Act, 1990 for the people of Delhi who are converted Buddhist to certify them as a member of Schedule Caste community for the last 28 years," Mohod has said in his plea.

The petition seeks implementation of the Act in Delhi as well as the rest of India.

The court has directed the Centre and the Delhi government to indicate their stands before the next date of hearing which is August 20.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Congress party of betraying the people, saying injustice was done to the country's growth potential and its resources.

"Post-independence people trusted the Congress for five decades, but the party betrayed the people. Injustice was meted out to resources and potential of the country. Congress did vote bank and made power a medium to fill its coffers," Modi said, at an election rally in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh constituency.

He said smaller nations which got freedom in the same period as when India got its independence had developed far more than India.

"There are three things in the conduct and culture of the Congress, which are 'naamdar parivar' (dynastic family), corruption and plenty of false promises," Modi said.

The prime minister said his government had changed the system in five years and several schemes and programmes for the people had been launched and successfully executed, benefitting the people.

"We fought poverty, disease, illiteracy, corruption, black money and terrorism. It is due to the coordinated efforts of the countrymen that we are winning these fights," he said.

Stating that there is an unprecedented wave in the country, Modi said the election is not being contested by parties or candidates but by citizens who want a bright future.

He said the responsibility of making new India was on the new generation born in the 21st century.

The prime minister highlighted various schemes and programmes launched by his government and asked the people to vote for the BJP in order to fight terrorism.

Speaking on the water crisis in Rajasthan, Modi said a 'Jal Shakti' ministry will be created when the BJP is voted to power in the elections.

He blamed the former Congress governments at the centre for not executing the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan and said India's share of water flowed over to the Pakistan side due to the grand old party.

The prime minister further accused the Congress of trying to downplay historic facts of the Mewar region, claiming the BJP government had restored the place's honour.

Modi said, "They (Congress) are enemies of the people who can play with the health of the poor for votes. They cannot do welfare of the country. Your Chowkidaar (watchman) is also on work to secure heroic personalities besides securing the country. Congress has done all preparation to eradicate them from history but we cannot let this happen. With this thought, we have released a postal stamp in the name of Maharana Pratap."



He flayed the state government for stopping the previous BJP government's Bhamashah scheme.

Former chief minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, BJP candidate and sitting Chittorgarh MP Chandra Prakash Joshi and others were present during the meeting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Poll authorities have given a permission to Raj Thackeray-led MNS to hold a rally in Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency next week.

Authorities had reportedly denied permission to the rally earlier.

The Mumbai city district election office Sunday said it has set up a single window clearance system for giving permission to election campaigning for all candidates.

"Permissions to hold election meetings are given after following a due procedure. It is ensured that there is no injustice to anyone. The permission to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has been given after following a due procedure," the election office said in a statement.

In Mumbai South constituency, Shiv Sena's sitting MP Arvind Sawant is pitted against Mumbai Congress president Milind Deora.

Though the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is not contesting elections this time, Raj Thackeray has been holding rallies across Maharashtra appealing to people to vote against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP and the Sena are accusing the MNS chief of doing the bidding of the Congress and the NCP.

In coming days, Thackeray is slated to address rallies in Mumbai and suburbs.

All six Lok Sabha constituencies of Mumbai go to polls on April 29.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pope Francis denounced the "cruel violence" of the Easter Sunday slaughter of Christians and foreigners in Sri Lanka as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting the bloodshed and political violence afflicting many parts of the world.

Francis skipped his homily during Easter Mass but delivered his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" (To the city and the world) speech highlighting conflicts in the Mideast, Africa and the Americas and demanding that political leaders put aside their differences and work instead for peace.

"May the one who gives us his peace end the roar of arms, both in areas of conflict and in our cities, and inspire the leaders of nations to work for an end to the arms race and the troubling spread of weaponry, especially in the economically more advanced countries," Francis said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica overlooking the flower-decked square below.

In a special appeal at the end, Francis lamented the "grave attacks" on Sri Lankan hotels and churches, which occurred just as the Christian faithful were celebrating Easter Mass that marks the resurrection of Christ following his crucifixion.

"I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence," Francis said. "I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event."



More than 130 people were killed and hundreds wounded following near-simultaneous blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners.

In his roundup of global conflicts, Francis warned that the world was increasingly becoming resigned to the ongoing conflict in Syria. He called for a "renewed commitment for a political solution" that would respond to Syrians' need for freedom, peace and justice and allow for millions of refugees to return home.

In Yemen, he lamented how children in particular are "exhausted by hunger and war," while in North Africa, Libyans are enduring a fresh round of fighting between rival forces battling for control of Tripoli, the capital "I urge the parties involved to choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability," he said of Libyan leaders.

Francis said he hoped the political and religious leaders of South Sudan would open a "new page in the history of the country" and work for reconciliation. Francis hosted South Sudan's president and opposition leader for a remarkable retreat at the Vatican earlier this month, during which the pope bowed down and kissed their feet, begging them to work for peace.

And history's first Latin American pope also offered prayers for Venezuelans and Nicaraguans experiencing political and economic hardship and "all those who lack the minimal conditions for leading a dignified and secure life due to a crisis that endures and worsens." The Vatican said popes sometimes either deliver an off-the-cuff homily on Easter Sunday or skip it altogether, given the lengthy speech and blessing that follows.

The 82-year-old Francis has just completed an exhausting few days of Holy Week commemorations, including travelling to a prison outside Rome to wash the feet of inmates on Holy Thursday, presiding over the Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum on Good Friday and celebrating the Easter Vigil late Saturday night in St. Peter's Basilica.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A co-accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case Sunday denounced BJP Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Singh Thakur's comments against former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare but added that he would still campaign for her to defeat the Congress' Digvijaya Singh there.

Sameer Kulkarni, a Malegaon blast accused out on bail currently, addressed a press conference here and stressed that no one had the right to make such remarks against Karkare who laid down his life fighting terrorists.

"Not only Sadhvi (Thakur), no one has the right to make such remarks. Because making such remarks against bravehearts is sheer ingratitude towards their supreme sacrifices," Kulkarni said.

However, taking a stand supporting Thakur, he added, "While in custody for several years in the blast case, we, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, were subjected to unlimited torture. It is possible Sadhvi made that statement out of anguish."



"However, realising her mistake, she apologised," he said, adding that her statement should not be politicised.

Informing that he would be campaigning for Thakur in Bhopal, Kulkarni said, "Sadhvi is not a politician but she is fighting against adharma. She is fighting against Digvijaya Singh and to defeat Singh, we would go there (to campaign)," he said.

He accused the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party of being "anti-Hindu" and said the two parties had made them (blast accused) "scapegoats" in 2008.

"The NCP and Congress came to power on the basis of majority Hindu votes. Senior leaders Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Digvijaya Singh and NCP president Sharad Pawar have taken an anti-Hindu stand from time to time," Kulkarni alleged.

"The Congress and NCP created a fake narrative about Hindu terrorism and put several innocent Hindus behind bars by implicating them in false cases. But it was because of the judiciary and a few honest police officers that several people like us got bail," he said.

Kulkarni got bail in the Malegaon blast case in 2017.

Thakur, an accused in the case who is out on bail, is under fire for saying that Karkare died in the 26/11 terror attack because she had cursed him for 'torturing' her when he probed the Malegaon blast as chief of the ATS.

Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town about 200 km from here in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Eight former director generals of police Sunday issued a joint statement condemning BJP Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate and Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur's remarks against former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare who was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Thakur, while campaigning in the Madhya Pradesh, had claimed that Karkare was killed because she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her during the Malegaon blast probe.

The joint statement was issued by retired DGPs Julio Ribeiro, Prakash Singh, P K Hormis Tharakan, Kamal Kumar, Jacob Punnoose, Sanjeev Dayal, Jayanto Choudhury and N Ramachandran.

"Despicable and regrettable statement of Pragya Thakur only serves to highlight the need to publicly recognise the supreme sacrifice made by the 35,000 police personnel from all corners of India who since Independence have laid down their lives in the line of duty," said the officers.

"The country owes him (Karkare) a huge debt of gratitude and anything that detracts from this is worthy of strong condemnation," the statement said.

It asked Lok Sabha candidates to seek out and honour the families of martyrs who live in their constituencies.

The retired DGPs, in their statement, said Karkare would have been alive had he not returned to Maharashtra from a plum posting at the Centre.

He had a specific intention of working with the Anti-Terrorism Squad to prevent and investigate the activities of terrorists so that the rest of us could sleep safe in our beds, they said in the statement.

The DGPs asked Lok Sabha candidates to commit to improve the delivery of policing services to their constituents.

They can also adopt one police station each year and take up schemes under MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) that would make it a model police station, it said.

Ensuring required facilities for the police station staff and their families would be a real and meaningful tribute to the supreme sacrifices of Hemant Karkare and thousands of other valiant police personnel, the officials said in the statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Sunday lashed out at the Congress for promising abolition of sedition law in its election manifesto, and said the BJP would bring even more stringent laws for the security of the country if needed.

He was speaking at a public meeting at Jamuna Kalari village in Anuppur in Madhya Pradesh.

"The Congress says they would do away with the sedition law. But we will definitely enact more stringent laws for the country's security if needed," he said.

Accusing the Congress of working towards weakening the fight against terrorism, Singh said, "Even as the country's Army gave reply to the terrorist attack, the Congress and other opposition parties indulged in by doubting the valour of the armed forces and asked how many people died in the strike."



"The brave armed forces don't count the number of fatalities in an attack," he said.

The union minister said India became the fourth nation in the world to demonstrate anti-satellite missile capability, because Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a free hand to scientists, who in turn created history.

"People have made up their mind to elect Narendra Modi as the country's prime minister again. Congress and its allies have also sensed the mood of the people. So, the opposition parties have started blaming EVMs, which is an insult of the people's verdict," he said.

Singh said that within five years of the Modi government, the world's economists started accepting the fact that the country's economy has improved.

The country has started witnessing the impact of the Modi government's work as the Centre has constructed 1.30 crore houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in five years. There would be no homeless in the country by 2022, he said.

"All the prime ministers of the Congress, right from Jawaharlal Nehru, raised the 'gareebi hatao' slogan, but failed in actually removing poverty and they are now giving the false promise of offering Rs 72,000 per year to them," he alleged.

Singh added farmers hit by the recent thunderstorms would be given compensation for the crop damages.

He also addressed rallies in Singrauli and Satna districts of Madhya Pradesh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo on Sunday said he has recommended to the Election Commission to conduct repolling in 10 polling stations in the state.

The top election official told reporters here that after a perusal of reports of authorities including those from the general observers and presiding officers, repoll has been recommended for the consideration of the EC.

Eight polling stations falling under the Lok Sabha segment of Dharmapuri and one booth under Tiruvallur Parliamentary constituency have been recommended for repolling, he said.

Also, repolling has been recommended in one polling station falling under the Cuddalore Lok Sabha constituency.

The CEO's comment assumes significance in the wake of alleged irregularities in a number of booths falling under these constituencies when the polling was held on April 18.

In polling stations under the Lok Sabha segments of Dharmapuri and Tiruvallur, repolling has been recommended for both Parliamentary elections and bypolls to the Assembly seats of Pappireddipatti and Poonamallee.

Tiruvallur Lok Sabha segment covers Poonamallee Assembly constituency and Dharmapuri includes Pappireddipatti Assembly seat.

By-polls were held to 18 Assembly seats including Poonamallee and Pappireddipatti on April 18 alongwith polls to 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.

Polling for Vellore Lok Sabha constituency was rescinded following seizure of cash ahead of the elections .

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hollywood veteran Robert De Niro once again took a jibe at US President Donald Trump, this time calling him a "wannabe gangster".

The actor made these comments in an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", the episode of which was filmed ahead of the release of the Mueller report, that found "no evidence" of a "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 US presidential elections.

De Niro, who discussed his role in longtime collaborator and friend Martin Scorsese's forthcoming mob drama "The Irishman" on the show, said people have affinity towards the outlaws, "except we have a wannabe gangster in the White House now".

The Oscar winner then branded the POTUS as a "dumbbell", adding that even gangsters had morals and ethics.

"They have a code and you know when you give somebody your word it's your word because it's all you have is your word. This guy he doesn't even know what that means," he told Colbert.

When the host asked De Niro, 75, why he could not give Trump a chance, the actor said he had, but he believes the president has "proven himself to be a total loser".

This is not the first time De Niro publicly criticised Trump.

An earlier criticism elicited a response from Trump, wherein he called the actor "a very low IQ individual" on Twitter.

In a previous interview, De Niro called the president a "racist", "white supremacist" and drew comparisons between him and Hitler.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced a series of attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka as "cruel and cynical."



In a telegram of condolences sent to his Sri Lankan counterpart, the Russian leader said Moscow remains a "reliable partner of Sri Lanka in the fight against international terrorism."



He added that the Russians "share the grief of the relatives of those killed and wish a quick recovery to all those who were wounded" after the Easter Sunday blasts that killed at least 138 people.

Putin voiced confidence that "the perpetrators and the masterminds of such a cruel and cynical crime committed amid the Easter festivities will take the punishment they deserve.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russia's foreign ministry on Sunday said Ukraine had voted for change after exit polls showed comedian and political novice Volodymyr Zelensky winning the country's presidency in a landslide.

"Exit polls show the citizens of Ukraine voted for change. The new leadership now must understand and realise the hopes of its electors.

This of course applies to domestic as well as foreign affairs," deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin told agency RIA Novosti.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday announced financial support of three billion dollars for Sudan following the overthrow of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.

The oil-rich Gulf states pledged to inject USD 500 million in the Sudanese central bank and USD 2.5 billion to help provide food, medicine and petroleum products, the official Saudi Press Agency said without specifying if the money is a gift or a loan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) Chief Shivpal Singh Yadav has called the SP-BSP 'mahagathbandhan' "a flop show".

"The SP-BSP alliance is a flop show. It has taken shape only for convenience as they knew their existence was threatened. Otherwise they have been sworn enemies for the past 25 years. Now, how come they have come together?" Shivpal said, addressing an election meeting here.

"This is opportunism at it's best. In the last Lok Sabha, the BSP won zero seats. Now if you multiply any numbers with zero, then the result will always be zero. This coalition will fall apart very soon," he said.

Shivpal, who is contesting Lok Sabha polls from here, said people of Firozabad invited him and based on their interest decided to contest from the seat.

Attacking the BJPs government at the Centre, Shivpal said no one had seen "ache din" as was promised.

"False promises were made and nothing was done or delivered at the ground-level. Till my last breath, I will serve the people and work for their welfare."



He appealed to the voters to render their support by pressing the 'chaabi' (key) button on April 23, the voting day for the constituency.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former top Army commander Lt General DS Hooda, who had supervised India's military operations across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir against multiple terror launch pads there in September 2016, Sunday said a single surgical or air strike is not enough to make Pakistan change its behaviour.

Hooda headed the Army's Northern Command when special forces commandos carried out the cross-border operations in September 2016 inside PoK, following Uri terror strike in which 19 Indian soldiers had been killed.

Presenting salient features of his report "India's National Security Strategy" at a panel discussion "Beyond politics: Debating a new security manifesto" the former Army general said "one surgical strike or air strike is not going to change Pakistan's behaviour."



The panel discussion had been organsied by think-tank Observer Research Foundation.

The report which was recently presented to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, outlines ways to maintain India's relations with its neighbouring countries as well as the US and China.

The report discusses India's national security strategy aimed at achieving five objectives - "India's rightful place in global affairs, ensuring a secure neighbourhood, peaceful resolution of internal conflict, protecting people and strengthening capabilities".

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said India must also change its attitude towards Pakistan to bring about a change in its neighbour's behaviour.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Sudan's opposition is calling for a six-month extension to implement next steps in a fragile peace deal as a major deadline approaches next month to form a power-sharing government between the president and his longtime rival.

Opposition deputy chairman Henry Odwar told The Associated Press on Saturday that the extension is needed because security arrangements are not yet adequate.

South Sudan's government rejects the idea of an extension, further raising concerns among observers that the peace agreement signed in September could fall apart.

The deal ended five years of civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and sent millions fleeing.

There could be a "constitutional vacuum" if opposition leader Riek Machar does not return to South Sudan as scheduled to form the transitional government that is meant to culminate in elections, government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said.

May 12 is the deadline for Machar to return and once again serve as President Salva Kiir's deputy, an arrangement that more than once has ended in gunfire.

In a striking gesture meant to urge the rivals to finally make peace, Pope Francis knelt and kissed their feet during a meeting at the Vatican earlier this month.

The opposition has expressed "serious concerns" about the agreement.

It would be a "recipe for disaster" if Machar returns without security measures in place, his wife, Angelina Teny, has said.

The committee charged with overseeing the peace deal's initial stages will consider the six-month extension request on Wednesday, according to the opposition.

The committee is made up of members of the government and various opposition parties.

This latest peace deal has been marked by delays and continued fighting in parts of the country, with key aspects yet to be implemented.

South Sudan's internal boundaries have not yet been drawn. A unified national army has not been formed.

Alan Boswell, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, warned that the deal would "look very flimsy if Kiir unilaterally forms a new government without Machar."



South Sudanese are already wary of possible violence next month, said a recent report by the Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation, a local advocacy group.

Without clear messaging from the parties' leaders the risk of citizens "panicking is high," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Top Left leaders - Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Sudhakar Reddy - as well as Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar will descend on the soil of Bihar next week to campaign in Begusarai where former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar is pitted against Union minister and firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh.

According to a release issued by the CPI's state headquarters here, Yechury will be addressing a rally in Begusarai on April 23 while his CPI counterpart Sudhakar Reddy will be there on the same day and the day after.

The CPI national secretary D Raja will be arriving in Patna on Monday for a five-day tour of Bihar during which he will also campaign for Kanhaiya, his party candidate, from April 23 to 26, the release said.

Akhtar will be in the parliamentary constituency on April 23, the release added.

Meanwhile, critically-acclaimed actor Prakash Raj, who has won the National Award twice and became famous in Bollywood by virtue of his performances as the main antagonist in blockbusters such as "Wanted" and "Singham", landed in the dusty mofussil town on Saturday.

Raj, who claims to have become vocal on politics following the murder of noted journalist, and his close friend Gauri Lankesh in 2017, shared photographs on social media of himself holding hands with the 32-year-old CPI candidate and addressing rallies.

"Begusarai is rising up to Kanhaiya Kumar. As I travel with him, I can see hope in the eyes of the people. Winds of change. I can sense empowerment... I am proud to be by his side," Raj wrote on his Facebook page.

The noted actor, who is also contesting the polls as an Independent from Bengaluru, has indicated that he is likely to campaign for Kanhaiya till Monday.

Incidentally, Raj will be the second Bollywood personality to campaign for Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai.

Actress Swara Bhasker addressed a rally a fortnight ago after he had filed his nomination.

Known as the "Leningrad of Bihar" because of the strong presence of Left parties, Begusarai is witnessing a three-cornered contest, the third player being less talked about but equally formidable Tanveer Hassan of the RJD who was the runner-up in 2014.

Held by BJP's Bhola Singh, who passed away a few months ago, the seat would go to polls on April 29 in the fourth phase of general elections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"Sharknado" actor Tara Reid says she is happy filmmakers have started approaching her with age appropriate roles.

The 43-year-old actor, who found fame after playing Vicky in the "American Pie" films, said earlier she looked "too young" to play a mother on screen but now she has started getting parts where she can showcase "another side" of her.

"I'm finally getting to play older roles and that's what I needed because I was kind of stuck. I looked too young to play the 'mom', yet I was too old for a 'high school girl'," Reid said, as quoted by ContactMusic.

"Everyone saw me as the girl from 'American Pie' but that was in my 20s and I'm in my 40s now. I'm grateful I had that moment but now I'm getting the chance to show another side of me. And now I have a great team behind me, I couldn't have planned better things. It's my time again and no one is taking it away from me," she added.

Reid shared that she will next be seen in a "big" film with Sandra Bullock. She also has Netflix's "The Fifth Boro" in her kitty.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Quentin Tarantino has shared the details of characters to be played by actors Leornado DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in his upcoming directorial "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".

The movie, which is Tarantino's ninth directorial, is based on the murder of actor Sharon Tate and three others at the hands of the Manson Family cult.

It features DiCaprio, 44, as Rick Dalton, an ageing, out-of-work actor, with Pitt, 55, playing his longtime stunt double named Cliff Booth. The two characters happen to be the neighbours of Tate, essayed by Margot Robbie in the film.

Talking with USA Today, the filmmaker said DiCaprio's Dalton is "a man full of inner turmoil and self-pity for not being in a better position, career-wise".

"But as is Rick's way, he blames everybody but himself," Tarantino said.

He called Pitt's Booth, who is a World War II veteran, an "indestructible" person.

"He could kill you with a spoon, a piece of paper or a business card. Consequently, he is a rather Zen dude who is troubled by very little," he added.

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", also featuring Al Pacino, Dakota Fanning, Damian Lewis, Bruce Dern, Emile Hirsch and the late Luke Perry, is slated to be released in the US on July 26.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tear my son's clothes if he does not deliver, says Chief Minister as he campaigns for his son Nakul who is fighting his first elections from Chhindwara.

Invoking his 40-year-old association with the region, Nath says he has now entrusted the task to serve the people of Chhindwara to his son so that he can work for

"I am where I am because of the love and strength you gave me," Nath says.

"Nakul is not here today but he will serve you. I have given him the responsibility. Take him to task and tear his clothes if he does not deliver," the 72-year-old told the locals.

He was speaking at an election rally on Saturday in Dhanora village which comes under the Amarwada assembly seat, about 65 kms from Chhindwara district headquarters.

"We will start a new journey and create history," he told the locals.

Nath has been the longest serving (MP) from this constituency as he served for nine terms and he has now vacated the seat for his son.

The chief minister is also contesting bypoll in the Chhindwara assembly constituency as per the legal requirement of being a member of legislative assembly (MLA) for running the state government.

Nath says due to his efforts the district has a "distinct identity" when it comes to development.

He hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his promises of ensuring Rs 15 lakh in every Indian citizen's bank account, steps against blackmoney and the decision of demonetisation were just "gimmicks and frauds".

"They (Modi and Chouhan) scream we did this, we did that but tell me if they did anything for you?" Nath says, alleging that the two leaders misled the people.

"I want to tell Modiji that while there are no 'acche din' (good days) for the common man, his (Modi's) days are going to end soon," he says.

Modi "harassed" every section of society and under BJP government's watch, farmers in were shot at and their livelihood was hit too, Nath alleged.

Hitting out at the previous BJP government in the state, he charged they "kicked the in the stomach and pointed a gun at his chest".

The chief minister says his government in the state has shown its intent by delivering on the promises made before the 2018 assembly polls.

"As promised, we initiated waiver of loans of the farmers as soon as we took charge in and till now I have done so for 22 lakh farmers. Thirty-eight lakh more farmers will be benefitted soon who have a loan of up to Rs 2 lakh," he says.

"We have done the loan waiver in 35-40 per cent cases and I promise it will be done in 100 per cent cases soon," he says.

Nath says the new government in the state has also reduced the cost incurred by poor people to pay electricity bills.

Chhindwara will vote on April 29 along with the single bypoll for the constituency.

In the last general elections, the BJP had won 26 and the secured three seats.British Prime Minister Theresa May Sunday condemned the "truly appalling" multiple blasts at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter, killing over 160 people, including at least nine foreigners.

Six near-simultaneous and coordinated explosions rocked three churches and three five-star hotels frequented by tourists as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," prime minister May said in a statement on Twitter.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear," she said.

The statement came soon after she called for the UK to stand up for religious freedom in her annual message to mark Easter.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Thousands of devotees have thronged the Shrine Basilica at Vailankanni in the district in connection with Easter celebrations.

The celebrations, which commenced last night, will continue on Sunday.

As a mark of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, a candlelight procession commenced at 11 PM on Saturday.

When the clock struck 12, the resurrection of Jesus was announced by the parish priest Prabhakar Adigalar, followed by special prayers, church officials said.

On Sunday morning, prayers in all South Indian languages commenced and will be held throughout the day, they said.

Thousands of pilgrims from various parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra are participating in the festival.

Later this evening the Easter car procession will be held, the church officials said.

The special feature of the celebrations is the 'padayatra' by hundreds of pilgrims from various places. During the eight-day period between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, pilgrims carry big wooden crosses on their shoulders, arrive at Vailankanni on foot and participate in the prayers.

At Tarangambadi in the district, special prayers were held at the New Jerusalem church, believed to be Asia's oldest protestant church.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Indians were among 207 people killed in multiple bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Sunday.

"Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals," she said in a tweet.

She said the Indians killed are Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

"We are ascertaining further details," Swaraj added.

The external affairs minister said she spoke to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana who confirmed that 207 people were killed and more than 450 were injured in the blasts.

"I have just spoken to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka H.E. Mr Tilak Marapana. He confirmed that unfortunately, 207 persons have lost their lives and more than 450 are injured in the terror blasts," she tweeted



"I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well," she added.

A string of eight devastating blasts, including suicide attacks, struck churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday,



The blasts - one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history - targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Top commanders of the Navy will extensively deliberate on emerging challenges facing the country in the maritime domain and review the evolving security dynamics in the region at a three-day conclave beginning Tuesday.

Navy officials said the naval commanders conference is expected to fine-tune the Navy's strategy for responding to any possible threats and added that it will discuss overall security challenges in the backdrop of the Pulwama attack and developments thereafter.

"The conference assumes greater significance in the backdrop of Pulwama associated events that have brought the country's defence under sharper focus and will provide the higher naval leadership a forum to discuss the emerging challenges in the maritime domain," the Navy said in a statement.

The conference is the apex forum within the Navy for interaction between the naval commanders.

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba will review major operational, materiel, logistics, training, human resources and administrative issues at the conference.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to address the naval commanders on the opening day and interact with them.

"Interaction with chiefs of Indian Army and Indian Air Force during the conference would be utilised to analyse the operational environment, deliberate on tri-service synergy and readiness to deter and neutralise threats aimed at the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the Navy said.

Themes like functional reorganisation of Indian Navy towards improving operational efficiency and optimal manning will form the core of discussions towards finalising long term road map for the force, the Navy said.

It said discussions will take place on acquisition of new capabilities, harnessing niche technologies like big data analytics and artificial intelligence for solutions in the domains of naval combat, convergence of networks, logistics and administration.

In keeping with the expectation of the Indian Navy being the net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region and first responder to any crisis, the forum will also deliberate upon the lessons learnt from the recently concluded humanitarian and disaster relief operations by it, said a Navy official.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Known for his gaffes, US President Donald Trump yet again committed a faux pas on Sunday as he erroneously wrote that "138 million people" were killed in a string of blasts in Sri Lanka.

The near-simultaneous attacks on Easter Sunday at three churches and as many luxury hotels frequented by foreigners, killing more than 160 people and injured over 450 others, shattering a decade of peace in the country after the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

President Trump offered "heartfelt condolences" to the people of Sri Lanka and said the US stood ready to help.

The US leader, however, erroneously wrote that "138 million people" were killed in the attacks instead of just 138.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more. We stand ready to help!" Trump said in a tweet which was taken down after more than 20 minutes.

Trump's tweet did not go unnoticed by the agile twitterati who started poking fun at the appalling tweet.

"138 million? Maybe you should wait for the facts pops," wrote one follower of the Us president.

"We are a population of 20 million. 138 million is mathematically impossible. Keep your icky condolences, we don't want it," responded another user.

"138 million! More than the population of Sri Lanka. We are now an empty Country as per Donald!!" said another follower.

Trump is known for his wrong tweets and for using embarrassing nicknames as well as 'mispronouncing names' of people such as "Jeff Bozo" in reference to Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

In March, he mistakenly referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as "Tim Apple", a verbal slip which netizens poked fun at by sharing rib-tickling memes on social media.

Last year, he had called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson "Marillyn Lockheed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Donald Trump's top lawyer on Sunday attacked "calumny, lies and distortions" in the Mueller investigation report, and said there is "nothing wrong" with taking hacked information from Russia.

Rudy Giuliani mounted a combative defense of the president in Sunday talk show appearances that took aim at Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, the evidence they amassed and the witnesses they cited.

The former New York mayor heaped special scorn on Senator Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate who said Friday he was "sickened" by the report's findings and "appalled" that Trump's election campaign "welcomed help from Russia."



"What a hypocrite. What a hypocrite. Any candidate in the whole world in America would take information," Giuliani said of Romney on CNN's "State of the Union."



He was referring to Democratic emails that were hacked by Russian operatives and disseminated by WikiLeaks in 2016 to hurt Trump presidential rival Hillary Clinton.

"Who says it's even illegal?" Giuliani added. "Does the information turn out to be false, by the way? The information that was gleaned and disseminated, every newspaper printed it."



Trump publicly encouraged Russia and WikiLeaks while top campaign officials, including his son and son-in-law, met in Trump Tower with a Russian promising dirt on Clinton.

"There is nothing wrong with taking information from the Russians. It depends on where it came from," Giuliani said, adding that as a lawyer he would have advised against it.

"This didn't become an international scandal because of immorality. It became an international scandal because the president was accused of violating the law falsely," he said.

His comments echoed Trump, who mocked Romney on Twitter Sunday, after lashing out Friday at the "bullshit" Mueller report. The president was in Palm Beach, Florida where he attended Easter services.

The special counsel's 22-month-long investigation concluded that Trump and his team did not collude with the Russian effort to sway the elections in his favour.

But it detailed 10 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump, including his firing of FBI director James Comey and demands that Mueller himself be removed.

The special counsel declined to bring charges, however, and Attorney General Bill Barr, a Trump appointee, said that cleared the president.

Democrats, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, now are considering whether to move to impeach the president, an effort likely to fail because Republicans control the Senate.

"We will have to decide, do we nonetheless go through an impeachment -- because to do otherwise would signal that somehow this president's conduct is okay, that future presidents can engage in this kind of corruption without consequence -- or do we decide that we are better off doing oversight ... rather than a formal impeachment?" Representative Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said on "Fox Sunday."



"That's going to be a very consequential decision" and one that would be made "over the next couple weeks," he said.

Representative Jerry Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, equivocated when asked on NBC about impeachment.

"We may get to that, we may not," he said, adding that lawmakers needed first to "go through all the evidence." So far, only two of the 18 declared Democratic presidential candidates -- Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Obama cabinet member Julian Castro -- have called for impeachment.

The White House's strategy, meanwhile, was on bristling display in Giuliani's talk show appearances: attack the investigators as biased and the witness testimony as self-serving and untruthful.

Speaking on "Fox Sunday," Giuliani called the report "a prosecutor's version of what happened." "It's two or three pages of calumny, lies and distortion," he said.

"Half of it is not true." Some of the most damaging episodes detailed in the report came from former White House counsel Don McGahn, who described to investigators Trump's escalating demands that Mueller be removed.

McGahn refused to do so and threatened to resign but was talked out of it.

"I'm telling you he's confused. He gave three different versions," Giuliani said on CNN.

The White House has prepared a rebuttal of the Mueller report but has yet to release it.

"We're ready to put it out when we have to," the president's lawyer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The leader of Turkey's main opposition party was attacked on Sunday at a funeral for a soldier killed in fighting against Kurdish militants, a state agency and his party said.

Republican People's Party (CHP) chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu was taken to a nearby house by security forces for his protection, Anadolu state agency said.

Video of the incident on social media showed a mob pushing and shoving around Kilicdaroglu as he makes his way through the crowd.

His party confirmed Kilicdaroglu had been attacked, but it was not immediately clear if he had been injured.

The group first protested against Kilicdaroglu presence at the funeral in the Cubuk district of the capital Ankara and then attacked him with blows, Anadolu said.

The Ankara governor's office said in a statement: "Legal action has been launched against the culprits of the incident."



The CHP last month won Ankara and Istanbul mayors' offices in local elections in a setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.

Erodgan's AKP is appealing for a rerun of the Istanbul election citing irregularities in the very tight race against the CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu.

Election authorites last week granted Imamoglu his mandate after carrying out a limited recount that showed he had won the city by a very slim margin of around 13,000 votes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray Sunday challenged the Opposition to announce their Prime Ministerial nominee.

Addressing a rally at Satara in western Maharashtra, Thackeray also took a dig at the sitting NCP MP Udayanraje Bhosale who is in the fray against Sena's Narendra Patil.

"Before challenging the BJP-Sena alliance, the Opposition should decide their candidate for the post of prime minister," the Sena chief said.

He said the Satara MP is known for his least attendance in Parliament.

"People of Satara should decide whether they want a candidate who would speak in Lok Sabha or the current one known for speaking nothing

In Maharashtra, which sends 48 number of MPs to Lok Sabha, the main poll battle lies between the saffron combine of the Sena-BJP and the alliance of the Congress and the NCP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday called for the UK to stand up for religious freedom in her annual message to mark Easter.

The embattled leader, who continues to face pressures from within her Conservative Party to step down amid the ongoing Brexit delays and uncertainty, focussed her message to mark the Christian festival on hope.

Easter is a particularly special time, when we remember the powerful message at the heart of our Christian faith. A message of hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when we can look forward to a new life in Christ. I will spend Easter as I do every year, giving thanks in church, she said.

The British PM, daughter of a vicar and a practising Christian, noted that for many Christians around the world, such simple acts of faith can bring huge danger.

Churches have been attacked. Christians murdered. Families forced to flee their homes," she said.

That is why the government has launched a global review into the persecution of Christians. We must stand up for the right of everyone, no matter what their religion, to practise their faith in peace, she added.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn compared Jesus' experiences to the challenges currently facing refugees around the world.

"The refugee crisis is a moral test. Jesus taught us to respect refugees," he said.

Cross-party talks initiated by Theresa May earlier this month in an attempt to break the Brexit deadlock are set to resume after the Easter break on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the pressure on her to step down as PM continues with some media reports indicating that the Tory back-bench 1922 committee is set to give her an ultimatum that she must step down by the end of June.

MPs on the executive of the influential committee are reportedly set to meet on Tuesday to decide whether to change the party rules to allow a new vote of no confidence in Theresa May before the one-year buffer she had won when the previous vote of no-confidence in her leadership was defeated last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.The FBI has arrested a member of an armed rightwing militia group accused of illegally detaining migrants at the US-Mexico border, officials said Saturday.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 70, was arrested for illegal possession of a weapon. His small but well-armed United Constitutional Patriots (UCP) group says it watches the border, stands guard over people who want to hand themselves in to border patrol and pursues those who don't.

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas described Hopkins, who also goes by the name of "Striker," as a "dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families."



"Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes," he added.

Hopkins was said to have been detaining migrants near Sunland Park, New Mexico.

In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, primarily Central Americans fleeing poverty and violence at home.

US President Donald Trump has described them as a threat to national security, demanding billions of dollars from Congress to build a wall on the southern border.

UCP members insist they will patrol the border until the wall is built.

"We're here to assist the border patrol because they are so short handed," Hopkins told AFP earlier this month.

The group -- made up mostly of older veterans -- enjoys an enthusiastic social media following. They are equipped with tactical gear, rifles and even custom patches.

Hopkins could be heard during lengthy radio broadcasts streamed online several times a week.

The border vigilante movement is well-established, with the Southern Poverty Law Center documenting "questionable apprehensions of migrants by private citizens" from as far back as 1999.

In a statement Saturday, the Mexican foreign ministry expressed "deep concern" about such groups.

"This type of practice can lead to a violation of the human rights of people who migrate or request asylum or refuge in the United States," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The RJD will seek an appointment with the Jharkhand Governor Monday to apprise her of the administration's decision of not allowing visitors to meet jailed party president Lalu Prasad, a day after his aides were not allowed to see him at a hospital here.

The Birsa Munda Central jail authorities on Saturday pasted a notice on the wall of the hospital ward, where Lalu Prasad is undergoing treatment, barring visitors from meeting Prasad, citing "law and order" concerns.

The notice signed by jail superintendent A K Chaudhary said visiting convicted Prasad would not be permitted on April 20.

"They are trying to demoralise our leader. Can they give an evidence of law and order problem during previous meetings by visitors? We will tell Governor Droupadi Murmu about it," the RJD's Jharkhand unit president Goutam Sagar Rana told a press conference here on Sunday.

As per the jail manual, three persons can meet the incarcerated Prasad every Saturday at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where he is undergoing treatment for multiple ailments.

"The jail superintendent is helpless as it is being directed by the state and the central government. Not allowing Prasad to meet three persons on Saturday is violation of human rights," he said.

A senior police officer refused to take questions on the matter.

Prasad has been sentenced in four fodder scam cases by different special CBI courts in Ranchi and is in prison since December, 2017.

He is facing trial in a fifth fodder scam case in connection with alleged fraudulent withdrawal of money from Doranda Treasury in Ranchi in the early 1990s.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Vivek Oberoi, who is playing the lead role in a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offered prayers at the Saibaba temple here to seek blessings for the release of the film soon.

He visited the famous temple, located at Shirdi town in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, on Saturday.

Later while talking to mediapersons, Oberoi expressed hope that the film, whose release has been withheld by the Election Commission (EC), will hit the theatres soon.

"We sought blessings of Saibaba. Our supporters and fans are eagerly waiting to watch the film. We made the film based on an inspirational story, but political parties are attacking it...we are expecting the film to be released soon," the actor said.

Oberoi said the film will inspire the young generation about how a tea-seller became the country's prime minister and boosted its image.

The MNS last month threatened to stall the release of the biopic, claiming it violated the model code of conduct for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

"I don't know why MNS chief Raj Thackeray is talking against the film? I invite him to watch the film with us and he will like it," the actor said.

Oberoi also urged Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and DMK president M K Stalin to watch the film, claiming "they will like it".

The EC on April 10 stalled the release of the biopic until the Lok Sabha polls end, saying any such film that subserves the purpose of any political entity or individual should not be displayed in electronic media.

Acting on the complaints of political parties, including the Congress, the poll panel asserted that any biopic material with the potential to disturb the level- playing field should not be displayed in areas where the model code of conduct was in force.

Later, the Supreme Court directed the EC to watch the full biopic and take an informed decision on banning its pan-India release.

The biopic has been the most-talked about movie in this election season. Directed by Omung Kumar, it tells the story of Modi's rise to power from his humble beginnings.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The poll campaign for the third phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh which will decide the electoral fate of SP stalwarts Mulayam Singh Yadav and Azam Khan, besides that of BJP candidate and film actor Jaya Prada, among others, ended Sunday evening.

The polling for the third phase is to be held on April 23 for ten Lok Sabha seats in the Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP has a huge stake in this phase in Uttar Pradesh with the party having won seven out of the ten seats in the region in 2014, leaving three for the Samajwadi Party, but facing a tough challenge from SP-BSP-RLD combine here.

The campaigning for the phase witnessed a new low with SP leader Azam Khan making an "indecent" remark, targeting his opponent Jaya Prada in Rampur by allegedly speculating on the colour of her underwear and attracting the saffron party wrath, besides that of the National Commission for Women.

Khan who also faced a 72-hour ban by the Election Commission of India on his campaigning after making the underwear jibe was among the three other leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BSP supremo Mayawati, who faced the poll panel's wrath for making "provocative" speeches.

The other political heavyweights, whose fates are in balance in the third phase of elections here, include Union minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who is fighting from Bareilly and BJP's Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.

Also hangs in the electoral balance, the fate of four family members of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Siingh Yadav clan with his rebel younger brother and Pragateesheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) chief Shivpal Singh Yadav fighting it out with his nephew, Ram Gopal Yadav son Akshay Yadav for the Firozabad seat.

While Mulayam Singh Yadav himself is contesting from his home turf Mainpuri, his another nephew Dharmendra Yadav, son of SP patriarch's little known brother Abhay Ram Yadav, from Badaun. A three-term MP, Dharmendra Yadav is seeking a fourth term from Badaun.

With a large area of the Rohilkhand region considered a stronghold of Samajwadi Party, the state's trilateral alliance of the SP, BSP and RLD combine has left no stone unturned in campaigning in this region.

The third-phase campaigning saw an unprecedented spectacle of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati sharing dias in Mainpuri after burying their hatchet after 24 years of Lucknow state guest house episode involving an attack by SP workers on Mayawati for withdrawing support from the Samajwadi Party-led government.

The BSP supremo sought vote for the SP founder, sending a strong signal of new bonhomie between the two allies, which threatens to upset the BJP's poll cart in Uttar Pradesh.

Resuming her poll campaign after an Election Commission's 48-hour embargo on her political activities, Mayawati also addressed several rallies, including the one in Rampur for Azam Khan.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi too marked his presence in the poll arena in the region, addressing a meeting in Badaun in support of his party candidate Salem Sherwani.

The BJP poll campaign was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed rallies in Moradabad on April 14 and in Etah and Bareilly on Saturday along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who too, resuming the 72-hour poll panel's ban on electioneering by him over his Ali-Bajrang Bali remark, criss-crossed several constituencies in the region.

The 10 constituencies going to polls in the third phase are Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Aonla, Bareilly and Pilibhit.

Of these Budaun, Mainpuri and Firozabad had been won by the SP in 2014.

Though the BJP is pitted in most of these constituencies directly against the SP-BSP-RLD combine, the presence of the Congress and the Sihvpal Yadav's PSLP has made the contest triangular in some constituencies.

A total of 1.76 crore voters -- 95.5 lakh males and 80.9 lakh females -- are slated to exercise their franchise in this phase at 20,116 polling booths to decide the fate of 120 candidates in the fray.

There are 2,98,619 first-time votes in the age group of 18-19 years and 2,99,871 voters who are about 80 years of age.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Countries across the globe, including the US, the UK, Russia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh, expressed shock and condemnation over the deadly blasts in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that left nearly 190 people dead.

Dozens of foreign nationals were feared to have been killed in the near simultaneous blasts, which targeted Catholic church worshippers on Easter Sunday as well as luxury hotels in Colombo.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday offered "heartfelt condolences" to the people of Sri Lanka.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels... We stand ready to help!," Trump tweeted.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling".

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a "horrific terrorist attack".

"To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support -- and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need," he said in a statement.

A month after dozens of Muslims were killed in a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as "devastating".

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the barbaric attacks.

"Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," he tweeted.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her deep concerns over the explosions which took place on Sunday morning.

In the message, she prayed for peace and salvation of the departed souls and offered her condolences to the grieving families.

Hasina also hoped for a quick recovery of the injured.

European leaders are expressing horror at the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a message to his Sri Lankan counterpart that he was "stunned and horrified" by the "cowardly terror attacks."



Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply shaken and concerned by (the) devious terrorist attacks."



German Chancellor Angel Merkel said: "Terrorism, religious hatred and intolerance cannot be allowed to win.""We're horrified by the that Christians in Sri Lanka were attacked and killed during Easter services," wrote Merkel's spokesperson on Twitter. "We mourn them and pray for the injured and their family members."Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attacks "an assault on all of humanity".

Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all issued statements via their foreign ministries condemning the attack.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)World leaders have condemned a series of blasts in Sri Lanka that killed more than 150 people on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners -- with British, Dutch and American citizens believed to be among them.

Hospital sources also said Japanese citizens were among those injured by the bombs which ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling".

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear."



Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: "Terrible reports from Sri Lanka about bloody attacks on hotels and churches on this Easter Sunday."



Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a "horrific terrorist attack".

"To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support -- and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need," he said in a statement.

"At this time as Easter Sunday draws to a conclusion here in Australia, our heart goes out to those Christians and all of those other innocents who have been slaughtered today in this horrific terrorist attack."



A month after dozens of Muslims were killed in a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as "devastating".

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating.

"New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence."



The Catholic Church in Jerusalem said the blasts were particularly sad as they "came while Christians celebrate Easter".

"We pray for the souls of the victims and ask for speedy recovery of the injured, and ask God to inspire the terrorists to repent of their killing and intimidation," the statement said.

"We also express our solidarity with Sri Lanka and all its inhabitants in their various religious and ethnic backgrounds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is on a two-day visit to China's Beijing. He is likely to hold talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi about a host of issues, including China's role in blocking India's attempts to list JeM terrorist Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist". Gokhale is scheduled to meet China's State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on April 22.

Gokhale was India's Ambassador to China before he took over as Foreign Secretary. His visit to China takes place amid close discussion between India and China following the Pulwama attack carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

Following the dastardly attack, the US, UK and France moved a proposal to designate Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist". However, China stalled it for the fourth time by putting a technical hold on the resolution, a move India termed as disappointing.

Gokhale's visit coincides with China's biggest international event, called the Belt and Road Forum, where the country is set to showcase its trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative. The $60 billion worth China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship project. India has protested against CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

While India is expected to skip the BRF meeting being held here from April 25-27, informed sources said there was no invitation from China to the leadership of India or at the Ministerial level to attend event.

However, the Indian Embassy in China said that Gokhale will be visiting the country for regular consultations.

Also read: China asks for duty-free import of 85% of its products into India

Also read: India shares list of 380 products with China for exports to bridge trade deficitSri Lankan government on Sunday ordered a night-time curfew after the island nation was rocked with eight blasts targeting churches and hotels that killed nearly 160 people across the country.

The curfew will begin on Sunday night at 6:00 pm (local time) and run until 6:00 am (local time), the defence ministry said.

Also read: Sri Lanka blasts: Two more explosions rock Colombo hours after serial blasts

Meanwhile, security has been intensified around the religious places across the capital.

The government has decided to block all social media platforms in order to prevent incorrect and wrong information being spread. This is only a temporary measure", a release from Udaya R Seneviratne, Secretary to the President said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe did not reveal the initial details of the investigation into the blast and said police will update later.

"The police will update you on this after investigations", he told reporters when asked. "The police and the security forces have been instructed to bring culprits to book.

On the economic impact of the attacks, he said, "There will be a downward trend, tourism will get affected. There may be fund outflows."

Also read: Sri Lanka blasts: Curfew declared; 2 more blasts reported after 6 explosions kill 185 people

Also read: Sri Lanka blasts: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj assures Indians of assistance; says monitoring situationHours after three explosions hit three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj assured Indians living in the country that the government is monitoring the situation. Further, Swaraj said that she was in touch with the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo.

Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

The Union Minister has also shared the helpline numbers activated by the Indian High Commission in Colombo for Indians who wants to seek any sorts of assistance, help or clarification. The following are the helpline numbers: +94777902082 +94772234176.

Indians in distress may please contact Indian High Commission in Colombo. We will provide you all assistance. @IndiainSL Our helpline numbers are :

+94777903082,+94112422788,+94112422789, +94112422789.

Pls RT Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

Meanwhile, The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe has promised to keep to take immediate action and have urged people to avoid propagation of unverified reports and speculation.

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation. Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister has also called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day. At least 185 people killed and more than 400 injured after Sri Lanka was rocked by six explosions on Sunday. Three churches - St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa - were targeted. Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels, the Shangrila, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury.

The blasts occurred around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress in churches. The Easter Sunday blasts is said to be one of the biggest attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago in Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, cricketer Virat Kohli, and several other leaders and celebrities have condemned serial blasts in Sri Lanka:

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured. Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief. Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 21, 2019

India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country. Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in civilised society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka #PresidentKovind President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) April 21, 2019

Im saddened & disturbed by reports of multiple bomb blasts in #Colombo in which over 100 people have died & more than 300 injured.



I strongly condemn this diabolical act of terrorism.



My condolences to the families of the victims. I pray the injured make a speedy recovery. Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 21, 2019

I am shocked and deeply saddened to learn about the loss of innocent lives in multiple bombings on Easter Sunday in Colombo #SriLanka.



My heartfelt condolences to the members of bereaved families and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured.#lka #SriLankaBlasts #Blasts VicePresidentOfIndia (@VPSecretariat) April 21, 2019

Saddened and shocked at the disturbing news coming in from Sri Lanka. All forms of violence are unacceptable. Easter is a Festival of Peace. My thoughts and prayers with the grieving families Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 21, 2019

My thoughts and prayers with those affected by the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka. Stay strong #SriLanka Jasprit bumrah (@Jaspritbumrah93) April 21, 2019

Saddened by the terror attacks in #SriLanka. Condolences to those whove lost family members/friends. Hope the injured recover fast. We stand by SriLanka in this hour of grief. Chowkidar Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) April 21, 2019

Deeply saddened and shocked by the bombing in Sri Lanka. Hate truly has no boundaries no limits. Heartfelt condolences and prayers for the entire nation. Stay strong #SriLanka yuvraj singh (@YUVSTRONG12) April 21, 2019

Deeply saddened by the bomb blasts in #Colombo #SriLanka and killing of innocent people there. Such ghastly acts of violence are highly condemnable. My thoughts & prayers are with the bereaved families. Pray for speedy recovery of injured. Chowkidar Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) April 21, 2019

Shocked to hear the news coming in from Sri Lanka. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this tragedy. #PrayForSriLanka Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) April 21, 2019Phase 3 of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 is just a day away. Ahead of the polls that will be conducted in 116 constituencies across 15 states, campaigns are also underway in full force. To begin with, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rally in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh. He criticised the Congress and asked people who were they willing to vote - "Congress that weakens the country or a BJP that strengthens it." Before that he held a rally in Gujarat's Patan. Bringing up Balakot strike, the Prime Minister said that he warned Pakistan of dire consequences if something happened to captured pilot of the Indian Air Force, Wing Commander Abhinandan. PM Modi will hold a rally in Rajasthan also.

Meanwhile, an FIR has been registered against Congress's South Mumbai candidate Milind Deora under Section 171 of IPC and Section 125 of Presentation of People's Act.

In yet another development, controversial BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya said in an interview to Aaj Tak that she is proud of demolishing Babri Masjid and that it has "awakened the self-respect of our country". She added that they will construct a grand Ram Temple.

Follow the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 LIVE updates on the BusinessToday.in blog here:

7:40pm: BJP has released list of candidates for Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Dr Harsh Vardhan to contest from Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, Pravesh Verma from West Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi.

Bharatiya Janata Party releases list of candidates for Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and UP; Dr Harsh Vardhan to contest from Delhi's Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari- North East Delhi, Pravesh Verma- West Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri -South Delhi and Hardeep Puri from Amritsar pic.twitter.com/VDaivg0A7n ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 6:38pm: A bench of the Allahabad High Court has issued notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Congress Party, seeking explanations on the NYAY scheme. 6:06pm: BJP's Mukul Roy writes to Chief Election Officer, West Bengal over Bangladeshi actors campaigning for Trinamool Congress. #WestBengal: BJP's Mukul Roy writes to CEO West Bengal over campaigning by Bangladeshi actors for Trinamool Congress, states, "No foreign hand can be allowed to meddle in India's electoral process. TMC ought to be de-recognised as a political party with immediate effect." ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 6:05pm: At a rally in Barmer, Rajasthan, PM Narendra Modi said that India has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats. #WATCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Barmer, Rajasthan: India has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats. Every other day they used to say "We've nuclear button, we've nuclear button".....What do we have then? Have we kept it for Diwali? pic.twitter.com/cgSLoO8nma ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 3:50pm: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on whether she will contest from Varanasi: If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest. 3:43pm: PM Modi had a telephonic conversation with the President and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. He conveyed heart-felt condolences from his side and also on behalf of all Indians at the loss of more than one hundred and fifty lives in today's terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. Terming the attacks cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts, PM Modi pointed out that these attacks were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to humanity by terrorism in the world. 3:40pm: PM Narendra Modi in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan: "India stands with the citizens of Sri Lanka, in such a crisis India will do whatever it can to help Sri Lanka." 3:20pm: Priyanka Gandhi meets the family of Pulwama martyr VV Vasantha Kumar. Kerala: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra meets Late V V Vasantha Kumar's family members in Makkamkunnu, Wayanad. Kumar had lost his life in Pulwama terror attack on February 14. pic.twitter.com/QnxyAKFMia ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 3:15pm: Supporters of Congress leader Mahabal Mishra protest outside All India Congress Committee headquarters, demanding a ticket for him from West Delhi constituency. Delhi: Supporters of Congress leader Mahabal Mishra protest outside All India Congress Committee headquarters, demanding a ticket for him from West Delhi constituency. #LokSabhaElection2019 pic.twitter.com/oPQfY1ARsM ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 2:45pm: PM Modi said at a rally in Chittorgarh, "Do you want to see an India that gives reply to Pak or one that bows down to them? An India that gives a strong reply to terrorists or an India that stays mum after terrorist attacks? A Congress that weakens the country or a BJP that strengthens it?" 1:59pm: Visuals from Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's roadshow in Wayanad. Kerala: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds a roadshow in Sultan Bathery, Wayanad. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/Vk5HPkWIQK ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 1:45pm: Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) Chief Shivpal Singh Yadav called the SP-BSP mahagathbandhan 'a flop show'. "The SP-BSP alliance is a flop show. It has taken shape only for convenience as they knew their existence was threatened. Otherwise they have been sworn enemies for the past 25 years. Now, how come they have come together?" he said. 1:30pm: At a rally in Gujarat's Patan, PM Modi said, "My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 will be why it happened." 1:20pm: Prime Minister Modi said in Gujarat's Patan, "It is the duty of people of my home state to take care of the 'son of the soil', give all 26 seats in Gujarat to me." 1:16pm: While campaigning for his son Nakul in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said,"I am where I am because of the love and strength you gave me. Nakul is not here today but he will serve you. I have given him responsibility. Take him to the task and tear his clothes if he does not deliver." 1:11pm: Visuals from BJP chief Amit Shah's roadshow in Gujarat. BJP President Amit Shah holds a roadshow in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/CLXF04fDT0 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 1:00pm: While campaigning for Jaya Prada in Rampur, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said, "If anyone stands with Azam Khan, she/he, too, will be a culprit. When I was made chief minister, I took up the work to ensure safety to women and for people like Azam Khan, we created an Anti Romeo Squad in UP. I want to ask Akhilesh Yadav - how can he even share the stage with such a man who is ill-mannered? How can he ask for votes for a man like that?" 12:45pm: Condemning the Sri Lanka blasts, PM Modi said, "No place for such barbarism in our region." Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured. Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019 12:40pm: Lt General (Retd) DS Hooda on Pragya Thakur's remark on late Hemant Karkare: Yes it does hurt when such things are said about a martyr, be it from the Army or the Police, full respect should be given. These utterances are not good. 12:10pm: Aam Aadmi Party declares candidates for 3 seats in Haryana - Naveen Jaihind from Faridabad, Prithviraj from Ambala and Krishan Kumar Agarwal from Karnal. 12:00pm: At a rally in Gujarat's Patan, Modi said that when Wing Commander Abhinandan was captured after the Balakot strike, he told Pakistan that if anything happens to the pilot, he won't leave them. PM Narendra Modi in Patan,Gujarat: When #Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I said(to Pakistan) that If anything happens to our pilot then we will not leave you pic.twitter.com/0Vlcb7I1A6 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 11:40am: Congress condoles the Sri Lanka blasts on Easter Sunday. We are deeply saddened by the terrible attacks on several churches in #SriLanka on the holy day of Easter. We stand with the people in their time of grief & pray for their recovery. Congress (@INCIndia) April 21, 2019 11:19am: Bhopal District Election Officer issued a notice to BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur and sought explanation within a day for her remarks, "I had demolished the structure (in Ayodhya). I will go there & help in the construction of Ram temple": ANI. 10:55am: BSP supremo Mayawati said, "Narendra Modi is roaming around in UP and saying that the UP has made him the PM of the country, which is true, but why did he betray 22 million people of UP? If the UP can make them PM, then they can also remove him from the post." She also added that BSP's alliance with SP and RLD has made people happy, which has shocked the BJP. , -- , Mayawati (@Mayawati) April 21, 2019 10:32am: On Saturday West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress demanded from the Election Commission the removal of Special Observer Ajay Nayak following his comment that the state's present condition is same to what it was in Bihar 10-15 years ago. 10:30am: Sadhvi Pragya said, "Yes, I had gone there (Ayodhya), I had said it yesterday too, not denying it. I had demolished the structure. I will go there and help in the construction of Ram temple, nobody can stop us from doing that, Ram rashtra hain, rashtra Ram hain." 10:26am: Supporters of Senior Delhi Congress leader Raj Kumar Chauhan protest outside Rahul Gandhi's residence alleging that Chauhan is being denied a Lok Sabha ticket. Supporters of Senior Delhi Congress leader Raj Kumar Chauhan protest outside Rahul Gandhi's residence alleging that Chauhan is being denied a Lok Sabha ticket pic.twitter.com/qXDg5AYAO4 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019 10:25am: PM Modi tweeted, "In Rajasthan, there is a sense of betrayal and despondency after Congress came to power. People will reject Congress." Heading westwards today. Will join rallies in Patan (Gujarat), Chittorgarh and Barmer (Rajasthan).



Gujarat and Rajasthan have seen the pioneering work of BJP.



In Rajasthan, there is a sense of betrayal and despondency after Congress came to power. People will reject Congress. Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

10:20am: In an interview to Aaj Tak, BJP's Bhopal candidate, Sadhvi Pragya said that she is proud of the Babri Masjid demolition. "Why would we regret the demolition of the Babri Masjid? We are, in fact, proud of it. There were some waste products of the Ram temple and we removed it. This has awakened the self-respect of our country and we will construct a grand Ram temple," she said.

"The Congress has ruled for 70 years and look what it has done. Even our temples were not secure. By gathering and demolishing the structure of the Babri Masjid, the Hindus have awakened the self-respect of the country. Where will the Ram temple be constructed if not in this country?" she said.

Sadhvi Pragya further added, "The public is with me. My candidature has motivated them. Everyone is telling me that their confidence has doubled ever since my name was declared for the Lok Sabha election in Bhopal."

10:15am: FIR registered against Congress candidate from South Mumbai Milind Deora under section 171 of IPC (giving false statements for elections) and section 125 of the Presentation of People's Act (promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections): ANI.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has assured to look into cash-strapped Jet Airways' issues that have forced the airline to halt operations temporarily, its chief executive Vinay Dube said on Saturday.

Dube, along with Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, the airline's chief financial officer Amit Agarwal, representatives of pilots, engineers, cabin crew and ground staff unions met Jaitley at his residence in Delhi.

At least one month's salary needs to be paid to the employees to retain them, Dube said, speaking to reporters later.

"To keep them where they are and to give them hope we need to pay them at least a month's salary or more. The finance minister has assured us to look into that," Dube said after the meeting.

Jet Airways that ceased all operations on Wednesday, has not paid to its entire staff for March. Jet would require around Rs 170 crore to clear at least one month's salary of its employees, Dube stated.

During the meeting which lasted for more than an hour, the Jet CEO also said that competition in the aviation sector is "important" and requested the Union Finance Minister to ensure an "open, transparent and efficient" bidding process.

The Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association (JAMEWA) also submitted a representation to Jaitley, saying "the airline is sinking for want of funds and taking away the livelihood of 23,000 people".

Also read: Here is how the new owner should fix Jet Airways

It said the grounding of the carrier has affected not only the airline's employees but others as well, such as the passengers who are not only stranded across airports but are also paying much higher price for the flights due to a sharp spike in air fares.

Shops in retail areas of airports are facing a "lull", it said.

"We explained to the finance minister the prevailing situation at the carrier. We told him that the bidding process has to be expedited and funds need to be infused. Jaitley agreed with our demand on the sale process and also said that he will talk to the banks," said Aseem Valiani, vice president of the National Aviator's Guild (NAG), which represents around 1,000-odd pilots of Jet Airways.

Valiani said that in their meeting with Kharola at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan (which houses the civil aviation ministry) earlier in the day, the management sought six-months' credit line with oil companies and extension of payment window to airport operators.

Earlier this month, SBI Caps, on behalf of the lenders, invited bids for selling upto 75 percent stake in the airline.

Speaking to PTI in Mumbai, state finance minister Mungantiwar said the delegation requested Jaitley to expedite the bidding process.

"We also sought two months' fuel credit for the airline," he said.

Also read: Jet Airways crisis: Government relaxes mandatory customs requirement for grounded planes

Also read: Jet Airways crisis: Employees seek President's intervention for salary dues, emergency funds to airlineSome of Jet Airways' grounded planes are likely to start flying by as early as Tuesday next week. SpiceJet is said to take around 40 of Jet Airways' Boeing 737s and Air India is likely to take five of the airline's wide body Boeing 777s. Some Boeing 737s might be taken by Air India for its budget carrier, Air India Express.

According to a report in Times of India, almost 40 to 45 planes are expected to be operational in the next 10 days. A source told the daily that this arrangement will provide gainful employment with pay to some of Jet's staff as the aircraft will be wet-leased. Wet-leasing is a kind of leasing arrangement where an airline provides aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance to another carrier or business and is paid by the hours operated. The source also added that operation of these additional flights hints at stabilisation of fares on domestic routes.

The daily mentions that once Air India starts operating the B777s on international routes like London, Dubai and Singapore, fares on these routes should also stabilise.

Seventy-five planes had gone out of the system due to Jet's grounding, while other Indian carriers bought in 58 planes, leaving a deficit of 17 planes. Aviation Secretary PS Kharola said that other airlines are likely to induct 31 planes in May, June and July. Additional 20 planes are likely to be leased. He added that the aviation ministry has asked airlines to hasten the process as summer travel demand is very strong.

Also read: Jet Airways crisis: CEO Vinay Dube says Arun Jaitley promised to look into debt-ridden airline's issues

With around 40 of Jet's planes operating with Air India and SpiceJet, the gap on domestic and international routes could be filled, which will help bring down fares.

Separately, Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube along with Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, the airline's chief financial officer Amit Agarwal, and representatives of pilots, engineers, cabin crew and ground staff unions met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at his residence in Delhi on Saturday. Dube said that the minister assured to look into the cash-strapped airline's issues.

Jet Airways that ceased all operations on Wednesday, has not paid to its entire staff for March.

Also read: Jet Airways crisis: Government relaxes mandatory customs requirement for grounded planes

Also read: Jet Airways crisis: Employees seek President's intervention for salary dues, emergency funds to airlineAs they explore ways to recover debt, lenders of Jet Airways are in favour of a resolution outside the insolvency law framework in case the ongoing bidding process fails to take off, sources said.

Running into debt of more than Rs 8,500 crore, Jet Airways has shut down operations temporarily after lenders decided against extending emergency funds for its survival.

SBI, the lead lender of the seven-member consortium of domestic banks that have extended loans to the airline, has started the bidding process for stake sale in the carrier and clarity about potential bidders would emerge next month.

Also read: Also read: SpiceJet, Air India may fly 40 Jet Airways planes from next week: report

While lenders are "reasonably hopeful" of a successful bidding process, sources said banks are working on a plan B in case things don't progress as expected.

If the bidding process fails, lenders would favour a resolution for the debt-ridden Jet Airways outside the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) framework, sources said. Recovery on the basis of existing security and tangible assets would be a preferred option, they added.

Under the Code, the National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT) approval is required for initiating the process, wherein the resolution would be market-linked and time-bound.

Outside the NCLT would be a better option as far as plan B is concerned, sources said, adding that then banks would realise better value from the aircraft and other tangible assets owned by Jet Airways.

Four entities -- Etihad Airways, TPG Capital, Indigo Partners and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) -- are learnt to have shown interest in picking up stake in Jet Airways. The details of initial bidders are expected to be known on May 10.

Also read: Jet Airways crisis: Employees seek President's intervention for salary dues, emergency funds to airlin e

As they wait for completion of the bidding process, the lenders are also looking at options to raise funds from the carrier's available assets, including utilising Jet Airways' 16 own planes.

On Friday, sources said that lenders have been proactive and cannot be blamed for the current situation at the airline. "They (lenders) have been actively engaging with the company for almost nine months ever since the airline started incurring cash losses and have been urging the management to come forward with a definite plan for resolution."

"Unfortunately, the management and the promoter delayed in taking a decision leading to the present situation. The lenders continued to support the airline during this period," one of the sources had said.

Also read: Jet Airways crisis: CEO Vinay Dube says Arun Jaitley promised to look into debt-ridden airline's issues

Alos read: Air India plans to lease five Boeing 777s from Jet AirwaysThe future of cash-starved Jet Airways' employees might be staring at an uncertain future but other Indian airlines may now see a value in hiring such experienced staff. The employees of the country's oldest private carrier may end up getting relatively lower pay packages, according to HR experts.

According to reports, Jet Airways pilots have been asked to take salary cuts of 25-30 per cent, while engineers have been settling at 50 per cent of their current pay.

The Jet employees are now facing stress over employments, while some are also hopeful of a turnaround of the carrier. Under such circumstances, the staff might have to either shift base to Tier-2 or Tier-3 cities or accept job offers having lower compensation, say experts.

"In my mind, other airlines will definitely see value in hiring the experienced and highly well-trained staff that Jet has currently," Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Staffing firm TeamLease Services, told PTI.

According to Chakraborty, the supply of ground staff, crew and pilots are still low in India in comparison to the demand that exists. She also noted that there is a significant demand for core staff while non-specialised staff should look at an alternative industry for suitable functional roles.

"Though morale of Jet Airways employees must be down looking at current scenario but as long as they will be open to exploring job opportunities in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, they will be having enough options to explore," said Sunil Goel, Managing Director, GlobalHunt.

Jet Airways has a substantial number of employees who have put in more than two decades at the airline.

According to Nishith Upadhyaya, Head of Advisory Services at SHRM India, the employees of Jet are expected to be absorbed with the intense competition among airlines.

Furthermore, The Air India pilots' union Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) has urged the management to hire just Boeing 777 (B-777) rated co-pilots on contractual basis instead of hiring costly captains, as it will be a brutal waste of money. Apart from Jet Airways, only Air India Express and SpiceJet operate Boeing fleets in domestic routes.

Also read: Air India Express considers leasing some Boeing 737 aircraft of Jet Airways

"Hiring the type rated Captains on B-777 and increase the wage bill dramatically would be an utter waste of resources which we can ill-afford at this time," the IPG wrote in a letter to the Director, Operations of Air India.

At present, the Boeing 777 fleet has approximately 219 captains and 110 first officers. The total numbers are reportedly adequate with the fleet average at 70 hours (per month). An IPG member said, Captains of Jet Airways may be drawing a salary of about Rs 7 lakh per month, reported IANS.

Besides, on Friday, SpiceJet had hired more than 500 employees of Jet Airways, including 100 pilots, and open to inducting more such people. The budget carrier is offering salaries based on their own structure and not the inflated salary paid by Jet, said a SpiceJet executive.

(With agencies' input)

Also read: Jet Airways pilots, engineers joining SpiceJet with pay cuts of up to 50%: report

Also read: SpiceJet to the rescue: Airline hires 500 employees; first preference to Jet Airways staffAny "arbitrary" ban on social media platforms and intermediaries could impede foreign direct investment and affect expansion of the digital India initiative, an industry body of Internet and mobile device companies said on Saturday.

Without naming Chinese video sharing app TikTok, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said its statement was in response to the "recent ban by the MeiTY on the order of a High Court of a social media platform".

The Madras High Court on April 3, 2019, had directed the Centre to ban TikTok, saying it was evident from media reports that pornography and inappropriate content were made available through such mobile applications. Soon after, tech giants Google and Apple removed TikTok from their app stores in India to prohibit further downloads of the application.

Owned by Chinese firm Bytedance, TikTok is a short-video app that has over 120 million users in India and is popular among youngsters.

The IAMAI said it would be a major roadblock to the growth of digital India and impede FDI in digital if intermediaries were to be banned quite arbitrarily by the courts in the country.

"The association was of the view that such bans dilutes nay negate the safe harbour provisions currently contained in the IT Act and its Rules and make it impossible for them to operate in the country. Especially affected would be the so-called social media platforms which allow citizens to express themselves," it added.

The IAMAI said content moderation on user-generated content platforms has been a problem about which the platforms themselves are keenly aware and have taken effective measures in recent months to curb the excesses.

It also pointed out that social media platforms in the country have adopted the Code of Ethics with the Election Commission.

"The association is of the view that in this particular instance, the complainant should have approached the government for redressal first before approaching the courts and the court should have ideally asked the platform to remove the 'offending content' than ban the entire app. It is a classic case of throwing the baby with the bathwater," the IAMAI said.

According to the IAMAI, dilution of the Safe Harbour protection available to intermediaries/social media platforms undermines the steady growth of India's digital economy and especially impacts the thriving startup ecosystem in the country.

"Content moderation on user-generated platforms is an industry-wide challenge that our members take very seriously, and are constantly addressing with ever-improving mechanisms along with enhanced safety features such as increased privacy settings, in-app reporting, comments filter, content filter for younger users, in-app access to Community Guidelines, online safety resources and more," it said.

Also read: TikTok ban: Google blocks access to Chinese app in India after court order

Also read: TikTok ban: Madras High Court asks Centre to ban app for 'encouraging pornography'CAMEROUN :: Customs, Gendarmes arrest ivory trafficker some 10 km to Meiganga :: CAMEROON

A suspected wildlife trafficker was arrested on April 12, 2019 in Meiganga with ivory and pangolin scales he was transporting on board a commercial bus. The man left Bertoua with the illegal products concealed inside a bag and boarded a bus to Ngaoundere but was stopped by customs at a check point some 10 km to Meiganga

Customs requested everyone in the bus to alight and identify their luggage. The owner of one the luggage was very reticent to own up to his luggage and upon verification it was discovered that the 42-year-old man owned the bag. When the bag was ripped open, he declared that the ivory tusks were cow horns in an attempt to trick customs officials but wildlife officials who were part of the team immediately recognized the products as ivory and pangolin scales. He was immediately arrested by the team comprised customs, gendarmes and wildlife officials. At the gendarmerie brigade where he was kept in custody, the contents of the bag revealed he had 24kg of ivory and 12kg of pangolin scales which investigations show he intended to sell in Ngoaundere. He was presented to the state counsel who remanded him in custody. Customs officials would later transfer the case file to wildlife officials who are handling the procedures aimed at ensuring the trafficker is prosecuted according to the law.

A prosecution file has been established against the suspect and an international nongovernmental organization called LAGA technically assisted customs and wildlife officials in the process. This falls within the framework of the protocol agreement recently signed between LAGA and the customs department to assist authorities in the fight against cross border wildlife crime.

The trafficking of wildlife products is considered to be the main cause of decline of wildlife species in the country and on the continent. A report published recently by IUCN says an estimated 110 00 African elephants have been decimated by poaching during the last decade. Another report published last year indicate that between 400 000 to 2.7 million pangolins are poached annually in the Central African forests representing a major increase of 150%. Most of the trafficking is cross border and explains why the customs department in the country is stepping up measures against illegal wildlife trafficking.

According to the wildlife law that governs the sector in Cameroon, anyone found in possession of parts of a totally protected species is liable to a prison term of 1 to 3 years and or a fine of 3 to 10 million CFA F.Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.Baby Sussex is set to enter the world any day now and the public is anxiously waiting for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to announce the birth of their bundle of joy and finally reveal their name. When Buckingham Palace first stated that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were expecting in Oct. 2018 the said that the little one was due in Spring 2019. Markle later clarified that she was due in late April or early May.

The Spring is a popular season for birthdays in the British Royal Family. Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte have an April and May birthday respectively, and Queen Elizabeth was also born in April. Does that mean Baby Sussex could have the same zodiac sign as the queen?

Baby Sussex could have the same zodiac sign as Queen Elizabeth

If Baby Sussex is born between April 20 and May 21, he or she will be a Taurus just like Queen Elizabeth, and they certainly wont be the only two Taurus in the British Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth will celebrate her 93rd birthday on April 21. Princess Charlotte will turn four on May 2nd, and Prince Louis will celebrate his very first birthday on April 23. All three of these royals share the Taurus zodiac sign. Since Baby Sussex will probably be born before May 21 he or she will be a Taurus also.

What are the traits of Taurus women?

We are secretly hoping that Baby Sussex is a little girl, which would make her the ideal companion for Princess Charlotte who is the only little lady in the Cambridge household. According to Astrology.com, Taurus is a fixed sign and women born under the sign of the bull can be stubborn, determined, and self-reliant. Taurus women are also hard workers and are often reliable, stable, and find a way to weave in purpose with everything they do. Essentially this describes who Queen Elizabeth II is perfectly.

What are the traits of Taurus men?

If Baby Sussex is a boy he might have a similar personality to his older cousin, Prince Louis. According to Astrology.com, Taurus men are lovers, not fighters. Theyre easy to get along with, dependable, tenacious, and loyal. However, just like their female counterparts, they have a stubborn side to them and do not like change.

Will Baby Sussexs Taurus zodiac sign affect Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys relationship?

When Baby Sussex is born Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will have been married for just about a year. With a massive move to Frogmore House in Windsor from their home at Kensington Palace in London and a ton of changes over the past year  adding a baby will certainly be challenging.

However, the duke and duchess relationship seems iron clad. According to expert astrologer Sally Kirkman  if Baby Sussex us a Taurus, they might be closer to their dad, Prince Harry. Kirkman told Express U.K., If the baby is an Aries, it will be closer to Meghan, who is a Leo, as they are both fire star signs. If the baby is a Taurus, it will be closer to Harry, a Virgo, as they are both earth star signs. Since Aries season is coming to a close were thinking that Baby Sussex will share the same zodiac sign as Queen Elizabeth.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Some actors find that one perfect role and are shot to stardom after a relatively short road to fame. Others work at their craft over a long period of time, and through persistence and dedication, achieve A-list celebrity status.

Chris Evans is an interesting combination of both, and although he has been acting for a long time, he found his greatest success with the role of Captain America, the righteous, time-traveling Avenger.

How did Chris Evans start acting?

Evans was born in 1981, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was born into a talented family, including his father, a dentist, and his mother, an artistic director with a youth theater program.

Evans has three siblings, two sisters, and a brother, all of whom are involved in the arts in some capacity. His younger brother, Scott Evans, is also an actor who is a staple of many daytime soap operas.

After graduating from high school, Evans decided that in order to further his acting career, he needed to be in the center of the action. So he moved to New York City and continued his education by studying at the famed Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

His big break

Evans got some modeling and advertising work but didnt land his first major film role until 2001, in Not Another Teen Movie. The film was a campy spoof of the most popular teen films made in the past twenty years, and Evans earned major props for his sense of comedic timing.

He got his first taste of life as a superhero when he appeared in the 2005 film Fantastic Four, and the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Although they were big-budget movies with all-star casts, both films were critically and commercially panned, and very few fans turned out for the sequel.

During this time, Evans expanded his range by appearing in several dramatic films, including Cellular, Street Kings, Push, and The Losers.

It seemed that Evans might be able to carve out a solid career for himself by working regularly in a wide variety of genres. However, in 2011, Evans landed his biggest role to date and the one that has defined his career. He was cast as Steve Rogers/Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger.

The Captain America years

Evans was praised for the way he brought Captain America to life, and the film was a huge success. He has gone on to reprise the role of Steve Rogers in The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War.

Evans will also appear as Captain America in the upcoming film, Avengers: Endgame. It is reported that the film will be his last foray as Captain America and that after nine years, he will be moving on to pursue other projects.

Although Evans has achieved an almost-unprecedented level of superstardom, he is reportedly a very humble, down-to-earth man. Fans consistently report that he is just as nice as he seems when meeting him on the street, and his continuing dedication to charitable causes only proves that he has become a real-life Captain America.

Whats next for Chris Evans?

With his sojourn as Captain America coming to an end, Chris Evans isnt planning on taking a break. He has several big projects coming up, including a brand-new adaptation of the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story, and a science fiction film called Infinite.

No matter what comes next for Chris Evans, hes proven that he has what it takes to tackle both big-budget blockbusters and smaller, independent films. Fans should be able to enjoy his work for years to come!Jill Duggar and husband Derick Dillard recently made a big announcement on Instagram: They built a brand new home. While it seems like a time that everyone should be excited about, the post didnt garner as much positivity as Duggar probably thought it would. In fact, plenty of fans had some pretty harsh comments.

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard recently built a new home. | D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra)

Duggar and Dillard left Counting On in 2017

When 19 Kids and Counting was canceled due to Josh Duggars sexual abuse scandal, TLC revived the show to focus on the daughters. Counting On premiered shortly after the first shows cancellation, and Duggar and Dillard were part of the main cast. However, in 2017, Dillard made harsh comments about other TLC stars, including transgender star Jazz Jennings and openly gay stars Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent. TLC didnt agree with what Dillard said, so they reportedly fired him from the show. However, Dillard has said he left the show on his own terms and took his family out of filming, too.

The couple announced they just built a new home

Duggar posted an announcement on Instagram recently to say that she and Dillard had just built a brand new home. The couple posted photos of the home on their blog; it appears to be a brick ranch with plenty of high-end updates. The home is in Lowell, Arkansas, which is closer to Duggars family than where they previously lived. While Arkansas isnt an expensive place to own a home, it still must have cost the couple thousands of dollars to build. And although Duggar thought fans would be incredibly happy for her, there were some harsh comments.

Fans were quick to question where the two got the money for the home  but the negative comments seem to have disappeared

When Duggar posted the announcement on Instagram, some fans almost couldnt even believe what they were reading. People immediately began to question how the couple had enough money to build a home; Duggar doesnt work, and Dillard attends law school full time, so neither of them have a full time job. Its possible they got help from their families to build the home, but since building it wasnt necessary, it doesnt make sense that the in-laws would have footed the bill.

While there were many fans who questioned how the couple could afford a home, it looks as though Duggar went through and deleted most of the negative comments.  Its documented [Duggar and Dillard] do not work and one is a student, and since they were not paid on their show. Its only natural to be curious about it when its broadcasted all over the media, one user wrote in regards to how the couple could pay for something so expensive. That appears to be the only negative comment Duggar kept on her post.

The couple has been accused of scamming fans in the past

Duggar and Dillard have received criticism in the past about their finances because fans have suggested the two scammed people for money. A few years back, Duggar and Dillard requested money for their charity and mission trips, but when their charity folded, the money disappeared. Plus, fans thought it was ill-mannered of the couple to request donations from their fans at all; however, that is something many celebrities do for a cause they care about. When it comes to finances, Duggar and Dillard dont seem to win with the Counting On supporters.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!By Trend

Five AH-64 Apache attack helicopters of the British Royal Force have arrived to the Amari Air Base in Estonia as a part of a wider NATO deployment in the Baltic region, press service of the Estonian Defence Forces stated Saturday.

The helicopters are expected to take part in the Spring Storm NATO drills and cover the alliance's contingency at the military base near Tapa in Estonia.Meghan Markles life has been chock full of drama ever since she became a member of the royal family. Sure, as a Hollywood actress she has dealt with her fair share of shenanigans but ever since going royal things have gotten out of hand.

With the odds against her and a sea full of haters at her back 24/7, how does the controversial Duchess carve out me time?

Markle loves a good downward dog

Its no secret; the Duchess of Sussex is all about healthy living. So much so that she quickly got to work encouraging Prince Harry to get on the up and up when they first moved in together!

One of her favorite go-to workouts is yoga! Markle has been an avid yoga enthusiast since she was studying in college. The under the radar work out really stuck with her and now she finds it to be the perfect thing to calm down and trim up.

While Markle has been taking poses consistently since college, yoga has been a part of her life since childhood. Markles mom is a yoga instructor, so its no surprise that this particular activity has stuck with her for so long. Nowadays Markle does her best to practice at least twice a week.

Some of her favorite poses include Warrior Two, Downward-Facing Dog, Bridge Pose, Thread The Needle, Supine Twist, and Corpse Pose. These poses target different areas of the body and when done together are a great sequence that anyone can do.

As the duchess recently said to another yoga fan, It works for the mind and body; its so key.

She also loves spending quality time with her mom

There's nothing like a mother-daughter bond and Meghan Markle's love letter to her mother Doria Ragland proves it: https://t.co/vJJnQn8Eog  E! News (@enews) May 19, 2018

Markle absolutely adores her mother; shes one of the few members of her family who hasnt gone rogue. Prince Harry and his ladylove have taken several secret trips to visit Doria Ragland in Los Angeles.

Markles mother has also put her yoga practice and dog mom duties on hold to visit her daughter and her dashing husband on royal grounds.

Thankfully, the loving mother figure will be making a move to the United Kingdom in preparation for Markles first child. A royal insider said, Doria should be here for the birth and will be staying. But then she has to get back to her dogs and work.

That means the mother-daughter duo will be under the same roof for a while!

The grandmother-to-be plans to help her doting daughter raise Baby Sussex. While she wishes she could stay, she has her own life to get back to. Ultimately Ragland will be splitting her time between her home in LA and Frogmore Cottage. It looks like those secret trips will be back on in the future!

Markle also has a handful of hobbies that calm her nerves

When she isnt breaking a sweat on the mat, going on secret trips to see her mother, or going on undercover romantic getaways with Prince Harry, the Duchess has a few other hobbies that keep her calm. For one, Markles penmanship is out of this world. Before she caught her big break in 2011, Markle made her way by juggling smaller acting jobs and, you guessed it, gigs as a calligraphy artist!

How good is she? Markle was a sought-after artist by some big Hollywood names. She even taught a course at a Paper Source store in Beverly Hills.

She also enjoys journaling. Clearly, Markle loves to put pen to paper! This allows her to get her thoughts out. Not only does she get to exercise her already excellent penmanship, but she also gets to enjoy the therapeutic effects of the process.

The former Suits star is also excellent in the kitchen. Even though she has an entire cooking staff on hand, she still loves to get her hands dirty to make meals for her and her hubby.

Once the baby is born Markle will be busy with Baby Sussex, but were sure she will still indulge in her favorite hobbies to keep her calm so she can carry on being an amazing wife and mother.In true royal fashion, Queen Elizabeth has two birthdays  yes, two. Thanks to an old tradition, Her Majesty celebrates her real birthday in April and then again in June. However, celebrations for her actual birthday look a lot different from the annual June festivities.



Up ahead, find out how the queen celebrates her two birthdays.



Queen Elizabeth | Samir Hussein/WireImage

How does the queen celebrate her birthday in April?



Queen Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, which makes this year her 93rd year. How remarkable is that?! Last year, the United Kingdoms longest reigning monarch celebrated her birthday in April with a celebration at Royal Albert Hall. The star-studdent event saw performances by Kylie Minogue, Shawn Mendes, Sir Tom Jones, Sting, Shaggy, and other artists from Commonwealth countries. However, her 92nd birthday party was in honor of the Queens Commonwealth Trust and not a good example of how she usually spends her April birthday.



With two birthdays to look forward to every year, the queen prefers to spend one (her real birthday) in private. Her quiet celebration is usually celebrated at home with members of her family. However, she will sometimes participate in a walkabout on big birthdays like her 80th.



Despite usually keeping quiet on her April birthday, some traditional celebrations still occur. At midday on the 21st, a 21-gun salute takes place in Windsor Great Park, a 41-gun salute takes place in Hyde Park, and a 62-gun salute occurs at the Tower of London.



How does the queen celebrate her birthday in June?



Queen Elizabeths April birthday typically looks much different than her one in June. For starters, her June birthdate changes every year. According to the royal familys website, Her Majestys June birthday is a public holiday and typically falls on the second Saturday of the month.



Why does the queen have two birthdays? In the royal family, it is a tradition for a monarch to celebrate their birthday in the summer, since the weather in England is usually nicer. However, if they werent born in the summer (or late spring), they will simply choose a second birthday and celebrate both. The second Saturday in June isnt quite yet summer, but its close enough.



The queens  or any monarch for that matter  June birthday requires a lot more planning and public participation. Also known as Trooping the Colour, the days festivities date back to the 17th century and consist of a parade with members of the British and Commonwealth armies, the Household Cavalry (the horse guards), 400 musicians, and a royal procession.



In addition to a parade, the queen also spectates a gun salute. Following the procession, she and her family members head over to Buckingham Palace for a 41-gun salute by the Kings Troop, which takes place in Green Park.



For the grand finale, Her Majesty and her family members make their way up to the Buckingham Palace balcony for a Royal Air Force flyby, also known as a flypast in England. The patriotic gesture incorporates the colors of Britains flag (blue, red, and white), too. Talk about moving!



Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Julia Roberts has solidified herself as an A-list actress since her career in Hollywood began in the late 1980s. Keep reading to learn more about Roberts life and her acting career.



Early years and childhood



Roberts grew up in Smyrna, Georgia, where she lived with her parents  who later divorced  and two older siblings, according to Biography. Roberts spent her youth watching her parents host workshops for aspiring actors and writers.

Both her parents were actors themselves but she wanted to be a veterinarian. Roberts eventually decided to follow in her parents footsteps and pursue acting.



After graduating high school in 1985, she moved to New York City to live with her sister, Lisa. Both of Roberts older siblings, Lisa and Eric, were already pursuing their own acting careers when she moved to New York.



Roberts big break

Roberts landed a role on the TV series Crime Story but her role as Daisy in the 1988 film, Mystic Pizza, got her noticed.

One year later, Roberts starred in Steel Magnolias opposite Shirley MacLaine and Sally Field. Her performance in the film earned her an Academy Award nomination for best actress.



In 1990, she starred in the Garry Marshall film, Pretty Woman, opposite Richard Gere, where she played a hooker in Los Angeles. Years after the films success, Roberts spoke about Geres apprehension to join the cast of the movie.



Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in a scene from the film Pretty Woman in 1990. | Buena Vista/Getty Images

I just said, You have to do this movieAnd I kind of pleaded with him in a very real way, Roberts told the Today show. She and Marshall couldnt find anyone they wanted for the other main role in the film until Gere who initially turned the part.



Marshall and Roberts flew to New York City in an effort to convince Gere to take the role. At one point, Marshall left Roberts and Gere alone to discuss the film.



Hes a very serious actor and he had very specific thoughts about the movie and the part and what worked and what didnt work for him, Roberts told Today. And I think I just nodded and smiled a lot and agreed with everything he said.



But it all worked out in the end.



All three of us went out to dinner and had a great time, Roberts said, and he changed all of our lives forever by agreeing to do this movie.



Roberts role in Pretty Woman is now iconic along with her role in Erin Brockovich, which earned her an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role.



How old is Julia Roberts?



Roberts is 51 years old. Her birthday is Oct. 28, 1967.



Julia Roberts | Anthony Harvey/FilmMagic

Roberts current projects



Roberts recently starred in the film, Ben Is Back, where she played the mother of an addict. In 2018, she began a role on an exclusive Amazon Prime series, Homecoming, where she earned $600,000 per episode.

Shes now known as one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. Her net worth reflects her reputation at approximately $200 million.The royal family knows a thing or two about foreign language. From Queen Elizabeth to Prince George and Princess Charlotte, most royal family members can speak a foreign language  and some even have fluency in a few foreign languages. But, what about the Duchess of Sussex? What languages does Meghan Markle speak? Find out, ahead.



Meghan Markle | Daniel Leal-Olivas  WPA Pool/Getty Images

What languages does Meghan Markle speak?



Despite not growing up in the royal family, Meghan Markle still studied a foreign language in school. According to the royal familys website and the Duchess of Sussexs official biography, Her Royal Highness took French courses for six years. Prior to marrying into the royal family, she lived in Canada, which is a bilingual French and English-speaking country. Although the French spoken in Canada is different than that of France, the duchess certainly got some practice in.



In addition to studying French, Meghan Markle can also speak Spanish. The Duchess of Sussex learned the language while interning at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina during her college years.



While visiting Edinburgh with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle showed off her linguistic skills when she said Salamat Po, which means thank you in Tagalog, the language of the Philippines to a well-wisher. Its unclear how much Tagalog the Duchess of Sussex is familiar with, but its normal for royal family members to have knowledge of simple phrases and words in foreign languages.



What languages does the royal family speak?



Meghan Markle might have a couple of foreign languages up her sleeve, but shes not the only one in the royal family who can speak a foreign language. Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Prince William, and many of her other in-laws speak and understand foreign languages from around the world.



French



Like the Duchess of Sussex, most members of the royal family have some understanding of French. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are both fluent in the language, as are their children, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward. Additionally, both Prince William and Kate Middleton can speak French. Prince Harry learned French in school, but he has admitted to not remembering much.



German



German is another language fluent in the royal family. Prince Philip grew up speaking German, English, and French in his family and is therefore fluent in the foreign language.



Spanish



Meghan Markle isnt alone in her knowledge of Spanish. Prince George and Princess Charlotte are reportedly learning to speak the language. Additionally, Prince William might know a little. Prince Harry wanted to learn Spanish in school, but his teacher allegedly discouraged him (as he revealed while on his royal tour of New Zealand).



Welsh



As the current and future Prince of Wales, Prince Charles and Prince William both speak Welsh. Prince William learned at a young age and allegedly continued his knowledge after he graduated from university. Prince Charles learned the language before being crowned Prince of Wales.



Gaelic



Prince Charles and Prince William apparently know a little Gaelic, too. However, its unclear whether they are familiar with the Gaelic spoken in Scotland or Ireland (or both).



Swahili



Prince William knows a little Swahili, too. The future king taught himself pieces of the languages when he was in his early twenties and has used his knowledge while visiting African countries.



Russian



Some members of the royal family also speak a little Russian. According to reports, Prince Michael of Kent and his wife, Princess Michael of Kent speak the foreign language.



Arabic



Prince Harry might not confidently know a foreign language, but he certainly does try. With the help of some notes, the Duke of Sussex once delivered a speech in Arabic.



Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Its been well documented that Meghan Markle doesnt feel bound by the royal rules and, while the palace issued a statement that Markle isnt sharing the details of her birth plan, its likely it wont be anything like the way Kate Middleton did things.

Meghan Markle | Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

Markle doesnt face the same type of pressure

Certainly, Markle has had more than her fair share of media attention but the expectations for the arrival of Baby Sussex are quite different.

Markle is definitely bucking with tradition and the notion that this is the way that things have always been done, reportedly opting not to deliver their baby at the Lindo Wing of St. Marys Hospital or pose on the steps outside to introduce Baby Sussex to the world, as Kate Middleton and Princess Diana had done in the past.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want to keep things private

Buckingham Palace released a statement to let royal baby fans know that the details of Prince Harry and Markles birth plan would be kept private and fans likely wouldnt know about the birth of Baby Sussex right away.

The statement noted:

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very grateful for the goodwill they have received from people throughout the United Kingdom and around the world as they prepare to welcome their baby. Their Royal Highnesses have taken a personal decision to keep the plans around the arrival of their baby private. The Duke and Duchess look forward to sharing the exciting news with everyone once they have had an opportunity to celebrate privately as a new family.

Markle and Prince Harry are shaking things up

The fact that Prince Harry and Markle arent adhering to the typical traditions has won over many fans, with royal author Ingrid Seward telling PEOPLE magazine: People are delighted that Meghan is doing things differently. She was under no pressure to do things the same.

Additionally, Seward explained why the couple isnt so keen on the delivery at St. Marys hospital, noting, It is completely understandable. The Lindo Wing has become too much of a circus.

Prince Harry and Markle are expected to pose on the grounds of Windsor Castle, as they recently made the move to their new home at Frogmore Cottage, but its unclear when that will happen. Its also expected that the first big reveal of Baby Sussexs name and photo will be posted to their new Instagram account.

Baby Sussex will arrive any day

Its unclear where Baby Sussex will be born, though options in the town of Windsor include Princess Margaret Hospital and King Edward VII Hospital, or the couple could choose Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey. There are also rumblings that Prince Harry and Markle will opt for a home birth, which would actually follow in the footsteps of the Queen, who had three sons at Buckingham Palace and a daughter at Clarence House.

As for when the baby will be born, a royal source told ET that he or she is expected any day now and, of course, bets are being placed that Baby Sussex will arrive on Easter Sunday, which is also the Queens 93rd birthday.Modern Family has been on the air for almost 10 years. Throughout the many seasons, it has won numerous awards and become one of ABCs most successful series.

However, with news that Modern Family will be coming to an end next year, fans are looking forward to seeing where the beloved cast members will go from here.

Ariel Winter, specifically, is an actress who has gained a lot of fame from the show. She plays Alex Dunphy, the nerdy second child of Phil and Claire Dunphy. Since Ariel Winter is quite young, its worth being curious about how her career will take off after Modern Family. Read on below to find out what the actress could be up to in the future.

Ariel Winter has been on Modern Family since she was a child

Ariel Winter | Rich Fury/Getty Images

Ariel Winter made her first appearance on Modern Family in 2009 when she was only 11 years old. After 10 years of being on TV, she is now 21 years old and no longer the little kid that everyone first knew her as.

Growing up on a TV has not been easy, especially during those formative tween and teen years when one is searching for an identity.

Ariel is growing up online, on TV, in the public eye, Modern Family co-creator Steven Levitan said. Just like Alex, shes trying to find her equilibrium, find out who she is.

However, Ariel Winter would not change her life for anything. Im super lucky, though, to be able to be on this show and work with the people I work with that are so amazing, she shared on Live With Kelly and Ryan. We have the best crew, we have the best castYou really couldnt wish for anything more.

Ariel Winter has had a busy acting career in the past several years

Even though she had a solid gig on Modern Family that gave her a decent income, Ariel Winter still took on many projects on the side throughout the years.

Shes famous for being the voice of Princess Sofia in the childrens series Sofia the First and its related projects from 2012 to 2018.

Ariel Winter has also been in movies for kids such as Tad, The Lost Explorer (2013); Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014); and Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017).

Ariel Winter will continue her career in Hollywood after Modern Family

Acting and being in Hollywood has been a huge part of Ariel Winter now, so it doesnt look like she will find a different career path once Modern Family is over.

When she was recently asked on Instagram what she would like to do next, Ariel Winter gave a nice little response.

Work!!!! Im excited to explore new characters as a young woman instead of the awkward child you see here, she shared. There are a lot of amazing roles for women coming up that Id love a shot at! I also plan on producing content.

Ariel Winter might continue attending college some time in the future

In 2016, Ariel Winter was accepted to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The talented actress was also offered a spot at Yale and Princeton, though she ultimately chose to attend UCLA and study pre-law.

Although her future in Hollywood seems bright at the moment, Ariel Winter acknowledged that the industry is extremely fickle and there could come a time when she is no longer making a living as an actress, which is why she chose to attend college.

I could be working now and then never work again the next 10 years, so I thought its important to have knowledge in another subject that you like, that you could have as a plan in the future, she told ET.

She also decided on a study path that would allow her to help others stuck in the justice system. Winter went through tough court battles against her abusive mother and eventually got herself emancipated. Now she is interested in the legal side of it all and want to help abuse victims like herself.

However, after six months of college, Ariel Winter announced in the spring of 2018 that she was taking a break to focus on her acting career. In her announcement, she seems to indicate that she is not leaving permanently, so it is possible that Ariel Winter will return to her studies in the future.Holidays have a very special meaning when children are involved. Christmas and Easter dont seem to have quite the luster as they did during childhood. Luckily, despite their royal status Duchess Kate Middleton and Prince William have been adamant about providing their three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis with the best childhoods possible.

The British Royal Family has major traditions that they follow during various holidays and Easter is no exception. This is how Princess Charlotte and Prince George will be spending Easter Sunday.

How will Prince George and Princess Charlotte celebrate Easter?

Though Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton have royal obligations they must attend to on Easter Sunday Prince George and Princess Charlotte arent yet required to attend church service. In 2018 the little royals spent the day with the Middletons the Duchess of Cambridges parents. The duchess told some little girls outside of St. Georges Chapel that the prince and princess had enjoyed an Easter egg hunt. Were sure that they will also be indulging in massive Easter baskets with tons of treats inside.

The duchess parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, own Party Pieces a massive business that stocks party supplies and other delights. Party Pieces sells Easter tattoos, Easter bunny crackers, and cute Easter finger puppets. From the treasures for the Easter egg hunt to stickers and chocolates, were sure the prince and princess (and hopefully little Prince Louis) will spend a wonderful Easter with their non-royal grandparents.

How will the British Royal Family spend their Easter?

Easter Sunday happens to fall on a very special day this year. Sunday, April 21, 2019 is also Queen Elizabeths 93rd birthday. In addition to church services at St. Georges Chapel in Windsor the queen will also have some sort of birthday celebration. As is tradition as the queen leaves the church, a group of schoolchildren will present her with a posy as they do each and every year on Easter.

Over the weekend, citizens of the United Kingdom should expect a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park, a 21 gun salute in Windsor Great Park, and a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London in celebration of the queens birthday. After their Easter service, the royal family will probably retire to the queens country estate, Sandringham, for a private celebration.

Though Prince Harry will probably be present with the rest of his family (as long as Meghan Markle doesnt go into labor) dont expect to see the Duchess of Sussex at Easter service or the queens birthday celebration. In fact, many folks are convinced that the former actress may give birth on the queens birthday.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Happy 93rd birthday to Queen Elizabeth II! The Queens birthday falls on Easter Sunday this year and while Prince Harry attended the Easter church service without Meghan Markle, the couple did have a special message for the Queen.

Queen Elizabeth ll, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry Anwar Hussein/WireImage

The Queens special social media birthday greetings

In honor of the Queens birthday, the Royal social media accounts were brimming with well wishes.

The Kensington Palace Twitter account shared a collection of photos, tweeting: Wishing a very happy 93rd birthday to Her Majesty The Queen! #HappyBirthdayYourMajesty.

The Royal Family Instagram account compiled a video that showed the Queen throughout the years, writing: Happy 93rd birthday to Her Majesty The Queen! Our video includes a photograph from each decade of The Queens life, from an image of her as a baby in 1926, to her visit to Kings College last month. #QueensBirthday #HappyBirthdayHerMajesty.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shared a sweet message on Instagram

Despite Markle being MIA from the Easter service, the Instagram account she shares with Prince Harry was sure to post a special message to Granny on her special day.

Along with photos of the Queen, including one of her with young Prince Harry and Prince William and a too cute pic of her laughing with Markle, was the caption: Happy Birthday Your Majesty, Maam, Granny. Wishing you the most wonderful day! Harry & Meghan.

Why didnt Meghan Markle attend the Easter service?

When Prince Harry showed up for the Easter service at St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle, fans noticed that Markle wasnt by his side. This naturally started chatter about the reason why she was absent.

In addition to Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton, Zara and Mike Tindall, Prince Andrew, Princess Beatrice, Princess Anne, Sophie Countess of Wessex, James Viscount Severn, and Peter and Autumn Phillips were also at the Sunday service.

Many royal baby watchers wondered if Markle is too far in her pregnancy or even currently in labor and due to give birth soon. Still others buzzed about the possibility that she already gave birth to Baby Sussex and the couple havent yet announced the news.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want to maintain privacy

Last week, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle released a statement that alerted fans that they would be keeping the birth details private.

The statement from Buckingham Palace explained: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very grateful for the goodwill they have received from people throughout the United Kingdom and around the world as they prepare to welcome their baby. Their Royal Highnesses have taken a personal decision to keep the plans around the arrival of their baby private. The Duke and Duchess look forward to sharing the exciting news with everyone once they have had an opportunity to celebrate privately as a new family.

A royal source told ET recently that Baby Sussex is expected any day now and, with Markle missing out on the Easter Sunday gathering, perhaps the baby will be born very soon.As the days count down until Prince Harry and Meghan Markle welcome their first child, old videos and stories from Prince Harrys childhood have been making a reappearance. That includes a revisit of the 1992 book Diana: Her True Story, which revealed that when Princess Diana was pregnant with Prince Harry, she kept a very big secret from her husband, Prince Charles.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana | Tim Graham/Getty Images

Princess Diana felt media pressure during her pregnancy

Not unlike the media attention Markle has received during her pregnancy, Princess Diana recounted how the scrutiny was unbearable when she was pregnant with Prince William and, as a result, she was induced.

She told the books author, Andrew Morton: When we had William, we had to find a date in the diary that suited Charles and his polo. William had to be induced because I couldnt handle the press pressure any longer, it was becoming unbearable. It was as if everyone was monitoring every day for me.

Princess Diana added: Anyway, the boy arrived, great excitement. Thrilled, everyone absolutely high as a kite  we had found a date where Charles could get off his polo pony for me to give birth. That was very nice, felt grateful about that!

Prince Charles, Princess Diana, and Prince Harry | Anwar Hussein/Getty Images

Princess Diana kept a secret about Harry from Prince Charles

When Princess Diana was pregnant with Harry, she explained that she kept a rather large secret from her husband, as Prince Charles had wanted a daughter.

She explained in the book: I knew Harry was going to be a boy because I saw on the scan. Charles always wanted a girl. He wanted two children, and he wanted a girl. I knew Harry was a boy, and I didnt tell him.

Rather than being overjoyed about the arrival of his second child, Prince Charles was quite obvious about his disappointment, as Diana recounted about Harrys birth: First comment was: Oh God, its a boy, second comment: And hes even got red hair.

Prince Charles shared his disappointment at Harrys christening

Unable to let his disappointment go, Prince Charles again made a comment at Harrys christening weeks later, telling Dianas mother, Frances Kydd: We were so disappointed  we thought it would be a girl.

Diana recalled: Mummy snapped his head off, saying: You should realized how lucky you are to have a child thats normal. Every since that day the shutters have come down, and thats what he does when he gets somebody answering back at him.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana | Tim Graham/Getty Images

After Harrys birth, their marriage went down the drain

While Princess Diana noted in Mortons book that her relationship with Prince Charles improved before Harrys birth, noting it was the closest weve ever, ever been and ever will be, things took a sharp downhill turn thereafter.

She shared, Then, suddenly, as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage. The whole thing went down the drain. Prince Charles had rekindled his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, who he later married.

Prince Charles hurtful words about Harry certainly didnt help their relationship and, in the 2010 book, William and Harry, writer Katie Nicolls wrote about how Prince Charles ignored Diana when she was recovering from Harrys birth in 1984. Nicolls wrote: Diana was devastated when, upon returning home to Kensington Palace, Charles sped off in his Aston Martin to play polo in Windsor Great Park. Diana reportedly said, Something inside of me died.Back when Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, wasnt a duchess and went by her maiden name of Camilla Shand, she met Andrew Parker Bowles. Years later, the two would get married. Keep reading to learn the crazy way they got engaged, which sounds almost too outlandish to be true.



How Camilla met Andrew Parker Bowles

Camilla and Andrew met in 1965 at her debutante party. Author Penny Junor wrote about the couples first meeting in her book, The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked the Crown.



He was 25 and a rather beautiful officer in the Household Cavalry; she was 17 but remarkably self-assured, Junor wrote. Andrew went over to her and simply said, Lets dance. They danced and she fell in love.

Camilla and Andrew dated, then she met Prince Charles

Camilla and Andrew began dating but broke up and thats when she met Prince Charles in 1970 at a polo match where they were introduced by a mutual friend, Lucia Santa Cruz.

He [Prince Charles] loved the fact that she smiled with her eyes as well as her mouth, and laughed at the same silly things as he did, Junor wrote in her book, according to People. In short, he was very taken with her, and after that first meeting he began ringing her up.

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are seen together in late 1979 | Tim Graham/Getty Images

She and Prince Charles started dating but split up when he left on the HMS Frigate with the Royal Navy at the beginning of 1973. Although they both liked each other, the couple didnt have a conversation about remaining together while Prince Charles was with the Royal Navy.

When Prince Charles went away, Camilla and Andrew reconnected and rekindled their romance from years earlier.

How Camilla and Andrew got engaged



Camillas father and Andrews brother conspired together to get the couple to the altar. They published an engagement announcement in a local newspaper for Camilla and Andrew even though they werent engaged, according to Good Housekeeping.

Camilla Shand marries Major Andrew Parker-Bowles at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, 4th July 1973. | Wood/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Andrew, a known bachelor, proposed to Camilla after the two men forced his hand. Camilla and Andrew were married on July 4, 1973.



Marriage devastated Prince Charles

Camillas marriage to Andrew reportedly devastated Prince Charles. It seemed to him particularly cruel, he wrote in one letter, that after such a blissful, peaceful and mutually happy relationship, fate had decreed that it should last a mere six months, Junor said.



Camilla and Andrews children



Camilla had two children with her first spouse just like Prince Charles did during his first marriage.



Camilla and Andrew welcomed their son, Tom, on Dec. 18, 1974. Today, Tom is a food critic and has two kids. Hes also written cookbooks.

Camilla Parker Bowles with son, Tom, and daughter, Laura, at an unspecified event | Tim Graham/Getty Images

I loved eating and could just about string a sentence together, so I thought I could write about food, Tom said about becoming a food critic.

Four years after Camilla and Andrew welcomed Tom, they had their second child, a daughter named Laura, on Jan. 1, 1978. Laura grew up to co-found an art gallery in Belgravia. In 2006 she married Harry Lopes, a former Calvin Klein model.

Divorce



Andrew and Camilla got divorced in 1995 after more than 20 years of marriage. During their marriage, Andrew reportedly knew of Camillas affair with Prince Charles.



Andrew was in no position to complain; and when he discovered what was going on, he wisely didnt make a fuss, Junor wrote in her book.

Some would say that a part of him actually quite enjoyed the fact that his wife was sleeping with the future King; he might have felt differently had Charles been a traveling salesman.

Hospitality giant InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a partnership deal with Bahrain-based real estate developer Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company to open the first Staybridge Suites hotel in Bahrain.



Expected to open in January 2020, the 128-room Staybridge Suites Manama Al Seef will be located in the heart of the capital and will benefit from proximity to the popular shopping and commercial destination, the Seef District. Guests can also enjoy home-like surroundings and amenities throughout the hotel with a feeling of community including a fully equipped kitchen, spacious suites, large workspaces, complimentary wi-fi, a business centre and fitness centre.



The signing was held in the headquarters of the Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company with the attendance of Sheikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA).



Commenting on the signing, Shaikh Khaled said: The development of Staybridge Suites comes in line with BTEAs strategy which focuses on four pillars awareness, attraction, access, and accommodation in order to attract regional and international visitors, further increasing the tourism sectors contribution to the national economy. Bahrain is currently witnessing the launch of several hotels and serviced apartments due to the influx of inbound tourists. We will continue to dedicate our efforts towards enhancing tourist and hospitality services in order to deliver exceptional services for visitors.



Pascal Gauvin, managing director, India, Middle East & Africa, IHG, said: We are excited to be partnering with Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company to debut the Staybridge Suites brand in Bahrain. The tourism industry in Bahrain is gaining momentum with an increase in leisure and business travellers, especially from the GCC countries, that is resulting in a rising demand for long stay accommodation. Seef District is the commercial hub of Bahrain and boasts of some of the best shopping destinations in the city, which is why it makes perfect sense to develop Bahrains first Staybridge Suites here."



He added: "Staybridge Suites Manama Al Seef marks our third hotel in the country, positioning us to cater to a wider-range of guest profiles, and we look forward to welcoming our guests to this newest addition to our portfolio, in 2020.



Faisal Faqeeh, chairman of Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company, added: The fantastic location combined with the unique offering of Staybridge Suites Manama Al Seef, make it the ideal choice for travellers looking for a home away from home experience. Designed to give both business and leisure travellers a compelling experience in the heart of the city, we are proud to partner with a global leader such as IHG, to further market growth in the country. We are confident that our partnership will be a success and look forward to welcoming guests to the hotel.



There are currently five Staybridge Suites hotels open across the Middle East, with a further eight due to open in the next three to five years. - TradeArabia News ServiceInheriting family heirlooms is different when it comes to the British royal family. Instead of inheriting dishes or a set of tools, members of the royal family may inherit jewels or other extremely pricey, maybe even priceless, items steeped in history.



Keep reading to learn what royal heirloom Baby Sussex, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markles baby, may inherit from Queen Elizabeth II.



Expert believes Baby Sussex will inherit brooch



Grant Mobley, a diamond expert, and gemologist told MarieClaire.com, what royal heirloom they believe Baby Sussex will inherit from Queen Elizabeth II.



Mobley told the publication that its likely Queen Elizabeth II will give her great-grandchild, her Botswana Flower brooch.



There are many heirlooms among the Queens impressive jewelry collection, but the Botswana Flower brooch is a frontrunner as a potential piece to be handed down to the soon-to-arrive royal baby, Mobley told MarieClaire.com.



The Botswana Flower brooch



Mobley gave some background on the Botswana Flower brooch and how it came to be in Queen Elizabeth IIs possession.



Queen Elizabeth II wearing Botswana Flower brooch | Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images

Given to the Queen by the President of Botswana in 2007, the elegant brooch features 11 stunning pear-shaped natural diamonds set in yellow gold, Mobley said.



Why this brooch?



Mobleys prediction is based on the connection Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have to Botswana.



Botswana has significant meaning to Meghan and Harry  after traveling to the country together in the early days of their relationship, Harry later chose a diamond from Botswana as the feature stone in Meghans engagement ring, Mobley said.



The traveling to the country together Mobley is referring to, is the trip the Duke and Duchess took to Botswana shortly after they began dating in early July 2016. The couple discussed the trip in their first interview following their engagement in 2017.



After they met for drinks and immediately hit it off, the couple planned additional dates. Following those dates, Prince Harry invited Markle to join him in Botswana.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during a visit to Cardiff Castle on January 18, 2018, in Cardiff, Wales. | Ben Birchall  WPA Pool / Getty Images

I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana and we camped out with each other under the stars, Harry said. Then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure that we had a chance to get to know each other.



When Prince Harry proposed to Markle, he created an engagement ring featuring three diamonds. The center stone came from Botswana and the side stones came from the jewelry collection of the late Princess Diana, Prince Harrys mother.



Although Botswana is a special place for Prince Harry and Markle as a couple, its been an important place for the prince since 1997. Prince Harry first visited Botswana after his mother died. Since then, he has returned to the country practically every year since.



When has Queen Elizabeth II worn the brooch?



Queen Elizabeth II has worn the Botswana Flower brooch on a number of occasions. Shes worn the stunning piece of jewelry to a number of events including the 2015 Royal Ascot and two other visits.



Will Markle pass down jewelry to Baby Sussex?



As for Markle, Mobley believes she will also pass down jewelry to her baby.

Meghan Markle following her wedding to Prince Harry at Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018. | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Mobley predicted that Markle will give Baby Sussex her Galanterie de Cartier stud earrings made of diamond and white gold that she wore on her wedding day if Baby Sussex is a girl.Known for defying royal tradition, Princess Dianas engagement ring didnt follow what the British royal family had done for years. Ahead, learn the origin story of her engagement ring and how it broke from royal tradition.



Ordered ring from catalog



Princess Dianas now iconic ring made up of a 12-carat sapphire stone surrounded by 14 diamonds came from a catalog, according to Good Housekeeping. It wasnt custom-made like other royal engagement rings, which was reportedly bothersome to certain people because that made the ring more accessible and less rare.



Prince Charles And Princess Diana At The Gulf Forces Parade Mansion House| Tim Graham/Getty Images

Princess Diana picked the sapphire-and-diamond stunner from a Garrard jewelry collection catalog. The ring not only came from a catalog but Princess Diana picked the ring herself. Pretty modern for a woman who got engaged in the early 1980s.



The ring reportedly cost Prince Charles $37,000.



Queen Victoria inspired the ring



The crown jeweler, Garrard, said the inspiration for the ring came from another member of the royal family, Queen Victoria, according to Readers Digest. More specifically, a sapphire-and-diamond cluster brooch she received from Prince Albert in 1840 as a wedding present.



Queen Elizabeth II | Jeremy Selwyn  WPA Pool/Getty Images

The brooch became her something blue on her wedding day and in her will, Queen Victoria stated that the brooch would become a Crown heirloom, which is why Queen Elizabeth II has been seen wearing the brooch from time to time on special occasions such as Prince Williams christening and meeting President John F. Kennedy.



The significance of sapphire



Not only are sapphires alluring for their eye-catching color but dating back to medieval times, the gem has been said to hold mythical powers. The mythical powers of sapphires include deepening devotion and loyalty, bringing financial prosperity, and stability.



Why Prince Harry gave ring to Prince William



Prince William and Prince Harry went to Kensington Palace to pick out a keepsake after Princess Dianas untimely death in 1997, according to Readers Digest. They were 15 and 12 years old at the time. Prince William selected his mothers Cartier watch while Prince Harry chose Princess Dianas engagement ring.



They had an agreement that whoever got engaged first would have Dianas ring, a source said.

Kate Middleton on September 2, 2012, in Windsor, England |Chris Jackson/Getty Images

That means Prince Harry gave the ring to Prince William before he proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Kate Middleton, in 2010.



When Prince William proposed to Middleton, the ring had to be modified, albeit very slightly. Platinum beads were added to the inside to make the ring tighter on Middletons finger. Today, the ring is reportedly valued at $500,000.



When Prince Harry proposed to Meghan Markle in 2017, he made his mom had a part in their engagement.



During their first interview following their engagement in 2017, Prince Harry and Markle sat down with the BBC to discuss their relationship and subsequent engagement.



It was so sweet and natural and very romantic, Markle told the BBC. He got on one knee. Markle remembered that she said yes right away. I could barely let you finish proposing, Markle told Prince Harry in the interview.

The ring is obviously yellow gold because thats [Meghans] favorite and the main stone itself I sourced from Botswana and the little diamonds on either side are from [Princess Dianas] jewelry collection, to make sure that shes with us on this crazy journey together, Prince Harry said.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leave Windsor Castle in the Ascot Landau carriage during a procession after getting married at St Georges Chapel on May 19, 2018, in Windsor, England. | John Sibley  WPA/Getty Images

Its beautiful, and he designed it. Its incredible, Markle added.

While Prince Charles spent $37,000 on Princess Dianas engagement ring, the cost of Markles ring is more difficult to determine because, having diamonds from the royal collection that Princess Diana wore makes the ring priceless, Michael Fried, CEO of Diamond Pro told Money.Queen Elizabeth II took the throne way back in 1947, and she just turned 93 years old. The queen has long been adored worldwide, and she appears to still have a lot of spunk. But now that shes getting older, where does she see herself in the next year or two? Is she getting ready to retire?

Queen Elizabeth II | Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

The queen has held the throne longer than any ruler in the British Monarchys history

The queen has dedicated the better part of her life to ruling the British Monarch. Queen Elizabeth was only 25 when she suddenly had the entire weight of the monarchy on her shoulders  and she was never supposed to rule. Her uncle abdicated the throne, which left her father in charge. But when her father died at 56, Elizabeth became the queen. Since then, she has made it her duty to dedicate her life to the royal family. Now, at 93, shes ruled longer than anyone else in her familys history  and she likely isnt ready to stop.

At 93, shes still full of life  and even drives herself around

Queen Elizabeth might be 93, but her mother lived to be 101, which means she could have another decade of life left in her. And by the looks of it, she does. The queen still makes plenty of public engagements each year and has remained very involved in royal duties, despite her husbands retirement in 2017. Prince Philip took a step back, and now, the queen simply attends engagements without him. She even still drives herself around  you might see her cruising in her Range Rover on any given day. Shes always been an independent woman, and she probably isnt ready to let someone else take over.

Retirement is hard to explain in the royal family

Retirement doesnt work the same way for royals as it does for commoners. We might start working at 22 and retire at 65, but the royals dont exactly retire from royalty. As a royal, one is expected to perform duties until they become incapable of doing so. In Philips case, his old age was getting the best of him, and the engagements were becoming too much for him to handle. Should the queen become incapacitated or ill, she can abdicate, and Prince Charles would become king. But if shes still in good health with full mental capacity, she is expected to continue ruling.

The queen has scaled back on some visits, but she likely wont retire just yet

While she has plenty of spunk left in her, the queen is undoubtedly getting older. The family has scaled back her international engagements; now, the younger royals tend to fly all over the world on behalf of the family. But the queen still makes plenty of appearances in the United Kingdom. For now, it doesnt seem like shes going anywhere. She certainly has a plan in place should anything happen to her, but it seems like shes still going strong. It will probably be at least a few years before Prince Charles becomes king.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Explosions in Sri Lanka target churches, at least 185 dead on Easter Sunday 21 April, 2019 by CP Staff , |

Three churches were attacked in Sri Lanka, with explosions killing dozens of Christians as they celebrated Easter Sunday morning.

Three hotels  Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo and the Cinnamon Grand Colombo  that were holding Easter breakfast buffets were also targeted in the attacks. Two additional explosions were confirmed by media in Dehiwela and Dematagoda areas.

Police and hospital sources say at least 185 people, including children, have been killed and 469 have been injured in the attacks.

At least 81 people are reported to have died at St. Sebastian's church in Negombo. St. Sebastian's posted photos of the carnage to its Facebook page showing distressed and injured worshipers and extensive damage to the building. Officials from the church reported that there were 500 people attending Mass at the time of the explosion.

Local media reports say at least 27 people died at Zion Church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province; 24 people were killed at St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade.

The first of the explosions was reported to have occurred around 8:30 a.m.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the violence and has ordered the military and police to launch an urgent investigation into the attacks.

"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong," he said in a tweet. "Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

No group has come forward yet to claim responsibility. Police found a suspicious package in Colombo as well as explosive materials in a house near the Dematagoda blast site.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 people and badly injured 600 more," said President Donald Trump in a tweet. "We stand ready to help!"

Read more from "Explosions in Sri Lanka target churches, at least 185 dead on Easter Sunday" on The Christian Post.Rethinking Legacy Christian Examiner Contributor | 21 April, 2019 by Dr. Carla Cornelius

The word "legacy" brings to mind the monetary and material gifts which testators normally leave behind to their chosen beneficiaries in their wills. It rarely occurs to us that a more meaningful legacy consists of the intangible gifts or footprints of the soul which are often etched for a lifetime on the hearts of the bereaved. Examples would be a mother's smile, an aunt's hospitality or a best friend's words of encouragement and good cheer.

The modern cultural trend seems to be to assess the legacy of the deceased primarily in terms of their career achievements. Obituaries usually mention the names of surviving relatives as a footnote. But is it right that someone's legacy should be consigned to the highpoints of his or her resume? This means that the high achievers and famous of this world, tend to have more praise heaped upon them in their eulogies. In paying homage to celebrities who die, the essence of their identity is often lost in the media reports. More is focused on what they did for a living than on how they touched and influenced others when they were alive.

To illustrate, the American actor, Luke Perry, recently died at the age of 52. He was a father and fiance, yet his life was evaluated primarily in terms of his career choice of acting. He was labeled as a "heartthrob" in life and in death, although this was due to a career-defining role he had played on a hit TV series several decades earlier. In assessing his legacy, the media seemed to blur the boundaries between his fictional portrayals and his real life. No matter how good of an actor he was, in those moments when he was in character, he was not being himself. Perry was eerily aware that he would never quite shake his "heartthrob" status. Of his Dylan Mckay character on Beverley Hills 90210, he stated, "I'm going to be linked with him until I die, but that's actually just fine...."

Legacy can be assessed in terms of breadth and depth. You may have a small impact on a few or on many; a deep impact on a few, or a deep impact on a global scale  the latter being reserved for a select few. Arguably what is most significant, is not how many people attend your funeral, but the degree to which your life positively impacted those with whom you crossed paths during your earthly sojourn. Furthermore, just because the deceased did not have a career, nor chose to lead a life in the spotlight, does not mean that their lives were any less meaningful or influential than those who did.

Another recent celebrity death, by contrast, elicited excessive media commentary and the public outpouring of grief on a greater scale. Nipsey Hussle, the American rapper, was killed in a shooting on March 31, 2019. Thousands attended his memorial service as well as a vigil outside his store where he was shot. Many tributes flowed in from celebrities, a former president, community leaders, family, friends and fans. In his short life of 33 years, it would appear that he made quite an impact.

This week a worldwide memorial will also held for another man who also lived on this earth for a brief period of around 33 years. Thousands demanded his death in unison, shouting "crucify him, crucify him" (Luke 23:31), even though he was not found guilty of any crime in either a heavenly or earthly court. Only a few faithful followers were there at his burial just as only a few witnessed his humble birth in a stable in Bethlehem. His work consisted solely of seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10), and compassionately meeting the needs of those in need. This man, Jesus Christ, was no ordinary man because he was God incarnate who came to earth with a mission that would leave a lasting legacy beyond his short human lifespan, for generations past, present and future, and for eternity.

His legacy is unrivalled because it was not limited to his earthly impact. Today, nearly two thousand years after his death, he is still drawing people into fellowship with him, and he is still granting the gift of redemption which he achieved once for all, for all who believe in who He claimed to be and what He accomplished. Through His death and resurrection, He imparted the promise of eternal life (John 3:16), and the assurance that mortal death is not the end, and that we too can be resurrected when He returns for us.

What was the defining essence of Christ's identity which led to these awe-inspiring accomplishments? He embodied agape love  the love which is willing to sacrifice one's own comforts and conveniences for the greater good. The lesson is clear  legacy can only be properly evaluated in terms of love. The apostle Paul sheds light on the limited value of amazing talent and good works:

"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.... Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 8, NLT)

It is God's love which transforms our hearts and equips us to live a life of love as we follow in our Savior's footsteps. When all is said and done, it's loving God which matters most; when we love Him, we will live for Him and in so doing leave a legacy which transcends all time.

Dr. Carla Cornelius writes widely on the spiritual dangers prevalent in contemporary culture. She highlights various spiritual contaminants which have infiltrated contemporary thinking. Toxic thinking has made our society "sick," but it's never too late to detox. She has written numerous articles and five books including "Culture Detox: Cleansing our minds from toxic thinking," "Captive Daughters: Breaking the chains" and "No Way Out: Keys to avoiding suicide."The joy of Easter quickly turned into terror and grief for Christians in Sri Lanka this morning, where suicide bombers conducted coordinated attacks on three churches and three high-end hotels, killing more than 290 people and injuring almost 500.

Officials urged citizens to resist speculating whether Muslim extremists were to blame for the violence, which mostly took place in or around the capital city of Colombo. But police had been warned 10 days prior that churches may be targeted by a radical Islamist group, National Thowheeth Jamaath, according to a security memo obtained by multiple media outlets and posted on Twitter by a government official.

Experts say if the bombings end up being religiously motivated, they represent the bloodiest sectarian attacks in decades in the island nation, located southeast of India, where civil war ended in 2009.

At Zion Church, rows of Easter lilies remained in front of the sanctuary as victims fled the blast, leaving behind hymnals, Bibles, and debris across the floor. More than 28 worshipers, including a dozen children, were killed and another 27 injured at Zionaccording to its website, a charismatic church belonging to the Fellowship of Free Churches of Sri Lanka and located on the opposite side of the island in Batticaloa. A report in the Times of India described a pastor greeting the suicide bomber, an Easter visitor, just minutes before the blast.

May the Dear Lord continue to comfort us all in this difficult time, read a post on the churchs Facebook page, with a video message from its senior pastor, Roshan Mahesan.

Other attacks took place at two Catholic churches, St. Anthonys Shrine in Kochchikade and St. Sebastians Church in Katana, and three hotels in Colombo, all around 8:45 a.m. local time.

St. Sebastian, where initial reports indicated that more than 100 worshipers had been killed, posted a brief plea on Facebook inviting the community to come and help after the bombing, along with photos of rows of disheveled pews covered in roof tiles, the churchs ceiling blown out, and blood splattered on the walls.

This is an attack against the whole of Sri Lanka because [we are a] multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural country, and the whole country comes together in celebration of Easter Sunday," Edmond Tillekeratne, social communications director for the Archdiocese of Colombo, told CNN from St. Sebastians.

We are dismayed by this turn of events, Prabodith Mihindukulasuriya, a faculty member at Colombo Theological Seminary, told CT. After 10 years of carefree existence, we are once again lunged into a period of having to live in fear of suicide bombers.

We cling to the Risen Lord and the hope of the resurrection, he said. Without him, we are in darkness and death.

Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying, stated the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), citing Romans 12:12 as it deplored the bombings and urged Christians to remain calm and refrain from being misled by rumours during this time of crisis [full statement below].

In three decades of war, this scale of attack has never happened, said Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in The New York Times. In terms of serious, religion-based violence, we havent really seen that.

The attackers knew their targets well, and seem to have chosen them for maximum symbolic value, wrote Randy Boyagoda, a Sri Lankan Catholic novelist and professor at the University of Toronto, for The New York Times. He wondered whether the global currents of religiously inspired terrorism [will] overwhelm the islands longstanding experience with pluralism.

The government has arrested 24 people in connection with the attacks, but has not released further details about their affiliation. The Catholic archdiocese in Colombo canceled evening services, and the Sri Lankan army has increased security at churches and other sites that may be at risk.

Christians make up less than 10 percent of the population of the majority-Buddhist nation, and have reported escalating concerns about their religious freedom. [The Conversation offers an explainer on the islands Catholic and Protestant history.]

Open Doors ranks Sri Lanka as No. 46 on its World Watch List of the 50 countries where its hardest to be a Christian. It explains:

Sri Lanka is a majority Buddhist nation, and so while Christians from more historical churches enjoy a little more freedom in expressing their faith, believers from Buddhist backgrounds are treated as second-class citizens and can face slander and attacks. Believers from Buddhist or Hindu backgrounds face harassment and discrimination from their families and communities. They are pressured to recant their new faith, as conversion is regarded as a betrayal of their ethnicity. The majority of state schools do not teach Christianity as a subject, so Christian schoolchildren are forced to study Buddhism or Hinduism. Churches in rural areas have been attacked or closed, and Christians have been assaulted.

Last October, Sri Lankan evangelicals complained of rising religious freedom violations, with the NCEASL reporting 67 incidents from January to September 2018. Last August, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court confirmed that the right to propagate ones religion is not protected by the Constitution, which gives Buddhism the foremost place among all other religions and places it under state protection, reported World Watch Monitor.

These coordinated attacks against churches in Sri Lanka were planned on Easter to strike fear in the hearts of Christians. But this sort of tactic will not prevail this Easter, said David Curry, CEO of Open Doors USA. I call on all Christians to unite in their suffering and in their testimony of how Jesus triumphs over death. We stand against this attack fiercely believing that all people should have the right to worship freely.

Holy Week has been a dangerous time where Christian minorities face terrorist violence, and churches typically prepare with heightened security. Last year, Palm Sunday was the occasion for deadly attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt.

Sadly enough, theres now an ugly and utterly predictable dynamic on Easter Sunday, wrote veteran Catholic journalist John L. Allen Jr. for Crux. Somewhere in the world, full churches will be attacked and some number of Christians will die for no other reason than that they chose to attend services to celebrate what is supposed to be the faiths great celebration of life.

Johnnie Moore, an evangelical leader and commissioner with the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, tweeted: Christians now awaken each Easter & ask, WHERE will [we] be killed this year? Not, IF.

He offered Isaiah 54:14 as a prayer: You will be secure under a government that is just & fair. Your enemies will stay far away. You will live in peace, & terror will not come near.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, terrorists attacked a Philippine church in January, killing 20, and three churches in Indonesia last May, killing at least a dozen.

The full NCEASL statement:

The [NCEASL] is deeply distressed and deplores the Easter Sunday (21 April) explosions targeting the St. Anthonys Church in Kochchikade, St. Sebastians Church in Katana, Zion Church in Batticaloa, and three leading hotels in Colombo. The incidents in Colombo and Batticaloa, according to media reports, have left over 180 dead and several others injured. Moreover, explosions elsewhere in Dehiwela and Dematagoda left five dead, including three police officers.



The NCEASL calls on the general public and especially the Christian community in the country to remain calm and refrain from being misled by rumours during this time of crisis.



The NCEASL also calls on the government and security forces to take all steps necessary to arrest the situation swiftly and bring the perpetrators of these attacks to justice.



Finally, while offering our prayers and support to all those affected, the NCEASL calls on the national and global Church to pray for those grieving the loss of loved ones and those injured in these unfortunate series of attacks.



...Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying Romans 12:12.

This article will be updated. Additional reporting by Jeremy Weber.48 hours in Georgetown, Texas

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It is billed as having the most beautiful town square in all of Texas.

Some might consider that an audacious claim, but it is actually an understatement. Without a doubt, Georgetown has one of the most beautiful town squares anywhere.

The square gives Georgetown, located just 25 miles north of Austin, a quaint, small-town vibe that contemporary urban planners and architects struggle to replicate. As a result, the city is perfect for a weekend getaway.

Impressively, the charming streetscape hasnt been lost despite Georgetowns population growing by 376% since 1990. The growth has been so rapid that it is consistently named one of the top five or six fastest-growing cities in the country by the U.S. Census Bureau.

At the center of the square is the Williamson County Courthouse, an early 20th century edifice designed in the then-fashionable architectural style of Beaux Arts. The stately facade with its pediments was restored in the early 2000s.

On all four sides are buildings from the late Victorian or Edwardian eras. Once home to banks, grocers and all kinds of other shops, the old buildings now house a growing number of boutiques, wineries  yes, Texas wine is a thing  and eateries. There are even two playhouses with a variety of shows.

As one might imagine, the square is the center of life in Georgetown. It is here where festivals and other community events take place, including next weekends 20th Annual Red Poppy Festival.

The Williamson Museum, located across from the courthouse in an old bank, is worth visiting for a glimpse into Georgetowns past. They also offer free guided tours of the courthouse and the historic downtown.

A few blocks away is the campus of Southwestern University, a small historically Methodist liberal arts college.

Here you find the Lois Perkins Chapel, which was built after World War II in the distinctive local limestone used throughout Georgetown on the scale of a small cathedral. The exterior architecture, a blend of Romanesque and Gothic styles, is overly austere, but the interior features a splendid collection of stained glass windows. Thirteen of the windows depict important Protestant churchmen and leaders of Methodism, first within Anglicanism and then as a separate denomination. These include John Calvin, John Wycliffe, Roger Williams, the Wesley brothers and Francis Asbury. Sadly, there was no guidebook or leaflet for visitors.

Where to stay and eat

I stayed at the Sheraton on the outskirts of town near the big box stores. The hotel, which opened in 2016 and still has the newish smell, is home to the upscale casual restaurant Brix and Ale. Under chef Patrick Taylor it has become Georgetowns best restaurant.

Another restaurant I recommend is Gumbos North on the Square. Housed in an old Masonic lodge with an eccentric onion dome reminiscent of what you see on Russian churches, the balcony extending from the upstairs bar and dining room is perfect for great people watching.

How to get there

A rental car is a must if flying into nearby Austin. Once in

Georgetown, however, you can get around using the Sheratons complimentary bicycles.

Spires and Crosses, a travel column exclusive to The Christian Post, is published every week. Follow @dennislennox on Twitter and Instagram.Attacks on Christians By Buddhist Radicals Rising in Sri Lanka; Over 20 Violent Cases Recorded So Far This Year

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Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Apple's co-founder, the late Steve Jobs, may have given Buddhism a "peaceful face" in the West.

But that impression doesn't last long when Christians living in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka speak about the real situation in their country.

According to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), Buddhist nationalists launched more than 20 attacks against Christians in the South Asian country since the start of this year, World Watch Monitor (WWM) reported.

Since the Sri Lankan people elected a new government in 2015, more than 190 incidents of religious violence against churches, clergy, and Christians have been recorded, according to the NCEASL in its May 27 report.

Sectarian violence remains unabated even though freedom of religion is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Sri Lanka constitution, the report stated.

Last March, a group of Buddhist monks barged into the Christian Fellowship Church holding a Sunday morning service in south-western Sri Lanka and put a stop to the service, threatening harm to the worshipers inside.

To make matters worse, when the police arrived to investigate, they even reportedly accused church members of "disrupting the peace."

The pastor of the church named Sampath was even interrogated at the police station, where a mob of around 200 people led by about two dozen Buddhist monks gathered, shouting anti-Christian epithets. They also blocked Sampath and his wife's passage home.

When they reached home, they found that their house had been pelted with stones, shattering the glass windows.

When Sampath confronted the mob who had followed him home, he was hit with a pole.

Just last month, thousands of protesters led by Buddhist monks held a protest action against another Christian church in Sri Lanka, according to UCAN.

In Sri Lanka, race and religion are linked amid the popular belief that "to be Sri Lankan is to be Buddhist," according to Mahesh De Mel, NCEASL Missions Director.

Sri Lanka is the only nation in Asia which is majority Sinhalese, he told WWM.

"To locals, to be Sinhalese is to be Buddhist, so they always try to protect our being a Sinhala Buddhist nation," De Mel explained.

"Locals think Christianity is a new kind of colonization," he said. "They think you have a CIA agenda."

Sri Lanka is ranked 45th on the Open Doors 2017 World Watch List of the 50 countries where Christians face intense persecution.Church membership in America hits historic low, new Gallup report finds

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The percentage of Americans who say they belong to a church, synagogue or mosque has hit a historic low, a new Gallup report released Thursday shows.

The new report analyzing religious membership of Americans have found that an average of 50 percent of Americans in 2018 said they belong or are members of a church or other religious institution. This represents a 20-percentage-point decline in church membership over the past 20 years, and the lowest it has been since Gallup began polling the question in 1937.

Previously church membership reported being at least 70 percent or more from the years 1937 through 1976.

For Democrats, independents, Hispanics and men, fewer than half report being members of a church or other religious institution, according to the data.

The new Gallup report published this week analyzes the organization's data from 2016 to 2018 based on telephone interviews with a random sample of over 7,688 adults from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The sample has a margin of error of 1 percentage point.

Gallups report compares the data from 2016 through 2018 to Gallup polling results from 1998 through 2000.

As previous polling has shown, the decline in church membership coincides with an increase in Americans who claim they dont have any religious affiliation. The data also shows that Americans with a religious affiliation has dropped to 77 percent, down from 90 percent in 1998 through 2000.

Those reporting no religious affiliation has doubled from 9 percent to 19 percent in 2016 through 2018. Among those who claim no religious affiliation, 7 percent report belonging to a church.

As Gallup notes, the trend also coincides with a decline in church membership among people who do have religious preferences.

Gallups reporting from 1998 through 2000 showed that 73 percent of adults with a religious preference belonged to a church. But the recent polling shows that only 64 percent of adults with a religious preference report belonging to a church.

The Gallup report adds that low level of church membership among millennials (42 percent) is also contributing to such an accelerating trend because millennials were too young to be polled as adults in 1998 through 2000.

Additionally, 29 percent of millennials report having no religious preference, compared to the 14 percent of the baby boomer generation and 18 percent of Generation X.

The percentage of millennials with no religion may be continuing to grow, as an average of 33 percent in Gallup surveys conducted in 2019 to date say they have no religious affiliation, Gallup Senior Editor Jeffery M. Jones wrote in a report.

The number of Catholics who belong to a church has dropped 13 percentage points (to 63 percent) since 1998 through 2000, the data indicate. By comparison, the number of Protestants who belong to a church has dropped by only 6 percentage points (to 67 percent) over that time.

I want to acknowledge this real decline in church membership, but also note that, according to Gallup, Protestant church attendance is virtually unchanged over the same time period, Jeff Walton, Anglican Program Director for the Washington-based think tank Institute on Religion & Democracy, wrote on Twitter.

Walton posted an earlier Gallup polling chart that showed that weekly church attendance among Protestants has remained steady at around 45 to 46 percent in polling data compiled between 1983 and 2017.

Note that Protestant church attendance is remarkably stable, he explained. Nominal Christians are ceasing to maintain denominational connections, but those who actually went to church are, for the most part, still going to church.

The data also indicates that the decline in church membership has been greater among Democrats and independents. In the data from 1998 through 2000, 71 percent of Democrats reported belonging to a church. But in the latest reporting period, only 48 percent of Democrats said the same.

About 20 years ago, 59 percent of independents reported being church members. But in 2016 through 2018, only 45 percent said the same.

Church membership among Republicans, meanwhile, dropped from 77 percent in 1998 through 2000 to 69 percent in 2016 through 2018.

Increasingly, Americans associate religion with the Republican Party  and if they are not Republicans themselves, they turn away from religion, David Campbell, a University of Notre Dame political science professor, told the Associated Press.

Forty-seven percent of men surveyed say that they belonged to a church in 2016 through 2018. By comparison, Gallups data from 1998 through 2000 showed that 64 percent of male respondents at that time reported belonging to a church.

Today, only 58 percent of women report belonging to a church, compared to 73 percent in 1998 through 2000.

Among the three biggest ethnicities in the United States, Hispanics reported the greatest drop in church membership at 23 percentage points, down to 45 percent.

Non-Hispanic blacks continue to be the most likely to report being a member of a church at 65 percent (a 13-percentage-point drop since 1998-1999). The 53 percent of non-Hispanic whites that report being church members represent a 15-percentage-point drop since 1998-2000.

The decline in church membership is most greatly experienced in the eastern part of the country.

The poll shows that there was a 19 percentage-point drop in church membership in the East, and a 16-percentage-point decline in the Midwest and the South. In the West, only 43 percent of respondents reported being members of a church, a 14-percentage-point drop since 1998 through 2000.

The challenge is clear for churches, which depend on loyal and active members to keep them open and thriving, Jones wrote. How do they find ways to convince some of the unaffiliated religious adults in society to make a commitment to a particular house of worship of their chosen faith? Roughly one in four U.S. adults are religious but not members of a church, synagogue or mosque.

Although millennials are playing a key role in the decline of church membership, Jones explained that roughly two-thirds of millennials who express religious preferences may one day be convinced to join a church as they get more established in their lives. He suggested that having families can be an impetus to becoming a part of a faith community.SAWA is dedicated to the exchange of ideas amongst cultures

Sharjah Museums Authority (SMA) has announced that it is accepting entries for its SAWA Museum Academy, an introductory professional qualification that covers the diverse areas of working in museums and the cultural field in general.

Manal Ataya, director-general of SMA, explained that SAWA, which means together in Arabic, is a unique program that supports and develops capabilities and necessary skills. It equips students with the essential tools and international best practices in museology required in todays world.

It is directed at students of museum studies and young museum professionals from the MENA Region and Germany. The two-phase program is a joint initiative of SMA, the Staatliche Museen Berlin and the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region, together with the University of Applied Sciences Berlin.

It is designed to create a multicultural learning environment for Arab and German students to jointly share learning experiences, innovative approaches and methods in cultural appropriate museology. SAWA is dedicated to the exchange of ideas on Appropriate Museum Studies across continents and cultures to encourage learning from and with each other.

Phase one of the program is from September 15 to 25. The second stage takes place in Berlin, Germany, from June 8 to 15.

Interested individuals can sign up for the program by visiting http://www.sharjahmuseums.ae or by contacting Goethe institute on +971 2 4099400. TradeArabia News SeviceEvangelical churches can become 'seedbeds for rape culture,' seminary professor says

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OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.  Evangelical churches can be seedbeds for rape culture by failing to call out misogynist and radical conservative views as well as engaging in forms of victim shaming, a Dallas Theological Seminary professor has warned.

Sandra Glahn, the interim chair of DTS Media Arts and Worship Department, was the sole presenter during a recent breakout session titled Justice Through Media in a #MeToo #ChurchToo World at the Evangelical Press Associations Christian Media Convention earlier this month.

Glahn, who's an EPA board member and author of over 35 books, started off the discussion by detailing the history of the #MeToo movement. She noted that the movement actually began about a decade ago with African American activist Tarana Burke raising awareness about how women of color were not being heard in cases of sexual assault and harassment.

It really wasnt until the sexual harassment and assault accusations came out against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in the fall of 2017 that the hashtag #MeToo began to steamroll online and create an even larger social awareness of how women were being mistreated.

Over the course of the next year, the hashtag was used 19 million times, Glahn said.

I know personally 26 people who didn't use the hashtag. So that's just the tip of the iceberg. But the big thing that became super apparent, as this all was going down, was that evangelicals began to see more clearly that the perpetrators were not just Catholics and priests as more and more people start talking about their [experiences in] youth groups and their churches.

What began to happen, she said, is that more people started seeing that evangelical leaders themselves were complicit in these sexual abuse crimes.

Survivors came forward with their stories of abuse inside the church. As well, allegations of sex abuse made against prominent megachurch pastors like Bill Hybels.

The prevalence of sex abuse inside evangelical churches was made even clearer with the release of an extensive Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News investigation discovering at least 700 victims of alleged sexual abuse by 380 Southern Baptist leaders and volunteers since 1998.

What has been so challenging with #ChurchToo is that in addition to the abuse of #MeToo, to bring in a spiritual element of power, you have the dynamics of power, where you have a powerful youth pastor, a powerful pastor, a powerful elder with a less powerful person, she explained. You have the dynamics of spiritual betrayal. You go to a place where you're expecting these  to be the most godly people.

These are supposed to be the safe people, you're vulnerable with them, she added. And then you find out that they are the predators. And there's this sense, the dynamics of feeling that God is complicit in that: I came to church to worship you. I came to attend youth group. I came to serve here and we didn't protect me.

Glahn added that #ChurchToo incidents mostly dont involve some male perpetrator accidentally crossing a line.

That is the first thing we need to talk about, she said. I've seen a lot of Christians whose response to [accusations] has been: People are overreacting, It was just a little hug ... and they're making a bigger deal of this than it should be.

What happens is that churches can become seedbeds for rape culture, she asserted. While evangelicals today have largely tended to warn against radical liberalism and radical feminism, she said, many are not guarding against radical conservatism and misogyny with this sort of phariseeism and victim shaming.

So a dictionary definition of rape culture: it's a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse. In these contexts, victim blaming people for sexual assault abuse is often promoted or accepted, she said.

So this is a context where you might see [someone say] while the youth pastor was with one of his kids, Well, what was she wearing? Was she alone with him? Was she going after him? That is rape culture, where you are not looking at the dynamics of power and you are blaming it on the victim.

While some might be prone to not believe accusations against their spiritual leaders, Glahn says churchgoers should be inclined to treat the accusations of sexual assault against church leaders with the utmost seriousness when they are made.

Glahn explained that a kneejerk reaction from churchgoers might be to think that the accuser is lying.

But the professor cited data showing that accusers lie in fewer than 10 percent of rape and sexual assault cases. A 2009 study authored partly by a University of Massachusetts professor finds that about 92 to 98 percent of sexual assault accusations where the perpetrator is a not a stranger are real.

It's much more likely that the people who come forward alleging abuse have actually been sexually harassed, Glahn said. It's much more likely what's happening than they are falsely accusing anyone.

According to Glahn, the way stories of the Bible have been taught in some churches have also made vixens of the innocent. Glahn is the editor of the 2017 book, Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible.

She pointed to how King Davids relationship with the married Bathsheba have often been presented through the lens of an affair.

By saying that Bathsheba did X, Y and Z, which is not the point of view of the author and not the point of view of the story. Again, we're saying What was she wearing? What was she doing? Glahn said. I've heard messages where she was [said to be] at the palace seducing him.

Glahn added that what people should take away from the Bathsheeba story is the notion that David, a man raised up by God, was also susceptible to abusing his power for sinful purposes.

And let that be a warning to us all, she added.

Glahn also pointed to the New Testament story of the Samaritan woman at the well.

Think about the story of the woman at the well [and] how often since the Protestant Reformation has she been treated sort of as a vixen, who was a serial monogamous cheating on her husband every time, who kept walking into court and divorcing her husband for another man, Glahn detailed.

But if you think of the Easter story and women in the court of law, what do you think are the odds that a woman is walking into a court of law and dumping her husband and marrying somebody else? That is not happening in the ancient Near-East.

Glahn said it is much more likely that the woman at the well had been widowed or that her husband divorced her.

And she's not a young, beautiful, 22-year-old, she added. She's probably 50 [and] missing a few teeth, and she's looking for the Messiah.

While people from the 21st century might view the fact that the woman was living with another man as her shacking up with some guy, in an ancient Palestinian society where women depend on men to eat and live, the woman at the well was likely a concubine, Glahn explained.Explosions in Sri Lanka target churches, at least 185 dead on Easter Sunday

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Three churches were attacked in Sri Lanka, with explosions killing dozens of Christians as they celebrated Easter Sunday morning.

Three hotels  Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo and the Cinnamon Grand Colombo  that were holding Easter breakfast buffets were also targeted in the attacks. Two additional explosions were confirmed by media in Dehiwela and Dematagoda areas.

Police and hospital sources say at least 185 people, including children, have been killed and 469 have been injured in the attacks.

At least 81 people are reported to have died at St. Sebastian's church in Negombo. St. Sebastian's posted photos of the carnage to its Facebook page showing distressed and injured worshipers and extensive damage to the building. Officials from the church reported that there were 500 people attending Mass at the time of the explosion.

Local media reports say at least 27 people died at Zion Church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province; 24 people were killed at St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade.

The first of the explosions was reported to have occurred around 8:30 a.m.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the violence and has ordered the military and police to launch an urgent investigation into the attacks.

"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong," he said in a tweet. "Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

No group has come forward yet to claim responsibility. Police found a suspicious package in Colombo as well as explosive materials in a house near the Dematagoda blast site.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 people and badly injured 600 more," said President Donald Trump in a tweet. "We stand ready to help!"

"POTUS and I are monitoring the horrific attacks on those celebrating Easter in Sri Lanka. Our hearts & prayers are with the victims & their families," said Vice President Mike Pence in a tweet. "This atrocity is an attack on Christianity & religious freedom everywhere. No one should ever be in fear in a house of worship."

Christians in Sri Lanka have experienced a sharp increase in attacks since last year, with 67 reported cases between January and September, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka.

The NCEASL said it "deplores" the attacks and is urging the government to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. It has also called on the global Church to pray for the victims.

Evening services in Catholic churches in the Colombo district have been canceled. All government schools will be closed for the next two days, the Ministry of Education announced.Facebook executive urges churches to leverage social media for the Gospel

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ANAHEIM, Calif.  Facebooks faith-based director illustrated how churches can leverage social media to grow the Kingdom of God and exhorted Christians to use their platforms to build followers of Jesus instead of simply growing their personal audience.

God wants to do something new with social technology that weve never comprehended before, Nona Jones, Facebooks director of global faith-based partnerships, said during the Digital Media Summit at Proclaim 19, the National Religious Broadcasters' International Christian Media Convention on March 29.

Jones, who with her husband also pastors Open Door Ministries in Gainesville, Florida, detailed how churches can use social media to develop disciples both within and outside their church walls. Far too many Christians, she said, have erroneously come to equate church with building.

The paradigm for the Church today is often Come, follow Jesus at church on Sunday at 11, she said. But when Jesus walked on Earth, church was not something that occurred at a particular time on a particular day.

Church was a community of people who cared about the Gospel and cared about the Good News and took the Good News with them wherever they went, she said.

Jones, who will release her memoir titled, Success From the Inside Out, in January 2020, urged the audience to return to a biblical model of church that never involved an address, but only involved willing hearts, she said, reminding listeners that Jesus taught people, equipped people, healed people, prayed for people, and set people free as He found them along His journey.

According to recent statistics, two-thirds of churches in America are declining or plateauing in attendance, and more than 80 percent of people are not attending church in person or at all, Jones said. Meanwhile, 30,000 people search Google every month for church online.

Churches, she emphasized, need to learn how to reach that 80 percent.

Theres a vast sea of people who are searching but who wont drive to a building to find what theyre looking for because they dont even know what theyre looking for, she said.

Discipleship, she emphasized, does not occur when people enter a building and watch a program. Rather, it occurs when we are in relationship with other people, challenging each other. And these are the kinds of relationships we can have when we leverage social media for ministry.

She highlighted the power of Facebook groups, explaining that those intimate, tight-knit groups allow for 24/7 discipleship. Then, believers have the opportunity to take those relationships from online to offline, in person.

The goal of social media, she stressed, should be discipleship, not simply building ones personal audience.

It doesnt matter how many followers you have if those followers arent following Jesus through you, Jones said. Were conduits. Its not about the size of our following. The question is: How are we helping people mature in their faith who are connected to our ministries? Thats what social media is about.

The Digital Media Summit was one of four industry summits hosted by the NRB during the week of Proclaim 19. Other summits included the Great Commission Summit (March 25), TV & Film Summit (March 27), and Radio Summit (March 28).Female students walk out after school allows male student in girls' locker room

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Female students at an Iowa high school staged a walkout last week to protest the school's decision to allow a trans-identified student to enter the girls' locker room.

About 20 students protesting for privacy rights walked out of Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs at around 10:30 a.m. last Thursday and began a demonstration outside the schools main entrance.

According to WOWT, the walkout was triggered by a student who believes that her privacy rights are being violated because a biologically male student who identifies as female is now allowed to use the girls' locker room.

Another group of about 40 other students also walked out around the same time to demonstrate in favor of the trans-identified student being able to use the girls facilities. That groups demonstration took place on top of a hill just to the right of the schools entrance.

The demonstrations lasted about 15 minutes before students returned to class.

I believe if you have the male parts you go to the males bathroom and if you have the female parts you go to a ladies room and that's just the way I was raised, student Brandi Scherlund told the local news station.

Under Iowa state policy, schools are required to allow students to use bathrooms and changing facilities that correspond to their gender identity.

During the short demonstration, the female students who opposed the policy chanted: We want our privacy! He is a male!

We felt very uncomfortable with a male who's not doing anything to be transgender going into the female restrooms, one student said.

Superintendent Vickie Murillo of the Council Bluffs Community School District told WOWT that the state of Iowa has adopted a policy that was pushed on all of the nations school districts by the Obama administration in 2016. That year, the Obama administration sent out guidance advising schools to allow transgender-identified students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

[O]ur students who are transitioning into a new gender have the right to use the restroom that they identify, Murillo said. So it is our obligation to allow that to occur."

However, the Obama-era guidance on school bathroom policy was rescinded by the Trump administration and struck down in a Texas federal court. The guidance relied on an interpretation of civil rights law that extended discrimination protections on the basis of sex to also protect on the basis of gender identity, an interpretation criticized by conservatives.

The school district has stated that the students were within their rights to protest and that no students would be punished for doing so.

I was very proud of how the students peacefully conducted themselves, Murillo told the Omaha World-Herald. Its important to us to let students express their opinions as long as its done in a respectful way.

According to Murillo, there is a process that transitioning students must go through to alert the school administration about their gender status so they can obtain permission to use the restrooms or locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.

The Council Bluffs walkout comes as parents and students across the country have spoken out against policies allowing transgender students to access facilities according to their gender identity.

Last November, students at a Pennsylvania school district asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn their school districts policy allowing trans-identified students to access bathrooms and locker rooms on the basis of their gender identity.

The court has yet to announce whether it will take up that case.

In 2017, the court had the opportunity to take up the case of a transgender student in Virginia who sued over being barred from entering boys' locker rooms and bathrooms. But the court remanded that case back to the lower court. A federal court later ruled in favor of the teenager.This week in Christian history: D.L. Moody, In God We Trust, Post-Soviet Easter celebration

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Christianity is a faith with a long and detailed history, with numerous events of lasting significance occurring throughout the ages.

Each week brings the anniversaries of great milestones, horrid tragedies, amazing triumphs, telling tribulations, inspirational progress, and everything in between.

Here are just a few things that happened this week, April 21-27, in Church history. They include the first appearance of In God We Trust on American coins, an evangelist helping Dwight Moody convert to Christianity, and the Russian Orthodox Church celebrating Easter for the first time in over seven decades.

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NextWhy pray? Hollywood stars, preachers and miracle family share why they do it

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DALLAS  Breakthrough actors, preachers and the real-life people behind the upcoming film share their views on prayer.

When Googling the definition of prayer, the dictionary definition that pops up reads: a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.

"Breakthrough" tells the miraculous true story of Joyce and John Smith, a mother and son who rely on the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit following an accident in which John is pronounced deceased by doctors at the hospital. After 45 minutes his mother's desperate supplications to God bring him back to life after the doctors lost all hope.

John Smith, the subject behind the Christian film, says the spiritual appeal is actually a way to interact with God.

The power of prayer is so important because prayer is our way to communicate with God and prayer is our way to speak life into other people's lives as well, Smith told The Christian Post at the premiere of Breakthrough.

The young man who is alive today because of his mother's pleas to God said the world would be a different place if people practiced prayer.

If we all prayed and spoke life into everybody, basically we would go back to holding the door for people because I know that doesn't happen anymore, he said.

"It's amazing to see the power of prayer because it was my mom's faith that brought me back to life. But in the end, it was God. Having that faith and having that prayer was so important and is to this day still important to me and her, Smith continued.

One of the producers of Breakthrough said he felt compelled to make a film based on the proven medical miracle because of how much he believes in it.

Prayer is a lifeline. Prayer is direct communication with God. God is the most powerful force in the universe, and when we pray, we tap into that power source, DeVon Franklin told CP. I think sometimes it's very easy to forget how powerful prayer can be because sometimes we prayed, and we haven't gotten what we wanted and as a result. Sometimes we can get discouraged.

The Miracles from Heaven filmmaker said his new movie will encourage people to believe again.

Sometimes we have to remember that our requests to God are God's discretion on when and how He answers. Our job is to pray and seek His will and let Him handle the result, Franklin explained.

"There's is a powerful moment in the movie when Joyce says, 'I surrender, I've got to give up control.' I think it's really important when we pray, to pray and to expect God to do what He feels is best. And when we do that, we can pray without worry, we can pray without anxiety, we can pray without frustration, because we're praying God, 'if this be your will. Do what you see is best. I'm praying for what I think is best God, but you do what you think is best and Lord, whatever you do, I'm going to be OK with your will.'

"When we can get to that place, will have more peace will have more joy, we're having more calm, Franklin added. In some situations like in the movie, we'll get exactly what we pray for because that's His will and other times we won't but when we are accustomed to allowing Him to deliver the result, we're going to be just fine.

Actress Chrissy Metz maintained that "Collective consciousness is a real thing. She described that notion as prayer.

It's undeniable. They say, 'two or more gathered,' you're having church, right? If all of us were thinking positively about healing someone, or it could be something silly like a bone spur, something trivial, something large, that positive energy is collected and if we can use it for good, you cannot deny that.

Metz declared theres "unity in community."

The This is Us star plays the role of Joyce Smith alongside actor Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama) and Marcel Ruiz (One Day at a Time), who portrays their son, John in Breakthrough.

As seen in the films trailer, which has now been viewed over 125 million times, Metz's character, Joyce, calls on the Holy Spirit to bring her son back from the dead.

The director of Breakthrough, Roxann Dawson ("House of Cards," "Scandal," "The Americans," and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), said the power of prayer is one of the most important themes of this film.

Prayer is a muscle that needs to be worked on. You lose it if you don't use it and I think that Joyce, in particular, was already in a place where she was praying, she was talking about praying boldly, the Beth Moore book, and she was reading and studying in Bible study, Dawson said.

The Hollywood director described Joyce as prepared for the battle she would face after her son's near fatal accident.

The first thing she did was pray boldly. I think that we all need to find how to exercise that muscle on a daily basis because there will be moments when we need to rely on that, almost exclusively to get us through, Dawson maintained.

Smiths pastor, Jason Noble, labored with the family until they saw their miracle come to pass.

I think if people really grasp the power of prayer, we'd do it a lot more. There is so much power when we pray. I've heard people say, 'Well, I've tried everything. I guess all there's left to do is pray.' And I'm like, 'No, start there.' There's something that happens when we come together and we get a hold of God, and we communicate our hearts to Him and line up our hearts with Him. It changes everything, Noble expressed.

Executive producer Samuel Rodriquez, the minister responsible for connecting the Smiths and Franklin together to help this film come to fruition, said he wants pastors and minister to likewise gain a deeper revelation of prayer.

"What about we have a revival of prayer, an awakening of prayer across America and the world for that matter? Just prayer, prayer changes everything. There are things that will not happen until we pray. And biblically speaking with sound theological substantiation, there are things that will not happen unless we pray. So prayer changes everything, Rodriquez maintained.

"War Room" actress Priscilla Shirer added: "I love the fact that this film is going to draw attention back to the fact that our God hears us when we pray, and that we don't just need to trust them with the small things, which we need to trust them with that too. But the big things, I mean, the impossible stuff, the stuff that looks like it literally cannot be turned around. Maybe we're even being told by someone that the circumstance in our life cannot be turned around.

"This film is going to remind people to take that kind of stuff to God. That impossible is where He starts and whether or not He chooses to turn it around, that's his business. That's the question of His sovereignty. We leave that to Him. But whether or not He can, believing that is our business, our God is able, she concluded.

"Breakthrough" is now in theaters nationwide.

The 20th Century Fox movie is based on Joyce Smith's book, The Impossible, and was adapted for the screen by Grant Nieporte ("Seven Pounds").Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

I have no problem sayingin fact, I think is it good and healthy to saythat I have, and have always had, some intellectual barriers to the Christian faith.

Not all the time, but enough of the time.

As I said I dont mind admitting it, because to do otherwise would be a colossally silly waste of energy on my part, plus, judging from years of blogging, writing, teaching, speaking, and now podcasting, Im hardly alone.

Im also in ancient company here. The intellectual challenges of adhering to an ancient faith in a world that the ancient writers did not remotely envision has been, in one form or another, a challenge since before the time of Jesus (and you can look it up).

And so, I am both comforted by and attracted to the counterintuitive nature of the Christian faith that mocks my intellectual categories.

The gospel does not simply challenge our thinking so we adopt a more excellent philosophy, some other chain of argumentation that promises to give us a sure and stable intellectual foundation.

Ratherand what a relief it is to sayI have found that the gospel calls us to abandon all hope in our ability to work out in our minds what the Creator is up to.

And to obviate a predictable criticismno, I am not suggesting that we should shut down our rational minds or that theological discourse is a waste of time. I do that for a living, for heavens sake.

I am saying that our reasoning is limited not only by our humanity, but by our time and place in this long drama we call the universe.

And so I have become quite adamant, maybe even a little cranky, in asserting that, if God exists, our thoughts and words will fail us rather quickly, and that the truth of God will necessarily draw us further out to orbits beyond what our feeble minds know, what makes sense to us.

Which brings me to Easter.

It struck me a few years ago, sitting there reading some book, as my mind began to wander, that the crucifixion of Jesus is one of those things about the Christian faith that (1) I dont really understand, and (2) seems vitally important to understand.

What does the crucifixion do? For me, thats more than asking why did Jesus have to die? (although that too is a great question to try [unsuccessfully] to wrap our heads around) but why die this way, at the hands of a violent regime?

What was the point?

Asking that particular question merely touches on one part of what the crucifixion is about, but for me this opened a door to see, in a way I hadnt seen before, the rather bizarre way the Christian faith appeared on the historical scene, namely:

God is in some mysterious sense with Jesus not only in his death but in his shame.

Crucifixion was a form of execution perfected by the Romans to humiliate and shame its victims by transforming the victim into a bloody naked pulp hanging in abject agony in full public view over several days. The message to passers-by, of course, was This is what happens when Rome isnt happy with you, so dont try anything. Jesuss crime, from the Roman point of view, was politicalhence the sign over Jesuss head, Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews, indicated his crime.

Because God, as Christians confess, is uniquely (though mysteriously) identified in Jesus of Nazareth, the crucifixion undermines the divine honor-shame dynamicnot only of Israels tradition, but of Greco-Roman religion, and, as far as I can tell, any religion ever.

And thats a big deal that no one could possibly have seen coming.

Think of how often in the Old Testament God is concerned with maintaining his honor and reputation, and how he reacts at being put to shame by Israels disobedience. Yahweh tends to react rather strongly: some restitution must be made for shaming God.

In the 1st century world of Jesus and Paul, the honor-shame dynamic was woven into the fabric of religion, politics, and society. If you want to start a new religion and hope it will catch on, your opening move isnt to align your god with the worst humiliation Rome could muster.

And yet, Christianitys opening public move, so to speak, was an act of humiliation, shame, and defeat, unworthy of any of the gods.

When this began to click for me on a spiritual level, some familiar passages in the New Testament began to hold deeper meaning for me, especially this one.

For I am notashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

As a teen, I remember being told that this meant something like, Dont be embarrassed to talk about Jesus to your friends. But that hardly gets at Pauls meaning.

The cross was a source of open shame, an intellectual affront to Jew and Greek alike (1 Corinthians 1:23), and Paul had to address it. And he does by positing something that runs counter to common religious sense:

This act of shame turns out being the power of Goda counterintuitive, bizarre, claim that would hardly make sense to anyone who hadnt already entered into a new way of knowing God that pushes past conventional thinking, whether Jewish or Gentile.

The crucifixion helps remind me how outside our human frame of reference the gospel is. And for that, my modern left brain is thankful.

Originally published at PeteEnns.com.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Whats Easter all about?

What does this solemn yet celebratory week say about God? About Jesus? To mankind? And what difference should Easter make in our lives today?

Easter week is the most sacred of all Christian holidays. But why is it so special? Easter is about Gods plan for the ages, the humans created in His image, the reality of Sin, Satan and rebellion, Gods wrath and justice against sin, and His plan of redemption. Early in Genesis, God promised that one day His heel would be bruised but the head of Satan would be crushed. Christs crucifixion and death on the cross bruised Gods heel but His resurrection crushed Satans head, confirming His victory over sin and death.

Christs blood paid the debt of mankinds sins and fulfilled Gods demand for justice, providing salvation for all people. All those putting their trust in the Risen Savior, the Promised Redeemer, receive eternal life with Him.

Gods promise to crush Satans head continued with Gods promise to Abraham of a Promised Redeemer through a promised people. Through time, Satan tried to destroy the lineage through whom the Redeemer would come. He led Pharaoh in Egypt to kill the young males and led Herod to kill all baby boys under the age of 2. On the Mount, he tempted Jesus to avoid the cross and tried to destroy Gods redemption plan. But the devil could not trick Jesus, kings could not kill Him, and haters of Israel could not destroy Gods plan.

That plan included a day 2,000 years ago when Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a borrowed donkey. The crowds shouted, Hosanna!blessed is the king of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord. But the envious Pharisees said, the worlds gone after him, and they plotted His murder.

That plot worked, at least physically, and Jesus gave His life to pay a debt of sin He never owed because we had a debt of sin we could never pay. Some by faith alone accept Jesus as Savior and receive eternal life. Others reject Him and sadly choose eternal death. It is truly a matter of life or death.

Ultimately, Easter is not a freestanding or initiating event. Its a confirming event.

While Easter is a witness of Gods Power over death and sin, a fulfillment of his promise of redemption and proof of His victory over Satan, its also historical. Proven and witnessed by hundreds, the power of Easter is also very personal because it was Christs willing death on the cross to shed His blood.

Easter is a fact. It happened. Jesus died. He rose from the dead. He paid our debt. This Easter, its crucial that all who are willing become children of God, restored in relationship to their Creator God.

And as Christians mark Good Friday, they remember that the greatest battle ever fought was won. Victory was declared. The end of the war was certain. From the cross, bloody and beaten, Jesus declared, Into thy hands I commend my spirit.

With those solemn words, Jesus died, fulfilling His words that no man would take His life. The perfect LambGods promised redeeming sacrificebecame sin for us and died so we could live. What Satan schemed as victory over Christ was Christs victory over Satan, death and hell.

As Christians, rejoice in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Because three days later, to the disciples ecstatic joy, they heard the glorious words from the angels mouth: Remember what He said to you? He is not here. He has risen! To that we reply, He is risen indeed. For all who trust in Him aloneby faith alonedeath is swallowed up in victory.

And thats the best news ever. Easter is about the power of God, His hatred of sin and His great love for an undeserving mankind.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

He is risen! Thats more than a simple Easter greeting; its a proclamation of a truth that is foundational to the gospel Christians embrace. Unfortunately, there are still many people who havent even heard the truth that Jesus shed his blood on the cross for their sins, and they still live in spiritual darkness with no hope.

Because of this tragic factstill true even at a time when we celebrate Christs resurrection and His ultimate sacrifice for all peopleThe Tide global gospel radio ministry tells people about Jesus in their own language so that they too may experience a new life of full confidence and assurance in Christ, our living Savior!

The Old Testament records the detailed instructions God gave through Moses for the Israelites to enage in celebrations to honor God and keep alive the memory of specific things God had done for them. One of those was the Passover celebration to commemorate the liberty God provided for the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. We essentially carry on that tradition at Easter as we celebrate Christ as our Passover lamb and reflect on the promise of spiritual freedom and new life that is ours through Christs victory over death.

However, Jesus commands us to take it beyond an annual holiday celebration and embrace an ongoing lifestyle of honoring Him by accepting and living out His mandate to tell others the Good News and invite them to join us as Christ followers.

Just as Christians should be committed to fulfilling the Great Commission, believers also rejoice when they hear about lives that are being changed through our efforts with local pastors and global partners to share the gospel in eight countries on three continents in 25 languages.

At The Tide radio ministry, we are honored when listeners share their stories of how their lives are being touched by Christ through our programs. Here are just a few.

Diego in Albania wrote that while listening to The Tide ministrys local partner, Pastor K, something changed in Diegos heart.

(Pastor K) was talking about Jesus, as a healer of our soul. I learned for the first time that Jesus is a soul healer. This is the first time I heard that I need to be saved. I met with Pastor Klodi and he was so kind to answer all of my questions and we prayed together. He gave to me a precious gift, an audio Bible and a solar radio that I can listen every day. I am so happy, and my life has changed since that day. Thank you for making possible this broadcast in Albania.

Lilima is a regular listener to our Ehpa Gatanju Kui-language radio program in India.

This program is (my) favorite because through this program I came to know about Jesus Christ and His love for me. I am blessed and strengthened spiritually through the word of God. I have become a child of God and have accepted Him as my personal Lord and Savior.

What an incredible Easter praise! Likewise, Tomide in Nigeria says that the radio program in her language has shared a teaching of love that has greatly improved the life of her family.

Before, I used to hide myself to listen to the program, but one day I was caught by my husband as I was listening to the radio. There was no way to hide. Surprisingly, my husband beckoned me to bring the radio to him. I obeyed. I thought that it was end in the marriage. My husband, instead of quarreling, asked me to place the radio on the dining table (and) we listened to the program together. From that day we did not miss any editions. Let God be praised for his mighty works.

Finally, Mudimba in Zimbabwe is thankful this Easter for the devotional programs he can hear through radio airwaves. Through you, Mudimba says, Jesus Christ has invited me to eternal light. l would like to be a tireless servant for Christ (and) l wish to grow good seeds of evangelism to the people of Lubimbi. Let your word and Church come to heal souls in Jesus Name.

These stories of life change are especially uplifting at Easter. And for those who have made a decision for Christ this yearperhaps after listening to a radio program or engaging in activities from The Tide ministry in Albania, Bhutan, India, Kosovo, Nepal, Nigeria, Thailand and ZimbabweEaster will be extra special, as they celebrate Jesus resurrection for the first time after committing their lives to Christ.

But there are so many more souls who need to be reached by the love and grace of Jesus Christ and hear the gospel message in the language they were born to speak. This Easter, may all of us find a way to lead one more person into Gods family, whether it is through personal witnessing, prayer, by helping to send a missionary to another country or by giving to a gospel-spreading ministry.

Its the greatest gift we can give this Easter. Hallelujah, Christ is Risen!At least 200 dead after attacks on Sri Lanka churches during Easter services

Three churches have been attacked in Sri Lanka as Christians came out to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at Easter Sunday services.

Three hotels, Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo and the Cinnamon Grand Colombo, were also targeted in the attacks.

At least 207 people have been killed and 450 people injured in the attacks, on the holiest day in the Christian calendar.

The churches were located in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa.

At least 67 people are reported to have died at St Sebastian's church in Negombo, the BBC reports.

Local media reports say at least 25 people died at the evangelical church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the violence and has ordered the military and police to launch an urgent investigation into the attacks.

"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong," he said in a tweet.

"Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

St Sebastian's posted photos of the carnage to its Facebook page showing distressed and injured worshippers and extensive damage to the building.

No group has come forward yet to claim responsibility. Police have so far arrested three people in connection with the attacks.

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid posted a message of solidarity to Twitter following the attacks.

"Heartbreaking news to wake up to on Easter Sunday," he said.

"These barbaric acts will never succeed in dividing communities. My thoughts and prayers with all those affected. We stand with Sri Lanka and its people."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev, Justin Welby called the attacks "appalling and dispicable" .

"Those affected by the appalling and despicable attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka will be in the prayers of millions marking Easter Sunday around the world today," he said.

"On this holy day, let us stand with the people of Sri Lanka in prayer, condolence and solidarity as we reject all violence, all hatred and all division."

The Bishop of Lancaster, the Rt Rev Jill Duff, said the attacks were "shocking" and "tragic".

"May they rest in peace & rise with Him in glory. Of the increase of His government & peace there will be no end," she tweeted.

Jan Figel, the EU's special envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief, expressed his "deep condolences" for the victims' families.

"Horrible Easter - innocent people/Christians killed by terrorists," he tweeted.Khalifa University of Science and Technology, a research university dedicated to the advancement of learning through the discovery and application of knowledge, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) today announced the launch of the Khalifa University- KAIST Joint Research Center in Abu Dhabi to focus on key topics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The launch event at the Khalifa University Main Campus was attended by officials from both the institutions including Dr Sung-Chul Shin, president of KAIST; Dr Arif Sultan Al Hammadi, executive vice-president, Khalifa University; Dr Steve Griffiths, senior vice-president, research and development, Khalifa University; and Dr Man-Sung Yim, dean, KU-KAIST Institute. In addition, government leaders from both countries were present on the occasion.

The Khalifa University-KAIST Joint Research Center will focus on Smart Transportation that will cover autonomous vehicles, infrastructure for autonomous vehicle operation, wireless charging for electric vehicles, and infrastructure for electric autonomous vehicles. The centre will also focus on Smart Healthcare, covering healthcare robotics as well as sensor and wearable devices for personal healthcare.

Dr Al Hammadi said: We are proud to work with KAIST, the top university in South Korea and among the top universities in Asia. The Khalifa University-KAIST Joint Research Center reflects an exciting evolution of Khalifa Universitys long-established partnership with KAIST. Transportation and healthcare are two important areas that offer enormous scope for innovation with rapidly evolving trends. We believe the new research center will further consolidate our status as a globally active research-intensive academic institution, developing international collaborations that benefit the community in general.

Dr Sung-Chul Shin, president of KAIST, said: We are delighted to enter into this collaboration with Khalifa University, which is one of the leading universities in the UAE and the Arab world. This partnership justifies our long-standing association to collaborate with each other in important areas including the emerging technologies that help the fourth industrial revolution while facilitating human capital development. We believe the outcome of the research projects will establish the status of both institutions as champions of the fourth industrial revolution, bringing benefits to our communities.

The centre will be co-directed by Dr Daniel Choi, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Khalifa University, and Dr Jong Hyun Kim, professor of Dept of Nuclear Quantum Engineering.

In academic rankings, for the third year in a row, Khalifa University is ranked first in the UAE, while remaining 32nd among Asian universities. It is among the top 200 for engineering & technology subjects in the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings.  TradeArabia News ServiceCelebrating the true diversity of our white-washed saints

As a child I was fascinated by the lives of historical saints - holy people who were known for their closeness to God. To me, they were examples of faith who showed dedication by serving others with little thought for themselves.

For a young black girl with a vivid imagination, they were a source of inspiration: full of courage with an obvious passion for Christ. I wanted to be like those true witnesses, bold but humble, unwavering in their faith and secure in their Christian identity.

However, something bugged me when reading about them. Many appeared to be from Europe, and none of them looked like me. Representations of them in books or in the stained-glass windows of the churches I attended were predominantly white and male. In addition, I realised that their stories were often told with little or no reference to their origins, ethnicity and cultural heritage.

As I grew older, I learnt of saints like Augustine who came from different parts of the globe. Several I had never heard of before, but whose stories were just as inspiring as famous figures such as St Francis of Assisi.

What if, I speculated, their stories were more widely known?

I decided to write my new book, Every Tribe, after much discussion with colleagues, friends and parishioners about how it would be good to hear about different saintly lives, where they came from and what they stood for and how they lived with challenges told from the perspective of people who themselves came from diverse backgrounds.

What is different from the usual accounts of figures such as St George, the patron saint of England, is the inclusion of little-known facts such as his Palestinian immigrant origins and Turkish father.

Other chapters introduce us to lesser known saints such as St Alphonsa (Annakutty) who encouraged others to live a life of 'Holiness through lowliness' and who was the first Indian woman to be canonized.

Cerefino Giminez Malla (El Pele) is the only person of Gypsy origin to be honoured as a saint and faced a firing squad for refusing to renounce other believers and stop praying, while Pauli Murray is one of the first African American female priests in the Episcopal Church who worked tirelessly for civil rights.

They are not as familiar, but their stories are just as inspiring as the more well-known figures.

The overriding message that I want readers to take away is that holiness comes in all forms and is not about the individual as such, but that God invites all humanity to participate. In truth, saints are not extraordinary people, but ordinary, everyday folks moved to show the extraordinary love of God to those around them.

With that in mind, the short biographies are accompanied by a personal reflection, prayers and meditations because I want the reader consider that holiness is a quality borne from a deep relationship with God.

Those who have written the chapters are drawn from diverse backgrounds: all testifying to the fact that it is this very difference that contributes to the wonderful body of Christ. And that great image of those from every tribe and nation worshipping God from Revelation 7:9 is what actually inspired the title of the book.

Together we reflect what it means to live for God and are used for His glory. At a time of increasing social fragmentation, alienation and rising suspicion towards one another, it is important for us to remember that we are all formed in the image of Christ.

Rev Dr Sharon Prentis is Intercultural Mission Enabler & Dean of Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic Affairs for the Church of England in Birmingham. Every Tribe is out from SPCK on 18 April 2019Easter attacks on Christians are 'particularly wicked', says foreign secretary after Sri Lanka bombings

The foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has condemned the deadly attacks on Sri Lankan churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.

On Twitter, he said he was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the attacks on three churches and four hotels that have left at least 207 people dead.

"To target those gathered for worship on Easter Sunday is particularly wicked. My prayers are with the victims and their families, and with those assisting in the response," he said.

His message on Twitter came after he warned in an Easter op-ed published in the Mail on Sunday that millions of Christians arould the world were living under the "shadow of persecution" and would be gathering on Easter Sunday in churches "at risk of attack".

"The world was rightly shocked by the flames destroying Notre-Dame in Paris last week, a tragedy that touched our common humanity. In too many parts of the world, however, it is the congregations themselves who perish," he said.

Mr Hunt said that there was something "inexpressably tragic" about the murder of innocent people simply because of their faith.

"There is a peculiar wickedness about hate-filled extremism that justifies murder because of the God someone chooses to worship.

"Of all the people who suffer persecution for their faith, it may surprise some to know that the greatest number are Christian," he said, quoting Open Doors' estimate of 245 million persecuted Christians worldwide.

Mr Hunt recently launched a review into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's support for persecuted Christians, which is expected to be published in the summer.

He said the issue of religious persecution was important because it was normally an indicator of other human rights abuses.

In his op-ed, he continued: "Should religious persecution matter in an increasingly secular world? The truth is that, if a regime tries to control what you believe, it will generally seek to control every other aspect of your life.

"Where Christians are persecuted, other human rights are often brutally abused."

He went on to say that the UK government "must not allow misguided political correctness to inhibit our response" to the persecution of Christians.

"Anxious not to offend minorities or appear 'colonialist' in troublespots around the world, British governments have occasionally taken refuge behind the principle that all religions must be protected," said Mr Hunt.

"But this must include Christianity, where those targeted are often extremely poor, female and living in or close to poverty."

The coordinated attacks in Sri Lanka were carried out as Christians around the world gathered in churches to celebrate Easter Sunday, the holiest day in the Christian calendar remembering the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

No one has come forward yet to claim responsibility for the attacks, which have been unanimously condemned by church and world leaders.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the attacks were "appalling and dispicable" .

"Those affected by the appalling and despicable attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka will be in the prayers of millions marking Easter Sunday around the world today," he said.

"On this holy day, let us stand with the people of Sri Lanka in prayer, condolence and solidarity as we reject all violence, all hatred and all division."

The Pope spoke of his "sadness and pain" over the attacks.

"I wish to express my heartfelt closeness to the Christian community [of Sri Lanka], wounded as it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence," he said.

"I entrust to the Lord all those who have tragically perished, and I pray for the injured and all those who suffer as a result of this tragic event."

British Prime Minister Theresa May said: "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time. We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear."Pope condemns 'such cruel violence' in Easter Sunday address after Sri Lanka church bombings

The Pope used his Easter Sunday address to express his sorrow over deadly explosions at three Sri Lanka churches and several hotels that have killed over 100 people.

Delivering his Easter Urbi et Orbi address, he said the attacks "have wrought grief and sorrow".

"I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka," he said.

"I wish to express my heartfelt closeness to the Christian community [of Sri Lanka], wounded as it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence.

"I entrust to the Lord all those who have tragically perished, and I pray for the injured and all those who suffer as a result of this tragic event."

It is not yet known who carried out the attacks on the churches, two of which were Catholic while one was evangelical.

The Pope addressed the crowd from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica to a crowd of around 70,000 people.

Elsewhere in his address, he appealed for peace in places affected by conflict.

He said he was praying for Christians in the Middle East, where many are persecuted for their faith, that they would "patiently persevere in their witness to the Risen Lord".

He urged the world not to forget about the conflict in Syria but to continue to work for a peaceful solution to years of conflict.

"Now is instead the time for a renewed commitment for a political solution able to respond to people's legitimate hopes for freedom, peace and justice, confront the humanitarian crisis and favor the secure re-entry of the homeless, along with all those who have taken refuge in neighboring countries, especially Lebanon and Jordan," he said.

The Pope prayed that the light of Easter would illuminate all government leaders and peoples in the Middle East, "beginning with the Israelis and Palestinians."

Turning his attention to Africa, he lamented that some countries, specifically Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon, are "rife with social tensions, conflicts and at times violent forms of extremism that leave in their wake insecurity, destruction and death".

In Libya, he said he wanted to see an end to the bloodshed "where defenseless people are once more dying in recent weeks and many families have been forced to abandon their homes".

Reflecting on the civil war in South Sudan, he said: "May a new page open in the history of that country, in which all political, social and religious components actively commit themselves to the pursuit of the common good and the reconciliation of the nation."The state of religious freedom in Sri Lanka

The death toll continues to rise following Easter service bomb attacks against churches in Sri Lanka.

"We're shocked and appalled and our prayers go out for our brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka," says Paul Robinson, the CEO of Release International, which supports persecuted Christians around the world.

"The scale of this horror takes our breath away. All-too often Easter becomes the focus for violence against Christians.

"Christians in many countries are on high alert for attacks timed to disrupt the most joyful service of the year  Easter Sunday. But terrorism can never overcome the central truth of the Gospel  Christ is risen. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka and wherever Christians face violence around the world."

Around 2 million Christians live in the Buddhist-majority nation where Christians from Bhuddist and Hindu backgrounds face discrimination for their faith.

The growth of evangelical Christianity in Sri Lanka since 1980 has met with violent opposition from Buddhist extremists. Persecution has intensified since 2012, coinciding with a rise in Buddhist nationalism.

Militants have burned churches and attacked Christians. Threats and intimidation are rife. In many cases, violent mobs have been led by Buddhist monks.

Christians say local government officials and police do little to prevent the attacks  and are sometimes complicit in them.

Anti-Christian violence has abated somewhat since 2015, when President Maithripala Sirisena came to power, pledging to uphold religious freedoms guaranteed in the constitution.

In 2008, a government circular was issued requiring places of worship to be 'registered', despite there being no legal means to do so. Many 'unregistered' churches have been forced to close. That circular has been used to limit religious freedom and intimidate pastors.

Buddhist nationalists have attempted to pass anti-conversion laws in Sri Lanka that would criminalise some forms of evangelism. After the law was rejected, there were moves to change the constitution to make Buddhism the official religion and to outlaw attempts to convert Buddhists. It was defeated at the Supreme Court. Further moves to ban conversions were proposed in 2011.

UK-based Release International has been supporting Christians whose churches have been attacked and forced to close. But attacks on this scale are unprecedented in Sri Lanka.

Through its international network of missions Release International is active in more than 30 countries around the world, supporting pastors, Christian prisoners and their families; supplying Christian literature and Bibles; and working for justice.Theresa May says Christians should be allowed to live out their faith in peace

Theresa May has used her Easter message to say that people of all religions should have the right to practise their faith in peace.

On the same day as over a hundred people died during attacks on Easter services in Sri Lanka, the British Prime Minister said that for Christians around the world, the simple act of going to church "can bring huge danger".

She said this threat to Christians was the reason why the government recently launched a review into persecution around the world.

She said: "For millions of Christians in this country and around the world, Easter is a particularly special time, when we remember the powerful message at the heart of our Christian faith, a message of hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ when we can look forward to a new life in Christ.

"On Sunday, I will spend Easter as I do every year giving thanks in church. But for many Christians around the world, such simple acts of faith can bring huge danger. Churches have been attacked, Christians murdered, families forced to flee their homes.

"This is why the government has launched a global review into the persecution of Christians. We must stand up for the right of everyone, no matter what their religion, to practise their faith in peace."

Mrs May, who is a vicar's daughter and practising Christian, added: "Easter is a time of reflection, for families and friends to get together and spend precious time with their loved ones, so let me wish everyone, of all faiths and none, a very happy and peaceful Easter."

Bomb attacks on three churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka has shocked the world. The death toll stands at 207, with hundreds more injured.

A motive for the attacks has not yet been established, but at least three people have been arrested by the police.'Will to power' behind Sri Lanka church bombings, says Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the horrific attacks on three churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday are a symptom of the "will to power".

The Most Rev Justin Welby said in his Easter Sunday sermon that lies and "a pride that demeans others" were stoking hatred and violence.

He said this could be seen in some of the responses to the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire last week and the treatment of Muslims targeted in the Christchurch attacks.

Closer to home, he said politicians were being "unjustly vilified" in the face of divisions over Brexit.

"Such are the age-old ways of gaining and guarding power. They treat proper difference and diversity, such as we are seeing with our hard pressed and unjustly vilified political leaders, as threats," he said.

The Archbishop said the desire for power could be seen in the attacks on the Sri Lankan churches that were carried out as worshippers gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday.

"Pride denies our need of God and says we are sufficient to ourselves, that the will to power is indeed our vocation," he said.

"The will to power leads to the murder of innocents in Sri Lanka, the utterly despicable destruction that, on this holiest of days, seeks to challenge the reality of the risen Christ, to say that darkness will conquer, that our choice is surrender or death."

The Archbishop said he had spoken to the Bishop of Colombo, the Rt Rev Dhiloraj Canagasabey, in the aftermath of the attacks to express his condolences and assure him of his prayers.

He shared some of his conversation with the bishop: "Bishop Dhiloraj had been in the midst of his Easter Eucharist; he was just beginning the Prayer of Consecration when the police arrived and said, 'You must come with us, they are about to come and kill you.'

"He refused to move until he had finished the Prayer of Consecration in his packed cathedral, and I quote his exact words to me: 'If God gives me permission to live, I shall live. If he gives me permission to die, I shall die.'"

The Archbishop went on to say that the light of the resurrected Lord was the answer "wherever materialism, inequality, war, tyranny or cruelty have taken hold and enslave the human spirit".

He concluded by appealing to Christians to put their hope in the resurrection to get them through uncertainty and be witnesses of this hope to others.

"The Church witnesses through its response to disaster and setback. Notre Dame will rise from the ashes, as did Rheims, as did Coventry, and the Cathedral ruined and rebuilt will testify ever more clearly to seeing the resurrected Jesus," he said.

"Such is the potential of witness, of making seen in the present the picture that Isaiah painted which became achievable through the resurrection.

"In our country we will see our future through forgiveness, reconciliation, hope and overcoming these stories of fear and betrayal.

"But Christians must show how to live resurrection life; that the rest of the world may see above all in forgiving one another and loving one another, making visible what is unseen;but witness begins with the individual meeting the risen Christ."It's only 4 decades old, but Bunnies on the Bayou is one of the hottest tickets in H-town for Easter Sunday. Visitors gathered along the shores of Buffalo Bayou to see the wildest, most outrageous costumes and bask in the spring sunshine at Sesquicentennial Park.

PREVIEW: Get our experts' picks for concerts, kids' stuff, fine arts, movies and more

Click through the pictures above to see the best-dressed Easter bunnies from Bunnies on the Bayou in Houston.

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.Im back, so it must be after April 15! Weve survived another tax season at our place - were a little road weary, a little more gray, and I still have an aching back and shoulder from long hours at the desk, but wow! Does it feel great to be back in the world of Rotary. Lets catch up on all the news.

Its last call for the Rotary Club of Lake Conroes Murder Mystery Dinner this Friday night at Cedar Lodge Restaurant. If you hurry, you may still be able to get a seat, but I know the club is about to turn in their final head count. Call a Lake Conroe Rotarian today and sweet talk your way in for an evening of fun and frivolity. Club members will be selling raffle tickets right up until drawing time the night of the event, and as always, its a ticket worth buying. The raffle is for more than $1,000 of primo California wines, donated by Past President Tommy Metcalf and his bride Mary Ann. To purchase a ticket (or many tickets!) contact any Lake Conroe Rotarian, or Club President Pam Tipton at Pamtipton8@gmail.com. They are only $10 - quite the bargain.

Hauke High School Interact is asking for gently used shoes to help with a fundraiser to build water well in a developing nation. So, if you are doing a little spring cleaning this week and can help, please contact me or any Conroe Rotarian and well help you get those shoes to the students. The teens have been hard at work hosting several fundraisers to make their goal a reality. Hauke Interact is only in its second year, and I do believe this is their first project that has required fundraising, so lets give these hard working young folks a helping hand - they certainly deserve it.

The Rotary Club of Conroe is looking for sponsors for their annual I Like Me book project, to supply a book for each first grade student in their north county Conroe ISD coverage area. Sponsorships are only $500 per school. I cant tell you how often we meet a Conroe teen who tells us they still have their I Like Me book from their first grade year. Contact Club President Leland Dushkin at leland.dushkin@weaver.com, but dont wait - the deadline draws here to allow time to distribute the books before the school year ends.

Family of Rotary - Lots of great news to celebrate this week within our Family of Rotary. Our congrats to Conroe Rotarian Travis Walker and his lovely wife Taylor on the birth of their daughter, Elise Marie, on Saturday, April 13. Elise weighed in at 6 lb. 12 oz. and measured 19. We wish the family all the joy in the world!

We are super excited to hear that wonderful Michael Henry has popped the question to our beautiful Conroe Rotarian Sarah Tillman. The happy couple is vacationing in Belize right now and we are guessing thats where Michael did the deed. We cant wait to hear all the details when they return.

Congratulations to our Rotarians celebrating more than 20 years of membership this month. From the Conroe Club, Jim Wiggins - 21 years; from the Lake Club, Don Carter - 35 years and Mike Berger - 23 years; and from The Woodlands, Jack Lesch - 38 years, John Hathaway - 37 years, Rob Eissler - 36 years and David Zimmerman - 23 years. And a special shout out to three Woodlands Rotarians who have just completed their first year of service as a Rotarian, Linda Head - 1 year, Lynn Horne - 1 year and Dannette Suding - 1 year. We thank all of you for the difference you have made in our community.

My work here is done for today - now its time for wine!

To learn more about Rotary contact Kris via email at KrisCommService@aol.com or text 713 825-0141. Also see the website and facebook pages of any of our local clubs, or the Rotary District 5910 website at www.rotary5910.org .3 1 of 3 Jason Fochtman, Staff photographer / Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Montgomery County residents will get their first opportunity to head to the polls for the May 4 election with early voting beginning Monday.

Polls will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and then from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 29-30.The Sharjah FDI Office and Invest in Sharjah, in collaboration with the Chinese Business Council, recently organised the SharjahChina "Belt & Road" Business Round Table at the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said a report.



A Chinese delegation of 140 businesspersons to the event was led by Lei Jin, economic and commercial counsellor of the Consulate-General of China, and Shaoguo Han, vice president, CNPC International, on behalf of the Chinese Business Council, reported state news agency Wam.



Among other important attendees were senior representatives from Sharjahs government entities, including Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal, executive chairman of the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, Shurooq; Waleed Abdel Rahman BuKhatir, second vice chairman of the Sharjah Chamber and Commerce Industry, and Mohamed Juma Al Musharrkh, CEO of Invest in Sharjah, the entity responsible for intensifying Sharjah Governments efforts to promote the emirates business and investment opportunities in key international markets.



The purpose of the roundtable was to outline new partnerships and investment opportunities for Chinese businesses, facilitated by the Sharjahs government and private sector entities, as well as the emirates economic free zones, which can provide existing and new investors from China direct access into local markets through Sharjah, and then grow their regional and global operations.



It comes on the heels of the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost investment and trade between the two countries, which coincided with the visit last July of Chinese President Xi Jinping.Montgomery ISD Board of Trustees Position 6 candidate, Larry Hereford, has decided to suspended his campaign for the position due to time constraints. That leaves two candidates for Position 6 among the four who will appear on the ballot.

Position 6 - Kent Pope

Kent Pope is a Klein High School and Texas State University graduate. He has been a Sales Manager with Gordon Food Service of Houston since 2014 and has 26 years of food distribution experience in sales and leadership. He has family who attends, has graduated from, and who teaches at Montgomery ISD. He wants to balance a quality education and conservative fiscal responsibility while serving the community.

The kids, the employees, and the tax payers are all very important to me, Pope said. (My top priorities are) to support the administration and the current direction of the school district. I think we are in a very good spot.

Position 6 - Dr. Matt Fuller

Dr. Matt Fuller is a Sam Houston State University Tenured Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Director of the Doctoral Program in Higher Education Leadership. He graduated from Texas A&M University and Illinois State University. He owns Fuller Farms in Montgomery and Weimar, Texas and Fuller Educational Consulting; and is member of the Association for Threat Assessment Professionals and Education Law Association.

His number one priority is fiscal solvency along with safety, accountability and teachers.

We have got to continue to look at every dime, look at every penny and make sure we are putting our schools in the best fiscal situation possible, Fuller said. I think we have taken major strides in the past two years, I want to continue to do that and enhance that work.

Position 7 - Gary Hammons

QES Directional Drilling Chief Financial Officer, Gary Hammons, is a licensed Certified Public Accountant and Texas A&M University graduate. He served 14 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve Military Police Corp. His family attends and teaches at Montgomery ISD. He believes he can bring his financial experience and perspective to the board to help address the deficit.

It all stems around that like anybodys individual house hold really  its just simple math, Hammons said. Except you have a lot more pieces riding on it  a lot more people counting on everything being done.

Position 7 - Russell Messecar

Montgomery High School graduate Russell Messecar is a longtime resident of Montgomery, where has owned a construction and trucking company for 29 years. His children attend Montgomery ISD. His priorities include supporting vocational and technical training opportunities, supporting all school employees, including with competitive salaries, and providing resources for changing technology and curriculum.

As a board member, I pledge to do my best to have a safe and inspiring culture for our children to reach their educational goals, Messecar said in a statement. As a special needs parent, I will fight to ensure all students have access to the tools and services required by law to reach their full potential.

mellsworth@hcnonline.comThe mayor for the city of Willis, Leonard Reed, is being challenged in the upcoming May 4 election.

When voters head to the polls they will have a choice between Reed, who has served as the citys mayor since 2003 and a new candidate, Cloresa Porter.

Reed, 63, said he is running again because he believes the city has come a long way and he has enjoyed the progress the city has made. He also said the city is in the process of hiring a new city manager, as Hector Forestier is retiring this year.

I think the leadership at the mayor level needs to remain steady at this transition, Reed said.

When he started out as mayor, he said the city did not have parks, but today it has three, including with playgrounds, covered pavilions, and bathrooms. Another accomplishment, he said he is proud of, is that the city has grown its reserve funds, above the recommended 15 percent to 27 percent, and it increases every year.

As Willis continues to develop, he believes the main problem is keeping up with the infrastructure, but he believes the city doing well at maintaining what it has and preparing for new businesses. His priorities moving forward is to focus on the safety of the citizens and to work on reducing the tax burden on the citizens as well as to retain and attract new businesses with the goal of bringing some employers in to put the citizens to work.

We need to approve the propositions on the ballot, Reed said. They will help the city with moving forward no matter who is in office, Reed said.

Porter, 41, said while the time to run for office was not right before, but that has changed.

Its all about timing  now is the time, she said. It is time for fresh leadership.

May 4, 2019 Joint Election Main and Branch Early Voting Polling Places Monday, April 22-Saturday, April 27: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, April 29-Tuesday, April 30: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Polling Locations  North Montgomery County Community Center, 600 Gerald Street Willis 77378, 102/103 Community Room  Lone Star Community Center (Not the Lone Star Convention Center in Conroe), 2500 Lone Star Parkway Montgomery 77356, 103/104 Community Room  Magnolia Community Building, 422 Melton Street Magnolia 77354, Main Room  East County Courthouse Annex, 21130 Highway 59 South New Caney 77357, Community Room  South County Community Building, 2235 Lake Robbins Drive The Woodlands 77380, Room 102  Lee G. Alworth Building, 207 West Phillips Street Conroe 77301, First Floor Limited Ballots, Special Forms of Early Voting, and Ballot by Mail ONLY at Election Central  Election Central, 9159 Airport Road Conroe 77303 See More Collapse

Porter does not have prior experience serving in office, however she noted she served on the policy council board at her school. The stay-at-home mom, who also served as a minister, said as a mayor she wants to get out in the community to have one-on-one interactions with the people to get to know the concerns, problems, and handle them. She feels the little man is being overlooked by big business and that more needs to be done to increase and support small mom and pop shop businesses, the elderly, and children. Among the issues she also believes are important to address drug violence and homelessness.

We are starting to see more homeless people in Willis and we need somewhere for them, Porter said. There is absolutely no place for them. Even if we had more church participation to help with the homeless, but every center is either in Conroe or further south. We need somewhere for people to go who need help. Even with the children, we dont have a center for the children, we have nothing for them to do  especially during the summer time. 

She also stressed that the community needs to get out and vote and have a clear understanding of the propositions because it is really serious, every vote matters, and their voice needs to be heard.

Aside from the run for mayor, two candidates have also filed for only one other contested race for the Willis city council.

William Brown and Kaye Maglitto are seeking votes for Position No. 5, which is currently vacant as longtime Councilman Bill Van Alstyne resigned earlier this year after serving 33 years citing health reasons. Both candidates were unable to be reached by press time.

Current council members Tamara Young-Hector for Position No. 1, Barney Stone for Position No. 2, Thomas Belinoski for Position No. 3, and Tom Luster for Position No. 4 are unopposed. The council seats will be up for election again in May 2021.

mellsworth@hcnonline.comWith robots from an international competition dominating the south side of downtown, thousands of dogs marked their turf on the north side with their playful barks echoing around Market Square Park.

An estimated 3,500 people and their dogs descended upon the park to play and socialize at the 8th annual Puppies for Breakfast festival, which is hosted by design agency Neue Creative, the Houston Downtown Management District and several other area animal partners.

Its not often you see these many dogs, said Blanche Ragsdale, 63, who brought her Pomeranian dog Mr. Fox with her. Its really fun for me to see all these breeds.

Ragsdale rescued Mr. Fox eight years ago. She said Mr. Fox was a little overwhelmed by all the dogs, but he rested with her on a bench  tongue all the way out in the sun.

Dogs came in and out of the park, splashing in the shallow fountains. The dog run overflowed with canines and owners playing together.

A dog trick show had dogs jumping through arm hoops or barking out the answers to math problems. The show was performed by local dog training company Unstoppable K9s, who try to show off how once-aggressive rescued dogs can be taught

Other dogs came in their best outfits, including pink tutus and denim jackets. Lynzee Soliz, 22, and her partner Evan Mendez, 27, brought their goofy dog Baddle wearing a flamingo hat, Hawaiian shirt, swim trucks and pineapple socks.

Hes there more for the people than the dogs, Soliz said, laughing.

Hector Garcia, who owns Neue Creative, created Puppies for Breakfast in 2010 by inviting around 30 friends and their dogs to breakfast in his backyard. He held the first festival in 2012 at their offices, and they began hosting the event at Market Square Park in 2014, after being approached by the Houston Downtown Management District.

Its like a true dog party, Garcia, 46, said.

For the first time, part of Preston Street had to be closed off, Garica said. He likes having the events at Market Square Park and doesnt want to outgrow it but more streets in the future could be closed off.

The festival was free, but donations were encouraged that will be given to a local dog rescue later in the week. Puppies for Breakfast will surprise a rescue with the money and post their reaction online.The upcoming election day could give Conroe Independent School District an influx of funds for capital improvement projects geared toward growth, renovations and safety and security.

An $807 million bond package is slated as an item on the May 4 election ballot. Superintendent Curtis Null said this is a package that affects the entire community.

Its important that all citizens, whether they have students in our system or not, are educated about the bond proposal and have all the information they need to make their best choice, Null said.

Over the past month or two, Null has been around the 348-square mile district giving more than 40 community presentations on the bond details.

If passed, the proposed bond could result in a maximum three cent property tax increase, the first increase in years, to reach a new rate of $1.31 per $100 valuation. The increase would begin with a one cent uptick on the 2019-20 property tax rate, adding an extra cent as necessary for three years. The districts current tax rate is $1.28 per $100 valuation.

CISD has the second-lowest tax rate in the Houston metro area  that ranking would stay the same if this bond referendum is approved by voters.

Accounting for a $25,000 homestead exemption on the average $300,000 home, the full 3-cent increase would add $82.50 to the annual household tax bill. That would put the tax requirement for the average home at $3,602.50.

Null said that based on his experience in the community as he presents the bond, citizens have done their homework on the package.

I think people are doing their research, which is wonderful. They have come in with great questions and sought out good information, working through all the information to move toward their decision, Null said.

When and where do I vote? Early voting: April 22-27 and April 29-30 Election Day: May 4 For a complete list of voting locations, visit the district's website. See More Collapse

Some key bond projects include: a Conroe High School renovation that would convert the six-building campus into one building for $146 million and an Oak Ridge High School overhaul and addition for $48 million as well as three new elementary schools and one new junior high school for a total of $192 million.

Other growth and sustainability projects, such as classroom additions and capacity upgrades, are budgeted at about $76 million. Campus improvements and renovations, like adding gyms at a few elementary schools and turf conversions, are listed at about $62.5 million.

Safety and security projects are included for $24.5 million, life cycle improvements are budgeted for $88 million and technology plans are allotted $36 million. District-wide facility and transportation needs are given $60 million, while $20 million is set aside for land purchases. The amount reserved for contingency is $39 million.

Conroe ISD currently serves 63,000 students and is the 11th largest school district in Texas.

jane.stueckemann@chron.comTROY  For Dominick Pilla, its been the main topic of discussion among his architecture students this week. And for Lindsay Cook, it brought back vivid memories of a landmark project devised by her late mentor.

The Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris has been the focus of architects, engineers and art historians everywhere and the Capital Region is no exception. The blaze has also been a lesson for firefighters like Albany Chief Joseph Gregory and state fire official Guy Swartout about the unique hazards posed by large old buildings that are plentiful in the Capital Region and across upstate.

Right away it comes up, said Pilla, a lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the owner of Dominick R. Pilla & Associates consulting engineers, about the fire and discussions with his students. Everybody is really upset about it as well.

There are a couple of unique aspects to structures like Notre Dame, Pilla said. Even though the roof timbers have been described as a forest ripe for ignition, Pilla noted that the buildings stone mass probably helped prevent further damage. There is so much material and thats its stability, he said.

The stone skeleton of the building did withstand the blaze, agreed Cook.

A visiting assistant professor of art history at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, Cook said her late mentor, art historian Andrew Tallon, in a 2012 project used lasers to create a digitized structural map of the 800-year-old Gothic cathedral. Tallon died in late 2018.

It could be potentially useful in certain ways if the authorities decide that they can use it, she said of the digital map, which is part of a larger project called Mapping Gothic France.

People like Pilla have also been wondering how the restoration will proceed.

More for you 'Too much to bear:' Shenendehowa tourists describe fire at Notre Dame Cathedral

Once the building is cleared and declared safe, engineers and architects will have to make a number of decisions on the restoration. Do they add fire suppression features like gypsum firewalls or even sprinklers in key points? Or do they use steel reinforcement, which is a mainstay with modern structures but missing from Notre Dame.

With any restoration you lose something and you gain something, Pilla said.

Cook added that they may very well replace the wood roof frame with steel, since thats not visible to the public.

One thing Pilla is confident about is his opinion about the five-year restoration timetable that French President Emanuelle Macron has set out for restoration of Notre Dame.

He doesnt believe thats realistic given the planning that will be required, as well as the need to find the limited number of tradesmen and women who have the ability to work on the kind of traditional stone construction that characterizes Notre Dame.

This remediation will take a huge effort in the analysis and engineering of the existing structure, he said.

Pillas firm is currently building a traditional stone structure that will be part of a monastery in Pennsylvania and theyve found that the suitable experts exist but are hard to find. You are going to be looking all over the world for that skilled labor, Pilla said.

The fire has altered some of Cooks plans. Shell be teaching a history and art class in Paris this summer, through a Columbia University exchange program.

Notre Dame is clearly a key landmark in such a course, but any visits will now have to be from outside, she said. It will take on a different tone, she said of the Notre Dame segment.

The catastrophic inferno, said Fire Chief Gregory, demonstrates the unique fire dangers posed by old buildings, from churches to warehouses to empty factories, that can be found in Albany, the greater Capital Region and across the state. As well as the timber framing, such structures with large open spaces can create smoky death traps for firefighters.

"The wide open spaces do that, and the fire travels very quickly through that open space," added Swartout, the bureau chief at the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control. Incidentally, firefighters see similar problems with the "open space" concepts that are popular in modern residential structures.

Theres clearly been nothing on the scale of Notre Dame fire, but the region has seen large blazes with similar attributes like large stone or masonry walls and open spaces.

A fire in 2010, for instance, tore through Albanys Central Warehouse creating a massive smoke plume and snarling traffic in the area. Despite the flames, the building remained standing. Thats the equivalent of a tank, Gregory said of the 11-story steel and concrete structure.

Any of those major structures are of concern to us, said Gregory. And the possibility of such fires erupting is always on his mind and the minds of his firefighters as they make their rounds through the city.

Thats why we dont sleep at night, he said.

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTUThe groundwork for the upcoming Expo 2020, which expects to welcome 25 million visitors and more than 200 international participants from 190 countries, has already spurred business opportunities for various sectors with logistics being one of the prime gainers, said an expert.



With less than 19 months left for the inauguration of the Expo 2020, its organisers have further speeded up the pace of allocating contracts to thousands of local and foreign firms to ensure timely preparation of the event, which is set to be the largest of its kind in the Arab World.



So far Expo 2020 Dubai has awarded 56 per cent of contracts to small and medium-sized enterprises. Meanwhile, more than 26,000 companies from 150 countries have recently applied to be involved in the event, said a statement.



Shailesh Dash, chairman of Dubai-based Gulf Pinnacle Logistics, said: When foreign companies get contracts in the UAE, they need professional support of logistics specialists with wide local and international network to move their set up and equipment to the Gulf country.



Contractors of Expo 2020, which is extraordinarily big in magnitude, therefore rely on reputable and experienced logistics players to become their strategic and operational partners. After all, freight forwarders do much more than moving containers. We guide organisers, contractors and exhibitors throughout different customs procedures, time frames and operational complexities, he added.



Rodney Viegas, chief executive officer, AbdulMuhsen Shipping (AMS) and So Safe Logistics (SSL), two portfolio companies owned by GPL, said: Thanks to the increased momentum of Expo 2020 preparations, the logistics sector in the UAE  which according to the 2019 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index ranks first in the region and third globally  is witnessing a business boom, when other sectors are observing slow growth.



Expo 2020 is expected to drive the logistics and supply chain segment even further and cement the UAEs position as a global leader in logistics. With our strong global agent network, we are equipped to provide end-to-end logistics solutions to fulfil the clients comprehensive list of logistics requirements on time, he added.



Dharmesh Rustagi, head of logistics operations at AMS and SSL, said: The throughput of non-containerised cargo Jebel Ali Port has been experiencing a steady upward movement with demand being driven by Expo 2020.



The fact that AMS and SSL collectively operate a land area of more than 46,000 sq m and a built-up warehouse area of more than 18,000 sq m in the Jebel Ali Free Zone provides us with an advantage to be the go-to logistics provider for contractors during the largest exhibition of its kind in the Arab World, he added.



Established in 1991, AMS handles the entire gamut of Logistics services, which involve consolidation, warehousing, transportation and shipping. Gulf Pinnacle Logistics had acquired a 75 per cent equity stake in AMS in 2014. AMS handles the highest number of LCL (less than container load) console containers in the Jebel Ali Free Zone.



Thus, GPL and its portfolio companies are ready to deal with the expected increase in demand for breakbulk and project cargo handling services in the run-up to Expo 2020 Dubai, concluded Dash.  TradeArabia News ServiceAn Ohio church has apologized for an Easter lesson in which a pastor encouraged students to slap, cut and spit on him  incidents that were captured in videos and posted online.

Justin Ross is lead pastor at Impact City Church in Pataskala near Columbus. He said the incident happened Monday at an organized hangout session for middle and high school students.

Ross said an associate pastor encouraged the attacks on himself as a way to help students learn about Easter and the crucifixion of Jesus.

PREACHERS WITH SNEAKERS: An Instagram account reveals celebrity pastors' extravagances

"My intention was just to show them how much Jesus loved them," associate pastor Jaddeus Dempsey told WCMH.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that several students took the associate pastor up on the offer, and one cut him on the neck.

"He's like, 'I don't want you to go crazy with it, but I do want you to slice it down my back and make me bleed,'" 12-year-old Ai'janae Parker said. "I thought it was pretty weird. I didn't like it all."

Cellphone recordings of the incident sparked backlash.

"Jesus did that for us so we wouldn't have to go through it and that's the part I don't understand," Parker said.

Her mother said she was deeply disturbed by the video.

"I couldn't even make it through the whole video before I stopped it and I went right up there to pick her up," Amanda Quick said. "I feel like there are plenty of different ways they could have gone about this."

Ross said the topic was important, but the lesson went too far and was inappropriate.About 140 people were killed and about 400 injured in explosions at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, police and hospital sources said.

At least six explosions have been reported in the country; three churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa were targeted during Easter services, said a BBC report.

The Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels, all in Colombo, were also hit, it said.

Among those killed in Colombo were at least nine foreign nationals, hospital sources told the BBC.

Reuters quoted a police source as saying more than 50 people died in Negombo, while hospital sources in Batticaloa said at least 27 people had died there.

A hotel official at the Cinnamon Grand, near the prime minister's official residence, told AFP the explosion there had ripped through a restaurant, killing at least one person.

Easter Day bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels killed 138 people and wounded more than 400, hospital and police officials said, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

In the St Sebastians church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, more than 50 people had been killed, a police official told Reuters, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews and a destroyed roof.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.New York health officials issued summonses to parents of three children Thursday for not vaccinating their children against measles, a violation of the city's emergency order mandating immunizations to control a surging outbreak.

The adults face civil penalties of $1,000 if an officer upholds the summons at a hearing. Health officials identified three children who were exposed to the severe respiratory virus but were not vaccinated by Friday, violating the order. Skipping the hearing or not respond to the summons will result in a $2,000 fine. The children are in three households.

During the outbreak, the city has mandated vaccinations for people living in four hard-hit Zip codes in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section, home to tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Health officials also confirmed 359 cases as of Wednesday, an increase of 30 cases in two days.

Because measles' incubation period is long - seven to 21 days - health officials said they expect the outbreak to get worse before it gets better. "However, we can turn the tide by people getting vaccinated, especially before Passover, when families and communities gather," said New York's Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot.

As part of the Health Department investigation, disease detectives trace where each infected person went while contagious and everyone they may have interacted with. If investigators find an unvaccinated child who could have been exposed to measles, that child's parents could be subject to fines, officials have said.

During a meeting Wednesday, the city's health board said it would be seeking civil, not criminal, penalties against the parents. Earlier in the week, a group of Brooklyn parents filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court, seeking to stop the city order. The plaintiffs say the order is unlawful because there is insufficient evidence of a measles epidemic or a dangerous enough outbreak to justify extraordinary measures, such as forced vaccination or criminal penalties.

The measure is the broadest vaccination order in the United States in nearly three decades. The nation has a long history of mandatory vaccinations dating back to a 1905 Supreme Court case that upheld Massachusetts' authority to require vaccination against smallpox during an epidemic after a man defied an order to be vaccinated. The case laid the foundation for public health laws in the United States.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, has said the city has sweeping emergency authority for such orders during a public health emergency.

Health officials also announced Thursday that they closed four additional schools for noncompliance with measles vaccine requirements.

Earlier in the week, officials closed a Williamsburg child care program for repeatedly not providing access to medical and attendance records, violating the emergency order. The order requires child care programs to exclude unvaccinated students and staffers and to maintain medical and attendance records on site. That child care program reopened Thursday.Bailey Jean Matheson, a 35-year-old woman from Canada, died of a rare cancer on April 5. Her obituary, which she wrote herself, was published on Inmemoriam.ca and is now reaching people all over the world with its inspirational message. The gist? No matter how long you've got on this planet, make the most of it.

Matheson's obituary opens with a touching message: "35 years may not seem long, but damn it was good!"

Knowing she had just two years to live after her cancer diagnosis, Matheson declined treatment and decided to spend her remaining time living life to its fullest. Throughout the obituary, Matheson thanked her family and friends for their constant love and support.

In 2017, Matheson was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that affects muscle tissue. In her obituary, Matheson made sure to note her love for her friends and how they helped her through her disease. As an only child, she wrote that she'd always cherished her friendships more than anything.

"I never thought I could love my friends more than I did but going through this and having your unconditional love and support you have made something that is normally so hard, more bearable and peaceful," she wrote. "Thank you and I love you all so much."

Matheson also acknowledged her boyfriend, Brent, who she met on a dating app just three months before her diagnoses. She sweetly referenced their unusual circumstances in her obituary when she wrote, "You had no idea what you were getting yourself into when you swiped right that day." She continued, "I couldn't have asked for a better man to be by my side for all the adventures, appointments, laughs, cries and breakdowns. You are an amazing person and anyone in your life is so fortunate to know you. I love you beyond words."

Matheson's full obituary reads:

"35 years may not seem long, but damn it was good!



To my parents, thank you for supporting me and my decisions throughout my life. I always remember my mom saying losing a child would be the hardest loss a parent could go through. My parents gave me the greatest gift of supporting my decisions with not going through chemo and just letting me live the rest of my life the way I believed it should be. I know how hard that must have been watching me stop treatment and letting nature take its course. I love you both even more for this.

To my friends, being an only child, I've always cherished my friendships more than anything because I've never had siblings of my own. I never thought I could love my friends more than I did but going through this and having your unconditional love and support you have made something that is normally so hard, more bearable and peaceful. Thank you and I love you all so much.

To my Brent, you came into my life just three months before my diagnosis. You had no idea what you were getting yourself into when you swiped right that day. I couldn't have asked for a better man to be by my side for all the adventures, appointments, laughs, cries and breakdowns. You are an amazing person and anyone in your life is so fortunate to know you. I love you beyond words.

I am survived by my loving parents, Wendy (Foxwell) and Sandy (John Alexander) Matheson; my amazing and caring boyfriend, Brent Andrews and family; my wonderful pets, Rosella, Cat, Peyton (Boo Boo) and Harley; my great group of friends; my aunt, Sharon MacIntyre and family, my aunt, Paulette Novacco and family, and my uncle, Ted Foxwell and family. I am predeceased by my maternal grandmother, Lillian Clark; paternal grandparents, Elsie (Matheson) MacKenzie and Alex Matheson.

Thank you for all the support, donations, fundraisers, food, messages and calls over the past two years. It means the world to me.

A special thank you to my Aunts, Sharon and Paulette, for being supportive and thank you to all my doctors, my palliative care team, all my VONs, my social worker and East Coast Naturolpathic.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Melanies Way or Young Adults Cancer Canada.

Details regarding the Celebration of Life will follow at a later date.



"Dont take the small stuff so seriously and live a little."

Matheson's obituary has touched people all over the world. One commenter on her obituary, a mother living on Maui, Hawaii, wrote that while she'd never met Matheson, she was moved by her words and her gesture.

"Im the mother of two daughters myself. And I wanted to thank her parents, from the bottom of my heart, for having raised such a beautiful spirit," the stranger wrote. "Aloha beautiful Bailey Matheson. You now know the answer to lifes greatest question. Rest In Peace."

Another wrote, "I did not know your daughter but... she sounds like an amazing human being. You must have been so proud of her and distraught with the news and what happened after. I send you my very best and it may seem impossible but I don't think I'll ever forget her. The way she communicated in her obituary with such love an appreciation is beyond words."

"Few times in your life do you find someone with so much love and grace," another person tweeted.Emaar Malls, the shopping malls and retail business majority-owned by Emaar Properties, will hold its fourth Annual General Meeting (AGM) on April 23 at Address Dubai Mall in Downtown Dubai.



If the meeting falls short of quorum, the AGM will be held at the same time and venue on Tuesday, April 30, 2019.



The Emaar Malls AGM will discuss the proposal of the Board of Directors to distribute cash dividends to shareholders amounting to Dh1.301 billion ($354 million), representing 10 per cent of the share capital being 10 fils per share.



The meeting will also seek approval of the report by the Board of Directors on the activities and financial position of Emaar Malls, the Auditors report, and the companys balance sheet for 2018. The auditor for 2019 will also be appointed by the assembly.



One of the worlds largest mall operators with a total gross leasable area of 6.7 million square feet, Emaar Malls recorded full-year 2018 net profit of Dh2.230 billion ($607 million), a growth of 7 per cent over 2017. Revenue for FY 2018 was Dh4.446 billion ($1.210 billion), 23 per cent higher than in 2017.



Emaar Malls maintained strong occupancy levels across its assets  The Dubai Mall, Dubai Marina Mall, Souk Al Bahar, Gold & Diamond Park and the Community Retail Centres  at 93 per cent. The malls and retail centres together welcomed 136 million visitors in 2018, an increase of 5 per cent over the total visitor footfall of 130 million in 2017.



The Dubai Mall, the flagship assets of Emaar Malls, marked a milestone in 2018, celebrating its tenth anniversary and opening the Fashion Avenue expansion. With the addition of over 150 new retail outlets as part of the Fashion Avenue expansion, the mall now has over 1,350 retailers and 170 plus F&B choices. The mall reiterated its position as the worlds most visited retail and lifestyle destination by welcoming 83 million visitors in 2018, an increase of 4 per cent compared to the 80 million visitors it welcomed annually during the last four consecutive years.



As part of its omnichannel retail strategy, Emaar Malls fully acquired Namshi, the leading regional fashion e-commerce retailer this year. This follows the Group acquiring the remaining stake of Global Fashion Group (GFG) in Namshi, in an all-cash transaction of Dh475.5 million (Euro 114.3 million; $129.5 million).  TradeArabia News ServiceHe calls his victims the "Eleven that went to Heaven."

Edward Harold Bell, admitted sex offender, convicted murderer and self-described serial killer, has given multiple chilling confessions from his locked prison cell of abducting and slaying teenage and adolescent girls in the 1970s, describing crimes even now unsolved.

In disturbing letters sent to Harris and Galveston county prosecutors in 1998 - but kept secret for 13 years - Bell claimed to have killed seven girls, including two Galveston 15-year-olds shot as they stood tied up and half naked in the chilly waters of Turner Bayou, according to excerpts and descriptions of Bell's letters obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

In July and September, in exclusive interviews, Bell, now gaunt and pasty-faced at 72, told a Chronicle reporter the tally of lives was not just seven, but 11, the "Eleven that went to Heaven."

Bell claims a brainwashing "program" forced him to "be a flasher," to "rape girls" and ultimately to kill.

Related: Documentary Series reexamines 70s serial killings in the Houston/Galveston area

Several senior investigators familiar with Bell's letters of confessions told the Chronicle they have long believed he committed multiple murders and found evidence to corroborate his claims. But probes stalled.

Galveston prosecutors refused to present Bell's written confessions to a grand jury. Harris County prosecutors never investigated the claims and subsequently lost the letters. And Bell refused to cooperate with police. Several investigators said not enough effort was made in 1998 to re-investigate the cases.

One former Galveston DA, Kurt Sistrunk, told the Chronicle, "I didn't believe we had sufficient evidence that we could proceed to grand jury with, and without getting into specifics, that's the decision that had to be made, no matter the temptations to proceed otherwise ... It wasn't for a lack of effort."

Saw her son die

Bell is serving 70 years for the 1978 murder of Larry Dickens, a Marine who confronted Bell after he exited his red and white GMC pickup naked from the waist down and began masturbating in front of a group of girls in Pasadena. Dickens' mother watched from her house as Bell shot her son four times, emptying his pistol, then retrieved a rifle to administer a coup de grace.

The "program" killings, as Bell calls them, began well before then. The victims were young girls from Houston, Galveston, Webster and Dickinson. The murders came in waves: five in 1971 and six more from about 1974 to 1977. Six teens, he adds, were murdered in pairs.

Bell named three victims from 1971: Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, 15-year-old Galveston surfer girls and experienced water skiers who disappeared after hitchhiking, and Colette Anise Wilson, 13, who never arrived home near Alvin after attending a summer band camp.

More Information A CHILLING STORY See Bell's letters and photos at chron.com/news/interactives/bell BELL'S SUPPOSED VICTIMS Bell named four of his alleged victims; in seven other cases he provided years, places or descriptions, which the Chronicle compared against police and forensic reports and interviews to determine possible matches: Colette Anise Wilson: Wilson, 13, disappeared June 17, 1971, after a bus driver dropped her off near her home north of Alvin. Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson: Ackerman and Johnson, 15-year-old best friends from Galveston, disappeared Nov. 17, 1971 Kimberly Rae Pitchford: Pitchford, 16, never came home after attending driver's ed class at Frank Dobie High School off of Beamer in Houston on Jan. 3, 1973. Two unnamed girls from Webster in 1971: Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Renee Johnson, both 14, abducted and murdered together after a day at the beach in Galveston on Aug. 4, 1971. Two unnamed Dickinson girls: Georgia Geer, 14, disappeared with friend Brooks Bracewell, 12, after the middle school students skipped classes Sept. 6, 1974. Last seen at a convenience store. Unnamed brunette girl from west Houston: Possibly Gloria Ann Gonzales, 19, reported missing by her roommate in West Houston in October 1971; remains were found near Colette Wilson's. Unnamed girl picked up off Highway 2004 near Santa Fe: Possibly Nina Lynn Kluge, 16, of Cypress, who failed to arrive home Oct. 22, 1975, after visiting friends in Rosharon. Her car was found abandoned along Texas 6, about four miles west of Santa Fe. Unnamed Houston girl with red or blonde hair killed in mid-1970s: No further information.

OTHERS WHO WERE SUSPECTS Men previously identified as possible perpetrators of a 1970s killing spree involving an estimated 21 victims in Brazoria, Harris and Galveston counties. Michael Lloyd Self: A a League City mechanic, convicted in 1972 for the murder of Sharon Shaw. But his conviction was tainted by corrupt police officers who used Russian roulette to obtain two conflicting confessions and who themselves were later convicted of bank robbery. Self died in prison in 2000. His attorneys say he was never told of Bell's letters. Charlie Hitzfelder Jr.: The son of a former Medina County Sheriff and considered a suspect in several unsolved murder cases here. He died in 1998. Harry Andrew Lanham and an accomplice, Tony Knoppa, were convicted in 1971 in the shooting death of Linda Sutherlin, a 21-year-old Houston woman found dead in Brazoria County. Lanham was awaiting trial for a teen's murder in Montgomery County and was considered a suspect in other cases when he was killed by police in a 1972 escape in Harris County. LISE OLSEN, Chronicle See More Collapse

All three cases remain unsolved, though Brazoria County Sheriff's officials long theorized Wilson and another girl were murdered by a convict killed in a 1972 jail escape. Wilson's bones were found in a reservoir mingled with those of a missing Houston girl, Gloria Ann Gonzales, 19.

In 1998, Bell described murdering Ackerman and Johnson in letters written from a maximum security cell in Huntsville 17 years after the crime: "I was 'Brainwashed' into killing Deby (sic) Ackerman and Maria Johnson in November 1971," Bell wrote. He detailed how he shot them and described the remote bridge where the bodies were recovered.

Ackerman and Johnson were last seen accepting a ride near an island ice cream shop from a man driving a white van. Their abductor tied them up, stripped them from the waist down and left their bodies in the bayou, records show.

Bell owned a white 1971 Ford Van, lived in an apartment in a sprawling beach house along Offatts Bayou, and had invested in a surf shop that both girls visited before their deaths, according to documents and interviews. In fact, Bell was arrested in the van in February 1972, after flashing a 15-year-old on a sales trip to Greta, La. Bell repainted the van and it later burned, Bell and others said.

Bell identified another of his victims as a reddish-blond Houston teen named "Pitchford," kidnapped near Gulfgate Mall. Harris County medical examiner's records and newspaper archives show Kimberly Rae Pitchford, a 16-year-old who lived near Hobby airport, never returned home after taking a driver's education class at Frank Dobie High School in Houston. Her body was found in a thicket in Brazoria County in January 1973.

Bell claims not to know the names of other girls. In some cases he remembers the color of their hair. The 1971 murders included Ackerman, Johnson, Wilson and two Webster girls Bell does not name.

Just three months before Ackerman and Johnson disappeared from Galveston Island, so did two Webster 14-year-olds named Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Renee Johnson. All four girls hung out at a popular water ski school on Offatts Bayou near Bell's apartment.

Related: Some suspect serial killer in 1971 Galveston deaths - did the wrong man die in prison for 1971 slayings?

Was traveling salesman

Another six killings occurred in the mid to late 1970s, including Pitchford and two girls in Dickinson, Bell told the Chronicle.

Deed records show Bell owned a rural pasture a few minutes' drive from the Dickinson store where two middle school students, Georgia Geer, 14, and Brooks Bracewell, 12, were last seen in 1974. Their bones were recovered in a bayou in 1976 and identified in 1981.

Related: Two girls went missing in 1974 - why didn't police investigate?

Of the remaining three, one was killed after hitchhiking near Highway 2004 in Santa Fe, Bell says, and two more came from Houston, one brunette and another red-haired.

"If you could get me immunity from prosecution of any kind, I could lay a lot stuff on you and I will," Bell told the newspaper.

Known as "Butch" to family and friends, Bell's early life seemed normal - even exemplary. He was a Boy Scout, graduated from Columbus (Texas) High School and earned a physical education degree from Texas A&M, where he played in the Aggie Band.

After graduation, he worked as a licensed diver and met and married his first wife in San Marcos. The two moved to West Texas and had three children. For years, Bell made his living as a traveling pharmaceutical salesman based in Plainview and later sold Terlingua ranchland out of an office in downtown Houston.

For most of his life, Bell claims he did not know what compelled him to do evil. In the 12 years or more before he was arrested for the Marine's murder, Bell actively trolled for girls and exposed himself across Texas and Louisiana in vehicles he often altered and swapped, records show.

Bell was stopped by police at least a dozen times for masturbating and flashing girls in Lubbock, Plainview, Bacliff, Houston, Pasadena and Gretna, La., between 1966 and 1978, according to records and Bell's own admissions.

His pattern: Drive around until he found unaccompanied adolescent girls, strip down below the waist and masturbate as they watched. He often targeted girls in pairs. Most victims were 11 to 16 years old. He repeatedly avoided arrest and prosecution.

He bragged to friends that he could talk his way out of anything. In an interview, Bell's sister-in-law, Janice Bell, described Bell as a "great con man" and a "Texan big mouth  he bragged a lot, he was always right." She called him a liar and a killer who kept secrets.

Bell blamed the crimes and carnage in his life on a systemic program of abuse, lies and brainwashing begun by his father, a well-connected gauger who frequently moved his family to small oil field camps and towns within an 85-mile radius of Houston.

"My father thought if he beat you real bad, it would send chemicals into your bloodstream," Bell said.

Bell lists former scoutmasters, a cousin and his three ex-wives as part of "the program." He mixes accounts of the damage wrought by others with admissions of uncontrollable cravings for sex with younger women.

"One thing they wanted me to do for sure was rape a girl," he said. "They wanted me to rape girls and rob banks and rob people. My father tried to brainwash me into killing myself."

More arrests

Flashing was phase one. Bell's first documented incident, records show, occurred in 1966, when he was stopped for exposing himself to girls in the tiny town of Sudan an hour west of Plainview, and ended up in Big Spring state mental hospital, according to Bell and records. The treatment didn't take.

Three years later, Bell, still married to his first wife and working as a traveling salesman, got arrested again - twice - for exposing himself to girls in two different West Texas towns. He avoided prosecution by agreeing to report to another in-patient treatment program for so-called perversion, and soon arrived at the University of Texas Medical Branch mental hospital, Jennie Sealy in Galveston. His marriage ended, as did contact with his children.

Bell turned his time in the mental ward into opportunity to romance underaged patients. He "dated" one 16-year-old but says he didn't "make love" to her because "I was already in enough trouble with the law ... I didn't want statutory rape on top of the flasher charge."

Next, he seduced a 17-year-old psychiatric patient in Room 417, according to Bell. A few months after his release, he married her. Bell was 31. In 1970, Bell and his new wife rented an apartment in the beach house along Offatts Bayou.

Through a mutual friend, Bell met Doug Pruns, a surfer who made custom boards and owned a shop on Avenue S.

Bell became a silent partner in a dive business at Doug's Surf Shop. In an interview, Pruns said he once visited acreage near Dickinson where Bell kept horses, raccoons, myriad critters and a travel trailer painted to look like a red caboose. Pruns considered Bell a creepy weirdo, but knew little of his life.

In 1974, Bell was busted twice in Galveston County. In April, he exposed himself to two girls on a road near Bacliff and pursued them in a Volkswagen rental as they ran. He next was arrested in the rape of a Jennie Sealy mental patient whom he says he met outside the hospital. Both cases were dropped.

In 1978, he trolled for girls in suburban Pasadena in a red and white GMC pickup, in which he kept a .22-caliber pistol, an M-1 carbine and porn magazines, Harris County records show. On June 26, he exposed himself to two girls riding bikes, aged 11 and 12. Five weeks later, he stepped out of the pickup wearing only a pair of black boots and masturbated before five Pasadena girls practicing cheer leading.

The next time he displayed himself to Pasadena girls, on Aug. 24, 1978, Bell came face to face with Dickens. Bell killed him for interrupting.

Bell was arrested and posted a $125,000 bond. He jumped bail. For the next 14 years, Bell roamed coastal towns in Mexico and Central America, guiding dive trips and living aboard a sailboat. He assumed the identity of a dead cousin named Cecil Boyd and told people to call him "Wally." He panned for gold, married for a third time and entertained visiting Texans on dive trips, according to records and interviews with Larry Boucher, a retired investigator for the Harris County District Attorney's Office who tracked Bell for years.

Named Texas' most wanted fugitive in the 1980s, Bell was featured on the TV series Unsolved Mysteries and captured by Panamanian police at a yacht club in 1992. He went to prison the next year.

Boucher read Bell's confessions and says he's an unpunished serial killer. He remembers Bell's rants about bees invading his locked cell and his admissions to killing girls in a letter that's been lost.

"My gut feeling is that he is responsible," Boucher told the Chronicle.

'70s disappearances

Forty-year-old investigative files reviewed by the Chronicle document many agencies' unsuccessful attempts to solve the disappearances of teenage girls in the 1970s - a murderous decade that ended with suspicions one or more killers escaped prosecution.

So many teen girls turned up dead in 1971 that the Harris County sheriff called more than 60 officers from across Texas to a secret summit to coordinate a response. A murderer, or murderers, seemed to cross city and county boundaries to dump victims in remote, roadless areas.

Over time, several serial killer suspects were developed. Most died long ago, leaving nearly all the murders unsolved. Until Bell's confession letters arrived in 1998, he'd never been investigated.

Those letters electrified Deril Oliver, a retired Texas City detective who helped pull the bodies of Ackerman and Johnson from Turner Bayou. Oliver tried to interview Bell in prison. He said others were too quick to dismiss Bell as a publicity-seeking kook.

"Bell was the closest thing to a real suspect that we ever had," Oliver said. "I think they let it go too soon."

Among investigators convinced of Bell's guilt is Alfred Paige, a Galveston police officer who investigated Bell in between new homicide cases from 2005 to 2010. Paige, who heard about 1970s teen murders as a boy growing up in Central Texas, found scattered relatives and friends, including witnesses who'd never been interviewed, and documents that tied Bell to the unsolved crimes. He pushed without success for Galveston DA Sistrunk to use the letters and other evidence to indict Bell.

"The investigation certainly remains open," said Sistrunk, who now works for the Brazoria County prosecutors office, "and what we can count on is that because of the work of (Paige), those before him, and other area law enforcement agencies that may become even more involved, we will reach a point in time where sufficient evidence will be made available to law enforcement that will let the case proceed to a grand jury for justice to be served."

If Bell's confessions are true, only he holds answers long sought by the families of victims.

"It makes it hard that we don't know if this Bell guy is a nut or if he's telling the truth," said Dotti Walker, the aunt of murdered Webster teenager Sharon Shaw, who disappeared with her friend only a few months after Ackerman and Johnson. "As bad and as mean as he is, he could be telling the truth because of his conscience ... Not knowing is heartbreaking."

lise.olsen@chron.comAn argument between two men in north Houston nearly turned deadly on Sunday, prompting a standoff with Houston Police officers.

Police were called to a home in the 400 block of Marie Street around 12:30 a.m. after a man, later identified as Francisco Martinez, allegedly opened fire on an acquaintance at the residence.Luxury serviced residences operator Fraser Suites has officially opened its first property in Muscat, Oman.



Located at the heart of the central commercial and business district, the property offers 120 serviced luxury apartments, complete with a rooftop pool, a 24/7 fitness room, a lavish spa and large indoor and outdoor children play areas.



The apartments comprise studios and various bedroom configurations equipped with renowned brands such as LOccitane and Nespresso, together with all-around city views.



Fraser Suites Muscat hosted its official opening early this month at the ballroom, present within the premises.



The event was held in line with its commitment to offer high-quality luxury experiences which are designed to embrace the needs of the modern traveller and saw media attendees given an exclusive tour of each of the unique facilities at Fraser Suites Muscat.



The Fraser Suites Muscat Ballroom can hold more than 800 people and is perfect for planning a wedding, the launch of a special product, a general business meeting, or any major occasion. The 1,500-sq-m space can be used as the main hall or partitioned into four separate conference rooms as required.



Fraser Suites also offers an all-day dining restaurant, The Oak, with options encompassing a fusion of Middle Eastern and International cuisine from Chef Hatibu Alfani, including a choice for a buffet or a la carte menu. Designed with a contemporary touch and having floor to ceiling windows and a balcony overlooking the city, the restaurant ensures that all guests are treated to an unmatched dining experience. Additionally, for guests who prefer to dine in the comfort of their own hotel apartment, Room Service is available 24 hours a day.



Vincent Le Gorrec, general manager of Fraser Suites Muscat, said: Coupled with a unique range of facilities and amenities and situated close to several lifestyle options, Fraser Suites Muscat is an ideal choice for corporate travellers, vacationers, and even families, looking for a convenient location in the sultanate. Together with the property owners, Jenan Al-Bashaer, we look forward to welcoming guests from all over the world and providing them with our trademark hospitality while also simultaneously enhancing the national tourism sector." - TradeArabia News ServiceMore than $1 million worth of methamphetamine was found in a mans vehicle Friday afternoon after he was pulled over on the South Side, officials said.

Jose Elias Trevino Cisneros, 45, was arrested and faces a federal charge of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture containing methamphetamine, according to the Bexar County Sheriffs Office.CLEVELAND, Ohio  Go ahead Cleveland, pat yourself on the back.

The big new Shinto exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art is the latest in a long line of excellent, Cleveland-only cultural experiences dished up by one of Americas greatest art museums.

The exhibition, a 13-year labor of love organized by Sinead Vilbar, the museums curator of Japanese art, offers a panoramic view of a religious tradition central to Japanese culture, history and identity, but rarely explored with such lucidity and depth, especially outside Japan.

The show is earthy and rarefied, exalted and entertaining. It ranges from a theatrical mask of a red-faced drunkard, with a nose designed to swivel back and forth, to lofty vistas of elaborate religious processions framed by golden clouds and drifts of snow white cherry blossoms.

Points of pride

The show is Cleveland-only in that the objects on view are so delicate and light-sensitive that lenders agreed to loan them on the condition that the show wouldnt travel to other venues. That description applies to more than a dozen Important Cultural Properties on loan from Japan.

The exhibition is also unique in the broader sense that it represents a new dividend from the close, century-old relationship between the museum and Japan.

Those ties date back to the early 20th century cultural diplomacy of Cleveland museum consultant Langdon Warner, and the efforts of Howard Hollis and Sherman Lee in Japan after World War II.

Hollis, on leave in the late 1940s from his job as a curator at the Cleveland museum, worked with Lee, the museums future director, to preserve and celebrate Japans cultural patrimony during the military occupation led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

The expertise gained by Lee during his service as a Monuments Man helped him later build one of the worlds most important collections of Asian art at the Cleveland museum, which he led from 1958 to 1983.

With that collection as a center of gravity and bargaining chip, the Cleveland museum has organized numerous exhibitions and exchanges with Japan, of which Shinto: Discovery of the Divine in Japanese Art is the latest example.

Meanings of Shinto

Shinto, which translates as way of the gods, has two principal meanings. One refers to the behavior of divine spirits known as kami, which most commonly represent aspects of nature or departed noble ancestors. The other refers to how people demonstrate awareness of kami through rituals of purification, prayer, festivals or the creation of art and music.

After the arrival of Buddhism in Japan from the Asian continent around 500, Buddhist and Shinto practices intertwined. Shinto shrines rose alongside Buddhist temples near cities including Nara, Kyoto and Osaka. Eventually, the faithful began to view kami spirits as avatars of Buddhist deities.

This intermingling resulted in magnificent works such as a 13th-century painting on loan from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco showing five Buddhist deities descending from the heavens on puffy white clouds to visit the Kasuga shrine.

The exhibition unspools the religious complexities of such works in half a dozen thematically organized galleries that flow logically into one another.

With more than 100 objects spanning nine centuries, the show encompasses garments, calligraphy, paintings on scrolls and folding screens, masks, sculptures, decorative objects and portable shrines. Its a hit parade of masterpieces from some of the best collections in America and Japan.

New angles on permanent collection

Among them are 20 from Clevelands own collection, which snap into fresh focus in the context of the show.

Such works include a pair of spectacular, highly detailed, 17th-century folding screens depicting a horse race held at the Kamo shrine in Kyoto.

The screens have been rotated on and off view many times in recent decades in Cleveland. Seeing them as part of a detailed Shinto exegesis underscores that the race wasnt simply a raucous festival. It was meant to invoke and entertain kami deities. That meaning that hasnt seemed as urgent and clear as it does now in the show.

The same is true of the museums fiery 13th-century wood sculpture of Zao Gongen, the guardian kami of Mt. Kinpu, south of Nara. Standing in a bold, foot-stamping pose with his right leg and right arm raised, Zao carries a Buddhist Vajra, or lightning bolt, in his right hand, all the better to defend his turf.

Zao appears in the identical posture in a massive 16th century hanging scroll mandala depicting the sacred site of Yoshino, about 20 miles southeast of Nara. The painting shows the ascetic En no Gyoja summoning Zao in the 7th century as protector of the Yoshino shrine, elaborately portrayed in the painting.

Seeing the Cleveland painting next to the mandala, on loan from the Nyoirinji shrine at Yoshino, shows how both are deeply embedded in the story of Shinto and Buddhism in Japan.

Its tempting to view such works merely as foreign and exotic, but the show is organized in ways that make it possible to grasp universal meanings.

Hidden works revealed

One of the shows highlights is a roomful of shinzo, or carved sculptures of kami. Normally, such works are hidden within shrines.

As the show makes evident, its a rare privilege to be able to see them in an artistic context. Carved in Japanese cypress in postures of meditation, the kami sculptures radiate relaxed alertness and inner peace  attributes anyone can appreciate.

The shinzo room centers on a different kind of work altogether. Its a monumental 13th-century painted wood sculpture of the scowling Tenjin, the deified title of the nobleman Sugawara no Michizane. He was a great archer, poet and government minister who was slandered and exiled from the 10th-century court of Emperor Uda.

As Tenjin, his new sacred identity, Michizane was revered posthumously as the patron kami of poetry and learning.

Aspects of Tenjins life are related in beautiful painted scrolls located in a gallery the precedes the Shinzo room in the shows sequence. But in the big room, Tenjin appears to hold court as an angry warrior of truth, ready to defend his reputation as a poet and courtier. Such meanings are perfectly clear in the show.

The big Tenjin is one of 35 works on loan from Japan that are considered so rare and delicate that the must be swapped out and exchanged for others halfway through the run of the exhibition.

A show in two parts

Visitors who buy tickets for the first half of the show (April 9  May 19) can use those tickets for admission to the shows second rotation, beginning May 23 and ending June 30.

In a sense, the Shinto exhibition is a two-for-one experience and an invitation to visit more than once.

So if youre a Clevelander proud about the citys cultural clout, dont just pat yourself on the back, go see the show. And dont see it just once. Go twice and get the full deal. Its something no other art museum in America can match, at least for the next nine weeks.

REVIEW

Whats up: Shinto: Discovery of the Divine in Japanese Art

Venue: Cleveland Museum of Art

Where: 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland

When: First rotation of objects, through Sunday, May 19. Second rotation, from Thursday, May 23 through Sunday, June 30

Admission: $10 ticket includes admission to both rotations. Call 216-421-7340 or go to clevelandart.org.LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Burglary, Idlewood Avenue: Police responded at 9:46 p.m. April 11 to a home where the back door had been kicked in.

Theft, Winchester Avenue: Police responded at 3 p.m. April 11 to a home where the female resident said she had returned home to find an electrical cord running from her doorbell to the back door of a neighboring residence.

Carrying concealed weapons, Halstead Avenue: Officers at 10:14 p.m. April 11 arrested three male suspects on charges of carrying a concealed weapon.

Criminal damaging, Madison Avenue: Police at 1:39 a.m. April 10 arrested a man for criminal damaging and disorderly conduct while intoxicated after he was accused of punching and shattering the front door to an apartment building.

Theft, Edgewater Drive: An apartment resident called police April 10 to report his bicycle was stolen the previous night.

Robbery, Mars Avenue: A woman told police April 10 that she had invited two other women over to discuss an incident involving the three of them. The complainant said that when she refused to give the other women money, they jumped her and took her phone and money.

Theft, Lake Avenue: A condominium resident contacted police April 9 to report that about a week earlier, he had had a party at his home, and now he finds a ring is missing from his personal possessions.

Impaired driving, Clifton Avenue: Police at about 11 p.m. April 9 arrested a suspect for operating a vehicle while impaired while driving along Clifton Boulevard near Nicholson Avenue.

Theft, Edgewater Drive: An apartment resident called police April 8 to report that overnight, someone had stolen the catalytic converter off his vehicle.

Disorderly conduct, Detroit Avenue: Police arrested a suspect at about 8:35 p.m. April 5 for disorderly conduct. An apartment resident was upset that someone had parked in his parking spot, so he began banging on everyones door with a hammer, according to a police event report. Officers arrested the suspect for disorderly conduct while intoxicated.

If youd like to comment on this story, visit Saturdays crime and courts comments section.

Read more news from the Sun Post Herald here.MEDINA, Ohio -- Michael Marquard is a family man. While most successful businessmen leave their families in the mornings to go to work, Michael; his wife, Nancy; and their chocolate lab Ruby all leave home for the day together to join their two sons in the family real estate business.

Marquard is also a pillar of the community, with a strong commitment to leadership positions in the Medina City Schools Foundation, St. Pauls Episcopal Church, Bluecoats of Medina County and the Medina County Historical Society, among others.

Marquard was destined to become a Realtor from his birth in Rocky River -- his mom was a real estate broker and his fathers family had built the Marquard Mansion, a historically significant site on Warren Road in West Park.

Marquard attended Rocky River High School, where he met his future bride. They were best friends even before they began dating.

Shes my rock," he says.

After his high school graduation in 1972, he worked for a year running a mens clothing store, with four adult salesmen working for him. With the money he earned, he attended Broward College in Pompano Beach, Fla., graduating with a degree in marketing and business administration. He supplemented his income by cleaning banks at night.

During the summers, he returned to Ohio, where he worked for his mother -- a Realtor in Fairlawn. He sold his first house during an open house that he was hosting.

I knew at that time what I wanted to do with my life," he said.

He worked with his mother and stepfather in the late 1970s. He then joined Century 21 of Richfield as director of marketing from 1980-1986. He was assistant vice president and sales manager of Hunter Realty Inc. in Cleveland from 1986-1988. And he finished his corporate career with Prudential Real Estate Affiliates during the years 1988 to 1993.

In 1993, he decided that I wanted to see my kids. He had been traveling a great deal, so decided to start his own family-centered company here in Medina. He and Nancy had moved to town in 1981 and knew this was where they wanted to put down roots.

His first office was in his basement, where he had a desk, a phone and a hot water heater.

This brick house at 403 E. Washington St. in Medina, built in 1900, is now home to MC Real Estate. (Mary Jane Brewer, special to cleveland.com)

MC (Marquard Company) Real Estate moved to a number of other small offices until 2007, when he purchased the current building at 403 E. Washington St.

I wanted this building when we first came to town," he said. The lovely brick building was built in 1900. We brought it back to life.

The former private home has its original chandelier in the conference room, wide crown molding and baseboards throughout, and the original wood doors.

The company itself has continued to grow and now employs a staff of 40 people in Medina and Wadsworth, with a satellite office in Lodi. A true family business, son Matt is the CEO, son Brandon is president Nancy is the chief financial officer and Michael is now considered a partner and consultant.

Ruby, the chocolate lab, hangs out in the office and supervises.

The company is active in residential and commercial real estate, as well as serving as property managers for 300 homes and apartments for investors.

We take care of everything and we try to make everything look good for the community," Marquard said.

Marquard cant say enough good things about his staff: We have passionate people who work with us, not for us. Our people stay because we let them be successful.

On his desk is a plaque with a saying by Ben Franklin that reads, Well done is better than well said.

I live by this. I think you should put back into the community what you take out," Marquard said.

In 2003, Marquard worked with then Police Chief Dennis Hanwell to establish the Bluecoats of Medina County, an organization that provides financial assistance to the families of safety personnel who lose their lives in the line of duty. He then served as president of the Bluecoats until 2015. The group now has a large kitty in case of need.

Marquard has been active with the Medina Schools Foundation and was one of the organizers of the first annual Run for Fun, a major fundraiser for the foundation. He has also served on school levy committees.

A member of St. Pauls Episcopal Church since coming to town in 1981, Marquard has served on the vestry (church council) and taken care of elderly parishioners. He and Nancy are very involved with the churchs Free Farmers Market, and he was the chair of the recent church Bicentennial Committee and is now a member of the search committee looking to hire a new rector.

I love that church! Marquard said.

Now that his sons have taken over the management of the company, Marquard has even more time to serve his community.

Read more news from the Medina Sun here.With the Southern Runway revamp starting tomorrow at Dubai International Airport, Emirates has been working hard to implement measures to maximise operational efficiencies at DXB and deliver a seamless experience for its customers departing and transiting through Dubai, the airline said.

The Southern Runway Closure at Dubai International Airport will be taking place from April 16 to May 30.

"On Time Performance (OTP) is a key factor for smooth operations and a consistent customer experience on the ground and in the air, and is even more critical during the Southern Runway Closure with all flights at Dubai International utilising a single runway. One of Emirates key objectives during this period will be to reduce instances of flight delays and disruptions in Dubai and across its destination network. The airline is also placing substantial emphasis on communication to its customers through a number of channels, to keep them accurately informed of their flight's status," Emirates said in a statement.

Safeguarding Punctuality

Customers travelling during this period are encouraged to arrive to the airport early, and build in enough time to check in, pass through immigration and get to their gates. Customers are reminded to arrive to the airport at least three hours before their flight departures, and passengers can check-in as early as 24 hours ahead of their flights at the airport. Customers can also check-in online from 48 hours to 90 minutes ahead of their departure, it said.

Once customers have cleared check-in and immigration formalities, they are advised to make sure they get to their boarding gates on time. Gates open 90 minutes before departure for long-haul flights, and Emirates has extended the opening time at its gates for short-haul flights to 75 minutes (instead of 60 minutes) to provide ample time for customers to board their flights. For flights departing to the United States, gates open 120 minutes before departure. As always, gates close 20 minutes before departure and timings are strictly followed to ensure flights depart on schedule. These time checks have been put in place to ensure minimal delays during this period.

Joint Efforts

Meticulous planning has been going on for over 14 months, involving collaboration across functions ranging from Flight Operations, Emirates Airport Services, Emirates SkyCargo, Emirates Flight Catering, Service Delivery, Engineering, Commercial Operations and Planning, Contingency Response teams, dnata as well as with external stakeholders, to optimise operations, as well as build in operational flexibility and resilience to mitigate possible disruptions at every juncture.

Taking into consideration the latest flight schedules as well as benchmarking best practices from the Northern Runway closure project in 2014, operational initiatives during the Southern Runway closure period include: procedures for efficient, quick aircraft turnarounds; reducing vehicle movements on the ramp; efficient movement of Cabin and Flight Deck crews to the aircraft; faster transit passenger flow procedures, predictive aircraft maintenance, and prioritising operationally restricted flights, Emirates said.

The Southern Runway closure is happening during one of the quieter operational times of the year, and will be critical to increasing the long-term capacity of Dubai International Airport and maintaining the high-level service levels of the airline, especially ahead of Expo 2020 Dubai and the influx of visitors expected during that period, the statement said. - TradeArabia News ServiceBRUNSWICK, Ohio -- The Medina Sentinel of Oct. 19, 1924, carried this headline: Medina Symphony Orchestra to broadcast concert from Plain Dealer studio night of Oct. 29. It was a huge honor for the orchestra that had begun its life in 1913.

On the afternoon of May 5, the tradition continues. The historic Medina Symphony Orchestra will hold the first of its free annual concerts -- the veterans tribute concert -- at 3 p.m. in the auditorium of the Brunswick Recreation Center, 3637 Center Road.

Music director Shirley Ann Walker took the baton of the all-volunteer orchestra in 1993. Walker, who plays trumpet and clarinet, is in demand at venues around the area, often with her husband, Bruce C. Walker, a renowned pianist. He retired in 2010 and Shirley is retiring at the end of this school year as a music teacher in the Bedford City School District. She also substitutes with the Cleveland Womens Orchestra.

It was during one of those Womens Orchestra rehearsals that she met one of the soloists for May 5. Dan Hild is a cellist and opera/theater performer from Cleveland. Active in both theater pit orchestras and on stage since the early 1980s, he spent two of those decades as a principal baritone in the Cleveland Operas chorus company at Playhouse Square.

This is his first appearance with the Medina Symphony, where he will sing patriotic music, including Proud to Be an American.

Also featured are a violin virtuoso duo, Elicia and Stephen Reynolds, who are brother and sister.

At each concert, we play a variety of genres of music, from American classics to heavy-duty classical to show tunes. Every so often, we also like to perform concerts in which the music we play revolves around a central theme, Walker said.

Among the orchestral selections for the veterans concert are arrangements of An American in Paris and The Moldau, Titus Overture and movements from Mozarts 40th Symphony.

We do two concerts a year -- an annual Thanksgiving concert on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the veterans tribute concert on a date that works for everyone in May. We also have one rehearsal in the fall and one rehearsal in the spring where we rehearse our concert for Liberty One residents in Wadsworth," Walker said.

The Medina Symphony Orchestra is comprised of volunteer performers of all ages from all over Northeast Ohio. This orchestra provides an outlet for young and old to give the gift of music to the community, display their talents and further their musicianship skills. Being a symphony orchestra means that this organization accepts all instruments, from strings to percussion and everything in between.

Volunteers are not paid to play, nor are they required to audition for a seat, Walker explained.

The only requirements for playing with us are that players have at least an intermediate ability in the playing of their instrument, that players practice their music to play it to the best of their abilities, are willing to attend weekly rehearsals, have the ability to follow directions and work as a team with fellow musicians, and must read music," she said.

Orchestra members include, on violin: Concert Master John D. Ward, Susan Sinowetski, Assistant Concert Mistress Stephanie Booth, Janet Lamecker, Rebecca Matyas, Joyce Morton and Kathy Nagy.

On viola: Leon Vectirelis. On cello: Dean Gates, Barbara Grimm, Sherry Allen and Meredith Bush. On bass: Karl Herman.

On flute: Theresa Ritchie, Susan Rebholtz and Karen Rhinehart. On clarinet: Stephen Adamski and Ruby Parsons. On bassoon: Monica Lenox. On French horn: Sandi Tichon. On trombone: John Doucette. And on trumpet: Richard Lindemeyer.

You can find information about the orchestra on Facebook at facebook.com/HistoricMedinaSymphony/.

Read more news from the Brunswick Sun here. For more news from the Medina Sun, visit here.INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- City patrol officer Jim Martin has been recognized for his efforts in aiding the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force in apprehending several criminals.

At the April 9 City Council meeting, Task Force Commander Brian Fitzgibbon expressed his gratitude for the work that Martin had done.

Martin has been an Independence police officer for eight years and was assigned by Police Chief Michael Kilbane as a part-time special deputy U.S. marshal for the Violent Fugitive Task Force in 2016. Kilbane said he chose Martin because he has sound tactical skills and is a confident investigator.

In addition to his skills, Kilbane said Martins background was also a factor in his assignment to the task force. Before becoming a police officer, Martin served with the Marines from 2001-2005 and was deployed to Iraq. He has also been a member of the citys S.W.A.T. team for 10 years.

Martin said, It was an honor to be asked and I was eager to take the position.

The Violent Fugitive Task Force was created by U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott as a way for area police officers to work collaboratively to pursue, apprehend and prosecute fugitives with outstanding state and federal felony warrants across the Northern District of Ohio. The type of crimes this force investigagtes include drug trafficking, sex crimes, murder, felonious assault and homicide.

The Northern Ohio sector of the task force consists of officers from police departments throughout the state, as well as a few U.S. marshals. Martin works with approximately 20 other officers to patrol the Greater Cleveland area. Their job is to use their available resources to locate and take criminals into custody.

While their exact process for finding and apprehending criminals is classified information, Martin said they leave no stone unturned.

Police departments pass on any leads or information they may have to the task force. When we get a case, its everyones case, Martin said.

So far, he says the most intense case he has encountered was the recent arrest of homicide suspect Cronie Lloyd. Lloyd is accused of murdering an 83-year-old man at the Sunoco Gas Station on Rockside Road and was a registered sex offender. According to both Kilbane and Fitzgibbon, this was the first time there had been a homicide in Independence in many years.

After departments helped to collect evidence and identify the suspect, the task force was able to find Lloyd and bring him into custody within a matter of hours.

It was a relief to find him, and Im glad we got him into custody so quickly, Martin said.

In his presentation at the meeting, Fitzgibbon said, Since 2016, Jim and his team have worked nearly 50 violent fugitive investigations involving fugitives that committed crimes within the city of Independence or committed crimes in other areas and tried to hide in the city of Independence -- their mistake.

Martin believes his familiarity with the city has helped him prepare for his current role.

Kilbane says that while not often, occasionally criminals will attempt to hide in the city because of its many hotels.

Fitzgibbon went on to list the top 10 cases that Martin has helped to solve. These included crimes such as aggravated robbery, involuntary manslaughter,and human trafficking.

Fitzgibbon explained, The sooner that we can get violent fugitives off the street, the more likely we can prevent crimes from occurring as a result.

For his work, Martin was given a plaque dictating his outstanding service. Kilbane said the U.S. Marshals only honor a task force member maybe once or twice a year, choosing an officer who goes above and beyond.

(Martin) networks and gets skills he wouldnt get in our department. Then he brings that back and shares it with (our) officers, said Kilbane.

Martin said: It feels great to be honored, but you dont get into this line of work for the rewards. Its (just) the job.

Read more news from the Parma Sun Post here.CLEVELAND, Ohio  Musically speaking, John Petkovic is used to being the guy. Patrick Carney is used to being the other guy. Together, they become those guys in the new duo Sad Planets.

Petkovic, a Plain Dealer colleague (and friend, to be up front and ethical), is known for his bands Death of Samantha, Sweet Apple and Cobra Verde, plus his gigging with the cult favorite Guided By Voices. All have had what could be considered big-time success, locally and nationally. DOS is a local legend, even, having started in a Parma Ground Round, and Cobra Verde has made several of Rolling Stones top band lists.

Carney has been in other groups, but hes primarily known as the drummer for a duo that has become one of the biggest to come out of Northeast Ohio. A little thing called the Black Keys, featuring Carney on drums and Dan Auerbach on guitar and vocals.

Neither is leaving their main groups in the dust  Carney and Auerbach will launch a major Black Keys tour this fall that includes a stop at the newly renamed Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

"Akron, Ohio" is the first album from the duo of John Petkovic and Patrick Carney, two Akron-born musicians who've made their names with other bands. Carney is part of the Black Keys, with fellow Akron native Dan Auerbach, and Petkovic founded Death of Samantha and Cobra Verde.

But together, the two Akron-born musicians have come up with the new duo/side project Sad Planets, and on Friday, released their first album, appropriately enough called Akron, Ohio.

Its an unusual record, segueing between the styles of both principals in such a way as to create a unique sound that benefits from Petkovics haunting and sometimes eccentric vocals and Carneys drums, synthesizer and keyboards.

What, you didnt know Carney was more than a drummer? Oh, yes. MUCH more. Though he doesnt provide vocals  its not what he does  Carneys impact on this album is amazing, and helps turn it into the masterpiece that it is.

A reflection of the love both have for Akron  Petkovic was born there and Carney was born and raised in the Rubber City  it doesnt gloss over blemishes, but rather celebrates them. Not so much in a nostalgic way  the kickoff tune is an extended metaphor called Just Landed and talks about being in a place you know . . . but dont know.

Self-produced and distributed without major label help, itd be disingenuous to expect this Akron, Ohio to get much respect at Grammy time, and thats too bad. Its far superior to 99.999 percent of the commercial claptrap that will be featured next January. The writing, the instrumentation, the creativity, the imagery, everything about it is superior, made even better by what Petkovic described as its sloppiness. And that fits Akron, too. The city AND the album.

Maybe its our familiarity with the North Coast and Akron itself, but songs like Not of This World, City Ghosts, Bad Cells and Yesterday Girls seem to touch parts of a listener that havent felt a caress in decades, like a warm spring sun after a typically blustery Northeast Ohio winter.

And as parochial as you may find it  a strength, I think  its also different, reflecting the whims and quirks of its two creators, which is probably why it may not get the national support it deserves. The real world just doesnt get us, and thats OK with Petkovic and Carney. Theyre more focused getting themselves, anyway, and doing whatever it takes to do that.

Its interesting, said Petkovic in a telephone interview. Every project you start working on is a new project, and you always bring something back (to your other projects).

You have to try different things, he said. People see the collaborative approach can be constraining, but having collaborators forces you not to do what you want.

In that regard, you pick up things from other people and it forces you to think like them and forces growth, said Petkovic, who also has worked extensively with the Ohio group Guided By Voices. Collaboration is always more interesting.

Music is a very unique type of creative process, said Carney, in a separate interview during a call to his home in Nashville, where hes lived for the past 10 years or so. Its designed to be collaborative.

Every time you make a record with somebody new, you learn something and you grow as a musician in some way, he said.

Not that either is bailing.

My lifes work at this point is making music with Dan, Carney said. Thats what I do. But when I have time to do extra stuff, I do it.

Carney has known of Petkovic his whole life  he was born in 1980, three years before Death of Samantha made its legendary debut in the Parma Ground Round where Petkovic was working at the time.

Of course, they have different stories on how they met.

The weird thing is we met 20 years ago, said Petkovic. I was at the Akron Art Museum  I forgot what show it was. This guy came up to me and he looked vaguely familiar.

He said, Im Patrick,  Carney told him.  You recorded with my uncle, Ralph Carney. 

Ralph Carney, who died in 2017, was a multi-instrumentalists who was insanely brilliant, said Petkovic. He was in a band from Akron called Tin Huey, and he played with Tom Waits [and] helped define that sound with him.

Carneys version?

I first met John at a Cobra Verde show around 2001 or 2000, he said. He was friends with David Giffels, who was a writer for the Akron Beacon Journal at the time. My dad (Jim Carney) retired from the Beacon a couple of years ago.

So, when and where they met might be a topic for debate. But they share that admiration for Ralph Carney.

He was one of the most talented musicians Ive ever met, said Carney. Its hard to recognize that when someones your uncle.

But he was always this cool, sweet and very eccentric guy, similar in a lot of ways to John, he said. Ralph had been in some bands that played with Death of Samantha, and through him I became connected to a lot of weird music.

The friendship really blossomed about a dozen years ago, when the two spent time in the studio Carney had put together in Akron, before he moved to Nashville.

The stock market was collapsing, he said. We would talk about the gloom and doom of the economy and at the same time, wed make music and day-trade.

We both made a ton of cash day-trading during the apocalypse, he said with a laugh.

The album itself got going about three years ago.

(Carney) said, Want to come jam in Akron?  Petkovic said. I thought he was working on some project, but he said, OK, so what do you want to do? 

Here again, the two split on just how Akron, Ohio came to be. Carney said they finished songs Petkovic basically had already written. Petkovic said they started from scratch in that first session.

There was no order, said Petkovic.  City Ghosts was maybe the first thing we recorded. Every day, we would get together and bring up ideas. Wed start running a click track and . . . . start playing.

The beauty of it was that collaboration. Theyd record a song and Carney would bring his own thoughts to it, adding a keyboard here, a bass there, a synthesizer part to it, then J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr, whos part of Petkovics Sweet Apple project, who happened to be in town, added a few guitar licks to some cuts  all contributing to an album thats as unique as the city whose name it bears.

There was not a theme where I sat down and said, What would be the theme?  said Petkovic. The natural environment created the scene. . . . It was the idea of revising a place tangentially, in your memory more than in your present.

Everything you do is a mixture of experience and your memory of a place, he said. Youre always dislocated to an extent. People see that as a negative thing, but I see that as an interesting thing.

The Black Keys upcoming tour and Petkovics own busy schedule with The Plain Dealer and his bands mean a tour isnt right around the corner. But those guys expect to play out locally at some time.

Which should make this particular part of our sad planet just a little happier.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- I received a sternly worded note from the U.S. Postal Service this past week. I read it while watching Attorney General William Barr explain that the two-year Mueller investigation found no evidence that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.

The subject line of the postal service note read as follows:

Your mailbox has visitors. Please help evict these unwelcomed guests!!

The note then turned threatening:

Bird nest. Please remove. We do not want to interrupt your mail service due to this problem.

The note initially annoyed me. I felt as if I were unfairly asked to tamper with nature. However, I also understood my mail carriers concern. He believed that a nesting bird posed an active threat whenever he dropped off my mail. But, why should I be tasked with rendering an Avian family homeless and risk destroying a generation of unborn birds?

The drama started a little over a week ago when a small nest appeared on my front porch. The nest was not in my mailbox but constructed on a camera stand that is mounted about 9 feet off the surface of the porch. My new tenant is a Robin, and she is incubating two beautiful, blue eggs that rest in the nest. (I took a peek.)

I briefly thought about attempting to move the nest to a tree in the front yard. That would have been a disaster, not to mention a possible violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. I have been known to break stuff when moving humans into new homes. Besides, the bird chose my porch, not the tree. Nature is brilliant. There had to be a logical reason for her site selection.

Thats when I thought to call Larry, my next-door neighbor. Larry is one of the kindest men Ive ever met. Hes also a retired postman. I realized he would be the perfect person to collude with regarding my bird challenge. Not only would he know whether the alleged threat posed by my freeloading tenant was legitimate  he might also have a solution.

Yes, the potential threat is real. If you received a note, (our carrier) is obviously concerned, and you probably shouldnt dismiss those concerns, Larry said with a chuckle.

Why dont you just have the post office hold your mail for a few weeks until the birds hatch and move out on their own? That way, the birds can live in peace and (our carrier) isnt threatened by a worried mother.

It turns out my bird dilemma wasnt really a dilemma. It took all of 60 seconds to fill out a form requesting that the post office temporarily hold my mail for personal pick-up. The counter clerk who took the form told me that she appreciated a solution that did not involve evicting the birds.

Thursday afternoon, I waited on my mailman in the drive to inform him of the decision on the bird nest. He wouldnt need to deliver my mail for a few weeks until after the baby birds leave the nest. He smiled and nodded his head in agreement. He then offered me his experienced view on the hazards of some nesting birds.

The birds can be worse than dogs. With an aggressive dog, you can spray (mace) down at them and hopefully that will stop an attack. Birds are a different a story. They attack from the air. An angry bird is more terrifying than a dog.

People think its adorable when birds set up a nest on a porch or around their home. But, mother birds arent adorable when it comes to protecting their babies. Theyre scary. I know, said the veteran mail carrier.

Nature is a great teacher. A bird moved onto my porch, and a government agency told me to evict her. I couldnt bring myself to do it. Now, I cant take my eyes off of her. She serves to remind me that the beauty of colluding with life is far more important than the toxic politics gushing out of Washington, D.C., and relentlessly sprayed on the nation by cable news.

That said, Im sure the bird and her offspring will generously thank me in poop.

No problem.The Columbus Dispatch recently reported, citing a study by two environmental groups, that at least half the manure in the Maumee Rivers watershed comes from often sizable livestock farms that arent big enough to be required to obtain state permits. The Maumee is the largest watershed in the Great Lakes basin, and it sluices phosphorus-laden manure from these poorly regulated livestock farms directly into Lake Erie. There, the phosphorus feeds toxic algal blooms that threaten drinking water for millions.

Most of the Maumee watershed is in Ohio -- where only 14 percent of livestock operations have state permits, The Dispatch reported. Without an Ohio permit, there are no routine state inspections.

The study by the Environmental Working Group and Environmental Law & Policy Center used satellite and aerial photos and state permit figures to track unregulated livestock farms.

Among other findings was a 40 percent jump overall over the last 13 years in the number of hog, cattle and chicken farms in the Maumee watershed, which also reaches into Indiana and Michigan.

Ohios shamefully lax regulation of factory farms is something the state can and must change if its serious about preserving Lake Erie.

The Dispatch reported, for instance, that Ohio requires permits for farms with 700 or more mature dairy cows  but not for a farm with 699 cows.

But 699 dairy cows are capable of producing more than 52 tons of manure every day (based on a New York Times report from 2009 that a single, lactating Holstein cow on average produces 150 pounds of waste daily).

The phosphorus from manure that gets into the Maumee River and thence into Lake Erie promotes the growth of algae, which in turn can produce a toxin that poisons drinking water supplies. In 2014, an algal bloom in western Lake Erie contaminated public drinking water for hundreds of thousands in the Toledo area. That threat remains.

A solution is possible. Some of the $900 million that Gov. Mike DeWine, very much to his credit, wants to earmark for freshwater protection for Lake Erie and Ohios other freshwater sources should be used to bulk up Ohio regulation of farm runoff. It could also be used to provide aid to smaller farmers who want to limit -- or better yet, prevent -- runoff.

Many of Ohios farmers are dedicated stewards of land and water. Factory farms dont necessarily share those values. Thats why  absent tougher state policing  Ohio faces a critical challenge in keeping Lake Erie from becoming a farm-waste cesspool.

Last summer, due to agribusiness griping, legislative Republicans stymied a bid by then-Gov. John Kasich, a fellow Republican, to clean up parts of the Maumee basin. That must not happen again: The public interest in protecting Lake Erie must outweigh the demands of a special interest seemingly more inclined to exploit rather than conserve a resource that belongs to every Ohioan.

About our editorials: Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer -- the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional, editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.

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* Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the Follow option at the top of the comments, & look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com.Guest columnist Father Gary Chmura has been a priest for 41 years, serving as pastor at Our Lady of Peace Church for more than two decades.

One hundred years ago, the guns of World War I fell silent, the Armistice was signed , and boats full of war-weary soldiers made their way back home from the battlefields of Europe. Among them was a young infantry chaplain from Cleveland, the Rev. James Cummins.

After visiting his family, Father Cummins reported to Bishop Farrelly for a new assignment. The bishop directed him to found a new parish to serve the Catholics of the far-east side of Cleveland and the growing community of Shaker Heights. That parish --  born out of war -- - was and is Our Lady of Peace.

There were many parishes in the area established by and for particular nationality groups. Hungarians, Italians, Slovaks, African Americans, Germans and Irish all had their own churches; , but Father Cummins wanted this parish to be different.

When he gathered the first parishioners together for Mass in the billiard parlor at Luna Park, he told them that he had seen more than enough of people fighting each other because of the language they spoke or where they were born.

This parish was to be for all people, a community of believers where all were welcome and equal. In 2019, that doesnt sound all that remarkable. In 1919, it was beyond revolutionary.

For 100 years, the people of Our Lady of Peace have succeeded in keeping Father Cummins vision alive. Our parish today is one of, if not the most, diverse parish in the Diocese of Cleveland. On any given Sunday, you will meet parishioners of various European backgrounds, as well as parishioners from India, the Philippines and other Asian countries; African Americans and Africans; and Latin Americans.

At that same Mass, the wealthy and the poor kneel side by side to pray as true brothers and sisters. People of different orientations and differing faith backgrounds always are greeted with genuine affection.

But Our Lady of Peace, commonly known as OLP, is defined by more than its prayer. That prayer is what gives us the strength to serve as Jesus served. Each week, at least 40 families are fed from our food pantry, children are educated and formed in the faith, and the ill are visited in hospitals, nursing homes , and in their own homes.

The boys and girls in the Juvenile Justice Center are counseled and filled with cookies baked by parishioners. Refugees are welcomed and oriented to a new country by people who themselves are often recent immigrants.

Our partnership with EDWINS Restaurant helps formerly incarcerated men and women to rejoin society. A church and an infirmary in Africa were built by the prayers and generosity of this parish.

In September, Our Lady of Peace will begin a second century of life and faith and service. Certainly, we will celebrate all that God has accomplished through us. But, even more, with open hearts and minds, we look forward to where He will call and lead us in the years to come.

Wherever and whatever it may be, we have the memory of Father Cummins and the faithful strength of this community to lead and guide us.

You can help support OLPs mission by participating in the Run/Walk for Peace at 9:15 a.m. April 28. Register here.

Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts, and stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using Notification Settings (in blue) just below.

Readers are invited to submit Opinion page essays on topics of regional or general interest. Send your 500-word essay for consideration to Ann Norman at anorman@cleveland.com. Essays must include a brief bio and headshot of the writer. Essays rebutting todays topics are also welcome.Guest columnist Melissa Federman is the Treuhaft Chair for Health Planning at The Center for Community Solutions, a Cleveland-based nonpartisan nonprofit think tank. She oversees Community Solutions adolescent reproductive health projects and the Better Birth Control NEO initiative.

In 2018, 13,970 babies were born in Cuyahoga County -- fewer than in previous years. The data is preliminary, but surprising. The downward trend in the county birth rate -- or number of live births per 1,000 people in the population -- mirrors a national decrease, except that the county rate has been even lower in recent years than the state or national rates.

Even so, the 2018 number appears to be a distinct drop.

The decline can be partially explained by demographic shifts. Over the last few years, U.S. Census estimates show that there has been a slight annual decline, about a half-percent per year, in the population of women in Cuyahoga County ages 15 to 44. With fewer women of childbearing age, we can expect to see fewer births.

However, this decrease is not enough to explain the size of the decline over these same years, especially given that the abortion rate has also decreased. Population estimates for 2018 will be released later this year, and if trends continue, the 2018 birth rate will represent a new low.

The decline may also reflect public health efforts. Mothers and their infants have improved health outcomes when pregnancy is spaced at least 18 months after a prior birth. Education about birth spacing is a local priority among home visiting programs and in the First Year Cleveland infant mortality reduction initiative.

There have also been concerted efforts to increase the availability of the most effective methods of contraception to achieve safe birth spacing and reduce unplanned pregnancy. We know from the Ohio Pregnancy Assessment Survey data that these methods are being accessed and that the rate of unintended pregnancy is declining in Ohio.

Teen pregnancies are overwhelmingly unplanned and disrupt the educational goals of the mother. State and national rates of teen birth are declining, and the Ohio Department of Health reports that the county has experienced an extraordinary 23 percent reduction in teen births since 2012. This is a priority of the local Family and Children First Council and Cuyahoga County Board of Health.

The decrease could reflect increased teen access to effective contraception, as well as more teens abstaining from sex, which is supported by data from our local Youth Risk Behavior Survey project.

Nationally, the state of the economy is often correlated with birth rates, and Ohio has not fully recovered from the recessions of the early 2000s. Paid maternity leave is not required of local employers, and preschool fees in the county are upward of $7,900 to $11,000 per year.

Although graduation rates are steadily increasing, according to latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the highest percentage of adults living in poverty in Cuyahoga County in the last 12 months was among women ages 18 to 24, followed by women ages 25 to 34 and 35 to 44. These are all women in their childbearing years, and the expense of raising a child coupled with the protracted lack of resources among these demographic groups could also play a role in the declining birth numbers.

When considering a reproductive justice framework -- which supports women having children if and when they are ready, in safe and sustainable communities -- the decline in births may reflect more than improved access to preconception health services or high rates of poverty. It could also expose the realities that many local women face: unsafe and often violent neighborhoods or relationships, as reported in domestic violence data sets from the Ohio attorney general.

Local women choosing the number and spacing of their children based on their family, professional and lifestyle goals should be our collective priority, as opposed to lower birth rates as a reflection of an unsupportive environment for families.

Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts, and stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using Notification Settings (in blue) just below.

Readers are invited to submit Opinion page essays on topics of regional or general interest. Send your 500-word essay for consideration to Ann Norman at anorman@cleveland.com. Essays must include a brief bio and headshot of the writer. Essays rebutting todays topics are also welcome.DES MOINES, Iowa  If Tim Ryan wants to be president, he needs a moment. Or two. Or three.

If his weekend trip to Iowa is any indication, finding that moment might be a problem.

The Youngstown-area congressman recently launched what seems like a quixotic bid for the presidency. He enters a crowded Democratic field that has plenty of heavyweights whove seemingly been campaigning for the chance to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in 2020 for the better part of three years.

Ryan is not in that category. Hes mostly known as the guy who challenged then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi  unsuccessfully  for Democratic leader following the 2016 election. A few voters recognized him from some national media appearances.

The problem is only a few showed up.

Yeah, Im the dark horse. But I have a plan, Ryan told cleveland.com during his trip. I am placing a bet that my message will resonate with people and that theyll feel like I understand what theyre going through.

Ryan is relying on having that one moment that catapults him into the upper tier of the Democratic primary. Hes hoping that his story  the congressman from the Mahoning Valley whos part economic warrior, part New Age quasi-guru  will connect with voters in Iowa facing the same struggles.

More than one. I need more than one, Ryan said. But yeah, a moment or two.

Judging by his Easter weekend jaunt to Iowa, he has plenty of work to do.

Compared to the crowds who showed up for fellow Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown during his flirtation with presidential politics, Ryans audiences were small and quaint. At a brewery in Burlington, 15 people showed up. A sandwich shop in Fort Madison and a restaurant in Mount Pleasant had even smaller crowds. Most of the people were white and easily older than 50.

Even compared to the other candidates running, many of Ryans events were hardly a draw. Just days before Ryans Friday visit to Bent River Brewing Company in Burlington, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard pulled in 30 attendees at a nearby coffee shop.

When Beto ORourke, the former Texas congressman, made a March visit to the Sub Arena sandwich shop in Fort Madison, about 80 people came to see the presidential contender.

Around 10 came to see Ryan on Friday.

Most of the events at Rep. Tim Ryan's events during a recent visit to Iowa were sparsely populated, such as this one in Fort Madison.

Luckily for Ryan, those who showed up were both curious and sincere in wanting to know more about him. The questions were almost always on substantive topics  health care, the economy and immigration, to name a few  and hardly anyone reacted with cynicism at the thought of a congressman with a relatively low profile mounting a presidential campaign.

And many of the people who did hear him said they felt a connection. Plus, when the main goal is beating Trump, they said they were willing to give anyone a chance.

One of Ryans first events was Friday in Burlington, a once-bustling river community thats suffered a similar fate to the Mahoning Valley, with factories opting to shift production overseas.

At the noontime meet-and-greet, Tom Courtney, a former state senator who surprisingly lost re-election in a once reliably Democratic district, said during his introduction of Ryan that he shouldnt be dejected by the small crowd.

The first group I ever went to with Jimmy Carter, there were four of us, Courtney said. He went on that same cycle to become president.

A small crowd showed up in Burlington to see Rep. Tim Ryan, a Youngstown-area Democrat running for president, during a recent visit to Iowa.

And Ryan did make a connection with at least one voter.

We try to see all the candidates that are coming so we can make a more educated choice when we vote, said Kathy Christy, a 70-year-old retired UAW member from West Burlington. Honestly, he has spoken to me more than anybody else so far.

At a meet-and-greet later that night at Jerrys Restaurant in Mount Pleasant, about a dozen people were fairly engaged, asking a range of questions about the typical topics, but also delving into subjects like genetically modified organisms and even transcendental meditation as a public wellness program.

There were positives for Ryan, too. A house party in Fairfield yielded one of his largest gatherings, with around 30 people cramming into the home of Debi and Stan Plum. A similar event with ORourke in March attracted about 50.

If any place in Iowa could serve as a base of support for Ryan, its Fairfield. The town of 10,000 is almost perfectly tailored for Ryan, composed of farmers and followers of transcendental meditation bolstered by the Maharishi University of Management. Ryan, himself a practitioner of various meditation techniques, spoke at the universitys graduation ceremony in 2017.

Fairfield, Iowa, provided one of the best crowds for Rep. Tim Ryan during his recent presidential campaign visit to the state.

Holly Moore, a 65-year-old folk artist originally from south of Pittsburgh, was easily Ryans most vocal fan at any of the five events cleveland.com attended. She still has family in Ryans district and said she was very familiar with him.

When Ryan walked up to the house, Moore introduced herself as the woman from social media whos been goading him to run.

I want his message in this race, she said to cleveland.com Im hoping other candidates learn from him.  Were hearing all the candidates and hes the only one whos solidly tying it back to jobs and job creation.

Jon Meyer, a 17-year-old high school senior from Urbandale, said after speaking with Ryan directly at a Polk County Young Democrats campaign fair at a park in West Des Moines, he was sold.

I think he was amazing, Meyer said. Ive been a Bernie supporter for a while and then Cory Booker spoke to me. But Tim, he really got to me. I really feel like Im going to support him and vote for him in 2020.

Asked what he knew about Ryan before meeting him, Meyer said, I heard that he makes intense eye contact and moves his hands a lot. Thats probably the one thing.

Its moments like these, combined with a viral moment or two, that Ryan said he was hoping to turn into a full-fledged run at the White House.

I just need enough money to keep going and having these moments, Ryan said. The money is going to come because I think I have the message thats really going to resonate with these people.

But for as many positive signs as there were for Ryan, there were just as many  if not more  that would draw skepticism.

While the Democrats who came out to see him mostly said they were somewhat familiar with him, there simply werent very many. One woman in Fort Madison referred to him as Mike Ryan after meeting him.

And until the money Ryan is hoping for comes in, he is running a budget campaign.

With less than $70,000 in his congressional campaign account as of the most recent filing, he has no real campaign manager. He had no advance team  the group tasked with organizing a candidates planned stops  during his entire Iowa visit.

Finding top staff at all in the early states will likely prove difficult anyway since most of the higher-profile candidates have already swooped up the top talent. One of his top aides is his nephew, who said hed never worked in politics before.

Tim Ryan, a Youngstown-area Democrat running for president, takes a selfie with Iowa voters.

Spreading his message without funds or staff will be a monumental task. One person at his Fort Madison stop only found out a candidate was coming because of the sub shops Facebook page.

The event in West Des Moines was essentially a candidate fair, with literature and swag from nearly every candidate, including some of the lesser-knowns like Marianne Williamson and John Delaney. Ryan, who spoke for about 10 minutes to the crowd, was one of the only candidates without a table.

Ellie Miglin, 17-year-old high school junior from Des Moines, was unmoved by Ryans speech in West Des Moines, feeling he sounded like a generic Democrat.

One part particularly stuck with Miglin. After Ryan climbed on top of a picnic table seat, he told the group of young voters  invaluable to candidates as a volunteer base  that America needed seven Sputnik moments all at the same time  a reference to the Soviet Unions successful launch of the first satellite into space in 1957 that launched the Space Race to the moon.

I didnt like when going to a youth event he talks about the Sputnik moment, said Miglin, who added she was leaning toward supporting New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Things like that happened in other generations. Not mine. If youre going to a youth event, you shouldnt talk about things youth cant connect to.

Tim Ryan speaks to a crowd of Iowa voters in West Des Moines.

And for a candidate looking for a moment to launch his campaign, Ryans most notable moment when he challenged Pelosi irked Mary Horsman, a 58-year-old health care worker from Des Moines.

However, Horsman said there was one Ohioan she wished she couldve voted for: Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Im so bummed hes not running, she said. He wouldve been my number one. He wouldve rocked it.

Ryan said he recognized the challenges of running for the Oval Office from the House of Representatives. No candidate has successfully done so since James A. Garfield in 1880. Ryan liked to joke on the trail that Garfield was also an Ohioan, so theres precedent.

If things work out, its going to make for a great story, he said.Radisson Hotel Group is adding a new location for the Park Inn by Radisson portfolio with the signing of Park Inn by Radisson Tashkent City Hotel & Apartments in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.



The newly built hotel and apartment project is due to open in 2021 in the capital of Uzbekistan.



Elie Younes, executive vice president and chief development officer, Radisson Hotel Group, said: Were excited to bring the Park Inn by Radisson brand to Uzbekistan, a country where tourism is growing rapidly. In 2018, Uzbekistan welcomed five million tourists  with Tashkent being a popular choice among travellers as the countrys most cosmopolitan city. Were delighted to be bringing a new brand to such a vibrant region and offering this market something fresh and exciting.



The partner of this project is Lotus Gas Invest, the owner of the brand Real House, one of the leading construction companies in Tashkent.



The new-build Hotel & Serviced Apartment project, due to open in 2021, will consist of 300 rooms  including 50 serviced apartments, a conference hall, five meeting rooms, a gym, an all-day dining restaurant, a lobby lounge/bar and a Sky Bar.



Park Inn by Radisson is an upper midscale hotel brand that delivers stress-free experiences, good food and upbeat environments. This will be 24th Park Inn by Radisson Hotel across the Russia & CIS region, bringing the portfolio to 6,194 rooms  keeping the brand as the largest midscale brand in the region.



The hotel will be located in Tashkent City  the largest and the most ambitious real estate project in Uzbekistan. It will have a prime city centre location and is part of the large-scale development called Tashkent City, consisting of business centres, congress halls, shopping and leisure complexes and residential districts due to be completed by Q4 2021.



Tashkent is the most visited city in Uzbekistan followed by the ancient cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. It is the cultural and political centre of the country, rich in museums and Soviet-era monuments.



The hotel will have easy access to the historical city centre and will be located only 6km from International Airport (TAS) named after Islam Karimov and 4km from Tashkent main train station. - TradeArabia News ServiceRudy Giuliani, attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives for the White House Sports and Fitness Day event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, May 30, 2018.

Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday that there's 'nothing wrong' with taking information from Russians, after the Mueller report laid out extensive ties between the Trump campaign and Russians during the 2016 election campaign.

The president's lawyer told CNN's Jake Tapper, "any candidate in the world would take information," even as Tapper noted the information came from a "hostile foreign source."

The comments came as Giuliani slammed a statement made by Sen. Mitt Romney criticizing Trump after a redacted version of the 448-page Mueller report was released on Thursday. The report found that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election but it could not conclude that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. On obstruction it did not find the president guilty, but it also did not "exonerate" him.

Romney's statement read in part: "I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia  including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement; and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting Russian interests in Ukraine."

Romney Tweet

The statement referred to the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Trump campaign officials including Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort agreed to sit down with Russians offering dirt on their Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Giuliani called Romney a hypocrite. "Stop the bull. Stop this pious act that you weren't trying to dig up dirt on people," Giuliani said of Romney, who ran for president in 2012 against Barack Obama. Giuliani noted that he had run in the Republican primary against Romney.

He added, "Who says it's even illegal" to get opposition research from foreigners, though he said he would have advised against it and "probably" would not have done it himself.

The Romney statement didn't sit well with the president either. He pinned a tweet mocking the Utah senator to his own Twitter feed.

"If @MittRomney spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)!" it said.

TweetHouse Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) look on during a press conference to discuss the American Dream and Promise Act at the Tenement Museum, March 20, 2019 in New York City.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Sunday that evidence of obstruction by President Donald Trump laid out in the Mueller report would be impeachable if proven.

"If proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes," Nadler said on Meet the Press. "Obstruction of justice if proven would be impeachable."



However, Nadler said House Democrats have not opened an impeachment inquiry. The judiciary chairman's comments come on the heels of the release of a redacted version of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether or not the Trump campaign conspired with the Kremlin.

Mueller documented extensive ties between Russians and Trump campaign officials, but concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to establish a conspiracy.

On obstruction, Mueller pointedly declined to exonerate Trump, laying out several instances in which the president sought to curtail the Russia investigation.

Several leading Democrats have called for impeachment proceedings against the president in the wake of the Mueller report. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 presidential candidate, on Friday called on Congress to begin the process of removing Trump from office through impeachment proceedings.

Warren Tweet



But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, prior to the release of the Mueller report, had stated that she opposes impeachment due to Republican control of the Senate and over concerns that it would only further divide the country.

Passengers in O'Hare International Airport, Chicago. Kamil Krzaczynski | Reuters

It's one thing to leave your heart in San Francisco, but leaving a family heirloom, an engagement ring or your lucky bowling ball at San Francisco International  or any  airport will have you singing a different song. Sleepy, rushed and distracted travelers leave thousands of objects at airport security checkpoints and in the terminals all the time. Cellphones, laptops, neck pillows and books are among the most common forgotten items, but some truly odd and valuable treasures also get left behind. Last month, the pilot of a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight heading to Kuala Lumpur from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia requested permission to return to the gate after a mother realized she'd left her baby behind in the boarding gate area. "Ok, head back to the gate. This is totally a new one for us," an air traffic control operator tells the pilot in an audio recording that went viral on YouTube. Last week authorities at Alaska's Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) turned to social media seeking help in identifying the owner of a plastic bag containing human ashes that was left at a security checkpoint back in August. "We believe the traveler left the TSA Screening Checkpoint with an urn, box, or bag, without realizing the ashes were still at the Screening Point," the ANC Police and Fire department said in its Facebook post. Here are some other surprising items passengers have left behind at airports around the country.

Picture perfect

Wedding photo Source: Los Angeles World Airports

About 1,000 items a day end up in the 5,000-square-foot warehouse managed by the lost and found department at Los Angeles International Airport. Along with the electronics, jewelry and photo IDs, LAX police found a still unclaimed script for the yet-to-air season premiere of a popular TV show that ended the previous season with a cliffhanger. (And no, LAX officials won't reveal the show, nor the plot.) Most airports keep found inventory for 30, 60 or 90 days before discarding, donating or auctioning the items. But a few years back, airport police at LAX could not bring themselves to discard a wedding photo album found locked in a briefcase along with a mirror, a tablecloth and matching napkins. A Facebook campaign eventually helped identify the couple, who hadn't even realized the album was missing.

Questions about a quilt

Quilt Source: Salt Lake City International Airport

Last May, a floral box with a handmade quilt inside and a card reading "Charlene and Lark" was found at the Salt Lake City International Airport. "It was obvious that a lot of time and effort went in to making the quilt. So we held on to it, even though our policy is to donate items after 30 days," said Brett Christensen, customer service supervisor at SLC Airport. After seven months, Facebook led the lost and found team to the photographer for Charlene and Lark's wedding, who shared a contact for Charlene. The quilt was intended to be a wedding gift. Lark had left it behind after attending the funeral of his aunt, the quilt maker. But Charlene ignored emails and calls about the quilt because she never knew it existed. So, the quilt sat on the lost and found shelves unclaimed for seven months, while we continued to try and locate the owner, said Christensen. "Thankfully, she eventually came around and called back," said Christensen.

Serial numbers and skunks

Tom Brakefield | Getty Images

Airport teams often use investigative skills and, sometimes, compassion, in finding a lost item its home. Earlier this year, the lost and found staff at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport was able to reunite a St. Louis passenger with a valuable and sentimental piece of jewelry after calling Cartier customer service with the serial number on a found bracelet. And, after an airline refused to let a passenger at Nashville International Airport take his pet skunk on board or check it as baggage, customer service supervisor Chris Patterson agreed to look after Pepe the skunk for a few days. "After a week, I realized that Pepe's owner would not be coming back for him, and I was fine with that decision," said Patterson, who adopted Pepe and later found him a home in a zoo.

Keeping an eye on lost items

Glass Eye Source: Portland International Airport

After a Central Oregon festival celebrating the August 2017 eclipse, the lost and found in Redmond Municipal Airport (RDM) was overflowing with everything from camping gear and hula hoops to drugs and psychedelic paraphernalia. Water bottles, neck pillows and sunglasses are the usual fare, said RDM spokeswoman Erinn Shaw, "but we also once had a live chicken." Portland International Airport also reports a wide range of odd left-behind items, including a 9-pound zucchini and a glass eye. "The zucchini is long gone," said PDX spokeswoman Kama Simonds, "but the glass eye has been in the lost and found for a few years."

TSA's favorites

Masks Lisa Farbstein | TSAMarriott's Aloft hotel brand has opened a new 191-room hotel in Shanghai, making it the first Aloft hotel in the Chinese city.



Owned by Shanghai Tech University Hotel Management Limited, Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel is the first international hotel located in the central area of Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park Pudong. Ideally situated within a prime hub for innovation and technology businesses, the hotel is also located within a short drive from the New International Expo Center and Shanghai Disney Resort among other attractions.



The hotel embodies the brands different by design philosophy, which is noted for its open, social spaces that connect next generation travellers. It has 191 modern and stylish guestrooms featuring high ceilings and is equipped with keyless mobile check-in system which enables guests to utilise their mobile phones as room keys. The design-forward guestrooms, flexible for both work and play, feature the latest technology and the brands signature offerings, such as the ultra-comfortable plush bed, walk-in shower, custom amenities by Bliss Spa, fast & free wi-fi and 43-inch LCD TV.



Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel is also home to a variety of dining and social spaces. The hotels signature restaurant, Nook, serves all-day dining ranging from breakfast buffet to a la carte dishes for lunch and dinner. The restaurant can accommodate 100 guests, and also has three private dining rooms. Re:fuel by Aloft serves up Alofts signature 24/7 grab-and-go options ranging from light meals, snacks for every craving, healthy selections, beverages and more. The WXYZ Bar is a vibrant bar offering signature cocktails and light bites, which doubles as a live music venue as well for the brands iconic Live at Aloft Hotels programs. During the day, the W XYZ Bar transforms into a social space where guests and locals can hang out or catch up on work. Guests can also enjoy a good workout at the well-equipped 24/7 Re:charge fitness centre.



Were excited to debut the Aloft Hotels brand in Shanghai, bringing the next generation of travellers to an up-and-coming tech and innovation hub in the city. The new Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel will become Shanghais newest social hub, where creative self-expressers can meet and mingle in a casual, friendly environment over cocktails at the W XYZ bar, said Mike Fulkerson, vice president, Brand & Marketing, Asia-Pacific, Marriott International. Whats more, travellers and locals alike will be able to see emerging local bands at the Live at Aloft evenings held regularly at the hotel.



Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel also features seven on-site Tactic meeting rooms that are equipped with state-of-the-art AV equipment and fast and free wi-fi. The 890-sq-m function spaces are ideal for staging events of various scales and formats.



Our entire team is proud to be part of the first Aloft hotel in Shanghai and the first international hotel in Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park Pudong. Our hotel will definitely allow value-conscious travellers in pursuit of a smart travel experience to stay connected, network, and relax in style, said Andy Shen, general manager of Aloft Shanghai Zhangjiang Haike Hotel.



The hotel is conveniently located 25 kilometres away from Shanghai Pudong International Airport and close to nearby attractions, within a short walking distance from Chamtime Square, Greenland Being Fun Plaza and ZhongKe Road Station of Metro 13. - TradeArabia News ServiceSecretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that several U.S. citizens were among those killed in a string of attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on the Easter holiday, blaming "radical terrorists" for the devastating blasts.



"The U.S. Embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families," Pompeo said.



More than 200 people were killed and 450 injured in a series of bomb blasts that hit churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Some of the attacks were suicide bombs, authorities said.

"Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security," Pompeo said.



Sri Lankan security forces arrested seven people in a raid on a house in the capital hours after the attacks. Three police officers died in the raid.



Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks.



British, Danish, Turkish, Dutch, Indian and Chinese nationals were also killed in the attacks.

"We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they confront violent extremism and have offered our assistance as they work to bring the perpetrators to justice," Pompeo said.



President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the people of Sri Lanka and said the U.S. stands ready to help.

Here is the full statement from Pompeo:

The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter morning. Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security. The United States offers our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and wishes a quick recovery to all who were injured. While many details of the attacks are still emerging, we can confirm that several U.S. citizens were among those killed. The U.S. Embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families. These vile attacks are a stark reminder of why the United States remains resolved in our fight to defeat terrorism. We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they confront violent extremism and have offered our assistance as they work to bring the perpetrators to justice.

-- Reuters contributed to this reportPincer movement on May as the Commons prepares to return. This week, the 22 Executive will mull changing the no confidence rules. 65 constituency chairmen to demand that she goes. Seventy per cent of MPs want her to resign.

Juncker claims turmoil after Brexit will be the UKs fault  Sunday Telegraph

Fox: the UK will return 50 angry and disruptive MEPS if we have euro-elections  Sunday Telegraph

Rudd and One Nation Group urge business leaders to join the Conservatives  Sunday Times

Ebac founder calls for Redwood to take over  Sunday Express

Anti-HS2 polling suggests that leadership candidates should scrap the scheme  Sunday Telegraph

Pro-HS2 campaign says that leadership contenders should keep the scheme  Observer

The winner will junk it  Liam Halligan, Sunday Telegraph

Ingham v Clarke on Thatcher and Europe  Mail on Sunday

Theresa May will be told this week that she must step down as prime minister by the end of June or her MPs will change the Tory party leadership rules to force her out. Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the back-bench 1922 committee, is set to visit May to tell her that 70% of her MPs now want her to resign for botching Brexit and presiding over a collapse in Tory support. MPs on the executive of the committee will meet on Tuesday to decide whether to tear up the rules to allow a new vote of no confidence in May before December. Insiders say swing voters are leaning towards changing the rules unless she agrees to go by June 30.  Sunday Times

> Yesterday:

Poll: two in five Conservative councillors will vote for the Brexit Party

The exclusive Mail on Sunday survey shows that an astonishing 40 per cent of Conservative councillors are planning to vote for Nigel Farages new Brexit Party in Mays European elections, in protest at the Prime Ministers failure to conclude the UKs exit from the EU. Three-quarters of her own councillors want Mrs May to resign  and an overwhelming 96 per cent believe that the Tory Party has been damaged by the impasse. Conservative MPs preparing to return to the Commons after the Easter break have been shaken by the strength of feeling in their local associations over Mrs Mays leadership, after she agreed to delay Brexit until the end of October if she cannot strike a deal.  Mail on Sunday

Quotes from councillors: The Conservative Party has become a joke on the doorstep  Mail on Sunday

> Today: ToryDiary: Our survey. Three out of five Party members will vote for the Brexit Party in European elections.

Farage: first, Ill squeeze Labour. Next, devour the Conservatives.

Brexit Party gains 1.5 million in five days from 60,00 new supporters  Sun on Sunday

Farage Nottingham rally  Sunday Express

Annunziata Rees Mogg as Cersei Lannister  Observer

Tice, Longworth and others standing for the Brexit Party  Mail on Sunday

John Gray: The Conservatives risk the decimation of the voluntary party

His main focus in these elections, he says, will be a northern attack on Labours leave-voting heartlands. My view, which I came to today, having been out for lunch for the first time this week, is that Conservative voters that are going to switch to the Brexit Party will effectively make up their own minds on this. My real challenge here is not the Conservatives. Its that there are about 5m people who voted [Jeremy] Corbyn in 2017 and voted Brexit the year before, and I think thats where I need to be.  Sunday Times

Many  mostly but not entirely Leavers  say they will never vote again. But it is not just voters who are fleeing the established parties. Especially among Tories, once-loyal foot-soldiers in the constituencies are deserting the party. Activists who tramp the streets pushing fliers through doors are decamping  chiefly to Farage. A General Election could find the Conservatives without much of a constituency infrastructure left. The clear risk is that people will turn to extremes to vent their anger and disgust against those who pretend to govern them.  Mail on Sunday

Watson doubles down on Labours pro-Remain policy: he repeats his support for a second referendum

In an extraordinary intervention that exposes the tensions at the top of the party over Brexit strategy, Tom Watson warns that Labour will lose to Farages new far right Brexit party in Mays European elections if it continues to give the impression that we half agree with him. Writing in todays Observer, Jeremy Corbyns deputy argues that Labour needs to give much clearer and more enthusiastic backing to another referendum and also spell out a positive, radical vision of how a Labour government could advance socialist values by working with other centre-left parties inside the European Union.  Observer

> Yesterday: ToryDiary  Opposition to Mays talks with Corbyn is as emphatic as ever. Our survey.

Change UK to unveil candidates this week

The partys interim leader, the former Tory MP Heidi Allen, who yesterday challenged other leaders to a TV debate, claimed that the exodus from established parties showed Change UK was now the natural home of the Remain Alliance and of people who wanted a second referendum. The party said that, of 3,700 people who had applied to stand under the Change UK banner in the 23 May poll, 895 were former Labour activists, 105 were ex-Liberal Democrats and 92 ex-Greens. Dozens of other applicants had been active in the Tory party, including former MPs. Of the Labour defectors, 32 were either former MPs, or had previously been parliamentary or council candidates.  Observer

Treasurer of Change UK and controversial tax avoidance scheme  Sunday Times

Sturgeon running scared of independence  Scotsman

Leadership Contender 1) Javid: my plan to stop crime

Labours pledge to abolish SATs tests. Imagine if the government announced that it was going to ban dental exams or stop opticians measuring our eyesight. People would be rightly horrified.  Damian Hinds, Sunday Telegraph

Gauke: we have new heat-seeking gear to track down criminals mobile phones  Sun on Sunday

But we also need immediate action to bring rising violence under control. Ive listened to police about the tools, powers and resources they need to fight this menace. Thats why were increasing police funding by over a billion pounds this year, including from council tax and our new serious violence fund. The 100 million for serious violence will help tackle crime in hot spot areas that are worst affected. Police asked for increased stop and search powers  we gave it to them. And our Offensive Weapons Bill will arm police with more powers to stop knife crime. I have no doubt these measures will help rid our streets of even more weapons and save lives.  Sunday Express

> Today: Victoria Borwick on Comment  We must invest in the next generation to cut knife crime

Leadership Contender 2) Hunt warns over persecution of Christians

In his article, Mr Hunt warns that many Christians around the world will today worship in fear of persecution. He says: The world was rightly shocked by the flames destroying Notre-Dame in Paris in too many parts of the world, however, it is the congregations themselves who perish. It follows the high-profile cases of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who faced death threats after being acquitted of blasphemy in Pakistan.  Mail on Sunday

Over 150 murdered as terrorists target churches and hotels in Sri Lanka  Sunday Telegraph

Notre Dame was a tragedy. But in too many parts of the world its the Christian congregation that perishes  Jeremy Hunt, Mail on Sunday

We can all find hope at Easter, says May  Sunday Times

Trump visit details  Mail on Sunday

Protests in London: Police fail to clear demonstrators

For the avoidance of any misunderstanding: Robin Boardman-Pattison and Rupert Read are real members of Extinction Rebellion, and not actors. Unlike Emma Thompson.  Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times

Khan tried to get Crossrail repayment holiday to avoid breaking manifesto tube fares pledge  Sunday Telegraph

Protests in Paris: as police deploy baton charges, water cannon, and tear gas

The head of the Metropolitan police, Cressida Dick, has urged Extinction Rebellion activists to protest lawfully as officers continued a large-scale operation to clear environmental campaigners from sites at Oxford Circus and Waterloo Bridge in central London. With more than 1,500 officers now on duty at the protests, Dick has asked demonstrators to move to an officially designated site in Marble Arch or go home. Later on Saturday, hundreds of police officers were clearing activists from a blockade on Waterloo Bridge, where protesters have been since the Extinction Rebellion disruption campaign started five days ago.  Observer

As worshippers gathered last night for the Easter Vigil at nearby St Sulpice, standing in for the stricken cathedral, elsewhere in the city protesters clad in yellow vests set fire to cars, motorbikes and litter bins and threw stones at riot police, who responded with baton charges, water cannon and tear gas. Police said 6,700 people in the capital joined the protest, held for the 23rd consecutive Saturday since the gilets jaunes movement was launched last November to oppose planned rises in the tax on fuel. By early evening, 227 people had been arrested, 163 of them detained.  Sunday Times

Daniel Hannan: How Easter transforms magic into morals

We, separated from the sanguinary rites of our ancestors by long centuries of Christian ethics, can barely imagine the impact that must have been made when our remote fathers first heard the Easter message. Here was the utterly revolutionary idea that there was no more need for sacrifices, because a single sacrifice had already taken place, so colossal and so total that it ransomed humanity forever and made further physical offerings redundantYou dont need to be a believer to recognise the significance of the Easter message. The paschal story defines the values of modern societies, almost regardless of whether the people in those societies consider themselves Christians. In the last analysis, the events we commemorate today mark the replacement of a magical universe with a moral one.  Sunday TelegraphTry another site

At the origin of the Internet links were basically a signal of "likes". In a way, so likes, tweets and shares have now the natural explicit meaning of links. CoolSocial is an analyzer you can use to improve your site social media impact. You can also check for your competitors.100%

Website google-proxy.net uses latest and advanced technologies like: Boostrap. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 48401 bytes (47.27 kb uncompressed) and 9505 bytes (9.28 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-07-23, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.93%

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-11-03, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.In recognition of its outstanding maintenance services provided to KLM flights transiting at Muscat International Airport, Oman Airs Engineering & Maintenance Division was awarded a Certificate of Recognition by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.



The award was received by Oman Airs executive vice president Engineering and Maintenance, Engineer Ali Redha Mohammed Al Lawatiya.



The Engineering and Maintenance division attained the highest quality of service in terms of timely defect rectification and departure punctuality, for KLM aircraft flying from Muscat International Airport. These achievements attest the technical capabilities of Oman Airs Engineering teams in meeting customers expectations.



Engineer Al Lawatiya said: I am delighted to accept this commemoration on behalf of Oman Airs hardworking Engineering and Maintenance team. We are a dedicated unit, our goal is to respond to engineering issues in the quickest and most efficient way possible. This recent recognition from KLM is further acknowledgement of Oman Airs strong position in the airline industry. We are fully committed to delivering the best possible services and to ensure the quality of engineering & maintenance services are always maintained for Oman Air and customer aircraft.



Oman Air Engineering & Maintenance works around the clock to provide services to its own fleet and third party aircraft, with routine maintenance inspections including 'A' checks, minor aircraft repair/modification and aircraft component replacements.



Apart from KLM, Oman Air Engineering has also extended its technical capabilities for handling British Airways B787, Qatar Airways Airbus 350 and SriLankan airlines A320 neo aircraft types.



With the additional capabilities added to the existing operation, Oman Air Engineering is committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety and an honourable audit status which was evident with the performed audits by EASA & IOSA of the Engineering & Maintenance division.



Today, 26 world-leading Airlines and their Civil Aviation Authorities have given approval to Oman Air for certification of their wide and narrow-bodied aircraft at Muscat International Airport, Salalah International Airport and Sohar International Airport. - TradeArabia News Service67%

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-01-02, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.100%

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-12-09, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.WETHERSFIELD  The 18-year-old driver of a vehicle who allegedly crashed into a police cruiser and then drove toward an officer that had gotten out of a police car is in critical condition after being shot by an officer Saturday.

The driver  who Connecticut State Police identified Sunday as Anthony Jose Vega Cruz, of Treat Road in Wethersfield.

The agency identified the vehicle passenger as 18-year-old Stephanie Santiago, of Hartford. State police said she was uninjured.

The shooting is under investigation by the state polices Central District Major Crime Squad detectives at the request of the New Britain States Attorney, tasked with overseeing the investigation.

State police said it happened one minute before 6 p.m. Saturday when two Wethersfield police officers tried to get a driver to pull over for a motor vehicle stop.

There was a collision between the suspect vehicle and a Wethersfield police cruiser, state police said. One officer exited his vehicle and the suspects vehicle drove toward that officer. The officer then discharged his firearm.

This all played out on Silas Deane Highway, also known as Route 99, between Mill Street and Maple Street (Route 3). Wethersfield police announced that stretch of roadway was shut down from the time of the incident until Sunday morning.

Cruz was taken to the hospital after the shooting to be treated. Santiago was initially detained by Wethersfield police, but released a short time later, state police said.

Activists plan on meeting outside of the Wethersfield Police Department Monday morning after a vigil Sunday for a local teen shot by police, according to WFSB.

Cruz, 18, of Wethersfield, is in critical condition and is on life support after the shooting, family members said Sunday. He was shot by a Wethersfield officer who said the 18-year-old's car collided with a cruiser and then drove at an officer, according to state police reports.

His girlfriend, Santiago, wasn't injured. She was among those who attended a vigil Sunday night decrying the police shooting, according to WFSB.

Cruzs family is seeking justice, WFSB said. They are heartbroken for Cruz, who they call Chulo.

This is devastating, Davon Colon, Cruzs nephew said. This is a tragedy. He was shot in the head two times.

The Wethersfield Police Departments statement Saturday, which was also posted on the departments Facebook page, only confirmed basic information about the officer-involved shooting and said state police would handle the investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to reach out to state police at (860) 685-8190. Callers can remain anonymous.

Saturdays officer-involved shooting was the second in a weeks time.

On Tuesday, a Hamden police officer and Yale University police officer were involved in a shooting that sent 22-year-old Stephanie Washington to the hospital with a gunshot wound. That incident also remains under investigation.InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced the signing of Staybridge Suites Manama Al Seef, marking the debut of the brand in Bahrain.



Expected to open in January 2020, the 128-room extended stay hotel will operate under a management agreement with leading real estate developer Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company.



The signing was held in the headquarters of the Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company with the attendance of Sheikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA).



Located in the heart of the capital, Staybridge Suites Manama Al Seef will benefit from proximity to the popular shopping and commercial destination, the Seef District. Guests can also enjoy home-like surroundings and amenities throughout the hotel with a feeling of community including a fully equipped kitchen, spacious suites, large workspaces, complimentary wi-fi, a business centre and fitness centre.



Commenting on the signing, Shaikh Khaled said: The development of Staybridge Suites comes in line with BTEAs strategy which focuses on four pillars awareness, attraction, access, and accommodation in order to attract regional and international visitors, further increasing the tourism sectors contribution to the national economy. Bahrain is currently witnessing the launch of several hotels and serviced apartments due to the influx of inbound tourists. We will continue to dedicate our efforts towards enhancing tourist and hospitality services in order to deliver exceptional services for visitors.



Pascal Gauvin, managing director, India, Middle East & Africa, IHG, said: We are excited to be partnering with Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company to debut the Staybridge Suites brand in Bahrain. The tourism industry in Bahrain is gaining momentum with an increase in leisure and business travellers, especially from the GCC countries, that is resulting in a rising demand for long stay accommodation. Seef District is the commercial hub of Bahrain and boasts of some of the best shopping destinations in the city, which is why it makes perfect sense to develop Bahrains first Staybridge Suites here."



He added: "Staybridge Suites Manama Al Seef marks our third hotel in the country, positioning us to cater to a wider-range of guest profiles, and we look forward to welcoming our guests to this newest addition to our portfolio, in 2020.



Faisal Faqeeh, chairman of Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company, added: The fantastic location combined with the unique offering of Staybridge Suites Manama Al Seef, make it the ideal choice for travellers looking for a home away from home experience. Designed to give both business and leisure travellers a compelling experience in the heart of the city, we are proud to partner with a global leader such as IHG, to further market growth in the country. We are confident that our partnership will be a success and look forward to welcoming guests to the hotel.



There are currently five Staybridge Suites hotels open across the Middle East, with a further eight due to open in the next three to five years. - TradeArabia News ServiceSince 2013 Ive run a small law practice. I currently employ two employees. Any small business like ours is a joint effort; every single person in the office has a big role. We are all essential. As a small business owner, I know that my career success is inextricably linked to the success of my staff.

This means I want to ensure that my team keeps a good life-work balance. I want my employees to be happy, focused, and engaged with their work so they can be productive, fully present, and do their jobs well.

Life, however, can sometimes be challenging. No matter how much we take care of ourselves, we might face an unexpected health crisis. An elderly parent, spouse, or a sibling might have an accident, or need surgery, or face a health scare. Life itself might make things more complicated; the birth of a new child, although not unexpected, can redefine our need for family time.

When one of my employees faces one of these situations, I want them to be able take care of their loved one. If they are sick, I want them to be able to stay home to recover, not worry about coming to work when they are still ailing. When a close relative needs care, I want to ensure that they can be there for them, not worried senseless at their desk while trying to figure out how to pay for a caregiver. When they have a child, I want them to be able to stay home with their newborn, giving them the care and love they need and deserve, not sleep-deprived at work counting the hours until they will go to day care to pick up their baby. When life happens, and it will happen to all of us sooner or later, I want my valued employees to be cared for.

I support paid family leave because, as a small business owner, it is not just something that makes moral sense to us, but also business sense. It makes sense from a moral perspective because I believe that no one should be forced to choose between taking care of himself or a close relative and making ends meet. When an employee faces a health scare, family emergency, or childbirth, I want them to have the benefit of an income source so they can focus solely on overcoming their challenging life situation without the added stress of a potential financial hardship.

Paid family leave makes sense from a business perspective because for me, as a small business owner, the program provides stability. With paid leave in place, I will not have to worry to figure out if I can afford to continue paying for a missing employee, or for how long, and I wont be forced to tell anyone that I cant pay them while they are facing a health crisis. Paid leave would provide me with a predictable, steady backstop that will help keep my business going, without having to worry about insurance paperwork or benefit calculations.

Some critics have raised the idea that with paid leave in place, small businesses will struggle to fill vacancies when employees take time off. In fact, we already struggle now to do that, because if someone is facing a serious illness, they have to take the time off anyway, paid or unpaid. With paid leave, they will be able to do so with a steady replacement income and no out-of-pocket costs to businesses. Our employees will come back when they are healthy and ready, not just when their savings run out.

The program will not represent an additional cost for us business owners. Administering an additional employee-paid deduction is a simple administrative payroll change. The fund is publicly managed, so I dont need to waste my time comparing plans with my insurance broker. If an employee leaves, the fund follows him/her, and I do not need to deal with paperwork to transition the benefit elsewhere.

We need paid family leave not just because it makes moral sense, but because it will make small businesses like mine stronger. Passing paid family leave in Connecticut is good public policy and the right thing to do.Help India!

Text and images by Meher Ali, TwoCircles.net

Aligarh went to the polls on April 18, 2019 with almost a 60% voter turnout. Before it happened, we were bombarded with images and sound bytes of politicians, election gurus and journalists. Most were men. Many of these people argued that this election is about Indias soul. This photo essay is an attempt at understanding and sharing another narrative, that of women and specifically widows who live and work in Aligarh.

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For these women, this election was less about the idea of democracy and more about how it functions. It was about applications filled and identification cards denied, and at the core of it were their efforts to seek out two things: the right to vote and the right to a decent source of livelihood.

This reporter visited four of the poorest areas of Aligarh, though by no means the only ones and used the 2011 census to identify these communities using indicators of employment, education, historical marginalisation, and low-paying work.

School, not factory

Sunita Devi (40) ( featured in the image above) lost her husband, who worked in a barbershop, seven years ago. A year later, she applied for the widows pension, yet only received the money a month back: Rs. 1500 for three months.

On election day, she walked for half an hour in the afternoon heat to cast her vote.

She lives in Palaholi Chowk, which falls in Gambhirpura ward that has 22,751 people who do not know how to read or write, the highest in Aligarh, as per the census. Sunita Devi says that she too has never been to school and can neither read nor write.

She works in a hardware factory where she does khulai ka kaam. Her job is to clean metal products, such as door latches and bolts, in acid water. Her son works in another hardware factory, where he operates a power machine. Though both earn about Rs. 8000 a month, more than a third of it goes towards rent. This means that she can only afford to send only one of her children, her youngest daughter, to school.

A No to vote

Sufiya Begum (50) lost her husband, who owned a provisions store, five years ago. Like Sunita Devi, she too does not receive widows pension, despite applying for it four months after his passing.

She lives in Jeevangarh, where more than 300 people, the highest number in Aligarh, work as household industry workers manufacturing, processing, servicing, and repairing goods. Her son, who financially supports her, is also one.

Election day was not a good one for her. She ran from pillar to post with her voter ID and Aadhar Card to cast her vote but was unable to do so.

The reason? She claims that her stepdaughter-in-law told the block level officer (BLO), who runs a school in her house, to cut Sufiya Begums name from the electoral register. When I went to meet the BLO with Sufiya Begum, she claimed that the reason was that Sufiya Begum had shifted. This meant that her residential area, notified as part number in the electoral roll, had changed. But Sufiya Begum interrupted the BLO, saying that she had shifted 15 years ago.

I asked the BLO whether she had sought Sufiya Begums permission before doing this. She said that she had spoken to her husband, now gone for five years, and then said that it was her stepdaughter-in-law who had told her.

She also claimed that she had applied for a new voter ID on behalf of Sufiya Begum but that it had not come through from the tehsil. As we were about to leave, an election official offered to give Sufiya Begum someone elses voter slip who hadnt shown up, so that she could vote but she said: Ghalat kaam nahi karoongeeI wont do anything illegal.

Three widows, no pension

Shakuntala Singh (64), right, lost her husband, who was a farmer, six years ago to dengue.

On election day, the person ahead of her pressed the elephant symbol for the Bahujan Samaj Party but saw the Bharatiya Janata Partys lotus sign come up on screen. She says that he got into an argument with the police about it, so she stepped in and suggested to the BLO that the machine should be removed, which it was, and the voting resumed.

She lives in Nagla Kalar, which, according to the census, has the highest Scheduled Caste population at 9,772 people. Singh herself is a Dalit Christian.

Three years after her husbands death, her younger daughters husband also passed away and she came to live with Singh. Poonam Paul, her elder daughter (left), became a widow two months ago. Neither of her daughters receives a pension though both have applied. Singh received old age pension but that stopped when Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister, she says. Now, Pauls two sons support the family as does her sister who works as a cook in peoples homes.

Work among non-workers

From left to right, Pushpa (35), Kishan Pyari (40), Shanti Devi (65), and Roopvati (55), are all widows. But only Kishan Pyari and Pushpa received widows pension, and that too Rs. 1500 last month, though both their husbands passed away one and five years ago respectively.

They all voted and say that the biggest problem that they face is a lack of better employment opportunities. Koi kaam hona chahiyethere should be some work, says Roopvati, who support her family of five, by working as a tailor. Her two daughters, both of whom are college graduates, have not found formal employment, though they work as tailors alongside their mother.

All of them live in Upar Kot in Aligarhs old city, specifically in Kaba ki Sarai that, has the highest number of non-workers at 14,965 people.

Pushpa, Kishan Pyari, and Shanti Devi work temporary jobs at peoples weddings making pooris. They leave in the morning and come back as late as 3 am, earning Rs. 200 per day. Pushpa says that they roll a quintal worth of flour into pooris every day.

But this is seasonal work and in all of their homes, at least one, if not more, of their children is also working. In Pushpas case, her two sons, both in their 20s, passed away, one in an unfortunate accident and the other from an illness that doctors failed to diagnose. She has two other teenaged sons. When I ask her if they go to school, she says: School jayenge to khaane ko kaise aayegaif they go to school, where will we get the money to eat? Both of them work in a locks workshop, like their father before them.

Meher Ali is an independent journalist based in Aligarh. She reports on refugees and human-rights related issues. You can also read her blog on the culture and heritage of Aligarh and western Uttar Pradesh here. Follow her on Twitter @aashi310 .Warm weather on the way as some look to the sky for snowLetters I should have received, but didnt:

Dear Doctor: Why in the world does Andrew Cuomo deserve a huge raise? Sign me, Kenny in Kingston.

Oh, come on, Kenny! You may not like the guy  many people dont  but they do respect the fact that his list of accomplishments has gotten longer and longer. Yes, he occasionally picks unnecessary fights with his fellow Democrats, but in many of those, like the fight about bringing Amazon to New York, he is right. Even though it may appear that he is looking for opportunities to keep his fellow Democrats in line (and he certainly is), he is on the right side of the issues. Finally, if the creatures of the Legislature deserve a huge pay raise, then the governor and his commissioners, who have REAL (not make believe) work to do, deserve a raise, too. I know a deserving public radio president who was making almost a million dollars a year. Cuomo is nothing but obsessed about his job. He is always working it. He has a long way to go. The taxes are obsessional and the states infrastructure needs a lot of work. Apparently, he has learned his lesson about allowing some of his assistants too much unsupervised free time to the point that they are on their way to jail. But he is very good at his job. Hes even speaking to me after eight years of being angry. Thats real progress.

Dear Doctor: Is there any chance the Amazon deal can be resurrected? Sign me, Sad Sarah in Schenectady.

Dear Sad: I have asked the governor about this several times. He shrugs the question off with a no answer. But at least one tabloid has noted that Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, who was the worlds richest man before his divorce (probably still is), is looking for big digs in Manhattan. Well, dont you see? Manhattan is just across the river from Long Island City where the Amazons were supposed to light. Okay, I might be grasping at straws, but the polls are all showing that the people of the state want the deal consummated, and my bet is that if those same people open their windows and scream, Im mad as hell about the Amazon deal, and I want a replay, they might get it. Of course, the always vocal AOC (U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.) and some of her compatriots in state and local government may see an opportunity to shoot at the establishment and repeat their early objections to the project. That wouldnt be smart. The amazing AOC certainly is aware of how many people in her area think that she handled the Amazon affair badly.

Dear Alan: Why do so many people wrongly refer to you as Doctor? You have never cured anyone, you yourself are way too thin. The governor sardonically always calls you doctor with a certain demeaning tone in his voice and you never went to medical school, right? Sign me, Tony in Troy.

Dear Tony: Thanks for your mean letter. On the merits, my Ph.D. in political science is from NYU and that makes me doctor, although I confess that one angry relative once referred to me as a phooey doctor. As for being too thin, I am assiduous about keeping thin, since I have marginal diabetes and have been following the teachings of Dr. Jason Fung, who has been pushing something called intermittent fasting. I eat a low carb diet for eight hours and fast for 16 hours every day. My sugar numbers have come way down. There are those who worry that too much emphasis on weight can lead to severe psychological consequences, but so far, I am happy with my results. Of course, I am NOT a medical doctor and do NOT dispense medical advice. Im just saying. I hope that clears it all up. Best to you, mean Tony.

Sunday Freeman columnist Alan Chartock is a professor emeritus at the State University of New York, publisher of the Legislative Gazette and CEO of the WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network. Readers can email him at alan@wamc.org.Help India!

By Misbahuddin Mirza

Those familiar with Americas Civil Rights movement will tell you that African-American slaves were unofficially divided into two groups  the field negro, and the house negro. The field negroes were slaves that were forced to labor in the fields under harsh conditions; they slept in separate quarters, and longed for freedom from their oppressive slave-masters. The slaves that lived inside the slave masters house helping with domestic chores, however, did not yearn for freedom  they considered themselves as of higher status then their field negro counterparts, and part of their masters home. During the British colonial rule of India, Indians were similarly divided into two groups  one yeaning for freedom from the brutal colonial occupation; the other serving the colonial masters, extolling their masters virtues, and considering themselves as an extension of the imperial force.

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Anurag Singhs 2019 movie Kesari and Raj Acharyas 2018 TV series 21 Sarfarosh, are highly fictionalized accounts of the 1897 Battle of Saragarhi, in Kohat district on the Samana Range in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area along Afghanistans border. Saragarhi was a small village communication post between two forts  Gulistan and Lockhart. The battle resulted in a decisive tactical victory for the Emirate of Afghanistan, against the imperial colonial British army. The British colonial force consisted of Sikh soldiers  who were historically used as cannon fodder against the unstoppable Afghans.

India Todays March 23, 2019 article by Harmeet Shah Singh pointed out the numerous gross historical inaccuracies and blatant exaggerations in the heavily fictionalizing movie Kesari. The soldiers building mosques is an absolute lie.

Earlier, about 60 years before the Battle of Saragarhi, during the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-1842, the massive British army consisting of British and Sikh soldiers who entered Afghanistan with a lot of pomp and fanfare to constant music, tea, biscuits, caviar, and wine was completely annihilated. Then, again on May 6, 1919, 22 years after the Battle of Saragarhi, the Emirate of Afghanistan invaded British India, yet again decisively defeating the Imperial British army at the third Anglo-Afghan war, and forcing the British to sign the Treaty of Rawalpindi on August 8, 1919, acknowledging Afghanistan as a separate nation.

The vast majority of the British army in India consisted of local Indians  recruited to kill other Indians in order to maintain the brutal occupation of India  the jewel in the crown. They also used the same tactics after their defeat during the first Indian war of Independence  using Gurkha, and Sikh armies to retake India.

Rabindranath Tagore refused to accept the British title of knighthood, stating that such mass murderers arent worthy of giving any title to anyone. Shashi Tharoor points out how systematically the British exploited India beyond belief  with examples such as it cost nine times more to lay a mile of railway track in British India, then it did in America of that time.

Stories and movies normally have a point to make. Both the movie Kesari and the TV series 21 Sarfarosh leave you wondering about their intended viewpoint. From the disastrous first Anglo-Afghan war, to the first Indian war of independence, the Sikhs, (and the Gurkhas) did loyally serve the imperial colonial British superpower for almost a hundred years. But both the movie and the TV series fail to point out how their colonial British Masters repaid this dedicated service in the form of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of innocent Sikh civilians at the hands of the Gurkha Rifles division of the imperial British army.

So, what are we celebrating here? Are we supposed to serve our colonial masters, killing our own countrymen for a few silver coins? Is serving and dying to the last man for the British, who Tagore termed as mass murderers, something that needs to be applauded? This movie and TV series remind me of the American fable of the frog who agrees to rescue a drowning scorpion, only to be subsequently fatally stung by the scorpion. It is high time for us to start properly analyzing our thought processes.

Misbahuddin Mirza, M.S., P.E., is a licensed professional engineer, registered in the States of New York and New Jersey. He served as the Regional Quality Control Engineer for the New York State Department of Transportations New York City Region. He is the author of the iBook Illustrated Muslim Travel Guide to Jerusalem. He has written for major US and Indian publications.CHICAGO  Wasnt the 2016 presidential election the event that taught us to distrust polls? Didnt almost everyone get it wrong, eroding the publics trust in both journalism and their fellow citizens, who made electoral choices that seemed to go against their own self-interest?

Welcome to the 2020 campaign season, which is already making me  and probably many others  want to tear my hair out.

Its because Im looking at new poll numbers from Latino Decisions, the nations (perhaps not incorrectly) self-proclaimed leading polling and research firm on Latino Americans. But instead of fearing that the numbers are wrong, they seem frighteningly on-target.

Twenty-five percent of all the Latino registered voters who were polled have not only heard of President Trump but also have a very or somewhat favorable impression of him, according to the Spring 2019 national poll.

Twenty percent say that the president and Republicans are doing a good job of reaching out to Hispanics.

Seventeen percent say they will be voting for Donald Trump in 2020, and another 3 percent are undecided but leaning toward Trump.

Twenty-seven percent either strongly or somewhat agree with Trumps February decision to declare a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border and redirect money meant for military and disaster relief to build a border wall.

I was also mildly surprised to see how the registered Hispanic voters who were polled reacted to potential Democratic presidential contenders. They did not jump at the Latino candidate, former housing secretary Julian Castro, as a top choice.

They werent set on fire by Kamala Harris, a leader in the Latino-majority state of California and a woman of color who has come out strong against the Trump administrations treatment of migrants at the border.

Nope. Its Biden, with 59 percent favorability.

Or Tio Joe, as in Uncle Joe, a moniker that was supposedly used in a top-secret Spanish-language TV ad designed to be released when he officially declares the week after Easter, according to Politico.

Hes followed very closely by Bernie at 58 percent favorability  that would be the socialist Bernie Sanders whos been a millionaire since 2016.

And after Sanders, the list of the top three most favored candidates is rounded out by, drumroll please: former Texas congressman Beto ORourke, at 48 percent, the non-Latino guy with the Hispanic nickname.

Oh boy.

If these are startling revelations, then you just havent been paying attention.

Latinos were never the monolith that the mainstream media portrayed them to be. Theres no denying they are an increasingly diverse population in the United States, one that no longer counts language, country of origin, geographic concentration or immigration status as a unifying common denominator.

This is also shown clearly in what Hispanics ranked as the most important issues to them in the Latino Decisions poll, which echoed decades of prior research. Even in this time of Trump-induced humanitarian crises at the border, the issue of protecting immigrants rights rates only a third-place spot, overshadowed by the high cost of health care and the desire to see wages and income improve.

But we shouldnt underestimate the fact that these are the thoughts of Latinos who are already registered to vote and thinking ahead about the presidential race, which is still more than a year away. They may skew more conservative or be outliers because of their political interest at this early stage. Or the sample size of the poll could simply be too small.

We dont know what a Latino voter who registers close to Election Day cares about because were still pretty far out from November 2020 for the average persons interest in politics to kick in.

And when it comes right down to it, history tells us that not enough of the 32 million Hispanics who will be eligible to vote in 2020 will be registered and then show up at the polls. (In the 2016 presidential election, Latino turnout was 47.6 percent, about the same as in 2012.)

If Democrats want to be competitive with Latino voters, they need to provide what Hispanic grassroots organizations across the country have consistently said they need  money and resources to invest in voter registration and get-out-the-vote organizing.

Without the proper investments, Latinos might have lackluster turnout, furthering a track record of not seeming too invested in their government.

And what a shame it would be for eligible Latino voters to again be kept on the sidelines of a presidential election because slick ads with pandering and sometimes unintelligible Spanish translations are more palatable to fund than the education of a whole new generation of voters.

Esther Cepeda is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. Her email address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com.WASHINGTON  There is a mountain of evidence that President Trump obstructed justice. There is considerable evidence that the Trump campaign embraced and encouraged Russias attempt to meddle in the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert Mueller laid out the facts  and now Congress has a solemn duty to confront them.

Contrary to what Trump says, the long-awaited Mueller report is not an exoneration. The report makes that clear more than once, verbatim, including this passage in Part II: Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.

Nor does the report indict Trump for obstruction. But that is because Mueller took as his starting point the Justice Department opinion that a sitting president should not be made to face criminal charges. If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, Mueller wrote. [W]e are unable to reach that judgment.

Trump and his apologists will try to paint the report as equivocal, but the evidence it cites strikes me as definitive. One representative passage from Part II, page 157:

Our investigation found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations. The incidents were often carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the President sought to use his official power outside of usual channels. These actions ranged from efforts to remove the Special Counsel and to reverse the effect of the Attorney General s recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses with the potential to influence their testimony.

Mueller does not explicitly say that Congress must now judge the presidents conduct. But he draws a detailed road map for such an exercise, including not just the voluminous evidence he gathered but also the legal reasoning for viewing some of Trumps actions  including his firing of then-FBI Director James Comey and his attempt to get then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller  as patently illegal.

The Mueller report was released Thursday by Attorney General William Barr, who, in the process, destroyed what was left of his own credibility. Pre-spinning the document before anyone had a chance to read it, Barr parroted Trumps favorite talking point and said Mueller found no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The report, however, says no such thing. It notes that collusion is not a federal offense and seeks instead to determine whether there is evidence of conspiracy, which is a statutory crime. Mueller did find such evidence, but not enough to bring criminal charges.

Barr flat-out lied when he said that Muellers decision not to charge Trump had nothing to do with the Justice Department opinion that effectively gives immunity to a sitting president. The report states clearly that this opinion has everything to do with Muellers choice to lay out the evidence without reaching a conclusion.

Barr said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided to declare the matter of obstruction closed because Trump was understandably frustrated and angered at the very existence of the investigation, and thus may not have had the requisite intent to commit a crime. But Barr was confusing two different concepts, motive and intent. Trumps motive for trying to fire Mueller, for example, may well have been anger and frustration. But his legal intent may have been to obstruct justice.

Barr so embarrassed himself that Fox News anchor Chris Wallace seemed appalled. The attorney general seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, the counselor for the president, rather than the attorney general, talking about his motives, his emotions, Wallace said. Really, as I say, making a case for the president.

The report notes that Trump lambasted former Attorney General Jeff Sessions when Sessions recused himself from involvement in the Mueller probe, telling him you were supposed to protect me or words to that effect. Barr obviously is determined not to make the same mistake.

Now responsibility shifts to Congress, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a decision to make.

The Mueller report establishes that the Russians massively interfered with our election and that the Trump campaign cheered and encouraged that hostile act. It lays out ample evidence that Trump obstructed justice. Only Congress can hold the president accountable.

Thus far, Pelosi has resisted any move toward impeachment. Politically convenient or not, thats where Muellers road map leads.

Eugene Robinson is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. His email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.My mother used to say that there are a thousand roads and they all go to the same place.

She meant that, whatever our different faiths, however we worship, God doesn't change.

This is one profound reason why the atrocities in Sri Lanka evoked such revulsion around the world, across all religions.

It is not just the fact that many of the dead and injured were Christians, targeted on Easter Sunday, the most sacred day in their calendar.

At least 207 people have been killed and hundreds more injured after multiple explosions rocked three churches and three luxury hotels in and around Colombo as well as at Batticaloa in Sri Lanka during Easter Sunday mass

What causes universal outrage is that they were at worship. They were engaged in the most peaceful, meaningful human act, and they were subjected to extreme violence.

As a Muslim, I find that abhorrent  just as countless Christians, Buddhists and people of all other faiths (including agnostics and atheists) were repulsed by last month's killings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I was especially upset when the news of the attacks broke because Easter is a special Sunday for me and my family.

My daughter, Leila, was born on Easter Sunday 26 years ago, and I have always felt that her arrival was somehow even more meaningful because it happened on a religious festival.

That's not to say we were a pious household. My mother Jena was a devout Shia Muslim, but my husband was and still is a vaguely not-quite-Christian, and I was certainly not always an observant follower of Islam. Yet all of us felt the significance of Easter that year.

Much later, because the son of friends was a chorister, we were invited to Westminster Abbey one Christmas to hear the carols. I will never forget my mother's wonder at the church's magnificent beauty.

Crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast inside the church in Negombo after the deadly explosion

A Christian woman lights a candle at a vigil for the for the victims of bomb explosions in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, in Peshawar, Pakistan

She was a tiny woman, barely 5ft tall, and she gazed around before turning to my husband and admonishing him  wagging her finger and saying: 'How can you not believe in such a beautiful religion?'

Anyone who is surprised by that story does not understand the profound connection between Christianity and Islam.

The Prophet Mohammad decreed that Christians should be free to worship without interference. In a letter to the monks of St Catherine's monastery in Sinai, he promised: 'We shall not bear arms against you but shall protect you.'

The world, it seems, was a more civilised place centuries ago. Today Christians are oppressed and attacked as a minority in many countries where once they worshipped freely.

In China, Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria and elsewhere we hear of attacks on Christian communities.

Infamously, the young mother Asia Bibi who was imprisoned in Pakistan on charges of blasphemy, because she was Christian and not Muslim, is still in prison even though any case against her has been quashed.

People light candles to condemn the attack which targeted those 'engaged in the most peaceful, meaningful human act'

Her family live in fear for their lives. We have to speak out against religious intolerance and injustice, whoever the victims are. I believe in universal human rights. Unless good people of all faiths  and none  support each other, the cowards and the murderers are going to win.

There is a direct parallel too between the horror in Sri Lanka and the killing of a journalist in Northern Ireland last week.

Lyra McKee was shot while reporting on a riot in Londonderry, a senseless murder that threatens the fragile peace that has existed for 21 years.

Sri Lanka has been at peace  just barely  since the Tamil Tigers' terrorist campaign was stamped out in 2009.

The country has been like a delicate piece of tapestry ever since, with skilled and willing hands seeking patiently to stitch it together. That anyone should deliberately rip apart all that love and work defies comprehension.

To intensify the damage done, the bombers targeted hotels, seeking to wreck the tourist industry and so sap the lifeblood of the island economy.

People hold placards as they condemn the deadly bombings in Sri Lanka, during a protest in Karachi, Pakistan. Whatever our different faiths, however we worship, God doesn't change, says Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

It was truly moving to hear a Sri Lankan bishop say that the killers were human beings, too  and that it was the duty of every Christian to pray for them.

That intense commitment to forgiveness is something I have always loved about Christianity.

I have felt a sincere respect for the religion since childhood, and I am conscious that my own much-loved Islam does not have the same limitless capacity to forgive.

We can all learn from each other's faiths and even the lack of faith evinced by good atheists and agnostics.

Let me stress that I am not talking about the war-mongering Christianity of Tony Blair and George W Bush, or the blood-thirsty extremism of intolerant US evangelists. There have always been bad Christians, going right back to the Crusades and before.

And I am not one of those who feels the decline of faith in the West has automatically left us less civilised. I know plenty of fantastic people who don't pray or believe in any higher power.

A relative of a Sri Lankan victim of an explosion at a church weeps outside a hospital

The Pope expressed deep condolences to the people of Sri Lanka as he led the Easter Mass in the Vatican today

The real rift in society is not between believers and non-believers  it is between blinkered extremists of all hues, and the people they deem 'different' from them.

The threat to civilisation comes from the zealots, whatever religion they claim to follow, who want to persecute and punish anyone who is not like them.

The people who set off bombs are the same people wielding knives for the sake of it on the streets of Britain. They both seek a momentary sense of power.

Not long ago, my daughter took me and her father to Liverpool Cathedral. She and I sat together  I don't think she believes in a God, but she often prays with me to make me happy.

There we were, a largely lapsed Christian, his unconventionally Muslim wife and their pretty-much-atheist daughter, all in a place of worship together. Only an intolerant extremist could fail to see the beauty in that.

It was so heartening to see a long queue of worshippers form outside another Parisian church this weekend, after the services in Notre Dame were transferred there.

Like them, I too am praying today. I offer my fervent hope that the billionaires who were so keen to contribute to the cathedral's restoration last week will spare some of their riches to help the shattered congregations in Sri Lanka.

God knows they need our support now.While she was building her multi-million dollar teeth whitening company, Alison Egan was living off just $80 a week by staying at her parents' house.

The 24-year-old, who came up with the mobile service Sparkling White Smile after a bedtime dream, said she was investing everything she earned back into the business in hopes it would became a nationwide success.

'I was 21 at the time so all my friends were the same age, they were going out partying and heading overseas but every bit of time and money I had I invested into my company,' Sydney-based Alison told Yahoo Lifestyle.

While she was building her multi-million dollar teeth whitening company, Alison Egan (pictured) was living off just $80 a week

But despite now having 15 employees and 500 clients Alison said she would never feel like she has 'made it'.

'I'm the kind of person that's never going to be happy, not "not happy", but more that I have always got to move forward and do something else and grow the company,' she told the publication.

'It's key to know the money doesn't change you.'

Previously Alison told FEMAIL how she conjured up the business idea in 2014 while fast asleep.

Models (like the one pictured above) are flaunting their white smiles all over Instagram

'So I literally had a dream I was getting my teeth whitened. I went to work the next day and I started looking at teeth whitening online,' she said.

'And that's how the business idea came up and I thought I'd run with it.'

With no income saved the then-20-year-old turned to her family for financial help.

She begged her parents for three days to help her out with the purchase of her equipment, and they decided to loan her $10,000.

'It took me three days to convince my parents to give me the funds so I could start my business,' she said.

The treatment incorporates peroxide gels, laser accelerator lamp to rapidly activate the whitening gel and of course, their highly trained and dedicated technicians

Charging $300 per one-and-a-half-hour session in Sydney, Melbourne , Perth, Gold Coast and Brisbane , the company now treats 500 clients a week

Juggling the side job, she set herself a target of treating just five clients a week.

'I was working as a mental health nurse, and studying at university, so I was enjoying this business as a hobby,' she said.

'My biggest dream was... I told my mum if I could do five clients every Saturday, I would be able to live out of home and buy my own house.'

Charging $300 per one-and-a-half-hour session in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Gold Coast and Brisbane, the company now treats 500 clients a week.

'I was working as a mental health nurse, and studying at university, so I was enjoying this business as a hobby,' she said (a before and after pictured)

As her business became a popular demand, Alison decided to turn the hobby into a full-time career - walking away from her job as a mental health nurse and not completing her university degree.

'I was working 18 hours a day, seven days a week,' she said.

'Five years ago it was all word of mouth but I took the thing seriously around two years ago. I cleaned up my Instagram and started posting before and after photos.

'It pretty much blew up from there.'

Despite treating 500 clients a week around the country, Alison said her success didn't come so easy.

'The biggest challenge for me was lack of sleep,' she said.

'I'm the kind of person who won't stop. I'm always doing one thing and then onto the next straight away, I can't switch off.

Australian model Belle Lucia (pictured) is among the clients of the teeth whitening brand

'I scarified so much at such a young age. It was very hard to see my friends. But I have an amazing group of friends and they were extremely supportive,' Alison, pictured left, said

'I scarified so much at such a young age. It was very hard to see my friends. But I have an amazing group of friends and they were extremely supportive.'

Delivering professional teeth whitening in the comfort of your home, the company promises instant results, lightening teeth from five to 14 shades in just one visit.

The treatment incorporates peroxide gels, laser accelerator lamp to rapidly activate the whitening gel and of course, their highly trained and dedicated technicians.

'We have a massive clientele in the wedding industry, we also have a lot of bloggers, high-end people, I treat a lot of lawyers, young girls and people in fashion,' she said.

'We have a massive clientele in the wedding industry, we also have a lot of bloggers, high-end people, I treat a lot of lawyers, young girls and people in fashion,' she said

And the best part of her job?

'I love seeing people happy,' Alison said.

'I love to see their smiles, and how they love their teeth - it's the best feeling ever, so amazing. You become best friends with your clients.

'It just melts your heart when I leave their house and they feel good about themselves. It really makes you believe in yourself.

'I don't wake up everyday thinking I'm going to work, I actually feel like I work for my hobby. I'm still working 18 hours a day but it doesn't feel like that at all.'After Western sanctions gutted Russias financial system five years ago, a new bank card began appearing in the wallets of many Russians. Now the country is hoping to introduce its cards, known as Mir cards, to foreign markets where Russian nationals live and travel, Vladimir Komlev, the head of Russias National Card Payment System (NSPK), told Reuters in an interview. In the next three years we want Mir cards to be operational in countries where Russians are used to traveling, Komlev said. Its the hardest task in terms of returns on investment.

Russia created its own card payment system in 2014 because it feared U.S. and European sanctions against some Russian banks and businesspeople over the annexation of Crimea could block transactions made with U.S.-based Mastercard and Visa.

NSPK said Turkeys Isbank had started accepting Mir cards as of Thursday. Russians made 5.7 million trips to Turkey last year, according to state statistics agency Rosstat. Komlev projected Mir cards would be operational at some banks in 12 foreign countries by the end of the year. He would not, however, disclose which countries those might be. NSPK is not subject to Western sanctions, but some foreign companies are wary of doing business with Russian firms in case further restrictions are put in place.

EXPANDING AT HOME

More than 56 million Mir cards have been issued and they currently make up more than 20 percent of Russias bank card market, Komlev said. Mir means World or Peace in Russian. NSPK, which was created by the central bank, has received a boost from legislation obliging civil servants to receive their salaries on Mir cards. It aims for Mir cards share of the market to reach 30 percent over the next couple of years.

Starting next year, pension payments, as well as child and unemployment benefits, will only be paid on the cards. These measures have made Mir a rival to Mastercard and Visa in Russia. But its shortcomings - its incompatibility with many international shopping platforms and its limited use outside Russia - have prompted Russian officials to call for more support to help it to take on U.S. competitors. At this time, its difficult for Mir to compete with Visa and Mastercard, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said this month. We need to develop its functionality, its social orientation.

Mastercard, which operates a co-branded card with Mir, said it supported the development of the payment industry and fair competition. Visa did not reply to a request for comment. Mir has develop its own Mir Pay smartphone application and is available on Samsung Pay. Komlev said NSPK had not reached an agreement with Apple to make Mir cards available on its mobile payment platform. Komlev said another of NSPKs priorities was to get major international online booking services for airline tickets and accommodation to accept Mir cards. Business and geopolitics have mixed here, so its not as easy to implement as we would like, he said.Parents of a terminally ill baby girl have issued a heartbreaking plea to a thief who stole their mobile phone from a public bathroom to return it.

Jay Windross and his wife Dee were in Melbourne's Chadstone Shopping Centre on Saturday and stopped to use the bathroom closest to Target.

Dee accidentally left the phone in a cubicle before realising moments later and running back to find it gone.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 contains precious memories of their 11-month-old daughter Amiyah, who is currently at Monash Children's Hospital with days left to live.

Parents of a terminally ill baby girl have issued a heartbreaking plea to thief who stole their mobile phone from a public bathroom to return it

'Someone has picked up Dee's phone from a toilet next door to Target in Chadstone around 5:30pm,' Jay wrote in a Facebook post.

'It is a Samsung Galaxy S8 with a purple cover. Our 11-month-old daughter is currently deteriorating in ICU and is in her last days with us and this phone holds all our memories of her.

'We understand that you have either found a new phone to use, or you can sell it to make money, but please understand that this means more than money to us.'

He is hoping the thief will see the Facebook post, which has now gone viral on social media with 19,000 shares, and conduct the transaction 'amicably'

Writing that the phone's contents is worth 'life to us', Jay told the thief he would happily offer a cash reward if they were to return it.

'No questions asked. No grudge held. We beg you as grieving parents not to wipe the phone,' he said.

'This phone holds the memories of what little life our daughter has had.

'If you want the phone, we're more than happy to arrange to meet, we'll copy the photos off the phone and you can keep the phone. What is on the phone is worth more than anything in our life.'

He is hoping the thief will see the Facebook post, which has now gone viral on social media with 19,000 shares, and conduct the transaction 'amicably'.

'If you have the phone, or know of its whereabouts please drop the phone off to reception at Monash Children's Hospital or any information desk at Chadstone,' he said.

'This phone holds the memories of what little life our daughter has had,' Jay, pictured with wife Dee, wrote on Facebook

His daughter's condition remains a mystery to the family and doctors, who have watched her spend 200 of her 330 days alive in hospital.

'Within hours of her bring born we noticed there was something that wasn't quite right,' Jay told the Herald Sun.

'She spent her first week of life in special care. Nobody knows what's wrong with her.'As Australians across the country settle into their usual Easter traditions, it pays to know that not everyone woke up to a peaceful morning egg hunt with perfectly curated snacks and treats.

For some there was the realisation they'd left their stash of dairy products in a hot car overnight or simply couldn't master the Pinterest worthy rabbit design they had their hearts set on.

These Easter fails, which have been shared on social media, go a long way in explaining why long weekend holidays are both a blessing and a burden.

Pure disappointment! 'When you thought the pack of eggs was hard boiled,' the caption read

'Lesson learnt...Don't keep your daughters' unicorn Easter 'egg' in the glove box of your car for a week, thinking it's a super secret hiding place #mylittleroadkill'

Those are some serious evil eyes: 'Easter Bunny or Halloween Bunny ??!! LOL'

This woman did her Easter chocolate shopping at the last minute... and walked into Target to find nothing left

'Happy Easter weekend! Sorry it's been a while. We're planning on making two Easter treats this year, so hopefully they don't end up like this epic fail'

A little boy was not interested in having his photo taken with the Easter Bunny

'#So I knew it was going to go downhill when I ran out of cooking spray... I tried to find other substitutes but alas I am not Pinterest food crafty'

'That awkward moment when you break off the chocolate bunny's ears and somehow you end up eating it's balls'

'The moment you realise that you spent the last two hours dyeing the wrong carton of eggs - not boiled'

'So hubby and I really crapped the bed and forgot to buy carrots for the Easter bunny. So I guess this mini cucumber will have to do! Here bunny, bunny, bunny...'

'This is what happens when you try and hide the Easter eggs from the husband in the car during a heatwave! Epic fail!'

'Happy Easter! Hope your egg dyeing goes more smoothly than ours. Caroline decorated eggs and Logan decorated Botti. Oops.'

This attempt at Easter cake pops wasn't a very successful one at all

Easter Bunny's non-chocolate alternatives have gone down a treat in the last 24 hours. So far the slime is rather popular as hair gear and clothing stainer

'First (and last) attempt at hot cross buns. It's like something from one of those Pinterest epic fail clips'When it comes to getting rid of unsightly blemishes knowing which treatments work - and which don't - can make all the difference.

If you are dealing with a cystic pimple, these might require a visit to a dermatologist for a steroid shot or if the spot is smaller, these can be dealt with using an over-the-counter lotion, said Australian skin specialist Dr Natasha Cook.

To make choosing the right sort of treatment easier, Beauticate has consulted with the specialist to create a list of four treatment methods from injections and electricity to at home patches and ointments.

Dr Natasha Cook (pictured) said the sort of treatment you choose should depend on the seriousness of the spot

What are corticosteriods? Corticosteroids, often known as steroids, are an anti-inflammatory medicine prescribed for a wide range of conditions. Advertisement

1. Pimple injections

This form of treatment, only offered by Dr Natasha in her clinic, is ideal if you need to treat cystic breakouts or stubborn spots.

Here, the skincare specialist will inject a small dose of corticosteroids combined with a saline solution using a very small needle just under the surface of the skin.

A local anaesthetic will be added in order to minimise the pain.

'It cuts down the inflammation and within 24-48 hours you'll see a significant improvement,' said Dr Natasha told the publication.

Those dealing with breakouts where an injectable treatment (consultations start at $250 with more for the injection itself) may not be an option, Dr Natasha's Concentrated Spot Destroyer, priced at $69, can be used to treat problem areas.

The expert has created a range of products which are designed to help clear congested skin including a concentrated spot destroyer (pictured top left)

2. Spot dots

If you are dealing with a breakout that's only just occurred this can be addressed with a pimple patch or spot dot.

These are small, translucent, fast-acting patches that are made from a gel-like material known as hydrocolloid.

Hydrocolloid is a type of dressing that also functions as a form of wound treatment - one that's designed to insulate, protect and prevent bacteria from entering while the wound heals.

Two products recommended by the beauty publication were Skyn Iceland Blemish Dots, priced at $31 for a packet of 48 or Spot Dots Blemish Busting Patches by Mecca, priced at $8 for a packet of 12.

Another option suggested was COMPEED Blister Plasters, available from the pharmacy chain Priceline.

These are priced at $13.69 for a pack of five and can be cut to size, depending on what you need.

Two recommendations for pimple patches include spot dots Mecca Max (pictured left) are priced at $8 for a packet of $12 and Skyn Iceland Blemish Dots (pictured right), priced at $31 for a packet of 48

3. Electrical current treatment

According to the publication, this type of treatment which is known as Sebaceous Gland Ablation (SBA) is ideal for addressing skin that's acne-prone.

SBA is a type of treatment used as a way of targetting sebaceous glands affected by acne and breakouts.

Treatment consists of a hair-like probe being inserted into the affected area which stimulated with a gentle electrical current.

Once the sebaceous gland is "ablated" (a medical term used to describe tissue destruction through the use of heat), it can no longer break out.

What are Dr Natasha Cook's recommendations for cleansing oily skin? * If you have oily skin, Dr Natasha advises against washing your face using foaming scrub-like cleansers. * She said while it's thought doing so can help 'dry' the skin, these sorts of products can sometimes make acne worse as it strips skin of the good oils. * If the skin becomes stripped of oils, or damaged through the use of harsh cleansers, it can become reactive. This means the oil glands can go into overdrive and produce more oil as a way to compensate. * Dr Natasha said to look for products which are gentle, hydrating and come with anti-inflammatory and barrier boosting Vitamin B3. Source: Dr Natasha Cook Advertisement

If your skin is problematic, it's worth visiting a specialist in order to find out what treatment options can help restore your visage to its glowing best

4. Over-the-counter ointments

Drying out a blemish, before it's had time to develop into anything more serious, is possible using over-the-counter products.

Beauticate recommends using a formulation which contains two per cent Benzoyl Peroxide ointment or products with salicylic acid.

After a pimple has popped and it's in the healing phase, Dr Natasha advises applying a hydrocortisone cream.

Her top two products are Advanten or Elacon, however, these require a prescription or you can ask your pharmacist for a one per cent hydrocortisone ointment, available over-the-counter.

'You can use it every night for up to a week,' she said.A natural toner by Australian skincare company Sukin is so popular, it sells at the rate of one every 40 seconds.

Sukin Rose Hydrating Mist Toner, which is priced at $11, is made using ingredients that are naturally derived, cruelty-free and 100 per cent vegan.

The budget-friendly spritz is made from a blend of rosewater and chamomile and because it doesn't contain any alcohol it's perfect for those with sensitive skin.

'It can be used after cleansing, before and after make-up application or any time your skin is feeling tired, stressed or overheated,' product information on Sukin's site read.

This $11 Rose Hydrating Mist Toner (pictured) by Australian brand Sukin is so popular, it sells at the rate of one every 42 seconds

The beauty spritz (pictured) is made using a blend of rosewater and calming chamomile

As well as being alcohol-free, the toner is also free from sulphates (which can cause skin and eye irritation), parabens (a chemical preservative) and silicon.

Those who've tried the rose water infused skin spritzer and left reviews have gone as far to call it 'the best product ever' and have awarded it four stars out of five on the Sukin site.

'I love the rose hydrating mist toner!' Wrote one person. 'It isn't sticky like other toners I have tried and it gives the skin a gorgeous glow!

'Definitely would recommend this product to everyone for every skin type.'

Those who've tried the product and left reviews have gone as far as to declare it the 'best product ever'

Another shared a review which announced the budget product was her 'fave toner'.

'My skin type is dry and it is the only toner I've used that doesn't make it feel tight and dry after use! I find that it also soothes a little redness on my cheeks.'

While a third said: 'It's great. I use this every morning and evening to refresh when I get up and when I get home.'

Actress Emma Watson (pictured) took to Instagram in 2018 to declare Sukin's Hydrating Mist Toner a beauty bag essential

The Australian brand has also been endorsed by actress Emma Watson who took to Instagram in 2018 to declare Sukin's Hydrating Mist Toner a must-have.

She wrote: 'Sukin is an Australian brand committed to offsetting their carbon emissions through clean energy biomass project in India'.

Her post was liked by 58,000 followers, and as to be expected, played a major part in the product becoming a beauty bag essential.Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting has revealed that far from being a spoiled party girl with a wild reputation, the royal was actually a loyal friend who didn't mind 'mucking in'.

Lady Glenconner, 86, grew up living next to Queen Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret at Holkham Hall, which neighboured Sandringham.

She became great friends with Margaret, and was her lady-in-waiting until the royal's death in 2002.

Now she has revealed that while the princess liked 'good fun', she also loved to muck in with cleaning the car and doing day-to-day mundane household tasks.

Princess Margaret is not known for her love of household chores - but friend and lady-in-waiting Lady Glenconner said the royal was not afraid to get her hands dirty

Glenconner revealed that Helena Bonham Carter had visited her for several hours to discuss Margaret's characteristics in order to play the royal accurately in the hit Netflix series The Crown

She told The Times that Margret would 'always bring a pair of Marigold gloves with her' when she came to stay for a yearly visit in Norfolk.

'As a Girl Guide, she felt she could lay fires better than me, so doing this job along with cleaning my car, which she loved to do, were the two highlights of her holidays with me,' Glenconner revealed.

Lady Glenconner also told how Helena Bonham Carter, who will portray the fun-loving princess in the upcoming series of The Crown, had been to visit her for hours to ask intricate details about Margaret's mannerisms.

The Hollywood actress will take over the role of Margaret from Vanessa Kirby in the third series of the Netflix original, which airs in the autumn.

Lady Glenconner grew up next door to Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. She has revealed that the Princess was a loyal friend, who gave 'wise advice'

Glenconnor was born Lady Anne Coke, oldest daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester.

Having grown up next to the royal sisters, she was a maid of honour at the Queen's Coronation in 1953 and even helped to carry the royal's train.

Glenconner believes that far from the insatiable party-goer and spoiled socialite so far portrayed in the Netflix series, Princess Margret was a loyal friend who loved to help out.

And she was keen to inform Bonham Carter about her true personality when the actress quizzed her on Margaret's characteristics.

Princess Maragret, pictured here with her husband Earl of Snowdon, was gifted a house on Lady Glenconner's husbands tropical island

The A-lister visited Glenconner's London flat, where the two spent hours discussing how Margaret walked, talked and smoked.

She said that Bonham Carter took 'copious' notes and revealed: 'I told her she was always dignified, and walked in a very measure way. I've never seen her run or be flustered.'

Glenconner will also feature in the hit television series, and will be portrayed by actress Nancy Caroll, whom she also advised.

She went on to say that she hoped their relationship on screen was portrayed accurately, and said Margaret was a 'great friend' with generosity and 'wise advice'.

Princess Margaret is often portrayed as a spoilt party girl, as Vanessa Kirby played her in The Crown (pictured above)

While acting as lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, Lady Glenconner was married for more than 50 years to Colin Tennant, 3rd Baron Glenconner.

He bought the Caribbean island of Mustique for 45,000 in 1958 and transformed it into a playground for the rich.

When Margaret married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, Colin gifted her a villa on the island.

Despite being brought up on the Coke family's 25,000 acre estate in Norfolk, Lady Glenconner was unable to inherit it because primogeniture left it to a male heir.

Helena Bonham Carter will take over the role in the next series, with Lady Glenconner helping the actress to get into character

Her father had no sons so it was inherited by a cousin in South Africa.

She was disinherited again when her husband died, leaving 20 million to his manservant in 2010.

Glenconner will publish her memoirs, A Lady In Waiting, in October.Palace insiders fear Meghan Markle could become 'bigger than Princess Diana', it has been claimed.

It is believed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's move to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, where they will welcome their first child any day now, was an attempt 'to keep them out of the limelight for a bit'.

Pregnant Meghan, 37, and Prince Harry, 34, moved out of Kensington Palace, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge live, to Berkshire earlier this month.

The move came amid claims of a feud between the two couples, but it has now been reported that palace officials are 'worried' about not being able to harness the amount of global attention on Harry and Meghan.

Pregnant Meghan, 37, and Prince Harry, 34, moved out of Kensington Palace, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge live, to Berkshire earlier this month (the couple are pictured in Morocco in February)

'They sent them down to Frogmore to try to keep them out to the limelight for a bit. This is doomed to fail. They are worried that Harry and Meghan are going to establish a totally separate enterprise that nobody can get under control,' a source told the Sunday Times.

'There are discussions in palace circles about how do we harness Harry and Meghan and this tremendous global attention they get. How do we draw them back, because laying down the law and ticking them off doesn't work at all.'

The insider added that Meghan, who worked with charities including World Vision before she met Harry, envisioned herself being a global humanitarianism in the 'Angelina Jolie mould'.

The royal source also explained that Meghan and Harry may move abroad, and that the idea of moving them to Canada or Australia was discussed and dismissed.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were moved to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor 'to keep them out of the limelight', as palace officials fear Meghan Markle is 'going to be bigger than Diana'

However the royal couple could could move to Africa for two to three years for a 'bespoke' international job that will utilise their 'rock star' status, senior courtiers allegedly told the publication.

Sir David Manning, the former British ambassador to the U.S., and Lord Geidt, the Queen's former private secretary, are said to have drawn up the plans.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will supposedly be allowed to settle into their home in Frogmore Cottage with the baby before a decision is made about where they should go.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, pictured in Morocco earlier this year, may be sent away to a country in Africa for two to three years for a 'bespoke' job that will utilise their 'rock star' status, it has been claimed

The insider added to the publication that Meghan, who worked with charities including World Vision before she met Harry, envisioned herself being a global humanitarianism in the 'Angelina Jolie mould'. Pictured: Meghan in Rwanda in 2016

It is said they won't move to Australia as they will be effectively 'king and queen of a whole separate country', and Canada was ruled out on the grounds Meghan lived there while filming legal drama Suits.

Although this is unlikely to be decided until next year, the role is likely to be in Africa because of the couple's ties there.

It holds a special place in their hearts as Harry took Meghan to his favourite luxury camp, Meno a Kwena in Botswana, to celebrate Meghan's 36th birthday and mark their first year together.

It is said Meghan (pictured in Morocco) and Harry won't move to Australia as they will be effectively 'king and queen of a whole separate country' and Canada was ruled out on the grounds Meghan lived there while filming legal drama Suits

They recently gave the public a unique glimpse into their 2017 trip, sharing stunning never-before-seen photos on their new Instagram account.

One of the moving shots shows the royal couple tending to a large bull elephant in the bush, equipping him with a satellite collar.

Their Royal Highnesses were assisting Dr. Mike Chase of Elephants Without Borders, who is working to protect elephant populations by tracking their movements.

Harry was rumoured to have proposed in Botswana, and Meghan's engagement ring includes a center diamond from the country, which is cushioned by two smaller diamonds from Princess Diana's collection.

It is believed they fell in love on a safari in Botswana, and Meghan and Harry even returned there for the former actress' 36th birthday two years ago (pictured)

Although this is unlikely to be decided until next year, The Sunday Times report the role is likely to be in Africa because of the couple's ties there. Pictured: Harry in Lesotho on his gap year in 2004

Meghan and Harry are said to have a close connection to Africa, and have travelled together and separately to the continent, picture: Meghan in Rwanda in 2017

On Meghan's first ever wildlife safari, the couple watched the sunset behind a spectacular vista of acacia thorn trees and green-backed herons fishing in the river.

Prince Harry also spent a gap year in Lesotho back in 2004. He once described it as his 'second home'.

A spokesman for the royal family didn't deny the reports and said: 'Any future plans for The Duke and Duchess are speculative at this stage. No decisions have been taken about future roles.

'The Duke will continue to fulfil his role as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador.'The Duchess of Cambridge was in high spirits today as she joined the Royal Family for an Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel in Windsor.

Kate, 37, who wore a recycled lilac Alexander McQueen coat dress, beamed as she greeted her grandmother-in-law with a curtsey outside the chapel.

She previously wore the gown to another Easter service in 2014 while on a three-week tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Smiling at her husband Prince William, 36, the royal looked radiant as she stepped into church in high heeled court shoes which matched her grey fascinator.

The Duchess of Cambridge was in high spirits today as she joined the royal family for an Easter Sunday service at St. George's Chapel in Windsor

Kate, 37, who wore a recycled lilac Alexander McQueen coat dress, beamed as she walked into the service with the Royal Family

She's aged well! Kate previously wore the gown to another Easter service in 2014 while on a three-week tour of Australia and New Zealand. Left: Kate today, right: Kate in 2014 at St Andrew's chapel in Sydney

Keeping jewellery to a minimum, the mother-of-three opted for just her wedding ring and statement dangling Robinson Pelham earrings, that she first wore on her wedding day.

She also wore a stunning diamond and pearl oak leaf and acorn brooch, which she first debuted in May 2012 during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations

Kate decided to keep her dark hair down and loose in her signature look, and she appeared delighted as she smiled at her husband's cousin, Zara Tindall.

Making the most of the sunny weather, Kate kept her legs bare and opted for a minimal make-up look, complementing her outfit with a grey Emmy London bag.

Kate decided to keep her dark hair down and loose in her signature look, and she appeared delighted as she smiled at her husband's cousin, Zara Tindall

The mother-of-three beamed as she greeted her grandmother-in-law with a curtsey outside the chapel

Making the most of the sunny weather, Kate kept her legs bare and opted for a minimal make-up look, complementing her outfit with a grey Emmy London bag

The Duchess sported a dark eyeshadow and black mascara, keeping her lips natural.

Elizabeth II, who has a strong faith and is also celebrating her 93rd birthday today, usually celebrates Easter at Windsor Castle by joining members of her family at a service in St George's Chapel.

Later today at Buckingham Palace, the Band of the Irish Guards will perform a rendition of Happy Birthday in her honour on the forecourt as part of the Changing of the Guard ceremony.

Kate wore a stunning diamond and pearl oak leaf and acorn brooch, which she first debuted in May 2012 during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations

Keeping jewellery to a minimum, the mother-of-three opted for just her wedding ring and statement dangling Robinson Pelham earrings, that she first wore on her wedding day (right)

William and Kate couldn't keep their eyes off each other as they made a rare appearance without their children today

The Queen looked radiant in a duck egg blue ensemble today as she celebrated her 93rd birthday at an Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel

Also in attendance was Prince Harry, who walked alongside his aunt Princess Anne as his wife Meghan Markle, who is expected to give birth imminently, was nowhere to be seen.

Princess Beatrice arrived on the arm of her father Prince Andrew, wearing a blue embellished dress by Claire Mischevani and a copper cocktail hat by London milliner Juliette Botterill.

Like Kate, Zara Tindall also opted for a coat dress style, with a complimentary pale pink felt cocktail hat by Sarah Cant. Her former rugby player husband matched his tie to his wife's pink accessories.

Like Kate, Zara Tindall also opted for a coat dress style, with a complimentary pale pink felt cocktail hat by Sarah Cant. Her former rugby player husband matched his tie to his wife's pink accessories.

Both Zara, right, and Kate, left, opted for chic coat dress styles, with Zara choosing a neutral cream shade which she teamed with pink accessories

The Tindalls (back) and the Cambridges (front) talked outside the service, the two couples are close and have children the same age

In attendance to celebrate the Queen's birthday were (from front): the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Beatrice, Prince Andrew, Zara and Mike Tindall, Peter Phillips, Lady Louisa Windsor and Sophie, Countess of Wessex

Prince Harry leans over to exchange a few words with Mike Tindall, Kate and William as they await the Queen's arrival

Sophie, Countess of Wessex sported a patterned dress, as she was joined by Prince Edward, Lady Louisa Windsor and James, Viscount Severn.

Pregnant Meghan, 37, who is expected to give birth any day now, was absent from the service. She and Harry released a statement last Thursday explaining the decision, revealing that they will also not be sharing any of the plans surrounding the birth, such as the date or the location.

Earlier today the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent birthday wishes to Her Majesty, writing on Instagram: 'Happy Birthday Your Majesty, Ma'am, Granny. Wishing you the most wonderful day! Harry & Meghan.'Take That FlyDSA Arena, Sheffield

Touring to June 8, live in cinemas that night

Rating:

A word of advice for any younger pop stars who may be reading: go on tour with Rick Astley. The man is the support act from heaven. Im here, he tells 13,000 Take That fans, to warm your voices up.

And he does, by whizzing through a handful of hits, culminating, of course, with Never Gonna Give You Up. He even hollers enjoy Take That over the big drum-roll ending.

You wonder why Take That havent invited Astley to join them. Hes northern, normal and no-nonsense, and they have vacancies.

Take That's tour is called Greatest Hits Live, maintaining a long tradition of interchangeable titles. Not that it matters. Fans come for the memories and stay for the spectacle

Robbie Williams is off again  playing Las Vegas and heading for Hyde Park, London, in July  and Jason Orange quietly quit five years ago. But even three-fifths of Take That remain a huge draw: they are doing 27 shows in British arenas, plus nine in stadiums.

The tour is called Greatest Hits Live, maintaining a long tradition of interchangeable titles. Not that it matters. Take That fans come for the memories and stay for the spectacle.

This show revolves around a 30-ton orb that can be a giant logo, a video screen, a glitterball or a spaceship. Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen arrive strapped into it, all in a row, like Lego astronauts.

IT'S A FACT When Robbie Williams rejoined Take That in 2010, their album Progress became the fastest-selling album of the 21st century. Advertisement

Theyre wearing tracksuits in an alarming shade of blue. Later, there will be smoking jackets and comically baggy trousers. The costumes, like the covers (Barry Manilow, Tavares, Dan Hartman), celebrate the Seventies. With Barlows own songs harking back to the Nineties and Noughties, this is nostalgia cubed.

The design, by Kim Gavin, is very 2019, with a distinct look for each track, itching to be on Instagram. Confetti, fireworks, dance troupe, motorbikes: check.

The orb even delivers Lulu, apparently kidnapped en route to a festival, in her kaftan and shades. She dutifully belts out Shout and Relight My Fire.

The set list is the Odyssey album in full, 25 oldies pepped up by the disco producer Stuart Price. Several songs seem skimpy for greatest hits, and the Bee Gees How Deep Is Your Love dwarfs everything bar Back For Good, but again, it barely matters.

Take That are all-round entertainers now, suppliers of smiles to middle England  which needs them more than ever.

takethat.com

THIS WEEK'S CD RELEASES

By Adam Woods

Peter Doherty Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres Out Friday

Rating:

Pete Dohertys first album (self-titled) with his new band begins with a song so pretty that youre promptly disarmed. And theres more. His band, all starry-eyed strumming and spindly violin, recall a sort of gypsy Velvet Underground, while Doherty reels off reminders of his very real talent

Bananarama In Stereo Out now

Rating:

Its back to the long-standing duo of Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward. Theyre still singing in unison, but now its over stylish electronic pop of the Kraftwerk/Moroder variety. And its a pretty classy look, with songs such as Love In Stereo and Tonight up among their best

The Cranberries In The End Out Friday

Rating:

Dolores ORiordan died last year but had co-written 11 songs for this. Her bandmates and producer Stephen Street wrap a soft cocoon of guitars around her relaxed, understated vocals, and the new tunes have the lilting, melancholic qualities that made the band one of the Nineties best

Lizzo Cuz I Love You Out now

Rating:A German Life

Bridge Theatre, London Until May 11, 1hr 40mins

Rating:

Dame Maggie Smith is back on stage for the first time in 12 years  and this 84-year-old isnt on light duties either. Shes talking solidly and alone for 100 minutes, no interval, no understudy.

And she hasnt done a solo show in this country since 1996, when she appeared in one of Alan Bennetts Talking Heads as an alcoholic vicars wife who takes solace in the arms of an Asian grocer. That remains one of my most treasured theatre memories.

Now she is alone again: dressed in blue, playing an ancient German woman who during the war was close to one of the great monsters of the Third Reich.

Dame Maggie Smith is back on stage for the first time in 12 years in Christopher Hampton's play where she plays Brunhilde Pomsel, secretary to the Nazi minister Joseph Goebbels

This is the tale of Brunhilde Pomsel, secretary to the propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Dame Maggie has thus demoted herself from Downton Abbeys grand dowager to a nobody Nazi typist. (Theres a comedown not to be envied, you can hear Lady Grantham waspishly commenting.)

Yet even at her age, Smith is arguably too young for the part. Pomsel was 105 when she spoke about her life, the transcript being the basis for a 2016 Austrian film documentary on which Christopher Hampton based this play, directed by Jonathan Kent.

Pomsel died two years ago at 106  not before time, one might well think of the crinkly crone who helped oil the Nazi war machine.

IT'S A FACT Dame Maggie Smith was having chemotherapy for breast cancer while filming Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince. Advertisement

But heres the fascinating thing: Pomsel claims she didnt know what was going on. The camps, the persecutions and so forth  she knew next to nothing. She portrays herself as a woman simply swept along by events, like everyone else.

She tells us about her family, her Nazi boyfriend Heinz, her Jewish friend Eva, and about Goebbels, who never once smiled.

He had a pink bed in a penthouse where he entertained starlets. Tiny, chatty details form a mosaic of German life before and during the Nazi era.

By 1945, Goebbels is toast. Pomsel emerges from Hitlers bunker and is arrested by the Russians and imprisoned for five years.

This is a terrific performance from a truly dazzling artist. But even with Dame Maggie in it, Hamptons play feels too ambiguous and sedate to fizz fully

Clutching her specs, Smith plays the hesitancy and the memory lapses of geriatric recollection superbly. You wont make me feel guilty, she at one point lets slip.

The historian A J P Taylor once defined oral history as old men drooling about their youth. I felt at times the same about Pomsel. She struck me as an unrepentant, mendacious drooler who late in the day wanted to clear her shrivelled conscience.

This is a terrific performance from a truly dazzling artist. But even with Dame Maggie in it, Hamptons play feels too ambiguous and sedate to fizz fully.

Three Sisters

Almeida Theatre, London Until June 1, 3hrs

Rating:

Patsy Ferran  who won the Best Actress Olivier award for her work in Tennessee Williamss Summer And Smoke  is here reunited with director Rebecca Frecknall in this new, modernised version of Chekhovs great play about a family whose dreams are slowly devastated.

Ferran plays Olga, the eldest of the sisters, all festering away in the sticks, yearning to get to Moscow. Poor Olga would love to be married: any man, even an old man if he had asked.

The soldiers have come to town and her moody sister Masha (Pearl Chanda) falls utterly for the married Major Vershinin. The baby sister Irina (a wonderfully spontaneous Ria Zmitrowicz) is on the cusp of emotional meltdown.

Cordelia Lynn new, modernised version of Chekhov's great play works... up to a point. Too much goes missing although Ria Zmitrowicz (above) is wonderfully spontaneous as Irina

Cordelia Lynns sweary, very youthful adaptation tries to avoid the plays Russian heritage and ends up a story of heartbroken North London millennials. It works  up to a point.

Fans of Fleabag will spot how Chekhov is the sisterly source of the TV hit. But too much goes missing: the heart-throb Vershinin (Peter McDonald) is devoid of military glamour. Tuzenbach is so faintly sketched (by Shubham Saraf) hes virtually absent.

Andrey (Freddie Meredith), the girls feckless brother, sulks as if hes in some other play.

Elliot Levey, as Mashas bore of a husband, is very funny, and theres good work from Alan Williams as the drunken doctor.

Its a long-haul evening of impressive stage effects and weather events, a haunting song and emotional hug-ins. As for Ferran, shes a tender presence, if underused.

Handbagged 2hrs 20mins

Salisbury Playhoure; York Theatre Royal Wednesday to May 11

Rating:

Eve Matheson (above with Andy Secombe) plays the young Mrs Thatcher in Handbagged

In Moira Buffinis mischievous comedy, you hear what the Queen and the PM might have said at their weekly briefings during Margaret Thatchers 11 years in power from 1979.

The pair are played by two actors each. Susan Penhaligons older Queen is pitted against Sarah Crowdens cold, imperious Mrs T. The show recycles the idea that the Queen once referred to her as that bloody woman.

This play clearly has it in for Mrs T the Milk Snatcher, and turns the Queen into a proto- Corbynista.

Caroline Harker and Eve Matheson play Q and Ts younger selves in this canter through the Falklands, the miners strike and poll tax.

Walk-on parts  among them Arthur Scargill and the Reagans  are divvied up by Jahvel Hall and Andy Secombe. It all feels protracted but has enough funny insights to keep you from flagging.





West Side Story

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester Until May 25, 2hrs 30mins

Rating:

This is the first time West Side Story has been staged without Jerome Robbinss original choreography  and it springs, liberated, around the Royal Exchanges circular stage.

Aletta Collinss new moves arent actually a million miles away from the old familiar finger-clicks but they have a vigour that suits the story of gang violence, and the spiralling, intermingling movements of the Jets and the Sharks ignite the room.

This may be artistic director Sarah Frankcoms first musical, but you can feel how well she understands this space.

In this newly-choreography production of West Side Story, Gabriela Garcia is a guileless, forthright Maria and Andy Coxon (above with Garcia) oozes easy charm as Tony

Gabriela Garcia is a guileless, forthright Maria, her impressive voice taking the part into operatic territory; Andy Coxon has easy charm as Tony; and Jocasta Almgill commands attention as Anita. Anna Fleischles minimalist scaffolding set is suggestive but unobtrusive.

Leonard Bernsteins sublime score sounds terrific, played by an out-of-sight full live band. Only occasionally  as in an underpowered America  does the comparatively small cast feel lacking, and despite a tense fight scene, overall this doesnt feel as dangerous as a newly minted production might.

But it is a treat to see such a classic in such intimate close-up.

Holly Williams

In The Willows

Oxford Playhouse Touring to June 8, 2hrs 10mins

Rating:

Is Kenneth Grahames 1908 novel about riverbank creatures obvious source material for a hip-hop musical about disadvantaged, dance-loving teenagers? No.

Does Poppy Burton-Morgans production convincingly mash up the pastoral and the urban? Not really. Does that matter? Not a jot.

In The Willows is a terrific new musical. The street dancing is crisp and convincing, the music appropriately bass-heavy, beat-driven and catchy, while the fast-spat lyrics are witty.

Victoria Boyce (above with Harry Jardine as Toad) is relatable as the shy, awkward Mole in this terrific new musical adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's novel

The story of a troubled young girl learning to find her voice is moving, with a strong message of social justice and inclusion, even if it strains to fit Grahames story.

There are cute nods to the novel as the riverbank becomes a nightclub.

Victoria Boyce is relatable as the shy, awkward Mole, while Zara MacIntosh stands out as the street-smart Rattie, and Clive Rowe lends weight as their teacher, Badger.

Holly Williams

inthewillows.info

Night Of The Living Dead LIVE!

The Pleasance, London Until June 8, 2hrs

Rating:

How do you adapt a horror cult classic for the stage? This productions answer is smarter than it appears.

The first half is a broad, comic pastiche of the 1968 movie, in which a group of strangers largely fail to see off flesh-eating zombies. It works, just about, although the humour is hit-and-miss and  disappointingly  its not remotely scary.

The second half, however, offers a series of increasingly frenetic, absurd alternative endings.

This stage adaptation of the cult horror film effectively apes the movie's look with grey set, costumes & face paint (above: Marc Pickering and Ashley Samuels) but it's not remotely scary

You know when you want to shout Dont go in the cellar! at the screen during a horror movie? This gives the characters a chance to try alternative survival tactics, but they fail in ever-more-spectacular fashion, reaffirming the theme that the real threat often comes from within.

It also allows the cast to send up the prejudices of 1968: racism, sexism and unthinking patriotism each get roundly mocked.

Grey set, costumes and face paint effectively ape the movies black-and-white look. Shame, then, that director Benji Sperring also has audience members sitting on stage, ruining that colour scheme with their living flesh  as well as often getting in the way of the action.

Holly WilliamsEdvard Munch: Love And Angst

British Museum, London Until July 21

Rating:

Its fair to say Edvard Munchs most famous art-work is considerably more famous than he is. In fact, as the Norwegians name recedes further and further into the past, his painting The Scream constantly takes on new life.

In recent months, its anguished subject  hands on head, eyes wide open, and mouth letting out a yell  has inspired countless cartoonists reflecting on the Brexit process.

A superb exhibition of Munchs prints at the British Museum, however, makes clear there was a lot more to Munch than The Scream.

You may think that an exhibition dedicated to prints would lack colour. But this superb show of Edvard Munch's art is anything but dull as vibrant works such as Vampire II (1896, above) prove

Born in 1863, he lost his mother aged five and elder sister Sophie aged 15 (both to tuberculosis). As an adult, he had long battles with alcoholism and agoraphobia  and never married.

Munch held little back when it came to expressing his woes in art. Yet, as with Van Gogh, the effect is haunting or electrifying rather than depressing. In The Sick Child, Sophie is depicted on her deathbed, her lifeless face so drained of colour it all but merges with the white pillow beneath her.

Thinking Norway too small for his artistic ambitions, Munch moved to Berlin in the 1890s, and it was there he made his first prints. He became popular with Germans, and demand for his pictures soon grew so high that he started producing them in large numbers.

On the evidence of this shows works, Munch (Self-Portrait, 1895, above) was a print-maker of the very first rank. Id even go so far as to say his prints are more compelling than his paintings

The exhibition includes a lithograph version of The Scream. Its based on the painting of the same name but differs in certain key ways. For a start, its in black and white.

Much of the paintings power derives from the piercingly red colour of the sky, matching the piercing scream of its subject. The print, by contrast, relies on the clouds to make much of its impact: they look like huge waves and, as such, suggest scream-worthy waves of sound.

Prints exhibitions often fail to attract a big crowd because of their lack of colour. It should be said, though, that  The Scream aside  Munchs prints are full of colour. One suspects the orange hair of the woman biting her lovers neck in Vampire II could be seen from 100 yards away.

The exhibition also includes a lithograph version of The Scream (1895, above). Its based on the painting of the same name but differs in certain key ways

Munch was a highly innovative print-maker, sometimes using different techniques in the creation of a single image (Vampire II is a mixture of woodcut and lithograph).

For those interested in learning about his methods, there are helpful wall-texts throughout. However, even for those who arent, the revelations come thick and fast.

Certain woodcut prints, for example, look like tree trunks with a picture superimposed on them. Munch loved to exploit the grainy texture of the woodblocks with which he made them.

On the evidence of this shows 83 works, Munch was a print-maker of the very first rank. Id even go so far as to say his prints are more compelling than his paintings.

They really are something to scream about.

ALSO WORTH SEEING

Painting Childhood: From Holbein To Freud

Compton Verney, Warwickshire Until June 16

Rating:

Robert Peakes 1605 portrait of Henry Prince of Wales is on display in Painting Childhood

All artists were once children. Which is why, perhaps, such an eclectic grouping of Murillo, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hogarth, Millais and more can sit so well together in this intriguing and occasionally heart-wrenching show.

It covers more than 500 years of art, but its stars are Van Dycks The Five Eldest Children Of Charles I, and an on-loan sketch by Holbein of Henry VIIIs infant son Edward: the boys eyes are detailed, intense and alive. He would become King Edward VI but died aged only 15.

The tension between sweet and disturbing gives this show its energy. It veers from Millaiss sugary Bubbles, used to sell Pears soap, to the leering children in Judith Leysters Boy And A Girl With A Cat And An Eel.

And pause for a moment in front of Winterhalters Albert Edward, Prince Of Wales: the future Edward VII has been forced into a sailor suit and ringlets and he doesnt look too happy.

You might have had a tough childhood, but at least Queen Victoria wasnt your mum.

Michael HodgesTurkey will begin negotiations on purchase of the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets with Russia. The Defense News publication published a sensational report, noting that this can happen if the United States will move on with plans to not deliver the F-35 fighter jets (also of the fifth generation) to Turkey due to purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems.

"Russian jets will be our best choice if the US allies don't behave as allies and exclude Turkey from the Joint Strike Fighter program, which also involves the sale of F-35," Defense News reported citing anonymous representative of the Turkish Defense Ministry.

It seems that Ankara is taking a stand here - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided to be consistent in confrontation with his American counterpart Donald Trump, thanks to that he received compliments from politicians of various levels who are dissatisfied with traditional American activities in everything. In particular, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko praised Erdogans resilience in an interview with the Anadolu agency, calling decision to acquire the S-400 systems, despite the White House's pressure, an example of upholding national interests above everything else.

The fact that Ankara will move on with purchase of Russian anti-aircraft missile systems was confirmed by Turkish publication Yeni Akit. It reports that Moscow has completed all legal procedures related not only to the S-400, but also to sale of the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets, and Ankara, in turn, is allegedly in favor of buying Russian jets.

Commenting on current situation, some experts suggest that Turkey itself is interested in going against the United States when it comes to purchase of the F-35 fighter jets. Reasons may vary - from obvious high costs to some kind of political price of this project. Moreover, the United States, faced with Turkey's attitude, also think about feasibility of producing parts and spare parts for these fighter jets, which will then be sold to this country. According to available data some part of the F-35 jets are already being produced near Turkey. Planned construction of warehouses for them is under consideration. Most alarmist-minded American politicians thinks about stopping production of these fighter jets in their current version, believing that Ankara can give Moscow access to secrets of these jets.

There are other circumstances surrounding changes in relations between Ankara and Washington and Turkey's rapprochement with Russia. There's an attempted military coup in 2016 and completely different roles Russia and the United States played in that situation. In addition, there's also Washingtons absolute reluctance to hand over preacher Fethullah Gulen to Ankara, who is considered instigator of this failed coup.

Relations between Ankara and Moscow are also not trouble-free. After 2015, when Turkish forces shot down Russian Su-24 jet and ejected pilot was shot dead, and there were talks about inevitable military clash. This crisis, however, was resolved peacefully, largely due to Russia's help during unsuccessful coup - Erdogan came to Moscow to personally thank Russian leadership for this. Nevertheless, there are serious contradictions between Turkey and Russia on Syrian issue.

Just like there were no eternal alliances in the history of mankind, there were no eternal enmity. It looks like as of today Turkey is leaning towards choosing Moscow instead of Washington. But no one can predict for how long will this political vector continue.Machines Like Me

Ian McEwan

Jonathan Cape 18.99

Rating:

After Britain lost the Falklands War  who can forget Mrs Thatchers regretful I take it on my shoulders speech?  Tony Benn led Labour to Election victory, only to be killed soon afterwards in the Brighton bombing. Meanwhile, President Carter was elected for a second term, defeating the now largely forgotten Republican contender Ronald Reagan.

Around that same time, all four Beatles got back together. Sadly, their new album, Love And Lemons, was widely criticised for its lush sentimentality. People thought they might have done better without the help of an 80-strong symphony orchestra.

Will robots ever be capable of feeling true emotion? This is a question thats often been tackled in science fiction, most notably in Blade Runner and in the ingenious Ex Machina

It takes very little for the future to be altered. As Ian McEwans narrator points out in this sublimely playful novel, the present is the frailest of improbable constructs. It could have been different.

McEwan has created an oddity: a science fiction novel set not in the future but in a recent past, subtly and not-so-subtly altered to incorporate events that might have happened, had chance taken a different turn.

This has been done before, of course. Numerous films and books have toyed with alternative realities set in the present day. Perhaps the most famous of them all is Its A Wonderful Life, in which the Jimmy Stewart character is shown how different his community would have been had he never been born.

Robert Harriss Fatherland, which was set in a post-war Britain ruled over by a victorious Third Reich, with King Edward and Queen Wallis on the throne, even included a reference to a group of young Liverpudlians playing to packed audiences in Hamburg, being condemned by Berlin music critic for their pernicious, Negroid wailings.

Most of the key alterations in McEwans revised world derive from the perfectly possible reversal of a single decision.

In 1952, Alan Turing, the computer scientist whose code-breaking work may well have shortened the war by two years, saving millions of lives, was prosecuted for homosexual acts. He was then given the choice of chemical castration, or a term in prison. He chose chemical castration, a punishment that caused psychological damage, which led to his suicide two years later.

But what if he had chosen a term in prison? McEwan imagines him thriving there, and then living for many more decades, feted by the great and the good, his brilliant inventions, not least with robots, transforming our world for better or worse.

IT'S A FACT Ford has built a robot that mimics the effect of a fat, sweaty man sitting on its car seats. The name of the robot? Robutt. Advertisement

In 1982, McEwans flaky hero, Charlie Friend, spends an inheritance of 86,000 on one of only 25 new robots. These robots are as close to fully functional replicas of human beings as they could possibly be, so much so that they are hard to tell apart. Thirteen of this first edition are female, and 12 male. They can be programmed both for character and sexual preference. By the end of the first week, all the Eves had sold out, writes McEwan, who maintains this level of sly fun throughout the book, even when things begin to turn very dark.

Most elements of Britain in the Eighties are left intact. The robot  Adam  comes with a 470-page handbook. Once brought back to the home, he takes 16 hours to charge, and then requires a further six hours a night connected to a 13-amp socket. His breath smells like the back of a warm TV set. He couldnt drive as yet and was not allowed to swim or shower or go out in the rain without an umbrella, or operate a chainsaw unsupervised. Furthermore, he urinates once a day, in the late morning.

On the other hand, he has a perfect memory. He can record every moment of his existence, and has a phenomenal ability to learn, zipping through the entire works of Shakespeare in a matter of minutes, then remembering every word. And he is a dab hand at domestic chores, too. Cover the chicken with tinfoil. From the size of it Id say 70 minutes at 180, he chips in when Charlie is dithering over his Sunday roast.

But, inevitably, things soon go haywire. As a general rule, the whole point of robots in fiction is to suffer malfunctions. First, the perfectly formed Adam has a torrid affair with Charlies young girlfriend Miranda, and then he falls in love with her. Understandably, this enrages Charlie, who refuses to believe that Adams feelings for her are authentic. His erotic life was a simulacrum, he complains. He cared for her as a dishwasher cares for its dishes.

But is this so? Will robots ever be capable of feeling true emotion? This is a question thats often been tackled in science fiction, most notably in Blade Runner, and, more recently, in the ingenious Ex Machina. As McEwan points out: Alan Turing himself had often said and written in his youth that the moment we couldnt tell the difference in behaviour between machine and person was when we must confer humanity on the machine.

McEwan tackles this fascinating question, and many more. Can human beings, with all our in-built emotional shortcomings, self-delusions, and moral inconsistencies ever be duplicated by machines? And, if not, how can robots ever be expected to navigate their clear-cut ways through such a higgledy-piggledy universe?

Like quite a few McEwan novels, this one is a little over-egged. Plot is piled upon plot, so that there are soon plots galore, each one contriving to make the others less plausible.

The presence in a household of an over-sensitive robot  and, moreover, an over-sensitive robot capable of inflicting severe injury  is one of a number of competing storylines. Another involves a child that Miranda is anxious to adopt, another her ailing father, who cant tell Adam from Charlie, and yet another Mirandas involvement in a historical rape case, and her fear of retribution at the hands of the rapist.

Meanwhile, Charlie is plotting to disable Adam, and, for one reason or another, Adams fellow robots are fast losing their will to live. On top of all this, the little details of our known world are overturned: Tolstoys most famous novel is called Alls Well That Ends Well, electric cars can travel 1,000 miles on a single charge, and people argue about what would have happened if Argentina had lost the Falklands War. Its a lot to take on board.

In the end, McEwan deftly manages to weave these various strands together, but there are times when he comes close to testing the capacity of the reader to suspend disbelief.

McEwan deftly manages to weave these various strands together, but there are times when he comes close to testing the capacity of the reader to suspend disbelief

McEwan is, above all, a novelist of ideas, and this can lead to a conflict. From time to time, the ideas are at odds with the novel. In robot terms, a novel is a simulacrum of messy real life, and it can find it uncomfortable to accommodate shiny, steely new ideas. In this, he sometimes reminds me of Iris Murdoch, with her fierce intelligence, creating characters who think and act in a way that is strangely unreal.

McEwan would probably argue that it was never his intention to create an earnest work of naturalism, and that Machines Like Me is intended as a medley of skilfully interweaved fairy tales for the computer age. He certainly succeeds in this: there isnt a page that fails to make you think, or make you smile  and often he manages both at the same time.Alex Michaelides has just flown in to London from the US, where his first novel has become a publishing sensation. The Silent Patient has gone to No 1 in The New York Times bestsellers list and the film rights have been bought by Brad Pitt. Everyone is talking about it. Its unbelievable, says the Cypriot-born author. Absolutely incredible.

Alex Michaelides's first novel has become a publishing sensation. The Silent Patient has gone to No 1 in The New York Times bestsellers list and everyone is talking about it

It will become all the more incredible when Michaelides explains the genesis of his book, a story that involves Uma Thurman, Agatha Christie, the Turkish army and the 41-year-olds early struggles with intense psychological problems. Dont they say that happy childhoods are not conducive to writing? he asks. When I was younger I lived in a state of constant unease. One psychoanalyst has called it nameless dread. It means living your life feeling anxious and not knowing why.

Nameless dread haunts the pages of The Silent Patient, a tense psychological thriller, obsessive love story and murder mystery that begins with the death of 44-year-old fashion photographer Gabriel Berenson in his north London home, apparently shot repeatedly in the face by Alicia, his younger artist wife.

Alicia refuses to talk during a murder trial that attracts worldwide attention, and continues her silence when she is placed in a secure psychological unit. Then a young psychotherapist, Theo Faber, decides to make Alicia speak. By the end of the book, which youre likely to read in one sitting, we have learnt as much about Theo as we have about Alicias silence.

At school in Cyprus I was fascinated by Euripidess myth of Alcestis, Michaelides says. She died to save her husband and then, when she was brought back from death, she wouldnt speak to him. Thats so unsettling and I never forgot it.

Michaelides was born in Nicosia in 1977, three years after the Turkish invasion of the island. We were brought up with propaganda about the Turks and the threat of another invasion, he says. As a child you lived with that fear. I was always quite scared, always on edge.

He attended the English School in Nicosia, where he was deeply unpopular with his peers. I was bullied badly because I just wanted to read books, he says. When I was 12 I received a letter signed by the entire class saying, We hate you. Psychological stuff is really hard to recover from, it leaves you for ever distrustful.

Then, when Michaelides was 13, everything changed. I discovered Agatha Christie, he says. I read the lot in one summer and it was probably the happiest experience of my life.

Michaelides left Cyprus to read English at Cambridge, then took an MA in screenwriting in Los Angeles. But he still carried his burden of anxiety. From the age of 20 he was in therapy, and in his early 30s he decided to train as a psychotherapist, working at a mental health unit in London. The institution appears, lightly disguised, in The Silent Patient. The place was crumbling, there was just no funding, he says. But it did wonderful work. We took kids who were scared and lost, and put them in a functioning community that healed them.

The Silent Patient (Orion, 12.99) is out now

Not long after that Michaelides stopped having the therapy which, increasingly, hed been finding distressing. There came a moment when I just got up and said something pretentious like, I feel like Ive been abused and I paid for the privilege. It was an awful moment, but it felt good to go out the door.

He had learnt that not all therapists are seekers of truth and light, an insight that is central to the plot of The Silent Patient.

He returned to scriptwriting. I did a film called The Brits Are Coming. We had Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Stephen Fry and Sofia Vergara. Uma and I became good friends. She transformed me as a writer. She would say, Its not EastEnders, every scene has to be an attempt at an iconic image. 

Michaelides showed Thurman an early draft of The Silent Patient. She said, The first time we meet Alicia she cant just be standing there, maybe shes slashed her wrists. And she should be a painter, because if she doesnt speak she can communicate that way, we can get inside her head. So I rewrote the whole book.

The result has been picked up in 44 countries around the world. His career could hardly be in a better place, but what about Michaelides himself? Has the anxiety finally gone? Maybe Ill always be a slightly anxious person, but Im much better than I used to be.

The Silent Patient (Orion, 12.99) is out nowHawksmoor

5A Air Street, Piccadilly, London W1

Rating:

Sometimes, when the deluge of institutional stupidity threatens to drown the archipelago of common sense, when civilised debate and common courtesy seem but ancient relics, when the weary travails of the daily grind become too much to bear, the soul seeks higher sustenance. But not for me the solace of the pulpit, nor the gurus honeyed words, rather something altogether more earthy. A primal urge, born of gloomy caves and flickering fires, the fruit of the chase, the sizzle of auroch fat over glowing coals. The eternal allure of steak.

Hawksmoor, with its slick but learned service, the clubby but not overly macho rooms, the admirable ethos of employment, the absolute consistency of the meat

All right, so a slab of expertly aged cow, cooked rare, can bring out the mock heroic in us all. Vegetarians, of course, excepted. But decent steak is a relatively rare thing, its creation a complex, nuanced balancing act of breed, feed, age and butchery. I tend to crave the robust, mineral-flecked chew of the grass-fed beast, although grain-raised cattle, so beloved by Americans, do have a sweet, tender, buttery allure of their own. And its a dish I cook at home too, ideally outside, over charcoal. Failing that, a cast-iron pan, heated until it glows with the fury of Vesuvius, to which a steak (preferably rump or sirloin) is introduced, anointed with a slick of good oil and lavished with a fistful of salt. A couple of minutes each side, a decent rest to let all those fibres relax, then a sharp knife and a great splodge of mustard. English, French, Polish. Anything with kick and honk.

But to go out to eat steak. Well, thats a whole different matter. Its something to be taken rather seriously, a mission rather than a whim. This is not the time for risks, to gamble with the new and untested. Good steak will always cost good cash. Because the hard work of the farmer should be justly rewarded. And while the likes of Goodman and The Guinea Grill will never let you down, its to Hawskmoor that I invariably turn. The slick but learned service, the clubby but not overly macho rooms, the admirable ethos of employment, the absolute consistency of the meat. In Air Street, just off Piccadilly, they have fish too. Damned fine fish. Under the wise and learned eye of no less a master than Mitch Tonks. The turbot is a thing of piscine beauty, but tonight its all about the turf. The walls are wood-panelled, the hubbub thick enough to spread on toast, the lights alluringly low. This is a place to sink into and escape, a place of gentle carnivorous worship. Potted beef, sealed with a lid of butter, has the depth and consistency of slow-cooked stew. You pile the soft strands into Yorkshire pudding and drench in proper onion gravy.

Theres no need for endless chat about breed, or how long it has been aged, because at places like Hawksmoor, they know their stuff

Sides are suitably robust. Janssons Temptation, that Swedish symphony of cream, sprats and onion  no re-imaginings here, just creamy, pointedly saline stodge; an immaculately dressed soft lettuce salad, with a scattering of tender herbs, as quintessentially English as Elgar in a well-mannered queue; the sort of macaroni cheese thats more cheese than macaroni. With the sort of luscious stringiness last seen in the final scene of Asterix In Switzerland. Only the beef fries fail to please. Suitably dripping with flavour, but a touch undercooked.

No such problems with the beef, a vast 120g slab of Chateaubriand, cooked the rarer side of pink. Exactly as we want. Theres no need for endless chat about breed, or how long it has been aged, because at places like Hawksmoor, they know their stuff. Have faith. Theres a serious char to the exterior, a deep bovine base note, and a long, languorous depth that lingers long after the last bite has gone. This cow did not die in vain. In short, steak as both succour and high art, in a restaurant that never lets you down.

About 60 per headChimerica

Wednesday, Channel 4

Rating:

Ghosts

Monday, BBC1

Rating:

My prediction, for what its worth, which may be very little, is that Chimerica will go the way of Collateral and Little Drummer Girl and McMafia and MotherFatherSon and other dramas of that kind. That is, it will attract a good audience for the first episode but then the viewing figures will fall off a cliff. These dramas are all big in scope, and often take us halfway around the world, but theyre often more interested in their own importance than they are in supplying drama. Wheres the hook? Wheres the incentive to return next week? Perhaps it would be helpful if, at the outset, we were told who or what we should care about  and why. One can admire these prestige productions, and can maybe hang on if theyre sufficiently cuckoo (see MotherFatherSon) but feel them? Very rarely.

Alessandro Nivola in Chimerica. Wheres the hook? Wheres the incentive to return next week? Perhaps it would be helpful if we were told who or what we should care about  and why

The first episode of this four-parter did, admittedly, open excitingly, with Lee, a young, wannabe photojournalist holed up in a room in Beijing in 1989, fearfully looking out of the window. Below him is Tiananmen Square, where a massacre is unfolding. Then, a single man appears, carrying two grocery bags, who stands in front of a procession of tanks. Snap. Lee takes the money shot but theres a banging on his door. Chinese soldiers. Lee quickly strips down his camera and hides the film in the toilet cistern. The troops barge in, guns pointed. They do not find the film even though one of the solders avails himself of the facilities and then tries to flush, which seemed unlikely, I have to say. Wouldnt you hold it in if you were a soldier mid-raid with gun pointed? But the main thing is that the photo survives and history is born.

Adapted by Lucy Kirkwood from her own play, which won an Olivier Award, this combines true elements (that photo) with fiction and next spools forwards to 2016. Lee, now played by Alessandro Nivola (as a dish who is also strangely absent, as is the way with characters of this type), is a feted photojournalist but, as we see, he is disgraced once its discovered that one of his photos was faked. He believes that Tank Man, whose identity has remained a mystery, is living in New York and that if he could find him, his career would be saved. I need you to drop the story, says his editor (F Murray Abraham), somewhat predictably, before being talked round. You did have to wonder about Lees access to the editor of a major New York newspaper, particularly now hes persona non grata, but there you are. I was also wondering if we were meant to relate to Lee or have him down as a bit of a tool? As well as strangely absent? I was veering towards the latter, definitely.

Meanwhile, we are in China too, following Lees friend Zhang Lin (Terry Chen), who hallucinates that his wife, who was killed at Tiananmen, is living in his refrigerator. And there are further characters, like Mel (Cherry Jones), Lees gruff reporter sidekick, and Tess (Sophie Okonedo), who is a profiler for a credit card company and has a bunk-up with Lee in an aeroplane toilet and rips Mel off a strip when she is scornful of Tesss job. (Tesss monologue in this instance was very theatre-y.) Probably, this is building up to say something significant about wealth, fake news, Trump (hes on every television in the background) and democracy, but where is the hook? Why arent I feeling anything? I might keep watching out of curiosity, but suspect itll just be me and the cat by the end. As it is, its just me and the cat who are still keeping up with MotherFatherSon and, during this weeks episode, the cat stretched, yawned, rose and left the room. So now its just me.

I dont know if its a sign of the times but so many comedies now seem to come with a bleak edge, whereas what we most need, possibly, is silliness and, Im happy to report, Ghosts is very, very silly indeed. Its made by the same team who make Horrible Histories and its Horrible Histories does ghosts, in effect, but nothing wrong with that, as we love Horrible Histories. Odd that its on after the watershed and not earlier in the evening as it is wonderfully childish, but I suppose one of the ghosts is a Tory MP from the Nineties who isnt wearing trousers, caught forever with his pants down, which might take some explaining.

This is set in a manor house filled with the ghosts of those who once lived there, including the Tory MP, a scoutmaster with an arrow though his neck, a ridiculous poet and a Tudor who keeps losing his head. Theyve had the run of the place but now a young couple plan to turn it into a hotel, so they push the wife out of the window, and her near-death experience means she can now see the ghosts, while her husband cant you dont need to know the plot. Just that, if you are hankering after pure silliness, youve found your man.Zawe wears dress, Roksanda at Selfridges. Earrings, Kalda

Zawe Ashton bursts into the cafe where weve arranged to meet, just around the corner from the theatre in Londons West End where shes starring in the hit revival of Harold Pinters classic play Betrayal. Shes ten minutes late and full of apologies. I was in a Turkish bath and I fell asleep! she cries, pulling off her grey beanie hat. I was lying on the hot marble slab and I was so exhausted, I just shut my eyes and I was out.

Its not surprising that Zawe (her name, pronounced Zow-ee, is Ugandan) is shattered: the past few months have been a whirlwind for the actress until now best known for playing maverick student Vod in Channel 4 sitcom Fresh Meat. So far this year shes had stints in Los Angeles and at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah promoting her latest film Velvet Buzzsaw for Netflix. Returning to her native London, she had one sleep before being plunged into rehearsals for Betrayal.

Zawe is hugely entertaining company: engaged, mildly hyper (I have a very short attention span) and flamboyant. Zawe wears dress and belt, Roksanda. Sandals, Manolo Blahnik

Now the shows up and running, with rumours of a Broadway transfer. Zawe, 34, has been highly praised for her performance as Emma, the mother who has an affair with Jerry (Charlie Cox, star of Marvels Daredevil), the best friend of her husband Robert (Tom Hiddleston of The Night Manager fame). The three of us are having the time of our lives, Zawe exclaims.

Tall, in black jeans and jumper, hair tumbling over her shoulders (I look rough as hell, Im falling apart! she cries  a patent untruth), Zawe is hugely entertaining company: engaged, mildly hyper (I have a very short attention span) and flamboyant. I have to interrupt to remind her we need to discuss her book Character Breakdown: Theres so much going on, I keep forgetting the book! Zawe laughs.

Character Breakdown describes incidents in Zawes acting life, which began aged six, when she started after-school classes at the Anna Scher Theatre School. Based in North London, it wasnt far from the house where she grew up the eldest of three children of teacher parents  Cockney Paul and Ugandan-born Victoria.

The books anecdotes are variously funny, insightful and decidedly shocking. I assume they are about Zawe, but its impossible to be sure, as the book reveals no specific names (of directors, projects shes worked on or fellow actors) and is written more like a novel than an autobiography. If people call my book an actors memoir I will be very upset, Zawe says. I cant bear anything too literal, so it has elements of truth and elements of fiction sitting side by side.

Zawe with her Velvet Buzzsaw co-star Jake Gyllenhaal. It goes without saying that Zawes a feminist who thinks many women find themselves playing roles foisted upon them by society

Zawe as Vod in Channel 4s Fresh Meat, 2011. We all grew up together: it was like a second coming-of-age after university, a last hurrah, reliving that studenty joie de vivre, Zawe says

Though her tone is darkly funny, many of her anecdotes make her profession sound  frankly  grim. Girls at her comprehensive who had seen her on television  she won her first BBC role in The Demon Headmaster aged 11  bullied her so badly she had to switch school. Older actress friends tell her about work drying up once theyve passed 30 and had children.

The books protagonist is required to negotiate nudity clauses (she agrees her areola but not her nipple will be on screen) and sent to auditions where shes asked if she has a skimpier outfit and judged (and often rejected) for being too tall, too fat, too brown, too quirky, not talented, too talented Both on and off-set shes groped and abused by other actors and men claiming to want to cast her.

I just thought, Im extremely sensitive, so why am I doing a job where I get all this criticism?

For years, Zawe says shed shrugged off such incidents as part and parcel of a womans life. They were things that you dismiss, because you dont want to be deemed hysterical, she says. But now that Hollywoods started calling out such behaviour, her account packs a timely punch. It took me a while to write the book, then suddenly #MeToo and #TimesUp were happening and it took on a new resonance, she says.

Some of her experiences sound so nightmarish I ask why shes still in the profession. Why become a mother? Zawe retorts. Childbirth really hurts, its hard, but you still do it. Ive always acted, its my passion and belief system. Anyway, I did try to quit when it became too much.

That was two years ago, when Zawe was at a low point after her maternal grandfather had died: I just thought, my personality doesnt suit this any more. Im an extremely sensitive person, so why am I doing this job where I have to be hyper-aware of my face and body and get all this criticism and love from total strangers?

But just then, as is so often the way, she won her part in Velvet Buzzsaw, a Netflix-streamed horror/satire film set in an art gallery, directed by Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) and co-starring his wife Rene Russo (The Thomas Crown Affair). Rene and Dan and I became best friends and I just felt so fulfilled and valued, she smiles.

Zawe wears jacket, scarf and trousers, Roksanda. Earrings, Georgina Boyce. Her philosophy of not worrying about other peoples opinions has served Zawe well

There have been many other high points in Zawes career, not least her time in Fresh Meat, the breakout show for many stars, including comedian Jack Whitehall. We all grew up together: it was like a second coming-of-age after university, a last hurrah, reliving that studenty joie de vivre, Zawe says. Of all its characters, Zawes foul-mouthed, hard-living Vod was the standout. I could never have imagined the love people had for Vod and it was because she didnt give any f****, which was how I was at the time, she says. Zawe had a lot of input into the character, deciding to shave Vods head and choosing her trademark clumsy gait and growly voice. I said, I want her to be messy and shambolic, because the coolest people dont know theyre cool  they are just living their lives.

That philosophy of not worrying about other peoples opinions has served Zawe well, not least in Betrayal, where she has the potentially tricky task of portraying a married woman having an affair: Im not really concerned about being liked on stage  Im a bit more concerned about it off stage, she says. Emmas a very real woman, who is nailing her job, has two kids, a marriage and also happens to have an extramarital relationship Everything about that to me says human  theres nothing I judge about her.

Complex characters such as Emma are, Zawe claims, what audiences crave and new streaming services such as Netflix are providing. In contrast, she says established networks such as the BBC need to up their game, even though theyre also under pressure to get large viewing figures by appealing to the broadest audience. Shes speaking from experience, having last autumn appeared in the BBC drama Wanderlust, playing a teacher who starts an affair with a colleague (Steven Mackintosh) after he and his wife (Toni Collette) decide to have an open relationship. The show received mixed reviews and wasnt recommissioned.

Working in such an unpredictable profession, Zawes hugely grateful to her supportive parents: Im in a very privileged situation because they believed in me becoming an artist'

The subject matter of Wanderlust p***ed a lot of people off, but it made a huge impact and had a committed audience, even though it wasnt wide. It didnt get another series because it didnt deliver on figures and thats sad to me, Zawe says. Without laying any blame, I think BBC audiences like what they like and they didnt warm to the idea of a married woman having extramarital sex, even though her husband was doing the same thing.

Working in such an unpredictable profession, Zawes hugely grateful to her supportive parents: Im in a very privileged situation because they believed in me becoming an artist when I know so many people whose parents are, like, Get a degree, go to law school, become a doctor, make life easy for yourself. Her mother hasnt yet read Character Breakdown (Im reading bits of it to her), but her father has  praising her writing style. It must have been hard for him learning about his daughters travails. I think hes impressed by my resilience, Zawe says.

Hugely proud of her mixed-race heritage, she has frequently visited her grandparents in Uganda. I loved seeing them and hearing stories about their childhoods, but I equally love hearing about the experiences of my dads father, who was very much London-based. You have to engage with all your lineage and hold it as a precious diamond.

Today, her family spend a lot of time together at the house in Margate, Kent, which Zawe recently started renting, attracted by the towns artistic scene. And theres the sea  being close to nature is something that, like lots of Londoners, I really needed in my life. Yet, her run in Betrayal means right now she can only spend Sundays there, returning to her home in London on Mondays. So Im kind of flushing all my money down the toilet, paying for two places to live, Zawe laughs. But its worth it because Im at a point where Im working out where Im supposed to be  and you cant work it out without trying it.

It goes without saying that Zawes a feminist who thinks many women  not just actresses  find themselves playing roles foisted upon them by society. The first time I lived with a partner I became obsessed with a bin I ordered from Ebay to the point where I dreamed about it. I was so fixated on making my home lovely and cosy, she laughs. I thought, Im trying to live out a housewife persona, and its not a natural fit. But where has this pressure come from to be like that? Its the voices of all our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers telling us we have to be a certain way, but now, suddenly all that is up for negotiation.

Im not really concerned about being liked on stage  Im a bit more concerned about it off stage, Zawe says

Zawe wont say if she currently has a partner or not, but concedes. Id love to have children, but theres time Why are we told theres no time? I say that the much quoted statistic stating female fertility rapidly declines after 35 is based on 18th-century French birth records when women had the most basic healthcare, so bears little relevance to much better-nourished women today. I was just talking to a friend about this! Zawe cries. That blows my mind. People are trying to scare women with misinformation, to keep us out of the way at home, while men get on with their careers. But guess what? Its not going to work any more Women in their 30s and older are very much here and youre not going to get rid of us.

She giggles. I have to say theres something to be said for not having children  like falling asleep in the Turkish baths. My mum says, You can tell youre not a mother, doing things like that! And compared to my friends with children, I have the life of Riley. For now, it would certainly seem to be the case.

Character Breakdown is out now (Chatto & Windus, 16.99); to order a copy for 13.59 until 28 April, visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640.p&p is free on orders over 15. Betrayal is at Londons Harold Pinter Theatre until 8 June, pinteratthepinter.comJo and Sarah answer real questions from readers: to put your query, go to beautybible.com

Q Im prone to hay fever at this time of year, which seems to affect my eyes worst. They tend to get puffy, watery and pink  and feel sore. Dodgy all round, in other words. Do you have any suggestions to calm them please?

For more information follow Beauty Bible online here or on Facebook and Twitter

A Hay fever is an allergic reaction to pollen from plants which is usually worst from late March to September, especially in warm, humid or windy weather. NHS UK lists itchy, red or watery eyes as one of the main symptoms affecting the one in five plus people who suffer at some point.

First of all, do wear large, wrap around sunglasses with wide side bars to help stop the pollen getting in your eyes. They also help prevent other airborne pollutants exacerbating the problem. So channel your inner Jackie O and wear them every time you go out.

Effective eye drops are vital and pharmacist Shabir Daya suggests natural Allergy Relief Eye Drops by Similasan, which are formulated to help sooth itching, burning, redness and watering. 15.95 for 10ml from victoriahealth.com.

If you find you need something stronger, Moorfields Eye Hospital in London recommends asking a pharmacist for advice about using eye drops containing antihistamines.

A cool compress  or an ice cube wrapped in a cotton hanky  can really help sooth sore eyes. Patting Trilogy Very Gentle Calming Serum around the eye area and on the lids really does seem to help. The range also offers a moisturiser and cleanser.

Make up removers designed for sensitivity include La Roche-Posay Respectissime Eye Makeup Remover, 11 for 125ml. Allergy UK recommends the same brands Toleriane Ultra facial skincare range. Green People offer organic Gentle Cleanse & Make-Up Remover, which promises to remove all eye make up including waterproof mascara and contains anti-inflammatory actives. 20 for 150ml.

As your eyes are likely to be watery, we suggest avoiding eye make up as much as possible. If you do choose to wear mascara, make it a waterproof version (see our Beauty Bible Award winners here).

Before you put your hands anywhere near your face, make sure to wash them thoroughly to make sure all traces of pollen are removed.

If your eyes are baggy, dot and press concealer into the crease line to help disguise it. ELF Camo Concealer comes in masses of shades at a beauty steal price of just 5 from Superdrug; apply a tiny amount on top of a light moisturiser, patting it in very gently.

Distract attention from your poor sore peepers with a bright lipstick colour and eye-catching earrings.

Finally, after being outdoors, Moorfields Eye Hospital advises showering, washing your hair and changing your clothes to remove residual pollen. Also, during peak pollen season, dry washed clothes indoors. Stay indoors whenever possible with windows and doors closed. Vacuum regularly (choose one with a special HEPA filter) and dust with a damp cloth. You can also buy pollen filters for the air vents in your car.

Beauty Bible loves Guerlain Le Rouge G Matte, 26 for lipsticks and 18 for cases.

Weve raved about Guerlain Le Rouge G before, and we probably will again. Not cheap, but these filmstar-worthy lipstick cases  in an ever-more-gorgeous selection of shades and finishes (were swooning for Urban Emerald faux crocodile, ourselves)  can be refilled, which we really love. (Theres also so-on-trend fake snake, lacy finishes, hot pink lacquer The options are endless.)

Weve raved about Guerlain Le Rouge G before, and we probably will again. Not cheap, but these filmstar-worthy lipstick cases  in an ever-more-gorgeous selection of shades and finishes  can be refilled, which we really love

The idea is: choose your case, then choose your Rouge G to go inside. (Or you can build a wardrobe of Rouge Gs, of course, and swap them over depending on mood and season.) Theres also a range of shades and finishes  but what were really enjoying is the new semi-matte IT-COLOUR collection. Incredibly comfortable for a matte-ish lipstick, the formula contains black cumin seed oil, which isnt just hydrating and nourishing but is said to be antioxidant and regenerating.

The finish isnt flat-matte at all, but slightly luminous  and the colour stays put for hours, almost like a stain.

Best of all? We love the fact that the case flips open to reveal a mirror. All you need to check your make-up  and more than smart enough to be whipped out at the dinner table.A convicted killer and self-confessed 'bikie thug' has boasted about his secret life in Lebanon - including a prostitute wife and a near-death gunfight in a nightclub.

Moudi Tajjour, who was made national president of the Nomads bikie gang late last year, spoke about spending time in Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, on his podcast.

Tajjour, who split with disgraced property developer Salim Mehajer's sister Sanaa after she took an AVO out against him last year, revealed he had met a new woman.

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Friday, the 35-year-old said he had married a Muslim woman from Syria during his latest trip to Lebanon.

'I'm married legally (in Australia) but I'm divorced. I went to Lebanon, I got married in Lebanon the Muslim way to this Syrian girl... last year, I'm still married to her,' he said.

Moudi Tajjour (pictured in Lebanon), 35, spoke about spending time in Tripoli on his 'Can't Fight Fate' podcast (Tajjour is pictured wearing 'Notorious' gang colours, he said he later patched the Lebanon chapter of Notorious over to the Nomads)

Tajjour (pictured with estranged wife Sanaa Mehajer) said he carried a gun with him at all times when he was in Lebanon, and walked into a nightclub with a concealed weapon

Tajjour said he was with her in a nightclub in Tripoli, and that his wife in Lebanon had a 'bad past'.

'All the local f**king thugs in the club know her, she's hot as brother,' he said.

'Who cares that she's got a past, we've all got pasts. I took her from the f**king street, and I said to her straight up 'you want me to marry you?'''

'You're going to be my wife, I'm going to give you a place to live, you no longer come to these nightclubs without me, because the clubs over there are bad bro, she had to do what she had to do to live.'

Tajjour said he carried a gun with him at all times when he was in Lebanon, and walked into a nightclub with a concealed weapon.

'I walk into the club, I've got a gun down my pants, I've got her [my wife] around me and I'm hugging her - I don't even wear big chains [usually] but I had the big f**king gold chain bro.'

Tajjour said his gold chain was worth $20,000 and was 'pumped out with diamonds'.

After entering the nightclub, Tajjour said a group of 'little thugs' were staring at him.

'So I put my hand around her [his wife], I was smoking a joint, I thought I was the sickest in Lebanon... she's trying to tell me to leave.

'Music's cranking, I was revved up, I pulled the gun out and cocked it back, thinking these c**ts want a go, I'll shoot them in the middle of the club.

Tajjour was causing trouble in Lebanon when his mother rang him up and ordered that he come back to Australia

'These guys have seen me cock my gun back, they didn't give a f**k, brother. They started surrounding me from everywhere in the club.

'I put my gun away, but by this time they got offended.'

He said he was grabbed by security guards who told him to 'calm down' and taken outside, but had already made up in his mind that he would shoot the men and bribe his way out of the murder charges.

'I was in that zone, I thought I was a young guy again and I'm in a movie, I don't know what I was thinking.

'I went outside I just thought ''I'm shooting every motherf**ker that comes out of this club''.'

Eventually, one of the men outside said he knew Tajjour's cousin, and he calmed down and handed over his gun.

'Long story short, my ego almost got me f**king killed,' Tajjour said.

'He gave me my gun back with no bullets in it, I swear to God. He took all the bullets out of it, and cleaned my chamber out of it.'

Tajjour said the man who calmed him down told him he was part of the 'mafia' in Lebanon, and turned out to be a 'good bloke'.

He said he was enjoying living in Lebanon and partying in nightclubs, but relatives became concerned for him and called his mother to tell her.

'My relatives called my mum and said, ''You've got to get your son out of here, he's causing too much trouble...You've got to get him out of here'',' Tajjour said.

Tajjour (left) made a name for himself after he joined the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang and acted as right-hand man to its national president, his elder brother Sleiman (right)

Tajjour, who was jailed over the 2006 manslaughter of Robin Nassour, the younger brother of Fat Pizza star George, was the youngest ever member to join the Nomads ranks in the late-1990s.

After leaving school in Year 8 he joined the Nomads as a 'nominee', but had to wait 16 months before becoming a fully fledged member.

Since then he has been Sergeant at Arms and Vice President, as an understudy to his older brother Sleiman.

'I was 15 years old - the youngest bikie to ever join a club - but I was a nominee for 16 months because I kept punching on with members, so my cousin Sam Ibrahim kept taking my colours,' Tajjour told Daily Mail Australia last year.

'You'd get put in a circle and have a crack with the boys for a few minutes, and if you didn't drop your guard and fought until you got knocked out, you'd get your colours.

'You'd come into the clubhouse and they'd say: "It's on now, are you sure you want to do this? How much do you want your colours?"... and you'd punch on with hard men, but you'd earn your colours the right way.At least seven students or staff have reported being sexually harassed by the husband of former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper, it was revealed on Friday.

Kopper's husband, Alan 'Pete' Hill, was banned from campus and stripped of his ceremonial title of associate to the chancellor in June after a primary investigation identified three women who accused him of harassment.

More allegations emerged and the university conducted a secondary probe from September to December.

The university released the 18-page investigative report and about 850 pages of attachments arising from that second investigation on Friday in response to an open records request from The Associated Press and other media outlets.

Alan 'Pete' Hill (right), the husband of former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper (left), has been accused of sexual harassment by at least seven female students and staff members at the university, according to a report released Friday

UW spokesman Mark Pitsch said in a statement that UW President Ray Cross advised Kopper to resign after he was briefed on the findings of the report in mid-December, which she did.

The report found no evidence that Kopper was aware of or facilitated the actions of her husband, even though his behavior was 'pervasive and well-known'.

It also said that a number of university employees took steps to protect one another from Hill.

'At best, this suggests that Hill's behavior was a blind spot for the Chancellor,' the report stated.

Kopper resigned in December at the request UW President Ray Cross. The report found no evidence that the chancellor was aware of the actions of her husband, even though his behavior was 'pervasive and well-known'

There was no definitive evidence that Kopper retaliated directly against anyone who made a report of sexual harassment against her husband, according to the report, which claimed that she didn't inquire about allegations 'because she was wearing her Chancellor's hat'.

The harassment occurred mainly on campus at university-related properties, including the chancellor's residence during official events.

There were between seven and 10 women who claimed that they were sexually harassed by Hill either directly to investigators or to other witnesses who relayed that information to officials.

Hill's attorney, Bob Kasieta, said in an email that his client had not had time to study the report. Hill previously denied any wrongdoing.

Kopper became chancellor in 2015 and the first complaints against her husband were lodged in 2017.

Investigators interviewed 28 people, including Kopper, for the report. Hill did not respond to a request to be interviewed by the investigators, which included a retired FBI agent and three attorneys.

Kopper is still receiving her chancellor salary of $242,760 while on administrative leave until she returns in the fall to teach.

Her salary will be reduced to $118,308 when she assumes her teaching duties.No one knows how Brexit will end. The hopes of more than 17 million people who voted for it have been sucked into the black hole that is now 10 Downing Street.

With Theresa Mays deal rejected by the House of Commons three times over, she is living from day to day. Ongoing negotiations with the Labour leadership have no clear direction. Brexit is in limbo.

At the same time British politics is in a ferment unlike any this country has known for generations. In a paradoxical twist, the thwarting of Brexit is transforming the British political system into something more like that of continental Europe.

Many are assuming that Brexit has stalled permanently. But the present limbo cannot last. Politics  in both Britain and Europe  is rapidly morphing into new and dangerous shapes [File photo]

An orderly departure from the EU could have inoculated Britain against the forces that are fuelling the march of populism in so many European countries. But any such benign outcome seems increasingly unlikely. The bungled Brexit our political classes have given us is taking Britain into uncharted territory.

As a Mail on Sunday poll reveals today, 40 per cent of Conservative councillors intend to vote for Nigel Farages new Brexit Party if Britain takes part in the European elections on May 23  as it must if it is still in the EU.

Ukip has surged before in European elections  in 2014, it emerged the strongest party with more than 27 per cent of the votes. But never before has the Conservative Party been in such a parlous state as at present.

Polls ahead of local elections in England and Northern Ireland on May 2 suggest it will suffer heavy losses despite struggling to steer its campaign away from Theresa May and her handling of Brexit.

There is another risk. A Corbyn government will have learnt from the dubious stratagems pursued by Mays enemies in the Commons that parliamentary procedure is no longer sacrosanct [File photo]

If there is any overall winner from the meltdown in British politics, it will be Jeremy Corbyn  leader of what has become by any normal standards an extremist party.

As a historian of political ideas and movements, I have studied the rise and fall of parties and ideologies in Britain and Europe.

Today we are witnessing a meltdown in British politics with no historical precedent. Both main parties are shedding their traditional supporters at an astonishing rate.

According to a ComRes poll published last week, not much more than half (53 per cent) of 2017 Conservative voters intend to vote Conservative at the next General Election.

Even more ominous for the two main parties, a separate YouGov poll last week showed that if Conservatives campaigned on Mays deal and Labour for a customs union, Farages Brexit Party would have a ten per cent lead over both of them.

As we all know, polls can be misleading. Voters are extremely fickle at the present time. But there can be little doubt that they are rejecting the old political class.

The Conservatives are being punished for not delivering Brexit, and Labour for turning its back on working-class Leave voters and toying with a second referendum.

Ukip  today a hard, far-right organisation that has more in common with European neo-fascist parties than anything in the British political tradition  has slipped down in the polls. Ukip leader Gerard Batten is pictured at a press conference earlier this week [File photo]

Many  mostly but not entirely Leavers  say they will never vote again. But it is not just voters who are fleeing the established parties. Especially among Tories, once-loyal foot-soldiers in the constituencies are deserting the party.

Activists who tramp the streets pushing fliers through doors are decamping  chiefly to Farage. A General Election could find the Conservatives without much of a constituency infrastructure left.

The clear risk is that people will turn to extremes to vent their anger and disgust against those who pretend to govern them.

Ukip  today a hard, far-right organisation that has more in common with European neo-fascist parties than anything in the British political tradition  has slipped down in the polls. But it is significant that, at five per cent in the ComRes poll, it was only two per cent lower than the Liberal Democrats.

What used to be called the centre ground of British politics is shrinking and disappearing. Change UK  the new centre party formed by Chuka Umunna and other defectors from Labour and the Tories  polled nine per cent.

Yet it is far from clear that a party aiming to reverse Brexit has much of a future. For all its name, the party is committed to returning to the past  the status quo against which millions protested when they voted Leave.

How did Britain get into this mess? One reason is that politics has become another middle class career.

The Mail on Sunday poll shows that the number of Conservative defectors to Farages new party would be almost halved if Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. Until now the prospect has been widely discounted on the ground that Johnson is despised by many Tory MPs [File photo]

In 1945, when the great reforming government of Clement Attlee came to power, around a third of Labour MPs came from working class families. Today only around four per cent of MPs come from this background.

But it is not just the working classes that are excluded. Many of our elites live in a few inner London boroughs, sending their children to the same schools and mixing almost exclusively with each other.

The Notting Hill set  the network of advisers and influencers who surrounded David Cameron  are only one example of a pattern that runs right through British politics. Most of those who govern us have only a sketchy idea of how most people in the country live.

Places like Stoke-on-Trent and Sunderland might as well be in a far-off country. That is why the referendum result was such a shock to these introverted elites. The next stage of the Brexit drama will be an even greater shock.

Many are assuming that Brexit has stalled permanently. But the present limbo cannot last. Politics  in both Britain and Europe  is rapidly morphing into new and dangerous shapes.

The EU high command in Brussels is fearful that, following the May elections, a group of far-right parties from France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Poland and other countries will become the pivotal force in the European Parliament. An expanded contingent of trouble-making Ukip MEPs would aggravate this unwelcome shift.

A Conservative party led by an out-and-out Brexiteer would be even more unwelcome. The Mail on Sunday poll shows that the number of Conservative defectors to Farages new party would be almost halved if Boris Johnson became Prime Minister.

Until now the prospect has been widely discounted on the ground that Johnson is despised by many Tory MPs. But this situation could change if the fear for their seats they feel now turns to blind panic after the local and European elections.

Faced with a risk of wipe-out, the Conservatives could stake everything on a ruthless opportunist hardly any of them trust.

If this scenario looks like materialising, Brexit will take a new and hazardous turn. The EU high command will realise that any agreement made with Theresa May can be abruptly torn up.

Ukip has surged before in European elections  in 2014, it emerged the strongest party with more than 27 per cent of the votes. But never before has the Conservative Party been in such a parlous state as at present [File photo]

More European leaders may follow President Macron of France in thinking the EU will be better off without Britain.

A No Deal exit  which MPs imagined they had banished by voting against it in the Commons  could then loom up again when the Article 50 extension ends on October 31.

At the same time British politics will become more treacherous. The party Corbyn leads is unlike any Labour party before it.

Under Clement Attlee it nationalised sections of British industry and raised taxes substantially in order to fund the welfare state. It did not aim to take Britain out of its historic alliances, nor did it tolerate anti-Semitic racism in its ranks.

There is another risk. A Corbyn government will have learnt from the dubious stratagems pursued by Mays enemies in the Commons that parliamentary procedure is no longer sacrosanct.

By resisting Brexit rather than delivering it intelligently, our political classes have opened the way to a dangerous future.Pope Francis, speaking to around 80,000 people at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing, addressed the massacre of Christians killed in Sri Lanka.

As many as 190 people are dead as a result of the Easter Sunday terrorist attack after eight explosions ripped through high-end hotels and churches - as suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up.

Speaking from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis expressed his grief.

Pope Francis greets the faithful from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican

The 82-year-old pontiff said, 'I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence.'

'I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event,' the pope added.

At the Easter vigil, which was held yesterday afternoon, he also encouraged Christians to reject the 'glitter of wealth'.

He said: 'Sin seduces. It promises things easily and quickly, prosperity and success, but leaves behind only solitude and death.

'Sin is looking for life among the dead, for the meaning of life in things that pass away.'

He went on to say: 'Why not prefer Jesus, the true light, to the glitter of wealth, career, pride and pleasure?'

Sri Lanka's police chief had made a nationwide alert 10 days before today's bombings, warning that Islamic extremists planned suicide bombings at 'prominent churches', sources say, but it is not yet clear who is responsible for the attacks - and no one has claimed responsibility.

Pope Francis waves to the crowd after celebrating Ester Mass in St. Peter's Square

The 82-year-old said, 'I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community'

At the vigil, held yesterday in Vatican City, Francis also spoke about the seduction of sin, he said: 'Do not bury hope!

'We lose heart and come to believe that death is stronger than life.

'We become cynical, negative and despondent.'

For Christians Easter is typically a day of joy and hope as they mark their belief that Jesus triumphed over death by resurrection following crucifixion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivers his sermon during the Sung Eucharist Easter service at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent

Archibishop Welby used his sermon to say the resurrection of Jesus showed 'injustice and oppression don't have the last word'

The Archbishop led the Sung Eucharist Easter service with the cathedral choir behind him

Services were held all over the world including at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Archbishop Justin Welby used his message to say the resurrection of Jesus showed 'injustice and oppression don't have the last word'.

'The risen Jesus is the one who makes our broken lives whole,' the archbishop said.

He also sent his prayers to the victims of the Sri Lanka bombings, saying: 'The will to power leads to the murder of innocents in Sri Lanka.

'The utterly despicable destruction that on this holiest of days seeks to challenge the reality of the risen Christ.

'To say that darkness will conquer, that our choice is surrender or death. Jesus chose to defy this darkness and he is risen indeed.'

Pope Francis encouraged people to 'reject the glitter of wealth' during an Easter vigil at St Peter's basilica in Vatican City

At the start of the ceremony yesterday, Pope Francis, dressed in white robes, slowly carried a lit candle up the aisle of a darkened St Peter's Basilica

Eight adults, from Italy, Albania, Ecuador, Indonesia and Peru, were baptised by the pope during the Mass. He poured holy water over the bowed heads of all of them

At the start of the ceremony yesterday, Pope Francis, dressed in white robes, slowly carried a lit candle up the aisle of a darkened St Peter's Basilica.

At the chant in Latin for 'light of Christ', the basilica's lights were suddenly switched on in a dramatic tradition.

The basilica, which can hold up to 80,000 people, was filled with cardinals, diplomats, pilgrims and tourists.

Among them were eight adults who were baptised by the pope during the Mass.

The Vatican said these new faithful are from Italy, Albania, Ecuador, Indonesia and Peru.

Pope Francis said: 'Sin seduces. It promises things easily and quickly, prosperity and success, but leaves behind only solitude and death'

At the chant in Latin for 'light of Christ', the basilica's lights were suddenly switched on in a dramatic tradition

From a shell-shaped silver dish, Pope Francis poured holy water over the bowed heads of the three men and five women, after they walked up to him, one by one, and listened to him calling their first names.

On Sunday, Pope Francis celebrates Easter Mass in the late morning in St Peter's Square and gives a speech from the basilica balcony.

Known by its Latin name 'Urbi et Orbi' (to the city and to the world), the speech is an occasion to reflect on the world's war-ravaged and other tense spots while paying tribute to Catholics' practising their faith sometimes in the face of persecution or other difficulties.

The basilica was filled with cardinals, diplomats, pilgrims and tourists who were there to listen to the wisdom of Pope Francis

Easter is a holiday that symbolises hope in Christianity as the supposed resurrection of Jesus signifies an immortal life in God's presence

Pope Francis told the congregation of up to 80,000 people: 'Why not prefer Jesus, the true light, to the glitter of wealth, career, pride and pleasure?'This month Goygol, a town nestled in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, celebrates its 200th anniversary. Yet this is no ordinary Azerbaijani town. Goygol used to be Helenendorf. And it was founded during Easter 1819 by religious migrants from Germany. As Eurasianet writes, the German settlers were driven by political and economic hardship in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. They believed that, with the end of the world imminent, they would find refuge and religious freedom in the East. The settlers were also offered benefits by Russian Tsar Alexander I, including exemption from taxes and military service, and loans.

Other colonies sprung up over the next century until by the early 1900s there were well over a dozen German villages across Georgia and Azerbaijan that prospered, mainly from winemaking. "Every Sunday, the Germans had a recreational park. There was fish, chess, dominos, all sorts of games in the evening, people came from work and played. Thats how they lived  very cultured, recalled Yunis Hajiyev, whose mother was German and who still lives in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, formerly the colony of Annenfeld, where he was born in 1928. They worked a lot; sweat came off their shirts they worked so hard. In the evening they got washed, sung songs and walked through the streets to the park. But following the Russian Revolution and the rise of Josef Stalin, the Caucasus Germans  Kaukasiendeutsche, in German  found themselves in a precarious position. Hitlers attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 was a decisive turning point: Stalin classified them as potential collaborators.

That October the Germans were herded onto trains bound for the steppes of Kazakhstan, like so many other Soviet minorities during the war. According to EuroKaukAsia, a project at Humboldt University in Berlin, some 46,000 Germans were forcibly resettled from the Caucasus. "People took what they could carry with them and got on the train. We travelled on the train twice and twice on a steamboat, said Werner Bekker, who was deported from a village in Azerbaijan at the age of six and now lives in Ridder, formerly Leninogorsk, in northeast Kazakhstan. And then in November  we must have been travelling for about a month  we were met at the pier in the Kurchum region [in eastern Kazakhstan] on sleds. There was snow already. It was warm where we were from in the Caucasus. We didnt have winter clothes, only autumn ones. Everyone froze."

Many, especially the elderly and the very young, died from cold and hunger. One former resident of Helenendorf, Angelika Hummel, recalled being told that the resettlement was only temporary. But in fact their homes had been occupied and the exiled Germans say they never received any form of compensation. Moreover, their ordeal didnt end there. Men and women were sent to labor camps in remote parts of the USSR  Komi, the Urals, Chelyabinsk and Karaganda  while the young and old remained in the remote villages on the steppe.

Even after Stalins death they were not allowed to return to the Caucasus. In any case, it was over a decade before anyone was allowed to talk openly about the deportations: The older generation had passed away and the younger ones had nothing to return to. Many stayed in the multi-ethnic melting pot that was Soviet Kazakhstan. Some moved south, attracted by the warmer climate that was similar to the Caucasus, said Yevgeniy Raitenbach, whose parents moved to Uzbekistan. After all, said one descendant of Germans from Helenendorf who now lives in Almaty, grapes dont grow in the north of Kazakhstan.

Later, with the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the USSR, another great wave of migration began as Russian-speaking Germans, including those from the Caucasus, began to flock to a newly reunited Germany, the ancestral homeland, in a process that continues to this day. Even there they struggle. For those born in the Caucasus and educated in its German schools, deported to Kazakhstan and sent to work in Siberia, the concept of home is a fleeting one. But for 93-year-old Angelika Hummel, who now lives in Baden-Wurttemberg, home is clear: For me, the Caucasus is my homeland and nowhere else, she said, though she had lived there for just 16 years.

The first Caucasus German settlers departed the city of Ulm in Wurttemberg in 1817, travelling in wooden boats along the Danube.

Henrikh Gan, deported from the Volga region, is one of Zhuravlevkas last German residents. Many families deported from Helenendorf also ended in this village on the steppe, about 190 miles northwest of Kazakhstans capital.

Yevgeniy Raitenbach's family was deported from Asureti in Georgia and Helenendorf in Azerbaijan in 1941. He now lives in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan.

Azerbaijani men play chess in a teahouse in Goygol  formerly Helenendorf  Azerbaijan.

A descendant of Germans from Helenendorf searches for the house in which her grandmother lived.

A descendant of Germans from Helenendorf revisits her father's old home in Goygol.

The countryside surrounding Goygol, Azerbaijan.

Shamkir was the second German colony to be founded in Azerbaijan, shortly after Helenendorf. It was originally called Annenfeld.

Lidiya Ostroverkhova visits the grave of her grandfather, Ewald Braning, in the village he was deported to: Sarzhal, near Semey, Kazakhstan.

Victor Raitenbach (far left), deported from Helenendorf in 1941, celebrates his 85th birthday in the company of other Germans living in Pavlodar, northeast Kazakhstan, last month.

Werner Bekker was deported from Annenfeld  now Shamkir, Azerbaijan  to eastern Kazakhstan at the age of 6 in 1944. He still lives there.

Luisa Oksas was deported to northern Kazakhstan from Georgsfeld, a sister colony of Helenendorf, at the age of 13. She now lives in Bad Durkheim, Germany.

A hunting party in Georgsfeld (Azerbaijan) before the Germans were deported (exact date unknown). (photo courtesy of Luisa Oksas)

Many Germans reached isolated destinations in eastern Kazakhstan along the Irtysh River, pictured here in Semey.

Girls dancing at a school celebration in Georgsfeld, 1940. (photo courtesy of Luisa Oksas)

Many of Helenendorfs founding families came from the town of Reutlingen in Wurttemberg.

Angelika Hummel was 16 when she was deported from Helenendorf to Zhuravlevka in northern Kazakhstan. She now lives in Karlsruhe, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.Rebel Wilson's property portfolio is almost as impressive as her acting chops, with homes in Balmain all the way to Hollywood and New York City.

The Pitch Perfect star has reportedly put a $17 million chunk of her fortune towards lavish properties across the globe.

Wilson, 39, made headlines in 2017 when she was awarded a record $4.7 million payout when Bauer Media was found guilty of defaming her in a series of articles.

Despite being forced to pay back more than $4 million after a successful appeal, it appears the self-confessed 'cashed up bogan' has had no trouble investing her remaining money into property.

Rebel Wilson's property portfolio is almost as impressive as her acting chops, with homes in Balmain all the way to Hollywood and New York City, pictured: her off the plan Gladesville investment property

Wilson was forced to drop the rent price of her Gladesville investment property twice - from $660 a week late last year, then down to $625 in January, and then to $595 a month later

Wilson bought a modest apartment in Gladesville, in Sydney's northern suburbs, for $740,000 back in 2015.

She was forced to drop the rent price of the investment property twice - from $660 a week late last year, then down to $625 in January, and then to $595 a month later.

According to CoreLogic data the property is currently off the rental market, but it's not known whether Wilson eventually found a tenant for the apartment.

The star added another Sydney property to her portfolio last year when she snapped up an $1.88 million pad in the leafy suburb of Balmain.

The two level, two-bedroom apartment spans 150 square metres and is complete with a terrace, two balconies and sits on the side of a 19th Century Lever Brothers factory.

The star added another Sydney property to her portfolio last year when she snapped up an $1.88 million pad in the leafy suburb of Balmain

Possibly the most impressive of her investment properties is her $3.76 million waterfront home in Birchgrove - her first Sydney purchase.

Wilson snapped up the sprawling freestanding Victorian home through local real estate agents Cobden & Hayson.

It's estimated she's spent around $1 million renovating the three bedroom, three level home, which even has a private deepwater berth and a jetty.

The Bridesmaids star isn't the only well known name to have owned the impressive house - Novelist Peter Carey sold the prestigious Louisa Road home in 1992 for $810,000.

It's estimated she's spent around $1 million renovating the three bedroom, three level Birchgrove home, which even has a private deepwater berth and a jetty

The Bridesmaids star isn't the only well known name to have owned the impressive house - Novelist Peter Carey sold the prestigious Louisa Road home in 1992 for $810,000

Wilson took a bite out of the Big Apple's property market in 2017 when she splashed out on a $AUD4.17 million New York City apartment.

The brand new Tribeca unit was listed as a staggering $AUD6.35 million and was later dropped to $5.64 million, but Wilson was able to buy up for even less.

The Sydney-born star's A-list neighbours range from Jennifer Lawrence to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel.

Arguably one of the more lavish properties on the list, the apartment complex is fit for celebrities wanting privacy - with 24-hour doormen and concierge services, and state-of-the-art security.

Wilson can also enjoy a 21-metre indoor swimming pool, climate-controlled wine cellar and a landscaped roof terrace.

The brand new Tribeca unit was listed as a staggering $AUD6.35 million and was later dropped to $5.64 million, but Wilson was able to buy up for even less

The Sydney-born star's A-list neighbours range from Jennifer Lawrence to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel

The star actress also snapped up a 400 square meter five-bedroom house in West Hollywood in 2016 - setting her back a cool $AUD4.17 million.

The airy home is the epitome of Southern California, with open plan living spaces, a gas fireplace and a huge kitchen, five bathrooms, a bar, and poo, spa and outdoor fire place.A new historical novel documenting the private life of Abraham Lincoln explores whether the 16th President of the United States may have had a gay relationship with his best friend Joshua Speed - a man with whom he shared a bed for almost four years.

In his book Courting Mr. Lincoln, Louis Bayard investigates  with a fictitious slant - the occasionally contested subject of Lincolns sexuality.

Famed for their bromance, Speed eloquently recalled the moment in 1837, where a long, gawky, ugly, shapeless man walked into his goods store in Springfield, Illinois, which later turned out Lincoln, aged 28, a near quarter century before he was made president.

Despite cutting an unconventional figure, Speed - 23 at the time - recalled how Lincoln threw such a charm around him, according to historian Charles B. Storzier.

Famed for their bromance, Abe Lincoln and Joshua Speed (right) shared a bed for nearly four years having met at Speed's goods store in 1837

Hes said to have asked the vendor how much materials for a bed would cost, but Speeds answer of $17, proved to be too steep a price for a young Lincoln.

From that moment, the pair are said to have become inseparable, giving birth to what many consider to be one of the most important friendships in American history.

Speed is widely credited with coaxing Lincoln through two bouts of suicidal depression, which would have otherwise jeopardized his political ambitions, and the relationship with his future wife, Mary Todd.

The most serious episode came in 1840, when, in a move that continues to baffle historians, Lincoln suddenly broke off his engagement with Todd. Friends of the future president were said to be so concerned they took extra measures to hide his razor.

He was, in the words of his friend and future biographer, William H. Herndon, crazy as a loon. But many credit Speed for bringing back from the brink.

Speed is widely credited with coaxing Lincoln through two bouts of suicidal depression, which would have otherwise jeopardized his political ambitions

The pair became inseparable after their meeting in 1837 when Lincoln asked Speed how much a bed would cost. They decided to split the difference and sleep next to one another for nearly four years

Now, Bayard has sought to explore the pairs relationship one step further, using a combination of historical research and promiscuous intervention to theorize the full extent of their relations.

It was a common arrangement among bachelors [to share beds], because beds were expensive, the author told the NY Post.

[What was strange] was the length of time [they shared the bed]  three years. And they got married late in life.

In his book Courting Mr. Lincoln, Louis Bayard explores  with a fictitious slant - the occasionally contested subject of Abe Lincolns sexuality

Storzier said he conducted extensive research to provide a truthful foundation to the novels themes, using the The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln by C.A. Tripp, as inspiration for the narrative.

Tripp is considered first historian to suggest that Lincoln may have been homosexual, though his book was criticized as being too extravagant upon its 2005 release.

However, Carl Sandburg  Lincolns biographer  described his subjects relationship with Speed as being tinged with a streak of lavender in 1926, which is considered to be code for the fact the pair were involved romantically.

Ive never come across a whisper of that nature, Bayard admitted. [However] One of the things that did come up with Lincolns early biographers is that he wasnt a player with the gals. Even his own stepmother, who adored him, said he was never much for girls.

In the first few months of 1842, just as Speed was about to wed his fiancee Fanny Henning, Lincoln wrote several remarkable letters to his confidant, in a bid to explain his deepest feelings.

You know my desire to befriend you is everlasting, Lincoln said in one of the letters, that I will never cease, while I know how to do anything.

One of Lincoln's two bouts of suicidal depression is said to have been prompted by Speed's marriage to Fanny Henning (both shown above)

You know my desire to befriend you is everlasting, Lincoln said in one of his letters to Speed, that I will never cease, while I know how to do anything.

Louis Bayard (shown above) has sought to explore the pairs relationship, using a combination of historical research and promiscuous intervention

'You well know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly than I do yours, he continued.

You will feel [very] badly he said in relation to Speeds fears about consummating his marriage with Henning. 'It is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me, to dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly can realize.

Bayard says he took inspiration from the letters exchanged between the two men, as well as from Paula McLain, the author of The Paris Wife - a historical fiction assessing the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley.

I have Paula McLain, Bayard told the Post. I thought that The Paris Wife was such an interesting model for a book  to look at a famous person through the eyes of someone who loved them. And the famous person that came to mind was Lincoln. I thought of Mary Todd and that strange marriage and how that happened.

There was also the mystery of Lincolns second nervous breakdown in 1841. Scholars thought it was because he had broken off his engagement to Mary Todd. But it was also when Speed had announced he was going back to Kentucky [to marry Henning].

That was when my book became a double narrative, and I realized it was a love triangle with Lincoln as the enigmatic middle.A Washington state lawmaker has infuriated nurses by claiming that many of them spend a lot of time playing cards in small, rural hospitals.

State Sen. Maureen Walsh, a Republican representing College Place, Washington, made the comments this week while debating a Senate bill that would require uninterrupted meal and rest breaks for nurses.

The bill would also provide mandatory overtime protections for nurses. Walsh wants an amendment that would exclude hospitals with fewer than 25 beds from the breaks, The Olympian reported on Friday.

Small, rural hospitals 'that literally serve a handful of individuals' will have trouble staying open and nurses in those settings 'probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day,' the newspaper quoted Walsh as saying.

Washington State Sen. Maureen Walsh made her controversial remarks about some nurses not deserving mandatory work breaks on Tuesday

A Washington State Nurses Association blog about the comments drew so many readers Friday that the site crashed.

The group called the comment disrespectful and patronizing.

The hashtags #maureenwalsh and #nursesplaycards went viral on social media. Comedian Kathy Griffin joined the fray Friday, tweeting that her mother worked in a hospital.

'Thank you of alerting me to a group that even I am not stupid enough to piss off. Ever,' Griffin tweeted.

Comedian Kathy Lee Griffin referenced the remarks while tweeting her support for nurses on Friday

Other disapproving Twitter users chimed in as well.

Taylor O'Neal, an anesthesiologist intern at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, called Walsh an 'idiot' in a tweet.

'Did this idiot REALLY just say that nurses probably sit around and play cards most of the time?!?! State Senator Maureen Walsh needs to apologize ASAP. Nurses *run* the hospital and provide bedside care for hours on hours. They deserve WAY more respect. #RespectNurses' O'Neal's tweet said.

Twitter user Thessa D, who apparently is a nurse herself, confessed to 'playing' with cards on the job in a tweet that includes a picture of medical cards with charts and medical jargon.

Walsh, a Republican, wants an amendment to a state house bill requiring uninterrupted meal and rest breaks for nurses. Her amendment would exclude nurses at hospitals with fewer than 25 beds from the mandatory breaks

Walsh didn't respond to a request for comment from the Olympian.

Recruiting nurses to rural facilities already is difficult and exempting them from laws requiring uninterrupted breaks and subjecting them to mandatory overtime would make recruiting more difficult, the Washington State Nurses Association said.

The bill passed the state Senate with the amendment excluding small hospitals. It had previously passed the House without the amendment.

The different House and Senate versions of the bill will have to be reconciled before being signed into law.

The bill specifically requires that nurses and some other staff, such as surgical technologists and diagnostic radiologic technologists, be provided uninterrupted meal and rest periods, except when there is an unforeseeable circumstance.

If a rest break is interrupted before 10 complete minutes, an additional 10-minute break is required. It also would prohibit health care facilities from using what the nurses association considers a legal loophole to require overtime.

The association said it has tried to address the issues of skipped breaks and mandatory overtime with individual contract bargaining and litigation, but the problem remains pervasive.

Rest breaks are proven to address fatigue, which can lead to medical errors, it said.Meghan Markle and Prince Harry could move abroad to Africa for two to three years for a 'bespoke' international job that will utilise their 'rock star' status, it has been revealed.

The royal couple, who are expecting their first child in the next few days, are set to be given a role that involves the Commonwealth, charity work and promoting Britain following the birth of their first child.

Sir David Manning, the former British ambassador to the U.S. and Lord Geidt, the Queen's former private secretary, are said to have drawn up the plans.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will supposedly be allowed to settle into their home in Frogmore Cottage with the baby before a decision is made about where they should go, according to the Sunday Times.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, pictured in Morocco earlier this year, may be sent away to a country in Africa for two to three years for a 'bespoke' job that will utilise their 'rock star' status, it has been claimed

Although this is unlikely to be decided until next year, The Sunday Times report the role is likely to be in Africa because of the couple's ties there. Pictured: Harry in Lesotho on his gap year in 2004

Although this is unlikely to be decided until next year, the role is likely to be in Africa because of the couple's ties there.

It holds a special place in the couple's hearts as Harry took Meghan to his favourite luxury camp Meno a Kwena in Botswana, to celebrate Meghan's 36th birthday and mark their first year together.

They recently gave the public a unique glimpse into their 2017 trip, sharing stunning never-before-seen photos on their new Instagram account.

One of the moving shots shows the royal couple tending to a large bull elephant in the bush, equipping him with a satellite collar.

Their Royal Highnesses were assisting Dr. Mike Chase of Elephants Without Borders, who is working to protect elephant populations by tracking their movements.

Harry and Meghan take control of their image with their own Instagram account A brand expert has claimed Harry and Meghan have joined Instagram in an effort to take control of their image An expert has claimed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have unveiled their own Instagram account in an effort to take control of their image. Nick Ede, Popular Culture Expert and CEO of East of Eden, told The Sun: 'Harry and Megan have shown themselves to be stand out Royals who are embracing their work commitments in a progressive and passionate way. 'Like Kate when she took the official images of her children, I think we will see Harry and Meghan controlling their image and the communication of their life and relationship using Instagram as a tool to do this. 'Meghan had her own popular website, The Tig, which was highly stylised so I suspect she will have a lot of input in the style and what they want to say,' 'It also shows a willingness to be out there in the public eye because Instagram is not for shrinking violets'. Advertisement

It is believed they fell in love on a safari in Botswana, and Meghan and Harry even returned there for the former actress' 36th birthday two years ago (pictured)

The news comes after Meghan and Harry left Kensington Palace and moved into Frogmore Cottage in Windsor earlier this month, separating their royal household from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Pictured: Meghan in Rwanda in 2016

One image shows the Duke of Sussex addressing local school children as part of his work for the African Parks Network, for which he continues to advocate for the communities and wildlife that coexist in some of the most vulnerable environments around the world

Harry was rumoured to have proposed in Botswana, and Meghan's engagement ring includes a center diamond from Botswana, which is cushioned by two smaller diamonds from Princess Diana's collection.

On Meghan's first ever wildlife safari, the couple watched the sun set behind a spectacular vista of acacia thorn trees and green-backed herons fishing in the river.

Prince Harry also spent a gap year in Lesotho back in 2004. He once described it as his 'second home'.

A source told the Sunday Times: 'There are discussions in palace circles about: how do we harness Harry and Meghan? How do you harness this phenomenon that has emerged? You make it productive.'

A spokesman for the royal family didnt deny the reports and said: Any future plans for The Duke and Duchess are speculative at this stage. No decisions have been taken about future roles.

The Duke will continue to fulfil his role as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador.

Harry and Meghan officially move into new Windsor home: Duke and Duchess leave Kensington Palace for Frogmore Cottage as they prepare for Royal baby Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have officially moved into their new home in Windsor in time for the arrival of the newest Royal. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have moved into Frogmore Cottage after workers have spent months renovating the property. Meghan, 37, is set to give birth towards the end of this month and will enjoy a slower pace of life away from cameras in their new home in the countryside. The couple have finally moved into Frogmore Cottage (above) after months of renovation work being done on the property Meghan (pictured above with Prince Harry) is said to have worked closely with builders during renovations Last month, it was announced that as well as moving from London to Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Estate to the west of the capital, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as Harry and Meghan are formally known, would be hiring an entirely new communications staff. It has also been rumoured that Meghan will shun the Lindo Wing, breaking four years of Royal tradition and opting for a private maternity unit near Windsor. Last month it was revealed that the couple had also spent a whopping 50,000 on a soundproofing unit for their new home in order to block out the noise from Heathrow jets. Protective covering had previously been seen over Frogmore Cottage during the works A map shows where in Windsor the royal couple will be based in relation to other royal spots The couple have reportedly spent a record 3million renovating their Grade II listed Frogmore Cottage which is situated in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The soundproofing measures are thought to include triple glazed windows, which will be handy in blocking out sounds from the 14 flights that pass within a mile of the house every thirty minutes. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were gifted Frogmore Cottage by the Queen and the building work will be covered by the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant. However, it is expected that Harry and Meghan will pay for the sound proofing out of their own pocket. Advertisement

The news comes after Meghan and Harry left Kensington Palace and moved into Frogmore Cottage in Windsor earlier this month, separating their royal household from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

In recent months, rumours have swirled about a royal rift between the two brothers and their spouses.

There were claims that Kate broke down in tears following Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid's dress fitting, ahead of Meghan and Harry's wedding in May, as well as suggestions the pair had clashed over staff.

However, royal insiders have insisted that there has been no falling out between the Cambridges and the Sussexes, but admitted the pair are 'very different people'.

Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been contacted for comment.Advertisement

Dense clouds of orange smoke were seen rising above a Florida SpaceX facility on Saturday, after the engine of a Crew Dragon spacecraft malfunctioned during a test fire.

The Elon Musk-founded company were carrying out a series of engine tests at a site in Cape Canaveral when an anomaly occurred during the final stages.

SpaceX say they will now work with NASA to determine exactly what went wrong -however, if the issue is profound, it may postpone their plans to have astronauts pilot the vessel later this year.

Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting [issues] like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test, the company said in a statement.

The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.

SpaceX were carrying out a series of engine tests at a site in Cape Canaveral on Friday when the malfunction occurred

If the issue is profound, it may postpone the Elon Musk-owned company's plans to have astronauts pilot the vessel later this year

The US has lacked the technology to launch humans into space since the space shuttle program was discontinued in 2011.

In the meantime, NASA has been paying Russian space agency Soyuz around $80 million per-seat to send American astronauts to the International Space Station.

Turning to the private sector for help, NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing a total of $6.8 billion in 2014 to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil.

But both of the companys inceptions have been encumbered with delays. SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft was original supposed to take to the air in 2017.

Turning to the private sector for help, NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing a total of $6.8 billion to revive US space shuttle launches

Both of the companys inceptions have been encumbered with delays, but SpaceX pipped Boeing to the post by launching of an unmanned capsule to the International Space Station, in March (pictured)

The SpaceX Crew Dragon is pictured about 20 meters away from the International Space Station's Harmony module. It later returned safely back to Earth

However, in March, Musks SpaceX pipped Boeing to the post by successfully completing its first mission of sending an unmanned capsule to the International Space Station, which returned safely to Earth.

The operations success was seen as crucial moment in NASAs plans to resume human space flight from US soil.

SpaceXs first crewed test flight is slated to launch in July with U.S. astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. However, NASA have said that date is now being reconsidered.

Boeing is aiming to launch their spacecraft, called Starliner, on an unmanned test flight sometime in August, with the hope of astronauts piloting the vessel by the end of the year.Notorious Russell Street bomber Craig Minogue claims he is being unfairly treated because he can't tweet behind bars.

The convicted cop killer has taken his fight to the Supreme Court saying the ban denies him his 'basic human rights.'

Corrections authorities have recently cracked down on Minogue's tweeting, which he has done by relaying messages to a contact outside of prison who then posts them to the internet.

Notorious Russell Street bomber Craig Minogue (left) claims he is being unfairly treated because he is being told he can't tweet from jail. He set off an explosion that killed Constable Angela Taylor (right)

The 1986 bombing of the Russell Street Police Headquarters in Melbourne resulted in a massive blast that destroyed part of the building

Minogue's account has been active since 2018

A 25-page legal motion has been submitted to the Supreme Court by Minogue asking for a 'judicial review' of the ban, according to the Herald Sun.

The motion argues that the restrictions limit his right to freedom of communication. political expression, and his right to participate freely in the conduct of public affairs.

The 1986 bombing of the Russell Street Police Headquarters in Melbourne resulted in a massive blast that destroyed part of the building.

Constable Angela Taylor, 21, was seriously injured in the explosion and later died from her wounds, becoming the first female policewoman to be fatally wounded in the line of duty.

The laws were sparked after details about the prison stabbing of Tony Mokbel was leaked via the Twitter account of Minogue

Three people including Minogue were convicted over the bombing, which was thought to be revenge for a dispute with authorities over a previous arrest.

The state government is currently trying to implement laws that would bar all prisoners using social media via third-parties outside of prison.

The laws were sparked after details about the prison stabbing of Tony Mokbel was leaked via the Twitter account of Minogue.

His account, which has been active since 2018, is focused around his prison term and other high profile cases such as Mokbel's and the informer Lawyer X.

According to his account, Minogue was illiterate when he was sent to prison but has transformed himself into an 'academic' by completing correspondence courses.

State Corrections Minister Ben Carroll pushed for federal changes to restrict prisoners using contacts on the outside to post to the internet after it was revealed Minogue's contact lived interstate.

A directions hearing in the Supreme Court for Minogue's case was held last week.President Trump has taken to Twitter to troll Mitt Romney, a day after the Republican senator said he was 'sickened' and 'appalled' by what the Mueller Report revealed about the Commander-in-chief's conduct.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted a video compilation of news clips from 2012 which all show Romney - who was that year's Republican Presidential nominee - losing the election to Barack Obama.

The president accompanied the video with a caption reading: 'If @MittRomney spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)!'

Trump's tweet taking aim at Romney quickly amassed tens of thousands of likes

Mitt Romney (left) has been trolled by President Trump (right), with the Commander-in-chief sharing a compilation of clips that show the Republican losing the 2012 Presidential Election to Barack Obama

Trump's tweet quickly amassed more than 24,000 likes, with many of the president's supporters also taking a dig at Romney - who currently serves as the junior senator from Utah.

One labelled him a 'sore loser', whilst another claimed the senator was 'jealous' of Trump's electoral success.

However, the President's tweet also garnered criticism from other followers, who labelled it as 'petty'.

'There is something pitiful and disgusting about a person who has to criticize and belittle others to feel good about themselves,' one wrote.

On Friday, Romney become one of the few Republicans to speak out about the Mueller Report, which was released to the public in redacted form on Thursday.

'I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the president,'he said in a statement.

'I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia -- including information that had been illegally obtained, that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting Russian interests in Ukraine.'

Trump (left) and Romney (right) have long had a fractious relationship - but Romney took things to a new level with his attack on Trump on Friday

While most Republicans declined to comment on the explosive report, Romney chastised the President and senior White House officials

The Mueller Report detailed cooperative but not criminal contact between Trump's 2016 election campaign and Russia that assisted him in his defeat against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The report also detailed numerous acts by the president that supported allegations of obstruction of justice, though Mueller, constrained by Justice Department rules, could not himself recommend charges against Trump.

Trump declared victory and exoneration after the report, and later labeled Mueller's work 'total bulls**t'.

However, the number of Americans who approve of Trump has dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year in a new poll.

The survey, conducted Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, is the first to measure the response from the American public after the release of the Mueller Report.

It found that 37 percent of adults in the United States approved of Trumps performance in office, down from 40 percent in a similar poll conducted on April 15.

The poll further found that 50 percent of Americans agreed that 'Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election', and 58 percent agreed that the president 'tried to stop investigations into Russian influence on his administration'.

Forty percent said they thought Trump should be impeached, while 42 percent said he should not.Sudan's recently ousted president is being investigated for money laundering after security services claimed to have found 100 million in cash at his home.

Sacks stuffed with millions euros, Sudanese pounds and thousands of dollars were allegedly found at Omar al-Bashirs villa, a source in the East African countrys judiciary said.

It came moments before Sudanese authorities are reported to have arrested several top military leaders from who served during the al-Bashir's near 30 year presidency.

Omar al-Bashir is alleged to have had six million euros, five million Sudanese pounds and $351,000 at his villa, according to the East African country's judiciary

Sudan has been struck by protests since April 6 which have ended the president's 30-year rule. (Pictured) Protesters tear down a banner with a picture of the head of the transitional council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan Abdelrahman

The President, who ruled the country for nearly 30 years, pictured with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo

Sudan's public prosecutor has begun investigating Bashir on charges of money laundering and possession of large sums of foreign currency without legal grounds, according to a judicial source.

As much as six million euros, five million Sudanese pounds and $351,000 is claimed to have been in the villa.

'The chief public prosecutor ... ordered the (former) president detained and quickly questioned in preparation to put him on trial,' they said.

'The public prosecution will question the former president in Kobar prison.'

Pictures published by Netherlands-based Radio Dabanga claim to show sacks of the cash seized from the presidential residence.

Footage has also circulated on social media claiming to show piles of cash that had been seized from the property.

Bashir has been arrested along with his two brothers on allegations of corruption it is claimed. Members of his former government have also been arrested.

During his lengthy presidency he also met the UK's Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2004

Omar al-Bashir has also been seen with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2008, who all faced major civil unrest in their country's. Only the Syrian President remains in his post

Sudanese demonstrators show their two finger salute as they arrive for a sit-in protest outside the Defence Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan, yesterday

The transitional military council (TMC) said earlier this evening that it will retire all eight of the officers ranked lieutenant general in the National Intelligence and Security Service.

Opposition groups had demanded that the security agencies be restructured.

A source in Bashir's National Congress Party said authorities arrested the acting party head Ahmed Haroun, former first vice president Ali Osman Taha, former Bashir aide Awad al-Jaz, the secretary general of the Islamic movement Al-Zubair Ahmed Hassan and former parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Taher.

The source also said parliament speaker Ibrahim Ahmed Omar and presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie were under house arrest.

Mr Bashir, who ruled Sudan for nearly 30 years, was toppled on April 11 by the Sudanese military after months of public protest.

A Sudanese bridegroom waves a national flag on a wedding car during a protest outside the army's complex in the country's capital Khartoum

He is now held at a high-security prison and will be questioned about the cash, sources said. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged genocide crimes in Sudans Darfur region, but the military has said they intend to try the former ruler in Sudan.

Hassan Bashir, a professor of political science at the University of Neelain, said the measures against Bashir are intended as a message to other figures associated with his rule that they are not above the law.

'The trial is a step that the military council wants to take to satisfy the protesters by presenting al-Bashir for trial,' he said.

Bashir survived several armed rebellions, economic crises, and attempts by the West to turn him into a pariah during his 30-year rule before he was toppled in a military coup.

At a sit-in outside Sudan's Ministry of Defence that began on April 6, protesters, who slept on the pavement, stood besides posters of Bashir that called on the ICC to put him on trial.The daughter of a man who was killed in a deer attack has opened up about the tragic incident as her mum continues to fight for her life in hospital.

Jemma McDonald was not at home when her father Paul, 47, was gored to death by the family's pet deer at their farm in Moyhu, rural Victoria, last Wednesday.

Her mother Mandi, 45, is now in intensive care after she desperately tried to save her husband before being attacked by the crazed animal.

'Two days ago I got the worst phone call a daughter could ever possibly receive,' Jemma wrote online.

Jemma McDonald was not at home when her father Paul, 47, (left) was gored to death by the family's pet deer at their farm in Moyhu, rural Victoria, last Wednesday

'Mum and dad were involved in a freak accident and Ethan (brother) and I lost our dad.'

The devastated daughter said her 'world had been turned upside down'.

'With mum being so sick its up to us to look after things until she gets better.

'I never thought I would ever have to do this and its the hardest journey Ethan and I have ever been on.'

On Saturday, Ms McDonald took to Facebook to give an update on her mother's progress, saying she was 'stable but still fighting for her life'.

'The doctors and specialists have told us to expect a pretty lengthy stay in the Intensive Care Unit,' she wrote.

Paul McDonald and his wife, Mandi, (above) were attacked by the pet deer at their property in northeast Victoria

Mr McDonald, 47, was feeding the deer in its enclosure when the animal lunged at him. Pictured: A deer on their property

The brave daughter has started a fundraiser in a bid to cover the bills for her mother's stay in hospital.

In just two days, 300 generous strangers have donated more than double the family's $10,000 goal, with $23,000 raised and counting.

'Our mum is the strongest, most generous, kindhearted person you could EVER meet and we just want to show her how much she is loved,' she wrote.

Mr McDonald, 47, was feeding the deer in its enclosure when the animal lunged at him.

Police arrived and shot the animal dead.

'The deer was shot several times for the safety of the male and the female,' Acting Senior Sergeant Paul Purcell said.

Mr McDonald tragically died at the scene while Mandi was treated for upper body and leg injuries

Paramedics were called to the property at about 8.30am but could not save Mr McDonald, who died at the scene. His wife was treated for upper body and leg injuries.

Ambulance Victoria said Mrs McDonald was flown to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne in a serious condition where she is fighting for her life.

The couple had owned the Waipiti deer - a cross between a red deer and an elk - for about two years.

'I know the family are very traumatised about what has happened,' sergeant Purcell said.

The couple's son and daughter are staying with family in Melbourne in the meantime.

Mr McDonald, 47, was feeding the deer before the animal attacked him, according to his brother

Australian Deer Association's Barry Howlett warned that male deers grew aggressive and territorial during mating season, which was around this time of year.

'They are a wild animal and a wild animal that loses its fear of humans is a really dangerous thing,' he told Herald Sun.

'It might be quite docile for most of the year but when mating season is on, you don't go near them.'

As many as a million wild deer are thought to be living in Victoria, according to a 2017 state government report.

Their numbers increased following the 2008 Black Saturday bushfires and calls have been made to cull the growing population.

Victoria's National Park Association said in 2018 that the animals were destructive to the natural landscape.

Paramedics were called to the property at about 8.30am but could not save Mr McDonald, who died at the scene. His wife was treated for upper body and leg injuries (pictured, graphic location of Moyhu in northeast Victoria)Hustle star Robert Glenister, 59

Hustle star Robert Glenister has accused the taxman of behaving like a secret police force after losing a nine-year battle over unpaid National Insurance contributions.

Speaking for the first time since learning that he owes HMRC 147,000 plus interest, he told The Mail on Sunday: We have had the judgment now so I am going to get a brown envelope fairly soon.

I have got two options  either I sell my house or I remortgage my house. I dont want to sell it because I am 60 next year and the only other alternative is to have a significant mortgage hanging around my neck until I am well into my 70s.

Glenister, whose brother Philip played Gene Hunt in the TV hits Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, last week lost his appeal against a ruling by a tax tribunal. It was a decision that could have significant consequences for other performers. The dispute centred on the actors decision in 2004 to set up Big Bad Wolff Ltd, a personal service company (PSC) that charged for his work as a performer.

Being paid through a PSC, rather than as a member of staff on the payroll, has typically enabled celebrities and other contractors who regularly work for just one employer to pay lower rates of tax and National Insurance.

Some employers have favoured this approach because it can also reduce the companys national insurance bills, but HMRC has become stricter on what it calls disguised employment.

Robert Glenister as Ash and Kelly Adams as Emma in Hustle, BBC One

Glenister says he set up the company in good faith and thinks it is unfair to back-date payments to 2004 when HMRC did not contact him until 2010. This isnt a tax avoidance issue, he said. Its a compliance issue. I was advised to set up the company by my then accountant.

Glenister, who is being supported by actors union Equity, said one actor friend committed suicide after being declared bankrupt when the taxman took him to court.

He left rehearsals one day, didnt show up the next day and then threw himself off a cliff.

If HMRC is going to behave like the Stasi then it really has to check the state of peoples mental health, he added, referring to the feared secret police in the former East Germany.

He says HMRC has refused to meet to discuss his case. It acts like an anonymous secret police force They treat you like a criminal. I dont think you can do that in a civilised society.

Glenister, who collapsed on stage in 2017, has been prescribed anti-depressants and medication for high blood pressure and is worried about his career. I have never, ever been fearful before [but] its been quite frightening walking out on stage because you dont know if its going to happen again, he said.

The HMRC said it did not comment on individual cases, but added: We know debt can be stressful which is why we always take individual circumstances into account and are committed to providing meaningful advice and support.Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemns terror attacks in Sri Lanka, Trend reports on April 21.

"We condemn the devastating terrorist attacks in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka killing and injuring many innocent people. We express our deepest condolences to the families of victims and the people of Sri Lanka, wish a speedy recovery to the injured," reads a message on the ministrys Twitter page.Nusrat Rafi, 19, was doused in paraffin and set alight by a gang of fellow students at an Islamic school in Bangladesh after refusing to drop her allegations

Police investigating the barbaric murder of a teenage student who was set ablaze after accusing her headmaster of sexual assault have found vital clues.

Nusrat Rafi, 19, was doused in paraffin and set alight by a gang of fellow students at an Islamic school in Bangladesh after refusing to drop her allegations.

As thousands of women in Bangladesh and campaigners worldwide demand justice for the teenager, detectives revealed they had recovered burkas worn by Nusrats assailants to disguise their identities.

Police have made 17 arrests and reportedly obtained confessions from two of the alleged attackers.

Nusrat claimed the headmaster, named locally as Siraj-ud-Daula, assaulted her in his office in March but that when she tried to report it to police, officers allegedly told her it was no big deal.

Video footage from March 27 shows Nusrat  who lived in the small town of Feni, about 100 miles from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka  tearfully lodging her complaint with police and describing how the headmaster allegedly touched her inappropriately.

But the video triggered a backlash against the teenager among staunchly conservative Muslims which, according to local reports, led to the savage attack on her.

Nusrat claimed the headmaster, named locally as Siraj-ud-Daula, assaulted her in his office in March but that when she tried to report it to police, officers allegedly told her it was no big deal

In a harrowing video, she repeated her claims against the headmaster and named some of the students who allegedly attacked her. Despite being in agony, she said: The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime till my last breath. Nusrat died four days after the attack which took place on April 6

Two students have told police the headmaster ordered them to kill Nusrat if she refused to withdraw her allegations against him.

The pair are alleged to be among four or five students who lured Nusrat to the roof of the religious school, used scarves to bind her hands and feet and issued the headmasters ultimatum.

After setting her ablaze, the gang fled and, according to reports, dumped their burkas in a nearby canal where they were found.

Nusrat suffered 80 per cent burns. She was taken by ambulance to hospital with her brother who recorded her account of the attack on his mobile phone.

Hundreds of protesters have since taken to the streets of Dhaka to demand the gang face prosecution

In a harrowing video, she repeated her claims against the headmaster and named some of the students who allegedly attacked her.

Despite being in agony, she said: The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime till my last breath. Nusrat died four days after the attack which took place on April 6.

Hundreds of protesters have since taken to the streets of Dhaka to demand the gang face prosecution.

Campaigners say cases of sexual harassment and violence against women often go unreported in the conservative and mainly Muslim nation of 160 million people because the victims feel intimidated and stigmatised. Bangladeshi actress Alisha Pradhan, 26, who joined the protests in Dhaka, said: We want justice. Our girls must grow up safely and with dignity.

We protest any forms of violence against women, and authorities must ensure justice.

Sheikh Hasina Wazed, 71, the female prime minister of Bangladesh, has met Nusrats family and pledged to bring her killers to justice. The local police chief has been removed from his post for alleged negligence.Rebels national president Damien Vella's life could be turned upside down by strict anti-bikie laws banning him from seeing other gang members.

The veteran bikie also hasn't seen his uncle Alex in many years since he was stranded in Malta in 2014 when his residency was cancelled.

Now 'Big D' could lose most of his friends if NSW police win their bid to have his movements severely restricted.

Rebels national president Damien Vella's (pictured) life could be turned upside down by strict anti-bikie laws banning him from seeing other gang members

Police have filed an application to the NSW Supreme Court for a court order to use 2016 anti-bikie laws against him, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Vella would not be able to approach or contact anyone even vaguely associated with his club, in an effort to make it impossible for him to keep running it.

Same with anywhere the gang likes to hang out, such as its sprawling former clubhouse in Leppington, western Sydney.

The iconic property was shut down in 2014 by police using other anti-bikie laws, and Alex Vella rented it out for $130,000 a year.

Vella would also not be able to drive or even be in a vehicle between 9pm and 6am except 'in the case of a genuine medical emergency'.

Technology would also be back to the early 2000s as he wouldn't be allowed anything more complicated than an old Nokia without encrypted messaging apps.

Vella also hasn't seen his uncle Alex (pictured) in many years since he was stranded in Malta in 2014 when his residency was cancelled

Alex Vella (right) rented out the former Rebels clubhouse in Leppington (pictured) for $130,000 a year after police shut it down

Vella assumed control of the club after his uncle's visa was cancelled and regularly dishes out outlaw justice to members.

Known as the 'Maltese Falcon', the elder Vella was banned from Australia on character grounds while he was visiting friends in his birth country.

Vella's and his cousin Alex Jr were also temporarily stuck in Malta when they tried to return from the same trip.

They are Australian citizens unlike Alex Vella who despite moving with his family 50 years ago never applied for citizenship.

The police case to have Vella subjected to anti-bikie laws will be heart on August 1.A British doctor couple have opened up about the horrific ordeal they went through when they were dragged into a jungle by drunken gunmen in Congo.

Robert Jesty and Bethan Davies, who both work at Kings College Hospital in London, were taken hostage by rebel militia in May at the start of a gorilla trekking trip in the Virunga National Park gorilla sanctuary.

Little had been known about what took place, but their park ranger Rachel Makissa Baraka was shot through the windscreen and their driver injured after their car was ambushed by the militants.

Doctors Robert Jesty and Bethan Davies have opened up for the first time about their terrifying kidnapping by rebel militia in Virunga National Park, Congo

A sign carrying the former name, Parc National Albert, instead of Virunga National Park. The sign is riddled with bullet holes and rusted

The intensive care junior clinical fellows were released after three days and frantic negotiations between the park's British-educated director Emmanuel de Merode and the militia saw their random fee drop from 150,000 to 22,000.

But it was not believed to have been paid.

Now, Dr Jesty, 29, from Winchester, and Dr Davies, 30, from Boston Spa, have described their kidnapping for the first time.

Bethan Davies and Robert Jesty pictured together at the Lenana summit on Mount Kenya

Dr Davies told The Sunday Times: 'It was absolutely terrifying.

'Two of the younger men got rat-a**** on banana whisky and were watching porn on their phones.

'On the second day an older man drank two litres of banana whisky and then began hacking round with his machete and pointing at Rob with his gun and shooting to one side of him.

'It was very Lord of the Flies.'

She added: 'I was absolutely 100 per cent convinced we'd be killed. I couldn't stop shaking and crying.'

Park ranger Rachel Makissa Baraka was shot through the windscreen. The 25-year-old's only concern was for the safety of those on the convoy, a friend said at the time

A village near to where the ranger was killed trying to save the British tourists from being kidnapped

Dr Jesty said: 'They said they would kill us unless we gave them money.'

He added: 'We gave everything that was in our wallet, which was $200. They said, "We don't want $200  we want $200,000!"'

A hand-over was negotiated and the hostages were eventually delivered to a rendezvous point from where they were forced to escape in a taxi.

This was because their captors refused to allow the Virunga security team - whose chief oversaw the rescue mission - to arrive in park vehicles.

A view from the plains of Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Virunga National Park

Attacked: The convoy the Brits were travelling in through Virunga National Park reportedly came under attack around 10am local time (file photo)

Members of Monusco, the United Nations peace keeping force, were also believed to have been involved in the operation.

The pair were treated for minor injuries after their escape but were otherwise unharmed.

Security sources said they were met in the Congolese border city of Goma and were due to be driven into Rwanda.

Colleagues said they had travelled to the Congo because of a shared passion for exotic travel and conservation.

The Virunga Park has been plagued by violence in the past as armed gangs execute raids to steal resources, particularly charcoal.

More than 170 rangers have been killed over the past two decades.

The Unesco world heritage site covers 3,000 square miles on the Democratic Republic of Congos border with Uganda and Rwanda.

Founded in 1925, it is home to around a quarter of the worlds critically endangered mountain gorillas.

Other endangered species can also be found there included lions, elephants, hippos and an extraordinary range of rare bird species.The European Union will face 50 'disruptive and resentful' British MEPs if the UK is forced to take part in the May 23 elections because of a delay to Brexit, Liam Fox warned.

The International Trade Secretary said there would be a knock-on effect at the highest levels in Brussels because the make-up of the new Parliament will have an effect on the formation of the next European Commission.

'The last thing our European partners want are 50 disruptive and resentful UK MEPs,' he told the Sunday Telegraph.

Dr Fox's comments appear to acknowledge the threat of Leave voters flocking to Nigel Farage's Brexit Party if the European elections take place.

The European Union will face 50 'disruptive and resentful' British MEPs if the UK is forced to take part in the May 23 elections because of a delay to Brexit, Liam Fox warned

At a rally in Nottingham on Saturday, Mr Farage said: 'As Brexit Party MEPs we will do whatever we can to represent and fight for the views of our constituents.

'I will do my best to upset and irritate every single European leader. I promise to be more obstructive and difficult than I have ever been in previous times.'

Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has also said that if the UK is 'stuck in we must use the remaining powers we have to be difficult'.

Speaking on a trade visit to Iraq, Dr Fox warned that the UK's 'basic democratic credentials' were under threat from Parliament's failure to agree a Brexit deal.

'I feel that very, very acutely,' he said.

The UK will participate in the European elections almost three years after voting to leave the EU unless Theresa May manages to get a Brexit deal through Parliament.The new IRA group blamed for killing the journalist Lyra McKee were reportedly putting on a 'show of strength' for MTV cameras at the Londonderry riot on the night she died.

A gunman aiming to kill police shot the 29-year-old journalist in the head after he fired indiscriminately during disturbances in the Creggan estate.

Presenter Reggie Yates had been filming an episode for his new eight-part series called Reggie Yates vs The World 'focusing on how Brexit has reignited tensions in Northern Ireland', reports the Sunday Times.

A Snapchat picture seen by the newspaper shows the BBC Three presenter near the junction where Ms McKee tragically lost her life just hours before.

One community worker told the Sunday Times: 'Tensions had been rising in the area and there is a strong belief that they were being stoked by dissidents for the benefit of the film crew.'

Presenter Reggie Yates had reportedly been filming an episode for his new eight-part series 'focusing on how Brexit has reignited tensions in Northern Ireland' in the area hours before the shooting

The new IRA group blamed for killing the journalist Lyra McKee were reportedly putting on a 'show of strength' for MTV cameras at the Londonderry riot on the night she died

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, who is leading the investigation, has denied the claims.

Police have arrested two men, aged 18 and 19, who were detained under anti-terrorism legislation and taken to Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

The men have not been identified or charged.

Authorities believe one man pulled the trigger during the chaotic rioting that began Thursday night but had organizational support.

Ammunition technical officers (ATOs) attend a security alert at Iniscarn Road in Londonderry

A suspect aged 39 was detained in the city and taken to a Belfast police station for questioning (pictured: Iniscarn Road, Londonderry)

DS Murphy said terrorists are lurking in the shadows, frightening and holding to ransom those they claim to represent.

He said: 'What we are seeing is a new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks, and that for me is a very worrying situation.'

Arrests following security alerts in Londonderry A man has been arrested following security alerts in Londonderry on Sunday morning. An area close to the city's police station on Strand Road was among those affected by the disruption. A suspect aged 39 was detained in the city and taken to a Belfast police station for questioning. Investigations are continuing into the death of Lyra McKee in Londonderry on Thursday. During Sunday's alert a section of the Strand Road was closed to traffic. Road closures were also put in place in Iniscarn Road, Harty Court and Moss Park. Residents of several homes have been evacuated, a statement from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said. Advertisement

He said there has been a sea-change in community attitudes towards the gunmen, demonstrated in the revulsion expressed by many at Miss McKee's killing.

The New IRA is an amalgam of armed groups opposed to the peace process and it recently claimed responsibility for parcel bombs sent to London and Glasgow in March.

Mr Murphy conceded there remains fear of reprisals for giving information to police from the shadowy gunmen.

He said: 'Individuals continue to exert influence over communities, not just in the Creggan but in other parts of the communities as well.

'This intimidation and fear creates a real concern for local residents to come and talk to us as police officers.

'The individuals responsible for Lyra's murder continue to hide in the shadows.'

He said her murder was not just an attack on Miss McKee, but on 'the fabric of this community'.

He added: 'Lyra's killers have succeeded in only one thing, and that is in uniting the entire community in condemnation.'

Footage released by the police from Creggan, Derry, shows the moment the gunman fired at police

Authorities believe one man, pictured, pulled the trigger during the chaotic rioting that began Thursday night but had organisational support

A message of condolence for 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee which has been painted on to the Free Derry Corner

Pictured: A remotely operated bomb disposal vehicle at Iniscarn Road in Londonderry

Standing beside the pile of floral tributes, Miss McKee's friend Kathleen Bradley said she was a breath of fresh air when she moved from Belfast to the city to be with her partner.

Ms Bradley said: 'Lyra's legacy, I think, will be opening all our eyes to what we should have got as a result of the Good Friday Agreement - the ceasefire baby's generation.

'Lyra's legacy will be in this town that guns don't solve anything, guns should never be used for anything, and her legacy will be that we will keep her name and spirit going amongst us.

'A very clear message has been given from not only the people of this town but wider afield to say that this is not okay, this is not acceptable, this is not justifiable.

'It has to stop, nothing is worth a life - nothing.'

MTV said in a statement: 'As stated by the PSNI, there is no evidence of any sort to show that the presence of media on the ground contributed or impacted the situation on the Creggan estate the night that Lyra McKee was tragically shot and killed.

'The crowds had already assembled following a police search in the area and upon hearing about the search, a production company filming a documentary for MTV made their way to the area, as did multiple other news crews who were also present on the scene. MTV is not a line of enquiry in police investigations.'Prime Minister Scott Morrison put on an animated display as he enjoyed an Easter Sunday service with his family.

The Prime Minister was surrounded by his wife, their two daughters and fellow worshippers at his Pentecostal church in Sydney's Sutherland Shire on Sunday.

Today's service is the first time the media has been allowed in to see the Prime Minister practicing his strong Christian faith.

Morrison is a devout member of the Pentecostal 'Horizon Church', which preaches about the ability of its parishioners to heal others and speak in tongues.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison put on an animated display as he was seen dancing and singing at his church's Easter Sunday service

The Prime Minister was surrounded by his wife (right) and their two daughters, and thousands of fellow congregants at his Pentecostal church in south Sydney's Sutherland Shire

Nearly 1000 churchgoers were greeted with hugs and Easter well-wishes from the church's elders upon arriving to the service.

Just three rows from the front, Morrison sang and clapped with his wife Jenny by his side.

This Sunday is the first time the media have been able to see the Prime Minister at his church, where he's been a devout member for about ten years.

Outside the service, Senior pastor Brad Bonhomme told reporters that the church treated the Morrison family just the same as others.

'We just treat them like every other family,' he said.

Mr Morrison spoke briefly with media after the service.

'Today is a reminder of the great hope and the reason for that hope is the reason we celebrate today,' he said.

'It's a very special time for me and my family but I know for people around the country and frankly all around the world.

'This has been the bedrock of our family ever since we moved here many years ago.'

Morrison is a devout member of the Pentecostal ' Horizon Church ', which preaches about the ability of its parishioners to heal others as part of a radical Christian philosophy

This Sunday is the first time the media has been able to see the Prime Minister at his church, where he's been a devout attendant for about ten years

Horizon Church was established in 1949 but rebranded in 2018.

At least 2,000 people squeeze into the concert-style exhibition centre every weekend, with theatre seating and a high-tech lighting system making each service feel more like a rock show than a Christian church service.

The church proudly claims that its members speak in tongues when 'baptised in the holy spirit', while declaring its parishioners are 'protected and healed from sickness and disease'.

The church relies on donations from its patrons, and provides people with alternatives to the traditional passing the plate at the end of the service  offering EFTPOS, direct deposits and even accepting cheques.

Just three rows from the front, Morrison sang and clapped with his wife Jenny by his side

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten attended a church service with his wife Chloe and their three children at an Anglican church in Brisbane,

His family joined roughly 100 parishioners for mass at St Andrew's in Indooroopilly.

In a video released on Sunday, Mr Shorten thanked those who were unable to spend time with their loved ones over the Easter long weekend because of work.

Morrison was seen arriving with his wife Jenny and their two daughters to the Horizon Church in Sutherland for the Easter Sunday service

'We wish you and your loved ones all the best this Easter,' he said.

'For many, Easter is a time that carries deep meaning.

'It is a time for worship, for reflection and a special opportunity for families to come together.'

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and former Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce arrive with family for the Easter service at St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Brisbane

Mr Morrison and Mr Shorten declared a truce to the election campaign for Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

The leaders will also put a brief pause to their campaign trail on Anzac Day.Police have arrested a man over Saturday's horrific ax attack in New York City that left one woman dead and another fighting for her life.

Jerry Brown, 34, of Brooklyn, was charged early Sunday morning with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in relation to the incident.

He is alleged to have gone on the violent rampage in the early hours of Saturday morning while inside the eighth-floor apartment of Angela Valle, 21.

Medics arrived to find Valle outside her East Williamsburg complex shortly after 1.30am, where she was bleeding heavily with lacerations to her head and body.

She told them another female, 20-year-old Savannah Rivera, was dead upstairs.

Investigators proceeded into the apartment to find Rivera unconscious and unresponsive on the living room floor.

Police sources have reportedly told The New York Daily News that her head was 'almost severed from her body and several of her fingers were severed.'

Rivera's distraught family have told The New York Post that she was two months pregnant with her second child.

Savannah Rivera, 20, (left) who had been two months pregnant, was reportedly found with her head nearly severed from her body. A second woman, Angela Valle, 21, (right) survived the gruesome attack and was found bleeding heavily with lacerations to her head and body

The violence is said to have unfolded in Valle's apartment in East Williamsburg (pictured)

Rivera's sister stated that she was nine weeks pregnant and had only begun telling friends and family about the happy news in recent days.

The deceased leaves behind a three-year-old son named Sebastian.

Meanwhile social media posts show that the suspect, who has a history of arrests for violence including for assault, robbery, burglary and strangulation, referred to himself online as the 'Grim Creepa.'

Just six weeks before the deadly attack his then-girlfriend Valle called him 'Mr. 187' - street slang for murderer.

Brown is being held in a psychiatric facility, sources told the New York Post.

But social media posts show Brown was dating Valle as recently as last month.

Meanwhile, Valle's four-year-old daughter was also found inside the apartment. She was unharmed, but was taken to hospital for evaluation and observation.

An ax, thought to be the murder weapon, was found in the building's trash compactor.

Rivera was a mother to a three-year-old son named Sebastian, and was two months pregnant with her second child, according to her devastated family

Valle's four-year-old daughter (pictured) was inside the apartment at the time of the ax attack. She was unharmed, but was taken to hospital for evaluation and observation

The person responsible for the attack may have purchased the Mintcraft ax from a hardware store just meters from Valle's apartment

According to the New York Post, the person responsible for the attack may have purchased the ax from a hardware store just meters from Valle's apartment.

An employee at Florama Hardward in East Williamsburg says he remembers the suspect coming into the store and asking for an ax.

'He asked if we can sharpen it for him,' the employee told the publication after presenting the man with a Mintcraft-brand ax for $39.98.

Valle is currently in a critical but stable condition in Elmhurst hospital.

She initially tried to escape her blood-soaked apartment by calling an Uber.

However, the driver noticed she was bleeding heavily and called 911, The New York Post reported. Medics arrived shortly afterward.

21-year-old Angela Valle (pictured) has been named as the surivor of the attack. She escaped the apartment bleeding heavily and with lacerations all over her body.

Valle (pictured) is the mother of a four-year-old daughter who was inside the apartment at the time of the ax attack, but was left unharmed



Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 70, was arrested for illegal possession of a weapon on Saturday in Sunland Park, New Mexico

The FBI has arrested the leader of an armed right-wing militia group accused of illegally detaining migrants at the US-Mexico border.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 70, was arrested for illegal possession of a weapon on Saturday in Sunland Park, New Mexico.

Hopkins, who also goes by 'Striker', is the 'national commander' of United Constitutional Patriots (UCP). The small but well-armed group has had around six members camped out on a rotating basis near Sunland Park since February, standing guard over people who want to hand themselves in to border patrol and pursuing those who don't.

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas described Hopkins, who also goes by the name of 'Striker,' as a 'dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families'.

'Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes,' Banderas added.

Scroll down for video

Hopkins (left) is the 'national commander' of the United Constitutional Patriots, an armed right-wing militia group which patrols the US-Mexico border and illegally detains migrants

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas described Hopkins (left) as a 'dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families'

Hopkins was previously arrested in Oregon in 2006 on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

UCP spokesman Jim Benvie blamed Hopkins' latest arrest on political pressure from Governor Lujan Grisham, telling Reuters: 'We're not worried about it, he's going to be cleared.'

The arrest comes just days after UCP stopped a group of 300 men, women and children, who had crossed the border into the US, and handed them over to border officials.

Hopkins was previously arrested in Oregon in 2006 on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is seen in a mugshot from 2011

Video recorded by Benvie, who has been camping out on the New Mexico-Chihuahua border for two months, showed the asylum seekers walking on a dirt road having crossed through a fence gap in Sunland Park, just outside of El Paso, Texas.

Benvie and three other men had been scouting the area Monday night before coming across what the US Border Patrol estimated was 300 migrants.

'We held them there until Border Patrol came,' Benvie said. 'And once they came then we did what we do, and that's to help Border Patrol get them to the processing van. So, everybody is safe.

'We're just Americans. We're veterans, we're ex-law enforcement, we're people that care about our national security,' Benvie added.

'We're people that care about our strained Border Patrol.'

Border Patrol has said it does not condone UCP's actions.

The arrest comes just days after the militia stopped a group of 300 men, women and children, who had crossed the border into the US, and handed them over to border officials

Benvie and three other men had been scouting the area Monday night before coming across what the U.S. Border Patrol estimated was 300 migrants

UCP members have helped Border Patrol detain over 5,600 migrants in the last two months, Benvie said.

Critics accuse the UCP of impersonating law enforcement.

Crowdfunding sites PayPal and GoFundMe barred the group on Friday, citing policies not to promote hate or violence, after the ACLU called the UCP a 'fascist militia'.

The emergence of the vigilante group comes amid a boom in asylum seekers aiming to make their way into the US through New Mexico, and the El Paso sector.

In 2018, Border Patrol stopped 162,000 people in the Rio Grande Valley.

None of the eight other Border Patrol sectors on the Southern border have experienced anywhere near those figures.

Donald Trump has described them as a threat to national security, demanding billions of dollars from Congress to build a wall on the southern border.

Graphic shows the number of attempted border crossings since 2016, according to NPR data

UCP members insist they will patrol the border until the wall is built.

'We're here to assist the border patrol because they are so short handed,' Hopkins told AFP earlier this month.

The group - made up mostly of older veterans - enjoys an enthusiastic social media following. They are equipped with tactical gear, rifles and even custom patches on camouflage outfits.

Hopkins could be heard during lengthy radio broadcasts streamed online several times a week.

The border vigilante movement is well-established, with the Southern Poverty Law Center documenting 'questionable apprehensions of migrants by private citizens' from as far back as 1999.

In a statement Saturday, the Mexican foreign ministry expressed 'deep concern' about such groups.

'This type of practice can lead to a violation of the human rights of people who migrate or request asylum or refuge in the United States,' it said.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have sent birthday wishes to the Queen as she turns 93.

This year, the monarch - who is Head of the Church of England - sees her birthday coincide with Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.

Harry and Meghan were among those wishing her well, writing on Instagram: 'Happy Birthday Your Majesty, Ma'am, Granny. Wishing you the most wonderful day! Harry & Meghan.'

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have sent birthday wishes to the Queen on Instagram as she turns 93 on Easter Sunday

The Queen's birthday coincides with Easter Sunday this year- the most important day in the Christian calendar

Harry (pictured with Prince William and the Queen) and Meghan wished the Queen a Happy Birthday as she turned 93 today

Elizabeth II, who has a strong faith, usually celebrates Easter at Windsor Castle by joining members of her family at a service in St George's Chapel.

At Buckingham Palace, the Band of the Irish Guards will perform a rendition of Happy Birthday in her honour on the forecourt as part of the Changing of the Guard ceremony.

April 21 - the day the Queen was born - is the first of the monarch's two birthdays.

She also has an official one on the second Saturday in June each year, which is commemorated with the Trooping the Colour parade.

The Queen at the Easter Mattins Service at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2018

The Queen and the royal family during the Trooping the Colour celebrations last year

The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery will perform their gun salutes the day after the Queens birthday

Gun salutes are also fired as a mark of respect to the Queen on her special day - but never on a Sunday, so this year they will be delayed by one day.

On Monday, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery will ride their horses and gun carriages past Buckingham Palace en route to Hyde Park to stage a 41 Gun Royal Salute at noon.

A 62-gun salute will also be performed by the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London at 1pm the same day.

The Queen traditionally spends a month-long residence at Windsor Castle, known as Easter Court, each year.

The Duke and Duchess of York with their daughter Princess Elizabeth at her christening in 1926

The Queen and Philip on board the Spirit of Chartwell during the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in 2012

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born at 2.40am on April 21 1926, the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York, at 17 Bruton Street, the Mayfair home of her mother's parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore.

She was never expected to be Queen when she was born, but the abdication of her uncle Edward VIII in 1936 put her father George VI on the throne, and changed her destiny.

Elizabeth II, who has been monarch for more than 67 years, is Head of State, the Armed Forces and the Commonwealth, and has been married to the Duke of Edinburgh for more than 71 years.

She became Britain's longest-reigning monarch, passing her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria's record, in September 2015.

With the death of 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand in 2016, the Queen now holds the record for the world's longest reigning living monarch.

Police are investigating after a half-naked woman, with a history of prostitution, was found dead inside her New York City hotel room on Saturday morning.

A maid at the Riviera Motor Inn, in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, made the shock discovery shortly after 8.30 AM when she entered the room to clean.

The victim was naked from the waist down and had a towel wrapped around her head, according to The New York Daily News.

Police were called after the body of a woman was found in a room at The Riviera Motor Inn in Brooklyn on Saturday

Police have not released the name of the woman, but say she was 41 years of age and had previously been arrested for prostitution.

A source close to police told the News that the victim was captured on surveillance camera arriving at the hotel room with an unidentified man on Friday evening.

He was seen on surveillance footage leaving the room alone several hours later.

It has been reported that envelopes containing heroin were found inside the suite.

An autopsy will be carried out to determine exactly how the woman died.

Riveria Motor Inn is marketed as a 'no frills hotel with simple rooms'.

It is located a 10 minute drive from John F. Kennedy Airport, with rooms retailing from around $110 a night.Washington is calculating the risks of a possible military intervention in Venezuela, but it should not expect support from Latin American states, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Zvezda TV channel on Sunday, TASS reports.

"Now when the Americans keep saying that all options remain on the table, I have no doubt that they are calculating the consequences of a military adventure," Lavrov said in an interview with a program Glavnoye with Olga Belova. "They apparently thought that this would be a blitzkrieg, but this did not happen, and they acknowledge this themselves."

"Hardly anyone in Latin America will back them, they count on one or two countries, as I understand," he said.

Lavrov expressed confidence that should the US carry out a military intervention in Venezuela, the majority of regional states will stop backing Washingtons course towards toppling the regime in Caracas.The knifeman who allegedly stabbed a policeman in the middle of Sydney's Central Station calmly walked up to him brandishing the weapon.

Constable Hayden Edwards, 30, was responding to an assault when he was allegedly attacked from behind about 6.45pm on Friday.

CCTV footage shows the alleged attacker sneak up behind Edwards holding the 30cm hunting knife and suddenly stab him in the back as he walked past.

Constable Hayden Edwards, 30, was responding to an assault when he was allegedly attacked from behind at Sydney's Central Station, around 6.45pm on Friday

The man then took a few more steps before turning to face the officer in a combat stance as if expecting retaliation.

Instead, Constable Edwards crumpled to the ground as more police converged on the scene with their guns drawn.

Constable Edwards managed to get back to his knees and draw his pistol, aiming it at the assailant who was waiving his knife around.

The attack triggered a long standoff with police before the man jumped on to the train tracks and was eventually tasered and arrested.

It is understood about 12 officers were at the scene and pepper spray was used. Footage of the arrest showed a group of policemen drag the man out of the station.

CCTV footage shows the alleged attacker sneak up behind Edwards holding the 30cm hunting knife and suddenly stab him in the back as he walked past

Constable Edwards managed to get back to his knees and draw his pistol, aiming it at the assailant who was waiving his knife around as other officers arrived

A police officer screamed for help after he was stabbed in the back in an unprovoked attack at a busy Sydney train station

During a press conference on Saturday, police said Constable Edwards was lucky to have escaped with only minor injuries.

He suffered a six centimetre-long wound and was taken to hospital for surgery, then was released on Saturday night.

Police said the 30-year-old and another officer were responding to reports of an assault on Platform One in the lead-up to the attack.

The 53-year-old alleged attacker was taken to St Vincent's Hospital under police guard for treatment.

He has been charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, use offensive weapon to prevent lawful arrest, resist arrest, and custody of a knife in a public place.

Police said the 30-year-old and another officer were talking to a witness on Platform One in a separate matter in the lead-up to the attack (pictured, knife used in the attack)

A witness said the 30-year-old officer crumpled to the ground after he was knifed at Central Station on Friday night

He has been refused police bail to appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday.

Another witness described how the constable cried out for help as other officers ran after the attacker.

'The copper was up against a pole, stood there for 10 minutes, then walked over. That's where he fell and he's telling people help, help help,' a witness told 9News.

Constable Edwards had just finished a stint at Moree in remote north-west NSW, before he was recently transferred to Sydney.

Officers were called to an unrelated assault at Central Station at 6.45pm, before the knife attack happenedJussie Smollett's brother has spoken out in defense of the star, calling accusations that his alleged attack was staged 'ludicrous', and arguing the Empire actor is suffering night terrors over the incident.

Jojo Smollett said his sibling's 'life has been turned upside down' in under three months as he endures 'unrelenting attacks to his character and reputation'.

In an op ed for Bet, Jussie's older brother said: 'To define this experience as unjust would be an understatement.

'The numerous police leaks, which prompted an internal Chicago Police investigation, convicted Jussie in the court of public opinion before he even entered a courtroom. Simply ask yourself this, What if Jussie is telling the truth?'

Jussie Smollett's brother JoJo, left, has spoken out in defense of the star, right, calling accusations that his attack was staged 'ludicrous'

Jojo Smollett, pictured left with his brother Jussie and the Obamas, said his sibling's 'life has been turned upside down' in under three months

Actor Jussie Smollett, center, leaves the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago flanked by his loved ones after prosecutors dropped all charges against him in March

Empire actor Smollett, 36, was accused of staging an attack on himself on January 29 to try to get a raise on the show.

Police say he paid Abel and Ola Osundairo to beat him in what he then described as a racist, homophobic attack by two Trump-loving perpetrators. He has always maintained his innocence and insisted he was attacked.

And Jojo says he has seen his younger brother 'violently awakening from night terrors' as a result of the alleged assault.

He adds: 'To suggest that he staged his own attack to boost a sagging career is ludicrous.

'I have literally seen him violently awakening from night terrors, following the assault. Some of my siblings, as well as Jussies partner and closest friends have seen similar things.'

Jojo added: 'I am definitely not asking you to feel sorry for my brother. He would never allow that. He still carries a humility, grace and knows he walks in more rarefied air than so many people who have been wrongly accused and paying a heavy price.'

Jussie has spent time with his family in Hawaii after the charges were dropped.

His sisters, Jazz and Jurnee, supported him throughout his case but did not attend court as frequently as his brothers did.

Jussie Smollett pictured with his siblings, left to right, Jazz Smollett-Warwell, Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Jake Smollett in 2018

Smollett told police on January 29 that two apparent supporters of President Trump struck him, put a noose around his neck, and poured bleach over him wile yelling 'This is MAGA country'.

He told officers the unknown chemical substance was used on him while 'Empire f****t' and 'Empire n*****' was shouted at him.

Investigators later said they believed Smollett may have paid Abimbola 'Abel' and Olabinjo 'Ola' Osundairo $3,500 to assault him in an alleged orchestrated attack.

But Jojo condemned those accusations, writing: 'Jussie is an exceptional individual. Hes a loving son, brother, partner, and friend.

'Jussie didnt even want to contact the police, following his assault. He was weary and didnt care for the unnecessary attention it might garner.

'If he staged the attack for publicity to boost his career, as alleged, why would he not want to make the incident public?'

The case against Smollett, 36, was suddenly and unexpectedly dropped last month by State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office in questionable circumstances and questions surrounding Foxx's alleged role in that decision have run rampant since.

Foxx's office maintains it has not acted unethically and welcomes an independent investigation.

Smollett was arrested in February for allegedly lying about the attack. Police say he paid Abel and Ola Osundairo to attack him and that he thought he could use it as leverage to get a raise on Empire, a claim he denies

But Foxx continued to meddle in the Jussie Smollett case after 'recusing' herself, calling him a 'washed up celeb who lied to cops' and telling the prosecutor she had handed the case over to that he was being overcharged just two weeks before the case was dropped, new documents have revealed.

In messages sent weeks after she recused herself from the case Foxx wrote to Joe Magats, the prosecutor who she had handed the case over to, and appeared to compare Smollett's charges to those leveled at another celebrity defendant, R. Kelly.

She said: 'Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16.'

She was referring to the 16 count grand jury indictment Smollett was hit with for allegedly staging a hoax attack on himself on January 29.

Thousands of texts and emails about the case were made public by State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office earlier this week as criticism of her handling of the case grew.The controversial Steele dossier which claimed Donald Trump colluded with Russia to fix the 2016 election is back in the spotlight after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

Former British spy Christopher Steele wrote the now discredited document, which helped spark a two-year investigation into the president.

It claimed, among other outlandish things, that Trump paid prostitutes to urinate on him in a Moscow hotel room and that he had a sex tape the Russian government was holding over him. Mueller's team found no evidence of these claims or tape.

Another claim - that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen met with Russian officials in Prague - was also not stood up and no evidence of it was found by Mueller.

Steele, who runs a private intelligence firm, had supplied a dossier to an outside company used by Hillary Clinton's election committee.

It contained unverified information that Trump was vulnerable to blackmail from Russia and had engaged with 'golden showers' with prostitutes during a 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant.

Leaked details of the dossier were seized upon by Trump's detractors as evidence that Russia's President Vladamir Putin had interfered in the election.

As well as supplying the dossier to the Clinton campaign Steele also handed it over to American and British intelligence agencies as he was worried about the national security implications.

But with the release of the Mueller report this week Attorney General William Barr said there was not enough evidence to state the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin to boost his election chances.

Christopher Steele, an ex-British spy wrote the 'dodgy dossier' which claimed Donald Trump colluded with Russia to fix the election. Republicans are now turning their attention on those who put Trump in the firing line and triggered the investigation

A redacted court filing from the Special Council Robert Mueller in the Paul Manafort case is viewed on April 16, 2019. Leaked details of the Steele dossier were seized upon by Trump's detractors as evidence that Russia's President Vladamir Putin had interfered in the election

Released on Thursday after a nearly two-year investigation, Mueller's report detailed a huge amount of cooperative but not criminal contacts between Trump's 2016 election campaign and Russia that assisted the Republican against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The report also detailed numerous acts by the president that supported allegations of obstruction of justice, though Mueller, constrained by Justice Department rules, could not himself recommend charges against Trump.

It now means the Steele dossier is back in the spotlight with a probe by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz looking into potential surveillance abuses by the FBI which will likely look at the controversial January 2017 document.

Horowitz's team has been 'intensely focused on gauging Steele's credibility as a source' for the FBI, Politico reported.

Attorney General William Barr has also said he plans to look at FBI and DOJ conduct during the early days of the Russia investigation - which is where the Steele dossier could, again, face heavy scrutiny.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller detailed cooperative but not criminal contact between Trump's 2016 election campaign and Russia that assisted him in his defeat against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton

Trump is spending the long Easter weekend with his family in Mar-A-Lago, Florida

And Republicans are now turning their attention on those who put Trump in the firing line and triggered the investigation.

Senator Lindsey Graham has already vowed to get answers on the origins of the Steele dossier and hinted the ex-spy could be summoned to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

California Republican Devin Nunes told Fox News Sean Hannity: 'On Carter Page and [former Trump campaign chairman] Paul Manafort, that information came from political opponents, the Clinton campaign fed right into the FBI, directed to the special counsel to go investigate what was in the infamous Steele dossier. That is the only thing of relevance that was in today's 450-page report.'

After a career with MI6 that included working at the British Embassy in Moscow Steele left in 2009 to set up his own company Orbis Business Inteligence with another former spy.

It was this company that was hired to write the dossier into alleged Trump-Russia activities.

When approached by the MailOnline last month ex-MI6 agent Steele said: 'I have nothing to say to you.'Maddison Phelps, 19, disappeared on Saturday near a Sydney hospital in Randwick

Police have launched a desperate manhunt for a 19-year-old woman who vanished from a Sydney hospital on Saturday morning.

Maddison Phelps was last seen on Barker Street in Randwick near the Prince Of Wales Hospital at about 8.40am.

NSW Police and her family said they are seriously concerned for her welfare and have asked anyone with information to come forward.

The teenager could also be in a confused state as a result of her medical condition, with family saying her disappearance is very out of character.

Ms Phelps is described as being Caucasian with brown hair and brown eyes, and roughly 170cm tall.

Police have reason to believe she may be located around Sydney's eastern suburbs but other areas have not be ruled out.

If you have any information about the woman police have asked you contact Crime Stoppers immediately on 1800 333 000.

Ms Phelps is described as an overall Caucasian appearance with a fair complexion, 170cm tall, with a slim build, light brown hair and brown eyesSyeda Nirupama Hossain's body was found by a concerned friend at about 4am on Sunday

The husband of a mother-of-two who was found dead only metres from her sleeping children has been charged with her alleged murder.

Syeda Nirupama Hossain's body was found by a concerned friend at about 4am on Sunday morning in the garage of her Minto home.

The 33-year-old mother had allegedly been stabbed to death.

Her husband, 49-year-old Altaf Hossain, was taken into police custody at the scene.

He was questioned using an interpreter at Campbelltown Police Station and later taken to Fairfield Hospital for treatment on an injured hand.

On his release from hospital, Mr Hossain was returned to Campbelltown Police Station and charged with murder.

He has been refused bail and is due to appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Monday.

Mrs Hossain's distraught family were tasked with relaying the message of her death to her parents, who still live in Bangladesh.

The couple met overseas after Mr Hossain returned home from living in Australia to search for a wife.

Her husband, Altaf Hossain, was taken into police custody at the scene and has been charged with her alleged murder (pictured together)

They were married, and she followed her husband back to Australia, where they have lived for more than a decade.

The pair have two children, aged six and ten.

Police found the pair asleep and unharmed in their beds, and comforted them while waiting for family to arrive. They are now in the custody of protective services.

Afrina Chowdhury, Mrs Hossain's cousin, told media the current concern is the well-being of those children.

'At the moment we're worried about the kids,' she said.

'My husband told her many times to complain to the police, but she never complained,' Ms Chowdhury told 9News.

Friends and neighbours also expressed their sorrow at hearing of her death, describing Mrs Hossain as 'a lovely woman.'

'She was a good mother,' neighbour Shamsul Huda said, while others spoke of the huge loss to the community.

The couple met overseas after Mr Hossain returned home from living in Australia to search for a wife (Police at the scene pictured)

Campbelltown Police Commander Supt Wayne Benson described the ordeal as 'tragic'.

'It is tragic, absolutely tragic,' he said.

'My heart goes out to the children and family involved.'

Neighbours said Mrs Hossain was a devout Muslim who prayed regularly.

The couple made a living selling homemade Bangladeshi sweets to shops after Mr Hossain was injured on the job and couldn't work.The Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation has urged tourists to be 'more accountable' for their actions just days after a young boy was mauled by a dingo on a popular holiday island.

But the group's stern words appear to have been ignored by defiant visitors who continue to pose with the native animal despite the potentially fatal risks.

Audacious holidaymakers have shared snaps of the canines online in the days since a dingo dragged a 14-month-old baby out of a camper van by his head while his family spent time on Queensland's Fraser Island.

One user shared an image of her two children in very close proximity to the animal - despite the potentially deadly risks

At least two wild dogs are believed to have popped a clip on the side of the camper van before entering the vehicle on Good Friday.

The little boy's parents were alerted to the incident by the sounds of screams and the father chased the wild dogs into nearby bushland, before fighting them off and calling paramedics.

He suffered a fractured skull, puncture wounds to his neck and head, and cuts on his legs, scalp and body in the attack. He was treated by paramedics stationed on the island and remains in a stable condition in hospital.

In spite of the horrifying incident, undeterred tourists continue to pose with the animals and share their dangerous antics on social media.

A brazen visitor is pictured standing behind the wild animal

The Butchulla people, who are the Traditional Owners Fraser Island, said dingoes should not 'be sacrificed for human error' (file picture)

One user shared an image of her two children sitting in close proximity to the animal, alongside the hashtags: '#yesthechildrenweresafe #croppedtheadultsout #fraserisland #dingo'.

Another brazen visitor was pictured posing behind a dingo while making the peace sign.

Alongside the image she wrote: 'First peek of some of the antics we got up to on. This little fella decided to come and hang out with us while we spent some time at #elicreek.'

The Butchulla people, who are the Traditional Owners Fraser Island, said dingoes should not 'be sacrificed for human error'

The Butchulla people, who are the Traditional Owners Fraser Island, said dingoes should not 'be sacrificed for human error', The Courier Mail reported.

'We would like to remind people that our traditional homeland is a pristine wilderness which has dangerous animals that could harm your loved ones,' it read.

'Unfortunately, there has already been three incidents this year, which potentially could have been avoided.

'It is time that people are more accountable for the actions - Wongaris should not be sacrificed for human error or inciting interaction,' they said.

The group also implored the government to put a 'joint management' arrangement in place for the island.

The group also implored the government to put a 'joint management' arrangement in place

The boy's (pictured) parents woke to the sound of him screaming as dingoes dragged him outside

They said jointly managing the island would allow them to 'proactively assist' the government with visitor education, safety and other 'on-ground' issues.

The group also extended its' sympathy to the family who were involved in the terrifying encounter with the wild dogs.

Twice as many rangers will now patrol the area for the remainder of the Easter holiday and Anzac Day.

A review of the management of the dingoes on the island will also be carried out.

Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch announced the measures on Sunday, and said the review would also explore ways to improve the state government's partnership with traditional owners.

'Our thoughts are with the little boy and his family who have been through this tragic ordeal,' Minister Enoch said.

'The extra rangers will ensure all visitors to the island are remaining vigilant and following the dingo safe messaging.

The boy's head was bleeding heavily and he was treated by paramedics stationed on the island before being rushed to hospital

He suffered a fractured skull, puncture wounds to his neck and head, and cuts on his legs, scalp and body in the attack

'The Implementation Plan was due to be reviewed later in the year, but I have asked the Department of Environment and Science to review it as a matter of urgency.

'It is time to analyse the dingo risk management implementation plan to determine if more work needs to be done to improve visitor safety.

Paramedic Ben Du Toit (pictured) said the parents saved their son's life by stemming the bleeding on his head

'The continued safety of visitors to K'gari is a priority, and we want to ensure all the actions the Government undertakes in relation to dingoes is based on the best available science and advice,' Minister Enoch concluded.

A paramedic who treated the toddler said his parents had saved his life by stemming the bleeding on his head.

'Immediately, the parents were really under control. They did an amazing job. They stemmed the bleeding to a large extent, basic first aid things,' Ben Du Toit told 9News.

'I can state that the parents did everything right. They weren't at fault in any way.

Mr Toit said the parents did not leave their child open to the elements.

'From the dad's description, everything was shut up tight when they went to bed,' he said.A Labour candidate for the European elections has previously written about the 'Israel lobby' and complained about 'bogus examples of anti-Semitism' in the party, it has emerged.

Martin Mayer reportedly sent an email with the subject line: 'How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour party's anti-Semitism crisis'.

In the email he accused the 'Blairite right wing' of the party of using the allegations as a 'smear' to undermine Jeremy Corbyn, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Mayer is also mentioned on the website of Labour Against the Witch-Hunt, a lobby group which rejects the official definition of anti-Semitism.

According to the group, he spoke at a meeting in Sheffield in May 2018, where he shared some of the 'many bogus' claims of anti-Semitism he witnessed first hand.

Martin Mayer (left), a prospective MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, wrote about 'bogus examples of anti-Semitism' in the Labour Party as a bid to smear leader Jeremy Corbyn (right)

Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home and walks passed Extinction Rebellion climate protesters who glued themselves to his fence in North London this week

The lobby group believes the 'false anti-Semitism smear' is an attempt to 'purge pro-Corbyn supporters in the Labour Party'.

Last night Mr Mayer, a prospective MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, said he regretted the language he used.

The former member of Labour's ruling NEC said he had 'learned a lot more about this subject' since he made the comments.

He said: 'When I was on the NEC I was shocked and appalled to see cases of anti-Semitism within our party.

'I was also concerned about factionalism undermining the integrity of the disciplinary processes and the fight against anti-Semitism.

Equalities watchdog expected to investigate Labour Party over anti-Semitism The Labour Party is facing the possibility of an investigation from the equalities watchdog over its alleged failure to deal anti-Semitism. A source at the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) told the Sunday Times that the amount of evidence against Labour members can trigger a full probe. It is expected the investigation would look at 'systematic unlawful acts of anti-Semitism' by party members. This would enable investigators to get the legal authority to seize emails and internal documents from the party. In the 12 years of the commission's existence, the only other political party it has investigated was the British National Party. The watchdog's board is expected to meet next month to review evidence and decide whether to proceed with a full investigation. Last month three Labour members were arrested by the Met Police as part of a criminal investigation into anti-Semitism in the party. Advertisement

'I regret the language I used to express this and I would not use it today.

'Since then, I have learnt a lot more about this subject and I realise that words like 'smear' have the effect of downplaying and dismissing this very serious issue.

'I did not deny the problem exists within our party, and I believe anyone who denies it is contributing to the problem.

Luciana Berger (right) suffered fierce anti-Semitic abuse online

'As we've seen from the figures that the party recently released, this is a small minority in our party, but they must be kicked out.'

Mr Mayer describes himself as a trade union activist 'campaigning for a progressive socialist agenda'.

A Labour spokesman told the Sunday Telegraph that it 'takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously' and was committed to tacking the problem.

Parties have been hastily gathering candidates for the European elections since Brexit was delayed until the autumn.

The Jewish Labour Movement earlier this month said it has no confidence in Mr Corbyn's leadership amid the ongoing anti-Semitism crisis.

In February seven Labour MPs quit the party to form The Independent Group in fury at Mr Corbyn's handling of anti-Semitism and Brexit.

They included Luciana Berger, a Jewish member who had suffered fierce anti-Semitic abuse online.

Mr Corbyn has previously acknowledged that the party had been 'too slow' in dealing with cases of abuse'.One of the Sri Lanka terrorist bombers checked into a five-star hotel, waited in a queue for a breakfast buffet and then blew himself up, it has emerged.

A manager at the Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo said the attacker had set off the horrific explosion in a packed restaurant at 8.30am.

The bomber had checked in under a false address, claiming he was in the city on business, before unleashing terror on one of the hotel's busiest days of the year.

At least 207 people have died in the eight Easter Sunday blasts, including Brits, Americans and Dutch nationals.

The bombings targeted hotels such as the Cinnamon Grand which are popular with foreign visitors, as well as St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, also frequented by tourists.

Other blasts were reported at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a majority-Catholic town, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticalo.

Ambulances and emergency workers outside St Anthony's Shrine (pictured) in Colombo today where one of the Easter Sunday blasts went off

Describing the Cinnamon Grand bombing, the manager said the attacker had registered the night before as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed.

The bomber was just about to be served when he set off the explosives which were strapped to his back, killing himself and numerous guests.

The manager said: 'There was utter chaos. It was 8.30 am and it was busy. It was families.

'He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast. One of our managers who was welcoming guests was among those killed instantly.'

Millions of tourists visit Sri Lanka every year but political crisis and religious tension have placed the industry under threat in recent months.

A manager at the Cinnamon Grand hotel (pictured today) in Colombo said the attacker had set off the horrific explosion in a packed restaurant at 8.30am

More than 2.4 million foreign holidaymakers visited the Asian country in 2017, spending some $3.2billion.

The industry emerged as a cornerstone of Sri Lanka's economy as the country sought to rebrand itself after the end of a 26-year civil war in 2009.

But in November, deluxe hotels reported cancellations and a decline in bookings as two prime ministers battled for power amid fears of a 'bloodbath'.

Last March a spate of anti-Muslim riots also damaged the island's reputation as a tourist destination with beaches and historic buildings.

Three people died and dozens of Muslim establishments were left in ruins in Kandy, a picturesque hill district famed for its tea plantations and Buddhist icons.

Holidaymakers were urged to avoid the hill resort, which is also home to Sri Lanka's holiest Buddhist shrine, the Temple of the Tooth Relic.

The country remains deeply scarred by its 1983-2009 civil war, when Tamil rebels fought to create an independent homeland.

Police at the scene of one of the blasts in Sri Lanka in which scores of people including Britons, Americans and Dutch nationals are believed to have been killed

Sri Lanka has long been divided between the majority Sinhalese, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist, and minority Tamils who are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

A Christian group said there had been 86 cases of discrimination, threats and violence against followers of Jesus last year, with another 26 so far this year.

The U.S. State Department warned in a 2018 report that Christians had been pressured to close places of worship after they were deemed 'unauthorised gatherings'.

The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship.

There have also been attacks on Muslims, with the government forced to declare a state of emergency amid a spate of anti-Muslim rioting.

Hard-line Buddhist groups accuse Muslims of forcing people to convert and destroying sacred Buddhist sites.

One radical Muslim group, the NTJ, has been linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues and has also reportedly plotted to attack Christian churches.A security guard who survived a deadly drive-by shooting has revealed he anticipated the attack.

James Tu'itufu, 50, was shot in the back during while working at the popular Love Machine nightclub in Prahran, Melbourne, at 3.20am on April 14.

Prior to the shooting, Mr Tu'itufu said he feared the nightclub would be targeted and had spoke to his colleague and friend, Aaron Khalid Osmani, about leaving the job.

'We knew this was going to happen. It was just a matter of time,' he told Seven News.

Mr Osmani, 37, was shot in the face during the shocking attack and died later the same day.

Patron Richard Arow, 28, who was waiting in line with a group of friends outside the club, was also slain in the hail of bullets and died the following Friday.

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James Tu'itufu (pictured) was shot in the back during the attack at the popular Love Machine nightclub in Prahran, Melbourne

Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, (pictured) died from his injuries in hospital

Mr Tu'itufu wept as he spoke to 7News about Mr Osmani's death.

'It's hard, that we lose a good man. He was my friend. I tried to save him,' he said.

The father-of-three said he saw the Porsche used in the shooting as it approached the club, and tried to warn Mr Osmani to get out of the way.

After he was shot in the back, Mr Tu'itufu mustered all his strength and tried to revive his friend - but tragically there was 'nothing' he could do.

Mr Arow (pictured) was waiting in line with a group of friends outside Love Machine when he and three others were hit by the bullets

The 50-year-old said he had anticipated the deadly shooting, and claimed tensions had been building in the weeks prior.

'I beg him for us to leave the club, we knew this was going to happen we both know it just a matter of time,' he said, referring to Mr Osmani.

Mr Tu'itufu said he was thankful to 'have another chance at life', but that he 'really missed' his friend who hadn't been so lucky.

Richard Arow (pictured with his girlfriend Rebekah Spinks) died in hospital following the fatal drive-by shooting at the popular nightclub

Forensic police were at the scene outside popular nightclub Love Machine on Sunday morning

Mr Osmani has been remembered as a 'beautiful soul'.

'My heart is broken... you were the most kind-hearted soul I have met since I started working at Love Machine,' a female colleague wrote online.

'The most humble security guard I have ever had the pleasure to call a friend.'

'You were everything to me. I'm broken that you are gone,' said another.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Tess Walsh said Mr Arow was an innocent man who was impacted by the shooting.

Mr Arow's friend Jay Bell posted a heartbreaking tribute to Facebook on Saturday after the 28-year-old's death was confirmed.

'Words won't ever be enough. Praying you're up top with the big man himself, nan and Moses, rest easy Big Bro,' Mr Bell posted.

The Chelsea FC fan's friend Anthony Morello on Monday wrote on social media: 'Our friend was innocently standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

'Your million dollar smile & warm energy was so infectious and would light up any room you walked into.

The Love Machine was packed with patrons

'One of the friendliest and most cheerful guys I've had the pleasure of meeting... You will be missed by many and remembered for ever as someone with a big beautiful heart.'

There have since been claims the killer may have shot the men as revenge for being refused entry to the venue.

It's understood police are investigating whether a man who was twice refused entry to the nightclub after he was previously removed from the premises, is involved in the double homicide.

The patron was kicked out of the venue around a month ago after staff saw him acting aggressively, The Herald Sun reported.

Once outside the nightclub, the man in question is believed to have become embroiled in a scrap before the police were called.

Two weeks later he was refused entry to the club, and he was not allowed in again last weekend when he once more tried to enter the venue.

A police probe is believed to be looking into the man's involvement and his possible links to bikie gangs.

Police are hunting two men (pictured on CCTV) seen running from a burning Porsche used in the drive-by shooting

Assistant Commissioner Walsh said police were not certain who was responsible for the shooting but were investigating links to Middle Eastern and bikie gangs.

'We think this is quite a specific, targeted attack, but we do not understand the motive, nor the people who are involved in it at this time,' she said.

She said Love Machine's owners had been very cooperative and detectives hoped to review CCTV from venue and nearby for clues.

Gang members have reportedly caused trouble at Love Machine and nearby Lux nightclub, which have the same owner, in recent weeks.

They have apparently threatened staff, refused to pay for drinks and demanded payments from the venues known to host bikies, strippers and underworld figures.

The gunman was driving a stolen black Porsche Cayenne four-wheel-drive which was later found burnt out in Wollert in the city's north.

Police are hunting two men seen running from a burning Porsche used in the drive-by shooting.

The car was torched in Wollert, north Melbourne after the 3am shooting at Love Machine in Prahran on Sunday

Mr Arow was outside the Love Machine nightclub (crime scene pictured) in Prahran about 3.10am on Sunday when four shots were fired from a stolen Porsche

The nightclub was still packed with patrons at the time of the shooting. They left the venue via a back entrance after police deemed the area safe.

A security guard at the nightclub told Seven's Sunday Sunrise he had no idea there had been a shooting outside and there was no panic inside the venue.

Clothes and bullet casings were also scattered along the footpath outside the nightclub.

The Love Machine is one of Melbourne's most popular nightclubs and was recently refurbished by new owners.

A Victoria police spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.Sri Lanka's police chief warned of potential suicide bombing plots on 'prominent churches' from Islamic extremists ten days before today's attacks which killed 207 people, according to reports.

Seven suspects have been arrested so far after the blasts hit high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday, injuring as many as 500 people.

The cause was not immediately clear, and there have been no claims of responsibility so far, though the country remains deeply scarred by its 1983-2009 civil war, when Tamil rebels fought to create an independent homeland.

Recently a religious divide has taken hold in the country, which is 70 percent are Buddhist, 13 per cent Hindu, 10 per cent Muslim, and seven per cent Christian, according to the country's 2012 census.

Documents seen by news agency AFP reveal that Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers 10 days ago, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit 'prominent churches'.

Pictured: A Sri Lankan police commando enters a house suspected to be a hideout of militants in Colombo, April 21

Sri Lankan police stand at the site of an explosion at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo on April 21, 2019

'A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo,' the alert said.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that was linked last year to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.

The first blast was reported at St Anthony's Shrine, a well-known Catholic church in the capital Colombo.

A second deadly explosion was then confirmed at St Sebastian's, a church in the town of Negombo, north of the capital.

Soon after, police confirmed that a third church in the town of Batticaloa had been hit, along with three high-end hotels in the capital.

Hospital sources said British, Dutch and American citizens were among the dead, with Britons and Japanese among those injured in the attacks.

Security forces secure the area around the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo

The Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are the latest flashpoint amid ongoing religious tensions in the island nation.

Sri Lanka has long been divided between the majority Sinhalese, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist, and minority Tamils who are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

A Christian group said there had been 86 cases of discrimination, threats and violence against followers of Jesus last year, with another 26 so far this year.

The U.S. State Department warned in a 2018 report that Christians had been pressured to close places of worship after they were deemed 'unauthorised gatherings'.

The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship.

There have also been attacks on Muslims, with the government forced to declare a state of emergency amid a spate of anti-Muslim rioting.

Hard-line Buddhist groups accuse Muslims of forcing people to convert and destroying sacred Buddhist sites.

One radical Muslim group, the NTJ, has been linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues and has also reportedly plotted to attack Christian churches.Actor Vladimir Zelensky is challenging incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko for a shot at the highest political office in Ukraine, TASS reports.

The Ukrainian presidential race has been set up into two stages  the first round on March 31 and the runoff on April 21.

Now, the Ukrainian public will await the results of the runoff to see who will lead Ukraine in the coming years.

Ukraines police will be on duty at 197 local election commissions and nearly 30,000 polling stations.

More than 130,000 law enforcement officers will be managing security during the elections.

TASS correspondent reports that Ukrainians are demonstrating keen interest in the election. In Kiev's Darnitsky district the voters have gathered at the polls long before their opening.Foreign members of an outlaw motorcycle gang were denied entry into Australia last week.

Two German members of the Gypsy Jokers Outlaw Motor Cycle Gang, one member from its Norway chapter and two Spanish gang associates were stopped by Australian Border Force officers after landing at Perth Airport on Monday.

The German men, aged 33 and 61, arrived in Perth on a flight from Hong Kong, while the Spanish men, aged 43 and 44, arrived on a flight from Dubai.

Two German members of the Gypsy Jokers Outlaw Motor Cycle Gang, one member from its Norway chapter and two Spanish gang associates were stopped by Australian Border Force officers after landing at Perth Airport on Monday (pictured)

The German men, aged 33 and 61, arrived in Perth on a flight from Hong Kong, while the Spanish men, aged 43 and 44, arrived on a flight from Dubai (pictured)

The 34 year old Norwegian arrived on a flight from Singapore on Wednesday.

All five men were questioned and it was established they had travelled to Perth to attend an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gypsy Jokers OMCG.

The men had their eVisitor 651 visas cancelled amid fears they may present a risk to the community.

All five men were questioned and it was established they had travelled to Perth to attend an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gypsy Jokers OMCG (pictured)

The men had their eVisitor 651 visas cancelled amid fears they may present a risk to the community (pictured)

'These gangs pose a significant threat to our community and are known to be involved in serious criminal activity including drug trafficking and violent crime,' ABF Regional Commander for Western Australia, Rod O'Donnell, said.

'Any non-citizen involved with a criminal organisation, including outlaw motorcycle gangs, can expect to have their Australian visa cancelled on arrival and be removed from the country.'

The men were held at the Perth Immigration Detention Centre.

The Spanish nationals were removed from the country on Tuesday night, while the Germans and Norwegian were removed on Thursday.In two years 86 Russell Group university students have asked to change gender

Almost 100 students at the country's top universities have requested their gender to be changed on official records.

In just two years 86 students at Russell Group universities asked to formally change their gender on student records.

Between 2016 and 2018, the University of Oxford saw 24 of its students put in requests - the highest number of applications.

Almost 100 students at the country's top universities have requested their gender to be changed on official records between 2016 and 2018

According to the Sunday Telegraph, these figures are likely to actually be higher because some universities provided values of 'less than 10' in an effort to protect the identity of individuals.

It is also believed that there will be more students who identify as trans but haven't put in a formal request to change their gender.

While the data showed that Oxford students had submitted the most requests to change their gender, Queen's University Belfast followed with 15, the University of Warwick came after with 14 and the University of Leeds had 10.

Data from a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Telegraph to 24 Russell Group universities found that 89 students have asked for help concerning gender transitioning over the past three years.

Almost half of these students - 39 - were at the University of Warwick.

Bristol university students were second most likely to ask for help concerning trans issues, with 37 using student services over three years.

The University of Oxford saw 24 of its students put in requests - the highest number of applications

York university saw 10 students access such services and three students in Liverpool did as well.

Over the same time period there were eight complaints of discrimination.

Fears are rising over support for trans students as the National Union of Students announced it was scrapping its trans officer role because of funding cuts.

Dr Jane Hamlin, the president of the national transgender support group, the Beaumont Society, told the Sunday Telegraph: 'There is clearly a need for support for trans students and the counsellors who try to help them'.

An American study published last year revealed that more than half of transgender male teens attempted suicide.

Just less than 30 per cent of transgender female teens said they had attempted suicide too.

Fears are rising over support for trans students as the National Union of Students announced it was scrapping its trans officer role because of funding cuts

The Government estimates there are between 200,000 to 500,000 transgender people in the UK and noted that 41 per cent of trans men and women said they had been victim to a hate crime in the last 12 months.

A whopping 67 per cent of transgender people said they avoid being open about their gender identity for fears of negative reactions from others.

While LGBT rights charity, Stonewall, advise that the Home Office should treat hate crimes on gender identity and sexual orientation equally to those based on race and faith under law.

They also suggest that UK police forces improve training to all police officers to ensure they can identify and record transphobic hate crimes.

However, Chris McGovern, chairman for the Campaign for Real Education, told the Telegraph that if lots of students start officially changing their gender on record, it would make measuring performance by gender, 'meaningless'.The government of Sri Lanka blocked its citizens from accessing social media and messaging apps today in the aftermath of a series of co-coordinated terrorist bombings which killed more than 200 people.

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Viber, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger were all either inaccesible, or operating so poorly as to make them unusable, following the ban.

This morning eight explosions at churches and five star hotels killed 207 including five Britons, and wounded 450, at sites in and around the capital Colombo, and on the east coast.

Hours later a ninth improved explosive - a six foot pipe bomb - was found at the country's main international airport during a routine patrol, and disposed of safely.

The government declared a curfew with immediate effect after the morning's devastation.

Nine social networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and Whatsapp, had '0% reachability', online monitoring organisation Netblocks reported

The scene of devastation this morning as Sri Lankan security personnel walked past dead bodies covered with blankets amid blast debris at St. Anthony's Shrine following an explosion in the church in Kochchikade in Colombo

Junior defence minister Ruwan Wijewardene said: 'A curfew will be imposed until things settle down.'

Government officials told reporters on the ground that major social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, had been blocked inside the country to prevent misinformation and rumours.

'This was a unilateral decision,' said Harindra Dassanayake, an adviser to the Sri Lankan president, told the New York Times - suggesting the US-owned corporations had not been consulted on the block.

Officials blocked the platforms, he said, out of fear that misinformation about the attacks and hate speech could spread, provoking more violence.

Netblocks, an online group which tracks online freedom and shutdowns, volunteers across Sri Lanka corroborated user reports of difficulty accessing the online platforms.

Hospital staff push a trolley with a casualty after an explosion at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa,with police tape keeping out bysanders

Many Sri Lankan internet users are complaining about difficulty checking up on friends and family following the attacks.

But it comes after Sri Lanka previously blocked social media during after violence broke out in March 2018.

The government briefly blocked social networks after viral rumors and calls to violence, circulating largely on Facebook, appeared to provoke a wave of anti-Muslim riots and lynchings.

Other countries have periodically blocked social media during spasms of violence linked to the platforms. India first blocked access to Facebook in 2012 amid riots linked to false information on the platform.

But Sri Lanka's decision to block social media today was unusual as it came before - and without - any violence linked to social media was known to have taken place.

Security forces inspect the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo

State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators have identified the culprits behind the 'terrorist' attacks - but no gorup has taken responsibility

An analysis of Sri Lanka's 2018 social media shutdown - which was designed to cut off communications between organizers of violent mobs - concluded the shutdown had a huge impact on a wide swath of Internet users.

Sagarika Wickramasekera, president of Internet Societys Sri Lanka chapter, said that due to the of social media and calling services, 'those who had loved ones in the violence-ridden areas had to go through stressful period of time without any contact with them'

She added that Facebook-based volunteer groups, civil society activists and other social movements lost contact with their audiences, she added.

'This reduced the circulation of validated content and education hence the peace and harmony,' Wickramasekera added. 'People had to rely on rumors.'An elaborate gold and enamel umbrella handle made by iconic Russian jewellers Faberge has sold for 75,000 at auction, nearly eight times its estimate.

The intricate parasol handle was made by one of Faberge's most important workmasters, Michael Perchin, and is set with diamonds and rubies.

It had an estimate of 10,000, but was bought for much more than was expected to a private collector in the room at Woolley & Wallis auctioneers in Salisbury.

An elaborate umbrella handle made by the iconic Russian jewellers Faberge has sold for 75,000 at auction

The stunning piece was only expected to fetch 10,000 but a private collector smashed the estimate

Perchin became the leading workmaster in the House of Faberge in 1886 and remained so until his death in 1903.

During this time he made a number of important commissions, including some of the Imperial Easter eggs, and his time as head workmaster is generally considered to be the most artistically innovative.

The handle has three trellis panels set with rose-cut diamonds, each centred with cabochon rubies within green enamel laurels and further rose-cut diamond borders.

The intricate handle was made by one of Faberge's most important workmasters, Michael Perchin, and features the mark of the jewellers near the base

Perchin became the leading workmaster in the House of Faberge in 1886 and remained so until his death in 1903

The top of the handle has a cabochon ruby surroundered by a rose-cut diamond border

Each of the panels is separated by green and red enamel foliate lines and six pearls and another cabochon ruby at the top surrounded by a rose-cut diamond border.

The previous owner bought the parasol handle from Wartski, a renowned art and antique dealers that specialises in Faberge, in 1968.

This piece is three inches long and was sold with its box and a copy of the purchase valuation from Wartski.

The amazing piece is just three inches long and was sold with its box and a copy of the purchase valuation from Wartski, a renowned art and antique dealers

The new private owner of the Faberge item was in the room at the time of the auction and was 'delighted' to own such an object

The House of Faberge is one of the most famous jewellery firms in the world and it is known for its stunning jewel-encrusted eggs

Marielle Whiting, head of jewellery at the auction house, said: 'It's so good to see pieces like this going from one private collector to another, over half a century in the same collection and with such a great provenance from Wartski.

'The new owner was in the room and is absolutely delighted to now be in possession of such a rare and beautiful object.'

The piece sold for a hammer price of 60,000, which came to 75,000 with buyer's premium.The latest erotic novel by EL James has sparked a diplomatic row as Albania's envoy to the UK complained about his country's portrayal.

The Fifty Shades of Grey author's new book, The Mister, depicts a poor Albanian cleaner as a victim of gangsters and sex trafficking, who marvels at life in the UK.

As she strikes up a romance with an English aristocrat she marvels at 'clever phones' and the 'magic card' he uses to withdraw money.

Qirjako Qirko, the Albanian ambassador in London, said the book showed his fictional countrymen as primitive criminals and created 'negative perceptions'.

Fifty Shades author EL James (pictured left last week) has sparked a diplomatic row as Albania's ambassador to the UK Qirjako Qirko (right) criticised her new book The Mister

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, he said the portrayal of Albanians in the book was 'totally unrealistic'.

He said: 'I am really sorry that there is a novel with this information that creates such negative perceptions for my country.

'Albanians are the best people you will meet in your life, the most friendly.'

Mr Qirko said there were 120,000 Albanians in Britain but said any criminals among them were 'just some individuals'.

In the book the Albanian character, Alessia Demachi, works as a cleaner in an aristocratic home after she was trafficked into the UK.

She also faces violent pressure from her father to marry her fiance who wants her to be a 'traditional Albanian wife'.

EL James' new novel, The Mister (left), comes after the success of her bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey (right) which was followed by two sequels and two spin-offs

Albanian tourism bosses have tried to boost their country's reputation with a campaign entitled 'Taken By Albania'.

The title is a reference to the film Taken in which the daughter of Liam Neeson's character is kidnapped by Albanian smugglers.

Tourism officials acknowledge that Albania has been seen as a 'haven for thugs, criminals, and gangsters' in popular culture.

But they insist the country's reputation is 'wholly untrue', saying Albania is a 'beautiful and incredibly safe place to visit and live'.

They characterise the country as Europe's last 'defender of the rugged' on a continent that has otherwise been 'tamed and explored'.

British writer James, 56, shot to fame with her three Fifty Shades books, and two follow-up from protagonist Christian Grey's point of view.Police released this image of a man they wished to speak to during the investigation

A 73-year-old man has been charged with allegedly trying to abduct a young girl from a holiday park.

Police were called to the park on Military Road near West Beach, west of Adelaide, at 11.50am on Friday after a young girl was allegedly approached by the man at the pool.

The man is accused of asking the young girl to walk away with him.

The girl's mother intervened and the man left the area, police said.

Following investigations, a 73-year-old Queensland man was arrested at a caravan park on Saturday. He was charged with attempted kidnapping and refused bail.

He is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

Guests of the holiday park were not informed of the arrest until Sunday, 7 News reported.

A 73-year-old man has been charged with allegedly trying to abduct a young girl from a holiday park (pictured)The majority of Conservative voters are opposed to HS2 and want the next leader of the party to scrap the 56billion project, a new poll claims.

An American pollster put together a memo stating two thirds of Tory voters see the rail line as an 'expensive extravagance'.

The figures have been seen by senior figures within the party who could be potential leadership contenders if Theresa May steps down, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

These include Boris Johnson, who has publicly attacked HS2, David Davis, Esther McVey and Andrea Leadsom, who has also voiced concerns over the scheme.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss, said the project would be reviewed in the upcoming spending review and warned that the Government should scrap 'white elephants' if necessary.

Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is one of a group of senior Tory figures seen as potential leadership candidates who oppose the HS2 line

Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom (left) and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Esther McVey (right) have both voiced concerns over the HS2 project

The research was carried out by American political consultant, Frank Luntz, who is also said to be friends with Johnson.

Grassroots party opposition to the multi-billion pound project to connect London to Birmingham and then Leeds and Manchester is mainly focused on the route it is planned to take through swathes of Tory heartlands such as parts of north west London, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

Johnson's own Uxbridge constituency is one of these areas that will see the controversial line cut through the countryside.

According to the Sunday Telegraph the memo states: 'Fully two thirds of our group wanted to see it [HS2] scrapped immediately, seeing it as the worst kind of wasteful spending.'

Last month ministers delayed approving HS2 spending over worries about the project's mounting costs.

Despite the government claiming the budget of 56billion must be kept, many minsters fear costs could spiral to more than 100billion,

Former Brexit Secretary, David Davis has also publicly attacked the 56billion HS2 project

Phase two, connecting Birmingham with Leeds and Manchester, is not due to begin until 2024. Approval for the project was delayed last month over cost fears [File photo]

A formal 'notice to proceed' on major construction works for the first phase of the high-speed railway was been put back until December.

The Government-owned firm in charge of the project is now likely to fall short of its aim of starting work on bridges and tunnels later this year.

The order, which would have provided up to 27billion, had been scheduled for June.

However, it is understood HS2 Ltd is struggling to keep costs contained within the overall budget of 56billion.

The delay means the firm cannot sign major contracts for the construction of phase one lines, stretching from London to Birmingham.

Work on phase two, connecting Birmingham with Leeds and Manchester, is not due to begin until 2024.

HS2 Ltd said it was still negotiating with contractors and hoped to receive 'notice to proceed' later this year, while the Department for Transport said it was 'constantly assessing' how to deliver value for public money.Seana Talbot was the elected president of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) since 2017

The president of the UKs leading charity for new parents has resigned amid a shift in focus to mental health issues rather than breastfeeding and maternity support.

Seana Talbot was the elected president of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) since 2017.

But earlier this month, Ms Talbot quit her role, saying the organisation was being taken in the wrong direction as it continues to put more of an emphasis on generic parent support and postnatal mental health.

She also claimed there was a 'profound lack of trust' within the organisation amid a 'culture of fear'.

Ms Talbot explained that while raising awareness about maternal mental health is very important, many other charities already campaign on the issue.

The NCT, therefore, shouldnt divert their limited campaigning resources away from other, more controversial topics, such as breastfeeding in public, Ms Talbot told The Observer.

In her letter of resignation, she also said that the NCT was no longer the go-to charity.

Others have taken our place or, worse still, there is silence where womens voices should be, she said.

I have now concluded that those responsible for NCTs direction and strategy are determined to lead the charity in a direction I cannot support.

Since 2016, the charity saw a 10 per cent drop in its income, from 17.3million to 15.6million, while in the same period its membership decreased by 55 percent from 110,000 to 50,000.

Demonstrators feed their babies during a protest in support of breastfeeding in public, outside Claridge's hotel in London in 2014

Ms Talbot said the charity was now reluctant to publicly support breastfeeding in media debates and on social media (pictured: Demonstrators in London feed their babies during a protest in support of breastfeeding in public)

Ms Talbot said the charity was now reluctant to publicly support breastfeeding in media debates and on social media as to not discourage new parents who formula feed from joining the group.

It is understood that 38 of the NCTs practitioners have written to the organisation to voice similar concerns.

The former president said it's vital support is offered to those women who want to breastfeed, adding: 'The evidence is really clear that breast milk is better for babies than formula milk.

'[There's] this awful kind of fear of annoying anybody who didnt breastfeed... Of course, we support all parents, but we know this group of women need additional support.'

Sam Grimstone, a spokesperson for the NCT, insisted that the charity had not changed direction, supporting mothers and families, 'preparing them for birth and supporting them with feeding' for 60 years.

She said: 'I dont believe we are moving away from that in any way. I think what we are trying to do is build on that and support parents after theyve had a baby.'

However, she did admit that by publicly offering support to parents who formula feed, this could be seen as a change of direction by the NCT.

Ms Talbot was elected president after claiming she was pressured to resign as a trustee in 2016, following the death of a baby in a cot endorsed by the NCT, despite an inquest finding the charity was not to blame.

Jessica Figueras, the chairman of trustees for NCT, rejected Ms Talbots claims that there is a 'culture of fear' within the charity.

She told the Telegraph: 'We want everyone to be treated with dignity, courtesy and respect and we will not tolerate bullying or harassment of any kind. We are not complacent and we treat any allegation of bullying with the utmost seriousness.'Said government would be launching global review into persecuted Christians

Theresa May offered her support to the many Christian's who face 'huge danger'

Theresa May has shared an impassioned Easter message standing up for religious freedom and offering support to persecuted Christians around the world.

The Prime Minister condemned the persecution of Christians and said 'we must stand up for the right of everyone, no matter what their religion' to follow their beliefs.

Her speech comes after more than 200 people were killed in a 'targeted attack on Christians' in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn used his Easter message to say Christ's experiences as a refugee are 'still familiar to us today', and the current migration crisis is a 'moral test' for politicians.

In her Easter message Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured with Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury) has offered her support to Christians around the world who face persecution

Mrs May condemned the persecution of Christians and used her speech to stand up for religious freedom

The Prime Minister shared that the government had launched a global review into the persecution of Christians

Mrs May uses her message to say she will spend Easter 'giving thanks in church', but 'for many Christians around the world, such simple acts of faith can bring huge danger'.

She said: 'For millions of Christians in this country and around the world, Easter is a particularly special time, when we remember the powerful message at the heart of our Christian faith.

'A message of hop-of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But for many Christian's around the world, such simple acts of faith can bring huge danger.

'Churches have been attacked. Christians murdered. Families forced to flee their homes.

'That is why the Government has launched a global review into the persecution of Christians.

Mrs May said: ''A message of hop-of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But for many Christian's around the world, such simple acts of faith can bring huge danger'

In his Easter message, Jeremy Corbyn compared Christ's experiences as a refugee to that of the current migration crises

'We must stand up for the right of everyone, no matter what their religion, to practise their faith in peace.'



Mr Corbyn used his message to compare the suffering endured by Jesus during his life to the challenges faced by refugees today.

He accused the Government of failing to take in child refugees and criticised Home Secretary Sajid Javid's handling of the cross-Channel migrant boats over the winter.

He said Jesus was 'a refugee whose parents were forced to flee their home because of a campaign of terror by a dictator, King Herod'.

Mrs May greeted school children as she left her church in Sonning on Easter Sunday

Mrs May used her Easter message to share the 'powerful message' at the heart of the Christian faith

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the resurrection of Jesus showed 'injustice and oppression don't have the last word' in his message to the country on Easter Sunday

Mr Corbyn said: 'Jesus went on to know what it was to be ostracised, rejected and tortured. A family forced to flee their homeland for fear of persecution.

'Sadly, this is still so familiar to us today. There are 68 million refugees across the world, more people than have ever before been forced to flee persecution, war and abject poverty.

'The refugee crisis is a moral test. Jesus taught us to respect refugees. He himself said 'welcome the stranger'.

'And the Bible says 'the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born'.

'In Britain, we have a proud history of providing a safe refuge to those in need. But this Government refuses to meet our legal obligations to child refugees in Europe as required by the Dubs Amendment.

The Prime Minster's words come after more than 200 people were killed in a 'targeted attack on Christians' in Sri Lanka. Pictured: The inside of St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Police officers and priests look on as victims are rescued from St Anthony's Church in Colombo, Sri Lanka

'At the end of last year as refugees tried to cross the Channel, Sajid Javid threatened to deploy the Navy. But in response, the Bishop of Dover said 'it is crucial that we all remember we are dealing with human beings here'.'

He said churches are leading the way in offering support to refugees, adding 'we can learn from Christian values and offer the hand of friendship to welcome those in need'.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, used his message to say the resurrection of Jesus showed 'injustice and oppression don't have the last word'.

'The risen Jesus is the one who makes our broken lives whole,' the archbishop said.

The Prime Minister's comments come as the death toll for the Easter Sunday terrorist attack in Sri Lanka rises to 207 and the number of those left injured stand at more than 400.

The attack saw eight blasts hit three churches and four hotels in the country, with the first blasts reported at St Anthony's Church in Colombo and St Sebastian's in the town of Negombo.

Following the shocking attack the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, condemned the 'cowardly' attacks and called an emergency security council meeting.



A German soldier who posed as a Syrian refugee in an alleged terror plot had previously visited Sandhurst as a guest of the British Army, it has emerged.

Franco Albrecht was pictured at the Royal Military Academy in Berkshire in 2014 three years before his arrest.

Prosecutors alleged he planned to murder public figures while disguised as a refugee, in order to turn public fury on Syrian migrants.

The case is still ongoing in Germany but it has now emerged he trained with British recruits as part of an elite exchange programme.

German soldier Franco Albrecht is pictured at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst in 2014, three years before his arrest on suspicion of planning a terror attack

According to the Sunday Telegraph the lieutenant took part in joint events with Sandhurst while training at a military academy in France.

He is said to have visited Sandhurst in 2013 and 2014 and was pictured on the latter trip, wearing his uniform among a crowd as soldiers parade behind him.

Albrecht was freed from custody pending investigation and trial in November 2017 but remains a suspect.

He was arrested in 2017 in a case which sparked widespread fears in Germany of a far-right cell inside the military.

In the wake of the arrest German military bosses ordered a search of all army barracks to find any evidence of Nazi sympathies.

Albrecht had allegedly had created the false identity of a Syrian fruit seller from Damascus to register himself as a refugee.

He was accused of stealing weapons and explosives from the military and drawing up a list of possible political targets.

According to prosecutors, he hoped a murder of a politician would 'be seen by the population as a radical Islamist terrorist act committed by a recognised refugee'.

The issue of Syrian migration has been the subject of bitter dispute in German politics since Angela Merkel (pictured) opened her country's doors amid a 2015 refugee crisis

His lawyers have depicted him as an amateur detective who merely wanted to expose problems in Germany's immigration system.

They have also disputed prosecutors' claims of far-right links, according to German-language media.

The case is still ongoing.

The wave of immigration into Germany has provoked a huge backlash and sparked the greatest challenge of Angela Merkel's 13-year reign in Berlin.

Tensions over Merkel's 2015 decision to open Germany's doors to a million asylum seekers have helped the anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party rise to prominence.

The tension has been greatest in the former East Germany where unemployment is still higher than that in the West, almost 30 years since the Berlin Wall came down.

Merkel has said she will not seek a fifth term, meaning she will leave office in 2021 at the latest.Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) filed on Saturday a new appeal with the Supreme Election Council in order to cancel the results of the Istanbul mayoral election and call a new vote, local media reported, citing AKP Deputy Chairman Ali Ihsan Yavuz.

On Wednesday, Ekrem Imamoglu from the Turkish opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) was inaugurated as the mayor of Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, after winning the March 31 election. Meanwhile, a day before his inauguration, AKP appealed the results of the vote.

The new AKP's appeal includes a list of 14,712 non-eligible voters who voted in Istanbul during the local elections in spite of having been dismissed from public posts with a presidential decree and, therefore, having no right to vote, Sputnik reported citing the Anadolu news agency.

The AKP filed the petition with the list to the Supreme Election Council as an attachment to its previous appeal, submitted on Tuesday, the media outlet added.

Apart from filing the appeal, referring to alleged violations of voting procedures, on Tuesday, the AKP also initiated a recount of votes in Istanbul in early April. However, the recount has not resulted in a significant change of the election result, while the gap between the two candidates  Imamoglu and AKP's Binali Yildirim  has been slightly reduced.General Secretary of NASUWT, Chris Keates, warned that children are publishing upskirting pictures online in an 'organised social media campaign'

Children as young as 11 are taking photos up the skirts of teachers and other pupils before posting them on social media, a union has claimed.

General secretary of National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), Chris Keates, said children are publishing the pictures online in an 'organised social media campaign'.

The NASUWT says it has been receiving an increasing number of reports of girls and female staff becoming victims of upskirting.

Speaking at the union's annual conference in Belfast, general secretary Chris Keates said some schools do not take such reports seriously enough when staff become victims of the 'deplorable' act.

She said that while she had not heard of any teachers dressing conservatively, or wearing shorts under skirts to overcome the issue, members had expressed concerns about schoolgirls also being targeted.

She also called on architects and designers who build schools to take into consideration issues such as the installation of open staircases.

TEACHERS CALL FOR ACTION TO TACKLE 'TEFLON KIDS' AMID RISING VIOLENCE Teachers need to find a way of dealing with 'Teflon kids', amid reports of increasing pupil indiscipline and violence, a union has said. The NASUWT union's annual conference heard shocking examples of the threats and attacks its members have been subjected to. A motion passed at the conference described the issue as a 'significant and worsening problem' in schools. It also noted the 'unacceptable attitude' that violence is 'part of the job' for teachers. The conference heard stories of teachers being left injured after being physically attacked by pupils. Emma Thomas, of Huntingdonshire, said: 'I'm dealing with a case right at this moment where a pupil pushed a member of staff with enough force that his arm went through a double-glazed window. 'Pupil violence is on the rise. Most of the cases I'm dealing with are injuries to staff where they are going in and trying to stop violence between students.' Delegates also raised concerns teachers were not being supported by school leaders when they had been abused. In one example, a teacher left with a bleeding neck after an assault was given a cup of tea and told to go back to their class. David Baxter, a member of the union's executive in Northern Ireland, said: 'Let us find some way of dealing with Teflon kids - the ones that no sanction seems to stick to.' Russ Walters, honorary treasurer, said: 'We cannot continue to put up with this lack of dignity, this absolute prostitution of our professionalism. 'We have to stand up for what is right.' One delegate told the conference a seven-year-old boy, who did not want to do literacy, threatened his teacher and said: 'I will stab you in your pregnant belly.' Scott McGimpsey, on the executive in Scotland, said: 'We have seen pupils say or do pretty much whatever they want.' Another delegate, Alfredo Gualda, from Doncaster, said it was time to question the parenting. He said: 'If your child is constantly disruptive, if they are violent, if they are abusive, I think it's about time that schools and teachers question the parenting of those children. Because it does not happen.' Union members voted for the executive to continue defending members through 'all legitimate means, up to and including industrial action, when their health, safety and welfare is placed at risk by pupil indiscipline'. Advertisement

NASUWT says it has been receiving an increasing number of reports of girls and female staff becoming victims of upskirting. Stock photo

Her comments come after a teenager was found guilty in February of making videos of two teachers who were both supported by the union.

The teenager was convicted of five counts of outraging public decency in relation to videos he took as a pupil at a County Fermanagh school in 2015 and 2016.

The incidents happened at Enniskillen Royal Grammar School in Northern Ireland when he was aged 14-15.

Ms Keates, said: 'When sexual harassment issues are raised, be it upskirting or others, people are saying 'are you sure you didn't do something to provoke it?' or 'was it just a bit of banter?'.

'I think what the upskirting case showed us is it can be institutionalised  in that the response the teacher got was, 'a 17-day exclusion is proportionate to what's happened to you and it was just opportunistic'.

'I think that encapsulated what a lot of our members feel. What a lot of women feel, particularly when they raise some of these issues, that they're not taken seriously. That people who have never been the victim of that can't really understand how it actually feels.'

Ms Keates's comments come after a teenager was found guilty in February of making videos of two teachers who were both supported by the union. Stock photo

She added: 'It's the same for the girls in the school, because boys are being allowed to do these kind of things  and actually if it's not taken seriously it leaves the girls very vulnerable as well.'

Ms Keates said there has been an 'enormous growth' in the number of women contacting NASUWT because they feel it is a safe place to discuss the issue.

Asked what ages the perpetrators were reported to be, Ms Keates said: 'We haven't had a case of upskirting in primary schools, it's been secondary schools.

Ms Keates said there has been an 'enormous growth' in the number of women contacting NASUWT because they feel it is a safe place to discuss the issue. Stock photo

'We've had it in all age ranges  the one I was talking about was a sixth form pupil, but we've had them sort of 14-year-olds, and we have had some as young as 11.'

She reaffirmed her stance that mobile phones should be treated as offensive weapons in classrooms because of the danger posed to other pupils as distractions, and the potential for cyber bullying.

Branding upskirting a 'particularly vile form of objectification of women', Ms Keates said while there was no law against it in Northern Ireland, the new legislation in England does not go far enough either.

'It just looks at the upskirting element, as opposed to the issue of image abuse,' she said.

Upskirting became a specific criminal offence in England and Wales earlier this month following a high-profile campaign.

As a result, the Voyeurism Act allows upskirting to be treated as a sexual offence and ensure that the most serious offenders are placed on the sex offenders' register.

It will capture instances where the purpose is to obtain sexual gratification or cause humiliation, distress or alarm.

Ms Keates said some NASUWT members had also had their faces superimposed onto pornographic images.

She explained: 'It is something that comes up quite regularly actually, because of course we have a lot of schools that have websites, they put teachers' pictures on the websites.Footage uploaded to social media on Sunday shows the moment a California woman confronted a thief stealing a package from her mailbox.

Shirah Booker spotted the porch pirate rifling through her mail on April 18.

Home surveillance video captured the moment the female suspect was taken by surprise by Booker, who caught the thief on her property at the 3200 block of Main Avenue, Long Beach.

Shirah Booker, (left), was inside watching a home surveillance camera when a female thief, (right), attempted to steal mail from her home at the 3200 block of Main Avenue, Long Beach

In the footage the thief is seen walking past the house and then brazenly walking up to the door and opening the mail box.

She is then shown going through a package. Booker opens the door and grabs it out of her hand, saying: 'What are you doing, don't you ever come back to my home, now get gone.'

The female suspect is seen walking past Booker's home and then brazenly walks towards the front door and takes a letter from Booker's mailbox

Booker then quickly comes outside to confront the thief and grabs the package from her

Booker then stands outside and waits to ensure that the suspect doesn't try to steal other neighbors' mail.

The suspect repeatedly insists she did nothing and agrees that she won't try to steal from the area again.

Booker posted footage of the exchange on Facebook with the caption: ' You may wanna think twice about stealing from my house. Just FYI I see everything! Someones always watching.'

She later told KTLA5 that she didn't think twice about defending her home. Booker explained: 'She picked the wrong day and the wrong envelope to try and snatch up.

A scuffle ensues, (left), as Booker tries to get the package back from her, but Booker eventually takes back the parcel and chases the woman from her home, (right)

The thief walks away and Booker waits to ensure she doesn't steal from other neighbors and leaves the area

'It's broad daylight you think this kind of stuff happens later at night when no one can see you she got really ballsy.

'Sometimes you have to get Rice Crispy and snap crackle and pop and that's what needed to happen.

'Enough is enough stop stealing our stuff we work hard, go get your own stamp go get your own envelopes

'You're not coming around here doing this in this neighborhood, so hopefully she go back to her little friends stay off in main avenue because that is not how we get down in Long Beach.' Police said no arrests have yet been made in the case.President Donald Trump offered rare praise for the New York Times on Sunday after publication of an opinion piece written by a contributor to the newspaper as he continued to rail against the 'hit job' against him by special counsel Robert Mueller.

'Do you believe this? The New York Times Op-Ed: MEDIA AND DEMOCRATS OWE TRUMP AN APOLOGY. Well, they got that one right!,' he wrote on Twitter.

The president was referring to an opinion piece written on Thursday entitled 'Barr Is Right About Everything. Admit You Were Wrong.' The author is Christopher Buskirk, the editor of the American Greatness journal and a contributing opinion writer to the newspaper.

President Donald Trump offered rare praise for the New York Times on Sunday

Burskirk was on 'Fox & Friends' - the president's favorite morning show - on Sunday morning.

Trump also continued the drum beat against the Mueller 'hit job' he claims was an attack on his presidency.

'The Trump Haters and Angry Democrats who wrote the Mueller Report were devastated by the No Collusion finding! Nothing but a total hit job which should never have been allowed to start in the first place!,' he wrote.

Trump has long claimed to have been a victim of Mueller even as he claimed the special counsel's report vindicated him.

He's also repeated his often used charge that Mueller's investigative team was made up of Democrats.

Mueller is a registered Republican who was appointed by Republican Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein. Of his 17 team members, 13 are registered Democrats, according to reports.

Trump has been on a tear about the report since the redacted version was released to the public on Thursday morning.

On Friday, he slammed the 'Crazy Mueller Report,' insisting that parts of it were 'fabricated' and 'total bullsh*t' and he never made embarrassing statements that were attributed to him.

The media has been another target of the president's.

Trump has long railed against The New York Times as 'fake news,' particularly when it writes a story about his administration he doesn't like.

'The Washington Post and New York Times are, in my opinion, two of the most dishonest media outlets around. Truly, the Enemy of the People!,' he tweeted on Friday.

Burskirk, in his Thursday opinion piece, defended Attorney General William Barr, who has come under criticism from Democrats for his defense of Trump, and said the media owns the president an apology.

Christopher Buskirk, the editor of the American Greatness journal, wrote a Thursday opinion piece in the New York Times that Trump praised

Trump claims to be a victim of Robert Mueller (above) even as he claims the special counsel's report vindicated him of collusion and obstruction

Trump has long attacked the Times as 'fake news'

'The American political and media elites that spent the first two years of the Trump administration promoting the Russian collusion hoax have some explaining to do. And not merely explaining: They owe the president an apology,' he wrote.

American Greatness touts itself as building a 'strong, independent conservative voice.'

Trump has been claiming vindication since Mueller completed his report on Russia's role in the 2016 election.

The report found no evidence of criminal collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Mueller left it up to Barr to determine if obstruction charges should be pressed against President Trump. Barr, working with Rosenstein, said there was no obstruction.

But Democrats have latched on to this line from Mueller's 448-page report: 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so. Based on the facts and applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.'

Mueller also noted in his report that Congress can still prosecute Trump for obstruction.

The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law, he wrote.Police in eastern Mexico say gunmen broke into a family reunion party on Friday and opened fire, killing 13 people and wounding at least four others.

The Veracruz state Public Security Department says seven men, five women and a one-year-old child were killed in the attack at an events hall in the oil city of Minatitlan.

There were believed to have been about six attackers and a department statement said they asked for a man called 'El Beky,' who apparently owns a bar in the city.

It's not clear if 'El Beky' owns the bar where the attack to place, or if he is among the dead.

Police in eastern Mexico say gunmen broke into a family party and opened fire Friday at 9pm

Seven men, five women and a one-year-old child were killed and at least four others wounded

A survivor said gunmen made victims look them in the face before shooting them in the bar

Veracruz Public Security Department says the attackers in Minatitlan asked for El Beky

The Good Friday shootings took place around 9pm, just two days before President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was due for an official visit to the city, which boasts an oil refinery, one of six run by state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

The city's Easter weekend festivities were canceled.

Officials say they don't yet know a motive for the shooting.

Authorities are searching for the shooters and said 'they would not go unpunished in any way'

The Secretariat of Public Safety said the gunmen arrived at a family reunion in Minatitlan

A view outside the bar where unidentified assailants opened fire killing 13 people in Minatitlan

In video obtained from the scene people could be heard crying as police surrounded the location. Beverage bottles can be seen on the ground and colorful bunting decorations are still hung.

A survivor described how the gunmen made victims look them in the face before shooting them.

'They told them to turn around to see them, to see them while they were killing them,' one woman told AFP. 'I felt the gun at my head ... the guy pointed it at me but didn't shoot.'

Another woman, whose brother was killed, added nobody was shown mercy: 'There were about six of them. Even if you had a baby in your arms, they still shot you.'

Minatitlan Mayor Nicolas Reyes Alvarez said it was a 'tragedy that tears the soul' and added that he 'deeply regrets' the massacre.

He called for an investigation to find the attackers 'so they would not go unpunished in any way' and said he planned to ask Obrador to assign the National Guard, CNN reported.

State held emergency meeting and the mayor asked the president to assign National Guard

Members of the Mexican police stand guard Saturday after a massacre occurred a day earlier

Veracruz state Governor Cuitlahuac Garcia tweeted that state authorities held an emergency meeting 'to address the regrettable and condemnable events'.

Authorities set up checkpoints in the region to help search for the attackers.

'Federal and state forces have deployed a strong search and capture operation of those responsible for the events,' the state's secretary of public security Gutierrez Maldonado, tweeted Saturday.

Friday's attack was one of the worst incidents since Obrador took office in December. He had vowed to reduce violence in Mexico.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in the country since the end of 2006, often gang members in brutal turf wars between drug cartels, or cartel members taken out by security forces.

After reaching record levels in 2018, murder rates have stayed high, surpassing previous-year levels in the first three months of the new government, official government data shows.Authorities believe the missing five-year-old boy from Illinois was not kidnapped and did not walk away from his home.

Mystery continues to swirl around the disappearance of Andrew 'AJ' Freund, who was reported missing by his parents on Thursday.

Andrew Freund Sr and JoAnn Cunningham claim they last saw their son around 9pm on Wednesday when he went to bed at their Crystal Lake home.

But authorities said on Saturday there is no indication that an abduction has actually taken place and they plan to focus specifically on his residence.

Andrew 'AJ' Freund, 5, was reported missing on Thursday morning after his parents claim they put him to bed. He was gone the next day

Officials believe AJ was not kidnapped and did not walk away from his home that night

AJ's scent has only been picked up within his own home, which police said is indication that he had 'not walked away on foot.'

Fifteen police agencies have been involved in the search, as well as drones, rescue canine units and sonar teams, according to CNN.

AJ's family has a troubling history with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Spokesman Jassen Strokosch said on Saturday that the department has 'been involved with the family' since AJ's birth.

Police said there is no indication that an abduction has actually taken place and they plan to focus specifically on his residence (pictured)

AJ was brought into the department's care soon after his birth after 'neglect was indicated on part of the mom', Strokosch added.

The boy was also 'in care with someone from 2013 to 2015, although Strokosch did not elaborate.

Strokosch said AJ's family was reported for neglect in March 2018 and abuse and neglect in December, but the allegations were determined to be unfounded.

AJ's three-year-old brother has since been removed from the home and is now living with a different family.

George Kililis, Cunningham's attorney, said the mother 'doesn't know what happened to AJ and had nothing to do with the disappearance of AJ'.

Fifteen police agencies have been involved in the search, as well as drones, rescue canine units, and sonar teams

AJ's scent has only been picked up within his own home, which police said is indication that he had 'not walked away on foot'

'Ms Cunningham is worried sick,' he added. 'She is devastated.'

AJ's father sent a direct message to his son, telling him to 'please come home.'

'We love you very much,' he said. 'You're not in any trouble. We're just worried to death. Please, please come home.'

The Crystal Lake Police Department joined forces with the FBI on Thursday in their ongoing search for AJ.

Teams used side scan sonar equipment to search Crystal Lake in the hunt for the vanished child, checking under docks and piers.

Dogs were seen sniffing for the child's scent on Thursday as police investigated the area

Backyards, garages and garbage cans were searched on Thursday after the child vanished

Teams used side scan sonar equipment to search Crystal Lake in the hunt for AJ this week

Canines roamed the neighborhood and FBI members were spotted taking items from AJ's home on Thursday. The areas were part of what they considered a crime scene.

Authorities said that 373 acres have been searched on foot and nearly 500 acres have been searched by drones.

Law enforcement said they did not send out an Amber Alert when AJ was first reported missing as there was no evidence to suggest he had been kidnapped from the home.

A Missing & Exploited Children's poster said AJ was last seen wearing a blue Mario sweatshirt, black sweatpants and green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shoes.

AJ was last seen wearing a blue Mario sweatshirt, black sweatpants and green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shoes

He is approximately 3ft 5in, weighs 70 pounds, and has short, blond hair.

Neighbor Janelle Butler said little is known about AJ's family, adding that they 'really keep to themselves'.

'We don't know if he wandered out. That was the first thought - did he wander out? But nobody's seen him, so nobody has any clue whatsoever,' she told ABC News.

Calling the situation 'heartbreaking,' Butler said that the 'neighborhood is extremely safe' and anyone out walking their dog would have notified police if they saw the boy wandering around.

Anyone with information can contact 815-356-3620 or send an anonymous tip to the Crystal Lake Police Department by texting the word CLPDTIP along with the tip information to 847411 (tip411).A US forensic expert has asked police if he can reexamine DNA samples relating to Madeleine McCann's disappearance in a bid to find out what happened to her.

Madeleine was three when she vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007 as her parents, Gerry and Kate, dined with friends at a nearby restaurant.

Dr Mark Perlin has lodged a request to London's Metropolitan Police to analyse the 18 samples at his Pittsburgh lab Cybernetics.

Madeleine McCann was three when she vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007 as her parents, Gerry and Kate, dined with friends at a nearby restaurant

The samples were previously put under the microscope by the UK's Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham after Maddie's disappearance in 2007.

At the time FSS scientist Dr John Lowe said the samples were 'too complex' for his team.

But Dr Perlin claims that his team's TrueAllele computer programme can analyse far more complex data and could provide answers in just a week.

Speaking to the Daily Star Online, he said: 'I think the FSS did generate reliable DNA data and their methods were proven laboratory methods, some of which they even innovated.

'But they didn't know how to properly interpret the data that they had generated.

'If you use a computer programme that can use all of the data and consider millions of different possibilities, that would give you more information than other methods that usually give no answer at all.'

Dr Mark Perlin has lodged a request to London's Metropolitan Police to analyse the 18 samples at his Pittsburgh lab Cybernetics

Dr Perlin said it would take one to two weeks to take the tests depending on the data to provide some initial preliminary report.

He added what he needed was 'the electronic data which comes out of the laboratory off instruments'.

It isn't the first time the Dr has helped in a criminal investigation.

In 2016 his lab successfully analysed a complex piece and small piece of evidence in the high-profile mass murder trial of Robert Xie in Australia

The Dr's work was a vital in securing a conviction against Xie who killed five of his relatives and was not convicted at three previous trials.

Kate McCann and Gerry McCann are seen posing with a computer generated image of how their missing daughter Madeleine

The Dr made a pro-bono offer to police to test the samples - but has yet to receive a response.

Euclides Monteiro, 40, who died in a freak tractor accident in 2009, worked at the Ocean Club Resort in Praia da Luz, which Maddie disappeared from.

It emerged in 2013 that Mr Monteiro, who was sacked from his job, was a suspect in the abduction was never questioned by police.

He died before an interview could take place.

In March this year a controversial new Netflix documentary claims Madeleine McCann might still be alive and could be being held by people traffickers - 12 years after she disappeared.

Shortly before Madeleine disappeared, Mr Monteiro was sacked from The Ocean Club for stealing from guests.

A Met Police spokeswoman said: 'The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remains ongoing. We are not providing a running commentary.'

The McCann family have been approached by MailOnline for comment.Ben and Jerry's celebrated 4/20 by calling for criminal justice reform for those who have been charged with crimes related to marijuana.

The ice cream company posted a video to Twitter on Saturday, saying that when it comes to cannabis people of color are being arrested far more than those who are white.

'Ever notice how most people making [money] off legalized cannabis are white? But a disproportionate number of people getting arrested for using are black?' the slides read.

'That's not cool. Let's celebrate 4/20 this year by making sure legalization doesn't leave people of color behind AND expunging everybody's cannabis convictions.'

Ben and Jerry's celebrated 4/20 by calling for criminal justice reform for those who have been charged with crimes related to marijuana

The ice cream company posted a video to Twitter on Saturday, saying that when it comes to cannbis, people of color are being arrested far more than those who are white

The video, which has been viewed more than 4.38 million times, has garnered more than 226,000 likes and more than 107,800 retweets

The video, which has been viewed more than 4.38 million times, has garnered more than 226,000 likes and more than 107,800 retweets.

Recreational marijuana is legal in 10 states and Washington D.C., as is legalized medical marijuana.

A 2018 poll from the Pew Research Center found that 62 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana, double the number from two decades ago in 2000.

Opinions of legalization differ by political party, with 69 percent of Democrats supporting it compared with 75 percent of Independents and just 45 percent of Republicans.

In a statement on its website, Ben & Jerry's asked for 'wiping old warrants and convictions' for pot charges, as is being done in cities including San Francisco and Seattle.

'Want to feel really good this 4/20? Then lets make sure that legalization benefits all of us. Thatll turn 4/20 into a day that we all can celebrate,' the statement read in part.

Ben & Jerry's shared a petition on it website for convictions to be expunged, which currently boasts more than 28,000 signatures

'Want to feel really good this 4/20? Then lets make sure that legalization benefits all of us'

According to a 2013 report from the American Civil Liberties Union, there were eight million marijuana-related arrests between 2001 and 2010.

During that nine-year time period, black people were almost four times more likely to be arrested than white people.

It was even worse in some cities.

An investigation conducted last year by The New York Times found that black people were eight times more likely to be arrested in New York City on low-level pot charges than white people.

Ben & Jerry's shared a petition on it website for convictions to be expunged, which currently boasts more than 28,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a 2020 contender, introduced a bill to Congress in February called the Marijuana Justice Act.

The bill would legalize cannabis in all 50 states and expunge federal records.

It is co-sponsored by Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).President Donald Trump attacked Democrats on Sunday for wanting to 'investigate and waste time' instead of legislating for the 'good of the people.'

He also warned this will cost them in next year's election.

'Despite No Collusion, No Obstruction, The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time. This is costing our Country greatly, and will cost the Dems big time in 2020!,' he tweeted.

The president also bemoaned he had to go through the 'worst and most corrupt political Witch Hunt in the history of the United States' and complained his campaign was spied upon.

'Can you believe that I had to go through the worst and most corrupt political Witch Hunt in the history of the United States (No Collusion) when it was the other side that illegally created the diversionary & criminal event and even spied on my campaign? Disgraceful!,' he tweeted.

President Donald Trump attacked Democrats for wanting to 'investigate and waste time' instead of legislating for the 'good of the people'

Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted lawmakers will have a say on the obstruction charges against President Trump

Trump has long claimed he was the victim of a witch hunt.

In recent days, he has also leaped upon comments made by Attorney General Bill Barr last week who said there was U.S. 'spying' against President Trump's 2016 campaign.

'I think spying did occur,' Barr said at a Senate hearing.

'I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal  it's a big deal,' Barr said, vowing to investigate the matter.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday vowed Congress will not be silent on special counsel Robert Mueller's report and insisted lawmakers will have a say on the obstruction charges against President Trump.

Pelosi cited Mueller's own report in a letter to lawmakers Thursday evening, indicating lawmakers will move forward with investigating the president.

'The Mueller report states, We concluded Congress has authority to prohibit a presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice, which accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law,' she wrote.

'Congress will not be silent,' she added.

Some liberal lawmakers, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar, are calling for an impeachment investigation.

'The Mueller report lays out facts showing that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help Donald Trump and Donald Trump welcomed that help,' Warren, who's running for president in 2020 said on Twitter Friday. 'Once elected, Donald Trump obstructed the investigation into that attack.'

'Mueller put the next step in the hands of Congress: Congress has authority to prohibit a Presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,' she wrote  quoting a line Mueller included in the report but Attorney General William Barr did not include in his four-page summary.

'The correct process for exercising that authority is impeachment,' she said.

Her push for impeachment  a process where the House investigates and the Senate must rule on any impeachment resolution that goes forward  comes as Democratic leaders are struggling to determine a path forward, armed with more damning information, but with few signs Senate Republicans would entertain an impeachment effort.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler subpoenaed the full, unredacted Mueller report

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has called for impeachment proceedings to begin against Trump

House Democrats will hold a conference call on Monday to talk next steps.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has subpoenaed the full, unredacted Mueller report as he and other congressional committees have vowed to purse investigations against the president.

Mueller's report found no evidence of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

The special counsel, however, left it up to Attorney General William Barr to determine if obstruction charges should be pressed against President Trump.

Barr, working with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, said there was no obstruction.

Democrats, however, have latched on to this line from Mueller's 448-page report: 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so. Based on the facts and applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.'

Mueller also noted in his report that Congress can still prosecute Trump for obstruction.

The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law, he wrote.

Nadler said his committee needs to read the full report for its work.

'My committee needs and is entitled to the full version of the report and the underlying evidence consistent with past practice,' he said in a statement Thursday.

'Even the redacted version of the report outlines serious instances of wrongdoing by President Trump and some of his closest associates. It now falls to Congress to determine the full scope of that alleged misconduct and to decide what steps we must take going forward.'A mother-of-three living as an events organiser and translator in Germany has been exposed as a jihadi bride who ran a recruitment drive for the terrorist group, it is claimed.

Omaima Abdi returned from Syria before the ISIS caliphate fell. She slipped back into a western lifestyle in Hamburg, northern Germany but was rumbled when damning photos were discovered on a phone she lost, according to The Sunday Times.

Photos of family meals and school runs with her young children were in stark contrast to the ones showing her son holding a pistol, and posing in front of ISIS insignia.

Omaima Abdi pictured lovingly gazing at her rifle-wielding fighter husband in Raqqa, Syria

The lost phone fell into the hands of an Arabic journalist who passed it on to a Dubai-based TV channel who broadcast the findings.

It revealed that her interest in Islam started in 2012, before which she led a western life, then joining as ISIS fighter husband with her three kids in Raqqa in January 2015, then returning to Germany unchallenged around 2016.

It also revealed possible links to Britain, with the mother-of-three messaging in English with a girl believed to be an 18-year-old from Lewisham.

After the airing on Al Aan, police in her home city of Hamburg revealed they have already initiated inquiries into Abdi's double life.

M15 are also keen to speak to the German in relation to her British links amid fears the UK could face an influx of returning brides who could slip under the radar like Abdi did upon her return from Raqqa.

The 34-year-old of Tunisian descent had pictures of her in revealing clothes on the phone

The 34-year-old of Tunisian descent had 36GB of data on the phone, including evidence that pointed towards her online recruitment of western females and pictures of her lovingly gazing at a rifle-wielding fighter from Luton who is known to have links to British hate preacher Anjem Choudary.

The mine of data also uncovered possible contact details in Syria for a teen ISIS bride from Lewisham in southeast London.

The Sunday Times say that there is also evidence that Abdi was a pivotal member in an online propaganda circle dubbed 'the Mumsnet for jihadi brides'.

Also found among the 36GB of data was an image of a child playing with a walkie talkie and gun

The 'Free Our Sisters' group lauded female terrorists jailed in Britain and celebrated the anniversary of 9/11 by posting a picture of a cake decorated with two towers nd the face of Osama bin Laden.

Her phone didn't just reveal her fervent support for the caliphate, but the normal life she led before becoming interested in Syria.

In Germany, pre-2012 when she became interested in Islam, she was pictured dressing in revealing clothes and even had a daughter from her first husband - from whom she was divorced when she went to Syria.

Her second husband, Nader Hadra, from Frankfurt, appears to have been the one to have promoted her fundamental interest in Islam and her travel to Syria.

Her phone didn't just reveal her fervent support for the caliphate, but the normal life she led

She went there with her eldest, Firdaus, and her two other children. Hadra was killed within six weeks of Abdi's arrival and she received a widow payment of roughly 1000 in cash.

The Sunday Times also say that Abdi was also involved in a group - Die Wahre Religion or 'the true religion' - that tried to make people convert.

The group was later banned in Germany for sending over 140 jihadists to join ISIS and al-Qaeda across the Middle East.

Soon after, she took a second husband - Denis Cuspert, a rapper also known as Deso Dogg, also from Germany. It is he who she is pictured gazing at as he holds an AK-47.

He was a key social media recruiter for ISIS and promoted an interest in Twitter for his wife who then created @FreeOurSisters1, according to Al Aan TV.

This group, and affiliate groups, were used to glorify convicted terrorists.

Further analysis of the phone revealed a damning image of the Reichstag in Berlin with armed jihadists gazing towards the building in front a message in German that reads: 'Revenge will be in front of your home... 'Rudy Giuliani, a personal attorney for President Donald Trump, said on Sunday there is 'nothing wrong' with taking information from the Russians and defended the president's actions outlined in Robert Mueller's report, saying Trump had the right to fire the special counsel if he wanted to.

'There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians,' Giuliani said on CNN's 'State of the Union' said on Sunday.

'It depends on where it came from. You're assuming that the giving of information is a campaign contribution. Read the report carefully. The report says we can't conclude that because the law is pretty much against that. People get information from this person, that person,' he added.

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, made the Sunday show rounds to defend the president in the wake of the special counsel's report being made public

He repeatedly attacked Special Counsel Robert Mueller, seen here with his wife Ann at Easter services at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C.

Giuliani argued campaigns take information from a variety of people and pointed out the Russians have tried to interfere in U.S. elections long before 2016.

'You think this is the first time the Russians have interfered in an American election?,' the former New York City mayor said.

Giuliani was discussing a section of Mueller's report that revealed members of Trump's 2016 campaign team had a series of contacts with WikiLeaks and people close to it regarding leaked emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The report cites former Trump campaign official Rick Gates who claimed then-candidate Trump told him that 'more releases of damaging information would be coming.'

Trump, himself, distanced himself from the matter, telling Mueller in his written responses that he 'did not recall being aware' of any communication between WikiLeaks and anyone working on his campaign, although he 'was aware that WikiLeaks was the subject of media reporting and campaign-related discussion at the time.'

Trump said on numerous occasions in the fall of 2016 that he has great admiration for Wikileaks, which published embarrassing emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman's account.

'Wikileaks, I love Wikileaks,' he said at one point. 'This Wikileaks is like a treasure trove,' he said at another campaign stop.

But Giuliani argued campaigns use information from any source they can.

'It is now okay for political campaigns to work with materials stolen by foreign adversaries?,' NBC's Chuck Todd asked him during his appearance on 'Meet the Press.'

'Well, it depends on the stolen material,' Giuliani responded.

'There is not the slightest bit of evidence between anyone on the Trump campaign and the Russians. That is the story,' he said.

Giuliani took to the Sunday morning public affairs shows to launch a spirited defense of the president in the wake of Mueller's redacted report being released to the public.

He attacked Mueller repeatedly throughout his appearances.

'When did Mueller become God?' he asked on 'Fox News Sunday.'

And the former mayor repeatedly defended the president and the actions of his campaign during the 2016 election.

NBC's Todd also asked him if he thinks President Trump is a truthful client.

'I represent probably the most important client I've ever had with regard to the future of the United States,' Giuliani said. 'I believe he's truthful.'

The former mayor also defended the president repeatedly saying he didn't remember events he was asked about in his written questions from the special counsel.

'He was as forth coming as the question demanded. I don't allow any witness to volunteer. It's a terrible thing to do and that's how they trap you for perjury,' Giuliani said.

He also defended the president's right to fire the special counsel if he wanted to.

President Trump has repeatedly tweeted on the Mueller report since it was released

'He had a perfect right to fire Mueller,' Giuliani said.

'He had several good reasons to fire Mueller. Mueller had substantial several conflicts of interest. He had hired a staff that was so prejudiced it shocks any prosecutor who's there,' he noted.

And the former mayor disagreed that former White House counsel Don McGahn saved Trump from obstruction by refusing to follow his order to fire Mueller.

'Don McGahn saved him. Why is the president angry?,' NBC's Todd asked him.

'Don McGahn didn't save him,' Giuliani responded.

Todd asked if McGahn didn't do so with his refusal to fire Mueller.

'That wasn't obstruction,' Giuliani argued.

According to Mueller's report, on Saturday, June 17, 2017, Trump called McGahn and directed him to have the Special Counsel removed.

McGahn told Mueller's team he 'was perturbed by the call and did not intend to act on the request.'

McGahn decided to resign over fears Trump would pressure him to have Mueller removed. He decided 'he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre.'

Then White House counsel Don McGahn said he would resign rather than remove Mueller

He called both then chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House Counselor Steve Bannon and told them he was quitting.

McGahn told Priebus Trump asked him to 'do crazy s***.'

Both urged him to stay. And while McGahnn 'had not told the President directly that he planned to resign,' when they next saw each other Trump did not ask him if he followed through.

Giuliani was also asked about the report Trump's legal team wrote to counter Mueller's and asked when it would be released.

'We plan to do it if we need to. So far we don't need to,' he said on 'Fox News Sunday.'

'Right now we think the public debate is playing out as well as it can,' he added.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday condemned deadly terrorist attacks that targeted churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing at least 138, Yeni Safak reported.

At least 138 people were killed in multiple explosions targeting churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on Sunday, local media reported.Six explosions that targeted three churches and three hotels amid Easter Sunday ceremony also injured 402 others, said the state-run Daily News.

The report said the churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa cities as well as Kingsbury, Cinnamon Grand and Shangri La hotels in capital Colombo were hit by bomb attacks.Meanwhile, special police forces have been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport in the capital following the explosions.No groups have yet to claim the attacks.Cab driver Abbas Jassim Shemisawi, 56, was detained at Maricopa County Jail on $500,000 bail Tuesday in connection with an alleged sexual assault in August 2016

Arizona police have arrested a cab driver on suspicion of raping a woman who woke up in a stranger's apartment in 2016 without her underwear with no recollection of how she got there after drinking the night before.

Abbas Jassim Shemisawi, 56, was detained on $500,000 bail on Tuesday and law enforcement officers say they connected him to the incident three years ago where a man called cops after finding a woman in his apartment with both of them saying they had no idea how she got there. The homeowner said he left the property unlocked overnight.

AZFamily.com reported a green Maricopa Cab Service vehicle was spotted in the suspect's driveway on Wednesday as it was revealed law enforcement was prompted to reopen the closed case after DNA in a database from an alleged March 2017 sexual assault of one of his patrons matched fluid found on the dress of the female from the incident on August 16, 2016.

'Fast forward into November of 2018 and we get a notification that our profile matched a profile in a case out of Phoenix - a sexual assault out of Phoenix,' Scottsdale Police Officer Kevin Watts said.

When police were called to an apartment five minutes away from where the woman had been out in Downtown Scottsdale, the male resident said he hadn't touched her.

The woman says the last she remembered was calling a friend she was supposed to meet but they never did.

A woman woke up with no recollection of how she got into a home a male resident said he left unlocked overnight five minutes from where she had been drinking in Scottsdale, Arizona

'As the day progressed, she became a little bit more aware of what was going on with her and just felt that something wasn't right, and she thought that she had possibly been sexually assaulted,' Watts explained.

The homeowner's DNA sample was not a match for that found on the woman's clothing.

A match to Shemisawi came after he was accused of raping a customer in the back of his cab eight months later.

He is now accused of two counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnapping.

Shemisaw denies any connection to the Scottsdale case.

He is due in court April 26 and in a hearing this week, the man who Fox Phoenix reports picked up four or five riders each night for the past seven years, was deemed a threat to public safety.Police have recovered a car connected to a missing 15-year-old last seen with her mother and a man who are suspected of murder.

The 2013 white BMW with Nevada plates was found unoccupied near the San Ysidro border of Mexico on Friday by San Diego Police, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The drivers, Roman Cerratos and Maricela Mercado, are suspects in the murder of a 32-year old man found stabbed to death in the trunk of a white Audi in Carson on Tuesday.

An Amber Alert was issued for Mercado's 15-year-old daughter Alora Benitez on Thursday. It was cancelled on Friday after the car was found because alerts can only be issued when police have information about the vehicle a missing child is in.

California authorities have recovered a white 2013 BMW connected to missing 15-year-old Alora Benitez, who was last seen getting into the car on Wednesday with her mother Maricela Mercado and a man named Roman Cerratos, who are suspected of murder

An Amber Alert was issued for Alora (above) on Thursday. It was cancelled on Friday after the car was found near the Mexico border because alerts can only be issued when police have information about the car a missing child is in

Her mother Maricela Mercado, 40, (left) and Roman Cerratos, 39, (right) are suspects in the stabbing death of a man whose body was found in a car in the city of Carson

Mercado, 40, and Cerratos, 39, are considered 'armed and dangerous', according to the Amber Alert poster.

They were last seen leaving with Alora in a white 2013 four-door BMW at 9am Wednesday in Torrance, California.

The car has a Nevada license plate that reads 'MARIMAR', but the Sheriff's Department said it may have been removed and replaced with a paper plate.

It wasn't clear if Alora willingly left with the suspects.

'Los Angeles County Homicide Bureau is requesting the publics assistance in locating Alora and safely returning her to her family,' the LA County sheriff's department said in a statement.

'Please do not take independent action, call 9-1-1 and alert local police or sheriffs officials.'

Jeffrey Appel was found dead of a suspected homicide in the front seat of a white Audi on Tuesday morning in Carson, California. An investigator is seen photographing blood on the car

The connection between the suspects and Appel has not yet been determined

Alora is described as 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighing about 100 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Cerratos is described as a Hispanic male, standing at about 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing about 210 pounds. He is bald and brown eyes.

Mercado is described as a Hispanic female who is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing about 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Jeffrey Appel was found dead of a suspected homicide in the front seat of a white Audi on Tuesday morning.

The connection between the victim and the suspects is unclear, and an autopsy is being performed to determine the official cause of death.

Anyone with information was urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. To provide information anonymously, you can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said on Sunday that Democrats may take up impeachment against President Donald Trump.

'It may be that we undertake an impeachment,' he told ABC's 'This Week.'

'I think what we're going to have to decide as a caucus is what is the best thing for the country. Is the best thing for the country to take up an impeachment proceeding because to do otherwise sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with office or is it in the best interest of the country not to take up an impeachment that we know will not be successful in the Senate because the Republican leadership will not do its duty?,' he added.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said Democrats may take up impeachment against President Donald Trump

Schiff said it would be difficult for impeachment against President Donald Trump to be successful given Republicans' control of the Senate.

Schiff noted it is a difficult decision.

'I think it's a very difficult decision and we're going to have a caucus about this over the next couple of weeks to try to figure out what the best course is, not for the party, but what's the best course for the country,' he said on 'Fox News Sunday.

'I continue to think that a failed impeachment is not in the national interest,' he added.

But his fellow Democratic chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee, sounded more cautious.

'We may get to that. We may not. As I've said before, it is our job to go through all the evidence, all the information we can get,' he said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press' when asked about impeachment.

'Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable,' he added.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, agreed that it wasn't time for impeachment.

'I'm not there yet, but I can foresee that possibly coming,' he said Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation.'

'But again the fact is is that I think we have to be very careful here. The American people - a lot of them clearly still don't believe that President Trump is doing things to destroy our democracy and has done a lot of things very poorly. And so I think that we need to make sure the Congress has all the information and then we need to be able to have the public know that information so that they can see that they have a president that basically has been about the business, I think, of doing great harm not only to our country but to our democracy,' he added.

Schiff did say he thinks the president is guilty of 'impeachable offenses.'

'I think without question within the realm of impeachable offenses,' the California Democrat noted on ABC.

But, he added, Trump has Republicans in Congress - like House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell - to defend him, making it unlikely impeachment will be successful.

Schiff's fellow Democratic Chairmen, Jerry Nadler (left) of the Judiciary committee and Elijah Cummings (right) of the Oversight panel, sounded a more cautious note on impeachment

'We are, unfortunately, in an environment today where the GOP leadership, people like Kevin McCarthy, are willing to carry the president's water no matter how corrupt or unethical or dishonest the president's conduct may be. And in those kind of circumstances, when Mitch McConnell will not stand up to the president either, it means that an impeachment is likely to be unsuccessful,' he said.

Impeachment proceedings is a two-step process in the United States. The House undertakes the investigation and then votes on passing articles of impeachment. Should those pass the official in question is 'impeached' and the matter moves to the Senate.

The Senate tries the accused. If it is the president, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial.

Two thirds of the Senate must find the person guilty of impeachable offenses for the official to be convicted.

Given Republican control of the Senate it is unlikely Trump would be convicted should it reach that stage.

Several liberal lawmakers, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar, are calling for an impeachment investigation.

Schiff said the obstruction of justice information against Trump in the Mueller report is far worse than it was against former President Richard Nixon, who resigned rather than face impeachment proceedings.

'The obstruction of justice in particular in this case is far worse than anything that Richard Nixon did. The break in by the Russians of the democratic institutions, a foreign adversary far more significant than the plumbers breaking into the democratic headquarters. So yes, I would say in every way this is more significant than Watergate,' he said on ABC.

He added he thinks Trump did obstruct justice with his actions.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his wife Ann Cabell Standish arrive for Easter services at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C.

'I do believe that he obstructed justice and did so in many ways. And I think that the Mueller report points out how the elements of obstruction are met in several instances, several courses of the president's conduct,' he noted.

He praised Robert Mueller for his work and said the special counsel preserved evidence and laid it out for Congress to take the next steps.

'He came as close to saying that the evidence of obstruction was evidence of a crime as he could within the Department of Justice regulations. And that's, I think, the point that he was trying to get across, that he preserved the evidence for when the president was out of office and that he also laid out the evidence so that Congress could understand and undertake its own responsibility,' Schiff said.

Mueller's report found no evidence of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

The special counsel, however, left it up to Attorney General William Barr to determine if obstruction charges should be pressed against President Trump.

Barr, working with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, said there was no obstruction.

Democrats, however, have latched on to this line from Mueller's 448-page report: 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so. Based on the facts and applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.'

Mueller also noted in his report that Congress can still prosecute Trump for obstruction.

'The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law,' he wrote.Australia's first convicted terrorist has had his bid for parole squashed.

Faheem Khalid Lodhi was convicted in June 2006 and was sentenced to 20 years' jail for plotting to blow up a Sydney national electricity grid and three Army bases.

Lodhi, who migrated to Australia in 1998 and studied at Sydney University, is believed to have al-Qaeda links to the Parkistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Faheem Khalid Lodhi (pictured) was convicted in June 2006 and was sentenced to 20 years' jail for plotting to blow up a Sydney national electricity grid and Army bases

Lodhi, (pictured) who migrated to Australia in 1998 and studied at Sydney University, is believed to have al-Qaeda links to the Parkistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba

Lodhi, who became eligible for parole after serving 13 years behind bars, recently made a bid for freedom - but was blocked by Attorney General Christian Porter blocked, The Daily Telegraph reported.

His parole bids will now be reviewed every 12 months until his sentence ends in 2026.

At the time of his arrest, Lodhi was angry at Australia's stance and role in the first Iraqi war, the publication reported.

The architect had ordered chemicals to make a bomb, the court heard at the time

A search of his home led police to a notebook detailing his plan to carry out a mass terror attack.

Aerial images of three Sydney defence sites, including Holsworthy Army Base, Victoria Barracks and HMAS Penguin were also discovered.With the number of suicides among police on the rise, Paris authorities are investigating yellow vest protesters who encouraged officers to kill themselves.

The largely peaceful demonstrations of the past five months - which demand more help for Frances beleaguered workers, retirees and students - have been noticeably infringed with radical protesters clashing with police.

On Saturday, protesters in the French capital were heard shouting 'Kill yourselves!' at police officers.

Police scuffle with protesters. On Saturday, reporters heard some protesters in Paris shouting 'Kill yourselves!' at police firing tear gas and rubber projectiles and charging the crowd to contain the violence at the 23rd weekend of yellow vest demonstrations

A protester throws a scooter onto a pile of burning motorbikes during a yellow vest demonstration

Officers were firing tear gas and rubber projectiles and charging the crowd to contain the violence at the 23rd weekend of yellow vest demonstrations.

Police unions denounced the protesters' call as an unacceptable insult to the officers who have killed themselves and their suffering families.

France's interior minister Christophe Castaner called it a 'disgrace' and pledged his support for police and their loved ones, who have been under extra strain as the yellow vest protests have sometimes turned violent.

The Paris prosecutor's office said an investigation was opened on Sunday to find those who might be prosecuted for 'group offence toward a person exercising public authority'.

Police scuffle with protesters. The Paris prosecutor's office said an investigation was opened on Sunday to find those who might be prosecuted for 'group offence toward a person exercising public authority'

Police scuffle with protestors during a yellow vest demonstration in Paris, Saturday, April 20, 2019. French yellow vest protesters are marching anew to remind the government that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isn't the only problem the nation needs to solve.

Police unions held silent protests on Friday after two officers killed themselves last week.

Unions say police ranks have seen 28 suicides so far this year, compared to 68 over all of 2018.

On another protest topic, the media rights group Reporters Without Borders and France's National Journalists Union protested Sunday on behalf of journalists who were detained and roughed up by police during Saturday's clashes.

The yellow vest movement, named after the high-visibility vests all French drivers must carry in their vehicles, started in November against a hike in fuel taxes.

It spread to become a broad movement against high taxes and Emmanuel Macron's pro-business policies, and protesters see themselves as standing up for the poor while Mr Macron is seen as representing the rich.

The movement has been marred by protest violence and the extremist views of some yellow vest demonstrators.

Anyone who has been affected by this article or would like to talk to someone can call the Samaritans free on 116 123.The U.S. Navy has opened an investigation after a hidden camera was discovered in a women's bathroom aboard the USS Arlington.

A female Marine found the camera in March and immediately reported it, according to Stars and Stripes.

Military officials says the device was capable of recording but did not specify if it recorded stills or video footage, or streamed a live feed.

The US Navy has opened an investigation after a hidden camera was discovered in a women's bathroom aboard the USS Arlington (pictured, May 2018)

An NCIS investigation is currently underway then to determine who placed the camera there and what was recorded before the female Marine found it.

Officials from the Sixth Fleet told NBC News the recording device was 'in a head' but would not clarify the phrasing.

'The command has taken, and will continue to take, all necessary actions to ensure the safety and privacy of the victim,' spokesman Commander Kyle Raines said.

'The Navy/Marine Corps team takes all reports of sexual harassment seriously, and are committed to thoroughly investigating these allegations and providing resources and care to victims of sexual harassment. '

Raines told NBC News that because of the investigation, no names of any potential victims can be released.

The USS Arlington's home port is Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, but it has been deployed since December 2018.

It is currently performing a security operation in the Mediterranean Sea and, as of Friday, the warship was docked in Greece.

This is not the first time that Navy women have been secretly recorded.

In 2015, a groups of sailors aboard the USS Wyoming ballistic-missile submarine secretly recorded about a dozen women undressing and showering over a period of 10 months.

The male sailors would then view the videos on cellphones or an iPod Touch, both of which are banned on the submarine, reported the Navy Times.

A study conducted last year by the nonprofit RAND Corporation found that the Navy was the military service with the greatest risk of sexual assault.

Stars and Stripes reported at the time that there was a 15 percent overall risk, and than 17.1 percent of female servicemembers at Naval Support Activity Charleston said they experienced a sexual assault in 2014.

The authors of the report wrote they could not state 'what it is about these duty assignments that leads to their association with the highest risk of sexual assault.'A Conservative MEP has revealed he narrowly missed one of the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka which have killed at least 207 people.

Nirj Deva said he had missed one of the three hotel bombs in Colombo today because he 'delayed leaving the airport'.

Calling the bomb attacks an 'absurd, disgusting, revolting act' he said the eight explosions had left a 'question mark hanging over the entire island'.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack which killed dozens of foreigners including Britons and Americans, and has left at least 450 people wounded.

Conservative MEP Nirj Deva (pictured last week) revealed he narrowly missed one of the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka which have killed at least 207 people

Mr Deva, an MEP for South East England, said: 'I missed the bomb by about one hour because I delayed leaving the airport.

'I arrived at the scene which was terrible. A number of tourists had perished in the lobby of the hotel, and some of the waiters and staff.

'The country is in deep shock. Easter Sunday is a date of great religious fervour in Sri Lanka.'

He said Sri Lanka had previously suffered tragedy on Easter Sunday in the form of a Japanese air raid in 1942, during World War II.

'This Easter Sunday has been another great tragedy for the country,' said Mr Deva, who was an MP at Westminster between 1992 and 1997.

'Our hearts and prayers and thoughts go to those families who are suffering as their loved ones are either dying or injured in hospital.

'There is no sense to this absurd, disgusting, revolting act, of senseless murder.

The terror attackers, some of them believed to be suicide bombers, targeted sites including St Sebastian's Church (pictured) north of Colombo in the Easter Sunday blasts

'There is a question mark hanging over the entire island as to what all this is about. Sri Lankans have gone through a very difficult period in the last 40 years.

'Reconciliation and peace is paramount in this country and now this has happened.'

Three of the nearly simultaneous blasts on Sunday morning went off in three churches where worshippers were celebrating Easter.

Another three hit luxury hotels in Colombo, the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri-La and the Kingsbury, all frequented by foreign tourists.

Hours later, a blast at a guesthouse killed at least two people.

After an eighth explosion near an overpass in the area of Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo, police said three officers were killed when they went to question suspects following a tip.

The attacks mark the worst bout of violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.The bodies of a father and daughter who were swept off a treacherous cliff face while posing for a photo have been found in the water.

The 35-year-old man and his five-year-old daughter were swept out to sea about 1:30pm on Easter Sunday near the Cape Carnot headland in South Australia.

The duo had ignored multiple warnings and were posing near the cliff ledge when a monster wave swept them away, witnesses said.

South Australian police initially reported the child as a little boy, but later changed their statement to clarify the victim was a girl.

A police helicopter did not spot their bodies until 5pm, at which point officers managed to retrieve the young girl.

The bodies of a father and daughter who were swept off a treacherous cliff face while posing for a photo have been found in the water

They were unable to remove the man's body due to dark and rough conditions, and postponed the recovery until Monday.

The pair were believed to be sightseeing before the accident.

Glenn Theakstone, co-owner of Whaler's Way Sanctuary, told ABC the man had been warned numerous times about the dangerous swell.

'They were warned at the gate not to enter into the caves, or go looking for the caves due to the sea's state  they obviously didn't adhere to that warning.

'They had their backs turned to the sea while a third person was trying to take a photo of the waves smashing up behind them,' he said.

Glenn Theakstone, co-owner of Whaler's Way Sanctuary, said the man had been warned numerous times about the dangerous swell

'Anyone who knows anything about the ocean knows that the Great Australian Bight's well known for that one rogue wave  every half a dozen sets or couple of sets and that one has come through and actually swept them off the rocks.'

In addition to the multiple warning signs, Mr Theakstone said the pair would have walked past a plaque commemorating the last victims who lost their lives in the area.

Surf Life Saving SA spokeswoman Melissa Davis-Bishop told The Advertiser waves in the area could often be misleading.

'Waves are not all the same size or strength,' she said.

'They do come in sets so they can be a bit misleading and then all of a sudden a really powerful one comes in.

'People need to heed the warning signs in the area, be safe and even have a plan if something goes wrong.'Harry Potter star Sir Michael Gambon has been withdrawn from a new Sky One comedy series after 'struggling to remember his lines', it is claimed.

Sir Michael, 78, who plays Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films had taken part in the pilot episode of Breeders.

Although his castmates are due to appear in the ten-part series which will airs next year, the Irish-born actor has not been signed up to it.

Harry Potter star Sir Michael Gambon has withdrawn from Sky One series Breeders after 'struggling to remember his lines', it is claimed

The news comes four years after he announced his fears that he had Alzheimer's and that he was quitting his stage career because he can't remember his lines.

He said at the time that he had been checked by two doctors for Alzheimer's disease and was relieved to be told that he didn't have the degenerative brain condition.

A source told The Sun: 'Michael is an incredible actor, and was extremely popular on set.

'But age appears to have caught up with him and he was struggling with the script.

'Lines weren't going in and sticking as they normally would.'

Sir Michael, 78, who plays Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films had taken part in the pilot episode of Breeders. He is pictured in character as Dumbledore

The source added that the pilot episode 'went really well' and that Sky execs were heavily behind it.

Among the cast of Breeders is Sherlock star Martin Freeman.

The shows is being scripted by comedy writer Simon Blackwell who has also created shows such as Michell & Web's sitcom Back.

Although the tests for Alzheimer's were negative it prompted Sir Michael to use an earpiece while acting, which linked him to a stage prompt in case he forgot his lines.

Among the cast of Breeders is the star of BBC's Sherlock Martin Freeman

Although the tests for Alzheimer's were negative it prompted Sir Michael to use an earpiece while acting, which linked him to a stage prompt in case he forgot his lines.

Among the cast of Breeders is the star of BBC's Sherlock Martin Freeman.

A Sky spokesman said Michael would not be taking part in Breeders but declined to comment further.

A spokesman for Sir Michael declined to comment.Billionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes has purchased yet another iconic Sydney pub.

The 45-year-old recently offered a cool $5 million to secure the iconic 3 Weeds pub in Rozelle.

The venue, which first opened in 1881, is renowned for its 'pub grub' and pizzas.

Hemmes, who has remained tight lipped on the deal, is the chief executive of his family's hospitality firm Merivale, which owns a several pubs and hotels in Sydney - including The Ivy, Coogee Pavilion and The Newport Arms.

He has been in charge of the group since 1997 and is assisted by his sister Bettina, who is part owner of the empire started by his father, John Hemmes. John named the company after his wife.

The 45-year-old (pictured with Lara Worthington) recently offered a cool $5 million to secure the iconic 3 Weeds pub in Rozelle

The 45-year-old recently offered a cool $5 million to secure the iconic 3 Weeds pub in Rozelle

The venue, which first opened in 1881, is renowned for its 'pub grub' and pizzas

In the past two years alone, Hemmes is believed to have spent hundreds of millions on acquiring new venues, The Daily Telegraph reported.

He has also spent millions in renovations.

Hemmes' list of waterfront homes has also grown exponentially since he bought his first property - a four-bedroom beachside cottage - in 2005.

The 45-year-old, who debuted in the Australian Financial Review's list of the wealthiest people in the country last year, paid $4.15 million for the property in Berrara town on the South Coast.

Hemmes is the chief executive of his family's hospitality firm Merivale. Hemmes is pictured with his ex-partner Kate Fowler

Just days after his father's death in 2015, Justin purchased the Newport Arms on the northern beaches for a reported $50 million.

That purchase came amid the $6 million securement of the Paddington Arms and his famous purchase of the Beach Palace, which he renamed Coogee Pavilion.

Hemmes' 10th pub procurement in the space of three years came when he snapped up Bondi's Royal Hotel for $25million last November.

In 2018, he also purchased the Alexandria Hotel for a reported $10 million, Mascot's Tennyson Hotel for $37.5 million and the Collaroy Hotel for $21 million.

Ten years after he purchased his first residential property in Berrara, Hemmes bought two adjacent properties in 2016 in the same locality. He reportedly paid more than $3 million.

But his biggest acquisition on the South Coast was a 60-acre beachfront estate in Narooma in 2015.

Hemmes paid $6.7 million for the Glasshouse Rocks estate, which is supposed to be his family's nature retreat.

He then paid another $2.75 million for an architect-designed bush retreat in Morning Bay in May 2016.

Hemmes' biggest residential acquisition on the South Coast was a 60-acre beachfront front property in Narooma in 2015 (stock image)

Hemmes bought his ex-partner Kate Fowler and two children a $7.5million home in Dover Heights in 2018 - which is less than a 10-minute drive from his Vaucluse mansion (Stock image of property on Dover Heights)

First built back in the 1870s, Mr Hemme's home has been in his family for more than 40 years (pictured)

Hemmes bought his ex-partner Kate Fowler and two children a $7.5million home in Dover Heights in 2018 - which is less than a 10-minute drive from his Vaucluse mansion.

The heritage-listed harbourfront mansion has previously been estimated to be worth 'more than $60 million'.

First built back in the 1870s, the home has been in the Hemmes family for more than 40 years, having been bought by Justin's late father John for a mere $500,000.

Hemmes and his ex-partner Kate, who is the sister of Victoria's Secret model Georgia Fowler, were recently spotted in good spirits during a family outing at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

The couple split in 2018.

Last month, Hemmes denied reports that he was seeing model Montana Cox.

Hemmes' journey to billionaire status hasn't been straightforward.

Hemmes has seen his fortune jump to a spectacular $1.05 billion with the help of his sister Bettina, who is the part owner of the Merivale Empire (stock image of Morning Bay property)A Tory backbencher is expected to tell Theresa May that she must step down as prime minster by the end of June.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 committee, will tell the PM to stand aside or her own MPs will alter the Conservative Party leadership rules to force her out.

He will meet with Mrs May to tell her that 76 per cent of Tory MPs want her to resign over her handling of Brexit.

Members of the committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether to tear up the party rule book that currently prevent a second no confidence vote being held until December, according to the Sunday Times.

Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers is expected to ask Theresa May to stand down by the end of June

Current rules state a vote of no confidence in the leader cannot be trigger for 12 months and Mrs May survived such a showdown last December.

Many MPs was Mrs May to quit by June 30, which is when she claimed would be the latest possible date for Brexit.

As in December, if a new vote is possible it would need 47 Tory MPs to write letters to the 1922 committee stating they do not have confidence in the leader.

She would then need to win the backing of 157 of her MPs or face a full-blown leadership contest, with a vote by the all Conservative Party members.

According to the Sunday Times, 'swing voters' are shifting towards changing the rules unless Mrs May agrees to quit by June 30.

Theresa May and her husband Philip May leave after attending her local church service on Easter Sunday

One minister told the paper: 'She has to go. She is a calamity.'

Grassroots campaigners are set to announce this week that more than 65 constituency chairmen will demand her resignation, which would allow for a change to the rules.

Three-quarters of her own councillors want Mrs May to resign  and an overwhelming 96 per cent believe that the Tory Party has been damaged by the impasse.

An exclusive Mail on Sunday survey shows that an astonishing 40 per cent of Conservative councillors are planning to vote for Nigel Farag's new Brexit Party in May's European elections, in protest at the Prime Minister's failure to conclude the UK's exit from the EU.

The Tory group on Derbyshire County Council is so disillusioned that it has gone on 'strike' by refusing to take any part in next month's European election campaign.

The EU will face 50 'disruptive and resentful' British MEPs if the UK is forced to take part in the May 23 elections because of a delay to Brexit, the international trade secretary Liam Fox warned today.President Donald Trump attended Easter church service with first lady Melania Trump and daughter Tiffany Trump in West Palm Beach on Sunday.

The first couple attended service at the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, where they were married in 2005.

'Happy Easter everybody, have a great day,' the president said upon his arrival, adding: 'A lot of great things are happening for our country.'

President Donald Trump attended Easter church service with first lady Melania Trump and daughter Tiffany Trump in West Palm Beach

The first couple attended service at the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, where they were married in 2005; they were joined by Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos

After church, the first family had brunch at Mar-a-Lago, the president's private club in Florida that is referred to as the Southern White House.

'President Trump attended Easter service earlier this morning at The Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach. He will be having brunch at Mar-a-Lago with family before returning to the White House this afternoon,' Deputy White House press secretary Steven Groves said in a statement.

It was a sunny day in the 70s in West Palm Beach for the Easter holiday.

First lady Melania Trump dressed for the occasion in a floral dress with a purple belt and purple stilettos. Tiffany Trump was also in a floral-patterned dress with heels.

Tiffany Trump was accompanied by her boyfriend, Michael Boulos.

The first family also attended Easter service at The Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea last year.

President Trump, the first lady and several members of the first family descended on Mar-a-Lago to spend the long holiday weekend together.

The president got in a few days of golf over the weekend but spent Sunday with his family.

Trump wished the country a 'Happy Easter' earlier in the day, adding that he has 'never been happier or more content.'

'Happy Easter! I have never been happier or more content because your Country is doing so well, with an Economy that is the talk of the World and may be stronger than it has ever been before. Have a great day!,' he wrote on Twitter.

The first lady wore a floral dress with a purple belt and heels

Tiffany Trump was accompanied by her boyfriend, Michael Boulos

Trump wished everyone a 'Happy Easter' upon his arrival

President Trump and Melania Trump walk behind Rev. James R. Harlan

His happiness claims come amid reports he's furious at White House staff for talking to Special Counsel Robert Mueller for his investigation.

But since the president did not claim executive privilege, most staff felt empowered to speak.

Trump was asked if he felt betrayed by staff upon his arrival at the church by reporters traveling with him but he did not answer.

The Trumps arrived in Florida on Thursday and will leave Sunday evening. On Monday they will attend the annual White House Easter Egg roll.

The strong economy will be a central talking point to the president's re-election effort and Trump has consistently touted his handling of it.

Later Sunday morning, Trump bragged about the strong job numbers out last week.

'Jobless claims in the United States have reached their lowest (BEST) level in over 50 years!,' he wrote.

Claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to 192,000 for the week that ended April 13, the lowest level since September 1969, the Labor Department said reported last week.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his wife Ann Cabell Standish arrive for Easter services at St. John's Episcopal Church

President Trump is in Mar-a-Lago for the holiday weekend with his wife, son Barron and other members of his family.

He spent much of the morning sending critical tweets against the Democrats and Mueller, who attended Easter service at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C.

It's known as the president's church due to the fact it's across Lafayette Park from the White House.The leader of Turkey's main opposition party has been attacked by an angry mob as he attended the funeral of a soldier who died fighting Kurdish militants.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), was taken to a nearby house by security forces for his protection after a furious attack was launched against him on Sunday, according to Anadolu state news agency.

Following the incident, Mr Kilicdaroglu's party confirmed their leader had been attacked.

The leader of Turkey's main opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, was attacked by an angry mob in Turkey

Mr Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), was taken to a nearby house by security forces for his protection, according to Anadolu state news agency

The opposition leader had been attending the funeral of a soldier who was killed during clashes with Kurdish rebels at the Iraq border

A video circulating on social media showed a mob pushing and shoving Mr Kilicdaroglu as he made his way through the crowd.

A party official said: 'Kilicdaroglu is at the CHP headquarters right now. He is fine.'

In a speech later outside CHP headquarters, Mr Kilicdaroglu said the attack targeted Turkey's unity.

He told a crowd of 1,000 supporters from the top of a bus: 'The assailants have no respect for the martyr (dead soldier).

'They are not geniune Muslims.'

The leader added that he was not saddened by the attack and that it would not deter him from defending law and justice.

Following his attack Mr Kilicdaroglu addressed his supporters and said the attack targeted Turkey's unity

Fans showed their solidarity after the CHP leader was attacked while attending the funeral of a soldier

Following the attack Ankara governor's office said legal action has been launched against the culprits. Pictured: A group of nationalist try to reach Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu

The group first protested against Mr Kilicdaroglu's presence at the funeral in the Cubuk district of the capital Ankara and then attacked him with blows, Anadolu confirmed.

The Ankara governor's office said in a statement: 'Legal action has been launched against the culprits of the incident.'

The CHP last month won Ankara and Istanbul mayors' offices in local elections in a setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.

Erodgan's AKP is appealing for a rerun of the Istanbul election, citing irregularities in the very tight race against the CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu.

The Chairman of the Republican People's Party is protected by bodyguards and security after he was attacked by protesters

Mr Kilicdaroglu waved to his supporters after being attacked by protesters during the funeral of a soldier

Election authorites last week granted Mr Imamoglu his mandate after carrying out a limited recount that showed he had won the city by a very slim margin of around 13,000 votes.

The party held Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu responsible for the attack because the minister said last year he had ordered the governors not to let CHP members to join martrys' funerals.

'That's why he is found responsible for this provocation,' a party official said.

Shortly after the attack, Soylu said it could not be accepted.Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka killed 138 million people, a death toll nearly twice that of the Second World War.

The president botched the death toll as he offered his condolences for the horrific Easter Sunday attack, which has killed more than 200 people.

'Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more. We stand ready to help!' Trump wrote.

Donald Trump accidentally claimed that the Sri Lanka terrorist attack killed 138 million people in a tweet that stayed up for 20 minutes

Trump eventually deleted the tweet and posted a new statement with the fixed death toll

The tweet stayed up for 20 minutes before it was deleted and a new statement was posted.

'138 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, with more that 600 badly injured, in a terrorist attack on churches and hotels,' Trump wrote in the new tweet.

'The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed on Sunday that 'several' American citizens were killed in the bombings, which has been blamed on religious extremists.

Eight explosions ripped through high-end hotels and churches as suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up on Easter Sunday

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the horrific terrorist attacks

Five British citizens, including two dual U.S.-U.K. nationals, were also killed in the bombings, according to Sri Lankas Foreign Ministry.

'These vile attacks are a stark reminder of why the United States remains resolved in our fight to defeat terrorism,' Pompeo said in a statement.

'Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security.'

Pompeo said the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, is currently working to assist U.S. citizens and their families.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed on Sunday that 'several' American citizens were killed in the bombings, which has been blamed on religious extremists

The White House also released an official statement condemning the attacks in the 'strongest terms.'

'Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the more than 200 killed and hundreds of others wounded,' it read.

'We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they bring to justice the perpetrators of these despicable and senseless acts.'

Eight explosions ripped through high-end hotels and churches as suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up on Sunday.

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the attacks.

Pope Francis, speaking to around 80,000 people at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing, addressed the massacre on Sunday

Pope Francis, speaking to around 80,000 people at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing, addressed the massacre.

'I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence,' he said.

'I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event.'

Sri Lanka's police chief had made a nationwide alert 10 days before Sunday's bombings, warning that Islamic extremists planned suicide bombings at 'prominent churches'.Sixteen American Airlines passengers were taken to the hospital on Sunday after their flight landed at Boston's Logan International Airport.

The passengers - 13 teenagers and three chaperones - were returning home after a group trip from Ecuador, reported the Boston Herald.

The group had traveled from Quito, the capital of the South American country, to Miami, where they boarded AA Flight 1201 to Boston.

Sixteen American Airlines passengers wee taken to the hospital after their flight landed at Boston's Logan International Airport. Pictured: American Airlines Boeing 737-800 seen in Caracas, Venezuela

The 16 passengers, who were part of a group of 40, started feeling ill mid-flight, according to an American Airlines spokesman.

Boston Emergency Medical Services said multiple units were called to the airport around 9.20am.

Massachusetts Port Authority spokeswoman Samantha Decker says the passengers' symptoms appeared mild and similar to a stomach virus.

She told The Associated Press she didn't have information on what may have caused the illnesses.

One passenger told WCVB that there people vomiting on the plane.

American Airlines Flight 1201 landed at Boston Logan International Airport on Sunday morning between 9.30am and 10am.

Upon landing, the 16 students and chaperones were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Staff at Mass General told WCVB the patients are being evaluated, but did not reveal details on thier condition but did not have any information on their current conditions.

An American Airlines spokesman said that no other passengers or crew members onboard reported feeling ill.A six-stone emaciated man who was deemed 'fit to find work' by the DWP has died.

Stephen Smith, 64, died on Monday, after struggling with a number of severe health problems.

His case hit the headlines recently when a fitness for work assessment by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) denied him vital benefits.

Shocking images showed the 64-year-old Liverpool man emaciated in hospital after he was admitted with pneumonia.

Steve Smith, 64, was deemed fit to work despite weighing six stone and being barely able to walk Credit: Liverpool Echo

However, despite his glaringly obvious poor health and worrying weight loss, Mr Smith was forced to leave hospital to fight a decision by the DWP which insisted he was fit and capable of finding work.

He won the appeal after a tribunal judge saw he could barely walk down the street let alone hold down a job.

And after finally agreeing to re-instate his benefit, the DWP confirmed he would also receive back-payments for the money he was wrongly denied.

Mr Smith was left with 67 a week Jobseeker's Allowance to live off after he failed a DWP work capability assesment in 2017 . Mr Smith's most debilitating illness was a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, an incurable respiratory problem

This was the condition Steve Smith was in in hospital in December before he fought and won a tribunal allowing him vital benefits

One friend said: 'He never really recovered from the pneumonia. He was a good soul of the earth. He would do anything for anyone.'

Mr Smith suffered with a number of serious conditions for several years, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, osteoarthritis and an enlarged prostate. He also had a colostomy bag.

Despite all of this, he failed a DWP work capability assesment in 2017 - which meant his Employment and Support Allowance payments were stopped and he was told to sign on for a 67 a week Jobseeker's Allowance, visit the job centre once a week and prove he was looking for work.

Throughout this period, Mr Smith was living alone and didn't know where to turn as his health deteriorated.

Suffering worrying weight loss Mr Smith said he was unable to make himself food more than once a day due to his weak legs

He said: 'I could only make it to the kitchen to make food once a day.

'I had no muscles in the back of my leg which meant I couldn't stand up at all - and had to lean or sit down all the time - but they were telling me I was fit for work.'

Mr Smith enlisted the help of the CASA community centre in Liverpool which offers support to people like Stephen.

Tony Nelson, who runs the centre, introduced Mr Smith to Terry Craven, a former city council welfare officer who works at the CASA advising people on benefit claims.

After Mr Smith was denied ESA, Terry took up his case and battled with the DWP to get him the benefits he knew he deserved.

Following the successful appeal of his case a DWP spokesman said: 'We are sorry for the experience Mr Smith has had and we are committed to ensuring that people with health conditions get the support they're entitled to.

'Following the independent tribunal's ruling, he is now receiving full ESA support.

'While Mr Smith continued to receive benefits and support during his appeal, we can confirm he will shortly receive all back-payments for ESA due.'

A service for Mr Smith will be held on Friday at 4pm at Anfield Crematorium.She is donating 25 pairs of prosthetic legs to help other children living in Africa

A teenager who had her left arm and both her legs amputated has donated 25 prosthetic legs to charity.

Olivia Story, 15, was just two-and-a-half when she beat meningitis and became a triple amputee, losing both limbs below the knee and her left arm.

When Olivia was little, her family raised funds to ensure she could always afford the limbs she needed, even if they weren't available on the NHS.

Olivia Story, 15, has one pair of legs she uses every day and a spare pair that can be used for parts if broken. She has decided to keep her tiny baby legs but is donating all of the rest to a charity that helps amputee children living in Africa

This has enabled her to have everything from realistic skin and pink heels, to swimming flippers, a violin attachment and specialist running blades.

Now, Olivia rarely uses a prosthetic arm and she can manage well without.

The 15-year-old has one pair of legs she uses every day and a spare pair that can be used for parts if broken.

She has decided to keep her tiny baby legs but is donating all of the rest to a charity that helps amputee children living in Africa.

She was just two-and-a-half when she beat meningitis and became a triple amputee. Meningitis is most common in children under five, those aged 17 to 25 and people over 55

In total, she is giving 25 legs, plus some prosthetic arms and attachments which is the largest donation that charity Legs For Africa has ever had in one go.

Olivia said: 'I hope they go to some children that need them and can't afford their own legs so that they can walk.

'It makes me feel happy because it will make other people happy too. I'd love to meet one of the children who get my legs to see how it has impacted their life.'

Olivia from Carlisle, Cumbria, nearly died when she was struck down by the deadly brain bug in July 2006.

Somehow she managed to fight off the disease but the septicaemia had ravaged her body, meaning doctors had no choice but to amputate her legs and left arm.

It was every parent's nightmare and Miss Brown and father Mike Story, 43, feared their daughter would never walk or play like other children.

Over time Olivia became accustomed to wearing traditional flat-footed false limbs, gaining confidence and learning to walk all over again.

But as the years passed and Olivia and her friends started to get older, her playmates began to wear sparkly 'princess' heels at parties.

As the party invitations mounted, Miss Brown became concerned that Olivia was missing out on the joys of being a little girl. She spoke to doctors at Cumberland Infirmary to see what they could do.

Normally amputees would have to wait to be an adult to wear legs allowing them to wear high-heeled shoes, but prosthetic experts decided to make a special pair just for Olivia.

Mum Kim Brown, 39, a business manager, said: 'We've kept them, not really knowing what to do with them.

'Prosthetics are so expensive, we really wanted to give them to someone that would be able to use them.

Normally amputees would have to wait to be an adult to wear legs allowing them to wear high-heeled shoes, but prosthetic experts decided to make a special pair just for Olivia. She is giving 25 prosthetic legs to charity

'There was a poster in the Limb Centre at the Cumberland Infirmary showing a little girl in Africa wearing a prosthetic leg.

'I contacted Legs For Africa and they said they'd never had such a large donation in one go.'

Looking back at how far Olivia has come since her illness, Kim said: 'I'm really proud of her. She's really positive and that's the only way to be.

'She doesn't see herself as disabled. It doesn't bother her and she doesn't get upset.

'She's got some really good friends and just enjoys her life.'

Meningitis is most common in children under five, those aged 17 to 25 and people over 55.

Meningococcal meningitis is the most common form of bacterial meningitis in the UK and it claims the lives of around five per cent of sufferers.Worrying footage has been released by police that shows a Texas mother outside an apartment complex 'in distress' the day she went missing.

Police are concerned for Prisma Denisse Peralta Reyes, 26, who failed to pick up her son from a babysitter's house on Wednesday evening and has not been seen since.

Reyes' 2017 Jeep Wrangler was found abandoned by Mesquite Police Department on Thursday morning in the 3500 block of Roseland Avenue in Dallas, Texas.

Prisma Denisse Peralta Reyes, 26, (pictured), has been missing since Wednesday after she failed to pick up her son from a babysitter's house in Dallas, Texas

In the video, she is talking on her cellphone standing at an elevator and she seems slightly disorientated, appearing to stumble back and forward.

Her stepfather, Dan Fuchs, believes that she may have been in distress based on her demeanor and the way she has talking on her phone.

Prisma Reyes' family say she hasn't responded to calls which is highly unusual as is the way her car was abandoned near an apartment complex which was unknown to her

CCTV footage shows Reyes outside an apartment complex talking on her cellphone just after 6 pm where she seems to be disorientated

Reyes' stepfather claimed that judging by her demeanor, he believes she is in distress. This CCTV footage of Reyes was the last-known sighting of her

Police said they have identified and interviewed the person she was speaking with on the phone, who had no information on her whereabouts.

She was wearing a red polo shirt, blue jeans and has not responded to calls and texts from family members, police said.

The single mom normally picks up her son at about 7.30 pm when she finishes work.

Reyes is currently working as a paralegal and was a member of the National Guard

She was reported missing two hours later when she failed to arrive.

Lieutenant Stephen Biggs with the Mesquite Police Department said: 'It is unusual for anyone I think to abandon a vehicle, but really to not pick up their child when theyre supposed to?'

'I think thats probably our biggest concern is why she didnt pick her child up and is she safe?

'The hope is with the video someone sees her clothing, sees her mannerisms. maybe they recognize her. Maybe they remember seeing her somewhere, and theyll reach out to us and identify the location of her whereabouts.'

Fuchs told WFAA that she is currently working as a paralegal and was a member of the National Guard.

He also said that Reyes recently became a U.S. Citizen and is originally from Veracruz, Mexico.

Fuchs was working out of state when Reyes went missing said that family members informed him of Reyes' disappearance this morning.

The missing woman's mother Lilia Peralta, (left), said she would never go anywhere without letting her know and her stepfather Dan Fuchs, (right), claimed he is worried about her

He said it is incredibly unlike Reyes to disappear. He said that her son is her world and that she would never abandon her Jeep in such a way as she loved the vehicle.

Fuchs said: 'Im a bit distraught, my mind is going in different directions. Im hoping shes found safe. Not just for her sake, but for her sons and her family.

'I would love to see her, I'd love to give her a hug again. Bring her home, that's all I ask.'

Her mother, Lilia Peralta, told CBS11 that Reyes has never left her family and never go anywhere without letting them know.

Her last conversation with her daughter was at noon on Wednesday to warn her about the storms.

Police search the area where she was last seen in the hope of finding clues to her whereabouts

Reyes' 2017 Jeep Wrangler was found abandoned by the Mesquite Police Department on Thursday morning in the 3500 block of Roseland Avenue in Dallas, (pictured)

Her mother claimed that Reyes' manager told her that she never came back to work after lunch.

Speaking in Spanish, Peralta said that the childs father lives outside of Austin and she does not believe he has anything to do with her disappearance.

She told the station that she is very concerned about her daughter and cannot think of anyone or anything suspicious. Reyes is described as approximately 5ft 2in and weighs 135 pounds.

Police are talking to Reyes friends, neighbors and family and going to all of her known locations.

Reyes' child is being cared for by relatives until she is located, Mesquite Police said in a statement.

Police are asking anyone with information on Reyes' whereabouts to call the Mesquite Police Department at (972) 285-6336.A North Carolina man was arrested on Saturday accused of shooting two children in an apparent road rage incident.

Byron Donnell Green, 41, was taken into custody after Surry County authorities say he shot a nine-year-old boy and seven-year-old girl.

The shooting allegedly occurred after Green was involved in a traffic incident with the children's father, Craig Allen Sheff, in the Flat Rock community of Mount Airy.

Byron Donnell Green has been arrested for allegedly shooting a nine-year-old boy and seven-year-old girl in an apparent road rage incident in Mount Airy, North Carolina, on Saturday afternoon. The 41-year-old is seen above in his mugshot

Sheff drove the children to the hospital, where the boy was treated and released, and the girl was reportedly in stable condition after undergoing surgery.

Green has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury, discharging a weapon into an occupied property causing bodily injury and assault by pointing a gun, according to Surry County authorities.

The suspect is being held on $600,000 bond and will appear in court on June 11.

Green has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, discharging a weapon into an occupied property causing bodily injury and assault by pointing a gun. The suspect is seen above in two Facebook photos



Jihadi bride Shamima Begum was granted legal aid to fight the decision to remove her citizenship last week

Dozens of applications from Jihadis stuck in Syria could come flooding into the UK legal aid agency following their ruling to grant legal aid to Shamima Begum.

More than 100 of the former British Citizens turned jihadis trapped in Syria could apply, costing the UK up to 24 million in legal aid, reports The Sun.

ISIS bride Shamima Begam, 19, was controversially given public funding to appeal against her revoked British Citizenship last week, setting a precedent that could inspire other Jihadists to apply.

The final figure for Begam's legal aid to fight the decision to remove her citizenship is expected to top 200,000.

There are approximately 120 former British Citizens who have been stripped of their British status and banned from the UK as suspected jihadists and criminals reports The Sun.

A source told The Sun: 'It will have been noted Begum has got this money so others will feel it is worth a go. It has set a terrifying legal precedent.'

The decision to grant legal aid for Begam was blasted as 'disgusting' and 'ridiculous' by MPs.

Lawyers successfully asked for taxpayers' cash on the 19-year-olds behalf, arguing that Home Secretary Sajid Javid's decision was unfair on the Islamic State acolyte.

It means taxpayers face a legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the former London school girl's fight to come back to the UK. She is currently in a refugee camp in Syria.

ISIS bride Shamima Begam, 19, was controversially given public funding to appeal against her revoked British Citizenship last week, in a precedent that could inspire other Jihadis to apply

It means taxpayers face a legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the former London schoolgirls fight

The decision by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) sparked fury last Sunday after it also emerged on the day that Begum was alleged to have stitched suicide bombers into explosive vests.

It was also claimed she carried a Kalashnikov rifle and served in a senior role in the IS's 'morality police' as an enforcer of its laws.

The British-born schoolgirl left her family in East London to join IS the age of 15 in February 2015.

She lived in the Syrian city of Raqqa and married a Dutch jihadi named Yago Riedijk with whom she had three children, all of whom died as infants.

After being missing for four years, the teenager resurfaced at a refugee camp earlier this year saying she wanted to come home and pleading to be allowed back.

In a dramatic move, Mr Javid ordered that she be stripped of her citizenship 'in order to protect this country'.

However, the Mail learnt that British taxpayers will help pay for her court battle to return, even though Begum has not applied for legal aid herself, nor formally instructed lawyers.A social media influencer was convicted on Thursday of hiring his homeless cousin to break into a man's home and steal his internet domain name at gunpoint.

Rossi Lorathio Adams II, 26, faces up to 20 years in prison for the botched attempt to steal the domain for his social media startup that featured videos of drunk young people doing stupid things.

Adams was found guilty by a jury after just one hour of deliberation.

Federal prosecutors said the defendant was a student at Iowa State University when he launched 'State Snaps', a company that compiled and shared photos and videos of people 'engaged in crude behavior, drunkenness, and nudity' on Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.

Rossi Lorathio Adams II, 26, was found guilty on Thursday of hiring his homeless cousin to break into a man's home and steal his internet domain name at gunpoint in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in June 2017. Adams (above in his mugshots) faces up to 20 years in prison

State Snaps had gained more than a million followers by 2015, at which point Adams decided to try to buy the website domain 'doitforstate.com', based on the site's slogan.

However, the domain was already registered to a Cedar Rapids resident who refused to sell it.

'Between 2015 and 2017, Adams repeatedly tried to obtain 'doitforstate.com,' but the owner of the domain would not sell it. Adams also threatened one of the domain owner's friends with gun emojis after the friend used the domain to promote concerts,' court records stated.

Adams finally lost his patience in June 2017 and hired his cousin Sherman Hopkins Jr, a convicted felon, to break into the domain owner's home.

Federal prosecutors said Adams was a student at Iowa State University when he launched 'State Snaps', a company that compiled and shared photos and videos of people 'engaged in crude behavior, drunkenness, and nudity' on Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter. He concocted the plan to steal the domain name 'doitforstate.com' after the owner refused to sell

Adams allegedly drove Hopkins to the home and waited outside as he entered the home wearing pantyhose on his head as well as sunglasses and a hat. He was carrying a stolen gun, a taser and directions on how to transfer the domain via GoDaddy.com.

Adams hired his cousin, convicted felon Sherman Hopkins Jr (above), to break into the domain owner's home in June 2017

When the victim heard Hopkins break into his house, he hid in a bedroom on the second floor.

The suspect kicked down the door and dragged the homeowner into his office where he held a gun to his head and ordered him to carry out the transfer while pistol-whipping him several times.

The victim turned to move the gun away from his head and managed to grab the firearm. An altercation ensued and the victim was shot in the leg and Hopkins was shot in the chest multiple times before calling 911.

Hopkins survived and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty last June.

Adams was convicted of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by force, threats and violence following a four-day trial last week.

He faces up to 20 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine when sentenced later this year.The family of a British aid worker shot dead by kidnappers at a holiday resort in Nigeria say she was 'an inspiration'.

Faye Mooney was among two people shot dead as armed kidnappers stormed a party in Kajuru Castle resort in Kaduna State on Friday.

A Nigerian man was also killed at the resort, where a group of 12 tourists had travelled from Lagos earlier last week.

The British High Commission named the woman as Faye Mooney and said it was aware of the incident that happened late on Friday but added it would not speculate on the motive or nature of attack

Ms Mooney's family said her memory will 'always be cherished' in a statement today.

They told The Guardian: 'Faye was an inspiration to her family, friends, students and work colleagues. Her bravery and her belief in a better society took her to places others feared.

'We are so proud of who she was and of everything she achieved in her short life.'

Kidnappings are rampant in Nigeria, where both locals and foreigners are targeted - mostly for ransom.

The aid worker, 29, from Manchester, was employed in Nigeria by a non-governmental organisation called Mercy Corps.

She traveled from Lagos as a tourist and was attending a party before the incident happened, police said.

The kidnappers also killed a Nigerian man and kidnapped three others after gaining entry to the Kajuru Castle resort (pictured) in Kaduna State

Neal Keny-Guyer, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps said they are 'heartbroken' at the loss of the 'dedicated' Ms Mooney.

He said: 'Faye was a dedicated and passionate communications and learning specialist who had worked with Mercy Corps for almost two years, devoting her time to making a difference in Nigeria, supporting our teams and the communities we work with to tell their stories of impact, and leading efforts to counter hate speech and violence.

The British High Commission named the woman killed as Faye Mooney and said it was aware of the incident that happened late on Friday

'A graduate of University College London and the London School of Economics who had taught in Iraq and worked in Kosovo to combat human trafficking, Faye was deeply committed to fostering cross-cultural collaboration and was an inspiration to us all.'

There has been no claim of responsibility for the incident and the kidnappers have yet to be identified, police said.

Mooney was employed in Nigeria by a non-governmental organisation called Mercy Corps. Her next of kin have been notified, the British High Commission said.

'Some suspected kidnappers armed with dangerous weapons gained entry into a recreational resort called Kajuru Castle in Kajuru local government area shooting sporadically and in the process shot dead two persons, including an expatriate lady, and took away three others,' Kaduna state police spokesman said.

The police did not name the other person killed.

The aid worker, who was employed in Nigeria by a non-governmental organisation called Mercy Corps, traveled from Lagos as a tourist and was attending a party before the incident happened, police said

Northern Nigeria is plagued by a Boko Haram and Islamic State insurgency as well as clashes between farmers and herders in which hundreds have died.

'We are engaging with the Nigerian authorities, and we understand an investigation is underway,' the British High Commission said in a statement.

President Muhammadu Buhari won re-election for another four years in February, pledging to improve security in Nigeria, boost economic growth and fight corruption.

In 2014, more than 270 schoolgirls were abducted from the town of Chibok propelling the Boko Haram insurgency into the spotlight, prompting the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

Some of the girls remain in captivity five year later.House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said on Sunday that Congress might get to an impeachment inquiry on President Donald Trump if that is where the evidence leads them.

'We may get to that. We may not. As I've said before, it is our job to go through all the evidence, all the information we can get,' he said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.

'Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable,' he added.

House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler said Congress might get to an impeachment inquiry on President Trump if that is where the evidence leads them

President Trump and Melania Trump headed into Easter Sunday services

'If we pursue this, we might put ourselves in an impossible position because we would then have to charge the president with a crime which the Justice Department won't permit us to do,' he noted.

Longtime Justice Department policy forbids a legal indictment of a sitting president.

Nadler's warning to Trump comes as he pursues a full, unredacted copy of special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

The Democrat from New York has subpoenaed such a copy and had asked Mueller to testify before his committee.

He told NBC News he also wants to hear from former White House counsel Don McGahn who told Mueller's team that Trump asked him to fire the special counsel.

McGahn threatened to resign instead and Trump was reported to have dropped the matter.

Attorney General William Barr is scheduled to testify before Nadler's committee early next month.

'We have to hear from Barr. We have to hear from Mueller. We have to hear from other people, like Don McGahn, whom we're going to call. We have to get the entire report, including the redacted material, so we can evaluate it,' Nadler said.

Barr offered to let a bipartisan group of lawmakers look at a less redacted version of the report - but would not include evidence being used in grand juries.

Democrats refused, saying they want to see the full, unredacted report. The matter will likely end up in federal court.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said Democrats may take up impeachment against President Donald Trump

Schiff said it would be difficult for impeachment against President Donald Trump to be successful given Republicans' control of the Senate.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said echoed Nadler's impeachment threat on Sunday when he said that Democrats may take up impeachment against President Trump.

'It may be that we undertake an impeachment,' he told ABC's 'This Week.'

'I think what we're going to have to decide as a caucus is what is the best thing for the country. Is the best thing for the country to take up an impeachment proceeding because to do otherwise sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with office or is it in the best interest of the country not to take up an impeachment that we know will not be successful in the Senate because the Republican leadership will not do its duty?,' he added.

Schiff noted it is a difficult decision.

'I think it's a very difficult decision and we're going to have a caucus about this over the next couple of weeks to try to figure out what the best course is, not for the party, but what's the best course for the country,' he said on 'Fox News Sunday.

'I continue to think that a failed impeachment is not in the national interest,' he added.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said it wasn't time for impeachment - not yet anyway.

'I'm not there yet, but I can foresee that possibly coming,' he said Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation.'

'But again the fact is is that I think we have to be very careful here. The American people - a lot of them clearly still don't believe that President Trump is doing things to destroy our democracy and has done a lot of things very poorly. And so I think that we need to make sure the Congress has all the information and then we need to be able to have the public know that information so that they can see that they have a president that basically has been about the business, I think, of doing great harm not only to our country but to our democracy,' he added.

Schiff did say he thinks the president is guilty of 'impeachable offenses.'

'I think without question within the realm of impeachable offenses,' the California Democrat noted on ABC.

But, he added, Trump has Republicans in Congress - like House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell - to defend him, making it unlikely impeachment will be successful.

'We are, unfortunately, in an environment today where the GOP leadership, people like Kevin McCarthy, are willing to carry the president's water no matter how corrupt or unethical or dishonest the president's conduct may be. And in those kind of circumstances, when Mitch McConnell will not stand up to the president either, it means that an impeachment is likely to be unsuccessful,' he said.

Impeachment proceedings is a two-step process in the United States. The House undertakes the investigation and then votes on passing articles of impeachment. Should those pass the official in question is 'impeached' and the matter moves to the Senate.

The Senate tries the accused. If it is the president, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial.

Two thirds of the Senate must find the person guilty of impeachable offenses for the official to be convicted.

Given Republican control of the Senate it is unlikely Trump would be convicted should it reach that stage.

Several liberal lawmakers, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar, are calling for an impeachment investigation.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his wife Ann Cabell Standish arrive for Easter services at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C.

Mueller's report found no evidence of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

The special counsel, however, left it up to Attorney General William Barr to determine if obstruction charges should be pressed against President Trump.

Barr, working with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, said there was no obstruction.

Democrats, however, have latched on to this line from Mueller's 448-page report: 'If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would state so. Based on the facts and applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.'

Mueller also noted in his report that Congress can still prosecute Trump for obstruction.

'The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law,' he wrote.Rep. Jerry Nadler on Sunday said he did not understand why special counsel Robert Mueller did not charge Donald Trump Jr. and the others who participated in the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton.

'I do not understand why he didn't charge Don Jr., and others in that famous meetings with criminal conspiracy because they were  he said that he didn't charge them, because you couldn't prove that they willfully intended to commit a crime,' Nadler said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'

Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared the participants of any crime - in part because they did not know the law.

Rep. Jerry Nadler said he did not understand why Robert Mueller didn't charge Donald Trump Jr. and the others in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting

A source close to Donald Trump Jr. told DailyMail.com that Nadler was harassing the president's son

Nadler argued the meeting itself was evidence of a criminal conspiracy.

'All you have to prove, for conspiracy, is that they entered into a meeting of the minds to do something wrong and had one overt act. They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting, to get stolen material on Hillary. They went to the meeting. That's conspiracy, right there,' he added.

A source close to Trump Jr. told DailyMail.com that Nadler was 'sad' and 'pathetic.'

'Jerry Nadler is a sad and pathetic man who can't seem to let go of his deranged and now debunked collusion conspiracy theories. Don did nothing wrong in taking the meeting  which is why after 2 years of investigations, not a single person involved was charged with a crime by Mueller. It's unfortunate that instead of doing his actual job, Rep. Nadler seems hell bent on continuing to spend his time smearing and harassing a private citizen for purely partisan political reasons,' the person said.

Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and then campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has ties to the Kremlin, during the 2016 campaign.

Through an intermediary, Trump Jr. set up the meeting as the person claimed to have dirt on Clinton's campaign.

Veselnitskaya has led a multipronged attack against the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers and is hated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But the Mueller report cleared Trump Jr. and Kushner, Trump son-in-law, of committing a crime in taking the June 9, 2016, meeting in part because they did not know the law.

Mueller wrote that he considered bringing charges because campaigns can't accept help from a foreign government or foreign nationals.

'On the facts here, the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the June 9 meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful. The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context,' Mueller noted.

Prosecutors 'did not obtain admissible evidence' that could demonstrate legal standards that campaign officials knew that the action was illegal, the report found.

'The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban' or the federal law applying to the meeting and 'does not have strong evidence of surreptitious behavior or efforts at concealment at the time of the June 9 meeting,' the report states.

'Taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting,' Mueller noted.

Mueller also concluded in his findings that investigators found 'no documentary evidence' that Trump had been made aware of the June 2016 meeting.

The spread of dirt on Hillary Clinton, however, might not have been illegal.

'There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians,' President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said on CNN's 'State of the Union.'

'It depends on where it came from,' he added. 'You're assuming that the giving of information is a campaign contribution. Read the report carefully.'

He argued that any campaign would take any information where ever it could.

Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya attended the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting

The report cleared Donald Trump Jr (center) and Jared Kushner (right) of any criminal conspiracy surrounding the meeting

'Any candidate in the whole world, in America, would take information,' he noted.

Giuliani also argued, but did not offer proof, that the meeting with Veselnitskaya was a setup.

'Why did the special prosecutor come to the conclusion that that was not an obstructive act and wasn't obstruction? That particular one he clears them of completely because he's very embarrassed. He knows that he didn't follow up on all the suggestions it was a setup,' he said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'

A loophole in U.S. law may have made the cyber dirt - such as the emails leaked by Wikileaks during the 2016 campaign - permissible by law.

NBC's Chuck Todd asked Nadler about it.

'I'm curious if this is a flaw in our code, or is this the way the intended law was made, which is our campaign finance laws. One of the other reasons they declined is that he couldn't figure out how to value opposition research. They couldn't figure out how to value cyber material, when looking at it through stolen property - the legal code that has to do with physical merchandise. It seems to me that Mueller was all but saying to Congress, 'Hey, guys. Your law -- the way you wrote the campaign finance laws stink.''

'Well, that may be,' Nadler responded. 'But I think that's a very conservative reading of the law. Because certainly, people are willing to pay a lot of money for opposition research.'

Nadler has subpoenaed the full, unredacted version of Mueller's report, setting up a likely legal showdown with Attorney General William Barr.

Barr is scheduled to testify on May 2 before Nadler's panel.

The New York Democrat has also requested Mueller testify before his committee by May 21.Advertisement

CCTV footage captured the moment one of the suicide bombers in Sri Lanka walked into a church just moments before detonating a device, Indian media has claimed.

The chilling footage, which reportedly shows one of the attackers entering St Sebastian's Church, shows a man wearing a large backpack walking into the building.

A large queue of people can be seen waiting outside ahead of the attack on Easter Sunday in the clip from the Indian channel TV 9.

The news comes after a van exploded near another church hit by suicide bombers in the co-ordinated attacks which killed 290 people.

Dramatic footage shows the vehicle erupting into a fireball around 50 metres from the St Anthony's Shrine, one of three churches targeted in a string of suicide bombs on Sunday that killed 290 people.

The news comes as Sri Lankan authorities blamed the co-ordinated attacks on a little-known Islamist group with links to international terrorists.

Seven suicide bombers launched attacks on churches and five-star hotels, killing hundreds and injuring more than 500 people.

National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), an extremist Muslim group, are said to be behind the attacks, with Sri Lankan officials saying they received an intelligence warning ten days before.

Sri Lankan police also found 87 bomb detonators at the main bus station in the capital city today.

Meanwhile survivors of one of the church bombings have described how a suicide bomber calmly walked past worshippers and even touched a child on the head moments before the blast.

One survivor, Dilip Fernando said his family were at the St Sebastian's church when the bomber struck in Sri Lanka's seaside town of Negombo at around 7.30am on Easter Sunday.

This CCTV footage reportedly shows the moment one of the suicide bombers walks into a church in Sri Lanka before detonating a device on Easter Sunday

The chilling footage, which reportedly shows one of the attackers entering St Sebastian's Church, shows a man wearing a large backpack walking into the building past a long queue of people

An explosion went off in a van near one of the churches attacked as bomb squad officials attempted to defuse it on Monday

Sri Lankan authorities also found 87 bomb detonators in the capital earlier today. Pictured: the moment the van exploded

Smoke rises after a vehicle parked near St Anthony's shrine exploded in Colombo today, just a day after dozens were killed in a separate blast

Sri Lankan security forces stand at the site after a vehicle parked near St. Anthony's shrine exploded in Colombo today

Sri Lankan soldiers rushed through the streets around the capital after the explosion today. Authorities in the country have blamed the attacks on Easter Sunday on an Islamist group

Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said today that the attacks were carried out with the help of an 'international network'.

He added: 'We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country. There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.'

All of the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens, but authorities suspect foreign links, Health Minister Senaratne said at a news conference today.

Islamist extremist material has been recovered from a hotel room allegedly used by the suspects in the Sri Lanka hotel bombings, MailOnline can reveal.

Not much is known about the NTJ, a radical Muslim group that his been linked to the vandalising of Buddhist statues, but it is feared the militants may of had help from international terrorists such as ISIS.

Fernando's family described seeing a 'very young and innocent' man who he believed to be one of the bombers calmly walked past his family.

He said: 'At the end of the mass they [his family] saw one young man go into the church with a heavy bag. He touched my granddaughter's head on the way past. It was the bomber.'

Sri Lankan people run for safety as authorities announced an evacuation of the area after a van was found parked with a suspected explosive device near St Anthony's Church Kochchikade in Colombo

Video footage showed a suspicious vehicle parked near the shrine that was targeted yesterday by a blast that killed dozens of people

Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo following a bomb blast during the Easter service that killed dozens of worshippers

Security personnel inspect the interior of St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, where survivors described seeing a 'very young and innocent' man who he believed to be one of the bombers calmly walk

A statue is pictured next to shrapnel marks at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo a day after the building was hit as part of a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka

Police officers work at the scene at St. Sebastian Catholic Church, after bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels on Easter, in Negombo

Two men inspect damage from the roof of a restaurant at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo after a bomb blast ripped through the building

Sri Lankan police clear the area while Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers inspect the site of an exploded van near a church that was attacked yesterday

They wondered why the attacker was entering the church with mass nearly over, Fernando said, adding that the man had looked to be around 30 and 'very young and innocent', according to his relatives.

Shortly after the man entered the church, there was a massive blast.

Fernando said: 'He was not excited or afraid. He was so calm. They heard it and quickly ran away, they were so afraid. They called me immediately to ask if I was inside the church, but by then I was in a different church.'

He said no one in his family had been killed or injured, but that the community had been devastated by the attack.

'I'm so lucky because normally I would go to this church. We are relieved, we were so lucky but we're really sad for the whole village', he said.

'There are going to be huge funerals in this village soon.'

But he added that Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic community, a minority that makes up just six per cent of the population, would not be intimidated.

'If the church was open this morning then I would have gone inside. We are not afraid. We won't let terrorists win, no way.'

People pray outside the St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo a day after the building was hit as part of a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka

Security personnel inspect the interior of St Sebastian's Church in Negombo. At least 290 are now known to have died in the series of bomb blasts that tore through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, in the worst violence to hit the island since its devastating civil war ended a decade ago

A view of the damage at St. Sebastian Catholic Church, after bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels on Easter, in Negombo

Sri Lankan security personnel walk past dead bodies covered with blankets amid blast debris at St. Anthony's Shrine following an explosion in the church in Kochchikade in Colombo

Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church. One survivor's family described how they narrowly avoided being killed in the explosive as it was too crowded to enter the building

A total of seven suicide bombers were involved in the six attacks, which no group has yet claimed. Early evidence points to the relatively unknown Islamist group National Thowheed Jamaath, according to intelligence chiefs, who warn that more attacks are expected.

Earlier, Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said a total of 24 suspects had been arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Wijewardena said most of the bombings were believed to have been suicide attacks.

It emerged today that billionaire ASOS owner Anders Holch Povlsen lost three of his four children in the Sri Lanka terror attacks.

One of the victims include a British mother and her son having breakfast in a five star hotel in Colombo.

Alex Nicholson, 11, his mother, Anita, 42, were killed in the Table One cafe on the second-floor of the Shangri La hotel in the country's capital at around 8.30am.

They were on a family holiday. Alex's father Ben Nicholson survived the blast but the whereabouts of the couple's youngest daughter are unknown.

Mr Nicholson is not believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries and was seen at the capital's Judicial Medical Office with his ear plastered, said to be 'completely in shock'.

The family were living in Singapore, where Mrs Nicholson had worked for BP before joining mining company Anglo American. Mr Nicholson was a partner in the Singapore office of Kennedys Legal Solutions and advises clients on insurance law.

Sri Lankan military standing guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. It was one of seven churches and hotels bombed during coordinated attacks around the country

Friends and relatives mourn for Mary Noman Shanthi, 58, and Rohan Marselas Wimanna, 59, who died in the blasts mainly around the capital city of Colombo

Sri Lankans living near St. Anthony's shrine run for safety after police found explosive devices in parked vehicle

Families fled the area around the shrine as soldiers swarmed the streets in the aftermath of the car bomb in Colombo

Last night the Nicholson's family, in Essex were too upset to speak. One relative said: 'It's all still very raw.'

Earlier in confusing scenes, the boy's friends launched a social media search for Alex, reporting that both his mother and sister had been killed but that he was missing.



Friends of Alex posted a picture of him and said: 'Please help us find him. He was at Shangri-La. His mother and sister died and now his father is frantically looking for him.'

But Rohan Amarasekera, manager of Sri Lankan holiday specialist Andrew The Travel Company, later said Alex had died, saying: 'Alex has passed away, our sympathies. His body has been identified. His dad is OK, but his mum has passed away also.'

A spokesman for the Shangri-La hotel confirmed the Nicholson family had all been staying there and had been caught up in the tragedy. There was no official confirmation from local police or the Foreign Office.

The Nicholsons worked as lawyers based in Singapore, according to their online profiles.

Mrs Nicholson, a former legal adviser to HM Treasury, moved to Singapore to work for oil firm BP in April 2012. According to her Linked profile her current employer was Anglo America, the mining company.

Her husband is listed as a partner in the Singapore office of Kennedys Legal Solutions and advises clients on insurance law.

Mahen Kariyawasan, of the SriLanka Inbound tour operators (SLAITO) told The Telegraph he met Mr Nicholson yesterday at the Colombo general hospital, where he went to help survivors.

'They were at the Shangri La hotel when the explosion happened,' he said. 'That's where they got injured.'

The Nicholson family are believed to have been in Sri Lanka for around a week and had booked their trip via Adhvan Tours, a spokeswoman said.

'I spoke to Ben in the morning,' she said. 'Naturally he was shaken up. The hospital authorities are very supportive. I think he was in shock.'

Alex (left) and Anita Nicholson (second left) were killed in the blast. Ben Nicholson (right) is reported to be in 'complete shock' having received minor injuries and the whereabouts of the couple's daughter are unknown

Alex Nicholson, 11, left, was killed with his mother Anita, 42, right, as they ate breakfast in the Shangri La in Colombo. The whereabouts of his sister, pictured centre, are unknown

Ben and Anita Nicholson. Mrs Nicholson was killed in the blast at their hotel yesterday morning along with her 11-year-old son Alex

Alex and Anita Nicholson photographed in London in 2015. Both were killed in the bomb blast in the Shangri-La hotel

Timeline: how the Sri Lanka attacks unfolded 10.10am local time (05.40 BST): Reports from witnesses suggest that two churches in Sri Lanka have been hit by explosions as worshippers gather on Easter Sunday. The historic St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in Negombo are among those reported to have been hit. 10.50am: An unnamed security official suggests there have been six closely-timed attacks at three churches and three hotels and that suicide bombers may have been involved in at least two of the blasts. 12.20pm: It is reported 129 people are dead and more than 500 have been taken to hospital after blasts at six sites, according to a Sri Lanka state-run newspaper. 1.50pm: Sri Lanka's top military officials are brought together for an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. The meeting is called by prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has tweeted that 'the government is taking immediate steps to contain the situation'. 3.45pm: Two more explosions take place, the first hitting a guesthouse in Dehiwala, in which at least two people died, and a second in the district of Dematagoda on Colombo's outskirts. 5.20pm: It is reported that two police officers were killed during a swoop on suspects in Dematagoda. 5.25pm: A 6pm to 6am national curfew is imposed by Sri Lanka's government. Sri Lankan Airlines tells passengers booked on flights out of the country that they will be able to fly despite the curfew. the government also locked down social media sites and messaging apps to avoid the spread of misinformation or incitements to violence. 18.10pm: The number of victims from the blasts now stands at 207 people killed and 450 wounded, Sri Lankan police say. Officials say that seven suspects have been arrested. 8.10pm (3.40pm British Summer Time) Five Britons including two people holding joint US and British citizenship were among those killed in the attacks, the country's foreign ministry said. Advertisement

Their names - the first of up to eight British victims - came to light shortly after a bomb was found and safely destroyed at Sri Lanka's main airport last night, just hours after yesterday's attacks killed 290 people in explosions at churches and five-star hotels.

Blasts ripped through landmarks around the capital Colombo, and on Sri Lanka's east coast, targeting Christians, hotel guests and foreign tourists. More than 500 people were wounded.

A six-foot pipe bomb was later found by air force personal on a routine patrol at the country's main airport Bandaranaike International, also known as Katunayake Airport or Colombo International.

'A PVC pipe which was six feet in length containing explosives in it was discovered,' Air Force Spokesman Gihan Seneviratne told the Sri Lankan Sunday Times.

He said the bomb device was discovered by Air Force personnel on a routine patrol and was disposed by the Explosives Ordinance Disposal Unit of the Air Force in a controlled area.

The airport was put 'on lockdown' while the security forces examined and detonated the device, according to reports from the scene.

Yesterday morning, six bombs went off in quick succession before another two blasts two hours later in Sri Lanka's worst violence since the end of its decades-long civil war in 2009.

Three of the near-simultaneous blasts targeted worshippers attending Easter services on the holiest day in the Christian calendar.

Families on holiday were massacred by three further explosions at luxury hotels in Colombo as they sat down to enjoy breakfast at around 8.30am.

Another British family staying at Colombo's Cinnamon Grand Hotel witnessed the 'utter devastation' of the building first-hand.

Julian Emmanuel, 48, an NHS doctor from Surrey, his wife Maria, 39, and their young children Jasintha and Neethan were sleeping before they first heard the explosion.

Dr Emmanuel told The Sun 'We were in our room and heard a large explosion' before they saw 'ambulances, fire crews and police sirens' rush toward the hotel.

'I came out of the room to see what's happening,' he said. 'We were rushed downstairs. Staff told us there had been a bomb that had exploded in the restaurant in the basement.

'We were outside for hours and saw casualties being taken away.'

The family witnessed horrors including 'someone who had an almost severed arm' and 'shocked children covered in dust'.

He said: 'One of the staff told me there had been a suicide bomber because he saw a decapitated body.

'The staff at the hotel lost two or three of their colleagues.

'My children and wife are traumatised by what they saw today. We will never forget this'

He added the day is now tarnished, and they will relive the memories every year, saying: 'We will always remember Easter Sunday for this reason now.'

The family witnessed another British couple escape being killed by seconds. Doctor Emmanuel, who spoke to them previously but did not know their names, said: 'They had been coming down for breakfast in the lift at the time  they just missed it.'

Describing the Cinnamon Grand bombing, a hotel manager said the attacker had registered the night before as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed.

The bomber was just about to be served when he set off the explosives which were strapped to his back, killing himself and numerous guests.

The manager said: 'There was utter chaos. It was 8.30 am and it was busy. It was families.

'He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast. One of our managers who was welcoming guests was among those killed instantly.'

Dr Julian Emmanuel, 48,was staying in the Cinnamon Hotel with his family (all pictured above) and would have been in the restaurant for breakfast when the bomb went off, but the four had decided to have a lazy morning

Last photo: Shantha Mayadunne (second left) and her daughter Nisanga (right) were among the victims of the Sri Lanka bomb attacks on Sunday. The family posted this picture of their Easter breakfast at the Shangri-La hotel just before the blast there

Pictured: Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter Nisanga. The victims include at least 35 foreigners, believed to include Britons and Americans as well as nationals of Turkey, China, Portugal and the Netherlands

As details of the horror emerged yesterday, Sri Lankan TV chef Shantha Mayadunne and her London-based daughter Nisanga were among the first victims named.

Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter Nisanga, believed to have been a student in London, died just moments after sharing a picture of their Easter breakfast at the Shangri-La hotel.

A friend of the family told Gulf News: 'Nisanga was a very popular girl in college.

'Besides the fact that she was bright and smart, her mother Shantha Mayadume, a renowned chef, made her more popular in college. She was well respected and an inspirational chef for Sri Lankans.'

At least 35 foreigners are feared to have been killed in the attacks - including five Britons, two of whom were joint US-UK citizens. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt condemned the the 'horrifying attacks' which he said had killed 'several British nationals'.

Further fatalities are said to include three Indians, two Turks, one Portuguese citizen and an unknown number of Dutch and Chinese nationals.

Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, tweeted that she lost a relative yesterday in the attacks.

She added: 'It's all so devastating. Hope everyone is keeping safe. Solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka.'

Thirteen suspects have been arrested, as it emerged the country's police chief had warned of an Islamic extremist plot to target 'prominent churches' just 10 days earlier, but no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has now ordered curfew with immediate effect 'until further notice' while access to social media messaging services has been shut down.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that to target Easter worshipers was 'unspeakably wicked'.

He said a crisis centre has been set up, and an emergency helpline on the Gov.UK website for anyone who has concerns about friends or relatives in Sri Lanka.

Mr Hunt said there was 'no hard knowledge' about the perpetrators of the atrocity and 'we obviously need to wait for the police in Sri Lanka to do their work'.

A map showing where the eight blasts went off yesterday, six of them in very quick succession on Easter Sunday morning

A crime scene official inspects the site of a bomb blast inside a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, which lost half its roof tiles with the force of the blast

Blood stains are seen on the wall and on a Jesus Christ statue at the St. Sebastian's Church after blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka,after the bombing

The benches and pews were scattered or reduced to splinters by the blast, one of eight which killed 207 people on Easter Sunday

Many of the statues inside the church remain in place, marked with the bomb blast or with blood, as investigators pick through the rubble

Sri Lankan police have responded in considerable numbers, blocking off the affected sites and sending in crime scene officials to scour for evidence

A woman injured during one of the explosions to rip through Sri Lankan churches on Easter Sunday was taken to hospital in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Hospital staff push a trolley with a casualty after an explosion at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Security forces inspect the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo

More than 400 people have been injured after the initial six near-simultaneous explosions across the country, an official said (pictured: The aftermath in one of the churches)

Security forces inspect the scene after a blast targeting Shangri La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday

State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators have identified the culprits behind the 'terrorist' attacks (pictuerd: Shangri La hotel, Colombo)

In Colombo, St Anthony's Shrine, a Roman Catholic church; the Cinnamon Grand; Shangri-La; and Kingsbury hotels were targeted in the first wave of explosions.

At the Shangri-La, security camera footage showed two men detonating devices in the Table One restaurant and a hotel corridor.

Other blasts hit St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

Later in the afternoon, two died in a strike at a hotel near a zoo in the south of Colombo, before a suspected suicide bomber killed police officers in the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital, as police moved in on the suspected terrorist safe house. In all 13 suspects were arrested.

Panic spread to other churches in Colombo and across the island as news spread of the bloodshed.

A shopkeeper who ran into one of the bombed churches to help victims said: 'There was a river of blood. Ash was falling like snow.'

Sri Lanka defence secretary Harsha de Silva said: 'Horrible scenes, I saw many body parts strewn all over.'

Britain's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, James Dauris, was worshipping at a church in Colombo where the service was cut short as a precaution, he said.

Disturbing footage showed the chaotic minutes after the blast which completely destroyed the roof of St Anthony's.

A statue of the Virgin Mary could be seen broken in two while a statue of Jesus was splattered in blood as children cried by the lifeless bodies of their parents.

Two Sri Lankan police officers examine evidence and wreckage from the scene of the explosion at a church in Batticaloa

At least 156 people are dead in an Easter Sunday terrorist attack targeting Christians in Sri Lanka after explosions ripped through high-end hotels and churches (pictured: Outside a hospital in Colombo)

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has now ordered curfew with immediate effect 'until further notice', and the Sri Lankan government said it had shut down access to social media messaging services, sources say

At the church of St Sebastian's in Negombo, Father Edmond Tillekeratne described seeing around 30 corpses.

He said: 'You can see pieces of flesh thrown all over the walls and on the sanctuary and even outside of the church.'

The country went into lockdown amid worrying reports there had been missed opportunities to stop the carefully planned bombings. Prime Minister Theresa May joined leaders across the world in condemning the atrocities while President Donald Trump vowed to 'stand ready to help'.

'The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time.

'We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear,' Mrs May said.

Pope Francis denounced the 'cruel violence' of the Easter Sunday attacks and urged prayer for all those affected. Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned 'the cowardly attacks on our people'.

Wreckage: Sri Lankan security personnel inspect the damage at St Anthony's Shrine following the Easter Sunday bombing

A view of St. Sebastian's Church, which was damaged in the blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, on Sunday morning

Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying injured of church blasts in Colombo

Buddhist monks stand in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo yesterday

Pictured: The aftermath following an explosion at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019

Sri Lankan soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo on Easter Sunday

The country's Prime Minister has called an emergency security council meeting after the bombings, a source said (pictured: Outside Colombo)

Sri Lankan police stand at the site of an explosion at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo after bomb blasts on Easter Sunday

Blasts come amid rising religious tension between Buddhists, Muslims and Christians The Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are the latest flashpoint amid ongoing religious tensions in the island nation. Sri Lanka has long been divided between the majority Sinhalese, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist, and minority Tamils who are Hindu, Muslim and Christian. The country remains deeply scarred by its 1983-2009 civil war, when Tamil rebels fought to create an independent homeland. The rebels were eventually crushed but a religious divide has taken hold in recent years. A Christian group said there had been 86 cases of discrimination, threats and violence against followers of Jesus last year, with another 26 so far this year. U.S. officials warned in a 2018 report that Christians had been pressured to close places of worship after they were deemed 'unauthorised gatherings'. The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship. There have also been attacks on Muslims, with the government forced to declare a state of emergency amid a spate of anti-Muslim rioting. Hard-line Buddhist groups accuse Muslims of forcing people to convert and destroying sacred Buddhist sites. One radical Muslim group, the NTJ, has been linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues and has also reportedly plotted to attack Christian churches. Of Sri Lanka's 22million population, 70 per cent are Buddhist, 13 per cent Hindu, 10 per cent Muslim, and seven per cent Christian, according to a 2012 census. Advertisement

Millions of tourists visit Sri Lanka every year but political crisis and religious tension have placed the industry under threat in recent months.

No nation, organisation or group has yet claimed responsibility for the outrage.

Ten days ago, according to documents seen by the AFP new agency, Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers warning Islamist suicide bombers planned to hit 'prominent churches'.

'A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo,' the alert said.

The NTJ is a small radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka which has no history of mass fatal attacks, but came to prominence last year linked to the vandalism and desecration of Buddhist statues.

Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that information about the attacks had been received in advance but denied having direct knowledge himself.

'We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken. Neither I nor the ministers were kept informed,' he said following intense anger in the community.

Britain's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka James Dauris said British citizens had been caught in the blast, but said he could not yet specify how many had been affected.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: 'I'm deeply shocked and saddened by the horrifying attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka today, and the tragic news of more than 200 people killed, including several British nationals.

'To target those gathered for the simple act of worship on Easter Sunday is unspeakably wicked.

'Everyone has a right to practise their faith in peace, safety and security but tragedies like this, and the one in Christchurch, remind us that there are some who hate these rights and freedoms.

'These despicable acts were carried out at a time when millions of Christians celebrate Easter while living under the shadow of persecution. Many gather in churches at risk of attack; countless more will have suffered threats or discrimination.

'The UK stands in solidarity with persecuted Christians around the world and with the government and people of Sri Lanka. My prayers are with all the victims and their families.'

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry later said five Britons, including two with joint UK-US citizenship, were among the dead.

The country's President Maithripala Sirisena said he was shocked by the explosions and appealed for calm, while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called the attacks 'cowardly'.

'I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation,' the PM said.

Eight people have been arrested and 'so far the names that have come up are local', he said, but officials are probing possible foreign links.

A social media ban was also put in place 'in order to prevent incorrect and wrong information being spread' in what officials said was a temporary measure, alongside an indefinite curfew.

Condemnation has poured in from world leaders including President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Pope Francis as he gave his Easter message.

Mrs May said: 'The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time. We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear.

President Trump tweeted: 'Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels. We stand ready to help!'

The Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith, described those behind the attacks as 'animals' and called on the authorities to 'punish them mercilessly'.

A member of the Sri Lankan security forces stands next to a broken Virgin Mary statue at St. Anthony's Shrine on Sunday

A Sri Lankan police commando enters a house suspected to be a hideout of militants following a shoot out in Colombo

Police and locals inpect the damage and fataliaties in Katuwapitiya St. Sebastian church in Negombo

Security forces around the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo

Pictured: An inside view of the St Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Colombo yesterday morning

Security forces inspect the scene after a blast targeting Shangri-La hotel in Colombo in Sri Lanka on Sunday morning

Shortly after those blasts were reported, police confirmed three hotels in the capital had also been hit, along with a church in the town of Batticalao, in the east of the country (pictured: Security forces outside St Anthony's Shrine)

Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas (pictured: St Anthony's Shrine)

Pope Francis expressed his sadness over the attacks during his traditional Easter address at the Vatican.

'I want to express my affectionate closeness with the Christian community, attacked while it was at prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence,' he said.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said: 'I condemn the heinous terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, a sacred day for Christians.

'The UN stands in solidarity with Sri Lanka as the global community fights hatred and violent extremism together. Holy sites must be respected.'

France's President Emmanuel Macron labelled the blasts 'odious', saying: 'We are deeply saddened by the terrorist attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

'We firmly condemn these odious acts. We stand by the people of Sri Lanka and our thoughts go out to the loved ones of the victims on this Easter Sunday.'

The magnitude of the violence recalls the bombings perpetrated by the separatist Tamil Tigers that targeted a bank, a shopping centre, a Buddhist temple and hotels popular with tourists a decade ago.

In 2009 Sri Lankan security forces defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who had fought to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils.

Bags containing dead bodies are carried outside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo on Sunday

The first explosions were reported at St Anthony's Church in Colombo and St Sebastian's in the town of Negombo just outside the capital

Debris is seen at St Anthony's church after explosions hit churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday

Pictured: A woman is helped near St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo. At least 160 people injured in the St Anthony's blast had been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital by mid-morning, an official said

At least 160 people injured in the St Anthony's blast had been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital by mid-morning, an official said.

'A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there,' read a post in English on the Facebook page of the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo.

Shortly after those blasts were reported, police confirmed three hotels in the capital had also been hit, along with a church in the town of Batticalao, in the east of the country.

Photos circulating on social media showed the roof of St Anthony's church had been almost blown off in the blast, with roof tiles, glass and splintered wood littering the floor. .

Witness N. A. Sumanapala, who was at his shop near the church when the blast happened, said: 'It was a river of blood.'

Another witness, Gabriel, said his brother was at mass at the church and tourist landmark when the explosion ripped through it.

'A piece of roof fell on his head, and he was bleeding heavily from his ear,' he said. 'We are all in shock. We don't want the country to go back to that dark past where we had to live in fear of suicide blasts all the time.'

Only around six percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka is Catholic, but the religion is seen as a unifying force because it includes people from both the Tamil and majority Sinhalese ethnic groups.

Left: Police officers inspect the scene after a explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Colombo. Right: Ambulances are seen outside the church premises with gathered people and security personnel

Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers, according to one security official

In further condolences, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan wrote: 'Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured.

'My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief.'

Prime Minister of India Chowkidar Narendra Modi said: 'Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka.

'My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.'

EU commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his 'horror and sadness' after the deadly string of Easter Sunday attacks.

'I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country,' Juncker said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the blasts 'an assault on all of humanity,' while Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced them as 'cruel and cynical.'

Did ISIS help plot the carnage? With suicide vests, Christians targeted on a religious holiday and a brutal contempt for civilian lives, the Sri Lankan bombings bear all the hallmarks of the terror group

BY LARISSA BROWN, DEFENCE AND SECURITY EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL

After living through a bloody civil war that dragged on for three decades, the people of Sri Lanka are no strangers to terror.

But the carnage that unfolded yesterday saw the country's enemies take on new depths of depravity.

It had all the hallmarks of the barbaric Islamic State group  executed meticulously and without mercy.

Within minutes of yesterday's blasts, MI5 was trying to establish if there were any British links to those who could be behind the plot. There were no immediate claims of responsibility, nor any established motive for the attack, although 13 suspects had been arrested by last night.

Early evidence pointed to the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), a relatively unknown radical Islamist group said to have formed in Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated town in eastern Sri Lanka, in 2014.

It has no history of mass fatality attacks.

Alex and Anita Nicholson photographed in London in 2015. Both were killed in the bomb blast in the Shangri-La hotel

ISIS militants marching in Raqqa, Syria, in 2014. This year the fundamentalists were driven from the last land they occupied but security experts have warned of 'pop up' terror cells

In fact, its only mention appears to be last year when it was linked to the vandalism of Buddhist statues.

Sources in the Muslim community in Sri Lanka claim the group has publicly supported Islamic State. They also say that Zahran Hashim, named in reports as one of the bombers, was its founder.

Although intelligence files on the group are small, there is no doubt the warning signs were there.

On April 11, Sri Lankan police circulated a document entitled 'Information of an alleged plan attack' which said they had been warned by an unnamed foreign intelligence agency that the NTJ was plotting suicide attacks on churches in Colombo.

It added that intelligence pointed to any of the following methods: suicide attack, weapon attack or truck attack.

The original warning is most likely to have come from Australia  one of the 'five eyes' with a close intelligence-sharing relationship with Britain  that has kept watch on the rise of extremism in the region.

Documents show that Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara then issued an intelligence alert to top officers, specifically warning that suicide bombers planned to hit 'prominent churches'.

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has now ordered curfew with immediate effect 'until further notice', and the Sri Lankan government said it had shut down access to social media messaging services, sources say

Hospital staff push a trolley with a casualty after an explosion at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

A crime scene official inspects the site of a bomb blast inside a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, which lost half its roof tiles with the force of the blast

Documents even named six individuals as likely suicide bombers, including Hashim. Yesterday, the seemingly far-fetched plan became frighteningly real.

Why the police did not sound the alarm earlier will remain a mystery. Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that information about the attacks had been received in advance but denied having direct knowledge himself.

'We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken. Neither I nor the ministers were kept informed,' he said following intense anger in the community.

Whichever group was behind yesterday's attack, it was most certainly inspired by the tactics used by IS. The suicide bombings explicitly targeted civilians, designed to create maximum terror for maximum effect  like the Manchester Arena bombings and the London Bridge attack.

They also chose iconic locations packed full of people, including many foreigners.

IS  which lost its final sliver of territory in Syria just weeks ago  also has a history of staging attacks against Christians on holy days, notably Christmas and Easter.

British military chiefs and ministers have long warned that the defeat of the terror group in the Middle East does not mean it has been vanquished.

They have referred to a 'pop-up' IS involving the group emerging elsewhere, often in states where they can exploit a vacuum. They have specifically warned of the rising threat from such diehard jihadis in south-east Asia.

IS fostered a brand which was so effective other terror groups wanted to be associated with it.

Some radicalised Muslims travelled from Sri Lanka to Syria to fight in that country's civil war.

In 2016, the justice minister said 32 Sri Lankan Muslims from 'well-educated and elite' families had joined IS in Syria.

The recent loss of its last territory makes it even more likely that foreign fighters from countries such as Sri Lanka may now be returning home.

Terrorism expert Raffaello Pantucci says the demise of the group's 'caliphate' could have persuaded extremists to stay in their countries and mount attacks there instead. 'Think how big Islamic State's footprint is,' he said. 'This means it has a reverse effect as well  their ideas are going out to a big pool of places.'

Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa,with police tape keeping out bysanders

Security forces inspect the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo

State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators have identified the culprits behind the 'terrorist' attacks (pictuerd: Shangri La hotel, Colombo)

Yesterday's bombings end a decade of relative peace in Sri Lanka following the end of its civil war in 2009. Terrorist bombings were common during the brutal 25-year struggle during which the Sri Lankan government fought Tamil separatism.

But despite the period of calm, much bitterness and grievance has remained in the country, riven by ethnic disputes.

Sri Lanka, which is mainly Buddhist, does not have a recent history of persecution of its Christian minority, which comprises 7 per cent of the population.

Yet its relations with others, including Hindus and Muslims, have not always been easy. Over the years there has been an increasing rise of discontent among Sri Lanka's Muslim community, which make up 10 per cent of the population.

In November 1990, many were expelled from their homes in the north and have since been living as 'displaced' in the southern part of the country, under the patronage of the state.

Whatever the motives behind yesterday's attack, there is little doubt that the brutal tactics used by Islamic State will continue to inspire others.Advertisement

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex hope to take a six-month 'secondment' to Africa in the next few years, it was revealed last night.

Planning for the move is still in the 'brainstorming' stage, it was stressed, and there have been no formal discussions outside the palace walls, but one source described it as a 'likely scenario'.

The revelation came as Harry joined other members of the Royal Family at church on Easter Sunday, which also marked the Queen's 93rd birthday.

Reports of Harry and Meghan's 'Out of Africa' project first surfaced yesterday in The Sunday Times, which quoted a source as saying that courtiers had drawn up plans to send the royal 'rock stars' abroad 'for two to three years', combining their jobs as Commonwealth ambassadors with charity work and a role promoting Britain.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex hope to take a six-month 'secondment' to Africa in the next few years, it was revealed last night

Prince Harry arrives for an Easter Sunday service today with his grandmother, Princess Anne but without his heavily pregnant wife Meghan

It said the proposal would afford them a break from the divisions that have arisen between Harry and his brother William in recent months, while 'harnessing' the Sussexes' global appeal.

The Daily Mail understands that while there have been tensions between the princes and their wives Kate and Meghan, the idea of a foreign sabbatical is something Harry has wanted to pursue for many years, focusing on issues around conservation, the environment and education.

It was also claimed that plans to make Harry a governor-general in somewhere such as Australia or Canada had already been rejected, but that William and his private secretary, Simon Case, were behind this new scheme to put some distance between himself and the globally popular Sussexes.

'People are telling William, "Don't worry. Your influence will grow and Harry's will fade. This is peak Harry," ' the source told The Sunday Times.

The Duke of Sussex (pictured alongside Zara Tindall) has wanted to take a foreign sabbatical for many years, focusing on issues around conservation

Prince William and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at the Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel today

Harry's wife, Meghan, was notably absent from church as she is expecting the couple's first baby any day now.

However, the Queen  already the longest-serving British monarch in history  beamed as she was cheered by well-wishers as she arrived at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

In all, 16 members of the Royal Family were among the 800-strong congregation, including Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Princess Beatrice and the Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children.

While the royal party were taking their seats, the organist played Happy Birthday.

Sources claimed the Sussexes' advisers are working on Harry and Meghan's 'bespoke' African role with the help of Sir David Manning, a former ambassador to the US, and Lord Geidt, the Queen's former private secretary who chairs the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

Botswana  which Harry has previously described as his 'second home'  is one of the countries that has been suggested, as well as Malawi and South Africa.

It would almost certainly be a Commonwealth country as the Queen appointed her grandson one of its youth ambassadors last year and sees him as an important proponent of her legacy.

The Queen  already the longest-serving British monarch in history  beamed as she was cheered by well-wishers as she arrived at St George's Chapel in Windsor

The Duchess of Cambridge curtsies to the Queen, who celebrates her 93rd birthday today, as Her Majesty arrives for the Windsor service

'Some early conversations have taken place in a very informal way,' a source revealed last night.

'At the moment, this is very speculative. There haven't been formal conversations with anyone from Commonwealth countries or governments.

But his team are starting to scope out a long-term planning strategy for the Sussexes and there is a good chance this is a scenario that could work.'

The source stressed that a long-term foreign posting was unlikely, but that something along the lines of an extended royal visit would be more appropriate.

'It's more likely to involve them going somewhere for a couple of months, rather than moving somewhere,' they said.

'When you look at the duke's focus on environmental issues, it's a great opportunity to go and work in a more in-depth way in one place.

'It's an invaluable chance to be on the ground and do some hands-on conservation work, rather than undertake the 'traditional' royal tour model.

'The Sussexes don't have the constitutional constraints that William and Kate have, so they have a little more flexibility to explore and be creative, while being respectful of the constraints of the institution.'

Buckingham Palace said last night: 'Any future plans for the duke and duchess are speculative at this stage. No decisions have been taken about future roles.'She was gunned down last week standing beside a police patrol in Londonderry

yra McKee, 29, planned to propose to girlfriend Sara Canning, 35, in two weeks

The journalist shot dead in Northern Ireland planned to propose to the love her life during a dream trip to New York in two weeks.

Lyra McKee, 29, had spoken excitedly to friends about her plans and even invited them to a wedding planned for 2021 before she was gunned down last week.

The heart-breaking revelation came as her girlfriend Sara Canning, 35, issued an emotional appeal for information to help police track down those responsible for the killing.

Lyra McKee, 29, left, had planned to propose to girlfriend Sara Canning, 35, in New York in two weeks. Ms Canning described Lyra McKee as her soulmate' and the love of her life [File photo]

She was standing alongside Miss McKee at a police patrol in Londonderry when the journalist was struck by a stray bullet believed to have been fired by a gunman from the New IRA republican terrorist group.

Miss Canning said: Nobody deserves to be gunned down, nobody should have to go home without the one they love. No family should lose their child.

Describing Miss McKee as her soulmate, she urged witnesses to share any footage of the incident with the police.

She was the love of my life, the most impressive yet humble person alive, and the only person I wanted to grow old with. My heart is broken. No cause is worth the loss of Lyra, she said.

A message of support in Londonderry. Miss McKee was killed while standing with onlookers on the republican Creggan housing estate as a mob threw fireworks and petrol bombs on Thursday night

Days before her death, Miss McKee had told a friend, Ann Travers, about her plans.

She said: Lyra was going to New York with Sara in two weeks time and she was so excited because she was going to propose to her.

Miss Travers, 49, said Miss McKee had bought a ring and was already planning the wedding.

Lyra asked if I would come and I said of course, then she told me it would be in 2021. I had to stop myself from laughing because that was just so Lyra. She was so enthusiastic about everything, even with the fact that the wedding was in two years.

Knowing Lyra, she would have planned the proposal meticulously and had somewhere beautiful to do it. It was a very big thing for her and this is so heartbreaking.

Since she met Sara, everything had come together, her writing and her book deal [about the Troubles] and everything was going just really, really great.

Northern Ireland is the only country in the UK where same-sex marriage is illegal, but Miss McKee had planned to marry Miss Canning in Donegal, in the Republic.

Miss McKee, above, had planned to marry Miss Canning in Donegal, in the Republic. Political leaders have condemned the attack and insisted that Northern Ireland will not be dragged back to the past

A picture shows the floral tributes placed at the scene in the Creggan area of Derry in honour of Lyra McKee, reading 'not in our name'. Miss Travers, 49, said Miss McKee had bought a ring and was already planning the wedding

Political leaders have condemned the attack and insisted that Northern Ireland will not be dragged back to the past.

Miss McKee was killed while standing with onlookers on the republican Creggan housing estate as a mob threw fireworks and petrol bombs on Thursday night.

Police had earlier raided homes searching for weapons in an attempt to disrupt a possible paramilitary plot to murder police over the Easter weekend.

Two teenagers, aged 18 and 19, arrested under terror laws were released by police last night.Roger Stone is set to appear as a speaker at strip club in Virginia in order to help pay for his defense in the Robert Mueller investigation after admitting last week he is almost bankrupt.

Trump's former political adviser was one of the men indicted in the probe on President Trump's possible collusion in the 2016 presidential election campaign.

Now he's said to be appearing at the Paper Moon in Richmond, alongside Kristin Davis, the 'Manhattan Madam' who ran an escort ring that former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer allegedly hired, the Daily Beast reports.

Roger Stone admitted last week on radio that he probe due to legal costs in the Mueller probe

Roger Stone is set to appear at Paper Moon strip club in Richmond, Virginia next month

The May gig will bring Stone full circle after he famously went to a Miami club in 2008 to obtain information about Spitzer and the sex workers.

Paper Moon's projects director Mike Dickinson helped book Stone - who is out on $250,00 bail - but wouldn't share how much he was set to rake in for making a speech.

'Let's just say he's getting paid a nice amount,' he told the Daily Beast.

Dickinson claimed he wasn't worried about potential violence breaking out at the nightlife venue due to Stone's appearance.

Stone sparked outrage when he was recently seen on video taking part in an initiation rite with the Proud Boys.

Stone is yet to speak as part of his probe into Trump's 2016 election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs Easter services at St. John's Episcopal Church, Sunday

A member of the group claimed to have stabbed three anti-fascist men at a recent event.

The Proud Boys claim they only fight in 'self-defense' but regularly glorify violence.

Paper Moon's Dickinson told Daily Beast that he was a liberal despite recently saying he wanted to deport all anti-fascists that complained about Stone's forthcoming appearance.

He added to the publication that his willingness to host Stone didn't suggest they would have just anyone.

'We wouldn't host Bin Laden, we wouldn't host Ted Bundy,' he said after sharing that Donald Trump was welcome.

Stone was the political adviser to President Donald Trump, right, gestures as he and first lady Melania Trump, left, arrive for Easter services at Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea

'The worst part of this is being broke,' Stone said of his current situation on SiriusXM last week.

'I've lost my home, my insurance, what little savings I had, my ability to make a living because people pay me to write and talk, and of course the things they want me to write and talk about are the very things I'm not allowed to talk and write about. In the blink of an eye you can lose everything.

'I have to pay everything I have to lawyers. And I could no longer pay the rent in the property that I was in. I moved from a nine-bedroom house to a one-bedroom apartment. Had to do the move myself with my wife renting a truck. On the last day of the move in kind of a freak accident the truck slips out of gear and rolls over my wife's ankle, breaking it.'Athens-Clarke County Police officers fatally shot Carlton Steve Brooks, 63 in Athens, Georgia late Saturday night

A Georgia man was fatally shot by police late Saturday night while standing in the doorway of his own home after officers claimed he pointed his shotgun at them.

Carlton Steve Brooks, 63, of Athens, Georgia was pronounced dead at a local hospital after two Athens-Clarke County Police Department officers said he answered his front door with the shotgun in his hands.

Officers had called at his home after a neighbor reported that they had seen him acting as a 'peeping Tom' outside their home in the 1200 block of Hull Road in Athens around 11.40pm on Saturday.

The Walton-Tribune reports one of the officers who knocked on the 63-year-old's front door said he saw Brooks through a window walking to the entrance while carrying a shotgun.

Police officers say Brooks was wielding a shotgun when he answered the front door of his home (pictured) at 1249 Hull Road in Athens around 11.40pm. Officers knocked on the door to ask Brooks questions about harassing his neighbor

The officers said they told Brooks to drop his firearm, but he declined to do so before opening the front door, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

'The suspect brandished a shotgun at the officers. One officer, fearing for their life, fired their weapon,' ACCPD Public Information Officer Geoffrey Gilland said in a press release about the incident.

The officers provided medical aid to Brooks until an EMS crew arrived and took him to the hospital where he ultimately was pronounced dead.

The police department released a statement about the shooting on its Facebook page

Authorities said the officer who shot Brooks has been placed on paid administrative leave.

An autopsy has been scheduled for Brooks' body and Georgia state Bureau of Investigation is now investigating the shooting, police said.

Georgia is an open-carry state and ACCPD officers are equipped with body cameras. The department did not immediately respond to calls and emails requesting additional comment.The idea of posting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Africa to harness their 'soft power' potential as 'rock stars' is an interesting one  particularly in a week when the couple are expecting their first child.

Normally, the impending arrival of a royal baby would be more than enough to keep royal-watchers preoccupied. But, as with so much else, Harry and Meghan continue to break the mould.

However, relocating the couple abroad  an idea still firmly downplayed by the Palace as speculation  is not exactly new.

Monarchs have been packing off younger sons to far-flung parts of the planet for years.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex hope to take a six-month 'secondment' to Africa in the next few years, it was revealed last night

Prince Harry's namesake and great, great uncle  Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester  was despatched to be Governor-General of Australia in 1945. Similarly, Queen Victoria's third son, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, set off to become Governor-General of Canada in 1911.

In the 18th century, some of George III's wayward younger sons were sent overseas and not allowed back for years.

So why Africa for the Sussexes? As Youth Ambassador for the Commonwealth, which spans 53 nations spread across every continent, the duke could presumably have set his sights on whichever part of the world appealed to him and his wife.

Yet he has always had a profound and special connection with Africa. In that regard, he is simply following firmly in the family tradition.

Africa was the very first foreign destination of our Queen. As Princess Elizabeth, she had never ventured south of the Isle of Wight until 1947 when she set sail with the King, Queen and Princess Margaret to thank pre-apartheid South Africa for its wartime support.

Prince Harry and Prince William visiting The Mokolodi Nature Reserve in Botswana in 2010

Harry visiting a crime scene of a rhino killed by poachers in Kruger National Park Prince Harry visit to South Africa in 2015

Yesterday the Queen marked her 93rd birthday in Windsor. In 1947, she marked her 21st in Cape Town, delivering one of the most important speeches of her life, pledging 'the whole of my life' to the service of 'our great imperial family'. It was a coming of age in so many ways.

It was during this epic, arduous and spectacular 7,000-mile odyssey from the Cape to Rhodesia's Victoria Falls and back again that the future Queen learned so much at first hand from her beloved father.

Five years later she was in Africa again with her young husband. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, as they were known, were en route to Australia and New Zealand, standing in for the King whose health had twice forced him to cancel.

Their first port of call, however, was Kenya, where a series of official engagements was followed by a two-day safari to Treetops, the famous treehouse in the branches of a giant fig tree in the Aberdare National Park.

It was there, famously, that the future monarch 'went up the tree a princess and came down a queen'. During the night, George VI had died in his sleep.

The circumstances of her succession have never been lost on the longest-reigning monarch in our history.

Former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Sir Sonny Ramphal, places enormous significance on the fact this moment occurred in the heart of Africa.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on safari during their state visit to Zambia, 1979 No sooner had Mrs Thatcher come to power in 1979 than she tried to prevent the Queen attending the upcoming Commonwealth summit in Zambia

Long-serving Palace aides have always observed there was a different aura around the Queen (pictured today at St George's Chapel) when she was in Africa

He believes it has shaped the Queen's entire view of the Commonwealth  and that the same applied to the founding fathers of the Commonwealth.

'It made a big impact on the other leaders,' Sir Sonny explains in my book, Queen Of The World. 'It made it so much easier for her to be a player in their midst. She really became a player at Treetops. She was a child of the Commonwealth too.'

Throughout her reign, the Queen has enjoyed some of her most memorable  and precarious  moments in Africa. Tensions between the Palace and the government of Margaret Thatcher usually had their roots in Africa.

No sooner had Mrs Thatcher come to power in 1979 than she tried to prevent the Queen attending the upcoming Commonwealth summit in Zambia, fearing an ugly bust-up over white-rule in Rhodesia.

The trip was also fraught with danger. Two civilian airliners had just been shot down by guerrilla militias and there were grave doubts about the safety of the Queen's flight.

Regardless, the Queen released a calculated Palace statement saying how much she was looking forward to her trip, and forced Mrs Thatcher's hand.

In the event, her personal interventions at the summit ensured a rare outbreak of diplomatic harmony and the start of a peace process which would result in the creation of modern Zimbabwe.

That, in turn, paved the way for the Commonwealth's key role in dismantling South African apartheid.

Princess Diana watches traditional dancing during her visit to Angola in 1997

Africa would provide similar milestones for so many members of the family. Unaccompanied by their parents, Prince Charles and Princess Anne made a joint coming-of-age tour there in 1971

In nearly three decades of covering royal stories, I have witnessed few occasions to match the grandeur and poignancy of that moment in 1995 when the Queen returned to South Africa for the first time since 1947.

There, on the Cape Town quayside, was an equally excited President Nelson Mandela.

The two went on to become the firmest of friends. No other non-royal world leader would insist on (and get away with) calling her Elizabeth.

Long-serving Palace aides have always observed there was a different aura around the Queen when she was in Africa.

Never one for hyperbole, the Queen would reflect that her state visit with Mandela had been 'one of the outstanding experiences of my life'.

Africa would provide similar milestones for so many members of the family. Unaccompanied by their parents, Prince Charles and Princess Anne made a joint coming-of-age tour there in 1971.

Prince Charles meets staff at The British High Commission in Nigeria in 2018

For the prince, it was his first experience of sleeping rough in the bush, of growing a beard, of being charged by an elephant and of holding an investiture.

For the Princess, it was her first overseas tour with charities which would go on to become part of her life.

Both the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex would spend gleefully happy gap years in Africa. Both would woo their future wives there.

Just as Prince William forged one of his first royal patronages with the African wildlife charity Tusk, so Prince Harry's first charitable venture was Sentebale, for orphans in Lesotho.

Even so, the latest talk of a 'bespoke' African role for the Sussexes remains firmly speculative. It is certainly going to require a great deal of careful diplomacy if the plan is to progress beyond the drawing board.

Headlines such as 'Palace's Africa plan for Harry and Meghan' inevitably raise the question: has anyone asked Africa what Africa thinks? Indeed, has anyone asked the Commonwealth as a whole?

The Queen and Prince Philip at the state banquet on a visit to Accra, Ghana

For all its good intentions, this year's Comic Relief campaign was side-tracked by an awkward debate about 'white saviourism' following promotional shots of (white) BBC presenter Stacey Dooley hugging a (black) child in Uganda. Labour MP David Lammy warned of a throwback to the 'colonial era'.

So why go now? Have the Sussexes already had enough of married life in Britain? The news that the couple have set up their new home at Frogmore Cottage, Windsor, and are moving their private office to Buckingham Palace, has driven rumours of tensions with the Cambridges.

Old Palace hands say that it is simply a case of reaching what one has called 'a fork in the road', one which has also involved a great deal of input and careful planning by the Prince of Wales.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are now embarking in earnest on their roles as future King and Queen.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex understand and embrace the nature of the different, supporting role which lies ahead.

Prince Charles is flanked by armed guards as he arrives at the airport in Abuja Prince, Nigeria last year

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip waving from a Land Rover at a youth rally on the racecourse at Lagos, Nigeria in 1956

Come the next reign, the Sussexes will cease to come under the aegis of the new Prince of Wales and will, therefore, cease to be funded by the Duchy of Cornwall. They will automatically come under the auspices of the King.

As such, say aides, it is common sense to plan ahead and establish any new office where it is going to have to be located in due course.

The move to Buckingham Palace, therefore, originates from the Prince of Wales, not from any rift. And he, more than anyone, knows how ambitious overseas plans can come a cropper.

For Prince Harry might well have spent his own childhood on the other side of the world but for a political glitch.

During the 1980s, the Labour prime minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, suggested that the Prince of Wales should serve as Governor-General and bring his young family to Canberra.

The prince replied that he could only consider the invitation if all of Australia's political parties agreed. Eventually, Hawke came back ruefully with the news. He had been able to persuade every party except his own.They are due to sit the tests next month which help to compile league tables

Hundreds of head teachers are calling 11-year-olds into school during the Easter holidays to revise for the SATs, union leaders revealed yesterday.

The NASUWT said the growing trend over the past five years reflected the desperation of schools for good results to boost their league table positions.

It claimed the practice could be harming childrens mental health as they should be playing with family and friends during their time off.

Union leaders revealed head teachers are calling 11-year-olds into school during the Easter holidays to revise for the SATs. The NASUWT claimed the practice could be harming childrens mental health

Schools across the country have boasted on Twitter about their Easter revision classes over the past two weeks, with one even rewarding pupils with McDonalds Happy Meals.

Children are due to sit the tests next month in maths, reading, writing grammar, spelling and punctuation.

The results are used by the Government to judge how well a school is doing, and to compile league tables for parents.

The NASUWT represents 300,000 school staff  mostly ordinary classroom teachers.

Last week, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced Labour would scrap SATs over claims they are damaging to children and create too much work for teachers.

Darren Northcott, a national officer at the NASUWT, said the trend for Easter revision sessions was relatively recent and had become increasingly prevalent over the last five years.

Browney Academy in County Durham even tweeted a photograph of a class of children holding Happy Meals, with the caption: Well done to our superstars in Year 6 who attended our Easter revision session yesterday. The McDonalds was well deserved!

Speaking at the unions annual conference in Belfast, he claimed that several hundred schools had almost certainly adopted it.

While the lessons are voluntary, schools make clear to parents that children are expected to attend for their own sake.

Mr Northcott said: If children have been set homework and it is productive, they should be doing that but they should also be doing engaging things with their own friends and spending time with their families  a critical part of a healthy childhood.

He added it was hard to see what is driving the trend, but heads may be worrying more about performance since the new more challenging curriculum was introduced in 2016.

In addition, schools want to boost results and rise up league tables. Its the start of a trend, Mr Northcott said. Schools are in a market to attract pupils.

Schools with consistently bad results can face intervention from Whitehall and a leadership overhaul.

We have a high-stakes accountability system, he said. The issue is the accountability regime. Its not the tests themselves, it is the way they are used.

The NASUWT said it would take action and challenge any school forcing teachers to come in against their will to teach unpaid during Easter.

General secretary Chris Keates said: The growing trend of Easter SATs classes in primary schools is a worrying reflection of the high-stakes accountability regime.

This week at least six primary schools revealed on Twitter they are running Easter revision sessions.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds (pictured above in a stock image) said: All over the world, schools guide children through tests without them feeling pressured. These are tests of our education system, not our children' [File photo]

Browney Academy in County Durham even tweeted a photograph of a class of children holding Happy Meals, with the caption: Well done to our superstars in Year 6 who attended our Easter revision session yesterday. The McDonalds was well deserved!

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said exam stress at primary school was not inevitable.

In many schools there isnt any, he added. All over the world, schools guide children through tests without them feeling pressured. These are tests of our education system, not our children.

Labour education spokesman Angela Rayner said: Our pupils are the most tested in the world, but there is no evidence that the current high-stakes testing regime improves teaching and learning.

Replacing the current system will reduce the burden of testing on children and teachers, encourage a broad curriculum and separate assessment of schools from assessment of children.Michael Cohen turned on President Trump and cooperated with federal prosecutors after his longtime boss refused to speak to him or consider his request for a pardon, it has been reported.

Trump and his team of lawyers, chief among them Rudy Giuliani, began to keep a distance from Cohen after the FBI raided his offices in April 2018.

With Cohen in legal trouble, he asked his lawyers to reach out to Giuliani to gauge whether the president would be open to pardoning his former fixer, according to emails obtained by The New York Times.

But Giuliani never offered a reply.

Michael Cohen (left), President Trump's (right) longtime lawyer and fixer, turned on his ex-boss when it became apparent that he would not be receiving a pardon, according to The New York Times

After a number of unflattering news articles about Cohen began to appear in the press, he blamed Trump and his allies.

Trump, at this point, also stopped covering Cohens mounting legal expenses.

Last June, while Cohen was telling friends he was suicidal, his legal adviser, Robert Costello, reached out to Giuliani.

Basically he needs a little loving and respect booster, Costello texted Giuliani.

He is not thinking clearly because he feels abandoned.

But by this point, Trump decided to essentially cut ties with Cohen.

What we had here was a failure to communicate, said Robert Costello, who was Cohens legal advisor at the time.

Costello tried to arrange a face-to-face meeting between Cohen and Giuliani in order to get both sides on the same page.

My mission was to get everyone tuned in to the same channel, Costello told the Times.

My thought was a face-to-face meeting among all the lawyers together with Cohen would put everyone on the same channel.

The meeting never happened, and the rest is history.

Cohen reached out to Costello, who has been friends with Giuliani for decades, because he believed the president could save him with a pardon.

I told you my relationship with Rudy which could be very very useful for you, Costello emailed Cohen just days after the president hired Giuliani as his attorney.

Great news, Cohen replied.

Costello and Giuliani had a conversation, after which Costello emailed Cohen: They are in our corner. You have friends in high places.

At that point, Cohen thought Trump had his back. But it soon became apparent that this was no longer the case.

Cohens lawyers could not get an answer from Giuliani about a possible pardon.

Trump also called in to Fox & Friends and downplayed the legal work that Cohen did for him, saying it was a tiny, tiny little fraction.

Cohen's advisers reached out to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani (above) about a possible pardon, but Giuliani never got back to them

A week later, Giuliani went on Fox News and said that Trump paid Cohen back for the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

From Cohens vantage point, Trump and his lawyer, Giuliani, were implicating him in crimes by revealing information publicly.

When the Trump Organization stopped paying Cohens legal fees, which reached about $1.7million in May, Cohen began to seriously consider cooperating with the feds.

He declared on ABC News Good Morning America: My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will.

Cohen then hired Lanny Davis, the Democrat and friend of the Clintons, as his adviser.

In August, Cohen traveled to Washington, DC, where he spent hours with Muellers investigators.

He then hired a new lawyer, Guy Petrillo, a former federal prosecutor who worked in the Southern District of New York alongside James Comey.

Comey was fired as FBI director by Trump.

Giuliani told the Times that the Trump team minimized contact with Cohen because they feared the president would be exposed to possible charges of witness tampering.

It seemed like an unfortunate but sensible decision, Giuliani said of the decision to turn their back on Cohen.

The more I look back at it, the more I wonder if it was inevitable that Michael was going to crack.

And crack he did.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to two campaign finance violations related to payments he arranged to Daniels and McDougal.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to two campaign finance violations related to payments he arranged to Stormy Daniels (above) and McDougal

Daniels, an adult film star, was paid hush money to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump more than 10 years ago.

McDougal, a former Playboy model, was also paid to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

Cohen told prosecutors that Trump, who has denied having an affair with Daniels and McDougal, ordered him to make the payments.

In addition to the campaign finance crimes, Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax fraud and one count of making false statements to a bank.

In November, Cohen was charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of lying to Congress about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

In December, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison. He is scheduled to begin his sentence next month.

Cohen began to help federal prosecutors in hopes of getting his prison sentence reduced.

Even after Mueller found that Trump did not collude with Russia during the 2016 elections, there are still multiple criminal investigations ongoing against the president.

Trump as well as other members of the Trump Organization could face criminal charges for directing Cohen to make the hush money payments.

Federal investigators are also probing potential financial crimes committed by Trumps inaugural committee.

The committee could be criminally liable for accepting illegal payments as well as for providing favors to donors.

Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, was paid hush money to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump denies having an affair with McDougal and Daniels

Cohen has cooperated with this investigation as well.

There are also investigations being handled by authorities in the State of New York.

In June 2018, the states attorney general filed a civil lawsuit against the Donald J. Trump Foundation and its directors - President Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump - alleging a pattern of persistent illegal conduct, occurring over more than a decade.

The charity is accused of abusing its tax-exempt status and of using its resources to help Trumps presidential campaign and promoting Trumps business interests.

The Trumps agreed to dissolve the lawsuit last December, but the state is seeking monetary damages.

It also wants to ban the Trumps from serving as directors of nonprofit boards for several years.

New York State is also investigating the Trump family for alleged tax crimes related to the foundation.

The state is also looking into decades worth of suspected violations of tax law by the Trump family after The New York Times wrote a lengthy expose showing how Fred Trump and his son, Donald, allegedly dodged tax through various schemes.Penny Mordaunt has warned Brussels to stop discriminating against British aid charities.

The International Development Secretary said the EU was refusing to award contracts to UK organisations providing relief in disaster zones.

She revealed British aid firms have had to wind up life-saving schemes in Somalia and Yemen because the intransigent EU has refused to fund them.

A letter from International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt explained how UK aid organisations were finding it hard to access money from one of the EUs key aid budgets [File photo]

Others have been told to transfer projects which they have been running for years to European bodies.

In a letter to the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid, Christos Stylianides, Miss Mordaunt reminded Brussels the UK is now set to remain a member of the EU until the end of October.

She said this meant British aid charities should be treated the same as those from any other member country.

And she said even when the UK has left, she hoped British aid organisations would still be able to apply for EU development funds.

The EU spends 1.6billion a year on aid. An eighth of this budget is paid for by Britain. It forms part of Britains target to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on development.

Miss Mordaunts letter explained how UK aid organisations were finding it hard to access money from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, one of the EUs key aid budgets.

Miss Mordaunt revealed British aid firms have had to wind up life-saving schemes in Somalia and Yemen because the intransigent EU has refused to fund them [File photo]

Britain is to fund a multi-million-pound scheme to fight the illegal wildlife trade.

Some 4.6million will be spent on action to combat poaching and protect species like marine turtles from being sold illegally. The money will come from a pot called the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund.David Novinski, 34, a technician for DISH Network is accused of forcefully hugging a customer

A Colorado television technician is facing felony charges for allegedly hugging a customer so tightly that she feared her life might be in danger.

Karen Loest, 70, told KDVR-TV that 34-year-old David Novinski, a subcontractor for DISH Network, gave her a 'bear hug,' pinning her arms and chest painfully, as she was showing him out the door after he completed his work earlier this month.

The 70-year-old former sheriff's deputy said feared she might be raped, or worse.

'I walked over to see him out, and he proceeded to turn and put me in a bear hug,' Loest, a former sheriffs deputy, said.

'At that point, I didn't know whether I was going to be raped thrown down on the floor,' she said. 'He had me pinned  my arms and chest  and it hurt.'

She said she pushed him away and told him to leave. He then waited awhile and apologized before leaving.

Retired sheriffs deputy Karen Loest, 70, says she feared she was going to be raped after cable repairman David Novinski wrapped her in a powerful bear hug before leaving her house

Loest says she pushed Novinski off her and told him to leave. She says the repairman initially refused to do so, but later exited the property after apologizing

'He scared me,' she said. 'I didn't sleep for two or three days after that and I'm still not sleeping well. He knows where I live.'

Novinski is charged with trespassing and causing bodily injury to an at-risk adult.

His attorney, Mike McCullough, said Novinski often hugs people that he does work for.

'Frankly, this is one of the strangest cases I've ever seen,' said Novinski's defense attorney, Mike McCullough, of the Reisch Law Firm. 'Upon leaving, he gave her a three-second hug and then he left.'

He said Loest didn't say anything about being injured when she called Novinski's boss.

Novinskis lawyer Mike McCullough says the charges against his client have been blown out of all proportion, and that McCulloughs affectionate nature was misunderstood

Loest says she is still haunted by the encounter. I didnt sleep for two or three days after that and Im still not sleeping well. He knows where I live,' she said

'Now, Novinski is unemployed, and in my view, because somebody didn't take the necessary steps to complete an investigation on this,' McCullough said.

A protective order has also been issued ordering Novinski to stay away from Loest. McCullough says he will fight the charges.

Novinski was arrested by Elbert County Sheriff's deputies and booked into the Elbert County Jail on April 7. He will next appear in court in late May.

Meanwhile, DISH Network have released the following statement:

'We take the safety and security of our community very seriously. We are investigating the allegations regarding this individual who is an employee of an independent third party and not of DISH. This individual is no longer assigned to any DISH jobs. We remain in contact with the independent third party contractor and our customer.'After living through a bloody civil war that dragged on for three decades, the people of Sri Lanka are no strangers to terror.

But the carnage that unfolded yesterday saw the countrys enemies take on new depths of depravity.

It had all the hallmarks of the barbaric Islamic State group  executed meticulously and without mercy.

Within minutes of yesterdays blasts, MI5 was trying to establish if there were any British links to those who could be behind the plot. There were no immediate claims of responsibility, nor any established motive for the attack, although 13 suspects had been arrested by last night.

Early evidence pointed to the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), a relatively unknown radical Islamist group said to have formed in Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated town in eastern Sri Lanka, in 2014.

Alex and Anita Nicholson photographed in London in 2015. Both were killed in the bomb blast in the Shangri-La hotel

Last photo: Shantha Mayadunne (second left) and her daughter Nisanga (right) were among the victims of the Sri Lanka bomb attacks on Sunday. The family posted this picture of their Easter breakfast at the Shangri-La hotel just before the blast there

A map showing where the eight blasts went off today, six of them in very quick succession on Easter Sunday morning

ISIS militants marching in Raqqa, Syria, in 2014. This year the fundamentalists were driven from the last land they occupied but security experts have warned of 'pop up' terror cells

It has no history of mass fatality attacks.

In fact, its only mention appears to be last year when it was linked to the vandalism of Buddhist statues.

Sources in the Muslim community in Sri Lanka claim the group has publicly supported Islamic State. They also say that Zahran Hashim, named in reports as one of the bombers, was its founder.

Although intelligence files on the group are small, there is no doubt the warning signs were there.

On April 11, Sri Lankan police circulated a document entitled Information of an alleged plan attack which said they had been warned by an unnamed foreign intelligence agency that the NTJ was plotting suicide attacks on churches in Colombo.

It added that intelligence pointed to any of the following methods: suicide attack, weapon attack or truck attack.

The original warning is most likely to have come from Australia  one of the five eyes with a close intelligence-sharing relationship with Britain  that has kept watch on the rise of extremism in the region.

Documents show that Sri Lankas police chief Pujuth Jayasundara then issued an intelligence alert to top officers, specifically warning that suicide bombers planned to hit prominent churches.

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has now ordered curfew with immediate effect 'until further notice', and the Sri Lankan government said it had shut down access to social media messaging services, sources say

Hospital staff push a trolley with a casualty after an explosion at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

A crime scene official inspects the site of a bomb blast inside a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, which lost half its roof tiles with the force of the blast

Documents even named six individuals as likely suicide bombers, including Hashim. Yesterday, the seemingly far-fetched plan became frighteningly real.

Why the police did not sound the alarm earlier will remain a mystery. Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that information about the attacks had been received in advance but denied having direct knowledge himself. We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken. Neither I nor the ministers were kept informed, he said following intense anger in the community.

Whichever group was behind yesterdays attack, it was most certainly inspired by the tactics used by IS. The suicide bombings explicitly targeted civilians, designed to create maximum terror for maximum effect  like the Manchester Arena bombings and the London Bridge attack.

They also chose iconic locations packed full of people, including many foreigners.

IS  which lost its final sliver of territory in Syria just weeks ago  also has a history of staging attacks against Christians on holy days, notably Christmas and Easter.

British military chiefs and ministers have long warned that the defeat of the terror group in the Middle East does not mean it has been vanquished.

They have referred to a pop-up IS involving the group emerging elsewhere, often in states where they can exploit a vacuum. They have specifically warned of the rising threat from such diehard jihadis in south-east Asia.

IS fostered a brand which was so effective other terror groups wanted to be associated with it.

Some radicalised Muslims travelled from Sri Lanka to Syria to fight in that countrys civil war.

In 2016, the justice minister said 32 Sri Lankan Muslims from well-educated and elite families had joined IS in Syria.

The recent loss of its last territory makes it even more likely that foreign fighters from countries such as Sri Lanka may now be returning home.

Terrorism expert Raffaello Pantucci says the demise of the groups caliphate could have persuaded extremists to stay in their countries and mount attacks there instead. Think how big Islamic States footprint is, he said. This means it has a reverse effect as well  their ideas are going out to a big pool of places.

Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa,with police tape keeping out bysanders

Security forces inspect the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo

State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators have identified the culprits behind the 'terrorist' attacks (pictuerd: Shangri La hotel, Colombo)

Yesterdays bombings end a decade of relative peace in Sri Lanka following the end of its civil war in 2009. Terrorist bombings were common during the brutal 25-year struggle during which the Sri Lankan government fought Tamil separatism.

But despite the period of calm, much bitterness and grievance has remained in the country, riven by ethnic disputes.

Sri Lanka, which is mainly Buddhist, does not have a recent history of persecution of its Christian minority, which comprises 7 per cent of the population.

Yet its relations with others, including Hindus and Muslims, have not always been easy. Over the years there has been an increasing rise of discontent among Sri Lankas Muslim community, which make up 10 per cent of the population.

In November 1990, many were expelled from their homes in the north and have since been living as displaced in the southern part of the country, under the patronage of the state.

Whatever the motives behind yesterdays attack, there is little doubt that the brutal tactics used by Islamic State will continue to inspire others.Joe Kennedy has revealed his reasons for turning down the opportunity to become the next president.

In the aftermath of President Donald Trump's 2016 victory, when many Democrats were still reeling, Kennedy urged party leaders to learn from the loss by listening harder to the economic worries of Democratic voters who bolted the party.

'We have to do a better job addressing the economic needs of working class and middle class voters,' Kennedy said at the time.

The 38-year-old, who is the last Kennedy in politics, has been approached by several power players in the party who urged him to run for president.

Though Kennedy, the grandson of former US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy is seen as a rising star in the party, he said he has no plans to run for president in 2020 despite considering it.

Joe Kennedy has revealed his reasons for turning down the opportunity to become the next president, saying that he doesn't want to take advantage of his family's reputation

'I don't want to take advantage of the reputation that other family members of mine have earned without giving the public a chance to actually know who I am,' Kennedy told The Atlantic in a recent interview.

'Yes, I think there's a lot of similarities between the values I share and those of my family members. But there's differences, too.'

Last year, US Rep Kennedy urged fellow Democrats to adopt a new economic ideology  what he called 'moral capitalism'.

Kennedy said the push is a rebuke to what he describes as the 'trickle-down, feed-the-top, if-youre-struggling-try-harder narrative' of conservatives.

Its a narrative he says Trump has sharpened to divide Americans, many of whom share similar economic worries despite holding different political views.

'His is a country of bitter rivalry between fellow citizens, forced to endlessly spar over the scraps of our system,' Kennedy said last November.

Though Kennedy, the grandson of former US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy is seen as a rising star in the party, he said he has no plans to run for president in 2020 despite considering it

The 38-year-old (right with his fraternal twin brother, Matthew, left), who is the last Kennedy in politics, has been approached by several power players in the party who urged him to run for president

Despite Kennedy not making a presidential bid, he has stumped for several Democratic candidates nationally, including Texas congressman Beto ORourke

'My wages cant grow unless your food stamps go. Your medical bills cant fall unless my insurance gets taken way. So Americans spend their days fighting each other over economic crumbs - while our system quietly hand delivers the entire pie to those at the top,' he added.

Kennedy, without naming names, also chided the extremes on the liberal end of the political spectrum, which he said have failed to effectively counter Trumps zero-sum game world view.

'For years, the left has failed to offer a competing  compelling  economic vision,' Kennedy said.

'Well have to do more than tax the rich to meet our needs in infrastructure, childcare, health care, college and climate change.'

Despite Kennedy not making a presidential bid, he has stumped for several Democratic candidates nationally, including Texas congressman Beto ORourke.

And even though Kennedy, who was first elected to Congress in 2012, isn't running for the presidency in 2020, that doesn't mean he won't consider a run in the future.Nestling on the Jurassic Coast, the village of Charmouth is surrounded by rich history.

But the idyllic spot is set to lose part of its identity as its post office  one of Britains oldest  prepares to shut down after 224 years.

The closure will result in the loss of the Dorset villages only cashpoint, meaning residents will have to travel three miles to Lyme Regis to use an ATM.

One of Britain's oldest post offices is set to close after 224 years due to the government's 'disgraceful and illogical' modernisation of the service . Officials at Post Office Ltd have told veteran postmasters Steve, 70, and Gill Pile, 60, they must downsize their business in Charmouth, Dorset

Veteran postmaster Steve Pile and his wife Gill say they were told in 2013 by Post Office Ltd that they must downsize their business.

Under the companys Network Transformation scheme, they had to shut the post office and move the business to within another shop.

But, six years on, no alternative venue has been found in the village. The couple say the Post Offices decision is disgraceful and illogical and claim their argument that the population of 1,300 is enough to sustain a full postal service has fallen on deaf ears.

Mr Pile, 70, and his 60-year-old wife say the shambolic process has left them unable to sell their business and has resulted in their decision to retire from running the post office after 20 years.

As a result, the post office in Charmouth, which has been operating since 1795, will be lost. The couple believe there could be 500 other post offices across the UK hit by the companys insistence that post offices should be moving into shops.

A post office on a previous site in the village in the 1920's. The postmaster couple's arguments that the coastal village of 1,300 people can happily sustain a full post office service have fallen on deaf ears.

In a statement, Mr Pile said: It is with deep sadness and regret that we have to announce that the post office will be closing in its present location on May 22.

Six years is a long time to have your future and your retirement totally out of your hands with no end in sight.

Post Office Ltds decision rendered our business totally unsaleable and, as no agreement could be reached with either of Post Office Ltds approved alternative shops in the village, we have been in limbo since that time.

At 70 years old Im not willing to wait for something that may, or may not happen, so we have decided to close the door, not without pretty severe financial penalty to ourselves, but in the end health and quality of life come first. Mrs Pile, who will continue to run her greeting card business, said: It has been a big shock for the community and weve had some customers in tears saying, What are we going to do without you? Theres a section of society who cant go out very easily and find it very difficult to get money.

A Post Office spokesman said: We can confirm that Charmouth post office is due to close temporarily on May 22. We are exploring various options which will enable us to maintain a post office service after May 22.

Last week it was revealed that more than 2,500 of the UKs 11,500 post offices could disappear in the next year because of a decline in customers.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters surveyed 1,000 members and found that 22 per cent are in such dire financial straits they are planning to shut down, hand on the business or downsize in the next 12 months.Stephen Lawrence, 18, was murdered in April 1993 by a racist gang in south-east London

The father of Stephen Lawrence has said he no longer thinks about his sons remaining killers being brought to justice.

He instead focuses on trying to stop further bloodshed on the nations streets.

In an interview to mark the first Stephen Lawrence Day today, Neville Lawrence said he sometimes cannot even remember his sons killers names. But he said, if it was ever possible, he would agree to meet them in jail.

The day to commemorate the aspiring architects life was announced by Prime Minister Theresa May last year. Mr Lawrence  president of the Violent Crime Prevention Board  said: I had hoped my sons legacy would have been all around us in the buildings he would have designed as an architect but unfortunately he was snatched away from us.

With the level of violence on our streets at the moment I hope Stephens day will be used to talk about peace as well as to remember Stephens life. I dont think about my sons other killers being brought to justice any more. I am too busy trying to help the cause of reducing violence on our streets.

Neville Lawrence said he would meet his son's killers in jail

Stephen, 18, was murdered on April 22, 1993 by a gang of racists in south-east London as he waited for a bus. The Mail accused five men of being his killers in its famous 1997 front page. Two of them, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were jailed for life in 2012 after forensic evidence emerged.

Mr Lawrence said he would meet his sons killers in prison if they wanted to speak to him, but he added: I dont think they will ever approach me. I dont think they think what they did was wrong. They think what they did to my son was fine because of their racist beliefs.

Stephen Lawrence Day aims to inspire young people to play an active role in their communities and drive social change. In a video message, Stephens mum Baroness Doreen Lawrence said: Id like you to use the Stephen Lawrence Day to be the best you can be and live your best life.D-DAY heroes will be given a spectacular send-off as they set sail for France for the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings in June.

As 300 veterans begin their voyage across the Channel from Portsmouth on the cruise ship Boudicca, they will be escorted by HMS St Albans, a submarine hunter frigate, and four smaller vessels.

When the Boudicca  chartered by the Royal British Legion  emerges into the Solent it will be met by a flotilla of 11 naval vessels, which will sail past her in salute with sailors lining the decks.

RAF veteran Greg Hayward, 93, Royal Navy veteran Eric Strange, 95 and army veteran Len Williams, 93 (left to right) on board HMS St Albans in Portsmouth for D-Day tributes

Wellwishers are being encouraged to wave off the diminishing band on Normandy veterans on June 5.

On board HMS St Albans in Portsmouth, Mike Utley, commander of the UK carrier strike group, said: 'Sailors will cheer the veterans as they pass by and, once past the Southsea war memorial, HMS St Albans will fire a gun salute to pay the Royal Navy's respects in true nautical fashion.'

Commodore Utley said: 'Those who sailed from Portsmouth landed on Sword and Juno Beaches, joining 132,815 men landed by ships and craft who took part in the most significant victory of the Western Allies in the Second World War.

'And that gives me goosebumps, quite honestly, just saying it.'

On June 6, at 7.26am local time, there will be a lone piper on the remains of the Mulberry Harbour defences as the Army marks the exact moment the first British soldier landed on Gold Beach.

Also that morning, the Normandy Memorial Trust's statue  a tribute to the more than 22,000 British personnel who gave their lives in Normandy, and backed by Daily Mail readers  will be unveiled at Ver-sur-Mer.

Greg Hayward (top right) with his squadron during World War II. Greg served with 146 Wing of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, a fighter bomber wing with five squadrons of Typhoons

Three veterans  one each from the Royal Navy, Army and RAF  were guests on HMS St Albans as the services' plans for the anniversary were announced.

Eric Strange, 95, Len Williams, 93, and Greg Hayward, 93, who will all return to Normandy for the commemorations, told of their memories of the epic campaign:

ONLY IDIOTS WOULD HAVE CROSSED IN THAT WEATHER

Mr Strange, from Crawley, West Sussex, was a naval sub-lieutenant when he landed on Sword Beach. 'We set out about 9.30pm on June 5 and were part of a flotilla of 12 boats,' he said.

'Only idiots would have crossed the Channel in that weather  but certainly we caught them napping because they never expected anybody to cross.

There were horrific storms. We got shelled day and night. One time a bit of shell went ding-dong on the tin hat.

'Another day a Royal Marine officer and I were in the captain's cabin about 15ft apart  he got killed by the shell.'

He added: 'We were told to do it, we had to do it and we were lucky.'

Eric Strange during the Second World War in the Royal Navy, He is now a 95-year-old veteran and lives in Crawley

I EXPECTED TO GET KNOCKED OFF

Mr Williams, from the Isle of Wight, arrived on Sword Beach a few days after June 6. 'I was in the Royal Berkshire Regiment when we landed and expecting to join them after training.

'But an officer came along and said, "You, you, you and you are in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders now replacing casualties".I was 17 and  I think, and the very next day we were in action and I hadn't even met the officers.'

He added: 'I expected to get knocked off [but] I was more afraid of looking a coward in front of the Scots boys than I was worried about the Germans.'

A BRILLIANT ORANGE FLASH ... IT WAS A V2

Mr Hayward, from Bournemouth, served with 146 Wing of the 2nd Tactical Air Force.

'We went over about three or four weeks after D-Day,' he said. 'We moved into an airfield near a French village which had been fairly destroyed.

'On October 25, 1944  a month short of my 19th birthday  I climbed on to the wing of a Typhoon I was working on when a bang went off and brilliant orange flash lit up the whole of my vision.

'We'd received a direct hit from a V2 and five of our chaps had been killed.'Advertisement

Two Australians have been killed in the Sri Lanka bomb blasts, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says.

The victims, members of the same family who were living in the country at the time, died in a series of attacks targeted at tourists and Christians on Easter Sunday which left 290 dead and dozens of families torn apart.

Mr Morrison said another two Australians, a woman in her 50s and a woman in her 20s, are among the injured. One has a broken leg, while the other is suffering from shrapnel wounds.

Suicide bombers targeted three churches, three luxury hotels, and a guesthouse on Sunday morning, with authorities finding and disposing of another explosive at the airport later in the day.

News of the dead and injured Australians comes as the heartbreaking stories of victims begin to emerge, with mothers and sons killed over the breakfast table, and worshippers found dead in their pews.

Senior cabinet minister Simon Birmingham said one Australian is believed to have been seriously injured in the Sri Lanka bombing on Sunday (pictured: Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo)

Three churches, three luxury hotels and a guesthouse were bombed on Easter Sunday morning (pictured is St Sebastian's church in Negombo, which was bombed on Sunday)

Blood stains are seen on the wall and on a Jesus Christ statue at the St. Sebastian's Church after blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka,after the bombing

A crime scene official inspects the site of a bomb blast inside a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, which lost half its roof tiles with the force of the blast

Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister Simon Birmingham told ABC Radio National no Australians were among the more than 200 people killed, he was awaiting further details on one Australian who was injured.

The Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka has been working to determine the whereabouts of Australians and monitor the situation.

DFAT confirmed they were providing assistance to an Australian injured in the attacks, but said they had not received any reports of any Australian fatalities.

Australian man Sam, 27, was at the Shangri-La in Colombo when the bombs exploded. He told Macquarie National News he and his friend five to 10 metres away from the blast, and were both left covered in blood.

'We went down the fire escape and into the car park and just got as far away from the building as we could,' he said.

Sam said the attack was a 'surreal experience', and said the miss was even closer for his female friend, who was unknowingly just moments from death.

'My friend had got up to get food,' he said.

'If that [bomb] was two seconds later, she would have been dead.'

He said before the blasts, he had seen two men looking 'a little bit out of place' and wearing backpacks.

'They seemed a little bit uncomfortable and it seemed a bit strange,' he said.

'There were people screaming and dead bodies all around,' he said. 'Kids crying, kids on the ground, I don't know if they were dead or not, just crazy.'

Australian woman Donna told friends on social media she was 'safely locked in a hotel until the government says it's safe for foreigners to go out again,' News Corp reported.

'There are now armed guards in the hotel foyer and sniffer dogs going through all cars as they come into the hotel.'

Megan Anderson, from Melbourne, told News Corp she was left shaken after the attacks. Ms Anderson is not staying at one of the affected hotels, but says she was told of the atrocities by another Australian who was on the street at the time.

She said there would 'definitely' be Australians staying at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and the Kingston, which were all hit by bombers on Sunday, and she and her husband would flying home that night.

On Monday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the bombings were 'an assault on the innocence of human life'.

'Ive visited Sri Lanka on a number of occasions, and Ive always been struck by the beauty of the people,' he said. 'Sri Lanka is a multi-cultural country. It has people from many different faiths, from many different traditions, and like here Sri Lanka celebrates its diversity.

'It has been a decade since we have seen such violence in that place. We dont know yet who was responsible for that violence, but I do know this.

'Hate and evil are what sits behind such attacks. They are the enemies of peace.'

Sri Lankans were forced to carry their dead out of churches. The violence is the worst to hit the country since its civil war ended 10 years ago

Senator Birmingham said there was no indication about who was responsible for the atrocity, with no group yet to claim responsibility.

'The government is not seeking to move ahead of investigations that rightly will be led by the Sri Lankan authorities,' the trade minister said.

Up to 35 foreigners are believed to be among the dead after blasts at churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.

Senator Birmingham said Australia's thoughts were with those killed.

'These are terrible, distressing and tragic circumstances,' he said.

'Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the beautiful people of Sri Lanka for this terrible, terrible incident.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday said the government would be following through on the safety of Australians in Sri Lanka.

'The devastating nature of this horrific attack on innocent lives, simply going about their day, going to worship on the holiest of days of the Christian calendar, is just absolutely devastating,' Mr Morrison told reporters at Kirribilli House.

Labor leader Bill Shorten described the attacks as devastating.

'We think also of Australia's beloved Sri Lankan community who will carry an immense sense of shock and sadness today,' he tweeted on Sunday.

Timeline: how the Sri Lanka attacks unfolded 10.10am local time: Reports from witnesses suggest that two churches in Sri Lanka have been hit by explosions as worshippers gather on Easter Sunday. The historic St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in Negombo are among those reported to have been hit. 10.50am: An unnamed security official suggests there have been six closely-timed attacks at three churches and three hotels and that suicide bombers may have been involved in at least two of the blasts. 12.20pm: It is reported 129 people are dead and more than 500 have been taken to hospital after blasts at six sites, according to a Sri Lanka state-run newspaper. 1.50pm: Sri Lanka's top military officials are brought together for an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. The meeting is called by prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has tweeted that 'the government is taking immediate steps to contain the situation'. 3.45pm: Two more explosions take place, the first hitting a guesthouse in Dehiwala, in which at least two people died, and a second in the district of Dematagoda on Colombo's outskirts. 5.20pm: It is reported that two police officers were killed during a swoop on suspects in Dematagoda. 5.25pm: A 6pm to 6am national curfew is imposed by Sri Lanka's government. Sri Lankan Airlines tells passengers booked on flights out of the country that they will be able to fly despite the curfew. the government also locked down social media sites and messaging apps to avoid the spread of misinformation or incitements to violence. 18.10pm: The number of victims from the blasts now stands at 207 people killed and 450 wounded, Sri Lankan police say. Officials say that seven suspects have been arrested. Advertisement

Eight blasts ripped through landmarks around the capital Colombo, and on Sri Lanka's east coast, targeting Christians, hotel guests and foreign tourists on Sunday. More than 500 people were wounded and five British citizens were among the dead.

A a six-foot pipe bomb was later found by air force personal on a routine patrol at the country's main airport Bandaranaike International, also known as Katunayake Airport or Colombo International.

'A PVC pipe which was six feet in length containing explosives in it was discovered,' Air Force Spokesman Gihan Seneviratne told the Sri Lankan Sunday Times.

He said the bomb device was discovered by Air Force personnel on a routine patrol and was disposed by the Explosives Ordinance Disposal Unit of the Air Force in a controlled area.

The airport was put 'on lockdown' while the security forces examined and detonated the device, according to reports from the scene.

On Sunday morning Sri Lanka time, six bombs went off in quick succession before another two blasts two hours later in Sri Lanka's worst violence since the end of its decades-long civil war in 2009.

Three of the near-simultaneous blasts targeted worshippers attending Easter services on the holiest day in the Christian calendar.

Families on holiday were massacred by three further explosions at luxury hotels in Colombo as they sat down to enjoy breakfast at around 8.30am.

British boy Alex Nicholson, 11, his mother, Anita, 42, were killed in the Table One cafe on the second-floor of the Shangri La hotel in the country's capital, Colombo, at around 8.30am, The Telegraph reported.

They were on a family holiday. Alex's father Ben Nicholson survived the blast but the whereabouts of the couple's youngest daughter are unknown.

Another British family staying in one of the targeted hotels narrowly avoided the attack, because they had a lie in and missed breakfast when the bomber struck.

Dr Julian Emmanuel, 48, is staying at the Cinnamon Hotel where the terrorist detonated his suicide vest at around 8.30am.

Speaking from Sri Lanka with wife Maria, 39, daughter Jasintha, 11, and seven-year-old son Neethan, the Surrey-based doctor told The Mirror: 'We were quite lazy and running late.

'We are on the ninth floor and breakfast was in the basement, that is where the bomb went off. So we missed it.'

Sri Lankan TV chef Shantha Mayadunne and her London-based daughter Nisanga were among the first victims named.

Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter Nisanga, believed to have been a student in London, died just moments after sharing a picture of their Easter breakfast at the Shangri-La hotel.

Alex (left) and Anita Nicholson (second left) were killed in the blast. Ben Nicholson (right) is reported to be in 'complete shock' having received minor injuries and the whereabouts of the couple's daughter are unknown

Last photo: Shantha Mayadunne (second left) and her daughter Nisanga (right) were among the victims of the Sri Lanka bomb attacks on Sunday. The family posted this picture of their Easter breakfast at the Shangri-La hotel just before the blast there

Dr Julian Emmanuel, 48,was staying in the Cinnamon Hotel with his family (all pictured above) and would have been in the restaurant for breakfast when the bomb went off, but the four had decided to have a lazy morning

Describing the Cinnamon Grand bombing, a hotel manager said the attacker had registered the night before as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed.

The bomber was just about to be served when he set off the explosives which were strapped to his back, killing himself and numerous guests.

The manager said: 'There was utter chaos. It was 8.30am and it was busy. It was families.

'He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast. One of our managers who was welcoming guests was among those killed instantly.'

A woman injured during one of the explosions to rip through Sri Lankan churches on Easter Sunday was taken to hospital in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Thirteen suspects have been arrested, as it emerged the country's police chief had warned of an Islamic extremist plot to target 'prominent churches' just 10 days earlier.

Ten days ago, according to documents seen by the AFP new agency, Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers warning Islamist suicide bombers planned to hit 'prominent churches'.

'A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo,' the alert said.

The NTJ is a small radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka which has no history of mass fatal attacks, but came to prominence last year linked to the vandalism and desecration of Buddhist statues.

No nation, organisation or group has yet claimed responsibility for the outrage.

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has now ordered curfew with immediate effect 'until further notice' while access to social media messaging services has been shut down.

Security forces inspect the St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo

Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site at a church in Batticaloa, with police tape keeping out bystanders

Hospital staff push a trolley with a casualty after an explosion at a church in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

Bags containing dead bodies are carried outside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo on Sunday

In Colombo, St Anthony's Shrine, a Roman Catholic church; the Cinnamon Grand; Shangri-La; and Kingsbury hotels were targeted in the first wave of explosions.

At the Shangri-La, security camera footage showed two men detonating devices in the Table One restaurant and a hotel corridor.

Other blasts hit St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

Later in the afternoon, two died in a strike at a hotel near a zoo in the south of Colombo, before a suspected suicide bomber killed police officers in the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital, as police moved in on the suspected terrorist safe house. In all 24 suspects have been arrested.

Security forces inspect the scene after a blast targeting Shangri La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday

State minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene said investigators have identified the culprits behind the 'terrorist' attacks (pictuerd: Shangri La hotel, Colombo)

Panic spread to other churches in Colombo and across the island as news spread of the bloodshed.

A shopkeeper who ran into one of the bombed churches to help victims said: 'There was a river of blood. Ash was falling like snow.'

Sri Lanka defence secretary Harsha de Silva said: 'Horrible scenes, I saw many body parts strewn all over.'

Disturbing footage showed the chaotic minutes after the blast which completely destroyed the roof of St Anthony's.

A statue of the Virgin Mary could be seen broken in two while a statue of Jesus was splattered in blood as children cried by the lifeless bodies of their parents.

At the church of St Sebastian's in Negombo, Father Edmond Tillekeratne described seeing around 30 corpses.

He said: 'You can see pieces of flesh thrown all over the walls and on the sanctuary and even outside of the church.'

Pope Francis denounced the 'cruel violence' of the Easter Sunday attacks and urged prayer for all those affected. Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned 'the cowardly attacks on our people'.

Millions of tourists visit Sri Lanka every year but political crisis and religious tension have placed the industry under threat in recent months.

If you cannot contact an Australian in Sri Lanka and have fears for their safety, DFAT's Consular Emergency Centre can be contacted on 1300 555 135 (within Australia) or +61 2 6261 3305 (from overseas).The heartbroken girlfriend of a hero lifeguard who died alongside his father while trying to save a tourist has praised his selfless act.

Andy Powell, 32, drowned in rough seas near Port Campbell, Victoria, when the rescue boat carrying him and his father Ross, 71, flipped.

His pregnant girlfriend Amber Griffiths mourned his death overnight along with dozens of friends and family.

Scroll down for video

Amber Griffiths (right) praised the selfless act of her boyfriend Andy Powell, 32, (right) who drowned alongside his father while trying to save a tourist

'We lost two of the most beautiful people to ever exist - always putting others first. The love of my life, light of my life, father of my baby girl. My heart is broken. I miss you,' she said.

The couple were expecting their first child, a girl, in August and taking over the family farm, which the father and son ran together.

Ross' brother-in-law Tom Delaney said the whole family, including Andy's sister Natalie who now lives in Sydney, were in town for Easter.

'They (Ross and Andy) were so devoted to each other,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Ross was known as Po to his family and friends.

The family also released a joint statement on Monday paying tribute to the two men as beloved fathers, brothers, and lifesavers.

'Ross dedicated much of his life to contributing to his community. But above all, he was a cherished husband to Val, a dedicated father to Brett, Natalie, Dale, Kerryn and Andy, and dearly loved brother to Marea,' they said.

Their lifesaver captain Phillip Younis was winched to safety with serious injuries in a dramatic rescue by an ambulance helicopter

'He was very much loved and respected by many. Andy was always by his dad's side and a beloved partner to Amber, son and brother.

'We will miss our beautiful, big-hearted Andy and were so proud of the person he was  gentle, compassionate, loving and selfless  like his father. We are heartbroken.'

The family also sent their 'thoughts and love' to local lifesaving captain Phillip 'Fuzz' Younis, who was on the boat with them but survived with serious injuries.

Ross joined the Port Campbell Surf Lifesaving Club in 1963 and was a decorated volunteer until the day of his death.

The family recounted how he was involved in countless rescues, in particular one on a different Easter Sunday on April 6, 1980.

'Ross and Patrick Plozza rescued two people near Loch Ard Gorge, for which he received a Certificate of Merit and Royal Humane Society Bravery Award,' they said.

Marea, one of his five children, added: 'Ross was the most wonderful brother. He was my 'rock'.

'My two children loved and idolised their uncle and loved their cousin Andy. Ross and Andy will forever live in our hearts.'

The 30-year-old tourist survived and is in stable condition, but Ross and Andy's (pictured) lifeless bodies were later pulled from the water

Andy was the youngest of the five kids and the one who followed in his father's footsteps to become a dairy farmer, and join the SES aged 16.

'Andy was very proud of his farm, and followed in his fathers footsteps,' the statement said, noting he was named Young Farmer of the Year in 2017.

Ross and Andy, along with Mr Younis, rushed to save a tourist who was caught in a rip along the Great Ocean Road.

The man was wading in the mouth of the Sherbrook River, near the Twelve Apostles off Port Campbell, Victoria, about 10.40am on Easter Sunday.

But the vessel carrying the rescue crew, from Port Campbell Surf Lifesaving Club, flipped over, dumping all three men into the water.

The 30-year-old tourist survived and is in stable condition, but Ross and Andy's lifeless bodies were later pulled from the water.

Andy (pictured fourth from left in back row) stands for a photograph with a group of rowers from Port Campbell, Port Fairy and Warrnambool

Corangamite mayor Neil Trotter has paid tribute to the brave father and son (pictured is the scene)

Corangamite mayor Neil Trotter also paid tribute to the brave father and son.

'It's an absolutely tragedy  a surreal situation. These are lifelong members of the community and lifelong friends of mine. It hits home,' he said.

'They were extremely community minded. Very strong family ethic,' he said.

A friend of Andy's described him as an 'engaging young man' with a 'huge heart'.

The volunteer lifesavers were on a 6m rigid-hull inflatable craft and battled 2m swells as they tried to reach the man.

The surviving rescuer, aged in his 50s, was rushed to hospital with serious back and leg injuries.

Melbournian Ian McCauley, who was on holiday with his wife, watched on as the surviving rescuer was winched from the waves.

'We saw a very professional ambulance helicopter pilot hovering in dangerous updrafts very close to the water,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'He had lowered a rescuer in to the water who swam across and grabbed hold of the person in the water and they were both winched out.'

The lifesavers were on a 6m rigid craft and battled 2m swells as they tried to reach the man

An emergency helicopter winches the surviving lifeguard to safety. He was then rushed to hospital with serious back and leg injuries

Mr McCauley said they were only 50m away from very rough swells breaking against the cliff face.

'The rescuer was very much putting his life in great danger. If it wasn't for their bravery, more people would have died,' he said.

'I understand the boat was operating in a two-metre swell, so a very high swell, and we know that it is very treacherous down there and not the place to be swimming,' Surf Life Saving Victoria president Paul James said.

He said the long-serving members of the lifesaving club were 'heroes' and their deaths were 'terrible and heartbreaking'.

Mr James criticised the tourist for taking a risk that led to him needing to be rescued.

'If the person has fallen into the water or for whatever reason they've ended up the water, it's not a place that I would suggest was a great place for swimming or recreating,' he said.

'It would suggest to me they were taking some sort of risk to end up in the water.'Waking up to a catchy pop songs such as the Beach Boys or The Cure rather than a beeping alarm can stop drowsiness, scientists claim.

Melodic songs such as the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations and The Cure's Close to Me can drive away morning sluggishness, say researchers.

The groggy, disorientated feeling in the first hour or two after waking, can lead to confusion, clumsiness and sluggish brain performance.

Thought to be caused by an impaired transition from sleep to being awake, 'sleep inertia' as it is known has been linked to car accidents in drivers who have just woken up as their reaction times are slower.

It has also been implicated in plane crashes where pilots have taken the controls immediately after a nap.

Surviving Beach Boys members Brian Wilson (far left), David Marks (second left), Bruce Johnston (centre), Al Jardine (second right) and Mike Love (far right). Their hit Good Vibrations can help prevent drowsiness in the morning, researchers say

But researchers in Australia believe they may have found a solution - waking up to melodic music like the Beach Boys or The Cure.

Scientists examined how 50 people woke up each morning at home and the impact this had on their mental performance in the hours after getting out of bed.

They found that people who woke up listening to melodic music suffered lower levels of sleep inertia compared to those who woke up to a classical beeping alarm sound.

Researchers found that while sound is generally good at attracting human attention, melodic music may be better at holding it for longer and help get the brain going in the morning.

This melodic music a appeared to almost entirely neutralise sleep inertia in those taking part in the study.

Stuart McFarlane, the lead author of the study at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia, said: 'When they wake up, people experiencing sleep inertia may show signs of reduced alertness and reduced cognition, manifesting in inadvertent mistakes. Sleep inertia can last for seconds, minutes or hours after waking.

Robert Smith of rock band The Cure performing in Milan in 2016. Waking up to the band's song Close to Me is said to be better for brain performance than a beeping alarm

'Research suggests that 'difficulty in waking up' is a common experience. It's one that many of us share.'

Tunes considered to be most melodic in their study had a strong rhythmic element such as in pop songs.

They said examples that would be good to wake up to include 'Good Vibrations' by the Beach Boys and The Cure's 'Close to Me'.

Classical music, such as Fur Elise by Beethoven and the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, are also widely considered to be highly melodic by listeners and could also help reduce morning grogginess.

Writing in their paper, which is published on the open science website BioRxiv, the researchers said said: 'A sound that is perceived as melodic, produces less sleep inertia in comparison to a sound considered to be neutral.'

Scientists claims the melodic sounds of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fur Elise boosts brain performance and helps prevent morning grogginess

The researchers believe their findings could now be used to design new types of alarm for waking people up in the morning without causing sleep interia.

Recent surveys have shown that while alarm clocks are still one of the most common way people wake themselves up in the morning, growing numbers use their mobile phones.

One poll in 2012 showed that the digital alarm clock was perhaps one of the most enduring gadgets used by consumers.

Research by YouGov in 2014, however, showed that 23 per cent of people use an alarm clock to get themselves up in the morning, while 14 per cent use a radio and 26 per cent use the alarm on their mobile phone. It means that new apps or alerts that incorporate the best melodies and rhythms for waking up could be used.

Antonio Vivaldi's music is also said to help prevent 'sleep inertia'

Professor Adrian Dyer, a media and communications researcher who led the study at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia, and his colleagues found added that sounds of nature, which have also become a popular wake up call due to phone apps, could also be effective if they contain bird song.

Sleep inertia is considered to be a common problem caused by being forced awake too suddenly. Other studies have shown that waking up naturally is the best way to combat it.

Doctors who are on call overnight in hospitals are often reported to suffer from sleep inertia, which can affect the decisions they make.

It was also highlighted as a likely factor in the crash of an Air India Express flight that resulted in 158 deaths after the captain took the controls after waking from an in-flight nap.

Sleep inertia has also been linked to car accidents in the morning as drowsy drivers get behind the wheel before they are fully awake.

Professor Dyer and his colleagues said: 'Considering the increasing demands in this 24-hour society, maximising human alertness by reducing sleep inertia can provide a safer environment in situations where performance is critical.'He famously claimed that Nic Jovanovic wasn't worthy of his sister Cyrell Paule, 29, on Married At First Sight.

But it appears Ivan Paule has given his blessing to Cyrell's current squeeze, Love Island's Eden Dally.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday night, Eden posted a photo of the two men posing arm-in-arm during a boys night out.

Giving his blessing! MAFS star Cyrell Paule's brother Ivan gave her new boyfriend Eden Dally the tick of approval as they posed together during a boys night on Saturday

'Drago vs Rocky #RockyIV', Eden captioned the snap, which showed the two posing on a balcony with champagne flutes in hand.

Ivan posted the same photo to his Instagram feed, alongside his own caption: 'Nothing but love. @Dallyeden it's a YES for me.'

It comes after claims emerged alleging that Cyrell and Eden are only together to generate publicity.

In it for the love or limelight? On Saturday, a close friend claimed that their relationship might just be a ploy for media attention

On Saturday, a close friend claimed that their relationship might just be a ploy for media attention.

'They're going to break up soon, it is all for publicity,' the mystery pal told The Daily Telegraph.

In recent weeks, the couple have been flaunting their new relationship across social media and have been conveniently photographed together canoodling in public.

Different lifestyle: Cyrell described Eden as 'a bit more fun and outgoing and Nic was a bit more reserved. He likes to go to bed at 9:30pm,' she said.

After months of speculation on whether or not they were 'official', Cyrell confirmed they were in fact 'dating' when she appeared on Talking Married earlier this month.

'He's a cool guy we're seeing each other,' the outspoken Filipino-Australian told the panel.

He's one of those guys who's so attractive that at first I was like, 'no', but then you talk, and it grows,' she explained.

Confirmed: After months of speculation on whether or not they were 'official', Cyrell confirmed they were in fact 'dating' when she appeared on Talking Married earlier this month

The former bride was then asked to compare her new squeeze with her 'ex-husband' Nic Jovanovic from Married At First Sight.

'I think Eden's a bit more fun and outgoing and Nic was a bit more reserved. He likes to go to bed at 9:30pm,' she said.

Despite Nic's reserved nature and early nights - he still found his way on the bad side of Cyrell's brother.

During the experiment, Nic famously fell out with Ivan after the protective brother alleged he was romantically involved with several female co-stars while he was 'married' to Cyrell.

In an interview with Nova's Fitzy and Wippa earlier this month, he ranted: 'The truth is....he's no angel.'

'What is he cheating? Give us a yes or no answer,' host Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli asked.

Ivan replied: 'Yeah, I'll let everyone know it is a yes.'

Protective: During the experiment, Nic famously fell out with Ivan after the protective brother alleged he was romantically involved with several female co-stars while he was 'married' to CyrellVictoria saw the royal couple at odds again on Sunday night, as they clashed about Lord Palmerston on a historic trip to Ireland.

Her Majesty and her husband were stunned to discover that the charming Foreign Secretary was having an open marriage with his spouse Elizabeth, who lives a quiet life with her bees in the Emerald Isle.

It came in an episode which also saw Duchess Sophie finally give into her feelings for the kind footman Joseph, as her boar-ish husband continued to humiliate the elegant beauty.

Clash: Victoria saw the royal couple at odds again on Sunday night, as they clashed about Lord Palmerston on a historic trip to Ireland

Despite reconciling just a week earlier, Victoria and Albert clashed again following a carriage ride with their children, as a citizen attempted to kill her Majesty in support of Irish Independence.

After some revealing words from Abigail about the nation's ongoing discomfort since the famine, the Queen decides to journey to Ireland, the first time a monarch has done so since the Middle Ages.

Bertie is also continuing to struggle with his schooling, which results in the hiring of Mr Caine, who at first appears to be working wonders on the King-to-be.

Upon their arrival in Ireland, the couple are stunned to meet Lord Palmerston's wife for the first time, a surprisingly humble woman given her spouse's well-known dalliances.

Sealed with a kiss: After sending fans into a frenzy with his skinny dipping, Joseph also left Sophie in a flutter after enjoying another cheeky beach-side swim

Passionate: But this time the couple were unable to contain their feelings, as they shared a steamy sand-covered romp

In a surprise throwback for die-hard fans it also revealed that Mrs Palmerston is the sister of Lord Melbourne - or Lord M.

As the household dine together - and the Duke of Monmouth continues to embarrass his wife with his brazen behaviour - Albert grows more and more suspicious of Palmerston.

Following a ride in the beautiful Irish moors, questions are raised about the numerous empty homes, leading the Prince to question the whereabouts of the village tenants.

But after a tense confrontation, the Lord confesses he sent his tenants to New York for a better life in the midst of the brutal famine, and they are nothing but grateful for his gesture.

Meanwhile the nature of his relationship with Elizabeth is also revealed - the couple have an open marriage and she has no issues with his numerous affairs.

Tensions: Victoria and Albert clashed again following a carriage ride with their children

The revelation stuns Victoria, and leads her to re-evaluate her relationship with the ever-suspicious Feodora, who is enjoying life as a prominent figure of the Palace.

And after sending fans into a frenzy with his skinny dipping, Joseph also left Sophie in a flutter after enjoying another cheeky beach-side swim.

But this time the couple were unable to contain their feelings, as they shared a steamy sand-covered romp.

It remains to be seen whether Sophie will act on her feelings, despite a stern warning from Palmerston.

And in a later scene the Duke angrily accuses Palmerston of having an affair, only for the overconfident figure to be shot down in spectacular fashion.

Fury: Following her return to the Palace, Victoria is furious to find that Mr Caine has been abusing Bertie, and he is immediately dismissed

Despite an episode packed with relationship drama, Her Majesty still delivered a poignant speech on her visit to Dublin, as she released a dove in a brief moment of unity for the Catholic and Protestant Churches.

Following her return to the Palace, Victoria is furious to find that Mr Caine has been abusing Bertie, and he is immediately dismissed.

As Albert laments his poor decisions about his son's future, he admits that and Victoria should not have anymore children... only for the Queen to reveal she is pregnant with baby number seven!

While this should be a happy time for the couple, Albert seems more stunned by the news, offering his congratulations before leaving the room in silence.

Victoria continues on Sunday 29th April at 9pm on ITV.She's set to tie the knot with her Vanderpump Rules co-star later this summer.

But first, Brittany Cartwright had to say goodbye to the single life with a blast of a bachelorette party on Friday.

The 30-year-old reality star jetted off to Kentucky for her send off in advance of her wedding to Jax Taylor, 39.

Celebration: Brittany Cartwright, 30, said goodbye to the single life with a blast of a bachelorette party in Kentucky on Friday, prior to her summer marriage to Jax Taylor, 39

The Kentucky native plans to walk down the aisle in her home state, so it was fitting that she would also have the celebration back home.

'Off to KY. Its bridal shower #1 and mini bachelorette timeeee! Its getting REAL guys!!' she wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

Brittany and her lady friends stocked the boisterous celebration with Team Bride glasses for libations and were decked out in themed shirts.

Her own shirt read 'I'M THE BRIDE' in the same font associated with the Friends opening opening credits.

Her friends' shirts read 'I DO CREW' and 'WILL BE THERE FOR YOU,' referencing the Friends theme song.

Go time: 'Off to KY. Its bridal shower #1 and mini bachelorette timeeee! Its getting REAL guys!!' she wrote on Twitter on Wednesday

TV themed: Brittany's own shirt read 'I'M THE BRIDE' in the same font associated with the Friends opening opening credits

There for her: They were decked out in themed shirts reading 'I DO CREW' and 'WILL BE THERE FOR YOU,' referencing the Friends theme song

On point: Brittany and her lady friends stocked the boisterous celebration with Team Bride glasses for libations

Brittany and company weren't afraid to get a bit raunchy, and the home celebration featured dozens of tiny male members strewn around the kitchen.

The Instagram star even danced around with a large inflatable penis while wearing her veil.

On Saturday, the ladies classed things up for a second party.

Brittany shared pictures of herself in a gorgeous beaded tiara with her dirty blonde locks done up in elegant curls.

Fancy: On Saturday, the ladies classed things up for a second party

Stunning: Brittany shared pictures of herself in a gorgeous beaded tiara with her dirty blonde locks done up in elegant curls

Blast from the past: The reality star and her guests were dressed up like 1920s-era flappers, with tasseled dresses and stylish headbands

Woman in white: She wore a body contoured white dress with designs made of gold sequins

Brittany and her guests were dressed up like 1920s-era flappers, with tasseled dresses and stylish headbands.

She wore a body contoured white dress with designs made of gold sequins.

She posted a picture of the party's sweet catering, featuring tastefully designed frosted cookies and cupcakes.

Yum: She posted a picture of the party's sweet catering, featuring tastefully designed frosted cookies and cupcakes

Nearly here: Brittany will return to her Kentucky roots for her marriage to Jax, which will be held at the Kentucky Castle in Versailles, Kentucky, a spot where she always dreamed of having her wedding

Brittany began dating her Sur bartender fiance in 2015, after the two met in Las Vegas.

Since then, she's become a fixture on Vanderpump Rules, graduating to the main cast in season six.

The two have weathered scandals, including infidelities on Jax's part, but they're still set for their summer wedding.

Brittany will return to her Kentucky roots for the ceremony, which will be held at the Kentucky Castle in Versailles, Kentucky, a spot she always dreamed of having her wedding at.Charlize Theron, 43, has revealed why she often chooses to portray flawed characters over the course of her successful acting career.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday, Charlize detailed the difference between herself and Julia Roberts, 51.

'I just never saw myself as Julia Roberts, the rom-com person, and I didn't see what I could bring to those roles anyway,' she told the publication.

'I just never saw myself as Julia Roberts': Charlize Theron (L) reveals why she chooses to portray 'incredibly flawed characters'... after revealing her biggest insecurity as a kid during an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday. Pictured right: Julia Roberts

'All of the characters that I've played are incredibly flawed because I'm incredibly flawed,' she added.

Charlize explained her biggest insecurity as a child was that she had 'no teeth'.

'I had jaundice as a baby and the antibiotics really rotted my teeth so they were pulled out and until I was 10 or 11, I didn't have any teeth!' she revealed.

'I just never saw myself as Julia Roberts, the rom-com person, and I didn't see what I could bring to those roles anyway,' Charlize told the publication. Pictured: Julia Roberts in film Pretty Woman in 1990

Films: Charlize is best known for her roles in films such as Monster, Max Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde and more. Pictured in Atomic Blonde from 2017

Charlize is best known for her roles in films such as Monster, Max Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde and more.

Julia Roberts meanwhile stars in a slew of romantic comedy films - most notably Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and My Best Friend's Wedding.

Family has been a topic of interest for Charlize this week, hitting the headlines when she revealed her child Jackson is a girl.

'All of the characters that I've played are incredibly flawed because I'm incredibly flawed,' she added. Charlize pictured in April, 2019

Reported by US Daily Mail, the Hollywood star said: 'Yes, I thought she was a boy, too,' when asked about the 7-year-old.

She then added: 'Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: 'I am not a boy!''

She continued: 'So there you go! I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive.'

'I had jaundice as a baby and the antibiotics really rotted my teeth so they were pulled out and until I was 10 or 11, I didn't have any teeth!': Meanwhile, Charlize explained her biggest insecurity as a child was that she had 'no teeth'

For years now, rumours have swirled that Charlize has, in fact, been raising Jackson as a girl, who she introduced to the world as a boy when they were adopted.

'My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be.'

'And I will do everything in my power for my kids to have that right and to be protected within that.'Bethenny Frankel created the Skinnygirl Cocktails brand in 2009 that was later sold for upwards of $120 million.

But this weekend has been all about enjoying the spoils of her success with her beau Paul Bernon and her eight-year old daughter Bryn Hoppy in Palm Beach, Florida.

And the Real Housewives Of New York City star has been giving her two million Instagram followers updates on her weekend in paradise, which included showing off her famous skinnygirl body in a bikini on Saturday.

Easter getaway: Bethenny Frankel gave fans a close-up look at her fabulous bikini body as she soaked up the sun in Florida on Sunday

Strike a pose: Bethenny Frankel showed off her bikini body in palm Beach, Florida on Saturday

The tiny blue two-piece showed off her svelte curves, which she has credited, in part, to her yoga training.

For added flare, the top had white ring at the center of the two cups.

She accessorized with some major bling on her left wrist and wore a large hat and sunglasses to help protect her face from the glaring sun.

Weekend in paradise: The reality star, 48, has been enjoying her fun in the sun with beau Paul Bernon, 41, and daughter Bryn Hoppy, eight

Social media butterfly: Real Housewives Of New York City star has been giving her two million Instagram followers updates on her time in Palm Beach

When she wasn't striking a number of poses on the scenic beach, the reality star and entrepreneur also enjoyed some quality family time at an inflatable bounce playhouse for kids.

Frankel watched with pride as her little girl jumped around on the inflatable houses, water slide and obstacle course.

The media-savvy New Yorker also shared a number of short clips at a restaurant and while driving around town, alongside Bernon, whom she started dating in December 2017.

Kids time: The quality family time also included a stop at an inflatable bounce house for kids

Twinkle in her eye: Frankel watched with pride as her little girl jumped around on the inflatable houses, water slide and obstacle course

Scenic: The bouncy playhouse was right near the beach

Bernon, 41, is real estate developer and co-founder and partner of Burn later, a Los-Angeles based film finance and production company.

Some of the films he's been involved in include Drinking Buddies and Best Kept Secret.

'He's incredible,' Frankel told Bavo's Andy Cohen during Watch What Happens Live. 'He's a beautiful human being inside and out.'Teresa's Giudice's daughter Milania is asking President Trump for help after father Joe's deportation appeal was denied this Thursday.

Milania, 14, opened up about her dad in a heartfelt Instagram post on Saturday, where she wrote 'We will never stop fighting for you daddy.'

At the end the second youngest daughter of the Real Housewives Of New Jersey personalities added '#FreeJoeGiudice' and tagged the Commander In Chief.

Asking for help: Teresa Giudice's daughter Milania tagged President Trump in the caption of a throwback Instagram of her and father Joe, who is currently facing deportation

Milania seemed heartbroken in her message, where she began by saying: 'We will never stop fighting for you daddy.'

She continued, saying how very much he has been missed.

'Its not the same without you. I miss you terribly. I wouldnt be the person I am today with out you, I wouldnt know how to stay strong. I need you home daddy. All I want is to be a family again. I love you endlessy [sic] buddy.

She tried to draw attention to her father's plight by tagging the post '@realdonaldtrump' and '#freejoegiudice'

Feeling nostalgic: Teresa Giudice, 46, shared a sweet throwback Easter photo of her husband Joe and daughters Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10; (pictured February)

Milania, along with sister Giam, also reposted a message from family hairstylist Lucia Casazza, in which she asked President to 'Make a motion to pardon Joe Giudice.'

While Milania was imploring the President to help her father, mom Teresa quietly returned to Instagram for the first time since learning that Joe's initial deportation appeal was denied.

The Real Housewives Of New Jersey star, 46, shared a sweet throwback Easter photo of her husband Joe and daughters Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10 with the caption: 'Joe with the girls decorating eggs, days like this I love having photos.'

The posting comes as the family is dealing with the fallout from Joe's deportation appeal being denied on Thursday.

Reminiscing: The caption was 'Joe with the girls decorating eggs, days like this I love having photos'

And Teresa and Joe's eldest daughter Gia, 18 - who was not pictured in the Easter photo - posted her own throwback photos as a tribute to her father.

One snap showed a young Gia in a red sweater and matching bow as she hugged Joe with that caption: 'Pictures, memories, and hope is the only thing that has gotten my family this far.

'We are fighters but my father is someone who is one of the most important people in my life. not a day goes by where we dont love you, miss you, and fight for you with all our hearts. you will be home with us soon daddy. I love you so much.'

The other photo set includes a pic of the entire family at Christmas and one of Gia as a toddler hugging a shirtless Joe. The caption, which was a repost by the family hairstylist Lucia Casazza, was an impassioned plea for help to keep her father in the country.

Family affair: And Teresa and Joe's eldest daughter Gia, 18 - who was not pictured in the Easter photo - posted her own throwback photos as a tribute to her father

'WE need EVERYONES HELP PLEASE REPOST. How could we live and support a nation that Allows sex offenders and pedophiles to stay in the United States as long as we register them to a list knowing they could live next-door and harm again, yet they could take a man who committed a minor crime to support his family away from his family it makes me want to leave this country!'

They then implored Donald Trump to 'intervene' as she supported him in the U.S. presidential election.

'#donaldtrump do something intervene I voted for you because I support you and what you stand for And your strong belief to take a positive stance and make a change in this country aside from the fact that you supported your own campaign financially if you can do all of those things and all the things you have done I think you can make a motion to bring this man home back to his family instead of sending him to a country that he has no ties to besides his cultural background please help'

The important things: 'Pictures, memories, and hope is the only thing that has gotten my family this far. We are fighters but my father is someone who is one of the most important people in my life,' Gia captioned the photo

Joe began his fight against his deportation order six months prior.

But the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has denied his appeal, according to E! News.

James J. Leonard, Jr., the Giudice family attorney, said in a statement on Thursday to Dailymail.com: 'We are extremely disappointed that the Board Of Immigration Appeals has denied Mr. Giudices appeal.'

'We have filed a stay with the Third Circuit Court Of Appeals and will continue to fight to keep Mr. Giudice in the United States, the only country he knows, and reunite him with his wife and four daughters.'

Last chance: The 46-year-old TV star has one chance left at avoiding deportation to Italy, the website revealed

The 46-year-old TV star has one chance left at avoiding deportation to Italy, the website revealed.

E! News' source said: 'The Board Of Immigration Appeals ruled against Joe in an April 6 decision.'

However, his team of lawyers have already filed a petition for the federal court to review the appeal, the website reported, adding that the entire process is 'done entirely by mail.'

If the court refuses to review it, then Joe will be 'deported' to Italy, E!'s insider revealed.

Joe was released in March 2019 from an almost three year stint in prison into the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Teresa was in prison for 11 months on charges of mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud charges; she was released in December 2015. He began his sentence for the same crimes three months later, according to People.

A judge ruled on October 10 that he must be deported; his lawyers filed paperwork within the 30 day time period (on November 10) to appeal the order.Phoebe Burgess appears to have finally confirmed her worst kept secret - that she's back together with NRL star husband Sam.

The blonde beauty shared a loved-up photo of the pair to Instagram on Sunday to mark her 30th birthday.

It comes after their brief split, just three weeks after the birth of their second child, Billy Mark, in December.

Loved-up photo: Phoebe Burgess, 30, FINALLY confirmed she's back together with NRL star husband Sam, 30, as she posted a loved-up photo to Instagram on Sunday, months after their brief split

In the photo, Phoebe wears a white and gold Versace-inspired frock, and has her locks tied back off her face.

She gazes adoringly at Rabbitohs player Sam, as they sit at a table at a lavish restaurant.

Sam, 30, looks suave in a navy dress shirt and leans in to embrace his stunning wife.

Referring to Sam going cross-eyed and pulling an animated facial expression, Phoebe writes in the caption: '30 and maturing nicely'.

Supporting her man! Last month, Phoebe all but confirmed she was back together with Sam while attending the South Sydney Rabbitohs game against the Gold Coast Titans at ANZ Stadium

Just last month, Phoebe sparked rumours they had reconciled, when she attended Sam's South Sydney Rabbitohs game against the Gold Coast Titans at ANZ Stadium.

The glamorous WAG flashed her diamond wedding ring while cradling the couple's son, Billy, now four months, in the stands.

Prior to Phoebe and Sam's split, the NRL star was cleared of any wrongdoing by his South Sydney club after he was embroiled in a sexting scandal last year.

Things are going swimmingly! In March, the couple (right) were spotted together at Gordon's Bay

At the time, it was widely reported that the couple's marriage split was 'messy'.

A close friend previously told The Daily Telegraph 'things [had] been bad for a while' before Sam and Phoebe decided to part ways.

In February, the footy star reportedly moved out of celebrity accountant, Anthony Bell's, $11.5 million Dover Heights mansion and back into the $3.8 million Maroubra home he shares with Phoebe.

Nuptials: Sam and Phoebe wed in 2015. Pictured in an Instagram post shared to Sam's page in November last year

An insider told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time, that they are 'working on things' for the sake of their young children.

In March, the couple, who married in 2015 after one year of dating, were spotted together at Gordon's Bay.

An onlooker told Daily Mail Australia that Sam and phoebe 'looked loved-up and very much back together'.

Phoebe and Sam also share daughter Poppy, two.He's been embracing fatherhood and enjoying spending time with his two daughters.

And Russell Brand looked ever the doting dad as he held toddler Mabel, two, on an outing in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The actor and comedian, 43, was joined by wife Laura Gallacher, 31, as they headed for lunch while pushing a pram.

Doting dad: Russell Brand enjoyed fatherhood as he held toddler Mabel, two, on an outing in Los Angeles on Saturday

Russell opted for a comfortable look as he threw on a slouchy cardigan, distressed jeans and Nike trainers, while styling his raven locks in a man bun.

Laura looked effortlessly chic in a khaki boiler suit paired with white plimsoll trainers as she styled her hair in a half up half down do and she perched sunglasses on her head.

The mother-of-two, who is TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher's sister, could be seen embracing mother duties as she fussed over nine-month-old daughter Peggy.

The couple, who live in a quiet Oxfordshire village, married in 2017 at an intimate service near their home in Henley-on-Thames.

Mummy duties: The actor and comedian was joined by wife Laura Gallacher, 31, as they headed for lunch while pushing the pram

Russell recently came under fire for admitting he has never spent 24 hours alone with their two daughters because their mother is more suited to the role.

The Essex-born Lothario, who previously bragged about bedding five women a day, told The Sunday Times: 'She wouldn't go away for 24 hours, Laura.

'Laura's able to sustain and maintain domesticity in a way that's astonishing. I didn't have much experience of how to organise domesticity. I do whatever I'm told.

'It turns out that she is extremely well versed in the nuances and complexities of child-rearing.'

Happy couple: The couple, who live in a quiet Oxfordshire village, married in 2017 at an intimate service near their home in Henley-on-Thames

He admitted he is 'too sensitive' to change nappies and his 'romantic, reflective, religious world view' prevents him from being a full-time parent.

Elsewhere in the interview, Brand has praised the #MeToo movement, but admitted he has no regrets about his Lothario past.

He shunned the limelight three years ago and now lives a quiet life in Oxford but admits he still has moments of sexual temptation.

The former MTV presenter spoke about how his transformation from wild child to a yoga-loving spiritualist has helped him maintain his calm new lifestyle in a quiet Oxfordshire village.

Fatherhood: Russell recently came under fire for admitting he has never spent 24 hours alone with their two daughters because their mother is more suited to the role

And when he does get tempted by someone 'attractive', Russell, who married presenter Kirsty Gallacher's 31-year-old sister Laura in 2017, says a voice in his head tells him not to 'risk ruining his whole life'.

At height of his fame Russell reportedly had sex with up to five women a day before going to sex rehab.

Speaking in 2010, shortly after his wedding to ex wife Katy Perry, he admitted of his single days: 'I was having sex with different women three, four, five times a day. In Ireland, nine in one evening.'

But speaking in the frank interview this weekend, he praised the #MeToo movement, adding: 'No [I don't regret my past]. I just feel it [the movement] is a really positive change. It's a sign of real awakening'.She's the Australian actress known for her glamorous sense of fashion age-defying looks.

But fans would have failed to recognise Naomi Watts in an adorable throwback photo from her childhood.

The now 50-year-old actress was pictured as a fresh-faced youngster in the snap, which was shared to Instagram on Saturday.

Blast from the past! Naomi Watts looked adorable as a fresh-faced youngster in this throwback photograph from her childhood

In the photo, Naomi appeared to be resting in the living room couch.

Sporting a bright blue ensemble, Naomi's short blonde locks were silky straight as she sported a parted fringe.

'Don't you just want to SQUEEZE me?! #fbf #puberty',' she captioned the post.

Revealed! And the throwback snap comes after Naomi (pictured) took to her Instagram Stories earlier this month to reveal her beauty secrets to her fans

The throwback snap comes after Naomi took to her Instagram Stories earlier this month to reveal her most sought-after beauty secrets.

The Hollywood star invited her followers to ask questions, many of which were to do with her skincare routine.

The Gypsy star recommended Onda Beauty products, known for their 'Clean, non-toxic beauty and wellness' line.

Tell all! The 50-year-old invited her followers to ask questions, many of which were to do with her skincare routine, and she had some recommendations

Fighting fit! Fans were also curious as to what the actress does to keep fit and trim

Yum! However most important to Naomi is her favourite indulgence - when asked what her guilty pleasure is, she proclaimed: 'Pasta, pasta and more pasta!'

Naomi wrote: 'Check out @ondabeautynyc for all natural products. Great for all needs skin and beauty related.'

'Hydration, sensitivity, deep cleansing, treatments. Over 70 reliable and different brands. AND education about using plant based product with responsible packaging!' she added.

Her best advice for fans was 'hydration's a must!' and she spilled details of her workout routine too.

'Pilates, yoga and dance,' the King Kong actress answered when asked what her fitness regime includes.

Keep it glowing! Her best advice for fans was 'hydration's a must!' when it comes to skincareAustralia hasn't heard the last of Mike Gunner.

Following his controversial rise to fame on Married At First Sight, the electrician confirmed his exciting plans to remain in the spotlight on Saturday.

Taking to Instagram, the 44-year-old showed off his brand new studio dedicated to video blogging and recording podcasts.

You haven't heard the last of him! Married At First Sight star Mike Gunner made an exciting career announcement on Saturday ...following his controversial rise to fame on the reality show

'Podcast/vlog studio coming together,' captioned Mike.

Mike's post comes after it rumoured he was planning on starting a relationship podcast, offering his advice to fans.

The title of the podcast is believed to be, 'I'm Not Your Therapist'- a reference to his infamous honeymoon bust-up with his wife Heidi Latcham on the show.

You haven't heard the last of him! Taking to Instagram, the 44-year-old showed off his brand new studio dedicated to video blogging and recording podcasts

It appears that Mike mentioning the studio will also be used to 'vlog' (video blog), reveals fans can also expect a YouTube channel from him too.

Although it's unclear what subjects Mike will be covering across his new platforms, it is expected they will divide followers.

During the MAFS finale, Mike caused outrage by declaring that groups of women don't do well under pressure compared to men.

Remember this? The title of the podcast is believed to be, 'I'm Not Your Therapist' - a reference to his infamous honeymoon bust-up with his wife Heidi Latcham on the show

After relationship expert Melissa Schilling addressed how the brides treated each other throughout the series, Mike decided to chime in.

Mike said: 'There's a few things I'd like to point out. I think groups of women under pressure don't cope as well as groups of men under pressure.

As the contestants gasped in shock, he continued: 'There's differences between men and women, don't mistake that.

Strong opinions! During the MAFS finale, Mike caused outrage by declaring that groups of women don't do well under pressure compared to men

'I mean, the matriarchy and the patriarchy are two different things entirely, and there are different dynamics at play.

'We're seeing these girls have fallen apart and the men haven't.'

Mike concluded by claiming the MAFS experiment is harder for the brides than grooms, simply because of their 'biology'.He's a chef, restaurateur and TV personality.

And famously private Heston Blumenthal, has given a rare interview, speaking candidly about his love life.

The 52-year-old told The Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday that he was unsure about marrying his first wife Zanna, describing that time in his life as 'a blank'.

'I was very young': Heston Blumenthal, 52, told The Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday that he was unsure about marrying first wife Zanna. The former couple are pictured in April 2009

'I look back at my marriage to my first wife, Zanna, and [I] don't remember thinking about whether I wanted to get married or not,' Heston admitted.

Going on to speak of that time in his life, the owner of UK restaurant The Fat Duck said: 'I was very young and there's a blank now.'

Heston divorced Zanna in 2017 after 28 years of marriage, and they share three children, son Jack, 26, and daughters Jessie, 24, and Joy, 22.

Moved on: Going on to speak of that time in his life, the owner of UK restaurant The Fat Duck said: 'I was very young and there's a blank now'

The MasterChef Australia guest judge went on to marry French estate agent Stephanie Gouveia in 2018.

They are believed to have wed in a secret ceremony on luxury island Soneva Fushi in the Maldives.

According to The Sun, Heston begged resort staff to 'Marry us now!' before they laid on a colourful banquet and a local official to conduct the service.

Second wife: Heston went on to marry French estate agent Stephanie Gouveia in 2018. The couple are pictured in June 2016

A representative confirmed to the newspaper: 'Heston and Stephanie are delighted to announce they've got married. They were spending some quality time together and decided to seize the moment.'

In 2018, the Daily Mail's Richard Eden revealed the owner of Michelin-starred Fat Duck in Bray had become the father of a baby with Stephanie.

Heston's spokesman told Eden: 'I can confirm Heston and Stephanie have had a child at the end of last year, but we won't be giving any further information.'Victoria's Secret model Joy Corrigan got an assist from fellow model Marlaina Pate during a photo shoot Saturday on Miami Beach.

Corrigan was all smiles while Pate sprayed suntan lotion on her back and behind during the photo shoot.

The blonde bikini-clad models were having plenty of fun in the sun during their photo shoot as they frolicked on the beach on the sunny Saturday afternoon.

Lotion time: Victoria's Secret model Joy Corrigan got an assist from fellow model Marlaina Pate during a photo shoot Saturday on Miami Beach

Helping hand: Corrigan was all smiles while Pate sprayed suntan lotion on her back and behind during the photo shoot

Corrigan was wearing a sand white off shoulder bikini with gold strappy sandals, with large earrings and a number of necklaces.

She also had a fanny pack slung over her shoulder, with a pair of sunglasses perched atop her head along with a number of bracelets.

Before she hit the beach, she was seen with a sand white sarong around her waist.

Beach vibes: Corrigan was wearing a sand white off shoulder bikini with gold strappy sandals, with large earrings and a number of necklaces

Soaking it in: She also had a fanny pack slung over her shoulder, with a pair of sunglasses perched atop her head along with a number of bracelets

Pate was wearing a red bikini with a choker necklace around her neck, and similar shades to Corrigan's.

She also had a number of bracelets around her left wrist and similar earrings, as she was seen holding hands with Corrigan as they went into the water.

Before entering the water, Pate was also wearing a yellow, black and white sarong.

Running: Pate was wearing a red bikini with a choker necklace around her neck, and similar shades to Corrigan's

In the water: She also had a number of bracelets around her left wrist and similar earrings, as she was seen holding hands with Corrigan as they went into the water

Hand in hand: Before entering the water, Pate was also wearing a yellow, black and white sarong

Corrigan, who started modeling at age 18, is getting ready to launch her own fashion line, dubbed Naked Species.

While there is no word yet on when the line will launch, she offered more details about her fashion line in an August 2018 interview with Ocean Drive.

'Im working on my own clothing line called Naked Species,' she said. 'Its an eco-friendly fitness line that gives back by donating a portion of the profits to protect endangered species. Stay tuned!'

Fashion line: Corrigan, who started modeling at age 18, is getting ready to launch her own fashion line, dubbed Naked Species

New line: While there is no word yet on when the line will launch, she offered more details about her fashion line in an August 2018 interview with Ocean Drive

Corrigan has also transitioned to acting, making her feature film debut in the 2017 thriller Aftermath, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

She also starred in the action-thriller Reprisal, with Bruce Willis, Frank Grillo and Olivia Culpo, which was released last summer.

She has also appeared on an episode of Tosh.0.

Actress: Corrigan has also transitioned to acting, making her feature film debut in the 2017 thriller Aftermath, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger

New role: She also starred in the action-thriller Reprisal, with Bruce Willis, Frank Grillo and Olivia Culpo, which was released last summerChris Lilley has mocked Todd Carney's infamous 'bubbler' scandal in his new controversial Netflix series, Lunatics.

On the show, Chris, 44, re-created the lewd photo of disgraced NRL star Todd, 32, appearing to urinate in his mouth in a public toilet, which went viral in 2014.

In the show's third episode, character Quentin, played by Chris, encourages his friends to film him mimicking the shocking incident - known as 'bubbling'.

Has he gone too far? Chris Lilley (left) mocks Todd Carney's infamous 'bubbler' incident from 2014 (right) in controversial new Netflix series Lunatics

'Boys, boys, the bubbler! Let's do the bubbler,' said Quentin, the fictional real estate agent that aspires to become a DJ, during a wild night out.

The group then rushed to the toilet, where the character stood at a near identical urinal to the one Todd used, while also wearing a similar white shirt.

Afterwards, Quentin boasts the footage of him is 'sick', adding: 'I'm going to f***ing post that s*** on Instagram.'

Taking the P? In the show's third episode, character Quentin, played by Chris, encourages his friends to film him mimicking the shocking incident - known as 'bubbling'

Art imitating life? On the show, the group rushed to a toilet where Chris's character stood at a near identical urinal to the one Todd used, while also wearing a similar white shirt

In February, Todd revealed he is haunted by the scandal, with people trying to recreate the picture while next to him in public toilets.

Speaking to Nine, Todd said: 'People try and do it next to me in the toilets. I actually sometimes get nervous to go to the toilet in case there is a big crowd in there.'

He maintains that the photo, which spread like wildfire when it was first posted to social media, was taken and shared without his knowledge.

'I just don't understand why people are still so fascinated by it,' Todd added to Seven News. 'I know it was stupid, and I'll live with it for the rest of my life.'

'I actually sometimes get nervous': In February, Todd revealed he is haunted by the scandal, with people trying to recreate the picture while next to him in public toilets

'I just don't understand why people are still so fascinated by it': Todd, who is currently dating Married At First Sight's Susie Bradley, admits he'll 'live with it for the rest of my life'

This isn't the only scandal to rock Chris's show Lunatics, which dropped on the streaming service on Friday.

His return to Australian screens has been met with controversy, with viewers claiming that he darkened his skin for one of his characters.

But despite the backlash, Chris has said that he stays off social media and doesn't get involved with his online critics.

'Reading all those opinions would affect me, and it would affect what I was trying to create next,' Chris told The Weekend Australian on Saturday.

'Earlier in my career I didn't have to think about it (social media). Now I choose not to. It's easy - you just don't look.'She confirmed her pregnancy just two months ago.

And happy parents-to-be Kate Mara, 36, and Jamie Bell, 33, took a hike together on Saturday, with the married couple taking a stroll around Silver Lake reservoir in Los Angeles.

The House Of Cards actress hid her baby bump beneath a black sweater and an olive jacket on the cool Californian spring day.

Married life: Kate Mara, 36, and Jamie Bell, 33, took a hike together on Saturday, with the married couple taking a stroll around Silver Lake reservoir in Los Angeles

On her lower half, the Shooter star clad her legs in gray sweatpants and wore Nike sneakers.

Her husband and Fantastic Four co-star Jamie Bell clothed himself in black for the outing, pairing black sweatpants with a dark hoodie.

The breakout star of Billy Elliot completed the incognito look with dark shades.

Bumping along nicely: The House Of Cards actress hid her baby bump beneath a black sweater and an olive jacket on the cool Californian spring day

Kate and Jamie have not disclosed when their baby is due.

The pair co-starred in Fantastic Four in 2015 and began dating later that year.

They got engaged in January 2017 and married that July, making Kate a step-mother to Jamie's son from his previous marriage to Evan Rachel Wood, 31.

The duo confirmed their pregnancy by sharing a snap from the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party in late February.

'Went on a date with our bun in the oven,' Kate wrote in the caption for her followers.

Ready for action: On her lower half, the Shooter star clad her legs in gray sweatpants and wore Nike sneakers

The glamorous photo showed the actress and her blossoming bump in a white sequinned mini-dress as she stood next to her husband, who looked suave in a tuxedo.

Kate will soon appear in a new TV movie titled, A Teacher. Jamie can next be seen in the musical drama Rocketman, based on the life of Sir Elton John, 71.

Taron Egerton, 29, will portray Elton while Jamie will play his longtime songwriter Bernie Taupin.

Rocketman, also starring Richard Madden as Elton's manager, John Reid, and Bryce Dallas Howard as his mother, Sheila Eileen Dwight, is scheduled for release on May 24 in the UK and May 31 in the US.She's known for flaunting her flawless physique on social media.

But on Sunday, model Maddy King cut a heavenly figure of a different kind as she channeled Jesus Christ in a bizarre social media post.

Taking to Instagram, Kris Smith's ex draped a white fabric around herself while donning a long dark wig and matching beard.

Heavenly body! Kris Smith's ex-girlfriend Maddy King risks backlash as she dresses up as Jesus Christ in bizarre social media post

Assuming an ethereal pose, Maddy, 30 seemed to be wearing a collection of children's toys around her neck.

Captioning the unusual image, she wrote: 'Happy Easter Followers.'

The brunette is known for dating Myer ambassador Kris Smith.

Showstopper: Maddy's known for flaunting her flawless physique on social media

The former couple previously enjoyed a four-year romance before calling it quits in October 2016.

Kris, who shares a son with Dannii Minogue, found love with personal trainer Sarah Boulazeris in early 2017 after meeting at the gym.

The couple announced the arrival of their first child, daughter Mila, in December, and have been sharing a stream of loved-up snaps ever since.

Over: Maddy dated Kris on and off for four years before splitting for good in October 2016 (Kris and Maddy pictured in 2016)

But while speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the Melbourne Cup in November, Kris carefully responded when asked if Maddy had wished them well prior to the arrival.

'I got a congratulations from the family, yeah, that was nice,' Kris answered.

The response suggested he has only heard from Maddy's family - not her.Patrick Schwarzenegger says he showed up to his 2015 Easter brunch high on marijuana, leading to a discussion with his dad that led to him quitting the habit for good.

The 25-year-old actor took to Instagram with a selfie on Saturday, April 20, which marked the annual 4/20 celebration for marijuana users.

'FUN STORY: Few years ago (4 exactly) showed up lil high to Easter brunch... classic,' Patrick said. 'My old man asked why... said I dunno makes thing more fun."'

At peace: Patrick Schwarzenegger, 25, says he showed up to his Easter brunch high on marijuana, leading to a discussion with his dad that led to him quitting the habit for good

Patrick said that Arnold responded, 'How much more fun do you need to have, life is so good. Im high on life.'

The Los Angeles native said he would 'never want anything that would take [him] out of [his] current life, as 'being high on life is better then anything else.'

The son of the action hero and Maria Shriver wrapped up by saying, 'Long story short... Havent smoked since then... just HIGH ON LIFE NOW! Happy & healthy & cant thank god enough to see another day! Happy 4/20 sorry if that was a buzz kill lol.'

Arnold was famously seen in the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron puffing on a marijuana joint during a scene in which he sang Happy Birthday to fellow bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno.

Wise words: The 25-year-old actor took to Instagram on Saturday, April 20, which marked the annual 4/20 celebration for marijuana users to explain why he quit

Heart-to-heart: Patrick said that Arnold asked him of marijuana,'How much more fun do you need to have? Life is so good.' Arnold was snapped in Las Vegas earlier this month

No more pot: Patrick said he's 'happy & healthy & cant thank god enough to see another day!' He was snapped in December in LA

In the run up to his successful 2003 gubernatorial run in California, Schwarzenegger riffed off a Bill Clinton gaffe in addressing the scene, noting that it was something that was consistent with the era it took place in, and his youth at the time.

'I did smoke a joint and I did inhale,' told the AP in a November 2002 interview. 'The bottom line is that's what it was in the '70s, that's what I did. I have never touched it since.

'I lived a certain life, I want everyone to know that's the life I lived. As you grow up and as you become more mature, those things change - the only one that's perfect is God.'

Once in office, Arnold signed legislation to reduce the legal penalties for people who possessed less than an ounce of marijuana.

'No one cares if you smoke a joint or not,' he told Jay Leno in a 2010 appearance on The Tonight Show.They confirmed their romance on New Year's Eve.

And on Saturday, Natasha Oakley and her banker-turned-broker beau Theo Chambers toasted to their soaring romance on a yacht at Whitehaven Beach in Queensland.

In photos and videos shared to Instagram, the 28-year-old model indulged in rose and gourmet snacks, in front of a stunning vista.

'Exciting morning because we are setting sail today!' Natasha told her fans on Instagram Stories.

Dressed in a casual white ensemble, accessorised with retro frame sunglasses, the swimsuit designer beamed as she was joined by hunky boyfriend Theo.

Theo sported a black T-shirt, white shorts and gold-rimmed sunglasses, and carried a fishing rod and net.

Going strong: Natasha Oakley, 28, took to Instagram on Saturday to document her Easter getaway on board a yacht at Whitehaven Beach, with beau Theo Chambers

'Exciting morning': The blonde beauty, dressed in a casual white ensemble and retro frame sunglasses, told Instagram fans that the couple were setting sail

On board the yacht, the couple packed on the PDA, clearly enjoying quality time together.

Spoiling his girlfriend, Theo poured Natasha a glass of rose and ensured cheese and crackers were on hand.

Natasha gushed over her boyfriend in one caption which read: '@theochambers surprised me with a night just the two of us before we pick up our friends'.

She later shared a stunning photo of the interior of the yacht to her official Instagram page, and told her followers that she 'couldn't be happier'.

Romantic: The swimsuit designer enjoyed a date night with French Theo, before the couple picked up their friends

'Spent the night with no reception, drinking rose on our boat at Whitehaven and couldn't be happier,' the blogger wrote.

The couple sparked engagement rumours in Los Angeles in January, when Natasha wore a ring during a romantic date.

Sharing a loved-up photo to her Instagram Stories at the time, the good-looking duo were all smiles as they cuddled up together at a restaurant table.

Theo confirmed their relationship status on New Year's Eve, taking to Instagram to share an affectionate photo of the couple.

Gentleman: Theo spoiled Natasha with rose, cheese and crackers on board the yacht

Living her best life: Natasha told her followers that she 'couldn't be happier'

'Starting the new year with a smile,' he captioned the picture.

In July, Natasha confirmed her split from French model and father-of-one Gilles Souteyrand after three years together.

'Yes, I am single at the moment,' she wrote on Instagram in response to a follower who asked about her relationship status.

Before dating Gilles, she was romantically linked to French Big Brother star Martin Medus.Tara Reid is thankful she's 'finally' being offered 'older roles'.

The 43-year-old actress found herself in a position where she was 'stuck' because she wasn't young enough to take on the parts she'd previously been known for but filmmakers didn't see her as right for 'mom' roles, according to her interview with Celebretainment.

But the Sharknado star is now working on five new features and is thankful to be enjoying a career resurgence.

New roles: Tara Reid, 43, told Celebretainment that her career stalled for years because filmmakers didn't offer her young roles, bu also didn't think she was right for motherly roles; pictured February 20 in Los Angeles

'I have a load of new projects in the pipeline,' she said. 'One with Sandra Bullock that's going to be big and a Netflix movie coming out called The Fifth Boro.

'I'm finally getting to play older roles and that's what I needed because I was kind of stuck. I looked too young to play the mom yet I was too old for a high school girl.

'Everyone saw me as the girl from American Pie but that was in my 20s and I'm in my 40s now. I'm grateful I had that moment but now I'm getting the chance to show another side of me.

Stuck in the past: 'Everyone saw me as the girl from American Pie but that was in my 20s and I'm in my 40s now. I'm grateful I had that moment but now I'm getting the chance to show another side of me'; still from American Pie

Moving on: 'And now I have a great team behind me, I couldn't have planned better things. It's my time again and no one is taking it away from me'; pictured February 16 in LA

'And now I have a great team behind me, I couldn't have planned better things. It's my time again and no one is taking it away from me.'

Tara went to rehab for alcohol abuse in 2008, but she doesn't care for comparisons to her former party-loving pal Lindsay Lohan.

'Lindsay was way younger than me, like 13 years younger,' she said.

All business: 'When you're off work, you're allowed to play, you're allowed to have fun. But when I work, I work and I don't go out'; still from Jose And The Pussycats

'She was arrested and got into trouble on set. I've never been arrested, never been in trouble on set.

'When you're off work, you're allowed to play, you're allowed to have fun. But when I work, I work and I don't go out.'

Tara is currently suing the producers of the Sharknado series, claiming they violated her contract by using her likeness on Sharknado branded slot machines.

She faced a setback in March, after a judge chastised her for taking too long to serve the producers with the lawsuit.(The Valley, Anguilla)  The Royal Anguilla Police Force issued the following statement on April 20th, 2019 in reference to the death of Mr. Kenny Mitchel in Anguilla and the American visitor, Gavin Scott Hapgood a UBS financial adviser who has been charged with the offence of manslaughter in this incident which occurred at a resort in West End, Anguilla.

Statement:

The Royal Anguilla Police Force conducted investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Kenny Mitchel. Having reviewed the evidence gathered in the process; in the form of statements and the pathology report, we later sought legal advice from the Attorney General Chambers as it related to this case as we are required to do by law. Based on the legal advice that was given a decision was made to charge Mr. Gavin Hapgood for the offence of manslaughter.

On April 16th, 2019, Mr. Hapgood was re- arrested and charged. He was then taken to the Magistrate Court on April 17th, 2019 where bail was denied, and he was remanded to Her Majestys Prison until August 22nd, 2019. On the same date Counsel for Mr. Hapgood made an application to The High Court Judge for consideration for the granting of bail to Mr. Hapgood. Counsel for the defendant was successful in his application which resulted in Mr. Hapgood being granted bail in the sum of $200,000.00 EC dollars to appear in court on August 22nd, 2019.

The RAPF has executed their function and likewise both courts adjudicated over the matter. This matter is now before a competent court and the law should be allowed to take its course without interference.

I am aware that members of the public have different views on the issue and you are entitled to your respective views and I respect your views, I also respect your fundamental rights of freedom of expression, all I am asking is that you do not say or do anything that can jeopardize the case and let the process take its course.

I sincerely thank the general public for their cooperation thus far.

Elliott ForbesCommissioner of Police (ag)Married At First Sight's Bronson Norrish went 'Instagram official' with pole dancer girlfriend Melissa Dobson, 34, last month.

And for Easter, the 35-year-old businessman spoiled the blonde with a surprise holiday, taking to Instagram on Sunday to share a photo of the couple on a flight.

The 'ex-husband' of Ines Basic joked that he had to improvise and upgrade to business class as his partner 'doesn't eat chocolate'.

Gentleman: MAFS' Bronson Norrish, 35, treated new girlfriend Melissa Dobson, 34, to a business class flight on a surprise Easter getaway on Sunday

Bronson takes a selfie from above, capturing the pair's comfortable surrounds on their business class flight.

The former stripper looks ecstatic as he enjoys James Squire beer, nuts and a gourmet meal.

Melissa in a grey sweater and black pants, smiles at the camera, and appears to be halfway through a bowl of soup or curry.

Bronson jokes in the caption that he had to come up with an alternative Easter gift, as Melissa doesn't eat chocolate.

That's sweet: The former stripper jokes in the caption that he had to come up with an alternative Easter gift, as Melissa doesn't eat chocolate

'When she doesn't eat chocolate so you need to improvise,' he wrote, alongside the hashtags 'business class', 'surprise holiday', 'Happy Easter' and flying high'.

While it's unclear the location of their getaway, Bronson later took to Instagram, sharing what appears to be a throwback photo of the couple at a beach.

'Couldn't ask for a better day!! HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE XXX,' he captioned the photo alongside the hashtags 'holiday mode', 'endless summer' and 'living my best life'.

'Living my best life': While it's unclear the location of their getaway, Bronson later took to Instagram, sharing what appears to be a throwback photo of the couple at a beach

Bronson's new romance with Melissa was revealed by Daily Mail Australia in February.

During an exclusive chat, Melissa revealed that the pair actually met 17 years ago, and that Bronson tracked her down last year after his 'marriage' to Ines ended in October.

After Bronson unexpectedly reached out to her, Melissa joked: 'I had no idea who he was, and I had to ask him, 'Who are you? Sorry I don't remember (laughs)'.'

Happy! Sharing his thoughts on their relationship, after having enjoyed a romantic trip to Bali together, Bronson said: 'I am extremely happy'

She continued: 'It was 17 years since we last seen each other. We caught up and had a connection straight away and spoke about the old days.'

'Every time we caught up, there was more and more we learnt about each other that we had in common. From there he swept me off my feet.'

Melissa, who is also a passionate charity worker in Western Australia and animal rescue advocate, added: 'It's all about timing and he really is an amazing guy. I feel like I'm the most luckiest girl in the world.'

Sharing his thoughts on their relationship, after having enjoyed a romantic trip to Bali together, Bronson said: 'I am extremely happy.'She's known for her sensational curves and good looks.

And on Wednesday, actress Sophie Dillman put on a busty display while filming scenes for Home and Away in Sydney's Palm Beach.

The blonde beauty, 24, flaunted her stunning physique in a pastel blue bikini.

Glowing goddess! On Saturday, Bonnie Sveen (L) put on a busty display in floral bikini as she filmed scenes for Home and Away in Palm Beach. Pictured with co-star Patrick O'Connor (R)

Chill: Sophie looked at ease as the beach breeze gently blew through her hair

Bright: The blonde beauty, 24, flaunted her stunning physique in this pastel blue bikini

Colourful: For the scene, she wore a floral-print bikini top which she teamed with this multicoloured red skirt. Pictured left, Sophie Dillman and right, co-star Patrick O'Connor

Sweet! At once point, Patrick was seen handing the actress a yellow sunflower

For the scene, she wore a floral-print bikini top which she teamed with a multicoloured red skirt.

Sophie accessorised with a striped tote bag as she strutted down the sand with co-star Patrick O'Connor.

Opting for a minimal makeup look, the stunner also kept her flaxen-coloured locks styled in tousled beach waves.

Outfit: Later, Sophie changed into this comfortable yet chic ensemble for her next scene

Taking it off! Meanwhile, Patrick (R) opted for a ripped olive green shirt before stripping down to these black board shorts. Pictured with Sophie Dillman (L)

Attire: Sophie stunned in these striped linen shorts and a tangerine coloured top

Happy: Sophie flashed her pearly whites while engaged in a cheerful conversation with her co-star Patrick

Going for a surf! Sophie, Patrick and co-star Lukas Radovich all appeared to be heading towards the water for a quick dip

Meanwhile, Patrick opted for a ripped olive green shirt teamed with black board shorts.

Basking in the sunlight, the duo proceeded to rest on a fence, where Patrick offered the beauty a yellow sunflower.

Later, Sophie changed into a comfortable yet chic ensemble for her next scene. She opted for striped linen shorts, a tangerine coloured top and a pair of Havaianas.

Cuddling up: Sophie and Patrick sweetly cuddled up to one another at one point

He's ready! Carrying a red surfboard, Lukas wore this one piece swimsuit and wore pink zinc on his cheeks

Surfing: The 24-year-old performed a series of impressive surfing tricks for the camera

A whole lot of fun! Lukas appeared to enjoy splashing around and surfing in the water

Happy guy: He sported a wide grin during the sun-drenched scene

Alongside Sophie and Patrick was co-star Lukas Radovich, who made his way into the water for a quick dip for one scene.

Carrying a red surfboard in his arm, Lukas looked dapper in a one-piece swimsuit while rocking pink zinc on his cheeks.

Making a splash, the 24-year-old performed a series of impressive surfing tricks for the camera.

Gorgeous: Packed To The Rafters star Zoe Ventura looked stylish in activewear on set

Chic: The brunette beauty, 37, looked radiant in this white singlet which she paired with cropped leggings that were adorned with a leaf print all-over

Shocked! At one point, Zoe appeared shocked while chatting to co-star Sarah Roberts (R)

Meanwhile, Packed To The Rafters star Zoe Ventura looked stylish in activewear on set.

The brunette beauty, 37, looked radiant in a white singlet which she paired with cropped leggings that were adorned with a leaf print all-over.

Going for a quick jog in the sun, Zoe pulled back her chestnut tresses into a low ponytail and wore just a hint of foundation.

Natural beauty: Going for a quick jog in the sun, Zoe pulled back her chestnut tresses into a low ponytail and wore just a hint of foundation

She was seen sharing a laugh with Sarah Roberts, who had all eyes on her in a bright red singlet and Adidas bike shorts.

The bombshell, 24, also wore her hair in a ponytail and appeared to carry a whistle and stopwatch around her neck.

Sarah was also seen grinning from ear-to-ear during the scene, where she proceeded to jot down notes on a clipboard.

Pals: Later, Zoe shared a laugh with Sarah, who had all eyes on her in a bright red singlet and Adidas bike shorts

Joy: Sarah was also seen grinning from ear-to-ear during the scene, where she appeared to jot down notes on a clipboardHe has captivated viewers with his gripping portrayal of rogue undercover cop John Corbett in Line of Duty.

And while Stephen Graham might seem as tough as nails, the actor has admitted he turned to alcohol while playing Combo, a racist ex-con in This Is England back in 2006.

The 45-year-old admitted he 'lost himself' within the character, as the script dredged up painful childhood memories of himself being racially abused.

Dark: While Stephen Graham might seem as tough as nails, the actor has admitted he turned to alcohol while playing Combo, a racist ex-con in This Is England back in 2006

In comments reported by The Sun, he said: 'Im mixed race. As a kid I was called horrible words that I dont even want to say, and little monkey boy.'

Stephen, whose grandfather was from Jamaica, soon became unruly and was eventually kicked out of theatre school.

He later got involved in petty crime, stealing Porsches and bringing them back to the estate- and at 15 spent time in a police cell for stealing a starter pistol.

Awful: The 45-year-old admitted he 'lost himself ' within the character, as the script dredged up painful childhood memories of himself being racially abused

But the actor said playing Combo- a fascist thug who beats a black character to near-death left him 'crying his eyes out' and made him turn to alcohol.

'It was life-changing, I lost myself quite a bit within that character, I had moments of getting back to my apartment and phoning Hannah and crying my eyes out, and I drank. For me that was where I really learned to dive into a character,' he said.

'After This Is England I could not get a job, for about eight months I couldnt get an audition, I almost packed it all in, I was going to be a youth worker.'

But the actor decided to keep going and was eventually rewarded with an audition.

Lost himself: The actor said playing Combo- a fascist thug (pictured)who beat a black character to near-death left him 'crying his eyes out' and made him turn to alcohol

And while Stephen is known for his famed gangster roles in Gangs Of New York and Brad Pitt's Snatch, the happily married father-of-two follows life to the letter of the law.

When he is not filming, Stephen, who has been married to wife Hannah for 11 years and is dad to Grace, 12, and ten-year-old Alfie, loves nothing more than popping to his Co-op in his Leicestershire village.

The actor remains humble about his success as ruthless gang leader John Corbett in Line of Duty series five, which has been drawing 10.4million viewers to BBC One on Sunday nights, admitting it doesn't 'feel real seeing himself on the TV'.

Stephen previously revealed he spoke to an Army Intelligence offer in order to gain insight for the role.

The This Is England star explained to the Radio Times he was sent the first two scripts when he got the part, leading to speculation about whether his character would live to see the end of the series.

He added: 'Even now, nobody really expects a lead to be killed off early, but Jed has created suspense. Are they going to get killed in this episode?'.

Line of Duty continues on Sunday night on BBC One at 9pm.She spent most of the week living it up in Bali.

But on Saturday it was back to work in the UK for ex TOWIE star Lydia Bright, as she acted as compere for the Feast of St George celebrations in London's Trafalgar Square.

The reality star hosted the St George's Day celebrations, looking particularly patriotic in a red suit.

Chic: Lydia Bright acted as compere for the Feast of St George celebrations in London's Trafalgar Square on Saturday

Lydia, 28, introduced an array of acts throughout the busy day in the London sunshine.

She looked the part, dressing in a chic scarlet suit over a white top, and accessorised with a sleek hairdo.

Lydia's mother and fellow former TOWIE co-star Debbie also made an appearance on stage, matching her daughter in red and white.

Suits you: The reality star hosted the St George's Day celebrations, looking particularly patriotic in a red suit

Earlier in the week, the Essex beauty told her followers she was enjoying a freebie trip to the Bliss Sanctuary retreat in Bali with her mum and elder sister Georgia.

Lydia's girls' trip comes after she confirmed she was back together with ex-boyfriend Lee Cronin, just three months after their split.

The former TOWIE star explained to Hello! magazine she had got back with her former flame because he realised she was the 'best thing that had happened to him'.

Coordinated: Lydia's mother and fellow former TOWIE co-star Debbie also made an appearance on stage, matching her daughter in red and white

She said: 'We had some time apart and then he realised I was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Lydia and Lee met in a nightclub in Ibiza in the summer of 2017, but split just four months later. They eventually reunited and moved in together in January 2018.

In an Instagram post in January, the reality star informed her fans that the pair had parted ways.

Hosting duties: Lydia accessorised her suit with a chic and sleek hair do and glam makeup

Celebrating: Debbie, 55, looked stunning in her bell sleeved red top and wide legged trousers

She wrote: 'Sometimes relationships dont work out but having time away to reflect on how lucky I am in my life, what I have achieved and who I have around me fills my heart with so much love.

'Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. Here is to my next chapter.'

Beforehand, Lydia had been in an explosive on-off romance with her TOWIE co-star James 'Arg' Argent, and after eight years of drama, the teenage sweethearts had finally called it quits in 2016.

Party spirit: She seemed to be having a great time in the blazing London sunshine

Back to business: Lydia and her mother returned from a idyllic trip to Bali just days ago

Love is also in the air for Lydia's parents, Debbie and Dave, who plan to tie the knot this year after 40 years together.

Lydia said: 'It makes me so happy that my parents are finally tying the knot. They've gone through ups and downs and they've worked very hard all their lives.

'They've always loved each other, but I feel like they're the happiest they've ever been.'

The couple have fostered more than 250 boys and girls between them as well as raising their four biological children; Georgia, Lydia, Freddie and Roma.He played a gun-toting gangster on mob drama The Sopranos.

But in real life, Michael Imperioli believes that guns 'do more harm than good' when in the hands of citizens.

The 53-year-old told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday: 'Outside of soldiers and policemen, if you can prove to me that having guns does more good than harm, then maybe that will change my mind.

All I see is more harm than good': On Saturday, The Sopranos star Michael Imperioli (pictured) praised Australia's gun control laws in an interview with The Daily Telegraph

'But all I see is more harm than good. You hear about the odd incident where some guy with a gun shoots the bad guy, but overwhelmingly it does more harm than good,' the American actor said.

Michael, who is visiting Australia next month to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first episode of The Sopranos, had praise for Australia's gun laws.

'Gun control has been very successful in Australia, from what I've heard it seems to be a big success,' he told the publication.

Shots fired: He played a gun-toting gangster on he Sopranos. But in real life, Michael Imperioli believes that guns 'do more harm than good'. Pictured on The Sopranos in 2005

The 53-year-old told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday: 'Outside of soldiers and policemen, if you can prove to me that having guns does more good than harm, then maybe that will change my mind.' Pictured on The Sopranos in 2005

Stance: Michael, who is visiting Australia next month to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first episode of The Sopranos, had praise for Australia's gun laws. 'Gun control has been very successful in Australia,' he told the publication. Pictured in 2019

'There were some horrible tragedies there and whatever laws they passed have helped things.'

The comments come The Sopranos movie was given a new title and a release date.

The film prequel to the acclaimed HBO drama series was formerly known as The Many Saints Of Newark, but is now simply called Newark, reported Variety.

The publication also revealed the film's release date: September 25, 2020.

Coming soon: The comments come The Sopranos movie was given a new title and a release date. The film prequel to the acclaimed HBO drama series was formerly known as The Many Saints Of Newark, but is now simply called Newark. Pictured: Original cast of The Sopranos

Legacy: The central character of Tony Soprano will be played by the son of James Gandolfini, Michael Gandolfini, 19 (pictured)

The central character of Tony Soprano will be played by the son of James Gandolfini, who made the role famous in the original series.

Michael Gandolfini, 19, will star in the David Chase-produced movie as the younger version of the character his late father portrayed.

James Gandolfini died suddenly, of a heart attack, at the age of 51 in Rome in 2013.

And Deadline.com reported that Ray Liotta, 64, is in negotiations to come on board the movie set at the time of tensions between African Americans and Italian Americans that led to riots in 1967 in Newark, New Jersey.Married At First Sight bride Melissa Lucarelli, 38, was left heartbroken after she failed to find love with Dino Hira on the dating series.

But on Sunday, the brunette stunner proved she was back to her best when she attended Jules Robinson and Cameron Merchant's engagement party.

The reality star was spotted arriving at the Sydney shindig, clad in a thigh-skimming pink mini-dress which flaunted the starlet's trim pins.

Thigh's the limit! MAFS 'bride' Melissa Lucarelli, 38, flaunted her trim pins in a pink mini-dress when she attended Jules Robinson and Cam Merchant's engagement party on Sunday

Mel looked simply stunning when she was spotted crossing the street, putting on an animated display by putting her hands-up.

The brunette beauty flaunted her svelte figure, clad in a tailored hot pink mini-dress which clung to her frame.

Mel stuck to the party vibe, with her stunning dress which was fringed with diamante on the edging.

The reality star accessorised with diamante strappy heels along with a matching handbag, which she wore over one shoulder.

Looking leggy: Mel proved she wasn't shy while flaunting her slender pins in the strapless party dress, which she paired with strappy heels with diamontes on them

Glam: The brunette beauty showed off her svelte figure, clad in a tailored hot pink mini-dress which clung to her frame

The reality star opted to wear her brunette hair out and curled for the reality star studded event, which she paired with a low-gloss makeup style.

Mel is known to have kept a close relationship with Jules, with the two women quite close following their time together on the show.

It comes after Mel teased her return to reality TV earlier this month, saying she would be interested in the proposed show, MAFS Honeymoon Island.

Beauty! The reality star opted to wear her brunette hair out and curled for the reality star studded event, which she paired with a low-gloss makeup style

Taking to Instagram, she first shared a number of revealing snaps of her in skimpy black bikinis, before captioning it: 'Ready and waiting for MAFS Honeymoon Island?'

In the first picture, Melissa undoubtedly stopped traffic as she posed in a black crop top bikini at the front entrance of Sydney's Bondi Bather swimwear store.

The brunette stunner, who accessorised with a straw hat and a pair of round shades, drew further attention to her lean legs as she balanced on her tip toes.The Strictly stars were out in force on Saturday night as the BBC show professionals Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara opened their Remembering The Movies theatre show.

Strictly 2019 finalist Ashley Roberts, 37, stood out as she arrived at the London Palladium with her beau, pro dancer Giovanni Pernice, 28.

Pussycat Doll Ashley looked gorgeous as she mixed a chic dress with quirky designer bum bag for the fun night out.

Strike a pose: Strictly 2019 finalist Ashley Roberts, 37, stood out in style as she arrived at the London Palladium with her beau, pro dancer Giovanni Pernice, 28, on Saturday night

Ashley showed off her tan in the fitted polka dot dress, which featured statement puff sleeves.

She accentuated her trim waist with her on-trend Gucci bum bag, while a pair of black heels and a pop of red lipstick completed the glam look.

Ashley arrived at the theatre hand in hand with Giovanni who sported grey skinny jeans and a brown blazer.

Showing some love: The Strictly stars were out in force as the BBC show professionals Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara opened their Remembering The Movies theatre show

The couple have been inseparable since striking up a romance after the 2018 series of Strictly wrapped.

While rumours swirled about the pair during the live shows, it wasn't until the series ended in December did the good looking pair confirm they were an item.

Just weeks after the series wrapped, Giovanni joined Ashley for Christmas in Miami.

Effortlessly cool: Pussycat Doll Ashley looked gorgeous as she mixed a chic dress with quirky designer bum bag for the fun night out

Speaking to Weekend Magazine in January, Ashley insisted their romance was in the early days, explaining: 'It's just starting now! This is when it's starting, but it's still early days!'

'Yes we are seeing each other. And now the show is done we can spend a bit more time together. We're getting to know each other, and it's nice.'

The 2018 series of Strictly sparked another romance as it was confirmed a week ago that winner Stacey Dooley is dating her professional partner Kevin Clifton, after splitting from her boyfriend of three years.He is dating 20-year-old Instagram model Lily Buhl.

But on Sunday, Married At First Sight's Billy Vincent arrived at Cameron Merchant and Jules Robinson's engagement party in Sydney without his new girlfriend.

Billy looked dapper in a navy suit and white shirt, which he paired with a black skinny tie and shiny dress shoes.

Where's Lily? MAFS' Billy Vincent arrived solo at Cameron and Jules' engagement party in Sydney on Sunday, just days after confirming his relationship with Instagram model Lily Buhl

Billy has been linked to several women since the Married At First Sight finale aired just two weeks ago.

He recently surprised fans by claiming her had 'a little something' with Tamara Joy on the show, but their dalliance wasn't shown on TV.

In an interview with Yahoo!, Billy said Tamara had reached out to him after discovering her husband Daniel Webb was having an affair with Jessika Power.

Dapper chap! Billy looked dapper in a navy suit and white shirt, which he paired with a black skinny tie and shiny dress shoes

However, Tamara claims it was actually Billy who made the first move.

'One dinner party Billy got extremely drunk and hit on me. He just kept saying, "I noticed you from the start, Tamara",' she told the website.

According to Tamara, this all took place while Billy's wife on the show, Susie Bradley, was in the room.

Rumour mill: Billy has been linked to several women since the Married At First Sight finale aired just two weeks ago, including co-star Tamara Joy (pictured)

Tamara said they started exchanging texts shortly afterwards, and with Dan distracted by Jessika, their relationship blossomed.

'I really got along with Billy and I really found him attractive and I found his sensitive side quite endearing because most guys are like white rice,' she added.

Billy was also recently linked to Lauren Huntriss after the pair shared a kiss on a night out in Sydney, but he has since confirmed they are just friends.

Romance: Earlier this month, Billy confirmed his relationship with Instagram model Lily Buhl

Earlier this month, Billy confirmed his relationship with Instagram model Lily Buhl.

'She's studying teaching and just an all-around sweetheart,' he told Daily Mail Australia, adding that they first met at a bar she was working at.

'She's not phased about publicity or exposure, which is great for my trust issues.'Advertisement

She often jets off to tropical locations with her beau Kris Boyson.

And Katie Price put aside some time for a much-needed break as she took a dip in the sea after travelling to a luxury resort on a recent trip to Koh Samui in Thailand.

The mother-of-five, 40, wore a daring neon yellow bikini as she relaxed on the beach at the Celes Beachfront Resort.

Relax: Katie Price put aside some time for a much-needed break as she took a dip in the sea after travelling to a luxury resort on a recent trip to Koh Samui

Katie could barely contain her jaw dropping cleavage in the tiny halterneck top - which was made up of two triangles of neon fabric held together by thin pieces of string.

The reality star's tattoos were on full show as she topped up her golden glow in the beautiful blue water.

Katie's golden locks were later seen drying on her shoulders as she posed for pictures on the quiet beach.

Candid: The reality star pushed her hair out of her face after taking a dip in the beautiful blue water in Thailand

Swim: Katie was also spotted swimming in the sea with her beau Kris Boyson in the snaps of their romantic Thai getaway

Beau: Katie's boyfriend Kris, 30, was also spotted enjoying the warm weather in a pair of blue swim shorts with his ink on show

Her beau Kris, 30, was also spotted enjoying the warm weather in a pair of blue swim shorts.

The personal trainer was later seen pulling his girlfriend's long blonde hair from the water as she sat in the shallow sea.

The photographs, taken during the couple's luxury getaway in March, came before the reality star took a trip to Mallorca to film for her new summer collection with clothing brand JYY London.

Jaw-dropping: Katie could barely contain her jaw dropping cleavage in the tiny halterneck top - which was made up of two triangles of neon fabric held together by thin pieces of string

Lovebirds: Personal trainer Kris, 30, pulled his girlfriend's golden locks out of the salt water as she sat in the shallow sea

Golden glow: Katie's golden locks were later seen drying on her shoulders as she posed for pictures on the quiet beach

The businesswoman also took some time away from her mummy duties to holiday in Ibiza with Kris and her mum Amy, 67, earlier in April.

Her children Bunny, four, and Jet, five, recently holidayed with their dad, Katie's ex-husband Kieran Hayler, and his girlfriend Michelle Pentecost in Majorca.

Princess, 11, and Junior, 13, were staying with their dad Peter Andre and his wife Emily MacDonagh as well as the couple's children while Katie was away.

Holiday: The businesswoman also took some time away from her mummy duties to holiday in Ibiza with Kris and her mum Amy, 67 earlier in April

Family: Katie's children Bunny, four, and Jet, five, are currently holidayed with their dad, Katie's ex-husband Kieran Hayler, and his girlfriend Michelle Pentecost in Majorca

Picture of summer: Katie adjusted her bikini top as she emerged from the water after taking a dip with boyfriend Kris

Meanwhile, she come under fire for leaving her eldest son Harvey, 16, at home with a 19-year-old nanny.

It was previously reported Katie is advertising for a live-in nanny/housekeeper to start right away at her West Sussex home.

Katie recently deliberately lead fans to believe she was engaged by sharing a photo of a giant diamond ring.

In the snap, the mother-of-five cosied up to Kris as she stroked his face with her hand, exposing the sparkler.

Joker: The reality star recently deliberately lead fans to believe she was engaged by sharing a photo of a giant diamond ring

Fake: In the snap, the mother-of-five cosied up to Kris as she stroked his face with her hand, exposing the a huge ring

Sizzle: The former glamour model made sure to keep her long locks out of her face as she headed back to the beach

Fans flocked to the comments section to congratulate the star on getting engaged, which wasn't a stretch to imagine as Kris previously revealed marriage and more kids are '100% on the cards' with Katie.

However, Katie has since admitted that she faked the whole thing, revealing she posted the teasing snap 'on purpose' in a bid to 'stir the pot'.

Speaking at the launch of her children's new clothing line at Ballie Ballerson last Monday, Katie said: 'I do it on purpose. You know what I'm like.

'Course I've gotta stir the pot, haven't I? I love it. It's a game. It's fun. Why not'. She added: 'Kris knows what I'm like'.

Revealed: Katie has since admitted that she faked the whole thing, revealing she posted the teasing snap 'on purpose' in a bid to 'stir the pot'The United Nations Secretariat Building overlooks the East River in New York City.

On my walks through Manhattan I sometimes stop and gaze at it to admire the impressive facade.

And then I think that what Im looking at is really a mirage.

Facade of the United Nations Secretariat Building [Photo: S/U]

Here, reported yesterday, is one reason for that:



President Trump on Friday abruptly reversed American policy toward Libya, issuing a statement publicly endorsing

an aspiring strongman in his battle to depose

the United Nations-backed government. . . .

Analysts said Trumps endorsement would hamper

United Nations efforts to call for a cease-fire.



Heres another reason: April 26  Speaking at a National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Indianapolis, Trump said he would never ratify the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty that was signed by former President Obama in 2013.









Her hit HBO television show Big Little Lies is set to return in just over a month.

But Zoe Kravitz was thousands of miles away from the lapping waves of Monterey, California on Saturday as she took to the streets in New York City.

The 30-year-old actress showed off her legs under short black shorts, despite the city's cool temperatures.

Hip: Zoe Kravitz was thousands of miles away from the lapping waves of Monterey, California on Saturday as she took to the streets in New York City.

The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them star looked to be mixing and matching styles as she walked south of Houston.

She pulled a hot pink raincoat over a black leather jacket that sat on top of a green vest.

Zoe had a grey turtleneck on beneath her three layers of outerwear and paired them with the jean shorts that highlighted her taut and slender legs.

She pulled the outfit together with black loafers and white crew-length socks and shaded her eyes with dark sunglasses.

Cool: The 30-year-old actress showed off her legs under short black shorts, despite the city's cool temperatures

Earleir this year, Zoe wrapped of filming for the second season of Big Little Lies, which is set to hit screens on June 9.

Zoe's personal life is also moving forward, as it was revealed in an October interview with Rolling Stone that she had been engaged to Karl Glusman for months without really telling anyone.

'Oh yeah, I'm engaged,' Kravitz confirmed once the reporter spotted a ring on her finger. 'I haven't told anyone yet  I mean, I haven't told the world. I wanted to keep it private.'

With conflicting schedules prolonging an initial Paris proposal, Karl apparently popped the question when the couple was relaxing at home in their living room.

'I was in sweatpants,' Kravitz said. 'I think I was a little drunk. And I love that it wasnt this elaborate plan in Paris. It was at home, in sweatpants.'His relationship with fellow Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison ended in tears in 2013.

But six years after their split, Ricci Guarnaccio has now revealed that he had 'anxiety' and 'suicidal thoughts' in the wake of the break-up.

The reality star, 32, revealed all in an interview with the Daily Star, in which he described his short-lived romance to the brunette beauty, 31, as 'volatile'.

Confession: Ricci Guarnaccio has now revealed that he had 'suicidal thoughts' in the wake of his break-up from Vicky Pattison

The couple met and fell in love while starring in the MTV reality show, with the pair even getting engaged.

But the they didn't make it down the aisle and called time on their relationship - which Ricci says was filled with 'constant fighting' - shortly after.

He told the publication: 'I loved her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. But for a lot of the time I didnt know what the situation was between us. I worried I couldnt trust her, which gave me anxiety.

'Then I started to get bad thoughts... suicidal ones and things like that. It builds up.'

Bitter end: The reality star, 32, described his short-lived romance to the brunette beauty, 31, as 'volatile'

The star went on to say his anxiety continued after their split an things didn't get much better after he left the show, with his life spiralling out of control.

He continued: 'I wasnt eating normally. I was smoking 40 cigarettes a day. I wasnt exercising. I was drinking a lot of vodka and wine. And its when youre drinking that you have suicidal thoughts.'

The pair saw each other again when they both appeared on Ex On The Beach, with Ricci stating that it was a 'nightmare' as he had no idea she would be on it.

MailOnline has contacted representative for Vicky for comment.

Honest: 'For a lot of the time I didnt know what the situation was between us. I worried I couldnt trust her, which gave me anxiety'

Ricci has since moved on from his relationship drama and got his life back on track.

He has embarked on an acting career and has even landed a role in Australian movie Boar.

Meanwhile, Vicky has since gone on to star on I'm A Celebrity, Judge Geordie and Loose Women.

She was engaged to John Noble, but the piar split in November 2018 when it emerged he had cheated.Simon Cowell is reportedly set to host the auditions for the forthcoming celebrity edition of The X Factor at his Los Angeles mansion.

A source told the Daily Star this weekend: 'Wheels are in motion to have the auditions at Simons house.

'Producers think this would make the series extra glitzy, which seems appropriate given the contestants will be celebs.

You're going to Hollywood: Simon Cowell is reportedly set to host the auditions for the forthcoming celebrity edition of The X Factor at his Los Angeles mansion

'Viewers are used to seeing auditions being held in chilly British cities. So having it against the backdrop of the LA sunshine would make things feel fresh and exciting.'

MailOnline have approached ITV for comment.

There is much speculation surrounding the new season of the show, which is said to be axing 'civilian' auditions in place for famous faces and past contestants.

As well as a celeb edition, it's said there will be an 'All Star' edition, with the hopes of luring back past success stories such as Leona Lewis, Shayne Ward and Fleur East, as well as the less-serious acts that went on to find fame such as Jedward, Wagner and Chico.

The decision to take The X Factor away from the UK for the audition round bodes well for all involved, given that last week it was reported Simon's London mansion is haunted.

Location location location: A source told the Daily Star this weekend - 'Wheels are in motion to have the auditions at Simons house'

Glam: 'Viewers are used to seeing auditions being held in chilly British cities. So having it against the backdrop of the LA sunshine would make things feel fresh and exciting,' they said

According to former-owner Christian Levett, the London property (which Simon purchased for 15 million to live in with partner Lauren Silverman and their five-year-old son Eric last October) is haunted by Antinous - the lover of Hadrian, the ruler of the Roman Empire from 117 to 138.

Levett claims, as reports The Sun, that he himself brought Antinous' spirit into the home when he purchased a statue of him in 2014, inadvertently unleashing the Bithynian Greek's spirit onto the property.

Who you gonna call? Simon's most recent real estate investment is said to have come with the soul of gay Roman god Antinous [R]

'It was delivered in a crate,' the hedge-fund billionaire said. 'When I was locking up, I heard the sound of heavy objects being knocked over from the drawing room where Antinous was still lying in his box. The same happened the next two nights. But there was nobody there.'

A further source has also claimed that Simon, 59, believes this is more than just an urban legend.

'Simon believes in spirits so hes been freaked out by this story. I dont think he was aware when he moved in. He might have to call a ghost-buster,' they said.

Further fuel has been added to this fire by a neighbour also weighing in on it.

The haunting of Cowell house: Simon purchased the mansion in October for 15 million as a home for him, his partner Lauren Silverman and their five-year-old son Eric

They said: 'I know when Christian lived there the family heard unexplained noises. Thered be a bump from a bedroom then the next night a noise from downstairs.'

The story of Antinous is a tragic one; he was a favourite of Hadrian and was known to be particularly 'beautiful'. The pair were fond of hunting together, so history reports.

It was widely presumed that the pair had a sexual relationship - and many were jealous of Antinous.

He died in October 130 under mysterious circumstances, when on a voyage along the Nile.

In need of an X-[Factor]-orcist? A further source has also claimed that Simon, 59, believes this is more than just an urban legend

He never returned, and the cause of his death remains a mystery to this day, with many speculating he was murdered by other members of the Empire, jealous of his bond with Hadrian.

Others have speculated that he fell and drowned in the Nile, while some believe he took his own life.

Following his death, Hadrian deified Antinous and created a cult devoted to him. Ever since his death he has been known as both a hero and as 'the gay god'.

Christians and Pagans attempted to quash the cult later in history, due to the homosexual undertones of it, but it is still considered to be alive and well.

Whether the Roman favourite has indeed latched on to the X Factor judge is to be determined - but Simon is no stranger to the paranormal.

Ghost-Bust-Er! The story of Antinous is a tragic one - having been a favourite of Hadrian, known to be particularly 'beautiful'. The pair were fond of hunting together, so history reports. It was widely presumed that the pair had a sexual relationship - and many were jealous of Antinous

Three years ago, he claimed he has always had contact with the other side.

'[The dead] just want to make contact and say hello,' he told The Sun. I had [a ghost] in my house when I was living in Kingston Hill. My mum and dad were staying with me and I heard this banging on the door.

'I went to their room and said: You were banging on my door? and they said: It wasnt us.

'There was a dog in the house freaking out too. The following day I heard this crashing noise and all the stuff had fallen in the kitchen. There was no logical explanation. There was no wind but there was definitely a presence. But I wasnt afraid.'

This encounter resulted in an exorcism, Simon later revealed.Caroline Flack has been seen at Dock 10 studios in Media City, Salford repeatedly this week.

But it was back to London for the Love Island presenter, 39, for the long weekend, seen stepping out in the capital on Easter Sunday.

The TV star embraced the hot weather in a simple black Tee, a rara skirt embellished with sparkles and a pair of taupe ankle boots.

Excess baggage? Caroline Flack embraced the Easter heat as she stepped out in sunny London in a tiny black Tee, a sparkling mini-skirt and shades on Sunday

The presenter kept the glare at bay with a pair of large dark shades and swept her sandy locks back behind her head, held in place with an Alice band.

The star headed to her car with a large leather black bag, donning a hat for the journey.

Caroline's outing comes after it was claimed she and rugby player Danny Cipriani enjoyed a 'two-day hook up' together at Babington House, Somerset, earlier this month.

Home ground: Caroline has been seen at Dock 10 studios in Media City, Salford repeatedly this week. But it was back to London for the Love Island presenter, 39, for the long weekend

Leggy: She was seen stepping out in the capital on Easter Sunday. The TV star embraced the hot weather in a simple black Tee, a rara skirt embellished with sparkles and a pair of taupe ankle boots

However, Caroline has reportedly 'ruled out' any sort of romance with the sportsman after their alleged fling.

According to reports, the host will not completely cut ties from Danny and will 'keep in touch'.

A source told The Sun: 'Caroline decided a romance with Danny is not a goer and has told people nothing much is going on.

On her way: The star headed to her car with a large leather black bag, donning a hat for the journey

'They were never very serious but are definitely not an item now. It is too soon for Caroline to think of anything serious  although she is still in touch with Danny.'

Rumours emerged of Caroline and Danny's reported romance after they were spotted sharing a goodbye kiss at Babington House - the location of Millie Mackintosh and Professor Green's 2015 wedding - in early April.

Kelly Brook's ex-boyfriend reportedly 'couldn't keep his hands off' the TV presenter, who is said to be actively dating after her split from Andrew Brady, 28.

An insider previously said that 'confident' Caroline took the lead on the romance, while Danny was 'clearly infatuated' with her.WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Mitt Romney says he's "sickened" by the dishonesty the Russia investigation found in the Trump White House, but the president fires back that Romney should have put the same energy into running for president in 2012 that the Utah Republican has tapped in criticizing him.

Romney also tweeted Friday that in reading the special counsel's report he was "appalled" Americans working on the Trump campaign had welcomed help from Russia.

On Saturday, Trump responded via Twitter, saying if Romney "spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)!"

In 2012 Romney won a slightly greater percentage of the popular vote than Trump in 2016. He's one of the few prominent Republicans to criticize Trump since Trump's election.

FILE - In this Friday Jan., 18, 2019 file photo, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, left, speaks with reporters after visiting with local officials to discuss how the four-week partial government shutdown is impacting an area with several major federal employers, including the Internal Revenue Service in Ogden, Utah. Sen. Mitt Romney says he's "sickened" by the dishonesty the Russia investigation found in the Trump White House. Now President Donald Trump is firing back at the Utah Republican, tweeting Saturday, April 20, 2019 that if Romney "spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)!" Romney has been one of the few prominent Republicans to criticize Trump since Trump's election. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)The archbishop of Paris and Catholics from around France and the world have honoured the firefighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral in prayers on Sunday at a special Easter Mass for a swift reconstruction of the beloved monument.

The fire that engulfed Notre Dame during Holy Week forced worshippers to find other places to attend Easter services, and the Paris diocese invited them to join Sundays Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache Church on the Right Bank of the Seine River.

Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit handed over a Bible that had been rescued from Notre Dame to the firefighters, who held a place of honour at Sundays service.

Firefighters assess the damage to Notre Dame Cathedral (Victoria Jones/PA)

Mr Aupetit thanked city officials for their support amid the drama of last Mondays fire, and especially you, those for whom this Mass is dedicated, the firefighters who struggled for nine hours to contain flames that consumed Notre Dames roof and collapsed its spire.

He notably thanked fire service chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who saved the most precious thing for Catholics from the fire, the chalice containing consecrated hosts that for Catholics are the body of Christ.

Police and a soldier guarded the entry to Sundays Mass, creating a long line to check bags before visitors could enter the 13th-century Saint-Eustache Church.

Sunday Mass at the Saint-Eustache church (Francisco Seco/AP)

It was unclear if the extra security was linked to an Easter Sunday attack on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 190 people and wounded nearly 500 others.

Notre Dames parishioners were joined by Catholics and others from around France and beyond.

Everyone is affected by what happened to Notre Dame, said Parisian Michel Ripoche.

Easter is a holiday we celebrate every year, all our lives. Clearly what happened at Notre Dame added to the importance of the service.

Peggy Godley, visiting from Chicago with her husband and two daughters, wanted to see what it was like to celebrate a Mass in Paris.

Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit, centre, leads Sundays Mass (Francisco Seco/AP)

We didnt get to see Notre Dame. We were hoping to be there, but its too late, she said.

Notre Dame is not expected to reopen to the public for five or six years, according to its rector, although the French president is pushing for a quick reconstruction.

Investigators believe the fire was an accident, possibly linked to renovation work.

Notre Dame Rector Patrick Chauvet said on Good Friday that he has plenty of hope, because I believe that from this suffering there will be a renaissance.

He said he would fight for speedy rebuilding work.

Culture Minister Franck Riester said most of the sensitive spots in the cathedral have been stabilised, including support structures above its prized rose windows.

There remain some sensitive points in the vaulted ceiling, and so teams from the Culture Ministry, construction companies are working to remove the rubble that remains on the ceiling and progressively cover it up.

And after that, we can say that the Notre Dame of Paris is saved, he said on France-2 television.VIENNA, April 21 (Reuters) - Austria's government plans to maintain a deficit-free budget until 2023, local news agency APA quoted Chancellor Sebastian Kurz as saying on Sunday.

Kurz's right-wing coalition government, in office since December 2017, has made fiscal discipline one of its priorities, and the country posted a budget surplus of 0.1 percent of gross domestic product - its first in more than four decades - in 2018, helped by a sharp increase in tax revenues..

Finance Minister Hartwig Loeger said in January he expected a surplus of 730 million euros this year.

"We as the federal government want to continue to operate without new debt and without new taxes for the following four years and consistently place the national budget on a solid footing," Kurz was quoted as telling APA.

($1 = 0.8891 euros) (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; editing by John Stonestreet)By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, April 21 (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in his Easter Sunday address, condemned as "such cruel violence" the bombings in Sri Lanka that killed more than 100 people and were timed to coincide with the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar.

Francis, speaking to a crowd of about 70,000 people in St. Peter's Square, also urged politicians to shun a new arms race that was budding and to welcome refugees fleeing hunger and human rights violations.

The blasts in Sri Lanka, which hospital and police officials said killed at least 138 people and wounded more than 400 people, followed a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

"I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka," Francis said in his traditional Easter Sunday "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message.

"I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence," the pope, who visited Sri Lanka in 2015, said.

Speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, he appealed for peace in conflict areas.

"Before the many sufferings of our time, may the Lord of life not find us cold and indifferent," he said, speaking in Italian after celebrating a Mass in the square.

"May he make us builders of bridges, not walls. May the One who gives us his peace end the roar of arms, both in areas of conflict and in our cities, and inspire the leaders of nations to work for an end to the arms race and the troubling spread of weaponry, especially in the economically more advanced countries," he said.

Francis has made defence of migrants a key feature of his pontificate and has clashed over the immigration with politicians such as U.S. President Donald Trump and Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini who leads the anti-immigrant League party and has closed Italy's ports to rescue ships operated by charities.

Easter commemorates the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead.

"May the Risen Christ, who flung open the doors of the tomb, open our hearts to the needs of the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the poor, the unemployed, the marginalized, and all those who knock at our door in search of bread, refuge, and the recognition of their dignity," Francis said.

He called for a solution to the conflict in Syria that responds to "people's legitimate hopes for freedom, peace and justice" and favours the return of refugees.

Francis urged dialogue in order to end fighting in Libya, appealing to both sides to "choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability".

He called for politicians in Venezuela "to end social injustices, abuses and acts of violence, and take the concrete steps needed to heal divisions and offer the population the help they need".

Francis encouraged the fragile peace process in mostly Christian South Sudan, whose leaders attended an unprecedented spiritual retreat earlier this month at the Vatican where he begged them to avoid returning to a civil war. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Susan Fenton)Kidnappings rampant in Nigeria, where both locals and foreigners are targeted

Woman traveled from Lagos as tourist and was attending party before incident

The British High Commission has named the woman as Faye Mooney, 29

The family of a British aid worker shot dead by kidnappers at a holiday resort in Nigeria say she was 'an inspiration'.

Faye Mooney was among two people shot dead as armed kidnappers stormed a party in Kajuru Castle resort in Kaduna State on Friday.

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A Nigerian man was also killed at the resort, where a group of 12 tourists had travelled from Lagos earlier last week.

The British High Commission named the woman as Faye Mooney and said it was aware of the incident that happened late on Friday but added it would not speculate on the motive or nature of attack

Ms Mooney's family said her memory will 'always be cherished' in a statement today.

They told The Guardian: 'Faye was an inspiration to her family, friends, students and work colleagues. Her bravery and her belief in a better society took her to places others feared.

'We are so proud of who she was and of everything she achieved in her short life.'

Kidnappings are rampant in Nigeria, where both locals and foreigners are targeted - mostly for ransom.

The aid worker, 29, from Manchester, was employed in Nigeria by a non-governmental organisation called Mercy Corps.

She traveled from Lagos as a tourist and was attending a party before the incident happened, police said.

The kidnappers also killed a Nigerian man and kidnapped three others after gaining entry to the Kajuru Castle resort (pictured) in Kaduna State

Neal Keny-Guyer, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps said they are 'heartbroken' at the loss of the 'dedicated' Ms Mooney.

He said: 'Faye was a dedicated and passionate communications and learning specialist who had worked with Mercy Corps for almost two years, devoting her time to making a difference in Nigeria, supporting our teams and the communities we work with to tell their stories of impact, and leading efforts to counter hate speech and violence.

The British High Commission named the woman killed as Faye Mooney and said it was aware of the incident that happened late on Friday

'A graduate of University College London and the London School of Economics who had taught in Iraq and worked in Kosovo to combat human trafficking, Faye was deeply committed to fostering cross-cultural collaboration and was an inspiration to us all.'

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There has been no claim of responsibility for the incident and the kidnappers have yet to be identified, police said.

Mooney was employed in Nigeria by a non-governmental organisation called Mercy Corps. Her next of kin have been notified, the British High Commission said.

'Some suspected kidnappers armed with dangerous weapons gained entry into a recreational resort called Kajuru Castle in Kajuru local government area shooting sporadically and in the process shot dead two persons, including an expatriate lady, and took away three others,' Kaduna state police spokesman said.

The police did not name the other person killed.

The aid worker, who was employed in Nigeria by a non-governmental organisation called Mercy Corps, traveled from Lagos as a tourist and was attending a party before the incident happened, police said

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Northern Nigeria is plagued by a Boko Haram and Islamic State insurgency as well as clashes between farmers and herders in which hundreds have died.

'We are engaging with the Nigerian authorities, and we understand an investigation is underway,' the British High Commission said in a statement.

President Muhammadu Buhari won re-election for another four years in February, pledging to improve security in Nigeria, boost economic growth and fight corruption.

In 2014, more than 270 schoolgirls were abducted from the town of Chibok propelling the Boko Haram insurgency into the spotlight, prompting the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

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Some of the girls remain in captivity five year later.Until 2018 in India, straight or gay, every time you were at the receiving or giving end of a blowjob, you were technically committing a crime.

Lets face it  until the Supreme Court finally struck down Section 377, most of us werent exactly law-abiding citizens.

Im not entirely sure why weve only seen this section through LGBTQ-tinted glasses  but hey, I say with so much pride that were amongst a handful of countries in the world that now wave the Pride flag in a way thats befittingly called happy and gay.

Brunei, however, a tiny Asian island nation  one of the richest countries in the world  found itself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons recently.

The world sat up and took notice at the possibility of homosexual men and women who could soon find themselves being stoned to death under a newly passed Sharia Law. For a nation where citizens pay no tax, where the ruling monarch is also the Prime Minister and his rule is absolute, theres little the outside world can do about this complete violation of human rights.

What can the outside world do about this complete violation of human rights? (Source: Reuters)

Britain, while twiddling its thumbs with Brexit, mildly suggested that Brunei might find itself out of the Commonwealth. But empty threat or not, thats hardly going to do anything to a country thats entirely self-governed, self-sufficient  and quite honestly, is at the right end of Oil and Gas Trade.

But the question is, why is Brunei being such a dick, or, in this case, a pain in the ass? Pun absolutely intended!

India, Indian actors, our cinema, our shows, our literature and our temples with erotic carvings tie us deeply to a past that once celebrated sex.

While we may have lost our way for a few hundred years under British rule, weve managed to stagger back onto a path thats most certainly considered liberal. I feel so immensely proud of the fact that today, India is being looked up to for accepting people, regardless of sexuality.

Every time you find yourself complaining about some problem with Indian politics or some other petty rant about Bharat Mata, you must remember that way back in 2009, India began recognising Hijras as a third gender. Again, pretty forward thinking for a country that finds itself walking the thin line between tradition and being a global superpower.

Can Brunei win the battle India won in 2018? (Source: Reuters)

FYI, less than 20 countries in the world recognise the third gender.

Yes, my desi friends, we are one of them.

I vacationed in Thailand for a fortnight a few months ago. In the midst of all the Ladyboys and the Gogo boys with shiny neon thongs, it was always fun to run into Indian men or couples at ping pong shows. Hindi remarks in a foreign land always stand out. And while we may have our own reasons for heading to Bangkok and Pattaya to relieve ourselves of some desi bhadaas with mindless massages and 'boom-booms' for 1,500 Thai Baht, its just an escape for us.

Its not a life and death situation like the thousands of Russian gay men who find themselves going on Thai holidays because the Kremlin is likely to imprison them for life if they were doing this back home!

I know, this India pride seems odd, considering were past Republic Day and Independence Day is still a few months away, but thats exactly it  sometimes, we need to look out of the window to realise how comfortable home is.

View this post on Instagram We need to talk about this BEFORE lives are lost A post shared by Paras Tomar (@parastomar) on Apr 4, 2019 at 7:05am PDT

Brunei, with a population of just over 4 lakh people, hardly seems like a country that might want to divide itself into minority groups based on sexuality  but all too soon, we could hear of gay men in that nation being stoned to death. Lesbians will be let off  after 100 whip lashes.

Is there anything we can do from India to explain to the second longest ruling monarch in the world that what theyre doing is barbaric, primitive and just cruel?

Were becoming the dossier for the world. From yoga and the Kamasutra to zero and Vedic maths, ancient India contributed tremendously to the outside world. With over 460 million Internet users, can't modern India raise its voice to show the world what it should be?

For every squabble between the bhakts and others, remember, we did win the battle which is why we can say love is love. And Brunei should take a lesson from our desi handbook.

They may have messed up as we once did.

But they can still fix this in time.

Also read: How to be an actor in a Netflix-Amazon age of openness American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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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.Exchange Income Corporation engages in aerospace and aviation services and equipment, and manufacturing businesses worldwide. It operates through two segments, Aerospace & Aviation, and Manufacturing. The Aerospace & Aviation segment offers scheduled airline and charter services, and emergency medical services to communities located in Manitoba, Ontario, and Nunavut, as well as Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. It also provides after-market aircraft, engines, and component parts to regional airline operators; designs, modifies, maintains, and operates custom sensor equipped aircraft; and offers maritime surveillance and support services in Canada, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. In addition, this segment provides pilot flight training services. The Manufacturing segment manufactures window wall systems primarily used in high-rise multi-family residential projects; stainless steel tanks, vessels, and processing equipment; heavy duty pressure washing and steam systems, commercial water recycling systems, and custom tanks for the transportation of oil, gasoline, and water products; precision parts and components primarily used in the aerospace and defense sector; electrical and control systems integrator focused on the agricultural material handling; and precision sheet metal and tubular products. This segment also focuses on the engineering, design, manufacture, and construction of communication infrastructure, as well as provision of technical services. Exchange Income Corporation is headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada.

Read MoreCentrica plc operates as an integrated energy company in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, North America, and internationally. The company operates through British Gas, Energy Marketing & Trading, Centrica Business Solutions, Bord GAis Energy, and Upstream segments. It supplies gas and electricity to residential customers, as well as offers energy-related services; and generates power from combined cycle gas turbines and nuclear assets. The company also provides installation, repair, and maintenance services for domestic central heating, plumbing and drains, home electrical, and gas and kitchen appliances; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, as well as offers breakdown services. In addition, it is involved in the procurement, trading, and optimization of energy; procurement and sale of LNG; and supplies energy efficiency solutions and technologies to residential customers. Further, the company produces and processes gas and oil; develops new fields to maintain reserves; constructs, owns, and exploits infrastructure; and engages in the social enterprise investment fund activities. Additionally, it provides vehicle leasing, commercial, and insurance services, as well as energy management products and services; and operates a gas storage and franchise network. The company was formerly known as Yieldtop plc and changed its name to Centrica plc in December 1996. Centrica plc was incorporated in 1995 and is based in Windsor, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreDeutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.

Read MoreGuyana Goldfields Inc. provides exploration and production of gold. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of gold mineral properties. The company also owns and operates gold drilling rights. The company was formerly known as Chiboug Copper Company Limited and changed its name to Guyana Goldfields Inc. in January 1995. Guyana Goldfields Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As of August 25, 2020, Guyana Goldfields Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited.

Read MoreBNP Paribas SA provides a range of banking and financial services in France and internationally. It operates through two divisions, Retail Banking and Services, and Corporate and Institutional Banking. The company offers long-term corporate vehicle leasing, and rental and other financing solutions; and digital banking and investment services, cash management, and factoring services to corporate clients, as well as wealth management services. It also provides credit solutions for individuals under the Cetelem, Cofinoga, Findomestic, AlphaCredit, and Opel Vauxhall brands; savings and protection solutions, including insuring individuals, and their personal projects and assets; and asset management, private banking, and real estate services. In addition, the company offers global market services, including investment, hedging, financing, research, and market intellingence across asset classes; security services comprising clearing, custody, and asset and fund services, as well as corporate trust, and market and financing services; and corporate trade and treasury, debt financing, specialized financing, strategic advisory, mergers and acquisition, and equity capital market services for institutional and corporate clients. The company was formerly known as Banque Nationale de Paris and changed its name to BNP Paribas SA in May 2000. BNP Paribas SA was founded in 1848 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

Read MoreTele Columbus AG, together with its subsidiaries, operates fiber optic networks in Germany. The company operates in two segments, TV, and Internet and Telephony. The company offers analogue, digital TV, and radio broadcasting services. Its digital entertainment platform offers approximately 250 TV channels, and 60 digital radio stations. The company also provides internet and telephony, and mobile telephony services. In addition, it engages in the B2B business that comprises products to provide carrier companies with bandwidth and business client networking services, and business clients with internet and telephony services, as well as network monitoring and data center marketing services. Further, the company offers construction services to install fiber optic networks or connecting residential areas. It sells its end user products under the PYUR name. As of December 31, 2020, it served approximately 3.3 million residential units. The company was formerly known as Tele Columbus Holding GmbH and changed its name to Tele Columbus AG in September 2014. Tele Columbus AG was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

Read MoreTrevali Mining Corporation, a base-metals mining company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties. It primarily explores for zinc, lead, silver, gold, and copper deposits. The company's operational assets include the 90%-owned Perkoa Mine in Burkina Faso; 90%-owned Rosh Pinah Mine in Namibia; Caribou Mine in the Bathurst mining camp, northern New Brunswick, Canada; and Santander Mine in Peru. It also holds an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Heath Steele deposit located in New Brunswick, Canada, as well as holds interests in the Halfmile, Stratmat, and Restigouche properties situated in New Brunswick, Canada; Ruttan Mine located in northern Manitoba, Canada; and Gergarub Project situated in Namibia. The company was formerly known as Trevali Resources Corp. and changed its name to Trevali Mining Corporation in April 2011. Trevali Mining Corporation was incorporated in 1964 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Read MoreThere is not enough analysis data for Eaton Vance Senior Floating-Rate Trust.

4.0 Community Rank

Outperform Votes Eaton Vance Senior Floating-Rate Trust has received 58 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.)

Underperform Votes Eaton Vance Senior Floating-Rate Trust has received 40 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.)

Community Sentiment Eaton Vance Senior Floating-Rate Trust has received 59.18% outperform votes from our community.

MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Eaton Vance Senior Floating-Rate Trust and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe EFR will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe EFR will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days.

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NextLloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates through three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance and Wealth. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings accounts, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, credit cards, and other financial services to personal and small business customers. The Commercial Banking segment provides lending, transactional banking, working capital management, risk management, and debt capital market services to small and medium-sized entities, corporates, and financial institutions. The Insurance and Wealth segment offers life, home, and car insurance products; and pension, investment, and wealth management products and services. It also provides digital and mobile banking, and telephone services, as well as advisory services for savings, investments, and planning for retirement. The company offers its products and services under the Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, Schroders Personal Wealth, Black Horse, Lex Autolease, Birmingham Midshires, LDC, IWeb, and Agricultural Mortgage Corporation brands. Lloyds Banking Group plc was founded in 1695 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreBank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services to institutional, retail, and high net worth investors. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, balance sheet management, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 1,400 bank branches and 4,800 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Read More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.The following companies are subsidiares of BlackRock: Acero Cooperatief U.A., Acero Holdings I B.V., Amethyst Merger Sub LLC, AnalytX Hosting LLC, AnalytX LLC, AnalytX Software LLC, Aperio, Aperio, Aquila Heywood, Asia-Pacific Private Credit Opportunities Fund I (GenPar) Ltd., BAA Holdings LLC, BFM Holdco LLC, BLK (Gallatin) Holdings LLC, BLK SMI LLC, BR Acquisition Mexico S.A. de C.V., BR Jersey International Holdings L.P., Beijing eFront Software Company Limited, BlackRock (Barbados) Finco 1 SRL, BlackRock (Channel Islands) Limited, BlackRock (Luxembourg) S.A., BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V., BlackRock (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock (Singapore) Holdco II Pte. Ltd., BlackRock (Singapore) Holdco Pte. Limited, BlackRock (Singapore) Limited, BlackRock AP Investment Holdco LLC, BlackRock Advisors (UK) Limited, BlackRock Advisors LLC, BlackRock Advisors Singapore Pte. Limited, BlackRock Alternative Advisors GP Holdings LLC, BlackRock Alternatives Management LLC, BlackRock Argentina Asesorias Ltda., BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Deutschland AG, BlackRock Asset Management International Inc., BlackRock Asset Management Investor Services Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Ireland Limited, BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited, BlackRock Asset Management Schweiz AG, BlackRock Asset Management UK Limited, BlackRock Australia Holdco Pty. Ltd., BlackRock Brasil Gestora de Investimentos Ltda., BlackRock Cal 1 Investor LLC, BlackRock Canada Holdings LP, BlackRock Canada Holdings ULC, BlackRock Capital Holdings Inc., BlackRock Capital Investment Advisors LLC, BlackRock Capital Management Inc., BlackRock Cayco Limited, BlackRock Cayman 1 LP, BlackRock Cayman Capital Holdings Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco 2 Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco 3 Limited, BlackRock Cayman Finco Limited, BlackRock Cayman West Bay Finco Limited, BlackRock Cayman West Bay IV Limited, BlackRock Cayman Z Limited, BlackRock Channel Islands Holdco Limited, BlackRock Chile Asesorias Limitada, BlackRock Colombia Holdco LLC, BlackRock Colombia Infraestructura S.A.S., BlackRock Colombia SAS, BlackRock Company Secretarial Services (UK) Limited, BlackRock Corporation US Inc., BlackRock Delaware Holdings Inc., BlackRock Enterprise Management Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Europe Development Management Limited, BlackRock Execution Services, BlackRock Finance Europe Limited, BlackRock Financial Management Inc., BlackRock Finco LLC, BlackRock Finco UK Ltd., BlackRock First Partner Limited, BlackRock France SAS, BlackRock Fund Advisors, BlackRock Fund Management Company S.A., BlackRock Fund Managers Limited, BlackRock Funding International Ltd., BlackRock Funds Services Group LLC, BlackRock Germany GmBH, BlackRock Group Limited, BlackRock HK Holdco Limited, BlackRock Holdco 2 Inc., BlackRock Holdco 3 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 4 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 5 LLC, BlackRock Holdco 6 LLC, BlackRock Hungary Kft, BlackRock Index Services LLC, BlackRock Infrastructure Management I LLC, BlackRock Institutional Services Inc., BlackRock Institutional Trust Company National Association, BlackRock International Holdings Inc., BlackRock International Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Australia) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Dublin) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Korea) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Investment Management (Taiwan) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited, BlackRock Investment Management Ireland Holdings Limited, BlackRock Investment Management LLC, BlackRock Investments LLC, BlackRock Japan Co. Ltd., BlackRock Japan Holdings GK, BlackRock Jersey Finco 2 Limited, BlackRock Latin America Holdco LLC, BlackRock Latin American Holdings B.V., BlackRock Life Limited, BlackRock Lux Finco S.a r.l., BlackRock Luxembourg Holdco S.a r.l., BlackRock Mexican Holdco B.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura I S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura II S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Infraestructura III S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager II S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager III S. de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Manager S de R.L. de C.V., BlackRock Mexico Operadora S.A. de C.V. Sociedad Operadora de Fondos de Inversion, BlackRock Mortgage Ventures LLC, BlackRock Niagara LLC, BlackRock Operations (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., BlackRock Overseas Investment Fund Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BlackRock PC Holdings LLC, BlackRock Pensions Limited, BlackRock Peru Asesorias S.A., BlackRock Property Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., BlackRock Property France S.a.r.l., BlackRock Property Lux S.a.r.l., BlackRock Property Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., BlackRock Realty Advisors Inc., BlackRock Saudi Arabia, BlackRock Scale Holdings LLC, BlackRock Services India Private Limited, BlackRock Singapore III Pte. Ltd., BlackRock Slovakia s.r.o., BlackRock Strategic Investors GP LLC, BlackRock Strategic Investors LP, BlackRock Trident Holding Company Limited, BlackRock UK (Alpha) Limited, BlackRock UK (Beta) Limited, BlackRock UK (Delta) LP, BlackRock UK (Gamma) Limited, BlackRock UK (Sigma) Limited, BlackRock UK 2 LLP, BlackRock UK 3 LLP, BlackRock UK 4 LLP, BlackRock UK A LLP, BlackRock UK Holdco 2 Limited, BlackRock UK Holdco Limited, Blackhawk Investment Holding LLC, CIE Automotive, Cachematrix Holdings, Cachematrix Holdings LLC, Cachematrix Integrations Private Limited, Cachematrix Software Solutions LLC, Cachematrix UK Limited, FutureAdvisor Inc., Glass Mountain Pipeline, Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Advisors LLC, Global Energy & Power Infrastructure II Advisors LLC, Grosvenor Alternate Partner Limited, Grosvenor Ventures Limited, HLX Financial Holdings LLC, MGPA (Bermuda) Limited, MGPA (Exec) Limited, MGPA Limited, Mercury Carry Company Ltd., Mercury Private Equity MUST 3 (Jersey) Limited, Object Capital Technology Inc., Phoenix Acquisition B.V., Phoenix Acquisitions Holdings LLC, Portfolio Administration & Management Ltd., Prestadora de Servicios Integrales BlackRock Mexico S.A. de C.V., SVOF/MM LLC, St. Albans House Nominees (Jersey) Ltd., State Street Research & Management, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, Tlali Acero S.A. de C.V. SOFOM ENR, Trident Merger LLC, eFront, eFront, eFront (Jersey) Limited, eFront DMLT Holdings LLC, eFront DMLT Holdings S.R.L, eFront DR S.R.L, eFront Do Brasil Solucoes Informaticas Para Sistemas Financeiros Ltda., eFront FZ-LLC, eFront Financial Solutions Inc., eFront GmbH, eFront Holding II SAS, eFront Holdings SAS, eFront Hong Kong Limited, eFront II SAS, eFront Kabushiki Kaisha, eFront Ltd, eFront SAS, eFront Singapore Pte. Ltd, eFront Software Luxembourg S.a r.l., eFront Solutions Financeieres Inc., eFront d.o.o. Beograd, iShares (DE) I Investmentaktiengesellschaft mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, and iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC.The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..Melrose Industries PLC engages in the aerospace, automotive, powder metallurgy, air management, and other industrial businesses in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, North America, and internationally. Its Aerospace segment provides airframe and engine structures, and electrical interconnection systems for the aerospace industry in civil airframe and defense platforms. The company's Automotive segment designs, develops, manufactures, and integrates driveline technologies; and epowertrains and intelligent all-wheel drive systems. Its Powder Metallurgy segment offers precision automotive components and components for industrial and consumer applications; metal powder for powder metallurgy; and additive manufacturing parts for prototypes. The company's Nortek Air Management segment manufactures and sells ventilation products for the professional remodeling and replacement, residential new construction, and consumer DIY markets. This segment also manufactures and sells split-system and packaged air conditioners, heat pumps, furnaces, air handlers, and parts for the residential replacement and new construction markets; and custom designed and engineered products and systems for non-residential applications. Its Other Industrial segment provides turbo generators, transformers, and switchgears; develops and manufactures security, home automation, and access control technologies for the residential and commercial markets; and designs, manufactures, and distributes ergonomic products for use in a various working, learning, and healthcare environments. The company was formerly known as New Melrose Industries PLC and changed its name to Melrose Industries PLC in November 2015. Melrose Industries PLC was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Centene: APS Parent Inc., AWC of Syracuse Inc., Absolute Total Care Inc., AcariaHealth Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #11 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #12 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #13 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #14 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy Inc., AcariaHealth Solutions Inc., Access Medical Acquisition LLC, Access Medical Group of Florida City LLC, Access Medical Group of Hialeah LLC, Access Medical Group of Lakeland LLC, Access Medical Group of Miami LLC, Access Medical Group of North Miami Beach LLC, Access Medical Group of Opa-Locka LLC, Access Medical Group of Perrine LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa II LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa III LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa LLC, Access Medical Group of Westchester LLC, Accountable Care Coalition Direct Contracting LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Chesapeake LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers III LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers IV LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers V LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VI LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VII LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Florida Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland Primary Care LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Mississippi LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of New Jersey Inc., Accountable Care Coalition of North Texas LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northwest Florida LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Prime Health LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health III LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Physician Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Texas Inc., Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Tennessee LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Texas Inc., Agate Resources Inc., AirLogix, Ambetter of Magnolia Inc., Ambetter of North Carolina Inc., Ambetter of Peach State Inc., America's 1st Choice California Holdings LLC, American Progressive Life and Health Insurance Company of New York, Apixio, Apixio Inc, Arch Personalized Medicine Initiative LLC, Arkansas Health & Wellness Health Plan Inc., Arkansas Total Care Holding Company LLC, Arkansas Total Care Inc., B2B Gestion Integra S.L.U., B2B Salud S.L.U., Bankers Reserve Life Insurance Company of Wisconsin, Blackcrow Asistencia Medica S.L, Bridgeway Health Solutions LLC, Bridgeway Health Solutions of Arizona Inc., Buckeye Community Health Plan Inc., Buckeye Health Plan Community Solutions Inc., CCTX Holdings LLC, CMC Real Estate Company LLC, CT Poprad s.r.o., CT Presov s.r.o., Calibrate Acquisition Company, California Health and Wellness Plan, Cantina Laredo Clayton LP, Cardium Health Services, Care 1st Health Plan of Arizona Inc., Care1st Health Plan Administrative Services Inc., Carolina Complete Health Holding Company Partnership, Carolina Complete Health Inc., Casenet LLC, Casenet S.R.O., CeltiCare Health Plan Holdings LLC, CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts Inc., Celtic Group Inc., Celtic Insurance Company, Cenpatico Behavioral Health LLC, Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona LLC, Cenpatico of Arizona Inc., Centene Center I LLC, Centene Center II LLC, Centene Center LLC, Centene Company of Texas LP, Centene Europe Finance Company Limited, Centene Health Plan Holdings Inc., Centene Institute for Advanced Health Education LLC, Centene International Ventures LLC, Centene Investments LLC, Centene Management Company LLC, Centene Venture Company Alabama Health Plan Inc., Centene Venture Company Florida Inc., Centene Venture Company Illinois Inc., Centene Venture Company Indiana Inc., Centene Venture Company Kansas Inc., Centene Venture Company Michigan Inc., Centene Venture Company Tennessee Inc., Centro Inmunologocia De La Comunidad Valenciana S.L., Centurion Correctional Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, Centurion Detention Health Services LLC, Centurion LLC, Centurion of Arizona LLC, Centurion of Delaware LLC, Centurion of Florida LLC, Centurion of Kansas LLC, Centurion of Minnesota LLC, Centurion of Mississippi LLC, Centurion of New Hampshire LLC, Centurion of Pennsylvania LLC, Centurion of Tennessee LLC, Centurion of Vermont LLC, Centurion of West Virginia LLC, Centurion of Wyoming LLC, Chrysalis Medical Services LLC, Clinica Santo Domingo De Lugo S.L., Collaborative Health Systems IPA LLC, Collaborative Health Systems LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Maryland LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Virginia LLC, Comfort Hospice of Missouri LLC, Comfort Hospice of Texas LLC, ComfortBrook Hospice LLC, Community Medical Group, Community Medical Holdings Corporation, Comprehensive Health Management Inc., Comprehensive Reinsurance Ltd., Coordinated Care Corporation, Coordinated Care of Washington Inc., Country Style Health Care LLC, Discare CZ a.s., District Community Care Inc., Dr Magnet s.r.o., Elche-Crevillente Salud, Envolve Benefits Options Inc., Envolve Captive Insurance Company Inc., Envolve Dental IPA of New York Inc., Envolve Dental Inc., Envolve Dental of Florida Inc., Envolve Dental of Texas Inc., Envolve Health, Envolve Holdings Inc., Envolve Inc., Envolve Optical Inc., Envolve PeopleCare Inc., Envolve Pharmacy IPA LLC, Envolve Pharmacy Solutions Inc., Envolve Total Vision Inc., Envolve Vision Benefits Inc., Envolve Vision IPA of New York Inc., Envolve Vision Inc., Envolve Vision of Florida Inc., Envolve Vision of Texas Inc., Essential Care Partners LLC, Exactus Pharmacy Solutions Inc., Family Nurse Care II LLC, Family Nurse Care LLC, Family Nurse Care of Ohio LLC, Fidelis Care, Forensic Health Services LLC, Foundation Care LLC, Godgrace Asistencia Medica S.L., Golden Triangle Physician Alliance, Grace Hospice of Austin LLC, Grace Hospice of Grand Rapids LLC, Grace Hospice of Illinois LLC, Grace Hospice of Indiana LLC, Grace Hospice of San Antonio LLC, Grace Hospice of Virginia LLC, Grace Hospice of Wisconsin LLC, Granite State Health Plan Inc., Growly Asistencia Sanitaria S.L., HHS Texas Management Inc., HHS Texas Management LP, Hallmark Life Insurance Company, Harmony Behavioral Health IPA Inc., Harmony Behavioral Health Inc., Harmony Health Management Inc., Harmony Health Plan Inc., Harmony Health Systems Inc., Health Care Enterprises LLC, Health Net Access Inc., Health Net Community Solutions Inc., Health Net Community Solutions of Arizona Inc., Health Net Federal Services LLC, Health Net Health Plan of Oregon Inc., Health Net LLC, Health Net Life Insurance Company, Health Net Life Reinsurance Company, Health Net Pharmaceutical Services, Health Net of Arizona Inc., Health Net of California Inc., Health Plan Real Estate Holdings Inc., HealthSmart Benefit Solutions Inc., HealthSmart Benefits Management LLC, HealthSmart Care Management Solutions LP, HealthSmart Information Systems Inc., HealthSmart Preferred Care II LP, HealthSmart Preferred Network II Inc., HealthSmart Primary Care Clinics LP, HealthSmart Rx Solutions Inc., Healthy Louisiana Holdings LLC, Healthy Missouri Holdings Inc., Healthy Washington Holdings Inc., Heritage Health Systems Inc., Heritage Health Systems of Texas Inc., Heritage Home Hospice LLC, Heritage Physician Networks, Home State Health Plan Inc., HomeScripts.com LLC, Hospice DME Company LLC, Hospinet S.L., Hospital Polusa S.A., Hospital Povisa S.A., Hudson Accountable Care LLC, IAH of Florida LLC, Illinois Health Practice Alliance LLC, Infraestructuras y Servicios de Alzira S. L., Integrated Care Network of Florida LLC, Integrated Mental Health Management LLC, Integrated Mental Health Services, Interpreta Holdings Inc., Interpreta Inc., Iowa Total Care Inc., Kentucky Spirit Health Plan Inc., LBB Industries Inc., LifeShare Management Group LLC, LiveHealthier Inc., Louisiana Healthcare Connections Inc., MH Services International Holdings (UK) Limited, MHM, MHM Correctional Services LLC, MHM Health Professionals LLC, MHM Services Inc., MHM Services of California LLC, MHM Solutions LLC, MHN Government Services LLC, MHN Services LLC, MHS Consulting International Inc., MHS Travel & Charter Inc., MR Centrum Melnick s.r.o., MR Poprad s.r.o., MR Zilina s.r.o., Magnolia Health Plan Inc., Managed Health Network, Managed Health Network LLC, Managed Health Services Insurance Corporation, Maryland Collaborative Care LLC, Maryland Collaborative Care Transformation Organization Inc., Mauli Ola Health and Wellness Inc., Medicina NZ spol s.r.o., Meridian Health Plan of Illinois Inc., Meridian Health Plan of Michigan Inc., Meridian Management Company LLC, Meridian Network Services LLC, MeridianRx IPA LLC, MeridianRx LLC, MeridianRx of Indiana LLC, Michigan Complete Health, Mid-Atlantic Collaborative Care LLC, Nebraska Total Care Inc., Network Providers LLC, New York Quality Healthcare Corporation, Next Door Neighbors Inc., Next Door Neighbors LLC., North Florida Health Services Inc., Northern Maryland Collaborative Care LLC, Novasys Health Inc., OB Care, OB Klinika, Ohana Health Plan Inc., Oklahoma Complete Health Inc., One Care by Care 1st Health Plans of Arizona Inc, Operose Health (Group) Ltd., Operose Health (Group) UK Ltd., Operose Health Ltd., OptiCare Health Systems - Managed Vision Business, PANTHERx Rare Pharmacy, Panther Pass Co LLC, Panther Specialty Holding Co LLC, Pantherx Access Services LLC, Pantherx Specialty LLC, Parker LP LLC, Peach State Health Plan Inc., Penn Marketing America LLC, Pennsylvania Health and Wellness Inc., Phoenix Home Health Care LLC, Pinnacle Home Care LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Illinois LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Indiana LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Kalamazoo LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Missouri LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Wisconsin LLC, Premier Marketing Group LLC, PrimeroSalud S.L., Pro Diagnostic Group A.S., Pro Magnet CZ s.r.o., Pro Magnet s.r.o, Pro RTG s.r.o, Progress Medical A.S., Prowl Holdings LLC, QCA Healthplan Inc., Qualchoice Life and Health Insurance Company, Quincy Coverage Corporation, R&C Healthcare LLC, RMED LLC, RX Direct Inc., Rapid Respiratory Services LLC, Ribera Lab S.L.U., Ribera Salud II, Ribera Salud Proyectos S.L., Ribera Salud S.A., Ribera Salud Tecnologias S.L.U., Ribera Slaud Infraestructuras S.L.U., Ribera-Quilpro UTE, Salus Administrative Services Inc., Salus IPA LLC, Secure Capital Solutions 2000 S.L.U., SelectCare Health Plans Inc., SelectCare of Texas Inc., Seniorcorps Peninsula LLC, Servicios De Mantenimiento Prevencor S.L.U., SilverSummit Healthplan Inc., Social Health Bridge LLC, Social Health Bridge Trust, Specialty Therapeutic Care GP LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care LP, Sunflower State Health Plan Inc., Sunshine Health Community Solutions Inc., Sunshine Health Holding LLC, Sunshine State Health Plan Inc., Superior HealthPlan Community Solutions Inc., Superior HealthPlan Inc., The Practice Properties Limited, The WellCare Management Group Inc., Torrejon Salud S.A., Torrevieja Salud S.L.U., Torrevieja Salud UTE, Traditional Home Health Services LLC, Trillium Community Health Plan Inc., U.S. Medical Management Holdings Inc., U.S. Medical Management LLC, UAM Agent Services Corp., US Script, USMM Accountable Care Partners LLC, Universal American Corp., Universal American Financial Services Inc., Universal American Holdings LLC, WCG Health Management Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of America, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Kentucky Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Louisiana Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Nevada Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Hampshire Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Jersey Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Oklahoma Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Washington Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Wisconsin Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Arizona Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Connecticut Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Hawaii Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of New York Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of North Carolina Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Southwest Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Tennessee Inc., WellCare Health Plans, WellCare Health Plans of Arizona Inc., WellCare Health Plans of California Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Kentucky Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Massachusetts Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Missouri Inc., WellCare Health Plans of New Jersey Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Rhode Island Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Tennessee Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Vermont Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Wisconsin Inc., WellCare National Health Insurance Company, WellCare Pharmacy Benefits Management Inc., WellCare Prescription Insurance Inc., WellCare of Alabama Inc., WellCare of Arkansas Inc., WellCare of California Inc., WellCare of Connecticut Inc., WellCare of Florida Inc., WellCare of Georgia Inc., WellCare of Illinois Inc., WellCare of Indiana Inc., WellCare of Kansas Inc., WellCare of Maine Inc., WellCare of Michigan Holding Company, WellCare of Mississippi Inc., WellCare of Missouri Health Insurance Company Inc., WellCare of New Hampshire Inc., WellCare of New York Inc., WellCare of North Carolina Inc., WellCare of Ohio Inc., WellCare of Oklahoma Inc., WellCare of Pennsylvania Inc., WellCare of Puerto Rico Inc., WellCare of South Carolina Inc., WellCare of Texas Inc., WellCare of Virginia Inc., WellCare of Washington Inc., Wellcare Health Plans Inc., Western Sky Community Care Inc., Windsor Health Group Inc., Winning Security S.L., Worlco Management Services, and nirvanaHealth LLC.Wells Fargo & Co. is a diversified, community-based financial services company. It is engaged in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance. It firm operates through the following segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, Wealth & Investment Management, and Other. The Community Banking segment offers complete line of diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses including checking and savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and automobile, student, and small business lending. The Wholesale Banking segment provides financial solutions to businesses across the United States and globally. The Wealth and Investment Management segment includes personalized wealth management, investment and retirement products and services to clients across U.S. based businesses. The Other segment refers to the products of WIM customers served through community banking distribution channels. The company was founded by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo on March 18, 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Vodafone Group: 360 Connect S.A., [email protected] Telecom, A-ccelerator B.V., A-ccelerator Holding B.V, AAA (Euro) Limited, AAA (MCR) Limited, AAA (UK) Limited, Acorn Communications Limited, Africonnect (Zambia) Limited, Ag Mercantile Company Private Limited, Al-Amin Investments Limited, Amsterdamse Beheer- en Consultingmaatschappij B.V., Apollo Submarine Cable System Limited, Array Holdings Limited, Asian Telecommunication Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Aspective Limited, Astec Communications Limited, Autoconnex Limited, Aztec Limited, BelCompany BV, Bluefish Apac Communications Pte. Ltd, Bluefish Communications, Bluefish Communications Limited, Business Serve Limited, C&W Worldwide Nigeria Limited, C.S.P. Solutions Limited, CCII (Mauritius) Inc., CGP India Investments Ltd., CGP Investments (Holdings) Limited, COOP Mobil s.r.o, CT Networks Limited, CWGNL S.A., CWW Operations Limited, Cable & Wireless Access Limited, Cable & Wireless Americas Systems Inc., Cable & Wireless Aspac Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Services Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Svyaz LLC, Cable & Wireless Capital Limited , Cable & Wireless Communications Data Network Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Starclass Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Technical Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (Beijing Branch), Cable & Wireless Europe Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless GN Limited, Cable & Wireless Global (India) Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Business Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Holding Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Telecommunication Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Holdco Limited, Cable & Wireless Networks India Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Trade Mark Management Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Waterside Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Pension Trustee Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Voice Messaging Limited, Cable & Wireless a-Services Inc, Cable & Wireless a-Services Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited Indian Branch Office, Cable and Wireless Nominee Limited, Cable and Wireless Worldwide South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cavalry Holdings Ltd, Celfocus  Solucoes Informaticas Para Telecomunicacoes S.A, Cellops Limited, Cellular Operations Limited, Central Communications Group Limited, Central Telecom (Northern) Limited, Centurion GSM Limited, Chelys Limited, City Cable (Holdings) Limited, Cobra do Brasil Servicos de Telematica ltda., Commnet Cellular Inc., Complete Network Technology, Connect (India) Mobile Technologies Private Limited, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited, Dataroam Limited , Device Insight, Digital Island (UK) Ltd, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, East Africa Investment (Mauritius) Limited, Emtel Europe Limited, Energis (Ireland) Limited, Energis Communications Limited, Energis Holdings Limited, Energis Local Access Limited, Energis Management Limited, Energis Squared Limited, Erudite Systems Limited, Esprit Telecom B.V., Eudokia Limited, Euro Pacific Securities Ltd., Eurocall Holdings Limited, Europolitan Holdings AB (now Europolitan Vodafone AB), FB Holdings Limited, FM Associates (UK) Limited, FinCo Partner 1 B.V., FireFly Networks Limited, Flexphone Limited, GS Telecom (Pty) Limited, Gateway Communications Africa (UK) Limited, Gateway Communications Tanzania Limited, General Mobile Corporation, Generation Telecom Limited, Ghana Telecommunications, Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited, Global Cellular Rental Limited, Globe Limited, GrandCentrix GmbH, Grupo Corporativo ONO S.A.U., H3ga Properties (No 3) Pty Limited, HBO Nederland Cooperatief U.A., HBO Netherlands Channels sro, HBO Netherlands Distribution B.V., Hellas Online, How2 Telecom Limited, Hutchison Essar Ltd, Indus Towers Limited, Intercell Communications Limited, Internet Network Services Limited, Invitation Digital Limited, Ipergy Communications NV, Isis Telecommunications Management Limited, Jaguar Communications Limited, Jaykay Finholding (India) Private Limited, Jupicol (Proprietary) Limited, KABELCOM Braunschweig Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, KABELCOM Wolfsburg Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, Kabel Deutschland, Kabel Deutschland Holding, Kabel Deutschland Holding Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Holding Zweite Beteilgungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Neunte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Siebte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabelfernsehen Munchen Servicenter GmbH & Co. KG, LG Financing Partnership, LGE HoldCo V B.V., LGE HoldCo VI B.V., LGE HoldCo VIII B.V., LGE Holdco VII B.V., LLC Vodafone Enterprise Ukraine, Le Bunt Holdings Limited, Legend Communications Limited, Liberty Global, Liberty Global Content Netherlands B.V., London Hydraulic Power Company, M-PESA Foundation, M-PESA Holding Co. Limited, ML Integration Group Limited, ML Integration Limited, ML Integration Services Limited, MV Healthcare Services Private Limited, Mannesmann AG, MetroHoldings Limited, Mezzanine Ware Proprietary Limited (RF), Mirambo Limited, Misrfone Trading Company LLC, MobiFon S.A., Mobile Commerce Solutions Limited, Mobile Phone Centre Limited, Mobile Wallet VM1, Mobile Wallet VM2, Mobile by Sainsburys Limited, Mobiles 4 Business.com Limited, Mobileworld Communications Pty Limited, Mobileworld Operating Pty Ltd, Mobilvest, Motifpros 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Multi Risk Indemnity Company Limited, Multi Risk Limited, ND Callus Info Services Private Limited, Nadal Trading Company Private Limited, Nat Comm Air Limited, National Communications Backbone Company Limited, Navtrak Ltd, Netforce Group Limited, Netgrid Telecom SRL, Number Portability Company (Proprietary) Limited, ONO, Omega Telecom Holdings Private Limited, Oni Way  Infocomunicacoes S.A, Oskar Mobil S.R.O., Oxygen Solutions Limited, P.C.P. (North West) Limited, PPL Pty Limited, PT Network Services Limited, PTI Telecom Limited, Peoples Phone Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Group Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Limited, Plex Limited, Plustech Mercantile Company Private Limited, Prime Metals Ltd., Project Telecom Holdings Limited, Quickcomm Software Solutions, Radio Opt GmbH, Rian Mobile Limited, SBC SMART CITY 1517 B.V., SMMS Investments Pvt Limited, Safaricom Limited, Safenet N.P A., Sarmady Communications, Scarlet Ibis Investments 23 (Pty) Limited, Scorpios Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Silver Stream Investments Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Ltd., Singlepoint Payment Services Limited, Siro Limited, Spar Aerospace (Nigeria) Limited, Sport TV Portugal S.A, Starnet, Stentor Communications Limited, Stentor Limited, Storage Technology Services (Pty) Limited, T.W. Telecom Limited, T3 Telecommunications Limited, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern Beteiligungs GmbH, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG, TNAS Limited, TSM NZ Limited, Talkland Airtime Services Limited, Talkland Australia Pty Limited, Talkland Communications Limited, Talkland International Limited, Talkland Midlands Limited, Talkmobile Limited, Tele2 Italia SPA, Tele2 Spain, Telecom Investments India Private Limited, Telecommunications Europe Limited, Ternhill Communications Limited, The Cobra Group, The Eastern Leasing Company Limited, The Old Telecom Sales Co. Limited, Thus Group Holdings Limited, Thus Group Limited, Thus Limited, Thus Profit Sharing Trustees Limited, TnT Expense Management LLC, Tomorrow Street GP S.a r.l., Tomorrow Street SCA, Torenspits II B.V., Townley Communications Limited, Trans Crystal Ltd., UMT Investments Limited, UPC Nederland Holding I B.V., UPC Nederland Holding II B.V., UPC Nederland Holding III B.V., Unified Communications, Uniqueair Limited, Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH & Co.KG, Usha Martin Telematics Limited, VAPL No. 2 Pty Limited, VBA (Mauritius) Limited, VBA Holdings Limited, VBA International (SL) Limited, VBA International Limited, VEI S.r.l., VM SA, VND S.p.A, VSSB Vodafone Shared Services Budapest Private Limited Company, Verwaltung Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH, Victus Networks S.A., Vizzavi Finance Limited, Vizzavi Limited, Voda Limited, Vodacall Limited, Vodacash s.p.r.l., Vodacom (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business (Angola) Limitada, Vodacom Business (Ghana) Limited, Vodacom Business (Kenya) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group Services Limited, Vodacom Business Cameroon SA, Vodacom Business Cote Divoire S.A.R.L., Vodacom Congo (RDC) SA, Vodacom Financial Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodacom Insurance Administration Company (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Insurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom International Holdings (Pty) Limited, Vodacom International Limited, Vodacom Lesotho (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Life Assurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom Payment Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No.2 (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Tanzania Limited Zanzibar, Vodacom Tanzania Public Limited Company, Vodacom UK Limited, Vodafone (NI) Limited, Vodafone (New Zealand) Hedging Limited, Vodafone (Scotland) Limited, Vodafone 2, Vodafone 4 UK, Vodafone 5 Limited, Vodafone 5 UK, Vodafone 6 UK, Vodafone Albania Sh.A, Vodafone Alternatif Telekom Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Americas 4, Vodafone Americas Virginia Inc., Vodafone And Qatar Foundation L.L.C, Vodafone Asset Management Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Automotive Electronic Systems S.r.L, Vodafone Automotive France S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Iberia S.L, Vodafone Automotive Italia S.p.A, Vodafone Automotive Japan K.K, Vodafone Automotive Korea Limited, Vodafone Automotive SpA, Vodafone Automotive Technologies (Beijing) Co Ltd, Vodafone Automotive Telematics Development S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Telematics S.A, Vodafone Automotive UK Limited, Vodafone Belgium SA/NV, Vodafone Benelux Limited, Vodafone Bilgi Ve Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Vodafone Business Services Limited, Vodafone Business Solutions Limited, Vodafone Canada Inc, Vodafone Cellular Limited, Vodafone Central Services Limited, Vodafone China Limited (China), Vodafone China Limited (Hong Kong), Vodafone Connect 2 Limited, Vodafone Connect Limited, Vodafone Consolidated Holdings Limited, Vodafone Corporate Limited, Vodafone Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Czech Republic A.S., Vodafone DC Pension Trustee Company Limited, Vodafone Dagitim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Data, Vodafone Distribution Holdings Limited, Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications S.A.E., Vodafone Elektronik Para Ve Odeme Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Empresa Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda, Vodafone Empresa Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Vodafone Enabler Espana S.L., Vodafone Enterprise Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Austria GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Bahrain W.L.L., Vodafone Enterprise Bulgaria EOOD, Vodafone Enterprise Chile SA, Vodafone Enterprise Communications Technical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Denmark A/S, Vodafone Enterprise Equipment Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited  Czech Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited  DubaiI Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Finland OY, Vodafone Enterprise France SAS, Vodafone Enterprise Germany GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Global Businesses S.a r.l., Vodafone Enterprise Global Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network HK Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network Pte. Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Hong Kong Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Italy S.r.L, Vodafone Enterprise Korea Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Luxembourg S.A., Vodafone Enterprise Netherlands BV, Vodafone Enterprise Norway AS, Vodafone Enterprise Regional Business Singapore Pte.Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Singapore Pte.Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Spain S.L.U.  Portugal Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Spain SLU, Vodafone Enterprise Sweden AB, Vodafone Enterprise Switzerland AG, Vodafone Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Vodafone Espana S.A.U., Vodafone Euro Hedging Limited, Vodafone Euro Hedging Two, Vodafone Europe B.V., Vodafone Europe UK, Vodafone European Investments, Vodafone European Portal Limited, Vodafone Finance Limited, Vodafone Finance Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Finance Sweden, Vodafone Finance UK Limited, Vodafone Financial Operations, Vodafone Financial Services B.V., Vodafone Fixed Ltd, Vodafone Foundation, Vodafone Foundation Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Gestioni S.p.A, Vodafone Ghana Mobile Financial Services Limited, Vodafone Global Content Services Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Hong Kong) Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Italy) S.R.L., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Japan) K.K., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Russia LLC, Vodafone Global Enterprise Taiwan Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Telecommunications (Hellas) A.E., Vodafone Global Network Limited, Vodafone Global Network Limited  Slovakia Branch, Vodafone Global Services Private Limited, Vodafone GmbH, Vodafone Group (Directors) Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Pension Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Services GmbH, Vodafone Group Services Ireland Limited, Vodafone Group Services Limited, Vodafone Group Services No.2 Limited, Vodafone Group Share Trustee Limited, Vodafone Hire Limited, Vodafone Holding A.S., Vodafone Holdings (Jersey) Limited, Vodafone Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Holdings Europe S.L.U., Vodafone Holdings Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Finance Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Receivables Pty Limited, Vodafone IP Licensing Limited, Vodafone India Digital Limited, Vodafone India Limited, Vodafone India Services Private Limited, Vodafone India Ventures Limited, Vodafone Institut fur Gesellschaft und Kommunikation GmbH, Vodafone Intermediate Enterprises Limited, Vodafone International 1 S.a.r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone International 1 S.a r.l., Vodafone International 2 Limited, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., Vodafone International Holdings Limited, Vodafone International M S.a r.l., Vodafone International Operations Limited, Vodafone International Services LLC, Vodafone Investment UK, Vodafone Investments (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Investments Australia Limited, Vodafone Investments Limited, Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Ireland Distribution Limited, Vodafone Ireland Ltd., Vodafone Ireland Marketing Limited, Vodafone Ireland Property Holdings Limited, Vodafone Ireland Retail Limited, Vodafone Italia S.p.A., Vodafone Jersey Dollar Holdings Limited, Vodafone Jersey Finance, Vodafone Jersey Yen Holdings Unlimited, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Field Services GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Kundenbetreuung GmbH, Vodafone Kenya Limited, Vodafone Leasing Limited, Vodafone Libertel B.V., Vodafone Limited, Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone M-PESA SH.P.K., Vodafone M-Pesa S.A, Vodafone M.C. Mobile Services Limited , Vodafone Magyarorszag Mobile Tavkozlesi Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Vodafone Malta Limited, Vodafone Marketing UK , Vodafone Maroc SARL, Vodafone Mauritius Ltd., Vodafone Mobile Commerce Limited, Vodafone Mobile Communications Limited, Vodafone Mobile Enterprises Limited, Vodafone Mobile NZ Limited, Vodafone Mobile Network Limited, Vodafone Mobile Operations Limited, Vodafone Mobile Services Limited, Vodafone Multimedia Limited, Vodafone Nederland Holding I B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding II B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding III B.V., Vodafone Net Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Network Pty Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Foundation Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Limited, Vodafone Next Generation Services Limited, Vodafone Nominees Limited1, Vodafone ONO S.A.U., Vodafone Oceania Limited, Vodafone Old Show Ground Site Management Limited, Vodafone Overseas Finance Limited, Vodafone Overseas Holdings Limited, Vodafone Panafon International Holdings B.V., Vodafone Panafon UK, Vodafone Partner Services Limited, Vodafone Payment Solutions S.a r.l., Vodafone Portugal  Comunicacoes Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Procurement Company S.a r.l., Vodafone Property Investments Limited, Vodafone Pty Limited, Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C., Vodafone Retail (Holdings) Limited , Vodafone Retail Limited, Vodafone Roaming Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Romania S.A, Vodafone Romania M - Payments SRL, Vodafone Romania Technologies SRL, Vodafone Sales & Services Limited, Vodafone Satellite Services Limited, Vodafone Servicios SL.U, Vodafone Servizi E Tecnologie S.R.L, Vodafone Servicos Empresariais Brasil Ltda., Vodafone Shared Services Romania SRL, Vodafone Specialist Communications Limited, Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland Gemeinnutzige GmbH, Vodafone Technology Solutions Limited, Vodafone Teknoloji Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Tele-Services (India) Holdings Limited, Vodafone Telecel-Comunicates Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Telecommunications (India) Limited, Vodafone Telekomunikasyon A.S, Vodafone Towers Limited, Vodafone UK Content Services Limited, Vodafone UK Investments Limited , Vodafone UK Limited1 , Vodafone US Inc, Vodafone Ventures Limited1 , Vodafone Vierte Verwaltungs AG, Vodafone Worldwide Holdings Limited, Vodafone Yen Finance Limited , Vodafone m-pesa Limited, Vodafone-Central Limited Vodaphone Limited, Vodafone-Panafon Hellenic Telecommunications Company S.A., VodafoneZiggo Group Holding B.V, Vodata Limited , Vouchercloud SA (Pty) Ltd, Wataneya Telecommunications S.A.E, Waterberg Lodge (Proprietary) Limited, Wayfinder, Wheatfields Investments 276 (Proprietary) Limited, Wireless Interactions & NFC Accelerator 2013 B.V., Woodend Cellular Limited, Woodend Communications Limited, Woodend Group Limited, Woodend Holdings Limited, XB Facilities B.V, XLink Communications (Proprietary) Limited, Your Communications Group Limited, ZUM B.V., ZYB, Zelitron S.A., Zesko B.V., Ziggo B.V., Ziggo Bond Company B.V., Ziggo Deelnemingen B.V., Ziggo Finance 2 B.V., Ziggo Financing Partnership, Ziggo Holding B.V., Ziggo Netwerk B.V., Ziggo Netwerk II B.V., Ziggo Services B.V., Ziggo Services Employment B.V., Ziggo Services Netwerk 2 B.V., Ziggo Zakelijk Services B.V., and Zoranet Connectivity Services B.V..The following companies are subsidiares of Danaher: AB SCIEX, AB Sciex Germany GmbH, AB Sciex LLC, AB Sciex LP, AB Sciex Pte Ltd., Accu-Sort Systems, Acme Cleveland Corporation, Advanced Vision Technology, American Precision Industries, Applied Biosystems, Applitek NV, Aquatic Infomatics ULC, Aquatic Informatics, Armstrong Tools, BC Distribution BV, Beckman Coulter, Beckman Coulter Australia Pty Ltd, Beckman Coulter Biotechnology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter Biyomedikal Urunler Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited [irketi], Beckman Coulter Canada LP, Beckman Coulter Commercial Enterprise (China) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter France S.A.S., Beckman Coulter G.m.b.H., Beckman Coulter Genomics Inc., Beckman Coulter Hong Kong Limited, Beckman Coulter Inc., Beckman Coulter India Private Limited, Beckman Coulter International SA, Beckman Coulter International Shanghai Trading Co., Beckman Coulter Ireland Inc., Beckman Coulter K.K., Beckman Coulter Korea Ltd., Beckman Coulter Laboratory Systems (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter Limited Liability Company, Beckman Coulter Mishima KK, Beckman Coulter Nederland B.V., Beckman Coulter Nippon GK, Beckman Coulter S.L.U., Beckman Coulter Saudi Arabia Co.Ltd., Beckman Coulter Srl, Beckman Coulter Taiwan Inc., Beckman Coulter United Kingdom Limited, Beckman Coulter de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Beckman Coulter do Brasil Ltda., Beckman Finance ApS, Beckman Holdings Ltd., BioTector Analytical Systems Ltd, Biosafe S.A., Blue Software LLC, Cepheid, Cepheid AB, Cepheid Europe SAS, Cepheid GmbH, Cepheid HBDC SAS, Cepheid UK Ltd., ChemTreat, ChemTreat Inc., ChemTreat International Inc., Cispus Hong Kong Holding Limited, Cytiva, Cytiva BioProcess R&D AB, Cytiva Biotechnology (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Cytiva Biotechnology (Hang Zhou) Co. Ltd., Cytiva Europe GmbH, Cytiva Sweden AB, Cytiva Sweden Holding AB, DH Europe Finance II Sarl, DH Europe Finance Sarl, DH Holding Italia SRL, DH Japan Finance Sarl, DH Life Sciences LLC, DH Netherlands BV, DH Technologies Development Pte Ltd., DHKAB Company AB, DTIL Ireland Holdings Ltd., Danaher (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Danaher Hong Kong Limited, Danaher Medical ApS, Delta Consolidated Industries, Devicore Medical Products Inc., Easco Hand Tools, Esko, Esko BV, Esko Finance BV, Esko Graphics BV, Esko Software BV, FHAB Company AB, Fluke, G. Lufft Mess- und Regeltechnik GmbH, GE Biopharma, Gelman Sciences Inc., Gendex, Genetix Group, Gilbarco Veeder Root, Gilzoni Ltd., Global Life Sciences Solutions Austria GmbH & Co. KG, Global Life Sciences Solutions Germany GmbH, Global Life Sciences Solutions Korea Ltd., Global Life Sciences Solutions Manufacturing UK Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions New Zealand, Global Life Sciences Solutions Operations UK Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions Singapore Pte Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions USA LLC, Global Life Sciences Technologies (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Global Life Sciences Technologies Japan KK, Hach Company, Hach Lange Finance GmbH, Hach Lange GmbH, Hach Lange Sarl, Hach Sales & Services Canada LP, Hach Ultra Japan KK, Hach Water Quality Analytical Instru. (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., HemoCue AB, HyClone Laboratories LLC, Hybritech Incorporated, Hyclone Life Sciences Solutions India Private Limited, IDBS Group, IRIS International, Imaging Sciences International, Immunotech SAS, Immunotech Sro, Intabio LLC, Integrated DNA Technologies, Integrated DNA Technologies BVBA, Integrated DNA Technologies Inc., Integrated DNA Technologies Pte. Ltd., Iris International Inc., Joslyn Holding Company LLC, KVHG GmbH, KaVo, KaVo Kerr, Kaltenbach & Voigt, Keithley Instruments, Kipp & Zonen BV, Kollmorgen, Labcyte Inc., Laetus, Leica Biosystems Imaging Inc., Leica Biosystems Melbourne Pty Ltd, Leica Biosystems Newcastle Limited, Leica Biosystems Nussloch GmbH, Leica Biosystems Richmond Inc., Leica Instruments (Singapore) Pte Limited, Leica Microsystems, Leica Microsystems (UK) Limited, Leica Microsystems CMS GmbH, Leica Microsystems Cambridge Limited, Leica Microsystems IR GmbH, Leica Microsystems Inc., Leica Microsystems Limited, Leica Microsystems Ltd. Shanghai, Leica Mikrosysteme Vertrieb GmbH, Life Sciences Holdings France SAS*, Lifschultz Industries, Linx Printing Technologies, Linx Printing Technologies Limited, MDS Analytical Technologies, Marconi Data Systems, McCrometer Inc., Microtest, Molecular Devices, Molecular Devices (Austria) GmbH, Molecular Devices LLC, Navman Wireless, Navman Wireless OEM Solutions, Nihon Pall Ltd., Nihon Pall Manufacturing Limited, Nobel Biocare, OTT Hydromet Corp, Pall, Pall (Canada) ULC, Pall (China) Co. Ltd., Pall (Schweiz) GmbH, Pall Aeropower Corporation, Pall Artelis BVBA, Pall Asia Holdings Inc., Pall Australia Pty. Ltd., Pall Austria Filter Ges.m.b.h, Pall Corporation, Pall Europe Limited, Pall Filtersystems GmbH, Pall Filtration Pte. Ltd., Pall Filtration and Separations Group Inc., Pall France SAS, Pall GmbH, Pall India Pvt. Ltd., Pall International Sarl, Pall Italia Srl, Pall Korea Ltd., Pall Life Sciences Belgium BV, Pall Life Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, Pall Manufacturing UK Limited, Pall Medistad BV, Pall Netherlands BV Irish Branch, Pall Technology UK Limited, PaloDEX, Pantone LLC, Pelton & Crane, Phenomenex, Phenomenex Inc., Precision NanoSystems, QHC Ireland Finance Limited, Radiometer, Radiometer Basel AG, Radiometer K.K., Radiometer Medical ApS, Radiometer Medical Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Radiometer Turku Oy, Raytek, Reytek Corporation, SH Switzerland Finance Sarl, Sea-Bird Electronics Inc., SenDx Medical Inc., Shanghai AB Sciex Analytical Instrument Trading Co. Ltd., Sutron, Sybron Dental Specialties, TCIL Ireland Finance Ltd., Tektronix, Thomson Industries, Tianjin Bonna-Agela Technologies Co. Ltd., Trojan Technologies, Trojan Technologies Group ULC, VSS Monitoring, Videojet Do Brasil Comercio de Equipamentos Para Codificacao Industrial Ltda., Videojet Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Videojet Technologies Europe B.V., Videojet Technologies Inc., Viridor Waste Management Limited, Vision Systems Limited, Willett International, X-Ray Optical Systems Inc., X-Rite, X-Rite Europe GmbH, X-Rite Incorporated, X-Rite Switzerland GmbH, XOS, Yukon Hong Kong Holding Limited, and Zhuhai S.E.Z. Videojet Electronics Ltd..The following companies are subsidiares of Dominion Energy: 96WI 8me LLC, Alamo Solar LLC, Align RNG Arizona LLC, Align RNG Arizona-Snowflake LLC, Align RNG California LLC, Align RNG California-Corcoran LLC, Align RNG Grady Road LLC, Align RNG LLC, Align RNG Magnolia LLC, Align RNG North Carolina LLC, Align RNG North Carolina-Bowdens LLC, Align RNG Utah LLC, Align RNG Utah-Milford LLC, Align RNG Virginia LLC, Align RNG Virginia-Waverly LLC, Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Azalea Solar LLC, BOE Holdings Inc., Blackville Solar Farm LLC, Blue Ocean Energy Marine LLC, BrightSuite Home LLC, BrightSuite Inc., BrightSuite Solar CT Inc., BrightSuite Solar SC Inc., BrightSuite Solar VA Inc., Buckingham Solar I LLC, CEA Americus LLC, CEA CO-Fort Morgan LLC, CEA Clovis LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Colorado LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Georgia LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Idaho LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Nevada LLC, CEA Dairy RNG New Mexico LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Texas LLC, CEA Greely LLC, CEA Mason LLC, CEA TX-Dimmitt LLC, CID Solar LLC, CNG Coal Company, CNG Power Services Corporation, Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation, Catalina Solar 2 LLC, Clean Energy Asset USA LLC, Clean Energy Enterprises Inc., Clipperton Holdings LLC, Consolidated Natural Gas Company, Correctional Solar LLC, Cottonwood Solar LLC, Cove Point LNG LP, Cove Point LNG Limited, DE Arlington Solar LLC, DE Fluvanna Solar LLC, DE Hanover Solar LLC, DE Henrico Solar LLC, DE King William Solar LLC, DE Louisa Solar LLC, DE Newport News Solar LLC, DE Powhatan Solar LLC, DE Virginia Beach Solar LLC, DECP Holdings Inc., Dairy RNG Holdings LLC, Dairy RNG NY LLC, Dairy RNG NY-Curtin LLC, Dairy RNG OH LLC, Denmark Solar LLC, Dominion ACP Holding Inc., Dominion Alternative Energy Holdings Inc., Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Dominion Capital Inc., Dominion Cogen WV Inc., Dominion Energy Fuel Services Inc., Dominion Energy Gas Distribution LLC, Dominion Energy Generation Marketing Inc., Dominion Energy Inc., Dominion Energy Kewaunee Inc., Dominion Energy Marketplace LLC, Dominion Energy Nuclear Connecticut Inc., Dominion Energy Overthrust Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Payroll Company Inc., Dominion Energy Questar Corporation, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline Services Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings II Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings Inc., Dominion Energy Services Inc., Dominion Energy Solar CA LLC, Dominion Energy Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy South Carolina Inc., Dominion Energy Southeast Services Inc., Dominion Energy Technical Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies II Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies Inc., Dominion Energy Terminal Company Inc., Dominion Energy Wexpro Services Company, Dominion Equipment III Inc., Dominion Equipment Inc., Dominion Fairless Hills Inc., Dominion Fowler Ridge Wind LLC, Dominion Gas Projects Company LLC, Dominion Generation Inc., Dominion Greenbrier Inc., Dominion High Voltage Holdings Inc., Dominion High Voltage MidAtlantic Inc., Dominion Investments Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline Holdings Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline LLC, Dominion MLP Holding Company III Inc., Dominion Mt. Storm Wind LLC, Dominion Nuclear Projects Inc., Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration & Production Inc., Dominion Person Inc., Dominion Privatization Florida LLC, Dominion Privatization Georgia LLC, Dominion Privatization Holdings Inc., Dominion Privatization Kentucky LLC, Dominion Privatization Maryland LLC, Dominion Privatization Pennsylvania LLC, Dominion Privatization South Carolina LLC, Dominion Privatization Texas LLC, Dominion Privatization Virginia LLC, Dominion Products and Services Inc., Dominion Projects Services Inc., Dominion Resources Capital Trust III, Dominion Retail Gas Holdings Inc., Dominion Solar Construction and Maintenance LLC, Dominion Solar Gen-Tie LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings I LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings II LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings III LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings IV LLC, Dominion Solar Projects A Inc., Dominion Solar Projects B Inc., Dominion Solar Projects C Inc., Dominion Solar Projects D Inc., Dominion Solar Projects I Inc., Dominion Solar Projects II Inc., Dominion Solar Projects III Inc., Dominion Solar Projects IV Inc., Dominion Solar Projects V Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VI Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VII Inc., Dominion Solar Services Inc., Dominion State Line LLC, Dominion Voltage Inc., Dominion Wholesale Inc., Dominion Wind Development LLC, Dominion Wind Projects Inc., ESCT-SA-Suffield LLC, Eagle Holdco Solar LLC, Eagle Solar LLC, Eastern Shore Solar LLC, Enterprise Solar LLC, Escalante Solar I LLC, Escalante Solar II LLC, Escalante Solar III LLC, Four Brothers Solar LLC, Fremont Farm LLC, Granite Mountain Holdings LLC, Granite Mountain Solar East LLC, Granite Mountain Solar West LLC, Greenbrier Marketing Company LLC, Greenbrier Pipeline Company LLC, Greensville County Solar Project LLC, Hardin Solar Energy LLC, Hecate Energy Cherrydale LLC, Hecate Energy Clarke County LLC, Hope Gas Inc., Imperial Valley Solar Company (IVSC) 2 LLC, Indy Solar Development LLC, Indy Solar I LLC, Indy Solar II LLC, Indy Solar III LLC, Innovative Solar 37 LLC, Iron Springs Holdings LLC, Iron Springs Solar LLC, Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas, Maricopa West Solar PV LLC, Moffett Solar 1 LLC, Moorings Farm 2 LLC, Mulberry Farm LLC, Mustang Solar LLC, PSNC Blue Ridge Corporation, PSNC Cardinal Pipeline Company, Pavant Solar LLC, Phone House, Pikeville Farm LLC, Prairie Fork Wind Farm LLC, Public Service Company of North Carolina Incorporated, QPC Holding Company LLC, Questar Corporation, Questar Energy Services Inc., Questar Field Services LLC, Questar Gas Company, Questar InfoComm Inc., Questar Southern Trails Pipeline Company, Questar White River Hub LLC, RE Adams East LLC, RE Camelot LLC, RE Columbia Two LLC, RE Kansas LLC, RE Kent South LLC, RE Old River One LLC, Richland Solar Center LLC, Ridgeland Solar Farm I LLC, SBL Holdco LLC, SCANA, SCANA Communications Holdings Inc., SCANA Corporate Security Services Inc., SCANA Energy Marketing LLC, SCANA Pharmacy LLC, SRFI LLC, Scana Corporation, Scott-II Solar LLC, Seabrook Solar LLC, Selmer Farm LLC, Siler Solar LLC, Sol Madison Solar LLC, Somers Solar Center LLC, South Carolina Fuel Company Inc., South Carolina Generating Company Inc., Southampton Solar LLC, Summit Farms Solar LLC, Sussex Drive Solar Project LLC, TA - Acacia LLC, TWE Myrtle Solar Project LLC, The East Ohio Gas Company, Trask East Solar LLC, Tredegar Solar Fund I LLC, VP Property Inc., Virginia Electric And Power Company, Virginia Power Fuel Corporation, Virginia Power Nuclear Services Company, Virginia Power Services Energy Corp. Inc., Virginia Power Services LLC, Virginia Solar 201 Projects LLC, Wakefield Solar LLC, Wexpro Company, Wexpro Development Company, Wexpro II Company, Wilkinson Solar LLC, Wrangler Retail Gas Holdings LLC, and Yemassee Solar LLC.Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. provides banking, financial products and services to retail, small business, corporate and institutional clients. It operates its business through the following segments: Australia Retail and Commercial; Institutional; New Zealand; Pacific; and Technology, Services and Operations and Group Centre. The Australia segment comprises the retail and corporate and commercial business units which provides products and services to consumer and private banking customers in Australia via the branch network, mortgage specialists, the contact centres, a variety of self-service channels and and third party brokers; and banking services including traditional relationship banking and financial solutions through managers focusing on privately owned small, medium, and large enterprises as well as the agricultural businesses. The Institutional segment refers to the transaction banking, loans and specialised finance and markets solutions. The New Zealand segment refers to the retail and commercial business units. The Pacific segment offers products and services to retail customers, small to medium-sized enterprises, institutional customers and governments loc

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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 Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. is an insurance and financial services company. The company provides life insurance, group and employee benefits, automobile and homeowners insurance and business insurance, as well as investment products, annuities, mutual funds, and college savings plans. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Lines, Personal Lines, Property & Casualty Other Operations, Group Benefits and Hartford Funds. The Commercial Lines segment provides workers compensation, property, automobile, liability and umbrella coverage under several different products, primarily throughout the U.S., within its standard commercial lines, which consists of The Hartford's small commercial and middle market lines of business. The Personal Lines segment includes automobile, homeowners and home-based business coverage to individuals across the U.S. The Property & Casualty Other Operations segment includes certain property and casualty operations, currently managed by the company, that have discontinued writing new business and substantially all of the company's asbestos and environmental exposures. The Group Benefits segment offers group life, accident and disabi

Read MoreThe Howard Hughes Corp. engages in the development and management of commercial, residential, and mixed-use real estate. It operates through the following segments: Operating Assets, Master Planned Communities; Seaport District; and Strategic Developments. The Operating Assets segment consists retail, office, hospitality, and multi-family properties along with other real estate investments. The Master Planned Communities segment focuses in the development and sale of land in large-scale, long-term community development projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Columbia, Maryland. The Seaport District operates an approximately 453,000 square feet of restaurant, retail, and entertainment properties situated in three primary locations in New York, New York: Pier 17, Historic Area/Uplands, and Tin Building. The Strategic Developments segment involves in the other real estate assets in the form of entitled and unentitled land and residential condominium developments. The company was founded on November 9, 2010 and is headquartered in Woodlands, TX.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Stanley Black & Decker: 3-V Fastener Co. Inc., 3xLOGIC Dalian Technology Company Limited, 3xLogic Florida LLC, 3xLogic Holdings Inc., 3xLogic Inc., 3xLogic Indiana LLC, 8 Commerce Drive LLC, ADT France, ASIA FASTENING (US) INC., AeroFit LLC, AeroScout (US) LLC, AeroScout Industrial, AeroScout LLC, AeroScout Ltd., Aeroscout (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Alkhaja Pimex LLC, Allan Brothers, Automatic Doors Systems, Automatic Entrances of Colorado, Avdel Holding Limited, Avdel Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited, Avdel UK Limited, Aven Tools Limited, B&D Holdings Inc., B.B.W. BAYRISCHE BOHRERWERKE GmbH, BD Precision (Hong Kong) Limited, BD Suzhou (Hong Kong) Limited, BD Suzhou Power Tools (Hong Kong) Limited, BD Xiamen (Hong Kong) Limited, BDB Ferramentas do Brasil Ltda, BDC International Limited, BDK FAUCET HOLDINGS INC., BGI Distribution SAS, BLACK & DECKER (SUZHOU) CO. LTD., BLACK & DECKER (SUZHOU) POWER TOOLS CO. LTD., BLACK & DECKER (SUZHOU) PRECISION MANUFACTURING CO. LTD., BLACK & DECKER ASIA MANUFACTURING HOLDINGS 1 S.a.r.l., BLACK & DECKER ASIA MANUFACTURING HOLDINGS 2 S.a.r.l., BLACK & DECKER DE REYNOSA S. DE R.L. DE C.V., BLACK & DECKER GLOBAL HOLDINGS S.a.r.l., BLACK & DECKER GROUP LLC, BLACK & DECKER HOLDINGS LLC, BLACK & DECKER INDIA INC., BLACK & DECKER INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS S.A.R.L., BLACK & DECKER INVESTMENT COMPANY LLC, BLACK & DECKER SHELBYVILLE LLC, BLACK & DECKER SSC CO. LTD., BLACK & DECKER TRANSASIA S.a.r.l., BLACK AND DECKER S.A. de C.V., Bagley Road LLC, Baltimore Financial Services Company Unlimited Company, Bandhart, Bandhart Overseas, Bed-Check, Belco Investments Company Unlimited Company, Besco Investment Group Co. Ltd., Besco Investment Holdings Ltd., Besco Pneumatic Corporation, Best Lock Corporation, Black & Decker, Black & Decker (Czech) s.r.o., Black & Decker (Ireland) Inc., Black & Decker (OVERSEAS) GmbH, Black & Decker (Thailand) Limited, Black & Decker (U.S.) Inc., Black & Decker Argentina S.A., Black & Decker Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Black & Decker Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Black & Decker Distribution Pty. Ltd, Black & Decker Europe, Black & Decker Far East Holdings B.V., Black & Decker Finance, Black & Decker Finance (Australia) Ltd., Black & Decker Finance SAS, Black & Decker Funding Corporation, Black & Decker Hardware Holdings B.V., Black & Decker Healthcare Management Inc., Black & Decker Holdings (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Black & Decker Holdings B.V., Black & Decker Hong Kong Limited, Black & Decker Inc., Black & Decker International, Black & Decker International Finance (UK) Limited, Black & Decker International Finance 1 Unlimited Company, Black & Decker International Finance 3 Designated Activity Company, Black & Decker International Finance Holdings (UK) Limited, Black & Decker International Holdings B.V. & CO. KG, Black & Decker Investments (Australia) Limited, Black & Decker Investments LLC, Black & Decker Limited BV, Black & Decker Luxembourg S.A.R.L., Black & Decker Macao Commercial Offshore Limited, Black & Decker Mexfin LLC, Black & Decker No. 4 Pty. Ltd., Black & Decker Puerto Rico Inc., Black & Decker de Colombia S.A.S., Black & Decker de Panama LLC, Black & Decker del Ecuador S.A., Black & Decker del Peru S.A., Black & Decker do Brasil Ltda., Black and Decker de Costa Rica Limitada, Blick Plc, Bostitch-Holding L.L.C., Bristol Industries LLC, Bulldog Barrels LLC, CAM International Holdings Inc., CAMACC Systems Inc., CONNEXCENTER SA, CPE Acquisition Co., CRC-EVANS INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS INC., CRC-EVANS INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LLC, CRC-EVANS WELDING SERVICES INC., CRC-Evans B.V., CRC-Evans Canada LTD., CRC-Evans International LLC, CRC-Evans Offshore Limited, CRC-Evans PIH Servios De Tubulao do Brasil Ltda, CRC-Evans Pipeline International Inc., CRC-Evans Pipeline International Sdn.Bhd., CWS Industries (Mfg.) Corp., Chesapeake Falls Holdings Company Unlimited Company, Chesapeake Investments Company S.A.R.L., Chicago Steel Tape, Chiro Tools Holdings B.V., Christie Intruder Alarms Limited, Clarke Security Services Incorporated, Consolidated Aerospace Manufacturing, Consolidated Areospace Manufacturing LLC, Contact East, Contract Fire Systems Ltd, Craftman, DADO Inc. F/K/A SBDLINQ, DEWALT INDUSTRIAL TOOLS S.A. DE C.V., DIYZ LLC, DeWalt Industrial Tools S.p.A., Devilbiss Air Power Company, Dewalt Industrial Power Tool Company LTD., Doncasters US Holdings Inc., Dubuis et Cie SAS, E.A. Patten Co. LLC, ELU Power Tools LTD, EMHART TEKNOLOGIES LLC, Eastern Vault & Security, Emhart Guangzhou (Hong Kong) Limited, Emhart Harttung A/S, Emhart Harttung Inc., Emhart International Holdings Limited, Emhart International Limited, Emhart Teknologies (Thailand) LTD., Excel Industries, Facom, Facom Belgie BVBA, Facom Holding SAS, Fastener Jamher Taiwan Inc., First National AlarmCap LP/Premiere Societe en Commandite Nationale Alarmcap, First National AlarmCap. Trust, Frisco Bay Industries, GDX Technologies, GMT China, GRUPO BLACK & DECKER MEXICO S. DE R.L. DE C.V., GUANGZHOU EMHART FASTENING SYSTEM CO. LTD., Gamrie Designated Activity Company, Generale de Protection, HSM Electronic Protection Systems, Hangtech Limited, Hardware City Associates Limited Partnership, Hefei INTACA Science & Technology Development Co. Ltd., Herramientas Stanley S.A. de c.v., Horst Sprenger GmbH Recycling-tools, I.D.L. Techni-Edge LLC, INFASTECH CAMCAR MALAYSIA SDN BHD, INFASTECH DECORAH LLC, ISR Solutions, IguanaFix, Infastech (China) Limited, Infastech (Korea) Limited, Infastech (Laubuan) Limited, Infastech (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Infastech (Mauritius) Limited, Infastech (Shenzhen) Limited, Infastech Company Limited, Infastech Fastening Systems (Wuxi) Limited, Infastech Holdings (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Infastech Intellectual Properties Pte. Ltd., Infastech Receivables Company Pte. Ltd., Infastech/Tri-Star Limited, Infastehc (Singapore) Pte. Ltd, InfoLogix, InfoLogix Systems Corporation, Infologix - DDMS Inc., Infologix Inc., Innerspace Products, Interfast B.V., Irwin Industrial Tool Ferramentas do Brasil Ltda., JAFFORD LLC, JRB Attachments LLC, JennCo1 Inc., Jewel Attachments LLC, Jiangsu Guoqiang Tools Co., Jiangsu Guoqiang Tools Co. Ltd., Jointech Corporation LTD., Kodiak Mfg. Inc., Lista International Corporation, M. HART DO BRASIL LTDA., MTD Holdings, Mac Tools Canada Inc., Maquinas y Herramientas Black & Decker de Chile S.A., Microalloying International LLC, Microtec Enterprises, Moeller Manufacturing & Supply LLC, Monarch Mirror Door Co., NEWFREY LLC, NSW Fabristeel Netherlands B.V., National Manufacturing, Nelson Bolzenschwei-Technik GmbH & Co. KG, Nelson Bolzenschwei-Technik GmbH Verwaltungs GmbH, Nelson Fastener Systems, Nelson Fastener Systems de Mexico SA de CV, Nelson Soudage de Goujons SAS, Nelson Stud Welding (Tianjin) Company Ltd., Nelson Stud Welding Canada Inc., Nelson Stud Welding Holdings Inc., Nelson Stud Welding Inc., Nelson Stud Welding India Private Limited, Nelson Stud Welding International LLC, New FEP Co. LLC, Newell Brands - Tools Business, Newell Rubbermaid Products (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Nippon Pop Rivets & Fasteners LTD., Niscayah Asia Limited, Niscayah Group AB, Niscayah Holdings Limited, Niscayah Investments Limited, Niscayah Teknik AB, Novia SWK SAS, OSI Security Devices, Onglin International Limited, P&B Re Holdings LLC, PIH Holdings Limited, PIH Services Limited, PIH Services ME LLC, PIH Services ME Ltd., PIH U.S. LLC, PIPELINE EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES SARL, PORTER-CABLE ARGENTINA LLC, POWERS FASTENERS INC.(Panama), PT Stanley Black & Decker, Pacom Group AB, Pacom Systems (North America) Inc., Pacom Systems Espana S.L., Pacom Systems Pty Limited, Paladin Brands Group Inc., Paladin Brands Holdings Inc., Paladin Brands International Holdings Inc., Panalok Limited, Pengo Corporation, Pillo Health, Pinnacle Electronic Systems, Pipeline Induction Heat Limited, Powers Fasteners Australasia Pty Limited, Powers Fasteners Inc., Powers Rawl Pty. Ltd., Powers Shanghai Trading Ltd., Precision Hardware, Prikos & Becker LLC, Pro One Finance SAS, QRP Inc., RIGHTCO II LLC, Rawl Australasia Pty. Ltd., Rawlplug Unit Trust, Refal Industria e Comercio de Rebites e Rebitadeiras Ltda., SBD Cayman Finance LLC, SBD Cayman LLC, SBD European Investment Unlimited Company, SBD European Security Holdings S.a r.l., SBD European Security Investment Unlimited Company, SBD Holding AB, SBD Insurance Inc., SBD MDGP Partnership Holdings LLC, SBD MDGP Partnership Holdings S.a r.l., SBD Manufacturing Distribution & Global Purchasing Holdings L.P., SBD Niscayah S.a r.l., SBD Property Holdings LLC, SBD Scala Inc., SBD UK Canada Holdings Inc., SPIRALOCK GLOBAL VENTURES LIMITED, STANLEY BLACK & DECKER HUNGARY KORALTOLT FELELOSSEGU TARSASAG, STANLEY BLACK & DECKER IBERICA S.L., STANLEY BLACK & DECKER MOROCCO SARL, STANLEY BLACK AND DECKER CYPRUS INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LTD, STANLEY BLACK AND DECKER CYPRUS ONE HOLDINGS LTD, STANLEY ENGINEERED FASTENING EASTERN EUROPE SP.Z O.O., SWK (U.K.) Holding Limited, SWK (UK) Limited, SWK Utensilerie S.r.l., Scan Modul, Security Group, SecurityCo Solutions Inc., Shanghai Emhart Fastening System Co. Ltd., Sidchrome Tool, Sielox Security Systems, Societe Miniere et Commerciale SAS, Sonitrol, Sonitrol Distribution Canada Inc., Sonitrol Security Systems of Buffalo Inc., Southern Monitoring Services Limited, Speciality Bar Products Company, Spiegelberg Manaufacturing Inc., Spiralock Corporation, Stanley Access Technologies LLC, Stanley Atlantic Inc., Stanley Black & Decker (Barbados) SRL, Stanley Black & Decker (Hellas) EPE, Stanley Black & Decker Asia Holdings LLC, Stanley Black & Decker Asian Holdings B.V., Stanley Black & Decker Australia Pty Ltd., Stanley Black & Decker Austria GmbH, Stanley Black & Decker Belgium BV, Stanley Black & Decker CCA S. de R.L., Stanley Black & Decker Canada Corporation, Stanley Black & Decker Cayman Holdings Inc., Stanley Black & Decker Chile L.L.C., Stanley Black & Decker Colombia Services S.A.S., Stanley Black & Decker Czech Republic s.r.o., Stanley Black & Decker Deutschland GmbH, Stanley Black & Decker Finance 1 LLC, Stanley Black & Decker Finance 2 LLC, Stanley Black & Decker Finance Limited, Stanley Black & Decker Finance Unlimited Company, Stanley Black & Decker Finland Oy, Stanley Black & Decker France SAS, Stanley Black & Decker France Services SAS, Stanley Black & Decker Holdings Australia Pty Ltd, Stanley Black & Decker Holdings S.a r.l., Stanley Black & Decker India Private Limited, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance 1 Limited, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance 2 Limited, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance 2 Unlimited Company, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance 3 Limited, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance 3 Unlimited Company, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance 4 Limited, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance 4 Unlimited Company, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance 5 Unlimited Company, Stanley Black & Decker International Finance L.P., Stanley Black & Decker Ireland Unlimited Company, Stanley Black & Decker Italia S.r.l., Stanley Black & Decker Italy Production S.r.l., Stanley Black & Decker Latin American Holding BV, Stanley Black & Decker Latin American Investment Unlimited Company, Stanley Black & Decker Limited, Stanley Black & Decker Limited Liability Company, Stanley Black & Decker Logistics BV, Stanley Black & Decker MEA FZE, Stanley Black & Decker Manufacturing SAS, Stanley Black & Decker Middle East Trading FZE, Stanley Black & Decker NZ Limited, Stanley Black & Decker Netherlands B.V., Stanley Black & Decker Norway AS, Stanley Black & Decker Partnership Japan, Stanley Black & Decker Partnership Japan Holdings S.a r.l., Stanley Black & Decker Polska Sp. z o.o., Stanley Black & Decker Precision Manufacturing (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Stanley Black & Decker Romania SRL, Stanley Black & Decker Slovakia s.r.o., Stanley Black & Decker Sweden AB, Stanley Black & Decker Turkey Alet Uretim Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Stanley Black & Decker UK Group Limited, Stanley Black & Decker UK Limited, Stanley Black & Decker de Monterrey S. de R.L. de C.V., Stanley CLP3, Stanley Canada Holdings L.L.C., Stanley Chiro International Ltd, Stanley Convergent Security Solutions Inc., Stanley Engineered Fastening Benelux B.V., Stanley Engineered Fastening France SAS, Stanley Engineered Fastening India Private Limited, Stanley Engineered Fastening Industrial Deutschland GmbH, Stanley Engineered Fastening Italy S.r.l., Stanley Engineered Fastening Spain S.L.U., Stanley Europe BV, Stanley European Holdings B.V., Stanley European Holdings II B.V., Stanley Fastening Systems Investment (Taiwan) Co., Stanley Fastening Systems L.P., Stanley Fastening Systems Poland Sp. z o.o., Stanley Feinwerktechnik GmbH, Stanley Grundstuecksverwaltungs GmbH, Stanley Healthcare Solutions France Sarl, Stanley Housing Fund Inc., Stanley Industrial & Automotive LLC, Stanley Infrastructure LLC f/k/a International Equipment Solutions ("IES"), Stanley Inspection L.L.C., Stanley Inspection US L.L.C., Stanley International Holdings Inc., Stanley Israel Investments B.V., Stanley Logistics L.L.C., Stanley Pipeline Inspection L.L.C., Stanley Safety Corporation LLC, Stanley Security AS, Stanley Security Alarmcentrale B.V., Stanley Security B.V., Stanley Security Belgium BV, Stanley Security Denmark ApS, Stanley Security Europe BV, Stanley Security Federal Systems LLC, Stanley Security France SAS, Stanley Security Holding AS, Stanley Security Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Stanley Security Nederland B.V., Stanley Security Oy, Stanley Security Solutions (NI) Limited, Stanley Security Solutions - Europe Limited, Stanley Security Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Stanley Security Solutions Inc., Stanley Security Sverige AB, Stanley Technical Services Ltd., Stanley Tools SAS, Stanley U.K. Holding Ltd., Stanley UK Acquisition Company Limited, Stanley UK Services Limited, Stanley Works (Europe) GmbH, Stanley Works (India) Private Limited, Stanley Works (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Stanley Works (Wendeng) Tools Co. Ltd., Stanley Works Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Stanley Works China Investments Limited, Stanley Works Holdings B.V., Stanley Works Limited, Stanley-Bostitch S.A. de c.v., Stanley-Bostitch Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., SureHand Inc. f.k.a. SBD Aura Inc., Sweepster Attachments LLC, TOG Holdings Inc., TOG Manufacturing Company Inc., TSI Monitoring LLC, TSI Sales & Installation LLC, The Black & Decker Corporation, The EAP Acquisition Co. LLC, The Farmington River Power Company, The Ferry Cap & Set Screw Company, The Stanley Works (Langfang) Fastening Systems Co. Ltd., The Stanley Works (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., The Stanley Works (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., The Stanley Works (Zhongshan) Tool Co. Ltd., The Stanley Works Israel Ltd., The Stanley Works Limited, The Stanley Works Pty. Ltd., Tong Lung Metal Industry, Tucker Fasteners Limited, Tucker GmbH, Tucker S.R.O., Universal Inspection Systems Limited, Visiocom International Pte Ltd, Voss Industries Inc., Wintech Corporation Limited, XMARK Corporation, Yong Ru Plastics Industry (Suzhou) Co. Ltd, and Zag USA Inc..The following companies are subsidiares of Molina Healthcare: Aetna & Humana - Medicare Advantage, Affinity Health Plan, AmericanWork Inc., Better Health Network, Camelot Care Centers Inc, Children's Behavioral Health Inc., Choices Group Inc., College Community Services, Dockside Services Inc, Family Preservation Services Inc., Family Preservation Services of Florida Inc., Family Preservation Services of North Carolina Inc., Family Preservation Services of Washington D.C. Inc., Family Preservation Services of West Virginia Inc., Florida NetPASS LLC, Hclb Inc., Magellan Complete Care, Maple Star Nevada Inc., Maple Star Oregon Inc., Mercy CarePlus, Molina Clinical Services LLC, Molina Healthcare Data Center Inc., Molina Healthcare of Arizona Inc., Molina Healthcare of California, Molina Healthcare of Florida Inc., Molina Healthcare of Georgia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Molina Healthcare of Iowa Inc., Molina Healthcare of Louisiana Inc., Molina Healthcare of Maryland Inc., Molina Healthcare of Michigan Inc., Molina Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Molina Healthcare of Nevada Inc., Molina Healthcare of New Mexico Inc., Molina Healthcare of New York Inc., Molina Healthcare of North Carolina Inc., Molina Healthcare of Ohio Inc., Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma Inc., Molina Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Molina Healthcare of Puerto Rico Inc., Molina Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, Molina Healthcare of Texas Inc., Molina Healthcare of Texas Insurance Company, Molina Healthcare of Utah Inc., Molina Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin Inc., Molina Holdings Corporation, Molina Hospital Management LLC, Molina Information Systems LLC dba Molina Medicaid Solutions, Molina Medical Management Inc., Molina Pathways LLC, Molina Pathways of Texas Inc., Molina Youth Academy, NextLevel Health Illinois, Pathways Community Corrections Inc., Pathways Community Services LLC, Pathways Community Support of Texas Inc., Pathways Health and Community Support LLC, Pathways Human Services LLC., Pathways of Arizona Inc., Pathways of Delaware Inc., Pathways of Idaho LLC, Pathways of Maine Inc., Pathways of Massachusetts LLC, Pathways of Oklahoma Inc., Pathways of Washington Inc., Providence Community Services, Providence Human Services, Raystown Developmental Services Inc., The Game of Work LLC, The RedCo Group Inc., Total Care Medicaid plan, Transitional Family Services Inc., Unisys -Health Information Management, and YourCare Health Plan.The following companies are subsidiares of UnitedHealth Group: 1031387 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1070715 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1st Avenue Pharmacy Inc., 310 Canyon Medical, 310 Canyon Medical LLC, 4C MSO LLC, 4C Medical Group PLC, 5995 Minnetonka LLC, ABCO International Holdings LLC, ACN Group IPA of New York, ACN Group IPA of New York Inc., ACN Group of California, ACN Group of California Inc., AHJV, AHJV MSO, AHN Accontable Care Organization LLC, AHN Central Services LLC, AHN Target Holdings LLC, AMIL International, AMIL International S.a.r.l., APS  Assistencia Personalizada a Saude Ltda., ARC Infusion, ASC Holdings of New Jersey LLC, ASC Network LLC, ASI Global, ASI Global LLC, Access Administrators Inc., Access HealthSource Administrators Inc., Access HealthSource Inc., Access I.V., Administradora Clinica La Colina S.A.S., Administradora Country S.A., Administradora Medica Centromed S.A., Advanced Care, Advanced Care Pharmacy, Advanced Pharma Inc., Advanced Surgery Center of Clifton LLC, Advanced Surgical Hospital LLC, Advantage Care Network Inc., Advocate Condell Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Sherman Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate-SCA Partners LLC, Alere Health, Alere Health Improvement Company, Alere Healthcare of Illinois, Alere Wellbeing, Alere Wellology, Alere of New York, Aliansalud Entidad Promotora de Salud S.A., All Savers Insurance Company, All Savers Life Insurance Company of California, Alliance Surgical Center LLC, Aloha Surgical Center LLC, Ambient Healthcare, Ambient Healthcare Inc., Ambient Healthcare of Central Florida, Ambient Healthcare of Georgia, Ambient Healthcare of Northeast Florida, Ambient Healthcare of S. Florida, Ambient Healthcare of West Florida, Ambient Holdings, Ambient Holdings Inc., Ambient Nursing Services, AmeriChoice, AmeriChoice Corporation, AmeriChoice Health Services, AmeriChoice of Connecticut, AmeriChoice of New Jersey, AmeriChoice of New Jersey Inc., American Health Network of Indiana Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Indiana II LLC, American Health Network of Indiana LLC, American Health Network of Ohio Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Ohio II LLC, American Health Network of Ohio LLC, Amico Saude Ltda., Amil, Amil Assistencia Medica Internacional S.A., Amil Lifesciences Participacoes Ltda., Antelope Valley Surgery Center L.P., Analisis Clinicos ML S.A.C., Apothecary Holdings Inc., Apothecary Shop of Phoenix Inc., AppleCare Medical Management, AppleCare Medical Management LLC, Aquitania Chilean Holding SpA, Arise Physician Group, Arizona Physicians IPA, Arizona Physicians IPA Inc., AssuranceRx, AssuranceRx LLC, Athens ASC Holdings LLC, Audax Health Solutions, Audax Health Solutions LLC, Austin Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Avella Patient Access Program Inc., Avella Specialty Pharmacy, Avella of Austin Inc., Avella of Columbus Inc., Avella of Deer Valley Inc., Avella of Denver Inc., Avella of Gilbert Inc., Avella of Las Vegas II Inc., Avella of Orlando Inc., Avella of Phoenix III Inc., Avella of Sacramento Inc., Avella of Scottsdale Inc., Avella of St. Louis Inc., Avella of Tampa LLC, Avella of Tucson II Inc., Avella of Tucson Inc., Aveta Arizona, Aveta Health Solutions Inc., Aveta Inc., Aveta Kansas City, Aveta Tennessee, AxelaCare Health Solutions, AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings, AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings LLC, AxelaCare LLC, B.R.A.S.S. Partnership in Commendam, Banmedica Colombia SpA, Banmedica Internacional SpA, Banmedica S.A., Beach Surgical Holdings III LLC, Behavioral Healthcare Options, Behavioral Healthcare Options Inc., Belleville Surgical Center Ltd. an Illinois Limited Partnership, Benefit Administration for the Self Employed L.L.C., Benefitter Insurance Solutions Inc., Birmingham Outpatient Surgical Center LLC, Blackstone Valley Surgicare GP LLC, Blue Ridge GP LLC, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings I SRL, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings II SRL, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings III SRL, Bordeaux Holding SpA, Bordeaux International Holdings Inc., Bordeaux UK Holdings I Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings III Limited, Bosque Medical Center Ltda., Brandon Ambulatory Surgery Center LC, BriovaRx, BriovaRx, BriovaRx Infusion Services, BriovaRx Infusion Services 102 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 200 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 204 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 209 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 305 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 402 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services Inc., BriovaRx Specialty LLC, BriovaRx of California, BriovaRx of California Inc., BriovaRx of Florida, BriovaRx of Florida Inc., BriovaRx of Georgia, BriovaRx of Georgia LLC, BriovaRx of Hawaii, BriovaRx of Indiana, BriovaRx of Louisiana, BriovaRx of Louisiana L.L.C., BriovaRx of Maine, BriovaRx of Maine Inc., BriovaRx of Massachusetts, BriovaRx of Massachusetts LLC, BriovaRx of Nevada, BriovaRx of New York, BriovaRx of New York Inc., BriovaRx of Texas, BriovaRx of Texas Inc., CDC Holdings Colombia S.A.S., CLISA  Clinica de Santo Antonio S.A., CMO  Centro Medico de Oftalmologia S/S Ltda., CMS  Central de Manipulacao e Servicos Farmaceuticos S.A., CNIC Health Solutions Inc., COI Participacoes S.A., COI  Clinicas Oncologicas Integradas S.A., Cabin Enterprises LLC, Cabin Holdings LLC, California MedTrans Network IPA LLC, California MedTrans Network MSO LLC, California Medical Group Insurance Company Risk Retention Group, Camp Hill-SCA Centers LLC, Capital City Medical Group L.L.C., Cardio Management, Cardio Management Inc., Care Improvement Plus Group Management, Care Improvement Plus Group Management LLC, Care Improvement Plus South Central Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus Wisconsin Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus of Texas Insurance Company, Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha Ltda., Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha S.A., Castle Rock SurgiCenter LLC, Catalyst360, Catalyst360 LLC, Catamaran Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Catamaran Health Solutions, Catamaran Holdings I, Catamaran IPA III, Catamaran Mail, Catamaran PBM of Illinois II, Catamaran PBM of Puerto Rico, Catamaran PD of Pennsylvania, Catamaran PD of Puerto Rico, Catamaran Rebate Management, Catamaran S.a.r.l., Catamaran Senior Services, Catamaran of Pennsylvania, Cedar Park Surgery Center LLC, Cemed Care - Empressa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Cemed Care  Empresa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Central Indiana Care Organization LLC, Central Ohio Care Organization LLC, Central de Compras SpA, CentriHealth Corporation, CentriHealth UK Limited, CentrifyHealth LLC, Centro Medico Hospitalar Pitangueiras Ltda., Centro Medico Odontologico Americano S.A.C., Centro Medico PJ Ltda., Centro de Entrenamiento en Reanimacion y Prevencion Limitada (CERP), Centro de Servicios Compartidos Banmedica S.A., Centromed Quilpue S.A., Centros Medicos y Dentales Multimed Ltda., Centurion Casualty Company, Channel Islands Surgicenter L.P., Channel Islands Surgicenter Properties LLC, Charleston Surgery Properties LLC, Charlotte-SC LLC, Childrens Surgery Center LLC, ChinaGate (Hong Kong) Limited, ChinaGate Company Limited, Citrus Regional Surgery Center L.P., Clinica Oftalmologica Danilo de Castro Sociedade Simples, Clinical Partners of Colorado Springs LLC, Clinica Alameda S.A., Clinica Bio Bio S.A., Clinica Ciudad del Mar S.A., Clinica Davila y Servicios Medicos S.A., Clinica Medico Cirurgica de Santa Tecla S.A., Clinica San Borja (La Esperanza del Peru S.A.), Clinica San Felipe S.A., Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Clinica Sanchez Ferrer S.A., Clinica Vespucio S.A., Clinica del Country S.A., Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare, Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare Inc., Coalition For Advanced Pharmacy Services, Coalition for Advanced Pharmacy Services Inc., Coastal Physicians Management Inc., Collaborative Care Holdings, Collaborative Care Holdings LLC, Collaborative Care Services, Collaborative Care Services Inc., Collaborative Care Solutions, Collaborative Realty, Collaborative Realty LLC, Colmedica Medicina Prepagada, Colonial Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Colorado Innovative Physician Solutions Inc., Colorado Springs Surgery Center Ltd., Comfort Care Transportation, Comfort Care Transportation LLC, Commonwealth Administrators, Connecticut Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Connecticut Surgery Properties LLC, Connecticut Surgical Center LLC, Connextions, Connextions HCI, Constructora e Inmobiliaria Magapoq S.A., Consumer Wellness Solutions Inc., Country Scan Ltda., Crescent Drug Corp., Cypress Care, Cypress Care Inc., DBP Services of New York IPA, DBP Services of New York IPA Inc., DTC Surgery Center LLC, DWIC of Tampa Bay, DWIC of Tampa Bay Inc., DaVita Magan Management Inc., Danbury Surgical Center L.P., Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company, Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company LLC, Definity Health, Dental Benefit Providers, Dental Benefit Providers Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of California, Dental Benefit Providers of California Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois, Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois Inc., Derry Surgical Center LLC, Diagnostico Ecotomografico Centromed Ltda., Diasnostico por Imagenes Centromed Ltda., Dilab Medicina Nuclear Ltda., Diplomat Pharmacy, Distance Learning Network, Distance Learning Network Inc., Doctor + S.A.C., Dry Creek Surgery Center LLC, Dublin Surgery Center LLC, Duncan Printing Services, Duncan Printing Services LLC, E Street Endoscopy LLC, ELG FZE, EP Campus I, EP Campus I LLC, East Brunswick Surgery Center LLC, Electronic Network Systems, Electronic Network Systems Inc., Elual Participacoes S.A., Empire Physician Management Company, Empire Physician Management Company LLC, Employers Health Choice PPO Inc., Empremedica S. A., Endoscopy Center Affiliates Inc., Enterprise Life Insurance Company, Equian, Equian LLC, Equian Parent Corp., Esho  Empresa de Servicos Hospitalares S.A., Etho  Empresa de Tecnologia Hospitalar Ltda., Evercare Collaborative Solutions, Evercare Collaborative Solutions Inc., Everett MSO Inc., Excellion Servicos Biomedicos Ltda., Excellion Servicos Biomedicos S.A., Excelsior Insurance Brokerage Inc., Executive Health Resources, Executive Health Resources Inc., Executive Surgery Center LLC, Eye Clinic Oftalmologia Clinico Cirurgica e Diagnostico Ltda., FMG Holdings, FMG Holdings LLC, FOR HEALTH OF ARIZONA, Family Health Care Services, Family Home Hospice, Family Home Hospice Inc., First Rx Specialty & Mail Services, Florida MedTrans Network LLC, Florida MedTrans Network MSO LLC, For Health, For Health Inc., For Health of Arizona Inc., Fortified Provider Network Inc., Fortify Technologies Asia LLC, Fortify Technologies LLC, Foundation Financial Services Inc., Franklin Surgical Center LLC, Freedom Life Insurance Company of America, Freeway Surgicenter of Houston LLC, Frontier MEDEX Limited, Frontier Medex Tanzania Limited, FrontierMEDEX, FrontierMEDEX (RMS), FrontierMEDEX (RMS) Inc., FrontierMEDEX Government Services, FrontierMEDEX Government Services LLC, FrontierMEDEX Inc., FrontierMEDEX Kenya Limited, FrontierMEDEX US, FrontierMEDEX US Inc., Fundacion Banmedica, GRANTS PASS SURGERY CENTER LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center Ltd., Gainesville Surgery Center L.P., Gainesville Surgery Properties LLC, Genoa, Genoa Healthcare Inc., Genoa Healthcare LLC, Genoa QoL Wholesale LLC, Genoa Technology (Canada) Inc., Genoa Technology Inc., Genoa Telepsychiatry Inc., Genoa of Arkansas LLC, Glenwood Surgical Center L.P., Glenwood-SC Inc., Golden Outlook, Golden Outlook Inc., Golden Rule Financial Corporation, Golden Rule Insurance Company, Golden Triangle Surgicenter L.P., Grapevine Finance LLC, Greater Hartford ASC LLC, Grove Place Surgery Center L.L.C., Guardian Health Systems Limited Partnership, H&W Indemnity (SPC), H&W Indemnity (SPC) Ltd., H.I. Investments Holding Company LLC, HCP ACO California LLC, HCP ACO Nevada LLC, HCentive Technology India Private Limited, HMI NewCo LLC, Harken Health Insurance Company, Hayes-Strub LLC, Health Business Systems, Health Care-ONE Insurance Agency Inc., Health Inventures Employment Solutions LLC, Health Inventures LLC, Health Net Insurance of New York, Health Net Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Health Plan of Nevada, Health Plan of Nevada Inc., Health Technology Analysts Pty Limited, HealthAllies, HealthAllies Inc., HealthCare Partners ASC-LB LLC, HealthCare Partners Management Services California LLC, HealthCare Partners RE LLC, HealthFirst IPA Inc., HealthMarkets Group Inc., HealthMarkets Inc., HealthMarkets Insurance Agency Inc., HealthMarkets LLC, HealthMarkets NewCo Inc., HealthMarkets Services Inc., HealthSCOPE Holdings Inc., HealthScope Benefits Inc., Healthcare Partners Plan of Nevada Inc., Healthcare Solutions Inc., Heartland Heart and Vascular LLC, Help S.A., Help Service S.A., Highlands Ranch Healthcare, Highlands Ranch Healthcare LLC, Home Care I.V. of Bend, Home Infusion With Heart, Home Medical S.A., Hospice Inspiris Holdings, Hospice Inspiris Holdings Inc., Hospitais Associados de Pernambuco Ltda., Hospital Alvorada de Taguatinga Ltda., Hospital Ana Costa S.A., Hospital Maternidade Promater Ltda., Hospital Samaritano de Sao Paulo Ltda., Hospital Santa Helena S.A., Hospital de Clinicas de Jacarepagua Ltda., Humedica, Humedica Inc., Hygeia Corporation, Hygeia Corporation (Canada), Hygeia Corporation (DE), Hygeia Corporation (Ontario), INOV8 Surgical at Memorial City LLC, INSPIRIS of New York IPA, INSPIRIS of New York Management, INSPIRIS of New York Management Inc., INSPIRIS of Texas Physician Group, IRX Financing I LLC, Illinois Independent Care Network, Imed Star  Servicos de Desempenho Organizacional Ltda., Impel Consulting Experts, Impel Consulting Experts L.L.C., Impel Management Services L.L.C., Indian River Surgery Center Ltd., Indian River Surgery Properties LLC, Indiana Care Organization LLC, Infusource, Ingram & Associates, Ingram & Associates LLC, Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3001 S.A., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3600 Ltda., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo S.A., Inmobiliaria Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Inmobiliaria Vinamed Ltda., Inmobiliaria e Inversiones Alameda S.A., Inspiris, Inspiris Inc., Inspiris Services Company, Inspiris of Tennessee, Instituto do Radium de Cammpinas Ltda, International Psychological Services Pty Limited, Inversiones Clinicas Santa Maria S.A., Isapre Banmedica S.A., Isapre Vida Tres S.A., Johnston Surgicare L.P., Joliet Surgery Center Limited Partnership, LHI, Laboratorio ROE S.A., Laboratorios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., LifePrint Health, LifePrint Health Inc., LifeStyles Marketing Group Inc., LifeWell Ltd. Co., Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization, Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization LLC, Lifeprint East, Lifeprint East Inc., Logistics Health Inc., Lotten-Eyes Oftalmologia Clinica e Cirurgica Ltda., Louisville S.C. Ltd., Louisville-SC Properties Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook Inc., Lusiadas - Parcerias Cascais S.A., Lusiadas A.C.E., Lusiadas S.A., Lusiadas SGPS S.A., MAMSI Insurance Resources, MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Company, MD Ops, MD Ops Inc., MD-Individual Practice Association, MD-Individual Practice Association Inc., ME AHS UC LLC, MEDEX Insurance Services, MEDEX Insurance Services Inc., MGH/SCA LLC, MHC Real Estate Holdings, MHC Real Estate Holdings LLC, MIAMI SURGERY CENTER LLC, MSLA Management LLC, MXMD Centros De Cancer, Mamoeco  Mamografia e Ecografia Centro de Diagnostico, Managed Physical Network, Managed Physical Network Inc., March Holdings, March Holdings Inc., March Vision Care, March Vision Care Inc., Marin Surgery Holdings Inc., Maryland Ambulatory Centers, Maryland-SCA Centers LLC, Massachusetts Assurance Company Ltd. PIC, Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center LLC, Mat-Rx Development, Mat-Rx Fort Worth GP, MedExpress Development, MedExpress Development LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Alabama LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Inc. - Ohio, MedExpress Urgent Care Maine Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care New Hampshire Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach, MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach LLC, MedSynergies, MedSynergies LLC, MedSynergies North Texas, Medalliance Net Ltda, Medalliance Net Ltda., Medica Health Plans of Florida, Medica Health Plans of Florida Inc., Medica HealthCare Plans, Medica HealthCare Plans Inc., Medical Clinic of North Texas PLLC, Medical Hilfe S.A., Medical Preparatory School of Allied Health, Medical Support Los Angeles Inc., Medical Surgical Centers of America Inc., Medical Transportation Services, Medical Transportation Services LLC, Medication Management Systems Inc., Melbourne Surgery Center LLC, Memorial City Holdings LLC, Memorial City Partners LLC, Memphis-SC LLC, Memphis-SP LLC, Mesquite Liberty LLC, Metro I Stone Management, Metropolitan Medical Partners LLC, Metropolitan Medical Transportation IPA LLC, Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee, Midwest Center for Day Surgery LLC, Mile High SurgiCenter LLC, Mississippi Surgery Holdings LLC, Mississippi Surgical Center Limited Partnership, Mobile Medical Professionals, Modern Medical Inc., Monarch Management Services, Monarch Management Services Inc., Montgomery Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Mountain View Medical Group LLC, Mt. Pleasant Surgery Center L.P., Multiangio Ltda., Muskogee Surgical Investors LLC, Mustang Razorback Holdings, Mustang Razorback Holdings Inc., My Wellness Solutions LLC, NAMM Holdings, NAMM Holdings Inc., NSC Fayetteville LLC, NSC Greensboro LLC, NSC Lancaster LLC, NSC Seattle Inc., NSC Upland LLC, Nashville-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., National Foundation Life Insurance Company, National MedTrans LLC, National Pacific Dental, National Pacific Dental Inc., National Surgery Centers LLC, Neighborhood Health Partnership, Neighborhood Health Partnership Inc., Netwerkes, Netwerkes LLC, Nevada Medical Services LLC, Nevada Pacific Dental, New Orleans Regional Physician Hospital Organization L.L.C., New West Physicians Inc., Newton Holdings LLC, North American Medical Management - Illinois, North American Medical Management California, North American Medical Management California Inc., North Puget Sound Center for Sleep Disorders LLC, North Puget Sound Oncology Equipment Leasing Company LLC, Northern Nevada Health Network, Northern Nevada Health Network Inc., Northern Rockies Surgicenter Inc., Northwest Surgicare LLC, Northwest Surgicare Ltd., Nutritional/Parenteral Home Care, Nutritional/Parenteral Home Care of Huntsville, OC Cardiology Practice Partners LLC, OSB  Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Ltda., Omesa S.A., OmniClaim LLC, Oncocare S.A.C., OneNet PPO, OneNet PPO LLC, Optimum Choice, Optimum Choice Inc., Optum, Optum Bank, Optum Bank Inc., Optum Biometrics, Optum Biometrics Inc., Optum Care Inc., Optum Care Services Company, Optum Clinical Services, Optum Clinics Holdings, Optum Clinics Holdings Inc., Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings, Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings Inc., Optum Digital Health Holdings LLC, Optum Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Global Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Global Solutions (India) Private Limited, Optum Global Solutions (Philippines), Optum Global Solutions (Philippines) Inc., Optum Global Solutions International B.V., Optum Government Solutions, Optum Government Solutions Inc., Optum Growth Partners LLC, Optum Health & Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd, Optum Health & Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, Optum Health & Technology (India) Private Limited, Optum Health & Technology (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Optum Health & Technology (UK) Limited, Optum Health & Technology (US), Optum Health & Technology (US) LLC, Optum Health & Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Health & Technology Holdings (US), Optum Health & Technology Holdings (US) Inc., Optum Health & Technology Servicos do Brasil Ltda., Optum Health Services (Canada) Ltd., Optum Health Solutions (Australia) Pty Ltd, Optum Health Solutions (UK) Limited, Optum Health and Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Healthcare of Illinois, Optum Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services, Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services LLC, Optum Inc., Optum Infusion Services 100 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 101 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 103 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 201 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 202 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 203 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 205 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 206 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 207 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 208 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 301 LP, Optum Infusion Services 302 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 308 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 401 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 403 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 404 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 501 Inc., Optum Insurance of Ohio, Optum Insurance of Ohio Inc., Optum Labs, Optum Labs Dimensions, Optum Labs Dimensions Inc., Optum Labs Inc., Optum Labs International (UK) Ltd., Optum Life Sciences (Canada) Inc., Optum Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Optum Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Optum Networks of New Jersey Inc., Optum Nevada Accountable Care Organization LLC, Optum Operations (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas Inc., Optum Perks LLC, Optum Pharmacy 701 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 702 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 703 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 705 LLC, Optum Public Sector Solutions, Optum Public Sector Solutions Inc., Optum Rocket, Optum Rocket Inc., Optum Senior Services LLC, Optum Services, Optum Services (Ireland) Limited, Optum Services (Puerto Rico) LLC, Optum Services Inc., Optum Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Optum Solutions do Brasil  Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Ltda., Optum Technology, Optum Technology LLC, Optum UK Solutions Group Limited, Optum Women's and Children's Health, Optum Women's and Children's Health LLC, Optum of New York Inc., Optum360, Optum360 LLC, Optum360 Services, Optum360 Services Inc., Optum360 Solutions LLC, OptumCare ACO Florida LLC, OptumCare ACO Holdings LLC, OptumCare ACO New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Clinical Trials LLC, OptumCare Colorado ASC LLC, OptumCare Colorado LLC, OptumCare Colorado Springs LLC, OptumCare Endoscopy Center New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Florida CI LLC, OptumCare Florida LLC, OptumCare Health Plan of California Inc., OptumCare Holdings Colorado LLC, OptumCare Holdings LLC, OptumCare Holdings New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Management LLC, OptumCare New Mexico LLC, OptumCare New York IPA Inc., OptumCare South Florida LLC, OptumHealth Care Solutions, OptumHealth Care Solutions LLC, OptumHealth Financial Services, OptumHealth Financial Services Inc., OptumHealth Holdings, OptumHealth Holdings LLC, OptumHealth International B.V., OptumInsight, OptumInsight Holdings, OptumInsight Holdings LLC, OptumInsight Inc., OptumInsight India Private Limited, OptumInsight Life Sciences, OptumInsight Life Sciences Inc., OptumRx, OptumRx Administrative Services, OptumRx Administrative Services LLC, OptumRx Discount Card Services, OptumRx Discount Card Services LLC, OptumRx Group Holdings, OptumRx Group Holdings Inc., OptumRx Health Solutions LLC, OptumRx Holdings, OptumRx Holdings I LLC, OptumRx Holdings LLC, OptumRx Home Delivery of Illinois, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio LLC, OptumRx IPA III Inc., OptumRx Inc., OptumRx NY IPA, OptumRx NY IPA Inc., OptumRx PBM of Illinois, OptumRx PBM of Illinois Inc., OptumRx PBM of Maryland, OptumRx PBM of Maryland LLC, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx PBM of Puerto Rico LLC, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin LLC, OptumRx PD of Maryland, OptumRx PD of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx Pharmacy, OptumRx Pharmacy Inc., OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada, OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada Inc., OptumRx of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumServe Technology Services Inc., Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., OrthoNet Holdings, OrthoNet Holdings Inc., OrthoNet LLC, OrthoNet New York IPA, OrthoNet New York IPA Inc., OrthoNet Services, OrthoNet Services Inc., OrthoNet West, OrthoNet West Inc., OrthoNet of the Mid-Atlantic, OrthoNet of the South, OrthoNet of the South Inc., Ovations, Ovations Inc., Oxford Benefit Management, Oxford Benefit Management Inc., Oxford Health Insurance, Oxford Health Insurance Inc., Oxford Health Plans (CT), Oxford Health Plans (CT) Inc., Oxford Health Plans (NJ), Oxford Health Plans (NJ) Inc., Oxford Health Plans (NY), Oxford Health Plans (NY) Inc., Oxford Health Plans LLC, P2 Lower Acquisition, P2P Link LLC, PCCCV, PCCCV Inc., PCN DE Corp., PHC Subsidiary Holdings, PHC Subsidiary Holdings LLC, PHYS Holding Corp., PHYSICIANS DAY SURGERY CENTER LLC, PMI Acquisition, PMI Acquisition LLC, PMSI, PMSI Holdco II, PMSI Holdings, PMSI Holdings LLC, PMSI LLC, PMSI Settlement Solutions, PMSI Settlement Solutions LLC, POMCO Inc., POMCO Network Inc., PPH Holdings LLC, PacifiCare Health Systems, PacifiCare Life Assurance Company, PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company, PacifiCare of Arizona, PacifiCare of Arizona Inc., PacifiCare of Colorado, PacifiCare of Colorado Inc., PacifiCare of Nevada, PacifiCare of Nevada Inc., Pacific Casualty Company Inc., Pacifico S.A. Entidad Prestadora de Salud, Paoli Ambulatory Surgery Center, Paoli Surgery Center L.P., Parkway Surgery Center LLC, Pasteur Plaza Surgery Center GP Inc., PatientsLikeMe, PatientsLikeMe LLC, Patrimonio Autonomo Nueva Clinica - PANC., Payment Resolution Services, Payment Resolution Services LLC, Peoples Health, Peoples Health Inc., Pharmaceutical Care Network, Pharmacy Review Services, Pharmacy Software Holdco Inc., PhyServe Holdings, Physician Alliance of the Rockies LLC, Physician Care Partners, Physicians Health Choice of Texas, Physicians Health Choice of Texas LLC, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland Inc., Physicians Plaza Holdings LLC, Plano de Saude Ana Costa Ltda., Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico, Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico Inc., Plus One Holdings, Plus One Holdings Inc., Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes, Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes Multiestrategia, Polo Holdco, Polo Holdco LLC, Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Precision Dialing Services Inc., Preferred Care Partners, Preferred Care Partners Holding, Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp., Preferred Care Partners Inc., Preferred Care Partners Medical Group, Preferred Care Partners Medical Group Inc., Premier Choice ACO, Premier Choice ACO Inc., Premier Surgery Center of Louisville L.P., Prime Health, Prime Health Inc., PrimeCare Medical Network, PrimeCare Medical Network Inc., PrimeCare of Citrus Valley, PrimeCare of Citrus Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Corona, PrimeCare of Corona Inc., PrimeCare of Hemet Valley, PrimeCare of Hemet Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Inland Valley, PrimeCare of Inland Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Moreno Valley, PrimeCare of Moreno Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Redlands, PrimeCare of Redlands Inc., PrimeCare of Riverside, PrimeCare of Riverside Inc., PrimeCare of San Bernardino, PrimeCare of San Bernardino Inc., PrimeCare of Sun City, PrimeCare of Sun City Inc., PrimeCare of Temecula, PrimeCare of Temecula Inc., ProHEALTH Fitness of Lake Success, ProHEALTH Fitness of Lake Success LLC, ProHEALTH Medical Management LLC, ProHealth Medical Management, ProHealth Physicians, ProHealth Physicians ACO, ProHealth Physicians ACO LLC, ProHealth Physicians Inc., ProHealth Proton Center Management, ProHealth Proton Center Management LLC, Procura Management, Procura Management Inc., Progressive Enterprises Holdings, Progressive Enterprises Holdings Inc., Progressive Medical, Progressive Medical LLC, Progressive Solutions, Promotora Country S.A., Pronetics Health Care Group, Pronounced Health Solutions Inc., Prosemedic S.A.C., Prospero Management Services LLC, Pueblo-SCA Surgery Center LLC, Pulse Platform LLC, QoL Acquisition Holdings Corp., Quality Software Services, QuarterMaster Newco LLC, R&H Family Fitness Unlimited LLC, Rally Health, Rally Health Inc., Real Appeal Inc., Recaudacion y Cobranzas Honodav Ltda., Redlands Ambulatory Surgery Center, Redlands-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., Reliant MSO LLC, Research Surgical Center LLC, River Valley ASC LLC, Riverside Electronic Healthcare Resources Inc., Riverside Medical Management, Riverside Medical Management LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Meadowlands LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Newark LLC, Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization Incorporated, Rocky Mountain HealthCare Options Inc., SC Affiliates LLC, SCA Alaska Surgery Center inc., SCA Athens LLC, SCA Austin Holdings LLC, SCA BOSC Holdings LLC, SCA California Surgical Holdings LLC, SCA Capital LLC, SCA Cedar Park Holdings LLC, SCA Clifton LLC, SCA Danbury Surgical Center LLC, SCA Development LLC, SCA EHSC Holdings LLC, SCA EWASC Holdings LLC, SCA Hays Holdings LLC, SCA Heartland Holdings LLC, SCA HoldCo Inc., SCA Holding Company Inc., SCA Holdings Inc., SCA IEC Holdings LLC, SCA Indiana Holdings LLC, SCA Nashville ASC LLC, SCA Pacific Holdings Inc., SCA Pennsylvania Holdings LLC, SCA Premier Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, SCA ROCS Holdings LLC, SCA Rockledge JV LLC, SCA SSC Holdings LLC, SCA SSSC Holdings LLC, SCA Sage Medical LLC, SCA Sage Medical MSO LLC, SCA Southwestern PA LLC, SCA Specialists of Florida LLC, SCA Stonegate Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Center of Cullman LLC, SCA Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Partners LLC, SCA Surgicare of Laguna Hills LLC, SCA Teammate Support Network, SCA eCode Solutions Private Limited, SCA of Clarksville Inc., SCA-Albuquerque Surgery Properties Inc., SCA-Alliance LLC, SCA-Anne Arundel LLC, SCA-Applecare Partners LLC, SCA-Bethesda LLC, SCA-Blue Ridge LLC, SCA-Bonita Springs LLC, SCA-Brandon LLC, SCA-Castle Rock LLC, SCA-Central Florida LLC, SCA-Charleston LLC, SCA-Chatham LLC, SCA-Chevy Chase LLC, SCA-Citrus Inc., SCA-Colorado Springs LLC, SCA-Connecticut Partners LLC, SCA-DRY CREEK LLC, SCA-Davenport LLC, SCA-Denver LLC, SCA-Denver Physicians Holdings LLC, SCA-Derry LLC, SCA-Doral LLC, SCA-Downey LLC, SCA-Dublin LLC, SCA-Encinitas Inc., SCA-Eugene Inc., SCA-First Coast LLC, SCA-Florence LLC, SCA-Fort Collins Inc., SCA-Fort Walton Inc., SCA-Franklin LLC, SCA-Frederick LLC, SCA-Freeway Holdings LLC, SCA-Ft. Myers LLC, SCA-GRANTS PASS LLC, SCA-Gainesville LLC, SCA-Gladiolus LLC, SCA-Grove Place LLC, SCA-Hagerstown LLC, SCA-Hamden LLC, SCA-Hilton Head LLC, SCA-Honolulu LLC, SCA-Houston Executive LLC, SCA-IT Holdings LLC, SCA-Illinois LLC, SCA-JPM Holdings LLC, SCA-Kissing Camels Holdings LLC, SCA-MC VBP Inc., SCA-Main Street LLC, SCA-Marina del Rey LLC, SCA-Mecklenburg Development Corp., SCA-Memorial City LLC, SCA-Merritt LLC, SCA-Midlands LLC, SCA-Midway Management LLC, SCA-Mobile LLC, SCA-Mokena LLC, SCA-Mokena Properties LLC, SCA-Morris County LLC, SCA-Mt. Pleasant LLC, SCA-ND VBP Inc., SCA-Naperville LLC, SCA-Naples LLC, SCA-New Jersey LLC, SCA-Newport Beach LLC, SCA-Northeast Georgia Health LLC, SCA-PORTLAND LLC, SCA-Palm Beach LLC, SCA-Palm Beach MSO Holdings LLC, SCA-Paoli LLC, SCA-Phoenix LLC, SCA-Pocono LLC, SCA-Practice Partners Holdings LLC, SCA-River Valley LLC, SCA-Riverside LLC, SCA-Riverside Partners LLC, SCA-Rockville LLC, SCA-Sacred Heart Holdings LLC, SCA-San Diego Inc., SCA-San Luis Obispo LLC, SCA-Sand Lake LLC, SCA-Santa Rosa Inc., SCA-Shelby Development Corp., SCA-Somerset LLC, SCA-South Jersey LLC, SCA-Sparta LLC, SCA-Spartanburg Holdings LLC, SCA-St. Louis LLC, SCA-St. Lucie LLC, SCA-SurgiCare LLC, SCA-Swiftpath LLC, SCA-VERTA LLC, SCA-Wake Forest LLC, SCA-Western Connecticut LLC, SCA-Westover Hills LLC, SCA-Wilmington LLC, SCA-Wilson LLC, SCA-Winchester LLC, SCA-Winter Park Inc., SCA-Woodlands Holdings LLC, SCAI Holdings LLC, SCP Specialty Infusion, SCP Specialty Infusion LLC, SHC Atlanta LLC, SHC Austin Inc., SHC Hawthorn Inc., SHC Melbourne Inc., SPINETRACK 20/20 Inc., SRPS LLC, SXC Comet, Sacred Heart ASC LLC, Saden S.A., Salem Surgery Center LLC, Salveo Specialty Pharmacy, Salveo Specialty Pharmacy Inc., Sand Lake SurgiCenter LLC, Santa Cruz Endoscopy Center LLC, Santa Helena Assistencia Medica S.A., Santos Administracao e Participacoes S.A., Savvysherpa Administrative Services LLC, Savvysherpa Asia Inc., Savvysherpa LLC, Scanner Centromed S.A., ScripNet, ScriptSwitch Limited, Seisa Servicos Integrados de Saude Ltda., Senate Street Surgery Center LLC, Senior Benefits L.L.C., Senior Care Partners, Serquinox Holdings LLC, Serquinox LLC, Servicios Integrados de Salud Ltda., Servicios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., Servicios Medicos Bio Bio Limitada, Servicios Medicos Ciudad del Mar Ltda., Servicios Medicos Santa Maria Limitada, Servicios Medicos Vespucio Ltda., Servicios de Entrenamiento en Competencias Clinicas Ltda., SharedClarity LLC, Shelby Surgery Properties Inc., Sierra Health Services, Sierra Health Services Inc, Sierra Health Services Inc., Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company, Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company Inc., Sierra Health-Care Options, Sierra Health-Care Options Inc., Sierra Home Medical Products, Sierra Home Medical Products Inc., Sierra Nevada Administrators, Sierra Nevada Administrators Inc., Sirona Infusion, Sistema de Administracion Hospitalaria S.A.C., Small Business Insurance Advisors Inc., Sobam  Centro Medico Hospitalar S.A., Sociedad Editorial para la Ciencia Limitada., Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Maria S.A., Somerset Outpatient Surgery L.L.C., Southwest Medical Associates, Southwest Medical Associates Inc., Southwest Michigan Health Network Inc., Southwest Surgery Center LLC, Southwest Surgical Center of Bakersfield L.P., Space Coast Surgical Center Ltd., Specialists in Urology Surgery Center LLC, Specialized Pharmaceuticals Inc., Specialty Benefits, Specialty Benefits LLC, Spectera, Spectera Inc., Spectera of New York IPA, Spectera of New York IPA Inc., Spotlite, Spotlite Inc., St. Cloud Surgical Center LLC, StoneRiver P2P Link, StoneRiver Pharmacy Solutions, Stonegate Surgery Center L.P., Streamlines Health LLC, Summit Home Infusion, SunSurgery LLC, Surgery Center Holding LLC, Surgery Center at Cherry Creek LLC, Surgery Center at Kissing Camels LLC, Surgery Center of Boca Raton Inc., Surgery Center of Clarksville L.P., Surgery Center of Colorado Springs LLC, Surgery Center of Des Moines LLC, Surgery Center of Easton LLC, Surgery Center of Ellicott City Inc., Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, Surgery Center of Maui LLC, Surgery Center of Muskogee LLC, Surgery Center of Rockville L.L.C., Surgery Center of Southern Pines LLC, Surgery Center of Spokane LLC, Surgery Center of Summerlin LLC, Surgery Center of The Woodlands LLC, Surgery Center of Vero Beach Inc., Surgery Center of Wilmington LLC, Surgery Center of Wilmington Properties LLC, Surgery Centers of Des Moines Ltd. an Iowa Limited Partnership, Surgery Centers-West Holdings LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates, Surgical Care Affiliates LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates Political Action Committee, Surgical Care Partners of Melbourne LLC, Surgical Center of South Jersey Limited Partnership, Surgical Center of Tuscaloosa Holdings LLC, Surgical Health LLC, Surgical Health of Orlando LLC, Surgical Hospital Holdings of Oklahoma LLC, Surgicare LLC, Surgicare of Belleville LLC, Surgicare of Jackson LLC, Surgicare of Joliet Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Inc., Surgicare of Minneapolis LLC, Surgicare of Mobile LLC, Surgicare of Oceanside Inc., Surgicare of Owensboro LLC, Surgicare of Salem LLC, Surgicenters of Southern California Inc., Symphonix Health Holdings, Symphonix Health Holdings LLC, Symphonix Health Insurance, Symphonix Health Insurance Inc., THE SURGICAL CENTER OF THE TREASURE COAST L.L.C., TeamMD Holdings Inc., TeamMD Iowa Inc., TeamMD Physicians of Texas Inc., TeamUP Insurance Services Inc., Tecnologias de Informacion en Salud S.A., The Advisory 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Inc., United Group Reinsurance Inc., United Health Foundation, United HealthCare, United HealthCare Services Inc., United Management Services Inc., United Resource Networks IPA of New York, United Resource Networks IPA of New York Inc., UnitedHealth Advisors, UnitedHealth Advisors LLC, UnitedHealth Group Finance Inc., UnitedHealth Group Global Healthcare Services Limited, UnitedHealth Group Global Services, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, UnitedHealth Group Information Services Private Limited, UnitedHealth Group International Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, UnitedHealth Group International GP, UnitedHealth Group International L.P., UnitedHealth International, UnitedHealth International Inc., UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services, UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services LLC, UnitedHealth UK Limited, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare Benefits Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas L.L.C., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service (Beijing) Co., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service (Beijing) Co. Ltd., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare Global Canada Limited, UnitedHealthcare Global Medical (UK) Limited, UnitedHealthcare Inc., UnitedHealthcare India Private Limited, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Designated Activity Company, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services Inc., UnitedHealthcare International Asia, UnitedHealthcare International Asia LLC, UnitedHealthcare International I B.V., UnitedHealthcare International I S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International II B.V., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III B.V., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International V S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VI S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VIII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International X S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley Inc., UnitedHealthcare Service LLC, UnitedHealthcare Services Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits LLC, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arizona, UnitedHealthcare of Arizona Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas, UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Colorado, UnitedHealthcare of Colorado Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Florida, UnitedHealthcare of Florida Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Georgia, UnitedHealthcare of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare of Illinois Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky, UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky Ltd., UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana, UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi, UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New England, UnitedHealthcare of New England Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico, UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New York, UnitedHealthcare of New York Inc., UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina, UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma, UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oregon, UnitedHealthcare of Oregon Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania, UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., UnitedHealthcare of South Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Texas, UnitedHealthcare of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Utah, UnitedHealthcare of Utah Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Washington, UnitedHealthcare of Washington Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin, UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic, UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands, UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest, UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., UpFront Insurance Agency LLC, Upland Holdings LLC, Upland Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Urgent Care Holdings, Urgent Care Holdings Inc., Urgent Care MSO, Urgent Care MSO LLC, Urology Associates of North Texas, Urology Associates of North Texas P.L.L.C., VERTA MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC, Valley Hospital L.L.C., Valley Physicians Network, Valley Physicians Network Inc., Vida Tres Internacional S.A., Vidaintegra S.A., Vivify Health Canada Inc., Vivify Health Inc., WESTMED Practice Partners LLC, Wauwatosa Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Wayland Square Surgicare Acquisition L.P., Wayland Square Surgicare GP Inc., WebInsure Benefits LLC, WellMed Medical Management, WellMed Medical Management Inc., WellMed Medical Management of Florida, WellMed Medical Management of Florida Inc., WellMed Networks  DFW, West Coast Endoscopy Holdings LLC, Western Connecticut Orthopedic Surgical Center LLC, WillowB Labs LLC, Wilmington ASC LLC, Winchester Endoscopy LLC, Winter Park LLC, XLHealth Corporation, XLHealth Corporation India Private Limited, Your Health Options Insurance Services, Your Health Options Insurance Services Inc., Your Partner in Health Services, divvyDOSE, eCode Solutions LLC, gethealthinsurance.com Agency Inc., hCentive Inc., inPharmative, inPharmative Inc., and ppoONE.The following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. De C.V., Laboratoire Service International - L.S.I, Laboratory Management Systems Inc., Laboratory Specialties Proprietary Ltd., LambTrack Limited, Laser Analytical Systems Inc., Liberty Lane Investment LLC, Liberty Lane Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Life Sciences International (Poland) SP z O.O, Life Sciences International Holdings BV, Life Sciences International LLC, Life Sciences International Limited, Life Technologies AS, Life Technologies Australia PTY Ltd., Life Technologies BPD AB, Life Technologies BPD UK Limited, Life Technologies Brasil Comercio e Industria de Produtos para Biotecnologia Ltda, Life Technologies Chile SpA, Life Technologies Clinical Services Lab Inc., Life Technologies Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Life Technologies DaAn Diagnostic (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Europe B.V., Life Technologies Finance Ltd., Life Technologies Finland Oy, Life Technologies GmbH, Life Technologies Holdings PTE Ltd., Life Technologies Inc., Life Technologies International B.V., Life Technologies Japan Ltd., Life Technologies Korea LLC, Life Technologies Limited, Life Technologies Magyarorszag Kft, Life Technologies New Zealand Ltd., Life Technologies Norway Investments US LLC, Life Technologies Polska Sp z.o.o., Life Technologies SA, Life Technologies SAS, Life Technologies s.r.o, Linkage Biosciences Inc., Linkage Biosciences S.a.r.l., Loftus Furnace Company, Lomb Scientific, Lomb Scientific (Aust) Pty Limited, MTI-GlobalStem, Marketbase International Limited, Matrix MicroScience Inc., Matrix MicroScience Ltd., Matrix Technologies Corporation Limited, Matrix Technologies LLC, Maybridge Chemical Company Limited, Maybridge Chemical Holdings Limited, Maybridge Limited, Medical Analysis Systems Inc., Medical Analysis Systems International Inc., Medical Diagnostics Systems Inc., Metavac LLC, Microgenics Corporation, Microgenics Diagnostics Pty Limited, Microgenics GmbH, Microm International GmbH, Microm Laborgerate S.L.U, Molecular BioProducts Inc., Molecular Probes Inc., Molecular Transfer Inc., NAPCO Inc., NERL Diagnostics LLC, NOVODIRECT GmbH Labor- und Industrie- Megerate, Nalge (Europe) Limited, Nalge Nunc International (Monterrey) LLC, Nalge Nunc International Corporation, Nanjing WeiKangLe Trading Industrial Co Ltd, NanoDrop Technologies LLC, National Scientific Company, Navaho Acquisition Corp., Neomarkers Inc., New FS Holdings Inc., NewcoGen PE LLC, Nihon Dynal K.K., Niton Asia Limited, NovaWave Technologies Inc., Nunc A/S, ONIX Systems Inc., OXOID CZ s.r.o., Odyssey Holdings Corporation, Odyssey Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 1 S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 2 S.a r.l., Odyssey Venture Corporation, Omega Data Systems, One Lambda Inc, Onix Holdings Limited, Orme Scientific Limited, Owl Separation Systems LLC, Oxoid (ELY) Limited, Oxoid 2000 Limited, Oxoid AS, Oxoid Australia Pty. Limited, Oxoid Company, Oxoid Deutschland GmbH, Oxoid Holding SAS, Oxoid Holdings Limited, Oxoid Inc., Oxoid International Limited, Oxoid Investments GmbH, Oxoid Limited, Oxoid N.V., Oxoid New Zealand Limited, Oxoid Pension Trustees Limited, Oxoid Senior Holdings Limited, Oxoid UKH LLC, PAX - DSI Acquisition LLC, PE AG, Pacific Rim Far East Industries LLC, Pacific Rim Investment LLC, Panomics L.L.C., Panomics S.R.L., Patheon, Patheon API Inc., Patheon API Manufacturing Inc., Patheon API Services Inc., Patheon Austria GmbH & Co KG, Patheon B.V., Patheon Banner U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon Biologics (NJ) LLC, Patheon Biologics Australia Pty Ltd, Patheon Biologics B.V., Patheon Biologics LLC, Patheon Calculus Merger LLC, Patheon Cooperatief U.A., Patheon Development Services Inc., Patheon Finance LLC, Patheon France SAS, Patheon Holdings B.V., Patheon Holdings I B.V., Patheon Holdings II B.V., Patheon Holdings SAS, Patheon I B.V., Patheon I Holding GmbH, Patheon Inc., Patheon International AG, Patheon Italia S.p.A., Patheon KK, Patheon Life Science Products International GmbH, Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Patheon Pharmaceuticals Services Inc., Patheon Puerto Rico Acquisitions Corporation, Patheon Puerto Rico Inc., Patheon Regensburg GmbH, Patheon Softgels B.V., Patheon Softgels Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings LLC, Patheon UK Limited, Patheon UK Pension Trustees Limited, Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Perbio Science (Canada) Company, Perbio Science AB, Perbio Science BVBA, Perbio Science France SAS, Perbio Science Inc., Perbio Science International Netherlands B.V., Perbio Science Invest AB, Perbio Science Nederland B.V., Perbio Science Projekt AB, Perbio Science Sweden Holdings AB, Perbio Science Switzerland SA, Perbio Science UK Limited, Phadia AB, Phadia Diagnosticos Ltda, Phadia GmbH, Phadia Holding AB, Phadia International Holdings C.V., Phadia Korea Co. Ltd, Phadia Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Phadia Malta Holdings Limited, Phadia Oy, Phadia Real Property AB, Phadia Sweden AB, Phadia Taiwan Inc., Phadia US Inc., Phadia s.r.o., Pharmacaps Mexicana SA de CV, Phenom-World B.V., Phenom-World Holding B.V, Phenom-World Innovations B.V., Phinotex, Pierce Biotechnology Inc., Pierce Milwaukee Holding Corp., Pierce Milwaukee Inc., Polychromix, Power Sweden Holdings I AB, Power Sweden Holdings II AB, Power Sweden Holdings III Aktiebolag, Princeton Gamma-Tech Instruments LLC, Princeton Security Technologies, Prionics AG, Prionics Asia Ltd., Prionics Deutschland GmbH, Prionics France SAS, Prionics Italia S.r.l., Prionics Lelystad B.V., Prionics USA Inc., Priority Air Express LLC, Priority Air Express Pte. 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Ltd., ThermoLase LLC, ThermoSpectra Limited, Trek Diagnostic Systems LLC, Trek Diagnostic Systems Ltd., Trek Holding Company II Ltd., Trek Holding Company Ltd., Trex Medical Corporation, USB Corporation, Union Lab Supplies Limited, United Diagnostics Inc., VG Systems Limited, Westover Scientific Inc., ZAO PE Biosystems, eBioscience GmbH, eBioscience Ltd, eBioscience SAS, and picoSpin LLC.Six blasts hit three churches and three grand hotels in Colombo. The churches are Zion Church in Batticaloa, St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade and St Sebastian inNegombo. Card Malcom Ranjith calls for blood donations and doctors to return to work in hospitals.

Colombo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - At least 150 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded as a result of six explosions this morning, Easter Sunday, in a number of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. The churches affected in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa, where the faithful were gathered to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

Upon hearing of the news, Card Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo, expressed his "condolences for the victims" and urged people to pray for the country.

As the island mourns the Christian victims, hospitals have launched a blood drive. Even Card Ranjith, at a press conference, called on people to donate blood, and urged doctors who are off for the holiday, to return to work to "save at least one life". At the same time, he tried to console the country's Christians, and asked Sri Lankans to remain calm.

Sri Lankan President Mathripala Sirisena condemned the attacks, urging his fellow citizens to help the police in its investigation.

According to provisional reports, so far 27 were killed at the Zion Church of Batticaloa, 160 were wounded at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade and another 50 died at the St Sebastian Church in Negombo.

In the capital, major hotels were hit, namely the Kingsbury, the Shangri-La and the Cinnamon, all crowded with tourists.

A minister who went to St Anthony's Church describes "horrible scenes" with "pieces of bodies scattered everywhere".

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks. In the predominantly Buddist nation, Islamic terrorism is not a major issue, although some fear that foreign fighters back from the Middle East might be behind the attacks.

Some acts of intolerance towards the Christian community were reported during Holy Week, which made people fear the worst for Easter. The most glaring case was the kidnapping of a bishop who was held hostage in a Methodist church along with the faithful.Colombo (AsiaNews) - Six explosions were reported in hotels in the capital and three churches on Easter Sunday, killing more than 50 people and wounding hundreds. At the time of the blasts, the places of worship were full of churchgoers attending Mass services.

According to the preliminary accounts, the first explosion occurred at St Anthony's Church in Colombo. This was followed soon after by an explosion at St Sebastian Church in Katuwapitiya (Negombo). More blasts were reported at three luxury hotels in the capital: the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand Hotel near the prime minister's residence, and the Kingsbury. Finally, a bomb exploded in a church in Batticaloa, in the eastern part of the country.

Initial news indicates that dozens of people were killed at St Anthony's with at least 160 wounded, more than 300 were wounded in Batticaloa, and one person died and several others were wounded at the Cinnamon.

At present, there are no official declarations except for a statement from President Maithripala Sirisena asking Sri Lankans to stay calm and cooperate with the authorities involved in the investigations.

A police official speaking off the record said that the attacks on two churches could be the work of suicide bombers. A radical Islamist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Most of Sri Lanka's 22 million people are Buddhist and Sinhalese (75 per cent). Tamils are about 18 per cent and mostly Hindus. Catholics are about 6.8 per cent of the population, divided among different ethnic groups. There is also a substantial Muslim community (9 per cent) that have clashed in the past with fundamentalist Buddhist groups, who have also occasionally targeted Christians.

Some observers speculate that the attacks could be the work of Sri Lankan Muslims returning from the wars in Syria and Iraq. However, no one has ruled that someone might be trying to block society.

President Maithripala Sirisena is trying to stay in power in alliance with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, once his political opponent, against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Sri Lankan parliament has rejected the president's policy.In his Urbi et Orbi message, Francis cited conflicts and tensions in the world, from the Middle East and Africa to the Americas. "Christ is alive and he remains with us. Risen, he shows us the light of his face, and he does not abandon all those experiencing hardship, pain and sorrow."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - In his Easter Urbi et Orbi address, Pope Francis said that the Church celebrates the Resurrection of Christ, which "is the principle of new life for every man and every woman" and the "beginning of the new world, set free from the slavery of sin and death: the world open at last to the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of love, peace and fraternity."

The pontiff delivered his message to the city (of Rome) and to the world before a crowd of more than 120,000 people in St Peter's Square from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica.

Christ," he said, "is alive and he remains with us. Risen, he shows us the light of his face, and he does not abandon all those experiencing hardship, pain and sorrow. May he, the Living One, be hope for the beloved Syrian people, victims of an ongoing conflict to which we risk becoming ever more resigned and even indifferent. Now is instead the time for a renewed commitment for a political solution able to respond to peoples legitimate hopes for freedom, peace and justice, confront the humanitarian crisis and favour the secure re-entry of the homeless, along with all those who have taken refuge in neighbouring countries, especially Lebanon and Jordan.

"Easter makes us keep our eyes fixed on the Middle East, torn by continuing divisions and tensions. May the Christians of the region patiently persevere in their witness to the Risen Lord and to the victory of life over death. I think in particular of the people of Yemen, especially the children, exhausted by hunger and war. May the light of Easter illumine all government leaders and peoples in the Middle East, beginning with Israelis and Palestinians, and spur them to alleviate such great suffering and to pursue a future of peace and stability.

"May conflict and bloodshed cease in Libya, where defenceless people are once more dying in recent weeks and many families have been forced to abandon their homes. I urge the parties involved to choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability.

"May the Living Christ grant his peace to the entire beloved African continent, still rife with social tensions, conflicts and at times violent forms of extremism that leave in their wake insecurity, destruction and death, especially in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon. I think too of Sudan, presently experiencing a moment of political uncertainty; it is my hope that all voices will be heard, and that everyone will work to enable the country to find the freedom, development and well-being to which it has long aspired.

"May the Risen Lord accompany the efforts of the civil and religious authorities of South Sudan, sustained by the fruits of the spiritual retreat held several days ago here in the Vatican. May a new page open in the history of that country, in which all political, social and religious components actively commit themselves to the pursuit of the common good and the reconciliation of the nation.

"May this Easter bring comfort to the people of the eastern regions of Ukraine, who suffer from the continuing conflict. May the Lord encourage initiatives of humanitarian aid and those aimed at pursuing a lasting peace.

"May the joy of the resurrection fill the hearts of those who on the American continent are experiencing the effects of difficult political and economic situations. I think in particular of the Venezuelan people, of all those who lack the minimal conditions for leading a dignified and secure life due to a crisis that endures and worsens. May the Lord grant that all those with political responsibilities may work to end social injustices, abuses and acts of violence, and take the concrete steps needed to heal divisions and offer the population the help they need.

"May the Risen Lord shed his light on the efforts made in Nicaragua to find as rapidly as possible a peaceful negotiated solution for the benefit of the entire Nicaraguan people.

"Before the many sufferings of our time, may the Lord of life not find us cold and indifferent. May he make us builders of bridges, not walls. May the One who gives us his peace end the roar of arms, both in areas of conflict and in our cities, and inspire the leaders of nations to work for an end to the arms race and the troubling spread of weaponry, especially in the economically more advanced countries. May the Risen Christ, who flung open the doors of the tomb, open our hearts to the needs of the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the poor, the unemployed, the marginalized, and all those who knock at our door in search of bread, refuge, and the recognition of their dignity.

"Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is alive! He is hope and youth for each of us and for the entire world. May we let ourselves be renewed by him! Happy Easter!"Four entities -- Etihad Airways, TPG Capital, Indigo Partners and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) -- are learnt to have shown interest in picking up stake in Jet Airways. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: As they explore ways to recover debt, lenders of Jet Airways are in favour of a resolution outside the insolvency law framework in case the ongoing bidding process fails to take off, sources said.

Running into debt of more than Rs 8,500 crore, Jet Airways has shut down operations temporarily after lenders decided against extending emergency funds for its survival.

State Bank of India (SBI), the lead lender of the seven-member consortium of domestic banks that have extended loans to the airline, has started the bidding process for stake sale in the carrier and clarity about potential bidders would emerge next month.

While lenders are "reasonably hopeful" of a successful bidding process, sources said banks are working on a plan B in case things don't progress as expected.

If the bidding process fails, lenders would favour a resolution for the debt-ridden Jet Airways outside the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) framework, sources said. Recovery on the basis of existing security and tangible assets would be a preferred option, they added.

Under the Code, the National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT) approval is required for initiating the process, wherein the resolution would be market-linked and time-bound.

Outside the NCLT would be a better option as far as plan B is concerned, sources said, adding that then banks would realise better value from the aircraft and other tangible assets owned by Jet Airways.

Four entities -- Etihad Airways, TPG Capital, Indigo Partners and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) -- are learnt to have shown interest in picking up stake in Jet Airways. The details of initial bidders are expected to be known on May 10. As they wait for completion of the bidding process, the lenders are also looking at options to raise funds from the carrier's available assets, including utilising Jet Airways' 16 own planes.

On Friday, sources said that lenders have been proactive and cannot be blamed for the current situation at the airline. "They (lenders) have been actively engaging with the company for almost nine months ever since the airline started incurring cash losses and have been urging the management to come forward with a definite plan for resolution." "Unfortunately, the management and the promoter delayed in taking a decision leading to the present situation. The lenders continued to support the airline during this period," one of the sources had said.However, a top source said, The government will face a real test when interviews to fill the post of director (finance) of HPCL as it is learnt to have faced with some technicalities to not list ONGC as its promoter.

New Delhi: Even after state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) acquiring Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) in January last year, the selection panel is learnt to have faced a litmus test for appointing directors in HPCL in the coming days due to some technicalities on the promoters issue.

As far as the existing vacancies are concerned in HPCL, the director (finance) has been lying vacant after J Ramaswamy retired on February 28. The government has not yet interviewed for the post by its selection panel  Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB).

However, a top source said, The government will face a real test when interviews to fill the post of director (finance) of HPCL as it is learnt to have faced with some technicalities to not list ONGC as its promoter.

For selecting a director of a company where the government or its controlled firm has more than 50 per cent stake, a PESB panel interviews from among shortlisted candidates. Generally, the secretary of the administrative ministry and chairman of the company concerned assist the interview panel for the selection of directors.

In January 2018, ONGC bought the governments entire 51.11 per cent stake in HPCL, thereby becoming its subsidiary, but the HPCL management is reportedly not to have agreed yet to recognise ONGC as its promoter.

For the selection process of the directors, the source further said that the chairman of ONGC, as a result of the company being the holding company of HPCL, should be on the interview panel.

However, the DoPT guidelines says that in the case of subsidiaries, the full-time chairman of the holding company is invited to assist the board.Begum has requested EAM Sushma Swaraj to rescue her husband who is jail for the last seven months. (Photo: ANI)

Hyderabad: Alleging that her husband has been jailed by Saudi authorities on false allegations of theft, Hyderabad resident Salam Begum has sought assistance from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

"My husband Syed Asif went to Saudi Arabia on 19 January 2016 through an agent here in Hyderabad. He was promised 1800 Saudi Riyal as salary but was paid only 1200 Saudi Riyal. He was working as a driver there, said Begum.

"Even after working for two years, my husband's employer didnt give him leave to come back to India. He was not allowed to come even when my mother-in-law expired. He then approached the Indian Embassy in Saudi and was returning to Hyderabad when he was arrested at the airport on charges of stealing 65,000 Saudi Riyal from his employer," she added.

Begum has requested EAM Sushma Swaraj to rescue her husband who is jail for the last seven months.New Delhi: A day after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday accused institutional disruptors of destabilising the institution of the CJI by lending their shoulder to unverified allegations against the head of the court. In a blog Its Time to Stand Up With the Judiciary, Mr Jaitley suggested those peddling falsehoods should be dealt in an exemplary manner.

The Supreme Court held an extraordinary hearing on Saturday after a former employee of the court accused the CJI of sexual harassment and persecution.

In terms of personal decency, values, ethics and integrity, the present Chief Justice of India is extremely well regarded. Even when critics disagree with his judicial view, his value system has never been questioned. Lending shoulder to completely unverified allegations coming from a disgruntled person with a not-so-glorious track record is aiding the process of destabilisation of the institution of Chief Justice of India, wrote the senior BJP leader.

He said that if those who peddle falsehoods to destroy the institution are not dealt with in an exemplary manner, this trend will only accelerate.

The incident of a former junior woman employee of the Supreme Court levelling harassment charges against the CJI has acquired a disproportionate magnitude, Mr Jaitley said.

Such complaints, when they are made in the ordinary course of any administrative functioning, are referred to the appropriate committee. However, when the complainant distributes copies of her representation to other judges of the Supreme Court and the media to sensationalise her allegations, it ceases to be routine... When four digital media organisations with an unparalleled track record of institutional disruption send similar questionnaires to the Chief Justice of India, there is obviously something more than what meets the eye, the minister wrote.

Regretting that the past few years have witnessed the consolidation of institutional destabilisers in a major way, Mr Jaitley said: Many of these destabilisers represent Left or ultra-Left views. They have no electoral base or popular support. However, they still have a disproportionate presence in the media and academia. When ousted (from the) mainstream media, they have taken refuge in the digital and social media.Bhubaneshwar: Senior BJP leader and Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday charged Odisha chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik of terrorising people out of the fear of loss in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

Arguments, discussions and differences are common in a democracy but when top leaders start terrorising people, it exposes the fear. The CM is trying to mislead and terrorise people by spreading canards that all the welfare schemes will be stopped, if BJPs double engine government is formed in the state, remarked Mr Pradhan.

He added that the ruling BJD is so jealous of PM Modi that it is depriving the people of Odisha from the benefits of Central schemes like Ayushman Bharat Yojana. It also did not give the list of farmers to the Centre for implementation of PM-Kisan scheme in the state.

We have promised to the people of Odisha if the double-engine government come to power, poor will get five kg rice, half kilo dal and half kilo salt at the cost of Re 1 and the announcement has caused fear in Naveen, said Mr Pradhan while taking a jibe at the BJD chief.

State BJP in-charge Arun Singh clarified that no scheme of the state government will be stopped as apprehended by the BJD chief.

We will provide interest-free loans to farmers and procure paddy directly from their fields and houses after coming to power in Odisha, says state BJP in-charge Arun Singh.

Besides, `1 lakh crore will be spent on irrigation in five years once BJP comes to power in the State. Loans of self-help groups will be waived and 17 lakh women will be given smartphone, Mr Singh added.Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday, the last of campaigning for Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat, that the Congress doesnt have faith in the Army.

Pakistan would have paid a big price if they had done anything wrong to our pilot. We have warned them. Even America at that time had said that India was going to do something big, said Mr Modi at a public meeting in his home state, referring to Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

Mr Modi was addressing a rally at Patan in North Gujarat, covering the Patan, Banaskantha and Mehsana Lok Sabha constituencies.

Sunday was the last day of the campaign here as Gujarat votes on Tuesday, April 23, in the third phase.

Our economy has grown and it is in the sixth position in the world, it was in the 11th position during the UPA rule. We have decided to ensure that every family of the country will have their own house by 2022, Mr Modi promised.

He said the Congress and other Opposition parties had been asking for proof of the Pulwama and Balakot attacks but they are silent now.

Making a strong emotional pitch on his home turf, the Prime Minister recalled childhood memories: I know each and every street of this town. The first photograph of my life was taken by a studio here. Wherever I go in the world and whatever I am today, I will remain yours. And thats why I am here to seek your support.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.CHENNAI: The two disconcerting incidents of violence close on the heels of the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu - one in Ponparappi in Ariyalur district falling within Chidambaram reserved constituency and the other in Ponnamaravathi in Pudukkottai district - show up a recurring pattern of caste-based violence.

In Ponparappi, police on Saturday arrested 12 persons belonging to the OBC Vanniyar community in connection with the brazen attack on over 20 Dalit houses that were damaged on polling day (April 18), even as Police have also registered a case against 24 Dalits of the same village on a womans counter-complaint.

On the other hand, in Ponnamaravathi it was an apparent case of hurt pride for the influential backward community in that area - the Muthurajas or Muthraiyars as they are known. An enraged group of them burst into acts of alleged vandalism, laying siege to the police station, damaging vehicles and forcing the district administration to clamp prohibitory orders in 30 villages in and around Ponnamaravathi, in the wake of a Facebook post denigrating their women.

After a by and large peaceful and brisk polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats - as Vellore poll had been cancelled by the EC- in Tamil Nadu and an even more bubbling response to the 18 Assembly by-elections, these two incidents came as terrible eyesores, though on the surface things are under control now. A few other incidents of attempted booth capturing and bogus voting also surfaced.

In fact, the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Mr. Satyabrata Sahoo had good reasons to be pleased about the conduct of the polling in 2019, notwithstanding the fact that the overall percentage of polling in this Lok Sabha election had dropped by close to two percentage points at 71.87 per cent from the 73.74 per cent registered during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu. There could be several factors for this, he said in a television interview, indicating that one of them cited was the long weekend holidays this time which perhaps prompted more people to go home than vote at their respective stations.

In South Chennai parliamentary constituency - a vast territory now after the delimitation reflecting the expansive New Chennai centred around the IT and automobile corridor - which recorded the lowest voting in the entire state at 56.41 per cent, one of the reasons cited by voters was that in the peripheral suburban areas, booth slips did not reach a large number of voters in time. Many of them including women voters were put off in the hot weather as they were told to run from one place to another in trying to locate their respective booths. When some of them resolutely managed to locate the booths, polling time was almost over.

The point of these asides is that it was not voter apathy this time; the polling percentage averages even constituency-wise, except for a few Lok Sabha seats like Central Chennai, North Chennai, Sriperumbudur and Coimbatore, the extent of voting had crossed the 70 per cent mark individually. Interestingly, in all the five BJP-contested constituencies, the average tended to drop below 70 per cent.

Once the technicalities and logistical challenges of EVM-based voting have been overcome, it is a presumed pattern of voting by the Dalits and other vulnerable groups in particular that tends to spark a backlash. This is not to detract from the fact that reasons for the violence in both Ponparappi and Ponamaravathi this time are entirely different.

Rightly or wrongly, if the polling has been a good 70 per cent plus, a perceived feeling among the dominant castes/communities in the respective areas that those economically dependent on them - the Dalits and the marginal groups- have gone against the grain in exercising their franchise, is an important factor in post-poll incidents of violence.

Tamil Nadu has been by and large lucky (also the electorate very matured and enlightened in a certain sense) not to have seen many such backlashes in the recent past. But, it may be relevant to recall that even during the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, there was a sudden burst of violence against Dalits in a colony on the outskirts of Coimbatore when the dominant caste there had sensed they had gone against the grain, to put it diplomatically. The AIADMK was in alliance with the BJP in that election with Mr. L K Advani as their Prime Ministerial candidate.

Though the PMK founder-president Dr S Ramadoss, has said that it was the cadres of the VCK (party that Thol Thirumavalavan heads and who contested the Chidambaram seat this time, which registered a high level of 77.72 per cent polling), who had first provoked the violence in Ponparappi with their allegedly distasteful remarks against the upper caste women (read OBC Vanniars), leaders of almost all the other parties, including the DMK, Congress, the Left parties and Makkal Needhi Maiyam led by Kamal Haasan have come down on some PMK cadres going berserk. Caste consolidation gets even stronger with even a single flapping moment of religious assertion, as the video clips of Ponparappi showed.

The manifestation of caste-based violence can take several forms, but the underlying sentiment that pushes for action is that a group of people are perceived to have voted, disregarding the preferences of the dominant community in that area. Unless broad-based political parties with a wider inclusive vision can provide the much needed cushion for such marginal group s to vote freely- they may be Dalits in one constituency or religious minorities in another-, such incidents of violence tend to recur, particularly in segments where polarization along caste lines is very strong as seen in past elections.

The only feel-good factor in Tamil Nadu elections over the recent decades has been that the politically strong regional parties have embraced interests of all significant caste groups on the one hand, and made peace with Dalits and other marginal sections through the via media of an alliance. Even after Congress had been voted out of power in the State in 1967, the grand old party has been a significant cohesive factor in such alliances. Painful, demoralizing caste-inflicted wounds can be healed only by a broader vision of a secular, humanistic and economically bustling India.Bhopal: The BJPs controversial Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, on Sunday received a rap on her knuckles by the party leadership here for making controversial statements and landing her party in trouble.

Pragya Thakur, who had earlier triggered nationwide outrage for her offensive remarks against slain IPS officer Hemant Karkare, martyred by terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, and landed the saffron party in acute embarrassment, was asked to exercise restraint by BJP vice-president and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

On Sunday, the Election Commission issued another showcause notice to her for saying she was proud of her participation in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992. Ms Thakur, accused in the Malegaon blasts, said this while speaking to a television channel.

After getting the EC showcause notice, Ms Thakur said she stood by her remark and the notice would be replied to in accordance with the law. An EC official said on Sunday that Ms Thakur has to reply to the notice in one day.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.New Delhi: In West Bengal, a strong parallel campaigning system on the social media and a dedicated force of probasis are assisting the BJP in taking on the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC and negating the perception that the saffron party is only for the Hindi heartland. In a state where the BJPs campaign is highlighting Ms Banerjees alleged appeasement politics and how she deprived Bengal of the Central governments schemes, more than 3,000 WhatsApp groups are being run by its volunteers alone across the state.

Most of these volunteers are from far off places from the capital Kolkata and are running several whatsapp groups circulating BJP leaders messages and news of how the TMC led government is killing democracy in the state by unleashing violence on its opponents. The team of probasi Bengalis is also assisting the BJP by connecting Bengalis across India to support the party. Some of these probasi Bengalis who are part of BJPs Save Bengal campaign, have also been campaigning in the state.

The state is witnessing seven phased polling on its 42 Lok Sabha seats and the BJP has set a target of 22 seats in the state. It had won only two seats in the last Lok Sabha polls but West Bengal, along with Odisha and some southern states, have been the main focus areas of the BJP under party chief Amit Shahs leadership.

The popularity of these whatapp groups is so much that the party prefers circulating messages through these volunteers, who feel connected with the BJP and its leadership. A BJP leader, closely associated with its Save Bengal campaign, said most volunteers want to join the party, but by remaining anonymous as the state has been witnessing violent attacks on the supporters of ruling TMCs opponents.

While the BJP main campaign strategy was strengthening the organisation in the state and ending the disconnect between its leaders and cadre to increase its presence, senior BJP leaders like Shivprakash and Kailash Vijayvargiya also relied on increasing the social media network.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.A senior police official said, So far, we have received no alerts in connection with the incident that took place in Sri Lanka. Hyderabad is completely safe, and the people need not worry about their security. (Photo: A.V. MUZAFAR)

Hyderabad: Following the attacks on churches in Colombo, the state police have reviewed security conditions at the major installations and religious places. The police said that although no specific alert has been issued by the Centre in connection with the attacks, the force is equipped and ready to prevent untoward incidents.

They further reassured safety to the people of the state and suggested that they may continue to visit religious places fearlessly.

A senior police official said, So far, we have received no alerts in connection with the incident that took place in Sri Lanka. Hyderabad is completely safe, and the people need not worry about their security.

Another police official said, We have received no specific alert so far. However, we have reviewed the security conditions at religious places and other major installations.Hyderabad: Responding to the thousands of errors in the Intermediate exam marks sheets, education minister G. Jagadish Reddy ordered an inquiry by a three-member committee and sought a report in three days. Many parents and students complained that the site was not opening on desktop computers.

The TSBIE services app was also not of help on Sunday. The last date to apply is April 25.

Mr Jeetender Surana, a parent, said, My son is also one of the affected students. He also got less marks in maths, physics and Sanskrit. We tried to apply for reverification but the website is not working properly. The option of online student services is not opening in personal computers.

He said he had been trying from Saturday. Towards the end of the day, some students said the website had started working, and was opening on mobile platforms.

The board said the students could approach them through http:bie.telangana.gov.in/ and said that it was in talks with server operators to sort out the issue. The board received 2,000 applications later in the day.

Congress leaders entered the fray on Sunday, issuing statements asking Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to step in.

TS Congress working president A. Revanth Reddy said in a Twitter post, Allegations on the Intermediate results should be immediately addressed by the Chief Minister by conducting a review meeting. The issue should be inquired into and rectified immediately as the lives and future of students are at stake.

Former minister Mohd Ali Shabbir demanded that Mr Rao should take sack the education minister and take stern action on the two top officials of the Intermediate Board for lack of effective supervision and guidance to officials.

He said it was a matter of shame that the government had no answer to the travails of students and parents who even staged a dharna at the Intermediate Board office.

Seven students have ended their lives and hundreds of students and parents have complained of mistakes in the mark sheets. The errors include students who had written the exam being marked absent and fail and others, absent and pass. Those who got good marks in the first year had failed in the second year, especially in maths and physics.

The committee would be headed by M.D. Venkateshwar Rao and comprise Prof. A. Vasan of BITS-Pilani Hyderabad, and Dr Nishant Dongri, an assistant professor from IIT-Hyderabad. The minister said it had come to his notice that the issue was being escalated because of internal issues between officers within the Intermediate Board. He asked students and parents not to panic and all issues would be resolved soon.

Meanwhile, students who tried to apply for recounting and re-verification continued to face problems with the official website of the Intermediate Board to apply for improvement and advanced supplementary exams.Bengaluru: Hours after the first six bombs tore through some of the Sri Lankan capitals most revered Christian shrines, followed by two more, shattering a decade-long hiatus from a 30-year-long bloody campaign by the separatist Tamil Tigers, the island nation may be facing a fresh and far more virulent threat posed by a radical Muslim group in the form of the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ).

Six members of the NTJ were reportedly arrested when police homed in on one of their hideouts in the city.

A warning by Indian intelligence that the NTJ, a virulently anti-Buddhist group that was linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues would target churches in Colombo as well as the Indian High Commission and possibly, an Indian owned hotel, the Taj Samudra, only minutes away from the Cinnamon Grand and the Shangri-La hotels  both of which were attacked  had been sent to the Sri Lankan authorities on April 7.

A letter, seen by Deccan Chronicle, from the Sri Lankan police chief, Pujuth Jayasundara, dated April 11, to his police officers, in which he sends out a nation-wide alert and clearly states that suicide bombers planned to blow up prominent churches and the Indian High commission, remained unheeded. One of the two suicide missions targeted the Cinnamon Grand on Sunday.

The letter sent on April 11 warning of a terror attack.

The government of President Maithripala Sirisena which is run by his arch-rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that they had been informed of the alert, but only after the Sri Lankan capital faced an attack that is now being compared in scale, to 9/11. Mr Wickremesinghe said he did not know why he wasnt informed of the threat. High level diplomats in Sri Lankan missions told DC they had no knowledge of the alert.

In January, Sri Lankan police seized a haul of explosives and detonators stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from NTJ, the newly-formed radical Muslim group.

The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has been largely peaceful, distancing itself from the Tamil separatists, among whom were a number of Christians.

Tensions between the Buddhist and Muslim community boiled over in 2014, when riots broke in Kalutara, after the Bodhu Bala Sena, a Buddhist group incited a rampage against Muslims, and a blanket ban was imposed on reporting the incidents.

Intelligence sources however said Sunday's Easter Day bombings may have been the NTJs payback for the Christchurch massacre. Some reports suggest that IS, which has no presence in Sri Lanka but does operate in the Maldives, saw the Easter Sunday congregations as the perfect target to level scores.'When Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I said (to Pakistan) that If anything happens to our pilot, we will not leave you,' Modi said. (Photo: ANI)

Patan: Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up his campaign against terror on Sunday  a day that saw the deaths of over 200 people in horrific attacks in neighbouring Sri Lanka.

At a rally in Gujarat, Modi said: I have decided either I will be alive or terrorists even if I no longer have the Prime Ministers chair,'' Modi said.

He targeted Pakistan over the release of IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman after the recent dogfight between the two countries. He said the neighbouring country was forced to release him or would have faced severe retaliation. "We warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, they would keep telling the world that Modi had done this to them," he said.

"A senior American official said the second day that Modi had 12 missiles ready and might attack. The situation would deteriorate. Pakistan returned the pilot on the second day, else it would have been a qatal ki raat'," Modi said. "This was said by America, not me. I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak when the time will come," he added.

Taking a swipe at NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who on Saturday said he was "terribly afraid" what Modi would do next, he said: If he is unaware of what Modi would do tomorrow, how would Imran Khan know?

Modi urged Gujarat voters to elect the "son of their soil" with full-majority in forming the next government.

My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give all 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 would be on why I failed on home turf," he said.Patel has written a letter to the Superintendent of Police, Jamnagar, stating that he fears he might be attacked by antisocial elements during the road show. (Photo: File)

Jamnagar: After being publicly slapped at an election rally on Friday and a scuffle at another a day later, Congress leader Hardik Patel has alleged threat to his life and has requested adequate police security ahead of his road show in Jamnagar on Sunday.

He has written a letter to the Superintendent of Police, Jamnagar, stating that he fears he might be attacked by antisocial elements during the road show. "I want to inform you that on 21 April in the morning at 9 AM I am going to hold a roadshow in Jamnagar Rural. I want to tell you that from my personal sources I came to know that during this I might get attacked or my car might get attacked by some antisocial elements, which might be a death threat. So, I request you to give me sufficient police security during my presence in Jamnagar district," the letter stated.

A scuffle had broken out at one of Patels public meetings in Ahmedabad district on Saturday. A video of the incident shows that the scuffle broke out moments after he began his address. Protesters can be seen breaking chairs even as Patel requested them to remain calm.

On Friday, a man slapped Patel while he was addressing a gathering at the Jan Akrosh Sabha in Surendranagar.

Patel, who joined Congress recently, had to step back from contesting elections after the Gujarat High Court rejected his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the 2015 Mehsana riots case.

Gujarat, with 26 seats at stake, will go to polls in the third phase of elections on April 23. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading.Senior YSRC leader Ambati Rambabu accused Naidu of "talking ill" of all the institutions including the Election Commission (EC) and other agencies. (Photo: File)

Hyderabad: The YSR Congressparty Sunday said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu finding fault with EC and other institutions was an indicator of his "fear of losing" the elections and his dream of paving way for his son to take over the reins has been "shattered."

In a release, Senior YSRC leader Ambati Rambabu accused Naidu of "talking ill" of all the institutions including the Election Commission (EC) and other agencies, finding fault with electronic voting machines (EVMs) and criticising YSRC Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and at every given opportunity.

"His (Naidu's) recent remarks on our party President are ridiculous and show that he has already lost battle and had given up," he said.

All this reflects his "utter disappointment and the impending defeat" in the (April 11) elections as his dream of making his son (Nara Lokesh) as Chief Minister has been "shattered" with people decisively voting in favour of YSRCP, he added.

Alleging that Naidu had "usurped" the party and power from NTR (TDP founder), the YSRC leader said he had kept the founder's bloodline away from it only to promote his son.

"This dream is going to be shattered very badly and after being convinced of what is in store he has been resorting to all the loose talk and apprehensions," he added.

Naidu had recently met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum alleging that a large number of EVMs malfunctioned during polling in the state on April 11 and inadequate security led to incidents of violence.

Questioning the transfer of several officials ahead of voting, Naidualleged the election body "failed to live up to the spirit of constitutional duty" during elections in Andhra Pradesh, which was "dangerous" for the future of democracy in the country.

The TDP chief also demanded that the EC return to the ballot paper system.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.Mamata Banerjee in a rally at West Bengal alleged that BJP was indulging in violence and urged the people to not vote for the party in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. (Photo: File)

Nadia: Raking up the issue of demonetisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of causing hardships to the people through note ban and said the electorate in the state will pay back by not casting a "single vote" for him.

"In the (2014) elections, Narendra Modi's BJP party had won. But, in the last five years, the government has betrayed Bengal. He (Modi) is coming here and saying lies. He comes flying to Bengal at the time of elections and is nowhere to be seen in other times," she said at a public rally in Gayeshpur in Nadia district.

Attacking Modi over demonetisation, the TMC supremo said, "Early morning, we all found Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had been banned. Farmers and common people were greatly inconvenienced. You (Modi) did 'notebandi', but the people of Bengal will pay you back with 'votebandi'. You will not get a single vote."

Continuing her tirade against the Prime Minister, Banerjee remarked, "He (Modi) does not have any connection with Bengal. He does not like Bengal. He cannot recognise the people here. He hates everything in Bengal."

Banerjee alleged that BJP was indulging in violence and urged the people to not vote for the party in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

Highlighting the initiatives taken by the TMC government, she said, "We have come up with programmes for the betterment of the people, from lower class to middle class. We have started a special recruitment drive for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. We are giving loans of Rs 10 lakh to those studying here and Rs 20 lakh to for higher education abroad."

"We are also giving scholarships to those in the general category, which they did not get earlier. We are providing medical treatment free of cost to the poor and disadvantaged groups," she added.

Taking potshots at Modi, Banerjee claimed that the people did not want BJP to return power at the Centre.

"People do not want this (BJP) government in Delhi. Modi babu only says lies. He has been giving big speeches in the last five years. He is sharing his 'mann ki baat'. How big is his 'mann' (mind)?" He has been making foreign tours in the last four-and-half years and now he is promoting himself."

On Saturday, Modi had come down heavily on Banerjee for demanding proof of the Balakot air strikes and slammed her for not doing enough to uplift the poor despite being in power.

Five Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal -- Jangipur, Balurghat, Maldaha Uttar, Maldaha Dakshin and Murshidabad -- will go to polls in the third phase of the general elections on April 23. The state had a total of 42 Lok Sabha seats. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.Bhopal: Malegaon blast accused and BJP's Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on Sunday said she is "proud" to accept that she was involved in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

The Babri Masjid, built by Mughal emperor Babur in 1578 in Ayodhya, was on December 6, 1992, pulled down allegedly by a group of Hindu activists, claiming that the mosque was constructed after demolishing a Ram temple that stood there.

On being asked about her involvement in the demolition of Babri Masjid and if she would play a major role in building a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Thakur said: "I will go to make the Ram Temple. I have said it yesterday and I am not denying it that I had gone there. I have demolished Babri structure. He is my Ram ji and no one can stop me from making a grand Ram temple. The nation is Ram, Ram is a nation"

"We all will soon prepare a vision for it," she added.

The 2008 Malegaon blast accused, who had joined the BJP on April 16, also accepted that she received two notices from the Election Commission, including on the issue of Ram mandir. "I will respond to it lawfully," she said.

On her candidature from Bhopal, she said, "The public is with me. I will work for the development, peace, and prosperity of Bhopal."

Responding to her Bhopal opponent and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh's remark that the word 'Hindu' doesn't exist in his dictionary, Thakur said, "This is what I'm saying, 'Hindu' word is not in his dictionary. He is trying to prove that he is a Hindu, a true Hindu. But, these are double meaning talks."

"Enemies will stand against us and they will give us tough fight but Dharm will always win," she added.

Thakur also said that she has made an official account on Twitter, which is being operated from her office.

On Saturday, Congress leader Devendra Singh Yadav had filed a police complaint against Thakur for her comment on late Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare.

Thakur had said earlier that Karkare lost his life because she had cursed him.

I called Hemant Karkare and asked him to let me go if there is no evidence (against me). He (Karkare) said that he will bring evidence but will not leave me. I told him -- You will be ruined," Thakur had said.

Polls in Bhopal will be held on May 12, and counting of votes will take place on May 23.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading.Tear my son's clothes if he does not deliver, says Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath as he campaigns for his son Nakul who is fighting his first elections from Chhindwara. (Photo: File)

Dhanora: Tear my son's clothes if he does not deliver, says Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath as he campaigns for his son Nakul who is fighting his first elections from Chhindwara.

Invoking his 40-year-old association with the region, Nath says he has now entrusted the task to serve the people of Chhindwara to his son so that he can work for Madhya Pradesh. "I am where I am because of the love and strength you gave me," Nath said.

"Nakul is not here today but he will serve you. I have given him the responsibility. Take him to the task and tear his clothes if he does not deliver," the 72-year-old Congress leader told the locals on Sunday.

He was speaking at an election rally on Saturday in Dhanora village which comes under the Amarwada assembly seat, about 65 kms from Chhindwara district headquarters. "We will start a new journey and create history," he told the locals.

Nath has been the longest-serving Member of Parliament (MP) from this Lok Sabha constituency as he served for nine terms and he has now vacated the seat for his son.

The chief minister is also contesting bypoll in the Chhindwara assembly constituency as per the legal requirement of being a member of legislative assembly (MLA) for running the state government. Nath says due to his efforts the district has a "distinct identity" when it comes to development.

He hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his promises of ensuring Rs 15 lakh in every Indian citizen's bank account, steps against black money and the decision of demonetisation were just "gimmicks and frauds".

"They (Modi and Chouhan) scream we did this, we did that but tell me if they did anything for you?" Nath said, alleging that the two leaders misled the people. "I want to tell Modiji that while there are no 'acche din' (good days) for the common man, his (Modi's) days are going to end soon," he said.

Modi "harassed" every section of society and under BJP government's watch, farmers in Madhya Pradesh were shot at and their livelihood was hit too, Nath alleged.

Hitting out at the previous BJP government in the state, he charged they "kicked the farmer in the stomach and pointed a gun at his chest".

The chief minister said his government in the state has shown its intent by delivering on the promises made before the 2018 assembly polls.

"As promised, we initiated waiver of loans of the farmers as soon as we took charge in Bhopal and till now I have done so for 22 lakh farmers. Thirty-eight lakh more farmers will be benefitted soon who have a loan of up to Rs 2 lakh," he said.

"We have done the loan waiver in 35-40 per cent cases and I promise it will be done in 100 per cent cases soon," he said.

Nath said the new Congress government in the state has also reduced the cost incurred by poor people to pay electricity bills.

Chhindwara will vote on April 29 along with the single bypoll for the constituency. In the last general elections, the BJP had won 26 and the Congress secured three seats.

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.Tejashwi Yadav had on April 7 alleged that the BJP government did not permit him to meet his father Lalu Prasad, who is admitted in the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences. (Photo: File | PTI)

Patna: A day after Rabri Devi alleged that her son Tejashwi Yadav was not allowed to meet Lalu Yadav in jail, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday termed it as a political conspiracy while asserting that it has been done on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This is a political conspiracy. This all has been done on the feedback of Sushil Modi and Nitish Kumar, and on the instructions of Narendra Modi. Have you seen anything like this anywhere? Tejashwi asked.

Former chief minister Rabri Devi on Saturday alleged that Tejashwi was not allowed to meet Lalu Yadav in jail and that the life of her husband, the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) chief is in danger.

What is the reason that has been giving citing law and order? Will the law and order situation deteriorate if three persons meet Lalu ji? Tejaswi asked.

Speaking to reporters here, the RJD leader said: People are not letting him get the treatment. Doctors are saying that he is not allowed to be shifted from one room to another for the test. Who will be accountable for this? What is this mentality?

If they do something more, people will come to streets and then they will run away crying baap baap, he said.

Earlier, Rabri had said: "Tejashwi went to meet Lalu ji today but he was not allowed to meet him. People of Bihar and Jharkhand will take to the roads if anything happens to him. If state and central government want to kill him by poisoning, if they want to kill the entire Lalu family, they can do that, but this dictatorship won't work."

Tejashwi Yadav had on April 7 alleged that the BJP government did not permit him to meet his father Lalu Prasad, who is admitted in the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses etc all. Happy reading.Over 10 days after the Lok Sabha elections began, only the third phase out of seven is under way. Why the Election Commission devised this tedious process, whereby polling in some larger states like Uttar Pradesh has also been salami-sliced into a corresponding seven phases, is foxing? If elections to Tamil Nadus 38 seats could be held in just one day, why not in two or three phases in UP or West Bengal? Indonesia this month, with 190 million voters versus 900 million in India, had a one-day paper ballot poll to five different institutions, ranging from presidential to local. The prolonged elections increase electoral toxicity and put the nation on tenterhooks for well over a month.

More significantly, the nations foreign and national security policy is put on the backburner in the interregnum. Multiple events are occurring or expected to take place in this period. Pakistan made two significant Cabinet changes. Much-praised finance minister Asad Umar resigned when offered a less important portfolio. Prime Minister Imran Khan has inducted high-profile ministers in his office to oversee the economy as Pakistans 13th IMF bailout still remains unresolved. Additionally, Idaz Shah, a protege of former President Pervez Musharraf and whom Benazir Bhutto named as a threat to her life before her assassination, becomes the new interior minister. This signals the Pakistan Armys firmer and more direct control over internal security.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan first speculated that Pakistan was on the verge of finding a major oil/gas field in the Arabian Sea, where a consortium led by ExxonMobil is prospecting. This, if achieved, could make Pakistan economically prosperous and boost its militarys arms acquisitions. An altered conventional military balance between India and Pakistan could either help with the dialogue, if Pakistan chooses economic prosperity over rivalry, or worsen the South Asian standoff as historically the Pakistani military has been risk-prone in attempting to alter the status quo over Kashmir. Then, turning to India, Mr Khan surprisingly said Prime Minister Narendra Modis re-election in India would be helpful for settling India-Pakistan disputes. This embarrassed the BJP, relying solely on a national security narrative in its campaigning and painting the Opposition as Pakistan-friendly. Imran Khan thus shrewdly got Pakistan out of the Indian electoral battle, realising he will have to deal with whoever is the next Prime Minister.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban began a spring offensive despite simultaneously holding talks with the US special envoy, ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad. However, the latest round in Doha hit a wall as the Taliban objected to the Afghan delegations size, though the real problem was the inclusion, for the first time, of elements from the Afghan government, with which Taliban refuse to engage. The US seeks a package deal with a truce by the Taliban as a pre-condition to other elements like a US troop withdrawal being announced. The Taliban seek a step-by-step approach, getting desired concessions first like a withdrawal date and prisoner release. India is marginal to the process, having to rely on US commitments, as is the Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani. A senior US state department official is in India this week to discuss bilateral and regional issues, and will hopefully brief South Blockon Afghanistan. Of course, the US priority will be to discuss trade, defence equipment sales and the Iran sanctions.

No doubt it will also try making sense of the current election scenario. In Abu Dhabi, the foundation stone was laid of what is said to be the first Hindu temple on April 20. Normally Prime Minister Modi would have loved to go, both for this and to receive the award conveniently conferred by the Nahyan ruling family in the middle of the Indian election. Domestic audiences would have lapped up his success in planting a saffron flag in Arabian sands. Except that in 2001, when I was ambassador in Abu Dhabi, late UAE President Sheikh Zayed had allotted a huge plot in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi, for a cremation ground in which a temple to conduct the last rites was approved. Thus, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed is simply taking this legacy a step further. Did the UAE belatedly realise it had interfered enough in Indias domestic politics and used the approaching Ramzan as an excuse to not host Mr Modi?

Ties with Russia and China also demand attention. Russian President Vladimir Putin, still under the shadow of interference in the US presidential election, also conferred Russias highest award on Mr Modi while the Lok Sabha polls are under way. Indo-Russian relations have oscillated between functionally cordial and occasionally suspicious as Mr Putin would perceive India in the US strategic embrace, and having diminished dependence on Russian weapons. Some urgent orders have now been placed for air defence missiles, rockets and anti-tank ammunition. Similarly, Sino-Indian relations hit a bump despite the Wuhan understanding as China stood by its ally Pakistan to yet again block Masood Azhars listing by the 1267 UNSC committee. Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale was in Beijing to meet foreign minister Wang Yi five days before Chinas Belt and Road Initiative conclave begins on April 25. Around 37 heads of state and 150 nations are expected. China wants India to relent but India, like the US, is holding back. W

ith sovereignty questions involved, its unlikely India will compromise given the politically-surcharged atmosphere back home even if China was to relent on the listing of terrorists.

The next Indian government will have its hands full. There is the unsettled Afghan peace process. An assertive China is gaining support in Asia for its BRI and even Huaweis 5G rollout. Despite US warnings, Huaweis technology has been accepted by Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. It could affect future US military cooperation because of interoperability issues with US military equipment.

On the positive side, Mr Modi has taken past openings with the Gulf, Japan, Israel and the US and expanded trusts level with personalised diplomacy. However, others like Iran and now Russia and China would see India as excessively US-dependent. The next governments challenge would be to rebalance relations with both camps. US statesman Zbignew Brzezinski said before he died that the US should not let Russia and China converge to challenge it. India has a similar challenge with Pakistan and China. By opting for Pakistan-baiting in the Indian elections, the BJP has complicated regional equations that Mr Modi or his successor will need to untangle. Its not a great passing of the diplomatic baton.The tranquility of Sri Lanka, often called the teardrop in the Indian Ocean, may have been shattered decades ago due to its civil war. A tenuous peace reached a decade ago was shattered on Easter Sunday as horrific serial blasts left an unimaginable trail of destruction of human lives. The coordinated attack with suicide bombers was South Asias worst since Mumbais 26/11 and aimed to stab at Sri Lankas very heart. Such a dastardly deed could have been hatched only through a deep-rooted conspiracy. The attack on the minority at major churches and several luxury hotels in and around Colombo and in Batticaloa on the east coast can only be attributed to terror by religious zealots  Islamists or Sinhalese hardliners, both of whom have the capacity to make bombs, besides the remnants of the decimated Tamil Tiger movement.

The nature of Sri Lankas open society and the strength of its military and police forces is such it has been inured to endure such attacks on civil society. There was a dire warning from the police chief about the possible evil designs of an organisation called the National Thowheeth Jamaat, an Islamist radical group that was exposed by an international intelligence agency. There is, however, no evidence yet to pin this on any religious group, nor has anyone claimed responsibility. Sri Lankas tense communal ties with a strident Sinhala Buddhist clergy whipping up passions against Muslims and Christians, who could be Sinhalese or Tamil, led to a powder keg scenario, though incidents had been very minor till now. Its a pity that so many, including tourists, should be slain in Sri Lankas bloodiest day in a decade since the civil war ended on May 19, 2009.When the worlds only superpower decides something is in its strategic interest it enjoys the liberty of going ahead and doing that irrespective of international opinion or any potential fallout elsewhere. The context here is the labelling of Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist entity last week by the US state department. Its the first time a sub-entity of an established foreign government has been labelled thus. The United States has declared other organisations with that label in the past too; the Taliban, Hezbollah and Hamas being three examples, but none except for the Taliban had a government connection (at that time). The current US action could have been anticipated on the basis of both legacy and recent events. The moment the US revoked its support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) of July 2015, also known as the Iranian nuclear deal, such an action could have been predicted. The fact that the announcement came just a day before Israel went to the polls was too much of a coincidence. It was conjectured by most to obviously have a positive impact in favour of sitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

What is the IRGC, and what threat does it pose to the United States? The answers to this may provide clues to the US decision. According to US officials, Irans IRGC poses a serious threat to Israel, other US allies and global security. It was created in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and is alleged to wield vast military, economic and political influence in Iran and across the region. The US believes that it was founded for the prime purpose of perpetuating the rule of the ayatollahs and uses illegitimate methods to enhance its position and that of Iran across the Middle East. It allegedly funds terrorist proxies and frequently targets US interests. What the US probably fears most is that the IRGC is sworn to Israels destruction and in many ways to an American defeat in the Middle East. The backdrop to this enmity is mired first in the ongoing Shia-Sunni conflict for domination of the Middle East, with Iran being the Shia core centre and Saudi Arabia the Sunni citadel. Despite its complex legacy of the past, the conflict today fits more neatly into the Middle East security matrix than ever before. It is almost like the days of the Cold War, with the US, Israel and in recent years Saudi Arabia all aligned on one side. In the other corner of the ring is Iran, increasingly with the support of Russia, especially after 2015 when Russia decided to enter the Middle East physically in order to safeguard strategic space for itself. Russias interest revolved around the crucial East Mediterranean port of Latakia, the only facility it has in those waters. The port was then under threat from the Islamic State, as was the Hmeimim airbase in the proximity of Latakia. That effectively made Russia Irans ally in the then emerging and now far from concluded tussle in the Levant. With the Hezbollah in Lebanon and Bashar al-Assad in Syria firmly in the Iranian camp, which translates to them being with the Russians as well, the Iran-Russia combine has a dominant presence through the Levant, which is the crucial territory between the Mediterranean and northwest Iran; the bridge to Europe from the Middle East. The recent US decision to withdraw all 2,000 of its advisers and Special Forces from Syria left the Levant free for Iran-Russian domination and the strategic advantage, triggering greater threat to Israel. The legacy of US alienation against Iran was the result of the 180-degree turn that events in Iran took in 1979-80. The US-backed Shah of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, was deposed in a popular revolution that led to the holding hostage of 52 American diplomats and other citizens at the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days, through 1979-81. Although US analysts and authors such as Stephen Schwartz, who supported the Iraq war, have expressed deep distress at the US decision to sail with the Saudi boat and oppose Iran at every juncture, it is unlikely that the US can forget in a hurry the deep humiliation suffered by its diplomats and citizens at the hands of Irans revolutionaries. The worst aspect of legacy was the electoral defeat suffered by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, and the botched US Delta Force rescue effort, which led to casualties among US servicemen.

The IRGC is now entrenched on Israels northern border, where it supports the Lebanese Hezbollah and seeks to cement Tehrans foothold in Syria. Israel fears that the Iranian support to Hezbollah has led to the concentration and storage of as many as 130,000 surface-to-surface missiles across its northern border, creating an imminent threat to Israels security.

The top US state department policy adviser on Iran, Brian Hook, went on record to state: We know that so many of our allies around the world are frustrated by the instability and the violence in the Middle East. And if we wanted to promote peace and stability in the Middle East, that cant be done without weakening the IRGC. The focus appears to be on the IRGCs ability to employ its Quds Force with impunity  the force is the X-factor under high-profile Iranian commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The Yemen saga too is the other area where the IRGCs ability has been frustrating the Sunni combine and worries Saudi Arabia. However, as much as the US wishes to project the IRGC and its cohorts as terrorists, there dont appear to be any identified and engineered terrorist actions by it which the world at large recognises. In fact, the IRGCs actions have helped quell the Islamic State from the territories under its control in the Levant, to a great extent and stands between any potential resurgence. There is no doubt that the ability of Syrias Bashar al-Assad to dominate the civil war is also dependent on the support of Iran, and on the ground of the IRGC. Since the IRGC is alleged to have extensive control over banking, finance, energy, gas, telecommunications and real estate, the US hopes to emasculate it and limit its revenues financially via sanctions. How effective can this be beyond whats already being achieved against Iran as a whole is questionable.

In a largely symbolic act, Iran has retaliated and declared the US Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, as a terrorist organisation. This does not necessarily mean a sudden increase in threats to US resources in the Middle East. Iran will wish to project itself as a responsible state to the international community, and the act of labelling is essentially for internal consumption. At best the US designation of the IRGC and by Iran of the US Central Command as terror entities are essentially efforts at psychological gamesmanship in the proxy games that will continue to be played through the Middle East in the future.Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple Inc, has pledged to eventually create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin.

Taiwans Foxconn said on Friday it remains committed to its contract to build a display plant and tech research facilities in Wisconsin, days after the US states governor said he wanted to renegotiate the deal.

Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who inherited a deal to give Foxconn USD 4 billion in tax breaks and other incentives when he took office in January, said on Wednesday he wanted renegotiation because the firm is not expected to reach its job creation goals for the state.

Foxconns proposed 20-million-square-foot Wisconsin campus, announced at a White House ceremony in 2017, marks the largest greenfield investment by a foreign-based company in US history and was praised by President Donald Trump as proof of his ability to revive American manufacturing.

Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple Inc, has pledged to eventually create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin but said earlier this year it had slowed its pace of hiring.

Foxconn remains committed to our contract, the company said in a statement on Friday.

Foxconns commitment to job creation in Wisconsin remains long term and will span over the length of the WEDC (Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation) contract and beyond, it said, adding the construction on the LCD display manufacturing facility will commence in the summer.

To qualify for tax credits, Foxconn must meet certain hiring and capital investment goals under the current contract.

It fell short of the employment goal in 2018, hiring 178 full-time workers rather than the 260 target, and failed to earn a tax credit of up to USD 9.5 million.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Putting restraints on Zuckerberg could send a message to other tech giants that the FTC could hold their executives accountable for privacy misdeeds. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Federal regulators are reportedly considering seeking some kind of oversight of Mark Zuckerbergs leadership of Facebook over the social network giants mishandling of users personal information.

Discussions between Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission officials about its data-handling lapses have touched on holding the CEO personally accountable, The Washington Post reported April 19. Zuckerberg controls a majority of Facebooks voting stock and has run the company since starting it at Harvard in 2004.

The Post quoted two anonymous sources familiar with the discussions. It said putting restraints on Zuckerberg could send a message to other tech giants that the FTC could hold their executives accountable for privacy misdeeds.

The FTC had no comment and Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The commission opened an investigation into Facebook last year after revelations that data mining firm Cambridge Analytica had gathered details on as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission.

The FTC has been examining whether that massive breakdown violated a settlement that Facebook reached in 2011 after government regulators concluded the Menlo Park, California, company had repeatedly broken its privacy promises to users, who now number 2.3 billion globally.

The FTC decree, which runs through 2031, requires that Facebook get its users consent to share their personal information in ways that arent allowed by their privacy settings.

The Post previously reported the FTC is considering hitting Facebook with a multibillion-dollar fine. That would top its previous record fine of USD 22.5 million, which it dealt with Google in 2012 for bypassing the privacy controls in Apples Safari browser.

Facebook has in the past year been buffeted by media coverage highlighting what critics call a cavalier attitude toward protecting user privacy and data  and in failing to prevent the dissemination of hate speech and misinformation on the biggest communications medium in history.

On April 18, its Instagram subsidiary said in a blog post that millions of more users were affected by a password security lapse than Facebook acknowledged when announcing the problem nearly four weeks ago.

In the initial announcement, it had said tens of thousands of passwords were stored on the site in plain text, meaning company employees could search them.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Supporters of the ban pointed to the death of a police officer in January after a distracted driver lost control and struck him on a Phoenix-area freeway. (Photo: AFP)

The small list of states that allow either texting while driving or hand-held cellphone use is shrinking after the Arizona House on April 18, overwhelmingly approved a cellphone use ban and sent it to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for his expected signature.

Arizona, Missouri and Montana had been the only three states that hadnt banned texting while driving. Arizona will join 16 others that ban all use of hand-held cellphones while driving.

The 44-16 vote on the toughest of three proposals debated by House lawmakers April 18 comes after years of inaction by the Republican-controlled Legislature. The Senate earlier approved it on a 20-9 vote. Ducey has pledged to sign the measure, which takes effect in January 2021.

More than two dozen cities enacted local bans that will remain in effect until then.

The House rejected a weaker ban on cellphone use but approved legislation that strengthens the states overarching distracted driving law on a 31-29 party line vote.

Bills to restrict phone use while driving has been introduced for a decade but havent advanced amid concerns by Republicans about creating a nanny state that overregulates behaviour.

Supporters of the ban pointed to the death of a police officer in January after a distracted driver lost control and struck him on a Phoenix-area freeway. Relatives of Salt River tribal police officer Clayton Townsend and others who have died in distracted driving crashes gave emotional testimony, carrying photos of their loved ones around the Capitol.

The officers death gave the proposal inertia that hadnt appeared despite tearful testimony in recent years by relatives of people killed in accidents caused by cellphone use, said Republican Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, who carried the measure with Rep. Noel Campbell.

The hand-held phone use ban bars drivers holding it unless the vehicle is stopped. Calls to 911 would be allowed. Police could issue warnings until 2021 when they could begin writing tickets carrying fines of USD 75 to USD 149 for a first offence and up to USD 250 for a second.

The second enacted proposal doesnt explicitly ban texting, but rather outlaws any behaviour that isnt related to driving if it causes an immediate hazard or prevents the driver from controlling their vehicles.

Democrats opposed the distracted driving measure, saying it could lead to racial profiling by allowing officers to stop a driver on a pretext. But Republican Rep. John Kavanagh, a retired police officer, said a rogue officer can always find a reason to stop a driver.

Kavanagh said he supported both measures because some distractions arent caused by cellphones and officers need the enforcement option.

Cellphones so consume your consciousness that you dont even realise how long it has your attention, he said. So a cellphone bill will take care of that problem. But we need this bill too.

Several lawmakers talked of deaths or serious injuries of their family members or friends. An emotional Republican Rep. Ben Toma recalled how his younger sister died years before cellphones became popular when a driver distracted by a newspaper hit her with his car.

There is no doubt that being on your phone while driving can be a significant distraction, Toma said. But this is a much broader issue. If this bill does nothing more than save one life we should support it.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.The latest attacks come as President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita pursued consultations to pick a new prime minister -- two days after the previous one, Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, resigned with his entire cabinet, under fire from the ruling and opposition parties for failing to clamp down on the unrest. (Photo: File I Representational)

Bamako: At least 10 Malian soldiers died Sunday in an attack by suspected jihadists in the centre of the African country, a security source told AFP.

"There are at least 10 dead soliders," the Malian source said. "Yes our camp at Guire was attacked on Sunday about five in the morning. The terrorists came out of the forest. They were on motorcycles and pick-up trucks. They burnt vehicles and took away others," said the source, who asked not to be named.

The Mali armed forces confirmed the attack on Twitter and said reinforcements were being sent to the Nara sector, about 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of the capital Bamako. A local resident contacted by AFP said there was heavy gunfire and the military "were taken by surprise" in the attack.

Les #FAMa ont ete attaques, le dimanche 21 avril 2019 aux environs de 5 heures a #Guire, dans le secteur de #Nara. Des renforts y ont ete depeches. Les evaluations sont en cours. pic.twitter.com/m7VB4KW04X  Forces Armees Maliennes (@FAMa_Mali) April 21, 2019

"I saw two terrorists put their motorcycles in an army vehicle and drive off with it," he said. On Saturday a UN peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded when a mine exploded as their convoy passed through central Mali, the latest in continued violence.

The UN mission was established in Mali after radical Islamist militias seized the north of the country in 2012 before being pushed back by French troops in 2013. A peace agreement signed in 2015 by the Bamako government and armed groups was aimed at restoring stability. But the accord has failed to stop the violence.

The latest attacks come as President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita pursued consultations to pick a new prime minister -- two days after the previous one, Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, resigned with his entire cabinet, under fire from the ruling and opposition parties for failing to clamp down on the unrest.'The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time,'British PM said.

London: Countries from across the globe, including the US, the UK, Russia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh expressed shock and condemnation over the deadly blasts at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that left over 200 people dead.

Dozens of foreign nationals were feared to have been killed in the near simultaneous blasts, which targeted Catholic church worshippers on Easter Sunday as well as luxury hotels in Colombo.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday offered "heartfelt condolences" to the people of Sri Lanka.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels... We stand ready to help!," Trump tweeted.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling".

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a "horrific terrorist attack".

"To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support - and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need," he said in a statement.

A month after dozens of Muslims were killed in a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as "devastating".

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating".

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the barbaric attacks. "Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," he tweeted.

Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli condemned the "heinous" terror attacks and extended condolences to the people of Sri Lanka.

"I am deeply saddened by multiple bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in Sri Lanka. I express my condolence to Ranil Wickramasinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and bereaved families of victims of the brutality," Oli said in a tweet while wishing speedy recovery to the injured people.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her deep concerns over the explosions which took place on Sunday morning.

In the message, she prayed for peace and salvation of the departed souls and offered her condolences to the grieving families.

Hasina also hoped for a quick recovery of the injured.

European leaders are expressing horror at the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a message to his Sri Lankan counterpart that he was "stunned and horrified" by the "cowardly terror attacks."

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply shaken and concerned by (the) devious terrorist attacks."

German Chancellor Angel Merkel said: "Terrorism, religious hatred and intolerance cannot be allowed to win."

"We're horrified by the news that Christians in Sri Lanka were attacked and killed during Easter services," wrote Merkel's spokesperson on Twitter. "We mourn them and pray for the injured and their family members."

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attacks "an assault on all of humanity".

Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all issued statements via their foreign ministries condemning the attack.Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday accused the Congress of stamping Hindus with the terrorist tag instead of acting against Pakistani terrorists.

Addressing an election rally days after the nomination of Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur as the BJP candidate for Bhopal, Modi said the Congress and its supporters used the term Hindu terror to malign an ancient culture.

Terrorists from Pakistan used to set off blasts, carry out attacks. But instead of acting against them, the Congress and its companions would get busy in putting the terrorist stamp on Hindus, Modi said in Bareilly, referring to the tenure of the UPA government.

The world has never pointed a finger at out great culture of thousands of years. These people have done the disgusting sin of maligning it, he added.

He said while the world does not link any religion with terrorism, the Congress and its sycophants had knit a web of torture and oppression by invoking Hindu terror.

Modi did not name terror-accused Pragya Singh Thakur, who has alleged that she was implicated in a false case and beaten in custody.

Earlier, at another rally in Etah, the prime minister attacked the opposition coalition in Uttar Pradesh, seemingly reacting to BSP leader Mayawatis jibe that he is a farzi (fake) backward class member.

He said the 'farzi dosti (fake friendship) between the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party will fall apart the day election results are announced.

"You all remember the friendship that was struck during the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh that came to an end with the announcement of the results and turned into rivalry, he said referring to the understanding in 2017 between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.

The farzi dosti of bua and `babua will also end the same way," Modi said at an election rally in Etah, referring to Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

"The date of this friendship has also been fixed. May 23, Thursday, this farzi dosti (fake friendship) will fall apart, he said.

That day `bua' and `babua' will start part 2 of their rivalry," the prime minister said.

At the joint rally of the opposition alliance in Mainpuri Friday, Mayawati had called SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav a real backward unlike Modi, a `farzi or `naqli backward.

Attacking the opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh, Modi said those thinking of their selfish gains can never think about the welfare of the deprived sections of society.

By doing politics in the name of the poor they have only increased their own bank balances," he claimed.

"Only the flags of the SP and the BSP are different, their intentions are the same, he said, and referred to the period when an SP or a BSP government was in power in Uttar Pradesh.

The governments used to change, and the `goondas and the gangs of encroachers also changed, he alleged.

At the time of the `bua' it was corruption, and during the time of `babua atrocities were committed on Dalits, he said.

"During the SP government it was difficult for sisters and daughters to go to school, and this has been seen by the entire country, he claimed.

It must have been a really difficult decision for Mayawati to ask for votes for such people," he said.

Mayawati had said Friday that despite the state guest house episode, she took the difficult decision in the interest of the people and partys movement.

In 1995, SP workers had allegedly attacked Mayawati when she was staying at the Lucknow guest house, leading to over two decades of bitterness between her and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The two leaders Friday shared the dais, signalling to their supporters that they were no longer rivals.

Modi said the SP and the BSP wrongly believed their vote banks can be transferred as per their convenience.

"It has been proved in the first two phases of polling that their game is over, he claimed. They thought they are the 'thekedars' (middlemen) of voters but the people have foiled their plan."

He said those who do politics by dividing people over caste and creed forget that when it comes to development and national security, UP gives a befitting reply in such cases.

All the `mahamilavati people will be sent home, he said.

The prime minister said when Akhilesh Yadav was chief minister he did not send to the Delhi the list of intended beneficiaries under the Centres housing scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna.

Taking a swipe at Yadav over reports last year that his official residence in Lucknow had expensive bathroom fittings, Modi said he must have been beautifying his own bungalow then.

Modi said patriotism for the BJP is ensuring the countrys security and saving it from middlemen.

The SP, the BSP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal have forged an alliance to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in UP.

Etah and Bareilly are among the constituencies that go to the polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.The violation of Model Code of Conduct is one thing candidates always worry about they also always check whether their rival has erred.

The first such code was prepared in Kerala in 1960 where the parties agreed to abide by certain Dos and Donts.

In 1966, the Madras Police commissioner called a meeting of parties where a code was prepared.

A similar code was accepted in Andhra Pradesh in 1967.

West Bengal too looked at the Kerala code in 1967.The range of music, the world over, has nothing less than four octaves, called Sapthaks, yet, Sitar, a prominent string instrument in Hindustani music, took a while to reach the level. The Sitar is still used by many with six strings, which, many musicians argue, deprives it of the fourth, base octave.

Sitar Ratna Ustad Rahimat Khan (1855-1954) is credited with adding the fourth Kharaj Pancham string style to the Sitar, giving the instrument the base octave and thereby a sense of completion. The Kharaj Pancham, with seven strings, is a feature unique to Ustad Rahimat Khans legacy. A legacy that is being carried on to this day, three generations later, as the Dharwad Gharana.

Interestingly, like the Sitar, Rahimat Khans journey in music too changed its path several times. There was a change in the very instrument he played, an addition of a new instrument to his profile, his place of residence and even an addition to  if not change in  the school of music, the Gharana, that he belonged to.

Turning point

When asked about this journey of both, the Ustad and the Sitar, Ustad Rais Bale Khan and Ustad Hafiz Bale Khan, who are seventh generation musicians, Sitar maestros and great-grandsons of Rahimat Khan, said, The oldest known name in the family tree, Ustad Daulat Khan, his son Ustad Madar Baksh Khan, grandson Ustad Gulam Hussain Khan and great-grandsons Usman Khan and Rahimat Khan played the Rudraveena and were vocalists too. The turning point in Rahimat Khans life as a musician  one could say, Indian music itself  was the entry of Rudraveena maestro Ustad Bande Ali Khan.

Gulam Hussain Khan sent a young Rahimat Khan, already a trained vocalist and good at playing the Rudraveena and other instruments like Esraj, Jal Tarang and Tabla, to Indore for further training under his uncle Bande Ali Khan.

Legend has it that a visionary Bande Ali Khan, after training, warned Rahimat Khan never to play the Rudraveena to earn his daily bread, lest misfortune befalls his family. Instead, he told his student to improvise the Sitar, said the brothers.

The Sitar, originally played by Persians, had only three strings and was called sehtar, from which it got the name Sitar. Over the centuries, it got three more strings, but the fourth octave was still missing in it. Rahimat Khan experimented with the Sitar as ordered by his

guru, using strings from the Rudraveena, they explained.

Lo and behold, the entry of the Kharaj Pancham, giving the fourth octave to the Sitar! The renovated Sitar and its artiste went about winning hearts, the most important being that of the Mysore king, Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar.

Rahimat Khan was among the prominent artistes invited by Krishnaraja Wadiyar to perform at the annual Dasara festival. Spell-bound by his mastery over the Sitar, Wadiyar bestowed the title of Sitar Ratna on him. The king also requested Rahimat Khan to stay in Mysore as the court musician, but the Ustad humbly turned down the offer, said Dr Raghavendra Ayi, president of the Sitar Ratna Samiti, Dharwad.

The annual journey from Indore to Mysore gave Rahimat Khan a chance to see Dharwad and fall in love with it. He, therefore, shifted his base, bringing the instrumental legacy of Hindustani music to the south of the Vindhyas in the first decade of the 1900s.

Incidentally, members of the family have resided in the Marwar region of Rajasthan, Bhavnagar in Gujarat, and Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Kolhapur and Pune in Maharashtra, before settling in Dharwad. In fact, Rahimat Khans father Gulam Hussain Khan was a court musician at Bhavnagar.

The familys musical journey takes an interesting route on the map of time and music. Rudraveena being the earlier instrument we played, our family is said to have belonged to the Beenkar Gharana, Been is the Hindi word for Veena. Also, from Daulath Khan to Rahimat Khan, our ancestors belonged to the Gwalior Gharana. With the entry of Bande Ali Khan, the founder of Kirana Gharana, and his great influence over Rahimat Khan, the family changed to Kirana Gharana, said Hafiz Khan.

It has taken a centurys worth of time and effort for four generations to popularise the Sitar beyond the Dharwad region. Today, the illustrious family of musicians is recognised as the pioneers of Dharwad Gharana. A school of music gets the title of a Gharana if it survives for 100 years or three generations. It was, therefore, declared in 2015 in Mumbai that Ustad Rahimat Khans school of music would be called as the Dharwad Gharana, Rais Khan said.

Following in the footsteps of Rahimat Khan, at least 16 Sitar artistes from three generations in the family have enthralled the audience while two more are in the making.

Interestingly, while the Sitar is what people immediately associate the family with, their relationship with vocal music remains close. Rahimat Khans eldest son Ustad Prof Abdul Kareem Khan preferred to remain mostly backstage, training his seven sons  Usman Khan, Bale Khan, Mehboob Khan, Hameed Khan, Chote Rahimat Khan, Rafique Khan and Shafique Khan  and some of us, too, in Sitar and also vocal music, Hafiz Khan said.

When credited with carrying on the legacy of the Dharwad Gharana, we can only look up in gratitude to Abdul Kareem Khan for having fiercely protected the new style of playing the Sitar and passing it on to us, he added.

Abdul Kareem Khan was also the guru to well-known Hindustani vocalists Pt Ganapati Bhat Hasanag and Pt Vinayak Torvi. Abdul Kareem Khan trained his second son Ustad Bale Khan to be a vocalist only, but destiny had other plans. Famed Santhoor player Pt Bhajan Sopori said, It is evident that Bale Khan, who was an artiste with All India Radio (AIR) Dharwad, was responsible for building the base to popularise the Sitar in South India, more than anybody else.

Passing on the legacy

Renowned vocalist Pt Venkatesh Kumar added, The vocal training that he received only supported Bale Khan in his Sitar performance, as the melody stood out in his recitals.

Venkatesh Kumar said that every generation following Rahimat Khan has seen dedicated artistes, who have contributed greatly to music, making the Gharana proud. The present generation has Rukhaiya Khan, Rais Khan, Hafiz Khan, Mohsin Khan, Mansoor Khan and Yaseen Khan as sitarists.

Rahimat Khan started the Bharatiya Sangeet Vidyalaya in Dharwad in 1932, and the institution has been training Sitar artistes along with organising concerts. Today, Hameed Khan, Shafique Khan and Mohsin Khan run the institution, teaching and organising concerts every month.

Bale Khans younger brother Rafique Khan runs the Academy of Hindustani Music in Mangaluru. The Sitar Nawaz Ustad Balekhan Memorial Foundation Trust, headed by Hafiz Khan, was founded in 2010, organising concerts and providing scholarships to students of music annually. In 2015, it introduced an award in the name of Bale Khan for Indian musicians; in 2016, a special award for accompanying artistes was introduced.

In 2018, Rais Khan established the Suhana Basant Foundation in Pune in memory of Bale Khan and organised a two-day inaugural concert in which famed musicians performed.

Dr Ayi pointed out that the familys contribution to Indian music is three-dimensional, The members are not only performers and teachers. Organising programmes of musicians from other Gharanas and presenting awards especially to accompanying artistes is, probably, the most unique contribution of Rahimat Khans family.

On a closing note, the brothers said, Belonging to such a legacy would hold meaning if we reach at least a fraction of the heights of our ancestors. It requires us to remain devoted to the style of our Gharana and uphold it with pride.The great Pennsylvania cannabis tour is coming to Delaware County.

No, this is not a rock festival.

Its Lt. Gov. John Fettermans statewide crusade to gauge public opinion on the topic of legalizing recreational use of marijuana. It was one of the first acts announced by the new Democratic team of incumbent Gov. Tom Wolf and the hulking mayor of Braddock, Pa., after they took office back in January.

Wolf, who had opposed the notion of legal recreational pot during his first term, had somewhat of a change of heart after winning re-election  and perhaps realizing he didnt have to run for office again. Wolf said he was keeping an open mind on the issue. Fetterman is a proponent.

The issue took on added significance when it appeared New Jersey was on the cusp of legalizing recreational use of marijuana. But that effort withered in the New Jersey Legislature when Gov. Phil Murphy realized he did not have the votes for passage.

Now it might be Pennsylvanias turn, as Fetterman has been making dozens of stops while criss-crossing the state checking the pulse of the public when it comes to making possession of small amounts of weed legal.

Monday night its Delcos turn. Fetterman will hold a public hearing at Strath Haven High School, on Providence Road in Nether Providence, from 6-7:30 p.m.

The session is free and open to the public. State representatives, state senators, and local county officials have been invited. Those who are not able to attend or who are interested in remotely leaving a comment about legalizing recreational marijuana may submit comments via an online submission form available on the Governors website,

https://www.governor.pa.gov/recreational-marijuana-feedback/, or the Lieutenant Governors Official Facebook page.

Polls indicate the public overwhelmingly supports legalization. Pennsylvania already has laws on the books making use of medical marijuana legal.

Proponents point to minor drug cases crowding the court system, and racial inequities in terms of marijuana arrests and prison sentences. Opponents of legal pot point to the potential for it being a gateway drug, and fears of increased cases of people driving vehicles under the influence of cannabis. It also has drawn opposition from some Republican leaders, who control both the House and Senate in Harrisburg.

In late 2017, 59 percent of Pennsylvania voters said they believe marijuana should be legal in a Franklin & Marshall poll. Only 22 percent supported it in the same poll in 2006.

Last week Fetterman brought his tour to Chester County, where a packed house debated the issue. Hes already made stops in both Berks and Montgomery counties.

When Fetterman asked by a show of hands, a majority of the attendees supported legalizing recreational marijuana.

Several people who noted that they use medical marijuana want to be able to grow their own marijuana plants, citing the cost of medical marijuana as the reason. They believe it would be cheaper medically if recreational marijuana was legal.

Others said their conditions didnt qualify them for medical marijuana, and they hope that legislators do a better job studying recreational marijuana prior to making any decisions.

A man said he believes that the taxes from sales of recreational marijuana would help cover costs for the Commonwealth, but a woman disagreed and said it would become another financial burden with consequences.

People also debated if marijuana is a drug that could cause an overdose, and also if people can become addicted to it. Some compared becoming addicted to marijuana as the same as being addicted to social media or coffee.

A woman who works with those in recovery urged Fetterman not to legalize recreational marijuana.

I see patients every single day, teenagers, young adults and older adults who are battling addiction. To say that marijuana is not a gateway drug is absolutely absurd. We have so many teens in our program who are smoking pot and thats what their goal is, she said, noting that the teens do not set goals to get sober, graduate high school, go to college or get a job; they want to be high all the time.

She works with one teenager who has tried to stop smoking marijuana and has returned to the treatment center three times.

To say that pot is not addictive, again thats a fallacy, she said.

Some speakers expressed that they want to use marijuana for medical or recreational reasons and to avoid becoming a victim in the opioid crisis. She agreed that the opioid crisis is an issue; however, she does not believe recreational marijuana would help people from using opioids.

Ive seen people who in my facility, yes, they have gotten off of opioids, and they started smoking pot to get off of opioids, but they go right back to opioids because pot isnt doing the same thing for them, she said, in their brains and their bodies as the opioids were.

She believes that recreational marijuana would cause similar issues as alcohol, if legalized.

Alcohol is legal and its a huge problem in our state and in our country, she said about fatal DUI crashes and alcohol abuse. So you say, OK legalize marijuana, its going to have the same effect as legalizing alcohol which is harmful.

She expressed concerns for her teenage daughter who is nearly the age to start driving and she fears that a motorist, high on marijuana, could cause a crash on the Route 30 Bypass if marijuana is legalized.

I already have concerns of her driving next to someone who is drinking, she said, citing drunk drivers as an issue.

Some people who said they are for the legalization, also mentioned several concerns, including wondering how will law enforcement officers detect if a motorist is driving impaired. Several people noted police officers would have to be able to test it, similar to checking the blood alcohol concentration to determine if someone is illegally driving under the influence of alcohol.

When people questioned the minimum age to purchase recreational marijuana, one suggested making it 19 years of age. He noted it may prevent an 18-year-old high school student from purchasing it for a 14-year-old freshman, for example.

An elderly woman, who is opposed to recreational and medical marijuana, described it as a thief.

It steals from relationships. It also steals from our students. They cannot concentrate, they cannot focus, and they cannot remember what they are being told at the time, she said. Also we have kids coming from homes with second-hand smoke. Its affecting them. Its a sin. In time they could become drug addicts. In time, marijuana takes place of their relationships. Its ugly.

She added that it negatively changes their priorities and family is no longer number-one to them because it becomes about getting drugs.

One woman admitted she has been smoking marijuana since 1979 when she was 13, and says she has lived a normal life.

She was among those who explained they want recreational marijuana legalized because they smoke it illegally now.

Others who said they favor legalization explained its because they believe it would become a safer product if its regulated, rather than having people buying it illegally on the streets with the chance that it is laced with a stronger or deadly substance. Many also favored decriminalizing marijuana.

Some people said the drug war has been lost and they support legalizing marijuana. Another person urged Fetterman that the drug war must end.

While most speakers thanked Fetterman for hosting the tour at Downingtown West High School, others shared their humor regarding the topic before announcing their stance of being in favor of recreational marijuana.

I promise Im not high right now, a middle-aged man said. The majority of the audience members laughed, but Fetterman and his staff did not.

Fetterman is about halfway done his listening tour with plans to visit all 67 counties through the summer. Ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana.

Fetterman, who has been in favor of marijuana legalization, said the purpose of the tour is not to promote his position, but rather to learn how residents feel about the issue.

We want to make sure all Pennsylvanians have a say, he said in announcing the tour.

Gov. Tom Wolf said he supports Fetterman in his effort to hear directly from the people of Pennsylvania on this issue.

More and more states are successfully implementing marijuana legalization, especially those surrounding Pennsylvania, and we should learn from their efforts, and better understand the potential fiscal impacts of this reality before taking any collective action, Wolf said.

Ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana.

Wolf, a Democrat, signed into law in 2016 legislation, passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly, legalizing medical marijuana in Pennsylvania. He emphasized that any proposal for legalizing recreational marijuana would need to be implemented after the medical marijuana program is fully implemented.

Fetterman expects to complete his listening tour May 19.

He said what was heard in the 67 counties, as well as what so far are more than 30,000 comments online, will be compiled into a comprehensive report that will include video of the forums.Our branches of government are divided so that each is held accountable to the other, and, more important, held accountable to the voting public. The Executive Branch, the Judicial Branch, and the Legislative Branch are the core political groupings set up to keep America honest.

Why would honesty be an issue with how our government is run? We all know the answer to that. Experience has taught us that men and women are fallible, despite their impressive political credentials and good intentions. Our three governmental divisions i.e., Legislative, Judicial, and Executive are healthy. They are a moral check and balance to keep our country moving in the right direction. However, there are other divisions in the political playing field that have become so divided, they are slowly destroying our unity as a nation. Consequently, we are becoming more vulnerable to those countries that would want to see us fall.

Let me begin with the division between the Democrats and conservative Republican Evangelical Christians. The Democrats are pro-choice and support a womans right to an abortion. The conservative Republican Evangelical group is pro-life and call for protection of the life of a living child (which is right) in the womb. As a result of the president supporting the conservative Evangelical Christians pro-life agenda, those same conservative Republican Evangelical Christians have given president Trump a green light on other political issues. Within the context of these other political issues, it doesnt matter if he is right or wrong. Supporting whats wrong (immigration issues of children being separated from their parents) is not a Christian thing to do. Yet, some Christians do it. Yes, support the president on the right moral issues, but hold him accountable when he is wrong.

This non-thinking, unintelligent political support is dangerous and further divides our country. There are enough political divisions between Independents, Republicans, Democrats, Congress, the House, the Senate and everything in between. We can be divided on everything except the safety of our country. However, safety only becomes a reality when we as a country stay united. As citizens of this country we must learn how to stand together amidst our differences. If we are attacked by a foreign power(s) we all suffer. We all lose. Wisdom tells us to come together and take responsibility to protect the freedom to express our differences.

We have become so divided in recent years and months over the Trump Russian Complex and the Trump Immigration Complex, we are allowing ourselves to become more and more vulnerable to our enemies (internal and external). As the old saying goes, united we stand, divided we fall.

In addition to our natural international enemies, Americas growing divisions; political, social, economic, and racial, have also become threats to our national safety. The increase in violence has also had a crippling effect to our nation. This is no time to take our eyes off the importance of national security.

No matter how many differences and divisions we have as citizens of this nation, we all have one thing in common. We all live in a country where we are free to disagree. This kind of freedom is precious. We must all agree that this freedom must be protected. Which means that the safety of our nation must be a priority of us all. The Holy Scriptures tell us that righteousness exalts a nation. Unity and righteousness will keep America strong.Mayor and City Attorney condemn federal government for exploiting morality clause to target legal immigrants

DENVER  Legal immigrants in Denver are facing renewed hostility from the federal government if they work or have worked in Colorados legal cannabis industry. Claiming these immigrants are not of good moral character under federal law, immigration officials are denying their applications to become naturalized U.S. citizens.

Mayor Michael B. Hancock and City Attorney Kristin M. Bronson condemn the Trump administrations latest attack on immigrants. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr sent Wednesday, Mayor Hancock is seeking official guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to ensure consistent implementation and enforcement of state marijuana laws in more than 30 U.S. states.

Denver understands the need for federal laws and regulations regarding citizenship and immigration, but we are seeing the heartbreaking effects that those federal laws and regulations are having on our residents, Mayor Hancock said. However, under current federal policy, lawful, permanent residents like the Denver residents I have met with are being denied naturalization and may lose their legal status based on their lawful employment in the cannabis industry.

On Tuesday, Hancock and Bronson, along with Excise and Licenses Executive Director Ashley Kilroy, met two Denver immigrants who were told by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that they were ineligible for naturalization strictly because of their past or current employment in the cannabis industry. The immigrants  one from El Salvador, the other from Lithuania  have each been permanent residents in the U.S. for more than 20 years. They have both graduated from Colorado schools, paid their taxes and consider Colorado their home.

It was definitely like getting sucker punched, immigrant Oswaldo Barrientos told Mayor Hancock. I thought I was a shoo-in. Ive been here long enough. Ive paid my dues.

Attorneys Bryce Downer and Aaron Elinoff of the Novo Legal Group in Denver represent Barrientos and the other immigrant, who is withholding her name for fear of complications with her current employer in the medical field.

Downer told the Mayor immigration officials are hardly informing the immigrants of their right to an attorney during the naturalization interview. He also said officials are essentially trapping immigrants into openly admitting to felonious activities under federal law, thus putting them at risk of detention and deportation should they travel abroad and later return to the U.S.

The risk is real, he said. And its severe.

In addition to seeking official federal guidance, Mayor Hancock and Bronson have shepherded city staff to work with local organizations, state agencies and the cannabis industry to more effectively inform immigrants of the risk, under federal law, of working in Colorados legal cannabis industry. Soon, the city will post and distribute a flyer (see attached) that warns of these risks.

Additionally, on Denver 8 TV, the City will begin airing a PSA originally produced in a collaborative effort by Servicios de La Raza and Marijuana Industry Group (MIG) roughly a year ago that warns noncitizens of the risk of possessing, consuming, selling or growing marijuana under federal law.

This is an issue, its a continuing problem, Bronson said. Unless and until policies change, aspects of this important, legal and burgeoning industry here in Denver are going to be prohibitive for a lot of people.

Im sorry about whats happening to you, Mayor Hancock told the immigrants. This is horrible.SALT LAKE CITY  When it comes to a lot of Christian holidays, it doesnt take much digging to uncover pretty obvious remnants of the pagan festivals they replaced still lingering in the ways we celebrate today.

The same might easily be assumed about Easter. After all, an egg-laying rabbit doesnt scream Passion of Christ.

But disentangling the origins of modern Easter traditions isnt quite so cut and dry, it turns out, partially because some of the go-to historical sources who wrote about them may very well have been making little more than educated guesses themselves.

Add to that issues involving ideological agendas, plus a heaping dose of modern misinformation, and the question of where exactly Easter traditions originated can quickly take you, well  down a rabbit hole.

Heres a quick guide to some of the confusion:

The name

According to St. Bede (aka the Venerable Bede), a seventh- and eighth-century English monk and author of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Easter is named after the Saxon goddess Eostre.

Eosturmonath (the Saxon name for the month of April), St. Bede wrote in his Reckoning of Time, has a name which is now translated Paschal month, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.

The problem is, other than that lone passage, theres nary a shred of evidence that there ever was a goddess by that name, or that she was ever venerated by the Saxons with feasts as St. Bede describes. No shrines. No temples. No art  nothing to indicate either her or her feast.

Of course, this dearth of evidence doesnt itself disprove St. Bedes explanation, but it has definitely left things open to debate  despite the matter-of-fact way in which Eostre and her worship are often described in yearly Easter articles (often in perplexing detail for a goddess whos only mentioned in passing a single time in historical record).

Another, competing explanation that seems to make the rounds every year as a popular Facebook meme claims the word Easter is derived from an Assyrian and Babylonian fertility and sex goddess named Ishtar, which, coincidentally enough, according to the meme, is actually pronounced Easter.

Now, in this case, there is at least evidence of such a deity, and yes, she was a goddess of fertility and sex  along with war, protection, childbirth and storms, according to Scientific American.

The correct pronunciation of her name, however, is probably close to how it looks: ish-tar, or possibly eesh-tar.

But the part of the meme that may at first sound like irrefutable evidence is that Ishtars symbols, it claims, were eggs and bunnies  things anciently associated with fertility. Boom. Mic drop. Good luck explaining that one, right? Except that they werent actually. Ishtars known symbols included lions, gates and six- and eight-pointed stars, but there is no evidence of any association whatsoever with either eggs or bunnies, as convenient as that would have been.

Moreover, outside of English and the German equivalent, Ostra, Easter is almost always called by some variation of the Greek word Pascha  Paques in French, Pascua in Spanish, Paske in Danish and Norwegian, Paskalyain Turkish, etc.  which is itself derived from the Hebrew Pesach, or Passover. (More on that later.) In other words, the etymological link between the Germanic/English Easter and the Babylonian sex goddess Ishtar just isnt there.

So where does the word Easter come from? Well, the most plausible explanation, it turns out, doesnt necessarily refute St. Bedes version  nor, though, does it hinge on it. The word Easter is most likely derived from the Indo-European root aus, meaning shine, which is likewise related to Germanic words for dawn, bright, clear and the directional east. Aus also gives us modern words like Australia and aurora, as well as the chemical symbol for gold, Au (from aurum), according to etymology blogger John Kelly of Mashed Radish.

Whether that explanation also applies to St. Bedes goddess is still up in the air, but the imagery a name like Easter brings to mind of a radiant sun rising in the east, marking the rebirth of life after winter, is certainly appropriate for the name of a holiday commemorating Christs resurrection.

The day

Easter is classified as a moveable feast, meaning that unlike other major holidays such as Christmas or Halloween, its date changes from year to year. What day it falls on specifically is determined by a somewhat complex set of rules based around a lunisolar calendar. (Lunisolar? you ask. What could be more pagan than that, right?)

Basically, its the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon (which is not quite the same thing as an astronomical full moon) after March 21.

But its common knowledge that Easter is pretty much just a pagan equinox festival with a thin veneer of Christianity, isnt it? Why else would it be celebrated at this time of year?

Except the timing of Easter is one element that almost certainly does not reflect pagan roots so much as Jewish.

Christs Crucifixion in the New Testament coincided with Passover, the Jewish holiday commemorating the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, which is traditionally celebrated on the 15th day (a full moon) of the Jewish month of Nisan  roughly March or April.

Easter, which commemorates Christs subsequent resurrection three days later (what that means is itself the subject of some scholarly debate), was therefore usually celebrated on or after the beginning of Passover in the early Christian Church.

However, when exactly the holiday should be observed became a hot-button issue among Christians until it was finally addressed in a big way at the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. (This is the same council, of course, that also attempted to nail down once and for all the nature of the Holy Trinity and smooth over the various doctrinal schisms that had arisen within Christendom.)

After a lot of discussion, the system currently in place was decided upon based on the Christian belief that Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday.

At its core, Easter and Passover are still deeply connected, though. As expressed by Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, If Passover is largely about Egypt, Easter is largely about Passover.

The bunny

If theres one thing that would seem to link Easter to ancient fertility rites and paganism, it's the Easter Bunny, or Oschter Haws in German, references to which date back at least to the 1600s. After all, rabbits (or hares, originally) are a notorious symbol of fecundity even today and dont seem to have any explicit connections to Christianity  or do they?

As if that werent enough proof, its often mentioned that hares were associated with the Saxon goddess Eostre. (Yep. Shes back.)

Now, aside from the problem that a goddess by that name possibly never existed in the first place, the basis for such a claim is, if anything, even more tenuous than St. Bedes original assertion about the naming of Easter. Every reference to Eostre and hares or rabbits can be traced back to one bit of speculation on the part of none other than Jacob Grimm (of the Brothers Grimm fame). In his 1835 Deutsche Myhtologie, he wrote, The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara (the German form of Eostre). Probably.

Even ignoring that likely bit of misinformation, it doesnt answer why a bunny would figure so prominently in arguably the most important of all Christian holidays.

But rabbits or hares actually do have a somewhat bizarre connection to traditional Christian iconography. According a research project called The Three Hares Project, it was anciently and mistakenly believed that hares were hermaphroditic (due to the females ability to conceive a second litter before the first has even been born), leading to the further mistaken belief that they were capable of virgin birth. Because of this, the symbol of fertility elsewhere became, rather ironically, associated with the Virgin Mary in medieval and Renaissance Christian artwork such as Titians The Madonna of the Rabbit.

The egg

Last but not least, the Easter egg.

Another symbol of fertility and life (the Ishtar/Easter meme got that much right, at least), eggs feature in mythology from all over the world, often in creation stories  a motif known as the cosmic egg or world egg. This includes everything from Vedic to Egyptian to Greek to Norse to Chinese to Polynesian myths.

In other words, making an argument that the Easter egg is a remnant of pagan traditions is almost too easy.

However, eggs also have their own specifically Christian meanings.

According to Minna Shkul of the University of Sheffield, in Eastern Orthodox traditions, Mary Magdalene is said to have brought cooked eggs to share with the other women waiting outside Christs tomb after the Crucifixion. When Christ appeared to her, the eggs miraculously turned blood red.

In modern-day Easter celebrations across Eastern Europe, eggs are still dyed red using beetroots or red onionskins to commemorate this, and depictions of Mary Magdalene often include an egg.

Moreover, one of the traditional games played by Eastern Orthodox children involves whacking two hardboiled eggs together until one of them cracks. The unbroken egg is said to represent the Resurrection while the cracked egg represents the gates of Hell breaking. The winner then says, He is risen, to which the person holding the cracked egg replies, He is risen indeed!

Another possible, slightly more pragmatic explanation for Easter eggs is that eggs (along with dairy, meat, etc.) are among the foods forbidden during the six-week period of fasting known as Lent that many Christian denominations observe leading up to Easter. Because hens still lay eggs, however, families would cook them in order to prevent them from spoiling and then eat them come Easter.

Of course, it's perfectly likely that there is no single correct answer to a question about the symbolism of eggs at Eastertime because, of course, there is no single correct way to celebrate Easter, a holiday with a very rich and long (but often not-very-well-documented) history.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story implied that the Italian artist Titian worked during the medieval era. He was actually active during the High Renaissance period.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, both spoke at the convention I attended in Washington, D.C., last week. After hearing them, my colleague said to me, They were both so nasty that I dont want anything to do with either of them. I agreed.

Their bile and vitriol toward the opposing party was so distasteful as to be unbecoming of two of the three most powerful leaders of our country. The other leader is President Donald Trump. His public invective and animosity toward his enemies are far worse, nearly unrivaled in recent memory. How dispiriting to have our leaders, those at the pinnacle of our republic, talk about each other in such scornful, dismissive and disrespectful terms. They have lowered themselves from ardent opponents to outright enemies. Its a given that they should disagree on political matters. But they should nonetheless  especially in our divided government  be looking for the best for our country and, when possible, cooperating rather than maligning and stymying one another.

This threesome are all septuagenarians, a time when lifes lessons tend to have mellowed people, when experience has usually smoothed the rough edges. At their age, the mind ought to turn to ones legacy, not so much professional but personal: Have we loved and raised a family? Have we served our neighbors and our community? Have we made friends and loved those friends? Have we helped our fellow man along the way, made life easier for someone needing our help? Do our children and grandchildren know we love them and look forward to hearing from us? Have we risen above political, religious and cultural differences?

Nope. Not these guys. They shout insults at each other over Twitter and to friendly talking heads; they sound more like rival gang leaders than worthy opponents in the hallowed halls of government. Alas, it unsettles the soul.

History gives us some little comfort. While serving as secretary of state under Washington, Thomas Jefferson leaked cabinet secrets to Philip Freneau and his newspaper. Jefferson employed Freneau in the State Department in a job with few duties thus allowing him to publish vilifying attacks on Washington, Adams and especially Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton gave as good as he got in the opposing Federalist newspaper. Their constant bickering deeply troubled Washington as his proteges split the country into bitter partisan rivalry.

Hamilton later engaged in an even more acrimonious interchange with then-Vice President Aaron Burr, who shot and killed Hamilton in a duel.

In 1856, Sen. Charles Sumner harshly condemned slavery in a Senate speech, including a vicious tirade against Sen. Alexander Butler of South Carolina. Butlers relative, House member Preston Brooks, strode onto the Senate floor two days later to avenge the offense to Butler and to the South and beat Sumner viciously and repeatedly over the head with a cane, almost killing him and rendering him an invalid for years. Ultimately, failure to resolve the slavery question led to the Civil War in which three-quarters of a million people lost their lives and the South was economically ruined.

Viewed against the violence, death and destruction of the Civil War in which the very Union was nearly sundered, current sniping by Republicans against Democrats and vice versa seems tame. At least, these examples show that we can  although at great cost  recover from serious partisan ugliness and even fratricidal war.

Nonetheless, the ill will, the unwillingness to cooperate and to negotiate in good faith, the vilification of ones political opponents we hear regularly coming out of Washington will bear rotten fruit. This enmity inhibits the political processes we rely on to deal with our countrys domestic and foreign affairs. Thus engaged in petty warfare, how can our Congress and President deal with the pressing issues before us like Russias and Chinas global adventurism, trade and tariffs, the immigration imbroglio, the astronomic federal deficit and national debt and aging infrastructure? What fills the news instead? Investigations, releasing the Presidents tax returns, and similar controversies, which while important to resolve, do nothing to address the looming issues before us.

Can it be but 30 years since a more gentlemanly president, George H.W. Bush, pledged us to be a kinder, gentler nation?At the risk of ultra-hyperbole (at which Frank excels), we can legitimately claim that Utah has experienced an unprecedented level of direct democracy through initiatives, referenda and ballot measures. This includes statewide and local efforts by citizens to impact their government. Is this a just a blip, or are we becoming California?

In 2018, a record number of initiatives were filed (three ultimately succeeded and one was resolved through a nonbinding ballot question), while a number of Utah municipalities confronted referenda challenging various government decisions. A constitutional amendment was also on the statewide ballot. Why is this happening and should Utahns be concerned?

Pignanelli: "One of the nuisances of the ballot is that when the oracle has spoken you never know what it means.  Lord Salisbury

A ballot initiative effort is similar to a high school election. A small group of well-meaning activists huddle in a living room, developing catchy slogans while hoping external donors (aka parents) cover expenses. Without resources to incentivize volunteers (aka pizza), the enterprise is doomed.

For decades, signature gathering was prohibitively expensive. After the legislature enacted SB54 in 2014 allowing candidates placement on the primary ballot through petition, a permanent signature gathering industry was established in Utah. The costs for statewide initiatives and local referenda dropped. Further, national special-interest groups are focusing resources in states. Thus, while the Legislature did tighten the process, initiatives and referenda will remain an option on selected issues with an energized constituency.

As with high school electioneering, Utahns must look beyond cutesy catchphrases in determining their support of a ballot measure. Alas, they will not get a cupcake for the effort.

Webb: Utahns need not be concerned over the proliferation of citizen initiated lawmaking. In fact, Utahns should celebrate the opportunity to participate in this constitutionally approved process to enact laws and impact government. The Legislature itself endorsed the process by putting two measures on the statewide ballot, one a constitutional amendment and the other a nonbinding ballot question on raising taxes for schools.

Citizen lawmaking is still rare and difficult in Utah. Were not even close to being California. It is almost prohibitively difficult to get something on the ballot and only the most weighty, important issues make it to a public vote. Medicaid expansion, medical marijuana, school funding, redistricting and constitutional amendments are all worthy subjects for the public to weigh in on.

Its helpful for the Legislature to know that on truly significant issues, voters can directly get involved if lawmakers dont act.

The 2019 Legislature reviewed numerous bills, some of which passed, changing statewide and local initiative and referendum procedures. Will this have an impact?

Pignanelli: Changes to the process include basing thresholds on active voters and expanding opportunities for signatories to remove their names from petitions. This guarantees that signature drives will need three campaigns: convincing people to sign the petition, urging people not to retract signatures and persuading voters in the general election. This increases obstacles and costs for statewide and local campaigns.

There is some grumpiness about these modifications. Yet, it is imperative supporters and proponents communicate their issues to those who have the potential to sign, or have signed, a petition. My personal experience suggests the language of a petition is usually developed by insiders without the benefit of contrasting opinions. Obviously, those approached to sign a petition do not receive a full discussion of the issue. The legislation now allows for that key dynamic.

Webb: The Utah Supreme Court has previously ruled that the Legislature cannot make the initiative process so difficult as to render it impractical for citizens to make laws. Our system of government is brilliant in that the courts, legislature, executive branch and the people (through initiatives and referenda) check and balance each other, pushing and pulling, arguing and fighting  and eventually striking the right balance.

The Legislature significantly changed two of the three initiative laws passed by voters, and may yet tamper with the third. Is this proper?

Pignanelli: The Legislature modified the initiative process wherein successful measures are effective after the intervening Legislative session, and those with fiscal impact a year later. This is a clear signal that legislators will exercise their constitutional prerogative to amend ballot actions that impact core governmental activities.

Webb: The Legislature is part of the process, within constitutional guidelines, and it has the authority to change a citizen-passed law. Lawmakers obviously must take into account public sentiment. If voters dont like what lawmakers did, boot them out of office.

Its important to keep in mind the big picture: The recent initiative efforts have been spectacularly successful  for better or for worse. Today, a whole lot more people are eligible for medical care under Medicaid expansion; medical marijuana will now be available; and some sort of independent commission will likely be involved in redistricting.

Even the Count My Vote initiative was incredibly successful, despite the fact that it ultimately didnt get on the ballot. The SB54 legislative compromise means a dual track exists to get on the primary election ballot  permanently changing Utah politics for the better.

These are real victories for the proponents.SALT LAKE CITY  A new app developed by University of Utah geographers in partnership with the DIGIT Lab is attempting to fill the gap in the nation's hate crime reports.

The data gap exists as a result of low reporting from victims to police and inconsistent reporting from police to the FBI, one researcher notes.

"There just aren't good data around so we don't really understand how hate affects communities in general," said Richard Medina, one developer of the app and assistant professor in U. Department of Geography. "So what we're trying to get accomplished is really, you know in research terms, a better understanding of hate but also we're trying to get that information to communities and government and law enforcement so that just a better understanding is available."

The problem is a lot of victims don't report to police because they might think that the police won't want to be bothered, or that it wouldn't really be effective, or that it might cause trouble for the victim.  Emily Nicolosi, app developer and doctoral researcher with University of Utah Department of Geography

The FBI, which tracks hate-motivated crimes across the country, recorded a 17 percent increase in hate crimes from 2016 to 2017, the most recent year data is available. But experts estimate the number is likely higher.

The pilot app, named Hate Incident Reporting System, allows users to anonymously report hate crimes or hate incidents to a secure database for research purposes. It will also be helpful in identifying patterns of hate-based incidents, researchers noted.

The creators differentiated between a hate crime and a hate incident, because not every instance of hate is illegal.

"Hate crimes have to be a crime, right? So they have to involve violence, property damage," explained Emily Nicolosi, app developer and doctoral researcher with U. Department of Geography. "We're also looking at incidents that are federally protected of hate speech and propaganda."

This gap in data presents a "huge problem" to anyone trying to address the issue, from researchers to law enforcement to government officials, Nicolosi said.

"We just don't know that much about it," she said.

The app contributes to a recent statewide conversation about hate crimes. Earlier this month, Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law a hate crime bill that toughens criminal penalties when victims are chosen because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics.

Medina said he thinks the law shows that Utah is moving in the right direction and he hopes it motivates people to participate in the conversation.

"Because there's a hate crime law now, I hope that the community is a little more interested and maybe more willing to provide information," he said.

According to the June 2017 National Crime Victimization Survey, about 54 percent of incidents of hate crime victimization were not reported to police from 2011-15.

"The problem is a lot of victims don't report to police because they might think that the police won't want to be bothered, or that it wouldn't really be effective, or that it might cause trouble for the victim," Nicolosi said.

She pointed out that certain populations might perceive more risk in reporting to police.

"This could be a concern, say for example, with people who have immigrated to this country without documentation," she said. "If they reported a hate crime to police they could potentially get arrested, and that's an issue because we know that immigrants are often targets of hate."

Even when hate crimes are reported to local law enforcement, she noted that the information still might not make it to the FBI due to lack of training or departmental resources.

In the past, some police agencies in the Beehive State hadn't sent hate crime reports to the FBI for years, according to an Associated Press report illustrating a nationwide problem of agencies failing to report all crimes to the FBI.

"The data on hate crimes is really astonishingly lacking on a national level so we're trying to kind of create a stronger database of hate crime," she said.

Hopefully, Medina said, the app will receive enough reports to analyze and conduct further research. Going forward, the pair would also like to meet with potentially targeted communities and see how they can make the app more useful.

"We are planning to talk to police about this app and how we can work together," Nicolosi said.

While outreach is mainly focused in Utah to begin with, Nicolosi said the researchers hope in the future it will be used nationwide.

"We really have high hopes for this app, we're hoping that eventually it will be used across the country," she said.

The app launched on Google Play last week, and so far it has about 35 downloads and about 10 reports, according to Medina. It is expected to launch on Apple's App Store soon, he added.

Medina said he's optimistic those numbers will increase but said he's unsure if the number will reach a "critical mass of reports where we can make a difference."

"We definitely want more than the FBI's reporting," he added, but noted those numbers are more than he was expecting within the first days of launching.

Last year, Medina and Nicolosi, along with Simon Brewer and Andrew M. Linke, published an academic article about hate crime titled "Geographies of Organized Hate in America: A Regional Analysis."

It was in the process of researching that study that Nicolosi and Medina decided to do something to address the lack of data available on hate crimes.

"As researchers, you can't do that much about a problem unless you really understand the problem itself," she said. "So that's where we are with this. We're trying to get a better idea of what this problem looks like."

It's important to understand how hate affects a community, Medina said.

"I mean just generally, if you have a lot of hate in your community then there are more threats and risks to people," Medina noted. "We want to have a good community here in Utah, throughout Utah and in Salt Lake. You know if people understand the way others are affected by hate in that community I think it would just make for a better environment altogether."SALT LAKE CITY  Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has lashed out at Utah Sen. Mitt Romney over the latters recent comments about President Donald Trump.

Huckabee slammed Romneys comments with the former 2012 presidential candidates own words.

Know what makes me sick, Mitt? Not how disingenuous you were to take @realDonaldTrump $$ and then 4 yrs later jealously trash him & then love him again when you begged to be Sec of State, but makes me sick that you got GOP nomination and could have been @POTUS," Huckabee tweeted Friday afternoon.

See the response below.

Know what makes me sick, Mitt? Not how disingenuous you were to take @realDonaldTrump $$ and then 4 yrs later jealously trash him & then love him again when you begged to be Sec of State, but makes me sick that you got GOP nomination and could have been @POTUS https://t.co/dmidOraRGQ  Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) April 19, 2019

On Friday, Romney tweeted that he saw it as good news that there wasnt enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice or any other crimes after special counsel Robert Muellers report came out on Thursday.

Romney said he was sickened by the dishonesty in the White House, according to the Deseret News.

"I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President," Romney posted.

"I am appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia  including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement," he wrote.

I have now read the redacted Mueller report and offer my personal reaction: pic.twitter.com/ACnExskqXJ  Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) April 19, 2019

Romney and Huckabee ran against each other in the 2008 Republican presidential primary. Huckabee is also the father of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, Fox News reports.OGDEN  Volunteers turned out this past week to plant trees on the Weber State University campus, a move which not only celebrates the observance of Earth Day on Monday but also solidifies the university's designation as a Tree Campus USA.

The Arbor Day Foundation classification also requires a campus to have a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan and dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program.

Planting trees is an activity that is annual tradition of the university's observance of Earth Day.

As part of that celebration, the Davis campus will also host a lawnmower and trimmer exchange from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 27 in its parking lot.

Residents of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, Tooele and Utah counties who entered and were selected from a random lottery are eligible for a $99 electric lawn mower or $49 trimmer when they trade in an old, gas-powered tool.

This years lawn mower exchange program will provide 1,259 electric mowers and 972 trimmers. The exchange will take place at the WSU Davis parking lot. Operating a gas lawnmower for one hour produces emissions equivalent to driving a vehicle 160 miles.

Even though Weber State University students, alumni and supporters "bleed" purple for the school's color, the university has been going green for years.

Alice Mulder, director of the Sustainability Practices and Research Center on campus, said the sustainability program makes financial sense even as it provides better stewardship of natural resources.

"There is a lot of benefit that comes from doing more sustainable practices which are ultimately good for reducing emissions and improving air quality," she said, adding that is also a good business model.

"This past year we had $1.9 million in water and energy savings."

Since 2009, WSU has reduced consumption of electricity by 33 percent, natural gas consumption by 35 percent and total greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent. Over that same time period, those reductions added up to nearly $12 million in savings  despite WSU adding 603,183 square feet in new buildings or through renovations.

This summer, the university plans to install its first solar-covered parking array over the W10 lot on the northern side of the Ogden campus and will offset 80 percent of Lindquist Hall's energy consumption. The new solar array will build on the institution's solar capacity, such as the seven acre field at the Davis campus.COPPERMINE, Arizona  After a recent snowstorm, thousands of Utahns faced the frustration of living without electricity for a few hours. But imagine living like that all the time, all your life.

That happens to be the case for about 60,000 people near the Utah-Arizona border. Now, utility crews from Utah are volunteering to help out.

"I do feel a pretty big sense of pride, coming down here and helping these guys out, sharing my skill with them and bettering their lives," said Brad Fryer, of Heber (Utah) Light & Power.

The people in question live on the Navajo Nation, typically in isolated homes scattered across the vast reservation. Utility trucks from Heber City had a daunting experience just getting there over many miles of bad road. Deep sand in the Navajo Nation forced them to stop several times.

Eventually they made it to the home of Sid Wall, a relatively new and modern structure that has never been connected to the electrical grid that nearly all Americans take for granted. His daughter grew up without electricity.

"It's been a long wait," Shelby Wall said. "So I'm now 21, and it's been 21 years."

For her mother, Marlene Yazzie, it's been much longer. "It's been like, how old am I now? 48? Hah, hah, that many years."

Heber City and 23 other cities across the country are sending utility crews to finally provide electrical connections for isolated Navajo homes. Typically, such a project can be prohibitively expensive because power lines are often quite distant from homes.

"It can cost up to $40,000 for one electric hookup connection to a home, up to a mile away," said Deenise Becenti of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.

But under a program called Light Up Navajo, the visiting utility crews are doing their work for free, donating their efforts and expertise to the Navajo Nation.

"Yeah, we're grateful," Becenti said, "that the cities across America have sent their teams here to help our families who have been waiting so long to get electricity to their homes."

The volunteer effort was organized by the American Public Power Association. Crews from as far away as Massachusetts have already visited. Utility workers from several municipalities in the Salt Lake area will be heading to the Navajo Nation early next month to join the project. Over the next few weeks the goal is to hook up 300 homes, giving more than a thousand people an electrical connection for the first time in their lives.

Sid Wall's home has a solar panel but it doesn't generate enough power for a house full of modern appliances. It's apparently a family of optimists, though. They have long had a microwave oven and a ceiling fan with lights and they've had a refrigerator for two years. But it usually remains dark and warm on the inside. They still use ice-chests to keep food cold and a propane camp stove for their cooking.

For Sid Wall, electricity is literally a matter of life and death. He requires regular sessions of kidney dialysis to stay alive.

"We don't do it here," Marlene Yazzie said. "It requires electricity and running water."

So the couple regularly drives to their daughter's home in Nevada, a round trip that covers hundreds of miles.

"We do it, like, three or four times a week," Yazzie said.

When the volunteer effort was first organized, the utility workers from Heber City were surprised to learn that 60,000 Navajos are without electrical hookups.

"Yeah, I was blown away," Fryer said. "That's a pretty big number."

His colleague, Braiden Despain, echoed the thought.

"It was definitely  for this day and age  it was very surprising," Despain said. "I was very taken aback."

Despain says he volunteered mainly to have a new experience, but the humanitarian aspect also appealed to him.

"It sounded pretty cool to come help some people out," Despain said, "so it's a win-win."

Even when the power is switched on, though, Sid Wall will continue going to Nevada for dialysis. That's because his home still doesn't have running water.SALT LAKE CITY  Utah House Democrats are holding their own public meetings on tax reform rather than wait for a Republican-controlled task force created by the 2019 Legislature to get underway.

"We were disappointed with how the process went during the session. This is a critically important issue," House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, said Thursday. "We want to do something that's fair and transparent."

Democrats were largely left out of the discussions about addressing the state's lagging sales tax revenues that resulted in a House bill that would have added taxes to a wide variety of services while reducing sales and income tax rates.

But the bill generated plenty of opposition amid extensive revisions. Because it didn't surface until late in the session, Republican legislative leaders decided to scrap it in favor of forming a task force to come up with new legislation.

The task force is expected to be up and running by the mid-May interim meetings, but members have yet to be named. There will be just one House Democrat and one Senate Democrat among the 10 voting members.

House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, said in a statement the "complex issue" will be studied by the task force over the summer.

"They will be focused on developing real solutions that will fix our budget process long into the future making it sustainable, flexible, sufficient and fair. We look forward to the recommendations the task force comes up with," Wilson said.

The speaker also took a swipe at his Democratic counterpart.

"Even though we discussed this issue many times with the House minority caucus, we have not yet seen any constructive suggestions from the minority leader," Wilson said.

He said he hopes "these town hall meetings mean they are committed to solutions not partisanship.

King said the evening town hall meetings that start May 1 at the state Capitol and continue through May at other locations along the Wasatch Front are not intended to be partisan. He said GOP leaders have been invited to attend.

"There will not be a slant. There's going to be information presented to the public about what options exist," King said, beyond broadening the sales tax base to include services ranging from haircuts to legal advice.

Among the possible alternatives expected to be talked about are changes to income and property taxes, as well as a carbon tax intended to deal with environmental concerns, the minority leader said.

There were too many "decisions made behind closed doors," about last session's tax bill, often during closed Republican caucus meetings, King said, blaming the GOP's supermajorities in the House and Senate.

Democrats hold 16 of the 75 House seats and six of the 29 Senate seats.

King said House Democrats "want to make sure that Utahns feel that, we hear you. We're with you in terms of feeling frustrated that the Legislature plows ahead without getting input from the public."

The public input at the town hall meetings will be shared with the task force, King said.

"Let's get as much information as we can," he said. "I don't see a downside to getting more rather than less information."

Senate Democrats are not involved in the town hall meetings.

"Obviously, we support the House Democrats in their reaching out to the community," said Senate Minority Leader Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City. "We celebrate any outreach to the public."

Senate Democrats were more involved in tax reform discussions, she said.

"We were talking all the time," Mayne said. "There are 29 of us and we're elected every four years. There's a lot of camaraderie there. I appreciate leadership reaching out to us."

She said Democratic senators are welcome to participate in the town hall meetings.

All of the meetings are scheduled from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The first town hall will be held May 1, in Room 210 of the Senate Building at the Capitol complex, followed by a meeting May 16 in the West Valley City Hall multipurpose room.

Town halls are also scheduled on May 21, in auditorium A of the Weber County Main Library in Ogden; on May 22, in the Bullock Room of the Provo City Library at Academy Square; and on May 23 in the Sandy City Hall multipurpose room.

A date is pending for a town hall planned at the Holladay City Hall.SALT LAKE CITY  Faith leaders and members of Utah's congressional delegation on Sunday expressed sympathy and condemned violence against worshippers in Sri Lanka, where Easter bombings at churches and hotels killed more than 200 and injured hundreds more.

"Whoever committed this atrocious crime should be arrested and be brought to justice," said Amir Arain, spokesman for the Utah Islamic Center in Sandy, where he said congregants were grieving and in shock on Sunday.

"Everybody has a right to practice their religion in safety and security. It's a sad, sad day for Sri Lankan people, and we share their loss," he said.

The Asia Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement they were deeply saddened by the blasts.

"We offer our heartfelt condolences and sincere prayers to all of those affected by these tragic events," the statement said. "We mourn with those who lost loved ones and pray for those who are seeking to heal from the physical and emotional wounds they are now suffering. May the Lord bless them with peace and comfort in these trying moments."

Some members of Utah's congressional delegation agreed.

"As we celebrate the miracle of Easter, we hold in our hearts the victims of the senseless violence in Sri Lanka and their loved ones," Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Sunday on Twitter. "We pray that they may experience Gods eternal grace, comfort and love."

Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, said he was also praying for the southeast Asian nation and emphasized the importance of religious rights and personal expression.

"The tragic deaths & injuries in Sri Lanka, reportedly acts of religious extremists, are heartbreaking. Freedom to exercise religious or other beliefs & peacefully express individual identity must never be marred by fear. Praying for #SriLanka and for an end to violence," McAdams said on Twitter.

Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, expressed his sympathy, tweeting, "My heart mourns with the people of Sri Lanka."

Avais Ahmed, chairman of the Utah Muslim Civic League, issued a call to action.

"All of humanity is mourning these horrific attacks once again violating sacred faith spaces," Ahmed said in a statement. "These incidents should strengthen the resolve for political, community and faith leaders to prevent tragedies of this sort in the future. Our spiritual tradition not only condemns these attacks but calls for the protection of sacred spaces."

The faith's prophet Muhammad pledged to defend Christians in a letter to monks at Saint Catherine's Monatery in Egypt, promising to "protect them, and their properties and their morals," Ahmed noted.

"As a community and as our league, we stand together against hate, against violence, against evil," he said.

Contributing: Dan BammesIt is finally that time of the year when your soul screams for just one thing- a vacation. While mere mortals like us are getting our air-conditioners serviced with full gusto, our Bollywood junta is taking a break from the sweltering heat in the bay.

Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan along with their cutie Aaradhya are chilling on the pristine beaches of Maldives, Shahid Kapoor and company have opted for a fancy Euro trip with Mira's family to beat the heat. Since, we can neither go to Maldives nor Europe, our best shot at getting those vacay vibes are from these gorgeous pictures. Check out and enjoy!Tanaiste Simon Coveney condemns attacks in Sri Lanka

Press release

The Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney, T.D., condemns in the strongest possible terms the attacks this morning on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

The Tanaiste stated: "I am shocked at the appalling attacks on innocent civilians this morning in Sri Lanka. No political or other cause can justify or excuse the bombing of people at worship or simply going about their daily lives.

I express my sympathy to the families of those who have been killed and my support to those who have been injured.

On behalf of the government of Ireland I also express our solidarity with the people and government of Sri Lanka at this tremendously difficult time. Ireland strongly supports everyone's freedom of religion and belief. Attacks such as those in Sri Lanka today and in Christchurch and elsewhere are a challenge to us all to do everything that we can to defend that right. Places of worship must be places of peace, free from fear."

ENDS

Press Office

21 April 2019

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If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter .

Support our mission and join our community now.Gleann Cholm Cille and the nearby valleys in southwest Donegal contain some of the most intriguing prehistoric and early historic structures in Ireland.

The old glen

Monuments from the early Neolithic period onwards are dotted across this beautiful and informative landscape; among them the huge dolmens at Malinmore and the great court-tombs: Clochan Mor and Farranmacbride. The previous name of the valley  Senglenn ('the old glen')  was very apt.

However in medieval times, around AD500-1600, that name was changed to honour one of Ireland's best-loved saints, Colmcille (in Irish) or Columba (in Latin).

Colmcille

Legends and folklore claim that the saint, Naomh Colmcille, (c.AD520-593) came to the valley and founded a church there. An important legacy of that process of Christianisation is the surviving cluster of stone cross-slabs (some probably dating to around AD800) and other early ecclesiastical features in the valley. Another legacy is the famous Turas ('pilgrimage') made around those sites; primarily on 9 June, the day the saint died  his feast-day.

Summer school

The Summer School, based in such an appropriate location, is aimed at adults with an interest in the archaeology and ancient history of Ireland. No previous knowledge is required; merely a curiosity and a willingness to participate in outdoor sessions, studying the evidence of the monuments in their landscape context. The course also provides an introduction to the archaeology of Ireland in general.

Sub-themes

The sites to be visited raise a number of sub-themes which will be pursued also in the discussions and lectures: (i) how the visible landscape is a 'text' to be read; (ii) the process of 'conversion' by which pagan Celtic Ireland became a vibrant Christian culture; (iii) the ethical and practical problems associated with the conservation and 'restoring' of ancient monuments or leaving them as 'ruins'; and (iv) the degree to which the archaeology of the ancient world contributes evidence to the current debate on climate change.

Sites

Normally, day-time sessions will be held outdoors at the monuments and, on one day, there'll be visits to sites in another part of Donegal. There'll also be a number of evening background lectures  and, of course, time to enjoy the other attractions for which the glen is famous.

Dr Brian Lacey

The 2019 Summer School from July 27 to August 3, will be directed by Dr Brian Lacey who has been researching the archaeology and early history of Counties Donegal and Derry for over 40 years. A former university lecturer and museum director in Derry, he oversaw the archaeological survey of Donegal (1979-83). His particular specialism is the lore of St Colmcille. He has published 14 books and many research papers.

For more see a newly developed website www.colmcille.orgA Dundalk councillor was one of five politicians who completed the first Councillor-Migrant Internship Scheme run by the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

Cllr. Anne Campbell from Sinn Fein was in Dublin recently for the launch of the report into the scheme, which paired migrants with local authority members across the country. The scheme, which was funded under the EU Asylum Migration and Integration Fund through the Department of Justice, was the first of its kind in Ireland.

The scheme, which was co-ordinated and run by Joe OBrien from the Immigrant Council of Ireland, aimed to offer the intern a practical educational experience and insight into local politics, to make a connection between local migrant communities and local government and to promote diversity among politicians, the political establishment and society at large.

Three out of the five interns took the decision to run for local elections in their constituencies next month.

The Dundalk South representative was paired with Adam Muchegwa, who is originally from Zimbabwe and lives with his family in Dundalk. For four months last year, Adam attended a wide range of council-related activities, including Louth County Council and Dundalk Municipal meetings, weekly councillor clinics and events.

Adam, who was a civil servant in the Zimbabwean capital Harare before he came to Ireland, said: At my first municipal district meeting, I was roundly welcomed. I noticed and admired the mutual respect between the councillors and officials, a clear sign that both were determined to work for the betterment of the community.

He also attended the council meetings last year where the thorny issue of the suspension of pay parking in Drogheda was debated. Adam said: Despite the serious disagreements on this issue between the councillors and officials, I was left in no doubt that this was the best example of democracy at work.

Cllr. Campbell, who attended the report launch with her colleague, Cllr. Ruairi O Murchu, praised the work of the Immigrant Council of Ireland and the contribution Adam had made.

She said: This was the best thing I was involved in last year. I was so lucky to have Adam working alongside me and thanks to his experience and insight, he has helped me so much in a number of areas, particularly helping me to see things from a migrants perspective.

Adam continues to be involved in helping me with a number of projects we started work on during the internship scheme and is involved in my election campaign.

I was delighted to have been part of this scheme and I hope that many others will take up the offer from the Immigrant Council of Ireland to partner with someone from the migrant community.Xem them

(Construction) - On December 3, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Construction held a conference to appraise the General Plan for Construction Project of Cao Bang Border Gate Economic Zone to 2040.

...

Tin bai cuoi cung

Khong con du lieu e loadPresident Trump has repeatedly crowed that special counsel Robert Muellers report is a total exoneration. After its release Thursday morning, he tweeted: No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats  Game Over.

But the report itself, for those who bothered to read it, makes a mockery of that assertion. Even with its multiple redactions, the voluminous document made public Thursday by the Justice Department contains numerous examples of Trump degrading his office by engaging in sleazy and self-serving behavior.

Its true that the special counsel didnt establish that Trumps campaign criminally cooperated with Russia in its efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential campaign. (It does provide evidence that a Russian organization with ties to the Kremlin tirelessly promoted Trump and bashed Hillary Clinton on social media with the (evidently) unwitting aid of Trump campaign officials and Trump himself. It also notes several overtures by Russians to supply stolen emails and other dirt to the Trump campaign, drawing interest rather than alarm from campaign officials.)

But the report absolutely does not clear the president of the more serious accusation that he tried to obstruct justice through a variety of efforts to abort or interfere with the Russia investigation.

On the contrary, the report says: If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.

It goes on to say  despite Trumps boasts to the contrary  that the report does not exonerate him.

A close look through the hundreds of pages of facts, evidence and legal interpretation reveals, as the report itself says, multiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations.

To name just a few: Trump attempted to have then-Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions reverse his own decision  required by ethics rules  to recuse himself from the investigation. Trump fired FBI director James Comey  at least partly because of the pressure from the Russia investigation  and then lied about why he did so. He directed White House counsel Don McGahn to order Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller soon after the special counsels appointment. McGahn refused to carry out the order and prepared to resign, and Trump later backed down. When the New York Times reported on Trumps demand, the president asked McGahn to deny it.

The report makes it clear that most of Trumps attempts at interference failed, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.

Despite that damning judgment, the special counsel decided not to take a position on whether Trump obstructed justice. Acting on their own, Atty. Gen. William Barr and Rosenstein then concluded that the evidence is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.

In other words, Trump skated by, despite ample evidence of misbehavior, thanks to a favorable and generous reading of the facts and laws by his own attorney general. For the president to call that an exoneration is laughable.

 Los Angeles TimesIn 2018, lawmakers approved an overhaul of New Mexico election laws, requiring local governments to hold special elections entirely by mail.

The question I keep hearing is, how much does this special election cost now than it did a few years ago?

I understand concerns about how much a new system costs versus an old system. Governments given itself a lot of responsibilities over the years, and its bound to do those things as efficiently as possible. Whether they succeed or not changes frequently.

But I dont think thats the most important question. The question by which we need to judge mail-in ballots are, Are we getting more, better-informed participants?

I havent had an opportunity to do a mail-in ballot since the law change, as I dont live in any of the districts that have held elections. But I remember when I last did a mail-in ballot as a college student. I had about a week to look over each race and ballot question, and I studied each one. Granted, I studied it like a college student studies anything, but thats more work than I would have done had I walked into the community center and weighed a race for the first time.

One of my favorite Eddie Murphy movies is The Distinguished Gentleman. Murphy plays career con-man Jeff Johnson, whose congressman of the same name dies of a heart attack before what would have been an easy re-election. The con-man runs as Jeff Johnson and stays below the radar. An election day scene shows a husband asking his wife who they usually vote for, and presumably enough people do the same thing the new Jeff Johnson is elected.

I know the premise was laughable when the movie debuted, and its even harder to imagine it happening with the Internet. But if mail-in ballots eliminate a few show up on election day and guess voters, thats a good start.

I also think its a good thing when more people participate in the process. It means elected officials have to do more than placate a tiny base of voters thats guaranteed to vote their way, and you have more trust in the election results.

Heres one example of why its good to expand the voter base, particularly in smaller elections: Voters recently approved general obligation bonds and a property tax to provide Texico more than $2 million for Texico Municipal Schools. There were 262 ballots cast out of 1,036 ballots sent out, meaning voter turnout was 25.3 percent.

Texicos previous tax election in 2013 saw 3.8 percent turnout, which would have been about 41 voters. Texico Municipal Schools has 55 entries in its online staff directory.

Im not accusing anybody of being underhanded, but I dont think you can argue its a good election process if employees of the place asking for taxpayer money can secure passage on their own. You have to make a case to voters, and some school bond elections have failed because that didnt happen.

Heres another benefit: When ballots are sent back as undeliverable, thats documented justification to remove them from the voter rolls. Its a voters responsibility to keep their registrations current, and this is a good way to do it.

Oregons been doing vote-by-mail for years, and its turnout is significantly above national averages. Other states are following suit.

Yes, its a little more expensive. But good democracy is worth investment.

Kevin Wilson is editor of The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at:

[email protected]8th bomb blast hits Sri Lanka's capital

A new blast hit the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Sunday, police said, the eighth explosion in the country in a single day.

Sri Lankan police on Sunday said the eight blast hit the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital, but there were no further details on what was targeted.

Police reported there had been a seventh explosion, the fourth at a hotel, following six reported at hotels and churches earlier in the day that killed nearly 190 people.

"BODY PARTS ON THE GROUND"

The latest explosion to be reported was at a hotel near the national zoo, which is in an area near the capital Colombo.

There was an explosion in a hotel in Dehiwela near the zoo, a police official told Reuters adding that there were no further details available.

Sri Lanka terror attack WATCH

An eyewitness on local TV said he saw some body parts including a severed head lying on the ground near the hotel.

Zoo officials declared the zoo closed after the blast.French police arrest journalists during protests

As Yellow Vests demonstrations continue in Paris, several journalists were arrested.

French police said they arrested more than 200 Yellow Vest protesters in Paris on Saturday as clashes broke out with demonstrators turning out for the 23rd week of anti-government protests.

French police arrest journalists during protests WATCH

Police forces used disproportionate force on protesters and journalists as well. Several journalists were arrested and injured by rubber bullets during the demonstrations.

According to the local media, police dispelled the protesters with pepper spray.

The latest official figures, 11 people have died so far and more than 2,000 were injured. More than 8,400 people have been arrested and 2,000 people sentenced to prison. According to French Mediapart website, 11 people were killed, five had their hands ripped due to pepper spray, and 21 lost their eyesight.Merkel is too qualified to be lost as EU leader

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will bid farewell to her office in Berlin in 2021.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has revealed his belief that Angela Merkel, after finishing her term as Germanys chancellor, will take on a role at the EU level.

"SHE IS AN ARTWORK"

Angela Merkel would be "highly qualified" for a senior EU position once she steps down as chancellor, Juncker said. In an interview with the German Funke Media Group, Juncker stressed that he could not imagine Merkel disappearing without a trace as a politician.

"She is not only a person of respect, but also a complete and endearing work of art," Juncker said.

Merkel steered the bloc through a period of economic crisis and political turbulence after becoming chancellor in 2005, earning her the reputation of being Europe's most powerful leader.Ukraine heads to the polls in a run-off election

Voters will choice between tycoon Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent president, and television comedian Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukrainians are getting ready to cast ballots on Sunday's presidential election, where incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and comedian Vladimir Zelenskiy will face each other in a runoff.

RESULTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED BY MAY 1

In the first round of the presidential polls held on Mar. 31, Poroshenko and Zelenskiy, according to official figures, became the top two candidates by getting 15.95 and 30.24 of votes, respectively. Since no candidate surpassed 50% threshold, the nations next president will be chosen in a runoff scheduled for Apr. 21.

Some 30 million voters are expected to cast ballots whereas about five million people living in Donbas, and Crimea -- annexed by Russia -- will not be able to vote.

According to the final public survey, comedian Zelenskiy is expected to win the presidential elections. The survey conducted by Ukraine's Rating Group, Zelenskiy is expected to get 73% of the votes whereas Poroshenko stands at 27%.

According to the countrys election law, the official results of the polls will be announced by May 1.Corralled behind a strip of yellow-caution tape tied to a metal bicycle rack, a multicolored bull lived up to its title of the Barrios Largest Pinata.

The wide-eyed toro was the size of a compact car, with a frame made of wood and chicken wire, beneath bands of vinyl confetti. Hula-Hoop rings made up its ribs. Its insides were stuffed with Styrofoam, cardboard and sponges.

The nonprofit, Action United for Entertainers & Diverse Artists has sponsored the event for more than 20 years as way to help artists who have fallen on hard times.

We pride ourselves on our pinatas, said Rick Uriegas, vice president of Action United for Entertainers & Diverse Artists. It mixes together family and happiness.

The oversized pinata was on display Saturday at Pinatas in the Barrio at the Historic Plaza Guadalupe on the West Side. Hundreds of intrigued onlookers turned out from noon to 10 p.m. to listen to live bands, shop at vendor booths and choose from a wide selection of food at the official Fiesta event.

Margo Uriegas founded AUEDA to offer financial, legal and medical help to artists and entertainers, especially on the West Side, in need of aid. Proceeds from the event go toward scholarships and support programs.

Before the festival began, organizers honored military veterans with a ceremony at the plaza located at 1327 Guadalupe St. Live bands played conjunto and salsa tunes that echoed through the neighborhood. Dancers swept across the courtyard throughout the day, from an older couple twirling in the sunlight, to the Teresa Champion Dance Academy dancers.

Later, Jose and Gloria De Hoyos were crowned as Senior King and Queen. The couple felt at home at the plaza  they had lived across the street when they were newlyweds.

Our beginnings are here, Jose De Hoyos said. Its nice to come back to the area and represent the community.

A food vendor clanged a bell to entice guests to try his burgers as they entered the festival strung with banners, pinatas and streamers. Fiesta royalty and fans walked across the plaza wearing sashes, heavy with medals.

Revelers milled around the multicolored bull, posing for photos and marveling at the pinata that Uriegas, 65, and Maria Trevino made on weekends over a three-month period.

The objet dFiesta-art cost $150 to make, and it isnt filled with candy. This is filled with love for our community and our culture, Uriegas said.

AUEDA ambassador, Linda Ramirez, said the pinata originated as a clay pot and evolved into the papier-mache, seven-point star that represents the seven attributes of the Holy Spirit. Blindfolding an individual represented the innocence inside of them, she said. Then family members and friends would yell which way to swing, offering the person spiritual guidance away from evil.

When you break the pinata, thats when all of the glory spills out, she said. Thats why its  for Easter. Its evolved into our birthdays and different occasions because  we are always guiding our family in the right direction.

Sisters Mary Bruce, 68, and Elaine Martinez, 56, stood out in the crowd, wearing hats decorated with pastel colored eggs and doodads. It was their first time at the event.

We wanted to do something different, said Bruce, who had a pair of skull earrings dangling from her ears. Its a nice event, Im very impressed.

Her sister said she would definitely come back next year.

This is great, Martinez said, sipping Big Red soda from a can. Its too bad it doesnt go on for another day.

Above the courtyard, Analisa Bermea, 8, and Savannah Ramos, 7, dressed in bright orange and yellow ruffled dresses, played hopscotch before performing with Escaramuza Rosas de Castilla.

At that moment they were just little girls, skipping their cowboy boots on weathered tiles. Later they would join their all-female group, riding horses sidesaddle, with grace and poise, into the venue.

Analisas grandmother, Belinda Machado, 58, said she was glad the girls were involved with the equestrian sport that is so much a part of their Hispanic culture.

Im very proud of my granddaughter, she said. Shes continuing a tradition here in San Antonio.

Vincent T. Davis is a reporter in the Greater San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | vtdavis@express-news.net | Twitter: @vincentdavisALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  The FBI on Saturday arrested the leader of a right-wing militia that was detaining migrant families at gunpoint near the border in southern New Mexico, as the group faced a torrent of criticism for its tactics.

Hector Balderas, New Mexicos attorney general, said federal agents had arrested the leader, Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who had been operating under the alias Johnny Horton Jr. Balderas said in a statement that Hopkins was arrested on charges of firearms possession by a felon.

This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families, Balderas said. Todays arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.

NUMBERS GAME: At the crowded Texas border, a crush of Cubans hope for their lucky number

The firearms charge against Hopkins is relatively minor. But it is likely the start of a deeper investigation into his activities and those of the militia, and opens the way for the authorities to bring more serious charges like kidnapping and impersonating a police officer or an employee of the United States.

Hopkins arrest comes as tensions rise over ultraconservative paramilitary groups operating along the southwestern border. Professed militias have a long history of targeting immigrants from Latin America, tracing back to the Ku Klux Klans creation of its own border patrol in the 1970s. Record numbers of Central American migrants apprehended by federal authorities in recent months have been accompanied by a new surge in militia activity on the border.

The organization led by Hopkins, the United Constitutional Patriots, recently uploaded videos of armed members detaining children and their parents in a stretch of the New Mexico desert near El Paso, Texas, before handing the migrants over to the Border Patrol.

Political leaders in New Mexico, a state largely controlled by Democrats, responded with fury. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said that any mistreatment of asylum-seekers on the border was unacceptable. The states two Democratic senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, said in a statement that the actions of vigilante groups cannot be tolerated.

The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the militias actions in a letter Thursday, saying the actions amounted to kidnapping by racist and armed vigilantes.

BAFFLING CASE: ICE deported the spouse of a soldier killed in Afghanistan, attorney says

Still, such denunciations were far from unanimous in the state. A prominent New Mexico Republican, Gavin Clarkson, a former Trump administration official who is now running for U.S. Senate, met with masked members of the group in March and praised their efforts, according to a video of the encounter uploaded to Facebook.

But Clarkson said Saturday on Twitter that he condemned militia activities. Masked militiamen are the antithesis of what a free republic looks like, he said.

Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the militia, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Hopkins arrest.

The FBI said in a statement that the police department of Sunland Park, New Mexico, had assisted with the arrest. Hopkins, 69, is scheduled to appear Monday in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Hopkins, whose residence is in Flora Vista in northwest New Mexico, had already come under the scrutiny of groups tracking right-wing militias around the United States. He was convicted in 2006 for impersonating an officer and for felony firearm possession, according to The Daily Beast.

Despite the recent criticism over its operations in New Mexico, the militia led by Hopkins maintains a wide reach on Facebook and YouTube.

Speaking to someone using a voice distorter while wearing a gas mask, Hopkins appeared on a right-wing extremist YouTube channel in November. He claimed to be in touch with President Donald Trump after a chance meeting at a Las Vegas casino.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.The foundations of freedom of speech are under relentless assault. A case in point: the San Antonio City Council recently voted to exclude Chick-fil-A from the citys airport because the restaurant chains Christian owners have donated to organizations that champion the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. And last week the council narrowly rejected a proposal to reconsider its decision.

Such censorship is blatantly unconstitutional. But this incident is symptomatic of deeper problems. Many people believe they have the absolute truth with regard to issues of morality, sexuality, religion or politics, and that those who disagree are evil and must be censored or excluded. Similarly, many see people as fragile and argue that offensive speech is violence.

Hence, the San Antonio City Councils fear that the mere sight of a Chick-fil-A would make LGBTQ+ individuals feel unwelcome. This outlook corrodes our free speech foundations and should be rejected by all those who value the First Amendment.

Yet, the United States remains a bastion of free speech compared to other western nations. In England, a journalist is under investigation for the crime of misgendering a transgender child. And the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights refused to review a decision affirming the conviction of an Austrian politician for making inflammatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.

In the U.S., by comparison, President Trump signed an executive order calling out campuses that flagrantly violate the First Amendment. And the Supreme Court stands poised to deliver another victory for free speech by invalidating a law that allows the government to censor trademarks that are too scandalous for protection.

Why has the United States stood largely alone in protecting offensive and controversial ideas? And can this protection last as the calls for trigger warnings and censorship grow ever louder?

Our dedication to protecting controversial or even hateful ideas has sometimes faltered. Until after the Second World War, the United States jailed those who spoke out against wars or voiced unpalatable positions.

But in the post-war era, a bipartisan consensus in favor of open discourse emerged. This consensus rests on three foundational premises.

First, government bureaucrats are not qualified to decide which ideas deserve protection or which deserve censorship and scorn. Government abuses during the McCarthy and Civil Rights era illustrated how such power could be used to suppress unpopular viewpoints. We recognized that such power did not belong in the governments hands. The Supreme Court expressed this idea with great power in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette: If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.

Second, while we can hold fervent convictions on all manner of issues, we should not be so certain of our convictions that we would silence others. Instead, we make room even for the expression of ideas we hate. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed this with timeless eloquence: Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power.  But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe  that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas.

Finally, our commitment for free speech rests on the belief that citizens in a free society are resilient individuals capable of hearing and rejecting offensive ideas. As Justice Louis Brandeis explained, Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards.  They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.

Our belief in equality and fairness for all will remain strong even if we allow Nazis to march on Skokie or Charlottesville  or if we stop to enjoy a chicken sandwich at the airport. San Antonio leaders should reaffirm their commitment to free speech by stepping back from this ruinous attempt at punishing views they dont like.

Daniel Ortner is an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation.No right to not allow

Im upset the Trump Administration has banned transgender persons from joining the military.

This is like banning blonds or people with freckles or those who sunburn easily. This is not right. This is blatant discrimination. Discrimination on the basis of gender and/or race is illegal in our beloved country.

We dont have enough people in the military. Not enough people are enlisting. Discriminating against persons who qualify by merit to serve only degrades our country and our military.

Rebecca Baker

Double-check sources

Before crowing about the great employment numbers, people should first accept that these numbers are coming from the Trump administration and may not be true.

Richard Wallish

Whos to blame?

I hear TV newscasters and pundits say, Democratic Party. There is perhaps nothing Democratic about the Democratic Party, which calls itself progressive and is increasingly socialistic. Shall we blame this poor usage of English grammar on a broken education system, terrible teachers, sloppy students, or poor punditing?

Patricia Hart McMillan

Going once, twice

If Dan Patrick decides to join the Trump team in any capacity, I will pay for his plane fare. Im talking a one-way ticket, no exceptions.

Now, can I interest anyone  preferably far away  in a Greg Abbott or a Ken Paxton? Ill even throw in, for free, a Louie Gohmert, but only if its really far away.

Mark A. HallFort Lauderdale, named after Major General William Lauderdale, was considered a pretty sleepy place that through the years was a trading post, World War II military base and a struggling city people passed through on their way to Miami.

Tourists eventually began noticing its pristine beaches and South Florida fine weather. But it was in 1960, when a low-budget romantic comedy called Where the Boys Are, put the Broward County city on the map forever.

The modest tourism business got a major boost as movie crews and a cast of movie stars including George Hamilton, Connie Francis and Dolores Hart descended on the town. Using a variety of locations including bars, clubs, home and street locations along the scenic A1A beach road, the movie made landmarks out of routine sites, and the city synonymous with the spring break mayhem. And while the city has moved on since then, its celebrity status lives on.

For Ft. Lauderdale, it was a phenomena, said Chamber of Commerce executive vice president Carolyn Michaels about the movie tracking the stories of four coeds on a Florida spring break there. And some of that movie history is alive and preserved when it comes to several locations. Among them, the Elbo Room at A1A and Las Olas Boulevard, made famous as the place where Connie Francis (Angie) and Paula Prentiss (Tuggle) turn free hot water, ketchup and crackers into lunch, and where co-star Jim Hutton (TV Thompson) woos Prentiss.

We always stop here because we loved the movie and we still get a kick out of crossing the street in front of the bar that was also part of the movie, said Donald James, a New Jersey resident and once-upon-a-time Ft. Lauderdale spring-breaker, who, with his wife, were taking pictures of each other with the historic bar sign in the background. We are long past spring break age, the bar looks a lot different, even the city is much different now, then it did then but the memories from spring break 60 years ago, priceless.

Another landmark that is part of informal Where the Boys Are Tour is the Wreck Bar, a historically preserved beachside bar and lounge located in what was at the time, the Yankee Clipper Hotel, now the B Ocean Hotel. The draw? Huge windows over the bar that give you an up-close-and-personal look into the underwater tank and its nightly mermaid shows.

In the movie, the main characters visit the imaginary Tropical Isle bar for drinks and the show. Taken with the mermaid featured in the tank, Hutton jumps in and well, see the movie if you want to know the rest.

Today, the dark shiplap and brass-decorated bar and lounge shaped like the inside of a ship, features an early evening family show as well as late night burlesque mermaid show and a Mermen show on certain evenings for the ladies.

Absolutely, people come here to see where the movie scene was filmed, said Ken Barr, the hotels Experience Manager who noted another famous film, Analyze This was also filmed there. We still have a lot of spring break activity here and the mermaid show while sitting bar is a classic, even today.

If you are really curious, head over to Riviera Drive to get a sneak peek at the exterior of the mansion that was home to Hamiltons wealthy Ivy League character, Ryder Smith, and see assorted beach and waterway views that were all used as part of the flyover and street scenes, circa 1960.

While local legislation has pretty much stymied the college break craziness featured in the film, and city sprawl has transformed the city into one that attracts an older, more sedate crowd, locals will always embrace the memorable fame.

At the time, it gave the city a boost and brought it to the forefront, said Michaels, noting that filming locations and history are still part of todays popular water taxi and river tours around the city. The movie is absolutely tied to the city.

MaryEllen Fillo is a freelance writer based in Connecticut.The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels.



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Today's top stories: Congress is likely to announce its candidates for the Lok Sabha election in Delhi, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to be on the campaign trail today, and more

Narendra Modi to campaign in Gujarat, Rajasthan; Amit Shah to hold roadshow in Gandhinagar

In preparation for the next phase of the Lok Sabha election scheduled to take place on 23 April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to be on the campaign trail in Gujarat's Patan, and in Chittorgarh and Barmer in Rajasthan.

BJP president Amit Shah will also be campaigning in Gandhinagar, from where he is a candidate for the first time in a Lok Sabha election. His roadshow will be organised in the Sanand area of Gandhinagar, reports said. He will also meet BJP leaders from Ghatloadia and Vejalpur Assembly constituencies.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who had been banned by the Election Commission from campaigning for three days last week over "hate speeches" made in election rallies, will address the public in four of Uttar Pradesh's cities on Sunday  Rampur, Lakhimpur Kheeri, Hardoi, and Kanpur

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur to reply to EC regarding remarks over Hemant Karkare

Malegaon blast accused and the BJP's candidate from Bhopal, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur is expected to reply to the Election Commission regarding the poll panel's notice for her remarks about slain Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare. On Friday, Pragya had said that Karkare, who was killed by terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, had died because she had "cursed" him.

On Saturday, the EC had issued a show cause notice to Pragya. "We took suo motu cognisance of the statement and sought a report from the assistant returning officer (ARO) on the matter. We got the report this morning and we have issued notice, which is returnable within 24 hours, to the organiser of the programme and the person who made the statement," District Election Officer and Bhopal Collector Sudam Khade told PTI.

"We have also sent ARO report's copy to the EC," he said. Asked about the point of serving the notice to her as she has already tendered apology, Khade said, "Let the reply come, then we will decide." The organiser of the Thursday's event had been given permission on certain conditions as the Model Code of Conduct was in force, he said.

One of the conditions was that "objectionable language to defame anyone" will not be used, he said. Out on bail, Thakur (48) is facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the blast case.

Congress likely to announce seven candidates for Delhi today

Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit Saturday said the names of candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital will be announced in a couple of days. She was talking to reporters after inaugurating a control room at the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) office for the Lok Sabha election campaign.

"The party will announce the candidates tomorrow or day after," Dikshit said on Saturday. Dikshit's statement comes after Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia told reporters that the talks of an alliance between the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress had broken down because the Rahul Gandhi-led party was insisting on an alliance only in Delhi, and had "backtracked" on a tie-up in Haryana.

IPL 2019 super Sunday: SRH face KKR; RCB take on CSK

A top-heavy Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to tame an Andre Russell-reliant Kolkata Knight Riders in a high-pressure clash on Sunday. Both teams have eight points though SRH has played one match less. The hosts snapped their three-match losing streak with a win over table leaders CSK and KKR now need to do the same having lost their last four games.

Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings will be expected to shrug off a rare loss and effectively seal a play-off berth against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Defending champions CSK, who lost to SRH in the previous game for only their second loss this season, will get to 16 points with a win at the M Chinnaswamy and it should be enough to guarantee a place in the top-four.Eight former DGPs issued a joint statement condemning Pragya Singh Thakur's remarks against Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack

Mumbai: Eight former director generals of police Sunday issued a joint statement condemning BJP Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate and Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur's remarks against former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare who was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Thakur, while campaigning in the Madhya Pradesh, had claimed that Karkare was killed because she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her during the Malegaon blast probe.

The joint statement was issued by retired DGPs Julio Ribeiro, Prakash Singh, P K Hormis Tharakan, Kamal Kumar, Jacob Punnoose, Sanjeev Dayal, Jayanto Choudhury and N Ramachandran.

"Despicable and regrettable statement of Pragya Thakur only serves to highlight the need to publicly recognise the supreme sacrifice made by the 35,000 police personnel from all corners of India who since Independence have laid down their lives in the line of duty," said the officers. "The country owes him (Karkare) a huge debt of gratitude and anything that detracts from this is worthy of strong condemnation," the statement said.

It asked Lok Sabha candidates to seek out and honour the families of martyrs who live in their constituencies. The retired DGPs, in their statement, said Karkare would have been alive had he not returned to Maharashtra from a plum posting at the Centre.

He had a specific intention of working with the Anti-Terrorism Squad to prevent and investigate the activities of terrorists so that the rest of us could sleep safe in our beds, they said in the statement.

The DGPs asked Lok Sabha candidates to commit to improve the delivery of policing services to their constituents.

They can also adopt one police station each year and take up schemes under MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) that would make it a model police station, it said.

Ensuring required facilities for the police station staff and their families would be a real and meaningful tribute to the supreme sacrifices of Hemant Karkare and thousands of other valiant police personnel, the officials said in the statement.For the first time in its history, Pakistan has put on display rare documents of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to mark its 100th anniversary

Lahore: For the first time in its history, Pakistan has put on display rare documents of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to mark its 100th anniversary.

The six-day exhibition showcasing about 70 historical documents related to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Martial Law in Punjab in April 1919 opened at the Lahore Heritage Museum here on Saturday. A year earlier, Pakistan had exhibited the archives of the trial of revolutionary leader Bhagat Singh in Lahore.

The massacre took place at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar (undivided Punjab) during the Baisakhi festival on 13 April, 1919, when troops of the British Indian Army under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer opened fire at a crowd of people holding a pro-independence demonstration, leaving scores dead.

"The government has decided to showcase archives of different historical events and famous personalities so that people could know what had happened during that period," Abbas Chughtai, Pakistan's Punjab province government's archive department director, told PTI.

Chughtai said that the archived documents are displayed to mark the massacre's centenary year and the practice will continue in coming days as well. "We are also planning to exhibit the documents related to the work of Rudyard Kipling. We urge people to visit the Lahore Heritage Museum and go through the pages of history," he said, adding that the exhibition will go on till 26 April.

The documents include different number of Martial Law Order, copy of the ordinance regarding continuance of trials held by Commissions and Summary Courts, expulsion order of 47 students of different colleges of Lahore in connection with disturbances and a copy of the questions raised by Lord Sydenhamin House of Lords, England about sentence passed by martial law commission to Muhammad Bashir, whose proclamation was an immediate cause in bringing a large mob to Jallianwala Bagh on 13 April, 1919.

A copy of assistant commissioner Murree's letter about sending European and Anglo Indians to Murree from Lahore for their safety during the disturbances, a copy of the report about outbreak of disturbances in Lahore, Amritsar, Kasur, Ahmadabad and Patna and the Rawalpindi governor's letter to the chief secretary to declare martial law in Jehlum to teach the people discipline as a punishment for throwing stone on Mr Barton's car, the deputy commissioner of Rawalpindi also features the exhibition.

About the death toll in the massacre, the 3 September letter of deputy commissioner Amritsar in the documents reported the final figure of death at Jallianwala Bagh to be 291, including two women and five children, a copy of notice both in Urdu and Hindi language informing them about how many were killed in the massacre, a letter of the deputy commissioner informing bout whipping of school boys in Lahore.Converting the line to broad gauge will make travel between Dholpur and Gangapur City much more convenient. It will present new opportunities for development.

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

***

Jaipur: Water, electricity, roads, healthcare, and several other basic needs are what voters of most constituencies are demanding from their politicians. For locals of Dholpur and Karauli in Rajasthan, however, a broad-gauge railway line trumps all.

Citizens of these two districts in the eastern part of the state have been making the demand in vain for this railway line for the better part of two decades. And they have squarely laid the blame for this on BJP MP Manoj Rajoria, who, they allege, deliberately stopped ongoing railway work, thus denying lakhs of people the much-needed service. If Dholpur-Karauli and Gangapur are connected to the railway line, it will benefit about 25 lakh people.

Rajasthan will go to polls in two phases on 29 April and 6 May, and Dholpur and Karauli citizens are eager to ensure they teach the BJP a lesson this election.

The history and geography of it

Currently, there is no railway connectivity between Dholpur and Karauli. Theres only a narrow-gauge train between Dholpur city and Sarmathura town of Dholpur district, which has been operating for the last 114 years. Karauli is a further 44-odd kilometres away from Sarmathura.

In the railway budget 2010-11, the then UPA government had announced the conversion of this narrow-gauge line into a broad-gauge one and its extension till Gangapur city in Sawai Madhopur district. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, during his earlier tenure, had even inaugurated the new broad-gauge line in Sarmathura in 2013. However, after the BJP came to power, it changed the whole project plan.

In 2014, Dholpur-Karauli MP Rajoria wrote a letter to the then railway minister Suresh Prabhu seeking the declaration of the narrow-gauge railway line between Dholpur and Sarmathura as heritage and the laying of a fresh broad gauge rail line in parallel. The matter then reached the railway board, sources within which say that a survey had been carried out to determine if the narrow-gauge line could be given the heritage tag, but its report stated that the lines condition was not ideal.

Since then, the whole issue has been in limbo  the current status is that the line is neither being converted into heritage nor broad gauge. Many of the stations on the Dholpur-Sarmathura route are in a deplorable condition. And to make matters worse, access roads to these stations are choc-a-bloc with encroachments.

One such is Angai station. The irony here is that the railways declared it abandoned, and yet, the train halts here; so passengers get on for a free ride. But reaching the station involves a 2-kilometre walk, courtesy illegal occupation of railway land by villagers, leaving no way for vehicles to go in.

Gone off track

Maybe the citizens should thank their stars that there is at least one train on that route? Not really, because if one were to see the pitiable and filthy condition of its bogies, which have no toilets, dirty or otherwise, it would become clear that the train doesnt even classify as a part of small mercies.

A station master, on the condition of anonymity, tells this correspondent that the train fails to recover even the cost of the diesel it consumes every month  tickets barely totalling Rs 1 lakh are sold in a month, while the operating cost surpasses it by a mile.

Also, most of the railway crossings in the towns between Dholpur and Sarmathura are without any barriers, posing a safety risk.

Keeping these and many other problems in mind, its conversion to broad gauge and extension till Gangapur city had been announced in the 2010-11 railway budget. For this, approval for construction of 145.2 kilometres of railway line also had been given.

According to government records, 20 stations were to be constructed on this route, besides 269 bridges  34 large bridges, 161 small bridges, 57 RUBs, and 17 ROBs. The cost had been pegged at Rs 2,030.5, which had been approved.

Till March 2017, Rs 12.23 crore had been spent, on a few bridges and other minor construction between Dholpur and Bari, and Rs 10 crore allotted for the year 2017-18 with no sign of any real progress in the work.

And they all jump on the (train)wagon

Congress candidate Sanjay Jatav from Dholpur-Karauli Lok Sabha constituency says, The issue is topmost on my election agenda; if I get elected and reach Parliament, this will be the first task Ill take up.

Earlier, Rajoria got the work stopped, but now that the Congress government is back in Rajasthan, I will get the much-needed support to restart the project.

The BJP, on the other hand, seems either overconfident or indifferent. This time, too, it is fielding Rajoria in the constituency. The train that runs between Dholpur and Sarmathura is 114 years old; in that sense, it is the regions heritage. Hence, it should be declared so, Rajoria insists.

The earlier Congress government did not even initiate the process of acquiring land for the project and merely inaugurated the line. How can it be laid when there is no land?

On 15 April, at a Congress rally in Karauli, Gehlot raised the issue of the railway line in his speech and said, Congress started it for the convenience of the people of Dholpur and Karauli, but Vasundhara Raje shut it down over vested interests. A day earlier, on 14 April, Gehlot had also held a meeting in Gangapur City over the issue.

Congress MLA from Baseri seat in Dholpur district and former MP from Dholpur-Karauli Lok Sabha constituency, Khiladi Lal Bairwa says, This railway line cannot be converted into heritage. The MP (Rajoria) misused his power when he stopped the work on that pretext. The old trains parts are no longer easily available, and even the stations are crumbling as we speak. Thats why conversion from narrow gauge to broad gauge is of utmost urgency and importance. After the election, I will meet railway officials and try to restart the work.

The line that needs to be drawn

Converting the line to broad gauge will make travel between Dholpur and Gangapur City much more convenient. It will present new opportunities for development and employment in the area as well as provide direct rail connectivity to many cities in south India from Gangapur city. It will also ensure better availability of direct trains from different parts of the country to reach the holy temple of Kaila Devi in Karauli district.

A local journalist further attests to the importance of a broad-gauge line. Sandstone is a huge business in Dholpur; so if the broad-gauge line is introduced, it will benefit hundreds of traders. There will be more employment opportunities for the local youths, besides a direct and affordable means of connectivity between Karauli and Gangapur city. Also, those headed to south India will no longer have to travel to Dholpur or Delhi to find a train, he says.

Both BJP and Congress leaders have made different claims and promises with respect to this issue, but citizens are done waiting and want the line up and running at the earliest.

As the Dholpur-Karauli constituency is reserved for the SC category, there is no caste, religion or any other national issue relevant right now; demand for the broad-gauge line, which has the potential to benefit over 25 lakh people from both districts, reigns supreme.

(The author is a Jaipur-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters)UP Board Result 2019 LIVE Updates: The links to check the Class 10 and Class 12 results of the UP board exams are now live on upresults.nic.in. You can also check your results directly on Firstpost.

Auto refresh feeds

The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) will declare the results of the Class 10 and Class 12 board exams today (Saturday, 27 April) at 12.30 pm.

Step 5: Download your results and keep a printout for future reference

Step 2: Click on the link given for details on Class 12 and 10 results

Students can check the results for both on the official website  upmsp.edu.in.

As the official website faces the risk of crashing, students can opt to visit alternative websites and use SMS services to check their UP board results.

Students can also receive their results via SMS

Just bookmark this link , or click on it once results are out to check Uttar Pradesh board result 2019 for Class 10 or Class 12 online.

This year, around 58 lakh students appeared for the Class 12 and Class 10 board exams.

Reports said the performance of students in the Uttar Pradesh board exams is expected to improve this year, as several measures were taken to ensure good results. A Special Task Force team was also reportedly deployed to ensure that there were no instances of cheating and to curb the activities of the "copying mafia".

As many as 58.6 lakh students registered for the Uttar Pradesh (UPMSP) board exams, but around 6.52 lakh students failed to appear for the examinations. As many as 403 students were caught cheating, according to The Indian Express.

The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) is the primary body entrusted with the job to manage, monitor and develop school-level education in the state. It conducts annual high school exam for Class 10 students and the intermediate exam for Class 12 students of Uttar Pradesh.

For the first time during UP board exams, this year was the first time that CCTV cameras were installed at all the 8,549 exam centres. Of the total, 2,087 centres were categorised as sensitive, of which 566 centres were identified as very sensitive and 1,521 sensitive with regard to the activities of the "copying mafia" there.

In 1992, the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh had implemented similar security measures to curb cheating during the UP board exams. The state government had issued an ordinance on anti-copying called Nakal Adhyadesh. This reduced the pass percentage in the state to 14.7 percent for Class 10 and 30.4 percent in Class 12, the lowest pass percentage ever in the state.

The Uttar Pradesh board has announced that the results have been delayed by an hour. UPMSP has confirmed that the Class 12 result will be announced at 1 pm and Class 10 result at 1:30 pm.

On upresults.nic.in, the Uttar Pradesh board has confirmed a delay in the announcement of the results.

The Uttar Pradesh Board of High School and Intermediate Education has raised the fee for re-evaluation of exams by five times. To get one paper of a subject reevaluated, candidates will now have to pay Rs 500 instead of the earlier Rs 100 fee, making this the most expensive reevaluation procedure in India, according to The Indian Express.

Step 5  Download your results and keep a printout for future reference

Step 2  Click on the link given for details on Class 12 and 10 results

The UP board has declared the 10th and 12th board exam results. Gautam Raghuvanshi has topped the Class 10 exams and Tanu Tomar has topped Class 12.

UP Class 10 students secured a pass percentage of 80.07 percent in the board exams, while 70.02 percent cleared the intermediate Class 12 examination.

Gautam Raghuvanshi has emerged the topper of the Uttar Pradesh Board High School exam with 97.17 percent. Shivam came in second with 97 percent and Tanuja Vishwakarma secures the third spot with 96.83 percent marks.

Tanu Tomar has emerged the topper of the UP Board Class 12 exams with 97.83 percent. Bhagyashree got the second rank with 97.2 percent and Akanksha came in third with 94.80 percent.

Girls performed better than boys, according to reports. In 2018, the pass percentage was 75.16 percent and in 2017, it was 81.60 percent.

In the Class 12 UP board exams, girls secured the top three ranks. Their pass percentage is also higher than that of boys.

This year, 70.06 percent of the students who appeared for the Class 12 board exams in Uttar Pradesh passed.

Class 12 students have secured a pass percentage of 70.02 percent this year, a drop from the overall pass percentage of 72.43 percent in 2018. While boys secured a pass percentage of 72.27, girls outperformed them with 78.81 percent.

Step 5  Download your results and keep a printout for future reference

Step 2  Click on the link given for details on Class 12 and Class 10 results

How to check the UP board exam result 2019:

Gautam Raghuvanshi topped the Uttar Pradesh Board High School exam, securing 97.17 percent. The second spot was bagged by Shivam who got a score of 97 percent. Tanu Tomar has topped the Class 12 exam.

Here are the toppers for Class 10, Class 12 examinations

Class 10 and Class 12 students can check their UP board scores right here on Firstpost: https://www.firstpost.com/up-board-result-2019-live

In the Class 12 UP board exams, girls secured the top three ranks. Their pass percentage is also higher than that of boys.

This year, 70.06 percent of the students who appeared for the Class 12 board exams in Uttar Pradesh passed.

Class 12 students have secured a pass percentage of 70.02 percent this year, a drop from the overall pass percentage of 72.43 percent in 2018. While boys secured a pass percentage of 72.27, girls outperformed them with 78.81 percent.

Step 5  Download your results and keep a printout for future reference

Step 2  Click on the link given for details on Class 12 and Class 10 results

How to check the UP board exam result 2019:

Visuals of celebrations from the school of Tanu Tomar who has topped the Class 12 UP Board Exam. pic.twitter.com/D9RqvZGwA3

Gautam Raghuvanshi topped the Uttar Pradesh Board High School exam, securing 97.17 percent. The second spot was bagged by Shivam who got a score of 97 percent. Tanu Tomar has topped the Class 12 exam.

Here are the toppers for Class 10, Class 12 examinations

If students are not satisfied with their results, they can approach grivance cells at Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut and Bareilly, as per an article in News18 Hindi .

Class 10 and Class 12 students can check their UP board scores right here on Firstpost: https://www.firstpost.com/up-board-result-2019-live

UP Board result 2019 date and time LATEST updates, Class 10 and Class 12: The Uttar Pradesh Board of High School and Intermediate Education has declared the results of the Class 10 (high school) and Class 12 (inter) board exams. Once again, girls outperformed boys in both grades.

The links to check the Class 10 and Class 12 results of the UP board exams are now live on upresults.nic.in. You can also check your results directly on Firstpost.

Gautam Raghuvanshi has topped the Class 10 Uttar Pradesh board exams and Tanu Tomar came first in the Class 12 exams. Class 10 students secured an 80.07 percent pass percentage, while Class 12 students got 70.02 percent.

As the official website faces the risk of crashing, students can opt to visit alternative websites and use SMS services to check their UP board results.

You can also check your result with Firstpost. Just bookmark this link, or click on it once results are out to check UP board result 2019 for Class 10 or Class 12 online.

This year, around 58 lakh students appeared for the two board exams. The Uttar Pradesh board held the Class 10 exams from 7 to 28 February and the Class 12 exams from 7 February to 2 March.

Reports said the performance of students in the Uttar Pradesh board exams is expected to improve this year, in comparison to last year. Several measures have been taken to ensure good results, The Times of India reported.

A team of the Special Task Force was reportedly deployed to ensure that there were no instances of cheating and to curb the activities of the "copying mafia".

How to check the UP board exam result 2019:

Step 1  Visit the official website

Step 2  Click on the link given for details on Class 12 and 10 results

Step 3  Enter the required details

Step 4  Click on the 'Submit' button

Step 5  Download your results and keep a printout for future reference

Alternative websites to check results and details:

Students can check results also on upmspresults.up.nic.in, upresults.nic.in, results.nic.in, upmsp.edu.in.

Candidates can also receive their results via SMS. Send 'UP12<space>Roll Number' to 56263. For Class 10 results, Send 'UP10<space>Roll Number' to 56263.

Read more on alternative ways to check Class 10 results here

Read more on alternative ways to check Class 12 results here

Check UP Board Result 2019 Class 10, Class 12Senior BJP leader Mukul Roy Saturday said that the West Bengal BJP unit has approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to contest from a Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal

Kolkata: Senior BJP leader Mukul Roy Saturday said that the West Bengal BJP unit has approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to contest from a Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal.

"We have expressed our desire to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he should contest from any of the Lok Sabha seats from Bengal this time going to the polls in the last two phases on May 12 and May 19," he told reporters.

"He (Modi) has not said anything but we hope he will keep our request," Roy added.

Polling for the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal are being held in seven phases.

According to BJP sources Roy had approached the prime minister during the rally at Buniadpur in South Dinajpur district in which Modi was present during the day.

The request is a part of an attempt by Bengal BJP to send out a message to the voters about the importance of the state in BJP's roadmap to Delhi.

BJP president Amit Shah has set a target of 23 seats for the party in the state where the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) has held power since 2011.Amid the controversy created by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's statements on Hemant Karkare, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis defended the party's decision to field Pragya from the crucial Bhopal constituency for the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

Amid the controversy created by Malegaon blast-accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's statements on slain Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis defended the party's decision to field Sadhvi Pragya from the crucial Bhopal constituency for the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

In an exclusive interview with Network18's Vinaya Deshpande, Fadnavis justified Pragya's candidature saying that "if Congress president Rahul Gandhi can contest the election despite being out on bail himself, Pragya can too".

He claimed that Pragya had been given a "clean chit" from the National Investigating Agency (NIA), but Rahul was "still an accused" out on bail. "There can't be any discrimination in crimes. If Sadhvi is an accused, Rahul Gandhi is an accused too. How can he fight elections if you say Sadhvi can't? Don't talk of double standards," Fadnavis said.

However, Fadnavis clarified that he didn't support her statement on Karkare. On Friday, Pragya, who was addressing a gathering as part of her election campaign said that Karkare had died because he had been "cursed" for his investigation into the Malegaon case.

"We don't support Sadhvi's statement," he said, adding, "Hemant Karkare was a heroic officer. He sacrificed his life for the country."

Karkare, whose investigation into the Malegaon blast case first introduced the terms 'Hindu terror' and 'saffron terror', was in 2008 accused of conducting a "biased" probe by several BJP and other Hindutva leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Fadnavis echoed the sentiments of the party regarding the issue of 'Hindu terror' and blamed the Congress for a "false narrative".

He said, "There is no Hindu terror. This was a false narrative built by the previous government. There is no place for terror in Hinduism. Those who are terrorists are not Hindus."

Pragya is a prime accused in the Malegaon blast case that killed at least six people.

Fadnavis' statement on Pragya came soon after Modi's explanation on fielding her as a candidate for the Lok Sabha polls. Modi had also said that fielding Pragya was a symbolic answer to those who had described Hindus as terrorists.

Slamming the previous Congress governments in Maharashtra and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Fadnavis said that the Congress is the "B Team" of Pawar in Maharashtra.

He said that the Congress and NCP, who have formed an alliance for the General Election, should "introspect" about why "young leaders" were attracted to Modi's leadership. "Young Turks of political dynasts in Maharashtra are getting attracted to BJP," he said.

He also took a dig at Pawar, saying that he would have a "hearty laugh before going to bed" about Pawar's comment that he doesn't have money for campaigning and while the BJP does. "It is the biggest joke of the century," Fadnavis said.

The Maharashtra chief minister also spoke about former Congress national spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi resigning from the Congress alleging inaction against party workers who had "misbehaved" with her. Chaturvedi quit the Congress on Friday and joined the Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP in Maharashtra, the same day.

Fadnavis said, "Priyanka Chaturvedi was disappointed after seeing the true nature of Congress, so she joined Shiv Sena. She was in the wrong place. She was trying to do the right thing in the wrong place. Now, she is in the right place." He also said that Chaturvedi will campaign for the BJP.

Addressing the issue of agrarian distress, which has seen multiple large scale protests from farmers in the past year and which is also a major talking point in the Congress' campaign against the BJP, Fadnavis said that the agricultural issues "will not affect" the party electorally. "People have seen our sincere efforts. There wont be a 2004-like situation in the country now. These are Oppositions Mungerilal ke hanseen sapne."

Fadvanis also asserted that an alliance with its vocally critical ally, the Shiv Sena, was the the "parties' DNA".

"Hindutva binds us together," he said.Taking a jibe at Pakistan over the nuclear button, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India has not kept its nuclear weapons for Diwali

Barmer: Taking a jibe at Pakistan over the nuclear button, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India has not kept its nuclear weapons for Diwali.

"Terror attacks were common in our country due to the liberty given to Pakistan. Today also deadly attacks have taken place in Sri Lanka. People were celebrating Easter and praying in churches, but terrorists killed them. What wrong did they do? They were only praying. Terrorism is spreading its wings. To teach a lesson to these terrorists, I get inside their homes and kill them," Modi said while addressing a rally here.

"India has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats. Every other day they used to say "We've a nuclear button. What do we have then? Have we kept it for Diwali? Humne Pakistan ki sari hekdi nikal di. Usey katora lekar duniya bhar me ghumne ke liye maine majboor kar diya hai (We have set Pakistan in its place They are now spreading their hands before the world). People think that I have done the right thing. But Congress and its allies feel I have not done the right thing," he added.

Modi said that Congress and its allies have a different thinking for the jawans of our armed forces. "You would be amazed to know that there is a government in Karnataka, which is running because of Congress. The Chief Minister of Karnataka said that those people, who do not have anything to eat join the forces. Isn't it an insult for those mothers who give birth to the jawans? Do people join forces for food? They join forces to die for their country. I always celebrate Diwali with the jawans," he said.

"Congress doesn't trust the caliber of forces and they called the Army chief a 'gali ka gunda," he added.Narendra Modi remains the biggest talking point in this poll, and almost a billion people will vote in seven phases to either keep him or vote him out of office.

It must count among one of the medias major failures in election coverage this season that in search of issues that are relevant to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it remained blind to perhaps the only issue that matters  Narendra Modi. The prime minister remains the biggest talking point in this poll, and almost a billion people will vote in seven phases to either keep him or vote him out of office.

The Opposition is caught in a paradox. The more it tries to brand Modi a failure, the more it reinforces BJPs attempts to turn the election into a mandate for one man. Take the case of the Congress most potent weapon, the minimum income guarantee, or NYAY, through which it promises to give Rs 72,000 per annum to the poorest 20 percent in the country. Even the name of its flagship scheme  NYAY (justice)  is a reference to Modi, whom the Congress accuses of failing to do justice to the poor.

While the poll has turned into a referendum on Modi, the media has been hunting for issues that would make it, at least superficially, into an even-handed contest. We have periodic references to the economy, the debate on employment data, intolerance, nationalism, Balakot air strikes and rural distress as issues that may affect the electorate. The trouble with this lens is that it fails to understand why Modi is a candidate of choice for the masses, and how he has changed the lexicon of Indian political discourse.

It is fashionable to identify the change agent as political Hinduism that Modi is perceived to have introduced by his dint of promoting Hindu culture, symbols, traditions and ideology. But the difference between political Islam and political Hinduism is that the latter is not a supremacist ideology. It is accommodative, understanding and syncretic. To argue that the majority of Indians who backed Modi in 2014 and, by all metrics, continue to do so are motivated by lynching and "otherisation" of minorities is agenda-driven, flagrant nonsense.

Modis ability to straddle pubic imagination might have a more mundane reason, one that is backed by hard work and relentless activism. The media also routinely underestimates his ability to plan, organise execute projects on scale in a gargantuan nation such as India. This happens because an account of gas connections or electricity connections as headlines is decidedly un-sexy and calls for a deep dive into the nether regions of India away from the glitz and glamour of studios. But these issues bring a change in perception.

Far too often, the prime minister has been accused of focusing on "fear" to win this election instead of "development" that, the media tells us, was his calling card in 2014. The truth is that in speeches after speeches in conclaves, rallies and almost every other forum, Modi has never shied away from giving an account of his work.

During a recent pitch to the trading community at a gathering organised at the Talkatora stadium in Delhi, the prime minister took this accountability rhetoric a few notches up by choosing to give an account of what he does in a day. Claiming to be putting out this information in the public domain for the first time, he rattled off staggering statistics of what his government delivers in a day.

He said the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme disburses nearly 70,000 free gas connections to mothers on a daily basis. He emphasised the word daily repeatedly in his speech. He pointed out that under the Saubhagya scheme, nearly 50,000 households get free electricity daily.

Under the Jan Dhan project, nearly two lakh bank accounts are opened every day, while one lakh entrepreneurs have been getting Mudra loans on a daily basis, he said.

The direct benefit transfer scheme, according to the prime minister, transfers Rs 400 crore daily to the accounts of the poor, while the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (housing for all by 2022) scheme ensures that keys to 11,000 houses are given every day to their owners.

Modi quipped that just as traders maintain a register every evening to calculate their personal finances, I do the same for the entire country, every day. Modi went on to add that under the Swachh Bharat scheme, 60,000 toilets are built daily, and that approximately 1.3 lakh farmers get soil health cards, once again, daily.

In the field of healthcare, Modi said that the flagship Ayushman Bharat scheme treats around 9,000 poor patients from different parts of the country every day, while the Pradhan Mantri Surakhsha Bima Yojana benefits 1,05,000 people every day.

The figures, while approximate, are staggering and may provide a clue behind Modis continued popularity. An assessment of the impact of these schemes is essential in getting a true picture of the way this election is stacked.

The prime minister, while promising a welfare board, credit card, loans of up to Rs 50 lakh without collateral, a policy for retail businesses and accident insurance of Rs 10 lakh to those registered on the GST network admitted that he may have made mistakes in implementing schemes such as GST, but claimed that he did move quickly to mitigate it.

The point that befuddles the media and even the Opposition is that when someone is perceived to be honest, sincere, hardworking, and is seen to be trying to make a difference in the lives of millions through schemes that bring transformative changes, then that leader enjoys a greater degree of tolerance for failure that is otherwise denied to his peers.Attacking Narendra Modi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday said there has never been a 'weaker government' and a 'weaker prime minister' than the incumbent ones, as she sought to highlight the values and virtues of a true leader.

Pulpally/Mananthwady: Attacking Narendra Modi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday said there has never been a "weaker government" and "weaker prime minister" than the incumbent ones, as she sought to highlight the values and virtues of a true leader.

Campaigning in Wayanad from where her brother and party chief Rahul Gandhi is contesting besides his stronghold of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, she sought to know whether suppressing the voice of those who criticise the government's policies amounts to nationalism.

She also alleged that the BJP government had "betrayed" the faith of people, who voted it to power.

Making a strong pitch for her brother, the Congress' general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh East took part in four election rallies in the constituency and met the farmers of Wayanad as thousands of people thronged the meetings.

Her children Miraya and Raihan were also with her. Addressing a massive rally of farmers at Pulpally, she questioned the nationalism of those who refused to listen to thousands of farmers who had "marched barefoot" to Delhi to highlight their problems.

She said people deserve a prime minister who respects them and does not dismiss his own promises casually.

"Sisters and brothers of Wayanad, I have never seen a weaker government, than the government that has been in power for last five years in India.

I have never seen a weaker prime minister than the Prime Minister of India today. My sisters and brothers, I think you deserve better. I think you deserve a government that speaks for you," Priyanka Gandhi said.

Continuing to attack Modi, the congress leader claimed the prime minister, who cannot take out one day to visit even a single house in his constituency in five years, does not respect the people of the country.

"A Prime Minister who is afraid of questions, who is afraid to answer people when they ask him what he wants to do for them, who is afraid of criticism, who cannot tolerate dissent is not a strong Prime Minister," she said.

She said a government which suppresses its own people, that does not allow freedom of speech, or to practice own religion or culture, is not a strong government.

"Weakest of all is the government that divides you instead of uniting. That makes you afraid instead of filling you with courage. That makes you worried of speaking your views in public.

That's the weakest form of governance that could possibly exist," she said during a rally at Areekode.

She asked the voters of Wayanad to consider democracy and the vote as their weapons.

"When you see advertisements by the BJP which use words like you have been 'gifted' by certain policies or that the government is doing certain things as a favour to you, you must question it... Because, nothing a leader does, a politician does or a political party does for your benefit is not a favour but their duty," she said.

The government which does not have the "guts" to accept the power of its people, it is a weak government and it must be "taught a lesson", she said.

Narrating her experience when she went to Uttar Pradesh, she said she was asked by some women to make a promise, that is to construct a bridge across the river in their village.

"I got scared. I did not know how much it will cost, whether the government has sanctioned it or not. So I cannot make this promise.

And when I tell you that you must recognise your strength, you must understand, the fear that I felt in my heart, that making a wrong promise I cannot fulfill. It should be a fear that you instill in the hearts of politicians who come before you," Priyanka said.

She said if a leader was a true nationalist, he does not spread hate, but spreads love and does not divide but unites.

Canvassing votes for Rahul Gandhi, she asked the voters to exercise their franchise carefully and use their vote to protect the country, democracy and their rights.

Attacking the NDA government, she wanted to know if "attempts" to destroy the constitution and weakening institutions that protect rights of people was nationalism.

"They (BJP) attempt to divide you and talk about nationalism... When thousands of farmers marched barefoot from all corners of the country to your doorstep and you send them away without listening to their suffering.. When people raise their voice in protest against you, when they criticise your policies...you jail them, beat them.. Is that nationalism?" she asked.

Referring to BJP leaders invoking Pakistan in their election speeches, the congress leader said they never speak of what they were going to do for the people of the country.

Earlier at a rally in Manthawady, she said the saffron party, when it came to power, forgot who gave them the power.

"Five years ago, a government came to power that was voted with majority. The people of our country, with all their wisdom, rested their faith upon them. But from the moment it came to power, it began to betray the faith of the people," Priyanka Gandhi said.

She also found time to meet seven-year-old Naadan, a boy who was seen crying in a video which went viral as he was unable to see Rahul Gandhi when he visited the state earlier.

She gave him an autographed photo of the Congress chief. Rahul Gandhi had earlier called and talked to Naadan over phone after the video went viral.

"She will be visiting the house of CRPF jawan Vasanth Kumar, who was killed in the Pulwama terror attack in February, tomorrow," a senior party source said.Reuters

US intelligence has accused Huawei Technologies of being funded by Chinese state security, The Times said on Saturday, adding to the list of allegations faced by the Chinese technology company in the West.

The CIA accused Huawei of receiving funding from Chinas National Security Commission, the Peoples Liberation Army and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network, the British newspaper reported, citing a source.

Earlier this year, US intelligence shared its claims with other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group, which includes Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, according to the report.

Huawei dismissed the allegations in a statement cited by the newspaper.

Huawei does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources, a Huawei representative told The Times.

The company, the CIA and Chinas Foreign Ministry did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

The accusation comes at a time of trade tensions between Washington and Beijing and amid concerns in the United States that Huaweis equipment could be used for espionage. The company has said the concerns are unfounded.

Authorities in the United States are probing Huawei for alleged sanctions violations.

Meng Wanzhou, Huaweis chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the United States on charges of bank and wire fraud in violation of US sanctions against Iran.

She denies wrongdoing and her father has previously said the arrest was politically motivated.

Amid such charges, top educational institutions in the West have recently severed ties with Huawei to avoid losing federal funding.

Another Chinese technology company, ZTE Corp, has also been at the center of similar controversies in the United States.

US sanctions forced ZTE to stop most business between April and July last year after Commerce Department officials said it broke a pact and was caught illegally shipping US-origin goods to Iran and North Korea. The sanctions were lifted after ZTE paid $1.4 billion in penalties.

Reuters reported earlier this week that the United States will push its allies at a meeting in Prague next month to adopt shared security and policy measures that will make it more difficult for Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks.Misinformation on social media with regard to the identity of the perpetrators of the blasts in Sri Lanka and their motivations has been widespread.

Several explosions took place at three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday, as crowds congregated for Easter Sunday mass.

The first explosion was reported at St Anthonys Church in Kochchikade, Colombo. The other two blasts followed in the next half-hour, at the St Sebastian Church in Katuwapitiya, Negombo (35 kilometres from Colombo), and at the Zion Church in Batticaloa (315 kilometres from Colombo).

Explosions also took place at three luxury hotels in the capital  the Kingsbury, the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand.

Security around the churches was immediately tightened, and police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara urged the public to refrain from congregating at the blast sites, as this was impeding emergency responders.

A smaller blast took place at a hotel in Dehiwela, opposite the National Zoo, killing two individuals. Government officials have not yet confirmed whether this blast has been connected to the others.

An eighth blast was reported at a house in Dematagoda, Colombo at around 3.30 pm, killing three of the police officers who had arrived at the scene to investigate, based on a tip. State television network Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation was present at the scene. They claimed that the attacks were planned at a house in Dematagoda.

Four suspects were arrested at the site, and three others were taken to hospital.

Police curfew was imposed with immediate effect at around 4.30 pm in the evening, and will last until 6 am on Monday.

At 4.52 pm, senior journalist Dharisha Bastians tweeted a statement from State Minister for Defence, Ruwan Wijewardene, who confirmed the arrest of seven suspects in connection with these attacks. He added that six of the attacks (targeting the churches and hotels) were suicide bomb blasts, carried out by a single group. Whether the government will declare a state of Emergency will be decided after his meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday. Wijewardene earlier also claimed that action will be taken to "stop activity of all extremist groups."

The police's media unit confirmed the toll at 207 (7 of whom are foreign nationals) at 5.30 pm, with over 450 injured. The president has stated that costs for the funerals of all the deceased will be borne by the State.

Violence against minority religious groups and their places of worship has been on the rise since the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka. One week ago, a church centre in Anuradhapura came under attack while their Palm Sunday service was underway. Mosques and churches have regularly come under attack by extremist Buddhist groups, and have been logged in detail by the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka. Just last year, a series of riots across the hill country district of Kandy in March saw several mosques destroyed by mobs. In 2014, similar violence against Muslim places of worship took place in Aluthgama. Perpetrators of these incidents continue to enjoy impunity.

Misinformation on social media with regard to the identity of the perpetrators and their motivations has been widespread. The government has temporarily blocked Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber until the investigations are concluded. This is the second time that this government has blocked social media in response to violence in the country. During anti-Muslim violence in Digana last year, these apps were temporarily blocked and internet speeds slowed in the affected area. Journalists and data researchers pointed out that the block didnt stop hate speech and misinformation from spreading on social media, while it did hamper coordination efforts of those working on the ground.

The perpetrators of the recent attacks have not been identified, and there have been no claims of responsibility for the multiple blasts. While these, therefore, cannot be linked to violence in the countrys recent history, it is important to remember that the attacks took place against a backdrop of increased religious intolerance in Sri Lanka.

In the wake of the blasts, national hospitals close to the sites have been responding to treat injured victims, and to account for those who have passed away. Citizens have been donating blood in response to a call from the National Blood Bank in such numbers that they were eventually turned away as stocks had been filled. Several ministers from both the government and the Opposition have condemned the attacks, and stated that all necessary action will be taken. While these initial responses are heartening, it is important that prosecutions follow a thorough investigation process, and the suspects are brought to book.The blasts in Sri Lanka killed more than 160 people on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners - with British, Dutch and American citizens believed to be among them.

World leaders have condemned a series of blasts in Sri Lanka that killed more than 207 people and left 450 wounded on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners - with British, Dutch and American citizens believed to be among them.

Hospital sources also said Japanese citizens were among those injured by the bombs which ripped through three five-star hotels and churches holding Easter services.

Britain: 'Stand together'

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling".

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear," May said.

The Netherlands: 'Terrible reports'

"Terrible reports from Sri Lanka about bloody attacks on hotels and churches on this Easter Sunday," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte tweeted after the attacks first emerged.

"Thoughts are with the victims and their relatives," said Rutte.

Australia: 'Terrorist attack'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a "horrific terrorist attack".

"To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support - and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need," he said in a statement.

"At this time as Easter Sunday draws to a conclusion here in Australia, our heart goes out to those Christians and all of those other innocents who have been slaughtered today in this horrific terrorist attack."

New Zealand: 'Devastating'

A month after dozens of Muslims were killed in a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as "devastating".

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on 15, March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating.

"New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence."

Catholic Church in Holy Land: 'Solidarity'

The Catholic Church in Jerusalem said the blasts were particularly sad as they "came while Christians celebrate Easter".

"We pray for the souls of the victims and ask for speedy recovery of the injured, and ask God to inspire the terrorists to repent of their killing and intimidation," the statement said.

"We also express our solidarity with Sri Lanka and all its inhabitants in their various religious and ethnic backgrounds."The first explosions in Sri Lanka were reported at St Anthony's Shrine, a church in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in the town of Negombo just outside the capital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the multiple explosions that rocked Sri Lanka on Sunday, saying there's no place for such "barbarism" in the Indian Ocean Region.

"Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," the prime minister tweeted.

Modi spoke with Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe over the phone after serial blasts hit island nation on Sunday morning, killing 207 people.

So far, eight blasts have been reported in Sri Lanka targeting hotels and churches. The first six blasts occurred were reported from two churches in Kochchikade and Batticaloa, and three five-star hotels and one church in Colombo on Sunday morning as worshippers attended Easter service. The other two blasts were reported in Dehiwala and Orugodawatta areas in Colombo.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said India was keeping a "close watch" on the situation, urging Indians in Sri Lanka to leave the country.

Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

Further the High Commission of India in Colombo, Sri Lanka shared the contact details on Twitter for Indian citizens in need of assistance and for seeking clarification about the explosions in Colombo, the town of Negombo, outside the capital and in Batticalao, in the east of the country.

Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789  India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) April 21, 2019

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Colombo has demanded strict punishment for those responsible for the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith called on Sri Lanka's government to launch a very impartial strong inquiry and to punish those found responsible mercilessly because only animals can behave like that".

Explosions were reported at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colmbo and St Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya, Katana in Negombo. Police said another explosion was reported at a church in Batticaloa. Blasts were also reported from three high-end hotels in the natioanl capital  the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury in Colombo.

The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no immediate claims of responsibility, CNN-News18 reported.

President Maithripala Sirisena in an address said he was shocked by the explosions and appealed for calm.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attack as "cowardly" and said the government was working to "contain the situation."

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.  Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera tweeted saying that the attacks killed "many innocent people" and appeared to be a "well-coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy".

The first explosions were reported at St Anthony's Shrine, a church in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in the town of Negombo just outside the capital. Dozens of people injured in the St Anthony's blast rushed into the Colombo National Hospital.

"A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there," read a post in English on the Facebook page of the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo.

Shortly after the blasts were reported from the two churches, police also confirmed that the three hotels had also been attacked, along with a church in Batticaloa. An official at the Batticaloa hospital told AFP more than 300 people had been admitted with injuries following the blast there. "Emergency meeting called in a few minutes. Rescue operations underway," Sri Lanka's Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, Harsha de Silva tweeted.

Heads of Army, Navy, Airforce and IG along with Sec/Def, Sec/For Affairs meeting with @RWijewardene along with a few of us Ministers at MOD. All necessary emergency steps taken by Gov of #SriLanka. Soon official statement will be issued. pic.twitter.com/WkVQdcA5bT  Harsha de Silva (@HarshadeSilvaMP) April 21, 2019

He said he had been to two of the attacked hotels and was at the scene at St Anthony's Shrine and described "horrible scenes."

"I saw many body parts strewn all over," he tweeted, adding that there were "many casualties including foreigners. Please stay calm and indoors," he added.

Photos circulating on social media showed the roof of one church had been almost blown off in the blast. The floor was littered with a mixture of roof tiles, splintered wood and blood. Several people could be seen covered in blood, with some trying to help those with more serious injuries.

Only around six percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka is Catholic, but the religion is seen as a unifying force because it includes people from both the Tamil and majority Sinhalese ethnic groups.

With inputs from AFPAmarnath Amarasingam, a research fellow, described the country as a 'massive ethno-religious complex', warning that in the light of the Sri Lanka bomb blasts, reportage by news organisations may go wrong

Eight serial blasts left over 200 dead and 500 injured in Sri Lanka on Sunday, when the island nation was preparing to begin Easter celebrations. Amarnath Amarasingam, a research fellow who specialises in terrorism and radicalisation, described the country as "massively ethno-religiously complex", warning that in the light of this tragedy, reportage by news organisations may go wrong.

The blasts mostly targeted churches and luxury hotels which were frequented by foreigners. In a series of tweets, Amarasingam provided a snapshot of Sri Lanka:

2. Lets start here: Sri Lanka is massively ethno-religiously complex and a lot of reporting is likely to get it wrong. Of the 20-22 million people in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese

comprise the majority ethnic group, with 74%. They are predominately Buddhist and speak Sinhala.  Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) April 21, 2019

Amarasingam, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, further explained that the countrys population comprises of 12.6 percent Sri Lankan Tamils and 5.6 percent Indian Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, and speak Tamil. The countrys Muslims have been in the crosshairs of many militant groups, he wrote. The Muslims of Sri Lanka make up about seven percent of the population. They speak Tamil, but dont see themselves as ethnically Tamil, Amarasingam wrote, highlighting that the Sinhalese Buddhist community has often targeted Muslims even after the conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government came to an end in 2009.

4. The Muslims of Sri Lanka make up about 7 percent of the population. They speak Tamil, but dont see themselves as ETHNICALLY Tamil. This has put the community in the crosshairs of many militant groups on all sides.  Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) April 21, 2019

6. Since then, hardliners in the Sinhala Buddhist community have come to target the Muslim community on several occasions. https://t.co/TYULl17dpz  Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) April 21, 2019

9/9. I would also be very careful using certain media sources out of India, random Facebook pages, and even some Sri Lankan media outlets and government officials as the sole source of info.  Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) April 21, 2019

Sri Lankan security forces in 2009 defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who had fought to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils. The UN initially estimated the death toll from 26 years of fighting to be about 1,00,000, but a UN experts' panel later said some 45,000 ethnic Tamils may have been killed in the last months of the fighting alone.

Government troops and the Tamil Tigers were both accused of grave human rights violations, which prompted local and international calls for investigations.

The serial blasts in Sri Lanka have been one of the worst attacks in the country ever since 2009. A curfew has now been imposed indefinitely. Leave of all police personnel has been cancelled and doctors, nurses and health officials who were on leave have been asked to report to work. The government schools have been closed for Monday and Tuesday. All state universities have been closed until further notice. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said all Easter masses in the Colombo District have been cancelled.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and a church in the eastern town of Batticaloa. Three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo  were also targeted.

No group has claimed responsibility of the attacks and Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Ariyasinghe said at least 27 foreigners  hailing mostly from India, Pakistan, US, Morocco and Bangladesh - were killed in the explosions.

President Maithripala Sirisena in an address said he was shocked by the explosions and appealed for calm.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attack as "cowardly" and said the government was working to "contain the situation."

Documents seen by AFP show that Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers 10 days ago, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit "prominent churches". "A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian High Commission in Colombo," the alert said.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that was linked last year to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.

With inputs from agenciesSri Lanka blasts live updates: The Kerala Chief Minister's office said that an Indian national was killed in the serial blasts that took place in Sri Lanka. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has extended assistance to the deceased's family, according to media reports.

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At least 80 people were injured when multiple explosions hit churches in Sri Lanka on Sunday as worshippers attended Easter services, PTI reported.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said, according to a PTI report.

Blasts occurred at 8.45 am while Easter mass was in progress

One of the blasts hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade of the capital, Colombo. The Colombo National Hospital said at least 80 people have been admitted with injuries, PTI reported.

The police confirmed the sixth explosion at Batticaloa in Colombo. More than 300 people have been admitted to the Baticaloa hospital following the explosion at a church there.

External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted regarding the series of blast that have occurred in Sri Lanka's Colombo.

25 people have been killed in the explosions, according to hospital sources. More than 250 people are injured and have been admitted to the Colombo national hospital. However, police said that the actual number of people who died in the explosions could not be ascertained yet.

The holiday leave which was granted to the police personnel on the occasion of Easter has been cancelled with immediate effect due to the series of blast that occurred in Colombo on Sunday morning. The police spokesperson said that the IGP ordered all police personnel to be on duty following the explosions

At least 40 people are dead and over 260 have been injured in the series of six explosions in Colombo on Sunday morning, sources in the Colombo National Hospital said. Several injured people have been admitted to the hospital.

An emergency meeting has been called by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in view of the series of explosions in Colombo on Sunday morning. Reports also said that 200 troops of Army have been deployed in the affected areas.

The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka issued helpline numbers in view of six explosions in the country on Sunday morning. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789

The Sri Lankan information department has issued a statement warning against spreading rumors about the incident.

President Maithripala Sirisena addressed the nation in view of the series of explosions that hit Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. Three chruches and three five-star hotels were targeted. Sirisena appealed for calm and said that all security personnel has been deployed to investigate the incident.

The toll in the Sri Lanka blasts has risen to 52, AFP reported quoting police sources.

The Sri Lanka Police spokesperson in a press briefing noted that crowds were gathering at the various blast sites. However, this was impeding rescue operations, said. He also warned against gathering at the sites because areas are still at risk. He requested the public to cooperate with emergency responders.

There were also reports of casualties in a blast at a church north of the capital and the toll was expected to rise. The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no immediate claims of responsibility.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 42 people were killed in Colombo, where three hotels and a church were hit. Another 10 people were confirmed dead in the town of Batticaloa, in the east of the country, where another church was targeted.

At least 52 people were killed in Sri Lanka on Sunday, police told AFP, when a string of blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches as worshippers attended Easter services.

All the government schools have been ordered to remain close tomorrow and day after in view of multiple explosions in Sri Lanka.

They also held some churchgoers and two clergymen as "hostages" for nearly two hours until police were summoned to rescue them, Daily Mirror reported on Saturday.

The Aadara Sevana, a prayer centre run by the Methodist Church was attacked by a mob on 14 April, which was celebrated by the Christian community as Palm Sunday. The mob comprised of 20 to 25 youths, local reports said, and had issued death threats and pelted stones.

At latest count, 138 people have been killed in the series of explosions across Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. Sources said that there were 62 casualties in Negombo, while 42 people had died at the National Hospital. In Batticaloa there were 27 casualties reported while Colombo North reported 7 people dead.

Sri Lanka prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tweeted after six explosions rocked the country on Sunday morning, as blasts occurred in three churches and three five-star hotels. He said,"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today."

He also appealed for solidarity for the families of the victims in Easter Sunday's attack. "I call upon all people of this country to come together and stand in solidarity with those who have lost their loved ones in these cowardly and tragic attacks. Let us stay together and be strong so that these extremists will not be able to take this country backwards."

The Leader of Opposition in the Sri Lankan parliament, Sampanthan said that he was "deeply saddened" by the "cowardly attacks. He said, "I urge His Excellency the President and The Prime Minister to take necessary steps to identify the preparators of these crimes and to bring them before the law.."

Leader of Opposition Sampanthan calls for perpetrators to be 'brought before law'

"Please stay calm. Please act responsibly. Please NO politics. We must all act together as #SriLanka citizens. My condolences to all families who lost loved ones," he said.

The emergency meeting between Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and ministers along with senior military personnel is underway. Harsha de Silva, economic reforms minister said that all measures were being taken to maintain peace and also that security has been tightened.

Easter breakfast celebrations were underway in the three hotels the explosions occurred, reporters said. Toll rises to 141, sources said. A curfew is likely to be imposed.

Easter breakfast celebrations were going on at the three hotels when blasts occurred

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the blast and said that there was "no place for such barbarism in our region". He added, "India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured."

The mortal remains of the dead are yet to be moved, and the authorities are in the process of doing this. An exact number of casualties from Konchchikade will emerge after this.

Almost all the injured from St Anthony's Church at Kochchikade have been moved to Colombo National Hospital. This church saw the highest number of casualties in the six early morning blasts which took place in Sri Lanka on Sunday.

President Ram Nath Kovind also condemned the explosions in Sri Lanka. "India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country. Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in civilised society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka"

In a bid to curb fake news and rumor-mongering, the Sri Lankan government is contemplating blocking WhatsApp and Viber. Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena is likely to pass an order regarding the same.

The Srilanka defence ministry is likely to hold a press conference at 2.30 pm local time in view of six explosions that rocked the country in various locations.

AFP reported that American, Dutch, and British citizens were among those who had died in Sunday's attack.

Director General of the National Hospital Anil Jasinghe was quoted by reports as saying that of the 243 injured admitted, 42 had died. He also said that 13 foreigners were admitted out of which 9 had died.

A seventh blast has been reported in a suburb of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. Two people have died in this incident, taking the toll to 143.

"A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo," the alert said.

The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no claims of responsibility so far, but documents seen by AFP show that Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers 10 days ago, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit "prominent churches".

Nearly 160 people have been confirmed dead so far in the string of attacks targeting hotels and churches.

A new blast hit the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Sunday, police said, the eighth explosion in the country in a single day. Police said the blast hit the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital, but there were no further details on what was targeted.

An eight blast has been reported from Colombo's Orugodawatta, however, no casualties have been reported so far.

An island-wide curfew announced by the Sri Lanka government will take effect from 6 pm on Sunday and will be in force till 6 am on Monday. A ban on Whatsapp and other social media has been imposed as two new blasts occurred in Colombo.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith called on Sri Lankas government to launch a very impartial strong inquiry and to punish those found responsible mercilessly because only animals can behave like that.

The Archbishop of Colombo is calling for those responsible for the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka to be punished mercilessly.

The eighth blast that occurred in the afternoon in Sri Lankan capital Colombo's suburb has killed three, AFP reported. The report quoted police as saying that the eighth was a suicide bomb.

"I have just spoken to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka H.E. Mr Tilak Marapana. He confirmed that unfortunately, 207 persons have lost their lives and more than 450 are injured in the terror blasts," said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Rao, in an official press release here, conveyed his condolences to the bereaved and hoped for speedy recovery of the injured.  PTI

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao expressed shock over the loss of innocent lives in the serial blasts at multiple locations in Sri Lanka, and said it was an heinous attack.

DMK president MK Stalin, in a statement, said the trend of targeting places of worship in several countries - like in New Zealand where an attack took place recently - was a big challenge to humanism that should be thwarted by humanitarian forces.  PTI

"We pray for the brothers and sisters who were killed and for the early recovery of all those injured," they said.

Conveying their condolences, party top leaders O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami, said they prayed to the Almighty to strengthen the bereaved to bear with the grief.

"We strongly condemn the blasts," the party said in a statement, adding that they took place in areas that had a large population of Tamil Christians.

The ruling AIADMK said the blasts have brought indescribable grief and made one shudder at the merciless act carried out when innocent people had gathered to offer prayers.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu condemned the near-simultaneous blasts in Sri Lanka which left over 160 people dead and said Tamil people were also hit in the dastardly explosions.

Indian High Commission in Colombo @IndiainSL will provide you all help and assistance. Our helpline numbers are : +94777903082, +94112422788, +94112422789.

I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well.

Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh. We are ascertaining further details. /3

"I have just spoken to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka H.E. Mr Tilak Marapana. He confirmed that unfortunately, 207 persons have lost their lives and more than 450 are injured in the terror blasts," said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

The attacks on tourists and Easter worshippers in Sri Lanka are an attack on humanity. On a day devoted to love, redemption, and renewal, we pray for the victims and stand with the people of Sri Lanka.

The All Ceylon Jammiyyathul Ulama, a body of Muslim clerics, said the targeting of Christian places of worship could not be accepted.

According to The Associated Press , The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka said that it "mourns the loss of innocent people in the blasts by extremists who seek to divide religious and ethnic groups."

I condemn the heinous terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, a sacred day for Christians. The UN stands in solidarity with Sri Lanka as the global community fights hatred and violent extremism together. Holy sites must be respected.

"Authorities will make periodic visits to all houses of worship, giving special attention to those with Easter services," The Associated Press quoted NYPD spokesperson Sgt Brendan Ryan as saying.

Sri Lanka blasts LATEST updates: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that three Indian nationals had died in the blasts in Sri Lanka. She also said that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance to Colombo.

The Kerala Chief Minister's office said that an Indian national was killed in the serial blasts that took place in Sri Lanka. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has extended assistance to the deceased's family, according to media reports.

A 58-year-old woman from Keralas northern district of Kasargod was killed in the bomb blast in Colombo. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed that the woman identified as PS Raseena was one of the victims at Shangri la hotel.

He said in a Facebook post that the government had taken steps to bring her body to her native place at Mogral Puthur. He said that senior officials of the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs department are in touch with her relatives and the Indian High Commissioner at Colombo in this regard.

As the toll rose to 207, the Sri Lankan government said that the explosions on Sunday morning appeared to be a result of suicide bombings carried out by one group.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday condemned a wave of bombings against Sri Lankan churches and tourist spots.

Merkel urged that the "religious hate and intolerance" that have showed themselves in such a terrible way today must not win"."It is shocking that people who gathered to celebrate Easter together were consciously targeted in this malicious attack," Merkel said in a condolence telegram published by a spokeswoman on Twitter.

Macron said that "Full solidarity with the Sri Lanka people and our thoughts for all those close to the victims this Easter."

The eighth blast that occurred in the afternoon in Sri Lanka's Colombo has killed three, AFP reported. The report quoted police as saying that the eighth was a suicide bomb.

An eight blast has been reported from Colombo's Orugodawatta, however, no casualties have been reported so far.

A new blast hit the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Sunday, police said, the eighth explosion in the country in a single day. Police said the blast hit the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital, but there were no further details on what was targeted.

Nearly 160 people have been confirmed dead so far in the string of attacks targeting hotels and churches.

State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardena said that an Islandwide curfew might be imposed until safety is assured. The minister also said that all necessary precautions have been taken to ensure safety of public.

The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no claims of responsibility so far, but documents seen by AFP show that Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers 10 days ago, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit "prominent churches".

"A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo," the alert said.

A seventh blast has been reported in a suburb of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. Two people have died in this incident, taking the toll to 156.

In a bid to curb fake news and rumor-mongering, the Sri Lankan government is contemplating blocking WhatsApp and Viber. Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena is likely to pass an order regarding the same.

The toll in the explosions that occurred across Sri Lanka on Sunday morning has risen to 141, reports said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the blast and said that there was "no place for such barbarism in our region". He added, "India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured."

Easter breakfast celebrations were underway in the three hotels the explosions occurred, reporters said. Toll rises to 141, sources said. A curfew is likely to be imposed.

Sri Lanka prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tweeted after six explosions rocked the country on Sunday morning, as blasts occurred in three churches and three five-star hotels. He said,"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today."

At latest count, 138 people have been killed in the series of explosions across Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. Sources said that there were 62 casualties in Negombo, while 42 people had died at the National Hospital. In Batticaloa there were 27 casualties reported while Colombo North reported 7 people dead.

At least 52 people were killed in Sri Lanka on Sunday, police told AFP, when a string of blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches as worshippers attended Easter services.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 42 people were killed in Colombo, where three hotels and a church were hit. Another 10 people were confirmed dead in the town of Batticaloa, in the east of the country, where another church was targeted.

There were also reports of casualties in a blast at a church north of the capital and the toll was expected to rise. The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no immediate claims of responsibility.

President Maithripala Sirisena addressed the nation in view of the series of explosions that hit Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. Three chruches and three five-star hotels were targeted. Sirisena appealed for calm and said that all security personnel has been deployed to investigate the incident.

The Sri Lankan information department has issued a statement warning against spreading rumors about the incident.

An emergency meeting has been called by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in view of the blast and 200 troops of Army have been deployed in the affected area.

At least 40 people are dead and over 260 have been injured in the series of six explosions in Colombo on Sunday morning, sources in the Colombo National Hospital said. Several injured people have been admitted to the hospital.

Sri Lanka was rocked by multiple explosions on Sunday morning targeting three churches, two in Kochchikade and Katana in Colombo and the third in Batticaloa, in the Eastern Province of the country during Easter mass. Meanwhile, explosions were also reported at two five-star hotels in Colombo.

The churches hit were in the north of the capital, and the town of Negombo, just outside Colombo, News18 reported.

One of the explosions was a St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade of the capital, Colombo. Another church in Katuwapitiya, Katana was also hit. According to local reports, another explosion was reported at a church in Batticaloa.

Explosions were reported at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel and Cinnamon Grand in Colombo today, according to local reports.

Bomb blast is being reported from Sri Lanka. Churches & Five star hotels in Colombo... https://t.co/9KjrLm6dLf  Karthigaichelvan S (@karthickselvaa) April 21, 2019

It was not immediately clear if the blasts had caused casualties. At least 80 people have been injured in two blasts at churches in Sri Lanka as worshippers attended Easter Sunday services, AFP reported.

"Eighty people have already been admitted, and more are still coming in," an official at the Colombo National Hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity.

With inputs from AFPBy Panu Wongcha-um BANGKOK (Reuters) - The Thai navy on Saturday boarded the floating cabin of a fugitive U.S. citizen and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the 'seasteading' movement who possibly face the death sentence for setting up their offshore home

By Panu Wongcha-um

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The Thai navy on Saturday boarded the floating cabin of a fugitive U.S. citizen and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the "seasteading" movement who possibly face the death sentence for setting up their offshore home.

Thai authorities have revoked the visa of bitcoin trader Chad Elwartowski and charged him and his partner with violating Thai sovereignty by floating the cabin 14 nautical miles off the west coast of the Thai island of Phuket.

The cabin had been promoted as the world's first seastead by the group Ocean Builders, part of a movement to build floating communities beyond the bounds of nations as a way to explore alternative societies and governments.

"I was free for a moment. Probably the freest person in the world," Elwartowski posted on Facebook on April 13, days before the Thai navy raided his vessel.

Elwartowski, 46, was not on board having apparently fled after a surveillance plane flew overhead the previous day, along with his partner Supranee Thepdet, whose Facebook page describes her as a "Bitcoin expert, Trader, Chef, seastead Pioneer".

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said Elwartowski had engaged a lawyer and was being provided with appropriate assistance.

The Royal Thai Navy had planned on Saturday to seize the structure and tow it back to shore for use as evidence.

In a video posted last month detailing the construction of the floating home, Elwartowski said 20 more similar homes would be up for sale to form a community.

Elwartowski and Ocean Builders say the vessel was in international waters and beyond Thailand's jurisdiction. But Thai authorities say the structure is in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty.

A Thai navy task force on Saturday inspected the floating home as it prepared to tow the structure back to Phuket.

LEGAL PROCESS

"We will invite technical units and officials who have inspected the object to consult on the methods of towing to minimize damage," Captain Puchong Rodnikorn, chief of staff of the Operations Squadron of the Third Naval Area Command, said.

"Once the sea house reaches the shore, the owner of this house can come to inspect it, as well as come forward to the Thai authorities in order to prove themselves in the legal process," he said.

The navy said it had evidence that the floating home was built in a private boatyard in Phuket and the couple wanted to establish a "permanent settlement at sea beyond the sovereignty of nations by using a legal loophole".

It said the action "reveals the intention of disobeying the laws of Thailand ... and could lead to a creation of a new state within Thailand's territorial waters," adding this would undermine Thailand's national security as well as the economic and social interests of maritime nations.

In an email reply to Reuters, Elwartowski referred all questions to the Seasteading Institute and pointed to online statements from the Ocean Builders website.

Elwartowski and Supranee are members of Ocean Builders, which has denied they were planning to set up an independent state or "micro nation".

The group said the pair did not build, invest in or design the floating home themselves, but were "volunteers excited about the prospect of living free".

According to Ocean Builders, the concept of seasteading has been discussed for years but the cabin Elwartowski and Supranee lived on was the first attempt at living in what it described as international waters.

Other groups, such as the Seasteading Institute, which was originally backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, have sought to build floating cities with the cooperation of host nations.

(Reporting by Juarawee Kittisilpa and Panu Wongcha-um Editing by Nick Macfie and David Holmes)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) recently reported solid first-quarter results. The midstream giant's cash flow came in slightly ahead of budget thanks to strong execution. That keeps it on pace to achieve its full-year forecast.

The company takes great care in how it allocates this cash. That was a key theme on the accompanying conference call when CEO Steve Kean walked investors through the company's four guiding principles.

1. We're committed to having a strong balance sheet

Kean spent most of his time on the call discussing how well the company performed in following its principles. He started by stating that "we have a strong balance sheet, having met our approximately 4.5 times target of debt-to-EBITDA." Kinder Morgan has worked hard to improve its financial profile in recent years. It capped things off last year by selling the Trans Mountain Pipeline in Canada and using most of that cash to pay down debt.

Founder and executive chairman Rich Kinder went through a bit more detail on the company's progress during the call. He stated that "we had used that cash (free cash flow and asset sale proceeds) to get our balance sheet in shape, having paid off over $8 billion of debt and received credit upgrade from both S&P and Moody's, and we intend to maintain our improved credit metrics." By strengthening its balance sheet, Kinder Morgan has lowered its borrowing costs and improved its access to credit. That gives it significantly more financial flexibility.

2. We're maintaining discipline by focusing on investment returns

Kean followed up his balance sheet comments by noting that "we're maintaining our capital discipline through our return criteria, a good track record of execution, and by self-funding our investments." He went on to say:

We're very careful with your capital. We don't swing at every pitch. We definitely have our hits and misses, but we have shown that in aggregate we do well. We get there by having elevated return criteria well above our cost of capital. We focused on projects that we understand and primarily focus on expansions off of our existing footprint. All of this helps us invest for returns that are well above our cost of capital and helps overcome the inevitable curveballs that come up during project execution.

The company demonstrated this discipline recently by walking away from a proposed joint venture with Enbridge (NYSE:ENB). Kinder Morgan initially agreed to partner with Enbridge and Oiltanking to build Texas COLT, which would have exported oil from an offshore terminal. However, that project didn't fully align with Kinder Morgan's strategic priorities. As a result, it sold its share to Enbridge.

3. We're committed to returning value to shareholders

With a much-improved balance sheet and a firm commitment to only invest in its highest return projects, Kinder Morgan can return more of its cash flow to investors. Kean pointed this out on the call by saying that "we are returning value to shareholders with the 25% dividend increase announced today." That lines up with the company's promised increase.

Meanwhile, the company still expects to boost its payout by another 25% in 2020. It also has a $2 billion stock buyback program underway and had already repurchased $525 million in shares since late 2017. While Kinder Morgan didn't buy back any more stock during the first quarter, Rich Kinder stated on the call that the company intends "to repurchase stock when appropriate."

4. We continue to find attractive expansion projects

While Kinder Morgan has a high return hurdle for new expansion projects, that hasn't hurt its ability to find compelling investment opportunities. Kean noted on the call that "we continue to find attractive growth opportunities, with a net add of $400 million to our backlog during the quarter." Overall, the company sanctioned $600 million of new projects during the quarter, which increased its backlog to $6.1 billion after adjusting for $200 million of completed projects.

The company continues to believe it can secure between $2 billion and $3 billion of high return expansions per year. It has several projects under development, including an oil pipeline joint venture in the Rockies, oil pipeline expansions in North Dakota and Texas, a third natural gas pipeline out of the Permian Basin, and an LNG export facility in Mississippi. Kinder Morgan's ability to continue securing high-return expansions will give it the fuel to grow cash flow and cash returns to shareholders.

Conservatively stewarding shareholder capital

Kinder Morgan is a much stronger company than it was a few years ago. It has become more conservative in managing its balance sheet and shareholder capital. That will put the pipeline giant in a better position to navigate through the ups and downs of the energy market. It also sets the company up to steadily grow cash flow so that it can return more money to shareholders. Those dual fuels should help Kinder Morgan generate market-beating total returns over the long term.The main reason Chevron (NYSE:CVX) is paying $50 billion to acquire Anadarko (NYSE:APC) is to bulk up its industry-leading position in the fast-growing Permian Basin. An added benefit is that the deal will also bolster the oil giant's presence in the Gulf of Mexico, add a compelling liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique, and give it a meaningful position in two shale plays in the Rockies.

With all the focus on the oil and gas properties Chevron will acquire, most investors are probably overlooking another gem the oil giant would get in the deal: Anadarko's 55% stake in Western Midstream (NYSE:WES). The addition of Western Midstream would boost Chevron's midstream business, which could enhance the long-term value created by this combination.

Shining a spotlight on midstream

As an integrated oil and gas company, Chevron operates across the entire value chain. Most investors, however, know the company for its upstream production business while many consumers are familiar with its downstream retail operations. Few know much about the midstream operations of Chevron Pipe Line Company. That entity operates about 3,000 miles of pipelines that transport more than 1.2 million barrels of oil, refined products, and chemicals each day. The company also has enough storage capacity to hold about 2.6 million barrels of products. These assets help support Chevron's upstream and downstream operations by moving hydrocarbons from production basins to end users.

While Chevron buried its midstream business within its global oil and gas empire, Anadarko has worked hard to highlight the value of these assets. That led the company to form a master limited partnership (MLP) more than a decade ago to help drive midstream growth. Anadarko steadily dropped down its midstream assets to that entity, which unlocked value while providing the company with a cash infusion. The MLP also acquired several assets from third parties and built new infrastructure to support the growth of Anadarko and other producers.

Today, Western Midstream owns interests in more than 12,700 miles of pipelines in the Rockies, Texas, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. It also operates natural gas processing plants and other midstream assets. Long-term, fee-based contracts underpin the bulk of these assets, which provide Western Midstream with predictable cash flow. The company sends more than 80% of that money back to investors -- including majority owner Anadarko -- via its high-yielding distribution.

Several ways to win from this gem

One of the benefits Chevron will get when it assumes Anadarko's 55% interest in Western Midstream is a steady supply of cash flow via the MLP's distribution. That earnings stream should rise as Western Midstream continues expanding its footprint.

Another benefit will a competitively advantaged midstream business in the Permian Basin to more efficiently support Chevron's growth. Western Midstream operates natural gas, crude oil, and water gathering systems that handle Anadarko's production in the fast-growing region. These assets help reduce operating costs and help ensure market access for the company's output. Because of its majority stake in Western Gas, Anadarko controls the construction of infrastructure to suit its needs. Chevron can leverage this by having Western Midstream build out similar assets on its acreage position in the region.

Chevron could also follow ExxonMobil's (NYSE:XOM) midstream blueprint by helping push longer-haul pipelines over the finish line. Exxon is working with several midstream companies in the region to build out oil and natural gas pipelines to ease the bottlenecks. The oil giant is not only signing up for capacity on the lines but investing money to help build them.

Finally, Chevron could use Western Midstream as a funding vehicle. On the one hand, it could follow the approach of Anadarko and drop down its midstream assets to this entity. That would enable the company to maintain control over these assets while freeing up the capital to reinvest elsewhere or return to shareholders via its buyback program. Another option would be to sell down some of its interest in the company.

A nice pickup

Chevron's primary purpose in buying Anadarko is to bulk up its upstream oil and gas business. However, the deal has the bonus of strengthening its midstream operations. It's an aspect of the transaction that investors shouldn't overlook since Western Midstream will provide several financial and operational benefits. That increases the probability that Chevron's bold bet can create significant value for its investors in the coming years.Just a couple of weeks ago, I was wondering why Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) was being so tight-lipped about Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, the theme park giant's first ride starring its iconic mouse, which was supposed to open in Florida later this year. We found out why on Friday, when Disney placed a new springtime 2020 opening on the the ride, which uses animated visual effects to create an immersive multi-dimensional experience without the need for 3-D specs.

Disney announced on Friday that the ride will come to the original Disneyland park in California in 2022. Buried five paragraphs into the official blog post was that the version going to Disney's Hollywood Studios won't make its debut until early next year.

Use the force, Luke

This was already going to be a busy year for Disney World's least visited park. The first phase of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is set to open in late August, with the highly anticipated expansion's second attraction set to open a few months later. And Skyliner, Disney's new aerial gondola system that will give guests a new way to arrive and leave, should open this summer.

Disney's Hollywood Studios didn't need Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway to open this year to attract more guests. It's going to be Disney's busiest park for the last four months of this year.

There are plenty of theories circulating on the internet about the delay of the ride, which will have customers boarding a locomotive-like vehicle and scooting through vivid cartoon sequences. Are there technical issues holding it back? Are construction crews hard to come by, since they're all busy making sure Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opens on time? Since construction is taking place inside the gutted re-creation of Grauman's Chinese Theater that once hosted the park's original Great Movie Ride, people can't see the progress being made the way they can for outdoor attractions.

The reason for the delay may be as simple as that it just makes sense to hold back. Diehard fans who had been planning trips to the park in late 2019 to see Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway are understandably upset, but the move still makes sense from Disney's perspective. In fact, it's a brilliant financial move.

Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway is going to be an iconic ride, and waiting until the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge buzz dies down to open the attraction six months later gives Disney fresh marketing ammo for early 2020. Park guests this year won't like it, but shareholders will appreciate how Disney is spacing out the first and second phases of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge as well as Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, with a few months sandwiched between each debut.Donald Trump lors d'une reunion a la Maison Blanche, a Washington, le 11 janvier 2018 AFP/SAUL LOEB

Reports say Cameroonians as well as some Africans are caught up in Mexicos Southern border, in an attempt to cross over to the United States to seek asylum.

Unfortunately, following a series of threats from US President Donald Trump to close the U.S border, the Mexican government was under pressure to stop migrants from passing through its territory.

The report states that most of the migrants from Cameroon, Congo, and Ethiopia are held up in Tapachula, Mexico, while others are said to have camped outside a federal immigration office, demanding transit permits.

After several weeks of waiting for the transit permits, these Africans are said to have launched a protest outside the immigration office, yelling that Mexican officials were racist.

The report on these migrants, raised by the Washington Post, has left some families in Cameroon preoccupied following the fact that their children had embarked on same journey, with the aim to enter the US, through Mexico.

One of the family members in Bamenda, said the last time they heard from their brother was early January, where he had to go through a forest for three weeks, before getting into another country. Since then the family in Cameroon, have never heard from him.

With the advent of the Anglophone crisis, many from the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, are seeking asylum across the world, with others trapped at the Mexican camp.

The U.S paper, quotes the case of 27 year old Atagwo Nesco, who came to Mexico from the city of Bamenda , where he imagined he would eventually be allowed through to seek asylum in the United States. Nesco is reportedly running from Cameroon's military, after he claims the group came for his life. He narrates how as a mechanic in Bamenda, military burnt his shop in 2017,/which pushed him to take his family, into hiding. He fled to Nigeria, Turkey, Pana, down to Ecuador and up to Columbia.

From Columbia, he carried on by bus, spending seven days without almost any food in the dangerous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama. He actually took three months to reach Mexico, in late March. Just like many others, his family has no idea he is in Latin America.

Mexicos immigration agency says it does not have statistics on the number of African migrants who have crossed the country in recent months, and such flows are not new. The country has been used by migrants as a transit zone for asylum seekers and economic migrants from across the world.Kemende Henry Gamsey, senateur du SDF archives

Kemende Henry Gamsey, Senator of the North West Constituency and Member of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party has described as a one-man-show the response given by Cameroons Senate President to a European Parliament Resolution on Cameroon.

The firebrand SDF kingpin said his party was never consulted before the April 19, 2019 press release was signed. He criticized Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji for responding to the European Parliament resolution on Cameroon on behalf of the senate without consulting the assembly.

The President of Cameroons Senate, Marcel Niat Njifenji had blasted the European Parliament for embarking on a smear campaign against the sovereign state of Cameroon when they released resolution 2019/2691(RSP) of April 18, 2019 in relation to the socio-political climate in the countrys North West and South West Regions.

In a press release dated April 19, 2019, the Senate President said the European Parliament resolution on Cameroon contains a litany of falsehoods on the socio-political and security situation in Cameroon.

The State of Cameroon, deeply attached to its territorial integrity and its unitary and decentralized status, has through its Government spared no effort in providing ideal solutions to the problems faced in the North West and South West Regions ever since the tabling of the unionist and corporatist claims, Niat wrote.

But Kemende thinks Niat ought to have convened an extra-ordinary session of the Senate to deliberate on a possible response regarding the European Parliament resolution 2019/2691(RSP) on Cameroon.

The SDF Senator is of the opinion that the government bench has monopolized parliament, thus influencing her every decision. He said the European Parliaments interest on the goings-on in Cameroon is welcome, but regretted that action is yet to be seen. He suggests that an ultimatum be given government so that the problems in the country can be speedily handled.

Even though the North West and South West Regions remain restive, Niat maintains that: The Senate of the Republic of Cameroon is convinced of the relevance of the measures taken by the State of Cameroon, through its Government, to curb the violence perpetrated by the Boko Haram terrorist sect in the Far North Region, and to ease the situation in the North West and South West Regions, for the populations which are victims of these terrorist attacks to get the fulfillment of peace which is their legitimate right.

The Senate President is also of the believe: The State of Cameroon, deeply attached to its territorial integrity and its unitary and decentralized status, has through its Government spared no effort in providing ideal solutions to the problems faced in the North West and South West Regions ever since the tabling of the unionist and corporatist claims.Cavaye Y. Djibril Archives

After the reaction from Cameroons Senate President, the National Assembly led by House Speaker, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, has issued a communique, inviting members of the European Union Parliament to come and get ground reports on violations carried out by armed separatists in the North West and South West regions.

While focusing mainly on the Anglophone crisis, the house speaker on behalf of other representatives said President Paul Biya was taking necessary measures(supported by the National Assembly), to see an end to the ongoing violence in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon.

He assured on the EU Parliament and other parliaments in the world that these measures were appropriate following increasing attacks from armed separatists, while calling on their international partners to support President Paul Biya's efforts in putting an end to violence, carried out in these regions.

He further Cameroon strictly respects the laws of freedom of expression in conformity with national and international norms. Highlighting that Cameroon remains a sovereign state, the National Assembly head suggested that the house was ready for any form of dialogue within or out of the country, on the current sociopolitical tension in the English speaking regions.

On April 18, the European Union Parliament adopted some proposals to Cameroon in relation to the crisis, plaguing the North West and South West regions, alongside the political crisis provoked by a manifestation of members of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement(CRM), of Maurice Kamto.





In the document, the parliament condemned acts of violence, intimidations and human rights violations mainly carried out by Cameroons military, and partly by armed separatists. They called on the government of Cameroon to check all allegations against its military, while calling on the release of members of the opposition party, CRM.





Their intervention provoked an earlier release from the country's Upper House of Assembly led by Niat Njifenji Marcel, considered EU's concern as a smear campaign.Spread positivity through my music, in message and enjoy success but not materialistic success

Today marks one year since the passing of Tim Bergling, famously known as Avicii.

The much loved DJ/producer tragically passed away on April 20, 2018 in Oman.

On the one year anniversary of Avicii's passing, the music world paid tribute on social media to the fallen legend.Xiaomi MIUI 10 beta based on Android 9 Pie gets dark mode News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Xiaomi rolls out one of the much-awaited features with the latest update.

The latest iteration of the Xiaomi MIUI 10 global ROM appears to be the best iteration that has been rolled out so far. Well, we say so as this update bundles one of the highly anticipated features 0 the Dark Mode to the smartphones that have received it.

Besides the Dark Mode, this iteration of the global ROM also brings a smoother UI and many other significant changes to the overall user experience. Let's take a look at the features rolled out by the latest version of the MIUI 10 update from here.

Dark Mode on MIUI 10

The system-wide dark mode has been rolled out to the devices that have received the latest version of the MIUI 10 Global ROM. The company has branded this feature as 'Dark Side of MIUI'. Currently, it is available on select devices and is yet to receive the update.

The Dark Mode is meant to save users from eye fatigue as they use their smartphone at night. Moreover, Google that is also working on bringing a system-wide dark mode with Android Q has admitted that this feature will save the battery life considerably. It will improve readability as the icons, text and other UI elements will be altered. It also boosts the contrast levels on the screen making icons and text more legible against the background.

How to enable dark mode on Xiaomi phones

Xiaomi users who have received the dark mode feature via the latest iteration of the MIUI global beta ROM can enable the same by going to Settings  Display. Over there, the toggle for turning Dark Mode on and off will be visible. Tapping on Activate will enable the system-wide dark mode on the Xiaomi device.

The company has clarified that the dark mode will be applied to the Notification shade, Messaging, Settings, Gallery, Scanner, Contacts, Camera, Dialer, Recorderr, Clock, Compass, Weather, Notes, Mi Video, Screen Recorder and other apps via its forum post.

As of now, the feature is currently available only to the devices running Android 9 Pie topped with MIUI 10 beta. We can expect it to be extended to the other supported versions after testing.

Via

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsGender Activists Use Examples to Silent Vera Songwe's Critics Twitter

Some Cameroonians were quick to condemn the UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of Economic Commission for Africa, Ms. Vera Songwe, for crossing over her legs while holding talks with the countrys Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, and later President Paul Biya.

Vera Songwe who has Cameroonian roots from Bamendankwe, in the North West region, was accused of disrespecting the tradition of her people, by crossing over her legs in front of a man, thereby showing disrespect to the entire male folk.

Paul Biya et Vera Songwe (c) PRC

Gender Activists saw this move as irrational and have been condemning Ms. Vera's attackers by posting similar pictures of prominent African women , sitting in same positions, while holding diplomatic talks with important male parties. Amongst the pictures are that of Former First Lady of the US, Michele Obama, who took a picture, while crossing over her legs, with late South African hero, Nelson Mandela, as well as TV Host Oprah Winfred, taking same pictures with the latter.

These posts started by an activist, Rebecca Enonchong on twitter, are followed by a hashtag #VeraSongweChallenge. Some of the activists express fear that the concerns could be more of skin colour than the leg crossing, since other white female leaders had sat in same way during visits to the Presidency or the countrys Prime Minister, yet no alarm was raised about it. Another activist Comfort Mussa, who runs a female NGO in Cameroon, expressed regret on how Cameroonians settled for petty things, over the most important aspect of her visit.

These activists rebuke critics for failing to grasp the message of economic development, explained by Ms. Songwe during her stay in Cameroon, and rather focusing on minute things like capturing her crossing over her legs.

Such condemnations are typical especially within communities in the North West region, who still look down on the rights of women.

To her peers, the position Ms. Veras took was that which made her comfortable and not a sign of disrespecting. In some of these communities, women dont speak, suggest, or act, when a man is talking. These cultural traditions have made some societies remain wanton in terms of gender equality, and therefore, a continuous need for activists to push on.US intelligence says Huawei funded by Chinese state security

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 06:14PM

US intelligence agencies have accused Huawei of being funded by Chinese state security, adding to the list of allegations faced by the Chinese technology company in the West.

The CIA accused Huawei of receiving funding from China's National Security Commission, the People's Liberation Army and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network, The Times, a British newspaper, said on Saturday.

Earlier this year, US intelligence shared its claims with other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group, which includes Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, according to the report.

Huawei dismissed the allegations in a statement cited by the newspaper.

"Huawei does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources," a Huawei representative told the British newspaper.

The accusation comes at a time of trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

The administration of US President Donald Trump claims that Huawei's equipment could be used for espionage and has warned other countries against adopting 5G systems from Huawei.

Authorities in the United States are probing Huawei for alleged sanctions violations.

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the United States on charges of bank and wire fraud in violation of US sanctions against Iran.

The company has denied the US accusations and says the concerns are unfounded.

Huawei last year surpassed Apple to become the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung.

Critics of the US claim that its motive in attacking Huawei is not because it is a genuine security threat  but because it is a rival in a crucial sector of the world economy in which America has enjoyed unrivaled supremacy for decades.

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U.S. Prosecutors Seek 18-Month Sentence For Russia's Butina

By RFE/RL April 20, 2019

U.S. prosecutors are asking a judge to hand Russian citizen Maria Butina an 18-month sentence after she pleaded guilty late last year to a charge of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent.

"Activities at issue in this case are part of Russia's broader scheme to acquire information and establish relationships and communication channels that can be exploited to the Russian Federation's benefit," prosecutors wrote in a presentencing memo on April 19.

Butina, who pleaded guilty in December and agreed to cooperate with investigators, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Washington on April 26.

She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and has been jailed since her arrest in July in the case that helped raise tensions between Washington and Moscow.

Butina admitted that she and former Russian lawmaker Aleksandr Torshin used their contacts in the National Rifle Association to pursue back channels to American conservatives during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The charges against Butina were brought by federal prosecutors in Washington and her case was unrelated to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the election.

The Kremlin has called the charges against Butina "groundless," and Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that Butina pleaded guilty "under pressure."

In her presentencing filing, the 30-year-old Butina's lawyers asked the court to sentence her to time already served.

"Although Maria has committed a serious offense, just punishment does not require additional incarceration," the lawyers wrote.

Her lawyers said Butina, a former graduate student at American University, expects to be sent back to Russia after being released from jail.

"She has been separated from her family, in a foreign country, for over nine months. She has languished for three of those months in administrative segregation -- solitary confinement by another name -- where she was enclosed in a small cell for 22 hours a day," the filing states.

With reporting by Reuters, CNN, and The Washington Post

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-prosecutors- seek-sentence-russian-citizen-maria -butina/29892914.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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CIA Accuses Huawei of Being Funded by Chinese Authorities - Reports

Sputnik News

08:56 20.04.2019(updated 09:02 20.04.2019)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The US Central Intelligence Agency has accused the Chinese technology giant of being sponsored by the country's authorities, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday, citing a source.

The Times reported that, according to the US intelligence agency, Huawei was being funded by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the National Security Commission, and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network.

The newspaper also said, citing a US intelligence source, that China's Ministry of State Security had endorsed the state sponsorship of the company.

The report comes after earlier this month US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that Washington may scrap cooperation with some "important strategic partners" who use Huawei Technologies Co Ltd systems.

Huawei has recently faced allegations that it is linked to the Chinese government and even has been spying on its behalf, something that the company has vehemently denied.

Last year, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States banned the Chinese telecommunications giant from participating in government contracts, citing security reasons, while several other countries said they were also worried about Huawei's activities.

 Sputnik

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US Prosecutors Seek 18-Month Jail Term for Russian National Butina

Sputnik News

05:10 20.04.2019

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US prosecutors have recommended that the court give an 18-month jail term to Russian national Maria Butina, who is detained in the United States on charges of conspiring to act as a foreign agent, the court filing has shown.

"The government respectfully recommends that Butina be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 18 months, and that the Court execute the requested Order of Judicial Removal," the court filing read.

Russian activist Mariia Butina was arrested Sunday, July 15 by the FBI on charges of being an unregistered agent.

Butina was arrested in Washington, DC in mid-July last year on suspicion of working as an unregistered foreign agent for the Russian government. The young woman initially denied the charges, but last December, she agreed to cooperate with the prosecution and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.

Sentencing in Butina's case is scheduled for April 26.

Both Butina's defence and US prosecutors have requested the court that the Russian national be deported immediately after sentencing.

 Sputnik

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More than 3,400 classrooms damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, says UN Children's Fund

19 April 2019 - More than 305,000 children in Mozambique are losing out on lessons at school since the devastating floods caused by Cyclone Idai, which struck southeast Africa just over a month ago.

The latest assessment by UN Children's Fund UNICEF, indicates that around 3,400 classrooms have either been destroyed or damaged, with 2,713 out of action in the Sofala area alone.

In some of the areas affected, schools will need extensive repair and rehabilitation after being converted into makeshift emergency shelters for children and families displaced by the huge storm, which barreled inland off the coast of Mozambique on 14 April, also causing damage and flooding across large areas of Zimbabwe and Malawi.

UNICEF is urging authorities to reconstruct schools in a more robust way, so they can withstand natural disasters in the future, and they are urging humanitarian partners involved in the mammoth recovery effort, to "continue working together to implement solutions"  such as establishing temporary learning centres  to get children back in school as quickly as possible.

"Any prolonged interruption in access to learning could have devastating consequences for children over both the short and long term", said the agency. "Education is essential for helping children return to a sense of normalcy following a traumatic event, like a major cyclone, and for their long-term development and prospects."



UNICEF is also concerned that the disruption will compound what were already low rates of school enrolment and "learning achievement" in Mozambique. iwith less than 20 per cent of secondary-school aged children currently enrolled.

Dropout rates could increase if families whose property or livelihoods have been negatively affected by the cyclone are forced to send their children to work to make ends meet.

Teachers have also suffered because of the cyclone, the agency notes, proposing short-term financial support for educators affected by the disaster to help them re-build their lives.



The needs in Mozambique remain massive, with 1 million children in need of assistance. UNICEF has launched an appeal for US$122 million to support its humanitarian response for children and families affected by the storm and its aftermath, in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi over the next nine months.

In immediate response to the storm, more than 14 countries, including five from Africa, deployed more than 100 assets to support the aid effort, said UN humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, including $14 million released from the Central Emergency Response Fund by humanitarian affairs chief, Mark Lowcock.

Food has been distributed from the first day of the disaster response, and more than one million people have been reached so far. More than 800,000 have been vaccinated against cholera, and more than 117,000 have received emergency shelter.

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U.S. House panel subpoenas full Mueller report

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:22, April 20, 2019

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Friday issued a subpoena for the full Mueller report, as it seeks to uncover more damning evidence against U.S. President Donald Trump.

"I have issued a subpoena to the Department of Justice for the full version of the Mueller report and the underlying evidence," Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement, while setting May 1 as the deadline.

The move came one day after the U.S. Department of Justice released a redacted version of the report which was met with skepticism from the Democrats.

"I cannot accept any proposal which leaves most of Congress in the dark, as they grapple with their duties of legislation, oversight and constitutional accountability," Nadler said.

Doug Collins, a Republican member of the panel, criticized Nadler for issuing the subpoena, saying that the request was unreasonable.

"Today's subpoena is wildly overly broad. It commands the department to provide Congress with millions of records that would be plainly against the law to share because the vast majority of these documents came as a result of nearly 2,800 subpoenas from a grand jury that is still ongoing," Collins said.

The redacted Mueller report, 448 pages in length, was the result of a 22-month-long investigation into whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, and if Trump, after his inauguration, obstructed efforts to probe the alleged collusion.

While the report was definitive in stating that there had been no collusion, it offered a murkier conclusion in regard to the obstruction allegations, listing and analyzing 10 episodes involving Trump but stopped short of suggesting a formal charge.

The Trump administration hailed the report as a major victory and Trump repeatedly touted on social media that he had been "completely exonerated," while his critics called for a further probe to be launched.

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Vera Songwe et Paul Biya P R C

Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) cut short her official visit to Cameroon following the tragic loss of two ECA staff members

Dr. visited mourning families and staff in Rabat, Morocco Friday April 19, in support to them, following a tragic car accident in which two staff members of ECA office for North Africa lost their lives.

Hind Jabir (31) and Samira Ezzine (54) have worked for ECA for several years. They are warmly remembered by UN colleagues and ECA partners for their generosity, dynamism and devotion, an ECA statement read, adding that: Upon receiving the shocking news while on a very successful official visit to Cameroon, Ms. Songwe quickly flew in to Rabat from Yaounde, hours before her scheduled departure from the Central African country, which happens to be her home.

In a message late on April 18, 2019 titled "Cancellation of press conference at Hilton, with regrets", Abel Akara Ticha, Communication Officer| Sub-regional Office for Central Africa|UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said an emergency had forced the ECA boss to cut short her stay in Cameroon.

"The press conference with Ms Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa earlier scheduled for Friday 19 April at the Yaounde Hilton will unfortunately not take place due to an emergency. ECA highly regrets the inconvenience this may have caused," Akara said in a statement, but did not say what the emergency was.

It has now emerged that the death of two ECA staff in a car crash necessitated her unannounced departure from Cameroon.

ECA officials say arrangements are being made for staff to pay their respects to their beloved colleagues Hind and Samira.

The President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul Biya granted audience to Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, April 18, 2019 at the Unity Palace shortly before her departure from Yaounde for Rabat.

The Head of State and the Cameroonian-born economist discussed the following issues: economic growth in Cameroon, the need for the Cameroonian Government to ratify the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA), and the development of the digital economy, the Presidency has said.

Dr. Vera Songwe was decorated by President Biya with the medal of Grand Officer of the National Order of Valour.Sudan's ousted president investigated on suspicion of money laundering

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 03:40PM

Sudan's deposed President Omar al-Bashir is under investigation over the possession of "large sums of cash" without legal grounds, and on suspicion of money laundering.

A judicial source told Reuters on Saturday that the public prosecutor had begun investigating Bashir after "large sums of cash" was found at his home.

The source said that military intelligence had searched Bashir's home and found suitcases loaded with more than $351,000 and six million euros ($6.75 million), as well as five million Sudanese pounds ($104,837).

"The chief public prosecutor... ordered the [former] president detained and quickly questioned in preparation to put him on trial," the judicial source said.

"The public prosecution will question the former president in Kobar prison" in the capital Khartoum, where he had been transferred after his ouster, the source said.

Bashir was ousted by the military on April 11 after four months of protests against his policies. Since then, he had been under house arrest in the presidential residence inside the compound that also houses the defense ministry.

Sources from Bashir's family said on Wednesday that the deposed president had been moved to the high-security Kobar prison in Khartoum. He is said to be in solitary confinement.

Bashir, who took power through a military coup in 1989, is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his alleged role in genocide in the Darfur region, which he denies.

Kober prison, located on the east bank of the Blue Nile in a northern district of the capital, held thousands of political detainees under Bashir's 30-year rule and is Sudan's most notorious jail.

Despite the ouster of Bashir, protests have continued in Sudan with the leaders of demonstrations saying the unrest will not die down until the military council, which has overtaken power in Sudan since Bashir's fall, hands power to a civilian-led authority ahead of elections.

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Clashes come to end in Afghan capital, 'all bombers killed'

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 12:53PM

Afghanistan's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has been attacked by militants in downtown Kabul, about two kilometers from the heavily fortified compound of green zone.

Bombers and gunmen attacked the ministry building from several sides on Saturday. A loud explosion was heard in the area. Gunfight lasted for more than an hour at the 18-storey building.

The Interior Ministry announced the end of clashes in a posting on Twitter.

"Operations finished. All suicide bombers killed & more than 2,000 civilians staff rescued."

Local television showed a small plume of smoke near the ministry headquarters. People were climbing out the windows on a lower level.

Amanduddin Shariati, a security official in Kabul, earlier told AFP that "four attackers have placed themselves near the communication ministry and are engaged in gun battles with the Afghan security forces."

General Sayed Mohammad Roshan Dil, the Kabul police chief, said four attackers clad in police uniforms had targeted a shrine near the ministry.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last week, the Taliban militant group, currently led by Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, which often launches attacks against Afghan forces to weaken the central government, announced the beginning of its annual spring offensive.

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Middle East powers partake in Iraq summit in blow to 'Arab NATO'

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:05AM

Iraq's parliamentary summit has brought together the country's neighbors in what has been described as "a display of rare regional unity", further sidelining a US initiative to form an "Arab NATO".

The one-day summit, hosted by Iraq's Parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi, brings together representatives from Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Kuwait on Saturday.

Speaking on Friday, the young Iraqi speaker welcomed the foreign delegations, describing Baghdad as a historical center of "Arabism, Islam and peace".

"Iraq, proud, prideful and victorious over terrorism, is honored by the presence of its neighbors in Baghdad," he added.

His deputy, Bashir Haddad, said the summit will have a "significant" impact on cooperation related to the region's security and stability.

He called the summit "a valuable initiative and opportunity for strategic partnerships between Iraq and its neighbors."

"This is a positive message to all neighboring countries and the world that Iraq is determined to regain its health and return to its Arab, regional environment and assume its rightful place in the map of the balance of power," he added.

Iran's Parliament speaker Ali Larijani is represented by MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the former chairman of the chamber's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.

Larijani had initially planned to take part in the summit but was unable to do so due to a conflicting work schedule, reports said.

The summit marks yet another important watershed in a recent booming of diplomatic cooperation in a region that was largely been bedeviled by bloody conflicts in recent years.

Despite US presence in Iraq seeking to sideline Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi have exchanged what have been described as "historic" visits in the past two months.

The summit in Iraq is a major diplomatic development for Damascus, marking the first time in years it participates in a gathering also attended Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Both Syria and Iraq are buoyed by their triumphant routing of terrorist and other militant groups, with Iran providing crucial military advisory assistance at the most sensitive junctures.

The battle has brought the three neighbors closer, helping them to expand political and economic ties.

Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri recently spoke of an initiative to link the three countries "via rail and road" earlier this month.

On Friday, Syrian Parliament speaker Hammouda al-Sabbagh expressed gratitude for Iran's assistance in Syria as he met Boroujerdi, saying "no country has helped us as much as Iran".

"Iran and Syria were partners against terrorism and now we hope to continue that partnership in reconstruction efforts addressing the damage left by the terrorist presence," he said.

Al-Sabbagh also said that he was anticipating Larijani to visit Damascus, describing high level relations with Tehran as a "source of pride".

Boroujerdi congratulated the Syrian nation and government for prevailing over terrorism and condemned US President Donald Trump's recent recognition of the Syrian Golan Heights as Israeli territory.

The Iranian parliamentary representative also described the Baghdad summit as "an important step" in advancing "regional unity".

"The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes Mohammed al-Halbusi's innovative parliamentary summit between Iraq's neighbors," he said.

Saudi Arabia's participation in the heightened regional partnership initiative contrasts with US plans to form an "Arab NATO" to counter Iran in the region.

Earlier this month, Egypt pulled out of the anti-Iran alliance, further weakening the American initiative.

The parliamentary summit comes as reports indicate that Iraqi officials have been trying to mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia in recent months.

Baghdad seeks to also strengthen its diplomatic and security ties with its southern neighbor after years of distrust over Saudi Arabia's support for terrorists in Iraq.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has time and again underlined the need for amicable ties between all countries in the region.

Back in January, Zarif told a gathering of representatives from hundreds of Iranian and Iraqi companies in Baghdad that if regional countries wanted a strong region, they had to substitute dialog for war as well as cooperation for an arms race.

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Egyptians vote in referendum aimed at extending Sisi's rule

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:28AM

Egyptians have begun voting in a three-day national referendum on constitutional amendments that would extend President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi's rule until 2030.

Voting began on Saturday with state television showing images of Sisi casting his ballot at a polling station in the eastern suburb of Heliopolis.

The voting is being held amid the heightened presence of troops and security forces across the country.

Egypt's parliament, packed with Sisi supporters, voted on Tuesday in favor of the constitutional changes. The changes include giving the military greater influence in political life as well as granting Sisi more control over the judiciary, with powers to appoint the prosecutor general and all high level judges.

The referendum is expected to approve sweeping constitutional changes, polls suggested.

The new amendments will extend the presidential term from four to six years, and the president can only be re-elected once.

But Sisi will be treated differently. His current term will be extended to six years, and he will be allowed to run for a third term as an exception.

He was originally meant to leave power in 2022 after his second term expires.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, said the proposed constitutional amendments would "facilitate the authorities' crackdown on freedom of expression, association and assembly, erode people's rights, and exacerbate the human rights crisis in the country."

He argued that the North African country will go back to "square one, the same autocratic rule it experienced before the 2011 revolution."

"This ends the hopes of millions of Egyptians who took to the streets in January 2011, wishing to have a rotation of power and a president who can be held accountable," he said. He was referring to the 2011 uprising that toppled 30 year rule of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Sisi came to power in June 2014, one year after he led the military to oust the first democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi in a coup.

He was re-elected in March 2018 with more than 97 percent of the vote, after standing virtually unopposed.

Human rights groups have regularly criticized Sisi's government for cracking down on opposition activists and supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, which has been banned in the country.

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Seven Dead In Attack On Communications Ministry In Kabul

By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan April 20, 2019

KABUL -- At least seven people have been killed after gunmen attacked the Communications Ministry in the center of the Afghan capital , officials say.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack that opened shortly before midday with an explosion at the entrance of the ministry in a busy commercial area of the city, followed up by gunfire.

Police chief General Sayed Mohammad Roshandil said a bomber blew himself up outside the ministry, clearing the way for the other attackers to enter the building and the heavily guarded government compound in central Kabul.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told RFE/RL said four civilians and three soldiers were killed during the attack, which lasted several hours.

Eight civilians were wounded, he said. Health officials say the wounded people -- three of them women -- were transferred to hospitals.

Rahimi said the security operation ended at the ministry "after all four attackers were shot and killed by Afghan security forces."

He said the building was sealed off and all roads near the attack site were blocked by security forces.

Police shot and killed four other militants before they could reach their target of the nearby central post office, Rahimi added.

The official said some 2,700 government employees and civilians were rescued by security forces after being stuck in several government buildings.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack, saying in a statement that the enemies of the nation were trying to create terror among the people by targeting civil servants.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on social media his group was not involved in the attack.

The explosion was also close to the heavily fortified Serena Hotel, one of the very few hotels still used by foreign visitors, in one of the main commercial areas of the city.

The attack comes after peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar were canceled.

The talks, which had been scheduled for April 19, were considered a significant first step toward finding a negotiated end to the war in Afghanistan and the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops.

It also comes the week after the Taliban announced its annual spring offensive.

The militants now control or influence about half the country, and last year was the deadliest yet for civilians.

Both Taliban insurgents and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan and have previously claimed attacks in Kabul.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, Tolo News, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/29893097.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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It's All Academics When It Comes To North Macedonian Vote

By Alan Crosby, Mirjana Spasovska April 20, 2019

Imagine an election campaign run among candidates who aren't politicians. Macedonians can.

As an April 21 presidential vote approaches, the race between three candidates, all academics and none career politicians, has been dominated by debate on issues such as integration into Western structures.

In a country where previous election campaigns have been marked by violence, dirty tricks, and sharp nationalist rhetoric, Macedonians appear happy to be choosing candidates based on their opinions, not leaked wiretapped recordings, accusations of electoral fraud, or rumors on social media.

Those candidates are Stevo Pendarovski, the country's coordinator for NATO accession, who is backed by the ruling Social Democrats; conservative university professor Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, the country's first female candidate; and Blerim Reka, a long-shot candidate and former ambassador to the EU who is backed by two smaller ethnic Albanian parties.

All three signed a code for fair and democratic elections before the start of the campaign, signaling a new page in the country's election history.

"It's high time that we have the opportunity to choose a person who will be consistent at a time when we are about change in the new era we live in," says Ibrahim Hazimi from the capital, Skopje.

Heading Westward

On the heels of its historic agreement with Greece to change its name to North Macedonia and end a decades-long dispute that had blocked the Balkan state's path to NATO and the EU, the election is unlikely to see the country change course.

North Macedonia signed an accession protocol with NATO in February and the government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has named EU membership as its main foreign-policy goal.

Though the office has limited powers, the president has the final signature on legislation and is the leader of the army.

Outgoing President Gjorge Ivanov has kept the name issue alive during the final months of his five-year term by refusing to sign laws that contain the name North Macedonia, including some that are critical to enacting reforms sought by the EU.

Pendarovski, a 55-year-old former political-science professor, has strongly supported the so-called Prespa deal signed with Greece last year to change the country's name, while Siljanovska-Davkova has been critical of it, though the opposition has said it will not cancel the accord.

"My vote will be guided by the candidate who offers a perspective on the future and who will guide us through the doors now opening," Skopje resident Gligor Stojmenov says.

Overcoming Disappointment

Opinion polls show that candidate may be Pendarovski, who lost to Ivanov in the last presidential ballot in 2014.

A survey conducted by the Rating agency between April 8 and April 14 put him in the lead with 38.3 percent, five percentage points ahead of the 64-year-old Siljanovska-Davkova and almost 36 points in front of Reka.

If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the two candidates with the most ballots will enter a runoff on May 5 where turnout must be at least 40 percent of the 1.8 million-strong electorate for the result to be valid.

"A large number of citizens are disappointed in general with politics, and have been exhausted by political battles and electoral processes the past few years," Marko Trosanovski of the Institute for Democracy says. "It will be extremely difficult to get out and motivate those who are undecided and those who are disappointed."

Once a part of Yugoslavia, North Macedonia left Belgrade's umbrella when it seceded peacefully in 1991.

But it veered close to civil war in 2001 when ethnic Albanians launched an armed insurgency seeking greater autonomy, and subsequent elections have been stormy.

Florian Bieber, a professor of Southeast European studies at the University of Graz in Austria, agrees with Trosanovski on the critical importance of turnout, especially given that there are no concurrent local or parliamentary elections being held.

"While the level of polarization between government and opposition is high, the candidates are less confrontational," he tells RFE/RL. "With the name dispute resolved, the main polarizing issue over of the past year is also not much of a topic.... The main worry is that turnout will become an issue, considering the required turnout for the election to be valid."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/all-academics-when-it-comes- to-north-macedonian-vote/29893477.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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Yemeni Official: The Houthi Militias Rejection and Intransigence of Stockholm Agreement Reduces the Chances of Peace

Saudi Press Agency

Saturday 1440/8/15 - 2019/04/20

Rome, April 20, 2019, SPA -- Yemen's Ambassador to Italy Asmahan Al-Touki said that the rejection and intransigence of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia on the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement reduces the chances of peace, and intensifies the suffering of the population.

This came during a panel discussion on Yemen which was attended by a number of writers, journalists, media and interested in the Yemeni issue.

Al-Touki called on international community to join efforts to end this intransigence and contribute to the progress of confidence-building measures and the promotion of the peace process in light of the Yemeni government's positive efforts to implement the Stockholm Agreement.

--SPA

14:34 LOCAL TIME 11:34 GMT

0003

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Millions of Euros in Cash Found in House of Sudanese Ex-President  Report

Sputnik News

17:20 20.04.2019

The Sudanese military ousted the country's long-time president on 11 April 2019 after months of protests by the country's citizens, demanding his resignation. The protests didn't cease after this, as citizens are now demanding that the military cede power to a civilian government.

Military investigators have found huge amounts of cash, both in foreign currency and in Sudanese pounds, after searching the home of former President Omar Bashir, who was arrested by the country's military in April 2019, the newspaper Ar Rai Al Youm reported.

The investigators seized six million euros, 351,000 dollars and five billion Sudanese pounds (around $105 million) and transferred them to the central bank. The money, found during the search reportedly served as a basis for the corruption charges against the former president.

Bashir, who held the presidential post in the country for nearly 30 years, was detained by the country's military on 11 April and was later moved to a maximum security prison in Khartoum. His ouster was preceded by massive protests that began in December 2018.

However, the rallies haven't stopped, with citizens now demanding that the transitional military council cede power to civilian government as soon as possible, rather than organising a new election in two years, as it had previously promised.

 Sputnik

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Mideast States Join Iraq Summit in Blow to US-Led 'Arab NATO' Initiative

Sputnik News

16:54 20.04.2019(updated 16:55 20.04.2019)

The summit marks a shift in Iraq's foreign policy, with the country assuming the role of a mediator in the region as US President Donald Trump has revived the Obama-era concept of an anti-Iranian alliance of Gulf nations.

Iraq is hosting a one-day summit, which brings together the country's neighbours: Syria, Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait, as well as two long-time rivals  Saudi Arabia and Iran  in a blow to the US-led "Arab NATO" initiative, Press TV reported.

"This is a positive message to all neighbouring countries and the world that Iraq is determined to regain its health and return to its Arab, regional environment and assume its rightful place in the map of the balance of power", Bashir Haddad, deputy parliamentary speaker said.

The development comes as US President Donald Trump breathed new life into the Obama-era initiative, "Middle East Strategic Alliance", commonly referred to as "Arab NATO", to forge an anti-Iran alliance of Gulf nations.

In 2017, the Trump administration suggested creating an alliance to stop what the US called Tehran's "malign activities" in the Middle East.

The plan, first proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2017, was promoted by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who even met with Qatari officials last year in a bid to deescalate tensions between Doha and Riyadh to push the idea forward.

Aside from the US and Saudi Arabia, the so-called Middle East Strategic Alliance would hypothetically include the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt to counter Iran, deepen defence relations, energy cooperation and deal with regional threats. However, Egypt reportedly dealt the first blow to the proposal last week, having withdrawn from the initiative over concerns of damaging relations with Iran.

 Sputnik

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US, Japan Confirm Plans to Relocate Base on Okinawa Despite Public Opposition

Sputnik News

02:29 20.04.2019

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States and Japan have reconfirmed their plans to relocate the US Marine Corps base on Okinawa to a less populated area, the US Department of State said in a press release on Friday.

"The Ministers welcomed the significant progress on the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF) and reconfirmed that the plan to construct the FRF at the Camp Schwab-Henokosaki area and adjacent waters is the only solution that avoids the continued use of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma," the release said. "The Ministers underscored their strong determination to achieve its completion as soon as possible."

Meanwhile, the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee 2019 Fact Sheet released by the State Department said that the US and Japan are determined to start relocating US forces from Okinawa to Guam in the first half of the next decade.

"The Ministers welcomed progress in the steady implementation of the Guam International Agreement, and the planned relocation of approximately 9,000 US Marine Corps personnel from Okinawa to locations outside of Japan," the fact sheet said. "They reconfirmed the plan to begin the relocation to Guam in the first half of the 2020s."

Earlier on Friday, the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee, which included US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting US Secretary of Defence Patrick Shanahan, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Toro Kono, and Japanese Minister of Defence Takeshi Iwaya, convened in Washington, DC, the release added.

The plan is to relocate the US air base from the prefecture's city of Ginowan to a less populated area, Henoko Bay.

Denny Tamaki, the governor of Japan's southern Okinawa Prefecture, told Sputnik on April 10 that he was considering a visit to the United States in order to convey the opposition of the prefecture's residents to the relocation of US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma expressed in the latest referendum.

In a February referendum more than 72 percent of Okinawa residents voted against the plan to relocate the base. The referendum saw a 52 percent turnout.

 Sputnik

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Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, Niger Deploy Troops After Fresh Attack

By Moki Edwin Kindzeka April 20, 2019

The Multi-National Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission made up of forces from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger, has deployed troops after suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked Cameroon killing at least 13 people and leaving hundreds homeless. Cameroon has been asking its people to collaborate with the military, stating that more attacks will be reported during Ramadan, expected in a few weeks.

It is a very quiet and deserted Tchakarmari village on Cameroon's northern border with Nigeria with carcasses of animals and torched houses reminding visitors of a sad event.

Resident Abba Malloum says the village of more than 400 people was reduced to ashes by Boko Haram fighters who came from neighboring Nigeria on the late Thursday night.

He says over a hundred Boko Haram fighters attacked their village, shooting indiscriminately and torching all of their houses. He says at least 13 people were either shot to death or slaughtered, many wounded, about a hundred men, women and children abducted, and their maize, beans, groundnuts and sheep burned as hundreds of their cattle were taken away.

Bachair Hachimi, traditional ruler of Tchakarmari says relative peace had returned to their village a year ago after several attacks by the terror group and residents who had fled started to return. He says even though dozens were killed in a series of suicide bombings, residents were determined to collaborate with the military in fighting Boko Haram, but the fresh attack has scared almost everyone.

He says because of the attack, people who had started returning home after the military pushed back Boko Haram fighters and installed a base of the Multi-National Joint Task Force have again fled to places they consider safe in the towns of Mora, Meme, Mokolo and Maroua. He says most of his people have lost everything they struggled to gather when peace returned to their village.

Midjiyawa Bakary, governor of the far north region of Cameroon has called for vigilance. He says after a crisis meeting, troops have been deployed to secure the area and bring back the abducted people whose number and whereabouts he said was still being investigated

He says he has asked for the remobilization and redynamization of self-defense groups and more vigilance from the population that had been dormant thinking that Boko Haram had been defeated. He says after a crisis meeting, the Multi-National Joint task force of the Lake Chad basin that is fighting Boko Haram has been instructed to organize regular patrols and systematic searches of people, vehicles and homes and suspected villages and towns.

This week, Cameroon authorities said they had detained 30 Nigerians who crossed the border Saturday on suspicion of links to Boko Haram Islamist militants.

Governor Bakary warned that Boko Haram was looking for opportunities to infiltrate when many people are travelling across the border for religious or national holidays. He said with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan beginning May 5, international Labor Day on May 1, and National Day on May 20, Boko Haram may want to infiltrate and kill people as they gather around mosques and markets.

More than 1,500 Cameroonians have been killed in attacks by Boko Haram since the insurgency began nine years ago.

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Mixed Emotions as Egyptian Constitutional Referendum Begins

By Edward Yeranian April 20, 2019

Light to moderate turnout was reported on day one of a three-day constitutional referendum in which voters were expected to approve lengthening the president's term in office and strengthening his powers over the judiciary and the government bureaucracy.

Officials have promised to announce the results by April 27 and said if the constitutional amendments were approved, they would be implemented swiftly.

The amendments would deepen presidential powers and the military's presence in local communities. The presidential term would be increased from four to six years, and incumbent President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi would be allowed to run for a third term in 2024.

Many of the amendments pertain to the government's structure, creating new positions and increasing the number of presidential appointees. The Egyptian military, which already wields tremendous economic and political power in Egypt, would also increase its role in criminal justice.

A smiling Sissi cast his ballot in the capital's Heliopolis district.

Prime Minister Mustapha Madbouli told journalists at a central Cairo polling station that voters should turn out to voice their opinions. He said he was casting his ballot as an Egyptian citizen and urged everyone else to do so as well, to show a positive spirit in what he called an important matter.

Sixty-two million Egyptians are registered to vote out of an estimated population of 100 million. Heavy security was reported at polling stations throughout Cairo. A large number of people could be seen at several polling stations in the center of the city, while turnout appeared light in outlying parts of the capital and Giza.

Gamal Noureddin Zaki, governor of Assiut province, told journalists that things were going smoothly on the first day of the referendum and he expected a fairly good turnout after all the ballots were tabulated at the end of day three.

He said he expected about half of all eligible voters in Assiut to cast ballots, and he stressed that there had been no complaints about problems with voting so far.

However, organized opposition to the referendum was almost nonexistent, with many leading public figures, businesses and media houses firmly in league with the current government.

Abdel Aziz al-Husseini, the deputy head of the opposition Tayyar al-Karama Party, told al-Hurra TV that he was not happy with the referendum because it was difficult to express opposition to the proposed constitutional changes.

He said opponents of the changes were able to express their opinions only on social media and at press conferences, and that there was no possibility of putting up posters or engaging citizens at coffee shops and universities.

Ahmed al-Khamis, a member of the Institute of Administrative Studies, told al-Hurra that the most important issue in the referendum was to maintain stability in the country.

He said it was important to show the world that Egyptians are determined to protect their country in an unstable part of the world.

Egyptian opposition TV stations based in Turkey and Qatar  which support the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group  denounced the referendum, calling it "null and void." A government opponent, Ahmed Tantawi, said in a video on social media that the referendum "casts a pall on the spirit of the constitution and the [2011] revolution which gave birth to it."

Voting took place amid an unprecedented crackdown on dissidents and a rollback of freedoms that were won during the pro-democracy uprising in 2011. Human Rights Watch says over 15,000 civilians, including children, have been targeted for military prosecution over the past three years.

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Long Road to Recovery for Children After Cyclone Idai

By Lisa Schlein April 20, 2019

The U.N. children's fund says at least 1.6 million children in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe need help right away to recover from the affects of Cyclone Idai, which battered their countries more than one month ago.

Cyclone Idai, the deadliest storm to hit southern Africa in more than two decades, killed at least 1,000 people, and destroyed crops, livelihoods and hundreds of thousands of homes.

The U.N. children's fund says the emergency phase of its response in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe is winding down. But the road to recovery will remain very long, especially for children, who are the most vulnerable.

It says children lack essential services, including healthcare, nutrition, water and sanitation, protection and education. It says the situation is particularly dire for some one million children in Mozambique where the storm hit with particular ferocity.

UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac says conditions in that country are ripe for an explosion of disease, noting more than 5,000 cases of cholera have already been reported.

"We also have a concern with malaria, with more than 7,500 cases confirmed. And UNICEF is distributing 500,000 mosquito nets. I also understand that in the coming weeks, campaigns are planned around measles vaccination, deworming and vitamin A boosters," he said.

Boulierac says UNICEF also is supporting the establishment of several health clinics in resettlement areas.

The agency reports nearly one-half-million children in Malawi need humanitarian assistance to recover from the impact of Cyclone Idai. It says many children are living in crowded evacuation centers.

It adds it is providing water trucks, toilets, medicine and mobile clinics in those centers; creating child-friendly spaces and providing children with education and recreation kits.

In Zimbabwe, 130,000 children are at risk. UNICEF says it is furnishing vital health and nutrition supplies, other essential relief and psycho-social support to vulnerable children in child-friendly spaces.

UNICEF is appealing for $122 million to support its humanitarian operations in the three storm-affected countries.

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New warships to debut at naval parade

Global Times

By Guo Yuandan in Qingdao and Liu Xuanzun in Beijing Source:Global Times Published: 2019/4/20 13:16:41

New warships will make their public debut in a scheduled maritime parade on April 23 in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province in celebration of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's 70th anniversary.

A total of 32 Chinese vessels and 39 Chinese aircraft will be a part of the parade, said Qiu Yanpeng, deputy commander of the PLA Navy, at a press conference held ahead of the anniversary on Saturday.

Aircraft carrier Liaoning, new nuclear-powered submarines, new destroyers and aircraft will participate in the fleet review. Some vessels will make their public debut, Qiu said.

The new nuclear-powered submarine could be the Type 095 attack submarine, a new model of Type 094 ballistic missile submarine or a new model of Type 093 attack submarine, an anonymous military expert predicted.

The new destroyer is very likely to be China's first 10,000 ton-class destroyer, the Type 055, the expert told the Global Times.

The warships will form into six groups during the fleet review: a submarine group, a destroyer group, a frigate group, an amphibious landing ship group, an auxiliary ship group and an aircraft carrier group, Qiu revealed.

Ten aircraft formations in the parade will include an early warning aircraft formation, a reconnaissance aircraft formation, an anti-submarine aircraft formation, a bomber formation, a fighter formation, an aircraft carrier-based fighter formation and a vessel-based helicopter formation.

More than 10 countries including Russia, Thailand, Vietnam and India will also send about 20 naval vessels including destroyers, frigates and amphibious landing vessels to join the parade.

More than 60 countries from five continents will send naval delegations, with more than 30 of them featuring major naval leaders, Qiu said.

While the fleet review will be held on April 23, the whole celebration event will be from April 22 to 25, featuring other activities including high-level seminars, joint military music performances, and cultural and military exchanges.

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China to showcase nuclear subs, destroyers at major parade

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 11:02AM

China will showcase new warships, including nuclear submarines and destroyers, at a parade next week, marking the 70th anniversary of its navy's founding, a senior army commander says.

The naval parade by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on April 22-25 will feature a total of 32 vessels and 39 aircraft, China's deputy naval commander Qiu Yanpeng told reporters in the city of Qingdao Saturday.

"At this naval parade the PLA Navy ship and aircraft to be revealed are the Liaoning aircraft carrier, new types of nuclear submarines, new types of destroyers, as well as fighter aircraft. Some ships will be revealed for the first time," Qiu said.

The parade, likely to be overseen by Chinese President Xi Jinping, will host a number of foreign navies from Russia, Singapore, India, Thailand and Vietnam.

More than 60 countries from five continents will send naval delegations, with more than 30 of them featuring major naval leaders, according to the Chinese military commander.

The event will also feature other activities, including high-level seminars, joint military music performances, and cultural and military exchanges.

"The Chinese navy has always been a peaceful force and will not pose a threat to any country," Qiu said.

"The Chinese Navy has not brought war, turmoil or uneasiness to any part of the world. It has always understood peace, cherished peace and defended peace."

Qiu said China's armed forces will not pose a threat to anyone, rebuffing concerns about his country's military actions/

China, he said, has been scared by its past and needs good defenses at sea. "A strong navy is essential for building a strong maritime country."

From 1840 to 1949, China was invaded by foreign powers from the sea more than 470 times, which caused untold suffering and deep wounds to the Chinese nation, Qiu said.

"Building a strong people's navy embodies the long-cherished wishes of the Chinese nation to be a strong maritime country, and is (also) an important guarantee for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

China claims sovereignty to most of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in shipping trade passes annually, despite competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The US has been taking sides with some of China's neighbors in their territorial disputes in the busy sea. It has stepped up military presence under the pretext of freedom of navigation in international waters.

China has constantly warned the US that close military encounters by air and naval forces of the two countries in the region could easily trigger miscalculation or even accidents at sea or in air.

Washington is increasingly alarmed by Beijing's rising influence and economic power, trying to curb it through imposing hefty sanctions and other punitive measures.

Tensions between Beijing and Washington have hit a new high since the detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, in Canada on a US arrest warrant.

Meng, 47, was detained at a Vancouver airport on December 1 last year over the charge filed by the US that Huawei had bypassed unilateral US sanctions against Iran.

Meng has denied any wrongdoing and her father, Ren Zhengfeiin, has denounced the arrest as "politically motivated." She is now facing extradition to the US.

On Saturday, The Times said US intelligence has accused Huawei Technologies of being funded by Chinese state security, adding to the list of allegations faced by the Chinese technology company in the West.

According to the report, US intelligence shared its claims with other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group, which includes Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Huawei dismissed the allegations in a statement cited by the newspaper.

"Huawei does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources," a Huawei representative told The Times.

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Putin, Kim to discuss bilateral ties, Korean denuclearization: Kremlin

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:23, April 20, 2019

Russian President Vladimir Putin and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong Un will discuss bilateral relations, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and regional cooperation, the Kremlin said Friday.

"The baggage for discussion is very extensive. Here we must still remember first of all that we are talking about negotiations of the heads of neighboring states with an extensive joint border," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"There is no doubt that Russia will be ready to do everything to promote the process of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula to the best of its abilities," he added.

On Thursday, the Kremlin said that Kim will meet Putin before the end of April.

It will be the first official meeting between Kim and Putin.

Peskov said that the non-disclosure of information about the place and exact date of the meeting between the two leaders is related to security concerns. But he said that the meeting will take place in Russia.

Speculation has grown that the meeting could take place in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok.

When asked if Russia and the United States contacted each other on the problems of the Korean Peninsula, Peskov said a "certain exchange of views is underway," but it was impossible to talk about some kind of close coordination on this issue.

Kim has met U.S. President Donald Trump twice. They ended the latest summit in Vietnam's Hanoi on Feb. 28 without an agreement.

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North Korea slams John Bolton's 'stupid' remarks

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 04:09PM

North Korea has lambasted as "nonsense" remarks by US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has called on Pyongyang to show seriousness in giving up its nuclear weapons, warning that "nothing good" will come of such comments.

Bolton, in an interview with Bloomberg News published on Wednesday, said there was first the need for a "real indication from North Korea that they've made the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons."

On Saturday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said Bolton "showed above himself by saying such nonsense," adding that his comments "all sound uncharming and stupid."

"Bolton's remarks make me wonder whether they sprang out of incomprehension of the intentions of the top leaders of the DPRK and the US or whether he was just trying to talk with a certain sense of humor for his part, with its own deviation," the North Korean official was further quoted by the official KCNA news agency as saying at a press conference.

Choe also cautioned that there would be no good if Washington continued "to throw away such remarks devoid of discretion and reason."

Pyongyang claims to have tested a new kind of weapon.

Bolton is the second high-ranking US politician to be criticized by Pyongyang in recent days, after it branded Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "reckless" on Thursday, demanding his removal from stalled nuclear negotiations over the North's nuclear program.

Back in late February, US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader reached an impasse at their face-to-face denuclearization talks in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, with Washington demanding full disarmament and Pyongyang demanding economic incentives through partial lifting harsh sanctions.

The second summit in fact did collapse when the American president abruptly walked away from the talks without reaching a deal or even issuing a final statement.

Trump claimed that he quit the talks because Kim demanded that all economic sanctions be lifted as a prerequisite to denuclearization.

However, Pyongyang quickly responded that it had never asked for the removal of all sanctions, but only their partial removal.

The US and the North have been at loggerheads since the collapse of the Hanoi summit.

The two leaders met at a historic summit for the first time in June last year in Singapore, where they agreed to work toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Subsequent diplomacy between the two sides, however, made little progress, mainly because Washington refused to lift its crippling sanctions.

The US has refused to offer any sanctions relief in return for several unilateral steps already taken by North Korea. Pyongyang, on the other hand, has suspended its missile and nuclear testing, demolished at least one nuclear test site, and agreed to allow international inspectors into a missile engine test facility.

The US, however, has insisted that sanctions on the North must remain in place until it completely and irreversibly dismantles its nuclear program.

Earlier this month, Kim said that the US had raised the risk of returning to past tensions after the collapse of the Hanoi summit, stressing that yet another meeting between the two leaders was only possible if Washington came with the right attitude.

He also said that he would wait "until the end of this year" for Washington to decide.

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Pompeo: 'I'm still in charge of' North Korea negotiation team

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 12:56AM

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he is still in charge of nuclear negotiations between the US and North Korea a day after Pyongyang said it wanted Pompeo to be disengaged from the stalled negotiations.

In a statement run by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday, Kwon Jong-gun, a North Korean Foreign Ministry official, criticized Pompeo for "fabricating stories like a fiction writer."

"I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled," Kwon said.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Pompeo said, however, "Nothing has changed. We'll continue to work to negotiate, still in charge of the team. President Trump's obviously in charge of the overall effort, but it'll be my team."

"I am convinced we will have a real opportunity to achieve that outcome," he said at a joint news conference after talks with Japan's foreign and defense ministers.

The top US diplomat also said he believed maintaining diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang was possible even if Washington did not provide the sanctions relief the North had been demanding.

"We will continue to press North Korea to abandon all of its weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles related programs and facilities," Pompeo said. "We will continue to enforce all sanctions on North Korea and encourage every country to do so."

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met for the first time at a historic summit in Singapore in June last year, when they agreed to "work toward" denuclearization.

The two also held a second summit in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, in February, which failed after Trump walked away from the summit, claiming that Kim had insisted on the removal of all sanctions on North Korea in return. Pyongyang rejected that account, stressing that it had only asked for a partial lifting of the bans.

Pyongyang has taken several steps toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula by suspending missile and nuclear testing, demolishing at least one nuclear test site, and agreeing to allow international inspectors into a missile engine test facility.

The US, however, has insisted that all sanctions on the North must remain in place until it completely and irreversibly dismantles its nuclear program.

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Iraq hosts neighbouring nations for one-day summit

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 09:11PM

A summit organized by Iraq on Saturday brought together regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran to bridge relations and invest in Iraq.

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi was heading the one-day summit between Iraq and its six neighbors: Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait.

"Iraq is building a promising strategic partnership with all neighboring countries without any reservations or favoring any party," al-Halbousi said, in opening remarks.

The summit underlines a shift to Iraq's foreign policy, placing the country as a mediator between neighbors who are often at odds over weighty issues, such as the civil war in Syria, and US sanctions against Iran.

Iraqi leaders have emphasized Iraq's sovereignty since elections last year, and they say it is vital to Iraq's security and economy to develop good relations with the neighbors.

The country is seeking billions of dollars in aid and investment to help it rebuild after 15 years of war.

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Iraqi Conference Brings Together Iran, Saudi Arabia, Other Regional Players

By RFE/RL April 20, 2019

Parliamentary officials from Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, expressed support for Baghdad's efforts to rebuild following the government's recapture of territory from Islamic State (IS) militants after a bloody four-year battle.

A statement issued after a conference in Baghdad on April 20 said that "heads of parliaments in the neighboring countries emphasize backing for Iraq's stability, its territorial integrity, and social unity after it achieved its big victory [over IS]."

"The stability of Iraq is necessary for the stability of the region," said the statement also signed by attendees from Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, and Syria.

The attendees also rejected "interference" in Baghdad's internal affairs, although most have political and economic interests in Iraq.

Shi'ite Iran has wielded influence in Iraq since dictator Saddam Hussein's ouster following a 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and it backs powerful Shi'ite militias in the country.

Iraq has attempted to balance relations with Iran and the United States, which considers Tehran a supporter of "malign" activities in the Middle East.

Washington, which provides Baghdad with financial and military support, has imposed financial sanctions on Iran, although it has given Baghdad waivers to continue to do business with Tehran.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has attempted to enhance his country's role as a regional mediator by bringing together arch-rivals Iran and Sunni-led Saudi Arabia.

Abdul Mahdi recently visited the two countries that have long battled for influence in the Middle East.

Many of Iraq's leaders, from its Shi'ite majority, have close ties with Iran, the main Shi'ite power in the Middle East.

Iraqi government forces, supported by U.S. air power, drove IS fighters from nearly all of the territory that extremists captured in 2014. Shi'ite militias also played a role in driving out the militants.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iraq- iran-turkey-syria-saudi-jordan-kuwait -meet-in-baghdad/29893697.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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U.S.-Japan Joint Press Statement

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

April 19, 2019

The following statement was released by the Security Consultative Committee.

Begin Text:

On April 19, 2019, the U.S.Japan Security Consultative Committee convened in Washington, DC, with the participation of Secretary of State Pompeo, Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan, Minister for Foreign Affairs Kono, and Minister of Defense Iwaya. During the meeting, the Ministers affirmed their strong commitment to realize a "free and open Indo-Pacific," a shared vision for a region in which all nations are sovereign, strong, and prosperous. Decades after the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security was signed, the U.S.-Japan Alliance serves as the cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and remains iron-clad amid an increasingly complex security environment. The Alliance will continue to play an indispensable role in upholding a rules-based international order and promoting the shared values of the American and Japanese people.

The Ministers welcomed the alignment of the strategic policy documents of both countries, namely the United States' National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, and Japan's National Defense Program Guidelines. These strategies show that the U.S.-Japan security partnership continues to adapt to be stronger, more advanced, and more effective, consistent with the objectives of the bilateral 2015 Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation.

The Ministers acknowledged their shared concern that geopolitical competition and coercive attempts to undermine international rules, norms, and institutions present challenges to the Alliance and to the shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific. The Ministers highlighted the need for an increasingly networked structure of alliances and partnerships, anchored by the U.S.-Japan Alliance, to counter these challenges. The Ministers also expressed concern about rapidly evolving technological advancement in new domains, including space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum. The Ministers highlighted the need to address these challenges jointly to ensure the Alliance's superiority in a contingency and to safeguard our institutions and rules-based order during peacetime.

The Ministers affirmed that their two nations' strong bilateral security relationship continues to be the foundation of the U.S.-Japan Alliance. As such, the Ministers decided that cooperation in cross-domain operations, enhancing the Alliance's capabilities, and increasing operational readiness and cooperation should be core objectives to advance our defense relationship. The United States welcomed Japan's proactive steps to strengthen its defensive capabilities, with the Ministers confirming that both nations need to constantly re-evaluate their roles, missions, and capabilities.

Acknowledging the changing dynamics of warfare, the Ministers highlighted the importance of developing capabilities and increasing operational cooperation in both conventional and non-conventional domains. The Ministers highlighted space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum as priority areas to better prepare the Alliance for cross-domain operations.

On cyberspace issues, the Ministers recognized that malicious cyber activity presents an increasing threat to the security and prosperity of both the United States and Japan. To address this threat, the Ministers committed to enhance cooperation on cyber issues, including deterrence and response capabilities, but as a matter of priority, emphasized that each nation is responsible for developing the relevant capabilities to protect their national networks and critical infrastructure. The Ministers affirmed that international law applies in cyberspace and that a cyber attack could, in certain circumstances, constitute an armed attack for the purposes of Article V of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. The Ministers also affirmed that a decision as to when a cyber attack would constitute an armed attack under Article V would be made on a case-by-case basis, and through close consultations between Japan and the United States, as would be the case for any other threat.

The Ministers recognized the critical role that U.S. extended deterrence plays in ensuring the security of Japan, as well as the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific region. The United States reiterated its commitment to the defense of Japan through the full range of U.S. military capabilities, including conventional and nuclear.

The Ministers reiterated the importance of the international community's ongoing commitment to achieving North Korea's abandonment of all of its weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles, and related programs and facilities in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions. The Ministers welcomed the United States' diplomatic efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, including through the U.S.-North Korea Summits. The Ministers affirmed their commitment to lead international efforts in UNSCR implementation, particularly in combatting illicit ship-to-ship transfers, and the Ministers committed to strengthen and enhance cooperation with other partner countries participating in UNSCR implementation. The Ministers also recognized the successful efforts to bring back U.S. nationals held in North Korea, and called upon North Korea to resolve the Japanese abductions issue immediately.

The Ministers reaffirmed that U.S. force posture in the region would remain robust and grounded in a clear-eyed assessment of threats, and they determined to deepen consultation on ensuring deterrence and security in the region. The Ministers also highlighted the importance of cooperation among the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, and committed to work together to promote trilateral security cooperation and exercises.

The Ministers expressed serious concern about, and strong opposition to, unilateral coercive attempts to alter the status quo in the East China Sea (ECS) and South China Sea (SCS). The Ministers renewed their determination to work together to safeguard the peace and stability of the ECS, and reconfirmed that Article V of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands and that both nations oppose any unilateral action that seeks to undermine Japan's administration of these islands.

The Ministers renewed their commitment to work both together and multilaterally to further support a free and open Indo-Pacific, including through joint exercises and port calls with partners in the region, capacity building in such areas as maritime domain awareness and law enforcement, and promotion of sustainable economic development and connectivity through quality infrastructure. The Ministers also recognized the crucial role of the U.S.-Japan Security arrangements in facilitating the greater presence of U.S. forces in the region.

To enable the United States to continue to maintain forward deployed forces in Japan, the Ministers reaffirmed the two Governments' commitment to steadily implement the realignment of U.S. forces. The Ministers also welcomed the significant progress on the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF) and reconfirmed that the plan to construct the FRF at the Camp Schwab-Henokosaki area and adjacent waters is the only solution that avoids the continued use of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma. The Ministers underscored their strong determination to achieve its completion as soon as possible.

In recognition of the depth and breadth of the U.S.-Japan Alliance, the Ministers agreed to release a fact sheet detailing additional areas of bilateral cooperation.

End text.

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U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee 2019 Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

April 19, 2019

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Foreign Minister Taro Kono, and Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya met in Washington, DC on April 19, 2019. Building upon their joint statement, the Ministers discussed the following shared priorities and initiatives through which the people of the United States and Japan will work together to strengthen the U.S.-Japan Alliance and build a free and open Indo-Pacific:

I. Bilateral Security and Defense Cooperation

Cooperation for Cross-Domain Operations

Emphasizing the integral role of space in full spectrum cross-domain operations, the Ministers stressed the importance of deepening cooperation on space capabilities to strengthen mission assurance, interoperability, and operational cooperation. Both sides recognized the benefits of cooperation on space situational awareness (SSA) and highlighted Japan's development of a Deep Space Radar and the opportunity to host U.S.-provided SSA payloads on Japan's Quasi Zenith Satellite System planned for launch in 2023. The Ministers also underscored their interest in identifying ways to support alliance needs by leveraging emerging, innovative space concepts.

The Ministers determined to bolster capability and enhance their respective integrated defense for both air and missile threats, including through the timely and smooth deployment of Japan's Aegis Ashore. The Ministers also shared their concerns about the proliferation of intermediate-range missiles worldwide and committed to working together to address this growing threat.

Enhancing the Alliance's Capabilities

The Ministers reiterated the importance of modernizing and adapting the Alliance's capabilities to meet both current and future needs, including through the introduction of advanced weapon systems to Japan such as F-35, E-2D, V-22, stand-off missiles, and Aegis Ashore. The United States welcomed Japan's decision to utilize a multi-year budgeting process to purchase nine E-2D aircraft. The Ministers recognized the importance of utilizing multi-year budgeting, and ensuring cost transparency as well as early and effective case closures to further streamline the foreign military sales process.

To enhance interoperability, the Ministers reaffirmed the intent to promote the standardization of defense equipment, sharing of defense networks, and cooperation on emerging technologies. The Ministers welcomed progress on the SM-3 Block IIA and its anticipated shift to the production phase, as well as the expedited cooperative research process for amphibious operational technologies.

Cognizant of the fact that the Alliance's technological advantage must be safeguarded from our adversaries at all times, the Ministers committed to strengthen and enhance information security practices across the whole of government to protect classified information, maintain technological superiority, and preserve our shared economic and defense advantages in the face of evolving threats to the Japan-U.S. Alliance. The Ministers emphasized the need for greater supply chain security, noting threats to the defense industrial base, national networks, and critical infrastructure required for mission assurance.

Operational Readiness and Cooperation

The Ministers committed to deepen operational cooperation as a means to improve Alliance readiness, interoperability, and deterrence, which are critical components for both peacetime and contingency operations. As a result, the Ministers welcomed the steady implementation of mutual asset protection; bilateral presence and joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance operations; increased scope of logistical support under the Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement; and ongoing exchange of liaison officers.

The Ministers also reaffirmed that the two Governments would promote joint/shared use of the facilities of the Self-Defense Forces of Japan and U.S. Forces, in addition to operational training areas, to enhance interoperability, deterrence, and response capability, and to build a stronger relationship with local communities. The Ministers welcomed steady progress in both bilateral planning and cooperation on non-combatant evacuation operations.

II. U.S. Forces in Japan

The Ministers reaffirmed the two Governments' commitment to steadily implement the realignment of U.S. forces in order to improve operational readiness and deterrent capabilities, while continuing efforts to mitigate the impact on local communities. The Ministers welcomed initiatives to build and strengthen U.S. forces' community relations programs.

The Ministers welcomed the progress on facility improvements of Nyutabaru Air Base and Tsuiki Air Base of the Air Self-Defense Force for contingency use of aircraft.

The Ministers welcomed the relocation of the carrier air wing squadrons from Atsugi Air Facility to MCAS Iwakuni last year. The United States also expressed appreciation for the Government of Japan's continued efforts to acquire Mageshima for a new SDF facility. This facility will support operations such as large-scale disaster response as well as regular exercises and other activities, including as a permanent field carrier landing practice (FCLP) site for use by U.S. forces. The United States reiterated that a permanent FCLP facility will greatly contribute to the safe operation and training of U.S. forces. The Ministers expressed their intention to work closely in order to complete the development of the permanent facility at the earliest possible date.

The Ministers welcomed progress in the steady implementation of the Guam International Agreement, and the planned relocation of approximately 9,000 U.S. Marine Corps personnel from Okinawa to locations outside of Japan. They reconfirmed the plan to begin the relocation to Guam in the first half of the 2020s.

The Ministers recognized the importance of aviation safety and addressing public concerns related to this issue. The Ministers committed to facilitate prompt exchanges of information, and to continue a regular bilateral dialogue regarding aviation safety. Both sides recognized the necessity of all training, including aviation training, to maintain the highest levels of readiness and capabilities for the Alliance.

III. Working with Partners for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

The Ministers reiterated their support for ASEAN centrality and unity and their commitment to multilateral cooperation in Southeast Asia, including through joint training and exercises, capacity building, defense equipment and technology cooperation, and support for ASEAN-related architecture, including the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum, and the ASEAN Defense Minister's Meeting Plus. To support the autonomous and sustainable development of countries in the Mekong region, the Ministers committed to work closely in support of regional countries to address shared transboundary challenges, including transnational crime and trafficking, regional connectivity, energy security, and enhanced energy system integration.

The Ministers welcomed continued cooperation and high-level consultation among the United States, Japan, and Australia, including through the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue, and noted the importance of trilateral joint exercises and capacity building in Southeast Asian and Pacific island countries. The Ministers also noted with satisfaction the first Japan-U.S.-India trilateral summit meeting in 2018 and highlighted significant joint exercises, such as Malabar 2018 and Cope India 2018. Building upon these various trilateral efforts, the Ministers welcomed the regularization of quadrilateral engagement among Japan, the United States, Australia, and India. The Ministers also welcomed the increasing regional presence of the United Kingdom and France, and called for further cooperation in areas including activities in support of freedom of navigation, port calls, and countering illicit ship-to-ship transfers.

The Ministers called for full respect for freedoms of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea, and reiterated the importance of activities that support those principles. The Ministers urged all parties to pursue demilitarization of disputed features in the SCS, resolve all maritime disputes peacefully without resorting to the threat or use of force, clarify their maritime claims in accordance with the international law of the sea as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, and fully respect legal and diplomatic processes.

The Ministers underscored the importance of the July 2016 Philippines-China Arbitral Tribunal's Award for the two parties. The Ministers also emphasized the importance of a Code of Conduct in the SCS that is in full accordance with international law and upholds the right of ASEAN member states to partner with countries and foreign entities of their choosing, including with respect to hydrocarbon development and military exercises.

IV. Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games

The Ministers confirmed that the two Governments intend to continue to work closely together through a whole-of-government effort toward a successful Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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Warring sides in Libya claim progress as clashes intensify south of Tripoli

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 05:57PM

Heavy clashes have been reported between forces of Libya's UN-backed government defending Tripoli and the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), led by strongman Khalifa Haftar, which has launched an offensive to conquer the capital and oust the government there.

The country has been divided between two rival governments, the House of Representatives, based in the eastern city of Tobruk, and the internationally-recognized government of Fayez al-Serraj, or the Tripoli-based unity Government of National Accord (GNA).

Haftar, who is presumably loyal to the government in the east, commenced his deadly campaign on April 4 to invade and conquer Tripoli, the seat of the GNA, resulting in repeated fierce clashes on the southern edges of the capital.

Haftar's offensive has already been met with reproach from Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, and the UN Security Council (UNSC).

"We have launched a new phase of attack. Orders were given early this morning to advance and gain ground," said Mustafa al-Mejii, a GNA spokesman, on Saturday.

Reports said sounds of rocket and shell fire could be heard in a number of neighborhoods of Tripoli since morning, after several days of less intense fighting on the ground.

Both sides claim progress in southern parts of the capital.

At least seven airstrikes were conducted by GNA forces against military positions held by Haftar's forces, said GNA's military spokesman Colonel Mohammad Gnounou. He added that the strikes hit positions south of Gharian, 100 kilometers southwest of Tripoli, and also an airbase at al-Wotya, 50 kilometers further southwest.

The LNA, for its part, claimed that its forces were "taking control of several new positions on the frontlines in Tripoli." It added that its fighters had made GNA forces retreat "on all fronts."

A 75-year-old self-styled general, Haftar enjoys the loyalty of a group of armed militia, collectively known as the LNA, and backing from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt.

Armed forces and militia loyal to the GNA have been fighting back.

The spike in clashes came after the White House on Friday said that US President Donald Trump had personally discussed the situation in Tripoli with Haftar on the phone earlier this week.

The disclosure of the call also prompted thousands of people in Tripoli to hold a protest against the US president.

On Thursday, the UN envoy for Libya Ghassan Salame warned of "a widening conflagration" in the country.

He also referred to "countries that have invested in Mr. Haftar as a champion of the fight against terrorism," without naming them.

UN divided on Libya crisis

On Wednesday, the UNSC was divided on how to defuse the crisis after fresh talks on a draft resolution demanding a truce in Tripoli failed to yield an agreement.

During the Council's session, Germany, which holds its presidency, proposed the draft resolution but Russia and South Africa opposed it, arguing that Haftar's offensive is unlikely to produce a humanitarian crisis.

On Thursday, Russia and the US opposed a British bid backed by France and Germany at the Council to demand a truce in Libya.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the fighting has so far killed at least 220 people and wounded more than 1,000 others.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) also reported that more than 25,000 people have been displaced by the clashes.

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Trump talks to Haftar on phone, Libyans protest against foreign intervention

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 09:30AM

Thousands of people have taken to streets in the Libyan capital against US President Donald Trump, who branded self-styled commander Khalifa Haftar's offensive in Tripoli as a "war against terrorism."

At least 2,000 people protested in Tripoli's central Martyrs' Square on Friday, carrying signs against the interference of foreign countries in Libyan affairs.

The protest came after the White House revealed in a statement on Friday that Trump had personally discussed the situation in Tripoli with Haftar on phone earlier this week.

Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive early this month against Tripoli to unseat the internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.

The attack has prompted intense fighting between Haftar's forces and those loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA), threatening to push the country into a fully-grown civil war.

The fighting has killed more than 200 people and left 614 others wounded, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The White House statement said Trump "recognized Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources."

The LNA has almost two-thirds of the country and all oilfields under its control, and some observers see the West's urge to court Haftar driven by their thirst for Libya's oil.

This is while the United Nations has characterized Haftar's push on Tripoli as an attempted coup and warned of a serious upshot.

Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan said Friday he supported Haftar's "role in counterterrorism", saying Washington needed his "support in building democratic stability there in the region."

A research fellow at the Clingendael Institute, an international relations think tank in the Hague, said the Trump conversation with Haftar was tantamount to supporting his operation.

The conversation creates "an environment where a military intervention by foreign states, like Egypt, is likelier," he said.

"One reason behind Trump's phone call is that Haftar's army has revealed itself less powerful than the Libyan strongman had claimed," said Jalel Harchaoui.

Haftar, who was among the officers who helped former dictator Muammar Gaddafi to power in 1969, lived for some 20 years in the US state of Virginia.

He later returned to Libya in 2011 to join an uprising and a NATO military intervention which ousted Gaddafi. The country has since been the scene of increasing violence.

France, which also supports Haftar, played the leading role in the military campaign by NATO.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also supported Haftar's offensive against Tripoli's UN-recognized government.

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Libya's LNA: Trump-Haftar Talks Show US Recognizes LNA's Role in Anti-Terrorism

Sputnik News

05:43 20.04.2019(updated 05:45 20.04.2019)

CAIRO (Sputnik)  The recent talks between US President Donald Trump with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), show the US recognition of the LNA's role in fighting terrorism, the LNA spokesman, Ahmed Mismari, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia.

"Trump's words mean that the United States is convinced that the Libyan Army plays a pivotal role in fighting against terrorism," Mismari said in an interview, released on Friday.

The spokesman added that the talks between Trump and Haftar would have "a positive role in fighting extremists."

The White House said on Friday that Haftar and Trump spoke this week to address the ongoing counterterrorism efforts taken by the LNA. According to the presidential administration, Trump recognized Haftar's role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources.

Since April 4, the LNA has been waging what it calls an anti-terrorism offensive in Libya. The forces, which support the parliament, based in eastern Libya, seek to recapture Tripoli from the forces backing the rival Government of National Accord, installed in the west of the country.

 Sputnik

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Pakistan Says Iran-Based Group Behind Deadly Attack

April 20, 2019

Pakistan has urged Iran to take action against terrorist groups believed to be behind the killing of 14 soldiers earlier this week.

"We hope that Iran will take visible action," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said during an April 20 press conference.

Qureshi said 15 gunmen wearing military uniforms ambushed a bus in southwestern Balochistan Province on April 18, killing 14 Pakistani Army personnel.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a letter to the Iranian government that the assailants came from an alliance of three Baluch terrorist organizations based in Iran.

The announcement came a day before Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to Iran.

Qureshi told reporters that the planned two-day visit, beginning on April 21, was intact and that Khan would take up the matter with Iranian authorities.

Qureshi said he spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on April 20 to share the initial findings of a Pakistani probe into the killing of security personnel with him.

There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.

Earlier this year, Iran called on Pakistan to take action against a militant group behind a deadly attack on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Twenty-seven IRGC members were killed in the February suicide car bombing near the border with Pakistan.

The Sunni Muslim extremist group Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack in southeastern Iran.

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-says-iran-based-group -behind-deadly-attack/29893435.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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Pakistan: Iran-Based Militants Behind Slaying of Security Personnel

By Ayaz Gul April 20, 2019

Pakistan alleged Saturday that anti-state militants operating out of "terrorist camps" inside Iran are behind this week's slaying of 14 security personnel in a remote southwestern Pakistani region, and Islamabad has formally shared "credible" evidence with Tehran so action can be taken against the perpetrators.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi revealed the details at news conference in the Pakistani capital, saying Prime Minister Imran Khan will further discuss the issue with Iranian leaders during his first official visit to the neighboring country that begins Sunday.

The deadly attack happened Thursday in the Gwadar border district, where officials say a group of up to 20 assailants disguised as Pakistani paramilitary forces stopped several passenger buses on the coastal highway, and then went through identification cards of all the passengers before abducting and spraying 14 of them with bullets.

Qureshi said the slain men included 10 navy personnel, three air force officers and a coast guard official. He noted that assailants linked to a newly-formed alliance of three ethnic Baluch "terrorist organizations" carried out the "dastardly act" before returning to their "training and logistical camps" on the Iranian side of the border.

"After collecting and verifying actionable evidence through our internal investigations, we have shared it with authorities in Iran. We have also identified location of these camps and expect that our brotherly neighbor Iran will take action against these organizations," the Pakistani foreign minister said.

The militant coalition Bras (meaning brothers in local language) took responsibility for the highway violence. It also has plotted attacks against Pakistani security forces, as well as government installations in violence-hit Baluchistan province, where Gwadar is located. The natural-resource rich Pakistani region also borders Afghanistan.

Qureshi said he telephoned Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif earlier in the day and received solid assurances from Zarif that Tehran is ready to fully cooperate with Islamabad to bring the militants to justice.

The Pakistani foreign minister said the two sides agreed to bolster security along their common border of more than 900-kilometers to stop terrorist infiltration in either direction. He explained that in addition to deploying additional forces and helicopter surveillance, Pakistan already has begun fencing the "most vulnerable" portions of the border with Iran.

For its part, Tehran routinely alleges that Jaish-e-Adl, a dissident Sunni militant organization of Iranian Baluch, uses hideouts on Pakistani soil to orchestrate "terrorist" violence in its border region known as Sistan-Baluchistan.

Qureshi said Saturday that Pakistani security forces, acting on Iranian request, recently rescued and sent back home nine of the 12 Iranian border guards who had been abducted and brought to the Pakistani side of the border.

Jaish-e-Adl took responsibly for the hostage taking. Iran alleges the terrorist organization receives support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, charges both countries reject.

Foreign minister Qureshi also called on Afghan authorities to act against Baluch fugitives, saying Pakistan has "concrete" evidence the militants also are using the neighboring country's soil to plot cross-border terrorism. Kabul did not offer any immediate reaction to the charges but it previously has denied such allegations made by Islamabad.

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Kosovo brings back Daesh militants, family members from Syria

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 05:57PM

Kosovo has repatriated 110 of its citizens from Syria, including women and their children as well as militants who had gone to the war-torn Arab country to join the ranks of foreign-sponsored terrorist groups there.

"Today in the early hours of the morning an important and sensitive operation was organized in which the government of Kosovo, with the help of the United States of America, has returned 110 of its citizens who were in war zones in Syria," Kosovan Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri said at a press conference on Saturday.

Tahiri did not elaborate on Washington's role in the repatriation, but a plane with a US flag on its tail was seen in the cargo area of Pristina Adem Jashari International Airport as the operation was in process.

"We will not stop before bringing every citizen of the Republic of Kosovo back to their country and anyone that has committed any crime or was part of these terrorist organizations will face justice. I will say one more thing: as the government of the Republic of Kosovo, we cannot allow for our citizens to be a threat to the West and to our allies," the justice minister noted.

After several hours at the airport, the group was transported under police escort to an army barracks just outside the capital.

Health services director Naser Ramadani said "women and children have suffered serious trauma."

Authorities said among the returnees were four men suspected of having fought for Daesh, 32 women as well as 74 children. Nine of the children were not accompanied by a parent.

Chief prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi told reporters that the four men suspects had been immediately arrested, and charged upon arrival in Pristina with participating in a foreign conflict. He stressed that indictments against them will soon follow.

Police chief Rashit Qalaj said authorities believed that 30 Kosovar militants, 49 women and 8 children still remained in conflict zones in Syria.

Some 300 Kosovars joined terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, according to the southeastern European country's interior ministry and around 70 have been killed while an estimated 120 have returned home. Most of the returnees have been arrested and charged with terrorism upon their arrival.

Kosovo, whose population of 1.8 million is 90 percent Muslim, is reportedly one of the European countries with a high number of militants in Iraq and Syria.

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Syrian president, Russian deputy PM discuss post-war economic revival

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 02:59PM

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov have discussed a constitutional committee meant to draft the Arab country's new constitution as well as Moscow's efforts to revive the war-ravaged nation's economy.

During a meeting in the Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday, President Assad and Borisov exchanged views about ways to improve bilateral cooperation in all fields at different levels and the agreements signed between the two countries in the energy, industry, and trade sectors, the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA reported.

It added that the two sides also reviewed feasible mechanisms to overcome all the obstacles facing the implementation of the agreements, including the West's sanctions on Syria, and to promote cooperation in new sectors in a way that would serve the interests of the two nations.

Borisov, who is also the chairman of the Joint Syrian-Russian Committee for Trade, Economy, Science and Technology Cooperation, briefed President Assad on the implementation of the agreements and the obstacles hindering their fulfillment.

He expressed his country's intention to further support Syria against terrorism until the menace is totally eliminated and security and stability are fully restored to Syria.

Moscow is determined to play a role in Syria's reconstruction process and to support it in difficult circumstances caused by the economic and terror wars against the country, the Russian envoy pointed out.

"After our meeting in December, we proceeded within the [framework of the] reached agreements and so far expect no breakdowns of planned actions. I am convinced that all our efforts aimed at Syria's economic revival will be successful," Borisov said.

Back in December, Borisov's office said that the diplomat had discussed industrial, medical, and energy cooperation with President Assad in Damascus.

"The range of questions discussed with the Syrian leader included political affairs, Russia's participation in Syria's postwar reconstruction and restoration of life to normal, and cooperation in industry, medicine, energy and other branches of the economy," Borisov's office said.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.

Syria FM, Russia deputy PM discuss economic ties

Meanwhile, the Russian deputy prime minister and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem also discussed the promotion of bilateral cooperation in different sectors.

They stressed the importance of enhancing economic cooperation in line with political and military ties until reaching a strategic partnership in a way that would benefit the two nations' common interests.

During a meeting with the Russian president's special envoy Alexander Lavrentiev in Damascus earlier on Saturday, President Assad called for progress in stalled talks on a so-called buffer zone around militant-held Idlib province in the country's northwest.

The Syrian president also stressed his government's determination to eliminate terrorist groups that are holed up in Idlib and attack civilians in neighboring areas.

President Assad's meeting with the Russian diplomat came ahead of fresh Syria talks aimed at ending the conflict in the war-torn country. The new round of Syria negotiations are scheduled to be held on April 25 and 26 in Kazakhstan.

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Foreign-backed terrorists kill over 60 soldiers east of Syria: Report

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 01:20PM

Foreign-backed terrorists have reportedly killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers in the eastern parts of the Arab country over the past 48 hours.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Statuary that Takfiri Daesh terrorists had killed some 35 soldiers in government-held parts of central and eastern Syria since Thursday.

This included some 27 troops, among them four Syrian army officers, who were killed in the desert east of the central province of Homs as well as eight others who died in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, the group said.

The Britain-based monitoring group described the attack as the deadliest against Syrian government forces in recent months.

It also said that terrorists associated with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, attacked Syrian forces outside the northwestern region of Idlib on Saturday, killing 26 of them.

Daesh, which once held large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq, has now been completely defeated in both Arab countries and has lost almost all of its occupied territories.

The terror group holds a tiny pocket of territory in the vast Syrian Desert, known as Badia, near the Iraq border. The terrorists use unpopulated areas of Badia as their hideouts to carry out hit-and-run attacks on Syrian troops.



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Syrian president calls for progress in stalled talks on Idlib buffer zone

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 01:09AM

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called for progress in stalled talks on a so-called buffer zone around militant-held Idlib province in the country's northwest.

Assad made the remarks in a meeting with the Russian president's special envoy Alexander Lavrentiev in Damascus.

The Syrian president also stressed his government's determination to eliminate terrorist groups which are holed up in Idlib and attack civilians in neighboring areas.

He also called for the removal of any "obstacles" blocking the full implementation of the deal, the presidency wrote on Facebook.

Turkey and Russia brokered a deal in September 2018 to create a demilitarized zone in Idlib that would be evacuated of all heavy weapons and militants.

Assad's meeting with the Russian diplomat came ahead of fresh Syria talks aimed at ending the conflict in the war-torn country. The new round of Syria negotiations are scheduled to be held on April 25 and 26 in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.

The Syrian president's call for progress in talks and elimination of terrorist groups holed up in Idlib comes as the situation in the militant-held province is being described as "dangerous".

"The situation in the Syrian province [of Idlib] is very dangerous, and the Nusra Front terrorist group  which is not part of a de-escalation zone  is controlling a majority of the province's regions," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned last month.

Russia has also warned that al-Qaeda-inspired terrorists and the Western-backed White Helmets "aid" group are gearing up for a false flag chemical attack in Idlib, the last major militant stronghold in the Arab state.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Thursday that terrorists with the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, better known as al-Nusra Front, "along with the White Helmets, are preparing for further provocations aimed at accusing the legitimate government in Syria of using poisonous substances."

Idlib, located in northwestern Syria, remains the only large area in the hands of anti-Damascus militants after government forces -- backed by Iran and Russia -- managed to undo militant gains across the country and bring back almost all of Syrian soil under government control.

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Kosovo Says 110, Including Four IS Fighters, Repatriated From Syria

By RFE/RL's Balkan Service April 20, 2019

Officials in Kosovo say 110 citizens have been returned to the country from Syria, including four alleged fighters with the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

The four fighters were immediately arrested and the state prosecutor said indictments against them will soon follow.

Kosovar police chief Rashit Qalaj said at a news conference on April 20 that 32 women and 74 children, including nine who had lost their parents during the conflict in Syria, were among the returnees.

Qalaj said there were still 30 fighters as well as 49 women and eight children in Syria.

Speaking at the press conference in Pristina, the justice minister said authorities had worked for months to return the 110 citizens from Syria.

Abelrad Tahiri said the move had been done in close coordination with the United States.

The U.S. Embassy in Pristina welcomed the repatriation in an April 20 statement.

"With this repatriation, Kosovo has set an important example for all members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and the international community to follow," the statement said.

"We applaud their compassion in accepting the return of this large number of civilians."

The returnees landed aboard a plane at the Pristina airport late on April 19.

Reuters news agency reported that counterterrorism police were guarding the airport's cargo building and an airplane carrying the U.S. flag was seen at the airport, although it was not immediately known if the craft had transported the individuals from Syria.

Since 2012, some 400 citizens of Muslim-majority Kosovo have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight on the side of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

More than 70 of them have been killed, while many remain in the region.

In February, Kosovar police said that 44 women and 48 children were still in the Syria conflict zone.

At that time, police said 56 citizens from Kosovo were still believed to be in the region fighting for IS.

Under Kosovar law, any person who participates in foreign wars faces 15 years in prison.

IS captured wide swaths of territory from the Syrian and Iraqi governments in 2014, declaring a so-called "caliphate" there.

U.S.-backed forces helped drive the extremists from both countries, with only a few still holding out in small pockets of captured areas.

Countries in Europe and elsewhere have reported that hundreds of their citizens left to fight for IS and other extremist groups in the Middle East.

Some have been killed, others captured, and still others have attempted to return to their home countries, worrying officials about radicalized groups of returnees.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo- relatives-is-fighters-return-from- syria/29892911.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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MOFA looking to aftermath of U.S.-Japan security meeting

ROC Central News Agency

2019/04/20 17:00:07

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Saturday it will keep a close eye on the regional situation after the United States and Japan agreed at a security meeting Friday to oppose any unilateral action to alter the status quo in the East China Sea.

In a statement, the MOFA said it had a positive view of the latest session of the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee held in Washington because the two countries focused heavily on regional issues.

The ministry said it will continue to watch developments in the region after Washington and Tokyo reaffirmed that Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. security treaty applies to the Diaoyutai Islands, a disputed group of islets in the East China Sea.

Article 5 stipulates that an armed assault on Japan or U.S. troops based in Japan would trigger action by the U.S. under the agreement to guarantee the safety of its ally.

MOFA said that as a responsible stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to continue to serve as a driver of regional peace, stability and prosperity.

The U.S. Department of Defense said on its website that the U.S.-Japan alliance has become "the cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and remains iron-clad amid an increasingly complex security environment."

Officials from the U.S. and Japan at the security meeting expressed their strong opposition to unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the South China Sea, which was perceived as a veiled criticism of Beijing's efforts to build up its military clout in the disputed area.

In addition, the U.S. and Japan also vowed that both sides will strengthen coordination efforts -- both bilaterally and multilaterally -- to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The Diaoyutai Islands, also known as the Senkakus in Tokyo, are administered and controlled by Japan but also claimed by Taiwan and China. China often dispatches patrol boats to the waters off the Diaoyutai Islands, which has raised alarms in Tokyo.

(By Elaine Hou and Frances Huang)

Enditem/ls

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Turkey understands NATO's concerns on Russian missile deal: FM

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 14:45, April 20, 2019

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that Turkey understands NATO's concerns over its procurement of the Russian S-400 air defense missiles.

"We are aware of NATO's concerns. It is not right to say that Turkey is not considering them," Cavusoglu said at a press conference with his Romanian and Polish counterparts in Ankara, adding that Turkey needs air defense systems urgently.

His remarks came after the U.S. government claimed that Turkey's adoption of Russian missiles could cause security risk on F-35 jets and NATO defense system, and threatened to suspend the sale of F-35 jets to Turkey unless it scraps the S-400 deal.

Cavusoglu said that Turkey offered the United States to form a working group to determine whether the S-400 missiles pose a threat to the F-35 fighter jets.

"There are S-400s in Syria and F-35 jets have flown over them repeatedly. If those claims are true, the missile systems would have already gathered enough information about the aircraft," Cavusoglu said.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that Turkey's procurement of the Russian S-400 air defense systems is a national security deal, criticizing the United States for halting the F-35 deliveries.

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Russia to be Turkey's 'First Choice' if Ankara Ousted From F-35 Project  Report

Sputnik News

11:07 20.04.2019(updated 11:09 20.04.2019)

Turkey and the United States have been at loggerheads over Ankara's decision to acquire Russia-built S-400 air defence systems, which prompted Washington to suspend its delivery of F-35 fighter jet parts to Turkey.

Turkey will pursue Russian fighter jet technology should the United States boot out Ankara from the multinational group developing the F-35 Lightning II, Defense News reported citing an unnamed Turkish official.

"Russian fighter technology would be the first best choice if our American allies behaved in an un-allied way and questioned Turkey's membership in the Joint Strike Fighter programme", a senior military officer told the media outlet.

Washington has been pressuring its NATO ally to abandon the S-400 deal with Russia, threatening to expel Ankara from the F-35 programme and introduce sanctions under the 2017 Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

If Turkey accepts the S-400, "no F-35s will ever reach the Turkish soil. And Turkish participation in the F-35 programme, including manufacturing parts, repairing and servicing the fighters, will be terminated, taking Turkish companies out of the manufacturing and supply chain for the programme", a group of bipartisan lawmakers from the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote in early April.

This month, the Pentagon announced that it had frozen deliveries and activities with Ankara concerning the F-35 project over the Turkish side's decision to purchase the S-400.

Addressing the controversy, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated on Friday that Ankara had been unable to receive such systems from its NATO allies for some 10 years, and that Russia's air defence systems do not pose a threat to US fifth-generation stealth fighter jets:

"The United States says that S-400 will increase the vulnerability of F-35 aircraft. We do not think so but let the experts express their opinion. We have proposed to create a joint commission, if they are so concerned about that. However, we have not received a response from the United States so far".

Cavusoglu stressed that the S-400s will be under Ankara's total control and insisted that Turkey's NATO allies "must understand that we need air defence systems very urgently, and if we do not receive them from our allies, then we will take them where we can".

Washington has repeatedly voiced concerns that if Turkey acquires both S-400s and F-35s, it will jeopardise US or NATO military equipment, since it would allegedly provide Russian experts with key insights into sensitive information related to the warplane's technology.

Ankara, for its part, has maintained that the S-400s were not connected to the security of NATO, the US or the F-35 in any way, and the decision to purchase the systems "does not target a third country".

Russia and Turkey sealed the $2.5 billion S-400 deal in December 2017, having signed a loan agreement for the shipment of a total of four batteries. The first delivery is scheduled for July 2019, according to Turkish authorities.

 Sputnik

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Following in France's Footsteps, UK Sends Apache Helicopters to Russian Border

Sputnik News

21:55 20.04.2019(updated 22:05 20.04.2019)

Earlier, France sent around 300 soldiers, five tanks, and 20 infantry fighting vehicles to a military base located near the Russian border with the Baltic States in a bid to boost NATO's presence in the region.

Five AH-64 Apache attack helicopters of the British Royal Force have arrived to the Amari Air Base in Estonia as a part of a wider NATO deployment in the Baltic region, press service of the Estonian Defence Forces stated Saturday. The helicopters are expected to take part in the Spring Storm NATO drills and cover the alliance's contingency at the military base near Tapa in Estonia, a city located around 140 kilometres from the Russian border.

The redeployed helicopters will soon carry out their first flights in Estonian airspace, before they join exercises with four British AW159 Wildcat multirole helicopters, which arrived at the base earlier.

Previously, the French Embassy in Tallinn announced the arrival of a unit of 300 soldiers from the French Army and Foreign Legion in the Estonian town of Tapa. The troops will stay in Estonia until the end of August as a part of the FRA-EFP LYNX mission, which is aimed at boosting the alliance's presence in the region. Paris will also deploy five Leclerc tanks and 20 infantry fighting vehicles, including 13 VBCIs, which is a French version of Multi-Role Armoured Vehicles (MRAV). They will be transported to Estonia by rail.

Moscow has repeatedly voiced alarm over NATO's unprecedented activities and boosting its presence in the region, citing the alleged "Russian threat". The Kremlin earlier stated that Russia poses no threat to anyone, but will not leave any potentially dangerous activities without attention.

The alliance has considerably beefed up its presence near Russia in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukraine crisis, deploying battle groups, staging major exercises, and deploying reconnaissance aircraft and drones along the border.

 Sputnik

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Ukraine opposition figure urges presidential candidate to reconcile with Russia

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 20, 2019 07:51AM

A pro-Russian opposition figure in Ukraine calls on presidential frontrunner Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is expected to easily win an election runoff, to reconcile with Moscow and get back eastern Ukraine.

Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the political council of the political party Opposition Platform - For Life, outlined the prospect in an interview before the election runoff on Sunday, saying Zelenskiy could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of Ukraine.

Polls suggest the 41-year-old comedian and actor is due to score an overwhelming victory over Western-backed incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

"They don't have any expectations in Moscow," Medvedchuk said. "They want to see what happens afterwards, who will be in his (Zelenskiy's) entourage and what he will do and with whom."

A deadly war has battered Ukraine's industrial east over the past four years, although there has been a relative calm in the area in the recent past.

The war broke out in Ukraine in early 2014 after pro-Russian protests erupted in eastern cities and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea re-joined Russia following a referendum. The West brands the unification as annexation of the territory by Russia.

Kiev and its Western allies also accuse Moscow of supporting pro-Russian militia in eastern Ukraine, an allegation the Kremlin vehemently denies.

The pro-Russians have turned the two regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east  collectively known as the Donbass  into self-proclaimed republics.

An agreement on how to implement a peace deal over eastern Ukraine could be reached "within several months" and implemented on the ground within "six to eight months," said Medvedchuk.

Russia has reacted to the runoff votes, saying it was watching candidates' statements closely and hoped any new president could implement a peace deal on Donbass.

Asked about Medvedchuk's advice for Ukraine's new president on Friday, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, called him "very active" and "important" when it came to his humanitarian work as an intermediary between Moscow and Kiev.

"We would always like to hope for the best. Of course we want to hope that the person who is elected Ukraine's president will not be from the party of war. And we want to hope that this person will take a different perspective on relations between Ukraine and Russia," Peskov said.

Zelenskiy has so far said he seeks peace in the east and wants to breathe a new life into the stalled talks.

In September 2014, Kiev and the pro-Russia forces signed an EU-brokered ceasefire agreement in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in a bid to halt fighting in Ukraine's eastern regions.

The warring sides also inked another truce agreement, dubbed Minsk II, in February 2015 under the supervision of Russia, Germany, and France.

The fragile ceasefire has frequently been violated, with Kiev and the militants blaming each other.

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Poroshenko Faces Tough Test As Ukraine Votes In Second-Round Presidential Poll

By Crimea Desk, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service April 20, 2019

KYIV -- Voters in Ukraine are going to the polls on April 21 in a second-round presidential election that could seal the political fate of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

Polls showed Poroshenko's rival, 41-year-old comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, with a substantial lead as campaigning wound down.

A survey released on April 18 by the Reiting research group found that 57.9 percent of voters say they will definitely vote to support Zelenskiy, with 21.7 percent saying they plan to vote for Poroshenko.

Zelenskiy, who has run his campaign mostly on social media and has largely avoided substantial policy discussions, has benefited from Ukraine's slumping economy, endemic corruption, and fatigue over Kyiv's five-year-long war against Russia-backed separatist formations in parts of eastern Ukraine.

"I'm not a politician," Zelenskiy said during a sometimes-heated debate between the two candidates at Kyiv's Olimpiyskiy Stadium on April 19. "I'm just an ordinary person who has come to break the system."

For his part, Poroshenko, 53, has tried to play up Zelenskiy's lack of experience, saying he would be unable to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"You'd be a weak head of state," Poroshenko told his rival at the April 19 debate, "who would be unable to defend himself from Putin's blows. I don't believe [Zelenskiy] dreams of surrendering Ukraine, of dragging Ukraine back into the Russian Empire, but Putin has such a dream."

Zelenskiy won the first round of the election on March 31, picking up 30 percent. Poroshenko polled 16 percent to come in second.

Zelenskiy has said he supports Ukraine's eventual membership in NATO, but only if it is approved by a referendum. He has insisted that Russia must return the Black Sea region of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and pay reparations.

He has called for direct talks with Russia over the conflict in eastern Ukraine. In the past, Moscow has rejected such proposals, claiming the conflict  which has claimed more than 13,000 lives -- is an internal matter for Ukraine and urging Kyiv to negotiate with representatives of the Moscow-backed separatist formations.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled in November 2016 that the war in eastern Ukraine is "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."

At a Kyiv campaign rally on April 18, Poroshenko warned the country it would be "very risky to experiment with the post of president and commander-in-chief" at this time. He asked voters to give him a second, five-year term.

"I once again ask you to forgive me," Poroshenko said. "What did not work out is what hurts the most."

Poroshenko's supporters give him credit for strengthening the depleted military that he inherited from pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country in 2014 amid massive protests.

He also signed an association agreement with the European Union and secured visa-free travel for Ukrainians to the EU. He pushed successfully for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as independent of the Moscow Patriarchate.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/poroshenko-faces -zelenskiy-second-round-ukraine- presidential-vote/29893693.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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24 MWs of Owned Solar Projects at 85% Average Plant EBITDA Margins

New York, NY, April 15, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Alternus Energy Inc. (OTC: ALTN ) (the Company or Alternus), a global renewable energy company, today announced the Company's financial results for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Key Financial Highlights for 2018:

Revenues increased by 4% to $2.6 million

EBITDA increased 206% to $0.7 million

Net loss decreased by 23% to $1.2 million

Secured $20 million growth capital debt facility

Secured European government counter-party contracts for 15-20 years, delivering long-term predictable positive cash flows for the business

Key Business Highlights for 2018:

Corporate name change to Alternus Energy Inc.

Expanded operations to include Germany, Italy and Romania

24MWs of owned solar projects at December 31, up from 7.7MWs for prior year

Acquired 25 solar projects totaling 9.6MW of installed power across Germany, representing approximately $18 million of fixed price contractual revenues over next 20 years

Completed the purchase of the Liquid Sun operating solar projects in Italy with installed power of 2.2MW generating approximately $0.7 million of additional annual revenues to Alternus with over 85% operating margins

Sold 1MW asset in Italy, reducing short-term debt by $3.5 million

Executed exclusive framework agreement with leading developer in Germany to acquire at least 200MWs of solar projects over 3 years

Engaged Marcum accounting firm for annual audits

The newly acquired parks in Germany and Italy benefit from feed-in-tariff (FiT) government incentives that guaranty a fixed sales price for every megawatt of energy that the parks generate over twenty years from the date of construction. As a result, Alternus has a contracted revenue backlog of approximately $4.8 million over the next 15 years.

2019 Outlook:

Given that the Companys business operations are secured by 15-20 year counter-party contracts and has long-term predictable positive cash flows, there is a high degree of visibility of cashflows in our business model. Based on our current business development pipeline, backlog and contracts, the Company continues to expand in Germany and expects to add an additional 40  60MWs to its existing 10MWs. Negotiations are ongoing to acquire an additional 18MW of operational parks from an existing partner in Italy, and the Company is now expanding into The Netherlands with agreements to acquire up to 24MWs of operational parks there. These additional acquisitions remain subject to reaching definitive agreement. In the event that all of the above additions conclude as expected, then the Company will finish 2019 with over 100MWs of installed power that combined, should deliver over $300 million contracted revenue backlog over the following 15  20 years.

Management Commentary

We have been building a platform for a sustainable and profitable long-term alternative energy business over the past few years, commented Vincent Browne , Alternus Energys Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman. With access to growth capital in place and a robust pipeline of solar projects, we are at a very exciting inflection point to significantly scale our business. We will continue to invest in our infrastructure and additional solar parks to increase our installed power, which will drive increases in revenue and income. In Germany we now own twenty-five individual solar parks with a combined installed power capacity of 9.6MW, representing approximately $1 million of recurring annual revenues for the next 20 years.

Mr. Browne concluded, We continue our vision to become a global independent power producer in green energy, and to do so at the lowest possible risk and highest possible returns for our shareholders. While 2018 has positioned us for success, we know this is just the beginning. We continue to execute on this plan in 2019 and build shareholder value.

Financial Results for the Year Ended December 31, 2018:

Revenue for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $2.6 million, an increase of $0.1 million or 4%, compared to $2.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Gross profit for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $1.3 million, an increase of $0.1 million, compared to $1.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The overall gross margin was 50.7% for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to 49.1% for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Selling, General and Administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2018 were $1.8 million, an increase of $0.8 million or 86%, compared to $1.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $0.7 million, an increase of $1.4 million, or 206%, compared to an EBITDA loss of $0.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Operating loss for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $1.6 million, a decrease of $0.0 million or 3%, compared to $1.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $1.2 million, a decrease of $0.4 million, or 23%, compared to $1.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The resulting EPS loss for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $(0.02) per diluted share, compared to $(0.02) per diluted share for the year ended December 31, 2017.

At December 31, 2018, Alternus had $1.0 million of cash, $8.9 million of restricted cash for Italian acquisitions, $8.0 million of construction in progress, $33.9 million of total assets, $26.3 debt, and 110.7 million common shares issued and outstanding.

About Alternus Energy Inc.

Alternus Energy Inc. is a global renewable energy company that owns and operates Utility Scale Solar parks internationally. Each solar park generates clean energy every day that is sold to national power grids under long term, government counterparty, fixed price contracts. The Company currently has operational solar parks in Germany, Italy and Romania with contracts in place to add additional solar parks in the Netherlands. For further information please go to: www.AlternusEnergy.com

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as may, "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," potential and similar statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this press release are forward-looking statements and involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about the Company and the industry in which the Company operates, but involve a number of unknown risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company's filings with the OTC Markets. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results. You are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements contained herein and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements.Supported by a new five-year, $500,000-grant from the National Science Foundation, a researcher from the University of Kansas is developing machine learning technology to monitor and prevent overheating in lithium-ion batteries.

The research will develop a foundational framework for characterizing and monitoring LiB packs spatially and temporally distributed thermal behavior, building on a multi-disciplinary synthesis of ideas from first-principles modeling, machine learning, distributed estimation, and network systems.

The work is intended to drive new knowledge advancement in:

A hybrid modeling methodology that integrates first-principles-based and data-driven machine learning models; Optimal estimation and machine learning theory based on hybrid models; and Hybrid-model-based principles, algorithms and tools for temperature field reconstruction and thermal runaway detection.

The models and algorithms will be rigorously evaluated through a mix of theoretical analysis, software-based simulation, and experimental validation using a fully instrumented PEC SBT4050 battery tester.

Nowadays these lithium-ion batteries are everyplace in our society. Theyre popular because they have many advantages, including high energy and power density, long cycle life, high voltage compared to other batteries and a low self-discharge rate. During the past decade, lithium batteries have become the most popular batteries for energy storage. But theyre vulnerable to thermal events. They can easily catch fire or have thermal explosions when ambient temperatures are high or when some internal failures occur. Thats because the lithium metal is highly reactive, and the commonly used electrolyte is flammable. Huazhen Fang

Presently, most technologies to track the temperature of lithium-ion batteries are inadequate because sensors only can read the outside surface temperature of the batteries, according to the KU researcher.

Usually, the temperature on the surface is insufficient to tell us about the state of the cell. The internal temperature would tell us more about thermodynamics. But today there are few methods to place sensors inside a battery. However, using artificial intelligence and machine learning, we can predict the temperatures inside the cell that would give us the leverage to detect its behavior. The temperature at the surface would provide abundant data to be fed to a machine-learning approach and combined with mathematical models to predict whats going on inside the cell. Huazhen Fang

Rather than assuming a uniform temperature throughout a battery, as is the case with a present-day modeling approach called lumped parameter models, Fang said his computer-learning technique could predict variations in internal temperatures inside a batterya more accurate and realistic means to calculate a batterys potential to undergo thermal runaway.

When charging or discharging, the temperature distribution is unevenusually higher inside near the electrodesbut the temperature outside on the surface is lower. Lumped models only consider even temperature distribution, but our method provides spatial-temporal reconstruction of the temperature. Huazhen Fang

Fang said data from a lithium-ion battery fed into artificial intelligence to deduce internal temperatures could be processed in the device powered by the battery, or linked to cloud computing. If a battery undergoes thermal runaway, the device would be programmed to shut down or disconnect the battery before it becomes hot enough to catch fire or trigger an explosion.

With these innovations, lithium-ion batteries could be scaled up to more industrial levels via cells that bundle hundreds of batteries together. According to Fang, lithium-ion technology increasingly could be used in massive electrical grids to store and discharge electricity generated by sustainable technologies like solar and wind.

The problem is more pressing for large systems as they face higher vulnerabilities. In large systems, if one cell catches fire, then a domino effect will devastate the entire system. Nowadays, people across the industry are thinking of developing larger-scale energy storage based on lithium-ion systems. But the thermal-safety issue could slow the pace of the use of lithium-ion batteries for future grid energy systems. If successfully accomplished, our project can help address this challenge and widen the deployment of lithium-ion battery technology to make our society more sustainable. Huazhen Fang

As part of the work under the new grant, several KU students will be trained in the battery modeling, data analysis and machine learning to develop the desired models and methods that will potentially push the thermal safety of batteries to new heights.When we received an invitation to give the Samsung Galaxy Fold a try, we immediately jumped the plane and headed to Samsungs office. There, an Astro Blue unit was waiting for us, and we already shared our initial impressions of the device. Now, however, we have the phone at HQ and we are eager to put it through its paces and see where it fits in the bigger picture.

The first thing you see when you open the box is the majestic 4:3 OLED screen in an unfolded manner. It is pretty much a standard 7.3 tablet which, thanks to Samsung, you can now put comfortably in your pocket. And when it folds for the first time and hear the thump, you instantly become Owen Wilson and start saying wow.

When you see images of the Galaxy Fold at a specific angle, you might miss the crease. But it is always there. Slight natural light on the screen reveals the bend, and in some cases, there is even a color difference between the left and right half. This is clearly something we'll have to live with until technology matures further and well see how bothersome it is during the review.

There is quite the debate among our team about when you would use the small front screen. Although it is 4.6 in diagonal, it has a 21:9 ratio, but humongous bezels around it. The obvious use case is talking - after all, the Galaxy Fold is a phone - there is no speaker on the inside, so you have to use the device folded. Even if you try to speak with a 4:3 slate next to your ear, the screen will promptly ask you to either close the Fold or use the speakers.

As to other uses - while you can do just about anything on the small screen that you can on the big one, the opinions are split if the user experience is going to be any good. After all this is a premium piece of technology and resorting to its tiny, bezel-heavy screen will always feel like a compromise.

One thing that we found worrisome is the gesture controls on the large screen. Sure, you can swipe up from the right part and go back or swipe up from the left side and see all running processes, but if you want to swipe from the middle to go home, the crease is getting in the way and that is pretty annoying. You better stick to regular controls with three software buttons.

There are plenty of cameras on the phone - one on the cover for video conversations, two on the inside for selfies and three on the back for the highest quality pictures. The rear setup on paper looks like everything you might want from a mobile device - regular shooter, coupled with a telephoto unit and an ultra-wide-angle camera.

All things considered though, the Samsung Galaxy Fold makes a first impression like no other phone in recent memory. It got the office buzzing and we are very curious to find out if everybody will be just as excited about it come the end of the review. Keep an eye on our homepage to find out!



Haiti - Politic : Jovenel Moise praises Haiti's progress to stimulate investors





During his participation in the Global Business Forum Latin America - Panama (GBF2019) in Panama https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27418-haiti-politic-jovenel-moise-in-panama.html , Haiti's President Jovenel Moise delivered a speech front the Heads of State, Fortune 500 CEOs and other important leaders and investors from Latin America and the Persian Gulf, a speech aimed at promoting progress in Haiti and stimulate the arrival of investors in the country...



Key extracts from the intervention of President Moise :



"[...] Haiti is undertaking a series of reforms in the fields of agriculture, industry, mining, tourism and real estate to improve the investment climate in the country [...]



[...] we have made enormous progress as we have focused on the restoration of road infrastructure, which allows us to connect different areas and create conditions for improving the energy sector, including our ability to operate solar energy []



[...] At the same time, we have also emphasized the reform of public administration, the improvement of the health system, the promotion of agriculture and the education of young people ...



[...] The Government is also working to adopt new legislation allowing companies to invest in the country's mining sector [...] There are opportunities in gold, copper and aluminum mines [...].



[...] In our country, energy was monopolized and the reform began to bear fruit [...] We must electrify the whole country, even if we have progressed, there are areas that have only 4 to 6 hours of energy. With the reform, we will have the opportunity to receive the 800 megawatts we need, 400 for the metropolitan area and the difference for the rest of the country."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27418-haiti-politic-jovenel-moise-in-panama.html



SL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Economy : D-1, 9th Edition of the summit on finance and technology





The 9th edition of the Summit on Finance and Technology, on the initiative of the Groupe Croissance, will take place from Monday 22 to Thursday 25 at the Karibe Hotel (Juvena) around the theme "Financing agri-tourism" and the 4th FINTECH Summit 2019, dedicated to technology applied to finance, will be held on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27 at the campus of Quisqueya University (Turgeau).



Summary of the program :



Monday, April 22 :

This first day will be devoted to municipal finance with the participation of mayors of several municipalities.



Tuesday, April 23 :

Debate around the financing of agri-tourism. Some personalities of Montrouis (complex Blaneaire de Moulin sur mer https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-26982-icihaiti-tourism-moulin-sur-mer-temporarily-stops-its-activities.html ), South East and South will explain how socio-political instability last February adversely affected the supply of fresh produce from the tourism sector in their communities. A speaker from Jamaica (3 million inhabitants) will explain how his country hit by insecurity has managed to attract 4 million tourists in 2018.



Wednesday 24 :

Presentation and debate on the presentation of the results of a national survey on financial inclusion conducted by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the firm DAI.



Thursday 25 :

The banking system. Reflections on the establishment of a securities market and on the evolution of the financial system in Haiti https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27216-haiti-economy-soon-the-treasury-bills-accessible-to-all.html



Friday 26 and Saturday 27

Opening of FINTECH 2019. For 2 days Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) applied to finance will be debated. The results of the survey on financial inclusion in the country will also be presented at FINETCH.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - News : Zapping...





The State makes a mistake by talking about urban guerrilla

"By qualifing the gangs action as urban guerrilla, the State risks giving bandits the status of revolutionary. Thus, they will no longer be considered criminals for unlawful economic gain, but as armed fighters for a legitimate political purpose." James Boyard Teacher-researcher at the UEH.



Pascal's message from President Moise

"The Paschal period is always an invitation to sacrifice and forgiveness. May this moment inspire us with the spirit of tolerance and the desire to live together. Happy Easter to all !" President of Haiti Jovenel Moise



9 detained released

Thursday, 9 detainees found their freedom following an appeal in "habeas corpus" pleaded before the Dean of the Court of First Instance by the legal team of the Office of Human Rights in Haiti (BDHH)



The President knows everything that is said about him

Charlot Jacquelin Jr. one of the advisers to the Head of State, believes that good or bad, Jovenel Moise is aware of everything that is said about him, noting that the Advisers of the President do not always tell him what whether he wants to hear or what he likes.



Textile : Did you know ?

In Haiti, the outsourcing sector weighs almost one billion US dollars, or 90% of Haiti's exports.



Pilgrimage to Milot

Every year during the Easter season, thousands of people come to Milot to visit La Citadelle and the Palace of Sans-Soucis, a patriotic pilgrimage initiated by King Christophe. Today, nearly 10,000 pilgrims invite themselves to this great annual meeting up to the top of this UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008 See also : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-27505-icihaiti-tourism-great-patriotic-pilgrimage-of-milot.html



HL/ HaitiLibre

















Published on 2019/04/21 | Source

/Yonhap

A 17-year effort to open Korea's first for-profit hospital on Jeju Island has ended in failure after the operator failed to open on time.

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The Jeju provincial government said Wednesday that it has canceled the license of Greenland International Hospital, which was granted on Dec. 5, 2018 with a proviso to open within 90 days, because the operator failed to meet the deadline.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it will no longer license for-profit hospitals.

Greenland had been seeking authorization to accept both foreign and Korean patients, but the local government insisted that it can treat only foreigners. The hospital filed a lawsuit in February seeking to nullify the restriction and called for an extension to the deadline. Greenland claimed that Jeju provincial government officials "unexpectedly" decided to exclude Korean patients.

Some activists oppose the establishment of for-profit hospitals for fear of skyrocketing medical costs if more and more such hospitals open and lure patents with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.

President Moon Jae-in vowed in his election campaign to block for-profit hospitals that "trigger skyrocketing medical bills". The government also argues that such hospitals would hinder efforts to deal quickly with any epidemics or other emergencies.

But medical industry insiders say for-profit hospitals are at any rate unlikely to become lucrative soon since the government provides universal coverage, so most Korean patients would see no reason to use them.Shenzhen Shenzhen. For months, world leaders have been discussing the use of Chinese telecoms technology and its associated risks. Now Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei is speaking out and harshly criticizes the US. Unfortunately, the US sees 5G as a strategic weapon. For them, it's kind of a 'nuclear bomb', said Ren Zhengfei in an interview with Handelsblatt and Wirtschaftswoche.

Ren even warned against a new Cold War. Especially the American trade war could lead to a more radical and less balanced world. If the West does not want such a conflict, it needs to stay open and accept the rise of other countries, said the head of the Chinese telecommunications company. But the Chinese CEO also expressed admiration for the policies of the US president. President Donald Trump is great because he cut tax rates in such a short period of time - in a democracy no less. He said that he hoped for substantial tax reductions in China, too.

Regarding the spy allegations, Ren offered to sign a no-spy agreement with the German government in order to ameliorate Berlin's security concerns. Germany is currently holding an auction of 5G spectrum. The EU recently expressed that, in principle, it remains open to using Chinese technology in the roll out of their 5G mobile networks.

The US in particular had recently called on the European countries to exclude Huawei. They claim that that the company could use its telecoms products to monitor or compromise networks. So far, no evidence has been made available to prove these accusations. Huawei has repeatedly denied these allegations.

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Read the full interview below:

You recently praised Donald Trump as a great president because of his economic policy. Shouldnt he be your worst enemy?

Businesses worldwide suffer from a heavy burden. If this burden doesnt get relieved, businesses will have no breathing space. President Donald Trump is great because he cut tax rates in such a short period of time - in a democracy no less.

Are you saying that Trump is a role model for the world?

His purpose should be to attract foreign investment. But if he keeps intimidating other countries and foreign businesses, then they wont want to invest in the US, and hence his tax cut policy will be much less effective. In fact, I hope that China will substantially reduce its heavy tax burdens.

Why now?

The high tax rates in China are based on the relatively lower labor costs China had in the past. Now labor costs in China are very high. Not reducing the tax rates will hurt China's development, in my opinion.

President Trump has been trying to intimidate Huawei. The US has been trying to persuade its allies, Germany included, to no longer employ Huawei technology or to at least reintroduce security checks. Has the US boycott against Huawei already affected your business?

No, it hasnt. Our business grew by 30.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019 and profits grew by 35.4%. Therefore, I would like to thank all those US politicians who have called on others to boycot us around the world.

Why?

The US actions so far have not actually helped them achieve their goals. In fact, it's done the opposite. The current debate has made people think: Has the US ever been afraid of anyone? So why are they currently afraid of Huawei, a little rabbit? This 'little rabbit' must be making some really good products.

So the US are running ads for Huawei... In your opinion, why do the US take action against Huawei?

Unfortunately, the US sees 5G as a strategic weapon. For them, it's kind of a nuclear bomb. But this is not the case. In my opinion, our technology is more like a water tap from which the data packets go into circulation, meaning into the network. The 5G water tap is simply bigger and wider than the 4G one.

Huawei im Visier  Wieso der Tech-Riese in einer Vertrauenskrise steckt

You make 5G technology sound so harmless...

Had the US not been so fixated on 5G, then it wouldnt have developed so fast. In

fact, before the US started making such 5G into such a big deal, I personally was a bit concerned for its future. At the time, I thought the pace of 5G research was too fast and that many commercial applications didnt require 5G yet.

Do you think the action of the US has been politically motivated, because they fear for their technological supremacy?

Yes, the US doesnt want to be overtaken. Even though the industry that we are in is not that important, they still don't want to see us outperforming US companies. They want to suppress us.

Is Huawei possibly the most prominent victim of the US-China trade war?

I wouldnt say it like that. Weve always had virtually no sales in the US market. So the only impact we might be seeing right now is taking place in other Western countries that have a good relationship with the US.

But hasn't your reputation also been damaged? After the warnings from the US government, confidence in Huawei technology has diminished worldwide.

Our customers, including those from the West, have been building their trust in us over the past 30 years. That trust isn't going to go away just because a few influential people say something. While the whole world is paying attention to this topic, we should take a step back and ask: what contributions has Huawei made to society as a whole.

Do you have any examples of this?

Huawei has contributed about 90.000 patents worldwide. Those are all new patents related to network technology. Second, not only have we connected three billion people around the world, we have also facilitated connections between all sorts of business sector like for example the finance industry. Huaweis disappearance would be a threat to the world.

Donald Trump fears that China is emerging as a superpower that is contesting Americas status as the worlds number one. Is this perhaps more than just a trade war. Is the world possibly faced with a new Cold War?

I worry about that. The American trade war is making the world more radical and less balanced. Some Western countries like to take sides on certain issues. If China and Russia were to start doing the same, then another Cold War could come about again, indeed.

How can this be prevented?

If the West doesnt want another Cold War, then they need to stay open and accept the rise of other countries. We should put our focus back on economic development and make peace. If, for example, Europe were to increase its trade with other countries, then the trade volume could grow by maybe 1 trillion US dollars. There would be less conflict. Also, European countries would have more income that could help them address some of their internal problems.

But the US government and the EU have accused China of not being open enough. Many sectors are closed off to foreign investors.

China has been opening up more and more every day already. According to the Foreign Investment Law that was just approved by the National People's Congress in March, German enterprises, including machinery and car manufacturers, can set up fully-owned businesses in China. That could expand the potential market for German businesses while reducing their costs. And it would bring Germany even more economic prosperity.

But if a new Cold War were to come about, then the world economy would suffer, as would companies like Huawei, Daimler, Siemens etc. Do you fear a new era of protectionism in the world?

I don't think a new wave of protectionism will last for a long time. Large Western companies, not us, are the ones who are the most concerned about protectionism. Their balance sheet and stock prices would suffer and their market would be hit hard if they couldnt sell their products to China's 1.3 billion people.

Research and innovation could also be affected...

Indeed. Some small innovative companies have been developing cutting-edge products. If the US prohibits them to sell their products to China, they can either move to China or to Germany. No company can survive they they cannot sell their products.

A Cold War also has intelligence operations. Chinese law states that companies have to provide assistance in cases that are related to national security. How do you deal with that?

At the Munich Security Conference, State Councilor Yang Jiechi made it very clear that Chinese companies have to abide by the laws and regulations of the countries in which they operate. There is no Chinese law that requires companies to install backdoors or spy on foreign entities. Premier Li Keqiang also reiterated this message at the latest session of the National People's Congress. Hasn't the Chinese government stated their stance clearly enough?

Vita Ren Zhengfei The manager Ren was born in 1944 as the oldest of seven children in the South-Chinese province of Guizhou. Just shortly before the Cultural Revolution Ren was able become an architecture student at the university of Chongqing in 1963 while self-teaching himself engineering through books. In 1947 he became a technician in the People's Liberation Army. He was then allowed to join the communist party in 1978, before trying to make it as a businessman. The company Huawei was founded by the then 43-year-old in 1987 in Shenzen as an import-company for network parts from Hongkong to the main land. After a couple of years Ren started to invest in the development of his own gadgetry. Huawei was profiting from a governement program at that time, that supported the re-establishment of local networks. Today Huawei employs 180.000 people around the world, 40 percent of which are working in research and development.

The US has accused Huawei of using its technology to help the Chinese government commit espionage. Has the Chinese government ever asked you for a special favor?

No, it has never asked for a special favour. We have been trying very hard to prove who we truly are, but the US government doesn't believe us. Now, they need to provide facts and evidence to support their accusations against Huawei.

Have you never installed backdoors in your equipment?

If Huawei had ever acted maliciously, like implanting a backdoor in our equipment, in any country, then we would have risked losing our markets in over 170 countries. All our employees could lose their jobs. That would be worth than death for me. Therefore, how could I possibly agree to installing backdoors?

So what the Americans are talking about is just a fairy tale? It's not true?

Certainly a fairy tale.

But it's a fact that Huawei employees stole technology. In 2014, Huawei had to pay a fine of millions of US dollars to T-Mobile, the subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, because two of its engineers were using the arm of a test robot.

Just as we take the protection of our own intellectual property rights seriously, we also fully respect others' intellectual property rights.

Has Huawei not engaged in industrial espionage?

There have been isolated cases where individual employees have failed to comply with company policies. After all, Huawei has over 180,000 employees. Those who violate company rules will be disciplined. Our success can be mainly attributed to our focus on our own research, which has taken us ahead of our competitors. This is why the US is coming after us.

Do you trust US tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook in terms of data security?

Complete security is virtually impossible to achieve in all technologies. The costs would be enormous if we attempted to build an information network that guarded against absolutely every risk. Our networks are supposed to guard only against hostile competitors and malicious attackers. We have no hostile competitors amongst Western companies, so we don't guard against Western companies. We also don't guard against the US government, the German government, the Chinese government, or any other government. They will not forward information about us to our competitors.

The founder of the Chinese Telecommunication cooperation Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, warns about a new cold war. (Foto: Egill Bjarki fur Handelsblatt) (from right to left) Sha Hua, Sven Afhuppe, Ren Zhengfei, Beat Balzli, Jorn Petring

The lack of trust in Huawei technology might be a cultural thing, too. Data protection is a central principle for people in Europe. In China, data protection is not so important. Do you understand the concerns of the European citizens and politicians?

Of course, I do. Huawei adheres strictly to the GDPR. But please bear in mind: Huawei is only an equipment provider. The networks are owned and run by telecom operators and internet service providers. We provide water taps; but others are responsible for the water flow (data traffic).

Chancellor Merkel just spoke out against an exclusion of Huawei from Germany. Has Huawei held talks with either Beijing or Germany on that matter?

I think German Chancellor Angela Merkel is great. I don't know what the Chinese government is thinking. They don't tell me.

Last month, we had talks with Germany's Federal Ministry of the Interior and expressed our willingness to sign a no-spy agreement with the German government, in which we promise that Huawei networks contain no backdoors. I'm also willing to push the Chinese government to sign a no-spy-agreement, that also obliges Beijing to comply with the GDPR.

In your view, what is a good solution for Germany?

European countries certainly do not want to have their data transmitted to China. They definitely don't want to have their data transmitted to the US, either. Germany has proposed to build its networks with equipment from multiple vendors. We support this approach.

But there are still some doubts. Unlike Germany, China is neither a democracy nor market economy. There are many state-owned enterprises in China. How close is Huawei to the Chinese government?

I don't know what the Chinese government is thinking. They don't tell me about it. Huawei is a private company, abides by the laws in China, and pays taxes to the Chinese government.

You're one of the most famous business leaders in China. There is usually a close relationship between people like you and the government. When was the last time President Xi received you?

That was in 2015 in the UK. President Xi was visiting our UK office, so I accompanied him during that visit.

In a recent interview with CCTV, you said that you declined Beijings invitation to attend a ceremony celebrating the anniversary of China's 40 years of reform and opening. How does one decline such an invitation?

I want to focus entirely on Huawei. Its possible to decline these kinds of invitations nowadays. Beijing is changing and becoming more open.

You claim to have no special relationship with the government. But New Zealand recently instituted a boycott against Huawei. Shortly afterwards, the Chinese government started to put huge pressure on New Zealand. Is there no connection?

We will no longer do 5G in New Zealand or Australia. The Chinese government didn't understand our intentions and their efforts might be in vain.

Some weeks ago, you sent out an invitation to a Huawei event to some US-journalists. The Chinese embassy in Washington sent out the same invitation. Is there no connection here, either?

We published an open invitation letter to the media. Reports that the invitation was issued through the embassy are false.

At the beginning of the US attacks against Huawei, your daughter was arrested in Canada. What is your comment on that case?

I think the US must present their evidence. Should they fail to present sufficient evidence, then I have reason to believe that she is being held as a political hostage. I think what really matters in the court are facts and evidence.

How often do you talk with your daughter?

We call each other whenever we want to talk. Those Americans who have to listen in on our calls must be working really hard. They don't know when we might make a call, but they have to be ready all the time and wait around.

You have sued the US government in response to the US boycott. Do you think you can actually win this case?

We still believe in the American principle of Separation of Powers, in the independence of their judicial system, and in the strength of their legal system. We believe that we will win.

What if Huawei loses the case?

If Huawei wins the case, it will prove that the US has a great judicial system. If Huawei loses the case, but the US still fails to present solid evidence for their charges against Huawei, it will also prove our innocence.

What are you doing now to improve your image in the US?

The US has been campaigning against Huawei. We have no plans to increase our market share there. We have no choice but to defend ourselves in court.

Huawei is a leading technology company. Your philosophy is to be modest, passionate, diligent, and to be willing to improve oneself every day...

Hold on. There are many people who work diligently every day, but they can't necessarily create wealth. To me, the most important thing for a company is direction, a direction that creates value for customers. Wealth belongs to our customers. If we just took it but didnt do anything with it, then we would be thieves. The only way a customer will happily give you their money is if you create value for them. That is a fair exchange.

Huawei also creates a lot of value for itself and invests 10% to 15% of your annual revenue in research and development. What will be Huaweis next big innovation?

I think our future innovation will still focus on connecting people around the world with each other. But it's also important to let researchers do their thing. Our latest smartphone, the P30, can photograph objects from one kilometer away. It can also be used as a night-vision device. One can wonder: do normal users really need this?what is the point of these functions is. But this is what our scientists have been dreaming of, and we at Huawei understand.

How important will AI be in the future for Huawei?

It will be very important, and even more important for Germany.

Why?

Because production in Germany is already highly automated and supported by information technologies. I think Germany is well positioned to turn industry 4.0 into reality. If AI is widely adopted in Germany, one person will be able to do a job that currently requires ten people. If that becomes a reality, Germany's working population of 45 million will be equivalent to that of 450 million, making it an even greater industrialized nation.

Should German companies therefore invest more in AI?

Yes, they should. Using AI does not necessarily mean that AI has to be

manufactured in Germany. No matter the origin of the technology, German companies should embrace it, as long as it can create wealth for Germany. Currently, the US is the strongest in AI. Germany needs to overcome its labor shortages if it wants to boost its industrial development.

Do you have any new investment plans in Germany?

Yes, we do. We have established a lot of research centers in Germany and purchased a factory in Weilheim to produce high-performance equipment. We're going to gradually move our manufacturing facilities for cutting-edge products to Europe. We also recently bought 513 acres of land in Cambridge for the production of optical chipsets. And some of our production facilities for 5G base stations may be located in Europe.

How important is Germany to Huawei?

Germany is one of our preferred locations. In addition to our investment in Germany, many technologies and equipment used here in China are also from Germany. Our software primarily comes from Siemens and Bosch. Huawei's collaboration with Leica is a perfect example of our investment in Germany.

May I ask you a personal question? Right now you have reached the age of 74 years. How long are you planning running Huawei?

That depends on how soon Google can come up with a medicine that helps people to live forever.

We have spoken at length about the trade war, a Cold War, European politics, and Chinese politics. Could you ever imagine becoming a politician in the future?

I'm a businessman and will always remain a businessman. I would never go into something related to politics.

Right now, a lot of employees of Huawei own shares of the company. Do you have any plans to go public?

No, we have no plans for now, but maybe after 3,000 years. If you're patient enough, you are welcome to buy our shares then.'So much we want the public to know': Meritus COVID cases surge again

newsPhoto: Google Maps

Armed men stormed into a family party in southern Mexico and opened fire, killing 13 people on Friday night.

At least four others were wounded in Minatitlan, near the Gulf of Mexico, The Associated Press reports.

Veracruz Public Security Department says seven men, five women and a child were killed in the attack.

A police statement said the attackers were looking for a man called "El Beky," although it's not clear if he was among the dead.

Police set up checkpoints to search for the gunmen.This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. Learn more here

Grand Prize Winner: Donna Rickey Blog Winners: A Song for her Enemies by Sherri Stewart: Mary Ann Hake Spies & Sweethearts by Linda Shenton Matchett: Connie Ruggles Sword of Trust by DebbieLynn Costello: Brenda Walters Justice for Julia by Donna Schlachter: Natalya Lakhno Party Prize winners: Sherri Stewarts Winners A Song for her Enemies: Angie Pool Bottle of Dutch Syrup: Carol Koch Alscheff Corrie ten Boom book: Deb Gramie Burgess Linda Shenton Matchetts winners: $5.00 gift card to online retailer or choice (Kobo, B&N, AppleBooks, Amazon): Karen Hadley A Bride for Seamus: Carol Osterhouse Wotring DebbieLynn Costellos winners: Sword of the Matchmaker: Melissa Planas Sword of Forgiveness: Paty Hinojosa Gomez Shattered Memories: Charlene Zall Capodice Sword of the Perfect Bride: Licha Haney Donna Schlachters winner: Leather Journal: Lisa Turley

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Winners must leave their email address and will be notified by email and the winners name will be announced in the days comments. No one under 18 can enter our giveaways. No purchase is necessary. All winners have one week to claim their prize. USA shipping only. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.Photo: The Canadian Press

More than 100 Canadian soldiers are being deployed across western New Brunswick to help residents threatened by rising floodwaters, which have shown no signs of letting up.

The soldiers from Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, a huge base in the southern part of the province, have been tasked with filling sandbags and, if necessary, evacuating homes.

"We do have some vehicles that are a little more suitable to going through deep water," Lt.-Col. Sean French, commander of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, told a briefing Saturday in Fredericton.

"We're here to help. We're here at the request of the provincial government."

French said the soldiers  part of an immediate reaction unit  are also prepared to conduct "wellness checks" in various communities.

"If people would like to leave, then we can definitely help them," he said.

Water levels in the Saint John River Basin are expected to rise significantly over the next few days, reaching or passing flood stage in several areas.

With heavy rain expected to continue through Saturday and overnight  particularly in northern New Brunswick  residents of 15 communities have been warned to remain on high alert.

Greg MacCallum, director of New Brunswick's Emergency Measures Organization (EMO), said no major flooding was reported as of Saturday afternoon, but previous experience shows the rising waters are sure to lead to road closures in several areas, particularly in Fredericton and communities farther south.

"The time for preparedness is now," MacCallum told the briefing. "If (residents) find themselves starting to get into difficult circumstances, they should be considering voluntarily evacuating their homes."

He said water levels in the Fredericton area had already surpassed flood stage at 6.5 metres, which means the Saint John River was already seeping into low-lying areas and was sure to block some roads.

Over the next few days, water levels in the Fredericton area could reach 8.0 metres, though that is not as bad as last year when it reached 8.3 metres, he said.

In general, MacCallum said the anticipated flooding might not be as bad as it was last year, when rising waters damaged about 12,000 properties between late April and mid-May, leaving dozens of homes and cottages beyond repair.

"The indications we have now are that we won't necessarily reach the levels reached last year," MacCallum said in an interview. "But we're trending in the direction where we'll be approaching those numbers in some locations."

The EMO is also monitoring other major rivers, including the Restigouche River, Middle River, and Tetagouche River, where ice jams and rising water levels could lead to localized flooding.

"Residents intending to relocate from their residences should be finalizing arrangements," the EMO said in a statement. "Flood waters may rise quickly limiting access and making evacuation more difficult by increasing risks to those involved."

In neighbouring Quebec, floodwaters claimed the life of a woman whose car fell into a massive hole caused by a washout near Pontiac, about 30 kilometres northwest of Ottawa. Her vehicle flipped early Saturday as it dropped into a swollen stream.

Regional liaison officers from the Canadian Armed Forces have been deployed in five districts in Quebec.

The province's public safety minister is urging residents exercise extreme caution as rising water levels continue to wreak havoc.Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has shared a new family picture on Instagram, a day after celebrating her 12th wedding anniversary with husband and actor Abhishek Bachchan. The new post shows the couple posing with their daughter, Aaradhya.

Aishwarya captioned the image, Love. She is seen wearing a colourful shrug, with her hair tied up in a bun. Aaradhya is wearing a red dress, while Abhishek is wearing a white shirt and blue pants. Theyre all smiling at the camera, with their arms around each other.

Abhishek and Aishwarya celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary on Saturday, on a private island in the Maldives. To mark the occasion, both actors took to their social media to share pictures. Abhishek, sharing a picture of Aishwarya in bright moonlight, wrote, Honey and the moon.

Aishwarya, meanwhile, shared a picture of herself with Abhishek, taken by Aaradhya, and captioned it, Our Togetherness captured by The Divine Light of Our Lives. LOVE YOU AARADHYA.

On Saturday, Abhishek shared more pictures from their beach vacation. The first showed Aishwarya and Aaradhya chilling in a pool. He captioned it, Happiness. My girls. The second was a panoramic shot of the beach. He captioned this one, A big thank you to all the staff at @niyamamaldives for making us so comfortable and taking such good care of us during our short holiday.

Aishwarya and Abhishek have worked together in films such as Dhai Akshar Prem Ke (2000), Kuch Naa Kaho (2003) and Guru (2007). The two got engaged in 2007 and were married in a private ceremony at Amitabh Bachchans Juhu residence, Jalsa. Aaradhya was born in 2011.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreSenior executives of grounded Jet Airways met the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Friday and requested him to direct the banks to release at least one months salary.

Jet has not paid salaries of a large number of its employees for the last three months, causing huge financial distress to them. The carrier last week suspended its entire operations for want of cash and is unlikely to clear employee dues anytime soon.

The airline executives also appealed to expedite the bidding process for the airlines stake sale and ensure transparency in the procedure.

Speaking to IANS, National Aviators Guild Vice President Captain Asim Valiani said the Finance Minister assured them that he would look into all issues raised by the airline employees.

We have not got any firm commitment from the Finance Minister on payment of one months salary, but he told us that all the issues would be looked into, Valiani said after the meeting with Jaitley.

The airline executives accompanied by Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungatiwar also urged the minister to ensure that Jet Airways slots are protected. Jet CEO Vinay Dube and CFO Amit Agarwal were present in the meeting.

We urged him to protect our slots so that there is something for the new buyers. We also requested that Jet Airways aircraft do not get de-registered and go elsewhere, Valiani said.

The Finance Minister said he would like to see Jet Airways is revived, the senior pilot said.

Jet Airways had on Wednesday night suspended its operations indefinitely. The airlines revival now depends on successful stake sale initiated by the lenders led by SBI. In an official statement, the airline lenders led by SBI has said that they are reasonably hopeful that the stake sale process would succeed and determine fair value of the enterprise.

As per industry sources, private equity firms TPG Capital, Indigo Partners and the NIIF and Etihad Airways are in the race to buy a stake in the grounded carrier.A 63-year-old doctor was arrested for allegedly molesting a minor girl at his residence in suburban Khar, a senior police official said Saturday.

The victims mother told police that she had left her house keys with the accused and had asked her 14-year-old daughter to collect it from there, an official said.

According to the victims mother, the doctor hugged and kissed the victim when she went to collect the keys. She has told police that the incident happened on April 14, he said.

A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code and the doctor was arrested Friday night, he added.

The doctor was produced in court Saturday and was remanded in judicial custody, his lawyer Laxman Kanal said.

Kanal told court that the complaint against the doctor was filed at the instigation of the latters housing society members.The Congress said on Sunday it accepted the five pillars of Let Gen (retd) DS Hoodas national security vision paper, which proposes plans to secure Indias neighbourhood and improve internal security, even as the architect of the 2016 surgical strikes said a single assault on Pakistan was not enough to change its behaviour.

The report submitted by Hooda, who was picked by the Congress to head its task force on national security, emphasises on five key issues  assuming Indias rightful place in global affairs, achieving a secure neighbourhood, peaceful resolution of internal conflicts, protecting the citizens, and strengthening the countrys capabilities. While addressing a joint news briefing with Hooda and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that if the party is voted to power in this summers Lok Sabha elections, it will try to implement the five proposals.

He said the plans will be expanded and revised with the help of institutional structures such as the National Security Advisory Board, National Security Council and the Cabinet Committee on Security. The final decision will be taken by the government when the plan goes through these institutional structures, he added.

Chidambaram said that while national security was an important aspect of the narrative in the general elections, to say that it was the dominant narrative was wrong. This is a serious issue. It cannot be treated as part of muscular politics. We are not talking anything about the size of our chest here, he said. Hooda, a former Northern Army Commander, oversaw the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army on terror launch pads across the Line of Control in Pakistan. He recently submitted the report titled Indias National Security Strategy after meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi and agreeing to head the partys panel on the issue.

He said that protecting the Indian people was the main goal of national security. We need to solve the climate change crisis, as well as the job crisis that harms people. Presenting salient features of his report at a separate event organsied by think tank Observer Research Foundation, Hooda said: One surgical strike or air strike is not going to change Pakistans behaviour. Chidambaram, who was also present at the event, said India must also change its attitude towards Pakistan to bring about a change in its neighbours behaviour. Hoodas report says that Pakistan blocks Indias land movement towards the West and that India must find an alternative to bypass Pakistan, with Iran as a key player.

Speaking to Hindustan Times after the news briefing, he said: Our movement towards the West via land is locked by Pakistan, and so westward movement will have to be by sea. So, Iran is a strategic country, and it will grant us access to Afghanistan and then on to Middle East. Iran a country has geostrategic importance. Hoodas report says Iran is a strategically located country that provides warm water ports for the Central Asian states, westward access to the Indian trade, and entry into Afghanistan via the Chabahar Port. The report says intrastate dialogues involving the civil society, apart from military measures of dealing with terrorists will be important to solve the Jammu and Kashmir issue. The document also touches upon Indias nuclear capabilities and states that while India should maintain a No First Use policy, it should strengthen its nuclear triad. To ensure deterrence against nuclear threats, India should continue to build up its triad of land, air, and sea-based missiles, while modernising its older land missile systems. Hooda has also recommended upgrading the existing Defence Cyber Agency into a Cyber Command, as the current intelligence agencies cannot completely thwart cyber attacks. India is one of the few countries that still do not have a dedicated cyber component in its military, the report reads.

with

inputs from agenciesJune 12, 2015, began like any other day at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, a leafy campus that was once the site of one of the countrys first studios, and where, even today, a wide arterial road leads off to a lake built for a film set in the 1940s. The news spread as the students filed into the canteen: a new chairperson of the governing council had been appointed after 15 months. It was Gajendra Chauhan, an actor best known for his role as Yudhishtir, the oldest of the Pandava brothers, in Mahabharata, a televised serial that aired on Doordarshan from 1988 to 1990.

The decision to protest this appointment was pretty immediate, recalls Harishankar Nachimuthu, the then president of the FTII Students Association (FSA). But even he couldnt predict the nation-wide impact that the strike, which lasted 139 days and saw criminal charges slapped on 35 students, including him, would have.

[His appointment] was clearly part of a larger agenda of saffronization of education  encouraging mediocrity, installing a puppet who would let the government do what it wanted, pushing through a certain narrative of history, says Nachimuthu, now 31 and an assistant director in Chennai. But Chauhans filmography and links to the Bharatiya Janata Party  he became a member in 2004  didnt bother Nachimuthu and the students who congregated that night for a General Body Meeting (GBM), so much as the absence of Chauhans engagement with serious cinema and film academia.

Twenty-three major works I got done in one year, one month, 26 days.

The job of the chairman is to get work done, not take classes. What ideology have I imposed? asks Chauhan, when Hindustan Times spoke to him. How can you ask for my removal even before seeing what I can do? Even today students message me on Facebook saying, Sir we miss you.

Life Post 2015

During the 2016 admissions, students were asked to sign affidavits promising, among other things, good conduct. Robin Joy (28) was one of them. The former FSA president also points out a change in the academic council. Since the 1970s, two student body representatives have been voting members and participated in all discussions. However, since 2016 there has been a partial roll-back  for the first time, student members are not allowed to participate in discussions on a number of issues which directly affect them, including syllabus, fees and discipline, he said.

FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola admits that the students participation in deliberations is restricted to only certain issues, but clarifies that the meeting agenda continues to be circulated to them, and their written comments are obtained and discussed.

Rajarshi Majumdar (25), the current general secretary of the FSA, says many students who participated in later protests have been sent disciplinary notes, some have not been sent on foreign exchange programmes and have had their scholarship cancelled. They dont want us to protest.

All discipline issues involving students are addressed by the Proctors office. While minor rule violations are overlooked, serious indiscipline issues are dealt with firmly. In the last three years, even the courts of law stood by FTII when students who were punished took legal recourse. As for international exchange programmes, it is but natural that only the best students will be sent overseas to represent a premier institution such as FTII. The institute cannot incentivise those with a history of inappropriate conduct, said Kainthola.

A history of striking

The Film Institute of India was set up by the government of India in 1960 under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It was re-designated after the television wing was added in 1974. The institute is governed by a governing council, headed by the chairperson, who is also the president of the FTII Society. The academic policies are formulated by the academic council, while matters involving finance are controlled by the standing finance committee.

In other words, after his appointment, the buck stopped at Chauhan.

FTIIs culture of striking is a widely known  in the early 1980s, on the lack of faculty; in 1995, following Mahesh Bhatts appointment as chairperson, fee hikes and converting several three year courses to two; in 2000, on the introduction of a system where students would be allowed to continue with their courses only after year-end assessments; and in 2010, after a draft report by a consultancy firm suggested a public-private partnership and short-term courses to increase revenue of the institute.

The main demand of the striking students in 2015 was to roll back the appointment of Chauhan and five FTII Society members nominated by the government under the category of Persons of Eminence. The Society consists of personalities and alumni connected with film, television as well as ex-officio members, all of whom are nominated by the government.

Some of the society members appointed included Narendra Pathak, the former president of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and Anagha Ghaisas, a documentary filmmaker known for her short film, Shri Narendra Modi  Gatha Asamanya Netrutva (Tale of Extraordinary Leadership).

Like the strikes of the previous decades, this one too was studentled, driven by their wish to have a say in their education. Yet, Vikas Urs, a 34-year-old cinematographer based out of Goa, and one of the leaders of the 2015 strike, points out that the FTII is not political the way other campuses are. He attributes this to the absence of organizations like ABVP or Students Federation of India or National Students Union of India, all of which are affiliated to national political parties.

Were all there to learn to make films, irrespective of our backgrounds and political beliefs. In that sense, our strike wasnt coloured by an existing political thought. The strike was a question to those who wanted to impose their skewed understanding of politics, society, cinema and arts, he said.

A season of protests

In January 2015, students from Jadavpur university in West Bengal went on a strike on account of a cover up of a sexual harassment case  the vice chancellor eventually resigned. Shortly after the FTII strike ended in September, Hyderabad Central University erupted over the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student. Around the same time, students from Delhi University had started protesting the University Grant Commissions decision to scrap fellowships to M.Phil and PhD students who hadnt cleared the National Eligibility Test.

Simultaneously, filmmakers, artists and writers began to return their government awards. Former FTII chairperson Saeed Mirza, who returned his National Award told HT at the time, that the protest started by the institutes students had become a movement against intolerance, divisiveness and hate.

Part of what made the 2015 FTII strike unique was its catholic nature  politicians from across affiliations arrived at the campus to express solidarity. This included Nitish Rane, a member of the Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi, the current president of the Indian National Congress, and Yogendra Yadav of Swaraj Party. Performers, filmmakers and musicians visited. GBMs were held almost each night to discuss the way forward  opinions often differed, and consensus was sought.

Nearly a month into the strike, a group of students, faculty members and alumni met Arun Jaitley, the then I&B minister, who refused to roll back Chauhans appointment.

The main demand was that a due process be put in place so that no government can put its ideology into running of the institute, said Urs, who was part of that group.

In August 2015, when the then FTII director, Prashant Pathrabe, decided to carry out the assessment of the 2008 batch despite several diploma films being incomplete, the students surrounded him in his office, demanding an explanation. Later that night, the police arrested a few students from the campus, based on a complaint filed by Pathrabe  the case continues to this day.

Way Forward

HT asked Chauhan whether in hindsight, the punitive measures undertaken by the administration during his chairmanship seemed disproportionate, such as for instance, the arrests. This was a law and order situation. Is it not heavy that a student stays in a hostel for 8-10 years, doesnt pay fees on whose money is he staying? he replied.

A 2017 Comptroller and Auditor General of India report pointed out that non completion of courses by students led to a loss of 11.83 crore to the exchequer. However, Chauhans conflation of an administrative issue  delayed batches are also the result of inadequate infrastructure like studios, missing or faulty equipment, say students  with slapping criminal charges on a group of protesting students, is precisely the sort of administrative heavy-handedness that the students were striking against in the first place.

National Award winning alumnus Paresh Kamdar says a shift in perspective is needed. All along, students have been seen as a law and order problem, every time they raise a question on academics or management. So, the strategy of opposition is to break the resolve of the students. This isnt the right way. Students need freedom to question. To challenge the existing order is an important aspect of art.

For Nachimuthu now, participating the democratic process is a way of taking forward the resistance. Last time, I didnt vote. I thought it didnt matter who came to power. Now that has changed.The body of a man with his throat slit was found near bushes in northwest Delhis Azadpur area on Saturday, police said.

Police were informed around 7.55 am about the unknown body lying near railway line at Azadpur flyover, they said.

On reaching the spot, police found his throat slit by a sharp edged weapon.

A case has been registered and a probe initiated, a senior police officer said.

The body is yet to be identified and has been preserved in the mortuary, the officer said, adding that efforts are being made to identify it.

Police are also scanning through profiles of missing persons at the local police stations to identify the body. If not identified within 72 hours, the post-mortem will be conducted, they said.A 12-year-old boy was critically injured after being shot in the head during a wedding procession in Rohini on Saturday night.

The child remained under observation till late on Saturday, even as the police made efforts to trace the accused.

The incident took place around 9 pm in Rithala area when the boy was standing in the balcony of his third-floor house to watch a wedding procession that was passing by on the street outside.

One of the relatives from grooms side opened fire during the procession. The bullet hit the child in his head. As he collapsed, bleeding profusely, his family members raised the alarm and the child was rushed to Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital. From there he was referred to a private hospital where he is under treatment and critical, said a senior police officer who is not authorised to speak to the media.

The hospital staff, on realising that the child has a gun shot injury, called up the police.

Senior police officers arrived at the spot and the suspect who had fired the gunshot was identified.

Efforts to trace the man have been launched. A case of attempt to murder and arms act has been registered, the police officer said.BJPs ideological position on J&K seeks complete integration of the state into India, something that goes against the political aspirations of the majority of the people of the state. The Hindutva party seeks revocation of the Article 370 which gives special status to J&K under Indian constitution and Article 35A which bars outsiders from settling in the state. The BJP government also presides over the give-no-quarter militaristic policy towards Kashmir which has only worsened the security situation in the state.

But despite this the opinion that the PM Modi is the best hope for an acceptable Kashmir resolution between India and Pakistan has wide currency in the state.

So, Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan is not alone. The public perception in Kashmir echoes him too.

After Khan made his preference for Modi clear during his interaction with the journalists in Pakistan, former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was quick to cite it as also the reason for her party to ally with the BJP in the state in 2014.

What Prime Minister of Pakistan is saying now has been said by my father Mufti Sayeed before, she told party activists at a meeting soon after Khan made the statement. "My father also thought Modi was in a better position to solve Kashmir and hence we should form the government with the BJP in our state".

Ironically both these perceptions conflict with Modi's personal image and his party's political agenda on Pakistan and J&K. During his five years in power, the PM has chosen not to engage with Pakistan except on his terms and in regard to Kashmir, contrary to Mehbooba's hope, his objective has been the state's complete merger with India rather than an acceptable resolution.

But the perception that Modi is the man to resolve Kashmir still persists. Why? One reason certainly is the popular belief that the charismatic strong leaders can take hard decisions and still carry people along. It is also true about the ideological right represented in India by the BJP.

"This is the universal thing. Political right is seen capable of making difficult and contentious decisions and get away with it. For example, Modi sold to people demonitization, too" says Naseer Ahmad, a local columnist. "But the irony is that in Kashmir the perception lingers despite the fact that the BJP's priorities on the state have complicated rather than helped solve the issue".

More than perception

A popular preference for the BJP as the only hope for Kashmir resolution also springs from the credible movement on Kashmir front during the previous BJP government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was Vajpayee who in February 1999 undertook a bus yatra to Pakistan and signed the Lahore declaration with his then counterpart Nawaz Sharif which committed the two countries to "intensify their efforts to resolve all issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir".

Though the declaration was followed by Kargil war between the two countries later that year, Vajpayee was determined enough to seek peace with Pakistan that by 2001 he invited the then Pakistan president Parvez Musharraf - otherwise regarded as the architect of Kargil - for a summit meeting at Agra. The much hyped summit failed to arrive at a breakthrough on Kashmir, but Vajpayee continued to engage Pakistan in search of a solution.

So substantive and promising was the process that the BJP's defeat in 2003 polls didn't end it but it was built upon and taken forward by Vajpayee's successor Manmohan Singh. The following five years not only saw the dialogue continue alongside a progressive decline in militancy in Kashmir, but the two countries were also making a significant progress towards Kashmir resolution.

Musharraf came up with four point proposals for Kashmir resolution which set out a four step incremental process for Kashmir resolution. The steps were: identification of the regions in Kashmir for the settlement, demilitarization, self governance and a joint management or a consultative mechanism between India and Pakistan on the state. The proposals envisaged a Kashmir solution without any territorial re-adjustment of J&K and as such were a drastic climbdown from Islamabad's traditional stand on the state. However by late 2007, when the two countries were supposedly ready to seal the deal, Musharrafs position weakened following lawyers agitation which eventually led to his ouster.

The four point formula framework had offered a middle-of-the-road solution to the vexed issue which satisfied both countries. Ever since sustained engagement hasn't been restored between the neighbours. The two countries have only talked in fits and starts, interrupted by the recurrent incidents of violence. The successive governments in Pakistan also haven't shown enough enthusiasm for the Four Point Formula. New Delhi has also broken off dialogue time and again after terror related incidents and over the past five years also because of the new redlines set out by Modi regime - one of them is the condition that Pakistan shouldn't meet leaders of Kashmiri separatist groups. This has rendered engagement fragile and inconsistent.

Is Modi still the best hope for Kashmir resolution? "There is a bit of a grudging agreement over this in Kashmir," says political analyst Dr Gull Want. "Modi is believed to have the popularity and the stature to carry along India's significant rightwing opinion which otherwise is bitterly opposed to reconciliation with Pakistan and a resolution of Kashmir other than its merger with the country".The Delhi Metro unit of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), one of the countrys premier paramilitary forces, has made a proposal to buy paintball guns for target practice during mock drills, an officer privy to details of the proposal said on Saturday.

The proposal was sent last month by the CISFs Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) unit in Shastri Park to the CISF headquarters. Once cleared, the proposal will be sent to the ministry of home affairs for approval. All Metro stations in Delhi are guarded by the CISF.

According to a senior officer, any commando hit with by paintball will leave the mock drill and be required to refine their armed combat skills.

Senior officers said this will help them filter the best of their shooters and do away with conventional security mock drills in which commandos only practice positions with unloaded weapons. The move came after a committee was formed to advance the CISFs urban warfare techniques.

Jitender Rana, senior commandant, CISF, confirmed the initiative. He said the motive is to check the skills of the commandos in urban warfare. At present, we cannot shoot real bullets during mock drills as it will spark panic. We have excelled the close combat technique, but with paintball guns we will get a clear picture of how good our men are at shooting, Rana said.

He added that the Delhi Metros has a small built-up area. Our men need to be skilled to make sure they are not hit by enemy bullets. They must also be efficient enough to ensure every bullet fired in a real-time terror situation, takes down the enemy. Whichever commando will be hit with a paintball will be required to refine their skills at close armed combat. This will also help us identify the best shooters in our force with the best real-time response, the senior commandant said.

Rana said paintball guns are used across the world to practice urban warfare. Initially, we have requested to buy 30 to 50 paintball guns. The approval is pending, he added.

The Delhi Metro is one of the hypersensitive installations that the CISF secures in the National Capital. Every year, intelligence agencies issue a series of alerts related to the security of Metro stations, after which the security of the Metro is increased from time to time. Apart from DMRC, the CISF also guards the airport and government offices.Extending support to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, Priya Dutt, the Congress candidate from Mumbai North Central constituency, on Sunday said she would push for formation of a dedicated cell in the party for the community.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi feels strongly about LGBT rights. We want to make it happen across constituencies, and not just in a particular city or state. Just like a human rights cell, a different cell dedicated for LGBT is the need of the hour, said the former MP, at a meeting with activists and members of the community.

Stating that the Congress is the only party that mentions the community in its manifesto, she said: The community has been marginalised. I believe every person has a right to be themselves. The party is firm on its stand. Our secretary of Mahila Congress (women wing) is also a transgender, Dutt said.

Harish Iyer, an LGBT activist, who recently joined Congress, said the government cant work in isolation to solve the issues that concern the community. LGBT community is not a homogeneous community. People belong to different castes, communities, religious backgrounds and economic strata, Iyer said.

Dutt said people are apprehensive to talk and discuss the issues, thinking it may go against them. With Harish joining the party, we will take the agenda of the community forward, she saidSatish Chandra Shukla, an inspector posted with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Varanasi, allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the New Yamuna Bridge, in the wee hours of Saturday, police said.

The body was fished out by divers in the morning and sent for post mortem, police said.

He is survived by his wife Mamta and two sons, Prananjay and Saujanya, who reside in Madhwapur area, besides a married daughter, Pragya, said Kydganj SHO Anjani Kumar Srivastava.

He said the family members were unable to explain the reason for the inspector taking the extreme step and no suicide note was recovered. However, family members did say that he seemed tense for the past few days, the SHO added.

Having penned many books, the inspector was honoured by Governor in 2015 and was believed to have been unhappy with his posting in EOW.

Police said after having dinner he went to sleep and at around 3 am, his son Saujanya, found him missing. His wallet and mobile phone was on the bed itself. The family members then launched a search for him and his sons found his slippers on the New Yamuna Bridge. They then informed the police.

He was set to retire in January 2020.The principal magistrate of the Juvenile Justice Board, Manglesh Kumar Choubey, has informed the district and sessions judge that the father of a teenager  accused of killing an eight-year-old boy at a private school in Bhondsi in 2017  is trying to influence him and recently even approached him to withdraw his order to shift his son from a Faridabad observation home to a Karnal institution.

Stating this, Choubey passed a reference order on April 12, a copy of which is with HT. In the order, he wrote some advocates had come to meet him earlier that day. Since he was busy and there is no facility in the board to meet a panel of advocates, he went outside the office to see if there was any problem. He saw a few of advocates along with the father of the juvenile accused.

I was astonished to see that they were trying to influence me to change my order by exercising power under Section 104 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. They were pressuring me not to shift the juvenile to the place of safety Madhuban, from the Observation Home, Faridabad. They were bent upon to influence me to recall the order dated 11.04.2019 on the ground that the Board has ample powers to amend its own orders. When the undersigned refused to accede to their unlawful demand and requested them to approach the state government to designate a place of safety of their choice at the place nearer to the house of the accused or to challenge the order, they went away but the tone of the father of the juvenile was threatening [sic], the reference order stated.

Copies of the order, which was sent to the district and sessions judge, Gurugram, are with the victims father and the accuseds father as well.

The accuseds father, however, denied the allegations and said he had gone to collect a copy of the transfer order and not to influence the principal magistrate in any way.

I never had a threatening tone while speaking to the principal magistrate. This is a baseless allegation. The special home is neither safe nor secure for my son, as there are many litigation cases pending with regard to the safety and protection of juvenile there. Transferring him there will cause immense mental pain and agony to us. The transfer to a far off place is not even in the interest or welfare of the child. I have requested not to shift my son from here, he said Saturday.

Sushil Tekriwal, counsel for the father of the murdered boy, said the warning, intimidating and menacing attack on a judicial officer is an unpardonable felony and a criminal case under strictest provisions of law shall have to be registered against all culprits immediately. The juvenile suspect is accused of committing a heinous crime and his father has been interfering in the courts proceeding since he was apprehended by the CBI, he said.

On April 11, Choubey had passed an order to shift the juvenile accused to Place of Safety in Madhuban, Karnal  a special home for boys aged 16-18 years accused of heinous crimes  as he had turned 18 on April 3. Later in the day, the accuseds father filed an application stating that as per Section 95 of the JJ Act, the board has to see the best interest of the child, and before transferring him from a place to another, the board has to see that the child is kept at a place nearby his residence. It also seeks consideration for safety of the juvenile.

On April 12, the accuseds father submitted an application to the JJB and the sessions court, seeking a stay on the transfer. The board, in its reply on the same day, said they are surprised to see this application as he is not the first or the only juvenile who was being shifted. The order further stated that neither the juvenile nor his parents can successfully pray for special treatment on any ground. The sessions court stayed the transfer order on April 12. A hearing Saturday was adjourned till May 4.Security for churches in Goa was tightened on Sunday after chief minister Pramod Sawant instructed the police to do so in the wake of the serial bomb blasts in Sri Lanka which killed over 200 people.

Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference, Sawant also condemned the attacks, which took place on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka.

I spoke with the DGP. I will be speaking to the Archbishop as well, Sawant said when asked about measures the state government was taking in the wake of the attacks in Sri Lanka.

Goa has a 26% Catholic population mainly concentrated in the coastal areas. The state has around 200 churches and chapels many of which were built as far back as the 16th Century.

The chief minister chaired a meeting of security officials in which the security preparedness was reviewed.

Besides being places of worship frequented on religious occasions, churches in Goa are also a huge draw for tourists both local and foreign making them possible targets for terror organizations.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it did not return Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

Addressing a poll rally at Patan in Gujarat, he asserted his governments commitment towards national security and said whether the prime ministers chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or the terrorists.

He also took a jibe at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar, saying if he is unaware of his next move, then how can Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan gauge what he will do.

Modi urged the people of Gujarat to help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win all 26 Lok Sabha seats in his home state, where polling will be held on Tuesday, and said if it does not happen, then there will be discussions on TV over it on the day of vote counting.

Following the air strike at Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, there was a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter planes on February 27 in which IAF wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by the neighbouring country and released on the night of March 1.

He said after Varthaman was caught, the Opposition started seeking a reply from him. We held a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world what Modi did to you.

A senior American official said on the second day that Modi has kept 12 missiles ready and might attack and the situation will deteriorate. Pakistan announced it will return the pilot, or else it was going to be a qatal ki raat [night of murders], he said.

This was said by America, I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak about it when the time will come, he said.

The [Prime Ministers] chair remains or goes, I have decided that either I be alive or terrorists will remain alive, he said.

He said the air strike at terror camps in Pakistan was something people expected from him. When Pulwama happened, what did the country expect Modi to do? Would you, would the country have pardoned me had I done what the Manmohan Singh government did after 26/11, he asked.

The country wanted something to be done, he said, adding that he had announced giving a free hand to the military. They [Pakistan] made tight arrangements, but being the disciple of Lord Hanuman, our people conducted air strike and their story was over, he said.

Hitting out at opposition parties, he said the Balakot strike made them uncomfortable. Pakistan was repeatedly saying India bombed us, but people here were questioning if this was Indias Balakot. They were proved false, he said.

Accusing the Congress of questioning the bravery of Indias military force and doubting its action, he said, Does any Congress leader ask for air strike proof? They have got the message to stop asking because people are getting angry. After the first and second phases of polls, they have forgotten to ask.

He also took a swipe at Pawar, who on Saturday said he was terribly afraid as to what Modi, who once called the NCP chief his mentor in politics, would do next. Sharad Pawar says I dont know what will Modi do. If he is unaware of what Modi will do tomorrow, how will Imran Khan know? he said.As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prepares for the remaining five phases of the general election, its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has asked candidates to focus on local concerns, as issues like the Balakot air strikes and the overall popularity of the government have limited traction on the ground, according to people aware of developments.

The Sangh has also asked the party and its candidates to infuse more energy into campaigns and rallies, they said on condition of anonymity.

With its experiment of motivating people to come out and vote  informally known as third party campaign  not having worked too well, the RSS has stepped up efforts to garner support for the BJP.

According to a senior functionary, the Sangh had for the first time started a campaign where, instead of directly campaigning for the BJP, its foot soldiers reached out to the masses and urged them to vote. The idea was to build momentum in favour of the BJP, which is seeking re-election at the Centre, in subtle ways.

Also read: Girish Bapats campaign machine is well-oiled, runs smoothly

The turnout after the first two phases has not been very different from the corresponding phases in 2014. The Sangh was eyeing a 100% voter turnout, because more people voting would mean a better shot for the BJP at winning with a majority. But that has not happened, said the functionary quoted above.

The RSS pracharaks also reached out to the private sector to help with creating awareness on participating in the electoral process, and through their point persons, target groups such as doctors, academics and lawyers.

In the first phase, the voter turnout was 69.45%, slightly lower than the 69.7% in 2014. In the second phase, the turnout was 69.19%, marginally up from 66.52% in the previous election.

HT had earlier reported that after the Sanghs annual meeting in Gwalior, it had set a target of 100% voter turnout to help the BJP win more votes. A high turnout, it had said, would widen the difference in vote share between the BJP and other parties.

However, the Sangh has now asked candidates to focus on issues that resonate locally. Daily meetings are being held between pracharaks (workers) and candidates.

The Sangh feels that, apart from Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi and [BJP president] Amit Shah, the BJP does not have powerful speakers. So, candidates have been asked to improve their oratory skills and use crowdpullers such as Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, said a second functionary.

The Sangh has also earmarked areas on which it will focus for the upcoming phases of polling. These include the Sekhawati region in Rajasthan where Jat-Rajput caste equations are testy, and in Madhya Pradesh where the upper caste communities are reportedly unhappy with the BJP.

The 2019 polls are crucial for the RSS since it feels it has been targeted more by opposition parties than the BJP.

The Sangh has benefitted from the BJP being in power in states such as MP  not only was its ideology the basis for many policies, it also grew stronger organizationally. But since the Congress is back in power [in MP], it is already facing the heat. So, it is imperative for the Sangh to see a friendly party in the seat of power [at the Centre], the first functionary said.Three days before the East Tripura constituency, one of the two Lok Sabha seats of the state, is due to go for polls, the opposition parties have demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should conduct polls afresh in the West Tripura constituency.

Polling in West Tripura constituency, as part of the first phase of parliamentary elections was held on April 11. Soon after the polls, both the CPM and Congress raised allegations of massive booth capturing and violence.

According to the CPM, 846 polling booths out of a total of 1679 booths in the West Tripura constituency, was rigged. The party also demanded the deployment of adequate central security forces in each polling booth to ensure peaceful voting.

A majority of voters could not exercise their franchise on April 11 and the Election Commission of India should take steps to allow them to enjoy their constitutional rights. We demand that the Election Commission issues instructions for re-polling in these booths. Moreover, if the Commission feels the need to conduct re polls in the entire West Tripura constituency, we will surely welcome it, CPM secretary Goutam Das said.

The CPM also claimed that video footage of CCTV cameras installed in the polling booths on April 11 were scrutinised without their presence on April 12 and 13 and demanded scrutiny should be done in the presence of all political parties.

The Congress too brought similar allegations regarding scrutiny of the video footage and demanded that the ECI should conduct fresh polls in the constituency.

Our party delegation met deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain and said none of our party representatives was present during the video footages scrutiny by the chief electoral officer of Tripura. We believe the report sent by the state election authority was submitted to ECI with the intention of suppressing the real fact of mass-rigging. For this, we demand that a fresh poll in the West Tripura constituency should be done, Congress secretary Rahul Saha said.

Congress chief Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman earlier, said they would move the Supreme Court if the CCTV footage was not made public for scrutiny by all the political parties.

The party also alleged that a section of government officials were involved in the election process to favour the BJP candidate of the East Tripura seat.

Chief Electoral Officer S Taranikanti recently said that they had received 800 complaints related to irregularities by different political parties and other officials in the poll process since April 11 and admitted to notice some irregularities after scrutinising the video footage. He also ordered to lodge an FIR against the people who were found involved in booth capturing on day of polls.The police on Friday arrested a man who had hired two contract killers to get a financer killed, because of his friends had taken a loan of 52 lakh from the financier in February 2018. Police said that the man had paid the killers, one of them a juvenile, 35,000 each. The contract killers were arrested a month after the murder.

Police identified the arrested man as Rajender Kale, who hails from Dausa in Rajasthan, who used to live in Delhis Sangam Vihar. The police said Kale has previously been involved in case of murder in Ambedkar Nagar, and was out on bail when the murder took place.

According to the police, on February 8, 2018, a 47-year-old financer, Sanjay Chawla, was shot dead near his house in Malviya Nagar. During investigation, police had arrested four men and apprehended a juvenile on March 14 for their role in the murder. However, Rajender Kale, who had hired one of the men and the juvenile, to kill Chawla, remained on the run.

During interrogation, Kale told us that one Manjot Singh of Malviya Nagar took a loan of 52 lakhs from Sanjay Chawla. However, because he was unable to pay the interest, Chawla allegedly used to insult him. Singh, therefore decided to take revenge and sought help of two of his friends, whom he promised 5 lakh, the DCP said.

Naik said, the two men then gave contract to Kale, who further hired two budding criminals Dinesh and a minor boy from Ambedkar Nagar. On Feb 8, 2018, Dinesh and the juvenile followed Chawla from the office to his residence and stabbed him when he was metres away from his house, the officer said.The Congresss minimum income guarantee scheme, Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY), will remonetise the Indian economy by boosting demand and manufacturing, the partys president Rahul Gandhi has said.

Gandhi,48, said the Congress spent the last few months discussing ways to restart the economy.

The NYAY scheme will remonetise the Indian economy. The way petrol is provided to an engine, the NYAY scheme will jumpstart the entire economy. With this, the poor will get money, demand will increase, manufacturing will increase and the youth will get employment, Gandhi said in an interview with Hindustan, a sister publication of the Hindustan Times.

Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi could go to jail if allegations of corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal were investigated. The documents that The Hindu newspaper has published clearly show that Narendra Modi bypassed the negotiation team and directly worked out the details with Dassault. He could go to jail on the basis of these documents alone, Gandhi said.

The Congress president said unemployment, the agrarian crisis, and corruption were the biggest election issues in 2019, adding that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had destroyed purchasing power and that one of the Congresss first tasks if it wins the elections will be to jumpstart the economy.

Gandhi also dismissed the age-old characterisation of caste-based vote banks, which has resulted in the election strategy of social engineering that many parties use, and said his party stands for everyone and has universal appeal.

I dont agree. This is your view that these are vote banks. The Congress is the party of all and it helps everyone. Demonetisation and GST hit small businessmen, and these were

opposed by the Congress. When the farmers are in trouble, the Congress is the first to come and stand by them. Wherever there is pain in India, it is the nature of the Congress to resolve it. This is the thinking that is the vote bank of the Congress. For us, every Hindustani is the mirror of the Congress ideology, he said.

Over the years, the Congress has become a fringe player in some states in the country, but Gandhi is confident that the party will do well in Tamil Nadu, Bihar, even Uttar Pradesh.

The success of our coalition in Tamil Nadu will wipe out everybody. I believe that the Congress will win all the seats there. The alliance in Bihar will also bring great results. In Uttar Pradesh, we are fighting separately but still the Congress will win seats. Thats why we have sent Priyanka ji (Priyanka Gandhi) and Scindia ji (Jyotiraditya Scindia) to UP.

Gandhi said that to fund the partys big idea for the election, NYAY, a scheme that promises poor households Rs 72,000 a year, no taxes will be raised and the middle class wont have to bear the brunt of funding this scheme.

The Congress president repeated his allegation that PM Modi was doing things to benefit his industrialist friends and on corruption in the Rafale deal.

The Congress has maintained that the new deal struck by the NDA government, which replaced tan old deal negotiated by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), entails buying the fighter jets at a higher price. The government has denied this. The Supreme Court also said in a judgment that it doesnt see the need for a court-monitored probe into the deal and that it is convinced due process was followed, but is now hearing a review petition on this.

Commenting on one of the BJPs core campaign planks, nationalism, Gandhi said those talking of nationalism dont answer serious questions. In the last five years, what has the Modi government done for the youth, farmers, the poor labourers? A Rafale plane worth Rs 526 crore will be bought for Rs 1,600 crore and it will not even be manufactured in the country. Can this behaviour be nationalistic?Hong Kong: Bureau heads start Shanghai visit

Three bureau heads started their visit to Shanghai with legislators today.

Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip, Secretary for Innovation & Technology Nicholas Yang and Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury James Lau, together with Under Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Bernard Chan, joined the Legislative Council joint-Panel duty visit to the Yangtze River Delta Regions major cities.

In Shanghai, the delegation visited a commercial aircraft manufacturing enterprise to learn about the production of Mainland-made aircraft and the development of the industry.

The delegation also visited Fudan University where they met its management staff, professors and Hong Kong students studying there to exchange views on various issues relating to talent nurturing, including STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education.

Sixteen universities from Shanghai and Hong Kong established the Shanghai Hong Kong University Alliance last year to foster exchanges and co-operation in higher education between the two places.

The delegation will continue their Shanghai visit tomorrow.

This story has been published on: 2019-04-21. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.The Asiatic wild dog or dhole, an adept hunter documented to have overpowered leopards and tigers when hunting in packs, may disappear from its habitat in India, Bengaluru-based Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) warned in its study published in February.

Dholes face local extinctions in 37,000 sq km surveyed across the Western Ghats, which is their only habitat in India.

Dhole occupancy or dhole signs, which were detected in 35% of the sites surveyed in 2007, had reduced to 30% of the sites by 2015, found the study published in Nature journals Scientific Reports.

The study identified 49 sites most sensitive to local extinction, which could significantly reduce the wild dogs numbers.

On the 49th annual Earth Day  a global event to highlight environmental issues  we take a look at the how loss of forest habitat is causing one of the biggest environmental challenges for the countrys wildlife and the changes needed in government measures to save endangered species likes dholes.

Dhole is a wild canid apex carnivore that primarily inhabits forested areas in south and southeast Asia. Globally, dholes have disappeared from 82% of their former range we found that the Western Ghats landscape, in spite of its relatively high-quality reserve network, does not seem adequate for conserving what may be the largest dhole meta-population in the world, a CWS statement said.

In the absence of government-sourced updated estimates of the population numbers of many species, the only estimates are those by wildlife experts working in the field.

World Wide Fund for Nature-Indias species and landscape director Dipankar Ghose said the governments conservation measures for endangered species are mainly research-oriented.

It has to be supported with good field conservation measures. Funding for endangered species needs to improve vastly, he said.

Under its Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitat scheme, the Union environment ministry releases just one crore each annually to the state governments for the conservation of protected areas and other wildlife habitats. In comparison, 350 crore was allocated for the conservation of tigers in this years Union budget.

Ghose underlined there can be no conservation without community participation. They [communities] need to be made parties in benefit sharing and management of forests. For example, both red panda and snow leopards are found in Arunachal Pradesh, where communities own forests. Outsiders may not be able to do much without their involvement, said Ghose.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday strongly condemned the multiple blasts that rocked the island nation of Sri Lanka killing at least 138 people and injuring 300 others.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured, the Prime Minister tweeted while campaigning for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also called up his counterpart in Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Yapa Sirisena to offer his condolences on the loss of lives.

Watch - India stands with Sri Lanka: PM Modi condemns blast

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu said, I am shocked and deeply saddened to learn about the loss of innocent lives in multiple bombings on Easter Sunday in Colombo #Sri Lanka. My heartfelt condolences to the members of bereaved families and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured.

Earlier External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had also tweeted condemning the explosions in Sri Lanka.

The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no immediate claims of responsibility.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in an address said he was shocked by the explosions and appealed for calm.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe wrote on Twitter: I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today.

Shortly after those blasts were reported, police confirmed three hotels in the capital had also been hit, along with a church in Batticaloa.

An official at one of the hotels, the Cinnamon Grand Hotel near the prime ministers official residence in Colombo, told AFP that the blast had ripped through the hotel restaurant. At least 1 person was killed, he said.India on Sunday strongly condemned the serial blasts at multiple locations in Sri Lanka while Prime Minister Narendra Modi held telephonic conversations with the president and the premier of the island nation offering all possible help and assistance.

In his conversation with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Modi termed the blasts cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts and pointed out that the attacks were a grave reminder of the serious challenge posed to humanity by terrorism in the region.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region, he tweeted.

President Ram Nath Kovind also condemned the attack. India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country..., he tweeted.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said there can be no justification for any act of terror and called for concerted global action to effectively deal with the menace, including cross-border terrorism.

Over 200 people were killed and around 500 others injured in a series of blasts at several locations in Sri Lanka in which suicide bombers were involved in at least two of the eight attacks that struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners on Easter Sunday.

We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Sri Lanka. We wish speedy recovery to those injured in the attacks, the MEA statement said.

The ministry said India has always opposed and rejected terrorism in all forms and manifestations and there can be no justification for any kind of terror. We call for perpetrators of such ghastly and heinous act and those who provide them support to be brought to justice expeditiously, the ministry said.

We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Sri Lanka, the MEA statement said.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also said India was keeping a close watch on the situation. Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL, Swaraj tweeted.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi also offered condolences to the victims. Im saddened and disturbed by reports of multiple bomb blasts in Colombo in which over 100 people have died and more than 300 injured. I strongly condemn this diabolical act of terrorism..., he tweeted.The district election officer (DEO) has served another notice to BJP candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Thakur on her statement that she had taken part in the demolition of the disputed shrine at Ayodhya in 1992.

Pragya Thakur in an interview with a TV news channel reportedly said, We will build a Ram temple and we will build an imposing (temple). We had gone there to demolish the structure. I climbed up on the structure to raze it and I feel proud of this. God had given strength to us and we removed a scar on the face of the country.

In the notice issued to her on Saturday evening, the district election officer, Bhopal, Sudham Khade has sought an explanation from Thakur within a day while mentioning the statement in the notice.

The DEO says in the notice, The statement seems to be in violation of chapter 4 of the model code of conduct which states No activity, which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different caste/communities/religious/linguistic groups, shall be attempted.

Earlier, the DEO found a violation of the model code of conduct in Thakurs remarks on former Mumbai anti-terror squad chief Hemant Karkare and a notice was served to her by the chief electoral officer Madhya Pradesh VL Kantharao on Saturday.

Pragya Thakur had said in a programme that Karkare had died because of her curse. However, later she apologised for her remarks. She is yet to give her reply to the notice.

Meanwhile, the CEO has issued an advisory to all political parties to refrain from using objectionable language and violating the model code of conduct otherwise strict action will be taken against them.

On her reported statement on the disputed shrine at Ayodhya, Thakur said, I talked of my Ram and religion. I will give a reply to the notice.BJP candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Thakur on Sunday denied all the charges in a written reply to a notice served on her by district election officer (DEO), Bhopal for her reported remarks on former Mumbai Anti Terror Squad (ATD) chief Hemant Karkare, DEO Sudam Khade said.

The DEO in the notice served on her Saturday said she had violated model code of conduct by making the remarks on Karkare who was killed in the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.

I didnt say any defamatory word about the martyrdom of any martyr in my speech. Any inference should not be drawn from a single line of my speech....I just made a mention of torture I was subjected to at the instance of the then Congress government and this is my right to narrate the incident before public, that happened with me. Media presented my statement in a negative manner. I myself withdrew the statement in view of public sentiments, Pragya Thakur said in her reply.

The Election Commission has issued a second notice to her for her remark expressing extreme pride at her role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. She has sought time from Khade to submit her reply.

On Sunday evening, the DEO submitted the report related to the first notice to the chief electoral officer, Madhya Pradesh VL Khantharao who granted time till Monday afternoon to the Sadhvi to submit her reply on the second notice, Khade said.

Thakur has denied that she has violated any section of model code of conduct. She said it was her personal pain which she shared. We have forwarded the report in the matter with Thakurs reply to the CEO.

CEO Rao said, We have received a report and we have forwarded it to ECI for a final decision on the same.

Addressing BJP workers in Bhopal on Friday, Thakur, had said ATS chief Karkare died because she had cursed him.

State Congress spokesperson JP Dhanopia said, Its a violation of the model code of conduct as she attacked our security forces. There should be an FIR against her and she should be punished for the objectionable remark.

But state BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal came to her defence. Sadhvi made it clear on the very day that it was her personal pain which she shared with others. She also withdrew her statement, Aggarwal said.Allegations of sexual harassment against the sitting Chief Justice of India (CJI) have once again put the spotlight on the lack of a mechanism in the higher judiciary to probe charges of sexual misconduct against serving judges.

Headed by a sitting woman judge, the Gender Sensitization and Sexual Harassment of Women Committee of the Supreme Court inquires into complaints of sexual harassment against employees of the court registry. There is no clarity, however, on a mechanism to deal with cases of alleged misconduct by sitting judges.

As per the current process, any inquiry against a sitting judge can only happen under the Judges Enquiry Act that mandates that only the CJI can constitute a probe panel. Any action to remove the judge concerned can only be initiated if the panel finds him or her guilty. The report is then forwarded to the CJI, who sends the recommendation to the President.

The Constitution allows a judge to be removed only by an order of the President based on an impeachment motion passed by both Houses of Parliament.

In 2014, a panel of two eminent jurists  senior advocates Fali Nariman and the late PP Rao called for devising a mechanism to provide redressal to those who levelled sexual harassment allegations against sitting judges. A bench headed by the then CJI P Sathasivam had nominated the two to suggest measures on how to deal with complaints of such nature against sitting and retired judges. Present CJI Gogoi was a part of that bench.

Both found flaws with the Gender Sensitization and Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Regulations as they did not extend or apply to either sitting or retired judges of the apex court. The regulations were framed only after a law intern in 2013 charged a retired SC judge with seeking sexual favours. However, the top court has taken no steps to include the recommendations in the regulations nor has it made the disciplinary proceedings by the sexual harassment committee transparent, despite this being a common grievance.

The two also opined that incessant sexual harassment of women at workplace, if established, would amount to proved misbehavior which would serve as a grounds for the removal of a judge.

The shield of irremovability from office would not protect them if a charge of sexual harassment at work place were proved against retired judges of the Supreme Court or the High Court managingjudicialtribunals,the panel had concluded.

Also read | CJI Ranjan Gogoi rejects sexual misconduct charges, says judiciary under threat

No matter how high the judges are, they are definitely not to be treated as immune from charges of sexual harassment of women at the workplace if and when such a charge is made and proved, the two jurists had said in their report.

SN Singh, former dean of the law faculty at Delhi University, said the regulations of the sexual harassment committee must be changed to include sitting judges. In case a complaint is lodged the internal panel should not include any judge from the Supreme Court. Senior members of the Bar should be asked to enquire into such a complaint.

Advocate Vrinda Grover said the former junior court assistant who has levelled allegations against CJI Gogoi has asked for a special inquiry committee comprising retired SC judges to inquire into her accusations. The SC internal complaint committee comprises members including sitting judges who are all junior to the CJI. The basic rule of any disciplinary proceeding is that inquiry should be conducted by person superior to the defendant. A Special Inquiry Committee would provide a forum for a fair and impartial enquiry and would also protect the independence of the Judiciary, she said.Located at a distance of over 25 kilometres from the Millennium City, Sohna changes character as one drives past the high-rise corporate offices, half-built condominiums and several private educational institutions that adorn the sides of the Sohna Road.

As one approaches the main town, the buildings, which have come up over the last decade, give way to vast open spaces and old tombs.

The road that leads up to the main town offers a clear picture of its past, of villages still trying to keep pace with urbanisation while holding on to their rich historical past. Several tombs and mosques, built during the Lodhi era, lie abandoned even as vast lands are rapidly being acquired for corporate offices as Sohna aspires to become a satellite town of Gurugram.

A massive old fort wall on a hill, on the outskirts of the city, looms over the town, a reminder of the towns historical legacy.

HT, in the build-up to the polls on May 12, paid a visit to Sohna, among the nine assembly constituencies of the Gurgaon parliamentary seat, to assess the political legacy of Sohna and ascertain the mood of the voters.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the incumbent member of Parliament (MP), Rao Inderjit Singh, contesting on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, had garnered the highest votes in Sohna constituency  getting 64,165 votes out of the 141,681 polled votes, a vote share of 45%. Sohna had accounted for over 10% of Inderjits total votes in nine assembly constituencies of Gurgaon. He was closely followed by Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate, Zakir Hussain, who polled 46,849 votes (33% of the total). The remaining votes were shared between candidates of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and independents.

In the past 15 years, the Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency has been a fight between Rao Inderjit Singh and Zakir Hussain, with Inderjit claiming a hat-trick of victories and Hussain finishing as a runner-up thrice.

In 2009, when Inderjit had contested on a Congress ticket, he had polled 27, 550 votes compared to Hussains 28,925 votes in Sohna. The total voter base of Sohna, at the time, was considerably lower  at 83,765.

Ram Kanwar, a political analyst and former professor, Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar, said that the BJP is likely to emerge as the number one party in Sohna. The incumbent government appears to retain support among its voter base  Rajputs, Gujjars and Yadavs  in Sohna. Although the INLD has given the BJP competition in the constituency, the split within INLD this year means that there appears a possibility that some of the Muslim votes, traditionally a vote bank of the INLD, may switch over to the Congress, said Kanwar.

In the villages and towns that HT visited, voters voiced their concerns about transport connectivity, lack of higher educational institutions, jobs, access to healthcare facilities and drinking water. However, despite these shortcomings, the support for the incumbent government appeared strong, especially, in the aftermath of the recent air strikes by India in response to the Pulwana terror attack.

A small detour from the Sohna Road, over six kilometres from the main town, leads to Daula village after an arduous journey on cramped and dusty roads. A dozen elderly men are engrossed in a game of cards, the villages favourite activity to kill time in the day, on a community plot (chaupal), which has been christened Gullu ka Nehra. Vijay Singh or Gullu, a villager informs, is a social worker who owns the land.

Daula was among five model villages adopted by former President Pranab Mukherjee under the Smart Gram project in July 2016. The objective was to set up basic infrastructure, information and communication systems to improve governance and provide better services, livelihood and economic operations.

Gullu said, This is where all the important discussions take place in the village and all the disputes are settled.

The village has three schools, pukka roads and gets electricity throughout the day, unlike earlier, says Gullu. A major concern among villagers, mostly landowning farmers and ex-servicemen, is the lack of access to quality healthcare, jobs, poor telecommunication connectivity and lack of higher education institutions.

The mobile networks are extremely poor. The government has laid down wires and set up routers across the village, but the connectivity remains poor. The only spot where one can get network is near the temple, perhaps due to some divine intervention. I have to walk a few metres every time the phone rings, said Shishupal Singh, a retired government official.

Singh said that the village had been transformed after realtors and developers purchased land to construct offices and residential projects along the Sohna Road over the last decade. The region, he said, witnessed exponential growth in the past decade with circle rates of village properties rising, but said that the construction boom and urbanisation is yet to translate into jobs. The youth of the village commute to far-off places such as Gurugram, Faridabad and Palwal to study and to get jobs. The town has some private educational institutions, but not everyone can afford to pay high fees. The government should set up a polytechnic college to help create jobs in Sohna. Moreover, it is not safe for women to travel to far-off places, said Singh.

Ompal Singh, a retired ex-serviceman, said that in the past five years, the situation had significantly improved as the village was getting bijli and paani full time. However, the village lacks access to basic healthcare services. There is a health centre, but the doctor and the nurse visit only once a week. It remains locked on other days. We have to go to the government hospital, which is understaffed, and most of the patients are referred to the Civil Hospital in Gurugram for treatment, said Ompal Singh.

An Ayushman Bharat kiosk at Sohna Civil Hospital has been set up for those eligible to get registered.

Despite the evident shortcomings, those present at the chaupal were unanimous in their support for the incumbent government ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The current government has given a proper reply to Pakistan on terrorism by conducting airstrikes and exacting revenge for the Pulwama attack. Desh ko power de di (the country has been empowered). When it comes to delivery mechanisms, it was earlier difficult to get an LPG cylinder and the system had gaps. Now, there is no middleman. The level of corruption has gone down, said Sukhpal Singh, a farmer.

Rakesh Singh, an ex-serviceman, also expressed his support for the BJP and said PM Modi has given a befitting reply to Pakistan. He was the architect of surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LOC) in 2016 and now, we have conducted airstrikes deep inside the territory of Pakistan. He has done in five years what previous governments failed to do. Now, Pakistan will think twice before attacking us, said Singh.

In the adjacent Alipur village, several farmers, beneficiaries of the PM KISAN yojna, which was announced in the 2019 interim budget, praised the government. Under the scheme, small and marginal farmers cultivating crops on up to two hectares (five acres) of land, get direct income support of 2,000 per quarter from the government.

There are issues when it comes to healthcare and cleanliness in the village. But the government has provided subsidies for inputs. The power situation has improved considerably and at present, we get power for at least six hours a day. If it can be raised to 12 hours daily, it would be enough to till one acre in a day. The situation is at least better than it ever was earlier, said Ishwar Singh, a farmer, who has been staying here for four decades.

Bather Devi, a widow of an army officer who served in the 1971 war, said that the government had ignored the needs of the armed forces though. The government has worked in providing civic amenities. However, one grouse is that I am yet to receive the arrears of one rank one pension (OROP) scheme. The ex-servicemen have been protesting but the government does not pay heed to them, said Devi.

Eight kilometres from Alipur, at the post office in the main Sohna city, a group of senior citizens stand, disgruntled, in a disjointed queue, waiting for their monthly pension. The internet at the post office has been down for several hours and some of the older women are squatting near a banyan tree in the office complex, waiting for the net to become operational.

Sixty-five-year-old Satish Chand said, I have been coming here for the past three days to collect my pension but the internet has been down. This delay takes place almost every month. When the internet is functional, there is a power cut. All this talk of Digital India is a lofty idea here.

Outside the post office, a herd of stray cattle is feeding on the garbage strewn across the road leading to the main bazaar. Residents said that the city lacks a proper waste disposal mechanism and farmers often leave their cattle on the main roads during the day.

Notwithstanding the support from farmers, members of the trader community said that concerns persist.

Nand Kishore, 35, a trader, said, The government made tall promises in the last election, but the reality on the ground has not changed. Sanitation remains a major problem. Swachh Bharat is merely a slogan. In the past five years, no politician from any party has visited us to address our concerns.

He, however, rued a lack of a credible alternative to the current government.

At least 10 buses are stationed at the bus stand in the centre of the city, waiting to ferry passengers to Gurugram, Nuh, Ballabgarh and Faridabad.

Twenty-three-year-old Prince Khattana, a first-time voter and a resident of Sohna, works as a parking attendant in Gurugram. I commute daily between Sohna and Gurugram. Earlier, I used to take a bus but the frequency of buses is limited, especially at night. There is a lack of cheap transport options to commute. The shared auto rickshaws are expensive. I had to purchase a second-hand motorcycle to commute, said Khattana.

He said that he would vote for the BJP government, as he believed that PM Modi is a strong leader and the other parties have failed to put out a strong candidate.

About a kilometre from Alipur, in Ghamroj village, which is dominated by Rajputs, residents said that irrespective of the candidate or the work done by the incumbent government in the past five years, their vote would go to the BJP.

Param Chauhan, 42, a milk supplier, said, My family and I have been voting for the BJP for decades. The candidate does not matter. It is about supporting an ideology. BJP has worked for the nation and initiated several developmental schemes. No major scams have taken place under this government. It will take time for things to change at the ground level.

Umar Mohammad, a property dealer, however, said that the BJPs work, in terms of development and governance, has been disappointing and that he would vote for change. The government had promised achhe din, but that was just a gimmick. Traders suffered during the period following demonetisation and also due to the hasty implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Unemployment has increased by a big margin. The government has failed to create jobs, said Mohammad, adding that he travels to Sohna for work daily from Nuh, which is also among the nine constituencies that make up the Gurgaon seat.An attempt by a 27-year-old man  who was arrested for theft  to flee from the police custody was foiled by the police on Friday morning. Following the incident, the police commissioner asked teams to remain alert while taking the accused to the hospital or the court, said the police.

According to the police, Monu Kumar Yadav, a native of Baliya in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on April 14 by Shivaji Nagar police team due to his alleged involvement in a theft. He along with his two accomplices had stolen dress materials and garments from a shop in Old Gurugram. They were arrested by the crime team, said the police.

On Friday morning, around 5.20am, Yadav had requested the policemen to let him use the toilet. Constable Deepak Kumar took him to the rooftop toilet of the DLF Phase-4 crime branch office as the ground floor toilet was blocked. The police said as there was no space in Shivaji Nagar police custody, the accused had to be shifted to the premises of the crime branch.

Taking advantage of the dark, the accused jumped from the rooftop. But the constable jumped and caught hold of him.

The constable caught hold of his legs. Although the accused tried to hit Kumar, he did not leave his grip and raised an alarm following which other police personnel reached the spot. Kumar suffered minor injuries and was given first aid, said Shamsher Singh, ACP (crime).

Senior officials congratulated Kumar for his bravery and said he would soon be awarded.Three Indians were killed in the serial bombings in Sri Lanka on Sunday, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter. But a woman from Kasargod district in north Kerala who was killed in one of the blasts was not among the three Swaraj named.

At least 207 people were killed and hundreds more injured in eight blasts that rocked churches and hotels in and just outside Sri Lankas capital on Easter Sunday.

Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Laxmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh. We are ascertaining further details, the minister tweeted.

Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh. We are ascertaining further details. /3  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

Correction : Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka has now clarified that name of the Indian national killed in the terror blast is Lakshmi and not Lokashini. @IndiainSL  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well, she said in another tweet.

I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well.  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

An earlier report had said that Raseena, 58, from Keralas Kasargod district was killed during an explosion at Shangri-La hotel in Colombo. She and her family members had gone to Sri Lanka to meet some of her relatives.The Delhi Metro unit of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), one of the countrys premier paramilitary forces, has made a proposal to buy paintball guns for target practice during mock drills,an officer privy to details of the proposal said.

The proposal was last month sent by the CISFs Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) unit in Shastri Park to the CISF headquarters. Once cleared, the proposal will be sent to the ministry of home affairs for approval.

All Metro stations in Delhi are guarded by the CISF.

According to a senior officer, any commando hit with by a paintball will leave the mock drill and be required to refine their armed combat skills. Senior officers said this will help them filter the best of their shooters and do away with conventional security mock drills in which commandos practice positions with unloaded weapons.

The move comes after a committee was formed to advance the CISFs urban warfare techniques.

Jitender Rana, senior commandant, CISF, confirmed the initiative. He said the motive is to check the skills of the commandos in urban warfare.

At present, we cannot shoot real bullets during mock drills as it will spark panic. We have excelled the close combat technique, but with paintball guns we will get a clear picture of how good our men are at shooting, Rana said.

He added that the Delhi Metro has a small built-up area.

Our men need to be skilled to make sure they are not hit by enemy bullets. They must also be efficient enough to ensure every bullet fired in a real-time terror situation, takes down the enemy. Whichever commando is hit with a paintball will be required to refine their skills at close armed combat. This will also help us identify the best shooters in our force with the best real-time response, the senior commandant said.

Rana said paintball guns are used across the world to practice urban warfare. Initially, we have requested to buy 30 to 50 paintball guns. The approval is pending, he added.

The Delhi Metro is one of the hypersensitive installations that the CISF secures in the National Capital. Every year, intelligence agencies issue a series of alerts related to the security of Metro stations, after which the security of the Metro is increased from time to time. Apart from DMRC, the CISF also guards the citys airport and government offices.

Officers said they hoped that the shooting practice will also help the CISF set up their SWAT team, a proposal for which is also underway.

The decision to form the SWAT was taken last year, after a CISF joint mock drill with the National Security Guard (NSG) and disaster management agencies at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Metro station. Hindustan Times had then reported that NSG and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had arrived late for the drill.

The CISF, after that incident, decided to raise its own SWAT team, to be able to handle a contingency on its own till a NSG team is able to make its way to the scene.Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, saying that the people of Uttar Pradesh felt betrayed by Modi and have decided to not give him a second term.

In a press release, Mayawati said, Narendra Modi is moving around the state saying that 22 crore people of UP made him the prime minister. He is speaking the truth. Now the people are asking him as to why he betrayed them after becoming PM.

Modi should realise the fact that people can make him prime minister as well as remove him from the post, the preparation for which has started in the ongoing Lok Sabha election, she added.

The BSP supremo also accused Modi of getting his caste included in the Backward Class category for electoral gains.

On Friday, Mayawati also said that SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav was the only real backward community leader in the country and not a fake OBC leader like Prime Minister Modi.

The statement comes in the backdrop of PM Modis statement during a rally on April 10, where he said that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi hurt his backward caste by stating that all thieves have the surname Modi.

UP BJP leader Chandramohan said, Mayawatiji knows that the foundation on which she built her politics is hollow. Instead of worrying about us, she should do well to ponder on her political future after May 23 results by when we expect SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will break alliance with BSP. But like in the past when we saved her life from goons of SP and made her chief minister too, if she requires us, we would support her again.Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it had not returned Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

Addressing a poll rally at Patan in his home state Gujarat, he also took a jibe at NCP leader Sharad Pawar, saying if he is unaware of his next move, then how Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan can gauge what he will do.

Following the air strike at Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, there was a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter planes on February 27 in which IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by the neighbouring country.

Before his jet was hit, the IAF pilot downed an F-16 fighter of Pakistan. He was released on the night of March 1 by Pakistan.

Referring to it, Modi said after the pilot was caught, the opposition started seeking a reply from him over this. We conducted a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world that Modi did this to you, he said.

A senior American official said on the second day that Modi has kept ready 12 missiles and might attack and the situation will deteriorate. Pakistan announced to return the pilot on the second day, else it was going to be a qatal ki raat, Modi said.

This was said by America, I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak about it when the time will come, he added.

Also read: IAF recommends Wing Commander Abhinandans name for Vir Chakra medal

Asserting his governments commitment towards national security, Modi said whether the prime ministers chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or terrorists will remain alive.

He also took a swipe at Pawar, who on Saturday said he was terribly afraid as to what Modi, who once called Pawar his mentor in politics, would do next.

Sharad Pawar says I dont know what will Modi do. If he is unaware of what Modi will do tomorrow, how will Imran Khan know? Modi said.

The prime minister also appealed to people of Gujarat to make the BJP victorious on all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state, where polling will be held on Tuesday It is the duty of people of my home state to take care of the son of the soil, give all 26 seats in Gujarat to me, he said.

My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesnt give 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 will be why it happened? he said.With Bollywood star Sunny Deols name being pitched as likely BJP candidate from Amritsar constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections slated for May 19, Congress candidate Gurjit Singh Aujla, on Saturday, said he is ready to fight the filmstar if he chooses to contest.

Talking to media on the sidelines of a meet with Delhi SAD supporters and former president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) Paramjit Singh Sarna at his office, Aujla said he will be happy if the BJP fields a strong candidate against him.

Sunny Deol met BJP national president Amit Shah on Friday. Responding to a query on the matter, the member of parliament (MP) from Amritsar said, Let people tell who is their hero and son of the soil. There is no use electing someone who doesnt live in Punjab.

Sarna, asked the gathering to support Aujla, saying People of Punjab now know the real face of SAD-BJP. It is the time to show them the mirror, said Sarna, urging the public to support the Congress candidate. He added, During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Amritsar taught BJPs Arun Jaitley a lesson. Even this time, whosoever is BJPs candidate will have to face a severe defeat.

He also appealed to party workers to spread awareness about the work done by Punjab government in the tenure of past two years.The Election Commission special observer, Ajay V Nayak Saturday said the situation in West Bengal is similar to what it was in Bihar around 10 to 15 years ago and had lead to the voters demand for deployment of central forces in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The ruling Trinamool Congress demanded his immediate removal, claiming that Nayak has allegiance to the RSS and the BJP and is acting as per their orders.

The people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and therefore their demand for deployment of central forces at all polling booths has increased, Nayak, who is the former Bihar chief electoral officer, said.

The situation in Bihar has improved and less number of central forces are required there now, he told newsmen at the office of the West Bengal chief electoral officer here.

Nayak, a 1984-batch IAS officer, was recently given the responsibility to oversee the last five phases of polls in West Bengal.

This situation in West Bengal is similar to what it was in Bihar around 10 to 15 years ago. During that time in Bihar total deployment of central forces at the booths was required. Now it is required in West Bengal as the people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and are seeking deployment of central forces at all the booths, he told reporters.

I cannot understand that if people in Bihar were able to bring in a change in the atmosphere and situation there, then why this is not happening in West Bengal, Nayak said in the presence of state Chief Electoral Officer Ariz Aftab.

He said that in the third phase of polling on April 23, 324 companies of central forces would be deployed to cover more than 92 per cent of the polling booths in five Lok Sabha constituencies.

Balurghat, Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur and Murshidabad parliamentary constituencies will go to the polls on April 23.

Nayak, however, sounded hopeful that the state may require less central force by next Parliamentary elections.

In terms of election management, things are improving in West Bengal. So I am sure by the time of next Parliamentary elections it will not require this kind of central force deployment. I am sure about that, Nayak said.

In the first phase on April 11, central forces were deployed in 51 per cent of the booths in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar seats and 194 companies covered 80 per cent of the booths in Raiganj, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri in the second phase on April 18.

In the first phase there were reports of booth capturing, smashing of EVMs and intimidation. Similar incidents were reported in the second phase from Chopra in Darjeeling constituency and also from Islampur in Raiganj constituency. There were also reports of damage to the vehicle of sitting CPI-M MP Mohammed Salim at Raiganj.

Nayak said no negligence was found after scrutiny of the pollings in the first phase and there will be no repoll in the constituencies where voting was held on the day.

The special observer, however, did not dismiss chances of repolling in some booths where polling was held in the second phase.

TMC secretary general Subrata Bakshi wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora demanding immediate removal of Nayak to ensure free and fair polls in the state.

The Election Commission after two phases of polling had said, barring a few incidents the polling was peaceful.

Nayaks comments are highly misplaced. He is acting in a partisan manner with pre-conceived notions to destabilise elections in the state and create a fear psychosis among voters, Bakshi said in the letter.

Nayak has political and organisational allegiance to the RSS and is connected to BJP leaders. His statements clearly indicate that he has acted as per instructions of his political bosses, he said.

It is therefore requested to immediately recall him or cancel his appointment as special observer in the state of West Bengal to ensure free and fair elections, Bakshi said.

The EC has appointed Vivek Dubey as the special police observer for the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.

Meanwhile, the EC has transfered Malda district Superintendent of Police Arnab Ghosh and has brought in commanding officer of the second battalion of state armed police Ajoy Prasad in his place.

Sources said Ghosh, who was reportedly close to the Trinamool Congress administration, was under the EC scanner.

The state BJP had urged the EC to remove Ghosh a few days ago.There have been many calls within the Congress asking Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest the national elections from Uttar Pradesh. Priyanka Gandhi, who has been tasked to lead the partys campaign in eastern UP, hasnt spoken her mind on the demand and left it to her brother and party chief Rahul Gandhi to take the call.

Lets see. Let there be some suspense for now! he said in an interview to Hindustan, a sister publication of Hindustan Times.

On previous occasions, Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that the primary goal that he had set for sister Priyanka wasnt the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but to get the party in fighting shape and win the 2022 UP state elections.

Also read: Will investigate Rafale deal if Congress comes to power, says Rahul Gandhi

But Priyanka Gandhi has been getting bundles of requests from party workers to take the poll plunge.

Like when she was interacting with party workers in mother Sonia Gandhis Rae Bareli constituency last month. Priyanka, who had been asked to contest the election from Rae Bareli, shot back smiling: Why not Varanasi.

That riposte had reignited buzz around her poll plunge, and a possibility that she might face off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who represents the temple town in Parliament.

Priyanka Gandhis role, however, hasnt been limited to Uttar Pradesh. The 47-year-old, who is seen as a formidable campaigner, has been holding road shows and addressing meetings in key constituencies elsewhere too. She was in Kerala this week to counter a shrill campaign by the BJP.

He is a black belt, a trained pilot, ace diver and mountaineer. He doesnt like any publicity, she said about her party boss who she underlined, was a lot more well-versed with epics and puranas than the so-called custodians of faith and culture.From seeking Narendra Modis ascension to Prime Minister in 2014 to calling for his ouster in 2019, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackerays political objective has changed quite dramatically in five years.

MNS is not contesting the Lok Sabha elections, but Thackeray has been campaigning extensively against the Prime Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah, across Maharashtra, especially in Maratha- dominated constituencies. That is because Modi failed to keep his promises, Thackeray says in his public meetings, referring to the 2014 poll promises of depositing Rs 15 lakh in every poor persons account, and to bring back money stashed illegally outside India.

Known for his oratorial skills, and his striking similarity to his late uncle and Shiv Sena founder, Balasaheb Thackeray, the MNS chief attracts huge crowds. He uses audio-visual presentations at the venues to pep up his speeches that are laced with humour and sarcasm.

The BJP has so far failed to chalk out a strategy to counter Thackeray, who has become a thorn in its flesh, much to the advantage of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance. Though Thackeray does not directly seek votes for either the Congress or the NCP, his spiteful comments against Modi and Shah leave no room for any confusion. For instance, the MNS chief recently said at a rally that if people can experiment with Modi, why couldnt they do so with Congress president, Rahul Gandhi.

Talking points

The MNS chief speaks on a range of issues: Pulwama and Balakot, Modis surprise visit to Pakistan, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the controversy over the Rafale jet fighter deal. His common refrain is that the people must choose between democracy and dictatorship.

Addressing a rally in Satara, Thackeray questioned Modi over the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama. He even replayed videos of Modis speeches before 2014 when he had questioned the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, over terror attacks.

Also read | Raj Thackeray reclaims Marathi space, BJP left fuming

From where did so much of RDX come from that resulted in the killing of our 40 jawans? Modi should answer this. Who invited Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony? Who went to Pakistan uninvited to celebrate Nawaz Sharifs birthday and fed him the cake? Imagine how the families of our martyrs must be feeling, he told the gathering.

In Pune, Thackeray attacked Modi for playing the caste card.

Modi has double standards. He said one thing before becoming the Prime Minister and did completely reverse after assuming power, he said.

Then and now

In April 2014, Thackeray had announced that his main priority was to make Modi the Prime Minister. In fact, Thackeray had endorsed Modi as the Prime Minister back in August 2011, when the MNS chief was on a nine-day tour of Gujarat. Thackeray had said that the people of Gujarat were fortunate to have a chief minister like him.

Much has changed since then.

Thackeray has now turned into one of the bitterest critics of Modi and accused him of cheating the nation and not fulfilling his promises made in the run up to the 2014 general elections.

Pune BJP chief, Yogesh Gogawale, said Modi took decisions such as demonetisation and GST to put the economy on track and that had hurt some people. Traditional politics has a certain set up and those who suffered due to note ban will obviously raise a hue and cry. I cannot find any other reason why [Thackeray] is opposing the Prime Minister now, he said.

Political analysts said the obvious reason for the fallout between Thackeray and Modi is the Shiv Sena. When he realised that BJP is not going to dump Shiv Sena and align with his MNS, he started attacking Modi, Pune-based political observer, Vishwambhar Choudhari, said.

The BJP has asked Thackeray to specify who he is campaigning for since the MNS has not fielded any candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. He should first of all come clean on this. In a parliamentary democracy, people have the right to express their views but he is not telling the voters why and for whom he is campaigning, Gogawale said.

The ruling party has approached the Election Commission to add the expenses of his rallies to the accounts of the Congress and the NCP on grounds that he is indirectly campaigning for the two parties.

Also read | BJP, MNS get into a war of videos

Senior Congress leader, Anant Gadgil, said Thackeray was independently addressing election rallies and the opposition parties were neither sponsoring those nor had they provided him with any platform.

Will the huge crowds he is drawing translate into votes for Congress-NCP? Political experts say only the election results can tell.

He is getting a good response because there is no good orator in any political party and nobody in Maharashtra can match him in those skills, political analyst Choudhari said.

But whether the crowds he is attracting in his rallies will translate into votes is something we will come to know only after the elections. We must also remember that even Balasaheb used to get good public response but that could never transfer into votes, he added.Tear my sons clothes if he does not deliver, says Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath as he campaigns for his son Nakul who is fighting his first elections from Chhindwara.

Invoking his 40-year-old association with the region, Nath says he has now entrusted the task to serve the people of Chhindwara to his son so that he can work for Madhya Pradesh.

I am where I am because of the love and strength you gave me, Nath says.

Nakul is not here today but he will serve you. I have given him the responsibility. Take him to task and tear his clothes if he does not deliver, the 72-year-old Congress leader told the locals.

He was speaking at an election rally on Saturday in Dhanora village which comes under the Amarwada assembly seat, about 65 kms from Chhindwara district headquarters.

We will start a new journey and create history, he told the locals.

Nath has been the longest serving Member of Parliament (MP) from this Lok Sabha constituency as he served for nine terms and he has now vacated the seat for his son.

The chief minister is also contesting bypoll in the Chhindwara assembly constituency as per the legal requirement of being a member of legislative assembly (MLA) for running the state government.

Nath says due to his efforts the district has a distinct identity when it comes to development.

He hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying his promises of ensuring Rs 15 lakh in every Indian citizens bank account, steps against blackmoney and the decision of demonetisation were just gimmicks and frauds.

They (Modi and Chouhan) scream we did this, we did that but tell me if they did anything for you? Nath says, alleging that the two leaders misled the people.

I want to tell Modiji that while there are no acche din (good days) for the common man, his (Modis) days are going to end soon, he says.

Modi harassed every section of society and under BJP governments watch, farmers in Madhya Pradesh were shot at and their livelihood was hit too, Nath alleged.

Hitting out at the previous BJP government in the state, he charged they kicked the farmer in the stomach and pointed a gun at his chest.

The chief minister says his government in the state has shown its intent by delivering on the promises made before the 2018 assembly polls.

As promised, we initiated waiver of loans of the farmers as soon as we took charge in Bhopal and till now I have done so for 22 lakh farmers. Thirty-eight lakh more farmers will be benefitted soon who have a loan of up to Rs 2 lakh, he says.

We have done the loan waiver in 35-40 per cent cases and I promise it will be done in 100 per cent cases soon, he says.

Nath says the new Congress government in the state has also reduced the cost incurred by poor people to pay electricity bills.

Chhindwara will vote on April 29 along with the single bypoll for the constituency.

In the last general elections, the BJP had won 26 and the Congress secured three seats.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. )Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said she will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi if asked by her brother and party chief Rahul Gandhi.

If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest, ANI quoted her as saying safer she was asked if she will be contesting from Varanasi. She was campaigning in Wayanad in Kerala for her brother.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on being asked if she will be contesting from Varanasi: If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/rbMagjccOF  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

The BJP dismissed talks of her fighting elections against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Her brother is on a sticky wicket in Amethi that is why he fled to Wayanad. We are not worried about his sisters entry in Varanasi where the PM is well- placed. It is for the Congress Party to decide, said BJP leader V V Rajesh.

Priyanka had sent ripples across the political spectrum last month during an interaction with party workers in her mother Sonia Gandhis Rae Bareli constituency. Priyanka, who had been asked to contest the election from Rae Bareli, shot back smiling: Why not Varanasi.

That riposte had reignited buzz around her poll plunge, and a possibility that she might face off with Prime Minister Modi who represents the temple town in Parliament.

Rahul Gandhi has been cagey so far when asked whether his sister would actually plunge into the electoral battle.

Lets see. Let there be some suspense for now! he said in an interview on Saturday to Hindustan, a sister publication of Hindustan Times.Congress president Rahul Gandhi is confident that the grand old party will do much better in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections than estimated by media surveys. In an interview with Shashi Shekhar, editor of Hindustan, a sister publication of the Hindustan Times, Gandhi said the mood of the people clearly favoured change and listed the major failures of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, including rising unemployment, rural distress and alleged corruption in the Rafale deal. The coalition Congress has formed in Tamil Nadu will wipe out everybody, Gandhi said, and the alliance in Bihar will bring great results. He also said Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, would give a huge majority to the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls. Edited excerpts:

You are on election tours across the country. How do you feel about it? What kind of results will the Congress get?

Positive results will come because the country is disappointed with the BJP and wants change.

If you talk about numbers?

Instead of numbers, look at the mood of the public. The atmosphere of change is clearly visible. There are three reasons. First, unemployment is at its peak, the youth are restless, but Narendra Modi is not even talking about employment. For the Congress, the youth and employment are a priority. Second, agriculture and farmers are in trouble but Mr Modi seems oblivious to this problem.

You are aware of our record when it comes to protecting the interests of our farmers. In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Karnataka, we gave loan waivers in 72 hours. The third issue is corruption which is all around us, especially corruption in the Rafale deal where the trail of corruption leads directly to Mr Modis doorstep.

After the Gujarat elections, the Congress has gained some ground do you think the expectations of good results from Congress have increased?

The performance of the Congress is going to be much better than what media surveys are showing. This is not fully visible in newspapers and TV channels because we know that the BJP government puts pressure on media through its various agencies and uses the governments advertising funds to control the narrative.

You have not been in power for a long time in the countrys largest states such as UP, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, etc. It has had an impact on the organisation. Will it be difficult to get better results there?

The success of our coalition in Tamil Nadu will wipe out everybody. I believe that the Congress will win all the seats there. The alliance in Bihar will also bring great results. In Uttar Pradesh, we are fighting separately but the Congress will win seats. Thats why we have sent Priyanka ji and Scindia ji to UP. In Bihar, our state incharge, Shakti Singh Gohil, has done some good work.

You did not form a coalition in Uttar Pradesh. People thought you would form one.

A. In Uttar Pradesh, the SP-BSP decided not to form a coalition. However, we wanted all of us to fight together. I respect their decision. We respect Mayawati ji and Akhilesh ji. We are fighting alone but Im certain we will get good results.

In Delhi, too, talks of coalition continued for a long time. What happened after that?

We said clearly that in Delhi we are ready to form an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party to defeat the BJP. There was also a consensus on the four-three formula. But I do not know why they changed their mind. Now they talk about Haryana, talk about Punjab, talk about Goa, too. It is their decision to not form an alliance in Delhi. We have offered them four seats in Delhi because we want to defeat the BJP.

Today, I was in Surat for five hours. I stopped the car at one place and many daily-wagers came to us in search of work. Likewise, traders are very disappointed with GST. When I asked who are you voting for, they remembered Gujarati pride. Will you be able to encash this discontent in the Lok Sabha elections?

Remember one thing. Gujarat was considered the BJP-RSS stronghold but in the assembly elections in Gujarat, BJP almost collapsed. This was despite the fact that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had used all their strength there. Do you know what kind of pressure was exerted in Surat? How the income tax department and government agencies were misused? Gujarats results will be a surprise. Gujarat is going to give a huge majority to the Congress party in this Lok Sabha election.

Demonetisation, the Gabbar Singh Tax, and Narendra Modis policies benefited people like Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, but this emphasis on benefitting crony capitalist friends of Mr Modi, has jammed the engine of Hindustans economy. Thats why you met with a lot of unemployed workers in Surat. The truth is that, in a way, the Modi government destroyed the purchasing power of the people. If we do not give impetus to that purchasing power, and do not restart the economy of India, how will the country move forward? We have spent the last many months on planning how we will re-start the Indian economy. Our flagship Nyay scheme [Nyuntam Aay Yojana mentioned in the manifeso], will play a big role in this.

There is an allegation that all institutions have broken down in a way. When one talks to those from the BJP, they start giving old examples. As a leader of the new century, what will you do for the restoration of impartiality and prestige of these institutions?

Indias strength is its institutions that make the government accountable and strengthen democracy. Our institutions have a special place, they are respected. Narendra Modi has tried to weaken democracy by weakening the various institutions of our country.

On the contrary, the Congresss nature is to strengthen the institutions and through them our democracy. You ask the RBI chief, the Planning Commission chief, or the stakeholder of any institution running the country. RBI, Planning Commission, Supreme Court  Mr Modi has insulted them all. In fact, for the first time in the history of the country, Supreme Court judges were forced to seek justice from the people of the country. Today the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has spoken out against the pressure being exerted on the judicial system. Our institutions are critical to the survival of our democracy.

What do you consider the three failures of Narendra Modi?

Unemployment, the destruction of Indian economy, demonetisation and Gabbar Singh Tax.

You have tried to change the political narrative through Nyay. The government faces fund constraints today, how will you implement it?

A. We have always kept our promise. We spoke of a farm loan waiver in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Karnataka. Mr Modi said there is no money for loan waivers.

Within 48 hours of the formation of Congress governments in these states, we waived the loans of farmers. Now they say from where will get the annual 72,000 for five crore families? I tell you, we will get it out of the pockets of the handful of industrialist friends of Mr Modi. Neither will we burden the middle class nor will we take money from them and we will not raise income tax. The Nyay scheme will remonetise the Indian economy. The way petrol is provided to an engine, the Nyay scheme will jump-start the entire economy. With this, the poor will get money, demand will increase, manufacturing will increase and the youth will get employment.

You are also contesting from Wayanad. But Smriti Irani says you have gone looking for a safe seat.

Amethi is my karmabhoomi. I contest from Amethi, and will continue to do so. I want to send a clear message to my brothers and sisters in south India. When you go to south India, whether it is Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Goa, Karnataka, Telangana or Andhra Pradesh, everywhere one strong feeling is prevalent, that their voice is not being heard. This is not right for Indias unity. To eliminate this feeling and to tell every Indian in the south that your voice will be heard and you are also an important part of this country, you are also India, that is why I am contesting from Wayanad, in the south of India.

If you have to take the oath for the post of Prime Minister, what will be the first three things that you will do.

Firstly, the decision on the post of the Prime Minister depends on the people of India. The public will decide. But, my priorities are to put the Indian economy back on track, end the pain of farmers and workers, employment for the youth and pave the way to the future. Today, the future does not seem bright to the youth of India. We have to create a new path for our youth. A new vision.

Why is it that Pakistan comes up as a political issue in every Indian election? Sometimes, it is said that former PM Manmohan Singh met Pakistani ambassador. Sometimes you are accused.

Do you remember what Mr Modi said in the 2014 election? He made four major promises. One, that he will deposit 15 lakh in every bank account. Two, he will give jobs to two crore youth every year.

Three, farmers will get 50% profit over their cost of production. Four, 80 lakh crore worth of black money would be brought back to India within 100 days. He failed to deliver on these four promises and thats the reason why he is trying to divert issues. On the other hand, we have promised to deposit 72,000 every year in the bank accounts of the poorest of the poor. Thats  3.6 lakh over 5 years.

Secondly, we will fill up all government jobs to create new employment opportunities for youth. We will have a separate budget for our farmers.

Thirdly, we will empower the people of India to fight against corruption. It will begin with the Rafale probe. Narendra Modi has nothing left to say about his poll promises so he is trying to divert attention.

Will Priyanka Gandhi contest in the Lok Sabha election?

Lets see. Let there be some suspense for now!

You have been regularly been seen performing puja or going to religious places. Do you perform puja in your private life?

My work is my biggest worship. The work I do and the path of my life are also an important form of worship for me. Thats also a part of our Indian culture. If a person or a community invites me to their place of worship or house, I would definitely like to go. I respect and understand their religious sentiments. This is the path of India.

The Congress had reduced strength in Parliament but from the beginning, it was vocal against the government. Now, it looks like it is increasingly becoming a personal battle between Narendra Modi and you. Do you agree?

I had hugged him in front of everyone in Parliament. You go through all my speeches and see, I never make any personal attacks. I speak with affection. I dont talk about his family. I never say anything about his father or mother or his wife.

I respect the Prime Minister, but he should speak the truth. He claims to be a chowkidar, but on the other hand gives 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani in the Rafale deal, what else can be said (of it) but (that its) theft? Its not my personal battle. I am only carrying out my responsibilities for the country.

[The government and Anil Ambanis Reliance Group have denied allegations of any wrongdoing in the Rafale deal.]

You had hugged Narendra Modi once but did you ever see any such feeling for you in him?

No. It looks like he has personal animosity against me. But I dont have any personal animosity or hate towards him. My fight is on ideological grounds. I am fighting against his ideology. I neither have any anger nor any vengeance against Modi. But he has anger and the need for revenge. When he meets me in public, he often looks away. Thats his style.On Thursday, a judge in Brooklyn, New York, ruled against a group of parents who had challenged the citys recently imposed mandatory measles vaccination order. The parents are contesting the order.

New York is experiencing its worst measles outbreak since the nineties, with more than 300 cases since October. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported more than 500 cases across 20 American states.

Measles is a highly infectious viral disease that can be fatal, with complications like pneumonia and meningitis - infection in the brain. Rubella can infect pregnant women, and children with congenitally acquired rubella can suffer cardiac problems and brain complications. The diseases are a major international concern, with outbreaks in Ukraine, the Philippines and Australia, among other places. Close to 100 people have died in the Philippines. The World Health Organization has said that the number of measles cases worldwide nearly quadrupled in the first quarter of 2019 to 1,12,163 compared with the same period last year.

CDC says that the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine is safe and effective at preventing measles, mumps, and rubella. While the vaccine has side effects, like fever, rash and joint pain, most people who take the vaccine do not have any serious problems with it. Taking an MMR shot is much safer than contracting measles, mumps or rubella.

Last week, as a public health emergency measure, New Yorks mayor announced that residents of localities affected by the measles outbreak will face fines if they refuse MMR vaccines, unless they have a medical reason for the denial. The order was challenged by a group of mothers.

Mumbai, where one phase of the MMR vaccination programme ended on March 21, has also been facing vaccine refusals. Vaccination is not mandatory in India and, unlike New York, Mumbais public health department has not imposed punitive actions against refusers, but it has been forced to crack the whip occasionally. In February, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which is implementing the vaccination programme in the city, threatened to cancel the licences of 16 schools, both municipal and private, for refusing to participate in the vaccination drive.

Municipal health officials said that the WHO recommends a 95% immunisation rate for a community to develop herd immunity. The estimate for Mumbai currently is 90-91%. An estimated 150,000 out of 2.4 million children in Mumbai are still to get the MMR vaccine.

Ideally we should do 95% (immunisation). Maharashtra, on the whole, has been able to reach a rate of 96%. Mumbai is way off (the target), said Dr Avinash Ankush from the BMCs public health department.

There are parallels between the MMR vaccination programmes in Mumbai and New York. In New York, the resistance to the vaccinations has been in areas where Orthodox Jewish communities live.

Many of the schools that refused to participate in the programme were Urdu-medium institutions. BMCs education officer, Mahesh Palkar, said nearly 90% of the students in municipal schools have been vaccinated. We did not have to take any punitive measures. We had to scold parents and teachers; that worked, said Palkar.

In Mumbai, many of the schools that refused the vaccines are in Muslim localities. One private school with over 5,000 students, run by a Muslim trust, in the B municipal ward, is still holding out. There are also some elite schools that have refused, though they have come on board, said Dr Ankush.

Most arguments against the vaccination, in India and in the United States, are either religious or medical: in the West, the vaccine was rumoured to cause autism; in India, the worry is that it may cause sterility. All these concerns have been proved to be far-fetched.

Social media has been making our work difficult. Whenever there is a mass immunisation programme the anti-vaccine lobby is at work, said Dr Ankush.

Despite the unmet target, health officials said there will be no coercion on parents in Mumbai.Easter Day bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels killed 160 people, including 35 foreigners, and wounded more than 400, hospital and police officials said, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

In just one church, St. Sebastians in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, more than 50 people had been killed, a police official told Reuters, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews and a destroyed roof.

Media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on a church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The three hotels hit were the Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel and Cinnamon Grand Colombo. It was unclear whether there were any casualties in the hotels.

Nine foreigners were among the dead, the officials said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

One of the explosions was at St Anthonys Church in Kochcikade, Colombo.

Our people are engaged in evacuating the casualties, a source with the bomb squad said.

St. Sebastians church posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), which represents more than 200 churches and other Christian organisations.

Follow updates here

This year, the NCEASL recorded 26 such incidents, including one in which Buddhist monks allegedly attempted to disrupt a Sunday worship service, with the last one reported on March 25.

Out of Sri Lankas total population of around 22 million, 70 percent are Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim, and 7.6 percent Christian, according to the countrys 2012 census.

In its 2018 report on Sri Lankas human rights, the U.S. State Department noted that some Christian groups and churches reported they had been pressured to end worship activities after authorities classified them as unauthorized gatherings.

The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship, citing unidentified sources.Battleships from India and countries like Singapore and Australia arrived in eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on Sunday to take part in a maritime parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Peoples Liberation Army Navy .

China is on Tuesday expected to display new warships, including nuclear submarines, destroyers, warplanes and the countrys first aircraft carrier, at the parade in the Yellow Sea off the Qingdao coast. Over a dozen foreign navies will take part in it.

As HT reported on April 7, Pakistani Navy will be conspicuous by its absence at the parade. Pakistan has not dispatched any warship for the event that includes an international fleet review (IFR), to be inspected by Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 23.

China is among Pakistans closest allies. It is believed that the Indian Navys heightened deployment in the Arabian sea region may be the reason for Pakistans absence.

The deployment was increased amid tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad following the February 14 attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ONSri Lankas government said Sunday it would impose a temporary social media ban after a string of blasts targeting hotels and churches killed nearly 160 people.

The government has decided to block all social media platforms in order to prevent incorrect and wrong information being spread. This is only a temporary measure Udaya R. Seneviratne, secretary to the president said in a statement.Sri Lankas government imposed a nationwide curfew Sunday that police said would go into effect immediately and would last until further notice, after a string of deadly blasts.

Sri Lankas defence ministry initially said the curfew would be imposed overnight, but the police subsequently said it would go into effect straight away.

Nearly 160 people were killed Sunday in eight attacks targeting churches and hotels across the country, with hundreds of people injured.Sri Lankas police chief made a nationwide alert 10 days before Sundays bomb attacks in the country that suicide bombers planned to hit prominent churches, according to the warning seen by AFP.

Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara sent an intelligence warning to top officers on April 11 setting out the threat.

A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jamaath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo, said the alert.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that came to notice last year when it was linked to the vandalization of Buddhist statues.

Watch: At least 280 injured in multiple blasts at churches & hotels in Sri Lanka

A string of blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing at least 156 people, including 35 foreigners.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attacks as cowardly and said the government was working to contain the situation.

Images circulating on social media and local news stations showed extensive damage at one of three churches targeted in the near simultaneous blasts on Sunday morning.

Much of the church roof was blown out in the explosion, with roof tiles and splintered wood littering the floor and pools of blood in between wounded worshippers.

The injured flooded into local hospitals, where officials reported hundreds of wounded were being admitted.

Police chief warning

The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no immediate claims of responsibility.

But documents seen by AFP show that Sri Lankas police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers 10 days ago, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit prominent churches.

Follow updates here.

A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jamaath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo, the alert said.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that was linked last year to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.

The first blast was reported at St Anthonys Shrine, a well-known Catholic church in the capital Colombo.

A second deadly explosion was then confirmed at St Sebastians, a church in the town of Negombo, north of the capital.

A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there, read a post in English on the churchs Facebook page.

Soon after, police confirmed that a third church in the town of Batticaloa had been hit, along with three high-end hotels in the capital.

Hospital sources said British, Dutch and American citizens were among the dead, with Britons and Japanese among those injured in the attacks.

Cowardly attacks

President Maithripala Sirisena said in an address that he was shocked by the explosions and appealed for calm, and the prime minister was expected to speak to the media shortly.

On Twitter, Wickremesinghe wrote: I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today.

I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.

The hotels targeted in the attack are all popular destinations for tourists, among them the Cinnamon Grand, which is near the prime ministers official residence in Colombo.

An official at the hotel told AFP the blast there had hit the restaurant, and reported at least one person had been killed.

At the Shangri-La hotel, an AFP photographer saw extensive damage on the second floor restaurant, with windows blown out and electrical wires hanging from the ceiling.

Horrible scenes

Emergency meeting called in a few minutes. Rescue operations underway, Sri Lankas Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, Harsha de Silva, said in a tweet on his verified account.

He said he had been to two of the attacked hotels and was at the scene at St Anthonys Shrine, where he described horrible scenes.

I saw many body parts strewn all over, he tweeted, adding that there were many casualties including foreigners.

Please stay calm and indoors, he added.

Embassies in Colombo warned their citizens to shelter in place, and Sri Lankan Airlines told customers to arrive at the airport four hours ahead of flights because of ramped-up security in the wake of the attacks.

Only around six percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka is Catholic, but the religion is seen as a unifying force because it includes people from both the Tamil and majority Sinhalese ethnic groups.

There have been no attacks in Sri Lanka linked to foreign Islamist groups, despite local media reports that a 37-year-old Sri Lankan was killed in Syria in 2016 while fighting for the Islamic State group.

In January, Sri Lankan police seized a haul of explosives and detonators stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from a newly formed radical Muslim group.Suicide bombers were involved in at least two of the deadly blasts that ripped through churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday killing around 160 people, according to police and hotel officials.

The eighth blast, in a house in a northern suburb of the capital Colombo, was caused by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives when police entered the residence to search it, a police source told AFP.

The explosion brought down the upper level of the house and killed three police officers, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

And a hotel official at the Cinnamon Grand hotel, one of three in the capital that were hit by explosions, said a suicide bomber blew himself up at people at the facilitys restaurant.

He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast, he told AFP.

The nature of the other blasts has not yet been confirmed, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the deadly attacks -- the worst act of violence in Sri Lanka since the end of the countrys bloody civil war a decade ago.The United States on Sunday strongly condemned the Sri Lanka terrorists attacks and confirmed several American citizens were among those killed. It also said it would assist the Lanka government, if needed, to bring those responsible to justice.

The United States offers our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and wishes a quick recovery to all who were injured, secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

While many details of the attacks are still emerging, we can confirm that several US citizens were among those killed. The U.S. Embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton wrote on Twitter, The US strongly condemns the horrific attacks in Sri Lanka on this Easter holiday. More than 200 have been killed, including Americans. We will assist Sri Lanka in bringing swift justice to those responsible and never relent in the fight against global terrorism.

President Donald Trump was among the first world leaders to react. 138 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, with more that 600 badly injured, in a terrorist attack on churches and hotels, he wrote on Twitter. The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help. American casualties had not been reported at the time.

The White House followed up with a statement from the press secretary: The United States condemns in the strongest terms the outrageous terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka that have claimed so many precious lives on this Easter Sunday. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the more than 200 killed and hundreds of others wounded. We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they bring to justice the perpetrators of these despicable and senseless acts.Easter should be a day of celebration. The Christian holiday is celebrated worldwide. The Easter holiday has brought with it a terrible massacre this year though. According to BBC, eight bombs placed in hotels and churches across Sri Lanka killed over 200 people and injured another 400. The attacks took place in and around Colombo. The first attack allegedly took place at Colombo's St Anthony's Shrine Catholic church. The second bombing occurred at the St. Sebastian's church north of the capital. A church in Batticaloa was attacked next, then, three hotels in Colombo were bombed. The attacks continued throughout the area surrounding Colombo.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1119839251871363072

https://twitter.com/_/status/1119887741247021057



An estimated 450 people were harmed, and 207 people are confirmed dead, including 27 tourists visiting the country. The US state department said "several" American citizens had been killed. Those numbers are only preliminary, and officials expect that number to rise as the day continues. Investigators believe terrorists were targeting Christians, but no terrorist organization has taken responsibility for the attacks. There already have been several arrests in connection to the bombings. Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene told the media not to publish any names connected to the attacks, saying that it could lead to unnecessary tension. We will continue to follow up with this story as it unfolds.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1119925386740105216



https://twitter.com/_/status/1119954729356935173

Dutch-born songstress Nicole Bus has been making waves with her breakout "You" track, delivering a remix to the track with Rick Ross.

It appears that the remix was not the only update offered of the track as Bus and now recruits Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah who lends two verses to the song. The collaboration is all too fitting as "Bus" originally samples The Charmel's "As Long As I Got You," the base of Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M." track.

Bus, a Roc Nation signee, is certainly off to the races with this one and will be capitalizing on her momentum this summer as she joins the likes of Cardi B, Teyana Taylor and the City girls on the upcoming Femme It Forward tour in May before hitting the Summer Jam stage in June. Until then get into the newest version of "You."

Quotable Lyrics

Only you can get me right babe

And I love the way you love me

Like Kanye loves Kanye

So sexy what can I say?According to TMZ, Kodak Black's recent US-Canada border issues could produce dire repercussions close to home in South Carolina. Last week, Kodak claimed he took a wrong turn at the border crossing due to the incomprehensible effects of a GPS navigator; he was reported missing by his entourage soon thereafter. The "Florida Man" was travelling to meet the requirements of a Boston concert booking when it all went down. Authorities were obliged to make his arrest after finding contraband in his Cadillac Escalade.

Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images

As it turns out, the Florence County Solicitors Office caught wind of Kodak's ill-conceived border crossing and wants a piece of the action too. Officials in the principality are reviewing their preexisting dossier on Kodak to see if he violated a bond agreement that was made in April 2017 over a lingering sexual misconduct case in the SouthEast state.

As you know, Kodak Black was indicted back in April of 2017 after being accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in a South Carolina hotel. Within days, Kodak Black secured a $100,000 bond allowing him to avoid any further imprisonment/punishment up to this critical juncture. Kodak's arrest close to the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge has no correlation with his actions in South Carolina. It does however set of bells in the National Registry - better left untouched by an individual with such a spotty rap sheet.

[Via](Bloomberg) -- One of Asias deadliest terrorist attacks in years shattered a period of relative calm in Sri Lanka, threatening to revive sectarian tensions that helped fueled a three-decade civil war on the Indian Ocean island.

More than 200 people -- including as many as 30 foreigners -- were killed in a series of coordinated explosions on Easter Sunday at churches and luxury hotels across the country, including the capital Colombo. Several Americans are among the dead, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said.

Those responsible have been identified and seven people have been arrested so far, Information Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said, without providing details. Some of the explosions were suicide bombings, he added.

The unprecedented strikes on Christians and foreign tourists represented a shift from the violence between the predominately Buddhist Sinhalese majority and mostly Hindu Tamil minority in a conflict that ended in 2009.

The attacks will now test a government already reeling from a political crisis last year that has weighed on the economy and led to downgrades in Sri Lankas credit rating. Authorities are being cautious to keep a lid on tensions: Theyve imposed a nationwide curfew, blocked platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp, and withheld information about those detained.

What these bombings potentially do is take it from inertia and political infighting and rudderlessness to a real fear of instability and a sense of a return to the bad old days, said Alan Keenan, a senior Sri Lanka analyst with the International Crisis Group based in London. Its striking that in almost three decades of war between the Tamils and government forces, foreign tourists were never targeted.

IN PHOTOS: Easter Sunday bomb blasts kill more than 200 in Sri Lanka

No one has claimed responsibility for the six coordinated explosions that took place at 8:45 a.m. local time on Sunday, as well as separate blasts later in the day. At least 450 people were injured in the blasts on churches and luxury hotels Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said. All Easter masses scheduled for Sunday evening were canceled, while schools will stay closed until Wednesday.

Catholics, split between the Sinhalese and Tamils, make up 6.5 percent of Sri Lankas population, according to the nations 2012 census. Buddhists account for 70 percent of the total, while Hindus and Muslims make up the rest.

In the early 1980s, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -- known as the Tamil Tigers -- began fighting for an independent homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The conflict, marked by the use of child soldiers and human-rights violations on both sides, killed more than 100,000 people before former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksas government won a decisive victory in 2009.

READ MORE: For Christians in Sri Lanka, violence is at once old and new

Rajapaksa has been a key player in Sri Lankas political fighting over the past six months. Last October, he was suddenly appointed prime minister by President Maithripala Sirisena, leading to a constitutional crisis. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the deposed prime minister, was reinstated in December after a Supreme Court decision.

It remains to be seen whether Sri Lankas politicians will unite in the face of the attacks, which threaten to further hurt economic growth. Wickremesinghe said his government was taking immediate steps to contain the situation, and appealed to citizens to maintain peace and avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation.

You will find a downward trend in the economy, Wickremesinghe said in a televised statement. Tourism will get affected. There maybe fund outflows.

Bad News

Sri Lankas economy has struggled in recent years, forcing the government to take out a $1.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Economic growth in the quarter to December was the slowest in 19 quarters. The rupee dropped to consecutive record lows last year amid the political crisis, before recovering this year.

That is bad news for the country where the memories of the civil war are still very much alive, said Raffaele Bertoni, head of debt-capital markets at Gulf Investment Corp. in Kuwait City. Tourism is a very important sector for the economy and one of the major source of external reserves.

File/Google

Sri Lanka had previously received warnings of possible attacks on churches, but not on hotels, Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando said on Sunday.

Sri Lanka has a history of communal violence between virtually all groups, according to Keenan from Crisis Group.

Whats surprising about this is the particularly brutal and coordinated nature of the attacks and targets, this combination of what appear to be Tamil Catholic churches and high-end hotels, he said. These are the first classically terrorist attacks since the end of the war.

(Adds in second paragraph that several Americans were killed.)

--With assistance from Asantha Sirimanne.After spending 1836 spring falling back from Gonzales, settlements on the Colorado and Brazos rivers, the rebel Texan army halted its steady retreat. General Sam Houston and his 900 men took the field on April 20, and set in to wait the approaching Mexican forces.

Houston and his command understood that President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna led fewer than 700 soldiers out of the nearly 2,000 who had recently taken the Alamo. When Santa Annas division arrived a few hours after Houstons, the rebels held the best cover along the wooded banks of Buffalo Bayou. The next morning, with the arrival of General Martin Perfecto de Coss 500-man division, the Mexican forces outnumbered the rebels.

Despite a pair of skirmishes on April 20 and the burning of Vinces Bridge early the next morning, the Texan and Mexican soldiers watched April 21 pass uneventfully. Santa Anna and Cos understood that, with their overwhelming numbers and recent victories at San Antonio and Goliad, the operation to put the rebellion down was nearly done. They assumed the battle would come the next day.

Shortly after 4 p.m., the Texan rebels attacked. Their cannon boomed, they got off one volley of their rifles, and they captured the Mexican forces hastily and poorly constructed barricades and breastworks. Sleeping, resting or engaged in mundane camp chores, some undressed and others completely unarmed, the Mexican soldiers were not prepared.

In 18 minutes, it was over.

Today, as the inscription on the pedestal at the San Jacinto Monument notes, Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the most decisive battles of the world. Without this victory, it would be hard to imagine the United States annexing Texas or California. Would the gold rush have stimulated a population boom and rapid mining and railroad-driven economic development in Mexican California? What might have been had the U.S. had not annexed through war nearly one-third of Mexican lands?

Measured by its results, San Jacinto matters. So why is it so often forgotten? Why does the Alamo loom so much larger in our states mythical origins? More than 1.7 million people flock to the Alamo annually, but only 350,000 visit San Jacinto, where the war was won.

Houston understood that the Spanish missions in San Antonio and Goliad provided no real strategic value. He favored that the garrisons join him in his eastward retreat, but the decisions of James Bowie, William Barret Travis and James Fannin led to their fates. As symbols of sacrifice for the principles of freedom and self-governance, those who died at the Alamo and Goliad became symbols of Texan, and eventually, American heroism. And, along with the many stories of Santa Annas depravity, the murder of Texan prisoners heightens his villainy. The greater the crimes of the Mexican tyrant, the greater the virtue of the American defenders.

At San Jacinto, the roles were shockingly reversed. After 18 minutes of battle, the Mexican army was wholly routed. Their barricades and breastworks were dismantled, their Golden Standard cannon taken, their commanders and president in flight. Those not injured or killed fled into the marshes near Buffalo Bayou and Peggys Lake. Shortly after the battle, until sundown hours later, the Texan army killed the wounded, ran down those in flight and murdered all they could catch.

An estimated 650 died, nearly three times as many as at the Alamo. Many have long excused the massacre, attributing it to an undisciplined volunteer force seeking revenge for the Alamo. Survivors described Texans scalping Mexicans. Others observed the murder of unarmed drummer boys. Unburied corpses littered the field, and dogs and cattle reduced them to bones. Mexican skulls found their way into anthropological collections in museums as far as Philadelphia.

Those not murdered were captured the next day, and another 600 prisoners held at Velasco eventually secured parole and returned to Mexico. But not all made their way home. John Quitman led some volunteers from Mississippi too late to fight, but they joined the army as it moved to Velasco. When Quitman returned home to Natchez, he traveled home with enslaved Mexicans.

War is brutal.

From October 1835 to April 1836, some of the hardest frontier marksmen and adventurers confronted an unrelenting professional Mexican army. The violence seeped into every corner and field of Texas, and San Jacinto was no different. But whatever made Texans into myths at the Alamo isnt quite present at San Jacinto. There, the Texans were not martyrs, they were victors. And they dirtied their hands in more blood than was required for victory.

We should not forget San Jacinto. We should visit the monument. We should think about this most consequential battle of Texas history. We should, however, not categorize either side as good men or evil men. History is never that simple, and our memory shouldnt be, either.

Cox, Ph.D., is a professor of U.S. and Texas history at Houston Community College, a member of the Texas State Historical Association, and the Fort Bend County historical commissioner.PALO ALTO, Calif. - A perfect California day. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing and, at a Silicon Valley coffee shop, Rep. Ro Khanna was sitting across from one of his many billionaire constituents discussing an uncomfortable subject: the growing unpopularity of billionaires and their giant tech companies.

"There's some more humility out here," Khanna, D-Calif., said.

The billionaire on the other side of the table let out a nervous laugh. Chris Larsen was on his third start-up and well on his way to being one of the wealthiest people in the valley, if not the world.

"Realizing people hate your guts has some value," he joked.

For decades, Democrats and Republicans have hailed America's business elite, especially in Silicon Valley, as the country's salvation. The government might be gridlocked, the electorate angry and divided, but America's innovators seemed to promise a relatively pain-free way out of the mess. Their companies produced an endless series of products that kept the U.S. economy churning and its gross domestic product climbing. Their philanthropic efforts were aimed at fixing some of the country's most vexing problems. Government's role was to stay out of the way.

ANALYSIS: What's the real problem with Facebook?

Now that consensus is shattering. For the first time in decades, capitalism's future is a subject of debate among presidential hopefuls and a source of growing angst for America's business elite. In places such as Silicon Valley, the slopes of Davos, Switzerland, and the halls of Harvard Business School, there is a sense that the kind of capitalism that once made America an economic envy is responsible for the growing inequality and anger that is tearing the country apart.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

On a quiet weekday at a strip-mall coffee shop, the conversation between Khanna and Larsen turned to what went so wrong.

Americans still loved technology, Khanna said, but too many of them felt locked out of the country's economic future and were looking for someone to blame.

"What happened to us?" he imagined people in these left-behind places asking.

Part of Khanna's solution was to sign on as co-chairman of the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the democratic socialist who rose to the national stage by railing against "the handful of billionaires" who "control the economic and political life of this nation," and who disproportionately live in Khanna's district.

The other part of Khanna's solution was to do what he was doing now, talking to billionaire tech executives like Larsen who worried that the current path for both capitalism and Silicon Valley was unsustainable. Boosted by a cryptocurrency spike last year, Larsen's net worth had briefly hit $59 billion, making him the fifth-richest person in the world before the currency's value fell.

Without an intervention, he worried that wealth would continue to pile up in Silicon Valley and anger in the country would continue to grow.

DRAWN OUT FIGHT: U.S. billionaires are living longer, making heirs wait

"It seems like every company in the world has to be here," Larsen said. "It's just painfully obvious that the blob is getting bigger."

At some point, Larsen and Khanna worried, something was going to break.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

The 2008 financial crisis may have revealed the weaknesses of American capitalism. But it was Donald Trump's election and the pent-up anger it exposed that left America's billionaire class fearful for capitalism's future.

- - -

Khanna was elected in 2016, just as the anxiety started to spread. In Europe, far-right nationalist parties were gaining ground. Closer to home, socialists and Trump-inspired nationalists were winning state and congressional elections.

Conversations of the sort that Khanna was having with Larsen were now taking place in some of capitalism's most rarefied circles including Harvard Business School, where last fall Seth Klarman, a highly influential billionaire investor, delivered what he described as a "plaintive wail" to the business community to fix capitalism before it was too late.

'KING OF DEBT': Hui Ka Yan has a $35 billion fortune and lots of doubters

The setting was the opening of Klarman Hall, a new $120 million conference center, built with his family's donation. "It's a choice to pay people as little as you can or work them as hard as you can," he told the audience gathered in the 1,000-seat auditorium. "It's a choice to maintain pleasant working conditions . . . or harsh ones; to offer good benefits or paltry ones." If business leaders didn't "ask hard questions about capitalism," he warned that they would be asked by "ideologues seeking to point fingers, assign blame and make reckless changes to the system."

Six months after that speech, Klarman was struck by how quickly his dire prediction was coming to pass. Leading politicians, such as Trump, Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., were advocating positions on tariffs, wealth taxes and changes in corporate governance that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

Klarman wasn't opposed to more progressive taxation or regulation. But he worried that these new proposals went much too far. "I think we're in the middle of a revolution - not a guns revolution - but a revolution where people on both extremes want to blow it up, and good things don't happen to the vast majority of the population in a revolution," he said.

He wasn't the only one who felt a sense of alarm. One of the most popular classes at Harvard Business School, home to the next generation of Fortune 500 executives, was a class on "reimagining capitalism." Seven years ago, the elective started with 28 students. Now there were nearly 300 taking it. During that period the students had grown increasingly cynical about corporations and the government, said Rebecca Henderson, the Harvard economist who teaches the course.

"What the trust surveys say is what I see," she said. "They are really worried about the direction in which the U.S. and the world is heading."

A few dozen of those students spent their winter break reading "Winners Take All," a book by Anand Giridharadas, a journalist and former McKinsey consultant, that had hit the bestseller list and was provoking heated arguments in places like Silicon Valley, Davos and Harvard Business School. Giridharadas' book was a withering attack on America's billionaire class and the notion that America's iconic capitalists could use their wealth and creativity to solve big social and economic problems that have eluded a plodding and divided government.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

This spring, Giridharadas took his argument to Klarman Hall. He slammed Mark Zuckerberg, taking aim at the Facebook founder's $100 million effort to fix Newark's faltering schools and his $3 billion push to end disease in a generation. "I'm glad he's trying to get rid of all the diseases, [but] I wish Facebook wasn't a plague," Giridharadas said.

OPINION: Too rich to run in 2020? Depends on what "rich" is.

He trashed Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's independent presidential run as an effort to protect the interests of the uber-wealthy. And he lambasted the notion, frequently championed by the likes of Bill Gates and Barack Obama, that Silicon Valley's innovations would disrupt old hierarchies and spread capitalism's rewards. "Really?" Giridharadas asked. "Now five companies control America, instead of 100! And a lot of those companies are whiter and more male than the ones they disrupted."

For many of the students, schooled in the notion that business could make a profit while making the world a better place, Giridharadas' ideas were both energizing and disorienting. Erika Uyterhoeven, a second-year student, recalled one of her fellow classmates turning to her when Giridharadas was finished.

"So, what should we do?" her colleague asked. "Is he saying we shouldn't go into banking or consulting?"

Added another student: "There was a palpable sense of personal desperation."

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

- - -

Khanna experienced a version of this desperation almost every day in his district. He grew up in an overwhelmingly white, middle-class suburb of Philadelphia. After college and Yale Law School, he moved to Silicon Valley in 2003, hoping to use his training as a lawyer to help set the rules for a lawless online world.

SMALL-TOWN WARFARE: Silicon Valley came to Kansas schools. Then, the rebellion started.

In 2014, backed by the tech community and a long roster of billionaire donors, Khanna challenged an eight-term incumbent in a Democratic primary and lost. The defeat caused him to reflect on what he had missed - in particular, the problems that runaway capitalism were causing in his district, where the median home value in formerly blue-collar cities surged past $2 million.

"The best thing that happened to me was that I lost my 2014 election," he said. "Had I won . . . maybe I would've been a traditional neoliberal. It really forced my self-reflection and it pointed out every weakness I ever had."

In California, Khanna's home is a small apartment around the corner from a Dollar Tree, one of only two in his district. His wife and two children live most of the year in Washington, where home values are cheaper.

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His days are split between meetings with billionaires and his many constituents who are struggling to stay afloat amid Silicon Valley's success. "I am an 11-year renter with a master's degree," a teacher told him at a meeting with school employees. Her question wasn't about whether she would ever be able to afford a home, but about a fellow teacher who couldn't afford health insurance.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

A few days earlier, he had met with two activists who wanted his help pressuring big tech companies to pay contract janitorial and cafeteria workers a living wage. Khanna agreed to host a press event on their behalf.

The billionaires in Khanna's district, meanwhile, were consumed by a different worry. Mixed in with the valley's usual frothy optimism about disruption and inventing the future was a growing sense that the tech economy had somehow broken capitalism. The digital revolution had allowed tech entrepreneurs to build massive global companies without the big job-producing factories or large workforces of the industrial era. The result was more and more wealth concentrated in fewer hands.

As technology advanced, some feared things were only going to get worse. Robots were eliminating much factory work; online commerce was decimating retail; and self-driving cars were on the verge of phasing out truck drivers. The next step was computers that could learn and think.

"What happens if you can actually automate all human intellectual labor?" said Greg Brockman, chairman of OpenAI, a company backed by several Silicon Valley billionaires. Such thinking computers might be able to diagnose diseases better than doctors by drawing on superhuman amounts of clinical research, said Brockman, 30. They could displace a large number of office jobs. Eventually, he said, the job shortages would force the government to pay people to pursue their passions or simply live. Only Andrew Yang, a long-shot presidential candidate and tech entrepreneur, supported the idea of government paying citizens a regular income. But the idea of a "universal basic income" was discussed regularly in the valley.

The prospect was both energizing and terrifying. OpenAI had recently added an ethicist - Brockman sometimes referred to her as a "philosopher" - to its staff of about 100 employees to help sort through the implications of its innovations.

To Brockman, a future without work seemed just as likely as one without meat, a possibility that many in the valley viewed as a near certainty. "Once we have meat substitutes as good as the real thing, my expectation is that we're going to look back at eating meat as this terrible, immoral thing," he said. The same could be true of work in a future in an era of advanced artificial intelligence. "We'll look back and say, 'Wow, that was so crazy and almost immoral that people were forced to go and labor in order to be able to survive,' " he said.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

- - -

Khanna heard such prophecies all the time but mostly discounted them as sci-fi fantasy. His focus was on fixing the version of capitalism that existed today. He often pleaded with big tech executives to spend just 10 percent of their time thinking about what they could do for their country and 90 percent to their companies.

The tougher question was exactly what he wanted them to do with that 10 percent.

On a warm spring evening, Khanna was trying to answer that question for about two dozen Silicon Valley tech executives, software engineers and venture capitalists. The group gathered at a $5 million Mediterranean-style villa perched atop a hill overlooking Cupertino, which glittered in the valley below.

Khanna described a December trip he organized to tiny Jefferson, Iowa, for a group of tech executives that included Microsoft's chief technology officer and a LinkedIn co-founder. The executives donated to the community college's scholarship fund and paid to equip its computer lab with the goal of training 25 to 35 students for software developer jobs, starting at $65,000 a year.

Khanna had made similar trips to West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. The total number of jobs these trips produced was small, and the pay wasn't great. Still, Khanna believed they served a larger purpose. They proved that people in Silicon Valley cared about places like Jefferson, a rural town of only 4,200. They gave people hope that even the remotest parts of America could take part in the country's tech revolution.

The next step, Khanna told the executives at the mansion in Cupertino, California, was a $100 million effort to build 50 technology institutes, similar to land-grant colleges, to train workers in left-behind parts of America. Khanna had already introduced a bill that he admitted was unlikely to pass. But that wasn't really the point. "It sets a blueprint," he said.

Khanna's blueprint reflected his broader view of how to unite an increasingly polarized country. Many Democrats blamed Trump's victory and the country's divisions on racial tensions as the nation grew more diverse and whites lost their favored positions.

Khanna had a different view. He saw the country's problems primarily as the product of growing income inequality and a lack of opportunity.

Sometimes Khanna imagined what people in these left-behind parts of the country were thinking: Their grandparents had fought in World War II and helped build the country's industrial age economy. Now they worried people like Khanna, whose parents emigrated from India, were surging past them.

"They just got here, and they are doing really, really well," Khanna imagined these people saying. "What happened to us?"

Not everyone at the tech gathering was buying Khanna's analysis.

Atam Rao, a nuclear engineer, told Khanna that he had come to the United States from India 50 years earlier. Rao's son, who founded a successful video-game company in Los Angeles, was born in America. The day after Trump was elected, his son suggested shifting some money to a bank account in India, just in case they needed to return someday.

"Are we welcome here?" he said his son asked.

He believed that Khanna was underestimating the racial anger in the country.

"They found someone to blame," Rao said of Trump and his backers. "This is not going to be won by logic."

But that wasn't the America Khanna knew. It didn't fit with his experience growing up in suburban Philadelphia or arriving in Silicon Valley, where Indians had become rock stars and CEOs of companies such as Google. And it didn't comport with the results of the 2018 election, he said, now speaking directly to Rao.

"The same country that elected Trump just elected the most diverse Congress in the country's history," Khanna said.

Khanna didn't deny the problem of racism, but like Sanders he saw the country's divisions primarily through the prism of capitalism's shortcomings and the economy, not race.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

A few days after the meeting at the Cupertino mansion, Khanna was standing in front of 16,000 amped-up Sanders supporters. The San Francisco skyline rose in front of him and the Golden Gate Bridge spanned the bay behind him.

In his gray suit and pressed white shirt, the two-term congressman looked a bit out of place - an emissary from establishment Washington crashing someone else's revolution. Khanna gave a brief speech introducing Sanders, who a few minutes later rushed onto the stage and into the same campaign spiel he had been delivering since the 2016 Democratic primaries.

He bashed the billionaire class and its influence over American elections. "Democracy means one person one vote and not billionaires buying elections," Sanders yelled in his Brooklyn growl.

"We say no to oligarchy," he continued. "Yes to democracy."

Khanna's eyes fixed on Steve Spinner, a big tech investor in Silicon Valley and major fundraiser for Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Spinner, who chaired Khanna's congressional win, was listening with his arms folded across his fleece vest.

"We dragged him out here," Khanna said. "He's about as far from Bernie as you can get."

Many of Khanna's billionaire supporters - even those who worried about capitalism and inequality - seemed genuinely puzzled by Khanna's affection for Sanders.

For Khanna it was simple: In Sanders, Khanna found a candidate who shared his diagnosis of the country's most vexing problems: inequality and the failures of unrestrained capitalism.

Photo by Nick Otto for The Washington Post

Sanders wasn't a perfect match for Khanna. Sanders didn't really understand the tech industry - though he wasn't calling for the breakup of big tech companies like Warren and some other candidates. Warren's proposal, if executed, would hurt companies in Khanna's district and alienate some of his wealthiest backers.

Khanna wished Sanders would talk more about the greatness of the American economy and the power of the tech industry, when properly taxed and regulated, to lift people out of poverty. But on that score Khanna believed he could help Sanders.

"We can quibble over his plans to solve this issue or that issue," Khanna said. "But I have no doubt that if Bernie Sanders was in the White House, he'd wake up every day thinking, 'How do I solve structural inequality in America?' ''

The 77-year-old socialist's speech had passed the one-hour mark and the crowd was still laughing, cheering, hooting and shouting.

"We're probably not going to get a lot of support from the one percent and the large profitable corporations," Sanders said.

A voice in the crowd screamed an expletive.

"That's OK," Sanders continued, "I don't need, and we don't want, their support."

The congressman in the gray suit gazed out at the crowd, which stretched to the back of the park. Khanna saw Sanders' revolution as an imperfect solution to a near-impossible problem. For now, though, it was the best he could find.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images

--

Greg Jaffe is a national security reporter for The Washington Post, where he has been since March 2009. Previously, he covered the White House and the military for The Post. FollowThe Jewish tradition of Seder, a ceremonial dinner to mark the first two nights of Passover, typically takes several hours to tell the story of how the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. To make it easier for children to understand the rituals and traditions, the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Houston decided this year to host a seder especially designed for children.

On Saturday, the second night of Passover, the center put together several stations so children could learn the biblical story of Exodus through art projects, playing with blocks and crossing the Red Sea on a balance beam.

The children had a seder safari checklist, complete with back pack and binoculars, to tick off the stations they visited which included drinking wine (white grape juice for this young set), decorating bags to fill with matzah to eat with their meal and participating in the ritual of hand washing.

That was the favorite part of the event for 6-year-old Allison Clark, who attended with her mother, Jessica, and her 9-year-old brother Oliver. Allison is learning about Passover and wasnt quite sure why hand washing is so important, but she said it was fun to do outdoors in the courtyard at the Merfish Teen Center in Meyerland.

Its an important part of Jewish tradition, said Rabbi Jill Levy, who was standing nearby.

About 150 parents and children attended the seder safari, said Mari Katz OLeary, coordinator of Mishpacha & Me for the community center. In previous years the center hosted a traditional second night seder the first night is typically a family affair at home  but this year the community center decided it would do something that would make it easier for young children to understand the story behind Passover.

Six-year-old McKinsey Davis, her 3-year-old sister Shelby and their friend, 7-year-old Abby Frankel, built a pyramid out of bricks made of cardboard. As they stacked the bricks higher and higher, Ivy Davis, the mother of McKinsey and Shelby, explained how the pharaoh forced the Jewish people to build the pyramids in the hot sun because they were slaves. The girls listened. Then it was off to the next station.

The story of Passover explains how the Israelites escaped from slavery by inflicting Egyptians with 10 plagues including locusts, lice and death of the first born. The word passover comes from Israelites marking their doors with blood so God would know to pass over the first born in those homes.

Three-year-old Benny Rappaport is already well-versed in the story because his parents have been reading him books about Passover during the past two weeks. He was intent to make a paper bag puppet to commemorate the plagues  he chose lice  as he glued the bugs one by one on the brown paper bag.

What did Moses say? asked Leigh Rappaport, Bennys mother, as she helped him get the paper bugs positioned on the bag as she led him through the story of how the prophet Moses helped lead the Isrealites out of Egypt.

Let my people go! said Benny.

lynn.sixel@chron.com

twitter.com/lmsixelSelf-described serial killer Edward Harold Bell died in the Texas prison Saturday, leaving unanswered questions about the unsolved murders of 11 girls he claimed to have killed.

Bell died Saturday morning at the Wallace Pack Unit, a prison that houses many elderly prisoners, a spokesman confirmed. He was 82.

STAY IN THE KNOW: Get all the news you need to know to start your day

Bell was already a Texas inmate serving a 70-year sentence for the murder of Larry Dickens, an ex-Marine from Pasadena, when in 2011 he told the Houston Chronicle that he had committed a string of other homicides. Bell described abducting and murdering girls as young as 12 who had disappeared from Galveston, Dickinson, Houston, Clear Lake and Alvin between 1971 and 1977.

Bell called the girls the Eleven who went to Heaven, in one of several letters. In interviews, Bell also acknowledged he had also sent confession letters describing several of the same crimes to prosecutors in Galveston and Harris counties in 1998.

Read More: The Eleven who went to Heaven

But Bell was never prosecuted for any other murder besides that of Dickens, whom he shot and killed on Aug. 24, 1978 in Pasadena. Bell shot Dickens several times with two different guns minutes after Dickens confronted Bell, a serial sex offender who had just exposed himself to a group of neighborhood girls. Dickens mother, who could see her son being shot from a kitchen window, immediately called 911. In minutes, Pasadena Police arrested Bell and found murder weapons and pornography in his pick-up.

Bell made bail in Harris County and went on the lam for 14 years.

Tips that finally led to his arrest poured in after Bell became the subject of a 1992 Unsolved Mysteries episode. The show featured Matthew McConaughey as a Dickens in the actors first TV role. A former Harris County District Attorney investigator Larry Boucher helped coordinate Bells arrest in 1993 at a yacht club in Panama where hed been living with a teenaged girl.

A few years after Bell made his 2011 jailhouse claims to be a serial killer, retired Galveston homicide detective Fred Paige and a Chronicle reporter teamed up to try to find proof of whether Bell had been in the right places at the right times to murder girls in the 1970s as he claimed in interviews and in letters.

Read more: Documentary Series reexamines 1970s murders:

As a result of discoveries in that investigation, featured in a 2017 documentary on A&E called The Eleven, Galveston prosecutors reopened the murder cases of Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, two island girls whose abduction and deaths Bell described in detail in both letters and interviews. Bell admitted in a recorded interview that he had picked up the two girls on the day they disappeared at a Baskin Robbins on the island. In a letter, he described how hed shot and killed them. And their bodies were found dumped as Bell described in an isolated bayou very near a pasture where Bell kept a trailer, public records and interviews show.

Bell was never charged with those two homicides, but he remained the prime suspect at the time of his death Saturday. He was also the suspect in several other unsolved murders, but no DNA evidence or weapons were located by the departments in charge of the 11 cold cases Bell described.

Many of the girls relatives joined Dickens family in opposing Bells efforts to win parole.

Galveston Police Officer Michelle Sollenberger, who reinvestigated the murders in recent years, posted on Facebook Saturday that she believed Bells death would bring some comfort. Today these girls may finally rest in peace because their killer has gone to hell.

Rita Brestrup, who lost her sister Maria Johnson in 1971, said she had no words for Bell but was glad that he no longer walks this earth and will never be paroled.

I believe he took a life precious to me and my life has never been the same since. Marias death impacted my life more than any other single event. Nothing can take her memory away.

Phyllis Southern , a long-time Galveston resident, was one of the family members of the 11 girls. Southern became convinced through discoveries recently made that Bell was also responsible for the murder of her sister, Brenda Jones.

Upon hearing of Bells death, Southern said: I had hoped to one day to question him myself, but now Gods judgment is upon him!! I just wanted him to know that he will Never take anything else from me! My little Sister was my everything and he took her in the most vile and horrible way he could!!

TDCJ Spokesman Jeremy Desel confirmed Bell collapsed at the Pack Unit in Navasota. Like all in custody deaths, it is under investigation by the Independent Office of the Inspector General, Desel said.

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.Self-described serial killer Edward Harold Bell died in the Texas prison Saturday, leaving unanswered questions about the unsolved murders of 11 girls he claimed to have killed.

Bell died Saturday morning at the Wallace Pack Unit, a prison that houses many elderly prisoners, a spokesman confirmed. He was 82.

Bell was already a Texas inmate serving a 70-year sentence for the murder of Larry Dickens, an ex-Marine from Pasadena, when in 2011 he told the Houston Chronicle that he had committed a string of other homicides. Bell described abducting and murdering girls as young as 12 who had disappeared from Galveston, Dickinson, Houston, Clear Lake and Alvin between 1971 and 1977.

Bell called the girls the Eleven who went to Heaven, in one of several letters. In interviews, Bell said he had also sent confession letters describing several of the same crimes to prosecutors in Galveston and Harris counties in 1998.

But Bell was never prosecuted for any other murder besides that of Dickens, whom he shot and killed on Aug. 24, 1978, in Pasadena. Bell shot Dickens several times with two different guns minutes after Dickens confronted Bell, a serial sex offender who had just exposed himself to a group of neighborhood girls. Dickens mother, who could see her son being shot from a kitchen window, immediately called 911. In minutes, Pasadena police arrested Bell and found murder weapons and pornography in his pickup.

Bell made bail in Harris County and went on the lam for 14 years.

Tips that finally led to his arrest poured in after Bell became the subject of a 1992 Unsolved Mysteries episode. The show featured Matthew McConaughey as Dickens in the actors first TV role. A former Harris County District Attorney investigator, Larry Boucher, helped coordinate Bells arrest in 1993 at a yacht club in Panama where hed been living with a teenage girl.

A few years after Bell made his 2011 jailhouse claims to be a serial killer, retired Galveston homicide detective Fred Paige and a Chronicle reporter teamed up to try to find proof of whether Bell had been in the right places at the right times to murder girls in the 1970s as he claimed in interviews and in letters.

As a result of discoveries in that investigation, featured in a 2017 documentary on A&E called The Eleven, Galveston prosecutors reopened the murder cases of Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, two island girls whose abduction and deaths Bell described in detail in both letters and interviews. Bell admitted in a recorded interview that he had picked up the two girls on the day they disappeared at a Baskin-Robbins on the island. In a letter, he described how hed shot and killed them. And their bodies were found dumped as Bell described: in an isolated bayou near a pasture where Bell kept a trailer, public records and interviews show.

Bell was never charged with those two homicides, but he remained the prime suspect at the time of his death Saturday. He was also the suspect in several other unsolved murders, but no DNA evidence or weapons were located by the departments in charge of the 11 cold cases Bell described.

Many of the girls relatives joined Dickens family in opposing Bells efforts to win parole.

Galveston police Officer Michelle Sollenberger, who re-investigated the murders in recent years, posted on Facebook Saturday that she believed Bells death would bring some comfort. Today these girls may finally rest in peace because their killer has gone to hell.

Rita Brestrup, who lost her sister, Johnson, in 1971, said she had no words for Bell but was glad that he no longer walks this earth and will never be paroled.

I believe he took a life precious to me, and my life has never been the same since, she said. Marias death impacted my life more than any other single event. Nothing can take her memory away.

Dotti Walkers niece Sharon Shaw was abducted from Galveston Island alongside with her best friend, Rhonda Rene Johnson, in 1971, the same year Ackerman and Maria Johnson were taken from the island. All four were surfers who visited the water ski school that was only blocks from Bells home and surf shop at that time.

Walker too came to believe Bell was responsible from those deaths, even though another man was convicted of Shaws murder, the only one of the 11 girls murders that resulted in a prosecution. Walker, a longtime crime victims advocate who lives in Houston, said she privately celebrated the news that Bell died behind bars.

I put my arms up to heaven and said, Girls he wont hurt anyone else. You can dance in heaven cause I know, she said. All the families can relax some now and not listen to cruel words from an evil person.

Phyllis Southern, a longtime Galveston resident, was one of the family members of the 11 girls. Southern became convinced through recent discoveries that Bell was also responsible for the murder of her sister, Brenda Jones.

Upon hearing of Bells death, Southern said: I had hoped to one day to question him myself, but now Gods judgment is upon him!! I just wanted him to know that he will Never take anything else from me! My little Sister was my everything and he took her in the most vile and horrible way he could!!

Jeremy Desel, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, confirmed Bell collapsed at the Pack Unit in Navasota. Like all in custody deaths, it is under investigation by the Independent Office of the Inspector General, Desel said.

lise.olsen@chron.com

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WHIPPLE CREEK REALTY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - GT BARRINGTON WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - LENOX WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S - SALISBURY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALTY WILLIAM PITT SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALTY, LENOX WILLIAM RAVEIS REAL ESTATE Williamstown Realty Group WITALISZ & ASSOCIATES, INC. WOLCOTT REALTY WWW.ENTRYONLY.COMU.S. Coast Guard patrols Micronesian waters in support of Forum Fisheries Agency Operation Rai Balang 2019 to counter illegal fishing

by Petty Officer 3rd Class Amanda Levasseur

April 15,2019 | Source: dvids

Two U.S. Coast Guard cutters crews and a long range HC-130 patrol aircraft crew recently completed combined operations with shipriders from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) as part of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) Operation Rai Balang 2019 to combat illegal fishing across Oceania.



For three weeks, U.S. Coast Guard cutters Sequoia (WLB 215) and Kiska (WPB 1336) embarked FSM law enforcement officers as shipriders to patrol the FSM Exclusive Economic Zone and on the high seas, supported by the HC-130 patrol aircraft crew. In addition to the U.S. Coast Guard and FSM combined operations, Operation Rai Balang also involved ships and aircraft deployed by the remaining Pacific Quadrilateral Defense PartnersAustralia, New Zealand, and Francein support of other Pacific island countries across Oceania.



Illegal, unregulated, and underreported (IUU) fishing threatens resource security and sovereignty. Enforcing international fishing regulations on the high seas and helping Pacific island countries protect their waters from IUU fishing promotes maritime governance and reinforces a rules-based international order that is essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific.



"The U.S. Coast Guard and our Pacific Quadrilateral Defense Partners have two decades of experience working together with Pacific island countries to help ensure resource security and the viability of tuna stocks in the Pacific. Working with experts from these nations and regional leaders like the Federated States of Micronesia is vital to ensuring food security and the rule of law in Oceania. Working together we are helping to sustain and increase a secure, free and open Indo-Pacific, said Capt. Riley Gatewood, chief of enforcement for U.S. Coast Guard 14th District.



It is estimated that IUU fishing accounts for about 30 percent of all fishing activity worldwide, representing up to 26 million tons of fish illegally harvested each year, valued at between $10 to $23 billion.



IUU fishing can act as a nexus for economic, social and political instability or unwanted influence of countries looking to gain a foothold in the region  all having direct economic and security implications for the United States if not effectively controlled, said Lt. Cmdr. Conor Sullivan, fisheries enforcement Coast Guard 14th District.



The U.S. bilateral shiprider arrangement with FSM is only one of eleven such agreements across Oceania. The U.S. Coast Guard regularly conducts bilateral fisheries law enforcement operations with these Pacific Island Countries, often as part of planned FFA operations across the region.

 DVIDS Media

Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods.Belize ups its marine protected areas to 10 percent of of its territorial waters

by Cliff White

April 18,2019 | Source: SeafoodSource

The government of the Central American country of Belize has approved a plan to triple the size of its marine protected areas, raising the total of its territorial waters in marine protected areas to 10 percent.



Belize first announced the move at the World Ocean Summit in March 2018, aiming to create protections from fishing and mining activities so as to rebuild fish populations and help protect critical marine habitats, Belize Fisheries Administrator Beverly Wade told SeafoodSource. The expansion of its marine protected areas are part of Belizes efforts to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Wade said.



A healthy reef and vibrant fisheries sector is necessary for Belize to achieve its goals for reducing poverty, improving food security and nutrition and increasing investment for development in Belize, Wade said.



The specific areas chosen to be designated as marine protected areas were identified by an international collaboration of scientists who worked with the goal of protecting marine habitat, allowing for recovery of degraded ecosystems, and replenishing fish stocks. The six-year process was led by the government of Belize, Belizean community NGOs, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and other international NGO partners.



With its efforts, Belize has taken action that safeguards ecosystems while promoting sustainable fishing, according to the EDF.



This is a truly remarkable accomplishment that is setting an example for the rest of the world to follow, EDF Senior Vice President for Oceans Katie McGinty said in a press release. The combination of significant marine protected areas and managed access for fishers will help protect some of the most important ecosystems in the world while ensuring sustainable fishing can continue to provide food, nutrition and livelihoods to the thousands of Belizeans who rely on these valuable natural resources.



In 2016, Belize adopted a national secure fishing rights program, which gave fishermen access to fish in certain geographic areas of a fishery in exchange for taking responsibility for managing the areas responsibly and ensuring regulations, such as seasonal fishing restrictions, catch size, and quotas. are observed. The program is known as managed access inside Belize.



Together, managed access and no-take zones are designed to help rebuild fish populations while protecting critical habitat, EDF Belize Project Manager Nicanor Requena said. The people of Belize deserve tremendous credit for their vision and perseverance to protect their natural heritage while encouraging sustainable fishing practices so that people and nature can prosper together.



Belizes existing no-take zones appear to be succeeding in achieving their goals. According to the most recent Mesoamerican Reef Report Card, created by the NGO Healthy Reef for Healthy People, Belizes no-take zones show growing fish populations and biodiversity.



That biodiversity is magnificent and unique  mangroves, corals, seagrass, and cayes support populations of conch, lobster, and a variety of reef fish, the NGO said.

 2019 Diversified Communications

Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.St. Lucia signs on to UN Clean Seas Campaign

April 16,2019 | Source: The Daily Herald

The government of St. Lucia is now part of the UN Environments Clean Seas Campaign which was launched in 2017.



Several other Caribbean countries have also pledged their commitment and support to this worthy cause. This campaign, a call to global action, works with governments, businesses and citizens around the world, to increase awareness of the need to protect our oceans from marine plastic pollution by reducing our production and consumption of single-use plastics and micro-plastics, as well as engaging in safe disposal practices.



With 60 countries now members of the Clean Seas Campaign, it has become the worlds largest global alliance for combatting marine pollution, covering more than 60 per cent of the worlds coastlines. Member countries are demonstrating their support and commitment by initiating various actions at the national level.



St. Lucia remains steadfast in its efforts and commitment to combatting marine plastic pollution. Every year in September, St. Lucia and the rest of the world observe International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) Day.



This activity is organised by the St. Lucia Chapter of the Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN). The event provides an opportunity for citizens island-wide to participate and contribute to this global movement, as the beach clean-ups take place simultaneously on several beaches around the island. This year the clean-up activity is scheduled for September 21.



On March 7, the National Conservation Authority (NCA), in collaboration with the St. Lucia National Trust (SLNT), the Department of Fisheries and CaribbeanSEA, hosted students from various conservation clubs at a Beach Education Day at Vigie Beach.



The aim of the activity was to expose students to the unique characteristics of the ocean and sensitise them to the many ways the ocean is being threatened by indiscriminate human activity. Part of this activity saw the students designing trash bins, taking inspiration from the Beach Education Day. The bins will be placed on local beaches which will ultimately help in reducing litter in our marine environment.



As a further demonstration of our governments dedication to protect our land and ocean ecosystems, the Department of Sustainable Development, in partnership with several other government and civil society organisations, has worked tirelessly towards the implementation of a ban on the importation of Styrofoam and selected plastic food service containers. The ban will be done through a phased approach starting June 1.



As we heighten our efforts to safeguard our marine ecosystems and biodiversity and the economic benefits they provide for our people, the Ministry for Sustainable Development calls upon all St. Lucians to make smart choices in their everyday lives, by engaging in activities that will positively impact the marine and coastal environment.

 The Caribbean Herald N.V. dba

Theme(s): Others.Supporting the implementation of the SSF Guidelines: Report from the 3rd World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress

April 16,2019 | Source: Too Big To Ignore

In June 2014, the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines for

Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). This endorsement marked the conclusion of several years of ardent effort that went into the development of the SSF Guidelines through consultations and negotiations. The

preparatory work on the instrument was carried out in close collaboration with governments, civil society organizations (CSOs) representing fishers and fish workers, academia, regional fishery bodies (RFBs), and other organizations and stakeholders. The SSF Guidelines are the first ever international instrument specifically designed for small-scale fisheries sustainability, taking into

consideration their nature, concerns, and potentials. Through human-rights based approach and several key guiding principles, the SSF Guidelines call on all stakeholders at all levels to contribute to their implementation. While the finalization and endorsement of the instrument itself were of

critical importance, the real challenge lies in its implementation. The SSF Guidelines are broad in scope, and their implementation must necessarily engage a wide range of government agencies, CSOs, and research community, as well as small-scale fisheries stakeholders along the entire chain from harvest to markets.



The 3rd World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress (3WSFC), held in Chiang Mai Thailand in October 2018, was an opportunity for researchers, practitioners, fisher organizations, CSOs, and policy makers to

share up-to-date information about all aspects of small-scale fisheries and to formulate action plans and capacity development programs to support the implementation of the SSF Guidelines. This

report presents the summary of the discussion about the SSF Guidelines, outlining in particular the roles of governments, CSOs, and research community in the implementation process, and illustrating some of the main challenges and opportunities in the implementation. In addition, the report provides insights on what kind of governance transformation is needed for a successful

implementation as well as how best to integrate knowledge and foster communications to enhance this process. From a practical standpoint, the report provides direct examples of how the SSF Guidelines are being implemented in five countries across the globe.



The report was based on the notes taken from various congress sessions, including, among others: a) panel discussion on the roles of government in the implementation of the SSF Guidelines (Policy Day), b) regional roundtable discussions (Action Day), c) plenary discussions about research plans,

community actions and policy directions (Action Day), d) inputs from congress participants through the cross-cutting questions discussion, and e) direct contribution from early career scientists and

developing country participants throughout the congress.

 2019 Too Big To Ignore

Theme(s): Others.At the Shrine of Christ the King church in Woodlawn, a grassroots effort to renovate the structure was underway when it was accidentally set ablaze by a volunteer worker in October 2015. Like Notre Dame and Pilgrim Baptist, the fire ripped through the roof, and debris and heavy wooden beams fell onto the pews, the altar and the stage, destroying nearly everything. What the fire and smoke didnt touch was ruined by the water used to extinguish the blaze, said the Rev. Canon Matthew Weaver.When you grow up the way Regina Louise grew up--abandoned by her parents, physically abused by caretakers, shuttled from foster home to foster home--you learn to doubt your memories. Even the good ones, especially the good ones, come with a disclaimer: Maybe they never happened.

Louise remembered that a woman once wanted to adopt her. The woman took Louise to the ballet and opera, taught her to believe in herself, and made her a beautiful blue dress with rainbows and hearts stitched on the front.

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Then the woman disappeared from her life.

By the time Louise, the successful owner of two Bay area hair salons, sat down to write her memoir in 1999, she was 37, and none of the adults from her childhood who could corroborate her stories could be found.

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What she could recall, and what she felt, she wrote down. In the summer of 2003, Louise's memoir, "Somebody's Someone," arrived in bookstores.

Louise was a toddler when her biological mother left her in Austin, Texas, in the care of a woman who took in kids. Her father only vaguely knew she existed.

Louise often was mistreated. Rejected by her parents, she ended up in California's foster care system.

In 1975, on the eve of her 13th birthday, Louise arrived at a children's shelter in the Bay area. Jeanne Taylor worked at the shelter, and where others saw bad behavior in Louise, Taylor saw potential.

She nourished it with trips to the opera and ballet and by demonstrating to Louise her potential for good.

Taylor wanted to adopt the girl. But some social workers preferred to place black children with black families, believing those homes to be more suitable settings. Taylor was white, single and 31.

The court denied her petition to adopt.

That denial meant Louise would spend the rest of her childhood moving: She lived in at least 30 homes and facilities.

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A turning point came when Louise revisited a childhood dream of becoming a hairstylist. After cosmetology school she landed an apprenticeship, and then she and a business partner opened a salon.

Even as life got better, the past continued to dog Louise. She decided that writing a book was the best way to let go.

Stunning discovery

When her editors asked for people to corroborate her story, she requested her file from the social services department.

There she found something she never expected: letters Taylor had sent years ago. Nobody back then had bothered to give them to Louise.

After her book was released, Louise gave an interview to a Bay area paper. A woman who had worked at the shelter 25 years ago read the article and tracked down Taylor.

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During her book tour, an e-mail landed in Louise's laptop with the subject line, "I am so proud of you, sweetheart."

The woman Louise had been looking for wanted her to call. The e-mail was signed "Jeanne."

It was too much to fathom. Louise closed the computer.

Days later she called the number, expecting to hear a recorded message. Instead she heard Taylor's sing-song voice.

"Hello-o-o?"

Louise tried to catch her breath. Then she stammered, "May I speak to . . . is Jeanne . . . ?"

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Then it was Taylor's turn to need air.

"Is that you?" she said. "Is that my baby girl? You were my first child. I never stopped loving you. I wanted you . . . I tried."

Louise had to pull the phone away from her ear to mask the sound of her tears.

Taylor, whom Louise had known as Jeanne Kerr, had married a man in the military, taken his last name and left the Bay area. They had a son and lived in various towns.

Taylor wanted to give Louise a birthright that should have been claimed a long time ago. First Taylor called her husband, who was stationed in Iraq, and discussed her plan. Then, during a second phone call, she made Louise an offer: "Would you like to be adopted?"

Louise told her she would call back. She hung up, headed to a mirror and practiced folding her lips into a word she had preserved for such a moment. Then she called with her answer.

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"Hi, Mommy," she said.

Louise still was on her book tour, so they finally met a few weeks later at New York's LaGuardia Airport.

Taylor handed Louise a photo album. There she was with Taylor at a performance of "The Nutcracker," then at an amusement park. Then there was the blue dress, the one with rainbows and hearts that Taylor had hand-stitched across the front.

Family at last

On Nov. 20, 2003, in the same Contra Costa County courthouse where a judge had denied Taylor's request to adopt Louise decades ago, Taylor, 59, adopted Louise, 41.

The women stood before Judge Lois Haight, who said their mother-daughter relationship would be irrevocable, that they would be responsible for each other. The judge explained to Taylor's husband and son, Christopher, then 23, and to Louise's son, Michael, then 17, that they were all family. The women raised their right hands and swore to abide.

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Then the judge took a gavel and declared them kin.

Louise is committed to sparing children in foster care the experiences she endured and is writing a book about reuniting with Taylor.

Since the adoption, they have shared a series of firsts: Thanksgiving, Christmas, holiday get-togethers. This holiday season there was one more.

Louise, her mother and Christopher began living together as a family. They spent their first Christmas in their new home in Pleasant Hill. But first mother and daughter returned to the shelter where they met nearly 30 years ago.Americans Perish in Easter Sunday Sri Lanka Terrorist Attacks

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter morning. Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security.

"The United States offers our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and wishes a quick recovery to all who were injured. While many details of the attacks are still emerging, we can confirm that several U.S. citizens were among those killed. The U.S. Embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families.

"These vile attacks are a stark reminder of why the United States remains resolved in our fight to defeat terrorism. We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they confront violent extremism and have offered our assistance as they work to bring the perpetrators to justice."A refreshing reward

Schuyler, Nebraska - Two guys got up early one morning recently to clean up after Platte River floodwaters near Schuyler, receded recently. And, as fate would have it, they were well rewarded at the end of a hard days work, reports the Association of Mature American Citizens.

Gayland Stouffer and Kyle Simpson, parched from their labors, spotted what turned out to be a refrigerator as they made their way across a field as they headed home. The fridge turned out to be chock full of ice-cold beer. Photos they posted on Facebook went viral and the owner of the fridge, Brian Healy, saw the post and recognized it as his. Healy told the Omaha World-Herald that the give-away was that it was packed with the proper ratio of Bud Light beer and Busch Light beer. Simpson promised to return the fridge to Healy, minus a couple of beers.Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

If you have a choice between Believe It When I Hear It and Believe It When I See It, the latter seems a safer bet.

It's certainly the case when it comes to airlines.

Yet airline executives sometimes talk to their most important (translation: those who spend most money) customers at private gatherings, in order to help them believe the truth.

Or, at least, a truth.

One such gathering, hosted by American Airlines, took plane recently in Dallas. Only so-called Concierge Key customers were invited.

These are people who seem to spend more time on American Airlines than they do in any other single location.

Helpfully, an attendee slipped onto the Flyer Talk forums to disclose a little of what American Airlines' executives apparently said in the hallowed confines of this private affair.

Rowingman--for that is his Flyer Talk handle--revealed the airline's executives are aware of some passengers' unhappiness, especially regarding the new Oasis configuration in which the airline has tried to stuff as many seats in as possible and graced Economy Class with tiny bathrooms.

It's even reduced the legroom in First Class. Which seems like precisely the sort of the thing that would make a Concierge Key member grind their key ring into their teeth.

Rowingman offered this big news:

We talked about the Oasis seats a lot, and there was a wide acknowledgement from AA that they have an issue there, and that it will be addressed. They directly stated that the Oasis conversion has stopped until they "fix" the seats in First, and that the seat was a miss.

The seats in First.

You at the back ensconced in the new, thin seats that hurt your behind after more than a couple of hours, well, you don't matter so much.

Economy Class is Economy Class.

It seems, though, that First Class passengers have complained their seating enjoys a "plastic feel, lack of the middle space under the seat in front of you, weird power location, odd storage."

American has admitted its premium revenue has been slipping. Could this be a contributory factor?

Still, I've glided past the dramatic part. Rowingman claims that "the Oasis conversion has stopped."

Could this be temporarily? Could this be permanently?

I don't want to raise hopes, so I asked the airline. I didn't receive a response.

Perhaps it's because I'm not Concierge Key. My keys only fit an old Chubb lock.

I was forced, therefore, to ask some knowing sorts inside the airline.

I was told by one American Airlines insider that some believed the airline had endured second thoughts about the whole Oasis thing "since before they started the conversion."

I dug further. It seems that a few planes are still enjoying the conversion therapy in locations such as Tulsa, Oklahoma and Greensboro, North Carolina.

One American Airlines employee offered hope, with a vast kicker:

All others [Oasis conversions] have been stopped, but it might also have to do with freeing up aircraft due to the Max grounding.

With the 737 Max being currently non-operational, American, like other airlines, is being forced to find planes to act as substitutes.

Might it use this interlude to think more deeply about at least one or two aspects of its seat-stuffing habit?

It's hard to believe much will happen.

When you've made such a massive investment in planes like the Max and put as many seats as you dare inside them--and retrofitted many Boeing 737-800 planes to mimic the Max--turning back isn't easy.

Then again, the issue of maximal discomfort has reached financial spheres.

After American announced some of its financial shortfalls, an analyst asked Doug Parker, the airline's CEO, a very direct question:

Maybe it's the configuration of the aircraft that's holding you back, from a revenue perspective?

Parker was reportedly evasive in his response.

It's a lesson for every business.

At some point on your drive for maximum profit, your customers begin to realize you're taking advantage of them.

It's harder for airline passengers to react to that because they have so few choices when they fly. But for those who have Delta as an option, there's a real temptation.

American gambled. It thought that by inserting better Wi-Fi and bigger overhead bins, passengers would be appeased. Or, perhaps, numbed.

When you make Economy Class passengers supremely uncomfortable, many get used to it.

When I flew United's Max 9, for example, I heard few complaints.

First Class passengers, on the other hand, have a louder voice and an excess of self-confidence.

But if American makes them more comfortable, will Economy Class passengers be squeezed even more?We live in an age in which change has become the only constant. So it's not surprising that change management models have become popular. Executives are urged to develop a plan to communicate the need for change, create a sense of urgency and then drive the process through to completion.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of these efforts fail and it's not hard to see why. Anybody who's ever been married or had kids knows first-hand how difficult it can be to convince even a single person of something. Any effort to persuade hundreds, if not thousands, of people through some kind of mass effort is setting the bar pretty high.

However, as I explain in Cascades, what you can do is help them convince each other by changing the dynamic so that people enthusiastic about change can influence other (slightly less) enthusiastic people. The truth is that small groups, loosely connected, but united by a shared purpose drive transformational change. So that's where you need to start.

The Power of Local Majorities

In the 1950's, the prominent psychologist Solomon Asch undertook a pathbreaking series of conformity studies. The design of the study was simple, but ingenuous. He merely showed people pairs of cards, asking them to match the length of a single line on one card with one of three on an adjacent card. The answer was meant to be obvious.

However, as the experimenter went around the room, one person after another gave the same wrong answer. When it reached the final person in the group (in truth, the only real subject, the rest were confederates), the vast majority of the time that person conformed to the majority opinion, even if it was obviously wrong!

Majorities don't just rule, they also influence, especially local majorities. The effect is even more powerful when the issue at hand is more ambiguous than the length of a line on a card. More recent research suggests that the effect applies not only to people we know well, but that we are also influenced even by second and third-degree relationships.

So perhaps the best way to convince somebody of something is to surround them with people who hold a different opinion. To extend the marriage analogy a bit, I might have a hard time convincing my wife or daughter, say, that my jokes are funny and not at all corny, but if they are surrounded by people who think I'm hilarious, they'll be more likely to think so too.

Changing Dynamics

The problem with creating change throughout an organization is that any sufficiently large group of people will hold a variety of opinions about virtually any matter and these opinions will tend to be widely dispersed. So the first step in creating large-scale change is to start thinking about where to target your efforts and there are two tools that can help you do that.

The first, called the Spectrum of Allies, helps you identify which people are active or passive supporters of the change you want to bring about, which are neutral and which actively or passively opposed it. Once you are able to identify these groups, you can start mobilizing the most enthusiastic supporters to start influencing the other groups to shift their opinions. You probably won't ever convince the active opposition, but you can isolate and neutralize them.

The second tool, called the Pillars of Support, identifies stakeholder groups that can help bring change about. In a typical corporation, these might be business unit leaders, customer groups, industry associations, regulators and so on. These stakeholders are crucial for supporting the status quo, so if you want to drive change effectively, you will need to pull them in.

What is crucial is that every tactic mobilizes a specific constituency in the Spectrum of Allies to influence a specific stakeholder group in the Pillars of Support. For example, in 1984, Anti-Apartheid activists spray-painted "WHITES ONLY" and "BLACKS" above pairs of Barclays ATMs in British university towns to draw attention to the bank's investments in South Africa.

This of course, had little to no effect on public opinion in South Africa, but it meant a lot to the English university students that the bank wanted to attract. Its share of student accounts quickly plummeted from 27% to 15% and two years later Barclays pulled out all of its investments from the country, which greatly damaged the Apartheid regime.

Identifying a Keystone Change

Every change effort begins with a grievance: sales are down, customers are unhappy or perhaps a new technology threatens to disrupt a business model. Change starts when leaders are able to articulate a clear and affirmative "vision for tomorrow" that is empowering and points toward a better future.

However, the vision can rarely be achieved all at once. That's why successful change efforts define a keystone change, which identifies a tangible goal, involves multiple stakeholders and paves the way for future change. A successful keystone change can supercharge your efforts to shift the Spectrum of Allies and pull in Pillars of Support.

For example, when Experian's CIO, Barry Libenson, set out to shift his company to the cloud, he knew it would be an enormous undertaking. As one of the largest credit bureaus in the world, there were serious concerns that shifting its computing infrastructure would create vulnerabilities in its cybersecurity and its business model.

So rather than embarking on a multi-year death march to implement cloud technology throughout the company, he started with building internal APIs to build momentum. The move involved many of the same stakeholders he would need for the larger project, but involved far less risk and was able to show clear benefits that paved the way for future change.

In Cascades, I detail a number of cases, from major turnarounds at companies like IBM and Alcoa, to movements to gain independence in India and to secure LGBT rights. In each case, a keystone change played a major role in bringing change about.

Surviving Victory

As Saul Alinsky pointed out decades ago, every revolution inspires a counterrevolution. So many change efforts that show initial success ultimately fail because of backlash from key stakeholders. That's why it is crucial to plan how you will survive victory by rooting your change effort in values, skills and capabilities, rather than in specific objectives or tactics.

For example, Blockbuster Video's initial response to Netflix was extremely successful and by 2007 it was winning new subscribers faster than the upstart. Yet because it rooted its plan solely in terms of strategy and tactics, the changes were only skin deep. After the CEO left because of a compensation dispute, the strategy was quickly reversed. Blockbuster went bankrupt a few years later.

Compare that to the success at Experian. In both cases, large, successful enterprises needed to move against a disruptive threat. In both cases, legacy infrastructure and business models needed to be replaced. At Experian, however, the move was not rooted in a strategy imposed from above, but through empowering the organization with new skills and capabilities.

That made all the difference, because rather than having to convince the rank and file of the wisdom of moving to the cloud, Libenson was able to empower those already enthusiastic about the initiative. They then became advocates, brought others along and the enthusiasts soon outnumbered the skeptics.

The truth is you can't overpower, bribe or coerce people to embrace change. By focusing on changing the dynamics upon which a transformation can take place, you can empower those within your organization to drive change themselves. The role of a leaders is no longer to plan and direct action, but to inspire belief.The second episode of Game of Thrones season eight has leaked online hours before broadcast.

The next instalment of the HBO shows final season will air simultaneously in the UK  on Sky Atlantic  and the US from 2am GMT, but eager fans wanting to have the surprises spoiled found they could do so thanks to Amazon Prime in Germany.

Subscribers catching up with the first outing, titled Winterfell, couldnt believe their luck when the second episode began airing immediately after.

Tonights episode will focus on Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) after his return to Winterfell. Considering his questionable actions in the past, including pushing Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) from a window and killing Daenerys father, its certain he wont receive the nicest welcome.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that George RR Martin  the author of the shows source material  almost featured an incestuous relationship thats impossible to comprehend.

The final season of Game of Thrones continues every Sunday. You can find a countdown of every single episode here.

You can find our extensive ranking of our favourite characters  from worst best  below.

Game of Thrones characters - ranked Show all 70 1 /70 Game of Thrones characters - ranked Game of Thrones characters - ranked 70. Rickon Stark Played by: Art Parkinson : Art Parkinson Easily the most annoying Stark child  an impressive feat next to Bran  Rickon was at least handed one hell of a death scene: taken out by an arrow courtesy of Ramsay Bolton. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 69. Robin Arryn Played by: Lino Facioli : Lino Facioli Robin Arryn is remembered by most Thrones fans as being the 10-year-old breastfed by his mother (still weird). That's about it. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 68. Renly Baratheon Played by: Gethin Anthony : Gethin Anthony The Rickon of the Baratheon brothers. His claim to the Iron Throne was tenuous, considering his older brother, Stannis, was still alive. When Stannis's shadow monster came to kill him, it was only good news for the show. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 67. Leaf Played by: Kae Alexander : Kae Alexander A lot of mystery may surround Leaf, one of the show's mythical Children of the Forest, but her noble sacrifice to save Bran, Meera and Hodor from a horde of wights robbed her of any worth. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 66. Tommen Baratheon Played by: Dean-Charles Chapman : Dean-Charles Chapman Another boring younger brother. Whereas Joffrey was pure evil, Tommen was innocent and, inevitably, very boring. His cat, Ser Pounce, was an asset to the show. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 65. Lysa Arryn Played by: Kate Dickie : Kate Dickie Lysa, the creepy sister to Catelyn Stark, was first seen with Robin Arryn, her 10-year-old son, latched to her breast. Her death  being pushed through the Moon Door  couldn't have come sooner. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 64. Benjen Stark Played by: Joseph Mawle/Matteo Elezi : Joseph Mawle/Matteo Elezi Having gone missing in season one, Benjen returned during season six to save his nephew, Bran. The moment was a surprise to TV watchers  book readers, however, had long speculated that Coldhands was an undead version of the Stark. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 63. Syrio Forel Played by: Miltos Yerolemou : Miltos Yerolemou The ill-fated Syrio's appearance way back in season one was a formative experience for one Arya Stark (Maisie Williams); he's the one who helped her on her way to becoming the vengeful assassin fans know and love today. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 62. Jeor Mormont Played by: James Cosmo : James Cosmo Father of Jorah Mormont, Jeor was an honourable leader of the Night's Watch  perhaps to a fault. After giving Jon Snow the sword Longclaw, Mormont inadvertently showed the Stark bastard that Valerian steel can cut through White Walkers. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 61. Roose Bolton Played by: Michael McElhatton : Michael McElhatton Let's be honest: it's hard to really like as scheming a character as Roose Bolton, the man who orchestrated the violent Red Wedding  the most infamous scene in the show's six-year history that saw the death of Robb, Catelyn and Talisa. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 60. Ellaria Sand Played by: Indira Varma : Indira Varma Ellaria Sand may have been a more enticing creation on the page, but in the series, her screen time regrettably amounts to reacting to loved ones being killed off in increasingly awful ways. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 59. Grand Maester Pycell Played by: Julian Glover : Julian Glover The secretly sprightly Pycell had seen a lot of things in his time, but there's an element of "unfulfilled potential" surrounding Glover's character whose late betrayal of Cersei Lannister saw a grisly end to his life of luxury at King's Landing. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 58. Three-Eyed Raven Played by: Max von Sydow : Max von Sydow Perhaps it was the casting of Max von Sydow that heightened anticipation for the Three-Eyed Raven in the series, but the half-hearted story arc left a lot to be desired. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 57. Gilly Played by: Hannah Murray : Hannah Murray Gilly's long journey from Craster's Keep to Winterfell sounds exciting on paper. But, unfortunately, she has been merely a passenger on Sam's journey for far too long. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 56. Daario Naharis Played by: Michael Huisman : Michael Huisman The man who won the heart of Daenerys Targaryen, only to be left behind in Essos. Ed Skrein originally played the character, but was soon replaced after the actor landed a role in Deadpool. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 55. Shae Played by: Sibel Kekilli : Sibel Kekilli Oh Shea. Her ill-fated betrayal  sleeping with Tywin (Charles Dance)  was a slap in the face not just for lover Tyrion, but the viewer also. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 54. Grey Worm Played by: Jacob Anderson : Jacob Anderson Leader of the Usullied, Grey Worm remains unmoved at all times  unless around Missandei. While their romance can be heartwarming, it's hard to invest in two characters who are so wooden. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 53. Talisa Maegyr Played by: Oona Chaplin : Oona Chaplin To be fair to Robb Stark's wife Talisa, should she have avoided being murdered in arguably the most horrific way during the Red Wedding, she would most likely have been higher on this list. Alas. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 52. Shireen Baratheon Played by: Kerry Ingram : Kerry Ingram All the Greyscale-suffering Shireen ever wanted to do was read stories in her chamber, but due to her impressionable power-hungry father, Stannis, she was tragically reduced to ashes after being sacrificed to the Lord of Light. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 51. Viserys Targaryen Played by: Harry Lloyd : Harry Lloyd Viserys wanted the Iron Throne at any cost, giving away his own sister in exchange for an army. Dany, though, had other plans. Her new husband, Khal Drogo, covering Viserys in molten gold made for one of the show's most memorable death scenes. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 50. Maester Luwin Played by: Donald Sumpter : Donald Sumpter The kindly Maester Luwin was one of the nicest characters in the first few seasons, becoming a stand-in father for Bran and Rickon while the Starks endured horrors elsewhere. He was eventually killed when Ramsay Bolton took over Winterfell. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 49. Thoros of Myr Played by: Paul Kaye : Paul Kaye Thoros spent the majority of his time on the show resurrecting Beric and was most recently seen wielding his flaming sword alongside Jon Snow beyond the wall. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 48. Mance Rayder Played by: Ciaran Hinds : Ciaran Hinds Ciaran Hinds brought an intensity to Mance Rayder, a character who would otherwise have got lost in the crowd. As a result, his death at the hands of Melisandre was unexpectedly affecting. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 47. Podrick Payne Played by: Daniel Portman : Daniel Portman Ever loyal, Podrick Payne has become a fan favourite for being surprisingly brave in the face of adversity. He and Brienne of Tarth make an excellent duo. HBO/Helen Sloan Game of Thrones characters - ranked 46. Euron Greyjoy Played by: Pilou Asbk : Pilou Asbk While Euron Greyjoy may have only joined the show in season six, his presence was immediately felt. A wildcard character, Greyjoy's cut-throat, power-hungry nature has proven exciting to watch. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 45. Jaqen H'ghar Played by: Tom Wlaschiha : Tom Wlaschiha Jaqen H'ghar  one of the Faceless Men of Braavos  had such promise, but ultimately ended up being the one responsible for sapping Arya's story of the energy she'd had seasons before, alongside The Hound (Rory McCann). HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 44. Missandei Played by: Nathalie Emmanuel : Nathalie Emmanuel Missandei has somehow managed to come up trumps within the new world order, being an advisor to Dany. However, her stilted nature can make for some awkward encounters  but at least she and Grey Worm are happy together. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 43. Ygritte Played by: Rose Leslie : Rose Leslie Ygritte  the Wildling lover of Jon Snow  will go down in Thrones lore for providing the series the with oft-quoted famous line: "You know nothing, Jon Snow." Spoken with a northern accent, obviously. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 42. Hot Pie Played by: Ben Hawkey : Ben Hawkey Has an actor ever been more suited to a role? Ben Hawkey, after all, has gone on to run a bakery of his own, even selling Thrones-themed goods. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 41. Walder Frey Played by: David Bradley : David Bradley One of the orchestrators of the Red Wedding, Walder Frey was a lurching, terrifying villain. When Arya unmasks herself and kills the old man, it's a sweet, sweet moment of revenge. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 40. Gendry Baratheon Played by: Joe Dempsie : Joe Dempsie The true heir to the Iron Throne. Gendry may have spent a few seasons rowing out at sea, but his return hints at big things to come for the Baratheon bastard. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 39. Robert Baratheon Played by: Mark Addy : Mark Addy Mark Addy brought a certain gravitas to Robert Baratheon, making him a believably world-weary king. Despite only having a few scenes, his character's presence is still felt on the show thanks to Gendry. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 38. Barristan Selmy Played by: Ian McElhinney : Ian McElhinney After being fired by the Lannisters, Selmy pledged allegiance to Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), bridging the gap between two of the show's key characters. He was also a bloody good warrior. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 37. Yara Greyjoy Played by: Gemma Whelan : Gemma Whelan Lily Allen was initially wanted for the role of Theon's sister. However, she declined: 'I felt uncomfortable because I would have had to go on a horse and he would have touched me up and s***.' Seeing as Allen's brother, Alfie, had already been cast as Theon, it was probably for the best. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 36. Margaery Tyrell Played by: Natalie Dormer : Natalie Dormer Margaery Tyrell was one of Game of Thrones's biggest players, wheedling her way into the Lannister family politics and actually becoming Queen for a spell. Her number was up the moment she made an enemy of Cersei, and her fiery death, while underwhelming, was a huge moment. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 35. Samwell Tarly Played by: John Bradley : John Bradley There's a theory going around that Samwell Tarly, who trains as a maester, is actually the author of the Song of Ice and Fire  AKA the book series. In other words, Sam is George RR Martin. Go figure. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 34. Osha Played by: Natalia Tena : Natalia Tena The underused Osha was our very first wildling, an unpredictable knife-wielding danger to the characters we loved. Her subsequent evolution into Stark servant was interestingly played, which made the fact she was sidelined for multiple seasons, before being brought back just to be unceremoniously offed, a travesty. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 33. Ramsay Bolton Played by: Iwan Rheon : Iwan Rheon Ramsey cut off Theon's penis and sent it to the Greyjoy's father. He imprisoned and raped Sansa Stark. He killed Rickon Stark in front of his brother. And Ramsay eventually died by being fed to his own dogs. A terrifying death for a terrible human. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 32. Night King Played by: Richard Brake, Vladimir Furdik : Richard Brake, Vladimir Furdik The embodiment of evil. Why, exactly, the Night King marches South to destroy mankind remains somewhat a mystery. But, whatever the reason, he's a terrifying foe. Winter has, as the Starks say, finally come. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 31. Beric Dondarrion Played by: Richard Dormer : Richard Dormer Beric danced on the outskirts of the series until its third season when he surfaced as the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners. His introduction paved the way for the Lord of Light's ability to resurrect the dead, a mystical sub-plot that would become very important for Jon Snow. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 30. Bran Stark Played by: Isaac Hempstead Wright : Isaac Hempstead Wright It says a lot that Bran Stark has become marginally more interesting since he sacrificed his personality in favour of becoming the spiritualistic heart of the series. His role in the final season looks set to be a huge one what with the long-standing theory that he could become the fearsome Night King. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 29. Theon Greyjoy Played by: Alfie Allen : Alfie Allen While Theon starts as a cocky kid, after being neutered by Ramsay he becomes the annoyingly weak Reek. Thankfully, Theon comes back around again in the later seasons, but not without us still hating his guts for not saving Sansa sooner. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 28. The High Sparrow Played by: Jonathan Pryce : Jonathan Pryce While at first a seemingly wise old man, the High Sparrow quickly becomes a tactical villain, using his newfound powers under King Tommen to turn King's Landing into his own domain. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 27. The Mountain Played by: Hafor Julius Bjornsson : Hafor Julius Bjornsson The hulking Clegane brother known as The Mountain  now a zombie-esque servant to Cersei  may not have come face-to-face with lots of characters in the series, but his presence is known by all in Westeros. His biggest moment? Battering poor Oberyn's head into mush. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 26. Khal Drogo Played by: Jason Momoa : Jason Momoa To the world he's now Aquaman, but for a brief time, Jason Momoa was Khal Drogo, the beloved Dothraki husband of his Khaleesi, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 25. Jon Snow Played by: Kit Harington : Kit Harington Every show needs a hero, and they do not come more obvious than Jon Snow. Rising from discarded bastard to King of the North, his climb has been one of the show's best storylines. A shame, then, that Snow can be such a bland person, doing only what is right and seemingly having no faults. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 24. Stannis Baratheon Played by: Stephen Dillane : Stephen Dillane With his propensity to make tough decisions for the greater good, Stannis could have been a heroic warrior. However, the Baratheon brother's continual fall from grace  including sacrificing his own daughter and murdering his own brother  were horrendous decisions that eventually doomed him. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 23. Hodor Played by: Kristian Nairn : Kristian Nairn Once you get over the fact that Kristian Nairn was essentially getting paid to repeat the word "Hodor" over and over, it's hard to deny that Bran Stark's protector was a heartwarming addition to the show. His death  the breathtaking "Hold the Door" sequence  will go down as one of the show's most memorable moments. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 22. Tywin Lannister Played by: Charles Dance : Charles Dance Stannis was a horrible father. His two favourite children became incestuous lovers, and he blamed his youngest for the death of his wife. Without Tywin, though, the Lannister family would not be nearly as riveting as they are to watch. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 21. Tormund Giantsbane Played by: Kristofer Hivju : Kristofer Hivju Tormund has some of the best lines in the series, particularly when expressing his admiration for Brienne. Here's one of the least explicit: "I want to make babies with her. Think of it. Great big monsters. They'll conquer the world!" HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 20. Daenerys Targaryen Played by: Emilia Clarke : Emilia Clarke "Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons." Every time Dany meets someone new, she forces Missandei to read out her entire CV. I guess everyone would if theirs was as impressive. Dany really has had a great journey to the top  a shame she could not have come to Westeros slightly earlier. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 19. Olenna Tyrell Played by: Dianna Rigg : Dianna Rigg Olenna's scenes were always ones to cherish. The Queen of Thorns was as cunning as the best of them and seemed like she could worm her way out of any situation, all from the comfort of her own chair. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 18. Jorah Mormont Played by: Iain Glen : Iain Glen Poor Ser Jorah. Dany may be 25 years younger than him, but that never stopped the disgraced warrior from loving her. He even fought off Grey Scale to fight by her side. If that's not true love, then what is? HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 17. Davos Seaworth Played by: Liam Cunningham : Liam Cunningham Liam Cunningham's performance as the curt Davos Seaworth has quietly been one of the best things about the series since his introduction. As Jon Snow's kingly advisor, he's recently seen himself thrust into the heart of the series and, simply put, Game of Thrones would be a less enjoyable show without him. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 16. Melisandre Played by: Carice van Houten : Carice van Houten Lest we forget that Melisandre is actually a shrivelled old witch who has been manipulating men for hundreds of years. Her faith in the Lord of Light, though, could very well be misplaced. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 15. Oberyn Played by: Pedro Pascal : Pedro Pascal Few shows can bring in characters midway through their run that have such an impact as Oberyn. The Viper quickly became a fan favourite, and his death remains one of the show's most squirm-inducing moments. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 14. Eddard "Ned" Stark Played by: Sean Bean : Sean Bean Killing off a main character during a show's first season was practically unheard of before Game of Thrones. Yet, as dictated by George RR Martin's books, they cut off Sean Bean's head without a second thought, setting the tone for everything to come. No death has impacted the Thrones quite as much since. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 13. Varys Played by: Conleth Hill : Conleth Hill Early on in the series, it was hard to pin down Varys, a slippery eel of a character who has "little birds" fluttering around Westeros, feeding back crucial information. Going into the final season, his true intentions are clear: he's all for Daenerys taking the Iron Throne, even if he doesn't live to see the day (I have to die in this strange country, just like you," Melisandre prophesied last season). HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 12. Bronn Played by: Jerome Flynn : Jerome Flynn Perhaps the show's best wise-cracking side-kick, Bronn only has one loyalty: money. Paired with either of the Lannister lads, Tyrion or Jaime, Bronn makes for excellent company. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 11. Robb Stark Played by: Richard Madden : Richard Madden Before Bodyguard, Richard Madden was the extremely temporary king of Westeros. Robb was a man of honour, trying to bring light to the Thrones universe. He was a likeable presence who ruled with his heart, an act that ultimately saw him die during the infamous Red Wedding in season three. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 10. Brienne of Tarth Played by: Gwendoline Christie : Gwendoline Christie Brienne is a reassuring force of good in a world filled with scheming layabouts. She's also one of the most deadly. Her time on the series has been spent protecting the likes of Renly Baratheon, Catelyn Stark and Jaime Lannister, the latter of which made for an interesting turn as it put her at odds with her loyalty. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 9. Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish Played by: Aidan Gillen : Aidan Gillen There would be no Game of Thrones without Littlefinger. The silver-tongued manipulator had Jon Arryn killed, setting off a snowball that turned into an avalanche. As smart as he may have been, Littlefinger was finally outplayed by his own pupil, Sansa Stark. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 8. Sansa Stark Played by: Sophie Turner : Sophie Turner Sansa has perhaps had the most interesting story arc of any character on Thrones. Beginning as a cliched annoying teenager, she gradually became a stone-cold killer, capable of holding Winterfell and outsmarting even Littlefinger. With any luck, she could sit upon the Iron Throne when the war is over. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 7. Arya Stark Played by: Maisie Williams : Maisie Williams Arya Stark, arguably the greatest character of the first few seasons, was one of the biggest victims of the series overtaking George RR Martin's source material. Her limited screen time, due to being away from the central action, robbed us of classic moments that we're grateful she's been a part of in an otherwise lacklustre season eight. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 6. Sandor "The Hound" Clegane Played by: Rory McCann : Rory McCann From his regular delivery of the phrase"F** the king" to that chicken scene, The Hound is a reckless creation whose high ranking on this list can be attributed to the searing performance from Rory McCann. Most effective when paired with Arya Stark. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 5. Joffrey Baratheon Played by: Jack Gleeson : Jack Gleeson No character has been as hated by the fandom as Joffrey. His wicked ways and disgusting behaviour haunted the show's first four seasons. You never knew what was going to come next: whether he was about to behead your favourite character or start crying to his mother. It made for thrilling television. But, as The Hound says, "F**k the King". HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 4. Catelyn Stark Played by: Michelle Fairley : Michelle Fairley The lady of Winterfell, Catelyn Stark, became the show's honorary lead after the untimely beheading of her husband, Ned (Sean Bean) at the end of season one. As she tried to take control of spiralling events in the second and third run, Thrones was handed its most resilient character. Michelle Fairley's guttural cry of anguish before meeting her tragic end during the Red Wedding will always be the show's most horrific moment. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 3. Jaime Lannister Played by: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau : Nikolaj Coster-Waldau If the characters above Jaime in this list are the show's greatest characters, Jaime is the show's most disarming. The Lannister brother  the Kingslayer  started the series as a long-haired bad guy of the tallest order, but his humbling over the past few seasons have seen him inch his way into the hearts of viewers. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 2. Tyrion Lannister Played by: Peter Dinklage : Peter Dinklage Blamed for the death of his mother and hated for being a dwarf, Tyrion turned to drink and prostitutes to numb the pain. However, Tyrion has a fierce intellect, capable of outsmarting the toughest enemies (and offering cutting lines that George RR Martin says often take weeks to write). More importantly, despite being betrayed and cast away time and time again, Tyrion selflessly only wants the best for the people of Westeros. A true hero. HBO Game of Thrones characters - ranked 1. Cersei Lannister Played by: Lena Headey : Lena Headey The Mad Queen, alone on the Iron Throne. Cersei has, over the course of seven seasons, seen her three children die, driven her lover/brother away, blown up a church with a half dozen major characters inside, arranged the death of her husband (King Robert) and attempted to have her other brother (Tyrion) killed multiple times. Yet, thanks to Lena Headey's empathetic performance, you still feel sorry for the terrifying Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. As one of the most complicated character to have ever reached television screens, there's no denying her place as the best Thrones character to date. HBO

The show will be available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.As cannabidiol (CBD) becomes more mainstream, the ingredient has become ubiquitous, popping up in everything from cosmetics to beverages to pet products.

CBD is a non-psychoactive natural compound found in the marijuana plant, which does not cause the mood-altering effects associated with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

This year alone, brand names and retail stores have embraced the ingredient for its purported effects, which include stress- and pain-relief, as well as anti-inflammatory properties.

These are some of the latest and most-anticipated CBD and cannabis launches this year.

Jelly beans

Those with a sweet tooth looking for the effects of CBD dont have to look far, as the creator of Jelly Belly, David Klein, has come up with a product that will satisfy both needs.

Cannabis around the world Show all 13 1 /13 Cannabis around the world Cannabis around the world Morocco Farmers destroy cannabis plantations under Moroccan police supervision in the northern Moroccan Larache region, pictured here in 2006 AFP/Getty images Cannabis around the world Colorado Growing business: Cannabis on sale at River Rock Wellness Sam Adams Cannabis around the world Oakland Oaksterdam in Oakland, California, is the world's only university dedicated to the study and cultivation of cannabis Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images Cannabis around the world Seattle A cannabis smoker marks the start of the new law by the Space Needle in Seattle Getty Images Cannabis around the world China Cannabis growing wild in China, where it has been used to treat conditions such as gout and malaria Cannabis around the world Uruguay Uruguay has voted to make the country the first to legalize marijuana AFP/Getty Cannabis around the world Colorado A groundswell of support from the public led to full legalisation in Colorado Getty Images Cannabis around the world Berlin A man smokes licenced medicinal marijuana prior to participating in the annual Hemp Parade, or 'Hanfparade', in support of the legalization of marijuana in Germany on August 7, 2010 in Berlin, Germany. The consumption of cannabis in Germany is legal, though all other aspects, including growing, importing or selling it, are not. However, since the introduction of a new law in 2009, the sale and possession of marijuana for licenced medicinal use is legal. Sean Gallup/Getty Images Cannabis around the world UK The UK latest figures show 2.3 million people used cannabis in the last year AP Cannabis around the world Amsterdam Tourists visiting Amsterdam will not be banned from using the citys famous cannabis cafes Getty Images Cannabis around the world Merseyside These 25 cannabis plants, seized in Merseyside police, could have generated a turnover of 40,000 a year Cannabis around the world San Francisco April 20, 2012: People smoke marijuana joints at 4:20 p.m. as thousands of marijuana advocates gathered at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. The event was held on April 20, a date corresponding with a numerical 4/20 code widely known within the cannabis subculture as a symbol for all things marijuana. Reuters Cannabis around the world Spain A cannabis users' association will pay the town of Rasquera more than 600,000 a year for the lease of the land

Klein recently launched a new line of CBD-infused jelly beans, available in 38 flavours.

The beans, which each contain 10ml of CBD, come in flavours such as toasted marshmallow, cinnamon, and mango, and are available in sour, original, and sugar-free versions.

According to Klein, who is selling the jelly beans through his company Spectrum Confections, he was unable to find jelly beans infused with CBD so he took it upon himself to make them.

Unfortunately, the beans are quite expensive - retailing for 461 ($600) for 800 pieces.

CBD products for pets

Culinary expert Martha Stewart has also joined in on the cannabidiol action with her own line of CBD products - marketed towards pets.

To create the line of CBD health products, Stewart has teamed up with Canopy Growth, one of the worlds largest marijuana producers.

According to Stewart, the line will offer sensible products for peoples beloved pets.

Although the effects of CBD on pets are unclear, as research is in early stages, the ingredient has been proposed as a way of helping treat animal anxiety, osteoarthritis and epilepsy.

Speaking to The Independent, the RSPCA said more research needs to be done before CBD can be recommended for distressed animals.

We are not aware of any studies which show proven benefits of CBD oil for pets," said Caroline Allen, chief veterinary officer at the RSPCA.

"If anyone has concerns about their pet's health, we would always advise them to contact their vet.

Walgreens pharmacy

Walgreens, one of the biggest pharmacy chains in the US, will begin stocking CBD products in 1,500 stores across the country.

The range will include everything from CBD-infused creams to patches and sprays, according to the company.

Of the decision to stock the product, a spokesperson said it is in line with our efforts to provide a wider range of accessible health and wellbeing products and services to best meet the needs and preferences of our customers.

Barneys department store

CBD has also infiltrated the luxury retail market, as Barneys announced it would be adding a cannabis lifestyle and wellness section to its flagship location.

The new department, called The High End, is located in the Beverly Hills location and encompasses 300-square-feet of space on the fifth floor.

In addition to vaporiser pens, lighters and cases, the store also sells a range of high-end CBD-infused beauty products from brands such as, Foria, Boysmells, Malin + Goetz and Body Vibes.

Fast-food

Proving the versatility of the ingredient, burger chain Carls Jr also announced it would be incorporating CBD into its menu.

The chain will be offering the Rocky Mountain High: CheeseBurger Delight (CBD), complete with a CBD oil-infused version of Carls Jr signature Santa Fe sauce on 420 - the weed-themed holiday - in Denver, Colorado.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

Although the release is currently limited to 20 April, the company said it is considering bringing the burger on as a permanent menu item.How are your kids doing?

It isnt the question itself that bothers Katie Porter. The freshman Democratic congresswoman from California, a single mother of three children, is perfectly aware that enquiring about another persons family is just polite small talk.

But theres something about the way some people ask her, the subtle emphasis on that last word  how are your kids doing?  that makes her bristle.

As if theyre suffering, Porter says. Her colleagues surrounding her in the stately room at the Library of Congress nodded knowingly. As if theyre not thriving and doing great.

The nine women who had gathered for an early breakfast on a recent morning  fellow mothers and members of the House of Representatives, joined by FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel  could tell variations of this same story, about the myriad moments when they felt questioned or judged for living publicly as mothers who hold particularly high-profile jobs.

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For Rosenworcel, who was invited to talk about her experience as a working mom and the only female FCC commissioner, a defining encounter occurred during a business negotiation years ago, when a man said to her: It must be so hard for you to do this job as a mom. (She was so infuriated, she says, I got everything I wanted out of that negotiation, and then some.)

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida), recalled a male colleagues obvious discomfort when she once nursed her infant daughter in her congressional office: Because, yeah, she had to eat, she says. The women in the room answered with a chorus of murmured affirmation.

In 2019, in the era of #MeToo, when discussions of gender roles and equality are very much in the mainstream, a group of women sitting together and sharing stories about working motherhood probably shouldnt feel so radical. But this is Capitol Hill, where the first lactation room in the house wasnt installed until 2007 (after Nancy Pelosi demanded it), where the first womens restroom off the house floor was only added in 2011, and where until 2017 it was forbidden for women to bare their shoulders in the House Speakers Lobby.

Then came the 2018 election and its historic influx of female lawmakers  led by women who touted their motherhood bona fides with pride  and Wasserman Schultz, who came to Washington in 2005 as the mother of twin 5-year-olds and a 1-year-old, decided the time had come to launch what she calls the Moms in the House caucus. She invited the 25 mothers of school-age children in the house (21 Democrats and four Republicans) to join the group, the first of its kind in congressional history.

We are doing these jobs differently than the majority of congress, Wasserman Schultz told the group gathered around the breakfast table. I want this to be a vehicle, not only to be supportive of one another but also to help each other be successful, to use it as a way for us to advance an agenda and collect our power, to move things forward.

She smiled and added: And to just maybe have some comfort, where we can come together, because were living through the same experience.

Of course, it isnt exactly the same experience. Among the Moms in the House caucus are mothers of sons, and of daughters, older children, younger children and stepchildren. Rep Angie Craig (Minnesota), is the first lesbian mother elected to congress; Reps Ilhan Omar, (Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), are the first Muslim mothers. Even among the handful of women gathered recently over breakfast, differences were apparent.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with her daughter Isra (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

I have an incredibly supportive husband, and thats really the only reason Im able to do this, says Rep Kim Schrier (Washington).

I have a very, very supportive spouse, Rep Jennifer Wexton (Virginia), echoed. When women ask for advice about how can I do it all, number one, I say, you gotta find a great partner.

Then it was Porters turn. I dont have any spouse, she says, and Im happy that way.

Even though there are more women and more mothers in congress than ever before, being a single mother  a circumstance shared by about one in four American mothers  is still rare enough here to feel isolating, Porter says later.

It was a moment of my realising how different I am, she says. And until we have a lot more women in congress, there are still going to be those moments.

Although the 2018 midterm elections brought the proportion of women in the legislature to an all-time high, nearly doubling the number of working mothers, the percentage of women in Congress  24 per cent  still falls far short of mirroring the American populace.

All of the new additions were in the house, and most were Democrats  though motherhood is a role that has increasingly been emphasised by members of both parties. (Kelly Ayotte, former Republican senator from New Hampshire, often spoke about her children and the challenges of running for office when they were young; Rep Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington  who in 2013 became the first woman to give birth to three children while serving in congress  has frequently discussed her son with Down syndrome and founded a Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus.)

So far, only Democrats have attended the monthly Moms in the House events, which began in January, though Wasserman Schultz says Republican members have expressed interest. There is also an active text group, she says, in which members frequently turn to one another for advice: should the whole family move to Washington? What are the best summer camps in DC? What to do with visiting kids when Mom has to be on the house floor to vote?

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

Ultimately, she says she hopes the group will use the strength in our numbers to push family-focused issues  affordable child care and stronger parental-leave policies, for instance  to the top of a legislative agenda. But the main purpose is to serve as personal and professional support, she says, to empower members to embrace their dual roles as parents and lawmakers.

So when Rosenworcel brought up the issue of net neutrality and the digital divide over breakfast, the congresswomen around the table discussed the challenges facing children who cant complete their homework because they dont have internet access.

And at a House Financial Services Committee hearing last week, during a confrontation with JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon, Porter assailed the banks low wages by describing the impossibility of a single mother with a 6-year-old child trying to survive on an entry-level salary. In an exchange that went viral, Porter concluded that the hypothetical mother in question would run a deficit of nearly $600 per month.

What Id like you to do, she told Dimon, is provide a way for families to make ends meet.

For many years, mothers in congress have supported one another behind the scenes, Wasserman Schultz says, but the current moment felt worthy of something more.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib with her children (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

It was always really important to me, the bits of advice that I was able to get from more-experienced, veteran moms in congress, and that was advice Ive quoted through the years to women who were thinking about running, she says. So its really been a gradual crescendo for me to reach this point.

After the caucus was announced, a flurry of questions followed, about what it meant  practically, symbolically  to see these women assemble, to proudly identify themselves as mothers.

When people ask me, What is the significance of so many women and mothers being in the US congress? you know, its great for young girls that they see this representation, Craig says. But maybe its even more important that my four sons grow up in a world where women are fully representing them. This is the new normal for them, that women are at the policymaking table.

But even the new normal is still far from equal, says Jennifer Lawless, a political scientist at the University of Virginia and an expert on women in politics.

The fact that this moms caucus has to exist continues to demonstrate the incredibly disproportionate share of household labour and child care that women, even in the top tier of professional accomplishment, remain responsible for, Lawless says. There are a lot of men who have had young kids, and never has there been attention on how to focus those dual roles. So its in some ways a double-edged sword. It highlights the need to figure out a way to be able to balance your home life and your profession, but the downside is that its reinforcing this idea that this is a problem only women face.

And that problem, she says, isnt likely to be solved in congress; cultural norms cant be legislated.

Thats not to say that if we have more favourable leave policies, that that wont help generate the conversation, and that things cant change, Lawless says. But it wont be in four or eight years.

Wasserman Schultz is aware of this dichotomy. Its wonderful that we have a critical mass of moms with school-aged children and we can be there for one another, and have a platform to advance an agenda important to women and families, she says, and at the same time, we shouldnt need that support network because it shouldnt be any different to be a mom in congress than to be a dad in congress.

She paused. Only it is, and you have to deal with reality.

The ultimate goal of the caucus, then?

Id like to hope, she says, that our existence helps us to ultimately not need to exist.

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 Washington PostColin Jordan, who has been described as the grandfather of post-war National Socialism in Britain, was an ardent admirer of Hitler who for decades carried the flag for Nazism. Despite his long devotion to the cause, few rallied to his standard. His decades of activism none the less made him a prominent figure in the ultra-right undergrowth which included the National Front, British National Party and a myriad of other groups.

Jordan was a member of many of these and an opponent of many more, since the far-right proved at least as vehemently schismatic as the left, and has been riven with often bitter splits over personalities, policies and tactics. Jordan was at the heart of one such rift when he broke with one-time associate John Tyndall over what they said were policy differences. The widespread belief, however, was that the real reason was that Jordan married the jailed Tyndall's ex-fiancee.

She was Francoise Dior, an eccentric niece of renowned fashion designer Christian Dior. She was as fervently Nazi as Jordan: as part of their marriage ceremony they cut their fingers and mingled their blood over a copy of Mein Kampf. Although she said she wanted to give birth to a little Nazi, they had no children, and after a few years of marriage she ran off with a teenager. At one point she was charged with arson attacks on synagogues.

Spreading bile: Jordan railed against blacks, asians and immigration (Getty)

The Jordan-Tyndall fall-out meant that two of the major figures in the ultra-right camp were permanently estranged from each other. Both struggled unsuccessfully to make inroads beyond the most extreme fringes, and never managed to establish any significant electoral foothold.

Jordan was involved with an entire lexicon of micro groups, ranging from the League of Empire Loyalists to the British Movement, and from the National Socialist Movement to the White Defence League. He also formed attachments with neo-Nazi elements on the continent and in the US.

One of his groups, Spearhead, was a paramilitary outfit which in the early 1960s landed him in prison for one of his spells behind bars. He had been observed taking part in military manoeuvres by police, who seized Nazi flags and portraits, pistols, knives, helmets and other paraphernalia. On one container of chemicals the words weed-killer had been replaced with Jew-killer.

Jordan and several others were sent to jail. He was locked up again in 1965 under strengthened race-relations laws after he issued a pamphlet, The Coloured Invasion, in which he railed against blacks, Asians and immigration. He made many court appearances following rallies and protests, and for the dissemination of literature said to incite racist hatred.

At one point the cabinet discussed banning one of his demonstrations, with deputy prime minister Rab Butler saying the government must do something, but it was allowed to go ahead.

The son of a postman, Jordan was educated at Warwick School and at Cambridge, where he took a history degree. His mentor was Arnold Leese, a right winger who before the war had quarrelled with Sir Oswald Mosley, whom he denounced as kosher fascist. Later on Mosley was to jeer at Jordan and similar figures as pygmies posing in the jackboots of dead giants.

This obituary as it appeared on 28 April 2009 (Independent)

While at Cambridge Jordan formed what he called a nationalist club. Later he taught mathematics at a secondary school, but lost the job because of his activism. In the years that followed he attacked immigration and Jewish control of politics, business and the media. In his scheme of things democracy was a master method to deter people from any critical appraisal of the Jews. He declared: Democracy is death.

Annoyed by such pronouncements Denis Healey, while secretary of state for defence, once punched him at a public meeting as Jordan and others sought to push the immigration issue during by-elections.

A wondrous man: Jordans devotion to Hitler never dimmed (Getty)

But Hitler  this wondrous man  was always Jordan's primary focus. He asserted that there was no reliable evidence whatsoever that six million perished in the Holocaust. His attachment went far beyond mere hero worship, extending into the realms of spirituality. Discounting Jesus as the counterfeit Christ of the Christians, Jordan described Hitler as messiah and saviour, and as a seer and priest who brought a message of salvation. In a 1989 essay he declared: The crucifixion of his creed was by the spears of baleful war alone, devoid of higher sanction from any worthier creed. His was the spiritual victory. He went on to forecast Hitler's resurrection as the spiritual conqueror of the future.

With few takers for such a vision, Jordan faded in his leadership role in the far-right underworld, though he continued to write books and pamphlets and at no point showed any sign of moderating his views. His credibility was further damaged by a court appearance on a charge of stealing three pairs of red knickers from Tesco's; he was found guilty and fined 50.

Jordan's writing landed him in court once again in 2001 when he faced charges of publishing material likely to stir up racial hatred. He brought into court a large box marked: Freedom is in peril  defend it with all your might. The judge ruled that, at the age of 78, he was unfit to stand trial because of a serious heart condition.

In 2007 he issued an appeal for far-right unity and an end to the toxic infighting in which he had participated for so many years. Whatever tiny chance remains at this very late hour for national racial survival and revival depends on acting in unison, he wrote. The far right must, he said, make the essential ascent from that pettiness of vision and spirit, with all its attendant squabbling, which has been the curse of British nationalism and the joy and benefit of our opponents.

John Colin Campbell Jordan, far-right activist, born 19 June 1923, died 9 April 2009Hidden in a carrier bag, under a pile of rubbish sacks at the bottom of Victoria Silvas* husbands wardrobe, sit the documents that held the power to determine whether she had a future in the UK after Brexit. Silva has non-UK dual EU citizenship and has lived in the UK for more than a decade, but with no evidence of her own to prove it, she needed to access the paperwork to secure settled status.

But that was never going to be easy and her husband would be very, very frustrated if he found out that she had secretly accessed those vital documents. He [her husband] thinks I dont know where he hides the papers, but I know where everything is, the 52-year-old says. Taking them was very scary. I took everything and had to put it all back in the same position so he wouldnt notice.

After more than 25 years of marriage, Silva and her husband recently separated. They have a teenage daughter together and things were not always bad, but the last decade of their relationship was marred by merciless emotional and psychological abuse. Silva was cruelly prevented access to food and had to eat in secret. Her husband was against her learning English and would frequently mention her nationality to torment her about being deported. The taunting, she says, was another form of manipulation that made her fearful of deportation and she was unaware until last year that she had the right to apply to remain in the country.Sihana was in a house full of children and women when she was raped by a member of the Serbian paramilitary. The men took five of the younger women into separate rooms; one of them had given birth just four days before.

They raped us until theyd had enough. The children were screaming, the old women were screaming, we were screaming, Sihana says.

The Kosovo war ended 20 years ago, but its effects are all too present for this young nation. Approximately 20,000 women and girls were raped during the 14-month conflict; thousands of people remain missing  both Albanian and Serbian  with multiple mass graves uncovered over the last two decades.Labour will be beaten by Nigel Farage if it offers only mealy-mouthed support for a second Brexit referendum, Tom Watson has warned Jeremy Corbyn.

In what will be seen as an extraordinary criticism of his leader, Mr Corbyns deputy says his own party is trying to sit on the fence about the most crucial issue facing our country.

Mr Watson  who backed a fresh public vote last month  warned the tactic risked handing victory to Mr Farages new Brexit Party, which has topped polls for next months European Parliament elections.

And he said: Labour wont defeat Farage by being mealy-mouthed and sounding as if we half-agree with him.

We wont beat him unless we can inspire the millions crying out for a different direction. We wont win if we sit on the fence about the most crucial issue facing our country for a generation.

Writing in The Observer, Mr Watson also said: We cannot just sit back, watch this fight on the far right, and allow Farage to prosper with a backward-looking brand of politics that offers no solutions.

Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Nigel Farage speaks at the launch of his new Brexit Party's campaign for the European elections Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Brexit Party candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaks at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A supporter waits for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters wait for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage's socks Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage and prospective candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg wait at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters listen as Farage speaks AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Free T-shirts for all attendees AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Posters on the seats for supporters of the Brexit Party AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A safety sign is pictured AFP/Getty

Instead we must offer a radical alternative based on our values that speaks directly to the people we represent and demonstrate Labour has a way forward out of the crisis.

The article reflects rising tensions at the top of Labour over Mr Corbyns attempts to reach a compromise Brexit deal with Theresa May, in talks to resume this week.

The leader is resisting pressure from Mr Watson, and from Keir Starmer, the Brexit spokesman, and shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry to put any agreement to a Final Say referendum.

In a war of words between the two politicians, Mr Farage accused Mr Watson of breaking his promise to the British people, claiming a second referendum would be a total insult to five million Labour Leave voters.

I now intend to wholeheartedly target Labour lies and dishonesty in the weeks ahead, he warned.

But Mr Watson added: Now that we know a bit more about what Brexit means, the very least that Leavers and Remainers deserve is a final say  a confirmatory referendum  on any deal.

They deserve a Labour party that offers clarity on this issue, as well as the radical vision for a new political economy achieved by working with our socialist allies inside the EU.

The comments came as campaigners step up efforts to persuade millions of young people to register to vote in the 23 May European elections.

The Vote for Your Future campaign is trying to reach about 3 million people aged 18 to 30 who are not yet registered before the deadline of 7 May.

The Electoral Commission says a third of the 9 million people in the UK in this age group are not currently registered to vote. This compares with just 4 per cent of those over 65.A staggering 40 per cent of Conservative councillors say they will back Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party in the European elections, in a fresh grassroots revolt against Theresa May.

Three-quarters of Tory councillors want the prime minister to quit, a survey found  while an overwhelming 96 per cent believe their party has been damaged by the Brexit stalemate.

The devastating results come after one local Conservative group took the extraordinary step of refusing to help with the 23 May elections  insisting they should not be happening.

And they come ahead of a fresh push, when parliament resumes on Tuesday, to change party rules to enable MPs to force Ms May out of No 10 this summer.

The 1922 Committee of backbench MPs will meet to discuss removing the ban on a fresh no-confidence vote within 12 months of the last challenge  which currently prevents it happening before December.

Meanwhile, Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, attacked participation in the European elections, warning 50 disruptive and resentful British MEPs were heading to Brussels.

Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Nigel Farage speaks at the launch of his new Brexit Party's campaign for the European elections Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Brexit Party candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg, sister of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaks at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A supporter waits for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters wait for Farage to speak AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage's socks Reuters Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Farage and prospective candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg wait at the launch AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Supporters listen as Farage speaks AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Free T-shirts for all attendees AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures Posters on the seats for supporters of the Brexit Party AFP/Getty Farage launches his new Brexit Party: in pictures A safety sign is pictured AFP/Getty

The EU would suffer a knock-on effect at the highest levels because the make-up of the new parliament would have an effect on the formation of the next European Commission, he said.

Mr Farage only launched his Brexit Party 9 days ago, but one poll last week put its support at 27 per cent  well ahead of both Labour (22 per cent) and the Tories (15 per cent).

At a rally on Saturday, Mr Farage said: I will do my best to upset and irritate every single European leader. I promise to be more obstructive and difficult than I have ever been in previous times.

And he told The Sunday Telegraph that millions of natural Tory voters have said emphatically that they will never vote Conservative again.

My strong sense is that they mean it, he added. Far from being seen as the party to solve the EU question, the Tories are now actively regarded by a growing number of people as being a major part of the problem.

The anger of Tory councillors was revealed when Survation questioned 781 local elected representatives for The Mail on Sunday, between April 17 and 19.

Researchers were bombarded with vitriolic remarks including: The Conservative Party is dead. It will take a strong leader to dredge it out of the mud.

Another councillor said: For God's sake get on with it [Brexit] - it is killing us on the doorstep.

Of Tory councillors who said they were certain to vote in the elections, 52 per cent said they would vote for their own party, while 40 per cent would vote for the Brexit Party.

If Boris Johnson was prime minister, the proportion voting Tory would rise to 65 per cent and 22 per cent would vote for Mr Farage.

The election of 73 UK MEPs is almost certain to go ahead next month, the price the EU demanded for agreeing an extension to the Article 50 process until 31 October.

They will leave Brussels if the Commons ratifies the withdrawal agreement, but  with Brexiteer anger growing and the talks with Labour on the brink of collapse  that looks increasingly unlikely.EU unity has been one of the great surprises of Brexit: the blocs 27 remaining member states have managed to hold a united front in public in a way the UK  a single country  could only dream of.

But with the UKs departure delayed until October  crucially, after the EU elections  that unity is being tested as never before, and the results are surfacing in the European parliament itself.

Guy Verhofstadt, long adored by British Remainers for mocking Brexiteers and championing citizens rights, surprised a few of those campaigners when he stood up in the European parliament on Wednesday.

The only thing that can save us is Nigel Farage, the EU federalist said  prompting applause from the arch Eurosceptic himself and nervous glances from the Lib Dem MEP sitting behind him.

Verhofstadt argued that the latest Brexit extension was a bad thing, and that Britains continued membership of the block would poison the EU and import uncertainty from London.

The intervention, which drew a sharp rebuke from council president Donald Tusk, raised eyebrows in Brussels, because it was eerily similar to the argument made by Emmanuel Macron. The French president had been the only leader to oppose a long extension at a summit in Brussels last week, blocking an even lengthier delay until 2020.

A large majority of member states were supportive of a long extension, and only one, that is France, was of a different view, one senior EU official explained.

It is no secret that Mr Verfhofstadt has been courting Mr Macrons new En Marche party, whose MEPs he wants to sit in his centrist ALDE European parliament group after next months elections.

The aftermath of EU elections is a numbers game, and the bigger your parliamentary group is the more influence it has, and the more senior roles its top members get. Convincing unattached national parties like Macrons new outfit to join can be just as effective at increasing a groups size as its existing parties winning extra votes.

Some Remain-supporting British MEPs now privately want Verhofstadt replaced as EU Brexit coordinator, one describing his stance as totally self-serving and party political. They have yet to say so in public, however, and are unlikely to have the numbers to get rid of him.

This is because Verhofstadt is far from the only group leader to be concerned with the politics of the coming elections. The leader of the biggest group in the parliament  Manfred Weber  has also been an outspoken opponent of an extension for the UK, describing British participation in the elections as simply unthinkable.

In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images

Out of anyone, Weber probably stands to lose the most from the UK extension. He is the centre-right EPPs lead candidate to be the next commission president, replacing Jean-Claude Juncker, and his chances of winning could be jeopardised by the UKs participation.

This is because there are no British parties in Webers group: David Cameron took the Tories out of it in 2009, complaining it was too pro-EU. Thus, British MEPs will also go to other groups including his main rivals, the socialists  where Labour MEPs sit.

The EPP could also be further disadvantaged because British participation in the elections would revert the contest back to the old seat allocation. Under the allocation drawn up for after Brexit, seats from the UK (which has no EPP party) would have been reallocated to countries that do have EPP parties (practically every other member state).

Manfred Weber, the leader of the European parliaments biggest political grouping (Getty) (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, the groups said to be most keen on an extension in Brexit steering group meetings  the socialists and the greens  also happen to do well out of the UKs membership. Labours relatively buoyant polling could see it deliver the biggest delegation of MEPs to the socialist group from any country, while the Green group benefits not only from Green MEPs, but also those of the SNP and Plaid Cymru, who sit with it for technical reasons  its that numbers game again.

Things are rather messy, but the common theme is the different political groups swinging behind positions that are to their own advantage as the elections near. It may be a surprise to some of Britains more idealistic supporters of the EU that politicians in Brussels and Strasbourg are still politicians.

The EU leadership in Brussels had actually foreseen all this politicking as far back as the start of talks, and tried to plan for it. But Britain has, once again, got in the way.

This is why people wanted all this done by October last year, so Brexit doesnt become instrumentalised politically, another official said.

Guy Verhofstadt is against a longer extension (AP)

The only people who think European parliament elections in the UK are a good idea are those who stand to benefit from it personally or politically in terms of group numbers.

Notably, some EPP members in the parliament are said to be annoyed that Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker  who are both from the EPP  both support an extension, and seemingly do not care about any of this, despite it disadvantaging their group. The parliament sometimes feels like a sideshow compared to the arguments between member states on the council and the executive power of the commission  a reputation it has been slowly trying to shake in recent years.

Its difficult to predict what impact these divisions will have on Brexit or the UK  if any. The European parliament notably has no powers over whether an extension is granted or not: that is up to member states. Its role in talks is relatively marginal, and though it must approve the final withdrawal agreement, that does not look to be in contention.

Its possible that once the elections are over, and the political pressures facing the parties dissolve for another five years, the MEPs will go back to being united. But the squabbles between the groups over the extension are a reminder that Brexit is affecting the rest of the EU too.A Labour candidate for the upcoming European elections has said he regrets suggesting the Israeli lobby manufactured the partys antisemitism row.

Martin Mayer, a former member of Labours National Executive Committee (NEC) and retired transport worker, has reportedly been chosen to stand as an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Sunday Telegraph reports Mr Mayer sent an email in 2016 titled: How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour partys antisemitism crisis.

In the email he reportedly wrote: Labours Blairite right wing have used the smear of antisemitism to undermine Jeremy Corbyns leadership.

Mr Mayer also included an email from Tony Greenstein, a Jewish anti-Zionist Labour activist, who was later expelled from the party over allegations of antisemitism.

Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP

The paper reported that Mr Mayer was an active member of Labour Against the Witch Hunt, a group set up to protest against the expulsion of Labour Party members for alleged antisemitism.

A report of a Sheffield branch of the group last May said Mr Mayer shared fascinating stories from his time on the Labour Party NEC and the many bogus claims of anti-Semitism he witnessed first hand.

In a statement, Mr Mayer told The Sunday Telegraph he regretted the language he had used in the email and said antisemitism was a problem within the Labour Party.

When I was on the NEC I was shocked and appalled to see cases of antisemitism within our party, he said.

I was also concerned about factionalism undermining the integrity of the disciplinary processes and the fight against antsemitism.

I regret the language I used to express this and I would not use it today. Since then, I have learnt a lot more about this subject and I realise that words like smear have the effect of downplaying and dismissing this very serious issue.

I did not deny the problem exists within our party, and I believe anyone who denies it is contributing to the problem.

As weve seen from the figures that the party recently released, this is a small minority in our party, but they must be kicked out.

The allegations against Mr Mayer come as The Sunday Times reports that Britains equalities watchdog is expected to launch a full investigation into Labours alleged failure to stamp out antisemitism in the party.

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According to the paper, insiders at the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) say the body of evidence against Labour members would allow it to access the partys emails and other internal records.

The only party to have been investigated in the EHRCs 12-year history was the British National Party, forcing the party to shelve its whites-only membership policy.

Additional reporting by PAThe author of an open letter that claimed a protest organised by Jewish community groups over antisemitism in the Labour Party was the work of a very powerful special interest group has been selected as a Labour council candidate.

The letter, which was endorsed by thousands of Jeremy Corbyn supporters and reported by The Independent last year, claimed the organisers of the protest used their immense strength to employ the full might of the BBC and dictate who the rest of us can vote for or how we vote.

It was written and publicised by Frances Naggs, a Labour activist in Staffordshire. Ms Naggs has since been selected as a Labour councillor in Staffordshire Moorlands for next months local elections and is included in official council documents as a candidate in the Bagnall and Stanley ward.

Her letter was shared widely on social media last year and received thousands of likes. It was posted the day after the Enough is Enough protest in Parliament Square last March, which was organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, although Ms Naggs later said she had not been referring to Jewish groups.

It said: Yesterday we witnessed the full onslaught of a very powerful special interest group mobilising its apparent, immense strength against you.

It is clear this group can employ the full might of the BBC to make sure its voice is heard very loudly and clearly. It is a shame not every special interest group can get the same coverage.

Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP

It added: But, and it is a very big BUT, we live in a democracy, a one member one vote democracy and no special interest group, regardless of their history or influence, can be allowed to dictate who the rest of us can vote for or how we vote.

Ms Naggs told The Independent that the letter was a naive mistake and that she had not been referring to Jewish groups.

She said: Im upset that this has come up again. My case was dealt with swiftly as it was understood by all that know me that this was a naive mistake; I was completely unaware of even the idea of antisemitic tropes, and the special interest group I was thinking of was the anti-Corbyn wing of the Labour Party. I am much more aware and educated on this issue now. I have apologised to anyone who may have misread my meaning.

I was horrified to have caused offence and heartbroken to be labelled as an antisemite as nothing could be further from the truth.

Commenting on the revelation that Ms Naggs is standing as a council candidate, Stoke-on-Trent North MP Ruth Smeeth, the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: This is becoming an all too common story about the Labour Party. We have not got our own house in order, were not doing anywhere near enough to ensure that people of all ethnic minorities are comfortable in the Labour Party.

Instead were rewarding people and putting them forward for elected office when theyve gone out of their way to make other peoples lives miserable.

If we really have got a zero tolerance policy towards antisemitism then its time to start showing it, but at this point Ive got no faith that is the case.

Of Ms Naggs letter, she said: The overt conspiracy theory that is being promoted is extraordinary in the 21st century. Anybody who believes in those sort of conspiracies does not have a place in elected office anywhere in the UK, never mind in my home country of Staffordshire.

 Margaret Hodge on Jeremy Corbyn's 'inner circle' accused of interfering in cases of antisemitism in Labour's ranks: 'What is so awful about this is that Jeremy always proclaims zero tolerance of antisemitism'

It comes as a new poll showed that a majority of voters think Mr Corbyns handling of antisemitism means he is unfit to be prime minister.

Fifty-five per cent of people said the Labour leaders record on the subject should disqualify him from entering No 10, while 21 per cent disagreed, according to a ComRes survey for Jewish News.

Half of voters said Labour has a serious problem with antisemitism  a significant rise from the 34 per cent who said the same last year. Worryingly for Mr Corbyn, this includes more than a quarter (29 per cent) of Labour voters.

Mr Corbyn has insisted he has an absolute determination to stamp out antisemitism in his party but 48 per cent of people polled said they did not believe him.

Andrew Hawkins, chair of ComRes, said: Given the existential crisis facing the Conservative Party, it is also a stunning failure by Labour not to be powering ahead in the polls. Being seen as soft on racism must account for a major part of Labours malaise given that almost one in three of the partys own voters at the last election believe its leader is not fit to be prime minister because of the issue.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: The Labour Party is fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and its organisations. We are taking action against antisemitism, standing in solidarity with Jewish communities, and rebuilding trust.Immigrants who use marijuana or who work in the cannabis industry can be denied citizenship, even if they are doing so in states where it is legal, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said on Friday.

The guidance, issued  coincidentally or not  just before marijuana advocates national celebration of their 4/20 holiday, confirms what immigration and activists have cautioned is a legal grey area that penalises would-be citizens because theyve broken a federal law.

Although recreational marijuana use is legal in 10 states and decriminalised in 14 more, it is still classified as an illegal substance federally.

The policy guidance... clarifies that an applicant who is involved in certain marijuana-related activities may lack good moral character if found to have violated federal law, even if such activity has been decriminalised under applicable state laws, the guidance states.

Earlier this month, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, a Democrat, sent a letter to US Attorney General William Barr asking him to clarify and adjust policy that threatens permanent residents path to citizenship if they have worked in the marijuana industry. Colorado was one of the first two states to legalise recreational marijuana use, in 2012. The expansion of marijuana use beyond prescribed medical purposes has cultivated a thriving retail cannabis industry in the state.

Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Show all 7 1 /7 Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Sister Kate Meeusen, 60, started the Sisters of the Valley in Merced County, California, in 2011 with just 12 marijuana plants. It is now an international cannabis operation and rakes in 850k a year, treating everything from epilepsy to cancer. Brother Dwight / SWNS Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Brother Dwight / SWNS Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Sister Kate Meeusen, 60, started the Sisters of the Valley in Merced County, California, in 2011 with just 12 marijuana plants. Brother Dwight/SWNS Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Brother Dwight / SWNS Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Brother Dwight / SWNS Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Brother Dwight / SWNS Meet the nuns who rake in 850k a year growing and selling cannabis Brother Dwight / SWNS

In his letter, Mr Hancock wrote: This week, I met with two legal immigrants  one from Lithuania, another from El Salvador  who have lived here for more than two decades. They have graduated from our schools. They have paid their taxes. They are working to achieve the American dream and complying with the processes in place to become a part of our great society, but were denied naturalisation solely because of their cannabis industry employment.

Denver understands the need for federal laws and regulations regarding citizenship and immigration, but we are seeing the heartbreaking effects that those federal laws and regulations are having on our residents. However, under current federal policy, lawful, permanent residents like the Denver residents I have met with are being denied naturalisation and may lose their legal status based on their lawful employment in the cannabis industry.

The war on drugs has disproportionately hurt communities of colour, and this is just another example of that, said Michael Collins, director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. But Mr Collins views this particular crackdown as more indicative of the Trump administrations views on immigration than drug policy.

Taking a step back, this has nothing to do with cannabis  this has to do with this administration never passing up an opportunity to prosecute immigrant communities, Mr Collins said. They see cannabis as a ripe opportunity for persecuting these individuals.

 Seth Rogen announces launch of cannabis company Houseplant

The Trump administration has used the war on drugs since the beginning to go after migrant populations, Mr Collins added, pointing to President Donald Trumps rationale that a border wall would keep drugs out of the country and his blaming of migrants for the opioid epidemic.

In an emailed statement, USCIS spokeswoman Jessica Collins said the agency is required to adjudicate cases based on federal law. Individuals who commit federal controlled substance violations face potential immigration consequences under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which applies to all foreign nationals regardless of the state or jurisdiction in which they reside.

During the Obama administration, the federal government eased up on enforcing federal laws against marijuana, allowing states to chart their own paths on the issue. In January 2018, Jeff Sessions, while he was attorney general, rescinded that policy, arguing it was his job to enforce federal laws.

Immigration lawyers have worried about how the Trump-era drug policy would affect legal residents seeking citizenship. Kathy Brady, a senior staff lawyer with the Immigrant Legal Resource Centre, told the Associated Press she advises people to avoid work in the marijuana industry until the federal law changes.

Even if you have had a green card for 20 years, you had better not work in any aspect of this industry and you better not use marijuana, Ms Brady said.

In California, which starting licensing the sale and production of recreational marijuana last year, the state sent a notice in February warning non-citizens they may suffer negative immigration consequences if they work with marijuana.

The Trump administration has now confirmed that is true.

The Washington PostDonald Trumps personal lawyer has claimed there was nothing wrong with his campaign taking information from Russia, as the fallout and toxicity triggered by the publication of Robert Muellers report grew.

As Democrats said they were keeping open their options of seeking to impeach Mr Trump for his alleged efforts to obstruct Mr Muellers probe, Rudy Giuliani went on the offensive, saying any politician in the US would have sought damaging information about an electoral rival.

Theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians, Mr Giuliani told CNN.

Asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if he would have taken information from a foreign source, the former New York City mayor replied: I probably wouldnt. I wasnt asked. I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, dont do it.

Mr Giulianis defence of the president came after senator Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate who lost to Barack Obama, launched a scathing attack on Mr Trumps campaign, following the release of Mr Muellers report.

Mueller investigation: The key figures Show all 12 1 /12 Mueller investigation: The key figures Mueller investigation: The key figures Robert Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and potential obstruction of justice by the president. Mr Mueller has a pristine reputation in Washington, where he was previously in charge of the FBI. Throughout his investigation, he and his team have been notoriously tight lipped about what they know and where their investigation has led. REUTERS Mueller investigation: The key figures Former FBI director James Comey was the catalyst that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Comey was fired by the president after Mr Trump reportedly asked him to drop his own Russia investigation. Mr Trump has long maintained that the investigation is a "witch hunt". AFP/Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein had authority over the special counsel investigation for much of the two years it has been active. Mr Rosenstein found himself with that responsibility after then-attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from that oversight. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney general Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the special counsel investigation may have cost him his job in the end. Mr Sessions resigned last year, after weathering a contentious relationship with Donald Trump who vocally criticised his attorney general for taking a step back. Mr Sessions recused himself from the oversight citing longstanding Justice Department rules to not be involved in investigations overseeing campaigns that officials were apart of. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Attorney General William Barr is currently responsible for oversight of the special counsel investigation. Mr Barr's office will be the first to receive the Mueller report when it is finished. His office will then determine what portion or version of that report should be delivered to Congress, and also made public. EPA Mueller investigation: The key figures Michal Cohn is the president's former personal lawyer, who has been helping the special counsel investigation as a part of a plea deal over financial crimes, and campaign finance crimes, he has pleaded guilty to. Among those crimes, Cohen admitted to facilitating $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Cohen has said he did so at the direction of Mr Trump. Cohen has also admitted that he maintained contacts with Russian officials about a potential Trump real estate project in Moscow for months longer than Mr Trump and others admitted. The talks continued well into 2016 during the campaign, he has said. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Stormy Daniels has alleged that she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to Baron Trump. The accusation is of particular importance as a result of the $130,000 hush money payment she received to keep quiet about the affair during the 2016 campaign. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Paul Manafort was Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged alongside Rick Gates for a slew of financial crimes, and was convicted on several counts in a Virginia court. He then pleaded guilty to separate charges filed in a Washington court. Manafort has been sentenced to just 7.5 years in prison for his crimes  in spite of recommendations from the special counsel's office for a much harsher sentence. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures George Papadopoulos was one of the first individuals associated with the Trump campaign to be charged by the Mueller probe. He ultimately received a 14 day prison sentence for lying to investigators about contacts he had with Russian officials. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Roger Stone is a well known political fixer and operative, who has made a name for himself for some dirty tactics. He has been charged by the Mueller probe earlier this year, and he has been said to have had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks planned on publishing stolen emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Getty Images Mueller investigation: The key figures Rick Gates was charged alongside former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for a range of crimes. Gates, who worked alongside Manafort for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. The two were charged with conspiracy and financial crimes. Gates pleaded guilty. AP Mueller investigation: The key figures Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was one of the first casualties of the Russia scandal, and was forced out of his position in the White House weeks after Donald Trump took office. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to "willfully" making fraudulent statements about contacts he had with Russian officials including former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Flynn then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about that contact. REUTERS

While the report said it did not find evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, it said the investigation established multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. It also said, Russias alleged interference in the election was intended to help Mr Trump.

Among those interactions was a now infamous meeting at Trump Tower in New York in the summer of 2016, when Mr Trumps eldest son and other campaign members, met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who had allegedly offered incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.

The president later said no such information had been provided, and that the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was seeking to lobby the campaign on overturning a specific US sanction targeting several Russians.

 Mueller report: Sarah Sanders says her untruths over FBI were told in 'heat of moment'

Mr Romney, one of a just a handful of senior Republicans to voice concern about the reports finding, said in a statement released on Friday: I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the president.

I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia.

Speaking on Sunday, Mr Giuliani claimed Mr Romneys 2012 campaign had also tried to dig up dirt on people.

Stop the bull. What a hypocrite. What a hypocrite, Mr Giuliani said. Any candidate in the whole world in America would take information  who says its even illegal?

Democrats are now confronted with a difficult choice of whether to push for Mr Trumps impeachment, something favoured by progressives such as Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or focus their efforts on defeating him in the 2020 election.

Democrat Jerry Nadler, chair of the House of Representatives judiciary committee, whose panel would lead any impeachment proceedings, said his party would press ahead with investigations of Mr Trump in congress and see where the facts lead us.

Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable, he told NBC News.

Congressman Adam Schiff, chair of the same chambers intelligence committee, told Fox News the issue of whether to seek Mr Trumps impeachment would be very consequential. He added: Im going to reserve judgment on until we have a chance to fully deliberate on it.House Democrats will hold a meeting to discuss whether to pursue impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, a key lawmaker said on Sunday.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said on Fox News Sunday that the House Democratic caucus will meet in the coming weeks to discuss the matter.

Thats going to be a very consequential decision and one that Im going to reserve judgment on until weve had a chance to fully deliberate on it, Mr Schiff said.

In an appearance on ABC News This Week, Mr Schiff also said that while the findings of the Mueller report are serious and damning, he does not believe the Senate would convict Mr Trump if the House were to impeach him.

Now, it may be that we undertake an impeachment nonetheless. I think what we are going to have to decide as a caucus is: What is the best thing for the country? he said.

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

Democrats have been divided over impeachment since the Thursday release of special counsel Robert Mueller IIIs report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

On Friday, two 2020 Democratic presidential contenders  Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Julian Castro, who was housing and urban development secretary in the Obama administration  seized on the reports findings to make the case for impeachment.

But others, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., have urged members of their party to hold off on any impeachment proceedings and instead continue their investigations of Mr Trump.

The Democratic split grew Sunday as another presidential candidate, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, said it was too soon to formally open impeachment proceedings.

Ryan said that it was pretty clear that the president obstructed justice and that the Mueller report portrayed a very, very, very serious set of circumstances, but that House committees should continue with their oversight of Mr Trump.

 Libya fighting intensified after Donald Trump spoke to warlord Khalifa Haftar

Let the Judiciary Committee look at this, Ryan said on CNNs State of the Union, stressing that Democrats need to educate the American people on the investigation. Lets see where that leads.

Mr Trump has sought to discredit portions of the Mueller report, including in a Friday tweet in which he dismissed assertions that he may have obstructed justice as total bullshit.

On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trumps personal attorney, defended the presidents tweet.

Theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians, Mr Giuliani said on State of the Union, suggesting that campaigns regularly receive information from unusual sources.

Mr Giuliani said he did not think his own 2008 presidential campaign would have accepted information from Russian sources but maintained that it would not have been illegal to have done so.

Theres no crime, he told host Jake Tapper.

The Washington PostTwo more explosions have been reported in Colombo, bringing the total number of attacks in Sri Lanka to eight.

The seventh blast is believed to have happened near the New Tropical Inn hotel not far from Dehiwala Zoo, at about 2pm local time on Easter Sunday.

Two people reportedly died in the attack, according to police.

An eighth blast rang out just moments later at a housing complex in the suburb of Dematagoda.

Three police officers were killed in the latest attack and three people were taken to hospital with injuries, according to Reuters.

Reuters journalist Ranga Sirilal said the explosions took place at a house in the Mahawila Housing Scheme.

It comes after at least 207 people were killed and 450 hospitalised in six other blasts at three hotels and three churches on Easter Sunday morning.

Churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa were targeted during Easter services at about 8.45am local time on Sunday.

The Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels, all in the capital Colombo, were also hit during the near-simultaneous explosions.

Sri Lankas defence minister confirmed seven suspects had been arrested about eight hours after the first explosions.

British, Dutch and American citizens are believed to be among the dead, while Britons and Japanese are thought to be among those injured, according to the news agency.

Britains high commissioner to Sri Lanka James Dauris confirmed UK citizens were caught up in the bombings, but could not confirm whether there had been casualties.

He said: We that some British citizens were caught in the blasts but we are unable to say how many people are, or might have been, affected.

Mr Dauris, who was at a church service with his family in Colombo which was cut short by the attacks, added: Our prayers for the victims of these evil attacks, and for their families. Our thoughts are with the medical staff, police and all involved in the response.

The Sri Lankan government has shutdown access to major social media and messaging services.

It has also declared a curfew with immediate effect as the attacks continue.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: We are aware of reports of a number of explosions in Sri Lanka, including Colombo, and we are urgently seeking information from the local authorities.

British nationals in Sri Lanka should follow the instructions of the local authorities and check FCO travel advice for updates. Close Sri Lanka Easter Sunday explosions: What we know so far

More than 200 people have been killed and hundreds more injured after eight bombs were detonated at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Ruwan Wijewardena, the countrys defence minister, described the blasts as terrorist attacks by religious extremists, though no group has claimed responsibility for the violence.

Most of the explosions are believed to have been suicide bombings, which occurred at sites mainly in and around the capital of Colombo.

Officials said that 13 suspects had been arrested in connection to the attacks.

Three police officers were also killed while carrying out a security raid at a suspected safe house several hours after the blasts occurred.

Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Show all 38 1 /38 Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Special Task Force officers raid a house following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A blood-spattered statue of Jesus Christ while crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast, as the sun shines through the blown-out roof, inside St Sebastian's Church in Negombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A police officer inspects the damage after a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo following a bomb blast during the Easter service AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman cries next to a coffin of a bomb blast victim. A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing more than 300 people AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People who live near the church that was attacked the day before, leave their houses as the military try to defuse a suspected van before it exploded in Colombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police were forded to clear an area while Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers inspected the site of an exploded van near a church the day after it was attacked Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Queues at the National Blood Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a request for blood to aid in recovery efforts Mr Lavasquabble/Twitter Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Medical response team work to remove dead bodies from the scene of bombings in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel inspect the debris of a car after it exploded when police tried to defuse a bomb AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personnel work at the scene of a bombing at a church in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman is helped near St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019. At least 130 people were killed and more than 500 hospitalised after near-simultaneous explosions hit three hotels and three churches on Easter Sunday. AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying injured of church blasts in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard near a car explosion AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman prays at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests stand inside St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church on the outskirts of Colombo after a bombing Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan woman living near St. Anthony's shrine runs for safety with her infant after police found explosive devices in a parked vehicle in Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People react during a mass for victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personal react as a device was detonated in a controled explosion in a van near the St Anthony's Church EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security forces inspect the scene of a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a bombing attack Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The damaged interior of a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing attack Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police and security personnel stand guard outside the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo following a bombing attack EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Debris is seen at St Anthony's Church in this still image from video footage after explosions hit churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Derana TV/via Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Damage inside a church following a bombing attack AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan Special Task Force officer scales a house during a raid following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A general interior view showing damage after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests walk into St Anthony's Shrine Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan police officer stands outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after a blast on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A shoe of a victim is seen in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade Church Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Local and security officials gather at the scene at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath An ambulance is seen outside the church premises with gathered security personnel following a blast at St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Armed policemen patrol the area after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church premises following a blast at the St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police officers inspect the scene after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA

The majority of the victims are Sri Lankan but several citizens of other countries were also killed.

At least five British citizens lost their lives in the attacks.

Citizens from the US, Turkey, Denmark, China and Portugal were also among the dead.

The Sri Lankan government has declared a dawn-to-dusk curfew in Colombo and blocked access to social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp.

It is unclear when the curfew will be lifted.

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Additional reporting by agencies

If you would like to read about the aftermath of the attacks please see what was our live coverage below:At least 290 people were killed, including five Britons, and 500 injured in explosions that rocked churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

A string of eight blasts hit the country with three churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa targeted during Easter services about 8.45am.

In one church, St Sebastians in Negombo, more than 50 people were killed, according to a police official, while 25 others died in the attack on a church in Batticaloa.

At St Sebastians, the attacker  said by Sri Lankan police to be a suicide bomber  was thought to have entered the building shortly after the final prayer before detonating. St Sebastians posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor and asking for help from the public.

It felt like there was an earthquake, said Vijaya Kumar, a 36-year-old worshipper who was attending the Easter service at St Anthonys Shrine in Kochchikade, just outside Colombo. Everything shook and fell, I was lucky because I was near a door. I ran out. I was terrified.

Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Show all 38 1 /38 Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Special Task Force officers raid a house following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A blood-spattered statue of Jesus Christ while crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast, as the sun shines through the blown-out roof, inside St Sebastian's Church in Negombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A police officer inspects the damage after a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo following a bomb blast during the Easter service AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman cries next to a coffin of a bomb blast victim. A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing more than 300 people AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People who live near the church that was attacked the day before, leave their houses as the military try to defuse a suspected van before it exploded in Colombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police were forded to clear an area while Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers inspected the site of an exploded van near a church the day after it was attacked Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Queues at the National Blood Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a request for blood to aid in recovery efforts Mr Lavasquabble/Twitter Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Medical response team work to remove dead bodies from the scene of bombings in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel inspect the debris of a car after it exploded when police tried to defuse a bomb AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personnel work at the scene of a bombing at a church in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman is helped near St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019. At least 130 people were killed and more than 500 hospitalised after near-simultaneous explosions hit three hotels and three churches on Easter Sunday. AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying injured of church blasts in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard near a car explosion AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman prays at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests stand inside St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church on the outskirts of Colombo after a bombing Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan woman living near St. Anthony's shrine runs for safety with her infant after police found explosive devices in a parked vehicle in Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People react during a mass for victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personal react as a device was detonated in a controled explosion in a van near the St Anthony's Church EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security forces inspect the scene of a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a bombing attack Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The damaged interior of a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing attack Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police and security personnel stand guard outside the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo following a bombing attack EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Debris is seen at St Anthony's Church in this still image from video footage after explosions hit churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Derana TV/via Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Damage inside a church following a bombing attack AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan Special Task Force officer scales a house during a raid following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A general interior view showing damage after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests walk into St Anthony's Shrine Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan police officer stands outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after a blast on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A shoe of a victim is seen in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade Church Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Local and security officials gather at the scene at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath An ambulance is seen outside the church premises with gathered security personnel following a blast at St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Armed policemen patrol the area after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church premises following a blast at the St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police officers inspect the scene after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA

Meanwhile, the Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury luxury hotels, all in the capital Colombo, were also hit. As special task force and forensic teams teemed the bloodied bombed sites, hotel staff of the Cinnamon Grand said a suicide bomber blew himself up in the hotels restaurant.

Three hours later a seventh explosion hit a hotel in Dehiwala, Colombo, near the national zoo. At least four people died, according to police.

An eighth blast was reported just moments afterwards at a housing complex in the suburb of Dematagoda in Colombo. Three police officers were killed while investigating a tip-off from neighbours. The explosion came from the upper floor of the house, said a witness.

A 6ft pipe bomb was reportedly found near Colombos main airport, but safely disposed of.

Sri Lankas defence minister confirmed 24 people had been arrested, while police said the death toll had soared overnight from 200 to 290.

The government has acknowledged that it had prior information of planned attacks on churches involving a little-known local Islamist group but did not do enough about it, in an apparent intelligence blunder.

A well-known TV chef and her daughter were the first named victims of the attack. Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter Nisanga had been staying at the Shangri-La hotel when it was targeted.

Ms Mayadunnes daughter shared a group photo on Facebook on the morning of the bombings, with the caption: Easter breakfast with family. According to her Facebook page, Nisanga had studied at the University of London.

At least five Britons were also confirmed dead by the countrys ministry of foreign affairs. Three were from the UK and two held dual US and UK citizenship.

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US secretary of state Mike Pompeo confirmed that several American citizens were among those killed in a statement condemning the attacks. These vile attacks are a stark reminder of why the United States remains resolved in our fight to defeat terrorism, he added.

Three people from India were also killed, along with one from Portugal, and two from Turkey. A Dutch national and a Chinese national were also reported as among the victims.

The British high commissioner to Sri Lanka, James Dauris, visited British victims in hospital yesterday. Mr Dauris, who was at a church service with his family in Colombo when it was cut short by the attacks, said: Ive been speaking this afternoon with Brits in hospital who have been affected by todays senseless attacks.

My teams and my thoughts go out to all those people who are suffering as a result of the deplorable violence Sri Lanka has witnessed this Easter Sunday.It felt like there was an earthquake, said Vijaya Kumar. Everything shook and fell, I was lucky because I was near a door. I ran out. I was terrified.

The 36-year-old had been at the Easter service at St Anthonys Shrine in Kochchi Kade, just outside Colombo, when it was hit by one of several synchronised terror attacks at 8.45am on Sunday morning. The church was one of three targeted in the blasts, which marked the worst attacks in Sri Lanka since the end of the three-decade civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels.

It is a terrorist attack by cowardly perpetrators, said government minister Sajith Premadasa, whose father  a former president  was assassinated by Tamil Tigers. I grieve with the victims as I know exactly what they are going through.

At St Sebastians church in Katana, the attacker  said by Sri Lankan police to be a suicide bomber  was said to have entered the building shortly after the final prayer before detonating.

Police say at least 207 people were killed and 450 injured in a series of explosions across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

At least eight bombings were reported, with three churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa targeted during Easter services.

Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Show all 38 1 /38 Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Special Task Force officers raid a house following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A blood-spattered statue of Jesus Christ while crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast, as the sun shines through the blown-out roof, inside St Sebastian's Church in Negombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A police officer inspects the damage after a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo following a bomb blast during the Easter service AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman cries next to a coffin of a bomb blast victim. A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing more than 300 people AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People who live near the church that was attacked the day before, leave their houses as the military try to defuse a suspected van before it exploded in Colombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police were forded to clear an area while Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers inspected the site of an exploded van near a church the day after it was attacked Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Queues at the National Blood Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a request for blood to aid in recovery efforts Mr Lavasquabble/Twitter Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Medical response team work to remove dead bodies from the scene of bombings in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel inspect the debris of a car after it exploded when police tried to defuse a bomb AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personnel work at the scene of a bombing at a church in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman is helped near St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019. At least 130 people were killed and more than 500 hospitalised after near-simultaneous explosions hit three hotels and three churches on Easter Sunday. AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying injured of church blasts in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard near a car explosion AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman prays at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests stand inside St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church on the outskirts of Colombo after a bombing Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan woman living near St. Anthony's shrine runs for safety with her infant after police found explosive devices in a parked vehicle in Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People react during a mass for victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personal react as a device was detonated in a controled explosion in a van near the St Anthony's Church EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security forces inspect the scene of a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a bombing attack Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The damaged interior of a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing attack Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police and security personnel stand guard outside the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo following a bombing attack EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Debris is seen at St Anthony's Church in this still image from video footage after explosions hit churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Derana TV/via Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Damage inside a church following a bombing attack AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan Special Task Force officer scales a house during a raid following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A general interior view showing damage after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests walk into St Anthony's Shrine Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan police officer stands outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after a blast on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A shoe of a victim is seen in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade Church Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Local and security officials gather at the scene at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath An ambulance is seen outside the church premises with gathered security personnel following a blast at St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Armed policemen patrol the area after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church premises following a blast at the St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police officers inspect the scene after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA

Three of Sri Lankas luxury hotels located in the heart of Colombo  The Kingsbury, Shangri La and The Cinnamon Grand  were also targets. As special task force and forensic teams teemed the bloodied bombed sites, hotel staff of the Cinnamon Grand said a suicide bomber blew himself up in the hotels restaurant.

These attacks were followed three hours later by a bomb close to the countrys national zoo, killing at least four, before three policemen died at an apartment block in Dematagoda, investigating a tip-off from neighbours. The explosion came from the upper floor of the house, said a witness.

As the death toll rose, an island-wide curfew was brought in. Government officials also blocked social media networks and messaging apps including Facebook and WhatsApp  measures they said would stop the spread of rumour and disinformation.

 Sri Lanka Easter Sunday explosions: What we know so far

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called the country to stand together to protect law and order blamed the attacks on extremist factions.

Sri Lankas most senior Catholic figure, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, called on the government to find the attackers behind the blasts, saying: We need to punish them mercilessly, because only animals can behave like this.

Meanwhile, five hours after the explosion, clergy visited St Anthonys Shrine to survey the devastation. Among the debris and the blood, workers were continuing to retrieve the bodies of victims, and lay them down at the feet of the statue of St. Anthony carrying the baby Jesus.A well-known TV chef and her daughter are the first victims of the Sri Lanka Easter bombings to be named.

Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter Nisanga had been staying at the Shangri-La hotel, in the countrys capital Colombo, which was one of four luxury hotels targeted on Sunday.

Ms Mayadunnes daughter shared a group photo on Facebook on the morning of the bombings, with the caption: Easter breakfast with family.

According to her Facebook page, Nisanga had studied at the University of London.

At least 207 were killed and about 450 injured in eight separate explosions across the country.

Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Show all 38 1 /38 Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Special Task Force officers raid a house following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A blood-spattered statue of Jesus Christ while crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast, as the sun shines through the blown-out roof, inside St Sebastian's Church in Negombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A police officer inspects the damage after a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo following a bomb blast during the Easter service AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman cries next to a coffin of a bomb blast victim. A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing more than 300 people AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People who live near the church that was attacked the day before, leave their houses as the military try to defuse a suspected van before it exploded in Colombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police were forded to clear an area while Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers inspected the site of an exploded van near a church the day after it was attacked Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Queues at the National Blood Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a request for blood to aid in recovery efforts Mr Lavasquabble/Twitter Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Medical response team work to remove dead bodies from the scene of bombings in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel inspect the debris of a car after it exploded when police tried to defuse a bomb AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personnel work at the scene of a bombing at a church in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman is helped near St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019. At least 130 people were killed and more than 500 hospitalised after near-simultaneous explosions hit three hotels and three churches on Easter Sunday. AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying injured of church blasts in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard near a car explosion AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman prays at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests stand inside St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church on the outskirts of Colombo after a bombing Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan woman living near St. Anthony's shrine runs for safety with her infant after police found explosive devices in a parked vehicle in Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People react during a mass for victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personal react as a device was detonated in a controled explosion in a van near the St Anthony's Church EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security forces inspect the scene of a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a bombing attack Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The damaged interior of a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing attack Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police and security personnel stand guard outside the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo following a bombing attack EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Debris is seen at St Anthony's Church in this still image from video footage after explosions hit churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Derana TV/via Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Damage inside a church following a bombing attack AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan Special Task Force officer scales a house during a raid following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A general interior view showing damage after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests walk into St Anthony's Shrine Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan police officer stands outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after a blast on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A shoe of a victim is seen in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade Church Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Local and security officials gather at the scene at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath An ambulance is seen outside the church premises with gathered security personnel following a blast at St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Armed policemen patrol the area after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church premises following a blast at the St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police officers inspect the scene after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA

Three churches and three luxury hotels were targeted in quick succession from about 8.45am in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.

Just hours later more blasts rang out in Dehiwala and Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.

The Easter attacks, which coincided with the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, are the worst bloodshed Sri Lanka has seen since its brutal civil war ended a decade ago.

Radha Fonseca, 34, a Sri Lankan expat living in Dubai, described Ms Mayadunne as a well-respected and an inspirational chef.

She told Gulf News: Nisanga was a very popular girl in college. Besides the fact that she was bright and smart, her mother Shantha Mayadume, a renowned chef, made her more popular in college.

At least five Brits have also been confirmed dead by the countrys ministry of foreign affairs.

Three were from the UK and two held dual US and UK citizenship.

The known nationalities of foreigners killed are listed as three from India, one from Portugal, two from Turkey, three from the UK and two holding US and UK nationality.

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A Dutch national and a Chinese national have also been reported as among the victims.

A foreign ministry statement also said nine foreigners have been reported missing, while there are reportedly 25 unidentified bodies believed to be those of foreigners at the Colombo Judicial Medical Officers mortuary.

The British high commissioner to Sri Lanka James Dauris has urged Britons to get in touch with family members to let them know they are safe.

Mr Dauris said it was too soon to say how many British people had been affected.

He added: Ive been speaking this afternoon with Brits in hospital who have been affected by todays senseless attacks.

My teams and my thoughts go out to all those people who are suffering as a result of the deplorable violence Sri Lanka has witnessed this Easter Sunday.Scenes of devastation followed multiple bomb attacks across Sri Lanka.

In the capital Colombo, where five bombings have been reported, Special Task Force personnel are shown raiding a house in which three police officers were earlier killed in a blast whilst searching the property.

The targeted buildings are seen torn apart, strewn with shattered glass and debris scattered by the explosions.

Injured people are led to safety by medical responders and civilians alike as people are seen flocking to a blood bank to donate for victims.

Priests are shown entering St Anthonys Shrine for prayer after the church on the outskirts of Colombo was hit by a blast during the Easter Sunday service.

Over 200 people have been killed in the bombings and seven arrests have been made so far in connection with them.At least five Brits have been killed in attacks in Sri Lanka, according to the countrys ministry of foreign affairs.

Three are from the UK and two held dual US and UK citizenship.

The Sri Lankan ministry of foreign affairs listed the known nationalities of foreigners killed as three from India, one from Portugal, two from Turkey, three from the UK and two holding US and UK nationality.

A Dutch national and a Chinese national have also been reported as among the victims.

A foreign ministry statement also said nine foreigners have been reported missing, while there are reportedly 25 unidentified bodies believed to be those of foreigners at the Colombo Judicial Medical Officers mortuary.

Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Show all 38 1 /38 Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Special Task Force officers raid a house following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A blood-spattered statue of Jesus Christ while crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast, as the sun shines through the blown-out roof, inside St Sebastian's Church in Negombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A police officer inspects the damage after a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo following a bomb blast during the Easter service AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman cries next to a coffin of a bomb blast victim. A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing more than 300 people AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People who live near the church that was attacked the day before, leave their houses as the military try to defuse a suspected van before it exploded in Colombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police were forded to clear an area while Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers inspected the site of an exploded van near a church the day after it was attacked Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Queues at the National Blood Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a request for blood to aid in recovery efforts Mr Lavasquabble/Twitter Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Medical response team work to remove dead bodies from the scene of bombings in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel inspect the debris of a car after it exploded when police tried to defuse a bomb AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personnel work at the scene of a bombing at a church in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman is helped near St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019. At least 130 people were killed and more than 500 hospitalised after near-simultaneous explosions hit three hotels and three churches on Easter Sunday. AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying injured of church blasts in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard near a car explosion AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman prays at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests stand inside St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church on the outskirts of Colombo after a bombing Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan woman living near St. Anthony's shrine runs for safety with her infant after police found explosive devices in a parked vehicle in Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People react during a mass for victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personal react as a device was detonated in a controled explosion in a van near the St Anthony's Church EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security forces inspect the scene of a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a bombing attack Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The damaged interior of a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing attack Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police and security personnel stand guard outside the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo following a bombing attack EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Debris is seen at St Anthony's Church in this still image from video footage after explosions hit churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Derana TV/via Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Damage inside a church following a bombing attack AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan Special Task Force officer scales a house during a raid following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A general interior view showing damage after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests walk into St Anthony's Shrine Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan police officer stands outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after a blast on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A shoe of a victim is seen in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade Church Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Local and security officials gather at the scene at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath An ambulance is seen outside the church premises with gathered security personnel following a blast at St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Armed policemen patrol the area after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church premises following a blast at the St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police officers inspect the scene after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA

The British high commissioner to Sri Lanka James Dauris has urged Britons to get in touch with family members to let them know they are safe.

Mr Dauris said it was too soon to say how many British people had been affected.

At least 207 people were killed and about 450 injured during eight explosions in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday morning.

Three churches and three luxury hotels were targeted in quick succession from about 8.45am in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.

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Just hours later more blasts rang out in Dehiwala and Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.

Most of the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers, it is believed.

No one has taken responsibility for the killings, but police arrested seven suspects.

The Easter attacks are the worst bloodshed Sri Lanka has seen since its brutal civil war ended a decade ago.

Mr Dauris said: Ive been speaking this afternoon with Brits in hospital who have been affected by todays senseless attacks.

My teams and my thoughts go out to all those people who are suffering as a result of the deplorable violence Sri Lanka has witnessed this Easter Sunday.

More followsWorld leaders have offered condolences to Sri Lanka after more than 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in a series of explosions at churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but Sri Lankas defence minister has blamed religious extremists and described the attacks as a terrorist incident.

He said police and military forces believe the attacks were committed by a single group and seven suspects have been arrested so far.

Although the majority of the victims were Sri Lankans, officials said around 30 people from foreign countries have been confirmed dead.

Sri Lankas prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, strongly condemned the cowardly attacks and called upon the country to remain united and strong, urging people not to share unverified reports and speculation.

Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Show all 38 1 /38 Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Special Task Force officers raid a house following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A blood-spattered statue of Jesus Christ while crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast, as the sun shines through the blown-out roof, inside St Sebastian's Church in Negombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A police officer inspects the damage after a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo following a bomb blast during the Easter service AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman cries next to a coffin of a bomb blast victim. A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing more than 300 people AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People who live near the church that was attacked the day before, leave their houses as the military try to defuse a suspected van before it exploded in Colombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police were forded to clear an area while Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers inspected the site of an exploded van near a church the day after it was attacked Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Queues at the National Blood Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a request for blood to aid in recovery efforts Mr Lavasquabble/Twitter Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Medical response team work to remove dead bodies from the scene of bombings in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel inspect the debris of a car after it exploded when police tried to defuse a bomb AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personnel work at the scene of a bombing at a church in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman is helped near St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019. At least 130 people were killed and more than 500 hospitalised after near-simultaneous explosions hit three hotels and three churches on Easter Sunday. AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying injured of church blasts in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard near a car explosion AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman prays at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests stand inside St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church on the outskirts of Colombo after a bombing Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan woman living near St. Anthony's shrine runs for safety with her infant after police found explosive devices in a parked vehicle in Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People react during a mass for victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personal react as a device was detonated in a controled explosion in a van near the St Anthony's Church EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security forces inspect the scene of a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a bombing attack Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The damaged interior of a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing attack Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police and security personnel stand guard outside the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo following a bombing attack EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Debris is seen at St Anthony's Church in this still image from video footage after explosions hit churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Derana TV/via Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Damage inside a church following a bombing attack AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan Special Task Force officer scales a house during a raid following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A general interior view showing damage after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests walk into St Anthony's Shrine Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan police officer stands outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after a blast on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A shoe of a victim is seen in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade Church Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Local and security officials gather at the scene at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath An ambulance is seen outside the church premises with gathered security personnel following a blast at St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Armed policemen patrol the area after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church premises following a blast at the St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police officers inspect the scene after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA

Theresa May described the attack as truly appalling in a statement on Twitter.

We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear, she said.

Donald Trump also offered his condolences and said the United States stands ready to help Sri Lanka.

The US presidents remarks came after hed been forced to delete an earlier tweet, in which he mistakenly wrote that at least 138 million people had been killed in the attacks.

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern described the attacks as devastating and referenced the recent terrorist attack on Muslim worshippers in Christchurch in her response.

New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15 March, she said.

New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence.

Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez were among the other leaders to denounce the attacks.

In India and Pakistan, leaders offered support to Sri Lanka.

There is no place for such barbarism in our region, Indias prime minister, Narendra Modi, said.

India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.

Imran Khan, prime minister of Pakistan, strongly condemned the horrific terrorist attack and said Pakistan would stand with Sri Lanka in their hour of grievance.

At his Easter Sunday address, Pope Francis also sent support to Sri Lanka.

I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka, he said.

I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence.The environment has emerged as a major issue for Australian voters, the results of a poll published on Sunday show, but healthcare and the cost of living are the top concerns ahead of next months elections.

For 32 per cent of Australians, access to affordable health services is the biggest worry, followed by the cost of living at 31 per cent and crime at 25 per cent, according to the Ipsos Issues Monitor, cited by The Sydney Morning Herald.

But the monitor found 23 per cent of respondents cited the environment as one of their biggest concerns, making it the fourth largest issue.

At the last federal election in 2016, the environment ranked ninth at 14 per cent.

Now there is a real momentum around it, says Ipsos social researcher Daniel Evans.

Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Show all 29 1 /29 Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Evacuations under way in Townsville on February 4 AFP/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Army vehicles enter Townsville to help evacuate people on February 4 AFP/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon A major intersection in the flooded Townsville suburb of Idalia on February 4 Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon An Australian soldier helps a Townsville resident evacuate her home as the military is deployed to tackle the floods on February 4 AFP/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon A boat steers down a flooded road in Townsville on February 4 Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon A flooded neighbourhood in Townsville on February 4 EPA Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Rosslea residents Stephen Jubbs, Stacie Little and Stephen Dobbs take their boat around floodwaters in Rosslea, Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 02 February 2019. Thousands of residents downstream from the Ross River dam were evacuated after flash floods hit the region following heavy rains, media reported. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon A child is seen playing in floodwater in the suburb of Idalia in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon A resident rides his bicycle in floodwaters in the suburb of Idalia in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Townsville Residents are seen watching the raging floodwaters of the Ross River in the suburb of Douglas on February 01, 2019 in Townsville, Australia. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has declared Townsville a disaster area and has ordered school closures today after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in the area. The bureau of meteorology is predicting 400mm of rain to fall over the weekend and into next week. Ian Hitchcock/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Seen is a lone tree in raging floodwaters of the Ross River on February 01, 2019 in Townsville, Australia. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has declared Townsville a disaster area and has ordered school closures today after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in the area. The bureau of meteorology is predicting 400mm of rain to fall over the weekend and into next week. Ian Hitchcock/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon An Australian soldier from 3CER helps sandbag a home in the suburb of Railway Estate on February 01, 2019 in Townsville, Australia. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has declared Townsville a disaster area and has ordered school closures today after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in the area. The bureau of meteorology is predicting 400mm of rain to fall over the weekend and into next week. Ian Hitchcock/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Seen is a flooded street in the suburb of Railway Estate on February 01, 2019 in Townsville, Australia. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has declared Townsville a disaster area and has ordered school closures today after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in the area. The bureau of meteorology is predicting 400mm of rain to fall over the weekend and into next week. Ian Hitchcock/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Seen is a 4WD vehicle in a flooded street in the suburb of Railway Estate on February 01, 2019 in Townsville, Australia. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has declared Townsville a disaster area and has ordered school closures today after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in the area. The bureau of meteorology is predicting 400mm of rain to fall over the weekend and into next week. Ian Hitchcock/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Warning signs are seen on a flooded road in the suburb of Railway Estate on February 01, 2019 in Townsville, Australia. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has declared Townsville a disaster area and has ordered school closures today after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in the area. The bureau of meteorology is predicting 400mm of rain to fall over the weekend and into next week. Ian Hitchcock/Getty Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Residents are seen in floodwaters in the suburb of Idalia in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Locals are seen filling sand bags supplied by the Townsville City Council at Hermit Park in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Kyle Konings, Courtney Turner and Luke Eketone walk through floodwaters in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Floodwaters across Ross River in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Wayne Clayton with Cooper walk through floodwaters in Mundingburra, Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Courtney Turner and Luke Eketone walk through floodwaters in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Rocks are seen blocking Muller Street in Wulguru, in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Floodwaters are seen at Aplins Weir in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Residents Kerry and Josephine Guinea observe rocks blocking Muller Street in Wulguru, in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Floodwaters at Alpins Weir along Ross River in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Residents of the suburb of Idalia are seen playing in floodwaters in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Wayne Clayton with Cooper walk through floodwaters in Mundingburra, Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 01 February 2019. Authorities asked Townsville residents downstream from the Ross River dam to evacuate an emergency measure after high-risk that up to 100 homes could be flooded. EPA/Andrew Rankin Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Rocks are seen blocking Muller Street in Wulguru, Townsville, as flooding continues in northern Queensland, Australia February 1, 2019. AAP Image/Andrew Rankin via Reuters Townsville, Australia - Monsoon Local resident Paul Shafer and his daughter Lily stand in floodwaters near star pickets that show where the storm water cover has been removed in Hermit Park, Townsville, northern Queensland, Australia February 2, 2019. AAP Image/Andrew Rankin via Reuters

According to government agencies and environmental organisations, Australians are paying increasingly more attention to climate change, renewable energy, drought, environmental regulation and protection of natural habitats, such as the Great Barrier Reef, under threat from global warming.

Two-thirds of Australians believe their country is already being affected by climate change and 46 per cent agree that the change is entirely or mainly caused by human action, an annual climate survey issued by Ipsos this month suggested.

 'Verrrrry Niiiiice' Australian PM does impression of Borat in Parliament

Australias A$1.87 trillion (1.03 trillion) economy is slowing, but the number of voters for whom it is a major worry has fallen since the last election to 23 per cent from 30 per cent. It ranked as the fifth major concern in this months poll.

Australians vote on 18 May, with opinion polls showing Bill Shortens centre-left opposition Labour Party well ahead and the coalition of prime minister Scott Morrisons Liberals and the rural-focused Nationals heading for a resounding defeat.

ReutersGreece has voted to pursue billions of euros in damages from Germany for the Nazi occupation of the country during the Second World War.

Legislators in the Greek parliament debated the issue for nearly 12 hours on Wednesday before voting to launch a diplomatic campaign pushing for reparations.

The proposal calls on the government to take every appropriate legal and diplomatic action to satisfy Greeces demands.

It does not set out a particular figure but in 2016 a Greek parliamentary commission put the cost of Nazi German rule in the country at more than 300bn.

This claim is our historic and moral duty, Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, said during a speech to legislators.

Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Show all 4 1 /4 Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Post-D-Day report 'Doesn't mind the heat, somewhere in France (Saint-Sauveur- Le-Vicomte)', 16 June 1944 Robert Capa  ICP/Magnum photos, courtesy Daniel Blau gallery Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Personal nature of the war 'Lovers parting near Nicosia, Sicily', 28 July 1943 Robert Capa  ICP/Magnum photos, courtesy Daniel Blau gallery Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Friendly welcome 'Conquered town in Cefalu, Sicily', 26 July 1943 Robert Capa  ICP/Magnum photos, courtesy Daniel Blau gallery Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Dodging sniper bullets 'American troops approaching Cherbourg, France', 26 June 1944 Robert Capa  ICP/Magnum photos, courtesy Daniel Blau gallery

To build a better future we need to close the open cases of the past and Germany needs to do the same.

Mr Tsipras added that Greece would raise the issue with Germany through diplomatic channels.

Berlin, in response, said all such claims by invaded countries had long been settled.

In 1960 West Germany paid Greece 115 million deutschmarks (50.8m) in reparations for the countrys wartime suffering.

Germany has apologised for Nazi crimes but has more recently been unwilling to open talks on reparations.

Wednesdays vote marked the Greek parliaments first official decision on damages and is likely to further strain relations between Germany and Greece.

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Many Greeks blame Germany for severe austerity measures which were imposed on the country during the financial crisis, as part of a 2015 bailout package.

Greece was given loans by eurozone creditors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of the unpopular deal.

On Thursday a Polish lawmaker said his country should follow Greeces decision to push for reparations.

Arkadiusz Mularczyk, who heads the Polish parliamentary committee on reparations, said in a tweet that the Greek vote showed Second World War compensation had become an international issue.

Additional reporting by agenciesThe archbishop of Paris and Catholics from around France and the world honoured the firefighters who saved Notre Dame cathedral, praying Sunday at a special Easter Mass for a swift reconstruction of the beloved monument.

The fire that engulfed Notre Dame during Holy Week forced worshippers to find other places to attend Easter services, and the Paris diocese invited them to join Sunday's Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache Church on the Right Bank of the Seine River.

Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit handed over a bible that had been rescued from Notre Dame to the firefighters, who held a place of honour at Sunday's service.

Aupetit thanked city officials for their support amid "the drama" of last Monday's fire, and "especially you, those for whom this Mass is dedicated"  the firefighters who struggled for nine hours to contain flames that consumed Notre Dame's roof and collapsed its spire.

He notably thanked fire service chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who saved the most precious thing for Catholics from the fire, the chalice containing consecrated hosts that for Catholics are the body of Christ.

Notre Dame Easter Mass Show all 11 1 /11 Notre Dame Easter Mass Notre Dame Easter Mass Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit, center, leads a Sunday's Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache church on the Right Bank of the Seine river in Paris, Sunday, April 21, 2019. The archbishop of Paris and Catholics from around France and the world honored the firefighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral, praying Sunday at a special Easter Mass for a swift reconstruction of the beloved monument. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass Faithfuls attend a Sunday Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache church on the Right Bank of the Seine river in Paris, Sunday, April 21, 2019. The archbishop of Paris and Catholics from around France and the world honored the firefighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral, praying Sunday at a special Easter Mass for a swift reconstruction of the beloved monument. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass A woman stands on steps near the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Saturday, April 20, 2019. Rebuilding Notre Dame, the 800-year-old Paris cathedral devastated by fire this week, will cost billions of dollars as architects, historians and artisans work to preserve the medieval landmark. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass A man carries a wooden cross outside the Notre Dame Cathedral as part of a demonstration in Paris, Saturday, April 20, 2019. French yellow vest protesters are marching anew to remind the government that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isn't the only problem the nation needs to solve. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass Scaffolding and damage on the facade at the Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, Wednesday, April 17, 2019. Nearly $1 billion has already poured in from ordinary worshippers and high-powered magnates around the world to restore Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a massive fire. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass A man speaks on a mobile phone as he looks at the Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, Wednesday, April 17, 2019. Nearly $1 billion has already poured in from ordinary worshippers and high-powered magnates around the world to restore Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a massive fire. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass Two people jog under a bridge by a the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Saturday, April 20, 2019. Rebuilding Notre Dame, the 800-year-old Paris cathedral devastated by fire this week, will cost billions of dollars as architects, historians and artisans work to preserve the medieval landmark. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass Police patrol around Place de la Madeleine prior to yellow vest demonstration in Paris, Saturday, April 20, 2019. French yellow vest protesters are marching anew to remind the government that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isn't the only problem the nation needs to solve. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass A man takes a photo of the Notre Dame Cathedral as the sun rises in Paris, Thursday, April 18, 2019. Nearly $1 billion has already poured in from ordinary worshippers and high-powered magnates around the world to restore Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a massive fire. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass Faithfuls attend a Sunday Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache church on the Right Bank of the Seine river in Paris, Sunday, April 21, 2019. The archbishop of Paris and Catholics from around France and the world honored the firefighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral, praying Sunday at a special Easter Mass for a swift reconstruction of the beloved monument. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) AP Notre Dame Easter Mass Priests give communion to faithfuls during a Sunday Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache church on the Right Bank of the Seine river in Paris, Sunday, April 21, 2019. The archbishop of Paris and Catholics from around France and the world honored the firefighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral, praying Sunday at a special Easter Mass for a swift reconstruction of the beloved monument. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) AP

Police and a soldier guarded the entry to Sunday's Mass, creating a long line to check bags before visitors could enter the 13th-century Saint-Eustache Church. It was unclear if the extra security was linked to an Easter Sunday attack on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 190 people and wounded nearly 500 others.

Notre Dame's parishioners were joined by Catholics and others from around France and beyond. An Associated Press reporter heard at least six languages being spoken in the crowd.

"Everyone is affected by what happened to Notre Dame," said Parisian Michel Ripoche. "Easter is a holiday we celebrate every year, all our lives. Clearly what happened at Notre Dame added to the importance" of today's service.

Peggy Godley, visiting from Chicago with her husband and two daughters, "wanted to see what it was like to celebrate a Mass in Paris."

"We didn't get to see Notre Dame. We were hoping to be there, but it's too late," she said.

 Moving video shows crowd singing Ave Maria amid Notre Dame fire as sun goes down in Paris

Notre Dame isn't expected to reopen to the public for five or six years, according to its rector, although the French president is pushing for a quick reconstruction. Investigators believe the fire was an accident, possibly linked to renovation work.

Notre Dame Rector Patrick Chauvet told The Associated Press on Good Friday that he has "plenty of hope, because I believe that from this suffering there will be a renaissance."

He said he would fight for speedy rebuilding work.

Culture Minister Franck Riester said Sunday that most of the sensitive spots in the cathedral have been stabilised, including support structures above its prized rose windows.

"There remain some sensitive points in the vaulted ceiling, and so teams from the Culture Ministry, construction companies are working to remove the rubble that remains on the ceiling and progressively cover it up. And after that, we can say that the Notre Dame of Paris is saved," he said on France-2 television.

Associated PressReflecting on an extraordinary triumph that saw him sweep home with three times the votes of his opponent, comedian Volodymr Zelensky said his victory offered an example of democratic change to the rest of the former Soviet Union.

I say to you, look at us, he said. Everything is possible.

Delivering a speech to more than 700 cheering aides and journalists, the president-elect promised he would not mess up on the challenge he had been given, after an exit poll suggested he would gain nearly three-quarters of votes.

But in line with a campaign that has remarkably avoided any detailed policy discussion, Mr Zelensky offered no clarity about the future direction of his presidency.

With polls showing Mr Zelensky enjoying a commanding lead since the first round on 31 March, the result of the election was never in much doubt. But the scale of his victory, projected at 73 per cent against 25, was such that Petro Poroshenko must now be wondering about his political future.

As election day approached, this had become a very personal campaign, with the incumbent taking greater control over strategy. But Mr Poroshenkos hands-on intervention was ultimately unsuccessful. It now seems unlikely he will be able to build up any significant momentum ahead of Octobers all-important parliamentary elections.

Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Show all 26 1 /26 Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Volodymyr Zelenskiy, centre right, and his wife Olena Zelenska, greet supporters after exit polling gave the comedian a commanding lead AP Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Outgoing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko raises his hand with his wife Maryna at his party headquarters in Kiev AFP/Getty Images Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll REUTERS Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Comedian and leading Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy plays ping pong with a journalist at his election night gathering in Kiev, Ukraine. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in a second-round election on April 21 Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Election officials count ballots at a polling station in Kiev during the first round of Ukraine's presidential election, AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures People walk in front of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev during Ukraine's presidential election AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian servicemen sit in a truck to head to a polling station, near the front line with pro-Russian separatists, near Butivka, Donetsk region AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian citizens living in Kyrgyzstan vote in Ukraine's presidential election at a polling station in the Ukrainian embassy in Bishke AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian citizens living in Kyrgyzstan vote in Ukraine's presidential election at a polling station in the Ukrainian embassy in Bishkek AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian citizens living in Kyrgyzstan vote in Ukraine's presidential election at a polling station in the Ukrainian embassy in Bishkek AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian citizens living in Kyrgyzstan vote in Ukraine's presidential election at a polling station in the Ukrainian embassy in Bishkek AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures A young girl casts the ballot of a man at a polling station in Kiev on the first round of Ukraine's presidential election, on. Exit polls are expected when voting stations close at 8 pm local time (1700 GMT). First preliminary results are expected several hours after. Barring a shock result in which one candidate crosses the 50 percent threshold in the first round, a run-off will be held on April 2 AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian comic actor, showman and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky waves in front of voting booths at a polling station during Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Former Ukrainian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko speaks with the media after casting her ballot at a polling station during Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Former Ukrainian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko speaks with the media after casting her ballot at a polling station during Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Former Ukrainian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko speaks with the media after casting her ballot at a polling station during Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian comic actor, showman and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky casts his ballot at a polling station during Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian comic actor, showman and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky gestures in front of voting booths at a polling station during Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev AFP/Getty Images Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian comic actor, showman and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky walks with his ballot at a polling station during Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev AFP/Getty Images Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures A view of the building of the Ukrainian Central Election Commission in Kiev during Ukraine's presidential election. AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (L) casts his ballot at a polling station in Kiev on the first round of Ukraine's presidential election, The 53-year-old president has positioned himself during the political campaign as the only person able to stand up to the Kremlin and has promised to return Crimea to Ukraine if he is re-elected. AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures A voter emerges from the voting booth after filling out her ballot for Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev, Ukraine. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in a second-round election on April 21. Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian president Petro O. Poroshenko (C), running for re-election, receives his ballot in Ukraine's presidential election on in Kiev, Ukraine. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will face off in a second-round election on April 21 Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures A woman holds her ballot as she leaves a voting booth at a polling station in Kiev on the first round of Ukraine's presidential election. - Exit polls are expected when voting stations close at 8 pm local time (1700 GMT). First preliminary results are expected several hours after. Barring a shock result in which one candidate crosses the 50 percent threshold in the first round, a run-off will be held on April 21 AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures A young girl casts the ballot of a man at a polling station in Kiev on the first round of Ukraine's presidential election. Exit polls are expected when voting stations close at 8 pm local time (1700 GMT). First preliminary results are expected several hours after. Barring a shock result in which one candidate crosses the 50 percent threshold in the first round, a run-off will be held on April 21 AFP/Getty Ukraine Elections 2019 in pictures Ukrainian servicemen queue to cast their ballots at a polling station near the front line line with pro-Russian separatists near Avdiivka, Donetsk region, during the first round of Ukraine's presidential election AFP/Getty

Speaking to altogether glummer faces at his election headquarters across town, Mr Poroshenko said he would stay in politics to defend his achievements.

Never give up, Ive said it before. I say it again, now I see the results of the exit polls, which are obvious. They tell me that I need to call my opponent right now and congratulate him.

Just after 9pm local time, Mr Poroshenko phoned to congratulate the comedian on his victory, promising to assist the new president in his job. It was a symbolic moment  a rare, peaceful and democratic transfer of power in post-Soviet history.

As the first leaked polling numbers began to show the thing that Mr Poroshenko most feared  a high turnout at more than 60 per cent  the bar of what constituted even partial victory went lower and lower.

In the event, Mr Poroshenko was even unable to command a majority in the western region previously considered most receptive to his militaristic-nationalistic offer.

At polling stations across Kiev, Ukrainians told The Independent that the vote for Mr Zelensky was more accurately a vote of dissatisfaction with the incumbent president. Some said they had voted for the president, but recognised that the majority had become disillusioned with his government.

People want change but dont understand the real world, said Natalya Kovalenko, a businesswoman, shortly after casting her vote at polling station number 800633 in Kievs Podil district. The democratic process is a good thing, but the Zelensky vote is born out of immaturity.

Mr Zelenskys supporters said the incumbent had exhausted the trust of his fellow countrymen.

We need someone who can give a chance to the young generation, not to their cronies, said Oleg, a concert promoter also casting his vote at station 800633, who asked that his surname be withheld.

Further down the road at polling station 800697, returning officers reported that peoples anger with the government occasionally spilt over into dealings with them.

They see us as an extension of government, so they think its OK to throw all their bad vibes on us, said Yevgenia Gaidai. We had to calm a few of them down.

Other than that, the vote had gone smoothly, Ms Gaidai said, with only minimal electoral violations. It was the cleanest election she had witnessed in many decades in the job, she added.

That picture that mirrored elsewhere across the country, with the monitoring organisation Chesno reporting a reasonably clean bill of health. There was pressure on voters, but the elections were reasonably smooth and freer than ever before, said Chesnos analyst Anton Filippov.

Ukraines outgoing president will now reflect on the things that went wrong: an inferior social media presence and messaging; an electoral strategy that failed to address peoples economic hopes; and a campaign that failed to reverse the perception of unfulfilled promises.

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Ukraine gave up on Poroshenko like people give up alcohol, says Konstantyn Batozsky, an independent political expert and former civil servant. He managed to unite the nation in a way no previous president did  united in hatred of Poroshenko. Tomorrow everyone will be quarrelling again.

Mr Zelensky, an accidental president, will also be reflecting on his own unlikely path from comic actor to head of state.

A presidency likely first conceived as a joke had now become a reality, says Valery Kalnysh, editor of NV radio, an independent political broadcaster.

We understand his candidacy emerged after indicative polls were commissioned to see which personalities could challenge Poroshenko, he says.

It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Im sure he is as shocked as the rest of us.Q I may soon be sent by my company to Bogota in Colombia. I like to combine work travel with some exploration. What would you advise in the city and/or beyond?

Name withheld

A In terms of sheer drama and diversity, my two favourite South American countries are Colombia and Venezuela. Each distils the best of the continent  dramatic mountain scenery, lush Amazonian jungle, intricate history and vibrant culture  into a single nation.Each of us has a unique relationship with fat. Slim people are consistently lauded for avoiding it, bigger people are shamed for embodying it, and everyone else seems to spend their life trying to walk a fine line and be an acceptable distance away from it. Fat, and our perception of it in relation to ourselves, affects us more than we might think. And so does the public fat-shaming of celebrities.

When we witness the widespread mocking or criticism of a womans weight on social media or in the mainstream press, we tend to turn that shame and loathing inwards, by critiquing our own weight and making ourselves feel bad about our own bodies. These are the findings of a recent study by psychologists at McGill University, published in the Personality and Psychology Bulletin.

Researchers compared female participants attitudes to their own body with cultural messages related to weight, analysing 20 cases of celebrity fat-shaming in the media. They looked at the womens anti-fat attitudes two weeks before and two weeks after each celebrity fat-shaming event and found that after these instances of fat-shaming, the women had negative weight-related attitudes that are implicit  so, essentially subconscious. The study also found that the more notorious the celebrity fat-shaming incident, the greater the spike in a womans negative attitudes about their own weight.

Some of the celebrity fat-shaming cases include Tyra Banks being globally critiqued for wearing a bathing suit on vacation in 2007, and Kourtney Kardashian being fat-shamed by her husband Scott Disick in 2014 for not returning to her pre-baby body quickly enough after the birth of her child.

As the researchers noted, the fact that women are unconsciously internalising negative attitudes about their own body after consuming fat-shaming media, is particularly worrying. These cultural messages appeared to augment women's gut-level feeling that 'thin' is good and 'fat' is bad," says Jennifer Bartz, one of the study authors in a statement. "These media messages can leave a private trace in people's' minds.

Five photos that reveal what it's like to be overweight Show all 4 1 /4 Five photos that reveal what it's like to be overweight Five photos that reveal what it's like to be overweight A girl looks over at the artist, seeming to size her up Haley Morris-Cafiero Five photos that reveal what it's like to be overweight The performer has taken thousands of photos over six years Haley Morris-Cafiero Five photos that reveal what it's like to be overweight Morris-Cafieros photos have provoked mixed reactions Haley Morris-Cafiero Five photos that reveal what it's like to be overweight Women crossing a street cast their gazes in Morris-Cafieros direction Haley Morris-Cafiero

So these implicit attitudes could be influencing our behaviour in ways we dont even know, long after weve closed our tabs or logged out, which makes them even harder to pinpoint when it comes to how they could affect our mental health.

Although the researchers didnt link an increase in implicit weight bias to specific negative incidents in the real world with their data, theres plenty of other research which links eating disorders with body-shaming. One 2018 study of university students in the US found that those who were body-shamed were more likely to suffer from depression. And in the UK alone, eating disorder charity BEAT estimates that around 1.25 million people suffer from an eating disorder, with 75 per cent of them being female.

 Weight loss expert criticised over suggestion fat parents are to blame for childhood obesity

When I think of how I really feel after idly scrolling through a certain sidebar of shame (I do this daily), or stalking my favourite Insta-girls in their bikinis (at least twice a week)  its never actually good. More often that not, I feel ashamed and inadequate. We live in a culture obsessed with policing womens bodies, and I really dont want to worsen that, but each time I click on a story about the weight gain of an former Love Island star, or view a tweet about the someones secret butt job, I know that Im making things worse. Not just for society, but for myself, too.

Now we have research which proves the widespread denigration of celebrity physiques can cause us to internalise negative thoughts and feelings about our own bodies. Yet, I know that next time I witness a click-baity story on my timeline, it will be hard to let common sense prevail over those innate feelings of curiosity and craving. But if I want to encourage a seismic shift in the way we view and treat womens bodies, blocking harmful media sites or muting negative feeds and pages is the first step. We all deserve a more positive relationship with fat.The heinous attacks that targeted Christian worshippers in Sri Lanka are attacks on all of us. Easter should be a time for renewal, rebirth and redemption; a time for compassion, belonging and citizenship; a time to reflect on the lives of the wretched, the bereaved and the sick and on the selfless sacrifices of others who continue to offer a refuge for those taking treacherous journeys to flee persecution and hardships whether Muslims, Christians or others.

The scenes of solidarity and unity and people of diverse faiths donating blood to the victims are reminiscent of the scenes in the wake of the attacks on Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. They conjure up the fact that we are all humans.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London NW2

Sri Lanka, the nation of serendipity endowed with hypnotic natural beauty and equally beautiful people at its best, after leaving behind a brutal separatist war of 26 years that killed and displaced thousands, was finally having its long awaited tryst with peace since 2009. The decade of tranquility and peace was brutally destroyed on Easter Sunday by the enemies and murderers of humanity insidiously. The heinous and coordinated bombing attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that has killed over 200 people and injured many more once again prove that the cult of inhumanity is seamless and only follows the despicable religion of hatred and bloodshed.

When the world is just reeling from last months New Zealand mosque attack, these synchronized and planned multi-pronged bomb attacks, targeting churches and hotels where congregants were peacefully praying and celebrating Easter Sunday or just minding their own holiday business, once again shows the devastating magnitude of the seamless global scourge of terrorism propelled by the enemies of humanity.

While the world joins in its heartfelt prayers to the victims and conveys its condolences to their grieving families, the big question still looms largely, how does the peace-loving global community in an absolute majority come together to thwart and annihilate the interconnected forces of global and domestic terrorism?

Unless the international community urgently mulls on annihilating the nucleus of terrorist organisations that penetrate deeply across the globe, Im afraid the emboldened haters of humanity will continue their mass murderous sprees across the world.

Atul M Karnik

New York, USA

The slippery slope of home schooling

I was not at all surprised reading the fine article about aggressive parents demanding teachers email and message them 24/7. we are most certainly aware of various degrees of this behaviour, with the worst ones truly believing that teachers are at their beck and call at all times.

The next step in this ill-advised process is when parents do not get what they want, they then turn to home education. We had plenty of comment on this the other week. Of course, it is only in the domain of the ones that can afford it, but in my experience they are the ones who are most demanding anyway.

Even more troubling, in my opinion, is some of the above are advocating tax reductions for the parents of children homeschooled, and of course this is then echoed by some people without children. A prime example of selfishness being confused with choice.

Unless our politicians look seriously at education  increase funding, support teachers, stop talking about grammar schools and overhaul league tables and tests  we could end up with the poor attending school and the rich enjoying private tuition.

It does not need me to state that this would be a disaster.

Robert Boston

Kent

Good riddance to the Tory party

Quick response to John Rentoul's assertion that Theresa May has destroyed the Conservative Party and made them unelectable: Good!

Not strictly true though: the backstabbing, infighting, self-serving, bigoted elements of the party have brought it on themselves. None of the current contenders for leadership are fit to run a tea party let alone a country  especially when in thrall to the even more archaic and bigoted DUP.

We need a referendum on what little they have achieved on Brexit followed by  or maybe combined with  a general election as soon as possible.

Mike Margetts

Kilsby

Note the similarities between British and Ukrainian politics

In Ukraine it seems the favourite to become the countrys leader is a comedian. According to my dictionary, a comedian is defined as one whose act is designed to make an audience laugh. A further definition is someone who is a fool, buffoon or clown.

I will leave it to the reader to decide which is applicable to the current favourite to lead the Tory party.

G Forward

Stirling

How much must we sacrifice to save the planet?

The questions posed by the Extinction Rebellion protest will not be answered by Emma Thompson telling the crowd that it was OK for her to be a frequent flyer because for years she had been calling for cleaner ways to fly and for action on climate change.

Did it not occur to her just to stop flying and immediately reduce her own carbon contribution?

I dont mean to single Thompson out, but use her to demonstrate the dilemma we all face. My children and grandchildren live 750 miles and 10,000 miles from me, and if I am to see them then it is at a cost to the planet and to their futures. Is this fair to them?

We could all simply use less energy, but at some personal cost  not just financial but reduced experience and personal pleasures. Are we each willing to do this?

John Simpson

Herefordshire

The problem with better passwords

Regarding the issue of password security, it is certainly good advice to have different hard to crack passwords for each site. The crucial piece of advice missing from the article is how to remember them.

Alan Pack

KentAs the floodwaters slowly recede and cholera breaks out here in Mozambique, I recall the iconic image of the mum and her miracle baby born in a tree being winched from the branches above the swirling flood waters in Mozambique almost 20 years ago.

A similar story has emerged in this crisis. Baby Sara arrived in the world in the branches of a mango tree, mother Amelia also desperately clinging to her two-year-old son. It took two days for them to be rescued. They survived.

Two mothers, a generation apart, encapsulating the peril, terror and indignities suffered by a nation at the hands of nature. Their daughters, Rosita, who all being well is now a young woman perhaps with children of her own, and baby Sara, both arrived into a world with scarce and inadequate health facilities, limited clean water, food and shelter, and increased risk of violence within temporary shelters.

Can their treetop births ensure the eyes of the world will focus on an impoverished country devastated by natural disaster and with little capacity to recover?

I wonder what else we need to do to draw the gaze of the world back to this nation. Cyclone Idai has affected nearly 3 million people across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, with more than 600 confirmed deaths in Mozambique alone. And now a second wave of disaster has struck as cholera cases are climbing by the day, now almost 5,000 in Mozambique despite feverish efforts to bring emergency water, sanitation and hygiene, and cholera vaccinations.

Mozambique cyclone Idai Show all 28 1 /28 Mozambique cyclone Idai Mozambique cyclone Idai A young boy makes fire as he plays in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Displaced families arrive after being rescued by boat from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Children wait as their parents disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A displaced family arrives after being rescued by a boat from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A man docks a boat carrying displaced families after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai An elderly woman is assisted disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Two men rescue an animal using a boat in Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A man holding his child watches a boat carrying displaced familie arrive after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A woman walks along a flooded road in Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Relatives and friends watch as the boat arrives from Buzi disembark from a boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A young girl is carried off the boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A young girl is carried off the boat after being rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A woman walks along a flooded road in Buzi district, 200km outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A displaced family arrives after being rescued by a boat from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun of efforts to find and help tens of thousands of people after Cyclone Idai devastated a large swath of Mozambique. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Veronica Fatia carries her 2-year-old daughter as they travel in a wooden boat to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. They left the cyclone-shattered city of Beira for the town of Buzi, which for a week people had been fleeing to with little but their clothes. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A fisherman navigates a wooden boat to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Children stand in-front of a business building in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Veronica Fatia carries her 2-year-old daughter as they travel in a wooden boat to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. They left the cyclone-shattered city of Beira for the town of Buzi, which for a week people had been fleeing to with little but their clothes. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A displaced young boy sleeps on the floor at a school in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. People left the cyclone-shattered city of Beira for the town of Buzi, which for a week people had been fleeing to with little but their clothes. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A young boy walks through a muddy walkway in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Passengers of a wooden boat travel to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Displaced families rest inside a damaged classroom in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai Relatives and friends watch as a boat arrives with people rescued from flooded areas to Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A group of men watch the arrival of a boat carrying displaced families rescued from a flooded area of Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai A young boy sits outside their flooded house in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Mozambique cyclone Idai An aerial photo shows a damaged factory following the devastating Tropical Cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. AP Mozambique cyclone Idai An aerial photo shows local residents walk on a damaged road following the devastating Tropical Cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique, Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. ( AP Mozambique cyclone Idai Displaced families set up their bedding on top of the roof in Buzi district, 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Beira, Mozambique, on Saturday, March 23, 2019. A second week has begun with efforts to find and help some tens of thousands of people in devastated parts of southern Africa, with some hundreds dead and an unknown number of people still missing. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

The needs will only grow  the UN has also estimated that 43,000 women in the affected regions are due to give birth in the next six months.

Women and children face the greatest threat during times of disaster as their support networks and access to water and sanitation are greatly diminished. They have to travel further for water, share facilities and shelter and face very vulnerable situations.

WaterAid is not an emergency response organisation, but when disasters affect the communities we work with, we help our local partners to support the relief effort. We are providing safe water and emergency sanitation access in two regions of Malawi and Mozambique, and in Mozambique we are also distributing hygiene kits containing water purification drops or tablets, a large water bucket, drinking mugs, soap, cotton cloth, toothbrushes and toothpaste, menstrual supplies and other essential items. These items will help protect families from waterborne disease and enable them to live hygienically while in the camps.

Our region of focus, Zambezia, is far from the port city of Beira, and so at the fringes of the main relief efforts. Some 10,000 people have been driven from their homes as rains continue, crowded into temporary camps with a dozen or more families in each tent, desperate for help as cholera spreads across the disaster zone.

Recommended Cyclone Idai is a reminder that we must take climate change seriously

Time is of the essence in a disaster and vital supplies are now coming in. But we also have our eyes focused on the longer-term situation. This is what climate change looks like: dramatic weather extremes, and the poorest paying the highest price, with loss of lives, livelihoods and homes. What can the future look like for the next generation in this part of the world?

In the medium term, we will work with the people of Mozambique and Malawi on recovery, rehabilitating water points and supporting them to rebuild latrines and sanitation facilities in homes, health centres and schools, while promoting good hygiene practices to help prevent waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea, and helping to return their lives to normal.

But infrastructure is under increasing strain and unable to respond effectively to ever more severe climate impacts. We need to support training initiatives so people have the right skills to manage and respond to increasingly unpredictable climate.

Baby Saras harsh arrival into the world demonstrates that it is the worlds poorest and most vulnerable who are hardest hit by extreme weather made worse by climate change. Mozambique is in the midst of a devastating flood now, yet last year was threatened by severe drought.

How many more dramatic examples are required to illustrate that governments must do more to drastically cut carbon emissions, and must include water, sanitation and hygiene as essential parts of climate adaptation and planning for disasters, helping to reduce the risk of disease and aid in recovery. Only then will baby Sara and the rest of her generation grow up healthy and able to contribute to their communities and countries.

Elijah Adera is WaterAids regional programmes manager for southern Africa, currently in Mozambique managing a local emergency responseThe attacks in the churches in Sri Lanka shock us all. For Christians, the great uplifting festival of Easter has been scarred by these dreadful events. For everyone they are a dreadful reminder that people with extreme views can do unspeakable damage to other human beings. Nothing any of us can say can take away the horror of it all.

And yet its worth noting that in many ways Sri Lanka is a success story. We need to remind ourselves of that. The country experienced 30 years of civil war, ending in 2009. In the decade since then there have been huge advances not just in living standards but also in social and economic opportunities.

There is a measured report from the World Bank which notes that growth averaged 5.8 per cent between 2009 and 2017. The proportion of people living in poverty has fallen from 15 per cent to 4 per cent. This is now a middle-income country, rather than a poor one, and one with great prospects.

Of course there are problems. Debts are high and spending on education and healthcare needs to rise. But like the rest of south Asia, growth is bringing social as well as economic benefits.

There is a wider story here and it needs to be told. The past decade has seen huge economic progress across the emerging world. India is now the fastest-growing large economy on the planet. Africa is the fastest-growing continent. According to the IMF this year Ghana is expected to be the fastest-growing country in the world. Over three or four years Ethiopia may be top of the league table.

Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Show all 38 1 /38 Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Special Task Force officers raid a house following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A blood-spattered statue of Jesus Christ while crime scene officials inspect the site of a bomb blast, as the sun shines through the blown-out roof, inside St Sebastian's Church in Negombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A police officer inspects the damage after a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan soldiers look on inside the St Sebastian's Church at Katuwapitiya in Negombo following a bomb blast during the Easter service AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman cries next to a coffin of a bomb blast victim. A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing more than 300 people AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People who live near the church that was attacked the day before, leave their houses as the military try to defuse a suspected van before it exploded in Colombo Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Shoes and belongings of victims are collected as evidence at St Sebastian's Church AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police were forded to clear an area while Special Task Force Bomb Squad officers inspected the site of an exploded van near a church the day after it was attacked Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Queues at the National Blood Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a request for blood to aid in recovery efforts Mr Lavasquabble/Twitter Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Medical response team work to remove dead bodies from the scene of bombings in Sri Lankan capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel inspect the debris of a car after it exploded when police tried to defuse a bomb AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personnel work at the scene of a bombing at a church in Batticaloa in Sri Lanka AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman is helped near St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019. At least 130 people were killed and more than 500 hospitalised after near-simultaneous explosions hit three hotels and three churches on Easter Sunday. AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying injured of church blasts in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard near a car explosion AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A woman prays at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests stand inside St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church on the outskirts of Colombo after a bombing Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan woman living near St. Anthony's shrine runs for safety with her infant after police found explosive devices in a parked vehicle in Colombo AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath People react during a mass for victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security personal react as a device was detonated in a controled explosion in a van near the St Anthony's Church EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Security forces inspect the scene of a bombing at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a bombing attack Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath The damaged interior of a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka following a bombing attack Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police and security personnel stand guard outside the Shangri-La Hotel in Sri Lankan capital Colombo following a bombing attack EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Debris is seen at St Anthony's Church in this still image from video footage after explosions hit churches and hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Derana TV/via Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Damage inside a church following a bombing attack AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan Special Task Force officer scales a house during a raid following an explosion in capital Colombo AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A general interior view showing damage after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Priests walk into St Anthony's Shrine Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 21 April 2019 Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A Sri Lankan police officer stands outside St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after a blast on Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath A shoe of a victim is seen in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade Church Reuters Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Local and security officials gather at the scene at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Colombo, Sri Lanka EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath An ambulance is seen outside the church premises with gathered security personnel following a blast at St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Armed policemen patrol the area after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday 21 April 2019 AP Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Sri Lankan security personnel keep watch outside the church premises following a blast at the St Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade, Colombo, on Sunday 21 April 2019 AFP/Getty Sri Lanka: Scene of the bomb attacks and aftermath Police officers inspect the scene after an explosion hit at St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21 April 2019 EPA

We read and indeed write about Chinas extraordinary progress over the past generation, and that explosive growth started with the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping from 1978 onwards. But we tend to forget that another more recent economic revolution has swept across almost all the emerging world, a revolution that is continuing right now. Sri Lanka is part of that.

We are too close to all this to be able to assess what particular forces are driving this progress. In any case, different countries have different economic structures, different cultures, and different political systems. But simply removing blockages to growth  bureaucracy, corruption, conflict  is clearly able to achieve a lot. Infrastructural investment is also crucial, which is one of the reasons why sub-Saharan African economic performance has improved so much. China has put a lot of investment into the continent. It may have done so for its own purposes, but anyone who has driven on the new African roads will thank China for that.

I think too that there has been what economists dub a demonstration effect. Because one part of the emerging world, in this case China, has been so successful, other countries that were a generation ago in the same position as China have seen what they too might achieve. I suspect that this is much of the reason why India has taken off, and is now growing faster even than China. And because Indian growth is so strong, that has shown the rest of the sub-continent that it too can boom.

Of course economic growth has brought problems, notably environmental ones. Wealth within the emerging world is too narrowly shared, as indeed it is in the developed world. And lets always remember that economic growth is only a means to an end: a better and more balanced life for every member of society. But as Sri Lanka has demonstrated, growing wealth has helped the country achieve real social progress.

That must surely be the hope. The 22 million people of Sri Lanka have potentially a golden future. Nothing should allow that to be snatched away from them.Stephen Morrissey and Renaud Marquet of UFODrive at the Tesla for Hire point in the Royal College of Surgeons car park in Dublin  the entire rental process is managed via an app

Irish company UFODrive has unveiled a fleet of five Tesla Model S electric cars for its new Dublin city centre all-digital, all-electric car rental service.

The company - which first launched in Luxembourg Airport and now also has locations in Brussels City, Brussels Airport, Hamburg and Cologne Airports - has launched a hub at St Stephen's Green as part of a planned Europe-wide expansion to 20 cities by the end of the year.

Apart from the initial fleet of Tesla's, the company will make available a range of other electric cars at its new Dublin hub, including the Jaguar iPace, the Audi eTron, the Hyundai Kona Electric and the Nissan Leaf. "We are planning to also launch four cities in the Netherlands this week," said UFO Drive chief executive Aidan McClean. "We have also signed agreements with Dusseldorf and Vienna and we are in discussions with Copenhagen and Milan."

The Dublin service launches tomorrow with the Tesla fleet and McClean said that it took delivery of 12 left-hand drive Tesla Model 3s in recent days for its European operations and will have a fleet of 10 Model 3s in Dublin by the autumn.

If the St Stephen's Green hub is successful the company has plans to open in at least one other Dublin location, as well as in Cork.

"We have an agreement with Tesla that means the screen experience in the car is customised for UFODrive customers," said McClean. "The driving performance is phenomenal."

McClean - who previously worked in financial services - part-funded the business himself along with co-founder and chief operating officer Renaud Marquet and said that the company is backed by a group of largely Luxembourg-based private investors.

"We have started working on a second round of funding for international expansion into the US," he said.

The service - which has a minimum one-day rental and has variable pricing from about 100 a day - is run entirely through an app which allows users to hire and unlock their car without having to queue or deal with rental staff.

"Over the years I have travelled extensively for business and pleasure and rented probably a hundred cars a year," said McClean. "It was never a pleasant experience and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't quicker and easier. We wanted to rethink the whole experience from the customer point of view from the ground up. The solution is that the entire rental process takes place and is managed from start to finish via the app."'A major part of the problem for the beef sector is that once taken out of protected European and British markets, Irish meat is not competitive globally'

The Brits' notions of a glorious Brexit are slipping through their fingers by the day. Their pride will prevent them from staying in the EU but what they'll get in the end will be such a watered down version that it will all have been a pointless exercise in grandstanding.

It will quite possibly turn the UK into the angriest little nation on the planet. The Brexiteers will be furious that real politik foiled their grandiose dreams, while Remainers will be livid with their new ostracisation.

And while some readers may argue that the UK is far from a little nation, it is certain to get smaller as the Scots use Brexit to bail out of the Union.

Who knows what will happen Northern Ireland with the DUP intent on justifying their existence and insisting that Britain really does love them when the opposite has been demonstrated in recent months.

I'm amazed us Irish have been so restrained in our criticism of Brexiteers and the havoc that they are wreaking on our economy.

The recent figures from the ESRI were shocking: even if a hard Brexit is avoided, the cost to the Irish economy over the next 10 years would be 50bn, and 45,000 jobs.

The lads in Anglo Irish Bank were the last crowd to cost the Irish taxpayer tens of billions in wasted money, and they have been rightly pilloried in Irish society.

The Brits have been totally unapologetic for the massive negative impact their actions have already started to have on Ireland Inc. In fact, the opposite is more so the case with Irish politicians being slated by British media and politicians if they have the temerity to even suggest that the Leavers cop themselves on.

I suppose we've shown restraint because we know that to speak our minds now will only make the process more painful. But expect a lot of venting from Irish quarters once the divorce papers are signed.

Silver lining

The only possible silver lining is that Brexit is forcing Irish businesses that were traditionally reliant on the UK to look everywhere else to survive. That could finally break the dependence of the Irish economy on the British market and make us stronger long term.

We've already seen a lot of evidence of this from the Irish dairy sector. Before Brexit, we depended on offloading nearly one billion litres of the national milk pool into cheddar cheese specifically for the British market. That's worth nearly 260m annually. A WTO tariff in a hard Brexit would wipe out Irish cheddar sales to the UK overnight by slapping 196m of import taxes onto that amount.

These were figures compiled by IBEC, who also estimate that the least worst outcome in any hard Brexit would be for the Irish dairy industry to shift half of the 100,000 tonnes normally destined for the UK market to everywhere else in the world and divert the rest of the milk into other types of cheeses. This course of action would 'only' cost the dairy industry 33m, or the equivalent of about 3c per litre.

Now before you dismiss the notion of millions of Asians ditching their noodles for cheese sandwiches, consider the fact that cheddar exports to Japan have tripled to over 7pc of Ireland's cheddar exports in the last three years (yes, it has been that long since the Brexit vote).

In a country where rice bars actually exist, it's heartening to hear that grated cheddar on your bowl of fried rice is now on the menu. Cheddar bombs are also allegedly a trend in South Korea.

Ironically, UK exports of cheddar to Europe have grown strongly in recent years to reach nearly 80,000 tonnes. If we get the boot in the UK, you can be pretty sure that the cheese packs with a Union Jack will make way for the tricolour on the shelves of Carrefour in France and Kaufland in Germany.

You'll also have noticed that Irish milk processors have invested in pretty much everything bar cheddar since 2016. Dairygold have earmarked 130m to build a new cheese plant at Mogeely to supply Scandinavian markets, along with beefing up it's powder facilities in Mallow.

Glanbia has started into their own 130m mozzarella plant in Laois, which is designed to pump out up to 50,000t of pizza toppings in a joint venture with US-based Leprino Foods. They have an even bigger investment through another partnership with Dutch company Royal A-ware to build an Edam and Gouda factory at Belview in Waterford.

The new 10,000t infant milk formula factory that opened in Meath this month is another good sign of an industry climbing up the value chain and side-stepping the old reliables.

So the dairy industry has done a lot in the last three years to pivot away from the old reliable of the UK cheddar market.

Beef barons

Contrast this with the beef sector.

Over the same period I've seen Irish beef barons make massive investments in their UK processing capacity. ABP has invested over 40m in its facilities, while Kepak have bought out the 2 Sisters Red Meat company with four separate factories.

I can't see those investments being of any benefit to Irish beef farmers in a Brexit that has no special deal for food imports. A major part of the problem for the beef sector is that once taken out of protected European and British markets, Irish meat is not competitive globally. So it's not going to suddenly find doors opening in Japanese rice bars or as pizza toppings in China.

The meat bosses know this but just haven't told anyone yet. They have at least another six months to come up with a plan, but to be honest I wouldn't be holding my breath.

And if they haven't actually given up on the Irish beef sector, let them come out and prove it.

Darragh McCullough farms in Meath and presents RTE's Ear to the Ground television programme.ONE of the more complex aspects of a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) on farmland is compensation for severance (taking of land), injurious affection (damage to retained lands) and the provision of accommodation works.

Severance and injurious affection are so closely related that they are sometimes (incorrectly) treated by negotiators as a single item of devaluation.

Negotiators that do not assess and claim for severance and injurious affection separately are not doing their clients any favours. Acquiring authority negotiators are likely to strongly resist separate claims for these items but that should not deter the landowner's negotiator.

Compensation claims for severance, injurious affection and accommodation works should not be confused with that for permanent disturbance (which I will deal with in a later article).

Severance and injurious affection are separately assessed and expressed as percentage devaluations of all the retained property, regardless of the landowner's enterprise.

In contrast, a claim for permanent disturbance addresses the impact on the owner, and the enterprises on the holding, both at the time being and into the future.

Unfortunately, this confusion is a regular feature of both claims and offers.

Acquiring authority negotiators will regularly, and incorrectly, insist that the impacts of severance and injurious affection are limited to a few acres on either side of the new roadway.

Faced with an acquiring authority valuer, who insists on a restricted interpretation of the compensation rules and standards, landowners should not delay in applying for assessment or arbitration, where the rules and regulations will be properly applied.

Severance

Severance devaluation could be the single greatest component of a CPO compensation claim, if the Acquiring Authority does not provide reasonable scheme or accommodation works to mitigate the impact of the scheme on the entire holding.

Severance is technically defined as "the taking of an area from a holding". It can result in the splitting of a holding, leaving some land or buildings to one side.

It can also be at the boundary of a holding, in which case there may be no separation or sub-division of retained property, but there could still be a severe impact.

Whatever type of severance happens, there is always an impact on the value of the holding and, in the majority of cases, it will result in devaluation of all the retained property, not merely a few acres alongside the new roadway.

Severing accesses to retained land is a common problem, and can have a major impact on a holding, particularly on dairy farms. A few years ago, on the Cork-Dublin motorway, near Mitchelstown, land accesses were severed and the county council saw no difficulty forcing two farmers to move two large herds of cows in opposite directions along a narrow country roadway.

Until recent years, it was relatively easy to negotiate underpasses on severely severed holdings, particularly on dairy farms.

Acquiring authorities are now strongly resisting the provision of underpasses except in exceptional circumstances.

Underpasses or overpasses, should be discussed with the acquiring authority at an early stage, before the road design phase has been completed. In complex cases, a roads engineer should be engaged.

Severance regularly results in a complete change of routes to and from adjoining towns and villages which could be very disruptive for the entire family.

New detours and the closing of existing roads and rights of way are a frequent feature of road schemes.

Acquiring authority negotiators regularly invoke the long established 'Edwards Principle' to deny property owners their entitlement to compensation in some of these cases. While this is a perfectly valid principle, the ignoring of the equally valid 'McCarthy Rules', should not be tolerated by property owners.

The loss of mature trees, such as oak, ash and beech, can result in amenity loss, which is a valid basis for compensation.

It is obviously impractical to claim for replacement of a 200-year-old oak tree, but a semi-mature (say 20 to 25 years old) sapling can be transplanted from a nursery.

Betterment

In a limited number of situations, severance could give rise to 'Betterment' by opening up developable road frontage and creating access that would result in new development potential. Betterment is a complex phenomenon. Property owners should be on the watch out for acquiring authority negotiators unreasonably attempting to reduce the compensation by unjustifiably claiming "betterment".

Injurious affection

Injurious affection is technically defined as "the damage done to retained lands by the construction works and their subsequent user".

This can take one of a number of forms including additional flooding, damage to drainage, unbearable noise, visual impact, loss of shelter, etc. As in the case of severance, compensation for injurious affection should always be claimed separately and expressed as a percentage devaluation of the entire of the retained holding.

In the case of long-term drainage impacts, the acquiring authority will generally give a written commitment that the future drainage of the holding will be at least as good as it always had been prior to the road scheme.

This is an absolutely meaningless commitment. If there is a significant risk that the drainage of the retained land will be permanently damaged, the landowner should engage a drainage engineer to prepare his or her case at an early stage.

Acquiring authority solutions for noise and privacy impacts are the erection of timber noise barriers and the planting of quick-thorn hedging.

While road barriers may have a slight mitigation effect, they are ugly looking and fragile structures, and quick thorn hedges have no noise mitigating effect and will take several years to restore even a minimal level of privacy. In any event, these so-called solutions will, at best, only reduce the impact slightly below a legal tolerance level.

In summary, there is an entitlement to substantial compensation, in most cases, for the impact of injurious affection to the retained property and landowners should not be fooled by "sticking plaster" solutions proposed by an acquiring authority.

Scheme/accommodation works

Scheme works are constructed by the acquiring authority on the acquired CPO land.

Typical examples are cattle underpasses, boundary fencing and landscaping. They are part of the scheme structures, and landowners generally have to take what they get.

However, landowners should address these scheme works with the acquiring authority at an early stage of the process in the hope that their concerns get a reasonable hearing in good time, before the scheme design has been completed.

Acquiring authorities may offer to carry out works on retained lands with a view to mitigating undesirable impacts.

These works are commonly referred to as accommodation works and they are part of the negotiations.

The authority is not legally obliged to do any of these works, but if essential works are not done, the compensation should be correspondingly increased.

Equally, the landowner can refuse accommodation works offered by the acquiring authority if they are offered only with a view to saving money but are of little or no benefit to him or her.

Typical accommodation works are cattle holding pens, farm roadways, water facilities, planting, gates, etc.

Accommodation works should be negotiated at the same time as financial compensation, and a total package should either be agreed or costed and referred for assessment or arbitration. A written schedule of agreed works should be provided by the acquiring authority as part of any compensation proposals.

Roadway fencing and its maintenance are normally the responsibility of the authority and landowners are generally put in a situation that they have to take what they get. Landowners, in general, have a preference for concrete post and rail fencing, but in recent years such fencing will not be provided, on the grounds that, in the event of a road accident, concrete post and rail fencing will result in more severe injuries.

An assessor or arbitrator cannot make an order to compel an acquiring authority to carry out scheme or accommodation works, or erect concrete post and rail fencing.

However, he can order that the costs of essential works be paid to the landowner if he feels that it would be reasonable to do so.

Richard Collins is a consultant with FBA Consultants, based in Fermoy, Co Cork. He is the co-author with Noel O'Brien of A Practical Guide to Compulsory Purchase in Ireland. racollins@fba.ie or 025 31244

Acquiring authorities' policy is to resist separate claims on key aspects of CPO compensation, writes Richard CollinsAnthony Nolan, general manager of Musgrave MarketPlace in Sallynoggin; Aoibheann OBrien, co-founder of FoodCloud; Catherine Lambe, HR director, Musgrave MarketPlace; and Padraig Doran, general manager of Musgrave MarketPlace Robinhood, publicise the 550,000 meals delivered

When it comes to the increasingly strained public transport system in and around the capital, all attention in recent times has focused on controversy surrounding the new metro, the expanded Luas system and the proposed Bus Connects.

Meanwhile, the trains - electric Darts and diesel commuters - have continued to trundle across the Loop Line Bridge in Dublin city centre, doing what they have always done.

Ergo was pleased therefore to note a call for tender from Iarnrod Eireann for a multi-disciplinary consultancy team to support it in the proposed Dart Expansion Programme.

It is seeking a team to support the proposed expansion of the Maynooth line. Ergo has learned that similar tenders will follow this year for the Kildare and Drogheda lines too.

It means that the train company is finally kicking off the undoubtedly long Railway Order process - the equivalent of planning permission - on the badly needed Dart expansion project.

The project will have positive benefits in terms of Ireland's impact on climate change as it takes more diesel out of the ever busier commuter rail network.

It also in time should help with housing issues as it provides for much better transport infrastructure to parts of Greater Dublin that could then sustain further development.

Of course, ultimately, it will be for a far-seeing government in the future to go the whole way and build the tunnel from Spencer Dock to Heuston Station that will deliver the benefits of a fully interconnected 21st century public transport system to Dublin.

Musgrave dumps food waste for charity tie-up

Wholesale giant Musgrave has cut out tonnes of wasted food through its tie-up with FoodCloud, a social enterprise that links businesses who have excess food to charities in need.

The SuperValu owner has delivered more than half a million meals to charities since it established its partnership with FoodCloud back in 2016.

The company says the donations have saved charities as much as 750,000 and avoided 250 tonnes of food waste.

Musgraves Marketplace arm donates the meals from its central distribution unit in Blanchardstown in Dublin as well as its seven branches nationwide.

Musgraves human resource director Catherine Lambe said: Through our partnership with FoodCloud we have helped provide quality, fresh produce to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

* * * * *

The Camden Court Hotel has finally been given the green light in its bid to meet the enormous demand of Dublin city.

The capital is in dire need of additional beds, according to industry voices, and the hotel has been cleared to build upwards.

Owners Brondsway Ltd had been knocked back by Dublin City Council last year in its bid to hoist the development up to a 322-room hotel.

Now, An Bord Pleanala has given the all-clear for two more storeys at the hotel on Camden Street in Dublins south inner city.Philip Lane's swansong may force banks to charge more for mortgages and other loans, it has been warned.

The Central Bank governor, who will move to a new role as the chief economist at the European Central Bank in June, has called on the Government to introduce measures that would force banks to hold more capital.

In a speech to the UCD school of economics last Tuesday, Professor Lane said that the introduction of the systemic risk buffer (SyRB) would improve the loss-absorbing capacity of the country's banks.

Investec financial analyst Owen Callan warned that the buffer would undoubtedly increase the cost of lending for the country's banks, which already charge the highest rates in Europe for mortgages.

"Regulators are always looking to hit the right balance between a safe system and one that works effectively, but there is no evidence that the banks are getting ahead of themselves with their lending at the moment," Callan told the Sunday Independent.

"The introduction of the buffer will influence the pricing of anything that banks do. While its too early to tell the scale of its impact it will force the banks to keep more capital on their balance sheets."

Callan said that the call for the buffer by Lane, pictured, was not something that was expected and that only half of European states use SyRB at the moment. The Investec analyst also said that the introduction of the buffer could lead to an additional 0.2 percentage points on the cost of an Irish mortgage.

The view was echoed by Davy research analyst Diarmaid Sheridan who said: The ultimate introduction may increase the management of regulatory capital targets.

As a result, pricing in Ireland will remain structurally more elevated that other European countries, Sheridan said.

The Central Bank made no comment on the matter.

Irish mortgage-holders typically pay more than 2,500 a year more than their European counterparts.

Average rates here currently stand at 3.04pc, compared to the eurozones 1.79pc.Frustration is deepening in rural Ireland at the lack of action in approving the long-awaited National Broadband Plan.

Business people have warned the current lack of high-speed broadband is stunting development throughout rural Ireland.

Although more towns in Ireland are getting connected to high-speed fibre networks, a great many people who work in those towns live in the surrounding countryside which remain 'no go' areas for reliable broadband.

Pat McDonagh, chief executive of the chain of 108 Supermac's restaurants, said there is a lack of business experience in Cabinet and the Government's failure to come to a decision was damaging rural Ireland.

"Cities will grow further while the rural areas continue to suffer Where I live myself, the broadband is very slow," said the Co Galway resident.

"The problem is going to denude the population of country areas even more because people can't set up businesses, can't work from home, can't operate from areas at a time when it is so necessary to have broadband.

"In rural areas, no business person could consider opening a business if they have to depend on broadband. There is a lack of commercial reality at the top table of Government and in councils too.

"There are very few business people in the Cabinet and we are suffering because of it. With just one bidder left for the National Broadband Plan, it is not the best place to be," he said.

Ciaran King, strategic director of King and Moffatt building services, which employs 300 in Ireland and the UK, said it pays 8,000 a year for high-speed fibre broadband at its Carrick-on-Shannon headquarters.

It is a major problem that staff cannot use high-speed broadband in their homes in the large rural hinterland around the town. To do any flexitime work, they have to drive back to the office to log on, he said.

"In the evening time, the existing internet services slows down considerably in rural areas so any work-related internet communication requires returning to the office.

"It is a real problem when recruiting new staff," he said.

Conor Maher (49) owns The Oarsman gastro-pub in Carrick-on-Shannon and lives in Kilglass, Co Roscommon.

He had "fantastic" broadband in his home for six months but then provider Imagine withdrew the service from the catchment area.

"For those six months, I was able to stay in touch with my business from home, monitor the cameras and work on my laptop. It's devastating to lose it. So I'm shackled to the business again," he said.

"High-speed broadband is essential to allow people to work from home. It allows people to have a better family life instead of being absent from home using broadband elsewhere," he said.Over the past few weeks, thousands of Irish SMEs around the country will have received a letter from Google offering them an 80 credit when they spend 40 advertising their wares on Google' AdWords platform, the money-making machine that helped the company hoover in a staggering $136.8bn in 2018.

What most Irish SMEs won't realise, however, is the piece of direct mail - yes, direct mail is alive and thriving - originated in the Dublin offices of Epsilon, the data and technology agency which is in the process of being sold to the French giant Publicis for a whopping $4.4bn.

The deal, which was announced last Sunday, will see Publicis acquire Epsilon from Alliance Data Services, the Texas-headquartered provider of loyalty, subscription and marketing services.

With over 8,000 staff operating in 87 locations around the world, Epsilon's Irish business works very closely with Google's EMEA offices in Dublin and has teams embedded within the group in areas like global media and strategy, platforms for things like crisis management, content marketing and strategy while working closely alongside product groups like AdSense, the platform that allows content producers sell ads on their sites.

Other past and present clients of Epsilon in Ireland include the likes of Dell for which it carries out a range of marketing activities from direct mail to customer events - PrePay Power and INM, publisher of this newspaper.

While the sale has some way to go before it closes, it will go down in the record books as one of the marketing industry's biggest M&A deals. Only two other transactions - Dentsu's $4.9bn acquisition of Aegis Group in 2013 and WPP's $4.7bn purchase of Young & Rubicam in 2000 - were worth more.

With annual revenues in excess of $2.2bn a year, Epsilon's first foray into the Irish market came in 2006 when Hyper Marketing, a subsidiary of the business, acquired Frank McCaughey's Acorn Marketing for a reputed 6m. Since then it has grown the business, rebranded under the Epsilon name and earned a strong and justified reputation in both the data and creative space.

Data and its various applications, as we know, is playing an increasingly important role in the marketing industry, not just for advertisers and their marketing departments but for creative and media agencies too. As the big agency holding groups continue to tweak their business models, seek out more value-added and profitable revenue streams, strengthen their overall margins and face up to the challenges posed by the arrival of consultancy groups like Accenture and Deloitte on the scene, data - in particular first party data - offers a way forward.

And Epsilon has bucket-loads of the stuff, a lot of which is proprietary data.

First-party data is one of the holy grails in marketing and advertising. It's the reason why companies like Google and Facebook have grown to the size they are now. It's the reason why companies like Tesco and Boots have developed loyalty programmes that are constantly singled out as best-in-class. But it's also one of the missing pieces that many brands and indeed agencies fall down on as they seek to create a more personalised 360-degree interaction with consumers.

If agencies like Publicis can supply their clients with a range of first party data - as opposed to less effective and regulatory-restrictive third party data - it will strengthen their existing creative, digital and media offerings while at the same time help to cement their relationship with clients. Or, as Arthur Sadoun, the CEO and chairman of Publicis said last week: "this acquisition will accelerate the implementation of Publicis's strategy to become the preferred transformation partner for its clients."

It is still too early to say what this deal might mean for Epsilon in Dublin or for Publicis's interests. These include minority shareholdings in the creative agency Publicis Dublin as well as Ireland's largest marketing communications group Core which in turn owns a number of agencies like The Spark Foundry, Starcom and Zenith, all of which are leading Publicis brands.

Publicis, of course, is not the first agency network to dip its toe in the data market. Last year, for example, one of its main rivals, IPG, splashed out $2.3bn to acquire Acxiom while the former boss of WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell, has indicated that his new venture S4 Capital is also on the lookout for a data-focused acquisition. Other agency networks and indeed perhaps some of the consultancy groups may also enter the fray.

In the meantime, it looks like we're hurtling towards the 'golden age of data'. This will bring many challenges and opportunities for those involved particularly when it comes to responsibly and effectively applying it for the benefit of not just clients and advertisers but consumers too.

FOUR PROUD PROVINCES

With Irish eyes fixed firmly on rugby this weekend, Bank of Ireland has launched a new campaign to support its sponsorship of all four provincial teams.

The campaign, which was created by TBWADublin, marks the next iteration of the bank's recently launched 'Begin' proposition and features some of the backroom staff at all four provinces as well as cameo appearances from Robbie Henshaw, Conor Murray, Quinn Roux and Jacob Stockdale.

SUITING ACTIONS TO WORDS

For an industry that constantly preaches about the importance of marketing, the advertising industry can be a bit slow to practice what it preaches. Of the 60 or so agencies operating in Ireland, only two have marketing directors. Rothco, now part of Accenture Interactive has the very capable Jill Byrne as its director of marketing. Now Core, the largest fish in the pond, has appointed the equally capable Finian Murphy as its marketing director.'What I don't understand is the need for all this expensive fibre," my mother said to me at dinner last week. "In Beara, we got fed up of having no broadband. So a local guy set a service up. It works fine from a box on the roof and costs us 30 per month. I can work from home. Why can't we just have more of those around the country?"

This is one of the biggest questions that underpins the entire National Broadband Plan debate, from its likely cost, to its rollout schedule to who should build it. Why is the Government so fixed on high-end, expensive fibre broadband? Wouldn't a series of wireless services do?

And what about new mobile 5G technology that's soon to be introduced? Are we gullibly wasting money in backing a soon-to-be-passed-out technology?

I've been asking these questions for several years. Last week, I travelled to a remote island off the coast of Donegal to find out more about how a wireless alternative to fibre broadband works.

Arranmore has a brand new 100Mbs microwave wireless service that's beamed over from a base station on the mainland shore, about three miles away. The locals (there are 450 living there) are delighted: they've built a new co-working space with 13 high-end computers and videoconferencing facilities to take advantage of it. Some companies are already expressing interest in using these new facilities.

There was no State subsidy for this new facility: the mobile operator Three is mostly responsible for setting it up.

So should the rest of rural Ireland look to what is happening on Arranmore as a way forward?

Sorry, no.

For starters, Three built it as a technical demonstration of what they can do not as the start of a new wave of rural infrastructure.

The company was pretty clear about this last week: it is not opening its doors as a venture partner to other remote communities who might ask it to provide similar facilities to their own rural localities. It won't, of itself, make the operator money.

Even if this was a profitable exercise for Three, the Arranmore broadband solution is targeted largely at one building, not dozens of houses (let alone the whole island).

It remains the case that any resident of Arranmore who wants broadband in their home (or pub or doctor's office) still has to rely on a crawling phone line internet service or a mobile phone signal.

To be fair, the 4G mobile signal there is reasonably good. So it's worth asking: is mobile broadband a decent alternative to cable or fibre? Only in the short term and only for limited, non-critical usage.

Mobile services have critical drawbacks.

For example, a cellular signal ebbs and flows: it depends not only on how many people are using it at the same time but on basic things like the weather. And whether local trees have leaves on them or not. On Arranmore, for example, I got between 9Mbs and 35Mbs in download speeds when I tested my smartphone's connection. But residents I spoke to said that the signal falls off a lot at certain times of the day when people log on at the same time. This is called 'contention' and is a fundamental weakness in a service's long term viability.

It's one of the main reasons why hardly any country is willing to base national broadband infrastructure on this technology. (Ireland's first subsidised internet rollout, the 2009 'National Broadband Scheme', was based on a mobile platform rolled out by Three. It provided a basic service for many but soon transpired to be too slow and too hampered by contention issues to be considered a blueprint for any future State-sponsored rollout in Ireland.)

What about 5G, though? This technology, whether through 'fixed wireless' installations (an antenna on your roof) or through a cellular signal from a mobile operator, is capable of speeds well in excess of 100Mbs. Right now, that's a level that broadband-starved areas would happily settle for.

But while 5G should move communications forward, it currently looks like a very doubtful answer to base national infrastructure on.

For starters, we would need to built thousands and thousands of new masts and base stations in every corner of the country.

Be honest, now: what are the chances that rural communities will accept that? If you think 'maybe', you may want to look at the level of local resistance faced by operators trying to erect single masts, even in areas that have dire reception. (I have, on multiple occasions, debated with TDs who are protesting about a new mast while simultaneously giving out about poor mobile phone signals in their area.)

And that's not to talk about the cost. Over a 20-year period, a subsidised mobile broadband network that guarantees the kind of future-proof speeds and service required to give consistency and reliability would likely cost as much as a fibre network. Ask any of the mobile operators how much it costs to maintain a high level national network. It's not cheap. Almost every industry executive I have spoken to says maintenance costs on thousands and thousands of masts would be more expensive than fibre.

Indeed, the operators that stand to gain most from 4G and 5G rollouts agree with this. Vodafone Ireland's chief executive has said that mobile broadband should only be considered a "complementary" service to a long-term fibre rollout.

Much of this has been teased out at length by Department of Communication officials in a series of appearances, both with press, opposition politicians, analysts and Oireachtas committees.

For anyone paying attention, it's fairly clear that a fixed fibre broadband network is (at present) the only kind of broadband platform that would do what the Government says it wants for some 500,000 rural premises.

Whether Irish politicians are willing to proceed with this is a different question entirely.The Morandi highway bridge that collapsed in Genoa, northern Italy, in August 2018 which has caused a huge row with Atlantia and the government

Italian transport group Atlantia could join a rescue of loss-making flag carrier Alitalia to try to win favour with the government and secure the future of its own domestic business following a deadly bridge collapse last year, sources said.

Atlantia, controlled by the Benetton family, faces the loss of its entire national motorway concession in a bitter dispute with the government, which erupted after last year's disaster on its toll network killed 43 people.

The government blamed Atlantia for the tragedy, saying it had failed to adequately maintain the ageing bridge, and vowed to revoke the concession, worth 58pc of group revenue.

However, sources familiar with the matter said Atlantia could mend relations with the government by joining a rescue of Alitalia, which Rome is desperate to save, and possibly be rewarded with a reprieve on its motorway concession.

Atlantia has publicly scoffed at the idea, but sources say it stands ready if Rome signals a quid pro quo is possible. The government has not given such a signal but a political source says it may do if it sees Atlantia as key to saving Alitalia.

Atlantia, which also runs Alitalia's main airport hub in Rome, has denied it is in talks to join a rescue consortium, saying its hands are already full with complex business challenges, including the fate of its motorway concession.

However, a source familiar with the flag-carrier's thinking said Alitalia expected Atlantia to sign up to a rescue as early as this month. The source did not elaborate.

Atlantia declined to comment.

Another potential investor in the rescue bid, state-owned rail group Ferrovie dello Stato, which has had initial talks with Atlantia, also believes the Benetton-controlled group could yet be tempted to join, said a source.

"Atlantia's door is not closed ... it is now up to the government to take the lead in the talks," said a second source familiar with Alitalia's thinking.

Alitalia, put into special administration in 2017 after workers rejected a previous rescue plan, needs to find investors ready to inject fresh funds by the end of April, in advance of an end-June repayment deadline for a state bridging loan of 900m. That loan, however, may be rolled over.

The government, formed by the right-wing League party and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, is keen to save the airline because it wants to avoid mass layoffs at Alitalia, which has around 11,600 employees.

However, political sources said it was still unclear whether the ruling coalition, especially the 5-Star party, would be ready to make such a peace with Atlantia. The party was the most critical of Atlantia after the bridge collapse.

"For 5-Star even the hypothesis of freezing the procedure for revoking the concession is not politically sustainable," said a senior 5-Star source.

The prime minister's office did not reply to a request for comment.

Ferrovie and Delta Air Lines are looking to invest in Alitalia but they still need to find other investors to stump up another 400m for a rescue worth a total of around 1bn, sources close to the talks said.

Ferrovie and its adviser, investment bank Mediobanca, have discreetly sounded out Atlantia after being turned down by a string of other companies.

Reuters was unable to immediately reach a Delta spokeswoman.

Atlantia has been burnt by Alitalia once before, having lost 190m when it participated in a rescue in 2008.

"We have many open fronts, we can't afford to open a further, particularly complex one," Atlantia CEO Giovanni Castellucci said, speaking to shareholders.

In addition to the bridge disaster, Castellucci said he was also dealing with the government over its lengthy approvals process which was blocking 4.9bn in group projects.

Some financial analysts say a quid pro quo would make sense.

"We reckon a possible agreement over Alitalia would be positive for Atlantia, because it would lead to a rapprochement with the government," broker Equita said in a note this week.

For now, Ferrovie is ready to take a 30pc stake in Alitalia, Delta Air Lines would invest 100m for a stake of 10-15pc and another 15pc would probably go to the Italian treasury, sources familiar with the matter say.

But there is still a question mark over who would take the remaining 40-45 percent of the carrier.

British budget airline EasyJet walked away from talks with Ferrovie last month, state-controlled defence group Leonardo and postal operator Poste Italiane said they were not interested in the deal.

If Ferrovie and Delta cannot find co-investors, Rome would face its least favoured option: a takeover by German carrier Lufthansa which has said it would only rescue Alitalia if the government were first to carry out major job cuts

ReutersThe bakery group behind Paul Hollywood's bread range has revealed plans to gobble up a slice of the US food-to-go market and also has the Far East in its sights after securing investment to expand.

St Pierre Groupe, which recently rebranded from its former name Carrs Foods, is launching its first food-to-go range in America as it looks to boost its fast-growing US business.

Founder Jeremy Gilboy said the US arm generated half of its 69m (79m) in sales last year and is set for further rapid growth, with the "massive" food-to-go sector offering a significant opportunity.

He is also looking at tapping into the Far East as St Pierre increasingly expands its international footprint - a far cry from its humble beginnings as a British bakery in 1986.

The firm has just raised 6.7m backing from BGF and Lloyds Bank for plans to accelerate expansion. It comes after St Pierre enjoyed a 40pc surge in underlying earnings last year to 7m and is forecasting turnover to double to 150m in the next three years.

Mr Gilboy said the US expansion and food-to-go range is the firm's primary focus for the moment. "The food-to-go market in America is just so massive - there's so many convenience stores and petrol forecourts in the US," he said. He added that the American love of all things brioche in recent years has helped spur growth of its St Pierre brand across the Atlantic.

In the UK, the group also trades as Baker Street and has the Paul Hollywood range, with its products stocked in 20,000 stores across Britain out of 35,000 worldwide. The Hollywood range is set for 50pc growth this year as the popularity of the Great British Bake Off TV star shows no sign of waning.

Press AssociationWith concerns growing around the scope of the ECB to deliver further meaningful monetary accommodation, to offset the effects of slowing global trade and investment, the baton must now pass to European governments to step in with fiscal support. This has been long acknowledged by the ECB itself, with ECB Deputy Governor Peter Praet recently stating that monetary policy cannot be the only game in town.

The aftermath of the global financial crisis, and subsequent European sovereign crisis, saw national governments across Europe engage fiscal austerity in an attempt to stabilise public finances and sovereign balance sheets. Whilst the effectiveness of procyclical policy tools such as austerity to address an economic slowdown is questionable at best, it has, in conjunction with the subsequent economic upswing, created scope for governments to now step in should they decide. Early signs are encouraging, with the draft Eurozone 2019 budgets seeing the largest fiscal boost in over a decade.

This sudden drive towards fiscal expansion has come from an unlikely source - an upsurge in populism from Rome to Paris. Populists, or more often the fear of populism, are increasingly setting the fiscal agenda across national governments. This has been visibly demonstrated recently by the sights of weekly protests on the streets of France, forcing a U-turn by the self-appointed leader of the European political establishment, Emmanuel Macron.

His policies of structural reform and fiscal rectitude were swiftly replaced by increased minimum wages and curbs to income and social security contributions, highlighting the risks to the establishment from not engaging with a disillusioned electorate after years of austerity. The European Elections next month will invariably see fears of further populist gains. Whether these are realised or not, 2019 may well prove the nadir of the austerity- driven policies favoured by the European establishment after the financial crisis.

Ironically, this loosening of the purse strings will be led not by perceived proliferates of Southern Europe, but rather that harbinger of fiscal rectitude, Germany. In Germany the election in December of Annegrat Kramp Karrenbauer to replace Angela Merkel as head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - effectively anointing her as the next Chancellor - has expedited this shift from the austerity driven policies of the past.

Being acutely aware that it was the CDU's poor performance in key state election's across southern Germany last October that finally triggered Merkel's demise, Karrenbauer will have one eye firmly on the state elections across predominantly Eastern Germany this autumn, not coincidentally the stronghold of the populist far right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party. She has so far called for 20bn of tax cuts with the Soli, or solidarity tax imposed during the 1990's, ironically to help finance German unification with these same eastern states, firmly in her sights ahead of the autumn elections.

However it is France which best epitomised the impact populist movements can have on today's governmental spending policy, with Macron forced to hastily announce 10bn of tax cuts and increases in minimum wages in December to fend off Les Gilet Jaunes. This is likely to be followed over the next number of weeks by further significant tax cuts, a key demand from the yellow vests movement, when Macron announces the conclusions of his great national debate, which has taken place across France over the last three months in an attempt to "transform anger into solutions".

With both Germany and France now predisposed towards fiscal largesse this leaves the last bastion of fiscal discipline in Europe, the European Commission, in an interesting position. The Commission has long been the most ardent proponent of fiscal rectitude within the well-documented Troika, comprised of itself, the IMF and European Central Bank. It is this Troika who have determined the strict conditionality around the bailout packages provided to those sovereigns most severely impacted post the European financial crisis of 2011/12, particularly during the tenure of the previous German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble.

The seismic policy shift by the two largest European powers away from austerity, combined with the upcoming European parliamentary elections next month (from which the new EU commission will be drawn), will most likely see this last bulwark of austerity pivot towards a more accommodating stance. This will hardly go unnoticed by those Southern European countries, particularly Italy, whose populist coalition government is still bristling from its bruising autumn encounter with the Commission after its proposed increased spending plans for 2019 were flatly rejected.

The European Central Bank will be watching all these political machinations from the sidelines with keen interest. The Eurozone economy has faced increased headwinds of late with a slowing Chinese economy, tariffs on global trade and Brexit uncertainty weighing on investment. The one area of strength has been the consumer as employment and, more recently, wages finally recover post the financial crises of the last decade. The ECB has provided extraordinary support to European growth since 2012 when its president Mario Draghi uttered his famous "whatever it takes" speech in support of the Euro-area economy, however its toolkit is now looking increasingly sparse.

It's safe to say that the rise of populism provides many challenges to the European political establishment. However, more importantly for the European economy and indeed the ECB, this challenge may well lead to long-needed fiscal impulse and ignite a well overdue self-sustained economic expansion.

Philip Hartley, Head of Foreign Exchange & Emerging Markets, Bank of IrelandLyra behind the police Land Rover moments before she was gunned down

Journalist Lyra McKee was the victim of a fatal shooting in Derry late at night on Easter Thursday

The dissident republican movement that harboured the suspected murderers of Lyra McKee is profiting from and facilitating the recent spate of ATM robberies, gardai believe.

Three main criminal gangs operating on both sides of the Border are suspected of being behind the bulk of the elaborate cashpoint raids, according to a senior security source. The gangs are small and tight, with no more than three to five members.

They are either sympathisers or criminal opportunists, willing to pay the cut demanded by local dissident republican factions.

The suspects for the robbery of two ATMs in Co Meath last Thursday include the leader of the crime gang involved in the murder of Garda Adrian Donohoe.

The gang is known to gardai for having close links to dissident republicans, which can involve sharing resources, intelligence and the proceeds of crime.

In the overnight heist in Co Meath, machines were ripped from two banks in Kells. The raiders fled in separate cars and left spikes outside a local garda station to hamper their response.

The same gang is also suspected of being behind ATM thefts in Co Cavan and Co Monaghan.

Around the same time as the Kells robberies, ATM machines in Craigavon, Co Armagh, and Crumlin, Co Antrim, were also hit, but gardai believe these were carried out by a different gang. The ATM crime spree has raised alarm among banks and retailers, with one petrol station owner in Co Louth taking the ATM out of service to avoid being hit.

Dissidents are not suspected of carrying out the raids directly. The PSNI told Northern politicians earlier this month they were not involved in orchestrating attacks on ATMs there.

Security services are increasingly concerned about how much of this stolen cash is being diverted to dissident republicans. The primary dissident agitator is the New IRA, which is suspected for shooting dead young journalist Lyra McKee in Derry last Thursday.

"They are a serious concern, if not the most serious concern. They are fundraising on both sides of the Border. They are agitating. They are working on divisions caused by Brexit for their own ends," said a source.A treasure trove of audio tapes of interviews conducted by Joe Jackson with actors, musicians, writers and politicians may soon be preserved in a digital format.

The veteran journalist has launched a crowd-funding campaign to save, and to enhance the sound quality, of more than 1,300 interviews contained on cassette tapes.

Among those who did in-depth interviews with the writer were Leonard Cohen, Richard Harris, Eartha Kitt, Joan Rivers, Glen Campbell, Dolores O'Riordan, Tom Murphy, Eamon Dunphy, Fr Brian D'Arcy and a wide range of politicians in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The interviews were conducted from the mid-1980s over a 25-year period.

The interviews were published in Hot Press, the Sunday Independent, The Irish Times, and more than 100 broadcast on RTE Radio One's Under The Influence series.

The journalist has been in contact with the National Library of Ireland, University College Dublin, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, USA, and Boston University about the preservation and archiving of the audio interviews for posterity.

He plans to digitise the interviews and place them on a website where the public would have full access to them.

Jackson told the Sunday Independent he was recovering from surgery some years ago when an RTE senior executive made remarks that prompted him to take action to preserve the recordings.

He said the executive told him: "Those tapes of interviews you did with some of the most important cultural and political figures of our time are important social documents. It would be a shame if those tapes ended up in a skip after you die."

The link to Joe Jackson's crowd-funding campaign is https://fundit.ie/project/the- joe-jackson-journalist-archivesSteve Collins, pictured wife Carmel, after Wayne Dundon and Nathan Killeen were found guilty of the murder of Roy Collins, at the Courts of Criminal Justice.

CARMEL Collins, the mother of innocent gang victim Roy Collins, has died.

Mrs Collins, who had been suffering from cancer, passed away early this morning.

Roy Collins was just 35 when he was shot dead by members of the Dundon-McCarthy gang in Limerick in 2009.

The gang was dubbed Murder Inc due to the ruthless bloodshed that Limerick endured.

But the killing of the young businessman in a Roxboro casino was a watershed moment for the city that had suffered under gang-related feuding for years.

Roys parents Carmel and Steve bravely stood up to the gangsters and galvanised the city in a clamour for change.

The organised marches through the streets of the city, calling for laws on gangland violence to be strengthened.

Eventually Wayne Dundon, James Dillon and Nathan Killeen were all jailed in relation to the murder.

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Mr Collins told Independent.ie this afternoon: "Carmel was my rock and without her I would never have been able to keep the strong front I had. She was my life partner and friend, a wonderful, wonderful mother."

Poignantly, Roy Collins was killed just before Easter weekend - on Holy Thursday, April 9, 2009.

Mrs Collins funeral is expected to take place in Limerick on Wednesday.

The Collins family left the country for some time following the killing, but Mr Collins admitted they found it very, very difficult to be away from family and Ireland. They recently returned to Limerick.

Mr Collins recently told the Limerick Today Show on Live 95: "My wife is very ill at the minute, it's taken it's toll on her. She's a cancer victim now and the stress has a lot to do with this.

He added: "Losing a child, I think it's every parent's nightmare. It just never leaves you, it haunts you, you can never get over it.

"Even though it's ten years and it's significant to a lot of people, it's just heartbreak for us every year, every day."A new witness has emerged to allege that a Lithuanian woman who disappeared a year ago and is feared murdered was abducted by men involved in prostitution.

Gardai investigating the suspected murder of Giedre Raguckaite (29) confirmed they are investigating the new "allegation" but they have not substantiated it. She was last seen at around 11pm on May 29 last year at a house in Laytown, Co Meath, in an unconscious state. Although she wasn't seen leaving, gardai are satisfied that she did leave, carried out by two men. Gardai searched the property late last year but nothing of evidential value was found.

As the first anniversary of Giedre's disappearance approaches next month, gardai are preparing to launch a new public appeal for information. Members of the investigation team are also due to travel to Lithuania in the coming weeks to interview potential witnesses.

The new information was provided by a witness who contacted Giedre's family and friends on social media, who urged the person to go to gardai. The Lithuanian woman's friends and family, who live overseas, have been campaigning on social media for people in the area to come forward with information.

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According to a friend of Ms Raguckaite, the witness claimed to her family that the men targeted her to groom her into prostitution, intending to traffic her into Northern Ireland. Ms Raguckaite resisted, to her cost.

Detective Inspector Martin Beggy declined to comment on specific avenues of investigation, but confirmed that they are investigating an allegation made by a witness.

Inspector Beggy said gardai are particularly appealing for information about Giedre's possessions.

They believe the she would have had a bag of clothes, make-up and toiletries with her but these were never found. She had lost her handbag before she went missing. It was later found in a laneway in Dundalk town, after she disappeared.

Ms Raguckaite, a Lithuanian citizen, had been in Ireland for six weeks and had worked briefly in a charity shop. She knew no one in Ireland but kept in regular contact with her family and friends, by phone and on social media. She was in between flats when she went missing, and gardai are still trying to establish where she was living. She was seen at a petrol forecourt in Dundalk on May 26, and three days later she telephoned her father in Lithuania.

Her friend Gedville Hiber said: "That night, that she disappeared, she was on the phone to her Dad. She was happy. She sounded fine...It was about 5.30pm in the evening, so that night she disappeared, it was very strange."

Expand Close Giedre Raguckaite was last seen in Co Meath but has not made contact with anyone since. / Facebook

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She said she and Giedre grew up together. "She went to Ireland just to look for a better life. She had finished college, where she studied social studies, and after that moved abroad to work," she said.

"She was always really friendly, communicative and easy going. She didn't have enemies. She always had a smile and was ready to help everyone."

The case of Ms Raguckaite was upgraded from missing person to murder late last year.

Inspector Beggy said: "We are looking at the community in Dundalk and Drogheda who may have seen her in the last week in May or on the night of May 29 socialising both in Dundalk and in Drogheda.

"Two gardai on the investigation team are fluent in Lithuanian and if there are any difficulties with people contacting us, we do have people who can speak to them in their own language."

Giedre was described as being 5ft 5in in height and of slight build with blonde hair and green eyes.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Dundalk Garda Station at 042-938 8400.Maurice Gordon of Davenport was rushed to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiners Office.Steve Collins, whose son Roy was caught in the crossfire of the Limerick feud

Steve Collins, pictured wife Carmel, after Wayne Dundon and Nathan Killeen were found guilty of the murder of Roy Collins, at the Courts of Criminal Justice.

The family of murdered Roy Collins, (from left), brother Stephen Jnr, mother Carmel and father Steve along with then-Lord Mayor of Limerick John Gilligan

Carmel Collins was a quiet, dignified, beautiful person; the quintessential strong Irish mother whose unconditional love held her family together as they endured a living nightmare in the face of pure evil.

Cancer was to be the ultimate cost of that unimaginable journey through hell, but Carmel's irrepressible spirit drove her courageous battle with the disease for over three years until sadly yesterday morning when she slipped away peacefully with her husband Steve and her beloved children by her side.

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She never got over the callous murder of her first born son, Roy, who was gunned down in the family business on Holy Thursday, 2009.

The fact that Carmel passed away on Easter Sunday adds a symbolic poignancy to this deeply sad story for Steve and their children - on that day ten years ago they were preparing for Roy's funeral.

On Wednesday Carmel will be buried next to Roy in the grave that she pined to be close to after the family were forced, because of the continuing death threats, to move to the US under a witness relocation programme seven years ago.

It broke her heart not to be able to make the daily journey to lay flowers at Roy's headstone and when she could not stand it any longer, brought her family back to Limerick after watching her boy's murderers tried, convicted and jailed for life.

No one can appreciate the immeasurable stress and grief that Steve and Carmel Collins experienced together as a result of an unprecedented, sustained assault on their completely innocent family which involved the shooting of one boy and the murder of another, arson attacks, murder contracts, intimidation, closed businesses, near penury, post-traumatic stress, police protection and finally, forced emigration.

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It all began the moment when Wayne Dundon stormed into their innocent lives intent on causing devastation which is forever frozen in grainy cctv images captured at 9.25pm on December 19, 2004.

Expand Close Steve Collins, pictured wife Carmel, after Wayne Dundon and Nathan Killeen were found guilty of the murder of Roy Collins, at the Courts of Criminal Justice. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Steve Collins, pictured wife Carmel, after Wayne Dundon and Nathan Killeen were found guilty of the murder of Roy Collins, at the Courts of Criminal Justice.

Dundon threatened to kill Carmel's nephew Ryan, whom the couple had adopted as their son, when he refused to allow the killer's 14 year old sister into Steve's pub, Brannigans, because it was against the law.

The leader of Murder Inc., came back a short time later and shot the 18 year old a number of times in the legs as he stood behind the counter.

But despite threats and intimidation the Collins' did their civic duty, with Carmel's full backing and encouragement, which saw Steve and Ryan testify against Dundon who was jailed for making threats to kill.

And then Dundon unleashed a merciless campaign of mindless vengeance directing his gang's operations from the comfort of his prison cell.

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Steve's Collins' courageous, outspoken stand against organised crime, which included bringing thousands of people onto the streets of Limerick to protest against the gangs, earned him the love and admiration of the entire nation.

Throughout it all Steve would not have been able for the pressure if it had not been for Carmel, his strong, silent rock who kept him going through the darkest of days of which there were many.

She chose to take a backseat, standing silently by her husband's side, but ensuring that her family stood firm and try to ensure that other's didn't suffer the same fate.

Not many people know it but it was actually Carmel's idea that Steve should rally the good people of her native city and make a stand. That courageous stand is a major factor as to why Limerick is now a peaceful city.

Carmel and Steve were an unbreakable and inseparable unit; a genuine love story which began when a young, recently-qualified electrician from Ballyfermot was sent on a job to Limerick.

Less than 24 hours after arriving in this alien place outside Dublin, Steve first laid eyes on Carmel Lee and they were both smitten.

Less than a year later they married.

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The couple had four children, Roy the eldest, Paul, Steve junior and daughter Leeann who remained their baby. Steve had a thriving electrical contracting business but then moved into the pub trade.

The family adopted Carmels then 13 year old nephew Ryan Lee, her brother Vincent's son, who was tragically orphaned after the death of his parents.

Carmel and Steve instilled in their family the standards of integrity, decency and courage that they have demonstrated since they were foisted into a hell not of their making.

Steve and the family are completely devastated by Carmel's loss which they quite rightly believe to be a direct consequence of the past 15 years of horrendous trauma and grief.

It will take a long time for this latest wound to heal but they have some solace that this remarkable wife, mother and human being is at rest with the little boy she lost at Easter.Air corps jets fly over the 1916 Commemoration at the GPO in Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin 21/4/2019

President Higgins has led a commemoration to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin.

Michael D Higgins was joined by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Defence Minister Paul Kehoe at the state ceremony outside the GPO on O'Connell Street, the landmark building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

Members of the Irish Defence Forces, including representatives from the Army, Air Corps and Navy, also took part in the commemorations.

The event began with the lowering of the Irish tricolour.

Expand Close President Michael D Higgins inspects the Guard of Honour during the 1916 Commemoration at the GPO in Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin 21/4/2019 / Facebook

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Whatsapp President Michael D Higgins inspects the Guard of Honour during the 1916 Commemoration at the GPO in Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin 21/4/2019

A prayer was read and a piper played a lament before the Proclamation of Independence was read by a Defence Forces officer.

Mr Higgins laid a wreath to commemorate all those who died in 1916. A minute's silence was also held.

The official ceremony concluded with the raising of the tricolour, the playing of Amhran na bhFiann and a fly-past by the Irish Air Corps.

On Easter Monday 1916, rebel leader Patrick Pearse stood outside the GPO and read out the proclamation to herald the start of the insurrection against British rule.

The Easter Rising was a military failure for the revolutionaries, who included poets, journalists and teachers, but it sparked a chain of events that ultimately led to the partition of Ireland and the creation of an independent Republic as well as Northern Ireland.

On Sunday morning, Culture Minister Josepha Madigan led a remembrance ceremony at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin for all those who died in the rebellion.

Expand Close An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during the 1916 Commemoration at the GPO in Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin 21/4/2019 / Facebook

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The centrepiece of the event was the raising of the tricolour by members of the Irish Defence Forces and the national anthem being played by a lone piper.

Ms Madigan laid a wreath at Sigerson Monument.

Laurel wreaths were also laid at the graves of Edward Hollywood, the man who delivered the first tricolour flag to Ireland from France, and Peadar Kearney, the composer of country's national anthem.

Ms Madigan was joined by Counsellor Catherine Page from the British Embassy, Brigadier General Howard Berney, members of the Irish Defence Forces, and Ambassador Stephane Crouzat on behalf of the French Embassy in Ireland.

Expand Close Captain Paul Conlon from Elphin, Co. Roscommon who read the proclamation during the 1916 Commemoration is congratulated by former president Mary McAleese at the GPO in Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin 21/4/2019 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Captain Paul Conlon from Elphin, Co. Roscommon who read the proclamation during the 1916 Commemoration is congratulated by former president Mary McAleese at the GPO in Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin 21/4/2019

A relative of Peadar Kearney's, Ciara Considine, sang the anthem.

Ms Madigan said: "Over the past 187 years, people have gathered here in Glasnevin Cemetery to mark the passing of one and a half million individuals.

"The cemetery has been a place for solemn and significant occasions, commemorations and the burial place of key persons in Irish history. "

She added: "The sacrifice of those who died for Irish freedom is acknowledged and perhaps better understood today, and the legacy of 1916 has passed on to new generations and informed and guided our path to independence and the first 100 years of the latest chapter in Ireland's history."

John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: "It's hugely important that we continue to remember the young men and women who perished Easter week 1916.

"It's remembrance days like these at Glasnevin Cemetery, where so many men and women of the Easter Rising of 1916 are buried, that allow us the chance to reflect on our history as a nation.

"It's a privilege for us to honour both those who lost their lives in 1916, as well as the Irish citizens that contributed in different ways like Peader Kearney and Edward Hollywood."

A granite memorial incorporating the names of all those who died in the Rising, including rebellion leaders and British soldiers, was unveiled in Glasnevin as part of the centenary commemorations in 2016.

Almost 500 people were killed in the uprising, the majority of them - 268 - were civilians caught up in the violence. A total of 119 British soldiers died.Two security alerts in Derry have ended after suspicious objects discovered in both areas were declared non-viable devices.

The objects were found in Insicarn Road and in Harty Court in the city.

Two other alerts on Stand Road and Moss Park remain ongoing.

It is understood one of the devices was left outside Independent councillor Gary Donnelly's home in Iniscarn Road in Creggan.

Four security alerts in #Derry today. In Creggan a device has been left outside Councillor Gary Donnellys home. Another device outside a home in Hardy Court in Ballymagroarty. Strand Road Police Station is also cordoned off as police examine a car. Fourth alert in Moss Park pic.twitter.com/06HV9CGgVo  Leona O'Neill (@LeonaONeill1) April 21, 2019

A section of Strand Road has also been closed to traffic. It is understood police are examining a car near Strand Road Police Station.

Police investigating the security alerts have arrested a 39-year-old man. He has been taken to the Serious Crime Suite at Musgrave Police Station for questioning.

Police have said they are treating the security alerts as criminal rather than terrorist related.

The security alerts come just days after the murder of investigative journalist Lyra McKee in the Creggan area on Thursday night.

Police believe she was shot by members of the New IRA. Two teenage men have been arrested by detectives investigating the shooting.

A PSNI spokesman said: "A number of homes in the area have been evacuated and local diversions are in place.

"There are no further details at this time."

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood told those responsible for the security alerts to "get off the people of Derry's backs".

"Those responsible for dragging families out of their homes onto the street on Easter Sunday morning are nothing but thugs," he said.

"Its well past time these faceless cowards went away and got of the backs of the people in Derry.

The Foyle MLA added: Derry is a wonderful city filled to the brim with talent and hardworking people trying to get on in life - yet these hoods think they can drag us back and continue to limit the opportunities for our people. They need to wise up and grow up.

"There is no place for them in Derry and if the events of the past few days showed anything, its that this City is done with the past and is united in our condemnation of these thugs.Two teenagers arrested in connection with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee have been released without charge.

The males, aged 18 and 19, were released on Sunday evening, the PSNI confirmed.

Lyra was shot in the head during disturbances in the Creggan area of Derry on Thursday evening.

Detectives from PSNI Major Investigation Team continue to appeal for help from the local community in Creggan.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: We have received very positive support from the community but we need to convert this support into tangible evidence that will enable us to bring Lyras killers to justice.

"We will continue to work positively and sensitively with the local community to achieve this.

I am continuing to appeal for those people who were in Fanad Drive and Central Drive on Thursday night and who have mobile phone footage to please come and speak with my detectives and provide us with your mobile phone footage.

"We do not need to hold on to your phone, we have necessary equipment that will allow us to download the footage quickly. Alternatively, you can use the Major Incident Public Portal at www.MIPP.police.uk to upload footage or to tell us what they know.

I know there will be some people who know what happened but are scared to come forward but if you have information, no matter how small, please contact detectives in the incident room on 101 or via the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111 which is 100pc anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.

McKee was shot in the head by suspects who police believe were dissident republicans linked to the New IRA on the Creggan estate in Derry on Thursday night.

CCTV released by Police Service Northern Ireland captured her final moments at around 10pm, when she stood among a crowd of other innocent bystanders and raised her phone in the air, apparently to photograph the violence.

Police, who described the shooting as a "terrorist incident", believe the violence was orchestrated in response to an earlier search by officers aimed at averting imminent trouble associated with this week's anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Around 50 petrol bombs were thrown in the confrontation and two cars were burned out.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, who leads the inquiry, described the murder as "senseless and appalling beyond belief".

"People saw the gunman and people saw those who goaded young people out onto the streets, people know who they are," he said.

"The answers to what happened last night lie within the community.

"I am asking people to do the right thing for Lyra McKee, for her family and for the city of Derry/Londonderry and help us stop this madness."

Earlier today, Ms McKee's heartbroken partner asked mourners to wear clothes inspired by Harry Potter and Marvel at the 29-year-old journalist's funeral.

Funeral details were released by her partner Sara Canning today, with the ceremony to take place on Wednesday at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast.

"Its going to be a celebration of her life and if people would like to wear Hufflepuff, Harry Potter, or Marvel related items I know she would love it," Ms Canning said.Death must not be in vain: Sara Canning, partner of Lyra McKee, speaks at a vigil yesterday. Photo: Getty Images

Lyra McKee's heartbroken partner said their hopes and dreams were "snuffed out" by a single, barbaric act.

Sara Canning spoke at a vigil at the scene where the 29-year-old journalist was murdered on Thursday night.

Ms Canning said her partner's "senseless murder" in Derry had left her family without a "beloved daughter, a sister, an aunt and a great aunt and has left so many friends without their confidant".

"Our hopes and dreams and all of her amazing potential was snuffed out by this single barbaric act," she said.

"Victims and LGBTQI community are left without a tireless advocate and activist and it has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with.

"This cannot stand, Lyra's death must not be in vain because her life was a shining light in everyone else's life and her legacy will live on and the life that she has left behind," she added.

Police have blamed the anti-peace process New IRA for the killing shots that were aimed at their officers in the Creggan estate.

Detectives believe the violence was orchestrated in response to an earlier search by officers aimed at averting imminent trouble.

They said more than one person was involved in the murder.

Lyra's close friend Ann Travers, whose sister was shot dead by IRA gunmen in 1984, said Ms McKee was a journalist "who liked to help others, to try to give answers to people and empower people".

The journalist was a "hero" to many in the LGBT community, advocacy workers said.

John O'Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project, said she had a huge impact on many in Northern Ireland's LGBT community. She supported people in coming out and used her own story to empower others to live as their most authentic selves, he added.

"To lose someone like Lyra at any age is a difficult thing to accept, but to lose her at 29 in such despicable and avoidable circumstances is devastating," Mr O'Doherty said.

"Our thoughts today are with Lyra's family, partner, friends and everyone across Northern Ireland society who will be feeling this loss. Violence to achieve political aims can never be justified and we hope that the perpetrator is brought swiftly to justice."

Meanwhile, the brother of slain journalist Veronica Guerin described the killing as "an act of butchery".

"I don't think the term outrage is strong enough," he told the Irish Independent.

"It was an immoral attack."

Fingal county councillor Jimmy Guerin said: "All she was doing was doing her job. Her only crime was standing too close to a PSNI vehicle."Cabinet ministers have raised serious concerns over the Government's plan to give thousands of new parents seven weeks' paid parental leave, the Sunday Independent can reveal.

Senior ministers issued stark warnings to colleagues about the impact the landmark legislation would have on businesses and schools ahead of a private Cabinet meeting last week.

Minister for Education Joe McHugh warned that his department would not be able to cover the financial costs arising from the introduction of seven weeks' paid parental leave which will be available to all parents, including same-sex couples and people who adopt children.

The Department of Education and other public sector employers will pay employees their full weekly salary when they are on parental leave - but private employers will not be obliged to top up their employees' salaries beyond the 240 they will receive in parental benefits.

Mr McHugh also said the new legislation would place a significant administrative burden on school principals who will be forced to find cover for teachers who avail of the paid leave.

Yesterday, a senior Department of Health source said paid parental leave would pose an "even more extreme challenge" for hospitals and other medical facilities which are already significantly under resourced.

"Politicians are very much in favour of the paid parental leave because it plays well with the public but officials are seriously concerned about the impact it will have on staffing and budgets," the source said.

Meanwhile, Minister for Business Heather Humphreys told Cabinet colleagues that the parental leave benefits would have a significant impact on business costs and productivity especially for small business owners who may not have many employees. Ms Humphreys warned that businesses would be forced to find temporary cover and reassign duties of staff who take parental leave when the new legislation is introduced.

She said the burden on employers should be weighed against the need to introduce social policy. However, she recognised that the paid leave would improve the work-life balance of new parents and said she was supportive of the policy overall.

Attorney General Seamus Woulfe is understood to have told ministers that seven weeks of paid leave for all new parents could be subjected to "constitutional scrutiny" because it places an unfair burden on employers which is not shared by other sections of society.

Despite concerns being raised by ministers and their officials about the bill, the Cabinet agreed to publish the legislation.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan are due to make an announcement on the bill this week.

The legislation, which was announced in this year's Budget, will see two weeks of paid parental leave introduced for all new parents from November. The Paid Parental Leave Bill will then be extended to seven weeks by 2021. The leave can be taken at any time within the first year of a child's life. Parents will only be able to avail of the leave in one- week blocks. The leave will be non-transferable between couples because the Government wants to encourage fathers to take an active role in raising their children.

The paid leave will cost the State around 1.5m this year but this will rise to 32m per year when the full seven weeks is eventually introduced.

The State currently spends more than 267m a year on maternity/paternity benefits.

The Government believes the legislation follows international best practice and will result in better outcomes for children. At present, new mothers are entitled to 26 weeks' paid maternity leave along with an additional 16 weeks' unpaid leave. Fathers are entitled to two weeks' paid paternity leave.

The new parental leave will allow fathers to take nine weeks of paid leave from work within the first year of their child's life, while mothers will be able to take 33 weeks.

Paid paternity leave has been available to fathers since 2016 but figures show there has been a slow uptake since the scheme was introduced.

A government analysis showed there is a significant disparity between the number of fathers claiming paternity leave and the number of babies born each year. Data shows that the payment to fathers dropped significantly in 2018 compared to the previous year.

The figures revealed 24,080 paternity leave claims were made in 2018, while 26,599 were lodged the previous year.

Figures for the number of births in 2018 are currently unavailable but 62,053 newborns were registered in 2017, suggesting low take-up of the benefit among fathers.

The parental leave bill also ensures a person's employment rights are not impacted by their decision to take time off work to care for children.Fine Gael will use roadside street lights to introduce high-speed broadband to every part of the country, according to the party's local election manifesto.

A draft copy of the election manifesto, which has been obtained by the Sunday Independent, says Fine Gael will roll out broadband for every home, business or school, "regardless of how remote or rural" their location is.

As part of the plan, Fine Gael councillors will be tasked with ensuring street lights in their local authority areas can be used as antennae for "small cell technologies" which would "greatly improve the speed of 5G roll-out".

The pre-election commitment comes as the Government prepares to announce the outcome of discussions surrounding the long-promised National Broadband Plan, which became mired in controversy last year.

The project, which was originally estimated to cost around 500m, is now expected to cost the taxpayer in the region of 3bn. The Government claims the first plan aimed to connect 11,000 towns and villages while the current project will see high-speed broadband rolled out for 540,000 homes and businesses in some of the most remote parts of the country.

Ministers are set to discuss the plan at a special Cabinet meeting in Cork after the Dail's Easter recess. It is understood there are differing approaches within Cabinet over the best approach.

There are concerns among senior ministers that the current plan, which involves fibre optic cables, could become outdated before the project is completed.

However, other ministers, who are mostly from rural communities, are determined to see work on the state contract begin as soon as possible.

Fine Gael's local election manifesto says the National Broadband Plan will be achieved through a combination of commercial investment and state intervention in areas of the country where private operators are unlikely to invest. The document says 75pc of the country's homes, businesses and farms currently have access to high-speed broadband. However, the remaining 25pc of the country remains "difficult to reach".

"Fine Gael will ensure that every part of the country can partake in the digital future and the opportunities that that presents," it adds.

The manifesto says the Government's Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce is working on ways to improve connectivity for thousands of homes and businesses currently struggling to access online services.

In addition to the party's street-lights plan for broadband, Fine Gael will also instruct councils to share road improvement schedules with telecoms providers to assist with the introduction of infrastructure which will improve connectivity.

It also proposes new standardised procedures for applying for planning permission for telecoms masts. Last week in the Dail, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government was looking at the tender for the National Broadband Plan in "excruciating detail".

"The cost, including VAT, contingencies and so on, could be in the region of 3bn, albeit spread over 25 years," the Taoiseach said. "However, the benefits must be borne in mind. It is 540,000 homes, farms and businesses and over one million people," he added.

He said before a decision is brought to Cabinet, he wanted to ensure there was "no better alternative".

One senior minister said there will be a clash of ideas when the plan is discussed by the Cabinet next month.

"You will have people in Cabinet who believe passionately that this is the same as rural electrification and will deliver regional equity," the minister said.

However, the minister said other Cabinet members will want to know what "bang for their buck" the Government is getting from spending 3bn.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael's local election manifesto claims it is the "party of home ownership".

The document says Fine Gael's mission is to "ensure home ownership becomes achievable and affordable again for many who today feel it is beyond their reach".A Catholic diocese has sent a stern message to political parties which raise funds at the church gate - telling them to "go and collect somewhere else".

The Diocese of Elphin, led by Bishop Kevin Doran, has criticised political parties which seek to bolster funds through donations from the Catholic faithful while at the same time enacting laws which clash with Catholic teaching.

The diocese specifically criticised those political parties which have "consistently advocated policies and introduced legislation which undermine marriage and the right to life of the unborn" and yet "turn up outside our church gates, Sunday after Sunday, to ask Mass-goers to fund their activities".

Fine Gael collects considerable sums, but the figure was not readily available as local branches are permitted to keep the lion's share of it for their own activities. Fianna Fail netted 200,000 nationally as recently as 2012.

A statement by the Diocese of Elphin said: "There is no obligation on any political party to support the Church, and certainly not to legislate in accordance with Church teaching."

Decency

It added that political parties are legally entitled to hold collections, but that in doing so they showed a lack of "respect for people's faith".

"Common decency would suggest that they go and collect somewhere else."

A Fine Gael official said collectors' permits are issued by local gardai and not the Catholic Church and collections are not done on church property.

It is left up to discretion of local organisers, who generally liaise with local priests, and the understanding that all conflict or tension was to be avoided.

The collections are more widespread and lucrative outside Dublin, where the tradition holds. Neither Fianna Fail nor Fine Gael would comment on the Bishop of Elphin's stance and Fianna Fail would not comment on the issue more generally.

A Labour spokesman said some of its local branches hold church gate collections. "But what happens outside the church gate is not a matter for the church authorities," the Labour official said.

Church gate permits require collectors to stand on the public pathway and not obstruct Mass-goers. Parishes are entitled to insist that collectors stay outside church grounds, according to Fr Micheal Murphy, a spokesman for the diocese of Kildare & Leighlin.

According to Fr Murphy: "The Church authorities would prefer that collectors do not collect within church grounds and at a respectable distance from church gates."

He said this applied to collections by any organisation, and not just political parties.

However, church-affiliated charities are sometimes permitted to collect within church grounds, such as the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Dublin told the Irish Independent that no political parties or political campaigning literature or collections are allowed inside churches or church grounds in Dublin.

She said that a collection held outside the gates of a church "is a matter for the civic authorities - the gardai."

Bishop Kevin Doran is on retreat this week, and the Irish Independent was unable to contact him for further comment on the matter.Journalist Lyra McKee was the victim of a fatal shooting in Derry late at night on Easter Thursday

The Colour Party marches along OConnell Street during the Saoradh Easter Commemoration in Dublin. Photo: Tony Gavin 20/4/2019

The parade down OConnell Street this weekend by republican group Saoradh dishonored the Irish flag, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

In his first comments on the event he said people North and South are mourning the death of murdered journalists Lyra McKee.

On Sunday we marked the heroes of 1916 who put Ireland on the path to democracy. Others like Saoradh want to return Ireland to a violent and troubled past, Mr Varadkar said.

We can never allow this to happen. Saoradh should apologise for their actions this weekend. The right to assemble and march was won by the men and women of 1916 who fought for freedom and the democracy we have today.

This weekend they dishonored their legacy and memory. It was an insult to the Irish people.

The Taoiseach pointed to the words of the 1916 Proclamation which were read out on the steps of the GPO today as part of the official State commemorations of the Easter Rising

The proclamation condemns those who in the name of Ireland would dishonour the flag through cowardice or inhumanity. Those involved in dissident activity should reflect on those words, he said

While describing the demonstration as "very disturbing", he said Gardai policed the event "appropriate and with restraint in the circumstances".

Expand Close Journalist Lyra McKee was the victim of a fatal shooting in Derry late at night on Easter Thursday / Facebook

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Whatsapp Journalist Lyra McKee was the victim of a fatal shooting in Derry late at night on Easter Thursday

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has defended Gardais decision to allow dissident republican group Saoradh march down OConnell Street in Dublin.

Around 150 people including two marching bands and a colour party dressed in military garb with berets and sunglasses took part in the parade on Saturday.

There was no effort on the part of Garda to stop the march despite its clear paramilitary tone.

In a statement today, Mr Flanagan said: "I know that all right-thinking members of the public are sickened at the sight of a small number of people in paramilitary uniforms, particularly after the horrific killing of a young journalist, Lyra McKee, in Derry on Thursday night.

"These demonstrators do not represent the views of the Irish people who have been united for many decades in rejecting paramilitarism and are rightly revulsed at this display."

But he added that Gardai had to use "their training and judgment to balance the rights of people to demonstrate".

"They do this well and maintain the publics trust. At the same time, I am regularly briefed on these matters and I am satisfied that the Gardai prioritise the security of the state in monitoring of all dissident activity and will continue to do so, in conjunction with the PSNI and other security partners," the minister said.

The political republican group issued a statement absolving the "IRA volunteer" who shot Lyra McKee.

Saoradh's chairman and spokesperson, Brian Kenna, hit out at the "irresponsible PSNI who went into a nationalist area on Thursday night and provoked a young community".

Fine Gael senator Neale Richmond said Saoradh had "no place on the streets of the capital".

Last night police in Belfast were continuing to question two suspected teenage members of the New IRA about the murder of the 29-year-old journalist in Derry.

The men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested in Derry under anti-terrorism legislation and were brought to a police station in Belfast, the PSNI said.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, who is leading the inquiry, said he believed both men were involved in the shooting. "Clearly my consideration is whether those two individuals acted in isolation or in collusion with other individuals, and I am keen for the community to come forward and help me answer that question," he added.

Ms McKee was killed in the Creggan estate in Derry after she was shot in the head by a gunman who fired toward police as rioting raged. Mobile phone and CCTV images captured chilling footage of a masked man pointing a handgun in the direction of police, close to where Ms McKee was standing among a crowd of bystanders.

Her partner, Sara Canning, led tributes to the investigative journalist, published author and LGBTQIA activist, saying her "amazing potential was snuffed out by this single barbaric act".

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Det-Supt Murphy added: "People saw the gunman and people saw those who goaded young people out on to the streets, people know who they are.

"What we are seeing is a new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks and that for me is a very worrying situation."

He said Ms McKee's murder had created "a sea change" in the community and asked people to have confidence to come forward with information.

He added that the individuals responsible for her murder continued to "hide in the shadows" but his officers had identified "palpable" change in support of the police.

"This will be Lyra's legacy. Lyra's murder was not just an attack on Lyra, it was an attack on the fabric of this community. Lyra's killers have succeeded in only one thing, and that is in uniting the entire community in condemnation," he said.

A statement on Saoradh's website last Friday said a "republican volunteer attempted to defend people" from the PSNI and the RUC and that "tragically a young journalist, Lyra McKee, was killed accidentally".

Despite releasing a statement, Saoradh chairman Mr Kenna, who is a former employee of the HSE, told the Sunday Independent he had no knowledge about the shooting. He said the information was "passed" to Saoradh. "We would act responsibly in passing on information from republican sources," he said, while adding that he had "no information" to pass to gardai.

Saoradh secretary Ger Devereux said he did not see the statement before it went out. "I don't necessarily agree with it," he said. "But I can state quite categorically to you that we had no involvement in that [shooting]."

Both men said they were shocked by the shooting.Prohibition in the 20s gave rise to the mafia gangsters, everyone had to learn to share during the Great Depression of the 30s and America entered World War II when she was 26 years old in 1941, and she has a keen recollection of what life was like on the home-front during that time.A 125-year-old explosive shell sparked an alert in an auction room in County Laois.

The eight-inch object was found in an old trunk full of items brought in to be sold.

"I called the guards and a detective arrived in around three minutes," auctioneer Sean Eacrett told the Sunday Independent.

Several more gardai arrived on the scene and two Garda vehicles were used to block the entrance to the showrooms at Ballyshaneduff, Ballybrittas, while the shell was examined.

Expand Close Items from World War I, including maps and photographs. / Facebook

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"It was made of brass and copper and it had a date marked 1894," he added.

He had carried the shell out of the building and placed it on the ground outside to await the arrival of gardai.

He said a Garda inspector took away the shell and he was informed it was being taken to the ballistics section at Garda headquarters in Dublin for further examination.

An elderly couple who owned the trunk did not know of the existence of the shell, according to Mr Eacrett.

"They were very surprised when I telephoned to tell them what we found. They never knew it was there. They bought the trunk at a church jumble sale in Glenageary in County Dublin around 35 years ago," he said.

He then joked that the potentially dangerous weapon looked like a vibrator when he first saw it.

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"It looked like a vibrator with the primer still intact," said the auctioneer.

"Not that I'd know a lot about them," he added.

The trunk containing the shell was one of four old military-style trunks the couple had bought and they had thought about using them as coffee tables. They had not paid much attention to the various contents of the trunks which they put in the attic of their cottage at Castledermot, County Kildare, he said.

Mr Eacrett is selling the entire contents of their cottage. The trunks contained a large amount of historical memorabilia. Among the items were World War I trench maps, pieces of shrapnel, officers' booklets, and aerial reconnaissance photographs that may been taken in North Africa.

There is a handwritten letter from a John Barnwell, who was a prisoner-of-war in a Japanese prison camp in World War II. It was written on board a ship in 1945 when he was on his way back to Ireland and was addressed to his brother Edward in Crumlin in Dublin.

Other items in the trunks included a document marked ''third and final draft of Irish Constitution'' with a signature in old Gaelic script. There is a copy of a publication named The Nation - War Issue which contains reports on the 1922 Civil War executions in Mountjoy Prison of republicans Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Joe McKelvey and Richard Barrett.

There is a document relating to the execution of Erskine Childers in Beggar's Bush Barracks in Dublin in 1922, and also a large poster mocking Eamon de Valera, entitled ''Devvy's Circus''.

There will also be other items submitted for auction, including two rare 1985 20p coins.

But Mr Eacrett is hoping the antique military shell will be returned. He said "If the shell has been decommissioned it will be included in the auction on Saturday next, April 27 and should sell for around 300 to 500."A garda who says his home is being repossessed has gone online with a cri de coeur over the suicidal feelings he has experienced. Stock picture

A garda who says his home is being repossessed has gone online with a cri de coeur over the suicidal feelings he has experienced.

Gardai sources said yesterday that they believe the post on the 'Support for Nurses, Midwives and Frontline Staff in Ireland' Facebook page posted last month is authentic. A number of gardai in similar financial straits have committed suicide in recent years, sources say.

In his post on the website, the officer said he is married with three young children and is in the process of having his home repossessed by a bank. Facebook page administrators posted the letter, captioned 'Yet Another Heartbreaking Story of Hidden Ireland', and asked other frontline workers in financial difficulties to share their experiences, particularly if they also have suicidal feelings.

In his letter, the garda says that he is expecting to be evicted from the home, which he says he bought at a price three times its current value.

"Only my wife knows about it. No one else. We are too ashamed to say anything to anyone. It's an Irish thing, I think. Pride. I feel like I've let my family down and I'm too proud to let anyone including my elderly parents know about it, and my wife is at her wits' end with worry.

"We have tried our level best not to get into mortgage arrears but it was a choice between food and heating (we have small kids) or the mortgage. We chose to feed the children.

"We haven't taken a holiday for the past eight years. Our car is 11 years old. We have a basic 2-up, 2-down house in an estate. Nothing fancy at all. We don't drink and we don't smoke. Our only mistake is that we bought our house in the so-called boom times for three times the price it's worth now.

"And now their thanks to us for bailing them out is to bail us out of our home. It's just sickening. Like other people in your posts, the bank refuse to talk to us. They just want us out of our home.

"Like another poster on your page, I too sleep in my car down the road from the station many times as I just can't afford diesel to get me to and from work after every shift. But last night I came home after work.

"On my way home from work I bought a bottle of vodka. When my wife and children were tucked up asleep, I took all the tablets from the medicine cabinet.

"I sat there and planned my next move. To take the tablets and the vodka and walk down to the riverside and just end it all for good. The broken clothes line outside that my wife has been asking me to fix would come in handy. I know it sounds cowardly but I just cannot take this pressure any more. It's become just unbearable."Making a plan

Pregnancy can be a confusing time: masses of information and unfamiliar medical terms are presented to us at every turn. So a birth plan may seem like a way of regaining a modicum of control over our labour - but are we instead telling the experts how to do their job or, worse, tying their hands?

A birth plan, a document that you share with your obstetrician and midwife, details what you would like to happen during your labour. Many websites offer a template, and antenatal classes and hospital guides often encourage mums-to-be to put pen to paper. But is a birth plan really necessary?

Professor Mary Higgins, consultant obstetrician at the National Maternity Hospital, points out that if you are happy with all of the education you have received from your midwife or obstetrician, then writing a birth plan isn't necessary. However, if there are particular preferences, a birth plan is a good way of opening a dialogue while there is still time to address any issues.

"It's definitely useful. We need to sit and talk to people about their expectations before they come in, in labour, in pain and in distress, because you don't want to stress them more when they are saying they want a water birth and we don't offer that. People can share what they would like and we can let them know what is realistic and the advice I would give them. Hypnotherapy? It's great and we can match you with a midwife who has been trained in hypnotherapy."

Where confusion arises are birth plans from American websites that mention procedures that aren't practised in Ireland. "People will often get birth plans from the internet, and they read stuff that's happening in the States that we just don't do. They will write: 'I really don't want to have an enema.' I have never in my entire career given someone an enema - we don't do that anymore; that went out with the ark. Or they will write that they don't want to be shaved. I don't shave someone unless they have to have a caesarean section where you are operating in the hairline and you want to get hair out of the way because there is a risk of infection. It seems as if there is a mismatch of the information - you're getting a very unrealistic idea of what we do."

Birth plans often list processes that happen as standard in labour, such as skin-to-skin contact when the baby is born. "Everybody gets that: you don't have to write that down. Of course, there is a qualifier that if the baby isn't coping with transitioning to life outside the womb, you will need your baby looked at by a paediatrician, so we won't be able to do skin to skin."

But a birth plan can be useful where there are salient details from the current or a past pregnancy that should be shared. A previous caesarean section means that the mother will need to wear a heart monitor when in labour, which can limit her options. "We need to monitor the baby's heart rate all the way through. The worry is the scar on the uterus from the previous section could break down and the first sign of this is the baby going into distress. It's very rare but if it does happen, we need to know early so we need to monitor the heart rate all the way through. People will often object to that, as they don't want to be tied to the bed, so we have wireless monitors so you can be on your ball or birthing stool, but you can't be in the pool."

Pelvic girdle pain is a good example of an issue to be shared with your medical team, as it can limit the range of motion available and may reduce the positions during labour that mothers can manage. "Where a woman has had previous problems with PGP, we have to be careful with her hips - that's really important to know."

Management of pain relief is another topic birth plans cover and, here, Professor Higgins' advice is to remain open-minded and flexible when putting pen to paper. "We have noticed that people will say, 'I don't want to have an epidural,' and if you write that, and if you change your mind, that's a very difficult position. You are saying, 'I do not give consent to this procedure,' and now when you are upset, you're changing your mind. There have been anaesthetists who have said, 'I am not going to put the epidural in - it's an elective procedure, you don't have to have it and you have told me, "I don't want to have an epidural.''' Do you really want to tie yourself into saying, 'I don't want this?' Rather, say, 'I prefer not to, but I realise I may need to.'"

Where labour is slow, oxytocin can be administered, which can make contractions stronger and more regular, and is another area where Professor Higgins cautions against writing a birth plan of absolutes. "People will say, 'I don't want to be speeded up in labour,' but if you are at two centimetres for six hours, at that rate you will be in labour for three days. We can ask if they want a hand, and most people will say yes."

The area of assisted delivery can be an immovable point for many women, and understandably so given the unfamiliar language and unpalatable explanations. An assisted delivery is where a vacuum device (ventouse) or forceps is used to help the baby out of the birth canal and is recommended where the mother may be tired from pushing for a long time, or if the baby is almost out but the heart rate has become a worry. But the alternative may mean undertaking unnecessary measures. "Who would want a forceps? But if you're pushing and your baby's heart rate drops and we could deliver your baby by forceps in three minutes versus: you've told me you don't want to have forceps, which means I am in a difficult position if I do this. You're now saying I have to do an emergency caesarean section, which can take up to half an hour to do, half an hour that your baby is in distress."

Another no-no for many women is an episiotomy - a small cut in the tissue between the vagina and the anus that is often needed with a forceps or ventouse delivery. It is another procedure doctors will only perform where necessary - and when the alternative is a tear into the back passage, this is one point worth being flexible on.

While some women rail against the idea of a caesarean section, others may actively prefer it, for many reasons, including anxiety about giving birth. An open, honest discussion with your doctor and midwife can allay those fears and, where possible, allow them to put procedures in place that can make the birth experience a positive one.

For those women keen to have a vaginal birth, ticking the 'no' box against the caesarean section is a given. But there are instances where it is the only option, either in unplanned circumstances where labour isn't progressing or the baby is in distress, or as an elective procedure - if the baby is breech, if there is pre-eclampsia (pregnancy- related high blood pressure), or if the placenta is low-lying. "If someone is having a planned caesarean section, we would send them to classes specific to them, as they are going to have a very different birth experience to a woman who has a natural birth. You want them to have targeted education."

While the big work may be over, the third stage of labour can generate its own preferences, ranging from preserving the placenta to delayed cord clamping. Placenta encapsulation is growing in popularity here, with advocates saying it can boost milk supply and energy levels, and ease the baby blues. This is an issue worth noting on a potential birth plan and discussing with your medical team, as it may require the placenta to be treated in a specific manner such as birthed onto a clean sheet, stored in a cool box or frozen.

Delayed cord clamping is where you wait a minute or two to allow the baby to benefit from the blood in the placenta. "Some patients will ask us to delay cutting the cord until it stops pulsating," says Professor Higgins, "and that could take three or four minutes, sometime up to 10. But it has been shown that the longer you leave it, the more blood the baby will get, and there is a higher rate of jaundice. The result is that the baby is more likely to need phototherapy, and is separated from Mum, and that's not what anyone wants. So it is recommended that if you are going to delay cord clamping, do it for a minute or two - you get all the benefits and none of the problems, and most people will agree that makes sense."

So, ultimately, speaking to the professionals involved, sharing any worries or fears and remaining open-minded and flexible when presented with their advice is the key to creating a birth plan that works for all parties.The idea of an article about the return of the roast dinner could sound a little strange. "Did it go away?" you might reasonably ask. But if you regularly enjoy a roast dinner at home at the weekend, you might be surprised to learn that, actually, yes it did.

For the last 10 years, finding a restaurant or pub that serves a high-quality Sunday lunch in Ireland has been a lot harder, and the reason is the rise in popularity of brunch. While the number of establishments serving brunch has skyrocketed, the number of those doing a proper lunch has dropped. Or at least it had - because it seems things might be changing.

Restaurants such as Peploe's on St Stephen's Green in Dublin city centre, its near neighbour the Cliff Townhouse, and Seasons at the InterContinental Hotel in Ballsbridge are just three of the establishments who've recently brought back Sunday lunch. Chefs like Sean Smith in the Cliff Townhouse see themselves as being on a mission to rescue a classic meal from being forgotten. "To me, brunch can't compare with that, so it's not surprising to see a swing away from egg-based late breakfasts," he says. "Also, brunch is a young person's game. Older people, say in their late 30s and 40s onwards, they really love roast beef."

However, according to Sean, it's not simply a matter of swapping mid-morning eggs for mid-afternoon beef. "The classic Sunday roast has been destroyed by the carvery lunch," he says. "People are used to seeing it done really badly in a pub somewhere, where a piece of beef has been overcooked and then left sitting under a heat lamp.

"But there's no relationship between that and a really well-cooked roast, served medium rare with all the trimmings. They're only distantly related as dishes and to be honest, I think the carvery has damaged Ireland's food reputation. The meat ends up grey and dry, and doesn't taste of anything. It has to be smothered in a sauce and served with heaped vegetables so people think they're getting value, but they're not."

The Cliff Townhouse is primarily a seafood restaurant, but Smith is a huge fan of traditional roasts and so he serves a roast rib of beef from a trolley beside the table with Yorkshire pudding, roast vegetables and an onion sauce. He also serves a roast leg of lamb with dauphinoise potatoes, confit garlic, capers and rosemary, and occasionally roast chicken for two people. A two-course lunch costs 32 per person.

Cooking a good roast joint is a matter of starting with the right cut of meat - all the chefs I spoke to for this article agreed the only contender is a beef rib roast cooked on the bone. Smith cooks his rib roast overnight at a low temperature, putting it in the oven on Saturday night and taking it out at 1pm on Sunday afternoon.

"We set the core temperature to about 54C and a good oven will hold it at that temperature. So the whole thing is medium-rare and then if someone wants it cooked well done, we can always do that for them. But this method produces the most intensely succulent meat," he says.

Wade Murphy of Restaurant 1826 in Adare, Co Limerick, serves what he describes as a "proper roast" every Sunday, opening at 3pm just to facilitate this meal.

"We open for people to have an early dinner or late lunch - it's a traditional thing and it's about giving people really good quality comfort food. I grew up as a kid having a roast on a Sunday, either at home or at a local hotel, and when we opened the restaurant six years ago, I wanted to do it properly here with all the trimmings," he says.

"I source a good quality rib roast from Garret's Butchers in Limerick, and we have regulars who come in just for that. We serve it with duck fat roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings made with beef dripping, and butter-braised carrots. And it's got to be served with a fresh homemade horseradish cream."

At Restaurant 1826, Murphy prefers a five-rib roast, cooked slowly on the bone and then taken off the bone and left to rest. Then it's blasted in the oven again to give it a good crust and it's carved. Usually, he just cooks one and when it's gone, it's gone.

He charges 26.95 for two courses for lunch and 31.95 for three courses. While that's more than people might be used to paying for a roast lunch in a pub or at a carvery, he argues that, in those settings, you almost certainly aren't getting a premium product. "It's not comparable really. Usually in those settings, you'll see a striploin or other cheaper cut, but I think a rib roast is the only way to go - roasting on the bone adds huge flavour to the meat," he says.

"I'm looking for a nice crust on the outside that seals in the flavour. It's also one of my favourite things to do at home, that and a roast chicken. There's something primal about the smell and flavour of roasted meat. People have been sitting around fires and roasting meat for thousands upon thousands of years and it's just a fantastic experience. I'm delighted to see more restaurants doing a proper roast now because it needs to be rescued from being done badly."

At Balloo House, a country pub and restaurant near Strangford Lough in Down, Danni Barry is serving a traditional roast as part of a three-course Sunday lunch. There is, Barry says, a big tradition of going out for a Sunday roast in the area and she doesn't see that changing. "Sunday is still a big thing around here and a Sunday lunch means a roast. We serve a rib of beef that's been cooked for 12 hours and then seared off before serving, with root vegetable mash and gravy. Getting the roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings right is also a big deal," she says.

"We steam our roasties and then shake them to make them fluffy. Then we par-roast them in beef dripping with garlic and rosemary, and finish them off in the oven when an order comes in. Yorkshire puddings may not be authentic from an Irish point of view, but people love them and, to be honest, I think they've earned their place on the plate at this stage."

Sean Smiths perfect Sunday roast

Roast Rib of beef

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

2.5kg beef, bone in

Rapeseed oil

Salt and pepper

2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed

2-3 springs of thyme, chopped

Method

1. Marinate the beef two days before you intend to cook it. Make the marinade by mixing the oil, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and chopped thyme. Rub all over the roast, including the sides, cover up and refrigerate.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 220C. Take the roast out of the fridge an hour before cooking to allow for the meat to cook more evenly.

3. Cook the roast for 1 to 1.5 hours on 220C at first to brown it, lowering the temperature to 160C for an additional 1-2 hours. The key is to measure the internal temperature of the meat. For medium-rare beef, internal temperature should be 54-56C, for medium 58C and well done 63C.

4. Remove the roast from the oven once the temperature has reached the desired degrees. Cover with aluminium foil and leave it rest before cutting.

Onion Sauce

Ingredients

1 litre of veal or beef stock

Knob of butter

2 large onions

2 cloves of garlic

250ml red wine

250ml port

1 tbsp corn flour

Method

1. Peel the onions and garlic and chop into small pieces.

2. Heat the butter in a frying pan, add onion, garlic and cook gently for about 15 minutes  the onion should be caramelised and soft. Add the port and red wine and reduce slightly, add the stock and reduce further into a sauce consistency. Add cornflour if necessary to thicken.

Mashed potatoes

Ingredients

11kg Rooster potatoes

250ml milk

300g butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into quarters. Place in a large pot of cold water (ensuring they are covered up by an inch) and add a teaspoon of salt. Boil over a medium heat until soft.

2. Drain the potatoes, set aside and add butter. Mash the potatoes with a masher or a blender until smooth, adding the milk at this point. Season before serving.

Roasted vegetables

Ingredients

4 large carrots

2 parsnips

 celeriac

 turnip

3 garlic cloves

Fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

Knob of butter

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Method

1. Peel the veg and cut into medium size chunks, approximately the same size.

2. Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in half.

3. Heat the butter and oil in the pan and fry the vegetables for a few minutes, adding thyme at the end. Toss them into a baking tray and season with salt and pepper. Put the tray in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until tender.The more connected and developed our land becomes, the harder it is to find off-radar spots you can have to yourself... if only for a few minutes.

Well, recently, I found one at Tra Mor.

Ireland has several strands named Tra Mor (literally, 'big beach'), but this one - at the base of Donegal's Horn Head peninsula - is in a league of its own.

Driving from nearby Dunfanaghy, watch out for the car park sign pointing left after the lovely little arched bridge at the end of the sea inlet. From there, park up, enter via the gate and start walking through the woods.

It doesn't take long to hit the dunes, and for the wilderness to start.

Lurgabrack sand dunes, formed by tough grasses trapping wind-blown sand from the sea, form the undulating landscape stretching before you. A weathered Duchas sign explains their origins, with illustrations of Greenland White-fronted geese and Cinnabar moths, recognisable by their striking red and black wings.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A horse approaches the camera near Tra Mor, Co Donegal Tra Mor (Tramore), Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal Pol O Conghaile (inset) on Donegal's Tra Mor Pol O Conghaile on Tra Mor, Co Donegal / Facebook

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Whatsapp A horse approaches the camera near Tra Mor, Co Donegal

Pushing on, the paths rise and fall and your calves start to feel the burn. You'll wonder which dune leads to the beach... there are several false dawns.

You can skirt around them too, of course - lots of locals do. Either way, expect the outbound walk to take about half-an-hour, depending on how you dawdle.

And it is worth dawdling. If only to hear the sound change, to feel the wind rise - whispering in the grasses and huffing on the hilltops - to feel the traffic fade, to note the moment when roaring waves first enter your consciousness.

In summer and hot weather, you might be sharing the walk with plenty of others. In winter, or on colder days, you could have it to yourself.

On my outing, I came across a small herd of horses grazing, and got distracted several times by tiny little snails moving in slow-mo between long stems of grass. Small wonders thread a sense of intimacy through the widescreen scale of the place, with Muckish mountain brooding to the south.

Then you push through a final gate, summit a little hump, and boom!

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Whatsapp Pol O Conghaile on Tra Mor, Co Donegal

The beach appears. A two-kilometre curve of sand stopping you in your tracks. Mine were the only footprints on the thing, with manes of steam hissed off rolling waves, and raindrops dribbling off the cliffs.

It's devastatingly beautiful - the fact that there is no direct road access makes it feel like a scene you could have stumbled across centuries ago.

Needless to say, there are no shops or facilities out here, so pack what you need and remember that you need to cover the same distance on the return.

There are dangerous currents and rip tides on Tramore too, so swimming is NOT recommended under any circumstances.

A 'big beach', indeed. In every sense of the phrase.

Need to know

Level: Moderate (buggies won't make it, and though most people of reasonable fitness won't have trouble, the dunes could be a struggle for younger kids).

Distance: 7km (c.10km if you walk the beach). Allow 1.5 to 3 hours.

A bite nearby: Dunfanaghy is the place for pints or cuppas afterwards - try the Starfish Cafe, Muck n' Muffins or Cafe Arnou.

More info: govisitdonegal.com; wildatlanticway.com.

NB: Your Walking Checklist

Safety comes first on a walk, no matter how easy. Check the weather, leave word of where youre going and when youll be back, and pack smart.

A fully charged phone, water and snacks, layers of appropriate clothing and sturdy footwear are essential for these walks. Bring a bag for rubbish, and pop a pair of clean shoes and socks in the boot for afterwards. You can thank us later!

Responsible walkers always respect private property.

Here's a list of Ireland's 30 best spring walks.

Here are seven amazing walks for a little extra adventure.

See irishtrails.ie for more great walks.Premium

Gene Kerrigan Opinion The penny is finally dropping for the Profits before People alliance

There was a time when the Irish had no problem with building stuff. We were so good at it that we sent generations of our offspring to help the British and the Americans build their cities. Now we have a crisis  we havent enough dwellings for our people to lay down their heads in at the end of the day.Smoke from burning incense triggered automatic public address announcements during a recent Mass in St Mel's Cathedral.

"Please evacuate the building," declared an authoritative voice repeatedly but worshippers in Longford stood their ground as incense clouds drifted heavenwards.

St Mel's is probably the safest church building in Ireland since it was restored after a huge fire destroyed the cathedral on Christmas Day, 2009.

The automatic voice announcements were part of a range of sophisticated measures installed in the restored building.

The recent incense-triggered alert was recalled by Seamus Butler, who was chairman of the committee involved in the 30m restoration project.

"It sounded like a voice you would hear on a sat-nav. We've got one of the most modern cathedrals now," he said.

The burning of Notre Dame in Paris last Monday brought back memories of the cathedral fire in Longford.

The fire had spread rapidly through the roof of the Irish cathedral.

"The fire in the roof in Notre Dame did not spread as quickly because there was solid stone underneath the roof timbers," said Mr Butler.

"In St Mel's, the roof was a plaster-lath barrow vault so the fire burned straight through quite quickly."

The restored Longford cathedral has fire breaks installed in the roof to prevent rapid spreading of flames. It also has fire-retardant insulation. The very sensitive fire detection system monitors the entire building.

More than 1m was raised by the public and 28m was paid out by the insurance company. Large increases in fire insurance premiums were imposed afterwards on churches throughout the land.

There are now also tighter controls on the public lighting of candles and there are rules governing the use of straw in Christmas mangers.

The survival of a painting of the holy family in temperatures of 900C in the Longford fire was viewed by some people as a miracle and it receives considerable attention these days from members of the congregation, said Mr Butler, who is also Fianna Fail chairman of the Longford municipal area.

Dr Gary Carville, communications director and archivist for the Catholic diocese of Clogher, said cathedrals had hugely symbolic significance in all dioceses.

The upkeep and maintenance of many large mainly 19th century buildings is an ongoing challenge and the Notre Dame fire will be very much in the minds of those responsible for reviewing safety measures throughout the country, he said.

The Church of Ireland cares for much older church buildings throughout the island, including some of the most venerable of the nation's cathedrals.

A spokeswoman for the Church of Ireland said: "There are a great many very old buildings in the care of local congregations all over Ireland. The conditions of these buildings are regularly assessed. But every old building presents a challenge in terms of the fire issue that arose in Notre Dame.

"The possibility of retro-fitting fire prevention and fire control measures can be costly for groups of parishioners and difficult to implement.

"However, the important thing is for everyone to be conscious of these issues with public safety always to the fore," she said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dail there were no plans for a review of fire systems in Ireland's heritage properties but it "could be a good idea" and he said he would consult with the Ministers of Housing and Local Government and for Heritage.The interim report by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was released last week and it makes for uncomfortable reading. It has found that the burial sites for hundreds of children who died while in the care of the homes is still unknown and has rejected the notion that underground structures where the bodies of children were put after their deaths were ever designed to be burial chambers. It has said these places were likely to have been part of the homes' sewage systems.

It is hard not become desensitised to these things and it was a very different time, but the callous treatment of those children needs to be addressed and explored.

The Catholic Church does little as well as it does ritual. Funerals, weddings, the last rites - even confessions are all junctures heavy with formality. They offer a sense of occasion. They mark life events in a way that ascribes dignity, purpose, closure and comfort to those involved. I remember my own father's funeral - he was the musical director in two churches and was heavily involved in religious music. He was granted a Papal Lordship. Eleven priests concelebrated his funeral Mass. Two choirs sang at it. It was like a glorious concert celebrating his life. It meant a lot to all of us.

Contrast that with these little children's end. They were not part of the inner sanctum of the church. No priests stood on an altar and mourned their passing. No eulogies were spoken. No incense was burnt. No hymns were sung. They were thrown, coffin-less, into a sewer by the self-same church that has a sense of occasion to rival Elton John's. This treatment speaks volumes about how the women and the children within those homes were viewed. They were beneath contempt. Their lives and their deaths meant nothing - to an organisation that fully understood how important the rituals around death are to us all.

Prof Mary Daly, a member of the commission, has said the State was not overseeing adequately what happened in these institutions because of its innate deference to the Church. And of course she is right. However, at the time these things were happening, the State played no real role in the overseeing of end-of-life scenarios. When someone was dying in Ireland, you called the priest ahead of the doctor or the undertaker. And in as much as society did collude in the gross mistreatment of these women and children by allowing them to be incarcerated in places communities knew to be punitive, the Church was the one running the show. The Church was the organisation abandoning every principle it was supposed to uphold because these poor wretches were nobodies. Were outcasts. Were bastards.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said the report into the homes has left him with profound distress - even indignation - and the Church has to change. But, in truth, I don't believe it will. Indignation is a mild-mannered word for the righteous anger we all should feel about how the Church has treated the most vulnerable members of its congregation. The poorest, the weakest, the voiceless. There has been hand-wringing and head-scratching coming from the Church over all of this for years. But change? None.

It has consistently failed to deal adequately with the issues of institutional or individual abuse perpetuated in its name. It has refused to pay redress monies. It has protected abusers, tried to gag victims, refused to divulge documents or information that might help heal those it has hurt - time and time again. It has operated a legal play book that has had one guiding principle - damage limitation. And perhaps most importantly - in terms of them ever actually changing - it has refused to take responsibility for its actions. Only last week retired Pope Benedict XVI blamed clerical sexual abuse on the sexual revolution in the 1960s and on homosexual cliques, utterly failing to understand that consenting adults enjoying a sex life - not laden with the guilt the Catholic Church would like to heap on them - are not the cause of child sexual abuse by paedophiles.

We aren't the ones who groomed the parents, raped the children, moved the perpetrators to pastures new and covered it all up. We aren't the ones who threw babies' bodies into a sewer while wearing golden robes to the funerals of more important parishioners. We may have stood by and watched it. But we aren't the ones who did it. And until the hierarchy of the Church actually acknowledges that, we will never see any change occur.

There are good priests and nuns - of that I have no doubt. But what we have seen in the Catholic Church is not a case of a few bad apples. We have seen systematic, institutionalised rotten hypocrisy - underwritten by legal might and intimidation.

The Church is big on forgiveness - but, as I recall, there can be none without confession and remorse. And they are still failing on both fronts. I am no longer sure why we even look to the Church for its response to these reports on abuse. The emotional ability or maturity to grasp the impact of their reprehensible actions simply isn't there. It's not unlike asking the Mafia what they think about reports into corruption.

A radical reformation would be needed to restore any kind of moral authority to the Church, but because secular society seems to have a stronger moral compass on all of this, it's hard to know what the Church's purpose will ever be again - other than perhaps comfort.

Suffer little children was supposed to be an uplifting teaching of Christ - not church policy. The Church has failed its congregation badly and repeatedly. And it still doesn't really see that.

@ciarakellydoc. Ciara presents 'Lunchtime Live' on Newstalk, weekdays from 12-2pmThey were shots that echoed around the country - plunging Northern Ireland once more into tortured self-analysis after tragically and pointlessly taking the life of a talented young journalist.

Politicians from across the spectrum, north and south, united to condemn the dissident republicans responsible for Lyra McKee's murder during rioting in Derry.

It was heartening to see DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald attend a peace vigil in Creggan. Foster was accompanied by Gregory Campbell, the party's hardline MP for Londonderry East. It was also heartening to hear Foster say: "I want to say your pain is my pain. It doesn't matter whether you are Catholic or a Protestant, whether you identify as Irish or British."

This kind of conciliatory and generous language is something that has been sorely lacking in Northern politics since the power-sharing Executive collapsed in acrimony more than two years ago.

There have been growing signs ever since that dissident republican groups have been feeding off the resultant political vacuum.

In January this year, the New IRA exploded a car bomb outside a Derry courthouse. CCTV footage had caught a group of young people walk past the car minutes earlier. Carnage had been avoided - but only through happenstance.

Former senior policeman Alan McQuillan perceptively warned at the time to expect more of the same around major historic anniversaries. That bombing had occurred just ahead of the 100th anniversary of the meeting of the first Dail Eireann. Lyra's murder happened as police attempted to disrupt dissident activity ahead of Easter Rising commemorations.

The lingering toxicity of paramilitarism continues to hold sway in small areas of Northern Ireland, both loyalist and republican. In January, Ian Ogle, a 45-year-old community worker, was stabbed to death on the street just yards from his home in east Belfast by people connected to the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Just like gangland crime in Dublin, residual paramilitarism has very little impact on most people who would have no reason to visit the deprived areas where it has its strongholds.

Although the Good Friday Agreement has had a transformative effect on the quality of life and infrastructure of Belfast in particular, the benefits have seemingly not trickled down to some areas.

Lyra herself had written about this, particularly the high rate of suicide among young people growing up in the aftermath of the Troubles. People in these areas still live in segregated housing estates and attend segregated schools. Peace walls still divide many working-class districts of Belfast.

The murder of Lyra has probably resonated more because she was a journalist and also seemed to represent an Alternative Ulster. She was also an unintended target - though the gunman clearly had little regard for where he was shooting.

She was gay and had made a short film about the difficulties she had faced coming out in Northern Ireland, where same-sex marriage is still not legal.

She also didn't want to be pigeon-holed as Protestant or Catholic. And, of course, she died following her inquisitive instincts as a journalist.

Earlier last week, I went to a talk at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast where author Anne Enright interviewed fellow Booker Prize winner Anna Burns, who was returning to her home city officially for the first time since winning the accolade last autumn.

Burns shared the same publisher as Lyra and spoke movingly about her at a rally in Belfast on Friday, recalling how her "wee heart was always open".

Burns's book, Milkman, is easily, in my view, the best novel to come out of Northern Ireland. It cleverly dissects through the eyes of its 18-year-old protagonist ''Middle Sister'' the toxic and myopic nature of life growing up in a society twisted by divided loyalties and sectarian violence. She is a girl who doesn't conform in a closed community and has the odd habit of reading while walking. This leads the character to ask a friend questioning her about her habit: "Are you saying it's OK for him to go around with Semtex but not okay for me to read Jane Eyre in public?"

Burns read extracts from the book at the Lyric, including this line, in her surprisingly mellifluous Belfast accent (she left the city in 1985 and moved to England).

The extract got a great laugh. It is a funny line but also hints at a twisted psychology where black can be white and white black.

Sitting in the audience in this upmarket venue, it was easy to think that this was all in the past - something particular to Belfast in the 1970s and 1980s.

The reality, however, is that dissident republicans are just one sometimes deadly aspect of what is still a fractured society. They are feeding on the void that has seen Northern Ireland rudderless at a time when it is facing the uncertainty of Brexit.

The same politicians who stood united to condemn the murder of Lyra McKee are also the same politicians who are hopelessly divided. Divided to such an extent that they can't agree on any aspect of Brexit, the Irish Language Act, prosecutions in relation to killings during the Troubles... and so on and on.

Maybe that will change now - but I wouldn't hold my breath.The national unemployment rate is averaging around 3.8 percent, event though we have lost 6,000 manufacturing jobs. But the highlight is still the job market. Even though we are losing our respect throughout the world and every day there is some drama going on in the White House, President Donald Trumps base is still with him. So, this comment remains true: Its the economy, stupid.Compared with the protesters who brought London to a standstill last week, leading to the arrests of more than 500 people, the campaigners who staged a sit-down in Dublin's O'Connell Street last Friday were reassuringly non-disruptive.

Organisers of the protest by Extinction Rebellion Ireland, the local offshoot of the global campaign aimed at using direct action to force governments to tackle climate change, had said beforehand that they would "remain there until their demands are met".

In the event, they came, said what they had to say, and went home again. If this marks the start of a revolution, it's so far proving to be an admirably well-behaved one, in Ireland at least.

That's still no reason to give the protesters the benefit of the doubt. Escalation remains a likely development when Extinction Rebellion insists its activists have "not just the right but the duty to rebel against tyranny".

The use of the word "tyranny" is something of a giveaway. With most protesters, it's possible to engage in some give and take. That's not the case with the new breed of climate change activists. They want nothing less than the overthrow of capitalism itself. Not even People Before Profit are that ambitious.

The justification for this uncompromising stance is an alarming claim that the world has only 12 years left to avert disaster. After that, the damage done to the planet will be so severe that it can never be fixed, and hundreds of millions around the world will face poverty.

"Are we the last generation?" as a gloomy banner last week asked.

The prosaic answer to that is probably: no, you're not. The world is now more abundant in resources than it's ever been, even as the global population grows. There's more food. Less extreme poverty. The chances are that we're not "headed for extinction" at all.

That's not how apocalyptic thinking works, however. As religion declines, climate change alarmists have become the new prophets of doom, crying aloud in the wilderness, clutching their copies of the most recent UN report on climate change as if it was holy scripture. Predictions of the end of the world have been a feature of human society for millennia.

Rather than challenge the protesters with inconvenient facts, unfortunately, we're meant to treat them with kid gloves because, in their own eyes, they care so deeply about the future of the planet.

It's tempting to say that this contemporary belief in the supremacy of emotion over reason will be the undoing of us all, if that wasn't an example of unduly fatalistic thinking in itself. The theoretical pendulum swings, eternally.

The climate change warriors' demands are not entirely without merit. Convening a citizens' assembly along the lines of the one which made recommendations before the abortion referendum is not a terrible idea. It's also hard to think of a long-term downside to promoting alternative forms of energy, or more vigorous methods of extracting CO2 gases from the air. Ireland is, shamefully, at the bottom of the EU league when it comes to decarbonisation.

But even those who are minded to be sympathetic will eventually turn against climate activists if the disruption they cause becomes too great. What they're calling for, after all, is the disruption of the entire social and economic order, without any clear idea of the long term consequences. At a minimum, it would mean limiting growth and development to such an extent that comforts which we now take for granted would become unattainable luxuries. It would make recent post-crash austerity look as prodigal as the Celtic Tiger era.

Such radical shocks to the economic system in the name of ideology have invariably ended in monstrous want and suffering in the past. Say what you like about capitalism, but no one starves. The same cannot be said for utopian systems which have replaced it.

"This is not the time to be realistic," is how Dr Gail Bradbrook, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, puts the counter argument.

She makes being realistic sound like an unforgivable vice, rather than the basis of all sound policy making. This is the conundrum which climate change protesters refuse to face. They say they want "to tell the truth about the climate and ecological emergency", but gloss over the awkward truth that the overthrow of the capitalist system within the next few years is at best unlikely. It seems incredible that this even needs to be said.

The protesters believe it can be done, but, without wanting to be rude, that's only because they're zealots. The strength of their belief system is no proof that they're right, merely that they lack any doubt about their fallibility - and it's possible to wonder just how fervently they believe their own propaganda anyway. They don't always act as if they think the end is nigh. One Irish activist told reporters recently that he first got interested in climate change after watching former US vice-president Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth, after which he moved to Australia and got involved in campaigning.

Sorry, come again? You were horrified by the damage being done to the planet, but then needlessly flew 15,000km anyway? Then, having done so, you came back a few years later to continue campaigning here in Ireland? It suggests that, psychologically speaking, he didn't really absorb the urgency of the crisis at all.

Put it this way, as a vegan who flies very rarely, I'd happily compare my carbon footprint to his, yet he's touted as the solution to climate change and I'm deemed to be the problem, for not supporting groups like Extinction Rebellion. That makes absolutely no sense.

The inconsistency of climate change protesters who say one thing and do another was brought home last week by actress Emma Thompson who took part in the protests in London one day after flying back from LA, where she'd been celebrating her 60th birthday.

Why do we continue to listen to a word that these ludicrous, pampered celebrities say? They're not even bothering to hide their insincerity any more.

Telling the truth should include exposing that hypocrisy, because there's no other word for it, and it's now so prevalent among climate change protesters as to qualify as an integral feature of the movement. Young people in particular piously bleat about the damage the older generation is doing to the planet while continuing to demand that their parents provide them with every home comfort.

Last month, schoolchildren even went on strike to demand that something be done about climate change, before presumably ringing up their parents for a lift home at the end of the protest. Indulging their refusal to do some joined up thinking simply encourages them to keep acting up. In a world in which it's all too easy to give in to human weakness, it should be incumbent upon the despised older generation to hold these young idealists to their ideals.

So no more lifts to school or to go see friends. Walk instead.

Let's turn down the central heating, too. It's wasteful to have a warm house when the world is dying. No more limitless internet either. Ration it instead. There's a weird perception out there that the internet is a clean technology. It's not. In 2009, Harvard physicist Alex Wissner-Gross calculated that each second someone is online generates 20mg of CO2. For more complex web pages, for example with pictures or video, like the Extinction Rebellion website, it can rise to 300mg. The internet alone is responsible for 2pc of all carbon emissions, and that's expected to rise to 3pc by 2020. It's not granny who's surfing the web 24/7 for videos on YouTube. Charging all those smartphones and tablets further gobbles up precious electricity.

If capitalism is to fall as a necessary first step towards an ecological nirvana, then it obviously means no more foreign holidays as well. The next time the school sends home invitations to a trip abroad, or a trip anywhere, parents should refuse to pay for it as a matter of environmental principle.

As for eating meat and dairy, the planetary impact of food and agriculture is easily comparable to the transport industry. That means no more McDonald's, and no more skinny lattes from Starbucks. If they're serious about the steps needed to save the planet, young people ought to be glad to make these sacrifices. It won't make the slightest difference to global emissions, but it would at least be a testament to the strength of their convictions.

Without seeing evidence of that, they should expect to be mocked as spoiled attention seekers, rather than concerned citizens who genuinely believe the world is going to end imminently.As debate rages in France over how to rebuild Notre Dame, and the world's greatest architects are called upon to come up with designs to replace its spire, their fiercest critic would have been the man who saved the cathedral and turned it into a global landmark - Victor Hugo.

That, at least, is the view of the hallowed French writer's great-great-grandson.

Jean Baptiste Hugo, 66, is a passionate connoisseur of his illustrious forebear, whose 1831 novel Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) was set in the city's Gothic masterpiece. He has painstakingly gathered archives of the family.

"He considered architecture to be the great book of humanity before printing was invented with Gutenberg," said Mr Hugo, a photographer whose mother was British and father, Jean, was a writer and friend to artists including Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. "He disagreed with the way a lot of architects proceeded with the restoration, feeling they didn't do justice to the original concept," he said.

Last week, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, issued a call to the world's leading architects to come up with designs in the wake of the devastating fire, and pledged to rebuild the cathedral in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

His prime minister, Edouard Philippe suggested it could be a copy or "endow Notre Dame cathedral with a new spire adapted to the techniques and the challenges of our era".

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In an online survey for Le Figaro, the French daily newspaper, more than 70 per cent of the 35,000 people who responded said they opposed a contemporary design.

The Hugo family appeared as split as the rest of France over the matter.

"It's difficult to know what Victor would have gone for," said Jean Baptiste Hugo. "He was obviously keen to respect the origins but on the other hand, he found a lot of poetic inspiration in ruins."

Pierre Hugo, 71, the oldest great-great-grandchild, said it was a tough call. "Victor Hugo was very modern. He transformed his own furniture, which they found when they restored Hauteville House."

Hauteville House in Guernsey was where Victor Hugo lived in exile from Napoleon III from 1855 to 1870. The recently restored house was reopened earlier this month. "What is in no doubt is that he would have opted for the most symbolic gesture, for France and for Europe. Precisely how, you'll have to ask the architects," said Pierre Hugo, a goldsmith and jewellery designer.

His sister, Marie, an artist, was more categorical. "I think that we should respect what was destroyed. I don't think we have the right to touch what was done. I think that it should remain the closest to what he did," she said.

Hugo wrote his 1831 novel to draw attention to the sorry state of the cathedral, disfigured by modern additions and damaged by zealots of the French Revolution. Appalled at the prospect of its defacement or demolition, he wrote in 1829: "While who knows what bastard edifices are being constructed at great cost... other admirable and original structures are falling without anyone caring to be informed."

His call to arms worked, and a competition held in 1844 to renovate the cathedral was won by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and the young Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, a Gothic revivalist, who built the spire that collapsed in flames on Monday.

Beyond the reconstruction debate, Pierre Hugo was angry that restoration work had not been conducted sooner. "Unfortunately, it took a catastrophe for all these funds to arrive overnight," he said.

Donations were, by the weekend, at the billion-euro mark.

"We had been sounding the red alert for years," said Pierre Hugo. "Now there is far, far more work to be done."

As for the global outpouring of mourning after the fire, Jean Baptiste Hugo said it would have warmed his great-great-grandfather's heart.

"We have lost the sense of the sacred, I think. Victor Hugo had a very deep connection to the universe, to nature and saw the divine everywhere and we have to reconnect to that."At 6.30 last Friday morning I opened the email from Ann Travers with the subject "Shocking news". It turned out I was one of those she was telling about Lyra's murder.

I was grateful Ann had spared me from hearing it from a news broadcast. We could, at least, exchange distressed messages about the awfulness of it, particularly because Lyra had been so happy with her new life in Derry with Sara, to whom she was planning to propose. Ann ended her second email with: "I just keep waiting to hear her voice saying 'Travers, I'm not dead but when I am I'll haunt you!' And that mad laugh of hers."

And there, in a few lines, Ann captured so much of Lyra's blithe spirit. Although she was driven by her deeply serious commitment to using her journalism and her life to help the underdog, she loved to have a good time and laugh a lot.

It was Lyra who brought Ann and me together. She couldn't bear to miss an opportunity to combine people she loved, knew we had a shared interest in helping victims of terrorism and also thought we'd get on. Ann - whose sister Mary was murdered by the IRA as they attempted to kill their father, Tom, a Catholic magistrate - has been for years a doughty campaigner for victims (most recently with SEFF, the highly effective South East Fermanagh Foundation) and - particularly through my years of involvement with some of the bereaved of the 1998 Omagh bombing - I've had a particular concern for the ordinary people whose tragedies get forgotten about.

Lyra was pint-sized. When she rang me - in response to that distinctive voice saying "Hello, Lovely" - I would respond with "Hello, Midget". But the tiny body contained a formidable mind, a strong will and a compelling personality. Ann was persuaded to travel to London to meet me, with Lyra alongside gripping the arms of her seat because she was at that time so terrified of flying. I remember a very happy afternoon outside my favourite cafe eating, drinking and mostly laughing as Ann and I began a friendship and an alliance. I remember, in turn, being persuaded to fly to an Irish Blogs Awards event in, I think, Kilkenny, where the three had serious and silly conversations.

I would have laughed with Lyra, next time we talked, over her second last tweet: "Slimming World is like going to confession. This week, I confessed to Burger King, a brownie, a white hot chocolate, a large bucket of popcorn, a large Coke, and a bag of Maltesers. My poor SW instructor was stunned into silence. Amazing, I put only half a pound on this week."

However, the terrible reality Ann and I and so many others have faced since then, was summed up in her last tweet, an hour later: "Derry tonight. Absolute madness."

When people die tragically, their qualities and importance are often exaggerated in the aftermath, but there isn't any need to do that with Lyra. She was a social media devotee, so I immediately wrote a Facebook post which was a simple statement of what I saw as the truth. "Lyra McKee and I were long-time friends. She recognised no barriers to friendship except bigotry & badness. Her commitment & talent were about to bring her undreamt of success as a writer & she was in a loving relationship. What a sickening waste of a lovely, gifted human being!"

There, and on Twitter, where I posted a shorter message, the response was huge and almost all positive. Apart from the obvious tragedy of this promising young life being extinguished in a second by a criminal ideologue, there were the responses from so many lives she touched.

Lyra's life had not been easy. She grew up on a tough, nationalist estate, was bullied at school and was horrified by her sexual inclinations. In a letter she wrote to her 14-year-old self, 10 years on, which begins "Kid, You're going to be OK," she commiserated with her: "You're sitting in school. The other kids are making fun of you. You told the wrong person you had a crush and soon they all knew your secret. It's horrible. They make your life hell. They laugh at you, whisper about you and call you names. It's not nice. And you can't ask an adult for help because if you did that, it had to tell them the truth and you can't do that."

She found friends when she went to the local technical college, and had a key moment in her development when her friend Gavyn, who knew her secret, became a Christian and she feared he would reject her.

Instead, he sent a text saying: "This changes nothing. You'll always be my friend." "Accept him for what he is," she advised young Lyra, "as he has accepted you."

Lyra's wisdom was also a reflection of that of her mother - whose devoted carer she has been for years.

She tells her young self that there will be the moment just before her 21st birthday when - guilt-ridden - she will feel driven to confess: "You can't get the words out so she says it: 'Are you gay?' And you will say, 'Yes mummy. I'm so sorry.'" And instead of getting mad, she will reply "Thank God you're not pregnant," and will ask how Lyra would think that anything would make her love her little girl any less.

And thus Lyra was helped to become someone who was a powerful force for uniting people, as well as standing up for underdogs.

In a TED talk she did in 2017, she spoke of how anti-gay bigotry should be countered not by howling insults about homophobia, but by initiating genuine conversations.

And that was how she applied herself to combating bigotry, tribalism and the herd mentality.

She made friends on a spectrum from Sinn Fein to the Orange Order. With all of us, she accentuated the positive.

But always, there was the intense curiosity about unsolved mysteries which led her initially to taking on as her first project an investigation into who in 1981 had murdered the unionist MP Reverend Robert Bradford. Such was her persuasiveness that I found it easy to help her crowdfund the time necessary to write the book.

After some years as a freelance journalist, as she spread her wings and began to develop an international reputation as an investigative journalist, she would focus her attention on unremembered victims of the Troubles and terrible legacies left decades on in, for instance, suicide levels.

It was an astonishing tribute to her remarkable talent that Faber and Faber gave her a two-book contract and were enthusing about the story of two forgotten boys who had vanished without trace.

The New IRA, perpetrators of this terrible murder, are defending themselves by claiming it was an accident.

That is what the Provisional IRA said about the killing of Mary Travers.THE green plastic bottle, slightly crushed but otherwise intact, must have looked out of place. It lay on the sediment on top of an underground chamber that contained the bones of dead children.

The site investigators regarded it as being of "significant evidential value" so they recovered it for analysis, first ensuring that doing so wouldn't interfere with the human remains within the chamber. The label read: "Castrol GTX high-performance motor oil, contents 500ml, Castrol (Ireland) Ltd," a product, they discovered, not launched on the British or Irish market in 1968.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby homes, which produced its fifth report last week, regarded Castrol bottle as "proof" that "this particular chamber at least" had been accessible after 1968.

By that time, the now-notorious mother-and-baby home in Tuam, Co Galway, was shut down. The Bon Secours Sisters, who ran it, had moved out of the old council-owned workhouse building and were living in the town and Galway County Council planned a new housing estate on the site.

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Whatsapp Schoolchildren visit a shrine in Tuam erected in memory of the children buried there. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

The nuns left behind, unrecorded and forgotten, a large number of children interred in an underground structure that was built within a decommissioned sewage tank. The structure was divided into 20 chambers, possibly designed to contain waste water or sewage and there was evidence that at some stage sewage had filtered through. Each chamber had a concrete lid and a narrow opening. Burying the infants required lifting the heavy lid. The Commission thought it was "highly unlikely" that the nuns did the burial but would have instructed others.

The remains of most children decomposed in the chambers, but other remains may have been placed there. Experts saw the cranium of a toddler, resting on surface sediment, suggesting it had been moved there in recent decades, possibly thrown.

The Castrol GTX bottle wasn't the only piece of rubbish found in the debris: "non-domestic waste" was also within the chambers.

A list of "artefacts" observed included a century-old blue enamelled children's cup displaying the nursery rhyme, 'Mary had a little lamb' and a child's blue shoe. It also lists Bovril jars, a Club Orange can and a Southalls sanitary towels packet with the Guaranteed Irish symbol first introduced in 1974.

It was "highly likely" that the chambers were "accessed" when the Tuam Road housing estate was being built in the 1970s, the Commission said. Not only were infants and children buried in receptacles designed to receive sewage, but their final resting place attracted an accumulation of rubbish disposed by the living overhead.

Its findings on burial practices at mother and baby homes represent another secret from the vaults of Ireland's cruel past.

In addition to its findings on Tuam, the report found that more than 900 children from Bessborough Mother and Baby home in Cork died, but the Commission could only find graves for 64. There are no burial records. The religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart Sisters of Jesus and Mary, don't know where the children are.

Two other institutions, run by the Congregation of the Sacred Heart Sisters, were also investigated by the Commission. At Castlepollard, 220 children died but appear to have received proper burials in its graveyard on site. Investigations are ongoing at the third Sacred Heart institution, Sean Ross, where there is a designated children's burial ground.

It found no evidence to support a suggestion that the deaths of children had been falsified so that they could be "sold" in America.

What kicks this scandal from the last century to the present is the Commission's suggestion that information about the burial practices of children has been withheld and that people are not coming forward.

The Bon Secours order has claimed to have no knowledge of the burial practices and Galway Council said it was not aware that burials of the nature discovered by the Commission's investigation had taken place there. Along with the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, all insist they are cooperating.

Yet the Commission said they and the people of Tuam "must" know more.

In the 1970s, Galway County Council mapped the burial ground in three drawings for the housing estate it planned to build on the site. The burial site was dropped in a fourth and final drawing dated 1979.

Galway County Council members - which means councillors - "must have known" something about the burials, the report says. The health board held its meetings there and council employees were in and out repairing and possibly maintaining the grounds. It was the local authority's responsibility to keep burial records.

The Bon Secours Sisters "must" have known something. They moved out of the old home in 1961, but they remained living and working in Tuam until 18 years ago and "must" have been aware of the 1970s building works.

The Sisters said they had no files and had no knowledge of the practices. There was only one nun alive who had served in the Home for a few months, and she was unable to assist. They are "shocked and devastated" by what has come to light. "It is the view of the Sisters that the children who died at St Mary's deserved a proper burial and this did not happen. For this, we express our deep sorrow and apologise unreservedly."

The Bon Secours Sisters commissioned its own archaeological review of the site, after reading a draft of the Commission's, the effect of which was to suggest that the structure might have been a designated burial chamber. The Commission was unequivocal: This was not a purpose-built burial vault: "It did not provide for the dignified interment of human remains."

The Congregation of the Sacred Heart Sisters of Jesus and Mary provided an affidavit that was speculative, inaccurate and misleading. They also claimed to have saved the State some money. They told the Commission that the infants buried at Sean Ross and Castlepollard "were laid to rest without any cost accruing to the coffers of the local or central government". This was wrong; the Commission found bills for burials and a bill for coffins.

A spokesman for the Minister for Children Katherine Zappone is "strongly of the view that the church has a duty to contribute to the cost of the works that will take place on the site in Tuam".

She will collect 2.5m from the Bon Secours Sisters in the coming weeks - a donation the Minister suggested they make last year. Sources said the nuns will be required to agree in writing that the money is not a "settlement" relinquishing it from liability, which leaves it open for the State to pursue the order for more. The Sacred Heart sisters are also likely to be asked for a contribution in the future.

The Minister is also understood to have raised the issue of "misleading" information being supplied to the Commission, according to sources. Although it was unlikely to be an offence, the Government was told that the issue could be raised once the Commission's final report is published.

As with other scandals involving women and children, this one reaches into the State's most powerful and privileged institutions. Universities are being forced to delve into their own dark pasts, with the "distasteful" disclosure that the remains of more than 950 "deserted" and "illegitimate" children were dispatched for anatomical research to University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons between 1920 and 1977.

The Anatomical Committee of the Irish Medical Schools - which represents the anatomy departments of all Irish medical schools - said it has been dealing with this "issue" since 2011, when a family member contacted one of the schools about a relative.

"On learning of the circumstances of the deceased infant, all Anatomy Departments carried out detailed inspections of all records held concerning bodies received."

It is cooperating fully with the Commission and is trying "to the utmost of our ability to assist families who have requested information", it said in a statement to the Sunday Independent.

Survivors of Tuam and their relatives want nothing less than full inquests into the deaths of all those who died. Others have called for criminal investigations. The Minister for Justice Charles Flanagan will be forwarding the report to gardai for examination.

For now, the Commission says its emphasis is on tracing the missing bodies, reclaiming the children who died.If mobile phones had existed during the Troubles, there would now be a hoard of shocking footage similar to that sent from the scene of a fatal shooting in Derry late at night on Easter Thursday.

Watching it that evening before going to bed, knowing a 29-year-old woman had died as a result of that act of recklessness, was appalling enough. Waking on Friday morning to discover the woman who died was journalist and author Lyra McKee only added to the incredulity.

Scratching about to find some crumbs of comfort, it is tempting to hope that, if any good should come from her death, it may be to staunch the rise of sympathy for dissident republicans in certain disaffected communities in Northern Ireland. Friday's vigil at the site of the shooting was a touching testament to the war-weariness of the community, and the presence of DUP leader Arlene Foster was itself symbolically potent.

History, unfortunately, suggests any such setback for fanatics is only ever temporary. People forget. They get drawn back in. They can easily be manipulated into anger again at whatever scapegoats the militants conspire to demonise.

Republican dissidents' mouthpieces in Saoradh have already issued a statement declaring Lyra was "killed accidentally", as if the death of innocent bystanders is not an entirely predictable outcome of firing guns in a crowded residential area. That battle to muddy the waters is an integral part of the traditional blame game, too.

Lyra's death is so pointless that it is hard to even muster the energy to mine political meaning from it, though that won't stop the usual suspects from trying. Within hours, some were already saying her death should act as a warning against Brexit. Others pointed a finger at the continuing stalemate at Stormont, which shows no sign of ending two years after former deputy first minister Martin McGuinness collapsed the power-sharing executive.

Local politicians on all sides deserve every criticism for the self-indulgence which has prevented them from reaching an agreement to restore normal business at Stormont; political uncertainty inevitably fuels the fringes. Vacuums will be filled. But something feels off about the eagerness to draw hasty, simplistic lessons from what just happened in Derry.

For one thing, it risks handing dissidents a ready-made list of excuses. Lyra did not die because of what's happening in Stormont, Westminster, Dublin or Brussels. She died because of a self-pitying ideological rage with deep roots in Irish history which, years on from the Belfast Agreement, is still being too frequently indulged rather than challenged.

What has changed in the past few years during which dissident republicanism has enjoyed a measurable - though it's important to stress still marginal - renaissance? One thing is that talk of a united Ireland has become rife.

Border poll chatter has been stimulated by Brexit, but it was still a calculated political decision to up the ante in that way, and it wasn't only republicans who reintroduced this dangerous tone, but mainstream, moderate voices. They might have been confident of keeping the Northern beast chained up, but historically it's always been a risky strategy. In tandem, anti-Britishness has been normalised to an alarming extent. How could this ever have ended well?

The message that absolutely must go out from this latest atrocity is to stop romanticising the past.

Public discourse should never have been allowed to degenerate to the point where those who supported the IRA campaign are now free to whitewash the reality of it, seducing a new generation into seeing the Troubles as a noble struggle for freedom.

If nothing else, the mobile phone footage has exposed violence anew as a grotesquerie. It's not glorious. It's sordid, ugly, and the men who killed Lyra are contemptible figures, as were those who came before them.

Only two years ago, Sinn Fein's deputy leader, Michelle O'Neill, said of a group of IRA members shot dead after peppering a police station with machine-gun fire that they were "great lads" who acted "in defence of their community and of their country".

That is the language which dissident spokespersons now parrot. When Saoradh says it warned that "oppression would inevitably be met with resistance" and "the blame... lies squarely at the feet of the British Crown Forces", it's the same as O'Neill saying of those "four great lads" that "they never went looking for war, but it came to them". Such saccharine lies need to be confronted more vigorously.

To be scrupulously fair, Sinn Fein has taken a stand against republican dissidents in Northern Ireland, most recently when threats forced the cancellation of a youth event in Derry's Bogside attended by the PSNI. But it would be equally dishonest not to admit the party's sudden distaste for violence is hard to take at face value.

There's a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" element to all this, it's true. But that scepticism is based on genuine bafflement as to how they can reconcile condemning violence now with celebrating it in retrospect.

In the very city where Lyra was shot dead last week, Martin McGuinness was laid to rest under a headstone boasting of his role as an Oglach (Volunteer). It's duplicitous to expect young people in Northern Ireland to understand the sheer horror of political violence when that is the example they have been set by the mainstream republican movement. Why should the hood who shot dead Lyra not dream that he might one day be hailed as a patriotic hero, too?

That will be dismissed by the usual suspects as point- scoring, but how to commemorate the past without condoning terrorism is still the challenge for republicanism, as it has been since the Belfast Agreement was signed 21 years ago to the day of this newest murder, and they are no closer to solving it than they ever were.

Dissidents thrive in the space created by that disreputable ambivalence, and politicians of all hues need to be mindful not to let their frustration over Brexit make it bigger than it needs to be.TV Personality Kim Kardashian attends as The Mark Hotel celebrates the 2018 Met Gala at The Mark Hotel on May 7, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images for The Mark Hotel)

It will always be easy to dismiss Kim Kardashian.

Her faults are many, and documented, but her dedication to self-improvement is just as chronicled. Earlier this month, Kim landed her first solo American Vogue cover and the response was a far cry from the uproar when she first appeared in 2014 with husband Kanye West ahead of their wedding. At the time, it prompted throngs of loyal readers to claim they would be unsubscribing (although theres little evidence to support they followed through with their statements) and the backlash was furious. Shes only famous for a sex tape is the immediate - and obvious - reaction to any of her successes.

Except Kim has moved on from that sex tape - released in 2003 under somewhat spurious means with rapper ex-boyfriend Ray-J - as have her millions of fans around the world, some of whom are too young to even remember that was her initial platform to fame. This time around, she was visibly thrilled to finally be accepted into the fashion industry and there was no Kanye to legitimise her appearance. In 2019, there is no logical reason why Kim Kardashian could not carry a Vogue cover on her own. By now, the the voices shouting she didnt deserve it back then had been reduced to a few whispers.

What did, however, gain the most attention, was her admission that she plans on becoming a lawyer and taking the California state bar exam in 2022. For those outside the Kardashian news narrative, this was an announcement straight from left field, but for followers, it wasnt nearly as shocking.

The criticism once again came in its many forms, specifically because Kim never finished college, which is a legitimate argument. In a time of increasing economic divide in the US, its easy to dismiss her newfound ambitions as being reflective of her wealth and privilege. But she is simply taking advantage of a precedent in her state which allows those from a non-traditional educational background to pursue law.

Its a backdoor option which requires a minimum number of college credits (60 and Kim has 75) and an apprenticeship with a willing law firm for which you need to work and study at least 18 hours per week. Each month, you are required to take progress tests in multiple choice and written format and further reports sent to the California State Bar twice per year. First year law students, like Kim, will take the baby bar, a one-day test which, again, monitors your progress for the real thing in three years time.

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With her endless means and the support of a large family and full-time staff, it's hard to feel sympathy for her social life, but access to significant resources shouldnt deter someone from challenging themselves, especially with the greater good in mind. Because Kims established desire to help a flawed American justice system with particular emphasis on prison reform is rooted in altruism.

Last year, she first brought attention to her new focus with the case of Alice Johnson, who was given a life sentence for a non-violent drug offense 21 years ago before she was given clemency by US President Donald Trump soon after his meeting with Kardashian at the White House. She wasnt solely responsible for Johnson's ong-campaigned-for release, but to deny her crucial influence in the decision-making process would be revising history.

Her levels of self-awareness are almost aspirational, a characteristic shes displayed time and time again during her time in public life and on Monday, she addressed the critique around her new educational pursuits.

Ive seen some comments from people who are saying its my privilege or my money that got me here, but thats not the case. One person actually said I should stay in my lane. I want people to understand that there is nothing that should limit your pursuit of your dreams, and the accomplishment of new goals. You can create your own lanes, just as I am. The state bar doesnt care who you are, she wrote on Instagram last night alongside a picture of her studying alongside mentors Jessica Jackson and Erin Haney.

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My weekends are spent away from my kids while I read and study. I work all day, put my kids to bed and spend my nights studying, she added, There are times I feel overwhelmed and when I feel like I cant do it but I get the pep talks I need from the people around me supporting me. I changed my number last year and disconnected from everyone because I have made this strict commitment to follow a dream of mine - Its never too late to follow your dreams.

Throughout the course of her studies, she is also indirectly highlighting an alternative, less expensive route to graduate level education in her state, which would normally require an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of four years, thus alienating a huge percentage of the population; the portion of the population she has fixed her gaze on helping.

Not bad for a woman who society says we should only know because of a sex tape she made with an ex-boyfriend when she was 22.

Comparatively, modern celebrities do little beyond the collective virtue signalling on social media when tragedy or injustice strikes. Women in Hollywood like Olivia Wilde,Emma Watson, Olivia Munn and Jessica Chastain are also putting their money where their mouth is, using their international celebrity to further causes close to their hearts: through funding Times Up, a legal defense fund which represents women in sexual harassment and assault cases or mobilising their passion for equality at the Womens Marches in Washington DC.

But there is a marked difference between those womens fans and Kims. Kims fanbase is largely comprised of a younger demographic - arguably a more politically active generation - and by highlighting the opportunities to better oneself at any age, despite the critics, she is also changing their perception of themselves.

Its also worth remembering that her late father was an extremely successful attorney, so she has known its impact, potential and the grit required to succeed, from an early age. Is it so bad she wants to leave her children a legacy more than wealth earned from her looks?

Expand Close Kim Kardashian and Alice Johnson on the Today show / Facebook

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There are still a number of legitimate causes to criticise the Kardashians over - their warped perception of body image, their promotion of appetite suppressing lollipops, their penchant for cultural appropriation, the way they flaunt their wealth etc - but to vilify a woman seeking further education as an adult contradicts what we have been asking of celebrities for so long.

Kim Kardashian is not the face of feminism or equality, but if we are constantly searching for genuine influencers - ones with wealth and fame to use their resources as a force for good - why are we ignoring the genuine intentions of one of the most famous women in the world because some people don't like how she first became famous?B*Witched in 1999 | Inset: Bride Lyndsey Pardoe who ended up with casts on both legs after getting "over excited" while Irish dancing to C'est la vie at her wedding

While the 90s hit C'est la Vie may have gone down a treat a B*Witched star Keavy Lynch's wedding last year, it seems not every bride is as au fait with how to cut a rug to the iconic tune!

When newlywed Lyndsey Pardoe took to the dancefloor on her big day to do a little jig to the Irish girlband's biggest hit, things took an 'excitable' turn resulting in the bride ending up in to A&E after injuring both her ankles.

A fellow patient at the Birmingham hospital tweeted about meeting the bride, after overhearing her explaining how "she got a bit too overexcited Irish dancing to Cest la Vie" at her wedding on Saturday.

My sister everybody.A very northfield wedding party...... pic.twitter.com/gMAaOArVJm  LP (@lp1875zw) August 20, 2018

"If youre gonna have a reason to be in A&E, that should always be it," the patient wrote.

After spotting the tweet, the bride's sister Lee shared a snap of her sibling still smiling as she showed off casts on both legs and the crutches she's been left to lean on after what Lee described as "a very Northfield wedding".

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Members of the band responsible for the catchy tune spotted the snap and offered their personal apologies to the injured bride - and to those who have also succumbed to injury an overzealous attempt at a hornpipe.

"Oh no... not another person," wrote band member Sinead O'Carroll. "Cest La Vie has a lot to answer for... so many injuries... so sorry to hear this, hope you have a speedy recovery."

"Oh my goodness, poor woman" Keavy Lynch wrote, looking to contact the bride to apologise personally.

Video of the Day

"Sorry, happy wedding!" Keavy's sister Edele said.

While the band mates were clearly apologetic over the hurt their hit had caused, others were looking for an invite to the bride's next party.

"Man the weddings Ive been to werent even half as fun. Tell your sister to get to have another wedding party and invite me," one enthusiastic partier tweeted, while another simple said "She's a damn hero sir."

"I always attempt the jig to C'est la vie too!" another eager fan confessed.

Gallery: Exclusive! B*Witched star Keavy Lynch ties the knotPriests are seen inside the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka Liyanawatte

Priests walk into the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around a church after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Five Britons are among more than 200 people killed in a series of bombings which ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said three Britons and two holding joint US and British nationalities were killed.

James Dauris, the UK's High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, visited injured Britons in hospital and condemned the "senseless attack".

Six nearly simultaneous explosions at churches and hotels killed scores of people in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.

Hours later, there were further explosions in Dehiwala and Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.

The authorities said 207 were killed and 450 injured in the attacks, most of which were being blamed on suspected suicide bombers.

No one has taken responsibility for the killings, but officials say seven suspects have been arrested.

The Easter attacks are the worst bloodshed Sri Lanka has seen since its brutal civil war ended a decade ago.

Mr Dauris said: "I've been speaking this afternoon with Brits in hospital who have been affected by today's senseless attacks.

"My team's and my thoughts go out to all those people who are suffering as a result of the deplorable violence Sri Lanka has witnessed this Easter Sunday."

Expand Close Priests are seen inside the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte / Facebook

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Whatsapp Priests are seen inside the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Early in the afternoon, police reported there had been two more explosions. One was at a hotel near the national zoo in the Dehiwela area near Colombo.

A witness told local TV he saw some body parts, including a severed head, lying on the ground near the hotel.

The other explosion was in a house in Colombo, authorities said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney condemned the attacks and said that Ireland stands with those affected.

"I am shocked at the appalling attacks on innocent civilians this morning in Sri Lanka. No political or other cause can justify or excuse the bombing of people at worship or simply going about their daily lives.

"I express my sympathy to the families of those who have been killed and my support to those who have been injured," the Tanaiste said.

"On behalf of the government of Ireland I also express our solidarity with the people and government of Sri Lanka at this tremendously difficult time.

"Ireland strongly supports everyone's freedom of religion and belief.

"Attacks such as those in Sri Lanka today and in Christchurch and elsewhere are a challenge to us all to do everything that we can to defend that right. Places of worship must be places of peace, free from fear."

Christian groups say they have faced increasing intimidation from some extremist Buddhist monks in recent years. And last year, there were clashes between the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community and minority Muslims, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam.

Pope Francis condemned attacks as "such cruel violence" and said he was close to the Christian community, hit while celebrating Easter.

"I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka," Pope Francis told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square to hear his Easter Sunday "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message.

"I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence," said Francis, who visited Sri Lanka in 2015.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong," he said in a Tweet.

"Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

President Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered the police special task force and military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda.

The military had been deployed, according to a military spokesman, and security stepped up at Colombo's international airport.

One of the explosions was at St. Anthony's Shrine, a Catholic Church in Kochcikade, Colombo, a tourist landmark.

St. Sebastian's posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said they are ready to provide consular assistance.

A DFA spokeswoman said: "The Department is aware of the situation in Sri Lanka and we are monitoring the situation closely.

"If you have concerns for Irish citizens in the region please contact the Department on 01 408 2000."

The Irish Embassy in India Tweeted: "The Embassy is aware of reports of explosions at numerous locations in #SriLanka this morning- if you require consular assistance please call Embassy New Delhi at +911149403200 #SriLankaBlasts @dfatravelwise

"You can also call our Honorary Consulate in Colombo on +94 (11) 258 7895 and the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin on +35314082000."

President Michael D Higgins said that people's freedom to worship must be respected.

He said: "As President of Ireland I am sure that people in Ireland will have heard with great concern of the heavy loss of life that has happened at places of worship in Sri Lanka, at a time of religious significance.

"The right to the freedom of worship is a fundamental right.

"To the families of those who died and those who have been injured I send the sympathies and solidarity of the people of Ireland."

Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, said that today's attacks are a reminder of people being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

He said: "While many of us have come to take for granted the voice of peace at Christmas and the voice of hope at Easter, we are reminded starkly and tragically today that this is not the case for Christians in many parts of the world.

"These Christians are our sisters and brothers. We stand in solidarity with them and they with us. Together we are one family of the resurrection. In so many countries worldwide our fellow-Christians find themselves a minority that is targeted and persecuted.

"The news this morning of bomb blasts at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka comes to us at a time we have come to refer to as The Easter Weekend. There is no tomorrow, no Bank Holiday Monday, for those killed in the multiple bomb blasts in Sri Lanka. There is nothing but devastation and fear and injury for these people, these communities and for Sri Lankan society."

British Prime Minister Theresa May called the tragic attacks "appalling."

Mrs May noted: "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear."

European Council President Donald Tusk said: "A tragic Easter in Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the families of those killed in the attacks on churches and hotels; and those still fighting for their lives."

Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), which represents more than 200 churches and other Christian organisations.

This year, the NCEASL recorded 26 such incidents, including one in which Buddhist monks allegedly attempted to disrupt a Sunday worship service, with the last one reported on March 25.

Out of Sri Lanka's total population of around 22 million, 70 percent are Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim and 7.6 percent Christian, according to the country's 2012 census.

In its 2018 report on Sri Lanka's human rights, the U.S. State Department noted that some Christian groups and churches reported they had been pressured to end worship meetings after authorities classified them as "unauthorized gatherings".

The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship, citing unidentified sources.

Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, told local TV that the public should remain calm and asked authorities to bring those responsible for the attacks before the law. He also requested the public donate blood for the injured.

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam announced that all schools would be closed on Monday and Tuesday.

The heads of major governments condemned the attacks. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "there is no place for such barbarism in our region". Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in a tweet that "this is an assault on all of humanity.

Britons in Sri Lanka who need help were urged to call the High Commission in Colombo on +94 11 5390639, while people in the UK worried about friends or family should call the Foreign Office on 020 7008 1500.As another year marked by the global pandemic comes to an end, our photojournalists remain challenged  and, frequently, awed - by the constant state of change.



We documented our ever-evolving world in ways few photo staffs could as we all worked to regain normalcy amid COVID-19s seemingly unbreakable hold on our communities. We showed the relieved faces of people receiving a coveted vaccine, telling the story of a scientific breakthrough with images of those benefitting from it. We covered new workplace policies, school protocols and policing practices. We traveled half-way across the world to an Olympics where the athletes couldnt hug each other, masked medalists step atop the podium and no one came to watch.



The Chicago Tribune faced its own series of changes, too. We have new owners. New bosses. Endured another move. Gained new talented journalists and lost many others from the newsroom ranks. The one constant has been our dedication to providing photography on a daily basis that is relevant to the communities we cover: The joy of picnicking at the lakefront on a summer afternoon, the pain of children, police officers and neighbors all falling victims to violent crime. Documenting whos in and whos out in the political landscape, escaping to your favorite cultural event or sports competition.



We hope this installment of the annual Photos of the Year project reminds us of the moments that shaped our lives and the thoughtful way we portray them. Its also a platform for acknowledging the talent and dedication of Tribune photographers, and all photojournalists, who make change a way of life.



The Chicago Tribune staff photographers for 2021: Brian Cassella, Erin Hooley, Terrence Antonio James, Vashon Jordan Jr., John J. Kim, Youngrae Kim, Jose M. Osorio, Antonio Perez, Armando L. Sanchez, Chris Sweda, Abel Uribe, E. Jason Wambsgans, Stacey Wescott and Raquel Zaldivar.



Tribune visual editors: Mark Hume, Andrew Johnston, Marianne Mather, Steve Rosenberg and Peter Tsai.

- Todd Panagopoulos, Director of Content/VisualsPriests are seen inside the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka Liyanawatte

Priests walk into the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

IRISH tourists in Sri Lanka have been advised to stay indoors where possible after more than 200 people were killed in a series of bombings which ripped through churches and luxury hotels.

No Irish people have been confirmed among the dead but Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said three Britons and two people holding joint US and British nationalities were killed.

The Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) is advising affected holidaymakers in the country to follow the advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lankan local authorities and accommodation providers.

"Travellers are advised to stay indoors where possible and to avoid large gatherings. Travellers should be aware that travel restrictions and curfews are in place across the island causing disruptions to travel plans," a spokesperson for the ITAA said.

"If you are affected you should contact your tour operator or travel accommodation provider."

The association said that while the airport is still operating, there are increased security measures in place.

"Those intending to travel to Sri Lanka are advised to follow the directions of the Department of Foreign Affairs who are currently advising travellers to exercise a high degree of caution.

"The ITAA recommend that intending travellers maintain contact with their travel adviser and tour operator for travel updates."

The Department of Foreign Affairs said they are ready to provide consular assistance.

A DFA spokeswoman said: "The Department is aware of the situation in Sri Lanka and we are monitoring the situation closely.

"If you have concerns for Irish citizens in the region please contact the Department on 01 408 2000."

Irish people in the country who have been directly affected by the attacks, or for those who are concerned about family or friends who are caught up in the incidents in Sri Lanka, to contact the Irish Honorary Consulate in Colombo on +94 (11) 258 7895 or the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin on +353 (1) 408 2000.

Six nearly simultaneous explosions at churches and hotels killed scores of people in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.

Hours later, there were further explosions in Dehiwala and Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.

The authorities said 207 were killed and 450 injured in the attacks, most of which were being blamed on suspected suicide bombers.

No one has taken responsibility for the killings, but officials say that eight suspects have been arrested.

The Easter attacks are the worst bloodshed Sri Lanka has seen since its brutal civil war ended a decade ago.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney condemned the attacks and said that Ireland stands with those affected.

"I am shocked at the appalling attacks on innocent civilians this morning in Sri Lanka. No political or other cause can justify or excuse the bombing of people at worship or simply going about their daily lives.

"I express my sympathy to the families of those who have been killed and my support to those who have been injured," the Tanaiste said.

"On behalf of the government of Ireland I also express our solidarity with the people and government of Sri Lanka at this tremendously difficult time.

"Ireland strongly supports everyone's freedom of religion and belief.

"Attacks such as those in Sri Lanka today and in Christchurch and elsewhere are a challenge to us all to do everything that we can to defend that right. Places of worship must be places of peace, free from fear."

President Michael D Higgins said that people's freedom to worship must be respected.

He said: "As President of Ireland I am sure that people in Ireland will have heard with great concern of the heavy loss of life that has happened at places of worship in Sri Lanka, at a time of religious significance.

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"The right to the freedom of worship is a fundamental right.

"To the families of those who died and those who have been injured I send the sympathies and solidarity of the people of Ireland."

Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, said that today's attacks are a reminder of people being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

He said: "While many of us have come to take for granted the voice of peace at Christmas and the voice of hope at Easter, we are reminded starkly and tragically today that this is not the case for Christians in many parts of the world.

"These Christians are our sisters and brothers. We stand in solidarity with them and they with us. Together we are one family of the resurrection. In so many countries worldwide our fellow-Christians find themselves a minority that is targeted and persecuted.

"The news this morning of bomb blasts at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka comes to us at a time we have come to refer to as The Easter Weekend. There is no tomorrow, no Bank Holiday Monday, for those killed in the multiple bomb blasts in Sri Lanka. There is nothing but devastation and fear and injury for these people, these communities and for Sri Lankan society."

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Rt Rev Dr Charles McMullen, has called the events in Sri Lanka "a shocking and despicable terrorist act".

"In the peace and tranquility of Kilkenny, where I was speaking this morning, we remembered in our prayers our brothers and sisters in Christ who had been so brutally and tragically struck down in Sri Lanka, doing as we were - worshipping the risen Lord Jesus Christ and celebrating his life giving resurrection," he said.

"As I said in my Easter Message, many across the world will suffer opposition and persecution for their faith in Jesus, as he challenges evil where it rises. Today we stand in prayerful solidarity with them, as we remember in our prayers all who were murdered today in this shocking and despicable terrorist act."

While British Prime Minister Theresa May called the tragic attacks "appalling."

Mrs May noted: "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear."

European Council President Donald Tusk said: "A tragic Easter in Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the families of those killed in the attacks on churches and hotels; and those still fighting for their lives."

With additional reporting from ReutersResults from nearly all polling stations show that TV star Volodymyr Zelenskiy has won the Ukrainian presidential run-off vote in a landslide.

The Central Election Commission said on Monday that the popular comedian has won 73% of the vote, while incumbent President Petro Poroshenko got just 24% support with more than 95% of the ballots counted.

Unlike in most of the elections in Ukraines post-Soviet history, Mr Zelenskiy appears to have won in both Ukraines west and east, areas that have been traditionally polarised.

One of the campaign slogans of the star, who has no previous political experience, was to unify Ukraine, which has been hit by bitter debates over its identity as well as the separatist conflict in the east that is fuelled by neighbouring Russia.

Even before results started trickling in, Mr Poroshenko accepted defeat, saying: I am leaving office, but I want to firmly underline that I am not leaving politics.

Mr Zelenskiy, for his part, promised wide changes at the top echelons of government and said his number one task would be securing the release of about 170 Ukrainian military members taken prisoner in the east or in Russia.

Ukraine has been plagued by rampant corruption, a sickly economy and a grinding, five-year war with Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country that has killed more than 13,000 people.

After his apparent election, Mr Zelenskiy said he would engage Russia to try to end the conflict.

He also said, without giving details, that we will make a very powerful information war in order to stop the fighting.

He also suggested, in a remark that could grate on Russia, that his victory could be a model for other former Soviet states that want to move forward from ossified politics.

To all the countries of the former Soviet Union  look at us, everything is possible.

Although the early results were a small fraction of the vote, the US Embassy in Ukraine congratulated Mr Zelenskiy, as did Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg.

Mr Zelenskiy, 41, became famous nationwide for his comic portrayal in a Ukrainian TV series of a high school teacher who becomes president after a video rant against corruption goes viral.

In a case of life imitating television, Mr Zelenskiy denounced corruption as a real candidate.

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Although Mr Zelenskiy was criticised for a vague campaign platform and never holding public office, voters appeared to cast aside those concerns in favour of a thorough sweep of Ukraines political leadership.

I have grown up under the old politicians and only have seen empty promises, lies and corruption, said Lyudmila Potrebko, a 22-year-old computer programmer who voted for Zelenskiy.

Its time to change that.

Mr Poroshenko was a billionaire sweet magnate and former foreign minister before he took office in 2014 after huge street protests drove his Russia-friendly predecessor to flee the country.

Although he instituted some reforms, critics said he had not done nearly enough to curb corruption.

As one of the key political leaders in Ukraine, I will remain at Ukraines service and will keep championing EU and NATO integration agenda, decentralization, security and anticorruption reforms.    (@poroshenko) April 21, 2019

Mr Poroshenko positioned himself as a president who could stand up to Russia and said Zelenskiy would be easy prey for Moscow.

Although the Kremlin despises Poroshenko, Mr Zelenskiys apparent victory was greeted noncommittally in Russia.

We do not yet associate hopes with the winner, Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian Parliament, was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass.

Millions of people living in the rebel-controlled east and in Russia-annexed Crimea were unable to vote.

Russia seized Crimea in 2014, and fighting in the east erupted that same year.

Mr Poroshenko campaigned on the same promise he made when he was elected in 2014: to lead the nation of 42 million into the European Union and Nato.

Mr Zelenskiy pledged likewise to keep Ukraine on a Westward course but said the country should only join Nato if voters give their approval in a referendum.

Mr Poroshenkos five years in office saw the creation of a new Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of Moscows church, a schism he championed.

Also, Ukraine reached a visa-free deal with the EU that led to the exodus of millions of skilled workers for better living conditions elsewhere in Europe.

Poroshenko has done a lot of good things for the country  creating its own church, getting the visa-free deal and taking Ukraine away from the empire, said 44-year-old businessman Volodymyr Andreichenko, who voted for him.

But Mr Poroshenkos message fell flat with many voters struggling to survive on meagre wages and pay soaring utility bills.

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We have grown poor under Poroshenko and have to save to buy food and clothing, said 55-year-old sales clerk Irina Fakhova.

We have had enough of them getting mired in corruption and filling their pockets and treating us as fools.

Mr Zelenskiys image has been shadowed by his admission that he had commercial interests in Russia through a holding company, and by his business ties to self-exiled Ukrainian billionaire businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi.

Mr Kolomoyskyi owns the TV station that aired the actors sitcom, Servant of the People, and his other comedy shows.Ukraine entered uncharted political waters on Sunday after an exit poll showed a comedian with no political experience and few detailed policies had easily won enough votes to become the next president of a country at war.

The apparent landslide victory of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 41, is a bitter blow for incumbent Petro Poroshenko who tried to rally Ukrainians around the flag by casting himself as a bulwark against Russian aggression and a champion of Ukrainian identity.

The national exit poll showed Zelenskiy had won 73 percent of the vote with Poroshenko winning just 25 percent.

If the poll is right, Zelenskiy, who plays a fictitious president in a popular TV series, will now take over the leadership of a country on the frontline of the West's standoff with Russia following Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskiy, whose victory fits a pattern of anti-establishment figures unseating incumbents in Europe and further afield, has promised to end the war in the eastern Donbass region and to root out corruption amid widespread dismay over rising prices and falling living standards.

But he has been coy about exactly how he plans to achieve all that. Investors want reassurances that he will accelerate reforms needed to attract foreign investment and keep the country in an International Monetary Fund programme.

"Since there is complete uncertainty about the economic policy of the person who will become president we simply don't know what is going to happen and that worries the financial community," said Serhiy Fursa, an investment banker at Dragon Capital in Kiev.

"We need to see what the first decisions are, the first appointments. We probably won't understand how big these risks are earlier than June. Perhaps nothing will change."Italian-Irish actor Robert De Niro has taken another swing at Donald Trump, calling the US president a "total loser" and "wannabe gangster".

The Hollywood actor has been involved in a long-running dispute with the current occupant of the Oval Office, famously yelling "f*** Trump" at the Tony Awards last year.

Mr Trump responded by dismissing De Niro as "a very low IQ individual".

During an appearance on US TV's The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last Friday, De Niro (75) aimed another dig at the president, telling the host he had tried giving Mr Trump a chance.

He said: "That's what I said right after he was elected. Give him a chance. I give everybody the benefit of the doubt. This guy has proven himself to be a total loser."

De Niro is one of the most revered actors of his generation, winning two Academy Awards for his work on The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull.

He will return to the gangster genre for Netflix's The Irishman, which will see him once again working with director Martin Scorsese. De Niro made his name in Scorsese movies such as Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, and both men went on to work together on a range of movies from Raging Bull to King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Casino.

Colbert asked De Niro why audiences are so enamoured with the gangster genre, prompting the actor to aim another barb at Mr Trump.

He said: "People like the outlaw type thing, except we have a wannabe gangster in the White House now."

De Niro also called Mr Trump a "dumbbell", adding: "Even gangsters have morals and they have ethics.

"They have a code and you know when you give somebody your word it's your word because it's all you have is your word. This guy he doesn't even know what that means."Donald Trump and his allies are attempting to turn the two-year Russia investigation saga into a political boost for the 2020 presidential election in the wake of the Mueller report.

The justice department is looking into the investigation's origins to see if US intelligence overstepped the line, cheered on by the president, who wants to "investigate the investigators".

The Trump re-election campaign is fundraising off the report, attempting to raise $1m with emails titled "Exonerated (again)" and "Confirmed: no collusion".

The strategy suggests that far from drawing a line under the report by special counsel Robert Mueller, Mr Trump is preparing to use it as a rallying cry for his support base.

In tweets last Friday, Mr Trump described Mr Mueller's investigation a "big, fat waste of time, energy and money" and signposted his determination to scrutinise how it began.

"It is now finally time to turn the tables and bring justice to some very sick and dangerous people who have committed very serious crimes, perhaps even spying or treason," he tweeted. "This should never happen again!"

Mr Mueller's report, published after a 22-month investigation, found there was no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin in the 2016 election.

It also did not recommend an obstruction of justice charge against Mr Trump. It refused to say no crime had been committed by the president but handed the decision to the justice department, which brought no charges.

Those two outcomes have allowed the president to declare "no collusion, no obstruction" and his legal team to announce "total victory".

The 448-report itself paints a more complex picture in which Mr Trump repeatedly attempted to thwart the investigation and lie himself or make subordinates do so.

The president urged his legal counsel to say he was not ordered to sack Mr Mueller when he was, the report found. Mr Trump also issued misleading statements to the press to deny reports that have now been confirmed.

Democrats have attempted to force the spotlight on this "unethical" behaviour but are split on whether to begin impeachment proceedings now or wait until the 2020 election to remove him from office.

The president's allies see political advantage, framing the investigation as a deep state ploy to thwart Mr Trump, despite the insistence of those involved that they were acting in the public interest.

Emails sent out by the Trump campaign used the findings to generate a new wave of funds.

"Sorry haters: no collusion and exoneration again! How many times do I have to be exonerated before they stop? What a joke!" read one line in a fundraising email, sent in Mr Trump's name on Friday. It went on: "Let's send a huge message to all of the Trump haters by raising $1,000,000 in the next 24 hours.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Pope Francis has celebrated Easter Mass at the Vatican, as the church faced a fresh round of bloodshed targeting Christians in Sri Lanka.

Hours after leading a late-night vigil, Francis processed into a flower-decked St Peters Square for the liturgy commemorating the resurrection of Christ.

Today we contemplate the empty tomb of Christ and we hear the words of the angel: "Do not be afraid! He is risen!" #Easter  Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 21, 2019

This year the Easter season has been marred by both the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last week, and the massacre on Sunday in Sri Lanka.

More than 130 people were killed and hundreds wounded following near-simultaneous blasts at three churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners.

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The Pope denounced the cruel violence of the Easter Sunday attacks and said he was praying for all those who are suffering from the bloodshed.

Speaking from the loggia of St Peters Basilica, Francis said: I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence.

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He added: I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event.

The 82-year-old has just completed an exhausting few days of Holy Week commemorations, including travelling to a prison outside Rome to wash the feet of inmates on Holy Thursday, presiding over the Way of the Cross procession at Romes Colosseum on Good Friday, and celebrating the Easter Vigil late on Saturday night in St Peters Basilica.Pope Francis delivers his Urbi Et Orbi (to the city and the world) blessing on Easter Sunday (Andrew Medichini/AP)

Pope Francis denounced the cruel violence of the Easter Sunday slaughter of Christians and foreigners in Sri Lanka as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting the bloodshed and political violence afflicting many parts of the world.

Francis skipped his homily during Easter Mass but delivered his traditional Urbi Et Orbi (To The City And The World) speech highlighting conflicts in the Mideast, Africa and the Americas and demanding that political leaders put aside their differences and work instead for peace.

I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic eventPope Francis

May the one who gives us his peace end the roar of arms, both in areas of conflict and in our cities, and inspire the leaders of nations to work for an end to the arms race and the troubling spread of weaponry, especially in the economically more advanced countries, Francis said from the loggia of St Peters Basilica overlooking the flower-decked square below.

In a special appeal at the end, Francis lamented the grave attacks on Sri Lankan hotels and churches, which occurred just as the Christian faithful were celebrating Easter Mass that marks the resurrection of Christ following his crucifixion.

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I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence, Francis said.

I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event.

More than 130 people were killed and hundreds wounded following near-simultaneous blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners.

Today we contemplate the empty tomb of Christ and we hear the words of the angel: "Do not be afraid! He is risen!" #Easter  Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 21, 2019

In his roundup of global conflicts, Francis warned that the world was increasingly becoming resigned to the ongoing conflict in Syria.

He called for a renewed commitment for a political solution that would respond to Syrians need for freedom, peace and justice and allow for millions of refugees to return home.

In Yemen, he lamented how children in particular are exhausted by hunger and war, while in North Africa, Libyans are enduring a fresh round of fighting between rival forces battling for control of Tripoli, the capital

I urge the parties involved to choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability, he said of Libyan leaders.

Francis said he hoped the political and religious leaders of South Sudan would open a new page in the history of the country and work for reconciliation. Francis hosted South Sudans president and opposition leader for a remarkable retreat at the Vatican earlier this month, during which the pope bowed down and kissed their feet, begging them to work for peace.

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And historys first Latin American pope also offered prayers for Venezuelans and Nicaraguans experiencing political and economic hardship and all those who lack the minimal conditions for leading a dignified and secure life due to a crisis that endures and worsens.

The Vatican said popes sometimes either deliver an off-the-cuff homily on Easter Sunday or skip it altogether, given the lengthy speech and blessing that follows.

The 82-year-old Francis has just completed an exhausting few days of Holy Week commemorations, including travelling to a prison outside Rome to wash the feet of inmates on Holy Thursday, presiding over the Way Of The Cross procession at Romes Colosseum on Good Friday and celebrating the Easter Vigil late Saturday night in St Peters Basilica.Blood stains are seen on the wall and on a Jesus Christ statue at the St Sebastians Church (AP)

A Sri Lankan man walks across a deserted street during a curfew after the attacks (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

More than 200 people, including five Britons, have died after a series of bombings in Sri Lanka.

Here is what we know so far:

- Six nearly simultaneous explosions at three churches and three hotels took place at Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa on Easter Sunday.

- In Colombo, St Anthony's Shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels were targeted in the first wave of explosions.

- Other blasts were reported at St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

- There were two further explosions later at a guesthouse in Dehiwala and near an overpass at Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.

- Sri Lankan officials have described it as a terrorist attack by religious extremists. Most of the eight blasts are suspected suicide attacks.

- Five Britons, including two people holding joint US and British nationalities, are among the 207 people dead. There are also US, Turkish, Indian, Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese victims.

- Three police officers were killed when they went to question suspects following a tip, according to a police spokeswoman.

- 450 people have been injured.

- Seven suspects have been arrested, according to officials. No-one has taken responsibility for the massacre.

- A nationwide curfew has been imposed from 6pm to 6am. Passengers booked on flights out of the country will be able to get to the airport provided they have "both passport and ticket valid for travel that day".The men and women who dedicate their lives to the protection of their neighbors do so under extremely stressful situations that can have an impact on the mental health of an individual, Link said. Ensuring there are services available when needed acknowledges these often tough working conditions and is vital to maintain the overall health of our brave first-responders.The people in Sri Lanka were in a mood to celebrate. Worshippers gathered at Roman Catholic churches across the country to celebrate Easter Mass, the culmination of Holy Week, but a wave of explosion rocked the worshippers.

Around 8:45 am, eight bombing attacks at, at least three churches, took the lives of more than 207 people injuring 400 others at churches and hotels, according to BBC. Hotels including Shangri-La, Kingsbury, Cinnamon Grand and another one were also hit. Police have arrested three people so far, according to theguardian.com. People all over the world are in a state of shock.

Celebrities are appealing for swift action from authorities and appealing for peace.

Extremely sad at the news of bombings in Sri Lanka. Its unfortunate that one is not able to see that violence is like a chain reaction. This has to stop !  Jacqueline Fernandez (@Asli_Jacqueline) April 21, 2019

Prayers for SriLanka  https://t.co/bY1EI3AsHP  Vicky Kaushal (@vickykaushal09) April 21, 2019

Shocked to hear the extremely disturbing news coming in from #SriLanka. Had stayed at the hotels & its heartbreaking to even imagine the situation.

My heartfelt condolences to the near & dear ones of those who lost their lives & praying for a speedy recovery of the ones injured.  Boman Irani (@bomanirani) April 21, 2019

My heartfelt condolences & prayers are with the families affected in #Srilanka. Here's praying & hoping for a terror free world!  Sidharth Malhotra (@SidMalhotra) April 21, 2019

What a sad day !! To attack families and children going to church on #EasterSunday ??!!! This is terrible ... what is happening to our world ??? #SriLanka  Huma Qureshi (@humasqureshi) April 21, 2019

Really disturbed to hear about the monstrous attack in #SriLanka on such an auspicious day. My thoughts and prayers to the families of the affected   Arjun Kapoor (@arjunk26) April 21, 2019

Saddened to hear about the terror attacks in various parts of Sri Lanka. Strongly condemn these acts of terror. Hatred and violence will never overpower love, kindness and compassion.  #SriLanka  Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 21, 2019

Stay strong #SriLanka!!

Thoughts and prayers.   Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) April 21, 2019

What is happening to this world May God help us all .. really .. #SriLanka  Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) April 21, 2019

Could never have thought a quiet country like #Srilanka could be attacked like this. What is the world coming to? Thinking of all the families affected. All my love and prayers always ...  Parineeti Chopra (@ParineetiChopra) April 21, 2019When Conjuring had released in 2013, it was winning all the praises for its realistic portrayal of the demon haunting a family, but did you know it was not just a wild imagination of director James Wan. The movie was based on a real-life story.

Conjuring portrayed what Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real life ghost-hunters/paranormal investigators, experienced. Their story is scarier than the movie.

Twitter

At the age of 92, Lorraine Warren, whose role was portrayed by actress Vera Farmiga in Conjuring, is dead. "She died peacefully in her sleep at home," Warren's son-in-law Tony Spera said on Facebook, reports variety.com.

thedailybeast.com

It was in 1952, that Lorraine Warren and her husband Ed founded New England Society for Psychic Research  a ghost hunting group in New England. Two of their most popular cases got cinematic adaptation via Conjuring franchise. Ed had died in 2006.

Twitter

Conjuring was based on the Perron Family who moved into farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. The couple and their five daughters soon started to notice strange things happening in the house and thats when they sought Ed and Lorraines help.

Twitter

First the family started to notice small things like the broom would go missing, hearing strange sounds, daughters would sometimes witness spirits in the house. They knew the spirits were present but they werent harmful. They were angry, for sure, was one thing that they knew.

patheos.com

Upon studying, Carolyn discovered that the many of the people had died in the same house under strange circumstances. The spirit that was shown in the movie, Bathsheba, was apparently the worst of all.

wheresthejump.com

Actress Vera Farmiga, who portrayed Lorraines role in Conjuring, Conjuring 2, The Nun and The Annabelle Comes Home said she is blessed to have known her.

...compassion, and took a shield of faith. Righteousness was her breastplate, and she has touched my life so. Love you Lorraine. You're waltzing with Ed now.  Vera Farmiga (@VeraFarmiga) April 19, 2019

Lorraine Warren and her husband Ed have also written many books based on their cases.1. Robert Downey Jr Once Gifted Chris Evans An Avengers - Themed Car Worth Rs 2 Crores!

But did you know Robert Downey Jr once gifted his pal Chris Evans a customised 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, which features Captain America's shield at the centre of the steering wheel. How cool is that, right?

2. Actress Saira Khan Of 'Kamasutra 3D' Fame Passes Away Following A Cardiac Arrest!

Actress Saira Khan who played the lead role in Kamasutra 3D is no more. The actress who shot to fame after having replaced Sherlyn Chopra in the controversial 2013 film died following a cardiac arrest on Friday morning, according to reports.

3. As Avengers: Endgame Tickets Go On Sale In India, Websites Crash Because Of Mass Bookings

The website of Bookmyshow crashed in some areas of the country because lots of people were trying to book their tickets at the same time apparently.

Having worked for over a period of 20 years with those experiencing anxiety, I can conclude that among other factors, it is the repetitive and relational nature of programs such as Friends and Big Bang Theory that will be doing the trick, said linical psychologist, Marc Hekster as quoted by the Metro.

5. The Most Successful Filmmaker Of Recent Times, KJo Might Witness His Biggest Flop With Kalank!

A source from multiplex, according to Deccan Chronicle, said that Kalank is going to be another Thugs Of Hindostan, the movie for which Aamir Khan had to apologise to the audiences.I joined Facebook quite a few years back, when I had started college. I was new to social media and it seemed like fun in the sense that I could stay connected with friends, be informed about the latest news and upload my own life updates. However, I wasnt yet aware about the creepy side of things.

It was only when I got a message from an absolute stranger on Facebooks Messenger that I got acquainted to it. The message said:

Hey! I saw you outside your college today and wanted to talk to you. So, I asked around and got to know your name. Hope you dont think Im some creep because I genuinely want to get to know you.

unsplash

For one, this is creepy. For two, I obviously didnt want to be friends with this person after he trespassed my personal space, even if it was in a cyber sense. I became scared about going to college and actually didnt attend classes for fear of being stalked. I mean, if this guy can ask around and obtain my name, how far can he go, right?

However, when I got back to college and talked to my friends about it, they said theyve all faced something like this. From messages that started off with hey bful only to end up being called a slut because no reply was given to actually receiving unsolicited dick pics, my female friends had also been affected by these creeps. They felt harassed, unsafe and the saddest part? They said that in the beginning it would take a mental toll but eventually, they realized it is a very usual thing to happen to Indian girls over social media. This means that the girls had actually normalised this cyber harassment because clearly, replying to them didnt help and neither did not replying.

unsplash

But how horrible that girls first experience cyber bullying by the time they reach college, isnt it?

While many love stories start over social media with a simple hi sent that leads to sparks and of course, there is no harm in approaching a girl over messages, theres a difference between harassing them. Sending obscene messages, photos and videos is plain harassing. What these sick people dont realize that while they send a message with a simple click of the finger, the girl who receives it will be haunted by that message for days to come. She will feel objectified, harassed and upset.

Additionally, doing this is also illegal. Publishing or transmitting of obscene material in electronic form is a punishable offence. Outraging a womans modesty is an offence as well. And woman can now lodge a complaint online.

unsplash

Is it illegal to slip into someones DMs to establish a romantic connect? Not at all. But, harassing someone by sending them lewd material isnt just not acceptable because it won't help you establish a connection with anyone but more than anything, is also legally punishable. So, heres to you keyboard creeps: Were done with you and the next time youre thinking about trolling a girl with your messages, know that it could send you to jail.At least 160 people have been killed so far and hundreds were injured after explosions in three churches and three hotels in and around Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. Read more

Here's more top news of the day:

1) Sadhvi Pragya Says She Helped Demolishing Babri Masjid, Internet Claims She Was Just 4-YO In 1992

Days after attacking 26/11 martyr Hemant Karkare, BJPs Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur said that she does not regret demolishing the Babri Masjid structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Read more

2) Uttar Pradesh Tops The Number Of Complaints By Women In NCW List. 8,000 In Just One Year.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) received complaints from across the country regarding the violation of women rights, alleged harassment, alleged crimes and more and in 2017-18, over half of the complaints that came to NCW came from Uttar Pradesh. Read more

3) BJP Candidate Suggests People To Cast Proxy Votes For Absentees In UP, Is EC Listening?

In yet another shocker coming from BJP candidates, party candidate Sanghmitra Maurya from Uttar Pradeshs Badaun, courted fresh controversy after asking her supporters to opt for fake voting. Read more

4) India Is Losing Its Forests In The Name Of Development, No Political Party Is Talking About It

Amid a slew of protests by activists against the allotment of forest land to any public or private projects, Indias forest cover clandestinely increased by 0.21 per cent and now according to Indias State of Forest Report, Forest cover stands at 21.54 per cent of total geographical area of the country. Read more

5) Close To 400 Crorepati Candidates Are Set To Contest Lok Sabha Polls In Phase-3

Out of the 1,594 candidates in the fray for the third phase of Lok Sabha polls, a total of 392 candidates are crorepatis. Political parties have fielded a total of 392 crorepati candidates of which 81 are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Read moreI feel like Ive never seen a community come together so much in this time of need, she said. Everybody is not judging the parents, and is just being supportive and doing whatever they can for them.In first female president of the garment makers association in its 36 years history, Rubana Huq has created history and now social media has been buzzing with congratulatory messages for Huq who now sits on 10th floor of the Lotus Kamal Tower in Dhaka.

Ill risk saying this. When we come into a new position, the experience should be a humbling one, not one of being overwhelmed by felicitations and congratulatory messages, Huq told The Hindu.

The Hindu

Now for two years, Huq will lead Bangladesh Garmet Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). In 1983, the BGMEA had started as men exclusive club and remained so until now despite being the lobby group with 4500 garment making factories in which most workers are women.

Huq is also aware that she wont have a smooth journey and there is challenges ahead for her. Being a woman is tough because everybody thinks he has the authority to tell me how the organisation should be run. And its sad, she said. Theyre all trying to tell me that this is how it is done.

Roughly 80 percent of the total exports of Bangladesh accounts for garments and the country is the second largest clothing exporter after China and she thinks that her responsibility would be to tell world the better story of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh garment industry accounts for 80 percent of country's export. Picture courtesy: AFP

What is mostly happening in our industry is that we are busy fire-fighting and we dont often look at the vision. While we are fighting the immediate, the important stage is often ignored. I think we should concentrate both on the immediate and the important.

Huq also mulls to bring some changes in how BGMEA is being run, I dont believe one president can solve everything. The whole board must be involved. I will have to activate all my board members...The National Commission for Women (NCW) received complaints from across the country regarding the violation of women rights, alleged harassment, alleged crimes and more and in 2017-18, over half of the complaints that came to NCW came from Uttar Pradesh.

The complaints from the victims and their relatives were related to cases where their right live with dignity was violated apart from other crimes including sexual harassment at workplaces.

A total of 403 women from various parts of the country also complained for being forced to marry against their choice. Only three states- Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram complained to commission.

A total of 15, 381 complaints were received in the 2017-19 and majority of them fell in the ambit of the violation of the right to live with dignity, cruelty towards married women including dowry harassment.

NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma spoke to The New Indian Express, Commission has been able to address a large number of such complaints... Field visits and inquiries were also conducted by the Commission to investigate specific cases of discrimination and atrocities against women.

The Violence against women, trafficking, stalking, cyber crimes, sex selective abortion, indecent representation of women, polygamy and gender discrimination among others are 19 categories under which complaints are registered.

The report also said that NCW funded 29 research studies pertaining to women related issued during the year 2017-18.

Here are the top states with highest number of complaints:

1. Uttar Pradesh: 8,454

2. Delhi: 1664

3. Haryana: 901

4. Rajasthan: 661

5. Madhya Pradesh: 433A series of powerful blasts today rocked the capital of Sri Lanka, claiming at least 180 lives so far and leaving thousands injured. The blasts took place in churches and high-end hotels on Easter Sunday when most people were out with family for celebrations.

Worshippers were targeted at the Kochikade, St Sebastian and Batticaloa churches during mass, while the other locations were Hotel Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotel.

After a few hours, two more explosions were reported.

Help and support have poured in from different countries and eminent personalities extended support, condemning the damning act of terror.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attacks  the worst act of violence since the end of Sri Lanka's civil war a decade ago  as "cowardly", and said the government was working to "contain the situation".

Eminent personalities from across the world condemned the attacks and extended support to Sri Lanka and its citizens.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief.  Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 21, 2019

Im saddened & disturbed by reports of multiple bomb blasts in #Colombo in which over 100 people have died & more than 300 injured.

I strongly condemn this diabolical act of terrorism.

My condolences to the families of the victims. I pray the injured make a speedy recovery.  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 21, 2019

While condemning the serial bomb attack in #Colombo, we express our solidarity with the people of #SriLanka and the families of the victims. Let's pray that they have the strength to move through this tough time.  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) April 21, 2019

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.  Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019It's one of those things that makes no sense, which makes you think how can that ever happen -- especially at a place like Google.

But this is what happened, and it's hilarious. A guy wanted to return his defective Pixel 3 unit, and wanted a refund for his trouble. What he got in return was nothing short of unbelievable.

Reddit user

Not one or two, but 10 -- that's right Google sent him 10 brand new Pixel 3 devices for his trouble. He wanted a refund of $900 on his original Pixel 3, but he ended up getting brand new Pixel 3 devices worth around $10,000.

Incredible, right? What's funny is he still didn't get the original refund on his erroneous Pixel 3 device. So he did what any other desperate and cranky person fed up with customer support would rightly do -- he took his complaint or plea online, specifically on Reddit.

Frustrated and looking for answers, our honest Pixel 3 owner -- who wouldn't accept 10 extra Pixel 3 devices sent by Google by mistake -- posted a rant on the /r/GooglePixel subreddit, looking for any help or customer support.

Google

His story was carried by Android Police, and other online tech media portals, which eventually found Google's attention and made them respond to his query. Finally!

And it worked, because the same guy later posted in the same Reddit community how Google finally responded to his refund request, and processed his refund within 24 hours of his original rant post on Reddit.

Reddit thread

All's well, that ends well. Hopefully, Google learned a valuable lesson from all of this.During a medical emergency even seconds make a difference, but a quick-thinking female inspector saved not one but two lives at the Dubai Airport. An unidentified Indian woman went into labour at Terminal 2 of the Dubai Airport.

Unsplash

According to a Khaleej Times report, the people around her were reduced to mute spectators as they didnt know what to do. Soon, Hanan Hussein Mohammed, an inspector at the airport acted swiftly to handle the emergency situation.

She rushed the pregnant woman to the inspection room of the airport and helped her give birth to the baby there. But the baby was not breathing, so Mohammed performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the new-born baby.

Unsplash

The mother and the baby were then taken to a hospital.

Mohammed was later honoured by Brigadier Ali Atiq Bin Lahej, director of the General Department of Airport Security at the Dubai Police, for her presence of mind that saved both the woman and the baby.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formSerene Singh drove an initiative that led to the state of Colorado declaring the second Sunday of every April as Sikh Recognition Day. The state and Gov. Jareg Polis announced the proclamation April 1, which is during the religious and historic holiday for Sikhs, Vaisakhi. (photo provided)Lenin Moreno, President of Ecuador

Source: es.wikipedia.org



The election also comes midway through President Moreno's four year term, and will be seen as a measure of his popularity. Opinion polls published this month showed Moreno's approval rating has plummeted, continuing a year long decline.

CUENCA, ECUADOR - Sectional elections will be held throughout Ecuador this Sunday, March 24, 2019. At stake are the election in all 24 of the country's provinces of prefects (the highest elected official in a province), mayors, and urban and rural municipal council seats.The election occurs in the context of a stagnating Ecuadorian economy. The government of President Lenin Moreno has implemented budget cuts and layoffs, and also negotiated new loan agreements with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to deal with Ecuador's budget deficit and national debt. Ecuador, OPEC's smallest producing member country, nevertheless the government receives significant income from oil exports and has suffered in recent years from low oil prices.The election also comes midway through President Moreno's four year term, and will be seen as a measure of his popularity. Opinion polls published this month showed Moreno's approval rating has plummeted, continuing a year long decline.President Moreno has broken sharply with the politics of his predecessor, former President Rafael Correa. Moreno had worked closely with Correa for many years, served as Correa's Vice President for 6 years, from 2007 to 2013 (and narrowly won election as President with Correa campaigning for him). Despite all this, Moreno dramatically turned against Correa only months after being elected President. Moreno accused the Correa and his government of rampant corruption, running up the national debt, and cronyism in government and judicial appointments, including the stacking Ecuador's highest courts.Since then, government prosecutors have been investigating Correa for allegedly ordering the kidnapping of an opposition lawmaker who was hiding from Ecuadorian justice in Colombia, as well as allegations of corruption. Correa was ordered to appear in court in Ecuador, and when he declined, offering to testify via video link instead, a warrant was issued for Correa's arrest. Numerous figures in Correa's administration have been and are being prosecuted on corruption charges.Moreno's own Vice President, Jorge Glas, a close associate of Correa, was arrested, tried for corruption, convicted, and is now in prison. Glas has continued to insist he is innocent and at one point went on a long hunger strike while in prison. [ https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/ecuadors-ex-vp-jorge-glas-fights-justice-amid-right-wing-push ] This past January, a story damaging to Glas was published was r that a telecommunication company, named Teleconet, had agreed to return $13.5 Million to invested by Glas' uncle to the government of Ecuador, because it was said to be corrupt money.Ecuador requested that Interpol issue an arrest warrant for Correa, who currently lives in Belgium, but Interpol rejected the request, stating that the evidence presented wasn't strong enough to order the arrest of the former President. Interpol practically said that Ecuador's case against Correa was likely politically motivated.Moreno has returned to neoliberal economic policies as reflected in the loan agreements negotiated with the International Monetary Fund and World bank, in sharp contrast to Correa's severing of relations with those institutions. He has also changed the country's geopolitical orientation and warmed relations with the United States, eschewing Correa's anti-imperialist rhetoric, while turning away from former leftist allies such as Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba. Moreno has recognized U.S.-backed Juan Guaido as the interim President of Venezuela.Moreno has sought dialog, consensus and compromise with many of Ecuador's diverse political factions, including those representing the oligarchy and moneyed classes, rather than adopt Correa's more combative approach.While Moreno has changed many policies and moved markedly to the right, he has also sought to retain some credibility in left circles too. In an interview, Moreno claimed he was a new type of socialist, using the ideology of the right to produce, while the government distributes equitably and helps the poor according to the ideology of the left.[ https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2019/01/lenin-moreno-establish-ideology-190103060748796.html?fbclid=IwAR3KhfQi7lnABflOzfrgZTgSDXQuAIr_RJouTBG85xRtiUr9tDqwOnPau2U Moreno said in 2018 speech at the United Nations that politics are successful when they serve everyone, especially the poorest and the abandoned. [ https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/09/1020442 ] He has also sought to be seen as a champion against government corruption, a deeply rooted problem with a very long history, highlighted by the prosecutions of leading figures from Correa's government, and even his own.Moreno has won praise from the U.S. and its allies. The corporate media has lauded his new approach as a restoration of democratic norms, including freedom of the press, as opposed to their narrative about Correa's dictatorial and undemocratic tendencies. However, his popularity among Ecuadorians has taken a nose dive from 75 percent approval in early 2018, to only 30 percent in the very recent poll.Two Ecuadorian s polling organizations, Cedatos and Pefiles de Opinion, announced their findings at a press conference on March 7th. "The population realizes that this economic restructuring was not taking place, this real fight against corruption was not taking place (...) and that made the approval of the president turn downward," said Polibio Cordova, President of Cedatos, according to a report by the Reuters news service. Perfiles de Opinion's Director, Paulina Recalde, revealed that its survey found that 80 percent of respondents believe that the government is on "the wrong road."Though President Moreno will not be on the ballot in Sunday's elections, nor will any seats in the National Assembly be up, the President's party, Alianza PAIS (AP), has a lot to lose. It, along with allied parties, currently holds the majority of the prefectures, mayor's offices, and local council seats in the country. AP, by itself has 11 of the 24 prefects, 67 of 221 mayors, and 527 of 1305 council seats in the country.By comparison, the party with the next most sectional offices, Avanza (Get Moving), a centrist party with a social democratic ideology loosely allied with Alianza PAIS, has 36 mayors, 196 council seats, but only 1 prefecture. Avanza holds no seats in the National Assembly.[ https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fes.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FAvanza&sandbox=1 AP has undergone a transformation since the last sectional elections in 2014. Moreno's fight with Correa led to a brief struggle for control of AP in early 2018. Moreno won control of the party with the based on some controversial judicial decisions. Correa was expelled from the party he had been the founding leader of.The Correistas left AP en masse and immediately began organizing a new party. (I use the term Correista advisedly to describe those on the Ecuadorian left and center-left grouped around and allied with Rafael Correa, because it gives the incorrect impression that there is some specific ideology that they adhere to, or that they are a monolithic block, or worse, that they are uncritical fanatics dedicated to Correa. Nevertheless, this is the term most commonly used to describe this political group.)The Correistas view Moreno as a traitor to the struggles for social justice and equality, as well as their larger projects of building a Citizen's Revolution and regional political and trade alliances independent of U.S. hegemony, and their ultimate goal of developing an Ecuadorian version of what Correa calls Socialism for the 21st Century.Most ominous for Moreno was a finding in a recent Perfiles de Opinion poll of residents of Guayaquil, Quito, and Cuenca, Ecuador's three largest cities, which found that an astonishing that 70 percent of the respondents declared "being sorry" for having given their vote to Moreno, which reflects a distancing from their base of popular support, said Recalde at the March 7 press conference.There has been some shallow coverage of the feud between Moreno and Correa in the English language corporate news media , but two important aspects of it have gone virtually unreported. The split in AP cost it it's majority in National Assembly, as 30 of AP's 74 elected representatives left the party along with Correa and formed their own group in the National Assembly called Movimiento Revolucion Ciudana (Movement for Citizen's Revolution).Second, the Correistas were prevented from registering as a new party that could compete in Sunday's sectional elections. While the corporate media is filled with reports of repressive electoral irregularities in Venezuela, the Ecuadorian government's obstruction of the Correistas' ability to compete in elections has been all but ignored.The Correistas' application to register as a political party to compete in elections was twice rejected by the National Electoral Council (CNE), a separate (and supposedly independent) branch of government that oversees and administers elections in Ecuador. Each time, the CNE rejected the name of the party, which it must certify in order to begin the registration process. The first application, to register under the name Movement for Citizen's Revolution was rejected by the CNE on the ground that Citizen's Revolution was a slogan of AP. The phrase Citizen's Revolution was used by Correa often when he was the leader of AP, but since the split, Moreno and other AP officials, no longer use the phrase.The second application by the Correistas to was to register under the name, Movimiento Revolucion Alfarista (Alfarista Revolutionary Movement), was again rejected by the CNE. Eloy Alfaro, who the party was to be named after, was President of Ecuador from 1895 to 1901. He was a reformer credited with helping to modernize Ecuador. Alfaro came from a province, Manabi, which continues to be one of the most progressive areas in Ecuador. The CNE ruled that Alfaro was not a leftist and that the leftist Correistas could thus not use his name for their party. [ https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/politica/3/cne-niega-la-entrega-de-claves-al-movimiento-revolucion-alfarista&prev=search The CNE's rejecting of the Correistas applications to form a new party created a bizarre political phenomenon. The second largest political grouping elected to the National Assembly (Correistas retain 30 seats), was not approved to register as a party to compete in elections. This is highly irregular and a huge aberration in democratic process. It would undoubtedly attract loads of coverage and sharp criticism from the corporate media for being undemocratic and politically repressive, had it occurred in Venezuela.The party was kidnapped by Moreno in a not very clear judicial process, said Fernando Casado, a Political Adviser to the small party, Fuerza Compromiso Social, which has entered an into a last minute agreement with the Correistas, allowing them to run some candidates on its line in Sunday's elections. Moreno betrayed AP's political platform. He has systematically broken his commitments to the upholding the domestic and foreign policy platforms AP had agreed to, Casado told this reporter.Casado explained that in Ecuador, each party's political platform becomes a notarized legal document and politicians and representatives of a party, including its elected officials, can be recalled by the party if they do not uphold the party's written platform. Casado believes that under a correct application of Ecuadorian election law, the judiciary should have decided in favor of Correista control of AP, since Moreno has gone against many positions in AP's official platform, but the ruling went to Moreno.Casado bristled as he recounted the tortured course the Correistas have had to take in order to field any candidates in Sunday's election. Following the CNE's decisions to twice reject proposed name of the party, preventing them from even beginning the process of registering their own new party  which process includes the time consuming task of collecting a large number of signatures  Casado said that the Correistas decided to change their strategy. There wasn't time to make another attempt to begin the registration process if they were going to run candidates in Sunday's elections.The Correistas first reached an agreement with another party, named Movimiento Acuerdo Nacional (National Agreement Movement), which is known by the initials MANA, which the CNE had approved for the signature gathering process to regain its ballot status. We needed to collect 400,000 signatures and we collected 600,000, recalled Casado. However, the day before the signatures were to be presented to the CNE, the leadership of MANA made a surprise announcement in which they renounced the party's agreement with the Correistas, expelled Correa from the party, and announced that they would not be presenting signatures to reinstate the party's ballot status.Thwarted again, the Correistas were able to scramble and reach an agreement with the yet another party, Fuerza Compromiso Social (Social Commitment Force), to run candidates on its ballot line.Casado said that all the obstacles the Correistas have faced in fielding candidates in Sunday's elections, have meant that they have been able to field candidates in only 25 percent of urban, and 11 percent of rural districts. Our goal is to get 4 percent of the national vote, said Casado, which would give Fuerza Compromiso Social ballot status for the next election. Casado acknowledges that this will be very difficult, since the party is fielding candidates in less than a quarter of the districts, it will have to receive around 20 percent of the votes in the elections it has candidates in order to reach the 4 percent national total.We also hope to win a few major victories in some places to show that our movement is still alive, said Casado. The Correistas are focusing on running candidates for prefect and mayor in a number of Ecuador's major cities and provinces, and areas in which they have had a strong base, he explained.It is an uphill struggle for the Correistas which have been attacked by virtually all other of Ecuador's many political parties and factions. Their leaders are being investigated and prosecuted for corruption, with some already behind bars. Ecuador's mass media, which is dominated by privately owned corporation, keeps up a daily barrage of anti-Correa news reports. In addition to all this, the CNE decisions and surprise betrayal by MAPA have severely limited the Correistas ability to compete in the sectional elections.Sunday's elections will also be important to parties and politicians on Ecuador's pro-capitalist political right, which are jockeying to the lead opposition to Moreno from that end of the political spectrum. None of the major parties on the right performed well in the 2013 sectional elections and thus all are in position to make significant gains. In 2017, the major parties of the right won only 4 of 24 prefectures, 43 of 221 mayor's offices, and 213 of 1,305 council seats. This includes such parties as Movimiento CREO (Creating Opportunities Movement) [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creating_Opportunities ], Partido Social Christiano (PSC - Social Christian Party) [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Christian_Party_(Ecuador) ], and Movimiento SUMA (United Society for More Action Movement) [ https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fes.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMovimiento_SUMA ], .CREO is the party of Guillermo Lasso, a banker who narrowly lost to Moreno in the Presidential runoff of 2017. Lasso is again considered to be a top contender for President in 2021. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Lasso ] The PSC's Jaime Nesbot, the Mayor of Guayaquil, is another potential Presidential candidate. SUMA is the party of Quito Mayor Mauricio Rodas, another popular politician on the Ecuadorian right. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauricio_Rodas Another party with a fair amount at stake on Sunday is the Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement. It is a political party which seeks to represent Ecuador's indigenous communities. Pachakutik has a radical leftist and environmentalist platform and has long been a left critic of AP, including during Correa's Presidency. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachakutik_Plurinational_Unity_Movement_%E2%80%93_New_Country ] The party has recently led militant anti-mining struggles to prevent environmental destruction and water pollution. Pachakutik will be trying to hold on to it's 4 precfectures, 23 mayor's offices, and 92 council seats. It will challenged in its stronghold of Manabi Province by Correista candidates.Sunday's election will also feature a local referendum in Giron on whether residents approve of mining in that area. The referendum became controversial, when the Moreno government sought to stop it on technical grounds. However, an initial judicial victory by the government was reversed by a higher court and the referendum will go forward. The Ecuadorian constitution specifies that development decisions, such as areas open to mining and the sale of mining concessions to multi-national corporations, are to be made by the national government, so the results of the Giron referendum are advisory only.Ecuador is a multi-party democracy with a lot of political parties. Many are regional and not influential at the national level. The Ecuadorian political spectrum is skewed to the left in comparision to the electoral spectrum in the United States. Liberalism, on the left of the electoral spectrum in the U.S., is a right of center ideology in Ecuadorian politics, because of its strong advocacy of capitalist economics. Parties in the center of the Ecuadorian political spectrum tend to identify themselves as social democratic, progressive, or populist.The left of the electoral spectrum in Ecuador is occupied by parties which identify with some variant of socialist politics. It should be noted, however, that the larger parties that identify themselves as socialist have not sought to nationalize industries nor pushed policies to transition from a capitalist economy to a socialist dominated economic system. The Correistas did very little along those lines when they were in power. Only smaller socialist and communist Ecuadorian parties advocate moving now to further nationalize industry. (Ecuador founded a national oil company 42 years ago and it is currently called Petrorecuador. Ecuador's oil industry remains open to the private sector and also to multi-national corporations. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-oil-analysis/ecuador-unlikely-to-nationalize-oil-sector-idUSTRE56G70P20090717 Most experts expect that Alianza PAIS will suffer substantial losses in Sunday's elections. If that occurs, the question is: which parties, those of the right, center, or left, will benefit the most? Also, how will this election set the stage for the 2021 Presidential election? Voter turnout will be high, as voting is compulsory in Ecuador for literate people ages of 18 to 65, though the voting franchise extends to all those over the age of 16.A Policeman has been accused of stabbing and murdered of an innocent Nigeria named Nyebuchi in Atali/Elimgbu area of Rivers state over a yet to be ascertained issue.

It was reported that the youths of the area went to the police station to protest but police shot sporadically shot at unarmed civilians.

The story was shared by a Twitter user who is seeking justice.

See his tweet below:President Muhammadu Buharis official self-acclaimed tormenter, Reno Omokri has decried the silence of the president after a British citizen was allegedly killed in Kaduna state on Saturday.

The former presidential aide said the president hasnt spoken a word on the alleged murder of the British tourist but is quick to condemn the Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka that has reportedly left over 200 people dead with hundreds more injured.

Omokri lambasted the president for reacting to the Sri Lanka attack in less than an hour, adding that Buhari isnt fit to be president but perfect as ambassador.

In a tweet on Sunday evening, Omokri wrote; A British tourist was killed in Kaduna yesterday. Our inferiority complexed President said NOTHING. But he was quick to condemn the Sri Lankan killings in less than an hour. @MBuhari should be an ambassador, not President. Nigeria is NOT his priority #InferiorityComplexPresidentA pastor in Delta state has had his church locked down indefinitely after performing spiritual cleansing in the community.

The pastor of First Baptist Church, Orogun in Ughelli North local government area of Delta State, sparked the anger of the Orogun Traditional Council after sweeping the entire community alongside his members.

Rev Tode Joseph Godspower, after organising a crusade led Church members to sweep out evil from the community.

The traditional ruler Okpara-Uku, (HRM) Akpojotor Epko, in a letter on April 15, 2019, invited the pastor to discuss important things that would lead to the communitys progress.

Pastor Godspower also the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Orogun branch, was reportedly assaulted by some people at the palace for insulting the gods of land.

A chief from the kingdom, Chief Immanuel Ogobene speaking on the matter said: There was no confrontation or assaulted, he was just warned on his action.

He (pastor) went to the palace with some selected members of his church and was asked why he did what he did, but was tongue-tied and couldnt say anything to defend his action and was warned not to open the church until further notice.

The council will meet and they will deliberate on the shutdown of the church as soon as possible. You have no right to go to a community and start casting away their idols; he does not have that authority

Even if God has revealed something to him, the best thing to do is for him to go to the Okpara-Uku who is the head of the community and tell him. Then the Okpara-Uku will consult his council, deliberate on it before he is permitted to do so or not, but what he did was trespass of activities.A former minister for aviation, Femi Fani Kayode(FFK) has accused the Northerners of deliberating victimizing the Southerners.

He inferred this through a tweet he shared today, 21st April, where he pointed that the two Chief Justice of Nigeria that have been removed in the country were Southerners and were both removed by Northerners.

He gave their names as Justice Taslim Elias who he said was removed by Murtala Mohammed and Justice Onnoghen who was removed by Muhammadu Buhari.

What he saied:A former Governor of Ekiti state, Peter Ayodele Fayose, has joined millions of Christians around the World in celebrating Easter Sunday.

Fayose who spoke though his Twitter handle used the opportunity to pray for Nigerians especially by saying Because he defeated death and has risen, your today and tomorrow shall be better than your yesterday.

What he said in full:Buba Galadima, chairman of the reformed All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to swear with the Quran that he did not rig the presidential election in his favour.

Galadima, a former ally of the president said Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the PDP, is the rightful winner of the election.

Speaking recently in an interview with The Sun, Galadima accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of rigging the election in favour of APC and its candidate.

The election was a national embarrassment. It was far from being free and fair. Not only that, it was clear to everybody that INEC, the military, and the police all colluded to work for APC, he said.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won the presidential election but INEC chose to declare President Muhammadu Buhari the winner. The whole world knows that Atiku defeated Buhari hands down but the election was heavily rigged in Buharis favour.

I boldly challenge Buhari and other APC leaders to swear with the Holy Quran, and the Bible if they were sure that Buhari won that election. If they are sure that Buhari defeated Atiku, Buhari, and APC leaders should take up my challenge. Im throwing this challenge openly, Im making it public, and Im waiting for any of them who is bold and sure of himself to take up this challenge.

INEC was only independent in name during the elections as it surrendered its mandate to the whims and caprices of Buhari and APC. With the way it conducted the election, INEC will enter the Guinness Book of Records as having organised the worst election in Nigerias history.

APC is a nest of corrupt elements he added.

What all these clearly show again is that Buhari is not fighting corruption. Corruption is not only about stealing money. There are other things that you do that amounts to corruption. Rigging election is another form of corruption, he said.

All APC leaders including Buhari, their hands are not clean over these elections. Then if you know that somebody is corrupt and you protect such a person that means that you are also corrupt.

And will Galadima work with Buhari for Nigerias sake, he said I can never work with Buhari. I can never work with him or any of these APC people including, Oshiomhole. How can I work with Buhari? Is Nigeria making progress under him? No. Nigeria is going back to the stone age under Buhari, he said.

He doesnt know anything about governance. He has become part of Nigerias problem and the solution is to vote him out of power with his party. These people are impostors.Suspected bandits have reportedly cut short the life of a British citizen, Faye Mooney, who was shot dead at Kajuru Castle in Kaduna state on Friday.

On Friday morning, some bandits attacked the holiday resort but couldnt gain access into the place because of the two mobile policemen guarding it.

The bandits were said to have hid in a rock, then started firing bullets into the holiday resort.

A source revealed that the deceased died in the process  Mooney was said to have been a humanitarian worker with Mercy Corps Nigeria, and the other deceased was her colleague with whom she visited the castle.

Mooney and her colleague who were accommodated in rooms in one of the towers left their rooms when they heard the gunshots. They were hit by bullets as they were running down the staircase, the source said.

The bandits climbed up the rock by the gate. When they started shooting, the two mobile police guarding the place responded, so they knew there were armed policemen inside and they couldnt come in.

The deceased were panicking so they rushed out of their rooms and headed downstairs. The stairs are not covered, so as they were running down, the bandits sighted them and fired towards their direction. Their corpses were deposited at the St. Gerald Catholic Hospital, Kakuri, Kaduna.

The source added that five people were initially abducted  four staff of the castle and a bus driver who brought some guests.

These people were somewhere outside the gate taking shayi (tea). But two of the staff managed to escape and the bandits went with three people  two staff of the castle and the bus driver, he said.

The bandits have demanded the sum of N60 million before theyll release their hostages  and they made the demand through a telephone call.Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani has advised people not to come to the North for tourism or sightseeing owing to the insecurity plaguing the region.

Although Shehu Sani made no mention of the north, the tweet which he typed in pidgin, it was easy to connect it with the north, as that is the region where bandits and gunmen have been wrecking havoc for a while now  especially because he said una wey wan come here and he is a lawmaker from the north.

He also said that gunmen which have troubled most parts of the north are not joking and that life has no duplicate.

All those una wey wan come up here do tourism, excursion or sightseeing, make una chill, these Gunmen no dey joke, life no get double, he wrote.

See tweet belowNigerians have reacted to President Muhammadu Buharis swift response to the horrific attacks targeting Christians in Sri Lanka.

The president through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu condemned attacks on several hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Sunday  whist urging Sri Lanka to do all it could to ensure the criminals involved face the law.

Statement reads thus:

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed shock and sadness over the terrible attacks on several churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on the holy day of Easter.

On behalf of the government and people of Nigeria, the President extends deepest condolences to the families of those killed in the attacks and wishes speedy recovery to the injured.

Noting that Nigeria stands with the people of Sri Lankan at this terrible moment, President Buhari urges the authorities not to spare the wicked elements behind these mischievous attacks.

However Some Nigerians found it wrong that the president wastes no time in condemning with other countries when they face tragedy but takes weeks and sometimes months before he responds to the ones occurring daily in Nigeria.

What some of them said

@blekzy7 wrote: Why does it always take him days and sometimes weeks to comment if similar thing happen in his country

@yungggeorge5588 wrote: See how fast he did that.. but as slow to do the same to the people here and nothing has been done yet

@Princeernest wrote:We quickly respond to other peoples matters while there is bloods flowing everywhere in Nigeria, Nigeria we hail thee.

@gadeadeleke wrote; When Zamfara is under fire under his nose.

@enim asuk wrote: No one condoles Nigeria anymore. The daily killings of Nigerians is now a way of life. Next level of incompetence.Senator Shehu Sani has reacted to the killing of a British citizen, Faye Mooney and her colleague, at the Kajuru Castle in Kaduna state on Friday.

The humanitarian work(with Mercy Corp Nigeria) was one of the guests at the castle, when suspected bandits attacked the place on the fateful day.

The bandits were unable enter the castle because of the two armed mobile policemen at the gate, they therefore hid in the cave, from where they started firing into the facility  the deceased panicked out of their rooms and rushed towards the staircase.

Unfortunately were hit by bullets from the bandits.

Sani, who represents Kaduna Central at the Senate, expressed his condolence to the families of the deceased including the UK government, while condemning the attack.

His words: The Killing of Faye Mooney and one other by Kidnappers and the abduction of others from Kajuru castle,Kaduna state stands condemned. Condolences to the families of the victims and the Government of the UKVeteran NTA news anchor Cyril Stober has retired from The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA),

The veteran broadcaster who many believed had retired back in 2015, surprised millions when he was seen anchoring the news again, not long after.

Although there is no official statement confirming this, the internet is, however, abuzz with the news of his retirement.Festus Keyamo, the spokesperson of the presidential campaign council of the All Progressives Congress(APC) has described the possibility of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) as a scam.

The presidential campaign council spokesperson said in a tweet, late Saturday night that Atiku is coming will never happen.

The former vice president and his party had filed a petition to the presidential election tribunal, challenging the victory of the APC candidate, Muhammadu Buhari in the February 23rd election.

However, according to Keyamo(SAN), Atiku is not coming anywhere.

Atiku is coming reminds me of the victims of 419 who some smart guys keep telling new stories after a deal has collapsed & who keep falling for the new stories. And like real magas theyll even abuse you when you seek to help by telling them Atiku is not coming anywhere!Samsung has heard from reviewers about screen breaking or malfunctioning of the Galaxy Fold, its upcoming foldable smartphone, and will find out the cause of the matter, a Samsung spokesperson told Xinhua via email on Friday.

The Galaxy Fold, on sale from April 26 in the United States, resembles a conventional smartphone but opens like a book. The display has been transformed from a pocket-sized 4.6-inch phone into an expansive 7.3-inch dynamic AMOLED screen.

Samsung has defined the Galaxy Fold as the "biggest breakthrough" since the launch of its mobile phone business.

However, ahead of the official launch of Samsung's cutting-edge foldable phone, journalists supplied with samples reported malfunctions after just a few days of use.

"A limited number of early Galaxy Fold samples were provided to media for review. We have received a few reports regarding the main display on the samples provided. We will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter," a Samsung spokesperson said.

"A few reviewers reported having removed the top layer of the display causing damage to the screen," said the spokesperson.

The main display on the Galaxy Fold features a top protective layer, which is part of the display structure designed to protect the screen from unintended scratches, according to the spokesperson. "Removing the protective layer or adding adhesives to the main display may cause damage."

"We will ensure this information is clearly delivered to our customers," the spokesperson said.

The malfunctions raised the specter of Samsung's doomed Galaxy Note 7 phone three years ago, some reviewers said.

Battery and design flaws in the Note 7 resulted in some units catching fire or exploding, forcing Samsung to permanently stop its production and sales of the model globally in October 2016.

Shares of Samsung Electronics dropped more than 3 percent on Thursday after multiple screen problems were reported.

Some analysts believe that malfunctions in the first batch of a test model were of little surprise. The handset's in-folding design is more difficult to make than out-folding, as it adds higher pressure to the screen, they said.Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign counsel, Festus Keyamo (SAN) has asked Buba Galadima a former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari to prove his personal relevance before asking Buhari swear with the Quran.

Galadima, in a recent interview with the Sun, challenged president Buhari to swear the Muslim holy book that he did not rig the February 23rd presidential election in collaboration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The election was a national embarrassment. It was far from being free and fair. Not only that, it was clear to everybody that INEC, the military, and the police all colluded to work for APC, he said.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won the presidential election but INEC chose to declare President Muhammadu Buhari the winner. The whole world knows that Atiku defeated Buhari hands down but the election was heavily rigged in Buharis favour.

I boldly challenge Buhari and other APC leaders to swear with the Holy Quran, and the Bible if they were sure that Buhari won that election. If they are sure that Buhari defeated Atiku, Buhari, and APC leaders should take up my challenge. Im throwing this challenge openly, Im making it public, and Im waiting for any of them who is bold and sure of himself to take up this challenge.

However Keyamo said in Galadimas polling unit in Yobe state during the presidential election, APC scored 750 votes while PDP scored 2 votes  And as such must explain what gives him the temerity to call for a swearing ceremony.

His words: Sir, before the President swears on the Quran, just a quick reminder of the result in your polling unit in Yobe State: APC -750; PDP-2. Therefore, you need to explain your own personal irrelevance in your base in order to have the temerity to call for a swearing ceremonyThe senator representing Bayelsa east constituency in the national assembly, Ben Murray Bruce, has come out to explain why Nigeria is poor.

According to the self acclaimed common sense senator who spoke via his Twitter handle, Nigeria is poor because our population is growing in geometric progression to our economic policies.

He however suggested that the only way to get out of this disaster is by introducing a population control policies sob that the population growth can be checked while we hasten our economic growth as a nation.

His tweet:Four people have been rescued from a yacht 34 miles off the coast of Co Cork.

Shortly before 8pm last night, the Courtmacsherry RNLI Lifeboat crew were called to the scene.President Michael D Higgins has led a commemoration to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin.

President Higgins was joined by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and defence minister Paul Kehoe at the state ceremony outside the GPO on O'Connell Street, the landmark building that served as the headquarters of the 1916 rebels.

Members of the Irish Defence Forces including representatives from the Army, Air Corps and Navy also took part in the commemorations.

The event began with the lowering of the Irish tricolour. A prayer was read and a piper played a lament before the Proclamation of Independence was read by a Defence Forces officer.

Guard of Honour marching into place for the 103rd Anniversary of the 1916 Rising at the GPO. Ceremony starts at 12.00 #easter1916 #StrengthenTheNation pic.twitter.com/vk9fJZL0Es  Oglaigh na hEireann (@defenceforces) April 21, 2019

President Higgins laid a wreath to commemorate all those who died in 1916. A minute's silence was also held.

The official ceremony concluded with the raising of the tricolour, the playing of Amhran na bhFiann and a fly-past by the Irish Air Corps.

This morning, Culture Minister Josepha Madigan led a remembrance ceremony at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin for all those who died in the rebellion.

The centrepiece of the event was the raising of the tricolour by members of the Irish Defence Forces and the national anthem being played by a lone piper.

Ms Madigan laid a wreath at Sigerson Monument. Laurel wreaths were also laid at the graves of Edward Hollywood, the man who delivered the first tricolour flag to Ireland from France, and Peadar Kearney, the composer of the national anthem.

Minister @josephamadigan leads the annual Easter Rising Commemoration at Glasnevin Cemetery



She laid a wreath and paid tribute to all those who gave their lives and contributed to the cause of Irish freedom



Suaimhneas siorai da n-anamacha #Ireland pic.twitter.com/1o0eYVtaWd  Tourism-Culture-Arts-Gaeltacht-Sport-Media (@DeptCulturelRL) April 21, 2019

Ms Madigan was joined by Counsellor Catherine Page from the British Embassy, Brigadier General Howard Berney, members of the Irish Defence Forces, and Ambassador Stephane Crouzat on behalf of the French Embassy in Ireland.

A relative of Peadar Kearney's, Ciara Considine, sang the anthem.

Ms Madigan said: "Over the past 187 years, people have gathered here in Glasnevin Cemetery to mark the passing of one and a half million individuals.

The cemetery has been a place for solemn and significant occasions, commemorations and the burial place of key persons in Irish history.

She added: "The sacrifice of those who died for Irish freedom is acknowledged and perhaps better understood today, and the legacy of 1916 has passed on to new generations and informed and guided our path to independence and the first 100 years of the latest chapter in Ireland's history."

John Green, chairman of Glasnevin Trust, said: "It's hugely important that we continue to remember the young men and women who perished Easter week 1916.

"It's remembrance days like these at Glasnevin Cemetery, where so many men and women of the Easter Rising of 1916 are buried, that allow us the chance to reflect on our history as a nation.

It's a privilege for us to honour both those who lost their lives in 1916, as well as the Irish citizens that contributed in different ways like Peader Kearney and Edward Hollywood.

A granite memorial incorporating the names of all those who died in the Rising, including rebellion leaders and British soldiers, was unveiled in Glasnevin as part of the centenary commemorations in 2016.

Almost 500 people were killed in the uprising, the majority of them - 268 - were civilians caught up in the violence.

PATaoiseach Leo Varadkar has accused the people behind yesterday's Saoradh march past the GPO 36 hours after Lyra McKee's shooting as being "beneath contempt" and "an insult to the Irish people".

In a hard-hitting statement tonight, Mr Varadkar added his voice to the condemnation of the march, saying he was appalled by what has happened.As Israeli politics shift rightward, It is time for a paradigm shift in how we think about the Middle East, writes Richard N Haass.

It has been nearly 60 years since the philosopher and historian Thomas Kuhn wrote his influential book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhns thesis was simple but heretical: breakthroughs in science occur not through the gradual accumulation of small changes to existing thinking, but rather from the sudden emergence of radical ideas that cause existing models to be replaced with something fundamentally different.

As was the case when astronomers determined that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa, these paradigm shifts usher in an entirely new model that becomes the basis for normal scientific study and experimentation until it, too, is replaced.

I mention Kuhn because his idea is as relevant for social science as it is for natural science.

The example I have in mind is the contemporary Middle East, where the current paradigm between Israel and its neighbours has prevailed for more than a half-century.

Nearly everything said and written about the issue reflects the outcome of the June 1967 Six-Day War, which left Israel in control of territories that had previously belonged to Jordan (East Jerusalem and the West Bank), Egypt (the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza), and Syria (the Golan Heights).

Since then, the normal diplomatic model (enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 242 and subsequent resolutions) has assumed that Israel would trade this territory in exchange for security and peace.

For some time, the paradigm appeared to have validity. Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt, allowing the two countries to sign a peace treaty that has endured to this day. Years later, Israel and Jordan normalised their relationship.

Negotiations between Syria and Israel came close to succeeding, but failed in the end, largely because Syrias president, Hafez al-Assad (the father of current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad), was unwilling to sign on to a compromise.

It is no longer possible to imagine peace talks, much less agreements, between Assads government and that of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The Israeli government long ago annexed the Golan Heights, and now Assads government increasingly depends on Israels archenemy, Iran, for its survival, and instead of negotiations, we see Israel attacking Iranian forces and equipment on Syrian territory.

Diplomatic progress between Israel and the Palestinians is equally difficult to imagine. This was not always the case. Negotiations came close several times to establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel under terms that both sides could accept.

But, at the last minute, Palestinian leaders baulked, fearing that agreeing to less than what they had historically claimed to be Palestine would leave them politically vulnerable to hardliners who believed that compromise was unnecessary because time and world opinion were on the Palestinians side.

This was a historic error. What was on offer in the past is no longer. Israeli politics has shifted decisively rightward. Jewish settlements on the West Bank have grown dramatically in terms of both area and population.

Netanyahu explicitly promised during the recent election campaign to begin annexation of the West Bank. US president Donald Trump, whose administration moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and reversed nearly 40 years of US policy by recognising Israels authority over the Golan Heights, may well support further Israeli annexation.

Much of the world has grown weary of the conflict. Quite a few Arab governments, worried about Iran or internal threats more than Israel, are prepared to work with Israel quietly, and in some cases openly.

Splits in the Palestinian leadership are further exacerbating persistent divisions on what to ask of Israel and what to accept.

The Trump administration may well unveil a peace initiative in this context. But its proposal is unlikely to deal with the territorial, political, and refugee issues that are central to the creation of a Palestinian state.

A Trump plan is more likely to focus on offering economic incentives to Palestinians in an effort to encourage them to compromise. It is unlikely to succeed.

The most likely future is thus one of drift.

Palestinians will continue to have limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. At some point (one we have neared, if not reached), the potential for a viable Palestinian state will cease to exist. All of this poses a risk to Israel as well.

There is an unresolvable tension between Israel remaining a Jewish state and a democratic one if it continues to exercise political control over millions of Palestinians who are not Israeli citizens. Avoiding this choice and maintaining the status quo will frustrate Palestinians and increasingly isolate Israel in the region and the world (especially if annexation occurs).

Some will argue that this assessment is too bleak. I hope they are right. But even if they are, the benefits of progress between Israelis and Palestinians will not spread. Closely associated with the territory-for-peace paradigm was the belief that, by ushering in peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours, an Israeli-Palestinian settlement would enable the region to flourish.

But resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not end the civil war in Syria or the slaughter in Yemen, curtail Irans nuclear ambitions, restrain Saudi Arabias leaders, or ameliorate the repression and corruption that are commonplace throughout the region.

So even if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were to end, the Middle Easts problems would not. And there is no reason to predict the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will end.

It is time for a paradigm shift in how we think about the Middle East, not because a better diplomatic model has presented itself (it has not), but because the current paradigm is increasingly at odds with reality.

Richard N Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of A World in Disarray. project-syndicate.orgARE buildings more important than people? Does it depend on which building, and which people? How does that work? Who decides? Obviously, old buildings matter. Old is important. Heritage, history, cultural identity embedded in every stone, every beam. But still. Does anyone else feeling vaguely nauseated at the speed with which billionaires and multinationals have been hurling their millions at Notre Dame?

Does anyone else slightly despair at how the financial elite are falling over themselves, undoubtedly with a view to having their names engraved on future plaques nailed to future walls, as the real world  the natural world  continues to go up in smoke? Cant the luxury goods billionaires, the fossil fuel billionaires, the tech billionaires, see even the tiniest irony in their stampede to fund the rebuilding of a famous monument when their money is so desperately needed elsewhere? Elsewhere everywhere? All over?China's top legislature started its bimonthly session Saturday to review multiple draft laws and revisions to laws.



Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), presided over the first plenary meeting of the session Saturday morning. A total of 171 members of the NPC Standing Committee attended the meeting.

Among the bills presented to the legislautre, the draft revisions to the Judges Law and the Procurators Law were for their third readings.

The Constitution and Law Committee of the NPC suggested the drafts be submitted to a vote for adoption at the session.

A draft amendment to the Securities Law was submitted for a third reading.

The latest revisions to the law include rules on the newly-devised science and technology innovation board, which will pilot a registration-based initial public offering (IPO) system.

Also on the lawmakers' table are the draft sections of property and personality rights of the civil code.

It is the second reading of these two sections. By the end of 2019, the various sections -- after going through legislative review -- will be compiled with the General Provisions of the Civil Law into a civil code.

Lawmakers on Saturday also began reviewing the second drafts of two pharmaceutical-related bills -- the draft revisions to the Drug Administration Law and the draft vaccine administration law.

The new drafts regulate online selling of drugs, increase penalties for illegal activities, encourage vaccine research and innovation, and set up a compensation system for vaccine adverse events, among others.

Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua briefed lawmakers on a package of revisions to eight laws submitted to the legislature for review. The legislative move -- including an amendment to the Construction Law -- is aimed at creating a rule-of-law, international and convenient business environment, and facilitating the enforcement of the Foreign Investment Law.

Lawmakers also heard a report on ratifying a treaty between China and Barbados on criminal judicial assistance, and another one between China and Azerbaijan on the transfer of sentenced persons.

Other personnel issues were heard or reviewed at Saturday's meeting.Significant New Prospect Defined at Diba Gold Project, Western Mali

DIDCOT, UK / ACCESSWIRE / April 17, 2019 / Altus Strategies Plc (AIM: ALS; TSX-V: ALTS), the Africa focused project and royalty generator, announces that it has defined a further significant prospect at the Diba gold project ("Diba" or the "Project"). Diba is strategically located 13km south of the multi-million ounce Sadiola gold mine, in the world renowned 'Kenieba Window' gold belt in the west of the Republic of Mali ("Mali").

Highlights:

Significant 650m x 400m new prospect discovered at Diba WNW from surface geochemistry

New prospect is contiguous to 1.85km long Diba NW target

Results highlight potential for multiple further target areas to be explored

Excellent historical drill intersections of 5.02g/t Au over 20.0m and 5.36 g/t over 13m

Diba hosts a historical near surface gold resource (see "Diba Project: Historic resource" and "Cautionary note regarding historic data"): 6,348,000 tonnes at 1.35 g/t for 275,200 ounces in the Indicated category 720,000 tonnes at 1.40 g/t for 32,500 ounces in the Inferred category Based on a 0.5 g/t cut-off grade

Discussions continuing with a number of potential counterparties in respect of Diba

Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus, commented:

"Our detailed review of Diba's historical data as reported on 4th February 2019, identified multiple priority drill targets including a 1.85km long anomalous zone adjacent to the historic Diba resource ("Diba North West"). In addition, a number of gaps were identified in the coverage of the surface geochemistry. Our systematic programme of sampling in some of these areas has discovered a significant new prospect at Diba WNW, with a footprint of approximately 650m by 400m. The results also highlight the potential for further discoveries to be made at Diba. In addition, a 1.2km long potentially silicified ridge, located approximately 500m southwest of and directly along strike of the historical resource will also be followed up.

"Diba is a highly strategic asset, located just 13km from the multi-million ounce Sadiola gold mine in western Mali. The project hosts a near surface, shallow dipping, historical oxide resource with a number of exceptional drill intersects, including 5.02 g/t Au over 20.0m and 5.36 g/t over 13m. The adjacent Sadiola mine is reportedly for sale and is expected to have exhausted its oxide feed in the coming months. However, while we recognise that Diba may be a potential source of future oxide feed for Sadiola, we also consider it has significant standalone oxide and growth potential."

An updated technical presentation on the Diba project has been prepared and can be downloaded from the following link: Click Here.

Diba WNW discovery

Termite mound sampling by the Company at Diba WNW, which involved the collection of 36 samples, has established a 650m by 400m new prospect. The prospect is based on results greater than 20 ppb Au, with 13 samples retuning more than 50 ppb Au and a peak value of 143 ppb Au. The prospect is fully open to the north and west and lies approximately 1.5km northwest of the Diba historical resource area and on the western margin of the 1.85km long by 400m wide Diba NW prospect. The next stage at Diba WNW will be to further extend the termite mound sampling grid to the north and to the west, whilst simultaneously undertaking detailed mapping and a 25m x 25m spaced soil auger sampling grid over the prospect to define potential drill targets.

Diba SW target

Review of historic airborne VTEM topographic and historic soil geochemical data has defined the Diba SW target, represented by a 1.2km long and potentially silicified ridge. Little historical work has been undertaken in this area, which is 500m southwest of and on strike of the existing Diba historical resource. Surface geochemical sampling at Diba SW will be undertaken to define potential drill targets.

The following figures have been prepared and relate to the disclosures in this announcement and are visible in the version of this announcement on the Company's website (www.altus-strategies.com) or in PDF format by following this link: Click Here.

Location of the Diba project in western Mali is shown in Figure 1.

Aerial view illustrating Diba's proximity to Sadiola is shown in Figure 2.

Location of 650m x 400m 'Diba WNW prospect' and other new targets is shown in Figure 3.

Location of 'Diba SW target' along strike from the Diba historical resource is shown in Figure 4.

historical resource is shown in Figure 4. A selection of Diba photos is shown in Figure 5.

Termite sampling methodology

A geochemical sampling program consisting of 246 termite mound samples has been completed. Approximately 20% of the samples submitted were for QA/QC purposes (being duplicates, standards & blanks). The samples were collected on an approximate spacing of 100m by 100m. Sampling soil on the margins of termite mounds is typically employed where conventional shallow soil sampling is not expected to generate results that would be representative of the mineral potential below. Termite mound material is typically sourced from deeper and from across a wider area than a regular soil sample. Sample preparation and analysis was undertaken at SGS Mineral Services Laboratory in Bamako, Mali. The prepared samples were then analysed using a 50g fire assay sample with an Atomic Absorption finish (FA50-AAS).

Diba Project: Location

The 81km2 Diba (Korali Sud licence) project is located in the Kayes region of western Mali, approximately 450km northwest of the capital city of Bamako. The project sits 5km west of the Company's Lakanfla gold project, approximately 13km south of the multi-million ounce Sadiola gold mine and 35km south of the multi-million ounce Yatela former gold mine. Diba is bounded by the Sadiola permit on its northern and eastern boundaries. Sadiola is owned by Anglogold Ashanti (JSE: ANG, NYSE: AU and ASX: AGG), IAMGOLD Corporation (TSX: IMG & NYSE: IAG) and the government of Mali. In November 2018 Anglogold and IAMGOLD disclosed that a process to identify a third party to buy the Sadiola mine had been initiated and that the oxide ore stockpiles at Sadiola were expected to be depleted in the first half of 2019.

Figure 1. Location of Diba project in western Mali



Figure 2: Aerial view illustrating Diba's proximity to Sadiola



Figure 3. Location of 650m x 400m 'Diba WNW prospect' and other new targets



Figure 4. Location of 'Diba SW target' along strike from the Diba historical resource



Figure 5. Selection of Diba photos



Diba Project: Historic resource

The Diba project hosts a historic gold resource (based on a 0.5 g/t cut off) comprised of 275,000 oz (6.34 million tonnes at 1.35 g/t) in the Indicated category and 32,500 oz (0.72 million tonnes at 1.40 g/t) in the Inferred category. An additional 97 AC and RC drill holes were completed at Diba by a previous operator in 2014 and these postdate the 2013 mineral resource estimate. Results from the 2014 drill programme include 5.36 g/t over 13m, 9.60g/t over 8m and 2.00 g/t over 21m. The historic resource was prepared by AMEC Americas Limited in a report entitled "Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate Diba Badiazila Gold Property Mali, West Africa", dated June 30, 2013 and filed on SEDAR on 20 September 2013 by Legend Gold Corp. The key assumptions, parameters and methods used to prepare this historical estimate are:

Data from 157 diamond as well as reverse circulation drill holes, totalling 16,011m and a database containing Au assay values for 13,882 samples

A block model was constructed using ordinary kriging ('OK') and inverse of the distance to the third power ('ID3')

Data analysis was performed on the assays within 10 modelled grade shells

Grade capping was applied for restriction of the outlier grades at different thresholds, according to the individual mineralized lenses (grade shells)

Blocks located inside the 0.3 g/t Au grade shell were interpolated using OK with three passes using incremental radii search ellipsoids

Blocks located outside the grade shell were estimated by ID3 using the same ellipsoids used in the OK runs

Block sizes of 5m x 5m x 2m with each block storing the percentage of volumes inside and outside the grade shells

Blocks were classified in two categories: Indicated and Inferred Indicated blocks were estimated during passes 1 and 2 and within 50 m of a composite All blocks estimated in pass 3, or not classified as Indicated, were then grouped as Inferred category

Using Indicated and Inferred blocks, a conceptual pit shell, using Whittle software, to constrain the blocks to be reported as mineral resources

Mineral resources are reported within an Lerchs-Grossmann pit shell and reported to a base-case grade cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au

The Company believes the estimate remains relevant and reliable but notes that to upgrade or verify the historical estimate as current mineral resources, an independent Qualified Person will need to be commissioned to produce an updated mineral resource estimate for the Company, incorporating the exploration results received after 30 June 2013. A Qualified Person has not undertaken sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource and the Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources. Reference is made to the report for key assumptions, parameters, and methods used to prepare the historical estimate.

The historical resource occurs in an area of elevated topography and comprises a series of stacked lenses that dip approximately 35-40 degrees to the south east. The Company considers that the morphology of Diba is favourable, with the potential for a low mining strip ratio, relatively limited overburden and a high proportion of the orebody being in the oxide zone. Deeper drilling at Diba targeting the sulphide zone intersected 1.32 g/t over 45m (from 93m), as such the historic resource remains open at depth.

Diba Project: Exploration history

Diba was originally discovered as part of a regional geochemical sampling programme conducted between 1987 and 1989. This programme reportedly also discovered the Sadiola gold mine and the former Yatela gold mine. A subsequent regional soil sampling programme at Diba completed by previous owners on a 500m x 250m (and in places 250m x 100m) grid identified a number of targets. This programme was completed between 2005 and 2007 and along with subsequent auger programmes, defined a 2.5km x 0.5km anomaly at Diba. A number of geophysical programmes have also been completed at Diba, including ground based induced polarisation, high resolution resistivity and magnetic surveys, as well as airborne VTEM.

Historic drill results from Diba are presented in Table 1. The oxide gold mineralisation at Diba is predominantly found in saprolite within 50m of surface and across a compact 800m x 600m area which has been drilled to date. The deposit is considered to be controlled by a number of northwest and northeast orientated structures, with gold occurring as fine grained disseminations in localised high grade calcite-quartz veinlets. Alteration at Diba is typically albite-hematite+/-pyrite, although pyrite content is generally very low (<1%).

Table 1: Selected Diba drilling intercepts from historic drilling (2006  2014)

Intersections are calculated based on a greater than 0.5g/t Au cut-off grade, a 40g/t top-cap of grades above that grade and where there is  3m of consecutive internal waste.

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Intersection (m) Grade (g/t Au) MIDH06-001 19.2 71.0 51.8 1.85 Including 34.0 38.0 4.0 12.65 Including (uncapped) 35.0 36.0 1.0 900.48 MIDH06-002 24.0 44.0 20.0 5.02 Including 26.0 31.0 5.0 7.35 Including 39.0 44.0 5.0 10.92 Including (uncapped) 42.0 43.0 1.0 49.48 MIDH06-004 36.0 74.0 38.0 2.08 Including 44.0 55.0 11.0 5.28 MIDH07-035 16.0 48.0 32.0 2.06 Including 20.0 24.0 4.0 7.70 MIDH07-057 32.0 62.0 30.0 2.15 Including 45.0 62.0 17.0 3.08 MIDH07-064 62.0 87.0 25.0 2.43 Including 78.0 79.0 1.0 36.70 DBRC-009 93.0 138.0 45.0 1.32 DBRC-023 47.0 55.0 8.0 9.60 Including 47.0 51.0 4.0 18.68 DBRC-055 11.0 32.0 21.0 2.00 Including 27.0 31.0 4.0 4.91

Cautionary note regarding historic data

Readers are cautioned that the data on Diba as referred to in this written disclosure is historic exploration data that has not been verified by a Qualified Person. Not all historic samples are available and Altus does not have complete information on the quality assurance or quality control measures taken in connection with the historical exploration results, or other exploration or testing details regarding these results. The potential tonnages and grades described in this release are conceptual in nature and are based on previous drill results that defined the approximate length, thickness, depth and grade of the portion of the historic resource estimate. There has been insufficient exploration to define a current resource and the Company cautions that there is a risk further exploration will not result in the delineation of a current mineral resource. The historic data should therefore not be relied upon until the Company can confirm it.

Qualified Person

The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus. He has not verified the historical data disclosed in this regulatory announcement but has no reason to question its accuracy. A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), Steven Poulton also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines (Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and has over 20 years of experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules and National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

For further information you are invited to visit the Company's website www.altus-strategies.com or contact:

Glossary of Terms

The following is a glossary of technical terms:

"AC" means the Air Core drilling technique

"Artisanal" means local people conducting mining, often with rudimentary equipment

"Au" means gold

"g/t" means grams per tonne

"Grade(s)" means the quantity of ore or metal in a specified quantity of rock

"m" means metres

"Ordinary kriging" means an interpolation technique where measured values are weighted to derive a predicted value for an unmeasured location

"RC" means the Reverse Circulation drilling technique

"VTEM" means Versatile Time Domain Electromagnetic geophysical survey

CONTACT:

Altus Strategies Plc Steven Poulton, Chief Executive Tel: +44 (0) 1235 511 767 E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Richard Morrison / Soltan Tagiev Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 SP Angel (Broker) Richard Parlons / Jonathan Williams Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0471 Blytheweigh (Financial PR) Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall Tel: +44 (0) 20 7138 3204

About Altus Strategies Plc

Altus is a London (AIM: ALS) and Toronto (TSX-V: ALTS) listed, diversified and Africa focused mineral exploration project generator. Through our subsidiaries we discover new projects and attract third party capital to fund their growth, development and ultimately exit optionality. This strategy enables Altus to remain focused on the acquisition of new opportunities to be fed into the project generation cycle and aims to minimise shareholder dilution. Our business model is designed to create a growing portfolio of well managed and high growth potential projects and royalties, diversified by commodity and by country. Altus currently has eighteen projects in six commodities across six countries. We aim to position our shareholders at the vanguard of value creation, but with significantly reduced risks traditionally associated with investments in the mineral exploration sector.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programmes on schedule and the success of exploration programmes. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date of this news release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Market reacts to new life of mine plan with GUY share price falling to 52-week low

Company continues to make excuses for poor performance and execution

Concerned Shareholders continue to evaluate Company's resource model and will share results from independent third-party review in due course

TORONTO, March 29, 2019 /CNW/ - Guyana Goldfields Inc. (TSX: GUY) ("Guyana Goldfields" or the "Company") shareholders (the "Concerned Shareholders"), together owning not less than 5% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company, are disappointed with the Company's 2018 financial results and their new life of mine plan for the Aurora Gold Mine ("Aurora") released earlier this week.

Not surprisingly, management's missed guidance and underperformance for 2018 is reflected in their financial report. The disappointing revenues and earnings, as reported, heighten concerns about the board of directors' ability to provide appropriate oversight over the Company's operations team.

Additionally, the Concerned Shareholders are troubled by the new life of mine plan for Aurora issued by the Company  even though it only issued one last year  which provides for a shorter life, a lower grade, higher costs, and a dramatic 43% reduction in production.

"This much gold just doesn't disappear. Management has yet to provide a credible explanation of why there's been a catastrophic reduction in ounces from the resource model that they initiated and signed-off on just one year ago. They were either misleading the market then or they are misleading the market now. Either way it is clear change is needed," said Patrick Sheridan, one of the largest shareholders and former Executive Chairman and former director of the Company. "Over the past year, they've blamed everyone and everything including mine rates, former employees, contractors, and the resource model for their performance. This, again, confirms the need for an independent board and management team to review and address the poor performance at the Aurora Gold Mine. If they are not prepared to be transparent, our independent review will hold them accountable."

As previously announced, the Concerned Shareholders have engaged a respected independent international consulting practice specializing in the resource sector to provide a third-party review and analysis of the Company's resource model and new life of mine plan.

Of concern is that the Company's 2018 mining reserve update, that was initiated and conducted under the review of CEO Scott Caldwell and the technical committee showed an increase of reserves of 500,000 ounces from 2017. Now, in 2019, the Company is claiming 1.7 million ounces of reserves have gone missing.

The Concerned shareholders are also concerned about the out of control costs at Aurora which will have a very dramatic impact on the open pit reserves and life. For example, mining costs have been reported at $3.43/t (which they expect to reduce to $3.01/t through contract mining), yet the 2017 feasibility study had them estimated at $2.11/tan overrun of 50%. Similarly, general and administrative expenses have grown from an estimated $8.52/t to now almost $11/t.

The Company's performance, with respect to costs, will lead to a smaller pit, shorter mine life, and a need for the underground development to become part of the critical development path for the continued operation. Instead of tackling the excessive operating costs in almost all areas, the current board has clearly just accepted them and written off a significant proportion of the open pit reserves.

The third-party review is expected be completed following the Company's timely disclosure of their related technical report.

Market, Analysts React to New Life of Mine Plan

In the two days, following the announcement of the new life of mine plan, the share price of Guyana Goldfields tumbled 14.4% to $1.13, a new 52 week low.

Analysts also reacted to the news with disappointment.

"We are disappointed by the significant loss in ore tonnes with no offsetting increase in grade. This could be partly a function of new and more conservative grade capping parameters, but the details of the mine plan were not provided beyond the summary level. This is the most frustrating aspect of the update."

- ScotiaBank

"Cash Will Be Tight in 2020The biggest impact of the much shorter open-pit mine life means development of the underground cannot be deferred and needs to begin this year. Depending on the gold price and the timing of spending over the next 12-18 months, the company may need to restructure its debt repayments or add to its debt capacity in order to be able to fully fund the underground development capital."

- Cormark Securities

"We had expected the company to lower its 2019/20 production forecast relative to its 2018 plan, however, the revision to reserves was more severe than we anticipated."

- TD Securities Inc.

"Guyana Goldfields is currently in the penalty box with investors for downgrading its 2018 guidance twice throughout the year, and now completing a resource review and new LoM Plan with large declines in reserves, production, and valuation.

"We are moving our rating and target to Under Review"

- Paradigm Capital

Learn More about the Concerned Shareholders and their Plan to Fix Guyana Goldfields

Shareholders are encouraged to visit FixGuyGold.com to learn more about the Concerned Shareholders and about their plan to stop the massive value destruction at Guyana Goldfields.

Patrick Sheridan, on behalf of the Concerned Shareholders, welcomes the opportunity to engage with fellow shareholders. Mr. Sheridan can be reached at 416-628-5904 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Advisors

Kingsdale Advisors is acting as strategic shareholder, communications and proxy advisor and Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP and Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP are acting as legal advisors to the Concerned Shareholders of Guyana Goldfields Inc.

Additional Information

Information in Support of Public Broadcast Solicitation

The information contained in this press release does not and is not meant to constitute a solicitation of a proxy within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Although the Concerned Shareholders have delivered the requisition, shareholders are not being asked at this time to execute a proxy in favour of the Concerned Shareholders' nominees (the "Nominees") or any other resolution set forth in the requisition. In connection with the meeting, the Concerned Shareholders may file a dissident information circular in due course in compliance with applicable securities laws.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Concerned Shareholders are voluntarily providing the disclosure required under section 9.2(4) of National Instrument 51-102  Continuous Disclosure Obligations ("NI 51-102") and section 150(1.2) of the Canada Business Corporations Act in accordance with Canadian corporate and securities laws applicable to public broadcast solicitations. In connection therewith, certain information regarding, among other things, the Nominees has been provided by the Concerned Shareholders in its press release dated January 10, 2019, (the "Nominee Announcement") under the section entitled "Information Concerning the Nominees". The Nominee Announcement has been filed by the Concerned Shareholders and is available for review on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Since the Nominee Announcement, Nominees James White and Carmen Diges have each advised the Concerned Shareholders that each now beneficially own, control or direct (directly or indirectly) 35,000 and 80,000 common shares of Guyana Goldfields, respectively.

The information contained herein and any solicitation made by the Concerned Shareholders in advance of the meeting is, or will be, as applicable, made by the Concerned Shareholders and not by or on behalf of the management of Guyana Goldfields. All costs incurred for any solicitation will be borne by the Concerned Shareholders, provided that, subject to applicable law, the Concerned Shareholders may seek reimbursement from Guyana Goldfields of the Concerned Shareholders' out-of-pocket expenses, including proxy solicitation expenses and legal fees, incurred in connection with a successful reconstitution of Guyana Goldfields' board.

The Concerned Shareholders are not soliciting proxies in connection with the meeting at this time. The Concerned Shareholders may engage the services of one or more agents and authorize other persons to assist in soliciting proxies on behalf of the Concerned Shareholders. The Concerned Shareholders have retained Kingsdale Advisors ("Kingsdale") as its strategic shareholder, communications and proxy advisor. Kingsdale's responsibilities will principally include soliciting shareholders should the Concerned Shareholders commence a formal solicitation of proxies, providing strategic advice and advising the Concerned Shareholders with respect to the meeting and proxy protocol. Any proxies solicited by or on behalf of the Concerned Shareholders, including by Kingsdale or any other agent, may be solicited pursuant to a dissident information circular or by way of public broadcast, including through press releases, speeches or publications and by any other manner permitted under Canadian corporate and securities laws. Any such proxies may be revoked by instrument in writing executed by a shareholder or by his or her attorney authorized in writing or, if the shareholder is a body corporate, by an officer or attorney thereof duly authorized or by any other manner permitted by law.

The registered address of Guyana Goldfields is located at 141 Adelaide Street West, Suite 1608, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 3L5. A copy of this press release may be obtained on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.The tropical island of Sri Lanka, hit by a series of deadly blasts on Sunday, emerged in 2009 from a 37-year civil war led by Tamil separatists.

Some key facts about the Indian Ocean island nation:

 Ethnic, religious mix 

Sri Lanka lies off the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent, the teardrop-shaped island is separated from its giant neighbour by the narrow strip of sea known as the Palk Straits.

The island covers 65,000 square kilometres (25,000 square miles) with a population of 21.4 million, of which nearly three quarters are ethnic Sinhalese.

The Tamils, the second-largest ethnic group, make up more than 15 percent of the population and live mainly in the north and northeast.

The majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhist  70 percent, mostly Sinhalese  while 12 percent are Hindus, mostly Tamils, and Muslims count 10 percent of the population, and Christians about six percent.

 Once Ceylon 

The former Ceylon became a British colony in 1815 having previously been controlled by the Portuguese from 1505 to 1656 and the Dutch from 1656 to 1796.

The last Sinhalese king reigned from 1798 to 1815.

Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948.

 Civil war 

Tamil rebels launched a separatist campaign state in 1972, triggering a civil war that lasted 37 years.

The Tamil uprising was crushed by a Sinhalese-majority government in 2009 after a conflict estimated to have claimed up to 100,000 lives.

Government troops have been accused of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the last months of the civil war. No one has been prosecuted for war crimes in the decade since the conflict ended.

In 2019 Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena appointed a general accused by the UN of war crimes against Tamils to the countrys second-highest army ranking, evoking outcry from rights groups.

In March the UN human rights chief warned Sri Lanka could slip back into conflict unless it addressed the worst crimes during the final stages of the conflict.

 Tea, tourists, and radical monks 

Sri Lankas main export is tea, while the garments industry and money from workers abroad are also key sources of revenue.

Following the end of the civil war, international tourism flourished, with more than two million visitors per year since 2016, compared to 448,000 in 2009.

But religious tensions have been stoked by extremist Buddhist monks amid accusations of instigating hate crimes against minority Muslims.

In 2018 the Colombo government imposed for the first time since 2011 a nationwide state of emergency, lasting some 10 days, in a bid to quell anti-Muslim violence after riots left three people dead.

(Sources: AFP, World Bank, CIA World Factbook)CAVE JUNCTION, Ore. -- Police are asking for help locating a driver that placed Illinois Valley Fire District workers in danger.

Saturday morning crews were dispatched to a single-vehicle car accident in Cave Junction. The accident happened near the 3600 block of Holland Loop Road. The wooden fence went through the Pontiac's window and barely missed the driver. Crews say the driver is "extremely lucky they were uninjured". The driver was even able to walk away from the accident to look for help.

While fire district crews were working, the white sedan sped past them. Then workers say the driver stopped past their rescue vehicle and yelled obscenities. Police are asking for help identifying the driver because Chief Hoke at the Illinois Valley Fire Department says they do plan on pressing charges against the driver for placing their crews at risk of serious injury.At least 207 people have died and over 400 injured after a series of coordinated explosions hit churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Blasts ripped through three churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa at approximately 8:45 a.m. as worshipers were gathering for services. Explosions also took place at four hotels within Colombo, the nations capital, police said, while an eighth blast occurred under a flyover within the city.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings which are the deadliest to occur in the country since its civil war ended in 2009.

Sri Lankan foreign minister has put the number of foreigners killed in the explosion at 27. Two police officers were also killed during an operation to capture suspects from a safehouse in Dematagoda, the area outside Colombo where the eighth blast occurred.

World leaders have offered condolences to the government of Sri Lanka for the tragedy.After the success of the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in May 2017, China will host the second BRF under the theme "Belt and Road Cooperation: Shaping a Brighter Shared Future" later this month in Beijing.



The second BRF comes at a unique time when the country is hosting multiple diplomatic events to mark the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China this year. Undoubtedly, the upcoming BRF is of great importance, owing to the increasing number of participating countries  nearly 40 foreign leaders are attending, which demonstrates China's commitment to sharing its development opportunities with more countries in the world.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was first proposed in 2013. Since then, the BRI has become a popular initiative and one of the best platforms for international cooperation. The gargantuan program, which is now a commonly used term in world politics and global economics, is a Chinese solution incorporating oriental wisdom. It is designed to pursue common prosperity while focusing on "humanity with a shared future."

Through six years of hard work, BRI puts China at the center of an emerging regional and global order while boosting its aspirations toward integration. Despite some criticism, this initiative, with its spirit of openness, inclusiveness and transparency, has been widely accepted as a mutually beneficial program. So far, a total of 124 countries and 29 international organizations have signed BRI cooperation documents with China. According to data from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), under the initiative, China has set up 82 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones that have offered host countries a total tax revenue of over US$2 billion and 244,000 jobs.

In the past six years, the BRI has opened the floodgates of Chinese investments through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Silk Road Fund and the New Development Bank in virtually all types of transportation infrastructure. This includes rail, roads, ports, airports, electricity generation, telecommunications and various other forms of connectivity in the Euro-Asiatic region, Africa and Latin America.

Though some countries dramatize China's financial aid to developing countries as pure "money relations" or "debt trap," Sri Lanka's Matara-Kataragama Railway Extension Project (Phase 1), the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway, the China-Laos railway, the upgrade of Pakistan's Gwadar port, Sri Lanka's Hambantota Port and Greece's Port of Piraeus, to name a few, bear the stamp of China's assistance to promote development in participating countries through BRI projects.

Most importantly, within a brief period of six years, this "project of the century," built on the spirit of "peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, and mutual benefits," has added new impetus to China and the rest of the world in the promotion of globalization. It should be noted here that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has encouraged the UN to cooperate with the countries engaged in the BRI in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda.

Over the past six years, the achievements of this mega-scale development initiative have already gone far beyond earlier expectations. It has created a unified integrated network of physical infrastructure, intellectual capital and digital connectivity encompassing 100 countries, with nearly 70% of the world's population, 55% of GDP and 24% of global trade. The global confidence in the BRI is shown by the fact that the first BRF in May 2017 attracted over 30 world leaders, as well as representatives from over 130 countries from four continents.

African countries have benefited and continue to benefit from this initiative. Indeed, the BRI has had an impact on the lives of the African people through numerous development projects. A number of Latin American and Caribbean states also recently signed a memorandum of understanding to join the BRI. The 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe form an important part of the BRI and are aspiring to improve their infrastructure under the auspices of the BRI. On March 23, Italy endorsed the BRI, becoming the first among the G7 most industrialized nations to do so. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also described the Belt and Road infrastructure plan as an important project that Europeans want to participate in.

The BRI has been playing a very active role in building and upgrading physical infrastructure in ASEAN and South Asian countries with railway, power plant and property investments. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, and Myanmar are already beneficiaries or supporters of BRI projects.

The BRI is dedicated to the development of all countries across the world. It is hoped that the world will shed its reservations over the BRI, support the common development approaches of the BRI and participate in the upcoming BRF which can provide all stakeholders a chance to enrich their economies and improve the living standards of their people.

It is hoped that during the high-level meeting, China, all BRI partners as well as invited guests, politicians and researchers will focus on the multilateral approach of this cross-continental initiative. If implemented well, the BRI will create a path to peace, inclusiveness and better anchor free trade and globalization in order to bring its benefits to all. At the same time, the upcoming BRF might be a golden opportunity for China and Chinese enterprises to allay concerns by other countries over the initiative and ensure that the whole world can benefit greatly from the BRI's model of win-win cooperation and mutual trust.

Rabi Sankar Bosu, Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India.





Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.





If you would like to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.29K Shares Share

These events happened over 18 years ago. Some content has been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. Searching for positive changes in the health care industry. We are not a number, and the patients are not a number.

Im not good at lying. My eyes go to the left or look downward, and I start to stutter and pause. There is no eye contact, and I fall deep into the black tunnel of deception and fight to get out.

I grew up with lies and deception.

Your father is taking early retirement.

My father, who I adored, who was an executive at IBM. He was fun loving and completely Irish  he also walked into walls at night after his gallon of wine. It was the family I couldnt fix. And the daddy I loved so much  he was unfixable. We had the new large house on the right side of town, a lake house on two acres and the boat that matched. The nuns at my private Catholic school demanded respect.

Daddy was a heavy drinker as mom would say.

Daddy was an alcoholic.

And though I would have never wanted to be a nurse, the 1970s were full of dreams and womens rights and burning bras, but my mother dictated our household. No matter what dreams you may have, you still would become a nurse, a teacher, a wife, a librarian. And I emotionally fought tooth and nail at my new role in life. The dreams of running away from that dark house that hid the truths and running towards fresh air and freedom were all extinguished  and my destiny was to be a nurse.

Mother said I was to be a nurse.

It was psychiatry then emergency nursing then surgery and PACU. I finally landed in ICU. And how I loved it. I enjoyed the intricate puzzle of multi-system failure organs. Heart lungs kidneys brain liver pancreas  they meshed well. This well-oiled machine fell apart piece by piece, organ by organ.

I was sold. Maybe mom was right. Perhaps I was supposed to be a crusader for the sick. CPR intubation drugs IVs, CAT scans and MRIs ventilators dialysis balloon pumps surgeries. Some made it through and smiled at you as they graduated from ICU to the step-down unit to out the front door. Some did not. Sometimes the thoughts and prayers from family members didnt work at keeping their loved one alive. Sometimes Jesus decided it was time to go home. Sometimes Jesus would say you dont live forever  nobody gets out of here alive.

I met nurses that had to be my sisters from another life. I met pure good and pure evil in the nursing profession.

I graduated to charge nurse in this 20-bed ICU. I loved directing the unit and problem solving and critical thinking in a flash of seconds.

But my downfall was telling the truth.

Political suicide. Sometimes upper management doesnt want the truth. But I hated the untruths, the fabrications, and the lies. And so I loved my new position as a charge nurse, but I was a misfit from the beginning.

It wasnt just one night that our acuities were dangerously high and nursing staff was low  it was a typical scene in the critical care unit. Do with what you have, dont complain, an empty bed means availability for a new patient, but an empty bed didnt mean a nurse to match.

In this environment, a particular night of doom started pleasantly enough  one nurse to two ICU patients. Fair enough, but there was chaos in the ER. Our ICU beds filled up. We werent a trauma ICU, but we would certainly become one in this night. A male 32 years old riddled with gunshot wounds, another male with multiple stab wounds. Our ICU filled up with critically ill patients, and our 2:1 assignments quickly went to 3:1 assignments. Code cools and code blues. Family members screaming from every corner of the ICU. The coronary care unit was handling CABGs and balloon pumps, and the neuro ICU had craniotomies coming to their unit. Any sanity you thought you had was out the window.

Our manager was the supervisor on-call for all of the critical care units that night. And I was told to call her. All three units were in crisis mode. And there were not enough nurses to take care of these patients. If you ever thought you could say Im going to lunch Im hungry. or I need to go to the bathroom  forget it because it wasnt going to happen.

It was a war zone and looked like nobody would get out of here alive  not the patients and not the nurses. Upper management was nowhere to be found.

Some patients died that night. They didnt have a chance. We were all short staffed that night because we were told over and over again like a broken record: budget, productivity, do everything, wave your magic wand to make the patients and the families happy. But what was behind the budget, the productivity?

Was it an end-of-year bonus check to the managers? Was it a salary increase to the CEO of $5 to $6 million per year not including the perks? Were the board members happily lining their pockets?

Nurses dont go into nursing to get rich  ever.

That night seemed never to end. And management never returned my phones calls. Twelve hours of phone calls unanswered.

And the next morning the manager came in. No explanation, no apology. Total avoidance.

Thats when I knew the difference. Thats when I knew that you have to decide to be true to yourself or sell your soul. This manager chose to sell her soul.

A critical, urgent managerial meeting was called within a few days.

Mandatory. We were to discuss the critical shortage of ICU, CCU and neuro ICU nurses.

Problem solving.

All of the big wigs were there. Managers and directors and director of nursing and chief ICU physician. And then there was us  the little charge nurses who were the real heroes in the battlefield.

Every director and manager spoke up. The words came crashing in on me: Were here for you, We support you, Call us anytime night or day. We are here for you physically and mentally. Call us 24/7.

They smiled and nodded their heads and patted themselves on their backs with an affirmation that they held some magic in their hands and some pretty simple solutions for such complicated and dangerous nursing practice.

Their words crashed into me like sharp stab wounds to my brain and every ounce of my genetic Irish-Italian blood spilled out all over that mahogany executive table.

I closed my eyes and let it all out.

Lies lies and more lies. And I had to put an end to this.

And I said to those managers and directors and physicians:

Not true. None of this is true. Not only are you not available to us or our patients you are nowhere in sight.

I went on. I was unstoppable.

I called our manager on call that night 15 times. Fifteen times. Phone, cell, beeper  I left messages. And no reply ever. And I documented 15 times.

I stared at our manager in the eyes as I spoke the truth. And the managers and directors and physicians, with their masters degrees and their PHDs and their doctorate degrees, sat in silence, with their jaws on the ground. A pin dropping in that room would have been a loud noise.

One week later, I was called into the managers office. I was demoted to staff nurse. I was not to be the charge nurse again.

Was it political suicide? Was it the truth that no one wanted to deal with?

And those words. Those final words she said to me. A defining moment in my life and my career.

Youre not one of us.

And I knew that.

I wasnt willing to sell my soul.

I was thankful that I was not one of them.

Debbie Moore-Black is a nurse who blogs at Do Not Resuscitate.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com2K Shares Share

Within the clinics, hospital corridors, and halls of medicine, a new phrase has emerged and taken hold of the practice of medicine. Whenever confronted with the challenging, inconvenient, undesirable, underinsured or maybe when just overwhelmed, health care personnel have begun to utter the phrase Im not comfortable with 

Upon the utterance, all responsibility to the patient, institution or the honorable practice of medicine is immediately and completely discharged until the situation however small or large can come to rest with the health care provider who is comfortable.

It seems some physicians have become uncomfortable with assessment of common conditions. Emergency physicians became uncomfortable with discharge of patients, and finally, hospitalists at other facilities became uncomfortable with attending to any patient who might have a remote chance of requiring assessment by a specialist physician not on their hospital medical staff. All that is necessary it that they state Im not comfortable, and patients must be transferred elsewhere.

So, who really is comfortable in 2019?

The answer eludes me. Specialists have sub-specialized and left significant portions of their training behind. Physicians seek out non-hospital-based specialties to avoid the rigors and inconvenience of emergency call. Concierge and boutique practices expand, ready to serve the patient right up until the moment they are seriously ill or unable to pay the premium fees.

Primary care physicians rarely see patients when hospitalized and routinely defer routine matters to the emergency department. As physicians defer more patient care duties, they lose important clinical skills and become progressively less able to treat seriously ill patients competently.

The phrase Im not comfortable has become so powerful that it leaves no room for question. Instead of the phrase explaining a lack of ability, knowledge or training, doctors, nurses, and medical technicians can now deftly wield this phrase and produce an impenetrable shield against all that is unwanted, difficult, unpleasant or just inconvenient. It absolves responsibility and deflects potential liability. It is the perfect defense for anyone who is stressed, burnt out or doesnt wish to be bothered with a difficult problem or just additional work. It is now heard from nurses all the way up to the sub-specialized physicians who may prefer to avoid caring for the most challenging, common and least rewarding conditions in medical practice.

In todays medical world, Im not comfortable with accepting/treating this patient or condition has become the equivalent of telling a colleague to go-fish, meaning I wont take this, find someone else.

In my opinion, the expansion of hospitalists, residency work hour restrictions, governmental regulation, medical liability, and defensive medicine are at the root of this statement.

Hospitalists assumed care of patients that previously might have been admitted by the primary care physician, cardiologist, neurologist, gastroenterologist, and even medical oncologists.

Im not comfortable is increasingly prevalent in the most recent generation of physicians, trained in the era of limited duty hours during residency and accustomed to the hand-off of patients to the next shift doctor.

Governmental regulation including EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) regulations obligate facilities with specialized capabilities to accept any patient for which transfer is requested. All one must do is say  Im not comfortable, and the transfer process will begin.

The fear of litigation caused some physicians to flee from emergency call and limit practice to outpatient centers, focusing on low-stress and low-risk problems. Some have resigned their privileges to treat certain conditions or left the practice of medicine altogether. Specialty hospitals skim the well-insured, healthy and straight forward patients off the top and send the underinsured ill elsewhere, Specialists reduce exposure to litigation and escape emergency call at the general hospital. When patients under the care of these providers encounter a serious problem, or perhaps just call after hours, they are directed elsewhere.

Defensive medicine motivates doctors to request more consultations to limit liability and responsibility, referring to specialists with a symptom only, often without treatment or testing. Difficult patients are placed on a referral merry-go-round seeing one specialist after another without any clear plan or treatment.

If a higher level of care exists, it must be sought out to exclude any possible diagnosis regardless of how unlikely it may be. Every symptom must be assigned to a specialty and consultation must be obtained for each item on the problem list. The hospitalist or emergency room physician becomes little more than a triage specialist in some instances. Its little wonder medical care has become so disjointed and expensive. So, it seems that no one is comfortable anymore.

The net effect has been an insidious growth in apathy among doctors.

There have always been physicians who found ways of avoiding extra work and unpleasant patients, but the change we are experiencing is much more widespread in my opinion. We create boutique medical practices, neurologists and pulmonary critical care physicians choose to practice sleep medicine instead of caring for acutely ill patients and newly trained medical doctors unaccustomed to working more than the regulated hours of residency choose to limit practice to maintain a lifestyle they feel is balanced. When physicians in my field of neurosurgery trained to care for patients with life-threatening neurosurgical conditions relinquish the privilege of performing cranial surgery in to avoid emergency call and liability, we have a problem.

The 2018 update to the American Association of Medical Colleges titled The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand 2016-2030  estimated a physician shortage of up to 120,000 physicians by 2030 and is currently at 40,000-60,000 fewer physicians than needed. The population is expected to grow approximately 11% by 2030 and simultaneously is aging significantly. Furthermore, since 2002 there has been a trend among physicians to work fewer hours, with the effect of 32,000 fewer full-time physicians in practice. Even though the supply of hospitalist physicians has been growing the demand will most likely exceed the available hospitalists. Many physicians have left practice or plan to retire early, and more than one-third of active physicians will be 65 or older by 2030. Many of these physicians will leave practice.

All of these factors have concentrated the care of seriously ill patients among the remaining physicians obligated or willing to accept them. The numbers of patients continue to increase. It is little wonder that burnout rates among such physicians are high. The real physician shortage lies in the reality that more patients who are often sicker and older are in the care of progressively fewer physicians. According to the 2018 AAMC report, it is predicted that even with increasing numbers of medical school graduates, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, delayed retirement of existing physicians and static work hours, the demand will continue to exceed the supply of physicians by 2030.

Those of us left are certainly not comfortable.

Jackson B. Salvant, Jr. is a neurosurgeon.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com Flash

The "Yellow Vest" movement which symbolizes social rebellion against French President Emmanuel Macron continued for the 23rd demonstration in a row on Saturday, promising to draw bigger numbers.



Five months since last November when people from all the ages and backgrounds took to French streets driven by anger over a perceived squeeze on household income, their anger seemed cemented.

"With favorable weather and following disappointing announcements of the head of state, there will be a lot of people," said Benjamin Cauchy, one of the "Yellow Vest" representatives.

The spontaneous action had drew 287,710 people at its highest. Since then, it has been losing steam after Macron offered concessions worth 10 billion euros (11.24 billion U.S. dollars) to improve purchasing power and launched a series of public debates that he promised will lead to concrete measures.

Despite signs of weakening, some of "Yellow Vest" protesters had sought to maintain pressure on the French government to ensure their claims of better fiscal policy and improved public services should be transformed into deeds.

The 23rd protest, called as an "ultimatum 2" to the French president, came days after a fire ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral. Demonstrators expressed frustration that their request to improve the daily life of the needy has not received anything like the outpouring of millions of euros to help build the landmark church.

"Millions for Notre Dame, what for the poor?" or "Victor Hugo thanks you for Notre Dame, think about the miserable", read out banners in Paris rally.

"I'm sorry, and with all due respect to our heritage, but I am just taken aback by these astronomic amounts," Ingrid Levavasseur, one of the movement's founding leader said in a video posted on her Facebook account.

"After five months on the streets, this is totally at odds with what we have seen," she said.

Pledged donations from French billionaires and companies for the restoration of fire-ravaged centuries-old cathedral are approaching 1 billion euros, shortly after Macron announced, in a televised speech, a fundraising campaign to reconstruct the building.

As previous demonstrations, authorities banned rallies at the Champs Elysees Avenue and the Arc de Triomphe monument, flashpoint of clashes with the police and vandalism in recent protests.

In Paris, which had been chosen as the focus of the 23th weekend of protest, the debut was relatively calm when people marched peacefully waving tricolor flags and chanted anti-Macron slogans, like previous actions.

However, sporadic clashes broke out in the French capital. Some individuals torched rubbish bins and motorcycles and pelted police with projectiles that responded by firing tear gas.

On Friday, French Interior Minister Chritophe Castaner feared a repeat of violent protest on March 16 following a potential return of rioters who had the in intention to wreak havoc in Paris, Toulouse, Montpellier and Bordeaux.

Some 60,000 police officers were mobilized across French cities and more than 11,000 checks have been conducted by the afternoon. Paris prefecture said 126 protesters were arrested, of which 56 were placed under police custody. Flash

Chinese and American scholars called on the two countries and the rest of the world to strengthen cooperation on ecological civilization at an international forum, which kicked off here on Friday in western U.S. state of California.

Themed "Ecological Civilization and Holistic Human Development," the forum is hosted by the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, a U.S. think tank and non-profit organization.

Over 160 scholars from China, the United States and other countries are exchanging views on the latest developments in ecological civilization at the Pitzer College in the two-day event.

"Let's work together to create an ecological civilization," said John B. Cobb Jr., a 94-year-old member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in his welcome remark at the opening ceremony.

"I have said many times that my hope for the future of process thinking is in China," said Cobb, noting that China is now far in the lead in the development of ecological civilization. Cobb has been advocating for green development and more efforts to avoid global ecological crisis since 1970s.

"More and more, we want to learn from you and to share our ideas with you," he told Chinese scholars in his speech.

He noted that China has adopted the goal of ecological civilization and changed policies accordingly.

Cobb is the author of more than 50 books and the founding president of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, donating all of his money to support its operation and activities.

He said that China's commitment to become an ecological civilization has inspired some cities in other countries and expressed hope for more cooperation between China and the United States in future.

"I hope that, as citizens and local communities, we can continue to build ties of friendship and mutual support," Cobb concluded.

Philip Clayton, president of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, urged China and western countries to jointly deal with climate change.

"China became the global leader in the development of ecological civilization in 2007. China has begun to bring attention to ecological civilization in the United States, and many western countries inspired by that movement," Clayton told Xinhua.

The Chinese government announced its first national action plan to respond to climate change in 2007, becoming the first developing country to formulate and implement the National Climate Change Program. Respect nature, follow its way and protect it. The Chinese leadership has been tirelessly promoting a simple, moderate, green, and low-carbon life for Chinese people, and asked them to treat the ecological environment with the same importance they treat their own lives.

"We have begun an annual series of international forums on ecological civilization that helps the west learn about Chinese ideas of ecological civilization. We are at a phase of new partnership opening up between China and western nations like the United States," said Clayton, adding that as the environmental crisis grows greater, the room for cooperation is much more expanded.

"This is a really important time in the history of our planet. We have an increasingly short amount of time in order to be able to take real, concerted effort to address the climate crisis, and our countries have an opportunity to collaborate and cooperate to reduce the impact of industry and agriculture in order to form the ecological civilization," said Brian G. Henning, Professor of Department of Environmental Studies at the Gonzaga University.

"It's clear to us now that no country will be unaffected by the changes to our climate. I live in Washington State and the wild fires each year are getting worse and worse. And this is causing people all over our country to realize that we need to take climate change seriously and to reduce the carbon pollution in our environment," he added.

Some Chinese scholars introduced the latest development of China's ecological civilization construction, emphasizing the importance and necessity of cooperation in the field.

In her plenary speech, Dr. Fan Meijun, program director of Institute for Postmodern Development of China, argued that new education model is urgently needed to cultivate persons who serve the local community, serve the ecological civilization.

Fan stressed that ecological civilization is a huge project which needs countries to work more in-depth cooperation.

"In this sense, the cooperation between China, the second largest economy, and the United States, the largest one, is extremely important," she noted. Flash

If he could travel back in time, Yuan Shichao would go back to 2011 to thank himself for his "crazy" decision.

At that time, he was applying for the wine business major in the University of Adelaide in South Australia. Not accepted, he went directly to knock at the dean's door.

"I struggled to use all the English words I knew about wine," the 30-year-old man recalled. "The dean was, I think, more surprised than persuaded, but he agreed to let me have a try," he said.

It was the start of Yuan's story of wine. Now he is marketing officer with Nova Vita, a wine group in Adelaide hills of South Australia.

In the past years, he saw a boost of wine trade between China and Australia.

According to Wine Australia, Australian wine producers exported 2.82 billion Australian dollars' worth of product to the world (about 2 billion U.S. dollars) last year, of which 40 percent was sold to China, an increase of 18 percent from the previous year.

NO LONGER LUXURY

Wine, which appeared more on the screen than on dinner tables in China's ordinary families three decades ago, was once seen as an icon of petty bourgeois.

After China's reform and opening up, people's living standard is improved and the population of middle class is on the rise. With the increase of international exchanges, wine became an ordinary drink with everyday dishes in many families.

Yuan visited his father's friend in 2010 in Adelaide. "I was attracted by the vineyard," he said.

After graduation, he found a job in Nova Vita, when the wine company was about the march into Chinese market. "In Australia the demand of wine was not as high as the supply. Therefore more than half of the products would be exported. As a Chinese, I joined the company at the right time," he said.

Nova Vita was founded in 1999. Now the company boasts more than 66 hectares of vineyard, and could produce two million bottles of wine.

"In the recent years our sales growth rate was about 80 percent," Yuan said.

"During my first visit, most of the inquiries are about entry-level wine, what I call everyday drinking wine about 3 Australian dollars a bottle," Mark Kozned, managing director of Nova Vita, said. "Now most of the inquiries about wine are mid-level, something you can have at home with dinner or with good friends, or for premium wine which people tend to use for gift-giving especially around Mid-Autumn festival or the Chinese New Year," Kozned said.

CHINESE BOND GROWING

Kozned has visited China for more than 25 times since 2012, with the most recent visit the China International Import Expo (CIIE) last year.

"CIIE last year was a fantastic event. It was well put on both by the Chinese government and the organizer," he told Xinhua. "I was impressed that the Chinese business people from around China that visited really wanted to do some business," he added.

"Our achievement from the CIIE was that we gained three to four potential clients, and during the event we actually signed contracts. We discussed with three other parties post CIIE to send the wine in the next three to four months," he said.

Since participation of the CIIE, Nova Vita has received orders for more than a dozen containers of wines to China.

According to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, China is the world's third largest market for imported wine behind the United States and Germany.

The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement further reduced the tariff of Australian wine to China to zero. "It made Australian wine in Chinese market more and more competitive. We are closing on France as the No.1 wine supplier in volume into the Chinese market," Kozned said.

Australia has also attached great importance to Chinese market. Last year, Wine Australia promoted Australian wine in China, with more than 100 companies involved.

Australia wine reached not only metropolis like Beijing and Shanghai, but also smaller cities.

Currently, Nova Vita has two branches in China, in east China's Zhejiang Province and southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Yuan, whose hometown is in Zhejiang, spends several months each year in China doing business.

"More Chinese people joined in Australian wine companies," Yuan said. "I graduated in 2013, when I was the only one of more than 10 Chinese students to land a full-time job. Now that the Chinese students majoring in wine business haven't graduated yet, but most of them have received job offers," he said.

MORE THAN JUST A JOB

The bond between China and Australia wine is so close that Chinese people are not satisfied with just becoming employees in wine companies.

Guo Song arrived in Australia in 2007. Two years later, he bought the Jarressa Estate with friends.

In retrospect, he said that in the past three years, sales of wine in Chinese market grows at a rate of about 50 percent. In 2018, Jarressa sold more than 10 million bottles, of which 96 percent were sold to China.

He also said that China is also affecting the wine industry in Australia. "Chinese people prefer red wine to the white, and the preference affected grape planting here," he said.

With China's development and further opening up, Guo saw the wine industry as very promising.

Whereas Kozned believed that the wine like an important bridge between China and Australia. He has decided to attend the second CIIE this year. "We will spend more time in preparation, and put on better presentation," he said. "The second time, you will always do things better," he added.

Australia is to have the federal election in May. However, Kozned said that no matter who wins, and however the international trade environment changes, the wine trade between China and Australia will continue to boom. "We are like two brothers, China and Australia," he said.







By Lee Min-hyung







President Moon Jae-in agreed Wednesday to expand energy-related business partnerships with Turkmenistan during a summit with the latter's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Wednesday.







"We expect more Korean companies to participate in energy and plant businesses led by the Turkmenistan government," Moon said in a post-summit joint press release there.







Turkmenistan is the first destination of Moon's trip to three Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Moon will stay in the country for three days until Thursday.







In particular, Moon cited a petrochemical plant at Kiyanly, located on the west coast of Turkmenistan, as a successful example of the economic partnership between the two countries. A consortium led by Korean firm Hyundai Engineering completed the construction of the plant last year.







"The Kiyanly case shows Turkmenistan is the optimum partner for Korea," Moon said. "I was encouraged by the Turkmenistan president's words that he will place importance on partnerships with Korean companies. Both countries will continue making the second and third Kiyanly models."







Turkmenistan is best-known for having the world's fourth-largest gas reserves. Korea believes Turkmenistan will become a crucial partner in future economic cooperation.







Both sides also agreed to enhance ties in a variety of business areas, such as telecommunications and smart medical systems.







"Korea has strength in the telecommunications sector, with the country recently launching the world's first commercial fifth-generation network," Moon said. "We hope Korean companies can play a part in expanding the digital infrastructure in Turkmenistan."







The two countries signed six memorandum of understanding for partnerships in areas such as energy and plant businesses.







This is the first time that Moon has visited the country, so the government expects the summit to build a foundation for the two countries to continue boosting exchanges in business.







After the summit, President Moon was a guest at a state banquet organized by his Turkmenistan counterpart.



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Chinese technology group Wonder News announced on Saturday the launch of its regional headquarters in Bahrain, which will offer services to the clients of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The announcement was made by the Wonder News CEO Ou Zhenxing during a press conference with Shaikh Hisham bin Abdul Rahman Al-Khalifa, head of Capital Governorate which covers Bahrain's capital Manama.

The Chinese company, which focuses on the mobile internet in the Arab world, said it will invest 50 million U.S. dollars and offer 500 employment opportunities in Bahrain over the next three years.

"We have a highly-qualified research and development team which has successfully developed and introduced numerous applications for over 100 million users," said Ou.

According to Shaikh Hisham, the launch of the company's headquarters in Bahrain is the result of a memorandum of understanding signed between Bahrain's Capital Governorate and China's southern city of Shenzhen in September 2016.

Bahrain has attracted several big Chinese names, including the technology giant Huawei and China International Marine Containers Company (CIMC), to invest in the kingdom.

Established in 2015, China-based Wonder News has branches in the Middle East countries including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.



 Flash

The final round of the 18th "Chinese Bridge," an annual Chinese language and culture proficiency competition for college students, concluded here on Saturday.

Under the theme of "One World and One Family," nineteen finalists from a number of leading Mongolian universities competed in the final round of the Mongolian regional contest in the three categories featuring "free speeches," "Q&As" and "Chinese talent show."

The winner was Sarangerel Erdene-Ochir, a first year student at the National University of Mongolia. He will represent Mongolia at the final competition to be held in China.

"I am very excited about winning the grand prize of the Mongolian regional contest of the 18th 'Chinese Bridge.' I also got a scholarship to study a master's degree in China, one step closer to my dream," said Erdene-Ochir.

The 19-year-old winner started learning Chinese when he was just 6 years old.

All finalists were awarded prizes and certificates according to their individual results.

The competition was co-organized by the Confucius Institute Headquarters, the Confucius Institute at National University of Mongolia, the Mongolian Chinese Teachers Association, the China-Mongolia Cultural and Education Foundation, as well as the Chinese Cultural Center in Ulan Bator.



Executive chef Helene An, 75, is preparing to hand over the reins of her Beverly Hills restaurant, Crustacean, to a successor she trained for the job. He has a tough act to follow. The Smithsonian recently announced it will honor An and her family in May with a Pioneer Award in Culinary Arts, recognizing her as the mother of fusion cuisine and the first to introduce Vietnamese cuisine to mainstream America, changing American palates forever. Some of Ans daughters have held management roles in the family enterprise, which includes two other Southern California restaurants (Tiato and AnQi), two San Francisco restaurants (the first Crustacean and the familys original eatery, Thanh Long) and a catering operation. A new restaurant, Da Lat Rose, will open in Beverly Hills in May.

For the record: This article states the An family plans to open Da Lat Rose in Beverly Hills in May. The opening is set for October. Also, to clarify: The article refers to a restaurant with 10 seats. That was the familys first San Francisco restaurant, Thanh Long.

Know the kitchen

As the youngest of a wealthy family of 17, I was spoiled, very lazy. I didnt have to do anything, An said. That didnt last. By the time she was 6, her mother expected her to start learning in the family kitchen. Even if you dont end up cooking, you have to watch the chef and your sisters, An recalled her mother saying. Learn from them.

Escape from Vietnam

Years later, in 1975, An was a young woman living in Saigon. It was a shock when a friend of her husband told her,  North Vietnamese troops are near the city. You have to leave now. I just make a very quick decision. I bring only my three daughters. No jewelry. No pennies in my pocket. A cargo plane took them to the Philippines, then Guam, before she was flown to Camp Pendleton. Her final destination was San Francisco, where her mother-in-law, Diana An, had bought a deli she didnt know how to run. It was fate, An said.

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Motivated

An said she never really paid attention to her cooking abilities until she arrived in San Francisco. My dream was not to become a restaurateur. My dream was not becoming a celebrity chef, An said. My dream was to survive and take care of my children. I wanted to give them a good life.

A rough start

An had a dilemma. No one understood her food, which was a fusion of Vietnamese, Chinese and French cooking learned in her familys kitchen. I knew the American palate was not ready for traditional Vietnamese food, so I created my own cuisine, An said. The first example was garlic noodles, An said, after I saw that so many people in San Francisco loved pasta. It was panned by a prominent San Francisco food critic, who said it wasnt Vietnamese food and gave it just two stars out of five. Customers were hard to find for her 10-seat restaurant.

Free eats

Teenage daughter Elizabeth suggested taking out newspaper ads offering free food. The ads were paid for in part by a second mortgage on the An family home. It was a risky strategy given that money was tight. We did free food for one week, An said. That piqued the interest of a local food critic, who understood he was witnessing something new. Im very lucky, An said. Maybe God protects me. That critic loved the garlic noodles and gave me five stars.

Risky business

Customers showed up and the restaurant swelled to 40 seats, then 80. In 1991, the family opened Crustacean in San Francisco. We worked hard, always from the heart, An said. The family took most of those restaurant profits south in 1997 to open the Beverly Hills Crustacean.

Beverly Hills staple Crustacean reopened last year after an extensive remodel. (Crustacean)

Charitable

With little money left after setting up the second Crustacean, daughter Elizabeth had another solution. She suggested we could host charitable events, An said, which introduced the familys cooking to a new batch of customers early on.

Family legacy

Elizabeth, 51, is chief executive for the family restaurants. Monique An, 49, is managing director of the San Francisco restaurants. Catherine An, 39, founded Tiato and the catering business. Jacqueline An, 40, wrote the family cookbook with her mother in 2016. Elizabeths 25-year-old daughter, Bosilika, is director of concept development.

When she thinks about how driven her family is to succeed, Helene An points to family expectations born generations ago in Vietnam. As an An, you are a custodian of the last name. You have a duty to those who wore it before you and those who will wear it after you, to make sure it means something we can all be proud of.

Leadership style

Some chefs can be mercurial, even frightening to the kitchen staff, but that isnt Ans style. You encourage, never insult, An said. I encourage them to try something new. If I dont like it, I tell them we will fix it together. An said its important to walk the floor outside the kitchen, talking to customers. I always ask how they like the food. I want to make sure they come back many times. To ensure the restaurant remains strong after she leaves, An personally trained the new chef, Tony Nguyen, who is like a son to me.

Succeeding together

We have a family breakfast most days of the week, An said, sometimes at my house, sometimes at Elizabeths. We stay together, talk about our lives, talk about difficulties and share what we have learned and listen to each others ideas. That is a very important thing to do.

SpaceX suffered a setback on Saturday when a test-fire accident sent up a plume of orange smoke from the pad where its Crew Dragon astronaut capsules escape system engines were being tested.

In a statement on Twitter, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the anomaly happened during part of a static fire test of the Crew Dragons SuperDraco engines at Floridas Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The SuperDraco engines power the capsules launch abort system, which is designed to propel astronauts away from the rocket in the case of a catastrophic launch failure.

Bridenstine tweeted that NASA and SpaceX were assessing the anomaly. The extent of damage was unclear from Bridenstines statement. SpaceX said Sunday the test area was clear at the time and no one was injured.

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The company said a investigation would be needed to determine probable cause.

SpaceX had been set to fly the capsule with a crew aboard on another test flight this year. It is unclear how Saturdays accident could affect that launch schedule.

This is why we test, Bridenstine said in the Twitter statement. We will learn, make the necessary adjustments and safely move forward with our Commercial Crew program.

The Hawthorne-based rocket company had been conducting a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test capsule Saturday at the companys test stand at Cape Canaveral, a SpaceX representative said in a statement. Although initial tests were completed successfully, the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand, SpaceX said in the statement.

Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting anomalies like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test, SpaceX said. Our teams are investigating and working closely with our NASA partners.

A photo taken Saturday by Florida Today visual journalist Craig Bailey showed a plume of orange smoke rising above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

SpaceX said Sunday that the test capsule involved in Saturdays anomaly was the one that flew in March during the first uncrewed launch of the Crew Dragon.

That capsule successfully docked with the International Space Station and then returned to Earth on parachutes before landing in the Atlantic Ocean. It was set to be reused in June for an in-flight abort test, in which the spacecraft would be launched atop a rocket and then detached prematurely to test its emergency escape system.

SpaceX is building another Crew Dragon capsule that is set to carry astronauts in the crewed flight test.Ellis Simani is a former Metpro trainee with the Visualization and Data Desk. A 2017 graduate of Claremont McKenna College, Simani joined the paper from the Seattle Times, where he was a digital and interactives intern. Prior to that, Simani honed his skills in cleaning, analyzing and visualizing data at ProPublicas Data Institute. He is passionate about using his work to encourage civic education and participation. Born and raised in Seattle, he spends most of his spare time exploring on his bicycle.Northern California health workers are scrambling to control a growing measles outbreak centered on a region that is still reeling from the most destructive wildfire in state history.

In November, the Camp fire decimated the town of Paradise, killed 85 people and left behind billions of dollars in damage. Butte County, about 90 miles north of Sacramento, continues to grapple with the consequences of the blaze.

So the arrival of measles seems to residents like just the latest in a string of bad luck. As of Friday, at least 15 Californians had been diagnosed with measles as part of the outbreak that began last month in Butte County, according to health officials.

It feels like we keep getting hit with a new disaster every few months, said Cassie Miracle, who runs a health coalition in Chico, the biggest city in Butte County.

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Measles outbreaks have been popping up across the country this year, with hundreds of cases in New York and Washington state. Experts chalk it up to fewer people being vaccinated in the U.S. and across the world; Americans are now more likely to encounter measles abroad, and when they return, the infection is more likely to spread here.

A chaotic new normal for Butte County

The Butte County outbreak began when a man caught measles in March during a trip to the Philippines, where thousands of people have come down with the disease this year. The outbreak has expanded outside Butte to Placer, Tehama and Shasta counties.

In attempting to halt a measles outbreak, health workers map every place patients went for four days before and after the characteristic rash appeared, when patients are thought to be the most infectious.

Then the investigators try to contact anyone who may have come near the patient and verify if they are immunized. If those people already have measles symptoms, they will quarantine them. Its an arduous process in normal circumstances.

The Camp fire was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. Above, a scene from November in Paradise. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

But last year, the Camp fires destruction of 13,900 homes included some belonging to Butte County health staff. Some employees moved away, further stretching a department that was struggling to meet the needs of its beleaguered community, said department spokeswoman Lisa Almaguer.

In the fires immediate aftermath, county health workers sheltered thousands of displaced animals and treated people living in shelters, where there was also a norovirus outbreak. Now, workers are still verifying that properties are cleared of hazardous materials and are helping deal with a major water contamination problem, she said.

The measles outbreak has confirmed what feels like a chaotic new normal, Almaguer said. The department is considering calling in reinforcements to help with measles control as the outbreak grows, she said.

We are having those conversations, she said. Our staff is working much longer hours during the day than normal, and we have staff on call over the weekends, and we continue to investigate suspect cases.

Where is measles in California?

U.S. health officials declared measles eradicated in 2000, but so far this year there have been 555 cases nationwide, they say. One of the most contagious diseases in the world, measles is the first to return when a regions immunity falls, experts say.

In California, 23 people statewide have been diagnosed with measles this year, according to state data released Thursday. Though the Butte County outbreak is the largest cluster, there have been a smattering of cases around the state.

On Wednesday, health officials warned that a person infected with measles spent time on the Google campus in Silicon Valley. Recently, Long Beach officials alerted travelers that a passenger visited the airport twice while infectious.

In Placer County, health staff started scrambling last month when three people fell sick after visiting the home of the original Butte County patient, said Michael Romero, program manager for the public health department.

County health staff obtained a list of 285 people who were at a gym when the measles patients were also there so they could call them, Romero said.

But it was a tall order for the countys seven-person investigation team, so they enlisted 25 people from all over the health department in their race against the clock, he said. Nurses were calling people in between their normal duties.

This is one of those all-hands-on-deck sort of responses, Romero said. In my time with the county in the last 16 years, I cant remember the last measles investigation like this.

Why Californias outbreak hasnt mushroomed

California may be spared from the larger outbreaks affecting other states because of a state law that tightened vaccination standards three years ago, experts say.

Californias new law bars parents from excusing their children from vaccines because of their personal beliefs. Now, kids can only escape vaccinations if a doctor says they have a medical reason to do so.

Since the law went into effect, Californias kindergarten vaccination rate has increased from 92.9% to 95.1%, according to state data. Doctors say that a community needs at least 95% immunity to prevent measles from spreading.

In fact, counties afflicted with measles this year tend to have low vaccination rates. Butte Countys kindergarten vaccination rate is close to the state average, but Placers is 92.3% and Shastas is 90.1%.

When folks [arent] taking vaccination recommendations seriously, this is what can happen, said Tim Mapes, community education specialist with the Shasta County health department.

Before two people in Shasta County came down with measles this year, there hadnt been a measles case there since 2014, he said. One of the countys measles cases is linked to the Butte outbreak, but officials have not yet determined the origin of the other, he said.

Mapes said Shasta health workers retrieved data from ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber to determine who rode in the same cars as the measles patients so they could contact them and warn them about the exposure. They also got a list of customers from a Walgreens who may have been there at the same time as the people who were sick.

Its a big deal when you see a disease that is as contagious as this pop up after five years in your community, he said. You dont want to start seeing that.A Los Angeles police officer was shot and wounded during a traffic stop in South Los Angeles on Saturday night.

A suspect was also wounded by gunfire.

After the shootings, police said another suspect was at large and issued a citywide tactical alert, calling him armed and dangerous. A firearm was recovered at the scene, officials said.

(Los Angeles Times)

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In a series of tweets Sunday morning, the Los Angeles Police Department revised its narrative.

The incident began when officers from the LAPDs Newton Division stopped a vehicle about 9:10 p.m. Saturday near East 51st Street and West Long Beach Avenue, police said.

There was one man in the car, not two, as the LAPD had initially stated.

The driver ran when the officers tried to stop him. Another man then appeared.

It was this man, not the driver of the car, who shot at the officer and was wounded himself, investigators now believe.

The ofcrs chased the man & after 100-150 yards another man appeared, armed with a firearm & there was an exchange of gunfire between an officer & suspect, the LAPD said in a tweet.

The wounded man was taken to the hospital. The LAPD did not provide information about his condition.

The LAPD is trying to identify the driver but stopped searching for him after investigators determined he did not shoot the officer.The Chrysler sedan was parked illegally against a red curb on West Manchester Avenue shortly after nightfall when a man walked up to the front passenger window, then retreated.

To the two officers from the Los Angeles Police Departments elite Metropolitan Division in an unmarked Crown Victoria, it looked like a possible drug deal.

They asked a black man in a Raiders hoodie and a black woman in a denim jacket to step out of the car. As the pair stood facing a metal fence, the officers patted them down.

After a Times investigation showing that Metro pulled over black drivers at a rate more than five times their share of the citys population, Mayor Eric Garcetti in early February ordered the LAPD to scale back on vehicle stops like this one.

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(Lorena Elebee / Los Angeles Times)

At Metros Temple Street headquarters, the Times article and mayors directive caused an uproar. Metro officers felt they were being maligned as racists for policing a part of the city where almost everyone is black or Latino.

On the ground with Metro in South L.A., the realities are more complex than statistics can capture, with decisions about which drivers to stop shaped by years of experience with possible crime indicators, from the man walking up to a parked car to the paper license plates sometimes used to hide a cars origins.

As a mobile strike force responding to flare ups and tamping down gang wars, Metro remains a key player in the LAPDs crime-reduction strategy.

Despite the mayors directive, much of the work of Metros crime suppression squads still revolves around pulling over motorists to root out criminal suspects, illegal guns and contraband.

But with a progressive mayor and perhaps the citys most progressive police chief ever, the LAPD is under unprecedented pressure to pull back from tactics like vehicle stops and data policing that carry implications of racial bias.

As the city heads into the summer, a prime season for violence, this new way of policing will be tested. Homicides and shootings have already surged in the last month or so, claiming more than a dozen lives, including rap star Nipsey Hussle.

LAPD officials warn that if Metro withdraws from South L.A., as some community groups are demanding, lives will be lost.

Were trying to stop drive-by shootings, said Capt. Jonathan Tippet, who leads Metro. If were not here, its going to have a negative impact and allow people to go back to committing crime. If were not here to keep the peace, were going to have bloodshed.

While filling out paperwork documenting the stop of the white Chrysler, the officers explained their actions to a Times reporter.

The parking violation and suspected narcotics transaction provided a legal reason to approach the car, said Amanda Lankford, one of the few female officers in Metro.

She and her partner, Julio Lopez, asked everyone in the car to step out because the back window was tinted, and it was unclear who was inside, Lankford said. The officers asked them for permission to pat them down because drug dealers are sometimes armed.

After finding nothing suspicious, they explained the reason for the stop to the driver and passenger and completed field interview cards that help the LAPD keep track of the people they encounter.

They let the pair go with a written warning for the parking violation.

It turned out to be nothing, but we didnt know that until we stopped them and investigated further, Lankford said.

  

Metros motto, Earn Your Reputation, is carved on wooden plaques hanging on the walls of the divisions headquarters in Westlake.

The officers in the building wear a small Metro pin on their dark blue uniforms  the only visible sign of their membership in a highly selective group.

Metro officers must regularly pass rigorous physical fitness tests as well as shooting exams on an array of advanced weaponry. They are the only LAPD officers authorized to work out on the clock.

After a recent downsizing, slightly fewer than 200 Metro officers work crime suppression. About 200 more are divided among other units including SWAT, dignitary protection, K9 and mounted.

In 2015, prompted by a spike in violence, Garcetti had announced that Metro would double in size.

As new officers hit the streets, vehicle stops by Metro rose from a few thousand a year to nearly 60,000 in 2018.

In a city that is 9% black, 49% of the drivers stopped by Metro since the expansion were black, the Times investigation found.

Latinos were 49% of the population and 44% of Metro stops. Whites, at 28% of the citys population, accounted for less than 4% of the drivers stopped by Metro.

Even in South L.A., the percentage of black drivers stopped by Metro was twice their share of the population, the Times investigation found.

The Times article, published online Jan. 24, noted that there was no proof of racial profiling.

But for some African American residents, the statistics confirmed their personal experiences of driving while black. A coalition of community groups demanded that Metro pull out of South L.A.

Garcetti said Feb. 6 that he was deeply concerned about The Times findings and had directed the police chief to prioritize crime-fighting strategies that reduce the number of vehicle stops.

Until then, Garcetti and other officials had touted Metro as a key reason why crime in South L.A. had recently stabilized.

In a recent interview, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said he is satisfied that Metros crime suppression tactics are not overly reliant on vehicle stops.

In the weeks after the mayors directive, Metro made fewer stops in South L.A. but still stopped hundreds of people, according to figures provided by Moore and verified by The Times using a city open source database.

In February, Metro officers made 711 vehicle and pedestrian stops in Southeast, 77th and Southwest divisions. That compares with 1,374 Metro stops in the same geography in January and 2,185 in December.

Most were vehicle stops, with about 10% involving pedestrians or bicyclists.

Moore said the decrease was due to several factors, including a reduction of about 70 officers in Metros crime suppression force as part of a previously planned, department-wide shift of manpower to street patrol from specialized units like Metro.

Another factor, Moore said, was a new emphasis on tracking down specific suspects instead of stopping random motorists.

Last month, the number of stops was up compared with February, with 994 vehicle and pedestrian stops by Metro in the three South L.A. divisions in March, according to a Times analysis of the city database.

Moore personally called leaders of some of the community groups that had urged Metro to leave South L.A., inviting them to a meeting in early March.

I hear and feel the trauma this has reignited, the injury, the concern that somehow LAPD is slipping back into its old ways, Moore said.

But as the LAPD adjusts to a different style of policing, Moore predicted that crime will go up.

Im working right now to explain that with this balance, we will see upticks and increases in violent crime in South L.A. and throughout the city, he said.

Alberto Retana, president and CEO of Community Coalition, attended the meeting with Moore, which the chief said would be the first in a series. Retana said his groups goal remains to get Metro out of South L.A.

What were finding is that African American residents are afraid of police officers, and that break of trust undermines public safety, Retana said.

LAPD Metropolitan Division officers Elden Marquez, left, and Eduardo Ojeda detain a suspect whose identification shows a $10,000 traffic warrant for arrest along the 8400 block of Figueroa. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

  

Deputy Chief Dennis Kato boarded an elevator in the LAPDs South Bureau, arriving at a data nerve center ringed by large flat screens displaying crime maps.

It is a morning ritual for Kato, who leads a daily conference call with station captains to decide where Metro officers will be deployed in South L.A each evening.

There had been a rash of shootings in the LAPDs 77th Division in recent days. The group agreed to send Metro to the rectangle bounded by South Vermont Avenue and the 110 Freeway, between West Florence and West Manchester avenues.

In an interview before the conference call, Kato said that Metro stops a large number of black drivers because many violent crime suspects are black.

Last year, nearly half the citys homicides occurred in South Bureau. More than half the homicide victims in that area were black, and about half the suspects were also black.

Citywide, 43% of violent crime suspects were black and 40% were Latino, according to LAPD statistics.

Were not sending Metro to Pacific Palisades or West Valley, Kato said. Because of where we put them, the stops are going to be blacks and Latinos. Kids cant get to school safely  thats why Metro is there.

If two gangs are warring, for example the Menlo Crips and Van Ness Gangsters or the Eight-Trey Crips and Rollin 90s Crips, Kato may send Metro to those neighborhoods to prevent retaliatory shootings.

If black gangs are involved, Kato said, Metro officers will use traffic violations to stop African American males ages 16 to 24 who dress or look like gang members.

Last year, Metro officers seized more than 700 guns and made 576 gun arrests, mostly initiated through vehicle and pedestrian stops. Two-thirds of the suspects had prior arrests for assault, burglary, robbery or weapons, according to the LAPD.

I need them here, Kato said of Metro. If theyre out of South Bureau, I guarantee my crime will go up.

The racial breakdowns in South L.A., with blacks making up 31% of residents and 65% of Metro stops, make sense because Latino gang power has not increased at the same pace as the Latino population, Kato said.

Were focusing on gang crime, so were going to have more African Americans stopped, Kato said. There are more black gangs here. Its hard to find many Florencias here.

Tippet, the Metro captain, agreed, saying that Latino gangs are not that active in South L.A., while black gangs are deeply embedded.

The victims and suspects are male blacks, a certain age group, there was one vehicle seen, the victims are this gang, Tippet said over lunch recently. If I see Grandma running a stop sign, do I really want to focus on her when I want to stop homicides and shootings from occurring?

Tippet said he is concerned that his officers will shy away from the type of police work now under scrutiny.

I hope what doesnt happen is that people stop doing enforcement, Tippet said. I live in this city. The last thing I want to see is it overrun by people who want to go lawless and victimize people.

It is legal for police officers to use a traffic stop as a pretext to look for other crimes. But an overly broad definition of a criminal suspect can raise constitutional concerns, said Peter Bibring, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California and director of police practices for the ACLU of California.

The ACLU of Southern California is part of the coalition calling for Metro to pull out of South L.A.

What they cant do is assume that because some people who are black in the neighborhood have committed crimes, that everybody should be stopped, Bibring said. That is textbook racial profiling.

LAPD Metropolitan Division Sgt. Steve Hwang inserts body cameras into docking stations to download footage from that nights encounters. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

  

At a 4:30 p.m. roll call at Metro headquarters, Sgt. Steve Hwang briefed the 14 officers of G Platoon on that nights mission.

They would concentrate on the part of South L.A. defined by Kato and other officials during the morning conference call.

Hwang described some of the robberies and shootings that had occurred recently.

In one incident, a black male suspect in a black Dodge Charger fired multiple rounds at three male Latinos. In another, black male suspects pulled a handgun on a black male victim, who handed over $1,500 in cash.

The Metro officers would be on the lookout for the vehicles and suspects involved in these and other violent crimes.

Cruising down major thoroughfares in unmarked Crown Victorias or SUVs, they would also stop drivers, bicyclists or pedestrians they saw violating the rules of the road, then look for evidence of more serious wrongdoing.

That night, other contingents of Metro officers were assigned to crime hot spots elsewhere in the city, including Newton Division near downtown, where a USC student had been shot and killed the previous weekend.

Most of the time, Hwang said on the drive to South L.A., officers cannot see the race of the people they are pulling over.

The Times investigation made it seem as if were targeting male blacks, Hwang said. I know that to not be the case. Listen for the suspect descriptions  see if you hear male white, male Asian. Do you see that many Asians hanging out on a corner doing crime?

Hwang, 47, moved to L.A. from South Korea when he was 9. The officers he was supervising that night were white, Latino or Filipino, with no black officers among them.

Overall, Metro was 46% Latino, 37% white, 11% Asian or Filipino and 6% black in September, before the recent downsizing. Five percent of Metro officers were women, compared with 20% department-wide.

After Lankford and Lopez stopped the man and woman on West Manchester Avenue, another pair of Metro officers pulled over a white Mitsubishi Galant because it had paper license plates and a broken tail light.

The driver, a black man, was on parole for narcotics and associated with the East Coast Crips, according to police databases. The officers asked him to step out and handcuffed him.

A Latino male passenger also exited the car and stood on the sidewalk facing a wall with his hands behind his neck while he was patted down at the corner of East Manchester Avenue and South Main Street.

One officer retreated to his car to run the passengers name. The other officer rolled up the black mans sleeves, looking for tattoos.

Because the driver was on parole, the officers had a legal reason to search his car. But his wife and two daughters were with him. He told the officers that the passenger was a friend he had just picked up from the train station.

The officers decided not to hold the man up any longer or to rummage through his car in front of his family. They let him go with a written warning about the vehicle code violations.

Building rapport, learning a little of their back story  that goes a long way, Officer Eduardo Ojeda said.

By the time their shift ended at 1 a.m., the officers had stopped 24 cars and two bicycles. Of the people stopped, including passengers in the cars, 25 were black and 10 were Latino.

The officers wrote six traffic tickets, 16 traffic warnings and 27 field interview cards. They did not find any guns or drugs and made a handful of arrests, mostly misdemeanors.

The biggest catch of the day was Lankford and Lopezs arrest of a black man who was wanted for a commercial burglary. They had pulled him over because his registration was expired and he made an unsafe lane change.

The next night, Metro officers spotted a white Maserati that was linked to a robbery. Inside were a black man, a Latino man and a black woman. The officers believed they were members of the 62 Brims, a Bloods gang based in Harvard Park.

One was arrested in connection with the robbery and the two others for assault with a deadly weapon related to a carjacking.

That night, there were three shootings in South L.A., including one that killed an 18-year-old black man and injured another black teenager. The suspects were described as three or four black men.

To prevent further violence, supervisors told the Metro officers to drive around near the crime scenes and places where retaliation might flare up.

They stayed on the streets for an extra hour until 2 a.m.

Times staff writer Ben Poston contributed to this report.

cindy.chang@latimes.com

For more news on the Los Angeles Police Department, follow me on Twitter: @cindychangLASouthern Californians can choose from an array of worship and recreational activities on Sunday to celebrate the Easter holiday.

More than 1,000 people are expected to gather for worship in Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes as the sun rises over the Pacific Ocean. The 71st annual service will feature music by the Alive Church Worship Band. The Easter Sunrise Service will begin at 6 a.m.

Hope Chapel Huntington Beach will host its Easter sunrise service at Huntington Beach Pier Plaza. The non-denominational service begins at 6 a.m. and includes 11 local churches participating in music, prayer and Christian celebration.

Catholic Masses are planned in English and Spanish at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The cathedrals priest, Father David Gallardo, will celebrate the 10 a.m. English-language Mass, and the archbishop, Jose H. Gomez, will lead a Spanish-language Mass at 1 p.m.

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The Midnight Mission, a service organization in Skid Row, will host a brunch for underprivileged and homeless families. Children who visit Easter Village will receive candy baskets and hygiene kits and a chance to meet the Easter bunny. Actors Dick Van Dyke and Mr. T and Goldfinger guitarist Louis Price are expected to volunteer at the event.

The Easter bunny is also expected to make an appearance at the Condor Squadron headquarters on the grounds of the Van Nuys Airport. The Easter egg hunt will take place at 1 p.m. (The VIP guest is expected to arrive by air.)

About 20,000 Easter eggs will be hidden at the 11th annual Easter Fest, where children can enjoy springtime crafts, games, inflatable gyms and face painting. The carnival, hosted by New City Church of Los Angeles, will take place in Grand Hope Park on S. Grand Avenue.

At dusk, at least five Southern California landmarks will glow orange to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Easterseals, a Chicago-based nonprofit that provides disability services and support to veterans, military families and seniors. The organization, founded by Edgar Allen, serves 1 in 4 Americans living with disabilities.

Glimmering Los Angeles and Orange County sites  including the LAX pylons, the U.S. Bank Tower, Capitol Records, the Santa Monica Clock Tower and Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa  will shine in solidarity with about 25 other landmarks across the country.Mayor Eric Garcetti has ordered Los Angeles police to scale back on vehicle stops in response to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times showing that an elite unit was pulling over a disproportionate number of African Americans.

In a written statement Wednesday, Garcetti said he is deeply concerned about The Times findings that Metropolitan Division officers stop black drivers at a rate more than five times their share of the population.

Pointing to decreases in homicides and violent crimes last year, Garcetti said that progress in fighting crime needs to come with gains in public trust. He said that reducing vehicle stops, which are perceived by some black residents as racially discriminatory, in favor of other policing techniques will help to build that trust.

I have directed the Chief of Police to prioritize other elements of our comprehensive crime reduction strategy, beyond vehicle stops, until we learn more  so that we can accelerate the reduction in vehicle stops that has been achieved since they peaked a couple of years ago, Garcetti said in the statement. We have made our streets safer with fewer vehicle stops than in recent years, and we have to keep prioritizing what works to both stop crime and strengthen trust.

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On Tuesday, citing the Times investigation, civil rights and community groups called on Garcetti to withdraw Metro from South L.A.

The groups, which include the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Community Coalition, are also asking for more youth programs, mental health services and community policing.

The deployment of the Metropolitan Division has failed to address safety in communities like South Los Angeles, but rather has led to the incarceration and harassment of African American and Latino people, they wrote in a Feb. 5 letter to Garcetti, LAPD Chief Michel Moore and the five-member civilian Police Commission that oversees the LAPD.

Since Garcetti announced in 2015 that Metro would double in size to combat an increase in violent crime, the number of vehicle stops by its officers has skyrocketed from a few thousand to nearly 60,000 last year.

Garcetti and Moore have cited the Metro expansion as a key component in the citys crime fighting strategy.

Unlike regular patrol officers, Metro crime suppression officers, who numbered about 270 last year, often spend their shifts on vehicle stops and other proactive policing tactics intended to root out violent criminals.

They typically use a minor violation such as a broken tail light as a starting point to question the driver and potentially get inside the car  a type of stop known as a pretextual stop.

LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein said in a statement: We look forward to meeting with the leaders who make up the Community Coalition to address their concerns identified over strategies we employ to combat violent crime.

Other crime suppression strategies used by Metro include investigative follow-ups, apprehending suspects involved in violent crime and foot patrols in neighborhoods impacted by street level crime, Rubenstein said.

We understand the delicate balance between our enforcement posture and our steadfast commitment to building relationships, engaging the community and enhancing public trust, he said. Identifying and arresting individuals who are responsible for gun violence remains a top priority as in the days ahead we expand our strategies beyond the typical crime suppression tactics involving vehicle stops in our most violence impacted neighborhoods.

The Times investigation found that nearly half the drivers stopped by Metro were black. That has helped drive up the share of African Americans stopped by the LAPD overall from 21% to 28% since the Metro expansion, in a city that is 9% black.

In South L.A., which is 31% black, 65% of the drivers stopped by Metro were black.

Last week, in response to the Times findings, Garcetti called for an audit of Metro stops. A similar audit by the LAPDs Office of Inspector General was already in the works and is expected to be released late this year.

Alberto Retana, president and CEO of Community Coalition, said the Times findings were gut-wrenching because they confirmed the feelings of black residents who say that police are targeting them because of their race.

The Times investigation did not prove that officers were engaging in racial profiling, but civil rights advocates have said the disparities are too great to fully be explained by other factors, such as the demographics of high-crime areas.

To see that echoed in the L.A. Times is cause for alarm, but there is also an opportunity for the LAPD to do something different and change its practices and stop its targeting of African Americans in the city, Retana said.

Melanie Ochoa, an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, said that Metros mission in South L.A., with officers driving around looking for people who might have guns or drugs, means that harassment and targeted policing are baked into the way it operates.

Citing a report about the LAPDs Gang Enforcement Details released by the inspector general last week, she questioned whether stopping motorists and pedestrians is an effective way to fight crime. That report found that in more than half the stops examined during a two-month period last summer where people were subsequently searched, the searches may have been unconstitutional.

They like to claim a straight line from these tactics to a reduction in crime, but we dont know if its actually borne out in practice, she said.

Steve Soboroff, president of the Police Commission, said he called Retana after receiving the letter and plans to discuss the issue with him.

Whether to pull Metro out of South L.A. is beyond his purview as a police commissioner, he said. But he hopes to learn more from Retana about what programs residents need and how to win the trust of those who are suspicious of the police.

We get calls all the time from people saying we need a lot more cops, and we get calls from people saying we need less, Soboroff said. Whats important is why people feel that way and what we can do to mitigate their feelings and earn their trust.

Police Commissioner Shane Murphy Goldsmith said she supports more community policing and youth programs, which she believes will address the root causes of crime.

She said she is not prepared to call for Metro to withdraw from South L.A. until the inspector general releases his findings.In 2016, Los Angeles voters approved a $1.2-billion bond measure to help fund housing for homeless people, with a goal of 10,000 new units in a decade.

Now, after hustling to get as many housing projects started as soon as possible, city officials are coming to the end of the money available through Proposition HHH, and its not certain that promise will be kept.

The city has committed two-thirds of the bond to secure a little more than half the units the measure was intended to subsidize.

The new challenge will be figuring out how to stretch the remaining funds to make up the difference. Its far from a sure thing.

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In the coming weeks, city housing officials will review bids far exceeding the $338 million remaining in Proposition HHH. To get close to the 10,000-unit goal, they will need to tap other sources of funding from the state and employ new ideas for building housing less expensively.

Its still too soon to see any effect from Proposition HHH on the citys homeless crisis.

HHH funding (Lorena Elebee / Los Angeles Times)

Construction on several housing projects has started, and the pace is picking up. But the first units wont be ready until December. The last of the currently funded projects is scheduled for completion in December 2022.

But after months of alarm over rising costs, advocates for homeless people are becoming more optimistic.

When you look at this holistically, were actually in a relatively solid position, said Tommy Newman, director of public affairs for United Way of Greater Los Angeles, which backed HHH and has monitored its progress since 2016. Now we have to be creative in how we combine the funds that still remain, new sources of funding that dont exist yet and the innovations that are being tossed in around housing.

So far, the L.A. City Council has approved $809 million in subsidies for 79 projects. Plans for those projects call for 4,120 units of housing with supportive services.

To produce 10,000 units by 2026, the city would have to use the remaining HHH funds to subsidize 2,880 more units of supportive housing, bringing L.A. within reach of the bond measures original target of subsidizing 7,000 units. The city also would have to keep securing enough money from other sources to subsidize an additional 300 supportive units every year, for a total of about 3,000 units over a decade.

Progress has fallen behind on both fronts.

Since Proposition HHH passed, construction costs for supportive housing have climbed to an average of more than $550,000 per unit, and federal tax credits  the primary source of funding for supportive housing  lost value because of the recent federal tax cut.

City housing officials have filled that gap with larger HHH subsidies, averaging more than $151,000 for the units overall. But Proposition HHH also provided for up to 20% of the bond to be spent on an unspecified number of affordable housing units, which are not reserved for homeless people and do not count toward the citys housing goal of 10,000 units. So far, 1,268 of those have been funded.

That leaves only about $117,000 in subsidies for each of the 2,880 supportive units that remain to be funded  or less if more affordable housing units are approved.

Meanwhile, to speed up the production of housing, housing officials have shifted HHH funds to some of the 300 units that the city initially intended to build each year without HHH subsidies. Officials reported last month that only 40 new supportive units that will be built without HHH money are currently planned.

[Developers have] been focusing on HHH because thats the path of least resistance compared to other forms of financing, said Rushmore Cervantes, general manager of the citys Housing and Community Investment Department.

Officials are now making several adjustments to stretch the remaining $338 million from the bond measure.

First, the housing department, which initially allowed HHH subsidies as high as $220,000 per unit, has cut the maximum to $140,000. That wont reduce construction costs, but will require developers to rely more on other sources for money.

Second, reacting to pressure from the citizens committee appointed to oversee HHH spending, the City Council in January set aside $120 million from the $338 million for Mayor Eric Garcetti to explore faster and cheaper methods for building homeless housing.

The mayors goal is to produce 1,000 new units with that money. This month, he is expected to solicit proposals designed to attract developers that use methods such as modular construction and financing plans that dont rely on cumbersome tax-credit financing.

Third, city housing officials are pressuring developers to rely more on other funding sources. They are reviewing a new batch of bids for $204 million. That will leave only $14 million unallocated after the mayors cut is taken. For the first time since the inception of the HHH program, they must pick winners and losers rather than simply approving a project as qualified. With developers vying for $369 million in subsidies, they are rating applicants based on how much money they can draw from other sources.

Cervantes said it wont be known how many units the remaining funds will produce until the housing staff has reviewed and scored all the proposals, probably in June. But he said he hopes the projects, along with the mayors program, would bring the total close to the required 7,000 units.

That would still leave the city making up lost ground in building 3,000 units with non-HHH funding sources.

Now that HHH money is running out, developers will have to go back to the traditional method, Cervantes said, primarily through tax credits. He foresees the current shortfall being made up in the years ahead by additional sources that were not available in 2016.

Among the possible sources is the No Place Like Home program, which the state Legislature approved in 2016 and voters reaffirmed with a 2018 ballot initiative. It allows up to $2 billion to be diverted from the Mental Health Services Act for housing for homeless people. Of the $2 billion, Los Angeles County is expected to receive about $700 million starting this summer.

Another source is Proposition 1, a housing bond approved by California voters in 2018 to create a $1.5 billion multifamily housing program. Theres also a new statewide tax on real estate transfers that is expected to generate $250 million a year that will largely be distributed to local governments for housing and homelessness programs.

In Los Angeles, specifically, the citys new fee on development projects kicks in this summer and is expected to deliver $100 million annually. Cervantes is confident some of it will be available for homeless housing.

Because the goal is out there to get 10,000 units, he said, there is going to be political support to utilize some of those dollars potentially for supportive housing.

Ultimately, the question of whether the city reaches the promised 10,000 units may be subject to disputed interpretations of the measures intent.

The housing department reports that more than 1,000 units that were in the pipeline before HHH and will be completed during the decade without HHH funding are covered by the pledge.

Newman, the United Way watchdog, doesnt think so.

The cleanest way to look at this is, when is the city committing those funds? Newman said.

Regardless, Newman and some early HHH critics are seeing success that transcends numbers.

Miguel Santana, the former city administrative officer and HHH oversight committee chairman who has at times been a sharp critic of the housing departments achievements, expects Garcettis innovation challenge to have an effect on homelessness well beyond HHH.

HHH has been a huge success because we are on our way to having 7,000 units that wouldnt have been available except for HHH, Santana said. We still have an opportunity to expand the model so were in a much better place in the future as we build enough housing for the next 7,000 people.

Newman sees an unexpected victory.

There was a lot of fear we would not be able to build this housing because everybody was going to fight it, he said. With 4,200 units in development, we can say we can clearly build this housing in every council district.

doug.smith@latimes.com

@LATDougNearly five years have passed since a lawyer representing the man who slaughtered eight people inside a Seal Beach salon first raised questions about the way investigators used informants inside Orange Countys jails.

The accusation  that sheriffs deputies planted a prolific snitch in the cell of confessed killer Scott Dekraai in the hopes of eliciting information without his lawyer present, and then covered up their unconstitutional actions  seemed outlandish at the time. But jailhouse records soon proved otherwise, and the Orange County district attorneys office and Sheriffs Department found themselves embroiled in a national scandal.

The state attorney generals office opened an investigation into both agencies in 2015; the U.S. Department of Justice followed suit the next year. Orange County prosecutors were kicked off Dekraais case, and a judge cited the informant scheme in sparing him a place on Californias death row. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit accusing authorities of having deployed professional informants for decades.

But to date, no one has been disciplined, fired or prosecuted for misconduct. And on Friday, a deputy attorney general said that the state investigation into the case  the only avenue for criminal charges  has been closed.

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Meanwhile, some individuals who oversaw the jails or Dekraais case at the time of the alleged misconduct have received promotions. In March, two deputies under investigation for their role in the scandal quietly retired.

For those closest to the case, there is a fear that the public will never truly know what went on inside Orange Countys jails.

These guys inflicted five years of pain on me and my family, said Paul Wilson, 54, whose wife, Christy Lynn Wilson, was among those gunned down in the 2011 Seal Beach salon massacre. Its not politics to me. They need to be held accountable.

Local watchdogs and civil liberties advocates have long contended there are more cases tainted by informant misuse  affecting more than 140 additional defendants, according to some court filings. Information that spilled out of the Dekraai hearings already has led to retrials in more than a dozen criminal cases, including several murders.

Last fall, Todd Spitzer ousted longtime Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas in an election framed largely around the informant scandal  and many hoped that he would sweep into office and impose dramatic reforms. Rackauckas maintained that the issue had been exaggerated and that no one in his office intentionally concealed evidence. A county grand jury report largely backed up his view, finding that only a few rogue deputies had done anything wrong.

Spitzer, in a recent interview, said he has no intention of letting the agencys past failings go unanswered.

Since becoming district attorney, he said, he has turned over thousands of pages of training documents and nearly 100 case files to the U.S. Justice Department. Spitzer would not describe the nature of the cases or say if they involved informant misuse. The oldest was filed in 1998, according to Kimberly Edds, public information officer for the district attorneys office.

Spitzer also said he has taken steps to curb potential abuses.

The use of jailhouse informants at trial now will require his written approval, and since taking office he has established an ethics officer position and a conviction integrity review unit. Spitzer said he is champing at the bit to learn the results of the federal investigation. But he said he also must balance the demands of running the office in the present with trying to reconcile its past.

Im trying to get closure. There is no doubt. But the amount of resources and time that this agency is investing in complying is really intense, he said.

A U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. Spitzer has said he wants to settle the federal investigation and admit to any wrongdoing committed under his predecessor, citing voluminous discovery requests from the federal government. Those comments concern those who hoped a prolonged investigation might uncover additional trials in which prosecutors failed to provide defense attorneys with information about the use of jailhouse informants, or cases in which informants obtained confessions in an unconstitutional manner.

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, who represented Dekraai and exposed the informant scandal, said in recent court filings that Spitzer appears to have backed off the fiery reformer rhetoric of the election cycle and has failed to disclose relevant evidence. Specifically, Sanders criticized Spitzer for calling the federal investigation a fishing expedition and said he demonstrated a vanishing appetite for working with the Justice Department.

Other attempts to uncover misconduct have stalled, civil liberty advocates say.

ACLU staff attorney Somil Trivedi said the groups lawsuit, filed last year, would have forced Orange County to make public a trove of information about the informant program, but the case was thrown out by a judge who said the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue. The ACLU  which argued in its suit that it had found court transcripts proving informants were planted next to a murder defendant in a case from 1980  is appealing the decision.

We have found cases going back 30 years, and these are all pretty serious cases, and every one of them is at risk for being reopened, Trivedi said.

Frustrations also have turned toward the state attorney generals office.

In 2015, then-California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris launched an investigation into the use of informants. For years, according to Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, state prosecutors ignored repeated requests for an update on the probe.

News that the state had ended its inquiry with no prosecution came during a hearing Friday, at which Sanders was arguing for the release of records related to a criminal case. Deputy Atty. Gen. Darren Shaffer gave no reason why or when the investigation had shut down. The office of current California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra declined to comment. Carrie Braun, a Sheriffs Department spokeswoman, said her office had not been notified of the results of the attorney generals investigation.

In a statement Saturday, the ACLU of Southern California said the attorney generals action sends a disturbing message that prosecutorial and law enforcement misconduct is acceptable in California.

Sanders, who described the state review as a sham from beginning to end, said a judge will decide whether records related to the probe can be made public May 10.

A spokeswoman for Harris rejected any criticism, saying the former attorney general was instrumental in launching the criminal investigation and pushing for the civil grand jury review. Lily Adams said Harris believes the informant scandal flowed from a culture that encourages an ends-justify-the-means approach, complemented by a program of plausible deniability.

The slow pace of the state investigation led Barnes to take an unusual step this year when he restarted an administrative review into potential deputy misconduct before the criminal probe was completed.

I cant wait forever on them, and we have to do our job  which is to hold our personnel accountable, if necessary, he said during a recent interview.

Whether records from that internal investigation would bring the public new information, however, is another question. While the passage of Senate Bill 1421 last year opened up some police disciplinary records, they only become public if an officer or deputy is found to have committed wrongdoing for specific offenses.

Two of the deputies at the center of the investigation  Seth Tunstall and Bill Grover  resigned in March, Braun said. A third deputy, whom she did not identify, remains under internal investigation.

Braun said deputies can decide to retire while under internal review if no recommendations for action had been made at the time of their departure.

Sanders has called on authorities to dig deeper to determine how many additional cases might be tainted by the misuse of informants. In court filings last year, he said he had identified 146 cases in which deputies testified without their past connections to the Sheriffs Department Special Handling Unit being disclosed.

Barnes, a 30-year veteran of the department, said he believes the agency has been forthright in handling the mistakes alleged during the Dekraai trial, while dismissing some criticisms from the ACLU and Sanders as brazen.

As undersheriff, Barnes said, he helped modify department policy and training governing the use of informants in the county jails, which now requires his written approval. While not defending the departments past actions, he said he also believes the agency has been unfairly accused of being resistant to change.

The unit that existed then, I stopped it, he said. We replaced it with highly qualified people that look at information within the jails differently than it was handled before.

Barnes also defended the promotions of Jon Briggs and William Baker, both of whom had oversight roles in the jails at the time, to the position of assistant sheriff. Briggs had testified during the Dekraai trial that poor supervision contributed to problematic behavior in the jails, though Barnes said that was taken out of context. The sheriff described Baker as part of the solutions team put in place to fix issues in the jails.

Spitzer said he understands the frustrations felt by those who have spent years waiting for the conclusion of investigations, but added, Ive got to let this process play out.

For Wilson, however, patience has long run out. He doesnt want to see others endure the same denial of justice he feels he suffered.

I know how hard it was for myself and my kids and Christys family to deal with all of this, he said, referring to the years after the murder of his wife. I went through a really rough experience with those other families. I dont want it to happen to anyone else.

james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.Several leading Democratic lawmakers said Sunday that impeachment of President Trump must at least be considered on the basis of behavior detailed in the Mueller report released last week, while the presidents allies aggressively pressed their contention that Trump was exonerated.

Rudy Giuliani, the presidents lawyer, said there was nothing wrong with accepting information from the Russians, and insisted that Trump would not have been guilty of criminal obstruction even if he had fired Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel who spent nearly two years investigating Russian links to the Trump campaign.

But Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who has been one of Trumps fiercest critics, redoubled his criticism of the president, saying the report depicted presidential conduct that was as bad as or worse than Watergate, the scandal that forced the resignation of President Nixon.

Another influential Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, declared that there was plenty of evidence of obstruction that lawmakers would need to weigh.

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Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable, Nadler said on NBCs Meet the Press. Nadler chairs the House Judiciary Committee, where impeachment proceedings originate.

Nadler said he was puzzled by Muellers decision not to bring charges against the presidents eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in connection with a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Kremlin-linked figures proffering material that would be harmful to Trumps opponent, Hillary Clinton.

I do not understand why he didnt charge Don Jr. and others in that famous meeting with criminal conspiracy, he said. They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting to get stolen material on Hillary....They went to the meeting. Thats conspiracy, right there.

Trumps White House, though, pronounced the president thoroughly vindicated.

Senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, interviewed on ABCs This Week, blasted Mueller for saying Trump could not be exonerated of obstruction, although the special counsel  acting at least in part in accordance with a Justice Department rule against indicting a sitting president  did not recommend criminal prosecution either.

You just dont do that, Conway said. You either prosecute or you dont. You either bring an indictment or you dont.

Conway also sought to cast doubt on key information in the redacted report based on former White House lawyer Don McGahns descriptions of the presidents actions.

Those included a vivid recounting to investigators of Trump reacting with a furious expletive upon learning of Muellers appointment, and repeatedly ordering McGahn to help get the special counsel fired. The White House lawyer did not comply.

Conway said she did not believe McGahn would have stayed on the job for another 18 months if the president had behaved in the manner described.

Schiff, interviewed on the same program, said it may be that Democrats will decide to begin impeachment proceedings, but acknowledged that conviction in the GOP-controlled Senate was unlikely because Republicans are willing to carry the presidents water, no matter how corrupt or unethical or dishonest the presidents conduct may be.

The Burbank Democrat, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said the obstruction of justice evidence laid out in the Mueller report was far worse than anything that Richard Nixon did.

On CNNs State of the Union, Giuliani drew a sharp reaction from host Jake Tapper when he asserted that theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians.

While the presidents personal lawyer said he himself would have counseled against such a step out of an excess of caution, he told Tapper: Theres no crime.

Were going to get into morality? Giuliani added rhetorically. That isnt what prosecutors look at.

Interviewed on the same program, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) called Giulianis statement ridiculous.

I think that shows that how toxic the politics are today, this win-at-all-costs attitude that the president has and his administration has, said Ryan, who is part of a crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls. Thats disgusting, to think that any major official, let alone someone so closely tied to the Trump administration, would think that thats a good idea.

Also on State of the Union, former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara called Giulianis statement tantamount to inviting foreign adversaries to interfere in future U.S. elections.

Bharara, the former district attorney for the Southern District of New York, where a number of investigations involving the president and his associates remain active, added that the Mueller report was a signal that Trump might face legal jeopardy once he is no longer president.

The Mueller view, it seems to me, if you look at the document, is that they absolutely believe there is a potential viable prosecution once Donald Trump leaves office, he said.

From Florida, where he is vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago private club, Trump used familiar language in a pair of Easter Sunday tweets denouncing the investigation, saying he had been through the worst and most corrupt political Witch Hunt in the history of the United States.

Disgraceful! he added.

As the president arrived for Easter services in Palm Beach, a reporter asked him whether he felt betrayed by the way his staff, speaking to Muellers team, had characterized his actions.

According to a pool report, Trump clearly heard the question, but merely smiled and turned away.

laura.king@latimes.com

Twitter: @laurakingLATA New Mexico man belonging to an armed group that has detained Central American families near the U.S.-Mexico border was arrested Saturday in a border community on a criminal complaint accusing him of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, authorities said.

The FBI said it arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, in Sunland Park with the assistance of local police. New Mexico Atty. Gen. Hector Balderas said in a separate statement that Hopkins was a member of the group that had stopped migrants.

Hopkins was booked into the Dona Ana County detention center in Las Cruces. It was not known whether he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

The FBI statement did not provide information on Hopkins background, and FBI spokesman Frank Fisher told the Associated Press that no additional information would be released until after Hopkins has an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Las Cruces.

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The FBI said Hopkins is from Flora Vista, a rural community in northern New Mexico roughly 353 miles north of Sunland Park, which is a suburb of El Paso, Texas.

The Sunland Park Police Department on Saturday referred an AP reporter to the FBI.

Balderas said in a statement that Hopkins is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families. Todays arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.

Federal authorities on Friday warned private groups to avoid policing the border after a string of videos posted this week on social media showed armed civilians detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico.

The videos show members of United Constitutional Patriots ordering family groups as small as seven and as large as several hundred to sit on the dirt with their children, some toddlers, waiting until Border Patrol agents arrive.

Customs and Border Protection said on its Twitter account that it does not endorse or condone private groups or organizations that take enforcement matters into their own hands. Interference by civilians in law enforcement matters could have public safety and legal consequences for all parties involved.

Jim Benvie, a spokesman for United Constitutional Patriots, did not respond Saturday to a request for comment made via Facebook.

Benvie said in a video that the groups members were assisting a stressed and overstrained Border Patrol and said the group is legally armed for self-defense and never points guns at migrants. The posted videos do not show them with firearms drawn.

Armed civilian groups have been a fixture on the border for years, especially when large numbers of migrants come. But, unlike previous times, many of the migrants crossing now are children.

In the Border Patrols El Paso sector, which has emerged as the second-busiest corridor for illegal crossings after Texas Rio Grande Valley, 86% of arrests in March were people who came as families or unaccompanied children.On Monday, three young women, students at the University of Arizona, will appear in a Tucson courtroom to face misdemeanor charges for interfering with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution. They face up to six months of jail time, and their case has riled the campus and echoed around the nation. Their primary offense occurred outside a classroom where uniformed Border Patrol agents had been invited to speak, and where they began to voice their dissent.

This is supposed to be a safe space for students, said one of the students, standing at the door and speaking loud enough to be heard by those inside, but they allow an extension of the KKK into campus. When the agents cut short their presentation, two of the women followed them, shouting, Murder Patrol.

University President Robert C. Robbins quickly backed the campus police decision to press charges against the students, a move met by demonstrations, petitions and letter-writing campaigns. Nevertheless, Robbins maintains that student protest is protected by our support for free speech, but disruption is not.

Robbins appeal to the 1st Amendment raises the question: What sort of meaningful protest is not also a disruption? And in an age when immigration enforcement is increasingly weaponized to instill fear among Americas least privileged and most vulnerable, which is the more disruptive presence on a campus 60 miles from the border, angry students or on-duty immigration agents?

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The UA students may not have feared for their lives, but the menace of the Border Patrol is viscerally real on a campus replete with immigrants and Dreamers.

As a former Border Patrol agent, I too have been met by protests. Last February, I published a memoir about my 3  years on the job. Despite the fact that I am deeply critical of the agency and left it more than half a decade ago, several of my bookstore events were interrupted by people who came to speak out against the Border Patrol. Some were measured and respectful, others were confrontational and, yes, disruptive.

The fury of those protesters, just like the dismay expressed by the Arizona students, is deeply rooted in history and the day-to-day experience of generations of borderland residents. In his new history of the American frontier, The End of the Myth, Greg Grandin paints a grisly picture of the Border Patrol in the years following its formation in 1924.

White supremacists, he writes, took control of the newly established [agency] and turned it into a vanguard of race vigilantism. In those early years, agents beat, shot, and hung migrants with regularity, attracting many members of a resurgent Ku Klux Klan to join their ranks.

Such abuses are not just a thing of the past  in 2012, an agent shot 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez 16 times for allegedly throwing rocks from the Mexican side of the international boundary line at Nogales, Ariz. Last year, 20-year-old Claudia Patricia Gomez Gonzalez, an unarmed Guatemalan woman, was shot in the head by agents in Rio Bravo, Texas. According to reporting in the Guardian, at least 97 people have died at the hands of Customs and Border Protection agents since 2003.

The University of Arizona students may not have feared for their lives, but the menace of the Border Patrol is viscerally real on a campus replete with immigrants and Dreamers. Fenton Johnson, a professor of creative writing who was teaching a class down the hall from the original incident, wrote a public letter to Robbins. Having been given no notice of the planned visit by uniformed agents, Johnson said, he immediately and reasonably assumed they were on campus to detain students. Johnson even feared they might try to enter his classroom. It was that prospect, he wrote, not the demonstration, that distracted me from teaching my course.

Speaking out against the U.S. Border Patrol from the safety of a college campus, or at a bookstore, is one of the few direct ways Americans might object to the ongoing violence in the borderlands. Except for hand-selected spokespeople, agents rarely appear before the public outside of their enforcement activities. Nor are they effectively held to account by our institutions  the agent who killed Rodriguez, for example, was acquitted in a case that took six years to reach trial, and the agent who shot Gomez has yet to be publicly identified, let alone charged.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute 

It bears mentioning that I was never made to feel unsafe by the shouts or insults of those who protested at my book events. Neither, in all likelihood, were the fully-armed agents who visited the University of Arizona campus. In a video of the confrontation that went viral, the agents can be see rolling their eyes at the camera and smiling.The students who have been charged, however, have reportedly faced harassment, death threats and a shooting scare that led to the evacuation of a campus building.

Public universities are more than just orderly research institutions  they are also laboratories for expressing dissent. When considering the issue of campus disruptions, it is also essential to examine the power dynamics in a given situation. The agents, wearing the uniform of the most formidable country on Earth, were armed and trained to confront any threat to their safety. The students were equipped only with the power of their voices.

Robbins called the protests a dramatic departure from our expectations. But it is the University of Arizona, under his leadership, that has abandoned its purpose by shielding government agents from criticism instead of defending the safety and well-being of its students.

Francisco Cantu, a graduate of the University of Arizona masters of fine arts program, is the author of The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.To the editor: Thanks for your editorial on the detention of asylum seekers. In my years of visiting immigrant detainees, I have yet to meet a single person on the outside who is aware that our country jails asylum seekers and grants them no guaranteed representation in their hearings.

The number of asylum seekers detained has risen to almost 40,000. As your editorial notes, there are productive suggestions that could grant relief and shorten the backlog.

These people have suffered in their home countries and endured unimaginable hardship on their journeys to the United States, only to find themselves jailed in the country that is often represented by the Statue of Liberty. This treatment is un-American.

That our nation should treat those who have fled here for refuge is not consistent with our values. I am also unaware of a religious faith that could condone this treatment. I am grateful on their behalf that the L.A. Times has informed Americans what is being done in their name.

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Craig Repp, Rancho Santa Margarita

..

To the editor: As a Christian in what some say is a Christian nation, I am appalled at our treatment of human beings seeking refuge.

I am reminded of Matthew 25:35, in which the Son of Man sits in judgment of the nations: For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me.

Doris Isolini Nelson, Los Angeles

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookCalifornia lawmakers had high hopes when they enacted a sweeping new election system in 2016. They pledged it would result in higher turnout, lower costs and a better overall experience for voters.

Three years later, its difficult to discern whether the California Voters Choice Act has delivered on those promises. And the stakes have never been higher, as counties that represent almost half of the states registered voters are preparing to switch to the setup for 2020.

The law was designed to provide a more flexible experience than what traditionally happens on election day. The most far-reaching change was the elimination of tens of thousands of neighborhood polling places, replaced by absentee ballots and secure drop boxes.

Multipurpose vote centers are open for several days before the election in the counties that chose to participate. There, voters can fill out a ballot or simply drop one off, update their registration or get a replacement ballot if theyve lost the original.

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The system is optional  thus keeping state government from having to pay for a new mandate imposed on Californias 58 counties. Fourteen counties were eligible to make the switch last year but only five took the plunge: Madera, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento and San Mateo.

A new study by some of the states most prominent election researchers found those counties had a modest boost in average voter turnout  3% from the midterm election four years earlier  compared to communities that stuck to the traditional election model. Turnout seemed higher, too, among often underrepresented groups including young voters, Latinos and Asian Americans.

Californias electoral future is rooted in the old-fashioned absentee ballot 

The real test, though, will come in the states presidential primary next March. Ten counties  some with large electorates like Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara  will join the switch from election day polling places to multiday vote centers.

Special attention should be paid to Los Angeles County, which was given a one-time exemption in 2020 from having to mail a ballot to each of its 5.4 million voters. Many residents will have to seek out the countys vote centers  not guaranteed to be as close as polling places once were  to cast a ballot. Getting the word out over the next few months will be crucial.

Researchers from USC and UC Riverside, in a summary of their study on how the new state law worked in 2018, found elections officials faced a number of unexpected hurdles with the Voters Choice Act.

Costs went up in some counties, as workers at vote centers needed additional training and counties replaced the often no-fee locations for polling places with buildings that had to be rented for a week or more. Some local officials said they needed more vote centers than the minimum required by the state law, especially on election day  for whatever reason, a number of voters didnt use the service until the last minute.

The culture of in-person voting on one single day will require more than one election cycle to change, the researchers wrote.

Nor does success have a single definition. Some local officials say the new laws impact should be measured by voter turnout. Others told researchers its about making elections more efficient. Many hope the vote centers  where registration problems can quickly be cleared up  will lower the use of provisional ballots, the fail-safe option designed for when poll workers cant confirm a voters information. Vote centers have that information readily available.

In short, every county  perhaps every voter  will expect something different. And what happens in 2020 could be key to whether California is on the verge of a major transformation of its electoral democracy.

john.myers@latimes.com

Follow @johnmyers on Twitter and sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletterFor years, Korean has been one of the most commonly spoken languages in Orange County, which is home to the second-largest Korean population in the United States after Los Angeles.

Yet public school students havent had the opportunity to be part of a Korean dual-language immersion program  until this year. Starting in August, Anaheim Elementary School District will offer the countys first at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, giving children the chance to become fluent by the sixth grade. The program will also be open to students living outside the district.

Sandra Song, principal of Jefferson Elementary, said Korean language and culture are increasingly important, not only in the global context, but in Orange County.

Korean products are everywhere in our everyday culture, from cell phones, LG washer and dryers, cars like Hyundai and Kia, and now K-Pop and K-Dramas are popular, she said. Theres a part of Korea in our daily lives right here in Southern California.

The school district has offered Spanish dual-language immersion programs since 2006, but decided to expand to include Korean because of its prominence locally and internationally.

According to the Modern Language Assn., Korean is one of the top five non-English languages spoken in California, and its also on the National Security Agencys list of critical languages, which means the global demand exceeds supply.

In addition to the specific benefits of learning Korean, theres also a general benefit to being bilingual in any other language, said Andrew Apodaca, coordinator of English language learners and language acquisition for the school district.

The research shows that fully bilingual students outperform monolingual students, he said. Theres evidence that it boosts the cognitive development of our kids.

Anaheim resident Conrad Haro said its these academic benefits that led him to enroll his 5-year-old son in the dual-language immersion program. Haro and his wife primarily speak Spanish to their son at home, so Korean will be his third language.

While Haro said he has some concerns about how hell be able to help his son with his schoolwork, he said hes confident that the advantages will outweigh the challenges.

Im a big believer in the more languages the better, he said. Korean is a pretty big language. I have to look down the road, and the need for Korean speakers in 10 years or 20 years or 30 years is probably going to be a lot higher than it is now.

First graders play with Korean spelling patterns at Mark Kepple Elementary School in Glendale. Orange County will be getting its first Korean dual-language immersion program at Anaheims Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in August. (Photo by Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Students will enter the program in kindergarten, giving them the opportunity to learn Korean for seven years, a timeline that Apodaca said matches the research showing that it takes between five and 10 years to become fully proficient in another language.

In kindergarten and first grade, about 80% of instruction will be in Korean and 20% will be in English, Apodaca said.

As students move up in grade levels, theyll receive a higher percentage of English instruction until fourth grade, when they reach a 50/50 model, in which half of the instruction is in Korean and half is in English.

We still offer all of the same subjects to the students in our language-immersion programs as our other student population, Apodaca said. Really what changes is the language in which the teacher and the children are speaking.

The program will start with one kindergarten class and will add a new grade each year.

After graduating from Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, students will have the opportunity to enroll in Korean elective courses at several of the districts high schools.

The aim of the program, said Apodaca, is for students to become not only bilingual  meaning theyll be able to speak English and Korean fluently  but also biliterate, meaning theyll also be able to read and write at an academic level in both languages, skills that even children who grow up speaking Korean at home may not have. (The state offers seals of biliteracy on high school diplomas, for which students of the dual-language immersion program will be eligible.)

Tammy Kim, co-founder and managing director of the Korean American Center, which offers adult Korean language classes in Irvine, said that being biliterate  not just bilingual  will give students a leg up in the new global economy.

Of course being bilingual is an advantage, she said. But the advantage of being biliterate is that you can decide to go to college in Korea. You can have a corporate job.

Kim said that its about time a public school in Orange County offered a Korean dual-language immersion program, and that she hopes the new curriculum at Jefferson Elementary becomes a model replicated at other nearby school districts.

Americans can no longer afford to be monolingual, she said. When these children who are starting kindergarten go into the workplace, being bilingual will be a requirement.

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School will hold information sessions at 10 a.m. on Jan. 30 and Feb. 2 for parents interested in the Korean dual-language immersion program.

Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil is a contributor to Times Community News.A Huntington Beach man was sentenced to federal prison after being pulled over in Nebraska with more than 500 pounds of marijuana in a rental truck, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The U.S. attorneys office said Felice Michael Giorgetti, 39, was sentenced last week to 37 months after pleading guilty in November to charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

In January 2018, Giorgetti was driving a rental truck in Seward County, Neb., when he was pulled over by a state patrol officer over alleged traffic and equipment violations. When questioned, he and his passenger gave conflicting stories about the reason for their travel, and Giorgetti denied consent to a search of the vehicle, the U.S. attorneys office said.

The truck was searched after a patrol dog alerted the officer to the presence of drugs, the U.S. attorneys office said. The officer found 17 boxes containing a total of 526 pounds of marijuana, the office said.

The haul had an estimated street value of $1.5 million, the Associated Press reported.

Giorgettis passenger and co-defendant, Robert Patrick Rahon of Fountain Valley, also pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute and is scheduled for sentencing April 4, according to court documents.Newport Beachs new short-term rental monitor has helped the city close the door on nearly 80 unpermitted vacation rental homes in the past month, with dozens more under review, the city says.

Based on about five weeks of data from Host Compliance, a company that combs 22 online platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway to see whos advertising their homes for vacation rental without proper local clearance, Newport has shut down 78 rentals and has about 50 more to review, Kim Brandt, Newport Beachs community development director, told the City Council on Tuesday.

Residential properties offering short-term rentals  defined as less than 30 days  have long been part of the local culture, with zoning, lodging permits and business licenses to regulate them. But the recent popularity of online short-term rental platforms that dont have a physical presence here has made it difficult for Newport Beach to regulate such rentals, Brandt said.

Newport currently has about 1,300 active short-term lodging permits. The city doesnt keep track of how the properties are advertised, such as through online platforms or a traditional property management firm, but it does collect a 10% occupancy tax, also called a bed tax, as it would for a hotel room. Short-term rentals generated about $2.7 million in revenue last year, accounting for 10% of the bed tax total.

Most of the permitted short-term rentals are at the Balboa Peninsula, Balboa Island and Corona del Mar. The vast majority are in neighborhoods zoned to allow multifamily housing. In 2004, the city banned vacation rentals in areas zoned only for single-family homes.

Much of the recent crackdown has been in single-family-only neighborhoods, where only 120 properties operating before the ban were grandfathered. This is where all of the 78 homes that have ceased offering vacation rentals are located.

Those property owners will have to pay the city back taxes and get a permit if they intend to continue offering short-term rentals. But Brandt said they may be cooperative.

Believe it or not, people can be very forthright in giving that information to us, she said. We can also look at their listings and we can get a sense of the time the propertys been advertised, and perhaps we can get some cooperation with the online hosting company too.

Brandt said HomeAway sent Newport a letter this week agreeing to share its listing information and require its hosts to put their permit numbers in their listings. She said the city would follow up with Airbnb.

The two major platforms agreed in May to share their host information with San Francisco, where vacation rentals have been a pressing topic.

Host Compliance compares addresses in Newport Beachs database of permitted hosts with listings on vacation home websites. Newport is one of the companys roughly 50 clients worldwide and one of 15 in California. The city has a one-year contract with the monitor.

Brandt plans to update the City Council with additional results later this year.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD

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Newport hires 6 companies for building and planning consultingRussell Martin didnt mince words. The veteran catcher doesnt want to go on a rehab assignment before coming off the injured list and communicated that desire to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. So even though Roberts had said the club was considering sending Martin to the minors for a game or two to test his previously ailing back, the plans have changed.

Roberts said Sunday that Martin is slated to see live pitching Friday at Dodger Stadium and will be activated against the Pittsburgh Pirates next weekend if he emerges healthy.

I talked to him, the training staff, Roberts said. We feel comfortable that a rehab assignment for a day or two probably is not going to be an option.

Martin, 36, was placed on the 10-day disabled list with lower back inflammation April 10. Its an injury hes dealt with before and one that he said might force him to adjust his crouch behind the plate. Martin explained his staggered squat, which he has used to making throwing runners out easier, could have placed more stress on his back. He theorized a more neutral crouch should alleviate the pressure.

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Martin took batting practice on the field Saturday for the first time since sustaining the injury. He also caught a bullpen and blocked balls behind the plate. Sunday morning, Martin was on the field running and playing catch. Roberts said he will continue assuming that workload when the team is in Chicago to play the Cubs this week.

Acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays after a career-worst offensive campaign, Martin is five for 15 with five walks in six games. His absence has prompted the Dodgers to place the catching onus on Austin Barnes, who has started nine of the Dodgers last 12 games, including Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Rocky Gale, Martins replacement, has started the other three games. Barnes and Gale have combined to go four for 39 (.103) with three walks since Martin landed on the injured list. All four hits were singles.

Rich Hill to debut next weekend

Roberts said the Dodgers also expect to activate Rich Hill from the injured list next weekend against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hill was scheduled to leave the Dodgers on Sunday to travel to Arizona, where he will make his second rehab start in extended spring training at the teams facility in Glendale, Ariz.

Roberts said Hill, who started the season on the injured list with a strained medial collateral ligament in his left knee, will pitch five innings or 75 pitches in a game before possibly throwing another inning in the bullpen. If all goes well, he will start for the Dodgers on Saturday or Sunday.

Sign up for our Dodgers newsletter 

jorge.castillo@latimes.com

Twitter: @jorgecastilloSan Francisco native Victor Bergeron brought the mai tai to Hawaii in 1953 when he was hired by Matson Navigation Co. to create a cocktail for its Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki.

Bergeron took his mai tai recipe  a boozy concoction of rum, Curacao, orgeat and lime  that he created in 1944 at his Trader Vics restaurant in Oakland and added pineapple juice. Demand for this sugary version surpassed the originals, establishing it as the quintessential mai tai.

The Royal Hawaiians Mai Tai Bar last year sold 94,225 of the cocktail, which is made according to Bergerons original recipe. Its one of the few spots in Waikiki that makes a good-quality mai tai, but I wanted to search some of Honolulus less-visited neighborhoods to see if I could find other variations of the classic worth sipping.

I discovered talented bartenders putting innovative spins on the drink, using good-quality ingredients, locally sourced when possible, and producing swoon-worthy flavors.

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A mai tai with fizz

Harrys Hardware Emporium in Moiliili, near the University of Hawaii campus at Manoa, is the last place youd expect to find a mai tai. The speakeasy is entered through a bookcase inside Pint + Jigger, the pub next door.

Owner and Los Angeles native Dave Newman opened Pint + Jigger seven years ago, and about a year and a half ago opened Harrys Hardware Emporium with a focus on cocktails and conversation. The hidden room has an ornate roaring 20s-themed interior with tufted leather couches, a chandelier, a shiny tiled ceiling and a bar that sits eight.

Newmans mai-tai ($14), made with Pierre Ferrand Dry Orange Curacao, lime juice, Cointreau, house-made orgeat and El Dorado rum, is mixed in a bottle, then carbonated. Once the process is complete, the air pressure is released and the cocktail turns a foamy white.

We carbonate the individual cocktails, he said . Im not saying that carbonating this drink makes it better. Its just fun.

He poured the mai tai, now the color of gold, into an iced glass and topped it off with a float of two rums, Cruzan Black Strap and Barbancourt. When I took my first sip, the fizzy bubbles made the mai tai easy to drink.

Info: Harrys Hardware Emporium, 936 S. King St., Honolulu; (808) 379-3887, Harrys Hardware Emporium

E Hoo Pau Mai Tai

Oahu-born and -raised Justin Park creates cocktails like a chef preparing meals at a five-star restaurant  with a lot of time and pre-planning. It can take days for a single ingredient to be ready.

He opened Bar Leather Apron in 2016, an intimate cocktail lounge with a seven-seat bar in Honolulus downtown business district. Its E Hoo Pau Mai Tai (e hoo pau means to finish or wind down) won Park 2015 title of worlds best mai tai at Don the Beachcombers Mai Tai Festival in Kona on Hawaii Island.

It features raisin-infused El Dorado five-year rum, El Dorado 12-year rum, coconut water syrup, spiked orgeat, ohia blossom honey, lime, absinthe and kiawe wood smoke.

The four flavors I featured when I built the recipe were raisin, vanilla, coconut and licorice, he said. The absinthe is spritzed over the ice to create a licorice aroma.

A hollow tiki-shaped box is placed over the cocktail, then filled with smoke, which adds the aroma of kiawe wood. Park let wisps of smoke escape from the tikis carved nostrils before removing the box and presenting the drink, ready for my full attention.

Info: Bar Leather Apron, 745 Fort Street Mall, Honolulu; (808) 524-0808, Bar Leather Apron. $18 for an E Hoo Pau Mai Tai. Two-drink minimum per person. Reservations recommended.

Ma Italiano

Christian Self owns Bevy, a 5-year-old bar in Kakaako, once a working-class district and now Honolulus hottest neighborhood. The master mixologist, originally from Liverpool, England, pays meticulous attention to detail when creating craft cocktails.

Hes also a big fan of tiki drinks and is known for making more than a few varieties of mai tais. I really dug into the history years and years ago, so Ive always been tweaking and making them because I despise the Waikiki mai tai. Its just rum punch, and its pulling the wool over everybodys eyes, Self said.

Self won the worlds best mai tai in 2010 at the Don the Beachcomber festival with his Mai Thai ($14) made with lemongrass syrup and candied-ginger foam. It remains on Bevys menu, but a new mai tai, the Ma Italiano (pronounced Maitaliano to keep the mai sound) will soon be added.

This one is a limited-edition Bacardi aged rum, he said, explaining its ingredients. I had to take an Italian amaro and infuse it with Valencia dried orange peels to make my own Curacao. Then I cut it down to the right proof and made a pistachio orgeat [syrup] and added fresh lime and a little bit of simple syrup. It gets topped off with [flower water] that I distill from fresh island pikake.

Like the other bartenders, Park tries to stay true to the spirit of the original mai tai recipe. For me, its a way to pay homage to my favorite drink.

Info: Bevy, 675 Auahi St., Honolulu; (808) 594-7445, BevyJust after 8 a.m., Pura Castell got in line behind about 100 other people waiting for a chance to buy frozen chicken legs. For two hours she leaned on her cane watching people leave the state-run market with their 5-pound limit.

The chicken ran out at 10 a.m. while the 80-year-old Castell still had 20 people in front of her. She returned the next morning, but no chicken. Then, relief: A neighbor told her that chicken had arrived at the government store that distributes heavily subsidized monthly food rations. Her household of three was due three pieces, either thighs or drumsticks.

Ive taken care of myself my whole life, said Castell, a retired janitor. I dont just sit on my hands. Im worn out but I walk all over town.

After two decades of relative stability fueled by cheap Venezuelan oil, shortages of food and medicine have once again become a serious daily problem for millions of Cubans. A plunge in aid from Venezuela, the end of a medical services deal with Brazil and poor performances in sectors including nickel mining, sugar and tourism have left the communist state $1.5 billion in debt to the vendors that supply products ranging from frozen chicken to equipment for grinding grain into flour, according to former Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez.

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Stores no longer routinely stock products including eggs, flour, chicken, cooking oil, rice, powdered milk and ground turkey. These basics disappear for days or weeks. Hours-long lines appear within minutes of trucks showing up with new supplies. Shelves are empty again the same day.

No one is starving in Cuba, but the shortages are so severe that ordinary Cubans and the countrys leaders are openly referring to the special period, the years of economic devastation and deep suffering that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cubas Cold War patron.

Its not about returning to the harshest phase of the special period of the 90s, Communist Party head Raul Castro said this month. But we always have to be ready for the worst.

Two days later, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said cutbacks were necessary because: This harsh moment demands we set clearly defined priorities in order to not return to the worst moments of the special period.

The Trump administration is working hard to push Cuba toward economic crisis. Washington has sanctioned Venezuelas oil industry and the shipping companies that move Venezuelan oil to Cuba.

On Wednesday, U.S. national security advisor John Bolton announced further measures against Cuba and its allies, including a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send their relatives on the island and new restrictions on travel to Cuba. The troika of tyranny  Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua  is beginning to crumble, he said.

The move followed the announcement a day earlier that lawsuits would now be permitted against foreign companies doing business in properties seized from Americans after the islands 1959 revolution. The policy could deal a severe blow to Cubas efforts to draw foreign investment.

A senior Trump administration official said the economic pressure on Cuba was aimed at forcing the socialist government to stop helping its allies in Venezuela and Nicaragua. The U.S. has accused Cuba of sending soldiers and spies to both countries to strengthen their leaders against protests and potential defection. Cuba denies that.

Were going to make sure they cannot afford subsidized adventurism, subsidized subversion of democracy outside of their borders, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about U.S. policy toward Cuba. At an extraordinarily vulnerable time in their history, theyre going to have to refocus on the domestic needs, their domestic pressures.

Despite some market-oriented reforms over the last decade, Cuba is one of the last countries to maintain a Soviet-style economy, with most business run by the state.

That economy is afflicted by deep inefficiency and corruption. Many state employees demand bribes to provide services to the public. Others spend only a few hours a day at their jobs, spending the rest of their time doing informal private work or selling supplies stolen from their office, warehouse or factory. Despite a highly educated and generally well-qualified workforce, Cubas industrial sector is dilapidated after decades of underinvestment. The country produces little of value on the global market besides rum, tobacco and the professionals who earn billions for the government working as doctors, teachers or engineers in friendly third countries.

The agricultural sector is in shambles, requiring the country to import most of its food. Economy Minister Alejandro Gil said Saturday that Cuba would spend $5 billion on food and petroleum products this year.

Over the last 20 years, many of those billions came from Venezuelas socialist government, which has deep ties to Cubas and sent nearly 100,000 barrels of oil daily for years. With Venezuelas economic collapse, that has roughly halved, along with deep cutbacks in the economic relationship across the board. And the news has been bad in virtually every other sector of the Cuban economy. Nickel production has dropped from 72,530 metric tons in 2011 to 50,000 last year, according to Rodriguez, the former economics minister. The sugar harvest dropped nearly 44%, to a million tons. The number of tourists grew only 1%, with many coming on cruise ships, a relatively unprofitable type of visitor. Overall GDP growth has been stuck at 1% for the last three years.

Meanwhile, under agreements Castro struck to rehabilitate Cubas creditworthiness, the country is paying $2 billion in debt service to creditors such as Russia, Japan and the Paris Club.

State-run stores that sell low-quality Chinese household goods at double or triple their price outside the country are facing competition from vendors in Panama, Guyana, Mexico, Haiti and even Russia, where Cubans fly in, fill suitcases with goods, and return to sell them at a profit.

That overseas shopping has become a vacuum sucking precious hard currency out of Cuba. Economist Omar Everleny Perez said he estimated that Cubans spent more than $2 billion a year buying products overseas.

With less cash on hand, theres been even less in the state-run stores.

The manager of the butcher shop where Castell waited for chicken said she needed 80 boxes of chicken to fill that days demand, and only 40 arrived.

Fears of a return to darker times are growing.

During the special period we had it bad, like everyone. Even when we had money we couldnt buy anything, said Castell, a mother of six.

It was really rough, blackouts, no food at all, I dont want to go back to that, said Ariadne Medina, a 47-year-old worker in a private restaurant who was waiting to buy chicken behind Castell.

Independent experts say a return to the depths of the special period is unlikely. Cuba does business with dozens of nations and hosts nearly 5 million tourists a year, and Cubans can travel freely to dozens of countries on direct flights to the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Expatriates send billions home in annual remittances.

The new government is trying to halt the deterioration, but its a tough assignment, Perez said. Its going to take resources and time.

Rodriguez and Weissenstein write for the Associated Press.In three days of voting that ends Monday, Egyptian voters appear poised to approve a package of constitutional changes that would extend President Abdel Fattah Sisis rule to 2030 and enhance his power over the judiciary while adding to the militarys sway over political affairs.

Opponents of Sisi said their ability to campaign against the power consolidation has been choked by restrictions imposed against them holding public rallies and a failure of the largely government-controlled state media to provide fair or adequate coverage.

Polling stations opened on Saturday morning, just 72 hours after Egypts parliament, packed with Sisi loyalists, passed the amendments on which voters are being asked to cast their ballots.

About 150 to 200 people lined up outside one school on Kasr el Aini Street in Cairo, just a couple of minutes walk from the parliament, to be among the first to vote. A large banner outside the polling station declared, All employees of the El Komyia Distribution are saying yes for the constitutional amendments for a better future, under which several young girls held Egyptian flags and took selfies.

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Inside, Abdel Hamed, a 42-year-old chef at the nearby Ritz-Carlton hotel, said that he was there to cast a yes vote because we need to support our country. But when pressed, Hamed could not provide specifics about the proposals on which he was about to vote.

The changes include extending what would have been Sisis second and final four-year term that is due to end in 2022 for two more years, and then allowing him to run for one more six-year term.

To opponents, the changes to the nations 2014 constitution represent the death knell of gains that followed a popular uprising in 2011, which toppled the nearly 30-year autocratic military rule of Hosni Mubarak. They say that most reforms had already been reversed under Sisi, a former general, since he became president in 2014.

The opposition, a coalition of secular and left-leaning parties called the Civil Democratic Movement, has been largely ignored or denounced by leading media outlets, and a request for a rally was denied, with authorities restricting members to holding activities within the small headquarters of coalition groups. In addition, more than 34,000 internet domains were blocked, they said.

On the other hand, there has been a significant push to get citizens to vote via PSAs on various media channels and songs by famous artists, said Mai Sadany, legal and judicial director at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. Although the media content does not explicitly encourage a yes vote, much of the framing and language, videography and examples of ballots implicitly lead citizens there.

Cairos polling stations have been heavily guarded by troops and police as the voting proceeds, and most are surrounded by banners telling the public to do the right thing by voting.

As Adel Cherif, 74, walked out after casting his ballot in the upscale Zamalek neighborhood, he said he supported the referendum because of the security the army provides, including in fighting militants. If the army can improve the situation then I will vote for the army forever, he said.

Lamia Moktar, a smartly dressed 35-year-old working in a bank who also cast a yes vote in Zamalek, said she had listened to views put forward by opponents but couldnt explain what they were.

She backed the changes, she said, because it will increase the percentage of women in parliament by 25%, referring to a fixed quota included in the referendum.

In the capitals working-class district of Dar el Salam, voters leaving the polling stations displayed pink-ink stained fingers showing they had cast ballots  and slips with bar codes on them.

One yes voter explained that the slips were coupons for food boxes they were receiving for having voted. We got the coupon from the mosque, and once we voted, we got it stamped from the stand outside and then took it to the mosque to get our box of food, Mona Ahmed Mohamed said.

Mohamed, who had already collected a white food box, displayed the oil, margarine, sugar, rice and pasta inside and placed the provisions into a plastic bag to take home.

Nawal Zakareya, a 26-year-old cleaner, smiling and holding an Egyptian flag, said: I havent read the amendments, but I think the country is getting better and is more secure.

She lamented, however, that price hikes and subsidy cuts in recent years have meant she can no longer afford to buy clothes for her 6-year-old daughter.

Away from the chaos outside the polling stations, a 48-year-old teacher sitting near a plumbing shop said she had just voted no.

Everything is dark and prices are high. Maybe Sisi is building a future for coming generations but what is our generation supposed to do, just die? said the woman, who asked to speak on condition of anonymity because she said she feared for her safety.

Speaking just after he cast his ballot rejecting the amendments at a quiet polling station in the sprawling suburb of Nasr City, Mustafa Kamel Sayed, a political professor at Cairo University and steering committee member of the Civil Democratic Movement, acknowledged that mobilizing people to vote no is proving difficult.

I think that people who are not favorable to the amendments prefer not to come to vote, he said, because people somehow do not trust the fairness of elections.

How the military piggybacked on populist uprisings in Algeria and Sudan Pope Francis is celebrating Easter Mass this year facing a fresh round of bloodshed targeting Christians in Sri Lanka.

Hours after celebrating a late-night vigil, Francis processed into a flower-decked St. Peters Square for the liturgy Sunday commemorating the resurrection of Christ after his crucifixion.

This year the Easter season has been marred both by the partial destruction of Paris Notre Dame Cathedral by fire last week and the massacre on Sunday in Sri Lanka. At least 207 people were killed and hundreds wounded following near-simultaneous blasts at three Sri Lankan churches during Easter Sunday services and three hotels frequented by foreigners.

After Mass, Francis will deliver his annual Easter Urbi et Orbi speech about conflicts and other difficulties around the world.James Mashakeni, 22, began smoking nyaope, a heroin-based narcotic, after a blowout fight with his dad nine years ago. When his father burned his clothes and schoolbooks, he recalls, friends offered him the street drug as a means of escape.

I became addicted quickly, he said. I was smoking every day to forget about that situation.

On a recent day in a dimly lit northwest South African community hall, Mashakeni sat slumped in a plastic chair, munching on chips as a counselor railed about the nyaope menace sweeping the nation. After a few minutes, he raised his hand, and declared that he was tired of being in its grip and wanted to go to rehab. Fellow members of the audience of some 50 parents and young drug addicts cheered.

When Im high, I cannot see the light, Mashakeni said after the meeting. Now, I want to try [to stop].

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Twenty-five years after the end of apartheid, nearly one-third of employment-age South Africans are without jobs, inequality remains rife, and the vast majority of South Africans think their country is moving in the wrong direction, according to a 2018 Afrobarometer survey.

Now, experts warn a heroin crisis is brewing, already having hit the countrys poorest and likely to mushroom as South Africa transitions from being a heroin transit hub to a retail destination.

Heroin has been available in South Africa since the 1990s, when a small number of mostly white men in Johannesburg were the primary users. But in recent years, with policymakers barely paying attention, a domestic heroin market estimated worth hundreds of millions of dollars is spreading in both urban and rural areas of the country, according to a new report released by ENACT, a European-Union funded project that tracks organized crime in Africa.

The growth of the heroin market in the last five years has been profound, said Simone Haysom, the reports author, in the capital Pretoria this month. Its a major phenomenon  not just in big cities, but in small towns.

The heroin primarily comes from Afghanistan, the worlds top grower of the poppy that produces opium and heroin. Despite international efforts to curb it, opium production reached record levels there in 2017, according to the U.N.

As the two main drug trafficking routes out of Afghanistan to Europe through Central Asia and the Balkans have become more restricted due to conflict and tighter borders, a lesser-used southern route along Africas east coast has become more popular with smugglers, who have increased amounts of product to peddle. according to ENACT.

On this sea route, according to a 2018 ENACT report, heroin moves from Afghanistan to Pakistans coast, where motorized dhows, a traditional Arab boat, pick up hundreds of kilos and sail to international waters off the coasts of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.

There, smaller boats pick up the heroin and move it to beaches, coves, islands and small harbors. The heroin is then moved overland to major transit points, including Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

Ten years ago, between 80 and 90% of the heroin that arrived in South Africa was then shipped directly to more lucrative markets in Europe and, to a lesser extent, North America, said Haysom.

A nyaope addict injects himself in an abandoned building in Simuneye township on the outskirts of Johannesburg. (Mujahid Safodien / AFP/Getty Images)

Now, about a third of the heroin remains in South Africa, she said, underpinning a criminal economy that has, at the same time, seen a spike in guns, gang turf battles and an escalating murder rate, particularly in Cape Town. Heroin is feeding into a perfect storm, Haysom said.

Heroin in South Africa is often mixed with cheaper drugs like painkillers to keep the cost down; a single hit can cost as little as $1.50. The white powder is typically combined with marijuana and smoked, or injected, sometimes by bluetoothing in which one user injects a hit, withdraws his or her blood, and injects it into another person. In a country with the worlds largest HIV epidemic, its an extremely dangerous practice.

The drug is sold under different names around the country  nyaope, sugars, woonga, unga  that make it trickier to track the problem. A 2015 study estimated that more than 75,000 South Africans were injecting heroin, but researchers believe the number of users is significantly higher today.

If heroin had to be sold the old way, it would be a very small market, Brigadier Ebrahim Kadwa, national head of the Organized Crime Unit for the Hawks, a government body that combats high-priority crime in South Africa, said at the papers launch. By making it relatively cheap, [traffickers] were able to penetrate the mass market.

Kadwa says law enforcement was slow to pick up on the countrys heroin problem, thinking of the country as primarily a heroin transit point.

But, he says, the government has now intensified its efforts to crack down by fighting drug supply networks, setting up anti-gang units to target the criminal organizations peddling drugs, and ramping up seizures at borders.

Some say police still arent doing enough.

In Hillbrow, a dense neighborhood in central Johannesburg, the drug trade flourishes openly as residents from dozens of countries across Africa contend with rampant unemployment, said Robert Michel, executive director of Outreach Foundation, an organization that works with drug addicts.

Here in Hillbrow, you can find any drug available on Earth, Michel says. The police cant stop the [dealers]. They openly sell drugs. We are pretty sure the police work with them.

Though there are both government rehabilitation programs and private centers in place, widely used practices such as opioid substitution therapy and needle exchange programs are still extremely limited, ENACT says.

A group meets in a community hall in Brits, South Africa, to talk about drug addiction. (Krista Mahr / For The Times)

In Brits, Outreach helps recovering addicts and families dealing with drug addiction find work in a town that has been hit hard by layoffs in the mining industry.

During the meeting in the community hall, elderly women and men, many just scraping by, stood up to testify about living in fear of their children, who have stolen everything from their homes, or turned violent.

Afterward, a group of young men stands around a table looking apprehensive, while a social worker from Outreach took their names and information to get them registered for a government treatment program nearby.

My family is struggling, says Grace Pitse, a retiree who has brought her son to the meeting to prepare for rehab. They want this boy to come right. They want him to be normal.

Mahr is a special correspondent.

They survive droughts, they eat trees  South Africas goats are helping farmers weather climate change Volodymyr Zelensky, a popular comedian initially brushed off by Ukraines political elite as a novice, won the nations presidential election in a landslide vote Sunday, according to exit polls.

Zelensky, 41, earned more than 70% of the votes, the polls showed, and his supporters expressed hope that the victory would usher in a new generation of leaders committed to weeding out oligarchs and political corruption.

Zelensky was running against incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire chocolate tycoon whose term began in 2014 just months after massive street protests forced a Kremlin-favored president to flee the country and ensured the post-Soviet republics pivot away from Moscow.

Many supporters said they were voting for Zelensky not because they backed whatever largely unstated plans he might have for running the nation of 44 million, but because they sought to reject Poroshenkos entanglement in Ukraines corrupted political elite.

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Zelensky, after kissing his wife and thanking his parents, told supporters at his election headquarters, We did this together.

To all the citizens of post-Soviet countries: Look at us. Everything is possible, he said in a veiled nudge at Russia, where President Vladimir Putin was reelected last year in a Kremlin-controlled process with no real political opponents.

Poroshenko, 53, campaigned as a wartime president who brought economic stability to the country despite the ongoing threat of Russian attacks. But he failed to convince voters he had done enough to combat the countrys endemic corruption. The president received just 25% of the vote, according to exit polls, representing a humiliating defeat at the hands of a political newcomer.

Poroshenko conceded shortly after the exit numbers came out Sunday evening.

We have lost this battle, but we will win the war. We have many more battles to fight, he said during a concession speech. The president, clearly emotional, ended with, God save Ukraine.

Poroshenko offered one parting warning for the country.

In the Kremlin, he said, they believe that with a new inexperienced Ukrainian president, Ukraine could be quickly returned to Russias orbit of influence.

Ukraines presidential election campaign lasted two rounds and was dominated by voter complaints about the economic situation and calls for a complete overhaul of the political system.

Zelenskys a guy who is out of the system, and thats good, said Anton Mykalychyuk, 27, after casting his vote for the comedian in central Kiev. He made his own money, so he doesnt owe anyone in the current system anything.

Zelensky has been a public figure in Ukraine for decades. He is best known as an actor in his comedy troupe Kvartal 95. The name of the group comes from the region where he grew up in Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city of about 800,000 in central Ukraine.

The regions metallurgy plants were notorious during the Soviet era for emitting smoke that turned winter snow orange.

Zelensky, whose father was a professor and mother an engineer, studied economics at the Kryvyi Rih Economic Institute and later received a law degree. He never practiced law, instead using his acting and participation in sketch comedy shows and competitions to launch his career in entertainment.

In 2015, Zelensky became the star of a hit television series called Servant of the People. In the show, now in its third season, Zelensky played Vasyl Holoborodko, a history teacher who became president after a video of him ranting against corrupt politicians went viral.

The popular series seems to have been the catalyst for creating what is now the political phenomenon of Zelensky as the actual president of Ukraine, said Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst with the Kiev-based think tank Penta Center for Political Studies.

The show formatted a now very popular political myth that an ordinary person could become president, that he could change the political system, Fesenko said. It became a fairy tale for Ukrainians about how they could change the political system in the country.

Two years after the start of Zelenskys hit show, Poroshenkos administration began facing a new domestic crisis: growing public distrust in the government ahead of this years presidential and parliamentary elections.

Since the nations independence in 1991, Ukrainian politics has been dominated by a political elite that many voters believe use their power to enrich their pockets while the rest of the country struggles economically.

The mass street protests in Kiev in 2014, which became known as the Maidan revolution, were a fight against this entrenched, corrupt system and a demand that the government reform into a Western-style democracy, steering away from the kind of authoritative government of Russias Putin.

Maidan raised the hopes of many Ukrainians that the country was headed in a new direction and out of Russias orbit. But economic reforms proved difficult, and residents saw an increase in the cost of household utilities, such as gas, electricity and heat. As the countrys economy recovered, most Ukrainians werent reaping the benefits.

Many Ukrainians complained that politicians like Poroshenko were getting richer, while ordinary people watched their utility bills eat up more of their monthly salaries.

With opinion polls showing a difficult reelection challenge, the presidents team in 2017 began conducting hypothetical polls on potential candidates. Zelenskys name was included. At one point when Poroshenko had one of his lowest approval ratings, the comedian polled higher than the president.

In May 2017, a political party bearing the same name as Zelenskys hit television show was officially registered.

Zelensky announced on New Years Eve that he was running for president, shocking most Ukrainians.

When asked why he made the leap from entertainment to politics, Zelensky said he saw it as his duty to his country.

A real vacuum has appeared in the political sphere in which people dont trust any of the current top politicians, he told a group of foreign journalists in March, one of the few interviews hed given during his campaign. I want to do something. I want to change it.

Zelensky ran as an anti-establishment candidate and accused Poroshenko of not doing enough to combat corruption. Instead of campaign stops, Zelensky continued to travel across the country performing with Kvartal 95, a variety show that frequently makes politics and politicians the butt of its jokes.

He used a savvy social media campaign that won over young voters. He rarely spoke to the press. At a debate with Poroshenko two days before the election, Zelensky posed questions that were crowd-sourced from voters over his social media channels.

In the first round of voting in March, Zelensky had a double-digit lead over Poroshenko, an upset in which he beat out 38 other candidates on Ukraines longest ballot list in history.

As the newcomer with a vaguely defined political persona, Zelensky provided a blank canvas upon which Ukrainians could paint the candidate however they choose to view him, Fesenko said.

Zelenskys critics say he is a showman with no ability to realize his vague promises to reform the countrys political system. His platform lacks details, critics say, on how he will stop the military conflict on Ukraines eastern flank with Russian-backed separatist insurgents who have declared independence from Kiev. Zelensky has said hes not afraid to meet Putin. His opponents think thats naive.

Zelenskys advisors include several former members of Poroshenkos team, known as liberal reformers, who left the administration after meeting opposition from the president on what they deemed important reforms.

One of them, Oleksandr Danyliuk, a former finance minister, said that uncertainties about Zelensky were understandable, but that he believed the newly elected president to be a quick study and effective at conflict resolution.

The warnings from Poroshenkos team about Zelenskys inexperience and potential for reverting the country to pre-Maidan levels were just hysteria, Danyliuk said.

Its not certain he will succeed at everything, he said. But at least Ukraine has a chance to succeed now, which we dont have in the current government.

The big loser in Ukraines presidential election? Vladimir Putin 

sabra.ayres@latimes.com

Twitter: @sabraayres

Ayres is a special correspondent.Oscar-nominated director John Singleton, best known for the film Boyz N the Hood, has been hospitalized in intensive care after suffering a stroke on Wednesday, his family said.

In a statement sent to The Times on Saturday, Singletons family said the director is under great medical care.

We ask that privacy be given to him and our family at this time and appreciate all of the prayers that have been pouring in from his fans, friends and colleagues, his family added.

Singleton, 51, had been traveling and went to a hospital with weakness in his leg Wednesday when he suffered a mild stroke, according to TMZ.

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The family declined to identify the hospital where Singleton was being treated.

The director, producer and screenwriter, whose films include 2 Fast 2 Furious and Shaft, grew up in South Central Los Angeles and produced the A&E documentary L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later.

It wasnt just a single three-day event, he told The Times, explaining what prompted him to produce the show. There are still people walking around who are emotionally scarred by that event.

He also co-created the FX series Snowfall, about the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles. Its third season is scheduled to begin later this year. And hes directed episodes of Empire, Billions and The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story.

Singletons condition has sparked an outpouring of support from celebrities on social media.

Pray 4 my brother, rapper Snoop Dogg posted on Instagram.

Get well, John Singleton! Such a generous spirit, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro tweeted.

Get well, John Singleton! Such a generous spirit- pic.twitter.com/fgm7gTjLSG  Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 20, 2019

Singletons Billions co-creator, Brian Koppelman, posted a very personal tweet.

For Dave and me, working with John Singleton is a career highlight. And getting to know him has been even better. Heres to a full and quick recovery. (We have been scheming on a project together. Hes got to get well so we can all get to it!)

For Dave and me, working with John Singleton is a career highlight. And getting to know him has been even better. Here's to a full and quick recovery. (We have been scheming on a project together. He's got to get well so we can all get to it!).  Brian Koppelman (@briankoppelman) April 20, 2019

Check back for updates on Singletons condition.Eva Vazquez was at a bus stop on Wilshire Boulevard, on the way to work as a cashier at a discount store near MacArthur Park, when her phone rang.

I knew it was probably him, she said.

It was Thursday, March 28. The day her son Oswaldo was expecting to find out if hed been accepted to the universities at the top of his wish list.

Oswaldo, sometimes called Ozzie by friends and family, had already gotten into several great schools on the strength of straight As, a strong SAT score and his years of mentoring and community service.

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But Vazquez had seen him sink when he missed the cut at Stanford University, and shed been praying he would get better news from other top schools. She knew better than anyone how hard her son had worked, for so many years, in Los Angeles and in Mexico.

Mami, Ozzie said when she answered her phone. Guess what.

::

I met Ozzie and his mother in their tiny Chinatown apartment. Vazquez sleeps on a futon in the living room. Her sister and 13-year-old daughter share the one bedroom. Ozzie sleeps in a small alcove off the living room, where his desk and the dining table are one and the same.

Ozzie is naturally intelligent, his counselor says. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Ozzie, who was born in the U.S., was 5 and a student at Gabriella Charter School in Los Angeles when his parents decided in 2005 that they couldnt take the anxiety of living illegally in Los Angeles after their visas expired, so the family moved back to a village in the Mexican state of Yucatan. As Vazquez tells it, she and her husband came to the United States on visas in the late 1980s and scratched out a life on the margins. They both worked at a carwash, had three children, but then began to worry that they would be deported and separated from their kids.

When they left for Mexico, they took with them a used computer Ozzie had been tinkering with, and he now says that device helped him get through several tough years.

I just felt so confused, and I didnt know how to socialize with people, Ozzie said of life in Mexico. As I grew older  I was bullied for quite some years. Not just verbally, but also physically. It was one of the worst times of my life. People saw me as not really from Mexico. I was a foreigner, and also just an ignorant kid.

When he wasnt working in the restaurant his family ran, the screen on Ozzies computer was his escape hatch. The small desktop was old and slow, he said, but it transported him to other worlds, and he taught himself how to program, code and design his own rudimentary video games.

Ozzies older sister returned to Los Angeles after a short time in Mexico to live with their mothers sister, and she ended up graduating from UCLA. Ozzie began thinking he wanted to follow in her footsteps, even though he was torn about leaving his family behind in Mexico.

Four years ago, he moved into the Chinatown apartment he now lives in, with his aunt as his host. When he returned, he had forgotten most of the English he learned as a child. His mother told him to read as many books as he could.

Heres my boy Steinbeck, Ozzie said as he walked over to the bookshelf to point out some of his favorite authors.

::

At Los Angeles Unifieds Los Angeles School of Global Studies, just west of downtown, Ozzie was a top student from the start.

Hes naturally intelligent, but he has put in a lot of hard work, said Diane Kantack, Ozzies counselor. Hes an amazing young man and always humble. And Oswaldo is always the first one to volunteer to help someone else out.

The school has no Advanced Placement courses, so Ozzie began taking classes at Los Angeles City College three years ago, including computer science, calculus and biology, and he said hes close to having an associate of arts degree. He has also been a volunteer at a nonprofit organization called Peace Over Violence; has spoken to various groups about homelessness, bullying, violence and abuse; and last summer he got into a summer journalism program at Princeton University.

I want to start off as a computer programmer, Ozzie said of his career plans, but my ultimate goal with computer science is to conduct research on artificial intelligence and machine learning for humanistic applications. Once I retire, I want to be a teacher at my high school and just give back, and try to make kids be more engaged and have fun.

Ozzie got into all the California State University campuses he had applied to. The Stanford rejection was followed by two more  from Princeton and MIT.

As historically black colleges struggle across U.S., Bennett College fights to stay afloat 

When news of the college cheating scandal broke, with stories of wealthy parents allegedly paying bribes to inflate their childrens SAT scores and buy their way into top universities, Ozzie and his mother worried that his hard work might not be enough to get him where he wanted to be.

But he got into UC San Diego, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Fordham and UC Santa Barbara, and then he got good news from one of his dream schools  UCLA.

I was overjoyed, Ozzie said.

And all of his acceptances came with even more good news. He was offered full-ride scholarships.

But before making any decisions, Ozzie wanted to hear back from UC Berkeley and two Ivy League schools  Dartmouth and Harvard. And he wanted to do more research into which school would offer the best possible combination of computer science and liberal arts.

At 3:30 p.m. on March 28, he went to his counselors office. The moment had arrived to go online and check the latest application results. With Kantack watching  and, she says, praying  he checked UC Berkeley first.

It says congratulations, and I see all this confetti on the screen, and I started screaming, Lets go!  said Ozzie, who hugged Kantack.

Californias broken charter school law has defied reform. Can Newsom break the gridlock? 

They were both too nervous to check Harvard and Dartmouth. Ozzie said he paced Kantacks office, thinking back on the difficult time away from his family, on his aunts generosity in hosting him at her apartment, on all the hours of study and community service. He was content with the good news hed already gotten, he thought. His hard work had already paid off.

Still, his hand was shaking as he logged on to see the Harvard decision.

I tried to move the cursor, I finally hit it, and all I see is congratulations in bold, and I just go nuts. I stand up, I start screaming, and I believe Ive never screamed that loud.

Next up, Dartmouth.

Same result.

Avenatti accused of embezzling nearly $2 million that NBA player paid ex-girlfriend 

His first call was to his mother, who got legal entry to the U.S. a year ago after years of waiting for the paperwork to come through. Her husband is still waiting for approval.

I started screaming at the bus stop, Eva Vazquez said. I wanted to run, but I had to get to work. I was crying on the bus and people were looking at me like, Whats going on with this lady? 

It would be a couple more weeks before Ozzie decided to go to Harvard, but his mother seemed to know where he was headed the day he called.

Vazquez was still crying so hard when she got to work, her boss thought she was distraught. She explained what happened, then took her post at a cash register. The store security guard saw her, still crying, and asked what happened.

I said, Do you really want to know? My son got into Harvard. And the customers started clapping.Following the recent assent by President Muhammadu Buhari, some state governments have agreed to pay the N30,000 national minimum wage.

The Nation reports that some of these states including Kano, Zamfara, Kwara, Rivers, Kogi and Edo states have agreed to pay the new minimum wage of N30,000.

In Kano state, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, assured the people of the state that his administration will give priority to the welfare of civil servants in the state.

He also said that it is for this reason that the state government is not owning its workers in Kano.

We are ready to pay N30,000 monthly salary, because the welfare of our workers is paramount to anything and we will always give it. We will pay the N30,000, Ganduje said.

Also in Zamfara state, the governor through his media aide, Ibrahim Dosara, said the state government under his watch would do everything possible to ensure the welfare of workers in the state does not suffer.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Buhari extends appointment of acting CJN by 3 months

The governor of Osun state the present administration will await guidelines on payment of the N30,000 minimum wage.

In the same vein, the Kwara state government said it is also prepared for the payment of the new minimum wage.

The senior special assistant to the governor on media and communications Dr Muyideen Akorede said a committee has been set up to work out the modalities and sources of revenue for payment months before the president signed the new into law.

Also, in Kogi state, a similar committee was set up to look into the modalities of making compliance easy, while the Niger state government said it is disposed to paying the new minimum wage

The Niger state governor, Abubakar Sani Bello said the sttae will pay the new minimum wage of N30,000.

Governor Bello's aide on media and publicity, Jide Orintunsin, said the state workforce had a 25 per cent salary increase recently placing the state higher than the former minimum wage.

Governor Sani Bello, early this year, had assured the state workforce of the new minimum wage at a special session he had with organised labour recently. He is committed to ensuring the welfare of the state workforce," Orintunsin said.

Similarly, in Delta state the chief press secretary to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa said the Delta State is not going to be an outcast in the payment of the new minimum wage.

The Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, has also promised to comply with the provisions of the new minimum wage law.

Wike through the state's commissioner for information and communications, Emma Okah, said Rivers state Government will pay whatever is prescribed as the new minimum wage bill.

Governments of Edo and Cross River state have also said that the states are labour friendly and would conform to the provisions of the new national minimum wage.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the N30,000 new minimum wage was on Thursday, April 18, finally signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari who said that this is to be implemented immediately.

President Buhari's decisive move invariably means that the signed new minimum wage bill is now a law, which is an upward review of the salaries of all Nigerian civil servants.

According to President Buhari's aide, Bashir Ahmad, the signed bill is to be implemented with immediate effect. The president also said that the law affects all Nigerian workers.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service!

Minimum Wage: Is N30,000 Too Much for FG to Pay Workers? - Nigeria Street Gist | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng NewsRecently, Legit.ng reported that Olajumoke Orisaguna, the breadseller who came into limelight after stumbling on a photo shoot session held by TY Bello, was in a financial crisis. It was also brought to the fore that the beautiful lady was also neck deep in a relationship conflict with the father of her children Sunday.

Upon catching wind of this controversy, Olajumoke came to the open to air her own side of the story. From her statements, it was confirmed that she and her partner were in some sort of crisis tied to her present manager.

The model who did not take it lightly that Sunday had spoken ill of her in a public sphere revealed that she was the one taking care of him and fending for his needs.

It would seem Olajumoke has decided to take action against her partner.by parting ways with him. Evidence of their separation has already begun to be seen.

READ ALSO: Olajumoke Orisaguna's story of success

For one, Olajumoke has changed the surname on her Instagram page to Chris. No longer does she have Orisaguna on her bio. This deliberate change in surname has also been accompanied by a seeming excited and positive mood on her social media handles.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

See a screenshot below:

PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group

Olajumoke changes surname as she reportedly parts ways with lover Source: Olajumokeworld/Instagram

Source: Instagram

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Recently, the lady was gifted a sum of N400,000 by Harrysong after she danced to one of his songs in a celebratory mood.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better.

Me and my children used to drink garri three times daily - Olajumoke the bread seller | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ngThere may be tougher days ahead for Femi Gbajabiamila, the member of the House of Representatives from Lagos state seeking the position of speaker at the ninth National Assembly.

This is because some of his colleagues have defied the directive of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which endorsed him for the position at a recent meeting.

His co-contestants, especially from the north central zone, have reportedly defied the endorsement of Gbajabiamila with three of them continuing with their various campaigns.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

The Nigerian Tribune reports that the members of the House from the north central zone and on the platform of the APC had asked their colleagues contesting for the position of the speaker to go ahead with their campaigns.

The report named the three aspirants from the north central as Honourable Mohammed Bago (Niger state), Honourable Idris Ahmed Wase (Plateau state) and Honourable John Dyegh (Benue state).

It was learnt that Bago visited the palace of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, at the weekend to seek royal support ahead of the election into the leadership of the National Assembly.

Hon Victor Ogene, the spokesperson of the campaign for Bago, said in a statement in Abuja that the Nupes, his ethnic group from Niger, have historical links with the Yoruba.

He confirmed Bagos visit to the Ooni saying this was because of the latters stance as an advocate of youth inclusion in governance.

Thanking Oba Ogunwusi for the warm reception and royal blessings, Bago promising not to betray the confidence in him.

The statement quoted the Ooni of Ife as canvassing for youth inclusiveness in the leadership structures of the country.

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Yes, we now have the Not Too Young to Run law, but to compliment that we need to consciously bring the youth into leadership positions, the Ooni said.

Legit.ng earlier reported that a political group, Sustainable Democracy Agenda (SUDA), called for open balloting during the election of presiding officers of the ninth National Assembly.

Convener of the group, Malam Ibrahim Usman, stated this in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday, April 21 in Abuja.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better.

Election not a do or die affair - Sanwoolu | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ngAn ambitious, seven-story, mixed-use redevelopment proposal along the Delaware River in Downtown Easton cleared an important hurdle last week.

But even as the city zoning hearing board OKd bending some rules for the developer, plans for The Commodore continued to evolve.

Developer Garett Vassel announced Wednesday he is adding 6,000 square feet of office space to the project at the former Kaplan's building, 108-116 Northampton St. He is founding president of the Optima Durant Group, based in Midtown Manhattan, that is behind the proposal.

Offices work for the project because the ceiling was so high in the Kaplans space that it can accommodate two first-floor retail spaces and offices on a new mezzanine level, Vassel told lehighvalleylive.com. Hes looking for an office tenant and keeping open the possibility of making it co-work space, such as through WeWork. The city is treating the project as an eight-story development, which accounts for the mezzanine.

Vassel proposes redeveloping the Kaplan's building, which measures around 13,000 to 14,000 square feet, and new construction that would bring The Commodore's total area to 56,000 square feet.

He remains committed to 32 apartments and a top-floor restaurant, and is in talks with restaurant groups both in the Lehigh Valley and in New York City.

The plan went before city zoners last Monday, April 15, and was approved for variances for parking, residential use on the first floor and a commercial component above a residential use.

The parking variance was needed because the plans call for 45 off-street parking spaces, while the property's zoning requires 49, said Stephen Nowroski, Easton's director of planning and codes. The board required the on-site parking be reserved for tenants of the apartments, and the developer must also commit to a plan to lease 32 spaces nearby -- adjacent to Frank & Dot's Beer Depot -- for the property.

Sound-reduction measures are also being required between the upper-story apartments and the restaurant, Nowroski said.

Vassel's next step is to bring the proposal before the city planning and historic district commissions for approval, and he expects to get on the May agendas.

From there, the timetable for construction remains unclear, and is dependent largely on securing financing, Vassel said.

"My hope is some time this year I would be starting construction," he said. "It is an exciting project."

Kaplan's, manufacturer of custom awnings, window treatments, flags, banners and signage, relocated to 1298 Spruce St. in Easton's West Ward.

Offering new office space in the Downtown would help Easton with its goals of getting more feet on the street to support local businesses, Vassel said. His proposal is in addition to the redevelopment of the former Heritage Lanes building on South Third Street into offices for Hearst Magazines, which could house as many as 225 employees, according to the city.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.U.S. Congresswoman Susan Wild will attend the Easton Opioid Awareness Task Force meeting Monday.

The public is invited to attend the free meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 22, at the Boys and Girls Club of Easton at 210 Jones Houston Way in Easton.

Wild is is the member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvanias 7th congressional district.

The Easton Opioid Awareness Task Force is about bringing the community together to discuss proactive resolutions to the opioid epidemic thats disrupting families, children, neighborhood, and cities and states across our nation," said committee member Dean Young. Young is the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Easton.

"To win the battle against the opioid epidemic the task force invites the general public to voice their concerns and to offer solutions that address education and the reduction of overdose and death, Young said.

The task force was formed in 2017 to educate children and their parents about the rise in opioid use and the community resources available to fight the epidemic. Its an initiative between the Easton and Palmer Kiwanis Clubs and the Boys and Girls Club of Easton. The task force has held more than five public events so far. Hundreds of people have attended its events.

CONGRATS TO @Randerson041!!! Celebrating 14 YEARS in recovery today!!!! Way to go, Randy! We're so proud of you. pic.twitter.com/0deXFS24I5  Ryan Hampton (@RyanForRecovery) January 11, 2019

Registration for the Monday meeting is requested at bgceeastonpa@gmail.com.

For more details about the task force, call Young at 484-239-2075 or Janet Owen at 850-322-1805

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.A 43-year-old woman made off with nearly $600 worth of merchandise at an Old Navy store.

The theft happened at 11:42 a.m. this past Friday at the store, 941 Airport Center Drive, Hanover Township, Lehigh County. Pennsylvania State Police in Bethlehem did not identify the accused in a news release, but said the woman concealed both accessories and clothing, totaling $579.

The woman is facing theft charges.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Sometimes, dogs, cats and other pets need life-saving attention. Now, seven Slate Belt departments that handle emergency response will be in a better position to aid our furry friends.

The Slate Belt Animal Advocacy Group recently presented the departments with animal-sized recovery oxygen masks.

The advocacy group received the free masks from Resus-a-Pet, a nonprofit organization started last year by Bucks County 12-year-old Emily Rilling.

The kits come with three attachments that fit over the mouths and noses of cats, large dogs and small dogs.

Kits were given to Portland Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1, East Bangor Fire Department, North Bangor Fire Co. in Upper Mount Bethel Township, Columbia Fire Co. in Roseto, and Second Ward Fire Co. and Blue Valley Rescue Squad, which are in Bangor.

The group will be providing a kit to the Bangor Borough Police Department within a week.

Advocacy group president Christine Mammi said animals that may be panic-stricken, rescued from burning buildings or in vehicles during car accidents will benefit from the kits, which can efficiently provide life-saving oxygen that human-sized masks cannot.

Id say 90% of these first responders did not have animal-sized masks. Some had older versions, Mammi said. The kits we gave them are designed for the face of an animal.

Mammi said she had been discussing the issue of animal rescue with her husband Raymond Mammi, who volunteers with the Second Ward Fire Co., and fellow advocacy group member Kerri Miller.

Miller said she found Resus-a-Pet online and contacted them about getting the masks.

Emily Rillings mother Colleen Rilling said her daughter was thinking of ways to help animals last year when she found that many local fire companies did not have pet resuscitation gear.

Emily made it her goal to get a mask to every fire company in Bucks County, Colleen Rilling said.

Her daughter set up the charity, raised money and achieved her goal of providing a kit to every department in Bucks County that did not already have a pet oxygen mask, she said.

Since then, people from other parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been asking for kits.

We were happy to help when the Slate Belt Animal Advocacy Group called, she said.

The organization buys bulk supplies and put the kits together to be shipped out. So far, Resus-a-Pet has supplied 300 kits to about 200 departments, according to Rilling.

John Best is a freelance contributor to lehighvalleylive.com.A record 26 tourism companies from across the island of Ireland  including Kildare Village  will travel to China next month, to take part in Tourism Irelands 2019 sales mission.

Kildare Village was briefed last week by Tourism Ireland, ahead of the sales mission which will take in four major Chinese cities.

The sales mission  which takes place 6 to 10 May, 2019 - will target top Chinese travel agents and tour operators, through a programme of workshops and networking events in the cities of Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai and Beijing.

Kildare Village will use the sales mission to highlight ease of access from China to Kildare, with three direct flights to Dublin  from Beijing and Shenzhen with Hainan Airlines and from Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific.

The organisation is also highlighting the British-Irish Visa Scheme, which enables Chinese travellers to visit both Ireland and the UK on a single visa of either country.

Travel agents continue to play an important role in China, with travellers preferring to use a travel agent for a number of reasons, including convenience, language barriers, visa preparation and knowledge gaps.

The objective of the upcoming sales mission is to engage with Chinese travel professionals who are currently selling Kidlare , or who have strong potential to sell the destination  and to encourage them to extend their Kildare offering, to potential visitors.Registrations for Street Feast 2019 will close next Friday, April 26 in time for national Street Feast Day on Sunday, May 5.

To date eight Leitrim Feasts have been registered and organisers are calling on Leitrim residents to get registering and increase this number to at least 10, the same number that was held throughout Leitrim last year.

Street Feasts are due to be held in Keshcarrigan, Drumhierney Manor, Manorhamilton, Eslinbridge, Cloone, Aughavas with two happening in Carrick on Shannon.

2019 is the 10th birthday of Street Feast which is one of the most successful community initiatives in Ireland. Over 120,000 people celebrated Street Feast last year at a total of 1344 feasts nationwide. Organisers are aiming for 1500 Street Feasts on Sunday, May 5 which falls on National Community Weekend hosted by the Department of Rural & Community Development.

Leitrim hosts can sign up for a free Street Feast pack which includes bunting, invitations, posters and a handy guide. Leitrim County Council are supporting Street Feast Leitrim.

Justin Fannon of Leitrim County Council says: Leitrim County Council is delighted to be collaborating with Streetfeast for

2019 and is looking forward to the villages and streets of County Leitrim hosting numerous feasts encouraging the residents to take the time to get to know one another as part of the National Community Weekend.

Registration and further details are available at www.streetfeast.ie

Also read: The perfect family home within walking distance of DrumshanboAs this years Trocaire Lenten campaign comes to an end, a young mother from Rwanda has sent a message of thanks to the people of Co Leitrim for their donations which have helped to completely change her life.

Twenty-five years ago, Josiane Umumarashavu, who was aged 3, survived the genocide which saw her father, sister and two of her brothers killed along with almost 1 million other people.

Josiane today holding her Trocaire box from when she was 12 years old

With her mother struggling to provide for her three children in the aftermath of this horrific atrocity, Josiane featured on more than one million Trocaire boxes that reached homes in Leitrim and right across Ireland back in 2004.

Thanks to donations from the public during this Lent campaign, Josiane and her family, along with thousands of others, received support and equipment to help them improve their farming. This meant they could feed their families in the long-term, earn an income and allowed the children to continue in school.

Today, 15 years later, Josiane, 28, is now a successful businesswoman and is married with a beautiful six-month old baby boy, Gianni. Graduating with a qualification in business management and accounting, she now works in Trocaires office in Rwanda.

I am very happy, says Josiane. Trocaire, and the supporters across Ireland, have made my dreams come true. Life was very difficult after the genocide. We didnt have enough to eat and we couldnt afford the fees to allow me to continue my studies after primary school. But thanks to Trocaire supporters, not only was I able to go to secondary school, but I then went to university.

I am very proud that I now work for Trocaire and can help others, as well as taking care of my baby son. I want to say a big thank you to Trocaire supporters in Ireland - you have helped to change my life and that of my family, and you should be proud that you are helping so many people.

Caoimhe de Barra, CEO for Trocaire explained: Josiane and her family is just one example of how the generous support from the public in Co Leitrim is having a massive impact on those in the developing world, and how the spare change in the Trocaire boxes can really make a lasting difference for many years to come.

This year, our Lent campaign has focused on the millions of families in the developing world who have lost their land and their homes, and are facing hunger, the threat of violence and no access to education and basic medical care.

We are also responding to the devastating effects of Cyclone Idai in southern Africa. Your support for our Lenten Appeal can help Trocaire bring urgent life-saving care to people in the worst affected areas, as well as support more than 2 million of the poorest and most vulnerable people across the world over the coming year.

We are grateful to everyone in Co Leitrim who has fundraised and collected coins over Lent and we would urge you to return your boxes as soon as possible so we can begin to put your generous donations into action.

Trocaire boxes can be returned to parishes across Leitrim or to donate to the Lenten appeal, call 1850 408 408 or visit trocaire.org.ONE of the stand-out events of the Limerick Soviet centenary commemorations will take place next weekend, as Vincent Browne chairs a big debate on the episode.

Respected journalist Mr Browne, who hails from Broadford, will be in the city for the debate, entitled the Unfinished Revolution.

Free to enter, it will take place on Saturday, April 27 at 7.30pm in the Pery Hotel.

Speaking to the Limerick Leader, Mr Browne said: This was a very interesting time for Limerick city. A soviet was established in a city which was not very sympathetic to left-wing ideas. It was a surprise. The atmosphere must have been very different at the time to what it became.

Read also: Limerick Soviet Shilling notes revived for centenary celebration

Mr Brownes panellists have yet to be confirmed, but he said he hopes to look at the atmosphere in the city which gave rise to the Limerick Soviet, and the takeover by a workers committee in the face of the British military.

And, he added, Why it dissipated so quickly subsequently.

I hope Limerick people participate actively in discussion. Its not just the people on the panel who will be talking. We are discussing particularly how the impetus gave rise to the Soviet and then disappeared off the scene, never to be evident again. I find that interesting, especially with Limerick being such a devoutly religious city, he said.

Mr Browne, a member of the National Union of Journalists, said: There seems to be an absence of that solidarity that there was in Limerick at the time. Our society is now very fractured and individualistic.

For more information on the panel discussion, telephone 061-413822.LIMERICK City and County Councils conservation officer says he will liaise with other agencies in the hope of progressing proposals to reinstate the historic Chinaman landmark in the centre of Rathkeale.

The 200-year-old timber statue, which was previously displayed above a building at Main Street in the town, has not been seen publicly for almost a decade.

The statue, which is privately owned, was re-discovered in recent years sparking a local campaign  led by the Rathkeale Historical Society  to have it restored and reinstated at a prominent location in the town.

This process could require specialist equipment and the Chinaman may have to dipped in alcohol and wax before it can be replicated.

At a meeting of Adare-Rathkeale Municpal District, Cllr Adam Teskey suggested the original Chinaman, which has suffered serious distress could be preserved and that a fibreglass replica be made and put on public display.

The people of Rathkeale would like to see it brought back, he told the meeting.

Conservation Officer Tom Cassidy confirmed he is engaging with the owners of the property in Rathkeale where the Chinaman was discovered in recent years with a view to the council acquiring it.

He said there are some concerns about the condition of the Chinaman, which was originally mounted at the front of a ship. Sailing vessels had a limited life span, he said

Referring to photographs of the Chinaman, which were taken in 2012, Mr Cassidy said there had been a litany of misfortune and that its clear it has suffered serious distress.

He said he will continue with the project and will engage with the Office of Public Works and other relevant agencies.

There was no indication as to how long the process will take or what the total cost of the project will be.

A spokesperson for the local authority who was contacted following the meeting would not elaborate any further.

Limerick City and County Council is looking into the issue and be speaking with the organising committee as to the best course of action, he said.THE "character, guts, and bravery" of the mother of the late Roy Collins and her family has been commended following her death this Easter Sunday.

Carmel Collins, who was in her 60s, passed away peacefully at Milford Care Centre on Sunday morning. Mrs Collins was the mother of Roy Collins who was shot dead in a gangland attack in Limerick 10 years ago.

Willie ODea TD, who is a personal friend of the Collins family, offered his sympathies to the family.

Its very sad. I knew Carmel was sick, but I had hoped she might pull through and get better. Unfortunately, her illness proved fatal, said Deputy ODea.

It is very tough. The Collins have had a very tough life with all that has happened to them, and now that has been added to by Carmel's premature demise."

Roy Collins was just 35 when he was shot dead by members of the McCarthy- Dundon gang in Limerick in 2009.

The Collins family recently marked the 10th anniversary of his killing.

The murder of the young business man would be a changing point in the gangland violence which had terrorised Limerick city for years.

Mrs Collins and her husband Steve stood up to the criminals and called for a change in the city.

Marches were held in the wake of Roys death, which called for laws on gangland violence to be strengthened.

It was the Collins reaction, and their failure to be bullied that started a transformation of the crime scene in Limerick. It engendered in the State an absolute determination by the State to take on these criminals in Limerick, said Deputy ODea.

Those marches and the stance of the Collins family were an absolute milestone for Limerick. Carmel and her whole family were heroes for what they did. They had tremendous character, guts, and bravery to stand up to these bullies knowing that there could be a terrible price to be paid, and ultimately there was a terrible price to be paid, he added.

Wayne Dundon, James Dillon and Nathan Killeen were all jailed in relation to the murder of Roy Collins.

Carmel Collins is very deeply regretted by her loving husband Steve, sons Paul, Steven Jnr and Ryan, daughter Leanne, grandchildren, daughters-in-law and partners, sisters, brothers, the extended Lee and Collins families and a large circle of friends.

Mrs Collins will be reposing at Cross' Funeral Home, Gerald Griffin Street on Tuesday, April 23 from 4.30pm followed by removal at 6.30pm to St John's Cathedral. Requiem Mass will take place on Wednesday, April 24 at 11am with burial afterwards to Kilmurry Cemetery, Castletroy.



Aisha Buhari, wife of the President, has expressed her plan to establish a private university to be known as Muhammadu Buhari University.

She disclosed this on Saturday during a town hall meeting in Yola organised by her in collaboration with concern indigenes of Adamawa. Aisha, who did not reveal when or where the university will be sited, explained that the university will be established in collaboration with partners from Sudan and Qatar.

Aisha who lamented the challenges facing education and various sectors in the state, called for active support of the state indigenes in complementing government efforts.



Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may land bespoke royal jobs in Africa after the birth of their first child.

The new hybrid role could see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex combine Commonwealth and charity work and promoting Britain, but take them out of the UK for at least two to three years.

It would allow Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, a break from divisions that have rocked the royals in recent months, it is claimed. A source told The Sunday Times: Discussions are at an early stage, but the plan is to find a new way of using their soft power abilities, most likely in Africa.

A decision on where royal "rock stars" Harry and Meghan would be based is not due until 2020, The Sunday Times reports. But the Duke of Sussex has strong links to Africa and spent his 2004 gap year in Lesostho, where he started a charity. Harry and Meghan are said to have fallen in love in Botswana, which the prince refers to as his second home.



Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari has revealed how the Emir of Zurmi once asked him to go and wipe out Dumburum Village because it has been a hideout for bandits for over three years.

Yari said this while insisting that the government will not apologise over allegations by council chiefs in the state that villagers were killed during aerial bombardment of suspected bandit camps in Dumburum village, Zurmi Local Government Area of the state, by the Nigeria Air Force (NAF).

Speaking on Saturday while receiving a seven-member investigative team on the matter at his private residence in Talata-Mafara, Yari maintained that the NAF had only targeted bandits.

As far as I am concerned and as the head of government in the state, l havent seen anything wrong done by the Air Force; l havent received any brief on such matter, he said. Dumburum has been a criminal hideout for over three years and the Emir of Zurmi has once asked me to go and wipe out the area saying all those residing there were bandits, so l am surprised that the Emir will be part of those saying innocent people were killed in an encounter in the area. Some people will stay in Abuja and fabricate things against the operations in Zamfara in order to distract the operation, this we must not allow. Please, all security agencies, especially the Air Force, should continue with your usual constitutional duties and the state government will give you all the support to facilitate your concentration in trying to bring back peace, which has eluded the state since 2007. You should continue with the firepower to show the criminals that there is a government in place and we wont negotiate with them again because when we did that in the past; the leaders pretended as if all was well while they allowed their boys to continue to lay siege on the communities.

Idi Lubo, leader of the investigative team, handed over a letter of condolence from Sadique Abubakar, the Chief of Air Staff, to Yari, and promised to unravel the truth about the killings.

The chief of air staff has directed us to properly investigate the matter in order to unravel the truth, he said.

We have visited other stakeholders and discovered that there was misinformation which we have now resolved and wish to assure the people of the state that we shall continue to discharge our assigned responsibilities in protecting the innocent with professionalism.

While in the state, the team also visited heads of security agencies, traditional rulers and government officials.For nearly a decade, would-be kings and queens in HBO's "Game of Thrones" have stabbed, slashed and poisoned their way toward a seat on the Iron Throne. And the fierceness of the human combatants mirrors the ferocity of the animals displayed on these leaders' banners.

Each of the show's dominant houses is represented by an animal: a dire wolf for House Stark, a lion for House Lannister, a stag for House Baratheon, and a dragon for House Targaryen. All of these creatures were likely chosen as house sigils because they are fierce and deadly fighters.

But which one is really the fiercest and deadliest of them all? Who would be the last one standing in the ultimate face-off between a lion, a dire wolf, a stag and a dragon? [Move Over, 'Game of Thrones': 9 Real-Life 'Dragons']

Lets be real: Overcoming the dragon  which far outclasses the field in size, strength, weapons and defense  is the biggest obstacle for all of the other animals, said biologist Katie Hinde, an associate professor at Arizona State University. Hinde is the creator of March Mammal Madness (MMM), an annual event that pits brackets of mammals (mostly) in fictional battles to determine the ultimate champion.

One way the other animals could win is if the dragon lost the will to fight. For instance, in "Game of Thrones," the dragons are strongly bonded to their "mother," Daenerys Targaryen; one of them might abandon a battle if his mother were absent, Hinde told Live Science.

Another consideration could be the dragon's energy level; as they likely require a lot of food to fuel their flight and fire production, hunger could impact their willingness to engage in combat, said Marc Kissel, a lecturer in anthropology at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.

Kissel, who narrated several MMM 2019 matchups, told Live Science that a dragon might "lose" a battle with a lion or dire wolf by flying away in search of an easier, more nutritious meal.

And if the dragon were grounded and really weak from hunger, "it might be possible for one of the carnivores to do some damage," Brian Tanis, an MMM narrator and a doctoral candidate in biology at Oregon State University, told Live Science in an email.

To the death

What about the other animals? A stag might be able to kill a dire wolf or lion with its antlers  in the show's first episode, the Starks discovered a dead dire wolf with an antler embedded in its body  or it could forfeit the match by running away. Carnivores can't kill what they can't catch, and more than half of predator attacks end with their prey's escape, Hinde said.

However, the stag is also the only competitor that could potentially defeat the dragon, she added.

When a lion attacks, it usually leaps at its prey to deliver a powerful bite to the neck. While a lion's jaws certainly could rip out the throat of a stag or wolf, its teeth couldn't penetrate the dragon's scales, Hinde said.

But the sharp tines of a stag's antlers could possibly puncture dragon armor  provided that there was already a worn area, or a gap between the scales, and if the stag evaded the dragon's fire, Hinde said. However, the force needed for a fatal blow would require the dragon to fall out of the sky and impale itself onto the stag's antlers, eliminating both stag and dragon.

With the dragon out of the way, the dire wolf could square off against the lion. A pack of dire wolves would almost certainly defeat a lion, but a lone wolf would be at a disadvantage, as these animals typically hunt as a team, Hinde said. In a one-on-one confrontation, the lion could easily emerge the victor  much as House Lannister has done for much of the series.

So, when the dust finally settled on this battlefield, who would be left? While certain circumstances might favor the lion, the dragon would most likely crush (or burn) the competition, experts (and Live Science editors) all agreed.

"They've got incredible armor, they can fly and they have fire, which gives them the capacity to do damage from a distance," Hinde said. "That's always going to be really tricky to defeat."

Originally published on Live Science.The story of decaf coffee starts, improbably, with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Goethe, who wrote the tragedy "Faust," was one of Germany's most famous authors, but he also dabbled in natural science. In 1819, Goethe saw the chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge demonstrate how deadly nightshade extract could dilate a cat's pupils. Impressed, Goethe gave Runge a small box of coffee beans from Greece and tasked the chemist with figuring out why the stuff kept him up at night.

A couple of years later, Runge became the first scientist to isolate and identify caffeine. (Those who are extra-sensitive to the jittery effects of a cup of strong coffee probably won't be surprised to hear that the discoverer of the stimulant had a penchant for working with deadly substances; his colleagues and students allegedly nicknamed him "Doktor Gift," which means "Dr. Poison" in German.) [Does Medicine Really Expire?]

According to the Max Planck Institute, it took almost another 100 years after Runge's discovery before scientists figured out how to extract caffeine from coffee and still have a beverage that tasted somewhat like the real thing.

Chemical solvents, CO2 and water

Today, decaffeination is an intensive process that takes place at specialized facilities.

"There are a couple [of] very large [coffee] companies that own their own decaf plants, but beyond that every other company either contracts directly with a decaffeination company or they contract through an importer," David Kastle, a senior vice president at the Canada-based company Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee, told Live Science.

Generally, decaffeination involves water-logging coffee beans when they're still green (before roasting) so that the caffeine inside can be made soluble, meaning that it can be dissolved. But there are different ways of washing that caffeine out of the beans.

The first commercially successful decaffeination method was invented around 1905, by German coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius. According to Atlas Obscura, one bit of lore about the origins of decaf claims that Roselius received a shipment of coffee beans that was soaked in seawater. Instead of tossing the beans, Roselius decided to process and test them. He found that the coffee had been stripped of its caffeine content but still basically tasted like coffee, albeit a bit salty.

Roselius then figured out he could use benzene  a chemical that, at the time, was also used in paint strippers and aftershave  as a solvent to remove caffeine from coffee beans. His company, Kaffee HAG, was the first to produce instant decaf coffee. The coffee was sold as "Sanka" in the United States by General Foods, and was a mid-20th-century staple  and occasional punchline. (In the 1982 movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," a biology teacher pleads with his students, "I'm a little slow today. I just switched to Sanka, so have a heart.")

Benzene is no longer used for decaffeinating coffee because it's a known carcinogen. Instead, companies that use chemical solvents have switched to other substances, predominantly ethyl acetate and methylene chloride, although there has been some controversy about the latter because exposure to high amounts of the substance can be toxic and lead to damage of the central nervous system. The FDA has ruled that miniscule trace amounts of methylene chloride in decaf coffee are not cause for concern, and residues of more than 0.001% are prohibited.

Another method for decaffeinating coffee also originated, somewhat accidentally, in Germany. Chemist Kurt Zosel was working with supercritical carbon dioxide at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Ruhr. Zosel discovered that when the gas is heated and put under a lot of pressure, it enters a supercritical state that can be useful for separating different chemical substances  including separating caffeine from coffee when it's pumped through the beans.

The chemist patented his decaffeination method in 1970; it's still widely used today. According to NPR, crude caffeine can be salvaged during the supercritical carbon dioxide decaffeination process, which is used in sodas, energy drinks and other products.

Yet another method, dubbed the Swiss Water Process, was first used commercially in the 1970s. Kastle explained that first, a batch of green coffee beans is soaked in water. That water becomes saturated with all the soluble components found in coffee  including chlorogenic acid, amino acids and sucrose; the caffeine is then filtered out with carbon. This uncaffeinated liquid, called green coffee extract, is then added to columns of new, rehydrated, green coffee beans that still have their caffeine. Kastle said that caffeine migrates from the beans to the green coffee extract as the beans and liquid seek equilibrium, until the beans are almost entirely caffeine-free.

According to Consumer Reports, it can be difficult to figure out the process by which your decaf coffee has been made; there are no specific labeling rules that require companies to disclose this information. Some coffee companies do, however, advertise their methods. (The high-end coffee company Blue Bottle, for instance, flaunts its use of the Swiss Water Process in making its decaf.)

And the FDA says that decaffeinated coffee might still contain small amounts of caffeine, warning consumers that an 8-ounce cup of decaf typically has 2 to 15 milligrams of caffeine. But that's still much lower than a caffeinated cup of joe; for comparison, the same amount of regular coffee usually has about 80 to 100 mg of caffeine.

Originally published on Live Science.Snakes send a chill down the backs of most people.

But Kathy Sykes from Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina wasn't frightened when she came upon a venomous water moccasin.

The registered nurse and budding photographer, out for a walk at the historic Brunswick Town, was excited after two women stopped to tell her there was a rattlesnake ahead on the trail.

Cinco Ranch: Snakes are slithering in Houston thanks to warmer temps

After Sykes spotted the snake near a fallen tree by a river, her excitement only grew.

STAY IN THE KNOW: Get all the news you need to know to start your day

This wasn't a rattlesnake, it was a 3-foot-long venomous cottonmouth that had just shed its skin, resulting in a vibrant change in its coloring.

"Cottonmouths are usually muddy looking," Sykes told Chron.com. "This one was lighter and brighter than normal. It was beautiful."

Sykes carefully made her way closer to the pit viper in order to take photos with her cell phone camera.

In a Facebook post, Sykes shared the photos, noting that the snake was shaking its tail as well as gaping. "But I know about how far they can strike and stayed clear," she said.

HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Snakes are slithering into Houston thanks to warmer temps

Sykes said the sighting was rare as after a moccasin sheds its skin, its eyes are sensitive to sunlight.

"They're at a disadvantage and usually stay hidden," she said.

Ultimately, Sykes said she wants people to know that these snakes are not necessarily your enemy.

"People shouldn't kill these snakes just because they see them, she said. "He wasn't there to bite. He was minding his business and we just happened to walk up on him."

Texas is home to 15 snakes that are potentially dangerous to humans, including venomous copperheads, coral snakes, cottonmouths and several types of rattlesnakes, according to Texas Parks & Wildlife.

As a precaution, Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) officials advise Texas residents to learn to recognize the snake species in their area, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Marcy de Luna is a digital reporter. You can follow her on Twitter @MarcydeLuna and Facebook @MarcydeLuna. Read her stories on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | Marcy.deLuna@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text messageCommand Sgt. Major Mark Wilson of Leicester, Livingston County, is the new top enlisted soldier for the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade headquartered in Latham.

Wilson replaced Command Sgt. Major Joseph Marino of Averill Park during a ceremony.

The brigade is composed of the 3rd Battalion, 142nd Aviation in Latham and Ronkonkoma on Long Island, and the 642nd Aviation Support Battalion, which has elements in Rochester, Dunkirk and Ronkonkoma.

The brigade, based at the Albany International Airport, also has administrative responsibility for New York Army National Guard CH-47 and medical evacuation helicopter units assigned to the Army Aviation Support Facility at Rochester International Airport.

As command sergeant major, Wilson is the key advisor to the brigade commander, Col. Jack James, on enlisted personnel issues, training, discipline, and professional development.

Wilson enlisted in the Army in 1980 and served in Germany. He transferred to the Connecticut Army National Guard in 1984 and joined the New York Army National Guard in 1988. He was originally trained as a helicopter mechanic.

He deployed to Bosnia in 1997, and deployed to Balad, Iraq in 2004-2005 and then returned to Iraq in 2008-2009 at Baghdad International Airport. He also deployed to Camp Buering, Kuwait in 2013-2014.

Wilson has earned a Bronze Star Medal, a Meritorious Service Medal, an Air Medal, an Army Commendation Medal, an Army Achievement Medal, and a Master Aviation Badge.

Marino has been reassigned as the operations sergeant major position for the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade. He is also a civilian employee of the New York Army National Guard at the Army Aviation Support Facility at Albany International Airport.

He wasn't always a soldier. Marino served as a Marine for four years before transferring to the New York Army National Guard in 1984. He is a veteran of the Iraq War, and also deployed to Bosnia in 2002-2003.

As a Marine he deployed to Lebanon following the Marine Barracks bombing in Beruit in 1983.

Marino has served as the first sergeant for Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion 142nd Aviation; first sergeant for the Headquarters Company of the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade, and the Command Sergeant Major of the 3rd Battalion, 142nd Aviation Battalion.

He has earned a Bronze Star, a Meritorious Service Medal, an Army Commendation Medal, an Army Achievement Medal and a Combat Action Ribbon.

New lieutenant colonels

Two New York Army National Guard soldiers have been promoted to lieutenant colonel during ceremonies in Latham.

Darren Ketchum of Malta, an Afghanistan War veteran, was promoted while serving as a full-time deputy information officer for the New York National Guard State Headquarters.

John E. Pielli of Athens, an Iraq war veteran, was promoted to lieutenant colonel while on duty as officer in charge of the Logistics Readiness Team for New York National Guard Civil Support Operations.

Ketchum first enlisted in the New York Army National Guard in 2001 and attended Officer Candidate School in 2003. Upon graduation he was commissioned as a signal officer second lieutenant and assigned to Company A, 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion in Poughkeepsie as a platoon leader. In 2005 he was selected to be the commander of Company A. In 2006 he received his second command with the 369th Signal Network Support Detachment in Peekskill, where he served until 2009. He then served as the supply management officer and automation officer in the New York National Guard Logistics Directorate in Latham until 2012. He transferred back to the 101st Signal Battalion as the logistics officer during a deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan from August 2012 to June 2013. He was then selected to be the deputy signal officer at the National Guard Headquarters in Latham, where he currently serves.

Ketchum has earned a Bronze Star Medal, a Meritorious Service Medal, five Army Reserve Components Achievement Medals and an Army Achievement Medal.

Pielli first joined the Army Reserve in 1992. After serving 18 months, he transitioned to active duty at Camp Casey, Korea, and later Vincenza, Italy. He deployed from Italy to Bosnia in support of Operation Joint Endeavor in 1995. In 1996, he enlisted in the New York Army National Guard as a 156th Field Artillery forward observer. In 2000, he attended Officer Candidate School and received his commission as a Field Artillery second lieutenant.

Pielli deployed to Iraq in 2003 with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry as an infantry platoon leader. Afterward, he was assigned to the 106th Regional Training Institute at Camp Smith, near Peekskill, as an instructor and logistics officer from 2005 to 2007. From 2007 to 2013 he was assigned to the New York National Guard Logistics Directorate. From 2013 to 2017, Pielli served as the Headquarters Detachment commander for the Joint Force Headquarters in Latham.

He has earned a Bronze Star, two Meritorious Service Medals, two Army Commendation Medals, and three Army Achievement Medals.

News of your troops and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or brownt@timesunion.com.[Editor's note, April 23, 2019: Rebecca Parker Mankey has since been found safe and is no longer considered a missing person. Read more here.]

Rebecca Parker Mankey, the woman who confronted a 74-year-old man who was wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat inside of a Palo Alto Starbucks, has been reported as missing by authorities.

According to the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Mankey did not return to her Palo Alto home after a trip to Lake County, and is believed to be in Aberdeen, Washington.

The Aberdeen Police Department is assisting the Lake County Sheriff's Office in attempting to locate Mankey, whose cell phone information activity placed her near Aberdeen around 9:00 a.m. on Friday.

RELATED: San Jose gas station employee fired after racist tirade against Spanish speaker

Melissa Demyan, a friend of Mankey's, wrote on Facebook Friday that it has been over 24 hours since anyone has heard from her.

"My friend Parker is missing," she wrote. "It's been over 24 hours since anyone has seen or heard from her. I last saw her when she was leaving Lake County to head home yesterday.... Parker if you're reading this: we love you so so much and we just want to know you're safe. Please let us know you're okay!"

Mankey received national media attention when she berated a man inside of a Palo Alto Starbucks for wearing a MAGA hat, and wrote in Facebook post that she "called the entire Starbucks to order and yelled at him."

"He will never forget me and will think seriously about wearing that hat in my town ever again," she wrote. "If you see him in this hat, please confront him. You do not want to be the person who didn't speak up as we slipped into fascism."

She ended up losing her job at a nearby music store because of the incident, and has since received a number of threats online.

ALSO: MAGA hat-wearing suspect accused of sword stabbing pleads not guilty

Mankey was also a co-chair of the Bayshore Progressive Democrats, a self-described group of "Berniecrats for the political revolution in the region around Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale."

After the incident, the group wrote on Facebook that Mankey had resigned, and her family was receiving death threats and "other threats of injury and harm."

"As a result of publicity surrounding her actions, today she and her family members were doxxed (had personal contact revealed to encourage threats and harassment) on right-wing social media and internet channels," they wrote. "She and her family have received multiple death threats and other threats of injury and harm, and is losing her employment."

The group also wrote that Mankey's actions "did not follow these principles and do not reflect our organization's political philosophy and approach."

Mankey is driving a 2010 black Honda Accord with license plate 8INB004. Anyone with information on her whereabouts in encouraged to call (707) 263-2690.

Eric Ting is an SFGATE staff writer. Email him at eric.ting@sfgate.com and follow him on Twitter

Start receiving breaking news emails on floods, 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 Border Patrol marine unit said it rescued a Mexican citizen from drowning in the Rio Grande near Laredo.

READ MORE: Two men sentenced to prison in human smuggling case that resulted in Rio Grande drowningsLondon

Police in Northern Ireland on Saturday arrested two teenagers in connection with the fatal shooting of a journalist during rioting in the city of Londonderry.

The men, aged 18 and 19, were detained under anti-terrorism legislation and taken to Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

The men have not been identified or charged. Police had said earlier there was one gunman who pulled the trigger who had been backed by an "organization," and said they were searching for multiple suspects.

Lyra McKee, 29, a rising star of investigative journalism, was shot and killed, probably by a stray bullet aimed at police, during rioting Thursday night. Police said the New IRA dissident group was most likely responsible and called it a "terrorist act."

The use of a firearm apparently aimed at police marks a dangerous escalation in sporadic violence that continues to plague Northern Ireland 21 years after the Good Friday peace agreement was signed.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said earlier that a gunman fired a number of shots at police during the unrest. Police on Friday night released closed-circuit TV footage showing the man suspected of firing the shots that killed McKee.

Police appealed for help from the community, stating that people knew the shooter and should help police identify him. The rioting started after police moved into the Creggan housing complex to search for weapons.

The killing was condemned by all the major political parties as well as the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland.

Speaking in Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland had chosen peace and cooperation on Good Friday 21 years ago and will not be "dragged into the past" by political violence.

The victim was mourned by friends, those who had read her work, and by the wider community. She rose to prominence in 2014 with a moving blog post  "Letter to my 14 year old self"  describing the struggle of growing up gay in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.

In the post, she described the shame she felt at 14 as she kept the "secret" of being gay from her family and friends, and the love she eventually received when she was finally able to reveal it.

She also had recently signed a contract to write two books.

Hours before her death, she tweeted a photo of the rioting with the words: "Derry tonight. Absolute madness."

Her partner, Sara Canning, told a vigil Friday that McKee's amazing potential had been snuffed out.

Canning said the senseless murder "has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with."

"It has left so many friends without their confidante," she added.

The shooting reveals how difficult it is to snuff out the last bit of violent resistance to the peace agreement.

The New IRA is a small group who reject the 1998 Good Friday agreement that marked the Irish Republican Army's embrace of a political solution to the long-running violence known as "The Troubles" that claimed more than 3,700 lives.

The group is also blamed for a Londonderry car bombing that did not cause any injuries in January. It is regarded as the largest of the splinter dissident groups still operating and has been linked to several other killings in the past decade.On May 20, 1975, David Hamburg, a psychiatrist at Stanford University and an expert in the study of stress, arrived at his office to find a stressful situation of his own: His door was papered over with urgent messages from Stanford officials, the State Department, newspapers and terrified families.

Three graduate students from his department and a Dutch colleague, all working at a university-backed research station in Tanzania, had been kidnapped by armed militants from the neighboring country then known as Zaire. The captors ferried the terrified students to a compound on the other side of Lake Tanganyika, asking for half a million dollars and a shipment of arms in exchange for their release.

Hamburg left immediately for Africa but found information and help scarce. Only after 10 weeks of delicate negotiations did the rebels free all the students. (The participants agreed not to reveal the terms of the deal, but news accounts reported that Stanford, the families and other parties paid the rebels a total of $40,000.)

Hamburg later told an oral historian that his experience was transformational, exposing him to "the worst problems of the world - hatred and violence and severe poverty and disease." The ordeal inspired a radical career pivot: from psychiatry and academic medicine to philanthropy and public service.

Hamburg, whose service as head of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and other prestigious organizations was honored by the country's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, died April 21 at a hospital in Washington at 93. The cause was ischemic colitis, obstructed blood flow to the large intestine, said his daughter, Margaret A. Hamburg.

By the mid-1970s, Hamburg left Stanford and headed the Institute of Medicine - as the health policy arm of the National Academy of Sciences was then known - where he launched initiatives on health and behavior and the prevention of disease in developing and underserved communities.

From 1982 to 1997, he led the Carnegie Corp., a multibillion-dollar charitable foundation. There, he promoted peer counseling and after-school programs in U.S. middle schools and backed projects to improve K-12 education. He also marshaled foundation resources for efforts to prevent war and genocide through academic study and support of intellectuals, diplomats and officials working behind the scenes to end conflicts.

Hamburg viewed his policy work as a direct, if unexpected, outgrowth of his experience as a physician. In 2009, he told an audience at a Carnegie event that he sought to apply principles of public health to foundation efforts to promote peace.

"Ounce of prevention, ton of cure," he said.

As early as 1985, Hamburg urged academics to devote greater study to the underlying causes of terrorism and violence, writing in a Carnegie Corp. annual report that scholars treated it as "almost a nonsubject."

"The subject of violence is old wine," Hamburg told the New York Times when the report came out. "The new bottle is the technology enabling the contagion to spread."

In 1994, Hamburg helped establish the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict. The commission, which he co-chaired with former secretary of state Cyrus Vance, focused in particular on conflicts in Africa and the unfolding ethnic violence in the Balkans.

The commission recommended seeking out early warning signs of violence and promoting economic justice, human rights and cooperation among international, national and local institutions to stabilize hot spots.

Then-U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon once said that the commission's 1997 report served as "one of our major reference points" for U.N. peace efforts.

"David was a psychiatrist who rose beyond that field to bring concepts of patient care and patient dignity to the general community," said Herbert Pardes, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia and Cornell medical schools and former president of the NewYork-Presbyterian hospital system. "This was prophylaxis for peace."

Hamburg held appointments at the National Institute of Mental Health, Harvard University and the Weill Cornell Medical College as well as at Stanford. He often collaborated with his wife, Beatrix Hamburg, a psychiatrist and researcher who specialized in child and adolescent development.

"He was very much a large-scale thinker," said former Rep. Rush Holt Jr., D-N.J., a physicist and chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where Hamburg served as president in 1984. "Everybody knew David Hamburg, and he knew everybody - and they all wanted his advice."

Hamburg once recalled President Bill Clinton's insistence that "there was no way that he could have known more than a few weeks beforehand" about the imminent threat of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when as many as 1 million people were killed over 100 days.

Hamburg said he told Clinton that he had witnessed the seeds of such tribal conflict as early as the 1970s, when he had visited Africa for research.

People say "you can never know until the last minute," Hamburg remarked to an audience at a 2010 event hosted by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. "Nonsense."

In 1996, Clinton awarded Hamburg the Presidential Medal of Freedom, honoring his work toward "understanding human behavior, preventing violent conflict, and improving the health and well-being of our children."

Hamburg's citation lauded him for "teaching us about the challenges and difficulties of raising children in a rapidly transforming world" and stressing the need for "families, schools, and communities to work together in our children's interest."

David Allen Hamburg was born in Evansville, Indiana, on Oct. 1, 1925. His grandfather was a pushcart peddler who had fled anti-Semitic pogroms in Latvia in 1900 and settled in the Indiana town. Hamburg said that his family history inspired his work fighting genocide.

Hamburg graduated from Indiana University in 1944 and its medical school in 1947. One of his early influences was "Men Under Stress" (1945), a book for a popular audience by Roy R. Grinker and John P. Spiegel, psychiatrists who had served as medical officers during World War II. They recounted their efforts to treat stress associated with servicemen, including combat fatigue.

As a medical trainee working with Grinker at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Hamburg treated patients with severe burn injuries, polio and leukemia, hoping to understand "how is it that people could maintain a sense of worth as a person, and maintain significant human relationships, and mobilize some hope for the future," as he told a Carnegie Corp. oral historian in 1998.

He added that at the time he felt doctors had little to offer combat veterans under their care. But Grinker and Spiegel's book "added a kind of dimension of hope about the therapeutic side of the field," he said, and he decided to pursue specialty training in psychiatry.

At Yale University, he studied the impact of stress on the brain, working to develop tests to more precisely measure cortisol and other stress hormones, and analyzing the activation of stress responses in people who were depressed.

He also met and began working with his future wife, who was the first openly black woman to graduate from Vassar College and the first black woman to graduate from Yale's medical school.

In 1961, the Hamburgs moved to Stanford, where David Hamburg became psychiatry department chairman and expanded his studies to the evolution of human violence.

After advances in gene sequencing revealed that humans share roughly 99 percent of their DNA with their closest ape relatives, Hamburg began studying chimpanzee behavior for insight into the genetically based origins of human aggression.

The work took place at a 27-acre outdoor lab in California and a wilderness station in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, where he collaborated with the zoologist Jane Goodall - and where the students fell into the clutches of the rebel forces.

Hamburg received the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences and other awards, many with his wife, who died in 2018.

Survivors include two children, Eric Hamburg of Los Angeles, a writer and filmmaker, and Margaret A. Hamburg of Washington, who served as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration during the Obama administration and is the chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and three grandchildren.

In a 2002 interview, talk show host Charlie Rose asked David Hamburg if violence was inevitable in the world. "It's even worse than that," Hamburg replied. "We are a very contentious species and a very dangerous species, and all the more so now."

But there had to be a solution, Hamburg insisted.

"We've got to find it," he said. "We've just got to say, war is not like the weather - that comes and goes, and we have to live with it and roll with the punches. We've got to mobilize human ingenuity to find ways to prevent it."House Democrats will hold a meeting to discuss whether to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, a key lawmaker said Sunday.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on "Fox News Sunday" that the House Democratic caucus will meet in the coming weeks to discuss the matter.

"That's going to be a very consequential decision and one that I'm going to reserve judgment on until we've had a chance to fully deliberate on it," Schiff said.

In an appearance on ABC News' "This Week," Schiff also said that while the findings of the Mueller report are "serious and damning," he does not believe the Senate would convict Trump if the House were to impeach him.

"Now, it may be that we undertake an impeachment nonetheless. I think what we are going to have to decide as a caucus is: What is the best thing for the country?" he said.

Democrats have been divided over impeachment since the Thursday release of special counsel Robert Mueller III's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

On Friday, two 2020 Democratic presidential contenders - Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Julian Castro, who was housing and urban development secretary in the Obama administration - seized on the report's findings to make the case for impeachment.

But others, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., have urged members of their party to hold off on any impeachment proceedings and instead continue their investigations of Trump.

The Democratic split grew Sunday as another presidential candidate, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, said it was too soon to formally open impeachment proceedings.

Ryan said that it was "pretty clear" that the president obstructed justice and that the Mueller report portrayed a "very, very, very serious" set of circumstances, but that House committees should continue with their oversight of Trump.

"Let the Judiciary Committee look at this," Ryan said on CNN's "State of the Union," stressing that Democrats need to "educate the American people" on the investigation. "Let's see where that leads."

Trump has sought to discredit portions of the Mueller report, including in a Friday tweet in which he dismissed assertions that he may have obstructed justice as "total bullshit."

On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, defended the president's tweet.

"There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians," Giuliani said on "State of the Union," suggesting that campaigns regularly receive information from unusual sources.

Giuliani said he did not think his own 2008 presidential campaign would have accepted information from Russian sources but maintained that it would not have been illegal to have done so.

"There's no crime," he told host Jake Tapper.

---

The Washington Post's Michelle Lee contributed to this report.Mirjana Markovic, the top political adviser and accomplice to her husband, Slobodan Milosevic, whose tyrannical reign over the disintegrating Yugoslavia in the 1990s led to charges of war crimes, died April 14 after being treated at a hospital in Sochi, Russia. She was 76.

The death was announced by Serbian State Radio. The cause was complications of pneumonia.

Markovic, often called the "Lady Macbeth" of the Balkans, for her powerful hold over her husband, was a devoted communist and a principal architect of her husband's rise to power in the former Yugoslavia.

As the country disintegrated amid ethnic conflicts and civil war during in the 1990s, Milosevic seized control of Serbia. From the capital, Belgrade, he directed war efforts against other former Yugoslav states, including Croatia and Bosnia.

Milosevic's 13-year reign ended with his overthrow in 2000. He was arrested and charged with war crimes that included terrorism campaigns and genocide. Throughout her husband's political life, Markovic (pronounced Mark-oh-vitch) wielded enormous influence over his thinking and was at least as feared by the Serbian public as he was. They were sometimes called the pair, with a touch of derision, the "royal couple" of Serbia.

"She invented him," Milosevic biographer Slavoljub Djukic told Canada's Ottawa Citizen newspaper in 1998. "There has never been such a powerful woman in the history of Serbia as Mirjana Markovic. And she has been fatal for Serbia."

Markovic, who always used her maiden name, fled to Russia in 2003 when warrants were issued for her arrest on charges of fraud, corruption and other crimes. She was widely believed to have helped plot the murders of independent journalists and several of her husband's political rivals, although she was never formally accused.

She was descended from the communist equivalent of nobility, born in a forest during World War II as her parents were fighting against Nazi forces. Her mother, Vera Miletic, whose nom de gurre was Mira, was captured by Nazis and tortured. She was executed in 1944, when her daughter was 2.

Historians have never established whether Miletic was killed by the Nazis or by her onetime communist colleagues, who suspected that she may have given up secrets during her captivity. All records about her disappeared from Yugoslav archives. Markovic became a fervent communist early in life and often wore a flower in her hair as a reminder of her mother.

While growing up in Pozarevac, in the former Yugoslavia, Markovic and Milosevic became inseparable in high school. "She was attracted to his deep sorrow," Djukic wrote, after both of his parents committed suicide.

The couple were married in 1965.

Markovic had a doctorate in sociology and taught Marxist theory for years at the University of Belgrade. Her husband, meanwhile, was gaining influence as he rose through the ranks of the Communist Party, first as director of a state-run energy company in the 1970s and later as head of the country's largest bank.

In 1987, he elbowed aside his political mentor, Ivan Stambolic, to take over leadership of the Communist Party in Serbia, the largest republic in the Yugoslav federation. He seized control of once-autonomous regions, and ethnic nationalist tensions soon gripped the country. He formally became Serbia's president in 1989.

Most observers believed that Markovic guided her husband's political rise and helped orchestrate his moves to consolidate power. She was a writer and intellectual, and her husband had an aversion to newspapers and books.

"Milosevic has never had any political ideas of his own," Stambolic said in 2000. "They've all been hers."

Milosevic was reelected in 1992 and 1996, but his authority, as leader of the last communist dictatorship in Eastern Europe, had been reduced to the former republics of Serbia and Montenegro. Yugoslavia was breaking apart, as Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina all declared independence.

He espoused a doctrine of Serbian nationalism as civil war raged throughout a once-united country. In the meantime, Markovic formed a new political party, the Yugoslav United Left, that, outwardly at least, sought to restore the earlier glory of Yugoslavia.

If the political aims of husband and wife seemed at odds, their private bond remained strong. At a publishing event for one of Markovic's books, her husband proffered a toast: "Here's to you, kitten. May you always love me."

In 2000, Stambolic was considered a likely challenger to Milosevic until he disappeared a month before the September elections. His body was found three years later.

At least four other close associates of Milosevic and Markovic's were also killed, along with a prominent journalist, Slavko Curuvija.

When warrants were issued for Markovic's arrest in 2003, she sought asylum in Russia, where she joined her son, Marko, whom she called "my wild young mustang." A playboy and barfighter who crashed more than 20 luxury cars, Marko Milosevic amassed a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars by his early 30s.

He fled Serbia after he was charged with threatening to dismember a former associate with a rotary saw.

"Marko was threatening with a saw to cut someone up in pieces?" Markovic said in a 2002 interview with the New York Times. "That's humor! That's humor!"

Markovic's daughter, Marija, ran a radio station and nightclubs in Serbia and was known for her taste for high fashion and nightlife, her many love affairs and her interest in firearms.

When her father was being taken to jail in 2001, Marija reportedly fired at least five shots at the arresting officers. She was also taken into custody, with three handguns in her possession.

"I have to say," Markovic said, "that I have a very nice family and well-raised children."

Mirjana Markovic was born July 10, 1942, near the village of Brezane, Serbia. Her parents were not married, and after one day her mother returned to fight with Yugoslav partisans. Markovic was raised by her grandparents.

She attended the University of Belgrade and the University of Nis and received a doctorate. She read French literature, seldom smiled and was said to have utterly no sense of humor. Her hair was always dyed jet black, and most of her clothes were black, her favorite color.

For years, Markovic wrote a twice-monthly magazine column, often about her roses and musings on nature. But observers parsed it closely to gauge the changing political winds in Serbia.

"Maybe it produces some confusion," she told The Washington Post in 1993, "but I think such confusion can be helpful and useful."

Asked to clarify what she meant, she replied, "Like I said."

Nevertheless, she denied that she possessed any authority or was, in fact, the power behind the Serbian strongman's throne. Still, enigmatic as always, she once remarked that men "have been saying and doing what they like for centuries, and look where that has got us."

Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006 while still on trial for war crimes before a United National tribunal in The Hague. Markovic did not return to Serbia to attend his funeral.A three-year veteran with the San Antonio Police Department is now on administrative leave after police arrested her early Friday morning on a domestic violence charge.

Nicolette Muniz was arrested around 3:19 a.m. on suspicion of assault family violence, according to a news release from the police department.AMSTERDAM  It was the cracked windshield that first caught Detective Sgt. Sal Megna's attention.

Then the Corona beer bottle tipped to the lips of the driver of the white work van on Route 5S. When Megna realized the van fit the description of an incident three days before when two individuals fled from police, the 17-year police veteran called for backup.

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By logging in, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform and the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals have designated Trautmann Middle School and United lSD as Texas Schools to Watch. Trautmann Middle joins approximately 30 other campuses across Texas with this distinction and honor.

Trautmann Middle was recognized in Austin at the Making Middle School Matter Symposium hosted by the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals on March 3-5. They will be recognized nationally with other Schools to Watch from across the country in Washington, D.C., at the National Schools to Watch Conference on June 27-29.A Longford man is to appeal a four month prison sentence handed down at last weeks District Court sitting for assaulting his former partner twice on the same day.

Sean Taaffe, 71 Annaly Park, Longford, was given the jail term by Judge Seamus Hughes after pleading guilty to two Section 2 assaults at Canal Bank, Longford and Annaly Park on October 22, 2018.

He was also charged with criminal damage and theft on the same date at Canal Bank as well as two Section 4 and 6 Public Order offences at Dublin Street on March 16, 2019.

Sgt Mark Mahon was asked at the outset of the case if the victim was in court, a question which led to her telling gardai 24 hours beforehand that 'she never wants to see this gentleman again'.

Listening on, Judge Hughes stated: Would you blame her?

As the charges were read out to the court, there appeared to be some confusion as to what, if any, offences Mr Taafe intended pleading guilty to.

Sgt Mahon said Mr Taaffes file contained charges relating to damage to a front door, two assaults and the theft of a mobile phone.

No, your Honour thats not true, said Mr Taaffe, concerning the alleged mobile phone theft.

Sgt Mahon said during the course of the theft, a door was damaged and the victim was assaulted.

He added the defendant followed the victim inside the property into a bedroom, rugby tackled her onto a bed before attempting to bite her on the face and neck.

An attempt, he said was also made, to choke the victim.

Thats not true, said Mr Taaffe, in response.

We had a disagreement, but that didnt happen.

I grabbed her by the top of the head, but I didnt hit her.

Asked about what brought about the second assault, Sgt Mahon said much like the incident before it, the victim had been attempting to retreat when she was accosted.

It occurred when the lady left the house, he said.

She was on the public street and she left the house in her pyjamas.

He tried to grab her hair and pull her back.

Mr Taaffe, again however, contested that version of events, saying: That didnt happen Judge.

There was no second assault.

Judge Hughes hit back and asked why Mr Taaffe was accepting his role in both incidents despite seeming to question the evidence which was being provided.

He is digging a hole deeper every time I ask a question, he said.

You have pleaded to a second assault. Its like hand holding a child.

Not stopping there, Judge Hughes also had strong words for Mr Taaffes solicitor, Aine Gordon.

Judge Hughes said he simply wanted to iron out the facts of the case and warned Mr Taaffe of the likely ramifications should he continue to adopt the same stance as outlined from the start.

I want to know did a girl have to escape for her life in her pyjamas and you, you thug you, chasing her and pulling her by the hair, is that what happened?

Sgt Mahon agreed, stating it represented a brief summary of what had occurred.

If I have to have a hearing for this case and if I have to have a hearing for it I will be exercising my full sentencing powers, added Judge Hughes.

Mr Taaffe said the events of last October and his role in them were not in keeping with his everyday behaviour.

Thats not something I would do your Honour, he said.

So, obviously if I did do that, I wasnt in the right frame of mind.

He also added he had been co-habiting with the victim up until three or four weeks ago before a barring order was taken out against him.

Now because she has a barring order; me and her isnt getting on and the reason I did lose the plot and I done things that night I shouldnt have done was because I found out she was cheating, he said.

Ms Gordon said her client was remorseful over what had gone on and pleaded with Judge Hughes to exercise as much leniency as possible.

Mr Taaffe accepts he was drinking a lot and self medicating. He did get back and live with (victim) for a while and has a job for the last two months.

He accepts what he has done is appalling and regrets everything.

Judge Hughes said the only avenue in which such leniency could be utilised was if a substantial offer of compensation was made to the victim.

With no specific offer made, Judge Hughes said he would be seeking 3,000 and asked when the money would be offered up.

Mr Taaffes suggestion of depositing 100 a week into an account was, however, quickly shot down.

You have had six months to prepare for your defence in this case. She hadnt a second to prepare to escape for her life out of the house in her pyjamas, he said.

Judge Hughes issued a four month concurrent sentence for the Section 2 assaults while taking into account a Section 6 Public Order charge while also striking out a Section 4 offence.

Mr Taaffe is to appeal the sentence to Longford Circuit Court after recognisances were fixed at 750.Staff from Longford employment and skills provider Seetec joined more than 100 of their colleagues in promoting National Workplace Wellbeing Day last Friday.

The centre in Canal View, Townparks, Longford hosted a healthy breakfast for staff and took part in a lunchtime mile walk.

National Workplace Wellbeing Day has been marked by the business community in Ireland for the last five years and aims to promote better physical activity and nutrition in the workplace.

To enhance the working environment Seetec is also training managers across its centres to be Mental Health First Aiders.

The two-day course will enable staff to identify if a team member may be developing a mental health issue or is experiencing a mental health crisis.

Ursula Kenny, Seetecs Head of HR in Ireland, said: The wellbeing of staff is an essential core value to any business operation.

Were proud that our colleagues, throughout Ireland, have thrown their support behind National Workplace Wellbeing Day by participating in a range of activities.

We have begun a programme to train our team members, with 23 managers to be Mental Health First Aiders.

They will be there to provide initial help and guide a person towards appropriate professional help. Not only does this create a greater understanding of mental health but also promotes an environment of support within the work place.

It is Seetecs vision to have a Mental Health First Aider in each of our centres.Sean ORourke started his RTE Radio 1 broadcast on Monday, April 8 with a story about the Garda Commissioner and his journey from Northern Ireland to the Republic, which is a frequent occurrence, given the commissioners home base.

ORourke opened proceedings saying;

Garda Headquarters have said that both An Garda Siochana and the PSNI are satisfied that normal procedures were followed during an armed escort for the Garda Commissioner last month which led to a security alert at Garda Headquarters, and a PSNI vehicle being damaged. Commissioner Drew Harris was being driven back to Headquarters from Northern Ireland on Monday, March 25 in an unmarked, reinforced PSNI Range Rover as part of a joint Garda/PSNI convoy.

ORourke then went to John OBrien, policing and security specialist and a retired detective chief superintendent, and also in studio was Tom Clonan, a security analyst.

The vehicle in which Commissioner Drew Harris was travelling on March 25 continued onwards when it got to the border, and carried on all the way to the Phoenix Park, where, it is alleged, a serving garda officer on the gate did not recognise the northern vehicle and triggered a security alarm, which caused the vehicle to be temporarily disabled.

Gardai have since issued a statement saying that it wasnt a security alarm, but a malfunction on the security front.

Lots of questions arise.

First of all, as far as most people aware, the only forces of law and order that are allowed to carry weapons are the gardai and members of the defence forces, in the 26 counties.

Was anyone trying to say that the northern police force, had rendered their officially issued arms disabled, once they crossed the border into the Republic?

At what point did they disable them.....a few yards into the republic, or a few miles...., and how could they reasonably protect the Commissioner who is a high level target, if they were disabling weapons?

It had been forcibly alleged that the Northern Ireland police were carrying loaded arms in the vehicle whilst it was travelling from the border on to the Phoenix Park.

The Department of Justice has since confirmed that since 2013 members of the PSNI have been allowed to carry firearms in the Republic, which was news to a lot of people.

During the discussion on Sean ORourkes programme, a statement from the Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, arrived, saying that;

I understand that there has been a minor incident involving a car traveling at about walking pace. I am advised that the travel and security arrangements on this occasion were in line with standard practice.

In response, John OBrien immediately volunteered, let me say directly, and unequivocally, that the arrangements as described in the media, were not in line with standard operating procedures, or practice, and they certainly werent good security practice.

At this point Tom Clonan chimed in to list the rules governing armed personnel ending with ...the last one is legal requirements, and under legal requirements the person carrying a firearm must be legally entitled to hold it, must be trained on that weapon, must have fired it on ranges...and under that principle its not acceptable for members of a foreign police or security to carry a firearm. At this point Clonan seemed more than slightly bemused and finished by saying if this is being described as standard practice, its at variance with what the law sets out.

This is a snippet of where our government is at.

On Wednesday, April 10, the same RTE host broached the national childrens hospital and the overspend.

Tom Parlon was on the programme, and attempted to defend some aspects of the hospital, by using technically accurate but good pr-speak language, nonetheless even he had to acknowledge that the way the governance of the hospital was approached was very poor.

The fact of the matter is that while people were being dismayed by the hospital spend, the government continued apace to pour concrete into the foundations, and other parts of the site, almost as though they wanted to advance it to a stage where it couldnt possibly be changed.

Actually, if they knew even the most basic facts about building, they would have known that political maneuvering had long ago won the day, and the hospital had long since been accepted as being an oncoming reality, despite not even having a helicopter landing space. Meaning that a sick child will have to be dropped at some other location, before being transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Nobody could make this up. Perhaps Laurel & Hardy.

Our Taoiseach is a former Minister for Health, and ultimate overseer of all affairs within his purview, so even a cursory glance at the plans of the hospital should have made it abundantly clear that the omission of a helicopter pad would be a laugh.

Well, thats exactly what happened. Sadly, nobodys laughing.

Finally, Michael Brennan & Emmet Oliver, in the Sunday Business Post, have broken the story that the childrens hospital is at significant risk after all the tender documents from the unsuccessful bidders were destroyed. The legally required period for documents to be retained is seven years.Summer is only a matter of weeks away now and music-lovers across the country are looking forward to several months of music festivals.

And Longford is set to be well-represented at one popular festival in Cork this August with two local bands being announced last week as part of the line-up.

Indiependence Festival kicks off in Mitchelstown, Co Cork from August 2 to 4 with a spectacular lineup including Drumlish band Brave Giant and Granard man Joe Regan's band, State Lights.

The two bands are preparing to share the stage with the likes of Bastille, Biffy Clyro, Gavin James, Chasing Abbey, Hermitage Green and plenty more at one of the most popular Indie music festivals in the country.

Brave Giant have also just been announced for the line-up of Kaleidoscope Festival in Co Wicklow at the end of June.

Kaleidoscope is Ireland's first family friendly camping festival and will see big names such as Bell X1, Hermitage Green and Jerry Fish Electric Slideshow among others take to the stage at Russborough House in Blessington.

More information on the festival can be found at www.kaleidoscopefestival.ie.

Brave Giant have also recently announced details of their next headline gig in Dublin's Olympia Theatre on November 9.

Tickets available via ticketmaster.ie.

The band revealed to the Leader in late 2018 plans to record their debut album this year, though no date has been announced yet for its release.

Meanwhile, State Lights are still on the rise with a new single, Lonely, receiving a hugely positive response earlier this year.

The band recently sold out its first headline gig with MCD productions in the Workman's Club Dublin, and have just announced details of their next headline gig at Whelan's Live on October 5 with MCD Productions. Tickets available via ticketmaster.ie.

Were thrilled to be heading back to Cork to play Indiependence in August, said Granard man and State Lights guitarist, Joe Regan.

Weve played the festival twice before and have had an awesome time on each occasion. Its a festival thats growing year on year and the line up this year is amazing.

Sharing the stage with great acts like Bastille, Catfish and The Bottlemen, Biffy Clyro and Gavin James is a really exciting prospect.

Were also soon releasing our next single, titled Open Your Arms. Its a very colourful track and we hope itll be received well going into the festival season!

Keep up to date with both bands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.Food, Wine, & Dining, Travel & Local Attractions

By Meg Parisi Published: April 20 2019

From traditional Greek to fresh made biscuit sandwiches, these six new spots are worth the venture to Queens

Comfortland: Astoria

At this counter-service doughnut shop youll find the same one-of-a-kind options like their sweet potato cream-filled doughnut with maple glaze and meringue, as well as a rainbow cake with chocolate crumbs, coffee crumbs, and raspberry jam. With a total of 36 seats, the space is comfortable for eating in, especially for their famous biscuit sandwiches.

Amylos Taverna: Astoria

Amylos Taverna in Astoria, has now taken over the former home of the formerly popular Uncle Georges Greek Tavern, which closed in 2013. The Greek spot brings classic Greek taverna fare back to the space, which has also been newly renovated. There are daily specials, like slow-roasted baby lamb on Saturdays, and seafood-centric Greek dishes including fresh raw bar offerings.

Kal: Long Island City

This homey Korean restaurant is already well-received in the neighborhood for its comfort food like spicy rice cakes, braised mackerel, and japchae (stir-fried glass noodles). Stop in for lunch and enjoy traditional bulgogi or spicy tofu stew, which comes paired with rice, kimchi, potato salad, greens, and an omelet. The narrow space has just a few tables to dine in or take your dishes to go.

The Queensboro Restaurant: Jackson Heights

Jackson Heights is filled with cuisine from around the world, and now, it also has a restaurant serving up new American food. The Queensboro comes from chef-owner Tony Liu, who used to be at restaurants such as Tabla, Babbo, and Pulinos. Youll find dishes like garlic bread with clams, a summer squash salad with Serrano chiles, pizza topped with prosciutto, and a pasta with kale-sunflower seed pesto. Theres also a tasty cocktail list, as well as wine and beer options.

Rice N Beans: Woodside

Hells Kitchen Brazilian favorite Rice N Beans has opened a new location in Woodside, bringing its tasty fare along with it. Chef Carlos Roberto Inacio is cooking up dishes like his deliciously flavored pork, feijoada (black bean stew), and savory shrimp stroganoff. Head there for happy hour where you'll enjoy $5 caipirinhas and $7 cripsy croquettes.

Sup Thai Kitchen: Fresh Meadows

A Thai restaurant has sprouted in Fresh Meadows. Sup Thai Kitchen combines their exposed brick and concrete walls in an industrial space with a menu that has all the classic curries and noodles you crave, as well as regional specialties like pork noodle soup and chicken curry noodles.About 20 km north of Beirut, Dalida Sneifer and Marc Beyrouthy walk among piles of pallets and tarpaulins, sinking into the rainwater-soaked soil. "If only you knew what land costs here in Kaslik  building here would generate millions in profits. But the management [of Kaslik Holy Spirit University, or USEK] has agreed to build a waste management center instead," says Beyrouthy, a professor and member of the USEK Green Committee.

The Green Committee was founded in 2016, one year after the beginning of a serious waste crisis in Lebanon, caused by the closure, without a backup plan, of the Naame landfill, south of Beirut. Beyrouthy notes, "To students outraged by the images of waste piling up on the streets of the capital and its suburbs, in rivers and forests, we said: 'What happens here, at USEK, its not the states responsibility, its yours. If you start sorting waste, we can show that a 10,000-person community like ours can take action, find solutions and set an example.

Today, the commitment is as real as the margin for progress. "Only 50 of the 350 kg of organic waste produced per day at USEK is actually transformed into compost," says Sneifer, the committee coordinator. This is mainly due to the fact that the four kitchens on campus have refused to sort their waste. However, the Green Committee is now applying pressure to make sorting mandatory. "We have to do better, of course, but theres at least 50 kg of organic waste that won't end up in the sea or in nature! They can also replace expensive and polluting chemical fertilizers," says Beyrouthy.

According to a 2014 report published by Sweepnet (the Regional Network for the Exchange of Information and Expertise on Solid Waste in the Mashreq and Maghreb Countries), 15 percent of the waste produced in Lebanon is composted, eight percent recycled, 48 percent landfilled and 29 percent end up in illegal garbage pits. Composting is a major challenge in Lebanon because 52 percent of the countrys waste is organic.

Aware of the situation, Sneifer is working to turn students into eco-citizens "before, she says, its too late." Marc Aoun, co-founder of Compost Baladi, the company that installed compost boxes at USEK, aims to make this practice accessible to everyone.

"Our objective is to inspire behavior change and offer relatively cheap solutions [a 200-liter composting box costs USD 220, while a large 1,100-litre composting box for a building costs USD 650] while ensuring that there are no nuisances, such as odors or flies," explains Aoun, whose company, founded in 2017, has only recently become profitable.

Compost Baladi employs six full-time and four part-time employees and has already installed about 50 Earth Cube composting units at the American University of Beirut (AUB), as well as in companies, villas and a Syrian refugee camp in Ersal, eastern Lebanon. It also works with municipalities.

"Even some professors at the American University of Beirut, despite their commitment to environmental protection, find it difficult to actually compost, mainly because it requires them to change their habits," says the 25-year-old, standing in front of compost crates installed near the university professors houses. "We try to set up an integrated system, so that the act of composting is as close as possible to the act of throwing garbage in the trash bin."

At the AUB campus, novice composters simply throw their sorted organic waste into the boxes and cover it with dead leaves that will act as a biofilter and prevent flies from entering. A small motor sends air into the box at regular intervals to allow the decomposition of waste by aerobic bacteria and the formation of compost without added water.

"Our goal is for nobody to be able to say its impossible to compost," says Aoun, who regrets his fellow citizens apathy. "Since the mountains of garbage have disappeared from their daily lives, they feel that the problem of waste management has been solved, he says.

However, nothing was fundamentally solved after 2015, and a new waste crisis is looming with the impending saturation of the Bourj Hammoud landfill, which was set up as an emergency measure on the Beirut coast after the 2015 crisis. Reopening the Naame landfill or installing an incinerator in Beirut are some of the options being discussed.

Aoun is scheduled to meet Lebanon's new Environment Minister, Fadi Jreissati, to convince him of the benefits of composting. In the meantime, hes trying to raise awareness among different municipalities, including Beirut. "The president of the municipality wants 200 of the 800 tonnes of waste Beirut produces per day to be recycled and composted," he says. "We talked with him about implementing a pilot project to compost 1.5 tonnes of organic waste per day. If it works, it will serve as an example and could be replicated.

This article is being published as part of Earth Beats, an international and collaborative initiative gathering 18 news media outlets from around the world to focus on solutions to waste and pollution. In partnership with the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie

Sixteen people on a flight landing at Logan International Airport were taken to an area hospital after all of them reported an illness, according to WCVB.

A Massachusetts Port Authority official told the television station the American Airlines flight started in Miami and landed in Boston Sunday morning.

Boston EMS said officials were called to the airport around 9:20 a.m.

A spokesman for the airline said the 16 people were all from the same group, WCVB reports. The passengers symptoms are minor, authorities told the television station.

NECN reports the passengers are all from the same school group. Thirteen students and three chaperones were taken to the hospital, NECN reports.

No other people on the flight appeared to be sick, the television station reports.A 31-year-old man is facing numerous weapons charges in court after authorities investigated the purchase of stolen firearms parts and located a dismantled AR-15 rifle and ammunition inside an East Bridgewater apartment, according to police.

East Bridgewater Police Chief Scott Allen said James Kolozie of East Bridgewater was arrested Friday evening at his apartment.

He faces charges of unlicensed sale/possession of an assault weapon, possession of ammunition and firearms without an FID card, improper storage of firearms and 19 counts of illegal possession of a large capacity magazine.

Authorities said Kolozies license to carry was suspended in 2017.

Around 5:30 p.m. Friday, East Bridgewater Police Sgt. Michael McLaughlin was contacted by a special agent from the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, police said.

The agent was investigating the purchase of stolen firearms parts Kolozie allegedly made online. Police said Kolozies license to carry was suspended in 2017 and his FID card expired two years earlier.

Authorities went to Kolozies apartment at 31 Central St. to speak with him Friday. Kolozie was then arrested and a search warrant was obtained by investigators.

Through searching Kolozies apartment, officers located and seized a dismantled AR-15 rifle, a 1911 Colt Commander handgun, 19 large capacity magazines, several hundred rounds of ammunition of various sizes, dozens of parts to various firearms and several components for manufacturing ammunition, police said.

Kolozie may face more charges. Authorities said he is expected to be arraigned Monday in Brockton District Court.New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the countrys population is migrating to the South and West.

In Massachusetts, however, everything is shifting east toward Greater Boston.

The numbers released by the Census Bureau this week represent estimated changes in state, local and regional population numbers since 2017-18.

The Census Bureau is required by law to take an actual headcount of the population every 10 years. The next count is not scheduled to begin until next year. In between each actual population count, the bureau uses a variety of sources to make its best guess of population trends through its Population Estimates Program.

Data from the program that was made public showed what appears to be a shift in the population from the Northeast to the South and the West.

Of the 10 counties experiencing the most growth in terms of new population, four are in Texas, two are in Florida, and one each is in Arizona, Nevada, California and Washington.

A U.S. Census map showing population trends in the United States. Counties in the South and out West are seeing the greatest population growth.

The biggest population change of any county in the U.S. was Maricopa County, Arizona, which is the home to Phoenix.

Between 2010 and 2018, the Maricopa County population increased from 3.8 million to 4.4 million, an increase of 81,000. That is the equivalent of everyone in Lawrence, Massachusetts, packing up and moving Arizona.

A chart based on U.S. Census Bureau data showing changes in population for Massachusetts counties between 2010-18

In Massachusetts, the census numbers reflect what has been more or less evident to anyone paying attention to housing, jobs or economics in the past few years. Simply, the eastern part of the state is growing while the western counties are slowing.

Massachusetts population showed an increase of 5.4% overall, but the individual counties showed great differences in individual growth.

The map above shows the percent change in the population of Massachusetts counties between 2010 and 2018. Tap or hover your cursor over a shape to see the data. Map by Greg Saulmon / The Republican  Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Basically, the proximity of a county to metropolitan Boston determined what sort of growth it had. Counties close to Suffolk County saw an increase above the state average, while those further west had growth below the state average. That is, if they had growth at all.

Suffolk County grew at a rate of twice the state average  11.8%, or by 85,000 people.

Berkshire County, on the other end of the state, saw a 3.8% loss in population, the greatest decline of anywhere in Massachusetts. That works out to around 4,900 fewer people.

Middlesex County, to the northeast of Boston, was already the states most populous county. It saw its numbers increase by 7.4%, or 111,500 people. Essex County, north of Boston, grew at 6.4%, or 45,000 people. Worcester County grew by 4.1%, or 32,00 people.

The four counties that make up Western Massachusetts all lagged behind the state average for growth, and in Berkshire and Franklin counties actually declined.

Hampshire County showed 2.1% growth, and Hampden 1.5%. Franklin Countys population declined by 0.6%.

Other than Berkshire and Franklin counties, the only other area of the state to lose population was Barnstable County, which saw a 1.1% decline, or around 2,400 residents.

In terms of actual residents, Hampshire County gained 3,200 people while Hampden County added 6,700. Franklin County saw its population drop by six-tenths of a percent, or a net loss of 400 people.

A chart based on U.S. Census information showing population trends in the New England states. It shows the four factors that go into a population change: births, deaths, international migration, and domestic migration.

Among New England States, Massachusetts had the highest amount of growth with an increase of 354,000 people. This is nearly 10 times greater than second-place New Hampshire, with 39,000.

Connecticut was the only state to show a negative population change. The state has some 1,400 fewer people than it did in 2010.

The Census Bureau keeps track of state population changes through two categories: natural increase and net migration. Natural increase is births minus deaths. Net migration combines international immigration with domestic migration.

The Massachusetts population increase appears to be due to two factors: 134,000 more births than deaths, and 351,000 people moving here from other countries. Both numbers are high for New England. The immigration figure is more than enough to offset the loss of 126,000 Massachusetts residents who moved elsewhere since 2010.

Connecticut attracted 123,000 people from other countries, but this was still less than the 175,000 Connecticut residents who moved to other states.

Maine, which grew by 10,000 people, was the only New England State to record more deaths than births. The overall increase is the result of the state attracting 10,000 immigrants and nearly 8,000 people from other states.

Maine and New Hampshire were the only states in New England that showed an increase in domestic migration.BROCKTON  A 25-year-old Fall River man who was shot by a Massachusetts State Police trooper has been charged with five offenses including armed assault with intent to murder.

Claude W. Brown-Madison was shot in the lower body by a state trooper at around 9 a.m., Saturday, on Colonel Bell Drive. He continues to recover from the injury, said David Procopio, a spokesman for the state police.

Investigation thus far indicates that Brown-Madison was armed during the incident and pointed a firearm at the trooper. The suspects firearm was recovered at the scene of the shooting, police said in writing.

Police have not released details about the confrontation that led to the shooting.

Brown-Madison was charged on Saturday with armed assault with intent to murder, assault by means of a dangerous weapon, committing a firearm violation while having a record that includes at least three prior violent or drug crimes, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm or ammunition without a permit, Procopio said.

Brown-Madison remains hospitalized at Boston Medical Center under a Massachusetts State Police guard. He will be arraigned when doctors determine he is medically able, he said.

The trooper, whose name has not been released, was evaluated at Good Samaritan Hospital after the shooting and has been placed on five days of standard administrative leave, which is designed to give troopers time to recover after what is considered a traumatic incident, police said.

Because of a potential conflict of interest, the Plymouth County District Attorneys Office has referred the investigation and prosecution of the case to two other district attorneys. Police did not disclose details of the conflict of interest.

The Cape and Islands District Attorneys Office will oversee the investigation of the shooting and will determine whether the use of potentially lethal force was justified under the law, police said.

The Essex County District Attorneys Office will prosecute Brown-Madison for the five charges.

The shooting is under investigation by state police detectives, crime scene services, and a specialized state police team of senior investigators that responds to trooper-involved shootings, Procopio said.HOLYOKE  A Springfield man was critically injured in a shooting that occurred in front of a convenience store Saturday afternoon.

Police are continuing to search for a man who was seen fleeing from the scene and have towed a car connected to the suspect, Police Lt. James Albert said.

The victim was shot in the hip area, he said. It is very serious but he has made it out of surgery.

The shooting began as a fight at the corner of Chestnut and Appleton streets. One of the two men involved went into the Circle K convenience store at 337 Appleton St. and the fight resumed when he emerged from the store. Soon after, the suspect shot the 29-year-old victim, he said.

The preliminary investigation shows the fight was drug-related, Albert said.

Police were initially alerted to the shooting, which occurred at about 2:30 p.m., by staff at Holyoke Medical Center who called to say the victim walked into the emergency room with a gunshot wound, he said.

Police have been working to collect evidence and interview witnesses for the past about seven hours, Albert said.

Police are searching for a male suspect wearing all dark clothing who was seen fleeing the area. He is described as being in his mid-20s to early 30s and Latino, he said.

Officers also towed a black Dodge SVU from the area of the shooting, which is believed to have been used by the suspect, Albert said.

Anyone who witnessed the man fleeing, saw the shooting or the argument or has any other information about the crime, including video recording taken around the time of the shooting, is asked to call police at 413-322-6940, Albert said.

The Massachusetts State Police Crime Scene and Ballistics units assisted at the crime scene, he said.

The Holyoke Police Criminal Investigation Bureau is continuing to investigate the shooting, Albert said.A police officer from one Massachusetts town is being praised for rushing into a burning home and pulling a man to safety.

On Saturday, around 5:20 p.m., Dartmouth police responded to a fire at 17 Johnson St. There were reports that someone was trapped inside.

Dartmouth Police Detective Scott Brooks rushed inside the home and located an elderly man in the lower level of the ranch-style home. The detective escorted the man out of the home.

Firefighters were able to put out the fire, which was contained to a room on the upper level of the home.

Four children got out of the fire before officers and firefighters arrived, police said.

This incident speaks perfectly as to the dedication of the officers (both uniform and plainclothes) of this department, Dartmouth Police Chief Brian P. Levesque said. Even if it means placing their own lives in danger, the top priority of the men and women of the Dartmouth Police Department is to protect and serve the members of the community by any means possible.STURBRIDGE -- A fire in an apartment complex sent one resident to the hospital and displaced more than 40 families early Sunday morning.

The three-alarm fire was reported shortly before 7 a.m. at 489 Main St. The road was closed for several hours while firefighters from multiple communities worked together to extinguish the blaze, officials said on the Sturbridge Fire Department Facebook page.

The American Red Cross said more than 40 families have been displaced. Police announced emergency workers have set up an assistance center at the Sturbridge Senior Center, located nearby at 480 Main St., to help families.

American Red Cross officials said they have assisted 31 adults and 11 children from 26 families who live in the complex and the manager is trying to contact those families who were not home at the time of the fire.

The owner of the complex is providing housing for the displaced families, Red Cross officials said.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is also assisting residents. Monday multiple agencies will be available at the Senior Center to provide information on housing and other things they will need.

According to the Assessors office about 40 families live in the multi-family apartment building that is assessed at about $2.9 million.

Firefighters have reopened the road but remain at the scene doing overhaul of the building, police said.

All on-duty and off-duty Sturbridge firefighters fought the three-alarm blaze. Fire Departments from multiple other communities including Spencer, Warren and West Brookfield assisted at the scene, officials said.

"The fire went to three alarms and was stopped in ample time," according to the Spencer Fire Department. "A nice stop by all involved on a very rainy morning."

"Job well done to all who responded. Truly a great stop by the men and women of the Sturbridge Fire Department," Warren Fire Department posted on Facebook.

The Sturbridge Fire chief was not immediately available for comment.A pilot program equipping some Worcester police officers with body cameras is getting close to reality.

The department for the second-largest city in New England will join the Massachusetts State Police and Boston Police as police departments running pilot programs, once it begins in Worcester.

Communications from Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. and Police Chief Steven Sargent listed in the upcoming City Council agenda did not contain a projected start date.

In June, the city of Springfield and the police departments patrol officers union agreed to the use of body cameras as part of its new contract. Springfield will become the largest department in the state with body cameras not in a pilot program once it starts in the city.

In Worcesters council agenda, officials said Axon Enterprise, which is based in Arizona, is donating 20 body-worn cameras and all the necessary accessories to the Worcester Police Department for a six-month pilot program.

Axon develops weapons and technology for law enforcement agencies. The company will also donate 20 spare cameras, charging stations and other items.

The Worcester Police Department has completed the training necessary to begin a pilot program for body-worn cameras, Sargent said. The pilot program lasts for six months and involves twenty officers from the Operations, Neighborhood Response Team, and Traffic Division wearing body-worn cameras for their shift.

The value of the donation is $33,174. Axon helped train Worcester police. There is no cost to the department for the donation.

Augustus will ask the council Tuesday night to accept the donation.

Worcester police have discussed the use of body cameras since the August 2014 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

In December, the city and the Worcester police officers union reached a contract agreement that includes a framework for a Body Worn Camera pilot program.

This pilot program will inform us on the value of this technology and allow us to address concerns regarding the use and effectiveness of the equipment, budgetary requirements, as well as issues of safety, privacy and other related topics, Augustus said at the time.by Larissa Faw , April 19, 2019

Black Hills Energy is "Ready" to engage people with the utility company by showcasing three customers.

The new brand platform, developed by Vladimir Jones, follows each personality and their unique backstory. Chief Travis McConnell, for instance, returned home to help spearhead the sustainable food movement in his Arkansas home community. The spots end with the tagline, "Ready to grow our communities, together."



The multimedia campaign launched across Black Hills Energys home state of South Dakota in March, and began running in Colorado earlier this month. By July, the campaign will be running in six additional states (Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming), to enable Black Hills Energy to target its 1.27 million customers.by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, April 21, 2019

Self-driving vehicles may be better for carrying things than people.

Kroger is starting to demonstrate this in its just launched autonomous grocery delivery service in Houston.

The grocery retailer has been working with Nuro, which created a self-driving service to transport local goods.

The first deliveries in Houston are from the store on South Oak Road with two more stores set to start within the next few months.

Customers shop on the Kroger mobile app and schedule same-day or next-day delivery, for a flat fee charge of $6 with no minimum order.

Kroger and Nuro earlier tested the service in Scottsdale, Arizona, and then moved it to Houston.

The service started with Nuros self-driving Toyota Prius fleet, with a safety driver, with plans to move to the Nuro custom driverless vehicle later this year. That rolling device carries only things, not people.

"Kroger continues to redefine the customer experience, and we're thrilled to provide our customers with a new way to have their groceries delivered, states Marlene Stewart, Kroger's Houston division president.

Earlier this year, Softbank invested $940 million in Nuro. Softbank has also invested $500 million in Uber and recently put $333 million more into Ubers automated ridesharing service, with a promise of $300 million more over the next few years.

However, various automotive industry leaders have recently been backing off from any short-term visions of fully autonomous cars hitting the roads in large numbers any time soon.

Fully self-driving vehicles to carry people at scale are some time off.

The smarter action is in autonomous technology that moves actual things.On days when the nation's bravehearts are not risking their lives to protect us, they are still saving lives with their selfless acts and heartwarming gestures. Constable Gohil Shailesh from the 53 Battalion of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) is one such braveheart who has now become the nation's hero too, after a photo of him donating blood to a young woman was posted on social media.

Pexels (For Representation)

Constable Shailesh not only saved the woman's life, but also saved the life of her newborn child. According to the post, the 25-year-old pregnant woman from Kashmir developed some severe complications (and blood loss) during her delivery and was in an urgent need of blood. Reportedly, the woman's family contacted CRPF 'Madadgaar', a helpline that addresses the medical emergencies of people living in Kashmir.

The relation of blood.



Constable Gohil Shailesh of #53Bn donated blood to 25 yr old lady of #Kashmir who urgently needed blood due to complications during delivery.



His blood saved a mother, a child, a family and created a bond for life. pic.twitter.com/kUM92pJQAy  CRPF (@crpfindia) April 19, 2019

Constable Shailesh volunteered to donate blood to help the mother and it's because of him that both mother and her child were in a stable condition. CRPF wrote in the caption, "His blood saved a mother, a child, a family and created a bond for life."

People on Twitter too were in awe of this jawan and couldn't stop praising him for his selfless gesture. Actor Anupam Kher too took to Twitter to applaud the CRPF jawan.We certainly live in scary times and the fear doesn't let us hope for a time when everything will finally be at peace. The recent bomb blasts in Sri Lanka are a prime example of what I am talking about and it reeks of ineffable and unthinkable hate and radicalism.

(c)Reuters

On Easter Sunday, 8 violent bomb blasts at 3 churches and 3 luxury hotels killed and injured numerous people in the capital, Colombo. The death toll is still rising, currently at 160, while over 400 people have been injured. This attack has broken the lull after the civil war ended in 2009, in Sri Lanka. The three hotels that were bombed were Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel Colombo and the Cinnamon Grand Colombo. More than 50 were killed in the St. Sebastian Gothic-style Catholic Church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, and 25 or more people were also killed in an attack in an evangelical church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

24 killed

200 injured

in multiple blasts in churches and hotels in #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/2dcsDTkOE8  Faizan   (@faizan_ul_haq) 21 April 2019

No immediate claims have been made or speculated yet regarding who led the attack. In a country which was at war internally, for two decades with Tamil separatists, till 2009 has seen a lot of bomb blasts in the past, and to be reminded of the same horror once again is nothing short of earth shattering and traumatic.

(c)Reuters

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong, he said in a Tweet.

Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation. the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe released a statement earlier today.

Indian politicians along with our President and Prime Minister also shared their thoughts on the attack on Twitter.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) 21 April 2019

People in Sri Lanka have come out in solidarity to help the victims in any way they can. Currently there are massive queues at the blood donation camp there and it's nothing short of overwhelming.

Time to unite #SriLanka. Blood requested at the Colombo National Hospital and Batticaloa Hospital where several injured are being treated following the multiple blasts which shook #lka today.  Jamila (@Jamz5251) 21 April 2019

A resident by the name of Usman Ali told an international publication that everyone's intention is to help the victims right now.

Overwhelming response at National Blood Centre. It's so overcrowded they cannot control the crowd. Currently they are sending back people who have come after taking down name, contact and blood group. Don't rush there now go leisurely as the crowd subsides #LKA pic.twitter.com/EAvYyr73kH  Usman Ali  (@usmanali_la) 21 April 2019

Five #explosions reported in #SriLanka. Two explosions in St. Anthony's #Church in Kochchikade and #Negombo Katuwapitiya Church. Another explosion in Kingsbury Hotel and 3rd floor Shangri-La in Colombo. Another explosion reported in #Batticaloa. #lka @ShangriLaHotels pic.twitter.com/7jyOzlv8DH  Ashwin Hemmathagama (@AHemmathagama) 21 April 2019

Sushma Swaraj, the external affairs minister said India is keeping a close watch on the situation in Sri Lanka.

Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) 21 April 2019

Extremely sad news from Sri Lanka on Easter. Enemies of humanity cannot be allowed to succeed in any part of the world and acts of terror should be condemned in strongest terms  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) 21 April 2019

India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country. Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in civilised society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka #PresidentKovind  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) 21 April 2019

Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief.  Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) 21 April 2019

Saddened and shocked at the disturbing news coming in from Sri Lanka. All forms of violence are unacceptable. Easter is a Festival of Peace. My thoughts and prayers with the grieving families  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) 21 April 2019

Easter Sunday bomb blasts in churches & hotels, killing many innocent people seems to be a well coordinated attempt to create murder,mayhem & anarchy.All those who cherish democracy,freedom & economic prosperity must unite now with nerves of steel to defeat this heinous attempt.  Mangala Samaraweera (@MangalaLK) 21 April 2019

The Indian High Commission Tweeted helpline numbers, in case a friend or a family member is in Colombo currently.

Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789  India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) 21 April 2019

In addition to the numbers given below, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176  India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) 21 April 2019

The live feed of @NewsfirstSL now reporting that 24 confirmed dead from the attacks this morning at the General Hospital. #lka #srilanka  Sanjana Hattotuwa (@sanjanah) 21 April 2019

We just wish and pray for the welfare of the people who went through such an atrocious time, seeping this trauma in every living second. It's hard to imagine what they'd be going through right now. All we hope for is the terrorist group behind this attack is caught and dealt with adequately and the country experiences peace in all its glory, soon.All I Want for Christmas is You

Mary, Did You Know?

Oh, Holy Night

O Little Town of Bethlehem

What Child is This?

The Little Drummer Boy

White Christmas

Ill Be Home For Christmas

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Frosty the Snowman

Jingle Bells

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree

Vote

View ResultsWETHERSFIELD  A section of Silas Deane Highway was expected to be shut down for an extended period of time while investigators dealt with an officer-involved shooting.

Wethersfield police said the police-involved shooting happened around 6 p.m. The investigation has Silas Deane Highway (Route 99) between Mill Street and Maple Street (Route 3). Traffic through the area is being detoured.

The roadway will be closed for an extended period of time while the incident is investigated, Wethersfield police said in a statement. Drivers should use alternate routes and avoid the area.

The investigation has been turned over to the New Britain States Attorneys Office and the Connecticut State Police Major Crimes Squad. Wethersfield police said additional updates and information would be provided as possible.

The details of what led up to the shooting were not immediately clear.

Police did not say if any police officers were injured. They did not expand of details of the shooting, including the condition of the person who was shot.

But reports after the incident indicated an officer shot a suspect, who suffered serious injuries. Reports indicated the officer wasnt injured.

This is the states second officer-involved shooting in less than a week.

On Tuesday, a Hamden police officer and Yale University police officer were involved in a shooting that landed one woman in the hospital with a gunshot wound. That incident also remains under investigation.

Anyone who might have information about Saturdays incident is asked to call the Wethersfield Police Department at 860-721-2901.The U.S. Air Force for months has been working to redesign gear and flight suits used by female pilots after many years of ill-fitting equipment.

But why stop there? It's also updating current flight suit and gear designs to improve comfort and ease of wear, according to officials working on the project. At the same time, officials want to streamline and expedite the process of shipping these uniforms and support gear anywhere across the world to meet a unit's requirement.

Since his tenure in the Air Force, Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein has called for improved, better-fitting uniforms -- not only for comfort, but also for safety.

"We have women performing in every combat mission, and we owe it to them to have gear that fits, is suited for a woman's frame and can be [worn] for hours on end," Goldfein told reporters at a Defense Writers Group in Washington, D.C. last year.

Related content:

Officials have been eager to create and field uniforms and flight equipment with better fit and performance, and make them more readily available for female aircrew, said Maj. Saily Rodriguez, the female fitment program manager for the human systems program office.

The problem for decades has been limited sizes, which has resulted in female airmen tailoring their own flight suits, or just wearing a suit too tight or too loose.

Rodriguez and her team have been tasked to "specifically ... look at how the female body is shaped," with a goal of "tailoring that flight suit to be able to accommodate the female shape," she said in an interview with Military.com Thursday.

The project was launched within the Air Force Lifecycle Management Center, with Rodriguez focused on the female perspective for better-fitted uniforms and gear.

"Everything that touches an aircrew member's body, we manage in the program office," she said. That includes everything from flight vests; G-suits, which prevents the loss of consciousness during high levels of acceleration or gravity pressure; helmets; boots; and intricate gear such as bladder relief apparatus.

Some improvements have been made already. In November, the service began delivering upgraded Aircrew Mission Extender Devices, also known as AMXDmax, for bladder relief. The device collects urine in a cup for men and a pad for women, and can hold 1.7 quarts of urine, according to the service. The Air Force said it had expected to deliver roughly 2,000 to crews service-wide by the end of this month.

Beyond female flight equipment, the office is gearing up for improved uniforms and devices for all.

"We're going to be adding on what's called the 'combat-ready airman,'" Rodriguez said, "which is going to look at more roles than just aircrew members to ensure that those airmen, men and women, are being outfitted in standardized uniforms as well, that suit their need to be able to properly do their duties they're assigned."

Officials are still defining what a 'combat-ready airman' is, but the term eventually will "encompass the larger Air Force" beyond aviators, she said. As an example, work has begun on better-fitting vests for female security forces airmen.

"It all comes down to making sure that airmen have gear that they can use and ... perform their missions," Rodriguez said.

Getting Uniforms Amazon-Quick

On the shipment management side, leaders are using the Battlefield Airmen Rapid Resource Replenishment System, or BARS, a central equipment hub that sorts various gear and can ship the clothing directly to airmen across the globe.

The system was created to quickly field resources to deployed airmen, such as Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) airmen, pararescue and special tactics operations in Air Force Special Operations Command, said Todd Depoy, the special warfare branch chief for the special operations forces and personnel recovery division within Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. Gear ranges from scuba gear to climbing equipment, Depoy said.

"BARS is a cloud-based software program ... with [an additional] inventory control," Depoy told Military.com. The program has been around a little over a year, he added.

The internal system, created and hosted by Amazon, gives individuals the authority to head to a computer and mark what they need and have it shipped over -- with the proper military approvals, Depoy said.

"There is a checkpoint, but if they need something, they can go in and order it, and those items are on the shelf," he said.

The items are stored and managed by the Air Force at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana.

Unlike in years past where it could take months to get gear overseas, it now takes between a few days and a few weeks, depending on the location, Depoy said.

The goal now is to speed up the existing process for men's gear, and implement a similar one for female flight suits.

"BARS is an existing system, but I'm currently adding our ACC female aviators into the system," said Shaunn Hummel, the aircrew flight equipment program analyst at Air Combat Command's A3TO training and operations office.

Lately, Hummel has been working to add female flight suits, jackets, boots and glove to the list of available gear in the system. His job is to work with the Defense Logistics Agency to appropriately stock facilities so airmen can access items via BARS.

In September, ACC made a bulk buy of roughly $1 million worth of these items, Hummel said.

"We're working with DLA to try and decrease the lead time and increase productivity for the manufacturing of these suits," Hummel said Thursday. Female flight suits "are not manufactured all the time until there is a consistent demand of them."

Hummel explained there are 110 different flight suits -- between the "women" category, for curvier women, and the "misses" category, for those with slimmer builds -- and they also have different zipper configurations.

Zippers have been a problem for men as well as women. Very tall or very short airmen may find their zippers ill-placed to relieve themselves conveniently, the service said in a recent release.

"We're making sure we're using data ... to assess what are the sizes we need to get women outfitted" by cross-referencing stockpiles through the various offices, Rodriguez added.

Right now, the teams are working together to get more feedback on how the programs are working, and what else could be done to improve standard gear to keep pilots and aircrew safe in flight.

The service has held several collaborative "Female Flight Equipment Workshops," the release said.

Rodriguez said it wants more airmen speaking up.

"We have an effort underway looking at how we can streamline feedback from the user ... so that we can use it when we're looking for improvements in the future," she said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.The Marine Corps' Aging Amphibious Vehicle Fleet Will Be Kept Out of the Water

Eight Marines and a Navy corpsman died when an AAV sank hundreds of feet into the ocean during exercises on July 30, 2020.Key

Select Mineral List Type Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Detailed Mineral List:  Albite Formula: Na(AlSi 3 O 8 )  Almandine Formula: Fe2+ 3 Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 Reference: Field-collected by Kevin Czaja  Beryl Formula: Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) Habit: crystals to 11" long Colour: dark blue, blue-green, yellow, chartreuse Reference: Eckert, Earth Treasures Vol. 1 (NY, 1987)  Beryl var. Aquamarine Formula: Be 3 Al 2 Si 6 O 18 Reference: Caswell, L. and Cross, F. W. (1917). The History of the Town of Royalston, Massachusetts.  Beryl var. Heliodor Formula: Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) Reference: Caswell, L. and Cross, F. W. (1917). The History of the Town of Royalston, Massachusetts.  'Biotite' Formula: K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2  Magnetite Formula: Fe2+Fe3+ 2 O 4 Reference: Billings, Marland P. (1941): Pegmatites of Massachusetts. (Prepared under a cooperative project for geologic investigations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts)  Muscovite Formula: KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2  Quartz Formula: SiO 2  Schorl Formula: Na(Fe2+ 3 )Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH)

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides  Magnetite 4.BB.05 Fe2+Fe3+ 2 O 4  Quartz 4.DA.05 SiO 2 Group 9 - Silicates  Albite 9.FA.35 Na(AlSi 3 O 8 )  Almandine 9.AD.25 Fe2+ 3 Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3  Beryl 9.CJ.05 Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 )  var. Aquamarine 9.CJ.05 Be 3 Al 2 Si 6 O 18  var. Heliodor 9.CJ.05 Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 )  Muscovite 9.EC.15 KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2  Schorl 9.CK.05 Na(Fe2+ 3 )Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH) Unclassified Minerals, Rocks, etc.  'Biotite' - K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2

List of minerals for each chemical element H Hydrogen H  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 H  Schorl Na(Fe 3 2+)Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH) H  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Be Beryllium Be  Beryl Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) Be  Beryl var. Aquamarine Be 3 Al 2 Si 6 O 18 Be  Beryl var. Heliodor Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) B Boron B  Schorl Na(Fe 3 2+)Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH) O Oxygen O  Beryl Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) O  Beryl var. Aquamarine Be 3 Al 2 Si 6 O 18 O  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 O  Schorl Na(Fe 3 2+)Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH) O  Albite Na(AlSi 3 O 8 ) O  Quartz SiO 2 O  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 O  Almandine Fe 3 2+Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 O  Magnetite Fe2+Fe 2 3+O 4 O  Beryl var. Heliodor Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) F Fluorine F  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Na Sodium Na  Schorl Na(Fe 3 2+)Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH) Na  Albite Na(AlSi 3 O 8 ) Mg Magnesium Mg  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Al Aluminium Al  Beryl Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) Al  Beryl var. Aquamarine Be 3 Al 2 Si 6 O 18 Al  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Al  Schorl Na(Fe 3 2+)Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH) Al  Albite Na(AlSi 3 O 8 ) Al  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Al  Almandine Fe 3 2+Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 Al  Beryl var. Heliodor Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) Si Silicon Si  Beryl Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) Si  Beryl var. Aquamarine Be 3 Al 2 Si 6 O 18 Si  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Si  Schorl Na(Fe 3 2+)Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH) Si  Albite Na(AlSi 3 O 8 ) Si  Quartz SiO 2 Si  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Si  Almandine Fe 3 2+Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 Si  Beryl var. Heliodor Be 3 Al 2 (Si 6 O 18 ) K Potassium K  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 K  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Ti Titanium Ti  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Fe Iron Fe  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Fe  Schorl Na(Fe 3 2+)Al 6 (Si 6 O 18 )(BO 3 ) 3 (OH) 3 (OH) Fe  Almandine Fe 3 2+Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 Fe  Magnetite Fe2+Fe 2 3+O 4

References

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Hamlin, A. C. (1870): The Gems of the United States in Proceedings for the Association for the Advancement of Science, Eighteenth Meeting Held at Salem, Massachusetts, August 1869 , p.212. Hamlin, A. C. (1873): The Emerald. Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science: 11: 143-144. Hamlin, A. C. (1884): Leisure Hours Among Gems, Boston: James R. Osgood & Company, pp. 311-312. Caswell, L. and Cross, F. W. (1917). The History of the Town of Royalston, Massachusetts. McCaskey H. D. (1917). Mineral Resources of the United States 1915, Part II, pp. 846-847. Billings, Marland P. (1941): Pegmatites of Massachusetts (Prepared under a cooperative project for geologic investigations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). Sinkankas, John (1959). Gemstones of North America, Vol. 1, p. 73. Sinkankas, John (1981). Emerald and Other Beryls, Radnor, Pennsylvania, Chilton Book Co.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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A granite pegmatite on Beryl Hill in North Royalston, one of two gem beryl-producing pegmatite localities discovered in the town of Royalston in the nineteenth century. "Several tons of rock" were said to have been removed by A. C. Hamlin and associates in 1871. They found variously colored crystals, including a one-inch perfectly transparent deep sea-green prism (Hamlin, 1873). Owned by C. W. Bowker of Worcester from 1885-1895; later owned by F. H. C. Reynolds of Boston, who worked it for gem beryl ca. 1910-1915.Beryl Hill is located in the northeastern part of Royalston. There is another, older locality for gem beryl in South Royalston , about four miles away, mentioned in the second edition of Dana's System of Mineralogy as being located on the land of Mr. Clarke near the schoolhouse. (Dana, 1844). This newer locality (Beryl Hill) is first mentioned in Dana's 4th edition (1858).According to Caswell and Cross (1917): Reynolds "mined hundreds of [aquamarine crystals], and disposed of some of the good sized stones as high as a hundred dollars apiece, and has some in his collection that have been valued by experts as worth three hundred dollars...Mr. Reynolds describes the beryls on his place as being found without exception in what we term 'bunches' that is, they appear generally in groups of crystals. Once during the last summer (1915) he opened probably a hundred crystals in a space not more than three feet square at the most, and he says that it was a wonderful sight. He has many crystals from that find, and they have been greatly admired by some of the most expert mineralogists of this country."McCaskey (1917) reported: "The Reynolds mine at Beryl Hill, near Royalston, Mass., was again worked by Mr. F. H. Reynolds of Boston, who obtained a large quantity of aquamarine beryl, of good color and clearness. Some of the material of fine quality yielded cut stones nearly 16 carats in weight. Many fine cabinet specimens were also obtained...Among the cut stones also submitted by Mr Reynolds were some very fine ones, of marked brilliancy and beauty of color. A large table cut stone of 15.7 carats, measuring 16 by 13 millimeters, was of an exceptionally fine blue color. Another large stone measuring 18 by 14 millimeters, weighed 14.2 carats. A smaller table-cut stone, 14 by 11 millimeters, weighing 10 carats, was of an exquisite pale blue color. A large round cut stone, measuring 14 millimeters across and weighing 12.6 carats, was very brilliant and of fine color."How to use the mindat.org media viewer

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Summary of all keyboard shortcutsThe Phillies have placed shortstop Jean Segura, infielder/outfielder Scott Kingery and reliever Victor Arano on the 10-day injured list, Matt Breen of The Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. The team recalled right-hander Drew Anderson, left-hander Austin Davis and third baseman Mitch Walding from Triple-A Lehigh Valley in corresponding moves.

Seguras IL placement, retroactive to Wednesday, comes as a result of a left hamstring strain. Itll deprive the Phillies of one of their key offseason additions and someone who has gotten off to a terrific start this year. The 29-year-olds slashing .328/.384/.476 (130 wRC+) in 73 plate appearances, continuing an impressive run of production that began with the Diamondbacks in 2016.

With Segura unavailable over the past couple days, the Phillies turned to the versatile Kingery at short. After a rough rookie season in 2018, Kingery, 24, opened this year with an exemplary line of .406/.457/.719 (208 wRC+) and two home runs in 35 PA. Hes also dealing with a strained hamstring, but on his right side, and an MRI showed its mild, per Breen.

The absences of Segura and Kingery will leave shortstop to journeyman Phil Gosselin, at least initially. The club also has the somewhat experienced duo of Andrew Romine and Gift Ngoepe as potential minor league call-ups, but it would need to add either to an already full 40-man roster.

The 24-year-old Arano is now the third Phillies reliever currently on the IL, joining David Robertson and Tommy Hunter. Aranos battling elbow inflammation, no doubt an ominous-sounding problem for a pitcher. The righty was one of the Phillies most successful relievers last year, his rookie campaign, though a horrific spring forced him to begin this season in the minors. He then dominated Triple-A hitters over four innings, which led to a return to the majors April 12. Since then, Arano has combined for 4 2/3 frames in three appearances and allowed two earned runs, both in the Phils loss to the Rockies on Thursday, while notching seven strikeouts against two walks.Michigan-born rocker Ted Nugent is planning a big fight against the recent ban on deer baiting and feeding in the Lower Peninsula.

In an interview with MLive, the musician known for hits like Cat Scratch Fever," Stranglehold and Fred Bear said hes in the process of setting up a June rally in Michigan to support stopping what he calls the definition of insanity - the baiting and feeding ban approved by the state Natural Resources Commission in August 2018 as part of a series of changes to deer hunting rules designed to limit the spread of chronic wasting disease.

It breaks my Michigan heart, and I will not give up - Im going to keep fighting, said Nugent, who now lives in Texas but returns to Michigan each year for hunting season. I live for the fall in Michigan, and when I see dishonest bureaucrats ruining it Im just not going to sit back and take it."

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is a contagious and fatal neurological disease found in deer, elk and moose. Since the first free-ranging white-tailed CWD-positive deer was found in Michigan in May 2015, CWD cases have been confirmed in Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Ionia, Ingham, Jackson, Kent, and Montcalm counties. A CWD-positive deer was also found in the Upper Peninsula in Dickinson County in October of last year.

The baiting and feeding ban in the Lower Peninsula went into effect Jan. 31, 2019, and was part of an array of efforts from the Natural Resources Commission and Department of Natural Resources to keep the disease contained to the 16-county CWD Management Zone.

But many hunters, including Nugent, argue theres not enough of a correlation between baiting and feeding and the spread of the disease, and believe the practice causes no more harm than areas where deer gravitate towards naturally, such as apple trees, corn fields or licking branches.

They dont need a Michigan hunter to drop a sugar beet for them to have nose-to-nose contact, Nugent said. Deer lick and kiss and nibble and groom each other throughout life. It is so insane that someone would tell you that dropping corn might cause a deer to swap spit.

Nugent alleged state officials supporting and enforcing the ban are anti-hunting liars," and said he is considering suing the department and commission on grounds that the ban isnt sound science.

Department of Natural Resources officials contend that based on the research thats available, feeding and baiting is detrimental to disease control efforts because it increases animal contact rates above what is normal.

There are always going to be people who have different opinions, theres always going to be people who seem to feel that they have some reason that we would lie about it, said Dan OBrien, veterinarian specialist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Were dealing with the published science.

Once a deer is infected with the disease, it can be a year or more before symptoms begin presenting, which OBrien said makes it extremely difficult to find new cases or predict where the disease might turn up next. He said prevention tactics like banning baiting and feeding are critical, because once chronic wasting disease is discovered in an area, its harder to combat it.

Youve got to try to set up conditions to make it difficult for diseases to get established, he said. The best thing you can hope for is to minimize spread, so we have to do the best we can to prevent the disease from getting established in new areas.

Recreational feeding is an additive to what happens in the natural world, essentially making the situation worse, he continued. To the extent that we want these resources for our children and grandchildren to enjoy, we have to be willing to make the sacrifices now that are going to prevent this disease from becoming established or spreading.

Sen. Curt VanderWall, R-Ludington, said hes supportive of putting specific plans together for each area where deer test positive for CWD, but hes concerned a wide-ranging baiting and feeding ban will have lasting negative effects on Michigans hunting population and on businesses that rely on them.

Thats why he sponsored Senate Bill 37, which would lift bans on feeding the animals, and allow for baiting during open hunting season. VanderWalls bill is currently before the Senate Natural Resources Committee. Committee members held a hearing on the matter earlier this month, but havent yet taken a vote.

To just blanket a policy with no firm data is alarming, he said. The worst thing we can do is lose hunters and lose deer take.

VanderWall said Nugent has reached out to him and appreciates his support, but noted hundreds of others have also voiced their concerns with the ban to him.

Nugent said his ultimate goal is to stop the feeding and baiting ban before hunting season opens this year - otherwise, he said a lot of people might decide not to go, or to run the risk of feeding or baiting regardless of the rule.

We just want to go hunting, Nugent said. We want to get some deer. We want to balance that herd. We want to save the agriculture and the highway slaughter from an overpopulation. We want to have fun with our family, and we want to eat venison. Just leave me alone.

Nugent hasnt been shy about wading into political issues during his career. Hes performed at rallies for President Donald Trump, former U.S. Senate candidate John James and other Michigan Republicans, and he referred to Michigan as a California s***hole" after Democrats won several key races in the state. Hes also been critical of Ann Arbors deer culling and management techniques, calling it proof that the state has lost its soul.

Some of Nugents commentary has drawn controversy in recent years - hes been accused of being anti-Semitic, calling survivors of the Parkland shooting liars, disrespecting Native Americans and dodging the draft. During an October 2018 appearance on WKARs Off The Record, Nugent refuted those claims, calling the criticism against him fake news from hell.

Although Nugent hasnt ruled out a political run of his own in the past, he said for now, hes planning on continuing his musical career and hunting pursuits while performing the most powerful political responsibility in the history of mankind...demanding constitutional accountability from our elected employees."BANGOR, MI -- The first 4/20 day following state legalization of recreational marijuana did not go unnoticed by a small town in Southwest Michigan.

Hundreds from across the region attended a 420 Festival Saturday, April 20, in downtown Bangor, a city in Van Buren County with a population of around 1,800.

The festival was hosted by medical marijuana dispensary The Green Door, 126 W. Monroe St.

Nearly 30 vendors, including veteran organizations, cannabis compassion groups, local businesses and food trucks, lined Main Street. Live music played throughout the day and guest speakers spoke about the benefits of cannabis.

Lana Jeffrey of Constantine and Deana Rupley of Sturgis shared a joint in a small outdoor area where those with medical cards could smoke marijuana.

Times, they are a changin,'" Jeffrey said.

Jefferey said it was about time marijuana was legalized, sighting medical benefits. She spoke of how cannabis helped a family member with cancer who had a low appetite.

I just really like it that theyre loosening up on this stuff and knowing whats good for people, she said.

Grand Rapids resident Rosemary Davis said she has been smoking cannabis since 1970.

Ive been celebrating a lot of 4/20s through the years, Davis said.

Although not a national holiday, 4/20 day has become a day when people smoke marijuana. Michigan voters approved the legalization of recreational marijuana in November 2018.

Standing in the tent, Davis smoked medical marijuana using a clip with a homemade handle shaped like a hippo. She said she has made at least 100 similar clips in the past four decades. She now has a medical marijuana card and said she has experienced medical benefits for her glaucoma from cannabis and CBD use.

Im quite excited that its legal in my lifetime, Davis said.

Those with a valid medical marijuana card could purchase cannabis from the The Green Door during the festival.

A line to the dispensary stretched around the block from early morning into the afternoon, said Marc Smith, owner of The Green Door. Smith also owns PM Growers, a medical marijuana grow facility in Bangor.

Everyones here to just have a good time, he said.

The Green Door started working with the city of Bangor to put on the festival about three months ago, Smith said.

The Bangor police and fire departments were on site monitoring the event. By around 5 p.m. Saturday, Bangor Police Chief Tommy Simpson said there had been no legal violations at the festival.

Part of the proceeds from the event will go back to the city to fund local projects, including providing new vests for local law enforcement, Smith said. All of the food vendors at the event were local and not charged to set up a booth, but rather asked to contribute an item to the festivals raffle or contribute to the fund going to the city, he said.

The 420 Festival focuses on education about the cannabis industry, Smith said. When it comes to marijuana businesses, he said it is important to remember they are no different than a a button factory.

Our factory out there has everything every other factory has," he said. "It has managers, supervisors, inventory control, shipping, receiving, purchasing, clerks, managers -- so its no different except were growing pot, not making a button.CASS COUNTY, MI  A man drove his truck through a detached garage Saturday evening, injuring himself and the garages owner, according to the Cass County Sheriffs Office.

The crash occurred around 6:20 p.m., Saturday, April 20, on Sunset Boulevard south of U.S. 12 in Cass Countys Porter Township, according to a news release issued by the sheriffs office.

Sheriffs deputies said the garages owner was inside the structure at the time of the crash and was taken to an Indiana hospital to seek treatment for his injuries.

Alcohol and marijuana use are believed to be factors in the crash, which remains under investigation.

Deputies were dispatched at 6:24 p.m. Saturday to the home on Sunset Boulevard to investigate a personal injury crash.

Investigators said the 55-year-old male driver from Union was traveling northbound on Sunset Boulevard when he lost control of his vehicle and left the roadway. The vehicle then barreled through a detached garage at a residence on Sunset, the release reads.

The homeowner, a 46-year-old man from Porter Township, was standing inside the structure when the crash occurred, according to the release.

The driver suffered minor injuries. The homeowner was taken to Elkhart General Hospital in Elkhart, Indiana to seek treatment for his injuries.

The release does not state if the driver was arrested following the crash.

The Porter Township Fire Department assisted deputies on scene.SAGINAW, MI  The SVRC Marketplace and the Westlund Autism Clinic are teaming up to host a first annual Community Day for autism awareness.

The event takes place from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 27 outside of the Marketplace under the Farmers Market pavilion at 203 S. Washington Ave., in Saginaw.

Event goers can participate in a sidewalk chalk competition, enjoy live music, food for purchase and other activities.

Local groups and businesses are planning to attend the event to present some of the services that are available to individuals on the spectrum within the Great Lakes Bay community and surrounding area, according to a press release from SVRC.

For question regarding the event email egallery@svrcindustries.com or call 989-751-9577.The decision of Ecuadors government to terminate Julian Assanges asylum is savagery and has heavily damaged the dignity of the county, which caved in to the US as if it was its vassal, former FM Ricardo Patino told RT.

The former official, who is a vocal supporter of the WikiLeaks co-founder, believes the arrest of Assange has greatly damaged the image of Ecuador, its constitution, as well as the international law as a whole.

This is an insult to the dignity of our country, it is lawlessness  to allow the British police to enter our embassy and pull out the person we gave asylum to. And according to our constitution and international agreements it is forbidden to extradite him, this is called the principle of non-refoulement, Patino told RT Spanish in an exclusive interview.

Aside from that, he said Assange still holds Ecuadorian citizenship (currently suspended by the government). The countrys laws explicitly prohibit handing over its citizens to be persecuted under foreign laws, Patino noted. The amount of violations is savagery from a legal point of view, and Patino says it has clearly shown the countrys president  Lenin Moreno  surrendered to the US as a vassal.

Patino then accused the incumbent president of being a puppet of the CIA, tasked with destroying the legacy of his socialist predecessors.

All that Moreno does is an attempt to completely destroy what we have built. Undoubtedly, it was planned and it was planned with the CIA involvement. He is not smart enough to come up with something like this, so it is staged by the US Embassy, Patino claimed, adding that a CIA representative frequents presidential and government meetings, telling Ecuadorian leadership what to do.

Also on rt.com Out traitor, out! Violent clashes as massive pro-Assange protest hits Ecuadors capital (VIDEO)

This strong anti-government rhetoric has already landed Patino in hot water. He was forced to flee the country as an investigation into his actions was launched earlier this week. The former official stands accused of anti-government activities and having links to a Swedish software developer Ola Bini. The latter was arrested in Ecuador last week on suspicions of hacking on WikiLeaks behalf.

Patino himself says the persecution is a direct result of his criticism of Morenos government.

I am accused of giving a speech during a meeting of our political organization, the former minister said. Ive called on our supporters to accompany the people, take to the streets, to state institutions and condemn the disastrous economic and social policy of the government of Lenin Moreno in Ecuador. Therefore, because of the dissent, because I gave a speech at a meeting, they wanted to arrest me.

Also on rt.com Sovereign decision of Ecuadorians?! Amid street clashes, Moreno denies Assange arrest was revenge

Assanges asylum was suspended last week, after Moreno accused the journalist of spying on his family. WikiLeaks denied the claims, saying that Moreno seeks personal revenge over the recently surfaced corruption allegations against him. Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had lived for seven years, and now faces potential extradition to the US, where he is accused of conspiring to crack a password with Chelsea Manning on a Department of Defense computer.

to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media wont tell you.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the bombing attacks on Christian churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, which happened during the celebration of Easter.

Erdogan offered Turkeys condolences to the families of victims and a speedy recovery to the hundreds of people who were injured by Sundays bombings.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu compared the attacks to the recent shooting in New Zealand, in which a white nationalist gunned downed 50 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch.

An increasing number of international officials have joined in condemning the bloodiest act of violence that Sri Lanka has since the end of its civil war a decade ago. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which claimed over 150 lives and resulted in the hospitalization of at least 400.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!The five-nation bloc of emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) is a force that could promote inclusive global economic growth.

Thats according to David Makhura, the premier of South Africas northern province Gauteng, who was speaking at the BRICS Business Council midterm meeting in Johannesburg.

Also on rt.com BRICS trade surges by 30% as global market influence of developing economies grows  Putin

BRICS is about the future of the global economy, he said, as quoted by the Creamer Media. Makhura said that the bloc could help to reshape the worlds economy.

We can never underestimate what we can do together There is huge opportunity if our businesses work together, the politician said, adding that trade between BRICS countries had grown steadily.

According to Makhura, the bloc is also a platform for advocating for the whole of Africa, which remains a continent of the future with its youthful population.

Also on rt.com BRICS gearing up for digital revolution

He said that there is no doubt the BRICS economies can play a key role in catalyzing Africas industrialization and development.

The BRICS group of five countries represents more than 40 percent of the worlds population. According to IMF estimates, member states are responsible for more than half of the global economic growth of the last 10 years.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business sectionChina adds 20th satellite to its GPS alternative BeiDou

China adds 20th satellite to its GPS alternative BeiDou

The constellation of BeiDous navigation system  Chinas alternative to Americas GPS  received its 20th satellite on Sunday, Xinhua reported. The satellite was launched by a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang center in southwest China and placed into inclined geosynchronous orbit. The complete system will have 27 satellites in medium earth orbit and five in geostationary orbit. Beijing plans to launch seven to nine more BeiDou satellites this year and have the system fully operational next year.Source : RT - Daily newsSeven suspects have been identified and arrested as the death toll from the horrific church and hotel attacks in Sri Lanka climbed to over 200, with no group claiming responsibility. RT sums up what we know so far of the tragedy.

Explosions rocked three luxury hotels in the nations largest city, Colombo, and three packed Catholic churches across the country on Sunday morning. This was followed by two additional explosions at different sites. The tragedy occurred as Christians were gathering for Easter Sunday Masses.

Seven people have been arrested in connection to the attacks, the government confirmed. State Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene earlier told reporters that all of the perpetrators have been identified, and will be caught no matter what religious extremism they are following.

The officials didnt specify whether the suspects belonged to a particular group, and provided no additional details.

Three police officers were killed during a raid on a house following the blasts, the officials said.

Sri Lankan police alerted top officials to the activities of Islamist extremists in Colombo 10 days before the attacks.

A curfew has been imposed from 6pm to 6am, starting from April 22.

The government blocked access to Facebook and WhatsApp, urging everyone not to spread misinformation about the tragedy.

The death toll, meanwhile, had climbed from several dozen to 207 people, and around 450 people have been injured, according to police.

Also on rt.com Blood & chaos: WATCH worshippers struggle to aid wounded after Sri Lanka church bombing

The attack claimed the lives of 35 foreigners, most of whom are believed to have been killed in hotels.

So far, no one has claimed the responsibility for the blasts.

An expert on conflict resolution, Zubair Ghauri told RT that the pattern of the attacks resembles that of certain jihadist groups, like Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and Al-Qaeda, rather than Tamil insurgency group, the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers, which waged a long bloody war against the government from 1983 to 2009.

The analyst noted that the tactics used on Sunday bear a close resemblance to the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India, in which several groups of Islamists launched a coordinated assault on hotels, cafes and a hospital.

Speaking to RT, professor at the Jindal School of International Affairs, Sreeram Chaulia, agreed it is unlikely that the Tamil insurgents would target Christian churches on the east of the country, considering that some Tamils are Christians themselves.

Chaulia suggested that local Muslims may have been inspired by Islamic State and acquired a jihadist mindset, following incitement of anti-Muslim sentiments and riots by Buddhist politicians. There is a perception that Muslims are under threat, especially in eastern Sri Lanka, where they are in significant minority, he said.

Analyst Brahma Chellaney pointed out that Indian-based Islamist group Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath may be behind the attack. It includes jihadist returnees from Syria, he said, and will underscore the rise of a potent new terrorism challenge for Sri Lanka, if evidence emerges of a connection with Sundays blasts.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!The leader of Pakistan joined international condemnation of the series of bombing attacks, which targeted Sri Lankas churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said his nation was standing in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief.

Earlier, the spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry extended condolences to Sri Lanka following the bombings, which claimed scores of lives and left hundreds injured.

Three prominent Christian churches and three luxury hotels were bombed on Sunday in a series of apparently coordinated attacks. No group immediately claimed responsibility for it. The bloodshed was condemned by Sri Lankan officials and international dignitaries.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!A series of devastating terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of more than 200 people are partially a result of the Sri Lankan security services inability to adapt to new security challenges, analysts told RT.

The island nation that once survived a bloody, decades-long civil war against a secessionist ethnic militant group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been apparently caught off guard by coordinated attacks, whose orchestrators are yet to be identified. Even though, following years of conflict, Sri Lanka had strong military and experienced intelligence, it was still apparently unable to adequately assess emerging threats, the analysts believe.

Smruti Pattanaik, a south Asia policy and security analyst told RT that the attacks essentially came as a result of an intelligence failure.

Sri Lankan armed forces has very efficient system of gathering intelligence. Though they focused more on gathering intelligence on Tamil minority based on their anticipation of revival of militancy by Tamil youths, they did not focus on other sources of terrorism, Pattanaik, who is a research fellow at the Indian Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, said.

The fact that these attacks successfully targeted five star hotels located in Sri Lankas commercial capital, which are expected to be well-guarded, shows that security of these areas could still be breached, she noted.

Also on rt.com Condolences for Sri Lanka pour in from world leaders in wake of deadly blasts

Even though, the Tamil separatists were defeated almost a decade ago, back in 2009, as a result of a government military campaign, the Sri Lankan security services were apparently still seeing them as a major security threat  partially because little has been done to resolve the political issues that provoked the decades-long conflict in the first place, Pattanaik explained.

Focused on the potential resurgence of the Tamil separatism, the Sri Lankan security services apparently lost sight of another threat pervading the nation, Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a distinguished fellow and the head of the Nuclear and Space Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, believes.

Sri Lanka has been coming under Wahhabi influence for a while now, she told RT. Although the Muslim population is one of the smallest minorities in the 22-million nation, it might have come under influence of the ultraconservative Islamic ideas that are particularly spread by Saudi Arabia, which has recently increased its presence in Sri Lanka by funding some projects, the analyst explained.

This could have led to the emergence of Islamic radicalism and terrorism, she said.

Eight people have been arrested in connection with the attacks so far, the government confirmed without revealing their identities. Meanwhile, three suicide bombers that allegedly set off explosive devices in two hotels and a church were reportedly identified as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed, Zahran Hashim and Abu Mohammed, according to the media.

No group has claimed responsibility for the Sunday attacks so far and the Sri Lankan authorities have made no statements about who might be behind them.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!The last functional civilian airport in Libya has halted operations, amid reports of airstrikes in the vicinity of the capital, as the Libyan National Army led by Marshall Khalifa Haftar continues its siege of Tripoli.

The civilian aviation authority closed the air space of the airport until further notice for the sake of air security, Mitiga airport announced on its website, following reports of air strikes in Tripoli. The airport has not been hit.

Explosions and heavy fire were heard in the Libyan capital after an aircraft reportedly circled for several minutes over the city, Reuters said, citing witnesses on the ground. Meanwhile, the Arab media reported that an aerial bombardment had targeted a unity government-controlled site in Tripoli, but that no immediate details of casualties or damage was available.

Clashes in the southern districts of Tripoli raged throughout Saturday between militant groups loyal to Libyas internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and Marshal Haftars LNA fighters, who launched their anti-terrorist operation in Tripoli on April 3. The rival forces were each reported to be using airplanes to sway the outcome of the battle, which so far has claimed over 200 lives with hundreds more wounded.

Also on rt.com 'Oil is everything': Why Western allies like US & France swing weight in favor of Libya's Haftar

Our airforce is providing fire support to troops on the ground, Ahmed al-Mesmari, spokesman for Haftars forces said  while GNA forces confirmed carrying out seven air raids against LNA positions on Saturday. Mesmari also accused GNA of siding with al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks to keep their control of Tripoli.

Also on rt.com Libyan National Army jet shot down over Tripoli as Haftar visits Egypt

Libya has been devastated by a prolonged civil war, following NATOs intervention and months of airstrikes in 2011 that helped armed rebels hunt down and assassinate long-time ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned the series of deadly explosions that rocked several Sri Lankan Catholic churches and five-star hotels on Sunday. The attacks claimed more than 150 lives.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region, Modi wrote on Twitter, adding that India stands in solidarity with the Sri Lankan people.

The blasts happened in three packed Catholic churches just as worshipers were attending Easter Sunday Masses. Three luxury hotels were also targeted in what is believed to be a series of coordinated attacks. More than 150 people were killed during the blasts, and hundreds were injured, police say.

Also on rt.com Blood & chaos: WATCH worshippers struggle to aid wounded after Sri Lanka church bombing

India and Sri Lanka enjoy strong historic and cultural ties. India is home to around 70 million Tamil people, while the island of Sri Lanka has a sizeable Tamil minority. In 1987-1990, India deployed a peacekeeping force in Sri Lanka during a long-lasting conflict between Tamil insurgents and the central government.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!Moscow and Damascus are set to sign a deal on renting the sea port of Tartus to Russia for trade purposes, deputy prime minister Yury Borisov announced after talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The key issue that should trigger a positive dynamic is the use of the port of Tartus, Borisov told reporters in Damascus. The agreement to rent the Mediterranean port to Russia was provisionally reached last year and the current visit has cemented all these arrangements.

Also on rt.com Crimea's lifeline to Syria: Damascus gets grain supplies from Russias Black Sea peninsula

Russian businesses gaining access to Tartus will not just boost trade between the two countries but will primarily enable Syria's economy to recover, Borisov emphasized. The sides will put their signatures under the deal within the next seven days, the deputy PM promised.

Russia already has a navy supply facility in Tartus, which was set up at Syrias second largest port, in accordance with the 2017 deal.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!A series of deadly bombings in Sri Lanka became one of the worst acts of violence the country has seen in over a decade. The last time such high profile attacks happened were during a protracted civil war with separatist militias.

On Easter Sunday, a series of apparently coordinated bombings happened at several Christian churches and luxury hotels in the South Asian nation. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings. With the death toll standing at over 150 and rising, and reports of more explosions coming in, Sri Lanka is experiencing one of the worst acts of organized violence in its history. And this is a strong statement, considering how much bloodshed that history has had.

Also on rt.com 3 more killed as 8th explosion hits Sri Lanka during series of deadly attacks  police

The nation of over 20 million people had relatively peaceful lives since 2009. But before that Sri Lanka was engulfed in a 25-year-long civil war, as part of its Tamil ethnic minority was attempting to secede and form a nation state in the north and east of the country. Spearheaded by the organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the fight saw a number of high-profile attacks that killed hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers and civilians.

The Tamil Tigers were ultimately defeated in a painful counterinsurgency effort that ended in May 2009. Their last bombing happened two months earlier, when a suicide bomber set off an explosion near a religious procession in Matara, a major city in southern Sri Lanka. It killed 14 people and injured 35 others.

The Habarana bombing in October 2006 was the deadliest of all attacks attributed to the LTTE in the 2000s, with the death toll surpassing 100. The extremist group targeted a convoy of buses carrying sailors going on leave. A truck loaded with explosives detonated nearby, killing between 101 and 112 people, and injuring over 150.

Their deadliest bombing attack targeting civilians rather than combatants was the 1987 explosion at a bus terminal in Colombo. A 40kg bomb planted inside a car was triggered during rush hour, killing 113 people and injuring almost 300 others.

In addition to using explosive devices in acts of terror, the Tamil Tigers also committed a number of massacres in areas bordering their zone of control. The one that happened in the village of Palliyagodella in October 1992 is believed to be the deadliest, resulting in between 160 and 285 deaths, according to different accounts.

Also on rt.com Sri Lankan officials caught off guard by Easter Sunday attacks  analyst

Another perpetrator of violence against civilians in Sri Lankas history was the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), now a recognized and peaceful political party but formerly an extremist Marxist-Leninist movement. The JVP was behind two armed uprisings against the government, in 1971 and in the late 1980s. Their armed struggle included tossing grenades at religious processions on several occasions.

The government of Sri Lanka itself has some dark pages and was credibly accused of engaging in acts of terrorism against the rebellious Tamil minority as part of counterinsurgency.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!Just 10 days before explosions at six churches and hotels in Sri Lanka claimed some 160 lives, the national police chief reportedly sent an alert about a radical Islamist group planning bomb attacks on prominent churches.

The alert was sent by Pujuth Jayasundara on April 11, AFP reported. It said that Sri Lankan authorities had received a tip from a foreign intelligence service, warning of bomb threat posed by a radical group.

A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jamaath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian High Commission in Colombo, the alert said, as quoted by the news agency.

The bombings at three Christian churches and three luxury hotels happened on Easter Sunday, just as churchgoers were converging to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apparently coordinated attacks claimed at least 160 lives and injured hundreds, according to the latest reports, with the death toll expected to rise.

Also on rt.com Around 160 killed, hundreds injured in 6 blasts at Sri Lankan hotels and churches on Easter Sunday

The NTJ is a radical Islamist group based in Sri Lanka, which came to prominence last year after vandalizing Buddhist statues.

Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist nation, with some 70 percent of its population of 22 million following the faith. Muslims are the third-largest denomination after the Hindu, with less than 10 percent of Sri Lankans subscribing to Islam. Christianity is the fourth-largest religion, adherents of which compose some 7.6 percent of the population, according to the 2012 national census.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!Comedian-turned-politician Volodimir Zelensky, set for a landslide win in Ukraines presidential vote, stayed true to character at his first press conference, dropping some flashy promises but refusing to go into boring detail.

Shortly after claiming electoral victory, Zelensky held a Q&A session with reporters at his campaign HQ in a Kiev business center. While the official results of the elections have yet to be announced, multiple exit polls suggest he secured more than 72 percent of votes.

Zelensky addressed the media in an easy-going manner. He spoke in a mix of Ukrainian and Russian, switching between the two languages, sometimes in one sentence. He also talked English a bit. But if the press hoped to shed light on the policies of the incoming president and his team, the conference actually generated more questions than answers.

Also on rt.com Comedian Zelensky celebrates win over Poroshenko in Ukraine presidential vote

Bringing the civil war in eastern Ukraine to an end appears to be one of the top priorities for Zelensky. Promising to announce some kind of a plan shortly, he asked the reporters for help in the upcoming infowar that he says would help end the conflict, which, since 2014, has been raging between Kievs troops and the rebel self-proclaimed republics.

We will launch a very powerful information war to end the war in Donbass.

He then vowed to act within the Normandy format, referring to the French-German-Russian-Ukrainian talks on war in Donbass, saying that we will continue the Minsk process, we will restart it.

Also on rt.com Im not your opponent, Im your sentence! Ukraine presidential hopefuls trade jabs in last debate

Next up, Zelensky did not rule out  even if half-jokingly  that the outvoted president Petro Poroshenko could gain a government post if the public asks so.

Do you want me to appoint him? Then I will ask the society If they tell me that they want to see Petro Poroshenko at one post or another  maybe, I don't know.

Zelensky added, though, that he would like to try new people first. But the very team of the soon-to-be president still remains a mystery, as hes refusing to provide any names, be it the new administration, the judiciary, or the countrys military.

We have very serious acting generals who have authority in the army, you will definitely see them. I have no right to give the names of these people now, as there is an agreement with the generals, Zelensky said cryptically, likewise not revealing his candidate for prosecutor general.

For now, Zelensky and his Servant of the People party  notably named after his own comedy show where he played a schoolteacher-turned-president  are promising to introduce the team in the near future.

Also on rt.com Ukraine election reality TV: Puppets and chopped-off hands in final debate warm-up

Like this story? Share it with a friend!The armed volunteer militia group, which has recently drawn much criticism and little praise for catching hundreds of suspected illegal migrants in New Mexico, has been abruptly cut from crowdfunding sites, for promoting violence.

Members of United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a small New Mexico peoples militia, gained notoriety this week after detaining around 300 migrants who crossed the US border with Mexico illegally. Video of their 'Border Ops mission' showed militia members armed with semi-automatic rifles rounding up a big crowd of people, including women and children.

Also on rt.com Citizens arrest or kidnapping? US militias told to stand down after catching 300+ migrants (VIDEOS)

While some praised the group for their commitment to seal the US border, the militias harsh tactics has come under heavy criticism and was slammed by New Mexico Governor and the American Civil Liberties Union. The growing public outrage prompted PayPal and GoFundMe to shut down the groups accounts.

We can no longer accept payments thru PAYPAL, they have permanently suspended our account, UCP announced on Facebook after the online payment service accused the vigilantes of supporting hate, violence, or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory. CPU's Twitter account also appears to have been taken offline.

Also on rt.com Vigilantes or patriots? FBI arrests head of militia rounding up illegal migrants at US border

They killed us, Mark Cheney, who described himself as commander of United Constitutional Patriots, told BuzzFeed. GoFundMe and Twitter have yet to comment on the issue.

Cheney, meanwhile, has set up another PayPal fund campaign to raise funds for those Citizen Patriot members who might need assistance with legal issues, after the groups leader Larry Mitchell Hopkins was detained by FBI agents on Saturday, on charges of possessing weapons illegally.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!A letter warning of imminent terrorist attacks and sent to security forces 10 days prior to the Easter Sunday bombing spree in Sri Lanka has been made public, raising questions as to whether law enforcement failed to act on it.

On April 11, Sri Lankas intelligence had issued a nationwide alert of possible suicide attacks being planned against Catholic Churches and potentially the Indian High Commission in Colombo by an extremist Islamist organization called the National Thowheed Jamath.

Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action, cabinet member and Minister of Telecommunication, Digital Infrastructure Facilities, Foreign Employment and Sports, Harin Fernando said, showing the warning letter on Twitter.

Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored.

At least 207 people were killed, including dozens of foreigners, and over 450 are injured in a series of coordinated suicide attacks on churches and hotels in the country. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the atrocities.

Also on rt.com Intelligence failure: Sri Lankan govt too focused on past, not ready for new threats  analysts

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!Air India Express, the international budget arm of Air India, is examining the possibility of leasing some Boeing 737 aircraft of grounded carrier Jet Airways, which are parked at different airports due to non-payment, through a firm decision is yet to be taken, a top company official said on April 21.

Before halting operations temporarily mid-last week due to severe cash-drought, the private carrier was forced to ground 69 planes owing to non-payment of rentals to lessors.

Later, on April 16, it grounded the rest of the planes in its fleet, when it decided to temporarily suspend all its domestic and international services.

Air India Express parent, Air India, is already discussing a proposal to lease five of Jet Airways wide-body planes, Boeing 777s.

"We are looking at leasing (B737 of Jet Airways) aircraft but there is no firm decision on this issue so far. As a matter-of-fact, there are a lot of other things that have to be looked at, like slots, sectors and timings, among others," Air India Express chief executive officer Shyam K Sunder told PTI over phone from Kochi, the airline's headquarter.

When asked about the number of planes that his airline could induct from Jet Airways, he said, "We don't have a target number."

Air India Express, has its operations largely out of Kerala to the Gulf and South-east Asia. Besides, it also operates some flights to these regions from North and Western India as well as on some domestic routes.

It has a fleet of 25 Boeing 737 planes, of which 17 are owned and rest 18 are on lease. The now out-of operations, Jet Airways also has B737s in the fleet.

Shyam Sunder also said the airline plans to recruit 50 commanders from Jet Airways, of which 20 have already been hired.

"We have already recruited a lot of pilots. We have about 20 of them already, all from Jet Airways as at present only Jet pilots are available in the market. Our intention is hire up to 50 pilots. So we will be inducting another 25-30 pilots going forward," he said.

The AIE official, however, ruled out hiring of first officers at this stage, adding that the airline may look at it if there was any requirement for them in the future.Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) has for the fifth consecutive quarter listed its majority shareholder ONGC as a public shareholder and not its promoter, but it will face a real test when the vacant posts of directors on the company board are filled.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) in January last year bought the government's entire 51.11 percent stake in HPCL for Rs 36,915 crore. HPCL thereafter became its subsidiary but HPCL management has continuously refused to recognise ONGC as its promoter.

In a regulatory filing on shareholding pattern at the end of March quarter, HPCL on April 18 listed "President of India" as its promoter with "zero" percent shareholding. ONGC was listed as "public shareholder", owning "77.88 crores" shares or "51.11 percent" shareholding of the company.

Sources said HPCL may be taking shield of technicalities to not list ONGC as its promoter but it will face a real test when interviews to fill the post of Director (Finance) are conducted.

The chairman of ONGC, as a result of the company being the holding company of HPCL, should by rules be on the interview panel to select the directors and that would in a way end all the wrangling over promoter issue, they said.

HPCL Director (Finance) J Ramaswamy retired on February 28 but interviews for the post haven't been done yet by the government headhunter Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB).

For selecting a director of a company where the government or its controlled company has more than 50 percent stake, a PESB panel holders interview from among shortlisted candidates. The panel is assisted by the Secretary of the administrative ministry and the chairman of the company concerned.

The Department of Personnel guidelines state "in the case of subsidiaries, the full-time Chairman of the holding Company is invited to assist the Board."

Sources said going by these guidelines, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Shashi Shanker should sit on the interview panel to select HPCL Director (Finance).

They said Coal India Ltd governance structure, which the HPCL management has so often cited, clearly provides for the holding company chairman to sit on the panel for selecting directors of subsidiary companies.

Coal India Ltd is a holding company and has seven subsidiaries. The board of each of the subsidiaries is headed by a Chairman and Coal India too has a Chairman and Managing Director to head the board. But on PESB panel to select director or even chairman of subsidiary companies, Coal India Chairman and Managing Director is invited.

Sources said the government had earlier this year asked HPCL to add ONGC as its co-promoter but the oil refining company sought to delay it by seeking further clarifications.

While the promoter tag does not bring any specific privileges to ONGC, a lack of it keeps it out of insider trading regulations as it get full agenda of every board meeting of HPCL and can be aware of price sensitive information.

ONGC, which had to borrow Rs 24,876 crore for the acquisition that helped the government meet its disinvestment target for the 2017-18 fiscal, first raised the issue of being formally recognised as a promoter of HPCL in August last year.

When the issue first arose in August 2018, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had clearly stated that ONGC is the new promoter of HPCL.

ONGC, he had said, had invested in acquiring a majority stake in the company and so it is the promoter. "ONGC is the promoter of HPCL," he had said.

After ONGC bought out government stake, HPCL became its subsidiary. Since ONGC takeover in January 2018, HPCL has made five stock exchange filings about the shareholding pattern of the company -- the first on April 20, 2018, then on July 12, 2018, then on October 19, 2018, then on January 21, 2019 and finally on April 18, 2019. In all four, ONGC is shown as the public shareholder and President of India listed as the promoter.

According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India's rules, the entity that owns the controlling stake should be listed as promoter even if it was not the original promoter of the company.

When Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had bought the government's stake in fuel retailer IBP Co Ltd, it was listed as the latter's promoter in every instance after the deal. The same was the case when IOC acquired a majority stake in Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd (CPCL).

HPCL Chairman and Managing Director M K Surana has retained the title of Chairman and Managing Director despite corporate governance structure require a group having just one chairman and subsidiaries being run by managing directors and CEOs.

ONGC's overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd, is headed by a Managing Director and CEO. Its refinery subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), which is listed on BSE, too is led by a Managing Director and CEO. ONGC Chairman is the head of boards of both the companies.

Since acquiring a majority stake in HPCL, ONGC has only been able to appoint one director to that firm's board.Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on April 20 claimed the Congress' 'Nyay' minimum income guarantee scheme will not result in any new taxes and help restart the "economic engine" which has come to a "stop".

The senior Congress leader's remark comes as the BJP has claimed that the scheme will "ruin" fiscal discipline and the Congress will impose new taxes on middle class to finance it.

The Congress has promised to give an annual income support of Rs 72,000 to poor families under the scheme, if voted to power.

The former prime minister, also a noted economist, said his party is committed to fiscal discipline.

"Nyay scheme will cost between 1.2-1.5 percent of GDP at its peak. Our nearly USD 3 trillion economy has the fiscal capacity to absorb this expenditure. There will be no need for any new taxes on the middle class to finance Nyay. The economic stimulus it will provide will further help in fiscal discipline," he said.

The scheme has been conceptualised after much thought and consultations with experts, he added.

Singh said as the Congress government in 1991 brought in a new paradigm for India's development with the de-licensing regime and a rights based approach to governance in 2004-14, he was confident that a Congress-led dispensation in 2019 will implement 'Nyay' scheme successfully and usher in a new model for social justice and prudent economics.

"It is my sincere belief that Nyay has the potential to catapult India into the club of 'poverty free' nations in the world and I hope to be able to live to see our nation achieve this historic milestone," he said.

In remarks aimed at the Narendra Modi government, he said 'Nyay' will help restart "our economic engine that has come to a stop today".

"At a time when private investment and industrial production are low, Nyay can help bring our economy back to life and create new factories and jobs," Singh said.

The senior Congress leader said nearly 70 per cent of Indians were poor when India attained Independence from the British and the figure has come down to 20 per cent with sound policies adopted by successive governments over the last seven decades.

It is time now to renew our pledge to wipe out the last remains of poverty, he added.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 21 said he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it had not returned Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

Addressing a poll rally at Patan in his home state Gujarat, he also took a jibe at NCP leader Sharad Pawar, saying if he is unaware of his next move, then how Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan can gauge what he will do.

Following the air strike at Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, there was a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter planes on February 27 in which IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by the neighbouring country.

Before his jet was hit, the IAF pilot downed an F-16 fighter of Pakistan. He was released on the night of March 1 by Pakistan.

Referring to it, Modi said after the pilot was caught, the opposition started seeking a reply from him over this.

"We conducted a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world that Modi did this to you," he said.

"A senior American official said on the second day that Modi has kept ready 12 missiles and might attack and the situation will deteriorate. Pakistan announced to return the pilot on the second day, else it was going to be a "qatal ki raat'," Modi said.

"This was said by America, I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak about it when the time will come," he added.

Asserting his government's commitment towards national security, Modi said whether the prime minister's chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or terrorists will remain alive.

He also took a swipe at Pawar, who on April 20 said he was "terribly afraid" as to what Modi, who once called Pawar his mentor in politics, would do next.

"Sharad Pawar says I don't know what will Modi do. If he is unaware of what Modi will do tomorrow, how will Imran Khan know? Modi said.

The prime minister also appealed to people of Gujarat to make the BJP victorious on all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state, where polling will be held on April 24

"It is the duty of people of my home state to take care of the 'son of the soil', give all 26 seats in Gujarat to me," he said.

"My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 will be why it happened?" he said.Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a road show on April 21 as part of the NDA campaign in the state and asked the people to vote for its ally Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, to send a message that they don't require someone 'airdropped from Delhi."

Her visit comes a day after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi campaigned at Wayanad for her brother and AICC chief Rahul Gandhi.

"We faced floods. The stategovernment failed to open the dams on time, If they did, the devastation could have been avoided. Please vote for BDJS candidate Tushar Vellappally so that it will send a message that the people of Wayanad do not need someone air dropped here," Sitharaman said.

The constituency has shot into the limelight after Congress declared the candidature of Rahul Gandhi in the hilly district. Rahul had visited the constituency twice with his sister Priyanka.

The ruling CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front in Kerala has fielded CPI candidate P P Suneer to take on Rahul Gandhi.File image

NCP chief Sharad Pawar is engaged in a "Beti Bachav" (save the girl child) mission for his daughter Supriya Sule, the party's Baramati MP and candidate, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on April 20.

Fadnavis was addressing a public rally in Khadakwasla area of the constituency in support of BJP candidate Kanchan Kul.

Lauding Kul for putting up a strong challenge before Sule, the chief minister took a dig at Pawar, saying he "took one thing from Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

"Modi gave the slogan 'Beti Bachav...and Pawar is doing the same thing in Baramati (trying to save his daughter from defeat)," he said.

Sule too aped one of Modi's slogans, Fadnavis further said.

"Modi warned Pakistan that we will thrash you by entering your home. Sule, while threatening a BJP worker, said the same thing," he quipped.

Fadnavis was apparently referring to an allegation made by BJP worker Rahul Shewale, which Sule has denied.

Taking a swipe at Pawar for dropping his plan to contest the Lok Sabha election from Madha, Fadnavis said at the start of the election season, the NCP "captain" declared that "he would open the innings, would hit fours and sixes and would hit a century", but later "he received such a googly that he withdrew and became a non-playing captain."

Referring to MNS chief Raj Thackeray's rallies where Thackeray is tearing into prime minister Modi and appealing people not to vote for the BJP, Fadnavis said that the NCP is now "importing a speaker" from another party.

"They have taken an engine on rent, but that engine is of no use. It did not work in state elections, it did not work in municipal election and now Pawar is heading ahead with such engine," Fadnavis said, alluding to MNS' symbol which is railway engine.The Election Commission (EC) special observer, Ajay V Nayak on April 20 said the situation in West Bengal is similar to what it was in Bihar around 10 to 15 years ago and had lead to the voters' demand for deployment of central forces in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The ruling Trinamool Congress demanded his immediate removal, claiming that Nayak has allegiance to the RSS and the BJP and is acting as per their orders.

The people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and therefore their demand for deployment of central forces at all polling booths has increased, Nayak, who is the former Bihar chief electoral officer, said.

The situation in Bihar has improved and less number of central forces are required there now, he told newsmen at the office of the West Bengal chief electoral officer here.

Nayak, a 1984-batch IAS officer, was recently given the responsibility to oversee the last five phases of polls in West Bengal.

"This situation in West Bengal is similar to what it was in Bihar around 10 to 15 years ago. During that time in Bihar total deployment of central forces at the booths was required. Now it is required in West Bengal as the people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and are seeking deployment of central forces at all the booths," he told reporters.

"I cannot understand that if people in Bihar were able to bring in a change in the atmosphere and situation there, then why this is not happening in West Bengal," Nayak said in the presence of state Chief Electoral Officer Ariz Aftab.

He said that in the third phase of polling on April 23, 324 companies of central forces would be deployed to cover more than 92 percent of the polling booths in five Lok Sabha constituencies.

Balurghat, Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur and Murshidabad parliamentary constituencies will go to the polls on April 23.

Nayak, however, sounded hopeful that the state may require less central force by next Parliamentary elections.

"In terms of election management, things are improving in West Bengal. So I am sure by the time of next Parliamentary elections it will not require this kind of central force deployment. I am sure about that," Nayak said.

In the first phase on April 11, central forces were deployed in 51 per cent of the booths in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar seats and 194 companies covered 80 per cent of the booths in Raiganj, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri in the second phase on April 18.

In the first phase there were reports of booth capturing, smashing of EVMs and intimidation. Similar incidents were reported in the second phase from Chopra in Darjeeling constituency and also from Islampur in Raiganj constituency. There were also reports of damage to the vehicle of sitting CPI-M MP Mohammed Salim at Raiganj.

Nayak said no negligence was found after scrutiny of the pollings in the first phase and there will be no repoll in the constituencies where voting was held on the day.

The special observer, however, did not dismiss chances of repolling in some booths where polling was held in the second phase.

TMC secretary general Subrata Bakshi wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora demanding immediate removal of Nayak to ensure free and fair polls in the state.

"The Election Commission after two phases of polling had said, barring a few incidents the polling was peaceful. Nayak's comments are highly misplaced. He is acting in a partisan manner with pre-conceived notions to destabilise elections in the state and create a fear psychosis among voters," Bakshi said in the letter.

Nayak has political and organisational allegiance to the RSS and is connected to BJP leaders. His statements clearly indicate that he has acted as per instructions of his political bosses, he said.

"It is therefore requested to immediately recall him or cancel his appointment as special observer in the state of West Bengal to ensure free and fair elections," Bakshi said.

The EC has appointed Vivek Dubey as the special police observer for the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.

Meanwhile, the EC has transfered Malda district Superintendent of Police Arnab Ghosh and has brought in commanding officer of the second battalion of state armed police Ajoy Prasad in his place.

Sources said Ghosh, who was reportedly close to the Trinamool Congress administration, was under the EC scanner.

The state BJP had urged the EC to remove Ghosh a few days ago.A Keralite was among those killed in the deadly bomb blasts that hit Sri Lanka's high-end hotels and churches during Easter services on April 21.

Condemning the blasts, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it was time to end communal intolerance in the world. He also said steps were taken to bring back the body of the deceased, P S Rasina (58), a resident of Kasargod, as soon as possible.

"The NORKA authorities are in touch with the High Commissioner's office and the relatives," Vijayan said in a release.

"We need to keep in mind that the attack happened on the Easter day shows the communal intolerance. It's time to save the countries from the clutches of such communal intolerance. We stand by the families of those who lost their dear ones," he said.

According to reports, Rasina was staying at Colombo's Shangri-La hotel and was killed in the blast there.

Over 200 people were killed and around 500 others injured in a series of blasts at several locations in the island nation. Suicide bombers were involved in at least two of the eight attacks that struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners on Easter Sunday.Former top Army commander Lt General DS Hooda, who had supervised India's military operations across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir against multiple terror launch pads there in September 2016, Sunday said a single surgical or air strike is not enough to make Pakistan change its behaviour.

Hooda headed the Army's Northern Command when special forces commandos carried out the cross-border operations in September 2016 inside PoK, following Uri terror strike in which 19 Indian soldiers had been killed.

Presenting salient features of his report "India's National Security Strategy" at a panel discussion "Beyond politics: Debating a new security manifesto" the former Army general said "one surgical strike or air strike is not going to change Pakistan's behaviour."

The panel discussion had been organsied by think-tank Observer Research Foundation.

The report which was recently presented to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, outlines ways to maintain India's relations with its neighbouring countries as well as the US and China.

The report discusses India's national security strategy aimed at achieving five objectives - "India's rightful place in global affairs, ensuring a secure neighbourhood, peaceful resolution of internal conflict, protecting people and strengthening capabilities".

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said India must also change its attitude towards Pakistan to bring about a change in its neighbour's behaviour.At least 156 people were killed and more than 400 others injured after eight blasts hit churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

As many as six near-simultaneous blasts rocked the country in the morning. This was followed by two blasts in Dehiwela and Dematagoda near Colombo later in the day.

Out of those killed, 35 were foreigners, news agency AFP reported quoting police. The police also said that the eighth blast was a suicide bomb.

The first six blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress in churches, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Three churches -- St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa -- were targeted, police said.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels, the Shangrila, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. The hotels are frequented by tourists.

In just one church, St. Sebastian's in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, more than 50 people had been killed, a police official told Reuters, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews and a destroyed roof.

Media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on a church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.



I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.

 Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured."

Indias Ministry of External Affairs in a press release said: We strongly condemn the serial blasts on multiple locations in Sri Lanka today morning in which many people have been killed and injured.

We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Sri Lanka. We wish speedy recovery to those injured in the attacks, it said.

We call for perpetrators of such ghastly and heinous act and those who provide them support to be brought to justice expeditiously. We stand together with the people and Government of Sri Lanka in this hour of grief, it added.

(With inputs from agencies. This is a developing story. More details awaited.)Representative image: Image: Reuters

Several air strikes and explosions shook the Libyan capital Tripoli overnight, residents said, in an escalation of a two-week offensive by eastern forces on the city held by the internationally recognised government.

A Reuters reporter and several residents said they saw an aircraft circling for more than 10 minutes over the capital late on April 20, and that it made a humming sound before opening fire on several areas.

An aircraft was heard again after midnight, circling for more than ten minutes before a heavy explosion shook the ground.

It was not clear whether an aircraft or unmanned drone was behind the strike, which triggered heavy anti aircraft fire. Residents had reported drone strikes in recent days, but there has been no confirmation and explosions heard in the city centre this time were louder than in previous days.

Residents counted several missile strikes, one of which apparently hit a military camp of forces loyal to Tripoli in the Sabaa district in the south of the capital, scene of the heaviest fighting between the rival forces.

Authorities closed Tripoli's only functioning airport, cutting air links to a city of an estimated 2.5 million residents. The airport in Misrata, a city 200 km to the east, remained open.

The Libyan National Army (LNA) force loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar started an offensive two weeks ago but has been unable to breach the government's southern defences.

If a drone strike was confirmed this would point to more sophisticated warfare. The LNA has so far mainly used ageing Soviet-made jets from the air force of Muammar Gaddafi, toppled in 2011, lacking precision firepower and helicopters, according to residents and military sources.

In the past the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have supported Haftar with air strikes during campaigns to take eastern Libya. Both countries flew air strikes on Tripoli in 2014 during a different conflict to help a Haftar-allied force, US officials said at the time.

Since 2014 the UAE and Egypt have provided the LNA with military equipment such as aircraft and helicopters, helping Haftar gain the upper hand in Libya's eight-year conflict, UN reports have established.

The UAE even built an air base in Al Khadim in eastern Libya, one such report said in 2017.

The air strikes, which were also filmed by residents in video posted online, came after a day of heavy clashes in southern districts, with shelling audible in the city centre.

TRUMP PHONE CALL

The violence spiked after the White House said on April 19 that US President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Haftar earlier in the week.

The disclosure of the call and a US statement that it "recognized Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources" has boosted the commander's supporters and enraged his opponents.

Western powers and the Gulf have been divided over a push by Haftar's forces to seize Tripoli, undermining calls by the United Nations for a ceasefire.

Both sides claimed progress in southern Tripoli on Saturday, but no more details were immediately available.

A Reuters TV cameraman visiting the southern Khalat Furgan suburb heard heavy shelling but saw no apparent change in the frontline.

On Friday, two children were killed in shelling in southern Tripoli, residents said. The fighting has killed 227 people and wounded 1,128, the World Heath organization (WHO) said before the air strikes.

On April 18, both the United States and Russia said they could not support a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time.

Russia objects to the British-drafted resolution blaming Haftar for the latest flare-up in violence when his LNA advanced to the outskirts of Tripoli earlier this month, diplomats said.

The United States did not give a reason for its decision not to support the draft resolution, which would also call on countries with influence over the warring parties to ensure compliance and for unconditional humanitarian aid access in Libya.Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Image: Reuters).

Members of the Libyan internationally recognised government forces gather around an armoured personnel carrier at Khallat Farjan area in Tripoli, Libya. (Image: Reuters)

BJP supporters attend an election campaign rally being addressed by PM Narendra Modi in Patan, Gujarat. (Image: Reuters)

Pope Francis holds the Bible as he leads the Easter Mass at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. (Image: Reuters)

Russia navy's guided missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov arrives at Qingdao Port for the 70th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), in Qingdao, China. (Image: Reuters)

Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena hold ballots as they visit a polling station during the second round of a presidential election in Kiev, Ukraine. (Image: Reuters)

Members of Transparency International Bangladesh organise a human chain to demand justice for an 18-year-old woman who was killed after she was set on fire for refusing to drop a sexual harassment case against her Islamic school teacher in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Image: Reuters)At least 156 people were killed and more than 400 others injured after multiple blasts rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday on April 21.

Catch LIVE updates of the situation in Sri Lanka, here

Here's what we know so far:

> Eight blasts rocked churches and hotels across Sri Lanka.

> The first six blasts took place at around 8.45 am (local time).

> Two other explosions happened later in the day.

> At least 156 people were killed and at least 400 injured in the blasts, according to news agency AFP. At least 35 out of those killed are foreigners, the news agency has reported quoting police.

> Three churches -- St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa -- were targeted, police said.

> Three explosions were reported from at five-star hotels, the Shangrila, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. The hotels are frequented by India tourists, among others.

> The blasts at churches happened during the Easter Sunday mass.

> The government imposed a curfew with immediate effect and suspended social media and messaging services.

> Police said that the eighth blast was a suicide bomb.

> Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in a tweet, stated that he "strongly condemned" the attack.

"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation," the Prime Minister said.

> Wickremesinghe also called for a National Security Council meeting. The meeting is scheduled later in the day.

> Sri Lanka's defence minister imposed a night curfew after the blasts.

> India's reaction: Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.

India's Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, stated that India is monitoring the situation closely. "Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation," Swaraj tweeted.

> The Indian High Commission in Colombo also stated that it is "closely monitoring the situation". "Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers: +94 777903082 +94 112422788 +94 112422789," it has tweeted.As Colombo was rocked by a multiple explosions, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on April 21 that India was keeping a close watch on the situation.



Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL

 Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

"Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL," Swaraj tweeted.

Six blasts hit three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on April 21, injuring nearly 300 people, Sri Lankan officials in Colombo said.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress in churches.April 21, 2019

Happy Easter

Easter echoes the older human festivities that celebrate the arrival of spring. The dark and cold days of winter are gone. The bright time of fertility has come.

Today's fertility symbols of Easter, the egg and the hare, relate to the old Germanic fertility goddess Eostre (Ostara).

The Christian resurrection of Jesus is probably a transformation of the story of Ishtar, a Mesopotamian goddess of love who stepped down into the underworld of death but was revived.

When the Christian belief spread from its eastern Mediterranean origin, the incorporation of old local gods and fables helped to convert the old multi-theistic societies to the new believe. The gods of the pre-Christian religions were not completely discarded, but their tales transformed to support the message the Christian preachers were spreading.



Faberge egg with spring flowers and music box - bigger - detail

A personal Easter ritual, inherited from my father, is to read out loud the Easter Walk from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's, Faust, Part I:

Look from this height whereon we find us

Back to the town we have left behind us, Where from the dark and narrow door

Forth a motley multitude pour. They sun themselves gladly and all are gay,

They celebrate Christ's resurrection to-day. For have not they themselves arisen?

From smoky huts and hovels and stables,

From labor's bonds and traffic's prison,

From the confinement of roofs and gables,

From many a cramping street and alley,

From churches full of the old world's night,

All have come out to the day's broad light.

...

How it hums o'er the fields and clangs from the steeple!

This is the real heaven of the people,

Both great and little are merry and gay,

I am a man, too, I can be, to-day.

Happy Easter!

Posted by b on April 21, 2019 at 12:14 UTC | Permalink

CommentsOne of dogs and cats best friends will soon close out a long career to spend more time caring for his menagerie at home near Pisgah.

John Ebrey, who has been a veterinarian since 1972, is selling his veterinary practice at 113 E. College Ave. to veterinarian Hannah Burnett of Jacksonville, a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. Ebreys last day will be April 27 and Burnett will assume control of Ebreys clinic April 29.

Im getting older and there are some things I want to do before I kick the bucket, Ebrey said. I raise swans, bees, and Im big into evergreens, wildflowers and prairie restoration. I want to spend more time out in nature.

Ebrey, who graduated from Franklin High School in 1966, earned a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the University of Illinois in 1972.

No one thought I could be a veterinarian because I didnt know anything about livestock, Ebrey said. What you really needed to know was chemistry, biology and physics. And for some of the Chicago boys, the only time they saw a sheep was on the train to Champaign.

After veterinary school, Ebrey went to northern California, where he worked at two different veterinary clinics for about two years before going to a St. Louis veterinary practice for a short time.

In 1975, Ebrey decided to return to home territory.

I wanted my space and a place where I could practice veterinary medicine and enjoy nature, he said. I put up my shingle on East College during Thanksgiving week 1975. I had to start from scratch. I didnt have any clients. But if somebody wanted me to see a dog or a cat, I was there day or night. Even though I was from Franklin, Jacksonville-area people took me in. Jacksonville-area people were and are great to me. They helped me build my practice.

Also helping to make his veterinary clinic successful were his wife, Theresa, who has kept the clinics books, as well as Randi Adams, who has run the office for the past 15 years, and Richard Brege, who became more than just an employee, Ebrey said. Hes a great friend. He added that there are many others who have contributed to his success in the past 42 years in Jacksonville, including his present staff.

Ebrey said it is those personal connections with people and their pets that made his job rewarding and memorable.

He recalled an elderly Jacksonville woman and her constant companion, a Boston terrier who came to his clinic more than 30 years ago.

I went to her home and saw a display of porcelain Boston terriers but no family pictures, Ebrey recalled. That dog was her family. One day, I felt a lump in her dogs jaw and I knew it was inoperable, but I just couldnt tell her. But then she knew.

With cancer slowly taking the dogs life, the woman had Ebrey euthanize her pet.

I didnt see the woman for a couple of weeks, so I went down to her house and she showed me the gravesite of her beloved friend, Ebrey said. It showed me the importance of pets in the lives of their owners. Pets give you unconditional love, and you cant get that from people.

Of his 10 best friends, Ebrey said his late golden retriever, Queenie, was one of them.

Shell always be in my top 10, he said.

Greg Olson can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1224, or on Twitter @JCNews_Greg.Photo provided

Lincoln Land Wind has awarded a $3,000 grant to the Illinois State 4-H Livestock Team to recognize its achievement at the 2018 National Champion 4-H Livestock Judging Competition.

We have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete internationally at the Royal Highland Show and the Charleville Shows in Scotland. This grant  will go a long way to funding travel expenses, said Jenna Wheeler of Jacksonville, a member of the winning team.Morgan County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Erika M. Stewart, 27, of 101 Walnut Court was booked into the Morgan County jail at 11:59 a.m. Saturday on a battery charge.

Jacksonville Police

OTHER REPORTS

 Inappropriate images were drawn on the safety flooring of the playground equipment at Community Park, according to a report filed at 7:17 a.m. Saturday.

South Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Steven D. Tucker, 28, of Louisiana, Missouri was booked into the Morgan County jail at 1:41 a.m. Saturday on a charge of illegal possession/ transportation of liquor by a passenger and a warrant charging him with failing to appear in court on a contempt of court charge.

 James W. Parrish, 33, of 211 East St., Franklin, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 2:38 a.m. Saturday on a criminal trespass to vehicle charge.

Compiled by Samantha McDaniel-OgletreeFuturistic technology could give Illinoisans their own personal robots that follow wherever they go, and carry supplies like groceries.

In anticipation of a summer rollout of this technology, the Illinois Legislature is moving a bill to regulate it.

But many aspects remain unclear, including how strong demand will be and what the technology will look like in its final form.

Chicago Democratic Rep. Jaime Andrade is sponsoring House Bill 245, which seeks to regulate the use of mobile carrying devices. It is headed to the Senate after being passed unanimously by the House last week.

When the states vehicle code was written, people didnt think of this being a vehicle, Andrade said of the personal robots. Its not a vehicle, but we still need a description and definition for it.

His bill is primarily in response to a particular product, the personal robot gita, in development at Massachusetts-based Piaggio Fast Forward, an affiliate of the Italian company that makes Vespa scooters.

Gita is a 50-pound spherical robot Piaggio is designing to carry things to make it easier for a pedestrian to walk, ride a bike, or get around by other means.

It tracks and follows the movements of a belt worn by an owner, and uses cameras to survey the surrounding environment, according to the companys website.

Neither Andrade nor the only organization to initially oppose the bill knows when the technology might show up on sidewalks, as it is still a prototype.

Aaron Winters, an Illinois lobbyist who represents Piaggio, said its expected to be available by this summer, which is why it is important for the legislation to pass.

But the products potential raises concerns about pedestrian safety and home rule powers, among other things.

Kyle Whitehead is the spokesman for the Chicago-based Active Transportation Alliance, a nonprofit group that advocates for better biking, walking and public transit in the Chicago area.

He said ATA was originally opposed to Andrades legislation because of pedestrian comfort and safety.

We were concerned with the potential that these devices would result in safety issues, especially for older adults and people with disabilities, or people who are generally not as mobile and able to get out of the way as easily, Whitehead said.

One concern resulted in an amendment changing from 25 feet to 10 feet the maximum distance between a personal robot and its owner.

Another amendment prohibited people from using the device to transport another person.

Youd think you wouldnt have to legislate this, Andrade said. But someone might put their baby in there and god forbid they forget them, you know.

Whitehead said the third of the large concerns  also eased by the amendment  was making sure home-rule municipalities can regulate the devices when they start showing up on city sidewalks.

Theres so much uncertainty around this device  what the speed would be, what the weight would be, how quickly it would be adopted and how prevalent it would be, Whitehead said. We want to make sure municipalities have the ability to go back and regulate these devices.

Winters, the lobbyist for the creator of gita, said the company was happy to see the legislation pass the House last week.

Mobile carriers such as the gita are positioned to help Illinoisans walk more, get out of their cars and live a more active lifestyle, he said.

Piaggio employees could not be reached for this story to provide a specific launch date or updates to the product prototype.

While Andrades legislation received few witness slips in support or opposition to the measure, one stood out.

Matthew Slade, a village of Durand trustee who frequently files witness slips supporting legislation hes passionate about or thinks will help small towns, said he likes the technology.

I think it is really cool and sci-fi like, Slade said by email.Do as I say not as I do.

I thought about that when reading about Democratic presidential candidates who apparently arent giving their money to charity.

We hear from the political left that we have a duty to help those who are less fortunate. No one would argue with that message. But some people would ridicule those who are talking the talk but not really walking the walk.

It doesnt come as a surprise that these candidates arent big givers. And it doesnt surprise me that Democrats, in general, tend to donate less of their money.

Red counties, which are overwhelmingly Republican, tend to report higher charitable contributions than Democratic-dominated blue counties, according to a New York Times article in 2018.

Here in Midland, it is hard to deny the communitys political leanings and the charitable spirit that exists. I feel comfortable saying that those two things are connected, just as I feel comfortable saying there are Democrats who are generous with their time and money and that there are Republicans who arent. (Full disclosure: I know that I could do better when it comes to charitable donations.)

Getting back to the point, I believe Democrats open up themselves to criticism when they talk about governments role in helping those they deem less fortunate but arent willing to make the sacrifices they are asking of others. If a candidate wants to call on the rest of us to pay more in taxes, it makes sense that he or she should demonstrate they lead by example, including by volunteering to pay more than what the government states that they owe in taxes. Any takers out there? I havent seen any so far.

Do as I say, not as I could do. During this holy week, we should all think about those words and then add a few others: Love your neighbor as yourself. I tend to think most Midlanders give to nonprofit organizations and churches not because they anticipate a future run for political office, but because that is who they are. Their philanthropy is likely related to their faith, including the ultimate sacrifice that Christians are celebrating this weekend.

There wont be passages written about the sacrifice you and I make with our resources, but that doesnt mean it cant have an impact here or elsewhere. One can sit in any number of churches in Midland and hear of opportunities to participate in mission work inside and outside our community. You can volunteer time and resources with any of the nonprofits that exist in Midland  and per capita there might not be a community in America with more. You can make a donation in many ways to demonstrate some level of sacrifice.

I hope the next time a story is published about a politician  no matter his or her party  the reaction isnt to ridicule but to take part in introspection. I know I will. I will think about what I have to offer and whether I can do more. I will go back to hearing the pastor say that giving to those in need or those participating in real community-building will make that person feel better about themselves. Because he is right -- it will.A San Antonio man killed an intruder who attacked him in his garage at a North Side apartment complex early Sunday, police said.

The apartment resident had driven into his garage in the 12200 block of Vance Jackson at about 3:20 a.m. when the assailant entered as the garage door was closing and pistol-whipped him, police said. He grabbed his own gun, which was near him, and shot the intruder, who was dead when officers arrived, police said.

Police did not identify the intruder or the resident, who they said had a gash over one eye. The shooting occurred at The Jax, a large gated community that includes apartments and town homes, some of which have garages.

FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox

Its likely the man wont be facing any charges, an officer at the scene said.

On Sunday afternoon, a man with a bandage on his face, who neighbors identified as the resident, declined an interview request as he stood outside the garage where neighbors said the incident occurred.

A neighbor, who asked not to be named, said he woke up when he heard someone yell, Stand down, followed by a gunshot. He then heard a man on the phone, talking to police, he said.

The complex was quiet in the afternoon, with a group throwing a football in the parking lot near the apartment, and other residents walking dogs and relaxing by the pool in the center of the community.

Dorothy Gonzales said she has lived at The Jax for about four years and has complained to management in the past about lax security.

While a code is required to open the gate to drive into the parking lot, sometimes the gate stays stuck, she said, leaving it open for anyone to enter. Gonzales said thieves broke into her car twice last year, about two months apart.

There are a lot of break-ins, but nothing that bad as what happened overnight, Gonzales said. She plans to contact managers again to raise concerns, she said.

The leasing office at the apartment was closed Sunday, according to a sign on the door.

Claudia.Torres@mysa.comEarly voting begins Monday in San Antonio for the citys mayoral race, 10 City Council seats and numerous school district seats.

In the 2017 municipal elections, just 11.32 percent of registered voters cast ballots. Political observers expect there to be a similarly low turnout this year.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg is seeking re-election and facing a challenge from Councilman Greg Brockhouse, along with seven lesser-known candidates.

Incumbent council members are also vying for new terms in 7 of the 10 districts. The complete list of candidates is available on the citys website.

Early voting continues through Tuesday, April 30, though polls will be closed for San Jacinto Day on Friday and on Sunday, April 28.

The polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and then 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday as well as Monday, April 29, and Tuesday, April 30.

Voters will have 40 sites to choose from during the voting period. Unlike election day, they dont have to go to their specific precinct. A full list of sites is available at bexar.org/elections.

Heres everything you need to know:

How do I register to vote?

The deadline to register to vote has already passed, but you can check if youre registered on the countys website.

Where can I vote?

Of the 40 sites, most of them are public libraries. Heres a map.

What do I need to bring?

Your photo ID, and election officials recommend bringing your voter registration card as well to expedite the process.

Acceptable IDs include a passport, a Texas drivers license and a Texas Department of Public Safety-issued personal identification card, among others. These IDs are acceptable even if theyre expired, so long as theyre not more than four years out of date. For voters who are 70 or older, the four-year limit doesnt apply. To see a full description of the ID requirements, click here or go to bexar.org/elections

If a voter doesnt have one of the approved photo IDs and cant reasonably obtain one, there are several other ways to establish identification, including a current utility bill with the correct address, a bank statement or government check, among other documents. But these voters must sign a reasonable impediment declaration. Visit sos.state.tx.us for complete details.

Whos on the ballot?

The most highly-watched contest is the mayoral duel between Nirenberg and Brockhouse, who have clashed constantly at City Hall over the last two years.

Here was the Express-News first look at that race from the filing deadline.

If theres one thing the men agree on, its that they present a clear vision for voters.

Nirenberg has made the case for his vision to bring San Antonio into the future, touting a humming economy and lower crime while pitching the master plan hes led for mass transit, among other issues.

But he has faced criticism for unforced errors and blind spots that some feel have impeded his progress over the last two years, including the citys controversial vote to bar Chick-fil-A from the airport. Detractors like Brockhouse have sought to portray him as out of touch with the issues that matter to San Antonians.

Brockhouse has pledged a back-to-the-basics municipal government focused on relieving property taxes, boosting public safety and bridging what he calls the growing gap between neighborhoods and City Hall.

The mayor has criticized Brockhouse for his ties to public safety unions, and others have questioned if he can make the switch from a contrarian councilman to a governing leader.

The councilman has also faced questions about past accusations of domestic abuse, first reported by the Express-News. He was never charged in the two incidents and has denied any wrongdoing.

Heres everything the Expres-News has published so far about the mayors race:

Nirenberg wins two rounds at San Antonio council meeting, but not without political cost

Past domestic violence allegations emerge against Brockhouse

Brockhouse revives Chick-fil-A debate

Nirenberg calls out Brockhouses delinquent taxes in third debate

Brockhouse trails in money race, but unions could help narrow the gap

Chick-fil-A, business issues take focus in San Antonios second mayoral debate

Police report of alleged 2009 assault by Brockhouse no longer exists

Attorney General to investigate San Antonio ban on Chick-fil-A at airport

Brockhouse apologizes to Chick-fil-A for San Antonios decision to remove restaurant from airport plan

Domestic violence allegations roil San Antonios first mayoral debate

San Antonio police twice responded to 911 calls alleging domestic violence by Greg Brockhouse

All eyes on mayoral duel in San Antonios May elections

And heres our coverage of who else will appear on the ballot, depending on what part of the city you live in:

In District 1, Councilman Roberto Trevino faces the most robust competition of any council incumbent, including a particularly well-funded campaign from hotelier Justin Holley.

In District 2, eight candidates are vying for the open seat on the East Side. They include Keith Toney, who served in the seat when Ivy Taylor became mayor, and Jada Andrews-Sullivan, who was a finalist for the appointment when Councilman William Cruz Shaw resigned earlier this year.

In District 3, Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran is seeking a fourth term against Liz Campos, a plumbing business owner who has run for the seat in the past.

In District 4, five hopefuls are vying for the seat left open by Councilman Rey Saldana, who is prohibited from running again due to term limits.

In District 5, Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales is hoping for her final term on the near-West Side. She has three challengers.

In District 6, Melissa Cabello Havrda is hoping to a turn a close loss to Brockhouse in 2017 into a victory for the open seat this year. Three others also are running.

In District 7, freshman Councilwoman Ana Sandoval is hoping to win re-election over three other candidates.

In District 8, Councilman Manny Pelaez is trying to fend off challenges from a political consultant and a former presidential candidate.

In District 9, Councilman John Courage is hoping to defend the seat he won in an upset two years ago. He is facing three challengers, though one of them suspended his campaign and endorsed the incumbent.

In District 10, Councilman Clayton Perry is another freshman seeking re-election. He faces four challengers.

Dylan McGuinness 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This shining truth is evident in the much-anticipated Mueller report released Thursday  there was no so-called fake news.

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller began his investigation into areas of conduct by President Donald Trump nearly two years ago, the news media pursued its own in-depth reporting on the administration. For every revealing story reported and published in some of the most respected media outlets in the country  The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN  the president would cry Fake News.

But he was wrong, and that diversionary tactic is exposed now for what it is  another lie.

The 400-plus pages of the report released by Attorney General William Barr, with redactions of classified material and referrals to criminal courts for further investigation, merit close scrutiny. The American people, for whom Mueller worked, need for him to appear before Congress and explain his reasoning.

The investigation centered on two overarching areas  did the president or his campaign collude with the Russians to influence the 2016 election, and did the president obstruct justice in the investigation? On the face of it, the answer appears to be no on both counts.

Whether Mueller determined there was insufficient evidence of obstruction of justice because others in the White House tried to thwart the presidents attempts should be explored.

But for now we are focusing on the integrity  and necessity  of journalism in contrast to the lies and manipulation by the president and his circle.

It was not fake news that a foreign country tried to influence the American election, and succeeded. This should scare everyone. It was not fake news that Donald Trump Jr. and others met with Russian operatives in Trump Tower during the campaign season. It was not fake news that Trump ordered his attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay off a porn star and keep his extramarital affair secret.

Democracy can teeter on the edge of autocracy when the ruler tries to discredit the truth and baldly attempts to turn the American people against the institution working on their behalf  the press. Remember President Trump calling the media the enemy of the people? That is chilling, and couldnt be further from the truth.

Instead, the Mueller report shows, fake news  lies  came from the White House. Under oath, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders admitted that she made up the assertion that many rank-and-file Justice Department personnel had lost faith in their leader at the time, James Comey. This was fabricated as an excuse for President Trump to fire him.

That is one example. We do not have enough space to get into all the lies put forth by the president. (The website PolitiFact does a good job of that.)

Whether you describe yourself as conservative, liberal, progressive, whatever  journalism is for the people. Be informed.

A free and unfettered press, one that does not shirk from reporting on those in power, is essential to democracy.From antiquated blue laws banning the retail sale of distilled spirits on Sundays to protectionist ownership restrictions for liquor stores, Texas alcohol laws favor special interests at consumers expense.

Texas has been a model of economic growth and prosperity by promoting policies that encourage free and fair markets. However, the state falls short when it comes to the way it regulates the distilled spirits industry.

State laws mandate what days a package store  or retail liquor store  can open its doors and there are restrictions on how many stores an individual can own. Texas law is a patchwork of outdated, arbitrary provisions that restrict competition and consumer choice while protecting entrenched special interests.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code is a relic of the past and is in need of reform.

Im a native Texan. Our state was built on entrepreneurship. The 86th Texas Legislature has an opportunity to promote free and fair markets and entrepreneurship by reforming the states archaic system and establishing a modern regulatory framework for the industry reflective of the Texas of today.

House Bill 1100, sponsored by Rep. Richard Raymond, R-Laredo, would go a long way toward modernizing state distilled spirits laws by allowing Texas retail liquor stores to open on Sundays.

With roots in the repeal of Prohibition in the 1930s, the law banning retail sales of spirits on Sundays is one of the last remaining blue laws on the books in Texas.

The Legislature repealed most blue laws more than 30 years ago.

Separate legislation, Senate Bill 785 by Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, would give liquor store owners the freedom and flexibility to choose which days to open, including Sunday.

Today, 43 states across the nation allow retail sales of distilled spirits on Sundays. In fact, more than 50,000 locations in Texas are open on Sundays and selling alcohol, including bars, restaurants, clubs, grocery stores, convenience stores and hotels. Texas law singles out just one segment from conducting business on Sunday  package stores.

Consumers want more choices and the freedom to purchase distilled spirits when and where they want them. It is time to implement a modern framework consistent with consumer buying preferences.

Texas laws governing distilled spirits are anticompetitive and pick winners and losers in the market. Texas state laws place arbitrary restrictions on the ownership of package stores  including limits on how many stores an individual can own  that do not exist in any other state or industry and have been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.

At the same time, the laws governing trade practices for spirits are often murky when it comes to the rules of the road for marketing issues.

The distilled spirits industry in Texas supports more than 82,000 jobs and has a $7.5 billion impact on the states gross domestic product.

The Legislature is reviewing the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and has an opportunity to address these outdated laws and promote a free and fair market in Texas.

It is time to reform the system to allow retailers the freedom and flexibility to open seven days a week to serve Texas consumers. And retailers preferring to remain closed on Sundays can choose that option if it better suits individual business models.

Texas lawmakers have an opportunity to implement a modern regulatory framework for all players  distilled spirits, beer and wine. By promoting competition and free markets, state lawmakers will provide more choices for consumers while driving innovation and economic growth.

Chris R. Swonger is president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.Corporate entities that take property with eminent domain authority often claim the system is working. It does. For them.

Corporations with this powerful, often abused, tool are not required to follow the same rules of transparency that a government must observe. They are not required to have public meetings. Eminent domain takings in general do not mandate a good faith offer. Texas Farm Bureau has documented many cases where property owners believe theyve been slighted in the process.

Such is the case of Taylor County couple Bill and Lynne Keys. As Bill says, They have the right to take your land but not the right to take advantage of you. He is right, but there is not much in Texas law to prevent it.

The Keys rejected initial low offers and explored their rights.

Work on the project began anyway, with little regard for protecting the remaining parts of their property. A road was built through their stock tank on this 95-year-old family farm. They are not optimistic about restoration that approaches its original condition.

Eminent domain resembles a business transaction, with one notable exception. A property owner faced with a taking does not have the option to walk away from the table.

Property owners should be wary from the first encounter of the eminent domain process. There is no need to sign the first offer on the spot. Yes, a landowner can ask for more. They can require that topsoil be replaced on top of the covered pipeline. Some have learned this does not always happen. There are also structures and surface water to consider.

Property owners should ask a lawyer with eminent domain experience about any taking. Property takers are not required to offer enough information for a good decision. If ever a process called for more transparency, this is it.

Landowners report low initial offers and pressure to sign agreements early in the process. If restoring land to the original condition is not addressed specifically, the multi-billion-dollar corporations often pay very little attention to addressing that. Without taking on an expensive fight, property owners frequently are left with little recourse against powerful adversaries.

The time has come to put remedies for these problems in statute. Transparency, in the form of public meetings and clear statements of rights, will clear this cloudy and often misunderstood process.

Property takers often claim the changes proposed would cost too much and slow down the process. How much does it cost to be fair? Do we not have the time to explain rights and be transparent?

SB 421 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst has passed the Senate. It calls for transparency, fairness and accountability, clearly defining the rights of property owners. They provide consequences for lowball offers. The House version is sponsored by Rep. DeWayne Burns.

Texas Farm Bureau does not oppose eminent domain. With thousands of people moving to Texas each year, we need infrastructure. There are public needs, and eminent domain is sometimes necessary. However, the constitutions of both Texas and the United States clearly state that no property will be taken without just compensation.

Everyone likes to talk about how Texas businesses and lawmakers respect property rights. Until we fix the unfairness of eminent domain, that talk is mostly a myth. Without fairness, the process is a mockery of those rights.

Russell Boening is president of the Texas Farm Bureau.A large hoard of cash has been found at the home of Sudans ousted president Omar al-Bashir and he is now being investigated for money laundering, prosecutors say.

Security services found euros, dollars and Sudanese pounds totalling more than $130m (100m).

The ex-leader was placed under house arrest after months of protests led to his removal.

Reports say Mr Bashir is now being held at the Kobar high-security prison.

A source in Sudans judiciary told Reuters news agency that suitcases loaded with more than $351,000, 6m ($6.7m; 5.2m) and five billion Sudanese pounds ($105m) were found at Mr Bashirs home.

The source also confirmed Mr Bashir was under investigation, telling Reuters prosecutors would question the former president in Kobar prison.

A picture carried by the Netherlands-based media outlet Radio Dabanga shows men in army uniforms standing over what appears to be several sacks full of cash.

The money, which Radio Dabanga says was shown to reporters, was stuffed in bags designed to contain 50kg (110lbs) of grain.

On Saturday, Sudans attorney general said a new committee would be set up to oversee anti-corruption investigations.

But despite moves to hold Mr Bashir and others to account, Sudans army does not appear to have the confidence of protesters demanding civilian rule, BBC Africa correspondent, Alastair Leithead, says.

The Sudanese military toppled Mr Bashir on 11 April but demonstrators, led by The Sudanese Professionals Association, have vowed to stay on the streets until there is a move to civilian rule.

Mr Bashir, who ruled Sudan for almost 30 years, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in the countrys western Darfur region.

Sudans military, however, says it will not extradite him and will try him in the country instead.

Uganda would consider offering the deposed leader asylum if he applied, the countrys Minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Oryem Okello told Reuters.

Until this week, Mr Bashirs whereabouts since his removal were unknown.

The coup leader at the time, Awad Ibn Auf, said Mr Bashir was being detained in a safe place.

He himself stood down soon afterwards, with Lt Gen Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan named as head of the transitional military council.

Whats the latest with the protesters?

Demonstrators remain camped out at military headquarters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Huge crowds braved scorching heat and fatigue for a 14th day on Friday, demanding that the military council hand over the reins of power to a civilian authority.

Plans to unveil a civilian body to replace the military council will be announced on Sunday, the SPA said in a statement.

Ahmed Rabi, leader of the SPA, told The Associated Press that he and others behind the protest movement met the military council on Saturday.

It is the third such meeting between them, with no sign of a breakthrough to end the deadlock.

So far, the SPA has been uncompromising in its demands, fearful of a military-led administration stuffed full of Mr Bashirs allies.

An SPA spokesman previously told the BBC that the group completely rejected the transitional military council leading the country, and said protesters seek the dismantling of state intelligence agencies and the full dissolution of the deep state.

What has the military said?

Military council has announced a raft of new measures, including the end of censorship and new heads of the security forces.

The council has arrested former government members and says it will put in place whatever civilian government and whichever prime minister opposition groups agree.

But while the council promised not to remove protesters from their sit-in, it has also called on them to stop unauthorised roadblocks and let normal life resume.

Taking up arms will not be tolerated, military council spokesman Maj Gen Shams Ad-din Shanto said last week.

 BBC

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsPolice have arrested a 36-year-old man in the Southerton industrial area of Harare in connection with a spate of rape and robbery cases which occurred between November 2018 and April 2019 targeting women vendors.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the arrest.

On 17th April 2019 the man was arrested by alert police officers after they overhead him talking to a 27-year-old woman at the tobacco sales floor and tried to take her away on the pretext of being a buyer. The officers became suspicious and swiftly arrested the accused who is expected to appear in court soon, facing six counts of rape and robbery, he said.

The accused person was operating in Warren Park, Rugare, Dzivaresekwa and Kambuzuma areas. The accused person targeted vendors and lured them to secluded places on the pretext that he was going to buy all their wares in bulk. After isolating his victims from others, he would then rape and rob them.

 The Standard

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsLET me congratulate General Philip Valerio Sibanda for his new post as the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander.

I met Comrade Ananias Gwenzi (General PV Sibanda), in Zambia in March 1974 at the guerrilla transit base. The base commander was Cde Toddy Mpisi (Peter Ndebele). We were guerrilla recruits who had joined the Zimbabwe People Revolutionary Army (Zipra) under the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (Zapu) led by the late Cde Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo.

At the transit guerrilla base, while we were waiting for the adequate number of recruits to arrive, we were doing physical training and how to operate firearms.

When the number of recruits was relatively adequate and had reached 40 we were ferried to a Zipra training academy at Morogoro in Tanzania by road via Tunduma and Mbeya. We were accompanied by our chief of training the late National Hero Colonel Elliot Masengo ( Harold Chirenda). The camp commander was Cde Sam Mfakazi.

On the first day of our guerrilla parade at Morogoro, now General PV Sibanda was selected as the platoon commander and I was selected as section commander. The company commander was Cde Carlos.

Our training was for six months. The training was very tough and it included intensive physical training and using live ammunition throughout the training period. We were trained in the use of arms, explosives like grenades, anti-personnel, land mines, booby traps, combat, guerrilla intelligence, guerrilla tactics etc. We also underwent serious political orientation. Discipline was also part of our training.

As we went through the different types of training, mixing among ourselves and involving ourselves in different discussions, I discovered that there was one comrade among us who was unique in many ways. That comrade was Cde Ananias Gwenzi (General PV Sibanda).

He was of a different character from some of us. He was a comrade of few words. He did not like to talk too much. He used to talk in a low voice. He was a principled and a man with a vision. He was a man who when a decision was reached, wanted that decision to be followed by the team. He did not like cowards. He did not believe in mission failure. During spare time in our training, Cde Ananias would voluntarily do extra training like physical training and shooting.

As my platoon commander, it became obvious that I also developed a similar character like him. The other section and platoon commanders also adopted his character. These were comrades like, the late Asafu Ndinda who died in combat in 1978, the late Goronga and the late Massacre.

The five of us formed a strong comradeship during and after training. Our leader was Cde General PV Sibanda. We planned and carried out extra guerrilla operations when we were trainees.

During and when we completed training the five of us selected a special target (unauthorised mission) that we wanted to destroy in Salisbury (now Harare). We wanted to cause havoc and terror among the enemy in the country. After the selection of the target, we agreed among the five of us that after training we would hit that target. And that target was only known to the five of us.

On the eve of a new year, 1976 (at 12 midnight on the 31/12/1975), we rehearsed how we were going to attack that target.

The five of us, used AK-47, light machine guns, (numerous rounds), grenades etc. The venue was behind the camp but directing the fire away from the camp.

The operation lasted for a few minutes. The operation was like a commando raid. The sound of the machine guns and explosives scared our instructors, the Tanzanian Defence Forces who were guarding us and fellow recruits. The fire power was just too intensive and confusing that the whole camp ran into panic, including the instructors. Again that was an unauthorised rehearsal.

On the pass out day I was instructed to stay at the camp as an instructor, Comrades Ananias and Asafu were sent to Lebanon together with one of the instructors Cde Stanely Gagisa while Massacre and Goronga sent to the then Soviet Union for further training.

After their training in Lebanon, Cde Ananias came back to join us at Morogoro in Tanzania. That was the time of the Zimbabwe Peoples Army (ZIPA). ZIPA was a formation of both Zipra and Zanla. The chief of training was now Retired Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri (Zipra) his deputy was Cde Parker (Zanla). Among the instructors from Zanla was now General Constantine Chiwenga (Rtd), Dominic Chinenge. The late Cde Sam Mufakazi was our camp commander.

However, Cde Ananias was sent to Mgagao in Iringa, in Tanzania. That was a former Zanla training camp then under ZIPA.

When there was some disagreement to continue with ZIPA Cde Ananias Gwenzi and I along with other Zipra instructors went to open new Zipra training camps in Zambia in October 1976.

After we moved away from ZIPA, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) stopped giving us supplies, especially military hardware.

In Zambia, we opened new Zipra training camps and Cde Ananias was my camp commander. We opened these training camps under very difficult conditions. We had no guns or ammunition. We were training the recruits using logs as guns. We had no boots to protect our feet. We had very little food to eat. There was no soap to bath nor to wash our torn clothes. That was the period when more young men and women were leaving the country to join the armed struggle. Hence we had no material to support the training.

Cde Ananias showed his might and intelligent leadership by encouraging us to soldier on until victory. Our camp was 30 km from the Zambezi River. We were just at the doorsteps of the enemy. We were defending ourselves through planned deployment of our trainees and making them take defensive formations around the training camp respectively.

When finally we received military equipment and other material supplies from OAU, we increased the rate and the number of guerrilla trainees. At any given time we were training over two thousand recruits and these needed to be defended during their training. Through the leadership of General P V Sibanda, we found that the training camp had acquired military equipment like anti-air machine guns and crews to defend the camp. As we trained more guerrillas we found that we had adequate personnel and military hardware to defend ourselves. Because the training camps were organised we never got enemy attacks. Thanks to the wise leadership of Gen PV Sibanda.

Cde Ananias Gwenzi made sure we followed all the guidelines and plans when we were training guerrillas. By so doing we produced well trained fighters who were able to fight under any conditions anywhere in the country. Under the command of Cde Ananias Gwenzi (General PV Sibanda) in Zambia we also conducted short urban training courses for some of the Umkontho Wesizwe guerrillas for the ANC of South Africa.

Cde Ananias was a commander who was consistent during his command. When serious issues occurred he looked cool and calm.

For instance one day when I was on duty in a training camp where he was a commander I ordered the camp to open fire at a helicopter which was flying over our camp. I took that plane for an enemy plane yet it was a Zambian chopper where there were members of the Zipra High Command and Zambian army officers.

Fortunately the chopper manoeuvred and managed to pass through that hell of fire but was damaged. When we got the information that the chopper was a friendly plane, Cde Ananias just told me that it was very unfortunate but you were carrying out your duty. He talked about that in a calm voice.

And it ended there.

In 1978 Comrade Ananias Gwenzi was moved from camp commander to become a regional commander at the front. After the so called 3rd March 1978 agreement between Ian Smith and the late Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Rev Ndabanengi Sithole and James Chikerema, the war intensified. There were several both ground and air raids in Zambia by the enemy. The region where Comrade Ananias was deployed was one of the very hot spots. At one stage his guerrilla units were surrounded by the enemy. When the Zipra High Command sent in some reinforcement the enemy ambushed that reinforcement. The late army commander Comrade Nikita Mangena was killed when he went to assess the situation there.

Later we met again with Comrade Ananias when we brought in a special force to reinforce his units. As an army we had experienced extraordinary military pressure from the enemy during the period Muzorewa-Smith government. We lost many comrades including our army commander. Despite those setbacks Comrade Ananias would encourage us to soldier on until we would defeat the enemy. Comrade Ananias is a guerrilla and will remain a soldier.

By the way Comrade Ananias Gwenzi was a member of the Zipra delegation which attended the Lancaster House talks in 1979 in London.

After independence to date I have been meeting General PV Sibanda and I have noticed that his character has remained the same and focusing on the future of our country.

What is very important with General PV Sibanda is that he has not lost the direction and principles of our struggle.

On the issue of promotions in our ZDF, when I came back to Zimbabwe in 1988 I witnessed General P V Sibanda being promoted from one rank to another. Let me also make this remark to mention that for the first time in 37 years after Independence we have seen a former Zipra guerrilla being the head of our ZDF. We should salute and respect the minds behind such promotion. That must not only stop there but go across the whole Government systems both politically and professionally.

NB: I have only included mostly issues before Independence. About his works and promotions within the ZNA and him also serving in the international keeping peace missions I did not include because I have no adequate knowledge about that.

*About the writer: Dr Chemhuru pseudo name was Cde Albert Ntonga or Dr Mbeya. A holder of an MD. Havana University, Cuba, MPH. UZ) (Public Health Specialist) is a former member of the national executive of the war veterans association. He has served in the Ministry of Health as the provincial medical director for the Midlands and Manicaland provinces. He has also served the ministry as a public health specialist for non-communicable diseases.

 SundayNews

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsBy Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.

US federal district judge Brian Morris dealt a serious setback to the Trump administrations decision to increase coal mining on federal lands  stymieing issuance of new leases until the Department of the Interior undertakes further necessary environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970.

Morris deferred for the time being a further ruling on whether to reinstate completely the 2016 moratorium on new activity  overturned by Trump in March 2017.

More than 40% of the coal mined in the United States comes from federal lands. And as Energy World reports, the Department of the Interiors:

Bureau of Land Management administers about 300 coal leases in 10 states. Most of that coal  85 percent  comes from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. Other states with significant federal coal reserves include Colorado and New Mexico. Production and combustion of coal from federal lands accounted for about 11 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2014.

Federal Land Coal Mining Moratorium

In January 2016, as the New York Times reported in an article headlined In Climate Move, Obama Halts New Coal Mining Leases on Public Lands:

The Obama administration announced on Friday a halt to new coal mining leases on public lands as it considers an overhaul of the program that could lead to increased costs for energy companies and a slowdown in extraction.  The move represents a significant setback for the coal industry, effectively freezing new coal production on federal lands and sending a signal to energy markets that could turn investors away from an already reeling industry.

Judges Morriss Ruling

As Energy World reports:

[Judge Morris] said Interior Department officials had wrongly avoided an environmental review of their action by describing it as a mere policy shift. In so doing, officials ignored the environmental effects of selling huge volumes of coal from public lands, the judge said.  The moratorium provided protections on public lands for more than 14 months, Morris said in Fridays 34-page order. He added that lifting the moratorium was a major federal action sufficient to trigger requirements for a detailed analysis of its environmental impacts.

As the New York Times reports last Friday in Judge Delivers Major Setback to Trump Policy to Increase Coal Mining on Federal Land:

The decision means that the Interior Department has to go back to the drawing board if they want to continue to sell coal mining leases on public lands  they have to do a better job of legally and scientifically justifying this, said Jenny Harbine, an attorney for Earthjustice, who took part in the oral arguments against the Trump administration.

Morris ordered government attorneys to undertake further negotiations with environmental groups, states  including the attorneys general of California, New Mexico, New York and Washington, who had sued over the decision to resume federal coal leasing  and tribal officials, according to Energy World.

Whats at stake here? Over to the NYT again:

The judge also told the plaintiffs and defendants that in the coming months he will put forth a second legal decision on whether the Obama-era mining ban should be reinstated.

Judge Morris has sat on the federal bench in Montana since December 2013; he has a gold-plated legal resume, including a Stanford law degree, and served as clerk to former Supreme Court chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Trump Administration Action

In addition to Judge Morriss latest coal ruling, according to last Fridays NYT article, 40-odd Trump administration environmental actions have been rolled back, delayed, or suspended, following judicial review. Of course, some of these rulings will themselves be subject to further judicial review, so their final disposition is far from settled.

Two significant recent actions are:

On [19 April], the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit gave the Environmental Protection Agency 90 days to decide whether it will ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to brain damage. While the Obama administration had recommended banning the chemical, based on the recommendations of E.P.A. scientists, the Trump administration has sought to allow the agriculture industry to continue to use the chemical. And last month a federal judge in Alaska ruled unlawful an executive order by Mr. Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean and parts of the North Atlantic coast.

[Jerri-Lynn here: For more background on chlorpyrifos, see this August 2018 post.]

Judge Morris issued an order in November 2018 halting the proposed Keystone XL pipeline until further environmental analysis could be completed, according to the Great Falls Tribune.

Another of the 40 blocked Trump polices recognized by Common Dreams is last months decision by US federal district court judge Rudolph Contreras in Wyoming to stop the sale of fracking leases on public lands.

New Interior Secretary

Does this means that the Trump fossil fuels agenda will be thwarted? For starters, will the administration abandon efforts to overturn the 2016 moratorium? Well, not so fast. Despite numerous judicial setbacks, the administration will certainly continue its attempts to promote fossil fuel interests, as I discussed previously here.

Recall that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke resigned last December in the wake of several ethics complaints. As the Grey Lady notes in last Fridays article, his replacement by seasoned litigator David Bernhardt means that in future that the Trump Interior Department will almost certainly up its legal and policy game:

Fossil fuel advocates, however, have taken heart in the recent confirmation of Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, an expert in natural resources law who previously worked as an oil lobbyist. Mr. Bernhardts predecessor, Mr. Zinke, a former congressman and member of the Navy SEALs, was viewed as inexperienced with policy and legal matters. Mr. Bernhardt is known as a deeply experienced legal and policy expert, who as a lawyer argued major environmental and energy cases before federal courts. Bernhardt is a whole different thing, said Patrick Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law School. Theyve been in such a hurry to carry out orders and theyve been cutting corners  theyll probably clean that up.

Success at Confirming Federal Judges

In addition, the Trump administrations success at confirming federal judges, particularly at the appellate and Supreme Court level, means in the longer-term, more Trump administration fossil fuel policies may be upheld.

I am well aware that merely thwarting rollback of Trumps policies falls far short of the necessary actions to be taken to confront climate change  and I should also emphasize that the actions of his predecessors were also far from equal to this challenge.

But nor do I want to downplay the significance of last Fridays ruling.(Natural News) In case you havent heard, Christian churches are being bombed all over the world today by radical Islamic terrorists. In Sri Lanka alone, there are 207 Christians reported dead so far and 450+ injured in just one day. This is just days after the burning down of Notre Dame in France, a fire that the media has gone to desperate lengths to report was not set on purpose by Islamic terrorists. (They are now blaming a computer glitch, if you can believe that.)

Across the Middle East, in places like Syria, Christians are being persecuted by the hundreds of thousands. They are killed, tortured and run out of their own homes and countries. Even in places like the Philippines, Islamic terrorists have seized entire islands and targeted Christians for slaughter. As stated by The Gatestone Institute International Policy Council:

The new terrorism in the Philippines is not merely inspired by political or territorial grievances, real or imagined, but rather is imbued with intrinsic hate for the other  for the infidel. In May 2017, in the city of Marawi, a civilian bus was stopped by jihadis; when 9 passengers were discovered to be Christian  apparently because they were not able to quote the Koran  they were tied together and shot dead, execution style. The jihadis who took over Marawi during the uprising forced women into sex-slavery and ordered Christian men embrace Islam or be used as human shields against the Philippine Army.

In the United States, Christians are being systematically de-platformed off all social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, all of which are now dominated by Satanists who despise Christianity. At the same time, every single Democrat running for president in 2020 has a record of attacking Christianity and either directly or indirectly supporting the silencing of Christians and Christian principles.

Christianity is under attack like never before, all across our world. Yet the left-wing media pretends it isnt happening. Instead, they claim it is gays, minorities or Muslims who are under attack, and that same media now essentially equates belief in God with white supremacist beliefs.

There is a global war on Christianity, and those who are waging it are quite literally the minions of Satan

Its time to call out the satanists wherever they are found across society: Running universities, media organizations and deep state bureaucracies. Satanism is endemic in Hollywood and the music industry, and Netflix has even been overtaken by Satanism as is now abundantly clear with its hiring of Satanists as consultants for its popular Sabrina show that features a teenage witch who worships the devil to gain power in modern society.

As LifeSiteNews.com reports:

In [the Netflix show], the Sabrina character is called to sign her name in the Book of the Beast. There are demons. Evil spells. Orgies. The show is so satanic in its feel that the Satanic Temple itself is talking about taking legal action against the program for allegedly appropriating the copyrighted monument design of its goat deity Baphomet.

Family Research Council senior fellow Peter Sprigg agrees. The dark, occult-ish elements in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina provide reason enough for parents to keep their children, including teens, far away from this show, Sprigg told Fox News. The show has gone over the top in depicting an actual orgy on screen, and if they think having the teen participants keep their underwear on makes it all right, the writers and producers need to think again. This content is not appropriate for anyone, but especially not for the teen audience it targets.

Beyond just Netflix, all the big tech giants are run by Satanists, too. Wikipedia, for example, relentlessly attacks Christianity (and natural medicine, by the way) while allowing pro-Satanism content to dominate its pages. It was founded by Jimmy Wales, a former porn king who uses the power of Wikipedia to bury his own past while allowing the platform to function as a smear engine for pastors, healers and journalists who promote GOOD instead of evil.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, is steeped in evil, demonstrating fascist tendencies in every decision he makes regarding the de-platforming of targeted channels. Those banned from Twitter include people who quote Mother Theresa or Bible scripture. Jack Dorsey personally oversees many of these bans, carrying out literal orders from Satan to silence those who share the word of God.

Jeff Bezos Amazon.com bans books and movies that tell people the truth about vaccines, America, God and more. But the same online retailer openly sells satanic books with chapters on teenage Satanists and animal sacrifice. As reported by Natural News:

Amazon is happily selling books that promote Satanism, including a book titled, Satanism: A Beginners Guide to the Religious Worship of Satan and Demons Volume I: Philosophy, published by Devils Mark Publishing. You can see the book at this Amazon.com link.

Google is also pro-Islam and anti-Christian, as is abundantly clear by Googles celebration of Islamic holidays and its suppression of Christian websites, videos and content. The people who work at Google hate the very idea of God, with many of them (like Rey Kurzweil) believing that machines are God and hoping to one day merge with those machines by claiming to be able to upload their souls to computer chips (transhumanism).

According to all the dominant tech giants today, even the word Christmas is hate speech. All the tech giants use the Southern Poverty Law Center  an anti-Christian, left-wing hate group  as the arbiter of hate. And the SPLC hates God, Christianity and America.

Planned Parenthood, Satanism and the abortion industry

The entire abortion industry functions largely as a child sacrifice temple, allowing worshipers of Satanism to carry out demonic rituals under the cover of womens health. Many Planned Parenthood workers are practicing Satanists, and they pray to Satan as part of their child murder rituals.

One Planned Parenthood director recently admitted to running a Satanic pedophile ring. As Newspunch.com reports:

A former Planned Parenthood director has admitted that the organization is really a front for a Satanic pedophile ring in which abortions are seen as demonic rituals. In an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation, Ramona Trevino revealed that staff members have quotas for abortions so that they can use the aborted fetuses for sick Satanic rituals.

The desire to murder babies in the name of Satan is so prevalent among Leftists / Democrats that the Governor of North Carolina just vetoed a bill that would require health care for babies born alive after failed abortions. You can almost hear Gov. Roy Cooper screaming, Let them DIE! as he licks his lips to lap up the blood of children murdered in the name of Satan.

A short list of the institutions which are now run by Satanists who despise God and Christ

Satanism has invaded and infected nearly every institution in modern society:

The Democrat party and ALL Democrats running for president.

Hollywood, Netflix, Amazon Prime and all of the dominant streaming content producers.

The pop culture music industry.

Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and all the tech giants.

Modern medicine, which feeds on baby parts while pushing vaccines that contain aborted human fetal tissue (turning every vaccine into a cannibalism blood ritual).

The Vatican and the Pope, who is a direct servant of Satan.

The LGBTQ activist community, which pushes pedophilia and the destruction of the Church because the Church teaches that homosexuality is unclean. (But dont you dare mention the epidemic of anal cancer thats spreading across the LGBT community like wildfire.)

Every level of government, from local city councils to the federal deep state in Washington D.C.

The childrens books industry, including the Harry Potter series.

The global banking cartels, which are all owned and run by pedophiles and child blood harvesters.

The institution of science, which has become fanatical in its push to vaccine children with the blood of other children. (Vaccines contain WI-38 and MRC-5 cell lines, which are derived from aborted human babies, as is admitted by this CDC official document).

Universities and public schools.

The open borders advocates who need the borders to stay open so they can continue to traffic human children who are used as sex slaves and child sacrifice rituals by wealthy Democrat donors (and other sickos, like tech elitists and science skeptics who push medical child abuse).

What you can do to stay informed and defend the Word of God

Too many churches in America are teaching watered-down scripture thats afraid to teach the real word of God. If you want to hear a Christian pastor who isnt afraid to discuss Revelation, the End Times and the attacks on Christianity, connect with Discover Ministries out of Australia, run by pastor Steve Cioccolanti.

Cioccolanti preaches what nearly all U.S. pastors are afraid to say.

His Brighteon video channel is found at this link.

There are also many courageous Christian video channels on Brighteon.com, the free speech alternative to YouTube.

Note to Cioccolantis staff: Please upload more videos to Brighteon.com so that we can share them.

Make no mistake: Modern human civilization has been overtaken by demonic forces who are at war with God and humanity. At least half the population has now been overtaken by demonic influence (probably much more) and are actively working to destroy human life (babies, etc.), individual liberty, national sovereignty, all white people, all Christians, etc. Every person who promotes infanticide and post-birth abortion, for example, is an actual demon in human form. They are quite literally no longer human. They are demons pretending to be human.

Watch my all-important Counterthink episode to learn the full truth about demons in human form.

Be prepared, both physically and spiritually. According to some, we have already entered End Times scenarios, and we are watching the rise of the demonic Left and soon, the Antichrist. This Antichrist will pretend to be a global messiah who promises to heal the world and end war and conflict. In truth, he is the embodiment of Lucifer, and he will deceive billions into following him as he leads humanity toward destruction.

Even most Christians will be fooled and will surrender their souls to his influence.

Watch for more signs of the emerging Mark of the Beast, the global persecution of Christians and the rise of global government. These are all signs that the end game is approaching.(Natural News) So just how clean is Kosher food? Do we really know what that label means, besides separating milk from meat and excluding shellfish? What about artificial ingredients and GMOs? Big questions. We need answers. From a top list of featured brands and companies with the Kosher stamp of approval, we see Listerine, Post, Hunts, Tropicana, Dole, Swiss Miss, and on down to Morning Star, so its not too difficult to decipher that the Kosher label doesnt really account for so many things healthy these days.

So. What we do know, for sure, is that Kosher allows GMOs. How twisted is that? If you dont believe it, read the following excerpt from the Library of Congress in an article titled, Restrictions on Genetically Modified Organisms: Israel:

Israeli law permits the development and growth of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for research purposes in accordance with requirements established by subsidiary legislation. Although GMO growth is not permitted for commercial purposes, GMO products may be imported, sold, and used in the production of food and pharmaceuticals in Israel.

While Israeli scientists usually support the development of GMOs, environmental activists have expressed concerns regarding what they see as potential harm resulting from their use.

Israels religious kashrut authority has determined that the use of GMO ingredients in food does not affect its kosher status because GMOs are only used in microscopic proportions. This determination has been contested by some Jewish groups in Israel and the United States.

And the story goes on from there. Whats wrong with this picture? Have you ever eaten the genes from a plant that kill beetles, weeds, and rats, but not humans? Would you knowingly eat pesticide created by the company responsible for the gas chambers of the Holocaust? Do you want to support that platform?

Take a closer look at what the genetic engineers are doing to modify and adulterate Natures food using bug killing genes and weed killing genes they all know good and well causes cancer and dementia.

Whats wrong with Genetically Modified Organisms in your food, you ask?

You know if you get cancer from pesticide made by Monsanto, and you get chemotherapy to treat that cancer, chances are it is made by the same company (Bayer) that just bought the most evil corporation on planet Earth, Monsanto, so the odds of that medicine working are very, very low. Auspiciously low.

Top that off with the fact that there literally IS NO world scientific consensus about the safety of GMOs. Most of the rest of the world, besides the USA, labels GMOs or outright rejects them altogether. Russia and Japan completely ban Frankenfoods from their countries. This is all worthy of much consideration. Here comes the kicker.

Kosher allows MSG, but why?

Have you ever had a migraine headache so bad, that any bright lights or loud sounds make it feel like your head just might break in half, like an egg shell? Thats an MSG migraine (monosodium glutamate migraine). These often create immense pressure behind the eyes and on top of the head (add in severe dehydration here).

This concentrated salt is genetically modified and is often found in Chinese food, canned soups, spicy chips, cured meats, fast food chicken coating, and in thousands of U.S. products. MSG also has cousins that, when combined, cause the same nightmarish headaches and severe dehydration. Watch out for hydrolyzed soy protein, soy isolates, and autolyzed yeast extract.

Whats even scarier is that MSG is a chemically concocted, genetically modified formula that causes weight gain, brain damage, liver inflammation and liver cancer. All things Kosher should never be genetically modified, but they are. You can find MSG in some of the Passover holiday foods. Many matzo ball soup mixes contain MSG, and pretty far up in the list of ingredients. Drink plenty of water folks, and dont feed it to the children or the babies, for Gods sake.

Tune into HealthFreedom.news for more need-to-know coverage of GMOs, flu shots, and monosodium glutamate.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

OK.org

Loc.gov/law

TruthWiki.org

HealthFreedom.news

NaturalNews.com(Natural News) When the federal ban on bump stocks went into place, existing owners were required to destroy their bump stocks or turn them over to authorities. The attachments let semi-automatic rifles mimic the firing rate of a fully automatic weapon, and the ban came about in response to the Las Vegas shooting of 2017. Although the federal government did not offer compensation for handing in the accessories, some states set up buyback programs.

In Washington state, for example, people received $150 for every bump stock they turned over to state police. The program attracted a lot of people; violators could face thousands of dollars worth of fines and as many as ten years in prison.

Now, however, their names and other personal information are about to be revealed to the public. Someone has filed a Public Records Act request to obtain the names and addresses of the people who surrendered their bump stocks as part of the program.

The request, which was received via email, stated what the individual wanted to do with the names and addresses: My intent is to create a searchable database and map of Washington state to overlay the locations. The public has a right to know that these dangerous devices may have been in neighborhoods that the [sic] live in and who has previously owned such devices.

Not much is known about the person who filed the request. The name on the email, Yati Arguna, might be a pseudonym as outlets like Ammoland were unable to find any information on anyone with that name. Arguna did not provide a phone number or home address, yet the Washington State Patrol still plans to release the information to this individual.

The Washington State Patrol sent a letter to gun owners warning that they would be complying with the request and releasing the names on April 26 absent a superior court order enjoining disclosure. In other words, gun owners may be able to stop the release if they act quickly.

At the same time, a gun rights activist, Paul Holgate, got caught up in the mess after submitting a PRA request of his own. The self-proclaimed Second Amendment advocate, who has participated in pro-gun actions in the past, said his request was merely aimed at trying to find out what information the authorities keep on gun owners.

That request was also included in the package mailed to gun owners with the Arguna request, and Holgate, whose name and address were also included, was contacted by a slew of concerned gun owners. For his part, he says he was trying to find out if the state was building a database of its own. He also said he believes Yati Arguna does not exist.

Whats happening in Washington is a wake-up call

This type of scenario is precisely why so many people are unwilling to turn in guns, magazines and banned accessories. The idea that anyone with an internet connection could find out who has or has had guns is unsettling to say the least, not to mention a serious invasion of privacy. The identities of gun owners in Washington who have concealed pistol licenses is considered confidential by law.

The information could make people vulnerable to home invasions or burglary, not to mention the scorn of a public that takes a bizarre kind of joy in attacking whomever social media tells them is bad  and people in favor of guns are one of their favorite targets.

Sources for this article include:

Ammoland.com

LibertyParkPress.com

FoxNews.com(Natural News) The Antichrist spirit is alive and well in Italy, where a local cemetery in the tiny town of Pieve di Cento, located just north of Bologna, wants to cover all graves bearing crosses and other Christian imagery with black cloths in order to avoid offending people of other religions, including the areas small, but growing, population of Muslims.

Reports indicate that all Roman Catholic symbols are potentially on the chopping block at the cemetery, the apparent goal being to test-run the eradication of traditional religion in the largely Catholic country. If brought to bear, the plan will also entail using motorized blackout curtains to hide all traces of Catholicism from view during ceremonies involving other religions.

With the excuse of respect for others, they lack respect for our Catholic culture and our traditions, says Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, pointing out how ludicrous it is to force an entire population to whitewash its culture in order to appease the whims of a very small, non-native minority. Now the Left is beyond fanaticism. This is ideological delirium.

For more related news, be sure to check out PoliticalCorrectness.news.

So now were expected to disrespect the legacy of our own ancestors in order to pacify Muslim invaders?

Not only is the proposed move highly offensive to the nine-out-of-ten Italians who still openly identify as Catholics, but its also disrespectful to the millions of Catholic deceased, whose legacies are now being treated with scorn and disdain by the overlords of political correctness.

If the administrators are ashamed of our tradition and our culture, they should go and hide themselves and not just behind a motorized tent, jabbed Galeazzo Bignami, deputy of the center-right Italian policy party Forward Italy, about the insanity of such an idea.

If they are not able to bring respect for the living at least they have the decency to leave the dead alone and not involve them in foolishness.

Why is the Christian cross the only religious symbol so offensive that it has to be removed from public view?

If a Christian or Catholic visiting Iran, for instance, demanded that all crescents and other Islamic religious symbols be covered up in order to avoid becoming triggered, he or she would probably be laughed all the way to deportation  or perhaps beheading. Why, then, is the inverse of this scenario now an expected act of appeasement towards Muslims living as guests on foreign soil?

It was just last year that Italys Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, proposed legislation that actually would have made it a requirement to display crucifixes on all public buildings  a measure that aimed to reinforce Italys religious foundation as a Catholic country.

The removal of the religious symbols that characterize our community means challenging the principles on which our identity is based, Salvinis bill reads. Respecting minorities does not mean renouncing the symbols of our history, culture and tradition.

Pope Francis, of course, has taken issue with the bill  just as he has with anyone who questions his authority  claiming that it attempts to politicize a symbol that he believes represents love to the enemy and unconditional welcome.

But Italians who are actually proud of their religious heritage say that displaying the cross is part and parcel of what it means to maintain their rich culture, which has been centered around Catholicism for thousands of years.

Would Muslims cover symbols or their faith if Christians were visiting, or living in, their country? asks Raven Clabough, writing for The New American. The answer is obvious.

For more news about how the Left Cult is on a crusade to wipe out Christianity from the planet, be sure to check out Antichrist.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheNewAmerican.com

NaturalNews.com(Natural News) One fact buried deep in the 440-odd-page report by Robert Mueller and his Democrat-aligned prosecutors is that after nearly two years of investigating, not one American was found to have been involved in the principle reason the special counsel was appointed: Collusion with Russia to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

Not a single U.S. person.

The finding was blunt, as noted by The Intercepts Glenn Greenwald, who cited the relative passage in Muellers report, which said:

The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRAs interference operation.

The IRA is the Russia-based Internet Research Agency that stands accused of having bought some Facebook ads and made Twitter posts aimed at influencing users opinions of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

This is a big deal because there is no shortage of political hacks on the Democrat side of the aisle who a) claimed that they had evidence candidate and then President Trump and his campaign members colluded with Russia to steal the election from Hillary; and b) still claim the Mueller report indicates this.

It doesnt. In fact, Muellers report echos what Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in the summer of 2018 when he announced that the special prosecutor had indicted the Russians and Russian companies:

There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There is no allegation that the conspiracy altered the vote count or changed any election result.

Nothing changed from that July 2018 statement until the time Mueller and his team were finished with their investigation and finished with their report.

So why do Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both Democrats from California and the latter an actual 2020 presidential contender, continue to insist they have evidence of collusion? Why do Left-wing talking heads making their rounds on the cable news circuit continue to suggest as much?

Swalwell is a collusion truther, as is Adam Schiff, said Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume following the release of the Mueller report. He added that Schiff is so invested in this theory of collusion that has been pretty, completely exploded. (Related: EXONERATED: No collusion, no obstruction Trump cleared in bombshell Mueller report, exposing bald-faced LIES of the anti-Trump media.)

Where are the apologies and resignations?

Meanwhile, Swalwell said Friday there was certainly evidence of collusion between President Trump and Russia  but Mueller simply deemed the evidence insufficient for the beyond a reasonable doubt legal standard.

For the administrations part, officials are calling out these two embarrassments and, in the words of presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, challenging them to put up or shut up.

The Democrats  and their friends in the mainstream media  put so much into this. Theyve invested so much into this.  They got nothing, Conway said, calling on Schiff to resign for peddling a lie day after day regarding the collusion allegation.

Im going to double down on that. Not only should he resign, he should produce the evidence that he says he has, Conway added. He ought to put up or shut up.

The establishment media has every bit as much to apologize for as well. Like the Democrats they favor, nearly all major news outlets have been priming the collusion pump  so much so that, when Mueller initially filed his report and Attorney General William Barr issued a summary noting that the special counsel found no collusion evidence whatsoever, their ratings plunged.

As The National Sentinel reported March 27, for instance, MSNBCs ratings nose-dived in the week following Muellers revelation:

For most of a year, the networks ratings have been steadily improving with one of its hosts, Rachel Maddow, garnering double-digit increases to become MSNBCs prime-time behemoth, surpassing, on some nights, Fox News rival Sean Hannity.

On the Monday following the Friday report release, Maddows audience tanked by 500,000 viewers.

Neither she  nor Schiff or Swalwell  have retracted or apologized.

Read more about the dishonest media claims regarding the Trump-Russia collusion hoax at Trump.news and Hoax.news.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

TheIntercept.com

FoxNews.com20 years after the Columbine shooting in Colorado, teenagers in San Diego are taking a stand against gun violence.

On Saturday, students, teachers and parents at Hoover High School in City Heights, held a Peace Conference Against Gun Violence.

Everyone is against gun violence, but what are we going to do about it? What are the solutions? said Cornelius Bowser, a gun violence prevention activist.

Bowser, along with students, helped organized the first ever Peace Conference in City Heights.

Students heard from safety advocates, and participated in a series of workshops. The workshops touched on a variety of subjects, including, causes of violence, and mental trauma caused by violence.

NBC 7

For a long time, it was a hidden topic, but with so many school shootings going around, it brought up the topic more, so more people want to speak about it, said Machair Ahmat Adam, a Hoover High School sophomore student.

Student activists like Adam said they are motivated to speak out, because of friends who have been affected by violence.

I just had elementary schoolers ask how they could help. That really inspired me because as a kid when I was young, I was never exposed to this topic of gun violence, Adam said.

Students also learned about political activism. Some spent the morning spray painting protest signs. They also heard from adult activists, who offered advice on creating safer neighbourhoods.

Its easier to pick up a gun for our youth today when they get angry than to sit down and talk to someone. We want to turn that around, said Bowser.

With peaceful interaction, young people at Hoover High School are learning, through peaceful interaction, hot to break the cycle of violence at school and at home.

Teachers and student activists are hoping to make the Peace Conference Against Gun Violence a yearly event in City Heights.At least one person has died after a vehicle crashed into a sound wall in Discovery Bay in unincorporated Contra Costa County late Saturday night, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP said the crash occurred in a residential neighborhood at the intersection of Lakeshore Circle and Winchester Loop and was first reported at 11:44 p.m.If the A's and Jays are playing, let Kendrys Morales pitch.

With his A's losing big Saturday, manager Bob Melvin let Morales pitch the top of the ninth inning at the Coliseum.

"There's just a lot of responsibility to pitching," Morales told the media in Oakland, through a translator. "In a situation like this, the team needed me to go in and get some outs and save some arms, so three outs is nothing."

The veteran first baseman and designated hitter got the first out on one pitch, but then he ran into a bit of trouble.

After a walk, a single and a hit by pitch, Billy McKinney drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. A walk to Luke Maile re-loaded the bases, but Eric Sogard popped out to shortstop to get Morales out of the inning.

The A's scored a run in the bottom of the ninth, but they ultimately lost 10-1 to Toronto.

According to the in-stadium scoreboard, Morales threw a slider on all 21 pitches he threw.

"No, no, no," Morales said with a laugh. "I didn't throw a single slider. Just a regular fastball."

Morales' appearance on the mound comes almost one year after he pitched for the Blue Jays against the A's. On May 20, 2018, he pitched a scoreless inning for Toronto, but he did walk one batter.

"Last year, I got a chance to pitch against Oakland, and this year against [Toronto], so I just tried to do my best with the opportunity," Morales said.

[RELATED: Fans apprehended after running on field]

If you want to go all the way back to pre-MLB Kendrys Morales, he took the mound once during the 2001-02 season when he played in the Cuban National Series. He pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings that day.

So, Morales' spotless career ERA is no more.Oakland police say that they will work with other law enforcement agencies to try to prevent a repetition of sideshow activity last Sunday night in which a truck and an AC Transit bus were burned and an officer was seriously injured.

"This weekend, you will see a large of contingent of law enforcement dedicated specifically to illegal sideshows, accompanied by air support and our regional law enforcement partners, as we team up to deter and take enforcement action by issuing citations, making arrests and towing vehicles," Oakland police said in a statement this week.

"Violent, disruptive, illegal behavior will not be tolerated in the city of Oakland. Our investigators will be working to identify those responsible for committing crimes and participating in illegal sideshow activity."

Oakland police said they had increased staffing in anticipation of illegal sideshow activity in their city on Sunday night.

Despite the bolstered staffing, they said that by the middle of Sunday evening the number of sideshow participants increased to about 1,000 spectators and that vehicles were spread out in various locations of Oakland.

"This stretched the department's resources beyond its capacity. Simultaneously, there were multiple Priority 1 emergency calls unrelated to sideshow activity that our officers were committed to," Oakland police said.

Police said that around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday members of the sideshow crowd surrounded a commercial transport truck and an AC Transit bus at 42nd Avenue and International Boulevard.

They said the driver of the commercial transport truck was removed at gunpoint and the truck was set on fire. The driver was uninjured, they said.

Police said the AC Transit bus's windows were broken out before it was also set ablaze. Again, no one was injured.

As officers attempted to clear the area so the Oakland Fire Department could extinguish the fire, gunshots were heard and delayed the department's response, police said.

They said the area eventually was cleared, both fires were extinguished and the sideshow activity concluded by 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Alameda County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said a female deputy who responded to what he described as "the chaotic scene" at 42nd Avenue and International Boulevard suffered "a very significant injury to her knee" that will require surgery and a long rehabilitation process.

Kelly said the crowd of about 1,000 people "was almost impossible to control" because "there were not enough cops on duty in the East Bay" to contain it.

Kelly said it was "lucky" no one was killed and no one except the sheriff's deputy was seriously injured.

Oakland police said officers issued nearly 200 citations, numerous vehicles were towed and several firearms were recovered.

Oakland police said the sheriff's office, the California Highway Patrol, and San Leandro, Hayward, Freemont and Alameda police will help them next weekend.Santa Cruz firefighters rescued an individual who suffered major injuries at Natural Bridges State Beach on Friday night.

Fire officials responded to the area at 8 p.m. to reports of a water rescue and found the victim lying on rocks about 30 feet below Swanton Boulevard and West Cliff Drive.

Emergency crews prepared ropes and an aerial ladder for the rescue and saw bystanders assisting the victim below. The victim was extricated from the rocks and brought safely back to the walkway.

Fire officials later learned a California State Parks official and a bystander had pulled the victim out of the water before emergency responders arrived. The complete rescue took about 20 minutes.

Visitors are warned to be careful while visiting coastal areas due to rising tides and unstable cliff edges.

"We would like to remind the public that our coastline offers tremendous beauty, but it should be observed from safe locations" Battalion Chief Josh Coleman said in a statement.A high school student who allegedly robbed a 38-year-old blind woman in Downtown San Leandro was charged Friday with robbery and abuse against a dependent adult, according to police.

The woman was walking from San Leandro BART to an address on Haas Avenue at about 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday when her white guidance cane came into contact with a person. Before she could react, police said 18-year-old Jujuan Despanie began stealing her iPhone out of her hand.

She tried to fight back by resisting and holding on to her phone, but she lost her balance and fell to the ground. The suspect kept pulling on her phone until it slipped out the victim's grip, police said.

Witnesses responded to the area of Davis and Clarke streets and called 911, and a bicyclist followed the suspect as he ran into the neighborhood. Another witness saw the robbery from a balcony and assisted police in their investigation.

They ultimately located and arrested Despanie, who was hiding between two parked cars a few blocks away. He initially tried to run away from officers and discard evidence of the crime, according to police, who said he's currently a high school student.

An Alameda-Contra Costa Transit bus driver passing Davis Street helped the woman onto his bus and took her back to San Leandro BART station.

She was then able to get help from a BART station attendant, police said.

"People in our community with disabilities are sometimes defenseless and should never be seen as a target for criminals due to their vulnerability," Lt. Isaac Benabou said in a news release. "Rather than to prey on those who cannot protect themselves, we have a moral responsibility as human beings to help one another when in need."

Despanie was charged with two felony offenses in Alameda County court and remains in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.UPDATE: Woman Fights for Life After NYC Ax Attack Kills Friend, Spares Child



A young woman is dead, another is seriously injured and a toddler is in the hospital for observation after a violent domestic attack with an ax in Brooklyn early Saturday.

The injured woman's ex-boyfriend was caught late Saturday night and now faces murder charges - one he gets out of the hospital where he himself is being treated for hand injuries.

The incident started around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, when the NYPD responded to a call for an injured person outside the Bushwick Houses in Brooklyn. On arrival they discovered a 21-year-old woman, Angela Valle, had already been taken to Elmhurst Hospital with cuts to her head and body.

When they entered her apartment in the same building, they found a friend of hers nearly decapitated and with multiple fingers severed, law enforcement sources said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police later identified her as Savannah Rivera, 20, of Brooklyn.

Authorities soon found a 4-year-old girl in the apartment - the child of Valle, the 21-year-old woman found outside. The child was unharmed but taken to Woodhull Hospital for observation. Valle was in critical condition as of Saturday afternoon.

Investigators believe the episode started when Jerry Brown, 34, the father of the little girl, entered the apartment and began arguing with the childs mother, his ex-girlfriend.

Brown had an ax and as the argument escalated hit his ex's friend, Rivera. He kept attacking the woman with the ax, striking her multiple times.

He then went after Valle, the sources said. She stumbled out of the apartment and into the street where she passed out. An Uber driver found her and called 911.

Police recovered the ax from the buildings compactor room. Its believed Brown may have thrown the ax down the trash chute.

He now faces charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder, as well as two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.At least ten people were shot, four of them fatally, on Saturday across Chicago.

A 16-year-old boy was found unresponsive in Garfield Park on the Northwest side with a gunshot wound to the chest.

The teen was discovered about 12:39 p.m. in the 4100 block of West Adams Street, Chicago police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

On the Far South Side, a 30-year-old man was killed in a Morgan Park drive-by.

About 5:52 p.m., he was in a vehicle with three other people in the 11400 block of South Church Street when someone in another vehicle fired shots, police said. He was hit in the upper body and was pronounced dead at Christ Medical Center.

Earlier, a 47-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man died in an apparent murder-suicide in Belmont Cragin.

Officers found the pair in the bedroom of their home in the 2200 block of North Austin Avenue about 1:37 p.m., police said. The woman was shot in the torso, and the man in the mouth. They died from their injuries.

In non-fatal shootings, two men were injured in Fernwood on the Far South Side.

The two 21-year-olds were in the 300 block of West 104th Place about 5:06 p.m. when someone fired at them from a dark-colored SUV, police said.

One man was taken to Christ Medical Center in serious condition with chest injuries, police said. The other man had a graze wound to his head and was taken to Roseland Community Hospital in good condition.

Two people were shot in separate incidents in the Garfield Park area.

One man, 31, was struck in the arm during an argument in the 3900 block of West Wilcox Street about 4:37 a.m., police said. His condition was stabilized at Stroger Hospital.

A few blocks away, a 30-year-old man was critically injured after being shot multiple times.

About 4:33 p.m., he was standing in an alley in the 3800 block of West Huron Street when someone opened fire, police said. He took himself to Mount Sinai Hospital.

Saturdays earliest shooting took place about 3:29 a.m. in Hermosa.

Two men were on a sidewalk in the 1900 block of North Keystone Avenue when someone fired shots, police said.

Eight @ 8 on April 20, 2019: Week In Review

A 32-year-old was shot in the arm while the other man, 23, was grazed in the hand, police said. Both were treated at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Seven people were shot, one of them fatally, Friday in Chicago.The father of a missing five-year-old boy in Crystal Lake, Illinois briefly spoke to NBC 5 Sunday, a day after he was driven away from his home by undercover police and the same day the boy's mother was interviewed by Good Morning America.

Around 1 p.m. Saturday, undercover police officers arrived at the home of Andrew "AJ" Freund, and announced that they had a warrant. The officers were seeking the elder Freunds help in finding the missing boy, and after a short time he got into the back of a police car, without handcuffs, and left the home.

On Saturday, Andrew Freund Sr. did not respond to reporters questions as he got into the police car but on Sunday, NBC 5 was able to speak with him momentarily as he was seen outside his house trying, allegedly retracing AJ's steps.

I have no control over what people think, Freund Sr. said. I just want my son to come home, okay?

AJs father said he is cooperating with police, meanwhile Joann Cunningham, the boys mother who said she stopped cooperating with authorities, appeared with her attorney on Good Morning America Sunday morning.

Authorities have been searching for the missing 5-year-old since Thursday, covering hundreds of acres of land and water. That search has also been focused on the home where his parents say that the boy was last seen after going to sleep on Wednesday night.

Police say that they do not believe that the boy was abducted and they do not believe that he left the residence on foot, according to preliminary investigations.

On Friday, officials revealed that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had taken the boys younger brother into custody, and documents released revealed a troubled history for the suburban family, including allegations of neglect against the missing boy, whom authorities say was born with opiates in his system.

As of Saturday afternoon, police declined to name any suspects in the case.

For now, the community is rallying together hoping that the young boy is found safe and sound.

A vigil was held at Main Beach in Crystal Lake on Saturday night, where residents lit candles and prayed for Aj's safe return.

I just think everyone is trying to come together, and hopes for the best outcome, Happy Hour Yoga owner Nancy Meyers said.

Clients at Meyers yoga studio gathered Saturday to write notes to the missing child and his family.

(We want) to let him know were thinking about him and were worried about him, one of the studios clients said.An Indianapolis-based company has issued a recall for melon products sold in 16 states after being linked to a salmonella outbreak.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday that the recall includes cut watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe produced by Caito Foods LLC. The fruit has been sold under various brands or labels at Kroger, Walmart, Trader Joe's, Target and Whole Foods.

The affected states are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Click here for a full list of products included in this recall.

Health officials advise consumers to check packaging to determine if the melon was distributed by Caito Foods, and, if so, not to eat it. They advise stores to pull the products from shelves.

Authorities say 93 people have been sickened, 23 of whom were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

Salmonella Carrau is described as rare. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps.Authorities in Northern Ireland released two teenagers arrested in connection with last weeks fatal shooting of journalist Lyra McKee, police said and NBC News reported Sunday.

The two unidentified men, ages 18 and 19, were set free without charge after their arrest Saturday, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy pleaded for witnesses with cell phone footage to come forward, saying in the statement, I know there will be some people who know what happened but are scared to come forward but if you have information, no matter how small, please contact detectives.

McKee, 29, had been reporting on a riot in the city of Londonderry on Thursday when she was shot dead.A Connecticut appeals court is set to hear arguments in the case of an animal rights group that is trying to free three elephants from a petting zoo by winning them the rights of "personhood."

The Nonhuman Rights Group alleges elephants Beulah, Minnie and Karen are being detained illegally in "deplorable" conditions at the Goshen-based Comerford Zoo and wants them moved to a natural habitat sanctuary.

The Coral Springs, Florida, group is appealing a lower court judge's ruling that denied its request to grant the animals the same rights as humans. Three judges of the Appellate Court are scheduled to hear arguments Monday.

The Commerford Zoo has not responded to messages seeking comment and has not filed a brief in the case.To help make sure you stay informed on the most shared and talked about stories, each Saturday and Sunday we'll revisit 5 stories from the previous week, including the most recent updates.

Mueller Report Released

The Department of Justice released Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and concluded that there was no evidence that anyone on the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian actors who carried out the interference. The report did evaluate 10 episodes for possible obstruction of justice and Mueller detailed how President Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the president. Read the full report here.

Fowl Arrest

Police arrested a man who is accused of leaving decapitated chickens outside a home in Westport. The home had been the target on several occasions of the dumping of boxes or bags containing headless chickens, police said. Investigators were able to use surveillance video to lead them to the suspect. See more on the arrest here.

Columbine Scare

Just days before the 20th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine massacre, the school and others in the Denver area were closed after police deemed a woman posed a threat to those schools. Sol Pais, 18, was obsessed with the shooting at Columbine, according to police, and traveled from Florida to Colorado, where she then purchased a gun. Police began an all-out search for Pais and found her dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. For more on the bizarre saga, click here.

Paranormal Passing

Famed paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren, of Monroe, died Thursday. Warren and her husband, Ed, founded the New England Society for Psychic Research. The pair investigated many hauntings, including the home in Amityville, New York, which inspired the movie "the Amityville Horror." See more on Warren's death here.

Famed paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren, of Monroe, died on Thursday night.

Prescription Cancer Concern

A multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company has expanded its national recall of a prescription drug used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure for the fourth time since December after trace amount of a possible carcinogen were detected, federal officials announced Thursday. Torrent Pharmaceuticals, based in India, expanded its U.S. recall to include thousands upon thousands more losartan potassium and losartan potassium/hydrochlorothiazide tablets due to the detection of an "unexpected impurity" -- N-Methylnitrosobutyric acid (NMBA) -- in an active ingredient. See more on the recall here.A trial has been postponed for a Canadian man accused of abducting his toddler son in 1987 and disappearing for 31 years before being arrested in Connecticut.

The Hartford Courant reports Allan Mann Jr.'s trial was supposed to start in late April in federal court, but his federal public defender, Ross Thomas, recently asked for a delay until late May to negotiate a plea deal.

Thomas says the government proposed a deal in February.

Mann was indicted on charges he made false statements about his identity in obtaining housing aid and Medicaid services. He was charged with abduction in Toronto, where authorities say he kidnapped his 21-month-old son, Jermaine, during a court-ordered visit.

Mann was arrested in Vernon, Connecticut last year.

Jermaine Mann was reunited with his mother after believing she died years ago.The White House was looking to shake things up when it designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization. It worked, NBC News reports.

American terrorists killed in bombing, read a headline in Irans official Fars news agency, referring to an attack in Afghanistan that killed three U.S. servicemen. Iranian lawmakers dressed in military uniforms chanted "Death to America" during an open session of Parliament on Tuesday. And according to the countrys Mehr news agency, Parliament passed an emergency bill requesting that countries that arrest U.S troops should hand them over to Iran to face trial as terrorists.

Richard Nephew, a former director for Iran at the National Security Council who served as a member of the team who negotiated the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement  from which President Donald Trump has since withdrawn  said Trump's decision to designate the Guard as terrorists would most likely make American operations in the region much more complicated.

Trump called the designation an unprecedented step that recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft.In the summer of 2010, reporters at South Dakota's Argus Leader newspaper decided to request data about the government's food assistance program, previously known as food stamps. They thought the information could lead to a series of stories and potentially help them identify fraud in the now $65 billion-a-year program.

They sent a stream of what they thought were routine requests for information to Washington.

Government officials eventually sent back some information about the hundreds of thousands of stores nationwide where the food program's participants could use their benefits. But the government withheld information reporters saw as crucial: how much each store received annually from the program.

Trying to get that data has taken the paper more than eight years and landed it at the Supreme Court, which will hear the case Monday.

Argus Leader news director Cory Myers, who directs a staff of 18 at the Sioux Falls paper, says getting the information is about "knowing how our government is operating" and "knowing what government is doing with our tax money."

A supermarket trade association opposing the information's release argues that the information being sought is confidential. The Supreme Court's decision in the case could be narrow or could significantly affect the interpretation of a law that grants the public access to government records.

The Argus Leader is owned by USA Today publisher Gannett and is the largest newspaper in South Dakota. It wrote about the government's initial release of information. But Jonathan Ellis, one of the reporters behind the requests, said there's more to learn if the paper gets what it's seeking.

Ellis said he would like to write about the companies who profit the most from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , called SNAP. He would like to analyze how successful efforts to involve farmers' markets in the program have been. And he is still hoping to use the data to identify stores that seem like outliers, an indication of potential fraud.

Megan Luther, the other reporter behind the requests, said the paper has been fighting for the information for reasons beyond "there's a good story there." Luther, who now works for InvestigateTV, said it's "transparency 101" that "taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going."

The paper has gotten close to getting the data before.

After initially opposing the information's release, the federal government reversed course after the Argus Leader took it to court and won. But the Virginia-based Food Marketing Institute , a trade association representing grocery stores and supermarket chains, stepped in to continue the fight. The group lost an appeal, and the paper hoped it would soon get the data. Then the Supreme Court took the case.

The Food Marketing Institute, which declined interviews before Monday's arguments, has said in court papers that the public already has access to a lot of data about SNAP. But SNAP sales data by store is confidential "much the same way how much business grocers do in cash, credit, debit, checks or even gift cards is confidential," wrote Food Marketing Institute president and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin in a blog post last month.

To decide whether the information should be released, the Supreme Court will have to interpret the federal Freedom of Information Act .

It gives citizens, including reporters, access to federal agencies' records with certain exceptions. In the Argus Leader's case, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, argued that disclosing the data the paper sought was barred by FOIA's "exemption 4." It tells the government to withhold "confidential" ''commercial or financial information" obtained from third parties.

It will be up to the court to determine whether what the paper is seeking counts as "confidential."

The Trump administration is backing the grocery stores in arguing against the information's release. The Associated Press is among dozens of media organizations that have signed a legal brief supporting the Argus Leader.

Myers, the Argus Leader's news director, said that in the years it has taken for the paper's case to reach the Supreme Court, the paper has continued to do the kind of investigative reporting it was attempting to do in seeking the SNAP data.

In South Dakota, he said, "there are more stories and more malfeasance than one newsroom can root out, but we certainly try."

The case is 18-481 Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media.What to Know Carls Jr. will test a CBD-infused burger at one of its Denver locations on April 20

Professional chefs named CBD- and cannabis-infused food as a top trend this year in a survey

The FDA prohibits adding CBD to food and beverages

Carls Jr. is adding something special to its signature sauce.

The restaurant will test a CBD-infused burger at one of its Denver locations for one day only: April 20, the unofficial holiday for cannabis enthusiasts.

The limited-time offer makes Carls Jr. the first national fast food chain to add CBD-infused food to its menu. In another nod to the marijuana holiday, the burger will sell for $4.20.

The burger chains Rocky Mountain High: CheeseBurger Delight features two beef patties, pickled jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, waffle fries  and about 5 milligrams of hemp-derived CBD extract in the burger chains Santa Fe Sauce.

Proponents claim that CBD, a non-psychoactive compound found in hemp and marijuana, can help with anxiety and pain relief, among other ailments, although little scientific research has been done to back up those assertions.

There is also a lack of agreement about dosage, particularly when CBD is added to food. Compared to its close cousin marijuana, hemp contains less THC, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis. So Carls Jr.s burger is unlikely to get you high.

Most products that contain CBD became legal in December when President Donald Trump signed the farm bill. However, chefs eager to cook with the ingredient have had to operate under the radar because the Food and Drug Administration prohibits adding CBD to food and beverages. The agency will hold its first public hearing next month to decide how it will regulate CBD.

In the meantime, local health departments across the country, from Los Angeles to New York City, have been cracking down on restaurants that sell on CBD-infused food and drinks.

The choice to debut the burger in the Mile High City is no mistake. Colorado was one of the first U.S. states to legalize recreational marijuana. As a result, cannabis is one of the states fastest growing industries. Last year, the states medical and retail dispensaries sold $1.55 billion of marijuana, according to Colorados marijuana sales report.

The limited-time offer not only puts Carls Jr. ahead of the competition but also on par with those in fine dining chasing the craze. Professional chefs named CBD- and cannabis-infused food and beverages as the top food trend for 2019 in a National Restaurant Association survey.

Carls Jr. might be willing to take the plunge because unlike McDonalds, Wendys or many of its other rivals, the chain is not publicly traded. Roark Capital Group, the same private equity firm that owns Sonic, Arbys and Buffalo Wild Wings, also owns Carls Jr.

This story first appeared on CNBC.com. More from CNBC:A car caused serious damage to a McKinney home Saturday afternoon when it crashed into a wall, leaving a pile of bricks in its wake.

The vehicle, a black Cadillac, crashed into a house in the 7700 block of Caddo Cove, near the intersection of Sweetwater Cove and Three Rivers Lane, around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson.

DPS officials said the driver of the Cadillac was taken to Medical City McKinney with unknown injuries, a backseat passenger was taken to the same hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening and a front seat passenger was treated for minor injuries.

No one was inside the home at the time of the crash, officials said.

DPS officials said the Cadillac was traveling westbound on Sweetwater Cove when it drove across a sidewalk, crashed through a fence and struck the home.

Investigators are working to determine the cause of the crash.Alaska authorities say search and rescue dogs have found the body of an Arlington man reported missing in Fairbanks last week.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the body of 55-year-old Travis Tyre was located Thursday near the hotel where he had been staying in the city's west side.

Tyre had once directed "The Promise," a musical drama performed annually in Glen Rose about a conversation about God between and grandfather and his grandchildren. Organizers of the play posted their condolences on their official Facebook page.

Alaska State Troopers say they don't believe foul play was involved in his death, but the investigation is continuing.

Tyre, a resident of Arlington, was reported missing April 14.

Troopers say his body has been sent to the state medical examiner's office in Anchorage for an autopsy.Yousuf Abdelfatah already knows the answer he'll give about his race on the 2020 census questionnaire will be wrong.

He's an Arab American, but the only race options on the census are white, black, Asian and categories for American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander. Reluctantly, Abdelfatah will mark white.

"If you look at me, my skin is darker, I'm visibly not white," said the 22-year-old research assistant. "I've lived my life as a person of color, but I'm categorized as white."

With the census going to printing presses later this year, Arab Americans are again feeling left out of a process that helps draw the nation's political map and provide an accurate population count, which in turn can determine how much federal funding minority groups get for government programs and medical research.

Organizations have long been pushing for a separate Middle Eastern or North African category but realize it's probably too late for 2020 with questionnaires ready to be printed.

"The census is in our Constitution and it's meant to count everyone," said Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institution.

According to census estimates, the Arab American population is measured at just over 2 million people. The Arab American Institute, however, says that number is closer to 3.6 million.

Underreporting from the census has come amid a rapid growth of the community, which advocates say has increased by more than 72% between 2000 and 2010.

Population data is a key factor in political redistricting, researching human rights, monitoring government programs and antidiscrimination laws, meaning Arab Americans are subject to a lack of representation and health and social services.

"Right now we have that 'white' designation on paper but we don't benefit from it," said 24-year-old activist and organizer Naia Al-Anbar. "The truth is we aren't ever going to be white in their eyes and we will still be discriminated against."

Al-Anbar, who generally supports the idea of a new category, has a Saudi Arabian father and would mark "other" on the census if a more precise category isn't offered.

The Arab American Institute considers 22 countries to consist of Arabs, spanning Africa and Asia, meaning Arab Americans can fall into several categories provided in the survey.

This creates an odd decision during the census for Arab Americans. Does someone from Egypt, for example, check the African American box because their home country is in Africa? Would someone from Iraq be expected to mark that they are Asian?

"As an Egyptian, I considered marking 'African American' but I'm not black," 24-year-old Nashville resident Dina El-Rifai said. "However, marking 'white' doesn't reflect who I am or the diversity I bring."

In another complicating factor, the Trump administration wants to ask people whether they are American citizens on the census  an issue that is supposed to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer before the forms are printed. Some fear that will stifle participation among various immigrant groups, especially in the aftermath of the administration's travel ban from Muslim countries that spread fear among Arab Americans.

This question would discourage 30% of Arab Americans from taking the survey, a study by the American-Arab Anti-Defamation Committee found.

The Arab American Institute and other groups have worked on getting an Arab category introduced in the census for decades but have always been met with opposition. That was until 2009, when the Census Bureau concluded that it would introduce a Middle Eastern and North African category for the next cycle after years of trials and tests. Test results found that the vast majority of Arab Americans supported the issue and would mark the new option on the census.

But the momentum came to a halt when a new executive government was voted in to power.

"After all that work, and all the millions spent, the Trump administration came in for what we believe are political reasons to put an end to it," said Samer Khalaf, president of the American-Arab Anti-Defamation Committee. "Their reasoning was that additional testing would be required."

The Census Bureau did not comment about the Middle Eastern category, but pointed to previous news conferences where policy leaders discussed how more research was needed to include a Middle Eastern/North African category not as a race, but as an ethnicity.

"We do feel that more research and testing is needed before we can proceed to implement or propose to implement a separate Middle Eastern or North African category," Census Bureau chief of Population Karen Battle said at a program review in January 2018.

That would be a step in the right direction for many Arab Americans, as it could lead to a better count and more research and federal funding to benefit their communities.

"The most important thing is that we are on the cusp of getting the Census Bureau to finally get the category that would help identify our community," Khalaf said. "If we were able to get data, we can work on civil rights, and maybe they'll know whether or not we have a higher rate of diabetes or heart disease."Sudanese activists said Saturday that 16 people, including a soldier, have been killed in the two days since the military forced President Omar al-Bashir from power amid months of anti-government protests, while the military met with an opposition delegation to discuss the transition and announced a nightly curfew had been lifted.

The Sudan Doctors Committee, an affiliate of the Sudanese Professionals Association, which has been spearheading the protests, said 13 people were shot dead on Thursday and three others, including the soldier, were killed Friday.

It said they died "at the hands of regime forces and its shadow militias."

Sudanese police said late Friday that the 16 were killed by "stray bullets," and that at least 20 people were wounded at rallies and sit-ins across the country.

The military overthrew al-Bashir on Thursday after almost four months of protests calling for an end to his nearly 30-year rule. Military officials have said he is under house arrest in the capital, Khartoum, and will be tried for unspecified crimes by Sudanese courts.

Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide linked to the war in Sudan's Darfur region in the 2000s.

The protesters have said they will remain in the streets until a civilian transitional council is formed. They fear the military, which is dominated by al-Bashir loyalists, will rule indefinitely or hand power to one of its own.

Political parties and movements behind the protests said they were meeting Saturday with the military to discuss the transition, saying they've formed a 10-member delegation to introduce "the people's demands" to the military council. They reiterated their rejection of military rule.

Ali al-Sanhouri, the secretary general of the Arab Socialist Baath Party in Sudan, told a news conference in Khartoum that they are calling for the creation of a "civilian sovereignty council, cabinet and a national legislative association" to rule the county during the transition.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, who was sworn in Friday as head of a transitional council formed by the military, said he was lifting the curfew imposed two days earlier, which was to last for a month from 10 p.m.-4 a.m.

In remarks broadcast on state TV, he said the military council will rule the country for up to two years until elections and declared the immediate release of all those detained and tried during the current wave of unrest, which began late last year.

Al-Bashir imposed a state of emergency in February, banning unauthorized public gatherings and granting sweeping powers to the police in efforts to quash the unrest. Hundreds of people were tried before emergency courts.

Burhan, who previously served as the general inspector of the armed forces, had met with the protesters in the streets after al-Bashir's ouster and listened to their demands.

He replaces Gen. Awad ibn Ouf, the defense minister who had announced al-Bashir's ouster. Ibn Ouf stepped down as transitional leader amid a public outcry, with the protesters saying he was too close to the ousted leader.

Ibn Ouf was head of military intelligence during the brutal campaign to suppress the Darfur insurgency. The United States has imposed sanctions on him since 2007, saying he armed and directed pro-government militias known as the Janjaweed, accused of widespread atrocities during the conflict.

On Saturday, state-run media reported that Lt. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, the head of the National Intelligence and Security Services, resigned the day before. It did not provide further details.

Once a member of the president's inner circle, Gosh was sacked as an adviser in April 2011 for criticizing the government. He was arrested the following year on suspicion of involvement in a coup attempt, but was later pardoned by al-Bashir, who appointed him intelligence chief in February 2018.

Protests erupted in December against the rising cost of food and fuel but soon escalated into an Arab Spring-inspired uprising against al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 Islamist-backed military coup.

Earlier this month, tens of thousands of protesters joined a sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum, vowing to remain there until their demands were met.

"We will never leave the place. We will shout together. We will shout to our freedom, to our liberty," protester Rami Mustafa said Saturday, speaking in English.

Security forces loyal to al-Bashir responded to the protests with a violent crackdown, killing dozens of protesters. They attacked the sit-in on several occasions, up until al-Bashir's resignation, and clashed with soldiers who intervened to protect the protesters.

The Sudan Doctors Committee says at least 38 people, including at least six soldiers, have been killed since the sit-in began on April 6.The Trump administration is stepping up its crackdown again on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

White House national security adviser John Bolton says there's a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send to relatives in Cuba.

Bolton announced the policy in Miami Wednesday, during a speech at the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association on the 58th anniversary of the United States' failed 1961 invasion of Cuba, an attempt to overthrow the Havana government.

He's also announcing additional economic penalties that target Cuba, as well as outlining new moves against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Bolton called those countries the "three stooges of socialism."

"The troika of tyranny  Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua  is beginning to crumble," Bolton said.

Bolton announced a new cap on the amount of money families in the United States can send their relatives in Cuba. The Obama administration had lifted limits on remittances, but the new limit will be $1,000 per person per quarter, Bolton said. Remittances to Cuba from the United States amounted to $3 billion in 2016, according to the State Department.

Bolton also announced that the U.S. was sanctioning the Central Bank of Venezuela, which the Trump administration says has been instrumental in propping up the embattled government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He also announced sanctions against financial services provider Bancorp, which he claimed is a "slush fund" for Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega.

"The United States looks forward to watching each corner of this sordid triangle of terror fall: in Havana, in Caracas, and in Managua," Bolton said in South Florida, which is home to thousands of exiles and immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

He said Obama administration policies gave the Cuban government "political cover to expand its malign influence" across the region, including in Venezuela. Cuba has trained Venezuelan security forces to repress civilians and support Maduro, Bolton said.

"Havana continues to prop up Maduro and help him sustain the brutal suffering of the Venezuelan people," Bolton said. "As President Trump has said, Maduro is quite simply a 'Cuban puppet.'"

"Thousands of Cuban doctors in Venezuela are being used as pawns by Maduro and his Cuban sponsors to support his brutal and oppressive reign."

Bolton's pledge to "never, ever abandon" the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in their fight for freedom also might ring hollow in light of the historical events he sought to highlight at the event hosted by the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association.

Many Cuban Americans to this day resent the late President John F. Kennedy for not deploying American troops at a critical moment in the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Meanwhile, with the high stakes of the Cold War a fading memory, some critics of U.S. policy toward Venezuela worry that the Trump administration's stance that all options are on the table, including a military one, to oust Maduro is an empty threat that will only serve to ignite the streets and geopolitical tensions with Russia, compounding the misery of Venezuelan citizens.

"Honoring one of U.S.' greatest military fiascos from 60 years back suggests U.S. policy to Latin America owes more now to a perverse Cold War nostalgia than practical benefits for people of the region," said Ivan Briscoe, the Latin American director for the International Crisis Group, a think tank headquartered in Brussels.

Bolton spoke just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in Washington a new policy that allows lawsuits against foreign firms operating on properties Cuba seized from Americans after the 1959 revolution. The United States has enforced a trade blockade against Cuba since the early 1960s.

The announcement comes at a moment of severe economic weakness for Cuba, which is struggling to find enough cash to import basic food and other supplies following a drop in aid from Venezuela and a string of bad years in other key economic sectors.

Pompeo said he won't renew a bar on litigation that has been in place for two decades, meaning that lawsuits can be filed starting on May 2 when the current suspension expires. The decision could cost dozens of Canadian and European companies tens of billions of dollars in compensation and interest.

Pompeo's decision gives Americans the right to sue companies that operate out of hotels, tobacco factories, distilleries and other properties Cuba nationalized after Fidel Castro took power. It allows Cubans who became U.S. citizens years after their properties were taken to sue.

The Justice Department has certified roughly 6,000 claims as having merit, according to Kimberly Breier, the top U.S. diplomat for the Americas. Those claims have an estimated value of $8 billion: $2 billion in property and $6 billion in interest, she said. In addition, another 200,000 uncertified claims could run into the tens of billions of dollars, she said.

Breier said there would be no exceptions to the decision, which has already prompted stern responses from Canada and Europe as they have vowed to protect their businesses from lawsuits.

"European companies that are operating in Cuba will have nothing to worry about if they are not operating on properties taken from Americans," she said.

The decision deals a severe blow to Havana's efforts to draw foreign investment to the island and comes as Trump steps up pressure to Venezuela's Maduro , who is holding power with help from other countries, including Cuba, China and Russia.

Spain, which has large investments in hotels and other tourism-related industries on the island, was the first to react. A senior government official told The Associated Press that Madrid would ask the European Union to challenge the U.S. move in the World Trade Organization.

Businesses from Canada, France and Great Britain among other countries also conduct business in properties nationalized after Castro took power.

Johana Tablada, Cuba's deputy director of U.S. affairs, said on Twitter: "Before they try to euphorically ride a wave of wickedness and lies, they should take a dose of reality. The world has told John Bolton and the U.S. government to eliminate the criminal blockade against Cuba and the Helms-Burton Act" of 1996.

Countries with large investments in Cuba have ferociously protested the law.

"The extraterritorial application of the U.S. embargo is illegal and violates international law," said Alberto Navarro, the European Union ambassador to Cuba. "I personally consider it immoral. For 60 years the only thing that's resulted from the embargo is the suffering of the Cuban people."Even though a record-setting number of Hispanics have been elected as lawmakers in Texas, a review has found that the racial breakdown of the Legislature does not accurately reflect the diversity of the state's general population.

An Austin American-Statesman analysis of the Legislature's demographics showed that in 1991, Latinos made up 14% of lawmakers and were slightly over a quarter of the state population.

By 2017, Latinos represented roughly a quarter of the Texas Legislature, but they were nearly 40% of the state's population, the newspaper reported.

The newest representative, Democrat Ray Lopez of San Antonio, won a special election last month and was sworn in as the 38th Hispanic lawmaker in the Texas House.

"What it means is that there are a lot of Hispanics that are interested in what's going on in Texas," Lopez said on learning that his election set a record in the Legislature.

Asian Americans are also underrepresented in the Legislature. Though more African American lawmakers are represented in the Texas House, their Senate numbers still fall behind the percentage of African Americans statewide.

Reasons for the inadequate representation of these groups include: gerrymandering, cynicism with the political process and that young voters -- who include a substantial number of Latinos -- are less likely to vote, according to experts.

In January, acting Texas Secretary of State David Whitley announced that about 95,000 potential noncitizens were registered to vote and asked county election officials to investigate. About 20,000 from the list quickly were found to be citizens.

Civil rights groups filed a lawsuit, comparing Whitley's decision to voter suppression and. A federal judge subsequently stopped the investigation.

Latino and black activists said the Legislature has disregarded the interests of their community for years.

In 2011, the Texas Legislature approved one of the most restrictive voter ID laws in the U.S. Before casting a vote, the law required registered voters to show one of seven forms of government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's license or a permit to carry a handgun.

Civil rights groups, Democratic politicians and minority voters sued in 2013. The lawsuit contended that the Republican-sponsored statute infringed on the U.S. Voting Rights Act by targeting low-income, Latino and African American voters, who were not as likely to possess the accepted forms of ID.

In 2016, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the suit's complaint, ruling that the law discriminated against the voting rights of around 600,000 registered Texans who didn't have a government-issued photo ID.S Band Radar & Maps | Forecast | Weather Alerts

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A slow moving weather system produced very heavy rain across much of North Texas Tuesday and Wednesday. A Flash Flood Watch was allowed to expire Wednesday night.

Rainfall totals were impressive Tuesday with some areas of Collin County picking up more than 7 inches of rain. A few areas west of Dallas-Fort Worth picked up over 4 inches of rain overnight.

Dramatic video and pictures showed cars submerged in feet of water inside Parking Garage B at Dallas Love Field Wednesday morning, where more than 3 inches of rain fell overnight.

Dozens of cars parked at the Dallas Love Field Airport garage are flooded due to heavy rain.

High water was reported on several area roads. NBC 5 cameras captured people stranded in floodwater along the Interstate 35E Frontage Road near Walnut Hill Lane in Dallas.

The rain will diminish in frequency by late Wednesday and should end completely on Thursday. In addition to the heavy rain, some thunderstorms may contain gusty winds. Dry and sunny weather is expected Friday through the weekend.

The rain will diminish in frequency by late Wednesday and should end completely on Thursday. In addition to the heavy rain, some thunderstorms may contain gusty winds.

Dry and sunny weather is expected Friday through the weekend.

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Tornado and Hail SafetyA San Diego nonprofit dedicated to helping firefighters and their families in times of need is on a mission to find a bone marrow match for someone who means a lot to one of their own.

Joshua Karty, 31, is a father of three who grew up in San Diego and moved to Idaho in 2008. Today, he is hospitalized in Seattle, in need of a life-saving bone marrow transplant. He is the stepson of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Engineer Dianne Karty.

A year ago, Joshua Karty was diagnosed with chronic leukemia. The illness has since progressed into acute myeloid and acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

He is waiting to find a bone marrow match that could save his life.

This past March, Dianne Karty reached out to the San Diego Firemans Relief Association (SDFRA) for support in getting the word out to potential donors in hopes of helping her stepson.

Brandt Truver, president of the SDFRA, got on board. On Saturday, Truver, along with several volunteers, hosted a bone marrow donor drive in Point Loma to help Joshua Karty.

Were looking for a match for Josh, and to get him the help he needs, Truver told NBC 7. The Kartys have given so much to the City of San Diego.

The efforts to help Joshua Karty also include help from FireFighterAid, Local 145 and Be The Match, the worlds largest marrow registry, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program.

Meet Joshua Karty. Joshua is the step-son of San Diego Fire Engineer, Dianne Karty. He is in need of a bone marrow transplant to save his life.



Please join us on April 20th from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM to help find a donor for Joshua! pic.twitter.com/kYl1sxRwem  San Diego L145 (@SDLocal145) April 15, 2019

Truver said the SDFRA is looking for people ages 18 to 44 to join the Be the Match registry as donors. Their cells will be compared against Joshua Kartys cells, and could be the match he needs.

Truver said the SDFRA found a donor for a fellow firefighter this way several years ago and the group is hoping they can do it again for the Kartys.

Saturday was a solid start. Truver said 17 people registered to become donors for Joshua Karty.

He said those who want to join the registry but werent able to attend Saturdays drive can register online at Be The Match. They can also follow Joshua Kartys GoFundMe page for updates.

Truver said Joshua Kartys days at the hospital right now are filled with ups and downs, but, in his words, Today is a good day.

He said the SDFRA considers firefighters extended family and this mission to help the Kartys is just that: family helping family.

To learn more about Joshua Kartys battle with leukemia and how to help, click here.A federal appeals court has given the Environmental Protection Agency 90 days to justify why a widely used but dangerous pesticide should stay on the market.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday issued the order at the request of a coalition of farmworker and environmental groups. The attorneys general for several states, including California, Washington, New York and Massachusetts, joined the case.

The groups sued after then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed an Obama-era effort to ban chlorpyrifos, which is widely sprayed on citrus fruit and other crops.

Last summer, a three-judge panel of the court ordered the EPA to ban all sales of the pesticide. The court decided to reconsider that ruling with a slate of 11 judges, and those judges Friday gave the EPA three months to respond to the plaintiffs' objections.Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris made a brief appearance in New Orleans Friday, where she repeated her call for tax credits for working families and a nationally funded teacher pay raise.

Harris, a senator from California, was addressing a Friday luncheon at the regional conference for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Harris is a member of the international service organization.

She said that, as president, she would make "the first federal investment in closing the teacher pay gap in this country."

That gap, she said, amounts to about $13,500 between teachers and similarly educated college graduates.

Harris also called again for repeal of the 2017 Republican tax cut bill.A 26-year-old driver was killed when his Chevrolet station wagon overturned into a man-made pond in the middle of a freeway off- ramp in Cerritos, the California Highway Patrol said Sunday.

The crash at the eastbound 91 Freeway to the Shoemaker Avenue off-ramp occurred about 11:35 p.m. Saturday, the CHP reported.

CHP officers dispatched to the scene reported that a 2007 Chevrolet HHR had overturned in a man-made pond in the middle of the Shoemaker Avenue off-ramp and was partially submerged. The officers, with the assistance of paramedics, extracted Ricardo Bibian from the vehicle and paramedics rushed him to UCI Medical Center, where the Long Beach resident died from his injuries.

Another occupant inside the station wagon, a 19-year-old man, was taken to the same hospital, where the Long Beach resident was being treated for moderate injuries.

The CHP asked anyone with information regarding the crash to call them at 562-868-0503.For the first time, the transgender woman who was violently beaten in Dallas, Texas earlier this month is speaking publicly about what happened.

The attack on 23-year-old Muhlaysia Booker is being investigated as a hate crime.

Saturday, she tearfully thanked supporters and demanded justice at a rally and press conference.

It was held outside Abounding Prosperity, Inc., a Dallas-based nonprofit that provides health, social and economic services, particularly to gay and bisexual men, transgender women and their families.

"This time it was me. The next time could be someone else close to you," Booker said.

Booker was brutally beaten on April 12 outside Royal Crest Apartments in southeast Dallas.

Police said Booker was behind the wheel of a dark-colored vehicle when she accidentally backed into a white car.

Police said the man she hit chased her down and demanded she pay for the damage.

Minutes later, cell phone video showed a crowd gathered around Booker.

Police said the man she hit offered others $200 to beat Booker.

The video showed Booker being punched and kicked as she tried to protect herself on the ground.

The video ended with a group of women carrying Booker to safety.

She suffered a swollen face and broken wrist.

Booker's wrist was bandaged at Saturday's rally. She was visibly shaken as she took the stage to speak and needed support to get through a prepared statement.

"This time I can stand before you, where as in other scenarios we are at a memorial. Our time to seek justice is now. If not now, when?" Booker asked.

At the rally, there were activists, members of the LGBTQ community and Dallas police who issued a call to action.

"The more shocking [thing] to me, as a police officer, is the community that stood around and did nothing," Maj. Elaine Page said. "The community needs to step up."

Edward Thomas, 29, has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

He remains in the Dallas County jail on a $75,000 bond.

The investigation is ongoing.By now, most Democratic presidential candidates have polished their stump speeches. But when they're in South Carolina, they may need to add in a sermon.

In a large and diverse primary field, White House hopefuls are angling to develop relationships with black churches. That's because success in South Carolina, home to the nation's first Southern presidential primary, could come down to connecting with politically influential churchgoing African Americans.

"Candidates recognize that black churches are the places to be seen and heard," said Bobby Donaldson, a professor of civil rights history at the University of South Carolina. "If you're trying to find a captive and captivating audience, then the black church is the perfect place to get your message across."

Some 2020 candidates are already working to build their relationships with this community. Sen. Kamala Harris of California will attend an Easter service on Sunday in Columbia at a church whose pastor is a lawmaker who recently endorsed her campaign. She swung through a fellowship hall in North Charleston earlier this year and visited churches last fall to rally voters ahead of the midterms.

Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Bernie Sanders of Vermont attended a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at a historic black church in Columbia, and both have held campaign events in fellowship halls at black churches around the state. In the past week, Sanders held a town hall in a black church in Spartanburg with members of the state's Legislative Black Caucus.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke have also visited black churches. And in one of her visits to three Charleston-area black congregations in February, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York gave a sermon of sorts, summoning a fiery cadence that spurred shouts of "Amen!" from the crowd of several hundred.

"I love the fact that your Bibles are under your seat," she told congregants at Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist. "When you go on a plane and they say your life preserver is under your seat  OUR life preservers are under our seat!"

Gillibrand said she felt she had been well received, but some observers say such moments can be awkward.

"It seems very, for lack of a better term, inauthentic," said Jalen Elrod, a black voter and first vice chairman of the Greenville County Democratic Party. "She'd be better served if she came and said, 'Here's what I'm about. Here's what I'm trying to support.'"

Still, the visits allow candidates to introduce themselves to voters. They can also potentially elevate their standing with voters if they secure an official endorsement from church leaders.

That may be part of Harris' calculus, with her announcement last month of an endorsement from Darrell Jackson. The longtime state senator is also pastor of Bible Way Church of Atlas Road, a Columbia congregation that's seen as among the most influential in the black community. That's where she'll attend Easter services on Sunday.

But Antjuan Seawright, a South Carolina political consultant and fifth-generation member of the African Methodist Episcopal church, notes that an endorsement from a pastor is no guarantee of securing his parishioners' support.

"Just because the pastor endorses doesn't mean the congregation follows," Seawright said. "The sheep don't always follow the shepherd because people have evolved, and they've become more independent in their thought."

While the pathway through the black church is a tricky one to navigate, it's hard to avoid. Jaime Harrison, who chaired the state party in the 2016 presidential cycle and is mulling a challenge to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, said that as candidates get past their introductory visits to South Carolina, voters will be watching their moves carefully.

"You expect people to come and visit your church or come to the local NAACP and be the keynote speaker," said Harrison, also associate chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Regardless of their approach, Seawright urged white candidates to strive to make authentic connections and develop policy proposals that back up whatever overtures they're making as they visit the state's parishioners.

"People want authenticity, people want genuineness, and they want honesty," Seawright said.Officials are searching for a fourth victim after a boat crashed into a Miami Beach jetty and capsized.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is leading the search for the fourth person after two people were killed and another was injured in the incident.

Crews are searching the area around Government cut for the fourth victim.

Two people were found dead on the rocks at the scene while the third was transported to the hospital as a trauma alert.

"It looked like a horrific scene. I don't know how anyone could survive that," said Mark "The Shark," a local charter boat captain. "It was totally upside down on the rocks. The top was up against the jetty. And the boat was totally out of the water."

Investigators say it's too soon to say what caused the crash, or if anything illegal was onboard.

The crash happened on the same channel where Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez and two other men were killed after their boat hit a jetty. An investigation determined drugs and alcohol were factors in the September 2016 crash. Officials encourage other boaters to be extra cautious on the water, especially in this area.

"We encourage boaters to use their GPS and whether navigating at night, try to take it slow and only go as fast as the conditions allow," said Ronald Washington of Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.

In a separate boating-related incident in Miami, an investigation is underway after rescue crews received a call about a person in the water who possibly fell of a boat, officials said.

City of Miami Fire Rescue said the incident happened Saturday night at the Grove Harbour Marina in Coconut Grove.

Rescue officials said one person was found dead. An investigation continues.A dog found abandoned in Colorado has been returned to its family, nearly two years after it was stolen in Florida as a puppy.

Animal charity organization Wings of Rescue says the German Shepherd named Cedar was covered with snow in a rural Colorado ditch, apparently malnourished with an injured leg when a deputy marshal found her. The pet was identified thanks to its microchip.

The youngest of four dogs in the Peterson family, Cedar was stolen from their backyard in May 2017 in the town of Southwest Ranches, north of Miami. At the time, other signs for missing pets were going up around the community.

Back then, Tamara Peterson told reporters that she thought someone had hopped the fence to take the 4-month-old puppy. The family posted flyers with Cedar's photos around the town, drove around several neighborhoods and hired a detective to track the pet down.

It was not clear how the dog wound up nearly 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) away in the Colorado town of Hugo. Deputy Marshal Steve Ryan found Cedar in a ditch and picked the dog up to put it in his car.

When Ryan took the dog to a veterinarian, she scanned the pet for a microchip and found out the puppy belonged in South Florida. Then the Petersons got a phone call.

"I immediately cried," Tamara Peterson told The Miami Herald. "I couldn't believe it. I was in shock. It's almost two years to the day."

After three weeks of recovery, Wings of Rescue, a charity known for flying pets in disaster zones, helped arrange Cedar's return flight on Saturday. The Peterson kids petted Cedar's furry chest and neck on a Fort Lauderdale airport tarmac as the dog looked around and shook its body.

"Miracles do happen, especially when you microchip your pet," the animal charity wrote on a Facebook post about Cedar.

Peterson said Cedar has been resting, and the family is planning to take her out swimming as soon as she looks better.Erik Brunetti's four-letter fashion brand starts with an "F'' and rhymes with "duct." The federal government calls it "scandalous" and "immoral" and has refused to register the trademark. Brunetti has a different word for his brand and designs: "thought-provoking."

"We wanted the viewer to question it: Like, is that pronounced the way I think it's pronounced?" he said of his streetwear brand "FUCT," which began selling clothing in 1991.

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear Brunetti's challenge to a part of federal law that says officials should refuse to register trademarks that are "scandalous" or "immoral." Brunetti says it should be struck down as an unconstitutional restriction on speech.

The government is defending the century-old provision. The Trump administration says in court papers that the law encourages trademarks that are appropriate for all audiences. It argues it isn't restricting speech but rather declining to promote it.

Brunetti and others like him who are denied trademark registration under the "scandalous" provision can still use the words they wanted to register for their business, nonprofit or brand. They just don't get the benefits that come with registering a trademark. For Brunetti, that would largely mean a better ability to go after counterfeiters who knock off his designs.

Brunetti would seem to have a strong argument. Two years ago, the justices unanimously invalidated a related provision of federal law that told officials not to register disparaging trademarks. In that case, an Asian-American rock band sued after the government refused to register its band name, "The Slants," because it was seen as offensive to Asians.

In court, the justices had no trouble saying the band's name, but Brunetti's brand may be different. His lawyer, John R. Sommer, says he plans to say the individual letters of the name, "F-U-C-T," which Brunetti sometimes does too. Another possible workaround: explaining the brand is something of an acronym for "Friends U Can't Trust."

Part of Sommer's argument is what he sees as the arbitrary nature of the United States Patent and Trademark Office's decisions about what gets tagged as scandalous or immoral. A lawyer working for the office who is from the South might find something "not nice" that wouldn't faze a lawyer from the Bronx, Sommer said. That means "you can register profanity if you're lucky" and you get assigned a lawyer who allows it, Sommer said.

Two New York University professors gave that argument substantial support in a brief they filed in the case. They showed that the office routinely refuses to register trademarks both by saying something is scandalous and, ironically, too confusingly similar to something that is already registered. For example, the office refused to register "FUK!T" for being scandalous and immoral but also confusingly similar to the already-registered "PHUKIT." ''MIDDLEFINGER" was denied after "JONNY MIDDLEFINGER" was registered, and "Ko Kane" was rejected after "Kokanee" was registered. And those are just some printable examples.

Brunetti said the trademark office has registered trademarks "far more offensive than my mark."

The trademark office declined to comment on the case.

If Brunetti wins, the public is unlikely to notice a whole lot of change, his lawyer said. Retailers will decide what products are appropriate for their customers, and Target and Walmart aren't going to carry Brunetti's brand, Sommer said.

Brunetti hopes a victory at the high court will help him pursue counterfeiters. In the nearly 30 years since he began his company from his bedroom in Venice, California, he's produced thousands of clothing designs. Some of the best known are parodies involving the Ford logo and "Planet of the Apes."

These days, he directs a staff of four from a downtown Los Angeles office. They release new clothing on their website about once a month. Some items have sold out in less than a minute, and new collections are always sold out in under three days, Brunetti said. Because of the items' scarcity, some are resold on eBay for a profit, with a T-shirt that cost $40 sometimes fetching more than $100.

Brunetti said he's never met anyone truly offended by his brand.

"Most people find it clever," he said.It was a punt that will be examined for years, if not decades.

Special counsel Robert Mueller found he couldn't exonerate President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice, but he wouldn't recommend charging him, either.

In explaining the decision to eschew a "traditional prosecutorial judgment," Mueller said he faced not only having to untangle Trump's motivation for trying to curtail the Russia investigation but difficult issues of law. That included the Justice Department's position that a sitting president can't be indicted, the basic tenets of fairness in the American criminal justice system and whether some acts fell within the power of the presidency.

Mueller found that Trump made numerous attempts to interfere with the investigation but he was largely foiled  and saved by those around him, most notably former White House counsel Don McGahn. He and others either refused to follow Trump's orders or let them die quietly through inaction.

But in examining a series of episodes, Mueller laid out a process that will almost certainly be questioned during any congressional testimony and be debated in law school classrooms and bars for years to come.

From the outset, Mueller said he was bound by the Justice Department's opinion: He couldn't indict Trump. He also felt he couldn't recommend criminal charges even in a secret Justice Department memo or in a charging document filed under seal until after Trump left office.

Mueller's team worried such moves could leak, leaving Trump in the position of having a prosecutor say he committed a crime without the ability to defend himself at a public trial.

"The concerns about the fairness of such a determination would be heightened in the case of a sitting President, where a federal prosecutor's accusation of a crime, even in an internal report, could carry consequences that extend beyond the realm of criminal justice," Mueller wrote.

Mueller said he recognized that any charging recommendation could "potentially pre-empt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct," an apparent reference to Congress' impeachment powers.

But Mueller rejected Trump's lawyers' broad interpretation of presidential authority. They argued that the president has expansive powers under the law, and the special counsel couldn't investigate Trump's decisions to fire an appointee, such as FBI Director James Comey, or to try to close a federal investigation.

Mueller said he could investigate Trump and he thoroughly examined 10 episodes looking at whether there was an "obstructive act" and whether Trump had a corrupt intent.

Ultimately, he laid out the facts, finding that while there wasn't an underlying crime of Russian collusion, Trump still took steps that "were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations."

"The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful," Mueller wrote, "but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."

Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, said to find that the president obstructed justice, Mueller needed much clearer evidence that the president acted solely with "corrupt intent."

But Nick Akerman, a former federal prosecutor who served as a member of the Watergate prosecution team, said Attorney General William Barr, who cleared Trump of obstruction of justice, had "no business" doing so.

"There's just so much here it's just impossible not to conclude that he was guilty of obstruction of justice," said Akerman, who had not yet gotten through all of the report. Still, he said Mueller was bound by the Justice Department's position that a sitting president can't be indicted.

"He charged people he could charge," he said. "He couldn't charge Trump."

Meanwhile, Barr took great pains in his Thursday morning news conference ahead of the Mueller report's release to repeat the presidents rallying cry that there was no collusion. But the redacted report itself provides detailed and nuanced examples of the encounters.

Here's a look at what the Mueller report did and didn't find with respect to what the special counsel said was his investigation into conspiracy and coordination:

[[508809321 ,C]]

___

Associated Press writers Chad Day, Jessica Gresko, Zeke Miller, Eric Tucker, Michael Balsaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Desmond Butler contributed to this report.President Donald Trump has warned that Central American families are staging an "invasion" at the U.S.-Mexico border. He has threatened to take migrants to Democratic strongholds to punish political opponents. And his administration regularly complains about having to "catch and release" migrants.

At the same time, his administration has stopped using one of three family detention centers to hold parents and children and left almost 2,000 beds unused at the other two. It says it does not have the resources to transport migrants to the centers.

Immigrant advocates accuse the administration of closing off family detention to further the perception of a crisis.

The Karnes County Residential Center in Texas used to hold up to 800 parents and children at a time, who would usually be detained before an initial screening to judge whether they qualified for asylum.

But ICE last month started to release families until they were all gone from Karnes. Advocates who work there say ICE is now restricting legal access to the roughly 400 adult women being detained there.

The population at the family detention center in nearby Dilley, Texas, was also reduced and remains at roughly a quarter of its 2,400-person capacity. A 96-person facility in Pennsylvania had only 18 immigrants this week.

Meanwhile, the numbers of parents and children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have surged, leading immigration officials to declare the situation a crisis. More than 50,000 parents and children were apprehended by the Border Patrol in March, setting a monthly record.

The number of border crossings in one day sometimes exceeds ICE's total family detention space.

More than 4,800 people crossed the border in a single day this week. Almost 1,000 were traveling in three large groups, the largest of which was 375 people, Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security, said Wednesday.

The Border Patrol has stopped referring many families to ICE and instead releases them directly to nonprofit groups or drops them off at bus stations.

In a statement, ICE said the surge left it "overwhelmed" and unable to transport families from the border to the Karnes and Dilley facilities, even if both detention centers had available beds. As of Wednesday, 427 women were in custody at Karnes.

"As such, ICE has determined that, at this time, Karnes will better meet operational needs by also serving partially as an adult detention facility," the agency said.

Immigrant advocates say they do not believe that ICE cannot transport people to the facilities. They say the government has reduced family detention space for political reasons  to show that Democrats' refusal to change laws to allow for longer family detention and more deportations has left officials with no choice but to catch and release.

"We believe that this is part of trying to justify a narrative," said Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. "Trump's policies have swung from one extreme to the other. There's no consistency; there's no strategic planning."

The legal services group RAICES goes to Karnes daily to consult with detained immigrants about their asylum cases. The group says subtle policy changes at the facility have reduced legal access for detained women seeking asylum.

Since Monday, authorities at Karnes have prevented attorneys and volunteers from meeting with many large groups of migrants at once, which prevents them from quickly consulting with more people, according to Andrea Meza, RAICES' director of family detention services.

Karnes staff also stopped sending RAICES the names of detainees who put their names on sign-up sheets outside the visitation room, Meza said.

Meza said she received conflicting explanations from ICE for the changes, including that there were complaints by staff from the private contractor GEO Group, which operates Karnes.

ICE confirmed it had reduced group meetings at Karnes because "more residents are represented by private attorneys." The agency said it provided 12 hours of legal visitation at Karnes every day, more than its detention standards require.

If the changes remain in place, fewer people will be able to consult with a lawyer before asylum interviews, Meza said, and it will be harder for the group to follow up with potential asylum seekers.

"We don't know what's happening to people after their interviews," she said.The maker of OxyContin and the company's controlling family agreed Tuesday to pay a groundbreaking $270 million to Oklahoma to settle allegations they helped create the nation's deadly opioid crisis with their aggressive marketing of the powerful painkiller.

It is the first settlement to come out of the recent coast-to-coast wave of nearly 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue Pharma that threaten to push the company into bankruptcy and have stained the name of the Sackler family, whose members rank among the world's foremost philanthropists.

"The addiction crisis facing our state and nation is a clear and present danger, but we're doing something about it today," Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said.

Nearly $200 million will go toward establishing a National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, while local governments will get $12.5 million. The Sacklers are responsible for $75 million of the settlement.

In settling, the Stamford, Connecticut-based company denied any wrongdoing in connection with what Hunter called "this nightmarish epidemic" and "the worst public health crisis in our state and nation we've ever seen."

The deal comes two months before Oklahoma's 2017 lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and other drug companies was set to become the first one in the recent barrage of litigation to go to trial. The remaining defendants still face trial May 28.

Opioids, including heroin and prescription drugs like OxyContin, were a factor in a record 48,000 deaths across the U.S. in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oklahoma recorded about 400 opioid deaths that year. State officials have said that since 2009, more Oklahomans have died from opioids than in vehicle crashes.

Other states have suffered far worse, including West Virginia, with the nation's highest opioid death rate. It had over 1,000 deaths in 2017.

In a statement, Purdue Pharma said the money that will go toward addiction studies and treatment in Oklahoma will help people across the country. CEO Craig Landau said the company is committed to "help drive solutions to the opioid addiction crisis."

Plaintiffs' attorney Paul Hanly, who is not involved in the Oklahoma case but is representing scores of other governments, welcomed the deal, saying: "That suggests that Purdue is serious about trying to deal with the problem. Hopefully, this is the first of many."

But some activists were furious, saying they were denied the chance to hold Purdue Pharma fully accountable in public, in front of a jury.

"This decision is a kick in the gut to our community," said Ryan Hampton, of Los Angeles, who is recovering from opioid addiction. "We deserve to have our day in court with Purdue. The parents, the families, the survivors deserve at least that. And Oklahoma stripped that from us today."

Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin in the 1990s and marketed it hard to doctors, making tens of billions of dollars from the drug. But the company has been hit with lawsuits from state and local governments trying to hold it responsible for the scourge of addiction.

The lawsuits accuse the company of downplaying the addiction risks and pushing doctors to increase dosages even as the dangers became known. According to a court filing, Richard Sackler, then senior vice president responsible for sales, proudly told the audience at a launch party for OxyContin in 1996 that it would create a "blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition."

Earlier this month, Purdue Pharma officials acknowledged that they are considering bankruptcy . But Oklahoma's attorney general said the company gave assurances it will not take such a step in the near term. And he said the settlement money is "bankruptcy proof"  that is, "it's not at risk in the event Purdue declares bankruptcy."

Lance Lang, a 36-year-old recovering user from Oklahoma City, said he is glad some of the settlement will go toward helping those still suffering from addiction.

"My heart breaks for those that we've already lost. I've buried several myself," said Lang, who now helps recovering users find housing. "But I also know we have waiting lists of dozens and dozens for our facilities, and the state has waiting lists of hundreds and hundreds of people who need help right now."

But Cheryl Juaire, whose 23-year-old son Corey died of an overdose in 2011, said she was devastated to hear about the settlement.

Jauire, who lives in Marlborough, Massachusetts, had been organizing a group of hundreds of mothers to go to the first day of the trial and stand outside with photos of their dead children. She said a complete airing of the facts is the only way to fully hold Purdue to account.

A settlement is "a huge disservice to the tens of thousands of families here in the United States who buried a child," she said. "That's blood money from our children."

Members of the Sackler family are defendants in some of the lawsuits but were not actually parties to the Oklahoma case. The company said the family nevertheless voluntarily contributed to the settlement. "We have profound compassion for those who are affected by addiction," the family said in a statement.

The Sacklers are major donors to cultural institutions, and the family name is emblazoned on the walls at many of the world's great museums and universities. In the past few weeks, as the accusations have mounted, the Tate museums in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York have cut ties with the family, and other institutions have come under pressure to turn down donations or remove the Sackler name.

A Massachusetts court filing made public earlier this year found that Sackler family members were paid at least $4 billion from 2007 until last year.

Purdue Pharma has settled other lawsuits over the years, and three executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2007. But this is the first settlement to come out of the surge of litigation in the past few years that focuses largely on the company's more recent conduct.

More than 1,400 federal lawsuits over the opioid crisis have been consolidated in front of a single judge in Cleveland who is pushing the drug makers and distributors to reach a nationwide settlement.Protesters gathered in Hamden, Connecticut, Friday, marking a fourth day of rallies after a police-involved shooting that injured a 22-year-old woman on Tuesday.

According to Connecticut State Police, who are running the investigation, police officers from Hamden and Yale opened fire on a man and woman inside of a car Tuesday morning on Argyle Street in New Haven. The woman was hit and taken to the hospital for treatment. The man was not hurt.

A group made up of several organizations gathered at Hamden Plaza Friday afternoon to send a message to city leaders in both Hamden and New Haven, as well as Yale, that they won't accept what happened the other day. They planned to march to the Hamden Police Department later in the evening. Some said they intend to be out all night to get the message out.

"We want both of these officers fired. Because how can you do this and still walk the streets of your community? Everyone is in danger from these officers still being out there," said Jeannia Fu of New Haven, a member of the group Justice for Jayson.

Police have identified the officers involved in the shooting as Yale police officer Terrance Pollock, a 16-year veteran of the department, and Hamden police officer Devin Eaton, who has been in law enforcement for more than four years, including nearly three years with Hamden police.

Pollock and Eaton were both placed on leave from their departments amid an investigation into the shooting. No New Haven police officers were involved in the incident.

Connecticut State Police said Friday evening that they expect to release more information, including body camera footage, sometime next week.

Hamden's interim police chief said the department has agreed to make changes, including bringing in an urban trauma specialist to train officers.

According to New Haven police, the shooting happened after Hamden police received a 911 call at 4:19 a.m. Tuesday about the attempted armed robbery of a newspaper delivery person at the Gas and Go gas station at 144 Arch St. in Hamden.

Eaton and Pollock located a vehicle at Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street. According to state police, "the suspected party exited the vehicle in an abrupt manner and turned toward officers." Both officers opened fire on a man and woman inside the car.

Surveillance video that apparently captured the incident does not show those movements. Witnesses said they saw police ordering both the man and woman to get out after they stopped shooting. State police said no weapon was found in the car.

Since the shooting, protesters have been putting pressure on city leaders to release body camera footage of the shooting.

Leaders from both cities and Yale have promised full cooperation and transparency in the investigation.

State Police are continuing their investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact them.Giving himself credit for tough diplomacy, President Donald Trump is describing a burst of activity by Mexican authorities to keep Central American migrants from getting to the U.S. border.

That's an apparent mirage as Trump retreats from his latest threat to seal off the U.S. from Mexico.

Trump was wrong when he said last week that Mexico was doing "NOTHING" about migrants coming north. It markedly tightened migration controls during the Obama administration and detained over 30,000 foreigners in the first three months of this year.

And it's not evident now that Mexico has suddenly cracked down as a result of his threat, "apprehending everybody" and making "absolutely terrific progress" in just a matter of days, as Trump put it Friday. Mexico's apprehensions of foreigners have not surged.

During his visit to the border in Southern California on Friday, Trump denounced a landmark immigration case he blamed on "Judge Flores, whoever you may be." The case in question was named for Jenny Flores, a migrant teenager from El Salvador in the 1980s, not a judge.

Trump's recent statements on border matters and how they compare with the facts:

MEXICO

TRUMP, on why he is pulling back on sealing the border imminently: "Because Mexico has been absolutely terrific for the last four days. They're apprehending everybody. Yesterday they apprehended 1,400 people. The day before was 1,000. And if they apprehend people at their southern border where they don't have to walk through, that's a big home run. We can handle it from there. It's really good. ... Mexico, for the last four days, it's never happened like that in 35 years." remarks to reporters Friday.

TRUMP: "Mexico has brought people back, they've told people you can't come in. And that's happened really, they've done, as I understand it, over 1,000 today, over 1,000 people yesterday, over 1,000 people the day before that. Before that they never did anything."  remarks to reporters Thursday.

THE FACTS: This depiction of Mexico going from strikeout to home run is inaccurate at both ends.

Mexico reports that its interception and detention of migrants from the south are "about average" in recent months. Over the first three days of April, it apprehended 1,259 foreigners  not 1,000 or more a day, as Trump claimed.

"There is no very substantive change," Mexico's foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, said this week. "There has not been a drastic change."

"I don't know what (Trump) was referring to," he added.

Mexico is requiring migrants to register with authorities, but that's been the case since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office Dec. 1, Ebrard said. "What Mexico is doing as far as the review of the southern border  well, it's the same thing it has been doing since this government began." On Thursday, Mexico's ambassador to the U.S., Martha Barcena, told The Associated Press her country is working to make its own border "more orderly" but "migration will never be stopped."

Mexico took a substantial step in 2014, implementing a "Southern Border Plan" that established checkpoints and raids to discourage migrants from riding trains or buses from Guatemala. Its detention of foreigners, almost all Central Americans, surged to 198,141 over the next year, from 127,149. Last year, it detained 138,612.

The White House has refused to substantiate Trump's claim about Mexico's migrant apprehensions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday credited Mexico with the "will" to help stem migration, but he did not cite results. Even as Trump claimed a Mexican crackdown, Pompeo said the U.S. needs to see action from Mexico, telling Fox News that it's "one thing to talk about it."

Trump has abandoned his vow to shut the border imminently. He now says that if Mexico does not continue cooperating on migrants, he will try to put heavy duties on autos from Mexico and revive his border-closure threat if that doesn't work.

___

THE FLORES SETTLEMENT

TRUMP: "The Flores decision is a disaster, I have to tell you. Judge Flores, whoever you may be, that decision is a disaster for our country, a disaster."  remarks at a meeting with local officials in Southern California.

THE FACTS: There's no Judge Flores involved. Jenny Flores , a 15-year-old El Salvador native, was held in what her advocates said were substandard conditions, contending she was strip-searched in custody and housed with men. They launched a class-action lawsuit on behalf of migrant children in the country illegally. Her mother was a housekeeper in the U.S. who feared deportation if she picked up her daughter.

The case worked its way to the Supreme Court, which sided with the government and against the girl's advocates. But the case gave rise to an agreement in 1997 setting conditions for the detention of migrant children and the codifying of those conditions in law a decade later. It generally bars the government from keeping children in immigration detention for more than 20 days and guides how they are to be treated.First they cooperated. Then they stonewalled. Their television interviews were scattershot and ridiculed, their client mercurial and unreliable.

But President Donald Trump's legal team, through a combination of bluster, legal precedent and shifting tactics, managed to protect their client from a potentially perilous in-person interview during special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. His lawyers are taking a victory lap after a redacted version of Mueller's findings revealed politically damaging conduct by the president but drew no conclusions of criminal behavior.

"Our strategy came to be that when we weren't talking, we were losing," Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's lawyers, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. Given that Mueller could not indict a sitting president, Giuliani said, the team kept its focus on Mueller's "capacity to report, so we had to play in the media as well as legally."

The aftershocks from the Mueller report released Thursday will help shape the next two years of Trump's administration. But while the report may cause some Democrats to take a renewed look at impeachment despite long odds of success in Congress, the legal threat to Trump that seemed so dangerous upon Mueller's appointment in May 2017 has waned.

At the outset, that appointment led Trump to predict "the end of my presidency." The White House struggled to recruit top Washington attorneys, many of whom were reluctant to work for a temperamental, scandal-prone president who repeatedly claimed he would be his own best legal mind.

The initial strategy of the Trump legal team, including White House attorney Ty Cobb and personal defense lawyer John Dowd, was to be as cooperative as possible with Mueller's prosecutors and ensure that investigators got access to the documents they requested and the witnesses they wanted to interview. The Trump lawyers hoped to bring about a quick conclusion to the investigation.

Believing he could exonerate himself, Trump initially expressed a willingness to sit for an interview with Mueller's team. A date was set for that to take place at Camp David. But then the president's lawyers moved away from the plan, in part by arguing that the special counsel already had gotten answers to his questions.

"It became the most transparent investigation in history," Jay Sekulow, one of the president's personal lawyers, said in an interview.

Still, there was internal tumult along the way, including the March 2018 departure of Dowd, a veteran and experienced criminal defense attorney, and the additions of Giuliani and the husband-wife team of Martin and Jane Raskin.

Even as the legal team professed cooperation with Mueller's prosecutors, the lawyers expressed impatience, frustration and skepticism in a series of private letters that challenged the credibility of the government's witnesses and the demands to interview the president.

In a November 2018 correspondence, one of a series of letters obtained by news outlets, the president's legal team attacked the questions Mueller wanted to ask the president as "burdensome if submitted to a routine witness, let alone presented to the president of the United States, more than two years after the events at issue while he continued to navigate numerous, serious matters of state, national security and domestic emergency."

Those private complaints were dwarfed by louder public protests. Trump spent months engaging in daily, sometimes hourly, attacks on Mueller's team, declaring the investigation a "Witch Hunt" and questioning the integrity of the investigators.

Giuliani, in many ways more of a television spokesman than conventional lawyer, amplified those attacks. He went so far as to accuse the investigators of misconduct and to portray Mueller, who as a Marine officer had led a rifle platoon in Vietnam, as unpatriotic.

The former New York City mayor became a human smoke screen, making accusations and offering theories often meant to distract and obfuscate. He was a punch line on cable news channels, and his interviews were mocked as blunder-filled performances.

But there was a method to Giuliani's shtick, at least at times. More than once he let slip revelations that initially were perceived as gaffes but later were recognized as efforts to get out ahead of potentially damaging news stories. Two examples include payments to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress who claimed an affair with Trump, and a letter of intent to build a Trump Tower Moscow.

There were missteps, too.

The interviews granted by White House staffers filled the pages of the Mueller report with stories of West Wing chaos. At least one interaction caught Mueller's attention as a possible effort to discourage a witness from cooperating against the president.

Trump's lawyers communicated regularly with attorneys for other people under scrutiny in the investigation as part of a joint-defense agreement that enabled them to swap information. But the report reveals that after former national security adviser Michael Flynn withdrew from the agreement and began cooperating with the government, an unidentified Trump lawyer left a message with Flynn's attorneys reminding them that the president still had warm feelings for Flynn and asking for a "heads-up" if Flynn knew damaging information about the president.

While Giuliani, with an eye toward the members of Congress who might eventually decide the president's fate, focused on the public relations battle, the legal team also worked behind the scenes to argue that Mueller could not use a subpoena to compel Trump to give an in-person interview, which carried potentially grave risks for a president prone to making false statements.

"I think they were right to think that it would hurt him to speak to Mueller's team, and as it turns out, they were right to think that he could get away with refusing to speak with Mueller's team," said Stanford law school professor David Alan Sklansky.

Mueller's team, which spent about a year negotiating with Trump's lawyers over a potential interview, ultimately agreed to accept written answers on Russia-related questions but never spoke with the president in person.

Making the move to block an interview was "defense lawyering 101" because defense lawyers as a matter of course don't like to let clients in legal jeopardy speak to investigators, said Duke law professor Samuel Buell.

Mueller never acted to subpoena Trump. The special counsel did not conclude that Trump's campaign colluded with Russians. With an eye on following a Justice Department legal opinion that prohibits indicting a sitting president, Mueller did not rule on whether Trump obstructed justice. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein declared that Trump did not.

"We're very, very happy. I mean, it's a clear victory. I think any lawyer would say when you get a declination, you just won," Giuliani told Fox News after the report came out.

Buell said it is hard to know how much credit belonged to Trump's lawyers.

"I think that's where the real lawyering in a situation like this goes on, is the client management piece," he said. "Trump doesn't like to be managed, clearly ... but the Mueller report won't tell you what went on with the president's private lawyers and the president."

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.San Diego police have identified a woman found dead inside her home in Colina Del Sol earlier this week after her daughter  concerned her mother wasnt answering her calls  went to check on her.

San Diego Police Department Acting Lt. Chris Tivanian said Roun Choeun, 53, suffered traumatic injuries to her upper body at her home in the 4000 block of Estrella Avenue Thursday night.

According to investigators, it was Choeuns own adult daughter who discovered her mothers body at around 8 p.m. that night. The daughter told police she had been trying to call her mom but grew worried after she couldnt reach her.

The daughter went to the moms home to check on her. Inside, police said the daughter discovered her mother injured and unconscious. She called 911.

When officers arrived at the home three minutes later, Tivanian said Choeun was declared dead at the scene. Police have not yet specified the nature of Choeuns injuries.

The investigation is ongoing and police are still gathering evidence to determine the events that led to the homicide. As of Saturday morning, police did not have a suspect in custody. Anyone with information on this case can reach out to the SDPD Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

On Friday, Choeuns neighbors told NBC 7 the victim lived at the home on Estrella Avenue with a man, either her boyfriend or husband. Neighbors said Choeun babysat her grandchild during the day and also collected cans around the area to make ends meet. The couple was described as quiet, and neighbors said they mostly kept to themselves.

On Friday, flowers had been left outside the victims home as a small memorial to Choeun.Dozens of San Diegans gathered along the boardwalk in Mission Beach Saturday to protest against electric scooters -- a mode of transportation seen often these days on the stretch of sidewalk along the beach community.

They gathered in an effort to get electric scooters banned from all city sidewalks because they believe it is dangerous to public safety.

You have difficulty because you never know when you're going to get hit, how about walking out of a store here in Mission Beach and having a scooter wiz by you. It's just ridiculous, said Mike Niel, a Mission Beach Resident.

Led by members of the Mission Beach Town Council, protestors want to get the attention of all San Diego City Council members in advance of Tuesday's big scooter meeting.

Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer released a set of proposed regulations for dockless scooters back in February. These include limiting the maximum speed of motorized scooters in designated zones, vehicle staging and parking, rider education, data sharing, fees and legal indemnification for the City of San Diego. City council will debate these regulations Tuesday at 2p.m.

Members of MBTC believe council members from other districts don't truly understand the situation here - but to get the scooters banned from sidewalks they'll need a council majority.

We got to ban together here and I know the juror of San Diego will be favorable because everyone has experienced some bad things," said Niel.The life of late pilot Jerrie Cobb  Americas first-ever female astronaut candidate  was filled with ups and downs in a time in history where sexism kept her from reaching the stars, despite her skills.

"One of the most remarkable things about her story is that no one knows her story," said actress Morgan Hallett, who portrays Cobb in a new play about her life, currently on stage at The Old Globe in Balboa Park.

Hallett, who last appeared in The Old Globe's "Time and the Conways," steps on stage eight times a week as Cobb in "They Promised Her the Moon."

The play, written by Laurel Ollstein, tells the true story of Cobbs life and career.

Cobb passed away in March at age 88 following a brief illness; her death was confirmed for the first time on Thursday.

In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing, outperforming many male candidates. The pilot was one of the Mercury 13, a group of 13 women who passed the strenuous physical testing to become astronauts.

However, the Mercury 13 never went to space; NASA had already appointed its Mercury 7 astronauts, all men, despite the women's qualifications.

Even though Hallett plays Cobb, she only learned of Cobb's incredible story once she picked up the script for the play -- much like the many people now learning of Cobb's accomplishments following her death.

"The fact that someone had accomplished so much at a time when women accomplishing things was kind of a big deal...it's kind of amazing that in 2019, we still don't know who she is and who the rest of the women who were involved with the Mercury 13 are," Cobb said.

Instead of becoming an astronaut, Cobb became a consultant for NASA's space program. Despite her shy nature, Hallett said, she was vocal about the frustrations she faced.

NASA dismissed her one week after she commented: "I'm the most unconsulted consultant in any government agency."

Cobb ended up testifying in 1962 before a Congressional panel, a year after she passed the test to become an astronaut. "They Promised Her The Moon" playwright Laurel Ollstein used many of these excerpts from the Congressional panel verbatim.

For many audience members, Hallett said, hearing some of the overt sexism is jarring.

"For men in the audience, often it's quite astonishing to hear men that they idolized, perhaps, men of their age, and their opinions and attitudes toward women and women specifically in the space program," Hallett said. "I think sometimes just hearing those quotes, hearing what people actually felt and said, is pretty eye-opening."

"You think, 'There's no way, people didn't really say that, people didn't really think those things,' but sometimes the truth is more appalling than fiction," Hallett added.

In her testimony to a special House subcommittee on the selection of astronauts, Cobb said the women of Mercury 13 only wanted a place in space "without discrimination."

Cobb's story serves as an inspiration to many who see it unfold live on stage. But for some audience members, Hallett said, it also serves as an eye-opening reminder for how far society still has to go.

"This is a very positive and uplifting play in a lot of ways, in most ways, but I do think there is that seed of: this is what happened and it was a real tragedy and we have to keep our wits about us, because it's still happening in certain ways," Hallett said.

Cobb's story became all the more awe-inspiring to Hallett when she learned in rehearsals how shy and soft-spoken the pilot was throughout her life. Cobb did not like the limelight and shied away from attention and notoriety.

"It makes it amazing, it terms of what she accomplished," Hallett said.

But Cobb pushed all that side to fight for what she loved and what she believed in, oftentimes going against big institutions like NASA and society's sexism. In some cases, media outlets went as far as writing out her measurements.

"I want people to walk away knowing [Cobb's] story, because it is an incredible story and a story we should know and should have known for a long time," Hallett said.

More importantly, Hallett said, she hopes audiences and readers alike realize that Cobb is not alone. Throughout history, there have been many stories like Cobb's story, even outside of space and flying.

"I mean women in history who's stories have not been heard, have not been told, have not been recorded even, because they weren't deemed important, because they weren't the men, they weren't the ones who ultimately probably succeeded or got notoriety," Hallett said.

"There's a lot of Jerrie Cobbs out there, and Jerrie Cobb is one of them," she added.

At the end of it all, Cobb was dealt a devastating blow: she was never able to pursue her dream and become an astronaut. Cobb became a humanitarian aid pilot in the Amazon jungle, though she followed developments in space for many years.

It took years for NASA to fly a woman in space. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983, over two decades after Cobb passed the test with flying colors.

But despite the set-backs, Cobb kept going and found happiness in other ways, Hallett said, and she helped break down the barriers for women to come.

"She's not the only one," Hallett said. "Hopefully, there will be many Jerrie Cobbs to come, and hopefully, the doors are open a little bit wider for them."

"They Promised Her The Moon" runs through May 12 at The Old Globe. You can buy tickets here.A man suspected of involvement in a mysterious dissident group's February raid on North Korea's Embassy in Madrid was arrested in Los Angeles by U.S. authorities.

Christopher Ahn, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested and charged Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The specific charges against Ahn were not immediately clear.

The person could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Separately, on Thursday, federal agents raided the apartment of Adrian Hong, a leader of the Free Joseon group, the person said. Hong was not arrested.

Free Joseon, also known as the Cheollima Civil Defense group, styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea.

The group said it consists of North Korean defectors living in countries around the world, but that it has not worked with or contacted defectors "living under tight security" in South Korea.

Lee Wolosky, a lawyer for the group, said in a statement that he was "dismayed that the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to execute warrants against U.S. persons that derive from criminal complaints filed by the North Korean regime."

"The last U.S. citizen who fell into the custody of the Kim regime returned home maimed from torture and did not survive," Wolosky said, referring to college student Otto Warmbier's 2017 death.

"We have received no assurances from the U.S. government about the safety and security of the U.S. nationals it is now targeting," he added.

A Spanish police investigator in the case told The Associated Press in Madrid on Saturday that Ahn was identified by the Spanish police at a later stage of its investigation into the Feb. 22 raid and that an international arrest warrant was also issued against him.

That's in addition to warrants issued for the other suspects named last month in Spanish court documents.

The investigator, who spoke under condition of anonymity given the sensitivities of the case, said that because of judicial secrecy, he couldn't confirm how many arrest warrants had been issued by Spanish authorities beyond the two initially confirmed.

A Spanish judge said an investigation uncovered evidence that "a criminal organization" shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents.

Cheollima said on its website that it was responding to an urgent situation at the embassy and was invited onto the property, and that "no one was gagged or beaten."

The group said there were "no other governments involved with or aware of our activity until after the event."

The Spanish court report said the intruders urged North Korea's only accredited diplomat in Spain, So Yun Sok, to defect.

In March 2017, the group said it had arranged the escape of Kim Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who was assassinated at a Malaysian airport earlier that year.

The Cheollima website said the group shared "certain information of enormous potential value" from the raid with the FBI, under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality.

According to the Spanish court report, Hong flew to the United States on Feb. 23, got in touch with the FBI and offered to share material and videos. The report didn't say what type of information the items contained or whether the FBI accepted the offer.

The FBI said its standard practice is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations.A man suspected of an armed robbery in Arlington County, Virginia, apparently crashed his getaway car into the water of the Potomac River off the George Washington Parkway Sunday, Arlington County police said.

Freddie Lee McRae, 33, fled after an armed robbery in the 2600 block of Columbia Pike in Arlington just after 5 p.m. Sunday, police said.

The suspect entered a business on Columbia Pike, took out a gun and then fled from the scene with stolen cash, police said.

An officer saw McRae's vehicle and tried to stop him on I-395 North at Boundary Channel, but he took off when the officer got out of his car, according to police.

Officers then pursued him on northbound George Washington Parkway.

Police say McRae drove on the pedestrian path, turned around and began driving southbound in the northbound lanes of GW Parkway. Officers then stopped the pursuit.

McRae continued driving toward the Potomac River and as the vehicle careened into the river, McRae went into the water and tried to swim away, police said.

POLICE ACTIVITY: ACPD has taken one suspect into custody following an armed robbery in the 2600 block of Columbia Pike. Suspect fled the scene and crashed into the water at NB GW Parkway at I395. The investigation is ongoing. Expect police activity in the area. https://t.co/8QDWnwvqcd  ArlingtonCountyPD (@ArlingtonVaPD) April 21, 2019

McRae was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

He was arrested and charged with robbery, felony eluding and related firearms charges.

Arlington police said they are not looking for additional suspects and received no additional reports of injuries or property damage.

The Arlington County Fire Department, U.S. Park Police, Metropolitan Police Department and other agencies are assisting with the investigation.What to Know The victims are Samuel Moss, 35; Shyra Harris, 24; Antonio Price, 27, and Jasmine Davis, 21, police said.

Loved ones of the four people who were killed after an SUV struck a utility pole gathered for a vigil Saturday in Prince George's County, Maryland.

The victims, Samuel Moss, 35, Shyra Harris, 24, Antonio Price, 27, and Jasmine Davis, 21, were riding in an SUV headed west when they crashed.

ALL WEVE DONE IS CRY: Family and friends gather at the crash site on Sheriff Rd. where 4 people died Thurs night. Loved ones released balloons to honor Samuel Moss (35), Antonio Price (27), Shyra Harris (24), and Jasmine Davis (21) https://t.co/U2J4vzzCRt @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/7xW415Dh0b  Aimee Cho (@AimeeCho4) April 20, 2019

"I haven't really cried yet, because I don't want to believe that this is happening," Mildred Asante, the mother of Price, said.

"He was the protector of the family, even though he was the little brother," Shannon Collins, Price's brother, said.

At the vigil, attendees hugged and cried before a balloon release to honor the four dead.

Police said the SUV the four people were riding in was heading west on Sheriff Road between Cedar Heights Drive and Cypresstree Drive around 10:30 p.m. Thursday when the driver swerved to avoid an approaching car that was making a left turn.

"Up ahead there is another car trying to make a left turn, Prince Georges County police spokesperson Jennifer Donelan said. When the Chevy Tahoe approaches that car, there is a maneuver where the driver tries to get around the car that's waiting to make the left turn."

The driver lost control and the SUV struck a curb, rolled over several times and took out mailboxes before hitting the utility pole and taking down power lines, police said.

Police initially thought two of the victims had been pedestrians but later determined they had been ejected from the car.

Police are investigating the accident and say it could take months to complete.Some Democratic contenders for president aren't saying whether they would re-open investigations into President Donald Trump if they were to oust him from the White House in 2020.

Their reluctance comes as some liberals, including fellow 2020 challenger Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have increased the pressure on Democratic leaders to pursue impeachment following the release of a redacted version of the Mueller report.

During recent stops in early-voting states, two U.S. senators in the race and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg wouldn't say whether they'd press the Justice Department to reopen investigations into Trump.

"Well, let's see because when I'm elected president that will still be about two years from now, so ask me that question then," Sen. Kamala Harris of California said Saturday while campaigning in South Carolina.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Buttigieg focused on existing investigations of the president. Campaigning in Nevada on Friday, Booker said it's premature to say whether he would instruct his attorney general to reopen the Trump investigations if he's elected president.

"You are talking about January 2021," Booker told reporters in Reno. "We have a lot of investigations that are going on right now."

Buttigieg echoed that sentiment Friday as he prepared to campaign in New Hampshire this weekend, saying that "it depends what the basis for it is."

"It's certainly the case that there are various unanswered questions," he said. "I don't know that that has to happen from a president directing an attorney general to do something, though, because a lot of this just works through the legal system."

A voter attending a house party for Warren in New Hampshire on Saturday thanked her for calling for impeachment. However, some Democratic voters are wary of how impeachment could embolden Trump supporters.

Associated Press writer Juana Summers and Scott Sonner contributed to this report.North Korea said Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of "tactical guided weapon," its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations.

The test, which didn't appear to be of a banned mid- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle negotiations, allows North Korea to show its people it is pushing ahead with weapons development while also reassuring domestic military officials worried that diplomacy with Washington signals weakness.

Separately, the North Korean Foreign Ministry accused Pompeo of playing down the significance of comments by leader Kim Jong Un, who said last week that Washington has until the end of the year to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy. Both the demand for Pompeo's removal from the talks and the weapon test point to North Korea's displeasure with the deadlocked negotiations.

In a statement issued under the name of Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the American Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry, North Korea accused Pompeo of "talking nonsense" and misrepresenting Kim's comments.

During a speech at Texas A&M on Monday, Pompeo said Kim promised to denuclearize during his first summit with President Donald Trump and that U.S. officials were working with the North Koreans to "chart a path forward so we can get there."

"He (Kim) said he wanted it done by the end of the year," Pompeo said. "I'd love to see that done sooner."

The North Korean statement said Pompeo was "misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement" for the negotiations to be finalized by the year's end, and referred to his "talented skill of fabricating stories." It said Pompeo's continued participation in the negotiations would ensure that the talks become "entangled" and called for a different counterpart who is "more careful and mature in communicating with us."

In Washington, the State Department said in a short statement that "We are aware of the report. The United States remains ready to engage North Korea in a constructive negotiation."

In a speech at his rubber-stamp parliament last week, Kim said he is open to a third summit with Trump, but only if the United States changes its stance on sanctions enforcement and pressure by the end of the year.

Kim observed the unspecified weapon being fired Wednesday by the Academy of Defense Science, the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Kim was reported to have said "the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People's Army."

The Associated Press could not independently verify North Korea's claim, and it wasn't immediately clear what had been tested. A major ballistic missile test would jeopardize the diplomatic talks meant to provide the North with concessions in return for disarmament. A South Korean analyst said that details in the North's media report indicate it could have been a new type of cruise missile. Another possible clue: one of the lower level officials mentioned in the North's report on the test  Pak Jong Chon  is known as an artillery official.

Some in Seoul worry that the North will turn back to actions seen as provocative by outsiders as a way to force Washington to drop its hard-line negotiating stance and grant the North's demand for a removal of crushing international sanctions. A string of increasingly powerful weapons tests in 2017 and Trump's response of "fire and fury" had many fearing war before the North shifted to diplomacy.

Russia announced Thursday that Kim will visit later this month for talks at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, but gave no further details. Russian media have been abuzz in recent days with rumors about the rare meeting between the leaders.

Putin is to visit China later this month, and some media speculated that he could meet with Kim in Vladivostok, the far eastern port city near the border with North Korea.

Trump said last month that he "would be very disappointed if I saw testing." There have been fresh reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research center and long-range rocket site where the North is believed to build missiles targeting the U.S. mainland. North Korean media said Wednesday that Kim guided a flight drill of combat pilots from an air force and anti-aircraft unit tasked with defending the North from an attack.

Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said North Korea's descriptions of the test show the weapon is possibly a newly developed cruise missile. The North's report said the "tactical guided weapon" successfully tested in a "peculiar mode of guiding flight" and demonstrated the ability to deliver a "powerful warhead."

The analyst said the test could also be intended as a message to the North Korean people and military of a commitment to maintaining a strong level of defense even as it continues talks with Washington over nukes.

Melissa Hanham, a non-proliferation expert and director of the Datayo Project at the One Earth Future Foundation, said the North Korean weapon could be anything from an anti-tank weapon to a cruise missile.

The North said Thursday that Kim Jong Un mounted an observation post to learn about and guide the test-fire of the weapon.

This is the first known time Kim has observed the testing of a newly developed weapon system since last November, when North Korean media said he watched the successful test of an unspecified "newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon." Some observers have been expecting North Korea to orchestrate "low-level provocations," like artillery or short-range missile tests, to register its anger over the way nuclear negotiations were going.

North Korean officials accompanying Kim at the test included Ri Pyong Chol and Kim Jong Sik, two senior officials from the North's Munitions Industry Department who have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for their activities related to the country's ballistic missile program. Ri is believed to be a key official involved in North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile development, while Kim Jong Sik has been linked to the country's efforts to build solid-fuel missiles. The Pyongyang-based Munitions Industry Department is sanctioned both by the United States and the U.N. Security Council.

"Even if this is not a 'missile' test the way we strictly define it, these people and MID are all sanctioned entities for a reason," Hanham said.

The White House said it was aware of the report and had no comment. The Pentagon also said it was aware but had no information to provide at this point. South Korea's presidential office said it has no immediate comment. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it is analyzing the test but did not specifically say what the weapon appeared to be.

After the animosity of 2017, last year saw a stunning turn to diplomacy, culminating in the first-ever summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Singapore, and then the Hanoi talks this year. North Korea has suspended nuclear and long-range rocket tests, and the North and South Korean leaders have met three times. But there are growing worries that the progress could be killed by mismatched demands between the U.S. and North Korea over sanctions relief and disarmament.

Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim, Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.Two months before special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in the spring of 2017, President Donald Trump picked up the phone and called the head of the largest U.S. intelligence agency. Trump told Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, that news stories alleging that Trump's 2016 White House campaign had ties to Russia were false and the president asked whether Rogers could do anything to counter them.

Rogers and his deputy Richard Ledgett, who was present for the call, were taken aback.

Afterward, Ledgett wrote a memo about the conversation and Trump's request. He and Rogers signed it and stashed it in a safe. Ledgett said it was the "most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service."

Trump's outreach to Rogers, who retired last year, and other top intelligence officials stands in sharp contrast to his public, combative stance toward his intelligence agencies. At the time of the call, Trump was just some 60 days into his presidency, but he already had managed to alienate large parts of the intelligence apparatus with comments denigrating the profession.

Since then, Trump only has dug in. He said at a news conference in Helsinki after his 2017 summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that he gave weight to Putin's denial that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, despite the firm conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that it had. "I don't see any reason why it would be" Russia, Trump said. And earlier this year, Trump called national security assessments "naive," tweeting "perhaps intelligence should go back to school."

Yet in moments of concern as Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election got underway, Trump turned to his spy chiefs for help.

The phone call to Rogers on March 26, 2017, came only weeks after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions had angered Trump by stepping aside from the investigation. James Comey, the FBI director who would be fired that May, had just told Congress that the FBI was not only investigating Russian meddling in the election, but also possible links or coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

The call to Rogers and others like it were uncovered by Mueller as he investigated possible obstruction. In his 448-page report released Thursday, Mueller concluded that while Trump attempted to seize control of the Russia investigation and bring it to a halt, the president was ultimately thwarted by those around him.

The special counsel said the evidence did not establish that Trump asked or directed intelligence officials to "stop or interfere with the FBI's Russia investigation." The requests to those officials, Mueller said, "were not interpreted by the officials who received them as directives to improperly interfere with the investigation."

During the call to Rogers, the president "expressed frustration with the Russia investigation, saying that it made relations with the Russians difficult," according to the report.

Trump said news stories linking him with Russia were not true and he asked Rogers "if he could do anything to refute the stories." Even though Rogers signed the memo about the conversation and put it in a safe, he told investigators he did not think Trump was giving him an order.

Trump made a number of similar requests of other top intelligence officials.

On March 22, 2017, Trump asked then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats to stay behind after a meeting at the White House to ask if the men could "say publicly that no link existed between him and Russia," the report said.

In two other instances, the president began meetings to discuss sensitive intelligence matters by stating he hoped a media statement could be issued saying there was no collusion with Russia.

After Trump repeatedly brought up the Russia investigation with his national intelligence director, "Coats said he finally told the President that Coats's job was to provide intelligence and not get involved in investigations," the report said.

Pompeo recalled that Trump regularly urged officials to get the word out that he had not done anything wrong related to Russia. But Pompeo, now secretary of state, said he had no recollection of being asked to stay behind after the March 22 meeting, according to the report.

Coats told Mueller's investigators that Trump never asked him to speak with Comey about the FBI investigation. But other employees within Coats' office had different recollections of how Coats described the meeting immediately after it occurred.

According to the report, senior staffer Michael Dempsey "said that Coats described the president's comments as falling 'somewhere between musing about hating the investigation' and wanting Coats to 'do something to stop it.' Dempsey said Coats made it clear that he would not get involved with an ongoing FBI investigation."The Episcopal bishop whose stirring sermon about the power of love at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle inspired people around the world is returning to Massachusetts.

The Most Rev. Michael Curry is scheduled to bring his "Way of Love" message to several gatherings next week, culminating in a public rally on April 27 on Boston Common at 5 p.m. It is open to all.

His schedule includes gatherings at parishes affected by last fall's natural gas disaster in the Merrimack Valley and with youth and young adults at Boston University and the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston. He'll attend Sunday services at Grace Chapel, an Episcopal-Anglican startup ministry in Brockton, April 28.

Curry, the Episcopal Church's chief pastor, serves as president and chief executive officer.After celebrating Easter Mass, Cardinal Sean OMalley condemned the terrorist attacks at Catholic churches in Sri Lanka, calling religious persecution a terrible scourge.

OMalley, the archbishop of Boston, said he learned of the attacks during Sundays Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End.

Religious persecution throughout the world is such a terrible scourge, he said. We have to place our lives in Gods hands in these moments of darkness to know that only He can heal the hatred and the sin and the violence that divides us as a human family.

Thusith Mahanama, a member of the Sri Lanka Association of New England, called his family after learning of the bombings.

Everybody was very shocked and kind of looking for answers, he said. First thing  call my parents. Make sure theyre okay. Luckily, everybodys good.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh offered his support, writing on Twitter: Targeting innocent people on a holy weekend in places of worship is horrifying. My prayers are with the people of Sri Lanka today as we mourn the loss of their loved ones. Together, we will stand united against hate and violence.A man's body has been found in a lake in Springfield, Massachusetts, according to officials.

The body was found in Porter Lake in Forest Park on Sunday morning. Springfield Fire says emergency crews found the body after receiving reports of a body seen floating in the water.

Crews were originally looking for the reported body in Echo Pond around 9 a.m. Sunday.

Springfield police have not provided any information at this time.

This article will be updated as more information is made available.Massachusetts State Police arrested a man wanted for kidnapping in Concord, Massachusetts.

Alexis Alex Martinez, 18, of Londonderry, New Hampshire was arrested for kidnapping, use of motor vehicle without authority and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. The case allegedly originated in Londonderry.

On April 14th, Massachusetts State Police received an emergency call that a juvenile female was being held against her will by her ex-boyfriend, Martinez. A state trooper located the vehicle on I-495 and stopped it in Littleton, Massachusetts.

Troopers took Martinez into custody and rescued the female. She suffered minor injuries to her hands and forearms in self-defense. She was later reunited with her mother and sought medical treatment.

The victim says she came across Martinez in Londonderry and he began to follow her on Route 102. She pulled over to the side of the road to let him pass, when he allegedly stopped and approached her vehicle, which was locked.

Martinez gained entry inside the victims vehicle where her pushed her to the passenger seat.

The victim was able to send text messages which assisted police in locating her in Massachusetts.

Londonderry Police sought warrant charging Martinez for kidnapping and assault.

Martinez was arrested on April 18th and released on a personal recognizance bail with an arraignment date in Rockingham County Superior Court in Brentwood, New Hampshire.A teenager is in critical condition after a police-involved shooting in Wethersfield that closed the Silas Deane Highway in both directions on Saturday night.

According to Sgt. Dwight Washington, two Wethersfield police officers were attempting to make a traffic stop around 6 p.m. in the area of the Silas Deane Highway and Maple Street when there was a collision between the suspects vehicle and one of the cruisers.

Troopers said a Wethersfield police officer shot at the driver of a vehicle, later identified as 18-year-old Anthony Jose Vega Cruz, of Wethersfield, as it was veering towards the officer.

One of the Wethersfield police officers exited his vehicle at that time the suspects vehicle motioned towards that officer, he said. Thats when the officer fired his gun.

Police said Cruz was taken to the hospital. He is currently in critical condition.

His passenger, a teenager later identified as 18-year-old Stephanie Santiago, of Hartford, was not injured, police said. She was detained by Wethersfield Police and was released a short time later.

No police officers were injured.

Late Saturday night, state police said their investigation was underway and they expected the area to be closed for a couple more hours. The Silas Deane Highway was closed from Maple Street to Mill Street, but has since reopened.

Residents of Signal View Apartments had a front row seat for the scary evening.

Patrick Guzzardi watched out his window as police were trying to stop the fleeing car. A car comes speeding down like the highway here. It swerved and hit a telephone pole. Shots were fired and that same car drove towards the Valero that way, he said.

Surrounded by crime tape, two bullet holes are easily seen in the cars windshield.

Linda Buczynski was in her car just a couple of blocks from her apartment when she got caught in the chaos, and then I look over to the right and I see an officer get out of his car with a rifle with a scope on it and he comes running by me and I started panicking a little bit I said, oh my God! What should I do? Should I get out of the car? I was fearing for my own life and my own safety.

Some neighbors cant believe what they saw going down in Wethersfield. This doesnt happen here. I lived in Wethersfield 25 years. I never seen this. To have it happen right here, said Jill Brooker.A Lunenburg Police Department K9 found children who had been trapped in an underground bunker on Friday.

According to police, they were dispatched to Devens, Massachusetts, to assist in locating a group of kids who were trapped inside an underground bunker somewhere in the area of Mirror Lake.

The kids had gone exploring in the area, entered the bunker and got trapped inside when the wind blew the door shut, police said.

The kids were able to reach their arm far enough out of an air vent to get cell phone reception and call for help. They were unsure exactly where they were, but dispatchers were able to get enough information to narrow down the search area.

When officers arrived on scene, they brought Jerry, a police K9, near the kids's vehicle. Jerry tracked across the street, alongside the road, through the woods and to a buried bunker approximately half a mile from the starting point.

Officers were able to force open the door, freeing the kids from the bunker.

Police say the kids were unhurt and sent home.

According to police, the kids were reportedly trapped for an hour and a half.Striking Stop & Shop supermarket workers and company officials are resuming negotiations.

Representatives for both sides tell The Boston Globe that bargaining will resume on Sunday. Talks went late into the night on Saturday.

United Food and Commercial Workers union members at 240 Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut went on strike on April 11.

They are protesting what they call cuts to health care and take-home pay in the company's latest contract proposal.

Stop & Shop says it is offering across-the-board raises and "excellent'' health care benefits that beat industry standards.

Stop & Shop said Saturday that some stores in the three states will remain closed, but the rest would be open from 8 a.m. to noon on Easter Sunday.Flood warnings are continuing along low-lying areas in parts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont where rivers are overflowing with runoff from spring snowmelt and heavy rains.

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation tweeted photos of NH 175A in Holderness near Exit 25 of I-93 Sunday morning. They say the road is closed due to flooding from the Pemigewasset River.

The department added that flood warnings are still in effect for several New Hampshire rivers Sunday morning.

In Maine, the Kennebec River was over its banks Sunday morning on Front Street in Augusta.

A flood watch remains in effect for much of northern Maine. A flash flood warning is in effect for southeastern Aroostook County.

In New Hampshire minor flooding along the Connecticut River is expected at North Stratford and Dalton. Additional flooding is expected from the Saco River at Conway, the Androscoggin River at Gorham and the Pemigewasset at Woodstock.

Among the locations in Vermont where flooding is possible include the Winooski River at Essex Junction and the East Branch of the Passumpsic River in Caledonia County.

At mid-day Saturday, the National Weather Service says there are reports vehicles have become stranded in floodwaters in parts of northeastern Vermont.

Experts are reminding the public to never walk or drive through floodwaters because unexpected currents and unseen washouts can sweep people and vehicles away.GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter is facing backlash for pretending to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, NBC News reports  something his Democratic opponent says would have violated the terms of the congressman's parole stemming from federal charges of misusing campaign funds.

The California lawmaker posted a video on social media on Thursday claiming to be "15 meters" from the U.S.-Mexico border before walking over to a fence he alleged was the only thing separating migrants seeking asylum from entering the U.S. by foot. Border Patrol officials told The Times of San Diego that the official border is the Colorado River, which is further away from the vehicle barrier Hunter crossed.

Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged Hunter for his seat last November, slammed Hunter for the video on social media. "This is what happens when youve been stripped from all your committees & have too much time on your hands," he tweeted.

Michael Harrison, a spokesman for Hunter, told The Times of San Diego that the accusation of him violating his parole by leaving the U.S. is a "non-issue typical of someone desperate for a headline."Deputies in Portland, Oregon responded to a possible home invasion, but the intruder they found wasn't alive or a person.

It was a robotic vacuum cleaner.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports a house sitter in Cedar Hills called 911 Monday, saying someone was inside the bathroom.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office says deputies entered the home and ordered the burglar out, but nothing happened.

Deputies then opened the bathroom door with guns drawn and discovered the automatic vacuum cleaner.

Sgt. Danny DiPietro says this encounter was his first "Roomba burglar" in 13 years on the job.

He says the office is still "having a good laugh about it."ROXBURY  A motorcycle passenger was hospitalized with serious injuries Friday night after the driver lost control on a sharp curve, according to Connecticut State Police.

The passenger, a 19-year-old Watertown woman, sustained serious injuries. The driver, a 21-year-old Bridgewater man, had non-life-threatening injuries. Both were taken to Danbury Hospital.A Connecticut financial adviser has been charged with manslaughter while on vacation in the Caribbean.

Gavin Scott Hapgood, 44, of Darien, was arrested and charged with manslaughter Wednesday, according to the Royal Anguilla Police Force. Hapgood is a UBS financial adviser.

Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory, is located in the eastern Caribbean. There is a small main island and several offshore islets.

Hapgood appeared before the magistrate court Wednesday, police said. Bail was denied, police said, and he was remanded to prison and expected back in court on Aug. 22. However, a statement from Police Commissioner Paul Morrison on Friday night said the court ended up granting bail.

Thomas Astaphan, Hapgoods local attorney, told the court that his client would return to Anguilla to clear his name, according to the Anguillian, a local newspaper. The newspaper reported Hapgood had been on vacation with his family in Anguilla staying at a hotel in the West End of the island.

According to RAPF, police responded to the West End area of Anguilla at about 4 p.m. April 13 for an incident that resulted in the death of one resident of Anguilla.

The victim  identified by Anguilla police as Mr. Mitchell  was said to be an employee working at the hotel where Hapgood and his family were staying. The outlet said a death certificate showed the man died from prone restraint, positional asphyxia and blunt force trauma to the head, neck and torso.

A statement from the Anguilla government identified him as Kenny Mitchell. The Anguillian reported Mitchell was 27.

A representative for UBS told the New York Post they were aware of the events and were following the situation closely, adding that it would not be appropriate to provide any comment in relation to an active criminal proceeding.

Tensions were high following the incident, which was initially referred to by RAPF police as a homicide investigation.

We are not shrouding the case in mystery, we are bound by rules and so are others on what can be said, a Friday night statement from Police Commissioner Paul Morrison said. We have charged a man in connection with the death of Mr. Mitchell. The court granted bail and we now prepare for the court process and eventual trial.

Morrison said it is in everybodys interest that the authorities seek justice for victims of crime and that those accused of crimes are dealt with fairly.

The RAPF public media relations officer provided a statement on Facebook on Friday morning about the scores of comments on its page about the charge and what happened. Comments varied in support for the victim and the accused.

The Royal Anguilla Police Force acknowledges the fact that people want information in respect of the recent arrest and charging of a U.S. tourist, however, like all investigations these are not conducted on social media, the statement said. The comments being made on the RAPF Facebook have no foundation in fact and are likely to incite racial hatred and can prejudice a jury, especially since they will be chosen from among the community of Anguilla.RIDGEFIELD  Mothers feeding their babies behind barbed wire with hundreds of people, a line of cars stretching as far as the eye can see waiting for hours to cross back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border, and migrants from Africa, Mexico and Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, detained in cell blocks where they make a dollar a day  just another day on the nations southern border.

Rabbi David Reiner, who leads Congregation Shir Shalom in Ridgefield, recently came back from a clergy trip to El Paso, Texas and its twin city Ciudad Juarez.

The visit was organized by Truah, a human rights organization for Jewish clergy, and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), which was one of the groups cited by the man who opened fire in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Reiners group visited private, state, and federal facilities to process migrants and border-crossers on the three-day trip, including a migrant center across the border in Mexico.

He said the moment that stood out for him was when the group crossed over from Mexico to the United States on foot.

It was fascinating to see folks on their way to, from work, people wearing chef jackets, medical professionals in scrubs, tourists crossing with us  all sorts of people, Reiner said.

For many, the crossing seemed to be a normal part of their day, but for others, it was anything but.

As Reiners group crossed the bridge over the Rio Grande, he looked down and could see hundreds of people  migrants seeking asylum from violence or persecution back home  behind chain link fencing and barbed wire beneath the bridge.

It was a mix of men and women and children including babies and toddlers, said Reiner. Border Patrol agents were leading people out of the fenced area, single file, in groups of about fifteen. Most had no possessions except the clothes on their backs. Everyone was wearing yellow bracelets, like a hospital bracelet.

As he walked across the bridge, Reiner said he was reminded of his great-grandparents, themselves refugees from Eastern Europe, who came to America by ship.I am not sure how the people we saw in detention/processing are significantly different, he said.

Detention centers

The group also visited two detention centers for migrants  one for adults, the other for children  in the United States, and a third center across the border in Juarez, Mexico.

The adult facility in the United States, located about 26 miles away from El Paso in New Mexico, was technically over-capacity with migrants, most of whom were waiting to be deported, Reiner said.

The distance is important because the facility has courtrooms on-site and deportation proceedings happen on-site. Lawyers representing detainees (often pro-bono) must travel quite a distance to meet with and represent their clients during deportation proceedings, he said.

The detention center, or processing facility, as they are referred to by the government, resembled a medium security prison, Reiner said.

People confined to the facility can earn $1 per day by working in the facility kitchen or barber shop or maintenance  we were told by the warden and ICE agents that this is the standard rate of pay for prisoners in federal custody, he said, noting that none of the migrants in the facility had been charged with a crime.

He said nearly all of the people there were people of color.

About ten percent were Mexican nationals and we saw people from Asia, India, and Africa, he said. The chaplain shared that people being held in the facility come from many different religious backgrounds, primarily Christian, but also Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, and more.

The group also toured Casa Franklin, a processing facility for minors in downtown El Paso.

The building, built out of an old YMCA, held about 50 teenagers waiting for their asylum claims to be processed.

Their freedom of movement is restricted. While they can technically leave at any time, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] will be notified of their departure and they will be treated as fugitives, said Reiner, noting that that would be held against them in their asylum case.

Within the facility, they are accompanied by adults with walkie talkies at all times. Physical contact is not permitted. We were told of two cousins who ended up in the facility. One wanted to hug the other, but the staff had to make a special request for this to happen, he added.

Migrant stories

Reiner said he was able to speak to a handful of migrants during the trip.

One young woman from Honduras whom he spoke to at Casa del Migrante, a detention facility in Juarez, told the rabbi that she had to flee after she witnessed a colleague at her government job doing something illegal.

When she reported what she saw, her life and family were threatened and she had to flee at night. This was a family of some means that had to leave everything behind, Reiner said.

The family was told to wait in Mexico while their asylum claim was processed.

For this particular family, it may have been difficult to show that they were threatened, and so it may have made more sense for them to repeatedly apply for asylum from Mexico, Reiner said; because if their claim was rejected after entering the U.S., they would be deported back to Honduras and would be unable to apply for asylum again for 10 years.

Since December, asylum-seekers who cross the border have been forced to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed, rather than being released into the United States, a directive put in place by the Trump administration.

A federal judge blocked the administration's directive to hold asylum-seekers in Mexico on Monday.

Another person seeking asylum told us that a gang in Guatemala wanted his son to join. The teen could join the gang, be killed, or flee with his family, Reiner said.

The presence of a border wall did not change their outlook or deter them from seeking asylum, he added.

Much of the El Paso-Juarez border was walled off, Reiner noted, with fencing that dates back to the Clinton and second Bush administrations.

But he said building a wall along the border, or closing it entirely, would be both immoral and ineffective.

It will deny safety to people who are fleeing for their lives, divide families and negatively impact the economy, Reiner said. I was also able to appreciate that people seeking asylum and crossing the border is not a new issue  it has been around for many years.The #MeToo Movement reinforced the ongoing fight for womens rights.

Now, Western Connecticut State University is hosting Its On Us at The Gallery, a unique art exhibit to raise awareness of sexual assault during April, Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The event is being held Monday from 6 to 10 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom on the universitys Westside campus. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Sexual assault is difficult to discuss, so I wanted to create a powerful walk-through for people to see how prevalent the issue is and how it truly impacts survivors  a space where people could come together to discuss the issue and educate those on campus, said senior Leah Harger, president of the Its On Us WCSU chapter, and organizer of the event. My objective is for this exhibit to deeply move people and give them ideas of how they can get involved in the movement. I want to showcase some of the experiences people have had and how their lives have changed through these traumatic events.

The exhibit will range from artwork and poetry to photography and music and include sexual assault and domestic violence statistics. Art and writing tends to be a healing and processing tool for people whove experienced traumatic events, such as sexual assault. I was inspired to organize the gallery because I wanted to highlight art or writing that survivors may have created to help themselves heal, Harger said.

One of the artists, freshman Samantha Cross, of Watertown, is exhibiting poems that recount her story and those of others, in addition to documentary poetry. Documentary poetry is when a poet uses articles or other outside sources and information in a poem, said Cross whose project, Our Cultured 17.6%, is a manipulation of articles, stories, and statistics of sexual assault and rape in America. Her poetry incorporates well-known cases, such as Dr. Ford vs. Brett Kavanaugh and Kesha vs. Dr. Luke. She said that Kesha and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford showed her what bravery looks like and were the inspirations for her piece.

I can spread more awareness, talk with other survivors, and open up more dialogue about this monumental problem of sexual assault and rape culture in America. I hope people realize theres so much a victim has to go through after a sexual assault. I want people to see how big a problem it is and how hurtful the stigmas can be to a victims psyche.

When Cross needed a welcoming place, she joined Its On Us, a chapter of the national organization initiated by Barack Obama and Joe Biden to combat sexual assault and sexual violence on college campuses.

Its On Us works to educate the university community on different facts, statistics, and myths surrounding sexual violence and victim-blaming language and behaviors to hopefully change the culture of our campus one event, meeting, or conversation at a time, Harger said.

Artist Bhadrangi Soni, 20, a junior from Danbury, is exhibiting oil and acrylic paintings featuring South Asian survivors of sexual assault accompanied by each victims story. I incorporate their story into the emotions of the painting. The juxtaposition of the womens facial expressions and the beautiful jewelry and clothing illustrates the truth of our society. Within the South Asian culture, theres a heavy emphasis put on womens appearance and her persona, Soni said. Im very grateful to be part of this exhibit. Id like for people to read these stories and understand the way our society has treated sexual assault victims and survivors. If someone who has been sexually assaulted reads these stories, I hope they know theyre not alone and we must all come together to help support survivors.

According to Sydney Trezza, director of Campus Counseling and Advocacy for the Womens Center of Greater Danbury, its critical to raise awareness of sexual assault.

There are still people in our communities who arent aware of the prevalence of sexual assault on campuses, said Trezza, praising Its On Us for educating the community and reminding survivors of safe people and places to go on campus.

Sometimes, it takes courage to speak out against sexual assault, and to see the students in this club dedicating their time and energy to finding ways they can take do that is very inspiring to me as the adviser and reminds me why this work is so important, Trezza said.

The Womens Center of Greater Danbury can be reached at 203-731-5200.

For information about the exhibit, email Leah Harger at harger005@connect.wcsu.edu or Sydney Trezza at Trezzas@wcsu.edu.Two students from the Village Center for the Arts in New Milford have been honored at the National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition.

Fiona MacKessy, 9, of New Milford, and Madeleine Alagna, 9, of Brookfield were two of the 27 artists who received an Artistic Merit Award.

Fiona also received the Curators Book Award, given to only 10 artists, and the SiO2 Clay Award.

The clay award consists of 50 pounds of clay selected by the student and shipped to the school.

The students work was showcased at the annual conference of The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) March 27-29.

The exhibit featured works by 150 artists. The VCA submitted 15 entries made by 10 students ages 7 to 18.

Fiona and Madeleine were selected as juried winners for their age group.

Fiona was 7 and Madeleine was 8 when they created the pieces, A Hot Dog Dressed as a Hot Dog and Beauty of the Seas, respectively.

Their entries were chosen from 1,164 submissions nationwide.

The charming work of Fiona MacKessy has moved us, judges wrote of why Fiona was chosen for the SiO2 Clay Award. Despite the authors young age, she has managed to make a well-proportioned and forceful piece.

The dogs posture denotes an active, tense, powerful attitude, but at the same time very warm and friendly, the judge wrote. It iIs also interesting the analogy with the hot dog, represented by a small enveloping layer (bread) and the lines of ketchup. A very promising artist.

The artists work has returned to VCA, where it is on display in the centers pottery studio annex at 1 Church St.(Newser)  A Pennsylvania dad's frustration has boiled over and put his son's math teacher in the hot seat, Fox News reports. On Tuesday, Chris Piland posted a Facebook photo of his son's second-grade math assignment with a comment from the teacher: "Absolutely pathetic. He answered 13 in 3 min! Sad." Piland fumed, "My son Kamdyn's teacher has been so rude to him and myself all year he comes home with this and I am beyond frustrated that someone would write this on a childs [sic] work such great motivation." His post went viral and triggered an online petition to have the teacher, Alyssa Rupp Bohenek, fired from Valley View Elementary School in Archibald, Penn. Over 16,000 have signed as of this writing. "No reason to humiliate a child or anyone else," writers one of the signers.

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The Valley View School District is investigating, but school superintendent Rose Minniti tells the Scranton Times-Tribune this is no slam dunk. "It's a personnel issue and the results of that are not going to be dictated by social media," says Minniti. "It's going to be dictated by the facts and evidence." A counter-petition has appeared to save Bohenek's job, saying she should be "reprimanded ... not fired," though it has only 740 signatures thus far. The teacher's feedback was "clearly aimed at the parent [for] not encouraging or engaging in the homework" unless "the child has learning difficulties," says one signer. Indeed, Bohenek sent parents a letter this school year saying "homework is to be completed together with an adult, NOT alone!" Bohenek has taught in the Valley View district for six years and her father teaches at Valley View High, per Heavy. (Read more teacher stories.)(Newser)  Nightly protests followed the police shooting of a woman in a car near Yale's campus, and another demonstration is planned for Sunday. Stephanie Washington, 22, was hospitalized after being shot by an officer from Yale and a second from the town of Hamden, NBC reports. They had stopped the car because it matched the description of one used in a reported robbery at a nearby gas station. The car's driver was Paul Witherspoon, 21, who police say was the suspect in the robbery. Both drivers opened fire on the car. Bodycam video shows no weapon in Witherspoon's hands when he jumped out of the car, per the Courant, and none was found at the scene. His uncle said there was an argument at the gas station, but no attempted robbery. Police held Witherspoon briefly after the shooting Tuesday, then released him, and he has not been charged.

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Washington, whose injuries are not life-threatening, Witherspoon and the two police officers all are black. The officers are on administrative leave while Connecticut officials investigate the shooting. Saying the New Haven, Hamden and Yale police constitute a "triple occupation" of the community, the Hamden chapter of Black Lives Matter has called another protest for Sunday afternoon. On Friday, hundreds of people marched through town to the police station in Hamden, whose mayor called the shooting "shocking, haunting." He added, "We must do better," per NBC. One demonstrator said he was angered that instead of trying to diffuse the situation, the officers immediately employed deadly force. Citing Ferguson, Mo., and other places where police have been accused of using excessive force, he said, "Now were on the list." (Read more police shooting stories.)(Newser)  "I fired both shots that killed my husband," Malissa Ancona told a Missouri judge in pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 2017 death of a KKK leader. Her son, who's also charged, helped her clean the crime scene and dispose of the body but wasn't involved in the killing, Ancona said, per the Post-Dispatch. Police said Ancona first told them that her son, Paul Jinkerson Jr., shot her husband, Frank Ancona Jr., in the couple's bedroom. Ancona now maintains she was under the influence when her husband was killed and has changed her account. The victim's father testified that his son was killed because he planned to leave his wife. Ancona was sentenced to life in prison in her plea deal. It's not clear what will happen with her son's prosecution.

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Frank Ancona was imperial wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a hate group. It says it bases itself on "the Ku Klux Klan of the early 20th Century," per the BBC. The SPLC estimates the group has about 40 members in Missouri, Idaho, and Pennsylvania. His ex-wife said Ancona was "very, very kind-hearted," per the Post-Dispatch. "He didnt deserve this," his daughter, Carolyna, said. "No one deserves this." (Read more Ku Klux Klan stories.)(Newser)  A New Mexico man belonging to an armed group that has detained Central American families near the US-Mexico border was arrested Saturday in a border community on a criminal complaint accusing him of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said that 69-year-old Larry Mitchell Hopkins was the leader of the United Constitutional Patriots. FBI spokesman Frank Fisher told the AP that no additional information would be released until after Hopkins has an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Las Cruces. The New York Times notes that the charge is relatively minor, but could lead the way to charges of kidnapping and impersonating an officer. The FBI said Hopkins is from Flora Vista, a rural community in northern New Mexico approximately 350 miles north of where he was arrested in Sunland Park, a suburb of El Paso, Texas.

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Balderas said that Hopkins "is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families. Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes." Federal authorities on Friday warned private groups to avoid policing the border after a string of videos on social media showed armed members of UCP detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico to wait until Border Patrol agents arrive. Customs and Border Protection said on its Twitter account that it "does not endorse or condone private groups or organizations that take enforcement matters into their own hands." Jim Benvie, a UCP rep, said in a video that members were assisting a "stressed and overstrained Border Patrol" and said the group is legally armed for self-defense and never points guns at migrants.

(Read more US-Mexico border stories.)(Newser)  "Nobody drives Big Bertha like that. Nobody." So wrote a Mississippi woman in a Facebook post that lived up to its sassy attitude, the Clarion-Ledger reports. In her post, Penny Ivey Thompson says she dropped off her Dodge truck at a Mac Haik dealership in Flowood to be serviced, and later saw it driven down the street by a dealership technician. "That moment you see a Mac Haik employee test driving your Dodge down Lakeland Dr. TAILGATING another vehicle," Thompson writes in the post that went viral Thursday and appears to have been pulled. "I followed him to see if my truck would make it back in one piece because I know it doesn't stop on a dime and [at] this point just wanted him out of it."

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Thompson followed him about two miles to Lowe's and waited 20 minutes for him to finish shoppinguntil she decided to simply steal her own truck, which she calls "Big Bertha," with a spare key. "Here comes ol dummy ... swinging his shopping bag," she writes of the technician, per Jalopnik. "He never looked up. He just stopped and stood in the parking lot." She drove right back to Mac Haik, where she was offered an apology if she wouldn't post on social media. Then the dealership's general manager wrote a Facebook follow-up post saying the technician had been fired. He also asked Thompson to come by for a formal apology. If she does go, she might just tell him what she wrote online: "Do not mess with my family, my animals, my money, or my truck." (Read more stolen cars stories.)(Newser)  Pope Francis denounced the "cruel violence" of the Easter Sunday slaughter of Christians and foreigners in Sri Lanka as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting bloodshed and political violence. Francis skipped his homily during Easter Mass but delivered his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" (To the city and the world) speech highlighting conflicts in the Mideast, Africa, and the Americas. In a special appeal at the end, Francis lamented the "grave attacks" on Sri Lankan hotels and churches, which occurred just as the Christian faithful were celebrating Easter Mass that marks the resurrection of Christ following his crucifixion. "I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence," Francis said.

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"I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event." As of this writing, some 190 people were killed and hundreds wounded following near-simultaneous blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners. The Vatican said popes sometimes either deliver an off-the-cuff homily on Easter Sunday or skip it altogether, reports the AP, given the lengthy speech and blessing that follows. The 82-year-old Francis has just completed an exhausting few days of Holy Week commemorations, including traveling to a prison outside Rome to wash the feet of inmates on Holy Thursday, presiding over the Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum on Good Friday, and celebrating the Easter Vigil late Saturday night in St. Peter's Basilica.

(Read more Easter stories.)(Newser)  At least eight bombs exploded in Sri Lanka, as Christians gathered to celebrate Easter on Sunday. The attacks targeted three churches and four five-star hotels frequented by tourists, as well as one blast on a highway overpass, reports the New York Times, and the death toll has now risen to 207, with that number expected to rise. More than 450 were wounded. A look around the latest:

CNN reports that at least seven people have been arrested in connection with the attacks, though most of the blasts were believed to be suicide bombings and there has been no claim of responsibility. CNN notes that around 30 foreigners are believed to be among those killed.

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Sri Lankan authorities have imposed a curfew from 6pm to 6am, and shut down access to social media sites to prevent the spread of misinformation, reports MSNBC.

Despite the curfew, SriLankan Airlines is telling passengers scheduled to fly out of the country that they will be able to do so, reports the AP. Passengers will need to show up four hours early due to heightened security.

The attacks appear coordinated, Sri Lanka's finance minister says, per the Times, calling it "a well-coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy."

President Trump responded via Twitter, saying that "The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!"

In his Easter Mass, Pope Francis decried the "cruel violence."

The AP takes a look at Sri Lanka's troubled history.

(Read more Sri Lanka stories.)Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionNew Delhi:

Apoorva Tiwari, wife of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari who was found dead in his residence in New Delhi on April 16, could be arrested soon as the Delhi Police Crime Branch suspects her role in the murder case, police sources said. They added that Apoorva, who was taken into the police custody on Sunday for questioning, made contradicting statements during the interrogation. According to the sources, she could be arrested late on Sunday night or Monday morning.

The Crime Branch officials questioned Apoorva for over eight hours, the sources said. Besides Apoorva, the Delhi Police Crime Branch on Sunday took Rohit's two househelps -- Martha and Golu -- into its custody in the murder case of former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand ND Tiwaris son.

The sources said the househelps could be released later, but Apoorva is yet to be arrested since a witness was not present at the police station. The reason behind the murder could be related to their troubled relationship, they added.

She was questioned about her entry in their Defence Colony residence, her schedule -- what she did during the day and why she did not find it odd when Shekhar was sleeping throughout the day, they said.

Shekhar's brother Siddharth were also questioned since they, too, were present at his residence at the time of his death, the sources said. The Delhi Police had on Thursday registered a case of murder into the death of Shekhar, 40, hours after his autopsy report stated that he died of asphyxia due to strangulation.

Shekhar, son of late Uttarakhand chief minister ND Tiwari, was brought to Max Hospital in south Delhi around 5 pm on Tuesday in an ambulance and doctors declared him dead.

The case has been transferred to the crime branch for investigation. Shekhar's cousin Rajeev and his wife Kumkum are also being questioned in connection with the case.

The police sources said at least five-six calls were made from Rohit's phone to Kumkum from 2 am to 4 am on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. They said police is trying to ascertain the reason why did Shekhar contact her at the odd hours.

Neighbours claimed that the couple often had fights and just last month a PCR call was made by one of them. "They had a fight last month. A PCR call was also made in this regard. The local police had come to the residence of Shekhar. We could hear noises and we were out to check," said a neighbour requesting anonymity.

Shekhar's mother Ujjwala too reached the Defence Colony residence to join the investigation and left a couple of hours later. The Defence Colony residence is registered in Ujjwala's name.

"My son was under some stress but I don't want to talk about it. By the time I reached home, Apoorva had made him lie down in someone's car. When I saw his condition, I had little hope left about his survival," she said.

"I trusted Apoorva and did not question her as to why was Shekhar sleeping till so late," she said.

Ujjwala said Shekhar, 40, and his wife did not share a cordial relationship and "they had issues since day one of their marriage".

On Sunday, Ujjwala hit out at Apoorva and her parents alleging they had their eyes on his property. "Apoorva's family wanted to take control of the properties of my both sons -- Siddharth and Rohit -- because this house is nearer to the Supreme Court where Apoorva was practising law," she said.

Refuting rumours that Rohit and Apoorva met in the Supreme Court complex, Ujjwala said they both had met in Lucknow through a matrimonial website in 2017.

They were seeing each other for a year and later took a break in between. Rohit Shekhar maintained distance from her and said he did not want to marry her, she said. They were not in touch from January to March, 2018. But on April 2 they came to me and expressed their wish to get married, Ujjwala said.

They also discussed mutual divorce several times and later decided to end their marriage in June, she added. Ujjwala said Apoorva was also against giving a share of property to son of Rajiv Kumar, a relative and aide of Tiwari.

Apoorva always had issues with Rajiv and his wife, Ujjwala said, adding that reports of Rohit having affair with Rajiv's wife is "baseless and false".

"My elder son Siddharth expressed his wish to give a share to Rajiv's son Kartik Raj but Apoorva was disappointed and expressed her displeasure over this," she said.

Shekhar's father-in-law said, "My daughter cannot do something like this. When I got to know about his death, I came down here. Police are probing the matter and soon we will know how he died."

A forensic team that visited Shekhar's residence collected two pillows and a blood-stained bedsheet and also seized mobile phones. Among the seven CCTV cameras installed in the premises, two were not functioning, sources said.

(With PTI inputs)

For all the Latest Crime News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Anna University has started the admission process for 2019. Candidates who are interested can visit the official website annauniv.edu to apply for the same. Candidates belonging to Children of Indian Workers of Gulf Countries (CIWGC), Non-Resident Indian (NRI), Foreign National (FN) categories can apply for various BE, B. Tech and M.Sc Integrated courses.

The students can submit the online application by June 7. Candidates applying for B.E. / B.Tech. & Five-year Integrated M. Sc will have to pass the qualifying examination, i.e. (10 + 2) of Indian System or its equivalent (completed 12 years of school education). For a five-year Integrated M.Sc (Electronic Media) programme, candidates must pass in H.Sc. of 10+2 curriculum of any group under Part III or equivalent. For Ph.D. programmes, Masters degree is mandatory in the required discipline.

How to Apply for Admission in Anna University?



Step 1: Visit the official website of the Anna University - annauniv.edu.

Step 2: The students need to create the login details then.

Step 3: With the newly created login details, the candidates need to complete the registration process.

Step 4: The students need to upload the necessary documents in the system.

Step 5: On verifying all the details, the candidates have to submit the application and pay the amount of fee as decided by the university.

Step 6: They should download the counselling letter at the end.



Anna University Admission 2019  Important Dates



 Opening date of application: April 2019

 Closing date of application: June 7, 2019

 Counseling for Foreign National: June 17, 2019

 Counseling for Children of Indian Workers of Gulf Countries: June 18, 2019

 Counseling for Non-Resident Indian: June 18, 2019

All the candidates will be called for counselling where the documents will be verified by the authorities. The counselling will be conducted on 17 June for FN candidates, whereas for CIWGC and NRI candidates, counselling will be held on 18 June.New Delhi:

Hours after making a controversial remark regarding Babri Masjid demolition, the Election Commission has issued a show-cause notice to Pragya Singh Thakur - Bhartiya Janata Partys Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal. This is the second EC notice to Pragya Thakur, key accused in Malegaon blast.

While speaking to a television channel, Pragya Thakur on Sunday said that she was proud of her participation in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

"Yes, I had gone there (Ayodhya), I had said it yesterday too, not denying it. I had demolished the structure. I will go there and help in the construction of Ram temple, nobody can stop us from doing that, Ram rashtra hain, rashtra Ram hain (Ram is nation, nation is Ram)," news agency ANI quoted the BJP leader as saying.

Unperturbed by the poll panels show-cause notice, Thakur said she stood by her remark and that the notice would be replied to in accordance with the law.

"I am not backtracking. The structure was demolished and a grand temple would be constructed. Nobody can stop me from constructing a grand temple," she said on Sunday.

In reply to another question, she said, "What disputed structure? We will construct a grand Ram temple, will reconstruct it."

According to sources, Bhopal District Collector and Chief Electoral Officer Sudam Khade has asked Thakur to reply to the notice in one day.

The poll panel notice stated that it was a violation of chapter 4 of the model code of conduct, which pertains to maintenance of harmony between castes, communities, religious, linguistic groups.

Earlier on Saturday, the poll panel issued a show-cause notice to Thakur over her remark about Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Addressing BJP workers on Thursday, Thakur had claimed that claim that Karkare died because she had cursed him.Barmer:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that Pakistan has stopped threatening India about anuclear attacka after India destroyed terrorist camp inside its territory. The prime minister also said that India too has nuclear options available in case the need arises.

aIndia has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats. Every other day they used to say "We've nuclear button, we've nuclear button".....What do we have then? Have we kept it for Diwali?a PM Modi said while addressing a rally in Rajasthanas Barmer.A

#WATCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Barmer, Rajasthan: India has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats. Every other day they used to say "We've nuclear button, we've nuclear button".....What do we have then? Have we kept it for Diwali? pic.twitter.com/cgSLoO8nma a ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

PM Modi said that India now has the capacity to strike a nuclear attack from water, land, and sea.

aToday India destroyed terrorist camp inside Pakistan's territory that too without any war... This is an example of a powerful government,a PM Modi added.

Hitting out at the Congress, he said that the grand old party believes that terrorism and nationalism are not issues at all.

He also accused the Congress of missing the opportunity to resolve Kashmir issue in 1971 by releasing 90000 Pakistani soldiers. aCongress government missed the opportunity to resolve Kashmir issue in 1971 by releasing 90000 Pakistani soldiers who surrendered,a the prime minister said while addressing a rally in Rajasthanas Barmer.

Earlier, he accused the Congress party of betraying the people, saying injustice was done to the country's growth potential and its resources.

"Post-independence people trusted the Congress for five decades, but the party betrayed the people. Injustice was meted out to resources and potential of the country. Congress did vote bank politics and made power a medium to fill its coffers," Modi said, at an election rally in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh constituency.

He said smaller nations which got freedom in the same period as when India got its independence had developed far more than India.New Delhi :

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, key accused in Malegaon terrorist attack, has admitted that she had gone to Ayodhya and demolished the Babri mosque. The Malegaon blast accused further said that she was also proud of what she did.

"Yes, I had gone there (Ayodhya), I had said it yesterday too, not denying it. I had demolished the structure. I will go there and help in the construction of Ram temple, nobody can stop us from doing that, Ram rashtra hain, rashtra Ram hain (Ram is nation, nation is Ram)," news agency ANI quoted the BJP leader as saying.

Earlier, the BJP leader had also insulted 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack hero Hemant Karkare and said that he died after she cursed him for torturing her during the interrogation of the Malegaon blast.

I called Hemant Karkare and asked him to let me go if there is no evidence (against me). He (Karkare) said that he will bring evidence but will not leave me. I told him  You will be ruined. And within Sava mahina (40 days), he was killed by terrorists, she said.

Karkare had lost his life fighting the terrorists during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 in which over 160 people were killed. He was also the Maharashtra ATS chief and carried out the investigation of the Malegaon blast.

Thakur, also known as Sadhvi, is facing trial in Malegaon terrorist attack in which six people were killed and dozens sustained serious injuries in an explosion in Maharashtras Malegaon on September 29, 2008.

In 2015, one year after the Narendra Modi government came to power, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) gave Thakur clean chit for lack of evidence. However, the trial court refused to acquit her, saying that it was difficult to accept since her motorcycle was used in the blast.

In 2017, she was granted bail by the Bombay High Court. She was also cleared of charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). She, however, remains a terror accused under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

In the wake of Lok Sabha elections, the Malegaon blast accused joined BJP on Wednesday. The saffron party also named her as candidate from Bhopal against Congress Digvijay Singh. Despite criticism for fielding a terror accused, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended the decision.New Delhi :

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a bunch of rallies in Rajasthan and Gujarat as campaigning for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019 ends today. Modi will hold public meetings in Chittorgarh and Barmer in Rajasthan. He will also address a gathering in his home state Gujarats Patan and seek votes for the BJP candidate. Besides Modi, BJP president Amit Shah is also scheduled to hold a road show in Gujarats Sanand. On the other hand, BSP chief Mayawati will be in Jharkhands Chatra to campaign for the partys candidate Nageshwar Ganjhu. The third phase of Lok Sabha elections will be held across 116 parliamentary constituencies on April 23.

Below are the Live Updates on Lok Sabha elections 2019:

22:32 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Madhya Pradesh: BJP MP candidate from Indore, Shankar Lalwani meets sitting MP from Indore Sumitra Mahajan at her residence.

21:40 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress releases list of 5 candidates for Lok Sabha elections in Haryana; Bhupinder Singh Hooda to contest from Sonipat, Nirmal Singh from Kurukshetra, Bhavya Bishnoi from Hisar, Kuldeep Sharma from Karnal and Avtar Singh Bhadana (in place of Lalit Nagar) from Faridabad

21:25 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I went to Puri, Cuttack and now Kendrapada, in Odisha. All 3 are prestigious battles, where we are winning with huge margins. We want development in eastern part & as Modi ji said that east has to develop as much as south and west: Piyush Goyal

19:18 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I think the PM Modi has declared that they want to make a dent in the east (in these Lok Sabha elections) but he would not be able to do so in Odisha: Naveen Patnaik

18:13 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In From years there was a demand for a war memorial, but the Congress built memorials only for its family members

18:11 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress government missed opportunity to resolve Kashmir issue in 1971 by releasing 90000 Pakistani soldiers who surrendered: PM Modi in Barmer rally.

18:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress, which was involved in dividing the society, never took note of the reservation for poor: PM Modi

18:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In To fulfill your dreams I can sacrifice mine: PM Modi

18:07 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Today India destroyed terrorist camp inside Pakistan's territory that too without any war... This is an example of powerful government, says PM Modi

18:01 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress says that terrorism and nationalism are not issues at all: PM

18:01 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Pakistan always says that they have nuclear button; then what do we have? We also have and it is not for Diwali: PM

17:53 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In For forty years, our ex-servicemen demanded One Rank One Pension...But what the previous Congress-led UPA government did? Just before the elections, they allocated merely Rs. 500 crores...When we assumed office, we ensured our ex-servicemen got the OROP: PM in Rajasthan's Barmer.

15:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on being asked if she will be contesting from Varanasi: If Congress president asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest.



Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on being asked if she will be contesting from Varanasi: If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/rbMagjccOF

 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019



15:40 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress has three realities 'naamdaar parivar', corruption and plenty of false promises, says PM Modi.

15:39 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In We will make 'Jal Shakti' Ministry to resolve water crisis in country: PM Modi in Chittorgarh.

15:39 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In PM Narendra Modi in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, says, "India stands with the citizens of Sri Lanka, in such a crisis India will do whatever it can to help Sri Lanka".



#WATCH: PM Narendra Modi in Chittorgarh,Rajasthan, says, "India stands with the citizens of Sri Lanka, in such a crisis India will do whatever it can to help Sri Lanka." #SriLankaBlasts pic.twitter.com/T2eHlxFpGK

 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019



13:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Lt General(Retd) DS Hooda on Pragya Thakur's remark on late Hemant Karkare: Yes it does hurt when such things are said about a martyr, be it from the Army or the Police, full respect should be given. These utterances are not good.

12:07 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Aam Aadmi Party declares candidates for 3 seats in Haryana- Naveen Jaihind from Faridabad,Prithviraj from Ambala and Krishan Kumar Agarwal from Karnal.

12:06 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In PM Narendra Modi in Patan,Gujarat: When Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I said(to Pakistan) that If anything happens to our pilot then we will not leave you.



PM Narendra Modi in Patan,Gujarat: When #Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I said(to Pakistan) that If anything happens to our pilot then we will not leave you pic.twitter.com/0Vlcb7I1A6

 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019



11:52 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel says,'...Pragya Thakur aadatan apradhi jaisa unka vyahwar raha hai, 19 saal pehle yahan chakubaazi ki thi, maar-peet ki thi, thodi-thodi baaton pe jhagda karti thi, to jhagdalu pravarti ki shuru se rahi hai.'



#WATCH: Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel says,'...Pragya Thakur aadatan apradhi jaisa unka vyahwar raha hai, 19 saal pehle yahan chakubaazi ki thi, maar-peet ki thi, thodi-thodi baaton pe jhagda karti thi, to jhagdalu pravarti ki shuru se rahi hai.' pic.twitter.com/A7bJ4mUgb4

 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019



11:29 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Bhopal District Election Officer issued a notice to BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur & sought explanation within a day, for her remarks, 'I had demolished the structure (in Ayodhya). I will go there & help in the construction of Ram temple.'

11:13 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Supporters of Senior Delhi Congress leader Raj Kumar Chauhan protest outside Rahul Gandhi's residence alleging that Chauhan is being denied a Lok Sabha ticket.



Supporters of Senior Delhi Congress leader Raj Kumar Chauhan protest outside Rahul Gandhi's residence alleging that Chauhan is being denied a Lok Sabha ticket pic.twitter.com/qXDg5AYAO4

 ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019



10:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP's Bhopal candidate: Yes, I had gone there (Ayodhya), I had said it y'day too, not denying it. I had demolished the structure. I will go there & help in the construction of Ram temple, nobody can stop us from doing that, Ram rashtra hain, rashtra Ram hain.

08:49 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Hardik Patel alleges threat to life, asks for police security after being attacked during a rally in Gujarat.

08:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In FIR registered against Congress candidate from South Mumbai Milind Deora under section 171 of IPC ( giving false statements for elections) and section 125 of the presentation of people's act ( promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections).

08:10 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress party is likely to announce the name of its candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in a couple of days: Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief

08:01 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel: She (Pragya Singh Thakur) has filed her nomination against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.The BJP did not have any other candidate so it has fielded a 'gunda mavali' (goon) who had indulged in spreading terror.

07:59 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Piyush Goyal calls Priyanka Gandhi's weak PM remarks against Modi a joke.



P Goyal on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remark,Never seen a weaker PM than Modi: That's the joke of the day. It's PM Modis courage that to destroy enemies from the very roots, we crossed LoC&attacked them in Balakot. Because of this,Pakistan is afraid today&entire world is with India pic.twitter.com/cjGzg7tHdF

 ANI (@ANI) April 20, 2019



07:58 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "BJP cannot escape its responsibility by saying that the remarks of Pragya Singh Thakur are her personal. Modi's declaration of his fight against terrorism has no meaning when he nominates terrora ccused as BJP candidate in Bhopal," the Communist Party of India said in a statement.

07:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Row over terror accused BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur's insulting remarks against 26/11 hero Hemant Karkare intensifies futher with CPI condemning her remarks and the BJP for fielding her in Lok Sabha polls from Bhopal.

07:53 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Union Minister Piyush Goyal takes a dig at Rahul Gandhi over his Wayanad pick: When Smriti Irani is contesting against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi,he has run away to Wayanad. In Amethi, Smriti ji will defeat him&in Wayanad also,he'll be defeated. I think in next polls, he'll have to go to a neighboring country and search for a seat.New Delhi :

Priyanka Chaturvedi, who recently quit the Congress party and joined right-wing Shiv Sena, wanted to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North West constituency and was disappointed after her name was not considered. The Congress party has fielded former Mumbai Congress Committee chief Sanjay Nirupam from the constituency.

"I did not seek a ticket from Mumbai North or Mathura but Mumbai NW. I was disappointed but not miffed," Priyanka said in tweet. She, however, defended her decision and said that there was nothing wrong in being ambitious. "Last I checked ambition is not a curse," the former Congress leader added.

Chaturvedi, one of the Congress's most high-profile spokespersons, quit the Congress party a day after critcising it for revoking the suspension of several Uttar Pradesh leaders, who had harrassed her during a press conference in Mathura.

"Deeply saddened that lumpen goons get preference in @incindia over those who have given their sweat and blood. Having faced brickbats and abuse across board for the party but yet those who threatened me within the party getting away with not even a rap on their knuckles is unfortunate," she had said in a tweet, giving hints about her decision to quit the party.

In less than 24 hours after resigning from the Congress, she joined the Shiv Sena in presence of its president Uddhav Thackeray. "I gave ten years of my life to a political party at the end of which I felt extremely let down for not standing up on issues which are important for women's rights," the 39-year-old leader said.New Delhi :

While the entire country is abuzz with the reports that Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is contemplating contesting from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Gandhi scion on Sunday put the ball on brother Rahul Gandhi's court. The newly appointed Congress general secretary was in Kerala's Wayanad parliamentary constituency from where Congress president Rahul Gandhi has filed his second nomination along with his traditional stronghold Amethi.

Being asked whether she will contest from Varanasi, the younger Gandhi told media, "If the Congress president asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest".

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on being asked if she will be contesting from Varanasi: If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/rbMagjccOF a ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

Amid growing murmurs over the likelihood of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contesting the General Elections 2019, Congress leadership has chosen to remain tight-lipped on their stance and has been refraining from announcing its cadnidate for Varanasi, the eastern UP seat won by Prime Minister Modi in 2014.

Speaculations had been also rife that Priyanka might contest from her mother Sonia Gandhi's constituency - Raebareili, but the new generation Congress leader had teased her followers, saying "Why not Varanasi"!

In an interview with The Hindu, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi also dodged a question on Vadra's possible candidature from Varanasi, saying "suspense is not always a bad thing".

After campaigning for years in the Gandhis' pocket borough Amethi and Rebareli, Priyanka Gandhi had joined the Congress in this January and was appointed as the partyas general secretary for the Uttar Pradesh East region, which includes Varanasi.

Long known as a natural in politics, Priyanka, who inherited her grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi's facial look and charismatic personality, is considered to be Congress' magic wand to revive the party's lost fortune in this Lok Sabha elections 2019.

Many in the Congress said that her entry into active politics will infuse the much-needed fresh energy in the party workers of the state, where Congress influence has been waning over the years.

Political veterans also feel that Priyanka will help draw crowds, especially the youth and bring back the upper castes and minority votes to the Congress fold, signalling the party's intent to go full throttle in the poticially crucial state which sends as many as 80 members to the Lok Sabha.

While people in Varanasi will exercise their franchise in the last phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 19, polling in several high-profile Uttar Pradesh seats, inclduing that of Rahul and Sonia's Amethi and Rebareli, is slated for May 6. General Elections in Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to be held in all seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.Patan:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it did not return Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

Addressing a poll rally at Patan in Gujarat, he asserted his government's commitment towards national security and said whether the prime minister's chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or the terrorists.

He also took a jibe at NCP leader Sharad Pawar, saying if he is unaware of his next move, then how can Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan gauge what he will do.

PM Modi urged the people of Gujarat to help the BJP win all 26 Lok Sabha seats in his home state, where polling will be held on Tuesday, and said if it does not happen, then there will be discussions on TV over it on the day of vote counting.

Following the air strike at Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, there was a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter planes on February 27 in which the IAF wing commander was captured by the neighbouring country and released on the night of March 1.

He said after Abhinandan was caught, opposition started seeking a reply from him. "We held a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world what Modi did to you."

"A senior American official said on the second day that Modi has kept 12 missiles ready and might attack and the situation will deteriorate. Pakistan announced return of the pilot, or else it was going to be a "qatal ki raat'," he said.

"This was said by America, I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak about it when the time will come," he said.

"The (PM's) chair remains or goes, I have decided that either I be alive or terrorists will remain alive," he said.

He said the air strike at terror camps in Pakistan was something people expected from him. "When Pulwama happened, what did the country expect Modi to do? Would you, would the country have pardoned me had I done what the Manmohan Singh government did after 26/11," he asked.

The country wanted something to be done, he said, adding that he had announced giving a free hand to the military. "They (Pakistan) made tight arrangements, but being the disciple of Lord Hanuman, our people conducted air strike and their story was over," he said.

Hitting out at the opposition parties, he said the Balakot strike made them uncomfortable. "Pakistan was repeatedly saying India bombed us, but people here were questioning if this was India's Balakot. They were proved false," he said.

Accusing the Congress of questioning the bravery of India's military force and doubting its action, he said, "Does any Congress leader ask for air strike proof? They have got the message to stop asking because people are getting angry. After the first and second phases of polls, they have forgotten to ask."

He also took a swipe at Pawar, who on Saturday said he was "terribly afraid" as to what Modi, who once called the NCP chief his mentor in politics, would do next. "Sharad Pawar says I don't know what will Modi do. If he is unaware of what Modi will do tomorrow, how will Imran Khan know?" he said.

He also attacked the Congress for not providing new howitzers to the Army since 1985 and said his government has arranged for artillery manufacturing at three factories in the country, one being at Hazira in Gujarat which manufactures K-9 Vajra Howitzer.

"Our Army will now get new howitzers regularly. We have made a howitzer that can strike Pakistan 48 km from Nadabet (in Gujarat bordering Pakistan)," he said.

Slamming the Congress, he said that since 1985, it did not care about securing Gujarat, a state bordering Pakistan, which needs Air Force, Army and Navy bases.

"A big air force station is taking shape near Deesa which will ensure safety of the entire state," he said, adding the factory at UP's Amethi will manufacture AK-47 assault rifles for the military and also export them.

"We are moving ahead with the promise to make India strong across land, water, air and space," Modi said, adding that the country was now capable of destroying a satellite.

"They (opposition) had problem with this also, saying the Model Code of Conduct was in force. Is there a code of conduct in such things? We are people who follow rules, but national security is a very important matter, and what India did made it the fourth superpower in the world.

"They even have problem with this. They don't understand where to take the country. We are moving ahead with a dream of a strong and prosperous India," he said.

He also appealed to people of Gujarat to make the BJP victorious. "It is the duty of people of my home state to take care of the 'son of the soil', give all 26 seats in Gujarat to me."

"My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 will be why it happened," he said.

He said the Congress ran the government for 60 years and the country reached 11th position in world ranking. "This chai-wallah, who only knew how much money to return for two cups of tea, brought India to sixth position in five years."

Modi said India was moving ahead keeping both security and the prosperity of poor in mind. "(Former PM) Manmohan Singh had said the first right on country's natural resources is of Muslims. Modi says this with assertion that the natural resources are first right of the poor, Dalits, exploited, deprived, Adivasis, without any discrimination," he added.

(With PTI inputs)New Delhi:

As many as 160 people were killed while over 400 others, including foreign nationals, sustained serious injuries as six serial blasts rocked three churches and three five-star hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday morning. Many Bollywood celebs took to their social networking page to express their grief and offer condolences.A

Jacqueline Fernandez, who is from Sri Lanka, took to Twitter to express grief at the incident. She wrote, "Extremely sad at the news of bombings in Sri Lanka. Itas unfortunate that one is not able to see that violence is like a chain reaction. This has to stop!"

Extremely sad at the news of bombings in Sri Lanka. Itas unfortunate that one is not able to see that violence is like a chain reaction. This has to stop ! a Jacqueline Fernandez (@Asli_Jacqueline) April 21, 2019

Parineeti Chopra also expressed her grief over Sri Lanka blasts. She wrote, ''Could never have thought a quiet country like #Srilanka could be attacked like this. What is the world coming to? Thinking of all the families affected. All my love and prayers always.''

Could never have thought a quiet country like #Srilanka could be attacked like this. What is the world coming to? Thinking of all the families affected. All my love and prayers always ... a Parineeti Chopra (@ParineetiChopra) April 21, 2019

Vivek Oberoi wrote on Twitter, ''Deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic and terrible attacks in #SriLanka. An act of cowardice on a day of prayer, shame on these terrorists. My sincere prayers with the victims and their families. We are all with you #SriLanka. Please stay safe.''

Deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic and terrible attacks in #SriLanka. An act of cowardice on a day of prayer, shame on these terrorists. My sincere prayers with the victims and their families. We are all with you #SriLanka. Please stay safe Y a Vivek Anand Oberoi (@vivekoberoi) April 21, 2019

Huma Qureshi also tweeted. She wrote, "What a sad day !! To attack families and children going to church on #EasterSunday !!! This is terrible ... what is happening to our world??? #SriLanka."

What a sad day !! To attack families and children going to church on #EasterSunday ??!!! This is terrible ... what is happening to our world ??? #SriLanka a Huma Qureshi (@humasqureshi) April 21, 2019

Rang De Basanti fame Siddharth tweeted saying, "What a tragic Easter Sunday. The devil knows no mercy. To attack families and children when they are most vulnerable... This is beyond comprehension. #PrayForSriLanka."

What a tragic Easter Sunday. The devil knows no mercy. To attack families and children when they are most vulnerable... This is beyond comprehension. #PrayForSriLanka a Siddharth (@Actor_Siddharth) April 21, 2019

Director Madhur Bhandarkar also took to his Twitter account and wrote, "It's a extremely shameful act of terrorism to attack innocent civilians. My heartfelt condolences to the one who lost their lives and praying for the safety of everyone affected in #SriLanka. Stay Strong!"

It's a extremely shameful act of terrorism to attack innocent civilians. My heartfelt condolences to the one who lost their lives and praying for the safety of everyone affected in #SriLanka. Stay Strong! a Madhur Bhandarkar (@imbhandarkar) April 21, 2019

Swara Bhasker wrote, ''Heartbreaking & tragic news from #SriLanka Curses upon the monsters who carried out this inhumanity! On a joyous festive day! YYYY What is the world coming to????? Prayers & strength to the victims & families.. YYYYYYYY #SriLankaTerrorAttack.''

Heartbreaking & tragic news from #SriLanka Curses upon the monsters who carried out this inhumanity! On a joyous festive day! YYYY What is the world coming to????? Prayers & strength to the victims & families.. YYYYYYYY #SriLankaTerrorAttack a Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) April 21, 2019

The blasts targeted St Anthonyas Church in Colombo, St Sebastianas Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) when worshipers were attending Easter services. Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.





For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhattas has become the latest victim of online piracy. The film has been leaked online by the piracy website Tamilrockers. The period drama was leaked just a day after its release.



This isnat the first time a movie has been leaked online by the Tamilrockers. Earlier, films like Gully Boy, 2.0, Petta, Uri: The Surgical Strike, Manikarnika, Accidental Prime Minister and more also became the victim of piracy. This piracy website has been banned innumerable times. But, every time a new movie is leaked online, they come out with a different proxy server.

In recent times, it has been paying special attention to Hollywood films and shows. It has not only leaked the antihero flick Hellboy and horror film Pet Sematary, but also proceeded to upload the first episode of HBOas wildly popular series Game of Thrones Season 8. Last year, the members of Film Federation of India had also requested the government to tighten security measures and to regulate piracy inside movie halls.



Meanwhile, Kalank released on April 17. Directed by Abhishek Varman, the film opened to mixed reviews from both critics and audience. Apart from Varun and Alia, the film also stars Aditya Roy Kapur, Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha and Sanjay Dutt. Interestingly, Madhuri Dixit and Sanjay Dutt have collaborated on screen after a gap of almost 22 years.A







For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Shirdi:

Vivek Oberoi, who is playing the lead role in a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offered prayers at the Saibaba temple here to seek blessings for the release of the film soon. He visited the famous temple, located at Shirdi town in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, on Saturday. Later while talking to media persons, Oberoi expressed hope that the film, whose release has been withheld by the Election Commission (EC), will hit the theatres soon.

"We sought blessings of Saibaba. Our supporters and fans are eagerly waiting to watch the film. We made the film based on an inspirational story, but political parties are attacking it...we are expecting the film to be released soon," the actor said.

Oberoi said the film will inspire the young generation about how a tea-seller became the country's prime minister and boosted its image. The MNS last month threatened to stall the release of the biopic, claiming it violated the model code of conduct for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

"I don't know why MNS chief Raj Thackeray is talking against the film? I invite him to watch the film with us and he will like it," the actor said.Oberoi also urged Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and DMK president M K Stalin to watch the film, claiming "they will like it".

The EC on April 10 stalled the release of the biopic until the Lok Sabha polls end, saying any such film that subserves the purpose of any political entity or individual should not be displayed in electronic media.Acting on the complaints of political parties, including the Congress, the poll panel asserted that any biopic material with the potential to disturb the level- playing field should not be displayed in areas where the model code of conduct was in force.

Later, the Supreme Court directed the EC to watch the full biopic and take an informed decision on banning its pan-India release. The biopic has been the most-talked about movie in this election season. Directed by Omung Kumar, it tells the story of Modi's rise to power from his humble beginnings.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condemned serial blasts in Sri Lanka, saying that there is no place for barbarism in the region. He also said that India stands in solidarity with the people of the island nation.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region, he tweeted.

"My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," he added.

PM Modi also held telephonic conversations with his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena, expressing condolences over the deadly blasts.

Terming them as cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts, PM Modi pointed out that these attacks were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world.

Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said she is in "constant touch" with the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo".

"We are keeping a close watch on the situation," she tweeted.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo has shared details of helpline numbers for Indian citizens in need of assistance and for seeking clarification.

The numbers are: +94777903082, +94112422788, +94112422789, +94777902082 and +94772234176.

At least 207 people were killed and over 400 injured after eight blasts rocked the island nation on Easter Sunday. The seventh and eighth blasts occurred hours after six near simultaneous and coordinated explosions that rocked three churches and three luxury hotels frequented by tourists.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.M. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Lt General (Retd) DS Hooda, who oversaw the surgical strikes in September 2016, on Sunday condemned the statements of BJP leader Pragya Singh Thakur on late former Mumbai ATS chief late Hemant Karkare. "Yes, it does hurt when such things are said about a martyr, be it from the Army or the Police, full respect should be given. These utterances are not good," Hooda told reporters in a press conference.

Addressing BJP workers in Bhopal last week, Thakur had claimed that Karkare died during the attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her when he probed the Malegaon blast case as the chief of the ATS.

"I called Hemant Karkare and asked him to let me go if there is no evidence (against me). He (Karkare) said that he will bring evidence but will not leave me. I told him -- You will be ruined," Thakur had said.

Hooda presented a report titled 'India, National Security Strategy'.

The five major points in the report are - assuming our rightful place in global affairs, achieving a secure neighbourhood, peaceful resolution of internal conflicts, protecting our people and strengthening our capabilities.

Speaking on the report, Hooda said: "We have submitted a report to Congress president on national security. We have decided that it should be holy touch. India is doing well diplomatically but there should be a permanent seat in UNSC. The second issue is with the relations with our neighbouring countries and how our relations should be with Pakistan. The attention has been paid to the insurgency in North-East India and Maoism."

"Fourthly, we have looked at public security. The security of common people is also an important part of national security like climate change, demographic change, cyber challenge, energy and economic security. In the fifth point, we have paid attention to how we can increase our military capacity," he added.

Speaking on the politicisation and questions over the air strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps in Balakot, Hooda said, "When senior military officers come and say that this operation has been done, that should be the end of it. Unfortunately, the whole debate keeps dragging on and it comes out in various forums that is why the military tends to get drawn into political arguments and debates, that is not correct.

Meanwhile, eight former top police officers have strongly condemned the "despicable" remark of Thakur.

In a statement, the former DGPs said the country owes Karkare, who headed the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad and was killed during the 26/11 terror attack, a huge debt of gratitude and anything that detracts from this is worthy of strong condemnation.

(With agency inputs)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.highlights Earlier, Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed the death of a Keralite woman.

Over 200 people were killed and around 500 others injured in the series of blasts.

Suicide bombers were involved in at least two of the eight attacks.

New Delhi:

Three Indians were among the 215 people killed in in the multiple blasts that struck churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted.

"Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh. We are ascertaining further details," she tweeted.

"I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well," Swaraj added.

She later clarified in another tweet that one of the deceased was Lakshmi and not Lokashini.

Swaraj also mentioned the helpline numbers of the Indian High Commission in Colombo: +94777903082, +94112422788, +94112422789.

Earlier, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed the death of a Keralite woman in the deadly blasts. He said steps were taken to bring back the body of the deceased, P S Rasina (58), a resident of Kasargod, as soon as possible.

According to reports, Rasina was staying at Colombo's Shangri-La hotel and was killed in the blast there.

Over 200 people were killed and around 500 others injured in a series of blasts at several locations in the island nation.

Suicide bombers were involved in at least two of the eight attacks that struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners on Easter Sunday.

The blasts - one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history - targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.M. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Explosions were reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

Gunasekera confirmed 207 deaths. However, the News 1st channel said that 215 people have died in the blasts.

Director of the National Hospital Dr. Anil Jasinghe identified 11 of the 27 foreign nationals killed in the coordinated attacks believed to be carried out by a single group.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Boston:

Wormholespopularised by the 2014 sci-fi film Interstellar as shortcuts to distant points in space and timemay actually exist, but pan-galactic travel through these portals would be slower than taking a direct route, according to a Harvard study. Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity supports the existence of wormholes that could connect extremely long distances billion light years apart, different points in time, or possibly different universes.

While they have been objects of interest for scientists and science fiction writers alike, whether wormholes actually exist remains to be seen.

Daniel Jafferis, from Harvard University in the US, has shown although that wormholes can exist, it is not useful for humans to travel through.

It takes longer to get through these wormholes than to go directly, so they are not very useful for space travel, Jafferis said in a statement.

Despite his pessimism for pan-galactic travel, he said that finding a way to construct a wormhole through which light could travel was a boost in the quest to develop a theory of quantum gravity.

The real import of this work is in its relation to the black hole information problem and the connections between gravity and quantum mechanics, Jafferis said.

The theory was inspired when Jafferis began thinking about two black holes that were entangled on a quantum level.

Although this means the direct connection between the black holes is shorter than the wormhole connectionand therefore the wormhole travel is not a shortcutthe theory gives new insights into quantum mechanics.

From the outside perspective, travel through the wormhole is equivalent to quantum teleportation using entangled black holes, Jafferis said.

Jafferis based his theory on a setup first devised by Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen in 1935, consisting of a connection between two black holes. The term wormhole was coined in 1957.

Since the wormhole is traversable, Jafferis said, it was a special case in which information could be extracted from a black hole.

It gives a causal probe of regions that would otherwise have been behind a horizon, a window to the experience of an observer inside a spacetime, that is accessible from the outside, said Jafferis.

To date, a major stumbling block in formulating traversable wormholes has been the need for negative energy, which seemed to be inconsistent with quantum gravity.

However, Jafferis has overcome this using quantum field theory tools.

I think it will teach us deep things about the gauge/gravity correspondence, quantum gravity, and even perhaps a new way to formulate quantum mechanics," Jafferis said.

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Samsung Electronics would further consolidate its lead in the LED TV segment, helped by India-specific innovations and by providing affordable finance solutions to its consumers, said a company official. Samsung is witnessing strong momentum in sales of smart TVs in metros, tier II, III and IV cites helped by factors such as low priced data, good internet speed and low priced OTT (over the top) content.

The company would continue to invest to add advanced features as IoT (internet of things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the segment.

Overall, we continue to be the largest brand with share of 30 per cent in the TV segment. Our intent it to consolidate our overall market leadership, Samsung India Consumer Electronics Senior Vice President Raju Pullan told PTI

Samsung is growing over 60 per cent in the 32-inch screen size LED TV segment, which is considered to be mainstay of the industry.

The TV industry is growing only 22 per cent in 32-inch category, he said adding that in the UHD segment, the companys market share is 35 per cent and in QLED 63 per cent.

According to him, now the consumers are upgrading their existing TVs to smart TVs. In metros and tier II markets, people are going for a higher screen size.

While in tier III and IV markets, the growth rate of smart TV segment is higher because of low penetration of smart TVs compared with the developed metro markets.

We are seeing a strong momentum because of two strategiesto give the right consumer benefits and affordability with the help of financial institutions, he added.

When asked about the competition with other companies which are offering competitive prices at the entry level segment, Pullan said Samsung would compete with its full range.

We would be price warrior and size warrior... We have seen many brands around us in last couple of years but holistically we are a brand which would be across price points, he said.

According to him, the penetration of TV in the Indian household is 60 per cent and most of them are not smart TVs.

The company Monday introduced its latest range of smart TVs which can be used as personal computer, music system and home cloud. Samsung range of new smart TVs starts from Rs 24,900 for 32-inch and is available across screen sizes up to 82-inch.New Delhi:

As many as eight devastating blasts, beginning with six near-consecutive explosions and majority of them being suicide attacks, struck three churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing 215 people, including three Indians, and leaving over 500 injured.

The blasts  which shattered a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE  targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 A.M. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Explosions were reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

Gunasekera confirmed 207 deaths. However, the News 1st channel said that 215 people have died in the blasts.

Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Kishu Gomes said 33 foreign nationals have been killed in the coordinated attacks believed to be carried out by a single group. Director of the National Hospital Dr Anil Jasinghe identified 12 of the 33 foreign nationals, which include three Indians, two Chinese and one each from Poland, Denmark, Japan, Pakistan, America, Morocco and Bangladesh.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in a series of tweets, identified the three Indians as Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

"Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals," she said in a tweet.

News 18 quoted Gunasekara saying that 13 suspects have been arrested in connection with the attacks, of which ten have been handed over to the CID.

The report also quoted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe confirming that the government had prior information about the attacks but, failed to take preventive steps.

Notably, police chief Pujuth Jayasundara had issued a nationwide alert ten days ago that suicide bombers were planning to hit "prominent churches".

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Briefing reporters, Gunasekera said the police was not able to confirm at the moment if they were all suicide attacks. He, however, said that one of the blasts at the Katuwapitiya (Negombo) church has signs of being what looked like a suicide attack.

An unnamed official said a suicide bomber blew himself up at the restaurant of the Cinnamon Grand hotel.

Gunasekara said that 66 bodies were kept at the National Hospital while 260 injured were receiving treatment there and 104 bodies were placed at the Negombo Hospital and 100 injured were receiving treatment at the Hospital.

Later in the day, a powerful blast in the capital's southern suburb near the Colombo Zoo killed two persons, Gunasekera said.

When a police team entered a house in the Colombo north suburb of Orugodawatta to conduct a search, a suicide bomber blew himself up causing a concrete floor of a two-storey building to crash on them, killing three policemen in the eighth blast, police said.

Soon after the eighth blast, the government imposed curfew with immediate effect. The curfew will be in force indefinitely until further notice, officials said.

State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene said seven persons had been arrested in connection with the blasts.

"We believe these were coordinated attacks, and one group was behind them," he said.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm.

"I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary," Sirisena said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as "cowardly attacks" and said his government was working to "contain the situation."

"I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong... The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation," he tweeted.

Security has been intensified around the religious places across the capital. The government has temporarily blocked all social media platforms.

"Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over," said Harsha de Silva, Sri Lanka's Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka.

"We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers: +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789," the High Commission tweeted.

"In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176," it said.

The first blasts were reported at St Anthony's church in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in Negombo just outside the capital.

"A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there," read a post in English on the Facebook page of the St Sebastian's Church.

Images circulated on social media showed severely damaged St Sebastian's church, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews.

The riot police and the Special Task Force, extra police security has been deployed around the Bandaranaike International Airport, state-run Daily News reported.

All state Universities have been closed until further notice.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said all Easter masses in the Colombo District have been cancelled.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership the Lankan Army crushed the LTTE, termed the attack as "barbaric".

World leaders condemn bombings

Countries from across the globe, including India, the US, the UK, Russia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh expressed shock and condemnation over the deadly blasts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and condemned the serial terrorist attacks in the strongest terms, perpetrated at sites including religious places and during a religious festival, according to a statement from the PM's Office.

Describing the attacks as "cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts", PM Modi said these attacks were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world.

The Prime Minister renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka for ensuring its security against the challenges such as those posed by terrorism, the PMO statement said.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday offered "heartfelt condolences" to the people of Sri Lanka.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels... We stand ready to help!," Trump tweeted.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling".

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a "horrific terrorist attack".

"To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support - and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need," he said in a statement.

A month after dozens of Muslims were killed in a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as "devastating".

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating".

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the barbaric attacks.

"Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," he tweeted.

(With inputs from agencies)

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United States President Donald Trump on Sunday expressed condolence on the deadly serial blasts that rocked Sri Lanka, which killed 170 people and left more than 400 injured. However, he 'miscalculated' the death toll, saying that "138 million" people were killed in the explosions and over 600 injured.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels and badly injured 600 more. We stand ready to help!" he tweeted.

Later, Trump deleted the tweet and posted a fresh tweet with 'correct' numbers.

"138 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, with more that 600 badly injured, in a terrorist attack on churches and hotels. The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!" he tweeted.

The eight blasts killed nearly 160 people -- including dozens of foreigners -- with British, Dutch and American citizens believed to be among them. The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear and there were no immediate claims of responsibility.

Since Trump won the presidency in November 2016, he and his team have published a surprising number of official communications that contain typos, spelling errors, and word misusages.

His most infamous typo occurred in December, when he described the Chinese seizure of a US Navy drone as an "unpresidented act." After the spelling miscue was widely mocked online, Trump deleted the tweet and replaced it with a correctly spelled version four hours later.

In May 2017, he unexpectedly unleashed a new word on the world on May 31, 2017, when he tweeted out a confusing partial sentence shortly after midnight. "Despite the negative press covfefe," the tweet read, and nothing more.

He soon deleted the tweet, but instead of pretending it never happened, he leaned into it.

"Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe' ??? Enjoy!" he said nearly six hours after the original tweet went out.





For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi :

As many as 170, including dozens of foreign nationals, were killed while over 400 others sustained serious injuries as eight blasts rocked the island nation of Sri Lanka. The seventh and eighth blasts occurred hours after near six near-simultaneous blasts rocked three churches and three five star hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday morning.

The morning blasts targeted St Anthonys Church in Colombo, St Sebastians Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) when worshipers were attending Easter services, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

According to sources, 129 deaths have been confirmed in the blasts but local media reports claimed that the death toll has already reached 160 and was likely to increase further. "Many casualties including foreigners," said Harsha de Silva, the Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution.

So far, no group has claimed the responsibility for one of the deadliest attack in the history of Sri Lanka. However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed people to remain calm and said that security forces were investigating the attacks. "I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces haven been asked to take all action necessary," Sirisena said.

The Sri Lankan government has summoned an emergency meeting called. All necessary emergency steps have been taken by the government, a minister said, adding that an official statement will be issued soon.

Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over. Emergency crews are at all locations in full force. We, at 1990 also have close to 20 units at the various locations. We took multiple casualties to hospital. Hopefully saved many lives, Harsha de Silva said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condemned the "horific blasts" in Sri Lanka and expressed his condolences towards the kin of decesed in the attack. "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," Modi tweeted.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka. "We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789, the High Commission tweeted.

In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176, it said.

(With inputs from PTI)

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi :

Several countries from across the globe, including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Russia, United States and United Kingdom have expressed shock and condemnations over the series of deadly blast on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that left over 200 people killed and 500 others injured. The churches and hotels that witnessed eight near simultaneous explosions this morning, were frequented by tourists, including dozens of foreigners - British, Dutch and American citizens among others.

The blasts targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress. Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were rushed to the Colombo General Hospital.

Taking to twitter, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attacks while describing it as "horrific". "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," Modi wrote.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured. a Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said on social media that the country stands with the people of Sri Lanka. "Pakistan condemns explosions and terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka at Churches and Hotels, that have led to numerous casualties and immense loss. People and Government of Pakistan stand by people and Government of Sri Lanka at this moment of tragedy and against terror," he said in a tweet.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the barbaric attacks. "Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost and hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," he tweeted.A

Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief. a Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 21, 2019

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli condemned the "heinous" terror attacks and extended condolences to the people of Sri Lanka.

"I am deeply saddened by multiple bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in Sri Lanka. I express my condolence to Ranil Wickramasinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and bereaved families of victims of the brutality," Oli said in a tweet while wishing speedy recovery to the injured people.

I am deeply saddened by multiple bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in Sri Lanka. I express my condolence with Rt. Hon'ble Ranil Wickramasinghe, PM of SriLanka and bereaved families of victims of brutality. I wish speedy recovery of the injured. a K P Sharma Oli (@kpsharmaoli) April 21, 2019

"Government of Nepal strongly condemns the acts against humanity. I firmly believe that perpetrators behind these criminal and deadly attacks will be brought to justice at earliest. Nepal condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We stand by the people of SriLanka," Oli said in another tweet.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her deep concerns over the explosions which took place on Sunday morning. In the message, she prayed for peace and salvation of the departed souls and offered her condolences to the grieving families.A Hasina also hoped for a quick recovery of the injured.A A

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the series of blast as "cruel and cynical". In a telegram of condolences sent to his Sri Lankan counterpart, the Russian leader said Moscow remains a "reliable partner of Sri Lanka in the fight against international terrorism".

Putin added that the Russians "share the grief of the relatives of those killed and wish a quick recovery to all those who were wounded" after the Easter Sunday blasts rocked the country. He voiced confidence that "the perpetrators and the masterminds of such a cruel and cynical crime committed amid the Easter festivities will take the punishment they deserve."

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling". "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time. We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear," she tweeted.

The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time.



We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear. a Theresa May (@theresa_may) April 21, 2019

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, "Terrible reports from Sri Lanka about bloody attacks on hotels and churches on this Easter Sunday".

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a "horrific terrorist attack". "To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support -- and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need," he said in a statement.

"At this time as Easter Sunday draws to a conclusion here in Australia, our heart goes out to those Christians and all of those other innocents who have been slaughtered today in this horrific terrorist attack," Morrison added.A

Our thoughts & prayers are with the beautiful people of Sri Lanka at this terrible time. a Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 21, 2019

A month after dozens of Muslims were killed in a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as "devastating".A

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on March 15. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating," Ardern said.

New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence," she added.

Expressing his grief over the ghastly act of terror in the heart of Sri Lanka, US President Donald Trump said, "The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!"

138 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, with more that 600 badly injured, in a terrorist attack on churches and hotels. The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help! a Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2019

The Catholic Church in Jerusalem said the blasts were particularly sad as they "came while Christians celebrate Easter".

"We pray for the souls of the victims and ask for speedy recovery of the injured, and ask God to inspire the terrorists to repent of their killing and intimidation," the statement said. "We also express our solidarity with Sri Lanka and all its inhabitants in their various religious and ethnic backgrounds," it added.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi :

Ten days ahead of the deadly blasts that killed over 185 people and inured more than 400 others in Sri Lanka, the Island nations police chief had issued a nationwide alert that suicide bombers were planning to hit "prominent churches". According to AFP news agency, Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara sent an intelligence warning to top officers on April 11 about the looming threat.

"A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo," said the alert.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that came to notice last year when it was linked to the vandalization of Buddhist statues. So far, no group has claimed the responsibility for one of the deadliest attacks in the history of Sri Lanka but given the alert, it is suspected that National Thowheeth Jama'ath could be behind the blasts.

As many as 185, including 35 foreign nationals, were killed while over 400 others sustained serious injuries as six near-simultaneous blasts rocked three churches and three five star hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday morning.

The blasts targeted St Anthonys Church in Colombo, St Sebastians Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) when worshipers were attending Easter services, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

According to sources, 129 deaths have been confirmed in the blasts, but local media reports claimed that the death toll has already reached 185 and was likely to increase further. "Many casualties including foreigners," said Harsha de Silva, the Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

At least 10 people were killed and as many as 80 others injured as multiple blasts hit two churches in Sri Lanka during Easter services on Sunday. The explosions occurred at around 8:45 am (local time) when worshipers were attending Easter services, PTI quoted police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera as saying. The number of casualities was likely to soar furtehr as hospital officials said that more injured were being admitted.

"Eighty people have already been admitted, and more are still coming in," an official at the Colombo National Hospital told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

While one blast hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, while the second blast hit St Sebasitians Church in Katuwapitiutya, according to local media reports.

"A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there, St Sebasitians Church at Katuwapitiutya, in the Western coastal town of Negombo, wrote in an SOS post on Facebook.

Meanwhile, local media reports quoting police sources said that the blasts also took place at two five star hotels in Fort and several casualities, including foreign nationals, were feared.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Information Minister Ali Al Romaihi lauded creativity of the Bahraini youth in media production, stressing the need to support it with all possible means to ensure the sustainability of the national media growth in the prosperous era of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

He was speaking as he patronized the Cinema of Literature function, which was organized by the University of Bahrain (UoB)s College of Literature Society, in the presence of UoB President Dr. Riyadh Yusef Hamza, Information Ministry Undersecretary Dr. Abdulrahman Mohammed Bahar and members of UoBs academic and administrative staff.

The Information Minister asserted that the young national competencies are the cornerstone of media development in Bahrain so as to preserve national achievements and keep abreast of advancements in the media and telecommunications sector.A schoolgirl was burned to death in Bangladesh on the orders of her head teacher after she reported him for sexually harassing her, police said yesterday.

The death of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi last week sparked protests across the South Asian nation, with the prime minister promising to prosecute all those involved.

Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the Islamic seminary she attended where her attackers asked her to withdraw the sexual harassment complaint she had filed with police. When she refused, she was doused in kerosene and set on fire.A journalist was shot dead during riots in Northern Ireland in what police yesterday were treating as a terrorist incident following the latest upsurge in violence to shake the troubled region. Lyra McKee was murdered during orchestrated violence in Creggan last night,

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said in a statement. McKee, 29, had earlier posted an image that appeared to be from the riots in the Creggan housing estate in the city of Londonderry, also known as Derry, accompanied by the words Derry tonight. Absolute madness.

Images of the unrest posted on social media showed a car and van ablaze and hooded individuals throwing petrol bombs and fireworks at police vehicles. A single gunman fired shots in a residential area of the city and as a result wounded Ms McKee, said Hamilton, adding that police believed the gunman was a violent dissident republican.

We are treating this as a terrorist incident and we have launched a murder inquiry, he added.NEW HAVEN - Officer Jason Bandy is willing to cover his facial tattoos.

That information, newly raised, led the New Haven Board of Police Commissioners to table a hearing on whether to terminate Bandys job with the department Wednesday evening.

Former Chief Anthony Campbell previously recommended that Bandy be fired; Interim Chief Otoniel Reyes seconded that recommendation Wednesday, saying that Bandys three facial tattoos violated departmental policy - which the union contests - and prevent the department from exercising control over its image.

The issue was not tattoos or Bandy himself, but what about the department represents, he said.

"We all signed up to do a job; we all signed up to a particular brand. And that brand should be able to maintain its integrity, said Reyes. When an officer walks in with tattoos on their face, there are segments of the population that we serve that may be confused and offended by that - that may not understand what thats all about, that may question the mental stability of the officer who does that.

Were not supposed to be a distraction to the people we serve. Were supposed to be comforting; were someone whos going to provide direction and stability to those people.

But Bandy had agreed to cover his facial tattoos with makeup ahead of Wednesdays hearing, as asked in a second offer of a memorandum of understanding by police administration, according to union attorney Marshall Segar.

Police administration initially offered Bandy an agreement that he could have the tattoos surgically removed to avoid potential termination; a dermatologist said this would leave him with lasting scars. Administration then suggested this as part of a second offer.

Reyes initially said that Bandy refused the accommodation offered to him, including the offer to wear makeup; he later said that Bandy had rejected specific stipulations of the second offer.

Segar said Bandy had objected to a requirement that he drop a pending complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, but not rejected the agreement entirely.

Bandy filed an initial CHRO complaint over the issues stemming from his facial tattoos, Segar said, then filed a second one alleging that he had been retaliated against because he was presented for termination Wednesday.

Bandy also objected as to the possibility, as described in the second offer, that he could be fired immediately or face potential termination if he was not in compliance with the agreement to cover the tattoos.

The agreement includes that the makeup coming off under extenuating circumstances  a rainstorm was raised as an example Wednesday  would not represent a fireable offense.

Bandy previously told the Register that he did not trust that he would be treated fairly by the administration and would always be worried about falling into noncompliance.

No one has ordered Bandy to cover the tattoos, Segar said - he'd do so if that happened.

"The Chief has said that Bandy refused the accommodation. Thats untrue. Hes here before you tonight in the fashion as you would see him on the street. But the accommodation is not solely that, said Segar. Hes not going to agree to withdraw the CHRO (complaint). Hes willing to comply with the directive of the Chief of Police to cover his tattoos.

As with anybody else who had excessive facial hair, long hair, unshiny shoes, an unkempt uniform - if the chief said shine your shoes, he would do it, said Segar. He will comply with a directive - which has not been given - by the chief to cover your tattoos. He will comply; he is a well-respected officer of this department.

After a recess, attorney Jarad Lucan of Shipman & Goodwin, representing the city, said based on (Chief Reyes) very clear testimony that he wasnt aware of any of the accepted stipulations in his position as interim chief and new information (that) has come to light from both sides during discussions, the two parties were requesting a 30-day delay.

The commissioners tabled the meeting, granting this request.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.comMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 20)  The country's second Secretary General to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), former Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rodolfo Severino, Jr. died on Friday, April 19 after a lingering illness. He was 82.

In a statement Saturday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced Severino's demise "with deep sorrow."

"He served in various positions at the Office of the Undersecretary for Policy and the Office of Asia and Pacific Affairs, ending his foreign service career as Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy from 1992 to 1997," the DFA said.

In a separate statement, the Department of National Defense (DND) said it is grateful for Severino's contributions to the diplomatic interests of the Philippines.

"The Department of National Defense joins the nation in mourning the passing of former Ambassador, ASEAN Secretary-General, and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rodolfo Severino, Jr. The Philippine defense establishment takes cognizance of and will always be grateful for his contributions and accomplishments in the promotion of the diplomatic interests of our country in the international community," the DND said.

The well-respected career diplomat joined the Philippine foreign service in 1965.

Severino served as undersecretary to former Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo who, upon learning of his deputy's passing, said, Rod was my mentor. My worth as a diplomat, if any, IS because of him."

He proposed the raising of funds for a professorial chair on international diplomacy at Severino's alma mater, Ateneo de Manila University.

"Students of today deserve to learn of Rod's commitment to country," he pointed out.

Severino was Ambassador to Malaysia from 1989 to 1992.

Prior to this appointment, he held diplomatic posts in Washington D.C. and Beijing.

After retiring in 1997, Severino became ASEAN secretary general, a post he held from 1998 to 2002. He was the second Filipino to hold the post, after Narciso Reyes who served between 1980 and 1982.

Journalist Howie Severino, the late diplomat's son, paid tribute to his father on social media.

He outlined the elder Severino's accomplishments as a diplomat, journalist and educator.

Howie also said in his post that his father is survived by "his youngest child Rhoda, his wife, Rowena Weng Romero Severino, two sons Horacio (Howie) and Rodolfo III (Kokoy) and adopted daughter Gina with the late Caridad Gorospe Severino, daughter-in-law Ipat Luna, and grandchildren Alon Severino and JJ, Angel, Anna, Anton and Elyza David."

The wake will be at The Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig, from 5 pm of April 21st to 5 pm of April 24th.NEW HAVEN  The place at Yale University where generations of black students and others have joined in prayer and praise has a feel of familiarity, even in the way people talk about it.

Its the Black Church at Yale, but everyone knows it as BCAY. Its held Sundays during the school year at the Afro-American Cultural Center on Park Street, which everyone calls simply the House. And its pastor, OrLando Yarborough III, who earned his doctorate in genetics at Yale in 2010, is known as Pastor O.

BCAY, launched amid some controversy on Feb. 4, 1973, under the leadership of the Rev. Samuel Slie, who died in February at 93, is intimate and welcoming.

I like that its a small group of people, that we set everything up and break everything down, said Nana Mensah, a senior and one of two students from Ghana who was attending BCAY on Palm Sunday. Yale being such a big place, its great to have a small group of people.

This tradition seemed more homey to me, the community, said Naasey Arthur, a sophomore who is also from Ghana. You know everyone, and everyone checks up on you, actually cares.

On Palm Sunday, there were a dozen people on the second floor of the House on Park Street, including Yarborough, his wife, Dr. Rashele Yarborough, their 4-year-old daughter, Hannah, and Hannahs grandmother, visiting from Baltimore. The Yarboroughs were trained at Church on the Rock, a nondenominational church in New Haven, and OrLando was ordained there in 2015.

OrLando Yarborough introduced the Palm Sunday service by explaining that Jesus was entering Jerusalem triumphantly, as a king would, but riding on a donkey, according to the prophecy of Zechariah. People spread palm fronds and coats in his path. Less than a week later, Jesus would be crucified by the Romans, only to rise from the dead on Easter.

There are some who would understand who he is, Yarborough said. There are others who are questioning who he is and a crowd that begins to form as he comes into Jerusalem.

More News Faith Matters: His cross and ours

Students led much of the service, including Meshach Cornelius, a first-year student from Rochester, N.Y., playing the keyboard and Jalen Parks, a senior from Flint, Mich., concluding the service with a benediction. Kalen Beacham, a junior from Dallas, led the love assault, when members shared positive thoughts with their neighbors.

Mensah, dressed all in white, brought a serene spirituality into the group by leading the members in a soft, repetitive song, swaying to the music.

Beacham said BCAY resonated because it was very similar to my old church  very intimate. He added, My time at Yale, my time at BCAY has helped me grow as a Christian, find answers and further solidify my faith. He said hes also joined other groups on campus, such as the Christian Union at Yale and Yale Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. We even do joint services with Battell Chapel, where the University Church in Yale worships.

Put that person first

Rashele Yarborough started her sermon with the Great Commandment: Love God with all of your insides: all of your heart, soul, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, she said. God calls us to love with this Ill love you regardless love.

She referred to a verse from the Letter to the Ephesians: Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Then Yarborough described the parable of the good Samaritan, in which two religious Jews passed by a man lying on the side of the road, beaten and robbed. But she described in detail how a Samaritan, a man from a group that was looked down on by the Jews, stopped, tended to the mans wounds, put him on his donkey, found an inn (because he wasnt from that place), paid for him to be taken care of and said he would stop back and pay any additional costs.

She said a friend had said the Samaritan left his credit card to cover incidentals.

The lesson is that everyone is our neighbor, whether black, Muslim, Jewish, white, homeless, addicted, even racist, she said. This agape love to which we are called is not a feeling.  Its a pursuit, its an action, Yarborough said.

Yarborough, who studied the genetics of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes as a graduate and post-doctoral student, began co-leading a young adult group at Church on the Rock in 2004. He said the diversity of the students at BCAY leads to not a lot of explaining but a lot of understanding  a lot of listening, through which comes more understanding.

We dont have assumptions, cant make assumptions about past experience and upbringing.  It just makes the experience rich, he said.

Besides Sunday worship, BCAY holds Bible study and participates in worship nights with other religious groups on campus, he said. The students also will hold game nights or gather to watch a movie.

A spiritual home at Yale

BCAY and the House were the places that sustained Karen DuBois-Walton, executive director of the New Haven Housing Authority, when she arrived at Yale in the fall of 1985. Her father had died during surgery for lung cancer in August and her mother would die of pancreatic cancer that October. I had been dealing with the illness or death of my parents since I was 16, she said.

BCAY was the place that served as my spiritual home while I was at Yale, she said.

Growing up in the Episcopal Church in New York state, DuBois-Walton said she only experienced the energy and spirit of the black church experience when visiting her grandparents in New Orleans or on occasional visits to a black church an hour away from home.

The Afro-American Cultural Center was like the hub for black students. It was a place that felt like home, DuBois-Walton said. Every Sunday the room there was converted into a church space. Claiming not to have a great voice, DuBois-Walton said, I was even welcomed into the Yale Gospel Choir for a period there.

There were a couple of things that they sang every Sunday that just grounded me, she said: Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior and Weve Come This Far by Faith. There were Sundays that I sang those songs with tears running down my cheeks.  Sundays that I didnt even want to go to church, people would come and get me, she said.

I think that there were definite angels who looked out for me and watched over me, she said. I wasnt even consciously there all the time, but I was spiritually there. It was really a touchstone. It absolutely got me through freshman year.

Revolutionary founder of BCAY

BCAY would not have been founded without the support of the Rev. Samuel Slie, who was associate pastor of the Church of Christ at Yale at the time.

Despite some resistance, through his august presence and heavy moral authority [Slie] was able to convince people of the need for a place for black spiritual expression at Yale, said Peter Crumlish, executive director of Dwight Hall, the social service and justice center at Yale.

Slies influence went beyond Yale to bringing together people of different cultures and faiths in the New Haven area. He grew up in the multi-ethnic Oak Street neighborhood and believed strongly in interfaith dialogue.

He served as coordinator of Downtown Cooperative Ministries, later Interfaith Cooperative Ministries, which, according to the Rev. Ian Oliver, a Yale chaplain and pastor of the University Church in Yale, founded every good work in New Haven, basically, including the Columbus House, the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen and the Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund.

I describe him as one of the saints  a compassionate and caring person [who] believed in the value of every human being. There was no one on the margins for him, said the Rev. Allie Perry, worship coordinator for Shalom United Church of Christ in New Haven, who planned Slies March 23 memorial service.

Connie Royster, a consultant for nonprofits in New Haven and former director of development at the Divinity School, said, Sams influence was mammoth. It was humongous, but in a quiet way. He would always be kind of a guide.

The Rev. Dwight Andrews, now senior minister of First Congregational Church in Atlanta, is a former minister at the Black Church at Yale and gave the sermon at Slies service.

He could take a student like myself who had not studied the Bible, who was just trying to figure out what it was all about, said Andrews, who received his masters from Yale Divinity School in 1977. And Sam was patient enough and quiet enough to let me find my way to discern the way forward.

At the same time, Andrews said, I think Sam was a revolutionary. He was a radical. He sought to push the boundaries of all of our comfort zones and he did that even with all of us here in the Yale community. The Black Church at Yale, my friends, was a radical idea. Just the sound of it was radical.

But ironically the Black Church at Yale began right here in Battell Chapel, where some young black undergraduates  for the first time said, We want to have an African-American worship experience. We want to acknowledge our Christianity, but we also want to acknowledge our heritage and our cultural practice, and we want to do it here at Yale, Andrews said.

He said one of the student founders of BCAY recently reminded him that when they wanted to start the church that there was pushback from all sides. The African-American Cultural Center didnt want to have a black church at Yale. Some at Battell didnt know if they wanted to have a black church at Yale. And then, after all, what would it mean to have a black church at Yale? Andrews said.

But Sam was wise enough and quiet enough to allow these students and in fact Yale University to find its way, to accept difference in a way that didnt flatten out difference.  The genius of his leadership. His quiet way, his quiet leadership, his silence sometimes, allowed us the room to grow.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382I think at one time or another, we have all wondered about the families of the long-term homeless and why they are not around to help their loved ones who so obviously need it.

I am referring to people we see pushing carts compartmentalized with plastic bags, sprawled on a bench at night sleeping or huddled in a doorway or on the ground with a layer of cardboard underneath and above them. We know many of them suffer with mental health issues and substance addiction.

In many cases, they have not seen family members in years or even decades. And I wonder, how many of these long-term homeless people think no one cares about them or think family members, loved ones and friends have simply erased them from their lives?

Ashley Rodriguez wants them to know it is not as many as they think  and that many family members believe they, too, have been erased and are eager to reconnect.

And Rodriguez wants them to know a miracle lies in the message.

The Bridgeport resident is attempting to reconnect long-term homeless people with family members or others theyve been estranged from for years by bringing a chapter of Miracle Messages to the state.

Miracle Messages is a nonprofit message delivery service. It is the brainchild of Kevin F. Adler, who founded the organization in 2013 as way to honor his uncle, who had wrestled with schizophrenia before he died and lived on-and-off the streets for 30 years.

The service is based on the principal that there are many people on the streets with mental illness, drug addiction or severe disabilities  and many of them have families and people who miss them, love them and want to know theyre OK.

No one is doing it (this type of service) here, Rodriguez said. I hope by the summer to have (more) people on the team with me.

Here is how it works: A homeless person records a short video, audio or text message to a loved one. Volunteers or a caseworker will normally help with this process. Then, a network of more than 1,200 digital detectives nationwide attempt to deliver it.

And nearly six years after the service was founded, Adlers efforts are paying off.

There have been 201 reunions, and 82 percent of messages delivered to family members or loved ones were positively received. It took an average of one month for the service to reconnect them, and the average homeless person had been estranged from loved ones without contact for 20 years.

I started Miracle Messages to make an immediate and tangible impact in the lives of our neighbors living on and off the streets, to build empathy through person-to-person interaction and storytelling, and to use technology for social good, Adler says on the Miracle Messages website.

According to its website, Miracle Messages can be recorded via its 1-800-MISS-YOU hotline; its online referral forms (for families, volunteers and caseworkers), and its one-page, printable intake form from its website. And a mobile app is on the way.

Rodriguez is making the rounds of shelters and nonprofits to talk with the homeless and become familiar with their needs as she assembles a team of volunteers.

Im helping while I am building, she said.

But as good as the program sounds and despite how uplifting it may be, Rodriguez may have a tougher time convincing the homeless population to reconnect than she may think.

I headed up to Danbury on Wednesday to visit the Good Samaritan Center, where the homeless gather for the daily community meal.

I wanted to spread the word about Miracle Messages and have someone reconnect with a family to bring something special to the holiday weekend. But I was surprised the homeless I met wanted nothing to do with reconnecting with family members. And despite a growing homeless population, a willing participant could not be found in Greenwich or Stamford, either.

Experts say the long-term homeless tend to isolate themselves, are without a social support system and feel worthless and ashamed. So, they wander like nomads.

We dont pay too much attention to them; theyre societys eyesores and probably very few of them  or for that matter, any of them  are shown love or respect by their fellow man. Instead, theyre treated like blight that must be removed, shifted or discarded.

But every person has a story to tell and every story has a beginning and an end.

And sometimes, that story can end with a hello.

Homeless? A miracle lies in the message.

Those wishing to contact Ashley Rodriguez can do so via social media. Facebook: Ashley Ann Rodriguez; Instagram: Ashleyann or email ashleyrodriguez1194@gmail.com. Those wishing to learn more about miracle messages should visit https://miraclemessages.org.

James Walker is the New Haven Registers senior editor and a statewide columnist for Hearst Connecticut newspapers. He can be reached at 203-680-9389 or james.walker@hearstmediact.com. @thelieonroars on TwitterNEW HAVEN  Lead is poisonous, lead is sneaky, and lead doesnt go away.

And while the level of lead in a childs blood that would trigger abatement of the familys house or apartment is under review  with a city consultant suggesting the maximum allowable level be raised  the bottom line is there is no safe level of lead, said Dr. Carl Baum, director of the Yale Lead Program. The right number is zero because lead serves no purpose in the human body.

Baum also is a toxicologist and pediatrician with the Lead Poisoning and Regional Treatment Center at Yale New Haven Childrens Hospital.

The problem with lead poisoning is that its very difficult to predict in the individual child  how lead will affect that child, Baum said.

Many children who have been exposed do not show symptoms. In others, we will see children who have difficulty with school performance and difficulty copying figures from a blackboard or whiteboard, difficulty concentrating, or who have behaviors associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Kids who have developing brains are the ones who bear the burden of this, Baum said.

Children who have repetitive behaviors such as putting their hands to their mouths, including children who have autism, increase their potential for lead poisoning, he said.

Lead, a neurotoxin, was banned in paint in 1978 but, according to a 2016 report, 83 percent of New Havens 57,500 housing units had been built before then. (New housing has been built since 2016.) New Haven had remediated about 1,250 housing units by 2016, according to Paul Kowalski, city environmental health director.

Earlier this year, a consultant to New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, Nancy Mendel, said the city could use the state standard before triggering testing for lead in a housing unit: 20 micrograms per deciliter of blood or two tests within three months registering 15 micrograms in a child under 6. The city now requires testing and abatement at 5 micrograms per deciliter, but cases are increasingly ending up in Housing Court and costing the city thousands of dollars.

Legal assistance attorneys, including Amy Marx, have argued that raising the standard would be outrageous and that Section 8 federally subsidized housing still would be held to the 5 microgram standard, creating two criteria within the city.

Persistent problem

Baum said children who have ingested lead  mostly from dust created by friction surfaces such as door jambs and window sills  may become anemic because lead reduces the normal synthesis of hemoglobin in the blood, which carries oxygen to the body. The problem is a vicious circle because anemia makes a child more vulnerable to lead.

Lead also doesnt go away, in the environment or in the body.

Lead doesnt wash away with the next rainstorm, Baum said. Its environmentally very persistent. Lead removed from a house may end up in the soil, he said.

Baum said urban centers with a lot of 40-year-old housing stock are threats to the children who live there as the result of inaction almost a century ago. In 1921, the League of Nations began attempts to ban lead in paint, but the United States never signed on. Were still dealing with that legacy almost 100 years later, Baum said.

Lead is most dangerous in children under 3, when their brains are developing most rapidly.

Were all born with billions and billions of neurons in our brain, and lead disrupts their normal functioning. The result can be a lower IQ, inattentiveness, anti-social behavior and hearing and speech problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which set the 5 microgram standard.

Attorney Amy Marx, who has brought court cases against the city to get apartments abated as childrens blood lead levels increased, has estimated through statistical ratio analysis that 363 children ages 6 and under suffered from lead poisoning in New Haven in 2017, according to a revised city and state Department of Health standard, as well as the standard set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (over 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood)

Changing environment is treatment

If a child has a lead level of 45 micrograms or above, thats when we pull the trigger and say this child needs to be chelated. The treatment is to give a medication, preferably the oral medication Chemet, the brand name for succimer, which physically grabs onto lead, which is then excreted, Baum said.

Other ways of chelating lead  chelation is a chemical bonding process  are intravenous or intramuscular, but doctors prefer the oral form because it can be given as an outpatient, Baum said.

He said the therapy is not used below 45 micrograms because it doesnt work well at lower levels and its not without its side effects. It can affect blood counts and cause inflammation of the liver, he said.

If the child is anemic, its important he or she eat foods high in iron, especially red meat. The hope is that the lead level will fall as the child gets older and has less hand-to-mouth activity, Baum said.

But the most important intervention is to remove the child from the environment, or, if the lead is contained to an area of the home, making sure the child does not come in contact with it. Thats really the treatment for the vast majority of kids that we encounter, Baum said. The environment is literally the treatment.

Socially, its a tough problem, Baum said. Moving is among the greatest stresses that any of us endures, involving changing schools, shopping destinations and commutes. We dont want to disrupt peoples lives, but sometimes we have to, at least temporarily.

Marta Kostecki, the social worker at the Yale Regional Lead Treatment Center at 150 Sargent Drive, said in an email that having a child who has been affected by lead can be embarrassing for parents who did not realize the problem until it was too late.

Even when the lead level has resolved, the impact of lead poisoning may not be apparent until the school-aged years when the child is struggling in the classroom. Even though the issue is in the past, intellectual and behavioral deficits can be a lasting reminder, which is painful for a parent to talk about, she said.

During home visits, I always ask that the patient is present during the visit so that we can assess the child within their environment, Kostecki said. I look for potential lead hazards and consider what normal daily activities the child may be engaging in that puts them at risk for exposure. Usually, if we can diagnose these areas in the home, we can empower parents to place interim controls right away that reduce on-going exposure. Every family is unique, so we try to be mindful of any financial and cultural factors that may impact compliance.

Access barriers, proper cleaning and better nutrition are often implemented.

Families are much more responsive when you can give them a definitive list of things to do within their own home, Kostecki said. Saying things such as the lead is everywhere induces too much anxiety. While comments such as, theres barely any lead here completely minimizes the problem. A little lead in the most accessible area of the home can create a huge problem.

Kostecki also discusses tenants legal rights and offers information about federal funds available for abatement.

Like a canary in a coalmine

Baum said it doesnt help that housing isnt tested until a child is found to have a measurable level of lead in his or her bloodstream. He compared the problem to miners sending canaries into coalmines because the birds would die more quickly if exposed to poisonous gas.

Unfortunately, what were doing with housing is were allowing children to, in effect, serve as canaries, as biological monitors, he said.

Rather than allowing children to move into pre-1978 housing, what we ought to be doing is identifying lead-contaminated housing first, taking care of it first, before the child moves in, Baum said. Any house, any apartment, any building that is older than 1978 is likely to have lead in it unless it has been gut-renovated.

But renovations themselves can actually create a bigger hazard because of the dust created. They dont get it from obvious paint chips anymore, he said. Either one can be up to 50 percent lead, so thats a big dose.

State law requires children to be screened annually between 9 and 35 months old, Baum said, which in practice usually means they are screened at their 1- and 2-year-old checkups. Pediatricians in Connecticut are very good at getting that 12-month test, not so good about getting that 24-month test, he said.

The blood test is better than the way lead poisoning was diagnosed in the past.

In the 1970s, we had lead levels that were based on health effects, Baum said, but that less useful because of the lack of consistent symptoms among those exposed to lead. The standard has been lowered over the years, from as high as 60 micrograms per deciliter to 25, 10 and then to 5.

Adding to the complexity, When we get a lead level, we dont know if its going to rise, Baum said.

Identifying how lead is affecting a particular child is not easy either.

Its very difficult in a world where there are multiple factors that affect childrens behavior, Baum said. We may not know the exact effect in the individual child.

At the monthly Lead Clinic at the Childrens Hospital, children are screened and their care followed by pediatricians, while social workers work with families to find safe, affordable housing. For more information, call 203-688-2195.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.comA generation of Bridgeport residents has had good reason to be skeptical about proposed development in the city.

If half the grand drawings and papier-mache models that had been unveiled in the mayors office at 45 Lyon Terrace ever come to fruition, the city would have tilted into Long Island Sound under the weight of the concrete and steel.

Steel Point, the peninsula bisected by Stratford Avenue just south of downtown, was one of those areas that had become something of a punchline since the first grand proposals surfaced in the 1980s.

The phrase, This day has finally come  and variants of the same  has rung at press conferences dating back more than 35 years when the first inklings of wonders that would come began during the administration of Republican Mayor Leonard S. Paoletta, who served from 1981-85.

False starts, halting starts, scandal and genuine starts progressed through the subsequent mayoral terms of Democrat Thomas W. Bucci (1985-89); Republican Mary C. Moran (1989-91); Joseph P. Ganim, The First (1991-2003); Democrat John M. Fabrizi (2003-07); Democrat Bill Finch (2007-15); and Joseph P. Ganim, The Second (2015-??)

Incremental progress took place, notably the city acquired title to a significant portion of the property, a former power plant owned by the United Illuminating Company, during Fabrizis tenure, and Bass Pro Shop, on Stratford Avenue, aka 1 Bass Pro Drive  opened during Finchs administration.

And I will confess that I was among those expending the Connecticut Posts ink and newsprint skepticizing  its not a word, but should be  about the likelihood of anything ever actually happening there.

For many years, I was right.

Those days are over.

The other day I walked around what developer Bob Christoph Jr. calls The Lighthouse Building, a structure that has turned more than a few heads as it has risen over the last year or so on the shore of Bridgeport harbor across the vast open space of the development area known as Steelpointe Harbor.

He and his father, Bob Sr., are the Miami-based developers the RCI Group  doing business here as Bridgeport Landing Development, LLC.

We walked through what will be the ground-level oyster bar, through the office space on the second and third floors, along the decks outside with views of the expansive marina docks and of the 25-foot wide public walkway that runs around the entire perimeter of the property.

And there is also the view of the city across the harbor, Webster Bank Arena, the amphitheater, ferry dock, train station and the Richard Meier-designed Peoples United bank headquarters.

Its quite a view.

Between The Lighthouse Building and Stratford Avenue, earth-moving equipment was preparing the foundation for buildings that will hold 200 residential units  market-priced apartments, Christoph said  and retail space.

The goal for the retail space, he said, is to bring in new commerce.

I dont want to be seen as taking things from the city. I want to bring in new things, he said.

Whats also important is that the developers have acquired the former 10-acre Derecktor Shipyard, with its cavernous structures built for the shipbuilding and repair. The yard is now being operated as Bridgeport Boatworks.

Bridgeport harbor, like other successful port developments  Portland, Maine, say  should be at least partly a working harbor.

The Christophs vision is exactly that: not only a luxury marina with fine amenities, but a full-service facility where large yachts  there were two mammoth vessels in one of the former Derecktor buildings undergoing repair  can come for storage or for work. This is going to be an active shipyard, Christoph said.

The wild card, of course, in the continuing saga of Steel Point is the proposal of Las Vegas giant MGM Resorts Intl. to build a $675 million resort and casino at Steelpointe Harbor.

It would be a great thing for all the parties and the city  jobs, revenue, a reputation boost  but whatever the outcome, Bob Christoph said he and his father are all in. It sure looks like it.

Michael J. Daly is retired editor of the Connecticut Post editorial page. Email: Mike.Daly@hearstmediact.com .North Haven Police Department Facebook

NORTH HAVEN  A woman caught a man trying to take her purse from her home on Saturday night, police said.

The woman called police at 8:20 p.m. Saturday saying she had just confronted a man in her Bailey Road home who she saw walking out with her purse, according to police. The man then dropped her purse and fled toward the school playing fields as her boyfriend chased him, the woman told police.JERSEY CITY  A federal judge has allowed a disability suit brought by a Journal Square homeowner against the city for denying her request to build a carport in front of her yard to proceed, according to court documents.

The suit, originally filed in April 2018, claims the city discriminated against Joanne Gifford, and denied her her rights under the Fair Housing Amendments Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to grant a curb cut and carport in her yard on Magnolia Avenue.

The city moved to dismiss the suit, but United States District Judge Esther Salas denied the motion, writing in an April 12 opinion that the city has not made a persuasive argument to show that the requested accommodation is unreasonable.

A spokesperson for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2014, Griffin made a request to the citys planning board seeking permission to put a driveway curb cut in the front of her property in order to build a carport in the yard.

Griffin, 49, said in her suit that she sustained "a severe traumatic injury to her left foot and ankle in 1993" and, as a result, she has "very restricted, painful and unsafe walking ability."

The city, however, told her that the curb cut and carport would not be permitted under the Journal Square 2060 Redevelopment Plan, and that she should apply for a handicap parking spot in front of her house instead. The plan seeks to return Journal Square to a flourishing central business and shopping destination.

But Griffin claimed this would not be a reasonable accommodation, and the spot "would be farther than she could tolerate without undue pain and hardship."

She later retained legal counsel and moved to file an application for zoning board variance. She said her request was not unreasonable since 80 percent of the homes on her block have off-street parking in their front yards, she claimed in her suit.

The proposed handicap spot was also obstructed by a bicycle lane and inaccessible on street-cleaning days, she said.

In her suit, Griffin claims the city has discriminated against her in violation of the Fair Housing Amendments Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and New Jersey Law Municipal Land Use Law. She called the actions of the city arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.

She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, and cost for legal counsel. Neither Griffin nor her attorney could not be reached for comment.

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @cwmcdonald_. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.New Jersey workers cant be fired if they flunk a drug test because they are medical marijuana patients, a state appeals court has ruled.

The case is likely to reverberate in workplaces for years to come because a state appeals court says medical marijuana patients  as long as they are not under the influence at work  are protected by the state Law Against Discrimination.

There are about 45,000 registered patients in the program with about 2,000 joining every month, according to the state Department of Health.

The sweeping effect is you can no longer say, You (tested) positive  you are outta here,  said Maxine Mickey Neuhauser, an employment expert with the Newark office of the Epstein Becker and Green national law firm.

There had been a general belief that since marijuana is illegal under federal law, employers would not have to accommodate its use by employees, even if they had a prescription for it and using it legally under state law, Neuhauser said. This appellate case very strongly came down in the opposite direction following the lead of other states confronted with the same issue.

The March 27 state Appellate decision is based on a discrimination lawsuit filed by Justin Wild, 41, a man diagnosed with cancer who was fired from his directors job at the Feeney Funeral Home in Ridgewood in 2016.

Wild did not tell his employer he was enrolled in the medicinal marijuana program until after he was injured in a car accident and was taken to a hospital, according to the court decision.

The accident was not deemed to be Wilds fault and he claimed he was not high at the time. Because Wild acknowledged he was a registered patient, the emergency room physician did not administer a drug test because of course it will be in his system, according to a summary of the case in the court decision.

Wilds boss insisted he get a drug test before returning to work. And when he tested positive for marijuana, he was fired, the opinion said.

Wild sued for discrimination, but he lost at the state Superior Court level. The trial judge said the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, the 2010 state law creating the program, does not require employers to make accommodations on the job.

But the state Law Against Discrimination does require employers to accommodate people with disabilities like Wild, whose doctor approved his use of medical cannabis, Appellate Court Judge Clarkson Fisher Jr. wrote.

It would be ironic indeed if the Compassionate Use Act limited the Law Against Discrimination to permit an employers termination of a cancer patients employment by discriminating without compassion, Fisher wrote.

The plaintiff did not allege he sought an accommodation for his use of medical marijuana in [the] workplace, he alleged only that he sought an accommodation that would allow his continued use of medical marijuana offsite or during off-work hours,'  the decision said.

Wilds attorney, Jamison Mark, did not return calls and emails seeking comment for this report. The decision allows Wild to continue his lawsuit.

The attorneys for Feeney Funeral Home and the parent company, Carriage Funeral Services, filed for an appeal April 15, petitioning the state Supreme Court to take the case, Judiciary spokeswoman MaryAnn Spoto confirmed. The funeral homes attorneys did not return calls and emails seeking comment.

If the court declines to review the decision, or accepts it and upholds the appellate ruling, the Wild case adds some clarity to an otherwise murky area of employment law involving the legal use of cannabis. With a small number or exemptions, medical marijuana patients enjoy few workplace protections. Complicating this is the fact that even with 33 states and Washington D.C. enacting medical cannabis laws, possessing the drug is still a federal crime.

The Wild case is not the first to recognize the disability rights of medicinal marijuana patients. Last fall, a U.S. District judge in Connecticut ruled in favor of a woman who sued a nursing home operator which rescinded a job offer because she was a registered medical marijuana patient and flunked the drug test.

Neuhauser, the attorney who coauthored an analysis of the decision, advises employers not to get hung up on that this is cannabis. Think about it as you would for a prescription for Vicodin or Xanax or Ambien."

"You might need to go through the reasonable accommodation analysis for those individuals if you became aware of their use, she said. That analysis includes whether the person can do the job safely if they are under the influence, or will the person medicate off-hours. You have to focus on the employees conduct, she said.

I always emphasize when it comes to issues of disability, you must act on a case by case basis, and this case highlights the need to do that, Neuhauser said.

This is not the first time judges in New Jersey have recognized the rights of medicinal marijuana patients. Several workers compensation cases have ordered employers to pay for tab for employees hurt on the job and rely on medical cannabis for pain relief. Insurance companies do not cover medical cannabis.

There is pending state legislation (S10) expanding the medicinal marijuana law that would protect workers from getting fired simply because they are registered patients or flunk a drug test.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

Are you interested in the N.J. cannabis industry? Subscribe here for exclusive insider information from NJ Cannabis Insider.Dear Annie: Each year for the past 10 years or so I have gotten together with four close friends Ive known since middle school. We are now in our early 60s. Usually we gather in a place that has wonderful clothing stores. I live in an area where shopping is limited, so I often see items Id love to buy.

My problem is that my friends are highly critical of everything I try on, but not of each other. Im fairly certain the reason is because I am the only one of us who still weighs what I did when we finished high school. We were all slender then. The others are substantially larger now, probably by 40 or more pounds.

I have tried not coming out of the dressing room to avoid their comments, but sometimes I need to because of the mirror availability. And sometimes theyll insist that I show them what I have on. Going shopping by myself on these trips is not an option.

Several years ago, I just stopped trying on clothes with them and just bought cute accessories instead. Last year, I tried on some items, listened to their negative comments, but didnt buy anything. When I got back home I called the shop and had them send me the clothes I liked. (Of course, I had to pay shipping.) Meanwhile, when I wore the clothes, I got numerous compliments not only from friends, but even from strangers who came up to me and asked where I bought such a cute jacket, blouse, etc.

I try to be very supportive of each of my friends about the way they look, for example complimenting them on their clothes or jewelry or hairstyle, etc.

We will be getting together again soon in a great shopping location. Is there anything I can do or say to prevent them from being so critical of me when trying on clothes? Or do I just bite the bullet for the sake of our friendship, which I do truly value, and just buy more earrings and scarves? -- What Are Friends For

Dear What Are Friends For: Water off a ducks back: Thats what these comments should be to you. If you like how something looks on you, buy it. If they try to talk you out of it, smile, thank them for the feedback, and buy it anyway. Confidence and good humor are stronger forces than pettiness and jealousy. I have a feeling that once they see they cant take you down a peg, theyll stop trying.

Dear Annie: Your advice is usually so good, but I was surprised but your response to Hurt in the Pacific Northwest, who was upset by her brother-in-laws joke on Facebook that, by this womans own admission, she is very sensitive and has trouble letting things go -- and she demonstrates that here. She is tripping over pebbles to find offense in this situation, but you told her that he was wrong to speak that way! I think gently pointing out that she overreacted would have been doing her a service. Life must hurt and offend her every day. -- Benefit of the Doubt

Dear Benefit of the Doubt: I received enough feedback to this effect to think that I may have missed the mark on this one. I appreciate your letter.

Ask Me Anything: A Year of Advice From Dear Annie is out now! Annie Lanes debut book -- featuring favorite columns on love, friendship, family and etiquette -- is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.

Annie Lane grew up in California and headed east to graduate with honors from New York University, where she majored in English literature and specialized in psychology. She earned her Juris Doctor from New York Law School.

Since July 2016, Annie has offered common-sense solutions to everyday problems in her column, Dear Annie. Her advice is unusually perceptive. She is firm, funny and sympathetic, echoing the style of her biggest inspiration, Ann Landers.

Annie lives outside Manhattan with her husband, two kids and two dogs. When not writing, she devotes her time to play dates and Play-Doh.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COMA large fire destroyed four Sea Isle City homes early Sunday morning.

The Sea Isle Police Department said Sea Isle Dispatch received a call about a fire on the 200 block of 75th Street shortly after 5 a.m. Police proceeded to evacuate the residents from the burning home and neighboring residences.

According to 6ABC, officials said the fire started in one home and the wind led to other homes being engulfed.

Fire crews from nearby Strathmere, Oceanview, Seaville, and Avalon assisted in putting out the fire, which was placed under control at 6:11 a.m.

One firefighter from the Sea Isle City Fire Department was taken in an ambulance to Cape Regional Medical Center after suffering minor injuries. Four residential units were deemed a total loss as a result of the fire.

The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated by the Cape May County Fire Marshall, Cape May County Prosecutors Office, and the Sea Isle City Police Department.

This post has been updated with more information provided by Sea Isle City officials.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.A New Brunswick man found dead on one of the citys major thoroughfares early Saturday was killed by a hit and run driver, police said.

Anthony Cruz-Medina, 22, died of severe head and leg injuries after he was struck by a vehicle, according to the preliminary results of an autopsy.

Investigators believe the vehicle was traveling south on Livingston Avenue heading toward North Brunswick when it struck Cruz-Medina near Baldwin Street at approximately 12:40 a.m. Police were alerted by a 911 call that there was a body in the roadway.

The investigation is active and is continuing, according to a statement from New Brunswick Police and the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office.

The area is in a residential neighborhood, about six blocks from the heart of downtown New Brunswick. The intersection of Baldwin Street and Livingston Avenue has marked crosswalks, but no traffic lights.

Anyone with information is asked to call Patrolman Sean Cahill of the New Brunswick Police Department at (732) 745-5005 or Detective Jonathan Berman of the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office at (732) 745-4328.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez signed an impeachment resolution Thursday after Robert Mueller released his report, and shes free to do so because she won last year with 78 percent of the vote.

The billionaire Tom Steyer, a Democratic mega donor, called for impeachment as well, and hes free to do so because hes a billionaire.

But if you want to understand why Democrats will not blow this moment by overreaching like that, talk to the New Jersey Democrats who just won election last year, all four of them in districts that lean Republican.

They want Congress to keep investigating Trump, using the Mueller report as a roadmap. They demand to see the full unredacted report. But they are not ready to jump to impeachment based on what we know now.

From Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11th: I think we need to set a very high standard for impeachment because its going against the democratic will. And I do worry about overreach. If it comes to be seen by Americans as a partisan attack, then you have even deeper divisions and you cant talk about anything else.

From Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-7th: You cannot have a partisan removal of a president, and thats a good thing. Im glad I dont live in a country where one party can remove a president at will.  I want to hear from Mueller himself. I want to talk to my constituents. I want to talk to people and weigh their advice.

From Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd: I dont think we should go through the impeachment process. There can be some hearings, but we have to get to the point that it stops.  Id rather we move on.

You get the idea. They all see the need for deeper investigation. They dont want to drop this. But they dont see any bombshells in this report that would justify overruling the decision that American voters made in 2016, insane as it was.

Trump wasnt working for Russia, thankfully, Malinowski says. But he also wasnt working for America. The report paints a picture of someone who was and is only working for himself.

Thats why this moment is so excruciating. Mueller found proof that the Russians messed with our election and that Trump and his crew welcomed it, even if they didnt join the effort. He found that Trump was flat-out lying about his business ventures in Russia during the campaign.

And while he drew no conclusions on obstruction of justice, he suggested that Congress consider evidence of obstruction on 10 separate occasions, including one in which Trump ordered Don McGahn, his chief counsel, to demand that the Justice Department fire Mueller.

You cant read this report without concluding that Trump is a con man who tried to obstruct justice but failed, blocked by his own incompetence and the refusal of aides to obey his dirty orders.

But politics demands strategic thinking, and these representatives are right about the danger of jumping straight to impeachment. They are all following the lead of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who ruled out impeachment unless the evidence against Trump is so powerful that Republicans join the effort as well.

Pelosi knows the math. To win conviction in the Senate, 20 Republicans would have to turn against Trump, along with every Democrat. And while its possible she has high-minded reservations about overruling the verdict of voters, its certain that shes thinking about saving her fragile majority.

The reason Democrats took over the House last year is not because of progressives like Ocasio-Cortez. Its because centrists like Sherrill, Malinowski and Van Drew won in districts that had been held by Republicans.

Sherrill replaced Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, a blue-blood Republican who held his seat for 24 years. Malinowski replaced Rep. Leonard Lance, who held his for 10 years. Van Drew replaced Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who held his for 24 years. Rep. Andy Kim, D-3rd, took a district Republicans had held for eight years. (He could not be reached for this piece.)

Ocasio-Cortez replaced a Democrat, for a net gain of zero.

The best way to contain Trump is to make sure that centrist Democrats win again in 2020. And if you talk to them, its clear they feel that impeachment could hurt that cause and play directly into Trumps hands.

Voters in these swing districts are not pressing them about impeachment. At public hearings, they are more likely to take questions on the cost health care, the inability to claim deductions for their property taxes, climate change, or the new Hudson River tunnel.

In my district, Ive built broad coalitions around those issues, Sherrill says. Were in a divided government and I want to get stuff done now. I dont want to wait until 2020.

I admit, it takes effort to think strategically about Trump. I wont be emotionally satisfied until he follows the footsteps of the villainous Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, who was stripped naked and forced to walk through the capital as citizens threw rotten vegetables at her. I want to see Trumps Walk of Shame.

But thats Trump Derangement Syndrome. When I breathe slowly with my eyes closed, I can see the larger truth: Mueller didnt give us enough to impeach the man.

Congress should keep searching. But its not time to unleash the dogs. Not yet, anyway.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.By John Farmer

It was stunningly stark, that solitary, shimmering bright cross.

Suspended there, seeming almost to defy gravity, it hung in air over the altar, appearing almost to bless the pool of fetid water and rotting, wooden debris from the broken ceiling that covered the floor of the 850-year-old Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

The image of that cross, an icon representing the glory and durability of western Judeo-Christian civilization over the tumultuous centuries, will remain with me as long as memory endures.

In the Christian canon, Christ rose from the grave on what we now celebrate as Easter to give life to the faith. So, too, will the Cathedral of Notre Dame rise again restored, the French president has promised.

Lets hope so. If true, it would be an Easter gift for the ages.

The world has never wanted for stirring religious and national symbols. Its true of almost every faith and ethnic or national following. But few have elicited the emotional commitment across national, ethnic and even religious boundaries as has the elegant edifice of Notre Dame.

Its special place in history has allowed it to survive the savagery that at various times has spread darkness and destruction across Europe.

A thousand years ago, those savage Scandinavians, the Vikings, sailed their longboats up the Seine to the portals of Paris with plunder in their hearts. But appeased by appeals from the pope of the day (and sacks full of gold and jewels), they spared the city.

In the centuries that followed, English, German, Russian, Austrian, even American armies took possession of Paris as conquerors but never as despoilers of the city and its iconic cathedral. Adolf Hitler, a maniacal anti-Christian, gave orders as the curtain came down on his doomed Third Reich that Paris, with all its cultural icons, was to be erased from the map.

His generals in France refused to execute the order. Something stayed their hand. But what?

Perhaps, it was something about Paris and its glittering symbols of humanitys reach for the heavens in art and beauty and history. Something like the Cathedral of Notre Dame, perhaps.

What makes the French feeling for the great cathedral so unique is that France is perhaps the most secular society in Christendom. Seems contradictory, doesnt it? But its not.

The special place of Notre Dame  for the rest of us as well as for the French  is rooted in cultural memory and something as declasse as nostalgia, a part of all history. The gaps left by nostalgia we fill with myth, which is much of the stuff of history.

Notre Dames contribution to myth, if it makes a contribution at all, may lie with the beliefs that among the relics rescued from last weeks cathedral fire were a portion of the true cross and the crown of thorns Christ wore at his crucifixion.

Are they true? Hard to know. But it matters little. For myth is part of the belief system most of us cherish and adhere to. It helps fill the gaps that might otherwise undermine our beliefs and the comfort that comes with having something to believe in.

I know that from my own experience. Raised a Catholic, I grew up with the belief that we Christians all start life with one foot in heaven. Which prompts the question: Do I still believe in heaven?

Alas, I dont. But I pray that Im wrong.

I suspect thats the way with the secular French, too. It would help explain why, with all their Gallic skepticism, throngs of French stood for hours outside Notre Dame, some weeping and others laboring to comfort stricken bystanders, as the flames sought to devour their historical and religious treasure.

The French, so divided politically on other matters, came together on that plaza before the cathedral, a place where children play as their elders  in declining numbers, it seems  assemble inside to honor the old faith. These days the crowds that flock to the cathedral are more often than not foreign tourists who come to see what all the fuss is about.

Having been there twice, I heartily recommend the trip. The giant towers and brilliantly colored windows seem to say that here the past is ever-present and you are welcome, as any believing pilgrim or the merely curious would be.

Its something Ill think about at Mass this Easter. But it wont be what preoccupies my thoughts at Mass or for most of the rest of that day of Christian celebration.

What my mind will remain fixed upon is the image of that singular, shining cross illuminating the darkness in Notre Dame and summoning us to celebrate the richness and promise of triumphant Western, Christian civilization.

How could any Easter be better or more relevant to any age?

John Farmer has been a working journalist since 1951. Hes served as a Washington correspondent, city and national editor, national correspondent and columnist for several news organizations. Farmer has covered nearly every national convention and national political campaign since 1962, the IRA in Northern Ireland and the funeral of Princess Diana.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.You cant always get what you want.

Donald Trump likes to employ that Rolling Stones song at the end of his rallies.

I never quite figured out what point The Donald was trying to make by playing it. But now that the text of the Mueller report has been released it, certainly seems to apply to former FBI agent Peter Strzok.

Hes the agent who initiated the investigation into the Trump campaigns contact with Russia that ended last week not with a bang but with a whimper.

The report didnt tell us just why Strzok used a line from another Stones song - Jumpin Jack Flash- as the code name for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation he started on July 31, 2016, into the Trumps ties to Russia.

But he certainly didnt get what he wanted.

As the probe dragged on for two-plus years, text messages surfaced between Strzok and Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer with whom he was having an affair.

In one exchange, Strzok wrote, Well stop it in reference to a potential Trump presidency. He also wrote "I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andys (Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the FBI) office that theres no way Trump gets elected  but Im afraid we cant take that risk. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40.

Just what did the two  and possibly others - intend that insurance policy to accomplish?

If Trump has his way, well find out. Right after that report was released Thursday, the head of Trumps 2020 campaign committee, Brad Parscale, sent out a press release stating, Its time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump and noting that Attorney General William Barr testified to a Congressional committee earlier this month that spying did occur on the Trump campaign.

The Democrats professed outrage at the spying allegation. But Barrs response couldnt have given them much comfort: I think spying did occur, Barr said. But the question is whether it was adequately predicated and Im not suggesting it wasnt adequately predicated. But I need to explore that.

Lately many liberal commentators have been stating that Barr is a political appointee who is letting his politics enter into his decision-making. Theyd better hope theyre not right.

Barrs appointment runs till Jan. 20, 2021. If hes in the mood to explore how the Russia probe got started, that cant be good for the Democrats.

That exploration could go into a lot of questions, such as the origin of the infamous Steele Dossier, the report from Christopher Steele on a number of Trumps alleged actions while in Moscow, including the so-called golden showers thing in a hotel room.

Steele is a former British intelligent agent  i.e. a spy  whose report formed part of the basis for an application by the FBI for a FISA warrant that gave the investigators access to intelligence that otherwise wouldnt have been available.

It takes a spy to know a spy. So I called Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent who blogs on intelligence issues.

(Check his latest post on how Mueller failed to report on several shady characters who were provocateurs with ties to the FBI.)

The Steele Dossier was entirely a pretext to justify spying on Trump, Johnson said. They used falsehoods and fabrication to spy on Trump. Their motive was they were doing everything to re-elect Hillary because that would be good for their careers after she won.

Johnson said that if Barr decides to do a thorough investigation, he could come up with all sorts of heretofore uncovered aspects of Crossfire Hurricane.

The Democrats have options of their own, however. Many are arguing that the report shows that Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not exonerate Trump on charges of obstruction of justice.

True enough. He just handed that hot potato to the House:

With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a Presidents corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice, the report stated.

The Democrats have enough votes to impeach Trump if they so desire. But I suspect they do not so desire.

Any impeachment effort would almost certainly fail once it got to the Republican-controlled Senate. And the hearings might end up enhancing the presidents popularity. Despite the Monica Lewinsky matter  or perhaps because of it - Bill Clinton is the among the most popular politicians on the national scene.

As for the former presidents wife, she lacks both his charm and his political skills.

Thats what got the Democrats into this mess. It will be interesting to see how they get out.

As a great man once said, you cant always get what you want.

But if you try some time, you might get what you need.

And what the Democrats need is to put this whole matter behind them.

ADD - TRUMP KEPT THE STONES ROLLING

Heres some footage I shot on my phone after a Trump victory rally in December of 2016:Three years ago, then-Gov. Chris Christie signed a law he said would help people who work for New Jersey small businesses tuck away a few extra dollars each month toward their retirement.

The idea was to create a virtual marketplace for small businesses to comparison shop for private retirement plans pre-vetted by state government. With that information in hand, the business owners could then offer their workers a way to automatically deduct money into a retirement account.

Other states were also doing this, officials said, and it would be especially critical in New Jersey, where the AARP estimates 1.7 million workers lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

But three years later, the promised Small Business Retirement Marketplace doesnt exist, NJ Advance Media has found.

The Christie administration simply never implemented it, said Evelyn Liebman, of the New Jersey AARP. None of it.

That was news to Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who co-sponsored the legislation and said he was surprised to learn from a reporter that the Treasury Department never developed the online portal.

Its disappointing that youre telling me that, Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said. When we pass laws we expect them to be implemented.

Actually, the Christie administration did take some action, but not until the last minute. Just one week before the Republican governor left office in January 2018, it put out a preliminary request for information.

Then Gov. Phil Murphys administration declined to act on the responses because it was working on its own law to automatically enroll many private-sector workers into a state-run retirement program, officials said.

Murphy signed that more sweeping law in February, but advocates say not implementing the law that was signed three years ago continues to hurt both workers and business.

The sooner that people begin saving the better for workers and their families," Liebman said.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature in 2015 passed a bill developing a state-run IRA that would automatically enroll private-sector workers whose employers didnt already offer a retirement plan.

But Christie, a Republican, vetoed it, saying the state shouldnt be creating another government bureaucracy. Instead, he said the state should provide businesses a menu of existing retirement offerings to choose from.

Christie offered up the virtual marketplace as a compromise, and lawmakers agreed. He signed the Small Business Retirement Marketplace Act on Jan. 19, 2016.

It was supposed to take effect immediately.

To sustain the long-term financial health of New Jersey, its residents, and the businesses that operate here, it is imperative that the state encourage employers and employees to take advantage of the retirement savings opportunities already available to them in the market, Christie said at the time.

Many larger companies offer workers the option of saving for retirement. But its far less common for smaller firms.

New Jersey, where about half of private-sector workers are employed by small businesses, has some of the lowest rates of access to a retirement plan and participation in the nation, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts report.

It ranks 42nd out of 50 in access and 40th in participation, Pew said. In the Northeast, New Jersey ranks dead last.

Christie said the market-based approach to improving New Jersey workers retirement prospects was the answer. It would focus on maximizing participation in available retirement savings options instead of creating a new state-run program to provide "duplicative services.

But it wasnt until two years later in January 2018  seven days before Christie left office and Murphy was sworn in  that the New Jersey Treasury Department issued a 2 1/2 page request for information from financial services firms to help the state eventually solicit bids.

The Treasury Department received nine responses to the Christie administrations solicitation, spokeswoman Jennifer Sciortino said.

The new administration then dropped it in favor of the state-run retirement legislation  dubbed Secure Choice  that was once again gaining momentum in Trenton.

Shortly thereafter, the Secure Choice legislation began working its way through the Legislature and was widely embraced by this administration, legislators and stakeholders as a more viable and comprehensive retirement option, she said.

Secure Choice, signed into law by Murphy in February, automatically enrolls many workers into a state-run IRA. Employers with 25 or more employees must create the payroll deduction, while smaller businesses can do so voluntarily.

Based on results in other states, the auto-IRA program should be more effective in improving retirement savings among private-sector workers, Leibman said.

But theres a catch: It could be another two or three years before thats up and running.

One of the reasons we supported then-Governor Christies veto was because it was better than doing nothing," she said. "But unfortunately that administration didnt move on implementation.

Weve got some time to make up here, but the good news is we now have a (auto-IRA) program thats been fully embraced by the Legislature and the governor and the Department of Treasury, so were very optimistic that we can make up some of that time.

Mike Wallace of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, which opposed Secure Choice but backed the marketplace, said the interest is still there from business owners who want to offer their employees a retirement option but would benefit from state government doing the heavy lifting by vetting vendors.

The loss is on both the employer and the employees for not having this option, this small business marketplace right now, he said.

Sweeney argued that the new law creating the auto-enroll IRA doesnt render the virtual marketplace for small businesses unnecessary and this this piece of the solution shouldnt be ignored.

Its still beneficial and should be provided. They should implement what we legislated, he said. This is one Im going to have to reach out to the administration on.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Many people thought the idea of America was over when there were no criminal perp walks during the Obama administration after the Wall Street collapse of the economy. If you were not convinced then, then surely you must think America is over now  if Congress doesnt act on the results of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report.

Will Bunch, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, makes the point that drives the final nail in the coffin of America when he wrote, Very frankly, I think were sending a terrible message to future presidents  including sinister ones wholl hire aides that actually do carry out their orders if (President Donald) Trumps clear-cut abuses of power are allowed to go unpunished.

The American form of government has been so factionalized and corrupted by the political class that corrective efforts will not even be attempted. The reason is that this class does not want to upset its own apple cart of power. So, through cowardice and collusion, the political class protects a conniving, lying carnival barker of a real estate mogul from New York City.

It's over, folks. There are no profiles of courage in the political leadership of Washington, D.C.

Roy Lehman, Woolwich Township

N.J. schools have no business caring for babies

As any property taxpayer in New Jersey is well aware, the school budget comprises more than 60 percent of the typical tax bill. No matter how hard a municipality or county may try to control spending, public education always remains the big cost driver.

To that end, I am stunned that some members of the state Legislature are now trying to turn allow turning public school buildings into child-care centers for babies as young as six weeks old.

The mission of taxpayer-funded schools is to provide a thorough and efficient education. Nowhere is there a mandate that schools must also duplicate private businesses, taking work from another industry that is handling child care perfectly well.

Enactment of this legislation (A. 5066, S. 3330) would accomplish just one thing: Raising my taxes. Any logical person would assume the space in public schools targeted to become child care centers would need major renovations to accommodate babies. New Jersey taxpayers do not have the extra millions of dollars required for this new construction, and to address age-old issues like asbestos and lead.

I ask that Assemblywoman Gabriela Mosquera, D-Camden, who represents the town where I live, allow public schools to focus on educating students as taxpayers intended. We cant afford anything else.

Jason Walters, Gloucester Township

Editors note: The writers wife is the director of a privately owned preschool. The state Senate approved S3330 on March 14. It awaits action by the Assembly Women and Children Committee. Mosquera chairs this committee.

Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.comThe only municipality in our state that borders both New York and Pennsylvania is finally starting to feel a little bit more like New Jersey.

Residents of rural Montague Township, population 3,753, no longer have a New York mailing address. High school students are no longer being bused across the border to Port Jervis.

Mayor Richard Innella said girls interested in softball used to play on a team in Pennsylvania, but not anymore.

Now, thats not to say that Montague is the typical New Jersey town. It covers more than 45 square miles, but there is not a single traffic light to be found. Its home to High Point, the tallest elevation in New Jersey at 1,803 feet, but prohibits buildings from rising above 35 feet.

The largely-undisturbed scenery in Montague is breathtaking, but it is hard not to marvel at missing amenities taken for granted in a city, or even a typical Jersey suburb.

Water and sewer service? Sidewalks? Not where he lives, Innella said.

But we got more blackberries than you can shake a stick at, Innella said.

Really enjoyed my visit Wednesday to rural Montague, the top of New Jersey. Here Mayor Richard Innella explains why his town will be forever green with unimpeded views of wilderness and open spaces. pic.twitter.com/8soAlP7s2d  Rob Jennings (@RobJenningsNJ) April 4, 2019

Montagues nickname is, the top of New Jersey," but Innella playfully refers to it as being in the middle of the tri-state area.

At times, the state boundaries have seemed blurred.

Until 1980, when Montague got a post office, mail reached residents via the 12771 zip code in Port Jervis, New York.

That used to be fun. I had a New Jersey drivers license, but with a New York mailing address, said Innella, a Port Jervis native who moved to Montague in 1976.

Montague, for decades, sent graduates of the elementary public school district to Port Jervis High School.

The arrangement offered a substantial perk, because graduates from Montague were eligible for lower, in-state college tuition rates in New York as well as New Jersey, but a desire by some residents to bring students home prompted a switch to High Point Regional High School, starting in 2014.

Yet much overlap remains.

The Milford-Montague Toll Bridge offers an easy connection to Milford, Pennsylvania, where the historic Milford Theatre and its annual Black Bear Film Festival is a huge draw.

Go to a gas station in Montague and youre just as likely, maybe more likely, to encounter an out-of-state driver.

The main business district is on Route 23, a stones throw from the New York border. There, five gas stations attract motorists dashing off Route 84 - the access ramp is on the New York side - to snag perpetually cheaper prices in New Jersey.

Innella said business slipped a bit after New Jersey approved a 23 cents per gallon gas tax increase in 2016.

They used to be really backed up, but theyre still busy, he said of the gas stations.

A motorist enters New Jersey from New York on Route 23 and passes gas stations in Montague, April 3, 2019 (Rob Jennings / NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)Rob Jennings / NJ Advance Media

More than half of Montagues residents arrived in the 1980s and 90s, including Debbie Dee Walsh and her husband, Richard.

Both grew up in Paterson and graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. They were introduced to northwestern New Jersey on camping trips and moved to Montague in 1988.

I love it. The hunting. The fishing. The wildlife. The deer in our backyard, she said, quickly adding that they dont shoot the deer.

Dee Walsh owns Country Kutz, one of several small businesses in the Montague Mini-Mall on Clove Road. She was at the store around 2 p.m. on a recent Wednesday, awaiting a customer from Vernon who never has had anyone else cut her hair.

I cant imagine living anywhere else. Except in the winter, when its 12 feet of snow, Walsh said, laughing.

Montague Township borders both Pennsylvania and New York.

Montague, like much of Sussex County, is politically conservative and lacking in diversity. Nine in 10 Montague residents are white, according to the most recent Census figures, and one in 4 are at least 60 years old.

President Trump received 67.6 percent of the vote in Montague, to 27.6 percent for Hillary Clinton. Montagues median household income, $70,329, is about 90 percent of the statewide average.

Commuting from Montague is a challenge. The average travel time to work is 41 minutes and only 3 percent of commuters use mass transit.

Jose Concalves, owner of J & J Pizza and Restaurant and a native of Portugal, said it is a 45-minute drive from his home in Newton.

Concalves bought the pizza place 11 years ago. On a side wall is a photo he took in Ponte da Barca.

Jose Goncalves, owner of J & J Pizza and Restaurant, behind the counter in Montague, April 3, 2019 Rob Jennings / NJ Advance Media

The restaurants TV was tuned to American westerns the other day - an episode of Gunsmoke, followed by Bonanza.

Some first-time customers express surprise upon encountering a pizza place in Montague, and Concalves said his menu is adaptable.

I do whatever people want, he said.

As Innella sees it, the challenges posed by Montagues remoteness are offset by living amid such natural beauty. At least 70 percent of Montague is owned by either the state or federal governments, and walled off from development.

Innella descrived Montague as forever green.

What you see now," he said, you will see a hundred years from now."

This article is part of Unknown New Jersey, an ongoing series that highlights interesting and little-known stories about our past, present, and future -- all the unusual things that make our great state what is it. Got a story to pitch? Email it to local@njadvancemedia.com.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newslettersNEW YORK  Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge has a pretty significant left oblique strain, manager Aaron Boone said Sunday morning.

Boone said he didnt have a timeline for when the slugger would return. The current plan for Judge, Boone said, is rest and recovery. The manager said he wasnt sure if Judge would join the team on its long West Coast trip, which starts Monday vs. the Angels. Judge is from California.

Judge left the sixth inning of a 9-2 win over the Royals at Yankee Stadium.

The 26-year-old hurt himself while swinging on a single to the right-field corner. He winced as he made it up the first base line slowly. He grimaced repeatedly at first base and after a short chat with head trainer Steve Donohue, he left for the dugout for good.

Judge had the tests at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

He was hitting .288 with five homers and 11 RBI in 73 at-bats.

Judge, who was 2-for-4, had already contributed to the blowout with a first-inning solo shot. He hadnt shown any signs of injury before the sixth inning. But Boone gave Judge some rest via the designated hitters spot Saturday. He had played in all 19 of the Yankees games as the team tries to navigate with 12 players  including several star  on the injured list.

Last season, Judge was limited to just 112 games thanks to a fractured wrist. He won the 2017 American League Rookie of the Year and was the MVP runner up.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.A man fled an armed robber who confronted him inside a Bourbon Street bathroom early Sunday (April 21), according to New Orleans police.

The 20-year-old was in the bathroom of a Bourbon Street business around 4:45 a.m. when the robber grabbed his hand and placed it on a concealed firearm. The gunman then flashed the weapon and demanded the 20-year-old hand over his money. The 20-year-old fled the bathroom without giving up any money, police said.

Roughly 12 hours earlier, police said a woman was riding her bike in the 1400 block of Milton Street in the St. Bernard area when a teenage boy hit her in the face and knocked her off the bike. He then stole the bike and fled.

Police also reported that a 59-year-old woman was cut around 6:30 p.m. Saturday during an altercation with Gordon Johnson, 54, in the 4700 block of Shalimar Drive in Pines Village. Police arrested Johnson a few blocks from the scene. The woman was treated by EMS.

Saturday also saw two teens  ages 16 and 14  injured in separate shootings in Hollygrove and Central City.A 16-year-old boy was shot three times in Hollygrove Saturday afternoon (April 20), according to New Orleans police.

The shooting, which is the first of Easter weekend, was reported occurred around 3:10 p.m. near the intersection of Forshey and Leonidas Streets (map).

A person attempted to remove the boy from a bike he was riding near the intersection. The person then pulled out a gun and fired at the boy, striking him three times, police said.

The boy was taken to a hospital by EMS. He was listed in stable condition, police said.

No further information was available.New Orleans police is asking for the publics help in finding 16-year-old Janay Brown, who was was last seen Friday (April 19) in Algiers.

Browns mother told police that she last saw her daughter around 6:30 p.m. in the 1200 block of Casa Calvo Street. Brown never returned home and her mother has not heard from her since, police said.

Brown is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs about 167 pounds, police said. She was last seen wearing a blue and gold blazer and black biker shorts.

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Janay Brown is asked to contact the New Orleans Police Department at 821-2222 or the Fourth District Police Station at 658-6040.A 1,600-pound white shark was spotted swimming in the Gulf of Mexico and is headed north, according to OCEARCH, an organization focused on collecting data from the ocean.

The shark, named Miss Costa, was most recently tracked off the coast of the Florida Panhandle, south of Panama City, OCEARCH reported. Scientists guess she could be between 14 and 15 long, based on measurements taken back in 2016.

Research shows that white sharks visit the Gulf of Mexico, but there is little information on their activity in those waters, OCEARCH said.

Read the full report from OCEARCH here.A man was in critical condition after New Orleans firefighters rescued him from a burning home in St. Roch on Sunday morning (April 21), authorities said.

Just before 7 a.m., NOFD received word of three people trapped in a burning home in the 2800 block of Mandeville Street. When they arrived, firefighters discovered the front of a single-story home fully engulfed in flames. Two of the residents had successfully escaped, but one man remained inside, according to a Sunday afternoon news release from the fire department.

Firefighters entered the home from the rear and found the man unconscious on the floor in a bedroom. They brought the man outside and began emergency medical treatment.

The victim was listed in critical condition with smoke inhalation and first- and second-degree burns, the release said. The two other residents suffered smoke inhalation and were in stable condition, according to NOFD.

The fire spread to the rear of the home before it could be contained and placed under control at 7:27 a.m. Seven NOFD units carrying twenty-two personnel were used to extinguish the fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The New Orleans Police Department, Louisiana State Fire Marshals Office, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services and Entergy responded to the incident.One of the worlds oldest and most famous houses of worship nearly burned to the ground this past week as millions watched in horror on TV and through social media.

For many, the despair of seeing flames exploding across the roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday (April 15) was the fear of losing an architectural icon, an 856-year-old structure whose materials and design could never be fully replicated.

For others, it was a concern for the history of a place where Henry VI of England was crowned king in 1431 and where Napoleon was made emperor in 1804 after taking the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and placing it on his own head.

The cathedrals bells marked many of the existential events in France, including the 1918 armistice of World War I and the 1944 liberation of World War II.

Who said it: Sen. John Kennedy or Foghorn Leghorn?

When Adolph Hitler asked, Is Paris burning? after ordering that the city be reduced to a pile of rubble rather than be surrendered to the Free French forces in August 1944, he especially wanted to see Notre Dame de Paris in flames.

But perhaps most of those riveted to the coverage of the cathedral fire Monday were personally connected by a tourist visit and maybe even a selfie taken in front of the Gothic edifice.

The cathedral was the most-visited monument in Paris in 2017, drawing 12 million people, according to the citys tourism office. The Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre, or Sacre-Coeur, another historic Catholic church, was second with 10 million visitors, followed by the Louvre museum with 8 million and the Eiffel Tower with 6.2 million.

Notre Dame had become more a tourist destination than a place of religious pilgrimage. Thanks to Disney and Hollywood, visitors were more likely to know the story of Victor Hugos fictitious bell-ringing hunchback than to believe in the power of the Mass said there daily.

The original title of Hugos novel, by the way, is Notre Dame de Paris, not The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The massive cathedral that was built and expanded over centuries ad majorem Dei gloriam"  for the greater glory of God  had become in the past two centuries celebrated more as a monument to man than to his maker.

That is the story of the church in western Europe and especially in the aggressively secular France, where Laicite (literally, secularity) is a state religion.

A 1905 French law forbids raising or affixing any symbol or religious emblem on public monuments or in any public place," with the exception of museums, cemeteries and places of worship. Public service employees are banned from wearing Muslim veils and other dress with a religious connotation.

Once among the most Catholic countries in the world, France has seen a serious decline in churchgoing. According to the Pew Research Center, about 60 percent of French people still identify as Catholic, but only 1 in 10 prays every day and only 5 percent regularly attend Mass.

As in the United States, the church has clashed with the modern culture over birth control, in-vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage. The worldwide sexual abuse scandal has further eroded trust in the church and its leaders.

So, its not surprising that those who are hostile to the church are demanding a voice in the reconstruction of Notre Dame as a civic project. While some want the cathedral restored to its original condition, others say the government should reimagine it as a multi-faith monument or a tribute to European secularism.

The fact that the Notre Dame fire came at the start of Holy Week is not lost on many of those seeking symbolism and metaphor to awaken the church.

It was Holy Monday when Jesus stormed the Jerusalem temple, overturning the moneychangers tables and declaring, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves! Was the fire a judgment on the church?

Others point out that it was the decades of neglect and rot inside the Notre Dame structure that helped the fire to spread just short of total destruction. Does the church need to repair from within?

The best response, however, may be the reminder that the church has never been the massive buildings the church constructed but the faithful people it attracts and serves. Buildings can be a distraction.

The benefit of the doubt? Mayor Cantrell doesnt get it

When Jesus said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, he wasnt talking about the massive stone structure that dominated Jerusalem.

He was talking about the body that would be raised from death for the benefit of all mankind. That is the lesson to learn from the Notre Dame fire.

The answers are not found in the ashes of a cathedral.

Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen."

Tim Morris is a columnist on the Latitude team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Latitude is a place to share opinions about the challenges facing Louisiana. Follow @LatitudeNOLA on Facebook and Twitter. Write to Tim at tmorris@nola.com.Tulane fell behind by seven runs after two innings and drew within 11-8 when Kody Hoese hit his 20th home this season in the sixth inning, but Memphis held on to win by that score in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday (April 20).

Tulane (25-13 overall, 7-3 American) and Memphis (18-17, 5-5) waited two days to start the series after poor weather Thursday and Friday in Memphis pushed back the start. The first game was seven innings. The teams were set to play nine innings 45 minutes after the end of the first game.

Tulane starter Kaleb Roper allowed seven runs in the second inning with three walks, a hit batter and an error among the three hits allowed that inning. Of the seven runs, three were earned. He came out with two outs in the inning.

Tulane scored two runs in the fourth and fifth innings but Tulane relievers Trent Johnson and Josh Bates both allowed another pair of runs in the bottom halves of those innings. Bates lasted only two batters when he hit a batter and allowed a home run.

In the sixth, Trevor Jensen singled home two runs with two outs before Hoese came up and hit one over the fence in right, the opposite-field shot trimming the margin to three.

The doubleheader is the fourth for Tulane this season. In the other three, the Green Wave won the first game. Two of those doubleheaders came while in conference play, and Tulane swept both: against Cincinnati and against Wichita State. Memphis is playing a sixth doubleheader this season.

Hoese came into the weekend with the national lead in home runs. Also for Tulane, Jonathan Artigues homered for the first time this season, his two-run shot accounting for the first Tulane runs Saturday. As a team, Tulane has 61 home runs, which ranks among the most in the country.

Tulane faced large deficits in the last two games before a rally. On Tuesday against UNO, Tulane trailed 8-0 after one inning and drew to a 9-9 tie in the fifth. UNO won 15-10.COPENHAGENAn investigative journalist highlighted the severity of the Chinese regimes interference into Denmark when he recently spoke about his probe into alleged Beijing pressure to prevent Shen Yun Performing Arts from performing in the small European nation.

Thomas Foght, an investigative journalist with Radio24syv, started investigating into the pressure the traditional Chinese dance and music company was facing after developing an interest in Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence on Denmark and Danish authorities.

At the time, he was also investigating into how Beijing was putting pressure on officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding issues relating to the inquiry of Danish authorities treatment of Tibetan activists during two separate Chinese official visits in 2012 and 2013.

I was curious to see whether there were some other cases of pressuring and I was curious to see how the Danish authorities reacted to it, Foght said.

I think there are some interesting clashes between Denmark and China. I mean Denmark is a democracy, we pay a lot of attention to our fundamental rights and then we have to work together [with a country] whos a dictatorship and do not have freedom of speech, or freedom of religion, and these fundamental rights. So how does Denmark pay attention to those rights when they have to cooperate with China, who doesnt have the same perspective on life and on rights, and democracy? he added.

Shen Yun seeks to revive 5,000 years of Chinese culture through the performing arts, according to the companys website. Its performances include pieces that portray contemporary China, including the ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) and spirituality in the culturetopics which are considered taboo by the atheist regime.

Since 2007, the New York-based company has sought to perform at the Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen but have been repeatedly rejected on the grounds that the companys artistic level did not meet the theaters demands. These rejections were made in spite of Shen Yun selling out shows annually at renown theaters around the world including the Lincoln Center in New York and at the London Coliseum.

In 2017, local organizers of Shen Yun wrote a letter to Danish authorities, appealing for the company to be allowed to perform at the Royal Danish Theater, but did not have any success.

Through Foghts investigation, published in a 2018 article, he uncovered evidence to show that the CCP had placed pressure on the theater to not lease its venue to Shen Yun.

It showed for the first time that the Chinese embassy and delegation was actually pressuring the theater in not letting them book these facilities, Foght said during his speech at the Danish Parliament on April 4.

According to emails obtained by Foght, when Denmarks Ministry of Culture requested a comment from the Royal Danish Theater, one of its employees revealed to another staff member that he or she had met with the Chinese embassy in August.

They [embassy] ended the meeting by asking if we had a dialogue with Shen Yun, and requested that we shouldnt allow them to rent our facilities, the email stated.

Since 2007 until 2017, the only reason why the theater was rejecting Shen Yun was because of the artistic level, but I think this gave a new dimension to the story because now we could suddenly prove that there was a pressure from China towards the theater, Foght said.

Theater director Morten Hesseldahl and culture minister Mette Bock subsequently denied the accusation and said they were not aware of any pressure from the Chinese embassy.

Foght said this case puts light on why it was so difficult for Shen Yun to have access to the Royal Theater over ten years.

I think the politicians were quite shocked and surprised when they saw this. Many people said it was completely inappropriate that the Chinese embassy was trying to influence the theater in this decision, he added.

Benny Brix, a local Shen Yun Performing Arts organizer in Denmark, said the Royal Danish Theater was not the only theater in Denmark that had faced such pressure.

In 2016, China tried to stop a performance in Aarhus. So its continually this kind of interference. It was not just 2007, it was during all the years, Brix said, adding that the Aarhus Concert Hall resisted the pressure and the performances went ahead successfully.

CCP Faces Backlash

Foghts article received attention from prominent figures in Denmark, who condemned the Chinese regime for what they perceive as its interference in Danish affairs.

At the time, Soren Espersen, chair of the foreign policy committee in the Danish parliament, told Danish newspaper Berlingske in an interview that the Chinese embassys actions were chauvinistic.

Why would they get to decide who gets to be on our stage, who gets to perform? he said.

Similarly, Liberal Party politician Michael Aastrup Jensen told U.S.-based Chinese language broadcaster, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD) that the Danish government should investigate such interference.

We should actually try to preserve the Danish way of life and Danish political system, which is we have no censorship, that we are okay with every position, that everyone has the freedom of speech, he said.

Similar Pressure in Spain

Like Denmark, the CCP has also allegedly placed pressure on other theaters and government officials to prevent Shen Yun from performing. This year in Spain, just weeks before the scheduled performances, the Royal Theater in Madrid canceled the shows due to technical difficulties. But an undercover investigation revealed that the CCP had a role in the cancelation.

The U.S. branch of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), a non-profit organization that investigates human-rights abuses perpetrated against Falun Gong adherents, said it decided to conduct an investigation into the cancellation after seeing media reports about possible Chinese embassy interference to pressure the theater into canceling the show.

As part of its undercover investigation, on Jan. 22, WOIPFG made a phone call to the Chinese embassy, posing as a high-level Chinese government official. The person who took the call identified himself as the Chinese Ambassador to Spain, Lu Fan, according to a press release issued by WOIPFG. The organization released an audio recording of the phone call on its website on Jan. 28.

The investigation confirmed that the cancellation of the theaters contract with the Shen Yun organizers was entirely the result of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) interferences, WOIPFG said in its statement.

Lu Fan personally put pressure on the theater to cancel the contract with Shen Yun Performing Arts. By using the CCPs control of the large Chinese market as an enticement, Lu Fan and the theaters director jointly planned to cancel the Shen Yun performances under the pretext of technical difficulties.

With additional reporting by The Epoch Times reporters Wendy Huang and Annie Wu.

From The Epoch TimesSUNDAY BUSINESS

An article last Sunday about a dispute between the bankruptcy adviser Jay Alix and McKinsey & Company described incompletely a hearing before the bankruptcy court Judge David R. Jones. In addition to saying that allegations Mr. Alix made against McKinsey, if true, could constitute a crime, the judge told Mr. Alix that it could be a crime if he had lied to the court about McKinseys conduct. The article also misstated when the hearing took place. It was in January, not December.



The Economic View column last week misstated Senator Richard C. Shelbys role on the Senate Banking Committee. Mr. Shelby, Republican of Alabama, was his partys ranking member on the committee in 2011; he is not the committees current chairman.

REAL ESTATE

An article last Sunday about the increasing appeal of the Catskills for people buying second homes omitted a credit for the picture of the house in Kerhonkson, N.Y. The picture was taken by Deborah DeGraffenreid for The New York Times.



The Right at Home article last Sunday, about open-concept design, misstated the name of an interior design firm in Athens, Ga. It is Metal & Petal, not Petal & Metal.Im terrified to send my son to high school next year, said Kari Bryan, 37, who was a senior at Columbine during the attack. She is now a mother of four. It wasnt until my kids started school that I realized how much it was affecting me, she said. On her oldest sons first day of kindergarten, she sat in her car and cried for hours.

In some ways, much has changed since the shooting at Columbine. Lockdown drills are commonplace in schools across the country. Colorado has employed Safe2Tell, a tip line for reporting possible dangers, and passed laws that require background checks for all gun buyers and that permit the authorities to confiscate firearms from potentially dangerous people. By next year, every elementary school in the Jefferson County public school district, home to Columbine, will have an expert in social and emotional development.

But nationally, the country has not been able to stop these shootings, as officials struggle to close gaps in mental health care, and as gun defenders and gun control advocates fight over appropriate prevention measures. Many in Colorado thought the Columbine attack would be remembered as a uniquely horrifying moment, never to be repeated. Instead, they have watched similar attacks play out again and again. On several occasions, new perpetrators appear to have found inspiration in the 1999 shooting.

Every time there is a new attack, said Tami Diaz, 36, another survivor, everything has to reheal  its like ripping off a scab.A report of more than 400 pages detailing the investigation led by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, revealed the scope of an ambitious Russian campaign to sabotage the 2016 presidential election and explored whether President Trump engaged in acts of obstruction to impede the investigation.

The report, which the Justice Department redacted before releasing it to the public on Thursday, cast the president in an unflattering light but did not accuse him of criminal wrongdoing. It did not exonerate him, either.

Here is what you need to know:

Lack of evidence of coordination with Russians

The report explicitly stated that the investigation did not clear the president of obstructing justice. If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, the report said.

While Mr. Trump has tweeted that there was no collusion, collusion is not a legal concept.

Mr. Mueller instead was looking for evidence of a criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in its election interference activities. Mr. Mueller decided there was not enough evidence to prove coordination.Jack draws upon the diaries of the real Anne Lister, who told her life story in millions of words, many of them in a code based on mathematical symbols and the Greek alphabet that was not broken until the 1890s. (Their contents werent published until the 1980s.) She was a woman who loved women and courted them roguishly. She was a landowner who did business with calculation. She was not a man. She simply insisted  with striking success for her time  on having the same liberties as one.

She was, above all, a presence, as the series announces by having her arrive driving a team of horses hell-for-leather into her hometown Halifax, where she has returned to take charge of her rundown ancestral home of Shibden Hall. She dismounts, brisk and commanding, looking like a steampunk-goth assassin.

Though Anne is coming home heartbroken over a lover whos gotten engaged to a man, the scene announces that this will be no tragic story of a lesbian living furtively in a time that doesnt understand her. Anne Lister knows the life she wants, and she has the wherewithal to decide that she will have it.

Taking over the books of the estate  over the eye-rolling irritation of her sister Marian (Gemma Whelan), perennially overshadowed by her  she sets out to exploit the estates coal deposits, which brings her into conflict with the foppish businessman Christopher Rawson (Vincent Franklin).

She also finds herself in want of a wife  a truth universally acknowledged for the prosperous bachelor, as Jane Austen noted. (Her preferences are an open secret in Halifax, where the gossips chirp that she cannot be trusted in the company of other women.)Melissa Rivero is a lawyer and now a debut novelist. As a child, she was an undocumented immigrant from Peru, living in New York City. Her book, The Affairs of the Falcons, is about Ana and Lucho, a married couple who, in the 1990s, flee a tumultuous Peru with their two children to live in New York. The novel focuses on Ana and her attempts to forge a future while navigating the hurdles faced by an undocumented resident. Despite the parallels to her own familys experience, Rivero didnt set out to write an autobiographical story, even though it was initially inspired by an anecdote from her mother. Below, Rivero talks about how becoming a parent changed the book, what she wants her own children to learn from the novel and more.

When did you first get the idea to write this book?

I got the idea to write it about eight years ago. My mother had told me about an incident that happened to her very early on in our lives here. It stayed with me. If I gave too many details about it, Id for sure be giving too much away. But it was something that made her become wary of people and their intentions, including family members. Eight years ago was when I first started to imagine what it might feel like to be put in the situation she was put in.

It was always meant to be fiction. I never wanted to write anything autobiographical  that particular incident was just the seed and got me started. Its how I discovered the character of Ana, my books protagonist.

Whats the most surprising thing you learned while writing it?

When I started writing, it was fun, to see where this character led me  to discover her world and put the pieces of the puzzle together. But as I started to flesh out her story, I realized that I myself had a fear as a child of having my parents taken away from me, or of being taken away from my siblings. A lot of that fear was the impetus for me writing this. I didnt realize that I was sort of healing old wounds.President Trumps decision to impose tariffs on imported washing machines has had an odd effect: It raised prices on washing machines, as expected, but also drove up the cost of clothes dryers, which rose by $92 last year.

What appears to have happened, according to new research from economists at the University of Chicago and the Federal Reserve, is a case study in how a measure meant to help domestic factory workers can rebound on American consumers, creating unexpected costs and leaving shoppers with a sky-high bill for every factory job created.

Research to be released on Monday by the economists Aaron Flaaen, of the Fed, and Ali Hortacsu and Felix Tintelnot, of Chicago, estimates that consumers bore between 125 percent and 225 percent of the costs of the washing machine tariffs. The authors calculate that the tariffs brought in $82 million to the United States Treasury, while raising consumer prices by $1.5 billion.

And while the tariffs did encourage foreign companies to shift more of their manufacturing to the United States and created about 1,800 new jobs, the researchers conclude that those came at a steep cost: about $817,000 per job.[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

Indra Sihotang was desperate to stay in New York. Minutes from being deported to Indonesia, the 52-year-old father clung to a chair bolted to the floor at Kennedy International Airport, struggling against four immigration officers trying to tear him away.

By the end of the confrontation, his face was bloody and bruised. But neither Mr. Sihotang, nor another immigrant in the officers custody who watched the incident unfold, was allowed onto the plane after the pilot raised security concerns.

I kept trying to explain to them that the conditions in my country are very bad now, Mr. Sihotang said. I was telling them, I dont want to die there.

Mr. Sihotang had lost his fight to receive asylum in the United States a decade ago, a decision he did not appeal after he and thousands like him were granted a temporary reprieve from deportation by the Obama administration. Days after assuming office, President Trump revoked that protection, making Mr. Sihotang and thousands of other asylum seekers suddenly eligible for deportation, though many did not realize it.The report also characterized the known unknowns, as Mr. Rumsfeld might put it  those things we know at a fundamental level but about which we seek greater certainty. They include how much Earth will eventually warm, how rapidly oceans will rise, where and when weather extremes and water shortages might occur, and whether potential tipping points (like the collapse of Antarctic ice sheets) will, in fact, occur.

Unsurprisingly, the report carefully limited speculation about unknown unknowns: the many initially small environmental shifts that are potential consequences of the changing climate. What will actually emerge is largely unknowable because of the highly unpredictable nonlinear response to the warming of Earths complex and adaptive physical and ecological systems.

Yet credible speculation on climates unknown unknowns is sorely needed by policymakers. Future generations will be affected by todays policy decisions, whether the underlying science is complete or not. The basics are simple: The more we warm our planet, the more likely it is that deeply surprising environmental changes will ensue.

Opinion Conversation The climate, and the world, are changing. What challenges will the future bring, and how should we respond to them? What should our leaders be doing?

Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, finds reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency.

Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, finds reasons for optimism in the Biden presidency. What are the worst climate risks in your country?

Select a country, and we'll break down the climate hazards it faces.

Select a country, and we'll break down the climate hazards it faces. Where are Americans suffering most?

Our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths in the U.S.

Our maps, developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths in the U.S. What does climate devastation look like?

In Sept. 2020, Michael Benson studied detailed satellite imagery. Here's the earth that he saw  and the one he wants to see.

Most of these smaller environmental changes should be manageable, readily addressed through adaptation. Inevitably, however, a rare few will most likely evolve and expand until they threaten our security, health or economy. We lack the ability to predict which are which. This is the curse of unknown unknowns. Nevertheless, things we can credibly imagine should accentuate our concern for what we are unable to imagine.

Perhaps a routinely ice-free Arctic summer, altering polar ocean life in subtle ways, sets off an unpredictable cascade of complex changes throughout the global ocean ecosystem, devastating fisheries. Maybe agricultural pests adapt to climate change stresses by evolving novel and frequently changing abilities to destroy crops, leaving farmers struggling to keep pace and feed populations. One unsettling risk is that mutant diseases  like Zika and Ebola today and the 1918 flu epidemic that killed 50 million people  could emerge more often because of altered evolutionary competition in a changing climate, each a greater medical challenge than the last.Some officials are running two or more agencies. That would be a suboptimal situation in any city. In New York, where some agencies have budgets larger than the total spending of many states, its a management approach worth questioning.

Lorraine Grillo, for instance, is running both the School Construction Authority, with a $205 million budget, and the Department of Design and Construction, after that agencys former commissioner resigned in 2017 amid a half-billion dollars in cost overruns on the citys Sandy recovery program.

Then theres Kathryn Garcia, the citys sanitation commissioner, who was tapped in February to serve as interim chief executive of the Housing Authority after it was discovered that the agency mishandled lead inspections, allowing hundreds of children to be exposed to lead paint. The first deputy sanitation commissioner, Steven Costas, is leading that department as acting commissioner until Ms. Garcia returns full time. The Sanitation Department has a budget of $1.7 billion. The Housing Authoritys annual operating budget is $3.5 billion .

In one especially odd episode, Joseph Esposito, commissioner of the citys Office of Emergency Management, continues to lead the agency months after he was abruptly fired in the wake of criticism over the citys handling of a snowstorm. A de Blasio spokesman told Politico, which first reported the extent of the vacancies, that there was a continuing search for Mr. Espositos replacement.

Maybe thatll happen soon, if Mr. de Blasio can carve out the time.

The mayor, who has two and a half years left in his second term , has recently focused his attentions elsewhere. Yet, especially if hell be on the campaign trail, filling these positions is the least Mr. de Blasio can do to make sure the city that elected him gets the services it deserves.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.To the Editor:

An April 12 letter commented that because the United States, and now Israel, have elected leaders not to the writers liking, he is not  proud of either country any longer. But I, for one, am proud that the United States and Israel do not put duct tape over the mouths of their diverse and very outspoken populations, who can disagree, ridicule, insult or praise their elected leaders, as the case may be.

This without fear of being silenced, arrested or incarcerated  unlike most of the Middle East and, yes, the world.

Steven Cohen

New YorkWASHINGTON  When Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook called for regulating harmful internet content in an opinion column last month, Republicans in Washington expressed outrage that he was calling on the government to regulate speech.

Within hours, the companys top lobbyists started spreading another message to conservatives: Dont take his suggestion too seriously.

In a flurry of calls and emails to regulators, consumer groups and think tanks  as well as in person, at a weekly breakfast gathering of influential conservatives  the operatives said Mr. Zuckerberg was not encouraging new limits on speech in the United States. His target was mostly overseas regulators, they said, and he has other ideas for Washington.

Mark believes that by updating the rules for the internet, we can preserve whats best about it  the freedom for people to express themselves and entrepreneurs to build new things, one Facebook lobbyist wrote in an email widely distributed to conservative groups. The lobbyists actions were described by two people who encountered the outreach and shared the emails with The New York Times but would speak only on the condition of anonymity.Change rarely comes without some bumps in the road, said Gordon Mohn, McPhersons superintendent of schools. He added, Students are becoming self-directed learners and are demonstrating greater ownership of their learning activities.

John Buckendorf, Wellington High Schools principal, said the vast majority of our parents are happy with the program.

The resistance in Kansas is part of mounting nationwide opposition to Summit, which began trials of its system in public schools four years ago and is now in around 380 schools and used by 74,000 students. In Brooklyn, high school students walked out in November after their school started using Summits platform. In Indiana, Pa., after a survey by Indiana University of Pennsylvania found 70 percent of students wanted Summit dropped or made optional, the school board scaled it back and then voted this month to terminate it. And in Cheshire, Conn., the program was cut after protests in 2017.

When there are frustrating situations, generally kids get over them, parents get over them, and they all move on, said Mary Burnham, who has two grandchildren in Cheshires school district and started a petition to end Summits use. Nobody got over this.

Silicon Valley has tried to remake American education in its own image for years, even as many in tech eschew gadgets and software at home and flood into tech-free schools. Summit has been part of the leading edge of the movement, but the rebellion raises questions about a heavy reliance on tech in public schools.

For years, education experts have debated the merits of self-directed, online learning versus traditional teacher-led classrooms. Proponents argue that programs like Summit provide children, especially those in underserved towns, access to high-quality curriculums and teachers. Skeptics worry about screen time and argue that students miss out on important interpersonal lessons.When you should wear your mask depends on your age and health, and theres no strict guideline that everyone everywhere agrees on. In China, for instance, the government suggests wearing a mask when the A.Q.I. is over 200, but many people choose to wear one when the A.Q.I. is closer to 100 or 150. Your best bet is to look at the A.Q.I. on a given day, review the air quality scale, and judge for yourself. People with respiratory issues, allergies or asthma should be especially careful.

Love the skin youre in

After a day of sightseeing, protecting your skin and your lungs from air pollution and particulates that may have settled in your clothes, on your skin or in your hair, is simple: take a shower as soon as you can, apply sunscreen and moisturizer, and repeat every time you spend a prolonged period outdoors.

Dr. Steven Wang, director of Dermatology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of Basking Ridge, has studied the effects of ambient air pollution on skin. His top tips include applying sunscreen in the morning; using gentle, liquid cleansers; and generally making sure to take care of your skin when you travel.

Know when to just stay inside

Refraining from outdoor activities on heavily-polluted days is the most common piece of advice when it comes to avoiding the effects of air pollution from medical experts, including those at the American Lung Association. Plan activities like museum visits, souvenir shopping trips, and other mostly-indoor activities for days when the air quality is really bad. Or, just keep a few of those activities in your pocket in case everything seems good one day, but the air quality takes a turn on the next.

Fortunately for those looking for a reprieve from air pollution, a growing number of accommodations and activities are now making clean air a main feature. Not only have several hotel chains have added air purifiers to their list of amenities, but smog-free cinemas, oxygen bars and clean air cafes have become en vogue in cities like Seoul, Bangkok and Beijing. If youve already been to the museum, maybe its time to take in a film.Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has worked for months to find traction in a crowded Democratic presidential primary, stepped forward on Friday with a call to arms: President Trump must be impeached.

What followed, generally, was conspicuous silence  and not just from her colleagues in Congress.

After sidestepping the explosive issue of impeachment for months by citing the inquiry by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, most of the other 17 Democratic presidential candidates have responded to the special counsels report with tentative remarks about impeaching Mr. Trump, demands for the unredacted Mueller findings, calls for further hearings or attempts to simply change the subject.

Anything, that is, to avoid clearly answering the question of whether lawmakers should remove the president from office.

Underpinning the candidates calculations are complex sets of short- and long-term incentives. Democratic hopefuls could receive a fund-raising boost by embracing impeachment and energizing liberal donors. But some strategists and lawmakers say that a failed effort would only strengthen Mr. Trumps re-election chances, allowing him to claim further vindication.Mr. Nadler said some of the presidents actions detailed in the Mueller report, if proved, might warrant impeachment. But asked about beginning an impeachment inquiry, he said that we may get to that, we may not, adding that his committees task at hand was to go through all the evidence, all the information and to go where the evidence leads us.

His conditional response showed how House Democrats as a whole are continuing to grapple with how to answer the impeachment question  and present a united front.

Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, conceded on Face The Nation that Democrats must be very careful in weighing whether to begin impeachment proceedings, but went further than Mr. Nadler in his analysis.

Even if the House voted to impeach Mr. Trump but the Senate failed to remove him, Mr. Cummings said, I think history would smile upon us for standing up for the Constitution.

With representatives back home in their districts on a recess, House Democrats will convene on Monday on a caucus conference call in the hopes of getting on the same page. Democrats, while doubling down on demands for an unredacted copy of the report and testimony from the Justice Department, have splintered into two camps on the issue of impeachment. Democratic leaders in the House, cognizant of the political perils of initiating an impeachment inquiry without bipartisan buy-in, have repeatedly thrown cold water on the idea. The partys left flank, however, has urged leadership to begin proceedings, arguing that anything less would amount to an abdication of constitutional responsibility.

What we are going to have to decide as a caucus is: What is the best thing for the country? Representative Adam B. Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on ABCs This Week. Is the best thing for the country to take up an impeachment proceeding because to do otherwise sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with office? Or is it in the best interest of the country not to take up an impeachment that we know will not be successful in the Senate?

Mr. Trump displayed no such hesitancy in his position. How do you impeach a Republican President for a crime that was committed by the Democrats? he tweeted on Sunday evening. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!Fixer. The title wasnt a formal one, but Michael D. Cohen wholeheartedly embraced the role as a lawyer at the Trump Organization. It amounted to serving as chief problem solver for Donald J. Trump, offering Mr. Cohen an unusually up-close view of his bosss personal and professional lives.

Although Mr. Cohen was not a central part of the Trump family business, he was often at Mr. Trumps side in the decade before he became president, including helping him sort out difficulties leading up to the 2016 election. Most famously, he helped arrange hush money payments to two women  including the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels  who claimed to have had affairs with Mr. Trump.

His unflinching loyalty to his boss often went unreciprocated. And it was this imbalance that left the two men on perilous ground last April, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Mr. Cohens home, office and hotel room. The searches were part of an inquiry, in the office of the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, that grew out of Robert S. Mueller IIIs examination of Russian election meddling.

Mr. Cohen would ultimately plead guilty to multiple crimes, and is scheduled to begin serving a three-year prison term on May 6. After months of indecision, he turned on Mr. Trump last summer and has since spoken to the Southern District prosecutors about the Trump family business and more, as well as providing information to the office of the special counsel, Mr. Mueller.Within weeks, Mr. Giuliani, who had previously referred to Mr. Cohen as an honest, honorable lawyer, was instead casting him as a pathological liar.

A Scotch on the Rocks

His bond with Mr. Trump all but broken, Mr. Cohen decided to cooperate with law enforcement officials. And so he traveled to Washington to meet on Aug. 7 with Mr. Muellers team for the first of many discussions.

The next week, his lawyer, Mr. Petrillo, arranged to talk with prosecutors in Manhattan, interviews show. The prosecutors had been putting him off but suddenly agreed to meet a couple of days later, on Friday, an indication that criminal charges against Mr. Cohen were imminent.

Mr. Petrillo asked for a deferred prosecution agreement relating to the hush money, a lighter punishment that might have spared Mr. Cohen from prison so long as he stayed out of trouble. That weekend the prosecutors signaled there would be no such deal, but they were willing to consider a guilty plea.

Over the next day, Mr. Cohen and his wife huddled in Mr. Petrillos office debating their options. And throughout the day on Monday, his lawyers went back and forth with prosecutors over the details of the plea to campaign finance, banking and tax crimes.

But that evening, Mr. Cohen was still unsure whether to plead guilty at all. He poured a glass of 12-year-old Glenlivet Scotch on the rocks and debated his future.

Early on Tuesday, he was still having second thoughts, but ultimately stuck to the plan. Standing at the defense table, Mr. Cohen said he had worked with Mr. Trump to cover up two potential sex scandals, including the one involving Ms. Daniels. He confessed that he had arranged the hush money in coordination with, and at the direction of, a candidate for federal office, implicating the president publicly for the first time in a federal campaign finance crime.

Time and time again, Mr. Cohen later told the judge at his sentencing, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today: The most interesting person in the Mueller report is the man who was hired to protect the president  and turned out to be the most damning witness against him. Mike Schmidt on Donald McGahn. Its Monday, April 22. Mike, I imagine you spent your weekend continuing to read the Mueller report. Does that pretty much sum up the weekend for you?

michael schmidt

Yes, fair.

michael barbaro

And what were you most interested in upon further examination of it?

michael schmidt

The presidents relationship with his White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II. Statements provided to investigators by McGahn are cited 157 times in the report  more than any of the other 500 witnesses Mueller talked to. We always knew that McGahn and his cooperation with Mueller were going to be a central part of the investigation, but what we see in these details is McGahn is the narrator for Mueller. He is being used to tell the story  Muellers way of getting inside the White House and finding out what was really going on as he investigated whether the president was obstructing justice.

michael barbaro

Whats interesting about that, Mike, is that when I think about Don McGahn, I think of him as this loyalist to Trump  the figure who, more than anyone, is responsible for pushing through conservative judges, conservative Supreme Court justices, shaping the presidents judicial legacy, being a Trump guy.

michael schmidt

Its much more complex than that. Yes, McGahn was a loyalist to the president. He was the architect of, perhaps, his greatest political achievements. He really quarterbacked the things that the presidents base love about Trump. But he also helped Mueller in a way that, as you can see here, was incredibly damaging to the president.

michael barbaro

So take us into the report. Where does McGahn make his first big appearance?

michael schmidt

McGahn is all over the obstruction section of the report. But the episodes that I think are most illustrative are about the presidents efforts in June of 2017 to have McGahn fire Mueller. On Saturday, June 17, 2017, the president called McGahn and directed him to have the special counsel removed. ... In interviews with this office, McGahn recalled that the president called him at home twice, and, on both occasions, directed him to call the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, who was overseeing the Mueller investigation, and say that Mueller had conflicts that precluded him from serving as special counsel. On the first call, McGahn recalled the president saying something like, You gotta do this. You gotta call Rod. McGahn said he told the president that he would see what he could do. McGahn was perturbed by the call and did not intend to act on the request. ... When the president called McGahn a second time to follow up on the order to call the Department of Justice, McGahn recalled the president was more direct, saying something like ... Mueller has to go, and call me back when you do it. McGahn understood the president to be saying that the special counsel had to be removed by Rosenstein. ... McGahn decided he had to resign. He called his personal lawyer and then called his chief of staff, Annie Donaldson, to inform her of his decision. He then drove to the office to pack up his belongings and submit his resignation letter. ... Donaldson prepared to resign along with McGahn. That evening, McGahn called both the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and the presidents top aide, Steve Bannon, and told them that he intended to resign. ... Priebus recalled that McGahn said the president had asked him to, quote, do crazy shit, but he thought McGahn ... was trying to protect Priebus from what he did not need to know. Priebus and Bannon both urged McGahn not to quit, and McGahn ultimately returned to work that Monday and remained in his position. He had not told the president directly that he planned to resign, and when they next saw each other, the president did not ask McGahn whether he had followed through with calling Rosenstein.

michael barbaro

So, Mike, thats pretty shocking, but we basically knew most of that story, right? Because several months after the incident took place, you had reported it.

michael schmidt

In January of 2018, Maggie Haberman and I broke that story.

archived recording Hi, everyone, its 4 oclock in New York. A blockbuster account in The New York Times today makes public for the very first time that White House counsel Don McGahn is serving as an often invisible but highly effective human guardrail to Donald Trump and his presidency.

michael schmidt

For me, the most excruciating and interesting part of the report is about what Trump did after we broke the story. In order to understand the events, you have to know what happened between the June 2017 firing attempt and January. Because McGahn didnt fire Mueller, McGahn had fallen out of favor with the president. And later in the summer of 2017, a new team of lawyers, who the president is relying on to make the decisions about whether to cooperate with the Mueller investigation, sell the president on a strategy of allowing Mueller to interview whomever he wants in the White House. McGahn did not want that to happen.

michael barbaro

And why not?

michael schmidt

Because McGahn had studied previous investigations into administrations, and he knew that simply handing over White House officials to serve as witnesses to investigators who were under immense pressure from the public to go after the president could be very damaging to Trump. But Trump had been sold on this idea of cooperation by his new team of lawyers, who said that the sooner he cooperated, the more quickly they could bring an end to the investigation  maybe even by that fall.

michael barbaro

So, Trump signs onto this plan  the kind of cooperation with Mueller plan?

michael schmidt

Correct. And, as part of that, McGahn begins to go in and talk to Muellers team. And this highly unusual thing occurs, where Muellers team gets direct access to the presidents lawyer  the person the president was consulting with about whether to take different moves to try and curtail the investigation. What you see in the report is sort of unfiltered Donald Trump running his mouth to his lawyer  something we usually dont see in an investigation, because lawyers are typically protected and not interviewed.

michael barbaro

Its pretty ironic that the lawyer who discouraged the president from cooperating with Mueller becomes the most important cooperative voice in Muellers investigation.

michael schmidt

When McGahn and his lawyers sit down in the windowless conference room in Muellers office in the fall of 2017 for his first interview, he cant understand why it is that the president is allowing him to go in. Hes very skeptical of this new team of lawyers, and he thinks that maybe whats going on here is that theyre setting him up to take the fall. And he sits across from Muellers team and cooperates as fulsomely as he could.

michael barbaro

So McGahn fulsomely cooperates with the special counsel, and somehow, after he does that, you learn that he has done so and learn what he has told the special counsel about this request from the president back in June, and you report it.

archived recording Breaking news from President Trump  hes in Davos, Switzerland this morning, denying a blockbuster report from The New York Times that last June the president ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller before backing down in the face of resistance from his White House counsel.

michael schmidt

And then Trump begins an effort to try and get McGahn to recant what he said to Muellers team.

michael barbaro

And thats whats in this next section of the Mueller report.

michael schmidt

Correct. This is from the section entitled The President Orders McGahn to Deny that the President Tried to Fire the Special Counsel. On January 25, 2018, The New York Times reported that in June of 2017, the president had ordered McGahn to have the Department of Justice fire the special counsel. ... After the article was published, the president dismissed this story when asked about it by reporters, saying, Fake news, folks. Fake news. A typical New York Times fake story. The report goes on to say: On January 26, 2018, the presidents personal counsel called McGahns attorney and said that the president wanted McGahn to put out a statement denying that he had been asked to fire the special counsel and that he had threatened to quit in protest. ... McGahns attorney informed the presidents personal counsel that the Times story was accurate in reporting that the president wanted the special counsel removed. ... Consistent with that position, McGahn did not correct the Times story. ... On February 5, 2018, the president complained about the Times article to the White House staff secretary, Rob Porter. The president told Porter that the article was bullshit and he had not sought to terminate the special counsel. ... The president then directed Porter to tell McGahn to create a record to make clear that the president never directed McGahn to fire the special counsel. Porter thought the matter should be handled by the White House communications office, but the president said he wanted McGahn to write a letter to the file, quote, for our records, and wanted something beyond a press statement to demonstrate that the reporting was inaccurate. The president referred to McGahn as a, quote, lying bastard and said he wanted a record from him.

michael barbaro

Mike, let me interrupt to make sure I have this right. Is what Im hearing you say that the president asked McGahn to falsify documents?

michael schmidt

Essentially, yeah. Hes asking him to go back and create a document that would directly undermine what he told investigators. And then the president goes further: The next day, on February 6, 2018, White House chief of staff John Kelly scheduled time for McGahn to meet with him and the president in the Oval Office to discuss the Times article. ... The president began the Oval Office meeting by telling McGahn that the New York Times story did not, quote, look good and McGahn needed to correct it. McGahn recalled the president said, I never said to fire Mueller. I never said, fire. ... You need to correct this. Youre the White House counsel.

michael barbaro

Hmm. Is this the president going further, as you said?

michael schmidt

Well, lets hear the rest of the story.

michael barbaro

O.K.

michael schmidt

McGahn told the president he did not understand the conversation that way, and instead had heard, Call Rod. There are conflicts. Mueller has to go. The president asked McGahn whether he would, quote, do a correction, and McGahn said no. McGahn thought the president was testing his mettle to see how committed McGahn was to what happened. Kelly described the meeting as, quote, a little tense.

michael barbaro

I suspect it was a little tense.

michael schmidt

The president also asked McGahn in the meeting why he had told the special counsels investigators that the president had told him to have the special counsel removed. McGahn responded that he had to and that the conversations with the president were not protected by attorney-client privilege. The president then asked, What about those notes? Why do you take notes? Lawyers dont take notes. ... McGahn responded that he keeps notes because he is a, quote, real lawyer, and explained that notes create a record and are not a bad thing. The president said, Ive had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes.

michael barbaro

Roy Cohn, the presidents longtime, now-deceased lawyer, who used to work for Joseph McCarthy and who was disbarred.

michael schmidt

And largely seen as one of the more unethical lawyers in American legal history. After the Oval Office meeting concluded ... McGahn recalled that Kelly said that he had pointed out to the president that McGahn had not backed down and would not budge. Following the Oval Office meeting, the presidents personal counsel called McGahns counsel and relayed that the president was, quote, fine with McGahn.

michael barbaro

As in, the president has kind of given up on this.

michael schmidt

Yes. And its sort of a theme in the obstruction part, where, eventually, Trump either loses interest or sort of gives up on his efforts. And, in this case, he stopped pushing McGahn to a point in which he would have gotten himself into greater trouble.

michael barbaro

And what do you make of this scene, Mike? What are you thinking about when youre reading all this about McGahn?

michael schmidt

Well, from where we sit today, it clearly illustrates the competing forces of McGahn. McGahn was the one that stopped the president from firing Mueller  and that would have devastated his presidency. And McGahn was that guardrail. And then you look at this, and you say, well, the only reason we know about this is because McGahn went in and cooperated and told investigators about this and gave them a roadmap for how the president tried to interfere with the investigation. So on one hand, he has protected the president, and on another, he has damaged him by disclosing that actual protection. The presidents lawyers had sold him on the idea of cooperating. That opened the door for McGahn to go in and talk to Muellers team. And what the president apparently didnt understand is that when you are a witness and you go in, you have to tell them everything you know and be truthful about it. Its as if he didnt understand what cooperation meant.

michael barbaro

So the presidents looking at this report, seeing all these names in there  especially McGahn  and hes feeling betrayed just to find their accounts existing in the report.

michael schmidt

Yes. And hes saying, hold on. Back in the summer of 2017, when we first confronted the specter of the Mueller Investigation, I was sold on the idea that if we cooperated, wed quickly bring an end to the investigation. Hold on  the investigation went on for two years, and now Ive got a report filled with all of these damning accounts from the people closest to me, because we waved them into Muellers office? Like, what?

michael barbaro

But ultimately, isnt the most important thing that McGahn prevented the president from committing the ultimate act of obstruction  firing the special counsel?

michael schmidt

Yes. But when that is disclosed, it hurts the president. And we wouldnt have that disclosure if McGahn hadnt told Mueller about it. What shows us how damaging it may be is that the presidents personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani seized on this right out of the gate after the report was released.

archived recording (rudy giuliani) Im telling you, hes confused. He gave three different versions. archived recording So, let me ask you a question. archived recording (rudy giuliani) When the special prosecutor comes to the conclusion hes definitively telling the truth, his lawyer should tell us which of those three versions is true, and how does he know which one is true now when he couldnt figure it out then? archived recording Heres what we have.

michael schmidt

He began raising questions about McGahns recollection.

archived recording (rudy giuliani) Its unfair to use that. archived recording McGahn thought that the president was telling him to fire special counsel Mueller. archived recording (rudy giuliani) Hes wrong. archived recording That is the bottom line.

michael barbaro

And why do that? Why are they going after McGahn if, ultimately, there is no charge of obstruction of justice? Whats the point?

michael schmidt

Because the president now faces a political problem from the report. Democrats are increasingly talking about impeachment.

archived recording (jerry nadler) If proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes. Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable. archived recording And youre going to go about to see if you can prove it? archived recording (jerry nadler) Well, were going to see where the facts lead us. archived recording All right, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Democrat from New York. Thanks for coming on and sharing your views, sir. archived recording (jerry nadler) Thank you.

michael schmidt

And if you look at the report, this may be one of the better episodes for the Democrats to use to build an argument against Trump.

archived recording (elizabeth warren) We have to stop, take a deep breath, and be willing to say, thats wrong. And Ill stand up and say so, and I hope a lot of other people will too.

michael schmidt

The president can see that. Any type of impeachment against Trump would rely heavily, like the report, on McGahn. And its notable that the first person that Giuliani attacks is McGahn. Because hes so important, he becomes a target for the president.

michael barbaro

And Mike, how has McGahn responded to these attacks from the administration?

michael schmidt

On Friday night, McGahns lawyer, Bill Burck, put out a statement in response to Giulianis attacks. And what this statement is essentially saying is saying, why is it that you guys are attacking me? I didnt think that cooperating in the first place was a good idea. I went in and did it anyway. In the course of that, Mueller learned that I protected the president from hurting himself time and time again. And ultimately, the Justice Department found that the president didnt break the law. So why is it that youre now coming after me and trying to call me a liar? And then McGahn ends his statement with a bit of a dig at a president who he knows is insecure when others get credit for his accomplishments. Don nonetheless appreciates that the president gave him the opportunity to serve as White House counsel and assist him with his signature accomplishments.

michael barbaro

So in this statement, Don McGahn is basically saying, everything youre proud of having done as president, I did that. And by the way, youre still president because of me. So leave me out of it.

michael schmidt

Knock it off. Go away. I did everything you asked me to do. I protected you from yourself. You havent been accused of breaking the law.

michael barbaro

Because of me.

michael schmidt

Because of me. Go away. Leave me alone.

michael barbaro

Mike, thank you very much.

michael schmidt

Thanks for having me.

michael barbaro

Well be right back.

[music]

michael barbaro

Heres what else you need to know today. On Sunday, terrorists carried out a series of coordinated suicide bombings against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, killing at least 200 people and injuring nearly 500 more. The timing on Easter and the targets, including three Catholic churches packed with worshippers, seemed designed to inflict maximum harm to Christians and drew a condemnation from Pope Francis.

archived recording (pope francis) [SPEAKING ITALIAN]

michael barbaroForecasters had emerged from their technology-packed, fortified building to watch their gold standard of meteorology take flight.

It was a latex balloon.

For the Storm Prediction Center and other weather offices that are part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the balloons  about 6 feet wide and affixed with devices that help experts detect pressure, relative humidity, temperature and winds  remain fixtures of forecasting. On this day in Norman, meteorologists filled four, marched them out of a garage and let them go.

The enormous balloon that Mr. Bunting had come to watch lifted off as quickly as a childs at a birthday party. The forecasters trained their eyes on it, watching its instrument dangle and dance as it gained altitude and raced into the atmosphere. About two minutes after release, the balloon was out of sight.

It was already gathering data, sending it to Weather Service computers on the earths surface every one to two seconds. Mr. Bunting walked back into the building, whose windows can withstand winds of 166 miles per hour, and stopped at the restaurant for a muffin.

The Flying Cow Cafes television was switched to the Weather Channel.

1:22 p.m.

Hey Norman, Jeremy Grams, a lead forecaster, said into the phone. Were just waiting on Amarillo.

Conditions were poised to worsen in Oklahoma and Texas, and Mr. Grams was drawing up plans for a severe thunderstorm watch  a formal advisory that an organized storm, with winds of at least 58 miles per hour or hail that is an inch in diameter, is possible.

On a conference call with three Weather Service offices monitoring the affected counties, Mr. Grams offered his colleagues a meteorological overview. The main threats, he said, seemed to be large hail and damaging winds. He asked for feedback about the centers watch plan. There were no objections.Mr. Bini is a highly respected expert in digital security and cryptography and is recognized for major contributions in the field, Article 19 said in a statement. David Kaye, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, said that nothing revealed so far connects Mr. Bini to any crime.

Danny OBrien, the international director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Mr. Binis work had helped build a safer internet. The evidence that Ecuadorean authorities presented was simply the sort of equipment you have when you work in those sort of projects, he said.

People contributing their free time to protect internet users have their skills and their lifestyle used against them, Mr. OBrien said, a point of recurring concern among human rights advocates.

Mr. Bini was arrested at the international airport in Quito, Ecuadors capital, on his way to Japan to take part in a martial arts program, said his girlfriend, Sofia Celi. Later, government officials went on television to applaud the arrest  and mention his visits to Mr. Assange.

The minister of interior, Maria Paula Romo, said the government was trying to prevent Ecuador from turning into a center for digital espionage and piracy. Ms. Romo said she could not comment on the evidence against Mr. Bini, but she, too, noted that he had visited Mr. Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy at least a dozen times.

Mr. Binis lawyers say the detention is unlawful. They say he was denied access to lawyers for 17 hours, was not informed of the charges against him, and was not offered a translator, as required by local laws. His lawyers said they have been harassed and threatened by the police.[For new developments, read about what we now know on the Wednesday after the attacks.]

On Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, coordinated bombings targeted churches, hotels and other sites, killing more than 290 people and injuring roughly 500 others.

The attacks in Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, are the largest carried out on South Asian Christians in recent memory.

What we know about the attacks

 The explosions began around 8:45 a.m. on Sunday, and the deadliest appeared to be at St. Sebastians Church in Negombo. The other churches attacked were St. Anthonys Shrine in Colombo and Zion Church in Batticaloa. There were also explosions Sunday morning at three hotels in the capital city of Colombo: the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury.COLOMBO, Sri Lanka  The clock hands on the steeple of St. Anthonys Shrine were stuck at 8:45 a.m., the exact moment when the first suicide bombers explosion ripped through the wooden pews as Easter Sunday worshipers were praying.

Minutes later a second suicide blast shattered the Sunday brunch tranquillity at the Shangri-La Hotels Table One Restaurant, a favorite of foreign tourists.

Within a few hours on Sunday, suicide bombings hit three Christian churches and three upscale hotels in the Indian Ocean island nation of Sri Lanka, still recovering from a quarter-century civil war in which the suicide bomb was pioneered.

The death toll in the attacks rose to 290, with about 500 people wounded, a police spokesman, Ruwan Gunasekera, said, although he would not give a breakdown of where the fatalities occurred. The finance minister, Mangala Samaraweera, called the attacks a well-coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy.

By days end, the police said at least 13 people had been arrested in connection with the attacks in the capital, Colombo, and the cities of Negombo and Batticaloa. Seven of them were seized at a hide-out after one suspect blew himself up, killing three officers.As Christians in Sri Lanka gathered on Sunday morning to celebrate Easter Mass, powerful explosions ripped through three churches packed with worshipers, leaving hundreds of victims amid a havoc of splintered and blood-spattered pews.

In what the police said were coordinated terrorist attacks carried out on both sides of the country by a single group, suicide bombers also struck three hotels popular with tourists. At least 207 people were killed and 450 others injured, a police spokesman, Ruwan Gunasekera, said.

News of the bombings, the largest attack on South Asian Christians in recent memory, rippled out all Easter morning, interrupting celebrations across the world. Pope Francis, after celebrating Mass in St. Peters Square, said the attacks had brought mourning and sorrow on the most important of Christian holidays.

[Photographs of the destruction. | Read more of our coverage.]

 The bombings began around 8:45 a.m., and targeted Christian houses of worship  St. Anthonys Shrine in Colombo, the capital; St. Sebastians Church in Negombo; and Zion Church in Batticaloa  along with three luxury hotels: the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand, and the Kingsbury, all in Colombo.

 Thirteen suspects were held in connection with the bombings, the authorities said. Three officers were killed hunting for the attackers at a housing complex.

 A top police official alerted security officials in an advisory 10 days ago about a threat to churches from a radical Islamist group, National Thowheeth Jamaath. But it was unclear what safeguards, if any, were taken, or if in the end the group played any role in the violence. And on Sunday, reflecting frictions within the government, the prime minister pointedly said he had not been informed.

 Sri Lanka temporarily blocked major social media and messaging services, including Facebook and WhatsApp, to curb misinformation.

 At least 35 of the dead were foreigners, several of them American, the authorities said. Others were British, Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese, according to officials and news reports.After a civil war that dragged on for nearly three decades, Sri Lanka had been enjoying a decade of relative calm. That was shattered on Sunday when a coordinated bombing attack killed more than 200 people.

Here is some context to help you understand the latest events in the small island nation.

Sri Lanka is known for its tremendous natural beauty, which attracted more than two million tourists in 2018 alone. But its people have long borne a burden of violence. How the latest attack fits into history of conflict, if it does at all, was not immediately clear.

The country gained independence from British rule in 1948 as the dominion of Ceylon, and became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972.

But much of its history has been marred by sectarian tensions. And more recently, it has been caught up in much larger regional rivalries between China and India.The bombings of three churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday highlighted the vulnerability of Christians in Asia, where religious minorities of many faiths have been battered by this surge of nationalism and sectarian politics.

[The bombings were the deadliest attack on Christians in South Asia in recent memory.]

The explosions in Sri Lanka, which killed over 200 people, brought mourning and sorrow on the most important of Christian holidays, Pope Francis said after celebrating Mass in St. Peters Square at the Vatican.

Christians make up only 6 percent of the population of Sri Lanka, which is still emerging from the shadow of a harrowing civil war between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and ethnic Tamils, most of whom are Hindu or Christian.

The government on Monday blamed National Thowheeth Jamaath, a little-known radical Islamist organization, for the attacks, which also included raids on three high-end hotels in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital. Christians were a primary target, and their faith has been increasingly under attack by militants and politicians across South and Southeast Asia.Sri Lanka blocked several social media networks in the wake of terrorist attacks on Sunday, including Facebook and the messaging service WhatsApp. The extraordinary step reflects growing global concern, particularly among governments, about the capacity of American-owned networks to spin up violence.

YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Viber were also inaccessible, according to internet monitoring groups.

This was a unilateral decision, said Harindra Dassanayake, a presidential adviser in Sri Lanka.

Officials blocked the platforms, he said, out of fear that misinformation about the attacks and hate speech could spread, provoking more violence.KIEV, Ukraine  The comedian Volodymyr Zelensky won a landslide victory in Ukraines presidential election, according to official results with nearly all of the votes counted, making a comic actor with no experience in government or the military the commander in chief of a country that has been at war with Russian proxies for over five years.

With more than 95 percent of ballots cast on Sunday counted, Mr. Zelensky had won 73.17 percent of the vote, compared with just 24.5 percent for Petro O. Poroshenko, Ukraines incumbent president. Mr. Zelensky triumphed in every region, except for the area around the city of Lviv, a center of Ukrainian culture and nationalism in the west of the country.

Ukraines central election commission said that final official results might not be ready until April 30 because of the upcoming Orthodox Easter holidays.

Mr. Zelenskys victory will give Ukraine its first Jewish leader and deliver a stinging rebuke to a political and business establishment represented by Mr. Poroshenko, a billionaire candy tycoon who campaigned on the nationalist slogan Army, language, faith.NABLUS, West Bank  Dina Teeti, 23, tries to tune out politics. But a few weeks ago, around the time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he planned to begin annexing parts of the West Bank, she turned to her father with a heartfelt question:

What will happen to us?

Hasan Teeti had always been a big believer that a Palestinian state would become a reality. But now, even he has given up.

We have always lived with hope, said Mr. Teeti, 57, who with his daughter runs a wedding-planning business. In our work, we try to create moments of happiness. But the general feeling is that theres no light at the end of the tunnel.

The West Bank is awash in such despair.

Palestinians have wanted to shake free of Israeli domination since the West Bank was first occupied in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. For more than a quarter-century they have waited for the United States-led peace process to deliver them a state of their own.

But on the eve of Israels April 9 elections, Mr. Netanyahu said he planned to begin applying Israeli sovereignty over West Bank land, which the Palestinians have long counted on for an eventual state. For many of them, his victory has pushed a two-state solution far beyond the already distant horizon, where it existed in the minds of Palestinian politicians.A new date has been confirmed for Offaly-based priest Fr Sean Hyland to tell his incredible story to Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show.

Originally due to appear on the show in early March, Fr Sean will now be on The Late Late Show this Friday, April 19 which is Good Friday. He will chat with host Ryan Tubridy about his book 'Whisperings of my Soul'.

The well-known Rhode and Clonbullogue priest has had people travel from all over the country to see him since he released his book.

Fr Sean lives in his hometown of Portarlington.

His book 'Whisperings of my Soul' was self-published last December and thanks to promoting the book himself to local and national media he was able to secure a nationwide distributor and attention from people all over Ireland.

Sean recounts the early years of his marriage to Liz and his two childrens lives in depth in the emotional chapters from when he first met Liz to now visiting his familys grave every week in Portarlington.

He explains that after he lost all three members of his family he received comfort through many consolations of faith which let him know that his wife and children are close by and watching over him in heaven.

In thanksgiving, he entered a seminary in Rome and has devoted the remainder of his life to God as a Catholic priest.

Fr Sean helps others experiencing grief by sharing the comforting messages he has received from his family in heaven.

Fr Hyland said he is chuffed with the feedback from the book and he is now celebrating getting his book into mainstream distribution across the country.

People visit me from all over the country with tragedies. I have had people come from Kerry and Tipperary.

Water finds its own level and people who are in a tragedy will find you and they will travel to you.

They know I am not going to solve it but I will share the reality of the closeness to heaven and to know that my family is safe and well, he said.

He is happy that the book is having this impact on people and he is in a position to comfort people who have been hit with terrible grief in their lives. In writing the book, he set out to comfort people by sharing the consolations of faith he has experienced.

Fr Hyland has been asked on to The Late Late Show as a guest to talk about his book and the message behind it.PM to inaugurate projects worth Rs. 18,000 cr today: Soon, you can reach Delhi from Dehradun in just 2.5 hrs

Uttarakhand: Abducted bride rescued from Dehradun; six arrested

Dehradun

pti-PTI

Jaipur, Apr 21: The newlywed bride who was abducted by a group of armed men on gun point in Rajasthan's Sikar district has been rescued from Dehradun, police said on Sunday.

Two more arrests have been made in the case, they said. Four persons had been arrested earlier. A police team along with the bride and prime accused Ankit Sevda and accomplice Vikas Bhambu have reached Sikar, officials said.

The accused men were arrested from a court premises in Dehradun on Saturday, Sikar SP Amandeep Singh Kapoor said. He said preliminary investigation has revealed that the bride and accused Ankit Sevda knew each other.

[Former JDU leader's son abducted for ransom found dead in Bihar]

The bride will be handed over to family members after her statement is recorded. On Wednesday last, newlywed bride Hansa was abducted by a group of armed men on gunpoint near Rambakshpura under Dhod Police Station area in Sikar district.

At the time, the bride along with her husband and others were on the way to their house. Following the abduction, members of the Rajput community had protested, demanding early arrest of the accused.

PTI7 killed, 34 injured in road accident on Agra-Lucknow Expressway near Mainpuri

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 21: Seven people were killed and 34 others injured on Sunday after a bus rammed into a truck on Agra-Lucknow Expressway near Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh. According to reports, the mishap took place early morning today.

The bodies were removed from the vehicles. A crane was also used to help in removing the bodies from the vehicles.

The identities of the deceased are yet to be identified.

Nigeria: 19 die in road crash in Katsina

The incident comes days after eight people lost their lives on the same Expressway after a speeding car rammed into a truck in Fatehabad.

On April 11, eight people were killed and two others were left injured when a speeding Ertica car rammed into a truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Fatehabad.

Six people died on the spot and two died on their way to hospital. The impact of the collision was such that the wrecked car had to be cut open to extract the bodies. Villagers from nearby informed the police and also helped in the rescue.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 9:02 [IST]Nearly 42 per cent ministers declared criminal cases against them: ADR

7 ministers in Gujarat government have declared pending criminal cases against them

A rich mans election: In Odisha average asset of candidate is Rs 2.2 crore

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 21: There are 119 candidates with pending criminal cases who will be fighting the Odisha assembly elections 2019.

A report by the Association for Democratic Reforms states that out of 354 candidates analyzed, 119 (34%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

101(29%) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Among the major parties, 20(48%) out of 42 candidates analysed from BJD, 30(71%) out of 42 candidates analysed from BJP, 19 (46%) out of 41 candidates analysed from INC, and 5 (17%) out of 30 candidates analysed from BSP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

29 candidates with pending crimes against women contesting 3rd phase of LS polls

Among the major parties, 13(31%) out of 42 candidates analysed from BJD, 25(60%) out of 42 candidates analysed from BJP, 18(44%) out of 41 candidates analysed from INC, and 5(17%) out of 30 candidates analysed from BSP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

There are 25 Out of 42 constituencies in the Odisha assembly elections, Phase III, having 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

*Red Alert Constituencies are those which have 3 or more candidates with criminal cases contesting elections.

Financial:

Out of the 354 candidates, 103(29%) are crorepatis. Among the major parties 31(74%) out of 42 candidates analysed from BJD, 24(57%) out of 42 candidates analysed from BJP, 23(56%) out of 41 candidates analysed from INC, 3(10%) out of 30 candidates analysed from BSP, and 2(40%) out of 5 candidates from AAP have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Odisha Assembly Elections Phase III is Rs 2.22 Crores.

423 crorepatis, 10 with rape charges will contest 2nd phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019

Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 42 BJD candidates analysed is Rs. 4.58 crores, 42 BJP candidates analysed is Rs 3.55 crores, 41 INC candidates have average assets of Rs 7.03 crores, 5 AAP candidates have average assets of Rs 63.37 lakhs and 30 BSP candidates have average assets worth Rs. 40.89 lakhs.

One candidate namly Subrat Kumar Habadasingh of Hindusthan Nirman Dal from Chilika constituency has declared zero assets.

Other details:

124(35%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 189 (53%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 41 (12%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years.

38(11%) female candidates are contesting in the Odisha assembly election Phase III.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 10:55 [IST]Justice BV Nagarathna in line to become Indias first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027

Bar stands by CJI after lady alleges sexual misconduct

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi,Apr 21: The Bar Council of India on Saturday condemned the "false and cooked-up" sexual harassment allegations against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and said the entire bar was standing with the CJI, and against this "attempt to malign the institution".

"These are all false and cooked-up allegations and we condemn these kinds of acts. These kind of allegations and actions should not be encouraged. This is an attempt to malign the institution. Entire bar is standing in solidarity with the Chief Justice of India," Manan Kumar Mishra, BCI chairperson, told PTI.

He said an emergency meeting of the top bar body would be convened on Sunday and a resolution be passed in this regard.

Plea to cancel bail of lady who accused CJI of misconduct to be head on Apr 24

"We will pass the resolution and then try to meet the CJI to make him aware of the (BCI's) decision," Mishra said.

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president and senior advocate Rakesh Khanna, who was present during the extraordinary hearing in the matter on Saturday, however, refused to comment.

"We are not part of the case...There is no lis (litigation) before the court. I am not giving any interview (on the controversy). Thank you," he said.

However, former SCBA president and senior advocate Vikas Singh said the proper course would be to have an in-house inquiry by some senior Supreme Court judges to authoritatively find out the truth "this way or that way" in a time-bound manner.

"If it is a false allegation then this definitely is a threat to independence of judiciary, but if it is true then it is also very serious," he said.

"There should be an in-house inquiry by some senior Supreme Court judges to find out authoritatively this way or that way in a time-bound manner," Singh told PTI.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Bar Association also condemned the allegations on the CJI and said it was an attempt to target top Indian judiciary and the entire bar stood in support of the CJI.

"We condemn this attempt of targeting Indian judiciary. There is an urgent need to find a better way of dealing with these kind of accusations. Such baseless allegations are enough to ruin the reputation of a judge...this way anyone can make any accusations against anyone," the NGT Bar Association's office-bearer Gaurav Kumar Bansal told PTI.

The Supreme Court in the hearing on Saturday said independence of judiciary was under "very serious threat" and "unscrupulous allegations" of sexual harassment have been levelled against CJI Gogoi as some "bigger force" wanted to "deactivate" the office of the CJI.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Gogoi was constituted to hold the unprecedented proceedings in the wake of circulation of an affidavit of a former woman apex court employee levelling allegations against the CJI. The affidavit was sent to 22 SC judges.Sushma Swaraj shuts down a troll who said she will be remembered like Sheila Dikshit

Delhi loses two of its former CMs in span of two weeks

Final Goodbye: From Sushma Swaraj to Sheila Dikshit - A look at politicians that India lost in 2019

Congress to announce candidates for 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi within two days

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 21: Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit on Saturday said that the names of candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital will be announced in a couple of days.

"The party will announce the candidates tomorrow or day after," Dikshit said while inaugurating a control room at the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) office for the general elections campaign on Saturday.

When asked about her fighting the polls from Chandni Chowk, she said, "I have also heard about it. Let the party decide."

Have given Congress last chance to form alliance for Delhi polls: AAP

AAP, on the other hand, has already ruled out chances of an alliance in Delhi.

She was talking to reporters after inaugurated a control room at the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) office for the Lok Sabha election campaign.

"The party will announce the candidates tomorrow or day after," Dikshit said.

AAP, on the other hand, has already ruled out chances of an alliance in Delhi.

Earlier, AAP had demanded that the seat-sharing pact should give the party at least 33 seats in Haryana, Punjab and Goa along with Delhi. This did not go down well with the Congress and the talks fell through.

The Congress had proposed a 4-3 formula for an alliance in Delhi, offering four seats to the AAP. It had opted for the Chandni Chowk, North West Delhi and the New Delhi seats for itself. AAP, however, said that if the alliance was limited only to Delhi, the Congress would have to contest on just two seats.

Cong has become fringe party, siding with tukde, tukde gang: Prakash Javadekar

AAP has already announced candidates for all 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi while Congress is expected to do the same on Sunday or Monday. Meanwhile, BJP is yet to make any such announcements.

Delhi will go to polls in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 12.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 9:34 [IST]Delhi Assembly election 2020: EC says its nod isn't required for govt to announce Ram temple trust

Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat polls to be held in 8 phases from March 5-19

Explained: What is Model Code of Conduct, when does it come into equation?

FIR registered against Congress's Milind Deora for allegedly violating poll code

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Mumbai, Apr 21: An FIR has been registered against Congress candidate from South Mumbai, Milind Deora for violating the Model Code of Conduct.

The FIR has been registered under section 171 of IPC (giving false statements for elections) and section 125 of the presentation of people's act (promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections).

This comes just days after the Election Commission found the senior Congress leader guilty of violating the poll guidelines by invoking a particular community during a political campaign.

Congress to announce candidates for 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi within two days

During his speech earlier this month, Deora had allegedly accused the Shiv Sena of hurting religious sentiments of Jains and urged the community to teach the party a lesson by not voting for them in the Lok Sabha elections, ANI reported.

"Shiv Sena has been against minorities...a few years ago, it insulted Jains by cooking meet outside a Jain temple. Remember, you have to teach them a lesson," he had said.

After it was brought to the EC, a show-cause notice was issued to Deora seeking explanation on how was not against the rules of Model Code of Conduct.

The South Mumbai constituency goes to the polls on April 29. The seat is currently held by Sawant, who defeated Deora in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 9:39 [IST]Why ISKP would be ISIs preferred proxy to launch attacks in India

How an Arabic to Malayalam book on Jihad led to Islamic fanaticism in Kerala

Islamic State module planning to bomb Delhi, UP busted

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 21: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested one persons from here in connection with an Islamic State module case. The arrested person has been identified as Mohammad Gufran.

He is 13th accused to have been arrested in the case. During investigation, the role of said accused person had surfaced as one of the key conspirators in planning to carry out terrorist attacks in Delhi NCR and UP.

Islamic State module: NIA questions 4 including highly radicalised lady

Gufran was inspired by ideology of ISIS which is a proscribed organisation under UAPA and formed a pro-ISIS module namely Harkat Ul Harb-e-Islam with the help of accused persons arrested earlier to wage war against Government of India.

Investigation revealed that he was instrumental in procurement of arms and ammunition and also explosives to carry out terrorist attacks in Delhi NCR and UP.

Twelve accused persons have earlier been arrested in the case.

The said case pertains to a group of Pro-IS terrorists who formed a terrorist gang which was engaged in acts preparatory to commission of terror attacks with a view to wage war against the Government of India.

The group was found to be inspired by ideology of ISIS and was conspiring and preparing to target places of importance in and around National Capital Territory of Delhi.Jaitley comes out in support of CJI, says mass-intimidation of Judges is on

India

oi-Vikas SV

New Delhi, Apr 21: Asserting that in the last few years India witnessed the consolidation of 'institution destabilizers' in a major way, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley described Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi as an epitome of "personal decency, values, ethics and integrity."

Jaitley, in a Facebook post, accused 'institutional disrupters' of destabilising the institution of Chief Justice of India (CJI) by lending shoulder to unverified allegations against the head of the apex court. The Finance Minister suggested that those who peddle falsehood should be dealt in an exemplary manner.

"It's Time to Stand up With the Judiciary", Jaitley said in his blog, a day after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against CJI Ranjan Gogoi. The Supreme Court even held an extraordinary hearing on Saturday after a former employee of the apex court accused the CJI of sexual harassment and persecution. The former employee has described two incidents of alleged molestation by Gogoi in her affidavit, both of which allegedly took place in October 2018, only days after he was appointed as the CJI. Jaitley said: "In terms of personal decency, values, ethics and integrity, the present Chief Justice of India is extremely well regarded.

[Judiciary being made a scapegoat says CJI on sexual misconduct charges]

Even when critics disagree with his judicial view, his value system has never been questioned. Lending shoulder to completely unverified allegations coming from a disgruntled person with a not-so-glorious track record is aiding the process of destabilisation of the institution of the Chief Justice of India." The Minister further said that those who "peddle falsehood to destroy the institution are not dealt with in an exemplary manner, this trend will only accelerate."

The incident of a junior ex-lady employee of the Supreme Court making harassment charges against the Chief Justice of India has acquired a "disproportionate magnitude", Jaitley said.

"Such complaints, when they are made in the ordinary course of any administrative functioning, are referred to the appropriate Committee. However, when the complainant distributes copies of her representation to other Judges of the Supreme Court and the media in order to sensationalise her allegations, it ceases to be routine. When four digital media organisations with an unparalleled track record of 'institutional disruption' send similar questionnaires to the Chief Justice of India, there is obviously something more than what meets the eye," the minister added.

Jaitley regretted that last few years have witnessed the consolidation of 'institution destabilizers' in a major way. "For the 'institutional disruptors' there are no red lines," he wrote. "Many of these destabilizers represent Left or ultra-Left views. They have no electoral base or popular support. However, they still have a disproportionate presence in the media and academia. When ousted for mainstream media, they have taken refuge in the digital and social media...

"Even though most of them subscribe to fringe ideologies and ideas, it is regrettable that a section of the Members of the Bar affiliated to the Congress Party tends to join them. Frequent attempts are made to get some Parliamentarians to sign Motion of Impeachment against judges and even the Chief Justice on unsustainable grounds. What has always puzzled me is the Congress lending support to such fringe campaigns", the minister said.

[Judiciary being made a scapegoat says CJI on sexual misconduct charges]

Justice Gogoi was sworn in as the 46th Chief Justice of India on October 3, 2018. He retires on November 17, 2019. Jaitley said India has witnessed a series of attacks by the 'institution disruptors' against judges who are unwilling to agree with them.

"It may not be an exaggeration to say that today both in Court and by creating an environment outside, a mass-intimidation of Judges is on," he said.

Stating that reputation is an integral part of a person's fundamental right to live with dignity, Jaitley said an intimidated judge can fear consequences of a possible view that he is taking. "It is, therefore, essential that all well-meaning persons stand with the judicial institution when destabilizers get ready for an assault," he said.Day not far when UP will be identified as most modern state: PM Modi in Shahjahanpur

Centre to launch good governance week from Monday to redress public grievances at village

Modi condemns blasts in Sri Lanka, says no place for such barbarism in our region

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 21: Condemning serial blasts in Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said there is no place for barbarism in the region. He also said that India stands in solidarity with the people of the island nation.

"Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region," he tweeted.

He said, India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka.

Colombo bombings: 129 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; attackers identified

"My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," Modi said.

Six near simultaneous explosions rocked three churches and three hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday morning, killing more than 140 people and injuring over 400 others, in one of the deadliest blasts in the island nation's history.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 14:02 [IST]30 years on, martyred IAF officials to get justice as trial against Yasin Malik is set to begin

Name of IAF officer who was killed by Yasin Malik to be added to War Memorial

IAF hero gets justice: Why it is time up for Yasin Malik

First Yasin Malik, now Javed Mir: Our martyred IAF heroes are getting justice at last

NIA custody of Yasin Malik ends, will be lodged in Tihar jail

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Apr 21: Yasin Malik, the chief of the JKLF will be shifted to the Tihar jail after a court ended his custody under the National Investigation Agency. Malik arrested by the NIA in connection with a terror funding case was remanded in judicial custody after he complained about his health.

Malik appeared before a magistrate, who visited him at the hospital. He will be lodged in the Tihar jail after he is discharged from hospital. Earlier his family members had complained about his ill-health.

NIA sources say that the funding has gone both to terrorist groups and separatists as well. Money has been pumped into the Hurriyat Conference, Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, Islamic Students Front, Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Jamiat ul-Mujahideen.

Terror funding: How grit and determination wound a noose around the Kashmir separatists

In the case of Syed Ali Shah Geelani an FIR had been registered in the year 1997 in which it was alleged that he had got funding to the tune of Rs 190 million from Saudi Arabia and also another donation of Rs 100 million from the Kashmir American Council. Investigations had revealed that all these funds were routed through a Delhi based Hawala operative. It was also found that Yasin Malik had received funding of 1 lakh US dollars and the money was being carried by a lady called Shazia.

The NIA says that it is probing into all these angles. We are looking at each case since the 1995 onwards and this will help us get a better picture of the entire racket, the officer further added.

Following his arrest, Malik was brought to the national capital after a special NIA court in Jammu gave the go ahead for his custodial interrogation by the probe agency, they said.

Malik, whose organisation JKLF was banned last month by the Centre, is also facing two CBI cases.

These relate to the kidnapping of Rubaiya Saeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, in 1989, and the killing of four IAF personnel in 1990.

The NIA registered a case on May 30, 2017 against separatist and secessionist leaders, including unknown members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and other outfits and gangs.

Beginning of the end: How an iron fist policy put Yasin Malik on the mat

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala transactions, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in J&K and for causing disruption in the Valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India, the probe agency said in the FIR.

Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front for the banned LeT, has also been named as an accused in the FIR.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 9:13 [IST]No stock of Meningitis vaccines ahead of Haj pilgrims

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Apr 21: The Health Ministry is grappling with paucity of meningitis vaccines for Haj pilgrims as the only firm manufacturing them was asked to stop production last year after contamination was detected in their oral polio vaccines.

According to sources in the Health Ministry, the only firm which manufactured the vaccines and provided it to the government, was asked to stop production of all human vaccines after type-2 polio virus contamination was detected in oral polio vaccines. Following the ban on the Ghaziabad-based pharmaceutical company Biomed Pvt Ltd, the ministry is now looking for options to arrange the vaccines in time for vaccinating the pilgrims, the sources said.

[World Polio day: Why India can't afford to relax]

Around 1.27 lakh people are expected to go for the annual Haj pilgrimage in July this year for which the ministry will have to arrange for at least 1.47 Lakh doses. Extra vaccines are kept as some are rendered ineffective in the process of delivery to the states. The Health Ministry is already in talks with two firms which import the vaccines, the sources said.

Those going to Saudi Arabia for the purpose of Umra or pilgrimage are required to submit a certificate of vaccination with the quadrivalent (ACYW 135) vaccine against meningitis, proving the vaccine was administered no more than 3 years ago and no less than 10 days before arrival in the country.

Biomed Pvt Ltd was a licensed indigenous manufacturer for Meningococcal Polysaccharide vaccine while two firms M/s Sanofi Pastuer India Pvt Lt, Mumbai and M/s GlaxoSmithkline Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Mumbai are importers for quadrivalent Meningcoccal Meningitis Conjugate Vaccine in the country.

"Earlier with Biomed Pvt Ltd providing the vaccines, government spent Rs 250 for each vaccine but now if they have to buy from companies which import the vaccines, they may have to shell out around Rs 1500 per dose. The Health Ministry is already in talks with the two firms which import the vaccines," the sources said.

Biomed Pvt Ltd was directed to stop the manufacture, sale and distribution of all human vaccines including the Quadrivalent Meningococcal Meningitis vaccine after type-2 polio virus was found in the sewage and stool samples in Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh in September last year.

The polio drops were sent for testing which confirmed that some of them were contaminated with type-2 virus, a strain believed to have been eradicated in 2016. The managing director of Biomed Pvt Ltd., which was supplying polio vaccines for only government-run immunisation programmes, was arrested after the central drug regulator filed a complaint and an FIR was registered. The destruction of traces of type-2 polio virus was ordered by the central drug regulator to all manufacturers in 2016.

PTIThose who sent Anil Deshmukh to jail will pay the price: Sharad Pawar

Did NCP chief Sharad Pawar had secret meeting with Amit Shah, Fadnavis? Here's the truth

'There is no UPA now': Mamata Banerjee takes swipe at Cong, calls for unity of regional parties against BJP

Pawars version of Beti Bachao, Fadnavis has this explanation

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Pune, Apr 21: NCP chief Sharad Pawar is engaged in a "Beti Bachav" (save the girl child) mission for his daughter Supriya Sule, the party's Baramati MP and candidate, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis was addressing a public rally in Khadakwasla area of the constituency in support of BJP candidate Kanchan Kul.

Lauding Kul for putting up a strong challenge before Sule, the chief minister took a dig at Pawar, saying he "took one thing from Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

8 days before his death, Parrikar wanted to campaign for Modi: Maha CM reply to Pawar

"Modi gave the slogan Beti Bachav...and Pawar is doing the same thing in Baramati (trying to save his daughter from defeat)," he said.

Sule too aped one of Modi's slogans, Fadnavis further said.

"Modi warned Pakistan that we will thrash you by entering your home. Sule, while threatening a BJP worker, said the same thing," he quipped.

Fadnavis was apparently referring to an allegation made by BJP worker Rahul Shewale, which Sule has denied.

Taking a swipe at Pawar for dropping his plan to contest the Lok Sabha election from Madha, Fadnavis said at the start of the election season, the NCP "captain" declared that "he would open the innings, would hit fours and sixes and would hit a century", but later "he received such a googly that he withdrew and became a non-playing captain."

Sadhvi Pragya's remark on Karkare a 'personal opinion', she has apologised for it: Fadnavis

Referring to MNS chief Raj Thackeray's rallies where Thackeray is tearing into prime minister Modi and appealing people not to vote for the BJP, Fadnavis said that the NCP is now "importing a speaker" from another party.

"They have taken an engine on rent, but that engine is of no use. It did not work in state elections, it did not work in municipal election and now Pawar is heading ahead with such engine," Fadnavis said, alluding to MNS' symbol which is railway engine.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 11:08 [IST]Plea to cancel bail of lady who accused CJI of misconduct to be head on Apr 24

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Apr 21: A Delhi court on Saturday said it would hear on April 24, a police plea to cancel the bail of a former woman Supreme Court employee, who has accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual misconduct, in a cheating and criminal intimidation case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana listed the matter for Wednesday as the accused woman was not served with the copy of the police's plea.

The police sought cancellation of the bail granted to the woman on March 12, after the complainant claimed that he was being threatened by the former Supreme Court staffer and her associates.

No maternity leave for ad-hoc female professors: HC seeks reply

An FIR for the alleged offences of cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy was lodged against the woman on March 3, after a complaint was filed by Naveen Kumar, a resident of Jhajjar in Haryana, at the Tilak Marg Police Station here.

Kumar has alleged that the former apex court employee had defrauded him of Rs 50,000, which he claimed she took as part of a bribe, promising him a job at the Supreme Court.

He claimed that in June 2017, he met the woman through a common friend, Mansha Ram, regarding his employment and she had told him she was a personal assistant of a judge in the Supreme Court and her husband was also an officer.

Kumar said the woman had claimed that she has good contacts and can get him employed as process server or as a class-IV employee in the Supreme Court in about one-and-a-half month time, and for this she allegedly demanded Rs 10 lakh from him.

"On her inducement, the complainant paid an advance of Rs 50,000 to her in cash in the presence of Ram in the Supreme Court complex. Till three months, he did not receive any information regarding his employment. Thereafter, he along with Ram again met the woman at Supreme Court complex.

"She told him that the employment will take more time and he should not visit her in the Supreme Court and threatened him to implicate in some false case," the police said in the application seeking cancellation of her bail.

Kumar said he remained in touch with Ram, who died in January this year due to illness.

He approached the police claiming that he has been cheated of Rs 50,000 by the woman on the pretext of his employment in the apex court and that she neither returned his money nor got him employed.

He alleged the woman and her husband threatened him for life if he demanded the money back.

During the investigation, the woman was arrested by the police on March 10 and was sent to judicial custody by a court here the next day. She was granted bail on March 12.

Delhi HC quashes FIR against couple for child labour, asks to plant 100 trees

On March 14, the investigation in to the case was taken up by the crime branch of Delhi Police and the complainant addressed an application to the DCP that he was being threatened by the woman and her associates.

The police also told the court, in its application, that the SSP of Jhajjar has been sent a letter to provide adequate protection to the complainant.

It is pertinent to mention that the woman Friday sent a sworn affidavit to the residences of 22 apex court judges which became public on Saturday.

In her affidavit, the former SC employee has described two incidents of alleged molestation by the CJI. Both the alleged incident took place in October 2018, within days of CJI Gogoi being appointed to the post.

This allegations prompted the Supreme Court to hold an extraordinary hearing on Saturday morning.AgustaWestland: After saying witness may have died, ED cites a little birdie to say he is alive

Production warrant issues in AgustaWestland chopper case

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Apr 21: A Delhi court on has issued a production warrant for April 22 against Sushen Mohan Gupta, an alleged defence agent arrested in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP choppers scam case.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar issued production warrant against Gupta after Tihar Jail authorities, where he is lodged, could not produce him.

The court directed the jail authorities to present him before the court on Monday.

Want to celebrate Easter, grant me bail says AugustaWestland middleman Michel

The Enforcement Directorate had said Gupta's alleged role in the case came to light on the basis of disclosures made by Rajiv Saxena, who has turned approver in the case. He was deported from the UAE and arrested by the agency here.

"During the course of investigation, Saxena, in his statements, stated that Interstellar Technologies, a company which received the AgustaWestland kickbacks, was controlled by accused Gautam Khaitan and Gupta," the agency had claimed.

The ED had alleged that in connivance with Khaitan, a lawyer, the proceeds of crime after being received in the accounts of Interstellar were further transferred by Gupta through various companies in different countries.

The agency had claimed that Saxena has also produced two diaries, some loose sheets and other documents and a pen drive, which as per him pertained to accused Gupta and contain information related to laundering of kickbacks in AgustaWestland scam.

AgustaWestland case: Advocate Gautam Khaitan granted bail by court

"Gupta during the period when kickbacks were received in the accounts of Interstellar through IDS Tunisia had direct dealing with Interstellar and kickbacks from Agusta had been transferred to several entities/ persons having direct links with him," it had claimed.

The agency had also alleged said the conduct of the accused has been non-cooperative and his replies were contrary to records.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 11:22 [IST]Sadhvi Pragya gets second EC notice for remarks on Ayodhya demolition

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 21: BJP's Bhopal candidate and 2008 Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was issued another notice by the Election Commission on Saturday.

Thakur was served the notice by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO-MP) for her remarks on the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition.

In an interview to a TV channel, she had claimed that she was among those who had razed the disputed structure, which "was a blot on the country".

Nobody should insult 'martyrs': Uddhav on Sadhvi Pragya's comments

The Election Commission has slammed a notice to Sadhvi Pragya over her statement on Babri Masjid. She has been asked to respond to the notice within 24 hours.

Sadhvi Pragya's remarks on the demolition of the Babri Masjid has come a day after she said that 26/11 Mumbai terror attack martyr Hemant Karkare was killed as she had cursed him for "falsely implicating her in the 2008 Malegaon blast case".

Thakur had on Thursday bragged that Karkare died during the attacks as she "cursed" him for torturing her. But once the statement caused a furore among the BJP's supporters and adversaries alike, she apologised for the remarks. She said those were personal observations since she was tortured while facing trial for alleged involvement in the bomb blasts in Malegaon.

Sadhvi's remark against Karkare: EC issues notice

The organisers of the meeting addressed by Thakur were also served the notice, said the commission.

A massive debate has been triggered in the country over her alleged involvement in Malegaon blasts and the BJP naming her from Bhopal despite her tainted past.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 13:55 [IST]I will abide by all decisions taken by SP, says Shivpal Yadav

Benevolent BJP towards Shivpal and Mulayam joining him at dais to cause confusion among ranks

Time running out for Akhilesh; Mulayam trying to make balance between son and brother

Shivpal Yadav calls SP-BSP combine 'a flop show'

India

pti-PTI

Firozabad (UP), Apr 21: Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) Chief Shivpal Singh Yadav has called the SP-BSP 'mahagathbandhan' "a flop show".

"The SP-BSP alliance is a flop show. It has taken shape only for convenience as they knew their existence was threatened. Otherwise they have been sworn enemies for the past 25 years. Now, how come they have come together?" Shivpal said, addressing an election meeting here.

"This is opportunism at it's best. In the last Lok Sabha, the BSP won zero seats. Now if you multiply any numbers with zero, then the result will always be zero. This coalition will fall apart very soon," he said.

Shivpal, who is contesting Lok Sabha polls from here, said people of Firozabad invited him and based on their interest decided to contest from the seat.

Attacking the BJPs government at the Centre, Shivpal said no one had seen "ache din" as was promised.

"False promises were made and nothing was done or delivered at the ground-level. Till my last breath, I will serve the people and work for their welfare." He appealed to the voters to render their support by pressing the 'chaabi' (key) button on April 23, the voting day for the constituency.

PTISiddaramaiah will be the next CM of Karnataka says Siddaramaiah

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Bengaluru, Apr 21: Asserting that he is not a "political sanyasi" and was in "active politics", former Chief Minister Siddarmaiah Saturday said the Congress will form government in Karnataka after the next assembly polls, and he will become Chief Minister once again.

Rubbishing reports about his immediate chief ministerial ambitions citing his recent statements, the Chairman of the Congress-JD(S) coalition coordination committee clarified that he will occupy the top job after the next assembly election and there was nothing wrong in that. The next assembly elections in the state will be held in 2023.

Karnataka: Rumblings in coalition are more about who gets the better pie in 2019

"I had said I will become chief minister in the future... did I say tomorrow (after Lok Sabha polls). I meant after next assembly election... am I a political sanyasi? If I was why would I come here in this hot sun? I would have sat in the shade. I'm not a political sanyasi, I'm in active politics," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Davangere.

"What I said was, in the future our party government will come to power, once I become chief minister, I will increase distribution of rice from 7 to 10 kg. What is wrong in that?" he asked.

The CLP leader's statement on Friday during a rally at Siraguppa about providing 10 kg rice if he comes back, while speaking about his previous government's flagship 'Anna Bhagya' scheme had created flutter, amid speculation that any adverse results in Lok Sabha polls will have its impact on the longevity of the coalition government.

Earlier on Saturday hitting out at the BJP in Belagavi, Siddaramaiah said the saffron party will be reduced to a single digit in the Lok Sabha polls.

"...they (BJP people) are speaking out of frustration knowing very well that they will lose. They will be defeated, in Karnataka this time they will be in single digit, they will not reach double digit," he told reporters.

Siddaramaiah was responding to a question about BJP national joint general secretary (Org) B L Santohs recent comments on getting two BJP governments, one at the Centre and the other in state.

A day of reckoning for Deve Gowda and sons today

"... from your vote, you will get one direct government- Narendra Modi's. After one month you will get another government- Yeddyurappa's government in Bengaluru's Vidhana Soudha.

In Parliament and Vidhan Soudha our government will be there from your one vote," he had said recently addressing a gathering.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 11:15 [IST]Sri Lanka won't be allowed to be used for 'any activity' against India: President Rajapaksa

Sri Lankan human trafficking case: Victims were lured with promise of jobs in Canada

Sri Lanka: Three Indians among 207 people killed in ghastly serial blasts on Easter Sunday

India

oi-Vikas SV

New Delhi, Apr 21: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday took to Twitter to inform that three Indians were among 207 people killed in multiple bomb blasts in Sri Lanka.

"Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals," she said in a tweet.

She said the Indians killed are Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

"We are ascertaining further details," Swaraj added.

The external affairs minister said she spoke to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana who confirmed that 207 people were killed and more than 450 were injured in the blasts.

[35 foreigners among 156 Killed in Colombo bombings]

"I have just spoken to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka Tilak Marapana. He confirmed that unfortunately, 207 persons have lost their lives and more than 450 are injured in the terror blasts," she tweeted.

"I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well," she added.

A string of eight devastating blasts, including suicide attacks, struck churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

The blasts - one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history - targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time).

OneIndia News with PTI inputsDay not far when UP will be identified as most modern state: PM Modi in Shahjahanpur

Centre to launch good governance week from Monday to redress public grievances at village

Told Pakistan that India will not leave you if anything happens to Abhinandan, says Modi

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Apr 21: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally in Gujarat's Patan on Sunday and spoke of Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

"When Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I said (to Pakistan) that If anything happens to our pilot then we will not leave you," the Prime Minister said.

Modi further said whether the PM's chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or terrorists will remain alive.

BSP-SP 'fake friendship' will end on May 23: PM Modi

Wing Commander Abhinandan, flying a vintage Russian-made Mig-21 fighter, was part of the package of aircraft that took on the incoming Pakistan Air Force war planes on February 27. A day earlier, IAF fighters had hit a JeM training camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was taken prisoner by Pakistan after his MiG 21 aircraft was shot down on February 27,

Earlier on Saturday, Abhinandan was transferred out of the Srinagar airbase amid concerns over his safety in Kashmir valley a senior Defence Ministry official who did not want to be named.

The fighter pilot is currently awaiting medical clearance to resume flying a combat aircraft.From taking dip in Ganga to offering prayers to Lord Shiva, check out pics of PM Modi's visit to Varanasi

Will Priyanka contest from Varanasi? Suspense is a double edged sword

India

oi-Vikas SV

New Delhi, Apr 21: Amid speculations on whether she will fight the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday put the onus on Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Though she took a plunge into the active politics in January this year, Priyanka Gandhi has not yet made it clear whether she would contest Lok Sabha polls or not. Even if Priyanka does decide to contest, 'from where' is the question that is being widely debated by political analysts and is something that is vehemently discussed regularly on almost every news channel.

Priyanka also wants everyone to keep guessing and every now and then makes a veiled but vague remark hinting at something, but not sure what it is.

Last month, when asked if she would like to contest from her mother's constituency, Raebareli, Priyanka Gandhi had quipped, "Why not Varanasi". And stopped at that, she did not respond to questions put forth by the scribe after that remark and just kept smiling.

Today in Wayanad where she is campaigning for Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka said she would be happy to contest from Varanasi if Rahul asks her to.

[Attempts on to destroy Constitution says Priyanka Gandhi]

"If the Congress president asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest," Priyanka Gandhi said in Wayanad, the Kerala constituency from where Rahul Gandhi would be contesting LS polls along with the family bastion of Amethi.

One thing is for sure, if Priyanka decides to take on PM Modi from Varanasi, the city will witness what can be called the mother of all contests.

[Country will see Priyanka as a 'thief's wife': Uma Bharti]

Congress is in fact playing mind games by allowing this suspense to build up. But then again, suspense is a double edged sword.

When Priyanka Gandhi casually told Congress workers in Raebareli, "Why not Varanasi", she created the suspense herself. If Priyanka Gandhi now decides to not contest from Varanasi, it will make Modi appear even stronger - in Varanasi and India alike. The unmistakable message will be the Congress doesn't have the fire in its belly to fight the Modi juggernaut.Bengaluru: Two workers from Bihar killed, three injured after boiler blast at food factory in Magadi road

10 years after death of LTTE, peace shattered in Sri Lanka again

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Colombo, Apr 21: Peace was shattered in Sri Lanka after a number of explosions ripped through Colombo, killing several people.

This is the first major incident in the country, which had enjoyed peace for a long time after it had witnessed a bloody civil war.

The last major incident in the country was reported in 2006. The attack was carried out by the LTTE and the incident was known as the Digampathana bombing. The LTTE had used a bomb laden truck and rammed it against a convoy of 15 military buses. The incident claimed the lives of 120 sailors.

Sri Lanka: 52 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; attackers identified

After a brief period of negotiations, the LTTE pulled out of the peace talks. There was sporadic violence in the country until April 25 2006. The LTTE tried to assassinate the then Sri Lankan Army Commander, following which it was proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

The Sri Lankan army then went on an offensive and even asked the outfit to surrender. As of 8 January 2009, the LTTE abandoned its positions on the Jaffna peninsula to make a last stand in the jungles of Mullaitivu, their last main base. On 25 January 2009, SLA troops "completely captured" Mullaitivu town, the last major LTTE stronghold.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared military victory over the Tamil Tigers on 16 May 2009, after 26 years of conflict. The rebels offered to lay down their weapons in return for a guarantee of safety.

On April 11 Sri Lankan police were warned about attacks on 11 churches

On 17 May 2009, LTTE's head of the Department of International Relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan conceded defeat, saying in an email statement, "this battle has reached its bitter end".

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 11:57 [IST]Six dead as gelatin sticks explode in Karnataka's Chikkaballapur; PM Modi expresses grief

2 killed, 16 injured in blast near Hafiz Saeeds home in Lahore

Bengaluru: Two workers from Bihar killed, three injured after boiler blast at food factory in Magadi road

Afghanistan: Child among two killed after Rocket hits near Kabul airport

Explosion hits Afghanistan mosque during Friday prayers, at least 12 wounded

Colombo blasts: Passengers asked to report at airport 4 hours early

International

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Colombo, Apr 21: In the wake of the horrific serial blasts, all passengers have been advised to arrive 4 hours early at the airport.

As a security measures, passengers have been advised to arrive 4 hours early at the BIA Katunayake International Airport.

Sri Lanka: Over 150 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; 2 attackers identified

Meanwhile the country has been placed under high alert and an emergency meeting would be held shortly.

Passengers should report to Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) four hours before flights - 21st April 2019 ! pic.twitter.com/kP675HdDPZ  SriLankan Airlines (@flysrilankan) April 21, 2019

Over people were killed after six blasts ripped across several place in Colombo. Three churches - St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa - were targeted, police said.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as Easter Sunday masses were in progress, PTI quoted police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera as saying.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 12:19 [IST]Bengaluru: Two workers from Bihar killed, three injured after boiler blast at food factory in Magadi road

Colombo bombings have signature of Islamic State

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Colombo, Apr 21: The serial bombings that rocked Colombo bear the signature of the Islamic State. The nation has been under the radar of the Islamic State for nearly three years now.

It may be recalled that in 2016 there were reports that 32 elite Muslims had joined the Islamic State. The ISIS had warned that it would target the Buddhists in Sri Lanka.

Further looking at the pattern of the blast and also the fact that the attack was targeted only at the Catholics and foreigners, it suggests that the outfit has a hand behind this attack.

Colombo bombings: 129 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; attackers identified

Initial reports that emerged after bomb blasts ripped Colombo suggest that a suicide bomber could have been involved.

One of the prime reasons for the casualty being so high could be due to the fact that a suicide bomber was involved. The attacks at the Shangri La hotel and the Batticalao Church appear to be the handiwork of a suicide bomber.

The initial impressions also indicate that RDX could have been used in the attack and hence the impact was so high. Over 100 people have been killed in the blasts that took place in Sri Lanka today. Reports suggest that the suicide bombers have been identified as Zahran Hashim and Abu Mohammad.

An Intelligence Bureau official in India tells OneIndia that the target was clearly the Catholics.

The Christians who form 6 per cent of the country's population were out in large numbers due to Easter. Moreover the attack comes 10 days after a warning was issued about Churches being attacked in the country.

A message received by the police on April 11 stated that 11 Churches would be attacked. It was further warned that all the Catholics should go home and this should be informed to all the families.

On April 11 Sri Lankan police were warned about attacks on 11 churches

With the blasts today, the intelligence in Sri Lanka has warned that there could be more attacks.

The country has been placed under very high alert and security has been tightened all over.

People have been advised to stay indoors and not venture out. Investigators are on the scene and are gathering as much evidence as possible.

Over 100 people were killed after six blasts ripped across several place in Colombo. Three churches - St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa - were targeted, police said.

10 years after death of LTTE, peace shattered in Sri Lanka again

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as Easter Sunday masses were in progress, PTI quoted police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera as saying.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 12:47 [IST]Sri Lanka won't be allowed to be used for 'any activity' against India: President Rajapaksa

Colombo bombings: ISIS suggests revenge for strikes on Muslims

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Colombo, Apr 21: The Islamic State supporters have indicated that the Colombo bombings were in retaliation for strikes on Mosques.

SITE Intel group said that the ISIS supporters portrayed the attack as revenge for strikes on mosques and Muslims in general.

It may be recalled that in 2016 there were reports that 32 elite Muslims had joined the Islamic State. The ISIS had warned that it would target the Buddhists in Sri Lanka.

Further looking at the pattern of the blast and also the fact that the attack was targeted only at the Catholics and foreigners, it suggests that the outfit has a hand behind this attack.

[Sri Lanka has seen a spike in Jihadi activity since 2017]

Initial reports that emerged after bomb blasts ripped Colombo suggest that a suicide bomber could have been involved.

One of the prime reasons for the casualty being so high could be due to the fact that a suicide bomber was involved. The attacks at the Shangri La hotel and the Batticalao Church appear to be the handiwork of a suicide bomber.

The initial impressions also indicate that RDX could have been used in the attack and hence the impact was so high. Over 100 people have been killed in the blasts that took place in Sri Lanka today. Reports suggest that the suicide bombers have been identified as Zahran Hashim and Abu Mohammad.

An Intelligence Bureau official in India tells OneIndia that the target was clearly the Catholics. The Christians who form 6 per cent of the country's population were out in large numbers due to Easter. Moreover the attack comes 10 days after a warning was issued about Churches being attacked in the country.

A message received by the police on April 11 stated that 11 Churches would be attacked. It was further warned that all the Catholics should go home and this should be informed to all the families.

With the blasts today, the intelligence in Sri Lanka has warned that there could be more attacks. The country has been placed under very high alert and security has been tightened all over.

People have been advised to stay indoors and not venture out. Investigators are on the scene and are gathering as much evidence as possible.

Over 100 people were killed after six blasts ripped across several place in Colombo. Three churches - St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa - were targeted, police said.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as Easter Sunday masses were in progress, PTI quoted police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera as saying.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 18:09 [IST]On April 11 Sri Lankan police were warned about attacks on 11 churches

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Colombo, Apr 21: The blasts at Colombo in which several people died was a clear warning to the Catholics. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the police had a week backreceived information that there would be blasts in Churches.

A message received by the police on April 11 stated that 11 Churches would be attacked. It was further warned that all the Catholics should go home and this should be informed to all the families.

With the blasts today, the intelligence in Sri Lanka has warned that there could be more attacks.

Sri Lanka: 52 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; PM calls for emergency meeting

The country has been placed under very high alert and security has been tightened all over.

People have been advised to stay indoors and not venture out. Investigators are on the scene and are gathering as much evidence as possible.

Over 42 people were killed after six blasts ripped across several place in Colombo. Three churches - St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa - were targeted, police said.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as Easter Sunday masses were in progress, PTI quoted police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera as saying.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 11:52 [IST]PM Modi to attend G20 Summit from Oct 29-31, then leaves to Glasgow for COP26 climate talks

Meeting between PM Modi, Pope scheduled for 20 minutes goes on for an hour

Sainthood to be conferred on first Indian layman

Pope celebrates Easter Sunday amid bloodshed in Sri Lanka

International

pti-PTI

Vatican City, Apr 21: Pope Francis is celebrating Easter Mass this year facing a fresh round of bloodshed targeting Christians in Sri Lanka.

Hours after celebrating a late-night vigil, Francis processed into a flower-decked St. Peter's Square for the liturgy Sunday commemorating the resurrection of Christ after his crucifixion.

Sri Lanka bombings: Curfew imposed after eighth explosion rocks island nation; suspect held

This year the Easter season has been marred both by the destruction of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral by fire last week and the massacre on Sunday in Sri Lanka.

More than 130 people were killed and hundreds wounded following near-simultaneous blasts at three Sri Lankan churches during Easter Sunday services and three hotels frequented by foreigners. After Mass, Francis delivers his annual Easter "Urbi et Orbi" speech about conflicts and other difficulties around the world.

PTIBengaluru: Two workers from Bihar killed, three injured after boiler blast at food factory in Magadi road

Sri Lanka has had a bloody history: Here are the major attacks

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Colombo, Apr 21: Sri Lanka has had a violent history thanks to the bloody civil war it was engaged in with the LTTE.

The LTTE was officially wiped out in 2009 and the nation has remained peaceful since then. Until 2006, the country has witnessed a series of terror attacks and assassinations. The Sri Lankan army then went on an offensive and officially defeated the LTTE in 2009.

Sri Lanka: Over 150 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; attackers identified

Here is a timeline of the major attacks in Sri Lanka:

Sri Maha Bodhi attack, 1985: 146 nuns, monks and civilians were gunned down by the LTTE in Anuradhapura.

146 nuns, monks and civilians were gunned down by the LTTE in Anuradhapura. Aluth Kya massacre, 1987: The LTTE gunned own 127 Sinhalese people



The LTTE gunned own 127 Sinhalese people Attack on Sri Lankan parliament, 1987: Two people were killed after a grenade was hurled inside the Parliament.

Two people were killed after a grenade was hurled inside the Parliament. Bus bombing, 1987: 113 people died after a car bomb exploded at the Colombo bus station.

113 people died after a car bomb exploded at the Colombo bus station. Mosque massacre, 1990: 147 Muslims were killed after the LTTE targeted them at a Mosque in Kattankudy.



147 Muslims were killed after the LTTE targeted them at a Mosque in Kattankudy. Palluyagodella massacre, 1992: The LTTE killed 285 people

The LTTE killed 285 people Central Bank bombing, 1996: The LTTE rammed a bomb laden truck through the main gate of the Colombo Central bank. 91 persons were killed.

The LTTE rammed a bomb laden truck through the main gate of the Colombo Central bank. 91 persons were killed. Digampathana bombing, 2006: A bomb laden truck was used by the LTTE to ram into a convoy of 15 military buses. 120 were killed.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 12:09 [IST]Bengaluru: Two workers from Bihar killed, three injured after boiler blast at food factory in Magadi road

Sri Lanka has seen a spike in Jihadi activity since 2017

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Colombo, Apr 21: The problem of the Islamic State has been rampant in Sri Lanka since 2016.

That year the Parliament was told that 32 Muslims from elite families had joined the ISIS.

The following year, scores of Sri Lankan ISIS terrorists had returned from Syria, following which there was a spike in Jihadi activity.

Colombo bombings: 129 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; attackers identified

It may also be recalled that a postgraduate student from Sri Lanka, Mohammad Nizamdeen was charged with ISIS affiliated terror related offence in Australia. He was accused of being part of a plot to assassinate an Australian politician. Incidentally he is the nephew of MP Faiszer Musthapha, a cabinet minister in the Sri Lankan government

In January this year authorities in Sri Lanka seized a huge cache of explosives at Wanathawilluwa. It was said that this belonged to a module of the ISIS, who were attempting major blasts at historic Buddhist monuments. An imam and a maulvi were also arrested in connection with the incident.

On April 11, the police got an input that terrorists would target 11 Churches in the country. It warned that Catholics would be the target of the attack. Moreover the serial bombings that rocked Colombo bear the signature of the Islamic State. The nation has been under the radar of the Islamic State for nearly three years now.

Nine foreigners among 129 Killed in Colombo bombings

It may be recalled that in 2016 there were reports that 32 elite Muslims had joined the Islamic State. The ISIS had warned that it would target the Buddhists in Sri Lanka.

Further looking at the pattern of the blast and also the fact that the attack was targeted only at the Catholics and foreigners, it suggests that the outfit has a hand behind this attack.

Initial reports that emerged after bomb blasts ripped Colombo suggest that a suicide bomber could have been involved.

One of the prime reasons for the casualty being so high could be due to the fact that a suicide bomber was involved. The attacks at the Shangri La hotel and the Batticalao Church appear to be the handiwork of a suicide bomber.

The initial impressions also indicate that RDX could have been used in the attack and hence the impact was so high. Over 100 people have been killed in the blasts that took place in Sri Lanka today. Reports suggest that the suicide bombers have been identified as Zahran Hashim and Abu Mohammad.

An Intelligence Bureau official in India tells OneIndia that the target was clearly the Catholics. The Christians who form 6 per cent of the country's population were out in large numbers due to Easter. Moreover the attack comes 10 days after a warning was issued about Churches being attacked in the country.

Colombo bombings have signature of Islamic State

A message received by the police on April 11 stated that 11 Churches would be attacked. It was further warned that all the Catholics should go home and this should be informed to all the families.

With the blasts today, the intelligence in Sri Lanka has warned that there could be more attacks.

The country has been placed under very high alert and security has been tightened all over.

People have been advised to stay indoors and not venture out. Investigators are on the scene and are gathering as much evidence as possible.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 13:11 [IST]Jaishankar to visit Sri Lanka tomorrow, will take up release of Indian fishermen

Sri Lanka in state of emergency after six blasts killed several people

International

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Colombo, Apr 21: Following the multiple blasts that rocked Sri Lanka, an emergency meeting has been called, Minister Dr Harsha De Silva said.

He said that the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was on his way from Bentota.

Secretary of Defence and I am at Kochchikade Church. We were also at Shangri-La and Kingsbury Hotels. Rescue operations are underway. Many casualties have been reported including foreigners," he said. He also requested the people to stay indoors and remain calm.

Sri Lanka: 52 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; PM calls for emergency meeting

Over 42 people were killed after six blasts ripped across several place in Colombo. Three churches - St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa - were targeted, police said.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as Easter Sunday masses were in progress, PTI quoted police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera as saying.

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Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 11:43 [IST]Bengaluru: Two workers from Bihar killed, three injured after boiler blast at food factory in Magadi road

Suicide bombers, RDX: What made the Colombo bombings so lethal

International

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Colombo, Apr 21: Initial reports that emerged after bomb blasts ripped Colombo suggest that a suicide bomber could have been involved.

One of the prime reasons for the casualty being so high could be due to the fact that a suicide bomber was involved. The attacks at the Shangri La hotel and the Batticalao Church appear to be the handiwork of a suicide bomber.

The initial impressions also indicate that RDX could have been used in the attack and hence the impact was so high. Over 100 people have been killed in the blasts that took place in Sri Lanka today. Reports suggest that the suicide bombers have been identified as Zahran Hashim and Abu Mohammad.

Colombo bombings: 129 dead as six blasts rock Churches, hotels on Easter; attackers identified

An Intelligence Bureau official in India tells OneIndia that the target was clearly the Catholics. The Christians who form 6 per cent of the country's population were out in large numbers due to Easter. Moreover the attack comes 10 days after a warning was issued about Churches being attacked in the country.

A message received by the police on April 11 stated that 11 Churches would be attacked. It was further warned that all the Catholics should go home and this should be informed to all the families.

With the blasts today, the intelligence in Sri Lanka has warned that there could be more attacks.

The country has been placed under very high alert and security has been tightened all over.

People have been advised to stay indoors and not venture out. Investigators are on the scene and are gathering as much evidence as possible.

Sri Lanka has had a bloody history: Here are the major attacks

Over 100 people were killed after six blasts ripped across several place in Colombo. Three churches - St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa - were targeted, police said.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as Easter Sunday masses were in progress, PTI quoted police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera as saying.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Sunday, April 21, 2019, 12:27 [IST]Play'n GO Set to Go Live in Portugal With New Licence

Published April 21, 2019 by Ivan P

With the latest license, Play'n GO gains access to another regulated European market and continues to expand its footprint around the globe.

Play'n GO, one of the leading game developers in the online gambling industry, continues its expansion strategy. A few days ago, the company has made it official they were granted a Portuguese gaming license, allowing them access to yet another regulated market in Europe.

Big Plans for Immediate Future

Play'n Go has had a lot of success recently. In 2019, they'd already secured licenses for Sweden and Philippines and now they will also be able to enter Portugal, another very interesting and appealing online gambling market.

The regulated market in Portugal has been in existence only for a couple of years but it has already shown a tremendous potential as it's been thriving right from the start. In that light, the company's play to enter the country and make its mark there makes perfect sense.

For the Clients and the Players

Play'n GO's recent strategy is the one that benefits their business partners and casino players alike. According to Johan Tornqvist, the company's CEO, their goal is to make their games available to as many players around the globe as possible. At the same time, they want their partners to have confidence the company has a strong global presence, making it easier for them to develop their operations in whatever area they feel is best suitable for them.

Thanks to this latest development, gaming operators in Portugal will be able to offer their players a number of acclaimed Play'n GO titles, such as Legacy of Egypt, Sweet Alchemy, Reactoonz, and much more.

The company has also announced their plans to develop 40 new games by the end of 2019, which means there will be plenty of fresh titles hitting virtual shelves of Portuguese online casinos in the near future. With all this in mind, the upcoming period will definitely be an exciting one for the country's iGaming landscape.Nitrogen Global Industry Report - History, Present and Future 2025

Nitrogen Global Industry Report 2025

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The global market size of Nitrogen 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)Access more details about this report at: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 Nitrogen as well as some small players. The compnaies include:Lind, Air Liquide, Praxai, Air Products and Chemicals, Taiyo Nippon Sanso, Messer Group, Yingde Gase, Hangzhou Hangyang, Sichuan Qiaoyuan Gas et al.Purchase a copy of this premium research report at:The information for each competitor includes:*Company Profile*Main Business Information*SWOT Analysis*Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin*Market ShareInquire further details about this report at:About Research 2 Reports:Research2Reports Market Research Company offers custom syndicated market research reports with market analysis, consulting services Market research reports by Research2Reports depends on survey analysis covers a magnitude of factors, industry research, market size, forecasts, financial growth, pricing trends, competitive insights of market segmentsContact Us:Organization: Research2reportsOffice No. 212/213, B Block 2nd Floor,Parmar Chambers,Sadhu Vaswani Road, Pune  411001Phone Number: 020 - 2612 6969Email: info@research2reports.comRead More Industry News:Research 2 Reports offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Office No. 212/213, B Block 2nd Floor,Parmar Chambers,Sadhu Vaswani Road, Pune  411001World Condom Market 2019-2025 Industry Segments, Strategy, Leading Companies Historical and Future Forecast Data

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The Condom Market Report 2019 provides key tactics followed by leading Condom industry manufactures and Sections like, product specifications, capacity, production value, Feasibility Analysis, Major Types as well as applications. The report provides an in-depth overview of Product Specification, technology, product type and production analysis considering major factors such as Revenue, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin.Condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device that may be used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted infections (STIs/STDs) such as HIV/AIDS. It is rolled onto an erect penis before intercourse and blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner. Condoms are also used during fellatio and for collection of semen for use in infertility treatment. In the modern age, condoms are most often made from latex, but some are made from other materials such as polyurethane, polyisoprene, or lamb intestine.The Global production of the Condoms is about 32674 Million Pcs in 2015. The production region is relative concentrated. Currently, the largest production region is Asia. The durex brand occupies the largest markets share.Get Exclusive Sample Copy @The main consumption regions are relative dispersion. The Condoms consumption has great relationship with the local economical developed level and population. Currently, the largest consumption region is China, China occupies about 1/3 market share.The price has been rising continuously; the average price is about 118 USD Per K Pcs in 2015. The gross margin has the different trend with the price.The import volume is very large; the consumption volume of USA mainly depends on import. Currently, the Condoms have a certain degree of anti-dumping phenomenon. Most of the factories are moving to Asia.In the future, the Condoms will have a good future; the price fluctuation has relationship with the raw material and brand effect. The technology will more mature and the monopoly phenomenon will be weaken.The global Condom market is valued at 4470 million US$ in 2018 and will reach 8270 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 8.0% during 2019-2025. The objectives of this study are to define, segment, and project the size of the Condom market based on company, product type, end user and key regions.This report studies the global market size of Condom in key regions like North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & South America and Middle East & Africa, focuses on the consumption of Condom in these regions.This research report categorizes the global Condom market by top players/brands, region, type and end user. This report also studies the global Condom market status, competition landscape, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, sales channels and distributors.The following manufacturers are covered in this report, with sales, revenue, market share for each company:DurexOkamotoTrojanAnsellSagamiGulin LatexNOXMarket size by ProductLatexNon-LatexMarket size by End UserUnder 2525-3435-49Above 50Market size by RegionNorth America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Europe, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe, Central & South America, Brazil, Rest of South America, Middle East & Africa, GCC Countries, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, Rest of Middle East & Africa.The study objectives of this report are:To study and analyze the global Condom market size (value & volume) by company, key regions, products and end user, breakdown data from 2014 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.To understand the structure of Condom market by identifying its various subsegments.To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).Focuses on the key global Condom companies, to define, describe and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, market competition landscape and recent development.To project the value and sales volume of Condom submarkets, with respect to key regions.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.Browse Complete Report Details with Tables and Figures Respectively @Table of Contents1 Study Coverage1.1 Condom Product1.2 Market Segments1.3 Key Manufacturers Covered1.4 Market by Type1.4.1 Global Condom Market Size Growth Rate by Product1.4.2 Latex1.4.3 Non-Latex1.5 Market by End User1.5.1 Global Condom Market Size Growth Rate by End User1.5.2 Under 251.5.3 25-341.5.4 35-491.5.5 Above 501.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Executive Summary2.1 Global Condom Market Size2.1.1 Global Condom Revenue 2014-20252.1.2 Global Condom Sales 2014-20252.2 Condom Growth Rate by Regions2.2.1 Global Condom Sales by Regions2.2.2 Global Condom Revenue by Regions3 Breakdown Data by Manufacturers3.1 Condom Sales by Manufacturers3.1.1 Condom Sales by Manufacturers3.1.2 Condom Sales Market Share by Manufacturers3.1.3 Global Condom Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)3.2 Condom Revenue by Manufacturers3.2.1 Condom Revenue by Manufacturers (2014-2019)3.2.2 Condom Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2014-2019)3.3 Condom Price by Manufacturers3.4 Condom Manufacturing Base Distribution, Product Types3.4.1 Condom Manufacturers Manufacturing Base Distribution, Headquarters3.4.2 Manufacturers Condom Product Type3.4.3 Date of International Manufacturers Enter into Condom Market3.5 Manufacturers Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans4 Breakdown Data by Product4.1 Global Condom Sales by Product4.2 Global Condom Revenue by Product4.3 Condom Price by ProductTOC Continued!About Us:SupplyDemandMarketResearch.com have a strong network of high powered and experienced global consultants who have about 10+ years of experience in the specific industry to deliver quality research and analysis.Having such an experienced network, our services not only cater to the client who wants the basic reference of market numbers and related high growth areas in the demand side, but also we provide detailed and granular information using which the client can definitely plan the strategies with respect to both supply and demand side.Canada Office:302-20 Misssisauga Valley Blvd, Missisauga, L5A 3S1, TorontoGlobal - +1-276-477-5910Email - info@supplydemandmarketresearch.comGlobal (United States, European Union And China) Crypto Currency Market Research Report 2019-2025

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Crypto Currency is million US$ and it will reach million US$ in 2025, growing at a CAGR of from 2019; while in China, the market size is valued at xx million US$ and will increase to xx million US$ in 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during forecast period.Request for sample@In this report, 2018 has been considered as the base year and 2019 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Crypto Currency.This report studies the global market size of Crypto Currency, especially focuses on the key regions like United States, European Union, China, and other regions (Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia).This study presents the Crypto Currency production, revenue, market share and growth rate for each key company, and also covers the breakdown data (production, consumption, revenue and market share) by regions, type and applications. history breakdown data from 2014 to 2019, and forecast to 2025.For top companies in United States, European Union and China, this report investigates and analyzes the production, value, price, market share and growth rate for the top manufacturers, key data from 2014 to 2019.In global market, the following companies are covered: Bitfinex, BitFury Group, Bitstamp, Coinbase, Coinsecure, Litecoin, OKEX Fintech Company, Poloniex, Ripple, Unocoin Technologies Private, ZEB IT ServiceMarket Segment by Product Type: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Etherium, Zcash, OtherMarket Segment by Application: Private, Enterprise, Government, OtherKey Regions split in this report: breakdown data for each region.: United States, China, European Union, Rest of World (Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)The study objectives are:To analyze and research the Crypto Currency status and future forecast in United States, European Union and China, involving sales, value (revenue), growth rate (CAGR), market share, historical and forecast.To present the key Crypto Currency manufacturers, presenting the sales, revenue, market share, and recent development for key players.To split the breakdown data by regions, type, companies and applicationsTo analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends, drivers, influence factors in global and regionsTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Crypto Currency are as follows:History Year: 2014-2018Base Year: 2018Estimated Year: 2019Forecast Year 2019 to 2025Buy Single User Copy of This Report@Table of Contents1 Report Overview1.1 Research Scope1.2 Major Manufacturers Covered in This Report1.3 Market Segment by Type1.3.1 Global Crypto Currency Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2019-2025)1.3.2 Bitcoin1.3.3 Litecoin1.3.4 Etherium1.3.5 Zcash1.3.6 Other1.4 Market Segment by Application1.4.1 Global Crypto Currency Market Share by Application (2019-2025)1.4.2 Private1.4.3 Enterprise1.4.4 Government1.4.5 Other1.5 Study Objectives1.6 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Production and Capacity Analysis2.1.1 Global Crypto Currency Production Value 2014-20252.1.2 Global Crypto Currency Production 2014-20252.1.3 Global Crypto Currency Capacity 2014-20252.1.4 Global Crypto Currency Marketing Pricing and Trends2.2 Key Producers Growth Rate (CAGR) 2019-20252.2.1 Global Crypto Currency Market Size CAGR of Key Regions2.2.2 Global Crypto Currency Market Share of Key Regions2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers3 Market Share by Manufacturers3.1 Capacity and Production by Manufacturers3.1.1 Global Crypto Currency Capacity by Manufacturers3.1.2 Global Crypto Currency Production by Manufacturers3.2 Revenue by Manufacturers3.2.1 Crypto Currency Revenue by Manufacturers (2014-2019)3.2.2 Crypto Currency Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2014-2019)3.2.3 Global Crypto Currency Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)3.3 Crypto Currency Price by Manufacturers3.4 Key Manufacturers Crypto Currency Plants/Factories Distribution and Area Served3.5 Date of Key Manufacturers Enter into Crypto Currency Market3.6 Key Manufacturers Crypto Currency Product Offered3.7 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans4 Market Size by Type4.1 Production and Production Value for Each Type4.1.1 Bitcoin Production and Production Value (2014-2019)4.1.2 Litecoin Production and Production Value (2014-2019)4.1.3 Etherium Production and Production Value (2014-2019)4.1.4 Zcash Production and Production Value (2014-2019)4.1.5 Other Production and Production Value (2014-2019)4.2 Global Crypto Currency Production Market Share by Type4.3 Global Crypto Currency Production Value Market Share by Type4.4 Crypto Currency Ex-factory Price by Type5 Market Size by Application5.1 Overview5.2 Global Crypto Currency Consumption by ApplicationComplete Report With TOC@Who we areResearch Trades has a team of experts who is working on a comprehensive analysis of market research. This estimate is based on a comprehensive study of the future and estimates of future estimates, which can be used by various organizations for growth purposes. We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the customers specific requirement. Our company provides a large collection of high-quality reports obtained by customer-centered approaches, thus providing valuable research insights.Contact Us:Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us: +1 6269994607 (USA), +91 7507349866 (IND)Web:Skype ID: researchtradesconDear Liz: You recently answered a question from someone who had defaulted on federal student loans. You mentioned ways to get out of default and qualify for income-driven repayment plans that could reduce her monthly payments. Couldnt she also qualify for student loan forgiveness?

Answer: There are programs that are supposed to allow federal student loan balances to be forgiven after 10 years of payments for people in public service jobs and after 20 or 25 years for other borrowers. Its questionable how much anyone should count on getting this relief, however.

Last year was the first time borrowers qualified for forgiveness under the 10-year public service program, which was enacted under President George W. Bush in 2007. The Department of Education has denied the vast majority of applicants their expected relief. Nearly 40,000 people had applied by Dec. 31 and fewer than 300 people have been approved, according to the Washington Post.

Critics say the U.S. Department of Education has set much more rigid standards for approval than anything Congress envisioned when creating the program. Many applicants also relied on erroneous advice given by the private companies that service federal student loans.

Its possible that lawsuits, or Congress, will force the Education Department to forgive more of the debt. But if this is what can happen to people who have given a decade of their lives to public service, one has to wonder how much relief other borrowers can expect to get.

Liz Weston, certified financial planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the Contact form at asklizweston.com.Distributed by No More Red Inc.Butter was the real surprise. Earlier this year, Coquine chef Katy Millard and partner Ksandek Podbielski combed through their records to see how much beef, milk, dried pasta, cooking oil, water, gas and more they used each year. Once they gathered this data, and how far it had traveled to reach their Southeast Portland restaurant, they sent the survey to Zero Foodprint, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that recruits restaurants in the fight against climate change.

In return, they received a number: 185. As in, their restaurant releases 185 metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year, the equivalent of a years worth of driving for 40 passenger vehicles. Their biggest ticket item? Butter, the production and transportation of which made up 11 percent of the restaurants total carbon footprint. In order to receive Zero Foodprint certification, Coquine was asked to contribute 10 cents per diner -- about $3,000 a year -- toward farming programs that some scientists think could slow or even reverse greenhouse gas emissions by storing carbon in the soil.

This weekend will feature a flurry of local events in honor of Earth Day from Zero Foodprint, starting on Saturday, when 17 Portland restaurants -- and more than 100 others from Copenhagen to Colorado -- will commit to going carbon neutral for a day. On Sunday, Zero Foodprint co-founder Anthony Myint will speak on a panel at The Redd building with Millard, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer and others about how these regenerative farming practices could reverse climate change. And on Monday, Earth Day, Millard and Myint will cook a dinner with Kachka chef Bonnie Morales and Jacob Harth of Erizo, with proceeds going to help defray the cost of carbon footprint assessments for the latter two restaurants.

Myint and his partner, Karen Leibowitz, who will host Sundays panel, have been prominent food world figures for more than a decade, best known for co-founding Mission Chinese Food, a modern Chinese-American pop-up they opened with chef Danny Bowien inside a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant in San Franciscos Mission district. For the past three years, the duo ran Perennial, a forward-looking San Francisco restaurant that sought to fight climate change through composting, perennial grains and other sustainable farming practices.

That restaurant closed in February. Today, Myint wonders if the original farm-to-table movements "pastoral idealism might be moving too slowly in its response to global warming. Taken as a whole, food production, distribution, refrigeration and waste is thought to contribute nearly one third of all greenhouse gas emissions. Fifteen of the top 15 climate change solutions identified by Project Drawdown were food-related. But local sourcing and other sustainable practices have yet to be widely adopted. Myint notes that organic produce still amounts to just 2 percent of all farming acreage world-wide.

Myint thinks a speedier solution might lie in scaling up carbon farming, or agriculture practices that help store carbon in the soil. Studies out of the University of California at Berkeley indicate that a combination of practices, including spreading a thin layer of compost above ranch and farmland, could actually pull carbon from the atmosphere. The project was detailed last year in a New York Times Magazine cover story, Can Dirt Save The Earth?

Part of the problem that we started to realize was that at the moment, the only real instrument to change is by sourcing local, but not only do people have farm-to-table fatigue, that practice can only apply to certain business models, Myint said. Its not like Burgerville can just go to the farmers market. There needs to be a way for caterers and campus dining halls to change without having to source well.

With Zero Foodprint, Myint hopes to enlist chefs and restauranteurs to become part of the solution on climate change. That starts with conducting a carbon footprint analysis. Based on the results, restaurants are asked to contribute a small percentage of their revenue, typically between 10 cents and a dollar per diner, to healthy soil projects on farms and ranches in California. Some restaurants add a surcharge to their bills. Others, including Coquine, build the costs into their business model. Long-term, the group hopes to enlist 500 restaurants to drive some $1.5 million toward the creation of 50,000 acres of new carbon-farmed land per year.

The restaurant industry is the biggest part of the whole food system economically, Myint says. And not only do chefs represent the most dollars, they represent priceless cultural capital. If 10 celebrity chefs really started working on climate change, that would trickle down so far.

Coquine, already known for its use of local produce, landed in the lower 25th percentile for carbon emissions among Zero Foodprints already self-selecting group. So what about that big ticket item? While Millard trained at Michelin-starred restaurants in France, Podbielski doesnt consider Coquine a particularly butter-rich restaurant -- much of that butter goes into their popular chocolate chip, smoked almond, salted caramel cookies.

Weve been making an effort since day one to not be as wasteful as its easy to be in a restaurant, Podbielski said. I hope other people will see this and jump on board.

Upcoming Zero Foodprint events

Saturday: Seventeen Portland restaurants have committed to going carbon neutral on Saturday, April 20. They are: Coquine, Erizo, Farm Spirit, Han Oak, Holdfast, Jacqueline, Kachka, La Neta, Ox, Pok Pok, Pok Pok Noi, Pok Pok NW, Pok Pok Wing, Too Discrete for A Name (underground bar at The Hoxton), Tope, Tusk, Whiskey Soda Lounge.

Sunday: Zero Foodprint co-founder Anthony Myint, Coquine chef Katy Millard, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer and others will speak at a panel discussion titled Farm to Table 2.0: How Healthy Soil Can Reverse Climate Change starting at 2 p.m. at The Redd building, 831 S.E. Salmon St. Tickets are $12, though cooks are invited to attend for free. Go here for more.

Monday: Myint, Millard, Kachka chef Bonnie Morales and Erizo chef Jacob Harth will cook a special dinner starting at 7 p.m., Monday at Kachka, 960 S.E. 11th Ave. Cost is $150, with proceeds going to defray the cost of Zero Foodprint certification for Kachka and Erizo. Tickets are available here.

-- Michael RussellLAS CRUCES, N.M.  A New Mexico man who is a member of an armed civilian group that has detained migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border and was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of firearms reportedly faced similar charges 13 years ago in Oregon.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, also was accused of impersonating a police officer in Oregon's Klamath County in 2006 and claimed to be a fugitive bounty hunter, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Sunday.

The FBI and Sunland Park police arrested Hopkins on a federal complaint Saturday.

Hopkins was booked into the Dona Ana County detention center in Las Cruces and it wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

The FBI said Hopkins is from Flora Vista, a rural community in northern New Mexico and approximately 353 miles north of Sunland Park, a suburb of El Paso, Texas.

Frank Fisher, a spokesman for the FBI in Albuquerque, said additional information about Hopkins would not be released until after his initial appearance Monday in a Las Cruces federal court.

In 2006, a Klamath County Sheriff's Office report said Hopkins was found at a gas station in Keno, Oregon, showing firearms to youth and telling them he was a police officer.

Hopkins displayed a badge that said "special agent" and numerous medals pinned to his shirt, according to the report obtained by the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The newspaper said the court records were uncovered by the Southern Poverty Law Center which monitors hate groups and extremists in the U.S.

In his guilty plea in the case, records show Hopkins acknowledged to the court that he had given "the impression to others that I was a peace officer" while unlawfully carrying a firearm as a convicted felon.

Federal authorities on Friday warned private groups to avoid policing the border after a string of videos on social media showed armed civilians detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico.

Armed civilian groups have been a fixture on the border for years, especially when large numbers of migrants come. But, unlike previous times, many of the migrants crossing now are children.

Mexicos Foreign Relations Department, in a statement issued Saturday, expressed profound concern at the activities of intimidation and extortion of migrants on the part of militia groups on the border of New Mexico ... These types of practices can lead to the trampling of human rights of people who migrate or who solicit asylum or refuge in the United States.

-- The Associated PressTime and again, the leaders of Oregons Department of Human Services vow to do better to protect children in foster care. After news articles or lawsuits reveal abuse, deplorable living conditions or deaths of foster children, DHS top managers appear before legislators assuring them theyll adjust practices to ensure that such lapses dont occur again.

But inevitably, they do. DHS and child-welfare leaders are replaced, new appointees take the helm and the dysfunctional cycle starts again. The agencys broken system persists, cemented in place by an immutable culture, as even the most well-intentioned caseworkers, agency heads  and governors  come and go.

And here we are again. As The Oregonian/OregonLive and Oregon Public Broadcasting have reported in recent months, the agency has been shipping abused and neglected children to converted juvenile jails and out-of-state institutions with controversial practices. The kids arent receiving adequate counseling, education or services and have little, if any, contact with Oregon caseworkers. And the agency has continued its long-standing pattern of obscuring, misstating and withholding information from the public about how well, or poorly, it is doing its job.

Accountability isnt going to come from the system we have in place  and likely not under a new advisory board that Gov. Kate Brown announced on Thursday. And thats why Oregons leaders should swallow their pride and welcome the federal lawsuit filed against them that seeks to represent Oregons 8,000 foster kids. Instead of fight the suit, the state should work with the plaintiffs on a settlement that maps out specific, measurable and enforceable reforms that can finally, effectively repair Oregons foster-care system.

The complaint, filed by foster-care nonprofit A Better Childhood and Disability Rights Oregon, doesnt seek monetary damages. Rather, they want a judge to require the state to fulfill its obligations to foster children under federal law. Among other things, they want the state to conduct individualized assessments of foster children, provide them with counseling and other needed services, and develop a plan for a permanent home. They seek a court order requiring the state to hire an adequate number of caseworkers to keep workloads at a manageable level so they can provide the attention, care and follow-up that foster children need. And they want the state to develop a plan for recruiting, training and retaining a sufficient network of foster and adoptive families who can provide safe homes for children entering the system.

These are not outlandish goals. They are what many Oregonians would expect that DHS Child Welfare division would already be doing and match the agencys own objectives. But DHS, now under its fourth interim or permanent director in four years, struggles to hire and train enough caseworkers, remains woefully short of suitable foster families and has been overwhelmed for so long that it cant even recognize how broken it is.

But anyone who sees the lawsuit does. Theres the 7-year-old girl who has been in five different foster homes in less than two months, separated from her brother and dropped off at a home with lice so bad, her head was shaved. Or the boy whose reports of being sexually abused by a relative went uninvestigated by DHS for years, even as he defecated on himself repeatedly as a defense mechanism. Or the 9-year-old girl who was shipped out of Oregon to a Montana facility, effectively abandoned by Oregon caseworkers and regularly injected with a chemical restraint to calm her down.

Were traumatizing these children more, said Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, whose stalwart advocacy for children has helped close some of the gaps in foster-care policies and who has pressed DHS relentlessly on its practice of institutionalizing foster kids. She decried a general lack of urgency, noting that agency leaders are focused more on long-term goals than addressing that a 9-year-old is spending her childhood alone and in misery. These are kids in our system right now, she said, noting her frustration that Oregon officials waited 24 days from the time the agency was told of the injections before telling the Montana facility to stop administering them.

That lack of urgency has extended on up to the governors office until recently. Just a year ago, after the Secretary of States office released a scathing audit about the foster-care system, her spokesman, Chris Pair, dismissed it as just about politics. It was only after her Republican opponent, Knute Buehler, called for a $50 million investment and a rapid improvement team to carry out reforms in DHS, that she sought less than a third of that from the Legislature with no plan for a team.

And while news stories about the state shipping kids out of Oregon have been coming out for months and legislators have been grilling DHS officials for weeks, it was not until Thursday, two days after the lawsuit was filed, that Brown announced a new child-welfare board and a crisis management team to advise her in overseeing the agency and implementing reforms.

A court judgment or settlement requiring the state to hire an adequate number of case workers instantly elevates child welfare as a funding priority for the governor and the Legislature. A court-ordered monitor overseeing whether DHS is providing individualized assessments of foster care children within 60 days brings a level of accountability that cant easily be brushed aside. And Oregon could follow the lead of Tennessee, which had also been sued by A Better Childhood and is now lauded for the improvements it has made in its system. There is an opportunity that comes when you finally admit the need for help.

As the lawsuit notes, the problems in the Oregon foster care system have been exhaustively documented for well over a decade. It is time that Oregon is held accountable.

These kids  the ones who are covering themselves in feces to prevent sexual abuse, the ones who are kept in locked detention centers despite having committed no crime, the ones who were separated from their families and for whom DHS has no plan of a permanent home  have been waiting and waiting for someone to hold the state accountable. Oregon leaders should not pass up this opportunity to do so.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial BoardRTHK: The joke's on Poroshenko as Zelensky wins

A comedian with no political experience won a landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential election on Sunday, dealing a stunning rebuke to the country's political establishment.

Volodymyr Zelensky, whose only previous political role was playing the president on television, trounced incumbent Petro Poroshenko by taking 73 percent of the vote, according to exit polls conducted by several think tanks.

Poroshenko lost to the television star across all regions of the country, including in the west where he traditionally enjoyed strong support.

It was an extraordinary outcome to a campaign that started as a joke but struck a chord with voters frustrated by poverty, corruption and a five-year war that has claimed some 13,000 lives.

Poroshenko conceded defeat and congratulated comedian Volodymyr Zelensky on his landslide victory. He said the results were "clear" and a reason to "call my opponent and congratulate him", after exit polls showed the performer taking 73 percent of the vote.

"I will leave office but I want to firmly stress -- I will not quit politics," he added.

Zelensky, the 41-year-old star of TV series "Servant of the People" will now take the helm of a country of 45 million people beset by challenges and having run on the vaguest of political platforms.

After taking the most votes in last month's first-round election, Zelensky had enjoyed a strong lead over the 53-year-old Poroshenko going into Sunday's poll.

Voting earlier in the capital Kiev, the beaming frontrunner had said his campaign managed to bring Ukrainians together.

"We have united Ukraine," he said, wearing a casual suit with a t-shirt and accompanied by his wife. "Everything will be all right."

Sparkling wine was on offer at his campaign headquarters as the star's team prepared to toast his victory on Palm Sunday, a week before Orthodox Easter.

From Ukrainian-speaking regions in the west of the country to Russian-speaking territories in the war-torn east, many voters said they feared uncertainty but yearned for change.

"We're tired of all the lies," said Marta Semenyuk, 26, who cast her ballot for the comedian.

"I think it just cannot get any worse and I hope he'll live up to his promises," said Larisa, an 18-year-old student from the government-held eastern port city of Mariupol.

Zelensky's victory opens a new chapter in the history of a country that has gone through two popular uprisings in the last 20 years and is mired in a conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in the east.

His supporters say only a fresh face can clean up Ukraine's politics and end the separatist conflict.

But others doubt the showman will be able to take on the country's influential oligarchs, negotiate with the likes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and stand up to Russia's Vladimir Putin. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2019-04-21. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Updated: 10:30 a.m.

By Rose Ojeda and Adam Brunelle

Ojeda directs real estate development at the nonprofit Hacienda CDC. Brunelle directs Green Lents, a community organizing group.

Portland and Oregon are debating two measures to again legalize duplexes, triplexes and quads in low-density areas: Portland's residential infill project and House Bill 2001.

There's reason to think these reforms would channel for-profit developers toward middle-income housing, and away from the huge luxury houses they currently find most profitable in low-density areas. But we shouldn't let our interest in improving market-rate housing options blind us to another benefit of zoning reform: More regulated affordable housing in more places.

The March 11 Oregonian/OregonLive report, Portland trumpeted rosy numbers for controversial infill plan while burying a dimmer forecast, contrasted two projections of Portland's residential infill project. The lower of the two predicts about 330 market-rate triplexes built per year. The higher predicts about 500 market-rate buildings, mostly fourplexes. Both see a big drop in wasteful one-for-one demolitions.

But these numbers fail to capture nonprofit developers work to mix private and public dollars to create homes for the Portlanders who need housing stability most.

Allowing fourplexes would allow nonprofits to build affordable, family-size homes for people otherwise shut out of Portland's market. It would distribute those homes through more neighborhoods, creating block-level income diversity. Leveraging public funding with private investment would house more people per public dollar, especially children.

This is why nonprofit builders have unanimously supported the reform. But the full promise of infill housing is that many new homes built will be affordable to lower-income Portlanders. We can  and we must -- use new programs and incentives to support this.

For example, nonprofit Hacienda and its community-based partners in Cully, Lents and elsewhere in North and Northeast Portland are piloting a program to build backyard cottages that can be rented at a below-market rate. The program also provides a modest income stream and asset-building for the lower-income homeowners. The residential infill project is already poised to make this legal in more situations, but Portland could also direct some of the taxes and fees from new infill housing to fund this kind of affordable housing in our neighborhoods.

Projects like this help integrate our schools and neighborhoods by income, making them better for everyone. They support transit quality, job access and cultural diversity.

Though Portland calculates that its proposal would reduce demolition-related displacement of low-income tenants almost everywhere, it does see an increase in a few neighborhoods, including western Lents and southern Montavilla. But the answer isn't to try to lock down building in those areas, which could just create an ugly game of whack-a-mole if demolition rates rise elsewhere. After all, most housing displacement isn't triggered by demolition. It's triggered by rent hikes.

The answer is to protect community in those areas by creating more homes that could help keep vulnerable Portlanders' rent from soaring out of reach. Fighting displacement in Lents and Montavilla requires more affordable housing -- not more of the same. This means making significant additional targeted investments or incentives for long-term affordability in these particularly vulnerable neighborhoods.

It may take the for-profit development sector a little time to retool and start building mid-size homes for middle-class Portlanders. But Portlands nonprofit developers already know exactly how to create mid-size housing thats affordable for low-income Portlanders. And they stand eager to do so.

This posting was updated to better reflect the projects that the Residential Infill Project will allow.By Dominick A. DellaSala, William J. Ripple and Franz Baumann

DellaSala is chief scientist of the Geos Institute and a member of the Oregon Global Warming Commissions Task Force on Forest Carbon. William J. Ripple is distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University and lead author of the 2017 World Scientists Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice. Baumann, is former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, and a visiting research professor at New York University.

Another Earth Day is here and its time to check on the planet, our climate, and what it means for Oregonians. While we remain hopeful that climate change is solvable if we act now, its hard not to be alarmed.

For decades, scientists have been monitoring the planets life-support systems like the warning lights on a cars dashboard. We scan satellite images of humanitys unprecedented ecological footprint on forests, rivers, and oceans. We use thousands of weather stations to track rising temperatures and super-computers to forecast impacts.

In 1992, we joined 1,700 scientists in issuing a warning that a great change in our stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required if vast human misery is to be avoided. In 2017, more than 21,000 scientists from 184 countries issued a second warning that conditions had worsened and time was running out.

In Oregon, rising temperatures means more extreme fire-weather  hotter, drier, windier. Smoke now pours into the state from fires as far away as British Columbia. Winters deliver more rain, less snow, and intense storms damage coastal communities.

Fortunately, forward-thinking members of Congress recently introduced a bold resolution that responds to the climate challenge at scale. Aptly named a Green New Deal, it is as ambitious as President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal in the 1930s.

By calling for carbon-free energy, clean air and water, and an economic system that addresses inequalities, it is the most comprehensive response yet to the warnings. Hundreds of cities, including Portland, are supporting these initiatives via the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.

The sense of urgency means the Oregon Legislature needs to do its part by passing a strong Clean Energy Jobs Bill that curbs greenhouse gas emissions now with a fair, equitable, and effective carbon pricing scheme that enlists nature in climate solutions.

Our coastal rainforests and older forests are vital to a safe climate as they scrub vast quantities of carbon from the atmosphere, helping to keep the planet from overheating. Lawmakers need to include measures that protect these forests and increase the time between logging cycles to grow and store more carbon in forests. Landowners practicing such climate-smart forestry should be rewarded.

Meanwhile, communities need to prepare for unavoidable consequences of carbon pollution. For much of Oregon, this means avoiding the tragedy of Paradise where entire homes were destroyed while surrounding trees were left unscorched. No amount of logging in the surroundings could have prevented unprepared homes ignited by embers blown from fires miles away. Oregon Gov. Kate Browns Wildfire Council needs to focus on proven home-hardening measures like building with fire-resistant roofs and thinning flammable vegetation around homes while avoiding Trojan-horse promises that claim intensive logging and more fire suppression will reduce or stop wildfires. Containing housing sprawl, enforcing clean air standards, providing smoke shelters and indoor air filtration systems are climate-smart responses.

The Green New Deal and Clean Energy Jobs Bill are the best ways to celebrate Earth Day with practical solutions to the scientists warnings.Goose Creek, SC (29445)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 63F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.Paducah, KY (42003)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. Low 33F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. Low 33F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA) - The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) has denied recent comments from its chairperson, retired judge Justice Selo Nare who said the commission is missing critical Gukurahundi reports, that allegedly implicate top ZANU PF officialsIn March it was reported that New Zealand's Prime Minister raised alarm bells about social media sites after the massacre of 50 Muslims in a mosque. Today over 200 Christians were massacred in churches in Sri Lanka which would appear to be some form of sick pay back.

Today Reuters reported that "The Sri Lankan government declared a curfew with immediate effect, junior defense minister Ruwan Wijewardene said on Sunday, following eight explosions that killed nearly 140 people, and mostly targeted churches and hotels."

Some estimates have the total of dead reaching close to 300 with an additional 500 injured which extended to hotels in the city that were hit as well.

Reuters further noted that "A curfew will be imposed until things settle down," he told reporters in Colombo. Government officials also said major social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, have been blocked inside the country to prevent misinformation and rumors.



New Delhi: Fit enough to hold political meetings with leaders like Congress President Rahul Gandhi but sick enough so as not to leave one of the best medical facilities in the nation, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, his family members, and supporters cried foul when the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, on Monday, ordered the discharge of the former Chief Minister of Bihar saying he was well enough to be shifted to Ranchi where he is serving time after being convicted in multiple cases related to the fodder scam.

Yadav, after remaining behind bars for a few days at Ranchi's Birsa Munda Jail, had complained of health issues forcing the Jharkhand government to shift him to a local hospital on March 17. However, after Yadav's family complained of not adequate medical care available at the Ranchi hospital, they managed to get the RJD chief move to Delhi's AIIMS where he was brought in on March 29.

On Monday, a group of AIIMS doctors treating Yadav, concluded that the RJD chief's condition had improved and was fit to be sent back to Ranchi.

The decision to discharge Yadav came just hours after Congress President Rahul Gandhi paid a formal visit to Yadav in the hospital.

Though the meeting was said to be 'merely a courtesy visit' by Gandhi, reports said it was more than just that as Yadav's hospital room in Delhi was being used as an unofficial RJD office for obvious political reasons.

Detractors of Yadav have maintained that the RJD chief was using his sickness as an excuse to avoid spending time in his jail cell while also using the hospital room in New Delhi as his office to conduct political business.

The AIIMS move has resulted in a controversy with Yadav, his family members, and supporters calling it an act of political vendetta by the Narendra Modi administration.

"This is a conspiracy and an attempt on my life as I am not fit to be admitted in the Ranchi hospital that lacks many basic medical amenities," Yadav told his supporters.

{gallery}newsimages2018/apr/043018{/gallery}In a letter fired to the AIIMS administration, Yadav, on the official RJD letterhead, wrote that the decision to discharge him was taken in haste as he was not fit enough to return to Ranchi. "I am suffering from heart and kidney ailments aside from being a diabetic. The hospital in Ranchi is not well-equipped to deal with these conditions and if something happened to me, AIIMS would be held responsible for it," part of the one-page-long letter reads.

Yadav's son and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejaswi Yadav also expressed his protest over his father's 'premature' discharge from the Delhi hospital saying it reeked of political vendetta and the decision was taken in haste due to pressure from 'above'.

The news of AIIMS issuing order to discharge Yadav also did not go down well with his supporters who gathered outside the hospital in Delhi and clashed with the security guards and hospital employees while also breaking glass doors and windows.

The hospital has filed a complaint with the Delhi police alleging RJD workers engaged in vandalism and threatened hospital staff of dire consequences.Patna: The state capital is going through some rough patch lately with more and more cases of fire being reported from various parts of the city as officials continue to blame either an electrical short-circuit or cooking accident as the two main causes of the fire.

Merely 12 days after a fire in the Churi Market in Kadam Kuan that gutted at least three shops and two days after another fire leveled dozens of huts near Auto Stand in Kankarbagh, a jewelry shop in Kadam Kuan was party destroyed when a fire broke out inside the store on late Tuesday evening.

Authorities blamed short-circuit in the air-conditioning unit inside Suhag Jewelers for the cause of fire.

Two fire trucks fought the blaze for about 30 minutes before being able to bring the situation under control.

No one was said to be hurt in the incident though the owners claimed massive loss in property both due to fire and the water.Patna: Angry family members and neighbors in Mandiri area in Patna under Buddha Colony police station on Saturday blocked the road and vandalized parked cars after the body of a 17-year old Class XII girl was found on the ground outside a multi-storied apartment complex.

The girl, whose identification was not revealed, was found around 4:30 am Saturday in a pool of blood with serious signs of injuries caused by either severe beating or by falling from the balcony or roof of the building. She was, however, still breathing and was rushed to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) where she died shortly.

City Superintendent of Police (SP) P K Das said the cause of the death would be determined only after the autopsy is completed.

As reported, there are some video footages from the area and based on it, it appeared the girl came to this apartment on a scooter with a young man. They went upstairs where one of her friends live in Apt. 104 in the B Block.

Police are interrogating the friend and other people in the area.

Meanwhile, hundreds of angry people took to the streets with the dead body and blocked the road near Income Tax Roundabout for hours while burning tires to prevent vehicles from passing. Demanding the arrest of the friend and her brother for killing the girl, the protestors also damaged several cars and two-wheelers parked in the area.Supaul: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday addressed a large crowd in Supaul where he tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular and the entire NDA in general over various issues essentially calling the Prime Minister a liar who failed to fulfill any of his promises that he made during the last election cycle five years ago.



https://www.patnadaily.com/index.php/news/14265-rahul-gandhi-says-pm-modi-will-soon-be-in-jail.html#sigProId4c090932ed View the embedded image gallery online at:

Speaking at a election rally at the local Gandhi Maidan, Gandhi wasted no time in assaulting the Prime Minister saying Modi was no 'chowkidar' of the poor people or the general public, he was the guard of only the rich people like Anil Ambani.

"Did he come to Bihar in 2014 to seek your support for his ambition for the Prime Minister's post or to become the 'chowkidar'? Now that as a Prime Minister he has utterly failed, he has very carefully redefined his role as a 'chowkidar' but I ask you not to be fooled by his rhetoric. He is not for the ordinary people, he is the 'chowkidar' of rich folks like Anil Ambani," the Congress leader said.

Gandhi also brought up flood relief issue in Bihar saying when Kusaha tragedy struck due to flooding in Kosi river, the then Manmohan Singh government gave a relief package of Rs. 125 crore to Bihar.

"Bihar is still plagued with flood each year then why the Modi government has chosen to ignore it since it came into power? Why is it that the so-called 'chowkidar' does not come to Bihar anymore to do any 'chowkidari'? he asked adding the so-called 'chowkidar' was now stood exposed and was worried about going to jail.

"Once the investigation begins in the Rafale deal, both Modi and Anil Ambani will be going to jail," he said.

The Congress leader then revisited all the promises his party has made over many years like removing poverty from India, a slogan first began by his grandmother and former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi and passed down to all other Congress leaders through the ages.

"We have begun 'Nyay Yojana' under which Rs. 72,000 will be deposited in the bank accounts of over five crore people each year. All those who make less than Rs. 12,000 will be the beneficiary of this scheme. Moreover, we will provide 35% reservation in the Parliament and in government jobs to women and jobs to 22 lakh youths within a year of coming into power. Unlike the Prime Minister, we actually believe in keeping our promises as we proved in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan where we waived farmers' loans within four day of coming into power," Gandhi said.

Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha, and Congress candidate from Supaul Ranjit Ranjan were among those who shared dais with Rahul Gandhi. However, one man who was conspicuous by his absence was Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejaswi Yadav leading to some speculations of rift within the Grand Alliance in Bihar.

The third phase of the seven-phased polls in Bihar is on April 23.Araria: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke at a public rally in Araria slamming the opposition for questioning his patriotism saying those who were demanding for proof for the air strike on Pakistani terror camps were mighty silent now after realizing they were not doing too well in the polls after the end of the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections.



https://www.patnadaily.com/index.php/news/14266-pm-modi-sticks-to-patriotism-formula-in-his-speech-in-araria.html#sigProId0dcd716489 View the embedded image gallery online at:

Continuing to play on the emotion of the crowd, Modi said that when the army sought permission to attack Pakistan in the aftermath of 26/11/08 terrorist attack on a Mumbai hotel that led to the death of over 170 people, the then Congress government refused to grant them the permission.

"Unlike us who believe in 'desh bhakti', these people believe in 'vote bhakti', he said.

The Prime Minister further ripped the Congress accusing the party to be the supporter of 'tukde-tukde gang' (those who want to divide Indian into small pieces).

"They hear someone saying 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and they develop severe pangs in their stomach. They side by those who chant the slogan of breaking India into pieces so how can one expect them to work for the entire nation? Before any caste or religious sect, we are Indians first and serving India is our only goal," Modi said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and many other NDA leaders were present on the occasion when Padam Parag Renu, the son of noted writer Phanishwar Nath Renu, presented a copy of the author's famous novel 'Maila Anchal'.

Briefly talking about developmental projects in the eastern parts of the nation, Modi praised Nitish Kumar for ushering progress in the state and promised to continue to support him in his second term.

"When it comes to development in Bihar, I promise you I will pay you back with full interest," he said.

The Prime Minister also warned the voters not to pay attention to the rumors on reservation spread by the opposition parties.

"They are telling people that the NDA, if sent into power again, will end reservation for good. Spreading rumors is all they have and I ask you not to pay any attention to such lies," Modi said.A nine-part series chronicling the turbulent history of one of the most extraordinary landscapes on earth. Beginning when the land belonged only to Native Americans and ending in the 20th century, the film introduces unforgettable characters whose competing dreams transformed the land. It was a tragic, inspiring intersection where the best of us met the worst of us  and nothing was left unchanged.Happy Easter!

The spring holiday is today, April 21, 2019. But what exactly is Easter? How are eggs involved? And whats the deal with the Easter Bunny?

All those questions, and more, are answered in this very, very basic primer.

What is the meaning of Easter?

Easter is a religious holiday in which Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, whose death was commemorated on Good Friday. When Jesus rose from the dead, according to the Bible, he conquered death and thus paved the way to salvation for Christians everywhere. You can read the story for yourself in the Gospels (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20-21).

Easter marks the end of Lent.

If you're Christian, Easter is what your faith is based on. The crux of Christianity is what Christians call "The Mystery of Faith" which is "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again."

How should we celebrate it?

Christians head to church on Easter Sunday to celebrate. Many churches have services at sunrise, because it was at dawn that Jesuss tomb was discovered to be empty (Matthew 28:1). Sunrise services are traditionally held outside.

Easter services are a jubilant time and most services employ special victory songs, including the classic "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today."

Easter is a feast day, so should also, traditionally, be accompanied by a large meal - ideally one featuring foods you could not partake in while fasting.

The holiday has gradually become secularized, so for many it's the equivalent of a celebration of spring and good weather. Also, who would pass up a chance to eat candy?

What are some Easter traditions?

Well, there are a lot. People decorate eggs. They make Easter baskets filled with sweets and eggs. They conduct egg hunts and egg rolls. Some people even make cascarones, or confetti eggs.

Why Easter eggs?

Eggs are a symbol of fertility, renewal and new life, so it's fitting that they are used to celebrate Jesus's conquering of death and the subsequent new life Christians have through him.

Theres also some religious symbolism there. Some Christians view the egg as a Christian symbol, because just as a bird hatches from the egg leaving behind a shell so Jesus left the empty tomb.

According to the History Channel, decorating eggs for Easter has been going on since the 13th century, when early Christians stained eggs red in honor of Christ's blood. It all really picked up steam in the 19th century when Czar Alexander III commissioned Peter Carl Faberge to make jewel encrusted eggs as a gift for his wife.

However, it should be noted that eggs as gifts isnt a Christian thing. Engraved ostrich eggs have been discovered in Africa that are more than 60,000 years old - which predates Christianity by quite a lot.

What about the Easter Bunny?

Like eggs, rabbits are an ancient symbol of fertility and new life. The association with rabbits and Easter happened in Protestant Europe. Many of the Germans who eventually settled in Pennsylvania had a tradition of the "Osterhase," an egg-laying hare, Cadbury style.

However, it should be noted that the Easter Bunny isnt the only Easter ambassador. Around the world Easter animals include the cuckoo, fox, chick, rooster and stork.

Why candy?

Why not? This abundance of sweets could be linked to the end of the fasting season of Lent. Seeing as many people give up desserts during this time, it only makes sense for them to geek out about chocolate and sugar when Easter hits. Jellybeans became popular in the 1930s, because merchants said they looked like eggs - which is what we call clever advertising.

A version of this story was published in March.The York County Coroners Office has been dispatched to the scene of a Saturday evening crash in Paradise Township, according to a local 911 dispatcher.

Emergency responders were called about 5:13 p.m. to the crash on the 7300 block of Lincoln Highway, the dispatcher said.

A portion of Lincoln Highway between Ridge Road and Schoolhouse Road remained closed shortly after 8 p.m., the dispatcher said, confirming that the coroners office was on the scene.

CLEARED: Crash on US 30 both directions between Ridge Rd and Schoolhouse Rd.  511PA Harrisburg (@511PAHarrisburg) April 21, 2019

The road reopened to traffic shortly after 9 p.m., according to 511PA.The message to four incumbents running for re-election in the Harrisburg school board primary is clear: seven challengers are coming for your seats.

The townhall style debate held at Choice Community Christian Church Saturday drew a smaller crowd than Thursdays debate held in Midtown at HMAC, but that didnt change the tone of the gathering. About two dozen Harrisburg residents wrote their questions down for the challengers to answer.

And, the questions keep coming.

All seven candidates answered five questions Thursday, and six questions were asked Saturday, during an estimated 90-minute period. POWER, an interfaith organization committed to building communities of opportunity that work for all, hosted both HMAC and Choice Community Christian Church debates.

Yvette Davis, deputy director, shared the same nine-minute presentation with attendees that was shown Thursday at HMAC. It was a summary of how Pennsylvanias newly implemented fair funding formula has a flawed narrative.

If 100 percent of the state funding were implemented, instead of the current 11 percent, it would create equitable funding, not equal funding, Davis emphasized. Harrisburg School District could see an additional $39 million if lawmakers pass House Bill 961, she explained.

She said her organization is backing the bill, which would revamp the formula and release those funds. All seven candidates said they would support the bill.

One of the questions posed to the seven Saturday night: what would you do with that money? Each of them explained theyd vote for that money to go directly to those who most need it, meaning teachers and students would see it in some form. Candidates cited, for example, better facilities, classroom supplies, innovative technology, and teacher retention.

POWER will supply answers to questions candidates were unable to answer due to time constraints, debate moderator Brandon Flood said. It will either be on POWERs website, or its social media pages, the newly appointed state secretary of the Board of Pardons said.

Each of the seven candidates have consistently said they are running because the children of Harrisburg deserve a world-class, challenging, and reliable education, but there is no proof that that type of education is happening now.

The primary ballot will allow registered voters to select five candidates. Flood reminded everyone in the audience that Monday, April 22 is the last day to register to vote in the May 21 primary.

School board challengers Jayne Buchwach, Gerald Welch, Doug Thompson-Leader, Jim Thompson, Cory X. Williams, Steve Williams and Lewis Butts, Jr., have attended three community events, including the two debates. Neither Ralph Rodriguez, also a challenger, nor incumbents Lionel Gonzalez, Lola Lawson, Patricia Whitehead-Myers and Ellis Roy have attended any of the three recent community events.

All 12 candidates were invited to the debates.

The questions presented to prospective board members, included:

What contributions are you currently making to this community that you want to incorporate as a school board director should you be elected?

What will you do if elected to change the lack of community engagement and parent involvement?

What will you do to ensure cultural diversity, and racial competency?

What are your plans to institute some type of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum into district schools?

And, what is your assessment of current Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney:

Gerald Welch: If Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney were evaluated like most professionals, she would be fired, he said. He emphasized that he would have a working relationship with her, but based on current educational and financial metrics, shes gotta go, he said.

Jayne Buchwach: She said shes worried about the districts continual failure," and that Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney has a coldness. She said its about time that Knight-Burney give the public what it really wants to know in her school board reports, which is where the district stands academically, and financially.

Cory X Williams: I think shes a very nice woman, Williams said. However, he added, her contract would definitely have to be reviewed. I want to come on the board and break up all the cronyism. If elected, he would want to cut all administrative pay until the district finds out whats going on with money and why its not being spent on the children. He said he thinks district residents, and leaders, have been too nice."

Lewis Butts, Jr.: We all know that shes caused problems, Butts said. He said if he were elected, hed work with her. While he said he thinks shes a failure right now, with his help, he said, he could possibly help the school district to succeed.

Steven Williams: The only occupation, Williams joked, he thought that could repeatedly be wrong and make mistakes was the weatherman, and still be employed. The district thinks the board works for them, when in fact the district works for us, he said. If elected, he said, hed avoid infighting and work collaboratively to accomplish meaningful tasks.

Jim Thompson: Until the district establishes an evaluation form that the district adheres to in a timely fashion, she shouldnt be treated as a serious superintendent. Knight-Burneys list of accomplishments isnt sterling, noting problems shes had with teachers and the union, he said.

Doug Thompson-Leader: The district isnt evaluating Superintendent Knight-Burney accurately, Thompson-Leader said. He said there are five school board members who are allowing the district to get away with not evaluating the superintendent based on state school code standards. He said if elected he would look at policies, and follow the right process to make sure the districts top leader is performing her duties.At least two tornadoes, both with wind speeds stronger than 100 mph, touched down Friday evening in central Pennsylvania, where they damaged roofs and uprooted trees.

No one was injured by the tornadoes, which touched down after 7 p.m. in Huntingdon and Juniata counties, according to National Weather Service officials in State College.

The Friday tornadoes were among at least 11 confirmed this month across the state.

On Saturday, National Weather Service meteorologist Greg DeVoir said tornadoes are not unusual for the area, but its a little early in the year to see so many.

Typically, the area sees its most severe weather in May and June, DeVoir said.

Both Friday tornadoes were rated EF-1, meaning they had wind speeds between 86 and 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

The Juniata County tornado touched down sometime between 7:39 and 7:41 p.m. and traveled a path of about 1 mile near the intersection of Black Log Road and Old Barn Lane in the Krause area, according to a public information release from weather experts.

The storm likely had a maximum wind speed of 105 mph, weather experts said, revealing that the storm snapped and uprooted trees and damaged the roofs of a home and a barn.

This home is along Apple Way Rd. in St. Thomas Twp, Franklin Co. I just spoke to a woman who says shes counting her blessings after seeing damage from what may have been a tornado that came through last night. The building she uses for storage next to her home is torn apart. pic.twitter.com/nHAR2pvYRi  Jossie Carbonare (@JossieCarbonare) April 20, 2019

In Huntingdon County, the tornado snapped and uprooted trees, tore the roof off of a church and damaged barns and homes, according to a second public information release.

The most significant damage ... occurred just north of the intersection of Shade Valley Road and Zion Road, where a barn was destroyed and numerous pine trees were snapped or uprooted, according to the National Weather Service.

The Huntingdon County tornado likely had winds as strong as 110 mph, and it traveled a path about 5 miles long, weather experts said.

Earlier Saturday, National Weather Service officials confirmed they also planned to investigate possible tornadoes in Franklin and Fulton counties.

However, DeVoir said Saturday afternoon that investigators would not have time to visit the Franklin County site. DeVoir said theyd likely visit the area soon, possibly within the next two days. The Fulton County area was not discussed at that time.

FRANKLIN COUNTY: St. Thomas Twp., the 8000 block of SR30 (Lincoln Way West), will be closed until approx 2200 hrs due to damage from last nights storm. Please be patient and plan your travels accordingly.  Troop H PIO/CSO (@PSPTroopHPIO) April 20, 2019

On Saturday, reporters posted photos of the storm damage in Franklin County online, showing wrecked buildings and uprooted trees.

And state police in the area warned that the 8000 block of Route 30 in St. Thomas Township likely would be closed until about 10 p.m. due to damage from Friday nights storms.William Weld, the Republican Governor of Massachusetts from 1991-1997 is running for President. It appears that several other moderate Republicans who had considered a run will not be entering the race. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who finished 2nd in the GOP sweepstakes in 2016, are among those who are sitting it out.

At the same time Weld was making his announcement, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee announced that they had raised a total of $76 million in just four months in 2019.

With that monetary advantage and with the enormous foghorn that President Trump uses to his own advantage daily, folks like Hogan and Kasich and, indeed, any rational political observer would say to Weld: you must be kidding.

But hear the Governor out.

It is time to return to the principles of Lincoln  equality, dignity and opportunity for all, said the 73-year-old Weld. He boldly called out what so many of us have observed over the past two years: President Trumps priorities are skewed toward promotion of himself rather than for the good of the country.

Weld is simply verbalizing what many of his Republican colleagues say at cocktail parties and in cloakrooms outside of the earshot of our vindictive President. The question is: Is anyone listening?

Senators like Jeff Flake, John McCain, and Bob Corker have felt the sting of President Trump when they had the temerity to oppose his reckless policy making or even one of his tweets. There are many politicians who have simply decided to accept the company line rather than risk being primaried by the MAGA forces.

Is it courageous or foolhardy for Weld to give voice to the rational Republican wing that would dearly love to return to the dignity of Lincolns Party?

First, some history.

Presidents have faced intra-party challenges several times in recent times.

In 1992, Patrick Buchanan ran against George H.W. Bush from the right. While he didnt win any primary states, he performed well enough to hurt the Presidents chances in the fall. Bush lost his reelection battle to Clinton that year.

When Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter in 1980, he ran against the economic malaise that the President just couldnt seem to shake. Kennedy won 12 states and damaged President Carter to the point where Governor Ronald Reagan of California had a clear path to the Presidency.

In 1976, Reagan led his own insurrection by challenging President Gerald Ford at the GOP convention. In the horse trading that went on, Ford replaced Vice President Nelson Rockefeller with Kansas Senator Bob Dole. While that secured the nomination, it left political scars and opened the door for Jimmy Carters ascendancy to the White House.

In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the first Democrat to challenge President Lyndon Johnson. Robert Kennedy would also enter the fray and before the tumultuous election was over, Johnson had stepped aside and his stand-in, Hubert Humphrey from Minnesota suffered a stinging defeat by Richard M. Nixon.

While sitting Presidents dont often face serious opposition in the primary, when those challenges arise, they do serious damage to the party in power.

In what must still be considered a long-shot quest, Weld has one other card to play. He hails from the Northeast. This means that the critical state of New Hampshire may just be a proving ground for him and a headache for Trump, who expects to dominate the early primaries.

This is why William Weld is worth watching.

Meanwhile, Democrats have embarked on a free-for-all that can have two outcomes: a strong fusion of a powerful ticket for the fall or a takeover by a zealot who could very well be crushed by the Trump machinery.

Among the candidates who have started strongly out of the gate are Kamala Harris, Beto ORourke and, yes, a surprise candidate from South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. They have raised sufficient funds to propel them well into the campaign season. They have all made an early favorable impression in those early primary states. And waiting in the wings is the senior statesman and early front runner, Joe Biden.

But, as this field grows, Bernie Sanders rambles on. He leads all other Democrats in fundraising and notes that his donor list is approaching one million supporters.

Democrats would be well advised to think hard about this juggernaut. A self-proclaimed socialist may do well in the tribal fist fight of the primary season. But in a country that has seen far too much polarization and is looking for a constructive, compassionate alternative to the current conundrum in chief, a far-left Sanders candidacy might be just want the Trump team ordered.

Mark S. Singel served as the 27th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, alongside Gov. Bob Casey. He was acting governor from June 14 to Dec. 13, 1993, when Casey became ill. This column serves as the liberal counterpart to Charlie Gerow as part of the Donkey & Elephants series of contrasting opinions.Michael Hamilton, , a Wharton student in the schools Common Cents club, speaks about credit card rewards during a program on How to Get the Most Out of Your Credit Card hosted by Wharton, at UPenn in Philadelphia. Read more

There are smart ways to rack up free flights and hotel stays, like finding credit cards that pay for themselves and using a website that lets you pay rent on credit.

But for the truly motivated -- the so-called travel hackers -- theres another level: manufactured spending, or loopholes to generate an inordinate amount of rewards points.

Take the Chase Ink Business Card, which earns five times extra points when you buy office supplies. Rachel Cohen, a Wharton MBA, uses the credit card to buy other companies gift cards at Staples, purchases that count toward the points-multiplier, even though the Amazon and Uber gift cards she grabs are hardly office supplies.

You can also buy Visa gift cards, and if youre really an advanced travel hacker, you can turn those Visa gift cards into money orders and put them back into your bank account, Cohen said Thursday.

Cohens gift card trick was among tips Wharton MBAs provided Thursday during a crash course on maximizing credit card rewards. Wharton Common Cents, a student club that promotes personal finance literacy among MBAs and the Philadelphia community, hosted the event with the schools Travel & Hospitality Club. The event was geared toward Wharton MBAs preparing to crisscross the globe during their careers.

Probably a third of our class are going to be traveling management consultants when they graduate, said Namir Shah, a Wharton MBA and one of the presenters. People will soon realize they have as many assets in points as they do in cash, so similar to how youd manage your own bank accounts, its helpful to manage your travel accounts.

Even if youre not a traveling consultant, the speakers credit card advice could still be useful. Here are some of their travel hacking tips to get the most out of your credit card rewards.

Choosing a card

Is the top tier credit card with the $550 annual fee worth it? It depends, the speakers said.

You need to dig into the details and see what the benefits are, as well as the restrictions that are placed on those perks, said Sam Sargent, a Wharton MBA and member of the schools Travel & Hospitality Club. You must assess your likelihood of using those benefits, too.

For example, the American Express Platinum card imposes a $550 annual fee and includes an airline fee credit of up to $200 per year, which covers multiple checked bags and in-flight refreshment costs. But you can only use that benefit at one airline per year, Sargent said.

If youre a person who never checks a bag, never changes a flight, never has a couple cocktails on the aircraft, it might not be as valuable of a benefit for you, Sargent said.

Hotel-branded cards typically come with an annual fee between $75 and $100 per year, said Michael Hamilton, a Wharton student in the schools Common Cents club. Most, like the Hyatt Credit Card, come with a free night per year, so the cards essentially pay for themselves, he noted.

Cards with no annual fees are easy credit lines to keep but come with modest benefits, Hamilton said. Among those, the best are variations of the Chase Freedom card, including one that gives one percent cash back on all purchases, he said.

These can be very valuable for people who want ultra-simplicity, who want the rewards back right away, and dont necessarily want to put in the effort and time into doing some of the other optimization stuff, Hamilton said.

Optimize spending

Those who do want to optimize their spending need to stay up to date on rewards policies, Cohen said. For example, some cards have revolving categories of purchases -- say groceries -- that will generate extra points or cash back during a given month or quarter.

One tool that can help quickly rack up points is Plastiq, a website that lets you use a credit card to pay for expenses like rent, bills, or college tuition that typically dont accept credit. Plastiq charges the consumer a 2.5 percent processing fee to cut a check to the intended recipient. While it comes with a cost, it allows you to greatly inflate your points if you need them.

If youre trying to hit a sign-up bonus that you wouldnt be able to hit because you dont normally spend $50,000 in January, this is an option, Cohen said.

Some business cards earn more rewards than personal cards, Cohen said, and many people have businesses without realizing it.

You have various forms of side income, you have a sole proprietorship, and you are more than welcome to use your own name and Social Security number on these applications, she said.

She suggested finding Facebook groups about travel hacking to learn the latest strategies. Start slow, though, and never carry a balance or pay interest. That will erase all the benefits, Cohen said.

Redeeming points

There are three main ways to redeem points, the speakers said.

The first -- cash back -- is not the best strategy, Cohen said. Chase Ultimate Rewards points, for example, are worth $0.01 per point, or 100,000 points for $1,000 in cash. But the points are worth more if you use them to book trips through Chase or American Express online travel portals, Cohen said. Those Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth $0.015 per point when redeemed this way.

The third option to redeem and get great value is to transfer points to travel partners, said Shah. Points have a fixed value when redeemed through the credit cards travel portals, but airline partners offer different mile costs. So a flight from Philadelphia to Toronto may cost fewer points through British Airways than American Airlines.

The programs also have different costs in terms of actual cash, too. An American Airlines flight may charge $10 in taxes and fees, whereas British Airways may cost $300, Shah said.

You might be paying less points, but youll be paying a lot more in fees, he said.

And dont forget to look at cash alternatives. If there is a cheap flight or room available from a smaller airline or hotel, you might be better off saving your miles for another trip and paying cash.

Look at the boutique hotels, look at Airbnb and see whether it still makes sense to stay at those larger hotels or fly with the main airline, Shah said.Bridgette Collins poses outside the former Sanford Brown Institute in Trevose. The institute offered an ultrasound program and Collins and other women borrowed heavily to take it. But it wasn't accredited. The Trevose school closed in 2014. Read more

As graduation approached and they started looking for jobs in 2010, Jacqueline Franklin, Jami Reichardt, Bridgette Collins, and about 14 other women at the Sanford Brown Institute in Trevose came to a harsh realization: Their for-profit school wasnt accredited for its ultrasound program even though they had each borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from the federal government to go there.

Administrators at the now-closed Bucks County school told the students not to worry. There was a work-around.

The graduates could work as uncredentialed techs for a year and then take their board tests. But the women -- and they were all women in the day and night classes -- asked how could they get ultrasound jobs in the first place without passing their boards to prove they had skills?

Reichardt, who borrowed $35,000, couldnt find a position back then. She took man jobs, because lets be honest, they pay better for physical labor than, you know, working retail," she said. "I did security for private events, clubs, celebrity details. You name it, I did it.

She even subcontracted for Peco, switching out electric and gas meters. I did both of them together, Reichardt said. Id be trying to not get electrocuted during the day and not getting punched in the face at night.

Another student, Jacqueline Franklin, 38, of Burlington City, still owes $57,000 for her Sanford Brown ultrasound education.

It wasnt until late in her education, she recalled, that she learned an awful truth about the school. The broader Trevose campus was accredited so students could get federal loans. But the Trevose ultrasound program was not. Franklin said she didnt learn this until I went out to get a job.

"They said I would make $55 an hour. Almost a decade later, Franklin said she is earning $35 an hour with a mobile ultrasound service driving to prisons and nursing homes. She earned $25 an hour for years after graduation, she said.

Terribly over-debted

The two Philadelphia-area women are among hundreds of thousands of Americans who attended for-profit schools that closed or agreed to settle government investigations for high-pressure sales tactics, unaccredited programs, poor instruction, and forcing students to take courses they didnt need to run up tuition loans.

The problem in Washington gets bigger every month as many of these students tread water on their loans or default. Studies indicate poor earning-potential outcomes for students of for-profit schools. For years, they struggle with debt, delay life plans, and even take medication for anxiety.

Students in for-profit schools owe the Department of Education about $245 billion in loans -- part of the nations $1.5 trillion student debt crisis. Many believe they were scammed. Academic experts say the problem has been particularly bad in health-care fields and for women who sought skills or certificates to be medical assistants, massage therapists, dental assistants, pharmacy technicians, medical insurance coders, and ultrasound techs.

The Obama administration sought to make it easier for the government to forgive loans for students in for-profit schools who believed they were deceived. But the Trump administration has rolled back those programs, experts say.

When asked last month at a Senate hearing how many students of for-profit schools had been granted loan forgiveness, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos could not say. Neither could her staff.

On Friday, Education press secretary Liz Hill said the department had discharged $158 million in loans for 15,000 borrowers from December through February. There are still 150,000 students seeking loan relief. Many borrowers pay on multiple loans for their education.

Over the last several months, Hill said in a statement, the borrowers have filed about 2,000 new applications a week for relief. Pending litigation has slowed down the Departments ability to process applications and provide relief to additional borrowers, she said.

Robert Kelchen, an assistant professor at Seton Hall University who has studied student debt, said the government expects students to repay their federal student loans in 10 years. Across the U.S., 28 percent of Sanford Brown Institute students had repaid some of their student loan principal three years after graduating. The percentage rose to only 40 percent after seven years, he said, citing federal data. He did not have specific dates on the Trevose campus.

Government data show that one-third of students who have defaulted on federal student loans attended for-profit schools, while they represented only about one-tenth of enrollment in 2017.

A Nation Drowning in Student Debt After $9 trillion in mortgage loans, college and other postsecondary debt is now the largest source of consumer household borrowing, rising over 500 percent from 2003 through 2018. SOURCE: Federal Reserve Bank of New York JOHN DUCHNESKIE / Staff Artist

Students at for-profit schools are terribly over-debted for what they got out of the programs, said Robin Howarth, senior researcher with the Center for Responsible Lending in Durham, N.C. The debt lives on and a lot of those borrowers are in default.

Howarths research, based on government data disclosed after Sanford Brown Trevose closed, showed that students earnings after for-profit ultrasound programs failed to measure up -- with 22 of 33 of them scoring poorly based on earnings to student debt.

'Rough justice

With the federal government doing very little to help students at for-profit schools, state attorneys general have waded in to help but have little to show for it.

This January, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller settled a years-long probe into Sanford Brown Institutes parent, Career Education Corp.

Miller announced that Career Education agreed to forgive $493 million in loans for 179,000 former students at its schools, including Sanford Brown.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro participated in the Iowa settlement. It means 12,600 Pennsylvania students who attended a school affiliated with CEC will have $38.6 million in student loan debts relieved. Besides Trevose, Sanford Brown ran two schools in Western Pennsylvania, both now closed.

But the settlement covered only private loans. For-profit schools generally operate under the 90/10 rule: 90 percent federal loans and 10 percent private loans. That means that only 10 percent would be forgiven if students had private loans for Sanford Brown in the first place. Most borrowers wont be helped.

This was rough justice and it was what we could get, explained Jessica Whitney, special assistant attorney general in Iowa.

Loophole

The Sanford Brown Institute Trevose campus in 2010 had the seal of approval from a major accrediting agency -- which allowed the Trevose campus to tap federal loans for its students.

But the Trevose campus ultrasound program had no such standing.

Ultrasound there was accredited only between September 2012 and December 2013, records show -- not during the years that Reichardt, Collins, and Franklin attended.

The entire campus closed in March 2014, records show.

The normal route after graduating from an accredited ultrasound program was to take board tests immediately. But graduates from an unaccredited school had to work for a year as a paid ultrasound tech to become eligible for the tests.

Thomas Jefferson University runs one of the most established ultrasound programs in the Philadelphia region. When Collins and Reichardt were looking for schools, Jefferson had a long wait. So the women enrolled in Sanford Brown Trevose, near the Neshaminy Mall.

We were basically set up for failure, said Reichardt, who lives in Bensalem and graduated from Bensalem High School. You already didnt have a shot, especially against the Jefferson girls. Theyre coming out. Theyre accredited. You know they have the better reputation than Sanford Brown, she said. To get a job you had to literally claw your way. A lot of girls didnt have the fight in them. It took five years for me to fight.

Three years ago, Reichardts sister helped her find a job with a mobile ultrasound company. She did not need board certification for it. She contacted a former Sanford Brown instructor to refresh her skills. She now works at a doctors office in Vineland, N.J., and has passed one of her boards and is planning to take others. She owes $36,000 on her original $35,000 loan.

Classmate Dina Rotella, 32, still owes $40,000. It was difficult to get through and then when you got out [of Sanford Brown], you got nothing, she said. Rotella, who lives in Washington Township, couldnt find an ultrasound job. So she returned to school to learn health-care coding for payments and now does that for a South Jersey emergency room.

Oh, hon

Collins, 35, of Huntingdon Valley, says she cant even talk about Sanford Brown "because I get sick to my stomach.

Her story began in 2008 when she was a waitress at the 99 Restaurant in Trevose, and read an item in the Philadelphia Daily News classifieds, asking Boy or Girl? Underneath was an ad for the Sanford Brown Institute Trevose ultrasound program with guaranteed job placement and the opportunity of a lifetime.

She said the Sanford Brown recruiter told her that the path to the ultrasound program was through a "medical assistants course. So Collins borrowed more than $13,000 for these classes, and later learned she didnt need the training. So she added the cost of the ultrasound program, taking her total education bill to $40,000.

As graduation loomed in 2010, Collins learned like the other students that Sanford Brown Trevose was not accredited so she would have to work a year before taking her boards. There was no help at all with resumes. My sister Lynn ended up helping me.

After graduation, Collins waitressed again while taking a second job with the SugarHouse Casino and cleaning houses to pay her bills. She finally got a job with a mobile ultrasound company in Maryland and relocated there for a year. She returned to take her boards and passed them, and now works at Roxborough Memorial Hospital.

Her debt remains.

Her father told her about the Iowa settlement and Collins called the Attorney Generals Office in Harrisburg. A woman with the office called her back.

She was like, Oh, hon, its unfortunately only for students that have private loans and not if you have a federal loan. The only people that can forgive a federal loan is the U.S. Department of Education and heres what you need to do. You need to go to their website. 

In January, Collins filed with the U.S. Education Department for borrower defense loan forgiveness. In mid-February, the Education Department emailed her, saying that it was reviewing her application. Why arent they doing anything? she asked.

Collins checked her balance the other day. She still owes $33,953.Police were searching Sunday for a man responsible for a six-vehicle, chain-reaction accident in Northeast Philadelphia late Saturday night that killed two people and injured five others.

The man behind the wheel of a 2019 Chevy Camaro was speeding down Bustleton Avenue about 11:48 p.m. Saturday when his vehicle struck a Lexus stopped at a red light at Red Lion Road, police said. The Camaro then drove into the intersection and hit a Mitsubishi Endeavor, causing it to flip over and collide with a Toyota Sienna. The Sienna then struck another car, which struck a sixth car.

Police say the driver of the Camaro, described as a dark-complected man in his early 20s wearing a black suit and white shirt, got out of his car and fled the scene in a white Lexus. Five other people were taken to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital for treatment.President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 17, 2019. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS) Read more

Early Sunday morning, before his tweets about Easter and the Mueller report, President Donald Trump expressed condolences to families of the victims of the Sri Lanka explosions - and grossly overstated the death toll.

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more," Trump tweeted. "We stand ready to help!"

As of 2018, the population of Sri Lanka was around 22 million.

More than 200 people have died in the coordinated explosions, which struck churches and hotels on Easter Sunday in three cities. About 450 are injured.

Early estimates reported by news outlets put the death toll at 137.

Within an hour, the president deleted the incorrect tweet and sent a new one: 138 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, with more that 600 badly injured, in a terrorist attack on churches and hotels. The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help! he wrote.Two Philadelphia police officers exchanged fire with a man who shot at them on Saturday night in the citys Summerdale section, then shot himself in the head, police said.

The officers, who were not identified, were responding to a domestic call around 6:30 p.m. when a passerby flagged them down near the intersection of East Sanger Street and Miriam Road and directed them to a man who had a gun and was wearing a camouflage jacket, according to a statement from a department spokesperson.

The officers approached the man, who was not identified, on the 5600 block of Miriam. The officers were pursuing him on foot when he drew the gun from his waistband, turned toward the police, and fired several shots, the statement said.

Both officers fired their weapons, police said, then the man fled to the nearby intersection of Bridge Street and Roosevelt Boulevard, where he shot himself in the head.

There were no injuries to police. Details about the mans condition were not immediately released.Scott "Bull" Durham with a set of the custom-engraved utility knives he offers to military veterans and their families. Read more

Scott Bull Durham has personally honored more than 5,300 U.S. military veterans.

The 62-year-old Haddonfield resident provides each honoree, or his or her family, with a handsome gift: a utility knife engraved with the honorees name, rank, dates of service, and other distinctions. His project is known as Honor Your Hero with a Military Multi-Tool.

Ive had the privilege of personally delivering these engraved knives to all of the living Medal of Honor recipients, he says. More than 1,000 Gold Star parents or the siblings of service members killed in combat also have received a multi-tool.

This is my mission. This is why I was born, says Durham, a gregarious Indiana native who wears his patriotism on his sleeve. Right next to his heart.

Ive been thanking veterans for the past 40 years in [places such as] airports, and I wanted to do more. I wanted them to have something to hold, something that will be passed down, he says.

Each multi-tool is accompanied by handwritten letters thanking them for their service. Some of the recipients tell me the letters mean even more to them.

Durham conducts the operation at his dining-room table. He distributes brochures to organizations all over the country, and orders from veterans or their family members come in by phone, email, or regular mail. Some of the requests come from people who know another recipient and want to present their veteran with a multi-tool as a surprise.

Over 90 percent of the cost has been paid for by generous donations from people who believe in my cause, and I pick up the rest, says Durham, a district manager for an insurance carrier whos also a father of three, stepfather of two, and grandfather of two.

He purchases the knives from a distributor in Boston, has the engraving done by Pauls Custom Awards & Trophies in Barrington, gets his brochures printed by Professional Printing + Copying in Haddonfield, and takes the packages to the post office on Saturdays.

Durhams labor of love is person-to-person and word-of-mouth. He doesnt have a website, or a Facebook page, although he does invite the public to Google Bull Durham Knives. He hasnt set up a charitable organization with a board of directors and all that; keeping it simple keeps it more manageable, he says.

He started the project in 2014 after seeing the multi-tool online. He ordered several, and had them engraved in honor of his father, Richard Durham, who served in the Coast Guard from 1951 to 1953 and died in 2003. He gave them to his three siblings and their mother, Janet, all of whom were deeply moved.

When I saw the effect this had, I thought, I could take this national, said Durham.

A few days later, he got in touch with Judi Tapper, then president of the New Jersey Department of American Gold Star Mothers Inc. Her son, Navy SEAL David M. Tapper, was killed in action during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003.

He said, You dont know me, but I have a project Id like to run by you," Tapper recalls. "He told me about engraving and giving the knives, and I thought it sounded wonderful.

She was even more impressed after Durham fulfilled a pledge to provide an engraved multi-tool for all of the mothers attending an upcoming meeting of Tappers group. They were just so amazed, and thrilled," she says.

We Gold Star families have our shrines, in little corners, or shelves, or coffee tables. I have a bookshelf, and I have Bulls knife sitting right by my sons picture.

Herschel Woody Williams, a Marine and the only surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima, received a multi-tool and has presented others to between 25 and 30 fellow veterans.

The name engraved makes it very personal, Williams, a 95-year-old West Virginian, said. Bull is extremely generous. He just likes to do things for people. And you dont find a great number of people like that.

Durham is modest about his effort, which he wishes hed started long ago. He also wishes he had served in the military, instead of accepting a scholarship and going to college after graduating from high school.

Ive gotten 500 beautiful phone calls, and 1,500 notes or emails, from recipients. The rest I dont hear from, and Im not expecting to, he says.

If I can give one vet or Gold Star family a minute of solace, and gratitude, Durham says, its all worth it.Adrianne Gunter walks outside her Philadelphia apartment with a help of a steel cane, due to her Multiple Sclerosis condition. Wednesday, January 3, 2018. Gunter who waited 788 days for a hearing in Philadelphia, all while her Multiple Sclerosis worsened and she continued to be unemployed and dependent on her motherOs in between jobs. The Social Security Administration says it doesnOt have enough judges and support staff to keep up with the pace of applications and appeals. Read more

In an effort to reduce its massive backlog of disability determination appeals, the Social Security Administration plans to reinstate an additional step in the appeals process for Pennsylvania and nine other states.

Social Security officials say the extra step  called reconsideration  would create a more uniform system across the country and help the administration reach its goal of resolving disability appeals within 270 days. Critics have said it could have the opposite effect, possibly lengthening the appeals process.

"While some people might get a decision sooner under reconsideration, for others this step is effectively a rubber stamp of the initial decision," Rep. Sam Johnson (R., Texas), who serves as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Social Security subcommittee, said during a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday. "It simply further delays their hearing with an administrative law judge."

Earlier this year, the Inquirer and Daily News wrote about the backlog of appeals for people seeking to be declared disabled and eligible to begin collecting Social Security benefits. The average waiting time for appellants nationwide to get a decision in their case has hovered around 600 days, but Philadelphia had the longest average wait in the country 26 months.

One West Philadelphia woman with multiple sclerosis, Adrianne Gunter, waited 878 days before getting a favorable ruling.

The process that the agency wants to extend is a second review of a rejected claim for disability payments. The step was once uniform across the country, but in 1999 the administration eliminated it in 10 states, including Pennsylvania, in a pilot program.

Critics say states with reconsideration in place report that seven out of every eight appeals are denied at that stage.

In Pennsylvania, SSI applicants who are denied benefits can apply directly for a hearing with an administrative law judge. Reconsideration would be a step before that hearing.

Jennifer Burdick, a lawyer with Community Legal Services who represented Gunter in her appeal, said a reconsideration process would almost certainly have extended her wait for a final determination.

"Reconsideration is a useless administrative procedure that is designed to hurt Pennsylvanians with disabilities by creating an additional administrative hurdle to getting benefits, which often discourages continued pursuit of appeal and adds additional time to the process," Burdick said.

Social Security officials say the process would let them shift the burden from overworked judges to less-taxed examiners, whose caseload of initial applications has decreased.

"We all agree 600 days is unacceptable," Patricia Jonas, a deputy Social Security commissioner, told House members. "Having a uniform step will play a significant role in getting to 270 days' [appeal] wait time."

The administration plans to reinstate the reconsideration step in the 10 states in January.

Several of the subcommittee members, including Johnson, asked that Social Security hold off on any changes until the Senate confirms a new commissioner. President Trump has nominated Andrew M. Saul, a New York businessman, but he has not had a confirmation hearing.2.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) said that the easiest way to impeach Trump is to vote him out of office next year.

Rep. Gonzalez said on MSNBC:

I believe the American people have spoken. They want to see a complete copy of the Mueller report. Congress overwhelmingly voted, 420-0, asking for a complete copy of the report. That was a bipartisan vote. So members on both sides of the aisle and the American people want to see the full report. Should we go to impeachment proceedings? We have to this of the costly and damaging process that is for our country. Were just a little over a year until the next election. The easiest impeachment for the president at this point may just be voting him out of office which I believe will happen next November. But we should get to the bottom of this.

We need to bring AG Barr over, talk to Mueller, ask some pointed questions, get to the bottom of what they know, what they found, and ultimately what the American people deserve to know and what to know. Members of Congress have a top secret security clearance. They should be able to see this report even if its not made public, the intelligence and judiciary committees should have this report, should be privy to know whats in it and be ready to ask some pointed questions to people who may be responsible for wrongdoing. As far as going, you know, preaching, asking for an impeachment this early on, I think its a little premature. Also, we need to think how far we are from the 2020 election. Were right around the corner. That might be the easiest way to get rid of the president.

Video:

Impeachment is not a fast process

For those who were too young or dont remember the impeachment process for Bill Clinton took months, and House Republicans had the full Starr report in their possession. Democrats are going to have to sue to get the full Mueller report\ before they can even think about beginning the impeachment process. With an election next year, it is possible that Democrats wont have enough time to conduct a full investigation, impeach, and try Donald Trump. The fastest and most sure method for getting rid of Trump would be to vote him out.

Impeachment may not work, but voting for a new president next year definitely will.12.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

A new Reuters poll found that more Americans want Trump to resign than want him to stay in office.

More Americans Want Trump to Resign Than Want Him To Stay In Office

By a margin of 47%-37%, the American people said that Trump should resign. There is more support for Trump resigning than there is for the president being impeached. Only 40% of respondents favored impeachment and 42% opposed.

In less than a month, the number of people who thought that Trump should not resign has dropped from 46%-37%, while the number of Americans calling for his resignation has increased from 46%-47%%.

Trump is losing defenders

The Mueller report may not have immediately persuaded more people to call for Trumps resignation, but it did cause a sizable number of people who thought Trump should stay in office to abandon him.

Trumps base is shrinking to nothing more than the deepest of the true believers.

It is too soon to tell whether the Mueller report itself will be a big issue in the 2020 election, but what Mueller has done is lay out a roadmap for the congressional investigations of Trump obstruction of justice.

The 2020 election could be defined by the urgent desire of a majority of Americans to get the one man Trump crime wave out of office.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook

Read the full Reuters/Ipsos poll below:350 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Back in February 2017 at a Black History Month event, President Donald Trump regaled his audience with his insights about famous African Americans contributions throughout U.S. history. He identified Frederick Douglass as an example of somebodys whos done a great job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.

Shamefully, he hasnt received any recognition with regard to the release of the Mueller report. Ive watched a lot of the media coverage and listened to a lot of talking heads, often the same pundits over and over, and not one network seems to have sought Douglasss expertise.

Waitwhat? Hes dead?

Oh, ok. My bad. I really need to stop listening to Trump, who sure made it sound like the major abolitionist, suffrage campaigner, author, orator, and former slave of mid-19th-century America was alive, kicking, and taking more and more names.

Douglasss passing aside, though, I wonder if he might nonetheless be able to offer some guidance on reading the Mueller report and help Americans decipher where their interests lie when it comes to assessing the importance of Russian interference in our nations 2016 Presidential election.

He did, after all, have some important insights into the power of literacyand into the efficacy of properly reading the power dynamics impacting ones life.

And it seems, from multiple reports, that the response of many Americans to the Mueller report is less concern over Russias influence in determining who the leader and chief decision-maker in the United States will be, than general disgust with our political leaders.

Is that the best way to read and respond to the report? Maybe Douglass can school us a bit on how to read to decipher our political interests.

Most illuminating in this regard, perhaps, is Douglass account in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass of his learning to read, or perhaps more precisely his learning of the importance of reading when his master forbids his wife to teach him precisely because it would forever unfit him to be a slave, to play his role as worker in the class system of slavery. Douglass recounts the moment when his master scolds his wife for teaching him to read and his concomitant new and special revelation, of his political interests, as he comes to understand the denial of literacy as part of the white mans power to enslave the black man. He becomes confident that what the master is saying is true and that the result of the slaves achievement of literacy will in fact be in some measure the undoing of the system of slavery itself.

Douglass represents reading not just as an act of basically assimilating the meaning of words but as an act of discerning, of grasping, ones political and economic interests. Douglass doesnt learn to read the same way his master does but rather reads the masters statements negatively to decipher the reality of his situation and his political and economic interests, such that we see that ways of reading are politicized and differentially conditioned by ones position in the larger social power structure.

Douglass writes,

What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was a great good, to be diligently sought.

What does Douglass realization here have to do with Americans reading the Mueller report?

Well, lets consider a couple of conclusions the report reaches rather definitively after 22 months of rather exhaustive investigation.

First, the report asserts unequivocally, The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.

Second, we learn from the report that the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.

Hmmm. The Russians believed they would benefit from a Trump presidency.

Shouldnt a light bulb illuminate over our heads when we read this conclusion?

Maybe Douglass, though admittedly dead, can flip the switch for us, by lending us his formulation to adapt:

What Putin and Russia most dread, that Americans should most desire. What Putin and Russia most love, American should most hate. That which to Putin and Russia is a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was a great good, to be diligently sought by Americans.

Americans need to deeply consider whether Russia has their interests at heart in working to choose a president for us. Is Putin concerned about whether Americans have quality healthcare and public education, clean drinking water, a sound infrastructure and globally competitive economy?

Is that what Putin cares about? Doubtful.

Nonetheless, Americans just dont seem to be reading the issue of Russian interference in our elections as a big deal, as an event that does and will impact their lives.

Indeed, James Alicie and Richard Birchfield, at a Trump rally in Ohio last August 2018, went so far as to wear t-shirts that read: Id rather be Russian than Democrat.

The Mueller report, if read carefully, would hopefully give Americans pause over such a preference.

Hopefully Americans will begin to recognize the late Frederick Douglass more and more.1.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Rudy Giuliani tried to blame Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the investigation into Trump, and Chuck Todd laughed at him.

Rudy Giulianis Trump defense was so nonsensical that it made Chuck Todd Laugh

Transcript via Meet The Press:

RUDY GIULIANI:

And now the question should be for anybody who wants justice, how did this happen? Who started it? And I think you may find that the Clinton campaign may have interfered in this election even more than the Russians did.

CHUCK TODD:

Its an undefended accusation. I cant get into it now. Very quickly 

RUDY GIULIANI:

Barack Obama knew 

CHUCK TODD:

You had said 

RUDY GIULIANI:

Barack Obama  it says, or at least it raises the specter with two checks between Strzok and his girlfriend  they say the Obama people are keeping in close touch with this. Those are  thats the execution of the Steele affi  of the Steele dossier.

CHUCK TODD:

You mean  it could also be that the Russian government is implicating 

RUDY GIULIANI:

But why do you laugh  but why do you laugh, by the way 

CHUCK TODD:

 how do you not know that it 

RUDY GIULIANI:

But why do you laugh, by the way?

CHUCK TODD:

Because youre making an assumption that its some nefarious thing.

RUDY GIULIANI:

No, Im not making an assumption 

CHUCK TODD:

 but its about the 

RUDY GIULIANI:

I am  I was in the government for 

CHUCK TODD:

Why wouldnt the government be concerned about 

RUDY GIULIANI:

 the 17 

CHUCK TODD:

 Russian interference

RUDY GIULIANI:

And why wouldnt the government 

CHUCK TODD:

 into the presidential campaign?

Video:

Rudy Giuliani has been an Easter disaster for Trump

In order for the Obama/Hillary investigating Trump conspiracy to make sense, one has to believe that Obama and the Democratic Party didnt care about Russian election interference and were only out to get Donald Trump.

The truth that Obama was worried about the Russian attack. It is Republicans who wouldnt work with Obama on a joint statement condemning the attack before the election. Giulianis conspiracy theory is a way of minimalizing and taking attention away from the fact that Russia interfered in the election to help Donald Trump win.

Giuliani has been an Easter Sunday disaster. The presidents lawyer has been laughed on national television, as the evidence mounts of Donald Trumps criminal and impeachable offenses.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook2.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Intent on keeping his title as the worlds worst defense lawyer, Rudy Giuliani defended the Trump campaign taking information provided by Russia.

Rudy Giuliani Defends The Trump Campaign Taking Information from Russia

Giuliani said on CNNs State Of The Union, Theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians. It depends on where it came from. Youre assuming that the giving of information is a campaign contribution. Read the report carefully. The report says we cant conclude that. People get information from this person, that person.

When asked if he would have accepted information from Russia, Giuliani said, Theres no crime. Were going to get into morality? Thats not what prosecutors look at.

Video:

Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, defends using information that was illegally hacked by a foreign power to sway a presidential election. "There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians."

Via CNNpic.twitter.com/T17JzYaCzt  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 21, 2019

A Criminal Standard Does Not Apply To Impeachment

Trump and Giuliani are hanging their hat on the criminal standard, but there is no criminal standard for impeachment. There is also no criminal standard at the ballot box. Giulianis defense of the Trump campaign talking information from Russia was a total disaster. Rudy put the icing on the cake of the belief that Trump is in Putins back pocket.

No other campaign has ever taken information from a hostile foreign power. The Trump campaign should have turned down the info and called law enforcement. The fact that Trump cant be charged with a crime doesnt mean that his behavior, or that of his campaign, is not an impeachable offense, and Rudy Giuliani seems to be trying to get Trump impeached.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook2.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Kellyanne Conway assumed that Trump is going to be in the White House for five and half more years during an interview on Sunday.

Kellyanne Conway Makes It Sound Like Its The White House Or Prison For Trump

Transcript via ABCs This Week:

RADDATZ: Kellyanne, I want to go back to obstruction of justice and what Mueller concluded 

CONWAY: He concluded 

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ:  again, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime it also does not exonerate him 

CONWAY: Thats not really  respectfully 

(CROSSTALK)

CONWAY:  thats not really the job of a prosecutor. The job of a prosecutor is to gather evidence and decide whether to indict or to decline to indict. They declined to indict. The president is not going to jail, hes staying in the White House for five and a half more years. Why? Because they  because they found no crime, no conspiracy. That was the central premise. That is what everybody, including your next guest Adam Schiff said time and again, dozens of times, hundreds of times, in print, on Twitter, on TV. And this  I think theres a couple other things in the Mueller report that are very important.

Video:

Thats some odd phrasing on the part of Conway. She didnt say Trump was cleared, and hell be president for five and half more years. She made Trumps only choices prison or the presidency. Sometimes even the best of truth distorters can let things slip by the way that they attempt to frame a discussion.

Polling Numbers Dont Match Conways Confidence

Kellyanne Conway was trying to set the narrative that Trumps election is a done deal and that the president is favored to win in 2020. None of Conways assumptions match the reality of the post-Muller report polling data. According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, more Americans want Trump impeached (40%) than approve of the job that he is doing as president (37%). By a ten percent margin in the same poll, more Americans want Trump to resign than approve of his job performance. The new Monmouth University poll found that 62% of voters think that the country is on the wrong track.

Forget about the White House, Trump will be lucky to not be in prison in five and a half years.

Kellyanne Conway thinks Trumps reelection is the bag, but the voters appear ready to deliver an entirely different message.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on FacebookMary Katherine, who also goes by MK, covers health care for The Post and Courier. She is also pursuing a master's degree in data science. She grew up in upstate New York and enjoys playing cards, kayaking and the Blue Ridge Mountains.Get the SC business stories that matter.

Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free.Lawmakers in the House and Senate are pushing to have high school students take a civics test to boost understanding of the U.S., its history and its government.Gregory Yee covers the city of Charleston. He's a native Angeleno and previously covered crime and courts for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, CA. He studied journalism and Spanish literature at the University of California, Irvine.Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.Political Reporter

Caitlin Byrd is a political reporter at The Post and Courier and author of the Palmetto Politics newsletter. Before moving to Charleston in 2016, her byline appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times. To date, Byrd has won 17 awards for her work.CHOCHO SAINA

The very name of our island of Guahan is rooted in the word guaha, to have, which conveys the sense of being a gifted or bountiful place. CH Read moreCRISIS AT THE BORDER: U.S. soldiers walk next to the border fence between Mexico and the United States, as migrants are seen walking behind the fence, after crossing illegally into the U.S. to turn themselves in, in El Paso, Texas, U.S., in this picture taken from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, April 3. The writing on the wall reads, "Help us Jesus Christ."Theres a controversy at Yale Law School over a policy whereby Yale gives financial support for public-interest fellowships only if the employer does not discriminate in hiring based on gender and sexual orientation. Sen. Ted Cruz accuses Yale of blacklisting Christian organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and of punishing Yale students whose values or religious faith leads them to work for such groups. Cruz says he intends to hold a subcommittee investigation of the matter.

I see a difference between (1) refusing to fund fellowships for students who work for organizations that engage in hiring discrimination and (2) refusing to fund fellowships for students who work for organizations that take positions Yale disagrees with. The distinction isnt clear-cut in this case, however, because one of the religiously-based positions some of these organizations take may be that gays and lesbians cant work for them.

To further complicate matters, it is probably the case that gays and lesbians have no genuine desire to work for organizations taking positions that run counter to the LGBT agenda, including the position that gays and lesbians cant work for them. Thus, hiring discrimination may not be a genuine concern here.

Rather, it may be a pretext for punishing students and organizations with views Yale doesnt like. Indeed, a student told the Washington Post that Yales controversial announcement flowed from tensions over a Yale Law School Federalist Society event in which a lawyer from Alliance Defending Freedom gave a talk about the Masterpiece Cakeshop case

Still, I believe the following propositions are true, in general: (1) its defensible for organizations to discriminate in hiring against LGBT applicants if their genuine religious beliefs require them to do so; (2) its defensible for a university not to subsidize employment with organizations that discriminate against their LGBT students, (3) its indefensible for a university to subsidize employment with organizations that take one set of political/philosophical positions but not to subsidize employment with organizations that take a contrary set of political/philosophical positions.Weve been saying for the past two years or so that the Steele Dossier, on which so much of the Russia hoax was predicated, is Russian disinformation  if it is what it purports to be. You only have to read it and exercise your common sense to figure this out. This was an exercise, however, that would have belied the hysteria foisted on us by the Democratic Party and its media allies, perhaps preeminently the New York Times.

The Times, incidentally, pioneered a new form of journalism in shoving the hoax down our throats over the past two years. In the new new journalism practiced by the Times, one reports stories based on secondary and tertiary sources whose identities must be protected based on the sensitivity of their information or the like. How sensitive can you get and still win a Pulitzer Prize?

Scott Shane, Adam Goldman, Matthew Rosenberg are three such Times reporters. In the story with the incredibly anodyne headline Mueller Report Likely to Renew Scrutiny of Steele Dossier, Shane et al. throw shade on the Steele Dossier, describing it in the lead paragraph in terms that highlight its improbability:

The 35-page dossier, spiced up with tales of prostitutes and spies, sketched out a hair-raising story more than two years ago. Russian intelligence had used bribery and blackmail to try to turn Donald J. Trump into a source and ally, it said, and the Kremlin was running some Trump campaign aides practically as agents.

Practically!

Taking a walk down memory lane, the Times trio draws on sources with secondary or tertiary knowledge of the subject:

Interviews with people familiar with Mr. Steeles work on the dossier and the F.B.I.s scramble to vet its claims suggest that misgivings about its reliability arose not long after the document became public  and a preoccupation of Trump opponents  in early 2017. Mr. Steele has made clear to associates that he always considered the dossier to be raw intelligence  not established facts, but a starting point for further investigation.

Now they tell us. Tell it to the FISA court, you tools.

Just about every paragraph presents a howler in one way or another. For example: How the dossier ended up loaded with dubious or exaggerated details remains uncertain, but the document may be the result of a high-stakes game of telephone, in which rumors and hearsay were passed from source to source.

Around about the ninth paragraph they give us this: Another possibility  one that Mr. Steele has not ruled out  could be Russian disinformation.

Gee, thats big of Mr. Steele. Are you sure he didnt make it up?

Dont they teach you to put the highlight of your story at the top?

I could go on, but you get the idea. What a complete and utter farce.

Mollie Hemingway comments somewhat more concisely, in fewer than 280 characters on Twitter:

NYT: "Ha ha, funny story, you'll never believe it. That dossier we spent years defending as legitimate and a worthy basis for FISA wiretaps on citizens is so unfounded it might actually be Russian disinformation, just like the collusion skeptics warned." https://t.co/JXvMJufRzX  Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 20, 2019

Via Ashe Schow/Daily Wire.In his long-awaited report, special counsel Robert Mueller found that the evidence failed to establish collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. In addition, he did not find that President Trump committed obstruction of justice, the only other offense discussed in the report.

By contrast, independent counsel Kenneth Starr, in his 1998 report, established that President Clinton perjured himself during a civil deposition, conspired to obstruct justice, violated criminal prohibitions against witness tampering, and perjured himself before a grand jury.

When congressional Republicans commenced impeachment proceedings against Clinton, congressional Democrats and their media allies were outraged. Even though the evidence established that Clinton committed multiple felonies, each of which related to obstructing justice, they insisted that his conduct did not warrant impeachment.

Yet now, some congressional Democrats and some in the media contend that Trump should be impeached for obstructing justice even though a multi-year, hugely expensive investigation has failed to find that he committed that crime or any other. I dont see a principled basis on which this position can be reconciled with the nearly unanimous opposition of Democrats to Bill Clintons impeachment in the 1990s.Veteran Nigerian actor, James Ikechukwu, popularly known as Jim Iyke, has welcomed a baby boy.

The 42-year-old, who started his acting career in 2001, is one of the highest paid actors in Nollywood.

Popularly known for playing lover boy roles, the actor took to Instagram to announce the arrival of his son.

He wrote: Im ultra-private with my family but this is the rarest of moments.

Back to 2hours sleep nightly. Back to cat naps with my subconscious peaked for the slightest movement. Back to groggy mornings and big unknowing smiles.

Welcome home king. I cant find the right words now. Every being in me is pulsating with raw primordial energy.

A lion beget a lion, welcome to my pride dear son.

He went on to thank God for yet another blessing added to his life.

I dont know what Im doing right to deserve it all. It takes a man to bring a child home, it takes a community to raise him, he wrote.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Iyke has appeared in over 150 films including Last Flight to Abuja which he featured in alongside Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde.

The award-winning actor runs a charity foundation, Jim Iyke foundation, for children living with disabilities.

(NAN)Stress disorder tied to increased heart disease risk

People who suffer from conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, a Swedish study has suggested.

According to the study, the risk may be greatest in the months right after stress disorder is diagnosed.

The lead author, Huan Song of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, said medical providers should be aware that these vulnerable populations may suffer heightened risks of various cardiovascular diseases, which calls for enhanced clinical awareness/monitoring.

Benue teaching hospital cuts prices for key medical services

The Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi charges just N60,000 for hip replacement surgeries as part of its social service to Benue people, according to Terrumun Swende, its Chief Medical Director.

Mr Swende said the hospitals primal objective was not to generate revenue but to offer tertiary healthcare services, train doctors and consultants, and offer other social services.

The CMD said that the hospital was underfunded, but declared that its limited resources were being prudently managed to break new grounds.

FG appoints new medical director for Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu

The Nigerian government has approved the appointment of Monday Igwe as the new Medical Director (MD), Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Enugu, Enugu State.

The appointment is for an initial term of four years and took effect from April 1.

Congratulating Mr Igwe on his appointment, the Minister of State, Health, Osagie Ehanire, reminded him of the enormous responsibilities of his office and the yearnings of Nigerians for an effective and responsive healthcare delivery system.

Addictive use of smartphones, Internet worries Nigerian health officials

Experts have raised alarm over the adverse health impacts of the growing addictive use of smartphones and the internet among Nigerian youth.

They linked what they called obsessive use of the technology to depression disorders and several other mental health issues.

The experts, who spoke at the maiden edition of the National Conference on Adolescent Health and Development in Nigeria, called on parents, schools, and government to monitor early use of internet among teens.

WHO releases first guideline on digital health interventions

The World Health Organisation has recommended ten ways that countries can use digital health technology, to improve peoples health and essential services.

The international health agency said harnessing the power of digital technologies is essential for achieving universal health coverage.

One way the digital intervention already having positive effects in some areas is sending reminders to pregnant women to attend antenatal care appointments and having children return for vaccinations.

WHO mourns colleague killed in hospital attack in the DRC

An epidemiologist, Richard Mouzoko, deployed by the World Health Organisation to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the response to the Ebola outbreak, has been killed.

Mr Mouzoko, a citizen of Cameroon, was killed in an attack on the Butembo University Hospital on April 19, while he was participating in a coordination meeting. Three other people were also injured.

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Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, while sending condolences to the family, the government and people of Cameroon, condemned the attack on the health facility

She said the tragic and unacceptable incident can only impede the response to the outbreak and put more lives at risk. It is vital that the safety of our staff is not compromised as they work tirelessly under extremely difficult circumstances to respond to the Ebola outbreak.

10m Euros for new malaria drug

The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) have given a grant of 10 million over five years to WANECAM 2 to conclude the production of new malaria drug.

WANECAM 2 is a unique collaboration between antimalarial drug researchers in Africa and Europe from ten academic institutions, a pharmaceutical company, Novartis, and a not-for-profit product development partnership (PDP), Medicines for Malaria Venture.

The grant will support African trials of a novel antimalarial combination comprising KAF156 (ganaplacide) and lumefantrine in a new once-daily formulation.

KAF156 has demonstrated the potential to treat resistant malaria and to be administered as a single dose.

2,500 underage Nigerians use tobacco products daily

Civil society organisations advocating against the sale of tobacco to underage in Nigeria has called on the federal government to enforce the law banning the sale of tobacco products to people under 18.

According to the Nigerian activists under the aegis of Tobacco Free Nigeria Campaign, no fewer than 25,000 underage Nigerians use tobacco product daily.

The group said children between the ages of 10 and 14 use tobacco products because they have easy access to cigarettes and other tobacco-related products which are sold to them by vendors. This means that in Nigeria about 17 children smoke every minute.Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State said the government will not apologise over the alleged killing of villagers in the state during the bombardment of suspected bandits camps in Dumburum village in Zurmi Local Government Area of the state.

The governor, who made the statement when a 7-member investigation team on the matter visited him at his Talata-Mafara private residence, said Dunburum village had served as a hideout for criminals over the last three years.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the states Council of Chiefs had a fortnight ago alleged that innocent citizens were recently bombarded through air strikes in the area by personnel of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF).

As far as I am concerned and as the head of government in the state, l havent seen anything wrong done by the air force, l havent received any brief on such matter.

Dumburum has been a criminal hideout for over three years and the Emir of Zurmi has once asked me to go and wipe out the area saying all those residing there were bandits, so l am surprised that the emir will be part of those saying innocent people were killed in an encounter in the area, he said.

The governor who said some powers were working against the state, maintained that some people will stay in Abuja and fabricate things against the operations in Zamfara in order to distract the operation, this we must not allow.

Please, all security agencies especially the air force should continue with your usual constitutional duties and the state government will give you all the support to facilitate your concentration in trying to bring back peace which has eluded the state since 2007.

You should continue with the firepower to show the criminals that there is a government in place and we wont negotiate with them again because when we did that in the past, the leaders pretended as if all was well while they allowed their boys to continue to lay siege on the communities.

Handing over a letter of condolence to the governor from the Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar, the team leader, Idi Lubo, said it was part of the chiefs concern in case the allegations were true.

He said, the Chief of Air Staff has directed us to properly investigate the matter in order to unravel the truth.

We have visited other stakeholders and discovered that there was

misinformation which we have now resolved and wish to assure the people of the state that we shall continue to discharge our assigned responsibilities in protecting the innocent with professionalism.

The team which was conducted round by the Commander of 207 Quick Response Group, Squadron Leader Sunkanmi Thomas, thanked all stakeholders for the support given to the Air operations in the state.

NAN also reports that the team visited heads of security agencies, traditional rulers and government officials among others while in the state.

(NAN)Intense hunger as a result of the inadequacy of food items in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in the outskirts of Bauchi, has forced adolescent children to feed on onion leaves for survival.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondents who visited the camp, located about two km from Rindebin community in Bauchi Local Government Area, report that the children, between the ages of three and five, looked pitiful as they consume the leaves.

Some of their parents interviewed said there was not enough food, as such they had to  improvise ways of tackling hunger. They said they believed onion leaves were nutritious and would also protect their children from hunger and diseases.

One of the parents, Aisha Musa, said that for the past one year, children and adults in the camp had been struggling to survive, with little or no assistance from all quarters.

Another parent, Ajidda Ahmed, said the hardship being encountered were enormous, adding that most of them had given up any hope of living a normal life.

Both adults and children suffer from hunger; this has resulted in forcing us to eat raw onion leaves from sellers that come into the camp.

Rainy season is about to set in and another fear is the outbreak of childhood diseases. Because for the past year, our children were not immunised and there are no water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

We defecate in the bush and the rainwater will soon wash our faeces back to the stream, where we source for water to drink, she lamented.

NAN also observed that children under two years in the camp were showing symptoms and signs of malnutrition.

Commenting on the situation, the leader of the IDP camp, Bulama Gojja, said that they were over 200 people of the Shuwa-Arab stock from Marte, Marfa and Jere local governments of Borno State. He said they were forced to relocate to the camp last year as a result of the activities of Boko-Haram insurgents.

Mr Gojja enumerated their challenges to include insufficiency of food items, lack of potable water, health facility and education for their children.

He said that in 2018,no fewer than 20 pregnant women delivered in the camp without the required medical attention, expressing fears that the off-springs might develop health challenges due to lack of immunization.

He lamented that in spite of their efforts at drawing sympathy over their plight, assistance was not forthcoming from any quarters.

The leader, therefore, solicited for assistance from both government and non-governmental organisations, particularly in the areas of health, education, potable water and agriculture inputs like fertiliser, seed and herbicides to enable them to engage in farming.

Efforts by NAN to secure comments of appropriate state government agencies and some non-governmental organisations on the matter was not successful as those who were supposed to speak on the issue were said not to be on seat each time NAN visited.

(NAN)The national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has said he has no ulterior motive in supporting Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila to be the next Senate President and House Speaker respectively.

Mr Tinubus stance is contained in a statement by his spokesperson, Tunde Rahman, sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday evening.

The APC leader denied that he was supporting both men in preparation for his potential presidential candidacy in 2023.

Asiwaju is neither inclined nor sufficiently naive, to take his eye off the present in the futile attempt to peer through the thick fog that is the future, Mr Rahman wrote.

He railed against the incumbent leadership of the National Assembly, saying they worked against the interest of President Muhammadu Buhari. He suggested his support for Messrs Lawan and Gbajabiamila was to ensure both persons loyal to the APC and President Buhari held the two sensitive positions.

Read Mr Rahmans full statement below.

All Progressives Congress national stalwart, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has said all he has done in respect of the impending election of presiding officers of the National Assembly is to support the APCs and President Muhammadu Buharis position.

He said he had no ulterior motives in so doing.

According to him, all his mind, heart and efforts are focused on backing the APC and President Buhari in achieving their shared vision of a flourishing economy and a prosperous people.

The APC leader was responding to news reports that he was meddling in the APCs nomination process to National Assembly leadership positions in order to position himself for a presidential run in 2023.

In a statement released on Sunday by his Media Office, Asiwaju said he would have committed a terrible blunder by navigating against the Presidents position.

He said those who cast aspersions at him were, in reality, bucking against the stated position of President Buhari.

He urged rumour-mongers to court greater discipline and wisdom, adding that there is no action a person can take that constitutes a political guarantee as to what may come four years from now.

He also dismissed the claim that having allies in the National Assembly leadership positions will greatly enhance someones presidential ambitions as spurious.

But the statement said, Asiwaju is neither inclined nor sufficiently naive, to take his eye off the present in the futile attempt to peer through the thick fog that is the future.

While noting that the National Assembly positions are important to the fulfillment of the Presidents agenda, he lamented that a painful lesson was learned in this respect in the last four years.

With the Senate leadership usurped by regressive elitists that chamber constituted a brake on progress and good governance. The Senate leadership, and to a lesser degree the House leadership, stymied APC legislative initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious, reactionary and self-interested legislation on the nation, he said.

Outgoing Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and their ilk, he said, highjacked the budget process these past four years.

National budgets were delayed and distorted as these actors repeatedly sought to pad budgets with pet projects that would profit them.

Even worse, they cut funds intended to prosper projects that would have benefitted the average person. After four years of their antics halting the progress of government, we should do all we can to prevent a repeat of their malign control of the National Assembly, he added.

He pointed out that in 2015, Senator Saraki finagled his way into the senate presidency. He planted himself at the apex of legislative power. But his actions as Senate president showed a man devoid of compassion for the average Nigerian. All he cared for was power and position.

Soon he will be deprived of both. House Speaker Dogara has fared only slightly better. Occupying these positions is not a guarantee of future success. It is only a guarantee of present duty.

He said: Politics requires jockeying and maneuvering for influence to get the right people in the right positions. To be beneficial, politics must be tied to the greater purpose of governance such as with President Buharis goal to reform the national economy for the good of all Nigerians.

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In supporting the party and the president, Asiwaju has shown his commitment to achieving the presidents goals. Nothing more should be read into it.

The full statement titled TINUBU FOCUSING ON THE ISSUES OF TODAY: TOMORROW IS THE MASTER OF ITSELF, is as follows:

We have monitored, with rising incredulity, the rash of news stories claiming Asiwaju Tinubu is manipulating the APC nomination process for the National Assembly leadership. The stories claim this supposed manipulation is the first salvo in Asiwajus effort to position himself for a presidential run during the 2023 election cycle. Not only are these reports utterly false, based as they are in the febrile imaginations of those persons by whom they are being peddled, they are injurious to President Buharis historic quest to reform Nigeria. It is for this latter reason that we find cause to speak out where otherwise we would have continued to watch on in silent amusement.

Nigeria has barely emerged from President Buhari and the APCs resounding victory in the last election. The President, with the support of an APC majority in both chambers of our National Assembly, is now preparing to lead the nation forward for the next four years. Instead of covering the Presidents exciting Next Level agenda and what it promises in terms of economic and social growth & development, these people want to skip ahead to the next election as if they can cast aside the next four years.

However, the Nigerian people do not elect politicians to office simply to watch on as they manoeuvre and jostle for position at the next election. The people elect those who they believe will be the best public servants, committed to the national wellbeing. This is why they reelected in President Buhari while rejecting the horde of political jobbers that constitute the PDP.

The peddlers of these rumours have arrogated to themselves the preternatural ability to read Asiwajus mind more than he himself can know it. They also seem to have acquired the unique gift of bending time so that 2023 appears before we even reach the midway point of 2019. If these people would only enlist their uncanny talents in the service of the nation instead of in the service of political intrigue and gossip mongering our country would be much the better.

This attempt to caricature Asiwaju as if his words and actions are all aimed at grabbing power will fail because this portrait distorts the plain truth. While the headlines are sensational they are also senseless because they are not grounded in fact. Asiwaju has not run for elected office since 2003. He last held office in 2007. He has never vied to become chairman of the APC nor has he tried to insinuate himself into any major government office.

If you were asked to name another political figure who has exercised such forbearance, you would be hard pressed to identify another person with a comparable record when it comes to restraint in seeking office. Where others, upon leaving one office, tend to set their eyes immediately upon another, Asiwaju, uniquely in Nigerian politics, has foregone his personal ambitions as his political ideas and policies have flourished in the hands of his allies and mentees.

This track record does not evince a man obsessed with power and office. While the intrigue-mongers seek to depict Asiwaju as a man hungering for position, his deeds speak of something else. These peddlers of tales do not know the measure of the man nor can they understand what motivates him. Thus, they project their own petty ambitions and designs on to him. The rumours reveal more about the mongers than they say about Asiwaju. They merely reveal what these people would do if they were Asiwaju. But they are not him and thankfully he is not motivated by the same selfish designs that fuel such people. Perhaps because these people have nothing to contribute regarding statecraft or providing actual solutions to actual problems, their minds remain forever mired in political machinations.

What afflicts them does not affect Asiwaju. Since he last held public office, Asiwaju has, with unprecedented success, dedicated himself toward building a political party that would furnish a progressive alternative to the regressive policies of the PDP. Joining forces with President Buhari and others who shared his progressive ideology, he helped form the APC. Since the inception of the APC, Asiwajus focus has been to assist President Buhari develop, refine and implement a progressive agenda that would give every Nigerian a fair chance to prosper and provide for his loved ones.

As he enters his second term, President Buhari has stated that he will give the economy special priority. His goal is to defeat poverty and joblessness while spurring the type of growth and development that will make Nigerias a durable and flourishing economy. These goals are laudable and necessary to move Nigeria forward. However, the obstacles before us are vast and complex.

Asiwajus mind, heart and efforts are focused on supporting the President in achieving their shared vision of a flourishing economy and a prosperous people. He is committed to doing what he can to help President Buhari surmount the challenges in order to achieve the economic reform the nation sorely needs. Given that the imperatives of today are sufficiently daunting in and of themselves, Asiwaju is neither inclined, nor sufficiently naive, to take his eye off the present in the futile attempt to peer through the thick fog that is the future.

It is against this backdrop that Asiwajus support of the party position regarding the National Assembly leadership must be interpreted. There is no surprise in him supporting the party and the presidents position regarding the National Assembly positions. Nor is it wrong that he do so. As a loyal party member and progressive leader, he would have committed a terrible wrong by navigating against the president and party in these matters.

Femi Gbajabiamila

That Asiwaju has actively and publicly supported the party and president should not result in such public backbiting. We all know how important these positions are to the fulfillment of the presidents agenda. One need only look to the last four years to see how painfully this lesson has been learned. With the Senate leadership usurped by regressive elitists that chamber constituted a brake on progress and good governance. The Senate leadership, and to a lesser degree the House leadership, stymied APC legislative initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious, reactionary and self-interested legislation on the nation.

Just look at the way Saraki, Dogara and their ilk highjacked the budget process these past four years.National budgets were delayed and distorted as these actors repeatedly sought to pad budgets with pet projects that would profit them. Even worse, they cut funds intended to prosper projects that would have benefitted the average person. After four years of their antics halting the progress of government, we should do all we can to prevent a repeat of their malign control of the National Assembly.

If we are truly committed to optimal governance, then we also must be equally committed to ensuring that the National Assembly leadership be competent and experienced as well as imbued with a progressive mindset and a desire to work in close cooperation with executive. This is all Asiwaju has hoped to achieve. There are no ulterior motives. Everything he has done is in concert with and in furtherance of the wishes of President Buhari and the party.

Thus, those who cast aspersions at Asiwaju, in reality are bucking against the stated position of the President. This is a democracy and people have the right to oppose whomever they wish to oppose. However, if these mongers oppose the president let them be of sufficient courage to plainly say so. They should not disparage Asiwaju as an indirect way to contend against the President.

What everyone who cares about Nigeria should now do is rally around the president to give him all possible support in driving to reality his economic policies and objectives. This is how we progress as a nation.

In the end, the rumor-mongers should court greater discipline and wisdom. As Asiwaju recently said there is no action a person can take that constitutes a political guarantee as to what may come four years from now.Moreover, that having allies in the national assembly leadership positions will greatly enhance someones presidential ambitions is a spurious claim.

In 2015, Senator Saraki finagled his way into the senate presidency. He planted himself at the apex of legislative power. But his actions as Senate president showed a man devoid of compassion for the average Nigerian. All he cared for was power and position. Soon he will be deprived of both. House Speaker Dogara has fared only slightly better. Occupying these positions is not a guarantee of future success. It is only a guarantee of present duty.

Senate President Ahmed Lawan

Politics requires jockeying and maneuvering for influenceto get the right people in the right positions. To be beneficial, politics must be tied to the greater purpose of governance such as with President Buharis goal to reform the national economy for the good of all Nigerians. In supporting the party and the president, Asiwaju has shown his commitment to achieving the Presidents goals. Nothing more should be read into it.

Elections are over. Now is the time for governance to take primacy. Those who have taken to intrigue about 2023 reveal themselves to be lacking in essential concern for the people and the substantive issues that confront us. Our challenges are steep and multiple. Resolving them will occupy all of our time and energy. We do not have the luxury to embark on fantasies about the future. Let the future stay where it is for now. In due time, it shall come and shall decide the shape it is to take regardless of the plans we mortals hold for it.

As for Asiwaju, he lives in the here and now. His words and deeds are geared toward perfecting progressive governance and resolving the substantive issues of today. Nothing more, nothing less. Those so enamoured with gossiping about him would do themselves and the nation well if they would follow his more productive example.A breakdown of order has been reported after police officers opened fire at a bus-stop in Ogun State, killing at least a young man and causing injuries to an unknown number of others.

The shooting occurred at Iyana Coker area of Ifo, a market community on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. It occured around 4:30 p.m., according to witnesses who alerted PREMIUM TIMES Sunday evening.

Akeem Akinsanya, a 25-year-old man, was reportedly killed, according to his uncle, Habib Lawal, who said he witnessed the incident.

Mr Lawal, who said he is widely known in the community as Obasanjo, said the plainclothes officers were in the area to arrest a man.

They came to our area in a red Mazda 323 around 4:30 p.m. to arrest a man, Mr Lawal said. They arrested the man, but they started shooting into the air as they were about to drive away from the area.

It was the sporadic shooting that led to the death of Mr Akinsanya and severe injury of many others. The injured were taken to the hospital.

Mr Lawal said the officers were arrested on the spot and were still being held at the police station in Ifo as of 7:45 p.m.

We are all here to ensure that the police officers did not run away, he said.

The officers were said to be of the Zonal Intervention Squad of Zone 2 Police Command.

Mr Akinsanya was a motorcycle electrician before his death, his uncle said, adding that the family had been mourning the loss.

Irate residents have taken to the streets to express anger about the killing, which comes as the country reels from multiple shootings of unarmed citizens by police officers.

The Ogun State police commissioner, Bashir Makama, told PREMIUM TIMES he was aware of the incident, and the officers suspected to be responsible have been arrested.

They are from Zonal Intervention Squad, but I have ordered that they should be arrested in Ifo and brought to Abeokuta for disciplinary action, Mr Makama said.

The incident comes barely three weeks after Kolade Johnson was killed by a stray police bullet in Lagos, and a week after a young woman was shot dead while returning from a nightclub also in the commercial capital.

Both incidents were investigated by the police and the officers responsible were summarily recommended for dismissal.The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has announced the resumption of flight operations at the new terminal of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, hours after a fire scare on Saturday.

FAANs Regional General Manager, North Central, Sani Mahmud, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that normalcy had since returned to the terminal.

Mr Mahmud said that Turkish Airlines Abuja-Istanbul flight, TK064, had commenced checking in as at 9 p.m.

This is to inform you that THY FLT TK064 en route ABV-IST has commenced checking in processes in the NITZ and everything has been hitch-free, he said.

There was panic earlier at the terminal when smoke emerged from a section of the facility leading to the suspension of operations at the terminal.

FAAN later disclosed that there was no fire outbreak, explaining that the incident was as a result of the system that came up when it sensed high ambient temperatures and sprayed fire extinguishing agent.

FAAN further explained that the residue of powder sprayed by the system was what was seen in the cloud as smoke.

(NAN)The Police Command in Kaduna State has identified the expatriate killed by suspected kidnappers in Kajuru as Faye Mooney, a Briton.

The Command Public Relations Officer, Yakubu Sabo, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Kaduna.

Ms Mooney was among the two people killed and three kidnapped on April 19 at a recreational resort in Kajuru Local Government Area by suspected kidnappers.

Mr Sabo said Ms Mooney was a staff of Mercy Corps Nigeria.

He added that the police was still on course to rescue the kidnapped victims and bring the perpetrators to book.

On April 20, the command confirmed the killing of two persons and kidnap of three others at a recreational resort in Kajuru LGAs.

At about 23:40hrs on Friday, some suspected kidnappers, armed with dangerous weapons, gained entry into a recreational resort called Kajuru Castle in Kajuru LGA.

The bandits shot sporadically and in the process shot dead two persons including an expatriate lady and took away three others.

He disclosed that patrol teams led by the DPO rushed to the scene and evacuated the victims to St. Gerald Hospital.

Mr Sabo said investigation revealed that the victims, along with 12 others, were tourists from Lagos, adding that the incident happened during the after party at the castle located at the Hill Top.

Normally, whenever such social events would happen, the organisers used to inform the police for security coverage, but the party was done without the knowledge of the police in the area as traditionally done.

However, intensive efforts are being made by the command to rescue the kidnapped persons, apprehend the fleeing culprits and bring them to justice. (NAN)The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kogi chapter, has urged Governor Yahaya Bello to settle outstanding salaries of workers, pensions and gratuity were settled before the end of his first term.

The Chairman of CAN in the state, John Ibenu, made the call in a statement in Lokoja, as Christians worldwide celebrate Easter to mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Mr Ibenu also appealed to the governor to address the issues of judiciary staff who had been on strike and other pressing issues that would ameliorate the challenges people were facing in the state.

We call on Kogi Government to do all it can to address the issue of staff salaries, pensions and gratuity, judiciary and other pressing issues to ameliorate the suffering of the people of the state.

Mr Ibenu, who is the Bishop of Chapel of Freedom Intl Church, Lokoja, urged Christians to emulate the exemplary life of Jesus Christ which is love, sacrifice and forgiveness for a better society.

He described Easter as the solemn celebration of the highest sacrifice made by Christ by accepting to die for mankind.

This, he said, should serve as motivation to all Nigerians, especially Christians, to make sacrifices for the peace and unity of Nigeria.

He urged the people to seek the face of God to put an end to the incessant killings and ethno-religious divisions across the country.

I wish all Christians in Nigeria and around the world celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a happy Easter, Mr Ibenu said.

(NAN)The Kaduna State Police Command on Sunday said it had restored law and order on Nnamdi Azikiwe expressway after irate youths blocked the bypass over an alleged overnight kidnapping in Kaduna.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that at about 1:00 a.m., suspected gunmen stormed Rariya community near Kabala and allegedly kidnapped some people, leading to protests over the incident.

A resident, Abubakar Ladan, alleged that three women, a teenager and a man were kidnapped.

The Command Public Relations Officer, Yakubu Sabo, confirmed the incident.

Mr Sabo said when the incident was reported to the Divisional Police Officer, he led a team of personnel to the area for rescue.

When they went there, the suspected kidnappers had run away.

Instead of the people to give police cooperation to see how to address the issue, they decided to protest and block the highway.

He explained that blocking a highway was wrong because this highway is connecting many states of the federation.

When you are expressing your grievances, you must not tamper with the rights of others.

They went to the police station and protested and attempted to burn it.

Mr Sabo said in spite of all measures to pacify them, to understand the civil obligation on them, they refused.

He added that to ensure public order and safety, we used minimum force to disperse them.

They decided to stone the security agencies, apart from lamentation and insults.

He disclosed that the ring leader of the protest had been arrested.

NAN gathered that the residents protested against alleged police delay and inaction while the incident was going on.

(NAN)A non-governmental organisation in Nigeria has raised concerns over the award of a multi-billion naira contract for the 275-kilometre superhighway in Cross River State.

The NGO, Rainforest Resource and Development Centre, in Calabar, said the contract award was not transparent, did not follow due process, and could put the Cross River government and its people into huge debt.

But the state government said the NGO was only trying to mislead the public.

The superhighway, designed to cut across at least 16 local government areas, is one of the signature projects of the administration of the governor, Ben Ayade. It is meant to link the South-south state with Nigerias North-central region, through Benue State.

Besides the initial clearing of some sections of the huge Cross River rainforest to pave way for it, the road project was delayed for more than three years after ground-breaking was done by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2015.

In what appears a sign of its eventual take off, the Cross River government on February 17 this year wrote to the state House of Assembly, seeking approval for an irrevocable standing payment order (ISPO) of N300 million monthly in favour of Sydney Construction Nigeria Ltd for the construction of the six-lane road project.

The contract for the superhighway is N648.8billion, according to the letter to the lawmakers, signed by the Secretary to the Cross River State government, Tina Agbor.

The ISPO would be drawn from the state government account with the United Bank for Africa (UBA), the letter said.

The NGO, Rainforest Resource and Development Centre, in its reaction to the contract award for the superhighway, has written to Mr Ayade, pleading with the governor to have a re-think on the project.

Kindly reconsider committing the generations of our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and beyond into liabilities spanning up to 180 years for a road project that certainly will not last up to 180 years without the persistent demands for expensive and comprehensive maintenance, the group said to Mr Ayade, in a letter signed by its executive director, Odey Oyama.

The group told Mr Ayade that there was no public documentation of the process leading to the award of the contract award to Sydney Construction Nigeria Ltd.

They also complained that the state government refused to respond to its request for a disclosure of the source of funding for the superhighway.

It is sad to note that our request was disregarded in contravention of the relevant provisions of the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, the group said in its letter.

PREMIUM TIMES could not confirm if the governor has received the letter, as the government was yet to respond to it as at the time of filing this report.

Section 39 (1) of the Nigerian Constitution guarantees all Nigerians free access to information without restraint, the executive director of the NGO, Mr Oyama, told PREMIUM TIMES, Friday.

The governor represents the people and government, and there are laws governing governance. And there are also laws prescribing procedure which you have to follow to award contract; you dont wake up in the morning and say you are awarding this contract to company A or company B.

You must advertise the contract and companies must bid for it, and this bid should be opened in the public.

I am not aware that these processes were followed.

We have not seen this superhighway project captured in the budgets of the state government, Mr Oyama said.

Eric Akpo, a special assistant to Governor Ayade on technical matters, told PREMIUM TIMES that the claims made by Rainforest Resource and Development Centre were false and completely wrong.

Mr Akpo, whose office oversees the construction of the superhighway, mentioned various newspapers and the dates in which he said the bid for the project was advertised.

Nine different bids were submitted for the project, he said.

He also said the construction of the superhighway is in the budget of Cross River State.

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The Cross River government conceived the superhighway and another multi-billion naira project, a deep seaport, as Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects.

Mr Akpo told PREMIUM TIMES last year that the superhighway is going to be an evacuating corridor for the seaport, majorly.

You know, when the port comes alive, there is going to be constant industrial traffic going in and out of the port. And because the superhighway, as a private investment, is going to be toll, it is from this toll the investors will recoup their investments, based on the vehicular traffic generated by the deep sea port. So, the viability of the superhighway as a project is closely tied to the deep seaport, he had said.

PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Akpo on Friday if the latest funding plan for the project, going by the state governments irrevocable standing payment order of N300million monthly in favour of Sydney Construction Nigeria Ltd, was not contradicting his earlier assertion that the superhighway was going to be a private investment in which the investor would recoup their money through toll.

There is no difference in the projection that we intend to execute this project by investors funds, the governors aide responded. Even the investors funds are warehoused in the budget as prepared by this administration.

There is no confusion anywhere, he added.

The state government created something called Infrastructure fund.

Four per cent of all accruals to the state have been going to this account by law for the purpose of infrastructure development. This is because while we are planning for this project, we also have a plan B. You keep asking yourself, supposing the investors fund would not come, are you going to drop this project or not? And even when the investors come, what is going to be your equity contribution?

Cross River Infrastructure Company is the owner of the project, and would oversee how much is spent on the project, and how much the investors recoup, based on agreement, over a period of time, Mr Akpo said.

Mr Akpo said the state was yet to receive any investors fund for the Superhighway, but that the government has signed preliminary MoU with prospective investors.

Environmental activists have continually kicked against the superhighway which they said would destroy several species of plants and animals and also displace the indigenous people of the areas where the road will traverse.

BudgIT, a civil society organisation in Nigeria, in 2017, claimed it could take Cross River over 100 years to recover the construction cost, if the state government goes ahead with the construction of the superhighway.

BudgIT had put the construction cost at N200 billion which is by far lower than the N648.8billion contract sum.

The truth is that Governor Ayade achieves a lot through some unorthodox means, and people are resistant to change they do not understand. I think people prefer to live with the notion that Cross River does not have money, therefore you cannot do this, you cannot do that, Governor Ayades aide, Mr Akpo, said, adding that the construction of the superhighway was going on as we speak.

This is a state with the second most indebted states in the country and second lowest in terms of federal allocation.

If the governor is able to pay workers wages and meet all other liabilities of the state, and at the same time be buoyant enough to stand up and say he wants to execute projects, somebody should be asking with all these things the man is doing, where is the money coming from? Is he taking a loan?

He is not requesting for approval for a loan, he has not borrowed money ever since he came into office. He doesnt even intend to borrow money because the Cross River state government does not even have legroom by the debt management office to obtain a loan from any bank, Mr Akpo said.Operatives of the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences have nabbed a notorious criminal for robbery and pick-pocketing in Lagos, an official said.

Olayinka Egbeyemi, Chairman of the Task Force, in a statement, said that the suspect was nabbed on Saturday at Costain Bridge in Surulere by the Enforcement and Monitoring patrol team of the agency.

Mr Egbeyemi said a preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect was a ring leader of a four-man criminal gang that specialised in picking pockets and robbing the public of their valuables such as phones, wallets and jewellery, using a commercial bus.

The three other members of the gang escaped, the police said.

There have been series of complaints by commuters on activities of these criminals using commercial bus to rob victims of their valuables and that was what prompted officers of the agency to embark on a regular patrol of every nooks and cranny of the state, he said.

The chairman said that operatives of the agency and other security agencies across the state would not relent in curbing criminal activities being perpetrated by miscreants and hoodlums across the state.

Mr Egbeyemi said that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Zubairu Muazu, had directed that the suspect be charged to court for prosecution.

The suspect confessed during interrogation that he started as a bus conductor 15 years ago before becoming a notorious pick-pocket.

He confessed further that he and his criminal gang had operated at different parts of the state which included Oshodi to Mile 2, Obalende, Pen-cinema, Agege, Ojota and Ikorodu Road and that any passenger who refused to cooperate with them were beaten and thrown out of their commercial bus on top speed.

The suspect also claimed they were making N80,000 to N100,000 every day after selling their stolen phones and other valuables, he added.

He urged members of the public to always report any illegal and criminal activities around them to relevant law enforcement agencies.The Nigerian government on Sunday said that the integrity of the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos remains intact and the bridge is safe for use.

A statement by the Office of the Special Adviser on Communications at the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing also urged people to desist from spreading or sharing false information about the bridge on social media platforms.

There have been concerns over the state of the bridge, especially on social media. Considered one of Africas longest bridges, it connects Lagos Island to other parts of the city and is used by thousands of motorists daily.

But the government said that the expansion joint shown in a Facebook video clip is one of those slated for change during repairs to the bridge which will commence soon.

It is still functioning and our engineers and consultants have advised that it does not pose any structural danger to the bridge and it is safe to use, the statement said.

Commuters and Lagos residents will recall that the Third Mainland Bridge was shut down for a 3-day Investigative Maintenance in August 2018. Tests done on the expansion joints then  called static and dynamic load tests  were to check functionality. A number of expansion joints were identified for replacement then.

More recently, in March this year, underwater confirmatory tests (video attached) preceding the repair works to be done on the Bridge, were carried out on the piles to determine if there is further deterioration or not on the piles from that done in 2013.

The ministry added, however, that all the tests done preparatory to closure of the bridge to commence comprehensive maintenance works indicate that the integrity of the bridge is intact.

Therefore the Third Mainland Bridge is safe for use, and people should desist from spreading or sharing false information about the bridge on Social Media platforms, the statement said.

The expansion joints to be replaced are part of a regular bridge maintenance programme that has been neglected for decades which the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is now addressing frontally on many bridges nationwide.

Such maintenance works include resurfacing of the bridge, along with several others, which this administration is also undertaking as the bridge users will attest to a better driving surface.The Managing Director, Lagos Water Corporation (LWC), Muminu Badmus, on Sunday said the road construction along Lagos-Abeokuta expressway has caused water scarcity around the adjoining communities.

Mr Badmus, who said this in a statement, said that the communities affected were Iyana-Ipaja, Egbeda, Dopemu, Orile-Agege, Idimu and Isheri-Olofin, among others.

According to him, the construction work at Iyana Ipaja area has damaged the water mains and pipe supplying water to those areas.

The present disruption of Water supply being experienced in these areas is as a result of a heavy burst on LWC 1200MM Ductile Pipe due to ongoing road construction activities along the Lagos  Abeokuta Expressway.

The water mains and pipe at Iyana Ipaja Bus Stop are supplying potable water to the affected communities.

I am apologising to residents of the affected areas over the water disruption, especially this Easter period, he said.

Mr Badmus, however, assured that the corporations engineers were working hard to restore normal water supply to those communities. (NAN)MAKKAH, Saudi Arabia, April 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Muslim World League expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the series of terrorist attacks in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, including at churches and hotels, killing and injuring dozens of innocent people.

His Excellency, the Secretary General of the Muslim World League, Chairman of the Board of the International Organization of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Bin Abdulkarim Alissa said that these atrocities reflect the terrorist evil that threatens everyone, without exception.

These heinous acts have no basis in any religion or peaceful community. Not long ago, tragedy struck peace of mosques in New Zealand, and today tragedy strikes peace of churches in Sri Lanka.

His Excellency, Dr. Alissa said the brutality of these dastardly crimes shakes the conscience of humanity, and reminds us of the gravity of the danger we face.

This crime calls for the international community to respond with the solidarity necessary to confront this scourge, which is fueled by the voices of hatred.

These forces spearhead the agenda of extremism, using various slogans and excuses to advance their visions of a clash of civilizations.

These forces are indifferent to the values of the divine messages to mankind of goodness, mercy, freedom and peace. Nor do they reflect humanity's inner instinct to offer harmony and peace for everyone.

On behalf of the Muslim peoples, His Excellency, the Secretary General of the Muslim World League extends his condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government and the people of Sri Lanka, and his best wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured.

SOURCE Muslim World LeaguePatriots in the hunt for third gold ball Coming off a 2020 season in which they went 1-5, the 2021 Mission Veterans Patriots football team may have caught some people by surprise by winning seven of their eight District 16-5A Div. II games and claiming a share of the district title. But while there isWashington, April 21 : The US has launched a multi-million dollar clean-up operation at an air base in Vietnam it used to store the notorious chemical Agent Orange.

The ten-year programme, unveiled more than four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, will cost $183 million, the BBC reported on Saturday.

The site at Bien Hoa airport, outside Ho Chi Minh City, is considered the most contaminated in the country.

Agent Orange was a defoliant sprayed by US forces to destroy jungles and uncover the enemy's hiding places.

It contained dioxin, which is one of the most toxic chemicals known to man and has been linked to increased rates of cancers and birth defects.

Vietnam says several million people have been affected by Agent Orange, including 150,000 children born with severe birth defects.

At Bien Hoa the chemical has contaminated the soil and seeped into nearby rivers.

The amount of dioxin in the area is four times higher than that found at Danang airport where a similar operation was completed in November.

A statement from the US development agency USAID, which is behind the clean-up, described the site as the "largest remaining hotspot" of dioxin in Vietnam.

"The fact that two former foes are now partnering on such a complex task is nothing short of historic," US ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel Kritenbrink, said at Saturday's programme launch.

More than 80 million litres of Agent Orange are estimated to have been sprayed by US forces over South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971.

From the 1960s, doctors in Vietnam began to see a sharp rise in birth defects, cancers and other illnesses linked to exposure to the chemical.

The US compensates its veterans exposed to the defoliant, but does not compensate Vietnamese nationals.New Delhi, April 21 : In a direct contest, most voters in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu will vote for Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister but in the rest of the country Narendra Modi continues to be the preferred choice, according to CVOTER-IANS poll tracker.

In a survey carried out on April 19, voters were asked that if given a chance to directly elect the Prime Minister of India, whom will they choose between Gandhi and Modi. At the national level, Modi led over Gandhi by 26.10 per cent.

But a state-wise break-up showed that 64.96 per cent voters in Kerala preferred Gandhi to be the Prime Minister against only 23.97 per cent going for Modi.

The other states which beat the national trend include Tamil Nadu where 60.91 respondents preferred Gandhi and only 26.93 per cent made Modi as their choice. In Punjab, 37.04 respondents preferred Gandhi and 36.05 said Modi.

All the four are non-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states.

While at the national level the sample size was 11,192, in the states -- 451 people were asked the question in Andhra Pradesh, 701 in Kerala, 533 in Tamil Nadu and 502 in Punjab.

The Modi lead was -11.00 in Andhra Pradesh, -40.99 in Kerala, -33.93 in Tamil Nadu and -0.99 in Punjab. Modi has the maximum positive lead over Gandhi in Haryana (61.50).

The Congress President is also least preferred in Haryana as only 14.92 per cent respondents favoured him.Srinagar, April 21 : Peoples Conference (PC) chief Sajad Lone on Sunday expressed concern over the health of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik and hoped the national investigation agency (NIA) understood his position.

Malik's sister on Saturday in a statement said that Malik was on hunger strike ever since the NIA shifted him to Delhi and following his deteriorating health was shifted to a hospital.

Taking to Twitter, Lone said: "My thoughts are with Yasin Malik. He has had frail health all along which gets exacerbated with hunger strike. Hope investigating agencies understand Yasin Malik. Haven't met him for a decade. Politics apart-- have spent great moments with him".

Senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had also voiced concern over Malik's health.Colombo, April 21, 2019 (Xinhua) -- People gathered outside the Church of St. Anthony where the explosion occurred in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple church and hotel bla Image Source: Xinhua/Tang Lu/IANS

Colombo, April 21, 2019 - People gathered outside the Church of St. Anthony where the explosion occurred in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple church and hotel blasts in Sri Lanka, police said on Sunday. Image Source: Xinhua/Tang Lu/IANS

Colombo, April 21 : At least 40 people were killed and more than 250 others injured on Sunday as explosions ripped through three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka, media reports said.

According to the island nation's The Daily Mirror newspaper, explosions were reported as hundreds of worshipers gathered at the St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Kotahena, St. Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya in Katana, and the Zion church in Batticaloa to commemorate Easter Sunday.

The other three blasts where reported at the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury five-star hotels in Colombo.

Of the 40 victims, 25 were killed in Batticaloa, according to the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital.

Colombo National Hospital sources said that more than 100 injured were admitted.

Image Source: Xinhua/Tang Lu/IANS Colombo, April 21, 2019 - People gathered outside the Church of St. Anthony where the explosion occurred in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple church and hotel blasts in Sri Lanka, police said on Sunday.

An emergency meeting has been called over the attacks, Minister Harsha De Silva said in a tweet.

"Secretary of Defence and I am at Kochchikade Church. We were also at Shangri-La and Kingsbury Hotels. Rescue operations are underway. Many casualties have been reported including foreigners," he said and requested people to stay calm and indoors.

Image Source: Xinhua/Tang Lu/IANS Colombo, April 21, 2019 - Visitors wait outside a hotel where a blast took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple church and hotel blasts in Sri Lanka, police said on Sunday.

Images on social media showed the inside at the St. Sebastian church with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews, the BBC said.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.New Delhi, April 21 : The resolution of 40,000 MW of stressed power projects has come to a standstill with lenders turning reluctant to engage with investors in the absence of fresh directions from the Reserve Bank of India and regulatory overreach that has made lowering of tariff mandatory from projects being sold at lower valuations.

Top sources in state-owned lending institutions said that resolution of at least eight stressed power projects worth 9,000 MW has been stopped even through banks had made sufficient progress earlier. Instead, the lenders are waiting from fresh guidance from the RBI in the form of a new circular on resolution before initiating discussions on resolution.

Also, with the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) seeking lower tariff on the sale deal negotiated by State Bank of India for Jaiprakash Associates' Prayagraj Plant, lenders feel that buyer interest would wane further and prevent negotiated settlement for stressed power plants.

Already, Gautam Adani-owned Adani Power has withdrawn its offer to acquire the KSK Mahanadi project in Chhattisgarh, stating that the acquisition has become unviable. Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (UPPCL), one of key customers of KSK Mahanadi project, decided to reduce tariffs for the procurement of electricity by almost 32 paisa per unit, making the acquisition at stated price unviable.

Sources also said that Tata Power-backed Renascent Power Ventures, which acquired 75 per cent stake in Prayagraj Power late last year, is also weighing options and waiting for clarity over tariff for the project from UPERC.

Of the eight stressed power assets, where resolution was initiated by Power Finance Corporation (PFC), only one - Prayagraj was successfully negotiated. Resolution for all other projects including KSK Mahanadi, RattanIndia Nashik, have come to a standstill.

In case of an Rs 600 crore one time settlement scheme worked out for Lanco Amravati, the sole investor backed out from the race at the last minute. With relation to Avantha Power (Jhabua) an Rs 100 crore settlement for PFC got stalled after one of the operational creditors took the asset to NCLT.

"Bankers would wait for the issue of new circular from the RBI to start resolution of other stressed assets. The resolution of assets has almost stalled after the Supreme Court order as none of the bankers wants to take risk of approving a resolution now for the fear of future vigilance action," said an official of a power sector lending institution.

In March 2017, the Union government had classified 34 power plants as "stressed assets" with total bank exposure in these to the tune of Rs 1.8 lakh crore. The eight projects fall part of this group of power projects.

The RBI's February 12 circular meant that most of these stressed land up in the bankruptcy court due to short time-frame available for a bank-led resolution. But with Supreme Court declaring the circular bad in law, fresh issues have cropped over pushing bankers to seek fresh directions from RBI before resolution could be initiated.

(Subhash Narayan can be contacted at subhash.n@ians.in)Shimoga : , April 21 (IANS) In the battle for supremacy in Karnataka's Malnad region, sons of two former Chief Ministers will lock horns for the prestigious Shimoga Lok Sabha seat in the third phase of polling on April 23.

Shimoga has been a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold since 2004, and the right-wing party has again fielded its sitting MP B.Y. Raghavandra, son of former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, to retain the seat for the fifth time in a row.

The ruling Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) combine too has renominated its joint candidate Madhu Bangarappa, the son of former Congress Chief Minister late S. Bangarappa (1933-2011).

JD-S candidate Madhu had lost to Raghavendra in the November 2018 by-election by a margin of 52,148 votes in a constituency comprising over 14.3 lakh electorates.

The by-poll was necessitated by the resignation of Yeddyurappa after he got elected from Shikaripura in the May 2018 Assembly elections and returned to state politics.

In fact, Raghavendra had won the seat for the first time in 2009, defeating Madhu's father S. Bangarappa of the Congress by 52,893 votes in a triangular contest.

Ironically, Bangarappa, a party hopper, won the seat in 2004 on a BJP ticket and retained it when he resigned from the party and fought on a Samajwadi Party ticket in the 2005 by-election.

Yeddyurappa, who contested from Shimoga in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections after his party lost power in the 2013 Assembly polls, retained the seat for the BJP by defeating V. Manjunath Bhandary of the Congress by a whopping margin of 3.63 lakh votes.

As Yeddyurappa's home turf, the Shimoga parliamentary constituency has been a BJP bastion from where the saffron party had won 7 out of the 8 Assembly segments in the May 2018 state elections.

"Raghavendra's winning prospects are better even in a straight contest, as the party is well-entrenched in the constituency and more organised than the allies with an army of booth-level cadres and the backing of its parent organisation -- the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)," a political analyst told IANS here, about 300 km northwest of Bengaluru.

Though the BJP won 104 Assembly seats in the 225-member house in the 2018 state elections, its three-day government under Yeddyurappa resigned on May 19, 2018 after the party fell nine short of the halfway-mark (113) for a simple majority.

"The post-poll alliance between the Congress and the JD-S to keep the BJP out of power and form a coalition government in the state did not go down well with the electorates in the Malnad region, as they felt that Yeddyurappa and his party were denied their due of forming the government under the Lingayat community's tallest political leader," recalled the analyst.

Though the JD-S has never won from Shimoga in the 18 Lok Sabha elections, including two by-polls, held so far, it is betting on its ally Congress to ensure Madhu's victory as a joint candidate, hoping that the latter's votes get transferred to him.

"By fielding a joint candidate, we are ensuring that the secular votes get transferred to our ally's candidate Madhu so that he can avenge his defeat in the by-election by a small margin," a Congress official told IANS.

Even as the BJP hopes to ride on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to win by a big margin, the party's state leaders feel that the public sympathy will be with Raghavendra after his father Yeddyurappa was denied a chance to continue as the Chief Minister of the state.

Interestingly, Kumar Bangarappa, the elder brother of Madhu, is a BJP legislator from their home turf of Sorab Assembly segment in the Shimoga parliamentary constituency.

In the absence of JD-S cadres across the constituency, Madhu is dependent on the Congress cadres to get voters to the polling booths in his favour, countering the well-organised cadres of the rival BJP.

With the help of the politically dominant Lingayat community, to which Yeddyurappa and Raghavendra belong, the BJP hopes to outsmart Madhu, who belongs to the backward Idiga community.

Many feel the coming together of the Congress and the JD-S will lead to the consolidation of secular, backward and minority votes against the BJP.

Only the poll verdict on May 23 will tell if Shimoga remains with the BJP or it will move to the ruling ally.

(The writer can be contacted at fakir.b@ians.in)Colombo, April 21 : At least 138 people were killed and more than 400 injured when a string of suicide bombings rocked luxury hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday in the island's bloodiest day since the end of the civil war, media reports said.

The deadly explosions rocked at least three luxury hotels and a church each in Colombo, in Katana, some 50 km north of the capital, and in the eastern province of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. when hundreds were gathered to celebrate Easter.

The state-run Daily News newspaper put the fatalities at 138 and said at least 402 were injured. Many of the injured were said to be in serious condition. But other news outlets gave varying casualty figures, ranging from 70 to 100.

Image Source: Xinhua/Tang Lu/IANS Colombo, April 21, 2019 - People gathered outside the Church of St. Anthony where the explosion occurred in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple church and hotel blasts in Sri Lanka, police said on Sunday.

Minister of Economic Reforms Harsha de Silva, who visited a few of the attack sites, described the carnage.

"Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over. Emergency crews are at all locations in full force. (...) We took multiple casualties to hospital. Hopefully saved many lives," Efe news quoted the Minister as saying.

Images circulated in local media showed the magnitude of the explosion in at least one of the churches, where the ceiling had been partially destroyed, and corpses were strewn around among the rubble, Efe reported.

Rescuers desperately looked for survivors.

The Minister said that some of the casualties were foreigners.

Image Source: Xinhua/Tang Lu/IANS Colombo, April 21, 2019 - Visitors wait outside a hotel where a blast took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple church and hotel blasts in Sri Lanka, police said on Sunday.

President Maithripala Sirisena, in a special message which was read out on local news channels, urged the public to remain calm and cooperate with the authorities to conduct swift investigations into the blasts, reported Xinhua news agency.

"I am shocked and saddened by the situation that has occurred. Investigations have been launched to look into what conspiracy is behind these heinous acts. Please remain calm and do not be fooled by rumours," Sirisena said.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Christians in Sri Lanka had been celebrating the Easter Sunday, an important festival marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the culmination of week-long festivities.

Christians form around 7 per cent of the Sri Lankan population, with the Buddhists accounting for around 70 per cent, followed by Hindus and Muslims.

Sri Lanka's dragging civil war involving the government and the Tamil Tigers ended in May 2009, leading to a decade of peace.

BOMB BLAST IN SRI LANKA UPDATE 2Colombo, April 21 : At least 40 people were killed and more than 250 others injured on Sunday as explosions ripped through three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka, media reports said.

According to the island nation's The Daily Mirror newspaper, explosions were reported as hundreds of worshipers gathered at the St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, Kotahena, St. Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya in Katana, and the Zion church in Batticaloa to commemorate Easter Sunday.

The other three blasts where reported at the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury five-star hotels in Colombo.

Of the 40 victims, 25 were killed in Batticaloa, according to the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital.

{"title":"","description":""}es said that more than 100 injured were admitted.

{"title":"","description":""}

An emergency meeting has been called over the attacks, Minister Harsha De Silva said in a tweet.

"Secretary of Defence and I am at Kochchikade Church. We were also at Shangri-La and Kingsbury Hotels. Rescue operations are underway. Many casualties have been reported including foreigners," he said and requested people to stay calm and indoors.

Images on social media showed the inside at the St. Sebastian church with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews, the BBC said.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

{"title":"Colombo, April 21, 2019 - Visitors wait outside a hotel where a blast took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple ...","description":"Colombo, April 21, 2019 - Visitors wait outside a hotel where a blast took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in multiple church and hotel blasts in Sri Lanka, police said on Sunday."}New Delhi, April 21 : Even as Jet Airway's lenders are confident of selling their stake in the temporarily grounded airline, they have prepared a contingency plan which includes taking the company to Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), sources said.

Industry insiders told IANS in Mumbai that all efforts are on to see that the stake sale process goes through as planned and is successfully implemented, however, DRT remains as "the last option".

"Going to the DRT remains as a last option. This is the natural progression of recovery, if the stake sale process fails," a senior banking industry source told IANS.

"The company owns 16 aircraft and some assets which have already been pledged."

The DRT facilitates the recovery of debt involving banks and other financial institutions with their customers. Approaching the DRT, as a last option is a major departure from the earlier speculation that the airline will be taken to the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal).

The airline owes over Rs 8,000 crore to its lenders.

At present, lenders are keen to complete the stake sale process in a time-bound manner.

"We have some serious and interested bidders. We expect to receive the binding bids by May 10. There is no talk of lenders taking a haircut or a minimum threshold level that will be accepted," another source said.

On Jet's temporarily grounded status and re-allocation of its lucrative time slots at the airport, sources in Delhi said: "These re-allocations are just for three months. This is an interim arrangement. By the end of this re-allocation period, the whole stake sale process would also be completed."

"Even if the slots are re-allocated for three months, the value of the company will not diminish. It will still remain a very attractive buying opportunity."

"Aircraft are being sub-leased through the airline only and the banks are just trying to facilitate the process, so that some funds can be made available to the airline and that under the wet-lease formula, a few pilots and cabin crew are retained."

Last Thursday, briefing the media, Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said that "280 slots in Mumbai and more than 160 slots in Delhi" are left vacant after Jet's temporarily grounding.

These slots will be re-allocated by a committee comprising airport operators, Airport Authority of India and DGCA.

In addition, banking insiders rebutted allegations that bankers are reluctant to provide further funding to the airline.

"Banks have tried their best to support the airline, but any interim funding would have met with a legal challenge as the account had turned into an NPA and they would have come back again to ask for more funding as the airline has no fund at all," sources said.

On April 17, around 20,000 employees and passengers were hit hard as Jet Airways announced temporary suspension of all flight services as it failed to secure interim funding from lenders to maintain even bare minimum operations.

(Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in)Colombo, April 21 : Sri Lanka declared a nationwide curfew after a string of eight explosions, mostly in Colombo, left at least 185 people dead and over 400 injured on Easter Sunday, authorities said.

Xinhua news agency reported that the death toll in the multiple blasts had risen to 185 even as two fresh explosions occurred in two Colombo neighbourhoods in the afternoon.Bhopal, April 21 : The Election Commission on Sunday issued a show cause notice to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the BJP candidate from Bhopal, for her controversial remarks about the Babri Masjid demolition.

This is the second poll panel notice against Thakur since the saffron party announced her candidature on Wednesday. She has been asked to reply by Monday.

In an interview to a television channel over the weekend, Thakur said that she was among the people who demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 and that she was "proud" of it.

"We removed a blot from the country. We went to demolish the structure. I feel extremely proud that God gave me this opportunity and I could do that. We will make sure a Ram temple is constructed at that site," Thakur told the channel.

The first notice against Thakur was issued after she bragged that former ATS Chief Hemant Karkare died at the hands of terrorists during the 26/11 attack in Mumbai because she "cursed" him.

Following a backlash, Thakur apologised admitting that Karkare was a "martyr". The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) distanced itself from her remark.

The 49-year-old is an accused in the Malegaon blasts case in which six people died and around 100 were injured in 2006. She is currently out on bail and her candidature has been challenged in court by the father of one of the men who died in Malegaon.Chennai, April 21 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam condemned the mass killings by suicide bombers in Sri Lanka on Sunday.

In a joint statement issued here, the two leaders said: "We condemn the attack on the churches where large number of Tamil Christians live."

They said the attack in a place where innocent people had congregated to pray to God was shocking.

PMK founder S. Ramadoss also expressed his shock.New Delhi, April 21 : The Congress on Sunday accused the Centre of stirring a row over the number of terrorists killed in the air strike by India on a JeM camp at Balakot in Pakistan.

Addressing the media here, former Finance Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram said: "After the air strike, Congress President (Rahul Gandhi) was first to say I salute the Indian Air Force as there was a statement by the military spokesperson saying that air strike did not result any civilian or military casualties."

He said the matter should have ended there.

"And it is not the Congress or the opposition which started the controversy. The controversy was started when someone in the government privately briefed the press to say 300 or 350 militants were killed. And all the papers next day carried that number," he said.

Chidambaram's remarks came in response to a question over the opposition questioning the success of the air strike targeting militant camps in Balakot.

Chidambaram said even then the Congress did not react. "It is only when the foreign press started to question the number and not the air strike."

Attacking the Modi government, the Congress leader said: "What was the government's answer? The answer was to abuse us, it ranged from 350 to 0.

"(Union Minister S.S.) Ahluwalia said casualties were 0 and someone in the government said it was 350. The controversy was kicked up by the government at a private briefing, they put out a number which was first questioned by the foreign press.

"Congress has saluted and complimented the air force for the strike," he added.

The air strikes in Balakot were carried out 12 days after a suicide bombing on a Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama killed 40 troopers.Colombo, April 21, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on April 21, 2019 shows the blast scene at Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities said on Sunday that the death toll from the explosions which shook the Sri Lankan capital earlie Image Source: IANS/PIB

Jaipur, April 21 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the terror attacks on Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday and said that India stands with the neighbouring nation at this hour of crisis.

Addressing a poll rally in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh, he said that when the entire world was remembering Jesus Christ and his message of peace, the terrorists killed many innocent including kids and women.

"We strongly condemn these attacks and are ready to extend all our help to Sri Lanka at this hour of need," he said.

At least 186 people were killed as a string of explosions rocked churches and hotels in Colombo and elsewhere during Easter Sunday.Agartala, April 21 : The Election Commission (EC) has made unprecedented security arrangements, including deployment of over 9,300 troopers, for the deferred voting to the Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday, officials said here on Sunday.

"Over 5,300 central para-military forces and 4,000 Tripura State Rifles (TSR) troopers are being deployed to conduct free, fair and smooth voting in the Tripura East seat," a senior police official told IANS.

The central forces included the Border Security Force (BSF), the Assam Rifles, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The TSR is a counter-insurgency force.

"The central forces would be deployed at most of the 1,645 polling booths in 1,349 locations, spread across six districts, for the April 23 vote," Vikas Singh, Returning Officer to the parliamentary constituency, told IANS.

Singh, also the District Magistrate and Collector of the Dhalai district, said as part of confidence-building measures, the central forces have conducted intensive patrolling in all vulnerable, sensitive and remote places.

In an unprecedented move, the EC has appointed three central police observers and a special central police observer to oversee deployment of security forces during the vote in the constituency.

Citing "non-conducive security situation", following reports by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti, Special Central Police Observer Mrinal Kanti Das (former Manipur DGP), the Returning Officer and other intelligence inputs, the poll panel early last week had deferred voting to the seat from April 18 to April 23, The CEO said all polling agents, candidates and, if necessary, 1,257,944 voters that include 620,291 women, would be provided security to facilitate free and fair polling.

Taranikanti said restrictions on movement of private vehicles and political activists in and around the polling stations would be followed strictly.

Another EC official said: "Senior EC officials are frequently having video conference with the CEO, Director General of Police (DGP) Akhil Kumar Shukla and the Returning Officer to review preparations for the polling."

A senior police official said the DGP and other top police officials would camp in the Tripura East constituency to supervise security measures.

The EC, after deferring voting, had replaced Additional DGP (Law and Order) Rajiv Singh with V.S. Yadav. As Yadav is on leave, IGP (Crime Branch) Puneet Rastogi is looking after law and order.

Tripura has two Lok Sabha constituencies. Polling in the Tripura West seat was held on April 11.

There are 10 contestants, including two women, in the Tripura East seat. But three main contenders are Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) sitting MP Jitendra Choudhury, Bharatiya Janata Party's Rebati Tripura and Maharaj Kumari Pragya Deb Barman (Congress), elder sister of state Congress chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman.

Since 1952, the Left parties have won the East Tripura seat 12 times and the Congress four times.

Tripura, which has traditionally witnessed a direct or triangular contest, will for the first time see a multi-cornered battle in the Tripura East constituency as the BJP has emerged as a potent political force after the 2018 Assembly polls.New Delhi, April 21 : Invigorate Foods on Sunday said it would invest Rs 60 crore in India in three years to manufacture soya milk products.

"Invigorate Foods is planning to invest Rs 600 million (60 crore) in the next three years in plant, equipment and other capital goods required for manufacturing soya milk products in India," the Japanese company said in a statement.

The company launched "Genki-Ya Tofu", a product prepared with fresh soya milk extracts, here. The company "plans to launch other soya milk products like Genki-ya Silken Tofu, Genki-ya Firm Tofu, Genki-ya Extra-Firm Tofu, Fresh Soy Milk, Flavoured Soy milk, yogurts and donuts," it said.

The products would be manufactured maintaining high quality international standards, it said.

Invigorate Foods, a soya milk products manufacturing company, was incorporated in 2018. Its parent company is patented under the name Takeda Global in Japan.Colombo, April 21 : Sri Lanka declared a nationwide curfew after suicide bombers carried out a string of well-planned deadly explosions, mostly in Colombo, on Easter Sunday leaving 192 dead and 470 injured in the island's bloodiest day since the civil war ended a decade ago.

Starting around 8.30 a.m. when the first blast ripped apart the St Anthony's Shrine at Kochchikade here during Easter Mass, five more powerful explosions followed, hitting a total of three luxury hotels in Colombo and also St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, 30 km from here, and the Zion Church in the eastern district of Batticaloa, 250 km east of Colombo.

Just as authorities thought they had the situation under control, another blast went off in the afternoon near a restaurant close to the Dehiwala zoo in Colombo, killing two persons, and the Colombo neighbourhood of Dematogoda killing another three persons.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on phone with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, called the terror attacks "cold-blooded and pre-planned" barbarism and offered all help from New Delhi.

No one claimed responsibility for the bloodbath but AFP reported that Sri Lankan Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara had issued a nationwide alert 10 days ago warning that suicide bombers planned to hit prominent Catholic churches.

The Daily Mirror newspaper quoted the findings of initial investigations as saying that the first six major blasts were caused by Islamist suicide bombers and added that two of them had checked a day earlier into the Shangri-La Hotel, one of the three hotels targeted in Colombo.

It said that the investigators who broke into Room No 616 "had recovered materials used by radical" Islamist extremists. The Mirror said it was not clear if the bombers were Sri Lankans or foreigners.

Authorities said that 35 foreigners were among the dead but their nationalities were not clear.

Besides Shangri-La, the other hotels hit were Cinnamon Grand, located near the official residence of the Prime Minister, and Kingsbury Hotel.

A Sri Lankan journalist, V. Thanabalasingham, told IANS over telephone that a sense of panic had gripped Colombo, which had given up its overbearing security apparatus ever since the Tamil Tigers were crushed in May 2009, leading to a decade of peace.

Photos and videos circulating on social media showed the roof of one church had been almost fully blown away in the blast. The floor was littered with a mixture of roof tiles, splintered wood and blood, media reports said.

Many people could be seen covered in blood. Some helped those with more serious injuries. Ambulances, their sirens wailing, rushed the dead and seriously injured to hospitals -- once a familiar sight in Colombo.

Minister of Economic Reforms Harsha de Silva described the carnage. "Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over," he said.

President Sirisena urged the public to be calm and cooperate with the authorities to conduct swift investigations into the blasts. "I am shocked and saddened by the situation."

The government had imposed indefinite curfew across the nation and has temporarily blocked Facebook and Instagram to curb the spread of fake news.

AFP quoted the police warning as saying that a foreign intelligence agency had reported that the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), a Muslim group blamed for attacks on Buddhist shrines, was planning to carry out suicide attacks against prominent churches as well as the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

Although Christians form only around 7 per cent of the Sri Lanka's mainly Buddhist population, they are found both in the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil communities.Colombo, April 21 : Islamist extremists carried out the first six major suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, The Daily Mirror reported.

Investigators said that two terrorists had on Saturday checked into Room 616 of The Shangri-La hotel, one of the three Colombo hotels where blasts took place in quick succession, the English language daily reported.

Close circuit television camera (CCTV) footage revealed that the suspects detonated the bombs in the cafeteria and on the corridor of the hotel, it said.

Investigators suspect that C-4 explosives weighing 25 kg were used for the bombings at the hotel, it said.

The investigators who broke into the room found materials used by "radical Islamic extremists", the daily quoted sources as saying.

It was unclear if the bombers were locals or international terrorists who arrived on tourist visa to the island nation.Thiruvananthapuram, April 21 : A Kerala woman holidaying in Colombo was among those killed in suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, authorities here said.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed condolences over the death of 58-year-old P.S. Razeena, who arrived in the Sri Lankan capital along with her husband to meet their relatives engaged in business in Colombo.

Razeena and her husband, who hail from Kasargode in Kerala, live in Dubai and were staying at one of the three hotels in Colombo targeted on Sunday by suicide bombers.

A spokesperson for the state agency of the Kerala diaspora told the media that they were talking to the Indian High Commissioner's office in Colombo to see that Razeena's body was brought to Kerala.New Delhi, April 21 : The implementation of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in Indian cities will require the investment of $5 billion (around Rs 34,695 crore) per year, a joint report by industry chamber Assocham and British advisory multinational Ernst & Young (EY) said on Sunday.

The study titled, "The big 'W' impact: effective urban waste management solutions in India" suggested the need for a comprehensive and forward-looking policy which can accelerate a shift towards a modern and healthy urban living.

"We need appropriate policy prescriptions to ensure that waste management should be an important part of the economic cycle," said the report, adding that, besides toilet construction and eliminating open defecation, an increased focus on waste management under the government's Swachh Bharat program will be a value addition.

According to the report, since the responsibility to ensure proper service delivery and compliance of standards, remains with the local bodies, there is a need to develop in-house financial and managerial capability to award contracts to the private sector and monitor the services provided.

MSWM is a fit case for the PPP model in India as urban local bodies are not financially and technically strong enough to manage solid waste, it said.

The collection efficiency in urban areas of the country is poor at 70 per cent, and is still manual in nature, according to the report.

It recommended the use of emerging technologies such as blockchain for waste management and sanitation.Colombo, April 21 : Three police officers were killed in an eighth explosion in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, taking the total death toll to 190.

The blast at a residential complex in Dematagoda in Colombo killed three officers, Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando told the media, reports Efe news.

He said that seven people had been arrested for the multiple attacks.

The eighth bombing came shortly after another attack left two dead in a hotel near the zoo in Dehiwala, 10 km south of the capital.

There were six coordinated explosions on Sunday morning at three luxury hotels in Colombo and three churches across the country.

The death toll now stands at 190, according to police and local authorities, while hospital sources raised the total number of wounded to 469.

Harsha de Silva, Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, said "action will be taken to stop activity of all extremist groups in the country".

He said that the Dehiwala and Dematagoda blasts "seem to be by those in the ring running from the law" but did not give any more details.

There is a "social media temporary ban", he added.

The government has declared a state of emergency and police have imposed a 12-hour curfew.

The government announced the closure of all schools in the country until Tuesday.

The National Blood Bank asked people to stop thronging its centers and said it had sufficient reserves.Colombo, April 21 : Leaders from India and other countries on Sunday condemned the series of attacks on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka which have killed 190 people and injured more than 450 amid Easter celebrations in the country.

Indian President Ram Nath Kovind said: "India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country.

"Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in civilized society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his thoughts were with the victims and their families. "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region.

"India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka," he said.

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," British Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practice their faith in fear," she added.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez added: "I most vehemently condemn the terrible attacks in Sri Lanka. It makes us weep to think of the dozens of victims who were celebrating Easter. The terror and barbarity will never crush us."

The President of the European Council said Europe stood ready to support Sri Lanka at this juncture.

"I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country," the official tweeted.

The Catholic Churches in the Holy Land on Sunday too expressed shock.

"How difficult, angry, and sad these news are, especially as these attacks came while Christians celebrate Easter," Wadie Abunassar, advisor to Church leaders in the Holy Land, said in a statement from Jerusalem.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted: "Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost and hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren."

Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli posted: "I am deeply saddened by multiple bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in Sri Lanka."Chennai, April 21 : Internal differences of opinion on employees taking over the management of Jet Airways did not permit pursuing the idea, but employees are ready to fully cooperate with any new investor for turning around the the financially crippled company, a senior official of the National Aviators Guild (NAG) said on Sunday.

The NAG is the union of Jet Airways' pilots.

"We had internally discussed the issue of employee management but there were differing views, and so decided not to pursue the matter," NAG Vice-President Asim Vallani told IANS over the phone.

When queried whether the employees volunteered for a pay cut in order turn the company around, Vallani said: "We are ready to work with the new investor and extend cooperation for the revival of the airline."

He said that their meeting on Saturday with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley went off well.

"The Minister did ask us why banks should lend more money to the airline. We told him there is adequate security for the loan. About Rs 980 crore is needed for the airline to start operations again. We asked him for Rs 170 crore towards employee salaries," Vallani said.

According to the union official, Jaitley was requested to ensure that slots in the possession of Jet Airways are not given away to any other airline, to expedite the bidding process, and to request the state-run Indian Oil Corp to extend six months credit for fuel supplies as was done earlier for SpiceJet .Panaji, April 21 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have expressed confidence of winning the two Lok Sabha polls and three Assembly by-elections, campaigning for which concluded at 5 p.m. on Sunday. The seats will go to polls on April 23.

Congress state president and North Goa Lok Sabha candidate Girish Chodankar said, here on Sunday, the April 23 round of polls is the first since the BJP "snatched" the people's mandate after the 2017 Assembly elections. Voters would vote in revenge against the BJP in all the five seats, he added.

"The Congress will win Lok Sabha polls and Assembly by-elections by 5-0," Chodankar said.

Chodankar said voters would "unleash" their fury against the BJP, which snatched power in Goa despite emerging as the second-largest party behind the Congress in the 2017 Assembly polls. It had failed to act on key issues, including the resumption of mining, he added.

"The BJP has been unable to resolve the mining row despite being in power in Goa as well as the Centre. The entire mining belt will show their anger against the BJP on April 23," Chodankar said.

The Congress has tied up with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), a former BJP ally, for the two Lok Sabha constituencies and one Assembly seat. Midway through the electioneering, the MGP extended support to the Congress for Lok Sabha seats and Mapusa Assembly constituency.

The MGP is contesting Shiroda Assembly by-election, where its party President Deepak Dhavalikar has emerged as a key contender against BJP's Subhash Shirodkar.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, addressing the media on Sunday, said the Lok Sabha elections were about voting for a "new India" under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and the BJP had convinced voters about the need for electing Modi as the Prime Minister.

"These elections are about nation-building, for a new India and we have convinced people that there is a need to vote for the BJP and elect Modi as the Prime Minister," Sawant said.

"Initially, some people said we would be lagging in South Goa. But Narendra Sawaikar canvassed in all 20 constituencies with such an energy that victory will be ours," he said.

He also expressed confidence about the three Assembly by-elections on account of the state BJP government's performance.

Leaders of other political parties too, which includes Aam Aadmi Party Convenor Elvis Gomes, expressed confidence of winning the two Lok Sabha polls and three Assembly by-elections.Hyderabad, April 21 : Three wickets from left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed helped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) restrict Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to 159/8 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, here on Sunday.

Put in to bat, KKR had a brisk start with openers Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn scoring 42 runs in just 2.4 overs before the West Indian fell prey to Khaleel. After collecting 14 runs off the first three deliveries of Khaleel, Narine missed the slower ball and got bowled at 25 (8 balls, 4x3, 6x2).

Shubhman Gill who came in to bat at number three couldn't stay longer at the crease and became the second victim of Khaleel. Gill scored just three runs of four deliveries.

Nitish Rana (11), coming after Gill's dismissal, battled sensibly alongside Lynn and the duo took the score to 61-2 at the end of the powerplay. But his stay at the wicket was ended by Bhuvneshwar Kumar by getting him caught behind with a spectacular delivery.

Skipper Dinesh Karthik (6) yet again failed to deliver and was run out while trying to snatch a second run off Shabaz Nadeem, leaving KKR reeling at 73/4 in the ninth over.

Rinku Singh, included in the side in place of Robin Uthappa, stitched a good partnership with the Australian and both took the score to 116/4 after 15 overs. But while trying to accelerate scoring and go for big hits, Singh (30) got out after Rashid Khan took a good, sliding catch at the mid-wicket boundary with the team score being 124.

Meanwhile, Lynn kept his composure and contributed a well-played 50 to the team before becoming the third victim of Khaleel.

What KKR needed was another late flourish from big-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell. But it didn't turn out to be the case as Russell departed after scoring 15 off nine balls (6x2, 0x4).

In the last over, bowled by Rashid, KKR collected 13 runs to post a 160-run target for the hosts.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 159/8 (Chris Lynn 51, Rinku Singh 30; Khaleel Ahmed 3/33) vs Kolkata Knight Riders.Wayanad : , April 21 (IANS) From the moment it was announced that Congress President Rahul Gandhi will contest the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, for many his victory was a foregone conclusion. The opposition disagrees.

For those who insist that Gandhi's victory from this hilly region is a certainty, the only point of debate is his victory margin.

The 20 parliamentary constituencies in Kerala, including Wayanad, go to the polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.

There was a period of indecision after former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy first talked about Gandhi's candidature from Wayanad, with the CPI-M-led Left and the BJP-led NDA taking potshots at the proposed move.

But when the announcement finally came, the Congress leadership and its rank and file were ecstatic.

This became evident when Gandhi, accompanied by his sister and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, arrived here on April 4 to file his nomination.

While there are 19 other contestants in Wayanad apart from Gandhi, the highest among all the other Lok Sabha seats in the state, his main opponents are P.P. Suneer of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the NDA-backed Bharath Dharma Jana Sena's (BDJS) Thushar Vellapally.

The constituency has around 1,325,788 voters, including 670,002 women and 655,786 men. In 2014, the seat was won by M.I. Shanavas of the Congress who beat CPI's Sathyan Mokeri by 20,870 votes.

Chandy told IANS that Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad had made every party opposed to the Congress jittery. He said that on the last day of campaign, there was a Gandhi wave, not just in Wayanad, but across Kerala as well as the neighbouring states.

"The only drawback of our campaign is that we never had the resources like what is being pumped in by the Left and NDA in Wayanad. All I can tell you now is that he (Gandhi) will come out with flying colours and win by the biggest ever margin," said Chandy.

The Wayanad Lok Sabha seat came into being in 2009 when it was carved out of the erstwhile Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram constituencies.

In 2009, Wayanad handed Congress' late M.I. Shanavas, who hailed from Kochi, his first electoral victory after the veteran tasted defeat in a number of elections from different constituencies in the state.

Shanavas defeated M. Rahmathulla of the CPI by over 1.5 lakh votes.

Though Shanavas was re-elected from Wayanad in 2014, his victory margin was reduced to 20,870 votes as there was a general impression that he failed to live up to the expectations of the people.

Shanavas (67) passed away in November 2018 and since then the Wayanad seat was vacant.

However, M.V. Shreyams Kumar, one of the campaign managers for the Left in Wayanad and a Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) leader, doesn't see a Gandhi wave in the region.

"I don't see any wave favouring Gandhi. We held a roadshow here on Saturday and the turnout was massive. The morale of the Left cadres is high. The Congress has failed to live up to the electorate's expectations in the past 10 years," said Kumar, a media baron and two-time former legislator who represented the Kalpetta Assembly constituency in Wayanad.

However, Jayan Komath, who is managing Gandhi's war room here, is confident that a Gandhi wave is sweeping the constituency.

"The mood is definitely palpable and one can sense it... The icing on the cake was Priyanka's visit on Saturday. She touched people's hearts with her frank opinions about her brother. We are predicting a victory margin beyond the four-lakh mark," said Komath.

Meanwhile, CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has slammed Gandhi, saying that despite winning from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in 2014, the Congress President failed to help his party win even a single Assembly constituency from there.

"There is no Gandhi wave. It has now been proved that the Congress can never be an alternative to the BJP. The one reason why Gandhi decided to run away from Amethi and contest from here is the guilt for the wrong policies of the Congress, which has sounded the death knell for the farmers," Balakrishnan said.Chittorgarh : , April 21 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, condemning the terror attacks on Sri Lanka on the holy occasion of Easter, asked people to vote for his BJP to eradicate terror.

Addressing a poll rally here, he said that when the entire world was remembering Jesus Christ and his message of peace, terrorists killed many innocent including children and women.

"We strongly condemn these attacks and are ready to extend all our help to Sri Lanka at this need of hour," he said.

As people said 'yes' as he asked them if they think that terrorism should be completely wiped off, he asked if there can be anyone other than Modi who can fight terrorism.

Modi also asked if the people wanted a "mazboot (strong) sarkar" or "majboor (weak) sarkar", if they wanted India which can give a befitting reply to Pakistan or India which sits quiet, if they want a government which can make the country stronger or keep it weak.

The Prime Minister also asked new voters to press on BJP's symbol "lotus" to build a new India, mentioning the NDA's drive against poverty, illiteracy, black money, corruption, and disease.

Listing flagship schemes like the PM Ujjawala Yojana, the Saubhagya Yojana, the Jan-Dhan scheme, the Mudra Yojana, and the toilet construction scheme, Modi said: "We started many ambitious projects and ensured they reached their end point, unlike the former government who did not know how to finish projects successfully."

Attacking the Congress, he and said that had it been honest, it could have done much but only did "vote bank politics" and continued to lie to people and cheat them.

As he asked if farmers' loans have been waived in ten days, as promised by the Congress government, people shouted no and shook their heads in denial.

"This is the lie being spread all across Rajasthan," he added.

"Since the last seven decades, they have been lying to people, They have just three facts to their credit - they stand for a 'Namdaar' family (dynasty), bhrashtachar (corruption) and jhoote wadon ki bharmaar (slew of promises)," he said.

Modi promised that his next government, if he is voted back, will set up a 'Jal Shakti Mantralaya' to work for smooth supply of water in areas suffering scanty water supply here.

"In next five years we will work on water, Jal Shakti ministry will be coming up which will ensure that rainwater reaches to dry areas via new techniques," he said.

He also accused Congress of sharing water, meant for Indians, with Pakistan.

"Congress took your vote but your water was being sent to Pakistan. You were thirsty but Congress was worried about quenching Pakistan's thirst," he said.

"Now, BJP has started a new dam project on water flowing towards Pakistan and with this dam, you shall have water of your share," he added.Kolkata, April 21 : Special Poll Observer Ajay Nayak's comments, comparing the current election scenario in West Bengal to that of Bihar over 10 to 15 years ago, has kicked up a political storm in the state with an angry Trinamool Congress seeking his recall and an elated opposition going hammer and tongs at the state's ruling party.

Objecting to Nayak's "partial statements", Trinamool General Secretary Subrata Bakshi shot off a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora demanding Nayak's immediate removal to ensure free and fair elections in Bengal in the remaining phases.

Following Nayak's comment, all major state opposition parties, including BJP, the Left and Congress described his observation as "correct" and said it was "unfortunate and shameful for Bengal" that an Election Commission (EC) appointed observer had to make such remarks.

State Congress Vice President Om Prakash Misra accused the Trinamool of reducing the election process in the state to a "farce".

"It is unfortunate that the EC observer had to make such an observation but in the context of law and order, especially with regards to the conduct of elections, it is very much correct. Bengal has long witnessed violence during elections but everything has been put to shame under the current regime," Misra told IANS.

When asked whether his party agrees to Trinamool's allegation that Nayak is not conducting the election impartially, he said: "We also have many questions about EC's conducts. It is true that BJP is trying to use its power at the Centre. But I do not agree to Trinamool's claims. They have reduced the election to a joke here."

Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty echoed Misra.

According to the CPI-M's Chakraborty, Nayak was " hundred per cent correct". However, it was "shameful" that Bengal, that was once at the helm, has been reduced to such depths by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party, he said.

"We used to refer to Bihar and UP (Uttar Pradesh) to describe misrule, once. Unfortunately Bengal has now taken that place. Irrespective of Nayaka's statement, the condition is such that poll workers are agitating everywhere to press their demand for deployment of Central forces. This means people have lost faith in the state administration," Chakraborty told IANS.

"Everyone has seen that, in the first two phases, there wass no problem in the booths where Central forces had been deployed. But the bloody memory of the last Panchayat elections came back to haunt the voters in booths being guarded by state police.

"It clearly shows the pathetic condition of law and order in Bengal and the Chief Minister should be blamed for this," he said.

BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha, however, claimed that the comment by Nayak was "an understatement" as the real political scenario in Bengal is much worse.

"I think his statement is not entirely correct. In reality Bengal's current situation is ten times worse than that of Bihar 10 years ago. There used to be incidents of booth capturing and rigging in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but it never saw such a scale of organised violence like Bengal where the state administration itself is involved," Sinha told IANS.

"Were close to 200 people ever killed in Bihar during state rural body elections? Did so many seats ever go uncontested? The answer is no. So I think Nayak has made an understatement. The actual condition here is so volatile that emergency should be imposed," he claimed.

During an off-camera interaction with reporters on Saturday, Nayak had compared the election scenario in West Bengal to that of Bihar over 10 to 15 years ago, and claimed that its people "do not have any faith in the state police".

He said such heavy deployment of Central forces in polling stations has not been required in any other state.

Speaking to electronic media a little later, however, Nayak toned down his comments, saying "things are improving in terms of election management" in the state.

"Bengal is progressing and things are improving in terms of election management. Bengal's elections are going to be absolutely peaceful and fair with more than 92 per cent booths to be covered by Central forces.

"This is to the satisfaction of all political parties. We do not expect any kind of trouble in the coming phases," the Bengal Special Poll Observer said.New Delhi, April 21 : Actress Kriti Sanon, currently shooting for the film "Panipat", says she never thought she would be a part of such a "massive film".

"We've shot in Jaipur. We've shot in ND studios in Karjat and are going to be shooting in Mumbai. It's shaping up wonderfully and is truly a magical experience," Kriti told IANS in an e-mail interview about the movie, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker.

"This film transports you to a different era. I never thought I would be a part of such a massive film," said the 28-year-old actress.

"Panipat" will tell the story as what led to the third Battle of Panipat. It is being produced by Sunita Gowariker under their home banner AGPPL in association with Vision World.

The film, slated for release on December 6, also stars Arjun Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt in pivotal roles. National Award-winning music director duo Ajay-Atul are creating tunes for the film.New Delhi, April 21 : Three Indians are among those killed in the suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced.

The Minister quoted the Indian High Commission as saying that it had been informed by the National Hospital in Colombo about the death of three Indian nationals: Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

"We are ascertaining further details," the Minister said.

Earlier reports from Kerala said that a woman from the state who was holidaying in Colombo with her husband was killed in the terror attack.New Delhi, April 21 : The third phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for Tuesday will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in a single phase -- 117 across 15 states and Union Territories.

It will also be a test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which will aim to defend the maximum number of seats at 62.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 62 of the 115 seats in the third phase, and its performance in this phase will be crucial in deciding its political fortunes.

The Congress had won 16 seats, while the remaining seats were divided between BJD (6), CPI-M (7), NCP (4), Samajwadi Party (3), Shiv Sena (2), RJD (2), AIUDF (2), IUML (2), LJP (1), PDP (1), RSP (1), Kerala Congress-M (1), CPI (1), Swabhimani Paksha (1) and Trinamool Congress (1). Three seats were won by Independent candidates.

This time the BJP will be tested in its bastion Gujarat -- where polling will be held for all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state -- apart from Karanataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had done well in 2014.

In 2014, the BJP won all the 26 seats in Gujarat, 11 of 14 in Karnataka, 8 of 10 in Uttar Pradesh, 6 of 7 in Chhattisgarh, 6 of 14 in Maharashtra, both the seats in Goa and one seat each in Assam, Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The Presidents of the two main political parties are in fray in the third phase with BJP chief Amit Shah making his Lok Sabha election debut from Gandhinagar and Congress President Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad.

Gujarat being the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP would again look for clean sweep in the state. However, the Congress, which gave a tough fight to the BJP in the Assembly polls held in 2017, is hoping to win 10 to 15 seats this time.

The three young Gujarat leaders -- Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani -- whose positions had helped the Congress build a narrative against the BJP during the Assembly elections, are not in the fray for the Lok Sabha polls.

Patidar agitation leader Patel, who joined the Congress last month, cannot contest due to his conviction in a rioting case, while Thakor quit the Congress earlier this month.

In Karnataka, the BJP is considered to have strong footing in many of the 14 seats going to the polls on Tuesday. However, the saffron party faces tough challenge from the Congress-JD-S combine.

Moreover, its vote share too dipped in the Assembly polls held in Karnataka last year as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the Assembly elections, the BJP had polled lesser votes than the Congress but got more seats.

The BJP faces a strong challenge in Uttar Pradesh, as the third phase of Lok Sabha elections will be fought in the "Yadav belt".

The Samajwadi Party (SP) strongholds of Mainpuri, Badaun and Sambhal will go to the polls on Tuesday and the party's prospects have received a considerabe boost following its alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The Congress too is also likely to cut into BJP votes.

Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) President Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is contesting from Firozabad against his nephew and SP candidate Akshay Yadav, has been cautioning the people against the SP-BSP combine.

SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is contesting from Mainpuri. The joint rally held in the constituency on Friday, in which BSP supremo Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav shared the stage, is likely to boost the prospects of the SP candidates.

In Maharashtra, the third phase of polling will be held in some NCP strongholds, including Baramati, Madha, Kolahpur and Satara. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is contesting from the party's bastion in Baramati.

The Congress and the NCP have dominated the local bodies and cooperatives in the sugar belt of the state, which has of late been challenged by the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. The Lok Sabha results will show if the NCP is able to regain its earlier dominance in the region.

In Chhattisgarh, the BJP has sought to beat the anti-incumbency wave against its sitting MPs by replacing all of them. Here the saffron party faces a renewed challenge from the Congress, which returned to power in the state in 2018 after 15 years. The Congress is focusing more on local issues, telling the voters that its government has quickly delivered on its promises.

Of the five seats in Bihar, the BJP had won only one in 2014 and it is again contesting one seat this time. Janata Dal (United), the BJP's ally in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is contesting three seats while the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is contesting one seat.

As part of the grand alliance, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is contesting three seats, while the Congress and the Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) are contesting one seat each.

The key contest is in Madhepura, where sitting MP Pappu Yadav, who had won on a RJD ticket in 2014, is contesting for the Jan Adhikar Party, a political outfit floated by him in 2015. He is up against RJD candidate Sharad Yadav.

In Odisha, the third phase of elections will witness a battle between several political heavyweights as well as former bureaucrats.

Puri will witness a triangular fight between spokespersons of three major political parties, as two-time sitting MP and BJD spokesman Pinaki Mishra will cross swords with BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra and state Congress media cell Chairman Satya Prakash Nayak. Dhenkanal is also expected to witness a triangular fight.

In the four constituencies of lower Assam that will go to the polls on Tuesday, both the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front ((AIUDF) are seeking to gain votes by targeting the BJP over its stance in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The AIUDF has accused the Congress of not adhering to "gentleman's agreement" between the two parties under which the regional party did not put up candidates on 11 seats and was expecting the Congress to field "weak candidates". Congress, however, has said that it had no such arrangement.

The Congress will look to swell its tally in Kerala with Rahul Gandhi in the fray from Wayanad. The party had won 8 of the 20 seats in 2014 while a few more were won by its allies. The BJP too is seeing a realistic chance to win four seats in the southern state.

The Congress will also seek to at least retain the three seats it won in West Bengal in 2014, though it faces a multi-cornered challenge from the Trinamool Congress, the BJP and the CPI-M.

(The writer can be contacted at prashant.s@ians.in)United Nations, April 21 : UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Sunday expressed outrage over the Easter bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka and called for "swift justice" to the perpetrators.

"The Secretary General reiterates the support and solidarity of the United Nations with the people and the Government of Sri Lanka in this difficult moment for the nation", Guterres's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

"He commends the leadership demonstrated by the authorities and unity of the people of Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks."

Dujarric said: "The Secretary-General is outraged by the terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, a sacred day for Christians around the world. He recalls the sanctity of all places of worship. He hopes the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice."

More than 200 people have been killed and over 500 wounded in the series of at least eight coordinated suicide bombings in Colombo and two other places targeting churches.

As of Sunday night in Sri Lanka, no group has taken responsibility for the attacks.

Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump has offered to help Sri Lanka.

"The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka," he tweeted. "We stand ready to help!"

Other US politicians also expressed their condolences.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney tweeted: "As we celebrate the miracle of Easter, we hold in our hearts the victims of the senseless violence in Sri Lanka and their loved ones. We pray that they may experience God's eternal grace, comfort, and love."

"Today's heartbreaking attacks in Sri Lanka come as the country has worked hard to build a common future after years of war," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat tweeted. "Our thoughts are with the injured & the families of those killed in today's Easter Sunday attacks."

Senator Kamala Harris tweeted: "I am horrified by the attacks in Sri Lanka, where so many families were celebrating such a joyous day. Praying for the victims and their loved ones."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)Colombo, April 21 : At least 207 people were killed and 469 injured when eight suicide bombings, mainly in Colombo, ravaged Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday in the island's bloodiest day since the civil war ended a decade ago. Three Indians were among the dead.

Sri Lanka declared a nationwide curfew and placed curbs on social media to kill fake news after suicide bombers carried out a string of well-planned explosions targeting luxury hotels and Catholic churches in Colombo and elsewhere, triggering international outrage.

The first of six blasts took place in the morning in three luxury hotels in the heart of Colombo and in a church each in Colombo, Negombo, 30 km from here, and in the Tamil-majority Batticaloa town in the island's east that was once a Tamil Tiger stronghold.

In the afternoon, another blast hit a guest house near the zoo in Dehiwala in Colombo, killing two persons, and a housing complex at Dematogoda in the city leaving three policemen dead.

A total of 27 foreigners, including three Indians and also people from Turkey, the US, Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal and China, perished in the mayhem.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, quoting official reports from Colombo, identified the Indians as Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

Authorities said a total of seven suspects had been arrested but gave no further details.

Officials and survivors painted a horrific picture of what happened.

Kieran Arasaratnam, who was staying in the Shangri-La, one of the three hotels, said he heard what sounded like a "thunder", forcing him to sprint all the way down from the 17th floor, BBC reported.

He saw the second floor restaurant gutted and realized he was alive only because he delayed his breakfast.

The bloodbath started around 8.30 a.m. at the St Anthony's Shrine at Kochchikade in Colombo during Easter Mass where one man said he heard a booming explosion and saw virtually the whole roof come crashing down. "We just ran," he told the media.

The other places hit were St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, the Zion Church in Batticaloa, 250 km east of Colombo, the Cinnamon Grand hotel, located near the official residence of the Prime Minister, and Kingsbury Hotel.

Photos and videos circulating on social media showed the roof of one church had been almost fully blown away in the blast. The floor was littered with a mixture of roof tiles, splintered wood and blood, media reports said.

Many people could be seen covered in blood. Some helped those with more serious injuries. Ambulances, their sirens wailing, rushed the dead and seriously injured to hospitals -- once a familiar sight in Colombo.

Minister of Economic Reforms Harsha de Silva described the carnage. "Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over," he said.

No one claimed responsibility for the bloodbath but AFP reported that Sri Lankan Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara had issued a nationwide alert 10 days ago warning that suicide bombers planned to hit prominent Catholic churches.

The Daily Mirror newspaper quoted the findings of initial investigations as saying that the first six major blasts were caused by suicide bombers and added that two of them had checked a day earlier into the Shangri-La Hotel.

It said that the investigators who broke into Room No 616 "had recovered materials used by radical" Islamist extremists. The Mirror said it was not clear if the bombers were Sri Lankans or foreigners.

The government declared a state of emergency, imposed indefinite curfew across the nation and temporarily blocked Facebook and Instagram to curb the spread of fake news. All schools were ordered shut until Tuesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on phone with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, called the terror attacks "cold-blooded and pre-planned" barbarism and offered all help from New Delhi.

Condemnation was fast and swift from across the world: China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Ireland, Britain, Germany, Singapore, the Philippines, Israel, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Egypt, New Zealand, Canada and the European Commission denounced the killings.

A Sri Lankan Tamil journalist, V. Thanabalasingham, told IANS that a sense of panic had gripped Colombo, which had given up its overbearing security cover ever since the Tamil Tigers were crushed in May 2009, leading to a decade of peace.

President Sirisena urged the public to be calm and cooperate with the authorities to conduct swift investigations into the blasts. "I am shocked and saddened by the situation."

AFP said a foreign intelligence agency had reported that the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), a Muslim group blamed for attacks on Buddhist shrines, was planning to carry out suicide attacks against prominent churches as well as the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

Although Christians form only around 7 per cent of the Sri Lanka's mainly Buddhist population, they are found both in the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil communities.Shillong, April 21 : Political and church leaders in Meghalaya and Nagaland on Sunday strongly condemned the multiple blasts that rocked Sri Lanka on Sunday.

At least 207 people were killed and 469 injured when eight suicide bombings struck luxury hotels and churches across Sri Lanka, mainly in Colombo, on Easter Sunday in the island's bloodiest day since the civil war ended a decade ago.

Condemning the attacks, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio tweeted: "I am shocked and saddened by the news of bombings in hotels and churches in Sri Lanka. I condemn this mindless violence targeting innocent people and worshippers attending #EasterSunday service. My thoughts and prayers for all those affected."

Taking to Twitter, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said: "Condemn the attack on Churches and innocent lives which took place in Sri Lanka. May the Almighty give courage to the members of the bereaved families to be able to bear the loss and the strength to forgive those who have acted so mercilessly."

"Condolences for the bereaved families of the dead in Sri Lanka. Om Shanti...As for the perpetrators, as the Israelis would say, there must be terrible retribution. And there must be no exceptions," tweeted Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy.

The leader of Opposition in the Meghalaya Assembly, Mukul Manda Sangma tweeted: "Deeply grieved by the loss of so many precious lives and injuries to hundreds of people in Sri Lanka. I condemn the barbaric terror attacks on innocent lives and peace loving people."

Meanwhile, the Presbyterian Church of India (PCI) has urged upon the Sri Lankan government to do its best to stop further heinous and dastardly acts.

"We convey our heartfelt symphaties and condolences to the bereaved and also pray to the Almighty for their comfort and strength," said G.S. Lyttan, Senior Admnistrative Secretary, PSCI.Amaravati, April 21 : The Andhra Pradesh government Sunday ordered an inquiry into alleged lapses in release and transportation of the gold belonging to Tirupati temple in the wake of seizure of 1,381 kg of gold by the Election Commission in Tamil Nadu four days ago.

Chief Secretary L.V. Subrahmanyam asked Special Chief Secretary, Revenue, Manmohan Singh to find out "the specific lapses, if any," on the part of Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Triumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the affairs of the richest Hindu temple.

Singh was asked to rush to Tirupati, conduct an inquiry into the alleged lapses and submit a report with critical appreciation on or before April 23.

He was told to see if there were written instructions issued by the Executive Officer, TTD and what was the role of TTD's Vigilance Wing. The officer will also report on what special care and monitoring the Vigilance Wing has to take, said an official release.

The transport of the gold from the PNB's Chennai branch triggered a controversy as the bullion, along with the truck carrying it, was seized by the Election Commission officials in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvallur on April 17, a day before polling in that state.

The gold, said to be worth over Rs 400 crore, was being brought to the temple treasury in Tirupati.

The TTD initially denied that the gold seized in Tiruvallur belonged to it. The Election Commission later released the gold after the TTD produced relevant documents.

The incident led to questions on the security of the temple gold. Political parties and other organisations criticised the TTD for not providing proper security and the documentation to bring back the gold to the temple treasury and sought probe into the alleged lapses.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Andhra Pradesh unit alleged that the incident had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and demanded probe by the Union Finance Ministry.

BJP leader Bhanu Prakash, a former member of the TTD trust board, said the incident tarnished the name of the temple body across the country. He alleged that the PNB did not follow the procedure as the TTD was not aware that the gold was being brought to Tirupati.

The pure gold bars were deposited by the TTD with the bank in 2016.New York, April 21 : The United States denounced the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka as an affront to universal values and confirmed that many of its citizens were among the victims.

Washington "condemns in the strongest terms the outrageous terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka", US President Donald Trump's Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Sunday.

"We stand with the Sri Lankan government and people as they bring to justice the perpetrators of these despicable and senseless acts."

Earlier, President Donald Trump tweeted: "We stand ready to help" Sri Lanka.

"The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: "We can confirm that several US citizens were among those killed. The US Embassy is working tirelessly to provide all possible assistance to the American citizens affected by the attacks and their families."

He added: "Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security."

In New York City, police department Chief Terence Monahana said, in a tweet, that although there was no known connection to city, police "officers will be seen at temples & churches as we remain steadfast in our mission to keep every New Yorker safe".

Sympathy for the victims and outrage over terrorism poured in from US politicians on Twitter.

Former US President Barack Obama tweeted that the attacks "are an attack on humanity".

"Today's heartbreaking attacks in Sri Lanka come as the country has worked hard to build a common future after years of war", Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat tweeted.

Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted: "On this holy weekend for many faiths, we must stand united against hatred and violence."

Republican Senator Mitt Romney tweeted: "As we celebrate the miracle of Easter, we hold in our hearts the victims of the senseless violence in Sri Lanka and their loved ones. We pray that they may experience God's eternal grace, comfort, and love."

Aspirants for the Democratic Party' presidential nomination joined the wave of sympathy.

"On a day devoted to love & peace, may we remember Jesus Christ's message of love - for God & for each other - as we commit to defeating hate with love," tweeted Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Hindu American.

Senator Kamala Harris tweeted: "I am horrified by the attacks in Sri Lanka, where so many families were celebrating such a joyous day. Praying for the victims and their loved ones."

Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted: "To slaughter worshipers at church during Easter service is an act of great evil."

"No person should have to fear for their life in their place of worship," tweeted Bernie Sanders. "We must work to bring this world together around our common humanity."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)Chennai, April 21 : At least seven persons, including four women, died and 12 others were injured in a stampede in a private temple in Tiruchirappali district in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, an official statement said.

According to the statement, the stampede happened when the devotees tried to receive the rupee coins known as 'Padi Kasu' from the priest.

The injured have been admitted to the hospital.

Condoling the deaths, Chief Minister K. Palaniswami announced a solatium of Rs 100,000 to their family members and Rs.50,000 to those who were injured.

DMK President M.K. Stalin, in a tweet, said he was shocked to hear about the death of seven persons.

He said the police has to beef up its security in such temple festivals.New Delhi, April 22 : Four Indians were among those killed in the suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, while many others, including a leading Tamil actress, had a narrow escape.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj quoted the Indian High Commission as saying that it had been informed by the National Hospital in Colombo about the death of three Indian nationals -- Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar, Ramesh.

"We are ascertaining further details," the Minister said.

A fourth casualty was reported by authorities in Kerala, who said that a woman hailing from the state was killed in Colombo where she was holidaying.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed condolences over the death of 58-year-old P.S. Raseena, who arrived in the Sri Lankan capital along with her husband to meet their relatives engaged in business in Colombo.

Raseena and her husband, who hail from Kasargode in Kerala, live in Dubai and were staying at one of the three hotels in Colombo targeted by the suicide bombers.

Meanwhile, noted Indian Tamil actress Radikaa Sarathkumar had left one of the three hotels in Colombo just before it was bombed.

Radikaa tweeted that she was staying at the Cinnamon Grand, located near the official residence of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister.

"OMG bomb blasts in SL, God be with all. I just left Cinnamon Grand hotel and it has been bombed. Can't believe this. Shocking," she tweeted.

Five persons from Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district too had a narrow escape in the serial bomb blasts.

Amilineni Surendra Babu, who heads the SR Construction firm, sustained minor injuries while his friends escaped unhurt when a bomb went off at the Shangri La Hotel in Colombo, where they were staying.

The group, which was on a tour to Sri Lanka, was having breakfast at the hotel when a bomb ripped through the premises.

In the stampede that followed, Surendra Babu sustained minor injuries. The group later moved to a safer place. Some pictures of the injured were posted on the social media.

A police officer in Anantapur district said they did not succeed in contacting the businessmen as the communication network in the island nation was down after the serial blasts.

At least 207 people were killed and 469 injured when eight suicide bombings struck luxury hotels and churches across Sri Lanka, mainly in Colombo, on Easter Sunday in the island's bloodiest day since the civil war ended a decade ago.DopeBoo founder inspects straight tube bong DopeBoos explosive growth is the result of a relentless focus on doing two things exceptionally well

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SOURCE DopeBoo.comBeing considered a high-risk driver comes with more expensive insurance premiums. However, there are some things drivers can do in order to get better rates, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com has released a new blog post that informs high-risk drivers that there are certain strategies which will help them get cheaper car insurance.

For more info and free quotes, visit https://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/tips-that-can-help-high-risk-drivers-get-affordable-car-insurance/

Insurance companies define high-risk drivers as persons more likely to be involved in an accident and to file claims. They compensate for the higher risk by considerably increasing the coverage costs. A high-risk driver can pay double, triple or even more expensive premiums when compared to a standard driver. This is why such drivers should carefully analyze the market and use the following tips:



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Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.Theres no practical way of stabilizing the population of the U.S. without reducing the immigration rate.

Increasing awareness of damage done to the environment by human impact in the 20th century, spurred by works such as Rachel Carsons Silent Spring in 1962 and Paul and Anne Ehrlichs The Population Bomb, along with the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire in Ohio and a huge oil spill off the California coast, among other events, provided the momentum for the first Earth Day event on April 22, 1970.

Earth Day is now observed throughout the world in a variety of events. Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) demonstrates its support for environmental protection on April 22 and every day by informing on the unintended consequences of immigration-fueled population growth. As the late Sen. Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, aptly stated, There is no way in the world we can forge a sustainable society without stabilizing the population.... Theres no practical way of stabilizing the population of the U.S. without reducing the immigration rate.

World population was 3.7 billion when the first Earth Day was held to show support for the environment and bring attention to human overpopulation. The global population is now more than double that at 7.7 billion. About 82 million people are added to the global family each year, and total population is estimated to grow to 11.2 billion by 2100, based on the medium projection variant of the United Nations, Population Division.

In the United States, population was 209 million in 1970, and today is at 329 million, projected to grow to more than 400 million by 2060, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Americans in the 1960s and 1970s got the overpopulation message loud and clear, and acted accordingly; they started choosing to have smaller families, says Kevin Lynn, PFIRs executive director. But with a shift among environmental groups and other thought leaders, its become increasingly politically incorrect to talk about overpopulation. But we still have an overpopulation problem in the U.S., and its growth driven by immigration.

The U.S. gains one net international migrant every 33 seconds, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A new study from Yale researchers estimated that more than 20 million people live in the U.S. illegally. Additionally, each year the U.S. admits about 1 million or more lawful permanent residents and about 750,000 guest workers.

PFIR will be attending EarthX in Dallas, Texas, April 26 to 28. PFIR Executive Director Kevin Lynn will meet with the public on all three days to discuss how best to keep Nelsons vision alive.

About Progressives for Immigration Reform

Website: https://progressivesforimmigrationreform.org

PFIR works to protect American workers from unemployment and wage suppression caused by unfair labor and trade practices, including importation of large numbers of low-wage foreign workers who are subject to exploitation by foreign and domestic corporations working in the United States.

Contact

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310.479.2002 | Los Angeles

mfotopoulos@pfirdc.orgWelcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here.

OKU.S. authorities have arrested a former US Marine who is allegedly part of a group that raided North Korea's embassy in Madrid, reports say.

Christopher Ahn appeared in a Los Angeles federal court, sources say.

It would be the first arrest over the incident, which happened in February days before US President Donald Trump met North Korea's Kim Jong-un in Vietnam.

Free Joseon, a self-styled human rights group, says it was involved.The last of the U.S. Navy's active duty P-3C Orion patrol planes are on their final overseas deployments, split between bases in Bahrain and Japan. The six-month rotations in the Middle East and Pacific regions come as the service prepares to retire all of its Orions in active duty units and replace them completely with the new P-8A Poseidon.

The Whidbey News-Times was the first to report that P-3Cs from Patrol Squadron Four Zero (VP-40), the Fighting Marlins, left their main base at Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island in Washington state at the end of March 2019 for their sundown deployments to Sheik Isa Air Base in Bahrain and Kadena Air Base in Japan. These Orions replaced their counterparts from Patrol Squadron Four Six (VP-46), the Grey Knights, at those locations. VP-46's planes returned to Whidbey Island earlier in April 2019.Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale

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We're sorry, this article is not currently availableBy Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 04/21/2019



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expert Dr. Jessica Griffin is giving a sincere shout out to Dr. Pepper Schwartz following the recent news she's leaving the reality series and gotten engaged to former Season 6 participant Jonathan Francetic "I'm a little late to the party but after our long talk today, my #wcw goes out to this woman @dr_pepper_schwartz -- she has lived an extraordinary life and accomplished so much," Jessica, 41, wrote Thursday on Instagram in honor of "Women Crush Wednesday.""And, she's been an extraordinary friend not just in the #marriedatfirstsight world but beyond. She's my confidante, my mentor, my friend and one of the funniest women I've ever known."Jessica faced some backlash and scrutiny when she began dating 30-year-old Jonathan following his stint on 's sixth season, which began filming in late Summer 2017 and aired its finale in April 2018.Since Jessica served as a marriage counselor or therapist to Jonathan and his then-wife Molly Duff -- whom Jonathan later divorced -- on the show, critics accused Jonathan and the doctor of engaging in an "inappropriate" romance that reflected poorly on Jessica's profession.Jessica and Jonathan, however, defended their relationship to the ground, and according to Jessica, she had Dr. Pepper's support all along."She's had my back even when others have turned their back on me and has been 100 percent supportive of @jon_francetic and I," Jessica continued in her Instagram post.Jessica claims she did not have a client/therapist or doctor/patient relationship with Jonathan at any point during production and outside companies are hired to conduct the psychological evaluations of 's cast members."I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to make such a special connection with this special woman," Jessica concluded."I know she won't read this, but maybe her assistant or sweet husband will tell her. I love you, Pepper! Excited about our future adventures together."Jessica did not mention 's other expert, Pastor Calvin Roberson, although that may not be something to read into.Jessica and Jonathan, who began dating last summer and went public with their relationship in August 2018, got engaged last weekend at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona."I have always said, you can find love in extraordinary ways -- you just have to follow your heart and be you, nobody other than you, and the right person will find you (if he's persistent enough and eventually hunts you down and won't take no for an answer.)" Jessica shared on Instagram, showing off a photo of her diamond ring."For the first time in my history of knowing him, Jon was at a loss for words and a total adorable mess on his knee. So, of course, I said yes -- just helping a guy out."The couple's big moment came shortly after People reported Jessica is leaving her role as a relationship expert on after appearing on the Lifetime reality series for three seasons.Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Grouphe suspect was arrested on April 9 and booked in the Gwinnett County Jail. According to the press release, he was charged with two counts of concealing the death of another and two counts of participating in criminal gang activity.Only a couple of months after opening her first CBD store near Athens Square Mall, Jacklin Parker is opening up another Your CBD Store in East Athens

In January of 2019 Parker and her husband opened up a franchise location of Your CBD Store in west Athens. Parker said this franchise is unique in the CBD market because it isnt tied to marijuana or smoking at all, and instead sells products with the emphasis on medical applications of CBD, or Cannabidiol.For decades, Athens has been deemed the Classic City by locals and visitors. After this year, however, Athens may soon have a new name as thAt the 117th Sibley Lecture on April 12 hosted by the University of Georgia Law School, University of Chicago Professor David Strauss spoke about whether or not Supreme Court decisions are actually the law of the land.'The trading community will be a priority for Modi when he forms the next government.'

Subhayan Chakraborty and Nivedita Mookerji report.

Five years ago, then Gujarat chief minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Damodardas Modi wooed traders from all across the country with the promise of trust, ease of doing business and a better tomorrow.

On Friday, April 19, Modi returned to the partys key vote bank, seeking another term while setting the target to take India to 50th rank in Ease of Doing Business in five years and committing a policy for small traders.

"You are the biggest stakeholders in the economy," the PM said, while addressing more than 1,000 traders at the Talkatora indoor stadium in the capital on Friday evening, in the midst of a 'phir ek baar Modi sarkar' chant.

If the clap and cheer could be any measure, Modi should be back as PM.

Responding to the high-pitch welcome, the PM listed the achievements of the past five years while lambasting the Congress for its 'failures of 70 years' in a style that had election written all over.

While counting the many positives of the Goods and Services Tax, he left out any mention of demonetisation, the biggest disruption for small and medium traders during the current rule of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.

There was no talk on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail either.

In its campaign for the 2014 election, the BJP had told traders that FDI in multi-brand retail would not be allowed if it was voted to power.

In the past five years, no FDI proposal has been entertained by this government.

Even as he put forward a to-do list, including a national policy for small traders, the creation of a national trader welfare board, fixed pensions and accident insurance, Modi's thrust was on giving "respect" to traders.

According to the PM, during the Congress rule, there was dearth of respect for traders.

Addressing a packed auditorium at the national conclave of the Confederation of All India Traders, Modi said the Congress had labelled traders inherently criminal.

"Gandhiji used to take pride in saying he belonged to the trader community, but his party has over the past 70 years thrived on calling traders thieves," Modi said.

This was the first time any PM was addressing a gathering of traders, according to representatives of the CAIT.

Praveen Khandelwal, national secretary general, CAIT, who uses 'Chowkidar' as a prefix in his Twitter account (following the PM), says it is clear that "the trading community will be a priority for Modi when he forms the next government."

What about the Congress? Hasn't it reached out to this community? It seems the core committees of traders had sent across their wishlist to all political parties, but only the BJP responded.

Not that traders have not been angry with the Modi government in the past.

Both after demonetisation and introduction of the GST, their businesses were hurt, but things are coming back on track, most of those who attended Modi's address said.

Once the new government takes over, the traders bodies want to take up issues such as subsidy for computerisaton, funds for infrastructure development and further easing of norms.

However, on Friday, there was no second opinion on who will form the next government.

"Undoubtedly, it will be a Modi government again," says Rajesh Dave, a jeweller from Delhi's Chandni Chowk, after the three-hour event that was peppered with speeches, songs and dances and plenty of nationalism.

Sporting a main bhi chowkidar tee, Nayan Jhaveri, who is into chemical business, listed out reasons why Modi is the best PM and the vote is for him.

A textile businessman Pankaj Seth refused to get drawn into any conversation about demonetisation, saying, there has been no problem at all in the last five years. "It is surprising how he comes out with so many novel ideas."

Wearing a NaMo shirt, Pradeep Gehlot, owner of a construction business, says the promises made by the PM will be incremental to the benefits the BJP has already provided.

This includes the way it has become easier to purchase commodities like sand and stones, which earlier faced problems such as items getting stolen in transit and low quality, as well as counterfeit goods reaching the market.Etihad wants to control a domestic carrier that can give it access to over 45 cities in India from where it can bring traffic to its hub in Abu Dhabi and beyond.

Surajeet Das Gupta reports.

Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters

Will Etihad Airways be second time lucky if it wins the bid for acquiring Jet Airways?

On the positive side for Etihad, Jet promoter Naresh Goyal with whom it had a tumultuous relationship, will not be in the driver's seat as he has been ousted from the board and might end up with only a small stake in Jet.

In 2013, Etihad bailed Goyal out when he sank into a financial mess by taking a 24% stake in Jet for $397 million.

Then, Goyal was not only not ready to play ball with Etihad, he charted out an independent course for the airline that came into direct conflict with Etihad.

This time round, Etihad will call the shots, as it has wanted to from the start.

Second, all the reasons why Etihad wanted to invest in Jet earlier remain intact.

India is, of course, a key market in Etihad's ambition globally where it is fighting a bitter battle with big brother Emirates which dominates the India-West Asia market.

To Etihad's annoyance, Dubai is still the largest hub in this region for Indians flying to the US.

Etihad wants a larger piece of this market in India and this could happen if it controlled a domestic carrier that can give it access to over 45 cities in India from where it can seamlessly bring traffic to its hub in Abu Dhabi and beyond.

This ambition could not materialise when Goyal was at the helm as he harboured his own ideas and refused to tag along with Etihad's game plan.

While the relationship worked for a while, the simmering tensions came to a head in 2017 when Goyal signed an alliance with KLM-Air France and Delta.

WThis created an alternative hub for Indian passengers who wanted to go to Europe or the US through Amsterdam and Paris rather than Abu Dhabi, or even Dusseldorf which was a hub for Air Berlin which was then controlled by Etihad.

As a result, Etihad's insignificant market share of 2.2% in 2013-2014 (compared to Emirates's 11%) went up to 5% in the June 2017 quarter before falling back once again to 3.2% in the December quarter of 2018.

This left Emirates far ahead with over 10%.

If Etihad can win this time round, it might stand a better chance of challenging Emirates.

For example, if it is able to bring Jet's operations back on track (to the levels of even the December quarter 2018), it could capture 15% of the international passenger market, overtaking Emirates and even posing a challenge to Air India's 16.9% share (including Air India Express).

Now that would be a prize worth having.

But while many things that appealed to Etihad in the first place about Jet remain in place, there has been one big change in its own plans and that is the fact that, in the past couple of years, its aggressive global ambition of expanding its network through acquisitions and alliances has faltered.

As a result, it has been forced to shut down unprofitable routes, trim its fleet orders and close down Air Berlin owing to a $1.28 billion loss last year.

Etihad is no longer as cash rich as it used to be.

Meanwhile, arch rival Emirates has pulled ahead even further in the West Asia airlines sweepstakes.

The question isn't so much whether Etihad can take control of Jet but whether, even if it does, it has the will and the resources to fight for a dominant position.I can't see what purpose can be served by an apology by a British government that cannot in any way be blamed for one sadistic man running amok 100 years ago, argues Sunanda K Datta-Ray.

IMAGE: Then British prime minister David Cameron places a wreath at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial, February 23, 2013. Photograph: Munish Sharma/Reuters

Jallianwala Bagh was an unspeakable horror. Just reading the first section of Stanley Wolpert's Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh would make anyone's blood boil.

The victims deserve honour and respect. The date is as sacred as Independence Day. But I can't for the life of me see what purpose can be served by a formal apology by a British government that cannot in any way be blamed for one psychotically sadistic man running amok 100 years ago.

We might as well blame Reginald Dyer's Indian troops who actually gunned down the crowd.

The event isn't even part of Britains national consciousness, like the 'Black Hole of Calcutta'. Dyer's grandson was at boarding school in England with my son, but there was no ripple of awareness around him.

Back in England after a lifetime in India, my colleague Philip Crosland, the gentlest of liberals, told me apologetically that Dyer's Indian troops raised a fund for him. The implication was that the man was held in affection.

Yet, passions must once have reached fever pitch for a backwoods peer to mutter, 'If they are all like him the more they massacre the better!' about Lord Sinha after he made what many thought was a sensible speech during the House of Lords debate on cashiering Dyer.

Personal prejudice will linger no matter how abjectly Queen Elizabeth or Theresa May might apologise.

A literal application of the Book of Exodus's injunction that the iniquity of the fathers is visited unto the children into the third and fourth generations would mean punishing my son'/s innocent school friend. Not anyone in government.

Dyer acted on his own without consulting any colleague. In any case, this 'shameful scar on British Indian history' (quoting Mrs May) took place in a long-vanished imperial context. It cannot be compared with the US and Australian governments apologising to the American Indian and Aboriginal communities for injustices.

National governments remain responsible for everything that happens in the continuum of history. They can expect political dividend from gestures of atonement for the actions of predecessors. They cannot be compared with a temporarily occupying alien power that packed its bags and left India on agreed terms 72 years ago.

Apologies often boil down to money. Mark Field, a British minister, says London must consider the 'financial implications' of any gesture. That's what the quarrel between Japan and several East and South East Asian countries over so-called 'comfort women' during World War II was all about.

Japan gave South Korea a lump sum compensation of $800 million and set up the privately run, donations-based Asian Women's Fund further to compensate surviving victims across Asia.

A Tamil Malaysian human rights lawyer sued Britain in 2007 for an astronomical $4 trillion for atrocities allegedly suffered by Indian indentured labourers in colonial Malaya.

Indians can file similar suits over Fiji, the Caribbean, Mauritius and other places.

Today's ruling Indians can also themselves be sued. Varna Hindus (even those who have converted to Islam) owe a debt to the earlier lords of the land. Adivasis's land has been appropriated, forests denuded, mineral deposits ravaged, sacred hills violated, and entire lifestyles ruthlessly forced into the straitjacket of an alien civilisation.

There are many suspicions about how and why the police shot dead the immensely popular Maharaja Pravir Chand Bhanj Deo of Bastar.

Can India's pious and pompous political leaders ever adequately compensate the Santhal and Oraon, Onge and Jarawa, or even Nagas and Mizos for robbing them of their indigenous culture?

The Kolhan Raksha Sangh's leaders were charged with sedition when they claimed in 1981 that under Regulation XIII of 1833 (Wilkinson Rules), the Hos of Jharkhand were autonomous under the British crown.

No apology can restore Ooty's Todas to their once pre-eminent position in a network of communities. Without waiting for an empty apology, the Sentinelese took the law into their own hands and killed an American intruder.

The Nicobarese Holchu must resent curbs on their ancient freedom to interact with the Javanese. The deprivation of these indigenes helps caste Hindu advancement.

As the Washington Post once observed, 'issuing a national apology for slavery -- beyond its symbolism -- does not expand economic and educational opportunity, remove barriers to achievement, promote effective citizens, or build one America based on mutual respect and shared values.'

That also applies to India's dispossessed Adivasis. British politicians working for an apology mean well. But with so much to redress at home, so many crimes to expiate, Indians don't need the empty ritual.

It would only massage a few political egos'It was my own decision to resign as governor.'

'I felt the party needed my services and presence during the election.'

'I did not resign to contest the election, but when the party asked me to contest from Thiruvananthapuram, I agreed.'

IMAGE: Kummanam Rajasekharan is showered with flowers during his election campaign in Thiruvananthapuram. Photograph: Kind courtesy Kummanam Rajasekharan/Twitter

Kummanam Rajasekharan was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak till 2015 when he was appointed president of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Kerala unit. He was then sent to Mizoram as governor, a decision the BJP may have regretted when the Sabarimala issue rocked Kerala.

Kummanam had led an agitation in 1982 when the then Congress-led government gave permission to build a church at Nilakkal, which is the entry point to the Sabarimala temple. Sreedharan Pillai, who currently heads the BJP in Kerala, the party's supporters believe, messed up an opportunity to earn political dividends for the BJP from the Sabarimala agitation.

Soon after the election dates were announced, Kummanam resigned as governor to contest the Lok Sabha election from Thiruvananthapuram against Shashi Tharoor, the two-time MP.

"I travelled with Kummanam in his open jeep while he was campaigning in Neyyattinkara to speak to him on the way, but the blaring loudspeaker announcing his arrival made it impossible to have a conversation. He said he would talk to me once he finished the day's campaign," says Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.

By the time he called it a day it was past 11 pm. As he headed back to his room, Kummanam spoke to her over the phone.

Is Sabarimala the most important issue in the 2019 election in Kerala?

Yes, Sabarimala is one of the most important issues in this election. Of course, development and security are also two major issues.

If you look at the crime rate in Kerala, it is much more than other states.

Has Kerala developed like many other states?

There are many dimensions to the Sabarimala issue. From protecting religious rights to the right to worship.

It is the government's duty to protect the customs and faith of all the citizens. A secular government has no right to interfere in the customs and faith of the citizens of a state.

The Kerala government should have taken a stand supporting the beliefs of the people, but took their own stand and chose to go against the religious beliefs of the people of the state.

First, they ignored the sentiments of the believers and then instead of protecting their beliefs, they protected those who wanted to break the age-old customs.

The government thought by doing so, they were creating a revolution, but what they did was, they hurt the sentiments of all the believers.

Their attempt to start a revolution failed miserably because people did not want it.

And look at what they did last month. After the elections were announced, they sent back the women who went to pray at Sabarimala. Why? Now, they do not want to antagonise the believers.

Are you happy with the way the BJP handled the issue? It is felt the state BJP leadership messed it up.

I am definitely happy with the way the BJP handled the issue.

Whatever a political party could do, the BJP did. You should understand that there are limits to which a political party could do in situations like these.

Many were critical of the comment by state BJP President Sreedharan Pillai that it was a god-sent opportunity for the BJP. Should a political party exploit religious issues?

Every issue is an opportunity for a political party.

I am not talking about the Sabarimala issue alone. Whether it is food prices or unemployment or drought or floods, political parties take up every social issue as an opportunity.

It is the responsibility of all political parties to take up issues that affect and involve people, highlight them and fight for them.

So, there is nothing wrong in the BJP taking up the Sabarimala issue politically.

Do you think the BJP will benefit from the Sabarimala issue? Many people believe that votes against the state government will go to the UDF (Congress-led United Democratic Front).

How can anyone say that the UDF will benefit from the issue? They did not participate in the agitation. They did not issue a single statement on the issue. Except for a dharna here, what did they do? I feel the NDA (the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance) will be benefited.

We were the only people who protested loudly against Section 144 imposed at Sabarimala.

We protested against the Left government's orders forbidding devotees from even chanting 'Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa' in front of the deity.

The UDF just remained silent spectators to all these atrocities against the devotees.

When there was a spontaneous reaction of women from all walks of life, something Kerala had not seen in its recent history, the state government machinery tried to crush the movement by foisting false cases against all those who participated in the agitation.

Opinion polls say the anger against the Left government will go to the UDF...

It is the opinion of the people who go to do the survey and not that of the people of Kerala. I don't think any Keralite would say that the Sabarimala issue would benefit the UDF.

Who do you consider the NDA's real opponent in Kerala?

Both the UDF and the LDF are our opponents as the only aim of both the fronts is to defeat the BJP.

Both the Left and the Congress are supposed to be fighting against each other, but they are not actually. They claim there is no pre-poll arrangement, but the hint they give is that there can be a post-poll arrangement.

Usually politicians become governors after fighting Lok Sabha elections, but you resigned as governor to fight the elections. Did your party president Amit (Anilchandra) Shah ask you to do so?

It was my own decision to resign as governor.

I felt the party needed my services and presence during the election because of the socio-political situation here.

I did not resign to contest the election, but when the party asked me to contest from Thiruvananthapuram, I agreed.

I am bound to do what the party asks me to.IMAGE: Security personnel take away miscreants after clashes in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal during Phase 2 polling last week. Photograph: PTI Photo

The Election Commission special observer Ajay V Nayak on Saturday said the situation in West Bengal is similar to what it was in Bihar around 10 to 15 years ago and had lead to the voters' demand for deployment of central forces in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The ruling Trinamool Congress demanded his immediate removal, claiming that Nayak has allegiance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party and is acting as per their orders.

The people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and therefore their demand for deployment of central forces at all polling booths has increased, Nayak, who is the former Bihar chief electoral officer, said.

The situation in Bihar has improved and less number of central forces are required there now, he told newsmen at the office of the West Bengal chief electoral officer in Kolkata.

Nayak, a 1984-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was recently given the responsibility to oversee the last five phases of polls in West Bengal.

"This situation in West Bengal is similar to what it was in Bihar around 10 to 15 years ago. During that time in Bihar total deployment of central forces at the booths was required.

"Now it is required in West Bengal as the people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and are seeking deployment of central forces at all the booths," he told reporters.

"I cannot understand that if people in Bihar were able to bring in a change in the atmosphere and situation there, then why this is not happening in West Bengal," Nayak said in the presence of state Chief Electoral Officer Ariz Aftab.

He said that in the third phase of polling on April 23, 324 companies of central forces would be deployed to cover more than 92 per cent of the polling booths in five Lok Sabha constituencies.

Balurghat, Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur and Murshidabad parliamentary constituencies will go to the polls on April 23.

Nayak, however, sounded hopeful that the state may require less central force by next Parliamentary elections.

"In terms of election management, things are improving in West Bengal. So I am sure by the time of next Parliamentary elections it will not require this kind of central force deployment. I am sure about that," Nayak said.

In the first phase on April 11, central forces were deployed in 51 per cent of the booths in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar seats and 194 companies covered 80 per cent of the booths in Raiganj, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri in the second phase on April 18.

In the first phase there were reports of booth capturing, smashing of EVMs and intimidation. Similar incidents were reported in the second phase from Chopra in Darjeeling constituency and also from Islampur in Raiganj constituency. There were also reports of damage to the vehicle of sitting Communist Party of India-Marxist MP Mohammed Salim at Raiganj.

Nayak said no negligence was found after scrutiny of the pollings in the first phase and there will be no re-poll in the constituencies where voting was held on the day.

The special observer, however, did not dismiss chances of re-polling in some booths where polling was held in the second phase.

TMC secretary general Subrata Bakshi wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora demanding immediate removal of Nayak to ensure free and fair polls in the state.

"The Election Commission after two phases of polling had said, barring a few incidents the polling was peaceful. Nayak's comments are highly misplaced. He is acting in a partisan manner with pre-conceived notions to destabilise elections in the state and create a fear psychosis among voters," Bakshi said in the letter.

Nayak has political and organisational allegiance to the RSS and is connected to BJP leaders. His statements clearly indicate that he has acted as per instructions of his political bosses, he said.

"It is therefore requested to immediately recall him or cancel his appointment as special observer in the state of West Bengal to ensure free and fair elections," Bakshi said.

The EC has appointed Vivek Dubey as the special police observer for the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.

Meanwhile, the EC has transferred Malda district Superintendent of Police Arnab Ghosh and has brought in commanding officer of the second battalion of state armed police Ajoy Prasad in his place.

Sources said Ghosh, who was reportedly close to the TMC administration, was under the EC scanner.

The state BJP had urged the EC to remove Ghosh a few days ago.'Nyay scheme will cost between 1.2-1.5 per cent of GDP at its peak.'

'Our nearly $3 trillion economy has the fiscal capacity to absorb this expenditure.'

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday claimed the Congress' 'Nyay' minimum income guarantee scheme will not result in any new taxes and help restart the 'economic engine' which has come to a 'stop'.

The senior Congress leader's remark comes as the Bharatiya Janata Party has claimed that the scheme will 'ruin' fiscal discipline and the Congress will impose new taxes on middle class to finance it.

The Congress has promised to give an annual income support of Rs 72,000 to poor families under the scheme, if voted to power.

The former prime minister, also a noted economist, said his party is committed to fiscal discipline.

"Nyay scheme will cost between 1.2-1.5 per cent of GDP at its peak. Our nearly $3 trillion economy has the fiscal capacity to absorb this expenditure.

"There will be no need for any new taxes on the middle class to finance Nyay. The economic stimulus it will provide will further help in fiscal discipline," he said.

The scheme has been conceptualised after much thought and consultations with experts, he added.

Singh said as the Congress government in 1991 brought in a new paradigm for India's development with the de-licensing regime and a rights based approach to governance in 2004-14, he was confident that a Congress-led dispensation in 2019 will implement 'Nyay' scheme successfully and usher in a new model for social justice and prudent economics.

"It is my sincere belief that Nyay has the potential to catapult India into the club of 'poverty free' nations in the world and I hope to be able to live to see our nation achieve this historic milestone," he said.

In remarks aimed at the Narendra Modi government, he said 'Nyay' will help restart 'our economic engine that has come to a stop today'.

"At a time when private investment and industrial production are low, Nyay can help bring our economy back to life and create new factories and jobs," Singh said.

The senior Congress leader said nearly 70 per cent of Indians were poor when India attained Independence from the British and the figure has come down to 20 per cent with sound policies adopted by successive governments over the last seven decades.

It is time now to renew our pledge to wipe out the last remains of poverty, he added.There was no occasion for the woman to interact directly with the CJI, notes Supreme Court Secretary General S S Kalgaonkar.

Aashish Aryan reports.

IMAGE: Justice Ranjan Gogoi takes his oath of office as the 46th Chief Justice of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan, October 3, 2018. Photograph: Shahbaz Khan/PTI Photo

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said on Saturday that the allegations of sexual harassment against him were part of a larger conspiracy to "deactivate" the office of the CJI, adding that he would "not stoop so low even to deny them".

"After 20 years of selfless service as judge, I have a bank balance of Rs 6.80 lakh. Nobody can catch me on money. People have to find something and they have found this," Justice Gogoi said during a specially convened hearing.

A three-judge Bench, comprising CJI Gogoi, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjeev Khanna, was assembled after a former female employee of the apex court sent a detailed affidavit to the residences of 22 judges, giving details of the alleged harassment.

In her letter, the junior court assistant, who was employed with the Supreme Court from May 1, 2014, to December 21, 2018, alleged that she was harassed at the CJI's home, and that she was removed from her job without giving any reason.

She further alleged that following her termination, both her husband and his brother had been suspended as head constables posted with Delhi police.

She said her brother, employed with the Supreme Court, was also terminated. This, she alleged, was a direct consequence of her not agreeing to the advances made by the CJI.

The details of the affidavit, along with the letter, were first published on Friday evening by four online media outlets, which, the CJI said, had given him time till 7 am on Saturday to respond.

Supreme Court Secretary General S S Kalgaonkar, however, refuted the claims made in the letter. In a detailed e-mail, he said all the allegations made by the woman concerned were mala fide and had no basis.

There was no occasion for the woman to interact directly with the CJI, he said.

The letter, the secretary general said, was not only "mischievous, but a complete afterthought of her to make these false allegations at this time."

"It appears that these false allegations are being made as a pressure tactic to somehow come out of the various proceedings which have been initiated in law, against her and her family, for their wrongdoings," Secretary General Kalgaonkar said.

"It is also very possible that there are mischievous forces behind all this, with an intention to malign the institution," the secretary general said.

It is alleged that the woman had taken a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a person with a promise of getting him a job in the Supreme Court.

During the proceedings on Saturday, CJI Gogoi said that while the allegations made against him were an attempt to malign the judiciary, he "would continue to sit on this Bench and discharge my duties without fear or favour."

"Why would any sane person want to become a judge? Reputation is all that we have, and even that is sought to be tarnished. If these are the conditions for judges, good people will never come forth in the judiciary," Justice Gogoi said.

Justice Khanna, who was also part of the Bench, observed that with these kinds of allegations, they felt restrained.

Attorney General Senior Advocate K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Senior Advocate Tushar Mehta were also present to assist the court in the matter.

While Venugopal said he had been "under attack" from another lawyer for defending the government, Mehta urged the court to register a case under his name.

The court, however refused to pass any judicial orders and only observed that media should act responsibly and show some restraint so that the "independence of the judiciary is not affected" by such allegations.

"We appeal to the wisdom of the media, and to act responsibly, to show restraint," the three-judge Bench said, before rising for the day.

Later in the day, the Patiala house court adjourned till April 24 the case in which the State has moved to cancel the bail of the woman.Seven persons had been arrested in connection with the blasts.

IMAGE: The blasts have been described as one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

A string of eight devastating blasts, including suicide attacks, struck churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 215 people and shattering a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The blasts -- one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history -- targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

IMAGE: Foreign relatives of a victim of the explosion react at the police mortuary in Colombo. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Explosions were reported from three five-star hotels -- the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

Gunasekera confirmed 207 deaths. However, the News 1st channel said that 215 people have died in the blasts.

Director of the National Hospital Dr Anil Jasinghe identified 11 of the 27 foreign nationals killed in the coordinated attacks believed to be carried out by a single group.

An Indian, two Chinese and one each from Poland, Denmark, Japan, Pakistan, America, Morocco and Bangladesh are among the dead at the National Hospital.

IMAGE: A police officer inspects the explosion area at Shangri-La hotel in Colombo. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Around 500 people, including Indians, were injured in the attacks.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks.

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the LTTE, which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

IMAGE: Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Briefing reporters, Gunasekera said the police was not able to confirm at the moment if they were all suicide attacks. He, however, said that one of the blasts at the Katuwapitiya (Negombo) church has signs of being what looked like a suicide attack.

An unnamed official said a suicide bomber blew himself up at the restaurant of the Cinnamon Grand hotel.

Gunasekara said that 66 bodies were kept at the National Hospital while 260 injured were receiving treatment there and 104 bodies were placed at the Negombo Hospital and 100 injured were receiving treatment at the Hospital.

Later in the day, a powerful blast in the capital's southern suburb near the Colombo Zoo killed two persons, Gunasekera said.

When a police team entered a house in the Colombo north suburb of Orugodawatta to conduct a search, a suicide bomber blew himself up causing a concrete floor of a two-storey building to crash on them, killing three policemen in the eighth blast, police said.

IMAGE: The Colombo National Hospital spokesperson, Dr Samindi Samarakoon, said more than 300 people have been admitted with injuries. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Soon after the eighth blast, the government imposed curfew with immediate effect. The curfew will be in force indefinitely until further notice, officials said.

State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene said seven persons had been arrested in connection with the blasts.

"We believe these were coordinated attacks, and one group was behind them," Wijewardene said.

Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm. "I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces have been asked to take all action necessary," Sirisena said.

IMAGE: Relatives of a victim of the explosion at St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church react at the police mortuary in Colombo. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Lankas Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as "cowardly attacks" and said his government was working to "contain the situation."

"I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong... The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation," he tweeted.

Security has been intensified around the religious places across the capital. The government has temporarily blocked all social media platforms.

"Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over," said Harsha de Silva, Sri Lanka's Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution.

IMAGE: A shoe of a victim is seen in front of the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka.

"We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789," the High Commission tweeted.

"In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176," it said.

The first blasts were reported at St Anthony's church in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in Negombo just outside the capital.

IMAGE: The Indian high commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

"A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there," read a post in English on the Facebook page of the St Sebastian's Church.

Images circulated on social media showed severely damaged St Sebastian's church, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews.

Heavy security has been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport. The riot police and the Special Task Force, extra police security has been deployed around the airport, state-run Daily News reported.

IMAGE: Priests are seen inside the St Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Leave of all police personnel has been cancelled in the wake of blasts.

Doctors, nurses and health officials who were on leave have been asked to report to work, Health Ministry sources said.

All state Universities have been closed until further notice.

IMAGE: Leave of all police personnel has been cancelled in the wake of blasts. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said all Easter masses in the Colombo District have been cancelled.

IMAGE: A statue of Virgin Mary broken in two parts is seen in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership the Lankan Army crushed the LTTE, termed the attack as "barbaric".

"We will not tolerate such violence, such acts of terrorism, of cowardice within our borders once again," he said.Amid speculations she could be pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said she will be happy to contest if asked by party President Rahul Gandhi.

"You will find out. If my Congress president tells me to contest, I will be happy to contest," Priyanka Gandhi, sister of Rahul Gandhi, told reporters.

She was responding to a question whether she will contest the poll from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh from where Modi is seeking re-election.

Last month, Priyanka Gandhi had thrown a hint that she is not averse to taking on Modi in Varanasi.

"Shouldn't I fight from Varanasi?" Vadra said when a party worker asked her to contest from Rae Bareli, setting of speculations about her possible candidature.

Earlier, the Congress leader had also said she would contest the election if the party wanted her to do so.

In her media interaction, Priyanka Gandhi dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party leader and union minister Uma Bharati's controversial remarks that the country will see her the way it views a "thief's wife".

"From my grandmother, grandfather, father, mother, they have said one thing or the other about all of my family. They will keep on saying such things. But we will keep on doing our job," she responded with a smile.

When asked to comment on the impact Priyanka could have on the poll outcome, Bharati had last week said: "Nothing. Why will she have an impact... Whose husband is facing theft charges. She will be seen the way India sees a thief's wife."

Priyanka Gandhi, Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, was in Kerala for the last two days canvassing votes for Rahul Gandhi, who is contesting in Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency besides in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.'Had Muslims been a vote bank, they wouldn't be in the condition they are now,' Asaduddin Owaisi tells Jyoti Punwani.

IMAGE: Asaduddin Owaisi during his padyatra in Aurangabad. Photograph: Asia News

The inevitable finally took place in Aurangabad.

Last month, when Imtiaz Jaleel, the sitting MLA from Aurangabad, was announced as the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen's Lok Sabha candidate from the city, well known Aurangabad activist Subhash Lomte told Rediff.com, "The MIM's entry will result in instant polarisation."

On Saturday, April 20, the Shiv Sena newspaper Saamna's banner headline asked: 'Shivshahi pahije ki Razakari pahije?' ('You want Shivshahi or Razakari?')

The quote was from Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray's speech at the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party rally held on Friday night in the city.

Even as Thackeray was arousing yet-to-be-submerged memories of the violence perpetrated by the nizam's Razakars against Marathwada's Hindus in Hyderabad -- prior to the 1948 police action that resulted in Hyderabad becoming part of India -- at another rally across the city, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi was arousing emotions in his own inimitable way.

"I want to share two incidents of my parliamentary life with you," Owaisi told the audience, comprising both his young male followers, as well as the older followers, both male and female, of his ally, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar.

"I don't normally talk about my own experiences," Owaisi said, modulating his declamatory tone, "But I am sharing these incidents with you because I consider you my own."

Having got his audience all wound up, he continued, "When the triple talaq bill was introduced, I thought surely someone would get up to oppose it. I looked here and there, hoping for help."

Here his voice choked up.

"I waited and waited," he continued. "Finally, when no one arose, I got up to speak, to say that the Bill went against the Constitution given to us by Babasaheb Ambedkar. It was left to me alone to oppose that Bill."

By the time he finished, the MIM boys at the back of the maidan could be heard shouting emotionally.

Normally, Owaisi might have gone on about the triple talaq bill and the threat to Muslim personal law. But this was not the place to do so. Here was a mixed audience, and the master demagogue knew how to play them.

"Ya Allah!." continued the Hyderabad MP, raising his voice dramatically, "I have not felt as much agony even when I laid my late father into his grave as I felt when the Bill granting 10% reservation on economic grounds was introduced and again, nobody opposed it."

"There were 100 SC MPs present in the House," recounted Owaisi, "but not one of them had the courage to open their mouth. Then, I got up. I took Babasaheb's name and said the Bill was against what the architect of the Constitution had wanted."

As cheers and applause, this time from the entire gathering, rent the air, Owaisi delivered the final thrust.

"Had my elder brother Balasaheb (as Prakash Ambedkar is called) been there, this would not have happened. Those 100 MPs sitting silently would have been no match for one Balasaheb, Ambedkar's own blood. When he goes to Parliament, then even the walls of Parliament will have to hear his defence of the Constitution."

IMAGE: Asaduddin Owaisi is blessed by a voter his padyatra in Aurangabad. Photograph: SnapsIndia

Owaisi's speech at the final rally of the colourful Aurangabad campaign being conducted by the AIMIM and Ambedkar's supporters illustrated every characteristic of this unusual tie-up.

Emotional appeals to Muslim identity, and presenting himself as a messiah working selflessly to deliver his community from those who have oppressed it for the last 70 years -- the Congress, and now the BJP -- have been the hallmark of Owaisi's speeches in Maharashtra ever since 2014.

It was in the months preceding the October 2014 assembly polls that his Hyderabad-based party made its entry in Maharashtra as a contender.

But the man who has now allied with Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar sings a different tune when he is with him. Instead of invoking Allah at every step, he invokes the Constitution. Not just the Constitution, but "Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution."

This masterly strategy kills two birds with one stone.

It immediately wins over the MIM chief's new voters, those Dalits for whom the Constitution is scripture, and Dr Ambedkar is God. It simultaneously highlights the fact that their current leader is a direct descendant of their God.

"Many people have their reservations about Prakash Ambedkar," a veteran Dalit Congressman tells Rediff.com, "but no one will express them openly because of his surname."

Indeed, many Dalits have said that this election is the time for them to repay their debt to their original icon, Dr B R Ambedkar.

"You have no problem voting for Imtiaz Jaleel?" In response to my question, a Dalit woman enthusiastically following Asaduddin Owaisi's padyatra through Aurangabad's Muslim areas replies: "He is Balasaheb's candidate. Balasaheb has told us: Even if I put a stone in front of you, you have to vote for it, because it is my candidate."

Jaleel himself said more or less the same thing at Friday's rally. "It is Balasaheb's adesh (edict): 'In every candidate, see my face.' Owaisi sahib too says: 'See my face in every candidate of MIM. Don't look at his caste or religion'."

"Is this going to be Prakash Ambedkar's brand of politics now?" asks a Dalit lawyer. "Is he going to be another Owaisi and run his party based on the authority generated by his surname?"

There has been one remarkable fallout though, of Asaduddin Owaisi's constant invoking of the Constitution. This basic document now means something to his young Muslim followers, even though they may never read it.

Until now, they saw the world exclusively through a Muslim-victimhood lens. Owaisi was their supreme leader because he -- and he alone, they insisted -- spoke of the injustices inflicted on them.

Today, they respect him even more as an expert -- again, in their opinion, the only MP who is an expert -- on the Constitution.

To his credit, the three-time MP and party supremo has shown a surprising readiness to learn from his new electorate too. At a meeting with Dalit intellectuals in Aurangabad, he was asked why a Constitutional expert like him kept saying 'Hindustan', though the official term in the Constitution was either 'India' or 'Bharat'.

"I speak in Urdu and that is the term used in Urdu," said Owaisi. "But I will try now to use the term Bharat."

IMAGE: Asaduddin Owaisi during his padyatra in Aurangabad. Photograph: Asia News

Just a few hours later, at the public meeting, one heard for the first time, the term "Hindustan-Bharat" from Owaisi.

The extent to which his alliance with Ambedkar has made Owaisi modify his political persona, came through during a free-flowing conversation during his Aurangabad campaign.

The man who presented himself unabashedly as a leader of his community, now shies away from that description. "I don't want to be put in a box," he says.

The man whose main theme was Muslim victimhood, now says that discrimination has been practised against other marginalised communities too.

But on the necessity of political representation of Muslims through a Muslim party, Owaisi's stand remained unchanged.

"The crass reality is that unless you have an independent voice of your own, your issues won't be addressed," he says.

He cites the example of the only Muslim Congress MP from Bihar, Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi, an Islamic scholar on the executive committee of Dar ul Uloom Deoband, who stayed silent when the triple talaq bill was introduced because his party had forbidden him from speaking.

Since 2014, in speech after speech, Owaisi has beseeched Muslims to unite and vote for the AIMIM as their own party who would look after their interests, unlike the other parties who have only used them.

His aim has been to create a pan-Indian Muslim vote bank, with him as their only leader.

Even while protesting at the phrase 'pan-Indian' "I am already being called a new Jinnah," rues Owaisi. "Had Muslims been a vote bank, they wouldn't be in the condition they are now. It is Hindus who have always been the most powerful vote bank."

In Aurangabad, at an exclusively Muslim rally, Owaisi referred to the month of Ramzan and the religious significance of the date on which the city goes to the polls for Muslims. Indeed, even at the last rally of their joint campaign, where he shared the dais with Ambedkar, Owaisi referred to the next day being Shab e Baraat, one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar.

At the end of his speech, he invoked Allah's duas (blessings). Describing himself as a "sinner", he asked Allah to shower his blessings on the weak.

What did the Dalits gathered there make of all this? Probably they viewed his religious fervour with the same indulgence that they viewed his refusal to enter a Buddh Vihar during his padyatra. "It is against the electoral code of conduct to enter places of worship while campaigning. Owaisi is, after all, a Constitutional expert," says one speaker at the meeting. Another Dalit defends Owaisi, saying idol worship was not part of Islam.

Beyond the lofty concepts of "defending the Constitution" and "giving voice to the marginalised", the AIMIM-Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi tie-up is very much also an alliance between two strong scions, each of whom keeps a tight grip on his unquestioning flock.

The flock may have genuinely begun to fraternise, but what sustains them is a constant heightened sense of religious and caste identity.

As good a recipe for polarisation as any. Surely a godsend for the BJP?Heard about the All India Professionals Congress?

Veenu Sandhu reports.

Photograph: PTI Photo

The poll manifesto of the Indian National Congress, released, which promises wealth and welfare while also challenging the Bharatiya Janata Party and its policies, had an unusual set of people working behind the scenes.

Among them were professors, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, retired bureaucrats, data scientists, writers, ex-bankers -- all assisting the Congress's manifesto committee and research department to put the document together.

These weren't politicians.

And many of them harbour no political ambitions.

But they all pay taxes and want to have a say in the way the country is run, and in the way policies are framed and implemented.

So, in mid-2017, when the Congress launched the All India Professionals Congress, or AIPC, a new department that would have tax-paying professionals as fellows, many of them joined in.

To be an AIPC fellow, a person should be a tax-paying citizen of India above the age of 18, have a professional qualification, a voter ID card and a personal bank account.

In some ways, the initiative recalls the early days of the Aam Aadmi Party that drew professionals from all walks to politics in 2012.

The AIPC today has close to 8,000 members across India, aged 20 to 70-plus.

Each member is attached to a unit chapter, which has one or two constituencies assigned to it and has 25 to 100 members each.

Above it is the state unit, which reports to the national body that is divided into four zones or regions: North, South, East, West.

The three-tier AIPC has Thiruvananthapuram Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor as chairman.

The number of members is small yet, but the talent pool has been adding capacity to different departments of the Congress.

And while they play a critical role in communication, content creation and social media management, this isn't all they do.

Photograph: Kind Courtesy profcongress.com

Chhattisgarh is a case in point.

Ahead of the 2018 assembly election in the state, AIPC members travelled with the state manifesto committee across districts, holding 40 to 50 meetings every day with different groups -- sanitation workers, forest dwellers, farmers, transporters, shopkeepers.

"Over several months, along with the state Congress unit and the manifesto committee, AIPC members held consultations with over 1,000 groups on various issues concerning them," says Szarita Laitphlang, regional coordinator of the East Zone.

"Our data analysis and accurate, unbiased feedback helped the main campaign committee process the information and put out positive and targeted messages," she adds.

The Congress swept Chhattisgarh in the election.

Of the five AIPC regional coordinators, two are women -- Laitphlang and Geeta Reddy (South Zone).

And of the three office-bearers in every unit chapter, one is a woman -- making the AIPC the first Congress department to have a compulsory 33 per cent reservation for women.

Where there is no suitable woman candidate, the post is left vacant.

Every chapter is supposed to meet at least once a month.

There is, however, no compulsion on how much time and effort a member puts in.

"We are not slave drivers," laughs Salman Anees Soz, regional coordinator, North Zone.

"Besides, these are professional people. Some are able to give more time, others aren't."

Some like to engage in outreach programmes, such as holding talks with students in schools and colleges, or organising events, which also serve as platforms to spread awareness about the AIPC.

For large-scale events -- such as the AIPC national interactive, 'Is India being Redefined?', that was held at the Siri Fort Auditorium in Delhi in December 2018 and for which 2,500 people turned up -- the state unit gets involved.

"We ensure that most programmes and chapter meetings happen on the weekend," says Suneer Salam, a 33-year-old Ernakulam-based banker turned entrepreneur and an AIPC fellow.

"These meetings happen in a hotel or a club and not at the party office. We are not a normal party setup and we don't want people to feel otherwise," says Salam.

"Also, the professionals might not feel comfortable with party workers around."

Salam says for many professionals AIPC is also a great networking opportunity that offers both exposure and a platform to inform policy-makers about issues close to their heart, including those concerning their professions.

IMAGE: Congress Member of Parliament, Shri Shashi Tharoor. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters

Tharoor describes AIPC as "a kind of Rotary Club within the Congress party, where like-minded professionals can meet as peers in individual chapters and also get together collectively at the state, regional and national levels".

The involvement is at different levels and in different ways.

One of AIPC's first policy engagements, says Tharoor, was a white paper that the Delhi state unit brought out on the air pollution crisis, complete with best practices from existing reports and their own innovative ideas.

"Similarly, the Tamil Nadu chapter did a study of the impact of demonetisation and GST on the Tirupur garment industry," he says.

One set of professionals also brought out a report on the chikankari industry in Uttar Pradesh and another studied why small and medium enterprises choose to stay small.

"We found that this was so because our incentive structure is such that SMEs benefit by staying small. So, we need to rethink this," says Soz.

Salam talks about the study that the Kerala AIPC conducted on the flaws in engineering education in the country.

"It was an eye-opener for parents and also for the political leadership, who can now think of how the curriculum can be revamped," he says.

The devastating Kerala floods of 2018 saw the AIPC fellows in another role as they helped coordinate relief and rescue operations, and blood donation drives and medical camps.

On request from the MLA from Ernakulam, a seven-member AIPC team also surveyed high-rise buildings, where the floods had left residents stranded, brought in snakes and had caused the central gas unit to burst.

The team carried back reports of the damage and of what people needed urgently.

Now, during the Lok Sabha election, the focus of the work has shifted to the political field.

In Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the AIPC is already working on campaigning for the candidate (Sanjay Singh).

"The pradesh Congress committees know that this talent pool is available, so candidates can tap into it," says AIPC policy coordinator Amitabh Dubey.

In Delhi, the members are waiting for a decision on an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party before intensive work on the ground can begin.

Dubey was part of the consultations in Delhi on environment and forests as also on art and culture for the manifesto, for which the members engaged with NGOs, international organisations, individual activists and also resident welfare associations -- "we wanted the view of non-specialists as well".

It was a result of these consultations that climate change and disaster management, which would ordinarily have been clubbed together in the party manifesto, were addressed as separate, if related, issues that called for a green budget.

The AIPC organised an event at the Constitution Club in Delhi where Congress leaders Rajeev Gowda, who heads the party's research department, P Chidambaram and Soz explained the manifesto to those gathered and answered questions about it.

In Mumbai, the organisation has another task at hand -- to convince people to vote.

Voter turnout percentages in Mumbai in national, state and local elections have generally hovered around 40 per cent -- the last Lok Sabha election saw a record of sorts with 55 per cent voter turnout.

"Voting here is on April 29, a Monday. And May 1 is Labour Day, also a holiday. People will most likely make an extended holiday of it and head out of the city," says Rudresh Kaul, 30, business strategy consultant and fellow at AIPC Mumbai (West).

Getting access to people who live in residential complexes and gated colonies to convince them to vote isn't always easy for traditional political workers.

"But when you have a pool of professionals who live in these very same colonies, then it becomes a bit easier," says Kaul.

On election day, he says, some of them hope to get involved with booth management as well.

"A party needs presence at every booth -- a strong, ethical person who can spot irregularities, will not be bribed and can hold the EC person accountable on the spot. We can chip in," says Kaul.

Ultimately, says Soz, it is for the state units to decide how they want to employ the political professional this election season.Ukrainians began to cast their ballots on Sunday in a second round of the country's presidential election between actor Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during the second round of presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 21, 2019. [Photo: AP/Vadim Ghirda]

The polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 8:00 p.m. (1700 GMT).

More than 30.3 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots. 199 electoral districts were set up in the country with over 29,900 polling stations. There are also polling stations created abroad.

Over 130,000 law enforcement officers are deployed across the country to maintain order during the election.

Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has registered 2,700 international observers from 21 countries and 20 international organizations to monitor the voting process in the election runoff.

In the first round of the presidential election on March 31, Zelensky and Poroshenko garnered 30.24 percent and 15.95 percent of the vote respectively. Since no candidate got more than 50 percent, the top two will compete in the runoff.

The results of the second round are set to be announced by the CEC by May 1 and the new president is expected to take office no later than June 3.The ashes of Mirjana Markovic, the widow of the late Yugoslavian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, have been laid to rest next to her husband in the eastern Serbian city of Pozarevac.

No close family members attended the service conducted on April 20 by a Serbian Orthodox priest, although dozens of other people attended the ceremony, Serbian media reported.

Markovic, who lived in Russia for 16 years after requesting political asylum, died earlier this month in a Moscow hospital at age 76.

The couple had two children, Marko and Marija. Marko is a businessman in Russia, and Marija reportedly lives in Montenegro.

Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in 2001 and held at the UN court in The Hague for genocide and other war crimes committed during the conflicts that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

The former Serbian president died in the tribunal's detention unit in 2006 before a verdict was reached.

Markovic, who had been a sociology professor at Belgrade University, left Serbia in 2003.

She was considered to be a power behind the scened with major influence on her husband.

Last year, a Serbian court sentenced Markovic in absentia to one year in prison for abuse of power for allegedly handing out a government-subsidized apartment to an associate.

An appeals court voided the sentence and ordered a retrial.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, and APClashes broke out on April 21 in Georgias northeastern Pankisi Gorge region between police and residents protesting the construction of a hydropower plant.



The protesters threw stones at police, who used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them.



A local TV station showed several residents with minor injuries from rubber bullets and said some police officers were also hurt.



The situation is reported to remain tense.



Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia, who arrived in Pankisi following the clashes, said 15 officers had been injured in the clashes.

The residents of Pankisi oppose the construction of the Khadori-3 hydropower plant, saying it could harm the environment in the mountainous region and force them to leave their homes.



Construction work -- originally launched in March 2018 -- was restarted recently amid a promise by the government to address peoples concerns.



Local activists say construction of the plant must be halted.



Several protests have previously been held in the region against the hydropower project.

With reporting by Reuters and JamNewsA Femen activist staged a topless protest outside a polling station in Kyiv where candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy had cast his ballot in the April 21 presidential runoff vote. Zelenskiy is a comedic actor who portrays Ukraine's president on TV but has no real political experience. The woman warned voters that a Zelenskiy presidency could end up being a "funny mistake."KYIV -- In November 1979, Vital Fedorchuk, head of the Ukraine branch of the Soviet KGB, wrote a top-secret memo to the head of the republic's Central Committee, warning of a grave plot by Western security agencies to undermine the Soviet Union.



The country's enemies, Fedorchuk warned, "are actively using the [1975] Helsinki agreements on the exchange of books" to carry out "an ideological diversionary attack against the U.S.S.R."



Fedorchuk's memo came to light after the Ukrainian government opened up the country's KGB archives in April 2015, giving researchers unprecedented insight into the Soviet side of the Cold War.



To back up his claim of an anti-Soviet plot, Fedorchuk cites "the discovery by our operatives of a whole slew of foreign publications received by Kievknigotorg that contain malicious slander against the Soviet government and our social order." The suspect books also "propagandize cruelty, violence, and pornography," Fedorchuk wrote.

The influx of foreign literature to the Soviet Union -- although always meager -- ticked upward after the signing of the Helsinki Accords in 1975. Among other things, the agreements included broad commitments to East-West cultural exchanges.



Among the books that worried Fedorchuk's operatives was Anthony Burgess's 1962 dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange. Ten English-language copies of the novel were found in Kyiv bookstores in 1979.



Fedorchuk's memo describes the book as fundamentally anti-communist, mostly because the roaming gang of ruffians in the book speaks in "a semi-Russian language." The memo offers no other evidence of the book's "malicious satire of communist ideals."

When filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the novel came out in 1971, Soviet ideologists found the work less offensive. The magazine Yunost published a laudatory review that argued the film reflected the decay of contemporary Western society.



Nonetheless, the film was not shown in Soviet theaters and remained a rare treat for students at the state cinematography academy.



Fedorchuk also expressed concern about John Steinbeck's autobiographical Journal Of A Novel: The East Of Eden Letters. The Soviet Union heralded Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes Of Wrath, which was published in several Soviet editions as an anti-capitalist masterpiece.

Steinbeck traveled to the Soviet Union twice as an honored guest, although documents uncovered in the Kyiv KGB archives last year revealed that Soviet operatives suspected him of spying.



The little-known Journal Of A Novel was cobbled together out of Steinbeck's correspondence and published in 1969, a year after the writer's death. One hundred English-language copies were sent to Kyiv under a cultural exchange despite what Fedorchuk described as "malicious attacks on the Soviet Union."



Steinbeck wrote that the Soviet Union was doomed to collapse and would likely disintegrate into several mutually antagonistic ethnic states.

"In the author's opinion," Fedorchuk wrote, "Western countries must remember that 'the Kremlin regime, sensing danger, might launch a world war in a bid to save itself.'"



A third Western book that attracted the KGB's attention was English writer Frederick Forsyth's 1971 The Day Of The Jackal, which was also controversial in the West.



"It is a practical handbook for any maniac wishing to carry out a terrorist act," Fedorchuk complained.



The Day Of The Jackal was published in Russian by the Soviet journal Prostor (based in Alma-Ata, now Almaty, Kazakhstan) in 1974, shortly after which the editor was removed. In 1977, it was officially banned by Soviet censors. Nonetheless, 70 copies in English appeared in Kyiv through the book exchange.



Fedorchuk also mentioned the autobiographical essay Sun And Steel by Japanese author Yukio Mishima. That work by the noted anti-Marxist author supposedly "promotes so-called neo-samuraiism," although Fedorchuk does not define that neologism.

Some of the Western books mentioned in Fedorchuk's memo were not offensive in themselves, but rather because of subversive advertising among their pages.



He claims that a volume of poetry by English poet William Blake contained an insert promoting a book by Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, who was driven from the Soviet Union in 1972. A novel by John Cheever contained an advertisement for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Lenin In Zurich.



Fedochuk's KGB operatives also found in Kyiv bookstores several volumes published in Eastern Bloc countries that merited criticism. The spies found two copies in Polish of the book The Art Of Love by Polish gynecologist and sexologist Michalina Wislocka. Written in 1974 and published in Poland only in 1978, the guide to sex has been in print ever since, selling at least 7 million copies.

Fedorchuk's memo dryly described the book as "a manual on the technology of sex with corresponding illustrations."



The KGB also flagged a 1977 Polish anthology of Ukrainian poetry in translation that included works by "people of serious known nationalist tendencies."



Fedorchuk noted that "several of them...10 or 15 years ago published some amateurish verses but who now have no relationship to the literary process." Nonetheless, he added, the Polish volume presents them as "unrecognized geniuses" and "victims of party terror in literature."



All of the books mentioned in Fedorchuk's memo were seized by the KGB, except for the volumes by Steinbeck and Blake. No explanation is given for the Steinbeck exception, even though that book contains the most direct and clear criticism of the Soviet Union.



The Blake volume ultimately passed muster because KGB operatives were able to remove the Brodsky advertisement without damaging the book.

Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting by Current Time correspondent Eduard AndryushchenkoIran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has appointed a new chief commander of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), just days after the United States designated the paramilitary force as a foreign terrorist organization.

Iranian state media reported on April 21 that Khamenei appointed General Hossein Salami as the new head of the IRGC, replacing Mohammad Ali Jafari, who had been in charge for more than 11 years.

Salami, 59, had been serving as a deputy commander in the IRGC. State media gave no reason for Khameneis decision to replace the IRGC commander.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on April 8 designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in an unprecedented move that drew Iranian condemnation.

Tehran responded by designating the U.S. military's Central Command as a terrorist organization.

The estimated 100,000-strong IRGC is a branch of the military that also plays a major role in Irans economy.

It is in charge of Irans ballistic missile and nuclear programs and runs its own intelligence operations.

The IRGC has been involved in enforcing Islamic codes and crushing dissent at home, experts say, while taking part in covert operations, arms smuggling, and other efforts aimed at expanding Iran's influence abroad. It answers directly to Khamenei.

The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.

Based on reporting by irna.ir, AP, and ReutersThe Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on an Afghan government building that killed at least seven people on April 20.



According to a statement published by the militant groups Amaq news agency on April 21, the assault on the Communications Ministry headquarters in downtown Kabul was carried out by four IS followers.



The Afghan affiliate of IS, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan, has been active in the war-torn country since 2015, fighting the Taliban as well as Afghan and U.S. forces.



Afghan officials said the attack on the ministry began with an explosion at the entrance of the building in a busy commercial area of the city, followed by gunfire.



Police said a bomber blew himself up outside the ministry, clearing the way for the other attackers to enter the building and the heavily guarded government compound in central Kabul.



Nasart Rahimi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said four civilians and three soldiers were killed during the attack, which lasted several hours. Eight civilians were wounded, he said.



Rahimi said the security operation ended "after all four attackers were shot and killed by Afghan security forces."



Police also shot and killed four other militants before they could reach their target of the nearby central post office, Rahimi said.



The official said some 2,700 government employees and civilians were rescued by security forces after being stuck in several government buildings.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, and ReutersPakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has begun his first official visit to neighboring Iran for talks set to focus on strengthening bilateral ties, fighting terrorism, and safeguarding borders, Iranian state media reported.



The two-day trip started on April 21 with a stopover in the holy city of Mashhad, where Khan was expected to visit the shrine of Imam Reza, who is revered by Shiite Muslims.



Khan was expected to fly to the capital, Tehran, to hold talks with President Hassan Rohani and other top officials, IRNA said.



The visit comes a day after Pakistan asked Iran to take action against terrorist groups believed to be behind the killing of 14 Pakistani soldiers earlier this month.



Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on April 20 that 15 gunmen wearing military uniforms ambushed a bus in southwestern Baluchistan Province on April 18, killing 14 Pakistani Army personnel.



Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a letter to the Iranian government that the assailants came from an alliance of three Baluch terrorist organizations based in Iran.

Qureshi told reporters that Khan would take up the matter with Iranian authorities.



Qureshi said he spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on April 20 to share the initial findings of a Pakistani probe into the killing of security personnel with him.



There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.



Earlier this year, Iran called on Pakistan to take action against a militant group behind a deadly attack on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).



Twenty-seven IRGC members were killed in a February suicide car bombing near the border with Pakistan.



The Sunni Muslim extremist group Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack in southeastern Iran.

Based on reporting by AFP, Irna.ir, and dawn.comSKOPJE  North Maceodnias presidential election is headed for a second round after the top two candidates battled to a virtual tie in the first round reflecting deep divisions in the Balkan nation over its new name.

Pro-Western Stevo Pendarovski, and his main rival conservative Gordana Siljanovsa will face off on May 5. Results on the State Election Commission website based on 99.96 percent of the votes counted showed Pendarovski got 42.85 percent of the vote and Siljanovska 42.24 percent.



Blerim Reka, candidate of the second-largest Albanian party came a distant third, as expected, with 10.57 percent of the votes. He has not said whether he will back either candidate in the May 5 election.



The turnout in the April 21 vote was 41.8 percent.

Pendarovski, the country's coordinator for NATO accession who is backed by the ruling Social Democrats, strongly supported a deal with Greece to change the nations name, asserting that it would help pave the way for North Macedonias entry into the security alliance and increase hopes of joining the European Union in talks scheduled to begin in June.



Conservative Siljanovska-Davkova, 63, is a constitutional law professor who ran as an independent but is now backed by the main conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE party.



She was a vocal opponent of the deal made with Greece to change the countrys name from Macedonia to North Macedonia. Athens for decades had objected to the use of the name, saying it implied Skopjes territorial desires on Greeces northern province by the same name.



"The choice in the second round will be easier, because the difference between me and Gordana Siljanovska is enormous, Pendarovski said after it became clear the two were headed for a runoff.



I believe that this will contribute to even greater determination in favor of my concept of moving forward because we know that going back is not an option. Back means blockade and crisis, he added.

Siljanovska-Davkova said that as a constitutional law professor, she would "respect" the deal but also "will do my best to show that some of the solutions are against Macedonia's constitution and against...the norms of the United Nations."



The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in a preliminary statement on April 22 that the election was well organized and fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression were respected.



OSCE observers also pointed out that wide-reaching electoral reform is still very much needed.



This peaceful, generally well-run election demonstrated that the political will can be found to hold democratic elections, said Sereine Mauborgne, Special Coordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission.



This constructive approach must be maintained through the second round and beyond. I sincerely hope that following these elections real effort will be made to enact a coherent electoral law and finally address the long existing challenges, she added.



The OSCE expressed concern over the legal framework, saying while the law does allow for democratic elections, the electoral code is not tailored to the requirements of a presidential contest.



The absence of explicit campaign rules for candidates resulted in parts of the campaign being carried out on the basis of cross-party agreements that did not provide equal opportunities to all candidates, the statement said.



The country's election law requires a candidate to get 50 percent plus one of the 1.8 million registered voters, not just a majority of those who cast ballots for president, to be elected.



Part of the problem, analysts say, is that voters have been turned off by the inability of politicians to put in place policies to stimulate a struggling economy and lower stubbornly high unemployment at more than 20 percent.



Incumbent Gjorge Ivanov is not eligible to run again after serving two terms. Though the office has limited powers, the president has the final signature on legislation and is the leader of the army.

With reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, ReutersKYIV -- Fact has followed fiction.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a comic actor who plays a common man accidentally catapulted into an exasperated Ukrainian presidency on TV, has won big in the country's real presidential election.

Almost as remarkably, he appears to be doing it in runaway fashion in a process that both he and defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko cited after the vote as a model for all post-Soviet states.

Here are six enduring moments from a historic, if surreal, day in Ukrainian politics.

Pumped Up With Eminem

After he had cast his ballot -- and having acknowledged that he got "little" sleep -- Zelenskiy hinted that he had awakened on election day with some nerves. His wife, Olena, had tried to calm and energize him with some music, he said.

Her choice of artists? Eminem.

We don't know if Zelenskiy "lost himself" or "sang for the moment," as he couldn't recall the American rapper's exact song. Could have been Lucky You.

But he demonstrated just how he bobbed his head to it.

Busted By The Cops

With scores of cameras rolling inside a packed polling station at Kyiv's Maritime Academy, Zelenskiy had cast a vote for himself. Then he flashed it to reporters before dropping it into the ballot box.

While the cameras loved it, the police did not. It apparently broke Ukrainian legislation aimed at preventing campaigning by candidates on election day.

Shortly thereafter, officers arrived at Zelenskiy's office to fine him less than $30 for the display.

Afterward, one of the officers who wrote up the citation, Viktor Stolyar, told Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, that police had "consulted about it and decided to draw up an administrative protocol" since that would be "more effective than a criminal case that couldn't be completed."

For his part, Zelenskiy said it seemed like a fair cop: "OK, I broke the law. The law is the law."

A 'Pig In A Poke' Again

Meanwhile, a topless activist from the homegrown protest collective Femen challenged the notion that a vote for the TV president was a step in the right direction for Ukraine.

"We don't know who will come with Zelenskiy; he's a cat in a bag," she said outside the polling station where Zelenskiy cast his ballot in Kyiv, invoking the Slavic equivalent of a pig in a poke.

It was a direct quote from Poroshenko at the raucous stadium meeting on April 19 that was as close as the two runoff candidates came to a presidential debate, with the incumbent accusing the challenger of ducking policy questions and providing little of substance that he or voters could latch onto, saying he was a "cat in a bag." (Zelenskiy countered by calling Poroshenko a "wolf in sheep's clothing.")

"It can turn out to be a funny mistake -- funny and fatal," the protester, who identified herself as Julia, told reporters on April 21, with a Zelenskiy victory seemingly assured.

"Right now, all Ukrainians' hopes are in his hands.... I'm asking Zelenskiy and all politicians, including old ones, to stop raping our country. Enough of that; people have stopped hoping."

Femen's website added that Ukraine had been "raped by a gang of crooks" and suggested "a pig in a poke is the logical fruit of such love."

Hard To Swallow

Novaya Vremya reported that in Zelenskiy's hometown, Kriviy Rih, a woman "in a state of intoxication ate part of a ballot."

The paper quoted local election commission member Inna Ivanchenko, who posted on Facebook evidence of the defiled ballot, with an "X" mark next to Zelenskiy's name and a line drawn through Poroshenko's.

"They managed to snatch a piece," Novaya Vremya quoted Ivanchenko as saying.

It was one of the seemingly lighter moments caught on video for the Ukrainian Electoral Commission's Facebook page.

But it was also part of what the electoral commission warned was an election-day spoiler for some voters, with reports that social networks were disseminating misleading information about how to fill out ballots. Not only should the preferred candidate be marked, the bum advice went, but also the other candidate's name should be crossed out. That misinformation, the commission warned, was getting thousands of views and shares and would spoil the ballots in question.

5...4...3...2...President-Elect Of Ukraine

Finally, as election night fell, with the flair of -- well, of a 41-year-old actor/entertainer, Zelenskiy strode into the spotlight at his campaign headquarters with a wide smile and to the theme song of his Servant Of The People sitcom. He took the stage about a minute before polling stations closed and the embargo was lifted on exit polls that were predicting his landslide win.

Then he counted down from five before numbers flashed across the huge video screen showing him leading all the exit polls with around 73 percent of the vote to Poroshenko's 25 or so.

"Thank you," he shouted into a microphone as the crowd cheered and confetti rained down.

The Result In Two Pics

Within minutes of Zelenskiy's triumphant countdown, across town, Poroshenko would take the stage in a considerably less festive appearance to concede the election.

But no words could capture the two sides' electoral fates better than the images that were starting to come out of Kyiv.The ashes of Mirjana Markovic, the widow of the late Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, were laid to rest next to her husband on April 20 in the eastern Serbian city of Pozarevac. Markovic had lived for the last 16 years in Russia, where she had received political asylum. She died earlier this month in a Moscow hospital at age 76. Her husband was arrested in 2001 and held at the UN court in The Hague for genocide and other war crimes. Milosevic died in the tribunal's detention unit in 2006 before a verdict was reached.6 An election official brings a ballot box to the front-line village of Novotroitse in the Donetsk region on April 21. As the gates show, most homes here have been damaged by shelling.In his concession speech following the April 21 presidential runoff vote against Volodymyr Zelenskiy, incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko vowed to remain in politics. Speaking on April 21 in Kyiv, he called on the international community "to help Ukraine secure its recent achievements and the strategic course of the nation for integration into the European Union and NATO."KYIV -- With vote counting coming to an end in Ukraine's presidential election, television comic and political newcomer Volodymyr Zelenskiy seems certain of a landslide victory over incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in a strong rebuke of establishment politics in the face of endemic corruption, a weak economy, and a five-year-old conflict with Russia.

With over 99 percent of the ballots counted in the April 21 second-round vote, Zelenskiy had 73.2 percent, compared with just 24.4 percent for the 53-year-old billionaire businessman, mirroring exit polls. Turnout was just over 62 percent.

Speaking in Kyiv on April 22 to present the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) preliminary report on the election, OSCE Special Coordinator George Tsereteli said the election "was competitive and held with respect for fundamental freedoms." He added, however, that negative campaigning by both candidates made it difficult for voters to make informed decisions.



Overall, Tsereteli praised the transparency of the election process and lauded Poroshenko for accepting the result.



"The democratic and orderly transfer of power is a great achievement for the Ukrainian people," Tsereteli said.



During the campaign, Zelenskiy described his candidacy as "a simple man who has come to destroy this system," in a reference to public perceptions that Ukraine's politics and society are mired in corruption and nepotism against the backdrop of a draining five-year war against Russia-backed separatists.

Poroshenko, who conceded soon after an early National Exit Poll was released, had cast himself as the candidate capable of blunting Russian aggression.

"I want to say that I am very grateful to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who just congratulated me on my victory," Zelensky said at a press conference shortly after polls closed in the April 21 runoff. "I thank him. He said that I can count on his help at any time. He acknowledged my victory and my team's."

European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on April 22 sent a joint letter of congratulations to Zelenskiy that praised Ukraine's "strong attachment to democracy and the rule of law."

"This is a major achievement in the complex political, economic, and security environment, against the backdrop of continuous challenges to Ukraine's territorial integrity," the letter stated.

"As president of Ukraine, you can count on the EU's strong support to Ukraine's reform path" it continued. "You can also count on the EU's continued and steadfast support of Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt also congratulated the apparent election victor.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also congratulated Zelenskiy and confirmed that "Ukraine is a valued NATO partner," in a post on Twitter.

In the United States, the White House issued a statement saying that U.S. President Donald Trump had spoken with Zelenskiy by phone to congratulate him and to affirm "the unwavering support of the United States for Urkaine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders."



Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Facebook that the election showed "a clear demand for new approaches in solving Ukraine's problems" and said he sees "chances for improving cooperation" between Russia and Ukraine.



Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on April 22 that it was "too early" to say whether Moscow would be able to work effectively with Zelenskiy.



"It will only be possible to judge based on real actions," Peskov said when asked why Putin had not yet congratulated Zelenskiy.

After polls closed, Zelenskiy said he intends to bring "new people" into Ukrainian politics, adding that he would turn to Poroshenko for advice "if I need it." He said he would make personnel announcements "in the near future."

He said that his top priority as president would be to secure from Russia the release of all Ukrainian prisoners of war and other prisoners and pledged to "reboot" the Minsk process for resolving the conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine.

"Our first task is the liberation of our prisoners," he said. "I will do everything to get our boys home. All our prisoners, without exception."

Voters appeared unpersuaded by Poroshenko's appeals for a second five-year term to bring a more seasoned political and diplomatic hand to the country's problems.



In his concession speech, Poroshenko vowed to remain in politics.



"In any political role, I will do my best to counter revanchism and to ensure that Ukraine does not change its course," he said. "However, the outcome of the election leaves us with uncertainty, unpredictability, and a big question mark on whether the strategic course of Ukraine toward the EU and NATO will be secure and democratic reforms will continue."



He also called on the international community "to help Ukraine secure its recent achievements and the strategic course of the nation for integration into the European Union and NATO."



"Please, stay with Ukraine, no matter what," he said.



Five years after street unrest unseated pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych when he spurned closer integration with the European Union, outsiders are hoping for renewed stability in a country that remains a major energy transit route to Europe and a key ally in efforts to keep a resurgent Russia in check.



Zelenskiy won handily across the country, according to the National Exit Poll.



It showed him winning 57 percent in western Ukraine, compared to Poroshenko's 41.3 percent. In central Ukraine, the poll shows Zelenskiy with 70.3 percent and Poroshenko with 28 percent. In the south, Zelenskiy polled 85.4 percent and Poroshenko, 13.4 percent. In eastern Ukraine, the preliminary exit poll gives Zelenskiy 87.7 percent and Poroshenko just 11.2 percent.



Zelenskiy won the first round of voting on March 31 with 30 percent of the vote in a field of 39 candidates. Poroshenko took second with 16 percent.



A 41-year-old comic who shot to fame playing an accidental president in a television sitcom, Zelenskiy joked with reporters as he voted in Kyiv early on April 21 that his wife had put him in a good mood ahead of time by playing him a song by American rapper Eminem.



"Today will be a victory for Ukrainians, a victory for Ukraine," he said. "We have united Ukraine."

Asked by RFE/RL what would be his first order of business if elected, Zelenskiy answered, "War and corruption."



Pollsters said in the months leading up to the voting that a majority of voters were hoping for dramatic changes after the election.



Zelenskiy ran his campaign mostly on social media and largely avoided substantial policy discussions, benefiting from Ukraine's slumping economy, endemic corruption, and fatigue over Kyiv's ongoing war in parts of eastern Ukraine. Notably, he even sought to crowdsource a possible cabinet.

Some of Zelenskiy's critics, including Poroshenko, have questioned his ties to the foreign-based Ukrainian oligarch whose TV station airs Zelenskiy's programs, Ihor Kolomoyskiy.



After an inauguration slated for early June, Zelenskiy and his allies could face an early test in national parliamentary elections in October.



Zelenskiy says he supports Ukraine's eventual membership in NATO but only if it is approved in a referendum. He has insisted that Russia must return the Black Sea region of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and pay reparations.



Zelenskiy has called for direct talks with Russia over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives. In the past, Moscow has rejected such proposals, claiming the conflict was an internal matter for Ukraine and urging Kyiv to negotiate with representatives of the Moscow-back separatist formations.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and ReutersUkrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy was fined for showing the public his marked ballot. Police fined Zelenskiy on April 21 after he cast his ballot in the second round of the Ukrainian presidential vote. In an effort to maintain anonymity in the electoral process, Ukraine has a rule that considers it a minor offense to publicly display a marked ballot. The cost of the fine was estimated to be about $30.Some Members of Congress who landed in Roll Calls Have-Not Caucus last year appear to have improved their lot since, chipping away at the personal loans, credit card balances and other liabilities that placed them on the poorest list during 2010.

A preliminary review of the annual disclosure forms that lawmakers filed for 2011, released to the public on Thursday, show that about half of the 10 lawmakers whom Roll Call calculated as being the least well-off Members of Congress reported a greater minimum net worth than in the year before.

The 10 on last years list were Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings (Fla.), Ruben Hinojosa (Texas), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Laura Richardson (Calif.), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Linda Sanchez (Calif.) and Sanford Bishop (Ga.) and Republican Reps. John Sullivan (Okla.), Sean Duffy (Wis.) and Kristi Noem (S.D.).

Each year since 1990, Roll Call has reviewed the financial disclosures of all Representatives and Senators to determine the 50 richest Members of Congress for an annual report, which is forthcoming.

Roll Call looks at the poorest in Congress to get a sense of how lawmakers are faring as the country recovers from the recession. Many of the richest have not yet filed their financial disclosures after being granted extensions. At least 24 on last years wealthiest list received such an extension, including seven of the top 10, according to the website LegiStorm.Namdeb Holdings, a 50/50 joint venture between the Namibian government and De Beers is not selling Daberas, Sendelingsdrift and Southern Coastal mines in the southern African country.

It had been alleged that Namdeb was planning to close and offload three mines together with the Elizabeth Bay Mine by 2022 as it searches for higher-value gemstones offshore.

However, De Beers senior manager for media and commercial communications, David Johnson told Rough & Polisheds Mathew Nyaungwa that Namdeb is only disposing off the Elizabeth Bay Mine, which is located 30km south of Luderitz.

He, among other things, also spoke about their decision to move to calendar year ITOs and to allow sightholders disclose the provenance of the diamonds they purchase from the group.

Below are excerpts from the interview.

Namdeb, a joint venture between the Namibian government and De Beers, was said to be offloading Elizabeth Bay, Daberas, Sendelingsdrift and Southern Coastal mines. Can you provide an update on this disposal of mines in Namibia?

Namdeb commenced the process of disposing its Elizabeth Bay Mine, located along the south-western coast of Namibia, in 2018. Namdeb is currently engaged with a few prospective buyers and hopes to conclude the process as soon as possible. Namdeb is not disposing of its other mining areas and they remain operational.

Why are you selling the Elizabeth Bay Mine?

We took the decision to seek a buyer for Elizabeth Bay mine to secure its long-term future. Following a review, it was concluded that the best way to secure a longer future for the mine, beyond the projected 2019 life, was to find a more suitable low-cost operator that could allow the mine to continue to contribute to Namibia and Luderitz through continued employment and economic activity. As this mine nears the end of its current life, we have therefore been focused on seeking a buyer that can sustain operations beyond 2019, protect jobs and contribute sustainably to the Namibian economy.

Although you said Daberas, Sendelingsdrift and Southern Coastal mines were not being sold, are these mines set to close by 2022, as previously reported?

After more than a century of mining, many of the Namibian land-based operations that constitute Namdeb Diamond Corporation are in their twilight years, but Namdeb has not set any particular closure date for any of the operations mentioned and is not disposing of any operations other than Elizabeth Bay.

There is a political friction in Botswanas ruling party pitting the current president and his predecessor. Are you concerned by such reports?

De Beers Group is not involved in any of our producer partners' politics - we have a partnership with Botswana as a nation and have always had a strong and positive relationship.

The Central African Republic recently invited De Beers to mine its diamonds. What is your comment on the invitation?

We are focused on our current portfolio and dont have any plans to undertake any activities in the Central African Republic.

Can you provide an update on your operations in Angola?

Bruce Cleaver was invited to meet with President Lourenco in Angola to discuss the countrys diamond sector last year and had positive discussions about the future of the countrys diamond sector. While there is nothing further to report at this stage, we look forward to continuing the positive dialogue.

Can you confirm reports that De Beers will from the fourth sales cycle reduce diamonds to sightholders? If so why?

De Beers Group's production guidance for 2019 is 31-33 million carats, compared with 35.3 million carats in 2018. Voorspoed mine closed at the end of 2018, Victor mine is now depleted, and there is a temporary reduction in availability from Venetia mine as it transitions from an open pit to underground operation. These factors have led to reduced forecast rough diamond value in the coming ITO period.

Why is De Beers moving to a calendar-year intention-to-offer (ITO)?

We are moving to calendar year ITOs to align the ITO to the calendar year planning cycle. This will help to ensure better alignment of Sights within ITO periods. As such, a move to a calendar year ITO will simplify allocations across the ITO selling period.

Why did it take long for De Beers to allow sightholders to disclose the provenance of the diamonds they purchase from the company?

De Beers Group has been at the forefront of the industrys efforts on provenance and responsible sourcing for a long time (for example through key roles in the Kimberley Process, the RJC, as well as the development of the Best Practice Principles and the focus on financial transparency and robustness). We are also currently making substantial investments in Tracr, the end-to-end asset-tracking blockchain platform, developed by the diamond industry, for the diamond industry. Tracr will be the ultimate in provenance assurance in the long run.

De Beers Group has always provided Sightholders with the ability to provide assurance about the responsible sourcing of rough diamonds purchased from Sights through provision of an invoice statement specifying country / countries of origin (all of which  Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada  are Kimberley Process compliant), as well as an invoice statement confirming that the diamonds are compliant with the Best Practice Principles.

However, some Sightholders expressed a desire also to be able to provide a corporate source of origin. As such we have recently introduced the potential for use of a "Diamonds from DTC" provenance claim for diamonds purchased from Sights.

What is the level of demand for low-quality diamonds at the moment?

There has been a challenge for smaller, lower quality rough diamonds for some time due to the global supply volumes of these types of diamonds over the last 18 months. While there remain some challenges in this area, the inventory 'indigestion' in this area is expected to ease as the year progresses.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished



Executive chef Helene An, 75, is preparing to hand over the reins of her Beverly Hills restaurant, Crustacean, to a successor she trained for the job. He has a tough act to follow. The Smithsonian recently announced it will honor An and her family in May with a Pioneer Award in Culinary Arts, recognizing her as the mother of fusion cuisine and the first to introduce Vietnamese cuisine to mainstream America, changing American palates forever. Some of Ans daughters have held management roles in the family enterprise, which includes two other Southern California restaurants (Tiato and AnQi), two San Francisco restaurants (the first Crustacean and the familys original eatery, Thanh Long) and a catering operation. A new restaurant, Da Lat Rose, will open in Beverly Hills in May.

Know the kitchen

As the youngest of a wealthy family of 17, I was spoiled, very lazy. I didnt have to do anything, An said. That didnt last. By the time she was 6, her mother expected her to start learning in the family kitchen. Even if you dont end up cooking, you have to watch the chef and your sisters, An recalled her mother saying. Learn from them.

Escape from Vietnam

Years later, in 1975, An was a young woman living in Saigon. It was a shock when a friend of her husband told her,  North Vietnamese troops are near the city. You have to leave now. I just make a very quick decision. I bring only my three daughters. No jewelry. No pennies in my pocket. A cargo plane took them to the Philippines, then Guam, before she was flown to Camp Pendleton. Her final destination was San Francisco, where her mother-in-law, Diana An, had bought a deli she didnt know how to run. It was fate, An said.

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Motivated

An said she never really paid attention to her cooking abilities until she arrived in San Francisco. My dream was not to become a restaurateur. My dream was not becoming a celebrity chef, An said. My dream was to survive and take care of my children. I wanted to give them a good life.

A rough start

An had a dilemma. No one understood her food, which was a fusion of Vietnamese, Chinese and French cooking learned in her familys kitchen. I knew the American palate was not ready for traditional Vietnamese food, so I created my own cuisine, An said. The first example was garlic noodles, An said, after I saw that so many people in San Francisco loved pasta. It was panned by a prominent San Francisco food critic, who said it wasnt Vietnamese food and gave it just two stars out of five. Customers were hard to find for her 10-seat restaurant.

More success stories from How I Made It 

Free eats

Teenage daughter Elizabeth suggested taking out newspaper ads offering free food. The ads were paid for in part by a second mortgage on the An family home. It was a risky strategy given that money was tight. We did free food for one week, An said. That piqued the interest of a local food critic, who understood he was witnessing something new. Im very lucky, An said. Maybe God protects me. That critic loved the garlic noodles and gave me five stars.

Risky business

Customers showed up and the restaurant swelled to 40 seats, then 80. In 1991, the family opened Crustacean in San Francisco. We worked hard, always from the heart, An said. The family took most of those restaurant profits south in 1997 to open the Beverly Hills Crustacean.

Charitable

With little money left after setting up the second Crustacean, daughter Elizabeth had another solution. She suggested we could host charitable events, An said, which introduced the familys cooking to a new batch of customers early on.

Family legacy

Elizabeth, 51, is chief executive for the family restaurants. Monique An, 49, is managing director of the San Francisco restaurants. Catherine An, 39, founded Tiato and the catering business. Jacqueline An, 40, wrote the family cookbook with her mother in 2016. Elizabeths 25-year-old daughter, Bosilika, is director of concept development.

When she thinks about how driven her family is to succeed, Helene An points to family expectations born generations ago in Vietnam. As an An, you are a custodian of the last name. You have a duty to those who wore it before you and those who will wear it after you, to make sure it means something we can all be proud of.

Leadership style

Some chefs can be mercurial, even frightening to the kitchen staff, but that isnt Ans style. You encourage, never insult, An said. I encourage them to try something new. If I dont like it, I tell them we will fix it together. An said its important to walk the floor outside the kitchen, talking to customers. I always ask how they like the food. I want to make sure they come back many times. To ensure the restaurant remains strong after she leaves, An personally trained the new chef, Tony Nguyen, who is like a son to me.

Succeeding together

We have a family breakfast most days of the week, An said, sometimes at my house, sometimes at Elizabeths. We stay together, talk about our lives, talk about difficulties and share what we have learned and listen to each others ideas. That is a very important thing to do.Eager to jump-start the stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline and other energy projects, President Donald Trump has acted to assert executive power over pipelines and such infrastructure.

He issued a new permit for Keystone XL and insisted this exercise of presidential authority was not subject to judicial review. Then he signed an executive order clarifying that the president alone has the power to grant permits for cross-border projects such as pipelines. A separate order makes it harder for states to block pipelines and other energy projects on the basis of environmental concerns.

Taken together, the actions amount to a broad assertion of power that reverses more than 50 years of precedent that delegated decision-making on energy projects to individual agencies.

Trump has shown a willingness to override his own agencies to accomplish his aims. His actions, if upheld by the courts, could consolidate power over energy projects at the White House, increasing the influence of the presidents political advisers and potentially cutting out experts and career officials throughout the government.

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Too often badly needed energy infrastructure is being held back by special interest groups, entrenched bureaucracies and radical activists, Trump said Wednesday before signing the executive orders at an event in Texas.

Pipeline opponents say Trump acted illegally. They have asked a federal court to block the new Keystone permit, arguing that it is an effort to get around an earlier court ruling.

But one legal expert said Trumps approach might succeed.

He has now created a whole new decision-making structure for cross-border pipelines, said Richard Pierce, a law professor at George Washington University.

If the courts follow a 1992 Supreme Court ruling, they may find that action taken by the State Department in approving or rejecting the pipeline is nonreviewable, because it doesnt qualify as final agency action, Pierce said. Further, Trumps decision would not be subject to review because of a separate law that declares the president is not an agency and therefore is not bound by rules that apply to agency actions.

Thats a very clever approach that might well work, Pierce said.

Trumps actions are typical of this presidency, said Holly Doremus, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She said Trump frequently seeks to stretch the limits of his power, and she cited Trumps declaration of an emergency that he says allows him to shift more money to construction of a promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In the case of Keystone, Trump appears to be arguing that the new presidential permit, issued March 29, gets around restrictions under the National Environmental Policy Act or other laws, because the statutes apply to executive-branch agencies but not to the president, Doremus said.

If the president is the only discretionary decision maker, NEPA simply does not apply, she said.

While Trumps theory is plausible, it is unclear who is the ultimate decision-maker on Keystone XL, Doremus said. The pipeline would ship crude oil from the tar sands of western Canada to U.S. refineries along the Gulf of Mexico.

Both a 2015 rejection of the project by the Obama administration and a 2017 approval by Trump were issued by the State Department under terms of a 2004 executive order that delegated presidential authority for cross-border projects to that agency.

Trumps executive order revokes the 2004 order, issued by President George W. Bush. Bushs action extended an executive order first issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968.

Its surprising that the president would come in and single-handedly try to circumvent 50 years of precedent for these types of projects by just issuing a permit himself, said Doug Hayes, a Sierra Club attorney who has sued to block the Keystone project in court.

In November, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Montana ruled that the Trump administration did not fully consider potential oil spills and other impacts when it approved the pipeline in 2017. Morris ordered a new environmental review of the pipeline.

The White House said the new permit issued by Trump dispels any uncertainty about the long-delayed project, which was first proposed a decade ago by Calgary-based TransCanada.

Trumps move on Keystone XL reinforces the idea that the presidential permit is indeed an exercise of presidential authority that is not subject to judicial review, according to the White House.

Under the new order, federal officials still would conduct environmental reviews of the project, but they would be carried out by agencies other than the State Department, the White House said.

TransCanada spokesman Matthew John said the administrations action clearly demonstrates to the courts that the permit is (the) product of presidential decision-making and should not be subject to additional environmental review.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said it was strange that Trump issued the executive order after granting the new permit.

The White House is making the argument supposedly that he has untrammeled authority and doesnt have to obey the laws of Congress in approving a cross-border pipeline, Tobias said. Im dubious and I think a number of other people are, too.

Kathryn Watts, a law professor at the University of Washington, said its unclear what happens next. Trumps permit wades into uncharted, unsettled legal territory, she said.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Watching Netflix may soon take even less effort than it currently does.

The streaming giant announced its testing out a new option that would allow users to tune into series without having to select a specific episode.

We are testing the ability for members to play a random episode from different TV series on the Android mobile app, a rep for Netflix said in a statement obtained by the Daily News.

These tests typically vary in length of time and by region, and may not become permanent.

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Under the current Netflix format, viewers select the series and episode they wish to watch before it starts to stream.

Netflix did not disclose which series are being tested with the new random episode option. The streaming service is home to numerous original series, in addition to shows that previously aired on other networks.A Los Angeles city attorney who says a City Hall rat infestation caused her to contract flea-borne typhus has filed a $5-million legal claim, saying Mayor Eric Garcetti and other elected officials allowed trash outside her office to become a threat to public health.

Deputy City Atty. Elizabeth Greenwood said in her claim that Garcetti, City Atty. Mike Feuer and the City Council allowed garbage and human feces to accumulate on the streets outside City Hall East, recklessly endangering the public by allowing rats and fleas to thrive.

Greenwood worked at City Hall East until October, when she went out on sick leave. She was diagnosed in November with typhus, a flea-borne illness that can spread when fleas bite rats and later pass the bacteria on to humans. Its symptoms include a rash, fever and fatigue.

The San Pedro resident said she has faced retaliation from her bosses for contacting the news media and Cal/OSHA, a state agency that monitors workplace safety, about the dangers posted by rats, fleas and typhus. She also contends that L.A. officials failed in their obligation to ensure that sidewalks in the Civic Center, many of them occupied by homeless residents, are safe and sanitary.

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The rotting trash and the raw sewage is the soup that grows typhus, she said.

A Garcetti spokesman had no comment. Asked about the claim, an aide to Feuer said Friday that employee health is an issue of paramount concern.

The facts are that there was vigorous testing in City Hall and surrounding buildings and not one flea was found, Feuer spokesman Rob Wilcox said in an email. And there have been no other claims of typhus alleged by city employees. City leaders remain committed to our employees health and safety.

Greenwood filed her claim last month. Claims are typically submitted at City Hall before the filing of a lawsuit.

Workers at City Hall have complained for nearly a year about rodents, setting traps, finding droppings and paw prints, and capturing the scurrying creatures on video.

In response to Greenwoods complaints, council members ordered a handful of agencies to assess the presence of fleas and rats at City Hall, City Hall East and other nearby buildings.

In February, a pest control firm told the council that it had found no evidence of the disease-carrying insects inside City Hall or other municipal facilities.

County health officials declared a typhus outbreak last year in downtown L.A., saying people should avoid stray or wild animals, including rats.

City officials contend that the rodent problem was triggered by the ongoing demolition of Parker Center, the former headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department, which sits across the street from City Hall East.

Since Greenwood went public with her claims, city crews have engaged in a major cleanup of the Civic Center, setting traps and clearing vegetation.

Greenwood said she attempted to return to her job on Friday, bringing a cameraman from NBC Channel 4 to City Hall East. She said she did so to document her bosses ongoing refusal to allow her to go back to work.

I brought NBC with me because I dont feel comfortable talking with these folks without a witness, she said.

Greenwood said that a few hours later, she was placed on paid administrative leave and sent home.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Twitter: @DavidZahniserA Sumatran tiger attacked a zookeeper in Kansas Saturday, sending her to the hospital.

The incident happened when the 7-year-old male tiger, named Sanjiv, and the keeper were both in the same space, the tigers outdoor habitat, Topeka Zoo director Brendan Wiley said in a press conference Saturday.

As soon as he recognized that, he essentially tackled our keeper, he said.

The zookeeper, whose name hasnt been released, suffered lacerations and punctures to the back of the head, neck, back and one arm, Wiley said.

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The zookeeper was awake and alert when she was taken to the hospital, Topeka city spokesperson Molly Hadfield told CNN. She was reported in stable condition.

A zookeeper visits the tigers habitat space every day to clean, maintain, put out enrichment items, said Wiley. What went wrong was that Sanjiv also found access to that space at the same time.

Sanjiv did exactly what a tiger would [do] when something comes into his territory, Wiley said. He added that theres absolutely no consideration to euthanize Sanjiv.

The incident is still under investigation. The zoo will take a look at every policy and procedure that we have, Wiley said.

Sumatran tigers are a critically rare and endangered species, he said. According to the World Wildlife Fund, this tiger subspecies is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers exist today. Last year, Sanjiv fathered four cubs, who are currently in the Topeka Zoo.

The zoo was closed for about 45 minutes after the incident.

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.Washington: Known for his gaffes, US President Donald Trump yet again committed a faux pas on Sunday as he erroneously wrote that "138 million people" were killed in a string of blasts in Sri Lanka.

The near-simultaneous attacks on Easter Sunday at three churches and as many luxury hotels frequented by foreigners killed more than 160 people and injured over 450 others, shattering a decade of peace in the country after the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

President Trump offered "heartfelt condolences" to the people of Sri Lanka and said the US stood ready to help. The US leader, however, erroneously wrote that "138 million people" were killed in the attacks instead of just 138. "Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more. We stand ready to help!" Trump said in a tweet which was taken down after more than 20 minutes.

Trump's tweet did not go unnoticed by the agile twitterati who started poking fun at the appalling tweet. "138 million? Maybe you should wait for the facts pops," wrote one follower of the US president. "We are a population of 20 million. 138 million is mathematically impossible. Keep your icky condolences, we don't want it," responded another user. "138 million! More than the population of Sri Lanka. We are now an empty Country as per Donald!!" said another follower.

Trump is known for his wrong tweets and for using embarrassing nicknames as well as 'mispronouncing names' of people such as "Jeff Bozo" in reference to Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

In March, he mistakenly referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as "Tim Apple", a verbal slip which netizens poked fun at by sharing rib-tickling memes on social media. Last year, he had called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson "Marillyn Lockheed."CAMBRIDGE, N.Y.  A Saratoga Springs City Schools official has been named superintendent of Cambridge Central Schools.

Douglas Silvernell, assistant superintendent for 21st century teaching and learning in Saratoga, is scheduled to succeed current Superintendent Vince Canini, effective July 1, at salary of $150,000 per year.

Silvernell has been with Saratoga Springs City School District for the past 6.5 years. He began his career in education in 1994 as a history teacher at the North Warren Central School District.

Silvernell then spent 18 years at the Queensbury Union Free School District where he was hired as a middle school social studies teacher, before becoming the educational technologist/technology director in 1999.

In 2001 he was appointed as the middle school assistant principal and then principal, from July 2003 to July 2012.

I feel as though the wide variety of experiences I have had throughout my career will be very beneficial as I join the Cambridge family, said Silvernell. I believe my experiences in strategic planning, curriculum and instruction, and technology will help guide my work with the Cambridge Central School District team.

Silvernell earned a bachelor of arts in history at the State University of New York at Albany. His masters degree in secondary social studies is from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh where he also earned his Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership.

He recently earned his doctorate in educational systems leadership at the Esteves School of Education through The Sage Colleges.

I am extremely excited to join a team that publicly displays its core values, and I look forward to working in a community that has such great pride in its school, Silvernell said. I could not be more fortunate than to join a district that openly values creativity, diversity, trust, and high expectations. These are values I have continuously pursued throughout my life and career. The fact that my personal values are very much aligned to the Cambridge values is very exciting for me.

Cambridge school board President Neil Gifford said, We are fortunate to have found a candidate that is not only exceptionally qualified with essential curriculum and management experience, but that also has the interpersonal and communication skills needed for effective leadership.

It is also clear that Dr. Silvernell has combined these attributes with life experiences that provide him with a genuine understanding of the value of an education, hard work, and service to the future of our kids and community. Dr. Silvernell was clearly the best choice for the future of Cambridge Central School, he said.RIDLEY PARK  A raging house fire at 102 W. Ridley Ave. on April 3, with occupants still inside, totally destroyed a large Victorian-style house. But there was no loss of life thanks to the heroic efforts of two borough police officers, an off-duty Boeing Corp. firefighter and a nearby resident, all of whom braved smoke and flames inside the structure to rescue a disabled man from the third floor.

According to the scenario of events recounted at councils meeting Tuesday night when the four heroes were honored, Officer Michael Hanly was dispatched for the house fire and possible entrapment. He learned of a resident on the third floor of the structure and proceeded up the fire escape to assist the resident, who was unable to walk.

Officer Jason Golden arrived on the scene and heard yelling from the rear of the property. He went up the fire escape to the third floor to aid Hanly in removing the disabled man.

In the meantime, off-duty Boeing Corp. firefighter John Byrne saw the building on fire and heard of a resident still inside, so he went into the building, proceeding to the third floor to assist Hanly and Golden in evacuating the resident.

Nearby resident Joseph Connelly also heard that there was a resident still inside the building, so he too entered the building and went to the third floor to help the other three men to evacuate the building.

What they did was nothing less than exceptional, Police Chief Robert Frazier said of the four heroes.

Hanly suffered burns to the head and smoke inhalation as a result of his actions.

Mayor Hank Eberle read the citations presented to Hanly, Golden, Byrne and Connelly and council Vice Chairman Michele Endriss-Dalessio, who is chairman of the public safety committee, presented each man with framed copies of their individual citations.

The Ridley Park Fire Co. was also presented with a citation for its excellent response to the West Ridley Avenue fire. The citation noted that there were more than 175-person-hours responding to the scene, which was able to be secured and allowed the community to return to normal activity the next morning. Twenty members of the fire company responded to the alarm, helping to prevent further damage to surrounding areas.

In all, 15 other fire companies from surrounding areas responded to the fire.

In his fire company monthy report, Fire Chief Mike Eckenrode spoke of the difficulty in getting volunteer responders to fire scenes in the afternoon because of employment commitments.

A lot of those volunteers didnt go home for dinner that night, and volunteers getting home from work came right to the call, Eckenrode said of the April 3 fire.

The fire chief put out a call for more people to step up and volunteer with the fire company, adding that there is no pay, and horrible hours.

In another public safety matter, Eberle administered the oath of office to two new part-time police officers, bringing the total to 10 part-time officers in the department. There are also 10 full-time officers.

The new officers are Matthew Garns, 36, of Ridley Township, a graduate of Widener University and the Delaware County Municipal Police Academy. He has prior law enforcement experience. Alexi Barnada is 28, a West Chester resident and a police academy graduate. He is a member of the Goshen Fire Co. and a certified Pennsylvania vehicle mechanic.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 20)  Against the backdrop of warming ties between the Philippines and China, over 300 top Chinese business leaders will fly to Manila to attend the Boao Economic Forum for Asia Conference this upcoming week.

The newly-elected President of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FFCCCII), Henry Lim Bon Liong, confirmed to CNN Philippines that most of the Chinese investors participating are involved in agriculture, tourism, infrastructure and labor sectors.

I think right now the Philippines and China relationship has never been so close than before. We would like to do our best to impress the 300 Chinese businessmen coming in next week, said Lim in a phone interview from Shanghai, China.

The FFCCCII-sponsored forum, with the theme "Concerted Action For Common Development In The New Era, will be held at the Shangri-La at the Fort, Manila in Taguig City on Monday and Tuesday.

This is also the first time that the forum will be held in the Philippines, and President Rodrigo Duterte himself will deliver the keynote speech at the opening ceremony Monday early evening.

The chief executive will then fly to Beijing, China to attend the 2nd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation along with dozens of heads of state from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.

Other speakers at the Boao economic forum would include House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Vice Chairman Zhou Xiaochuan and Secretary General Li Baodong, among other high-ranking officials.

Whats in it for Filipinos?

Lim said investment deals between Filipino and Chinese business leaders, especially on job-creating infrastructure projects, are expected to be made during the two-day forum.

Once these are realized, if the infrastructure is there, the economic benefits are flowing because of these (infrastructure projects) and then poverty will be alleviated because of that, added Lim.

He also said that Chinese-origin multinational internet conglomerates like Alibaba and Tencent have been on talks with some Filipino big names.

I think Tencent has some agreement with the Ayalas and all of these and I think there will be more that will be coming in especially tourism, recounted Lim, who is also the chief executive officer of Sterling Paper Group of Companies.

The taipan himself said he is currently building a resort hotel in Mactan, Cebu to accommodate the influx of rich Chinese coming into the Philippine islands.

With great beaches and all of these things I think we can overtake Thailand. How can you not beat the other countries when you have three or four of the best beaches in the world? said Lim.

He added the deals will open more opportunities for Filipinos to be employed as caregivers and workers in retirement homes in China, where population aging is more acute based on research studies.

Whats in it for China?

The Filipino-Chinese businessman said the forum is really for the benefit countries joining in like the Philippines more than China itself.

He further stressed that it is high-time for the forum to be held in Manila since tangible benefits of Chinese investments and loans have not been so much in the Philippines for the past years.

Critics have been saying that that China's loans to poorer nations came with strings attached and could build up staggering debt.

If you're going to ask a lot of countries, even from Europe or Eastern Europe and even from African countries, there's really no debt trap, I mean there's no strings attached, responded Lim.

The BFA also aims to build consensus on further cooperation regarding the Belt and Road initiative (BRI), which is Chinas ambitious effort to improve regional cooperation and connectivity on a trans-continental scale.

The World Bank website said the BRI aims to strengthen infrastructure, trade, and investment links between China and some 65 other countries that account collectively for over 30 percent of global economy, 62 percent of population, and 75 percent of known energy reserves.

The BRI consists primarily of the Silk Road Economic Belt, linking China to Central and South Asia and onward to Europe, and the New Maritime Silk Road, linking China to the nations of South East Asia, the Gulf Countries, North Africa, and on to Europe.

I don't think there's any other country that can really follow China's way of trying to do all these things, not even economic powers like America or Japan, said Lim.

Why is it called Boao?

The forum is named after Boao town in the eastern coast Chinas Hainan province facing the South China Sea, where most of the islands are being disputed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Since the BFA was formally inaugurated on February 27, 2001, the town serves as the permanent site of the BFA Headquarters.

According to its website, BFA is a nongovernmental and non-profit international organization with a fixed conference date and a fixed domicile.

Proposed in 1998 by former President Fidel Ramos, former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and former Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, the BFA was created to promote and deepen the economic exchange, coordination, and cooperation within Asia and between Asia and the world.

The BFA, often compared to the World Economic Forum's own annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, has become a high-end platform for dialogs among leaders of national governments, business circles, and academicians about the important issues in Asia and even the whole world.

This is equally important although it's not as popular as the Davos economic forum, but I think it's going to attract a lot of countries to join also, said Lim.

Former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon of South Korea currently chairs the BFA, with Arroyo sitting as board member. Arroyo was also the one who also invited the BFA board to hold the forum in the Philippines.UPPER DARBY  A man accused of robbing a group of people of their phones with a gun Wednesday night turned himself in to police Friday afternoon, authorities said.

Anthony Devero-Smith, 18, of the 800 block of North 66th Street in Philadelphia, surrendered to Upper Darby police and is now facing a dozen felony robbery charges, a gun charge, and over a dozen more charges for simple assault, theft, receiving stolen property and making terroristic threats for allegedly sticking up two teenagers and an adult.

He was arraigned before Magisterial Judge Leon Hunter Friday and remanded to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility for failing to post bail at 10 percent of $1 million.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said Devero-Smith and another man were walking along the back of a property in the 2200 block of South Harwood Avenue around 10:30 Wednesday night when they approached two teenaged girls and one adult male who was with them. He allegedly used a semiautomatic handgun to threaten them and take their phones.

If they said anything they would kill them, said Chitwood relaying the threat that was made against the three individuals. The two robbers fled on foot. None of the victims were injured.

One of the victims was able to identify Devero-Smith because she went to high school with him. He was identified in a yearbook and social media was used to make contact with him and his father before turning himself in. Devero-Smith was considered armed and dangerous before his voluntary surrender, police said.

Police are still trying to identify the second robber, identified as a black male, standing about around 5 feet 10 inches tall. Devero-Smith has not told police who the other robber is, said Chitwood.

Devero-Smith is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 7.Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

The body of a swimmer who went missing from a Pacifica beach last month was found near Fort Funston in San Francisco on Friday, authorities said.

The remains, recovered about 9 miles from Rockaway Beach, where the swimmer went missing March 26, were identified as Tyler Collins, 28, of Merced, according to the Pacifica Police Department.School districts in the most expensive regions of California, struggling to pay salaries that keep pace with the high cost of living, are increasingly turning to housing incentives to attract new teachers and stanch the flow of teachers from their schools.

Affordable housing projects for school employees have been built in Los Angeles, Santa Clara and San Mateo over the last 20 years. Now, with housing costs continuing to rise and new state laws that make building employee housing easier, a wave of new projects is in the pipeline.

San Francisco Unified, Santa Clara County, San Jose Unified, Jefferson Union High School District in San Mateo County, the Sonoma County Office of Education, San Lorenzo Valley Unified, West Contra Costa Unified and Mountain View Whisman School District are among those that have approved employee housing or are considering it. All of those districts are in the Bay Area, where the rent for a modest one-bedroom apartment in the region stretching from Marin County to Santa Clara County is more than double the median one-bedroom rent statewide, according to an EdSource analysis.

The analysis found the Bay Area has the largest disparity between teacher salaries and rental housing costs in the state. In 47 school districts in the region, the highest-paid teachers only earn enough to rent an affordable one-bedroom apartment, using the federal definition of affordable housing as 30% or less of household income.

The movement to provide affordable housing for teachers and other school employees is spreading throughout the Bay Area and into other regions of the state where the housing supply is limited or too expensive for teachers.

This is a statewide problem, said Dale Scott of Dale Scott and Co, a financial advisory firm that has worked with school districts to fund affordable housing. The problem of affordability is obvious in the Bay Area and other parts of the coastal area. In the Central Valley it is often supply. There simply arent enough rental units for teachers and staff.

Dale Scott and Co. advised Jefferson Union High School District officials when they put a $33 million general obligation bond on the ballot last June to help build affordable apartments for teachers and staff. Scott said he doesnt know of another school district that has passed a general obligation bond purely to finance an employee housing project.

The Serramonte del Rey Faculty and Staff Housing Project , built on the site of a former school, is expected to cost $50 million to $60 million, according to the district. It will break ground on the 116-unit project this summer.

Officials from more than 20 school districts in rural and urban areas have contacted Dale Scott and Co. with an interest in funding staff housing through a general obligation bond, Scott said. I think there will be a fair number on the 2020 ballot, he said.

The Santa Clara Unified School District was one of the first districts to build affordable housing specifically for teachers, opening the first phase of Casa del Maestro in Santa Clara in 2002. The second phase was completed in 2009.

The catch: Teachers can stay there only for a maximum of seven years.

The apartment complex was built on the corner of an unused elementary school site. Rents for the 72 apartments are about 80% of market rate, between $1,430 for a 722-square-foot one-bedroom unit and $2,195 for a 1,170-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath unit, said Eric Dill, the school districts chief business official.

Currently, the complex is fully occupied and has a waiting list.

Rizi Manzon is one of the lucky few who got a spot in the complex. He drives six minutes from his one-bedroom apartment in Casa del Maestro to his job as chef instructor of the Culinary Arts Hospitality and Management Program at Adrian Wilcox High School in Santa Clara.

Manzon, 39, was a chef and restaurant manager in Orange County when his former teacher at Wilcox High asked him to return to the school to run the program.

Its very rewarding in a different way, he said. Its about the kids being successful and realizing their potential.

Without the apartment, which costs $1,460 a month, Manzon said he wouldnt be able to live in Santa Clara. A comparable unit would be about $3,500, he said. The rent consumes about 25% of his $76,000 annual salary.

Manzon has three years before his seven-year limit is up. Ill start looking for a new home, he said. If its not affordable I will start looking for new employment. Most likely it will come from out of state.

Many California teachers have already departed to less-expensive states, exacerbating Californias teacher shortage. An EdSource analysis of Census Bureau data found that about 40,000 teachers left the state between 2013 and 2017, although it is not clear if they left because of housing costs. That was an increase of 22% over the previous five-year period.

Others are commuting hours to get to work, said Sarah Chaffin, founder of Support Teacher Housing.org. Think about driving two hours to get to work, Chaffin said. Would anyone be focused after a two-hour commute? That isnt good for the teacher. It isnt good for the students.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

San Francisco is set to have its first affordable housing complex for teachers in 2023. The San Francisco Unified School District is working with the city of San Francisco to build the Francis Scott Key Annex Educator Housing complex, which will have 100 units.

We are committed to exploring every possible way to attract and retain teachers, said Daniel Menezes, chief of human resources for the San Francisco Unified School District. Building educator housing puts San Francisco at the forefront of working to address both the nationwide teacher shortage and the enormous cost of living here.

Residents of the Francis Scott Key Annex must earn between 40% and 120% of the median income in the area, or $37,000 to $150,000. The average teacher salary in the district for the 2017-18 school year was $73,379, according to the California Department of Education.

Rents are based on income and family size, according to the district. The lowest-priced unit would be a studio at $829, for tenants earning 40% of the area median income. The highest-priced unit, at $3,197, would be a two-bedroom apartment for a family earning 120% of area median income.

The project will be funded with a $25.1 million subsidy from the city, a $29.5 million loan and a $23.7 million low-income housing tax credit. The school district is providing the property on a no-cost long-term lease.

San Jose Unified School District officials have identified nine potential schools that could be converted to affordable housing for staff, said district spokeswoman Lili Smith.

The idea has drawn opposition from residents of the Almaden Valley neighborhood. A petition on change.org to Save Leland and Bret Harte  two of the schools on the district list  has more than 6,600 signatures. Greg Braley, who started the petition, has said the projects will hurt the neighborhoods property values and require students to travel farther to school.

Smith said t he district loses 1 of every 7 teachers each year. Teachers who stay often commute long distances to homes in less expensive areas.

We are living in one of the most expensive areas in the U.S. Its not just for the teachers, its for the staff as well, Smith said. We are looking for ways to help our staff live in the place they work.

This story was produced by EdSource. See the entire project, including interactive maps, here.The West Contra Costa Unified School District, serving some of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bay Area, can use every excellent teacher its able to recruit.

That is why the decision by Sarah La Due to pack up and leave the district, just two years after winning a Teaching Excellence Award, hurts.

But La Due, after five years in the district, is tired of living with two roommates and sharing a bathroom to afford housing. So this fall, she will be teaching high school in Las Vegas instead of English at Fred T. Korematsu Middle School in El Cerrito.

Im a 35-year-old professional woman, and I shouldnt have to live with roommates, La Due said. Why am I sacrificing so much to live in the Bay Area when there are other cities with culture and good food?

La Due is not alone in her frustration.

An EdSource analysis of teacher salaries and rents reveals just how crushing Californias housing crisis has become for many teachers.

Teachers at the bottom of the salary scale working in coastal or metro areas of the state are being shut out of affordable housing. Many are spending more than 30% of their salary on rent, the federal cutoff for affordable housing, the EdSource analysis reveals:

 In nearly 40% of the 680 school districts that reported salary data to the state, first-year teachers did not earn enough to rent an affordable one-bedroom apartment.

 In 39 districts, first-year teachers faced the prospect of spending more than 50% of their income on a modest one-bedroom apartment.

 In more than a quarter of school districts the highest-paid teachers could not afford to rent a three-bedroom house or apartment.

 Teachers fare better in rural areas, where in nearly 90% of the districts, teachers earning an average salary could afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Nowhere is the gap between teacher pay and housing costs wider than in the Bay Area. Teachers earning an average salary in nearly 90% of districts in the region did not earn enough to rent an affordable two-bedroom apartment. In 47 Bay Area school districts the highest-paid teachers only earned enough for an affordable one-bedroom apartment.

For districts already grappling with teacher shortages, high housing costs pose one more obstacle to hiring. As a result of declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs after the economic downturn and teacher attrition, many districts cant find enough fully credentialed teachers to fill their classrooms, according to the Getting Down to Facts II education research project released last year.

The EdSource analysis compared teacher salary data from the California Department of Education and fair-market rent data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fair-market rent is the base price for a modest apartment in a given market, so those figures are likely to be lower than actual rents in high-cost communities.

La Due has been teaching for five years, starting as a Teach for America teacher in 2014. She earns $54,000 a year. To make extra cash to stretch her salary, she took on an extra class and drives for Lyft over the summer and during winter break.

Its still not enough, she said.

Next school year, instead of paying $900 a month to rent a small bedroom and shared bathroom in Richmond, she can rent a two-bedroom apartment of her own for less than $1,000. She expects to make about the same salary.

Elementary teacher Arnold Fenton, 28, spends about a quarter of his $69,000 salary on his portion of the rent for a two-bedroom apartment he shares with his partner and a roommate in the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego. The total rent is $2,140.

Its less than he paid for a one-bedroom before, but the trade-off is a roommate and a 40-mile commute to Arroyo Vista Charter School in Chula Vista  where he teaches kindergarten  doubling his insurance and requiring him to buy a new car.

I have to deal with children all day, and sometimes I come home and have to get after him (the roommate) to do the dishes, Fenton said. There are days I grind my teeth and try not to lash out.

The situation is even more dire for new teachers, who have less money to spend on housing and other necessities.

Roxana De La O Cortez, 25, who teaches fifth grade at Oaklands dual immersion Manzanita Elementary School, moved back to her familys two-bedroom, one-bath apartment in Hayward in June.

She lives with her parents, her 23-year-old sister and 18-year-old brother. Her living quarters  a loft-style bed, bookcase and a portable clothing rack  take up half the living room. The bed has a built-in shoe rack and space underneath for the bins filled with De La O Cortezs belongings.

It is disappointing, and its heartbreaking, she said of the situation, which includes a 40-minute commute to work.

Things got financially worse for De La O Cortez in October when she lost her provisional internship permit and was bumped down to substitute pay  about $170 a day  after she failed one of the tests required to earn a teaching credential. Teachers on internship permits must pass all the required tests within a year of receiving their permit, or it is revoked.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

California residents caught in the middle  between low and high incomes  spend a substantial amount of their salaries on housing, according to a Legislative Analysts Office report on the governors 2019-20 budget, which includes proposals to improve the affordability of housing in the state. About 1 million households at or above the states median income  earning above $70,000 annually  are cost-burdened, meaning they are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, the report states.

High housing costs impact everyone in the Bay Area, said Sarah Chaffin, founder of Support Teacher Housing.org. We need more moderate-income housing for everyone  teachers, social workers, dispatchers, she said.

Joel Smith, 40, a high school ceramics teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, started hunting for a house two years ago. He didnt have much of a down payment, so he needed to find something in the $250,000 range.

All the houses we can afford are in dangerous neighborhoods, Smith said. The family looked anyway.

Smith, a seven-year teacher earns $53,000 a year. He shares a $1,150-a-month, 800-square-foot one-bedroom duplex with his partner, Kaytie Hensley  a full-time college student  and their son. Its tight quarters, but the family has little choice.

The high cost of housing in California has pushed many teachers, as well as residents in other professions, out of state in search of less-expensive housing, according to an EdSource analysis of Census Bureau data. From 2013 to 2017, the Census Bureau estimates that 40,000 teachers left the state, although it is not clear that they left because of housing costs. That was an increase of 22 percent over the previous five-year period. In 2017, the most popular destination was Texas, followed by Oregon, Washington and Arizona. From 2008 to 2012, 32,544 teachers left California.

Housing costs were part of the equation as teachers staged strikes in Oakland and Los Angeles, said Eric Heins, president of the California Teachers Association. It is impacting everybody. The raises they were asking for were nowhere near going to meet their needs  to afford rent or put food on the table or pay their mortgage or anything like that.

Despite her excitement at the new opportunity in Las Vegas, La Due, a native Californian, is sad to be leaving the state. She said almost every young teacher she knows has a short-term plan to move somewhere that costs less or pays more.

She doesnt blame the school district. Teachers in the West Contra Costa Unified District received a big pay raise recently, but it was not enough to offset the high cost of housing, she said.

It was a good raise, and I dont think the district could pay us any more, she said. They literally dont have the funds.

This story was produced by EdSource. See the entire project, including interactive maps, here.Sheryl Leighton vividly remembers the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, because she didnt have to wear a skirt to school.

She was just 16 and her public high school in Washington state normally required girls to wear dresses or skirts, but made an ecological exception for the female students who were picking up trash at a local lake that day.

We got to wear pants, she said, adding she can still recall the smell of the stale beer in the bottles they gathered that day.

On Sunday, Leighton, 65, celebrated her 50th Earth Day  one day early  in Berkeley with dozens of veteran vegans, conservationists, entrepreneurs and eco-conscious consumers in what has become a global environmental event.

Many wore their environmental hearts on their sleeves, with one participant proclaiming via his T-shirt that he was a ferocious vegan while another was a plant-based princess.

People milled around tables dedicated to environmental causes like clean air or booths focused on eco-consumerism. One table offered organic kombucha and another environmentally conscious cutlery  stainless steel forks, spoons, straws and chopsticks in a washable pouch.

Berkeley Earth Day organizer Hope Bohanec said the event was focused on celebration and inspiration  a festival of the kinds of choices that can make an environmental difference.

Thats what Earth Day is, she said, so we dont feel so hopeless.

The first Earth Day is generally considered the birth date of the modern environmental movement as activists countered air and water pollution, especially after a large oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969.

Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values, according to the Earth Day Network.

This year, an estimated 3,000 cleanup activities are scheduled in communities across the United States, in addition to other events.

Every organization from the Smithsonian to the government of Quebec and local organizations in Rome are holding meaningful events that encompass the Earth Day spirit  global reach, local action, Kathleen Roger, president of the organization, said in a statement.

While Earth Day remains focused on picking up trash and keeping the air and oceans clean, its changed over the years, Bohanec said.

Ive seen it going way more corporate, she said, noting that shes seen events sponsored by oil or chemical companies. Berkeleys event remains free of corporate sponsors, she said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

There was also little to no environmental nail-biting over climate change or oceans choked with plastic.

Instead, participants surveyed organic chocolate and organic, soy-free, vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO juice and learned about veganic farming and the Berkeley City Councils adoption of Green Monday, which encourages residents to eat only plant-based food one day a week.

Leighton, a volunteer at the event, said that since her first Earth Day five decades ago, she has focused on living an environmentally conscious life  going car free, carrying reusable food containers, carrying a water bottle, using no plastic and living in a small studio.

She doesnt dwell on rising sea levels or near-extinct animals, focusing instead on her own daily pro-Earth efforts.

How does it really benefit us to sit and feel sad? she said. The solution is somewhere else.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltuckerThe lush green hills, valleys and oak groves of Palo Altos 1,400-acre Foothills Park were populated with wildflowers, deer and lawbreakers on a mostly sunny day last week.

The scofflaws included small children who screamed happily as they hiked around Boronda Lake, a retired couple out for a morning walk, a woman taking pictures of poppies and lupine, and a woman enjoying lunch and the sweeping view from her car parked on Vista Hill, elevation 950 feet.

All were in violation of the Palo Alto Municipal Code, which declares: Only residents of the city and regular or part-time city employees, members of their households related by blood, marriage, or adoption, or their accompanied guests are entitled to enter on foot or by bicycle or vehicle and remain in Foothills Park.

The ordinance, which dates back to the parks 1965 opening, allows city employees or police to demand documents  a drivers license is recommended  that prove identity and residency. The parks large wooden entrance sign on Page Mill Road announces the requirement, Palo Alto residents and accompanied guests only, as does a smaller sign at the entry kiosk.

While no one seems to keep official records, Foothills appears to be the only publicly owned park in California that excludes nonresidents. Some parks inside gated communities and other private developments are reserved for residents, and some municipalities charge differing fees for residents and nonresidents. But public parks are usually open to members of the public  from anywhere.

Thats an uncommon thing that a park would be restricted to residents only, said Stephanie Stephens, executive director of the California Park & Recreation Society, an association that supports the states 525 public park and recreation agencies. Its definitely one of those head-scratchers.

Foothills Parks residents-only law is nothing new  nor are accusations that its elitist, discriminatory or just plain wrong. The gripes surfaced recently on social media, when a former Palo Alto city councilman sparked a brief discussion with a tweet this month that accused the city of institutional racism for excluding nonresidents from the park.

My liberal hometown #PaloAlto still exemplifies #institutionalracism: Foothills Park is residents only, Cory Wolbach tweeted, while also linking the issue to housing reform.

Palo Altos population is 64.2% white, according to the 2010 census, compared with 52.5% for the nine-county Bay Area as a whole.

The laws roots reach back to 1959, when Palo Alto decided to buy the land to preserve it as open space. The city asked neighboring cities to participate in the purchase, but they declined.

So, Palo Alto decided to limit its use to its residents, said Kristen OKane, chief operating officer of the citys community services department, which oversees parks and open space operations. The park opened, and the residents-only restriction started in 1965.

Every few years, the question of whether to continue the practice arises, OKane said. It came before the City Council once in the 1970s, once in the 1990s and most recently in 2005. Each time the council upheld the nonresident ban, she said.

The rationale for reserving the park for residents is that the city ordinance limits the number of people using the natural preserve area to 1,000. Given that restriction, council members reasoned, residents should be given preference.

Wolbach said he broached the issue on the council during his term, which ended in 2018, but his colleagues were not interested, even if nonresidents were charged fees.

Palo Alto enforces the ordinance mainly on weekends by stationing an employee at the front entrance to check IDs. Currently, during the week, nobody guards the gate and nonresidents are free to use the park.

On Tuesday, many of the visitors readily admitted to breaking the law but declined to give their names. They said they live nearby  in Los Altos Hills, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto or Atherton  and they knew the entrance would be not be patrolled on a breezy spring weekday.

During the week anyone can come in, said Walt Johnson, a Palo Alto resident who was not offended by the lack of enforcement.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

A retired couple in their 80s, who live in nearby Los Altos Hills, declined to give their names for fear theyd be discovered as lawbreakers and excluded from the park. Both said they could understand the reason for wanting to restrict the park to residents, but they still thought it should be open to all.

Its been a conundrum about this park, the man said. The couple said the park is clean, well maintained and peaceful. Its a beautiful park, but they should have a pass for nonresidents. Id be happy to buy a pass  $100, $200  if they were offered.

Michael, an Atherton resident, sat on a dock at the edge of the lake while his kids and grandchildren took a hike. Palo Alto bought and maintained the park, so it makes sense to reserve it for residents, he said. But he also sees the issue in a more philosophical sense.

It all comes down to democracy, he said. You get fragmented by local control, and the greater good is sacrificed.

American parks have traditionally been open to everyone, said Jasper Rubin, an assistant professor of public affairs and civic engagement at San Francisco State University, where he researches planning and urban public spaces.

Its certainly not within the tradition of parks, at least in the 20th century, he said. It seems perhaps a little mean-spirited, but whether its ethically questionable, I dont know. If the goal is to keep out other people who dont have another park to go to, it would be exclusionary.

Regardless of accusations of racism, elitism and intentional exclusion, Palo Alto officials dont seem inclined to take up the matter in the immediate future.

Its a historical decision that was made in the late 50s that just hasnt changed over time, OKane said. Its not based on wanting to exclude anyone; its based on wanting to give residents first priority to access while maintaining the ecological sustainability of the park.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuanAn attempted burglary at a South San Francisco biotechnology high-rise led to a police chase and officer-involved shooting early Sunday, officials said.

One of the officers and all three suspects were treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The officer, who suffered minor injuries, was later released.

At 1:10 a.m., a private security guard at the Genesis tower called police to report three men who were attempting to break into a secured storage area of a parking garage that contains valuable construction equipment, police said.

When South San Francisco officers arrived, they saw the three trying to force their way into the secured space, officials said. As they tried to flee in a pickup truck, the driver rammed his vehicle into two police cars, injuring an officer.

Officers fired shots at the vehicle, striking one of the men in the arm, said Sgt. Ken Chetcuti, a police spokesman. Two of the men got out and tried to flee on foot but were taken into custody at the scene and suffered minor injuries, Chetcuti said.

The driver fled in the truck and went to Brisbane, where he got out and tried to run away before police apprehended him.

Police called his actions an intentional ramming and arrested the three men on suspicion of burglary, conspiracy and attempted murder of a police officer.

The men were identified as 23-year-old Rhyon Griffin of San Leandro, 25-year-old Kevin Lewis and 28-year-old Paul Mack, both of Oakland.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Officials did not immediately identify the driver or say how many officers fired their weapons.

The officers involved in the shooting were placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine in officer-involved shootings. The South San Francisco Police Department and San Mateo County district attorneys office are investigating.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerovThe shuttle bus to Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park wasnt running. Would the Three Stooges  my sons, ages 10, 8 and 5  agree to a 2-mile uphill hike to see those signature sequoias?

This month I made my first trip to Yosemite as a father, wondering if my city-slicker boys  they like reading, coffee shops and riding the Los Angeles Metro  could handle a visit to the Sierra wilderness.

I shouldnt have worried. Todays Yosemite has been changed so much by record crowds, and the limits imposed to control the mobs, that it no longer feels like a place apart. As California has become the state with the highest urban population density in America, Yosemite  with its crowded valley, choked trails and tough traffic  fits right in.

The National Park Service has spent decades seeking to reduce the human impacts, from pollution to non-native plants. But these efforts have followed the familiar California illogic that restrictions on growth will solve the problems of growth. Just as Californias limits on traffic and housing havent prevented increases in people driving or living here, Yosemites various limits on visitors havent reduced the number of people who try to get there.

Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2015

Instead, visits to Yosemite have soared to more than 5 million people annually, reflecting a huge surge in tourism globally. In the summer, the immense crowds can create greenlock traffic jams worse than anything youll find on Interstate 405.

I took my family  the Three Stooges, my wife, her parents  to Yosemite at a time when youre supposed to visit: early spring, before the hordes turn Yosemite Valley into a parking lot. But the spring imposes its own limits. Trails and roads  like Tioga and Glacier Point  were closed because of snow. Half Dome Village was shut for repairs from a winter storm. The park warned visitors away from some trails because of nesting peregrine falcons.

The 2-mile Mariposa Grove trek would be the longest hike we managed  and completing that one involved enduring some Stooge whining. Otherwise, we kept to the crowded valley, with small walks up to Mirror Lake, through meadows, over to El Capitan and Yosemite Falls, and into the other-worldly mists of Bridalveil Fall.

Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2013

Just like back home, we were never far from a Starbucks, this one in the Yosemite Valley Lodge. To get around the valley, we squeezed into shuttle buses more cramped than BART at rush hour. A 21st-century Yosemite is not for claustrophobes.

My favorite part of Yosemite might have been the lack of reliable Internet access; my phone worked only in the village. By the second day, my two older boys, missing Internet video games, started asking when we could return to the Wi-Fi World.

I had re-read some of John Muirs work before the trip, but the naturalist who protected Yosemite has never felt more dead. Muir encouraged direct contact with nature  he climbed an ice wall beneath Yosemite Falls, and explored every inch of the place. In todays Yosemite, youre constantly reminded to stay on the trails, because your very presence in the place, combined with the carbon-producing existence of humanity, is damaging.

This replaces some of Yosemites wonder with guilt: Should we even be here in the first place?

The most recent management plan for the park is full of detailed regulations, including capping the number of people in Yosemite Valley to just over 20,000, but media reports suggest that actual attendance often exceeds that. The park, unfortunately, lacks a truly forward-thinking plan, either to make it vastly wilder or more accessible.

Perhaps the park service could dust off 1980s plans to tear down buildings, prohibit vehicles, and rely on futuristic trains to move people around. Or maybe humanity and Yosemite, like partners in a rocky marriage, need a break from each other.

Closing the park for a stretch  five years? 10?  would give the park a little time to heal, and to develop extensive plans to better protect this wonderful California place from my family and yours.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zocalo Public Square. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters.Unlike one of BARTs oversubscribed, under-ventilated rush hour trains, its top job is not being exited without hesitation. Theres never a good time to step off, the systems general manager, Grace Crunican, said of her recently announced retirement.

After eight years running the railroad, Crunican certainly isnt leaving at BARTs best moment. The system is in the throes of struggles with endemic fare evasion, mounting crime and disorder, and  not coincidentally  widespread disaffection among riders, some of whom have abandoned the system entirely.

BARTs latest biannual customer survey found that 56 percent of riders were satisfied with the system, a steep decline from 69 percent in 2016 and 84 percent in 2012. And then there are BARTs former customers: Ridership over the past two years has slumped more than 4 percent on weekdays and 12 percent on weekends.

The systems latest quarterly performance review shows the rate of serious crime on trains and in stations has more than doubled over the past three years, from under two to more than five per million trips, sharply contrary to trends in the surrounding region. Customer complaints per 100,000 trips have risen over that span from under five to more than 10. The Chronicle reported Wednesday that San Francisco International Airport over the past two years has seen a tripling of contacts with homeless people who often arrive on BARTs last train.

The agency cant be held responsible for fighting the Bay Areas crime or fixing its housing crisis  and on the latter score it deserves credit for encouraging residential development around stations. But the system has become a haven for the desperate and the dangerous by making little distinction between fare-paying passengers and everyone else. BART has estimated that 22,000 passengers a day ride for free, costing $15 million to $25 million a year. The family of Nia Wilson, who became the highest-profile victim of BARTs crime wave when she was murdered at Oaklands MacArthur Station last year, claims in a recent lawsuit that the agencys failure to address fare evasion contributed to her death.

Despite some board members reluctance to treat gate-jumpers as a serious problem, BART has begun to do so. While its enforcement efforts have been troubled by racial disparity and general indifference, the outgoing general manager expects the continuing fortification of gates and other physical barriers to show results within months.

Crunican, a transportation veteran who has made a point of tending to BARTs neglected foundations rather than plotting further expansion, expressed confidence in an interview that safety and service improvements are on track. But if the promised solutions experience major delays, as is too often the case for the commuter rail, the current problems will become someone elses. Crunicans departure, scheduled for July, will be preceded by that of system Police Chief Carlos Rojas, who is leaving after just two years in charge of the force, while a third of the systems elected Board of Directors was replaced at the behest of voters in December.

Crunican and company have done their successors some substantial favors. Since a pair of disruptive strikes in 2013, the general manager has overseen a period of labor peace. Measure RR, the bond issue approved by voters in 2016, produced $3.5 billion for what Crunican called the profoundly unsexy work of repairing and replacing the nearly half-century-old systems basic infrastructure. Twenty-two miles of new track was laid last year, almost 30 percent of the power system is being replaced, and new train control technology is expected to increase peak passenger capacity across the bay by up to 40 percent as of 2026.

The most dramatic update Crunican set in motion  albeit slow motion  is of the trains themselves. Custom-built to fit BARTs oddball track gauge and beset by a series of fits and starts that have put it about two years behind schedule, a $2.5 billion, 775-car order from Montreal-based Bombardier has not exactly arrived like a speeding locomotive. But 40 cars have now crept into service, and the agency predicts that its entire fleet will consist of sleek, spacious new trains in less than four years, with significant dividends for customer satisfaction.

Everything looks better in a new car, Crunican said. The polls are going to go up.

The still sporadic sight of the Canadian cars does have a way of lifting commuters spirits  which, like BART, have a long way to go.

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.Regarding the controversial mural at George Washington High School: Respecting the power of art, how about somehow show the juxtaposition of the historical with some equally powerful work of affirmation of what we now stand for?

Even the actual daily scene of multiculturalism on the stairway in real time refutes the white supremacist intentions in our national origins. Lets show visually that we reject it and are determined to defeat racism by creating a new work of art and give it equal prominence at the school. I feel we shouldnt forget where weve been, but we can celebrate what we are becoming.

Sana Webb, El Sobrante

Most viable candidate

Regarding Grumpy socialist millionaires club (Marshall Kilduff, Last Word, April 13): Youre implying that people of means cannot or should not create a legislative agenda that helps the middle and lower economic strata of society.

Im not going to withhold my vote until someone raises him/herself out of poverty to lead this country toward income equality and adequate health care for all of our citizens. Ill vote for the most viable candidate who shares my goals for America. If thats Sen. Bernie Sanders on Election Day, 2020, he will have my vote!

Janet Lefkowitz, Danville

Sunshine requirement

Regarding Supervisors reject SoMa housing over shadow on park (Bay Area, April 10): Time in the sun is priceless. Given the exact cited calculation of 18.24% or 100 minutes of shade, why did the architects not create a design in the first place for the 15 below-market-rate units that allowed the legally required amount of sunshine?

Jean Cleverly, San Francisco

Ban thundersticks

I was very disappointed in the Golden State Warriors organization for handing out thundersticks before the second half of the playoff game on April 13. Each plastic stick is individually wrapped in plastic, thousands were passed out, and all of them will end up in landfill.

Its an environmental disaster. Like single use plastic bags and plastic straws, these should be banned. At least bags and straws serve a purpose. The thundersticks do nothing but annoy and degrade the fan experience of those around them. Joe Lacob, I challenge you to sit in the stands surrounded by thundersticks for half a game. Im confident that would be the last time they are given out at the Oracle Arena. Do whats right for the environment, and for your fans. Stop handing out thundersticks.

Eloice Helms, San Francisco

Know Nothing Party

Regarding Journalism and the law: 2 easy calls, 1 tough one: (John Diaz, Insight, April 14): Republican politicians like Rep. Devin Nunes, who is suing the Sacramento Bee newspaper and Twitter for defamation, have no clue about First Amendment rights or the Supreme Courts Times vs. Sullivan requirement that public figures must show actual malice to be successful litigants.

Rather, they are foolishly feeling emboldened by a president who has threatened to open up libel laws and has also shown no understanding of our Constitution or case law.

In 2020, voters who choose to remain loyal to President Trump (and his congressional supporters) will be casting their ballots for the GOPs new KNP acronym: the Know Nothing Party.

Jennifer Erickson-James, San Francisco

Good riddance to guns

Im glad to read Cow Palace to stop holding gun shows (Bay Area, April 17). This event center, located near neighborhoods with children, should not be promoting gun sales or admitting children under age 12 for free to such shows.

Its hard enough raising kids in this era of violent video games where gamers pretend to shoot at fictional characters. The last thing parents like me want is more weapons in the real world, which can be used to cause actual harm to youngsters or adults.

Yvette Violanda, Daly CityWASHINGTON  President Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani insisted Sunday the presidents 2016 campaign did nothing wrong by taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in the special counsels report.

Giuliani called the Trump campaigns effort to get political help from representatives of the Russian government possibly ill-advised but not illegal.

Theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians, Giuliani said, referring to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Trumps son Donald Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in which they sought harmful information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton from a lawyer linked to Russia.

Giuliani was rebutting Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who said in a statement Friday on Twitter that he was sickened by the findings from Muellers 400-plus page report in the Russia investigation. Romney cited details on how the Trump campaign welcomed political dirt from Russia.

Giuliani said Romney should stop the bull, saying that accepting negative information about a political opponent is common. I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, dont do it, he said. Nevertheless, theres no crime.

Not ruling out impeachment, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who chairs the House committee that would hold impeachment hearings, said he remains puzzled why Mueller did not bring charges of criminal conspiracy against those in the Trump Tower meeting.

All you have to prove for conspiracy is that they entered into a meeting of the minds to do something wrong and had one overt act. They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting to get stolen material on Hillary. They went to the meeting. Thats conspiracy right there, said Nadler, D-N.Y.

Nadler said it was now up to Congress to investigate after the special counsel said his probe did not establish enough evidence to bring charges of criminal conspiracy and detailed 10 allegations of Trumps attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation that left open whether Trump broke the law.

Asked whether the offenses are impeachable, Nadler told NBC, If proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes. He said Democrats focus is to go where the evidence leads us.

In the report, Mueller said he considered bringing charges over the Trump Tower meeting but ultimately ruled it out.

On the facts here, the government would unlikely be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the June 9 meeting participants had general knowledge that their conduct was unlawful, the report stated. The investigation has not developed evidence that the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context.

Giuliani spoke on CNN, Fox and NBC. Nadler was on NBC.

Hope Yen is an Associated Press writer.The Chinese government has drawn wide international condemnation for its harsh crackdown on ethnic Muslims in its western region, including holding as many as 1 million of them in detention camps.

Now, documents and interviews show that authorities are also using a vast, secret system of advanced facial recognition technology to track and control the Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority. It is the first known example of a government intentionally using artificial intelligence for racial profiling, experts said.

The facial recognition technology, which is integrated into Chinas rapidly expanding networks of surveillance cameras, looks exclusively for Uighurs based on their appearance and keeps records of their comings and goings for search and review. The practice makes China a pioneer in applying next-generation technology to watch its people, potentially ushering in a new era of automated racism.

The technology and its use to keep tabs on Chinas 11 million Uighurs were described by five people with direct knowledge of the systems, who requested anonymity because they feared retribution. The New York Times also reviewed databases used by the police, government procurement documents and advertising materials distributed by the companies that make the systems.

Chinese authorities already maintain a vast surveillance net, including tracking peoples DNA, in the western region of Xinjiang, which many Uighurs call home. But the scope of the new systems, previously unreported, extends that monitoring into many other corners of the country.

Police are now using facial recognition technology to identify Uighurs in wealthy eastern cities like Hangzhou and Wenzhou and across the coastal province of Fujian, said two of the people. Law enforcement in the central Chinese city of Sanmenxia, along the Yellow River, ran a system that over the course of a month this year screened whether residents were Uighurs 500,000 times.

Police documents show that demand for such capabilities is spreading. Almost two dozen police departments in 16 provinces and regions across China sought such technology beginning in 2018, according to procurement documents. Law enforcement from the central province of Shaanxi, for example, tried to acquire a smart camera system last year that should support facial recognition to identify Uighur/non-Uighur attributes.

Some police departments and technology companies described the practice as minority identification, though three of the people said that phrase was a euphemism for a tool that sought to identify Uighurs exclusively. Uighurs often look distinct from Chinas majority Han population, more closely resembling people from Central Asia. Such differences make it easier for software to single them out.

For decades, democracies have had a near monopoly on cutting-edge technology. Today, a new generation of startups catering to Beijings authoritarian needs are beginning to set the tone for emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Similar tools could automate biases based on skin color and ethnicity elsewhere.

Take the most risky application of this technology, and chances are good someone is going to try it, said Clare Garvie, an associate at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law. If you make a technology that can classify people by an ethnicity, someone will use it to repress that ethnicity.

From a technology standpoint, using algorithms to label people based on race or ethnicity has become relatively easy. Companies like IBM advertise software that can sort people into broad groups.

But China has broken new ground by identifying one ethnic group for law enforcement purposes. One Chinese startup, CloudWalk, outlined a sample experience in marketing its own surveillance systems. The technology, it said, could recognize sensitive groups of people.

If originally one Uighur lives in a neighborhood, and within 20 days six Uighurs appear, it said on its website, it immediately sends alarms to law enforcement.

In practice, the systems are imperfect, two of the people said. Often, their accuracy depends on environmental factors like lighting and the positioning of cameras.

In the United States and Europe, the debate over artificial intelligence has focused on the unconscious biases of those designing the technology. Recent tests showed facial recognition systems made by companies like IBM and Amazon were less accurate at identifying the features of darker-skinned people.

Chinas efforts raise starker issues. While facial recognition technology uses aspects like skin tone and face shapes to sort images in photos or videos, it must be told by humans to categorize people based on social definitions of race or ethnicity. Chinese police, with the help of the startups, have done that.

Its something that seems shocking coming from the U.S., where there is most likely racism built into our algorithmic decision making, but not in an overt way like this, said Jennifer Lynch, surveillance litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Theres not a system designed to identify someone as African American, for example.

The Chinese artificial intelligence companies behind the software include Yitu, Megvii, SenseTime, and CloudWalk, which are each valued at more than $1 billion. Another company, Hikvision, that sells cameras and software to process the images, offered a minority recognition function, but began phasing it out in 2018, according to one of the people.

Yitu and its rivals have ambitions to expand overseas. Such a push could easily put ethnic profiling software in the hands of other governments, said Jonathan Frankle, an artifical intelligence researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I dont think its overblown to treat this as an existential threat to democracy, Frankle said. Once a country adopts a model in this heavy authoritarian mode, its using data to enforce thought and rules in a much more deep-seated fashion than might have been achievable 70 years ago in the Soviet Union. To that extent, this is an urgent crisis we are slowly sleepwalking our way into.

Paul Mozur is a New York Times writer.With school out of session and those vacation plans to Europe tentatively approved by the boss, summer is a prime season for international travel.

Travel to the European Union by U.S. citizens increased significantly between May 2017 and June 2018, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office. But as travel into and out of Europe surges during the summer months, the likelihood of a delay at major hubs such as London Gatwick and Manchester also increases.

If that happens on your next trip, you might be able to take advantage of a little-known policy, Flight Compensation Regulation 261/2004. It offers all travelers, regardless of nationality, reimbursement in the event of a flight delay, denied boarding or cancellation. If your airline approves the claim, you are entitled to compensation between 250 euros and 600 euros ($281 and $676) per person for your inconvenience.

But before you call the airline or type out a tersely worded tweet, you should know that your trip may not be covered by the regulation.

If an airline is able to put you on a connecting flight or another nonstop flight under the threshold, then technically they dont owe you anything, said Jamie Larounis, founder of the travel blog The Forward Cabin.

Heres what you should know:

How can I file a claim for compensation?

First, its helpful to know that the type of compensation you can receive depends on the nature of your delay or cancellation. If your flight was delayed by fewer than three hours, then you arent covered under the rule. Also, if your flight was delayed or canceled for extraordinary circumstances, like severe weather or political unrest, then it isnt covered either.

Airlines generally have flight compensation information located on their websites (though you may have to look closely to find it). The airlines, according to the legislation, are required to inform passengers of their rights.

When you file the claim with your airline or through a watchdog agency such as FlightRight, you will be asked to provide your flight number and booking reference, as well as information about why your flight was delayed or canceled, so its helpful to have that information handy.

Does the regulation apply only to airlines with headquarters in EU countries?

To be eligible for compensation, your flight must be on an EU airline only if youre flying into an EU country. But if your flight originated in, or if youre traveling within, the EU, then you are also covered under the regulation regardless of the airline.

For example, if Air France canceled your flight from Paris to Chicago for mechanical issues, then you would be covered under the regulation because the trip originated in an EU country and the flight is on an EU airline. However, if your American Airlines flight traveling from Dallas to Rome was delayed, then it wouldnt be considered eligible for compensation because American isnt an EU carrier, even though the flight terminated in an EU country.

How long does it take to get compensated?

Technically, youre entitled to be reimbursed for your journey within seven days. But patience is key  you might have to follow up with your airline by calling or sending a message on Twitter or Facebook.

Before filing for compensation, airlines may also offer you perks like free miles or travel vouchers instead of what they are legally obligated to provide you  money. Ultimately, you should decide whats best for you and your travel plans. Youre entitled to cash, but you may be able to receive airline miles or upgrades to business or first class, depending on availability, for the inconvenience. Once the reimbursement has been processed, the airline will pay you in cash, check or by bank transfer.

Will Brexit complicate filing a claim?

AirHelp, a website that helps passengers file compensation claims, says British passengers alone received almost 800 million euros in compensation between 2017 and 2018.

Until Britain formally exits the European Union, the country  and its airlines  is still subject to the EU 261 legislation. Flights on U.K. carriers including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic must comply with the rule until Britain leaves the EU, but its unclear what will happen after the Brexit deadline.

Can I file a claim through a third party?

Third-party companies like Refund. Me and FlightRight.com can do much of the heavy lifting of filing your claim with an airline  but they dont do it because they are nice people who understand the frustration of canceled flights. Some companies charge steep fees to file a claim for you.

The airline has to verify the flight, verify why it was delayed and verify that you were on it. The intermediaries have some legal power to expedite that process, said Larounis.

Can I retroactively file for compensation?

The regulation does not specify a blanket statute of limitations for compensation. Each country in the EU decides how far back a claim can be filed. In Germany, for example, the statute of limitations is six years.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.A British security researcher who was hailed as a hero for helping to stop a global ransomware cyberattack in 2017 has pleaded guilty to charges in the United States of writing malicious software in a separate case.

The researcher, Marcus Hutchins, was arrested in Las Vegas in 2017 as he was on his way back to Britain from a conference.

As you may be aware, Ive pleaded guilty to two charges related to writing malware in the years prior to my career in security, Hutchins, known online as MalwareTech, said in a statement on his website Friday. I regret these actions and accept full responsibility for my mistakes.

Hutchins faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines for each of the charges, according to court documents.

In 2017, a federal grand jury in the United States returned a six-count indictment against Hutchins. The indictment said he and an unidentified accomplice conspired to create and sell malware intended to steal log-in information and other financial data from online banking sites.

A version of the program, known as Kronos banking Trojan and created by Hutchins, was sold by the accomplice for $2,000 in June 2015, the indictment said. But the document did not include details of how widely the malware was used.

The government has said it will move to dismiss the remaining charges in exchange for Hutchins guilty plea.

The global cyberattack that Hutchins helped stop disrupted Britains National Health Service and hundreds of other organizations worldwide, spreading to more than 70 countries. It used a variant of WannaCry, a piece of malicious software that locks victims out of their systems and demands ransoms. Hutchins was credited with disabling it.

In a blog post at the time, he explained that he had noticed the malicious software trying to contact a particular internet address, discovered the address was unregistered and bought it, which turned out to trigger a kill switch in the software.

Researchers at Symantec, a security company, attributed the attack at the time to a team of hackers known as the Lazarus Group, which U.S. intelligence experts say is most likely linked to North Korea.

Having grown up, Ive since been using the same skills that I misused several years ago for constructive purposes, Hutchins said in his statement.

Palko Karasz is a New York Times writerNEW YORK  Theres at least one area of agreement among conservative, centrist and liberal leaders in the United Methodist Church: Americas largest mainline Protestant denomination is on a path toward likely breakup over differences on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT pastors.

The differences have simmered for years and came to a head in February at a conference in St. Louis where delegates voted 438-384 for a proposal called the Traditional Plan, which strengthens bans on LGBT-inclusive practices. A majority of U.S.-based delegates opposed that plan and favored LGBT-friendly options, but they were outvoted by U.S. conservatives teamed with most of the delegates from Methodist strongholds in Africa and the Philippines.

Many believe the vote will prompt an exodus from the church by liberal congregations that already are expressing their dissatisfaction over the move.

Some churches have raised rainbow flags in a show of LGBT solidarity. Some pastors have vowed to defy the strict rules and continue to allow same-sex weddings. Churches are withholding dues payments to the main office in protest, and the UMCs receipts were down 20 percent in March, according to financial reports posted online.

Its time for some kind of separation, some kind of amicable divorce, said James Howell, pastor of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C., who posted a video assailing the proposal for its real meanness.

The UMCs nine-member Judicial Council convenes a four-day meeting in Evanston, Ill., on Tuesday to consider legal challenges to the Traditional Plan. If the plan is upheld, it would take effect for U.S. churches on Jan. 1. If parts of it are struck down, that would probably bring new debate at the UMCs next general conference in May 2020.

The UMCs largest church  the 22,000-member Church of the Resurrection, with four locations in the Kansas City area  is among those applying financial pressure. Its lead pastor, Adam Hamilton, says his church is temporarily withholding half of the $2.5 million that it normally would have paid to the UMCs head office at this stage of the year.

Well ultimately pay it, Hamilton said. But we want to show that this is the impact if our churches leave.

David Crary is an Associated Press writer.SAO PAULO, Brazil  Amazon is the worlds biggest online retailer. It is also the worlds largest rain forest.

The question is who owns the name.

This is the core of an epic battle between the tech behemoth Amazon.com and eight South American countries that contain parts of the rain forest.

At stake is the domain name .amazon, and who should control it on the internet.

Amazon.com could use the name to advance its identity and marketing. But the nations objecting to the companys request are concerned about a corporation symbolically taking control of a name synonymous with their heritage, as well as more mundane matters like whether their own tourism industries would lose the opportunity to use trip.amazon, hotels.amazon and other domain names.

Its technical, but its also very emotional, said Achilles Emilio Zaluar Neto, director of technology issues at Brazils Foreign Ministry, noting that Jeff Bezos, Amazon.coms founder, named his company after the Amazon River.

Weve heard strong speeches from politicians in the Amazon, he said. They feel that in symbolic terms, their heritage is being taken away by a company.

The clash traces to 2012, when Amazon.com applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the independent body that oversees global web addresses, to use the domain name .amazon.

Brazil and Peru, two of the countries that are part of the Amazon Basin region, protested to ICANN, which makes the final decision on such matters. Eventually Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname also joined forces to block the companys bid.

Its not the classic issue of two different parties applying for the same name, said Rodrigo de la Parra, regional vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean at ICANN. The governments didnt apply for .amazon  they only have concerns about its usage by a private company, given its cultural and natural heritage for the region.

In some ways, the debate is similar to those over trademark issues, but it is taking place in the limitless and relatively new space of the internet, where the rules are still being devised.

It began at a time when the number of internet names was expanding rapidly. New country codes like .ca, for Canada, were being approved. Not long after, in 2012, as many as 2,000 requests for top-level domains were made for brand names like .avianca, the Colombian airline, as well as for names like .lawyer and .gay, and for geographic names like .nyc.

Amazon.com was an active participant in the 2012 internet land grab. The company not only put in a bid for .amazon, but it also applied for .shop, .game, .mobile, .free and a host of other domain names.

We spent eight years defining the rules and evicting cybersquatters, de la Parra said. One of the rules that ICANN established was that applications involving geographic names required the approval of the local or regional governments. National domain names had already been assigned.

Names like .nyc and .rio were approved. But in the case of .patagonia, for example, sportswear maker Patagonia Inc. withdrew its request for the domain after Argentina and Chile objected.

But Amazon.com has persisted.

The company declined to comment for this article. But in a 2017 letter to ICANN, Brian Huseman, Amazons vice president of public policy, wrote: Amazon has repeatedly offered to work with the concerned governments to find an amicable solution, offering to explore how we can best use .amazon for our business purposes while respecting the people, culture, history, and ecology of the Amazonia region.

Huseman wrote that the company had proposed creating domains that reflect the name of the region in the languages that are spoken there, like .amazonia or .amazonas.

The countries challenging the retailer, however, said they wanted shared governance of the .amazon domain, to protect the name and to ensure they will have a say in how it is used in the future.

We would like to be able to raise objections to specific names, said Zaluar Neto.

In its latest counterproposal, Brazil put forward the idea of a committee with representatives from all eight governments and Amazon.com that would approve extensions of the domain.

Zaluar said Brazil would not oppose names like book.amazon or furniture.amazon. But what if tomorrow, they decide to use hotel.amazon or trip.amazon? he added. Our tourism operators would be at a disadvantage.

The dispute has dragged on for seven years, with a number of proposals and counterproposals. Last year, Amazon.com offered $5 million worth of Kindle e-readers and various hosting services as part of a proposed compromise.

We are not looking for financial compensation, Francisco Carrion Mena, Ecuadors ambassador to the United States, wrote in a letter to ICANN, explaining that the group of eight countries had rejected Amazons most recent proposal because it did not provide shared governance of the domain name.

In an additional complication, the eight countries are no longer participating as a single entity.

Just as negotiations over control of .amazon appeared to be entering the final stretch, a political crisis erupted in January in Venezuela, with Juan Guaido declaring himself the countrys rightful leader in defiance of President Nicolas Maduro. About 50 countries now recognize Guaido, while others continue to recognize Maduro.

Theres no difference in views  they both want to defend the name of the Amazon, but its made it impossible to coordinate a joint counterproposal, Zaluar said. As a result, each country has been responsible for submitting its own initiative.

Amazon and the eight countries missed an April 7 deadline to reach a compromise solution. The final decision rests with the internet body that oversees domain names.

Shasta Darlington is a New York Times writer.



The official presentation of a "Program" respecting People's choices voted in the June 7, 2009 EU Elections, to be debated in EU Council and EU Parliament during its 1st Session on July in Strasbourg, is the No 1 Priority, according to Democratic principles, for the Franco-German axis, said the main winners at the ballot box, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angie Merkel.

They stressed that the New EU Commission's President must have a "Program" in favor of an EU which "protects" its Citizens, regulates financial markets and aims at a "Political" Europe" : a wording they have used as incompatible with Turkey's controversial EU bid.

They also declared ready for a "political" endorsment of "Mr. Barroso's candidacy" in June's EU Council, considering that an official decision would have to be made after EU Parliament's debates and votes, possibly from next month (July), with the legally necessary final acceptance shortly after Lisbon Treaty's entry into force, hoped for September or October.



- "A Program, and Mr. Barroso" : This resumes, in substance, the anouncements made by Sarkozy and Merkel, on the question of current EU Commission's President, Barroso's declared wish to succeed to himself for a second mandate, to be extended during the following 5 years.



In their 1st meeting after EU Elections, they observed that "the Franco-German axis counted in European Elections' campaign... But, we both keep a realistic view : We saw the number of those who abstained, and we must absolutely give them an answer. We also see the disilusionment of an important number of Europeans vis a vis Europe, and we are aware of the responsibilities we have".





- The "Duty" of the new EU Commission's President, after June 7, 2009 EU Elections' result, "is to act for a Europe which protects the Europeans, to commit himself into working for a better Regulation of Financial transactions, ... and to have a Political will for Europe", underlined Sarkozy.



Therefore, "we have asked M. Barroso... to clarify, to officialy present the intentions he has", he anounced.



- "We want to speak also about the Programme", explained Merkel.



- "It's important that for the next EU Parliament's mandate (2009-2014) we take the right Decisions for Europe. Obviously on Persons, but mainly Decisions on Issues", she stressed.



- "It's not simply a question of a Person, it's also a question of a Programme". We are "really asking Mr. Barroso to commit himself on a Program, and on Principles, on Values", Sarkozy added.



EU President-in-office, Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, accepted the Franco-German stance :



- "Barroso must present his Programme. The Czech Presidency agrees with that", Fischer reportedly said later, after meeting Sarkozy.



But Press reports from Brussels claimed that Barroso had preferred to be officially appointed by EU Council since June, (i.e. next week), "because this was implied by the current Treaty of Nice, according to him", and considered any delay until the possible ratification of the new, Lisbon Treaty on September/October, as "undemocratic".



- "At any case, independently of what Germany and France ask, it's also EU Parliament's wish". "We shall propose Mr Barroso's candidacy... But even in the framework of Nice Treaty, EU Parliament has to be associated in this Decision", the French President observed.



If this is correctly done, then "we support Mr. Barroso's candidature", and "if the (EU) Parliament agrees, we might ratify this decision since July", (i.e. next month), they both said.





- "France and Germany support Baroso's candidacy, But we want to speak also on the Program. We believe that this Program should be established in close cooperation with EU Parliament, and that's why we have followed an appropriate way", said Merkel. - If EU Parliament wants, this election can take place on July, but this must be done in full agreement.

- "We shall support Mr. Barroso's candidacy, without doubt", said Sarkozy. "But we have asked from Mr. Barroso, as I told him yesterday, to put into detail.. his intentions, at the eve of his 2nd mandate, if the situation avails itself.



France and Germany "don't want to take an Official Legal Decision by writting" during "the next (EU) Council" (on June 18-19), declared Sarkozy. Because they prefer, at this stage, only "a Political decision" on June, "so that we (EU Council) can work together with EU Parliament", which starts to meet only Next Month, since July in Srasbourg, "leaving a Legal decision by writting for later".



- "If the Conditions are fuillfiled in EU Parliament, we (EU Council) are ready to give the agreement and make it offficial", said Merkel



- "But, now we are working in the base of Nice Treaty. If tommorow we want to work in the spirit of Lisbon Treaty, we have to find a proper way", she added.



- "Of course it's Legally complicated, because we are going to make a Political proposal to the forthcoming Council, for an EU Commission's President, on the basis of Nice Treaty : So, we (EU Council) will not appoint the Commissioners. Only the President. If EU Parliament agrees, it could endorse this position on July", explained Sarkozy.



But, on Autumn, "if Ireland ratifies Lisbon Treaty, there will be, at any case, a 2nd Decision, to appoint the Commission's President, this time on the basis of Lisbon treaty, and then, we, the EU Member States, would have to appoint (also) the EU Commissioners", he added.



As for the precise Timing : - "Everything is suspended until the Irish vote... Now, we must all make everything possible to help Ireland to say "Yes"" to Lisbon Treaty... The Irish Referendum, ..will take place either on September or on October. It's a Question which depends on the Irish. And, then, we shall have the Choice of the Candidates for the permanent Institutions of Europe".



However, "if Ireland says No, we, French and Germans, have to assume our responsibilities, and we'll do so", he concluded.



But British and Swedish governments were reportedly eager to have a final EU Council decision on Barroso since this month, on June's European Council. While the other EU Member Countries are divided, several of them preferring to wait until EU Parliament pronounces itself, on July, and/or until Lisbon Treaty might be ratified by Ireland at the beginning of the Autumn. Barroso's current mandate ends on November.



There are also various, contradictory and/or unpredictable reactions inside EU Parliament vis a vis Barroso's wish to continue a 2nd mandate, because many MEPs are openly or secretly opposed, reluctant, or hesitating.



In the biggest EU Countries, as France and Germany, EU Citizens voted on June 2009 EU Elections for a renovated, non-technocratic but Political Europe which cares for its Citizens, with an Identity, Values and Borders, declared incompatible with Turkey's controversial EU bid, by mainstream, pro-European Governing Parties. Similar choices were also supported in several other small or medium EU Countries.



On the contrary, whenever, in other Countries, Governing and other mainstream Parties didn't make these choices or eluded them, EU Citizens massively voted for euro-Sceptics whenever they were the only ones to to promise anti-bureacratic change and oppose Turkey's demand to enter into the EU, (f.ex. in the UK, Netherlands, etc).



It's seems to be an Open Question whether Sarkozy and Merkel's conditions will be really accepted by Barroso, who was appointed on 2004 in a different political context, (with Socialist Prime Ministers in Germany, France, etc), had rejected in the Past the idea of EU becoming "equal to the USA" as "ridiculous", and pushed for Turkey's contoversial EU bid, trying to "soften" or contain the changes desired by the People who voted for Merkel and Sarkozy with another policy vis a vis Turkey on 2005 in Germany and on 2007 in France, as they did all over Europe on 2009.



In addition to many EPP Governments, it's 3 remaining Socialist Prime Ministers : Gordon Brown in the UK, Zapatero in Spain, and Socrates in Prortugal, who support Barroso, as well as Liberal Swedish Prime Minister Reinfeldt. But their Parties lost the June 2009 EU Elections.



Questioned whether there was still "Time" for "other" possible "Candidates", Sarkozy and Merkel did not deny, nor made any comment on that, but simply said that "it's not for us to make publicity for any candidates. We anounced our choice ("A Program, and Mr. Barroso"). But we respect any other candidate".



Among various other names cited are former Belgian Prime Minister Verhofstadt, former UNO's Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson of Ireland, Italian former EU Commission's vice-President Monti, etc. Meanwhile, Luxembourg's PM Juncker, (who had been unanimously accepted by EU Council for EU Commission's Presidency on 2004, but refused), announced his intention to resign from "EuroGroup"'s Chair. Thus, he might be available for another Top EU job.



As "EuroFora"'s "opinion" said (See publication dated 9/6/09) : - "If the current candidates (i.e. Barroso, etc) to the Top EU jobs promise and guarantee to respect People's democratic choices, then, it's OK".



"Otherwise, Europe must find new candidates, really motivated and able to implement these democratic choices of the People."



Because, "in Democracy, the forthcoming choices for EU's Top Jobs,...should be made according to EU Citizens' Votes in June 7, 2009 European Elections, and main EU Governments' strategic policies".





***

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



Between 13,000 to 14,000 people gathered at a "Four Twenty" marijuana celebration at Hippie Hill in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Saturday.



This is the first year celebrations have fallen on a Saturday after recreational marijuana use was legalized statewide in 2016.



Social media users shared photos and videos of live DJ sets, munchies for sale (including pans of Cap'n Crunch cereal) and limitless varieties of edibles, blunts and bongs.



Park officials were expecting a large crowd at the adults-only event and worked with law enforcement to set up security around the area. Tamara Barak Aparton, spokeswoman for the city Recreation and Park Department, said celebrations have been "pretty mellow."

There have been four arrests as of 2 p.m., and three were made before the event began for arrest warrants and trespassing, according to Officer Robert Rueca. The remaining arrest was theft-related, and there was one medical transport for conditions that are not life-threatening, Aparton said.



Last year, police said between 10 and 12 people overdosed on fentanyl after purchasing black market marijuana that was laced with the drug. Attendees this year were encouraged to purchase pot legally from licensed dispensaries.



Rueca said the turnout is within expected numbers, and the gathering has been peaceful and comparable to last year, when 15,000 to 20,000 people showed up to Golden Gate Park's Robin Williams Meadow, also known as Hippie Hill.



Traffic closures are in place around the park and the event will conclude at 5 p.m. The park will then be closed off for cleaning.



The body of a Merced County man who disappeared March 26 while swimming off of a Pacifica beach with friends was found Friday near Fort Funston in San Francisco, a Pacific police sergeant said Saturday.



The body of 28-year-old Tyler Collins was found about 5:40 p.m. Friday by a dog walker on the beach near Fort Funston, Pacifica police Sgt. Dominic Albanese said. The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office identified Collins.



Collins and some friends were staying at a Pacifica motel when, early in the morning on March 26, they went swimming at Rockaway Beach, about nine miles south of where Collins' body was found Friday. The swimmers encountered undertow and tried to leave the water, but Collins never made it out, police said. The U.S. Coast Guard led a 15-hour search for Collins that day, but didn't find him.





Copyright  2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



The annual Cherry Blossom Parade and Festival will close blocks in the Civic Center and Western Addition neighborhoods on Sunday, resulting in traffic detours and rerouted Muni lines, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency officials said.



Streets were closed as early as 8 a.m. and Muni began rerouting service as early as 11:30 a.m.



Post Street is closed between Fillmore and Steiner until 5 p.m.



Blocks closed until 11 p.m. Sunday for the festival are Post, between Fillmore and Laguna; Webster, between Geary and Sutter; and Buchanan, between Sutter and Bush.



"Some Muni routes will be rerouted off of Polk and Post streets beginning at 11:30 a.m. Others may experience delays as they cross the parade route. Service will return to normal after streets are clear," the agency said on its website.



Muni routes affected are the 2 Clement, 3 Jackson, 5 Fulton, 19 Polk, 21 Hayes, 22 Fillmore, 31 Balboa, 38 Geary, 47 Van Ness, 49 Van Ness/Mission, and 76X Marin Headlands Express.





Copyright  2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.Between 13,000 and 14,000 people gathered at a "Four Twenty" marijuana celebration at Hippie Hill in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Saturday.



This is the first year these celebrations have fallen on a Saturday since recreational marijuana use was legalized statewide in 2016.



Social media users shared photos and videos of live DJ sets, munchies for sale (including pans of Cap'n Crunch cereal) and limitless varieties of edibles, blunts and bongs.



Park officials were expecting a large crowd at the adults-only event and worked with law enforcement to set up security around the area. Tamara Barak Aparton, spokeswoman for the city Recreation and Park Department, said celebrations have been "pretty mellow."



There had been four arrests as of 2 p.m. Saturday, three were made before the event began for arrest warrants and trespassing, according to San Francisco police Officer Robert Rueca. The fourth arrest was theft-related, and there was one medical transport for conditions that are not life-threatening, Aparton said.



Last year, police said 10 to 12 people overdosed on fentanyl after purchasing black market marijuana that was laced with the drug. Attendees this year were encouraged to purchase pot legally from licensed dispensaries.



Rueca said the turnout is within expected numbers, and the gathering has been peaceful and comparable to last year, when 15,000 to 20,000 people showed up to Golden Gate Park's Robin Williams Meadow, also known as Hippie Hill.



The event will conclude at 5 p.m., when the park will be closed off for cleaning.







A high school student who allegedly robbed a 38-year-old blind woman in downtown San Leandro was charged Friday with robbery and abuse against a dependent adult, according to police.



The woman was walking from San Leandro BART to an address on Haas Avenue at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday when her white guidance cane came into contact with a person. Before she could react, police said 18-year-old Jujuan Despanie began stealing her iPhone from her hand.



She tried to fight back by resisting and holding on to her phone, but she lost her balance and fell to the ground. The suspect kept pulling on her phone until it slipped out the victim's grip, and then ran away, police said.



Despanie was later found hiding between two parked cars a few blocks away. He initially tried to run away from officers and discard evidence of the crime, according to police.



Despanie was charged with two felony offenses in Alameda County court and remains in custody at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.







A motorcyclist died early Saturday morning in a crash on U.S. Highway 101 in Menlo Park, the California Highway Patrol reported.



The crash involved a 2008 Suzuki motorcycle and 2014 Jeep at about 3:30 a.m. in the area of northbound Highway 101 and Willow Road.



Officers said it's unclear how the crash happened, but both vehicles were seriously damaged. The motorcyclist, a 34-year-old East Palo Alto man, died at the scene. The 35-year-old Jeep driver did not report any injuries.



Two lanes of the highway were closed for about two hours afterward. The Jeep driver was not found to be intoxicated, but the CHP is still investigating the crash to determine if drugs or alcohol were involved.



The San Mateo County coroner's office will identify the man once his family is notified.







Three athletes from Alameda-based outdoor gear company The North Face are presumed dead after being caught in an avalanche in Canada's Banff National Park on Tuesday, Parks Canada officials confirmed Friday.



David Lama, Jess Roskelley and Hansjrg Auer were reported missing Wednesday after failing to return from Howse Peak on the Icefields Parkway. Officials responded to the area and found signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment.



Though the three men were highly experienced professional mountain athletes, parks officials said the east face of the peak is remote and "an exceptionally difficult objective."



Among the trio, Roskelley was the youngest American to summit Mount Everest, in 2003 when he was 20 years old. The men were considered three of the most elite mountaineers in the world.



Officials are not currently conducting a search because of dangerous avalanche conditions and strong winds, according to Parks Canada spokeswoman Amy Krause.



Personnel are on site monitoring weather and avalanche risk, and recovery efforts will begin as soon as conditions are deemed safe.







Four elementary schools in the Mission District and Potrero Hill will receive 100 new bicycles Saturday during the San Francisco Rotary Club's 11 th annual Bike Build.



More than 40 volunteers began uncrating and assembling the bikes at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning at Bryant Elementary School, 1641 25th St.



The shiny new wheels were donated to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Bryant, Leonard Flynn, Marshall and Daniel Webster elementary schools.



"We are very grateful to the Rotary Club of San Francisco for providing our students with bicycles, which offer them a fun mode of transportation as well as a healthy form of exercise," Desirae Feria, San Francisco Unified School District supervisor of physical education, said in a news release.





Copyright  2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.At the Easter Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, the Cathedral Choir will sing the "Victimae Paschali Laudes" using sheet music received directly from the choir organist at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.



The Mass, to be celebrated by Oakland Diocese by Bishop Michael C. Barber, SJ, will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday at the downtown Oakland cathedral, at 2121 Harrison St. at Grand Avenue.



"You cannot hear it at Notre Dame this year due to the tragic fire, but you will hear it in Oakland," Barber said Saturday in a news release. "The beauty of Notre Dame Cathedral, transmitted through their music, survives in our city."



This will be the fifth consecutive year this music will be performed as part of the Oakland cathedral's Easter service.



"Victimae Paschali Laudes" is the sequence hymn for Easter Day, designed to be sung or chanted before the proclamation of the Gospel. It tells the story of death and life in which Christ reconciles humanity to God the Father. It also tells of Mary Magdalene, who, upon finding the empty tomb of the risen Christ, proclaimed, "Christ my hope has arisen."



The Cathedral of Christ the Light is the home cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, serving Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and including approximately 400,000 Catholics in 84 parishes.







The body of a Merced County man who disappeared March 26 while swimming off of a Pacifica beach with friends was found Friday near Fort Funston in San Francisco, a Pacifica police sergeant said Saturday.



The body of 28-year-old Tyler Collins was found about 5:40 p.m. Friday by a dog walker on the beach near Fort Funston, Pacifica police Sgt. Dominic Albanese said. The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office identified Collins.



Collins and some friends were staying at a Pacifica motel when, early in the morning on March 26, they went swimming at Rockaway Beach, about nine miles south of where Collins' body was found Friday. The swimmers encountered undertow and tried to leave the water, but Collins never made it out, police said. The U.S. Coast Guard led a 15-hour search for Collins that day, but didn't find him.







Resuming a matter that was postponed from its March 26 meeting, the Concord City Council on Tuesday is expected to again take up a request to rezone a parcel along Willow Pass Road to accommodate a Chick-fil-A restaurant with a drive-thru window.



The issue isn't the fast-food restaurant itself, but rather the drive-thru window. The parcel in question, 1400 Willow Pass Road at the corner of Willow Pass Road and Franquette Avenue about a quarter-mile east of Interstate Highway 680, is zoned for fast-food restaurants but not for drive-thru windows. It is now where the closed Lin's Buffet building sits.



The city has similar concerns with the Lin's Buffet site, which currently is zoned for fast-food restaurants, but not with drive-thru windows.



This discussion is planned as a study session. The Concord City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the City Hall council chamber, 1950 Parkside Drive.







An older adult male died Saturday morning after apparently suffering "some type of medical episode" while driving on southbound U.S. Highway 101 in Novato, the California Highway Patrol said.



The man was headed south near the Ignacio Boulevard interchange about 9:50 a.m. when his red Dodge Challenger first drifted into the right-side guardrail, and then across all southbound traffic lanes into the median, said CHP Officer Andrew Barclay. Two Good Samaritan drivers stopped to give the man CPR; paramedics arrived soon after and took the man to the Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Barclay said.



The Challenger sustained little damage, Barclay said, and no other vehicles were involved. Neither the man's name nor his city of residence was available Saturday night, and no one else was in the car, Barclay said. The accident remains under investigation.







Two people were arrested Saturday afternoon after allegedly leaving a store with stolen merchandise, and then leading police on a chase through North Concord in a stolen van, Concord police said on social media.



The initial police call late Saturday afternoon was of a shoplift from an unnamed downtown Concord auto parts business. A store employee wrote down the getaway van's license plate number, which Concord police dispatchers found was stolen, police said.



Police spotted the van on Concord Avenue near state Highway 242, and a pursuit led police officers first onto Highway 242 and then onto North Concord streets, including East Olivera Road past the Pixie Playland park.



With the help of a Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office helicopter, Concord police pulled back from the pursuit and were guided to the suspects, who tried to abandon the white van on a residential Concord street. Two men were arrested and taken to the Martinez Detention Facility jail.







A convenience store clerk was injured Friday when the car driven by a man the clerk had tried to detain as a suspected shoplifter struck that clerk, South San Francisco police said.



Shortly before noon Friday, a man in his late teens or early 20s was seen allegedly stealing an unidentified item from a convenience store in the 1000 block of Airport Boulevard. The clerk tried to detain the suspect, who was by then seated in a white two-door car, police said. That car struck and injured the store clerk, police said, as it left the store parking lot.



The clerk was taken to a local trauma center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, police said.







At least one person has died after a vehicle crashed into a sound wall in Discovery Bay in unincorporated Contra Costa County late Saturday night, according to the California Highway Patrol.



The CHP said the crash occurred in a residential neighborhood at the intersection of Lakeshore Circle and Winchester Loop and was first reported at 11:44 p.m.







A BART passenger was punched and bloodied late Saturday night in an attempted robbery at the MacArthur Station in Oakland, an incident causing BART trains destined for Antioch and Richmond to roll through the station without stopping for about 25 minutes, BART said.



The attack happened about 10 p.m. Saturday. BART police said. The male victim was approached by a group of teens and punched in the face, and tried unsuccessfully to take the victim's cell phone. The victim was not seriously injured.



Five teens were apprehended before they could get out of the station, police said, and as of 11:30 p.m. remained detained but had not been arrested.



Northbound and eastbound trains resumed stopping at MacArthur by 10:30 p.m.







A 61-year-old woman reported missing in San Jose on Saturday morning was found safe late Saturday night, according to police.



A Silver Alert had been issued for Chunyu Pu, who was last seen Friday at about 5 p.m. in San Jose, police said.



Police provided no additional details on where she was found.







Sunday will be sunny. Highs will be in the 50s to upper 60s. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph.



Sunday night will be mostly clear. Lows will be in the lower 50s. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph.



Monday will be partly cloudy in the morning, then becoming sunny. Highs will be in the 60s to lower 70s. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph.





Copyright  2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.OAKLAND (BCN)



A pilot program seeking new methods of addressing chronic illegal dumping in East Oakland will be introduced on Monday.



Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley and community volunteers will cleanup the area around 90th Avenue and G Street starting at 9:30 a.m. "to illustrate how much garbage can be accumulated in just two hours in that neighborhood," the supervisor's office said in a news release.



Miley and other elected officials will then discuss the pilot program at an 11:30 a.m. news conference. Program partners include Miley, Mayor Libby Schaff, Oakland council members Larry Reid and Rebecca Kaplan, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, and the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.



"Illegal dumping knows no bounds; it is a plague on our society, and everyone has a role to play," Miley said in the release.



The pilot program, the latest effort to curb illegal dumping in the area, will begin with volunteer outreach to residents on April 27 and May 1 about their perceptions of the problem and how well they know the procedures for reporting it. Results of the residents survey will be used by a task force of public agencies and nonprofit organizations in shaping and conducting the pilot program.



The program will also include increased trash removal in the area done by Men of Valor, described as an "Oakland transitional housing and employment training organization" contracted by the district attorney's office.



If the program is successful Miley hopes it can be used as a blueprint for addressing illegal dumping elsewhere in California.









Copyright  2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.CONCORD (BCN)



Two people were arrested Saturday afternoon after allegedly leaving a store with stolen merchandise, and then leading police on a chase through North Concord in a stolen van, Concord police said on social media.



The initial police call late Saturday afternoon was of a shoplift from an unnamed downtown Concord auto parts business. A store employee wrote down the getaway van's license plate number, which Concord police dispatchers found was stolen, police said.



Police spotted the van on Concord Avenue near state Highway 242, and a pursuit led police officers first onto Highway 242 and then onto North Concord streets, including East Olivera Road past the Pixie Playland park.



With the help of a Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office helicopter, Concord police pulled back from the pursuit and were guided to the suspects, who tried to abandon the white van on a residential Concord street. Two men were arrested and taken to the Martinez Detention Facility jail.



Further specifics were not immediately available Saturday night.





Copyright  2019 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21)  In celebration of Easter Sunday, the President encouraged the public to be reminded of their love for their country especially that the May 2019 midterm elections are fast approaching.

President Rodrigo Duterte said he hopes Easter, a time of new beginnings, will inspire Filipinos to choose what is good and uplifting.

Christians celebrate Easter Sunday to culminate the Lenten season and to commemorate Jesus Christs rising from the dead.

I trust that this season of Easter will be a blessed time for us to rekindle our shared commitment in nation-building, especially in the upcoming midterm elections, he said. May it become an exercise of integrity and reflect the true will of the people.

Duterte also urged the public to cultivate peace in their families and respective communities.

Let us strive to be instruments of peace in our families and communities and foster great harmony and understanding where and whenever it is most needed, he said.

This comes days after the President slammed Catholic practices at the start of Holy Week. Earlier, Duterte blasted the act of attending mass, calling it "useless" since hypothetically he would commit the same sins even after asking for forgiveness.

"Kaya ako hindi nagsisimba. Kasi pag magsimba ako, 'Forgive me, father, for I have killed last night three.' Balik na naman ako kinabukasan, 'Father, forgive me because I have killed 10 drug  drug lords.' Eh pabalik-balik ako, bakit pa ako magpunta doon? Useless eh," he said Tuesday.

[Translation: That is why I don't attend mass because if I attend mass, "Forgive me, father, for I have killed last night three." I'll come back the next day, "Father, forgive me because I have killed 10 drug  drug lords." I'll go back and forth so why should I attend? It's useless.]

He said this as he coninued to slam priests for allegedly using their pulpits to berate him.Last year, I was in Scotland on vacation. Repeatedly, well-meaning locals told me the tale of how, when the English outlawed bagpipes, creative Scots invented a form of singing that used mouth sounds to be both voice and instrument.

It's a great origin story. But a few quick Google searches proved there was no truth the tale. The English never banned bagpipes (although some weary visitors might be in favor of the initiative), although the popularity of the instrument did decline due to English influence in the late 1700s.A wrong turn on a ski trail at Yosemite almost ended the life of an acclaimed biology professor before he ever gave his first lecture.

Dr. William "Bill" Jacobs had an illustrious career at Princeton, published many academic papers and was a world-class expert in plant hormones and grafting. He died in his sleep at his home in the New Jersey college town on March 2, less than three months from his 100th birthday.

But in 1946, Jacobs was a graduate student studying botany at the California Institute of Technology. On Feb. 2 that year, he and some colleagues decided to take a trip to the Badger Pass ski area in Yosemite National Park.

Jacobs became separated from his friends on his first run and didn't know which trail they had taken after riding the chairlift back to the top. So on his second trip down, he took a route he was not familiar with. Big mistake.

I became "a little disoriented from my numerous turns," he would later tell the Boston Globe.

His subsequent disappearance and rescue would make front-page headlines in his hometown of Boston. The Globe covered the story, and later published his first-person account in a booklet called "Lost in the Snows of the Yosemite."

Today, Jacobs' ordeal  11 days without food, water or a fire during snowstorms and below-freezing temperatures  is largely forgotten, but it remains one of the most extraordinary tales of winter survival in the national parks.

Here are some excerpts from what he told the Globe.

On his first night in the snow, when he took inventory of his supplies: "No knife, no matches. No brains, was the inevitable conclusion."

He was prepared to die: "I came so close to dying that there didn't seem to be anything to worry about," he said. "I sang a bunch of songs, thought about how hungry and thirsty I was. Then I gave myself up for dead."

His botany research helped save him: "Lichens are occasionally used as famine food in the north,' I could hear my biology professor saying now," he thought to himself, alone in the woods. "I knocked down a dead branch and sampled the yellow-green lichen. 'Not too bad,' I told myself, without much conviction."

The Darwinian perspective: "'The struggle for existence results in the survival of the fittest.' That was Darwin's story and I stuck with it," he wrote. "I had come perilously close to letting nature select me out instead of selecting me in, I told myself."

Shortly after becoming lost, Jacobs was fortunate to find a park aid station  a cache that included an Army blanket, toboggan mattress, heating pad, first aid kit and some wooden splints  in a tree along the trail. With those items he was able to fashion a small shelter under the low branches of a pine tree.

But he had nothing to eat, and only snowmelt and stream water to drink. To take his mind off food, he would recite poetry and recall themes from classical music.

He tried to walk out but deep snow and severe foot blisters convinced him to stay put at his makeshift camp. His shouts for help were answered only by the wind.

In those days, the crack Yosemite Search and Rescue outfit did not exist. There were no helicopter searches. After a week, Yosemite's superintendent announced that rangers and other searchers had little chance of finding Jacobs alive.

But four days later on Feb. 13, two rangers did.

MORE: He dangled from the top of Yosemite's Nevada Fall for a selfie, but couldn't hang on

Jacobs' children told the Globe that during the ordeal their father made a pledge to himself that if he survived he would dance more and listen to classical music every day.

It was promise he kept.

---

Read Mike Moffitt's latest stories and send him news tips at moffitt@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.KIEV, Ukraine  A comedian whose only political experience consists of playing a president on TV cruised toward a landslide victory in Ukraines presidential election Sunday in what was seen as a reaction against the countrys entrenched corruption and low standard of living.

Results from 52% of polling stations tallies showed sitcom star Volodymyr Zelenskiy receiving 73% of the vote and President Petro Poroshenko about 25%  a crushing rebuke to Poroshenkos five years in office.

Even before results started trickling in, Poroshenko accepted defeat based on exit polls, saying: I am leaving office, but I want to firmly underline that I am not leaving politics.

Zelenskiy, for his part, promised wide changes at the top echelons of government and said his first task would be securing the release of about 170 Ukrainian military members taken prisoner in the east or in Russia.

Ukraine has been plagued by rampant graft, a sickly economy and a grinding, five-year war with Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country that has killed over 13,000 people. Zelenskiy said he would engage Russia to try to end the conflict.

He also suggested, in a remark that could grate on Russia, that his victory could be a model for other former Soviet states that want to move forward from ossified politics: To all the countries of the former Soviet Union  look at us, everything is possible.

Zelenskiy, 41, became famous nationwide for his comic portrayal in a Ukrainian TV series of a high school teacher who becomes president after a video rant against corruption goes viral. In a case of life imitating television, Zelenskiy denounced graft as a real candidate.

Although Zelenskiy was criticized for a vague campaign platform and never holding public office, voters appeared to cast aside those concerns in favor of a thorough sweep of Ukraines political leadership.

I have grown up under the old politicians and only have seen empty promises, lies and corruption, said Lyudmila Potrebko, a 22-year-old computer programmer who voted for Zelenskiy. Its time to change that.

Poroshenko was a billionaire candy magnate and former foreign minister before he took office in 2014 after huge street protests drove his Russia-friendly predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, to flee the country. Although he instituted some reforms, critics said he had not done nearly enough to curb corruption.

Millions of people living in the rebel-controlled east and in Russia-annexed Crimea were unable to vote. Russia seized Crimea in 2014, and fighting in the east erupted that same year.

Yuras Karmanau is an Associated Press writer.A man suspected of involvement in a mysterious dissident groups February raid on the North Korean Embassy in Madrid was arrested in Los Angeles by U.S. authorities.

Christopher Ahn, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested and charged Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The specific charges against Ahn were not immediately clear. The person spoke on condition of anonymity.

Separately last week, federal agents raided the apartment of Adrian Hong, a leader of the Free Joseon group, the person said. Hong was not arrested.

Free Joseon, also known as the Cheollima Civil Defense group, styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea. The group said it consists of North Korean defectors living in countries around the world, but that it has not worked with or contacted defectors living under tight security in South Korea.

Lee Wolosky, a lawyer for the group, said in a statement that he is dismayed that the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to execute warrants against U.S. persons that derive from criminal complaints filed by the North Korean regime.

The last U.S. citizen who fell into the custody of the Kim regime returned home maimed from torture and did not survive, Wolosky said, referring to college student Otto Warmbiers 2017 death.

A Spanish police investigator in the case said in Madrid that Ahn was identified by the Spanish police at a later stage of its investigation into the Feb. 22 raid and that an international arrest warrant was also issued against him. Thats in addition to warrants issued for the other suspects named last month in Spanish court documents.

The investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that because of judicial secrecy, he couldnt confirm how many arrest warrants had been issued by Spanish authorities beyond the two initially confirmed.

A Spanish judge said an investigation uncovered evidence that a criminal organization shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents. Cheollima said on its website that it was responding to an urgent situation at the embassy and was invited onto the property, and that no one was gagged or beaten.

The Spanish court report said the intruders urged North Koreas only accredited diplomat in Spain, So Yun Sok, to defect.

According to the report, Hong flew to the United States on Feb. 23 and offered to share material and videos with the FBI. The FBI said its standard practice is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations.

Michael Balsamo and Aritz Parra are Associated Press writers.JERUSALEM  Is the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dead? After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coasted to another victory in this months Israeli election, it sure seems that way.

On the campaign trail, Netanyahu ruled out Palestinian statehood and, for the first time, pledged to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank. His expected coalition partners, a collection of religious and nationalist parties, also reject Palestinian independence.

Even his chief rivals, led by respected former military chiefs and a charismatic former TV anchorman, barely mentioned the Palestinian issue on the campaign trail and presented a vision of separation that falls far short of Palestinian territorial demands.

The two Jewish parties that dared to talk openly about peace with the Palestinians captured just 10 seats in the 120-seat parliament, and opinion polls indicate dwindling support for a two-state solution among Jewish Israelis.

The majority of the people in the state of Israel no longer see a two-state solution as an option, said Oded Revivi, the chief foreign envoy for the Yesha settler council, himself an opponent of Palestinian independence. If we are looking for peace in this region, we will have to look for a different plan from the two-state solution.

For the past 25 years, the international community has supported the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip  lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war  as the best way to ensure peace in the region.

The logic is clear. With the number of Arabs living on lands controlled by Israel roughly equal to Jews, and the Arab population growing faster, two-state proponents say a partition of the land is the only way to guarantee Israels future as a democracy with a strong Jewish majority. The alternative, they say, is either a binational state in which a democratic Israel loses its Jewish character or an apartheid-like entity in which Jews have more rights than Arabs.

After decades of negotiations, each side blames the other for failure.

Tamar Hermann, an expert on Israeli public opinion at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the election results do not necessarily mean that Israelis have given up on peace. Instead, she said the issue just isnt on peoples minds.

Most Israelis would say the status quo is preferable to all other options, because Israelis do not pay any price for it, she said. They dont feel the outcome of the occupation. ... Why change it?

According to the institute, support for the two-state solution among Jewish Israelis has plummeted from 69% in 2008, the year before Netanyahu took office, to 47% last year.

Josef Federman is an Associated Press writer.DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Bahrains king on Sunday reinstated the citizenship of 551 people convicted and stripped of their nationality amid a series of mass trials conducted as part of a long crackdown on dissent.

The surprise royal order gave no explanation for King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifas decision, other than to say he had final authority in such cases.

Bahrain, which is home to U.S. and British naval bases, faces widespread international criticism over its continuing crackdown. The Sunni monarchy crushed an Arab Spring uprising in 2011 supported by the nations Shiite majority.

The study and evaluation of the situation of convicts should be based on criteria pertaining to the seriousness, impact and consequences of the crimes, as well as on the danger the convict may pose on national security, the state-run Bahrain News Agency said in announcing the kings decision.

The tiny island off the coast of Saudi Arabia has seen protests, unrest and militant attacks on police since its 2011 protests, which authorities have blamed on Iran. Iran long has denied being involved.

Bahrain has targeted journalists, activists, Shiite religious leaders and political parties. Some activists have escaped into exile while others have been imprisoned.

Last week, 138 people lost their citizenship in a mass trial. That drew a rebuke from U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who described the convictions as giving rise to serious concerns about the countrys legal system.

The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said last weeks verdict brought to 990 the number of people ordered stripped of their nationality since 2012.

Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei, the director of advocacy at the institute, said he was surprised by the news. But he cautioned that those like himself who had their citizenship stripped at the ministerial level, rather than through the courts, likely wouldnt benefit from the kings order.

I honestly think there is something going on behind scenes, maybe some diplomatic pressure is applied to the government, AlWadaei said. There must be a state behind it, maybe Britain or the United States.

Jon Gambrell is an Associated Press writer.VATICAN CITY  Pope Francis denounced the cruel violence of the Easter Sunday slaughter of Christians and foreigners in Sri Lanka as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting the warfare and political violence afflicting many parts of the world.

Francis skipped his homily during Easter Mass but delivered his traditional Urbi et Orbi (To the city and the world) speech highlighting conflicts in the Mideast, Africa and the Americas and demanding that political leaders put aside their differences and work instead for peace.

May the one who gives us his peace end the roar of arms, both in areas of conflict and in our cities, and inspire the leaders of nations to work for an end to the arms race and the troubling spread of weaponry, especially in the economically more advanced countries, Francis said from the loggia of St. Peters Basilica overlooking the square below.

In a special appeal, Francis lamented the grave attacks on Sri Lankan hotels and churches, which occurred just as the Christian faithful were celebrating Easter Mass that marks the resurrection of Christ following his crucifixion.

I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence, Francis said.

In his roundup of global conflicts, Francis warned that the world was increasingly becoming resigned to the ongoing conflict in Syria. He called for a renewed commitment for a political solution that would respond to Syrians need for freedom, peace and justice and allow for millions of refugees to return home.

In Yemen, he lamented how children in particular are exhausted by hunger and war, while in North Africa, Libyans are enduring a fresh round of fighting between rival forces battling for control of Tripoli, the capital

I urge the parties involved to choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability, he said of Libyan leaders.

Francis said he hoped the political and religious leaders of South Sudan would open a new page in the history of the country and work for reconciliation. Francis hosted South Sudans president and opposition leader for a remarkable retreat at the Vatican earlier this month, during which the pope bowed down and kissed their feet, begging them to work for peace.

And historys first Latin American pope also offered prayers for Venezuelans and Nicaraguans experiencing political and economic hardship and all those who lack the minimal conditions for leading a dignified and secure life due to a crisis that endures and worsens.

The 82-year-old Francis has just completed an exhausting few days of Holy Week commemorations, including traveling to a prison outside Rome to wash the feet of inmates on Holy Thursday, presiding over the Way of the Cross procession at Romes Colosseum on Good Friday and celebrating the Easter Vigil late Saturday in St. Peters Basilica.

Nicole Winfield is an Associated Press writer.We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. This includes cookies from third party social media websites and ad networks. Such third party cookies may track your use on Sharedots sites for better rendering. Our partners use cookies to ensure we show you advertising that is relevant to you. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on Sharedots website. However, you can change your cookie settings at any time. Learn morePage Content

California can require employers to deduct pay from employees' paychecks for a state-sponsored retirement savings plan without running afoul of federal law, a federal judge in California ruled March 29.

The judge rejected a taxpayer group's argument that the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) doesn't allow the state to impose its own requirements on private employers.

The state-run retirement plan, known as CalSavers, will require most employers that don't already offer a retirement plan to register for the program in phases according to employer size. Businesses with at least 100 employees must enroll them in the program or start offering an employee retirement plan by June 30, 2020. Companies with 50 to 99 employees have an additional year to comply, and smaller covered businesses have one more year after that. The requirement applies to employers with at least five workers.

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Designing and Administering Defined Contribution Retirement Plans]

Five percent of the employee's earnings will automatically be deducted and transferred into a retirement account unless the employee opts out of the program. The employee's contribution will automatically increase by 1 percent of his or her earnings each year until it reaches a maximum rate of 8 percent, unless the worker chooses a different contribution rate.

CalSavers retirement plans are portable, so employees will have access to them even if they change jobs.

Legal Challenge

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Organization sought to block the law, arguing that ERISA does not allow a state to impose its own retirement savings requirements on private employers.

However, U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. said that "finding that ERISA pre-empts CalSavers would be out of step with the underlying purposes of the act," which are to enhance employee retirement security.

"CalSavers does not govern a central matter of an ERISA plan's administration, nor does it interfere with nationally uniform plan administration," Morrison held. "On this basis, the court finds that CalSavers is not pre-empted by ERISA."

If appealed, the case will go before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and potentially the U.S. Supreme Court.

Given the current makeup of the Supreme Court, the decision on ERISA pre-emption could go either way, said Lorne Dauenhauer, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins.

Employer Role



Tom Kramer, an employee benefits attorney in Portland, Ore., thinks this is a good time for California employers to think about their employees' retirement savings. If employers don't offer adequate retirement savings plans, they may find it hard to attract and retain workers.

Employers may need to do more to recruit top talent. Programs like CalSavers don't permit employer contributions, Kramer noted. And even if employees supplement such programs through personal retirement accounts, they may not have adequate savings.

"Adopting an appropriate retirement plan for the employer may be beneficial for the business owner, the key employees, and the rank and file, too, in addition to avoiding the CalSavers requirements," he added.

Employers that do participate in CalSavers need to be careful, Dauenhauer said. Participating employers have certain obligations, such as providing an employee roster so the state can enroll workers in CalSavers, and submitting employee contributions to the program. But since it is not an employer-sponsored program, companies can't appear to support or encourage participation.

"If the employer is seen as promoting, endorsing or supporting the California retirement savings program, it could become subject to ERISA's detailed regulatory requirements and liability provisions," Dauenhauer explained.

He recommends that employers provide workers with clear notice that the employer isn't sponsoring or endorsing the state plan. Instead, he suggested, point out that the employer is simply obeying a state law that requires it to deduct employee pay and transmit the money to the state unless employees opt out.

Page Content

Maine recently became the latest state to ban employers from asking job candidates about their current or past earnings.

In addition to Maine, seven states prohibit private employers from asking about past pay: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Oregon and Vermont. Some localities also ban such inquiries, including Cincinnati (starting in 2020), New York City, Philadelphia (pending a legal challenge), Puerto Rico and San Francisco, as well as several counties in New York.

We've rounded up the latest news on this topic from SHRM Online and other trusted outlets.

Maine's New Law

Legislative Document 278 prohibits employers from asking about a job candidate's compensation history until after a job offerincluding compensation termshas been presented. Additionally, under the new law, employers can't directly ask a candidate's current or former employer for salary information or stop current employees from discussing their own or another employee's wages. However, employers can confirm a candidate's past pay if the candidate voluntarily discloses it, and the law does not apply if an employer "inquires about compensation history pursuant to any federal or state law that specifically requires the disclosure or verification of compensation history for employment purposes."

(National Law Review)



Supporters Seek to Close Gender Pay Gap

Proponents of Maine's new salary-history inquiry ban, which was sponsored by Democratic Sen. Cathy Breen, said the law will help close the gender pay gap by discouraging employers from using past pay to set starting salaries and potentially perpetuating wage discrimination. State lawmakers approved the bill on April 2National Equal Pay Day. The National Partnership for Women & Families estimated that female full-time workers in Maine are paid 82 cents for every dollar a man earns.

(U.S. News and World Report)

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Managing Pay Equity]

Growing Trend

Even employers in jurisdictions without salary-history bans should pay attention to this growing trend because their jurisdiction may be considering a banor their competitors may have already nixed salary inquiries from their hiring process. Employers should consider whether they need salary-history information for legitimate business purposes in places where it still can be collected, according to an employment attorney.

(SHRM Online)



Employers Join Consortium to Close Wage Gap

Starbucks has pledged to eliminate the gender pay gap and has joined the Employers for Pay Equity Consortium. Twenty-six organizations signed the pay equity pledge on Equal Pay Day, including Accenture, Chobani, Cisco, Deloitte, Ikea, L'Oreal, Lyft, Pepsico and Starbucks. The pay equity practices and tools Starbucks pledged to uphold include not asking job candidates about their salary histories, removing caps on promotional increases and providing a candidate with the pay range of a position if requested.

(SHRM Online)



Democrats Seek National Ban

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 7) in a 242187 vote March 27. If the bill is ultimately signed into law, it would prohibit employers nationwide from asking job applicants about their salary histories and require them to prove that pay disparities between men and women are job-related. The bill passed the House mostly along party lines and is expected to stall in the Republican-controlled Senate. Critics say the bill, as currently written, won't effectively end gender pay disparity.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) agrees that salary history should not be the sole factor in setting compensation. However, "employers should have the ability to discuss salary expectations with prospective employees," said SHRM President and Chief Executive Officer Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, in a letter to Congress. "Salary expectations help employers establish value of the position to the organization as well as competitiveness of the market."

(SHRM Online)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It started with a family dream 55 years ago in Brooklyn, and now De Ville Auto Collision is entirely based on Staten Island.

The borough might have changed, but what remained the same is the family behind the business: the Fazios.

After more than 50 years of family ownership, De Ville Auto Collision won the family-owned small business award of the year.

Having come from a family of entrepreneurs myself, I know how hard it can be to keep a family-owned business running, said Beth Goldberg, New York district director of the United States Small Business Administration.

David Fazio owns the car repair business; he joined the company in 1990 after his parents, Charles and Joan Fazio, started it in 1964.

We combine the highest ethical standard with excellent auto-body technicians and sophisticated leading technology, said Fazio. It takes the guesswork out of the repairs so we can meet and even exceed the customers expectations.

Charles Fazio, David's father, started the business in 1964 in Brooklyn. (Courtesy of SBA)

However, the road to success was rocky from time to time.

In 2015 Fazio got in touch with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the College of Staten Island as he was trying to purchase the 10,000 square-foot facility where his business now resides, but the bank asked for a $400,000 downpayment. The amount was too high for Fazio who said it would have diminished the businesss liquidity.

Thanks to the Small Business Administration 504 loan program Fazio was able to purchase the business space with only a 10% downpayment. Not only did the program allow Fazio to pay a smaller downpayment, but it also allowed him to amortize taxes and fees that he would have had to pay up front.

What the Fazio family has done is truly amazing to grow and expand and buy a building after more-than 50 years in business," said Goldberg.

Fazio will receive recognition at an event for the Small Business Administrations 2019 National Small Business Week Award winners at Microsofts headquarters in Manhattan on May 7.

I have known David for many years through his extensive outreach in the community and the South Shore Rotary Club, said Dean Balsamini, director of the Staten Island SBDC. "This award is well deserved and truly supports and substantiates David and his familys work in the community.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- Police have identified an 89-year-old woman killed by a hit-and-run driver Saturday night in Meiers Corners.

Anastasia Diaz was struck at about 10:38 p.m. at the intersection of Bradley and Purdy avenues, and had suffered cardiac arrest by the time emergency crews responded, police said.

Neighbors said Diaz lived about a block away, and had exited a city bus moments before being hit. Two women, around the same age, who were accompanying the victim watched in tears. The women all were dressed in formal attire, witnesses said.

(The two women) were trying to get into the ambulance, and (EMTs) wouldnt let them..., said Kim Eadicco, a neighbor who witnessed the aftermath. She died right there."

Two women exited another vehicle and called police, then stayed on the scene for hours, according to witnesses. On Sunday, police were searching for a four-door, dark colored sedan in regard to the incident.

My dog started barking and I saw the lights from the fire engines coming through my window, said neighbor Anthony Eadicco. The other two women were just crying.

Diaz was returning from an Easter mass with her sisters, according to a report ABC 7.

The fatal hit-and-run is the second over the past five years at the same intersection, according to Advance records. Multiple homes at the four-way intersection have been damaged over the years, due to drivers speeding or blowing through the traffic signal, neighbors said.

I hope they catch them," said Anthony Eadicco.

A digital sign was erected Sunday at the intersection, prompting anyone with information to call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public also can submit tips online at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or @NYPDTips on Twitter.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- What is the best way to celebrate something that has accompanied generations of young children? Join them for a party!

Thats exactly what people will be able to do in June for Sesame Streets 50th birthday.

The show, which now has a primetime special that premieres in November on HBO, will tour around the country to celebrate with its fans.

On June 1 the celebration will take place at Denny Farrell Riverbank State in Harlem and it will include a giant maze, treasure dig and sweepstakes.

Snack stations and photos with the main characters will also be available.

The event will start at 10 a.m. and is free, but those interested on attending should register.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As the warmer weather returns, you may be thinking about ways to spend more time in the great outdoors.

And for those who like nature, but without the inconvenience of pitching a tent and sleeping on the ground, glamping may be for you. After all, the glamorous form of camping offers just the right amount of outdoors with a luxurious twist.

Stay in the middle of the woods in a tiny home that has a full bathroom. Watch the sunset from inside in a tent thats big enough to fit a king-sized bed and gives you full panoramic views of Manhattan.

WEBSITES

A great way to find unique glamping locations and experiences is from companies that specialize in privately owned properties. Popular websites like Airbnb, glamping.com and glampinghub.com all offer various locations that will cater to your particular needs.

You can designate a search based on a specific location or based on features -- and perfectly tailored locations will be listed for you to choose from.

LOCATIONS

If you arent looking to rent someones property, there are sites to choose from that are relatively close to Staten Island.

Just an eight-minute ferry ride from downtown Manhattan, Collective Retreats offers luxury glamping on historic Governors Island. (Staten Island Advance/Steve Zaffarano)Staten Island Advance

Collective Retreats Governors Island is a posh property that includes unobstructed views of Manhattan right from Governors Island. The location is an eight-minute ferry ride from downtown Manhattan.

The site offers two types of tents -- Journey Tents and Summit Tents. The variations include different sized beds, complimentary breakfast, upscale sheets and appliances. The pricing depends on the amenities you choose, and can vary from anywhere between $150 and $800 per night.

Governors Island also has picnic areas and a playground for kids -- its the perfect family getaway.

Collective Retreats Hudson Valley offers the perfect combination of camping and luxury. (Collective Retreats Hudson Valley)

Collective Retreats Hudson Valley offers similar luxurious amenities, but with the added perk of exclusion from all city life. Located at Liberty Farms in New York, this serene getaway offers various activities, including brewery/winery tours, kayaking, spa treatments and more.

The Summit tent comes with high-end amenities that make it feel as if you arent camping at all. A king-sized bed with 1,500-thread-count linens are featured in all of the 10 available tents. Food options include dishes from Collective Hudson Valleys signature restaurant or Three Peaks Lodge meals made with fresh ingredients.

Rates can range between $400 and $700 per night. The site is about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Staten Island.

Eastwind Hotel & Bar features Lushna A-frame wood cabins that are Scandinavian-inspired. (Eastwind Hotel & Bar)

East Wind Hotel & Bar is located in Windham, N.Y. The name might not trigger thoughts of glamping, but the posh property features Lushna A-frame wood cabins that are Scandinavian-inspired.

Each hut features a queen-sized bed, storage space and wildlife journals. Guests are provided with complimentary camping kits and grilling equipment -- along with a private bathroom. A detached sauna is featured on the property.

Outside the property, glampers can enjoy hiking, kayaking and foraging walks. The spot is two-and-a-half hours away from Staten Island. Rates start at $219 per night.

Gather Greene is a great option for those who want picturesque views right from their tiny cabin. (Gather Greene)

Gather Greene is located in Coxsackie, N.Y., and the property features 17 tiny cabins equipped with the perfect amount of comfort and luxury. Each unit has heating, air conditioning, a mini fridge, bath amenities, Brooklinen sheets and towels.

The tiny cabins provide a tree-house-like experience with one wall made of glass that shows off the scenic property. Visitors can enjoy cheese-making workshops and yoga classes.

Rates start at $250 per night. Gather Greene is also a two-and-a-half hour drive from Staten Island.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Single baby boomers and Generation-Xers age 50 and older looking for love, may or my not be looking in the right place, according to a new study.

Of the 50 states, New York ranked No. 30 for finding love after age 50, according to TheSeniorList, an online resource for seniors, which released a study, The Best States for Finding Love After 50. The study used the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau on marital status and income.

Topping the list was Maryland, and ranking last was Mississippi.

DIVORCE RATE DOUBLED

Baby boomers are retiring in record numbers, and at the same time, the divorce rate for Americans 50 and older has roughly doubled since the 1990s.

This ideally means that more seniors are single and ready to mingle, but the eligible dating pool actually varies heavily by state.

The studys rankings were determined based on three factors:STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Starting Sunday, express bus riders will be paying 25 cents more, but they wont be able to drop the extra quarter into the collection box.

The fare for MTA express buses, responsible for transporting tens of thousands of Staten Islanders to and from Manhattan on a daily basis, has increased from $6.50 to $6.75.

Additionally, coins are no longer accepted as payment on express buses, a point of contention for Staten Island commuters whove continually voiced frustration with the boroughs limited MetroCard machine options.

With just three MetroCard dispenser locations available on Staten Island, some residents fear that the elimination of the cash option puts an unnecessary strain on Staten Island commuters.

Im more concerned with no coins. They are changing it so you cant pay with change. With very few places to refill your MetroCard on Staten Island, said rider Brian Austin Padua.

We have the most fare beaters on the Island for a reason, the MTA really needs to take more responsibility with that, Padua continued. Very few places to refill MetroCards on the Island, plus no more paying in change, will make the situation worse. Sorry, but not sorry, its not our fault for the lack of support the MTA provides the Island."

$2.75 BASE FARE

While residents are still paying the same $2.75 base fare for local buses and the Staten Island Railway, the elimination of the pay-per-ride bonus leaves commuters paying the MTA a higher effective fare.

In late February, The MTA Board voted to maintain the base fare for New York Citys subways, buses and paratransit at $2.75, while eliminating the 5 percent bonus value received with the purchase of multiple trips.

With the 5 percent bonus, the effective fare when purchasing a multiple-trip card was $2.62 per ride. With the bonus eliminated, the effective fare now matches the base fare of $2.75.

Time-based options

In addition to the per-ride increases, seven-day passes increased from $32 to $33.

Seven-day express bus passes increased from $59.50 to $62.

And thirty-day passes increased from $121 to $127.

TOLL INCREASES

In March, the MTA implemented toll increases on all bridges under the jurisdiction of the MTA Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, including the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

The cash toll for the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has risen from $17 to $19, with the E-ZPass rate increasing from $11.52 to $12.24.

The Staten Island Resident E-ZPass (three or more trips per month) rate increased from $6.48 to $6.88, with the Staten Island Resident E-ZPass (one or two trips per month) rate increasing from $6.84 to $7.26. The Staten Island Resident Carpool rate also increased from $3.20 to $3.40.

The effective toll rate for Staten Island residents was set to increase from $5.50 to $5.90.

However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, working alongside Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island), Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-North Shore) and State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn), secured state funding that maintains the $5.50 effective toll rate for the next two years.

Although Staten Island residents are now charged $6.88 or $7.26 depending on their amount of monthly trips, the Staten Island Resident Rebate Program issues rebates making the effective rate the aforementioned $5.50.

To qualify for the resident discount plan, vehicles must be registered to a valid Staten Island residential address. Commercial vehicles are not eligible for the program and residency status is subject to periodic review. For more information, visit the MTA website.

The following toll increases also took effect on the MTAs other tunnels and crossings.

Robert F. Kennedy Bridge  Bronx-Whitestone Bridge  Throgs Neck Bridge  Hugh L. Carey Tunnel  Queens Midtown Tunnel

E-ZPass: Increase from $5.76 to $6.12

Tolls by Mail: Increase from $8.50 to $9.50

Henry Hudson Bridge

E-ZPass: Increase from $2.64 to $2.80

Tolls by Mail: Increase from $6.00 to $7.00

Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge  Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge

E-ZPass: Increase from $2.16 to $2.29

Tolls by Mail: Increase from $4.25 to $4.75

REVENUE GENERATED

The new fare and toll increases is expected to net the MTA an additional $336 million in annual revenue, according to the agency.

This additional funding is critically important to the MTA but it is not enough to allow us to fund our capital plan or close our operating deficit, said former-MTA acting chair Fernando Ferrer. Weve seen dramatically improved performance of our system recently and in order to keep that up we are making major internal reforms, seeking additional recurring revenues from our state and city partners, and urging the legislature to pass the governors congestion pricing proposal.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  If you thought that Special Counsel Robert Muellers report on Russia collusion was going to bring closure, youre bitterly disappointed today.

Then again, if you really thought anything would bring closure to this soap opera, you were barking up the wrong tree.

Havent read the whole 400-plus pages of the report? Me neither.

But two things that have been widely reported stand out: Mueller found no evidence of collusion, and did not call for charges of obstruction of justice against President Donald Trump.

In other words, no surprises. We already knew there were no bombshells here. If there had been some huge revelation forthcoming, we would have heard about it weeks ago, given how Muellers operation leaked like a submarine with screen doors.

Lets remember where all this all started: Did Trump and the Kremlin conspire to steal the 2016 presidential election?

Muellers probe was supposed to settle that question once and for all. But the report instead is like that drawing of the ugly old crone and the beautiful young girl: People look at the same page and see totally different things. Anti-Trumpers think the report proves that Trump broke the law. Trump supporters say its evidence of the witch hunt against Trump.

Much has been made of the fact that Muellers report doesnt exonerate Trump. But it doesnt say that Trump should be charged with a crime either. Weve basically got a no bill.

In the criminal justice world, that would be the end of it. But this is the political world. The Dems want to see the full, unredacted Mueller report. They want Mueller to testify before Congress. They want to investigate the investigation, see what threads Mueller may have examined and discarded.

Dont they trust the special counsel?

But this too was predictable. The Dems would have kept the investigation train rolling no matter what.

But if theres any material exculpatory to Trump in all those blacked-out passages, will the Dems make that information public? I wonder.

And the Dems will also turn up the flame on impeachment, no matter what you hear about the party being divided over the question. Having impeachment power was one of the reasons why the Dems wanted the House majority back so badly in the first place. They want that option on the table, if only to have another constantly percolating front in their battle against Trump.

But theres peril along that road too. As long as the GOP holds the Senate, Republicans are not going to vote to convict absent some hell turn of events. And those Republicans can open investigations of their own, including about how this whole Russia investigation started in the first place. So expect to hear more about that Hillary Clinton-funded Russia dossier and about FISA warrants against U.S. citizens.

And the Dems should remember that the GOP lost House seats after their impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Newt Gingrich resigned as House speaker.

And that even if they do remove Trump, they get President Mike Pence in his pace. Then again, theyre likely building the future impeachment case against Pence in some Dem bunker somewhere.

Meanwhile, theres a presidential election next year. About a hundred Dems seem to be running. Bernie Sanders supporters already think that establishment Dems are out to screw their man again. The party is splintering along ideological lines. There are controversies over socialist policies. Over accusations of anti-Semitism. Over just what the Dems 2020 message should be on the economy, crime and immigration.

Maybe the Dems should focus on that.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police have beefed up security across the city after attacks in Sri Lanka killed more than 200 people, including some Americans.

More 200 people were killed and hundreds more injured in simultaneous bombings that shook three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

In addition to the heightened security across the city, the NYPDs counterterrorism unit is asking New Yorkers to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity across the city.

In a tweet, the NYPD said: Our prayers are with the people of Sri Lanka. Houses of worship are sanctuaries for congregants to gather  without fear. Although there is no known nexus to NYC, NYPD officers will be seen at temples [and] churches as we remain steadfast in our mission to keep every New Yorker safe."

We continue to monitor the events in Columbo, Sri Lanka. At this time, there is no known nexus to #NYC.



We ask that you should always remain vigilant & report any suspicious activity.



If you see something, say something

(888) NYC-SAFE pic.twitter.com/i3IbSO3yuC  NYPDCounterterrorism (@NYPDCT) April 21, 2019

Sgt. Brendan Ryan, a spokesman for the New York Police Department told the Associated Press "Authorities will make periodic visits to all houses of worship, giving special attention to those with Easter services.

The NYPDs counterterrorism unit put out the following tweet:

We continue to monitor the events in Columbo, Sri Lanka. At this time, there is no known nexus to #NYC. We ask that you should always remain vigilant & report any suspicious activity. If you see something, say something (888) NYC-SAFE.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  His next trip will be to a prison upstate.

A Staten Islander, who authorities said headed a crew that peddled forged temporary license plates and registrations throughout the five boroughs and Long Island, has pleaded guilty to a felony charge that will put him behind bars for up to six years.

Andrew Pandiani, 32, was among seven defendants indicted in the case along with two other borough residents  Joseph Algerio, 43, and James (Jimmy) Napolitano, 29, said Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown and Police Commissioner James P. ONeill in announcing the charges in January.

Napolitano also provided a Florida address, authorities said.

Authorities said the Queens-based ring operated as far back as July 2015 and raked in more than $400,000.

The probe began when members of the NYPDs Auto Crime Unit spotted Craigs List ads for New Jersey temporary license plates and vehicle registrations, said Brown.

Afterward, they bought phony vehicle identification documents and other materials from the seller.

Court-authorized wiretaps of Pandianis phone calls revealed he headed a business he called Verrazano Collision Specialists LLC, said officials.

However, it was a shell company, never registered or licensed by the state, authorities said.

The operation forged temporary license plates, insurance documents and other fraudulent auto-related paperwork and sold them to customers, said officials.

Pandiani set the prices for the bogus documents, controlled inventory and collected the profits, authorities said.

His name was on the business bank accounts where clients payments were deposited, said officials.

Pandiani deposited no more than $9,999 in cash into the various accounts to circumvent banks reporting requirements to the federal government, authorities said.

Algerio allegedly acted as manager.

Authorities said he was Pandianis right-hand man, helping set prices and acting as liaison between Pandiani and drivers and customers.

Algerio, at times, also delivered plates to clients, said officials.

Napolitano was a driver and transported forged license plates to customers, authorities said.

Each drivers car carried a printer and specialized printing paper to facilitate on-demand printing and quick delivery, Brown said.

Drivers delivered daily, said officials.

The Staten Island defendants were each charged with various counts of enterprise corruption, conspiracy, forgery and forged-instrument possession.

Pandiani and Algerio were also accused of money laundering.

Earlier this month, Pandiani pleaded guilty in Queens state Supreme Court to attempted enterprise corruption to resolve the case.

In exchange, hell be sentenced June 25 to three to six years in prison, said Patrick V. Parrotta, his lawyer.

Its a fair resolution for somebody alleged to have been deeply involved in an enterprise such as this, Parrotta said.

The defendant potentially faced up to eight-and-one-third to 25 years behind bars had he been convicted at trial of enterprise corruption.

Pandiani remains free on $250,000 bond, pending sentence.

Algerio also pleaded guilty to attempted enterprise corruption and will be sentenced on June 5.

He remains free on $75,000 bond.

His lawyer could not immediately be reached on Saturday.

Napolitano pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted second-degree forged-instrument possession.

He was sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge.

Matthew Santamauro, his attorney, declined comment on the case.COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  The secretary general of the worlds largest organization of Muslim nations has condemned the attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people on Easter Sunday.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation's chief Yousef al-Othaimeen described them as "cowardly attacks" that targeted innocent worshippers and civilians. Some 57 nations are part of the OIC, which is headquartered in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jiddah.

Saudi Arabia also denounced the attacks in Sri Lanka and described them as "terrorist explosions," saying the kingdom extends its condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Sri Lanka.

Earlier Sunday, other Arab Gulf nations issued similar statements condemning the attack.

New York City police have implemented tightened security measures in the wake of attacks in Sri Lanka that have killed more than 200 people -- including some Americans.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack that Sri Lankan officials have blamed on religious extremists.To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.

We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.

A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!Yet as the practise becomes more common, the drawbacks of working from home are also becoming more apparent. Many remote workers end up feeling isolated and disconnected from their colleagues. Critics argue it stifles collaboration and innovation inside companies. Loading And from the employee's perspective, it's much harder to progress your career when you are not in the office. IBM, which embraced telecommuting as far back as the 1980s, and Yahoo, which was also an early adopter of remote work, are two companies that in recent years have and ordered staff back to physical offices. But for Trello, remote work has been a winning policy. And that seems to be because it has gone "all in" on it.

"It has its own challenges," Pryor says. "I think a lot of times teams get into this, they dip their toe into it and they have one person working remotely and they say, 'oh well it didnt work'. And its like 'yeah, because you werent really working remotely'." If you work from home at all, hopefully you have not experienced anything as embarrassing as the so-called BBC Interview Dad, whose live TV cross - hilariously interrupted by toddler and mother - went viral a couple of years ago. We all get on the video conference from our computers, so everyone is equal. Even if you are in the office you go and find a place to [video-conference] in Trello's Michael Pryor But chances are, you have endured some awkward moments. For example (my personal favourite) being the only person dialling into an important strategy meeting when everyone else is physically present. Pryor says meetings are a common problem, and Trello's solution to them is illustrative of its "all in" approach to remote work.

"When we do a meeting we dont all get into a room and have one person on a video conference," he says. "That doesnt work. There is a conversation happening in the room and the person cant participate. Loading "And then you start talking and everyone is like 'oh, you are here.' So we all get on the video conference from our computers, so everyone is equal. Even if you are in the office you go and find a place to [video-conference] in." The "office" at Trello is no longer really a physical construct, he says. Instead, it's provided through digital tools such as Confluence, the Atlassian document service that acts as company's 'system of record', messaging service Slack, and of course, Trello itself. "We have gotten to the point where that is our office, and so the way that we are working is more asynchronous," he says.

That said, Pryor acknowledges that there is no substitute for having everyone together in the same place. The company gets together at an official offsite once a year and individual teams meet up even more frequently. For its part, Altassian seems encouraged by Trello's success with remote work. The company last month announced its own push to decentralise and hire more remote workers. After all, there's a lot of talent out there that doesn't live in Sydney, or want to move there. Trello, which can be thought of as a sort of digital whiteboard and post it notes, on which everyone can see what everyone else in a company is working on, has become a popular tool in creative industries such as marketing. Atlassian - best known for software products targeted at developers and IT professionals - acquired the business as part of a push into serving knowledge workers outside of the tech industry. "It kind of is project management, but when people are using it they dont think of it as capital P project management," says Pryor of Trello.In a room filled with education executives from around the world, one leadership message resonated for Tim McCallum: The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them.

They have either lost confidence that you can help them, or concluded that you do not care.

McCallum, executive director of school performance for the NSW Department of Education, committed to heart this quote from Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State and a retired four-star general.

Tim McCallum, executive director of school performance for the New South Wales Department of Education.

With responsibility for the Regional North Operational Directorate, McCallum is line manager of 17 directors of educational leadership, working with 350 school principals."Thanks for the review! It's like you were right there in the room with the band. Hopefully we'll do better next time," one of the band members emailed me. It was embarrassing. I don't want to upset people with the nonsense I write. I felt bad for a bit, but not that long. In the end, it's just another opinion, words in the cosmos, no more valid than any other. And why are you even reading your own reviews, losers?

This week, during a lecture to NYU's Stern School of Business, director M. Night Shyamalan revealed the depths he plummeted following lacklustre reviews to his latest stinker Glass.

"I was in London when I heard the US reviews for Glass were poor. I was in a make-up chair for a TV show, and I cried," he told attendees. "We had only great screenings of the movie around the world, so essentially I wasn't prepared ... Boy, did I feel distraught that day.

"But anyway, the film went on, right?" he continued. "It became number one in every country in the world ... I've had more success than anybody should be allowed to have. I mean, everything I've ever written has been offered to be made into a movie, and my nine films that are original ideas have averaged $US270 million each. I just think I can't complain about anything."

Which brings me to my ever elusive point: you're in the biggest TV show on Earth, Kit Harington, a show viewers are clamouring to see and eager to dissect. Instead of targeting critics, maybe just make like a White Walker and chill out."There is one thing that I would very much like to mention," Mr Backhaus concluded. "I have been made an honorary member of the Society of the Friends of Music. This is one of the oldest societies in Europe, and has its headquarters In Vienna. Beethoven was one of the first honorary members, so that it is indeed an honour that has come to me."

"As an instance of the wide appeal made by Beethoven," said Mr Backhaus, "it is interesting to note that a book on Beethoven has been written by H. Herriot, the well known French statesman.

Wilhelm Backhaus, since he previously visited Australia, has been appearing extensively in recitals in England and on the Continent. He gave three recitals In London towards the end of 1928 then hurried to Manchester, Bradford Middlesbrough, and Bolton, and across to Vienna to take part in the Schubert Festival. He next visited Paris to appear with the Lamoureux Orchestra and give a Beethoven recital, and then returned to Vienna to play the Brahms D minor Concerto with the Tonkunstler Orchestra. His travels then took him into Germany, where he played for the first time since 1921. Early In 1929 he gave a series of six Beethoven recitals in Vienna. After further recitals in Germany, he fulfilled an extensive tour of Spain and Portugal. He afterwards visited Italy and Poland, his concert engagements keeping him busy all the year-so busy, in fact that he had to play through the Christmas holidays. In the course of a tour in South America, he gave five recitals from Beethoven's works to packed houses in Buenos Aires.

Ad for performance by German pianist Wilhelm Backhaus, SMH APril 26, 1930 Credit:SMH Archives

Mr Backhaus, whose tour is under the management of E. J. Gravestock, Ltd, will commence his Sydney season at the Town Hall next Saturday night.

A Great Welcome.

EMINENT PIANIST'S BRILLIANCY.

(May 28, 1930)

A great welcome from a great audience assured William Backhaus of his high place in the esteem of the Australian public when he began his second tour of this country on Saturday night at the Town Hall. And this great audience found itself as completely swayed by the power of the celebrated pianist as were those who heard him in his first series of Sydney recitals about four years ago. His dignity, intellectual depth, and diversity of outlook, as well as his superb repose, even in the midst of prodigious technical difficulties, again aroused prompt and enthusiastic admiration.The Liberal Party has abandoned a $1.2 million data harvesting system amid a botched rollout and fears sensitive voter information was at risk, as the government deals with an internal rift over software once touted as its electoral "silver bullet".

Liberal sources who have worked with the party on its digital campaign strategy over the past three years say a rift between the federal organisation and state branches underpinned the ditching of i360, a controversial American voter data machine the party used in recent state elections in Victoria and South Australia.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison campaigning in Melbourne. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The rollout of i360  which began in 2016 and has cost the Liberals an estimated $1.2 million  marked a significant investment in the new frontier of Australian political campaigning: data collection.

Both major parties curate databases to identify swing voters and tailor campaign messages. i360 uses hundreds of data points on every voter  from how many bathrooms their house has to whether they have hearing difficulties or enjoy cruises  to predict how they will vote and how they will respond to different campaign messages.Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says she is "horrified" at the prospect that her Senate spot could be taken by One Nation, as the Greens face losing two of their most high-profile parliamentarians at the upcoming election to Pauline Hanson's party.

South Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young, pictured with Greens leader Richard Di Natale on Wednesday, is aiming to be elected for her fourth term. Credit:AAP

Along with Senator Hanson-Young, the Greens' co-deputy leader Larissa Waters has an uphill struggle to hold on to her Queensland seat due to challenges from One Nation, Clive Palmer and far-right senator Fraser Anning.

The Greens have six of their nine senators up for re-election on May 18. "Our focus is on retaining our team of MPs," Greens leader Richard Di Natale told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, saying South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales would "come down to the wire".

Senator Hanson-Young said she was fighting for one of the last two Senate spots in South Australia with the Centre Alliance's Skye Kakoschke-Moore (who was forced to resign over dual citizenship in 2018), One Nation candidate Jennifer Game and the Liberal Party's third candidate, Alex Antic.Election analyst Kevin Bonham is less convinced about the Greens' chances of increasing their haul. Bonham describes the Macnamara contest as "interesting", as it was a very close three-cornered contest in 2016 between Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens, and Danby is retiring. Richard Di Natale with Victorian Greens candidates. Credit:Eddie Jim "The others are a scattering of pretty long shots, in my view," he says. "If they hold on to all six Senate spots, that would be a big relief for them." The battle for Senate control With some of their highest-profile senators on the line in 2019, the Greens are billing this election as a contest for control  and the soul  of the Senate. It is possible the Greens and Labor will get to the magic number of 39 in the upper house, which would enable the two parties to pass legislation on their own, and return the Greens to the position of power they had after the 2010 election.

But this would depend on some states, such as Victoria and Tasmania, splitting 4:2 in favour of Labor and the Greens candidates versus the Coalition and other conservative parties. "A strong result could deliver the Greens sole balance of power with Labor, but we are competing against One Nation for the final spot in some seats, so it's also possible One Nation could end up in the balance of power," Di Natale says. Recent polling by progressive think tank the Australia Institute suggests the most likely scenario is Labor and the Greens will manage to gather only 38 senators, and groups such as One Nation and Centre Alliance will also be key players when the new Senate takes effect come July 1. "There are a range of possibilities and the Senate is notoriously unreliable to predict," Di Natale says. Can the Greens and Labor work together?

The Greens make no secret of their desire to see a change of government in Canberra. Di Natale says the 2019 election is an opportunity to have "a resounding defeat for the Liberal Party and force them to acknowledge climate denialism is no longer a viable position for them after this election". So it is unsurprising that even though we are still weeks away from knowing the election result, the Greens are already talking about how they would work with a potential Shorten government. Last week, the party's environment spokeswoman, Hanson-Young, flagged plans to use the Greens' $2 billion nature fund policy in negotiations with Labor on climate change. Greens leader Richard Di Natale in discussion with Greens senators in Parliament. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Di Natale says he has met with Labor leader Bill Shorten "a few times" and thinks the two can be "open and direct" with one another. (The Greens leader describes his relationship with Prime Minister Scott Morrison as "almost non-existent".) That level of directness with the ALP has already begun, with Di Natale arguing Labor needs a far stronger approach to tackling climate change. Labor wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, based on 2005 levels. This is much higher than the 26 per cent proposed by the Coalition, but falls well short of the 63 to 82 per cent target the Greens are calling for.

While the Greens target might seem radical to some, experts say it is the only one consistent with keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees. Scientists say this target must be met to avoid catastrophic impacts, including obliteration of the Great Barrier Reef. "People are crying out for leadership," Di Natale says, rejecting the argument that there needs to be a consensus on climate change across the entire Parliament so that policies are not undone by future governments. He insists a potential Shorten government needs to be willing to negotiate with the Greens in the Senate, "to deliver a policy based on science, not something that appeases the climate deniers in the Liberal Party". The Greens have long been criticised for blocking then prime minister Kevin Rudd's carbon pollution reduction scheme in 2009 (they argued it did not go far enough). When asked how willing the Greens would be to compromise with a Labor government on climate change, Di Natale says: "We will stop bad policy and we will champion good policy." Even though Labor and the Greens later reached a deal on a carbon price under Julia Gillard's prime ministership in 2011, senior Labor figures have not forgotten 2009 and the relationship between the two parties has been rocky.

Loading In response to a Guardian story about climate change policy last week, deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek tweeted: "Do you [Di Natale] think people have forgotten your party worked with Tony Abbott to stop action on climate change last time?" Should the Greens be doing better? The Greens are contesting the election at a time when public concern about the environment has arguably never been higher. An April 2019 poll by Ipsos found that 23 per cent of those polled were concerned about the environment. This compares to 14 per cent around the time of the 2016 federal election. This also comes off the back of growing community action around climate change and a summer featuring record temperatures, drought, floods, bushfires and horrifying fish kills, as well as voter dissatisfaction with the major parties.

So this raises the question, rather than being worried about losing its existing seats, shouldn't the Greens be guaranteed to pick up a host of new ones? Di Natale says the party has experienced "huge growth" since he joined 19 years ago. This includes going from one senator in 2000  with Bob Brown  to nine senators and one lower house MP in Federal Parliament as well as dozens of state MPs and almost 100 local government councillors. "For years I've heard commentators say, 'The Greens vote has peaked.' But what we've proved is that we're an enduring, grassroots, people-powered movement." The Greens leader adds he is confident the party will continue to see an increase in support, "especially as the major parties fail to take action on climate change". There have nonetheless been some unedifying times for the Greens since the 2016 federal election. The party lost four of its five upper house seats in the 2018 Victorian state election and failed to pick up the federal seat of Batman in last year's byelection  seen as its strongest chance to pick up a second lower-house spot.

While the Victorian state result was also influenced by preference deals, both the state election and byelection were surrounded by ugly infighting. In NSW, the Greens have also been distracted by ongoing ideological wars, resignations and allegations of "sexual violence", although the party had a stable result at the recent state election. The future for Di Natale Elections can be a dangerous time for political leaders if the party they lead is under pressure. But the infighting in state branches does not seem to have reached Canberra, where the Greens publicly and privately insist they are united. "We all know this is a tough election because we've got people up in every state. The team is really rock solid and supportive," says Hanson-Young, who is often talked about as a possible successor to Di Natale but says she is not interested in being leader herself.

Larissa Waters is similarly adamant Di Natale is not going anywhere: "Richard will remain leader for as long as he wants to remain leader," she says. "We think the world of him. I think everybody's mum is in love with him." For his part, Di Natale, says: "The reality is that leading the party relies on the support of your colleagues and it's both a privilege and an honour to have it." In terms of his longer-term parliamentary plans, the Greens leader, who is father to two boys, aged eight and 10, notes he is not up for re-election this time. In three years, it will be time to assess whether he wants another six-year term. He says despite the honour of leading, "it's a tough gig, particularly with a young family".A Camp Quality corporate sponsor said he had an "army" of families connected with the children's cancer charity at his disposal in claiming he would run for local government during argument with his council.

Police are investigating Sarraf Strata boss Norman Sarraf over a barrage of emails sent to Georges River Council in January in which he complained he was unfairly left out the tender process for the naming rights of Kogarah Oval, the home ground of the St George Illawarra Dragons.

Norman Sarraf took to social media to announce his candidacy for Georges River Council during a dispute over the naming rights for Kogarah Stadium.

During the spat, he took to Facebook and Instagram to announce his candidature for a position on council for 2020, telling councillors and staff in a January 14 email "you have just pushed me across the line."

"Check out social media in the first hour of my announcement. I have an army at my disposal. Starting with Camp Quality families," Mr Sarraf said.A cage-free zoo set to open in western Sydney this year has again ruffled the feathers of a rival outdoor wildlife attraction, less than a year after its out-of-court settlement with Taronga Zoo over the right to use the name "Sydney Zoo".

Sydney Zoo, a new $36-million development in the Western Sydney Parklands at Bungarribee near Eastern Creek, is now in the midst of a tussle with the 47-year-old Featherdale Wildlife Park - and cuddles with koalas are at the centre of it all.

Featherdale Wildlife Park has operated in Sydney for almost 50 years. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The legal stoush, which is progressing through the NSW Land and Environment Court, comes almost two years after the state government's planning and assessment commission imposed a number of conditions on Sydney Zoo to ensure that it differentiated itself from the attractions and experiences offered at nearby Featherdale in Doonside, just three kilometres away.

For example, Sydney Zoo is not to offer a "koala interaction experience", its animals must be two-thirds "exotic species" upon opening, and the zoo must vary the type of animal encounters it offers to set its native wildlife apart from that of Featherdale.Climate change doesnt care about our politics Peter Hartcher makes a valid point (The climate reckoning is coming, April 20-21). Tony Abbotts commitment to join 60 other countries to combat Islamic State can be compared with the governments excuse for not fighting climate change because Australia is a small emitter of greenhouse gasses. Even if our domestic emissions are around 1.3 per cent of the global total (our coal exports increase this to over 3 per cent), we must play our part. - Harry Creamer, Port Macquarie Hartcher repeats the accusation that the Greens impeded progress in action on climate change by striking a pose. He was referring to their opposition to the 2009 Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Among the schemes many problems was that over a 22-month period it would have become more economically inefficient as the government offered millions of free permits and other handouts to polluters and affected businesses. Future governments would have been unable to raise the inadequate 5 per cent emissions reduction target. Raising that target would require the government to pay out billions in compensation to business. - John Newton, Glebe Your correspondent argues that political parties should compromise on measures to limit climate change if they want to win votes (Letters, April 20-21). Bill McKibben, a Harvard graduate who has been working on environmental issues since the 1980s, points out that climate change is not a contest between two political parties, rather, Its in the end, a fight between human beings and physics. And physics is poor at compromise, doesnt negotiate easily. Were going to have to do what physics demands. - Joseph Fernandez, Mosman

You report that former Treasury secretary Bernie Fraser ridiculed the Morrison government for making absurd assertions about climate action ("Former RBA chief slams crazy claims", April 20-21). Yet many experts, including the chief scientist, say that an elimination of emissions by Australia would have virtually no effect on global emissions.

As a deputy Treasury secretary for a brief period under Fraser I can say that he had a tendency to challenge the generally accepted policy in various areas. It appears that this tendency continues in regard to global warming. I note that he incorrectly quotes the Americans as having standards. Yet he has overlooked the US Presidents decision to withdraw from the standards set under the Paris agreement and that the two other largest emitters continue to emit freely. - Des Moore, Melbourne (former deputy secretary, Treasury) Anzac fight for a few days off Well written, Rebecca Willis (Im the changing face of Anzac, now lets save the days spirit, April 20-21). I too am a veteran, a lucky one: all my mates came home. I am sure retailers can survive being closed for three-and-a-half days a year. - Ian Brennan, Wareemba It is time for voters to make this an election issue. We have weak politicians, both state and federal, who caved into the wishes of the retail sector. We see politicians hang onto the coat-tails of the Anzacs and yet their sacrifice is meaningless as profit is more important than a life sacrificed for the country. So Scott and Bill, whoever wins the election, will we see legislation in the first session of the new parliament making it illegal for shops to open on Anzac Day, all day. I am sure Gladys Berejiklian will make this a priority in the NSW Parliament. - Robert Pallister, Punchbowl

PMs faith in voters Wendy Atkins suggests the Murdoch press has hit peak anti-Labor (Letters April 20-21). As Al Jolson said, You aint seen nothin yet! - Mike Corbett, Jindabyne Move roads authority The roads authority in NSW has been designing our public domain for decades and Jacob Saulwicks article simply shows another way it influences these outcomes (WestConnex green link bridge ditched in favour of motorway, April 20-21). For too long the roads authority has been more powerful than the government and buoyed by the vast proportion of people who genuinely think creating more roads will make their drive faster. I can only hope the Premiers move soon after the election to move the roads authority into the broader transport body (and give both portfolios to one minister) really means something this time. If anyone can do this Gladys, you can. - Roisin Kelly, Glebe

Tax break for creche How about the government offering company tax deductions for companies providing free in-work childcare (Mothers taxed out of the workforce, April 20-21)? - Martin Guinness, Paddington When a dingo attacks

How astonishing it is to read of the attack on the 14-month-old toddler at Fraser Island and not hear a word of disbelief (Fraser Island resident demands action after dingo mauls toddler, April 20-21). Jaws might indeed have dropped, but only at the thought of it still happening despite the warnings. There is no suggestion that something else happened and a dingo would not do it. Nearly 40 years ago a dingo attacked a baby at Uluru, and despite all the objective evidence of a dingo attack, the mother was not believed.

And look what happened then! A saga of more than 30 years till the facts were confirmed, the mother incarcerated for three years, a marriage torn apart, and the ugly side of the Australian psyche on full display! Every time there is a dingo incident  the animal, related to the Indian pale-footed wolf, revealing once more its basic predatory instincts  Australia should hang its head in shame. - Malcolm Brown, Ermington Tom-splaining: new trend? We have man-splaining, white-splaining and now we have Tom-splaining (We are not racist but a remarkably inclusive nation, April 20-21), which seems to include all the above and then some. In his remarkably shallow article on racism in Australia, Tom Switzer omitted to reference Indigenous Australians once. Which really says it all. - Phil Bradshaw, Naremburn Switzer is in a parallel universe. There is an underlying current of racism though it is probably not the majority. There is a racist rump in the Coalition made obvious by their many racially coloured statements and their abject failure to criticise clearly racist political leaders such as Hanson and the like. It is there in refugee policy, it is there in Aboriginal affairs policy. If this were not the case One Nation would have no seats. Switzer fails to grasp what racism is. Go and meet a few Indigenous people mate, theyll tell you. - Jock Webb, Narromine

Huawei games hurt us Brian Collins seems to be suggesting (Letters, April 20-21) that Huawei knows the outcome of the forthcoming federal election due to their interference in the process. They can save effort and money by simply following the opinion polls. - Graham Russell, Clovelly Will politicians of both major parties stop playing the anti-China card and acknowledge the ban on Huawei has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with pandering to their American masters desperate desire to catch-up? As with Turnbulls fraudband, they are condemning us to second-rate technology for their own political ends. - Stewart MacDonald, Ashfield Tenders in the night

I dont suppose this is the reason we hear nothing about the less than transparent selling of water rights by Barnaby Joyce (Investigative journalism in danger as reporters face jail, April 20-21). How can any government declare themselves great economic managers when so much is hidden by secret tenders where journalists fear to tread. - Elizabeth Darton, Lane Cove West Parking fix for Roxy In addition to a court attendance notice RMS might also like to consider adopting the Nordic approach to fines in order to solve the Paddington parking issue: fines based on a percentage of pre-deduction gross income (No stopping Roxy and her pricey parking habits, April 20-21). - Chris ORourke, Bathurst

Empires dark legacy Anyone who is not sure how much Britain impoverished India (Letters, April 20-21) needs to read Shashi Tharoors well researched and documented book, Inglorious Empire, What the British Did to India. In it he exposes the long lasting effect of Britains horrendous colonial rule. Its only of recent times that India is gradually beginning to assume again its long lost and rightful place in the world. - Bill Kneipp, Wingham Extra bite of muffin

Has anyone else noticed the extra surcharges this weekend? I dont mind paying for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but why Saturday? My wife was charged extra for a takeaway muffin this Saturday! I thought penalty rates for staff had been reduced. So whos getting the extra revenue? - Graham Watson, Point Piper Media make an effort Your correspondent chides the ABC and SBS for sidelining Easter (Letters, April 20-21). She must have missed Jesus, Countdown to Calvary on Tuesday in Holy Week, featuring British actor Hugh Bonneville, admittedly a repeat from last year, but nevertheless an incisive documentary interviewing people of many faiths. As for ABC Classic FM, I heard Handels Messiah twice. My monarchist sympathies would have had me standing for the Hallelujah Chorus, but alas I had my seatbelt on. - Robin Hutcheon, Randwick There are thousands of people who cant get to services on this special day in the Christian calendar. It is very disappointing they cant watch and share a service. At least Songs of Praise still has a slot, though they are repeats from years ago. - Vanessa Winship, EastwoodA Queensland man has been charged with attempted kidnapping after trying to lure a young girl away at a beach in South Australia.

Police were called about 11.50am on Friday to Military Road at West Beach, a family-friendly suburb near the Adelaide Airport, over a suspicious behaviour report.

Police have charged a Queensland man with attempted kidnapping. Credit:Cathryn Tremain

Police said a man had approached a girl and had asked her to walk away with him before the girl's mother stopped him.A woman has been found with a pair of scissors sticking out the side of her head after she had come out to investigate an argument out the front of her Logan unit complex.

The woman's roommates found her and comforted her until police and paramedics arrived, but detectives believe the stabbing was random.

Paramedics took the woman to Princess Alexandra Hospital. Credit:AAP - Dave Hunt

Officers were called to the unit complex on North Road in the Logan suburb of Woodridge about 2am on Monday after reports of a stabbing.

A police spokeswoman said the 25-year-old victim heard an argument out the front of the complex.Police officers on Collins Street on Sunday morning. Credit:Erin Pearson

Police briefly shut down a major city street as they investigated reports of two people climbing a crane on Sunday morning.

Police and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade attended the scene, however, they were unable to locate the pair.

Their investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Collins Street was closed to traffic just after 7am on Sunday, reopening a short time after.For many, Easter Sunday offered a chance to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and this year the religious message was as strong as ever  open your mind to new possibilities.

In humble prayer, tens of thousands gathered at churches across the state as religious leaders shared their hopes for one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar.

Archbishop Peter Comensoli Credit:Paul Jeffers

At Melbournes St Patricks Cathedral Archbishop Peter Comensoli urged parishioners to continue to spread the message of Jesus Christ and celebrate his resurrection.

While acknowledging that the church itself was wounded, he encouraged his congregation to speak about their faith and continue to share the message of sacrifice and hope.Dont get me wrong, I love teaching and I think Im pretty good at it. However, when politicians, bureaucrats, and academics call for improvements in the quality of teaching, they often ignore excessive teacher workload.

I work late into the night, writing feedback on practice essays. I know I could give my students more detailed comments and help them more. But theres only so much you can do before your eyes get weary and you need to put the TV on and relax. I know I could extend my top students more. I could do more to break down tasks into smaller steps for struggling students.

A Melbourne teacher says theres only so much you can do.

I'm only paid to work 38 hours a week, but I often work 53. Thats pretty typical for a teacher.

Its not that we dont know how to be great teachers. We know great teaching requires planning lessons that address the needs of each student. We know it requires collaboration, reflection, professional learning, and regular and detailed feedback to students.

The problem is that the system doesnt allow us to always be great teachers. Quality teaching requires significant time and energy that we simply dont have.

A 2016 survey of 13,000 Victorian teachers found that for 90 per cent of educators, workload had a negative effect on the quality of their teaching. It revealed that 73 per cent of teachers didn't have enough time to ensure the majority of their lessons were well planned.

Is it any wonder then that fewer than 60 per cent of secondary teachers reported teaching to the best of their abilities?

Much has been made lately of Australian students slipping in the global rankings.A settlement has been reached in the case of a former WA jockey who can no longer ride a horse after suffering a catastrophic race fall in Esperance seven years ago.

Russell Hanson at the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Racing Club.

Russell Hanson was thrown from his horse, Get off the Couch, on Boxing Day in 2012, after another rider allowed her horse to ride across his.

The other jockey later pleaded guilty to careless riding at a Steward's Inquiry.

Mr Hanson, 51, suffered a long list of serious injuries in the fall including fractures, torn muscles and ligaments in his left ankle, nerve damage in his neck and two fractured ribs.Loading Vasse Felix Tom Cullity - $180 The first winery in the now world-famous wine region was Vasse Felix, whose owner Tom Cullity chose cabernet and malbec among his first plantings in 1967 based on extensive research by Dr John Gladstones. Dr Gladstones' government-commissioned research paper found the region's Mediterranean-style climate similar to famed Bordeaux and ideal for growing cabernet. Three years ago, Vasse replaced its now defunct Heytsebury range with a pricier, more premium cabernet - the Tom Cullity. Winemaker Virginia Willcock said at a recent tasting vineyard sub-plots from the estate's original plantings were given Gran-Cru type care and status.

She said she believed similar releases of new flagship wines at fellow pioneers Cullen and Voyager in recent years had come at the right time for the region, with the world now awake to the gloriously elegant and bright cabernet grown there. Vasse Felix owner Paul Holmes a Court said the impact of Margaret River cabernet on the rest of Australia's wine regions and those around the world could not be understated. "Margaret River is one of the great wine regions of the world, and no doubt the very best in the world in terms of value for cabernet," he said. "The Tom Cullity is the very best cabernet we can produce ... we now have a bottle of wine that encompasses the very best of what we do at the winery, that we can take around the world and say, 'hey, this is as premium as Margaret River cabernet gets, what do you think?'" Voyager Estate MJW - $180 Previously called the Tom Price, Voyager changed the name of its new pinnacle red to MJW, after estate founder Michael John Wright.

It was championed recently by daughter and winery owner Alex Burt at their 40th anniversary celebrations. The wine comes from a selection of the very best barrels from two vineyard blocks that formed part of the estate's original 1978 plantings and blended with a small component of estate-grown petit verdot for aromatic complexity. It is a masterclass in the great purity of fruit, texture, complexity and fine structure found in the very best plots of cabernet in the region. Cullen The Vanya - $500 The honour of WA's most expensive wine belongs to Cullen, who named their ultra-premium cabernet The Vanya ($500) after long-time winemaker and winery director Vanya Cullen. While the price sets a new benchmark for WA wine, it is more than reasonable on a global scale.

Vanya Cullen with pre-eminent wine reviewer James Halliday, one of Margaret River's biggest fans. Credit:Fabian Haegele The wine is produced only in vintages where Vanya is satisfied with the fruit quality, and it is widely regarded by critics here and abroad as the very best example of WA cabernet. The first release of the Vanya in 2012 came with much fanfare but there was no vintage in 2013 or 2014, while the 2016 is about to arrive. With Cullen intent on the biodynamic and carbon neutral route, the wine reflects all of this and more; wild yeasts, no acid or malolactic culture and no fining, while the fruit is harvested on a full moon from the estate's most esteemed old-age vines. Fermentation is in 300-litre amphora vessels, which Ms Cullen believed added elegance to the tannin structure, while production is less than 1700 bottles. Cloudburst Cabernet - $350

The move by Margaret River's regional pioneers to create an icon wine well above $100 - most wines in Margaret River rarely fetch three figures - might also have been spurred by the arrival in Margaret River of laid back American Will Berliner. Berliner purchased a minuscule plot of land across the road from Cullen in 2004 with the intention of growing avocados, before he realised what he had. Will Berliner from Cloudburst has shaken up winemaking among the elite in Margaret River since his arrival. So he instead planted chardonnay, cabernet and malbec and sold them for upwards of $300, gaining cult status and raised eyebrows from many established surrounding wineries along the way. Berliner adopted biodynamic principles once he decided to stomp headfirst into winemaking, using cabernet cuttings from Cullen and Moss Wood that were closely planted to bring out the "inherent flavour of the land".

His minimal intervention philosophy even determined the use of local Wandoo timber rather than the recommended arsenic-treated pine posts for trellising. While nearby winery Woodlands helped Will with the winemaking early on, the American has taken sole responsibility for the past three vintages while still cultivating his vineyard entirely by hand, including hand weeding and mulching. There's a lot of love and a lot of care and the result can be tasted in the pure cleanliness and ethereal complexity of the wines. "My aim from the start was to make the most exceptional wine possible. It was never about scale, nor about money, and so Cloudburst is driven by very different considerations than my neighbors," Berliner said. These new icon cabernets by Margaret River's pioneering wineries may be viewed by some as a response to Berliner beating them to it, but their releases are in line with the appreciation wine lovers around the world now have of the region, which produces more than 20 per cent of Australia's premium wine from only four per cent of its plantings. "By making these iconic cabernets, we are effectively building Margaret River into one of the great wine regions in the world ... effectively positioning us as one of the great wineries of the world," Vasse's Holmes a Court says. "The wines are befitting for a region that has surprised all and sundry with its capacity to continually gift winemakers with fruit that turns into some of the best cabernet in the world.Anti-lockout law party Keep Sydney Open says it will redouble its efforts to convince the NSW Parliament to repeal the laws after the party failed to win a seat in the upper house.

Keep Sydney Open's lead candidate for the upper house Tyson Koh narrowly missed out on winning a seat in the Legislative Council after the party secured 81,508 first preference votes at the state election.

Mr Koh said while he was disappointed, the party's near-miss had added momentum to the campaign for abolishing the laws.

Keep Sydney Open candidate Tyson Koh says there is momentum to dump Sydney's lockout laws. Credit:Tim Levy

"Already our presence as a political party has changed the way people talk about lockout laws," Mr Koh said.While everyone was in shock, speculation about the cause of the blast ranged from a gas cylinder explosion to a terrorist attack. "I could see that the windows and the ceilings of that floor had fallen apart. I don't know how many people are injured or dead, but it seemed like it was quite a devastating explosion." Relatives of victims in Colombo on Sunday. Credit:AP His worst fears were confirmed when he learned it was a chilling, premeditated attack, part of a series of coordinated bombings that killed more than 200 people across the country. It was very scary. We often see these things on TV or newspapers, but then to experience it [yourself] is quite a horrific experience.

Saraf, who spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by phone, said he was grateful the blast didnt happen just moments later. We were getting ready to go to breakfast at that point. We were probably 30 seconds away from being at the same spot, he said. God has been kind. Police and forensic officials at the Shangri-la hotel in Colombo after Sunday's attack. Credit:AP Saraf praised the hotel staff for helping the guests evacuate. He said they has been as "as much victims as all the guests were". Saraf described the attack as "a heinous crime".

"Words will fall short if I'm to describe all of that," he said. "I can just say that whichever families are impacted by this, I hope most of them are safe as much as possible." Saraf, whose family escaped the country just hours later, said he was "one of the few lucky [ones] who managed to leave the country." The 30-year-old financial advisor is now safely back home in Bangalore, India.

"Its quite scary if youre still stuck in Colombo. I could just imagine what those families are going through. I just hope it ends sooner rather than later." 'Everyone is glued to their screens' Meanwhile, an Australian man caught up in the chaos has described the uncertainty and disruption caused by the curfew and social media blackout. Deshan Sebaratnam, a 32-year-old doctor from Surry Hills in Sydney, is in Sri Lanka on a family holiday, but is stranded in a hotel in Kandy due to the nationwide curfew. "The mood is pretty anxious," Sebaratnam told the Herald and The Age.

Sydney doctor Deshan Sebaratnam, who was in Sri Lanka at the time of the Easter Sunday bombings. "Sri Lankan people are used to bombings, but this is a new permutation - coordinated attacks at multiple locations. "Around the hotel everyone is glued to their screens." Sebaratnam, who drove from Colombo to Kandy on Sunday, said he passed numerous ambulances and saw police stationed in front of churches. He said the social media ban was "frustrating" because it made it "hard to let people back home we're OK".More than 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in bomb blasts that ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

It was the first major attack on the island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago.

Here is what we know so far:London: Palace officials considered a proposal to make Prince Harry the Governor-General of Australia, according to a British newspaper report.

The Sunday Times wrote that the royals had been looking at long-term plans for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after their baby  due any day  is born.

There have been various ideas floated for them to take on a job abroad, such as governor-general of Australia or Canada, the newspaper reported a close confidant of the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex had confided.

Harry and Meghan: considered for a Canberra posting. Credit:AP

However these ideas were rejected, as senior royals are not civil servants.Alburquerque: The FBI on Saturday arrested the leader of a right-wing militia that was detaining migrant families at gunpoint near the border in southern New Mexico, as the group faced a torrent of criticism for its tactics.

Hector Balderas, New Mexico's attorney-general, said federal agents had arrested the leader, Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who had been operating under the alias Johnny Horton Balderas said in a statement that Hopkins was arrested on charges of firearms possession by a felon.

"This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families," Balderas said. "Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes."

Arrested: Larry Mitchell Hopkins.

The firearms charge against Hopkins is relatively minor. But it is likely the start of a deeper investigation into his activities and those of the militia, and opens the way for the authorities to bring more serious charges like kidnapping and impersonating a police officer or an employee of the United States.Washington: Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani insists there was "nothing wrong" with the US President's 2016 campaign taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in Special counsel Robert Mueller's report .

Giuliani called the Trump campaign's effort to get political help from representatives of the Russian government possibly ill-advised but not illegal.

Rudy Giuliani, centre, former mayor of New York, now a lawyer to Donald Trump. Credit:Bloomberg

"There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians," Giuliani said, referring to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Trump's son Donald jnr, son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a lawyer linked to Russia. The Trump campaign was seeking harmful information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

His appearance on a Sunday news shows offered the latest back and forth following the long- anticipated release last week of Mueller's 448-page redacted report on his two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller found no evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign and made no decision on obstruction of justice.California's "superbloom" appears in almost unbelievable color in a new aerial image from NASA.

The shot comes courtesy NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center aerial photographer Jim Ross, who snapped it from a T-34 airplane on April 2. The image shows Southern California's Antelope Valley carpeted in wildflowers.

The spray of color is an annual event, made more intense by this year's wet winter in California. When the flowers are as dramatic as this year's display, they're called a "superbloom." The last drought-busting season that resulted in a superbloom in California was in 2017.

The desert environment of Southern California might seem a strange spot for wildflowers, but the orange California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is well suited for hot environments. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the plants bloom in the spring and then go dormant in the heat of summer, allowing their tops to die off and surviving underground as a taproot. [Photos: The Sonoran Desert in Bloom]

NASA Armstrong's T-34 doesn't usually stop and smell the flowers; it's a training and mission support aircraft that often accompanies research flights for safety and documentation purposes. But the flight research center is near the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, and Ross snapped the photos during a flight with Armstrong director of Safety and Mission Assurance and astronaut Rex Walheim.

The aerial view is more impressive than the view from space. In March, NASA released a shot of the wildflower bloom in Anza-Borrego Desert Park captured by the Landsat-8 satellite. From Earth's orbit, the vivid flowers blend in with the desert, leaving only the slightest hint of pale color detectable.

An imager on the Landsat-8 satellite snapped this image showing the greening landscape and wildflowers (pale patches) around Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on March 13, 2019. (Image credit: Lauren Dauphin, NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat 8)

Originally published on Live Science.BREAKING: #SpaceX Crew Dragon suffered an anomaly during test fire today, according to 45th Space Wing. Smoke could be seen on the beaches."On April 20, an anomaly occurred at Cape Canaveral AFS during Dragon 2 static test fire. Anomaly was contained and no injuries." pic.twitter.com/If5rdeGRXOApril 20, 2019 See more

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  A test version of SpaceX's new astronaut taxi, dubbed the Crew Dragon , suffered some kind of an anomaly during an engine test Saturday (April 20) at the company's facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

According to Florida Today , large plumes of smoke were seen emanating from the area, indicating something had gone wrong. There were no injuries caused by the anomaly, which is now under control, according to officials with the 45th Space Wing based at the Air Force station.

"Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida ," a company spokesperson told Space.com in a statement. "The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand."

RELATED: SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-1 Test Flight in Pictures

SpaceX plans to use its Crew Dragon capsule to ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The capsule successfully flew for the first time in March . During the uncrewed mission, the spacecraft docked itself with the space station and then returned to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean .

That first flight was a major milestone for SpaceX , and one it needed to complete before Dragon can carry people. Since its return, the company has been busy preparing the vehicle for its next task: an inflight abort test.

This crucial test will demonstrate that the capsule is capable of keeping astronaut crews safe should something go wrong during the launch into orbit. (The system is similar to the emergency abort system on the Soyuz rocket, which saved two astronauts during a mishap last October .) SpaceX was planning on conducting that test sometime in June.

During the test, eight SuperDraco engines  which are embedded in the Dragon's hull  will fire, demonstrating that the spacecraft can pull itself away from the rocket. Designed to keep a crew safe, this feature will only be used in case of an emergency during flight, but SpaceX must show it works properly. SpaceX performed a successful pad abort in 2015 using the system.

SpaceX planned to use the same Crew Dragon test vehicle that it flew in March, during the upcoming abort test. Though it's not clear if that same Dragon was the one used in Saturday's test, and SpaceX hasn't said yet which engine was to blame for the anomaly.

But SpaceX and NASA are investigating the incident.

"Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting anomalies like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test," SpaceX said in the same statement. "Our teams are investigating and working closely with our NASA partners."

It's not immediately clear just how this incident will affect SpaceX's timeline for launching crew.

Following the Crew Dragon's successful first flight, the company was hoping to carry its first crew of Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley later this year. But that schedule could be delayed depending on how serious the issue turns out to be, and how much time is required to address it.

SpaceX is one of two companies building space taxis for astronauts under a NASA contract. Boeing is also developing its own crewed spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner capsule , to ferry astronaut crews to the space station. The first test flights of that vehicle are also expected later this year .



The Great Experiment was written by Matt Chester and was directed by Sunu Gonera  the team who also brought us the previous weeks episode. Once again this episode focuses on real world issues  the rise of nationalism globally  and the expense of minorities and the double standard with which women are treated at work, dovetailing into the #Metoo movement. I really hope that this show gets renewed so that it can continue to shine a light on these important issues. I really want to see Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) as President! I want to see her kick Callisters (Will Chase) butt! I loved that the episode concluded with her talking about Alexis de Tocqueville and the Great Experiment  the United States balance of democracy and equality.The episode opens with the beginning of the campaign as everyone gathers at the McCord house. Mike B (Kevin Rahm) and Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) are sharing campaign manager duties  and that really cant end well, can it?Russell (Zeljko Ivanek) shows up just as things are starting to get going with a bombshell for Elizabeth. The Washington Chronicle is going to release an article that alleges that Dalton (Keith Carradine) and Elizabeth had an affair while the two of them worked together at the CIA. Elizabeth is supposed to be declaring her candidacy, but they decide to push it a few days. Mike B tells her not to give it any oxygen and it will die with the next news cycle, but Jay thinks not saying anything makes it look like they have something to hide.Of course, its the mudslinging that shes been expecting once the campaign starts, but shes caught off guard by the charge that she slept her way to the top. She and Henry (Tim Daly) discuss that they have to tell the kids.Meanwhile, work is still going on in the State Department. China has broken an agreement over Myanmar, and Elizabeth wants to take them to task. Jay is reluctant because they need China for the Climate Migration Treaty. Peter Harriman (Skipp Sudduth) returns in this episode and suggests prosecuting for crimes against humanity. Elizabeth tries to get Chen (Francis Jue) on board and calls him on Chinas own violations against human rights and abuses of minorities.Into this mix, Callister declares his own candidacy on an anti-immigration platform that spews hatred for minorities. Elizabeth points out that shes just asked Chen to fight nationalism around the world and now its running for President!Chen wont fall into line, and Harrison points out to Elizabeth that Poland, Hungary, and Russia have all favored a nationalist platform, so why not the US? Harrison points out that there are other ways to focus the worlds attention on Myanmar  for instance labelling the atrocities as genocide. Elizabeth is on board to also help send a message to Callister that they dont tolerate attacking minorities anywhere. In the end, Dalton counsels her to pick another term to shame China.Elizabeth is surprised when Governor Hayes (Michael Pemberton) stops by to discuss her future plans. He asks her to run against Callister for the Republican nomination! Shes a bit gobsmacked as his party doesnt even believe in climate change. If they dont want Callister, she asks him why they dont simply condemn him, but of course, he represents one end of the spectrum. Hayes tells her that they dont want to alienate that part of their base  they want to try to reach them through her.Jay is adamantly against her taking the Republican offer and has already been contacted by the Democrats. Elizabeth admits that she does agree with some of the Republican platforms  shes for privatization and a strong military and feels the government should step back from business, but she doesnt agree with the way the party uses wedge issues to fire people up with empty rhetoric. In the end, she tells Jay and Mike to work together and stop jockeying with each other. She also tells them that shes running as an independent  like Dalton. I really like how the show takes this middle ground  its a way of reaching both sides of the audience too.When Henry insists that they tell the kids about the story before it breaks, they each have a different response. Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood) tells Elizabeth she doesnt have to apologize  as a Washington-insider, she knows about the mud-slinging  and trusts her mother. In fact, none of them doubt Elizabeth. Alison (Katherine Herzer) insists that the real scandal is Callister and his platform. Jason (Evan Roe), perhaps because hes the youngest, is angry at whats being done to his mother. Hes also a bit angry that they arent going to defend themselves.Elizabeth doesnt read the article when it comes out, but Henry does, and he goes to have lunch with Isabelle (Marin Hinkle). She insists that she never heard the rumors and has no idea who could have made the claim. She also tells Henry that they called Dalton and Elizabeth the honor twins  and thats theres nothing to it. But Isabelle tips her hand and Henry knows it was her because Elizabeth told him how she and Isabelle used to joke about the rumors. Its also clear that Henry suddenly has doubts. Elizabeth finally does get angry and points out that this is how the poison works.Elizabeth confronts Isabelle, who admits that people were jealous that Dalton favored her. Elizabeth insists that she earned everything she got, but she doubts herself too. I loved the scene in which she asks Dalton if he did favor her. He tells her that he did  the same way any boss would favor any employee who was smart, diligent, and thought for themselves. Elizabeth also confides in Dalton that shes worried about the fallout for the family in an election. He counsels her to keep her private life separate from the job.I really loved how this episode dove into the #metoo movement and deepened the look at how women are still facing these challenges at work. When Nina (Tracee Chimo Pallero) finds out that Deputy Secretary Bailey (Brian Kerwin) will be taking over for Elizabeth, she goes to Kat (Sara Ramirez) to ask for a transfer. She tells her that shes heard rumors about Bailey and doesnt feel comfortable working for him. I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition of the types of rumors that circulate in the work place  and which are true and which are false. There is nothing to support the rumors about Dalton and ElizabethKat tells Elizabeth who asks Nina about Bailey. At first, Nina is reluctant to get anyone in trouble over rumors, but then she tells Elizabeth that there is a document that circulates among the women in government working in low level jobs about the male superiors  that describes things like groping, lunging, and weird comments. Elizabeth asks to see the document, and Nina is quick to assure her that Dalton isnt in it  and Nina also tells Elizabeth that shes sorry about the article.I absolutely loved that Elizabeth had Kat talk to Bailey. The scene is perfect. We see subtle evidence of exactly why Bailey is in the document. He touches Kats arm and tells her to call him Stephen as the meeting begins. Kat tells him about the document that details male employees of the government who make women feel unsafe. Instead of expressing any remorse, he gets angry. Kat assures him that if any of the allegations are true, he wont be becoming Secretary of State. His response is to accuse women of no longer having a sense of humor. And then, in a beautiful shoe on the other foot moment, Kat commiserates that it must be shocking for him to be confronted by something so shocking and disempowering at work. And that shes pretty sure that every woman in the document knows exactly how he feels.In the end, Bailey resigns and Under Secretary Susan Thompson (Tonya Pinkins) is tagged as the next Secretary of State  so well still have a Madam Secretary.The episode ends with a wonderful cameo by Jane Pauley as Elizabeth gives an interview to deal with the rumor about her and Dalton. As she tells Jay and Mike  she knows that she has a long road ahead of her, but its one she wants to be on  but on her terms. I loved how the episode then seamlessly weaves the themes of the episode together. Elizabeth tells Pauley that the rumors arent true and that they are being spread by people who want us to be scared and suspicious of others. Its when were scared that these people will seize power  and then she turns the conversation to Myanmar. She tells Pauley that Nationalism is the greatest threat to humankind. Extremists havent been able to defeat the US from without  so now they are trying from within.Once again, this show has delivered a tightly written, topical episode that is beautifully acted and directed. This show brings up so many important issues in such a thoughtful way, I am really keeping everything crossed that it gets renewed. We need this show now more than ever to help foster a measured dialogue around these issues. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!After 11 days of employees on strike, Stop & Shop announced Sunday that tentative agreements were reached with local unions representing workers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The company said in its Sunday statement that it will be happy to see its employees return to work as the strike has ended. Stop & Shop said they are three-year agreements, subject to ratification votes by members of each local union.

These agreements include: increased pay for all associates, continued health coverage for eligible associates and pension benefits for all eligible associates, according to the statement.

Our associates top priority will be restocking our stores so we can return to taking care of our customers and communities and providing them with the service they deserve, the statement said. We deeply appreciate the patience and understanding of our customers during this time, and we look forward to welcoming them back to Stop & Shop.

There were no additional specifics provided.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) issued a statement, calling the end of the strike that began on April 11 a powerful victory.

We are incredibly grateful to our customers and everyone who proudly stood together with us every day for a contract that invests in the communities we serve, the statement said.

The UFCW statement said under the proposed contract, health care and retirement benefits are preserved, wage increases are provided and time-and-a-half pay on Sunday for current members will be maintained.

Today is a powerful victory for the 31,000 hard-working men and women of Stop & Shop who courageously stood up to fight for what all New Englanders want  good jobs, affordable health care, a better wage and to be treated right by the company they made a success, the UFCW statement said.

Sunday morning, before word of the agreements became public, employees of the Stop & Shop on Newtown Road in Danbury said they were hopeful that talks were making progress and talked about wanting to get back to work.

Most Easter mornings, the parking lot of the Newtown Road store would be packed with cars as shoppers picked up last-minute items for the holiday, employees said. Instead, there were only about 25 cars in the huge parking lot, mostly belonging to the 15 or so workers picketing on the 11th day of the strike against the companys contract proposal.

A topic of conversation among the employees in Danbury was the amount of money the company must have lost during a normally-busy week leading up to the Easter holiday.

Joe Heller, strike captain for UFCW Local 919 and longtime worker in the dairy department at the Newtown Road store said employees just wanted a piece of the pie.

More than 31,000 employees in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island walked off the job April 11 because they say proposed changes to health care premiums, pension benefits, wages, Sunday pay and more are unfair and would hurt workers.

The strikers stood on the side of Newtown Road holding signs that read Dont Stop, Dont Shop, Dont feed the greed and On strike: Unfair labor practices.

The employees passion was just as clear on the 11th day of the strike as it was on day one.

Do not go into Stop & Shop, Joey Weston, who has worked for the company since 1992, shouted at passing cars. There are plenty of places to do your shopping.

Most customers have avoided the store since its employees went on strike. One shopper at the Danbury store on Sunday told a striker standing outside she needed one item.

I cant get it anywhere else, the woman replied.

Jimmy Wilson, who has worked at the store for 2 1/2 years, encouraged drivers to honk their horns to send a message to Stop & Shop. Many did, with one passenger giving picketers a thumbs up.

Help us fight this battle, Wilson yelled. We cannot do it alone.

Wilson said he is close to retirement and has savings to get him through the strike, but he is not striking for himself.

Its not just for us, he said. Its for the generations to come that will have our jobs.

Despite their motivation, some employees talked about feeling tired. Heller said he had been picketing for 13 hours a day since the strike started.

I felt it today when I got up, he said, adding he was grateful the group would only be picketing until noon Sunday, when the store closed early for Easter.

While the employees were on strike, some employees and shoppers had tense interactions.

In Wilton, 30-year-old Bridgeport resident Shabrina Fudd was given a misdemeanor summons for second-degree breach of peace after an arguement with workers.

Wilton police said Fudd was accused of grabbing a phone from a Stop & Shop employee on strike, who was recording the argument at the store on River Road in Wilton on April 16.

Officers said their investigation showed that Fudd was arguing with the workers and became angry when she saw she was being recorded on video by one of the strikers  thats when she grabbed the employees phone. There were no injuries reported. Shes expected in court on April 30.

In Wethersfield, things got a bit more serious.

On April 18, the eighth day of the strike, a man called a Wethersfield Stop & Shop and threatened to shoot them (strikers) with an AK-47 when he learned they were still on strike.

Wethersfield police said the store manager reported the call around 6 p.m. that night.

The threat forced the evacuation of the Stop & Shop on the Berlin Turnpike in Wethersfield and the strikers were brought inside as a precaution.

An unidentified male subject called the store and asked if the employees were still picketing in front of the store, Wethersfield police said. After the manager stated that the employees were still in front of the store, the male stated he was coming to the store to shoot them with an AK-47.

Several Wethersfield police units responded to the store and were on scene for about an hour. No injuries were reported, nor any acts of violence.

Although no arrests were made that night, Wethersfield police said detectives would continue to investigate the incident.Could everybody please sit down!

We need to start, so ... if you just just find your seat.

Folks? If you could just ... this meeting is about leadership and captaincy so ... it doesnt look good if people wont sit down.

Sign up to get Colins newsletter delivered to your inbox, for free.

Thank you. My name is Mackinaw Manitoba. Im with Hexagon Consulting, and weve been asked to bootstrap this meeting on the first 100 days of the Lamont administration.

Were going to go ahead and get started here although some of our participants are going to be late due to the rock excavation of the Metro-North New Haven line, the collapse of the Norwalk Walk Bridge, the plague of locusts on Route 9 and the human chain of toll protestors lying across Route 72. Also, 95 is stop and go both ways because a rabbit ran across the road in New Rochelle four hours ago.

Anyway, the point is, some folks will be late, but were getting started because thats how you need to roll if youre going to have the string of historic achievements that have been the watchword for the first 100 days.

So lets begin. Kiley is over there at the dry-eraseboard, and Im just going to have you blurt out some accomplishments. Just yell em out.

Dont be shy.

Just somebody go first because thatll get us rolling.

You sir? You were just stretching? I get that.

You know what? Maybe starting with accomplishments is getting out over our skis a little. Lets start instead with things that didnt go wrong and well just transition from there to accomplishments.

Great! Weve got one. Say that a little louder, maam.

Thought about taxing groceries, but didnt do it. Is that true? You were gonna tax food? But you didnt!

Thats the key part. So write that one up there, Kiley.

Someone else? You?

Let me just repeat that one back to you: Tried to incent small school districts to regionalize back office functions but they told us to go  can we pick a different word because I dont think we want to look at that one on the dry erase board all day  ourselves.

See, we were looking for things that could have gone wrong. That sounds more like a thing that could have gone right but didnt. But write it up there anyway, Kiley.

OK, weve got one down at the end of the table. Speak up, please.

Only 125 losers showed up for the anti-toll rally. OK, Im from out of town, so you might have to catch me up on this one. Mmm-hmmm! So you promised not to do tolls on cars during the campaign, but then you totally changed that and some people got mad at you.

Im going to put that in the plus column. Kiley write: Major broken campaign promise and only a teensy rally.

I think were momentuming now, and as a consultant, I know momentuming leads to solutioning, so lets transition over to accomplishments. People have been telling me there are historic accomplishments so lets get them up on the board.

I think the man over here said, Filled all the major positions. So thats what? A major accomplishment of this government is that there is government consisting of people who have agreed to be in it. I think how we phrase that is going to be key.

Someone else? A billionaire-friendly environment. Help me out: what does that mean?

I think I get it. The billionaires were threatening to move away, so you guys, in concert with the business community, came up with a plan of giving the billionaires whatever they want. And its working, right?

OK, one more, and then were going to break and check out this wonderful spread from Panera.

Anybody? You, sir!

Let me repeat that back. Sticking to a strict agenda but also not ruling anything out while giving people confidence that the benefits are going there when theyre needed even if some of those benefits have to be cut in order to have a budget that begins to deal with our long-term issues and gives people confidence our commitments are going to be held even if, short term, we have to eliminate certain commitments, as long as the people know we will try anything, but were not flailing around. Great, sir.

Could I ask your name?

Oh, YOURE Governor Lamont! I had heard you were stuck on the Walk Bridge.

Colin McEnroes column appears every Sunday, his newsletter comes out every Thursday and you can hear his radio show every weekday on WNPR 90.5. Email him at colin@ctpublic.org. Sign up for his newsletter at http://bit.ly/colinmcenroe.It's hard to decide what we love most about Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness: his unapologetic exuberance, enviable luscious locks or sassy and innovative style?

The grooming guru quickly captivated millions as one of the Fab Five in the 2018 reboot of Queer Eye. But, away from the show's heartwarming stories, off-screen, it's Van Ness' personal style that has taken centre stage.

Over the past year, Van Ness' wardrobe has seen a noticeable shift from athleisure to 'shamazing' gender-fluid looks. The transition of which has been highlighted by his recent Queer Eye Season 3 press tour wardrobe. Noticeably, skinny jeans having been swapped for midi skirts and Chelsea boots for high heels, with each ensemble breaking menswear boundaries.

Stylist and costume designer Alison Brooks is the woman behind his inimitable outfits, and with a background in drama, the duo were the perfect match. "I studied theatre," she tells Standard. "All my actor friends would have me style them for auditions and events. I slowly went into styling because it just felt natural and effortless for me."

Stylist Alison Brooks and Jonathon Van Ness (Alison Brooks ) / Alison Brooks

Her role as Van Ness' stylist came around purely by chance. "The first time I met Jonathan, I was asked to style Margaret Cho for Fashion Police, because her regular stylist was on vacation. All I can remember is that when Jonathan - who was Margarets hair stylist at the time - walked into her dressing room, he just filled the room with light and love and fantastic energy. I fell in love immediately. A year or so later, he was doing the first press tour for Queer Eye and I was hired to style him. We just clicked."

Between them the duo has created many a memorable fashion moment, ranging from glamorous red carpets to powerful 'I mean business' outfits. Earlier this month Van Ness made headlines strutting his stuff through Washington DC's Capitol Hill with Democratic wunderkind Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wearing an on-trend tie-dye midi skirt, neon jumper by A.L.C and Maison Margiela boots.

At the 2018 Creative Arts Emmys, the 32-year-old affectionately known at JVN, again wore Margiela, but this time a see-through mesh body suit and sequin sarong which was instantly hailed 'iconic' by fashion critics.

Jonathan Van Ness attends the 2018 Creative Arts Emmys / Getty Images

Two appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live also saw Van Ness' sartorial choices take social media by storm. For his first appearance, in 2018, JVN pulled off a poncho by The Row and Vetements sock boots in the the only way JVN can - with oodles of sass.

For his second appearance, a sheer sequin top paired with Dries Van Noten trousers and Stella McCartney kitten heels gave his 3.4 million Instagram followers just as much joy as his morning body positivity dances and #JVNskates updates.

"Gender fluidity is totally important for Jonathans style," explains Brooks about the integrated mix of womenswear and menswear. "But, it never occurred to me to only dress Jonathan in menswear, as I dont see fashion as split into menswear and womenswear per se. I choose pieces that resonate with both of us. It may be the fabric, or the movement, or the design of course, and then we just play. It is more of an organic evolution."

Jonathan Van Ness at Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2018 / SplashNews.com

Brooks, who describes Van Ness' style as "chic, modern, a little boho, and classic with a twist", adds that when planning an outfit she thinks "about the vibe or the story we want to convey for this event. Its about the energy of the moment."

From the autumn/winter 2019 catwalks, which saw male models rocking lipstick and pencil skirts, to some history-making red carpet looks during awards season, like Billy Porter's tuxedo-gown hybrid, 2019 has seen non-binary fashion become more mainstream. Van Ness' candid and constant showcase has put him front and centre of ensuring gender fluid fashion is the future.

"I definitely see more gender fluid dressing in the future," says Brooks. "Im a firm believer in playing with fashion and not sticking to anyones rules. Everything JVN puts on, he wears effortlessly and its just stunning."

Jonathan Van Ness at Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2019 / Bauer-Griffin / SplashNews.com

JVN's wardrobe is filled with high end designers, with Rick Owens, Stella McCartney, Prada and Gucci and Vetements being some of his favourites. In the past, getting permission from such big name fashion houses to blur the boundaries of their womenswear and menswear collections would have been no easy task, but, this is changing, says Brooks. "I see more designers becoming open to lending womenswear for men and vice versa.

"But, sometimes sizing issues come into play and things need to be custom made."

Of course, what we really want to know is: is working with Van Ness as much fun as we imagine?

Alison and Jonathan at a fitting a few weeks ago: "JVN was trying to show me how to take selfies... he was making fun of how much room is always above my head! (Alison Brooks ) / Alison Brooks

"It is truly heaven. I have a blast and JVN lets me play and we laugh non-stop. Its the best job ever!"T wo teenagers arrested in relation to the killing of a journalist during a riot in Londonderry have been released without charge.

Lyra McKee, 29, was shot dead on Thursday as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

She was an award-winning journalist who was writing a book on the disappearance of young people during decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

"Two males, aged 18 and 19 ... have been released without charge," the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement.

Police officers inspect the scene where the 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland / REUTERS

The men were detained under anti-terrorism legislation and had been taken to a police station in Belfast for questioning.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: "We have received very positive support from the community but we need to convert this support into tangible evidence that will enable us to bring Lyra's killers to justice.

"I know there will be some people who know what happened but are scared to come forward but if you have information, no matter how small, please contact detectives."

This comes after he said a new breed of terrorist is emerging through the ranks in Northern Ireland.

DSI Murphy said: "What we are seeing is a new breed of terrorist coming through the ranks and that for me is a very worrying situation."

A police officer lays flowers at the scene in Londonderry / PA

He said there had been a sea change in community attitudes and that was demonstrated in the revulsion expressed by many at Thursday evening's killing.

The published author, from Belfast, was shot in the head by suspects who police believe were dissident republicans linked to the New IRA.

This happened as they clashed with police on the Creggan estate in Londonderry.A man was rushed to a major trauma centre after a serious assault in Maida Vale underground station.

The site was closed for a time as officers attended the scene.

British Transport Police (BTP) was called at 3.30pm to reports of an assault.

A spokesman said: "On arrival at the station, BTP officers along with ambulance staff located a male on the floor of the booking hall.

"He was unresponsive with injuries consistent with a serious assault."

The man was rushed to hospital and the extent of his injuries are unknown.

A statement from London Ambulance Service said: "We treated a patient at the scene and took them to a major trauma centre as a priority.

Police are attempting to contact his family and were unable to share further details of the incident.

The incident is being investigated and forensics officers were seen outside the station.N early 1,000 activists have been arrested at Extinction Rebellion protests and police have vowed to continue detaining protesters.

Scotland Yard announced that 963 people had been arrested as of 7pm on Sunday.

An update from Extinction Rebellion claimed the figure might now be more than 1,000 but the Met Police did not provide such a figure.

Scotland Yard also said 40 people, aged from 19 to 77, had been charged with "various offences including breach of Section 14 Notice of the Public Order Act 1986, obstructing a highway and obstructing police".

The climate change demonstrators have been told to vacate various sites they are occupying and go to Marble Arch.

Extinction Rebellion protest 2019 - In pictures 1 /120 Extinction Rebellion protest 2019 - In pictures A climate change protester in a hammock hanging from the trees at Parliament Square, London PA Protesters march toward Parliament in London AP A cardboard cutout of David Attenborough is held up as protesters march toward parliament with Nelson's Column in the background AP Extinction Rebellion protesters at their final destination of Parliament Square in Westminster after marching from their camp at Marble Arch PA Protesters at the Extinction Rebellion (XR) camp in Marble Arc PA Police watch Extinction Rebellion protesters at their final destination of Parliament Square in Westminster after marching from their camp at Marble Arch PA Extinction Rebellion protesters reach their final destination of Parliament Square in WestminsteR PA A climate change protester in a hammock hanging from the trees at Parliament Square, London Jeremy Selwyn Police officers arrest and carry away a climate change activist from a demonstration blocking Waterloo Bridge AFP/Getty Images olice officers gather for an operation at the climate change camp where activists are blocking Waterloo Bridge AFP/Getty Images Police surround the Extinction Rebellion demonstration PA A climate change activist is detained during the Extinction Rebellion protest on Waterloo Bridge Reuters A police officer removes a haystack during the Extinction Rebellion protest on Waterloo Bridge Reuters Extinction Rebellion campaign group block Oxford Circus Alex Lentati Protesters from the Extinction Rebellion campaign group block Oxford Circus EPA Extinction Rebellion demonstrators on Waterloo Bridge PA Extinction Rebellion campaign group block Oxford Circus Alex Lentati Extinction Rebellion protest on Waterloo Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Extinction Rebellion campaign group block Oxford Circus Alex Lentati Extinction Rebellion protest on Waterloo Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station in east London as part of the ongoing climate change protests in the capital PA Extinction Rebellion Jeremy Selwyn Two men and two women from the Extinction Rebellion group have glued themselves to a fence outside Jeremy Corbyn's house PA Police officers detain a climate change activist at Waterloo Bridge Reuters Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station BBC A climate activist after he glued himself to a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station PA Police detain a protester as climate change activists demonstrate during the Extinction Rebellion protest, at Canary Wharf DLR station Reuters Protesters blockade of Waterloo Bridge on the third day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion grou Alex Lentati Extinction Rebellion Jeremy Selwyn Extinction Rebellion Jeremy Selwyn Police talk to climate activists who climbed on top of a Dockland Light Railway train and glued theimselves to the carriage at Canary Wharf station in east London PA A climate protester is removed from the top of the DLR train AFP/Getty Images Climate change activists demonstrate during the Extinction Rebellion protest Reuters Climate activists ontop of a Dockland Light Railway at Canary Wharf station PA Officers carry an activist as they remove demonstrators from their blockade of Waterloo Bridge AFP/Getty Images A member of the public passes a graffiti left by protesters from the Extinction Rebellion campaign group EPA Police officers remove protesters from a blockade on Waterloo Bridg Getty Images Police officers remove protesters from a blockade on Waterloo Bridge during the second day of a coordinated protest by the Extinction Rebellion group Getty Images Police officers detain a climate change activist REUTERS Activists sit attached beneath a lorry as they block the road on Waterloo Bridge on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group, in London AFP/Getty Images Climate change demonstrators on Waterloo Bridge during climate change protests EPA Commuters cycle past a pink boat placed in the road at Oxford Circus by activists, on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Extinction Rebellion demonstrators camp near Marble Arch, London, as more than 100 people have been arrested as police deal with ongoing climate change protests PA Activists sit in the road amongst trees as they continue to block traffic from Waterloo Bridge on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Activists sit attached beneath a lorry as they block the road on Waterloo Bridge on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Activists sit with thier tents in the road after sleeping at Oxford Circus on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators chain and glue themselves to a lorry on Waterloo Bridge in London during a Extinction Rebellion protest PA Activists sit attached beneath a lorry as they block the road on Waterloo Bridge on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images An activist brushes his teeth after waking up near Marble Arch AFP/Getty Images Pedestrians walk to work over Waterloo Bridge during climate change protest EPA Climate change demonstrators on Waterloo Bridge during climate change protests EPA Activists take part in yoga in the road after after sleeping at Oxford Circus on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Climate change demonstrators on Waterloo Bridge during climate change protests EPA Extinction Rebellion demonstrators camp near Marble Arch, PA Activists sit with their tents in the road after sleeping at Oxford Circus on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators chain and glue themselves to a lorry on Waterloo Bridge in London during a Extinction Rebellion protest PA Extinction Rebellion demonstrators camp near Marble Arch PA Pedestrians walk over Waterloo Bridge during climate change protests EPA Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest continues in Marble Arch PA Activists lay in their tents in the road near Marble Arch on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Extinction Rebellion demonstrators camp near Marble Arch PA Extinction Rebellion demonstrators camp near Marble Arch PA An activist sits in a sleeping back after waking up near Marble Arch on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Extinction Rebellion demonstrators camp near Marble Arch PA Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest continues in Marble Arch PA Activists block the road near Marble Arch on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Extinction Rebellion demonstrators camp near Marble Arch PA Activists pour drinks near Marble Arch on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Activists' tents stand in the road near Marble Arch on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Activists prepare drinks from a tent in the road near Marble Arch on the second day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group AFP/Getty Images Police patrol during the second day of Extinction Rebellion protest at Parliament Jeremy Selwyn Extinction Rebellion at Parliament Jeremy Selwyn Extinction Rebellion at Parliament Jeremy Selwyn Extinction Rebellion at Parliament Jeremy Selwyn Police patrol during the second day of Extinction Rebellion protest at Parliament Jeremy Selwyn An activist sprays graffiti on to the porch covering the entrance to the Shell Centre AFP/Getty Images Protesters unfurl a poster accusing shell of 'ecoside' AFP/Getty Images Climate protesters also scaled the building and daubed slogans above a glass awning AFP/Getty Images A woman glued her hands to the door of the building Reuters Environmental protesters from the Extinction Rebellion arrive to stage a demonstration on Waterloo Bridge AFP/Getty Images Environment activists from Extinction Rebellion block Oxford Circus with a sailing boat to highlight the threat of global warming on the planet and ecosystem Rex Features Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest at Marble Arch PA Demonstrators protest on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protest Reuters Environmental protesters from the Extinction Rebellion group arrive with a tree to stage a demonstration on Waterloo Bridge AFP/Getty Images A demonstrator uses a makeshift skateboard ramp on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protest Reuters Extinction Rebellion protesters stop traffic in Oxford Circus Rex Features Environment activists from Extinction Rebellion block Oxford Circus to highlight the threat of global warming on the planet and ecosystem Rex Features Extinction Rebellion protesters stop traffic in Oxford Circus Rex Features Climate change activists demonstrate on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protest Reuters Extinction Rebellion at Marble Arch Jeremy Selwyn Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest in Parliament Square PA Climate change activists demonstrate on Waterloo Bridge surrounded by trees Reuters Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest at Marble Arch PA Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest in Parliament Square PA Extinction Rebellion at Marble Arch Jeremy Selwyn Extinction Rebellion at Marble Arch Jeremy Selwyn Demonstrators protest on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protest Reuters Extinction Rebellion at Marble Arch Jeremy Selwyn Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest in Parliament Square PA Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest in Parliament Square PA Extinction Rebellion at Marble Arch Jeremy Selwyn Extinction Rebellion at Marble Arch Jeremy Selwyn Police stroll through the makeshift camp Jeremy Selwyn Demonstrators protest on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protest i Reuters Climate change activists set up a miniature garden on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protes Reuters Climate change activists set up a miniature garden on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protes Reuters Demonstrators protest on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protest Reuters Climate change activists demonstrate on Waterloo Bridge during an Extinction Rebellion protest Reuters Demonstrators during a Extinction Rebellion protest in Parliament Square PA The Extinction Rebellion protesters have set up camp in Hyde Park PA The group plan to disrupt London's infrastructure in a climate protest PA Thousands of people are due to descend on the capital to take part Jeremy Selwyn They have set up a large camp in Hyde Park Jeremy Selwyn A crowd of protesters gathers in Hyde Park, London PA A protester sits in a hammock at the campsite Jeremy Selwyn The protest could last days or even weeks Jeremy Selwyn They have pledged to block five central locations including Parliament Square in a non-violent act of resistance PA Protesters will converge on Marble Arch, Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, as well as near Parliament, peacefully blocking traffic PA A protester sits by an activity timetable in Hyde Park PA

Announcing the number of arrests, Scotland Yard said: "This will continue if protesters do not go to Marble Arch to continue their protest legally."

This comes after group announced it hopes to negotiate with the Mayor of London and Metropolitan Police to agree that they be allowed to continue their protests at Old Palace Yard, in Westminster, and leave other sites.

Police carried off items blocking roads / AFP/Getty Images

On Sunday night, police officers cut free and arrested the members of Extinction Rebellion who were "locked on" or glued to Waterloo Bridge.

The northbound carriageway of Waterloo Bridge was reopened to traffic, with a greatly diminished pocket of campaigners on the south side.

Large police numbers descended on Waterloo Bridge / AFP/Getty Images

Police reportedly removed the last protester from the Waterloo Bridge carriageway late on Sunday night.

Police have also been seen removing items such as trees and sofas, while also carrying protesters from sites.

They then began the process of moving the activists to one side of the carriageway and arresting those who are refusing to move.

Greta Thunberg addressed crowds at Marble Arch / AFP/Getty Images

This came after officers reopened Parliament Square on Sunday afternoon.

Previously, Extinction Rebellion vowed to occupy sites until their key "demands" are met by the Government:

These are:

To tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency.

To act now with means to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net by 2025.

To create a citizens assembly on climate change and ecological justice which would lead Government action.

As protests continued, Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg visited the Marble Arch site on Sunday evening and hundreds gathered to hear her speak.

Greta Thunberg tells Extinction Rebellion supporters 'humanity is at a crossroads'

She told the crowd: "For way too long the politicians and people in power have got away with not doing anything at all to fight the climate crisis and ecological crisis.

"But we will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer."

Climate change activists continued to block the road on Waterloo Bridge in London / AFP/Getty Images

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan previously pleaded for the protests to stop.

He said: I share the passion about tackling climate change of those protesting, and support the democratic right to peaceful and lawful protest, but this is now taking a real toll on our city  our communities, businesses and police. This is counter-productive to the cause and our city.

More than 9,000 police officers have been responding to the protests across London since they began, and more than 800 people have been arrested.

I remain in close contact with the Met Commissioner, and agree that Londoners have suffered too much disruption and that the policing operation has been extremely challenging for our over-stretched and under- resourced police.

Im extremely concerned about the impact the protests are having on our ability to tackle issues like violent crime if they continue any longer. It simply isnt right to put Londoners safety at risk like this.M ore than 5,000 people have pledged to "sip a cheeky can of mojito on the London Overground" in honour of Labour MP Diane Abbott.

The shadow home secretary apologised "sincerely" on Friday after a picture of her drinking a Marks & Spencer cocktail on public transport in London was published on the Sun's website.

Tens of thousands of people liked her Twitter apology for breaking Transport for London's alcohol ban and showed their support for the Labour frontbencher, although some joked: "Put it in a water bottle next time."

Now, more than 5,000 people have said they are attending an event on Facebook dedicated to "sipping a cheeky can of mojito" on the London Overground on June 22.

Around 25,000 people have also said they are interested in the event, hosted by Facebook group Londoner Memes between midday and 6pm.

Diane Abbott apologised for drinking a mojito on an Overground train / Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Confirming they would attend the event, one person wrote: "Are you even British if you've never swigged a can of ready mixed cocktail or G&T on a train?"

"Why in June? Im ready to go," another wrote.

Responding to the event, Transport for London, who introduced an alcohol ban on public transport in the capital in 2008, said they work to provide a transport system that "feels safe and welcoming for everyone" but said "customers have a part to play too".

The spokesman added: "Drinking or carrying open containers of alcohol on the London Underground, buses, Docklands Light Railway, tram services and London Overground is prohibited.

"These rules play an important part in ensuring that everybody travelling on our transport network has a safe and pleasant journey.A British aid worker has been killed in Nigeria, the High Commission has confirmed.

Police said kidnappers killed Faye Mooney, a University College of London and London School of Economics graduate, as well as a Nigerian man and abducted three others in the northern city of Kaduna.

Ms Mooney travelled from Lagos as a tourist and was attending a party before the incident happened, police said.

The British High Commission named the woman as MS Mooney and said it was aware of the incident that happened late on Friday.

However, it would not speculate on the motive or nature of attack.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the incident and the kidnappers have yet to be identified, police said.

Ms Mooney was employed in Nigeria by a non-governmental organisation called Mercy Corps.

Her next of kin have been notified, the British High Commission said.

"Some suspected kidnappers armed with dangerous weapons gained entry into a recreational resort called Kajuru Castle in Kajuru local government area shooting sporadically and in the process shot dead two persons, including an expatriate lady, and took away three others," a Kaduna state police spokesman said.

Police did not name the other person killed.

A statement from Mercy Corps said: "On Friday 19 April, 2019, Faye Mooney, a Mercy Corps team member in Nigeria and British national, was tragically killed when gunmen stormed a vacation resort in Kaduna State, Nigeria, where she was visiting on holiday.F rench yellow vests have sparked fury after shouting kill yourselves at police in Paris on Saturday.

This abuse is reported to have happened as tear gas and rubber bullets were fire at protesters, demonstrating in the 23rd consecutive week of chaos across France.

The Paris prosecutor's office said an investigation into the abuse was opened on Sunday.

This would attempt to find perpetrators who might be prosecuted for "group offence toward a person exercising public authority".

Yellow Vest protest - In pictures 1 /35 Yellow Vest protest - In pictures Scooters are seen burning on a street in Paris AFP/Getty Images Protesters shout slogans during an anti-government demonstration AFP/Getty Images A firefighter walks among wreckages of burnt-out scooters AFP/Getty Images A yellow vest demonstrator walks through smokle canisters Getty Images Protesters from the Yellow Vests movement EPA Protesters from the Yellow Vests movement clash with French riot police EPA Protesters from the Yellow Vests movement EPA Protesters from the Yellow Vests movement EPA Protesters from the 'Gilets Jaunes' movement march throug Paris' streets EPA Protesters attend a demonstration REUTERS Protesters from the Yellow Vests movement EPA Anti-riot policemen face protesters at the Place de la Republique AFP/Getty Images Anti-riot policemen face protesters at the Place de la Republique AFP/Getty Images Protesters clash with riot police at the Place de la Republique AFP/Getty Images A police officer points a 40-millimetre rubber defensive bullet launcher LBD AFP/Getty Images A protestor puts his arms in the air at the Place de Republique AP A protester lies on the ground during clashes with police AFP/Getty Images A burning bin is seen at the Place de la Republique AFP/Getty Images A burning bin is seen at the Place de la Republique AFP/Getty Images A cyclist passes a water cannon at a demonstration REUTERS A police officer in riot gear holds a weapon at a demonstration REUTERS A protester in wheelchair sits amid tear gas during clashes with police AFP/Getty Images A protester waves a flag of France's Brittany region AFP/Getty Images Police detain a protestor during a yellow vest demonstration AP Protesters stand amid tear gas during clashes with police AFP/Getty Images Protesters remove protectives wooden boards from the window of a shop at the Place de la Republique AFP/Getty Images Yellow vest demonstrators wave flags Getty Images Protesters clash with police during an anti-government demonstration AFP/Getty Images Policemen face protesters at the Place de la Republique AFP/Getty Images Police officers stand in front of a damaged window REUTERS Anti riot policeman holds tear gas launchers AFP/Getty Images A yellow vest demonstrator throws an object Getty Images Yellow vest demonstrators protest for a 23rd week Getty Images Protesters from the 'Gilets Jaunes' (Yellow Vests) movement EPA Protesters shout slogans during an anti-government demonstration called by the "Yellow Vests" AFP/Getty Images

France's interior minister Christophe Castaner called it a "disgrace" while pledging his support for police and their loved ones

Suicides among police in France are known to be on the rise and unions denounced the protesters' call as an unacceptable insult to officers who have killed themselves as well as their grieving families.

Protesters from the Yellow Vest movement clash with French riot police / EPA

Police unions held silent protests on Friday after two officers killed themselves last week while unions say police ranks have seen 28 suicides so far this year, compared to 68 over all of 2018.

AFP/Getty Images

The yellow vest movement, named after the high-visibility vests all French drivers must carry in their vehicles, began last November.

It started as a rally against a hike in fuel taxes but has since encompassed other policies put in place by President Emmanuel Macron.

These include high taxes and pro-business legislation.

Huge crowds took to the streets in the French capital / EPA

Protesters see themselves as standing up for the poor while Mr Macron is seen as representing the rich.

The movement has been continually marred by protest violence, with deaths, injuries and severe vandalism taking place.

On Saturday, dozens of motorbikes and cars have been set on fire in eastern Paris as a yellow vest protest descended into violence.

Riot police fired tear gas to try and disperse the protesters around the Place de la Republique.

However, responded by starting fires and throwing flares.C rowds gathered on Easter Sunday to pray for the restoration of Notre Dame cathedral and to honour the firefighters who saved it from total destruction.

The Paris diocese invited those had wished to visit the iconic building for Easter Sunday to join Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache Church on the Right Bank of the Seine River.

Certain streets around the medieval cathedral also reopened six days after the blaze, which allowed tourists to get a closer look and local restaurants to reopen.

This came after firefighters declared the last hot points extinguished.

Crowds gathered to attend the service at the Saint-Eustache / EPA

The group which struggled for nine hours to contain flames that consumed Notre Dame's roof and collapsed its spire, held a place of honour at the Saint-Eustache.

While police officers and a soldier guarded the 13th century church and visitors stood in a long line to have their bags checked before they could enter.

Aerial images of Notre Dame Cathedral fire aftermath 1 /13 Aerial images of Notre Dame Cathedral fire aftermath

Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit handed firefighters at the Easter Mass a book of scriptures which had been from Notre Dame.

"Your men were able to save many things in the cathedral. But you also saved an item that is precious for us," he said.

Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit gives a Bible saved from the flames to the French general firefighter Jean Claude Gallet / EPA

"It still is a bit dirty, full of ashes and likely a bit damaged by the fire. You saved it, and I wanted to give it to you. It's a very humble way to thank you."

Speaking of Jesus' resurrection, Mr Aupetit told the congregation: "We, too, brothers and sisters, we will rise again, just like our cathedral will rise again."

Notre Dame Cathedral fire: Before and after - In pictures 1 /18 Notre Dame Cathedral fire: Before and after - In pictures Notre Dame Cathedral seen across the River Seine in Paris PA PA People attending a mass at the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral in Paris on 26th June 2018 AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Scaffolding during the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on 27 March 2019 AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images A general view of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris from Montparnasse Tower on 15 July 2017 AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images A view of the central altar inside of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral AFP/Getty Images Philippe Wojazer/Pool via AP The steeple Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral on 26 June 2018 AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Worshippers as they arrive to take part in a mass at Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral in Paris on 26th June 2018 AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images

French sailors also paid tribute to the fire-ravaged building on Sunday, by lining up in the shape of the structure.

The Marine Nationale, France's navy, shared an aerial photograph of a large group of sailors on board an aircraft carrier standing in the shape of the cathedral.

Sailors lined up in the shape of Notre Dame / MARINE NATIONALE / AFP

The photograph was taken in the Indian Ocean of sailors of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and the sailors were showing "solidarity" with Paris in the wake of the blaze, the navy said.

Notre Dame is not expected to reopen to the public for five or six years, according to its rector, although the French president is pushing for a quick reconstruction and said it is hoped this will be within five years.D onald Trump could be impeached if further evidence shows he obstructed justice in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, according to the US House Judiciary Committee Chairman.

Jerrold Nadler said if it is proven certain accusations did take place then they could be "impeachable" offences.

"If proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes," Mr Nadler said on NBC's Meet the Press.

He said Democrats are not currently pursuing such an action but they plan to "go where the evidence leads" them.

TODO: define component type apester

President Trump has continued to hit out the report and fallout from it after its public release this week.

He wrote on Twitter: "Despite No Collusion, No Obstruction, The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time. This is costing our Country greatly, and will cost the Dems big time in 2020!"

Previously he has called certain claims about him in the report "fabricated" and "totally untrue".

Special counsel Robert Mueller produced the report on Russian collusion / AP

Special counsel Robert Mueller found no criminal evidence that Mr Trump or his campaign aides colluded in Russian election meddling, while the report also did not recommend obstruction charges against the president.

However, the 448-page document nonetheless described numerous cases where he allegedly discouraged witnesses from cooperating with prosecutors.

Earlier in the day, Mr Trump shared an Easter message and wrote: "Happy Easter! I have never been happier or more content because your Country is doing so well, with an Economy that is the talk of the World and may be stronger than it has ever been before. Have a great day!"S everal British citizens were among the more than 200 people killed in blasts at a number of sites in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, the foreign secretary has confirmed.

Jeremy Hunt said five was the latest precise figure he was aware of but "several British nationals" had been among the fatalities.

Three Britons and two holding joint US and British nationalities were killed, Sri Lankan authorities said.

There have also been reports that a British mother and son were among those feared dead after the Shangri La hotel blast.

Getty Images

The 42-year-old and 11-year-old were eating in the establishment's second storey restaurant, according to the Telegraph.

The total death toll stood at 207 as of Sunday evening and some 450 people were also injured.

Jeremy Hunt said "several" Brits were killed / REUTERS

Mr Hunt said the toll of five Britons was "the latest figure that I have heard" and added: "But obviously our High Commissioner is working on this with his team in the embassy in Colombo, working around the clock, and we are trying to gather as much information as we can about this."

He described the terrorist attacks as "absolutely devastating and despicable" adding: "For this to happen on Easter Day is something that will shake people around the world, of all faiths and none, to the core".

The Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo was targeted / EPA

At present there was "no hard knowledge" about the perpetrators of the atrocity, he said.

James Dauris, the UK's High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, visited injured Britons in hospital in the capital Colombo and condemned the "deplorable violence".

Among those killed were a well-known chef and her daughter.

Sri Lankan military stand guard in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine church / REUTERS

Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter Nisanga had been staying at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, one of four luxury hotels targeted in a morning of bloodshed.

Nisanga Mayadunne, believed to be aged in her 30s, had studied at the University of London, according to her social media page.

Nisanga Mayadunne and her mother Shantha / Facebook

The page has been flooded with tributes to the mother and daughter.

Sir Lanka's defence minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the bombings as a terrorist attack by religious extremists and said 13 suspects had been arrested.

A relative of a victim of the explosion at St Anthony's Shrine (REUTERS) / Reuters

However, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Mr Wijewardena said most of the blasts were believed to have been suicide attacks.

The inside of St Anthony's church in Colombo after it was rocked by an explosion / EPA

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners were recovered.

The dead included people from Britain, the US, India, Portugal and Turkey.

Police officers clear the road as an ambulance drives through carrying the injured in Colombo / AP

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on Sri Lanka's government to "mercilessly" punish those responsible.

The first six blasts took place nearly simultaneously in the morning at St Anthony's Shrine, a Catholic church in Colombo, and three hotels in the city.

The two other explosions occurred after a lull of a few hours at St Sebastian Catholic church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at the Protestant Zion church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

Three police officers were killed while conducting a search at a suspected safe house in Dematagoda, on the outskirts of Colombo.

The Sri Lankan government has imposed a nationwide curfew from 6pn to 6am and blocked Facebook and other social media.A well-known chef and her daughter were among the hundreds of people killed in the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka.

Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter Nisanga had been staying at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, one of four luxury hotels targeted in a morning of bloodshed.

Nisanga Mayadunne, believed to be aged in her 30s, had studied at the University of London, according to her social media page which has been flooded with tributes to the mother and daughter.

It comes as Sri Lanka's foreign ministry confirmed three Britons and two people holding joint US and British citizenship were among the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks.

A British Foreign Office spokesman also confirmed that British nationals were among those killed and said their relatives are being provided support.

Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK says eight British nationals killed in attacks

Just hours before the bombings, Nisanga had shared a picture of herself with her relatives on Facebook with the caption: "Easter breakfast with family."

Nisanga and Shantha Mayadunne were staying at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo / EPA

Her friend Radha Fonseco told Gulf News: "Nilanga was a very popular girl in college. Besides the fact that she was bright and smart, her mother Shantha Mayadunne, a renowned chef, made her more popular in college. She (the mother) was well respected and an inspirational chef for Sri Lankans."

Police in Sri Lanka now say that 207 people were killed and 450 wounded after eight explosions rocked three churches, four hotels and a housing scheme.

About 35 tourists, including Britons, Americans and Dutch citizens, are believed to be among the dead and the Foreign Office said it was urgently seeking information from local authorities.

Six nearly simultaneous blasts went off during the morning in three churches where worshippers were celebrating Easter and in three luxury hotels frequented by foreign tourists.

Sri Lankan security personnel walk through debris following an explosion in St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of the capital Colombo / AFP/Getty Images

Hours later, a blast at a guesthouse killed at least two people.

After an eighth explosion near an overpass in the area of Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo, the capital, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said three police officers were killed when they went to question suspects following a tip.

Two blasts went off shortly after the officers entered a house in Dematagoda.

Officials say seven suspects have been arrested.

Sri Lanka security walk through the debris at St Anthony's Shrine church following an explosion / AFP/Getty Images

The attacks mark the worst bout of violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.

The magnitude of the bloodshed recalled Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war, when separatist Tamil Tigers and other rebel groups targeted the Central Bank, a shopping centre, a Buddhist temple and hotels popular with tourists.Im deeply shocked and saddened by the horrifying attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka today.

To target those gathered for worship on Easter Sunday is particularly wicked.

My prayers are with the victims and their families, and with those assisting in the responseMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 21)  The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) warned all local elective officials and politicians in general against attending payouts of national government programs and activities.

Huwag po tayong magpa-epal sa mga proyekto ng gobyerno lalo na ngayong panahon ng kampanya [Let's not interfere in government projects especially this election season]. The Code of Conduct of Government Officials requires public officials and employees to be more circumspect in their activities especially during this campaign season, says DILG Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya.

Malayas statement comes after the DILG received reports from other government agencies, including the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), that some local elective officials are exerting undue influence over payouts of government programs for indirectly endorsing their candidacies.

He said some politicians attempted to hijack the distribution of DSWDs Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) program. Just like in a political rally, candidates including incumbent LGU officials reportedly spoke with their campaign posters splattered in the distribution area.

The payouts of the DSWD, among other programs, is apolitical. We cannot and will not tolerate any politician to speak during the release of assistance. The payout cannot be linked to any candidate or political party, he said.

Malaya also warns politicians against threatening beneficiaries that they would be delisted if they do not support them in the elections. Only DSWD can delist the names of beneficiaries of their programs. We appeal to all candidates not to politicize the payouts otherwise the DILG will be compelled to bring charges against you, he says.

The DILG official said Secretary Eduardo Ano has issued Memorandum Circular 2019-55, prohibiting all local elective officials and politicians in general from interfering or even attending these actrivities.

He added local government officials should strictly observe high standards of personal conduct in their actions, citing Section 4 of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees which imposes upon every public official and employee to uphold public interest over and above personal interest.Garcia's quick move to succeed Lowenthal, of whom he has been a longtime political ally, will likely be the first in a slew of Democratic candidacies for the heavily blue 47th Congressional District.C omedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy will become Ukraine's next president after the current leader Petro Poroshenko conceded defeat.

Mr Poroshenko said he did not plan to quit politics altogether but will be leaving his position as president next month.

Results from the an poll, released Sunday after voting stations closed, showed Mr Zelenskiy receiving 73.2% of the nationwide vote.

Meanwhile, it said current president Mr Poroshenko received 25.3%.

The poll was based on more than 13,000 responses to face-to-face questions at 300 polling stations places as of 6 pm, two hours before the polls closed.

Petro Poroshenko appears to have lost the contest / REUTERS

The victory of Mr Zelenskiy, 41, is a bitter blow for incumbent Mr Poroshenko.

He had tried to rally Ukrainians around the flag by casting himself as a bulwark against Russian aggression and a champion of Ukrainian identity.

If the poll is correct, Mr Zelenskiy, who plays a fictitious president in a popular TV series, will now take over the leadership of a country on the frontline of the West's standoff with Russia following Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.Romania's Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu said on Sunday that eight Romanian children were in the city of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, at the time the explosions took place and they were evacuated by local authorities to safety at a military base on the outskirts of the capital.

"I have been in touch with some of those who are vacationing or living in Colombo. From my discussions with the people, I understood that they had not been affected in any way by the terrorist attacks. The most sensitive issue is that a group of eight children and a chaperon were in Colombo and support was found for them in the end. We managed to talk with the authorities and learned that all the eight children were taken to a military base on the outskirts of Colombo, where security is extremely strict," Melescanu told Digi 24 private broadcaster.

He recommended that the Romanians in Colombo contact the Romanian consulate and return to the country "as quickly as possible," because there is no saying how the attacks develop.

Melescanu also said that on Sunday afternoon there will be a meeting in Colombo with all the embassies and consular representatives from the European Union member states to exchange information and at 17:00hrs, EEST, a task force will convene at Romania's Foreign Ministry (MAE) .

As many as 158 people died, including 35 foreigners, following several blasts on Sunday in churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, France's AFP news agency reports quoting a source with the local police.

Another 254 people were rushed to hospitals in Colombo, and 60 more injured were reported in two explosions outside the capital.

AGERPRESThe palm flowers and twigs that the believers bring along to the church on Palm Sunday symbolise the joy that Christ mysteriously enters Jerusalem and also the people's souls, Romania's Christian Orthodox Church Patriarch Daniel told the attendees of a church service at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest on Sunday.

"These flowers, the twigs that we carry in our hand symbolise the commemoration of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem and also the fact that we express the joy that Christ the Lord enters not only Jerusalem but also our soul, which becomes a spiritual Jerusalem , as it is said in the akhatist hymn to the Lord's Entry in Jerusalem (...) Thus, Christ the Lord enters secretly Jerusalem and also our souls. On this holy and great day of the Lord's Entry in Jerusalem we bring the flowers of faith and the spiritual life to Jesus Christ the Saviour, and we thank Him. At the same time, we are heralding the week of our Saviour Jesus Christ's passions: His Resurrection, Burying and His Divine Resurrection, "Patriarch Daniel said in a sermon.

He emphasised that the flowers we carry on this day are the "flowers of faith."

"The flowers we carry in our hands this day, as Saint John Chrysostom already said, are the flowers of faith and the flowers of virtues we have gathered in our hearts through more prayer, many prostrations, tears of repentance, through more intense listening to the services and more frequent reading of the holy texts of the Holy Scriptures and of spiritual writings, by more sharing, and by more charity. These are the Palm Sunday's flowers symbolised by palm twigs, willow twigs and other flowers."

Daniel also mentioned the Holy and Great Myrrh, which he said to symbolise "the pure vine, the soul and the body cleansed of sins by 40-day Holy Lenten fast."

"We have a clean life after we have confessed, repented, exposed our sins and received forgiveness, after we have partaken more often of Divine Eucharist. Our life becomes sweet-smelling. A wretched life is foul-smelling, whereas a pure, spiritual life is sweet-smelling. So the valuable myrrh that we bring these days is spiritual life, a cleaned and sanctified life through the efforts of the Holy Lenten fast, "said Daniel.

The patriarch, who was assisted at the Orthodox Palm Sunday church service by Patriarchal Vicar Varlaam Ploiesteanul and Vicar Bishop of the Bucharest Archdiocese Timotei Prahoveanul, addressed fatherly wishes for health and salvation to all who have been named after flowers.

Christian Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers on Sunday celebrated Palm Sunday, a day that reminds people of Jesus Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, where he was greeted by crowds of peoples carrying palm flowers and twigs. AGERPRESRomania's Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Sunday condemned the recent bloody attacks in Sri Lanka, showing that she is standing with the people of Sri Lanka and the bereaved families.

"I am strongly condemning the bloody attacks on the Christian community in Sri Lanka. The holy feast of Catholic Easter was shadowed by this earth-shattering news. I am standing with the people of Sri Lanka, the bereaved families, and wishing speedy recovery to the injured, " according to her message posted on the website of the Romanian Government.

As many as 158 people have died, including 35 foreigners, following several blasts on Sunday in churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, according to reports by France's AFP news agency citing police sources.

AGERPRESRomania's President Klaus Iohannis on Sunday condemned recent attacks in Sri Lanka and said that freedom of religion and faith must be defended.

"I strongly condemn the horrific attacks against innocent people in SriLanka on Easter Sunday. My condolences to all those affected! We must stand up for freedom of religion and belief," reads the president's message posted to his twitter page.At least 52 people were killed in six night-time explosions in hotels and churches in Sri Lanka, France's AFP news agency reports quoting the Sri Lankan police.Hundreds of people were injured in these explosions that were tied with the Catholic Easter at three luxury hotels and a church in the capital city of Colombo, and two near the capital.At least 160 injured people were taken to the Colombo National Hospital after the explosion at St. Anthony's Church in Colombo. Also targeted was a church in Negombo, north of Colombo, and one in Batticaloa, east. A local hospital officer said there were about 300 injured.Sri Lanka, an island state of southern Asia, is a largely Buddhist country, with about 1.2 million Catholics in a total population of 21 million, consisting of about 70pct Buddhists, 12pct Hindus, 10pct Muslims, and 7pct Christians.Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) has sent a message saying it was "shocked" by recent attacks in Sri Lanka.

"We are shocked by the outrageous attacks in Sri Lanka! Our deepest condolences to the people of Sri Lanka! Romania's thoughts and prayers go to the victims," reads the message posted on MAE's Twitter page.The death toll of the series of explosions at churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka has risen to 158, including 35 foreigners, France's AFP news agency reports, citing a source with the local police.The Beast Behind the Mask: The US Fanatical Passion to Destroy Venezuela

The mask has fallen off any remaining pretense of Washingtons concern about the Venezuelan people and only the resort to naked brute force, incompetently applied is left.

The refusal of the US political establishment to abandon its petulant dream of toppling the democratically-elected government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela confirms that a thermonuclear superpowers strategic direction has fallen into the hands a group of spoiled, immature, bullying young children or teenage thugs. F.N. Dostoyevsky would not have been surprised.

The mask has fallen off any remaining pretense of concern about the Venezuelan people and only the resort to naked brute force, incompetently applied is left.

The pace indeed has now become manic. US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who surely ought to have better things to do, flies half way round the world to threaten the government of India to scrap aid and trade deals with Caracas.

Yet more sanctions are announced on Venezuelas oil trade with Cuba. Vice President Mike Pence flies to New York to twist the arms of senior figures at the United Nations to toe Washingtons hard line against Maduro.

Yet President Maduro has never committed any activities remotely amounting to genocide or crimes against humanity, unlike the US Reagan administration of which Bolton and current Special Envoy to Restore Democracy in Venezuela Eliot Abrams so consistently did to the ravaged Mayan peoples in Central America 36 years ago.

Venezuela has not slaughtered a million of its own people as Pakistan so eagerly did in 1971 to the peoples of East Pakistan, today Bangladesh with the full support of the US government under President Richard Nixon.

Maduro has not unleashed any wars or bombing campaigns that have killed millions of innocent civilians. He has not invaded neighboring states or used poison gas against them, as Iraqs Saddam Hussein did with the full support of the United States when he invaded Iran in 1980.

It might well be argued that President Maduro made a mess of running his economy. But given the role two successive US administrations have played in trying to wreck Venezuela it is difficult to see how much he can even be held responsible for that.

Was Venezuela under Maduro feverishly trying to build its own Weapons of Mass Destruction? So far not even Bolton or Abrams has had the gall to suggest that.

Has the Caracas government been plotting to spread international terrorism around the world? No. Have they offered safety and sanctuary to the remnants of ISIS, now driven out of Syria by the combined military efforts of Russia and Syria? Again: No.

Yet so desperate are Americas neo-liberals, as well as neo-conservatives to topple democratically twice elected President Maduro that they are pulling off their bright smiling wholesome masks that are the public face of globalization to reveal the snarling, cowardly, crazed little creeps behind them.

We saw this phenomenon last week when Fareed Zakaria, the Golden Pin-Up Boy of global liberalism, used his two supposedly most influential platforms  his talk show on CNN and op-ed page access in The Washington Post to call for the immediate toppling of Maduro and then for a full superpower confrontation with Russia as well.

Now recall, Zakaria is supposed to be a nice guy. He is supposed to stand for the civilized peaceful and democratic resolution of all international disputes that has already Made War Obsolete (MWO). He is supposed to be the living embodiment of a global free trade liberalism that is unfailingly peaceful, tolerant, respectful, generous, kind and good.

Yet here Zakaria is  openly calling for the abandonment of all international law, openly calling for the violent invasion of an independent, sovereign and even democratic nation.

In other words, he is openly perpetrating exactly the kinds of wicked conduct that the 1946 Nuremburg Tribunals documented, identified and convicted the most prominent Nazi war criminals for  including most emphatically conspiracy to wage aggressive war.

One has to ask the crucial obvious questions: What is it with Zakaria and those like him? Do they really want a nuclear world war to exterminate the human race? Are they really that reckless? Are they really that stupid? Are they really that mad?

The answer to all three of those questions is obviously and indisputably: Yes.

We must, therefore continue our inquiry and ask: Why? How did Zakaria and his fellow purveyors of moral outrage get to be this way?

For the answer to this  and so much else  we must go back 150 years to Fyodor Dostoyevskys most terrifying and haunting novel, The Possessed.

Dostoyevsky had a vision of the achieved, perfect (in its own eyes) liberal society, determined to sneer at and tear down all the old established constraints and supposedly absurd traditions of religion, custom and caution.

Yet this enlightened and happy breed of rational New Men and Women were blind to the rising generation of sociopaths and psychopaths  their own children  who now flourished in the freedom provided for them: A race so arrogant and driven that they would not rest until they had torn down all of civilization in a frenzy of destruction.

In its past, Russia has known far too many such creatures.

They teem in Washington today.Trumps Attempt to Weaponize NSA Against His Enemies

Not since the Nixon administration has a US president flagrantly attempted to use the NSA to involve itself in a domestic law enforcement matter in pursuit of an Oval Office cover-up.

A few weeks after Donald Trumps inauguration he blasted the US National Security Agency (NSA), falsely claiming the signals intelligence agency leaked classified information to the media. In February 2017, Trump tweeted: Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?) . . . Just like Russia. It was Trumps second public attack on NSA. During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Trump accused NSA of withholding intercepted copies of his opponent Hillary Clintons emails. Trump ranted, Obviously they [NSA] dont want to get them theyre protecting her, theyre coddling her.

Trump displayed for the world to see his ignorance about the role and mission of the NSA. Even after the agencys intra-Five Eyes signals intelligence alliance warts were publicly exposed by the Edward Snowden leaks, Trump was making wild accusations about NSA that have only been the fodder for Hollywood movies like Enemy Of The State. Mercury Rising, Sneakers, and Good Will Hunting.

The recently-released heavily-redacted report by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller on foreign involvement in the 2016 presidential election contains a startling revelation: not since the Nixon administration has a US president flagrantly attempted to use the NSA to involve itself in a domestic law enforcement matter in pursuit of an Oval Office cover-up. According to Volume II of the Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, President Trump attempted to involve the NSA in the FBIs then-ongoing investigation into Trumps campaign and his possible illegal activities as president.

Trumps actions to misuse a US intelligence agency to protect him from criminal liability is an impeachable offense. The precedence was decided by the US House of Representatives in Article II of its impeachment resolution against Richard Nixon. The House found that, in the case of Nixon, he abused his office by misusing federal agencies in violation of their regulations. The article states that Nixon repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposes of these agencies.

Muellers investigation uncovered Trumps possible use of NSA to assist him in stymying the FBIs investigation of Trumps 2016 campaign. The report states: the President reached out to the Director of National Intelligence and the leaders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) to involve them in his goal of suppressing the FBIs investigation of him and his campaign.

The Mueller Report states, On March 26, 2017, the day after the President called Coats [Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats], the President called NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers. The President expressed frustration with the Russia investigation, saying it made relations with the Russians difficult. Muellers investigation did not commence until May 17, 2017, so the investigation was still being handled by the Justice Department and FBI.

The Mueller Report continues: The President told Rogers the thing with the Russians [wa]s messing up his ability to get things done with Russia. The President also said that the news stories linking him with Russia were not true and asked Rogers if he could do anything to refute the stories. Deputy Director of the NSA Richard Ledgett, who was present for the call, said it was the most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service. After the call concluded, Ledgett prepared a memorandum that he and Rogers both signed documenting the content of the conversation and the Presidents request, and they placed the memorandum in a safe.

Considering the fact that Ledgett revealed to Muellers investigators that he had never experienced anything like Trumps request in 40 years of government service, it can be assumed that if Ledgett began his service in 1977 in the US Army in a signals intelligence-related role, followed by his joining the NSA in 1988, his 40 years of NSA or NSA-connected service was during the post-Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) era.

The FISA of 1978 was specifically enacted to prohibit the abuse of NSA or any other intelligence community agency for warrantless political purposes not approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Between 1952 and 1974, using classified eavesdropping programs with codenames like SHAMROCK and MINARET, the NSA compiled files on 75,000 Americans, including civil rights and anti-war activists, members of Congress, journalists, and others. In 1970, Nixon submitted to the directors of the FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and NSA his infamous Huston Plan. The plan called for US intelligence agencies to engage in illegal surveillance of radicals. Nixons Attorney General, John Mitchell, later referred to the Huston Plan as White House horrors. Enactment of the FISA was a direct result of Nixons threatened Huston Plan. Did Trump ask Rogers and Ledgett to return to the status quo ante and illegally collect compromising information on his perceived enemies in Congress, the press  which he refers to as the enemy of the people, and others? Answering that question should be one of the top priorities of the House oversight committees.

The NSA director who implemented FISA throughout the US Signals Intelligence system was the no-nonsense Admiral Bobby Ray Inman. In only a few cases since Inmans tenure has any NSA director veered from a commitment to the laws and regulations implementing FISA and constraining NSAs authorization to eavesdrop on US citizens. George W. Bushs operation STELLAR WIND, permitting warrantless surveillance, which was strenuously opposed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and his deputy, James Comey, is one notable exception.

Edward Snowdens revelations about the NSA program codenamed PRISM may have whetted Trumps appetite for the type of private communications NSA could harvest without abiding by current laws and regulations. Digging up compromising information on his enemies was Nixons most earnest desire when he developed his infamous enemies list.

Considering that Ledgett said he had never experienced anything like Trumps request in his 40-years of Army and NSA service and felt compelled to commit the request to a memorandum and, with Rogers, sign it and place it in a safe in one of the most-secure facilities on the planet, Rogerss insistence that Trumps request was not illegal, immoral, unethical, or inappropriate does not hold logical water. Ledgetts sudden decision to retire from government service on February 3, 2017, a few weeks after Trumps inauguration, is also germane. So, too, is Trumps initial reluctance to award the National Security Medal to Ledgett after his retirement from NSA. Trump was forced to award the medal to Ledgett after pressure was brought by then-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and DNI Coats.

Shortly after his election in November 2016, Trump summoned Rogers to Trump Tower for a meeting. Apparently, Rogers never informed Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper or anyone in the Obama administration about the Trump-requested meeting. While, it is true that the Obama administration was never happy with Rogerss overall performance at NSA, there is no indication that he was to be fired during a lame-duck Obama administration. Whatever Trump asked Rogers, the admiral never revealed it prior to the end of his directorship on May 4, 2018. There are unconfirmed reports that Trump considered replacing Clapper as DNI. However, Trump chose Coats and Rogers retired in 2018 to go to work for the Israeli intelligence firm, Team8.

The Rogers-Ledgett Memorandum of March 26, 2017 may be one of the most important smoking gun evidentiary documents in the Trump scandal. Of the tapes of 64 Oval Office conversations of Nixon in Watergate, it was one particular tape  that of a conversation six days after the 1972 Watergate break-in  that sped up Nixons resignation from office. That tape, recorded on June 23, 1972, contained a conversation between Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman that revealed Nixons desire to use US intelligence agencies to cover-up the Watergate break-in. On the tape was prima facie evidence that Nixon decided that his White House officials should approach Richard Helms, the director of the CIA, and Vernon A. Walters, CIA deputy director, and convince them to contact L. Patrick Gray, the acting director of the FBI, and compel him to halt the bureaus investigation of the Watergate burglary on national security grounds. Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, who replaced Archibald Cox  fired in the October 1973 Saturday Night Massacre purge of the Justice Department leadership by Nixon, believed that the President, by involving the CIA in the FBIs investigation, initiated a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The exposure of the June 23, 1972 tape sank the Nixon presidency, just as the March 26, 2017 NSA memo could be striking enough in its actual content to show blatant obstruction of justice by Trump. Ledgett claims he never experienced anything like Trumps request of NSA in his 40 years of government service. There is little chance that the memo merely concerns Trumps request for the NSA to state publicly that Trump was innocent of any election campaign collusion with Russia. For Ledgett to memorialize the conversation in a memo points to Trump making a request that was violative of the law. The memo was written seven days after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made a wild accusation, based on a flimsy Fox News report, that President Obama had asked Britains NSA counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), to spy on the Trump campaign. GCHQ and Rogers rejected the Fox report as nonsense. Past NSA directors and deputy directors have made comments supporting a presidents initiatives, for example, NSAs public endorsement of President Bill Clintons cryptographic key escrow initiatives.

Donald Trumps knowledge of NSA, as with other agencies of government, is extremely shallow and indicative of a school boys appreciation for the roles and responsibilities of agencies like the NSA, CIA, and FBI. Trump, a denizen of and product of pop culture, likely only knows about NSA from the movies and television shows that illustrate the signals intelligence agency as an eavesdropper of private telephone calls and email exchanges. Trump has no appreciation for US Signals Intelligence Directive (USSID 18), which implements the FISA and stipulates that all surveillance and intercepts of the communications of US Persons must be pursuant to a legitimate court order  under a FISA or Title III law enforcement predicate  or a compelling ticking bomb national security matter.

Trump may only know about NSA from his friend Jon Voights portrayal of Thomas Reynolds, a law-breaking renegade Deputy Director of the NSA, in the 1998 film Enemy of the State. Trump may have believed that Rogers and Ledgett were in positions to collect dirt on his political enemies. It would be hard to believe that Ledgett, a 40-year career NSA professional, would commit to written form a conversation between the two top NSA chiefs and the President unless the subject of Trumps requests were in clear violation of FISA, USSID 18, and the Constitution. In other words, the Rogers-Ledgett Memo may be smoking gun evidence of obstruction by Trump on par with the June 23, 1972 Nixon tape.The War in Eastern Ukraine officially began five years ago on 12 April 2014 when armed separatists seized the government facilities in Donetsk city. Within four days pro-Russian separatists had taken control of government buildings in many other cities within an area known as Donbas (Donets Basin). In less than a month (May 4th), the flag of the Donetsk People's Republic was raised over the police headquarters in Donetsk city. This quickly led to the formation of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR respectively), which found themselves at war with the unprepared Ukrainian armed forces. DPR/LPR ended up occupying about half the territory of the Donbas region. Hardly anyone (aside from Russia and a few Russian allies) recognized DPR/LPR. In part, because it soon became obvious that the new Donbas state was being defended by Russian troops (or mercenaries) and Russian weapons and other support. Estimates vary but the Donbas rebel forces were believed to be as much as 80 percent Russian. Ukraine fought back and so far over 13,000 Ukrainian and Russian civilians have died and two million people forced were from their homes, Yet the fighting soon stabilized along a 500-kilometer "line of contact." Officially, this conflict in Ukraine is still called an anti-terrorist operation but it has turned into a stalemate between two sides with lots of modern weapons and a fairly high degree of organization.

The shooting in Donbas has been continuous since April 2014, despite a February 2015 ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire was supposed to lead to a resolution of this conflict once and for all. That has not happened either. Yet, the Donbas war created some unexpected developments. Russian efforts to use special operations forces and lots of money to grab adjacent territory failed in Donbas (after working in Crimea and Georgia). Another unpleasant surprise for the Russians was that the initial state of disarray of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as untrained and underequipped as they really were, was quickly turned around by a surge of Ukrainian nationalism and improvisation. In addition to thousands of volunteers (for combat and support jobs) the Ukraine government actually mobilized the local defense industries to supply weapons, ammo and equipment the Ukrainian forces needed. This was helped by the fact that Ukraine still had conscription so most males 18 years and older had some military experience. Despite the surge in patriotism during 2015, some 50 percent of men drafted that year refused to show up. At the same time up to 16,000 Ukrainian troops in the Donbas area deserted. This lack of faith in the traditional Ukrainian military was justified because of its outdated military bureaucracy and culture emphasizing large numbers of unwilling troops forced to do whatever they were told. It soon became obvious in Donbas that a flexible approach to warfare was needed, one that motivated volunteer soldiers. That was a refreshing change for the Ukrainian military. Since independence in 1991 Ukrainians were not enthusiastic about military service. After their conscript service, less than 20 percent of the conscripts showed any interest in making a career of the military. This was often for financial reasons, not just lack of enthusiasm for the Ukrainian military.

Change was needed and Ukrainian military leaders realized that. In 2006, military training in Ukraine was focused on developing mobility and combat readiness and participating in international exercises. This was all about a Ukrainian attempt to reform its military and reequip its forces to defend against any future threat from an increasingly hostile Russia. But the plan came at the worst possible time as the 2008 financial crisis not only made the implementation of the reforms impossible for the military but resulted in a Ukrainian military unable to maintain current levels of training and equipment. Unit training also declined because units equipped with tanks and armored personnel carriers (APC)s virtually stopped training because the military could not afford fuel. This had a similar impact on aircraft training as the average number of flight hours per pilot fell by half. The result is that Ukrainian pilots entered the 2014 war with badly degraded skills. Very few pilots were qualified to fly at night or in bad weather or to carry out strikes against ground targets. Using all resources available once the Donbas war began, the Ukrainian armed forces partially recovered soon after the war started. But combat ready forces were still well below the pre-2008 strength. In early 2014 Ukraine only had 6,000 combat-ready soldiers out of its 129,950 active military personnel.

Ukraine got some foreign help. By early 2015 Ukraine, the U.S., Britain and Canada established JMTG-U (Joint Multinational Training Group  Ukraine) and set up three new training sites in Ukraine. But to prevent the loss of more territory, Ukraine was in desperate need of updated weapons and equipment. Fortunately, Ukraine was the place where the pre-1991 Soviet Union concentrated most of its reserves of weapons and equipment during the Cold War, for battles with NATO that never happened. Ukraine also contained a large proportion of the Soviet factories producing military equipment and these as well as all those stored weapons became Ukrainian when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and Ukraine became independent. The corruption in Ukraine did not help either because some of the best weapons were sold off (and much of the money stolen by government officials) rather than used for the defense of Ukraine. By 2016, due to much improved training, 77 percent its 260,000 active military personnel (75 percent conscripts) were combat ready. Ukraines troops had also received more modern tanks, APCs, and many other types of combat equipment.

The Russian-backed Donbas rebels, calling themselves the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya, consisted of many different armed groups that were run by the Donetsk Operational Command. This headquarters was established by Russia in May 2016. While the rebels were primarily militia they eventually formed two tank battalions and several other specialized units while the rest were light infantry. Eventually, rebels formed two corps headquarters, one for DPR and one for LNR. The rebel militias initially used only equipment that was produced in Ukraine prior to 2014. By the end of 2014 that changed and the rebels began using weapons that were not available in Ukraine. This eventually included Russian military equipment that had never been exported.

The DPR received more of these obviously Russian made weapons, including late model MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) and tanks. Despite this Russia continued to deny supplying arms to the rebels, despite Ukrainian forces capturing some of it and publishing photos. A growing number of rebels were also captured who admitted they were Russian soldiers. Among such obviously Russian equipment encountered (and sometimes captured from the rebels) were armored vehicles modified with Russian components. These included T-72B3 and T-72BA tanks, BTR-82AM infantry fighting vehicles, BPM-97 armored personnel carriers, Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft systems, GAZ Vodnik multipurpose vehicles, late model MT-LB (M1970) Multi-Purpose Tracked Vehicles, MRO-A self-contained, disposable single shot 72.5 mm rocket launchers, Kornet anti-tank missiles, ASVK anti-materiel rifles, and VSS sniper rifles. The conflict in Donbas was notable for the large number and multiple types of armored vehicles operated by the rebels. Still, there was no evidence that the rebels had established facilities to repair or upgrade so many vehicles.

While Ukrainian forces were resolute and brave in halting the Russian supported rebels, it was obvious that Ukraine would have to be supplied with more effective weapons and equipment to deal with the increasing quantities of artillery, armored vehicles and electronic warfare gear the rebels were receiving from Russia. The Ukrainian government had refused to upgrade and expand the domestic arms industry before 2014 because of the expense and opposition from corrupt procurement bureaucrats. The upsurge in patriotism in Ukraine during 2014, which also surprised the Russians, enabled Ukraine to quickly and effectively enact production and procurement reforms. This was remarkably effective and by mid-2015 the Russian backed rebels, despite all their new weapons and seeming endless supplies of ammo, were confronted with a stalemate that has become a military buffer zone between Ukraine and Russia. The focus of this rearmament process was the utilization of the existing weapons infrastructure within Ukraine and conducting repairs and refurbishment of existing equipment. By February 2018 the Ukrainian Armed Forces were larger and better equipped than ever before. At that point, Ukraine had 200,000 active-duty military personnel. This included successfully integrating most of the volunteer territorial defense battalions into the armed forces.

There were also developments on the diplomatic front that discouraged the Russians. In February 2019, amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution went into force, confirming Ukraines intentions to become a member of both the European Union (EU) and NATO. In preparation for joining NATO, Ukraine is advancing significantly in the maintenance and development of Ukraines internal arms industry (keeping the money circulating in Ukraine) and donating or selling surplus equipment and spare parts to users of Soviet manufactured equipment that Ukraine is already using. Examples include decommissioned tanks, helicopters, and both transport and combat aircraft. In addition to tanks, Ukraine is also developing new equipment such as the BTR-4 APC, with serial production set to begin in 2019. Since the beginning of fighting in Donbas, BTR-4s have been successfully deployed by the Ukrainian ground forces and have proven to be highly effective on the battlefield. The new APC has a BM-7 Parus turret with a 30 mm automatic cannon, Baryer anti-tank guided missile system, 30 mm automatic grenade launcher, and 7.62 mm co-axial machine gun. Fire control is digitized and the APC is capable of destroying enemy armored vehicles at a range of 5 km. The new BTR-4 has a new engine and drive system as well.

In April 2019, with a total of 250,000 personnel, Ukraines military forces are now the third largest in Europe. The current Ukrainian Forces are also primarily composed of ethnic Ukrainians, making the military more cohesive than the general population. The Ukrainian military is now mostly a volunteer force, mainly because everyone is now convinced of the benefits of having highly motivated recruits rather than a lot of unenthusiastic conscripts. This large force is necessary to monitor and guard key locations in Ukraine such as the eastern border to Donbas, access from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait to the port of Mariupol, and to defend the Ukrainian Navy base in Odessa.

An increasingly capable military is a high priority for Ukraine as Russia attempts to incorporate the rebels controlled half of Donbass into Russia. That merger is unlikely to be attempted as long as the Ukrainian military remains capable of opposing such a move by force. Rebel-controlled Donbas will essentially become a buffer zone between Ukraine and Russia. This buffer zone will remain territory that is officially part of Ukraine and may disqualify Ukraine from joining NATO. This was clearly the strategy of Russia from the beginning. The existence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia and Transnistria in Moldova should have been indicators of this. Once the lines on the map of Ukraine are redrawn, the time will come for the Ukrainian military to return to its Cold War posture of preparing for possible defensive action against an invasion. The only difference is this time; the perceived threat is from the east and not the west.  Ryan SchinaultKia ora and welcome to Easter Sunday!

We have a fine start to the day, but expecting a few showers from the afternoon, turning to rain overnight. Its a one-clothing layer day with a light northerly, an expected high of 20 degrees, and an overnight low of 15 degrees.

On Easter Monday, the forecast is for rain, with a chance of it being heavy but easing by the evening.

Today being Easter Sunday, is a great opportunity to check out some of the local churches and their Easter events.

The coast churches have a combined picnic event at Mt Drury from 10am to 2pm. Bouncy castle, free sausage sizzle and bring along a picnic lunch. More information here

Easter services are also being held at Curate Mt Maunganui (9 and 11am), Curate Tauranga (10am), St Georges Anglican in Gate Pa (9.30am), St Peters in the City (10am), C3 City Church Tauranga (9.30am), C3 City Church Papamoa (10am), Wesley Church (9.30am), Holy Trinity (10am), St Enochs (9.30am) and Bethel (10am).

The Experience Easter stage performance at Bethlehem Baptist is on at 9am and 10.45am. More info here

At Mount Maunganui, the Pepi Toot Beach Express is out for the last weekend of the season, leaving from Salisbury Ave between 10am to 2pm for a 30 minute ride around the Mount. For more info click here. All aboard! Toot toot!

The Bethlehem Te Puna Lions Market is happening this morning at the Tauranga Historic Village until noon.

Downtown Tauranga Carnival. Photo: Daniel Hines

In downtown Tauranga, come and join in the jazz fun at the Downtown Tauranga Carnival which begins at noon. Stages are along the Strand, at the Red Square and at Hotel Armitage.

Come and view the Finding Beauty Exhibition which includes five winning images from the 2019 Hitachi City Art Exhibition, a profile of Taurangas sister city relationship, a digital display of hundreds of this years entries from the Trustpower Photographic Exhibition and information storyboards profiling The power of an image  a history of photojournalism. The exhibition is located within the Pacific Toyota Container at Our Place Tauranga on Willow St.

For more art, over to the Odyssey Art Exhibition, at The Peoples Gallery-Toi ka rere at Tauranga Historic Village. There you will find that Kinsa Hays, Carolyn Watts and Bob Drake, three exhibitors from the Katikati Art Group, are each showing their own take on an aspect of their journey through life. Expressed in completely different ways, Odyssey brings together colour, assemblage and form in a community setting. The exhibition runs until April 22. More information here

Accordion-Keyboard

Old time music-makers, Welcome Bay Hall 1-4. $3 entry & Ladies a plate please. All welcome. Ph Ces or Joy 544 3849

Antipodes

An ocean-spanning collaboration featuring musicians from Wellington, Sydney & Berlin! Baycourt 9pm. Go to www.baycourt.co.nz for tickets & info.

Bible Seminar

1:45pm Greerton Senior Citizens Hall, Maitland St, Greerton. Title: The resurrection of Jesus, the Bibles promise. Interactive, Q&A. All welcome. Vic 543 0504

Computer Club (Tga) Inc

At Art & Craft Centre, Elizabeth St West on last Sunday of month 9:30-12:30. Ph 572 1230

Corkers Toastmasters

Corkers Toastmasters meets 3rd Sunday of month at 2pm at Zone Cafe (upstairs) Owens Pl Mount Maunganui. Ph Chrissy 027 296 7939

Croquet

Tauranga Domain, Cameron Rd, 12:45 for 1pm start, Sun, Tues, Fri. Beginners welcome. Peter 571 0633

Downtown Tauranga Carnival

City comes alive with jazz! Family fun zone 11am-6pm. Music 12-6pm. Entry by gold coin, free for children 14 & under. See www.jazz.org.nz for programme.

Easter Service

What is Easter all about? Cecil Peasley will speak on The Wonder of Easter at Mt Bible Chapel, Monowai St, Mt Maunganui @ 7.30pm. Ph Len 021 230 2210

Friendship Force Travel Club

Enjoy travel & meeting visitors? For world-wide exchange travel ph Jonathan 572 2091, Barbara 574 5711, www.friendshipforce.org.nz

Hollie Smith

Presents a one-off jazz inspired concert with her band of leading jazz musicians. Baycourt, Addison Theatre at 7pm. Go to www.baycourt.co.nz for tickets & info.

Jazz High Tea

Enjoy stand of sweet & savoury delights, glass of bubbles, tea/coffee while enjoying music from Carol Storey & Friends. Hotel Armitage 12-3pm. www.baycourt.co.nz for tickets

Jazz Sunset Cruise

Join historic cruiser, Kewpie on a gentle harbour tour of Tauranga Moana. Enjoy on-board jazz band & fine wine & beers. 4:30-6pm. www.baycourt.co.nz for bookings

Kim Paterson Quintet

Presents Kims originals, each with a story that brought the music to life. Baycourt 5pm. Go to www.baycourt.co.nz for tickets & info.

Kitten Adoption Drive

Wild Whiskers Tauranga are holding a kitten adoption drive at 4 Manson St, Greerton, Easter weekend Sat-Mon, 10-2

Maketu Market

Maketu Market is held 3rd & 5th Sundays of the month, 7am-12pm at Maketu Village Green. Ph Carolyn 027 251 0388 or Pat 021 447 420

Messy Church Holy Trinity

Cnr 3rd Ave & Devonport Rd. 4-6pm Theme: Easter, New Life with Jesus. Varied activities, short Christian story, simple meal, GF, vegetarian options. All free. Ph 578 7718

Radio Controlled Model Yachts

Sundays & Thursdays 1:30-4, in pond behind 24 Montego Drive Papamoa, sailing Electron Yachts for fun. Adult beginners welcome. Graham 572 5419

Spiritual Centre Psychic Cafe

Greerton Community Hall. Doors open 6:45pm, starts 7pm sharp. Door-charge $10, then everything free. Bays top 30 Psychics, Healers. Refreshments & more. Ph 578 7205 or www.psychiccafe.nz

Tauranga Spiritual Growth Centre

Meet the mediums & energy healers. Citz Club, 14 Norris St. Every 2nd & 4th Sunday, 6:45pm. $5 door charge

TePuke Country Music Club

1pm at Te Puke Citz RSA Club. All welcome. Put on your Easter bonnet! Ph Gayle 573 8255

Tibetan Buddhist Teachings

Teachings by Geshe Jamyang Sherab held at Papamoa Community Centre, alternate Sundays 10am-12pm. Teachings free, donations appreciated. For dates contact Jaki on 021 216 1102Snowbelle the runaway bunny has found her forever home  just in time for Easter.

After multiple escapes and a marathon 129 days in the care of Tauranga SPCA, the mischievous, white rabbit has been adopted and is now living the high life on a lifestyle block in Pyes Pa.

Snowbelle first arrived at the SPCA in December 2017 as a stray. When no one claimed her, she was de-sexed, micro-chipped, vaccinated and put up for adoption.

By February she had a new home, but eight months later was found living underneath a church by some children who took her to the SPCA.

It wasnt until we scanned her that we worked out it was her, says SPCA animal attendant Kristel Saul.

Snowbelle was re-homed, but less than a month later the escapologist was up to her old tricks again and returned to the SPCA by her new owner.

Unfortunately she escaped from her hutch ... and she didnt seem to like the other rabbits there. Thankfully in her new home apparently shes giving off good signs to the other rabbits, says Kristel.

Her new home is with Tracy Tucker, who lives on a lifestyle property with her mum, sister and niece and nephew.

Tracy adopted Snowbelle after seeing a post on Facebook by the SPCA.

I just felt really bad for her because obviously shed been re-homed twice and was looking for a forever home, and mum lives on a lifestyle block so we have the space, says Tracy.

One of four rabbits on the property, she has her own luxurious hutch, with a secure base that she cant dig her way through and 2m-long run.

She hasnt tried to escape  not that Ive seen, says Tracy.

Shes a little bit shy, so trying to pick her up for cuddles is a bit hard. But once you get her shes really cuddly. She likes her head being massaged.

Having arrived right before Easter, niece Carley, 4, and nephew Leo, 3, think she just might be a bit more special than your average pet rabbit.

They think shes going to bring them Easter eggs, because shes white.

However, the SPCA reminds would-be bunny owners that pet rabbits are not just for Easter.

Around Easter, bunnies are one of the main mascots. People think that rabbits are all cute and cuddly but they need a lot of attention, they need toys and they need space to stretch their legs, says Kristel.

They can live for over 10 years  and a lot of people dont think about that. Theres a lot of work involved, but if you have a rabbit it can be rewarding and rabbits do become part of the family.On Easter Friday night, the moon above the Bay of Plenty provided a stunning display of golden luminescence.

Kerri-Anne Fraser made use of the opportunity for some trick photography with her daughter Lexie Schollum (5) holding the moon in her hand.

We invited readers to send in their own Easter moon and trick photos.

Stephanie Martelli wrote in Hi SunLive I decided to climb the Mount tonight but did not realise it was full moon tonight but got good shot of the Mount with the full moon From peace of love photography Stephanie Martelli.

Shannon Millar wrote I took my boys Tyler and Jayden fishing down on Papamoa East Beach on Friday night. Heres our picture of the Easter moon.

Diane and Steve Whitmarsh wrote Always great view towards the city but what a lovely moon.

Sheryl Mather sent in a photo of the moon appearing quite brooding.

Thanks to everyone who sent in a photo! Enjoy your evening moonlit walks.For the first time, catch limits are being introduced for recreational fishers targeting southern bluefin tuna.

The recreational catch for the tuna has typically been low, but Fisheries New Zealand said it had increased substantially in the last five years.

In 2016, recreational fishers were catching just over a tonne, but that had gone up to more than 24 tonnes by 2017.

The increase in the recreational catch was put down to social media posts, good catch rates and favourable weather, which had resulted in anglers increasingly targeting the species, particularly in Bay of Plenty, a fisheries report says.

But the increased catch threatened New Zealand's ability to meet international obligations to ensure the sustainability of southern bluefin tuna stocks.

As a result, from 1 June, only one fish can be caught per person.

Acting director of fisheries management Steve Halley says the limit reflects the need to carefully manage and rebuild the fishery.

"Following consultation and having received responses from tangata whenua and submissions from stakeholders, Fisheries New Zealand advised the Minister of Fisheries to introduce a daily limit for the recreational fishery," he says.

"Introducing a bag limit will ensure that New Zealand continues to meet its international obligations under the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna."

The species is "highly valuable", but current stock estimates show breeding-age bluefin tuna numbers have dropped to about 13 percent of what they were before fishing began.

"Which is below the level able to produce the maximum sustainable yield," the report says.

For the 2017/2018 fishing year the Minister of Fisheries increased the recreational catch allowance of bluefin tuna nationally from 12 tonnes to 20 tonnes, and the Annual Catch Entitlement for commercial fishers was increased by 76 tonnes.

Fisheries New Zealand says it was also working on longer-term measures to manage the fishery.

-RNZ/Sarah Robson.WORCESTER, N.Y. -- An Otsego County man is accused of poisoning and killing two of a womans cats, according to a New York State police news release.

Antonio Fiorino, 52, of Worcester, faces two counts of agriculture and markets law of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals, police said.

A trooper was dispatched to an address in Worcester, where a woman told the trooper Fiorino posioned her cats, police said.

The woman said the cats became sick on April 9 and were euthanized, police said.

An investigation found that the cats were poisoned with antifreeze, police said.

Fiorino was arrested on Thursday and arraigned in Worcester Town Court, police said. He posted $500 bail and is set to return in court on May 7.JUNIUS, N.Y. -- New York State Police have identified the 6-year-old girl who was killed Friday in Seneca County.

Camyra Watts, 6, died at Geneva Hospital on Friday after being struck in a vehicle driven by her mother, 26-year-old Mary Taylor, of Seneca Falls.

Taylors two other daughters were seriously injured and taken to Strong Memorial Hospital. They are Tamyah, 3, and Capria, 11 months.

Troopers responded to a crash on State Route 318 and Burgess Road in Junius around 4:15 p.m. on Friday, according to New York State Police said.

Taylor was driving her minivan westbound on State Route 318, and slowed to turn left onto Burgess Road, police said.

As she did that, a flatbed truck also driving westbound rear-ended the minivan, police said, which caused the fatal and serious injuries.

The driver of the flatbed truck, Meroe Hurst, 19, of Seneca Falls, was not injured. The truck is registered to Finger Lakes Dairy Services, police said.

Taylor, the mother, was treated for non-serious injuries.

Police did not say whether Hurst is facing any charges at the moment. The investigation is continuing, police said.UTICA, N.Y. -- A Marcy man was charged for disrupting a church service Saturday night in Utica by trying to access the altar twice, according to Utica police.

Its the second time in four months a disruptive churchgoer has tried to interfere with services at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on the 2200 block of Genesee Street in Utica.

Around 9:30 p.m., Jonathan Morse, 30, tried to gain access to the" altar at the church on two occasions, according to Utica police. Off-duty Utica police officers attending the service tried to get Morse to leave.

Instead, Morse created a disturbance, yelling and refusing to leave, according to police spokesman Bryan Coromato. Coromato said Morse was just yelling. No threats of violence ...or anything like that.

Morse was charged with misdemeanor disruption of a religious service. He was taken to police headquarters.

No injuries were reported, police said.

In January, another man -- Harry Brown, 62 -- was charged at the same church again at a Saturday service for allegedly yelling religious verses and messing with church property. That occurred Jan. 5 around 4 p.m.

Coromato said the two disturbances are not related.

In Browns case, congregants contained him to an area where he was unable to harm himself or others, police said at the time. He was also charged with disruption of a religious service, a class "A" misdemeanor.

A call to the church on Easter Sunday was not returned.A redacted version of the 448-page Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election" -- the Mueller report -- was released to the public Thursday. The report details the ways agents of the Russian government tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the ways President Donald Trump tried to thwart the investigation into his associates contacts with Russians.

Attorney General William Barr, in a news conference before the reports publication, repeatedly said Special Counsel Robert Mueller had found there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, just as the president had said for months.

After reading it, the presidents critics pointed out the report also did not exonerate Trump, and that the conduct illuminated by Muellers investigation, while it may not have risen to the level of a crime, walked right up to that line.

Many editorial cartoonists portrayed Barr as a loyal servant of the president, casting the reports findings in the most favorable light before anyone had a chance to read it and redacting it more liberally than necessary.

About 10 percent of the report was redacted -- or blacked out -- because it involved ongoing investigations, grand jury material, classified information or details that invaded personal privacy. The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena Friday to the Justice Department for an unredacted report, setting up a likely court fight.

The other big story in the news this week was the devastating fire at Notre Dame de Paris, the 800-year-old Gothic cathedral in the heart of Paris. Firefighters were able to save the building, and many of the priceless religious relics and artworks inside. But the damage is great. It will take years to repair the church.

Cartoons were drawn by Bill Bramhall, Chan Lowe, Dan Wasserman, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands and Joel Pett of Tribune Content Agency; Tim Campbell, Mike Lester, Signe Wilkinson and Jeff Danziger of the Washington Post Writers Group; and Tom Toles of Andrews McMeel Syndication.

View more editorial cartoon galleries.Few things in this world are permanent, but the 800-year-old Notre Dame cathedral came close. Begun in 1163, completed in 1345, Our Lady of Paris witnessed coronations, beatifications and decapitations. Its stone walls, flying buttresses and magnificent stained glass windows survived the French Revolution, two world wars, periods of neglect, various renovations, and the long march of time.

No wonder the sight of Notre Dame in flames during Holy Week shook the soul of the world.

The cathedral is the heart of Paris and a symbol of French identity, but it also belongs to all humankind, whether Christian or not, Catholic or not, religious or not. Having witnessed the destruction, we hurt -- but do not despair.

Today, Easter Sunday, Christians are gathering in churches around the world to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Their despair at the crucifixion has turned to joy. It is an apt metaphor for Notre Dame de Paris.

It will take years, if not decades, to rebuild and restore the cathedral, but French President Emmanuel Macron vowed it will be rebuilt and restored. Donations are pouring in to accomplish the task.

The view inside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, Tuesday, April 16, 2019, after fire consumed the timber roof. The marble sculpture atop the high altar, depicting Mary holding the body of Jesus, survived the flames and falling debris. (Christophe Petit Tesson | Pool via AP)AP

Notre Dames irreplaceable treasures  relics reputed to be the crown of thorns Jesus wore on the cross, a splinter and a nail from the cross  were saved from the burning building by the well-trained Paris fire brigade and its chaplain. The white marble sculpture of Mary cradling the body of Jesus that adorned the high altar, the 1725 pieta Descent from the Cross, miraculously survived the flames and falling rubble. Other works of art and the cathedrals pipe organ suffered water damage.

Notre Dame de Paris still stands, but now it is a monument to impermanence. After more than eight centuries, we nearly lost it in a day.

About Syracuse.com editorials

Editorials represent the collective opinion of the Advance Media New York editorial board. Our opinions are independent of news coverage. Read our mission statement. Members of the editorial board are Tim Kennedy, Trish LaMonte, Jason Murray and Marie Morelli.

To respond to this editorial: Post a comment below, or submit a letter or commentary to letters@syracuse.com. Read our submission guidelines.

If you have questions about the Opinions & Editorials section, contact Marie Morelli, editorial/opinion leader, at mmorelli@syracuse.comAllowing domestic cats to roam outside the house can result in parasitic infection which can harm not only the cat but also its owners, according to a study.

The research analyzed more than 20 scientific studies and cats from over a dozen countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, and St. Kitts. It looked at 19 different cat pathogens including those relevant to human, domestic animal, and wildlife health, such as Toxoplasma gondii and Toxocara cati.

Don't Let The Cats Out

A new meta-analysis from the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University in Alabama suggests that outdoor cats are nearly three times more likely to become infected with pathogens than their indoor counterparts. Many of the pathogens that cats carry can be transmitted to humans.

Surprisingly, the study also indicates that cats in countries farther away from the equator are more likely to be afflicted by a bug or virus if they are set free outside. Wildlife in higher altitudes also showed higher infection rate from bacteria, increasing the risks for cats in those countries.

The study yielded consistent results for almost all of the diseases, including feline roundworm, and the single-cell parasite, both of which can affect humans. The pathogens were also transmitted in various ways, from the soil, other cats, or prey such as mice and birds.

"Basically, no matter where you are in the world, keeping your cat indoors is a great way to keep them healthy from infectious diseases," Kayleigh Chalkowski, lead author of the study, told AFP.

Transmission From Animals To Humans

There is an estimate of 80 to 90 million pet cats in the United States, and 500 million worldwide.

Other domesticated animals are known to transmit disease to their owners or caretakers. Dogs can spread rabies, and cattles can pass on Cryptosporidium parvum, a parasitic disease that attacks the intestinal tract. The parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been linked to depression, seizures, and schizophrenia in humans.

To mitigate parasitic infection, the study suggests that cat owners monitor how far their cat wanders from home, and limit the number of other animals the cat may come into contact with.

Likewise, the researchers advise that kittens that have weaker immune systems than grown cats should be kept indoors.

The study is published in the journal Biology Letters.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A 43-year-old mother will undergo a rare multi-organ transplant considered as the most challenging and difficult transplant operation in the world.

Seven Organ Transplant

Michelle Oddy said she is aware of the dangers of the operation. She was advised she faces nearly 40 percent chances of dying should she undergo the seven organ transplant, but she is willing to take the risk anyway.

Oddy was diagnosed of Crohn's disease as a teenager and the surgery will replace her bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, large and small intestine, and half of her stomach.

Oddy said that her health has deteriorated since her diagnosis of the inflammatory bowel disease at age 14, and she can now only consume liquids.

She said she is willing to take chances because her body has had enough with the hospital visits. She is also concerned over the effects of her poor health on her family after she almost died twice.

"It sounds morbid but it's only a matter of time before I die," she said. "There's a strong chance I won't wake up at all from the transplant. It sounds really scary and people ask why I'm doing it but I've got no life whatsoever."

Top Of The Organ Donation List

She will undergo the 20-hour operation at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, the only hospital in the United Kingdom that provides multi-organ transplant.

Surgeon Andrew Butler described the operation as rare and complex. Only four of this kind of surgery are done each year.

"We have carried out about 100 such procedures and internationally there have been around 1,500 bowel containing transplants in adults since 1992," he said.

Oddy is now on top of the organ donation list, carrying a buzzer with her all the time to alert her once a donor becomes available. All the organs will be from the same person.

Oddy sees the operation as her only chance to recover and hopes the surgery will be completed within the next month. After the operation, she will stay in the hospital for 10 months and at home for 14 months while she recovers from the surgery.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A power outage hit the northwestern Venezuelan state of Zulia early Sunday, state-owned electric utility Corpoelec said.

Zulia has been one of the states most affected by the power outages that started months ago and eventually forced the government to impose an electricity rationing system.

Due to the rains adjacent to (the) Cuatricentenario (substation), an event occurred that interrupted electric service in Zulia, Corpoelec said in a Twitter post.

The state-owned electric utility did not provide details about the cause of the outage, but opposition Congressman Edwin Luzardo, who is from Zulia, tweeted that a transformer exploded.

Sadly, Zulia state has become the epicenter for a great deal of misfortunes ... Transformer explosion leads to a new blackout, the lawmaker said.

Corpoelec said it was working to restore service, which is interrupted daily under the electricity rationing system implemented by President Nicolas Maduro s administration in 20 of this oil-rich South American nations 23 states on March 31 following a series of blackouts.

Zulia has been dealing with power outages since last year.

On March 7, Venezuela experienced a massive blackout that kept virtually the whole country in the dark for five days until the government managed to regain control of the situation and restore electric service.

In all, Venezuela was paralyzed by power outages for at least 11 days in March.

The government said at the time that sabotage at the Guri hydroelectric complex was to blame for the blackout.

Maduro directly blamed the United States and the opposition for the alleged sabotage, claiming that electromagnetic attacks had been staged on the electric grid.

The opposition, however, blamed the Maduro regime for failures in the system, saying that the governments poor management of the grid was the real cause of the outage.

The early March blackout caused about 15 deaths due to the lack of electricity at Venezuelan hospitals, the opposition claims, while officials contend that just two people died.It's been nearly five years since Gary Stewart's book was published laying out the evidence that led him to conclude his biological father was the notorious Zodiac Killer of the 1960s.

Since that time, Stewart told a meeting of the Baton Rouge Genealogical and Historical Society on Saturday, he's continued his research into the man he's convinced was his biological father  a serial killer known as The Zodiac.

Stewart has spent the last 17 years of his life researching his biological father, Earl Van Best Jr., who he says abandoned him in the stairwell of a downtown Baton Rouge apartment building in 1962 when Stewart was just a month old.

BR mans Zodiac Killer book credible, compelling The Most Dangerous Animal of All: Searching for My Father ... And Finding the Zodiac Killer by Gary L. Stewart with Susan Mustafa. HarperCol

In his book,"The Most Dangerous Animal of All," written with true crime writer Susan Mustafa, Stewart claims his father would go on to murder at least five people in northern California between 1968 and 1969. All the while, he would taunt the police as The Zodiac with letters and cryptograms sent to area newspapers.

Stewart's book would end up making the New York Times bestseller list, and his claims about The Zodiac have been featured in People Magazine, on CNN and, most recently on Investigation Discoverys Very Scary People.

Next up is a documentary series being filmed by Academy Award-nominated director Kief Davidson.

Stewart, a Baton Rouge native who still works in the area as an electrical engineer, says he did not set out to prove his father was a criminal. Instead, he hoped to find a man to sit and have a cup of coffee with.

He said he believes there have been more documentaries done on The Zodiac case in the last year than at any point in the last fifty years since the last known victim, taxi-cab driver Paul Stine, was killed in San Francisco.

+7 Was Zodiac killer a Baton Rouge man's dad? This new documentary explores the mystery A 2014 New York Times bestseller made Gary L. Stewart internationally known as possibly the son of an infamous serial killer. The spotlight wi

In 2002, when Stewart first met his biological mother, Judith Gilford, she told him about how Best had abandoned him and abused her, and he decided he wanted nothing to do with the man.

I told her, you know what, Ive got the best dad in the world in Baton Rouge and if my father took me from your arms and broke your heart like that I dont think I want to know this guy, Stewart said. That was the end of my story. Until the next day when I was flying back to Baton Rouge and I had time to think about it. I decided I wanted to hear his side of the story.

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Stewart is one of at least four people to come forward with claims their parent committed the heinous Zodiac murders. In 2009, Deborah Perez claimed her father Guy Ward Hendrickson was the Zodiac and that she had Stines glasses that police confirmed were missing from the crime scene.

San Francisco police later said the glasses were not a match, and Perezs half-sister said the claim was all lies. In a 2009 press conference, San Francisco police said there have been over 2,500 suspects in the Zodiac case but the case remains open.

In May of 2018, after a DNA profile developed through an open-source database lead to the arrest of Joseph DeAngelo, the man accused of being the Golden State Killer, the Vallejo police department submitted two envelopes containing letters from the Zodiac Killer for a new, more advanced form of DNA analysis.

At the time, Vallejo homicide detectives told The Sacramento Bee that they hoped to have the results within a few weeks but no results were ever released to the public.

San Francisco police have been skeptical of all Zodiac claims. They have a partial DNA profile of the zodiac killer which they have used to eliminate suspects like Arthur Leigh Allen, the subject of Robert Graysmiths two Zodiac books and the inspiration for the 2007 David Fincher feature film Zodiac.

Stewart said he has been swabbed for DNA testing at least twice, once in 2004 by San Francisco homicide detective John Hennessey and once since the book was published.

A few months after my book was published I was invited to the San Francisco Police Department, Stewart said.

He said a new cold-case investigator, Gianrico Pierucci, brought him in for a 30-minute interview that turned into a nearly two-hour conversation about Stewarts claims. He asked if he could take my DNA one more time.

Stewart said Pierucci had the DNA tested against the partial Zodiac profile and could not eliminate his father as a suspect in the Zodiac case.

The fact that I have this DNA marker and it was also on the back of a stamp in San Francisco and my father abandoned me here, that is just not a coincidence, Stewart said.

On Monday, Stewart and his son Zach Stewart will travel to Mexico City to visit Bests unmarked grave as part of the filming of the documentary series.Arthur Munoz was 6 years old when his family left Mexico and immigrated to the United States. He started first grade in California speaking almost no English.

But before long he was fluent enough to start translating for his mom  a single parent introducing her children to the American dream.

Munoz joined the Baton Rouge Police Department almost 25 years ago after moving to Louisiana with his wife. He's living his own American dream now, but hasn't forgotten how he got here.

One of four native Spanish speakers on the Baton Rouge police force, he's trying to build bridges between police and Hispanic residents who are often fearful of authorities.

Those fears have grown since President Donald Trump campaigned and won on an anti-immigration platform and has pursued more aggressive enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Advocates and leaders of Baton Rouge's Hispanic community are worried that their people are being targeted for theft and other crimes, in part because the perpetrators think immigrants are less likely to call 911 after being victimized.

Munoz said the concerns are legitimate. That's what fuels his efforts to educate people on their rights and the duties of law enforcement officers, which is first and foremost to protect and serve.

"Most of these people are running from horrific conditions in their home countries, and that includes corrupt governments and corrupt police," he said. "Then instead of a helping hand, they're being victimized all over again in America.  We need them to know that as police we're here to help, but we can't do anything if they're not calling us."

Growing concerns

Last month a Honduran immigrant was gunned down outside his Baton Rouge apartment complex in an apparent armed robbery that remains unsolved.

Alex Lemus, 23, had immigrated five years earlier fleeing violence in Honduras. He moved to Baton Rouge for job opportunities and started working as a painter, then met his future wife and became a father. Lemus was leaving for work the morning of March 25 when someone approached him with a gun and pulled the trigger, ending his life.

His death raised questions about how to address the growing problem of crimes that appear to target immigrants in the Baton Rouge area.

Family man killed in Monday homicide had moved to Baton Rouge fleeing violence in Honduras The young man who was gunned down outside his apartment complex in an apparent armed robbery Monday morning had immigrated to the U.S. from Ho

A similar case unfolded last year in the city's Gardere neighborhood when two Hispanic men became victims of an armed robbery and shooting, which left one dead. A teenager has since been arrested and indicted in that case.

Members of the Hispanic community  which makes up about 4 percent of the parish's population  said they're often targeted in robberies because many carry cash instead of keeping their money in a bank account. They do so either because they're not used to dealing with banks in their home countries or because they don't have the documentation necessary to open an account.

Although the community has grown in recent decades, it remains a small segment of East Baton Rouge residents. Recent estimates show the parish is now home to about 18,000 Hispanic residents.

The Hispanic Apostolate of the Baton Rouge Diocese has taken action since Lemus' death, trying to dissuade fears of law enforcement and is encouraging people to report crimes they witness.

"There are people being shot in their own homes, afraid to call police," said Julia Scarnato, executive director of the Hispanic Apostolate. "People in car accidents afraid to visit hospitals. Things in Baton Rouge have gotten pretty bad."

+9 Baton Rouge's growing Hispanic community celebrates culture A suburban Baton Rouge library took on a Latin American cast Saturday as dozens of residents of Hispanic descent gathered to celebrate their c

What is 287(g)?

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Hispanic leaders said convincing immigrants to trust police has become more difficult for various reasons, including an agreement signed in 2017 between the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

The Sheriff's Office is the only law enforcement agency in Louisiana  but one of dozens across the country  with a current 287(g) agreement.

The program, which has grown under the Trump administration, allows some local law enforcement officers to fulfill duties otherwise assigned to ICE agents. But its jurisdiction is limited to inmates of local jails who have already been arrested and detained on other alleged crimes unrelated to citizenship.

Even if an inmate is found to be undocumented, authorities said, the seriousness of the offense is considered when determining whether to begin deportation proceedings.

East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks said it's important to realize that the agency does not have deputies charged with enforcing immigration laws against members of the general public who haven't been booked into jail.

The agreement includes training for some deputies that allows them to check the federal immigration status of Parish Prison inmates. Hicks said it doesn't change how laws are enforced, just who's responsible for enforcement.

"Prior to 287(g) the warden stated ICE had a representative stationed at the prison that carried out the same functions," Hicks said in an email. "The only difference now is that certain prison staff are trained to collect certain information pertaining to citizenship under the supervision of ICE."

Despite what officials described as minimal changes resulting from the expanded program, immigration advocates said agencies risk damaging their relationship with the public when they choose to collaborate with federal immigration authorities.

"Having these agreements with ICE makes it difficult for people to trust whether local agencies are acting in the best interest of residents," said Christy Williams, an attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. "It's the primary responsibility of local officials to make sure that their community feels safe and comfortable interacting with them  with as little fear as possible."

The American Civil Liberties Union released a national report last year showing that heightened fear of deportation was stopping immigrants from reporting crimes and participating in court proceedings.

Researchers said 67 percent of police officers surveyed reported an impact on their ability to protect crime survivors generally.

Prosecutors also reported that crimes including domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking were harder to investigate and prosecute because immigrant crime survivors feared immigration consequences if they came forward.

Rebuilding trust

Both Baton Rouge police and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office said they want to improve relations and engage in outreach whenever possible, though manpower issues sometimes limit those efforts.

Munoz, the Baton Rouge police officer, said one of his missions is to make sure members of the Hispanic community know their rights  most importantly that they can report a crime without facing questions about their immigration status.

Officers will often ask for identification when taking down witness statements, but people have the right to remain anonymous or decline to provide photo ID. There are also federal programs that allow undocumented crime victims to obtain either temporary or permanent legal status, particularly for victims of violent crime who agree to cooperate with police and prosecutors.

"There are so many rumors about people being deported, local law enforcement working for ICE, checkpoints, you name it," Munoz said. "But nothing has really changed."

He said the department is actively recruiting more Spanish speaking officers. But in the meantime, Munoz is doing his part to bridge the gap  passing out his cell number, frequenting Latino businesses, hosting radio shows on local Spanish stations and answering questions from the public.

"I'm very fortunate to be entrusted with this job, and someone's gotta do it," he said. "I too came here without the language. I remember that.  If I can possibly help one or two people along the way, that's a good thing."Prisoners waded out of the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women six months ago, each clutching two laundry bags of belongings, as floodwaters engulfed the state's only prison for female offenders.

They won't return for at least a year.

Renovations and reconstruction at the St. Gabriel facility are underway, but state Department of Public Safety and Corrections officials believe the $4 million repair project will take that long to be completed. Meanwhile, prisoners and corrections employees are scattered at other facilities around the state.

The water level in the prison on August 16  the day state officials made the call to evacuate  fluctuated between ankle-deep to up to the hip, said Seth Smith, chief of operations for the state agency. Still, Smith recalled that he kept finding that whatever new boots or waders he put on still werent enough.

While describing the day-long evacuation process, Seth Smith had a Freudian slip that summed up the situation.

We started at about 11:30 a.m. that afternoon.  I think we didnt get the last boat out, er last boat. That last bus load out. Im sitting here picturing all the water, Smith said. It felt like a boat. We didnt get the last bus load out until well after 9:30 p.m.

The rising water displaced 1,015 inmates, including 95 women who had previously evacuated from Livingston Parish Prison, to four facilities across the state.

The event was a first for Shanda Crain, who has been incarcerated for about two decades. She said they were watching the news all morning, but didnt know they would be personally affected. Once they got the evacuation order and left, however, things changed.

It became very different when we walked out of LCIW and water was up over our knees, Crain said.

Helen Burns, who has been an inmate in the prison for about as long as Crain, said the amount of unknowns made it difficult to pack quickly, which may be a familiar experience to those outside of prison walls.

The thing was to figure out what was most important, Burns said. We didnt know where we were going or how long we would be gone.

The inmates were then handcuffed together in pairs. They waded out to the buses with their belongings in tow.

Both Burns and Crain were with the group of inmates to move to C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center in DeQuincy, just 16 miles from the Texas border. They were not allowed to know where they were going so the women occupied their time by searching for street signs. Crain was surprised to see signs for Texas as they got closer to DeQuincy.

The largest group of offenders went to Phelps, while some were sent to the Louisiana Transitional Center for Women in Tallulah and Avoyelles Parish jail. Almost 40 women were sent to the Louisiana Penitentiary in Angola, the maximum security prison that normally only houses men.

Phelps, a work release facility for male prisoners, and Angola both had open buildings that the women moved into and had clear separation from the male inmates. The Avoyelles jail already houses both male and female inmates.

Temporary resettlement

As the flood waters receded and damage was assessed, Smith said he realized that a more long-term solution needed to be found. Corrections officials eyed the Jetson Center for Youth, a juvenile correctional facility in Baker that closed in 2014.

After two weeks in Phelps, 54 inmates were chosen to move to Jetson and renovate it for 233 others to join them later.

Crain was part of that convoy and called the bus ride to Jetson somber because they did not know what to expect or, again, where they were going.

We all prayed on the way and when we got here  we came in and they said heres your lunch and be ready to work in an hour, Crain said.

They cleaned, painted and organized the shuttered facility, all the while keeping in mind that their goal was to get it ready  to get everybody back together again, Crain said.

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A month after the evacuation in mid-September, Jetson was ready. There are now 287 inmates at the facility, while another two hundred prisoners transferred to a separate dorm building at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, the prison for male inmates next door to LCIW in St. Gabriel, which didn't flood. Some inmates were moved to other local facilities.

We managed to evacuate this entire facility, spread them out and then bring them back in and consolidate at few facilities with minimal incidents, Smith said. Thats just a lot of teamwork.

Though visitation and programming was suspended at first, it eventually returned as daily operations got up and running, Smith said. They've also reinstated academic and trade programs.

We dont want them to lose an opportunity to gain knowledge, skills and abilities to help them on the outside, Smith said.

One option for programming is the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, which operates within various Louisiana prisons. Burns, a seminary student, ministered to other inmates while at Phelps by just talking with and supporting them. For her, it has also been a lesson.

In order to receive  we have to lose, Burns said. In order to reach people, we have to be on the same level as them.

On top of the damage at the prison and the ensuing headaches of moving inmates around, many LCIW employees suffered damage at their own homes. Others needed to help out family members who lost their houses.

Master Sergeant Yulonda Brooks flooded personally. Although it was challenging to balance her work and personal life, I knew I had to do it, she said.

Thats one of the heroic things about the situation is that we had employees who lost everything, but (they) were committed to getting this population out safely into another location in spite of their families being in distress, LCIW Warden Frederick Boutte said.

Renovations

Renovations are underway at LCIW and remediation is 80 percent complete. But officials say a January 2018 reopening date would be ambitious.

Currently, the ticket price hovers around $4.07 million, which will be mostly covered by FEMA and insurance. But the price is very likely to increase once electrical and mechanical surveying is completed, Smith said. For example, it is still unclear if the electronic lock system sustained damage or not.

Even though the level of water varied across the prison, it sat for longer than in most places throughout the Baton Rouge area because the prison is on the fringes of the Spanish Lake area. High water in the swamp basin became trapped behind Manchac-Alligator Bayou roads and took weeks to drain.

Because the water lingered, even a few inches did serious damage. Water wicked up the walls and soaked into the concrete blocks, which requires special cleaning.

All linens, all personal items, most furniture and the entire sewing shop, where inmates use newfound skills to produce state prison linens, were lost and will need to be replaced.

Some things, however, cannot be replaced, which prompted some reflection for Crain.

Her kids, now 28, 30 and 31 years old, were 5, 7 and 8 years old when she went to prison. She lost many mementos of them like pictures and letters. Many women also left behind pardon board portfolios and program certificates that show that youve become a different person, Crain said.

She said it makes her realize what matters in life.

Do not store your treasures up on this earth, Crain said, paraphrasing the biblical passage. I think we tend to do that in prison, out of prison.  As quickly as its given, it can be taken.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Crain said the flood losses made her reflect on the reason she is in prison in the first place. News accounts show that a Shanda Crain was found guilty in 1997 of the murder of her parents in Washington Parish. Prosecutors says she wanted the $300,000 life insurance benefits to fund her video poker habits.

Its a reminder of what you took from other people when they became a victim of your crime, she said.At first, the roughly 1,000 women held at Louisiana's prison for women in St. Gabriel when it flooded in 2016 were told they'd be temporarily displaced.

About 250 were moved into the nearby men's prison and about 250 more to what was once a juvenile detention center in Baker, with the remainder shipped off to local jails or transitional programs scattered across the state.

Then, they were told theyd have to spend another year of living in overcrowded facilities, separated from the people who had become their adopted families behind bars. In addition to that deeply-felt loss, many no longer hold the jobs that used to give them a sense of purpose and pride.

But now it's stretched on for almost three years  and there seems to be no end in sight.

+13 One year after flood: Evacuated inmates restock wares, prison stands empty Angela Stokes lost nearly everything she gathered in her 26 years in prison when it flooded in August 2016, including photos of her now grown 

When will we get back to normal? said Tiffany Byrd, a prisoner housed in a crowded dorm at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center  a mens prison  since the states facility for women flooded. Temporary has become permanent.  Its like theyve forgotten about us.

Without a fully-operating women's prison and still no realized plan to renew the old structure or completely rebuild it, the stress level and challenges have continued to build for both the inmate population and staff.

State corrections officials blame the continued delays on FEMA, which has yet to approve Louisiana's plan to knock down the flooded prison and rebuild. Without that approval, the bulk of the project's much-needed funds remain held up by the federal flood assistance program.

A FEMA spokeswoman said the agency is still trying to verify the extent of the flood damage to the prison, a slow process because of detailed legal and regulatory requirements that must be followed. In addition, she said, state corrections officials have changed their plans for fixing the women's prison which requires FEMA to vet updates.

So, for the time being, the women once held at LCIW are scattered across the state. The only signs of life at the abandoned women's prison these days are daily patrols conducted by three correctional officers and the few former inmates, including Byrd, who are brought in to maintain the grounds.

Its really heartbreaking seeing where I used to live, where I used to work, and having to see it in the devastating state that its in, Byrd said. And theyre not even doing anything.

Her Elayn Hunt dorm-mate, Ashleigh Thornton, nodded along, equally disappointed by the lack of progress at the LCIW prison she used to call home: Hey, were still here, she said.

+30 Louisiana's women's prison finds flood recovery a slow, difficult road Prisoners waded out of the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women six months ago, each clutching two laundry bags of belongings, as floodw

Cramped quarters

Elizabeth Latson served the first 10 years of her 25-year sentence at LCIW, where she shared a room with one other woman.

You were able to move around, Latson said. Especially if you were going through something, you were able to go back, seclude yourself.

Since the flood, shes been housed in a dorm at the previously-shuttered Jetson Center for Youth in Baker. She now sleeps in a bunk bed about two feet from the next double bunk, the room packed with almost 40 of the double bunks for the 71 women there.

This is everyday life since the flood, Latson said, extending her arm to easily touch the bed next to hers. Its a struggle.

LCIW Warden Frederick Boutte said its even more cramped at the dorm at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel.

These women are literally ... living on top of one another, Boutte said. In comparison to other state facilities, these women are jammed up. ...Everything they go through, somebody is staring at them, watching them go through it. I dont think thats optimal conditions.

But to the women, even more important than the living conditions is who is there with them, or who is not.

Just being separated is almost like being separated from your family, said Sherri Sepulvado, a woman now incarcerated at the Baker facility. You grow accustomed to spending every day of your life with this certain group of people and just the separation in itself is very, very difficult. ... You look to those people for support and you look to those people for guidance."

She trailed off, tears in her eyes.

We are trying to pay our debt to society, but also get better in the meantime, Thornton said. A part of rehabilitation is love. ...And to be separated from (those people), it kind of sets you back a little bit.

Almost 1,800 women are currently incarcerated by the state in Louisiana, and now more than 70 percent of them are at local facilities, not state-run prisons. Before the flood, nearly 1,000 were held at LCIW.

The female prisoners who were interviewed by The Advocate, as well as the LCIW staff, said they are trying their best to make do and support each other but its still a daily challenge.

Boutte finds himself making the 40-mile drive between the Baker facility and Elayn Hunt multiple times each day to be available for the women. Despite being physically divided, he said, his employees remain staffed at the same levels as when they were at all together. And that has impacted some services, classes and daily operations.

Boutte said neither the re-purposed facility at Elayn Hunt nor the one at Jetson has a cafeteria for the women, which means food is brought into the dorms to eat, often cold by the time it arrives.

He also said cell space is lacking for inmates who occasionally need to be segregated from the general population for disciplinary reasons, so they have to be moved elsewhere. And while there are still classes, vocational programming and other services offered, they are now available to a smaller group of women, many only offered at the Baker location.

Your whole way of life has been disrupted," Sepulvado said. "And its like were still scratching in the dirt to try to get things back together and scrambling just to have some bit of normalcy."

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FEMA delays

Department of Corrections undersecretary Thomas Bickham said officials thought at first they could restore the buildings of LCIW in 2016 and spent about $8 million initially on cleaning. But now, as the buildings have sat in the Louisiana heat and moisture, the mold that was cleaned has returned and the facility has deteriorated further.

We realized.. that this facility is not going to be usable as it stands today. Bickham said. Its cost prohibitive to go up there and jackhammer walls, its more feasible to knock the whole building down.

Prison officials have pivoted to a plan with an estimated $100 million price tag, hoping to demolish the current LCIW buildings  all but two that did not flood, which includes the chapel  and rebuild a state-of-the-art womens prison, in line with todays corrections standards.

Bickham said the cost also includes building the prison to the 500-year floodplain, which will allow the state to use it as an evacuation site for women prisoners during emergencies like hurricanes or another flood.

In 2016, women at the Livingston Parish jail were initially evacuated to LCIW, but had to be moved a second time when waters started also rising at the state facility, Bickham said. LCIW was built to 100-year flood levels.

Bickham said they still do not know how much of the $100 million price tag that FEMA will cover.

But he said he expects the state to eventually get federal reimbursement for the cost of housing at local jails the 400 women for whom there wasn't sufficient room at Elayn Hunt or Jetson. He said it costs $24.39 a day per inmate to house them at the local jails and prison officials hope to apply reimbursements for those expenses toward the cost of building a new prison.

+6 'It starts here': At prison job fair, soon-to-be-released women speak of dreams, challenges Vicky James and Maybrie Magee, graduates of trade training programs, visited a job fair Thursday as they prepare to take the next step in thei

Every meeting I have with (FEMA), I remind them, Every day that goes by its another $10,000 a day to house females (outside) a state institution, Bickham said.

But Bickham said FEMA has balked at putting money into building a new prison that would be designated as an evacuee facility.

Melissa Wilkins, a FEMA spokeswoman, said in an email that agency officials have had to review an extensive amount of information in "attempting to verify all actual damages caused by the flood event."

Wilkins said FEMA can't, at present, support demolishing and replacing the LCIW facility but continues to work with state officials on the issue.

However, Bickham said it's clear that there is no way to salvage the LCIW buildings, which need to be torn down and replaced.

Regardless of what level cleaning they do, these buildings will not be inhabitable, Bickham said.

Corrections officials admit the interim housing for women is subpar, but say they hope they can rebuild the new LCIW to a higher standard, one that will better rehabilitate women so they can be better mothers, employees and citizens when they return to society.

The fact is if you want to make (Louisiana) a better place to live in, you have to start with the people who need it most," Boutte said.

+11 'They dont see us as human beings, as women': Ex-offenders rally for formerly jailed women's rights Chantay Clark was just 15 when she was handed a life sentence on a first-degree murder charge for shooting and killing a woman while trying to

Focus on women

Despite LCIWs lack of progress, advocates for women in prison say there have been successes over the past year  a trend they hope will continue in how the prison is eventually rebuilt and how the state treats women behind bars.

In 2018, the state legislature passed the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act, a law that required the state provide certain, and adequate, sanitary products to women in prison and enumerated certain protections for them from male correctional officers and employees.

Lawmakers also passed a resolution to form the first ever Louisiana Womens Incarceration Task Force, a body of advocates, legislators and corrections officials looking directly at issues affecting this population.

I think what weve done is put another light on women incarcerated that wasnt there before, said state Rep. Pat Smith, a Baton Rouge Democrat. Because they were a smaller group, they were not really given the same opportunities as the men.

Most of the discussions on criminal justice reform have focused on men, who outnumber women in prison almost five to one.

But Syrita Steib-Martin, executive director of Operation Restoration, a group that works with formerly incarcerated women, says there needs to be more attention paid to women in prison.

These are the people that are raising kids in our society as well, so we should be interested and invested, Steib-Martin said, who was herself in prison 10 years ago.

The rate of incarcerated women in Louisiana has remained for decades above the national average, according to data from the Vera Institute of Justice. The data also shows the number of women in Louisiana's prisons grew by almost 600 percent in the last 20 years, more than the rate of men from the same time period.

But corrections officials also point to numbers since 2012, which parallel with the male population, that show the number of women in prison in the state has begun to dip.

Women have very different needs than men," Steib-Martin said.

She said the women in prison task force has already made some recommendations for changes to Department of Corrections' officials, like creating a handbook for women prisoners.

Smith, who is also on the Task Force, said they have started looking at ways to enforce and increase oversight of all women under state custody, especially those spread out at local jails.

Smith said they are also working on ways to give mothers in prison more opportunities to keep in touch with their children, and bringing more useful vocational skills to the women in prison.

Lets give them skills that they can use, real life, Smith said.

But moving forward, Steib-Martin looks to numbers from the last two decades, showing the rate the state incarcerated women in prison grew more than six-fold until 2016, a faster pace than for men. She cites that as a reason for the Task Force needs to continue its work.

All women in prison are someones mother, someones daughter; they are human beings, Steib-Martin said. If we are incarcerating (at these levels)  we are definitely doing something wrong. We should be focusing on it and trying to figure out what that is.Farms and industrial plants that discharge pollutants into Louisiana wetlands and waterways will soon have a new system to buy and sell pollution credits.

State officials said the idea behind pollution credits was inspired by carbon trading programs intended to curb air pollution. But some environmental watchdogs are skeptical of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality's plan, officially called the Water Quality Trading program.

"Louisiana should be very reticent to implement such a program which many have termed a 'pay to pollute' program," the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic wrote in a letter to regulators.

But Jonathan McFarland, a DEQ administrator with the water planning and assessment division, said there are safeguards in place to prevent abuses.

First, the program isn't for toxic substances but rather targets nutrients like nitrates and phosphates as well as dissolved oxygen, McFarland said.

They all play a part all play a part in making sure aquatic creatures from plankton to fish can breathe underwater and in avoiding hypoxia  areas where animals can't survive, like the infamous Gulf of Mexico dead zone.

Farms, ranches and wastewater treatment facilities all discharge nutrients. A farmer who leaves a buffer between his crops and the nearest river could qualify for credits under the program that he could sell to a sewage plant or fertilizer manufacturer to help them meet their permit requirements, McFarland explained.

The DEQ plans to let the free market decide how much credits will be worth rather than setting a price.

McFarland emphasized that the program would encourage a net reduction in pollution. If a site reduces its pollution by 100 pounds, a buyer could only purchase credits to offset a fraction of that amount at their own facility. However, the state does not have a system for determining how much credit any given project would qualify for. McFarland said the amount of the credit would be determined on a case-by-case basis.

The proposed policy could be implemented as early as June and would only apply to new projects. Asked if the program might unintentionally give polluters an incentive to abandon existing green projects so they can claim the credits later, DEQ press secretary Greg Langley said that won't happen. The credit program is just an income supplement, he said, and it wouldn't be worthwhile to tear down measures already in place.

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Officials noted that agricultural, industrial and environmental stakeholders showed a lot of interest in the program in meetings in the past year, though they declined to speculate how many will ultimately participate.

Not everyone is impressed by the DEQ's proposal.

Tulane's Environmental Law Clinic urged the state to start with a pilot program to work out any kinks before adopting a new statewide rule.

The clinic, which officially commented to the DEQ on behalf of several environmental groups, did not respond to requests for comment.

However, in their letter to the state, they called for "clear, transparent documentation available to the public and sound scientific considerations when calculating credit ratios and baselines."

Regulators seem to be putting the cart before the horse, said Matt Rota, senior policy director for the non-profit Healthy Gulf.

Rota's said he's not against a credit program, per se, but argued that Louisiana needs specific nitrogen and phosphate water quality standards in place first. Until then, it's impossible to put a value on any credits generated, and he worries the program may just wind up sitting on the shelf unused.

St. Gabriel mayor urges state officials to raise voices about climate issues, join initiative President Donald Trump may not want the U.S. to participate in international climate initiatives, but the leader of one small Louisiana city o

The DEQ is reviewing comments now and expects to respond next month, McFarland said. If the state decides to forge ahead, the new rule could be in place by mid-June. If regulators decide to change the proposal based on the input it's received, implementation could be pushed back a few months.Throwing money at problems never truly solves them, yet in Louisiana, that seems to be our solution for everything. One of the best examples oExperiencing energy production in person is fundamental to understanding the positive impact American energy has on our communities in Louisiana, the U.S. economy and national security. For 11 straight years, I have invited a delegation of my House colleagues to visit an offshore rig so they can gain a better understanding of how important domestically produced oil and natural gas are to our countrys economy and national security. They also walk away from this experience with a better understanding of how their constituents in their home states benefit from what we do in south Louisiana. This past week, I hosted another group of eight members of Congress for a visit to Hesss impressive Stampede Platform.

The group was able to see how energy is produced safely in the Gulf using advanced technology and following rigorous safety standards. Flying over Louisianas coastline on our journey to the platform gave me an opportunity to explain our states battle with coastal erosion. We discussed the link weve made in Louisiana between offshore energy development and the revenue sharing that provides us critical resources to fund coastal restoration. Louisiana is also a leading example of how energy development can thrive alongside conservation efforts and other activities and industries like fishing and tourism.

Alarmingly, there are some radical proposals that threaten this beneficial relationship and our states entire economy. The Green New Deal, sponsored by New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is the most radical plan so far. Her legislation calls for an end to American oil and natural gas production. This would destroy not only Louisianas economy but also our national economy, and it would send prices of everyday goods soaring for families and small businesses all across our country. She calls for an end to air travel, and even advocates for the elimination of cows! While these proposals might sound laughable, they have already been endorsed by many of the Democrat candidates running for president. We ought to take them seriously and give them the scrutiny they deserve.

Five La. House Republicans vote against renewal of anti-domestic violence act The split vote stemmed over a proposed amendment to the law some are calling the boyfriend loophole.

In light of such a proposal, this years offshore trip felt particularly urgent. Educating members of Congress on the full impact American energy production and fossil fuels have nationwide is critical. Under our Republican-led Congress and working with President Trump, we prioritized an all-of-the-above energy approach that allowed America to become the world leader in energy production and a major exporter of energy, improving our national security and boosting our economy. At the same time, we reduced our carbon emissions at a greater rate than any other Western country, without instituting job-killing regulations and government control like the Green New Deal. We should all consider the far-reaching consequences that eliminating fossil fuels would have on American families and carbon emissions globally.

For middle-class families and seniors in particular, plans like the Green New Deal would be devastating. Early estimates show the transition away from affordable oil and gas energy would cause the average familys monthly electricity bills to double. Further, completely eliminating oil and gas production would jeopardize more than 260,000 jobs in Louisiana alone.

The truth is, the Democrats Green New Deal would ship millions of high-paying American jobs from energy-producing states like ours, to countries like China and India, which emit carbon at a dramatically higher rate than us. After 10 years of this Green New Disaster, all we would have to show for it is massive unemployment and skyrocketing costs on everything, especially electricity, plus weakened national security.

Instead of radical, job-killing proposals, we should continue pursuing all forms of energy, including renewables like wind and solar power, as well as reliable and traditional sources including nuclear power, coal, and yes, even oil and gas. To those on my offshore energy tour, that truth was crystal clear.

U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Jefferson Parish is House Republican minority whip.Advocate staff photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING --Water-damaged copies of the Congressional record, including covers, foreground, with mold growth, in the basement at LSU's Middleton Library, where deferred maintenance means dealing with bad conditions.It was a rainy, miserable day but that didn't stop volunteers from cleaning up Springside Park.

Springside Park Cleanup Going Strong 30 Years Later



Volunteers spread out throughout the park on Saturday during the cleanup. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  At 9 a.m. the rain was pouring down heavily. And despite that, some 30 people volunteered their time to go into Springside Park and clean up litter and debris left behind.

The annual park cleanup has hit a milestone with this being its 30th year. The effort is all volunteer and organized by the Friends of Springside Park.

"We are happy people are coming out even on a day like today. It shows how much interest we have," Friends of Springside Park President Bernie Mack said.

Throughout the day volunteers stopped in and took on a section of the sprawling 275-acre park. Mack estimated that at least 50 different volunteers would tough out the rain to pitch in, and that's on the low end of what the cleanup has traditionally had when the weather cooperated better.

"Usually we get 50 to 100 people," Mack said. "We will probably get 50 or 60 today, which is impressive considering it is going to rain all day."

The goal of the cleanup is straightforward: to make sure the park looks nice. And the effort is needed, Mack said. He said park is getting easier and easier to clean by the year because of the efforts. The volunteers have even expanded from having just one clean up day to having one in the fall and one in the spring.

"Early on in the cleanup we saw all kinds of major, giant equipment that was in here. Cars. I saw a Chevy Vega that was up in the field, parts of a truck, a chassis, all kinds of furniture and all kids of construction debris, sheetrock, people would leave in the park. Since we've been doing a lot more activity in the park and cleaning up the park, we've seen it a lot cleaner over the years," Mack said.

"Now the kind of debris we are getting is really small stuff, bottles and cans, that kind of stuff."

The first cleanup was very informal. Royal Hartigan had grown up in the Lenox Avenue area and would often use the park. But, it became a spot for dumping and litter. Hartigan and his friends got together to focus on preserving the beauty of it.

"It started with Royal Hartigan and a few other folks, before my time. Royal is a music professor at UMass Dartmouth and he was able to come out here up until the last five or six years. He was the initiator. He lived on the fringes of the park and played here as a child and became enthralled with park as a great resource. At 275 acres, it is the biggest park in Berkshire County," Mack said.

Mack soon got involved himself and he said when General Electric left the city, the need grew because the city no longer had as much for resources to maintain the park. The volunteers took it up themselves.

It used to be based in the north portion of the park but has expanded to two locations -- the north park and the area of Rotary Park.

And it isn't just an annual clean up for the volunteers. Multiple organizations and more than 100 volunteers are all part of the Springside Conservancy that is spearheading multiple projects throughout the property.



The clean up used to be focused only on the north park but has expanded to include the southern end as well. Arborist Bob Presutti has been active in the Hebert Arboretum and the chestnut tree orchard. Recently, the volunteers and Presutti have been doing a lot of tree planting of various species in the park. In the chestnut tree orchard, efforts are being made to breed American chestnut trees with resistance to bring the population back.

The Berkshire Environmental Action Team's greenagers program hires teenagers to work during the summer on various projects. The greenagers will be taking on an effort to block off hiking trails that have been identified as areas to allow grow back, and building and clearing trails that should be encouraged.

Five years ago, a master plan had been created for the park. The groups have been advocating for and overseeing the renovation of the Springside House, which has seen some exterior repairs and the work is eyed to renovate the inside in the near future. A study on what is needed to restore the pond was completed and the volunteers are working with the city to get that work done.

Meanwhile, efforts are being made to bring more people to the park to enjoy what is offered. Events such as the winter carnival and the summer gala have been put on to showcase the park.

"We are trying to have as many activities as we can," Mack said.

But before the weather warms up and people are there more frequently, volunteers toughed out a downpour to make sure there is no rubbish left behind.As predictably as the sun came up Thursday morning, some Louisiana Republicans started pronouncing their takes on the special counsel Robert Muellers report almost as soon as the 448-page document was finally released.

And just as predictably, these politicians read from the same script theyve been following ever since Donald Trump solemnly swore that hed faithfully execute the Office of President more than two years ago.

U.S. Rep. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, Louisianas top-ranking member of Congress, declared that there was no collusion with Russia and no obstruction of justice, and argued that Democrats owe the American people an apology.

U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-Alto, a candidate against Gov. John Bel Edwards this fall, suggested that someone should now investigate the real collusion with the Hillary Clinton campaign (John Bels candidate) and said hes proud to continue to stand with my friend, President Donald J. Trump.

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, said that "there was no evidence of criminal collusion or obstruction by the President or his campaign," when the report clearly outlined plenty of evidence, despite the absence of criminal recommendations.

Mueller report reveals President Trump's efforts on Russia probe; see copy of report Robert Mueller's report reveals President Donald Trump's efforts to seize control of the Russia probe and force the special counsel's removal.

To their credit, other Louisiana Republican lawmakers withheld immediate judgment, including U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy. U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Benton, reiterated the no obstruction, no collusion conclusion, but also said he was reviewing the report further. U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, noted that everyone is likely to see what they want to see in the report, but at least acknowledged the stupidity it described. So for now, Ill withhold my judgment on their judgment.

Still, as more people read more of the tome, the damning picture it painted became crystal clear.

Yes, the special counsels office did not recommend charges that the Trump team conspired with Russia or obstructed justice. But nor did it give anyone a clean slate.

It noted that "[t]he investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." It said that the counsel was constrained by a Justice Department rule against charging a sitting president, but also laid out a compelling set of circumstances suggesting that Trump repeatedly tried to interfere with the probe. He might have derailed it, in fact, if key aides hadnt taken it upon themselves to simply ignore his intemperate orders.

More broadly, the report made abundantly clear that Trump put his own concerns above the countrys, created a culture of dishonesty, and failed to conduct himself with integrity. Put criminality aside for a moment. Is anyone really OK with that?

And seriously, didnt we know that already? The Trump in this report is the same Trump weve been watching all along.

More intriguing are the characters around him.

Some had moments of clarity. The document details how Don McGahn, the former White House counsel, refused to order Mueller fired and refused to lie when press reports came out detailing how Trump had asked him to. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also refused to lie on the presidents behalf about the fact that it was Trumps decision to fire former FBI chief James Comey.

Even onetime campaign manager Corey Lewandowski resisted a presidential request to demand that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions un-recuse himself from overseeing the probe. Lewandowski instead routed the directive to another aide, who also ignored it.

Others sunk to Trumps level. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she insisted that FBI agents had personally contacted her to say they were glad to see Comey go. Under oath to Muellers team, she called that a slip of the tongue. And new Attorney General William Barr put a misleadingly benign gloss on the findings before releasing them to the country.

Thats whats expected of people who work for Trump, it seems. Why anyone would put their reputation at stake by doing so has always been a mystery to me.

As for why anyone serving in Congress, an independent branch of government, would continue to defend the presidents behavior after the report came out? That parts truly confounding.As CEO of Louisiana's third-largest public company and a former state legislator, Sean Reilly knows how to marshal an argument, as he demonstrated when persuading a House committee last week to kill a resolution that sought to place a moratorium on new billboards.

This was an issue about which he has strong views, since his company, Lamar Advertising, with its 500 employees and $35 million payroll, is responsible for the serried ranks of billboards that line the highways.

It was mighty odd, therefore, that his first choice to testify in his support merely averred that she was real glad that Lamar maintains a billboard on her family's land in Baton Rouge. The fees covered her property taxes, she said, while that McDonald's ad was a handy landmark for her visitors.

Good for her, of course, but public policy generally requires a more compelling reason than that.

Reilly, who naturally sees the public interest as closely aligned with his own, sought to discredit the resolution as a sop to the trucking industry in its dispute with the personal-injury attorneys, who account for 17 percent of Lamar's business.

+2 Push to ban new Louisiana highway billboards crushed in House committee A bid to put a moratorium on new highway billboards, in part because of anger over anti-trucker ads sponsored by trial lawyers, was killed Tue

There is no doubt that truckers backed the resolution because they resent the lawyers who gaze out from billboard after billboard offering to seek colossal damages for anyone injured by a big rig. But it is an oversimplification to say the resolution was conceived purely to placate haulers. Aesthetics, for instance, are clearly a major consideration, with a spokesman for Scenic America at the committee hearing trashing billboards as litter on a stick. Reilly took umbrage at that, but even allowing that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, billboards will be widely regarded as a blot on the landscape. The view is not improved if Morris Bart's photo intrudes on a bucolic scene.

Proponents of the moratorium seemed convinced that Louisiana is uniquely afflicted by what state Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie calls the visual clutter of billboards. Appel has a billboard moratorium bill pending in the senate, but its prospects do not look good now that the House resolution, filed by Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, has gone down by a vote of 14-3. Appel and McFarland have both averred that that you can't go 500 feet without seeing a billboard in Louisiana.

Reilly by no means agrees that we have more than our fair share of billboards. With two percent of the national total, and two percent of the nation's roads, we have it just about right, he assured the friendly committee. Certainly, if you leave Louisiana and drive through Mississippi and Alabama, billboard frequency does not noticeably diminish.

Lamar Advertising reports quarterly finances, raises full-year estimates Billboard and logo sign company Lamar Advertising Co. reported adjusted funds from operations increased 10 percent to $150.5 million, or $1.52

Since each side in a political debate seems to have its own set of facts these days, it would be unrealistic to expect any agreement on whether billboards undermine road safety. As McFarland pointed out, they cannot be deemed a success unless they distract passing motorists, so the logical assumption is that they do indeed constitute a hazard. But Reilly swears research shows that it is distraction from inside the car, not outside it, that leads to accidents.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that commercial speech enjoys some First Amendment protection, Louisiana could ban billboards if it wanted to. Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii and Maine have already done so, and driving in those states must offer finer vistas than those endless rows of money-hungry lawyers.

Their billboards can only further encourage the strong litigious instance that helps Louisiana maintain its high ranking among the American Tort Reform Association's judicial hellholes.

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the impression that billboards are proliferating in Louisiana, the count is actually down in recent years, Reilly told the committee. For every two that come down only one goes up.

We still have so many that crass commercialism seriously detracts from the natural appeal of the Louisiana landscape. Advertising may help to keep the economy humming, but nobody can enjoy looking at a bunch of billboards.

Well, maybe Reilly does. They must seem as pretty as dollar signs to him.

Email James Gill at Gill1407@bellsouth.net.The countrys biggest small business bank is exploring ways to help its customers improve their defences against cybercrime.

National Australia Bank is reviewing ways it can assess data it has collated about when and how its customers have been subject to cyber-attacks and those customers which are impervious to such ambushes to improve the protection of clients, says its customer executive business direct and small business Leigh ONeill.

NAB's customer executive business direct and small business Leigh O'Neill says the bank is exploring ways to reduce the stress caused by cyber attacks on SMEs.

"We see 500,000 small businesses in Australia and if we can find a way to identify patterns of customers that are successful in preventing cyber issues and help share information in the financial sector to put a stop to these attacks, that is a role we can play," Ms ONeill said.

"They are time poor individuals committed to running businesses," she said.Dabbling and experimenting. Playing both sides. Promiscuous, traitorous, closeted, wanting the best of both worlds, relationship-wreckers or confused. Oh, and if you enter a long-term monogamous relationship, youve finally made your decision.

Bisexual people face numerous stereotypes and negative assumptions, and since he was a teen who realised he was attracted to people of different genders, Anthony Lekkas has heard them all.

Anthony Lekkas Credit:Eddie Jim

But growing up in a community where sexuality wasnt discussed, he didnt even have the language to describe how he felt.

I had this double, secret life, says Lekkas, now 42. I had a very strong desire to seek out sexual and romantic partners of other genders. But it never occurred to me to tell anyone about that, I was fearful of rejection and discrimination.Next Monday marks the 249th anniversary of James Cook becoming the first European to reach the east coast of Australia  on April 29, 1770. In January, Prime Minister Morrison promised more than $12 million for projects to mark the 250th anniversary next year. More than half the funds would go to building a replica of Cooks Endeavour and having it circumnavigate the continent (something Cook never did).

Captain James Cook, a legendary seafarer, some of whose feats have been lost in translation.

Conveniently, the site of Cooks landfall, at Kurnell on Botany Bay, is right in the PMs own electorate (Cook), where many of the anniversary festivities will be held.

James Cook is rightly acknowledged as the greatest navigator and explorer ever: intrepid, innovative, relentless. In the Olympics of voyaging, daylight separates him from the silver medallist.

Predictably, Cook is not universally revered in many of the places he visited. As we speak, the citizens of the Cook Islands are seeking a new name for their nation, complaining that theyve endured a brand identity imposed on them, apparently, by a couple of Russian map-makers, keen to honour Cook.A man has been charged with murder after a woman's body was found in a garage in Sydney's south-west, while two children slept in the house.

A family friend called emergency services about 4am on Easter Sunday, and officers arrived at the house on Curruthers Street in Minto to find the body of a 33-year-old woman who police said had suffered a violent death in the garage.

The woman's husband was arrested at the scene and taken to Campbelltown police station for questioning and was later taken to Fairfield Hospital to get treatment for an injury to his hand.

Two children, aged six and 10, were asleep and unharmed inside the house. Police roused them and took them to the station, where the officers are trying to locate family members.Junk food advertising will be banned from billboards, train stations and transport owned by the Queensland government.

In a move aimed at helping Queenslanders make healthier choices, the ban will apply to outdoor spaces and other sites, excluding stadiums.

Health Minister Steven Miles says the ban won't be seen in big sporting venues for several years. Credit:AAP Image/ Dan Peled

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles says change won't be seen in big sporting venues for a number of years due to complexities with contracts.

Foods will be ruled in or out based on their salt, sugar and fat content.A troubled project to reduce the threat of bushfires as a result of faulty power lines is expected to again blow out in cost  this time by as much as $105 million  and could even force the extended shutdown of some of Melbournes busiest rail lines.

The government is installing bushfire safety technology at 45 substations in Victoria. Credit:The Age

Minutes from two meetings of Victorias Power Line Bushfire Safety Committee in December and April reveal the project, undertaken in response to the 2009 Black Saturday fires, continues to grow more expensive and is expected to miss multiple deadlines.

The Andrews government is part-way through a program to install unique power line safety technology at 45 electrical substations in the most fire-prone parts of the state.

The cost of installing the technology, called rapid earth fault current limiters (REFCLs), was estimated in 2015 at $151 million, but last year the Australian Energy Regulator said it would soar to $540 million.With so many bad things happening in the world, it is worth celebrating that something important has just gone well. Indonesia has held the fifth democratic election of its modern reform era and voters chose a second term for Joko Widodo, a leader with a track record of working closely with Australia. Australians sometimes fail to appreciate how lucky we are to have a key neighbour that shares a belief in democracy. A recent Lowy Institute survey found that only 24 per cent of Australians are aware that Indonesia is a democracy, even though it threw out the authoritarian Suharto regime 21 years ago. Joko Widodo prepares to cast his ballot in the Indonesian election. Credit:AP While a free and fair election is Australias key interest, most Canberra foreign policy experts will also be happy that Mr Joko has emerged as the victor over challenger Prabowo Subianto, the same man who opposed him at the presidential election five years ago. Mr Prabowo remains burdened by his past as a senior military officer who played a murky role under the Suharto regime. During the campaign, he also focused more strongly than Mr Joko on nationalist themes, which could conflict with Australias interests. His behaviour in refusing to accept the result despite Mr Joko winning by more than 10million votes is also worrying.

Mr Jokos win by about 54 per cent to 46 per cent should give him a mandate to proceed with the cautious reforms he has pushed for the past five years, especially building infrastructure for the countrys 260 million people, many of whom are still very poor. One key element of the reforms is the free trade agreement Mr Joko has just signed with Australia which should open up Indonesian markets for Australian beef and services while making it easier for Indonesians to come to Australia to work and study. Loading While Mr Joko was elected in 2014 as a progressive outsider, he has struggled at times with the demands of increasingly assertive conservative Islamic political groups. Looking to compromise with them, he took Maruf Amin, a senior religious leader, as his running mate. Worryingly, he has been reluctant to speak up for the rights of Christian, ethnic and sexual minority groups, especially in the case of former close political ally Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Punrama, the former governor of Jakarta and an ethnic Chinese Christian, who was convicted on a dubious charge of blasphemy against Islam. It would be wrong, however, to over-dramatise the challenge to Indonesian democracy from conservative Islam. There is little evidence of a return to the extremist violence of a decade ago. Still it is to be hoped that a more confident Mr Joko rediscovers his pluralist, progressive voice in his second term. The strength of Indonesian democracy will help Australia work with Jakarta on the shared challenges for the whole region. Mr Joko has shown he is willing to work with Australia to stop unauthorised boat arrivals. Faced with Chinas growing influence in the region, he is not provoking China, but nor is he caving in.Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardena has described the eight blasts as a terrorist attack carried out by religious extremists, although no one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts.

Dramatic details have emerged of a police raid following the eighth blast.

Three police officers were killed while conducting a search operation at a suspected militant hideout in Dematagoda, on the outskirts of Colombo, where the last of eight blasts took place, according to AP.

Sri Lankan police commandos enter a suspected hideout of militants following a shootout in Colombo. Credit:AP

As police closed in, at least two more blasts occurred, with the occupants blasting explosives to prevent arrest.

The nearly simultaneous first six blasts on Sunday morning toppled ceilings and blew out windows at a famous Catholic church in Colombo, the capital, and at three luxury hotels in the city.

The two other blasts occurred at St Sebastian Catholic church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo where footage showed people dragging the injured out of blood-splattered pews, and at the Protestant Zion church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe promised to "vest all necessary powers with the defense forces" to take action against those responsible.Robert Mueller's report on the investigation into the 2016 election landed on Thursday, following months of anticipation. With dozens of indictments and several plea deals already public, many of the findings, such as extensive Russian interference in the election and significant criminality within the Trump campaign team, were well known. And yet the release of the report, a hefty 448-page document riddled with redactions, marks a significant turning point in the Trump presidency, and in the nation more broadly: the moment when the Democratic House needs to get serious about impeachment.

Nancy Pelosi: "He's just not worth it." Credit:AP

No sooner had the Mueller report landed than top Democrats began backing away from impeachment. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the second-highest ranking Democrat, brushed off the idea, saying that "going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point". His words echoed Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comment last month, when she said of impeaching Trump, "He's just not worth it."

But as the Mueller report makes clear, President Trump spent much of the past two years working to obstruct the investigation into wrongdoing by his campaign and, later, by his administration. Mueller believed he did not have the authority, as special counsel, to pursue a case against the President. He did, however, make quite clear in his report that Congress did.

Mueller writes in his report that, had he been able after the investigation to exonerate the President, he would. But the facts stood in the way of that exoneration. "The evidence we obtained about the Presidents actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred," he explains in careful language. Despite that, he believed an investigation could not go forward, lest it interfere with the constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct"  in other words, impeachment.Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected calls by North Korea that he be removed from the Trump administration's negotiations with Kim Jong-un's regime, saying "nothing's changed" on the US diplomatic team handling talks.

"I'm still in charge of the team," Pompeo said Friday in his first response to the demand by a senior North Korean official who accused the top American diplomat of "fabricating stories like a fiction writer" that undermined talks between Kim and President Donald Trump.

Mike Pompeo, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Credit:AP

The regime often has criticised Pompeo  sometimes fulminating that he was making "gangster-like demands"  but before Thursday it hadn't called for him to be banned from talks.

"President Trump's obviously in charge of the overall effort" in trying to persuade Korea to denuclearise, Pompeo said. "I'm convinced we still have a real opportunity to achieve that outcome."Twenty years ago Saturday, two teenage gunmen claimed the lives of 13 victims and marked the beginning of an era in which America has repeatedly been forced to reckon with the threat of school shootings. Since the Columbine High School massacre, over 226,000 students at 233 schools have been impacted by school shootings, according to a Washington Post analysis.

On April 20, 1999, two Columbine seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, carried out a planned attack at their high school using a combination of firearms and homemade explosives. They shot and killed 13 people - twelve students and a teacher - before turning their weapons on themselves.

Crosses with the names of the victims of the massacre at Columbine High School nearly 20 years ago stand along a picnic site in the park before a vigil at the memorial. Credit:AP

A memorial was designated in 2007 to honor the victims: students Cassie Bernal, Steven Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matthew Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend and Kyle Velasquez, and teacher Dave Sanders. The outdoor space, which sits in a park adjacent to Columbine High School, welcomes visitors to reflect on the community's loss.

This past week, three days of commemorative events were planned in their honor, culminating with a memorial ceremony that will take place Saturday at the memorial in Littleton, Colorado, a Denver suburb. The events continued despite a threat against the school that arose earlier this week: On Tuesday, the community faced danger once again after an 18-year-old woman traveled from Florida to Colorado and purchased a pump-action shotgun at a shop near Columbine High School."It became the most transparent investigation in history," Jay Sekulow, one of the president's personal lawyers, said in an interview. Still, there was internal tumult along the way, including the March 2018 departure of Dowd, a veteran and experienced criminal defense attorney, and the additions of Giuliani and the husband-wife team of Martin and Jane Raskin. Even as the legal team professed cooperation with Mueller's prosecutors, the lawyers expressed impatience, frustration and skepticism in a series of private letters that challenged the credibility of the government's witnesses and the demands to interview the president. In a November 2018 correspondence, one of a series of letters obtained by news outlets, the president's legal team attacked the questions Mueller wanted to ask the president as "burdensome if submitted to a routine witness, let alone presented to the president of the United States, more than two years after the events at issue while he continued to navigate numerous, serious matters of state, national security and domestic emergency." Those private complaints were dwarfed by louder public protests. Trump spent months engaging in daily, sometimes hourly, attacks on Mueller's team, declaring the investigation a "Witch Hunt" and questioning the integrity of the investigators.

Giuliani, in many ways more of a television spokesman than conventional lawyer, amplified those attacks. He went so far as to accuse the investigators of misconduct and to portray Mueller, who as a Marine officer had led a rifle platoon in Vietnam, as unpatriotic. The former New York City mayor became a human smoke screen, making accusations and offering theories often meant to distract and obfuscate. He was a punch line on cable news channels, and his interviews were mocked as blunder-filled performances. But there was a method to Giuliani's shtick, at least at times. More than once he let slip revelations that initially were perceived as gaffes but later were recognized as efforts to get out ahead of potentially damaging news stories. Two examples include payments to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress who claimed an affair with Trump, and a letter of intent to build a Trump Tower Moscow. There were missteps, too. The interviews granted by White House staffers filled the pages of the Mueller report with stories of West Wing chaos. At least one interaction caught Mueller's attention as a possible effort to discourage a witness from cooperating against the president.

Trump's lawyers communicated regularly with attorneys for other people under scrutiny in the investigation as part of a joint-defense agreement that enabled them to swap information. But the report reveals that after former national security adviser Michael Flynn withdrew from the agreement and began cooperating with the government, an unidentified Trump lawyer left a message with Flynn's attorneys reminding them that the president still had warm feelings for Flynn and asking for a "heads-up" if Flynn knew damaging information about the president. While Giuliani, with an eye toward the members of Congress who might eventually decide the president's fate, focused on the public relations battle, the legal team also worked behind the scenes to argue that Mueller could not use a subpoena to compel Trump to give an in-person interview, which carried potentially grave risks for a president prone to making false statements. "I think they were right to think that it would hurt him to speak to Mueller's team, and as it turns out, they were right to think that he could get away with refusing to speak with Mueller's team," said Stanford law school professor David Alan Sklansky. Mueller's team, which spent about a year negotiating with Trump's lawyers over a potential interview, ultimately agreed to accept written answers on Russia- related questions but never spoke with the president in person. Making the move to block an interview was "defense lawyering 101" because defense lawyers as a matter of course don't like to let clients in legal jeopardy speak to investigators, said Duke law professor Samuel Buell.

Mueller never acted to subpoena Trump. The special counsel did not conclude that Trump's campaign colluded with Russians. With an eye on following a Justice Department legal opinion that prohibits indicting a sitting president, Mueller did not rule on whether Trump obstructed justice. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein declared that Trump did not. "We're very, very happy. I mean, it's a clear victory. I think any lawyer would say when you get a declination, you just won," Giuliani told Fox News after the report came out. Buell said it is hard to know how much credit belonged to Trump's lawyers. "I think that's where the real lawyering in a situation like this goes on, is the client management piece," he said. "Trump doesn't like to be managed, clearly ... but the Mueller report won't tell you what went on with the president's private lawyers and the president." AP

April 20 (Reuters) - Vulnerable House Democrats, mindful of President Donald Trump's continued strength among Republican voters, are using caution in how they respond to the special counsel's report, which detailed Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation into Russian efforts to help him win the White House. More than 30 Democratic representatives, many of whom are in their first term, represent districts that supported Trump in 2016. The party's chances of keeping control of the U.S. House of Representatives likely hinge its ability to defend those seats. In the report released on Thursday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller said Trump may have obstructed justice and portrayed a president bent on stopping the probe into Russian meddling. But Mueller stopped short of concluding that a crime was committed, leaving it to Congress to make its own determination. That is putting pressure on congressional Democrats to decide whether to pursue impeachment charges against Trump, whose continued popularity with his Republican base could weigh heavily on Democratic lawmakers in swing districts.

Those incumbent Democrats may have to strike a delicate balance on the campaign trail next year. Too much bashing of the president could turn off voters more interested in kitchen-table issues and motivate Trump sympathizers to rally around him. Hours after Mueller's findings were released, Abby Spanberger, a Democratic congresswoman from Virginia, held a town hall that saw virtually no discussion of the report. She knocked off a Republican incumbent last year in a district that favored Trump by more than 6 percentage points in 2016. The 39-year-old representative told reporters before the event that she was more interested in preventing Russia from attacking the electoral process than in "re-litigating" the 2016 presidential contest. "Regardless of what actions the president did or didn't take ... understanding in far greater detail the aggression of a foreign adversary nation against our election's infrastructure should ideally help us avoid such circumstances in the future," she said. Other Democrats facing reelection in swing districts also reacted cautiously, saying they would reserve judgment until after reading the voluminous report, or emphasizing the threat of Russian interference rather than Trump's behavior.

"If the conclusion remains that there is no further criminal wrongdoing, I think we should, as a country, move on and ensure that Russia cannot interfere again," said Ben McAdams, a freshman Utah Democrat in a Republican-leaning district. INTERNAL DEBATE The 448-page report's release has sparked an internal debate within the Democratic Party on how to move forward. Party leaders played down talk of impeachment, even as they said they would pursue a full, unredacted copy of the report and bring Mueller himself to Capitol Hill to testify under oath. At the same time, some liberal members of the caucus, including Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, expressed support for starting an impeachment inquiry. U.S. Representative Cheri Bustos, the Illinois Democrat who chairs the party's House campaign arm, set the tone for her most endangered colleagues on Thursday. In a statement, she said she would read the report carefully, then pivoted to other issues.

"As we review this report, I also remain committed to continuing my efforts to bring down the cost of health care, invest in our infrastructure and clean up the mess in Washington," Bustos said. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat who won her first term last fall in a district that voted for Trump in 2016, told Reuters many Democrats were elected because "voters want checks and balances and a return to good government and government we can trust." Still, speaking after a town hall on Thursday evening, the 35-year-old emphasized that most voters going into 2020 are more concerned about issues such as health care, education and infrastructure. One of her constituents, Joy Marie Zug, said she voted for Trump in 2016 after having supported Democratic President Barack Obama. Zug says she has since soured on Trump due to his "lies." The 46-year-old adult education administrator said Democrats should consider impeachment, based on the mountain of evidence in the Mueller report. But in a reflection of the difficulty of the strategic choice facing Democrats, she also said they should avoid making it a top campaign issue.

"I don't think this is something they need to run on," she said. "I just wish this wasn't the end." WEIGHING PRIORITIES Democrats looking to 2020 must also weigh whether voters' views on the Russia probe are even susceptible to persuasion, given the country's deep partisan divides. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Thursday and Friday after the report came out found 50 percent of Americans agreed that Trump or someone from his campaign worked with Russia during the campaign, and 58 percent of respondents said they believed Trump tried to stop investigations into the campaign's conduct. Those figures, which split heavily along party lines, were fairly similar to previous polls. One senior Democratic strategist involved in shaping the campaign message for 2020 House candidates, who asked for anonymity when discussing the party's internal thinking, said the party's own research showed the Russia probe was not particularly resonant for voters.(CNN)  Riot police unleashed tear gas at so-called yellow vest protesters in central Paris who marched Saturday for the 23rd consecutive weekend.

The French capital was the scene of chaos as police confronted protesters, who set off small fires. Video showed heavy black smoke in the air. Police also used water cannons to disperse the crowds.

The Paris prosecutor's office said 182 yellow vest protesters were placed in police custody.

This is the first demonstration since the devastating fire this week at the Notre Dame cathedral. The Interior Ministry said some 27,900 people demonstrated across France, including 9,000 in Paris.

The protesters, who chanted, sang and played musical instruments as they marched, are rallying against economic injustice. Some say the hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to rebuild Notre Dame is a glaring sign of the inequalities in the country.

"Everything for Notre Dame, Nothing for the miserables," read a sign on one yellow vest, referring to French author Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables."

"We are all cathedrals," read another sign.

The government had warned protesters that police would use "all means necessary" to stop demonstrations from getting out of control.

More than 60,000 police were deployed across France to deal with the protests, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.

There were protests in other cities including Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille and Lille, Agence France-Presse reported. Police also fired tear gas in Toulouse, where thousands were demonstrating, according to Reuters.

The "gilets jaunes," or yellow vest, protests began as a campaign against a gas tax hike, but have morphed into a broader rally against President Emmanuel Macron's government.

Macron had been set to make a televised address to the nation Monday and announce measures to defuse the unrest. He spoke instead about the Notre Dame blaze.

Macron is now set to make his announcement Thursday, according to Reuters.

In his New Year's address, Macron referred to the movement without naming it. He acknowledged anger against injustice but said hateful speech would not be tolerated, and called on people to respect each other. He also has pledged to increase the minimum wage and scrap new pension taxes to appease the protesters.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Paris police use tear gas against 'yellow vest' protesters"Appeals Court Denies Trump Administrations Attempt to Invalidate California Sanctuary Laws

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the better part of three so-called sanctuary laws interfering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts to uphold federal immigration laws in the state of California.

The Golden State is home to more than 2 million illegal aliens.

The Trump administration, which seems certain to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, had repeatedly run into roadblocks as it tries to crack down on sanctuary cities. U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick III of San Francisco previously issued a permanent nationwide injunction against President Donald Trumps Executive Order 13768, which would have withheld federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE.

Democratic California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a frequent legal antagonist of the Trump administration who claims sanctuary laws promote trust between illegal aliens and law enforcement, crowed about his states legal victory.

As much as all the attention is on whether Donald Trump obstructed justice, we continue to prove in California that the rule of law not only stands for something but that people cannot act outside of it. The Ninth Circuit ruled in our favor today, demonstrating that the rights of states and the 10th Amendment continue to thrive.

The federal governments lawsuit had sought to strike down AB 450, which prohibits private employers from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration officialsincluding officials carrying out worksite enforcement efforts; SB 54, which prevents state and local law enforcement officials from providing information to the feds about the release date of deportable criminal aliens in their custody; and AB 103, which imposes a state-run inspection and review regime on the federal detention of aliens held in facilities under federal contracts.

When then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions launched the lawsuit a year ago, he said Americans were right to insist that this country should end the illegality, create a rational immigration flow, and protect the nation from criminal aliens.

He continued: It cannot be that someone who illegally crosses the border and two days later arrives in Sacramento, Dubuque, Louisville, and Central Islip is home freenever to be removed. It cannot be the policy of a great nation to up and reward those who unlawfully enter its country with legal status, Social Security, welfare, food stamps, and work permits. Meanwhile, those who engage in this process lawfully and patiently and wait their turn are discriminated against at every turn.

Then-Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, savaged the lawsuit at the time, calling it an act of war against California that is part of a larger reign of terror against illegal aliens.

U.S. District Court John A. Mendez threw out most of the lawsuit on July 9, 2018, but the Trump administration appealed. Mendez found that SB 54, AB 103, and AB 450 could continue in force but invalidated a provision in the latter law that imposes a financial penalty on private employers who permit immigration officials to visit places of employment.

On April 18, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. wrote the legal opinion for the circuit court.

The federal government argued in the legal proceeding that SB 54 seeks to impede the enforcement of federal immigration laws by manipulating the overlap between state criminal enforcement and federal immigration enforcement.

California has no authority to demand a judicial warrant that Congress chose not to require.  By prohibiting transfers of custody within secure areas of local jails in the absence of a judicial warrant, California prevents federal officers from obtaining custody through a safe and peaceful transfer.

Smith rejected this argument, writing that while SB 54 makes the jobs of federal immigration authorities more difficult, it does not directly conflict with any obligations imposed on state or local governments by federal law because federal law does not mandate any state action.

Smiths panel also upheld AB 450, which requires employees to notify employeesincluding illegal alien employeesof upcoming federal immigration inspections. The state statute imposes no additional or contrary obligations that undermine or disrupt the activities of federal immigration authorities, the judge wrote.

Smith did rule against a provision of AB 103, finding the rule giving state officials the power to inspect privately-operated federal immigration detention facilities impermissibly intruded on federal authority. Only those provisions that impose an additional economic burden exclusively on the federal government are invalid, the judge wrote.Fred and Sherri Janssen enjoyed Shen Yun at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, on April 20, 2019. (Jana Li/The Epoch Times)

COSTA MESA, Calif.Fred and Sherri Janssen have seen many performances over the years at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, but watching Shen Yun Performing Arts stood out from the rest.

Its different, Ive never experienced this before, said Fred. Its real nice.

Its amazing, Sherri said. I love it.

The couple, who own a construction company together, with Fred working as supervisor and Sherri as architect and interior designer, saw the performance on April 20.

The classical Chinese dance company is currently touring the world, sharing a program filled with dance vignettes, musical soloists, and stories told through dance. The New York-based company has a mission to restore traditional Chinese culture through the arts.

Sherri was astounded by the quality of the Shen Yuns dancers, saying they were highly accomplished.

The performance and the ability for them to all be together and in sync.  Thats wonderful, she said. And then the leaps, and the twists, and the flips.

The performers are experts in classical Chinese dance, as well as other ethnic and folk dance styles. Classical Chinese dance is an ancient art form, refined over thousands of years. It has a comprehensive system of movements and gestures, including difficult flips and tumbling techniques.

Besides the physical elements, dancers are also required to develop yun, or bearing: the ability to convey their inner world through outward movements. Thus, many dancers focus on improving their character so as to harness positive energy for their craft.

Seated so close to the stage, Sherry said she was able to seeand feelthe details of the dancers expressions.

Its very intricate, she said. The more you look at those facial expressions, it even helps tell that story.

Thats one of the things that  brings it to your heart, is youre seeing these young, beautiful dancers performing this, and even though theyre doing it time after time, they still show that inner story, and they still bring it out.

Thats what makes the difference between a wonderful performance, and one that you treasure forever.

Sherri was thus able to feel the spirit of the performers.

You can feel it and the energy is there, the energy that shows, she said.

The combined effect of the dancers, orchestral music, and backdrop created a complete and immersive experience.

Its absolutely wonderful, almost wants to  pull you into it, Sherri said.

And then all of a sudden youre thinking wow China.'

With reporting by Jana Li.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.Two US soldiers were questioned by Mexican troops earlier this month while conducting a surveillance operation on the US side of the southern border, two US defense officials tell CNN, on April 19, 2019.(Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Armed Mexican Troops Question American Soldiers on US Side of Border

Two U.S. soldiers were questioned by Mexican troops earlier this month while conducting a surveillance operation on the U.S . side of the southern border, two U.S. defense officials told CNN.

On April 13, 2019, at approximately 2 p.m. CDT, five to six Mexican military personnel questioned two U.S. Army soldiers who were conducting border support operations in an unmarked (Customs and Border Protection) vehicle near the southwest border in the vicinity of Clint, Texas, U.S. Northern Command told CNN in a statement.

The U.S. soldiers were appropriately in U.S. territory during the encounter, the statement added.

During the incident, the Mexican soldiers pointed their weapons at the U.S. troops, removing a soldiers sidearm and returning it to the unmarked U.S. vehicle, the officials said.

The Mexican troops were armed with what appeared to be assault rifles, according to one official.

Officials said that the U.S. soldiers allowed the weapon to be taken in an attempt to de-escalate a potential volatile situation.

Throughout the incident, the U.S. soldiers followed all established procedures and protocols, Northern Command said.

Armed Mexican troops question American soldiers on the US side of the border https://t.co/xxfPd7BGFb pic.twitter.com/Tj1kRk07ct  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 20, 2019

The encounter took place south of the border fence in the area but north of the Rio Grande, the officials said.

However, the officials said the river in that area consists of brush-filled and dried-out riverbed, making it very easy for people to be confused as to what side of the border they are on.

One of the American soldiers spoke some Spanish and was able to explain the situation to the Mexican forces. The two sides talked the incident over and promised to de-conflict in the future, the officials said.

An inquiry by (Customs and Border Patrol) and (the Department of Defense) revealed that the Mexican military members believed that the U.S. Army soldiers were south of the border, Northern Command said while adding that the U.S. troops were north of the border.

Though they were south of the border fence, U.S. soldiers remained in U.S. territory, north of the actual border, the statement said, adding that after a brief discussion between the soldiers from the two nations, the Mexican military members departed the area.

President Donald Trump had previously ordered the active duty military to support border security and the U.S. has some 3,000 active duty troops supporting the Department of Homeland Security on the southern border with Mexico in addition to some 2,000 National Guard troops.

The Pentagon expects additional troops to be sent to the border to support additional pending requests for assistance from DHS.

On Friday, acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan told reporters at the Pentagon that he did not have a finite number in terms of how many additional troops would be sent but said the Pentagon was looking at anticipating what DHS needs prior to the receipt of a formal request for assistance.

Acting Defense Secretary Shanahan also said he does not have a finite number of troops that would be sent once the Department of Defense receives a request for assistance. https://t.co/LOxKyvXBRH  KOAA News5 (@KOAA) April 19, 2019

Where DHS loses its capacity is in the migrant family processing, when you think about their finite ability to do apprehensions theyre really kind of trapped back in the processing side of things so working with the joint staff, were finding a way to how do we do more monitoring and detection for them, do we maybe take that on as a mission, Shanahan said.

By Ryan BrowneBody of 9-Year-Old Boy Recovered After Tragic Paddleboat Incident on Wauconda Lake

Divers have recovered the body of a 9-year-old Illinois boy that went missing at a lake in Wauconda after falling into the water while paddleboating.

Authorities have identified the boy as Geraldo Rodriguez Jr., according to ABC7.

The boy went missing on Friday, April 19, according to a GoFundMe campaign page set up by the boys aunt Angi Rodriguez. She wrote that her nephew and a friend took a paddleboat out onto Bangs Lake and it capsized.

Both of the kids fell out, Rodriguez wrote. The 10-year-old boy was rescued by a nearby fisherman and a recovery search began for my 9-year-old nephew Geraldo until the early morning hours.

Geraldo Rodriguez is supposed to celebrate his 10th birthday tomorrow. His family was going to throw him a party today. Instead, theyre searching for him after he fell off a paddle boat in Bangs Lake. @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/wxsEvUMfvf  Kelly Davis (@kellykdavis) April 20, 2019

Officials cited by the Chicago Tribune said in a statement that at approximately 7:20 p.m, two male juveniles on a paddleboat became distressed and went into the water.

Fishermen who heard screams rushed to help and managed to pull one of the boys to safety.

Rescue crews worked until around 3 a.m. before the search was called off due to bad weather, the Tribune reported.

We havent slept, none of us have slept. We were driving around last night just looking on the shore, hoping that hes out there somewhere and we were going to find him, Angi Rodriguez told ABC7.

The search reconvened on Saturday morning. Around noon, divers pulled the boys body out of the water.

She said the boys tragic death came just one day before his 10th birthday party.

Sunday was his birthday, today was supposed to be his birthday party, she said. We were supposed to be celebrating his birthday today, instead we are grieving the loss of this beautiful soul!

The Wauconda Fire Departments Chief Mike DaValle told ABC7 the boys parents said they were not aware their son and the other boy had taken a boat out onto the lake.

As you can imagine theyre very distraught; theyre looking for closure, which its completely understandable. So, were gonna do our best to give them the closure they need and deserve today, DaValle told ABC7.

Mortality Figures in the United States

According to 2017 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics, the 10 leading causes of death in the United States were: heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide.

The third most common cause of death in the United States was unintentional injury.

The most common unintentional injuries result from motor vehicle crashes, falls, fires and burns, drowning, poisonings and aspirations, according to the CDC.

These further break down as follows: the most common are unintentional poisoning deaths (58,335), followed by motor vehicle traffic deaths (40,327), and unintentional fall deaths in third place (34,673).

According to the CDC, between 2005 and 2014, there was an average of 3,536 unintentional drownings every year in the United States, not including boating-related incidents. For the same time period, there were on average 332 people who died from boating-related incidents.

About one in five drowning fatalities are children under 14, the CDC notes. For every child that dies due to drowning, five receive emergency department care for nonfatal injuries.

The total number of emergency department visits for unintentional injuries in the U.S. in 2017 was 30.8 million, according to the CDC.

The 10 leading causes accounted for 74 percent of all deaths in the United States in 2017.John Singleton at the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., on March 4, 2018. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Boyz n the Hood Director in Hospital After Suffering Stroke

Oscar-nominated director John Singleton is intensive care in a Los Angeles hospital after having a stroke.

Singleton, the iconic filmmaker behind Boyz n the Hood, had checked himself into the hospital earlier in the week complaining of weakness in his leg, TMZ reported.

He had the stroke on Wednesday, April 17, while at the medical facility, according to a statement by the family, cited by the Guardian.

Singletons family has asked for privacy and expressed thanks for messages of support.

On Wednesday, April 17th, our beloved son/father, John Singleton, suffered a stroke while at the hospital. John is currently in the ICU and under great medical care. We ask that privacy be given to him and our family at this time and appreciate all of the prayers that have been pouring in from his fans, friends, and colleagues.

Singleton received two Oscar nominationsbest director and best original screenplayfor Boyz N the Hood, which he directed at the age of 23.

Film critic Roger Ebert called it one of the best American films of recent years and a human drama of rare powerAcademy Award material.

Singleton is the youngest filmmaker ever to be nominated for the Oscar category of best director, according to IMDb.

Tributes Pour In

Following news of the stroke, friends, colleagues, and fans have been sending their best wishes.

Movie director Guillermo del Toro, a two-time Academy Award winner, wrote on Twitter, Get well, John Singleton! Such a generous spirit.

Get well, John Singleton! Such a generous spirit- pic.twitter.com/fgm7gTjLSG  Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 20, 2019

The rapper Snoop Dogg shared a picture of the pair together on Instagram, writing: Pray 4 my brother.

Wyswietl ten post na Instagramie. Pray 4 my brother . @johnsingleton Post udostepniony przez snoopdogg (@snoopdogg) Kwi 20, 2019 o 3:57 PDT

Mark Wahlberg, who starred in Singletons 2005 film Four Brothers, wrote, Saying prayers for my brother John Singleton today.

Saying prayers for my brother John Singleton today.   Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg) April 20, 2019

Actress Nia Long wrote, Praying hard this morning for my friend John Singleton. PULL THROUGH BABY.

Praying hard this morning for my friend @johnsingleton PULL THROUGH BABY  pic.twitter.com/neYNnRFmX4  Nia Long (@NiaLong) April 20, 2019

Brian Koppelman, co-creator of Billions, a television drama Singleton has directed episodes of, called working with him a career highlight.

For Dave and me, working with John Singleton is a career highlight. And getting to know him has been even better. Heres to a full and quick recovery. (We have been scheming on a project together. Hes got to get well so we can all get to it!).  Brian Koppelman (@briankoppelman) April 20, 2019

Actor Omar Epps wrote: Pull thru brother! The world needs your voice and vision. Prayers up for your family as well.

Prayers up for @SHAFT6816 

Pull thru brother! The world needs your voice and vision. Prayers up for your family as well   OMAR EPPS (@omarepps) April 20, 2019

Singletons other films include Poetic Justice, Rosewood, Shaft, and 2 Fast 2 Furious. His recent projects include the TV series Snowfall, a crime drama set in 1980s Los Angeles.In this handout provided by the Chicago Police Department, Jussie Smollett poses for a booking photo after turning himself into the Chicago Police Department in Chicago, Illinois on Feb. 21, 2019. (Chicago Police Department via Getty Images)

Brother: Jussie Smollett Falsely Accused of Staging Alleged Hate Attack

Jojo Smollett insists that his brother, Jussie, is innocent.

Jojo mentioned that the Chicago Police Department has a long history in handling cases wrongly.

JoJo Smollett says this experience has caused his brother to have night terrors and financial burdenshttps://t.co/SJeX4qmoeZ  MadameNoire (@MadameNoire) April 21, 2019

After several leaks from unnamed police sources and despite a long history of wrongful accusations from the Chicago Police Department, many in the media accepted these unconfirmed reports as fact. The numerous police leaks, which prompted an internal Chicago Police investigation, convicted Jussie in the court of public opinion before he even entered a courtroom. Jojo wrote, and continued, On February 14, the day that the Osundario brothers were brought in for questioning as suspects, Fox News reported that the Chicago police communications director, in response to leaked sources within the department, had begun spreading the word that Jussie had supposedly staged the attack, stated that the police chief has contacted @ABC7Chicago to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.

JoJo Smollett: What If Jussie Is Telling The Truth? | Style | Celebrity | BET | https://t.co/M9XKj7V3wc pic.twitter.com/oTvKtzYrAD  Luxoney (@LuxoneyOfficial) April 21, 2019

Smollett, known for starring in Empire, claimed that at around 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, during a polar vortex, he was attacked by two white supporters of President Donald Trump. During his return from a Subway sandwich shop, Smollett said that the men tied a rope around his neck and poured bleach in his eyes while shouting slurs and a pro-Trump statement.

A weeklong investigation led to Chicago police detectives arresting two black brothers, one had been hired by Smollett as his trainer. After several days in custody, the brothers, Ola and Abel Osundairo, confessed to detectives that Smollett paid them $3,500 to help him fake a hate crime.

Smollett was arrested in mid-February on charges of filing a false police report.

Jojo claims at the end of his essay, One important note, the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department announced publicly that Jussies motive in staging an attack was so he could make more money from Empire. Fox immediately said that wasnt true but the police chief never withdrew his accusation. The chief also stated as fact that Jussie had sent himself the threatening letter that arrived at the Empire production offices weeks before the attack. The FBI then refuted this claim. Again, the chief did not correct his accusations. Letting it float for the public to either believe or not.

Kim Foxx, the lead prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case, now claims that the case was not solid and that public statements by officials led to her offices unusual agreement with the actor.

Two top deputies of Cook County State Attorney @KimFoxxforSA have resigned in the wake of the #JussieSmollett #HateCrime hoax scandal. The #Empire actor, saw all charges against him dropped by Foxxs office in an unusual agreement. https://t.co/QeACxh3vC5  The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) April 20, 2019

But all charges against Smollett were inexplicably dropped against the actor on March 26, a decision heavily criticized by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, and the Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association. President Donald Trump said the FBI and Department of Justice will review the unusual agreement, which didnt include Smollett admitting to any wrongdoing.

JoJo Smollett pens essay defending brother @JussieSmollett, attacking ludicrous claims of publicity/money motive w/details of his booming biz ventures. He wouldnt need to roll around on the icy ground of a Chicago street, staging an attack on himself to make this happen. https://t.co/CG6CoafecM  ???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????? (@WashNews) April 20, 2019

Foxx initially said shed recused herself from the case but later said she had merely separated from it, and an assistant district attorney in her office was put forward as the man who made the decision to drop the charges. That prosecutor, Joe Magats, said that the case against Smollett was solid, noting, We didnt exonerate him.

Magats was asked by a CBS reporter if he believed that Smollett was guilty, replied, Yes.

BREAKING: New text messages show that Cook County District Attorney Kim Foxx intervened in the case against Empire actor Jussie Smollett, weeks after she claimed that she recused herself. https://t.co/iPRpwtaudA  Harry Cherry (@TheHarryCherry) April 17, 2019

Epoch Times reporter Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

From NTD NewsCaption: (L to R) Ashley Tellis, Senior Fellow and Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Randall G. Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense, Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen ,Secretary-General, European Council of Ministers, Thomas J. Duesterberg, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Liselotte Odgaard, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, at "Caught in the Crossfire: Balancing EU relations with the U.S. and China" discussion at Hudson Institute in Washington on April 16, 2019. (Jennifer Zeng/The Epoch Times)

Caught in Crossfire Between US and China, EU Seeks Role

WASHINGTONStatesmen and experts recently wrestled with what role Europe should play as it confronts an increasingly competitive dynamic between the United States and China.

After being entangled with internal crises and problems for 10 years, Europe has awakened to find itself in a totally different world, and is trying to find its new role while balancing relations with the United States and China, according to Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, secretary-general of the Council of the European Union.

Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington on April 16, Tranholm-Mikkelsen said that although the title of the event, Caught in the Crossfire: Balancing EU Relations With the U.S. and China, was somewhat provocative, it did spell out the essence of the situation.

The EU is in the process of adopting a more serious approach to its relations with the rest of the world, and to its global role, Tranholm-Mikkelsen said.

He said this is happening because, after years of various crises, Europes economy is now in better shape, with its highest employment rate and six years of continuous growth, while illegal immigration has receded to the pre-crisis level. Thats why Europe has the capacity to look into the future and at the rest of the world.

Tranholm-Mikkelsen said reality is pushing Europe to think about its future. The United States has a new president whose approach to the international rule-based order is different, U.S.-China relations have changed, and Chinas GDP has doubled while the EU was fighting its way out of crises.

China presents both an opportunity and a challenge for Europe, Tranholm-Mikkelsen said. However, with Chinas cutting-edge technology, a state-led long-term strategy, and unfair trade practices, the challenge it poses is more in focus.

He also said the situation inside Europe has changed: With no big states left in Europe, he said individual states cant exercise sovereignty and must act together.

Transatlantic Bond

Tranholm-Mikkelsen said that Europe must define its role in the relationship between the United States and China, and find our role in this context.

How that ultimately plays out, of course, does not only depend on us. It depends very much also on China and on the U.S., he said. We are seeking cooperation with both. We want to preserve a rule-based international order, but we also want to reform it.

Tranholm-Mikkelsen said the old rules, which were created a long time ago, dont fit the purpose any longer, especially as they dont take into account Chinas changing role. So we need to reform that order to make it more resilient, more fair, and better fit the purpose, he said.

The European natural inclination is, of course, to ally as closely as possible with the U.S. The transatlantic bond is not just words. The transatlantic bond is deeply rooted in history, in democratic values, and in alliance. That is the reality that I think is very much present among the leaders when they meet in the European Council. They want the transatlantic bonds to continue; and they want to strengthen it, (to have) it continue to be a key factor in how to place ourselves in this world.

China a Particular Concern for US

Randall Schriver, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said: We are particularly concerned about the trajectory of China: China with a different vision, different aspirations for the region. And if those goals are achievedif they realize thatwe could see a very different Indo-Pacific region, where there is backsliding in terms of human rights and religious freedom.

Everyone should be concerned about whats going on in Xinjiang and Tibet. We should take every opportunity to talk about it, because it is underreported, the human tragedy that is unfolding right now in Xinjiang.

Schriver stressed that there are ideological battles between the United States and China, as Vice President Mike Pence pointed out in a speech at Hudson on Oct. 4 last year when he talked about the promotion of certain enduring values that China doesnt pursue in its own relations.

In fact, many times, [its] just the oppositetheir predatory economics leads to greater corruption and weaker governance, he said.

Cooperation Between US, Europe

Schriver said while the Chinese are very smart and opportunistic, and will choose the type of engagement with a particular country based on what they can learn from that country, and what they can extract from them, there are many areas in which the United States and the European Union can cooperate.

These include sharing information and intelligence, learning from each other about best practices, developing operational approaches in the Indo-Pacific region, capacity building, offering other countries alternatives to China, and protecting technology and critical infrastructure, he said.

Battle Over 5G: Warnings and Choices

Schriver used 5G networks as an example of trading experiences with each other.

We are looking right now at a particular challenge with 5G communication networks, he said. We recognize in the United States that we dont start at the same place. There are countries that have 4G networks, for example, but we need to end up at the same the placehaving confidence and assurance that we can continue close relations, share the most sensitive information that we need to share as partners and allies, and understand that we can do that without compromise. 

The United States will continue to remind European countries that when they make decisions, they need to consider whether the United States will feel confident to share information with them, Schriver said.

According to recent data, even as the United States has been sending out warnings about Huaweis security threats for several years, countries around the world are still awarding Huawei contracts to develop 5G networks. Huawei has won more than 18 new 5G commercial contracts in the past five months, half of which came from Europe.

Thomas Duesterberg, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, says hes disappointed with the quality of the cooperation between the United States and European Union on tough issues, such as Huawei and the 5G dispute, as well as pushing back against Chinas One Belt, One Road program. The EU has been too slow to respond to some of the challenges, he said.

Recent problems such as Brexit, migration, and the China challenge have shown that the 28 (soon 27, once the UK leaves) countries can actually stand together, according to Liselotte Odgaard, a visiting senior fellow at Hudson Institute. So it is worth waiting even if sometimes it takes time for these countries to respond, she said.

Europe is also taking action on the issue of digital economy, and Chinas practices there, Odgaard said. The EU is an area where it cannot order the countries to do (something).  But youve already seen stuff happening. Denmark is not signing up to Huaweis 5G. They are relying on Ericsson. Countries are starting to move on this.

Huawei does in many cases offer the best and cheapest solutions. So it is a political decision.  If you just leave it to economic actors, they are going to choose Huawei in many cases.Cellist Julia Goudimova saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at the The Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington on April 20, 2019. (NTD Television)

WASHINGTONCellist and music lecturer Julia Goudimova was captivated by the sweet sound flowing from the orchestra pit when she went to see Shen Yun Performing Arts.

I loved the music. I heard the cello solo and the other instruments playing. I really enjoyed it and I looked to the orchestra after it finished to see who was performing and liked seeing the Western and Chinese instruments, so its quite accessible, said Goudimova, who saw Shen Yun perform at The Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington on April 20.

New York-based Shen Yun tours the world annually, performing in renown theaters in sold-out shows with the mission to bring back genuine traditional Chinese culture. It brings audience members through Chinas 5,000 years of civilization and history using classical Chinese dance as a foundation, but also incorporates ethnic and folk dances from regions in China.

The performances are accompanied by a unique orchestra that blends Chinese and Western musical instruments to create a distinct yet harmonious sound.

According to one of Shen Yuns composers, Junyi Tan, the blending of two great musical traditions while presenting a unified theme is a special feature of the orchestra.

In arranging the music, Im mostly employing Western arrangement techniques. But, at the same time, the composition and the feel of the melody must match the unique attributes of Chinese music, Tan said in a previous interview.

As we write the music for different dance numbers, we need to fully appraise how to best echo the local traits and flavor. To get the ethnic style and characteristics just right, theres nothing better than using Chinese instruments like the erhu, pipa, and so on.

This aspect of Shen Yun was something Goudimova said she appreciated greatly.

I think its an absolutely beautiful combination. I think the musician and the composers are doing a really good job intermingling this[the] two worlds [of] West and East. I think we all enjoy this experience as audience members, she said.

Goudimova is a talented musician herself. Born in Moscow, she began studying piano at the age of five and cello at the age of seven. She received her music education at Tiraspol College of Music and her masters degree from Belarus Academy of Music. She has performed in numerous recitals and chamber music concerts in Belarus, Moldova, Germany, South Korea, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, according to her Washington and Lee University profile.

She is currently the principal cellist of the University-Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra and a cello instructor at Washington and Lee University and Southern Virginia University.

Along with the music, Goudimova also applauded the dancers for their ability to express emotion through their movements.

I think incorporating emotions with when you look at the dancers. Their faces are quite still and very elegant and at the same time, you can tell what emotions are underneath because of the music and because of the movements of the body, she said. Its just an interesting experience to watch them.

With reporting by NTD Television.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.Cassandra Sandusky (R) a graduate of Columbine High School, pauses at a row of crosses bearing the names of the victims of the attack at the school 20 years ago before a remembrance for the victims in Littleton, Colo. on April 20, 2019. (David Zalubowski/AP Photo)

Columbine Honors 13 Lost with Community Service, Ceremony

LITTLETON, Colo.Community members in suburban Denver marked the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting Saturday with a remembrance ceremony that celebrated the schools survival and by volunteering at shelters, doing neighborhood cleanup projects and laying flowers and cards at a memorial to the 13 people killed.

Were changed, Dawn Anna, whose daughter Lauren Townsend was among the students killed in the schools library, said before a crowd of more than 2,000 gathered in a park near the high school. Were weaker in some places, but hopefully were stronger in most of them. Our hearts have giant holes in them. But our hearts are bigger than they were 20 years ago.

The events ended a three-day slate of somber gatherings honoring the victims and lending support to their families, survivors of the April 20, 1999, attack and the schools students and staff.

Speakers on Saturday portrayed healing and recovery as the result of daily worknot a destination to be arrived at in a set amount of days, weeks or years.

Forgiveness, though, is achievable, said Patrick Ireland, a student who became known as the boy in the window when cameras captured him dangling from a second-story window before falling during the 1999 school shooting. He re-learned to walk and talk with months of physical and cognitive therapy.

Our innocence was stolen, Ireland said. How can that ever be repaid? But forgiveness is a process. It takes time. It takes practice, repetition, translating that rhythm into moving.

The afternoon ceremony at times had the feel of a reunion. Former students introduced classmates to their husbands or wives and the crowd jumped to their feet when a retired teacher led a call-and-response cheer of the schools mantra.

We are Ivory Moore yelled, his voice straining.

Columbine! the crowd replied, some pumping their fists in the air.

There were tears too, particularly as photos of the victims at various ages flashed across a projector screen during a video that featured current Columbine students pledging to honor them with community service each year on April 20.

At the ceremonys end, Frank DeAngelis, the schools principal at the time of the shooting, read the 13 names aloud in a wavering voice. A bell rang 13 times, and white doves soared into the cloudy sky for each individual.

Starting in the morning, a steady stream of visitors stopped at a memorial that sits on a hill overlooking the school. The site includes an oval outer wall of stone with plaques featuring quotes from officials and Columbine students and teachers, and an inner ring with plaques for each person killed.

People walked silently through, occasionally stopping to hug a friend or wipe away tears.

Sharon and David Hampton brought white roses to place at the memorial, which opened to the public in 2007. They have lived in the area for more than 30 years and watched three sons graduate from Columbine.

None were enrolled at the time of the massacre. Sharon Hampton was a preschool teacher at a nearby elementary school. On Saturday, she wore a black T-shirt reading Be kind, a message she wants people to remember on the Columbine anniversary.

Take time, she said, as tears came to her eyes. We all face challenges. Try to understand. We can lean into that each day and help one another.

Other visitors left cards, bouquets and seed packets for columbines, the Colorado state flower, around the memorial plaques. Sheriffs deputies patrolled the area on foot and by bike on a warm day as Little League games went on at nearby fields.

Also Saturday, Columbine students, staff and others took part in community service projects, including cleaning up neighborhoods, volunteering at homeless shelters and doing spring cleaning at the homes of senior citizens.

The days surrounding the anniversary remain emotionally fraught for survivors of the attack, including hundreds who escaped the building without physical wounds. Some describe their response to the month as an April fog, dominated by their memories of the sunny Tuesday two decades ago that shocked the world.

This week brought a new burden as federal authorities led a manhunt for a Florida teen infatuated with the shooting.

On Tuesday, authorities published her name and photo after learning she was obsessed with Columbine and had traveled to Colorado and bought a gun. They said she had not made specific threats, but dozens of schools, including Columbine, locked their doors.

More than 400,000 kids stayed home Wednesday when schools shut down across the metro area. The 18-year-old was found dead of an apparent suicide that morning in the foothills west of Denver, about 40 miles from Columbine.

Long-planned events marking the anniversary continued as scheduled, beginning with a Thursday evening church service and a community vigil Friday night at the memorial. Security remained heightened at Denver-area schools through the week.

By Kathkeen FoodyBarbara Malinsky saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at the The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts at Hartford, Connecticut, on April 20, 2019. (Yawen/The Epoch Times)

HARTFORD, Conn.Being a dance historian, critic, writer, Barbara Malinsky understands dance like no other. She is a contributor for the International Encyclopedia of Dance and a guest curator for several dance exhibitions.

When she saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts at Hartford, Connecticut, on April 20 she was full of compliments for many elements of the performance.

I think the show was wonderful. I think it was inspiring. I think that the production value was outstandingthe costumes, the special effects, the dancers were exceptionally well trained, and there was a diversity of choreography, Malinsky said.

New York-based Shen Yun takes audience members on a journey through Chinas 5,000 years of semi-divine culture in a performance that is frequently described as eye-opening. Through about 20 vignettes, the performance relays the essence of genuine Chinese culture using performing arts, and inspires viewers through stories based on universal values and themes that are slowly fading away from our lives.

These themes and values, especially the importance of spirituality, gave Malinsky an important glimpse into the foundation of what Chinese civilization and culture were built uponsomething that has lost its value in modern communist China. She added that the performance was able to deliver that aspect in a commendable way and experiencing it was spiritually inspiring for her.

Im impressed by the universality of thinking, of people being upset by the fact that something is missing in their lives, and all the materialism in the world is not a substitute for a greater good, a greater experience, which was shown at the end, Malinsky said.

I think that all cultures believe in a superior force or superior being and believe in spirituality, which has been unfortunately suppressed in China, she added.

China was once known as Shen Zhou, or divine land, a term which describes a time where mortals and deities co-existed as well as an old belief that the divine transmitted a rich culture to the people of the earth, according to the company website.

But after seven decades of communist rule, most of this culture was pulled apart or changed in favor of communist thinking dictated by Mao Zedong and subsequent leaders. The multiple campaigns aimed at systematically dismantling traditional culture had not only destroyed physical historical buildings, ancient relics, and traditions, but also completely warped the spirit of the Chinese identity.

Seeing that genuine Chinese culture was at the brink of being wiped out, a group of overseas artists was determined to bring back everything that truly defined the Chinese people. This was how Shen Yun Performing Arts was born back in 2006.

Malinsky described Shen Yuns mission as a noble cause, adding that she thinks it is tragic the performance cannot be seen in China.

The dance historian said she hopes that one day the people in China can finally experience Shen Yun for themselves. She said, That would be a wonderful thing.

With reporting by Yawen.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. (REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte)

8 Explosions Kill More Than 200 in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday

Two more explosions claiming at least two lives have been reported in Sri Lanka, bringing the Easter Day attack tally to eight blasts and at least 207 dead.

Police told Reuters that one of the two recent explosions occurred at a hotel near the national zoo near the city of Colombo.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera was cited by the Independent as having confirmed that the afternoon blast hit a hotel in the southern Colombo suburb of Dehiwala.

The blast is believed to have taken place near the Tropical Inn hotel at about 2 p.m. local time, according to The Independent.

Blast heard from Dehiwala (Near Zoo) and smoke seems to be coming up on nearby building, not certain of what this is #lka #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/vwmGnkitqU  Asela Waidyalankara (@aselawaid) April 21, 2019

The second explosion took place in the afternoon in a house in Colombo, according to authorities cited by Reuters.

No casualties were reported.

The first six explosions of the day were all reported within a short period in the morning just as church services were starting.

The attacks have claimed the lives of at least 156 people, according to AFP reports. Reuters has put the tally at 138 people killed, and over 400 wounded.

Most of the victims are locals, with the BBC reporting that nine foreigners have been killed, while AFP reporting 35 foreigners had died in the attacks.

The BBC reported a curfew has been imposed from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time.

Temporary government bans on social media network use have been imposed, according to AFP.

No group has claimed responsibility for the carnage.

The Latest From the Scene

The morning explosions went off at three Sri Lankan luxury hotels and three churches at around 8:45 a.m. as Easter Sunday services were underway.

In just one church, St. Sebastians in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, more than 50 people have been killed, a police official told Reuters, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews and a destroyed roof.

Multiple blasts reported in Sri Lanka including at churches as people attended Easter services. pic.twitter.com/KYArRCUHAT  Sumisha Naidu (@sumishanaidu) April 21, 2019

Media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on a church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The three hotels hit were the Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel, and Cinnamon Grand Colombo. It was unclear whether there were any casualties in the hotels.

9 foreigners among those who dead in Colombo  Colombo Hospital  Azzam Ameen (@AzzamAmeen) April 21, 2019

Two more explosions reported at Shangri-la & Cinnamon Grand Hotels in Colombo! #lka #srilanka

Catch the Real Time Updates on Insta  @saksivarnan pic.twitter.com/1Y31wezx6W  Rj Saksi (@saksivarnan) April 21, 2019

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong, he said in a Tweet.

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.  Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019

Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.

Rumours circulating on social media that the Red Cross building was attacked is false and wrong information. Please refrain from spreading unauthentic and false information on Social Media.  Sri Lanka Red Cross (@SLRedCross) April 21, 2019

St. Sebastians church posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

https://www.facebook.com/sebastianchurch150/photos/pcb.2139189269532076/2139186889532314/?type=3&theater

Condolences and Condemnations

President Donald Trump condemned the attacks and conveyed his sympathies to the victims.

Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels, the president wrote on Twitter. We stand ready to help!

Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more. We stand ready to help!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2019

European leaders have sent sympathies and expressed support.

European Council President Donald Tusk wrote, A tragic Easter in Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the families of those killed in the attacks on churches and hotels; and those still fighting for their lives.

A tragic Easter in Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the families of those killed in the attacks on churches and hotels; and those still fighting for their lives.  Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) April 21, 2019

President of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker wrote, I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country. We stand ready to support.

It was with horror and sadness that I heard of the bombings in #SriLanka costing the lives of so many people. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country. We stand ready to support.  Jean-Claude Juncker (@JunckerEU) April 21, 2019

With additional reporting by Reuters and Epoch Times staffFather Locks 20-Month-Old Daughter in Cage, Treads on Her Face, Sends Photos of Abuse to Estranged Wife

A Chinese father who took photos of himself abusing his 20-month-old daughter may go unpunished by police, according to the mother.

The mother, Xu Ting, said her estranged husband, Xu Qian, in an act of revenge, sent her photos and videos of their daughter suffering various forms of abuse.

The footage and photos, which include an image of the toddler crying while inside a dog cage, and one showing her face under a mans foot, were posted by Tings friends on Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter, and have since gone viral.

The pictures were taken in the Qians home in the city of Chaozhou in south Chinas Guangdong Province.

After the footage was published, local police said an investigation was underway, in a post on their Weibo account on April 18. Initial findings showed that the girl has no physical injuries, and some of the photos are not of the child, police said.

Qian admitted to the police that he sent the photos, but did not explain why he did so, the police added.

Images include the girl locked in a metal cage, a picture of her leashed to a door handle, and a photo showing an adults bare foot on the girls face as she lays on a tile floor.

Other photos show the girl in tears, and a young childs arms covered with red marks.

Images also included conversations between Ting and her friends, in which the mother said Qian would often physically abuse her.

Ive reported this to the police [before], whenever he hits me, I call the police, Ting wrote to her friend in the messages shared on Weibo. Every time the police come, all they do is criticize him, then say that men have a lot of stress, and women should be forgiving.

In China, police criticism is the equivalent of letting someone off with a warning.

Qian and Ting currently live separately, with their daughter living at her fathers home. While the pair agreed to get a divorce at the end of 2018, they have no yet done so.

[My family] is afraid if I get a divorce, it will influence my younger brothers and sisters chance of getting married, Ting wrote in a message.

My family members dont dare to help me.

Ting has attempted to take legal action, but to no avail. I asked a lawyer, he said that since the pictures dont have [the fathers] face, the law wont recognize it, Ting said in another message. It needs video to count.

The police investigation is ongoing, according to the Weibo post.Border Patrol processes 13 Guatemalans who illegally crossed the Colorado River from Mexico into the United States in Yuma, Ariz., on April 14, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

FBI Arrests Leader of Armed Civilian Group Stopping Illegal Aliens in New Mexico

The FBI on April 20 arrested the leader of an armed civilian group that is stopping illegal aliens after they cross the U.S.Mexico border into New Mexico.

Larry Hopkins, 69, also known as Johnny Horton, was arrested in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, according to a statement by the FBI.

Were not worried about it, hes going to be cleared, said Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), an armed civilian group that has detained more than 5,600 illegal aliens in past two months.

Benvie blamed the arrest on political pressure from New Mexicos Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who ordered an investigation into the group after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused the UCP of illegally detaining the illegal aliens.

The ACLU advocates for a range of far-left causes, including the defunding of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Hopkins is the national commander of the UCP, which has had about a half-dozen members camped out on a rotating basis near Sunland Park since late February.

The UCP describes itself as a patriot group, helping the U.S. Border Patrol cope with record numbers of Central American families crossing the border seeking asylum.

We are here to uphold the Constitution of The United States of America. We uphold this cause against all enemies both foreign and domestic, which shall infringe upon the rights of the citizens given by the Constitution, states the groups description on Facebook.

UCP members dress in camouflage and carry rifles for self-defense.

Videos posted online by the group show members telling migrants to stop, sit down, and wait for agents to arrive.

Crowdfunding sites PayPal and GoFundMe on April 19 barred the group from collecting donations, citing policies not to promote hate or violence. The ACLU, without evidence, called the UCP a fascist militia.

Todays arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement about Hopkinss arrest. On April 18, Balderas advised the group to not take the authority reserved for law enforcement into their own hands.

Hopkins was previously arrested in Oregon in 2006 on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left group best known for its controversial hate-watch list.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement it doesnt support citizens taking law enforcement into their own hands and instead, encourages the public to be its eyes and ears on the border.

Benvie said the UCP was doing just that and has the support of local Border Patrol and police. Mostly military veterans, UCP members carry weapons for self-defense and at no time pointed guns at migrants, as they have been accused of, Benvie said.

Despite having funding sources cut off, Benvie said the groups online support had swelled since it came under attack this week. Its Facebook followers have more than doubled since April 17 to almost 5,000 people.

Benvie said the group would probably leave if told to by state police; however, if the order violated the groups constitutional rights, the UCP would sue the state of New Mexico.

Theres not going to be any standoffs, this isnt the Bundy Ranch, Benvie said, in reference to a 2014 armed confrontation in Nevada.

The United States is facing a surge of migrants from Mexico and Central America unseen in years. The number of illegal crossings is on pace to reach 1 million this year. Most of the migrants are traveling with family members to exploit a legal loophole in the asylum system that forces immigration authorities to release the migrants into the United States in 20 days or less.

The White House and Republicans in Congress are pursuing efforts to fix the asylum loophole and the immigration system more broadly.

Reuters contributed to this report.Federal Appeals Court Rules House Chaplain Can Reject Non-Religious Prayers to Congress

A federal appeals court recently delivered a legal victory to House Chaplain Father Patrick Conroy, ruling that he could not be ordered to allow a self-described atheist to offer non-religious prayers to the House of Representatives.

The decisiona unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbiastemmed from a case filed by Daniel Barker, a former minister who argued that the House violated the First Amendment when it rejected his request to give a secular invocation as a guest chaplain.

Barker spent nearly two decades as a pastor and missionary before he lost faith in faith and became an atheist. In his suit, he claimed Conroy unconstitutionally excluded him from the guest chaplain program because he is an atheist. Barker is now the co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

In a written court opinion posted April 19, Judge David S. Tatel clarified that Barkers request to give secular prayers was denied because it broke the rules of the House, not because he was an atheist.

Even though we accept as true Barkers allegation that Conroy rejected him because he is an atheist, Tatel wrote, The Houses requirement that prayers must be religious nonetheless precludes Barker from doing the very thing he asks us to order Conroy to allow him to do: deliver a secular prayer.

We could not order Conroy to allow Barker to deliver a secular invocation because the House permissibly limits the opening prayer to religious prayer. Barker has therefore failed to state a claim for which relief can be granted.

Conroy first rejected Barkers application in 2015 to serve as a guest chaplain because he was ordained in a denomination in which he no longer practices. The court noted how Conroy later revised his explanation.

But during the course of this litigation, Conroy has taken a different position: that Barker could not serve as a guest chaplain because he sought to give a secular prayer. More importantly, the House of Representatives itself, through House counsel, has now ratified that position, the court said. Both in briefing and at oral argument, House counsel represented to this court that the House interprets its rules to require a religious invocation.

Debate on the issue began in 2015, when Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) invited Barker to serve as a guest chaplain. The next year, Barker filed a suit when Republicans, under former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), took Conroys side.

In 2014, the Supreme Court upheld legislative prayer. At the time of the ruling, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) praised the courts decision.

Unlike so many other countries around the world, America always has been a place where religion brings people together. In times of war and peace, tragedy and triumph, prayer has united us, he wrote in a statement. Prayer has inspired many of the great reforms that have strengthened and delivered on the promises of liberty made in 1776.

Legislative prayer, in particular, is a practice that goes back to the very Founders of the Republic, he added. It has enriched my career as a public servant, both in the Florida legislature and now in the U.S. Senate.Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy arrive at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, on Sept. 17, 2018. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Felicity Huffman May Avoid Prison Time, Wear Ankle Monitor: Report

Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman may avoid jail time for her role in the college admissions scandal due to her lack of criminal history, her decision to plead guilty, her display of remorse, and the relatively small amount she paid.

Prosecutors have claimed that Huffman paid $15,000 to a Harvard graduate to correct her daughters SAT score, giving her a 400-point boost. Other parents, including Full House actress Lori Loughlin, allegedly paid as much as $500,000 in the scam.

Earlier this month, Huffman said she would plead guilty in the case and issued a lengthy apology.

According to the Los Angeles Times on April 20, Huffman could get home confinement in the case. Under federal sentencing guidelines, she could face four to 10 months in prison.

A legal expert told the LA Times that a judge could allow her to serve her sentence at home while wearing an ankle monitor instead of going to prison.

In federal court, the judge has the legal discretion to not follow the sentencing guidelines, as they are advisory, not mandatory, Dmitry Gorin, a former prosecutor in Los Angeles, told the paper. A person with no criminal history with no serious criminal intent and a strong law-abiding background should not be sent to prison.

I suspect her lawyers will do everything they can to highlight these points and keep her out of prison, he added.

Another expert said that because she was among the first parents to admit guilt in the case, she could receive relatively lax punishment.

She was first out the gate to take responsibility and will be handsomely rewarded for it, especially if the other defendants drag their feet, which [were] beginning to see, said Louis Shapiro, a federal defense attorney, according to the Times.

Huffman is slated to appear in court on May 21.

In a statement this month, she said, I am in full acceptance of my guilt, and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions.

Whats more, she added that her daughter knew absolutely nothing about my actions in the scam, adding that she betrayed her.

This transgression toward her and the public I will carry for the rest of my life. My desire to help my daughter is no excuse to break the law or engage in dishonesty, Huffman continued.

Loughlin and her designer husband Mossimo Giannulli, meanwhile, have been accused of paying $500,000 to have their two daughters admitted into the University of Southern California as fake crew recruits. They could face up to 40 years in prison.Lin Yu-chang, mayor of Taiwans northern city of Keelung, enjoyed Shen Yun at the Keelung Cultural Center Performance Hall in Keelung on April 18, 2019. (Chen Po-chou/The Epoch Times)

KEELUNG, TaiwanFor two days at the northern Taiwanese city of Keelung, some of the local government officials had done one thing in commontaking time out from their work to enjoy a performance by the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts.

Four political dignitaries made their appraisal of Shen Yun public. Among them was the citys mayor Lin Yu-chang, who enjoyed the matinee performance at the Keelung Cultural Center Performance Hall on April 18.

I believe [the performance] was about telling people to be good and kind, said Lin, who added this was his second time seeing Shen Yun. It was a good performance that brings out the depth of traditional [Chinese] culture.

Shen Yun is a classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception in 2006, the company has now developed into six equal-sized companies, and they make annual tours around the world every year.

Lin believed it would be a loss to anyone who could not see the performance.

Lins comment was made in reference to the fact that Shen Yun is currently not allowed to perform in China. Whats more, as Shen Yuns website explains, people cannot see another performance like Shen Yun in China because the Chinese communist regime has treated traditional culture as a threat to its power.

The performance was good in bringing societies positive values, said Lin, adding that he would encourage more people to come to see it.

If [Shen Yun] is in Taiwan, and there are mainland Chinese tourists who happen to be visiting Taiwan at the same time, they should take the chance to see it, Lin said.

A Whole New Experience

Tsai Shih-ying, a member of Taiwans legislature, also known as the Legislative Yuan, saw the performance on the evening of April 17. Like Mayor Lin, Tsai has seen the performance before.

This is not my first time. I have seen the performance many times. And every time I come to see it, I have a whole new experience and different emotions, Tsai said.

Tsai recalled how he was impressed by the beauty the first time. But the second time, he walked away appreciating the skills of the dancers. And now, he explained, he came to appreciate the flow of the long Chinese history and the depth behind the story dances.

Shen Yun takes the audiences on a journey through 5,000 years of Chinese culture with dance and music, according to its website. And part of this journey are mini-dramas recounting the past, including literacy classics and tales of bygone heroes, all of which celebrate virtues that are at the heart of Chinese civilization.

The performance showcased the soul and the spirit behind the [traditional] Chinese culture. While it brought out the historical past, it also called on people to treasure this culture, Tsai said.

Tsai had a suggestion: I think high-ranking mainland Chinese officials should see Shen Yun if they get the chance. Maybe afterward they will view things differently with regards to domestic and foreign policies.

Life Purpose

Yang Hsiu-yu, a councilwoman for the Keelung municipal government, saw the performance on April 17. She shared her reflections on the story dances she saw.

These stories tell people what is supposed to be our purpose in life, Yang said.

She elaborated how she saw truthfulness, compassion, and beauty in the traditional culture presented by Shen Yunall of these values would allow people to be good and kind and not lost their ways in life. In other words, she said, it is important for people to learn about traditional Chinese culture.

Yang took a moment to applaud the Shen Yun dancers, who danced with their souls, in showing the traditional Chinese culture.

Good Versus Evil

Chen Jing-ping, director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau at the Keelung government, was among the attendance on April 18, the final performance at Keelung before Shen Yun travels to the central Taiwanese city of Taichung for four performances.

The performance brought out the strength and beauty of [traditional] Chinese culture, Chen said.

Whats more important is the fact that some of the story dances had a message, a message of good versus evil, according to Chen.

They tell you that there is a good side in this world, but there is also a dark side to ita side that awaits us to make a change, Chen added.

After Taichung, Shen Yun will kick off the final leg of its Taiwan tour, with five performances in the northern city of Taoyuan, followed by three performance in southern Taiwan Tainan City.

With reporting by Zhong Yuan and Frank Fang.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.Brett Kavanaugh speaks after being sworn-in as associate justice of the Supreme Court at the White House in Washington on Oct. 8, 2018. (Holly Kellum/The Epoch Times)

George Mason University President Reaffirms Decision to Hire Kavanaugh for Summer Job

The president of George Mason University has reaffirmed the schools decision to hire Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to teach a summer job in England after some students tried to pressure the school to reverse their decision.

During a two-hour town hall, president Angel Cabrera told students that while he acknowledged that some of them disagreed with the administrations move, the decision was final. Kavanaugh has a three-year teaching contract with the university.

Even if the outcome is painful, whats at stake is very, very important for the integrity of the university, Cabrera said, according to HuffPost.

About a dozen students participated in the April 16 town hall where Cabrera and other school officials took preapproved questions from students.

The student protests against Kavanaughs summer job came amid a lobbying effort backed by Brian Fallon, Clintons 2016 campaign press secretary, to remove him.

Provost S. David Wu said it was the law schools choice to hire Kavanaugh. He said he saw no reason for university administrators to override their decision. Cabrera agreed with Wu and emphasized the need to protect the schools ability to hire who they deem fit, HuffPost reported.

Cabrera told students that in the end, its still up to the school.

Even if in this particular case the outcome is one that you deeply disagree with, the process by which these decisions are made and the reason why we are so firm in defending them is actually essential to the way a university like ours operates, Cabrera said.

The school presidents reaffirmation echoed a previous statement he made last month when he stated that the school was standing by its decision and would not remove Kavanaugh.

I respect the views of people who disagreed with Justice Kavanaughs Senate confirmation due to questions raised about his sexual conduct in high school. But he was confirmed and is now a sitting Justice, Cabrera said at the time.

Political Lobbying

Fallon is leading a liberal advocacy group dubbed Demand Justice that aims to influence the political leanings of Americas courts by opposing conservative nominees. According to his LinkedIn account, Fallon is the executive director of the group.

Demand Justice is running an advertising campaign on Facebook to target students at the university in order to pressure the school to remove Kavanaugh from his teaching job.

He is also a former aide to President Barack Obamas attorney general, Eric Holder, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), according to his Twitter profile.

Demand Justice will run digital ads on Facebook targeted specifically at people with a connection to the Virginia university, a report on their website stated.

The advertisements ask students to sign a Change.org petition that calls for the school to Terminate AND void ALL contracts and affiliation with Brett Kavanaugh at George Mason University.

The petition also calls for, among other demands, a formal apology from the administration, a public release of all documents relating to the hiring, and to hold a town hall to discuss Kavanaughs hiring and the implications for students.

Demand Justice is a project of advocacy organization group Sixteen Thirty Fund that uses its funds to provide grants to progressive organizations, according to Influence Watch. The practice of giving such grants, where the donors are anonymous, is known as dark money. The group acts mainly through media campaigns that are either against or for a judicial nominee.Clare Bronfman (C), leaves Federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on April 19, 2019. (Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

Heiress Pleads Guilty in NXIVM Sex Slave Case

NEW YORKAn heiress pleaded guilty on Friday in a sensational case accusing a cult-like upstate New York group of creating a secret harem of sex slaves for the groups self-anointed spiritual leader.

Clare Bronfman admitted in her plea in federal court in Brooklyn that she harbored someone who was living in the U.S. illegally for unpaid labor and services and that she committed credit card fraud on behalf of Keith Raniere, the lead of a group called NXIVM.

Bronfmanthe 40-year-old daughter of the late billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr. told the judge that she had wanted to help people through NXIVM but ended up dishonoring her family.

Your honor, I was afforded a great gift by my grandfather and father, Bronfman said. With the gift, comes immense privilege and more importantly, tremendous responsibility. It does not come with an ability to break the law.

She added: For this, I am truly sorry.

As part of a plea agreement, Bronfman agreed to forfeit $6 million from a fortune prosecutors say is worth $200 million. She faces more than two years in prison at sentencing on July 25.

The plea means Bronfman will avoid going to trial early next month with Raniere, whos facing conspiracy charges alleging that his inner circle of loyalists created a secret society of women who were forced to have unwanted sex with him. Prosecutors say some of the women were branded with his initials as part of their initiation.

An accountant for the group, Kathy Russell, also pleaded guilty on Friday to a fraud charge. She joined three other NXIVM insiders besides Bronfman who have also pleaded guilty.

Among those defendants is Allison Mack, the TV actress best known for her role as a young Supermans close friend on the series Smallville.

Bronfman had long been affiliated with NXIVM, giving away tens of millions of dollars to bankroll Raniere and his program of intense self-improvement classes. She also paid for lawyers to defend the group against a lawsuit brought by its critics.

With the two guilty pleas on Friday, Raniere will face a jury by himself. Defense attorneys have insisted any relationship between their client and the alleged victims, including women expected to testify against him at trial, was consensual.

By Tom HaysA section of the reinforced US-Mexico border fence is seen from Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on Feb. 14, 2019. (Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images)

House Republicans on Border Tour Learn How Smugglers Recycle Immigrant Children

Congressional Republicans who toured the southern border this week were shocked to know how smugglers recycle children across the border.

The Republican delegation touring the southern border included Reps. John Joyce of Pennsylvania, Pete Stauber of Minnesota, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Sean Duffy Wisconsins 7th district, and Duncan Hunter from Californias 50th district.

I think the entire delegation was shocked, said Luke Ball, press secretary for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), according to Washington Examiner.

The delegation witnessed illegal immigration firsthand on the border near the Colorado River according to a video shared by Ball on Twitter on April 18. The video shows immigrants in family units, almost everyone with a child.

WATCH: Yesterday, we watched as over 35 more illegal immigrants were apprehended by only two border patrol agents. Law enforcement is overwhelmed. @realDonaldTrump is right  there is a CRISIS on our southern border. #BuildTheWall pic.twitter.com/wxgYWNITBq  Luke Ball (@LukeTBall) April 18, 2019

In another video shared by Ball on Twitter on Wednesday, Border Patrol is seen leading over 40 illegal aliens caught trying to cross the border.

Over 40 illegal immigrants caught at the border. Two border patrol agents are leading them to processing. There is no fence or wall in this area. #BuildTheWall, said Ball.

MINUTES AGO: Over 40 illegal immigrants caught at the border. Two border patrol agents are leading them to processing. There is no fence or wall in this area. #BuildTheWall pic.twitter.com/MaIX0FpGPE  Luke Ball (@LukeTBall) April 18, 2019

A Border Patrol agent told the delegation that at the Yuma sector they have seen the third highest family apprehensions across all nine sectors this year.

The agents told the Republican congressmen that children are being rented out and the smugglers are sending the children back to Central America after they make it to the United States.

They know thats their ticket in, one lawmaker told the Washington Examiner.

Ball said that the illegals know traveling in family units with children will help their cause. The agents are currently documenting and referring individuals who recycled children for prosecution.

They just walked up and surrendered themselves. They did not try to run. They did not try to get away because what we learned last night  is that if they come in as a family unit, they will be released probably less than two days, and theyre not allowed to hold them for a certain period of time, so essentially they are presenting themselves at the border and saying they are a family unit, Ball said.

Joyce told Washington Examiner in an email that the adults use children as fast passes to permanent entry.

The agents said they cant verify if the children apprehended on the border are traveling for the first time because they dont take fingerprints or other biometric information from children 14 years old or younger.

Rented children make the treacherous journey from Mexico to the United States with unrelated adults and are sent back to Mexico.

They can utilize loopholes in the immigration law. These children dont know. They take these one-month tripstraversing through horrible, horrible conditions multiple times, said Kallinger. Certain children are being recycled, 4-, 8-, 10-year-old children. They come with false documents from adults, said Justin Kallinger, spokesman for the Yuma sector.

Statistics provided by the Border Patrols Yuma sector show that out of the 25,000 people arrested in Yuma who claimed to be part of a family unit, only 600 were related to each other. Authorities have sent 100 out of these for prosecution.

We have prosecuted as many as we can. We run into issues with evidence, intent, time in custody once it is found to be a fraudulent family unit are just a few of the barriers we face right now, Kallinger said in a follow-up email to Washington Examiner.

With another video shared on Twitter, Ball said: If we keep running this, were just going to see more people crossing.

If we keep running this, were just going to see more people crossing. #BuildTheWall pic.twitter.com/lnvNvehhoC  Luke Ball (@LukeTBall) April 17, 2019Indiana Farmers Find 13,000-Year-Old Mastodon Bones

An Indiana farms sewer project unearthed 13,000-year-old mastodon bones in April, according to reports.

The Schepman family said they first thought chicken or cow remains were found when they unearthed the ancient bones, reported The Seymour Tribune.

Then, they spotted a giant tusk and thigh bones and knew it wasnt anything that had lived there in recent times.

The remains of a mastodon were found in Seymour last week. A spokesperson for the Indiana State Museum estimates it died somewhere between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago. Posted by The Tribune (Jackson County, Indiana) on Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Its amazing to think about something this large roaming around this area, Joe Schepman told the Tribune.

The weight of them is unbelievable, he said as he held the bone.

Schepman said, When the tusks were on the animal, they were about 9 feet long, if you can imagine that.

Scientists believe the forest-dwelling animal roamed Central and North America. They went extinct about 10,000 years ago.

Researchers believe that mastodons appear similar to elephants and mammoths. There are several other differences. Mastodons were slightly smaller than mammoths. Though they are both herbivores, they ate differently. Mastodons had blunt, cone-shaped molars that would crush vegetation, while mammoths had ridged molars that cut plants, much like todays elephants, according to LiveScience.

Mastodons also had much smaller ears than modern elephants and were covered in brown fur.

Males tusks could grow about 8 feet in length.

They have big plans for the discovery. Posted by The Kansas City Star on Friday, April 19, 2019

It was a very big animal, and its amazing to think about what was here before us and how we dont think anything about it, son Brad Schepman told the Tribune.

Museum expert Ron Richards said that mastodon bones are found in Indiana about twice per year.

People find them interesting because they were real, they were here and theyre every bit as much a Hoosier as I am, Richards said.

A mastodon named Fred found in 1998 is a fixture at the Indiana State Museum.

The Schepman said they will donate the remains to the museum.

It would be so cool for a kid from here to go to the museum in Indianapolis and see these bones and the tusk and know they were found in their hometown, Brad Schepman said.

https://www.facebook.com/SEEScienceCenter/posts/2791567190883283

The first mastodon remnant was discovered in Claverack, New York, in 1705 and it was called incognitum, according to Extinct Animals.

It is believed that males battled against each other during mating season, occasionally killing one another, the website says, adding: The build of the Mastodons were more similar to the Asian elephants. Compared to Mammoths, they had heavily muscled longer body with shorter legs. Females were smaller than males. They had a long skull and long curved tusks. They had cusp-shaped teeth that were well adapted for chewing leaves and shrubs.

Other details about the finding in Indiana are not clear.A fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US ally in the fight against ISIS, holds a sniper rifle on his shoulder as he attends the funeral of a slain Kurdish commander in Qamishli, Syria, on Dec. 6, 2018. (Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images)

Iraq Court Sentences Four to Death for Joining ISIS

BAGHDADAn Iraqi court has sentenced four people to death by hanging for belonging to the ISIS terrorist group and committing terrorist crimes in Iraq and Syria, a judiciary statement said on Sunday, April 21.

The four men, wanted by Iraqi authorities, were handed to Iraq by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the statement said.

A Baghdad criminal court convicted them for joining ISIS and carrying out criminal operations that targeted innocent civilians with the aim of undermining peace and stability in Iraq and Syria.

A judicial source said the four men were Iraqi.

In February, Iraqs military said the SDF had handed 280 Iraqi and foreign detainees to Baghdad.

Thousands of foreigners have fought on behalf of ISIS in Iraq and Syria since at least 2014. Many foreign women cameor were broughtfrom overseas to join the terrorists.

Iraqi courts are relying on counter-terrorism laws to prosecute thousands of suspects, including foreigners, for joining the ultra-hardline jihadist group.

An #Iraqi court has sentenced four members of the #Islamic_State militant group to death by hanging over their involvement in terrorist attacks in #Iraq and #Syria. Posted by Iraqi News on Sunday, April 21, 2019

ISIS captured a third of Iraq in 2014 but was largely defeated both there and in neighboring Syria where U.S.-backed forces proclaimed last month the capture of ISIS last territory, eliminating its rule over a self-proclaimed caliphate.

Bosnia Detains ISIS Fighter From Syria

A Bosnian national suspected of fighting for ISIS in Syria has been transferred to Bosnia and put in detention, Bosnias prosecutors office said on Saturday, April 20.

After the collapse of the ISIS self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq, countries around the world are wrestling with how to handle militants and their families seeking to return.

I.C, 24, is suspected for criminal acts of organizing a terrorist group, illegal formation and of joining foreign paramilitary or para-police formations, and terrorism, the prosecutors office said in a statement.

A Bosnian national suspected of fighting for #IslamicState in #Syria has been transferred to #Bosnia and put in detention, Bosnias prosecutors office said on Saturday. https://t.co/WwtPI5weC8  The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) April 20, 2019

Bosnias state court has tried and convicted 46 people who have returned from Syria or Iraq in the past few years.

Local media identified the man as Ibro Cufurovic from the northwestern town of Velika Kladusa who, along with Armin Curt, 22, from Sarajevo, had been detained by the Kurdish militia more than a year ago.

The prosecution outlined the assistance of the United States in bringing the man back. The United States is the ally of the Kurdish militia operating in northern Syria.

According to Bosnian intelligence, 241 adults and 80 children left Bosnia or the Bosnian diaspora in 2012-2016 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.

Several women with children, including the Cufurovics wife, have pleaded with the Bosnian authorities to be allowed to return home but there is still no clear policy in place on how to deal with them because their children do not hold Bosnian citizenship.

Also on Saturday, another Balkan state, Kosovo, brought back 110 of its citizens from Syria including fighters and 74 children.

By Ahmed Rasheed and Daria Sito-SucicJudge Gives Gangster Homework Assignment Instead of Bail or Jail

A Brooklyn judge is taking fire for letting an alleged gangbanger caught with a stolen firearm back on the street without having to post bail but only write a homework assignment on gun violence.

Law enforcement sources told the New York Post on April 19 that Judge Ellen Edwards rejected prosecutors calls for 18-year-old Ismail Abraham to post bail after being caught on video carrying a loaded, stolen revolver.

Prosecutors at his arraignment Wednesday wanted Abraham, who has multiple prior arrests on his record, to post a $25,000 bond.

Edwards rejected the request of the prosecution, according to The Post, and instead asked the suspect to write a report on gun violence in the community.

The judge, who with her decision sparked controversy on social media, also imposed an 8 p.m. curfew on Abraham, who law enforcement sources told The Post is a known member of the G Stone Crips gang.

Judge frees gang member, orders him to write report on gun violence https://t.co/va08AIq4xt pic.twitter.com/7liR1zjedL  New York Post (@nypost) April 19, 2019

Out of Touch

Police took Abraham into custody on April 16 after he was reportedly seen discarding a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver loaded with five bullets.

The Post cited court papers as stating that Abraham was captured on surveillance cameras as he tossed the gun and ran down an alley outside a residence on Newport Street in New York City.

Citing law enforcement sources, The Post reports Abrahams four sealed prior arrests include charges of gun possession.

It just goes to show you how out of touch these judges are, a retired NYPD detective told The Post, referring to the apparently lenient treatment of the suspect.

Court spokesman Lucian Chalfen told The Post that Edwardss decision was well within her discretion.

Edwards was elected as a civil court judge in 2017 under the slogan Bringing Reform to our Courts.

On her campaign page on Facebook, she wrote: As your Judge, I will continue to be a voice for justice, fairness, and equality under the law. All who enter my courtroom will be treated with professionalism and respect.

The Reactions

Good luck getting any homework from a gang member, wrote Elizabeth Hanson on Facebook.

Essay should have been on littering as he threw the gun in bushes instead of firing it, joked Francesca Devlin.

Wow why not let make him write 500 times dont do crime, wrote Mark Roberts.

Keith Lawrence (@NeufKeithNove) suggested a stricter posture, writing, Want to get guns off the street make a 10 year mandatory for illegal possession that will curb it.

Facts About Crime in the United States

Violent crime in the United States has fallen sharply over the past 25 years, according to both the FBIs Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).

The rate of violent crimes fell by 49 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the FBIs UCR, which only reflects crimes reported to the police.

The violent crime rate dropped by 74 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the BJSs NCVS, which takes into account both crimes that have been reported to the police and those that have not.

From 1993 to 2017, the rate of violent victimization declined 74 percent, from 79.8 to 20.6 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older, the U.S. Department of Justice stated.

Both studies are based on data up to and including 2017, the most recent year for which complete figures are available.

The FBI recently released preliminary data for 2018. According to the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January to June 2018, violent crime rates in the United States dropped by 4.3 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2017.

While the overall rate of violent crime has seen a steady downward drop since its peak in the 1990s, there have been several upticks that bucked the trend.

Between 2014 and 2016, the murder rate increased by more than 20 percent, to 5.4 per 100,000 residents, from 4.4, according to an Epoch Times analysis of FBI data. The last two-year period that the rate soared so quickly was between 1966 and 1968.

Property Crime

The property crime rate fell by 50 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the FBI, and by 69 percent according to BJS.

According to the FBIs preliminary figures for the first half of 2018, property crime rates in the United States dropped by 7.2 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2017.

As with violent crime, the FBI survey only takes into account crime reported to the police, while the BJS figures include reported and nonreported crime.

Public Perception About Crime

Despite falling long-term trends in both violent crime and property crime, opinion surveys repeatedly show Americans believe that crime is up.

The vast majority of Gallup polls taken since 1993 show that over 60 percent of Americans believe there is more crime in the United States on a national scale compared to the previous year.

Pew Research Surveys show similar findings. A survey in late 2016 revealed that 57 percent of registered voters said crime in the nation as a whole increased since 2008, despite both FBI and BJS data showing double-digit drops in violent and property crimes.

Perceptions differed on a national versus local level.

Surveys of perceptions of crime levels on a local scale showed that fewer than 50 percent of respondents in every single Gallup survey done since 1996 believed that crime in their area had risen compared to the previous year.Actrress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, leave the federal courthouse after facing charges in a nationwide college admissions cheating scheme, in Boston, Mass., on April 3, 2019. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli Constantly Arguing as She Realizes Serious Jeopardy of Legal Situation

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli are in the middle of a legal controversy, and its affecting their marriage.

Lori is constantly arguing with Mossimo because she is beginning to grasp that they are in very serious jeopardy, a source told Us Weekly.

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannullis relationship is in serious jeopardy. https://t.co/rnokhmL6hc  Us Weekly (@usweekly) April 19, 2019

They pleaded not guilty for their involvement in the college admissions bribery scandal.

The actress and the businessman were arrested in March for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud after allegedly paying half a million dollars to guarantee the admission of their daughters, into the University of Southern California as elected crew team recruits, even though neither of them had played the sport.

Loughlins friends are also worried about Giannullis intentions Everyone feels bad for her. They think the situation was something concocted by her husband, explained the source. Her friends dont like him, reported Us Weekly.

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli are constantly arguing after they decided to plead not guilty.https://t.co/sHX6AyYdPq  maddoxshow (@maddoxradio) April 19, 2019

Later, the couple received another charge, this time for money laundering, just days after rejecting a plea deal, which included a two-year prison sentence. They both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them on April 15.

Loughlin is beginning to understand the gravity of the situation, and that according to another source for Us Weekly, is in denial and doesnt believe she should have to spend any time in prison. adding that Loughlin would rather go to trial before being separated from her family and take those odds rather than just go to prison as part of a deal.

The daughters, Bella and Olivia are still technically enrolled in the acclaimed university, although they are not physically present due to fear of bullying. Nevertheless, Olivia has been outspoken about her lack of interest in school via her YouTube channel, which has almost 2 million subscribers.

The girls never went to class. It was all appearances, reported Us Weekly. They would take classes that didnt have traditional final exams in which they would submit a paper, or do a presentation. The girls had help with their classes and had notes given to them from classes, adding that, while Olivia and Loughlin both desire attention and want to be in the spotlight, Bella is much calmer and was only trying to please her parents.

Olivia lost several brand deals in the scams aftermath, however, she doesnt want to delete her Instagram account like her older sister did, She is hoping that the scandal will pass and she will be able to resume promoting her brand.

To make things worse, Olivia Jade, who was the reason for Loughlin and Giannullis legal problems, was spotted partying with other YouTube stars in Studio City, California, According to Fox.

TMZ reported that Jade was laughing and dancing at the party while her student status in USC is still on hold. The college said it will be examining the students involved in the scandal on a case-by-case basis.

USC determined which applicants in the current admissions cycle are connected to the alleged scheme and they will be denied admission. A case-by-case review of current students who may be connected to the alleged scheme is also underway. We will make informed decisions about those cases as the reviews are completed, the college wrote on its website.

She is beginning to grasp that they are in very serious jeopardy, an insider said.https://t.co/naaT2OLe2B  In Touch Weekly (@intouchweekly) April 20, 2019

From NTD NewsPresident Donald Trump looks on during an event recognizing the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride in the East Room of the White House, April 18, 2019 in Wash., DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Louisiana Man Gets Jail Time for Threatening President Trump

BATON ROUGEA Louisiana man has been sentenced to three years and 10 months in federal prison for making threats against President Donald Trump.

The U.S. attorneys office in Baton Rouge says 63-year-old Henry Rayborn, of Baton Rouge, was sentenced Wednesday.

A federal complaint filed in March 2018 says Rayborn made threats against the president while hospitalized in Baton Rouge. Rayborn had been taken there after police found him lying down in a public street.

Court records say Rayborn told an investigating U.S. Secret Service agent that he heard voices in his head saying kill Trump. Rayborn was later found mentally competent to face the charges.

He pleaded guilty in October to making a threat against the president.

After serving his prison sentence he will serve three years of supervised release.

Probation for Man Who Sent Powder to Trumps Sons

A Massachusetts man who sent threatening letters with white powder to President Donald Trumps sons, Antonio Sabato Jr., Sen. Debbie Stabenow, and a law professor was sentenced on April 19 in federal court to five years of probation.

The judge declined to send Daniel Frisiello to prison, as prosecutors had sought, because of concerns the 25-year-old man from Beverly, who is developmentally disabled, would not respond well to incarceration. But he stressed the sentence wasnt lenient.

Do not underestimate how serious I am treating your crimes, Judge Nathaniel Gorton said to Frisiello as the dozens of his family members, friends, and supporters who had packed the court proceeding hugged, cried, and sighed in relief.

Frisiello was also ordered to serve his first year of probation in home confinement and has been banned for the full five years from accessing the internet or sending mail without prior approval. Frisiello also wont be allowed to have a computer, tablet, or other devices with access to the internet.

Frisiello, who pleaded guilty in October to sending the threatening letters, thanked Groton in brief remarks in court for not sending him to prison. The past year, he said, has been hell for his family.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Garland, who had sought a 3-year prison sentence, argued that Frisiello had carefully considered the letter writing campaign, which included 13 letters over three years. He researched the best addresses and took steps to avoid detection, like dropping them off at different mailboxes, Garland said.

This was not an impulsive thing, he said. At every step, there was a chance for deliberation.

Imposing only probation, Garland said, was akin to sending Frisiello back to the life he had before his arrest, which was largely spent at home on the internet.

Frisiello and family declined to comment after the hearing, but William Flick, his lawyer, argued in court that prison would be physically and mentally harmful to Frisiello, who he said has significant developmental issues from brain damage at birth, autism, and anxiety disorder.

There was a collective gasp in the courtroom when Judge Gorton, known for handing down tough sentences, chose not to imprison Daniel Frisiello, who wrote threatening letters with white powder to many, including the sons of @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/k0Xi29HtHI via @BostonGlobe  Maria Cramer (@GlobeMCramer) April 19, 2019

Flick also argued probation is appropriately severe for a person with Frisiellos condition because it takes away what few opportunities he has to interact with society, such as going to work or spending time with family and friends outside the house.

Acknowledging the nearly 90 letters of support written to the judge on Frisiellos behalf, Flick said it was tragic no one in his clients extensive support network had noticed the signs that his penchant for writing letters to celebrities and other notable people had gone from a seemingly harmless obsession to something far darker.

He clearly felt like he wasnt being heard, and so he became threatening, Flick said.

Prosecutors say Frisiello sent a letter to Donald Trump Jr. that was opened in February by his now-estranged wife, Vanessa, at their New York City home. She called 911 and was briefly hospitalized after she reported she was coughing and felt nauseous.

BREAKING: Daniel Frisiello, just charged by DOJ w/sending hoax white powder letter to @DonaldJTrumpJrs family is a Massachusetts Democratic activist who donated to Act Blue in the same cycle they donated to MAs @SenWarren. See FEC info below. pic.twitter.com/ff8NbY0OzK  John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 1, 2018

He also sent a white powder letter to Eric Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign that said his father must drop out of the race or the next letter wouldnt be fake.

The substance in all of the letters turned out not to be hazardous.

Other letter recipients included Stabenow, the Democratic U.S. senator from Michigan; Michele Dauber, a Stanford University law professor who promoted an effort to recall California judge Aaron Persky; and Sabato, a former underwear model and soap opera actor who is running for Congress in California as a Republican and spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention.Mans Life-Threatening Heart Condition Corrected When Ambulance Hits Pothole

In a rare case, a Nebraska mans life was saved on April 15 when his ambulance hit a pothole and his dangerously paced heartbeat returned to normal.

The incident happened when Gretna paramedics rushed a 59-year-old man with a life-threatening heartbeat to the hospital, reported 6 News.

The ambulance had traveled 7 miles and was 20 miles away from the Lakeside Hospital when it hit a pothole. At one point during the journey, the mans heartbeat had hit a dangerous rate of 200 beats per minute.

What if we told you that not all potholes are bad? Its true. One man may have a pothole to thank for saving his life. https://t.co/CXcDb6jSTU  WOWT 6 News (@WOWT6News) April 17, 2019

Its rare, but its a well-described phenomenon, Nebraska Medicines Dr. Andrew Goldsweig told 6 News. Goldsweig was not in the ambulance and was not the physician in the case but helped 6 News understand the rare phenomenon.

One way to treat that is with an electrical shock. Classically, youll see it on television. The paddles, Clear and a big jolt. Turns out, you can do that with a pothole, Goldsweig said.

He said that he had heard of a similar case where a speedbump jolted a man back to a normal heartbeat in the 1970s.

A lot of people hate potholes, but one may have saved a Nebraska mans life: https://t.co/MgBrBe7LgP pic.twitter.com/z0hW3uzcT3  WPFO FOX23 (@FOX23Maine) April 19, 2019

What Causes Rapid Heartbeat?

Abnormal heartbeat is called arrhythmia and it is dangerous because it can prevent normal circulation of the blood to the heart and brain.

It can be cured by procedures called cardioversion, according to heart.org.

When treated with drugs its called chemical cardioversion. Doctors can also treat it by sending an electric shock to the heart (electrical cardioversion).

In the case of electrical cardioversion, patients are put to sleep so that they dont feel the shock.

Facts About Potholes

In this rare medical case, the pothole was a blessing and saved a mans life, however, potholes also cause accidents, deaths, and economic damages.

Potholes are caused by wear and tear to the road by water, freezing, and excessive heat. The areas most prone to potholes are those with poor drainage and where the vehicular traffic is high.

https://t.co/UHNbpE1aPh

Every year potholes cost American drivers $3Billion, damaging your tires, suspension and even more. Routine monitoring can avoid long term headaches. For all of your tire needs go to the Pros. https://t.co/uca60fbEpo pic.twitter.com/AhwVCRK5eb  Tire Pros (@tirepros) April 18, 2018

Every individual motorist in the United States needs to spend $377 annually on vehicle repairs due to potholes, according to pothole.info

The cost of bad roads to businesses in the country between 2012 to 2022 is estimated to be $240 billion.

Pothole.info says that failure to spend $1 in road repair results in a cost of $7 after five years.

As spring emerges, potholes often blossom and create risks to your tires. How to be proactive with maintenance: https://t.co/f2PIaLl4e9  Kuehn Motor Company (@KuehnMotors) April 20, 2019Michigan Officer Responds to 5-Year-Olds Emergency 911 Call About McDonalds

A police officer responded to a 5-year-old boys 911 call to bring him McDonalds.

While his grandmother was sleeping last week, Izaiah Hall phoned emergency dispatchers.

Dispatcher Sara Kuberski handled his call. Kent County 911. Whats your emergency? she answered, according to ABC13.

Can you bring me McDonalds? Izaiah asked.

This 5-year old knew how to connect a deactivated phone to wifi in order to call 911for McDonalds. Wyoming officer brings 5-year-old boy McDonalds after 911 callhttps://t.co/6V0UN0iFU3  Margaret Wallace (@MargaretWallace) April 21, 2019

Im sorry, what? Kuberski responded.

Can you bring me McDonalds? Izaiah asked again.

She told the boy that she couldnt bring him any fast-food.

We get a lot of people who are letting their kids play on their cell phones and a lot of them are deactivated, and parents dont realize they can still call 911, Kuberski told the ABC affiliate.

But Kuberski said she still had to send an officer to the boys location to see if everything was alright.

And Police officer Dan Patterson responded.

I figuredhey, Im driving past McDonalds on my way there and I might as well get him something, Patterson told ABC13.

Nobody answered the door when he knocked. Thats when he knocked on the boys window.

The first thing he said to me was My grandmas gonna be so mad. Can you please go away? Patterson said.

The boys grandmother wasnt angry and was happy that he learned that 911 is only for an emergency.

Making 911 Calls

Government website 911.gov notes that most people know that they should call 911 in an emergency, but many dont know when they shouldnt make the call

The result is that many requests to 911 do not involve true emergencies, which overloads the 911 system with non-emergency calls, says the website.

Most people rarely face emergency situations and lack firsthand experience with 911. They may have unrealistic expectations about what will happen when they contact 911 for emergency assistance, it adds.

For example, it notes, if ones child calls 911 and there is no emergency, parents shouldnt hang up because it could make officials believe an emergency exists when there is none.

Instead, simply explain to the call-taker what happened, 911.gov says.

Wireless Calls

According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC):

Tell the emergency operator the location of the emergency right away.

Provide the emergency operator with your wireless phone number, so if the call gets disconnected, the emergency operator can call you back.

Remember that many emergency operators currently lack the technical capability to receive texts, photos, and videos.

If you do not have a contract for service with a service provider and your emergency wireless call gets disconnected, you must call the emergency operator back because the operator will not have your telephone number and cannot contact you.

Learn and use the designated number in your state for highway accidents or other non life-threatening incidents. States often reserve specific numbers for these types of incidents. For example, #77 is the number used for highway accidents in Virginia.

Consider creating a contact in your wireless phones memory with the name ICE (In Case of Emergency), which lists the phone numbers of people you want to have notified in an emergency.

Lock your keypad when youre not using your wireless phone to help prevent accidental calls to 911.Sri Lankan military officials stand guard in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church after an explosion in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 21, 2019. (REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte)

Multiple Easter Day Bomb Attacks Kill More than 100 in Sri Lanka, Hundreds Wounded

COLOMBO, Sri LankaSix bomb blasts that went off close to simultaneously on Easter Day at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels have killed at least 160 people and wounded around 400, hospital and police officials said.

All six blasts occurred around 8:45 a.m. as Easter Sunday masses were underway in the churches.

In just one church, St. Sebastians in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo, more than 50 people were killed, a police official told Reuters, with pictures showing bodies on the ground, blood on the pews, and a destroyed roof.

Media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on a church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The three hotels hit were the Shangri-La Colombo, Kingsbury Hotel, and Cinnamon Grand Colombo. It was unclear whether there were any casualties in the hotels.

At least nine foreigners are among the dead, the officials said.

9 foreigners among those who dead in Colombo  Colombo Hospital  Azzam Ameen (@AzzamAmeen) April 21, 2019

Two more explosions reported at Shangri-la & Cinnamon Grand Hotels in Colombo! #lka #srilanka

Catch the Real Time Updates on Insta  @saksivarnan pic.twitter.com/1Y31wezx6W  Rj Saksi (@saksivarnan) April 21, 2019

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong, he said in a Tweet.

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.  Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019

Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.

Rumours circulating on social media that the Red Cross building was attacked is false and wrong information. Please refrain from spreading unauthentic and false information on Social Media.  Sri Lanka Red Cross (@SLRedCross) April 21, 2019

Opposition leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan also took to Twitter, calling for unity against extremists.

I call upon all people of this country to come together and stand in solidarity with those who have lost their loved ones in these cowardly and tragic attacks, he said. Let us stay together and be strong so that these extremists will not be able to take this country backward.

I call upon all people of this country to come together and stand in solidarity with those who have lost their loved ones in these cowardly and tragic attacks. Let us stay together and be strong so that these extremists will not be able to take this country backwards.  Sampanthan (@R_Sampanthan) April 21, 2019

I urge his excellency the president and the prime minister to take necessary steps to identify the preparators of these crimes and to bring them before the law.

One of the explosions was at St. Anthonys Church in Kochcikade, Colombo.

St. Sebastians church posted pictures of destruction inside the church on its Facebook page, showing blood on pews and the floor, and requested help from the public.

Local media News First reported that hospital facilities in Colombo were coping well under the influx of patients from the mornings attacks and that there had been no shortage of blood with many people flooding into the citys blood banks to donate.

National Blood Bank brimming with people come to donate blood! Such an overwhelming response #faithinhumanityrestored #Slchurchattacks pic.twitter.com/ODnqOhQySZ  Zahrah Imtiaz (@Imtiaz88Zahrah) April 21, 2019

No shortage of blood, medicine, staff or ambulances, hospitals able to provide the required card: Head of National Hospitals #lka  Marianne David (@MarianneDavid24) April 21, 2019

Sri Lankas Minister for Economic Reforms and Public Distribution with the United National Party Dr. Harsha de Silva, added to the call for calm, saying on Twitter that the government and senior military personnel had met and announced that security measures have been tightened in the wake of the attacks.

PM @RW_UNP met w ministers n senior military personnel; all measures taken to maintain peace. Security tightened. Please stay calm. Please act responsibly. Please NO politics. We must all act together as #SriLanka citizens. My condolences to all families who lost loved ones. pic.twitter.com/j6e3qEPgNt  Harsha de Silva (@HarshadeSilvaMP) April 21, 2019

De Silva urged for NO politics and asked Sri Lankans to act together as Sri Lankan citizens.

My condolences to all families who lost loved ones, he said.

Posted by Newsfirst.lk on Saturday, April 20, 2019

Local media reported that church services on Easter Sunday would be canceled for security reasons.

Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted his thoughts and prayers for the bereaved families and those who were injured in the blasts on Twitter.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.20 years after practitioners in China first appealed to the Chinese regime for their right to practice, New York Falun Gong practitioners call for an end to the persecution with a commemoration parade in Flushing, Queens, New York City, on April 20, 2019. (Edward Dai/The Epoch Times)

New York Event Commemorates Peaceful Protest by Falun Gong Adherents Two Decades Ago

NEW YORKForced organ harvesting, torture, and forced labor. Adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong still face these horrors today.

Twenty years ago, roughly 10,000 adherents of Falun Gong gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the central headquarters of the senior leadership of the Chinese Communist Party located in Beijing, to appeal for the right to practice their faith.

Despite the practitioners pleas on April 25, 1999, the Chinese regime launched a nationwide persecution of the spiritual discipline that, according to a government survey, was practiced by 70 million to 100 million Chinese citizens at the time.

Practitioners across the country were arrested and thrown into detention facilities and labor camps, where they often endured torture. Human rights groups estimate that thousands of Falun Gong adherents have died as a result of the persecution.

In Flushing, New York, on April 20, Falun Gong practitioners in the New York area held a rally and parade to commemorate the courage and bravery exhibited by Chinese practitioners 20 years ago, and to raise awareness about the human rights abuses still being committed in China today.

Olli Torma is a Falun Gong practitioner and IT consultant originally from Finland.

I think that I underwent a pretty big transformation when I started practicing, Torma said, adding that he attended the Flushing event to help people understand what Falun Gong practitioners are still struggling against.

Torma explained that he used to be a very cynical person, but practicing Falun Gong changed his personality overall for the better, giving him a deep appreciation for tradition and spirituality. It also helped him to give up bad habits such as substance abuse and heavy drinking.

Along with the teachings laid out in the practices texts, Falun Gong involves five slow-moving, meditative exercises.

Its based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, said practitioner Babak Baniasadi, who works as a chef.

Baniasadi said he hopes the event can help clear up misconceptions about Falun Gong in the Chinese community.

The Chinese Communist Party has spread a lot of propaganda demonizing Falun Gong for their own selfish reasons, and were here to clear up some of those misconceptions, and let people know were good people, he said.

Chinese state media portrayed the 1999 appeal as an effort to besiege the central government, as part of the Chinese regimes campaign to vilify the practice and justify the regimes persecution.

But Falun Gong practitioners had in fact gathered to petition the Chinese regime for legal status and for an end to harassment, after riot police had beaten and arrested 45 practitioners in neighboring Tianjin City days before.

When 10,000 practitioners arrived in Beijing to appeal, police directed the demonstrators to cross the street away from the central government appeals office, where they initially had gathered, and line up around Zhongnanhai.

Were here to remind everyone of that peaceful appeal, and that Falun Gong practitioners should have the right to practice. Unfortunately, today in China, they still dont, practitioner Andrea Hayley-Sankaran said.Crowds fill Bicentennial Plaza outside of the North Carolina Legislative Building during the March for Students and Rally for Respect on May 16, 2018 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Sara Davis/Getty Images)

Some North Carolina Schools Cancel May 1 Classes as Teachers Set to Protest

The four largest school districts in North Carolina canceled their May 1 classes because many of their teachers will be flocking to the states capital for a May Day protest.

May 1, or May Day, was chosen as the International Workers Day by socialists and communists.

The Raleigh News and Observer reported earlier in April that the number of employees taking a day off for the protest is so high that theyve canceled classes. Other districts are staying open, asking that a small delegation travels to the protest instead.

State lawmakers applauded the districts that kept schools open.

We dont think its appropriate or healthy to keep hundreds of thousands of students out of the classroom, especially when education funding is at a historic high and teacher funding has increased at the third-highest rate in the entire country, Pat Ryan, a spokesman for state Senate leader Phil Berger, told the Observer.

The May Day protest is organized by the Red for Ed movement, which is a headed by Noah Karvelis, a 24-year-old socialist in his second year as a teacher in Arizona. Karvelis spoke at the Socialism 2018 conference last year.

The Red for Ed movement is coordinated and funded by the largest labor union in the United States, the National Education Association (NEA). Red for Ed is coordinating strikes and protests across the nation.

According to a Breitbart News expose, the movement is specifically targeting swing states with the goal of electing a Democratic president in 2020.

Teachers unions overwhelmingly advocate for causes that have little or nothing to do with improving student performance. Red for Ed is specifically focused on raising teacher salaries.

Red for Ed has coordinated large-scale protests in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona, and North Carolina, according to the NEA. The organization is also supporting 1,500 educator candidates running for public office.

The NEA donated $19.4 million to elected officials in 20172018, with the vast majority of the money going to Democratic and liberal officials, according to Open Secrets.

The NEA used to openly recommend books written by Saul Alinsky to every organizer & anyone contemplating action in their community. Alinsky, who authored the book, Rules for Radicals, was an activist who embraced elements of socialism, Marxism, and fascism, among other radical theories.

While the total cost of K-12 public school education has nearly tripled since 1970, average math, reading, and science scores have remained virtually unchanged, according to the Cato Institute.

President Donald Trump and his allies have cast the 2020 election as a choice between socialism and freedom. All of the leading candidates in the crowded Democratic field support the Medicare for All policy introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a self-described socialist.

In a blog post, a teacher activist calling on others to join the May Day protest didnt disavow either socialism or communism.

Theres a lot of ugly rhetoric about Communists and far-left agendas beginning to circulate around May 1. Haters gonna hate, Justin Parmenter, a teacher in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district, wrote in a blog post.Flowers are seen at the scene where the 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland on April 19, 2019. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Northern Ireland Leaders Urge Calm as Police Arrest Two Over Journalists Killing

LONDONDERRYTwo men have been arrested in Northern Ireland over the killing of a journalist during a riot, police said, with politicians calling for calm after the shooting added to concerns about the stability of the regions 21-year-old peace deal.

Lyra McKee, 29, an award-winning journalist who was writing a book on the disappearance of young people during decades of violence in Northern Ireland, was shot dead on Thursday as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

Her death, which follows a large car bomb in the city in January, raised fears that small marginalized militant groups are trying to exploit political tensions caused by Britains decision to leave the European Union.

Northern Irelands political parties, which are broadly split between Irish nationalists aspiring to unite the British region with Ireland and unionists who want it to remain British, issued a joint call for calm.

Lyras murder was an attack on all the people of this community, an attack on the peace and on the democratic processes, leaders of the main six parties said in a statement. This is a time for calm heads.

McKee was watching with a crowd of bystanders as local youths attacked police with petrol bombs and set cars on fire, video footage showed. Police said McKee was hit when a gunman opened fire in the direction of officers.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said on Saturday that two men, aged 18 and 19, had been arrested under the Terrorism Act in connection with the murder.

Police said they believed the shooting was likely carried out by the small New IRA group of Irish nationalist militants opposed to the Good Friday peace deal. The group was blamed by police for planting the car bomb outside a courthouse in Londonderry in January.

It is one of a number of small groups who remain active and oppose the 1998 deal, which largely ended three decades of violence in the region in which over 3,600 died.

Fragile Peace

Politicians around the world condemned the shooting, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, a key player in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace accord, saying he was heartbroken.

We cannot let go of the last 21 years of hard-won peace and progress, Clinton said on Twitter.

Heartbroken by the murder of Lyra McKee and the violence in Derry. The challenges in NI today are realbut we cannot let go of the last 21 years of hard-won peace and progress. This tragedy is a reminder of how much everyone has to lose if we do.  Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) April 19, 2019

Politicians in Northern Ireland have warned that Britains plans to leave the European Union could undermine the peace deal and that any return of restrictive infrastructure along the Irish-Northern Irish border would become targets for militants.

Michel Barnier, the European Unions chief Brexit negotiator, who has insisted the maintenance of a completely open border, on Saturday said the killing was a reminder of how fragile peace still is in Northern Ireland.

Hundreds had gathered in cities across Northern Ireland on Friday to hold vigils for McKee, who was also known as an activist for lesbian and gay rights.

In a rare show of unity, the leader of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party Arlene Foster joined the head of rival Sinn Fein in a heavily Irish nationalist area close to the scene of the shooting to condemn McKees killing.

By Clodagh KilcoyneClare Bronfman (C), leaves Federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on April 19, 2019. (Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

Seagram Heiress Clare Bronfman Pleads Guilty in NXIVM Case

All but the group's leader have since pleaded guilty

Seagram liquor heiress Clare Bronfmana top-ranking member of the purported self-help organization NXIVMhas pleaded guilty to harboring an illegal alien for unpaid labor and enabling credit card fraud, following in the footsteps of her former colleagues.

Bronfman, a member of NXIVMs executive board, entered her plea on the two criminal counts before District Judge Nicholas Garaufis on April 19. An accountant for the group, Kathy Russell, pleaded guilty on the same day to a fraud charge. The high-profile case first gained infamy last year due to egregious sex-trafficking charges involving sex slaves.

Of the six people named in a superseding indictment last year, all but the groups leader, Keith Raniere, have since pleaded guilty to an array of charges including forced labor, sex trafficking, and extortion. Raniere will now face a jury by himself.

In her plea, Bronfman admitted to harboring a woman brought to the United States on a fake work visa so she could use the womans labor for her own and the groups benefit. Bronfman also said she committed fraud on behalf of Raniere by using a deceased womans credit card.

Bronfman, 40, is the daughter of late billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr. The heiress told the judge that she joined NXIVM with good intentions, but ended up dishonoring her family.

I wanted to do good in the world and help people, she said in court. However, I have made mistakes.

As part of her plea, Bronfman agreed to forfeit $6 million and not to appeal any prison sentence of 27 months or less. She said she was truly remorseful.

Bronfmans lawyer, Mark Geragos, said after the hearing that his client did not have an agreement to cooperate with prosecutors.

A spokesperson for the Eastern District Court in Brooklyn did not immediately respond to a request for more details on Bronfmans sentencing.

Bronfman had long been affiliated with NXIVM, giving away tens of millions of dollars to bankroll Raniere and his programs of intense self-improvement classes. She also paid for lawyers to defend the group against a lawsuit brought by its critics.

Recent court documents also revealed Bronfman was part of an illegal campaign contribution scheme to exceed contribution limits to a 2008 presidential primary campaign for political influence.

NXIVM, based in Albany, New York, calls itself a community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human, as stated on its website.

Lone Leader

Defendants admitted in court to the existence of a secret society within NXIVM called DOS, or The Vow, founded by Raniere, who is currently being held without bail. Last month, prosecutors unsealed new charges accusing Raniere of sexually exploiting a minor and coercing her to produce child pornography. Raniere has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Raniere was styled as the highest master of DOS and that he forced other members, all women, to have sex with him. Prosecutors said the name of the society, created around 2015, is purported to be an acronym for the Latin phrase dominus obsequious sororium, which translates loosely as master over the slave women.

Many of the DOS members were branded with a cauterizing pen during a process that took 20 to 30 minutes.

According to court documents, the secret society allegedly operated as a pyramid scheme, with levels of slaves headed by masters; slaves were then expected to recruit their own slaves, thus becoming masters themselves.

Marc Agnifilo, one of Ranieres lawyers, said previously that his clients sexual encounters with women in the organization were consensual, and denied the child pornography charges.

The society allegedly recruited members on the condition that they would give up personal, often embarrassing, information about themselves, including compromising images or videos, as collateral. Once inside, members were regularly required to provide additional collateral to ensure they kept the groups activities secret.

Other defendants in the caseformer NXIVM President Nancy Salzman; her daughter Lauren Salzman; and former Smallville actress Allison Mackhave all pleaded guilty over the past month.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report

Correction: A former version of this article incorrectly described the charges Clare Bronfman pleaded guilty to. Bronfman pleaded guilty to charges of harboring an illegal alien for unpaid labor and enabling credit card fraud. The Epoch Times regrets the error.A residential street is shown surrounded by floodwaters in the town of Rigaud, Que. west of Montreal, on April 19, 2019. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Soldiers Deploy Across Quebec After Flood Caused Sinkhole Claims Womans Life

MONTREALCanadian Armed Forces are deploying in three regions across Quebec, officials say, as rising water levels continue to wreak havoc on the province after claiming a life.

About 200 soldiers were poised to start filling sandbags and carrying out evacuations in the Outaouais and Mauricie regions Saturday night, with 400 more troops set to deploy there as well as Laval on Sunday, said Brig.-Gen. Jennie Carignan.

The soldiers are extremely well-trained and prepared for the flood fight, Carignan said. They are used to doing it.

Quebecs public safety minister urged residents throughout the day to stay safe and cooperate with authorities.

Be careful, be vigilantplease, Genevieve Guilbault said alongside Carignan at Canadian Forces Base Longue-Pointe in Montreal Saturday evening.

As of Saturday night, turgid rivers had resulted in 903 flooded residences, 251 isolated residences and 317 evacuees across the province, according to Urgence Quebec.

Eight major floods were identified by Urgence Quebec on Saturday evening, threatening thousands of Quebecers: the Chaudiere River at Saint-Georges, Saint-Joseph, Scott and Vallee-Jonction, all in the Beauce region; Lake of Two Mountains at Rigaud and Quesnel Bay; and the Beaurivage River in Levis in the Chaudiere-Appalaches region.

Guilbault also offered her condolences to the family of Louise Seguin Lortie, who died early Saturday morning after driving her car into a massive sinkhole caused by flooding in the Outaouais region, according to police.

The accident left the 72-year-olds sedan upside down in a swollen stream after rising river levels swept away part of the road overnight, police said.

FATAL ACCIDENT : A road was washed during the night because of the spring flooding in the @MuniPontiac and a vehicle fell into the creek. Accident under investigation, more details to come #policemrc pic.twitter.com/1SpSkLJaKY  PoliceMRCdesCollines (@Police_MRC) April 20, 2019

Sgt. Martin Fournel of the MRC des Collines police said a pair of witnesses parked near the washout tried unsuccessfully to warn the driver as she approached.

That lady, who was driving by herself on that road, fell into a sinkhole basically because of the flooding. There was a culvert that was not there anymore, so the road was cut in half and she was not able to brake and avoid the accident, Fournel told The Canadian Press.

The woman was taken to hospital but died shortly after, he said.

The accident occurred at about 3:30 a.m. in the Municipality of Pontiac, about 30 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

Pontiac, which sits along the Ottawa River, is one of at least four municipalities in the Outaouais region to declare states of emergency, along with Gatineau, Saint-Andre-Avellin and Val-des-Monts. Trois-Rivieres is also under a state of emergency.

Rigaud, west of the Island of Montreal, saw at least 68 evacuations, as residents feared a repeat of 2017, when record flooding forced thousands from their homes.

William Bradley, whose house in Rigaud sits on a street that hugs the Ottawa River, said he filled several hundred city-supplied sandbags this week. Hes stacked them four-high around doors and windows, wrapping the makeshift barriers in polyethylene.

Its still coming up, coming up, said Bradley, 72.

He said flooding two years ago caused about $100,000 in damage to the ceramics equipment he stores at home for his small business.

Well stay as long as we have gas for the generator. Weve got a boatmy daughter bought a boat and a motor for us in 2017, he said. By the way, never buy a boat during a flood season. It gets pricey.

More than 45 millimetres of rain fell on the Montreal area between Thursday and Saturday, according to Environment Canada. Rainfall warnings have been lifted, but water levels were already high and are expected to rise sharply over the weekend with warm temperatures and snowmelt runoff.

The City of Laval, just north of Montreal, said in a statement it had distributed sandbags to 900 homes and knocked on 550 doors to make sure people were safe as more than 1,500 homes and business remained under flood watch.

Quebec City and the Gaspe Peninsula can expect up to 30 millimetres of rainfall this weekend, said Environment Canada meteorologist Andre Cantin.

That will help the snow to melt again, and we do not expect the river will be able to go down for at least 48 hours, he said Saturday.

Guilbault has said the province will allow storesusually closed on Easter Sundayto remain open this weekend so residents can stock up on supplies.

Some of the worst flooding Saturday appeared to surge through the Beauce region south of Quebec City, where 868 homes were flooded and 94 people evacuated as of 3 p.m., according to an Urgence Quebec bulletin.

In Beauceville, about 90 kilometres south of Quebec City, officials have asked the Canadian Armed Forces for assistance with evacuations ordered by the municipality.

Earlier this week, the Chaudiere River burst its banks and flooded a large part of downtown. Officials called it the worst flooding since 1971, with 230 homes and businesses flooded.

In Saint-Raymond, about 60 kilometres northwest of the provincial capital, 24 seniors in three residences have been moved to higher ground as the Ste-Anne River continues to rise.

A local dam gave way Saturday, said Mayor Daniel Dion, prompting concerns about flooding. The problem today is that there is a lot of ice. If they clog our channels the water will have no space to circulate and thats where it overflows, he said.

In the Mauricie region, Canadian Armed Forces are focusing on Trois-Rivieres as well as the municipalities of Becancour, Louiseville, Maskinonge and Yamachiche.SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which was built to carry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, photo taken on March 19, 2019. (SpaceX via CNN)

Test Fire of SpaceXs Crew Dragon Spacecraft Ran into Problems, Sending up Thick Clouds of Smoke

Thick plumes of smoke rose over a SpaceX facility in Florida during a test fire of a Crew Dragon spacecraft on Saturday, April 20. If the issue was serious, it could derail plans to fly astronauts aboard the capsule later this year.

SpaceX said the craft was undergoing a series of engine tests at a facility in Cape Canaveral, and something went wrong during the final stretch. SpaceX will work with NASA to determine what caused the issue. No injuries were reported.

Ensuring that our systems meet rigorous safety standards and detecting [issues] like this prior to flight are the main reasons why we test, SpaceX said in a statement.

Crew Dragon is already overdue, and more delays could make things tricky for NASA. The United States has not had the technology to fly humans to orbit since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

BREAKING: #SpaceX Crew Dragon suffered an anomaly during test fire today, according to 45th Space Wing. Smoke could be seen on the beaches. On April 20, an anomaly occurred at Cape Canaveral AFS during Dragon 2 static test fire. Anomaly was contained and no injuries. pic.twitter.com/If5rdeGRXO  Emre Kelly (@EmreKelly) April 20, 2019

NASA decided to ask the private sector to design and build a new generation of spacecrafts.

SpaceX and Boeing, which is building a vehicle called Starliner, were awarded contracts worth up to $2.6 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively, in 2014. Both capsules were supposed to start flying in 2017, but SpaceX and Boeing have been hampered with delays.

SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk in 2002, beat Boeing to the launch pad by sending Crew Dragon on an uncrewed test flight in March, during which the capsule docked with the ISS for a few days before returning home. That mission appeared to go off without a hitch.

Crew Dragon was scheduled to conduct a key test of its emergency abort system in June. And its first crewed mission, which will carry astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, was slated for July, though NASA recently said that timeline was under review.

Boeing is aiming to launch Starliners uncrewed test flight sometime in August, potentially putting the capsule on track to fly astronauts by the end of the year.

Federal oversight authorities warned NASA last year that more delays could leave US astronauts stranded if the new capsules were not ready to fly in 2019. NASA had only reserved Soyuz seats through December. But the space agency revealed in February that it would try to secure two more seatsone on a flight that would depart later this year and another on a mission scheduled for spring 2020to assure continuous safe operation and research activity on ISS.Texas Cancer Center Ousts 3 Over Chinese Data Theft Concerns

HOUSTONA prominent cancer center in Houston has ousted three of five scientists whom federal authorities identified as being involved in the Chinese regimes efforts to steal American research.

Peter Pisters, the president of MD Anderson Cancer Center, told the Houston Chronicle that the National Institutes of Health wrote to the cancer center last year detailing conflicts of interest and unreported foreign income by five faculty members, and gave it 30 days to respond.

As stewards of taxpayer dollars invested in biomedical research, we have an obligation to follow up, Pisters said. MD Anderson received $148 million in NIH grants last year.

The center provided internal documents to the Chronicle regarding the cases but the names of the scientists were redacted. The newspaper said all three are ethnically Chinese. Two of them resigned ahead of termination proceedings and the third is challenging the dismissal.

Officials determined termination was not warranted for one of the remaining two and are still investigating the other.

Its not clear if any of them face federal charges or deportation. An FBI spokeswoman in Houston, Christina Garza, said Saturday that the agency does not confirm or deny the existence of any investigation.

Pisters said MD Andersons reputation as the worlds No. 1 cancer center made it an obvious target, but the newspaper report doesnt say what evidence of intellectual property theft was uncovered at the facility.

The dismissals come amid heightened concern in Washington, that foreign governments including China have been using students and visiting scholars to pilfer intellectual property from confidential grant applications.

At a gathering in Houston last summer, FBI officials warned Texas academic and medical institutions of the threat, particularly from insiders, and called on them to notify the agency of any suspicious behavior.

A 2017 FBI report found that intellectual-property theft by the Chinese regime costs the U.S. as much as $600 billion annually. FBI Director Christopher Wray has called the Chinese regime the broadest, most significant threat to the nation and that its espionage is active in all 50 states.

This is part of a much larger issue the country is facing, Pisters told the Chronicle. Trying to balance an open collaborative environment and at the same time protect proprietary information and commercial interests.UK Authorities Issue Arrest Warrant for CCTV Reporter Who Fails to Appear in Court

An arrest warrant has been issued by United Kingdom authorities against a reporter working for Chinas state-run broadcaster, after she failed to show up for a court hearing, according to BBC.

The suspect is Kong Linlin, 49, a London-based reporter for CCTV, who failed to show up at the Birmingham Magistrates Court.

Kong was charged with common assault after an altercation broke out at a September 2018 conference on human rights and democracy in Hong Kong held in Birmingham by the UKs Conservative Party Human Rights Commission and the UK-based NGO Hong Kong Watch.

The panel discussed the erosion of freedoms since Hong Kongs sovereignty was returned to China in 1997.

Kong began heckling a speaker, calling his comments anti-China rhetoric. Her outburst prompted volunteers and attendees to escort her out of the venue.

When Kong refused to leave, she appeared in filmed camera footage to have slapped a student volunteer and Conservative Party member Enoch Lieu. She was eventually taken away by local police and charged.

She was set to appear in Birmingham court in November 2018 over the assault charge. But the case was discontinued on the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service, the UKs public prosecutor, according to a November 2018 article by The Guardian.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said at the time that there was not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against Kong.

The case later was reinstated, which prompted Birmingham magistrates to issue a summons to Kongs address in Kings Cross, London. It is not known what prompted the reopening of Kongs case, when the summons was issued, or when she was scheduled to appear in court.

Lieu welcomed the decision by the UK prosecuting agency to reopen the case against Kong, in an April 19 interview with non-profit online newspaper Hong Kong Free Press.

I believe this sent a clear message that no one is above the law, Lieu said. Failure to attend the hearing shows that she has no respect for the rule of law, a principle that is fundamental to our British way of life.

Following Kongs public outburst, the Chinese embassy in London demanded an apology from the conference organizers.

Benedict Rogers, deputy chairman of the human-rights commission and founder of Hong Kong Watch, had said in response that it should be the Chinese embassy and CCTV apologizing.

Indeed, they should apologize for disrupting an event and for her assaulting someone, Rogers told South China Morning Post. The Chinese regime should not be allowed to behave in party conferences in Britain in the way it behaves at home.

Kongs case brought to light a bigger issue, which is how the Chinese Communist Party views its media as agents of the Chinese state, said UK-based writer Zhang Pu, in an October 2018 interview with Radio Free Asia.

Any journalist sent overseas by the Chinese Communist Party has certain [political] duties, Zhang said.

In March, Reporters Without Borders, published a report on Chinas media control tactics, a system in which journalists are nothing more than state propaganda auxiliaries.

U.S. authorities have already taken actions to bring Chinese state-run media under closer scrutiny.

In February, the international arm of CCTV, known as China Global Television Network, registered as a foreign agent, according to The Wall Street Journal, after the U.S. Department of Justice ordered it to do so in September 2018.

The free online CSS beautifier tool helps you to organize style files for websites.(L to R) Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau deliver a statement on the signing of the USMCA trade agreement in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit, on Nov. 30, 2018. (MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images)

USMCA to Boost US Economy and Jobs, Trade Panel Finds

WASHINGTONThe new trade agreement between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, called the USMCA, will have a positive impact on the U.S. economy and employment, according to an independent analysis by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).

The long-anticipated analysis is an important step in obtaining congressional approval for the agreement.

The commissions 379-page report, released on April 18, examines the expected effects of the USMCA on the United States economy, exports, imports, and jobs. The new trade pact would raise the United States real gross domestic product by $68.2 billion, or 0.35 percent, and create 176,000 new jobs, according to the report.

There can be no doubt that the USMCA is a big win for Americas economy, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.

With the USMCA, we will have stronger growth, more trade, and more jobsparticularly in manufacturing.

The agreement likely will have a positive impact on all U.S. sectors, according to the ITC report, but manufacturing will likely be the primary beneficiary.

U.S. manufacturing will have the largest percentage gains in output, exports, wages, and employment, and in absolute terms, the U.S. services sector will be the biggest winner both in output and employment.

The report also showed that U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico will increase by $19.1 billion (5.9 percent) and $14.2 billion (6.7 percent), respectively, while imports from Canada and Mexico will go up by $19.1 billion (4.8 percent) and $12.4 billion (3.8 percent), respectively.

The new trade deal was signed by the leaders of the United States, Canada, and Mexico on Nov. 30 to replace the more-than-two-decades-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The new pact must be approved by the legislative body of each country to take effect.

The USMCA maintains tariff-free access to Mexico for American exporters. And for Canada, it provides tariff-free access for 99 percent of U.S. goods and lifts some barriers facing U.S. dairy and poultry exports.

Impact on U.S. Auto Production

With new rules of origin, the USMCA is estimated to have a significant impact on the U.S. automotive sector. The agreement will boost investments, parts purchases, and jobs in the first five years after implementation, according to a separate analysis by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

The analysis shows that the USMCA will boost automotive manufacturing investments in the United States by $34 billion over the next five years.

That is equivalent to 50 percent of everything that the international automakers have invested in North America since NAFTA was enacted 25 years ago, said a senior USTR official during a press call. So 50 percent of that, we expect over the next five years.

The deal will also provide $23 billion in additional sales of American-made automotive parts annually and nearly 76,000 new jobs in the U.S. automotive sector over a five-year period. USTRs analysis is based largely on information collected from North American automakers.

The agreement provides new incentives for auto companies to locate their supply chains in the United States. The new terms will enable more capital investment in the United States, more sourcing of U.S. auto parts, and more high-paying jobs, according to the USTR official.

Under the new deal, 75 percent of auto content must come from North America, up from the original threshold of 62.5 percent. The higher threshold will keep more parts from other regions out, while boosting production and jobs in the region.

The agreement also incentivizes the use of high-wage labor in auto manufacturing, requiring 40 percent of each car and 45 percent of each truck to be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour in order to qualify for duty-free treatment.

This provision will boost production in the United States and Canada, since the average manufacturing wage in Mexico is around $2 to $3 an hour, said the USTR official.

This is what we expect the impact of these changes to be over the next five years, over the short term, he said. But the impact of these automotive rule changes really is going to be the most profound over the long run, because right now, the companies are making major investment decisions about where to locate supply chains for the autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles.

The USTR analysis notes that the USMCA is already attracting new auto manufacturing investments to the United States. Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, and SK Innovation have announced investments worth nearly $15.3 billion that were partly influenced by the need to comply with the new rules of origin in the USMCA.

Supporters of the agreement hope that lawmakers will approve the USMCA this summer or at least before the August recess.

However, Democrats, who now control the House, have indicated they wont vote for the agreement. They have called for stronger enforcement provisions and tougher language on labor and environmental standards.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a Politico event on April 2 that the House would consider the deal if Mexico passed and implemented major labor law reforms.

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies on April 12 passed labor-reform legislation that overhauls Mexicos current labor union structure and fully complies with the USMCA, according to Mexican officials. The bill has now moved on to Mexicos Senate, which is expected to approve the legislation by the end of this month.A man bangs a drum in front of a fire on the street during a yellow vest demonstration in Paris, on April 20, 2019. (Michel Euler/AP Photo)

Yellow Vest Anger Burns in France, Fueled by Notre Dame Fire

PARISFrench yellow vest protesters set fires along a march route through Paris on Saturday, April 20, to drive home their message to a government they see as out of touch with the problems of the poor: that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isnt the only problem France needs to solve.

Like the high-visibility vests the protesters wear, the scattered small fires in Paris appeared to be a collective plea to the government to look at meI need help too!

Police fired water cannon and sprayed tear gas to try to control radical elements on the margins of the largely peaceful march, one of several actions around Paris and other French cities.

The protesters were marking the 23rd straight weekend of yellow vest actions against economic inequality and President Emmanuel Macrons government, which they see as favoring the wealthy and big business at the expense of ordinary workers. Protesters see themselves as standing up for beleaguered French workers, students, and retirees who have been battered by high unemployment, high taxes, and shrinking purchasing power.

Associated Press reporters saw a car, motorbikes, and barricades set ablaze around the Place de la Republique plaza in eastern Paris. The smell of tear gas fired by police mixed with the smoke, choking the air.

Paris firefighterswho struggled earlier this week to prevent the 12th-century Notre Dame from collapsingquickly responded to extinguish the flames at Saturdays protest.

One masked protester dressed in black jumped on a Mercedes parked along the march route, smashing its front and back windshields.

Paris police headquarters said authorities detained 137 people by early afternoon and carried out spot checks on more than 14,000 people trying to enter the capital for Saturdays protests.

The tensions focused on a march of several thousand people that started at the Finance Ministry in eastern Paris to demand lower taxes on workers and retirees and higher taxes on the rich.

Another group of about 200 people tried to march to the presidents Elysee Palace in central Paris, but riot police blocked them at the neo-classical Madeleine Church.

Yet another group tried to demonstrate yellow vest mourning over the Notre Dame blaze while also keeping up the pressure on Macron. They wanted to march to Notre Dame itself, but were banned by police, who set up a large security perimeter around the area.

One protester carried a huge wooden cross resembling those carried in Good Friday processions as he walked on a nearby Paris embankment.

Some 60,000 police officers were mobilized for Saturdays protests across France. The movement is largely peaceful but extremists have attacked treasured monuments, shops, and banks and clashed with police.

The heavy police presence meant subway stations and roads around Paris were closed Saturday, thwarting tourists trying to enjoy the French capital on a warm spring day.

Paris is very difficult right now, said Paul Harlow, of Kansas City, Missouri, as he looked sadly at the damaged Notre Dame.

He and his wife Susan were in Paris only for a few days and didnt make it in time to see the cathedral. On Saturday, their efforts to visit museums were derailed by closed subways and barricaded roads.

I dont think well be back, he said.

Other visitors showed solidarity with the yellow vest cause.

I am not interested in joining them, but I can understand what theyre angry about, said Antonio Costes, a retiree from the Paris suburb of Montreuil who came Saturday to see the damage to Notre Dame. There is a lot of injustice.

Macron had been scheduled to lay out his responses to yellow vest concerns on Monday nightbut canceled the speech because the Notre Dame fire broke out. Hes now expected to do so next Thursday.

Some yellow vest critics accuse Macron of trying to exploit the fire for political gain. One protester carried a sign targeting Macron that read: Pyromaniacwe are going to carbonize you.

Another huge sign read: Victor Hugo thanks all the generous donors ready to save Notre Dame and proposes that they do the same thing with Les Miserables, referring to the famed authors novels about the cathedral and the struggles of Frances poor.

Some prominent yellow vest figures who had stopped protesting said they were returning to the streets Saturday out of an even greater sense of being overlooked since the Notre Dame tragedy.

By Angela Charlton and Michel EulerAssistant Manager Procurement Job 2019 in Islamabad

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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.SPRINGFIELD  The U.S. is on pace to shatter the record of measles cases in any year since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.

While the nations worst outbreak is occurring in New York City, Illinois is not immune, with seven recorded cases of measles this year.

Thats already the highest number of cases in the past six years in Illinois, with the exception of 2015 when there were 17 reported cases. The state is one of 10 with reported measles cases this year.

The diseases alarming recurrence, coupled with a growing tide of anti-vaccine messages, has led Illinois largest public health advocacy group to take action.

Tom Hughes is executive director of the Illinois Public Health Association, which represents most of the states local health departments and many public health employees.

Hughes is in talks with health care providers, insurers and vaccine distributors to combat the outbreak by restarting a part of the states Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, which in 2016 was discontinued for children enrolled in the state-funded Childrens Health Insurance Plan.

At the time, health care providers should have been using VFC vaccines only for VFC children, Hughes said. If a child was covered by private insurance, you wouldnt be using VFC.

But, he added, there was no good accounting of what vaccine was being used for what child, so the state pulled the program and stopped providing the vaccines.

The IPHA is requesting $3 million to support a previous Illinois Department of Public Health grant to purchase and distribute vaccines, Hughes said in an op-ed piece sent to Illinois newspapers.

CHIP children who used to rely on VFC vaccines now may, or may not, be getting their vaccines, he said. And while health care providers still are reimbursed by the state for the costs of vaccinating CHIP kids, some local health departments and pediatric doctors have stopped doing that due to the slow pace of state reimbursement and the large upfront costs of stockpiling vaccines.

Pediatric doctors and local health departments cant wait six to eight months to get reimbursed, Hughes said.

To help cover where VFC left off, Hughes association is now looking to partner with vaccine wholesalers and distributors, such as FFF Enterprises, to stock providers shelves with vaccines.

The reimbursements from the state, when they come, would go through the provider back to the association.

Hughes said with the discounts coming from the associations partnerships and bulk buying, the model is expected to provide a long-term and sustainable supply of vaccines for providers throughout the state.

Here we have measles back nationally in almost 600 cases, and thats just unheard of, Hughes said. I think we have to do a better job of making certain that parents understand the safety and the need to prevent childhood diseases.

Because state law mandates children be vaccinated to enroll in schools, Hughes said he hopes to get the program, along with a social media campaign to combat anti-vaccine messages, running by late summer and in time for the start of school in the fall.

Still, however, some Illinois children dont get vaccinations because of religious exemptions or lack of school enforcement.

Theres no reason for children to be delayed in getting back into school, we have a responsibility for that, Hughes said.

Reach reporter Grant Morgan at gmorgan@capitolnewsillinois.comEDWARDSVILLE  Some area law enforcement agencies will receive a significant amount of cash after a Las Vegas man pleaded guilty of money laundering and agreed to forfeit more that $727,000 he was carrying on Interstate 70 in Madison County.

A prosecutor said Kenneth L. Ottrix, 60, pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to 24 months probation. Prosecutors allowed the sentence in exchange for the plea and the agreement to forfeit the money.

Law enforcement authorities will divide the cash under a state law that allows them to obtain the proceeds of criminal activity.

Ottrix was charged after a Ford Flex he was driving April 4 was stopped for alleged improper passing on the left.

State police reported that, after the traffic stop, Ottrix appeared nervous. A report said his travel itinerary and prior criminal history prompted an open-air sniff by a K9 officer. The sniff indicated narcotics, but no narcotics were found in the vehicle.

A state trooper searched the vehicle and found the money in several clear, vacuum sealed packages inside a hidden compartment in the spare tire well. Ottrix declined to speak to police. He was held without bail until his plea

Police outlined the arrest is a suit aimed at taking possession of the money under a state law that allows authorities to obtain assets believed used in illegal activities.

A court document claims Ottrix did not have a legitimate source of income for that amount of money and that he has no visible means of support.

State law provides that 65% shall be distributed to the metropolitan police agencies, including Illinois State Police, for conducting the traffic stop and search. The law states 12.5% shall be distributed to the Madison County States Attorneys Office. Another 10% will be retained by the Department of State Police for expenses related to the administration and sale of seized and forfeited property.

Another 12.5% shall be distributed to the Office of the States Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor. Since no drugs were found in the case, the money does not necessarily have to be used in drug enforcement, a prosecutor said.

According to a December 2012 report, Ottrix was arrested in Bend, Oregon, accused of poses-sing 3,000 Oxycodone pills found hidden in his trunk after his Cadillac was stopped by state troopers for speeding.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Julien Girault (Agence France-Presse) Shanghai, China  Sun, April 21, 2019 19:07 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87340f77e 2 Science & Tech China,car,technology,transport Free

Global automakers are positioning for a brave new world of on-demand transport that will require a car of the future -- hyper-connected, autonomous, and shared -- and China may become the concept's laboratory.

With ride-hailing services booming and car-sharing not far behind, the need for vehicles tailored to these and other evolving mobility solutions is one of the hottest topics among global automakers gathered for this week's Shanghai Auto Show.

Nearly all agree that there is no better proving ground than China: its gigantic cities are desperate for answers to gridlock and its population is noted for its ready embrace of high-tech new services.

To take advantage of this, manufacturers are competing not only to sell conventional and electric vehicles in the world's biggest auto market, but also to develop new technologies and even specific interiors designed for the on-demand world.

"We cannot just develop electric cars. They will have to be smart, interconnected and of course shared," Zhao Guoqing, vice president of Chinese auto giant Great Wall Motors, said on the auto show's sidelines.

Discussion of China and ride-hailing inevitably involves Didi Chuxing, the country's omnipresent answer to Uber.

The eagerness of Chinese travellers to hail rides with a smartphone click has unleashed a colossal market: on-demand transport reached $28 billion in turnover in China last year, or about half of global volume, and is expected to double by 2022, according to data firm Statista.

Didi accounts for about 90 percent of the Chinese market.

Read also: Fisker relaunches Tesla rivalry with $40k electric car

'Enormous potential'

The on-demand potential is bringing automakers and service providers together.

Last year, Didi unveiled an alliance of Chinese and foreign manufacturers including Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen, dedicated to exploring ways forward.

And in February, Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent joined hands with several manufacturers to develop a future platform for on-demand transport.

"We can no longer be a conventional manufacturer, we must offer mobility solutions, connectivity," Stephan Wollenstein, director of Volkswagen China, told reporters.

Although a relative newcomer to China's automotive market, French brand Renault is plunging ahead: its local joint venture with Chinese manufacturer Brilliance Auto delivered 600 personal minivans to Didi in February.

"Didi wants to develop such vehicles with many carmakers, which are more adapted to (Didi's) business, redesigned around the passenger," said Michael Dong, vice president of Renault-Brilliance-Jinbei.

For one thing, most passenger cars today are designed to squeeze in a family, and thus feature limited space in the back because that's where the kids normally sit, said Lawrence Petizon, an analyst with AlixPartners.

But for ride-hailing or car-sharing, more space is needed in the back to accommodate grown-up passengers.

"The family car is not the right answer," he said.

Didi drivers typically supply their own vehicles, but Chinese authorities are encouraging service firms to build their own fleets, partly to spur the industry and push forward the futuristic transport concept.

Some manufacturers are even dipping their toes into ride-hailing, with Germany's BMW offering a high-end service in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, and Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz doing so in Shanghai.

"Admittedly, the volumes ordered are still insufficient for mass production but the potential is enormous," says Dong.

Read also: Dutchman ends 'world's longest electric car trip' in Australia

Robot-taxis

The idea is not confined to China.

Daimler and BMW announced in February they would jointly invest "more than one billion euros" to deepen cooperation between their Car2Go and DriveNow services in Europe, in which cars are available for short-term point-to-point use.

One thing that seems to certain to eventually change is how cars are bought and sold.

"Car manufacturers will no longer provide customers with cars via a one-time sale, but rather with a brand that connects them to the users on a daily basis through the mobility services they offer," said a recent report by Eurogroup Consulting.

This automotive evolution is expected to accelerate development of autonomous vehicles, which are already viewed as the future of overall car transport, but seem especially suited for urban car-sharing services.

Valeo, the French manufacturer of ultrasonic sensors, cameras, and navigational technology, said it received orders totalling one billion euros last year related to the development of "robot-taxis".

Francois Marion, president of Valeo China, said the global advent of driverless cars is just around the bend.

"They will hit the road in carefully charted urban environments, with dedicated lanes on the streets, connected infrastructures guiding them, and programmed itineraries," he said of the futuristic vision.

"And the companies operating them will always be able to intervene if anything happens to one of the vehicles."

Valeo also is working with Meituan, China's leader in meal deliveries, to develop a robotic vehicle.

Topics : China car technology transportShare this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Devina Heriyanto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 21, 2019 10:01 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733f80fc 1 Books #book,Book,America,Immigrants,immigration,writing,Laila-Lalami,The-Other-Americans,Bloomsbury Free

Laila Lalami's The Other Americans: A Novel is entirely not a whodunit, even though the novel opens with the hit-and-run of a Moroccan immigrant that sets everything in motion in a quiet, small Californian town.

Family secrets are unearthed against the barren beauty of the Mojave Desert and Joshua Tree National Park, along with the hypocrisies and unrest that lurk within everyone's minds and hearts. While solving the mystery of the murder, The Other Americans goes deeper into revealing who people actually are.

Lalami is herself an immigrant who was born in Rabat, Morocco, and moved to the United States in 1992. Her third novel, The Moors Account, won the American Book Award, the Arab American Book Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in 2015. It was also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for fiction the same year.

The Jakarta Post spoke to Laila Lalami via email on The Other Americans, American society and the Iraq War.

JP: The Other Americans takes a very humane perspective in telling a complex story about the state of American society. How did you approach the novel without antagonizing a character or particular societal or cultural group?

Lalami: When I write fiction, I try as much as I can to suspend moral judgment. I inhabit my characters without appraising them as good or bad people. Instead, I look at the world through their eyes and write from their perspectives about what they are experiencing. This requires a great deal of patience and humility: I have to take the time to learn as much as I can about them, about their pasts, their secrets, their habits and occupations. If I have done my job, the reader will see the world through their eyes, too.

As a non-American reader who has never been to America, I can't help but wonder if the book is intended to shatter the outdated and fabricated idea of American society as homogenous. Did you consciously decide on the novel to have this effect?

America was never a homogeneous nation. Long before there was a colony at Jamestown, there were thousands of indigenous tribes with very rich and distinct languages, religions, cultures, and traditions. After the first settlers arrived, millions of enslaved people  also with their own languages, religions, cultures and traditions  were also brought to this country. So the US was a diverse country from its very beginning, and that diversity continues to exist today.

The Other Americans is set in a small town in California, so of course it has a diverse set of characters. It wasnt so much a conscious decision as a decision to write about reality as I saw it.

Read also: Family is a microcosm of nation: Eugenia Kim on Korea, home

My favorite subplot is Jeremy and Fierro's difficulties with setlling back into their daily lives after returning from the Iraq War. Could you comment more on veteran issues or American militarism in general?

The United States has been at war in the Middle East for decades, but this fact is not immediately apparent if you live here. There is no military draft, there are no ration books. But the war is very real, both to the people who are living under it and to the people who have fought in it.

Jeremy and Fierro enlisted in the Marines after [senior] high school and now find themselves, years later, coping with the aftermath of that decision. Having these two characters in the book was my way of exploring what it means to live in this country at this precise moment in its history.

What events or books were your greatest influence while writing The Other Americans?

The idea for the book came to me a few years ago, when I was on holiday in Wyoming and got a text telling me that my father was in the hospital. This is every immigrants nightmare: the fear that you will be thousands of miles away from your loved ones when they need you. I flew to Morocco to be with my dad, who thankfully recovered. But the scare so unsettled me that I started writing a story about a woman grieving the unexpected death of her father.

While I was working on The Other Americans, I read polyphonic novels, novels set in the West, crime novels, war novels and novels on identity and belonging.

I read that you first wrote in French. Do you still write in French, or only in English? How does writing in a different language influence your writing?

No, I dont write in French anymore. I switched to writing in English in the mid-1990s, when I was in graduate school. But in all my novels, there are situations where more than one language is spoken. I think language diversity, especially in a place like California, is just reality. (wng)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse)  Sun, April 21, 2019 08:04 973 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8733f6e93 2 Art & Culture Mark-Bradford,installation,art,Shanghai,China Free

The Shanghai Long Museum has announced that the upcoming exhibition "Mark Bradford: Los Angeles" will open on July 27 -- marking the American artist's largest show in China to date.

The retrospective, organized by curator Diana Nawi, explores the evolution of Bradford's art over the past decade.

It features his large-scale public sculpture "Mithra", which first appeared in the exhibition "Prospect 1. New Orleans". The 70-foot-long installation was constructed from plywood panels picked off the streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It will be the first time that the full-scale boat will be on show outside of the United States.

The exhibition "Mark Bradford: Los Angeles" will also comprise a new 40-foot-tall site specific installation. Named "Waterfall", the artwork consists of deconstructed painting strips, cascading down the museum's double-height central foyer.

Read also: John McEnroe sells Manson-inspired artwork for $10.4m

Additionally, the retrospective will display Bradford's latest series of large-scale paintings, which explore the civil unrest experienced during the 1965 Watts Rebellion in Los Angeles.

"Mark's radical approach to painting, through both material and content, has established new terms and possibilities for the genre. His works are gestural palimpsests of paint, canvas, paper, rope and everyday materials; messily sublime objects that can be read as maps, artifacts, critiques, memorials, and manifestations of presence. They offer a striking interplay between form and surface, and notions of identity, site and history," outlined curator Diana Nawi in a statement.

"Mark Bradford: Los Angeles" will be open to the public, free of charge, at the Shanghai Long Museum from July 27 to October 13. Additional information about the exhibition can be found on the museum's official website.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ella Ide (Agence France-Presse) Rome, Italy  Sun, April 21, 2019 17:04 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873409c0f 2 Environment Greta-Thunberg,Sweden,environment,activist,Italy,climate,protest Free

Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg rebuked the ruling classes Friday at a demonstration in Italy, insisting youths fighting for climate justice were not fodder for self-complacent selfies.

"We children are not sacrificing our education and our childhood for the adults and politicians to tell us what they consider is politically possible in the society they have created," the 16-year-old told crowds gathered in Rome.

"We have not taken to the streets for them to take selfies with us, and tell us that they really, really admire what we do.

"We children are doing this to wake the adults up," she told the crowd of 5,000 youngsters, some of whom were holding up placards warning "Climate Change = Human Extinction" and "Time is Running Out".

"In the last six months, millions of school children, not least in Italy, have been school striking for the climate. But nothing has changed. There is no political change whatsoever in sight," Thunberg said.

"That is why we must prepare ourselves. This will not take weeks, this will not take months, this will take years," she added.

Italy's populist government -- the first in Western Europe -- has a poor record on the environment, with the hard-right, pro-business League battling the Five Star Movement (M5S) over a series of large-scale infrastructure projects.

Read also: Swedish student Greta's climate 'school strike' goes global

Porky protest

League head Matteo Salvini, Italy's interior minister, voted against the Paris Agreement on fighting climate change in 2016.

And the anti-establishment M5S has angered its base by breaking several electoral promises, including pledges to close the vast and heavily polluting Ilva steel plant, or stop construction of a gas pipeline from Albania.

Thunberg addressed the Italian Senate on Thursday after meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday.

"Politicians in Italy love to welcome celebrities, as they did (with Thunberg) yesterday, but when it comes down to the facts, we have yet to see any action," WWF representative Domenico Aiello said.

"The League and the M5S have done nothing. A tweet is not enough in the battle to save the climate," said Aiello, who was carrying an large inflatable Planet Earth on his shoulders.

Paola Samaritani, 52, who brought her pet pig to the demonstration, was disappointed more was not being made of the damage done by intensive animal farming in the country of Parma prosciutto and Parmesan cheese.

"The animals are considered sausages or ribs from the moment they're born," she said as she gave pig Dior some water.

"There's a lot of talk about combatting climate change, but these kids probably have ham sandwiches in their backpacks".Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Jeremie Richard (Agence France-Presse) Burfell, Iceland  Sun, April 21, 2019 21:05 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873411cc3 2 Art & Culture Iceland,architecture,history,turf-house Free

In the Thjorsardalur valley in Iceland's southern highlands, the first green shoots are starting to sprout up from the browned grass, until recently covered by a thick blanket of snow.

Soon, a carpet of lush green turf will cover the ground -- and envelop the sides and roof of the large farmstead and its stone-encircled chapel, located in the middle of a vast field not far from the Hekla volcano.

Iceland's turf buildings, which blend in perfectly with their natural surroundings, are pristine examples of a local architectural tradition introduced by the first Nordic settlers in the ninth century.

Because of the lack of trees in Iceland, turf was a popular building material and thick turf walls were useful to ward off the cold.

"We don't have an extreme amount of trees, so for one thing (turf) is easy (to) access... It was cheap and it works well," explains Olivera Ilic, a Viking history buff who heads a project to maintain the site.

Cut from nearby marshlands, the turf was sliced into slabs and used to create thick outer walls on a structure typically made of timber -- either driftwood or obtained through trade.

Stone foundations were also common.

Their style "varies as much as the number of turf houses made -- no two are the same," says Eyjolfur Eyjolfsson, who lives in the Austur-Medalholt plains near Selfoss, in southern Iceland.

Here four homes clustered together are snugly wrapped in a thick layer of grass.

A 19th century farmstead which now serves as a museum bears a sign across the door reading: 'Where Nature is Part of the House'.

Read also: Icelandic canyon made famous by Justin Bieber shut to tourists

"The turf house represents an architecture that is in very good or complete harmony with its surroundings," says Eyjolfsson, a 39-year-old musician and folklorist.

"Turf is a very easy-to-use material to build constructions, but at the same time it is not a very good material," he says.

With Iceland's inclement weather, turf homes needed to be rebuilt about every 20 years, though some could last for up to 70 years.

In 1910, there were around 5,500 turf homes of these rustic and basic farmsteads in Iceland, accounting for more than half of all residences, according to historians.

Today, only a small fraction of the 249 homes registered in 1960 still exist, uninhabited and preserved as cultural heritage sites and museums.

The building tradition is still practiced in Iceland, although only by a few craftsmen trained in the techniques used by older generations.

Maintaining the homes is tedious business.

"We try to keep it as authentic as possible. We want to do it the old way, which is time consuming," says Ilic.

Since 2011, Iceland has placed 14 turf homes on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites, meaning they could be eligible for nomination in the future.Dar E Aram Schools Kotha Branch Swabi KPK Jobs 2019

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Sun, April 21, 2019 15:07 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873406100 2 Entertainment Women,Cannes-Festival,Cannes-Film-Festival,film,Movie,France Free

The selection of films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival is one of the strongest for women so far, but there are still just four female directors out of 21.

When out-of-competition strands of this year's festival are also included, the number of women directors unveiled Thursday rose to 13 of the total 51.

"Cinema is opening its doors more and more to female film directors," said Thierry Fremaux, the festival director.

Here is a snapshot of the female presence at Cannes over the years.

Read also: A few good women: Female filmmakers at Cannes

Prize-winners

Out of 272 film-makers whose films have won the most prestigious prizes at Cannes -- the Palme d'Or, Grand Prix or the Jury Prize -- only 12 were women.

And just one woman has won the top Palme d'Or -- New Zealand's Jane Campion for her 1993 film The Piano, about a mute piano player who must fight to retrieve her lost instrument.

Italy's Alice Rohrwacher was the last woman to win the Grand Prix, in 2014 for The Wonders, set around beekeepers in Tuscany.

Last year Lebanon's Nadine Labaki won the Jury Prize with Capernaum, which followed a streetwise 12-year-old boy in a hellish, chaotic Beirut.

The only female winner of two Jury Prizes is Iran's Samira Makhmalbaf, for Blackboards in 2000 about Kurds in war-torn Iraq, and At Five in the Afternoon in 2003 that tracked a woman's fight for an education in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

For best director and screenplay, five women have won out of 113. Three of those awards have come in the past two years.

Nominees

The list of past nominees is barely more representative. Among the 1,813 film-makers whose films have been selected in the official competition since 1946, 86 were women.

In recent years, such as 2012 or 2010, there were no films directed by women at all in the official selection list.

Over the past five festivals, the proportion of films by women nominated in the official selection has increased to an average of one woman out of every seven directors.

Read also: 'Let's climb!' Female stars call for equal pay in Cannes protest

Jury members

Gender balance is more visible on the festival's annually changing jury.

From 1946 to 2018, out of 747 jury members, 172 were women -- nearly one in four.

Since 2013 however the nine-member jury has been close to half-half. Each year it has counted either four or five women.

Women have out-numbered men on the jury three times -- in 2009, 2014 and 2018. But twice, in 1947 and 1954, there were none at all.

Of the 71 jurys in the history of the festival, 12 have been headed by a woman, the last being in 2018 with Australian actress Cate Blanchett at the helm.

The first-ever female president of the jury was in 1962 with the US actress Olivia de Havilland.

This year the jury will be headed by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The other members have not yet been announced.

Cannes and Venice, another of Europe's top film festivals, have come under fire as chummy men's clubs, particularly following the #MeToo movement against abuses of power in the industry.

By contrast Berlin took a step forward earlier this year with its festival nomination list, which counted seven out of 17 contenders as women -- a more than 40-percent share that by far eclipsed Cannes.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom  Mon, April 22, 2019 06:04 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873416a38 2 People Queen-Elizabeth-II,Britain,royals,birthday Free

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her birthday on Sunday, marking 93 years in the public glare.

Here are five facts about Britain's oldest and longest-reigning monarch.

Read also: Michelle Obama charms British crowd with praise for Queen Elizabeth

Longevity

Over 80 percent of Britons have not experienced life under any other monarch, having not been born when Elizabeth ascended the throne on February 6, 1952, according to the UK Office of National Statistics.

She has reigned over 14 prime ministers, coming to the throne during the tenure of Winston Churchill.

She has also met with 11 of the 12 US presidents in office and signed more than 3,500 bills into law.

On her birthday, the Queen will be 11 years and four months older than any British monarch in history, and at 67 years and 74 days, will be the longest serving by three years and 224 days.

Birth

The Queen was born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in London's upmarket Mayfair neighbourhood, which is now a high-end Chinese restaurant whose signature dishes include "Roasted silver cod with Champagne".

She has another official birthday on the second Saturday in June, to celebrate the landmark publicly.

The double birthday tradition was started by King George II in 1748, who wanted to have a summer celebration.

Animals

The monarch has been an animal lover all her life, and is particularly fond of horses and dogs.

She has owned more than 30 corgi dogs, her favourite breed, and even invented a new breed, the dorgi -- a cross between a corgi and a dachshund.

She inherited several thoroughbred racing horses after her father King George VI died in 1952 and her rides have won more than 1,600 races.

The 93-year-old has also owned an elephant, black jaguars and a crocodile -- all gifts that were looked after in zoos -- and due to arachic laws, still owns all unmarked mute swans and "royal fish" in Britain, including dolphins and sturgeons.

Tax

Although not legally obliged to pay tax, Elizabeth chose in 1992 to start voluntarily paying income tax on her private earnings amid public grumblings about the cost of restoring the family's fire-damaged Windsor Castle.

Read also: Queen Elizabeth to vacate her Buckingham Palace rooms for refit - aide

Tech savvy

Despite the tradition and pomp of the family, the Queen has been comfortable with developing technologies ever since serving as a truck mechanic in World War II.

She sent her first email in 1976, sent a message taken to the moon by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, first tweeted in 2014 and made her first Instagram post last month.

Her 1953 coronation was the first to be televised and, in 2012, her annual Christmas speech was made available on podcast.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Los Angeles, United States  Sun, April 21, 2019 13:08 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873401a2b 2 Entertainment Roman-Polanski,film,director,Academy-of-Motion-Picture,France,Poland,assault,united-states Free

Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski is suing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, demanding his reinstatement nearly a year after the organization expelled him amid the #MeToo movement.

Polanski, who in 1977 pleaded guilty in California to statutory rape, argued in a court filing in Los Angeles that the academy wrongly denied him a hearing when it voted in May to oust him amid the nationwide furor sparked by sexual-abuse revelations against famed producer Harvey Weinstein.

The complaint, filed to the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles on Thursday, says the academy's board of governors convened on January 26 to re-examine its decision, and confirmed it. Polanski had been a member since 1968.

"The procedures taken to expel Mr Polanski were fair and reasonable," an academy spokesperson said in a statement cited by Variety. "The Academy stands behind its decision as appropriate." It did not elaborate.

The academy in 2003 had awarded Polanski an Oscar for directing The Piano. His many other films include Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, which was nominated for 11 Oscars.

Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to having had unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, later identified as Samantha Geimer.

After serving 42 days in a California prison while undergoing psychiatric evaluation, he fled to France, saying he feared the judge in the case might renege on a plea deal and send him back to jail.

Because he fled the US, charges are still pending against him there. He is a dual French-Polish citizen and has spent much of his life in France.

Read also: Polanski threatens to sue Oscars body after expulsion

'Cruel action'

Asked for comment, Polanski attorney Harland Braun sent a link Saturday to an article saying that Geimer, who is now 54, supports Polanski's desire for reinstatement.

The Academy's expulsion of Polanski was "an ugly and cruel action," she told Vanity Fair last year.

But attorney Braun said Polanski just wanted "a fair hearing".

"You have an offense that's 40 years old, in which he has admitted his guilt, he has apologized to the victim, he has done more time than the law requires and the victim has come forward and begged the courts to put an end to it," Braun told the Los Angeles Times. "What else do they want from an 85-year-old man?"

During his four decades back in Europe, Polanski pursued an active film career.

But the Weinstein scandal rocked Hollywood, galvanizing many women to come forward with long-repressed complaints.

The academy adopted a new, more stringent code of conduct, and several months after it expelled Weinstein, the group voted to oust Polanski.

It also expelled actor Bill Cosby, himself accused by numerous women of rape or sexual misconduct. Four months later, Cosby was convicted in one assault case and is now serving a prison sentence in Pennsylvania.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 21, 2019

Author Reda Gaudiamo hopes those who are passionate about writing do not give up easily on their dreams.

Reda, who is also known as a one-half of folk duo AriReda, has just returned from the United Kingdom, where she underwent a two-month residency in the historic city of Norwich and promoted her childrens book, The Adventures of Na Willa, at the London Book Fair in Olympia, London in March.

Launched by Birmingham-based independent publisher Emma Press in March, the book is a translation of Na Willa, which first hit bookstores across Indonesia in 2012.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez (Reuters) Colombo  Sun, April 21, 2019 20:12 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873410d56 2 World #SriLanka,#ChurchAttack,#bomb,#bomb-blast,#attack,Sri-Lanka,church,church-attack,bomb,blast,bomb-blast Free

Easter Sunday bomb blasts at three churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka killed more than 200 people and wounded at least 450, police officials said, the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago.

Seven people were arrested and three police officers were killed during a security forces raid on a house in the Sri Lankan capital several hours after the rash of attacks, some of which officials said were suicide bombs.

The government declared a curfew in Colombo and blocked access to social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp. It was unclear when the curfew would be lifted.

"Altogether, we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals," police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters. At least 27 of the dead were foreigners.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009, a time when bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Local Christian groups have said they faced increasing intimidation from some extremist Buddhist monks in recent years. Last year, there were clashes between the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community and minority Muslims, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam.

Dozens were killed in one of the blasts at St. Sebastian's Gothic-style Catholic church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo. Gunasekera said the police suspected a suicide attack there. Pictures from the site showed bodies on the ground, blood on the church pews and a destroyed roof.

Local media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on an evangelical church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

The hotels hit in Colombo were the Shangri-La, the Kingsbury, the Cinnamon Grand and the Tropical Inn near the national zoo. There was no word on casualties in the hotels, but a witness told local TV he saw some body parts, including a severed head, lying on the ground beside the Tropical Inn.

The first six explosions were all reported within a short period in the morning just as church services were starting.

The bodies of 27 foreigners were counted at hospitals, officials said. Among them was a Dutch national, that country's foreign minister said.

There was an eighth explosion at a house in Colombo. Police and media said that three officers were killed and seven people detained during a raid on this location.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong," he said in a Tweet.

"Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

President Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered the police special task force and military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda.

The military was deployed, a military spokesman said, and security stepped up at Colombo's international airport.

One of the explosions was at St. Anthony's Shrine, a Catholic Church in Kochcikade, Colombo, a tourist landmark.

Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), which represents more than 200 churches and other Christian organisations.

This year, the NCEASL recorded 26 such incidents, including one in which Buddhist monks allegedly attempted to disrupt a Sunday worship service, with the last one reported on March 25.

Out of Sri Lanka's total population of around 22 million, 70 percent are Buddhist, 12.6 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim and 7.6 percent Christian, according to the country's 2012 census.

In its 2018 report on Sri Lanka's human rights, the US State Department noted that some Christian groups and churches reported they had been pressured to end worship meetings after authorities classified them as "unauthorized gatherings".

The report also said Buddhist monks regularly tried to close down Christian and Muslim places of worship, citing unidentified sources.

The heads of major governments condemned the attacks.

US President Donald Trump said America offered "heartfelt condolences" to the Sri Lankan people and stood ready to help, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there was "no place for such barbarism in our region", and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the bombings were "an assault on all of humanity".

Pope Francis, addressing tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square to hear his Easter Sunday message: "I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence."

Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Day after his death on the cross.

The prime minister of New Zealand, where a gunman shot 50 people dead in two mosques last month, said in a statement: "Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence."Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 21, 2019 17:55 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87340cbb8 1 City Bogor-mayor-Bima-Arya,inauguration,bogor,anies-baswedan Free

The incumbent candidate in Bogor's mayoral election, Bima Arya Sugiarto, and his new deputy Dedie Rachim were inaugurated at Bogor City Hall on Sunday following the inauguration at the Gedung Sate heritage building in Bandung, West Java, of West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil the previous day.

The Sunday event was attended by public figures such as Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, Palu Deputy Mayor Sigit Pasha Ungu Purnomo and National Mandate Party chairman Zulkifli Hasan.

In his speech, Bima who will serve his second term until 2024, told civil servants in Bogor to create a clean and transparent administration. He also reminded all civil servants to work to serve all citizens.

All who work in agency offices, district offices [and] subdistrict offices should be awake. They must think and work sincerely to serve all citizens. We cannot do that if we do not set an example, Bima said during his inauguration on Sunday as reported by kompas.com.

Bima's previous deputy was Usmar Hariman, a Democratic Party politician.

Early in the morning prior to the inauguration, Bima and Dedie visited a Car Free Day event in the Sudirman-Thamrin area in Central Jakarta.

The two then visited Sempur Square in Bogor to meet with Bogor residents.

We will work over the next five years to serve all Bogor residents. We can work and serve the citizens. We will create more spaces for sports. We also care for Bogors development, because citizens deserve the best, Bima said. (ami)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 21, 2019 17:11 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa87340a85c 1 National easter,tolerance,Catholicism,Christians,Palangkaraya,Madiun,Larantuka,Flores-Timur,Semana-Santa,East-Nusa-Tenggara Free

With the country still reeling from the contentious presidential and legislative elections last week, millions of people across the archipelago gathered under collective solemnity to peacefully observe and celebrate Easter on Sunday.

Messages of peace and tolerance are being broadcast across the country amid a string of political controversies surrounding last weeks simultaneous elections.

Christians account for about 10 percent of the 265 million population.

In Kupang, Timor Evangelical Church (GMIT) leader Rev. Mery Kolimon said Easter Day represented a worthwhile opportunity for Christians to provide support and contributions to the public, regardless of religious and ethnic differences.

Easter encourages us to support one another; no matter what tribe, race or religion we come from, she said in an official church letter as quoted by Antara news agency.

True compassion does not demand anything in return; instead, it heals those who are suffering.

Meanwhile, residents of Madiun in East Java celebrated Easter while acknowledging the feminist spirit of RA Kartini, since this years Easter Sunday coincided with Kartini Day, which is associated with International Women's Day.

Father Boedi Prasetijo of St. Cornelius Church encouraged the public to find religious value in Kartinis non-violent struggle for empowerment.

We are born into this world bearing Gods light in the form of love and compassion to counteract suffering and wars, Boedi said.

The Madiun Police dispatched on Saturday officers to secure and guard the church in an effort to ensure safety and order for those who celebrated Easter.

Themes of religious tolerance despite political differences were echoed in the capital city of Jakarta.

Jakarta Archbishop Ignatius Hardjoatmoko called on the public to embrace the true meaning of Easter and not give credence to misinformation and hateful accusations, particularly those hurled at the countrys minority groups.

[Misinformation] is meant to instill fear among the public. If some people still believe the hateful rhetoric, it means that they have not fully embraced Easter, which essentially means freedom from fear, Ignatius said on Sunday as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said he was optimistic that the country would soon heal its divisions and reunite as one. Obstacles were to be expected since the country comprised hundreds of millions of people, he said.

Unity takes patience. We must live harmoniously with each other to progress toward the status of a developed country, Ignatius said.

The Jakarta Police dispatched around 5,500 of its personnel to safeguard Easter celebrations across Jakarta amid the volatile political climate following last weeks elections.

Around 5,500 personnel will be deployed to ensure safety. The Jakarta Police have planned the technicalities to safeguard churches holding the celebrations, police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said on Friday.

In addition to the police, personnel from GP Ansor, the youth wing of the largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, also helped secure several churches in Jakarta.

In Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, some Christians visited the graveyards of their family members on Saturday night. Antara news agency reported that thousands flocked to a Christian cemetery on Jl. Tjilik Riwut. The cemetery, which is usually dark, was bright with candles because some of them stayed the whole night there.

Hendric, a resident, said he spent a night at the cemetery as part of his personal reflections.

"There is tension with this political situation. I'm doing this to remind myself that nothing is eternal in this world so what we do has to be useful for others," he said.

Around 1,400 pilgrims attended the Semana Santa Good Friday celebration in Larantuka in East Flores regency, East Nusa Tenggara, despite soaring ticket prices.

Father Fransiskus Suar, SVD, a Catholic priest from Larantuka diocese, said Semana Santa celebrated peoples faith and convictions, as well as their participation in last weeks herculean exercise of democracy.

It is important that we honor both religion and democracy, Fransiskus said on Friday. (rfa)

Hengky Ola Sura contributed to this report from Larantuka.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 21, 2019 15:15 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873406598 4 Business manufacturing-industry,investment,elections,Airlangga-Hartarto Free

Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto sees brighter investment prospects in the manufacturing industry following April 17s general election as investors realize a number of prioritized projects.

After the 2019 elections, many prioritized projects will be carried out, including those in the chemical industry and the finalization in electric cars, said Airlangga in a statement on setkab.go.id on Saturday.

He said investment growth in the manufacturing industry, which was expected to boost economic growth, would also be triggered by the realization of several fiscal incentives offered by the government, including a tax allowance and tax holiday.

Airlangga said investors were confident in the Indonesian democratic system. All industry sectors will run after the elections, he said, adding that he was also confident that political and security conditions would improve.

Even more, the government will introduce new policies to facilitate business players to start businesses in the country.

Previously, after a limited Cabinet meeting chaired by President Joko Jokowi Widodo, the government announced that Saudi Arabia would soon invest US $6 billion in the petrochemical industry.

The plan was discussed during Jokowis recent visit to the country as Saudi Arabia reportedly expressed interest in making Indonesia a petrochemical hub in Southeast Asia. Jokowi had instructed several relevant ministers and officials in other institutions to facilitate the investment arrangement.

The Industry Ministry has encouraged growth in the petrochemical industry to help the development of the manufacturing sector from downstream and upstream businesses, Airlangga said.

The petrochemical industry produces various raw materials for other manufacturing industries like packaging industry, textile, household equipment, automotive components and electrical products, he added. (bbn)TheJakartaPost

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Linkedin Aman Rochman (The Jakarta Post) Malang, East Java  Sun, April 21, 2019 14:59 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa873405193 1 Politics Bawaslu,jakarta,East-Java,revote,#2019GeneralElections,2019-general-election Free

The local offices of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in Jakarta and East Java reported over the weekend that they recommended holding revotes at 19 polling stations (TPS) in Jakarta and 12 stations in East Java, including two in Malang.

Two stations in Malang have to hold revotes and recount the votes, said Malang Bawaslu officer Hamdan Akbar Safara.

Hamdan said administrative mistakes occurred involving voters that had cast the wrong ballots.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta, the local Bawaslu said at least 19 TPS in the city were likely to hold revotes. The figure was revealed based on 160 violation reports the agency received from TPS across the capital.

We received 160 reports from five municipalities and one regency [in Jakarta]. We concluded that 19 TPS should hold revotes, Jakarta Bawaslu commissioner Puadi said on Saturday, kompas.comreported.

Out of the 19 polling stations, six are located in East Jakarta, one in South Jakarta, two in Central Jakarta and 10 in North Jakarta.

Violations that occurred varied, Puadi said. He used TPS 172 Pademangan in North Jakarta as an example, where 37 voters addresses were found to not be in accordance with the TPS location.

People who were not on the voter list were allowed to vote using their e-ID as proof but only if they were residents of the area.

Puadi added that 121 ballots at a TPS in Cakung, East Jakarta, had been signed by voters, while they were supposed to be signed by the head of the local polling station working committee.

The agency is still discussing whether to recommend revotes for the 19 TPS. (vla)Rangers Public School Principal Job 2019 in Lahore

Latest Rangers Public School Education Posts Lahore 2021 Pakistan Army Rangers Public School requires the services of highly qualified and well educated individual for the position of Principal in Lahore Punjab 2019.

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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.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya and Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 21, 2019

While the General Elections Commission (KPU) is counting the C1 vote tally forms from polling stations across the country, the public and political parties have launched initiatives to participate in monitoring the process.

Among the established websites available for the public to participate in the process was kawalpemilu.org, onto which citizens can upload photos of actual C1 forms that record the final vote count of each polling station, usually from the ones near their residences.

The website was established by a community of volunteers who work with an election watchdog, the Network for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (Netgrit).

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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 21, 2019 20:40 972 db1d47cf6ffbed4060cffaa8734111a1 1 Politics Tjahjo-Kumolo,Mandailing-Natal,North-Sumatra,#2019PresidentialElection,2019-presidential-election Free

Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo confirmed on Sunday that Mandailing Natal Regent Dahlan Hasan Nasution composed a resignation letter addressed to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and the ministry, but Tjahjo said the reason was "unusual".

"Yes, he wrote the letter," Tjahjo told journalists. "But he sent it to the wrong party. It was supposed to be sent to the regional representatives council and then forwarded to the Home Ministry via gubernatorial letter, he said.

Tjahjo said the reason behind his request was unusual and also "hurt the public who directly elected him.

Read also: Regent resigns after Prabowo wins in Mandailing Natal

Dahlan won the regional leader election in 2015, garnering more than 103,000 votes, about 56 percent of the total. It is his second term as regent. His background was not that of a politician but of a civil servant, Tjahjo said.

Dahlan's letter, in which he said he was asking to resign because he had not made incumbent presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo win in the regency despite successful developments in the region, went viral on social media on Sunday. Dahlan himself had confirmed the letter.

Tjahjo said he would summon Dahlan and North Sumatra Governor Edy Rahmayadi to a meeting because the cited reason for his request could be just a "blunder" on Dahlan's part. (evi)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Frega Ferdinand Wenas Inkiriwang and Felix Lumban Tobing (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, April 22 2019

Peacekeeping missions are one of the responsibilities of the Indonesian Military (TNI), according to TNI Law No. 34/2004 and the Constitution, which mandates that Indonesia should contribute to establishing world peace and security.

Since the 1950s, Indonesia has participated in various peacekeeping missions under the United Nations. The Indonesian peacekeeping force was later called the Garuda Contingent.

There was a period when the Garuda Contingent was not deployed in war-affected zones until Indonesia joined the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 2006.

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Ransomware persists even as high-profile attacks have slowed

WASHINGTON (AP)  In the months since President Joe Biden warned Russia's Vladimir Putin that he needed to crack down on ransomware gangs in his country, there hasnt been a massive attack like the one last May that resulted in gasoline shortages.

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My family home back in the UK is a bit of a mixed bag, decoratively-speaking. Youll find a painting of a faceless matador from Spain by the front door, a cat made of pine needles from Australia on the landing and a fibreglass pig from I-dont-know-where in the garden.

Art

By Amy Bryant

Sunday 21 April 2019, 10:00AM

This is all thanks to my mum who develops a sudden penchant for art and sculpture when abroad, something I never understood as a child, and presumably neither did airport security, eyebrows raised as the form of a spiny feline passed through the scanner.

However, I recently found myself pulling over at Napas Art Gallery in Cherng Talay, drawn in by the striking works at the front of the inviting glass-fronted building. The gallery was opened in April 2013 by husband and wife team Soon Papan and Juffy Joob, who inform me that many of their works are indeed bought by browsing tourists who, like me, were taken by the gallery while passing down the 4018.



What does Napas mean?

Juffy: "Napas is from my first name, Nongnapas, which translates as lady of the sky or angel.

Soon: When we started Napas, we had nothing. Only an idea, a dream. The logo (image above) is made up of eight fish in a circle. Its continuous and moving, as we want our gallery to be. The number eight, for Thai and Chinese, is a good, lucky number.

On display at the gallery are the couples disparate and distinctive fine art pieces: land and seascape paintings with surrealist touches by Soon and detailed portraiture of crowned cats by Juffy.

The couple are as vibrant and intriguing as their work, Soon in a vintage-style shirt and desert boots, Juffy in a floral overcoat and white stilettos, both in matching T-shirts bearing an illustration of Phuket Town.

Tell us a little about yourselves.

Soon: Im from Kalasin in the north east of Thailand. I studied Art Education at Mahasarakham University in Isan, but realised I didnt like to teach, I liked to paint. I would define my style as the beauty of nature reassembled by my imagination.

Juffy: Im from Phuket. My family have Chinese heritage going back thousands of years. My mixed culture comes through in my work which I define as the reflection of Peranakan culture through Thai cats in Baba wedding costume and accessories. I studied biology at Prince of Songkla University. It was Soon that taught me how to paint.

Looking at Juffys art, its staggering to think that, until only a matter of years ago, she hadnt sketched or painted since her early school years. The careful brushstrokes that define each hair, the cavernous eyes that look straight through you and the intricate detail in the crowns and pendants speak of someone much more experienced. Soon firmly believes that Juffy has always harboured artistic talent and it was just a case of bringing it out with practice.

Cats, on the other hand, have been a constant in Juffys life and she recalls having 13 at one point in her childhood. There are four resident felines who strut around the gallery now and I spy a cat encyclopaedia under the office desk too.

Many of Juffys pieces are inspired by her own cats, although she paints from memory instead of studying photos or attempting to get the often aloof and apathetic subjects to sit still for her.

As I observe one of her pieces depicting a cat with different coloured eyes, a la David Bowie, I notice the kitten playing around my ankles has the very same peepers. Im stunned when Juffy tells me that the painting preceded the kitten, a fact that renders the piece with even more majesty.

Why are cats your subject of choice?

Juffy: I remember seeing beautiful black and white photos of Hollywood stars in the 50s with Siamese cats. I want people to know Thai cats and know Peranakan culture too. You see a lot of stray cats with no home or anyone to love them. I think my art can help. In fact, my friend said it inspired her to take in a cat. When we started Napas, I wanted to marry Soon but we didnt have much. So the cat bride is me.

Gustav Klimt is an inspiration to me. Even though I have my own style, I do love his use of gold in his work and would love to paint like him. Andy Warhol, too. He was so clever in how he worked. No one worked like him at that time.

Juffy cites Soon as an inspiration too. While Soon paints land and seascapes now, his formative experiences were of drawing human figures in primary 4, aged 10, and light and shadow drawing in the first year of secondary school, aged 13. He recalls having an almost innate understanding of perspective, proportions and ratios from a young age.

Fast forward to 2019 and Soon is now an established artist whose work is kept by TISCO, a finance company that collects exclusive fine art that reflects the prosperity of the nation.

Soons Pearl of the Andaman Sea is the first piece you see as you pull in to the gallery, taking pride of place in the front window. And so it should, having taken him some 200 hours to paint across a month and a half. Six metres in length across three panels, it depicts the rock formations of Phang Nga Bay. While some of Soons work is explicit in its mysticism  with islands in the shape of the ichthys, or fish symbol, bearing the Christian cross  this piece is much subtler. A closer glance reveals a trademark surrealist touch: the birds and elephants in the rocks.

Another piece that catches my eye during our conversation in their office is The Heavens and the Path of Roses, a seascape that sees a winding stream of pink, orange and yellow flowers flow out into the sea.

What inspires your art?

Soon: I paint seascapes more now because of where I live. With The Heavens and the Path of Roses, in Thai, we have a phrase that the path of life is not lined with rose petals. In my life, Ive had a tough road, but I hope the next life is an easy and beautiful one. I painted it when we were getting married and it reflects that hope and love. I didnt intend to do surreal paintings, but its in my heart. This is not just about our art in Phuket, its about life in Thailand that were exporting to the rest of the world.

Ive loved Turners work since I was young. Theres a romantic feeling in his brushstrokes. Turner was in Europe and Im in Asia but I feel like Ive found a big brother. Theres a link or connection with him.

Soon and Juffy work separately, Juffy in the aircon, which speeds up the drying process of the acrylic paint, and Soon in the open air, as oil paint in an enclosed room can be detrimental to an artists health. Fine art, for them, is personal and private. Although their works differ greatly  in their chosen subjects and artistic processes  on display they complement each other well. They hope to exhibit their work together in Phuket hotels in the near future, which they have not done for some years.

What do you think of each others art?

Soon: Because I taught and trained her, I really know her art. Its contemporary and mixes her culture with her own feelings. If she continues to paint in the future I think she will go down in Thai art history.

Juffy: I love his work. It relaxes me. If hes feeling loved, if hes missing someone, whatever it is, I can see it from his paintings. Hes a frank speaking person and he speaks with his art. I feel connected to his paintings.

Napas Art Gallery is located at 24/53 Moo 6, Cherng Talay, Thalang, 83110. Open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 7pm. Closed Sunday. www.facebook.com/napasartgallery

076 390 700 / 0836331204

napas.artgallery@gmail.comPhuket Opinion: For stupidity, click repeat

PHUKET: The Navys action to file a criminal complaint against American Chad Elwartowski and his Thai partner Supranee Thepdet for the seastead built in the waters some 42 kilometres south of Phuket is sadly laughable, but should come as no surprise.

militarymarineconstructionpropertycrimeopinion

By The Phuket News

Sunday 21 April 2019, 09:00AM

A Royal Thai Navy ship holds at a distance from the seastead south of Phuket. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

On learning of the charge, the couple went into hiding, reportedly fearful for their safety. That may sound ludicrous, but the couple were facing a charge under Section 119 of the Criminal Code, and that section is no laughing matter.

The section concerns any acts that cause the country or parts of it to fall under the sovereignty of a foreign state or deterioration of the states independence. The law is parked in the same section of the Criminal Code as lese majeste, which is only a few paragraphs earlier as Section 112.

Unlike lese majeste, which incurs a punishment of three to 15 years imprisonment if found guilty, breach of Section 119 is punishable by death or life imprisonment.

No one would believe that the Navy officials involved in the seastead case are actually pursuing that level of punishment. They were just looking for the legal right to have the structure removed. Did they make this clear to the public? No, they did not. And that is where they failed to understand the use of the law.

If their intent was simply to have the seastead removed, they missed the goal by a mile. All the Navy had to do was point to Thailand as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). A quick read of the first few pages reveals that signatory nations may claim a straight line between outlying islands of the country as included in the 12 mile definition of territorial waters.

Did they first discuss the issue with the builders and ask for the structure to be removed? No, they did not, despite talks being the standard first step for anyone found encroaching on protected forest or even national park land, a practice that the Navy itself has had plenty of, well, practice, in on this very island.

Instead, we saw heavy-handed, unilateral decision-making at its finest. If you want to create a climate of fear, this is what you get.

Now compare this to handling of the forest hillside in Chiang Mai raped to make way for an accommodation development literally one year ago  and even the generals in Bangkok backed down on that one. The accommodation, built on the foothills of one of the best-known national parks in the country, was allowed to stay. Apparently, even for the top brass, it would be difficult to win a court case against the very judges deciding it.

Instead, the project is now to be used for public benefit, said Deputy PM Gen Prawit Wongsuwan in delivering the news to the press. Perhaps as a vacation spot, he said. Indeed.

The seastead debacle also came at the end of the same week that Phukets image suffered from ridiculous headlines in the international media  including among respected publications  of the death penalty for taking selfies on the beach near the end of the runway.

By the time airport management figured out it was best to denounce the stories it was too late. The news had spread like a virus.

Considering all the hyperbole about preserving Phukets image as an international tourism destination, youd have thought that the key players on the island would have learned this one by now. Step up, be rational, speak your intent clearly and do it. Apparently not.

But one thing that has surfaced from the seastead farce: a whole new form of tourism accommodation that remains an unexplored segment in holiday properties. One has to wonder if any noses are out of joint that they didnt think of it  or get to it  first.Phuket Property Guide: The Law & Due Diligence

Buying a property in Thailand is no different to most other countries, in that a capable legal professional is needed to guide you through the entire process. This suggestion is, of course, a no-brainer, and youve doubtless heard it before. But it is astounding just how people decide to go it alone or rely on a friends expert understanding of Thai law when buying a property here  only to come seriously unstuck later.



By Thai Residential

Sunday 21 April 2019, 11:00AM

Getting a clear understanding of the law is crucial when buying a property. Photo: Mari Helin

Your first course of action when undertaking any property transaction in Thailand should be to enlist the help of a very good lawyer.

Professional individuals dont have time to waste, but without the right lawyer, you could be doing exactly that.

Whether you live here already, or you are flying to Phuket specifically to find your dream property, engaging sound legal advice will protect your interests , save time, and ultimately save money.

What do we mean by first course of action? If youre contemplating a real estate investment in Phuket, you should engage a lawyer before you even start viewing properties.

Apart from their knowledge of Thai law, good lawyers will be fluent in Thai and English, and if another mother tongue is needed, they will have the resources to help.

Not surprisingly, these are likely to be both the more experienced, as well as the more expensive law firms. But the money spent can be returned to you manifold in time saved and hassle avoided. Quite possibly, it could be money you save directly by not buying a wholly unsuitable property.

This brings up one of the most important roles a lawyer can play for you: conducting due diligence.

While a lawyer may not be able to check everything, they can certainly do enough to tilt the scales further in your favour. Just as experienced lawyers will be able to warn you against any shenanigans, choosing a lawyer with insufficient experience could have disastrous consequences.

Due diligence is where the right lawyer is invaluable. They will check the title deed to ensure the ownership is correct, and that there are no liens or loans against he property. (This is critical on properties bought off plan.)

Lawyers will also be able to advise on the credit worthiness of the developer and track record of the management company. And that is all before you sign a single piece paper.

Once you are given a purchase and sales agreement, your lawyer will be able to confirm the terms of your occupancy as well as any consequences should you decide to sell during a period of guaranteed rental returns.

It is also worth asking what happens when the terms or promises made by the developer and/or management company are not met in full. If the conditions are not met, what other forms of compensation exist?

Of course, there is always a risk of receiving poor legal advice, which is why it pays to use a lawyer who comes highly recommend by a friend or acquaintance, and is known for their honesty, integrity and reputation. The advice should be independent , and not have ties to the agent or the developer.

Once you have chosen the right lawyer, by all means listen to them and heed their advice. In a country where most foreign buyers are not familiar with the laws, or the pitfalls encountered by others in the past, the best representation is worth its weight in gold.

This article is from the 2018/2019 Thai Residential Phuket Property Guide. To download the 2019/2020 Guide visit ThaiResidential.com. Email: phuket@thairesidential.com. +66 9484 11918Unesco project aims to give prominent women the recognition they deserve

Khunying Lin Srivisanvaja was the first Thai woman to receive a medical degree and practise medicine in Thailand. Sumalee Viravaidya, a journalist, ensured a gender equality clause was added to the Thai Constitution. Khunying Yai Damrongthammasan was a devout dhamma practitioner who wrote a widely celebrated Buddhist text. What do all of these women have in common? Relative anonymity.

CultureHistory

By Bangkok Post

Sunday 21 April 2019, 03:00PM

Despite their achievements, none has a Wikipedia page or an online presence on a level commonly associated with their male peers. And yet their accomplishments have had a lasting impact on Thai society.

In order to help recognise women who have contributed to positive change in society, Unesco has initiated the project #Wiki4Women, which coincided with last months International Womens Day. It was carried out in cities all over the world, including Cairo, Lima, Paris, New Delhi, Reykjavik and Bangkok.

In the Thai capital, the project invited like-minded digitally literate citizens to edit and create content on Wikipedia to highlight and honour important historical female figures in the areas of education, science and culture. The edit-a-thon was carried out with guidance from a team of volunteers from Wikimedia Thailand.

Nowadays, we can see many talented women in Thailand and around the world, but not many events to give them an opportunity to showcase their work, said Nathanik Klaklangsmorn, Editorial Liaison Officer at Associated Press. So as soon as I heard about #Wiki4Women, I got in touch straight away. More profiles of talented women in both digital media and the real world will showcase their achievements and inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

A quick Google search easily yields information on prominent men spanning every period of history. Their female peers have far less of a presence in the digital sphere. Womens achievements remain unrecognised, and in some cases, even suppressed.

But what is so important about having a Wikipedia page?

A closer look reveals that only 17% of biographies on Wikipedia feature women and only 10% of people who create and edit content on Wikipedia are women. Women have a hard time getting a look in in history because most of it is written by men.

Movements like #Wiki4Women are bringing more stories of notable women to light, allowing people to become more aware of the great contributions women have made to help shape our common history and society.

Khunying Lin, Sumalee and Khunying Yai are just three examples of women lost to history despite the significant changes they helped bring about in society.

Upon her return to Thailand from studying abroad in 1924, Khunying Lin, nee Margaret Lin Xavier, also known as Dr Lin, became an obstetrician, working for the Thai Red Cross, Chulalongkorn Hospital and the Ministry of Public Healths medical facility in Bang Rak, where she mainly treated sexually transmitted diseases. She also established a medical clinic with her half-sister Chan Xavier, who worked as a pharmacist.

Sumalee was a journalist who wrote for The Nation and The Bangkok Post in the 1970s. She was the only woman on the committee drafting the Constitution after the Oct 14, 1973 student uprising and subsequent resignation of the military government. According to a New York Times profile in 1973, she initially wanted the word sex to be added to a sentence stipulating: Every person, regardless of race or religion, is equally protected by this Constitution. Her request was overwhelmingly overruled.

Sumalee took issue with laws that made women legally inferior to their husbands upon marriage. At that time, there were many things a Thai woman could not do without her husbands consent  get a job, obtain a passport, buy property. In the end, the committee reached a compromise, adding a clause that stated: Marriage shall be based on the equality of the partners, both legally and morally.

Born in 1886, Khunying Yai was taught to read and write, unlike most Thai women at the time. She studied with monks and became well versed in Buddhist doctrine. After the death of her husband, she spent the rest of her life meditating and studying scripture at a monastery in southern Thailand until her death in 1944. Evidence strongly suggests that she was the author of the well-known Buddhist text Thammanuthamma-patipatti.

Chadatan Osatis, a lecturer from the College of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University, suggested that womens stories have been historically suppressed because of how hard it has been to break the patriarchal status quo.

In society, especially Thai cultural norms, the stereotype of the good women is fixed, she said. It has historically been difficult for women to share their opinions or their desire for change. Showcasing more women on Wikipedia is a great way to reveal their contributions, whether they be in the past, present or future.

The gender gap is another enduring issue Wikipedia is trying to address.

Its all about gender equality, said Athikhun Suwannakhan, one of the main coordinators from the Wikimedians in Thailand User Group. Its clear that women are represented less in comparison with men, in both the real world and the digital space. The gender gap on Wikipedia contributes to the systemic bias in Wikipedia content.

The event is a good starting point for turning this around. In the long run, we would like to see more women getting involved in our movement. In the end, it not only applies to women, but also to other under-represented groups in society, such as people of colour, LGBT and ethnic minorities.

Chariya Chiumkanokchai is a programme assistant for education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship at Unesco Bangkok.Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 15F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 15F. Winds light and variable.Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Rain likely. Low 61F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 61F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch.CALGARYAl Radtkes decade of sobriety began in the last unoccupied room at Fort McMurrays only detox facility.

Earlier that day, the man who once made $120,000 a year at the height of his career crawled out of the tent where hed been living for two years, and he just wanted to die. After three decades as an ironworker in Western Canadas oil and gas industry, Radtkes crack cocaine, alcohol and cannabis habits had led to deep despair.

On Remembrance Day, 2008, Radtke walked into the Centre of Hope, Fort McMurrays only daytime drop-in centre for the homeless, where he tried to turn over his I.D. He didnt want anyone to identify his body to spare his family the grief of knowing he had committed suicide.

But Radtke decided to phone Pastew Place instead and got the last bed for the night. He detoxed there for about two weeks before he moved to Simon House Recovery Centre in Calgary. It took nearly two years at the privately run, charitable non-profit rehabilitation centre before he felt ready to live on his own. But like many oilpatch workers battling substance abuse, the start of sobriety meant the end of a very lucrative career.

I never went back to the plants, because they told me after so many years of doing it, my thinking would go right back, Radtke, 61, said in an interview at Simon House, where he now helps other men, many former oilpatch workers, recover from drug and alcohol dependence. Ive seen guys come here and go back and have success. They have to work hard. But they were younger guys.

Western Canadas oilpatch offers a big pay out, but it comes at a cost, especially for fly-in, fly-out workers who live in lodges and camps for weeks at a time. Their commute can be as short as a flight to Fort McMurray, where they catch another plane to a remote aerodrome, or as long as a nine-hour plane ride across the country to St. Johns.

Read more:

New report explores impacts of oil industry on Indigenous workers and families

Energy workers are willing to switch to tech, survey finds  and experts say its time for Calgary to take the lead

What would it cost to clean up Albertas oilpatch? $260 billion, a top official warns

Its a macho workplace culture where employees perform dangerous jobs for long hours, sometimes overnight. Drinking is a common after-hours release. Add to that the loneliness of long shift rotations, and you have a crack where mental illness can seep in. Set against the backdrop of the opioid crisis, in a province with a ready supply of fentanyl and crystal meth, and you have an environment where substance abuse can take hold.

The Athabasca oilsands alone had 15 projects using fly-in, fly-out workers, representing 60 per cent of the provinces total oilsands production operating in and around the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in 2017, according to the industry-run Oil Sands Community Alliance. They employed about 15,000 fly-in, fly-out workers  less than half the regions operations-related workforce  who come to work via the Fort McMurray airport or one of seven aerodromes operated by oilsands companies with assets in the region.

According to 2017 and 2018 labour force statistics from the provincial government, 140,300 of around 2.2 million people working in Alberta, or roughly 6.1 per cent, were employed in mining and oil and natural gas, which includes exploration, production, refining and distribution. When the province lumps in forestry and fishing with mining and oil and gas, the statistics show these workers earned more on average  $44 an hour  than the $30 an hour, on average, that workers in all other industries earned. The stats also confirmed that these workers spend more time on the job  45.6 hours on average every week with 27.4 per cent logging overtime  than other workers.

Mining and upgrading bitumen, driving massive haul trucks, working drill rigs and maintaining complicated facilities is often intensely physical work. When a shift is over, workers want to blow off steam. For many, punching out means grabbing a beer or three.

Youll try to find community in the bar, Radtke explained.

Justin Drolet, 31, started using ketamine and other party drugs in high school and kept using after he was hired as an equipment operator and supervisor with Northstar Energy Services and started working across Western Canada. Fentanyl and ketamine were his drugs of choice, mainly because oil companies didnt test for either one at the time. Off site, he would use other drugs such as meth, cocaine or ecstasy.

On the job, hed duck into the bathroom or go for a ride in his crew truck when he needed to use, which meant he was often high at the controls of heavy machinery. Sometimes hed have drugs for breakfast. Eight years ago, high on fentanyl, he slammed a semi truck into a guardrail at the Suncor Base Plant trying to make a tight turn. As per company policy, Drolet was given a drug test, but it didnt cover fentanyl so he passed. He took more immediately after the test.

Im a drug addict, so I dont just go and do one line and then Im good for a few hours, he explained.

The stories told by Radtke and Drolet are nothing new for Sandra Corbett. In 22 years as a psychiatrist in Fort McMurray, she met many clients who worked in the oilsands and struggled with addiction, often intertwined with mental illnesses like depression and anxiety.

In her experience, fly-in fly-out workers were especially vulnerable to drug and alcohol abuse because they had no family to go home to after a long day at work.

They were only in there for work, so what do they do when theyre not working? said Corbett, now the interim medical director for Alberta Health Services north zone. They didnt have family or friends or a social structure that people would normally have that would help them not get into drug habits.

Alcoholism was the most common form of substance abuse Corbett saw from her patients, but she said cocaine was known to be used more heavily by oil and gas workers, partly because it can clear the system to avoid detection in a few days.

It also has a practical use on the job. In terms of it being a stimulant and allowing them to maybe perform or at least be more active  that was maybe why that was seen in a higher proportion of people who were (oil and gas) workers, she said.

Nobody knows exactly how pervasive a problem drug and alcohol abuse is in the oilpatch, because private companies dont disclose information on employees and public health data are not broken down by occupation or industry.

A snapshot in time is provided by an Alberta Health Services report from April 2017 that relied on self-reported data from 2,817 workers surveyed in 2009. It showed oil and gas workers drink more heavily on average than other Albertan workers, with 12 per cent of respondents at medium or high risk of harmful alcohol use compared with an average of 5.9 per cent across all other industries.

It estimated 134,000 of Albertas two million workers over the age of 15 were employed in oil and gas, which means more than 16,000 could be abusing alcohol.

The reported rates of drug use for substances like marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines and opiates were too low to draw any conclusions, although the daily use of prescription painkillers was higher in the oil and gas group at 17.5 per cent compared to 14.8 per cent in all other industries. The authors noted alcohol and drug use could be higher, because people tend to under-report substance use, and because economic downturns, which Alberta has experienced since this survey, can go hand in hand with an increased use of harmful substances.

Charl Els, an addiction specialist and a clinical professor in the University of Albertas Department of Psychiatry, argued its important to keep up-to-date data on substance use of workers in any industry so the province can address the problem.

The issue here is, unless we measure, we have a limited understanding of whats going on in our workplace, which does make it more difficult to apply interventions of early identification to allow for people to get the necessary assessment, getting to treatment, Els said.

When asked about substance use in Canadas oil and gas sector, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, an industry lobby group, said its members are committed to safe work environments. This includes ensuring workers are fit for duty and not clocking in drunk or high. But they dont believe substance abuse is substantially worse in oil and gas than other sectors, and they dont believe fly-in camps pose a problem.

Were a sector with tens of thousands of workers, said Brad Herald, CAPPs vice-president of Western Canada operations. Any of the challenges you see mirrored in broader society are probably mirrored across (the) workforce, whether its our industry or another.

Another window into drug and alcohol use by oilpatch workers comes from a 2017 sworn affidavit from a Suncor vice-president in a court battle with the union representing its workforce in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo over random drug testing.

According to the affidavit filed on Nov. 21, 2017 in the Court of Queens Bench of Alberta, more than 10,000 incidents and near misses ranging from workers slipping to electrocution take place every year in its Athabasca operations, which include Suncors Base Plant in Wood Buffalo, its Fort Hills mining operation and in situ operations at McKay River and Firebag.

Between 2013 and 2017, Suncor had five workplace deaths, including one in 2014 where a man left a safe work area at Suncors Base Plant and, without being instructed to do so and for no apparent reason, climbed a ladder, came into contact with energized electrical equipment, and died. A toxicology report later found the workers blood-alcohol concentration was over the legal limit to drive.

Numerous near misses are detailed in the affidavit, like the haul truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel in 2016 and tested positive for cocaine and amphetamines. They were one of 320 Suncor employees who used alcohol or drugs on the job between 2003 and 2017.

Suncor has had a no-drinking or drug-use policy on all work sites since the early 1980s, according to the affidavit, and the company tests employees involved in accidents or where theres reasonable suspicion of intoxication. Suncors security team even uses sniffer dogs to find drug stashes. The union dropped the case after the Supreme Court refused to hear the case last summer. Suncor began random drug tests this year for 90 safety sensitive jobs that include engineers, truck drivers and even the companys CEO.

Suncor did not respond to multiple recent requests for comment on drug and alcohol use at its work sites. Other oil and gas companies who use fly-in fly-out workers have internal testing policies, although requests to talk to Cenovus, Canadian Natural Resources and Husky Ltd. about drug and alcohol use and how they detect and manage it were declined.

Syncrude spokesperson Will Gibson said the company conducts post-incident tests and offers support for workers and their families through the companys employee assistance program.

We have spoken and communicated regularly with our workforce about that and about not being afraid to seek help if they need it, said Gibson, adding that most of its workers live in the Wood Buffalo region and commute to work by car or bus, while a handful are flown in from Fort Chipewyan, a First Nations community in northern Alberta.

Fly-in workers sometimes stay in dry  drug and alcohol-free  camps, but workers at some of them are able to leave, get drunk or use drugs, and return before curfew. But Drolet had an easy time bringing drugs into camp. When he was dealing in the early 2000s, hed walk into a dry camp with drugs in his luggage, and security never asked to look inside his bag.

In my nine years in the oilfield, I was never checked, Drolet said. They just call it a dry camp, right?

As an ironworker, Radtke spent a lot of time working on rigging machines in hazardous situations. While he promised himself he wouldnt use drugs or drink on the job, his substance use got worse, to the point where he was fired for smoking crack cocaine in his room at the Suncor Millennial dry camp.

The first stop for workers in Fort McMurray who are struggling with addiction is the 16-bed Pastew Place Detoxification Centre where Radtke spent his first few days. The only detox centre in the city, it isnt overwhelmed by requests. But the number of people using their pre-treatment services, which includes assessing clients needs and helping them apply for treatment services across the province, increased from 80 people in 2015-16  prior to the Fort McMurray wildfire  to 182 people in 2017-18.

After finishing detox, the next step is a drug-treatment centre. Some are funded and managed by Alberta Health Services, some are for-profit, while others  such as Simon House  are non-profits.

Trevor Loria, president and CEO of Simon House, estimated between 20 and 25 per cent the Calgary rehab centres 66 beds are occupied by people who worked in the oilpatch or construction in some capacity.

Its a critical issue across the industry and across the sector, Loria said.

Drolet landed at Simon House in May 2017. Before he quit his job in 2014, hed been making $110,000 a year and selling drugs to coworkers on the side. He left when his boss caught on to his drug use, and as soon as he went back to his hometown of Grande Prairie, Drolet began dealing drugs full-time.

A stretch of sobriety came in Oct. 2016 when Drolet was mugged and beaten into a coma with a chair leg. After waking up, he went into treatment, but eventually relapsed for about two months. Drolet has been sober ever since he walked in the door at Simon House.

The arrival of fentanyl and crystal meth on the drug scene has introduced far cheaper and more potent drugs than alcohol and cocaine in the short term, said Loria. Injecting two milligrams of fentanyl, an opioid that is about 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin, can be lethal. Sustained use of meth, which costs as little as $10 for a single dose, can lead to psychosis, brain damage and memory loss.

Thats the problem, Radtke explained. Crack cocaine costs money, cocaine costs money. Fentanyl is cheap. The meth is cheap.

Meth is sometimes used to counteract the numbing effect of fentanyl, or even act as a safer alternative to the opioid. Loria said a worker might be able to use alcohol or cocaine heavily and remain functional for a while, but this isnt necessarily true of fentanyl. As with other rehab centres, Simon House is increasingly seeing patients  oilpatch workers or otherwise  in treatment for opioid and meth use.

In 2016, we did not have one single client come to Simon House who was taking methadone or suboxone for their opioid addiction, Loria said. Today, in 2019, 23 per cent of our clients are taking suboxone or methadone for their opioid addiction.

Oilpatch workers whose substance abuse or addictions are linked to their jobs need to take extra measures to ensure they avoid the heartbreaking cycle of recovery and relapse.

During his 22 months at Simon House, Radtke pumped gas for a year at the Calgary Co-op and spent another seven months working at a car lot. There wasnt a lot of money in either job compared to the $120,000 a year he once made as an ironworker, but both Radtke and Drolet agreed lean wallets are an asset in recovery. After leaving his first stint in rehab, Drolet sold his vehicle for a cheaper model to get the money he needed to buy drugs. He relapsed a week later.

The other key to sobriety is understanding that a life without drugs is possible. Radtke worked alongside a tradesman who had been clean for 17 years, and told him so every day, knowing Radtke was battling addiction. He was waiting for me to say: OK, howd you do it? 

Radtke never asked. But he will never forget the colleague who left the door open to him and, 10 years into sobriety, does his best to do the same for everyone who crosses the threshold of Simon House.

Read more about:CALGARYSri Lankans the world over are in mourning after a series of bombs shattered churches and hotels across the island nation on Easter Sunday, killing over 200 people.

News of the attack came very early in the morning for Sri Lankans living in Canada. Deva Wanigasekera, secretary of the Sri Lanka Canada Association Calgary, said he first heard about it from his sister-in-law in Toronto, whod received a call from Sri Lanka. Wanigasekera still has family in Sri Lanka and visits every December.

I was kind of devastated by the news, particularly because it is Easter Sunday, an auspicious day for the Christian, Wanigasekera said. And to hear this kind of thing happening on such a day is appalling to me and indeed very sorrowful, because we have to be united as different communities, and different religious groups have to respect each other.

Wanigasekera is Buddhist, but said one of his best friends is Catholic. He attends some church activities and have their services attended by Christians in return. Christian Sri Lankans are no doubt worried about the fates of those they know in Sri Lanka following the attacks.

I feel sorry for them  that theyll be quite frightened about their relatives and friends in Columbo and various other places where (bombs) destroyed some buildings, he said.

In response, the Sri Lanka Canada Association Calgary has started a Go Fund Me page to assist families affected by Sundays attacks.

Read more:

So much trauma: Sri Lankans in B.C. express grief, fear after Easter attacks

The lower we got, the more blood we saw: Canadians react to Sri Lankan bombs

Six nearly simultaneous blasts in Sri Lanka on Sunday shook three churches as well as three luxury hotels frequented by foreign tourists. Most are believed to have been suicide attacks. Another blast killed at least two people, and an eighth explosion near an overpass on the outskirts of Colombo killed three police officers en-route to question suspects.

At least 207 people  including 27 foreign nationals from Britain, the U.S., India, Turkey, and China  are dead. More than 450 are wounded.

No Canadian citizens are believed to be affected by the attacks, according to a statement from Global Affairs Canada on Sunday. Wanigasekera hadnt heard of anyone affected in Calgary or Edmonton, but said it was too early to tell for sure. Members of the Sri Lankan community have had difficulty contacting people in several of the island nations cities, he added. The Sri Lankan government has also blocked major social media platforms following the attack.

Prominent Albertans, including Premier-designate Jason Kenney, denounced the attacks on social media as the news trickled out on Sunday.

Our voices join those around the world in condemning the horrific attacks on Christians as they celebrate their holiest day, and our hearts and our prayers are with those who were injured or killed, he wrote on his Twitter account Sunday.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi described the attacks in a tweet as a heinous and disgusting act on one of the holiest days of the year, in a place that has known far too much violence and despair.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson condemned the bombings in his own tweet, saying, no one should be targeted because of their faith, and so I join all peace-loving people in offering our Citys condolences to those who have lost family or friends.

It isnt clear who exactly carried out the attack. Sri Lankan Defence Minister Dinendra Ruwan Wijewardene described the bombings as a terrorist attack by religious extremists and police said 13 suspects had been arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Sri Lanka was dominated for decades by the sharp divide between the majority Sinhalese, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist, and the minority Tamil, who are Hindu, Muslim and Christian. The mistreatment of Tamils helped nurture the growth of armed separatists and led to nearly 30 years of civil war, with Tamil Tiger fighters eventually creating a de facto independent homeland in the country's north until the group was crushed in a 2009 government offensive.

Wanigasekera said Sundays violence was depressing to the Sri Lankan community both within and beyond the countrys borders.

We need to respect all these people in the end. Unfortunately, there are groups who do not do that, Wanigasekera said. We are very sorry to hear this. As a country that is developing, they need to know  and we have to help them out as much as possible  to live peacefully together. To tolerate each other.

With files from the Associated Press and The Canadian Press

Read more about:MONTREALQuebecers whose homes are repeatedly flooded may eventually be forced to move, Premier Francois Legault said Sunday as he toured an area enduring its second bout of spring flooding in three years.

Legault visited Lavals Ile Bigras, where soldiers from the Canadian Armed Forces were busy stacking sandbags up a barrier along the shores edge as the already-swollen river threatened to further spills its banks.

He noted that many residents in the same areas were still in the midst of renovating their homes after flooding in 2017.

As a result, Legault said the government was reviewing its programs to ensure that those who need compensation get it earlier, but also that there are incentives in place for those who want to move to higher ground.

We have to adjust our programs to rapidly compensate people who have cleanup, renovations to do, he told reporters. But we have to be clear-headed, and if its necessary to force people to move, well do it.

Legault said he doesnt want taxpayers to be on the hook for repairing the same homes over and over again, especially when such events appear to be happening more frequently, possibly due to climate change.

Read more:

Soldiers deploy across Quebec after flood-caused sinkhole claims womans life

Soldiers deploying to flood-prone areas as N.B. water levels rise

Conservation authority funding for flood programs gets cut by Ontario government

He did not specify how the program would work, but said the government may put a limit on the amount of repair money a homeowner can receive before they are asked to move.

Near the entrance to the island on the southwest edge of Laval, several roads were closed due to flooding and one home appeared partially surrounded by water as small waves lapped at a picnic bench and a For Sale sign on the lawn.

But Legault said he hoped the current flood would be less catastrophic than in 2017 due to better preparation, which included delivering sandbags to homes at risk of flooding and the governments decision to call in the army before the situation got out of hand.

But the positive words didnt lessen the anxiety for homeowners Anna Lin and Eddy Girard, who on Sunday afternoon watched the river rushing along the edge of their lawn on Ile Bigras.

Since the 2017 floods, the couple has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on major renovations, including raising the entire home and building a waterproof basement.

Now, theyre worried it wont be enough.

Its discouraging, hard on the morale, hard on the family, said Girard. Do we rebuild, do we let it go? We have to look to the future.

Lin and Girard said that many of their neighbours are still in the process of rebuilding from the last floods, after having to wait months or years for government compensation or simply the permission to rebuild. The house next to theirs was demolished and the one next to that is still under construction.

The couple has spent the last few days laying down sandbags, sealing windows moving items to higher ground. They say municipal and provincial officials appear much better prepared this time, and are hopeful the water will stay out their home. If it doesnt, theyre not sure what theyll do.

Were in a 100 year flood zone, and in three years, weve been hit two times, Girard said.

Many people across Quebec and New Brunswick have been filling sandbags in an effort to protect their homes, as officials warned water levels are expected to rise in many regions due to warming temperatures that contribute to snowmelt and ice movement.

About 200 soldiers started filling sandbags and carrying out evacuations in Quebecs Outaouais and Mauricie regions overnight, and by Sunday afternoon about 600 were on the job across the province.

Public affairs officer Pierre Leblanc said the armys priority in the Laval area would be filling and stacking sandbags and protecting critical infrastructure near the river, which he said was rising about one centimetre each hour.

Urgence Quebec said that as of Sunday afternoon, 1,280 residences across the province had been flooded and more than 1,500 people had left their homes.

Five major floods were identified as threatening thousands of Quebecers, and so far one death has been blamed on the high water.

Police say 72-year-old Louise Seguin Lortie died Saturday morning after driving her car into a sinkhole caused by flooding in the Pontiac area, about 30 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

Some of the worst flooding has been in the Beauce region south of Quebec City, where 883 homes were swamped and 765 people evacuated by Sunday morning, up from 94 the previous day.

Meanwhile, about 120 Canadian soldiers were being deployed across western New Brunswick to help residents threatened by rising floodwaters.

Fifteen communities in that province have been warned to remain on high alert.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said several roads were closed near the southeast edge of Laval.

Read more about:Even in death, Fred Bracken ended up making headlines.

For years, Brackens name was linked to Niagara political controversies, lawsuits and arrests.

He harangued local politicians and journalists, often following them with a hand-held video camera and calling them corrupt communists and loons. A boisterous supporter of U.S. president Donald Trump, Bracken would stage one-man protests in St. Catharines carrying vulgar signs while dressed in a distinctive bright yellow, puffy coat and floppy green hat.

One of those protests turned violent and Bracken was sentenced last September to 90 days in jail for assault causing bodily harm.

Closely linked to one of Niagaras most controversial politicians, Bracken became embroiled in several legal disputes with elected officials.

Bracken, a 41-year-old dual American-Canadian citizen, made headlines again this week, but this time in a newspaper half a world away.

On Friday, the Kampuchea Thmey Daily in Cambodia reported Bracken died Thursday of a heart attack related to an overdose in a room at the RiverStar hotel in Phnom Penh.

Hotel staff confirmed in an email to The Standard that Brackens body was found in a room by hotel cleaning staff.

The Cambodian newspaper published photos of a hotel room, purported to be Brackens, which showed several prescription drugs on a table including the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, Diazepam (also known as Valium) and Cialis, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction.

Kampuchea Thmey Daily also published a photo of Brackens American passport which has an issuing date of April 14, 2019.

The Cambodian police did not respond to an interview request Saturday.

The Standard did not receive a reply to a message sent to Brackens email Saturday.

It is not clear when Bracken arrived in Cambodia or why he was there.

In September, Bracken told the Ontario Court of Justice he was leaving Canada to live in Florida after he served 90 days for assaulting a Brock University student.

The assault happened during Brackens one-person protest at the university on Nov. 1, 2016.

Bracken, megaphone in hand, was holding a large sign that read, Trump is right: Fk China. Fk Mexico. Save Our Jobs near the international students centre.

He attracted a crowd of angry students, one of whom grabbed Brackens sign.

Bracken responded by slugging the victim in the face. After he fell to the ground, Bracken punched him four more times and kicked him in the head before being dragged away by bystanders.

A decade prior, Bracken was convicted of two firearms-related charges and drug possession and served 2 years in a penitentiary.

His protests earned him the ire of local politicians more than once, including in Fort Erie, where he was banned from town hall.

In 2014, he stood outside town hall with a megaphone and called municipal employees communists and liars. He was arrested for trespassing and ordered not to the return to the property.

In 2017, Bracken got the order overturned in court.

He often held his one-man protests outside the St. Catharines courthouse and the former Niagara Regional Police headquarters in downtown St. Catharines.

Bracken was a friend of disgraced former St. Catharines regional councillor Andy Petrowski and joined the politician in an attempt to sue most of regional council in spring 2017. The lawsuit was an attempt to stop the release of integrity commissioner reports that found Petrowski had violated councils code of conduct on three occasions.

Claiming the reports violated Petrowskis right to free expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and would hurt Petrowkis reputation, the pair sued 24 of 31 regional councillors. The case was thrown out of court by Justice David Edwards, who ordered Bracken and Petrowski to pay the Region $5,500 in legal costs.

Bracken and the Region later came to an arrangement in which Bracken would not have to pay the fine in exchange for fair consideration in another, undisclosed matter.

Bracken was also at the centre of another controversy at Niagara Region in December 2017, when he began shouting at St. Catharines resident Mohammed Al Jumaily who was making a presentation to council. From the gallery, Bracken called Al Jumaily a terrorist. After The Standard published a story about the incident, Bracken wrote an email to the newspaper saying he also called the entire council terrorists and there nothing racist about what he said.

When Bracken was convicted for assaulting the Brock student, Judge Peter T. Bishop said Bracken continuously believes himself to be a victim, and failed to understand the seriousness of his crime.

Kampuchea Thmey Daily reported that Brackens body was being kept in a temple for burial. It was not clear if the body would be returned to the United States or Canada.With a diaspora estimated to be more than 100,000 people of Sri Lankan origin and descent in Canada, the bombings that rocked hotels and churches in the South Asian community Sunday were felt here, as well as by Canadians who were in the vicinity at the time.

Canadian Chris Plosaj was eating breakfast at Colombos Shangri-La Hotel  one site of the bombings  just 10 minutes before the restaurant was rocked by two massive explosions.

The place we were eating less than 10 minutes prior is now a black hole with rubble, said Plosaj, an Ottawa native now living in Hong Kong.

He added that he and his friend decided to head back up to their hotel room to pack when he heard a loud thud that sounded like someone falling off a bed a floor above. Then, a minute or so later, a much louder boom that shook the window and the floor.

Plosaj said that he knew something was wrong shortly after because he heard sirens and saw the military police running toward the hotel. Then, he the hotel alarm went off advising the guests to evacuate.

We took the stairs from the 23rd floor. The lower we got, the more blood we saw. It started as drips and then pools of water and blood, gathered in the flooded hallways, he added.

I cant believe it happened. Its such a beautiful country and the people are so wonderful, Plosaj said. The Sri Lankan people have been so warm and welcoming here.

Canadas department of Global Affairs says it has no reports of any Canadians caught in the blasts. But those in Canada with personal ties to Sri Lanka were reeling on Sunday.

Pastor Vincent Sahayanathan Muthulingam of the Harvest Missionary Church on Bellamy Rd. in Scarborough, was woken in the middle of the night with news of the attacks. He travels often to Sri Lanka, works with many churches there, and knows some of the victims, having ministered at the one of the churches that was attacked.

I got the call around 12:30 to 1 a.m. from Sri Lanka, and the second church (Zion Church in Batticaloa), that was my friends church. I preached there many times. Thats where I grew up. I know some people have that have lost their lives, including my director, who worked there in missions since 2012. He lost his life, said Muthilingam. I work there all the time. I go there almost every month, all over Sri Lanka, in many churches. I am almost like a daddy to many pastors at the churches there, so they called me immediately, crying.

He couldnt sleep and watched the reports of the devastation all night, but then gave a message of hope at this mornings sermon.

The only thing is that I had to tell my people to keep love in their hearts, and keep praying for the wounded and the injured, and for the families who have lost their husbands, or wives or their children.

He also said that he hoped Canadian Christians will help rebuild the churches when the time for aid comes.

Nabeel Madar Mohammed is a Colombo resident and married to a Canadian. His wife, Fathima Nuzha Mubarak, was visiting him in Sri Lanka as they await his immigration application to Canada. He realized something serious had happened when family and friends were calling to check in on him after the first blasts occurred at around 9 a.m. local time.

We basically tried to stay (indoors) and update ourselves through the local news and social media. There was a lot of confusion and panic around, he told the Star via email.

The Sri Lankan government subsequently blocked access to social media, with the stated purpose of containing the spread of misinformation, but this made it difficult for Mubarak to contact her family. Later that afternoon, Mohammed said he heard a blast from his home in the Dehiwala neighbourhood of Colombo, as a hotel near the Dehiwala zoo was bombed in the afternoon.

We were traumatized and my wife did not have any way to communicate to her family in Canada, Mohammad said.

The citys illuminated Toronto sign at Nathan Phillips Square would be dimmed Sunday in solidary with Sri Lanka following todays tragic attacks, Mayor John Tory tweeted Sunday.

David Poopalapillai was at church in Mississauga for Easter Sunday services, and had already heard about members of his extended family that were affected by the blasts.

Some of my relatives have relatives that died in the blast, back in Batticaloa. Its an eastern coastal town. This has affected the entire community. This is so tragic. The entire community is mourning. The international community is mourning, he said. (My relatives) just called me, they are crying over the phone. it is so devastating. And what a loss. There are no words that I can comprehend to tell you how we feel about it.

Poopalapillai hopes that a local memorial and vigil will be organized soon, as well as if there any foreign aid that may be necessary.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement condemning the attacks and declaring that he was shocked and saddened to hear of the devastating terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka and offered heartfelt condolences to all those who have lost loved ones on behalf of his government.

Places of worship are sacred, where all should feel safe and secure. No one should be targeted because of their faith. For millions of people around the world, Easter is a time to reflect on Jesus message of compassion and kindness  a time to come together with friends and family. We cannot let attacks like these weaken the hope we share.

To the people of Sri Lanka and other communities affected by todays attacks: Canada stands with you. We will continue to work with you and other international partners to combat terrorism and violent extremism and to promote greater peace and stability around the world.

Cardinal Thomas Collins of the Archdiocese of Toronto took to Twitter to note, On a day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Easter joy is numbed by the horrific attacks in Sri Lanka, targeting churches and hotels. We condemn the targeted violence against Christians that is taking place at an alarmingly frequent rate worldwide. The slaughter of innocent families in a place of worship is particularly heinous. I invite all of the faithful in the Archdiocese of Toronto to lift our collective voices in prayer for the hundreds killed and injured.

Global Affairs now urges Canadian would-be travellers to Sri Lanka to Exercise a high degree of caution in Sri Lanka due to the security situation.

Sivan Ilangko, president of the Canadian Tamil Congress, said his organization is considering a vigil in the next few days, here in the GTA but nothing had been confirmed.

Evelyn Kwong is a digital producer based in Toronto. She is also a Star contributor. Follow her on Twitter: @evystadium

With files from Brendan Kennedy

TY Tom Yun is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @thetomyun

Read more about:Facing a budding scandal involving a veteran Durham cop permitted to co-own an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary, the police brass called in the Ontario Provincial Police to investigate.

The OPP soon concluded Const. Phil Edgar intentionally misled Durham police about his marijuana side gig. The officer committed multiple counts of professional misconduct, the provincial police said.

Edgar never faced discipline from his bosses at the Durham Regional Police Service.

Durham police would not say why it did not pursue disciplinary charges against Edgar. The police service, which patrols the region east of Toronto, including the cities of Oshawa and Pickering, will also not comment on what it calls a personnel matter.

The forces handling of Edgars case is part of a mounting pile of allegations before the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, which is reviewing complaints by several Durham police employees accusing senior command of corruption, abuse of power and coverup. Durham police say the allegations are false and defamatory, lobbed by disgruntled employees with axes to grind.

The OPP investigators determined that early on in the secondary-employment approval process, Durham police should have denied Edgars November 2015 request to own a medical marijuana dispensary.

In approving it, Durham police failed to do basic due diligence, including verifying whether Edgars company had been licensed to sell medical marijuana as he claimed, the OPP concluded.

Const. Edgar was deceitful throughout the approval process, OPP officers wrote in an investigative report for Durham police. Edgars superiors were aware as of June 2016 that the dispensary did not have a licence but had not initiated disciplinary charges, the report said.

Reached by phone, Edgar was surprised when told OPP investigators concluded that he had committed deceit and discreditable conduct, saying it was the first he had heard of it.

Then charge me. Thats why we have a process. I have done absolutely nothing wrong, Edgar said. Deceit is a very powerful word. If somebody is going to make an allegation of that then they better be able to prove it because its not something that I would take lying down.

Edgars dispensarys website offered consumers pot brownies, a weed-infused chocolate hazelnut spread called Chrontella and other edible products that at the time were illegal to sell, a 2016 Star investigation found. After the Star began asking questions, Edgar stepped away from the business, which he says never sold any marijuana products before shutting down.

The OPP report says its investigators were instructed to see if Durhams secondary-employment process had been properly followed in Edgars case and to flag any conduct issues to Durham police to investigate. The final report was given to Durham police in September 2017.

A year earlier, while the investigation was still ongoing, the OPP repeatedly informed Durhams then deputy chief Uday Jaswal that it had identified misconduct by Edgar, the report said.

Jaswal responded by saying Durham police were going to ask another external agency to investigate if Edgar had breached the Police Services Act. In an email quoted in the report, Jaswal, now a deputy chief with Ottawa police, called the OPPs investigation a process review of Durhams secondary-employment system and thanked the force for its work.

Durham police has refused to say which other agency was given the investigation and whether it has concluded.

When asked why the OPPs findings did not lead to disciplinary action against Edgar, a lawyer representing senior Durham police officials said its wrong to assume all investigations end with charges being laid.

As a general matter, the fact that a member of a police service has not been charged with misconduct under the Police Services Act does not establish that something has been buried, lawyer Sean Dewart said in a written response to questions from the Star.

Insp. Rene Bazinet, who led the OPPs investigation, said he could not comment on the case as it was done at the request of Durham police.

All I can tell you is that we completed our investigation and we did have a report, and we handed it off to Durham region  The chief is in possession of it, Bazinet said. They have the findings and theyll address them.

Edgar has been a Durham officer for more than 20 years, saying he has stuck with policing because of a passion for the work, not for the paycheque. He also owns a gas station on the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, of which Edgar is a member.

He lives nearby in a palatial home nestled along Lake Scugog, the product of what he described as years of smart investments and good business practices.

A YouTube video shows him paying cash for a Lamborghini Huracan Avio. His Audi R8, which he has since sold, was wrapped in green vinyl film emblazoned with the dispensarys company name: Living On Inc.

Under Ontario law, officers must receive a forces permission either to have a second job or to have ownership in a company that may appear to be a conflict of interest or interfere with their duties.

Edgars application, submitted in November 2015, was sparse, the OPP report says. It did not list his business partners or include copies of licensing information from Health Canada, which regulated medical marijuana vendors, the OPP said.

Durham police management decided it needed a legal opinion.

Stan MacLellan, Durhams chief administrative officer and a friend of Edgars, said he would handle it, the forces human resources director told the OPP.

MacLellan did not normally get involved in secondary-activity requests but his assistant was sick, the OPP report says. According to the OPP, MacLellan turned to Johnstone & Cowling, a law firm that has for years done work for Durham police. A lawyer representing MacLellan says the OPP report is wrong and MacLellan did not make the request for legal advice, adding that MacLellan is not involved in the approval of secondary-employment requests.

The legal opinion came back the same day, the OPP report said. No reasonable grounds exist to deny Const. Edgars request. In the event that Const. Edgars request is denied, there is significant risk of liability associated with any subsequent grievance, the lawyers advised, according to the OPP report.

MacLellan told OPP investigators that he instructed the forces HR manager to make sure Edgar understood everything has to be covered off  because we are not authorizing something that couldnt be legit.

No one involved with reviewing Edgars request ever saw his companys supposed licence to sell medical marijuana, the OPP said, because a valid licence did not exist.

Still, Edgars request was approved.

Edgar previously told the Star that it was his understanding that Living On had all the necessary licences. He said he was only involved in the companys promotional side while a business partner handled the regulatory matters.

Confirming whether Edgars business had a licence would not have been be difficult. Health Canadas website listed all the companies that could legally grow or sell medical marijuana.

In a statement, a lawyer representing Chief Paul Martin, MacLellan, and law firm Johnstone & Cowling, which provided the legal advice, said its an officers obligation to ensure he complies with all applicable regulations before operating a business.

Ian Johnstone, in written responses included in the OPP report, said the information received by his firm was that Edgar had the proper licensing and the legal opinion was based on that. He said that it wasnt his firms job to investigate facts received from our client.

Johnstone told the Star through a lawyer that he was unable to comment on the firms advice because it was subject to lawyer-client privilege.

Inside Durham police, concerns mounted about the approval of Edgars request. One superintendent told the OPP that a background check showed one of the dispensarys co-owners had a criminal record, which might have put Edgar in violation of a Durham police rule that officers cannot associate with criminals.

Around that time, on the streets of Oshawa and Whitby, Durham police started cracking down on the illegal storefront dispensaries that had cropped up. Over the next few months, officers raided some of the illicit shops, arresting the employees on drug charges.

Police Chief Martin had a special request for the officer in charge of criminal operations, according to the OPP report: The chief must be told before any raid or criminal investigation into Edgars dispensary, Living On.

The chief has asked me to ensure that, prior to any proactive enforcement conducted by our service in relation to Living On Inc and/or its agents he be briefed personally, said the email from a Durham police inspector to a superintendent in charge of criminal operations, quoted in the OPP report.

This request is not meant to stop or impede any investigation that may be ongoing or commenced in the future by our members, the email says, adding that the chief will make himself available even if hes on vacation.

In a statement, a lawyer representing Martin said the chief is routinely kept abreast of developments in significant investigations.

This is what one would expect of any chief of police. He has not improperly involved himself in, or interfered with, any investigation at any time, the statement says.

Edgar dismisses any suggestion that Durham police management  including his friend, MacLellan  have shown him any favouritism.

Im still a constable at the bottom of the food chain. If Stan was my friend and people are saying there is nepotism, well, I should be an inspector by now, he said.

Read more about:COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Nine bombings of churches, luxury hotels and other sites on Easter Sunday killed more than 200 people and wounded hundreds more in Sri Lankas deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago.

Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects were arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Wijewardena said most of the bombings were believed to have been suicide attacks.

The explosions  mostly in or around Colombo, the capital  collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, soot, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms. Victims were carried out of blood-spattered pews.

People were being dragged out, said Bhanuka Harischandra, of Colombo, a 24-year-old founder of a tech marketing company who was going to the Shangri-La Hotel for a meeting when it was bombed. People didnt know what was going on. It was panic mode.

He added: There was blood everywhere.

Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthonys Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lankas Foreign Ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a variety of countries were recovered.

Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, April 21, 2019. Witnesses are reporting two explosions have hit two churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, causing casualties among worshippers.





































The U.S. said several Americans were among the dead, while Britain, China, Japan and Portugal said they, too, lost citizens.

The Sri Lankan government imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and blocked most social media including Facebook and YouTube, saying it needed to curtail the spread of false information and ease tension in the country of about 21 million people.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could trigger instability in Sri Lanka, and he vowed to vest all necessary powers with the defence forces to take action against those responsible.

The Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called on Sri Lankas government to mercilessly punish those responsible because only animals can behave like that.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said at least 207 people were killed and 450 wounded. He said police found a safe house and a van used by the attackers.

The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of Sri Lankas 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from the Buddhist-majority country. The Tamils are Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

Sri Lanka, situated off the southern tip of India, is about 70 per cent Buddhist. Scattered incidents of anti-Christian harassment have occurred in recent years, but nothing on the scale of what happened Sunday.

There is also no history of violent Muslim militants in Sri Lanka. However, tensions have been running high more recently between hard-line Buddhist monks and Muslims.

Two Muslim groups in Sri Lanka condemned the church attacks, as did countries around the world, and Pope Francis expressed condolences at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing in Rome.

I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence, Francis said.

Six nearly simultaneous blasts took place in the morning at the shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo, as well as at two churches outside Colombo, according to a Sri Lankan military spokesman, Brig. Sumith Atapattu.

A few hours later, two more blasts occurred just outside Colombo, one of them at a guesthouse, where two people were killed, the other near an overpass, Atapattu said.

Also, three police officers were killed during a search at a suspected safe house on the outskirts of Colombo when its occupants apparently detonated explosives to prevent arrest, authorities said.

The Shangri-Las second-floor restaurant was gutted, with the ceiling and windows blown out. Loose wires hung down and tables were overturned in the blackened space. From outside the police cordon, three bodies could be seen covered in white sheets.

Foreign tourists hurriedly used their cellphones to text family and loved ones that they were OK. Visitors from around the world come to Sri Lanka to see elephants, tea plantations, ancient Buddhist monuments and other sights.

I had a sense that the country was turning the corner, and in particular those in the tourism industry were hopeful for the future, said tourist Peter Kelson, a technology manager from Sydney. Apart from the tragedy of the immediate victims of the bombings, I worry that these terrible events will set the country back significantly.

Locals who work in Sri Lankas vital tourism industry were shocked and upset by the bloodshed.

After so many years, weve started again, said Gamini Francis, 56, a long-time hotel worker. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs. 100% sure. Its tragic. Crazy people killing innocent people.

Sri Lankan forces defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending a civil war that took over 100,000 lives, with both sides accused of grave human rights violations.

Harischandra, who witnessed the attack at the Shangri-La Hotel, said there was a lot of tension after the bombings, but added: Weve been through these kinds of situations before.

He said Sri Lankans are an amazing bunch and noted that his social media feed was flooded with photos of people standing in long lines to give blood.

___

Associated Press writers Sheila Norman-Culp and Gregory Katz in London; Sarah DiLorenzo in New York; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow; Nicole Winfield at the Vatican; Adam Schreck in Bangkok; and Emily Schmall in New Delhi contributed to this report.WASHINGTONWhen Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook called for regulating harmful internet content in an opinion column last month, Republicans in Washington expressed outrage that he was calling on the government to regulate speech.

Within hours, the companys top lobbyists started spreading another message to conservatives: Dont take his suggestion too seriously.

In a flurry of calls and emails to regulators, consumer groups and think tanks  as well as in person, at a weekly breakfast gathering of influential conservatives  the operatives said Zuckerberg was not encouraging new limits on speech in the United States. His target was mostly overseas regulators, they said, and he has other ideas for Washington.

Mark believes that by updating the rules for the internet, we can preserve whats best about it  the freedom for people to express themselves and entrepreneurs to build new things, one Facebook lobbyist wrote in an email widely distributed to conservative groups. The lobbyists actions were described by two people who encountered the outreach and shared the emails with The New York Times but would speak only on the condition of anonymity.

Zuckerbergs call for action, and his lobbyists response, encapsulate why the United States is on an island of its own when it comes to managing violent and racist speech online.

Britain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and India have adopted or are considering laws that require stricter content moderation by tech platforms. But none of them need to work around free speech protections like the First Amendment in the United States.

For tech businesses like Facebook, that means navigating fraught political terrain  and trying to play on both sides of the issue.

The companies face increasing pressure, particularly from Democrats but also from some Republicans, to stem the spread of messages that can lead to real-world violence. But many Republicans, including President Donald Trump, complain that tech companies like Facebook and Google already curtail too many voices  and that any new limits would only make matters worse. The two parties recently had dueling congressional hearings to help make their case.

American law and judges are united, but all the cultural and social pressures around the world are in the opposite direction, said Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The protections of the American Constitution and the demands of countries and consumers around the world are on a collision course.

Navigating the various approaches to speech will require different solutions, said Kevin Martin, Facebooks head of lobbying in the United States.

Mark and Facebook recognize, and support, and are strong defenders of the First Amendment, Martin said. That nuance was lost because the opinion piece, which ran in The Washington Post, The Independent in Britain and elsewhere, was written to speak to a global audience, he said.

Tech companies, as private businesses, have the right to choose what speech exists on their sites, much as a newspaper can pick which letters to the editor to publish.

Their online sites do already pull some content for breaking their rules. Facebook and Google have tens of thousands of content moderators to root out hate speech and false information on their sites, for example. The companies also use artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to identify content that violates their terms of service.

But many recent events, like the mosque shootings in New Zealand, show the limits of those resources and tools, and have led to more demands for regulation. A live video by a gunman in the New Zealand massacre was viewed 4,000 times before Facebook was notified. By then, copies of the video had been uploaded on several sites like 8Chan, and Facebook struggled to take down slightly altered versions.

For the first time, Im seeing the left and right agree that something has gotten out of control, and there is a lot of consensus on the harms created by fake news, terrorist content and election interference, said Nicole Wong, deputy chief technology officer for the Obama administration.

Getting consensus on basic definitions of what constitutes harmful content, though, has been difficult. And American lawmakers have been little help.

In his opinion column, Zuckerberg outlined several ideas to rid sites of harmful content. He noted that the company was putting together a group of outsiders who would evaluate harmful speech on its services and whether it should be removed. He also suggested that the government help define harmful speech.

Regulation could set baselines for whats prohibited and require companies to build systems for keeping harmful content to a bare minimum, he wrote.

Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the telecommunications, broadband and television industries, responded on Twitter that such regulation would be a direct violation of the First Amendment.

They are trying to pass the buck, Carr said in a later interview. But he is asking for the government to censor speech.

Brad Parscale, Trumps 2020 campaign manager, wrote on Twitter: Every single regulatory measure Zuckerberg is calling for would benefit his company, his political allies, and himself personally.

Some civil rights groups also raised concerns. It is extremely difficult to define harmful content, much less implement standards consistently and fairly for billions of users, across the entire spectrum of contemporary thought and belief, wrote Corynne McSherry and Gennie Gebhart of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group that advocates open and free expression online. Their article was headlined Mark Zuckerberg Does Not Speak for the internet.

So far, Facebook has stood alone in its call for regulations of harmful speech. Google, Amazon, Twitter and Apple did not comment for this article but have been stalwart in their support of free speech online.

With a limited appetite for the government to step in and ban certain content online, regulators and some lawmakers have increasingly warned they will crack down on the internet companies for doing a poor job of policing their own policies. To do that, the government would most likely need to take away a legal immunity for internet companies, established in 1996, that shields them from liability for content posted by users.

The law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, is often held up as central to the tech industrys growth in the last three decades. But lawmakers have begun to weigh whether the legal protection extends too far. Last year, Congress passed a law that weakened it by holding social networks and other websites liable for knowingly hosting sex trafficking ads, the first time that an exception was written for the law.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and an author of Section 230, said it allowed sites to better moderate content without fear.

But even Wyden says the law was not intended to protect tech giants. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has warned that he would pursue a carve-out of Section 230 for sites that hosted the sale of opioids.

If these platforms dont fix their problems, you bet Im looking at 230, Manchin said. Everything is on the table.

The building frustration in Washington is being watched with anxiety by both big and small tech companies, as well as investors. Some are warning that any new regulations would hurt startups, because many dont have resources like Facebook and Google to hire staff to enforce the rules.

Be mad at tech, thats understandable, Alex Feerst, head of legal policy for the online publishing site Medium, said at a recent event on the unintentional harms of speech regulations.

But adding restrictions to online speech laws or liabilities for platforms would come with downsides, he warned.

Companies will simply over-remove out of risk aversion, he said.

Read more about:This Easter there are millions of people at risk of starvation in Yemen, South Sudan and other conflict areas. It is our great calling to come to their aid.

When famine threatened to kill millions in the Netherlands during the Second World War, the U.S., Britain, Canada and the allies responded with life-saving food aid.

We should expect no less a response today to the famine threat. In Yemen, a civil war has caused extreme hunger in an already impoverished country. The fighting between a Saudi Arabia led coalition against the Houthi rebels has led to 85,000 children dying of hunger, according to Save the Children.

The UN World Food Program says Some 20 million people  70 per cent of the population  are so food insecure that they do know where their next meal is coming from. The international community must build peace and feed the hungry in Yemen.

While Yemen is the largest hunger emergency ongoing, there are others where help is urgently needed.

The civil war in Syria has left about 8-in-10 people living in poverty. The World Food Program (WFP) is needing funds for its massive relief operation there. Like Yemen, Syria has been on the brink of famine and needs a lasting peace.

South Sudan, also plagued by internal conflict, needs food and peace in the worst way. Seven million people there could face hunger this year. The WFP says, This includes some 30,000 people who are already experiencing extreme food insecurity (in catastrophe phase or IPC5, the highest level of food insecurity) in Jonglei and Lakes states, in eastern and central South Sudan.

WFP, Catholic Relief Services and other relief agencies need our support to feed South Sudans war victims. No peace process will succeed if people are starving.

In the Central African Republic food is vital to reinforcing peace efforts. For victims of Cyclone Idai in Southern Africa, our help will be crucial to recovering their lives and farmland.

While most of us are far away from these disasters, ways to help are always close at hand. Setting up fundraisers is of course one way and draws much attention to the plight of the hungry.

WFP, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, Mercy Corps and others depend on funding from governments and the public. With enough funding they can reach more people in Yemen and other hunger crisis areas.

School meals should be expanded to many more nations. Providing food at school fights hunger and promotes education. Catholic Relief Services is providing school meals in war-torn Mali.

Feeding the hungry must be a top priority and our calling inspired by Easter. Nothing is more important for world peace than ending hunger.

Now is our time for action.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program and Catholic Relief Services on the book Ending World Hunger.

Read more about:The trouble with a news cycle, is that its just that. A story hits the top of a newscast or the front page of a newspaper one day, and can be forgotten the next.

Thats troublesome enough when the public loses sight of an important issue because there are no new developments to report.

But its heart-rending when someones well-being or life is at stake.

That is something the families and friends of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor know all too well.

When Chinese authorities seized the two men on Dec. 10, in what was widely seen as a retaliation against Canada for the arrest in Vancouver of telecom executive Meng Wanzhou, it was news around the world.

Now, more than four long months later, their plight cannot be allowed to end up in the ether.

They must know they are not forgotten.

And it bears repeating, as often as it takes, that they should be immediately released.

Further, Canadas allies around the world should loudly demand it, too, lest their citizens be next on Chinas hit list.

The conditions that Meng, a top executive with Chinas Huawei telecom giant, and the two Canadians are held under are as far apart as the two countries approaches to human rights.

While Meng awaits a hearing on an extradition request from the United States, she is living in her Vancouver mansion and considering furthering her education at the nearby University of British Columbia.

Kovrig and Spavor, meanwhile, are being held in so-called black jails in isolation under 24-hour surveillance in cells that are lit around the clock, denied any access to the outdoors and repeatedly subjected to daylong interrogations.

And things could get worse before they get better.

Already China has upped the ante against the two men. Initially authorities accused Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat who was working for the International Crisis Group, and Spavor, an entrepreneur who promotes business and cultural ties between North Korea and the West, of endangering national security.

But after a Canadian court authorized an extradition hearing for Meng, China claimed that Kovrig, abetted by Spavor, had tried to spy on China and steal state secrets.

They arent the only Canadians feeling Chinas fury over Mengs arrest.

Robert Schellenberg was being held on a 15-year sentence for being an accessory to drug trafficking before the diplomatic row began. Soon after Mengs arrest prosecutors said his sentence was too lenient. After a one-day retrial he was sentenced to death.

And China has demonstrated on many other fronts  such as blocking billions in Canadian canola exports  that it will do anything to force Canadian authorities to release Meng, to the point of trying to intimidate even those who dare speak up on their behalf.

When Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland tried to drum up support from other countries for the release of Kovrig and Spavor, for example, China thundered its disapproval and demanded that she stop. (She did not.)

And when 143 scholars, foreign-policy experts and former diplomats released an open letter in January to Chinese President Xi Jinping calling for the release of the men, China accused the signatories of showing disrespect for Chinas judicial sovereignty, and insulted them.

In short, Canada is dealing with a bully that will not stop until all countries that believe in the rule of law show a strong united front and demand it.

First up should be the United States. While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did demand the immediate release of the Canadians, that is as far as this powerful nation has gone for its close ally.

Further, while support from the European Union and NATO and other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Spain and Denmark has been welcome, it has not been framed nearly urgently enough.

No country would want to see its innocent citizens treated as Kovrig and Spavor have been in this diplomatic dispute.

Its time to make some noise and demand their release.

Read more about:Why is Canadas gun lobby so powerful?, Opinion, April 18

Bob Hepburns recent piece does little to answer the question posed. Instead, it does more to demonstrate his disdain for Canadas millions of gun owners, whom he derides as gun lovers.

Hepburn posits that most Canadians are on the side of stiffer gun control and claims a well-funded lobby keeps Canadians free to own firearms. Perhaps he should investigate the report recently put out by Minister Bill Blair, which tells a much different story. Before taking his frustration out on the Canadians who would actually be affected by the policy he advocates for, Hepburn should perhaps familiarize himself with the subject.There were six women sitting at the table as first ministers when Ontario hosted the summer meeting of the Council of the Federation in 2013, steering the way forward on Canadas biggest immediate and long-term challenges.

Today, there are none.

The council of premiers back then took a collaborative approach to infrastructure investments, trade policy, skills training, strategy surrounding energy, affordable housing, health care and cyber bullying. At the time, between Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Nunavut, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Alberta, women first ministers led 87 per cent of Canadians.

Today, with not one woman at the table, Canadian premiers are working together to combat federal plans to address climate change with legal challenges and questionable, taxpayer funded marketing campaigns. And where infrastructure was once the priority, Ontario is working to slow down much needed community infrastructure projects that are led by the federal government.

The defeat of NDP leader Rachel Notley in the Alberta provincial election this past week  and the losses of her women colleagues who sat around the table in 2013  represents a stark shift in the landscape of leadership among first minister posts in Canada.

This is exactly what Kate Graham explores in the Canada 2020 podcast No Second Chances. Graham, a senior fellow with Canada 2020 uses her research background in Canadian politics, local government, urban politics and public policy to explore the circumstances surrounding women as they take on first minister leadership posts.

Graham notes, In 2019, why dont we see more women in Canadas most senior political roles? No Second Chances is an important opportunity to dig into this very question  starting with discussions with the few women who have been there. There is much we can learn about Canadian politics, and about us as Canadians, through this project  and it couldnt come at a more crucial time.

In total, 12 women from all sides of the political spectrum have served in the position of leader for a governing provincial, territorial, or federal political party in Canada. This list includes Rita Johnston, Nellie Cournoyea, Catherine Callbeck, Pat Duncan, Eva Aariak, Kathy Dunderdale, Christie Clark, Alison Redford, Pauline Marois, Kathleen Wynne, Rachel Notley and Kim Campbell.

The Canada 2020 podcast analyzes their experiences from multiple angles, including the unique challenges they faced in governing as women leaders, why they ran, the support they leaned on in the process, and even the family and community conditions that cultivated leadership skills in them from childhood.

The women will be coming together in person for the first time at an event in Ottawa on June 12.

The No Second Chances project is an important piece to the puzzle in understanding the challenges that have faced women in first minister roles and while seeking re-election, and yet there is still far to go in evaluating and breaking down the additional barriers in place that keep women from more diverse backgrounds from these leadership roles.

We can each take an active role in encouraging and supporting women in political leadership and building up new generations of young women leaders, who hopefully wont be limited in the same ways.

There is a speech delivered by television writer Shonda Rhimes at the Women in Entertainment breakfast in 2014 that captures what is gained when women blaze leadership trails:

Think of them. Heads up, eyes on the target. Running. Full speed. Gravity be damned. Towards that thick layer of glass that is the ceiling ... How many women had to hit that glass before the pressure of their effort caused it to evolve from a thick pane of glass into just a thin sheet of splintered ice? So that when it was my turn to run, it didnt even look like a ceiling anymore.

My sisters who went before me had already handled it. No cuts. No bruises. No bleeding. Making it through the glass ceiling to the other side was simply a matter of running on a path created by every other womans footprints.

Tiffany Gooch is a Toronto-based Liberal strategist at public affairs firms Enterprise and Ensight. She is a freelance contributor for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @goocht

Read more about:VANCOUVERMembers of B.C.s small Sri Lankan community are grieving and fearful about the fallout from a series of bombings that killed more than 200 across the South Asian island on Easter weekend.

Ayendri Ishani Riddell is one of the estimated 4,500 British Columbians born in Sri Lanka. She came to Canada as a toddler but has many relatives in the country and has spoken with them after news of the attacks, which struck churches celebrating Easter and hotels in several parts of the country.

I havent heard my cousin this scared before, I could just hear how agitated she was, the 32-year-old Vancouver resident told the Star on Sunday. Everyone is still at home under curfew, no one is leaving their homes but nobody wants to.

Theres so much trauma, its hard not to be so afraid when somethings so targeted at civilian communities all over the country.

Ishani Riddell spoke to the Star after calling one of her cousins in Colombo, the countrys capital, who told her she was attending Easter services at one of the churches spared from violence. Afterwards, however, shed planned to meet friends for the popular holiday brunch at the citys Shangri-La Hotel.

The hotels restaurant was one of the most prominent bombing targets, and according to media reports the suspect lined up in the crowded brunch buffet line before detonating explosives.

Read more:

The lower we got, the more blood we saw: Canadians react to Sri Lankan bombs

Sri Lankans in Alberta mourn Easter Sunday bombings

She was going to go there for Easter lunch after church, Ishani Riddell said. One of the other hotels bombed was one of the choices I looked at for my wedding.

These are the churches my dads and moms families went to. These are all places my family goes to and knows really well, and theyre part of the fabric of Sri Lanka.

By fabric she means that most people whove spent time in the country would likely consider the places attacked not just places for one religion but ones considered part of the countrys diverse heritage and also locations anyone might just stop to go for a coffee if you worked in Colombo.

This is one of the hardest things that has happened to the country for a really long time, she added.

According to the 2016 Census, more than 6,000 British Columbians identify their ancestry as Sri Lankan or one of the countrys ethnic communities. Nearly one-in-three of them live in Surrey, though Vancouvers community is just slightly smaller.

Theyre a small fraction of the more than 130,000 people born in Sri Lanka across Canada, three-quarters of them settled in the Greater Toronto area. But the tragedy hurts just as much on the West Coast for those with ties to Sri Lanka.

It seems like all of my friends, regardless of their ethnic or religious background, are checking to see if their family members are safe, Ishani Riddell said, noting that her family members are safe after the attacks.

According to Sri Lankas last census, conducted in 2011, 9.7 per cent of the countrys population is Muslim, while Christians make up 7.4 per cent of the island.

Members of both sides of her family are among that Christian minority. The country was embroiled in a decades-long civil war between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and the mostly Hindu Tamil minority in the countrys north and east; the bloody 25-year war displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and left at least 100,000 dead.

Ishani Riddell said although she grew up with continuous awareness of the war and its impacts, what happened Easter weekend felt different in its suddenness, scale and targets across the country.

Although next month marks 10 years since the war ended, the country remains on tenterhooks; Ishani Riddell said many are fearful of any reprisals and careful not to scapegoat any community.

So many people are grieving, and everyone I talk to seems cautious and avoiding sensationalism, she said, because they all still carry the memories of the war.

Especially since there has been mounting Islamophobia within Sri Lanka, and globally, we all know that sensationalist accusations could easily lead to the further targeting of the Muslim community  and further violence.

The Sri Lankan government reportedly blocked some access to social media, with the stated purpose of containing the spread of misinformation, although Ishani Riddell said she was able to reach relatives using Facebook and WhatsApp on both Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Canadas department of Global Affairs says it has no reports of any Canadians caught in the blasts so far. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement condemning the attacks and declaring that he was shocked and saddened to hear of the devastating terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka and that places of worship are sacred, where all should feel safe and secure.

Global Affairs now urges Canadian would-be travellers to Sri Lanka to exercise a high degree of caution in Sri Lanka due to the security situation.

With files from Tom Yun, Evelyn Kwong and Raju Mudha, Toronto Star

Read more about:

remaining of

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.The Jacksonville District 117 school board will likely continue discussing the possibility of moving up the date children will be excluded from school if they do not have a measles vaccination.

The board took up the issue last month after Dale Bainter, the executive director of the Morgan County Health Department, expressed concerns over the growing number of measles cases in Illinois and across the country.

More than 500 cases of measles have been reported in the U.S. so far in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bainter said children often do not receive their measles vaccinations until they reach kindergarten, resulting in a high risk of exposure during the first several months of school.

Currently, the exclusion date set by the state is in mid-October, giving parents roughly two months into the school year to get their children vaccinated before they would have to be removed from school.

Ptacek said he is looking into changing the districts exclusion date only for the measles vaccination.

Springfield moved to an earlier exclusion date and they took a lot of heat for it, Ptacek said. There are a lot of people that think it is just an overreaction.

In order to address the concern for measles, Ptacek said the district could draft a policy that students must have their measles vaccinations prior to the start of school, while keeping the other exclusion dates in line with state requirements.

Board President Noel Beard said the measles discussion is not on the April agenda, but said it something they will continue to talk about.

Its not something that we have to get done today, but well continue discussion on it, Beard said.

If the board decides to move forward with a policy, it would be drafted and reviewed before being voted on by the board.

Unvaccinated students who are exposed to a case of the measles must be taken out of school for up to three weeks, Bainter said. When a kindergarten class isnt vaccinated until October, he said the risks are high to have a full class of students that not only could contract the measles, but could also miss school for several weeks.

Unlike other viruses, Bainter said measles cannot be vaccinated after exposure.

With the mumps vaccines, we can give a child the vaccine after theyve been exposed and they can return to school, Bainter said. We cant retroactively vaccinate for measles because it is spread through the air. Theyd have to go the entire exclusion period.

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.State data show that measles vaccination rates in west central Illinois school children have remained high in recent years as outbreaks of the virus continue to occur in other parts of the U.S. and around the world.

The World Health Organization this week released preliminary data showing that the global number of measles cases has continued to rise in the first three months of 2019. In the U.S., where the disease was declared to be eliminated in 2000, there have been 555 cases of measles reported so far this year  compared to 372 for all of 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Immunization rates for measles in west central Illinois schools have remained high, according to Illinois State Board of Education data for the 2017-2018 school year.

Western and Scott-Morgan school districts had 100% protection rates at all schools  meaning every student had the vaccination.

Among the schools with the lowest vaccination rates in the area was Beardstown Christian Academy with 94.07% protection rate for measles. The school reported seven children with religious objections accepted by the state were not vaccinated.

Other schools in the area were above the 95% vaccination rate Dr. Jennifer Layden, chief medical officer for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said is recommended to prevent the spread of the disease.

Statewide, the protection rate for measles was 98.22% for the 2.2 million children enrolled in pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade, according to the data.

Illinois students are required to show proof of vaccination or vaccination schedule, or file proof that they have an allowable objection, by mid-October. Medical objections and religious objections can be used to exempt some students, but documentation is required.

Layden said, overall, the state hasnt seen a major change in vaccination rates, but other states have identified communities with low vaccination rates where outbreaks of measles are occurring. In a Washington county hard-hit by measles, the vaccination rate for kindergarten students in the 2017-2018 school year was just 76.5%, according to a Kaiser Health News report.

However, with measles what sometimes happens, Layden said, its a very contagious disease and so if there are pockets or clusters of individuals that are unvaccinated, that raises the possibility that measles could be introduced into that community. So, while overall we dont see this decline in the percent of children, at least, who are unvaccinated, we do worry and were looking to identify if there are potentially smaller pockets of populations that may be unvaccinated.

Hitting certain immunization levels  which vary depending on how contagious the disease is  isnt just a benchmark for officials. High immunization levels give a community herd immunity, protecting those who are vulnerable by making it difficult for the disease to get a foothold in the population.

Though the best protection for an individual is to be vaccinated, Layden said, young children and some people for medical reasons cant be vaccinated.

If the herd immunity is high enough and the disease cant enter a population because there are just not enough people who are susceptible, were also protecting those who are vulnerable and unvaccinated, Layden said.

Illinois is one of 20 states that have reported measles cases this year, according to the CDC.

Seven measles cases have been reported in 2019 so far and five were reported in 2018, according to the department of public health. In January and February, there was a cluster of cases in the Champaign area and an isolated case in Chicago.

Outbreaks  areas with three or more cases  are ongoing in New York state, New York City, Washington state, New Jersey, Michigan and Butte County, California, according to CDC numbers this week.

Just four months into the year, 2019 already has the second-greatest number of measles cases since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. In 2014, there were 667 measles cases.

Ongoing U.S. outbreaks have been linked to people traveling abroad, according to the CDC.

The WHO, which has been conducting emergency vaccination campaigns around the world, is reporting measles outbreaks in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Myanmar, Philippines, Sudan, Thailand and Ukraine.

All regions of the world, including countries with high vaccination rates, have experienced increases in the number of measles cases for two consecutive years, according to the WHO.

Measles, one of the most contagious diseases, was responsible for nearly 110,000 deaths in 2017, according to the organization. In as many as 25% of cases, complications can lead to hospitalization and permanent disability.

Symptoms are seen about 10-12 days after exposure and can include fever, runny nose, bloodshot eyes, white spots in the mouth and a rash that starts on the face and upper neck.

The disease is prevented with a vaccine that was developed and licensed in the U.S. in 1963, according to the CDC. Its often combined with mumps and rubella vaccines  MMR  and also varicella  MMR-V.

Despite the fact that studies have consistently shown that vaccinations are safe and effective, Layden said misinformation about vaccines persists. She said its a complex issue.

Vaccine hesitancy has actually been identified by the World Health Organization as one of the top 10 global threats, Layden said. So, it is something that we are concerned about in public health and medicine.

In an op-ed this week, Tom Hughes, executive director of the Illinois Public Heath Association, said his organization would be requesting $3 million to support childhood immunization and is proposing to develop a statewide campaign against misinformation about vaccines.

IPHA would work with the local health departments, the Illinois State Board of Education, and providers to develop a full statewide campaign to combat misinformation and protect the health of Illinois children and get children in school and immunized, he wrote.LONDON - The Sri Lankan government blocked access to social media platforms on Sunday in the wake of explosions that killed more than 200 people on the holiest day of the Christian calendar. The blasts, which targeted churches during Easter Sunday services and luxury hotels, also prompted the government to impose an immediate nationwide curfew.

Officials said they ordered the social media blackout in an attempt to stop the viral spread of misinformation about the attacks online, a digital scourge that typically follows international news events and one that major tech giants long have struggled to curtail. Already, researchers said they had seen a spike in false reports about the perpetrators and the number of victims in Sri Lanka, a country where regulators previously have accused sites, including Facebook, of serving as conduits for hate speech and worsening ethnic tensions.

But the temporary blockade on social media also sparked fresh concerns in the eyes of local residents and international observers that it would become harder for Sri Lankans to obtain accurate, timely information or communicate with loved ones, including those overseas.

"If I don't reply to your messages it is because WhatsApp and Facebook appears to have been shutdown in Sri Lanka," Colombo resident Roshni Fernando wrote on Twitter. Talking to The Washington Post, Fernando said she grew up in London but recently moved to the Sri Lanka capital, one of the cities targeted in the attacks.

"People can now only communicate through SMS here, or Twitter I guess," said Fernando, explaining she was also unable to access YouTube and Instagram.

"I'm hearing reports that they've shut down Facebook and WhatsApp so that makes sense as I have had friends in London trying to contact me through both and I can't see them or message anybody on either Facebook or WhatsApp."

Announcing the move, Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry said Sunday that the "government has taken steps to temporarily block all the social media avenues until the investigations are concluded." One report from a state-run news service said "false news reports were spreading through social media" and the "blockage would be effective until investigations were concluded."

In a statement, Facebook said Sunday it is "working to support first responders and law enforcement as well as to identify and remove content which violates our standards," adding it is "committed to maintaining our services and helping the community and the country during this tragic time."

Representatives for Google-owned YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.

Viber, a popular messaging app in Sri Lanka, did not comment on the block, but the platform tweeted soon after the attacks, offering support and encouraging users to "be responsible and rely on updates from official and trusted sources."

NetBlocks, a London-based digital rights organization, said its data show each of those services had been affected. Alp Toker, its executive director, said he believed the Sri Lankan government had ordered local internet providers to implement the blackout. The providers interpreted the order differently, explaining why some social-networking services still seemed to be operable for some users, he added.

Sanjana Hattotuwa, a senior researcher at Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo who is monitoring social media for fake news, misinformation and incitement of hate or violence, said he had seen a significant uptick in false reports.

He said there is a significant amount of misinformation on the toll. Unverified information on perpetrators was spreading rapidly on Facebook and Twitter. He cited two instances of widely shared unverified information: One was an Indian media report attributing the attack to Muslim suicide bombers, and the other was a tweet from a Sri Lankan minister about an intelligence report warning of an attack.

Hattotuwa has asked users to flag such content directly to him. "There are new Twitter accounts popping up putting out unverified information. There are Facebook posts which violate the guidelines through either intent or are graphic in nature," he said. Hattotuwa is sharing the information with Facebook and Twitter, which he said are on "high alert."

Internet shutdowns aren't new to South Asia, which witnessed the highest number of shutdowns globally in 2018, according to a press freedom report by the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists. India topped the list, with 82 such instances, while Sri Lanka had one. The report said authorities justified most of these shutdowns by citing "law and order" imperatives, saying the measures were intended to preempt violence or were undertaken in response to it. There was, however, no "substantive" evidence to show that shutdowns can "scale down violence," the report said.

Around the world, though, governments have expressed deep unease with the spread of misinformation and violent acts on social media, particularly during major tragedies. Facebook and YouTube, for example, struggled to remove graphic video from the deadly attack on two mosques in New Zealand last month. In response, the government there proposed new rules that would compel companies to take down such content faster or face penalties, an idea that European regulators also have considered in recent weeks.

Before Sunday, Sri Lanka's government shut down access to social media platforms in March 2018 out of concerns that sites, including Facebook, had helped foment deadly ethic unrest in the deeply divided country. Anti-Muslim riots at the time left three dead and prompted leaders to declare a state of emergency.

In the aftermath, officials specifically identified Facebook and Facebook-owned WhatsApp as having "been used to destroy families, lives and private property." And they accused the tech giant of failing to act swiftly and aggressively enough to take down content that had been deemed a national security risk.

But Hattotuwa said Sri Lanka's action in 2018 yielded mixed results because it was undertaken too late, after the violence had already broken out.

"While a ban on social media helps to contain the spread of rumors, it also hampers efforts by journalists to push back on them," he said.Washington

President Donald Trump loves to recount how his 2016 campaign defied expectations to pierce the vaunted Democratic "blue wall." For 2020, he's looking to do one better.

As his re-election campaign kicks into high gear, it's exploring opportunities to contest states he lost in 2016, aiming to keep divided Democrats on the defensive.

Trump on Monday visits Minnesota, where he lost to Hillary Clinton by fewer than 45,000 votes in 2016. The campaign also is targeting New Mexico, Nevada, and New Hampshire, all states where Trump fell short by under 100,000 votes.

The visit to Minnesota is meant to highlight the effect of Trump's signature accomplishment, the 2017 tax overhaul, in a historically Democratic-leaning state that appears to offering Republicans hope.

"We see trends in the state that we like," said senior campaign adviser Bill Stepien. "We like what we see on the ground. We like the energy we're seeing."

Over the past several presidential elections Minnesota has grown increasingly competitive, particularly as Trump's rise coincided with a realignment of many white working class voters to the GOP. And in an otherwise bleak 2018 for the GOP, Trump helped flip two congressional seats to Republicans.

With record fundraising for this stage in a presidential cycle, both the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee are unrestrained financially, allowing them to make riskier investments in states won by Clinton. All the target states, except for Nevada, also have Senate races in 2020, a factor that the party believes will provide extra return.

Any early spending could pay dividends for the GOP in 2020, even if those efforts aren't successful, forcing Democrats opponents to expend resources later in the campaign cycle to defend what should be safer Democratic states.

The Minnesota visit marks Trump's third to the state since taking office. His first two were political trips to help put two Republican congressional candidates over the top in 2018.

The focus on Minnesota and Trump's other near-misses come as there is mounting concern within the Democratic Party that its heavily contested primary is providing Trump with an opportunity to reinforce his political position with little in the way of organized opposition.

"Trump and the RNC are hell-bent on expanding on the list of states Trump won in 2016 by targeting states like Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Nevada, and they're counting on early money to build a formidable ground game to make it happen," said a recent Democratic National Committee fundraising email.

Stephen Stepanek, chair of the New Hampshire GOP, silenced the room at the party's recent fundraiser, keynoted by the president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump, when he said the Democrats have "out-organized us. Outraised us. And quite frankly, we have to do a better job. We are in a war right now," he said.

Trump lost the state by fewer than 3,000 votes and the GOP recently placed five staffers in the state.

To date, early Democratic investments have been focused on shoring up the "blue wall" of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Until 2016, they had been solidly Democratic for two decades. All three states saw Democratic gains in 2018 that the party believes indicate they are ripe for returning to the fold in 2020.

The Trump campaign is also eyeing the fallout of a political scandal among Democratic leaders in Virginia to determine whether there's an opening. But it acknowledges that the heavy concentration of federal workers in the northern part of the state makes it a challenge.

The Democratic super PAC Priorities USA has announced a $100 million campaign in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, all states that Trump carried. Its publicly announced "phase two" plans include a focus on Trump's narrow-loss states of Nevada and New Hampshire.

Trump's team still believes his likeliest path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency means re-running the 2016 map. But it is exploring other permutations.

"We're casting a wide net and looking for opportunities to grow the map," said Stepien.NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Over the past few years, Yale University has seen more than its fair share of student activism. In 2015, protests over issues of race and discrimination rocked the campus for weeks. After President Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017, more than 1,000 students rallied in opposition to the administration's immigration policies. And over the past week, students have protested the shooting of an unarmed black woman by local police.

But another recent cause celebre in New Haven was notably geekier: Save the books.

At a forum in January, Yale's top librarian outlined a seemingly uncontroversial proposal: to relocate tens of thousands of books from the heart of the undergraduate library to make space for additional seating. The librarian, Susan Gibbons, argued that declining circulation and the recent increase in the size of the student body justified the plan, which would reduce the print holdings in Bass Library from 150,000 books to 40,000.

The proposal prompted an angry response from students, who framed the move as an assault on "book culture" that would make it harder to browse research materials. Others worried about having to find other study spaces with the library closed for renovations during the fall 2019 semester.

Nearly 1,000 students signed up on social media to participate in a "browse-in," vowing to check out everything from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" to Dr. Seuss's "The Sneetches" to show university administrators that millennials still value the printed word. "Join La Resistance," one student exhorted his peers on Facebook.

In response to the uproar, Gibbons in February announced an updated renovation plan under which the library would keep 61,000 print volumes rather than 40,000. A new timeline for the project guaranteed the library would reopen before the start of the fall semester. Gibbons also circulated an Excel spreadsheet for students and professors to use to indicate which volumes they want to keep in the library.

The generational debate between book lovers and screen lovers is hardly new. Across the country, young people have been at the forefront of a national shift from books to digital alternatives, as aging bibliophiles have bemoaned the disappearance of the printed word. At Yale, the tables turned: Administrators were the ones pushing to trade book stacks for couches, while students came to the defense of traditional libraries.

"It's astonishing to me how many people care about using books in the shelves," said Leland Stange, a senior humanities major from Oklahoma who spearheaded the student movement. "I've been personally approached by dozens of students who give these wonderful personal stories about how important it is to them to have physical space for browsing."

Under Gibbons's plan, the books in Bass - some of which are duplicates or have not been checked out in years - would move to the upper floors of the nearby Sterling Memorial Library, where they would remain accessible to students. Undergraduates interviewed, however, said poor lighting makes browsing the Sterling shelves difficult and that the densely packed stacks can intimidate underclassmen who have never embarked on a major research project.

The book transfer also would displace tens of thousands of books in Sterling, including a set of volumes that contains historic gems such as a collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays annotated by Benjamin Silliman, one of the first American science professors and the namesake of an undergraduate residence across the street from Bass Library. Many of those books would go to an off-campus storage facility. Though students can request books kept there (typically with no more than a day's wait), they cannot browse them.

Stange, who worked in public libraries while growing up in Tulsa, wrote an op-ed in the Yale Daily News in February excoriating the proposed book reduction, which he argued would "legitimize an anti-book culture within University life." A self-described "Luddite," Stange had to be persuaded to allow students to sign an online version of a petition criticizing the proposal, rather than require handwritten signatures on paper.

His movement quickly garnered support among a large swath of Yale's undergraduates, from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors who hardly ever check out books to budding historians who frequent the library stacks.

"The potential that libraries represent for students is the ability to go to a random shelf, pick up a random book and realize that there's this whole new world that exists," said Felipe Pires, a junior from Brazil majoring in computer science. "That's not how the web works - that's not how hyperlinks work."

As a sophomore, Jackson Leipzig, a history and philosophy major from Beverly Hills, Calif., browsed the library stacks while researching a paper on plant and flower motifs in Sandro Botticelli's paintings. Leipzig's professor, Timothy Barringer, required every student in his art-history survey course to use print sources exclusively for their final papers.

"It might seem like the default is to first go online and see what's available on the given topic you're trying to study," said Leipzig, now a senior. "But at least for me, that experience definitely indicated that there's all sorts of scholarly questions that come to the front of your mind when you're really engaging with the library as a physical space that holds physical books."

Leslie Brisman, a longtime English professor who criticized the relocation plan in a Yale Daily News op-ed, said Yale faculty ought to reconsider the somewhat outdated offerings in Bass Library, whose collection originally was designed to present a carefully curated selection of academic materials for undergraduates to peruse. That process should not entail eliminating large numbers of books from the library, he said.

In response to criticism of her proposal, Gibbons, the university librarian, stressed that a love of books will remain central to the library's culture.

"We are balancing two important competing needs: ample study space for a growing student body and a vital, engaging print collection immediately located in that space," she said. "We are using this opportunity to reevaluate and renew the collection, and I am optimistic that the post-renovation collection will be stronger and more relevant to the undergraduate curriculum than the current, larger collection."

According to Julie Todaro, dean of library services at Austin Community College and a former president of the American Library Association, Yale's renovation plan fits into a broader trend. Throughout the country, Todaro said, librarians are grappling with how to preserve book culture while ensuring that knowledge - whether in print or digital form - is widely accessible.

"Our profession is built on expertise of knowing where's the best place to put (information) given limited resources and limited space," she said.

One dilemma confronting just about every library, she added, is the question of seats versus stacks. Todaro said Yale has done an admirable job negotiating that balance. Stange, meanwhile, said he still believes Yale should keep more books in Bass Library.

"Reading printed material creates a deeper level of engagement with a subject than any screen can ever produce," Stange said. "The deep focus that comes with that should be a hallmark of the university, especially at a place like Yale."Job Title: Sales

Representative (Cleaning Company)

Organization:

IMK Business Consultants (IMK)

Duty Station: Kampala,

Uganda

About US:

IMK Business

Consultants (IMK) is a Business management consulting firm offering practical

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Job Summary: The Sales Representative will be responsible

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Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

One year of sales experience is required

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B2B (door to door) Cold Calling Experience Required

Business Lead Generation Experience

Demonstrated Experience Meeting Monthly Targets

Must be a Self-Starter with the demonstrated ability to CLOSE

Excellent verbal and written communication skills a MUST

Driven, Honest, Reliable, and Team-Orientated



and achieving B2B sales. You are energetic, professional and comfortable going door to doorand achieving B2B sales.



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is expected to grow by the billions of shillings over the next five to ten

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How to Apply:

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latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or

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WADE HUSING, Chariho, Wrestling, Junior; Husing, finished unbeaten in the South County Invitational and placed first at 120 pounds. Three of Husings wins were pins. Chariho finished second as a team.

DANTE WILK, Westerly, Boys Basketball, Senior; Wilk, scored 23 points and had eight assists as Westerly opened the season with a victory over longtime rival Chariho. Wilk also contributed five rebounds.

Vote

View ResultsThe company that provides McDonalds with its burger buns is weighing up a sale of its UK logistics operation.

City sources said Irish-Swiss food giant Aryzta was talking to potential buyers.

KPMG is understood to be advising Aryzta on a sale, which could value the unit at 10million to 20million.

Aryzta provides McDonalds with its burger buns

Aryzta Food Solutions UK is behind muffin and cookie brand Otis Spunkmeyer, high-end frozen patisserie brand Coup de Pates and French baked goods brand Cuisine de France.

Aryzta, which calls itself the largest frozen bakery company in the world, was founded in 1897 as the Irish Co-operative Agricultural Agency Society. It merged with Hiestand in 2008.

Aryzta said only: 'Cuisine de France is not for sale.'Details of a spectacular business failure suffered by the corporate raider targeting Barclays Bank can be revealed by The Mail on Sunday today.

Edward Bramson, the London-born activist investor who is trying to force his way on to the board of Barclays, has repeatedly emphasised his many successes in letters to shareholders ahead of a vote on May 2 that could give him a seat at the bank's top table.

The multi-millionaire, who owns luxury homes in New York and Connecticut, has touted his ability to deliver 'significant gains in operating performance and shareholder value'.

Corporate raider: Edward Bramson wants a seat on the board

He says Barclays would thrive if it drastically scaled back its investment banking arm  something which chief executive Jes Staley has refused to permit.

But Bramson, 68, has been much less keen to talk about his 20-year stint presiding over a major business worth hundreds of millions when he joined, but which filed for bankruptcy just months after he quit.

The details of his central role at Californian electronics giant Ampex, which went under in 2008, are bound to interest shareholders.

Bramson is likely to argue that he is seeking a different type of role at Barclays  which has 30,000 UK staff  than he held at Ampex. But if he wins, the information could interest regulators assessing his suitability for a directorship.

Bramson, who grew up in England before moving to New York in 1975, bought Ampex in a private equity deal through his firm Sherborne & Company in 1987 for $479million, when it had revenues of $522million.

But the firm swung from a profit of $23million to an $8million loss within two years, its income had halved to $238million within five, and by 1992 its workforce had been slashed from 6,700 to 3,000.

The upheaval prompted the loss of three chief executives and 38 senior managers in four years.

Bramson took on the chief executive role in 1991 but disgruntled employees posted criticisms of his leadership online, sparking bitter court battles as Bramson sued for libel.

Bramson wants Barclays to scale back its investment banking arm but boss Jes Staley does't

When Apex floated in 1992 it was valued at $102million  a fifth of the value when Bramson's company purchased it  and by 2007 it was worth just $7million.

Bramson stepped down as chief executive that year and the company buckled in early 2008 when it could no longer meet its pension contributions.

Paul Mumford, fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management, said: 'Of course investors should know about this sort of thing. Everyone has their successes and failures and if you do have a failure it can be more important than some of the successes.'

Mumford also criticised the way Ampex laid off staff extremely rapidly. 'If you cut costs and fire people left, right and centre, and create an unhappy atmosphere, then that business isn't going to grow,' he said. 'If he did similar at Barclays, he'd get a lot of disruption.'

To his credit, Bramson has enjoyed numerous successes as an activist investor, turning around companies such as merchandise specialist 4imprint, chemicals firm Elementis and telecoms company Spirent Communications. He delivered share price returns to investors of 138 per cent, 144 per cent and 96 per cent respectively.

In his most recent letter to Barclays' shareholders, Bramson said: 'Our public investment record shows that we have consistently assisted boards, that were initially reluctant, to deliver major increases in value for all of the shareholders.'

Former business associates said Bramson, who is thought to favour deep cuts at Barclays, often keeps details of his plans private.

Keith Hopkins, former chairman at Elementis, said: 'He didn't put forward any particular strategy. It would seem his modus operandi is just to choose companies that haven't been performing very well, get a seat on the board and decide what to do later.'

Barclays has said Bramson has refused to set out details of his plans in meetings with the bank.

Barclays has said Bramson has refused to set out details of his plans in meetings with the bank

One chairman ousted by Bramson said dealing with Bramson was like 'grappling with a sponge'. He said: 'It's a one-way street with him. Even when I was deposed and he took over as chairman he didn't tell the board what he planned to do. I think he likes to promote a certain mystique.'

Bramson has a 5.51 per cent stake in Barclays, which he bought through his fund Sherborne Investors after raising about 700million from institutional investors in 2017.

When he sought funding, Bramson pointed to the healthy returns he delivered at 4imprint, Elementis, Spirent Communications and F&C Asset Management  but did not outline Ampex's performance.

Jupiter Asset Management has backed Bramson, who is thought to have the support of about 15 per cent of Barclays shareholders. This would fall well short of the 50 per cent he needs to win a seat, but would represent a significant revolt against management.

However, shareholder advisory firms Glass Lewis and ISS have both recommended that investors vote against Bramson's proposals. They said the share price of Barclays is down 25 per cent in the past year but Bramson has not put forward a compelling case for a seat on the board.

Mumford added: 'I'd send him away with a flea in his ear. You don't like pirates on board at the best of times.'

A spokesman for Bramson declined to comment.A Russian fugitive allegedly used the proceeds of a major bank fraud to buy a London townhouse.

Georgy Bedzhamov bought the property in Belgrave Square in 2015 for 15.2million via a loan from a shell company based in the British Virgin Islands.

The empty property, now said to be worth 45million, and others in Israel and France, could be seized as part of a 1.34billion asset freeze ordered by the High Court in London.

Empty: Belgravia bolthole, which Bedzhamov bought tin 2015 for 15.2million

Investigators claim Bedzhamov used money siphoned from Russian bank Vneshprombank, which collapsed in 2016 with a 2.5billion black hole.

He fled to Monaco but was spared extradition following an intervention by the principality's Prince Albert.

Bedzhamov's sister, Larisa Markus, was the bank's chief executive and jailed for nine years in Russia over loans to 286 shell companies which were never returned.

Andrei Elinson  of recovery experts A1, which has been hired by Moscow to locate the assets  said: 'We see London as the primary location where wealthy Russians enjoy and hide their valuable assets.'

Bedzhamov could not be reached for comment.NCI Building Systems, Inc. designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets metal products for the nonresidential construction industry in North America. It operates in four segments: Engineered Building Systems, Metal Components, Insulated Metal Panels, and Metal Coil Coating. The Engineered Building Systems segment offers engineered structural members and panels; and self-storage building systems under the Metallic, Mid-West Steel, A & S, All American, Mesco, Star, Ceco, Robertson, Garco, Heritage, and SteelBuilding.com brands to builders, general contractors, developers, and end users directly, as well as through private label companies. The Metal Components segment provides metal roof and wall systems, metal partitions, metal trims, doors, and other related accessories for use in new construction, and repair and retrofit applications; roll-up doors; and interior and exterior walk doors under the MBCI, American Building Components, Eco-ficient, Metal Depots, and Doors and Buildings Components brands to manufacturers, contractors, subcontractors, distributors, lumberyards, cooperative buying groups, and other customers. The Insulated Metal Panels segment offers insulated metal panels for architectural, commercial, industrial, and cold storage end-market applications under the Metl-Span and CENTRIA brands. The Metal Coil Coating segment engages in cleaning, treating, and painting flat-rolled metals in coil form, as well as in slitting and/or embossing the metal, before the metal is fabricated for use by industrial users. It also cleans, treats, and coats heavy and light gauge metal coils for use in construction products, heating and air conditioning systems, water heaters, lighting fixtures, ceiling grids, office furniture, appliances, and other products; and provides toll coating and painted metal package services under the Metal Coaters and Metal Prep brands. NCI Building Systems, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreTwo Harbors Investment pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 11.66%. TWO has a dividend yield higher than 75% of all dividend-paying stocks, making it a leading dividend payer. Two Harbors Investment has been increasing its dividend for 2 consecutive year(s), indicating that it does not yet have a strong track record of dividend growth. The dividend payout ratio of Two Harbors Investment is 61.26%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on EPS estimates, Two Harbors Investment will have a dividend payout ratio of 83.95% in the coming year. This indicates that Two Harbors Investment may not be able to sustain their current dividend.

View Two Harbors Investment's dividend history.There's something intriguing about the type of vacationer that travels to their destination in a recreational vehicle. Or better yet, a person who uses a camper or RV as the destination in itself  a place equipped with all the necessary fixings for rest, relaxation and then some.

Today, the RV industry is experiencing a wave of technological advancement that gives modern-day campers the comfort of a secure Wi-Fi connection without losing the charm that comes from a small(ish) space that serves as a home away from home.

"Technology is really important to people," says Dave Bulmer, RV outfitter at Alpin Haus. "They want to stay in touch while they're away, but also want to enjoy TV or music on a rainy day."

Even base model campers and RVs come with technology that makes them more efficient and eco-friendly, like LED light bulbs, which use less battery power and give off less heat, Bulmer says. And for those who want to interact with their camper without lifting more than a finger, smartphone apps allow for the opening or closing of an awning with a simple swipe or tap.

"Our camper is equipped with everything we need to make our camping experience not like camping at all," says Cheryl Caza of Ballston Spa. Her main living space includes a flat screen TV and electric fireplace  and has a kitchen of a similar caliber to what you'd find at home  with a center island, a gas stove, oven, sink, refrigerator, microwave and abounding cabinetry.

But for Caza, technology isn't the only thing that makes camping an ideal getaway. Caza and her husband are avid motorcyclists, which is apparent with her camper's "garage" attachment on the back, which acts as a space to secure their motorcycles while traveling, and as an additional living space and half bathroom when they stay put for a few days at a time.

Caza has also customized her space with a towel bar in the bathroom made from motorcycle handlebars, along with Harley Davidson-themed decorations in the garage. They take about nine trips a year across the country, mostly for four nights at a time, with a couple of weeklong vacations booked for the upcoming season, which for the Cazas, runs from May to October.

"My husband once joked that we have traveled all over, but our accommodations are always the same," says Caza. "I love that we are self-sufficient. No need to worry if the hotel is going to be clean or if they have enough towels."

While the majority of the camper remains unchanged from the way it was purchased, Caza appreciates the level of comfort inside just as much as the ability to personalize it through design and making the best use of the space for their unique, motorcycle-focused vacations.

And while many baby boomers are traveling cross-country in a luxury RV with tech upgrades and their own personal style mixed in, there's another generation of RVers out there investing in their own on-the-go type spaces for mixed use  millennials and young entrepreneurs who love the idea of a mobile business and the ability to get up and go wherever, whenever.

"We truly believe this industry is in a strong position for the next many years," says Bulmer. "We're seeing multigenerational types of buyers, from older, more established people to a younger generation who wants to be mobile and get into RVing while they're young."

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Nina Young, owner of Rose & Dale Photo Co., purchased a 1963 Airstream from a Hollywood celebrity in an effort to combine her love for the unique space with her dream to become a local business owner upstate. Now she operates a mobile photo booth that travels wherever the company takes her.

Young curates a look within her Airstream that captures her upbeat, vibrant vibe as well as the vision of the clients she works with. The custom design and decorations are constantly changing with every type of event her Airstream plays a part in.

"One of my favorite things to do is to style and stage interiors," says Young. "I spend so much time considering and creating the atmosphere inside the Airstream, and I absolutely love being in there."

While Rose & Dale Photo Co. is primarily used as a photo booth for weddings and private events, Young sees the opportunities inside of it as endless thanks to the beautiful, empty canvas inside when all of her staged setups are removed.

"There isn't anything in that space that I don't completely love," says Young. "I play music and light candles, hang art and have lots of plants, I use color and textiles that are interesting and fun, all in hopes that the set up brings joy to everyone else that steps foot into the space."

Taylor Rao is a frequent contributor to the Times Union. Reach her at taylorrao@gmail.com or @whodatgirl_2bd.AMSTERDAM  It was the cracked windshield that first caught Detective Sgt. Sal Megna's attention.

Then the Corona beer bottle tipped to the lips of the driver of the white work van on Route 5S. When Megna realized the van fit the description of an incident three days before when two individuals fled from police, the 17-year police veteran called for backup.

The van didn't stop. When the pursuit reached the highway, it took three unmarked police cars with lights on to box the vehicle in. It came to a slow stop, and the passenger door slid open. In the back were 17 men and more beer bottles, the police report said.

When Megna asked the driver for a license, he was handed one for an elderly white man from North Carolina. The man behind the wheel was much younger and Hispanic.

What Megna asked next goes to the heart of a debate between some law enforcement agencies and immigration attorneys: "Does anyone have ID?"

Megna remembers the passengers responding one by one: "No  I'm illegal."

He called the Latham office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which arrived on the scene to arrest 17 of the men from Mexico and Honduras, ranging in age from 19 to 58.

Megna said he doesn't do ICE's job, but supports them like any other law enforcement agency  and added that in this traffic stop last August, he assisted in arresting people who had stolen identities.

"To me, illegal immigration is a problem, and if I come across it on my job I will make that phone call to ICE," he said. "Am I going to go out there and find illegals out of the blue? No. If I come across them in a traffic stop, will I take that extra step? Yes."

Police reports show stops led to at least two dozen arrests in two years

Amsterdam police are not alone in their practices. Over the past six months, the Times Union requested all traffic stop incident reports that resulted in calls to ICE from 14 local law enforcement agencies, including eight county sheriff's offices and six municipal police departments, from November 2016 to February 2019.

Half responded they had no records of incidents calling ICE. Half did.

The most were in Amsterdam and Saratoga counties, with five each over the past two years. Others were scattered in Schenectady County, Columbia County, Troy and Schenectady.

There could be more: an immigration attorney reported two incidents in Albany last year and an advocate shared the story of another in Rensselaer County early this year that couldn't be confirmed through police reports.

Debate over police calling ICE has heated up under President Donald J. Trump. Megna said Amsterdam police policy hasn't changed under the Trump presidency  but ICE enforcement has increased, statistics show.

A fellow detective, Joseph Spencer, said that while some undocumented people stopped by police are decent people just trying to get by, others  like a drug dealer with an expired passport  have committed crimes.

Amsterdam Police Chief Greg Culick said his officers are sworn to uphold the law, whether they like it or not.

"In Amsterdam we don't make it a point to go out and look for people," Culick said. " ... But if the law is violated, we do what we're doing."

In New York state, a 2017 executive order issued by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo prohibits state agencies, including troopers, from asking about immigration status  but that doesn't cover local law enforcement. Bills have been introduced this year in the state Legislature to give undocumented immigrants the chance to get driver's licenses and prohibit police from asking about immigration status.

State and federal court decisions prohibit police from making a stop based on race or suspected immigration status. Police can only pull over cars for traffic-related offenses  in reports obtained by the Times Union the reasons ranged from speeding to going too slow, running a red light to failing to stop, erratic driving to drinking.

"Everything starts out with probable cause," Megna said. "We don't say we're going to do immigration work and find illegals. We're coming across individuals in the course of regular duty. For every one illegal there are probably 40, 50, 60 car stops, you'll not find an illegal."

Court decisions also forbid police from prolonging a traffic stop to ask about immigration status and from holding someone longer after a traffic stop so that ICE can arrest them unless officers suspect criminal activity. Spencer said ICE officers usually take 30 minutes to arrive in Amsterdam from their Latham office.

Police can request, but not demand, documentation from passengers if they suspect a crime  but that doesn't extend to suspicion of a civil immigration violation, including undocumented status. But in one case in Saratoga County, neither the police report nor the sheriff's spokesman, Capt. Dan Morley, identified the probable cause for the stop. In two others, Morley did not clarify what the suspected crime was that caused deputies to ask passengers for ID and inquire about immigration status.

While local law enforcement officers interviewed consider it a part of their job to work with ICE and uphold immigration law, immigrant advocates disagreed: They said the practice goes beyond police duties and breaks down trust with the undocumented community.

Traffic stops trigger arrest and detention

When police called ICE, the immediate outcome for undocumented persons was arrest and detention. Then, they disappeared into the system, their cases difficult to track. Over all of them hung the possibility of deportation.

In August 2017, two Amsterdam police officers pulled over a white Nissan on Route 30 just south of Thruway Exit 27 for tinted windows, the police report said. The driver had no license but handed over a ID issued by the Mexican consulate. When one officer asked if he had a green card, the man shook his head no.

The officer called ICE, who arrested and detained the man. They said he had been previously deported. He was issued a traffic infraction for tinted windows, court records confirm.

An employee from immigrant advocacy organization Centro Civico, which has offices in Amsterdam and Albany, heard about the man's case through contacts at St. Mary's Catholic Church. The detained immigrant was a 26-year-old farmworker and father of two.

The Centro Civico employee went to visit the man's wife  a 23-year-old green card holder who came to the U.S. when she was young  in their trailer outside the city. The wife was very depressed, working 12 hours a day at the farm and trying to catch up on bills while her neighbor watched her two daughters, ages seven and one. Centro Civico helped the family pay for clothing and school supplies.

The undocumented farmworker was held for two months in the Rensselaer County jail and then sent to Batavia Federal Detention Facility near Buffalo. With the help of a Capital Region lawyer, he was released while his case was pending.

The family moved to Texas last year. A local lawyer is still representing him but said he didn't want to talk.

Murky crossroads of law and immigration enforcement

What does case law say? Arizona v. United States: Police nationally can't stop a car based on the officer's suspicion that the vehicle contains an undocumented person Rodriguez v. United States, 135 S.Ct. 1609 (2015): Police nationally can't question the driver as to matters unrelated to the underlying traffic violationincluding immigration status or country of originunless it does not prolong the traffic stop or extend the time of a stop beyond the time it takes to resolve the initial suspected crime or traffic violation unless they have reasonable suspicion to believe that another crime or traffic violation has occurred The People, ex rel. Jordan Wells, on behalf of Susai Francis v. DeMarco, 168 A.D.3d 31 (2d Dept 2018): New York police may not hold a person following a car stop or other routine encounter after they would otherwise be free to leave so that ICE can come pick them up Source: New York University Immigrant Rights Clinic & Immigrant Defense Project

During a traffic stop based on probable cause, law enforcement officers ask for a driver's license, registration and insurance. Driving without a license is a misdemeanor.

Officers in the Capital Region explained that common practice is to run licenses through online databases to check records and validity. If nothing comes up, a license might be fake  prompting questioning.

Chris Horn, a lawyer with the Albany County district attorney's office, said federal rules don't require but also don't prohibit local law enforcement asking about immigration status.

"The police don't have an obligation to collect immigration data but can, of course, ask about immigration status when it's relevant to criminal conduct they're investigating," Horn said.

Individuals always have a right to remain silent, Horn added, but it might not help their case.

Court decisions establish that officers cannot demand ID from passengers unless they suspect criminal activity. If a passenger refuses to show ID, police can't ask any further without criminal suspicion  even if they suspect the passenger is undocumented.

"When a car has properly been stopped, an officer could certainly ask if anyone else has a driver's license if the driver doesn't have one and someone else needs to drive the car  otherwise it may need to be towed," Horn said. "That doesn't necessarily get them to asking about immigration status."

Megna said it's "officer's discretion" to ask about immigration status and "nobody is forced to contact ICE." He and Spencer said they ask passengers for ID if they're trying to find someone to take over the vehicle when the driver is unlicensed, but passengers don't have to give it.

On the same day last August that Amsterdam police pulled over the van, a Saratoga County sheriff's deputy stopped a car on Route 9 in Malta. There is no probable cause for the traffic stop listed in the report and spokesman Capt. Dan Morley declined to respond to a specific question about the reason.

The report says the front seat passenger was found to be a Mexican national in the country illegally and ICE was called to the scene to arrest him.

In two other stops last year in Saratoga County  one for erratic driving and the other for an expired inspection sticker  deputies asked passengers for identification, then either inquired directly about immigration status or called ICE to check, according to police reports.

Morley said deputies don't usually ask for ID from passengers but reasonable suspicion of criminal activity may lead to requesting it. He declined to respond to a question about what suspected criminal activity in these cases prompted asking for ID.

Morley said the department works with ICE in the same way it "cooperates with all of its partners in law enforcement to protect and serve the members of the public."

In a high-profile case last May, Troy police pulled over Dalila Yeend for rolling through a stop sign. She didn't have a driver's license and initially gave a false name to the officer, police records show.

When the officer ran her real name in the online database, an ICE warrant popped up and the officer called ICE. Yeend, a single mother of two, was detained for two months.

Daniel DeWolf, Troy police deputy chief, said the case was unique. Officers need only basic information to issue a traffic ticket and don't ask about immigration status, he said.

"Some are more inquisitive than others. Some say 'Great, see you.' Some look into it more," DeWolf said. "Every circumstance is different. No policy says you can't inquire further."

In two incidents in Schenectady in the first two months of 2019  one by the county sheriff's office and the other by the city police department  the drivers admitted they were undocumented after providing fake licenses or expired passports.

"This is a product of a unique circumstance and the conversation between the operator of the vehicle and the deputy going to the fact that these were false identities that he's providing and he spontaneously acknowledges and makes the admission that he is of illegal status," said John Lubrant, chief deputy in the Schenectady County Sheriff's office. "We don't have a policy."

Harmful to community relations

Ladan Alomar, executive director of Centro Civico and a naturalized immigrant from Iran, said police officers have a choice whether to work with ICE - and doing so goes beyond their job description in her opinion.

"My point is that police will do police's job," Alomar said. "If I behave in a way that I put myself or someone else in danger, as a police officer you have all the rights to at that point stop me and check who I am. At that point, if you identify I'm undocumented and you want to call ICE, OK."

But Alomar said asking about immigration status could discourage undocumented crime victims from going to the police if they fear being reported to ICE.

"When police act as ICE, the issue of concern is the safety of the community. When people don't trust police, they won't share information with the police and police's work depends on support of information given to the police to keep the community safe for all of us," Alomar said. "Those are my concerns, that these actions will not help our community but create an environment of mistrust."

Amsterdam police said the safety of crime victims is paramount, regardless of immigration status.

"We want to protect those people first and foremost. They're human beings. The victim comes first," Megna said. "People shouldn't be afraid to walk down the street or live their life if they're living it legally."

Digital presentation by Mallory Moench, 518-454-5092

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South Korea collected 377.9 trillion won (US$332.6 billion) in local and central government taxes last year, official data showed Sunday, with the tax-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio rising sharply as more corporate taxes were collected on companies' stronger earnings.



According to the data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the central bank, South Korea's combined revenue in taxes rose 9.3 percent on-year in 2018.



The finance ministry said that central government taxes collected last year came to 293.6 trillion won, up 28.2 trillion won from a year earlier. Local taxes also rose 3.9 trillion won to reach 84.3 trillion won.



The tax-to-GDP ratio came to 21.2 percent last year, up 1.2 percentage points from 2017. It marked the sharpest growth since a 1.6 percentage-point on-year rise posted in 2000. The Bank of Korea said South Korea's GDP came to 1,782 trillion won in 2018.



The ratio, which reached 19.6 percent in 2007, earlier decreased following the Lee Myung-bak administration's efforts to cut the tax burden, reaching 17.9 percent in 2010. The figure later rebounded to 19.4 percent in 2016 and reached the 20 percent mark in 2017.



In 2018, the amount of collected central government tax rose 10.6 percent on-year, mainly attributable to more corporate taxes following the boom of South Korea's chip industry. The increased trade of properties last year ahead of a new taxation policy on those owning more than one house also resulted in more transfer income tax revenue.



The South Korean government said while the tax-to-GDP ratio increased on-year in 2018, it does not mean that individuals had to pay higher income taxes. The government explained that although it collected 2.3 trillion won more in income taxes, it was attributable to the increase of average income.



"As the government did not roll out a tax hike, the tax-to-GDP ratio jumped due to sound performances of corporations," said Park Ki-Baeg, a professor at the University of Seoul.



"Although (the ratio) is relatively low compared with other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the government needs to adjust the ratio as a sudden rise will burden companies and individuals." (Yonhap)

The Pixel family is about to grow. Rumors and images of Googles foray into the midrange smartphone market have been trickling out for months, but now a release looks to be just around the corner. According to a very telling teaser, were all but certain to learn everything about the Pixel 3a and 3a XL at the Google I/O conference on May 7.

Based on what weve seen to date, Google will be looking to offer an experience nearly on par with that of its flagship Pixel 3 handsets, for several hundreds less. The company reportedly will turn to a lower-end Qualcomm chipset  believed to be the Snapdragon 670  along with less onboard storage, a plastic body, and one front-facing camera, as opposed to the dual lenses in existing models.

Its not all bad, though: The Pixel 3a might retain the same great camera and OLED display technology found in Googles flagships, and may even bring back the headphone jack, which has been MIA since 2017s Pixel 2.

The proposition of a low-cost Pixel appears to be at odds with Googles current mobile strategy. Then again, there is precedent for this sort of thing in Mountain View. The Nexus line often played home to high-end hardware at bargain prices during its run  particularly with the Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 tablet, which undercut their category rivals, sometimes by as much as half the price.

In other words, Google knows a thing or two about building compelling tech on a budget. But the tech giant will have to do a lot more than repeat the past if it wants to deliver an alternative to midrange mainstays like the $249 Moto G7 Power and $349 Nokia 7.1. Both of those devices are almost assuredly a good sight cheaper and less powerful than the Pixel 3a will be, but still show how to execute cheap phones properly. Heres what Google needs to do to win the hearts and wallets of budget-conscious phone buyers.

Be smart about pricing

Just as flagship smartphones are getting pricier and pricier  hitting $1,000 regularly and even stretching well past the $2,000 mark, if you consider the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X  the definition of what constitutes a midrange phone is changing, too.

The aforementioned options from Nokia and Motorola pair middle-of-the-road specs with average battery life, serviceable displays, and cameras that typically underwhelm. However, theyre very reasonably priced  within the $200 to $400 range  and guarantee just enough muscle to handle everything short of polygon-pushing games.

Spend a little more and you can get something like the $579 OnePlus 6T, which is capable of performance that's on par with last years Galaxy S9 or the Pixel 3, but still comes in at hundreds less than those devices typically cost. You do have to concede some comforts in the process of course  the 6T, for example, isnt water resistant or capable of wireless charging, plus its camera generally doesnt match what more expensive phones produce  though the value proposition is still unsurpassed.

The Pixel 3a will probably slot in somewhere between these two extremes. Current rumors point to a starting price between $400 and $500 for the smaller, 5.6-inch model, with the larger 6-inch 3a XL likely commanding an extra $50 to $100.

"When companies go mid-range, they run the risk of offering a little bit of the high end and a little bit of the low end, but it ends up being not enough of either," said Ramon Llamas, research director at market intelligence firm IDC.

The challenge for Google will be to carefully tread that thin line in terms of pricing and make the Pixel 3a a viable option for consumers. If these phones dont offer a sizable performance benefit over cheaper alternatives for the added cost, theyll be hard to justify against the Nokias and Motorolas of the world. And if they strike too close to OnePlus devices in price, theyll be squeezed by more powerful handsets at the top of the food chain.



However, Llamas sees an opportunity for Google to find favor with that untapped middle ground.

"Things are starting to change though," Llamas said. "Flagship smartphones commanding a four-digit price point are becoming a hard sell, especially since the changes from previous models are sometimes perceived as incremental. Its easier for consumers to reach for older models at lower prices, or even new ones at lower prices. Think of the iPhone XR."

Contrary to the pessimistic rumblings from suppliers, the iPhone XR has actually proven to be Apples top seller among its latest batch of handsets. And although the Pixel 3a wont necessarily be to the Pixel 3 what the iPhone XR is to the iPhone XS, Apples success in chipping away at the barrier of entry to its devices reveals a path for Google to make its vision of Android available to more buyers. Which brings us to...

Be where people are

Today, if you want to walk into your networks store and walk out with a Pixel 3 in hand, that network is going to have to be Verizon. Big Red has lorded over exclusive carrier rights to the Pixel line since its inception. And as it turns out, offering a great smartphone doesnt mean much if people dont know how to buy it.

Of course, thats not to say you cant use Googles handsets with other service providers towers  youll just have a few more headaches doing so. To use the Pixel 3 on T-Mobile, AT&T, Google Fi or any of the myriad no-contract, prepaid carriers out there, you'll have to make sure you buy an unlocked model and then get a SIM from your carrier of choice.

"A challenge for Google in the U.S. has been its exclusivity agreement at Verizon, Avi Greengart, lead analyst at Techspotential, told Toms Guide. Google needs to get in front of more consumers."

Fortunately, it seems Google hasnt only realized this, but is finally prepared to do something about it. The latest batch of rumors surrounding the Pixel 3a suggest that Googles midrange offerings will once and for all usher the brand into a partnership with T-Mobile. The flagship Pixel 3 duo could also land at the Uncarrier, putting four of Googles handsets in front of a wealth of potential users previously unaware of the brand.



MORE: Best Cheap Phones: Top Android Picks Under $300

Recent data tell us that low-cost, prepaid carriers and unlocked phone sales are slowly chipping away at the major carriers iron grip on the U.S. wireless market. According to analytics firm Market Force, the percentage of users subscribed to prepaid carriers doubled in 2017, from 5% to 10% in 2016. Market Force also found that 56% of users reported having a contract-based plan, down from 62% the previous year.

The landscape is indeed changing, but not quickly enough for Google to succeed without carriers help. Right now, the big four networks still rule the roost in the U.S. Handset sales are driven by network operators first, so Google needs to court them if it wants to have any shot at growing the brand and getting the Pixel 3a in customers hands.

Keep the crown jewel

The Pixel has been synonymous with photographic excellence since its inception. Six months since its release, the Pixel 3 is still one of our favorite mobile cameras on the market, even besting the iPhone XS and Samsungs just-released Galaxy S10 Plus. Only Huaweis P30 Pro rivals the Pixel 3, under the right conditions.

"If Google can deliver on its signature imaging and clean, rapid software updates at lower price points, it could significantly increase sales volumes  even if it is unlikely to actually dethrone the market leaders."

On the other hand, midrange phones have never, ever been associated with good photography. The Nokia 7.1 and OnePlus 6T have serviceable shooters for the price, but you wouldnt choose the images they produce over a shot from a fully-priced flagship. It would seem a good camera is still the one thing you cant get in all but the most expensive handsets.

However, it appears that Google is looking to dispel that notion. Weve been hearing that the Pixel 3a would have a camera on par with its premium counterpart since news of the device first broke. And while budget phone makers historically havent shied away from talking up the quality of their cameras  even though theyre never actually any good  Google is in a unique position to capitalize here, precisely because of its computational photography advantage.

"If Google can deliver on its signature imaging and clean, rapid software updates at lower price points, it could significantly increase sales volumes," Greengart said, "even if it is unlikely to actually dethrone the market leaders."

The Pixel 3 can do with its single lens what many of its competitors struggle to achieve with three lenses. Whether its the phones stellar Portrait mode, its borderline magical Night Sight feature, or even Super-Res Zoom, Google has taught the master class in how clever imaging software can make up for the hardware disadvantages that tiny smartphone sensors and lenses are typically saddled with. And rumor has it that Google will pack those very same smarts into the Pixel 3a.

Theres another reason that the Pixel 3a is poised to be the first truly-great midrange camera phone, and it pertains to the processor. Based on what we know so far, Google has selected Qualcomms Snapdragon 670 system-on-chip to power the device. Thats a critical detail; the 670 utilizes Qualcomms second-gen Spectra 250 image signal processor, which first debuted in the chipmakers Snapdragon 800-series silicon.

MORE: Google Pixel 3a Rumors: Release Date, Price and Specs

In other words, while the Pixel 3a might be middle-of-the-road in terms of performance, it could still have a flagship-quality image-processing chip. And if Google throws its Pixel Visual Core co-processor into the mix, we could be looking at a phenomenal mobile camera for the money.

Outlook

Google cant just stop at the camera. The Pixel brand is also known for bringing the very best of Android to the forefront, with regular software updates, a clean user experience, and nifty special features, like Call Screen, that leverage the power of artificial intelligence.

Can Google roll all those lovely benefits into a reasonably-priced handset that doesnt cut too many corners elsewhere? That will be the ultimate question as the company seeks to redefine the midrange market.

People are holding onto their devices for longer than ever before, and increasingly rejecting the push toward $1,000-plus devices. Done right, the 3a might be exactly what fatigued phone buyers need, and nothing that they dont want.

"If the rumors are true about the 3a, it could end up as a high-end phone masquerading with a midrange price," Llamas said. "Just be careful what that means for the flagship smartphone."

Credit: Tom's GuideKansas City Needs Gift Of Life

Community Blood Center declares emergency blood shortage KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - The Community Blood Center (CBC) has declared a blood emergency for the greater Kansas City metro. The organization is asking the community to donate blood immediately to help replenish the blood supply for more than 60 hospitals throughout the area, including KC, eastern Kansas and western Missouri.

Golden Ghetto Foodie Celebration

The low-key wonderfulness of the downtown Overland Park food scene Though our reflex is to bristle at its sleepy, deep-Metcalf suburbanism, we find ourselves wondering more and more lately whether it's possible that, actually, downtown Overland Park might, quietly, perhaps ... be kind of great? Allow us to plead our case: 1.)

Today's Reason To Count Your Blessings

2 injured after van crashes into tractor JACKSON COUNTY, KS (KCTV) - Two people were injured on Saturday night when a van crashed into a tractor, according to the the Jackson County, Kansas Sheriff's Office. The incident happened just before 10:30 p.m. on Saturday east of B Road on K-16 Highway, which is a little more than a mile from the Pottawatomie County line.

Big Picture On Easter

As the Sri Lanka attacks show, Christians worldwide face serious persecution | Giles Fraser It is ignored in the west, but Christianity is the most persecuted religion. Why is there such silence on the issue, asks parish priest Giles Fraser

Obamacare Exceptions In Kansas

Kansas to let Farm Bureau health coverage avoid ACA rules Kansas will allow its state Farm Bureau to offer health care coverage that doesn't satisfy the Affordable Care Act after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday declined to block a Republican-backed effort to circumvent former President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Show-Me Shrinking Missouri Churches

Empty Pews May Mean It's Time To Downsize, Religious Leaders Say Declining church attendance is forcing some religious leaders to make difficult decisions - namely, what to do with outsized or vacant places of worship. Many U.S. churches were built decades ago during times of religious growth. In some communities, however, shrinking congregations no longer have the financial resources to maintain these large church properties.

Weather Today & This Week

Sunny, warm, windy Easter ANYTHING THAT YOU'VE GOT PLANNED THIS AFTERNOON YESTERDAY. WE WERE EXPECTING ONLY IT'S THE CASE THROUGHOUT MUCH OF THE DAY, BUT THEY'RE TURNED OUT TO BE TWO HOURS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY YESTERDAY WHERE WE DID HAVE WINDS GUST UP TO 20 MILES AN HOUR.

HAPPY EASTER KANSAS CITY!!!

Midday update and just a quick collection of the stories we're checking today. Take a peek:And this is thefor right now . . . And if we haven't said it already . . .Sound Of Classy KCMO

2 composers' musical on KC Philharmonic is Broadway bound Two Kansas City composers will be on Broadway very soon. They recently won entry into the New York Music Festival with their show "Overture the Musical," which is based around the old Kansas City Philharmonic.The musical started with a single note."I had this song that was just knocking and this idea about a woman who was watching an orchestra," composer Krista Eyler said.Eyler and Barb Nichols put pen and note to paper.

Artsy Kansas City Appropriation

Here's Why Kansas City Is Embracing 'Frida-Mania' This Spring With her stoic beauty, her uni-brow and her dark hair braided with flowers, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has an iconic face. Kahlo died in the 1950s, but she continues to fascinate people world-wide - including this spring in Kansas City. "She's unapologetic. She's angry and she's hurt and she's putting it in this portrait.

Celebrate Local Tradition

When I Grow Up: Deputy Chief Jimmy Walker follows in his father's footsteps Kansas City- MO - Jimmy Walker is the Deputy Chief of the Kansas City Fire Department. He started his career as a fireman nearly 24 years ago, but it's been his dream for much longer than that. Walker's father was a fireman and his hero, and he wanted to follow in his footsteps.

This Week's Booze News

Budweiser's Clydesdales draw big crowd in Overland Park OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Here comes the king! Hundreds of people crowded the parking lot at the Hy-Vee on 135th Street in Overland Park on Friday to get up close and personal with the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales. "We're from North Dakota, but we were staying at our son's house," Linda Bergstrom said.

Endring Local Legacy

Long-running minority-owned KC business celebrates 50 years KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Woodley Building Maintenance is celebrating its golden anniversary in 2019. Jimmy Woodley started the Kansas City company in 1969 with just an idea. Fifty years later, the company employs more than 850 people in several Midwestern states.

Drink In Pitch Promo

Pitch'n Kitch'n: Chef Clark Grant cooks with Hemp and CBD Sponsored ContentThings get a little hazy as Chef Clark from Hogshead infuses his entire meal with hemp and CBD.Thanks to our sponsors: Sharon Aubuchon. Ch...

Bad Branding Amid SJW Era

Victoria's Secret's Sexy Positioning Is No Longer So Alluring One fact was always clear: Victoria's Secret's bras were sexy and alluring. They sold well and were boosted by not-so-subtle advertising and promotions. But that was then, and this is now. The glamorous look is no longer a look desired by growing numbers of America women.

In this glimpse at local news we check around the metro for some nice news and a quick glimpse at local good life on this otherwise idyllic Midwestern afternoon. Check the compilation after the jump . . .And this is thefor right now . . .LEAWOOD, Ks - One man is in custody after police say he fired shots at them. Leawood Police say they were called to a home on 135th Street and Mission Road for a welfare check. When they arrived, they found a man intoxicated and suicidal. While police were talking to him, the man became violent.WOMAN ON WOMAN KANSAS CITY GUNFIRE

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- The police are investigating a shooting that happened on Saturday afternoon. It happened just before 3:30 p.m. in the 300 block of Bellaire Ave. The victim, a woman, is in the hospital in serious condition. The police are looking for a female suspect in connection with this shooting.Owner of Lee's Summit skating rink tightens rules following shooting LEE'S SUMMIT, MO (KCTV) -- Police have arrested the 16-year-old who shot another teenager last week outside a Lee's Summit skating rink. The other boy was hit in the leg. The owner of Landmark said he's relieved police have made an arrest and that he's taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen at his skating rink again.

Sign of the times and a glimpse at growing concerns about violence in the suburbs . . . Here's one local biz dude struggling to accommodate theand keep them safe. Take a look:Mercedes-Benz unveiled the third-generation GLS at the 2019 New York Auto Show, and the company is already talking about future products based on the full-size SUV. The German company confirmed at least two new variations but dismissed an electric model, so we hope you werent expecting one.

The Mercedes-Benz GLS Wont Go Electric...Period

Mercedes thinks that demand for an electric SUV the size of the GLS would be too small

Although it introduced a few mild hybrid vehicles and the all-electric EQC since 2018, Mercedes-Benz wont electrify the big GSL. Thats the word from Andreas Zygan, head of SUV Development for the brand, who told Auto Express that the GLS platform was not designed for electrification. Zygan also thinks that demand for an electric SUV the size of the GLS would be too small.

If this is true, Zygan makes a valid point. Developing an electric GLS would require further investment. The EV will definitely end up pretty expensive in dealerships, and Mercedes would probably lose money in the long run. While some companies take this risk in order to reduce their lineups CO2 footprint, it wouldnt make sense for Mercedes since it already launched an electric vehicle division under the EQ brand.

2020 Mercedes GLS drivetrain specifications Mercedes-Benz GLS 580 4MATIC Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 4MATIC Engine V-8 with 48-volt on-board electrical system six-cylinder in- line engine electrified with 48-volt technology Horsepower 483 HP 362 HP Torque 516 LB-FT 369 LB-FT EQ Boost 184 LB-FT and 21 HP 184 LB-FT and 21 HP Transmission 9G-TRONIC automatic 9G-TRONIC automatic

The Mercedes-Benz GLS will go wild with an AMG badge

A high-performance AMG vehicle is definitely on the table

While electricity is out of the question, a high-performance AMG vehicle is definitely on the table. "The markets have fed back to us to say they would like an AMG version out of the GLS," said AMG boss Tobias Moers. This isnt surprising though, as Mercedes has been offering AMG versions of the GLS since 2013.

Introduced with the second-generation SUV, the GL63 AMG (it was renamed the GLS in 2016) featured a 5.5-liter V-8 rated at 550 horsepower and 516 pound-feet in its first years on the market. The engine was updated to deliver 577 horsepower and 561 pound-feet in 2016 and remained unchanged until 2019. The next-generation AMG GLS63 will most likely feature the twin-turbo, 4.0-liter V-8 that motivates most AMG vehicles nowadays. The mill cranks out up to 603 horsepower, so its safe to assume that the new SUV will deliver more oomph than its predecessor.

The Mercedes-Benz GLS will spawn a luxury Maybach model

The Mercedes-Maybach GLS could break cover sometime in 2020

The German brand also confirmed that a Maybach version of the GLS is in the cards, but Andreas Zygan mentions that no official decision has been made yet. There is no decision we have taken, but what you see in the exquisite GLS is that weve developed a lot of things  the comfort and surroundings weve focused on  so the car has the possibility of a further project, but its not official," he said.

The Maybach brand was revived in 2015, two years after Mercedes discontinued the 57 and 62 sedans and retired the name. The division was reactivated as Mercedes-Maybach and originally produced more upscale versions of the S-Class. In 2018, Mercedes-Maybach launched its first SUV. Based on the G-Class, the G650 Landaulet has a longer wheelbase, a more comfortable suspension, a folding rear roof, and its limited to only 99 units. Rumored for a few years now, the Mercedes-Maybach GLS could break cover sometime in 2020.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 2020 Mercedes-Maybach GLS.

The 2020 Mercedes GLS Arrives With a Twin-Turbo V-8 and Seating for Seven

Read our full review on the 2019 Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class.

Source: Auto Expressbobistraveling/CC BY 2.0

Along just one stretch of coastline in Peru, more than 3,000 dead dolphins washed ashore in just three months, and the disturbing trend may only be escalating. With the latest discovery of 481 lifeless dolphins there, residents have begun to demand an explanation for the mysterious mass deaths -- and as far as enlisted experts can tell, offshore oil exploration in the region is the most likely culprit.

According to a report from Peru 21, local fishermen in Lambayeque, north Peru, were first to notice the inexplicable rise in dead dolphin appearing on shore -- averaging roughly 30 per day. While such mass orca strandings are not entirely uncommon, or fully understood, Peruvian biologist Carlos Yaipen of the Scientific Organization for Conservation of Aquatic Animals says activity from petroleum companies in the nearby waters is to blame in this instance.

Yaipen believes that a controversial technique for detecting oil beneath the seabed, using sonar or acoustic sensing, is leading the death of marine life en masse.

"The oil companies use different frequencies of acoustic waves and the effects produced by these bubbles are not plainly visible, but they generate effects later in the animals. That can cause death by acoustic impact, not only in dolphins, but also in marine seals and whales."

In 2003, scientists from the Zoological Society of London discovered that underwater sonar can lead to the formation of microscopic bubbles of nitrogen in the bloodstream and vital organs of aquatic mammals, afflicting the animals with a lethal condition commonly known as the Bends. Additionally, low-range acoustic sensors are suspected to cause disorientation and internal bleeding to exposed wildlife.

As of this writing, Peruvian authorities have yet to identify the company whose activities may be leading to this grim toll on native marine life. According to Offshore Magazine, a trade publication of petroleum news, at least one entity, Houston-based oil company BPZ Energy, has been actively surveying the seabed along the coast of Peru since the beginning of the year.Sanjeev Kapur, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of MetLife Asia, speaks during an interview at The Korea Times newsroom in Seoul, April 16. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk



360 Health launched to provide holistic solution in Asia



By Kim Bo-eun



MetLife, a global insurance giant, is a mid-tier player in the Korean insurance market, but it does not care too much about enlarging its size to become a major player here.



The insurer instead focuses more on enhancing a value proposition as it sees a significant opportunity to increase market share by "bridging the gap" between the values insurers are providing and customers' needs.



"Most insurance companies are positioned around products that they give to customers. We are trying to provide holistic solutions  services that meet the health, familial and future needs of customers," Sanjeev Kapur, senior vice president and chief marketing officer (CMO) of MetLife Asia, said in an interview on April 16.



"If we are obsessive about customer needs and gaps in the market we will be able to disproportionately gain share _ there is enough growth we can get in the market by doing that really well," he said.



The holistic solution is 360 Health, a new policy helping customers to prevent illnesses, and get access to treatment, ongoing care and financial support for them. MetLife has launched the policy and sub-brand in Korea and China. It is the only solution in Asia that provides end-to-end support across all life stages of a serious illness, according to the insurer.



The decision to launch 360 Health in Asia was based on a prior survey that showed 71 percent of customers in Asia are more concerned about their quality of life than how long they live. The tendency was the most pronounced in Korea, at 83 percent.



Korea is one of the fastest aging societies, which comes with the incidence of serious illnesses, but data shows out of pocket health expenditures of Koreans are among the highest in Asia. Despite its advanced national healthcare system, Korea has one of the highest annual average growth rates in per capita expenditure, according to data from the OECD.



"Other companies tend to be focused on protecting customers when they get into an adverse health situation such as cancer or an accident. There is an opportunity to play a more meaningful role in customers' life if we can prevent that adversity from happening," the Singapore-based CMO said.



MetLife's aim to bridge gaps can also be understood in the sense of bringing down the gap between health span and life span.



"The longevity of the average health span is around 10 years less than the lifespan, which is pretty stark," Kapur said.



Metlife's 360 Health aims to prevent, diagnose and manage serious illnesses including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, dementia that commonly afflict people in Asia and are seen as the biggest contributors to the gap between health span and lifespan.



The Asian market, which MetLife entered more than 60 years ago, accounts for about a quarter of the insurer's global earnings.



It has a presence in 10 countries, among which Japan, Korea and China are top markets.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Chandigarh, April 20

A major fire broke out at a shop dealing in motor vehicle accessories at Burail village here late on Friday night.

The fire department got the information at 11.30 pm that a fire has broken out at Garg Motor Shop, following which five to six fire tenders were pressed into service.

A team of the fire department reached the spot in no time and doused the flames by 2.30 pm. A short circuit was reported during the operation, which hindered firefighting.

Sources said it was an old shop. The police had a tough time managing the local residents who had gathered to witness the firefighting operation.

We were going to sleep when we heard noise outside. We came out and saw the shop on fire. Soon, teams of the fire department reached here to control the situation. No one was inside the shop when the mishap was reported, said a man, who lives in the neighbourhood.

Fire officials said the reason of the fire could not be ascertained but it was suspected to have taken place due to a short circuit. We had to send small vehicles for firefighting operation as Burail is a thickly populated area, said a fire official. Sources said a fireman suffered minor burn injuries during the operation.

Sanjay Garg, the shop owner, said, The loss is yet to be calculated.  TNSgettyimagesbank



By Park Hyong-ki



A superfast aging population  is it a curse or predetermined destiny for the economy?



Every month or every other week, people hear and read news about the country that is about to face darker days ahead because of the rising elderly population.



Throw in data of Korea's elderly poverty rate, which is the highest among the OECD members, and it just gets more depressing, as if Korea having the OECD's fastest aging population and the lowest birthrate is not enough



The population is expected to decrease from 51.4 million in 2017 to 39.3 million in 2067, as the number of natural deaths will begin exceeding that of newborns this year.



Also, the forecast of this country with a zero population by 2650 makes it worse and people wonder if South Korea will actually disappear from the global map, or if it can be merged with North Korea before that happens.



The situation has become more than awful. It has become critical.



But other advanced and even some notable emerging countries have the same problem.



The United States has it, as well as China and not to mention Japan.



Vietnam, with which Korea seeks to deepen its ties, doesn't have that problem yet, but is preparing for the possibility when its economy grows. Vietnam has been inviting Korean economists and demographers to share insights on the matter so that Vietnam can avoid ending up like Korea or Japan.



So, it's a problem around the world, and Korea has constantly acknowledged that it's a problem that the aging population will especially reduce growth. Growth has been decreasing by 1 percentage point every administration on average, regardless of stable or unstable demographics.



It is time to move on for God's sake from those depressing numbers, which people are aware of, and start brainstorming how to make the aging human resources "resourceful and count" for the next phase of the economy.



That is what the Korea Development Institute recently recommended  the country should seek to help the elderly become part of the workforce, instead of just ignoring them and saying, "They are old, and you can't teach an old dog new tricks."



Yes, you can, as long as the right policies can nudge and pivot them, even the young, to gain the motivation to learn and develop their professional skills for a lifelong career.



All policies  labor, immigration, housing, welfare, innovation  should be put into force at once to achieve such an objective. It takes more than just a childcare policy to turn the demographic situation around.



In labor, for instance, Samsung Electronics CEO Kwon Oh-hyun suggested at a recent seminar at Pohang University of Science and Technology that the country should open its doors and allow companies to acquire foreign professionals.



This would help boost workforce diversity and competitiveness, which would then spur creativity and innovation.



And people would get motivated if the workforce becomes vibrant.



This is an environment Korea needs to improve happiness, instead of only focusing on reaching certain numbers in annual growth, which really does not measure demographic wellbeing.



ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Chandigarh, April 20

A resident of Anantnag in J&K has been arrested with fake Aadhaar and PAN cards here today.

Cops said a woman called up the police to inform that a suspected Kashmiri terrorist was coming to Healing Touch Hospital, Sector 34, for treatment.

A police team led by SI Sharminder Singh apprehended Fayaaz Ahmed (42), his son Muneeb Ahmed (17), Shabzaar Ahmed and Irshad Ahmed, all residents of Anantnag district in J&K.

During Irshads search, cops recovered an Aadhaar card (178856540124) and a PAN card (DOSPK1329R), both in the name of Ajay Kumar and having Irshads photo on them.

Cops called up the Dooru police station in Anantnag and learnt that Irshad was booked for a fraud there.

A case has now been registered against him at the Sector 34 police station.  TNSROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 20

Gyandeep Model School, Sector 20 is yet to submit documents required for recognition under the Punjab Education Code (PEC).

Earlier on March 27, a team of Education Department officials carried out an inspection for granting recognition to Class XI, which was earlier cancelled by the department on the account of admitting Class X failed students in Class XI with fake pass and school-leaving certificates.

The school had lost recognition for Classes XI and XII in March 2017 when around 20 Class XII students, who were appearing for board examination, did not get their roll numbers.

During the recent inspection, it was found that the school did not possess any documents required for recognition. It did not have any supporting staff, including clerks and watchman, and could not even produce provident fund deductions, pay slips and fee booklets.

Its a matter of surprise that the school was granted recognition in 2018 without any documents, said an official at the Education Department requesting anonymity.

After inspection, the Education Department decided to give one more chance to the school and offered it to submit the required documents to the department. However, the school has not been able to furnish the documents so far.

A high-level committee of the Education Department is also mulling to revisit the school for the purpose of recognition. There were speculations that the school might not be granted Class XI recognition this year too, as per sources in the department.

Had promoted failed studentsmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Washington, April 21

Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu US Congresswoman and Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, has vastly outraised Senator Kamala Harris of Indian and Jamaican descent among Indian-American donors in the 2020 presidential fundraising derby so far.

Gabbard, who is a Hindu American but not Indian-American, has raised more than $237,000, from the community. In comparison, Harris, daughter of an Indian American mother and Jamaican American father, has so far raised only $72,606 from the community, according to AAPI Data, which publishes data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

In a clear sign that Harris, one of the strongest contenders in the crowded 2020 Democratic field, has not been fully embraced by the community, the Senator even trails New Jersey's Corey Booker among Indian-Americans, the American Bazaar reported on Saturday.

Booker has raised more than $131,000 from Indian Americans. A big reason for that is New Jersey is home to nearly 370,000 Indian Americans.

But Harris' home state of California has the largest Indian American population in the country - more than 712,000. Yet, her campaign hasn't received traction among Indian American campaign donors, the AAPI Data research reveals.

The Senator, however, received an important endorsement when the influential Indian-American Impact Fund announced that it is backing her earlier this week.

Harris, unlike Gabbard, has not made any attempts to reach out to the Indian-American community so far, even though she has repeatedly cited her Indian identity and her mother's influence on her.

On the other hand, Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran and the first Hindu candidate to get elected to US Congress, has a huge grassroots following among right-leaning Hindu Americans, having closely aligned with them right from the beginning of her congressional career.

Historically, Indian Americans have donated huge amounts to congressional and gubernatorial candidates from the community. However, their track record in bankrolling candidates from the community so far is spotty.

In the last presidential election cycle, the campaign of former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal attracted only lukewarm support of the community. IANSeditorial@tribune.com

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, April 20

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday targeted Kurukshetra MP and convener of the Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP) Raj Kumar Saini, saying the BJP made a mistake in identifying him as a candidate in the previous Lok Sabha election.

He was addressing a vijay sankalp rally organised in support of BJP candidate and Minister of State Nayab Singh Saini.

He said, In the previous Lok Sabha election, we committed a mistake in identifying the person who was elected as the MP from here. He divided society and we regret it. No person who divides society or the nation is acceptable to us. I have publicly accepted the mistake. He has now formed his own party.

Targeting the Congress, he said, No one is ready to accept Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister. We consider this country our mother, but it is just a piece of land for other political parties. The Congress has put the integrity and security of the nation at stake. It is in favour of keeping Article 370 and is also not speaking anything when its supporter parties led by Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah talk about a separate Prime Minister for Jammu and Kashmir.

The CM said the Prime Minister was likely to address three or four rallies in Haryana, while Amit Shah is likely to address five to six.

Nayab Singh Saini filed his nomination papers in the presence of Chief Minister, MoS Krishan Bedi, and MLAs Subhash Sudha and Pawan Saini.

Attacks Congress

The Congress has put the integrity and security of the nation at stake. It is in favour of keeping Article 370 and is also not speaking anything when its supporter parties led by Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah talk about a separate Prime Minister for J&K. Manohar Lal Khattar, CMeditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 20

Firebrand leader and former minister Mohinder Nath Sofat today rejoined the BJP after six years.

Sofat, who joined the party in the presence of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and in charge for Lok Sabha poll Tirath Singh Rawat, Cabinet ministers Govind Singh and Suresh Bhardwaj, said he had been ideologically with the BJP for the past four decades.

Sofat, who was active during emergency and was given party ticket from Solan in 1990, was minister in the BJP government, headed by Shanta Kumar, and quit the party in 2002 when party ticket was denied to him.

He was admitted to the party in 2004 ahead of the Lok Sabha poll but was not actively involved in party affairs and again quit the party and joined the Himachal Lokhit Party, floated by BJP dissidents in 2012.

The HLP merged with the BJP before the Assembly poll in 2016 but Sofat and a few other leaders refused to join the BJP as he had sharp differences with the state leadership and some members of the breakaway group of the HLP. Sofat joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2017.

After a change in the party leadership and installation of Jai Ram Thakur government, he had no reservations in joining the party.

Sofat who joined the BJP, along with his 40 supporters, including pradhans and BDC members, said he would work for the victory of the party and perform any duty assigned to him. Welcoming Sofat, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said the homecoming of Sofat would strengthen the party in Solan district.

Journey so fareditorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Kangra, April 20

Congress Working Committee member and in charge for Punjab Asha Kumari today described the utterances by BJP candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya regarding the decorated officer Hemant Karkare, who attained the martyrdom fighting Pakistani terrorists during the Mumbai attack, was shocking, shameful and insulting for the martyrs.

Asha Kumari said this while addressing party workers at Rait in Shahpur. She, however, said these utterances were the reflection of the thought process of the BJP.

Asha Kumari alleged that the BJP was diverting from unemployment and shattered economy to the Army achievements, patriotism and Modi slogans which was unfortunate. She said everybody was a patriot and no one needed a certificate of patriotism from the Prime Minister.

She alleged that the Modi government had failed on all fronts with the unemployment graph touching highest ever 6.2 per cent and government companies were running in losses.

She said on the one hand, the BSNL was in a financial crunch and on the otherm Jio had shown profit of Rs 840 crore during the last quarter. She alleged that there was something wrong in the policies that the agriculture sector was lagging behind and farmers were facing acute crisis.

She was critical of the state government for its failure on different fronts. Recently, the Jai Ram government got a loan of Rs 400 crore. She alleged that the BJP government had no vision for the state.

Kewal Singh Pathania, HPCC general secretary, also addressed workers and stressed a door-to-door campaign as part of the poll strategy of Congress.editorial@tribune.com

Phagwara, April 20

School of Hotel Management and Tourism and the Division of Career Services of Lovely Professional University (LPU) organised a global hotel industry HR Summit on the campus of LPU. The summit held at Shanti Devi Mittal Auditorium. LPU Director General Er HR Singla inaugurated the summit.

A total of 18 HR stalwarts from national and international hotel industry addressed management students. His Excellency High Commissioner of Namibia to India, Gabriel P Sinimbo graced the occasion. He Sinimbo referred India as an incredible country with great human resource.

Directors, GMs, Heads, and consultants from 16 top national and international hotel chains were present. They pondered on Future Trends in Hospitality.

This was the biggest ever Hotel Management summit organised by any university or college in North India to understand the close working of educational institutes and industry.

Director Human Resources (The Park Hotel) Deepak Behl was the keynote speaker on the occasion. He emphasized that their collective participation was out of social responsibility to awaken, inspire and guide the forthcoming human resource in this sector.

The book of Deepak Behl titled Winning is Everything, was also launched on the occasion. OCeditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 20

Governor Satya Pal Malik on Saturday favoured increased interactions between students and different education institutions outside the state to clear the misconceptions relating to security environment prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir.

Malik said this would change the perception about J&K and help promote better understanding among youth regarding diversity existing in the country.

The Governor said this while chairing the 85th University Council meeting of University of Jammu (JU) at Raj Bhawan here on Saturday. He is the Chancellor of the university.

The council congratulated Vice Chancellor Prof Manoj Dhar and his colleagues for JU being selected for a Rs 100-crore grant under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) phase-II in 2018-19. The grant has been sanctioned on the basis of NAAC grading and on the conferment of the category-I status to the university with full autonomy by the UGC, as well as on the basis of its performance in RUSA-I.

In order to usefully gain under RUSA phase-II, the Governor emphasised restructuring of course curriculum by integrating it with research in science and technology as well as humanities.

He stressed providing world-class teaching by modernising and creating smart classrooms, providing e-resources and state-of-the-art laboratories, introduction of new programmes and courses with emphasis on developing broad competencies and skills in order to ensure that students could compete at the national and global-level.

The council welcomed that the JU had been selected for establishing Institution Innovation Council by the innovation cell of the Union Ministry of Human Resources and Development, which has been set up with an objective to promote innovation in the university through multitudinous modes leading to an innovation promotion ecosystem on the campus.

The Governor emphasised on ensuring adequate and separate sanitation facilities for girls within the campus which would be under the supervision of women supervisors engaged to look after such facilities and establishment of a common room for girls on all campuses and colleges. He suggested installation of mobile jammers in the examination hall and making biometric attendance necessary for teachers and research scholars.

It was informed that the entrepreneurship and skill development centre was being set up to promote entrepreneurship among the students and enhancing their skills in order to make them market-ready.

Calls for new courses

Governor Satya Pal Malik called for creation of smart classrooms, provision of e-resources and state-of-the-art laboratories, introduction of new programmes and courses with emphasis on developing broad competencies and skills in order to ensure that students could compete at the national and global levels.laxmi@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 20

Amid the growing clamour against the highway ban, the Jammu and Kashmir government today limited the restrictions on movement of civilian traffic on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway to only Sundays.

It also announced a complete review of restrictions after the last phase of parliamentary elections in the state on May 6.

On April 3, the state had notified two dedicated days in a week  Sunday and Wednesday  exclusively for the movement of security forces convoys on the Jammu-Srinagar and Srinagar-Baramulla sections by enforcing a complete ban on civilian traffic from 4 am to 5 pm.

According to an official spokesperson, the government has once again reviewed the requirements of security forces, particularly in the light of successful conduct of elections in Baramulla and Jammu on April 11 and Srinagar and Kathua on April 18.

There has been a large-scale movement of security forces on an unprecedented scale after the Pulwama terror attack on February 14. The forces were required both for anti-militancy operations and for conducting General Election peacefully. As the requirement is now reducing as they are de-inducted, the government has decided to partially relax the traffic restrictions, the spokesperson said.

The restrictions would continue between Srinagar and Udhampur as earlier.

However, these would be reviewed periodically and relaxation allowed as the need for restriction reduces, the spokesperson added.

The High Court has sought a detailed report from the government on the restrictions while hearing a bunch of petitions.

Wednesday off list

The curbs on civilian movement between Srinagar and Baramulla highway would now be limited only to Sundays from April 22. There would be no prohibition on civilian traffic on Wednesday. Govt spokespersoneditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 20

Senior separatist leader and chairman of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Mohammad Yasin Malik has been hospitalised in New Delhi as he is seriously ill.

Yasins family members said he had been shifted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital from Tihar Jail following his hunger strike for the last nearly 10 days.

Addressing the media at their Maisuma residence here on Saturday, Yasins mother and sister said they were informed by his lawyer on Saturday that the JKLF chief had been hospitalised. The authorities were forced to tell his lawyer that his condition was very serious and he had been on a hunger strike for the last 10 days, the family members said, adding that Yasin had been insisting that he was shifted to the jail on an illegal remand.

A Delhi court had on April 10 sent Yasin to the NIA custody till April 22 after the agency sought his custodial interrogation in connection with a case related to alleged funding of separatists and militant groups in J&K.

He was produced before Special Judge Rakesh Syal. In the courtroom, the NIA arrested him and sought his 15-day custodial remand. He was shifted to Tihar Jail on Tuesday.

Expressing concern over Yasins failing health, Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the JKLF chiefs safety was the responsibility of the state.

Deeply disturbed by the sudden news about Yasin Malik being seriously ill and shifted to a hospital in New Delhi. As no one is allowed to meet him, details are not yet known. His safety and well-being is the responsibility of the state which has arrested him, Mirwaiz tweeted.

Meanwhile, as the news about the hospitalisation of Yasin Malik spread, the Maisuma area here, where the JKLF leader lives, witnessed a spontaneous shutdown. All the shops and other business establishments in the area closed as a mark of protest.getty imagesbank



By Jhoo Dong-chan



The nation's securities firms posted disappointing earnings in the Chinese market last year.



Six domestic brokerages, including Mirae Asset Daewoo, Korea Investment & Securities and NH Investment & Securities, have a corporate body in the country.



According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Sunday, the six securities firms saw a combined loss of $1.3 million in the Chinese market in 2018.



"These six securities firms have yet to receive approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission as financial firms. The Ministry of Commerce in China still registers them as general consulting companies," the FSS said in a press release.



"For that reason, their operations here have been very limited. They have only engaged in M&As and corporate information business before the initial public offering in China."



Apart from their poor businesses in China, Korea's securities firms have enjoyed a surging profit in other overseas markets.



Domestic securities firms posted a 135.1 billion won ($122.8 million) net profit in the global market last year, up 155.7 percent from the year before, according to the data.



Hong Kong topped the list as Korean brokerages posted a $57.6 million net profit there, followed by Vietnam with $18.3 million, Indonesia with $17.7 million and the U.S. with $16.2 million.



Along with their earnings, domestic brokerages also continued increasing their overseas assets last year.



The data suggested the total assets of Korean brokerages' overseas corporate bodies were $49.49 billion as of December 2018, also up 50.6 percent from a year ago.



"Korean securities firms posted a net loss in the global market in 2017," said a domestic securities firm IPO researcher who asked not to be named.



"The nation's financial market is pretty saturated, and firms started looking abroad to diversify their revenue portfolio. More securities firms have since set up an overseas corporate body to carry out a wider range of investment bank businesses."



The FSS said the Southeast Asian market has been the foothold for the nation's brokerages thanks to the government's New Southern Policy.



Six ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia, accounted for 29.4 percent in the total number of domestic brokerages' foreign corporate bodies in 2016. The figure has since grown to 30.2 percent in 2017 and 33.9 percent last year.



"The FSS will do its best to support their entry in overseas markets while studying the latest global issues to hedge possible risks," an FSS official said.

ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Actors give their best when it comes to the perfect shot or dwelling into the skin of the character. Many a time, an injury comes as a part of the shooting process. Recently, Vicky Kaushal got injured while shooting for his upcoming horror film. Reportedly, the actor has severely injured his cheekbone. While shooting in Gujarat, Vicky hurt his cheekbone and had to be rushed to the hospital where the doctor announced that his cheekbone had been fractured and thus the actor needed 13 stitches.

On returning to Mumbai, the actor made a point to consult an injury specialist and he has been suggested to stay away from shooting till the time he heals. The injury reportedly took place when they were shooting for a night action sequence in Alang, Gujarat, where the worlds largest shipping yard is located. Vicky had to run to a door on a ship and break it down but, before he could do that, the door fell on him and he fractured his cheekbone.shriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com

Mumbai, April 21

Protective father Saif Ali Khan, discernibly disturbed by the constant attention given to his 2-year-old son Taimur, says the child needs to left alone by the paparazzi.

Saif recently blurted out at the airport's ubiquitous paparazzi: "Stop it, the child will go blind." Though everyone, including the photographers, laughed, the point of acute parental concern was made.

A few days later, policemen swooped down on the paparazzi outside Saif and Kareena Kapoor Khan's residence and asked them to disperse.

It is believed that Saif complained to the police about the constant paparazzi attention. However, Saif denies having anything to do with it, though he admits he found their constant presence intrusive.

He said: "Yes, the cops cleared the paparazzi because someone complained. Not me. I can't say I feel kindly about their presence, because 10 people lounging about outside your house waiting for a shot of your kid is disturbing to say the least. I didn't complain because I don't want to deprive anyone of a job."

Saif has a request for the photographers: "Please don't stalk Taimur. He is not a star. He is just a child."  IANSshriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com

New Delhi, April 21

Actress Sonam Kapoor's businessman husband Anand S. Ahuja went down on one knee to tie his significant other's shoelaces at a store launch in the capital.

Sonam was all smiles, as was Anand as he tied a shoelace for her at the collaborative collection launch of Italian sports-fashion powerhouse FILA with Anand's multi-brand sneaker retailer VegNonVeg.

They posed happily for shutterbugs, and Anand seemed to be as smitten by Sonam as he seemed during their wedding.

A preview of the FILA x VegNonVeg line was held here on Thursday, and Sonam looked bright in a mustard dress with elaborate sleeve detail and a centre bow. She teamed it up with a pair of yellow and red sneakers from the line. Anand wore an all-black look, but matched shoes with his wife.

The limited edition 'Masala Mindblower' sneaker has been inspired by a masala box in design and colour scheme, keeping in line with Anand's brand's aesthetic. The design, colourway and materials all come from the spicebox, with hints of VegNonVeg graphics and brand language.

Anand, Founder and Co-Owner, VegNonVeg, said in a statement: "Sneakers have always been more than just shoes to us. They have a culture of their own. Over time, we are committed to developing India's own story of sneaker and street culture and this collaboration is another step in that direction.

"We're excited by the opportunity to create a concept that pays homage to our Indian origins yet something that we think will appeal to the global market."  IANSshriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com

Shirdi, April 21

Actor Vivek Oberoi, who is playing the lead role in a biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offered prayers at the Saibaba temple here to seek blessings for the release of the film soon.

He visited the famous temple, located at Shirdi town in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, on Saturday.

Later while talking to media persons, Oberoi expressed hope that the film, whose release has been withheld by the Election Commission (EC), will hit the theatres soon.

"We sought blessings of Saibaba. Our supporters and fans are eagerly waiting to watch the film. We made the film based on an inspirational story, but political parties are attacking it...we are expecting the film to be released soon," the actor said.

Oberoi said the film will inspire the young generation about how a tea-seller became the country's prime minister and boosted its image.

The MNS last month threatened to stall the release of the biopic, claiming it violated the model code of conduct for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

"I don't know why MNS chief Raj Thackeray is talking against the film? I invite him to watch the film with us and he will like it," the actor said.

Oberoi also urged Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and DMK president M K Stalin to watch the film, claiming "they will like it".

The EC on April 10 stalled the release of the biopic until the Lok Sabha polls end, saying any such film that subserves the purpose of any political entity or individual should not be displayed in electronic media.

Acting on the complaints of political parties, including the Congress, the poll panel asserted that any biopic material with the potential to disturb the level- playing field should not be displayed in areas where the model code of conduct was in force.

Later, the Supreme Court directed the EC to watch the full biopic and take an informed decision on banning its pan-India release.

The biopic has been the most-talked about movie in this election season. Directed by Omung Kumar, it tells the story of Modi's rise to power from his humble beginnings.  PTIlaxmi@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 20

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday said reputation is the only thing a judge has and if it will be attacked on baseless allegations of sexual harassment, no sane person will come forward to take up judgeship.

The CJI said after being a judge for around two decades, he had a bank balance of Rs 6.80 lakh. There is Rs 21.80 lakh in my bank account of which Rs 15 lakh has been given by my daughter for the repair of my house at Guwahati. I have around Rs 40 lakh in provident fund. These are my total assets.

When I became a judge, I had much more, he said, adding, Nobody can catch me on money. People have to find something and they have found this.

If judges have to work under these conditions, then I have always said that good people will not come forward to take up the job. My peon has got more money than me, he said. The CJI alleged that the woman has a criminal record and two FIRs were lodged against her. When she was employed with the apex court, an FIR was pending.

How can she become an SC staffer when an FIR was pending against her? the CJI said, adding that two criminal cases were also pending against her husband.

A third FIR was registered following which she was arrested, he said, adding that after getting bail, she threatened the complainant of the third case. I felt this should be told from the highest seat of judiciary, he said, adding, Independence of judiciary is under very, very serious threat. It is pathetic. (With PTI inputs)

"If such things will happen, no judge is going to decide matters. He will say why should I decide. Then I will come and simply adjourn cases. Why will any sane person want to become a judge? Reputation is the only thing which a judge has." Ranjan Gogoi, Chief Justice of IndiaROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Buniadpur (WB), April 20

Lashing out at TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, PM Narendra Modi today said speedbreaker didi has lost her sleep after the first two phases of the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.

Addressing a rally in South Dinajpur district, Modi accused the CM of fooling people in the name of ma, mati and manush (mother, land and people)  the slogan of the Trinamool Congress. He said he had initially erred in judging her, but discovered the TMC chiefs true colours after becoming the PM. When I used to see her on TV, and then met her from time to time, I thought she was the true embodiment of simplicity, hard work, and genuinely interested in Bengals development. However, after I became the PM and saw her activities, I discovered her true colours. Even the children of Bengal have understood it, Modi said.

Banerjee will know after May 23 (election results) the outcome of vandalism, looting peoples money and obstructing development, he said.

The PM also flayed Banerjee for allowing people from the neighbouring country to campaign for the TMC. It is shameful that people from a neighbouring country are campaigning for the TMC. This was done by the party to appease the minority, he said, referring to Bangladeshi actor Ferdous canvassing for the TMC. The PM criticised Banerjee for seeking proof of the Balakot airstrikes, and asked her to collect evidence against those behind chit fund scams.  PTI

Farzi BSP-SP friendship will end on May 23

After BSP chief Mayawati termed the PM a 'fake' backward class member, Narendra Modi on Saturday said the farzi friendship between the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party would fall apart the day election results are announced

You all remember the friendship that was struck during the Assembly polls in UP that came to an end with the announcement of the results and turned into rivalry, he said, referring to the understanding in 2017 between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party

The farzi dosti of bua and babua will also end the same way, Modi said at an election rally in Etah, UP, referring to Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav

.uttara@tribuneindia.com

Bhopal, April 21

The Election Commission on Sunday issued a show cause notice to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the BJP candidate from Bhopal, for her controversial remarks about the Babri Masjid demolition.

This is the second poll panel notice against Thakur since the saffron party announced her candidature on Wednesday. She has been asked to reply by Monday.

In an interview to a television channel over the weekend, Thakur said that she was among the people who demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 and that she was "proud" of it.

"We removed a blot from the country. We went to demolish the structure. I feel extremely proud that God gave me this opportunity and I could do that. We will make sure a Ram temple is constructed at that site," Thakur told the channel.

The first notice against Thakur was issued after she bragged that former ATS Chief Hemant Karkare died at the hands of terrorists during the 26/11 attack in Mumbai because she "cursed" him.

Following a backlash, Thakur apologised admitting that Karkare was a "martyr". The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) distanced itself from her remark.

The 49-year-old is an accused in the Malegaon blasts case in which six people died and around 100 were injured in 2006. She is currently out on bail and her candidature has been challenged in court by the father of one of the men who died in Malegaon. IANSpardeepdhull@gmail.com

New Delhi, April 21

Campaigning for the third phase of polling in 116 parliamentary constituencies on April 23 ended on Sunday with top leaders making a last-gasp effort to sway voters in favour of their respective parties.

Polling will be held in the 115 seats, spread across 14 states and union territories.

All seats in Gujarat (26), Kerala (20), Goa (2), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1) and Daman and Diu (1) go to polls in the third of the seven-phase election.

Besides, polling will be held in four seats in Assam, five in Bihar, seven in Chhattisgarh, one in Jammu and Kashmir, 14 in Karnataka, 14 in Maharashtra, six in Odisha, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, and five in West Bengal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and a host of Union ministers among others canvassed for their party candidates in the past few days, undertaking whirlwind tours of constituencies.

Among the key contestants in the fray are BJP chief Amit Shah (Gandhinagar, Gujarat), Congress president Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad, Kerala), and Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri, UP).

During campaigning in Gujarat, the two principal partiesthe ruling BJP and the opposition Congressexchanged acrimonious barbs, with leaders from both groups exuding confidence of a good showing. The BJP had swept all 26 seats in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In Maharashtra, the prominent seats in the third phase include Jalna, where state BJP president Raosaheb Danveis in the fray against Vilas Autade of the Congress, and Baramati, where Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, is contesting against BJPs Kanchan Kul.

Another keenly watched seat will be Ahmednagar where Sujay Vikhe Patil is the BJPs nominee. He is the son of Congress veteran and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil. Sujay Vikhe Patil joined the BJP in the run-up to the polls, after the NCP refused to vacate the Ahmednagar seat for the Congress. He is now pitted against NCPs Sangram Jagtap.

Key constituencies in Karnataka to be watched out for during the polls include Gulbarga, where Mallikarjun Kharge is pitted against Umesh Jadhav, who ahead of polls joined the BJP quitting Congress and as MLA; and Shimogga, where former chief Minister Yeddyurappas son B Y Raghavendra is pitted against another former chief minister S Bangarappas son Madhu Bangarappa.

In 14 constituencies that will go to the polls in the second phase on April 23, BJP is contesting all the seats. Congress and JD(S) that are facing the polls in alliance have fielded their candidates in 12 and two constituencies respectively.

The BJP has a huge stake in this phase in Uttar Pradesh with the party having won seven out of the ten seats in the region in 2014, leaving three for the Samajwadi Party, but facing a tough challenge from SP-BSP-RLD combine here.

The campaigning for the phase witnessed a new low with SP leader Azam Khan making an indecent remark, targeting his opponent Jaya Prada in Rampur by allegedly speculating on the colour of her underwear and attracting the saffron partys wrath, besides that of the National Commission for Women.

Khan, who also faced a 72-hour ban by the Election Commission of India on his campaigning after making the underwear jibe, was among the three other leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BSP supremo Mayawati, who faced the poll panels wrath for making provocative speeches.

The political heavyweights, whose fate will be decided in the third phase of elections here, include Mulayam Singh Yadav, Union minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who is fighting from Bareilly and BJPs Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.

The Lok Sabha polls are being conducted in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The election results will be declared on May 23. PTIROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Bhopal, April 20

The Election Commission today issued a show-cause notice to Malegaon blast accused and BJP candidate from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur over her remark about Hemant Karkare, the Maharashtra ATS chief who was killed in the 26/11 terror attack, an official said here.

Addressing BJP workers here on Thursday night, Thakur had claimed that Karkare died during the attack as she had cursed him for torturing her when he probed the blast case as chief of the Anti-Terrorism Squad. However, after her remarks kicked up a row, she tendered an apology on Friday.

We took suo motu cognisance of the statement and sought a report from the assistant returning officer (ARO) on the matter. We got the report this morning and we have issued notice, which is returnable within 24 hours, to the organiser of the programme and the person who made the statement, District Election Officer and Bhopal Collector Sudam Khade said. We have also sent ARO reports copy to the EC, he said.

Asked about the point of serving the notice to her as she has already tendered apology, Khade said, Let the reply come, then we will decide.

The organiser of the Thursdays event had been given permission on certain conditions as the model code of conduct was in force, he said. One of the conditions was that objectionable language to defame anyone will not be used, he said. Out on bail, Thakur (48) is facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the blast case.

The BJP on Wednesday fielded her from the Bhopal seat, where she is set to have a direct contest with Congress heavyweight and former MP CM Digvijay Singh. Her statement against Karkare raised a political storm with the Opposition demanding an apology from the PM.  PTI

BJP would have fielded Godse too: Conguttara@tribuneindia.com

Ruchika M. Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 21

The electoral process in Punjab for the 13 Parliamentary seats will begin on Monday.

The Election Commission of India will issue poll notification for the seventh phase of elections on Monday morning. Process to file nominations will begin on April 22. The last day for filing of nominations will be April 29, and last day for scrutiny of nominations will be April 30. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is May 2.

Along with Punjab, the other states that go to polls on May 19 will be Bihar (8 parliamentary constituencies), Jharkhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (8), West Bengal (9), Chandigarh (1), Uttar Pradesh (13) and Himachal Pradesh (4).

With the election process set rolling, the ruling Congress in the state and Aam Aadmi Party have announced their candidates for all 13 parliamentary seats.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is yet to announce its candidates for the two crucial seats of Bathinda and Ferozepur. Political speculation is rife over sitting Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal being re-nominated from Bathinda and Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal to himself contest from neighbouring Ferozepur constituency.

Over the past few days, the couple, aided by party patriarch Parkash Singh Badal and Youth Akali Dal leaders led by Bikram Singh Majithia, have stepped up the partys campaign in these important constituencies of Malwa region.

Bhartiya Janta Party, which is an ally of the SAD, and contests three of the 13 seats, is yet to name its candidates.

On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party has announced its candidates for all parliamentary seats. Its breakaway group led by Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Punjabi Ekta Party which has formed a larger umbrella of several political factions under the aegis of Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA), has also announced its candidates on all parliamentary seats.

The breakaway group of Akali DalAkali Dal Taksalitoo is still caught in its now-on now -off alliance with the PDA. Though an understanding has been reached for Khadoor Sahib Parliamentary seat between Taksalis led by sitting MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura and PDA in favour of Paramjit Kaur Khalra fielded by PDA, there is still no formal understanding for the remaining seats.

The party has fielded two candidatesone from Anandpur Sahib and another from Sangrur.

The poll battle in Punjab this time would be different with all three main political parties in fray facing dissent from within its rank and file. Both AAP and SAD have seen dissent and rebellion much before the poll process was set in motion and seem prepared after the storm has blown over. But the ruling Congress is facing the rebellion nowafter nominations to various seats were announced.

The polls will also be a litmus test for all political parties and the breakaway factions in fray: for the Congress to prove its popularity after two years of rule; for the Akali Dal-BJP to prove its mettle after being completely decimated in 2017; for the AAP to prove its alternate politics is relevant; and for the breakaway factionsTaksalis and PEPto prove that they have the political acumen and peoples mandate.Folk Music Group's artistic director Kim Young-kil with his "ajaeng," Korea's traditional low-pitched string instrument. Courtesy of the National Gugak Center



Folk Music Group celebrates 40th anniversary



By Anna J. Park



While some global music fans seem to be fanatical about K-pop, others might have wondered what traditional Korean music sounds like. For those unfamiliar with it, Kim Young-kil, 57, artistic director of the Folk Music Group, one of three traditional music companies affiliated with the National Gugak Center, explains that Korean folk music embodies all the primal sounds of all the people who ever lived on the Korean Peninsula.



"Traditional folk music runs through our veins. It is the collection of primitive sounds that we heard as lullabies, or the sounds of peasants working fields. Lamentations became songs, wind blowing through bamboo forests became inspired music played on the daegeum bamboo flute. As it is the sound of nature, audience members can get glimpses of their hometowns or ancestors when listening to it," Kim told The Korea Times during a recent interview.



Traditional Korean music has diverse genres, ranging from "pungmulnori" percussion music ensembles and "binari" shamanistic prayer songs, to "pansori" musical storytelling. These various genres of music were historically enjoyed by the general population outside the palaces, originating back to ancient kingdoms of the Korean Peninsula.



However prior to 1979, the performers at the National Gugak Center mostly played "jeongak," royal court music known for its solemnity and elegance. This is the music the nobility and the royals enjoyed to calm and refine their minds during the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom.



"It was in 1979 that the National Gugak Center decided to establish this music company, the Folk Music Group, to present the real music that ordinary Koreans have enjoyed for so long outside the palaces. So the center recruited famous traditional music masters all across the nation, from vocal masters to instrumentalists," Kim said, adding the new folk music group garnered immediate support from the public.





The Folk Music Group celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, since its establishment back in 1979. Courtesy of the National Gugak CenterROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 20

The Maharashtra Government is likely to deploy central forces at Nashik where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a rally on Monday with Intelligence reports indicating that farmers may hold protests. Modi will be campaigning for Shiv Sena's sitting MP Hemant Godse from Nashik as well as BJP's Bharati Pawar from the neighbouring constituency of Dindori.

District officials said they had received inputs on possible protests by farmers at Nashik while the CPM, which has some amount of support in the region, has announced it would hold a pensioners' protest at the venue. "The ground at Pimpalgaon-Baswant where the PM will hold a rally measures 700 acres. Securing its perimeter will be a tough task," a district police official said.

The area lies at the heart of onion country where farmers have been forced to sell produce at less than Rs 2 per kg. NCPs Sameer Bhujbal and his uncle Chhagan Bhujbal have made it a major election issue.

BJP leaders are wary of the audience leaving in the middle of Modi's speech. Local party leaders were taken to task after sections of the audience began walking out while Modi was delivering his speech at rallies in Wardha and Ahmednagar earlier this month.

Party leaders in Nashik have been asked to ensure that the crowds mobilised by them stay put till the PM concludes his speech.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Panighata/Bagula, April 20

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was suffering from haratanka, a phobia of losing elections, and was trying to win in the state by dividing people on communal lines.

Modi was merely repeating words told to him by party cadres and was not cross-checking the facts about Bengal, she said.

He (Modi) knows that he will lose elections and that is why his face has turned pale. He is now suffering from haratanka and is uttering nonsense everyday thinking about losing in UP, Rajasthan, New Delhi, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha and other states, she said during a rally at Panighata in support of party candidate for Krishnanagar Mohua Moitra.

I do not mind if BJP wins in Tripura but that will not give him (Modi) 543 seats. That is the reason he is roaming around in Bengal hoping to get votes by dividing people along Hindu-Muslim lines, she said.

Do you know why is he (Modi) roaming in West Bengal? Its because the RSS has advised him to keep Mamata under control. There is nobody who speaks against him other than Mamata, the TMC chief said.  PTIuttara@tribuneindia.com

Patan, April 21

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it had not returned Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

Addressing a poll rally at Patan in his home state Gujarat, he also took a jibe at NCP leader Sharad Pawar, saying if he is unaware of his next move, then how Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan can gauge what he will do.

Following the air strike at Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, there was a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter planes on February 27 in which IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by the neighbouring country.

Before his jet was hit, the IAF pilot downed an F-16 fighter of Pakistan. He was released on the night of March 1 by Pakistan.

Referring to it, Modi said after the pilot was caught, the opposition started seeking a reply from him over this.

"We conducted a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world that Modi did this to you," he said.

"A senior American official said on the second day that Modi has kept ready 12 missiles and might attack and the situation will deteriorate. Pakistan announced to return the pilot on the second day, else it was going to be a "qatal ki raat'," Modi said.

"This was said by America, I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak about it when the time will come," he added.

Asserting his government's commitment towards national security, Modi said whether the prime minister's chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or terrorists will remain alive.

He also took a swipe at Pawar, who on Saturday said he was "terribly afraid" as to what Modi, who once called Pawar his mentor in politics, would do next.

"Sharad Pawar says I don't know what Modi would do. If he is unaware of what Modi will do tomorrow, how will Imran Khan know? Modi said.

The prime minister also appealed to people of Gujarat to make the BJP victorious on all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state, where polling will be held on Tuesday.

"It is the duty of people of my home state to take care of the 'son of the soil', give all 26 seats in Gujarat to me," he said.

"My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 will be why it happened," he said. PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

Kalpeta (Wayanad), April 21

Amid speculation she could be pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said she will be happy to contest if asked by party president Rahul Gandhi.

You will find out. If my Congress president tells me to contest, I will be happy to contest, Priyanka Gandhi, sister of Rahul Gandhi, told reporters here.

She was responding to a question whether she will contest the poll from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh from where Modi is seeking re-election.

Last month, Priyanka Gandhi had thrown a hint that she is not averse to taking on Modi in Varanasi.

Shouldnt I fight from Varanasi? Vadra said when a party worker asked her to contest from Rae Bareli, setting of speculations about her possible candidature.

Earlier, the Congress leader had also said she would contest the election if the party wanted her to do so.

In her media interaction here, Priyanka Gandhi dismissed BJP leader and Union Minister Uma Bharatis controversial remarks that the country will see her the way it views a thiefs wife.

From my grandmother, grandfather, father, mother, they have said one thing or the other about all of my family. They will keep on saying such things. But we will keep on doing our job, she responded with a smile.

When asked to comment on the impact Priyanka could have on the poll outcome, Bharati had last week said: Nothing. Why will she have an impact... Whose husband is facing theft charges? She will be seen the way India sees a thiefs wife.

Priyanka Gandhi, Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, was in Kerala for the last two days canvassing votes for Rahul Gandhi, who is contesting in Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency besides Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.  PTIshriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 21

India offered all possible assistance to Sri Lanka following the multiple blasts that killed at least 160. The offer was made when Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Sri Lankan President Maithripala Srisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe to condole the blasts.

PM Modi pointed out that these cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world.

The PM renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka for ensuring its security against the challenges such as those posed by terrorism.

India has twice in the past stepped in to help restore stability in Sri Lanka. Indian troops first moved into Sri Lanka in the early 70s to quell a Buddhist-Marxist insurgency that sought to overthrow the legitimate Government. The second time, India troops were sent to Sri Lanka in the 80s to help Colombo strike a peace accord with Tamil militants.

Earlier, the Foreign Office extended its condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to those injured in the attacks.

It said India has always opposed and rejected terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and has urged concerted action by the international community against terrorism, including cross-border terrorism. There can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terror.

We call for perpetrators of such ghastly and heinous act and those who provide them support to be brought to justice expeditiously. We stand together with the people and Government of Sri Lanka in this hour of grief, added the statement by the Ministry of External Affairs.gspannu7@gmail.com

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 21

Lt Gen DS Hooda (retd) under whose charge the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes in September 2016, on Sunday said Pakistans behaviour will not change with one surgical strike or an airstrike.

He predicted a challenge India faces with the rise of China and suggested demarcating the Line of Actual Control (LAC)  the de facto 3488 km boundary between the two nations.

On Pakistan he said, One odd surgical strike or air strike cant change Pakistans behaviour.

General Hooda was speaking on the salient features of Beyond Politics: Debating a new Security Manifesto  a report which he made for the Congress party.

The discussion was organised by think-tank Observer Research Organisation (ORF) in the national capital.

Former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, who was present at the discussion, said, War is not an option. We build armies to not win a war but avoid a war. We must find a way to normalise relations with Pakistan. If we need to change behaviour of Pakistan we need to change our behaviour towards them.

If we both demonise each other we can never put an end to these killings or infiltrations, he said.

How is your policy a success if in 2018 there has been highest number of killings of military personnel and civilians, he questioned.

Briefing about the report, General Hooda said we have not ruled out the military option with Pakistan and we have not ruled out dialogue but that needs to have visible results.

This is not a perfect document, General Hooda said, adding our hope was to start a debate and thanked the Congress party for initiating this.

The document has spoken about how to manage ties with US, Russia and China.

Our biggest challenge is the rise of China. There is going to be long-term strategic engagement between the two.

Growing trade cannot alone sort out matters and suggested that we need to convey to China about sanctity of our borders and our strategic interests in the Indian Ocean.

Demarcating the LAC is one option, he said.

There is a weakness as our infrastructure along LAC is poor, Hooda said.

Talking about the core points of the report, he said it refers to the following, Assuming our rightful place in global affairs; achieving a secure neighbourhood; peaceful resolution of internal conflicts; protecting our people and the need to strengthen our capabilities.

The report suggests integration of the Ministry of Defence. The budget has to be based on a capability development plan, climatic change, demographic pressures and economic security and energy security.

India should look for role in international decision making structures, the report said.

Speaking about Jammu and Kashmir, General Hooda said we need to tackle internal and external dimension.

Have empathic approach, have a clearly defined political objective and well created information campaign, Hooda said, who was the Northern Army Commander.

Chidambaram said if the Congress party is voted to power it will implement it.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 20

Out on bail in a money laundering case, in which he is accused of causing losses to the tune of Rs 900 crore to the exchequer, veteran NCP Chhagan Bhujbal is seeking to re-assert himself in his old stronghold of Nashik. Battling ill-health brought about by age and a two-year stint in jail, Bhujbal (72) has hit the campaign trail for his nephew Sameer, NCP's Nashik nominee.

Sameer was in jail with his uncle for kickbacks during the latter's tenure as Minister for Public Works when several major project, such as the Maharashtra Sadan in New

Delhi, were allegedly awarded to dubious contractors.

The elder Bhujbal has now become farmers' champion, addressing rallies across western Maharashtra.

A skilled orator, rally after rally, he accuses the Narendra Modi government of betraying the farmers.

Nashik being the main supplier of fruit and vegetables to cities like Mumbai, Thane and Pune apart from Nashik, the foremost concern of voters is the proposed Mumbai-Nagpur expressway through vast stretches of fertile land.

With farmers refusing permission to officials to survey their land, the government has had to scale down plans to construct townships on either side of the proposed expressway. Land acquisition has slowed down because of elections, but farmers are apprehensive about the process being resumed, should the BJP-Shiv Sena do well in the Lok Sabha elections. And Bhujbal is playing on their insecurities.

The Shiv Sena has betrayed the farmers by allying with the BJP. Uddhav Thackeray had called the BJP government a bunch of thieves and the loan waiver scheme a big scam. Now he has tied up with the BJP, he tells the crowds.

Among those veering towards the Bhujbals are onion farmers, who have been forced to sell their produce at Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon for a pittance despite the state and central governments promising a minimum support price (MSP) for their crop.

The Shiv Sena has fielded sitting MP Hemant Godse from Nashik. Bhujbal can draw comfort from the fact that no sitting MP has managed to get re-elected from the seat since 1952. Only once in 1971 was Bhanudas Kavade of the Congress re-elected.

Sameer had won the Lok Sabha seat in 2009 before his uncle unsuccessfully entered the fray in 2014.

In this round, he can expect rebel BJP leader Manikrao Kokate to cut into his rivals votes. On the other hand, Pawan Pawar of Prakash Ambedkars Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) may eat into his vote share.

Belonging to the Mali community, the Bhujbals have for long headed a network of cultivators in Nashik. Apart from a swanky Knowledge City, they control a string of educational institutions and companies under the Armstrong banner.

Bhujbal himself has indicated that he would be contesting the coming Assembly elections from his old seat of Yeola. His son Pankaj is sitting legislator from Nandgaon.

Both these seats fall in the neighbouring Dindori parliamentary constituency.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 20

The US and Japan are poised to provide additional thrust to a four-member grouping of democracies that aims to balance China as well as keep the Indo-Pacific region stable, according to sources.

Before their next meeting, this four-country US-Japan-Australia-India grouping will explore the prospects of an expansion. The countries in their sights are Vietnam, the Philippines and New Zealand. Singapore is very nearly a co-opted member after it developed close military ties with India.

The politically pleasing appellate of the Quad as a grouping of democracies against a single-party ruled China will be lost if Vietnam is included. The Quad may be willing to live with that if Hanoi enthusiastically endorses its theme of preserving the existing order in the shipping lanes of Indo-Pacific instead of allowing China to achieve parity or gain the upper hand.

The issue was discussed during Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhales recent visit to Washington and both sides agreed on the need to induct more Indo-Pacific partners. It is too early to say whether the new members will be inducted as formal members or encouraged to achieve seamlessness in maritime operations separately as India does.

It be further refined when the principals meet  the Japanese PM Shinzo Abe visits Washington next week while US President Donald Trump will be in Japan in May. All heads of government of this grouping, including the Indian Prime Minister, will get to exchange views in June on the sidelines of the G-20 summit on Osaka, Japan.

The current accent on Quad seems to be hold meetings among middle-ranking diplomats from the US, Japan, India and Australia. The Quad had held a joint naval exercise of the four countries over a decade ago. But the furious Chinese reaction at that time has led to finessing of the strategy. India holds two separate naval exercises  one with the US-Japan combine and another with Australia.

Indias two separate naval exercises do not raise Chinese eyebrows and are as good as holding a four-country exercise because the US, Japan and Australia have common procedures and military hardware.

Sources pointed out that the latest endorsement of a bigger alliance for a stable Indo-Pacific has come from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The aim, they said, is to use their combined resources to enhance their visibility in the region as well as act as a deterrent against Chinese intimidation.

Expansion planlaxmi@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 20

In an unprecedented development, a dismissed employee of the Supreme Court has written to 22 judges of the court levelling allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who termed these unbelievable.

Barely a few hours after the allegations were reported by four online portals, a Bench of the CJI, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna conducted an extraordinary hearing on Saturday and alleged a larger conspiracy behind the allegations and that he would not stoop too low even to deny these.

During the 30-minute hearing, the CJI said the independence of judiciary was under very serious threat and unscrupulous allegations of sexual harassment had been levelled as some bigger force wanted to deactivate the office of CJI.

The judiciary cannot be made a scapegoat, the CJI said. Though the CJI was heading the Bench, he left it to Justice Mishra to take a call on passing a judicial order. An order signed by Justice Mishra and Justice Khanna left it to the wisdom of media to show restraint and act responsibly so that independence of judiciary is not affected.

Justice Gogoi, who assumed the office of the CJI on October 3 last year, will retire on November 17.

Confirming receipt of a letter by several sitting judges, Supreme Court Secretary General Sanjeev Sudhakar Kalgaonkar said all the allegations by the woman were mala fide and had no basis.

The issue has come up at a time when a Bench headed by him is scheduled to hear many, many sensitive cases next week and this was also the month of Lok Sabha elections, the CJI pointed out.

This is the reward a CJI gets after 20 years of service, he said, warning that the judiciary is under very serious threat. We will not allow this to happen. I will sit on this chair and discharge my judicial functions without any fear.

Bar Council of India chairman Manan K Mishra condemned the false and cooked-up allegations.

Attorney General KK Venugopal told the court that earlier also two such instances had come to light, against a former judge and a senior advocate, and the media was asked not to publish.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said it appears to be a sheer blackmail technique.

Common thread in queries by portals

New Delhi: CJI Ranjan Gogoi said there was a common thread in communications sent to him by four news portals that carried stories on allegation of sexual harassment against him, and suggested a bigger force could be behind the controversy to deactivate the office of the CJI. He said the portals  Scroll, The leaflet, Caravan and the Wire  carried the stories on the allegations. There is a common thread in the communications, and the questions I was asked to answer are common, he said, adding, they (news portals) gave less than five hours notice to respond.

This is unbelievable. I do not think I should stoop too low even to deny these allegations. But that comes after 20 years of selfless service as a judge, he said. PTINacogdoches, TX (75965)

Today

Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Low 38F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Low 38F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.This Feb. 28 fie photo shows a view of North Korea's embassy in Madrid, Spain. A man suspected of involvement in a mysterious dissident group's February raid on the embassy has been arrested in Los Angeles by U.S. authorities. AP



A man suspected of involvement in a mysterious dissident group's February raid on North Korea's Embassy in Madrid was arrested in Los Angeles by U.S. authorities.



Christopher Ahn, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested and charged Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The specific charges against Ahn were not immediately clear.



The person could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.



Separately, on Thursday, federal agents raided the apartment of Adrian Hong, a leader of the Free Joseon group, the person said. Hong was not arrested.



Free Joseon, also known as the Cheollima Civil Defense group, styles itself as a government-in-exile dedicated to toppling the ruling Kim family dynasty in North Korea.



The group said it consists of North Korean defectors living in countries around the world, but that it has not worked with or contacted defectors ''living under tight security'' in South Korea.



Lee Wolosky, a lawyer for the group, said in a statement that he was ''dismayed that the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to execute warrants against U.S. persons that derive from criminal complaints filed by the North Korean regime.''



''The last U.S. citizen who fell into the custody of the Kim regime returned home maimed from torture and did not survive,'' Wolosky said, referring to college student Otto Warmbier's 2017 death.



''We have received no assurances from the U.S. government about the safety and security of the U.S. nationals it is now targeting,'' he added.



A Spanish police investigator in the case told The Associated Press in Madrid on Saturday that Ahn was identified by the Spanish police at a later stage of its investigation into the Feb. 22 raid and that an international arrest warrant was also issued against him.



That's in addition to warrants issued for the other suspects named last month in Spanish court documents.



The investigator, who spoke under condition of anonymity given the sensitivities of the case, said that because of judicial secrecy, he couldn't confirm how many arrest warrants had been issued by Spanish authorities beyond the two initially confirmed.



A Spanish judge said an investigation uncovered evidence that ''a criminal organization'' shackled and gagged embassy staff before escaping with computers, hard drives and documents.



Cheollima said on its website that it was responding to an urgent situation at the embassy and was invited onto the property, and that ''no one was gagged or beaten.''



The group said there were ''no other governments involved with or aware of our activity until after the event.''



The Spanish court report said the intruders urged North Korea's only accredited diplomat in Spain, So Yun Sok, to defect.



In March 2017, the group said it had arranged the escape of Kim Han Sol, the son of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who was assassinated at a Malaysian airport earlier that year.



The Cheollima website said the group shared ''certain information of enormous potential value'' from the raid with the FBI, under mutually agreed terms of confidentiality.



According to the Spanish court report, Hong flew to the United States on Feb. 23, got in touch with the FBI and offered to share material and videos. The report didn't say what type of information the items contained or whether the FBI accepted the offer.



The FBI said its standard practice is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations. (AP)

uttara@tribuneindia.com

New Delhi, April 21

Minutes after multiple explosions hit Sri Lanka on Sunday, Indian Minister of External Affairs said she was keeping a close watch on the developments.

"Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL," Swaraj said in a tweet.

Six blasts hit three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday. The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress in churches. The official handle of the High Commission of India in Colombo also said in a tweet that they were also "closely monitoring the situation".

"Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789," the Indian High Commission in Colombo tweeted. Agencies

Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation. @IndiainSL  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789  India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) April 21, 2019editorial@tribune.com

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 20

Amid persisting disquiet among Dalit leaders of the Doaba and Malwa regions over being marginalised in the allocation of ticket for the Lok Sabha polls, behind the scene efforts to placate the sulking senior Dalit leader Mohinder Singh Kaypee has paid off.

After getting an assurance from the partys top brass of suitable adjustment in the organisational structure, the former PPCC chief has silenced his rebellion tone since yesterday.

He has been assured of suitable rehabilitation in the organisational structure at the AICC level or could be made to fight the byelections for the reserved Chabbewal Assembly segment, getting vacated in event of sitting MLA getting elected as MP from Hoshiarpur.

Kaypee had been upset over the partys ticket from Jalandhar being given to sitting MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh. During camping in the national Capital for the last few days, the former MP had meetings with senior leaders like Ahmed Patel, who advised him to get in touch with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, whose assurance for rehabilitation would matter at last.

Sources said some senior Dalit leaders, including Cabinet minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who is related to Mohinder Kayee, played the role of interlocutors between the Chief Minister and Kaypee to break the ice.

Though Amritsar MLA and Balmiki leader Dr Raj Kumar Verka had last week brought him along to meet the Chief Minister and had even talked about the decision of the Jalandhar ticket being reconsidered. But nothing thereafter happened as the former PPCC chief had even mooted the proposal of floating a Taksali Congress front.

Interlocutors facilitated another round of telephonic talk between the Chief Minister and Mohinder kaypee, following which the Dalit leader is learnt to have reassured him commitment towards his mother party (Congress).

Confirming that he had talked to the Chief Minister, Kaypee said he was committed to the party and had full faith in the leadership.

Rebellion tone silencededitorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana April 20

Workers of the Congress and the SAD clashed over a minor issue at Sundar Nagar, Mundian Kalan, late last night. Five persons sustained minor injuries and were taken to the local civil hospital. They were later discharged.

SAD workers Ricky and Micky, who live in Sundar Nagar, alleged that three youths, owing allegiance to the Congress, were answering the natures call outside their house and when they were objected, the former argued with them. The matter was settled and the youths left.

Later, they allegedly barged into their house and attacked them and their family members, including women. The accused allegedly ransacked the house and damaged the furniture.

Ricky alleged, When we reached Jamalpur police station to file a complaint, the police refused to take any action and told us that Congress leader Gurmel Singh was supporting the assailants.

SAD MLA from Sahnewal Sharanjit Singh Dhillon then went to the police station along with his supporters. He also called Police Commissioner Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill and told him to register a case or the SAD workers would lay a siege to the police station.

Gurmel Singh, whose wife is a Block Samiti member, denied the allegations and claimed that it was a political drama enacted by the SAD MLA, who wanted to gain mileage ahead of the elections. He claimed that the three youths had come to meet him for some work. Ricky and Micky along with their aides attacked them and levelled false allegations against them, he alleged.

SHO Surinder Singh said the matter was being investigated and action would be taken on merit.

Minor issue

SAD workers Ricky and Micky, who live in Sundar Nagar, alleged that three youths, owing allegiance to the Congress, were answering the natures call outside their house and when they were objected, the former argued with them. The matter was settled and the youths left. Later, they allegedly barged into their house and attacked them.editorial@tribune.com

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, April 20

Alleging improper assessment of damage to their crops, suffered three days back due to rain and hailstorm, Sangrur farmers under the banner of the BKU (Ugrahan) today met senior officers and alleged that they had suffered 80 per cent losses while revenue officers concerned had shown only 20 per cent damage.

They have announced to launch an agitation in the coming days if officers failed to undertake proper assessment of the damaged crop.

The rain and hailstorm have caused around 80 per cent damage to the standing wheat crop in various villages of Sangrur district. Its likely to increase debt of farmers. But officers concerned have shown only 20 per cent losses, which is injustice with us. We will launch an agitation if officers fail to conduct proper assessment of the damage, said Gobinder Singh, BKU (Ugrahan) Sangrur block president.

Farmers alleged that after rain and hailstorm, revenue officers visited their villages, but they did not visit fields to take exact assessment of losses. They also alleged that many revenue officers prepared reports by sitting in their offices and taking feedback through phone.

How the officers could prepare damage reports without visiting fields? But it has happened in many villages. There are many farmers in my contact who have suffered more than 80 per cent losses, but revenue officers have shown only 20 per cent losses. We have demanded proper assessment of damage because its third crop loss during the last two years, said Labh Singh, Bhawanigarh block president of the BKU (Ugrahan).

When contacted, Patwari Dharminder Singh confirmed that earlier they had prepared preliminary reports which showed 20 per cent losses.

Today we have prepared a detailed report and detected around 35 per cent losses. We are conducting detailed assessment and will send our reports to higher authorities for financial compensation to farmers, he said.shalender@tribune.com

CS Venkiteswaran

Stars are the product of signification. Stars are mediated identities, textual constructions, for audiences do not get the real person but rather a collection of images, words and sounds which are taken to stand for the person. From their familiarity with a range of star texts, moviegoers form impressions of that person so that the star becomes a collection of meanings. The Star System  Paul McDonald

What is it that turns the star as a collection of images, sounds and words into a collection of meanings for a society? An actor who turns into a star with a body of work behind him is associated and identified with certain ideas, ideals or values. The aura created around the star is sometimes consciously built through selective narratives or by the industry (as in the case of MGR) or happens through the sheer power of star image that defies all logic (as in the case of Rajinikanth, for instance). Seldom does the popular appeal of the star readily transform into political appeal, or fandom translate into votes. Whenever and wherever it has happened, there existed a combination of factors like the acting persona, popular appeal and personal charm of the star on the one hand, and the socio-political formations of the moment on the other, that made the rise of the star-politician possible. Its also accompanied by the simultaneous erosion of realpolitik, where rhetoric takes over basic issues, and people are swayed by words and images rather than deeds and facts. This transformation of the actor/star into politician/ruler is also something unpredictable and mysterious. While a few stars like MG Ramachandran and NT Rama Rao could make it, many others, both in North and South India, only achieved partial success or no success at all.

What makes a star-politician

Film theorists and critics have grappled with this phenomenon for long. While early writers like Chidananda Dasgupta explained stars political avatar as an aftereffect of their mythological past in cinema, where people identify them with gods or divine figures, many others relate it to intra-psychic or affective factors, where the individual fans transcend or supplement their lives by seeking avenues of pleasure, sense of community, or enjoy forbidden fantasies through the stars they adore. Madhava Prasad explains the transformation in his book Cine-Politics: Film Stars and Political Existence in South India, thus: We are confronted with the transformation of identifications into virtual political institutions. We are thus no longer in the realm of the individual, intra-psychic fantasy, but in concrete programmes of political utopia realised in the social world and affecting even those who never participated in the fantasy. Fantasy here reaches out and occupies the place of the universal, the law itself.

The origins, causes and effects of such star phenomena differ from place to place, context to context. The case of MGR and NTR, Sunil Dutt and Amitabh Bachchan, Chiranjeevi and Vijayakanth, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, all differ and each one has a different story to tell. It was the long and vibrant history of Dravidian politics, led by stalwarts like Periyar, Annadurai and M Karunanidhi and their groundwork at the grassroots level that launched MGR as a star, facilitating his entry into politics and eventual ascent to chief ministership. A slew of films scripted and directed with a clear political vision and intentions, with MGR as the hero, contributed to the making of his star image and public persona. The mythology created around this body of work, when the right occasion came up, successfully erased the boundaries between the reel and the real, gifting the star the mantle of political power. According to Prasad, MGR went on to transcend the role assigned to him by DMK as the bearer of the party message, turning into a star who then becomes the only message of the film, with the narrative and character dynamics falling in line to create the omnipotent hero, admired and desired by all.

In the case of NT Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh, a different combination of factors was at work. Though many attribute his rise to power to his mythological roles, it does not prove to be true if one looks at his oeuvre. In fact, NTR acted in more socials and only in a few mythologicals, while MGR never acted in any. Another factor that contributed to the rise of the stars during the MGR-NTR era is the importance of oratory in political campaigning. While stylised and polemical Dravidian oratory was instrumental in the popularity of DMK politics and the cinema narratives DMK encouraged, in the case of NTR too, combining speech in classical-sounding Telugu with theatrical body movements and gestures, was of crucial importance for the leakage of the cinematic into the electoral (Politics as Performace: A Social History of the Telugu Cinema by SV Srinivas).

Factors at play

NTRs ascendance has been explained as a combination of factors like the growing economic clout of the agricultural castes, especially the crystallization of the power of Kammas. As Srinivas observes, It is apparent that the arrival of NTR the politician implicates the Telugu cinema and film industry quite directly in the ascendance of erstwhile Presidency peasant-turned-entrepreneurs to the centre stage of politics. According to Uma Bhrugunanda, NTRs screen image was able to provide the ingredients for legitimising his representative claims and the forging of the Telugu identity. The growing disillusionment with the Congress and the political vacuum it created added the needed momentum. Interestingly, unlike MGR and the DMK, NTRs Telugu Desam Party was created out of the blue, without any legacy of social action or ideological struggle. But in both cases, it was a confluence of various factors that made the transformation of a star into a leader viable. In the case of Jayalalithaa, more than the star power, it was her claim as the sole and legitimate successor of MGR.

Even while MGR and NTR made it big in politics, their contemporaries in the neighbouring states, Rajkumar in Karnataka and Prem Nazir in Kerala who commanded similar public appeal, never took the plunge. Though Rajkumar was a huge political presence that swayed political fortunes and public agenda in Karnataka, be it Gokak agitation, sons of the soil issue or the Kaveri water dispute, he never openly aligned with any political party. Prem Nazir, though a Congress sympathiser, never contested. Like Rajkumar, Rajinikanth has maintained his distance from politics, but repeatedly makes covert and overt reference about political issues. As for Kamal Haasan, his Makkal Needhi Maiam seems to have taken a very cautious line, remaining independent yet slightly left-leaning. Haasan seems to be testing the political waters before taking the plunge. Here too, more than the star power, it is realpolitik in focus, with stardom as supplement.

In the case of other hopefuls like Chiranjeevi, Vijayakanth, Sarathkumar, Khushboo, Napoleon and now Kamal Haasan, the path has not been an easy one, despite the fact that all of them commanded a great popular appeal and fan base. It seems that the political power equations at the ground level has either got fragmented or changed. It is no longer the one crying for a star-leader wielding enough charismatic power to inspire and integrate the people of a region, community or linguistic group as a whole. What they could do was create some local consolidations in terms of community or specific issues.

Role reversal!

In this election, what we find is, more than film stars contesting for elections, politicians themselves are being presented as stars in films. In the run-up to the present elections, we had a series of biopics on politicians, regional and national, ranging from Narendra Modi to Manmohan Singh, and YSR to Thackeray. Instead of transferring acquired star image to make political impact, here the tactic is reversed. Here, the narratives of established politicians assume tinsel avatars to usurp image-capital, through movies that adulate or deride. Is it an indication of things to come  the shift from star-politicians to politician-stars?

X-factor they bring to the table

Transformation of stars into leaders of the kind of MGR and NTR may be past, but movie actors could still work as an additional X-factor in many constituencies, provided other factors are favourable. In most cases, stars need the support and sponsorship of an established regional or national party to win the seat. It is a win-win, no-loss situation for the political party and the star, for a win or loss will not affect either of them too dearly. In the Hindi belt, no stars could garner enough fan base or adulation to make a leader of at least state-level influence and appeal. Richard Dyer in his book, Stars, makes a distinction between stars as a phenomenon of production, as part of the economic control of the film industry, and as a phenomenon of consumption that arises from the meanings represented by stars to the audiences. The history of the rise of stars as politicians show that though both these phenomena work in the entertainment industry, for them to translate into political mandate and power presupposes other socio-political synergies. Though both the star and the leader command public admiration and fanatic following, movies and politics are different ball games altogether. For, at the end of the day, while the producers and the industry make and maintain stardom, in the case of politics, though such financial and image capital do have much say and influence, there is an element of accountability of some sort, at least in the form of periodical elections. Surely, the stars glamour and celebrity image is useful in the political arena to attract the voters, and give them initial advantage in the campaigns. But such star power is only enough to gain personal victories in certain constituencies. In the case of the likes of MGR, it goes beyond winning a seat through aligning with existing political formations. Stars like MGR, Jayalalithaa, NTR, etc., could inspire a whole population, inflame their imagination by appealing to their cultural identity or linguistic pride, and stem and sway political tides. But such star phenomena are rare, because it presupposes a constituency of voters/people who are potential followers, and are ready to go beyond or sacrifice their other identities and affiliations  of caste, community, region, religion, politics, culture, ethnicity, language, etc., and merge with their icon. In a world where social media has effectively consolidated and also fragmented all the constituencies  communal, cultural, linguistic or regional  it has become difficult for such star formations to happen. They need longer time scale and consistent attention span, but the new dynamics of communication that is no longer top-down but viral are not amenable for such unfolding. It impacts upon the socio-political discourses and public agenda as waves of influence. So, the forms of hero worship and trajectories of iconisation, too, have changed and the present situation calls for totally different strategies of mobilisation and consolidation.shalender@tribune.com

Anup Dutta in Bhopal

It is April 17, six in the evening... Beelkheda village, situated close to the picturesque Bada Talab that overlooks domes of the mosque on the other end of the lake, has come alive all of a sudden. The village, a part of the prestigious Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, is where the BJP is looking to cash in on the Hindutva lehar (wave) by fielding hardliner, Malegoan blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. Standing against her is the Congress Digvijay Singh, who, last year, undertook the circumambulation of River Narmada, walking more than 3,000 km, to reinvent his political image.

Like the rest of Bhopal, election fever has been slow in catching up in the village. Nearly 18 km from the state party offices of the BJP and the Congress, it is yet to see the flag of any political party. Beelkheda resident Mukesh Meena says, This time around, there is no Modi lehar. It is going to be neck and neck fight. It goes to poll on May 12.

Bipolar contest

Elections in Madhya Pradesh have always been a bipolar contest between the BJP and the Congress and this time around the Lok Sabha election has turned into a presidential style battle between the candidates, quite different from other parts of the country.

Here the campaigns of parties are built around their respective state leaders  the Congress Chief Minister Kamal Nath (with photos of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi finding a place in the banners) and former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan (with photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah in every poster).

Trend talk

The BJP lost the political edge nearly four months back when the Congress party won the November 2018 Assembly elections. It is now banking on Modi as the sole electoral face of the party along with a tornado of militarised nationalism that projects Pakistan as enemy number one. In the Assembly polls, the Congress had secured 40.9 per cent of the vote share. Despite the low numbers, the Congress had won 114 seats against 109 of the BJP, which had garnered 41 per cent votes. The Congress fell two short of the simple majority mark of 116 in the 230-member Assembly, but formed a government with the support of two BSP, one SP and four independent MLAs, bringing the tally to 121.

A cursory study of the party-wise votes polled for each constituency in the Assembly elections forecasts that the BJP is expected to lose 11 Lok Sabha seats if there is no change in the voting patterns. In that case, the BJP seems to have an edge in 18 parliamentary segments. In 2014, the party won 27 out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Congress had won just two and, as per the election voting trends, could lead in 11 Lok Sabha seats. It could continue to lead in Chhindwara, but may not be able to compete with the BJP in Guna parliamentary segment.

The last Assembly elections voting pattern suggests Congress lead in Dewas, Ratlam and Dhar, while the BJP could gain Ujjain, Mandsaur, Indore, Khargone and Khandwa Lok Sabha seats.

Interestingly, of the 29 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress has not been able to win 14 in the past 15 years. These are Bhopal, Indore, Vidisha, Morena, Bhind, Sagar, Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Jabalpur, Betul, Rewa and Balaghat.

What MP wants

In Madhya Pradesh, 70 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and farm distress plays a significant role here. Understandably, both the BJP and the Congress aim to garner the votes of farmers in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

When the Congress came to power, the state coffers were empty and MP was number one in the country in farm suicides, unemployment and rape. We took steps to strengthen our economy and waived off farm loans worth Rs 10,000 crore of 25 lakh farmers. Fifty lakh more are expected to benefit from the scheme in the next phase of loan waiver, CM Kamal Nath told mediapersons. However, the BJP is crying hoarse and alleging that the newly elected government has acted with the sole motive of succeeding in the elections.

After farmers, youths are considered to be the biggest vote bank for any political party. Recently, the Congress government announced to deliver a monthly unemployment allowance to the segment. However, not much is known about its effective implementation as yet. What is known is that there are 1.41 crore unemployed youth, of which 88 per cent are educated.

For a long time, Madhya Pradesh has been regarded by economists as a basket case, sending out migrant labour in the absence of employment opportunities. Voters in Madhya Pradesh want to see the narrative change and are desperately looking for an opportunity to prosper and advance once the current freeze in the election scenario in the countrys heartland thaws.shalender@tribune.com

Manas Dasgupta in Ahmedabad

The Modi wave, which dominated the last General Election, is not seen this time. Since political positions seem virtually unchanged, it may not be that easy for the Congress to win

The downhill slide of the Congress in Gujarat continues, especially as it has not been able to halt poaching of its rank and file by the rival BJP. This has considerably dampened the upbeat spirit of its partymen, who were hoping to repeat in the Lok Sabha the improved performance it had shown in the last state Assembly elections. Much has also changed since December 2017 when the Assembly elections were held and the BJP was able to resurrect some parts of rural Gujarat which it seemed to have considerably lost in 2017. But most importantly, the futures of two sons of the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah, are at stake in this election.

Voters in Gujarat are bound to be carried away by the emotional appeal of Modi and Amit Shah, the two most powerful men in the country now. Modi has successfully imprinted this into minds of the voters in Gujarat that they are not just two individuals but they represent the pride of Gujarat in the rest of the country. If you want to your son to continue to work for the betterment of India, vote for the BJP, is the appeal Modi made in his election meetings in Gujarat. A similar appeal was made by Amit Shah.

And yet, the BJP may not have as smooth a sailing as it had in 2014 when it rooted out the Congress from all 26 seats in the state. There is nothing to indicate that the Modi wave has dissipated in his home state but the BJP is unnerved because of several factors, still in place. However, these factors have supposedly shrunk the BJP to its smallest size since the advent of the Modi era in 2001, are still in place.

Nothing more to lose

Having reached the pinnacle by registering its best possible performance in 2014, the BJP is now faced with the daunting task of maintaining the status quo. With no seats in its kitty, the Congress has nothing more to lose. Victory, even on one seat, will mean cent per cent gain for the Congress and make the task of the BJP to win a clear majority in the Lok Sabha harder, besides causing loss of face to Modi and Shah. Thanks to Modi who did not allow anyone under his shadow to grow, his successors in Gujarat, Anandiben Patel and the incumbent Chief Minister Vijay Rupani have consistently failed to deliver and solve the problems of the farmers. The complaints include lack of support price, remunerative returns for their produces, payment of crop insurance, supply of irrigation water and many more.

No efforts hasd been made till the last week to bridge the wedge that firebrand young leader Hardik Patel had created between the BJP and the Patidars through his reservation agitation.

The BJP left no stone unturned to try to discredit Hardik once he showed his inclination to join the Congress but did not succeed. The politically active Patidars constitute about 21 per cent of the total number of voters in the state and are a decisive factor in many of the seats in the Saurashtra and North Gujarat regions.

Enter parachute leaders

The BJP has adopted the easy way of damaging the Congress by luring away its elected members with lucrative offers. It has already taken away five of its MLAs with two of them already having been made ministers in the Rupani cabinet. Three others, including prominent OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, were made to quit the Congress. During the past couple of weeks, there has been a steady flow of Congressmen crossing over to the BJP.

The Congress has been hit hard by defections but has kept its faith on the voters hoping that the defectors would be suitably dealt with in the elections. The large-scale defections from the Congress ranks has also been creating problems for the BJP as many of its sincere and dedicated workers were feeling hurt at the parachute leaders being given prominence and lucrative share of spoils at the cost of the party flag-bearers who have continued to suffer humiliation.

Gujarat has been suffering from Modi withdrawal symptoms ever since he left for Delhi though he keeps a hawk eye on the state through Shah and former bureaucrat KK Kailashnathan , chief principal secretary to the chief minister then when Modi was CM and even now.

The 2017 state Assembly elections highlighted the loosening grip of the BJP. Amit Shah, who had boasted of bagging 150 of the total 182 seats to set a new record found that its tally had fallen to 99, the lowest ever since 2001. Meanwhile, the Congress had improved to best-ever tally of 77 during the same period. The results also brought out the near-total urban-rural divide  the urban areas remained with the BJP and the rural by and large veered towards the Congress. Of the 55 seats in and around the four key cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat, the BJP bagged 44. The Congress got only 11. Out of 127 seats in the semi-urban and predominantly rural areas, the Congress mopped up 72 seats, leaving only 55 to the BJP.

An extrapolation of the Assembly results with the Lok Sabha seats would mean the Congress victory on at least eight of the 26 seats but the electioneering is no simple arithmetic. All indicators point out that the Congress has not been able to breach even an inch into the BJP urban bastion. Alarmed over its loss in the suburban and rural areas, the BJP took up in right earnest the work to soothe the hurt feelings of the voters. Anything more than one seat would be a creditable show for the Congress. For the BJP, any breach in the bund would be a body blow and bad for morale.

MODI: Strength or weakness?

The BJPs biggest strength Modi is also its flawed weakness. Modis more than 13-year-rule in Gujarat saw his complete domination. He was the party and he was the government. A cadre-based party is a pyramidal structure with power flowing from the bottom to the top. Modi inverted this pyramid to turn it into a Congress-like structure where the power flows from the top to the bottom. It is the same Gujarat model which has been replicated at the centre. Now it is the persona of Modi that rules with the BJP taking a backseat while Amit Shah is the face that ensures complete Modi control over the party set up.shriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com

Colombo, April 21

The St. Sebastians Church in the western coastal town of Negombo bore the brunt of a series of powerful blasts across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday with 104 deaths and a top priest saying pieces of flesh were thrown all over the walls, on the sanctuary and even outside the church

At least 207 people were killed and around 500 others injured when six near simultaneous and coordinated explosions rocked three churches, three luxury hotels frequented by tourists in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, officials said. Two separate blasts took place in the afternoon, claiming five more lives, including that of three police personnel.

Sri Lankan media reported that the Negombo Hospital has reported at least 104 deaths and received 100 injured worshippers from the Sebastians Church.

Father Edmond Tillekeratne, social communications director for the Archdiocese of Colombo, spoke to CNN from St. Sebastians Church, one of the locations targeted.

He said that the blast took place after Easter Mass, and that there were about 30 bodies lying in the area of the church.

He said three priests had been celebrating the mass at the time of the blast. Two of them were badly injured by flying glass and debris, and one was only lightly injured because he was behind the altar.

He estimated that more than a thousand people had come to the church for Easter Sunday because it is a special day. Many people came from villages, he said.

He described the ground as covered in rubble and shattered glass.

You can see pieces of flesh thrown all over the walls and on the sanctuary and even outside of the church, he added.

The church, built in 1946, is one of the many churches in Sri Lanka dedicated to St Sebastian who is considered a martyr in the Catholic Church history.

At the St. Anthonys Church in Colombo, journalists saw bodies lying on the floor, some draped with scarves and clothes.

Reports say said much of the church roof had been blown off in the explosion, with tiles, glass and splintered wood littering the flooralong with pools of blood.

The Archbishop of Colombo has demanded that those responsible for the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka to be punished mercilessly.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, in a strong statement, urged the government to launch a very impartial strong inquiry and to punish those found responsible mercilessly because only animals can behave like that.

All Easter mass in the Colombo District have been cancelled, the Cardinal announced.

The Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, which was the site of one of the explosions, released a statement, saying it was one of the several locations in Colombo which were affected by this mornings attacks.

We are deeply saddened and shocked by the incident and our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the casualties and those who have been affected.

We are working closely with local authorities and emergency services to provide our fullest assistance and support to the affected staff and guests.

Our immediate priority is to look after the safety and wellbeing of all involved. A Shangri-La crisis management team has been activated to provide all necessary support.

As this is an active investigation, we are unable to comment further at this stage. We will provide an update once more information is available, the hotel said. PTIsanjiv@tribunemail.com

Littleton (United States), April 20

Dozens of people gathered on Friday on the 20th anniversary of the Columbine high school massacre, many still angry that authorities have done little to prevent copycat killings in the years since.

Twelve students and a teacher were killed on April 20, 1999, when two teenagers armed with an assortment of weapons and home-made bombs went on the rampage at the school, whose name has become synonymous with school shootings. You would have thought someone would have come with more gun laws or require (a) mental health workout before you are allowed to buy a gun, said Amanda Duran, who was 15 when the attack happened. But nothing of that sort happened. So I have just been angry and pissed off. Only last year, 17 students and staff were killed when an ex-pupil went on the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, while 27 people, mostly children, were killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012 and 32 at Virginia Tech university in 2007. There have been more than a dozen other shootings at schools across the US since Columbine. On Friday survivors of the massacre and families and friends of the victims gathered for a vigil in Littleton, Colorado.

They lit candles and prayed at a memorial in the town, and laid flowers on a shrine bearing the names of victims.

Never forget is carved in stone. Duran vividly recalled the shooting, which took place while she was in the library, waiting for an appointment with a school counsellor.

Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold burst into the room and started shooting. I hear this boom right next to me, when theyd shot the girl next to me, she remembers. I went deaf at that point and I thought for sure that I was going to be next.

So I curled up really, really tight, put my arms above me like this and just kinda held my breadth, braced myself to get shot in the ribs. Just waited, waited. The two gunmen killed themselves as police closed in.The aftermath of Columbine is still felt today.

An American teenager whose obsession with the massacre set off school closures and a manhunt in Denver was found dead on Wednesday from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Dean Phillips, the special agent in charge of the FBIs Denver office, said 18-year-old Sol Pais had made comments in the past that expressed an infatuation with the Columbine massacre and its perpetrators. Authorities had mounted a massive search for Pais after she travelled from Florida to Colorado, bought a pump-action shotgun and ammunition.  AFPuttara@tribuneindia.com

Colombo/New Delhi, April 21

At least 207 people, including three Indians, were killed and around 500 others injured in a string of eight powerful blasts, including suicide attacks, that struck three churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, shattering a decade of peace in the island nation after the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE

The blastsone of the deadliest attacks in the island nations historytargeted St Anthonys Church in Colombo, St Sebastians Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and a church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Explosions were reported from three five-star hotelsthe Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

At least 207 people have died in the blasts, Gunasekera told reporters.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sundays attacks.

However, most of the deadly attacks in the past in Sri Lanka were carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Briefing reporters, Gunasekera said the police was not able to confirm at the moment if they were all suicide attacks. He, however, said that one of the blasts at the Katuwapitiya (Negombo) church has signs of being what looked like a suicide attack.

An unnamed official said a suicide bomber blew himself up at the restaurant of the Cinnamon Grand hotel.

Gunasekara said that 66 bodies were kept at the National Hospital, while 260 injured were receiving treatment there and 104 bodies were kept at the Negombo Hospital and 100 injured were receiving treatment there.

We have arrested three people on suspicion, he said.

Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Ariyasinghe said at least 27 foreigners were killed in the explosions.

Nearly 500 people have been injured in the blasts, police said.

Local media reported that tourists from India, Pakistan, US, Morocco and Bangladesh are also reported to have been injured in the explosions.

Later in the day, a powerful blast in the Capitals southern suburb near the Colombo Zoo killed two persons, Gunasekera said.

When a police team entered a house in the Colombo north suburb of Orugodawatta to conduct a search, a suicide bomber blew himself up causing a concrete floor of a two-storey building to crash on them, killing three policemen in the eighth blast, the police said.

Soon after the eighth blast, the government imposed curfew with immediate effect. The curfew will be in force indefinitely until further notice.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appealed for calm.

I have been shocked by this totally unexpected incidents. The security forces have been asked to take all action necessary, Sirisena said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe termed the blasts as cowardly attacks and said his government was working to contain the situation.

I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong... The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation, he tweeted.

Security has been intensified around the religious places across the Capital. The government has temporarily blocked all social media platforms.

All necessary emergency steps have been taken by the government, said Harsha de Silva, Sri Lankas Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution.

Horrible scenes. I saw many body parts strewn all over, he said.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo said that it was closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka.

We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers: +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789, the High Commission tweeted.

In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176, it said.

The first blasts were reported at St Anthonys church in Colombo and St Sebastians Church in Negombo just outside the Capital.

A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there, read a post in English on the Facebook page of the St Sebastians Church.

Images circulated on social media showed severely damaged St Sebastians church, with a shattered ceiling and blood on the pews.

Heavy security has been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport. The riot police and the Special Task Force, extra police security has been deployed around the airport, state-run Daily News reported.

Leave of all police personnel has been cancelled in the wake of blasts.

Doctors, nurses and health officials who were on leave have been asked to report to work, Health Ministry sources said.

The government schools have been closed for Monday and Tuesday. All state Universities have been closed until further notice.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said all Easter masses in the Colombo District have been cancelled.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership the Lankan Army crushed the LTTE, termed the attack as absolutely barbaric.

We will not tolerate such violence, such acts of terrorism, of cowardice within our borders once again. We will stand together and rise up against it as one voice. We will stand united as a nation, he said.

Three Indians killed in blasts: Sushma

Three Indians were among 207 people killed in multiple bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday.

Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals, she said in a tweet.

She said the Indians killed are Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh.

We are ascertaining further details, Swaraj added.

The External Affairs Minister said she spoke to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana who confirmed that 207 people were killed and more than 450 were injured in the blasts.

I have just spoken to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka H.E. Mr Tilak Marapana. He confirmed that unfortunately, 207 persons have lost their lives and more than 450 are injured in the terror blasts, she tweeted

I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well, she added. PTIIn this file photo taken last June 12, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sign documents as U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the North Korean leader's sister Kim Yo-jong look on at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore. AP-Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



President Moon Jae-in plans to deliver "messages" from U.S. President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un once a fourth inter-Korean summit happens, a senior presidential aide said Sunday.



"Yes, President Moon Jae-in has messages given by U.S. President Donald Trump, which he plans to deliver directly to North Korean leader Kim at a proper time when the leaders of the two Koreas meet again," the Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters at the presidential office's press center.



"If a fourth inter-Korean summit happens, it's been widely expected President Moon also plans to share with North Korean leader Kim key observations and other background information (regarding the denuclearization talks) discussed at a recent U.S.-South Korea summit in Washington, D.C."



Regarding specifics on how the messages were given to Moon and further relevant details, the official did not elaborate.



Earlier, CNN reported that President Moon had messages from Trump for Kim.



Another presidential aide said Cheong Wa Dae was "still reviewing lots of options and scenarios" to send a special envoy to North Korea later this week to lay the ground for the fourth inter-Korean summit.



Moon suggested another meeting with Kim a week ago, but Pyongyang has yet to respond.









Moon earlier said he was willing to go anywhere and anytime to meet Kim, after Kim said he was open to a third meeting with Trump, but only if the U.S. provided "mutually acceptable terms" because the Hanoi summit failed over stark differences on how to define denuclearization and Pyongyang's request for economic sanctions to be eased.







Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. AFP-Yonhaputtara@tribuneindia.com

Beirut, April 21

Sleeper cells, prisons teeming with jihadists, camps crammed with their wives and childrenperils abound in Syria, nearly a month after the Islamic State group's "caliphate" was declared defeated.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced victory over the Islamic State proto-state on March 23, after a nearly five-year battle against the militant group.

The elimination of the physical "caliphate" closed a long chapter in the Syrian conflict, but the SDF and the US-led military coalition have warned the fight is far from over.

Islamic State is still able "to carry out regular attacks on a weekly basis", said Tore Hamming, an expert on jihadist movements at the European University Institute.

Even after losing their last scrap of territory in the eastern village of Baghuz, the jihadists retain a presence in Syria's vast desert and hideouts elsewhere in the country.

This week alone, Islamic State militants killed 35 fighters loyal to Syria's government in 48 hoursfeeding into a regime death toll over two days in excess of 60 at the hands of all jihadist factionsthe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Before that, on April 9, Islamic State claimed a double bombing that killed 13 people in the SDF-held city of Raqa.

The White House has said that it would keep 400 US troops in Syria "for a period of time", after initially shocking allies in December by announcing a full withdrawal of 2,000 soldiers.

But Hamming said this diminished contingent would struggle to deal with the lingering jihadist threat.

"IS is still very active and will remain so. The small number of US forces will not solve that entirely," he said, using an acronym for the insurgents.

Nicholas Heras, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, warns that Islamic State still holds sizeable sway over "networks of local support".

"A big part of the ISIS strategy to regrow is that it continues to have strong ties into some of the local tribes in eastern Syria and western Iraq," he said, using an alternative acronym for the jihadist group.

As both regime and US-backed forces seek to hunt down Islamic State sleeper cells on the run, the Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria face another major challenge.

Thousands of alleged jihadist fightersincluding hundreds of foreignersare now being held in Kurdish-run jails, while their relatives languish in overcrowded camps for the displaced.

Their numbers have created a major headache for the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration, which now wants to put suspected jihadists on trial.

"We have called for an international tribunal to be formed to try these terrorists," top foreign affairs official Abdel Karim Omar told AFP. "Our priority is to try the criminals," he said.

Since 2014, Islamic State fighters have been accused of carrying out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions, and ethnic cleansing.

They stand accused of stoning to death women suspected of adultery, and forcing homosexuals off the top of high buildings.

While many jihadists are now detained, they still pose a threat, according to experts.

"These detention centres are becoming breeding grounds for radicalisation," the Soufan Center said in a report published on April 12.

"There is also a major risk of IS-engineered prison break attempts," said the organisation, which specialises in security analysis.

Hamming said "neither Syria nor Iraq have the resources or the political stability to properly handle such a large number of prisoners".

Kurdish authorities are calling on the international community to help set up and guard new high-security detention facilities, after many Western states refused to take back their nationals.

In a rare exception on Saturday, Kosovo repatriated four men suspected of having fought for Islamic State in Syria, among 110 of its citizens.

Syria's Kurds are also calling for much more support for displacement camps, where tens of thousands of people have amassed after fleeing battles against Islamic State.

The camps host 12,000 foreigners4,000 women and 8,000 childrenwho are kept under surveillance, according to Omar.

The largest of these camps, Al-Hol, has seen its population swell to more than 73,000 people, with conditions deteriorating as a result of the mass influx.

The International Rescue Committee has reported severe acute malnutrition, pneumonia, and dehydration among children in the camp.

The United Nations says 211 children under the age of five have died on their way to Al-Hol or shortly after arrival since December.

The Soufan Centre warned the humanitarian crisis could be used as a recruitment tool.

Islamic State "fighters are seeking ways to capitalise on the suffering in these camps to rejuvenate their organisation", it said.

As for the offspring of alleged foreign jihadists, said Omar, "if these children are not sent home, re-educated and re-integrated into society, they will become future terrorists".  AFPpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Kabul, April 21

Afghanistans supreme court has extended the term of President Ashraf Ghani until delayed elections take place, an official said Sunday, resolving for now the question of what would happen after his term expires on May 22.

Presidential elections were initially slated for April 20, but Afghan poll officials were unprepared for a new nationwide vote so soon after October parliamentary elections.

With some final results from that election still pending, the presidential poll was delayed until July 20, then pushed back again until September 28.

Ariana News published a statement from the court saying it has extended the service term of President Ghani until the re-election of a new president.

The supreme court understands the financial, security and logistical challenges faced by the election commission.

While the court did not make the statement public, Faraidoon Khwazoon, the deputy spokesman to Afghan chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, confirmed the document to AFP, noting that Abdullahs term had also been extended.

Yes, the supreme court has made its decision, based on the constitution, on the extension of the service term of the president, Khwazoon said, adding the extension would last until the re-election of the new president.

Ghanis office could not immediately be reached for comment.

The delayed elections come as the United States tries to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban, and some had speculated the polls were being deliberately stalled to create more space for those talks.

Opposition politicians and presidential contenders had called for an interim government to fill the gap between Ghanis mandate expiring and the presidential elections.

The supreme court said it was asking presidential candidates to respect the delay in the presidential elections.

Ghani was elected in 2014 in a closely contested poll that was mired by allegations of fraud and that saw him lead a power-sharing government.  AFPsanjiv@tribunemail.com

KABUL, April 20

Gunmen attacked the building of the Communications Ministry in the centre of Kabul on Saturday, interrupting months of relative calm in the Afghan capital and underlining the continued security threats despite efforts to open peace talks with the Taliban.

The attack began shortly before midday when a suicide bomb was detonated at the entrance to the multi-storey building housing the ministry in a busy commercial area of the city, followed up by gunfire which could be heard over a mile away.

We saw a gunman trying to break open an office door and as we were running out, he was trying to shoot us and he started shouting I will kill everyone here, said Syeda Rashid, an office administrator in the ministry who escaped with several of her colleagues. She said at least six women had been wounded.

The area around the building was sealed off by police as at least three attackers battled security forces for several hours before the attack was finally suppressed in the late afternoon, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. Hundreds of workers from the communications ministry, the ministry of information and culture and the central statistics officer were evacuated from the building,  Reuters

Blast by suicide squadsanjiv@tribunemail.com

Londonderry, April 20

Two men have been arrested in connection with the killing of Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee during a riot in Londonderry on Thursday, the police said, as politicians in the divided British region united to condemn the attack.

McKee, an award-winning 29-year-old journalist who was writing a book on the disappearance of young people during decades of violence in Northern Ireland, was shot dead as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack the police following a raid.

Major Investigation Team detectives have arrested two men, aged 18 and 19 under the Terrorism Act, in connection with the murder, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement. Northern Irelands political parties, which are broadly split between Irish nationalists aspiring to unite the British region with Ireland and unionists who want it to remain British, united to condemn the attack. In a joint statement, six parties said they were united in rejecting those responsible for this heinous crime. Hundreds gathered in cities across Northern Ireland on Friday to hold vigils for McKee, who was also known as an activist for lesbian and gay rights. Politicians around the world condemned the attack, with former US President Bill Clinton saying he was heartbroken. We cannot let go of the last 21 years of hard-won peace and progress, Clinton, a key player in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace accord, said on Twitter. The 1998 deal largely ended three decades of violence in the region, in which over 3,600 died, but several smaller militant groups remain active and launch occasional attacks.

The police said they believed the shooting was likely carried out by the small New IRA group of dissident Irish nationalist militants opposed to the Good Friday deal.  IANSsanjiv@tribunemail.com

Cairo, April 20

Egyptians voted Saturday in a referendum that aims to cement the rule of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former coup leader who presents himself as a rock of stability in a turbulent region.

Voters were being asked to back amendments to the constitution to allow Sisi (64), to run for another six-year term while boosting his control over the judiciary and giving the military even greater influence in political life.

The three-day referendum bucks the trend of North Africas mini-Arab Spring, in which mass pro-democracy protests this month swept away veteran presidents in Algeria and Sudan.

Sisi himself was among the first to vote when polls opened, casting his ballot in the upmarket Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. In Shubra, a working-class neighbourhood of the capital, dozens of voters, mostly women carrying their children, queued outside a polling station in the local high school.

In Cairo, troops and the police were deployed in numbers although the interior ministry denied to give any nationwide figures. Egypt is still battling a jihaidst insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula that has seen attacks in Cairo and other cities. Sisi has argued that he needs longer time to complete the job of restoring security and stability after the turmoil that followed the overthrow of veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in the Arab Spring of 2011. Out on the streets, his supporters waved flags bearing their campaign motto: Do the Right, as they pressed passers-by to turn out and vote Yes.

At a polling station in Manyal, Mohamed Abdel Salam (45), said he was voting enthusiastically in support of the changes.  AFP

Parliament endorsed changes

Earlier in the week, parliament overwhelmingly endorsed the constitutional changes, which also include the creation of a second parliamentary chamber and a quota ensuring at least 25 per cent of lawmakers are women.

Think-tank Soufan Center said the main effect of the referendum would be to solidify Sisis grip on the Egyptian political regime in a country that has become more autocratic than it was under Mubarak.

Sisis growing powermonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Colombo, April 21

Sri Lanka's police chief made a nationwide alert 10 days before Sunday's bomb attacks in the country that suicide bombers planned to hit "prominent churches", according to the warning seen by AFP.

Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara sent an intelligence warning to top officers on April 11 setting out the threat.

"A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo," said the alert.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that came to notice last year when it was linked to the vandalization of Buddhist statues.

At least 129 people were killed in six bomb attacks Sunday that included three churches. AFPsanjiv@tribunemail.com

Minatitlan (Mexico), April 20

Thirteen persons, including a child, were killed on Friday when a group of unidentified gunmen opened fire on a party in the violence-wracked eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, officials said.

The Secretariat of Public Safety said the gunmen arrived at a family reunion in Minatitlan asking to see someone named El Becky  the owner of a local bar  before opening fire.

It said seven men, five women, and a child were killed, and four others injured in the attack.

There was no known motive for the shooting, but Veracruz is plagued with organised crime and bloody gun battles frequently erupt between rival drug gangs.

Gang-linked hitmen frequently carry out public assassinations in Mexico, but more than 40,000 people are also registered as missing  likely murdered and buried somewhere remotely. More than a quarter of a million people have been killed since 2006 when the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on drug traffickers.  AFPpardeepdhull@gmail.com

London/Colombo, April 21

Countries from across the globe, including the US, the UK, Russia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh expressed shock and condemnation over the deadly blasts at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that left over 200 people dead.

Dozens of foreign nationals were feared to have been killed in the near simultaneous blasts, which targeted Catholic church worshippers on Easter Sunday as well as luxury hotels in Colombo.

The blasts targeted St Anthonys Church in Colombo, St Sebastians Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

Three explosions were reported from the five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury. Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday offered heartfelt condolences to the people of Sri Lanka.

Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels... We stand ready to help!, Trump tweeted.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as truly appalling.

The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time, she tweeted.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a horrific terrorist attack.

To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support - and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need, he said in a statement.

A month after dozens of Muslims were killed in a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as devastating.

New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the barbaric attacks.

Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief, he tweeted.

Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli condemned the heinous terror attacks and extended condolences to the people of Sri Lanka.

I am deeply saddened by multiple bomb blasts and killings of innocent people in Sri Lanka. I express my condolence to Ranil Wickramasinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and bereaved families of victims of the brutality, Oli said in a tweet while wishing speedy recovery to the injured people.

Bangladeshs Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her deep concerns over the explosions which took place on Sunday morning.

In the message, she prayed for peace and salvation of the departed souls and offered her condolences to the grieving families.

Hasina also hoped for a quick recovery of the injured.

European leaders are expressing horror at the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a message to his Sri Lankan counterpart that he was stunned and horrified by the cowardly terror attacks.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter that he was deeply shaken and concerned by (the) devious terrorist attacks.

German Chancellor Angel Merkel said: Terrorism, religious hatred and intolerance cannot be allowed to win. Were horrified by the news that Christians in Sri Lanka were attacked and killed during Easter services, wrote Merkels spokesperson on Twitter. We mourn them and pray for the injured and their family members.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attacks an assault on all of humanity.

Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all issued statements via their foreign ministries condemning the attack. PTIA mock North Korean Scud-B missile, left, and South Korean missiles are displayed at the Korea War Memorial in Seoul, April 18. North Korea said April 18 it had test-fired a new type of "tactical guided weapon" the day before, its first such test in nearly half a year. AP-Yonhap



By Jung Da-min



North Korea's recent test launch of its new tactical weapon wasn't of a ballistic missile but was believed to be a "weapon for ground combat," military analysts said Sunday.



They said the weapon test announced by North Korea on April 18 did not appear to involve a ballistic missile given that there were no alarming announcements from the United States, Japan or Seoul.



Rather, they speculated that the test could have involved "anything" from a small anti-tank missile to relatively routine artillery as the test of ballistic missiles or surface-to-ship missiles would have been detected by radar.



Shin Jong-woo, a senior analyst at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, said the U.S. and Japan showed a relatively muted response to the test, indicating that the test was not on their radar.



"We cannot really confirm what type of weapon it was, as we are just speculating based on our detection system, but from what the Joint Chiefs of Staff has so far said, it is cautiously thought that the North has developed a Spike anti-tank guided missile," Shin said, referring to the Israeli guided missile with a maximum range of around 25 kilometers.



On April 17, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un guided a test-fire of a "new-type of tactical guided weapon" conducted by the Academy of Defence Science, according to a report made by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the following day.



The test was the first public weapon test since the failure of the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam, late February. No deal was signed as Trump didn't accept the North's request for an easing of economic sanctions in exchange for the regime's promise to completely shut down its major Yongbyon nuclear complex.



But citing recent remarks by Trump and Kim, both of whom said they were open to hold a third summit, in addition to the ongoing diplomatic efforts by Washington, Pyongyang and Seoul to keep the nuclear diplomacy working, experts said the North would not want to break the ongoing momentum for nuclear dialogue with the United States.



Given these perspectives, they stressed the test seemed to be targeting the internal unity of North Korean society, while its leader Kim has yet to bring any substantial results in terms of getting economic concessions.



"Kim's guidance on the test following his inspection of an exercise by an air force unit the day before, were all planned moves to tighten the internal unity of North Korean society while also giving a message to the outside world that it is carrying on its self-reliant economy despite the ongoing sanctions," said Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Kyungnam University's Far East Institute.



"By showing that the government is committed to the economy but never neglects security issues, [North Korean leadership] is trying to dismiss North Korean people's concerns about the possible military actions by Washington after the breakdown of the Hanoi summit with the U.S., so that they can focus on economic activities."



December is on pace to become Trinidad and Tobagos deadliest and most infectious month of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A record 33 Covid-19 deaths were reported yesterday, as well as 956 new confirmed Covid cases, the second highest number of new infections reported in one day.HOW can you obtain a warrant for a hotel room on a Saturday? Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton asked the question on his Instagram account yesterday after police searched his Hilton Trinidad hotel room for marijuana but found none.

Grammy winner Buju (Mark Myrie) had his hotel room searched by officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service yesterday evening. He was in the room at the time.In a 2014 article titled Two dangerous dinosaurs, I wrote on the threat to the free world and global stability from Russian and Chinese dictators Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

Seven years later, that danger is a dominant international reality. Over the last year, I have regularly written on China which, under hubristic Jinping, is aspiring to rule the world, provoking a new Cold War with the United States.In this May 10, 1985, file photo, former President Kim Dae-jung, center, and his eldest son Kim Hong-il, left, attend mass at a cathedral in western Seoul. Kim Hong-il died on Saturday at the age of 71. Yonhap



Kim Hong-il, an ex-lawmaker and the eldest son of former South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae-jung, died on Saturday. He was 71.



A local fire station said that it received a report at around 4 p.m. that Kim had collapsed at his home in Mapo District, western Seoul.



He was immediately transferred to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later. The exact cause of his death has yet to be confirmed.



Kim, a three-term lawmaker, had suffered from Parkinson's disease for years, apparently stemming from complications caused by tortures he underwent during past authoritarian regimes in the 1980s.



Kim entered politics in 1996 when he was elected as a lawmaker for Mokpo, a southwestern town known as a stronghold for the Millennium Democratic Party, the predecessor of the current ruling Democratic Party.



He lost his parliamentary seat, however, in 2006 after he was sentenced to a suspended jail term in connection with an influence peddling scandal. He was granted presidential amnesty a year later.



His relationship with his late father went beyond the usual father-son connection. Kim served as a key aide to his father during his turbulent years in the opposition, when he suffered oppression and close surveillance.



Kim Dae-jung served as president of South Korea from 1998-2003 and passed away in 2009. He was known for his lifelong commitment to fighting for democracy and improving inter-Korean peace.



He held the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000 with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. He won the Nobel Peace Prize the same year for his role in bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula with the so-called Sunshine Policy of engaging with North Korea.



Political parties expressed condolences for Kim Hong-il's death.



"Kim had long devoted his life to our democracy and peace on the Korean Peninsula," Rep. Hong Ik-pyo, spokesman of the ruling Democratic Party, said.



The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) also expressed condolences for his death.



"Many people who know his patriotism and work in parliament will be greatly saddened," Rep. Min Kyung-wook, LKP spokesman, said. "We pray that he will rest in peace."



He is survived by his wife and two daughters. (Yonhap)

BRUNSWICK, N.Y.  An early morning rainstorm didnt deter people from making their way to the Brunswick Community Librarys Easter party.

Originally slated to a trunk or treat type party, kids were still able to go table to table inside and partake in numerous activities.

We have a pool filled with Easter eggs, were planting flowers and doing watercolor paintings. Were a little cramped because we expected to be outside today, Library Director, Sara Hopkins said of the indoor setup.

We were doing an Easter egg hunt for several years but weve been getting too big to do a hunt safely, Hopkins explained of how the all-inclusive community event got started. So we switched to a trunk or treat style Easter party where the kids go from table to table because of the rain, if it had been a sunny day it wouldve been from car to car to get the different eggs and toys and candy that were handing out.

We try to make sure every year we have a bunch of things that are toy based so kids with allergies can still take part and then we keep the food separate for that.

In addition to Easter, the library also hosts events for Halloween and the fall and Hopkins sounded pleased with the turnout despite the weather.

I was worried the rain would keep people away but I think weve had a few hundred people come through our doors already, in and out, so its been a nice reception even though the weather did not agree with us today, Hopkins said.

We have the ambulance group here, fire department, sheriffs office here. The kids love that theres a police officer giving them Easter eggs and they get to meet a real police officer, Hopkins added of the community volunteer oriented event.

Kids were also able to get girl scout cookies, pet and learn about a baby bunny and chicken. Plus, students from Tamarac high school and middle school were helping out with the Easter bunny, face painting, craft activities, and board members were handing out candy as well.

Also helping hand out candy was a couple of girls from Brunswick named Danu and Ella.

Im actually really excited because we get to make kids happy and give out candy, kind of fun! Danu said of the event.

I think its really fun because we get to meet new people and give them candy, its like an Easter celebration and I love it! Ella said, echoing Danus sentiment.

Both girls also noted their favorite part of the Easter holiday.

My favorite candy is Milk Duds and my favorite thing to do on Easter is going to relatives house and eat dinner, Danu said.

First of all, I like finding the eggs because I think its a fun little scavenger hunt and I love just spending time with my family on Easter, Ella added of her favorite part of the holiday.

The girls also noted how they enjoyed helping make other kids happy so that they could celebrate a joyous Easter.

I also like this event because if you know some kids who dont get anything on Easter they can come here and get candy for free and be happy! Danu said of making sure kids could have a happy Easter.

Thats why one of the reasons I love this too because if youre from a family that cant afford to have Easter, you can come here and get Easter candy. And some of the people dont have allergy-free eggs but we do so its helping everyone, Ella noted of making sure everyone could participate in the Easter fun.

We dont want to exclude anybody, Danu added.ALBANY, N.Y.  The American Red Cross has launched a major capital campaign to fund a series of new blood transportation vehicles and a brand new, state-of-the-art bloodmobile for the Eastern New York Region.

The Delivering Hope campaign was announced by Red Cross board chair Sujata Chaudhry, founder & CEO of Tangible Development, at the 21st Annual Fire + Ice Gala.

Have you ever really thought about how the blood from a selfless donors arm travels to patients in need at our local hospitals, Chaudhry asked the crowd of approximately 600 guests gathered at the Albany Capital Center.

This journey  from blood donor to recipient  is complex and costly. The Red Cross relies on a fleet of vehicles to collect and deliver thousands of units of blood in our community each year, and patients rely on Red Cross blood to be there when they need it. Tonight, were launching a $564,000 capital campaign to ensure that our local Red Cross has reliable vehicles on the streets in our region, delivering hope to patients in need, Chaudhry added.

Guests of the Fire + Ice Gala also heard from Honorary Co-Chairs Craig D. Apple, Sr., Sheriff of Albany County, and David R. Bauer, Regional Vice President, Mergers & Acquisitions at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., who spoke about their personal experiences with the Red Cross, and the important work they see the organization carry out on a daily basis.

Finally, Dominick Purnomo, wine director of Yonos and dp An American Brasserie, shared the deeply moving story of his six-year-old daughters recovery from Kawasaki disease, aided by treatment with a blood product prepared from the serum of anywhere from 1,000 to 15,000 blood donors.

On behalf of the entire Purnomo family, Dominick made the first donation to the Delivering Hope campaign in honor of his daughter, Gemma. Inspired by his story, as well as a generous matching gift incentive of $25,000 from Neil and Jane Golub, guests at the Fire + Ice Gala pledged more than $33,000 to help the Red Cross blood program continue to deliver hope.

Thanks to everyone involved with the launch of this campaign, the Red Cross has already raised enough to fund the purchase of two new vehicles to help transport lifesaving blood and blood products to hospitals across the region.

We were blown away by the success of this years Fire + Ice Gala, and by the outpouring of support for our Delivering Hope campaign, Gary Striar, Regional CEO for the American Red Cross said.

Every year, tens of thousands of patients benefit from the generosity of those who support our blood program, both as blood donors and financial donors. We are extremely grateful to all of them, and we hope that others will see the importance of this campaign and help us raise the funds we need to continue delivering hope, Striar added.

Through the Delivering Hope campaign, the Red Cross aims to fund a total of six new blood transportation vehicles, as well as a brand new, state-of-the-art bloodmobile which will support hundreds of local blood drives each year.

To contribute to the Delivering Hope campaign, one can mail donations to the American Red Cross, 33 Everett Road, Albany, N.Y. 12205 or call (518) 694-5147.- Several leaders among them US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis have condoled with people of Sri Lanka

- Uhuru has urged leaders worldwide to unite in the fight against terrorism

- By evening of Sunday, at least 200 people were confirmed dead and over 400 people injured

- Sri Lanka has shutdown major social media platforms to help curb spread of fake news

President Uhuru Kenyatta has sent his condolence message to the people of Sri Lanka following the Sunday, April 21, blast.

As ealier reported by TUKO.co.ke, the early morning attack hit three churches and three hotels in Colombo and as a result, 200 people lost their lives while scores were left injured.

READ ALSO: Another bomb goes off in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, death toll rises to over 200

READ ALSO: Kenyans lecture Raila Odinga for backing Jubilee govt plans to borrow KSh 368 billion

In a tweet, Uhuru said Kenya was mourning together with Sri Lanka but emphasised the need for all countries to unite and give impetus to the fight against terrorism.

"President Uhuru Kenyatta has condemned the attacks in Sri Lanka and called for the world to unite in the fight against terrorism. The President has assured the Government and the people of Sri Lanka that Kenya stands with them during this difficult time.

We have faced mindless terrorist massacres in our own country and we stand with our Sri Lankan brothers and sisters in prayer during this difficult period. We pledge our total support to fight the evil of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, Uhuru twitted.

READ ALSO: Tanzanian artist Mbosso fails to show up on stage, as fans protest

Following the blasts, authorities in Sri Lanka, had by 4pm on Sunday, April 21, shut down social media platforms.

This, according to sources from Colombo, was a tactical way to curb spread of fake news about the tragic incident.

READ ALSO: Suspected thugs steal over KSh 11 million from three Barclays Bank ATMs in Nairobi

Facebook and WhatsApp were among the hardest hit as locals said they could only communicate via traditional text messaging (SMS).

Confirming the social media clampdown, junior defense minister Ruwan Wijewardene added that the government had also imposed a curfew.

A curfew will be imposed until things settle down, Wijewardene said while addressing journalists in Colombo.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Kenya's First Lesbian Pastor.

Source: Tuko.co.ke- REREC sold 28.5 million kilo watt hours (kWh) to KPLC and this translated to KSh 431 million in revenue

- Simon Gicharu, REREC chairman said the green energy has helped stabilise cost of power during the dry period

- The corporation envisions to rake in at least KSh 1 billion after one year from KSh 431 million it gained within five months

- The 65.54 mega watt power station constructed in Garissa is the largest in East and Central Africa region

The Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) has earned KSh 431 million after selling solar generated energy to Kenya Power.

The money was earned five months to March 2019 from 28.5 million kilo watt hours (kWh) of electricity generated from the regions largest solar plant located in Garissa.

READ ALSO: Mt Kenya University boss Simon Gicharu reappointed chair of Rural Electrification Authority board

READ ALSO: Another bomb goes off in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, death toll rises to over 200

Simon Gicharu, REREC chairman, said the solar plant had helped stabilise cost of power in the country by injecting green energy in the national grid.

"Garissa power plant has proved to be an exemplary project and it has many environmental advantages and due to that, we shall be investing more on sustainable means of energy production in future," said Gicharu.

READ ALSO: Sri Lanka: President Uhuru Kenyatta condemns Sri Lanka attacks that left more than 200 people dead

With Kenya having more than 300 sunny days annually, the REREC boss, stated that it was time the country tapped in solar energy and cut down of use of expensive diesel generated electricity.

He revealed that the corporation, formerly known as Rural Electrification Authority (REA), had plans afoot to setup 147 more stations in the country.

''We now have to oversee rural electricity programme, manage rural electrification programme fund, establish Energy Centres in all the 47 counties, develop and update the renewable energy master plan while accounting for equity in the development of renewable energy resources among others,'' he said.

READ ALSO: Mombasa: Muslim faithful gather to pray for rain as drought continues to bite in the region

The projects target counties with high sunlight insensitivity like Mandera, Lamu, Wajir, Tana River, Garissa and Turkana.

In a period of one year, Gicharu envisions REREC to rake in at least KSh 1 billion from selling solar energy to the national distributor.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

The Young Girl Surviving on an Oxygen Tank.

Source: Tuko.co.keThree Kenyans have been killed in a road carnage at Ol Donyo Sambu, Namanga Road in Arusha while participating in a high-speed car race event.

TUKO.co.ke understands the victims were heading to much anticipated racing event dubbed Arusha Drive 3.0.

READ ALSO: Outrage as pregnant woman in Athi river gives birth on the floor as nurses watch

Three Kenyans have been killed in a road carnage at Ol Donyo Sambu, Namanga Road, Arusha following a high-speed car race event. Photo: Vincent Odundo

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Video ya kukera ya mama mjamzito akijifungua sakafuni katika hospitali ya Shalom

According to GlobalPublishers, bypassers and spectators standing at the roadside were injured in the gory accident on Sunday, April 21.

It is understood two cars taking part in the race collided then rammed into unsuspecting spectators.

READ ALSO: Kenyans lecture Raila Odinga for backing Jubilee govt plans to borrow KSh 368 billion

Kajiado Deputy County Commissioner Wambugu confirmed the incident but said details are still scanty.

"We have since confirmed three out of eight victims who died are from Kenya," he told Nation.co.ke.

Social media was awash with disturbing images of the mangled cars and Good Samaritans struggling to save the victims.

The vehicles were completely destroyed and business in the area came to a standstill.

Do you have a life-changing story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

The Young Girl Surviving on an Oxygen Tank

Source: TukoKim Hong-il, a former three-term lawmaker and eldest son of late former President Kim Dae-jung Korea Times file



By Park Ji-won



Kim Hong-il, a former three-term lawmaker and eldest son of late President Kim Dae-jung, died in Seoul Saturday. He was 71.



The cause of his death is unknown. A local fire station said it received a report that Kim was found collapsed at his home in Mapo-gu at around 4 p.m. on Saturday. He was immediately transferred to Yonsei Severance Hospital in Sinchon but was declared dead at around 5 p.m. the same day.





Kim Hong-il, right, former three-term lawmaker and eldest son of late President Kim Dae-jung, left, is seen during a party event in this April 16, 1996, photo. Kim Hong-il died at 71 on Saturday. Yonhap



The younger Kim had suffered from Parkinson's disease for decades, apparently due to complications stemming from torture he underwent under the authoritarian governments of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan in the 1970 and 1980s together with his father. Kim Dae-jung survived intense oppression, marked by assassination attempts and a death sentence as a dissident leader before being elected president in 1997.



Kim Hong-il had become a lawmaker of the National Congress for New Politics, the predecessor of the current ruling Democratic Party of Korea, in 1996 after being elected as a representative for Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, which has been a stronghold for liberal politicians including Kim Dae-jung. He had served as a key aide for his father ever since.



Along with other two sons of the former president, he played a supportive role in Kim Dae-jung's commitment to the country's democracy and inter-Korean reconciliation. Kim Dae-jung, who served as president between 1998 and 2003, died of heart failure in 2009 due to complications from pneumonia. The former president held the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000 with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. He won the Nobel Peace Prize the same year for his contribution to bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula with the so-called Sunshine Policy of engagement with North Korea. Kim Hong-il had also served as chair of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, a consultative body with the North, between 2004 and 2006.



However, Kim Hong-il lost his Assembly seat in 2006 after being sentenced for violating the law on influence-peddling by receiving bribes worth 150 million won after receiving an improper job solicitation offer from a banker. He didn't play active roles in the political arena after that and allegedly had been focusing on treatments for his diseases.



Numerous well-wishers at home and abroad, including political foes, visited the hospital to pay tribute to his contributions to democracy.



Rep. Park Jie-won of the Party for Democracy and Peace, who served as presidential chief of staff under the Kim Dae-jung administration, wrote Saturday on Facebook that "I pray for him to meet his father in the sky and give us wisdom for the country's peaceful unification and the elimination of torture."



Rep. Min Kyung-wook, spokesman of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, said, "I assume many who knew of his patriotism and activities in the Assembly will mourn his passing. May he rest in peace."



A funeral service for a victim from last week's arson and mass murder in an apartment complex in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, is held at Hanil Hospital, Sunday. / Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo



Talks on the issue of the government fully supporting medical expenses for the victims of an arson and mass murder attack last week in an apartment complex in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, have been stalled, with a funeral service for one victim being held, Sunday.



Last Wednesday, Ahn In-deuk, 42, set his apartment aflame and attacked fleeing residents with a knife, killing five of them and injuring 13. Currently, seven are in hospital. Later, police said he had committed the crimes out of his personal resentment toward society.



The bereaved families have demanded that the government fund all medical costs for the survivors until they make a full recovery, postponing their lost family members' funeral services.



According to the Crime Victim Protection Act, the government supports up to 50 million won ($44,000) for each victim per case.



However, the bereaved families are claiming the case is a tragedy equivalent to a national disaster due to police negligence. They argue that given the survivors may suffer the after-effects for a long period of time, the government should support them beyond the scope of legal requirements.



According to them, Ahn had in the past year gone on several rampages, including throwing human excrement in front of other homes and in elevators, and hurling expletives at other residents.



In addition, some residents had previously reported his bizarre and violent behavior to police, but no countermeasures were taken. In light of this, the bereaved families are calling for a formal apology from the commissioner general of the National Police Agency or the head of the Jinju Police Station.



On Saturday, the latter told the family members that police will fully investigate the case and take responsibility in the event that they turn out to be in the wrong.



Meanwhile, the funeral for the oldest victim, 74, surnamed Hwang, was held at Hanil Hospital in Jinju, where memorial altar is set up.



Russian occupation forces launched ten attacks, using weapons banned under the Minsk agreements four times, on positions of Ukrainian troops in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area in Donbas over the past day.

The illegal armed formations also fired weapons on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of different systems, heavy machine guns and small arms on the units of the Joint Forces.

In the zone of action of tactical force East, Russian-led forces opened fire from 120mm and 82mm mortars and mounted antitank grenade launchers on Ukrainian troops near Pavlopol (25km north-west of Mariupol); 82mm mortars and weapons on infantry fighting vehicles  outside Opytne (12km north-west of Donetsk); mounted antitank grenade launchers and heavy machine guns  in the area of Pisky (11km north-west of Donetsk); hand-held grenade launchers and small arms  near Avdiivka (17km north of Donetsk); heavy machine guns and small arms  outside Hnutove (20km north-east of Mariupol),the JFO Headquarters press center reports.

In the zone of action of tactical force North, the enemy used 120mm mortars to shell Ukrainian positions near Vilne (70km south-west of Donetsk).

Today, the enemy has not opened fire yet. No casualties among Ukrainian servicepersons were reported.

The Joint Forces units adequately return fire in response to the enemy provocations. According to the intelligence, four invaders were annihilated and six more were wounded on April 20, the Headquarters reports.

olRussia's armed formations have opened fire on the positions of the Ukrainian Joint Forces near the village of Katerynivka from mounted grenade launchers, small arms and sniper rifles, wounding one Ukrainian soldier, the headquarters of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) has said in a report as of 18:00 on April 21, which was posted on its Facebook page.

"The enemy has violated the ceasefire once since the beginning of the day. In the area of responsibility of the North operational and tactical group, the armed formations of the Russian Federation fired at the positions of the Joint Forces near the village of Katerynivka from automatic mounted grenade launchers, automatic small arms and sniper weapons," the report reads.

It notes that one Ukrainian soldier was wounded in the attack.

"Joint Forces units gave an adequate response to hostile provocations. The losses of the enemy are being specified. The situation in the area of the Joint Forces Operation remains under control," the headquarters said.

opUkraine and Slovakia express readiness to increase mutual trade turnover up to $1.5 billion per annum against the current figure of almost $1.4 billion and to maintain the status of the main countries providing gas transit to the European Union.

These issues were discussed during the talks of Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman with Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini in Bratislava today, according to the Government portal.

"I am pleased to note the growth of bilateral trade by almost 18% last year. But this is not enough - let's define the task to achieve $1.5 billion in 2019," Groysman said. The prime minister added that Slovakia entered TOP 20 trade partners of Ukraine among the countries of the European Union.

Speaking about the transit potential of the two countries, the interlocutors noted not only the energy component of the issue - Slovakia, for example, has been providing reverse gas supplies to Ukraine for 4.5 years now - but the transport component as well.

Groysman offered to work out the issue of creating multi-modal logistics parks in Ukraine and Slovakia due to the active development of railway traffic on the Asia-Europe route. The functioning of such parks, tentatively in the Ukrainian city of Chop and the Slovak city of Kosice, could become a bilateral strategic project. The strengthening of cross-border cooperation between the two countries, including the development of the border infrastructure, the functioning of joint border checkpoints and the establishment of a joint customs control, will contribute to the implementation of the project.

During the talks, the parties also touched upon political issues, in particular in the context of the prolonged sanctions against Russia through its actions in Donbas and the waters of the Sea of Azov. "The aggressor must pay a heavy price for its actions," Groysman said.

The prime minister stressed that aggression should be stopped in the energy direction as well. "If we concentrate the delivery of gas in Russian hands - this is a major hazard. The Nord Stream 2 project will lead to the physical destruction of the Ukrainian gas transit system as a key element in the delivery of fuel to the EU," Groysman stressed.

The Slovak side shares the arguments of Ukrainian colleagues and expresses readiness to fully contribute to the further integration of Ukraine into the European Union and NATO.

Separately, the prime ministers discussed opportunities for the development of the Ukrainian community living in Slovakia.Ukraines international partners support PrivatBanks nationalization and the NBUs efforts to reform the financial sector.

The press service of the National Bank of Ukraine reported this on its Facebook page.

"The international partners of Ukraine - the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, the World Bank, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) - support the nationalization of PrivatBank," the report says.

The international partners are sure that nationalization was the only effective method of protecting the bank's depositors and the stability of the financial system.

While this required the injection of more than UAH 155 billion in Ukrainian taxpayer funds to restore the banks solvency, it secured PrivatBanks long-term viability, safeguarded the money of millions of Ukrainian citizens, and strengthened the countrys economic health, the NBU said.

Ukraines international partners noted that they continued to support the efforts of the National Bank to reform Ukraines financial sector, including by introducing prudent corporate governance principles, and the Ministry of Finances efforts to reform corporate governance in state-owned banks.

As reported, on April 18, 2019, Kyiv's District Administrative Court satisfied businessman Ihor Kolomoisky's claim against the National Bank of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Deposit Guarantee Fund and the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market regarding the nationalization of PrivatBank.

The Finance Ministry is preparing to appeal against the court decision regarding the illegal nationalization of PrivatBank. The National Bank of Ukraine will also submit an appeal against the ruling.

ishPoland mulling over free roaming for Ukrainians

The Polish government will continue developing the Eastern Partnership program.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterThe official number of registered observers is significant.

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine has reported an extremely low number of election observers at the polling stations during the runoff on April 21.

"The number of observers at the polling stations during the second round of the vote has significantly decreased compared with the first round of the presidential election in Ukraine, which took place on March 31," the Committee said on Facebook on April 21.

Read alsoCentral Election Commission reports average turnout in Ukraine at 10.2% as of 11:00

The committee says such a situation was recorded in Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Luhansk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Vinnytsia, Zakarpattia, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, and Sumy regions.

In particular, there are no observers at half of the polling stations in the city of Mykolaiv. Members of the Committee did not notice a single observer at eight sites in the city of Zaporizhia. There are no observers at some voting sites in the city of Cherkasy. In other cases, as a rule, only one or two observers are present at the polling stations.

The official number of registered observers is significant. So, 83,230 observers were registered to represent public organizations, while the two candidates for the presidency registered 6,236 observers. However, significantly fewer people work at the polling stations.

Public organizations and presidential candidates did not need to repeatedly register observers for the April 21 vote. Therefore, the number of observers has formally remained unchanged since the March 31 vote.He was accompanied by his wife.

Presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived to cast his vote at a polling station in Kyiv in the presidential runoff on April 21.

He admitted that he had not slept all night and felt as nervous as his entire team.

"The morning was good. I know nothing about your mood, but ours was good. Children, fried eggs, coffee, and also my wife turned on Eminem [tracks] for the mood," he said.

Zelensky said he was sure that Ukraine would win irrespective of the vote results.

Read alsoVoters' Committee in Ukraine reports extremely low number of election observers on April 21

When he left the voting booth, his wife was standing next to him. She was the first to cast the ballot while Zelensky was trying to joke with those present. His wife asked him not to show whom he had voted for, and then she stepped aside. Yet, one could see a cross next to presidential candidate Zelensky's name.

Having voted, the showman went to his campaign headquarters, where members of his team were waiting for him.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainians are now electing their president in the second round of the vote on April 21, 2019, as incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and showman Volodymyr Zelensky are competing for this post. Polling stations opened at 08:00 Kyiv time on April 21; they will work until 20:00 Kyiv time.

The voting is under way in 200 constituencies where 29,982 election commissions have been created. In total, about 30.3 million people are on the voters' lists.Poroshenko says the results of the exit polls are clear.

Incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who was running for a new term, says that the results of the exit polls give him grounds to call and congratulate his opponent, Volodymyr Zelensky, on the victory in the presidential runoff.

"'Never give up'  they tell me now when I see the results of the exit polls. And the results are clear and give me grounds to call my opponent and congratulate him on his victory," Poroshenko said at the press center of his campaign headquarters, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoZelensky leads with 72.7%, followed by Poroshenko with 27.3%  TSN exit poll

According to him, it is necessary to do as civilized European democracies do. Poroshenko said that "it will be April 22 tomorrow" and urged everyone in his team to get united in order to "defend Ukraine."

As UNIAN reported, according to the TSN exit poll, 72.7% voted for Zelensky, 27.3% for Poroshenko. According to the results of the 2019 National Exit Poll as of 18.00 Kyiv time, some 73.2% of voters supported Zelensky, 25.3% voted for Poroshenko.

Later, Zelensky said at a briefing at his campaign headquarters on April 21 that Poroshenko had called him to greet, according to the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda.

"He has just congratulated me on the victory. I am very grateful that he congratulated me. He said that I could count on his help at any time. He recognized my victory and my team. It's cool, we unite Ukraine," Zelensky said.Zelensky sees the return of Ukrainian hostages home as his No. 1 task.

Presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky who is winning in the runoff election, according to recent exit polls, says the Minsk peace process on Donbas will be rebooted along with a reshuffle of Ukraine's envoys.

"We will continue the Minsk process, we will reboot it. I think we will have a personnel reshuffle. In any case, we will continue these Minsk talks," Zelensky said at a press conference at his campaign headquarters in Kyiv on Sunday, April 21, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

"We will go to the very end to have the fire ceased," he added.

Read alsoPoroshenko admits defeat, ready to congratulate Zelensky on victory

Zelensky also sees the return of Ukrainian hostages held in the Russian Federation and Russia-occupied Donbas as his No. 1 task.

"The most important thing is to return our fellow [citizens] alive ... I think to return all our prisoners, all prisoners of war, our sailors is the number one task for us  this is our task," he said.

He also said that he had communicated with the parents of the prisoners of war. "You know it is impossible to calmly react to this. I will do everything to return  I cannot promise, but I will do [everything] to return our people home. This is a priority task," he said.Poroshenko may get a post if the Ukrainian people see him there.

Presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky who is winning in the runoff election, according to recent exit polls, has said he would "appoint new people" in government.

Answering a question about Chief Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko's future, Zelensky said that the incumbent Prosecutor General is part of the "old team," according to the TSN television news service.

"We will appoint new people. And this concerns not only Mr. Lutsenko," Zelensky said.

Read alsoPoroshenko admits defeat, ready to congratulate Zelensky on victory

Speaking about the appointment of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, who was Zelensky's rival in the runoff election, the winning candidate said that if the Ukrainian people want such an appointment, he may think about Poroshenko's candidacy.

Zelensky also said that there would be a reshuffle among envoys representing Ukraine at the Minsk peace talks on Donbas.

He added there would be a separate press conference on the appointment of a new government.

According to the National Exit Poll 2019 results, Zelensky was supported by almost 74% of voters in the second round of the presidential election on April 21, while about 25% voted for Poroshenko.People watch a TV news program reporting about North Korea with file footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, April 13, 2019. Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



President Moon Jae-in is finding it more difficult to play the role of "facilitator" in the North Korea denuclearization talks after the failed Washington-Pyongyang summit in Hanoi.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he is interested in holding another summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. Upon consultations with Trump, Moon may send a special envoy to Pyongyang soon for what would be his fourth meeting with Kim.



This time, the key point is how Moon mediates narrowing the differences between the U.S. and the North over the definition of "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," according to experts.



In Hanoi, the United States and North Korea misunderstood each other's definition of "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" and the end-state of the nuclear discussions.



"While Seoul and Washington agree on the preferred end state of a fully denuclearized North Korea, they, including North Korea, still differ in how that goal should be finally achieved. This is what President Moon has to focus on," said Lee Ki-dong, a senior North Korea expert at the Institute for National Security Strategy.



For Washington, building trust and then changing its relationship with North Korea is part of the process, but Seoul is focusing more on a peace agreement to reduce tensions, according to David Maxwell, an expert on security issues on the Korean Peninsula at the Foundation for Defense for Democracies in Washington.



Previous multiple summits between the leaders of Koreas and the United States and North Korea produced statements calling for "the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," rather than the denuclearization of North Korea. But the White House referred to "denuclearization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," the North's official state name.



Top U.S. government officials and the intelligence community made clear Washington defines "denuclearization" as the verifiable dismantlement of the North's nuclear weapons program and all its means of production, plus a complete end to the North's ballistic missile, chemical and biological weapons programs.



The North Korean leader Kim was presented with "by the end of this year" as a deadline for advancing nuclear negotiations between the two countries. Kim also asked Moon to be a "player" in the nuclear talks not a "facilitator" or "mediator."



"As the ball has been passed to the South Korean court, Moon would have to take a role for agreements on 'comprehensive but specific goals' of the nuclear dialogue at the next Trump-Kim summit," said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University.











President Donald Trump meets with President Moon Jae-in in the Oval Office of the White House, April 11, 2019, in Washington. AP-YonhapThe voter turnout remains almost unchanged compared to the first round.

Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) says that the runoff vote to elect Ukraine's president on April 21 was successful.

"I am pleased to announce that in general, the voting day was successful, and even, according to the reports of the National Police, the number of appeals and complaints regarding the election was much lower than during the March 31 voting," CEC Deputy Chairman Yevhen Radchenko said at a briefing on Sunday, April 21, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoUkraine's Central Election Commission announces first results of April 21 runoff vote count

According to him, the voter turnout compared with the first round of the presidential election remained unchanged: it was 62.12% (data from 194 out of 199 constituencies) vs 62.8% in the first round.

"But let me emphasize that we are still receiving data on the turnout," he said.

Radchenko also informed about voting abroad. The runoff vote in the foreign constituency took place at 101 polling stations in 72 countries around the world.

"As of 22:00, the voting ended at 88 overseas polling stations. The last polling stations abroad will close in the Consulate General of Ukraine in San Francisco, the United States, at 06:00 a.m. Kyiv time on April 22," he added.

The next CEC briefing will start at 10:00 Kyiv time on Monday, April 22, CEC spokesman Kostiantyn Kryvenko said.

Many people, including some former admirers, have come to loathe Julian Assange. But you don't have to like the founder of WikiLeaks to worry about whether his federal indictment  unsealed recently after he was arrested at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London  portends a crackdown on freedom of the press.



That concern is eased to some degree  but not entirely  by the fact that the indictment doesn't charge Assange with a crime for publishing classified information on WikiLeaks. That would truly have been a frontal assault on what journalists do on a regular basis. Rather, the indictment alleges that Assange conspired in 2010 with Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, to crack a government password in search of secret material to divulge.



That's an enormously important distinction. Journalists are rightly protected by the 1st Amendment even when they publish classified information that has been provided to them by leakers. But if Assange indeed crossed a line by conspiring to facilitate the theft of the information, that's a very different matter.



The alleged plan to crack the password was apparently unsuccessful, but WikiLeaks did release thousands of files Manning downloaded. Some of the disclosures, such as a 2007 video of an Apache helicopter attack that killed 12 civilians in Baghdad, qualified as whistleblowing.



But others, including confidential diplomatic cables, undermined U.S. foreign policy without exposing any wrongdoing. Manning served seven years of a 35-year prison sentence before receiving a commutation of her sentence from then-President Obama.



More recently, WikiLeaks was responsible for the release of thousands of Democratic emails during the 2016 election campaign, emails that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said were provided by Russian operatives. (Assange has denied any links to Russian intelligence.) In 2017, then-CIA Director Michael R. Pompeo described WikiLeaks as "a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia."



Whether one agrees with Assange's tactics or not, it would have been highly alarming if the Justice Department had chosen to prosecute him under the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to transfer sensitive defense information to "any person not entitled to receive it." Treating the publication of such information as a violation of the Espionage Act could deter whistleblowers, keep the public in the dark about official wrongdoing and would put an unreasonable obstacle in the way of journalists.



The indictment unsealed fortunately steers clear of setting such a precedent. Although it alleges that Assange and Manning sought to hack a Defense Department computer "in furtherance of a criminal act in violation of the laws of the United States," including provisions of the Espionage Act, the actual charge is that Assange conspired with Manning to commit the crime of computer intrusion.



Even if one regards Assange as a journalist, that doesn't exempt him from complying with a law against computer fraud. The burden is on the government to prove that he conspired to violate the law. Meanwhile, like any other criminal defendant, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.



While it is a relief that Assange isn't being prosecuted for merely publishing classified information, the indictment nevertheless has some ominous implications. For example, it cites as part of the conspiracy that "Assange encouraged Manning to provide information and records from departments and agencies of the United States." According to the indictment, Manning told Assange that "after this upload, that's all I really have got left." Assange replied: "Curious eyes never run dry in my experience."



Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, worried that this language might foreshadow "broad legal arguments about journalists soliciting information or interacting with sources that could have chilling consequences for investigative reporting and the publication of information of public interest."



Whatever happens to Assange, that would be a tragedy.





The above editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.





By Park Ji-won







President Moon Jae-in presided over a repatriation ceremony for the remains of two Korean independence fighters and their wives who fought against Japanese colonial rule in Kazakhstan, Sunday. The remains of Kye Bong-woo and Hwang Woon-jung, independent fighters who were buried in Nur-Sultan, the capital city of Kazakhstan, and their wives were moved to the presidential aircraft and will be returned to South Korea today. Moon, who is on his business trip to three Central Asian countries, held such an event for the first time outside of the country, the presidential office said.







The repatriation ceremonies were organized to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the March 1 independence movement and the establishment of a provisional government.







Kye, who had served as a lawmaker at the provisional government in Shanghai since 1919, was forcibly moved to the Central Asian country in 1937. He continued to write books about Korean grammar and Korean history. He was awarded an Independence Medal in 1995.







Hwang, who participated in the March 1 Independence Movement and sent to China to avoid arrest. He later organized an independence group and fought against Japanese soldiers in Russia. He was awarded a National Medal in 2005.







The Kye couple will be buried in the Seoul National Cemetery while Hwang and his wife will be buried in the Daejeon National Cemetery.









Air Premia's Boeing B787-9. / Courtesy of Air Premia



By Kim Hyun-bin



Despite a record number of passengers in recent years, some local airlines are struggling to stay afloat, with some on the verge of shutting down due to managerial and financial issues.



Air Premia, a budget carrier granted its business license last month, is on the verge of losing it because of an ongoing conflict between management and shareholders.



According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the aviation industry, the airline held a board of directors' meeting Friday with shareholders wanting to replace CEO Kim Jong-chul.



Kim and shareholders have been in a dispute over new aircraft.

However, the transport ministry could revoke the airline's business license because any change in CEO could hinder the execution of its business plan.



"The change in CEO could mean their initial business plan might not be executed and if the transport ministry believes the plan to be lacking substance, they can revoke the business license," an aviation official said.



On March 5, the transport ministry granted three low-cost carriers business licenses under the condition that they abide by their business plans. Any airline found in violation could face the cancellation of their licenses.



"Air Premia sent a request to revise its business license," a transport ministry official said. "When the transport ministry approved the business license last month, it agreed to abide by the business plan it submitted. If there is a change in CEO, it needs to be re-evaluated from the start."



Kim headed the country's leading low-cost carrier Jeju Air from 2009 to 2012 and takes credit for turning the carrier's deficit to a surplus. He led the groundwork in establishing Air Premia, which plans to offer middle to long-haul flights, differentiating its products with other local budget carriers that only offer short to medium-range flights. On April 10, the carrier signed a deal to use three Boeing B787 aircraft by 2020.



Air Pohang struggling to resume operations



Air Pohang Company, a regional airline, has been struggling to resume operations, because it lacks the employees to manage the firm.



In February 2018, Air Pohang began services with two Bombardier 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft on the Pohang-Gimpo and Pohang-Jeju routes.



However, in December the company announced it would halt operations to replace the old jets with six Boeing B737 jets, which were expected to be brought in stages. The company said it was hard to find parts for the CRJ-200, because production ended in 2007.



The company initially planned to resume operations in April, but faces difficulties because most of its employees resigned in a dispute over wages after Best Airlines took over the carrier from Dong-Hwa Electronics last year.



"Currently, there has been no consultation with us, so we do not know the specifics, but they are not working to resume operations," said a Pohang City Hall official.



Asiana seeks to drop unpopular destinations



Kumho Asiana Group recently decided to sell the country's second-largest carrier to avert a liquidity crisis, and amid the turmoil Asiana Airlines established a task-force seeking to halt services to unpopular destinations.



Russia's Sakhalin, Khabarovsk and some cities in China and Japan are among these destinations.



According to transport ministry data, Asiana Airlines' average seat occupancy out of Incheon International Airport is 84.8 percent. However a few routes have been heavily unprofitable.



Sakhalin had the lowest load rate at 56.8 percent followed by Yanchen at 57.7 percent and Khabarovsk with 63.9 percent, with all flights departing from Incheon.

.

Regional airports are even worse with an average load rate of 51.4 percent on the Cheongju-Beijing route, 68.1 percent for Gimhae-Beijing and 69.2 percent for Gimhae-Sunyang.



"Asiana Airlines is looking to enhance its profitability by restructuring its low-profit routes. Low-cost carriers will be looking to expand the routes that Asiana halts," an airline official said.

(@FahadShabbir)

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Apr, 2019 ) :As many as 42,307 mobile teams will administer polio vaccine to children under five years of age during the anti-polio drive starting from April 22.

This was stated Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid while presiding over a meeting at Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department. Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare Zahid Akhtar Zaman, Deputy Commissioner Lahore Saleh Saeed and EDO Lahore Agha Toheed as well as other officers concerned were also present.

Dr. Yasmin said that strict action against the officers concerned would be taken for showing negligence during the drive.

A comprehensive awareness campaign had already been started throughout Punjab including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad.

Strict instructions have been issued that no child under five years of age should be left without administering polio vaccine during the campaign.

She said that complete training of vaccinators would be conducted before the start of polio campaign.



Gwangju International Center Director Shin Gyong-gu stands in a room on the top floor of the Jeonil Building, on which a military helicopter opened fire on reporters during the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising. /Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar



By Jon Dunbar





For almost 39 years, opposing partisan factions have bickered over every aspect of the May 18, 1980, Gwangju Democratic Uprising, also known as the Gwangju Massacre for the deadly military suppression of civilian protesters, and sometimes called 5.18 for short.



Meanwhile, the answers sat right there for any investigators who cared to look. So why had so many facts of the May 18 pro-democracy movement remained shrouded in secrecy and controversy for decades?



Gwangju's 10-story Jeonil Building, overlooking a square and the former South Jeolla Provincial Office, bears crucial evidence of the military's actions to suppress not just the democracy activists but also the journalists reporting on it. One room on the top floor bears almost 200 nicks, holes and scratches, mostly in the floor, caused by machine gunfire from a helicopter.



I gained permission to enter thanks to Dr. Shin Gyong-gu, director of the Gwangju International Center, and visited with colleagues from the English-language monthly magazine Gwangju News, Jan. 12, only a couple of weeks before renovation was to begin on the building, which had been sitting empty for years.





Ceiling tiles of the Jeonil Building which have not been replaced since 1980 show damage from machine gun fire coming from a military helicopter during the suppression of the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising. /Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar



The exterior was a cheery white color, but the paint was peeling and someone had written "LOVE LIFE" in large block capital letters down the external stairwell, giving a clear indication the building was no longer cared for, at least officially. We gathered out front, next to peaceful civic activists as well as a small contingent of riot police.



City officials led us inside and up to the top floor, where a velvet red rope was moved aside for us to enter. I strolled in, not realizing until I got to the other side that I'd walked over several dozen bullet holes, each labeled with a double-digit number by the National Forensic Service. They peppered the floor, the outward-facing side of a building column and even a few ceiling tiles that hadn't been replaced since 1980.



The officials told me this was a warning shot  well, 200 of them  fired from a military helicopter hovering near the building at reporters overlooking the scene of the historic event. Meanwhile, below us on the street, a joyous version of the song "The Republic of Korea Is a Democratic Republic" played.



Standing there on the pockmarked floor, looking at the incontrovertible evidence of the government action, all I could feel was anger. How could basic facts of this incident remain officially unconfirmed, disputable, for decades? Even eyewitnesses to the helicopter attack on the building must have questioned their own senses at times.



This was an attack by the government on not just the press, but also on the institution of knowledge. Chun Doo-hwan did not want opposition to his military takeover. He did not want leftwing politics in Korea, nor a free press that could contradict his authority. And he was willing to burn it all down to have his way.



He didn't come clean when on trial for treason and sentenced to death. He wanted to take the secrets of his lethal suppression to his grave.



Obviously he believed he was protecting against communist insurgents, and he and his loyalists have used words like "monsters" and "devils" to describe the people who stood up to  and were knocked down by  his regime. And it is clear the worst attack against democratic values was the one launched under his authority.





On the top floor of the Jeonil Building in Gwangju, a concrete pillar is pockmarked with bullet holes on the side facing a window. /Korea Times photo by Jon DunbarTo determine whether TRT in men with hypogonadism is associated with an increased risk of urolithiasis.

We conducted a population-based matched cohort study utilizing data sourced from the Military Health System Data Repository (a large military-based database that includes beneficiaries of the TRICARE program). This included men aged 40-64 years with no prior history of urolithiasis who received continuous TRT for a diagnosis of hypogonadism between 2006 and 2014. Eligible individuals were matched using both demographics and comorbidities to TRICARE enrollees who did not receive TRT. The primary outcome was 2-year absolute risk of a stone-related event, comparing men on TRT to non-TRT controls.

There were 26,586 pairs in our cohort. Four hundred and eighty-two stone-related events were observed at 2 years in the non-TRT group versus 659 in the TRT group. Log-rank comparisons showed this to be a statistically significant difference in events between the two groups (p < 0.0001). This difference was observed for topical (p < 0.0001) and injection (p = 0.004) therapy-type subgroups, though not for pellet (p = 0.27). There was no significant difference in stone episodes based on secondary polycythemia diagnosis, which was used as an indirect indicator of higher on-treatment testosterone levels (p = 0.14).

We observed an increase in 2-year absolute risk of stone events among those on TRT compared to those who did not undergo this hormonal therapy. These findings merit further investigation into the pathophysiologic basis of our observation and consideration by clinicians when determining the risks and benefits of placing patients on TRT.

World journal of urology. 2019 Mar 23 [Epub ahead of print]

Tyler R McClintock, Marie-Therese I Valovska, Nicollette K Kwon, Alexander P Cole, Wei Jiang, Martin N Kathrins, Naeem Bhojani, George E Haleblian, Tracey Koehlmoos, Adil H Haider, Shehzad Basaria, Quoc-Dien Trinh

Division of Urology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 45 Francis St, ASB II-3, Boston, MA, 02115, USA., Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA., Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Department of Urology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada., Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA., Research Program in Men's Health: Aging and Metabolism, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Division of Urology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 45 Francis St, ASB II-3, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. .

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30903351Kim Jong-un should not try to weaken only sanctions



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is expected to visit Russia in late April to have a summit with President Vladimir Putin as reported by the Russian news agency TASS on Thursday. Moscow and Pyongyang has yet to reveal when and where the summit will be held possibly for security reasons.



TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Kim and Putin would discuss the issue of the North's denuclearization and regional cooperation. The expected summit, if realized, will be the first meeting between the two leaders. It will also be the first of its kind since 2011 when Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, met with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.



Sources speculate Kim and Putin will meet in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok as early as this week when the Russian president travels to the city on his way to China for an international forum on China's Belt and Road Initiative. Their first encounter will draw keen attention as it comes after the second U.S.-North Korea summit fell through in Hanoi, February.



The Kim-Putin summit is not without its positives. However, the meeting raises concerns that Kim could try to play a Russia card to secure diplomatic leverage to put forward his demands for sanctions relief even before the North completes its nuclear disarmament.



In fact, Moscow has backed the North's phased and simultaneous method of denuclearization under which Pyongyang can get rewards, including sanctions relief, for every step it takes for scrapping its nuclear arsenal. This is a far cry from a firm U.S. stance that sanctions remain in place until the North achieves complete and verifiable denuclearization.



Kim is undoubtedly seeking to weaken the united international front against the North by beefing up relations with Russia. He had already used a China card before and after holding the historic summit with Trump in Singapore last June.



Kim apparently intends to turn the tide in his favor by cementing solidarity with the two traditional socialist allies. Particularly, the North has hinted at finding a new way in case the nuclear negotiations with the U.S. go nowhere eventually. This new way might be to neutralize the U.N. sanctions through stepping up collaboration with Russia without denuclearizing.



Russia provides the North with about 4,000 tons of refined oil each month. It supplied 50,000 tons of flour to the North early this year. Kim is likely to ask Putin to provide more energy and more food aid to his country. In addition, he may ask Moscow to extend the stay of about 10,000 North Korean laborers in Russia, who are being forced to return home under a U.N. Security Council resolution.



The Trump administration sent Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, to Moscow to persuade Russia to stand fast in the sanctions regime. We urge President Putin neither to accommodate Kim's irrational demands nor to send a wrong signal to Pyongyang whatsoever.



For his part, Kim should not backpedal on his commitment to complete denuclearization, or go back to square one. Instead, he must accept President Moon Jae-in's offer to have another inter-Korean summit. And it would be better for him to restart dialogue with the U.S. to find a negotiated solution to the nuclear standoff.



In his Easter Urbi et Orbi address, Pope Francis prays that the light of the Risen Christ shine in the darkness of conflicts around the world, especially those in Syria, Yemen, Israel and Palestine, Libya, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, South Sudan, eastern Ukraine, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

By Devin Watkins

Christ is alive and he remains with us.

With those words of hope, Pope Francis addressed the crowds gathered in St. Peters Square on Easter Sunday for the Urbi et Orbi (to the City and to the World) message and blessing.

He said the morning of Easter represents the perennial youth of the Church and of humanity as a whole.

Youthful hope in face of sorrow

The Holy Father began his address by citing his recent post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus vivit. Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world. Everything he touches becomes young, new, full of life.

Easter, said Pope Francis, is the beginning of a new world, set free from the slavery of sin and death: the world open at last to the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of love, peace and fraternity.

Jesus, he added, does not abandon those who face hardship and sorrow, and he named the many parts of the world that are witnessing various forms of conflict.

Listen to our report

Conflicts in the Middle East

Pope Francis said Easter keeps our eyes focused on the Middle East, praying that Christians patiently persevere in their witness to the Risen Lord.

He said the world risks forgetting the people of Syria, who he said are victims of an ongoing conflict.

Now is instead the time for a renewed commitment for a political solution able to respond to peoples legitimate hopes for freedom, peace and justice, confront the humanitarian crisis and favor the secure re-entry of the homeless, along with all those who have taken refuge in neighboring countries, especially Lebanon and Jordan.

The Pope also prayed that the light of Easter illuminate all government leaders and peoples in the region, beginning with the Israelis and Palestinians, and lead them to pursue a future of peace and stability.

African continent

Pope Francis then turned to the African continent, first calling for the end to bloodshed in Libya, where defenseless people are once more dying in recent weeks and many families have been forced to abandon their homes. He urged those involved to choose dialogue over force.

The Pope said parts of the continent are rife with social tensions, conflicts and at times violent forms of extremism that leave in their wake insecurity, destruction and death. He specifically mentioned Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon.

Sudan, he said, is experiencing a moment of political uncertainty, voicing his hope that all parties will be heard.

Pope Francis prayed that God sustain the efforts towards peace in South Sudan, following a recent spiritual retreat in the Vatican. May a new page open in the history of that country, in which all political, social and religious components actively commit themselves to the pursuit of the common good and the reconciliation of the nation.

Eastern Ukraine

The Holy Father spoke briefly about the continuing conflict in eastern Ukraine. He prayed that the Lord encourage initiatives of humanitarian aid and efforts towards a lasting peace.

The Americas

Turning his thoughts to the Americas, Pope Francis prayed that the joy of the resurrection fill the hearts of those experiencing difficult political and economic situations.

I think in particular of the Venezuelan people, of all those who lack the minimal conditions for leading a dignified and secure life due to a crisis that endures and worsens. May the Lord grant that all those with political responsibilities may work to end social injustices, abuses and acts of violence, and take the concrete steps needed to heal divisions and offer the population the help they need.

The Pope also prayed for a peaceful negotiated solution to the political crisis in Nicaragua.

End the roar of arms

Finally, Pope Francis asked the Lord to make us builders of bridges, not walls and to end the roar of arms, both in conflict zones and within cities.

May the Risen Christ, he prayed, open our hearts to the needs of the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the poor, the unemployed, the marginalized, and all those who knock at our door in search of bread, refuge, and the recognition of their dignity.

Christ is alive, the Pope added. May we let ourselves be renewed in him. Happy Easter!

The much anticipated return of the Dog Days Farmers Market returns to Inspirada, the master-planned community in Henderson, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 27.

The four-hour third annual event will be jam-packed with pet-friendly activities, services and retail offerings, including:

Free dog obstacle course hosted by K-9 Allure

K-9 demonstrations by the Henderson Police Department

Donation drive and pet adoption through City of Henderson Animal Care and Control and NSPCA. Those who donate will receive a complimentary Cookie Bar treat.

Free pet photos by Pet Ographique

Giveaways for kids and pets

Various food trucks offering their signature cuisine, including Cookie Bar, Sticky Iggys and Cousins Maine

In addition, guests can shop the fresh52 Farmers Market for artisan and organic goods from fresh52 vendors, including fresh fruits and vegetables, baked goods, gourmet items, artisan wares, soaps, oils and vinegars, spices, teas and more.As the White House mulls new travel restrictions on countries with high visa overstay rates, activists say African asylum-seekers may feel the consequences.

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the Trump administration was weighing rules aimed at nationals of countries with high overstay rates of business and tourism visas, known as B1s or B2s.

According to the newspaper, the United States would warn countries to cut the overstay rates or see future visas harder to obtain and set for shorter periods. Such rules could be implemented soon through a presidential proclamation, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told the political website Politico.

That means the nations with the highest rates of travelers overstaying their visas, rather than the ones that have the highest number overall, would feel the most impact of any new rules. African nations like Djibouti, Eritrea, Chad, Liberia, Somalia, Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Sudan are among those with the highest rates.

By comparison, only one African nation  Nigeria  is among the top 10 worldwide for most overstays overall, including both Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and non-VWP countries. The waiver program allows citizens of certain nations to visit the United States for up to 90 days without a visa.

Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Nigeria, China, France and India each have higher totals than the 17 countries with the highest overstay rates combined, according to a VOA analysis of fiscal year 2017 DHS statistics.

VOA sent written questions requesting the outlines of the proposed restrictions and a list of countries likely to be affected to DHS and the White House but received no response.

"The government has chosen to focus on rates versus numbers because it fits their narrative that all immigrants are poor and brown or black," Samah Mcgona Sisay, Equal Justice Works Fellow at New York-based rights group African Services Committee, said in an interview with VOA.

Although B1s and B2s are temporary, nonimmigrant visitor visas  carrying strict guidelines, a lengthy application process and a $160 price tag for visitors from non-VWP countries  the proposed restrictions would target individuals legally seeking asylum, Sisay said, like many of her clients.

"The rates are high because oftentimes  a visa is their only way to get out of the country," Sisay said.

Black immigrants 'in the bull's-eye'

Last September, a proposed "public charge" regulation was unveiled by DHS aimed at making it harder for would-be legal immigrants to qualify for permanent residency if deemed likely to use public benefits. Under current law, legal permanent residents generally do not qualify for federal public benefits for their first five years of living in the U.S.

Separately, the Reuters news agency reported immigrant visa denials have increased due to a recent rule change allowing U.S. State Department officials greater discretion on public charge grounds.

These factors, combined with recently reintroduced legislation to cut family-based immigration and eliminate the diversity visa lottery  all in the midst of a major personnel shake-up at DHS  have added to growing uncertainty for black immigrant communities in the U.S., said Carl Hamad-Lipscombe, deputy director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.

"They know that they are in the bull's-eye," Hamad-Lipscombe said. "This administration is not interested in exploring additional pathways for lawful entry to the U.S., but they're also considering cutting the few pathways that immigrants  and particularly immigrants from African countries  have."

WATCH: High Visa Overstay Rates Linked to Immigration Policies

"You could bring a claim based on discrimination and say that [the overstay] rule change ... is arbitrary and actually based on discrimination," Sisay added.

Last year, President Donald Trump reportedly used an expletive to refer to African nations and Haiti during a closed-door immigration meeting with lawmakers.

Why target visa overstays now?

Over the past two years, the administration's immigration policies have largely emphasized security measures on the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

There have been notable exceptions: they include Trump's Supreme Court-upheld travel ban, which imposes restrictions on foreign nationals from five Muslim-majority countries, including Somalia and Libya, and a record-low refugee cap set by the administration.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told the Journal the administration considers it a priority to tackle visa overstays "to protect American taxpayers."

But visa overstays, representing 62% of additions to the undocumented population in 2016, have outpaced entries without inspection (EWIs) for the last decade and are "not a new phenomenon," said Robert Warren, senior visiting fellow at the Center for Migration Studies of New York.

Any proposed fix, Warren said, should fall on the U.S., in the form of greater resources for visa-issuing offices  "the first line of defense against overstaying"  and preventing tourists from gaining employment.

"It's inconceivable that a foreign country can have any influence over whether or not their nationals overstay here, after they come here as tourists," Warren told VOA.

In September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) noted "considerable progress" in implementing a biometric entry and exit system to track air travelers, although the technology remains in a pilot phase.

The Trump administration's proposed cuts to the State Department's fiscal 2020 budget, combined with its decision to close offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) abroad and transfer those duties to embassies and consulates, could further strain the department's resources.

Questioned about the proposed budget, a State Department official told VOA, "Our first priority when adjudicating visa applications is to ensure that applicants do not pose a security risk to the United States."

On the USCIS closures, the official added, "We anticipate a smooth transition and continued efficient processing of USCIS-related work at all of our missions overseas."An Algerian court has summoned former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and current Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal, two close associates of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in a probe into the wasting of public

money, state TV said Saturday.

They are being investigated over "dissipation of public money" and "illegal privilege," state TV said.

No other details were immediately available.

The move came after the army chief, Lt. Gen. Gaid Salah, said last week that he expected members of the ruling elite in the major oil and natural gas-producing country to be prosecuted for corruption.

Bouteflika stepped down two weeks ago after 20 years in power, bowing to pressure from the army and weeks of demonstrations, mainly by young people seeking change in the country.

But the protests, which began on Feb. 22 and have been largely peaceful, have continued as many want the removal of an elite that has governed Algeria since independence from France in 1962 and the prosecution of people they see as corrupt.

Ouyahia served several times as prime minister under Bouteflika and also heads the RND party, the coalition partner of Bouteflika's ruling FLN party.

Loukal was central bank governor under the former president.

Bouteflika's replacement

Bouteflika has been replaced by Abdelkader Bensalah, head of the upper house of parliament, as interim president for 90 days until a presidential election on July 4.

Hundreds of thousands protested Friday to demand the resignation of Bensalah and other top officials.

Bensalah appointed Ammar Haiwani as acting central bank governor, state TV said earlier. The position had been vacant since Loukal was made finance minister by Bouteflika before he had resigned.

The army has so far patiently monitored the mostly peaceful protests that at times have swelled to hundreds of thousands of people. It remains the most powerful institution in Algeria, having swayed politics from the shadows for decades.

On Tuesday, Salah said the military was considering all options to resolve the national political crisis and warned that "time is running out."

It was a hint that the military was losing patience with the popular upheaval shaking Algeria, a major oil and natural-gas exporter and an important security partner for the West against Islamist militants in north and west Africa.

Salah did not specify measures the army could take but added, "We have no ambition but to protect our nation."Jemulpo in the early 1900s.



By Robert Neff



William Franklin Sands, a young American employed first with the American legation in Seoul and later by the Korean government, described Jemulpo (modern Incheon) in the mid-1890s as "an unattractive entrance to a great adventure."



It was filled with opportunities and many Westerners flocked to the port seeking them.



Some were in government service  sailors and diplomats, others were there to convert the masses, but most were there to make money  legally and illegally.



Maintaining law and order was not an easy task. Jemulpo was divided into four distinct areas: Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and General Foreign settlements  each with their own police force.



At one time, the General Foreign settlement employed former sailors to keep the peace but they were not very efficient and instead of the crime rate going down, it actually went up.



In the mid-1890s, the settlement's chief of police was Henry William Ragsdale, a 42-year-old miner from Louisville, Kentucky. Ragsdale was a good choice for the job.



He had lived in the Far East for several years, had a Chinese wife named Kitty and presumably spoke Chinese fairly well.



His duties were to supervise the three or four Chinese constables that made up the foreign settlement's constabulary.





But Ragsdale was not the most effective deterrent to crime. That honor, according to Sands, belonged to a "very old and respectable Chinese night watchman with a huge sleep-dispelling wooden clapper."



It was thought that the sound of the approaching clapper startled would-be thieves and forced them to flee before they could commit their crime. It was fairly effective when the offender was Chinese but not so when the criminal was a foreigner.



The Chinese settlement found this out the hard way.



A Chinese merchant caught a Korean thief and summoned the Chinese constable. When the constable arrived, the Korean thief suddenly broke away and jumped over a stone wall not realizing that on the other side was a 20-foot drop. He fell on an anchor and a few hours later died from his wounds.



A group of the thief's friends soon gathered at the home of the Chinese merchant and accused him of murder. They beat the man severely and even tore out one of his eyes, demanding revenge.



His life was spared by the timely arrival of the Chinese police. Inexplicably, the thief's family was later given restitution of $150.



Alcohol was frequently a problem. Jemulpo had several establishments that catered to the vices of men.



On December 12, 1886, an African-American named Walter Laws was involved in an altercation in Daibuts Hotel  a Japanese-owned establishment. Laws, who recently arrived in the port from Nagasaki, was described as "a destitute American" looking for an opportunity (employment) and was accused of committing "a brutal and unprovoked assault on a peacable [sic] Chinese storekeeper."



He was promptly arrested by the Chinese constables and temporarily confined at the Chinese consulate, before being transferred to the American warship USS Omaha for trial and punishment.



In his sworn statement to the commander of the warship, Laws claimed he merely made a remark to one of his friends that was overheard by an unknown Chinese man who felt aggrieved and dared Laws to repeat it.



"I repeated it," testified Laws, and "he shoved me, [so] I struck him. Feeling ashamed at the result of my hasty action, I apologized. He refused to accept the apology and caused me to be arrested. I was kept in jail 22 hours without a hearing."



Commander Selfridge, after hearing the testimony, declared Laws "an inoffensive young man" and that at most he was guilty of simple assault. What became of Laws is unknown but undoubtedly he was declared persona non grata in Jemulpo and removed. Often these moneyless drifters were placed aboard the next steamer and sent to a distant port  to become the problem of that port's consul.



Fights were fairly common among the drunken revelers but seldom did they result in death. But, in the early hours of February 24, 1902, Rabec, a young French mining engineer, "in youthful and alcoholic exuberance," forced his way into a Chinese wedding and so outraged the wedding guests that they rose up against him in murderous rage.



"He fled to his hotel hotly followed, got a revolver and killed the leading pursuer, who unfortunately proved to be a Chinese head constable, a man of excellent reputation and discretion, who might have arrested him lawfully, but who in his zeal had gone beyond the boundary of the Chinese quarter into the general foreign quarter, where his authority ceased."



Rabec was arrested by the General Foreign settlement's constable and transferred to Seoul, where he stood trial at the French Consulate.



Sands testified that Rabec was "a steady and reliable" man  even under the most trying conditions.



According to Sands, an arbitrary commission gave Rabec "the benefit of the Loi Beranger, by which in 'crimes of passion a man's previous character is taken into account, and if good, the sentence is passed but suspended until a second offence.'"



A monetary award of 275 yen (about $135) was made to the Chinese policeman's family.



The Chinese policeman's mistake cost him dearly  his life  but for Rabec, the sum probably equaled only a month's pay.

Bahrain's king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, reinstated nationality to 551 convicted people stripped of their citizenship by courts in the Gulf Arab state, state news agency BNA reported on Sunday.



The move comes after a series of mass trials conducted during the nation's years long crackdown on dissent that had banned opposition groups and eventually revoked citizenship from hundreds of nationals.



The BNA report did not say who were the 551 people that had their citizenship restored or what crimes they were allegedly involved in.

Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf, has encountered widespread international criticism for the mass trials, which resulted in hundreds of people losing their citizenship. Last week, 138 people lost their citizenship in a mass trial.



The Britain-based activist group the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy called it "largest single incident since the use of this new tool of repression began in 2012 and takes the current number of citizenship revocations in Bahrain to 990, 180 of which occurred in 2019 alone."



According to the activist group, withdrawing nationality has become a growing tool of repression against critical voices in Bahrain, where the revocation of citizenship was officially formalized by the July 2014 Amendments to the 1963 Citizenship Law. The legislation allows the government to withdraw Bahraini citizenship from those who were charged on terrorist-related activities.



"Predominantly, this trend has affected political activists who have sought to speak out about human rights abuses in the country," the activist group said.



After the king's decisions, the state-run Bahrain News Agency said "The study and evaluation of the situation of convicts should be based on criteria pertaining to the seriousness, impact and consequences of the crimes, as well as on the danger the convict may pose on national security."



The country's Sunni monarchy crushed an Arab Spring uprising in 2011 that was supported by the nation's Shiite majority. But reports show most of the leading opposition figures and rights activists had either been imprisoned or fled to other countries.



Bahrain is also home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.The so-called Islamic State (IS) may have been defeated militarily, but the terror group has left behind massive devastation in Syria and Iraq that is beyond repair  at least for now.

Last month, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared victory over IS after capturing its last stronghold of Baghuz in eastern Syria.

While communities across Iraq and Syria are trying to rebuild their lives after nearly five years of brutal IS rule, some find it extremely difficult to repair the damage the terror group has inflicted on religious and archaeological sites.

From its rise in 2014 until its final days in 2019, IS plundered, destroyed and burned all Christian landmarks, including churches and museums. In a propaganda video disseminated online, IS militants were seen dismantling Christian artifacts and statues with sledgehammers and destroying historical collections when they took control of the Iraq city of Mosul in 2014.

Palmyra

A year later, IS militants overran the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, which was known for its Roman-era ruins.

In a 2015 interview, Irina Bokova, then-director of UNESCO, said that ISs destruction of history in Syria and Iraq was tantamount to cultural cleansing.

I believe that this strategy of the destroying of heritage and culture of communities that live there goes hand in hand with the persecution of minorities, Bokova said.

She added that the darkest part of this tragedy is selling the subjects of art  to finance their extremist terrorist activities.

In 2015, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution banning all trade in antiquities from Syria and reaffirmed another ban on Iraqi artifact sales adopted nearly 15 years ago.

Christians hardest hit

Since the outbreak of Syrias civil war in 2011, Christians were among minority groups hit hardest by IS and other radical groups in Syria.

Before IS came to prominence in 2013 al-Nusra Front [a former branch of al-Qaida in Syria] attacked the Mar Malki church in northeast Syria, said Elizabeth Gawrieh, leader of the Syriac Union Party, a Christian political group based in Qamishli, Syria.

The militants destroyed it after stealing all of its contents, she told VOA.

Raqqa

In 2014, IS took control of the Syrian city of Raqqa, which became the de facto capital of the terrorist group. IS immediately reinvented the jizya, an Islamic tax imposed on non-Muslims.

Under that law, Christians were forced to pay monthly or yearly fees for living in IS-held territory.

IS turned the Martyrs Church in Raqqa into a prison where many dissidents were held, including Christians, Gawrieh said.

After the city was freed from IS in October 2017 the church was barely recognizable, she said.

Its contents were perhaps sold in the first month of their [IS] arrival in Raqqa, Gawrieh added.

Smugglers

Ahed al-Hendi, a Washington-based analyst who recently returned from Syria, says that most of the stolen Christian artifacts were sold outside Syria.

Turkey and Russia are two countries whose black markets received large amounts of these items, he said.

They were businessmen and mafia lords who would pay ISIS and other extremist groups millions of dollars to buy those stolen relics, he said, using another acronym for IS.

Al-Hendi added that at some point during the conflict the Syria-Turkey border was largely porous, which allowed IS to smuggle out as many artifacts as they could take from churches in areas under their control.

When IS was in control of large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, the terror group transferred large quantities of Christian objects stolen from churches from the Nineveh Plains in Iraq to Syria and eventually smuggle them to black markets abroad, according to experts.

Before the rise of IS, Christians largely lived in the Nineveh Plains region.

70 churches destroyed

At least 70 Christian churches have been destroyed since the beginning of Syrias war, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a group that monitors war in Syria.

Every time extremist groups target a church, they make sure to steal everything inside it before they destroy. They want to erase anything related to Christianity in this country systematically, said Gawrieh of the Syriac Union Party.

Nusian Matosian, a Christian Armenian resident of the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, recalls what happened to her local church when IS fighters seized control of the border town in 2014.

My family has been the gatekeeper of our church since it was built 105 years ago, she said. But when [IS] terrorists came to Tel Abyad, they removed us from the church immediately. Then they shut it down. They prevented people from frequenting their place of worship.

Tel Abyad was freed in mid-2015 by U.S.-backed forces and the church reopened its doors. But not everything has returned to normal.

IS has taken dozens of holy icons and artifacts from the church that were valuable to us as Christians, Matosian said.

We were able to rebuild the church, but how can we bring back those priceless items that were taken from it? she said.

Gawrieh said that it is the responsibility of international community to help return the stolen Christian artifacts from churches in Syria and Iraq.

Just like how the international community helped us get rid of [IS] militarily, it is their responsibility to help us bring back these items that belong to all humanity, she said.Sri Lankan police said Monday the death toll from the series of explosions at churches and hotels has risen to 290 people. Another 500 people were injured in the blasts. 

Officials say 13 people have been detained in connection with the blasts.



The first six blasts, which began around 8:45 a.m. local time, were coordinated and claimed most of the fatalities, while two smaller blasts took place several hours later. The targets of the bombings were tourists and Catholic worshippers attending Easter prayers at churches in three cities.

The blasts shocked the island nation, which has been relatively peaceful since a bloody civil war ended 10 years ago.



Thirteen people have been arrested in connection with the attacks, for which no one has claimed responsibility.



Colombo hardest hit



The capital Colombo, where three major hotels and one church were targeted, bore the brunt of the mayhem. Ambulances wailed through its streets and hundreds of people turned out to donate blood as the injured were rushed to hospital. Thousands of police were posted in the streets while the army stood guard outside state buildings.

The two other churches to suffer the attacks were in Negombo, a Catholic-majority town just north of Colombo, and in the eastern district of Batticaloa.



The Gothic-style St. Sebastian's church in Negombo appeared to have taken the worst hit. Photos posted on Facebook by church authorities, who issued appeals for help in the aftermath of the bombing, showed a shattered roof, blood-stained pews and bodies on the floor. Witnesses said they saw smoke billowing out of the targeted churches.



The blasts in the afternoon took place at a small hotel close to the national zoo near Colombo and another at a house in the capital city.

About 30 foreigners, including Americans, British, Chinese and Portuguese nationals, were among those dead and injured in the attacks. Located in the Indian Ocean on India's southern tip, Sri Lanka's sandy, tropical beaches are a popular tourist destination in South Asia. The hotels hit were the Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury Hotel.



"Horrible scenes, I saw many body parts strewn all over," Sri Lanka Minister of Economic Reforms Harsha de Silva said after visiting a church and a hotel in Colombo.



Police say they are investigating whether suicide bombers were involved in the attacks.



'Misinformation and rumors'



Authorities ordered a nighttime curfew and blocked access to major social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp, in a bid to stem the flow of "misinformation and rumors." Schools have been closed until Tuesday and police were advising people to stay indoors.

As rumors about the possibility of more attacks spread rapidly, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appealed to people to stay "united and strong." Condemning the "cowardly" attacks, he said in a Twitter post, "Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."



Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene blamed extremists for what he called the "unfortunate terrorist incident."



Statements of condemnation came in from top officials. Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera said the blasts appeared to be a "well-coordinated attempt to create murder, mayhem and anarchy."



President Maithripala Sirisena said he has ordered a special police task force and the military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda.



Christians make up about 7.5% of the mostly Buddhist nation of 21 million.



Past history



Sri Lanka witnessed nearly a quarter-century of violence, bombings and terror attacks that often hit high-profile targets during a bloody civil war led by Tamil guerrillas for an independent homeland for the ethnic community, but the insurgency was crushed in 2009.



Since then, the tiny country has witnessed some political instability and sporadic incidents of religious and ethnic violence, but no violence of the kind that shattered its calm on Sunday.

Christian groups have said they face increasing intimidation from hard-line Buddhist monks in recent years. Such harassment, however, is on a relatively minor level, says Jehan Perera, who heads the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, in Colombo.



Pointing out that churches were hit, he asked, "Who would target Catholics? There has been anti-Christian sentiment, but on a very small scale with regard to conversions that are happening in different localities but not to the extent that people would be killed. Sometimes there were stones thrown, sometimes a pastor were chased away, but not massive bloodletting."

Condemnation of the deadly bombings poured in from leaders across the world, including U.S. President Donald Trump. The head of Sri Lanka's biggest neighbor, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, "There is no place for such barbarism in our region."



Pope Francis condemned the attacks during his Easter Sunday address in Rome and offered condolences to "the victims of such cruel violence."



In an interview to a local television network, Colombo's Archbishop, Malcolm Ranjith, called on people to remain calm. He has also asked authorities to conduct an impartial inquiry and to punish those responsible "mercilessly" because "only animals can behave like that.''This year marks the fourth occasion that the Dutch embassy in Washington has presented the Anne Frank Award to those whom Ambassador Henne Schuwer calls "spectacular people" who have contributed to the cause of human rights. Benjamin B. Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of Nazis at the post-World War II Nuremberg Trials, and Syrian-born Mohammad al- Abdallah were recognized at this year's award ceremony which was centered on the theme of prosecuting war crimes.

Mohammad al-Abdallah, himself having gone through torture and abuse at the hands of Syrian authorities, told VOA in an interview that, in his experience, the harm done to his body "was perhaps the easiest to repair" (he had to undergo knee surgery in the United States as a result of what he went through in Syria's prison facilities), whereas the "mental and moral" harm inflicted poses much more of a challenge.

Questions that have taunted him include: did I do anything wrong? Did I do anything wrong when I encouraged people to take part in human rights protests?

Working for The Syria Justice and Accountability Center, an organization that documents and communicates with the outside world about human rights violations inside Syria, gives al- Abdallah the opportunity to work with and for victims of the Syrian war who, he said, in sharing their suffering, are exercising their rights and letting the outside world know the situation inside Syria.

He looks forward to a future Syria and the region that is home to Syria "without torture, without missing persons."

"We have to stay involved in Syria" and the country is far from a "solved crisis," in Henne Schuwer, the Dutch ambassador's opinion. "I don't think in a global world, problems are isolated problems anymore."

Watch: Dutch ambassador: We have to stay involved in Syria

Schuwer thinks work done by Abdallah and his colleagues are acts of vigilance which could have a restraining effect on potential perpetrators.

"He basically tells people: we know what you're doing, we know what's happening, I'm documenting what you're doing, there will be a price to pay; hopefully that serves as a warning to those people and as a deterrent to stop them from what they're doing," he said.

Schuwer believes that as "rich western democracies, we have the means and the possibilities to help countries that are not as lucky as we are."

He tells VOA that although the Kingdom of the Netherlands is not "a military power," or at least not on the same scale as the United States, "what we have is a rich tradition of development cooperation; we have been active in the region for a very long time, and we are now also very active in the refugee camps."

Providing education to children in refugee camps, Schuwer said, can help prevent these refugee camps from becoming "breeding grounds for new ISIS-es or new terror groups."

Schuwer also expresses hope that "at a certain moment, we have to be able to get into Syria to help rebuild that country."

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Democrat from the State of Maryland, said there has to be an end to the civil war, and a peace process which will lead to the Syrian people selecting their own leadership. "There should be accountability and we will continue to push for a mechanism that will allow for that to happen."

Al-Abdallah, a native of Deir ez-Zor in the eastern part of Syria, 450 kilometers from the capital city of Damascus, feels optimistic about Syria's future.

"I've seen moments when only two or three people show up for protests because everybody is scared, to moments when streets are filled with people." Syrians, he said, "will not give up, even if they're scared and discouraged now," predicting that "things will continue to go up and down, but it's not the end of our battle for freedom."

Watch: Mohammad al-Abdallah: Looks like Assad and Russia won the military fight

In Abdallah's opinion, although Russia has helped the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad score military victories, those victories are not the same as political victories which he thinks could still depend on the level of participation by the United States and other western countries.On April 22, more than 1 billion people in 192 countries are expected to take part in a global day of political and civic action for the Earth.

People will march, plant trees, clean up their cities, parks, beaches and waterways, politicians will announce policies, and corporations will pledge to work toward sustainability  all to mark Earth Day 2019.

Earth Day Network, the organization that leads Earth Day observances worldwide, has designated 2019 to be the year to "Protect Our Species."

According to EDN, the theme was picked to highlight the fact that human activities are directly linked to what environmental journalist Elizabeth Kolbert refers to in her book, "The Sixth Extinction," which describes a mass extinction caused by human activity rather than natural causes.

"The good news is that the rate of extinctions can still be slowed, and many of our declining, threatened and endangered species can still recover if we work together now to build a united global movement of consumers, voters, educators, faith leaders and scientists to demand immediate action, EDN President Kathleen Rogers told VOA.

Earth Day brings, in general, a greater awareness to environmental concerns.

The Pew Research Center released a report last week that found climate change was the top concern in half the countries it surveyed last year.

At the top of the list was Greece, where 90 percent of those surveyed called it a major threat and only 4 percent did not view climate change as a threat at all. Their concern was shared by residents of South Korea, France, Spain and Mexico, countries that ranked Nos. 2-5, respectively.

The survey also found that concern over climate change has been steadily rising around the world since 2013, when Pew first asked that question. That year, a median of 56 percent in 23 countries said climate change was a major threat.

In the most recent survey, a median of 67 percent in the same countries hold this view. The concern was also the highest among specific demographics  the educated, women and those between the ages of 18 and 26.

The rising awareness, especially among the young, is good news for EDN, which is looking ahead to next year when it marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. It has already launched several initiatives this year in hopes of seeing results by Earth Day 2020. Among them are:

Earth Challenge 2020

EDN is working with the U.S. State Department and the Woodrow Wilson International Center to engage millions of people around the world to gather more than 1 billion data points in areas including air quality, water quality, biodiversity, pollution and human health.

The "citizen science" volunteers will gather information about their local conditions asking questions such as: What is in my drinking water? How does air quality vary locally? What is the extent of plastics pollution? How are insect populations changing? And is my food supply sustainable?

EDN is working with major tech companies to develop apps where the citizen scientists can upload the data they collect. The apps will also tell users what the information they collect means and offer suggestions on what else they can do to help the environment, Rogers said.

EDN hopes to be able to use the data to leverage public policy decisions and inspire collaborative action worldwide.

The Great Global Cleanup



The initiative will be launched in cities across the United States on Earth Day this year. It will call on volunteers to help pick up pieces of trash from neighborhoods, beaches, rivers, lakes, trails and parks. Using the lessons learned in the U.S., a global effort on Earth Day next year will try to gather millions of volunteers to remove billions of pieces of trash.

One of the most ambitious project connected to the global cleanup is one aimed at cleaning the most polluted rivers in the world: the Ganges, in India. Coordinated by Earth Day India and a local NGO, the first phase will begin in the Himalayas, where two glacier-fed streams meet to form Indias most famous and sacred river.

The cleanup will evolve over the next 15 months through 100 towns and cities, including some of the most densely populated ones such as Kolkota, Varanasi and Patna. It will culminate in the Sunderbans Delta, where the river empties into the Bay of Bengal.

The project on the Ganges will serve as a lightning rod for many more countries and communities to get involved worldwide," Rogers said.

The Canopy Project

One of EDN's ongoing projects since 2010 has been to plant trees to fight deforestation. EDN focuses on restoring forests in environmentally critical areas such the Amazon rainforest and the Boreal Forest. But it also plans on reforestation of areas degraded by natural disasters such as flooding or fires. The organization estimates it has planted hundreds of millions of trees worldwide since it started.

Rogers says EDNs goal for the 50th anniversary is to plant 7.8 billion trees, one for every person alive on Earth that year. Although, she says, the latest population forecast is close to 7.6 billion in 2020 so thats a bit of a reprieve.

She explains that the 7.8 billion number is in addition to the reforestation pledges made by governments, corporations and other environmental groups. For example, she said, the government of Pakistan has already declared its intention to plant 1 billion trees. EDN is now in negotiations with Islamabad to plant 1 billion additional trees to meet the 2020 goal.

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, when 20 million Americans banded together to launch the modern environmental movement, governments around the world have passed laws and implemented policies to preserve the Earth.

EDN says as the 50th anniversary of Earth Day approaches, the time is long overdue for a global outpouring of energy, enthusiasm and commitment to create a new environmental paradigm.As voters lined up outside the polls in Cairo Saturday, music blared and some among the crowds danced and waved Egyptian flags.

Many people held flyers with a photograph of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and a green checkmark. The message? Vote yes.

If passed, the constitutional changes proposed in the ballot could extend the presidents rule to 2030, and deepen the militarys role in communities. The Egyptian Parliament overwhelmingly supported the changes and announced the national vote on Wednesday. Results are expected by April 27.

Opponents to the measure say the changes will roll back the democratic dreams of 2011, when a popular uprising lead to the ousting of 30-year dictator, Hosni Mubarak and that the referendum is marred by corruption and coercion. Supporters say a secure leadership will make Egypt safer and help the country climb out of economic crisis.

The legislative impact would be basically handing over all powers to the presidency, explained Hisham Kassem, a veteran Egyptian publisher and analyst in an interview ahead of the vote.

Many of the people at the polls said they werent sure exactly what changes are being proposed, but they came to show their support for the government.

Manar, 20 wore a yellow headscarf and carried an Egyptian flag when she came to vote. At first she was shy to admit she didnt know what she was voting for, but later confidently said, I voted yes because I think Sissi is doing great things.

Irregularities

The outcome of the ballot is all but certain to most observers. For weeks, the Egyptian media  which are overwhelmingly pro-government  have been promoting yes votes and no organized opposition has emerged to challenge the message.

Additionally, yes vote supporters openly distribute free groceries, like oil, rice and sugar to some people who can show their finger has been dyed by the ink used to prevent voter fraud. In some cases, voters told VOA their identity cards had been confiscated, and they had to vote to get them back.

Other people at the polls told VOA they were offered money if they voted, and some students said they were paid to stand at the polls for the day.

While these kinds of irregularities are wide-spread, it is not clear exactly who is responsible. In Egypt, the government, the military and many large business interests are intertwined, with all three publicly rallying around the president to curry favor, according to Kassem, the analyst.

A bus outside of one polling station on Saturday had a sign saying Serving People. Hossam, a young man in a sweatshirt and jeans, waited in the bus. He was un-phased when asked where it was going.

This is to take us to receive the money they have promised for voting, he said.

Possible outcomes

In Cairo on Saturday, it was hard to find anyone advocating for the ballot to fail. Since ousting former president Mohammed Morsi in 2013 after mass protests calling for his resignation, Sissis government has been accused of jailing the opposition.

Amnesty International says the constitutional changes will strengthen impunity for human rights violations by members of the security forces, furthering the climate of repression that already exists in the country.

Before Ahmed Mamdouh, a university business student, told VOA he was voting no he assured everyone listening that he supported the president, and did not object to the extension of his term.

Mamdouh said the changes will weaken the parliament, and the fact that women would be guaranteed more seats if the measure passes is not helpful.

How Ill benefit from that? he asked. It wont matter if my representative in parliament is a man or a woman because they wont have any authority.

Besides extending Sissis current term, it will allow the president to run again for office in 2024. The military, which is huge part of the Egyptian economy, will also increase its role in the criminal justice system if the measure passes.

By Sunday, local pro-government news hailed the turn-out in many polling stations as huge, particularly drawing female voters. But some locals seemed indifferent, saying they were confused by the actual changes and unconvinced by those who would entice them to vote.

The offer of the food bag is not enough for me to take time off of work, said Wael on his way to his shift, selling leftover animal products from a butchers shop.

And I dont believe they are giving out money, he added. "It is fine for housewives but I have to work."Explosions shook the Libyan capital Tripoli late Saturday after an airstrike, residents said, in an escalation of a two-week offensive by eastern forces on the city held by the internationally recognized government.

A Reuters reporter and several interviewed residents said they saw an aircraft circling for more than 10 minutes over the capital with a humming sound before opening fire on a southern suburb, scene of the heaviest fighting between the rival forces.

Reuters was unable to confirm whether an aircraft or unmanned drone was behind the strike, which triggered heavy anti-aircraft fire. Residents had reported drone strikes in the past days, but there has been no confirmation and explosions heard in the city center this time were louder than in previous days.

Residents counted several missile strikes, which apparently hit a military camp of forces loyal to Tripoli in the Sabaa district. Authorities closed Tripolis only functioning airport.

Haftar stymied

The Libyan National Army (LNA) force loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar started an offensive two weeks ago but has been unable to breach the governments southern defenses.

If a drone strike was confirmed, this would point to more sophisticated warfare. The LNA has so far mainly used aging Soviet-made jets from the air force of Moammar Gadhafi, toppled in 2011, lacking precision firepower and helicopters, according to residents and military sources.

In the past the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have supported Haftar with airstrikes during campaigns to take eastern Libya. Both countries flew airstrikes on Tripoli in 2014 during a different conflict to help a Haftar-allied force, U.S. officials said at the time.

Since 2014 the UAE and Egypt have provided the LNA with military equipment such as aircraft and helicopters, helping Haftar to gain the upper hand in Libyas eight-year conflict, past U.N. reports have established.

The UAE even built an air base in Al Khadim in eastern Libya, one such report said in 2017.

The air strikes, which were also filmed by residents in video posted online, came after a day of heavy clashes in southern districts, with shelling audible in the city center.

Trumps call to Haftar

The violence spiked after the White House said on Friday that President Donald Trump spoke by with Haftar earlier in the week.

The disclosure of the call and a U.S. statement that it recognized Field Marshal Haftars significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libyas oil resources has boosted the commanders supporters and enraged his opponents.

Western powers and the Gulf have been divided over a push by Haftars forces to seize Tripoli, undermining calls by the United Nations for a ceasefire.

Both sides claimed progress in southern Tripoli Saturday, but no more details were immediately available.

A Reuters TV cameraman visiting the southern Khalat Furgan suburb heard heavy shelling but saw no apparent change in the frontline.

On Friday, two children were killed in shelling in southern Tripoli, residents said. The fighting has killed 220 people and wounded 1,066, the World Heath organization (WHO) said.

It was unclear why the White House waited several days to announce Mondays phone call.

UN cease-fire

On Thursday, both the United States and Russia said they could not support a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Libya at this time.

Russia objects to the British-drafted resolution blaming Haftar for the latest flare-up in violence when his LNA advanced to the outskirts of Tripoli earlier this month, diplomats said.

The United States did not give a reason for its decision not to support the draft resolution, which would also call on countries with influence over the warring parties to ensure compliance and for unconditional humanitarian aid access in Libya.Sri Lanka has imposed a curfew, effective immediately, following a series of Easter Sunday explosions at churches and hotels.

The government says it has also blocked access to major social media and messaging apps to prevent the spread of misinformation and rumors.

At least 138 people were killed and hundreds more hospitalized from injuries in near simultaneous blasts that rocked three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter, a security official told The Associated Press, in the worst violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.

Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with reporters. Worshippers and hotel guests were among the dead, the official said.

Later in the day, a Sri Lankan military spokesman has confirmed two more explosions just outside the capital.



The spokesman, Brig. Atapattu, says a seventh blast occurred at a guesthouse in Dehiwala, killing at least two people. Atapattu says an eighth blast occurred in Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo. He did not have details on the Dematagoda blast.



Worst violence since civil war

The magnitude of the bloodshed recalled Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war, when separatist Tamil Tigers and other rebel groups targeted the Central Bank, a shopping mall, a Buddhist temple and hotels popular with tourists.

No one has claimed responsibility for Sundays blasts.

St. Anthonys Shrine and the three hotels where the blasts took place are in Colombo, and are frequented by foreign tourists. A National Hospital spokesman, Dr. Samindi Samarakoon, told AP they received 47 dead, including nine foreigners, and were treating more than 200 wounded.

Local TV showed damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels.

The Shangri-Las second-floor restaurant was gutted in the blast, with the ceiling and windows blown out. Loose wires hung and tables were overturned in the blackened space.

A police magistrate was at the hotel to inspect the bodies recovered from the restaurant. From outside the police cordon, several bodies could be seen covered in white sheets.

Alex Agieleson, who was near the shrine, said buildings shook with the blast, and that a number of injured people were carried away in ambulances.

Outside Colombo

Other blasts were reported at St. Sebastians Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa. St. Sebastians appealed for help on its Facebook page.

The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out doors and windows at St. Sebastians, where people carried the wounded away from blood-stained pews, TV footage showed.

Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas.

Sri Lankan security forces in 2009 defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who had fought to create an independent homeland for the countrys ethnic minority Tamils. The U.N. initially estimated the death toll from 26 years of fighting to be about 100,000 but a U.N. experts panel later said some 45,000 ethnic Tamils may have been killed in the last months of the fighting alone.

Government troops and the Tamil Tigers were both accused of grave human rights violations, which prompted local and international calls for investigations.The FBI on Saturday said it had arrested Larry Hopkins, a member of an armed group of U.S. citizens who have been stopping migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico.

Hopkins, 69, also known as Johnny Horton, was arrested in Sunland Park, N.M., on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

Hopkins had represented himself as the commander of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a volunteer group camped out near Sunland Park since late February. The UCP has posted videos showing its members holding migrants, many of them Central American families with children seeking asylum, until U.S. Border Patrol arrives to arrest them.

Migrants' surrender on video

The group drew a complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union, and widespread media attention, after an April 16 video showed a group of around 300 migrants surrendering to the UCP at its camp.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday said citizens had no authority to arrest or detain anyone and police and justice officials were looking into the UCP's activities.

Hector Balderas, New Mexico's attorney general, described Hopkins as "a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families."

"Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes," Balderas said in a statement.

Hopkins, of Flora Vista, N.M., is expected to have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, N.M., on Monday, the FBI said.

Earlier Saturday, Mexican officials said they had "deep concern" about armed groups that intimidate and extort migrants on the border, shortly after the American Civil Liberties Union and Democratic U.S. senators called for a probe into such citizen efforts to block migrants from crossing.

"These types of practices can drive human rights abuses of people who migrate or request asylum or refuge in the United States," Mexico's Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement, referring to "militia groups" in New Mexico.

It added that patrols "on the margins" of the law create risks for the safety of migrants.

On Thursday, the ACLU of New Mexico condemned the United Constitutional Patriots as a "fascist militia organization" operating outside the law.

Dressed in camouflage

The group has posted videos showing members dressed in camouflage and armed with semiautomatic rifles holding groups of migrants for pickup by Border Patrol agents.

Along with the ACLU, New Mexico Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall called for an investigation into the border group.

"Threatening innocent children and families fleeing violence and seeking asylum is unacceptable and flies in the face of our values as a state and a nation," they said in a joint statement on Twitter on Friday.Pope Francis expressed closeness to the Christian community struck by the attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter day. In his Easter message he also prayed for peace in Syria, Yemen, Libya and South Sudan. Addressing tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter's Square from the central balcony of the basilica, the pope said the resurrection of Christ, he said, is the principle of new life for every man and woman.

Under grey skies, but in a Saint Peter's Square filled with flowers, Pope Francis, dressed in white vestments, celebrated Easter mass in front of tens of thousands of faithful and tourists.

At the end of the mass the pope gave his traditional message and blessing to the city and to the world. His last words before he wished everyone a Happy Easter were for the people of Sri Lanka struck he said by the serious attacks on Easter day, which brought mourning and pain in some of the churches and other sites in the country. He said he learned the news with sadness and expressed closeness to the Christian community gathered in prayer.

Earlier in his message the pope said, "The resurrection of Christ is the principle of new life for every man and every woman, for true renewal always begins from the heart, from the conscience. Yet Easter, the pope added, is also "the beginning of the new world, set free from the slavery of sin and death."

The pope's first thoughts went to the people of Syria, "victims of an ongoing conflict to which we risk becoming ever more resigned and even indifferent." He urged a new commitment for a political solution that will respond for the hopes for peace and confront the humanitarian crisis. The pope's thoughts also turned to "the people of Yemen, especially the children, exhausted by hunger and war," and to the situation in Libya.

The pope said, "May conflict and bloodshed cease in Libya, where defenseless people are once more dying in recent weeks and many families have been forced to abandon their homes." Pope Francis urged the parties involved to "choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability."

The pope also prayed for peace in other parts of the African continent, which he said is still rife with "social tensions, conflicts and at times violent forms of extremism that leave in their wake insecurity, destruction and death." He mentioned Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon. But he also spoke of Sudan, which he said is "presently experiencing a moment of political uncertainty."

Referring to the recent spiritual retreat held with South Sudanese leaders in the Vatican, the pope expressed the hope for "a new page open in the history of that country, in which all political, social and religious components actively commit themselves to the pursuit of the common good and the reconciliation of the nation."

The pope also mentioned the crisis Venezuela and the situation in Nicaragua, where he expressed hope for a "peaceful negotiated solution."

By Emanuel Pastreich



April 20, 2019



I went out in Seoul again today to protest against the silence on climate change. Massive protests are taking place around the world right now in response to the increasingly dire reports about the future of our planet  including articles by scientists (as opposed to ignorant politicians or corporate PR experts)  who suggest that the planet will be uninhabitable by the middle of the century.



I spent about four hours outside with my placard and stickers, protesting against climate change indifference in Seoul.





Walking back and forth on the subway.



I was alone. I have sent notes to others asking if they would like to organize an event together soon to protest indifference to climate change, but I have yet to get a response.



Korea is a leading country in science and technology and the level of education of children about science is quite remarkable. When I came here 12 years ago, I was deeply impressed by the level of education of average Koreans.



But I have learned that such education does not guarantee a scientific perspective on the world, especially when that scientific investigation leads to unpleasant truths.





On the bus.



The topic of catastrophic climate change is taboo in the Korean media today, even so-called "progressive" media do not mention it. The environmental groups that are active tend to focus on the impact of pollution on local communities, or the fine dust pollution. Climate change is rarely discussed by NGOs, nor is it a subject for discussion in committees in the National Assembly (with the exception of commitments to international agreements that the Korean government has unwillingly made).





One of my stickers.Spain's Socialists increased their lead in two polls published late Saturday, with support from 28.8% to 30.3% of voters, but they fell short of a majority ahead of a general election on April 28.

A poll by El Pais newspaper gave the Socialists of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez 129 out of 350 seats in the parliament.

If a coalition was formed with their main ally, anti-austerity Podemos, they would hold a combined 162 seats, short of the 176 needed to secure a majority.

A coalition of three right-wing parties  People's Party (PP), Ciudadanos and Vox  would get 44.4% of votes, or 156 seats, 20 short of a majority.

To be re-elected, Sanchez would have to form a wide-ranging and delicate parliamentary majority with the support of the array of parties, including Podemos and Catalan pro-independence parties, that backed him last June when he won a vote of confidence against PP's government at the time.

But last February those Catalan parties voted against his budget proposal, forcing him to call for a snap election.

Another poll published by newspaper El Mundo gave the Socialists a potentially closer path to the premiership, but also to the three right-wing parties, in a sign of how close next week's election could be.

A coalition of PP, Ciudadanos and Vox would have 152 to 174 seats. The latter figure would be only two seats short of a majority.

The Socialists and Podemos would have the same number of seats as the right-wing parties, an estimated total of 152 to 174 seats.

But Sanchez could be re-elected as prime minister if, beyond Podemos, he manages to get the support of one or a few small regional parties, allowing him not to rely on Catalan pro-independence groups.

Both polls also show that the Socialists could get a majority if they reached a parliamentary alliance with Ciudadanos, as they did in 2016, but the center-right party has clearly ruled out that possibility.

The polls show some diverging estimates. El Mundo sees PP obtaining 20.1% of votes, gaining one percentage point since a Feb. 24 poll, while El Pais projects that its support would decrease from 19.3% in a poll on March 24 to 17.8%.

In the case of Vox, in the El Pais poll, its backing increases from 10.2% of votes a month ago to 12.5%. But in El Mundo it loses ground, from 13.3% to 10.2%.Sudanese authorities have arrested several top members of the former ruling party of ousted President Omar al-Bashir, in a move that could bolster military rulers who are under mounting pressure by protesters to hand power to civilians.

In another part of a widening crackdown designed to remove remnants of Bashirs rule, the transitional military council (TMC) said it will retire all eight of the officers ranked lieutenant general in the National Intelligence and Security Service.

Opposition groups had demanded that the security agencies be restructured.

Sudans public prosecutor has begun investigating Bashir on charges of money laundering and possession of large sums of foreign currency without legal grounds, a judicial source said earlier on Saturday.

Suitcases loaded with cash

The source said military intelligence officers who searched Bashirs home found suitcases loaded with more than $351,000 and 6 million euros, as well as 5 million Sudanese pounds.

The chief public prosecutor ... ordered the (former) president detained and quickly questioned in preparation to put him on trial, the judicial source told Reuters.

The public prosecution will question the former president in Kobar prison, the source said. Bashir has not been questioned yet, the source added. Two of his brothers were also detained on allegations of corruption, the source said.

Relatives could not immediately be reached Saturday for comment about the investigation.

Separately, a source in Bashirs National Congress Party said authorities arrested the acting party head Ahmed Haroun, former first vice president Ali Osman Taha, former Bashir aide Awad al-Jaz, the secretary general of the Islamic movement Al-Zubair Ahmed Hassan and former parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Taher.

The source also said parliament speaker Ibrahim Ahmed Omar and presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie were under house arrest.

High-security prison

Bashir, who is also being sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over allegations of genocide in Sudans western Darfur region, was ousted April 11 by the military following months of protests against his rule and had been held at a presidential residence.

His family said this week that the former president had been moved to the high-security Kobar prison in Khartoum.

Hassan Bashir, a professor of political science at the University of Neelain, said the measures against Bashir are intended as a message to other figures associated with his rule that they are not above the law.

The trial is a step that the military council wants to take to satisfy the protesters by presenting al-Bashir for trial, he said.

Bashir survived several armed rebellions, economic crises, and attempts by the West to turn him into a pariah during his 30-year rule before he was toppled in a military coup.

At a sit-in outside Sudans Ministry of Defense that began on April 6, protesters, who sleep on the pavement, stood besides posters of Bashir that called on the ICC to put him on trial.Isabela Cocoli contributed to this report



Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old television actor, won a landslide victory in the Ukrainian presidential election Sunday, with exit polls showing he received about 73% of the vote in the final round -- nearly three times as many as his rival, the incumbent Petro Poroshenko.



"We did it together. Thanks to everyone! Now there will be no pathetic speeches, I just want to say, thank you," Zelenskiy told cheering supporters in Kyiv Sunday evening.



Conceding defeat Sunday evening, Poroshenko offered his congratulations to Zelenskiy, and added, "I will leave the office, but I want to announce firmly: I will not leave politics."

Poroshenko later wrote on Twitter: "You may just look at the celebrations in the Kremlin on the occasion of the elections. They believe that with a new, inexperienced Ukrainian President, Ukraine could be quickly returned to Russia's orbit of influence."



Zelenskiy combined a slick social media campaign with his image as an outsider, capitalizing on a swell of public anger at the old Ukrainian politics of cronyism and corruption.



WATCH: Landslide victory

Ultimately, the slow pace of reforms cost Poroshenko a second term, said political analyst Anatoliy Oktysyuk of the Kyiv-based Democracy House.



"Ongoing corruption scandals, some reforms, the decline in living standards and poverty prompted voters in east, in the center, and the west  but also some in Kyiv  to express their mistrust of politicians. Zelenskiy's victory is a referendum on the mistrust of former politicians," Oktysyuk added.



Critics highlight Zelenskiy's ties to exiled oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is accused of bank fraud and who owns the 1+1' TV channel that broadcasts his show.



Zelenskiy has pledged to continue Ukraine's pro-Western path, five years on from Russia's forceful seizure of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine.



"I think that a more pragmatic model of cooperation with Russia will be installed, that an economic cooperation will gradually be reinstated. But the conflict will not be resolved. Over the past five years, there has been a very significant fracture. As soon as Zelenskiy tries to overcome it, he will face resistance from radicals, nationalists and other political opponents," Oktysyuk said.



World reaction

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Zelenskiy Sunday to congratulate him on his victory.



A statement from the White House said Trump reaffirmed the U.S. support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. The U.S. president expressed his commitment to work with Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian people to implement reforms needed to strengthen democracy, increase prosperity and root out corruption in the country.



Monday, France, Germany and the European Union also congratulated Zelenskiy on being elected president of Ukriane.



French President Emmanuel Macron's office said Monday that he spoke with Zelenskiy and restated his willingness to work with Ukraine, alongside Germany and Russia, to resolve 5-year conflict in eastern Ukraine.



German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her congratulatory message to Zelenskiy that she hopes the vote will help stabilize the troubled country.



"The stabilization of Ukraine and a peaceful conflict resolution are as close to my heart as the implementation of central reforms of the judiciary, decentralization and the fight against corruption," Merkel's statement said.



In a joint letter to Zelenskiy, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk said that the newly elected president of Ukraine can "count on the EU's continued and steadfast support of Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.''



Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Facebook page that the election results in Ukraine showed "there is a chance to improve the relations with our country after all." Medvedev expressed hope that Zelenskiy would be "pragmatic and responsible'' addressing separatism in the east.



Poroshenko is expected to hand over power next month, giving the comedian who played the president on TV a shot at the real thing. It is a big step into the political unknown and an indication of how desperate Ukrainians are for change.The U.S. has begun a multimillion dollar cleanup of an airbase in Vietnam that the U.S. used during the Vietnam War to store the highly toxic chemical Agent Orange.

The launch Saturday of the $183 million program at the Bien Hoa airport, outside Ho Chi Minh city, comes more than 40 years after the end of the war. Bien Hoa was one of the main storage sites for the toxic formula.

The U.S. sprayed 80 million liters of Agent Orange over South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 to deprive the Communist guerillas of tree cover and food.

The Agent Orange chemicals stored at Bien Hoa are believed to have seeped into the surrounding soil, sediment and rivers.

Agent Orange contains dioxin and has been linked to increased rates of cancer and birth defects across generations of Vietnamese.

In November, the U.S. completed a similar cleanup program at Danang airport that cost $110 million.

The amount of toxins at Bien Hoa is four times higher than the amount cleaned up at Danang.

Neither the United States government nor the manufacturers of the chemical have admitted any liability. Nor have they offered any compensation to Vietnamese affected by Agent Orange. U.S. military veterans have been compensated for exposure to Agent Orange since 1991.France is spearheading a new higher education plan aimed to make it a more attractive destination for foreign students  but also a more expensive one. The move to raise foreign tuition fees has sparked protests, especially when it comes to African students who make up nearly half the countrys foreign student body.

In many ways, the University of Paris-Est Creteil, or UPEC, is the face of todays France  and of Frances reputation abroad. Nearly 10 percent of its student body is international.

So its no surprise its administration has been closely tracking the governments new higher education plan. Dubbed Welcome to France, the strategy aims to boost foreign student numbers from about 300,000 to half-a-million by 2027. UPEC supports many aspects of the plan. Except one: a sharp tuition hike next academic year.

No increase here

Laurent Thievenet is UPECs vice president for international relations. He says a large part of its international student body comes from North and sub-Saharan Africa. They cant afford a tuition increase.

Even with the tuition increase, French fees are much lower than elsewhere in the West. But like a number of other French universities, UPEC has opted not to raise costs for foreign students. Even so, some like Nanto Ralibera, a graduate student from Madagascar, are worried.

Ralibera said he was shocked to hear about the tuition hike, which would have amounted to about 15 times more than what he pays now. Its not part of the budget of students like himself when they left their countries.

Katarina Vuckovic from Serbia is also on a tight budget.

I definitely have the impression that part of the strategy of the French government will not contribute to the attraction as they want, she said.

Vuckovich says shes happy about the quality of education here. But she says Serbian students like herself may not be afford to study in France if tuition costs are raised.

Popular but losing ground

France is the worlds top non-Anglophone destination for foreign students and fourth overall. Its home to the iconic Sorbonne university and prestigious business schools. A big draw is also the countrys inexpensive tuition. Still France has been losing ground in recent years.

We are competitive  we are very competitive.  The problem is that we receive a lot of students, but maybe we dont receive them very well, said Olivier Rollot, a French journalist specializing in higher education.

When you come here from all over the world, you expect to live like in America, in big university campuses. In France its not like that. So maybe students are a bit disappointed, he said.

The government plan aims to tackle some of the hurdles by simplifying student visas, offering better housing and more French language classes. It also aims to expand Frances educational presence in Africa.

Larger goals

Experts say the countrys higher education strategy serves larger goals, by expanding French influence and interests abroad. Over the decades, presidents and business leaders, especially from Frances former African colonies, earned university degrees here.

Its important to get the best students that tomorrow will be in charge of their countries, Rollot said.

France may also profit from potential barriers to studying elsewhere, including tougher immigration restrictions in the United States and uncertainty over Brexit.

The government aims to increase scholarships to offset tuition hikes for the neediest students. But in todays competitive environment, that may not be enough. A recent study by Campus France, which represents French education globally, found a sharp drop so far in African enrollment since the plan was announced.

Its not a problem for Chinese students or Indian students or American students to pay more, Rollot said. Its a problem for African students to pay more.

Rollot says the best and brightest students risk going elsewhere. Saudi Arabia and Turkey, for example, offer attractive scholarships.

While aiming to attract more students from other parts of the world, UPEC wants to expand its presence in Africa, including through collaborations with African universities. UPECs Thievenet says its mission aims to contribute to Africas development and to a more balanced relationship with France.

By Arthur I. Cyr





The summit in Washington on April 11 between President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and President Donald Trump of the United States deserves much greater attention than has been received. South Korea has great and growing international influence, and plays a pivotal role on the Korea Peninsula.







Instead, the mass media has focused considerable emphasis on related Trump statements. In advance of the session with Moon, he said progress toward agreement with North Korea is still possible. He said something similar after the summit.







A summit in February in Hanoi, Vietnam, between Kim Jong-un of North Korea and Trump ended abruptly with disappointment. The first meeting between Trump and Kim took place in Singapore in June 2018.



An important goal of the South Korean president in visiting Washington was to ensure that conversations between the North and the U.S. continue.







Trump's statements are encouraging in this regard. This result doubtless reflects in part skillful groundwork behind the scenes by South Korea's diplomats and other government officials, working with their American counterparts.







President Moon faces challenges but with considerable strengths. He took office on May 10, 2017, following a special election and in a time of uncertainty on both sides of the 38th Parallel, the border that divides Korea into north and south. South Korea had just experienced the ordeal of impeachment and removal from office of a sitting president, Park Geun-hye.







Moon brings diverse, impressive and useful experience to the top post. His father was a refugee from North Korea. During Moon's youth, he was arrested and spent some time in prison because of activism against the dictatorship of Park Chung-hee. Reflecting that experience, he decided to pursue a career as a human rights lawyer.







He also served in the Republic of Korea army special forces, and saw action in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) along the 38th Parallel. Later, he was chief of staff to President Roh Moo-hyun. In the 2012 presidential election, he finished a close second to Park Geun-hye.







On May 14 2017, North Korea greeted the inauguration of President Moon in South Korea with a test launch of yet another long-range missile. The new Hwasong-12 missile reached a greater height than six others tested that year. The missile reportedly could reach as far as Guam, where the U.S. maintains military facilities.







South Korea's president has devoted sustained attention to the exploration of fresh communication with the North. His flexible stance contrasts with his two predecessors, Presidents Park and, earlier, Lee Myung-bak.







Washington as well as Beijing, Tokyo and others should encourage this. Seoul has the high ground regarding Pyongyang not only in moral terms, but also in the hard realities of economic and military strength. In practical terms, this is now happening. The North Korean regime in Pyongyang now deals with both Washington and Seoul.







In diplomacy, historically and currently, the greatest progress results from sustained effort.







) is the Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of "After the Cold War."



Arthur I. Cyr ( acyr@carthage.edu

By Andra Matei





Last December, while the world celebrated the newest graffiti by Banksy, hundreds in South Korea signed a petition to indict the Korean artist HIDEYES for painting on a piece of the Berlin Wall in Seoul. The artist's trial begins soon in South Korea.



A work of art can be anythingbut what is it, exactly? And most importantly, who is to decide? In Seoul, hundreds signed a petition demanding punishment for Taeyong Jeong, also known as HIDEYES, a local artist who spray-painted symbols of peace and reconciliation on remnants of the Berlin Wall in Seoul to celebrate Korean Memorial Day.

As a result, a fence demarcating a crime scene was erected around the Berlin Wall at Berlin Square in Seoul, and HIDEYES was asked to erase his painting. With a heavy heart and a troubled mind, on 13 November 2018, Taeyong complied. That night he wrote to me: "I have erased the painting, but in fact, it was me that I have erased. I feel I lost every control over my mind."

A month later, on the other side of the world, in the small Welsh town of Port Talbot, another fence was built around a similar work of graffiti. This fence however was of a different sort. Seasons Greetings sparked enthusiasm, and a media frenzy, worldwide when notorious street-artist Banksy confirmed it was his. The Port Talbot city council, fearing the painting's destruction, took immediate steps to protect the work and to insure its value (by surrounding it with a fence) before the owner of the garage on which it was painted sold it for a "six figure-sum", the BBC reports

Admittedly, not all art is to everyone's liking, "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric" U. S. Supreme Court Justice J.M. Harlan II once famously said. But what is it exactly that makes these two graffiti pieces (and their surrounding fences) so different?

Avant-Garde Lawyers worked together with freedom of expression expert Prof. Kyung-Sin Park and a team of expert lawyers from Yigong Law in Seoul, to build the defense for HIDEYES. Our first discussion with Taeyong was over Skype, and we could see he had prepared hard for the meeting. He had, in fact, turned his room into an exhibition and went on to passionately explain his paintings and defend his love for street art. When I asked my first lawyerish question: "what are the exact charges brought against you?" He asked in turn: "what does justice know about art?"

When Taeyong painted Look Inside on the Berlin Wall in Seoul, he did it on Memorial Day on purpose, making his subject the divided social and political reality that persists on the Korean peninsula. Look Inside employs the Taegeuk, the ying-yang symbol centered on the flag of South Korea, to speak about separated families and the hope for reunification. And what better site for expressing one's hope of national reunification than the Berlin Wall?

While, HIDEYES uses symbols, forms and colour to lift the viewer's attention from the historical object, made of rebar and concrete, to its social and political context now in urban Seoul, Banksy paints his Season's Greetings in the industrial town of Port Talbot, home to one of the largest steelworks plants in Europe, to speak about air pollution, an environmental issue which affects millions around the world. In his graffiti, a child apparently enjoys eating snowflakes but turning the corner, we find out it's actually ash from a dumpster fire that he is catching on his tongue.

And yet, if Banksy had painted Season's Greetings on a section of the Berlin Wall in Seoul, would the work have been fenced off and erased, or fenced off and sold? Would Banksy be on trial in Seoul? With Banksy pieces removed from the street and sold at auctions for tens of millions by people who profit from the legally-ambiguous field of street art, this is unlikely.

On Tuesday, 23 April, HIDEYES will face a jury trial at Suwon District Court, in Seoul. The prosecution demands a prison sentence for destruction of public property. But Taeyoung Jeong never intended to destroy public property; in fact, he never destroyed it. The Wall is still there, more alive than ever, creating debate and controversy and contributing to the exchange of ideas and opinions, essential for a democratic society. By painting on the Berlin Wall, HIDEYES added value, extending a generations-long conversation, on and about the Wall, around the pain of political division.

We argue that Jeong's graffiti is a form of social and political commentary deserving of the protection afforded to speech, in general. The aim of the defense in this case, however, is not to say that HIDEYES did right when he painted a piece of public property without permission, but rather to remind the jury that according to international law freedom of expression "is applicable not only to information or ideas that are favorably received by the public, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population" , opinion expressed more than 40 years ago in the landmark case of Handyside v.UK

To regard Look Inside as an isolated act of vandalism strips the work of its essential context and ignores the artistic act altogether. Graffiti is, first and foremost, a form of expression highly dependent on its context. The place where it is performed, the support it is performed on, and the time chosen, bears as much importance as the painting itself.

The Korean jury faces no easy task on 23 April. It is not Banksy on trial, but an artist who has been villainized by the Korean public. The duty here is to reconcile the law with unconventional art and unpopular artists, as well as to determine the limits of public sensibility. The way in which the Korean jury will judge this case and its object, will shape the way graffiti will be perceived at large by Korean society in the future. Establishing these boundaries by reference to the feelings of the most easily offended and least tolerant members of a community cannot be in the interest of any society.





Andra Matei is counsel to Taeyoung Jeong and director of Avant-Garde Lawyers, a collective of lawyers committed to protecting the rights of artists and promoting respect for freedom of artistic expression. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.A former senior administration official said Trump sometimes called cybersecurity the cyber and said that dealing with it or talking about it would only get you in trouble. He has occasionally joked to aides that the world would be better without computers and other devices after hearing about potential attacks and hacks  and would grow bored during lengthy technological briefings about cybersecurity from Nielsen, former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert and others.Supporters of the referendum will claim that we, by attending classes, living in dorms and accepting our degrees, owe an intrinsic debt to the descendants of those enslaved people who paid for Georgetowns existence with their lives, they wrote. While we agree that the Georgetown of today would not exist if not for the sale of 272 slaves in 1838, current students are not to blame for the past sins of the institution, and a financial contribution cannot reconcile this past debt on behalf of the university. . . . Georgetown University alone, not the student body, has the obligation to pay for its past transgressions.The Trump administration is seeking to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census form sent to every American household. Lawsuits, including in Maryland, have challenged the addition of the question, saying it will lead to undercounts among noncitizens and communities of color. The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of June, although a recent appeal filed with the Maryland federal court could accelerate the timeline.He was born into slavery, so he didnt get to have a family life like we get to have today, ranger Brittany Hall said. But in his later years, Douglass entertained his 21 grandchildren on these same sloping lawns that overlook the Anacostia River and Washington beyond.Breon Austin of the Park View neighborhood was shot shortly after 4 p.m. in the 700 block of Princeton Place NW, D.C. police said. An officer riding a bicycle was flagged down by a person who heard gunshots. The teen was inside with multiple wounds, police said. He was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Weve got to find it, he said. Weve just got to say, war is not like the weather  that comes and goes, and we have to live with it and roll with the punches. Weve got to mobilize human ingenuity to find ways to prevent it.She started to run, but the man pursued her, knocked her down and pulled her into a grassy area close to woods where he raped her, police said. She returned home before going to the hospital.His bike of seven years was a Specialized Rockhopper, a mid-level mountain bike with front shocks, ideal for traversing wooded trails, canal towpaths and sturdy enough for the ride he took across Iowa. Her bike was a Specialized Tricross , a sleek ride that was an ideal city bike. She adorned each piece of the silver frame with reflective tape to be easily seen by cars.Lawson, who was killed just before 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 25 had been shot multiple times, according to police. He was taken to the hospital, where he died.The pedestrian and the male driver of one of the vehicles were transported to the hospital in critical condition. A man, woman and two children were also transported Sunday with non-life threatening injuries, officials said.Anti-riot police stand next to a burning barricade during clashes in Paris on April 20 as thousands of "Yellow Vest" (Gilets Jaunes) demonstrators took to the streets a 23rd week of anti-government marches. AFP





Protesters react to tear gas during a demonstration on Act XXIII (the 23rd consecutive national protest on Saturday) of the yellow vests movement in Paris, April 20. ReutersBut behind the red door, police say, a 28-year-old man named Zain Imdad was holding captive four members of a family  including his estranged wife  in a plan as nonsensical as it was terrifying. Hed slipped into the Germantown home through a sliding-glass door in the basement, police say, armed with two tactical knives, a pistol, five pairs of handcuffs and four bottles of a cloudy white liquid he said was poison.They had better luck with another college roommate who has contradicted one bit of evidence used to convict Soering. At the trial, a Haysom family friend testified that he noticed on the day of the funerals that Soering had a bruised face and bandaged hand  defensive wounds, the prosecution alleged, from the night of the murders. He was the only one claiming to have seen those injuries.Threat to blow up building: Churchgoers tackled a woman who held a 10-month-old baby, waved a gun and threatened to blow up the building at an Easter Sunday service in San Diego, leading to her arrest, police said. The baby and the 31-year-old woman's 5-year-old daughter were taken into protective custody, police said. The handgun was not loaded, and a search found no explosives, police said. "The female suspect will be booked into jail on the appropriate criminal charges which will include making criminal threats and displaying a handgun in a threatening manner," San Diego police said. The sermon at the nondenominational Church TsidKenu was about to conclude when the incident occurred, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. San Diego police had announced they would have extra patrols of churches following the bombings in Sri Lanka.Protesters punch Turkish opposition leader: Protesters assaulted the leader of Turkey's main opposition party during a funeral for a soldier who was slain in clashes with Kurdish rebels. The politician was not hurt, party officials said. People threw punches at Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu as security officials tried to escort him away from the funeral in a village outside Ankara. The soldier was among four killed in clashes with rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK . Kilicdaroglu's secular Republican People's Party, or CHP, won control of Ankara and Istanbul during elections on March 31.To Brockman, a future without work seemed just as likely as one without meat, a possibility that many in the valley viewed as a near certainty. Once we have meat substitutes as good as the real thing, my expectation is that were going to look back at eating meat as this terrible, immoral thing, he said. The same could be true of work in a future in an era of advanced artificial intelligence. Well look back and say, Wow, that was so crazy and almost immoral that people were forced to go and labor in order to be able to survive,  he said.Ross considered the possibility that asking the question could result in an undercount or require additional steps to make sure households comply and decided it was worth the trade-off of having more detailed information about who is in the country, Francisco wrote. Those are the kinds of decisions Congress gives agency heads the power to make, he added.Now, it may be that we undertake an impeachment nonetheless. I think what we are going to have to decide as a caucus is: What is the best thing for the country? he said.In the days since the reports release on Thursday, Trump has directed much of his fury toward McGahn, whose cooperation with the probe was made evident in the reports footnotes. Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trumps personal attorney, singled out McGahn for criticism on Friday, saying, If he believed that there was something illegal, he wouldnt have stayed in his job.I said it before and Ill say it again: Its not ok to seek Russian help in your campaign, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a tweet. Its not ok to use materials they stole from your opponent, or to make it part of your campaign strategy. Sadly, my GOP colleagues do think thats ok. The American people know better.A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, said the proposed update to hiring rules originated with the federal personnel officials. Kushner was not aware of the proposal, which was reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, according to two people familiar with what he has told advocates.Ethiopians will start to demand more from their media outlets. The ones that we have currently are going to have to change their approach, are going to have to be less focused on propaganda, rebuttals and vitriol, and they are going to have to up their game, he said. They will have to cater to an audience that shares the same taxis as them, that shares the same sidewalks as them, that walks the same streets as them.Zelenskys apparent victory is the latest in the global trend of political outsiders harnessing TV and social media to outmuscle the unpopular establishment. It is likely to reverberate in Russia and elsewhere across the former Soviet Union, where few other countries can claim a democratic system that would allow a comedian to unseat the sitting president. And it prompts questions about Ukraines strategy in its conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin  with whom Zelensky has promised to negotiate while not detailing how.At least 11 of the dead at National Hospital in Colombo were foreigners, including two who held U.S. and British citizenship, according to the Foreign Ministry. Other foreigners included three from Britain, three from India, two from Turkey and one from Portugal. The unidentified bodies of 25 people believed to be foreigners were at a government mortuary in Colombo.Francis said he was thinking of people in Yemen, where war has choked the economy and where nearly 2 million children are acutely malnourished, according to the World Food Program. The pope also made reference to Libya, where several hundred people have been killed in the past two weeks, as fighters loyal to warlord Khalifa Hifter have set their eyes on the capital of Tripoli.I know some people will say we were naive to meet with the insurgents after formal talks were called off, Sultan said. But they asked for our advice, they said they had made some mistakes and they said they were serious about wanting peace. They spoke with us for more than six hours. If we dont engage with them in dialogue, we will just be continuing the same war that has gone on for 17 years.Rules empowering investors to blast out company boards over their handling of executive pay should be rewritten, according to leading corporate advisers who argue the system has been misused.

The so-called "two strike" rule means that if more than 25 per cent of investors vote against a company's proposed remuneration report at consecutive annual meetings, then the entire board faces a spill motion.

AMP chairman David Murray will face investors in a fortnight. Credit:Ben Rushton

King & Wood Mallesons partner Will Heath said the rule, which was created in 2011 following a Productivity Commission inquiry, was not being used for its stated purpose.

The two strikes rule should be struck out. Its now being used by shareholder activists for other reasons. Weve seen boards getting beaten up for perceived failures of short-term financial performance," he said."Nothing prepares you for it, nothing," she says. "Ive been out of uni for five years, which isnt that long ago, but the most relevant case studies we were learning then were from 1982." In place of university classes, Gouganovski has turned to the internet, including Facebook groups and YouTube, to upskill herself. "You'll never know everything, but you just learn: we are in such an amazing time, because there is so much free info out there." Train yourself

Harry Sanders says self-teaching and grit were also key to getting his $1.5 million business StudioHawk off the ground. "People always say: 'What is your secret?' But it's really just getting out there and getting out of your comfort zone," the 21 year old says. Sanders started teaching himself search engine optimisation techniques when he was 14 and worked part time in agencies while also studying at high school. He built StudioHawk while facing challenges in his late teenage years, including a period of couch surfing. He says while his high school supported him well, there are business and finance basics that were left out of the curriculum and would have been useful. "Even things like what the tax system is: we really need to work on that. How it works, who pays what. That is something that everyone, every student is going to run into at some point."

Harry Sanders. While he works 60 hours a week on the business today, Sanders says he was previously working closer to 100 hours and there were times he wondered whether he had made a bad call launching a company at all. He believes any school or uni programs which encourage young people to build a dummy business would be great foundations for future entrepreneurs. "Even just going through brainstorming a name and business, and what differentiates you in the market. If people are starting to think about that in year 11, man: they are going to be so successful." Matthew Lepre takes advantage of working from anywhere while running his ecommerce consulting business Ecomm Warrior.

Founder of e-commerce training site Ecomm Warrior, Matthew Lepre, says high school was enough foundation to launch a business but he ended up abandoning his university studies because they weren't relevant enough to his business. Having spent years dabbling in ecommerce tactics, he now produces courses for others to learn how to set up sites and rakes in $1.4 million a year. Much of his business knowledge has come from "trial and error", though Lepre says his high school experience prepared him for life as an entrepreneur even if it wasn't solely focused on business studies. "The training I got from schooling was the ability for me to set goals, be focused, and work for long periods of time," he says. Upskilling front of mind

There's been a strong focus on teaching kids coding and science knowledge in recent years with startups like Girl Geek Academy stepping up to grow young entrepreneur's tech skills. While young founders say upskilling has been more valuable than traditional education, universities are also rethinking their approach to business acumen. Most now offer online courses to the broader community with an increasing focus on digital business skills. Just last week, Melbourne's RMIT launched a cybersecurity training program with NAB and Palo Alto networks. Chief executive of RMIT Online, Helen Souness, says the students coming through the "future skills" modules at the universities already have day jobs or businesses. "Our typical student tends to be a working professional who is looking to upskill or top up their CV, without putting their career or life on hold," she says.Labor has vowed to strip the Great Barrier Reef Foundation of its half-a-billion-dollar grant if elected on May 18.

Labor added that it would redistribute that cash amongst public agencies, but is yet to detail specifics ahead of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's first election-period Queensland visit this week.

Bill Shorten on Easter Sunday. Credit:AAP

Last August, a $443 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation by Malcolm Turnbull's government was criticised for lacking an open tender process, and for burdening an organisation that had six full time staff with a grant of such a size.

Labor wrote to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation at the time to warn them that if the party won government, it could withdraw from the existing contract.The Christchurch terrorist attack has prompted an unprecedented surge in online activity by white supremacists as well as a call by a group with Islamic State links for attacks on Australians travelling in Indonesia, according to ongoing analysis by an American intelligence firm.

According to Rita Katz, the director of the SITE Intelligence Group, the wave of online support that the Christchurch attack continues to attract is unlike the response to any other right-wing attack.

Attacks always spark reactions from different extremist communities, but when it comes to the far right, there was never anything like the response to the Christchurch attack, she told The Sun-Herald.

A girl carries flowers to a memorial wall following the mosque shootings in Christchurch, which left 50 dead and 39 wounded. Credit:AP

His target, deadly execution, and his live streaming of the event fuelled these communities unprecedented response. The reactions were like nothing weve ever seen thus far from the far-right across the globe, she said.West Australian man Jim Plamondon claims to have found a loophole to legally import medicinal cannabis into Australia.

The former Busselton resident said he used the Therapeutic Goods Administration Traveller's Exemption to bypass Australian bureaucracy, and claims to be the first Australian to have succeeded at the feat.

Mr Plamandon said he successfully brought Thai-prescribed cannabis products into WA to treat his chronic pain on April 8.

West Australian man Jim Plamondon says his success bringing medicinal cannabis to Australia under the TGA's Traveller's Exemption, opens the doors for Australians to source medicinal cannabis. overseas.

As he landed at Perth Airport Mr Plamondon, who usually resides in Thailand, said he ticked the box on his arrival card stating he was bringing "goods that may be prohibited or subject to restrictions".Six people died at music festivals across the country last summer.

I don't support illegal drugs  but the WA government should take a closer look at pill testing, writes Oliver Peterson. Credit:Viki Yemettas

But by the same token young people in particular will experiment and thats not going to stop anytime soon, so shouldnt all options to save lives and try to prevent harm be seriously considered and investigated?

The big-stick approach is not working, yet police statistics are alarming as WA struggles to shake the title we do not want as the meth capital of Australia.

While meth might not be the festival drug for revellers according to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, other illicit substance use is also on the rise.

The pill-testing argument consumes a lot of chatter on our talkback lines and column inches (like this) but there is a rather narrow-sighted objection from the state government to even explore the possibility of a feature that not only could save lives but hopefully turn people off drugs for life.

Recently, the ACT Government invited all state and territory health ministers or representatives to attend the pill-testing site at the Groovin the Moo festival to be held later this month.

But WA Health Minister Roger Cook said neither he nor anyone on behalf of the state government will attend because its not considering pill testing.There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common. "Sri Lanka hasn't seen this form of violence since 2009 when hostilities ceased in that country," Mr Morrison said. "We do know that innocent lives have been stolen once again." Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull also took to Twitter to share sympathy for the victims. "The peace of Easter shattered by the senseless and cowardly attacks on Christian worshippers in Sri Lanka," he wrote on Sunday. "We send our love and sympathy to the families of the victims and pray the injured have a speedy recovery."

Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference president, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, also issued a statement. "This attack has something demonic about its planning and execution," he said. "We also know that violence like this won't have the last word. That's what Easter is about." World leaders condemn attacks Politicians and religious leaders from around the world were united in their shock and condemnation. Here are some of their reactions. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: "I condemn the heinous terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, a sacred day for Christians. The UN stands in solidarity with Sri Lanka as the global community fights hatred and violent extremism together. Holy sites must be respected," he tweeted.

Pope Francis: "I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka," he told tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square to hear his Easter Sunday message. Close to the Christians of Sri Lanka: Pope Francis delivers his "Urbi et Orbi" ("to the city and the world") message in St Peter's Square at the Vatican. Credit:AP "I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence." Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: "The will to power leads to the murder of innocents in Sri Lanka. The utterly despicable destruction that on this holiest of days seeks to challenge the reality of the risen Christ. To say that darkness will conquer, that our choice is surrender or death. Jesus chose to defy this darkness and he is risen indeed." World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder: "World Jewry - in fact all civilised people - denounce this heinous outrage and appeal for zero tolerance of those who use terror to advance their objectives. This truly barbarous assault on peaceful worshippers on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar serves as a painful reminder that the war against terror must be at the top of the international agenda and pursued relentlessly," he said in a statement.

Loading Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Dr Yousef Al-Othaimeen: "Dr Yousef Al-Othaimeen strongly condemned the terrorist attacks carried out on churches & hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dr Al-Othaimeen extended the solidarity of OIC with Sri Lanka," the organisation posted on Twitter. The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka and the All Ceylon Jammiyyathul Ulama, a body of Muslim clerics in Sri Lanka, also issued statements condemning the attacks. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: "Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," he said on Twitter. Pakistan's Prime Minster Imran Khan: "Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost and hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," he tweeted.

US President Donald Trump: "Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels," he tweeted. "... We stand ready to help!" Russian President Vladimir Putin: "Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena in connection with tragic consequences of terrorist acts," his English Twitter account said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "It is shocking that people who had gathered to celebrate Easter were the deliberate target of vicious attacks," she wrote in a letter of condolence to Sri Lanka's president. French President Emmanuel Macron: "Deep sorrow following the terrorist attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. We firmly condemn these heinous acts. All our solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka and our thoughts go out to all victims relatives on this Easter Day," he said on Twitter.

British Prime Minister Theresa May: "The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time. We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear," she tweeted. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern: New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating, she said in a written statement. "New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence." Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez: "Terror and barbarity will never defeat us," he wrote on Twitter. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker: "It was with horror and sadness that I heard of the bombings in Sri Lanka costing the lives of so many people. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country. We stand ready to support," he said on Twitter. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: "Absolutely horrific news from Sri Lanka. Canada strongly condemns the heinous attacks on Christians at churches and hotels. Our hearts & thoughts are with the families & loved ones of those killed and all those injured," he tweeted.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin: "The attacks in Sri Lanka, including those at prayer celebrating Easter Sunday are a despicable crime. We are all children of God; an attack on one religion is an attack on us all," he said on Twitter. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan: "I condemn in the strongest terms possible the Easter terror attacks in Sri Lanka. This is an assault on all of humanity," he tweeted. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif: "Terribly saddened by terrorist attacks on Sri Lankan worshippers during Easter. Condolences to friendly govt & people of Sri Lanka. Our thoughts & prayers with the victims & their families. Terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally," he said on Twitter. Support for Australians in Sri Lanka The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is still working to firm up the information as it relates to Australian travellers.Northern Irish police have released CCTV showing a masked attacker firing the shots that killed young journalist Lyra McKee: a murder that has shocked Ireland and the UK.

It has added to fears that this islands 21 year-old, hard-won peace is under serious threat, with converging pressures from Brexit, polarised and paralysed politics, and revived anger from the Bloody Sunday killings.

Police forensic officers at the scene in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Credit:PA

McKee, 29, had written passionately and insightfully on the grief, resentment and pain that still lies under the surface in Northern Ireland.

It ended up killing her.Texas: It should have been one of the happiest moments of Priscilla Maldonados life, but, instead, the 25-year-old mother was terrified.

It was New Years Day, and she had just delivered her newborn son, Jabari.

She said she heard her sons soft cries - and then the hospital room fell silent.

No one told her she had a healthy baby boy. No one told her how much he weighed or how long he was. No one brought him to meet his mother and place him on her chest.

Instead, she said, doctors and nurses wrapped him up and rushed him out of the room. I was worried. I was confused, she recalled in a phone interview.Courtesy DeKalb County Sheriff's OfficeRising Cleveland rapper Q Money has been arrested for his involvement in the fatal shooting of a fellow artist.

Thursday, the buzzing artist, born Qamar Akee Williams, was taken into custody in Georgia on a felony murder charge, ABC News has confirmed.

According to the Dekalb County Sheriff's Office, while inside of a Decatur, GA residence on Monday, Q allegedly shot Calvin Alexander Chappell multiple times with a handgun, causing his death.

The "Neat" rapper turned himself in without incident, following the issuing of an arrest warrant.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that witnesses claim Q was seen standing over the victim's body, at which point they relieved him of his weapon and forced him out of their home.

Q remains in Dekalb County Jail without bond, per the AJC.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.



Could Taxing the Rich Solve Income Inequality?

Tax Day Monday. Have you filed yet?



A tax professional friend of mine told me recently that hes surprised every year to see how many people leave their tax filing to the last minute.



Maybe theyre too busy. Maybe they live under a rock



Regardless, they cant escape it. As U.S. citizens, we wear the IRS ankle brace wherever we go.



So, when I moved to Puerto Rico in May 2016, the tax implications didnt cross my mind. I packed up and shipped out to be closer to my vacation home on Culebra, not only to expedite its completion, but to enjoy it more freely. In hindsight, the move brought with it some much welcomed tax benefits



And with what lies ahead, I count my blessings for them.I have always warned that in the Economic Winter Season, as in the 1930s and now, taxes go up often substantially. The Economic Fall boom creates financial asset bubbles that make the rich richer, faster.By 1929, the top 1% controlled 50% of the wealth and 20% of the income.Currently, they control 40% of the wealth and 15.9% of the income. Some studies put that control of wealth closer to 50%.When the great crash and deleveraging hits in the Economic Winter, those bubbles burst, sending those holding most of the assets through the ringer. They have the most going into the crash. They lose the most through the crash.Also, as the economic seasons change, the democratic party tends to take control because the extreme income inequality becomes increasingly intolerable for those on the wrong end of the arrangement. To reign in the rich, they raise marginal tax rates.The wealthy ended up paying as much as 90% on their income during the 1930s, although its hard to compare given that there were more deductions and loopholes back then.Unsurprisingly, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the young rising democratic congressperson, is recommending a 70% marginal rate on income over $1 million.Billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and even Ray Dalio are recommending increased taxes on the likes of themselves as well.Dalio was on 60 Minutes on Sunday talking to Bill Whitaker. He founded todays largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, in 1975 and it now manages $160 billion.Like me, he sees a sluggish (if not outright deflationary) global economic environment ahead, and some serious trouble with China. And, as he said four days ago, wealth inequality is a national emergency.In his words, the American Dream is lost.In my words, this is all part of this 90-year Bubble Buster Cycle.His suggested solution is higher taxes. The problem with that is, a higher tax on $1 million-plus would only affect the top 0.1%.Look whos paying the most





To most affluent people, this looks and sounds unfair. Afterall, the top 0.1% earn 7.6% of the income but pay 22% of the taxes  three times their share. The top 1% earn 15.9%, but pay a whopping 44.3% (cumulative column). The top 20% earn 52.3%  which is why I maintain that the top 20% of college-educated professionals are really 50% of the economy  and pay almost all the income taxes at 86.8%.



Why tax these poor rich people even more?



Unfortunately, Dalios idea is on the right track. The best direct way to curb the extreme income inequality  and the twice-as-extreme wealth inequality  is to tax the rich more. Doing so would also help solve the runaway budget deficit and federal debt problem, which doubles about every eight years or two administrations.



A more effective approach to increase revenue and curb inequality would be to focus on the top 5% that now pay 62.9% of the taxes.



Tax income above $300,000 at 42% instead of the 37% top rate now.



Tax income above $700,000 at 50%.



Tax income above $1 million at 60%.



Sounds pretty horrendous to me, and you too, Im sure  especially when you add in state and local taxes that arent deductible any more. But know this: Its irrelevant if we want or dont want this to happen. Its damn near inevitable, as is a democratic takeover if Im right about a major crash and depression setting in next year, before the election.



Maybe Ill see you in Puerto Rico soon! Call me if you need help unpacking your boxes.

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.



MONTREAL - Quebecers whose homes are repeatedly flooded may eventually be forced to move, Premier Francois Legault said Sunday as he toured an area enduring its second bout of spring flooding in three years.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/4/2019 (972 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A jeep makes its way along a flooded road in the town of Rigaud, Que, west of Montreal, Sunday, April 21, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL - Quebecers whose homes are repeatedly flooded may eventually be forced to move, Premier Francois Legault said Sunday as he toured an area enduring its second bout of spring flooding in three years.

Legault visited Laval's Ile Bigras, where soldiers from the Canadian Armed Forces were busy stacking sandbags up a barrier along the shore's edge as the already-swollen river threatened to further spills its banks.

He noted that many residents in the same areas were still in the midst of renovating their homes after flooding in 2017.

As a result, Legault said the government was reviewing its programs to ensure that those who need compensation get it earlier, but also that there are incentives in place for those who want to move to higher ground.

"We have to adjust our programs to rapidly compensate people who have cleanup, renovations to do," he told reporters. "But we have to be clearheaded, and if its necessary to force people to move, we'll do it."

Legault said he doesn't want taxpayers to be on the hook for repairing the same homes over and over again, especially when such events appear to be happening more frequently, possibly due to climate change.

He did not specify how the program would work, but said the government may put a limit on the amount of repair money a homeowner can receive before they are asked to move.

Near the entrance to the island on the southwest edge of Laval, several roads were closed due to flooding and one home appeared partially surrounded by water as small waves lapped at a picnic bench and a "For Sale" sign on the lawn.

But Legault said he hoped the current flood would be less catastrophic than in 2017 due to better preparation, which included delivering sandbags to homes at risk of flooding and the government's decision to call in the army before the situation got out of hand.

But the positive words didn't lessen the anxiety for homeowners Anna Lin and Eddy Girard, who on Sunday afternoon watched the river rushing along the edge of their lawn on Ile Bigras.

Since the 2017 floods, the couple has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on major renovations, including raising the entire home and building a waterproof basement.

Now, they're worried it won't be enough.

"It's discouraging, hard on the morale, hard on the family," said Girard. "Do we rebuild, do we let it go? We have to look to the future."

Lin and Girard said that many of their neighbours are still in the process of rebuilding from the last floods, after having to wait months or years for government compensation or simply the permission to rebuild. The house next to theirs was demolished and the one next to that is still under construction.

The couple has spent the last few days laying down sandbags, sealing windows moving items to higher ground. They say municipal and provincial officials appear much better prepared this time, and are hopeful the water will stay out their home. If it doesn't, they're not sure what they'll do.

"We're in a 100 year flood zone, and in three years, we've been hit two times," Girard said.

Many people across Quebec and New Brunswick have been filling sandbags in an effort to protect their homes, as officials warned water levels are expected to rise in many regions due to warming temperatures that contribute to snowmelt and ice movement.

About 200 soldiers started filling sandbags and carrying out evacuations in Quebec's Outaouais and Mauricie regions overnight, and by Sunday afternoon about 600 were on the job across the province.

Public affairs officer Pierre Leblanc said the armys priority in the Laval area would be filling and stacking sandbags and protecting critical infrastructure near the river, which he said was rising about one centimetre each hour.

Urgence Quebec said that as of Sunday afternoon, 1,280 residences across the province had been flooded and more than 1,500 people had left their homes.

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Five major floods were identified as threatening thousands of Quebecers, and so far one death has been blamed on the high water.

Police say 72-year-old Louise Seguin Lortie died Saturday morning after driving her car into a sinkhole caused by flooding in the Pontiac area, about 30 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

Some of the worst flooding has been in the Beauce region south of Quebec City, where 883 homes were swamped and 765 people evacuated by Sunday morning, up from 94 the previous day.

Meanwhile, about 120 Canadian soldiers were being deployed across western New Brunswick to help residents threatened by rising floodwaters.

Fifteen communities in that province have been warned to remain on high alert.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said several roads were closed near the southeast edge of Laval.Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/4/2019 (972 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As snowbanks recede, trash is released.

No, thats not an old saying, but in Winnipeg, it might as well be. Warmer weather has finally arrived after the coldest winter in 40 years, and the snow piles that flanked our roads for months on end have retreated.

SASHA SEFTER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS General Maintenance worker James Turner of Downtown BIZ's Enviro empties his garbage pale into a trash can at the intersection of St Mary Avenue and Hargrave Street in downtown Winnipeg.

Every year as the snow melts, the six-months'-worth of garbage it blanketed  from fast-food wrappers and plastic bags to Slurpee cups and cigarette butts  reemerges, and reminds us it isnt going anywhere unless we roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Thankfully, there are organizations dedicated to cleaning up the rubbish, and engaging citizens to slap on some gloves and turn the city from trash-strewn to spotless.

"Right now, we are at the worst," says Tom Ethans, executive director of Take Pride Winnipeg, from his fifth-floor Lombard Avenue headquarters. "After the snow melts you see the litter on the streets that was there all winter, and we dont look good."

SASHA SEFTER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Turner collects a syringe from the grounds of St Mary's Cathedral.

Founded in 1991, Take Prides mission is to "inspire community pride, raise public awareness and promote citizen responsibility in making the city of Winnipeg clean and beautiful."

Take Pride has a number of programs working toward that mission, including the Green Wave team, a graffiti-removal crew, and the Snow Angels, who help seniors in need during the winter months.

Take Pride puts a big focus on the detritus that dots the streets, especially in spring. Last week, they kicked off their 2019 Team Up to Clean Up initiative at Grant Park Shopping Centre with a number of festivities, including a recycled clothing fashion show.

Team Up to Clean Up challenges community groups, businesses, and schools to get down and dirty and clean up their neighbourhoods, then post pictures to Twitter with the hashtag #CleanCanadaTogether to show the difference a collective effort can make.

Ethans hopes to see 20,000 people participate provincewide this year.

Take Pride will provide supplies such as garbage bags, plastic gloves and litter pickers to any group that registers their cleanup effort through takepride.mb.ca.

SASHA SEFTER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Turner keeps track of all the graffiti he paints over or removes.

Targeting schools and teaching young people to be good citizens is key, Ethans says.

"Its paramount to get the young people to see how they can make a difference and how they can then bring that up to their parents and to adults," Ethans says.

"Students we go to schools and see, I love the fact that they really care and that they want to be part of the solution Schools are getting it and theyre bringing the message back to the adults."

Last year, 156 Manitoba schools participated in Take Prides "Bag Up Manitoba" program, collecting 886,000 plastic bags that were then recycled rather than thrown away.

Every year, Take Pride issues a Litter Index, which ranks Winnipeg neighbourhoods based on how much trash each area has from a scale of one (no trash) to four (tons of trash).

The 2019 Index, released April 8, shows Winnipeg is dirtier than last year, with the average score rising to 2.24 from 2.17.

SASHA SEFTER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Downtown BIZ's Enviro Team Transit Crew cleans the windows of a bus shelter Just south of Portage Avenue on Vaughan Street.

The highest score of 2.63 went to the West End, with the worst streets being Maryland and Sherbrook avenues and Empress Street. Those streets were among the 20 citywide classified as fours.

"You drive up and down these streets and you see the amount of litter; its going to take several people a long time to pick up that litter," Ethans says. "If I have 25 people out on a Saturday to clean (between) Ellice and Sargent on Empress, it will take them an hour and a half and they might not get it all clean."

The higher Index number was partially due to this past winters early start, Ethans explains  once the snow flies and the cold arrives, community cleanups freeze up.

Theres one group, however, not deterred by winters wrath: the Downtown Winnipeg BIZs Enviro Team. The team hits the streets every day regardless of conditions to keep downtown neat and tidy.

In January and February alone, the Enviro Team, comprised of 16 full-time members (more come this summer), picked up 8,152 pails of litter.

Having downtown looking slick is "huge" for the BIZ, says Steve Hughes, the BIZs manager of cleanliness, maintenance and placemaking.

SASHA SEFTER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS District Operator Leslie Hennessy of Downtown BIZ's Enviro Team uses a sidewalk sweeper to clean up Hargrave Street.

"Its that first appearance, its that first initial view, that anybody coming to a Jets game, or to a concert, or whatever, that they see," Hughes says.

"Spring is always quite a shock to us because you never see everything thats buried in the snow."

One big issue downtown is unlocked BFI bins, Hughes says. People rifle through them and leave the lids open, and since Winnipeg often gets gusty, "it drags everything out of the garbage cans" and onto the streets, Hughes says. The BIZ is working with its members and the city to ensure bins stay locked.

The most insidious litter is cigarette butts, Ethans says. People often discard them without much thought, rationalizing that they are tiny. However, they add up: butts make up 35 per cent of Winnipegs litter, take years to biodegrade, and have many harmful effects.

"They dont understand that cigarette butts are poisonous to our animals, they dont understand that cigarette butts end up in our sewer system, going into our rivers and lakes, killing our wildlife," Ethans says of those who dont butt-out properly.

"The cool thing to do in the movies was to have your cigarette and then throw it on the ground and stomp it," Ethans says, making a flicking motion a la Peter Greene in The Usual Suspects.

"That was the cool thing to do  back then. Now it shouldnt be. Now Id love to see the movies where a guys got a cigarette and he actually puts it in the ashtray instead of throw it on the ground."

The BIZs Enviro Team picks up 125 cigarette butts on every city block, every day, according to its website.

The Downtown BIZ offers a butt receptacle program, cost-shared by participating businesses, that allows smokers a convenient way to dispose of their butts.

Hughes says people will use receptacles if they are accessible, but if there isnt one around, theyll think nothing of flicking their butts on the sidewalk.

"Smoking is a big thing downtown, everybody does it," Hughes says. "It would be nice if a lot more people would use the butt receptacles and put things away."

Like Take Pride, the BIZ offers opportunities for citizens to get involved in cleaning up the core. Their long-standing annual Earth Day Cleanup takes place April 29 (registration closes April 25).

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"It makes a huge difference," Hughes says of the Earth Day efforts. "Just the amount of weight of garbage we can pick up, and the people that come out, they love it. They love the fact theyre doing something to help the community, to help the downtown. We have people from all walks of life come and join."

The Enviro Team focuses on the main streets and gathering spots, but "theres an awful lot of the back lanes that definitely need a lot more attention," Hughes says.

"Its great. Its good for the community to actually see what we do and its a really good day," he says.

Even if one doesnt participate in an organized cleanup operation, every Winnipegger can be a part of the solution every day, Ethans says.

"No. 1  dont litter. No. 2  stop and pick up a piece of litter every day," he says. "750,00 people live in Winnipeg. Thats 750,000 pieces of litter off the street every day."

"It doesnt take more than three seconds to pick up a piece of litter and put it away properly. Its everybody working together to make our city, and our province, clean and beautiful."JUNEAU, Alaska - Southeast Alaska marine pilots are concerned about the manoeuvrability of one of the four megaships cruise lines are expected to bring to the state this season.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JUNEAU, Alaska - Southeast Alaska marine pilots are concerned about the manoeuvrability of one of the four megaships cruise lines are expected to bring to the state this season.

The Norwegian Bliss and its sister ship are expected to visit the state, along with Royal Caribbean International's Ovation of the Seas and Princess Cruises' flagship, Royal Princess, CoastAlaska reported Friday.

The Southeast Alaska Pilots Association tested the limits of each of the four megaships in virtual reality.

At 68,666 tons (62,293 metric tons), Ovation of the Seas is the largest ship ever to visit Alaska. But it's Royal Princess that's concerning marine pilots.

"Overall the simulations (for the Royal Princess) produced serious challenges in wind and current conditions common to Southeast Alaska," the pilots wrote in a report released publicly this month.

The simulations also found that the Royal Princess model didn't handle well at low speeds.

None of the pilots CoastAlaska contacted were willing to talk about their findings.

Princess Cruises questioned the report's results but said it will work closely with the marine pilots to ensure safe handling of the vessels in southeast Alaska.

"While we appreciate SEAPA's (Southeast Alaska Pilots Association) efforts to date, we believe the model they used to assess this ship requires further refinement," Princess Cruises' Keith Taylor, executive vice-president of fleet operations, said in a statement. "There are three Royal Class ships operating safely around the globe, in many challenging navigational areas."

Royal Princess uses standard propulsion: propellers and rudders. The other three ships have Azipod propulsion.

"With an Azipod-style propulsion, the propeller is actually on a pod below the ship, and what you can do is rotate that pod," explained Keir Moorhead, an engineer who teaches at California State University Maritime Academy in Vallejo.

He said Azipod propulsion performs better at low speeds when big ships need to manoeuvr in tight spots.

"At any given moment, you can rotate a propeller 360 degrees to give you thrust in any direction," Moorhead said.

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Getting into the Ketchikan port requires passing through the 220-meter-wide Tongass Narrows. There's not a lot of room to manoeuvr. And, there's a 7-knot speed limit.

The pilots recommend against the Royal Princess attempting this in more than 15 knots of wind.

"Fifteen knots of wind in Ketchikan? I was stationed on a ship there. It blows 15 knots quite often," said Capt. Stephen White, commander of the Coast Guard's Sector Juneau.

The Royal Princess is scheduled to make its first visit to southeast Alaska on May 13.

___

Information from: KTOO-FM, http://www.ktoo.orgKIEV, Ukraine - A comedian whose only political experience consists of playing a president on TV cruised toward a landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential election Sunday in what was seen as a reaction against the country's entrenched corruption and low standard of living.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/4/2019 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko arrives to attend debates between two candidates in the weekend presidential run-off at the Olympic stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, April 19, 2019. Friday is the last official day of election canvassing in Ukraine as all presidential candidates and their campaigns will be barred from campaigning on Saturday, the day before the vote. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

KIEV, Ukraine - A comedian whose only political experience consists of playing a president on TV cruised toward a landslide victory in Ukraine's presidential election Sunday in what was seen as a reaction against the country's entrenched corruption and low standard of living.

Results from 52% of polling stations' tallies showed sitcom star Volodymyr Zelenskiy receiving 73% of the vote and President Petro Poroshenko about 25%  a crushing rebuke to Poroshenko's five years in office.

Even before results started trickling in, Poroshenko accepted defeat based on exit polls, saying: "I am leaving office, but I want to firmly underline that I am not leaving politics."

Zelenskiy, for his part, promised wide changes at the top echelons of government and said his No. 1 task would be securing the release of about 170 Ukrainian military members taken prisoner in the east or in Russia.

Ukraine has been plagued by rampant graft, a sickly economy and a grinding, five-year war with Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country that has killed over 13,000 people.

A woman casts her ballot at a polling station, during the second round of presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 21, 2019. Top issues in the election have been corruption, the economy and how to end the conflict with Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

After his apparent election, Zelenskiy said he would engage Russia to try to end the conflict. He also said, without giving details, that "we will make a very powerful information war" in order to stop the fighting.

He also suggested, in a remark that could grate on Russia, that his victory could be a model for other former Soviet states that want to move forward from ossified politics: "To all the countries of the former Soviet Union  look at us, everything is possible."

Although the early results were a small fraction of the vote, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine congratulated Zelenskiy, as did NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg.

A woman leaves a booth at a polling station, during the second round of presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 21, 2019. Top issues in the election have been corruption, the economy and how to end the conflict with Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Zelenskiy, 41, became famous nationwide for his comic portrayal in a Ukrainian TV series of a high school teacher who becomes president after a video rant against corruption goes viral. In a case of life imitating television, Zelenskiy denounced graft as a real candidate.

Although Zelenskiy was criticized for a vague campaign platform and never holding public office, voters appeared to cast aside those concerns in favour of a thorough sweep of Ukraine's political leadership.

"I have grown up under the old politicians and only have seen empty promises, lies and corruption," said Lyudmila Potrebko, a 22-year-old computer programmer who voted for Zelenskiy. "It's time to change that."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko casts his ballot as his grandson Petro, looks at the ballot at a polling station, during the second round of presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 21, 2019. Top issues in the election have been corruption, the economy and how to end the conflict with Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Poroshenko was a billionaire candy magnate and former foreign minister before he took office in 2014 after huge street protests drove his Russia-friendly predecessor to flee the country. Although he instituted some reforms, critics said he had not done nearly enough to curb corruption.

Poroshenko positioned himself as a president who could stand up to Russia and said Zelenskiy would be easy prey for Moscow.

Although the Kremlin despises Poroshenko, Zelenskiy's apparent victory was greeted noncommittally in Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gestures while speaking to the media as her wife Maryna stands next to him, at a polling station, during the second round of presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 21, 2019. Top issues in the election have been corruption, the economy and how to end the conflict with Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

"We do not yet associate hopes with the winner," Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian Parliament, was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass.

Millions of people living in the rebel-controlled east and in Russia-annexed Crimea were unable to vote. Russia seized Crimea in 2014, and fighting in the east erupted that same year.

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Poroshenko campaigned on the same promise he made when he was elected in 2014: to lead the nation of 42 million into the European Union and NATO. Zelenskiy pledged likewise to keep Ukraine on a Westward course but said the country should only join NATO if voters give their approval in a referendum.

Ukrainian comedian and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his wife Olena Zelenska, right, greet their supporters at his headquarters after the second round of presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, April 21, 2019. Ukrainians voted on Sunday in a presidential runoff as the nation's incumbent leader struggles to fend off a strong challenge by a comedian who denounces corruption and plays the role of president in a TV sitcom. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Poroshenko's five years in office saw the creation of a new Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of Moscow's church, a schism he championed. Also, Ukraine reached a visa-free deal with the EU that led to the exodus of millions of skilled workers for better living conditions elsewhere in Europe.

"Poroshenko has done a lot of good things for the country  creating its own church, getting the visa-free deal and taking Ukraine away from the empire," said 44-year-old businessman Volodymyr Andreichenko, who voted for him.

But Poroshenko's message fell flat with many voters struggling to survive on meagre wages and pay soaring utility bills.

"We have grown poor under Poroshenko and have to save to buy food and clothing," said 55-year-old sales clerk Irina Fakhova. "We have had enough of them getting mired in corruption and filling their pockets and treating us as fools."

Zelenskiy's image has been shadowed by his admission that he had commercial interests in Russia through a holding company, and by his business ties to self-exiled Ukrainian billionaire businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi. Kolomoyskyi owns the TV station that aired the actor's sitcom, "Servant of the People," and his other comedy shows.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. 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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. 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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).The following companies are subsidiares of Ashland Global: 565 Corporation, ASH GP INC., ASHLAND SPECIALTY CHEMICAL (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD., ASHLAND SPECIALTY CHEMICALS (MALAYSIA) SDN.BHD, Adams Drive Totowa L.L.C., Alera Property Holdings LLC, Alera Technologies Inc., Alix Technologies LLC, Aloe Vemera S.P.R de R.L. de C.V., Ash (Gibraltar) One Limited, Ash B CIS 1 Limited, Ash B CIS 2 Limited, Ash B1 Limited, Ash B2 Limited, Ash B3 Limited, Ash B4 Limited, Ash B5 Limited, Ash CIS Canada Corp., Ash CIS Canada Holdings B.V., Ash CIS GmbH, Ash Global Holding Three GmbH, Ash Global Holdings Two B.V., Ash Junior Global Holding One LLC, Ash Junior Global Holding Two LLC, Ash Swiss Holding Two GmbH, AshLux Three S.a r.l., AshOne C. V., Ashland (Australasia) Pty. Limited, Ashland (Changzhou) Advanced Chemical Co. Ltd., Ashland (Changzhou) Specialty Chemical Co. Ltd, Ashland (China) Holdings Co. Ltd., Ashland (Gibraltar) One Holding Inc., Ashland (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Ashland Argentina S.R.L., Ashland CZ s.r.o., Ashland Canada Corp./Corporation Ashland Canada, Ashland Canada Holdings B. V., Ashland Chemco Inc., Ashland Chemical De Mexico S.A. De C.V., Ashland Chemical Hispania S. L., Ashland Chemical Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, Ashland Chemicals (Nanjing) Company Limited, Ashland Colombia S.A.S., Ashland Comercio de Especialidades Quimicas do Brasil Ltda., Ashland Danmark ApS, Ashland Eastern Markets LLC, Ashland Ethanol Inc., Ashland Finance Limited, Ashland Finland Oy, Ashland France SAS, Ashland Global Holdings One C.V., Ashland India Private Limited, Ashland Industria de Ingredientes do Brasil Ltda., Ashland Industries Deutschland GmbH, Ashland Industries Europe GmbH, Ashland Industries France SAS, Ashland Industries Italia S.r.l., Ashland Industries Nederland B.V., Ashland Industries UK Limited, Ashland International Holdings LLC, Ashland Italia S.r.l., Ashland Japan Ltd., Ashland Korea Limited, Ashland LLC, Ashland Licensing and Intellectual Property LLC, Ashland ME Holdings Inc., Ashland Mexico Holdings One LLC, Ashland Mexico Holdings Two LLC, Ashland Nigeria Exploration Unlimited, Ashland Oil (Nigeria) Company Unlimited, Ashland Oil Inc., Ashland Pacific Pty. Ltd., Ashland Participacoes Ltda., Ashland Pharmachem International Holdings LLC, Ashland Polimeros do Brasil S.A., Ashland Services B. V., Ashland Services Mexico S.A. de C.V., Ashland Singapore Pte. Ltd., Ashland Specialties Austria GmbH, Ashland Specialties Belgium BVBA, Ashland Specialties France S.a.r.l., Ashland Specialties Hispania S.L., Ashland Specialties Holding C.V., Ashland Specialties Ireland Limited, Ashland Specialties Poland Sp. z o.o., Ashland Specialties Sverige AB, Ashland Specialties UK Limited, Ashland Specialty Chemical Korea Co. Ltd., Ashland Specialty Ingredients G.P., Ashland Technologies GmbH, Ashland-Alaskan Limited, Ashland-Plasticos De Portugal Lda., Ashmont Insurance Company Inc., Ashprop Two LLC, Avoca LLC, Avoele S.A. de C.V., Belleville Realty Corp., Bluegrass Insurance Company Limited, CLTA LLC, CVG Capital III LLC, Carol Clifton Inc., Clevedon Sp. z o.o., Curtis Bay Insurance Co. Ltd, East Bay Realty Services Inc., Ever Success Overseas Limited, FRJ Inc., Fospur, Hercofina, Hercules, Hercules Holding BV BVBA, Hercules Holding II Limited, Hercules Hydrocarbon Holdings Inc., Hercules International Limited LLC, Hercules Investment ApS, Hercules Investments Netherlands B.V., Hercules Islands Corporation, Hercules LLC, Hercules Paper Holdings Inc., Hercules Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, ISP (Belgium) International N. V., ISP Alginates Inc., ISP Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd, ISP Biochema Schwaben GmbH, ISP Canada Corp., ISP Capital LLC, ISP Chemco LLC, ISP Chemical Products LLC, ISP Chemicals LLC, ISP Environmental Services Inc., ISP France Holding SARL, ISP France Marketing SARL, ISP Freetown Fine Chemicals Inc., ISP Freight Services N. V., ISP Global Operations (Barbados) Inc., ISP Global Technologies Deutschland Unterstutzungskasse GmbH, ISP Global Technologies Inc., ISP Global Technologies LLC, ISP HC Limited, ISP Holdings (U.K.) Ltd., ISP Hungary Holdings Limited Liability Company, ISP International Corp., ISP Investments LLC, ISP Lima LLC, ISP Luxembourg Canada S.a.r.l., ISP Management Company Inc., ISP Marl GmbH, ISP Marl Holdings GmbH, ISP Microcaps (U.K.) Limited, ISP Pharma Systems LLC, ISP Real Estate Company Inc., ISP Singapore Holding LLC, ISP Technologies Inc., ISP Technologies LLC, International Specialty Holdings LLC, International Specialty Products, International Specialty Products (India) Private Limited, International Specialty Products Funding Corporation, International Specialty Products Inc., Jiangmen Ashland Chemicals Company Limited, Nanjing Clear Environment Protection, Northwest Coatings, Oil Can Henrys, PT Ashland Asia, PT ISP Chemicals Indonesia, Pakistan Gum Industries (Private) Limited, Pharmachem Laboratories, Pharmachem Laboratories LLC, Pharmachem Laboratories Utah LLC, Prince Street Paterson LLC, Progiven S.A.S., Proprietary Nutritionals LLC, Ralop S. de R.L. de C.V., Saudi Industrial Resins Co. Ltd. (Polyester), Shanghai Ashland Industrial Trading Co. Ltd., St Croix Petrochemical Corp, Taiwan Ashland Co. Ltd., Techwax Limited, Vemera S. de R.L. de C.V., and WSP LLC.5 Wall Street research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Aphria in the last year. There are currently 4 hold ratings and 1 buy rating for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should "hold" Aphria stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in APHA, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares.

View analyst ratings for Aphria or view top-rated stocks.Medtronic Plc is a medical technology company, which engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of device-based medical therapies and services. It operates through the following segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group; Minimally Invasive Technologies Group; Restorative Therapies Group; and Diabetes Group. The Cardiac and Vascular Group segment consists of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiac rhythm disorders and cardiovascular disease. The Minimally Invasive Technologies Group segment focuses on respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, renal system, lungs, pelvic region, kidneys, and obesity diseases. The Restorative Therapies Group segment comprises of neurostimulation therapies and drug delivery systems for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as areas of the spine and brain, along with pelvic health and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat. The Diabetes Group segment offers insulin pumps, coninuous glucose monitoring systems, and insulin pump consumables. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

Read MoreThis domain name expired on 2021-12-19 01:02:49 Click here to renew it.Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; and Capital Markets. The company offers chequing, savings, and business accounts; mortgages; loans, lines of credit, student lines of credit, and business and agriculture loans; investment and insurance services; and credit cards, as well as overdraft protection services. It also provides day-to-day banking, borrowing and credit, investing and wealth, specialty, and international services; correspondent banking and online foreign exchange services; and cash management services. The company serves its customers through its banking centers, as well as direct, mobile, and remote channels. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreClose Brothers Group plc, a merchant banking company, provides financial services to small businesses and individuals in the United Kingdom. It operates through five segments: Commercial, Retail, Property, Asset Management, and Securities. The company offers various deposit products, including fixed term deposits and notice accounts. It also provides asset finance, asset-based lending, commercial vehicle hire, short-term bridging finance, insurance premium finance, invoice discounting and factoring, and property finance products. In addition, the company offers funding services for general aviation aircraft, and various leisure and commercial vessels; sale and rent back services for the brewing sector; broker finance services to agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and transport industries; leasing services for construction, manufacturing, IT equipment, and specialist assets; and loan, hire purchase, leasing, and refinancing services to the professional service sector, including dental, medical, pharmacy, and veterinary sectors. Further, it provides financial education, investment management, and financial planning and advice services; self-directed services that help investors to manage their portfolio online; and services for financial advisers. Additionally, the company offers liquidity and flexible execution services to retail stockbrokers, wealth managers, and institutional investors; market making, sales, research, and corporate broking services; and dealing, custody, and settlement services to the institutional, wealth management, and brokerage clients. Close Brothers Group plc was founded in 1878 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Eli Lilly and: 1096401 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, ARMO BioSciences Inc, ARMO Bioscience, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc., Andean Technical Operations Center, Applied Molecular Evolution Inc., AurKa Pharma, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc., ChemGen, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals Inc., Dermira, Devices for Vascular Intervention(DVI), Disarm Therapeutics, Dista Ilac Ticaret Ltd. Sti., Dista S.A., Dista-Produtos Quimicos & Farmaceuticos LDA, ELCO Dominicana SRL, ELCO Insurance Company Limited, ELCO Management Inc., ELCO for Trade and Marketing S.A.E., ELGO Insurance Company Limited, Elanco Animal Health Ireland Limited, Elanco Switzerland Holding Sarl, Eli Lilly (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Eli Lilly (Philippines) Incorporated, Eli Lilly (S.A.) (Proprietary) Limited, Eli Lilly (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Eli Lilly (Suisse) S.A., Eli Lilly Asia Inc., Eli Lilly Asia Pacific SSC Sdn Bhd, Eli Lilly Australia Pty. Limited, Eli Lilly B-H d.o.o., Eli Lilly Benelux S.A., Eli Lilly Bienes y Servicios S de RL de CV, Eli Lilly CR s.r.o., Eli Lilly Canada Inc., Eli Lilly Cork Limited, Eli Lilly Danmark A/S, Eli Lilly Egypt for Trading, Eli Lilly European Clinical Trial Services SA, Eli Lilly Export S.A., Eli Lilly Finance S.A., Eli Lilly Ges.m.b.H., Eli Lilly Group Limited, Eli Lilly Holdings Ltd., Eli Lilly Hrvatska d.o.o., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc. y Compania Limitada, Eli Lilly International Corporation, Eli Lilly Ireland Holdings Limited, Eli Lilly Israel Ltd., Eli Lilly Italia S.p.A., Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Eli Lilly Kinsale Limited, Eli Lilly Nederland B.V., Eli Lilly Nigeria Ltd., Eli Lilly Norge A.S., Eli Lilly Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Eli Lilly Polska Sp.z.o.o. (Ltd.), Eli Lilly Regional Operations GmbH, Eli Lilly Romania SRL, Eli Lilly S.A., Eli Lilly Saudi Arabia Limited, Eli Lilly Services Inc, Eli Lilly Services India Private Limited, Eli Lilly Slovakia s.r.o., Eli Lilly Sweden AB, Eli Lilly Vostok S.A. Geneva, Eli Lilly and Company, Eli Lilly and Company (India) Pvt. Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company (Ireland) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (N.Z.) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (Taiwan) Inc., Eli Lilly and Company Limited, Eli Lilly de Centro America S.A., Eli Lilly do Brasil Limitada, Eli Lilly farmacevtska druzba d.o.o., Eli Lilly y Compania de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Eli Lilly y Compania de Venezuela S.A., Glycostasis Inc, Greenfield-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Heart Rhythm Technologies Inc, Hybritech, Hypnion, ICOS Corporation, ImClone GmbH, ImClone LLC, ImClone Systems Holdings Inc., ImClone Systems LLC, Imclone Systems, Irisfarma S.A., Ivy Animal Health, Kinsale Financial Services Unlimited Company, Lilly (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd, Lilly Asia Ventures Fund I L.P., Lilly Asia Ventures Fund II L.P., Lilly Asian Ventures Fund III L.P., Lilly Cayman Holdings, Lilly China Research and Development Co. Ltd., Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Lilly France S.A.S., Lilly Global Nederland Holdings B.V., Lilly Global Services Inc., Lilly Holding GmbH, Lilly Holdings B.V., Lilly Hungaria KFT, Lilly Japan Financing G.K., Lilly Korea Ltd., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V. - GCC, Lilly Nederland Holding B.V., Lilly Pharma Ltd., Lilly Portugal - Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Lilly S.A., Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Lilly Trading Co. LTD, Lilly USA LLC, Lilly Ventures Fund I LLC, Lilly del Caribe Inc., Lilly ilac ticaret limited sirketi, Lohmann Animal Health, Loxo Oncology, Lylly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology PTE. LTD., Novartis Animal Health, OY Eli Lilly Finland AB, Origin Medsystems, PT. Eli Lilly Indonesia, Pacific Biotech, Pharmaserve-Lilly S.A.C.I., Physio-Control, SGX Pharmaceuticals, SGX Pharmaceuticals Inc, Spaly Bioquimica S.A., UAB Eli Lilly Lietuva, Valquifarma S.A., and Vital Pharma Productos Farmaceuticos.Artis Real Estate Investment Trust (Artis) is an unincorporated closed-end real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company's objective is to provide stable, reliable and tax efficient monthly cash distributions, as well as long-term appreciation in the value of Artis' units. Its segments include Western Canada, which comprises British Columbia and Alberta; Central Canada, which comprises Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and Eastern Canada, which comprises Ontario. The Company's properties are diversified across industrial, retail, and office asset classes, and geographically across western Canada, Ontario, and in select markets in the United States. Its REIT portfolio includes over 250 commercial properties totaling approximately 26.2 million square feet of gross leasable area. Artis' portfolio includes Hudson's Bay Centre, Union Crossings II, Cargill R&D, Stampede Station II, Park 8Ninety, 601 Tower at Carlson, Corridor Park, Crowfoot Village, Shoppes of St. Vital and Union Crossings III.

Read MoreFraport AG operates airports in Germany, rest of Europe, Asia, and the United States. The company primarily focuses on the operation of Frankfurt Main airport. It operates through four segments: Aviation, Retail & Real Estate, Ground Handling, and International Activities & Services. The Aviation segment operates landside and airside infrastructure, which covers the area of airport charges. The Retail & Real Estate segment engages in retail activities, including marketing of real estate properties and land. This segment also manages buildings and facilities, and parking and retail areas; and rents advertising space. The Ground Handling segment provides loading, baggage, and passenger services through airmail and luggage transport to freight handling. The International Activities & Services segment acquires, operates, maintains, develops, and expands airports and infrastructure facilities. This segment also offers integrated facility and corporate infrastructure management, airport expansion south, and information and telecommunication services. Fraport AG was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Read More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.Baker Hughes, a GE company provides integrated oilfield products, services, and digital solutions worldwide. Its Oilfield Services segment offers drilling, wireline, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention services; and drilling and completions fluids, completions tools and systems, wellbore intervention tools and services, artificial lift systems, pressure pumping systems, and oilfield and industrial chemicals for integrated oil and natural gas, and oilfield service companies. The company's Oilfield Equipment segment designs and manufactures products and services, including pressure control equipment and services, subsea production systems and services, drilling equipment, and flexible pipeline systems; and onshore and offshore drilling and production systems, and equipment for floating production platforms, as well as provides a range of services related to onshore and offshore drilling activities. Its Turbomachinery & Process Solutions segment provides equipment and related services for mechanical-drive, compression, and power-generation applications across the oil and gas industry, as well as products and services to serve the downstream segments of industry. Its product portfolio includes drivers, compressors, and turnkey solutions; and pumps, valves, and compressed natural gas and small-scale liquefied natural gas solutions. This segment serves upstream, midstream, onshore and offshore, industrial, engineering, procurement, and construction companies. The company's Digital Solutions segment provides sensor-based measurement, non-destructive testing and inspection, turbine, generator and plant controls, and condition monitoring, as well as pipeline integrity solutions for a range of industries, including oil and gas, power generation, aerospace, metals, and transportation. It serves through direct and indirect channels. The company is based in Houston, Texas. Baker Hughes, a GE company is a subsidiary of General Electric Company.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Marsh & McLennan Companies: 8WORKS INC., 8WORKS LTD, A. Constantinidi & CIA. S.C., A.C.N. 000 951 146 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 001 572 961 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 076 935 683 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 102 322 574 Pty Limited, ACE Insurance Agents Limited, ACE Insurance Consultants Limited, ACE Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Limited, AD Corretora de Seguros, AFCO Premium Acceptance Inc., AFCO Premium Credit LLC, Access Equity Enhanced Fund GP LLC, Admiral Holdings Limited, Agnew Higgins Pickering & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd, Aldgate Investments Limited, Aldgate Trustees Ltd, Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, Alpha Consultants Limited, Alta SA, Altius Real Assets (GP) LLC, Amal Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Anda Insurance Agencies Pte Ltd, AssetVal Pty Ltd, Assur Conseils Marsh S.A., Assurance Capital Corporation, Assurance Services Corporation, Australian Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Australian World Underwriters Pty Ltd., BBPS Limited, Barney & Barney Orange County LLC, Beaumonts (Leeds) Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Services Limited, Beneficios Integrales Oportunos SA, Benefitfocus Inc., Blue Marble Micro Limited, Blue Marble Microinsurance Inc., Bluefin, Bluefin Insurance Group Limited, Bluefin Insurance Services Limited, Boulder Claims LLC, Bowring (Bermuda) Investments Ltd., Bowring Marine Limited, Bowring Marsh (Bermuda) Ltd., Bowring Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Bowring Marsh Asia Pte. Ltd., Bowring Marsh Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Bowring Marsh Limited, Broderick Piller Pty Ltd, Broker 2 Broker Limited, BuildPay LLC, Burke Ford Trustees (Leicester) Limited, C.T. Bowring Limited, CMC-Belgibo NV, CPRM Limited, CPSG Partners LLC, Carpenter Marsh Fac Chile Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Carpenter Marsh Fac Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Carpenter Marsh Fac Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.C., Carpenter Marsh Fac Re LLC, Carpenter Turner Cyprus Ltd, Carpenter Turner S.A., Cascade International Holdings C.V., Cascade Regional Holdings Limited, Central Insurance Services Limited, Charter Risk Management Services LLC, Chartwell Healthcare Limited, Chronos Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Claims and Recovery Management (Australia) Pty Limited, Clark Thomson Insurance Brokers Limited, Client Provide Limited, Colombian Insurance Broking Wholesale Limited, Consultores 2020 C.A., Cronin & Co Insurance Services Limited, DVA - Deutsche Verkehrs-Assekuranz-Vermittlungs GmbH, Dawson Insurance, DeLima Marsh S.A. - Los Corredores de Seguros S.A., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Managing General Agency Corporation, Dovetail Technology Service India Private Limited, Draw Connect Limited, Draw Create Limited, Draw Group London Limited, Eagle & Crown Limited, Echelon Australia Pty Limited, Echelon Claims Consultants Sdn Bhd, Echelon New Zealand Limited, EnBW Versicherungs Vermittlung GmbH, Encompass Insurance Agency Pty Ltd., English Pension Trustees Limited, Epsilon (US) Insurance Company, Epsilon Insurance Company Ltd., Eustis Insurance & Benefits, Evolution Management Ltd, Exchange Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Exmoor Management Company Limited, Faulkner & Flynn LLC, Freedom Trust Services Limited, GC Genesis LLC, GCube Insurance Services Inc, GCube Underwriting Limited, Gama Consultores Associados Ltda., Gem Insurance Company Limited, Global Premium Finance Company, GrECo International Holding AG, Gracechurch Trustees Limited, Gresham Pension Trustees Limited, Group Promoters Pty Limited, Guy Carpenter & Cia (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter & Cia. S.A., Guy Carpenter & Co. Labuan Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company AB, Guy Carpenter & Company Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Guy Carpenter & Company Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company GmbH, Guy Carpenter & Company LLC, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Ltd./Guy Carpenter & Compagnie Ltee, Guy Carpenter & Company Participacoes Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company Private Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Proprietary Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Pty. Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A. (Uruguay), Guy Carpenter & Company S.A.S., Guy Carpenter & Company S.r.l., Guy Carpenter (Middle East) Limited, Guy Carpenter Bermuda Ltd., Guy Carpenter Broking Inc., Guy Carpenter Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter Insurance Brokers (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Guy Carpenter Japan Inc., Guy Carpenter Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, HAPIP GP 2009 LLC, HAPIP GP LLC, HSBC Insurance Brokers International (Abu Dhabi) LLC (in liquidation), Hamilton Bond Limited, Hansen International Limited, Hayward Aviation Limited, INSIA Europe SE, INSIA SK s.r.o., INSIA a.s., INSURANCE BROKERS OF NIGERIA LIMITED, IRC Asia Insurance Brokers Limited, InSolutions Limited, Industrial Risks Protection Consultants, Ingeseg S. A., Ingeseg S.A., Insbrokers Ltda., InsurTech Alliance LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC [BAHRAIN BRANCH], Insure Direct - Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, International Catastrophe Insurance Managers LLC, International Loss Control Services Limited, International Risk Consultants (Asia) Limited, Invercol Limited, Irish Pensions Trust Limited, Isosceles Insurance (Barbados) Limited, Isosceles Insurance Company Limited, Isosceles Insurance Ltd, Isosceles PCC Limited, J&H Marsh & McLennan Limited, J.W. Terrill Benefit Administrators Inc., JI Holdings Limited, JIB Group Holdings Limited, JIB Group Limited, JIB Holdings (Pacific) Limited, JIB Overseas Holdings Limited, JIB UK Holdings Limited, JL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co. KG, JLM Verwaltungs GmbH, JLT (Insurance Brokers) Limited, JLT Actuaries and Consultants Limited, JLT Advisory Limited, JLT Affinity Colombia Solutions SAS, JLT Agencies Limited, JLT Asesorias Ltda, JLT Asia Holdings BV, JLT Asia Shared Services Sdn Bhd, JLT Belgibo, JLT Benefit Consultants Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Bermuda Ltd, JLT Brasil Holdings Participacoes Ltd, JLT Chile Holdings SpA, JLT Colombia Retail Limited, JLT Colombia Wholesale Limited, JLT Consultants & Actuaries Limited, JLT EB Holdings Limited, JLT EB Services Limited, JLT Employee Benefits Holding Company (PTY) LTD, JLT Employee Benefits SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Financial Planning Limited, JLT France Holdings, JLT Group Services Pty Limited, JLT Holdings (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Holdings (NZ) Limited, JLT Independent Insurance Brokers Private Limited, JLT Insurance Agencies Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited ( Shanghai Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Beijing Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Guangzhou Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Ireland Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers SA, JLT Insurance Group Holdings Ltd, JLT Insurance Management Malta Limited, JLT Intellectual Property Limited, JLT Intellectual Property [UK Branch], JLT Interactive Pte. Ltd., JLT Investment Management Limited, JLT LATAM (Southern Cone) Wholesale Limited, JLT Latin American Holdings Limited, JLT Life Assurance Brokers Limited, JLT Management Services Limited, JLT Marine (Pty) Ltd, JLT Mexico Holdings Limited, JLT Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., JLT Netherlands BV, JLT Norway AS, JLT PLA, JLT Pension Trustees Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Holdings Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Limited, JLT Peru Reinsurance Solutions Limited, JLT Peru Retail Limited, JLT Peru Wholesale Limited, JLT QFM Services Limited, JLT RE Brasil Administracao e Corretagem de Resseguros Ltda, JLT Re (French Branch), JLT Re (Northern Europe) AB, JLT Re Argentina Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.U., JLT Re Labuan Limited, JLT Re Limited, JLT Re Pty Ltd, JLT Reinsurance Brokers GmbH, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited [French Branch], JLT Risk Management Limited, JLT Risk Solutions AB, JLT Risk Solutions AB Branch - Germany, JLT SA IB Holdings Company (Pty) Limited, JLT SCK Affinity Administracao e Corretora de Seguros Ltda., JLT SCK Corretora e Administradora de Seguros, JLT Secretaries Limited, JLT Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerlii A.., JLT Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., JLT Specialty France, JLT Specialty Insurance Broker A/S, JLT Specialty Limited, JLT Specialty Limited [DUBAI BRANCH], JLT Specialty Pte. Ltd., JLT Towner Insurance Management (Anguilla) Limited, JLT Trust Services (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Trustees (Southern) Limited, JLT Trustees Limited, JLT UK Investment Holdings Limited, JLT Vantage Risk and Benefit Consulting Private Limited, JLT Wealth Management Limited, JLT do Brasil Corretagem de Seguros Ltda, JLTPCS Holdings Pte. Ltd., JMIB Holdings BV, JSL Securities Inc., Japan Affinity Marketing Inc., Jardine IBR Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson (Proprietary) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Asia Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Australia Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Canada Inc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited (UK Branch Office), Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance Consultants Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Inc., Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Holdings Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Unlimited Company, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Korea Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited [Macao Branch], Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS (Dubai) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS SA, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Sdn Bhd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Valencia y Iragorri Corredores de Seguros SA, Jardine Pension Trustees Ireland Limited, Jardine Risk Consulting Co. Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited [Macao Branch], Jardines PF- Consultoria Em Gestao De Risco Limitada, Jelf, Jelf Commercial Finance Limited, Jelf Financial Planning Limited, Jelf Insurance Brokers Limited, Jelf Limited, Jelf Risk Management Limited, Jelf Wellbeing Limited, John Lampier & Son Ltd, Johnson & Higgins (Bermuda) Limited, Johnson & Higgins Limited, KESSLER & CO AG, Kepler Associates Limited, Kessler & Co Inc., Kessler Consulting Inc., Kessler Prevoyance Inc., Key Underwriting Pty Limited, Kroll, Lambert Brothers Holdings Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Employee Benefits) Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Hong Kong) Ltd, Laterlife.com Limited (in liquidation), Lavaretus Underwriting AB, Lavaretus Underwriting AB (BRANCH - Denmark), Libra Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Lloyd & Partners Limited, Local Government Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Lomond Macdonald Limited, Lynch Insurance Brokers Limited, M&M Vehicle L.P., M.P. Bolshaw and Company Limited, MAG JLT SpA, MERCER ALTERNATIVES LIMITED, MM Risk Services Pty Ltd (for dissolution), MMA Mid-Atlantic Employee LLC, MMA Securities LLC, MMB Consultores S.A., MMC (Singapore) Holdings Pte. Ltd., MMC 28 State Street Holdings Inc., MMC Borrower LLC, MMC Brazilian Holdings B.V., MMC Capital Inc., MMC Cascade Regional Holdings LLC, MMC FINANCE (EUROPE) LIMITED, MMC FINANCE HOLDINGS LTD, MMC Finance (Australia) Limited, MMC Finance (Singapore) Limited, MMC France Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., MMC GP III Inc., MMC Group Services sp. z o.o., MMC Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, MMC Holdings (New Zealand) ULC, MMC Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC International Finance (Barbados) SRL, MMC International Holdings LLC, MMC International Limited, MMC International Treasury Centre Limited, MMC Middle East Holdings Limited, MMC Poland Holdings B.V., MMC Realty Inc., MMC Regional Asia Holdings B.V., MMC Regional Caribbean Holdings Ltd., MMC Regional Europe Holdings B.V., MMC Regional LATAM Holdings B.V., MMC Securities (Europe) Limited, MMC Securities LLC, MMC Treasury Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC UK Group Limited, MMC UK Pension Fund Trustee Limited, MMOW Limited, MMRC LLC, MOW Holding LLC, MPIP III GP LLC, MPIP IV GP LLC, MPIP V GP LLC, MPIP VI GP LLC, Mangrove Insurance Europe PCC Limited, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC Limited, Manoel Management Services Ltd, Marchant McKechnie Insurance Brokers Limited, Marine Aviation & General (London) Limited, Marsh & McLennan (PNG) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agencies AS, Marsh & McLennan Agencies Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency A/S, Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC, Marsh & McLennan Agency Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency Pty Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Argentina SA Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh & McLennan Colombia S.A., Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Funding Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Asia Pacific Treasury Center Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies BVBA/SPRL, Marsh & McLennan Companies Finance Center (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies France S.A.S., Marsh & McLennan Companies Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., Marsh & McLennan Companies Regional Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Services B.V., Marsh & McLennan Companies UK Limited, Marsh & McLennan Europe S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan GP I Inc., Marsh & McLennan Global Broking (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Holding GmbH, Marsh & McLennan Holdings (Canada) ULC, Marsh & McLennan Holdings Inc., Marsh & McLennan Incorporated (for dissolution), Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings II, Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Limited, Marsh & McLennan Insurance Services Limited, Marsh & McLennan Ireland Limited, Marsh & McLennan Management Services (Bermuda) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Risk Capital Holdings Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Servicios S.A. De C.V., Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Canada Limited, Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Corporation, Marsh (Bahrain) Company SPC, Marsh (Beijing) Risk Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Marsh (China) Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd., Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh (Insurance Brokers) LLP, Marsh (Insurance Services) Limited, Marsh (Malawi) Limited, Marsh (Middle East) Limited, Marsh (Namibia) (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh (Pty) Ltd, Marsh (Risk Consulting) LLP, Marsh (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Marsh A/S, Marsh AB, Marsh AG, Marsh AS, Marsh Advantage Insurance Holdings Pty Ltd, Marsh Advantage Insurance Pty Ltd., Marsh Africa (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Argentina S.R.L., Marsh Associates (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Austria G.m.b.H., Marsh Aviation Insurance Broking Pty Ltd (for dissolution), Marsh B.V., Marsh Botswana (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh Brockman y Schuh Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas S.A. de C.V., Marsh Broker Japan Inc., Marsh Broker de Asigurare-Reasigurare S.R.L., Marsh Brokers (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh Brokers Limited, Marsh Canada Limited/Marsh Canada Limitee, Marsh Company Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Compensation Technologies Administration (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Isle of Man Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Malta Limited, Marsh Corretora de Seguros Ltda., Marsh EOOD, Marsh Egypt LLC, Marsh Emirates Consultancy LLC, Marsh Emirates Insurance Brokerage LLC, Marsh Employee Benefits Limited, Marsh Employee Benefits Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd, Marsh Eurofinance B.V., Marsh Europe S.A., Marsh FJC International Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh For Insurance Services S.A.E., Marsh Franco Acra S.A., Marsh GSC Servicos e Administracao de Seguros Ltda., Marsh GmbH, Marsh Holding AB, Marsh Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Marsh India Insurance Brokers Private Limited, Marsh Insurance & Investments LLC, Marsh Insurance Brokers, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Macao) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Private) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers AO, Marsh Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh Insurance Consulting Saudi Arabia (in liquidation), Marsh Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers LLC, Marsh Intermediaries Inc., Marsh International Broking Holdings Limited, Marsh International Holdings II Inc., Marsh International Holdings Inc., Marsh Investment B.V., Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited, Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited (UK Branch), Marsh Ireland Holdings Limited, Marsh Israel (1999) Ltd., Marsh Israel (Holdings) Ltd., Marsh Israel Consultants Ltd., Marsh Israel Insurance Agency Ltd., Marsh Israel International Brokers Ltd. (in liquidation), Marsh JCS Inc., Marsh Japan Inc., Marsh Kft., Marsh Kindlustusmaakler AS, Marsh Korea Inc., Marsh LLC, Marsh LLC Insurance Brokers, Marsh LLC [Ukraine], Marsh Lda., Marsh Limited, Marsh Limited [Fiji], Marsh Limited [New Zealand], Marsh Limited [PNG], Marsh Ltd. [Wisconsin], Marsh Management Services (Bahamas) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Dublin) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Labuan) Limited, Marsh Management Services (MENA) Limited, Marsh Management Services (USVI) Ltd., Marsh Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Management Services Guernsey Limited, Marsh Management Services Inc., Marsh Management Services Isle of Man Limited, Marsh Management Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Marsh Management Services Malta Limited, Marsh Management Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., Marsh Management Services Sweden AB, Marsh Marine & Energy AB, Marsh Marine Nederland B.V., Marsh Medical Consulting GmbH, Marsh Mercer Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Marsh Nest Inc., Marsh Oman LLC, Marsh Oy, Marsh PB Co. Ltd., Marsh Philippines Inc., Marsh Privat A.I.E., Marsh Private Client Life Insurance Services, Marsh Pty. Ltd., Marsh Qatar LLC, Marsh RE S.A.C. Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh Rehder Consultoria S.A. (MRC), Marsh Rehder S.A. Corredores de Seguros, Marsh Resolutions Pty Limited, Marsh Risk Consulting B.V., Marsh Risk Consulting Limitada, Marsh Risk Consulting Ltda., Marsh Risk Consulting S.L., Marsh Risk Consulting Services S.r.L., Marsh Risk and Consulting Services (Pty) Ltd, Marsh S.A. Corredores De Seguros, Marsh S.A. Mediadores de Seguros, Marsh S.A.S., Marsh S.p.A., Marsh SA [Argentina], Marsh SA [Belgium], Marsh SA [Luxembourg], Marsh SA [Uruguay], Marsh SIA, Marsh Saldana Inc., Marsh Saudi Arabia Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers, Marsh Secretarial Services Limited, Marsh Semusa S.A., Marsh Services Limited, Marsh Services Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Marsh Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Szolgaltato Kft., Marsh Takaful Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Treasury Services (Dublin) Limited (in liquidation), Marsh Treasury Services Limited, Marsh Tunisia S.a.r.l., Marsh UK Limited, Marsh USA (India) Inc., Marsh USA Borrower LLC, Marsh USA Inc., Marsh Uganda Limited, Marsh Venezuela C.A. Sociedad de Corretaje de Seguros, Marsh Vietnam Insurance Broking Company Ltd, Marsh Zambia Limited, Marsh Zimbabwe Holdings (Private) Limited, Marsh d.o.o. Beograd, Marsh d.o.o. za posredovanje u osiguranju, Marsh for Insurance Services - Jordan, Marsh i-Connect (Pty) Ltd, Marsh s.r.o., Matthiessen Assurans AB, Mercer (Argentina) S.A., Mercer (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer (Austria) GmbH, Mercer (Belgium) SA-NV, Mercer (Canada) Limited/Mercer (Canada) Limitee, Mercer (China) Limited, Mercer (Colombia) Ltda., Mercer (Danmark) A/S, Mercer (Finland) OY, Mercer (France) SAS, Mercer (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer (Ireland) Limited, Mercer (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Mercer (N.Z.) Limited, Mercer (Nederland) B.V., Mercer (Norge) AS, Mercer (Polska) Sp.z o.o., Mercer (Portugal) Lda, Mercer (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer (Sweden) AB, Mercer (Taiwan) Ltd., Mercer (Thailand) Ltd., Mercer (US) Inc., Mercer Administration Services (Australia) Pty Limited, Mercer Africa Limited, Mercer Agente de Seguros S.A. de C.V., Mercer Asesores de Seguros S.A., Mercer Asesores es Inversion Independientes S.A. de C.V., Mercer Broking Ltd., Mercer Career Unipessoal Lda, Mercer Consultation (Quebec) Ltee., Mercer Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Consulting (Chile) Limitada, Mercer Consulting (France) SAS, Mercer Consulting (India) Private Limited, Mercer Consulting B.V., Mercer Consulting Group Inc., Mercer Consulting Holdings Sdn. Bhd., Mercer Consulting Limited, Mercer Consulting Middle East Limited, Mercer Consulting S.L.U., Mercer Consulting Venezuela C.A., Mercer Corredores de Seguros Limitada, Mercer Corretora de Seguros Ltda, Mercer Danismanlik Anonim Sirketi, Mercer Deutschland GmbH, Mercer Employee Benefits - Medicacao de Seguros Unipessoal Lda., Mercer Employee Benefits Limited, Mercer Financial Advice (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Financial Services Limited, Mercer Financial Services Limited liability company, Mercer Financial Services Middle East Limited, Mercer Global Investments Europe Limited, Mercer Global Investments Management Limited, Mercer HR Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer HR Services LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Health & Benefits Administration LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, Mercer Holdings Inc., Mercer Holdings Inc. [Philippines], Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltda, Mercer Human Resource Consulting S.A. de C.V., Mercer ICC Limited, Mercer Investment Consulting Limited, Mercer Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mercer Investment Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Investments (Australia) Limited, Mercer Investments (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer Investments (Japan) Ltd, Mercer Investments (New Zealand) Limited, Mercer Investments LLC, Mercer Ireland Holdings Limited, Mercer Italia Srl Socio Unico, Mercer Japan Ltd., Mercer Korea Co. Ltd., Mercer LLC, Mercer Limited, Mercer MC Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer Master Trustees Limited, Mercer Mauritius Ltd., Mercer Oliver Wyman Holding B.V., Mercer Outsourcing (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Outsourcing S.L.U., Mercer Pensionsfonds AG, Mercer Pensionsraadgivning A/S, Mercer Philippines Inc., Mercer Private Investment Partners IV General Partner S.a.r.l., Mercer Private Markets AG, Mercer Private Markets Advisers (US) AG, Mercer Services Poland Sp. z.o.o., Mercer Sigorta Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Mercer South Africa (Pty) Limited, Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited, Mercer Switzerland Inc., Mercer System Services LLC, Mercer Technology Acquisitions Limited, Mercer Treuhand GmbH, Mercer Trust Company LLC, Mercer Trustees Limited, Mercer WorkforcePro LLC, Mercury Insurance Services Pty Ltd, Moola Systems Limited, Mountlodge Limited, Muir Beddal (Zimbabwe) Limited, NERA Australia Pty. Ltd., NERA Economic Consulting GmbH, NERA Economic Consulting Limited, NERA S.R.L., NERA SAS, NERA UK Limited, NERA do Brasil Ltda. (for dissolution), National Economic Research Associates Inc., NetComp Insurance Corp., Neuburger Noble Lowndes GmbH, Normandy Reinsurance Company Limited, Northern Alliance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), OWL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co.KG, OWL Marine Verwaltungs GmbH, Oliver Wyman (Bermuda) Limited, Oliver Wyman (Hong Kong) Limited, Oliver Wyman AB, Oliver Wyman AG, Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting Inc., Oliver Wyman B.V., Oliver Wyman Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Oliver Wyman Consultoria em Estrategia de Negocios Ltda., Oliver Wyman Energy Consulting Limited, Oliver Wyman FZ-LLC, Oliver Wyman Group KK, Oliver Wyman Inc., Oliver Wyman LLC, Oliver Wyman Limited, Oliver Wyman Limited Liability Company, Oliver Wyman Limited/Oliver Wyman limitee, Oliver Wyman Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pte. Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pty. Ltd., Oliver Wyman S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman S.A.S., Oliver Wyman S.L., Oliver Wyman S.r.l., Oliver Wyman SNC, Oliver Wyman SPRL/BVBA, Oliver Wyman Sdn. Bhd., Oliver Wyman Services Limited, Oliver Wyman Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman sp. z o.o., Omega Indemnity (Bermuda) Limited, Organizacion Brockman y Schuh S.A. de C.V., Osbornes Insurances Oxford Limited (in liquidation), PFT Limited, PI Indemnity Company Designated Activity Company, PT JLT Reinsurance Brokers, PT Jardine Lloyd Thompson, PT Marsh Indonesia, PT Marsh Reinsurance Brokers Indonesia, PT Mercer Indonesia, PT Nexus Asia Pacific, PT Oliver Wyman Indonesia, PT Quantum Computing Services, PT Quantum Investments, PT Quantum Support Services, Pallas Marsh Servicos Ltda., Pavilion Alternatives Group (Singapore) PTE. Ltd, Pavilion Financial Corporation Holdings UK Limited, Pavilion U.S. Investments Holdco LLC, Pension Trustees Limited, Pensionsservice Benefit Network Sverige AB, Perils AG, Personal Pension Trustees Limited, Pet Animal Welfare Scheme Limited, Portsoken Trustees (No. 2) Limited, Portsoken Trustees Limited, Potomac Insurance Managers Inc., Premier Pension Trustees Limited, Premium Services Australia Pty Limited, Professional Claims Handling Limited (in liquidation), Profund Solutions Limited, Promerit AG, Promerit Hungary Kft, Promerit Schweiz AG, Pymetrics Inc., R G Ford Brokers Limited, R R B Beratungsgesellschaft fuer Altersversorgung mbh, R. Mees & Zoonen Holdings B.V., Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters LLC, Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters Limited, Resource Benefit Associates, Rightpath Reinsurance SPC Ltd., Risk Management Australia Pty Limited, Rivers Group Limited, Rockefeller Risk Advisors Inc., Rutherfoord International Inc., SAFCAR-Marsh, SBJ Holdings Limited, SCIB (Bermuda) Limited, SCM Global Real Estate Select GP LLC, SCM Infrastructure General Partner S.a r.l., SCM International Private Equity Select III GP LLC, SCM LT General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE II GP Ltd., SCM PE II Scotland GP Ltd, SCM Strategic Capital Management (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., SICAR Marsh S.a.r.l., SME Insurance Services Limited, Sail Insurance Company Limited, Scalene Re Ltd, Seabury & Smith Borrower LLC, Seabury & Smith LLC, Secure Limited, Sedgwick (Holdings) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Consulting Group Limited, Sedgwick Dineen Group Limited, Sedgwick Financial Services Limited, Sedgwick Forbes Middle East Limited, Sedgwick Group, Sedgwick Group (Australia) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Group (Bermuda) Limited, Sedgwick Group (Zimbabwe) Limited, Sedgwick Group Limited, Sedgwick Internationaal B.V., Sedgwick Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Singapore) Pte Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes (UK) Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Group Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Limited, Sedgwick Overseas Investments Limited, Sedgwick Private Limited, Sedgwick Re Asia Pacific (Consultants) Pte Ltd (for dissolution), Sedgwick Trustees Limited, Sedgwick UK Risk Services Limited, Sedgwick Ulster Pension Trustees Limited, Settlement Trustees Limited, Shanghai Mercer Insurance Brokers Company Ltd., Shorewest Insurance Associates LLC, Sirota Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Sirota Consulting UK Limited, Smith Long Term Disability Management Group Inc., Societe d'Assurances et de Participation Guian SA, Software Underwriting Systems Limited (in liquidation), Southern Marine & Aviation Inc., Southern Marine & Aviation Underwriters Inc., Sudzucker Versicherungs-Vermittlungs GmbH, Sumitomo Life Insurance Agency America Inc., Sylvite Financial Services, TBX Solutions Limited, Talent Tech Labs LLC, The Benefit Express Holdings Limited, The Benefit Express Limited, The Carpenter Management Corporation, The Insurance Partnership Holdings Limited, The Insurance Partnership Services Limited, The Positive Ageing Company Limited, The Purple Partnership Limited, The Recovre Group Pty Ltd, Thomsons Online Benefits (HK) Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits Inc., Thomsons Online Benefits Limited, Thomsons Online Benefits Pte Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits S.R.L, Torrent Government Contracting Services LLC, Torrent Insurance Services LLC, Torrent Technologies, Torrent Technologies Inc., Tower Hill Limited, Tower Place Developments (West) Limited, Tower Place Developments Limited, U.T.E. AMG, U.T.E. Marsh - Caja Castilla La Mancha Junta de Comunidades, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus (in liquidation), U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus 2012, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Vila-Seca 2010, UAD BB Marsh Lietuva, Vezina & Associes Inc., Vezina Assurances Inc., Victor Insurance Europe B.V., Victor Insurance Holdings Inc., Victor Insurance Italia S.r.l., Victor Insurance Managers Inc., Victor Insurance Managers Inc./Gestionnaires d'assurance Victor inc., Victor O. Schinnerer & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd., Victor O. Schinnerer & Company Limited, Victoria Hall Company Limited, Wellnz Limited, William M. Mercer (Canada) Limited/William M. Mercer (Canada) Limitee, William M. Mercer AB, William M. Mercer Comercio Consultoria e Servicos Ltda., Wortham Insurance & Risk Management, everBe SAS, and realright GmbH.The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC provides telecommunications services to consumers and business to business customers in the United Kingdom. It offers fiber, broadband, landline, TV, and mobile services under the TalkTalk and TalkTalk Business brands. Its products include HomeSafe, a home filtering service for residential customers; WorkSafe that provides protection for internet devices to business customers; SuperSafe, which offers protection from viruses and malwares; CallSafe, a security feature that screens inbound calls; and TalkSafe, a way of identifying a customer when they call using their voice. TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC was founded in 2002 and is based in Salford, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of TE Connectivity: 999 Arques Corp., ABB ENTRELEC terminal block business, ACC Telecommunications, ADC Chile Limitada, ADC Communications (SEA) Pte. Ltd., ADC Communications (UK) Holding Ltd., ADC Communications (UK) Ltd., ADC Communications Hong Kong Limited, ADC Telecommunications Equipment (Shanghai) Co., AMP Amermex, AMP Products Pacific Limited, AMP Taiwan B.V., AMP Trading B.V., AMP de Venezuela, Acalon Holdings Limited, Advanced Fiber Products LLC, Advanced Fiber Products Limited, Advanced Tube Technologies, AdvancedCath, AdvancedCath Technologies, Alpha Technics, American Sensor Technologies, Betatherm (R&D) Limited, Brantner Holding Company, Brantner and Associates, Butterfly Management SAS, C.S. Tyco Decisive Inc., C.S. Tyco Dependable Inc., C.S. Tyco Durable Inc., C.S. Tyco Reliance Inc., C.S. Tyco Resolute Inc., C.S. Tyco Responder Inc., CII Guardian International Limited, Cablotec GmbH, Carrier Kheops Bac SAS, Catheter and Disposable Technology, Celis Eletrocomponentes Ltda., Cima de Acuna S.A. de C.V., Clarebury Pty. Ltd., Codenoll Technology Corporation, Communication Expert International Investments Limited, Compagnie Deutsch Distribution SAS, Compagnie Deutsch SAS, Comtec Systeme GmbH, Connecteurs Electriques Deutsch SAS, Corcom, Corcom West Indies Limited, Cotsworks LLC, Creganna, Creganna Captial Holding Ireland Unlimited Company, Creganna Finance (US) LLC, Creganna Finance Ireland Limited, Creganna Luxembourg SARL, Creganna Medical Devices, Creganna Medical Pte. Limited, Creganna Medical Technology Unlimited, Creganna Medical s.r.l., Creganna Regulatory, Creganna Solutions Limited, Creganna Solutions Unlimited Company, Creganna Tactx Singapore Limited, Creganna Unlimited Company, Cregstar Bidco Limited, Critchley Group Limited, Crompton Instruments (South-East Asia) Pte. Ltd., Deutsch, Deutsch Connectors Hong Kong Limited, Deutsch Connectors Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co., Deutsch Connectors Trading (Shanghai) Co., Deutsch Finance SAS, Deutsch GB Limited, Deutsch Group SAS, Deutsch India Power Connectors (Pvt) Ltd, Deutsch Israel Ltd., Deutsch SAS, Deutsch Servicios S. de R.L. De C.V., Deutsch Subco Limited, Deutsch UK, F.A.I. Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, First Sensor, Grangehurst Enterprises Pty. Ltd., Hirschmann Car Communication, Hong Kong Sensors Technologies Limited, Howard A. Schaevitz Technologies, Intercontec Connector System (Shanghai) Co., Intercontec Produkt GmbH, Intercontect Pfeiffer Industrie-Steckverbindungen GmbH, Jaquet North America, Jaquet Technology Group AG, Kemex Holding Company, Kenabell Holding Limited, LADD Distribution LLC, LADD Distribution Limited, LSA, MEAS Asia Limited, MEAS Europe SAS, MEAS France SAS, MEAS Ireland (Betatherm) Limited, MEAS Norway AS, MEAS Shenzhen Limited, MEAS Switzerland S.a r.l., MEAS US Holding, MP&E, Measurement Specialties, Measurement Specialties (Chengdu) Ltd., Measurement Specialties (China) Ltd., Measurement Specialties (China) Ltd. Production Branch, Measurement Specialties Foreign Holdings LLC, Measurement Technology (Chengdu) Ltd., Medical Engineering & Design, MicroGroup, Morlynn Ceramics Pty. Ltd., Nikkiso-Therm Co., PT KRONE Indonesia, PT. Tyco Electronics Indonesia, Pfeiffer GmbH & Co KG, Pfeiffer Verwaltungs GmbH, Polamco, Polamco Limited, Potter & Brumfield de Mexico, Precision Interconnect LLC, Precision Subsea AS, Precision Wire Components, Precision Wire Holding Company, Produxx, RAYCHEM-RPG Private Limited, Raychem (HK) Limited, Raychem (Shanghai) Trading Ltd, Raychem China Limited, Raychem Dominicana S.A., Raychem Industries BVBA, Raychem International LLC, Raychem International Manufacturing LLC, Raychem Juarez, Raychem Limited, Raychem Ltd., Raychem Pacific Corporation, Raychem Saudi Arabia Limited, Raychem Shanghai Cable Accessories Ltd, Raychem Technologies Limited, Rochester Wire and Cable LLC, SEACON Advanced Products LLC, Seacon (Europe) Limited, Seacon Global Production, Seacon Produtos e Servicos Opticos e Eletricos Ltda., Sensitive Object, Servo Interconnect Limited, Shanghai CII Electronics Co., Shenzhen Century Man Communication Equipment Co., Sibas Electronics (Xiamen) Co., TCN Holding (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., TE Connectivity (Barbados) SRL, TE Connectivity (Denmark) ApS, TE Connectivity (HKZ) Holding Limited, TE Connectivity (Kunshan) Company Limited, TE Connectivity (Netherlands) Holding S.a r.l. - Irish Branch, TE Connectivity (Schweiz) Management AG, TE Connectivity (Suzhou) Co., TE Connectivity Argentina S.R.L., TE Connectivity Australia Pty Ltd, TE Connectivity Colombia S.A.S., TE Connectivity Connectors (Suzhou) Co., TE Connectivity Distribution (Thailand) Limited, TE Connectivity EMEA Holding GmbH, TE Connectivity Germany GmbH, TE Connectivity HK Limited, TE Connectivity Holding International II S.a r.l., TE Connectivity Holding International II S.a r.l. Luxembourg (LU) Schaffhausen E-Finance branch, TE Connectivity Holding International II S.a r.l. Luxembourg (LU) Schaffhausen branch, TE Connectivity Holding International II S.a r.l. (Ireland Branch), TE Connectivity Holding International S.A., TE Connectivity Inc., TE Connectivity India Private Limited, TE Connectivity Investments Holding S.A., TE Connectivity Investments Holding S.A. Luxembourg (LU) Schaffhausen branch, TE Connectivity Ireland Limited, TE Connectivity LATAM Holding S.a r.l., TE Connectivity LATAM I S.a r.l., TE Connectivity LATAM II S.a r.l., TE Connectivity Limited, TE Connectivity MOG Europe S.a r.l., TE Connectivity MOG Holding S.a r.l., TE Connectivity MOG Inc., TE Connectivity MOG Sales GmbH, TE Connectivity Manufacturing (Thailand) Company Limited, TE Connectivity Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd., TE Connectivity Morocco SARL, TE Connectivity Nederland B.V., TE Connectivity Netherlands (Poland II) Cooperatief U.A., TE Connectivity Netherlands (Turkey) B.V., TE Connectivity Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., TE Connectivity Phoenix Optix Inc., TE Connectivity Seacon Phoenix Inc., TE Connectivity Sensors Germany GmbH, TE Connectivity Services India Private Limited, TE Connectivity Solutions GmbH, TE Connectivity South Africa Proprietary Limited, TE Connectivity Spain, TE Connectivity SubCom S.L.U., TE Connectivity SubCom Spain Holding S.L.U., TE Connectivity Technology Solutions Limited, TE Connectivity Tunisia Sarl, TE Connectivity ULC, TE Connectivity US Group Holding Inc., TE Connectivity Vietnam Holding Company Limited, TYCO Electronics Polska Sp.z.o.o., TYCO SUBMARINE SYSTEMS INC., TacPro, Tactx Medical, Taicang Speed & Spin Sensors Co., Taliq Taiwan Limited, Tappat Engineering Pty Ltd, TechDevice Costa Rica Limitada, TechDevice Holdings, TechDevice LLC, The Whitaker LLC, Transoceanic Cable Ship Company LLC, TyCom Holdings II SA, TyCom Networks (Peru) S.A., Tyco Electronics (AMP Korea) Malta Limited, Tyco Electronics (Dongguan) Ltd, Tyco Electronics (Gibraltar) Holding Limited, Tyco Electronics (Gibraltar) Limited, Tyco Electronics (Korea) Malta Limited, Tyco Electronics (Kunshan) Ltd, Tyco Electronics (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Tyco Electronics (Qingdao) Ltd., Tyco Electronics (Schweiz) Holding II GmbH, Tyco Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Tyco Electronics (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Tyco Electronics (Suzhou) Ltd., Tyco Electronics (Zhuhai) Ltd, Tyco Electronics AMP Guangdong Ltd, Tyco Electronics AMP Italia Products S.R.L., Tyco Electronics AMP Italia S.R.L., Tyco Electronics AMP Korea Co., Tyco Electronics AMP Manufacturing (S) Pte Ltd, Tyco Electronics AMP Qingdao Ltd., Tyco Electronics AMP Shanghai Ltd., Tyco Electronics Austria GmbH, Tyco Electronics Belgium EC BVBA, Tyco Electronics Brasil Ltda., Tyco Electronics Canada ULC, Tyco Electronics China (Gibraltar) Limited, Tyco Electronics Componentes Electromecanicos Lda., Tyco Electronics Corby Limited, Tyco Electronics Corporation, Tyco Electronics Czech s.r.o., Tyco Electronics Del Peru S.A.C., Tyco Electronics EC Trutnov s.r.o., Tyco Electronics EC Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Tyco Electronics Eta Limited, Tyco Electronics Finance Alpha GmbH, Tyco Electronics Finance S.a r.l., Tyco Electronics Finland Oy, Tyco Electronics France SAS, Tyco Electronics Germany Holdings GmbH, Tyco Electronics Group S.A., Tyco Electronics Group S.A. (French Branch), Tyco Electronics Group S.A. (Ireland Branch), Tyco Electronics H.K. Limited, Tyco Electronics Hellas MEPE, Tyco Electronics Holding Corp., Tyco Electronics Holding France, Tyco Electronics Holding S.a r.l., Tyco Electronics Holdings (Bermuda) No. 7 Limited, Tyco Electronics Holdings (Bermuda) No. 7 Limited Taiwan Branch, Tyco Electronics Hong Kong Holdings No. 1 Limited, Tyco Electronics Hong Kong Holdings No. 2 Limited, Tyco Electronics Hong Kong Holdings No. 3 Limited, Tyco Electronics Hungary Termelo Kft, Tyco Electronics Idento, Tyco Electronics India (Gibraltar) Limited, Tyco Electronics Industrial Y Comercial Chile Limitada, Tyco Electronics Integrated Cable Systems LLC, Tyco Electronics Ireland Limited, Tyco Electronics Israel Ltd., Tyco Electronics Italia Holding S.r.l., Tyco Electronics Japan G.K., Tyco Electronics Lambda, Tyco Electronics Latin America Holding LLC, Tyco Electronics Manufacturing Singapore Pte Ltd, Tyco Electronics Mexico, Tyco Electronics Middle East FZE, Tyco Electronics Motors Ltd, Tyco Electronics NZ Limited, Tyco Electronics Netherlands (Germany Holding) S.a r.l., Tyco Electronics Netherlands (Gibraltar China) Cooperatief U.A., Tyco Electronics Netherlands (Gibraltar India) Cooperatief U.A., Tyco Electronics Netherlands (India) Cooperatief U.A., Tyco Electronics Netherlands Holding B.V., Tyco Electronics Norge AS, Tyco Electronics Philippines, Tyco Electronics Precision Engineering Ltd., Tyco Electronics Printed Circuit Group LP, Tyco Electronics RIMC Holding LLC, Tyco Electronics RUS OOO, Tyco Electronics Raychem GmbH, Tyco Electronics Raychem Korea Limited, Tyco Electronics SIMEL SAS, Tyco Electronics Saudi Arabia Limited, Tyco Electronics Services GmbH, Tyco Electronics Singapore Pte Ltd, Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications LLC, Tyco Electronics Svenska AB, Tyco Electronics Svenska Holdings AB, Tyco Electronics Technology (SIP) Co., Tyco Electronics Technology (SIP) Ltd., Tyco Electronics Tecnologias S. de R.L. de C.V., Tyco Electronics UK Holdings Ltd, Tyco Electronics UK Ltd., Tyco Electronics UK Ltd. (Kenya Branch), Tyco Electronics Ukraine Limited, Tyco Electronics Uruguay S.A., Tyco Electronics Verwaltungs GmbH, Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems B.V., Tyco Electronics de Venezuela, Tyco Elektronik AMP Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Tyco Global Networks Ltd., Tyco Iberia, Tyco International Services GmbH, Tyco Networks (Argentina) S.R.L., Tyco Networks (Italy) Srl, Tyco Networks (Netherlands) B.V., Tyco Networks Iberica, Tyco Submarine Systems, Tyco Submarine Systems C.A., Tyco Submarine Systems de Argentina S.A., Tyco Telecommunications Ltd., Wema Americas LLC, Wema Automotive System Private Limited, Wema Environmental Technologies (Shanghai) Co., Wema Environmental Technologies (Shenzhen) Co., Wema Environmental Technologies Ltd., Wema System AG, Wema System AS, Wema System Hong Kong Limited, Wema System Production and Distribution HK Limited, Xiamen Delixing Electric Equipment Businesss, and motec Montage GmbH.DeNA Co., Ltd. engages in the development and operation of mobile and online services including games, e-commerce and entertainment content distribution. It operates through the following segments: Games, Electronic Commerce (EC), Sports, Automotive, Healthcare, and New Businesses and Others. The Games segment offers mobile games such as DeNA games, mobage, and AndApp. The EC segment provides e-commerce services such as Mobaoku. The Sports segment handles Yokohama DeNA Baystars, Yokohma DeNA Running Club, and Kawasaki Brave Thunders. The Automotive segment manages transportation applications such as MOV, Anyca, SOMPO DE NORU, Easy Ride, and Robot Shuttle. The Healthcare segment deals with digital healthcare services such as DeNa Healthcare, MYCODE, kencom, and Aruite Otoku. The New Businesses and Others segment includes products such as Strategic Investment Office and Delight Ventures. The company was founded by Tomoko Namba and Masayuki Watanabe on March 4, 1999 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Caterpillar: Advanced Tri-Gen Power Systems LLC, Anchor Coupling Inc., Asia Power Systems (Tianjin) Ltd., AsiaTrak (Tianjin) Ltd., Banco Caterpillar S.A., Berg Propulsion International Pte Ltd., Bucyrus, Bucyrus Australia Surface Pty. Ltd., Bucyrus Europe Holdings Ltd., Bucyrus Europe Limited, Bucyrus International (Chile) Limitada, Bucyrus International (Peru) S.A., Bucyrus Mining Australia Pty. Ltd., Bucyrus Mining China LLC, Bucyrus UK Limited, Cat Rental Kyushu LLC, Caterpillar (Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Caterpillar (China) Financial Leasing Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (China) Machinery Components Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (HK) Limited, Caterpillar (Huainan) Machinery Service Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Langfang) Mining Equipment Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Luxembourg) Investment Co. S.a r.l., Caterpillar (NI) Limited, Caterpillar (Newberry) LLC, Caterpillar (Qingzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Suzhou) Logistics Co. Ltd., Caterpillar (Thailand) Limited, Caterpillar (U.K.) Limited, Caterpillar (Wujiang) Ltd., Caterpillar (Xuzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar (Zhengzhou) Ltd., Caterpillar Acquisition Holding Corp., Caterpillar Americas C.V., Caterpillar Americas Co., Caterpillar Americas Funding Inc., Caterpillar Americas Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Asia Limited, Caterpillar Asia Pacific L.P., Caterpillar Asia Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Asset Intelligence LLC, Caterpillar Belgium S.A., Caterpillar Brasil Comercio de Maquinas e Pecas Ltda., Caterpillar Brasil Ltda., Caterpillar Brazil LLC, Caterpillar Castings Kiel GmbH, Caterpillar Centro de Formacion S.L., Caterpillar China Limited, Caterpillar Commercial Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Commercial LLC, Caterpillar Commercial Northern Europe Limited, Caterpillar Commercial S.A., Caterpillar Commercial S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Commercial Services S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Communications LLC, Caterpillar Corporativo Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Cote DIvoire, Caterpillar Credito S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., Caterpillar DC Pension Trust Limited, Caterpillar Digital Services & Solutions SARL, Caterpillar Distribution International LLC, Caterpillar Distribution Services Europe B.V.B.A., Caterpillar East Real Estate Holding Ltd., Caterpillar Emissions Solutions Inc., Caterpillar Energy Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Energy Solutions GmbH, Caterpillar Energy Solutions Inc., Caterpillar Energy Solutions S.A., Caterpillar Energy System Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Engine Systems Inc., Caterpillar Equipos Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Eurasia LLC, Caterpillar FS (QFC) LLC, Caterpillar Finance France S.A., Caterpillar Finance Kabushiki Kaisha, Caterpillar Financial Acquisition Funding LLC, Caterpillar Financial Aftermarket Solutions Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Australia Leasing Pty Limited, Caterpillar Financial Australia Limited, Caterpillar Financial Commercial Account Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Corporacion Financiera S.A. E.F.C., Caterpillar Financial Dealer Funding LLC, Caterpillar Financial Funding Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Caterpillar Financial Leasing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Financial New Zealand Limited, Caterpillar Financial Nordic Services AB, Caterpillar Financial Nova Scotia Corporation, Caterpillar Financial OOO, Caterpillar Financial Receivables Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Renting S.A., Caterpillar Financial SARL, Caterpillar Financial Services (Dubai) Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services (Ireland) plc, Caterpillar Financial Services (UK) Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services Argentina S.A., Caterpillar Financial Services Asia Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Financial Services Belgium S.P.R.L., Caterpillar Financial Services CR s.r.o., Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation, Caterpillar Financial Services GmbH, Caterpillar Financial Services India Private Limited, Caterpillar Financial Services Leasing ULC, Caterpillar Financial Services Limited Les Services Financiers Caterpillar Limitee, Caterpillar Financial Services Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Caterpillar Financial Services Netherlands B.V., Caterpillar Financial Services Norway AS, Caterpillar Financial Services Philippines Inc., Caterpillar Financial Services Poland Sp. z o.o., Caterpillar Financial Services South Africa (Pty) Limited, Caterpillar Financial UK Acquisition Funding Partners, Caterpillar Financial Ukraine LLC, Caterpillar Fluid Systems S.r.l., Caterpillar Fomento Comercial Ltda., Caterpillar Forest Products Inc., Caterpillar France S.A.S., Caterpillar GB L.L.C., Caterpillar Global Investments S.a r.l., Caterpillar Global Mining America LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Equipamentos De Mineracao do Brasil Ltda., Caterpillar Global Mining Equipment LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Europe GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Expanded Products Pty Ltd, Caterpillar Global Mining Germany Holdings GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining HMS GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Holdings GmbH, Caterpillar Global Mining Hong Kong AFC Manufacturing Holding Co. Limited, Caterpillar Global Mining Hong Kong Limited, Caterpillar Global Mining LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Mexico LLC, Caterpillar Global Mining Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Global Mining SARL, Caterpillar Global Mining U.S. Parts LLC, Caterpillar Global Services LLC, Caterpillar Group Services S.A., Caterpillar Holding (France) S.A.S., Caterpillar Holding Germany GmbH, Caterpillar Holdings Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Hungary Components Manufacturing Ltd., Caterpillar Hydraulics Italia S.r.l., Caterpillar IPX LLC, Caterpillar IRB LLC, Caterpillar Impact Products Limited, Caterpillar India Private Limited, Caterpillar Industrial Inc., Caterpillar Industrias Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Industries (Pty) Ltd, Caterpillar Insurance Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Insurance Company, Caterpillar Insurance Holdings Inc., Caterpillar Insurance Services Corporation, Caterpillar International Finance Designated Activity Company, Caterpillar International Finance Luxembourg Holding S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Finance Luxembourg S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Holding S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Luxembourg I S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Luxembourg II S. a r.l., Caterpillar International Product SARL, Caterpillar International Services Corporation, Caterpillar International Services del Peru S.A., Caterpillar Investment Limited, Caterpillar Investment One SARL, Caterpillar Investment Two SARL, Caterpillar Investments, Caterpillar Japan LLC, Caterpillar Latin America Services S.R.L., Caterpillar Latin America Services de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Latin America Services de Panama S. de R.L., Caterpillar Latin America Servicios de Chile Limitada, Caterpillar Latin America Support Services S. DE R.L., Caterpillar Leasing (Thailand) Limited, Caterpillar Leasing Chile S.A., Caterpillar Leasing GmbH (Leipzig), Caterpillar Leasing Operativo Limitada, Caterpillar Life Insurance Company, Caterpillar Logistics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Logistics (UK) Limited, Caterpillar Logistics Inc., Caterpillar Logistics ML Services France S.A.S., Caterpillar Logistics Services China Limited, Caterpillar Luxembourg Group S.ar.l., Caterpillar Luxembourg LLC, Caterpillar Luxembourg S.a r.l., Caterpillar Machinery Nantong Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Marine Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Marine Asset Intelligence, Caterpillar Marine Power UK Limited, Caterpillar Marine Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Maroc SARL, Caterpillar Materiels Routiers SAS, Caterpillar Mexico LLC, Caterpillar Mexico S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar Mining Canada ULC, Caterpillar Mining Chile Servicios Limitada, Caterpillar Motoren (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Motoren GmbH & Co. KG, Caterpillar Motoren Henstedt-Ulzburg GmbH, Caterpillar Motoren Rostock GmbH, Caterpillar Motoren Verwaltungs-GmbH, Caterpillar Netherlands Holding B.V., Caterpillar North America C.V., Caterpillar Operator Training Ltd., Caterpillar Overseas Credit Corporation SARL, Caterpillar Overseas Investment Holding SARL, Caterpillar Overseas Limited, Caterpillar Overseas SARL, Caterpillar Panama Services S.A., Caterpillar Paving Products Inc., Caterpillar Paving Products Xuzhou Ltd., Caterpillar Pension Trust Limited, Caterpillar Poland Sp. z o.o., Caterpillar Power Generation Systems (Bangladesh) Limited, Caterpillar Power Generation Systems L.L.C., Caterpillar Power Systems Inc., Caterpillar Power Ventures International Ltd., Caterpillar Precision Seals Korea, Caterpillar Prodotti Stradali S.r.l., Caterpillar Product Services Corporation, Caterpillar Propulsion AB, Caterpillar Propulsion International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Propulsion Italy S.R.L., Caterpillar Propulsion Namibia (Proprietary) Limited, Caterpillar Propulsion Production AB, Caterpillar Propulsion Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar Propulsion Singapore Pte. Ltd., Caterpillar R&D Center (China) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe LLC, Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Ramos Arizpe Servicios S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar Reman Powertrain Indiana LLC, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Drivetrain LLC, Caterpillar Remanufacturing Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Renting France S.A.S., Caterpillar Reynosa S.A. de C.V., Caterpillar SARL, Caterpillar Services Germany GmbH, Caterpillar Servicios Limitada, Caterpillar Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Servizi Italia Srl, Caterpillar Shrewsbury Limited, Caterpillar Skinningrove Limited, Caterpillar Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd., Caterpillar Special Services Belgium S.P.R.L., Caterpillar Switchgear Americas LLC, Caterpillar Switchgear Holding Inc., Caterpillar Tianjin Ltd., Caterpillar Torreon S. de R.L. de C.V., Caterpillar Tosno L.L.C., Caterpillar Transmissions France S.A.R.L., Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Holdings Ltd., Caterpillar Tunnelling Canada Corporation, Caterpillar Tunnelling Europe Limited, Caterpillar UK Employee Trust Limited, Caterpillar UK Engines Company Limited, Caterpillar UK Group Limited, Caterpillar UK Holdings Limited, Caterpillar Undercarriage (Xuzhou) Co. Ltd., Caterpillar Underground Mining Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar Used Equipment Services Inc., Caterpillar Venture Capital Inc., Caterpillar Work Tools B.V., Caterpillar Work Tools Inc., Caterpillar World Trading Corporation, Caterpillar Xuzhou, Caterpillar of Australia Pty. Ltd., Caterpillar of Canada Corporation, Caterpillar of Delaware Inc., Centre de Distribution de Wallonie SPRL, CleanAir Systems, Downer Freight Rail, ECM Railway Evolution Romania s.r.l., ECM S.p.A., EDC European Excavator Design Center GmbH, EMC Holding Corp., EMD International Holdings Inc., ERA Information & Entertainment (BVI) Limited, ERA Mining Machinery Limited, Electro-Motive Diesel Limited, Electro-Motive Locomotive Technologies LLC, Electro-Motive Technical Consulting Co. (Beijing) Ltd., Energy Services International Limited, Equipos de Acuna S.A. de C.V., Eurenov S.A.S., F. G. Wilson (Proprietary) Limited, F. Perkins Limited, FG Wilson (Engineering) Limited, GB Holdco (China) Inc., GFCM Comercial Mexico S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., GFCM Servicios S.A. de C.V., Gremada Industries - Assets, Hong Kong Siwei Holdings Limited, Inmobiliaria Conek S.A. de C.V., JCS Co., Kemper Valve & Fittings Corp., Leo Inc., Locomotive Demand Power Pty Ltd., Locomotoras Progress Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Lovat, M2M Data Corporation, MGE Equipamentos & Servicos Ferroviarios, MWM, MWM Austria GmbH, MWM Benelux B.V., MWM Energy Australia Pty Ltd, MWM France S.A.S, MWM Real Estate GmbH, MaK Americas Inc., MaK Americas Inc. (Canada), Magnum Power Products LLC, Marble, Maschinenbau Kiel GmbH, Mec-Track S.r.l., Metalmark Financial Services Limited, Motoren Steffens GmbH, Nippon Caterpillar LLC, P. T. Solar Services Indonesia, PT Caterpillar Finance Indonesia, PT. Bucyrus Indonesia, PT. Caterpillar Indonesia, PT. Caterpillar Indonesia Batam, PT. Caterpillar Remanufacturing Indonesia, Perkins Engines, Perkins Engines (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, Perkins Engines Group Limited, Perkins Engines Inc., Perkins Group Limited, Perkins Holdings Limited LLC, Perkins India Private Limited, Perkins International Inc., Perkins Japan LLC, Perkins Limited, Perkins Machinery (Changshu) Co. Ltd., Perkins Motores do Brasil Ltda., Perkins Power Systems Technology (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Perkins Small Engines (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Perkins Small Engines LLC, Perkins Small Engines Limited, Perkins Technology Inc., Progress Metal Reclamation Company, Progress Rail Arabia Limited Company, Progress Rail Australia Pty Ltd, Progress Rail Canada Corporation, Progress Rail Equipamentos e Servicos Ferroviarios do Brasil Ltda., Progress Rail Equipment Leasing Corporation, Progress Rail Holdings Inc., Progress Rail Innovations Private Limited, Progress Rail Inspection & Information Systems GmbH, Progress Rail Inspection & Information Systems S.r.l., Progress Rail International Corp., Progress Rail Leasing Canada Corporation, Progress Rail Leasing Corporation, Progress Rail Leasing de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Progress Rail Locomotivas (do Brasil) Ltda., Progress Rail Locomotive Canada Co., Progress Rail Locomotive Chile SpA, Progress Rail Locomotive Inc., Progress Rail Maintenance de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Progress Rail Manufacturing Corporation, Progress Rail Raceland Corporation, Progress Rail Rocklin Corporation, Progress Rail SA Proprietary Limited, Progress Rail Services Corporation, Progress Rail Services Holdings Corp., Progress Rail Services LLC, Progress Rail Services UK Limited, Progress Rail Switching Services LLC, Progress Rail Transcanada Corporation, Progress Rail Welding Corporation, Progress Rail Wildwood LLC, Progress Rail de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pyroban Group, Pyroban Group, Pyrrha Investments B.V., Pyrrha Investments Limited, S&L Railroad LLC, SCM Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., SPL Software Alliance LLC, Sabre Engines, Servicios de Turbinas Solar S. de R.L. de C.V., Shandong SEM Machinery Co. Ltd., Solar Turbines, Solar Turbines, Solar Turbines (Beijing) Trading Services Co. Ltd., Solar Turbines (Thailand) Ltd., Solar Turbines CIS Limited Liability Company, Solar Turbines Canada Ltd./Ltee., Solar Turbines Central Asia Limited Liability Partnership, Solar Turbines EAME s.r.o., Solar Turbines Egypt Limited Liability Company, Solar Turbines Europe S.A., Solar Turbines India Private Limited, Solar Turbines International Company, Solar Turbines Italy S.R.L., Solar Turbines Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Solar Turbines Middle East Limited, Solar Turbines New Zealand Limited, Solar Turbines Saudi Arabia Limited, Solar Turbines Services Company, Solar Turbines Services Nigeria Limited, Solar Turbines Services of Argentina S.R.L., Solar Turbines Switzerland Sagl, Solar Turbines Trinidad & Tobago Limited, Solar Turbines West-Africa SARL, Tangshan DBT Machinery Co. Ltd., Tecnologia Modificada S.A. de C.V., Towmotor Corporation, Traction & Mining Motor Repairs Pty Ltd, Turbinas Solar S.A. de C.V., Turbinas Solar de Colombia S.A., Turbinas Solar de Venezuela C.A., Turbo Tecnologia de Reparaciones S.A. de C.V., Turbomach, Turbomach Endustriyel Gaz Turbinleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited, Turbomach France SARL, Turbomach GmbH, Turbomach Netherlands B.V., Turbomach Pakistan (Private) Limited, Turbomach S.A. Unipersonal, Turbomach Sp. Z o.o., Turner Powertrain Systems Limited, UK Hose Assembly Limited, Underground Imaging Technologies Inc, United Industries LLC, VALA Inc., Vasky Energy Ltd., Wealdstone Engineering, Weir - Oil & Gas Division, West Virginia Auto Shredding Inc., Western Gear Machinery LLC, Wetland Sustainability Fund I LLC, Williams Technologies, Yard Club, Zhengzhou Siwei Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Sales Co. Ltd., and okyo Rental Ltd..Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF's stock was trading at $37.30 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, VWO stock has increased by 31.3% and is now trading at $48.96.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.West End Indiana Bancshares, Inc. operates as the holding company for West End Bank, S.B., a saving bank, provides various financial products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in Indiana. The company offers various deposit accounts, such as non-interest-bearing and interest-bearing checking accounts, NOW accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. It also provides various loan products, including one-to four-family residential real estate loans, indirect automobile loans, commercial and multi-family real estate loans, second mortgages and equity lines of credit, construction loans, and direct consumer loans, as well as commercial business loans consisting of term loans, regular lines of credit, and revolving lines of credit to finance short-term working capital needs. In addition, the company purchases investment securities, such as small business administration loan pools, municipal bonds, and mortgage-backed securities. It operates through a network of four banking offices located in Union and Wayne counties, Indiana; and limited service branches located in the elementary schools and high school in Richmond, Indiana. West End Indiana Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Richmond, Indiana.

Read MoreThomson Reuters Corporation provides business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments. The Corporates segment provides a suite of content-enabled technology solutions for legal, tax, regulatory, compliance, and IT professionals. The Tax & Accounting Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on tax offerings and automating tax workflows to tax, accounting, and audit professionals in accounting firms. The Reuters News segment provides business, financial, national, and international news to professionals through desktop terminals, media organizations, and industry events, as well as directly to consumers. The Global Print segment offers legal and tax information primarily in print format to legal and tax professionals, governments, law schools, and corporations. The company was formerly known as The Thomson Corporation and changed its name to Thomson Reuters Corporation in April 2008. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Thomson Reuters Corporation is a subsidiary of The Woodbridge Company Limited.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of SAP: Abakus, Abakus Europe Limited, Abakus Ukraine Limited Liability Company, Adatfeldolgozasban Informatikai Kft., Altiscale, Ambin Properties Proprietary Limited, AppGyver, Ariba, Ariba Czech s.r.o., Ariba Inc. Palo Alto, Ariba India Private Limited, Ariba International, Ariba International Holdings, Ariba International Singapore Pte Ltd, Ariba Slovak Republic s.r.o., Ariba Software Technology Services (Shanghai) Co., Ariba Technologies India Private Limited, Ariba Technologies Netherlands B.V., Beijing Zhang Zhong Hu Dong Information Technology, Business Objects, Business Objects Holding B.V., Business Objects Option LLC, Business Objects Software Limited, CNQR Operations Mexico S. de. R.L. de. C.V., Callidus Software, CallidusCloud, Christie Partners Holding C.V., Clear Standards, ClearTrip Inc., ClearTrip Inc. (Mauritius), Cleartrip MEA FZ LLC, Cleartrip Private Limited, Coghead, ConTgo Consulting Limited, ConTgo Pty. Ltd., Concur (Austria) GmbH, Concur (Canada), Concur (France) SAS, Concur (Germany) GmbH, Concur (Japan) Ltd., Concur (New Zealand) Limited, Concur (Philippines) Inc., Concur (Switzerland) GmbH, Concur Czech (s.r.o.), Concur Holdings (France) SAS, Concur Holdings (Netherlands) B.V., Concur Technologies (Australia) Pty. Limited, Concur Technologies (Hong Kong) Limited, Concur Technologies (India) Private Limited, Concur Technologies (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Concur Technologies (UK) Limited, Concur Technologies Inc. Bellevue, Contextor, Coresystems, Crystal Decisions (Ireland) Limited, Crystal Decisions Holdings Limited, Crystal Decisions UK Limited, Emarsys, EssCubed Procurement Pty. Ltd., Extended Systems, Factory Logic, Fedem Technology AS, Fieldglass Europe Limited, Financial Fusion, FreeMarkets Ltda., Frictionless Commerce, Gigya, Gigya Australia Pty Ltd, Gigya Ltd., Gigya UK Ltd, GlobalExpense Limited, Highdeal, Hipmunk, Hybris (US) Corp., Hybris GmbH, Inxight Federal Systems Group, KXEN, Khimetrics, LLC "SAP Labs", LLC "SAP Ukraine", LLC SAP CIS, MaXware, Merlin Systems Oy, Multiposting Sp.z o.o., Nihon Ariba K.K., OpTier, OutlookSoft, OutlookSoft Deutschland GmbH, PLAT.ONE, PT SAP Indonesia, PT Sybase 365 Indonesia, Pilot Software Inc., Plat.One Inc., Plat.One Lab Srl, Plateau Systems LLC, Quadrem Africa Pty. Ltd., Quadrem Brazil Ltda., Quadrem Chile Ltda., Quadrem Colombia SAS, Quadrem International Ltd., Quadrem Netherlands B.V., Quadrem Overseas Cooperatief U.A., Quadrem Peru S.A.C., Qualtrics, Recast.AI, Right Hemisphere, Roambi, Ruan Lian Technologies (Beijing) Co., SAF, SAP (Beijing) Software System Co., SAP (Schweiz) AG, SAP (Schweiz) AG Biel, SAP (UK) Limited, SAP (UK) Limited Feltham, SAP AZ LLC, SAP America, SAP America Inc. Newtown Square, SAP Andina y del Caribe, SAP Argentina S.A., SAP Asia (Vietnam) Co., SAP Asia Pte Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd, SAP Australia Pty Ltd. Sydney, SAP Belgium NV/SA, SAP Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Brasil Ltda, SAP Brasil Ltda Sao Paulo, SAP Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Business Compliance Services GmbH, SAP Business Services Center Nederland B.V., SAP CR, SAP Canada, SAP Chile Limitada, SAP China Co., SAP China Co. Ltd. Shanghai, SAP China Holding Co., SAP Colombia S.A.S., SAP Commercial Services Ltd., SAP Concur, SAP Costa Rica, SAP Customer Experience, SAP Cyprus Limited, SAP Danmark A/S, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG, SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG Walldorf, SAP Dritte Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP EMEA Inside Sales S.L., SAP East Africa Limited, SAP Egypt LLC, SAP Erste Beteiligungs- und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, SAP Espana - Sistemas Informatica, SAP Estonia OU, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Financial, SAP Finland Oy, SAP Foreign Holdings GmbH, SAP France, SAP France Holding, SAP France Levallois Perret, SAP Global Marketing, SAP Hellas S.A., SAP Holdings (UK) Limited, SAP Hong Kong Co., SAP Hosting Beteiligungs GmbH, SAP Hungary Rendszerek, SAP India (Holding) Pte Ltd, SAP India Private Limited, SAP India Private Limited Bangalore, SAP Industries, SAP Industries Inc. Newtown Square, SAP International, SAP International Panama, SAP Investments, SAP Ireland Limited, SAP Ireland US - Financial Services Designated Activity Company, SAP Israel Ltd., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A., SAP Italia Sistemi Applicazioni Prodotti in Data Processing S.p.A. Vimercate, SAP Japan Co., SAP Japan Co. Ltd. Tokyo, SAP Kazakhstan LLP, SAP Korea Ltd., SAP Labs, SAP Labs Bulgaria EOOD, SAP Labs Finland Oy, SAP Labs France SAS, SAP Labs India Private Limited, SAP Labs Israel Ltd., SAP Labs Korea, SAP Latvia SIA, SAP MENA FZ L.L.C., SAP Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., SAP Malta Investments Ltd., SAP Mxico S.A. de C.V., SAP National Security Services PA, SAP Nederland B.V., SAP Nederland B.V. s-Hertogenbosch, SAP Service and Support Centre (Ireland) Limited, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP d.o.o., SeeWhy, Signavio, SuccessFactors, SuccessFactors Inc. South San Francisco, Sybase, Syclo, TopTier Software, Triversity, Vimercate, Virsa Systems, Visiprise, Wicom Communications, and conTgo limited.CLINTON- Organizations at Hamilton College put together a rally on Friday afternoon to let the administration know, more needs to be done for victims of sexual assault.

Students gathered outside of the presidents office with signs.

Within the past couple weeks, the campus safety office received reports from several people about a date rape drug possibly being used at two bars in Clinton. "We want to make sure that State Police interview the people who run the businesses and they can do whatever investigative steps they think are appropriate in order to find the perpetrator," said director of Campus Safety, Francis Coots.

These reports lead to a much larger issue for students.

Senior at Hamilton College, Cassidy Brown who told us she's a victim of sexual assault, said the administration needs to do more the address the issue. "A lot of the time the administration for survivors in their reports they kind of interrogate and treat survivors in a way where it often times retraumatizes," she said. "So I think they often may suspend someone or kinda award them some other judicial things that aren't going the actual step to expel them and cause a scene because they want Hamilton to be seen as a community that is safe when really and truthfully, it's not."

President of the college, David Wippman said the school made efforts to make changes. "We think we're doing everything we reasonably can. We've expanded the staff who is devoted to this, we have a lot of people on campus who are working on this title nine process, we have a strong campus safety program, we have a mental health and wellness program, we try to provide support."

Wippman confirmed with NEWSChannel 2 that the institution is under federal investigation for the title nine process. "At some point we expect the department to resolve it, i don't know when, that you will have to ask the Department of Education."

Students were encouraged to wear black on Friday to stand in solidarity with victims of sexual assault.Utica, N.Y. - Utica Police say 30-year-old Jonathan Morse of Marcy was arrested during an Easter Mass Saturday night inside Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Utica and charged with Disrupting a Religious Service.

Police say Morse attempted to gain access to the altar on two separate occasions. Then, after the second time Morse approached altar, he was asked to leave by off duty police personnel from the Utica Police Department and New York State Police but instead created a disturbance by yelling and refusing to leave.

Morse was ultimately taken into custody by on duty Utica Police Officers who responded to the disturbance.

No injuries were reported during this incident.

A similar incident happened at Our Lady of Lourdes back in January.More than 300 volunteer fire departments throughout New York State are gearing up for the annual RecruitNY weekend, an initiative by the Firemen's Association of the State of New York (FASNY) to recruit new volunteer firefighters.

On April 29-30, participating fire departments will open their doors and welcome members of the public to visit their local firehouses. Volunteer firefighters will conduct tours, demonstrate fire techniques and allow visitors to try on turnout gear.

Everybody is encouraged to attend at participating departments, including families with children.

A report released by FASNY in 2016 states that to replace all volunteer fire departments in the state with paid fire services, it would cost $3.87 billion per year, and property taxes would rise by an estimated 26.5 percent. FASNY says these figures do not include the costs of acquiring the necessary facilities and equipment to accommodate paid fire services.

Local volunteer fire departments who would like to sign up to participate in the RecruitNY weekend can log into recruitny.org/signup and fill out the participation form. The program provides all participating departments with access to recruitment resources, communication tools, posters, banners and moreWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  Two West Lafayette businesses were vandalized early Saturday morning. The Campus Inn Hotel and Sparkletone Dry-Cleaning were both hit with graffiti.

The letters F-A-Z-E-R were painted on both businesses walls. West Lafayette Police say right now its unclear what it means or who may have done it but the investigation is underway.

Police said it happened anytime between midnight and 4 a.m. When Sparkletone Dry Cleaner Manager Kristen Dudley arrived to work she was in for a surprise.

I got here about 7:15 this morning and noticed the spray paint on the back of the building and just kind of looked around and saw the spray paint on the hotel," said Dudley.

Now Dudley and Campus Inn Hotel Manager Frank Desai are both left wondering why.

We always have a safe environment here but this kind of incidence is obviously concerning, said Desai.

Although an investigation has begun it doesn't stop the businesses from having to deal with the damage.

It looks really bad, said Dudley. We just had the building painted last fall or spring and now we have to paint some more.

This is a busy weekend, it's a holy weekend, I should be more concentrated doing my business, entertaining my guests, said Desai. Instead, I'm spending my time fixing this problem.

Desai said graffiti can be damaging for businesses beyond what you physically see.

People need to understand that you're damaging somebody's business, you're damaging somebody's reputation and you are creating an unsafe environment for local businesses to survive, said Desai.

Both Sparkletone and Campus Inn have sat in the community for more than 35-years. The managers hope neighboring businesses take this incident as an opportunity to remember to be more alert.

Other business owners can look out for each other to figure it out, who is doing this to prevent this happening in the future, said Desai.

Neither Campus Inn or Sparkletone have security cameras but Bruno's Pizza, which sits behind Campus Inn does. Police plan to use the possible footage to catch the suspect.

Right now, It's not clear if the cameras were able to capture the action.

This story will be updated.Netflix may get most of the attention, but its hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms  and there are more of them all the time  caters to its own niche of film obsessives. From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on the newly launched OVID.tv, IndieWires monthly guide will highlight the best of whats coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles and bonus features that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Heres the best of the best for April 2019.

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Amazon Prime has become the most reliable platform for exclusive streaming access to exciting indie and foreign movies. Netflix might get Infinity War, but Amazon Prime gets Shoplifters. Netflix might get Solo, but Amazon Prime gets Cold War. And when Disney+ launches and the Mouse House no longer allows Netflix to stream its blockbusters, Amazon Prime will continue to enjoy its monogamous relationship with distributors like A24 and (obviously) Amazon Studios.

Despite that preamble, this may not be the best month to highlight what Amazon Prime brings to the table, as its April lineup isnt nearly as robust as usual. Sure, subscribers will get to enjoy many of the same movies that are also coming to Hulu (a number of classic Bond films and Sarah Polleys magnificent Stories We Tell, to name just a few), but there isnt a standout title that really highlights what Amazon Prime has to offer. Besides Book Club, of course, which should only be watched at home if youre not going to be on a plane any time in the next six months.

Story continues

Mid90s (2018)

And that leaves us with Jonah Hills Mid90s, a thin but nuanced, heartfelt, and promising debut that crashes a typical coming-of-age story into a very particular sub-section of Los Angeles skateboarding culture. Young Sunny Suljic is terrific as a 13-year-old kid who falls in with a loose crew of local skaters, and Lucas Hedges is revelatory playing against type as the leads emotionally repressed older brother.

Available to stream April 18.

THE CRITERION CHANNEL

This month sees the hotly anticipated launch of the Criterion Channel, which is rising like a phoenix from the ashes of (the dearly departed) FilmStruck. And, really, where are we even supposed to begin? Picking the best movie from the new streaming platforms day one lineup is kind of like looking for a needle in the worlds biggest stack of needles. In addition to the Criterion Collections entire lineup, the service will also launch with several unmissable sidebars and spotlights, including an 11-film array of classic noir from Columbia Pictures, a program of David Lynch features and shorts, profiles of Charles Burnett and Simone Signoret, and a smattering of more contemporary essentials like Bi Gans Kaili Blues.

The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Of all the incredible films coming to the Criterion Channel, Sofia Coppolas debut feature deserves special attention because of how the streaming platform is choosing to present it. Continuing one of FilmStrucks best features, the Criterion Channel will offer subscribers the chance to enjoy the full Criterion experience on a select few titles each month, and The Virgin Suicides is one of the first movies to receive that deluxe treatment. This brilliant Jeffrey Eugenides adaptation established Coppolas singular ability to transform bored-as-hell privilege into something unexpectedly profound, and on the Criterion Channel youll be able to enjoy exclusive interviews with the cast and crew, Eleanor Coppolas documentary on the making of the film, and even Coppolas short Lick the Star.

Available to stream April 24.

HULU

Hulu might be known for its television slate, but it has quietly amassed a movie lineup thats able to stay competitive with the likes of Netflix and Amazon (the latter of which shares many of the same titles that come to Hulu every month). Hulu has also been able to pocket a handful of choice exclusives. As of April, for example, its the only streaming service where you can find Stanley Kubricks The Shining, as Netflix lost its license for the horror classic shortly after the Halloween season. And with the Coen brothers Barton Fink, that makes for at least two stone-cold masterpieces that you cant stream anywhere else this month. But the most exciting new addition to Hulus lineup is something a bit stranger

Border (2018)

Heres what IndieWires Eric Kohn had to say about Ali Abbasis Border, a Cannes sensation that later earned a spot on Kohns list of last years best films:

At first, Border is the story of an ostracized woman named Tina (Eva Melander), who works at a remote Swedish port where she sniffs out contraband, and long ago accepted that she was ostracized because of her unusual appearance. But this is not your average ugly duckling story. As the movie charts a path to her burgeoning self-confidence, it arrives at a sex scene so unexpected and ludicrous it instantly transforms the movie into a dark fairy tale. Iranian-born director Ali Abbasis sophomore effort (following 2016s Shelley), co-written by the author of the Swedish vampire novel Let the Right One In, builds out such an unusual premise that it risks devolving into quirky inanity, but Abbasi grounds the narrative in an emotional foundation even as it flies off the rails. As it does, Border becomes a complex, gender-bending examination of identity politics with Melanders spellbinding performance at its center. This unusual, unpredictable love story is one of the years great conversation-starters.

Available to stream April 24.

Kanopy continues to be a film lovers most generous friend, as the streaming service taps into Americas library and university systems in order to provide totally free (no fees, no commercials) access to essential classic and contemporary cinema. Kanopys existence can feel like a godsend, and its worth celebrating even when the service adds movies that you can already pay for on other platforms (e.g. A24 hits like Hereditary and Eighth Grade). Other crucial Kanopy adds this month range from Hollywood classics (Chinatown), to under-the-radar indies (Suzannah Herbert and Lauren Belfers Wrestle).

The Criminal aka Concrete Jungle (1960)

But an angel gets its wings every time a Joseph Losey film is made available to stream online, and so Concrete Jungle gets the edge this month. A tense and jazzy look into the London underworld, the film stars Stanley Baker as a thief who gets nabbed after a robbery goes wrong, but refuses to tell the rest of his gang where he hid the loot (even after they kidnap his girlfriend). Losey, who directed The Servant and Time Without Pity around the same time, was at the height of his powers, and it shows in every breathless frame of this ruthless crime drama.

Its always a great time to be a MUBI subscriber, as the service has long been the best-curated streaming service for movie lovers. This month, MUBI is kicking things up a notch by supplementing their usual rotating program of 30 films with a permanent collection that will collect unmissable work from new auteurs, established luminaries, and MUBIs growing roster of all-rights acquisitions (such as Stephen Nomura Schibles remarkable documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda.

Bastards (2013)

In celebration of Claire Denis High Life, MUBI is streaming two of the French directors extraordinary films, White Material and Bastards. While the former has received a fair amount of attention over the years, and can be viewed on the Criterion Channel, the latter (and more confrontational of the films) has gone overlooked. An elliptical and unforgiving revenge tale that riffs on Kurosawas The Bad Sleep Well but with a violent twist, Bastards is a searing work that illustrates Denis singular gift for dark poetry.

Available to stream April 14

OVID.tv

OVID.tv, which launched just last month, bills itself as an unprecedented collaborative effort of eight of the most noteworthy independent film distributors in the United States. And while it remains to be seen if that effort will be enough of an advantage to earn the service a devoted fanbase in an increasingly competitive space, its allowed OVID to burst out of the gate as a valuable (and inexpensive) way for dedicated cinephiles to track down exciting contemporary films that may have only played on the festival circuit.

This months lineup includes Huang Jis Rotterdam prizewinner Egg and Stone, Pierre Godeaus Adele Exarchopoulos prison drama Down by Love, about a female inmate who falls for her warden, and Ben Rivers and Ben Russells extraordinary A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness.

Happy Hour (2015)

The best film coming to OVID this month is Ryusuke Hamaguchis Happy Hour. Happy Hour is five hours long, but that only sounds like a lot until you start watching it. This gentle domestic opus eases into the lives of four middle-aged women in Kobe, Japan, criss-crossing their daily trivialities into a rich mosaic that stretches out like the kind of thing that Mikio Naruse would make if he were alive in the limitless age of digital video.

The film is absorbing from the moment it starts, Hamaguchis exquisite cast of actresses forging a palpable bond that immediately convinces you of their 25-year history. Each one of them makes the others more believable. These characters are all working through their own stuff (one is seeking a divorce, another is struggling to accommodate her mother-in-law, and so on), but theyre working through it in the same way we all do: Quietly, as if trying to put on a show while keeping most of themselves hidden behind a curtain. Ambling from one tremendous setpiece to another, Happy Hour gives us the time to suss out the difference between feeling and expression. By the end of it, even the most fleeting and ordinary moments seem to contain entire worlds.

Available to stream April 19.

NETFLIX

Netflix is adding a diverse array of new titles to its streaming library this April, from certified American classics like Deliverance to more recent cult favorites like The Fifth Element. But the most exciting thing about the platforms latest crop of movies is how they point towards Netflix as a repository for essential foreign cinema that wouldnt otherwise have been available to such a wide audience of American viewers. From a much-hyped masterpiece like Lee Chang-dongs Burning, which received a long but limited theatrical run, to the Locarno-winning A Land Imagined, which is going straight from the festival circuit to the streaming world, Netflix is becoming an invaluable safety net for new international fare. Its no substitute for seeing these movies on the big screen, but perhaps their availability will stoke a renewed interest in subtitled film, and inspire people to take a chance on the next Cannes sensation that comes into town.

Burning (2018)

There are two kinds of cinephiles: Those whove seen Burning, and those who didnt have access to its theatrical run last fall, and are probably sick of hearing about its stone-cold brilliance. Lee Chang-dongs masterpiece  which topped IndieWires critics poll as the best film of 2018 Cannes Film Festival, landed the highest score in the long history of Screen Dailys annual critics grid, and then proved to be way too good for an Oscar nomination  was an elusive thing in this modern world of streaming content and short theatrical windows. But now, in the immortal words of Sam Rosen, the waiting is over: One of the best films of this waning decade is coming to Netflix.

Adapted from a Haruki Murakami story called Barn Burning, which was first published in The New Yorker in 1992 (and can be read in its entirety here), Burning is sparked by a seemingly innocent encounter between two born-again strangers. Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) is an aimless young writer whose rootless existence is turned upside down after he bumps into former classmate Shin Hae-mi (newcomer Jeon Jong-seo), a beautiful woman whos been rendered unrecognizable by time, experience, and some top-notch plastic surgery. The two quickly rekindle their old friendship  and light the tinder of a new romance  before Hae-mi asks Jong-su to feed her cat while she takes off on a spirit quest to North Africa.

Thats when things start to get strange. For starters, Jong-su cant seem to find any evidence of a cat living in Hae-mis cramped Seoul apartment. And then theres Ben. Hae-mi may have gone on that trip to find herself, but she returns with a man in tow. And not just any man, but The Walking Dead star Steven Yeun, playing a slick, rich, and mysterious hunk who claims to have never cried, and confesses to a lifelong addiction to arson. The hidden darkness only makes his Gatsby vibe sexier; Jong-su never has a chance. But when Hae-mi suddenly disappears, our slack-jawed hero begins to suspect that Bens secrets might be more sinister than he first assumed.

While the film uses Murakamis source material as more of a starting point than a reference, the writers fans know better than to expect a conventional thriller. Lee  delivering his first movie since Poetry came out eight years earlier  makes good on that assumption and then some, the director unpacking a simple premise into a brilliant and beguiling portrait of working-class frustrations, and resolving it into as essential a film as anything youll find on Netflix.

Available to stream April 29.

SHUDDER

The worlds best (and only) premium streaming service exclusively for genre fare is offering another strong lineup for horror mavens, adding a motley collection of classics like John Houghs The Haunting of Hell House and David Cronenbergs The Fly, along with more recent hits like Cloverfield and James Wans Dead Silence. Theyre even adding Robert Altmans immortal 3 Women, because you can never see that movie too many times, or in too many different ways.

Most Beautiful Island (2017)

A short, stressful, and utterly spellbinding debut that transforms the immigrant experience into the stuff of an early Polanski psychodrama, Most Beautiful Island was a worthy winner of the SXSW Grand Jury Prize for best narrative feature, and might prove to be a breakthrough moment for a major new talent: Spanish actress Ana Asensio not only wrote, directed, and produced this fraught metropolitan thriller, she also appears in just about every frame.

It would be criminal to reveal too much about what happens to her character, a Manhattan immigrant whos struggling to make a life for herself in the big city and in for the longest night of her life, but its thrilling to watch the anxiety of neo-realism as it slowly bleeds into something that resembles the suspense of the orgy sequence from Eyes Wide Shut. Creating a lucid sense of reality only so that she can defile it with a wicked pivot towards madness, Asensios film creates a vision of immigrant life in America (and its value) thats all the more urgent for how it uses genre elements to exaggerate the experience. People should still be talking about this one, which is as weird as it is timely. Read IndieWires full review here.

Available to stream April 22.

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.For Easter, President Trump and First Lady Retreated to Mar-a-Lago Where Mueller Was 'Weighing Heavily' Donald, Melania at Mar-a-Lago for Easter After Mueller

Easter morning shone down sunny and blue over the Mar-a-Lago Club, a favorite retreat where President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump headed for the holiday weekend amid continued fallout from Robert Muellers Russia investigation.

In the latest example of what some observers have called a split-screen presidency, Trump was surrounded by beaming supporters and relatives while in Palm Beach, Florida. Nonetheless, he repeatedly vented on Twitter about Muellers probe and subsequent report.

According to Muellers report, released on Thursday, the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win  but neither he nor his team conspired in that effort.

Muellers report, however, did show that the president repeatedly tried to end the Russia investigation and influence its outcome, which critics say proves he illegally obstructed justice. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 candidate for president, called on Congress to impeach him.

Happy Easter everybody. Have a great day, Trump told reporters at one point Sunday. A lot of great things are happening for our country, he said.

RELATED: Donald Trump and an Upset Melania Had Words While at Dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Witness Says

He was less magnanimous on Twitter. Can you believe that I had to go through the worst and most corrupt political Witch Hunt in the history of the United States, he wondered rhetorically, punctuating the message with Disgraceful!

This was not unexpected: While in Florida, the president was only resuming what has been a nearly two-year-long offensive over Russia, blasting Mueller, the news media and other critics about what he believes is a politically motivated witch hunt designed to delegitimize his surprise victory in 2016.

In another tweet on Sunday, he bemoaned: Despite No Collusion, No Obstruction, The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time. This is costing our Country greatly, and will cost the Dems big time in 2020!

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But in person, he and his family were in far better spirits.

From left: Michael Boulos, Tiffany Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump | NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

About 11 a.m. Sunday, the president left Mar-a-Lago for Easter services at nearby Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church. He and the first lady were accompanied by daughter Tiffany Trump and her boyfriend, Michael Boulos.

At 12:30 p.m., Mrs. Trump and the president returned to Mar-a-Lago to greet various club members and a wide array of guests for a few minutes before returning to their private quarters for an hour or so, according to a club source.

RELATED: Inside Melania Trumps Private World at Mar-a-Lago

President Trump always comes into the club to schmooze with members and guests who are there for the annual Easter brunch and Easter egg hunt, the source tells PEOPLE of this tradition, which pre-dates his presidency.

Donald Trump Jr., the presidents oldest son, along with Don Jr.s children and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle; his brother, Eric Trump; and Erics family left the clubs Easter egg hunt about 1:30 p.m. and took their seats at the family table for brunch.

They were joined at 2 p.m. by the president and first lady, along with the presidents youngest son, Barron  some 20 people in all. (Eldest daughter Ivanka Trump was not in Palm Beach and appears to have been on vacation with her own kids.)

RELATED VIDEO: Melania Trump Once Dumped Donald After Seeing an Ex Leave His Apartment, Book Says

From left: Michael Boulos and Tiffany Trump arriving for an Easter church service in Palm Beach, Florida | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/REX/Shutterstock

At brunch, Mrs. Trump and Tiffany sat on either side of the president, who loves to be at Mar-a-Lago with his family, says another club source.

According to this source, the president said at one point he had never been happier given the state of the country. But he was still seen smiling at times and angry at other times.

RELATED: What Robert Muellers Report Says About Donald Trump and Russia

The night before Easter, Trump spoke to friends at the club before heading to his quarters to watch television  and continue tweeting.

The source says: There was no question that the contents of the Mueller report released last week, and the subsequent news and TV air time devoted to it were weighing heavily on his mind, distracting him at times.George Clooney is reuniting with his Irish relatives!

The actor and his wife, international human-rights lawyer Amal Clooney, flew to Ireland this weekend to enjoy their Easter break, the Irish Independent reported.

Their trip was reportedly part of a family reunion planned by the two-time Oscar winners parents, Nick, 85, and Nina, 80, who flew into Ireland earlier that week.

The first thing he said when he arrived was, The Irish Clooneys are doing okay. Hes an absolute gentleman, Clooneys cousin, Andy Ring, told the Independent, which also reported that Clooney dined with Bono at Dublins Coppinger Row during his stay.

According to irishheritagetowns.com, the Clooneys have relatives in the small Irish town, Abbeyleix  their ancestral home located an hour away in Windgap, Kilkenny. Ever since the connection was made by a family tree, the two families have stayed in contact, and Georges father paid a visit to Abbeyleix.

Andy Ring, Abbeyleix Tourism & Marketing Group

He came over in 2007 and saw the cottage next door to me and we went to Kilkenny to the old family home and out for dinner, Fiona Clooney, Georges Irish cousin told the website. I have to say, hes such a lovely man. Hes a real genuine person and hes so grounded and down to earth.

The website also reported that Fiona has visited the Clooneys in the U.S. with her boyfriend, staying for three days with Nicholas and Nina in New York.

RELATED: George Clooney Boycotts 9 Hotels Owned by Brunei, Saying Country Supports Murder of Gay People

He treated us like the VIPs out there, because we were the Irish relatives, Fiona said. She will be starring in a new documentary George Clooneys Irish Roots  The Real Descendants by Kilkenny documentary maker Gabriel Murray, telling the story of the Hollywood stars roots in Abbeyleix.

And now George may be visiting Abbeyleix and Fiona himself, according to the Irish Independent.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian also visited the same area for their 2016 honeymoon. The location is set in the foothills of the Slieve Bloom mountains.Captain Marvel has made more than $1 billion worldwide, and one man can lay claim to contributing more to that box-office haul than anyone else in the world: Steve Ruppel of Wisconsin. After setting a Guinness World Record by seeing Brie Larsons superhero drama 104 times at the Marcus Cedar Creek Cinema in Rothschild 104 times, the apparent super fan went back 12 more times for good measure.

I thought it was the most insane thing ever, I thought it was impossible, Ruppel told local news station WSAW of his feat. I wasnt even sure why it was even a record, but I thought after a while I should probably do that.'

Related stories

Brie Larson: I Don't Know Why 'Captain Marvel' Making $1 Billion Was 'So Hard to Comprehend'

14 Movies That Defied Expectations -- IndieWire Critics Survey

If youre wondering whether he has a job, the answer is yes. If youre wondering whether spending 242 hours in a movie theater over the last month or so made that job difficult, the answer is also yes. The amount of time that it takes, Ive had to take time off work, I would take long lunch breaks to accommodate watching an entire movie in that particular time frame, said Ruppel. And then just time on the weekends where Im not doing other things. He once saw the film seven times in a single day, preventing boredom by zeroing in on specific details while rewatching it.

Guinness didnt just take his word for it, of course. To be official, I have to have certain pictures taken, like in front of a movie poster, and I need to have two written witness statements saying that I was actually there, he said. So Im trying to think, if anyone wanted to break this, I really dont want to re-break it. Cause this has been pretty tough. Its been a finite amount of time, but I dont think Im going to try this one again.

Captain Marvel is no longer playing at Ruppels preferred movie theater, meaning his record is likely to stand at 116 viewings. The highly anticipated Avengers: Endgame arrives in theaters next week, however, meaning he could feasibly best himself  though, at three hours long, that film will be even more difficult to see multiple times.

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.Maria Butina's lawyers ask for leniency ahead of sentencing originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Federal prosecutors claim Maria Butina conspired to act as a foreign agent who sought to create a backchannel between American power players and Russia. But letters from her family and friends paint her in a far different light -- as an empathetic and hard-working honors student whose only crime was her curiosity.

I am confident that the manner in which she was raised by our family and myself would not have permitted Maria to commit any unlawful acts, Butinas grandmother wrote in one letter, attributing any missteps to ignorance or youthful naivety.

The letters were submitted by Butinas defense team as part of a sentencing memorandum. Prosecutors have recommended that she be sentenced to 18 additional months behind bars, but her attorneys say that a sentence of time served is adequate.

Butinas sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 26th. Judge Tanya Chutkan invited Butina to speak to her before then, but Driscoll did not confirm whether or not his client would do so. Butina will likely be deported back to Russia when she is released from prison.

Although Maria has committed a serious offense, just punishment does not require additional incarceration, Butinas lawyers wrote in the sentencing memo, describing her as a devoted daughter, genuine idealist, and compassionate civil activist.

PHOTO: Maria Butina appears in a police booking photograph released by the Alexandria Sheriff's Office in Alexandria, Va., Aug. 18, 2018. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office/Handout via Reuters, FILE)

(MORE: Maria Butina's attorney warned against trying her case in the press)

Butina, a 30-year-old Russian gun rights activist, was arrested last July in Washington, DC on charges of conspiracy and failure to register as a foreign agent. Although she originally maintained that she was innocent, she signed onto a plea agreement in December of 2018, agreeing to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign official.

In their own sentencing memo, prosecutors contend that the defense is downplaying the severity of Butinas actions, writing that while Butina was in the United States claiming merely to be a student, she was spending much of her time devoted to another purpose -- advancing the interests of the Russian Federation.

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The filing claims that while Butina was not a trained spy, she was working to build a rolodex of information about powerful people who had, or were likely to get, access to and influence over the next presidential administration.

The types of services the defendant provided to the Russian Federation are specifically of the type that Russia would seek to use against the United States, prosecutors wrote. Such operations can cause great damage to our national security by giving covert agents access to our country and powerful individuals who can influence its direction.

In their accounts submitted to the court, Butinas family members in Russia said her detention in the U.S. has caused them extreme distress. Her grandmother wrote that she knew something happened to her granddaughter last summer when the iPad they used to communicate on an almost daily basis un-customarily fell silent. Butina's younger sister wrote that she has been experiencing anxiety attacks, and said she has to work a minimum of 12 hours a day in order to afford to communicate by phone with her incarcerated sister.

Butina admitted in a statement of offense to undertaking a diplomacy project meant to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Although Butina said that her plans were supported in concept by a Russian official, she said she did not receive any financial backing from Russia. However, prosecutors said Butina was aware that the official was reporting some information about her work in the U.S. wider within Russian government.

Throughout the case, Butinas links to the National Rifle Association (NRA) have been the subject of scrutiny. She has denied infiltrating or funneling money from Russia to the organization, but prosecutors said she purposefully targeted the group in an attempt to further her goal of establishing a back channel of communication to the Kremlin.

(MORE: Maria Butina, Russian gun rights activist linked to NRA, charged as Kremlin agent)

As part of her plea deal, Butina agreed to cooperate with authorities in ongoing investigations. Prosecutors said that she has provided substantial assistance, and that they have detailed her contributions to the court in a sealed filing.

Butinas attorney, Robert Driscoll, confirmed to ABC News that she was interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Muellers team in the late stages of their investigation into Russian election meddling. Driscoll characterized the interview as short and not substantial.

There is no assertion that she stole confidential information, bribed an official, funneled money to the NRA, ran a Russian troll farm on social media, made illegal campaign contributions, lied to investigators, acted covertly, engaged in subversive activities, had ill will, or undertook any independently criminal act in the United States for some spy-game or Cold War related goal, Butina's attorneys wrote in a sentencing memorandum to the case judge.

Maria Butina has been justly punished. She now has a felony conviction for her crime, and she has been held in three differenti detention facilities for over nine months, the sentencing memorandum concludes. She is ready to return to her family and get her life back on track.The Mueller report, which the Justice Department released to the public on Thursday morning, is the jaw-dropping account of a corrupt president who tried his hardest to both do collusion-adjacent crimes and to hide evidence of those efforts from law enforcement officials. Although the special counsel's office elected not to indict Donald Trumpsince their ability to do so is, at best, a legal gray areatheir report sets out a clear road map for Congress, if it so chooses, to fulfill its constitutionally enshrined obligation to impeach him for high crimes and misdemeanors.

The ink on the report's redactions had scarcely dried, though, when the first round of high-profile House Democrats began nervously pooh-poohing the very idea of bringing Trump to justice in such a manner. "Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months, and the American people will make a judgment," opined House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the number-two Democrat in Congress. (He walked this back later, asserting in a tepid statement that "all options ought to remain on the table" to ensure that "Congress and the American people have all the info they need to know the truth.") "Barring a bipartisan consensus," added former federal prosecutor and current House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff, impeachment would be an exercise in futility. "You dont bring a case if you dont think youre going to be successful just to try the case."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said nothing new about the subject on Thursday. Last month, however, she told Reuters that "unless theres something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I dont think we should go down that path, because it divides the country." She added: "He's just not worth it." Some Democrats offered less ambiguous visions of what they think the House should do next; freshman representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, among others, promptly announced they would sign on to an impeachment resolution. The party's leadership, however, remains notably reluctant to breathe the i-word in public.

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A brief civics recap: Impeachment is analogous to charging a president with crimes, and impeaching a president requires a simple majority vote of the House. If that vote is successful, the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides over a trial in the Senate; if two-thirds of senators vote to convict the president of said charges, the president is removed from office. The point at which Hoyer and Schiff are getting is that even if House Democrats were able to impeach Donald Trumpnot a given, since that vote could be a tough one for nervous purple-district Democrats to takeRepublicans still control the Senate. None of those 53 Trump dead-enders would dream of even criticizing the president, let alone casting a ballot to boot him from the White House. If you already know Mitch McConnell holds the ultimate trump card (sorry), their reasoning goes, why allow him the opportunity to play it and humiliate you on the national stage?

As majority leader, one of Hoyer's principal concerns is the preservation of that majority. And there is evidence that voters care less about the intricacies of Trump's purported legal jeopardy than they do, say, his fixation with repealing the Affordable Care Act, or his gracious extension of tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires who don't need them. On the campaign trail, Democratic presidential hopefuls report receiving precious few questions about Russia, Mueller, and impeachment. And health care was the most important issue in the 2018 midterm elections, which Democrats won in convincing fashion. Given the party's recent track record of (modest) success and the de facto impossibility of convicting Trump between now and next November, the impulse to remain cautious, keep doing what works, and not risk the election on a doomed impeachment bet is understandable.

That said: Taking impeachment off the table altogether is a self-defeating and myopic approach. A team of veteran prosecutors just spent two years assembling a mountain of evidence that the president is a serial liar who will do (and has done) just about anything to evade criminal culpability. The most important reason the Department of Justice elected not to prosecute him for any of his misbehaviors, according to their report, is a longstanding policy that ties their hands by prohibiting the criminal prosecution of a sitting president.

But the special counsel's office made clear: "Congress has the authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice." If its conclusions are not an impeachment recommendation to lawmakers, they are, at the very least, a strongly worded referral. There is only one entity with the power to indict Donald Trump, and several of its most prominent members are already out here meekly declaring that it is just too challenging a task to undertake at this time.

This is a dereliction of duty masked as skittish risk-aversion. Public opinion is not static, and good politicians persuade voters to change their minds, oftentimes in a hurry. (Thanks to savvy messaging, for example, Medicare for All went from fringe idea to a table-stakes primary issue in just a few years.) Winning an election in the future and protecting the integrity of American democracy now are not mutually exclusive propositions. And although the former is a career aspiration for members of Congress, the latter is literally part of their jobssomething they swore to do when they took their oaths of office. Democratic candidates in 2018 spoke mostly about health care and the economy, yes, but many of them also pitched voters on the desperate need for a check on the Trump administration's rampant malfeasance.

The Mueller report is the most significant test yet of their commitment to that lofty pledge. If Democrats balk now, the constituents who voted for them are bound to be a bit less enthusiastic about offering support when re-election season rolls around. Their Republican opponents, meanwhile, will be emboldened to continue trampling democratic norms over the next 18 months, confident that they will face no consequences for doing so.

Uncritically foreclosing the possibility of impeachment sets a dangerous precedent. Call it the Hoyer-Schiff Standard: Unless one party controls both a majority of the House and a supermajority of the Senate, a president of the opposite party will never, never have to answer for their misconduct in office. This would render the institution of impeachmentwhich, again, is the only constitutionally approved method of holding a sitting president accountablefunctionally toothless. If Democrats are worried that Trump will treat a hypothetical acquittal in the Senate as a triumphant victory over Deep State saboteurs, just imagine how he would treat the House's decision to respond to the long-awaited Mueller report with a collective shrug.

Even if impeachment does not end with the Senate declaring Trump to be a criminal, Democrats can still use the process to put him on trial, making a high-profile case to Americans that he is undeserving of four more years in office. But already, the president is insisting publicly that the report exonerates him. Unless Democrats decide to grow a backbone sometime soon, for all intents and purposes, he'll be right.Photo credit: Amanda Edwards - Getty Images

From Men's Health

We have just one week left before 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? returns to our screens on Sunday 28th April - and we can't wait! Season 4 of the popular TLC reality show spinoff follows six international couples who first appeared on 90 Day Fiance, which charted their progress in getting a K-1 visa so that they could live together in the United States, and these new episodes promise to bring us even more messy relationship drama than ever before. Here's everything we know about the new season so far.

It's Splitsville for Larissa and Colt.

"Sex with Colt is a disaster," Larissa declares in the trailer for the new season, pretty much spelling it out from the jump that there is trouble in paradise. Given that the pair recently celebrated their divorce with their own respective debauched Las Vegas parties, it's safe to say this season will be all about the end of their relationship.

Azan and Nicole are still living on different continents.

Azan is back in Morocco, having been unable to acquire the K-1 visa required to stay in the United States. Nicole has been visiting him out there, in addition to giving Azan money to start a business. Season 4 will probably see her travel out to meet him, although footage in the trailer certainly indicates that not all is as it seems with those two.

Ashley and Jay are on the outs.

Ashley seems to be living the single life this season, saying "I just want to have fun and focus on myself." But she still has feelings for Jay, and her head and her heart are pulling her in two different directions.

Elizabeth will go into labor.



Andrei and Elizabeth are expecting their first child together this season, and it looks like Elizabeth will give birth in the middle of family drama between her husband and her mother.

Somebody might just end up in jail.

A massive fight was rumoured to have broken out between Chantel and Pedro, with the police being called. Will Pedro get arrested? Deported, even? Find out when 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? airs at 8pm on Sunday 28th April.

('You Might Also Like',)In Refinery29's Sweet Digs, we take a look inside the sometimes small, sometimes spacious homes of millennial women. Today, 27-year-old Jazmine Reed-Clark and her husband Jordan Clark, 30, share their Dallas apartment.

In her early twenties, Jazmine Reed-Clark was obsessed with having everything be picture-perfect. "I wanted my home to look like a magazine," she says.

But over time, Jazmine started finding herself drawn to different items that didn't quite fit her established aesthetic. And her multi-personality apartment grew. "The older I got, I just thought, I don't care if this is trendy or in style, as much as if I think it's cool," she says.

When she and her husband moved into a much-larger two-bedroom duplex in Dallas neighborhood Lower Greenville, she had even more room to play. Thus: The "mid-century coze eclectic" living room; the "jungle cafe" dining room, the "marble farmhouse" kitchen, and "Southwestern sexy" bedroom.

Watch their home tour above to see what all those terms mean, and read on for decorating tips and more.

How did you find this space?

"Jordan actually found it. I was unfamiliar with the area, but he had heard great reviews about our landlord, so once we got engaged we wanted to look for a place with outdoor space. We were living in another building our landlord owned, and we just stumbled on this place. I think it's 1600 square feet with a patio, backyard, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. And for this, we just paid one month's rent, which is our security deposit, and that's it."

You must have had a lot of rooms to fill up. What decorating rules do you follow?

"I do like to follow the rule of threes. Depending on the room, though. Some rooms it might be more geometric so I'll care more about symmetry, but I like to make a place feel lived in. So I mix textures and I experiment, and I try not to do too much. But I like to buy things that catch my eye, and then I'll put it in the design closet because I can't find the proper home for it. And every now and then I'll go into the design closet and I'll be like, oh I have the perfect spot for this. So my tip is mix and match, and don't be afraid to experiment."

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I love the artwork on your walls. Can you talk about where you found all these prints?

"For my husband, he's lived in Egypt and Spain  he grew up in Indiana  so he likes to college maps. So now we have a lot of maps framed around the house.

"For me, I feel like I have a really simple philosophy when it comes to art. I love art museums and getting lost in them, but at home I believe you should have stuff you just love. Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, I just did not see representation of Black beauty, so it was really important to me that when we have family members coming through, I wanted them to see that celebration of Black beauty. I wanted it to be intentional and have Black queens throughout my house. So we have Issa Rae, we have books by Phoebe Robinson, we have a framed photo of Serena Williams. And I remember seeing that Solange cover art and thinking That's incredible. I always feel something when I walk past it."The second I heard Kim Kardashian West is training to be a lawyer, I was here for it. I'm for all womenyes, even a mega-rich celebrity like KKWdoing whatever the hell they want as their profession. But as a woman of color who has fought hard to become (and then stay) a lawyer herself, I'm especially impressed that someone with an already wildly successful career and a fourth child on the way has decided to pursue the law. Because trust me when I say this: No matter how wealthy and famous someone is, no matter how many employees or other helpers they have on speed dialno one signs up for a four-year law apprenticeship at a firm, multiple tests, and the California bar just for kicks. No one.

So when Kardashian West says shes put a lot of thought into her decision, I believe her. I know firsthand just how difficult it can be for women to tough it out in this field, and I salute her for taking it onas I would any woman. Not everyone's on board, though:

I first set out to become a lawyer in my early twenties. I lived in Canada, where I went to law school for three years. Then I did a brief stint in Big Law (a nickname for the largest, most prominent law firms) but quickly burned out and took a massive hit to my paycheck in order to transition to my true calling: immigration and refugee law. Soon after settling into my career, though, I got married and moved to America. There my Canadian law degree was about as useful to me as this goldfish walker. I had no choice but to go back to law school for an L.L.M. (basically a year-long crash course in American law). That meant incurring even more student debt and losing more of my sanity (and hair) to graduate and take the baragain.

Law is in need of a rebranding, in my opinionso who better to make that happen than a hard-working, high-profile reality star?

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Now Im 30 and my legal career is starting to feel incompatible with the rest of my life. I've been delaying the decision to have kids because Ive seen how maternity leave or leaving the office early too often to be with your family can make a difference when it comes to climbing the ranks at a firm. I know I'm not alone in this feeling: According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, law is one of the least inclusive professions in the U.S., and minority and female attrition is high.

That is why I'm excited by the prospect of Kardashian West's putting a spotlight on the profession. Law is in need of a rebranding, in my opinionso who better to make that happen than a hard-working, high-profile reality star? Of course Kardashian West doesn't need meor anyone else, for that matterlegitimizing her decision to become a lawyer, but I'm tired of seeing people act as though her career swerve is just the latest musings of a bored, vapid celebrity. To me, she seems to clearly be cognizant of our country's serious social inequities and actually wants to do something about it.

"Last year I registered with the California State Bar to study law," Kardashian West wrote on Instagram recently alongside a photo of herself studying. "For the next 4 years, a minimum of 18 hours a week is required, I will take written and multiple choice tests monthly. As my first year is almost coming to an end I am preparing for the baby bar, a mini version of the bar, which is required when studying law this way. Ive seen some comments from people who are saying its my privilege or my money that got me here, but thats not the case. One person actually said I should 'stay in my lane.' I want people to understand that there is nothing that should limit your pursuit of your dreams, and the accomplishment of new goals. You can create your own lanes, just as I am."

Kardashian West comes from a place of extreme privilege, but she can still use her platform for good. Look at Amal Clooney's current caseload, for example. She's married to George Clooney and rocks $2,000 coats, sure, but she continues to represent the world's most vulnerable while also teaching the next crop of lawyers.

Kardashian West may have just started on the path toward becoming a lawyer, but shes already been seriously involvedand successful!in cases that my colleagues and I are only now getting to see three to four years into our career. It was Kardashian West who worked closely with Shawn Holley and a team of lawyers to convince President Donald Trump to commute the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman who served more than two decades in prison on nonviolent drug charges.

"The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency," Kardashian West told Vogue, "and Im sitting in the Roosevelt Room with, like, a judge who had sentenced criminals and a lot of really powerful people and I just sat there, like, Oh, shit. I need to know more. I would say what I had to say, about the human side and why this is so unfair. But I had attorneys with me who could back that up with all the facts of the case. Its never one person who gets things done; its always a collective of people, and Ive always known my role, but I just felt like I wanted to be able to fight for people who have paid their dues to society. I just felt like the system could be so different, and I wanted to fight to fix it, and if I knew more, I could do more.

In strange times like these, I think we cant afford to be shocked by or disagree with the idea of a woman's leveraging her name and fame to accomplish some pretty big things for good. Because the truth is, Kardashian West is right: We can create our own lanes. And we should.

Maria Kari is freelance writer and immigration lawyer.(Updates with Tartus port renting deal)

BEIRUT/MOSCOW, April 20 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met senior officials from his strongest ally Russia in Damascus on Friday and Saturday to discuss upcoming peace talks, renting out Tartus port and trade between the two countries, state media in Syria reported.

Russia has helped Assad's forces to take back most of the country but the eight-year-long war continues. Swathes of the northeast and northwest are out of his control, while sanctions and a fuel shortage are constricting the economy.

Moscow has pushed for a political process involving talks on a new constitution and elections as a way to end the conflict, but Assad has played down the possibility that the Turkey-backed opposition or foreign countries might participate.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said late on Friday that Assad had met Moscow's Syria envoy Alexander Lavrentiev, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin and several Russian Defence Ministry officials.

However, while it said they had discussed the formation of a constitutional committee, which Syria's opposition last year agreed to join under U.N. auspices after a Russian-hosted peace conference, Syrian state media did not mention it.

Syria's official SANA news agency said meetings had focused on the next round of talks in Kazakhstan involving Syria, its allies Russia and Iran, and the rebels' backer Turkey.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria's war and about half the pre-conflict population of 22 million has been displaced.

Russia launched a military intervention to support Assad in 2015, turning the tide of the fighting in his favor.

On Saturday, SANA said Assad had met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov to discuss trade and economic cooperation, "particularly in the fields of energy, industry and increasing trade."

CONTRACT "WITHIN A WEEK"

TASS news agency cited Borisov as saying that a contract on renting Tartus port by Russia was expected to be signed soon.

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In 2017, the Russian parliament ratified a deal with Damascus to cement Russia's foothold in the country and pave the way for establishing a permanent military presence at naval and air bases in Syria.

It was also agreed that Russia would expand and modernize the port's supply of facilities for its fleet.

Borisov said Russia now hoped to sign the deal to rent the port within a week, according to TASS.

"We have advanced quite substantially on this issue and hope that the contract will be signed within a week and the port Tartus will be transferred for the Russian business usage," he was quoted as saying. The Tartus naval facility is Russia's only naval foothold in the Mediterranean.

SANA news agency said Assad and Borisov discussed mechanisms to overcome obstacles including those "resulting from the sanctions which countries against the Syrian people imposed on Syria."

The United States and European Union imposed tough sanctions on Syria early in the conflict over what they described as atrocities carried out by the government, which it denies.

This week, Syrian state media reported that a fuel shortage which has resulted in rationing and long queues at petrol stations came in the context of difficulty in importing fuel and the halting of a credit line from Iran.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem said on Saturday that "Syria is always coordinating with Iran." (Reporting by Angus McDowall and Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by Alison Williams and Helen Popper)Sri Lanka said Monday it believed a local Islamist extremist group was behind deadly suicide bomb blasts that killed nearly 300 people, as it ordered a national state of emergency beginning midnight.

Government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said investigators were looking at whether the National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) group had "international support" for the deadly Easter Sunday attacks on churches and luxury hotels.

So far, 24 people have been arrested in connection with the attacks, but no details have been given about them.

Little is known about the NTJ, but documents seen by AFP show Sri Lanka's police chief issued a warning on April 11, saying a "foreign intelligence agency" had reported the group was planning attacks on churches and the Indian high commission.

The group has previously only been linked to vandalising Buddhist statues.

"We don't see that only a small organisation in this country can do all that," said Senaratne of the deadly attacks.

"We are now investigating the international support for them, and their other links... how they produced the suicide bombers here, and how they produced bombs like this."

The death toll from Sunday's attacks rose dramatically Monday to 290 -- including dozens of foreigners -- in the worst atrocity since the country's civil war ended a decade ago.

More than 500 people were injured in the assault that saw suicide bombers hit three high-end hotels popular with foreign tourists, and three churches, unleashing carnage in Colombo and beyond.

Two additional blasts were triggered as security forces carried out raids searching for suspects.

Tensions remained high on Monday, with a bomb detonating as police prepared to defuse it near one of the churches targeted a day earlier. No injuries were reported.

Police also found 87 bomb detonators at a Colombo bus station.

- State of emergency -

President Maithripala Sirisena's office said a state of emergency "limited to counter terrorism regulations only" would be introduced from midnight Monday (1830 GMT).

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"This is being done to allow the police and the three forces to ensure public security," the statement said, referring to the army, navy and air force.

Officials said Sirisena would ask diplomats for help investigating the blasts.

"The intelligence sections have reported that there are international terror groups which are behind the local terrorists," the statement said.

Interpol said it was deploying a team of investigators to Sri Lanka, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had spoken to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

"This is America's fight, too," Pompeo said.

A new curfew was in place from 8:00pm (1430 GMT) on Monday until 4:00am on Tuesday, and the US State Department warned of possible further attacks in a travel advisory update.

The attacks were the worst ever against Sri Lanka's small Christian minority, who make up just seven percent of the 21 million population.

At least 37 foreigners were among the dead, including citizens of India, Britain, Turkey, Australia, Japan and Portugal, as well as a dual US-British passport holder.

- Memories of civil war -

Ethnic and religious violence has plagued Sri Lanka for decades, with a 37-year conflict with Tamil rebels followed by an upswing in recent years in clashes between the Buddhist majority and Muslims.

The churches targeted included St Sebastian's in Negombo, north of the capital, which was surrounded by security forces on Monday.

Dozens of people were killed at the church, including friends of 16-year-old Primasha Fernando, who was at her home nearby when the suicide bomber struck.

"When I got to the church there were people crying and screaming," she told AFP.

"I saw bodies everywhere," she added in tears. "I saw parents carrying their dead babies. I saw dead people who had hair but didn't have faces anymore."

The Negombo attack appeared to have been the deadliest of the six, with 102 bodies in total at the town's general hospital, health officials said.

At a government morgue in Colombo, relatives on Monday endured the gruesome task of identifying their loved ones.

Eighteen bodies were released after relatives recognised victims from video clips shown on a screen in a corner of the morgue courtyard.

Janaka Shaktivel, 28, father of an 18-month-old son, sat in shock outside the building waiting for the body of his wife to be handed over.

"I recognised her body from the wedding ring that she always wore," he said. "I have no words to explain my feelings."

Two leading Muslim groups issued statements condemning the attacks, with the All Ceylon Jamiyaathuul Ulama, a council of Muslim theologians, urging the "maximum punishment for everyone involved in these dastardly acts."

For many, the blasts stirred painful memories of Sri Lanka's civil war, when bomb attacks were a frequent occurrence.

The attacks drew global condemnation, including from US President Donald Trump and the pope.Soweto (South Africa) (AFP) - Inside the conical brick tower looming over Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, Busi Hlatshwayo thoughtfully studies 10 giant bronze slabs announcing the core principles of South Africa's Freedom Charter.

She pauses at one that declares: "The people shall share in the country's wealth!" and remarks wryly: "Where is that wealth?"

Hlatshwayo then slowly recites another: "There shall be houses, security and comfort!"

"Where (is the) comfort?" the 79-year-old asks. "Instead, we are still crying."

Hlatshwayo hails from Kliptown, a suburb of Johannesburg's Soweto township. Many people here live in crowded, makeshift homes built with corrugated iron sheets and other rudimentary materials.

Several families share a single, outside toilet.

"All these things written (here), none of them have been done," Hlatshwayo said, pointing at the triangular bronze slabs arranged to form an imposing, gleaming circle at the monument's heart.

As May 8 general elections approach, South Africans who accuse the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of reneging on Nelson Mandela's 1994 promise of "a better life for all", have staged often violent demonstrations in townships that still lack basic services 25 years after the country's first democratic vote, which ended white minority rule.

It was in Kliptown in 1955 that about 3,000 anti-apartheid activists adopted the Freedom Charter, a pinnacle document which became the cornerstone of the ANC's stated policies and the foundation of South Africa's much-admired constitution.

The monument erected on a civic square of the 116-year-old township attracts thousands of tourists each year.

But for local residents, the grandeur of the tower and its 10 surrounding pillars belies their suffering.

- A shack is for chickens -

According to the 2019 Socio-Economic Survey published by the Centre for Risk Analysis, a policy research institute, the number of regular houses in South Africa has increased by a quarter since 1996.

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The number of people with access to electricity went up by 61 percent, and access to flushing toilets rose 30 percent.

However, official statistics from 2017 show that 13.6 percent of South Africans were still living in informal settlements, more than a third had no access to flush or chemical toilets, and more than half had no piped water where they live.

The official unemployment rate -- which does not count people who have given up looking for a job -- is 27 percent.

"Where are the free houses? Our kids are staying in shacks," said Hlatshwayo, letting out a deep sigh. "A shack (is) for chickens to stay in."

She walks down a muddy street sporting a row of plastic, green, portable toilet cabins, and lovingly waves at a teenage girl stepping out of one.

"Imagine if you have a runny stomach at night, can you come out several times to such a toilet, in the dark?" Hlatshwayo asked.

Community leader, Bob Nameng, 49, runs a centre in Kliptown that aims to help unemployed and disillusioned young people.

"I'm very bitter inside," he told AFP from the patio of his house, which features colourful portraits he painted of some of the country's anti-apartheid struggle heroes, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

"ANC has been in power for many years, we were all ANC... but right now I don't want to hear anything about ANC. ANC has never done anything for me," he said.

Nameng's home attracts many people with seemingly nowhere else to go.

Josiah "Fire" Nkosi, 69, whiles away the afternoon on its veranda, puffing away on a cigarette and reminiscing.

"Apartheid was better because there were plenty of jobs," he said. "But now there are no jobs, our children are not working."

- 'Let's be pragmatic' -

Around the corner, under a footbridge, a man who identifies himself only as Dingo smokes shisha with friends.

"Instead of change, there is disaster. Our government is failing us," says the 42-year-old engineer who lost his job in December, pointing to a muddy, potholed street.

The government admits it has failed to fulfil the expectations of South Africa's 57 million citizens, and says the anger of the poor is justified.

"There are pockets of inadequacies. The only thing that we need to do is to up our game and ensure that we improve on those areas," Public Service Minister Ayanda Dlodlo told AFP.

But she cautioned: "Let's also be pragmatic when we talk about 25 years: it's 25 years of trying to undo a special planning system that catered for a few" -- referring to the apartheid regime which denied non-whites access to certain jobs, equal education, and public services.

"Much as we would have loved that in 25 years we could have reversed more than 40 years of inequality, it is impossible," said the minister.Montreal (AFP) - The bodies of three world-renowned professional mountaineers -- two Austrians and an American -- were found Sunday after they went missing during an avalanche on a western Canadian summit, the national parks agency said.

American Jess Roskelley, 36, and Hansjorg Auer, 35, and David Lama, 28, of Austria went missing late Tuesday at Banff National Park. Authorities launched an aerial search the next day.

The three men were attempting to climb the east face of Howse Pass, an isolated and highly difficult route.

They were part of a team of experienced athletes sponsored by American outdoor equipment firm The North Face.

"Parks Canada extends our sincere condolences to their families, friends and loved ones," the agency said in a statement.

"We would also like to acknowledge the impact that this has had on the tight-knit, local and international climbing communities. Our thoughts are with families, friends and all those who have been affected by this tragic incident."

Roskelley was the son of John Roskelley, who was also considered one of the best mountaineers of his own generation.

Father and son had climbed Mount Everest together in 2003. At the time, the younger Roskelley was only 20 years old, and became the youngest mountaineer to climb the planet's highest mountain above sea level.

Auer and Lama, from Tyrol in Austria, were also considered among the best mountaineers of the times.Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine readied Saturday for a change in leadership as a young comedian appeared set to crush his incumbent rival in presidential polls, delivering a stinging rebuke to the old elite.

The 41-year-old TV star Volodymyr Zelensky's bid to lead Ukraine began as a long shot but all polls show him defeating President Petro Poroshenko in a second-round vote on Sunday.

His victory would open a new chapter in the history of a country that has gone through two popular uprisings in two decades and is mired in a five-year conflict with Moscow-backed insurgents in the east.

Despite mounting uncertainty Ukrainians are fed up with corruption, poverty, and the war that has claimed some 13,000 lives over the past five years.

"There is a hope that a simple man will better understand us and dismantle the system that we have in our country," Yuliya Lykhota, 29, told AFP in Kiev.

"It is very important to raise our people's spirits."

Others said they doubted the political novice's ability to enact real change as Ukraine's sixth president.

"I do not believe he will last long once he's elected," said Sergiy Fedorets, 62.

"He has no support in parliament. He'll be eaten alive."

- Collective anxiety -

Poroshenko came to power after a bloody 2014 uprising ousted a Kremlin-backed regime, triggering Moscow's annexation of Crimea.

But many in the country of 45 million people feel the promises of the uprising have not been fulfilled.

Zelensky has capitalised on popular anger as well as his popularity as the star of the sitcom "Servant of the People", in which he plays a school teacher who becomes a president.

Analysts say his political programme is vague at best and it remains unclear who will fill key positions in his government.

Ahead of the vote a popular news website, Ukrainska Pravda, published an interview with a therapist who pointed to severe anxiety in the country.

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"There is not a single person who would not be discussing the situation in the country," said Oleg Chaban.

"People are more tense because they are paying with their lives and expect real change quickly."

Poroshenko, 53, has fought hard to secure re-election but his pleas to forgive him for past mistakes and give him a second chance have fallen on deaf ears.

A survey by the Rating pollster showed Zelensky winning 73 percent of the vote against 27 percent for Poroshenko.

- 'Neither comedy nor horror film' -

On Saturday, Poroshenko once again called on Ukrainians to think twice before casting ballots for his rival.

"A five-year presidential term is not a comedy that you can easily switch off if it is no longer funny," he wrote on Facebook.

"Neither is it a horror movie that can be easily stopped."

The West has closely watched the race amid concern a new government might undo years of reforms it has backed.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called both Zelensky and Poroshenko on Friday.

He "reiterated our commitment to working with whomever the Ukrainian people choose to ensure the success of a secure, prosperous, democratic, & free (country)," Washington's special envoy Kurt Volker said on Twitter.

On Friday, the two rivals traded insults in the first and only debate of the campaign at Kiev's 70,000-seater Olympic Stadium in front of thousands of spectators.

Ukrainians said the head-to-head was more about political theatrics and a battle of wits than a much-needed policy debate.

Zelensky accused Poroshenko -- a tycoon who made a fortune in chocolate before taking office -- of enriching himself and failing to end the war in the east.

The Ukrainian leader attacked the inexperience of the untested Zelensky, questioning his ability to be a wartime commander-in-chief and saying he would not be able to stand up to Russia's Vladimir Putin.

He also drew attention to Zelensky's ties to controversial tycoon Igor Kolomoysky.

Supporters credit Poroshenko with rebuilding the army and securing an Orthodox Church independent of Russia but he won only just over half of Zelensky's vote share in the first round of the election last month.By Ben Blanchard QINGDAO, China (Reuters) - Warships from India, Australia and several other nations arrived in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao on Sunday to attend a naval parade, part of a goodwill visit as China extends the hand of friendship despite regional tensions and suspicions. China on Tuesday will mark 70 years since the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy, where it will show off new warships including nuclear submarines and destroyers at a major review in the waters off Qingdao. China says warships from about a dozen nations are also taking part - one diplomatic source with direct knowledge said it was 13 countries in total - and the PLA is putting its best foot forward to welcome them. India, which has been at odds with China over their disputed land border and Beijing's support for India's regional rival Pakistan, has sent stealth guided-missile destroyer the "INS Kolkata" to take part, along with a supply ship. "We bring to you one of the best ships that we have made. It is the pride of the nation and the navy, and we are very happy to be here," Captain Aditya Hara told reporters on the dockside after disembarking from the ship in Qingdao. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters the "Kolkata" had sailed through the Taiwan Strait to get to Qingdao, a sensitive waterway that separates China from self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by Beijing as sacred Chinese territory. "We headed on a direct route and we are very happy that we were facilitated by the PLA Navy and they ensured that we had a safe passage to Qingdao," Hara said, when asked if they had sailed via the Taiwan Strait. Australia, a close U.S. ally, has sent the "HMAS Melbourne" guided-missile frigate to Qingdao, though officials declined to make the captain available for interview. China and Australia have sparred over Australian suspicions of Chinese interference in the country's politics and Australia's banning of China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from supplying equipment for its planned 5G broadband network. Japan has also sent a destroyer to Qingdao, in the first visit of a Japanese navy ship to China since 2011, according to Japanese media. Ties between China and Japan, the world's second and third-largest economies, have been plagued by a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islets and suspicion in China about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to amend Japan's pacifist constitution. But they have sought to improve relations more recently, with Abe visiting Beijing in October, when both countries pledged to forge closer ties and signed a broad range of agreements including a $30 billion currency swap pact. The other countries taking part include China's close friend Russia, and three countries which have sparred with China over competing claims in the disputed South China Sea: Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. Pakistan, a very close Chinese ally, is not on the list of countries officials have provided which are sending ships to the parade. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing)Dubai (AFP) - King Hamad has ordered that the citizenship of 551 Bahrainis revoked by courts be restored, official media said Sunday, days after a senior UN official expressed concern about the punishment.

The king, who can reverse court decisions, requested that the competent authorities take into account "the nature of crimes committed", the Bahrain News Agency reported.

The interior ministry has been instructed to examine files and prepare lists of those to be freed.

Human rights groups estimate that 990 mainly Shiite people have had their citizenship revoked since protests against the government early this decade.

Ruled for more than two centuries by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, Bahrain has a majority Shiite Muslim population, according to unofficial estimates contested by the government.

A Bahraini court on Tuesday revoked the citizenship of 138 people and jailed 139, at the end of a mass trial denounced by rights group Amnesty International.

Those convicted -- Shiite Bahraini citizens, according to a judicial source -- belonged to a group of 169 people accused of forming a "terror" group with links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

This was the biggest group of people to have been convicted and to have lost their citizenship as a result of a single trial since the start of judicial proceedings in 2012 against people who took part in a protest movement, according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday expressed alarm about the court's decision.

"Tuesday's convictions give rise to serious concerns about the application of the law, particularly through a mass trial that reportedly lacked the procedural safeguards necessary to ensure a fair trial," rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

"Deprevation of nationality must not be arbitrary, especially on discriminatory grounds," she said, stressing that "arbitrary deprivation of nationality places the individuals concerned and their family members in a situation of increased vulnerability to human rights violations."By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo brought back 110 of its citizens from Syria on Saturday including jihadists who had gone to fight in the country's civil war and 74 children, the government said. After the collapse of Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq, countries around the world are wrestling with how to handle militants and their families seeking to return. The population of Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is nominally 90 percent Muslim, but largely secular in outlook. More than 300 Kosovo citizens have traveled to Syria since 2012 and 70 men who fought alongside militant groups were killed. "Today in the early hours of the morning an important and sensitive operation was organized in which the government of Kosovo with the help of the United States of America has returned 110 of its citizens from Syria, Kosovan Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri said at a press conference. Tahiri did not specify what role the United States had played but a plane with a U.S. flag on its tail was seen in the cargo area of Pristina airport as the operation was ongoing. When asked about the return of fighters to Kosovo and the separate return of a fighter to Bosnia, U.S. military spokesman Sean Robertson said, "U.S. assets were used in support of this repatriation operation." "At no time did the U.S. take custody of the FTF (foreign terrorist fighter) detainees," Robertson said. He declined to provide further details, citing security reasons. Authorities said among those who were returned were four fighters, 32 women and 74 children, including nine without a parent. The four fighters were immediately arrested and the state prosecutor said indictments against them will soon follow. After several hours at the airport, two busloads of women and children were transported under police escort to an army barracks just outside Pristina. Police said 30 Kosovan fighters, 49 women and 8 children still remain in the conflict zones. "We will not stop before bringing every citizen of the Republic of Kosovo back to their country and anyone that has committed any crime or was part of these terrorist organizations will face the justice," Tahiri said. As Kosovo, we cannot allow that our citizens be a threat to the West and to our allies. International and local security agencies have previously warned of the risk posed by returning fighters. In 2015, Kosovo adopted a law making fighting in foreign conflicts punishable by up to 15 years in jail. The United States commended Kosovo for the return of its citizens and called other countries to do the same. With this repatriation, Kosovo has set an important example for all members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and the international community to follow. We applaud their compassion in accepting the return of this large number of civilians, the U.S. Embassy in Pristina said in a statement. There have been no Islamist attacks on Kosovan soil, although more than 100 men have been jailed or indicted on charges of fighting in Syria and Iraq. Some of them were found guilty of planning attacks in Kosovo. Prosecutors said they were investigating 156 other suspects. The government has said a form of radical Islam had been imported to Kosovo by non-governmental organizations from the Middle East after the end of its 1998-99 war of secession from Serbia. (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci, additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Editing by Toby Chopra and Cynthia Osterman)A police officer lays flowers at the scene in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, following the death of 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images

The death of a 29-year-old journalist during riots in Northern Ireland on Thursday night is being considered a terrorist incident, police have confirmed.

Lyra McKee was shot and killed Thursday in Creggan, a heavily Catholic area of Londonderry, during a night of unrest in the Northern Irish city. Police said on Friday that dissident republican group the New IRA was likely responsible for her death.

We believe this to be a terrorist act, assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton said. We believe it has been carried out by violent dissident republicans.

Hamilton said a number of shots were fired at police, as well as petrol bombs.

"The death of Lyra McKee in last night's suspected terrorist incident in Londonderry is shocking and truly senseless. My deepest condolences go to her family, friends and colleagues. She was a journalist who died doing her job with great courage, prime minister Theresa May said in a statement Friday.

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar also condemned the attack in a statement.

The Government condemns in the strongest possible terms the fatal shooting of journalist and writer Lyra McKee in Derry. We are all full of sadness after last nights events. We cannot allow those who want to propagate violence, fear, and hate to drag us back to the past, Varadkar said.

McKee was an internationally recognized journalist who had appeared on Forbes 30 under 30 list in media in 2016. Originally from Belfast, she was known for her coverage of the Northern Irish conflict and had recently signed a deal to publish two books.

The first book, The Lost Boys, was about the Troubles and a group of young boys who went missing in Belfast. It was set to be released next year.

McKee first gained prominence for a 2014 blog post called Letter To My 14-Year-Old Self, where she wrote about growing up gay in Belfast.

Her last tweet was sent from the scene of the unrest in Londonderry:Beirut (AFP) - Sleeper cells, prisons teeming with jihadists, camps crammed with their wives and children -- perils abound in Syria, nearly a month after the Islamic State group's "caliphate" was declared defeated.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced victory over the IS proto-state on March 23, after a nearly five-year battle against the militant group.

The elimination of the physical "caliphate" closed a long chapter in the Syrian conflict, but the SDF and the US-led military coalition have warned the fight is far from over.

IS is still able "to carry out regular attacks on a weekly basis", said Tore Hamming, an expert on jihadist movements at the European University Institute.

Even after losing their last scrap of territory in the eastern village of Baghuz, the jihadists retain a presence in Syria's vast desert and hideouts elsewhere in the country.

This week alone, IS militants killed 35 fighters loyal to Syria's government in 48 hours -- feeding into a regime death toll over two days in excess of 60 at the hands of all jihadist factions -- the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Before that, on April 9, IS claimed a double bombing that killed 13 people in the SDF-held city of Raqa.

The White House has said that it would keep 400 US troops in Syria "for a period of time", after initially shocking allies in December by announcing a full withdrawal of 2,000 soldiers.

But Hamming said this diminished contingent would struggle to deal with the lingering jihadist threat.

"IS is still very active and will remain so. The small number of US forces will not solve that entirely," he said.

- 'Breeding grounds' -

Nicholas Heras, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security, warns that IS still holds sizeable sway over "networks of local support".

"A big part of the ISIS strategy to regrow is that it continues to have strong ties into some of the local tribes in eastern Syria and western Iraq," he said, using an alternative acronym for the jihadist group.

Story continues

As both regime and US-backed forces seek to hunt down IS sleeper cells on the run, the Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria face another major challenge.

Thousands of alleged jihadist fighters -- including hundreds of foreigners -- are now being held in Kurdish-run jails, while their relatives languish in overcrowded camps for the displaced.

Their numbers have created a major headache for the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration, which now wants to put suspected jihadists on trial.

"We have called for an international tribunal to be formed to try these terrorists," top foreign affairs official Abdel Karim Omar told AFP.

"Our priority is to try the criminals," he said.

Since 2014, IS fighters have been accused of carrying out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions, and ethnic cleansing.

They stand accused of stoning to death women suspected of adultery, and forcing homosexuals off the top of high buildings.

While many jihadists are now detained, they still pose a threat, according to experts.

"These detention centres are becoming breeding grounds for radicalisation," the Soufan Center said in a report published on April 12.

"There is also a major risk of IS-engineered prison break attempts," said the organisation, which specialises in security analysis.

Hamming said "neither Syria nor Iraq have the resources or the political stability to properly handle such a large number of prisoners".

- 'Future terrorists'? -

Kurdish authorities are calling on the international community to help set up and guard new high-security detention facilities, after many Western states refused to take back their nationals.

In a rare exception on Saturday, Kosovo repatriated four men suspected of having fought for IS in Syria, among 110 of its citizens.

Syria's Kurds are also calling for much more support for displacement camps, where tens of thousands of people have amassed after fleeing battles against IS.

The camps host 12,000 foreigners -- 4,000 women and 8,000 children -- who are kept under surveillance, according to Omar.

The largest of these camps, Al-Hol, has seen its population swell to more than 73,000 people, with conditions deteriorating as a result of the mass influx.

The International Rescue Committee has reported severe acute malnutrition, pneumonia, and dehydration among children in the camp.

The United Nations says 211 children under the age of five have died on their way to Al-Hol or shortly after arrival since December.

The Soufan Centre warned the humanitarian crisis could be used as a recruitment tool.

IS "fighters are seeking ways to capitalise on the suffering in these camps to rejuvenate their organisation", it said.

As for the offspring of alleged foreign jihadists, said Omar, "if these children are not sent home, re-educated and re-integrated into society, they will become future terrorists."A series of bombs tore through Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing more than 200 people in churches and popular tourist hotels in and around the island nations capital of Colombo.

Six blasts went off simultaneously Sunday morning, targeting Easter mass attendees at St. Anthonys Shrine in Colombo, the St. Sebastian Catholic Church in nearby Negombo, and the Protestant Zion church in the town of Batticaloa, as well as three luxury hotels, according to CBS News.

St. Sebastian's Church | Chamila Karunarathne/AP/REX/Shutterstock

It was a river of blood, shopkeeper N.A. Sumanapala told the New York Times of the scene inside St. Anthonys. Ash was falling like snow. I saw limbs and heads. There were children, too.

The Shangri-La, a hotel in Colombo, said in a statement on Facebook that an explosion went off in its Table One Restaurant around 9 a.m.

Chamila Karunarathne/AP/REX/Shutterstock

We are deeply saddened and shocked by the incident and our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the casualties and those who have been affected, the statement read. We are working closely with local authorities and emergency services to provide our fullest assistance and support to the affected staff and guests.

St. Anthony Shrine | Chamila Karunarathne/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Another hotel, the Cinnamon Grand, also said in a statement that an explosion went off in its ground floor restaurant.

It is with deep regret that we wish to inform that an explosion occurred in a restaurant located on the ground floor of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, earlier today, the Facebook statement read. Medical evacuation was activated immediately for the injured. The area has been isolated for investigations and security clearance.

The Kingsbury Hotel was also hit, and two people were killed later in the day after a bomb went off at the Tropical Inn hotel in the suburb of Dehiwala, according to the New York Times.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

The Shangri-La Hotel | Eranga Jayawardena/AP/REX/Shutterstock

The Times reports that another explosion at a housing complex in the suburb of Dematagoda killed three police officers as they tried to apprehend suspects.

Story continues

Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said at a news briefing that seven suspects have so far been arrested, and that the bombs were part of a terrorist attack by religious extremists, according to CBS News. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, though authorities believe the suspects to be part of a single group.

At least 207 people were killed and 450 wounded in the string of attacks, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said, according to the Times.

CNN reports that nearly 30 victims were foreigners. Two dual citizens of the U.S. and U.K. were among the dead, according to ABC News.

St. Anthony's Shrine | M A PUSHPA KUMARA/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The government has since imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., while social media and messaging services like Facebook and WhatsApp have reportedly been temporarily blocked so as not to spread misinformation.

Sri Lankas civil war, in which rebel groups from the ethnic Tamil minority sought independence from the ethnic Sinhala Buddhist majority, ended in 2009 after nearly three decades.

CNN reports that less than 10 percent of Sri Lankans are Christian, while 70.2 percent identify as Buddhist, 12 percent Hindu, 9.7 percent Muslim and 7.4 percent Christian.

Pope Francis called the attacks horrendous in his Easter Sunday address, according to the Washington Post.

I entrust to the Lord all who so tragically died, and I pray for the wounded and all those who suffer because of this traumatic event, Francis said.

Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe issued a statement on Twitter, writing that he strongly condemned the cowardly attacks.

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.  Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) April 21, 2019

I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong, he wrote. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.

President Donald Trump also weighed in, tweeting: 138 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, with more that 600 badly injured, in a terrorist attack on churches and hotels. The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!Paris (AFP) - Paris prosecutors have launched an investigation after French anti-government protesters in the latest of a series of demonstrations shouted slogans mocking police over a spate of recent suicides in the force, judicial sources said Sunday.

The "yellow vest" protesters took to the streets of Paris Saturday for the 23rd weekend to protest against the policies of President Emmanuel Macron, again clashing with police in a tense standoff.

But French politicians and police unions angrily condemned some demonstrators who chanted "commit suicide, commit suicide!" at the police forces on Saturday.

France's national police force has been troubled by a worrying increase in suicides within its numbers this year, with 28 officers taking their lives so far in 2019. In 2018 as a whole, 35 police committed suicide nationwide.

"Shame on those who have given into such ignominy," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner wrote on Twitter above a video of protesters chanting the slogan.

Paris prosecutors have now opened a probe into "contempt of a person carrying out public authority at a meeting," a judicial source told AFP, confirming an earlier report by French radio station RTL.

- 'Doesn't exonerate us' -

"We have reached a convulsion of hatred. These words are intolerable and unacceptable," said Frederic Lagache, the director of Alliance, the main police union in France.

"It is an insult to all the police who have died, to their families and to the institution as a whole," he told AFP.

French police have been in the frontline seeking to control the yellow vest protest movement, which erupted late last year in the biggest crisis of the Macron presidency so far.

Even before the incident at Saturday's protest, suicides of police was becoming a major talking point in France.

National police chief Eric Morvan raised the issue in a letter to France's 150,000 police, acknowledging there had been a "dramatic sequence" of suicides among police in recent days.

Story continues

He said suicide was something that "needs to be talked about, without fear of being judged".

Morvan added: "the human responsibility that someone has in taking this terrible decision does not exonerate us from ours."

Police union activists have complained that French officers are being put under huge stress by the pressure of having to work every weekend at the protests.

On Thursday alone, two police took their own lives.

A policeman shot himself at home with his service weapon in Villejuif outside Paris while a female police captain shot herself in the heart in her office in Montpellier.

The death of the police captain, a mother of two children, provoked a wave of grief in Montpellier where hundreds of police held a minute of silence outside police headquarters on Friday.Eat This, Not That!

Coronavirus cases are exploding in Americaand beyondfueled by a new variant, Omicron. "I think we are going to see a viral blizzard literally ascend upon the world," says virus expert Michael Osterholm on the latest episode of his podcast. "The situation is as dire as it's ever been." He added: "Over the last two weeks, cases have increased in 44 states, including the District of Columbia, with 32 reporting increases of at least 40%. Meanwhile, a total of 42 states have reported a rise in hospParis (AFP) - After a series of explosions ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing more than 150 people, here are some previous cases of deadly violence at Easter:

- Egypt, 2017, 45 dead -

On April 9, 2017 two churches are bombed on Palm Sunday, killing 45 people. The attacks are in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria, where Coptic Pope Tawadros II had been leading a service. He is unharmed.

The Islamic State group claims responsiblity.

- Pakistan, 2016, 75 dead -

On March 27, 2016, 75 people including many children are killed and hundreds are injured when a bomb packed with ball bearings explodes near a popular park in Lahore where Christians were celebrating Easter.

The attack is claimed by the Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar.

- Nigeria, 2012, 41 dead -

On April 8, 2012, 41 people are killed in a car bomb attack on Easter Sunday near a church in Kaduna, a key cultural and economic centre in the north that has been hit by the Islamist group Boko Haram.

- Other attacks against Christians -

- Philippines: At least 21 people are killed on January 27, 2019 in a double suicide attack at a Catholic cathedral in the remote Muslim-majority island of Jolo.

The IS group claim responsiblity. Authorities attribute it to the Ajang-Ajang faction, a group linked to the Jolo-based Abu Sayyaf Islamist group.

- Egypt: On May 26, 2017, 29 people including many children are gunned down by masked gunmen in central Minya targeting a bus carrying Coptic Christians travelling to the Saint Samuel monastery.

The IS group claim responsibility for the attack.

On December 11, 2016, as Coptic Christians are in mid-prayer at their church in Cairo, a suicide attack tears through the building killing 29 people. IS claim responsibility.

- Yemen: Sixteen people are shot dead on March 4, 2016 at a Catholic retirement home in Aden, including four nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Story continues

Local authorities blame the IS group for the attack.

- Pakistan: Twin suicide attacks against churches in Lahore during Sunday service on March 15, 2015 kill 17 people and leave 70 injured, sparking two days of rioting by thousands of Christians.

The attack is claimed by the Tehreeke-Taliban Pakistan.(Reuters) - Floodwaters continued to rise in the U.S. Midwest on Monday and were not expected to crest for another 24 hours, forecasters said, after killing three people in Nebraska and Iowa and inundating a U.S. Air Force base.

The Missouri River, the longest in North America, has flooded much of Nebraska between Omaha and Kansas City at the Missouri state line. It was expected to crest at 47.5 feet (14.48 m) on Tuesday, breaking the previous record, set in 2011, by more than a foot, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said in the latest bulletin on its web page.

"This really is the most devastating flooding we've probably ever had in our state's history, from the standpoint of how widespread it is," Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts said in a Twitter post on Monday.

"In 2011, it took 108 days for water to subside, and this year the water is 4-5 feet higher," Ricketts said in another tweet. "NEMA and teams across the state are working around the clock to provide relief."

Ricketts and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds have both declared states of emergency, and U.S. President Donald Trump said the White House had reached out to state and local officials in devastated areas.

On Monday the Omaha World-Herald newspaper, citing sheriffs' officials, reported that an 80-year-old woman had become the latest confirmed fatality of the disaster. Betty Hamernik died in her home near Columbus, Nebraska, after becoming trapped by rising floodwaters from the Loup River.

Other casualties identified by local authorities are 50-year-old James Wilke, who was swept away while trying to use his tractor to free a trapped car near Columbus, and a man whose car was caught up in fast-moving water in Iowa..

At least two people are missing in Nebraska, the World-Herald reported.

NUCLEAR PLANT CUT OFF

More than 600 Nebraska residents were evacuated and taken to American Red Cross-operated shelters, NEMA said on Sunday.

Story continues

The Missouri River's overflowing banks have cut off roads leading to the Cooper nuclear plant, near Brownville, Nebraska, forcing operators to fly in staff and supplies by helicopter. The nuclear plant continued to operate safely and was at full power, its operator said.

Water also covered one-third of that state's Offutt Air Force Base, near Bellevue, home to the U.S. Strategic Command.

At least 30 buildings had been flooded by up to 8 feet of water and 30 more structures had been damaged on the base, the Omaha World-Herald reported, citing a base spokeswoman. Base officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The National Weather Service reported some of the region's larger rivers were running at record high levels, causing levee breaks. Some small towns and communities have been cut off by floods while others found themselves short of fresh drinking water.

Streets in Lincoln, Nebraska's capital, were barely visible as high water surrounded homes, cars and trees, according to photos released to Reuters by state authorities. Elsewhere in the state, one highway near Waterloo was submerged, and piles of debris and damaged roads were visible in Niobrara.

Floodwater climbed up the sides of buildings at Camp Ashland, an Army National Guard facility in Ashland, Nebraska.

Warmer temperatures will speed the pace of snow melt across the region and contribute water to already swollen rivers, the NWS said, possibly forcing more evacuations in communities along the Missouri River on the Nebraska and Iowa border, as well as along the Elkhorn and Platte rivers in Nebraska.

"There could be issues across portions of Nebraska and Kansas for the next seven days," NWS meteorologist Jim Hayes said.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York, Rich McKay in Atlanta and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Leslie Adler)People gathered at St Stephens Green in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday, April 19, to pay tribute to Lyra McKee, the 29-year-old journalist who was fatally shot in Derry, Northern Ireland, during riots overnight.

This footage shows Eddie McGuinness of Dublin Pride addressing the crowd, telling them that McKees memory will not pass.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said they were treating the killing as a terrorist act and had opened a murder inquiry.

Lord Mayor of Belfast Deirdre Hargey opened a book of condolence at Belfast City Hall on Friday. President of the Republic of Ireland Michael D Higgins was among those who signed it.

A vigil was also held at the scene of the shooting in the Creggan area of Derry, where McKees partner Sara Canning and leaders from both sides of Northern Irelands political divide spoke.

McKee, who was gay, delivered a TED talk at Stormont in Belfast in November 2017, in which she argued that changes in religious teaching were necessary for the development of LGBT rights. At the time of her death, she was working on a book about children and young men who disappeared during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The book was due to be published by Faber & Faber, who reportedly described McKee as a rising star on investigative journalism and said she had a knack of engaging the head and the heart. Credit: Mairin Murray via StoryfulPresident Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. (Photo: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)

Defending President Trumps campaign for its willingness to accept help from Russia in the 2016 presidential election, Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani said there was nothing wrong with a campaign taking information from foreign sources.

Any candidate in the whole world, in America, would take information, Giuliani told CNNs Jake Tapper on State of the Union on Sunday. Theres nothing wrong with taking information from Russians. It depends on where it came from.

Youre assuming that the giving of information is a campaign contribution, added Giuliani. People get information from this person, that person.

But when asked if he wouldve accepted information against a rival candidate, Giuliani, a former mayor of New York and Republican presidential candidate, said, I probably wouldnt. I wasnt asked. I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, dont do it.

Youre saying there was nothing wrong with doing that? asked Tapper.

Theres no crime, said Giuliani. Were going to get into morality? That isnt what prosecutors look at  morality. This didnt become an international scandal because of immorality. It became an international scandal because the president was accused of violating the law, falsely.

Appearing on NBCs Meet the Press, Giuliani was asked the same question.

So, it is now OK for political campaigns to work with materials stolen by foreign adversaries? asked host Chuck Todd.

This time Giuliani had a slightly different answer: It depends on the stolen material.

Giuliani said it was common practice for political candidates to conduct opposition research on their opponents. He claimed Sen. Mitt Romney tried to dig up dirt on people when he ran for president in 2012 and called the Utah Republican a hypocrite for his criticism of Trump.

Stop the bull, Giuliani said on CNN. Stop this pious act that you werent trying to dig up dirt on people, putting dirt out on people.

After special counsel Robert Muellers redacted report was released Thursday, Romney in a statement Friday said that after reading the 448-page document, he was appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia  including information that had been illegally obtained.

Story continues

The redacted report included 10 episodes that were examined as possible interference in Muellers investigation by Trump and his associates. Mueller made no recommendation about prosecution, although he specified that he could not clear the president of attempting to improperly influence the probe.

In one of the most striking sections of the report, Mueller wrote: The Presidents efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.

The report credits Trumps first White House counsel, Don McGahn, with stymieing the presidents attempts to fire Mueller, to the point of threatening to resign.

Don McGahn saved him, Todd said. Why is the president angry?

Don McGahn didnt save him, Giuliani shot back.  He had a perfect right to fire Mueller.

At another point Giuliani compared the hacked emails stolen by Russian agents from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign officials to the Pentagon Papers, the internal Defense Department report on the Vietnam War that was leaked by Daniel Ellsberg to the New York Times in 1971.

[The] Pentagon Papers were stolen. They were stolen from the Department of Defense. My God, thats horrible, Giuliani said.

This is a foreign adversary, though, Todd pointed out.

Giuliani responded: Whats the difference between a spy and a foreign adversary?

One [Ellsberg] works for the United States of America and one doesnt, Todd noted.

Another guest on the CNN show, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, reacted to Giulianis defense of Trump, calling it just ridiculous.

He went on: I think that shows how toxic the politics are today, this win-at-all-costs attitude that the president has and his administration has. Thats disgusting, to think that any major official, let alone someone so closely tied to the Trump administration, would think that thats a good idea.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:Two teenagers have been arrested in connection with the murder of Lyra McKee (Picture: Northern Ireland Police)

Two teenagers have been arrested by police in connection with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland.

The men, aged 18 and 19, were detained under anti-terrorism legislation and have been taken to a police station in Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.

Ms McKee, 29, from Belfast, was shot in the head by suspects police believe were dissident republicans linked to the New IRA during disturbances in Londonderry on Thursday night.

Police have released footage that appears to show a masked shooter firing a handgun towards police and onlookers including Ms McKee during clashes with police on the Creggan estate.

Ms McKees death has sparked an outpouring of grief, with tributes led by her partner Sara Canning who said: "Our hopes and dreams and all of her amazing potential was snuffed out by this single barbaric act," she said.

"Victims and LGBTQI community are left without a tireless advocate and activist and it has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with," she added.

"This cannot stand, Lyra's death must not be in vain because her life was a shining light in everyone else's life and her legacy will live on and the life that she has left behind."

READ MORE

Two arrested after six-year-old boy shot in broad daylight

Ms McKee was an editor for California-based news site Mediagazer and in 2016 was named by Forbes Magazine as one of their 30 under 30 in media.

She had been working on a new book which had been due to be published in 2020.

Lyra McKee was shot during protests in Londonderry on Thursday night (Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

Political leaders including Prime Minister Theresa May and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar joined to condemn the murder.

"My deepest condolences go to her family, friends and colleagues," Mrs May said. "She was a journalist who died doing her job with great courage."

Mr Varadkar added: "We cannot allow those who want to propagate violence, fear and hate to drag us back to the past."

Heartbroken by the murder of Lyra McKee and the violence in Derry. The challenges in NI today are real--but we cannot let go of the last 21 years of hard-won peace and progress. This tragedy is a reminder of how much everyone has to lose if we do.  Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) April 19, 2019

Former United States president Bill Clinton tweeted: "Heartbroken by the murder of Lyra McKee and the violence in Derry.

Story continues

"The challenges in NI today are real-but we cannot let go of the last 21 years of hard-won peace and progress. This tragedy is a reminder of how much everyone has to lose if we do."

Tributes to Ms McKee include Michelle Stanistreet, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary, who said Ms McKee was one of the most promising journalists in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley, speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O'Neill were also among those to pay tribute.

Police have described the shooting as a terrorist incident (Picture: Brian Lawless/PA via AP)

Police, who described the shooting as a "terrorist incident", believe the violence was orchestrated in response to an earlier search by officers aimed at averting imminent trouble associated with this week's anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Around 50 petrol bombs were thrown in the confrontation and two cars were burned out.

Officers believe more than one person was involved in the murder.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy, who leads the inquiry, described the murder as "senseless and appalling beyond belief".

"People saw the gunman and people saw those who goaded young people out onto the streets, people know who they are," he said.

The New IRA is an amalgam of armed groups opposed to the peace process and recently claimed responsibility for parcel bombs sent to London and Glasgow in March.: TheMatrix (TheMatrix), : History

 :  ()

: BBS  (Sat Apr 20 11:12:07 2019, )



  Military  

: WCNMLGB (CCC), : Military

 : 

: BBS  (Sat Apr 20 10:02:17 2019, )





Wisconsin brothers accused of years-long sexual abuse of siblings; father

blamed 'raging hormones'

Three brothers in Milwaukeewere charged with the alleged sexual assaultof

their younger siblings while their father, aware of the abuse, is accused of

doing nothing to stop it.

The father, Brian Keene, who is 62, faces child neglect charges and failure

to protect a minor, according to WTMJ.com

His sons, James, 29, Elijah, 27 and Josiah, 20, face first-degree charges of

sexual assault on a child, and charges of sexual assault on a child below

the age of 13, the news site reported.

The abuse, which happened for at least 10 years, came to light earlier this

month when police received a call about a suspicious car and found one of

the abuse victims, a 19-year-old woman, who told them that her younger

siblings had run away from the home because of the assault and dirty

conditions.

The younger siblings include girls and one boy.

WISCONSIN TEEN WHO GUNNED DOWN GRANDPARENTS HAD 'PLAN TO CAUSE HARM' AT HIGH

SCHOOL, OFFICIALS SAY

Police found the children, who spoke of the sex abuse by the older brothers

and the unsafe conditions - holes in the walls, floors, and lack of heat --

in the home. The children had been reported as being home-schooled, but

police believe they received no academic instruction. It was not immediately

clear where the children were found.

The 19-year-old woman told police that Elijah sexually assaulted her from

the time she was 12 to when she was 15.

A 22-year-old sister said that Elijah sexually assaulted her several times

when she was 8 years old. Another sister, 16, said Elijah molested her from

the time she was a small child, forcing her to perform oral sex. She said

that the oldest brother, James, made her touch him sexually, the Milwaukee

Journal reported. A 12-year-old sister and 14-year-old brother told police

their older brothers also assaulted them.

The victims accused the brothers of taking them to the basement and sexually

assaulting them several times a week. The victims said their father knew

but did nothing.

Brian reportedly told police he suspected his older sons were sexually

abusing the girls when the boys were teenagers but chalked it to "raging

hormones."

Elijah admitted to the abuse of three of the four sisters who reported it

and said he tried to stop but had a sexual addiction, police said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Police said the investigation is ongoing and more charges are possible.

A preliminary hearing for the father and the sons is scheduled for April 23.

They have not entered pleas, according to People magazine.

Bail was set at $50,000 each for the father and James, at $100,000 for

Elijah, and $25,000 for Josiah.

The mother, who left the father in 2014, is believed to have died several

years ago.

Elizabeth Llorente is Senior Reporter for FoxNews.com, and can be reached at

[email protected] Follow her on Twitter @Liz_Llorente.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

082019 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.



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You have permission to edit this article.

Edit CloseRussian-Israeli poet Avraham Shlonsky, having read reports of the Nazi death camps, while WWII was still raging, wrote in his poem, The Oath:

I took an oath to remember everything.

To remember it all and not to forget.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook STRONG> and Twitter



Two lines directed at Israel and its people when dealing with the Holocaust.

A Holocaust survivor at the Auschwitz death camp (Photo: AFP)

Poets are precise. They are weavers of words. Shlonsky elected to write "Not to forget anything  until the tenth generation. He could have written "to not forgive."

He knew we would forgive. He prayed we would not forget.

Israel forgave Germans for the Holocaust years ago. In 1952, seven after the end of the war, David Ben-Gurion pronounced a new, modern Germany was now in place, and forgave the country. That same year, the reparations agreement was signed by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett on behalf of Israel and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on behalf of Germany.

Forgiveness brought money. German-made cars filled Israeli roads, German appliances filled homes and airliners carried tourists to and from Germany.

Berlin has become the most popular destination of young Israelis.

It is not for us to attack Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who said it was time for forgiveness.

The Germans and collaborators who perpetuated the horrors are mostly long gone from this world. Their millions of victims will never get justice. Those actually prosecuted for their crimes are a drop in the ocean.

Morality does not burden the grandchildren with the sins of their grandparents.

There is no longer a question of forgiveness. There is only one of remembering.

Despite concerns, the memory of the Holocaust as a mass extermination, has not faded nor dimmed. In fact it's intensified and become iconic in modern history. It exists in the layers of Western culture, and even the popular Star War film series portrays its villains as Nazi-esque stormtroopers.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Yad Vashem (Photo: EPA)

So who's Holocaust is it? As it becomes a more universal story, Jews disappear from the discourse. It is up to us to preserve its importance for us.

But in Israel the memory of the Holocaust is encased in school trips to Poland, sirens on Remembrance Dday and the obligatory visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial by foreign dignitaries.

Universities in Israel hardly teach or research it, leaving the field open to non-Israeli institutions and scholars.

If we do not learn from and about the Holocaust, as Shlonsky warned in his poem, it really will become nothing but a string of ceremonies and text.Is the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dead?

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After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coasted to another victory in this month's Israeli election, it sure seems that way.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump at the White House (Photo: GPO)

Even his chief rivals, led by a trio of respected former military chiefs and a charismatic former journalist, barely mentioned the Palestinian issue on the campaign trail and presented a vision of "separation" that falls far short of Palestinian territorial demands.

The two Jewish parties that dared to talk openly about peace with the Palestinians captured just 10 seats in the 120-seat parliament, and opinion polls indicate dwindling support for a two-state solution among Jewish Israelis.

"The majority of the people in the state of Israel no longer see a two-state solution as an option," said Oded Revivi, the chief foreign envoy for the Yesha settlement council, himself an opponent of Palestinian independence. "If we are looking for peace in this region, we will have to look for a different plan from the two-state solution."





Oded Revivi (Photo: Moti Kimchi)

For the past 25 years, the international community has supported the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip - lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War - as the best way to ensure peace in the region.

The logic is clear. With the number of Arabs living on lands controlled by Israel roughly equal to Jews, and the Arab population growing faster, two-state proponents say a partition of the land is the only way to guarantee Israel's future as a democracy with a strong Jewish majority. The alternative, they say, is either a binational state in which a democratic Israel loses its Jewish character or an apartheid-like entity in which Jews have more rights than Arabs.

After decades of fruitless negotiations, each side blames the other for failure.

Israel says the Palestinians have rejected generous peace offers and promoted violence and incitement. The Palestinians say the Israeli offers have not been serious and point to Israel's ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, now home to nearly 700,000 Israelis.

The ground further shifted after the Hamas terror group took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 and left the Palestinians divided between two governments, with one side - Hamas - opposed to peace with Israel. This ongoing rift is a major obstacle to negotiations with Israel, and has also left many Palestinians disillusioned with their leaders.

Since taking office a decade ago, Netanyahu has largely ignored the Palestinian issue, managing the conflict without offering a solution for how two peoples will live together in the future.

After clashing with the international community for most of that time, he has found a welcome friend in US President Donald Trump, whose Mideast team has shown no indication of supporting Palestinian independence.

Tamar Hermann (Photo: YouTube screenshot)

Tamar Hermann, an expert on Israeli public opinion at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the election results do not necessarily mean that Israelis have given up on peace. Instead, she said the issue just isn't on people's minds.

"Most Israelis would say the status quo is preferable to all other options, because Israelis do not pay any price for it," she said. "They don't feel the outcome of the occupation. ... Why change it?"

While the two-state prospects seem dim, its proponents still cling to the belief that the sides will ultimately come around, simply because there is no better choice.

"Either Israel decides to be an apartheid state with a minority that is governing a majority of Palestinians, or Israel has to realize that there is no other solution but two states," says Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh.





Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh (Photo: EPA)

"Unfortunately the Israeli prime minister is politically blind about these two facts."

Shtayyeh noted the two-state solution continues to enjoy wide international backing. Peace, he insisted, is just a matter of "will" by Israel's leaders.

Dan Shapiro, who served as President Barack Obama's ambassador to Israel, said the two-state solution "is certainly getting harder" after the Israeli election but is not dead.

Getting there would require leadership changes on both sides, he said, pointing to the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt 40 years ago, reached by two leaders who were sworn enemies just two years earlier.





Former US ambassador Dan Shapiro (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

"We know what's possible when the right leadership is in place," he said. "So that puts us supporters of it in a mode of trying to keep it alive and viable for the future."

That may be a tall task as the Israeli election results appear to reflect a deeper shift in public opinion.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, which conducts monthly surveys of public opinion, support for the two-state solution among Jewish Israelis has plummeted from 69% in 2008, the year before Netanyahu took office, to 47% last year. Just 32% of Israelis between the ages of 18-34 supported a two-state solution in 2018. The institute typically surveys 600 people, with a margin of error of just over 4 percentage points.

Attitudes are changing on the Palestinian side as well. Khalil Shikaki, a prominent Palestinian pollster, said 31% of Palestinians seek a single binational state with full equality, a slight increase from a decade ago. His poll surveyed 1,200 people and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Israeli troops in Ramallah

Although there was no breakdown by age group, Shikaki said the young are "clinging less to the two-state solution because they lost faith in the Palestinian Authority's ability to provide a democratic state," and because the expanding settlements have created a new reality on the ground.

Amr Marouf, a 27-year-old restaurant manager in the city of Ramallah, said he maintains his official residence in a village located in the 60% of the West Bank that Israel controls, just in case Israel annexes the territory. That way, he believes, he can gain Israeli citizenship.

"I think the one-state solution is the only viable solution," he said. "We can be in Israel and ask for equal rights. Otherwise, we will live under military occupation forever."

Netanyahu is expected to form his new coalition government by the end of May, and he will come under heavy pressure from his partners to keep his promise to annex Israel's West Bank settlements.

Such a step could extinguish any hopes of establishing a viable Palestinian state, particularly if the US supports it. American officials, who have repeatedly sided with Israel, have said nothing against Netanyahu's plan.

There is also the Trump administration's long-delayed peace plan, which officials have signaled could finally be released this summer. US officials have said little about the plan, but have indicated it will go heavy on economic assistance to the Palestinians while falling far short of an independent state along the 1967 lines.

Shtayyeh said such a plan would be a nonstarter.

"This is a financial blackmail, which we reject," he said.Likud officials meet with Yisrael Beiteinu members as Benjamin Netanyahu begins negotiations to form a new governmnet coalition.

The meeting comes after Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman vowed that his party "will not abandon their principles," a likely reference to the draft of the ultra-Orthodox into the army.The Catholic Church in the Holy Land condemns a wave of attacks that hit three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 156 people.

"We pray for the soul of the victims and for a quick recovery of the wounded; we ask God to inspire the terrorists to repent for the murders and acts of terror," said the church in a statement released from Jerusalem.

"We also express our solidarity with all Sri Lankans of all religions and ethnicities," the statement said.World leaders have condemned the church and hotel attacks in Sri Lanka that killed at least 156 people and wounded hundreds more.

British Prime Minister Teresa May called the attacks "truly appalling" in a Twitter message.

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the attacks as "cruel and cynical," while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called them "an assault on all of humanity."We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message.ISLAMABAD - Counter-terrorism officials in Islamabad have confirmed to The Media Line that the remaining terrorist sought in the 2002 murder of American Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl has been taken into custody. Azim Jan, a commander of the TTP, the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, an off-shoot of al Qaeda, was apprehended on Friday in a joint operation headed by Pakistan Security Forces.

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The mission was conducted in the hilly area of Mansehra, a district in the Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa province, located about 100 miles north of the capital Islamabad.

The photo posted by Daniel Pearl's abductors just before they murdered him. (Photo: AP)

Daniel Pearl was the South Asian Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal when he was kidnapped and beheaded by a self-proclaimed Islamist group in the southern city of Karachi in 2002. Counter-terrorism official Behram Khan said that Jan is known as a deadly expert in improvised explosive devices.

In addition to being the primary suspect in the Pearl murder, the "commander" built his reputation orchestrating the planned assassination of then-President General Pervez Musharraf, also in that year, the murder of Sind police superintendent Chaudhry Aslam, and an attack on the staff of the French Embassy in Karachi.

Azim Jan is also the lead suspect in an attack on the Peshawar Pakistan Bus Terminal and multiple murders of police officials. Intelligence official Junaid ul-Hassan said that Jan is also accused in the 2011 terror attack on the Pakistan Naval Aviation Base Mehran and an attack on a security check post in Quettas Hazar Ganji area that killed more than 150 members of the Hazara Shia community.

Earlier in March 2019, Mansehra police had arrested five members of the outlawed TTP. District Police Officer Zabiullah Khan said that these terrorists were wanted for attacking an American charity, World Vision, killing eight staff members of INGO World Vision, including four women, in 2010.

A partially completed memorial for Daniel Pearl near his old neigborhood in Los Angeles

Another police official said that during the course of interrogation, these terrorists revealed the presence of Commander Azim Jan in the area, so the joint operation was conducted.

In 2002, Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was investigating the alleged financing of al Qaeda through Pakistani terrorists. He was also trying to find links between Pakistani terror groups and Richard Reid, who became known as the shoe bomber after allegedly trying to blow up an airplane during a flight with a bomb in his shoe.

On January 23, on his way to interview a terrorist leader, Pearl was abducted near a Karachi hotel. The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty had claimed responsibility for kidnapping Pearl, but Pakistani security officials believed that the kidnappers were actually members of Lashkar e Jhangvi LeJ, an outlawed group associated with al Qaeda.

Pearls captors accused him of being an agent of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and said he would be killed within 24 hours unless the groups demands were met. Included among the demands were the release of Pakistanis being held in the notorious U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Nine days later, Pearl was murdered and a video of the horrific act was released.

In February 2002, police had arrested Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh, a British born Pakistani and a member of various terrorist organizations. He was held along with his three close aides Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem, and Sheikh Aadil.

Omer Saeed Sheikh was supposed to be a prime suspect behind the Pearl assassination.

Abdul Mateen Hashmi, a Karachi-based former police officer, said that some senior Intelligence officials had believed that Omer Sheikh trapped Daniel Pearl and promised to arrange an interview with a militant leader and later kidnapped him. During the trial, police found a dismembered body buried in the suburb of Karachi that proved to be Pearls remains.

Daniel Pearl in the green shirt (Photo: Private collection)

In July 2002, the anti-terrorism court announced that Saeed and his fellows were guilty of Pearls kidnapping and murder. Saeed and his three compatriots Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem, and Sheikh Aadil were charged with Pearls kidnapping and murder.

Saeed was sentenced to death by hanging while Saqib, Naseem, and Adil each received 25-year prison sentences. Their appeal is pending.

Prof. Judea Pearl, Daniel Pearls father, told The Media Line: I welcome any steps towards exposing and bringing to justice those horrendous murderers.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined other world leaders in expressing shock over a series of blasts apparently targeting Christians on Easter Sunday, which killed at least 207 people and wounded more than 600 others. He also offered Israel's assistance to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the attacks.

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"In the name of the citizens of Israel, I express deep shock at the murderous attacks against innocent people in Sri Lanka," Netanyahu said in a tweet in Hebrew. "Israel is ready to assist the authorities in Sri Lanka at this difficult time. The whole world must unite in the struggle against the plague of terrorism."

A relative of a victim of the Sri Lanka attacks cries at a hospital in the wake of the blasts (Photo: AP)

Pope Francis denounced the "cruel violence" of the Easter Sunday slaughter as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting the bloodshed and political violence afflicting many parts of the world.

In a special appeal at the end, Francis lamented the "grave attacks," which occurred just as the Christian faithful were celebrating Easter Mass that marks the resurrection of Christ following his crucifixion.

"I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence," Francis said. "I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event."

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder called the attacks a "heinous outrage" and a "truly barbarous assault on peaceful worshippers."

"World Jewry - in fact all civilized people - denounce this heinous outrage and appeal for zero tolerance of those who use terror to advance their objectives," he said in a statement. "This truly barbarous assault on peaceful worshippers on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar serves as a painful reminder that the war against terror must be at the top of the international agenda and pursued relentlessly."

The Catholic Church in the Holy Land also condemned the attacks.

"We pray for the soul of the victims and for a quick recovery of the wounded; we ask God to inspire the terrorists to repent for the murders and acts of terror," said the church in a statement from Jerusalem. "We also express our solidarity with all Sri Lankans of all religions and ethnicities."

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned the attacks as "devastating," and referred to the March 15 shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in which 50 died.

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil," Ardern said. "New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely."





Inside St. Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade church it was hit by a blast (Photo: AFP)

British Prime Minister Teresa May called the attacks "truly appalling" in a Twitter message.

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she said.

The head of the European Union's executive Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he learned of the bombings "with horror and sadness."

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote in a message to his Sri Lankan counterpart that he was "stunned and horrified" by the "cowardly terror attacks." Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter that he was "deeply shaken and concerned by (the) devious terrorist attacks."

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the attacks as "cruel and cynical." In a telegram of condolences sent to his Sri Lankan counterpart, the Russian leader said Moscow remains a "reliable partner of Sri Lanka in the fight against international terrorism."

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri called the attacks "blind terrorism" and offered solidarity to the Sri Lankan people. Hariri, whose own father was killed in a Beirut bombing in 2005, asked for mercy for the "innocent victims" and speedy recovery for the wounded.





Families of victims of the Sri Lanka bombings gather at a hospital in Colombo (Photo: AP)

Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all issued statements via their foreign ministries over the attack.

The UAE called upon "the international community to close ranks and uproot the scourge of terrorism in order to ensure international peace and security." Qatar said it wanted to stress its "its firm stance on rejecting violence and terrorism."

Bahrain, meanwhile, said "these acts of terrorism are incompatible with religious principles and human and moral values."

Iran's foreign minister said he was "terribly saddened" by the bombings, writing in a tweet that "terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally."

U.S. President Donald Trump offered "heartfelt condolences" after the attacks, but mistakenly said 138 million people have been killed.

Emergency personnel at St. Sebastian's Church, Negombo (Photo: AFP)

Trump took to Twitter to condemn the "horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more."

The death toll at the time of the tweet was at least 138 people. He later deleted the tweet and reposted a corrected version.

Trump said America stands ready to help Sri Lanka cope.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas struck a pessimistic note Sunday, accusing President Donald Trump of hypocrisy when it comes to two-state solution and criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for aiding Hamas after demanding that he snub the group.

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Speaking at a summit of Arab foreign ministers in Egyptian capital of Cairo, Abbas highlighted the lack of funds to the PA due to US cuts, and asked for a financial safety net that the Arab states have long pledged but never delivered. The 83-year-old added that security cooperation between PA security forces and the CIA continues despite the lack of any diplomatic relations between the Palestinian officials and the Trump administration.

Mahmoud Abbas attends an Arab League summit in Cairo

They are mocking us, Abbas said, adding that Trump told him about his alleged firm belief in a two-state solution just days before he announced the intention to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.

We met with Trump several times and were satisfied with what they were telling us up until our fourth meeting, when Trump agreed to say he believes in two states within the 1967 borders," Abbas said. Two weeks later, however, he announced hes moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognizes the city as Israels capital, and cutting the financial aid to UNRWA, he added.

"We cant hear about Jerusalem being a part of Israel anymore. Following that crime (the recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital) we had to cut off all communication with the American leadership, said the president. Although some agreements continue to this day, for instance the international security coordination between the PA and the US as part of the anti-terrorism agreements."

The financial crisis the PA currently finds itself in, is not only due to cuts made by the Trump administration but also as a result of the Palestinian officials refusing to accept monthly payments of NIS 500 million in tax revenue collected on PAs behalf by Israel (following its decision to trim the sum over the PA's financial support of militants' families). Under interim peace deals, Israel collects taxes in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip and makes monthly payments to the PA.

Abbas arrives at the summit (Photo: AFP)

The financial deficit has resulted in PA paying the government employees - including members of Palestinian security services - only 50 percent of their salaries. "Israel violated all the agreements between them and the Palestinian Authority: the Oslo Accords, the Paris Protocol and the security agreements, Abbas said.

"The reason why Israel doesnt respect any of these agreements is the American support," he said. "If this is the case, how will we reach a solution? Through American mediators or through Netanyahu, who believes there is no solution to the Palestinian issue? So I came here to ask you what should we do about this?

All of this comes in the wake of the settlement expansion and the discourse on the annexation of the West Bank. If Israel was to annex the West Bank, it will become an apartheid regime, Abbas said. Should we accept this situation or resist it?"

Later in his speech, Palestinian president lashed out at Netanyahu for trying to undermine the intra-Palestinian reconciliation efforts between the PA and Hamas.

President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: MCT)

"Netanyahu personally said that Israel would do everything to prevent the reconciliation to keep the Gaza Strip out of PAs control, the president said. Every month the PA transfers $100 million to the Gaza Strip and Hamas still opposes the reconciliation, trying instead to negotiate an arrangement with Israel.

Intra-Palestinian reconciliation is the only way to resist Netanyahu, who in the past said to me that Israel would act against us if we ever talked to Hamas  and now he is the one negotiating with Hamas and giving them money every month," Abbas said, referring to the Qatari aid used to pay Hamas civil servants' salaries and also allegedly provide financial support for the needy in the impoverished coastal enclave.The United States says that "several" American citizens have been killed in the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka.

More than 200 people have died in a series of blasts against churches and hotels that the Sri Lankan government is blaming on religious extremists. And US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement says that even as details of the attacks are still emerging, the US government can confirm that Americans are among the casualties.

Pompeo says the US Embassy in Colombo, the capital, is working to assist US citizens and their families.Iran's top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has replaced the chief commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state TV reported on Sunday, days after the United States designated the group a foreign terrorist organization. The TV station did not give a reason for the change when it announced the appointment of Brigadier General Hossein Salami - who has vowed to destroy the State of Israel - to the position.

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"The Supreme Leader has appointed Salami as the new commander-in-chief of the Guards, who will replace Mohammad Ali Jafari," it said. Jafari had held the post since September 2007.

President Donald Trump on April 8 designated the Guards a terrorist organization, in an unprecedented step that drew Iranian condemnation and raised concerns about retaliatory attacks on US forces. The designation took effect on April 15.

Brigadier General Hossein Salami (Photo: AP)

The Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is in charge of Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programs. Tehran has warned that it has missiles with a range of up to 2,000 kms (1,242 miles), putting Israel and US military bases in the region within reach.

Salami, born in 1960, said in January that Iran's strategy was to wipe "the Zionist regime" (Israel) off the political map, Iran's state TV reported.

"We announce that if Israel takes any action to wage a war against us, it will definitely lead to its own elimination," Salami said after an Israeli attack on Iranian targets in Syria in January, Iranian media reported.

Israel sees Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs as a threat to its existence. Iran says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes only.

Israel, which Islamic Iran refuses to recognize, backed Trump's move in May to quit a 2015 international deal on Iran's nuclear program and welcomed Washington's reimposition of sanctions on Tehran.A Jewish comedian who plays an inexperienced president on Ukrainian TV looked poised to reprise the role in real life after an exit poll indicated he received nearly three out of every four votes cast in a runoff election Sunday.

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If borne out by election returns, the overwhelming victory by Zelenskiy would stand as a crushing rebuke to Poroshenko's five years in office and a verdict on the country's deep-seated corruption, sickly economy and grinding war against Russian-backed separatists in the country's east that has killed over 13,000 people.

Ukrainian comedian and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky reacts after the announcement of the first exit poll results in the second round of Ukraine's presidential election

While official returns had yet to be released, Poroshenko accepted defeat, saying: "I am leaving office, but I want to firmly underline that I am not leaving politics."

Zelenskiy, for his part, vowed after the release of the exit polls: "I promise I will never let you down." And he suggested that his apparent victory could be a model for other former Soviet states that want to move forward from ossified politics.

"To all the countries of the former Soviet Union - look at us, everything is possible," he said.

Although Zelenskiy was criticized for a vague campaign platform and having never held public office, voters appeared to have cast aside those concerns in favor of a thorough sweep of Ukraine's political leadership.

"I have grown up under the old politicians and only have seen empty promises, lies and corruption," said Lyudmila Potrebko, a 22-year-old computer programmer who cast her ballot for Zelenskiy. "It's time to change that."

Zelenskiy, 41, became famous nationwide for his comic portrayal in a television series of a teacher who becomes president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy (C) celebrates his apparent victory in Ukraine's presidential race at his election-day headquarters after polls closed on April 21

Millions of people living in the rebel-controlled east and in Russia-annexed Crimea were unable to vote. Russia seized Crimea in 2014 in a move that Ukraine and almost all of the world views as illegal. Fighting in the east that erupted that same year after the Russian annexation has killed more than 13,000 people.

The incumbent campaigned on the same promise he made when he was elected in 2014: to lead the nation of 42 million into the European Union and NATO. However, the goals have been elusive amid Ukraine's economic problems, pervasive corruption and fighting in the east. A visa-free deal with the EU spawned the exodus of millions of skilled workers for better living conditions elsewhere in Europe.

In a jab at his rival, the president warned voters that "it could be funny at first, but pain may come later."

Incumbent President Petro Poroshenko (Photo: AP)

Poroshenko emphasized the need to "defend achievements of the past five years," noting the creation of a new Ukrainian Orthodox Church that is independent from Moscow's patriarchate, a schism he championed.

"Poroshenko has done a lot of good things for the country - creating its own church, getting the visa-free deal and taking Ukraine away from the empire," said 44-year-old businessman Volodymyr Andreichenko, who voted for him.

But Poroshenko's message fell flat with many voters struggling to survive on meager wages and pay soaring utility bills.

"We have grown poor under Poroshenko and have to save to buy food and clothing," said 55-year-old sales clerk Irina Fakhova. "We have had enough of them getting mired in corruption and filling their pockets and treating us as fools."

Zelenskiy, who comes from Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking east, has opposed Poroshenko's push for a bill that would outlaw the Russian language and mocked the creation of the new church as a campaign stunt.

Speaking to reporters, he said his campaign already "helped unite the country."

He showered the president with questions about his assets during Friday's debate. Poroshenko denies any link to an alleged embezzlement scheme involving one of his companies and a top associate.

Zelenskiy on stage (Photo: Facebook)

Like Poroshenko, Zelenskiy pledged to keep Ukraine on its pro-Western course, but said the country should only join NATO if voters give their approval in a referendum. He said his top priority would be direct talks with Russia to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskiy's image has been shadowed by his admission that he had commercial interests in Russia through a holding company, and by his business ties to self-exiled billionaire businessman Ihor Kolomoyskyi.

A Poroshenko archrival, Kolomoyskyi owns the TV station that aired the sitcom the actor starred in as well as his comedy shows.

"Both candidates stand for integration into Europe, both kneel to honor those killed in the war with Russia, both are linked to oligarchs," 67-year-old teacher Dmytro Volokhovets said with a touch of sarcasm. "But Zelenskiy will win because he's young and new."The Arab League has pledged $100 million per month to the Palestinian Authority to make up for funds withheld by Israel because of payments made to the families of Palestinian attackers and prisoners.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the Arab League in Cairo on Sunday as part of a diplomatic effort to rebuff the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan, which American officials indicate could be released this summer.

Abbas says "the Arabs need to be engaging actively at this critical time."The US ambassador to Poland wished Jews a happy Passover in Polish, and the reaction was a wave of angry comments on Twitter.

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Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher also wished Poles a happy Easter on Sunday. By then, Mosbacher had been accused of offending Poland with her Passover tweet and reminded she is serving in a predominantly Roman Catholic country.

Krystyna Pawlowicz, a lawmaker with Poland's right-wing ruling party, called the ambassador's tweet, which was posted Friday along with a colorful illustration of items for a Passover Seder, a "provocation."

Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher (Photo: US embassy in Poland)

Some came to Mosbacher's defense, recalling that Poland also has a small Jewish population. Poland was home to Europe's largest Jewish population before the Holocaust.

Michal Szczerba, an opposition lawmaker, put some blame on the ruling Law and Justice party, accusing it of encouraging Polish nationalists by failing to react to past cases of racism and anti-Semitism.

Mosbacher's critics included far-right activist Robert Bakiewicz, who organizes a yearly Independence Day march that Polish government officials joined last year.

"Christ died and was resurrected also for you, pagans and traitorous Jews," Bakiewicz said.

Effigy styled like Orthodox Jew burned in Poland

X

Also Sunday, Polish media reported that residents of a town in southeast Poland, Pruchnik, carried out a Good Friday tradition of beating and burning an effigy that was styled to look like an Orthodox Jew.

The effigy represented Judas, the betraying disciple of Christ in the New Testament.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - This morning, at about 2 AM, the Yuma Police Department responded to a single vehicle collision in the 800 block of South Avenue B.

The initial investigation revealed an adult male driver and sole occupant of a 2000 Ford F150 pickup truck was northbound on Avenue B approaching 8th Street. For reasons still under investigation, the driver lost control in the construction zone colliding with numerous traffic control devices to include an electronic sign board and a utility pole. Speed was a factor in the collision. The driver suffered life threatening injuries and was transported to the Yuma Regional Medical Center before being flown to a Phoenix area hospital.

The collision is still under investigation with officers on scene. In addition, the collision resulted in a power outage in the area surrounding 8th Street and Avenue B. APS has been notified and crews have been dispatched. 8th Street and Avenue B will remain closed for most of the morning while officers complete the investigation and APS crews work to restore power. Please avoid this area and seek alternate routes.

The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this case to please call the Yuma Police Department at (928) 373-4700 or 78-Crime at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous.Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.To many people, religion is clouding the minds of several individuals as they readily do the bidding of their religious leaders even if it is clearly wrong.

In recent times, a number of people on social media have made it their duty to call out corrupt or questionable practices of some religious leaders, particularly pastors.

In a video that is now making the rounds on social media, a man who seemed to be a pastor was spotted kissing his female church member during a deliverance service.

In the short clip, the 'pastor' held on to a young ladys face and kissed her for some moments before finally letting go. Interestingly, the supposed man of God repeated the act after he was seemingly unsatisfied with the result of the first kiss.

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Reactions as pastor kisses church member during deliverance

As expected, controversial media personality Daddy Freeze, was very appalled by the act and he reacted on his Instagram page. See his reaction below:

READ ALSO: C

Other Nigerians also expressed their displeasure at the supposed pastors action in the comment section. See some reactions below:

cajaall: I now know how we were colonised by the British... religion has brainwashed even the unborn children in Africa

abimbolamilliboy: I just hope its a movie sha

de_moon_boy: Lol when will people be religiously free in this world

anniemorrel: All i could say is jesus jesus jesus if you are not too busy please come and see what pastors are doing oh

Some others were also of the impression that the clip is probably from a movie judging the member's reactions.

thespian_nozy: na film jare ...check d members reactions

mconcept1: Guess it's a movie.

ifuennada: Is this a movie?

READ ALSO: Video of girl who burst into tears after boarding plane for first time drops

Do you have a life-changing story you want us to publish? Please send it to us now on Facebook.

Source: YenNew Delhi: An Indian woman, hailing from Kerala is among those killed in the series of blasts that hit Sri Lanka on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as 61-year-old Razeena, a native of Kasargod in Kerala.

According to reports, Razeena had gone to Colombo to meet her relatives, who stay there. The Kerala government has initiated steps to bring back her body to the state.

At least 207 people have been killed and 450 injured in the series of blasts that hit Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, today.

The police have arrested at least seven people in a raid on a house in Colombo in connection with the blasts probe, news agency Reuters reported.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo released helpline numbers, following the attack. "Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers: +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789," it tweeted.

Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789  India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) April 21, 2019

"In addition to the numbers given, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176," the high commission tweeted.

In addition to the numbers given below, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176  India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) April 21, 2019

The eight explosions, some of which were reportedly suicide bomb attacks, led to an immediate clampdown in the country. The government has declared a curfew and blocked access to major social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp.

Six simultaneous blasts hit three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. While the country was already on high alert, two more explosions were reported from around the capital city taking the total number of blasts during the day to eight.

The blasts in the churches occurred when people had gathered for prayers on Easter on Sunday. The places that were targeted were frequented by tourists in Sri Lanka.NEW DELHI: In a new twist to the Rohit Shekhar murder case, the deceased's mother Ujjawala Sharma on Sunday accused his wife and her family of trying to usurp their property.

News agency ANI quoted Ujjawala Sharma as saying that Rohit's wife Apoorva and her family was trying to usurp the property of her two sons.

Besides Rohit, Sidhhartha is the younger son of Ujjawala Sharma.

"Apoorva and her family wanted to usurp the property of my sons - Rohit and Siddharth - because the property was close to the Supreme Court where Apoorva does practice," she said.

"Apoorva`s family is greedy of money, you will get to know. She was having relations with someone else prior to her marriage," Ujjawala alleged.

The old lady also accused Apoorva`s family of being money-minded and of involveent in her sons death.

"It is not right to suspect my relative Rajeev and his wife. Apoorva has some problem with Rajeev`s wife. Apoorva`s family is money-minded. I will reveal this at the right time," she said.

She further claimed that Siddhartha wanted to give a share of his property to Rajeev`s (OSD of late governor ND Tiwari) son, Karthik, which made Apoorva unhappy."

Apoorva`s father is lying. Siddharth wanted to give his property share to Rajeev`s son Kartik. This made Apoorva unhappy. Rajeev and his wife are serving us and ND Tiwari for forty years," she said.

The remarks from the Sharma come at a time when the Delhi Police is trying to crack the Rohit Shekhar murder case and arrest the culprits.

Rohit Shekhar was found dead on April 16 under mysterious circumstances.

Apoorva was questioned by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police on April 20 in connection with the case.

She was questioned at Rohit`s residence in Defence Colony in South Delhi.

"There was tension between Rohit and his wife since the first day of marriage. It was a love marriage. Currently, Delhi Crime Branch is questioning the wife of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari," Rohit`s mother had told reporters then.

Delhi Police had on Friday registered a murder case in connection with the death of Rohit, who was the son of late Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Chief Minister ND Tiwari.

The case was registered under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Rohit was declared brought dead to the Max Hospital in Saket on April 16.

(With Agency inputs)The first edition of Naval Commanders Conference will be held in Delhi from 23 to 25 April 2019. During the conference, which is the apex forum within the Service for interaction between the Naval Commanders, the Chief of the Naval Staff, with the Commanders-in-Chief, will review major operational, material, logistics, HR, training and administrative activities undertaken during the previous six months and deliberate upon the course to be steered in the ensuing six months.

The conference assumes significance as the country's defence services have been brought under sharper focus in the backdrop of Pulwama attack and other related events. The forum will also be a platform for the naval leadership to discuss the emerging challenges in the maritime domain and fine tune the strategies for responding to the evolving geo-strategic environment. During the conference, Naval Commanders will also hold discussions with senior government officials.

Interaction with Chiefs of Indian Army and Indian Air Force during the conference would be utilised to analyse the operational environment, deliberate on Tri-Service synergy and readiness to deter and neutralise threats aimed at the countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be addressing the Naval Commanders on the opening day. The themes of 'Functional Reorganisation of Indian Navy towards improving Operational Efficiency' and 'Optimal Manning' will form the core of discussions towards finalising long term road map for the Indian Navy.

Discussions have also been planned on acquisition of new capabilities, harnessing niche technologies like 'Big Data Analytics' and 'Artificial Intelligence' for solutions in the domains of naval combat, convergence of networks/ information, logistics, administration and equipment health monitoring for sustained operations.New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he had warned Pakistan of severe consequences if Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was not returned to India safe and sound. PM Modi, who was addressing a rally in Gujarat's Patan today said, "We held a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world what Modi did to you."

PM Modi said that a senior American official had mentioned on the second day after Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan that Modi had kept 12 missiles ready and may carry out an attack if the situation deteriorates. "Pakistan announced the return of the pilot, or else it was going to be a 'Qatal ki Raat'," Modi said.

Asserting his government's commitment towards national security, he asserted that whether the Prime Minister's chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or the terrorists.

PM Modi said the after the Pulwama attack took place, in which 40 CRPF troopers had lost their lives. people expected him to carry out an air strike at terror camps in Pakistan. "When Pulwama happened, what did the country expect Modi to do? Would you, would the country have pardoned me had I done what the Manmohan Singh government did after 26/11," he asked.

Calling himself a devotee of Lord Hanuman, Modi said that he announced giving a free hand to the military who then conducted an airstrike putting an end to Pakistan's story.

Hitting out at the opposition parties, Modi said the Balakot strike made them uncomfortable. "While Pakistan was repeatedly saying that "India bombed us", here, some people were questioning if this was India's Balakot. But they were proved false," he said.

Taking on the Congress for questioning the bravery of India's military force, Modi asked people at the rally if any Congress leader questioned the government for air strike proof after the conclusion of first two phases of Lok Sabha election, saying that they clearly got an idea about it. Slamming Congress further, Modi added that "since 1985, it did not care about securing Gujarat, a state bordering Pakistan, which needs Air Force, Army and Navy bases."

"Congress ran the government for 60 years and the country reached 11th position in the world ranking. This chai-wallah, who only knew how much money to return for two cups of tea, brought India to the sixth position in five years," PM Modi said.

PM Modi appealed to people of Gujarat to make the BJP victorious in the Lok Sabha election saying it is their duty to take care of the 'son of the soil' and give all 26 seats in Gujarat to him."India on Sunday strongly condemned the multiple explosions that hit Colombo, the national capital of Sri Lanka--the south Asian island nation. In the blasts, over 160 people were killed and more than 400 injured.

The Minister of External Affairs issued a statement extending "deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Sri Lanka".

A total of eight explosions hit Sri Lanka with the latest in Dehiwala region, and another in Dematagoda region.

The MEA has also wished a speedy recovery to those who were injured in the blasts.

"We strongly condemn the serial blasts at multiple locations in Sri Lanka today morning in which many people have been killed and injured. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Sri Lanka. We wish a speedy recovery to those injured in the attacks," read the statement.

The statement also read, "India has always opposed and rejected terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and has urged concerted action by the international community against terrorism, including cross-border terrorism. There can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terror. We call for perpetrators of such ghastly and heinous act and those who provide them support to be brought to justice expeditiously. We stand together with the people and Government of Sri Lanka in this hour of grief."New York: Indian and the US Navies have held a joint submarine-hunting exercise in the Indian Ocean, aiming to lay the groundwork for coordinating maritime patrol and reconnaissance, according to the US Navy.

Indian and the US` P-8 anti-submarine aircraft, along with the USS Spruance, a guided-missile destroyer, participated in the anti-submarine warfare training on April 15, a US 7th Fleet press statement issued from Diego Garcia said.

The Indian P-8I Neptune aircraft from the Naval Air Squadron 312 based at Naval Station Rajali in Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu, joined the US P-8A Poseidon aircraft from Patrol Squadron VP-8 "Fighting Tigers", based in Jacksonville, Florida, in the exercise, the statement said.

"We look forward to developing useful lessons through this engagement and laying the groundwork for future integration efforts between our Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Forces," the statement quoted Commander Zachary Stang, the commanding officer of the VP-8, as saying.

The Spruance and VP-8 are operating with the 7th Fleet, which is the largest forward deployed fleet of the US and operates in the Indo-Pacific region, which is the focus of India-US strategic cooperation.

"We were greatly impressed by the professionalism and competency of their (Indian) MPRA (Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft)," Commander Matthew Smidt, the commanding officer of the Spruance, was quoted in the statement as saying.

"The exercise was a wonderful experience and opportunity from which we learned and honed our skills".

India acquired the first of its Boeing-manufactured P-8Is in 2012 and has eight of them, with four more expected to join the squadron next year.

The exercise was the latest in efforts to develop military coordination between the two countries with an eye on the Indo-Pacific, where China is projecting its naval strength to the consternation of other countries in the region.

India, the US and Japan conducted Operation Malabar off the Guam coast last June. Started in 1992 as an India-US exercise, Japan joined it in 2015 turning it into a trilateral cooperation.

The 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the USS Rushmore, an amphibious warship, visited Chennai in January.

Earlier this month, the US approved the sale of 24 submarine-hunting MH-60R Seahawk Multi-Mission helicopters to India valued at $2.6 billion.A civilian was injured on Saturday when terrorists opened fire on him in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The incident took place in Jablipora village of Bijbehara in the district.

The injured person was hospitalised and is undergoing treatment.

This is a developing story. More details are awaited.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday held telephone conversations with Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena and Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, conveying heartfelt condolences.

During the telephonic conversations, PM Modi expressed condolences on his behalf and also on the behalf of the nation.

"Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had telephone conversations with the President and the Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and conveyed heartfelt condolences on his own behalf and on behalf of all Indians at the loss of over one hundred and fifty innocent lives in todays terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka," further added the statement.

A total of eight explosions shook the south Asian island nation on Sunday killing over 160 people and injuring several hundred.

The PM reiterated the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka. He also wished the injured speedy recovery and offered any required assistance for their treatment.

"The Prime Minister renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka for ensuring its security against the challenges such as those posed by terrorism. He also wished the injured speedy recovery and offered any required assistance for their treatment," read the statement.

Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the explosions.

"Prime Minister Shri Modi condemned in the strongest terms the serial terrorist attacks, perpetrated at sites including religious places and during a religious festival. Terming them as cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts, he pointed out that these attacks were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in our region and the entire world," added the statement.New Delhi: The Election Commission on Sunday issued a show cause notice to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the BJP candidate from Bhopal, for her controversial remarks about the Babri Masjid demolition.

This is the second poll panel notice against Thakur since the saffron party announced her candidature on Wednesday. She has been asked to reply by Monday.

In an interview to a television channel over the weekend, Thakur said that she was among the people who demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 and that she was "proud" of it.

"We removed a blot from the country. We went to demolish the structure. I feel extremely proud that God gave me this opportunity and I could do that. We will make sure a Ram temple is constructed at that site," Thakur told the channel.

The first notice against Thakur was issued after she bragged that former ATS Chief Hemant Karkare died at the hands of terrorists during the 26/11 attack in Mumbai because she 'cursed' him.

Following a backlash, Thakur apologised admitting that Karkare was a 'martyr'. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) distanced itself from her remark.

The 49-year-old is an accused in the Malegaon blasts case in which six people died and around 100 were injured in 2006. She is currently out on bail and her candidature has been challenged in court by the father of one of the men who died in Malegaon.New Delhi: BJP MP from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj on Sunday kicked up another row as he called Rahul Gandhi a 'dumb guy' (Mandbuddhi) while trying to ridicule the Congress president at a rally on Sunday.

The BJP lawmaker asked at the rally today whether those opposing Narendra Modi as the PM for the second term, want 'dumb' Rahul Gandhi to become the next Prime Minister of the country. "Modi hatao toh lao kisko, kya mandbuddhi Rahul ko ya daulat ki beti Mayawati ko ya jo baap ka na hua Akhilesh ko. (If not Modi, then who should it be - dumb guy Rahul Gandhi or money-minded Mayawati or Akhilesh, who didn't stay loyal with his father).

He said that according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the time has gone when rulers were born straight out of a queen's womb. Today, it is the votes of the people that decided who's is the king.

He also termed Opposition efforts to forge a grand alliance as a manifestation of dynasty politics, calling it nothing but just an election gimmick.

"Congress works in a manner to please Pakistan and Muslims. There are few people in our country that are like an enemy in the guise of a friend. They eat here but they sing praises in favour of Pakistan," he said.

He added that Ravana used his sister Surpnakha, Hiranyakashyap used Holika and Kansa used Putna, Rahul Gandhi is using his sister Priyanka Gandhi.

Sakshi also said that saffron can never get associated with terrorism and there is nothing like 'saffron terror'. He quipped that the situation in West Bengal has deteriorated and that its condition has become worst than Bihar and Kerala.External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Sunday tweeted that atleast three Indians are among those killed in a string of deadly explosions in Sri Lankan capital Colombo today morning.

In her tweet the EAM said that the Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed to the Government of India citing the National Hospital, Colombo about the death of three Indian nationals.

The minister added that the names of the deceased are Lakshmi, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh and the Indian government was ascertaining further details.

Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals. Their names are Lokashini, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Ramesh. We are ascertaining further details. /3  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

In another tweet, the minister said that she has informed the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance to Colombo in this moment of crisis. She added that India is also ready despatch its medical teams to help Sri Lankan agencies.

I conveyed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka that India is ready to provide all humanitarian assistance. In case required, we are ready to despatch our medical teams as well.  Chowkidar Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 21, 2019

Sushma Swarah has appealed to Indians in distress to get in touch with Indian High Commission in Colombo in case they need any assistance. She also tweeted the helpline numbers, which are: +94777903082,+94112422788,+94112422789, +94112422789.

At least 207 people were killed and 450 injured as a series of blasts hit Colombo Sunday morning. Seven people have also been arrested in a raid on a house in Colombo in connection with the blasts probe, news agency Reuters reported.

"Altogether we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now, we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals," Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said in Colombo.

The eight explosions, some of which were reportedly suicide bomb attacks, forced the Sri Lankan to order clampdown across the country. The government has declared a curfew and blocked access to major social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp.CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday released the names of candidates for three Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

It is to be noted that the AAP is fighting the Lok Sabha poll in alliance with Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). As part of the seat-sharing deal reached between the two parties, the AAP will contest on three seats, while the JJP will field candidates on the remaining seven seats which are at stake in the state.

The AAP has decided to field its unit chief Naveen Jaihind from Faridabad parliamentary constituency, while Prithvi Raj, a retired DGP, is party's candidate from Ambala reserved constituency. From Karnal, the AAP has given the ticket to Krishan Kumar Agarwal, who is an advocate. The names of three candidates were announced at a joint press conference of the AAP and the JJP in New Delhi. The JJP has already announced that sitting MP Dushyant Chautala is party's candidate from Hisar seat.

On Saturday, the AAP had said that the party failed to forge and alliance with the Congress in Delhi because the grand old party was unwilling to enter into an alliance with the AAP outside Delhi.

The JJP is contesting the Lok Sabha poll for the first time as the party was in December last year after a split in the Indian National Lok Dal following a feud in the Chautala clan.

The feud forced INLD founder Om Prakash Chautala to expel his older son Ajay Chautala and grandsons Dushyant Chautala and Digvijay Chautala from the party and support his younger son Abhay Singh Chautala.

It may be recalled that the AAP had extended its support to JJP candidate Digvijay Chautala in the Jind bypolls, which was won by the BJP. Digvijay, however, finished at the second place ahead of Congress candidate Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The filing of nominations for 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana started on April 16 and the last of filing the nomination is April 23. The polling for 10 seats in the state will take place on May 12.Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani called Congress a sinking ship and trained her guns on the party challenging the Gandhi family to field any family member from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding that ultimately he will emerge the winner.

In an exclusive interview to Zee News on Saturday, she said the Gandhi family can bring family members from within the nation or from Italy but they will lose to PM Modi. Her comment follows reports that Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might contest from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat against PM Modi.

"I say bring all the members of the family into politics. Bring your uncles, brother in law, everybody into politics. Bring everyone into politics be it in India or Italy. Bring the entire family in the political arena but even then PM Narendra Modi will come into power," said Irani.

The BJP candidate from Amethi Lok Sabha seat slammed party president Rahul Gandhi alleging that even after winning from the Amethi seat (in 2014 election) he deserted the people and ran off to Kerala's Wayanad to fight the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

She claimed that it has happened for the first time in Indian politics that party workers are writing to Congress president asking him to contest in another seat as Amethi isn't safe for him. She added that Rahul lacks leadership qualities.

Irani has been fielded against Congress president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi seat.

"I've nothing to fear in Amethi. It is Rahul Gandhi who fears as he left Amethi behind to contest from Wayanad. For the first time in Indian politics, it has happened that the party workers are writing to party president has been asking him to contest in another seat as this seat (Amethi) isn't safe for you. Rahul Gandhi lacks leadership qualities," said Irani.

She stressed that even after losing from the seat she stayed with the people of Amethi. She added that she has the affection of the people which is her plus point. "Even after winning in Amethi, Rahul Gandhi went to a second seat. He won from the seat and was still missing. But even after being defeated in Amethi, I stayed here. I have the affection of the people and this is my plus point.

Irani claimed that several Congress leaders in Amethi are joining the BJP as they no longer want to be a part of Congress.

Speaking on the temple politics of Rahul Gandhi, Irani said, "I believe that whoever tries to deceive God, he will never spare the human. The public has well understood the drama that he created over the sacred thread."

"Rahul Gandhi goes to the temple to do politics in UP and North India and why do they suddenly take the flag of Muslim League after going to Kerala? Rahul Gandhi did not answer it yet," added Irani.

Speaking on the move made by the SP-BSP alliance of not fielding any candidate in Amethi or Raebareli against Rahul, she said that when SP did not field a candidate against Rahul still he is running away. "You can well imagine had the SP-BSP alliance fielded a candidate what would have been his situation. Rahul Gandhi is taking support and is also running away. Hardly anyone has ever seen Rahul Gandhi so scared," she added.

On the problem of drinking water in the villages of Amethi, Smriti Irani said that this is the story of many villages of Amethi where there is no drinking water. It is the work of the MPs to deliver the problems of the people to the administration.Balodabazar: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel Saturday alleged that the BJP had no one with a "clean image" and so it had to field Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.

Thakur is out on bail in the 2008 blast case and she is under fire for claiming that IPS officer Hemant Karkare was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her.

Thakur, who is pitted against senior Congress leader Digvijiya Singh from the Bhopal seat, has apologised for her remarks.

"She has filed her nomination against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.The BJP did not have any other candidate so it has fielded a 'gunda mavali' (goon) who had indulged in spreading terror," Baghel said while addressing an election rally at Chhattisgarh's Tundra here.

Baghel was campaigning for Congress candidate from the Janjgir-Champa Lok Sabha constituency Ravi Bharadwaj.

On Thakur's remark on Karkare, he said, "She had said that Karkare died because she cursed him.Terrorists had killed him. It seems she was hand in glove with the terrorists."

Speaking to reporters after the rally, Baghel alleged that Thakur had attacked a man with a knife when she was living in Bilaigarh town in Balodabazar district in 2001-2002 and claimed local people had also told him about the incident.

The BJP has refuted the charges, saying Baghel was making baseless allegation for "political gains".

"She has been jailed for her acts. For the first time, she was jailed in Madhya Pradesh in 2008 during chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's tenure. The BJP does not even have an appropriate candidate who has a clean image," Bhagel said.

He said that a person, who has been "involved in violent and terrorist activities and wanted to divide the nation, has been made a candidate by the party (BJP)". "What are they (BJP) doing," Baghel said.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah should apologise to the nation for her statement on Hemant Karkare. The entire country salutes the martyrdom of Hemant Karkare," he said.

However, BJP state spokesperson Sanjay Shrivastav refuted the charges, saying Baghel has levelled false allegations for "political gains".

"The allegations are false. Sadhvi Pragyaji had given a statement before public and now has taken it back. The matter is over now. The CM is levelling false charges on her for political gain," he told PTI.

Thakur had made the remarks on Karkare in an election rally in Bhopal on Friday and apologised for her comments in a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh's Berasai area.

Thakur has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 blast case, but is still facing trial under other criminal provisions, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.INDORE: The BJP on Sunday announced that Shankar Lalwani will be the party's candidate from Indore parliamentary constituency in upcoming Lok Sabha poll.

Indore is widely considered as a bastion of BJP as senior leader and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had been winning from this seat 1989.

The 76-year-old Mahajan had announced few days ago that she would not fight from Indore Lok Sabha seat this time. It seems that Mahajan decided to step out of the electoral politics keeping in mind BJP's new policy of not giving ticket to leaders above the age of 75.

Lalwani is not new to politics as he has earlier served as Indore Development Authority (IDA) chairman and Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) president. He belongs to Sindhi community and is contesting Lok Sabha poll for the first time. Lalwani is up against Congress' Pankaj Sanghvi.

Earlier it was reported that BJP may field general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya from Indore but Vijayvargiya decided against contesting citing responsibilities as the in charge of BJP in West Bengal, which is a very important state for the party in this Lok Sabha poll.

Shortly after the announcement of his name, Lalwani went to Mahajan's residence to meet her. BJP sources said that Lalwani is very close to Mahajan and it was veteran BJP leader who had advised the party to field Lalwani from Indore in her place.

It may be recalled that few days ago Mahajan had met BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi and it is learnt that during the meeting she had suggested the names of Lalwani and some other leaders, including mayor Malini Gaur and social worker Jayant Bhise.

With the announcement of Lalwani's name from Indore, we can say that it is the end of Mahajan's electoral politics just like veteran BJP leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Mahajan was born in Maharashtra and she came to Indore after marrying Jayant Mahajan. She contested her first election in 1989 and surprised everyone by defeating well-known Congress leader and former CM Prakash Chandra Sethi.NEW DELHI: Congress on Sunday released its plan on national security titled 'India's National Security Strategy'. The plan is drafted by Lt Gen (Retd) D.S. Hooda, who was the Northern Army Commander when Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on terror camps in PoK in September 2016.

The plan emphasises on five main issues - assuming rightful place of India in matters of global importance, securing the neighbourhood, internal security, keeping Indians safe and strengthening the nation's capabilities.

The plan was released during a press conference which was attended by Lt Gen (Retd) Hooda, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram. Talking to media, Chidambaram said that the Congresws would make all efforts to implement the five key points mentioned in its plan on national security if it is voted back to power.

The senior Congress leader added that the party is also open to expand revise the plan after receving inputs from National Security Advisory Board, National Security Council and the Cabinet Committee on Security.

"The final decision will be taken by the government when the plan goes through these institutional structures," he said.

"Our approach is not ad-hoc. Our approach is not impulsive. Our approach is that after careful study and deliberation, we will take necessary measures to protect our national security." added the Rajya Sabha MP.

For his part, Lt Gen (Retd) said that 'Jan Suraksha' is the main goal of national security and time has come for India to take measures aimed at solving the climate change crisis and job crisis. "What will be the place of India in the world. How are our relationships with the world`s powers," he said.

Lt Gen (Retd) stressed that the global community must recognise India's strength and grant a permanent place to New Delhi in the United Nations Security Council.

The Congress also noted in its plan on National Security that the party has always adopted and followed a policy of zero tolerance on terrorism. "As Lt. Gen (Retd.) D.S. Hooda recently noted, the Indian Army was always given a free hand, without any political interference, to deal with Pakistan and cross-border terrorism," it said. The Congress also took a dig at the BJP for politicising the issues releated to national security and the armed forces.

In its plan, the Congress said that India is undoubtedly a global power and also the largest democracy in the world. The party stressed that there are major security challenges before the country, including transnational terrorism, a troubled neighbourhood, terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, naxalism, threats to the data and privacy of our citizens and climate change and environmental threats.Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday asked the Opposition to declare its Prime Ministerial nominee for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The Shiv Sena chief made these remarks while addressing a rally at Satara in western Maharashtra.

Speaking during the rally in Satara, Thackeray also took a dig at the sitting NCP MP Udayanraje Bhosale who is in the fray against Shiv Sena's Narendra Patil.

"Before challenging the BJP-Sena alliance, the Opposition should decide on its prime ministerial candidate," the Sena chief said.



The Sena president added that the Satara MP is known for his minimum attendance in Parliament.

"People of Satara should decide whether they want a candidate who will speak in Lok Sabha or the current one known for speaking nothing," he said.

In Maharashtra, which sends 48 number of MPs to Lok Sabha, the main electoral battle is between the saffron combine of the Sena-BJP and the alliance of the Congress and NCP and other regional parties.BHOPAL: In yet another trouble for Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, BJP candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, the Election Commission on Sunday issued a show cause notice to her seeking explanation over her controversial remarks about the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.

Sadhvi Pragya stirred controversy on Saturday when she said in an interview to a television channel that she was also part of the group which demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, adding that she was "proud" of her involvement in the whole movement.

"We removed a blot from the country. We went to demolish the structure. I feel extremely proud that God gave me this opportunity and I could do that. We will make sure a Ram temple is constructed at that site," the BJP leader said in the interview.

This is the second notice issued by the poll panel against Pragya Thakur since the BJP announced her as the party's candidate from Bhopal. On Saturday, the EC had issued a notice to Sadhvi Pragya after she dropped a bombshell by claiming that former ATS Chief Hemant Karkare died during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks because she "cursed" him.

The comment led to outrage across the nation, forcing Sadhvi Pragya to apologise for her statements. She also admitted that Karkare was a "martyr". The BJP, however, did not condemned Sadhvi Pragya's remark but tried to douse the fire by saying that the remarks made by Sadhvi Pragya were her 'personal remarks' and the party considers Karkare as a 'martyr'.

The 48-year-old Sadhvi Pragya is currently on bail and she has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. Sadhvi Pragya is still facing trial under other criminal provisions, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in Malegaon case.

The BJP on Wednesday announced that Sadhvi Pragya will contest Lok Sabha poll against Congress stalwart Digvijay Singh from Bhopal. In an interview to a TV channel on Friday PM Modi had said that the BJP decided to give ticket because the party wanted to give a symbolic answer to all those who tried to brand Hindus as "terrorist".NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Sunday transferred IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin, who was posted as the General Observer in Odisha for the 2019 Lok Sabha election to Karnataka.

According to the news agency ANI, Mohsin was transferred to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka.

Election Commission of India has transferred Mohammed Mohsin (who was appointed General Observer in Odisha for the Lok Sabha elections) to the office of Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer.  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin had made headlines after he was suspended for inspecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chopper in Sambalpur.

Mohsin's action was seen as a gross violation of the laid protocol and was suspended.

In its suspension notice, the EC cited an April 2014 order, which Mohsin allegedly violated, that exempted SPG protectees, including the PM, from checking by officials.

The poll panel asked him to immediately leave for Bangalore and report to the Karnataka CEC office.Barmer: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India is no longer worried about threats of Pakistan using its nuclear bombs against the country and said that the armed forces are fully equipped and prepared to meet any eventuality.

In a stern reminder to Pakistan, the PM said that today India is among the world powers with the capability to carry out nuclear attacks across the land, water, and air.

"The NDA government has instilled fear in the minds and hearts of terrorists. We hit terrorists getting right into their homes. Now India is no more afraid of Pakistan threats," the PM said while addressing a poll rally here.

''India has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats. Every other day they used to say 'we have a nuclear button, we have a nuclear button'.....What do we have then? Have we kept it for Diwali?'' the PM asked while addressing a huge gathering of supporters in Rajasthan's Barmer.

#WATCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Barmer, Rajasthan: India has stopped the policy of getting scared of Pakistan's threats. Every other day they used to say "We've nuclear button, we've nuclear button".....What do we have then? Have we kept it for Diwali? pic.twitter.com/cgSLoO8nma  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

Attacking the Congress-led Opposition, the PM said, "We forced Pakistan to beg around the world. You think that I did what was right, but Congress and its allies think it was not right.''

"They think terrorism and national security is just not the issue to discuss. They think that Modi should not talk of Indian honour and valour. Why? Am I here to attend a Bhajan Mandali (hymn singing session)?" the PM said.

Citing his government`s record on terrorism, particularly the Balakot airstrikes following the Pulwama attack on February 14 that left at least 40 CRPF men dead, PM Modi mocked the opposition`s response.

"We went into their (terrorists`) homes to attack them and they (Congress) are asking for proof. As we the hit terrorists, pains were felt in their hearts," the PM quipped.

Hailing the armed forces for their selfless service to the nation, the PM recalled the 1971 War during which the Indian forces captured a large part of the Pakistani territory.

''In 1971, due to the bravery of our soldiers, a big part of Pakistan came in our possession. Around 90,000 Pakistani soldiers were in our custody but what did we do in Shimla? Government squandered everything that our jawans had won.....what if Modi was there then?'' the PM asked again.

#WATCH PM Modi in Barmer, Rajasthan: In 1971 due to bravery of our soldiers a big part of Pak came in our possession, 90,000 Pakistani soldiers were in our custody but what did we do in Shimla? Govt squandered everything that our jawans had won.....what if Modi was there then? pic.twitter.com/zo1SJ8KDl2  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

Attacking the Congress party, the PM said, ''The then Congress government missed a big opportunity to resolve Kashmir issue in 1971 by releasing the Pakistani soldiers and returning the land acquired by the Indian forces.''

The PM also accused the Congress of indulging in the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter scam.

"With Michael mama (alleged middleman Christian Michael), they looted honest people"s income. However, as you had elected a `mazboot` government, we contacted France for Rafale (fighter jets), leaving aside Congress agents. These aircraft will soon be seen in Indian skies," he said.

Addressing an election rally in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh earlier on Sunday, hours after a series of blasts rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, PM Modi said, "India is standing by Sri Lanka and is ready for any help in the time of crisis."

Expressing concern over the menace of terrorism, he said, "When you go to vote and press the 'Lotus' (BJP's poll symbol) button...Keep it in mind that you are pressing that button to eliminate terrorism. Your finger has that power. Pressing the 'lotus' button will strengthen my resolve to fight against terrorism."

At the same rally, PM Modi accused the Congress party of betraying the people, saying injustice was done to the country's growth potential and its resources.

''Do you want strong India or helpless India? Do you want Congress government that makes country weak or BJP that makes country strong,'' the PM asked the gathering.

PM in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan: Do you want to see an India that gives reply to Pak or one that bows down to them? An India that gives a strong reply to terrorists or an India that stays mum after terrorist attacks? A Congress that weakens the country or a BJP that strengthens it? pic.twitter.com/2dzc58se95  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

The PM concluded by saying that ''people have faith that Modi cannot tolerate an attack on the country, can also risk his political future for the sake of the nation.''

During a rally in Gujarat's Patan, the PM had said that he had warned Pakistan of serious consequences if it did not return Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

PM Modi, who has been touring the length and breadth of the country while campaigning for his party, had come to Rajasthan on Sunday to address rallies in Chittorgarh and Barmer.

According to BJP state tour program convener Omkar Singh Lakhawat, the Prime Minister will address rallies in Udaipur and Jodhpur on Monday.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, too, will address three public meetings on Monday in Kolayat of Bikaner, Deoli of Tonk and Shahajahapur of Alwar.

BJP chief Amit Shah will tour the state on April 26 and 30. He will address a public meeting in Jalore district on 26 April and then take part in a road show in Jodhpur same day.

(With Agency inputs)A high-pitched political campaign will take place on Sunday across the nation with leaders from several parties wooing voters for the Lok Sabha election 2019.

As Sunday marks the last day of campaigning for the third phase polling, the nation will witness a hectic campaign. The third phase polling will be held on April 23 (Tuesday) for 117 constituencies including those in Gujarat, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and 11 other states. The Election Commission (EC) is also cracking the whip on political leaders who have violated the poll code.

Thank you for joining us. Do come back again on Monday (April 22) for live updates of Lok Sabha election 2019.

Here are the updates:

* Election Commission has transferred Mohammed Mohsin (who was appointed General Observer in Odisha for the 2019 Lok Sabha election) to the office of Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer.

* Sadhvi Pragya replies to EC notice over controversial remarks on 26/11 hero Hemant Karkare.

* Election for the Patkura assembly constituency, scheduled to be held on April 29, adjourned due to the death of BJD candidate Bed Prakash Agarwalla.

* BJP releases list of candidates for Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and UP; Dr Harsh Vardhan to contest from Delhi's Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari - North East Delhi, Pravesh Verma - West Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri - South Delhi and Hardeep Puri from Amritsar.

Bharatiya Janata Party releases list of candidates for Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and UP; Dr Harsh Vardhan to contest from Delhi's Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari- North East Delhi, Pravesh Verma- West Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri -South Delhi and Hardeep Puri from Amritsar pic.twitter.com/VDaivg0A7n  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

* Campaigning ends for the third phase of 2019 Lok Sabha polls scheduled to be held on April 23.

* BJP's Mukul Roy writes to CEO West Bengal over campaigning by Bangladeshi actors for Trinamool Congress, states, "No foreign hand can be allowed to meddle in India's electoral process. TMC ought to be de-recognised as a political party with immediate effect."

* Friends from Delhi rang up because they thought I was in bad health. My health has always been good, told them so. They told me this is what Baijayant Panda was spreading. I was shocked: BJD chief

* Their (Baijayant Panda) companies have always had a shady reputation. He has big political ambitions. He started doing a number of anti-party activities and started leaning strongly towards the BJP...that's how it all ended: Odisha CM

* He (Baijayant Panda) wanted to be chairman of Parliamentary Finance Committee. Our party didn't have sufficient numbers so he thought he'd get support of BJP. I didnt think it was a good idea and didnt support him due to the financial dealings of his company: BJD chief Naveen Patnaik

* BJD chief Naveen Patnaik reacts to Baijayant Panda's exit from the party.

* 'If Congress president asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on being asked if she will be contesting from Varanasi.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on being asked if she will be contesting from Varanasi: If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/rbMagjccOF  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

* Priyanka Gandhi Vadra meets late VV Vasantha Kumar's family members in Makkamkunnu, Wayanad. Kumar had lost his life in Pulwama terror attack on February 14.

Kerala: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra meets Late V V Vasantha Kumar's family members in Makkamkunnu, Wayanad. Kumar had lost his life in Pulwama terror attack on February 14. pic.twitter.com/QnxyAKFMia  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

* EC issues notice to Sadhvi Pragya for remarks on Babri Masjid demolition

* PM in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan: Do you want to see an India that gives reply to Pak or one that bows down to them? An India that gives a strong reply to terrorists or an India that stays mum after terrorist attacks? A Congress that weakens the country or a BJP that strengthens it?

* Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds a roadshow in Sultan Bathery, Kerala's Wayanad.

* Do you want to see an India that gives reply to Pakistan or one that bows down to them? An India that gives a strong reply to terrorists or an India that stays mum after terrorist attacks? A Congress that weakens the country or a BJP that strengthens it?: PM in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan

* BJP President Amit Shah holds a roadshow in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

BJP President Amit Shah holds a roadshow in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/CLXF04fDT0  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

* Meanwhile, the PM strongly condemns the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. ''There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured,'' says PM in his message to the govt of Sri Lanka.

* When Wg Cdr Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I told Pakistan that If anything happens to our pilot then we will not leave you: PM Modi.

PM Narendra Modi in Patan,Gujarat: When #Abhinandan was captured by Pakistan, I said(to Pakistan) that If anything happens to our pilot then we will not leave you pic.twitter.com/0Vlcb7I1A6  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

* PM or not, either I will be alive or the terrorists, warns PM Narendra Modi

* PM Narendra Modi addresses an election rally in Gujarat, urges voters to vote for BJP and make his party victorious in all 26 Lok Sabha seats.

* Kerala: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds a roadshow in Sultan Bathery, Wayanad.

Kerala: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds a roadshow in Sultan Bathery, Wayanad. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/Vk5HPkWIQK  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

* BJP president Amit Shah holds a roadshow in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

BJP President Amit Shah holds a roadshow in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/CLXF04fDT0  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

* The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declared candidates for three seats in Haryana for the Lok Sabha election. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party fielded Naveen Jaihind from Faridabad, Prithviraj from Ambala, and advocate Krishan Kumar Agarwal from Karnal. "The AAP will fight in Haryana on three seats; Naveen Jaihind will be the party`s candidate from Faridabad, social worker Prithviraj from Ambala and advocate Krishna Kumar Agarwal from Karnal seat," said AAP leader Gopal Rai at a joint press conference here. "The names of the remaining candidates of the AAP-Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) alliance will be out by the evening," he added.

* Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it had not returned Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman. Addressing a poll rally at Patan in his home state Gujarat, he also took a jibe at NCP leader Sharad Pawar, saying if he is unaware of his next move, then how Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan can gauge what he will do. "We conducted a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world that PM Modi did this to you. A senior American official said on the second day that PM Modi has kept ready 12 missiles and might attack and the situation will deteriorate. Pakistan announced to return the pilot on the second day, else it was going to be a "qatal ki raat'," PM said Modi.

* 2006 Malegaon blast accused and BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, said she is "proud" to accept that she was involved in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. On being asked about her involvement in the demolition of Babri Masjid and if she would play a major role in building a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Thakur said, "I will go to make the Ram Temple. I have said it yesterday and I am not denying it that I had gone there. I have demolished Babri structure. He is my Ram ji and no one can stop me from making a grand Ram temple."

* Bhopal District Election Officer issued a notice to BJP Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Singh Thakur and sought explanation within a day for her remark on the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

* An FIR has been registered against Mumbai Congress president, Milind Deora, for violating Model Code of Conduct (MCC). This comes two days after the Maharashtra State Election had asked LT Marg police to file an FIR against Deora after his comments on the Jain community were found "false and religiously sensitive". The EC looked into the matter after it received a complaint from a Shiv Sena leader. On April 4, Deora, while addressing an event at Zhaveri Bazar, had accused Shiv Sena of hurting religious sentiments of Jain followers. The Mumbai Congress president urged the community to teach them a lesson by not voting for the party in the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

* Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally in Patan in north Gujarat at 10.30 am. The PM will also address two rallies in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh and Barmer at 1.45 pm and 4.30 pm respectively.

* BJP chief and Gandhinagar Lok Sabha candidate Amit Shah will hold a roadshow in Gujarat's Sanand area in his constituency. Shah will attend meetings with secretaries of societies in Ahmedabad between 9 am to 11 am and will attend a public gathering in Sanand at 12 noon.

* NCP chief Sharad Pawar will hold a rally in Maharashtra's Baramati.

* Congress leader Hardik Patel will campaign at 10 am in a rural area of Jamnagar, Gujarat.

* Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be in the national capital today. A final agreement of Congress' alliance with AAP is likely to come out. Debate on new security manifesto is also likely to take place.

* Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will address three rallies in Madhya Pradesh.

* Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will address a rally at Sangola in Sholapur district of Maharashtra at 12.30 pm.BALURGHAT: With a long-pending railway project, lack of development, scarce job opportunities and rampant infiltration and smuggling in the region, West Bengal`s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has its task cut out in retaining the Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency in the face of formidable challenge from the BJP and the traditionally strong Left outfit, RSP.

The Balurghat Parliamentary constituency, close to the India-Bangladesh border, represents mostly the South Dinajpur district and has over a million electorates.

Of its seven Assembly segments -- Kushmandi, Kumarganj, Balurghat, Tapan, Harirampur and Gangarampur -- come under South Dinajpur, while Itahar is part of the neighbouring North Dinajpur district. The constituency votes in the third phase of Lok sabha elections on Tuesday.

The constituency was dominated by the Left parties, including the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), which won for 10 straight terms from here before finally losing out to Trinamool Congress` (TMC) Arpita Ghosh in 2014.

Ghosh defeated her closest rival Bimalendu Sarkar of the RSP by more than 1.6 lakh votes. Bishwapriya Roychowdhury of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged third, while senior Congress leader Om Prakash Misra finished a distant fourth.

This year, Trinamool has fielded Ghosh again from the seat, while the RSP has gone back to its four-time MP Ranen Barman (1996-2009). BJP`s Sukanta Majumdar and Congress` Abdus Sadeq Sarkar are also in the fray, making Balurghat a four-cornered battle.

Ghosh, a theatre activist, seemed a perfect match for Balurghat, which is known for its distinguished taste in culture, especially theatre. However, her candidature met with stiff opposition from within the Trinamool`s local unit due to her alleged absence from the constituency over the last five years.

The incumbent MP calls it a "temporary confusion", which is over now. "It was a temporary problem. Right now we are working as a unit. There is no more confusion after our leader Mamata Banerjee talked to the party`s district leadership and conveyed her message. We are working together. This time our margin of victory will increase further," she said.

Meanwhile, the BJP, which increased its vote share in the constituency by more than 14 per cent in the last Lok Sabha polls, is sure of winning the seat "provided the people of Balurghat are allowed to cast their votes".

"People of Balurghat were not allowed to vote in the last state rural body elections. Hopefully the situation will change this time. If people are able to cast their votes freely, the BJP will surely emerge victorious from here," said BJP candidate Sukanta Majumdar, a reputed botanist from Gour Banga University.

The party is banking on its increased organisational strength, people`s displeasure over infiltration from Bangladesh and the lack of an alliance between the Left and the Congress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s recent election rally in Buniyadpur proved that Balurghat is on the priority list of the saffron party, along with a number of other north Bengal seats.

The Left Front, which bagged three out of the six seats in South Dinajpur in the Assembly polls and still boasts of a well-knit booth level organisation in the area, is hoping to emerge as the dark horse.

Its candidate Ranen Barman belongs to the Rajbanshi community, which comprises a major chunk of the population in South Dinajpur.

People complain of scarce job opportunity and lack of industries in the area. "We want jobs. Most of us have to move to Kolkata or other cities to pursue higher education and jobs as there are no opportunities here. We need factories here so that more people get employment," said Tapan Mal, a local youth.

Rampant infiltration from Bangladesh and smuggling through the porus borders are also big concerns and the Border Security Force (BSF) has banned jute cultivation within 500 metres of the border fence to prevent movement of outsiders through the fields.

"With the ban on jute cultivation, many farmers like us who stay near the border had to switch to growing paddy," said Imtiaz Ali Mondal, a local farmer.

A long pending demand of the people of the constituency is the completion of the Eklakhi-Balurghat railway project, including the 29 kilometre railway track between Balurghat and Hili near the Bangladesh border.

Proposed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her tenure as Railway Minister, the foundation stone for the project was laid in 2010, but not much work has been done since. The Opposition parties blame the Trinamool government for the delay.

"Land for the proposed project was marked, posts were installed and construction of a railway bridge started long back. But nothing has materialised so far. The land acquisition is still due," a local complained.The NDA candidate from Kerala's Wayanad, Tushar Vellappally, on Sunday filed a complaint before CEO Kerala seeking a review of the nomination of Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

In his complaint, Vellappally has claimed that Rahul Gandhi is carrying dual passport and he is not a citizen of India."It's understood that Rahul Gandhi is having passport of a foreign country also. He didn't disclose this in the nomination filed or in the affidavit," said the NDA candidate.

Kerala: Wayanad NDA candidate T Vellappally through his lawyers writes to CEO Kerala to review nomination of Rahul Gandhi, states, "It's understood that Rahul Gandhi is having passport of a foreign country also.He didn't disclose this in the nomination filed or in the affidavit."  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

Vellappally, who is the BDJS chief, also mentioned in his letter to CEO that the Returning Officer in Amethi (Uttar Pradesh) from where the Congress president is also in the fray has also raised doubts over his qualifications and citizenship and has postponed the scrutiny of his nomination papers till April 22.

Vellappally urged the EC to review the acceptance of nomination of the Congress chief and check for the validity and reject the application. He also requested the EC obtain a sworn affidavit from either Rahul or his authorized agent saying that Rahul Gandhi is an Indian citizen, Rahul Gandhi and Raul Vinci are same and he is holding only one Indian passport and no duplicate or other passports in any other name.

Here's the full text of Tushar Vellappally's letter to Kerala CEO:

From,

Sinil Kumar G

Chief Election Agent

Thushar Vellappally (NDA Candidate Wayanad Constituency)

HPC04 Wayanad Constituency



To

The Returning Officer

HPC04 Wayanad Constituency

Ref: HPC04 Wayanad Constituency



Subject: Review of accepting nomination of Sri. Rahul Gandhi INC(1) candidate in Wayanad Parliament Constituency.



Dear Sir,



1. Your goodself has accepted the nomination filed by Shri. Rahul Gandhi, INC (I) candidate, who is AICC president contesting in Wayanad constituency.

2. It is understood that Shri. Rahul Gandhi is having a passport of foreign country also.

3. It is now learnt that the said candidate has not disclosed this fact in the nomination filed or in the affidavit. The said suppression and irregularity came to my notice only today. As I 'm living in Kerala and Shri. Rahul Gandhi, living in New Delhi, and he has purportedly to have completed his studies in foreign countries such willful omission and irregularities made by Shri. Rahul Gandhi was not known to me, in spite of my due diligence. The moment I got the information, I'm raising questions on the validity of his candidature.

4. It is worthwhile to mention that the Returning Officer in Amethi ( Uttar Pradesh) wherein Shri Rahul Gandhi is contesting, has raised serious doubts about the qualifications and even citizenship of Shri Rahul Gandhi and postponed the scrutiny of Shri. Rahul Gandhi's nomination on multiple grounds.

5. I understand that Shri. Rahul Gandhi is not eligible to contest in parliament election and his nomination is to be rejected on one among the following ground of my information.

(i) He is not qualified to Article 84(a) of the Indian Constitution, as he is not a citizen of India.

(ii) Shri. Rahul Gandhi, is understood to have been the director and secretary of a private British company named BACKOPS Limited, where has described as a British citizen in United Kingdom residential address in the 2005, 2006, and 2009 return of the company.

(iii) There is no clarity on when he became a British citizen and whether he is an Indian citizen.

(iv) The affidavit filed by Shri. Rahul Gandhi does not disclose about the assets and profit of the above mentioned UK Company.

(v) It is said that Shri. Rahul Gandhi has professedly used the name RAUL VINCY in his educational certificate. There is no material available to substantiate that RAUL VINCY and Rahul Gandhi is one same person. The education qualification are also anachronic and ambiguous.

(vi) It is "general" duty of the Returning Officer as per section 24 of the Representation of People Act, 1951, to all such act and is necessary to effectively conduct the election the manner provided by the act, rules and order meet under.

I request you to review the acceptance of nomination of Shri. Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad constituency to check for the validity and reject the application. It is further requested that you may kindly obtain a sworn affidavit from Shri. Rahul Gandhi or his authorized agent to the effect that:

1. Shri Rahul Gandhi is an Indian citizen

2. Rahul Gandhi and Raul Vinci are same

3. Rahul Gandhi is holding only one Indian passport and no duplicate or other passports in any other name.

I am enclosing a copy of the objections raised in Amethi against Sri Rahul Gandhi. Kindly give me some time to file the annexures also.

In view of above complications and objections of Constitutional nature, to conduct elections in a free and fare manner, I earnestly request you to kindly postpone election of this constituency at least for a fortnight failing which serious prejudice may be caused to all other candidates.

Place: Yours Faithfully

Date:

Rajeev Ranjan Srivastava quit his IT job in Singapore and instead chose to work at the grassroots level in India for the betterment of people here. Claiming that he felt the need to make a difference in the lives of people who needed help, Srivastava is contesting the Lok Sabha election 2019 from East Champaran constituency on a Janata Dal Rashtravadi ticket.

Srivastava was an IT engineer in Singapore before returning home to work for the masses. According to him, people tend to join politics to make money but he felt he needed to be closer to fellow countrymen and work for their upliftment. "Politicians mostly tend to use politics to make money and use a number of ways to take or stay in power. In all of this, development and welfare of people take a back seat. People want to see honest politicians and this is why I have left my job and come here," he said.

Srivastava also took a dig at the more recognised politicians of East Champaran constituency and said that nothing much has been done by them and this is why people here would reject them.

Srivastava promises to interact with people and understand their needs and aspirations. "People have been searching for leaders who can assure prosperity and development."

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Bharatiya Janata Party's Radha Mohan Singh had defeated his rivals from Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United) by a sizeable margin in this constituency. This year, the constituency votes in the sixth phase - on May 12.

(Reporting by Ranjit/Zee News)Odisha Chief Minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik on Sunday finally broke his silence over the reasons behind his estrangement with family friend and former BJD MP Baijayant 'Jay' Panda and slammed Panda for spreading rumors about his health.

Talking to ANI, Patnaik said that Panda wanted to be chairman of Parliamentary Finance Committee but the BJD did not have the required numbers to prop him up. According to Patnaik, Panda then suggested to take help from the BJP but he was not in favour of this idea.

"He (Baijayant Panda) wanted to be chairman of Parliamentary Finance Committee.Our party didn't have sufficient numbers so he thought he'd get support of BJP.I didnt think it was a good idea&didnt support him due to financial dealings of his company," said the Odisha CM.

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik to ANI:He(Baijayant Panda)wanted to be chairman of Parliamentary Finance Committee.Our party didn't have sufficient numbers so he thought he'd get support of BJP.I didnt think it was a good idea&didnt support him due to financial dealings of his company pic.twitter.com/YF10v1jD5i  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

Patnaik then mentioned another incident which led to his estrangement from Jay Panda and said, "I was pursuing the development of railways in Kendrapara. It is the only district in the coast which has no rail development. A former Railways Minister laughed and said that 'you are pursuing development of railways in Kendrapara but your MP (Jay Panda) is only concerned about railway development to his mining companies.' This shocked me."

The BJD chief remarked that he felt let down after knowing about this incident but he decided to take action against Jay Panda after it was confirmed to him that the Kendrapara MP was spreading rumors about his health. "After 2014, a number of my friends from Delhi rang up very concerned because they thought I was in bad health. But my health has always been good and I told them so. They told me that this is what Baijayant Panda was spreading. This was a shock," he noted.

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik to ANI: Friends from Delhi rang up because they thought I was in bad health. My health has always been good, told them so. They told me this is what Baijayant Panda was spreading. I was shocked. https://t.co/smc7x2ayIn  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

It is to be noted that Jay Panda is contesting the Lok Sabha poll on a BJP ticket from Kendrapara. The voting in Kendrapara is scheduled to take place in the fourth phase on April 29. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will campaign for Jay Panda in Kendrapara on April 22.Patan: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it had not returned Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman. Addressing a poll rally at Patan in his home state Gujarat, he also took a jibe at NCP leader Sharad Pawar, saying if he is unaware of his next move, then how Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan can gauge what he will do.

Following the air strike at Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, there was a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter planes on February 27 in which IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by the neighbouring country.

Before his jet was hit, the IAF pilot downed an F-16 fighter of Pakistan. He was released on the night of March 1 by Pakistan.

Referring to it, Modi said after the pilot was caught, the opposition started seeking a reply from him over this. "We conducted a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world that Modi did this to you," he said.

"A senior American official said on the second day that Modi has kept ready 12 missiles and might attack and the situation will deteriorate. Pakistan announced to return the pilot on the second day, else it was going to be a "qatal ki raat'," Modi said.

"This was said by America, I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak about it when the time will come," he added.

Asserting his government's commitment towards national security, Modi said whether the prime minister's chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or terrorists will remain alive.

He also took a swipe at Pawar, who on Saturday said he was "terribly afraid" as to what Modi, who once called Pawar his mentor in politics, would do next. "Sharad Pawar says I don't know what will Modi do. If he is unaware of what Modi will do tomorrow, how will Imran Khan know? Modi said.

The prime minister also appealed to people of Gujarat to make the BJP victorious on all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state, where polling will be held on Tuesday. "It is the duty of people of my home state to take care of the 'son of the soil', give all 26 seats in Gujarat to me," he said.

"My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 will be why it happened?" he said.BHOPAL: BJP's controversial Bhopal candidate and one of the Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on Sunday replied to the notice issued by the Election Commission to her in connection with her derogatory remarks on 26/11 martyr and former Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare.

In her reply to the poll panel, Sadhvi denied making any objectionable remarks on Karkare.

Sadhvi said that she had just shared with the public what had happened to her and how she was tortured by the late Mumbai ATS chief and his team.

''I didn't make any defamatory comments for any martyr. I had mentioned about the torture inflicted on me on orders of the then Congress government. It's my right to put before the public what had happened to me,'' Sadhvi Pragya said in her reply to the poll panel.

Pragya Singh Thakur's reply to EC on the show cause notice served to her: I didn't make any defamatory comments for any martyr. I had mentioned about the torture inflicted on me on orders of the then Congress government. It's my right to put before public what had happened to me. pic.twitter.com/9SmKrCy7GR  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

Her response came hours after the Election Commission issued a show-cause notice to her seeking explanation over her controversial remarks on Karkare.

Importantly, the poll panel had on Sunday issued another notice to her for her remarks on the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.

Sadhvi Pragya had stirred controversy on Saturday when she said in an interview to a television channel that she was also part of the group which demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, adding that she was "proud" of her involvement in the whole movement.

"We removed a blot from the country. We went to demolish the structure. I feel extremely proud that God gave me this opportunity and I could do that. We will make sure a Ram temple is constructed at that site," the BJP leader said in the interview.

On Saturday, the EC had issued a notice to Sadhvi Pragya after she claimed that former ATS chief Hemant Karkare died during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks because she "cursed" him.

The comment led to outrage across the nation, forcing Sadhvi Pragya to apologise for her statements.

She also admitted that Karkare was a "martyr".

The BJP, however, did not condemn Sadhvi Pragya's remark but tried to douse the fire by saying that the remarks made by Sadhvi Pragya were her 'personal remarks' and the party considers Karkare as a 'martyr'.

The 48-year-old Sadhvi Pragya is currently on bail and she has been discharged by a court on charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Sadhvi Pragya is still facing trial under other criminal provisions, including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in Malegaon case.

The BJP on Wednesday announced that Sadhvi Pragya will contest Lok Sabha poll against Congress stalwart Digvijay Singh from Bhopal.

In an interview to a TV channel on Friday PM Modi had said that the BJP decided to give ticket because the party wanted to give a symbolic answer to all those who tried to brand Hindus as "terrorist".Campaign for the Lok Sabha elections came to a close across Kerala at 6 p.m. on Sunday amid reports of skirmishes between workers of the three rival political parties coming in from several parts of the state.

A record 227 candidates will fight it out for the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, which go to the polls in the third phase of polling on Tuesday.

A total of 25,408,711 voters, including 13,111,189 women, 12,297,403 men and 119 belonging to the `other` gender, will exercise their franchise in 24,970 polling stations spread across 14 districts.

Among those affected by the skirmishes were senior Congress leader A.K. Antony and the party`s candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, who were was stopped by angry Left workers near here and had to taken to safety by their security officials.

A peeved Antony later said that this was the first time that he encountered such a fracas and that it happened in front of the police.

"If this is the fate of the leaders, how will a free and fair election be held? Both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are responsible for unleashing violence," Antony said.

In Vadakara, where an intense poll battle is on the cards between Congress` K. Muraleedharan and CPI-M strongman P. Jayarajan, the Kozhikode District Collector has clamped Section 144 at five places in the constituency from 6 p.m. on April 23 to 10 p.m. on April 24 to ensure peaceful atmosphere.

In the Pathanamthitta constituency, the vehicle of BJP candidate K. Surendran was blocked by Left workers.

In Ponanni, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) workers created trouble for Left-backed Independent candidate and sitting MLA P.V. Anwar.

The other places where party workers clashed with each other were Alappuzha, Kottayam and Idukki.

In Kochi, the police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the workers of the Left and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).

The CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front is hoping to do well in the Lok Sabha elections as it feels the people will vote for the Left in appreciation of the three-year rule of the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

"Our candidates will win big, as our good governance is being felt by more and more people. At several places, there is an unholy alliance between the Congress, the BJP and the Indian Union Muslim League, which will see the end of the UDF," Vijayan said.

"The UDF will make it 20 out of 20 in Kerala. That`s what I could sense as I travelled all across the state. The BJP will be ousted from power," said Ramesh Chennithala, Congress leader and leader of the Opposition in the state.

BJP state President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said: "The development agenda set out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been widely accepted, and it will be there to be seen on May 23," said Pillai.BENGALURU: Actress-turned-politician Sumalatha Ambareesh on Sunday claimed that the supporters of Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, are threatening those who are campaigning for her.

It is to be noted that Sumalatha is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha poll as an independent candidate from Mandya Lok Sabha seat against Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who is the Congress-JD(S) alliance candidate.

Sumalatha alleged Nikhil's supporters of targeting and harassing those who are standing in her favour. "This is something which should be taken seriously," Sumalatha told reporters in Mandya.

Sumalatha said that she was deeply concerned over the safety of actors who visited Mandya in order to garner support for her. Sumalatha also raised questions over the statements made by some leaders after the conclusion of first phase of election on April 11.

"Some leaders have stated that those film stars who canvassed for me will have to repent. I need to know what it means. Is it a threat? They should explain what it means. I want to know what the motives are behind the statement and whom are they threatening," she said.

In an indirect attack on the JD(S), Sumalatha said that people who are in power should refrain from targeting ordinary citizens. Sumalatha added that she will meet Mandya Superintendent of Police and try to seek protection for those who are backing her.

Responding to Sumalatha's allegations, Karnataka Minister for Minor Irrigation C S Puttaraju said that she should not think too much over this matter as the government will not allow anyone to harm her supporters.WAYANAD: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday said that she would be happy to contest from Varanasi  Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency - if asked by her brother and party president Rahul Gandhi.

"I am ready to contest and will contest from Varanasi if Congress president asks me," Priyanka Gandhi said minutes before departing from Wayanad in Kerala.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on being asked if she will be contesting from Varanasi: If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/rbMagjccOF  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

Priyanka made these remarks after winding up her two-day trip to the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency from where Rahul Gandhi is contesting, apart from his Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh.

While campaigning for his brother in Wayanad, Priyanka made a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government for making false promises to people and ignoring the country`s farmers.

Campaigning in Wayanad, Priyanka told a gathering that the Modi government has ditched the farmers but the Congress-led UPA government, if it comes to power, will take care of all their needs.

"In the five years, PM Modi has divided the country. He takes care of the rich and the mighty but ignores the needs of the huge farmer community in the country. The BJP said they will double the income of the farmers and would deposit Rs 15 lakh into the bank account of every person, but for Rahul Gandhi, justice and truth matters," she said in Mananthavady, where she arrived in a helicopter after landing at Kannur airport.

She earlier met the family members of CRPF trooper Vasanth Kumar who was killed in the February 14 Pulwama terror attack.

From there, Priyanka Gandhi went to Pulpally where a mammoth gathering was waiting for hours to see her.

"The Modi government has dashed the hopes of the farmers and has taken on the people who fought for their rights. Congress will empower all of you and will never create any difficulty for you all," she said at her public meet there.

This was Priyanka Gandhi`s second visit to Wayanad. On April 4, she accompanied Rahul Gandhi when he filed his nomination papers.

Union Minister Smriti Irani, who is contesting against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, was also supposed to reach Wayanad on Saturday to campaign for NDA constituent Bharat Dharma Jana Sena Chairman and Wayanad candidate Tushar Vellapally but her trip was postponed for Sunday.

Apart from Vellapally, Rahul Gandhi is also facing PP Suneer of the Communist Party of India, who is the candidate of the ruling Left Democratic Front. State CPI-M Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, also campaigned here on Saturday.

The state will vote on April 23 to elect its 20 Lok Sabha members.

(With Agency Inputs)New Delhi: Bollywood actor Ishita Dutta has reacted to her sister Tanushree Dutta's open letter to Ajay Devgn for working with MeToo accused Alok Nath in his upcoming film De De Pyaar De. Ishita said that her sister's comments have put her in a 'precarious situation.

Ishita was quoted by Pinkvilla as saying, I understand that this could land me in a precarious situation, but whats right is right. My sister is supporting the truth. My equation with Ajay sir is separate and bears no connection with what my sister feels about the situation. I dont think he will be upset or angry with me for what she has to say.

Post receiving backlash from Tanushree Dutta and Vinta Nanda, Ajay had said in his defense that the scenes with Alok Nath were filmed much before the accusations against him came to light.I reiterate I am extremely sensitive to the #MeToo movement. But when circumstances are beyond me, I dont see why an attempt is being made to `single me out as being insensitive. This is untrue, " He had said.

Ishita, in another statement, had supported Devgn. She said, "Ajay sir isnt the producer of the film, so he cant be solely responsible. It has to be a collective decision. I believe that they (the makers of the film) couldnt have possibly done anything about it.

Slamming Ajay in her open letter, Tanushree had written, "Nobody even knew before the posters and trailers that Alok Nath is in the film so if Ajay Devgn and the makers wanted they could have just quietly replaced him and re-shot his portions (which is barely 10-15 days for character actors in Bollywood)and given Vinta Nanda the respect she deserves as well as several other women who were troubled by this guy but No! they had to keep the alleged rapist in their film and rub it on not only Vinta's but on all our faces as a show of solidarity with all rapists, molesters and harassers of Bollywood and an even greater show of arrogance and defiance against all things morally and conscientiously right."

'De De Pyaar De' stars Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Rakul Preet Singh in lead roles. It has been directed by Akiv Ali and is produced by Luv Ranjan and Bhushan Kumar. The film is releasing on May 17, 2019CHENNAI: At least seven people were killed and 10 others injured due to a stampede during a local temple festival at Muthiampalayam village near Thuraiyur in Tamil Nadu on Sunday.

According to police, the tragedy occurred when hundreds of people gathered for the 'padikasu' (temple coin) distribution ceremony, held as part of annual 'Chithira Pournami' festival, at the 'Karupu Swamy' (a rural deity) temple in Muthiampalayam village.

Expressing shock and grief over the deaths, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the families of the victims.

Tamil Nadu: 7 people died and more than 10 people were injured in stampede at Karupu Swamy temple in Muthampalayam, earlier today. PM Modi has announced an ex- gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who died and Rs 50,000 each for those were injured in the incident  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

PM Modi tweeted that all possible assistance is being provided to the authorities to help those injured in the tragedy.

Saddened by the loss of lives due to the stampede at a temple in Thuraiyur, Trichy. My condolences to the families of those who passed away and prayers with the injured. All possible help is being extended by the authorities.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

An ex- gratia of Rs 2 lakh each for the next of kin of those who passed away has been approved from the PMs National Relief Fund. Rs 50,000 each for the injured has also been approved.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami too expressed anguish over the loss of lives in the incident and ordered a solatium of Rs one lakh each and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

According to eyewitnesses, the tragedy occurred when the priest started distributing the coins and a section of devotees surged forward to collect them.

Seven people, including four women, died on the spot while ten others were seriously injured and have been hospitalised, they said.

Distribution of the coins is the main event of the festival, which draws a large number of devotees from in and around the village.

Devotees believe keeping the temple coins at home in their cash box will bring prosperity.

A temple official, on condition of anonymity, said there was no effort to control the crowd nor was there enough security personnel to bring the situation under control.

District authorities said the matter was being looked into and action would be taken against those responsible for the mishap.

(With Agency inputs)Mainpuri: At least seven passengers were killed and almost 34 were left injured after a private bus on its way to Varanasi from Delhi rammed into a truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

The incident took place on Saturday night when the bus was on its way to Varanasi, with 41 passengers on board.

Confirming the reports, Superintendent of Police Ajay Shanker Rai told PTI the driver of the bus was among those injured. The identity of the deceased and the injured persons is being ascertained, Rai added.

Among those who died were two staff members and five passengers.

The injured have been shifted to the hospital, while police have sent the bodies of deceased for postmortem.

There were two Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) among those injured in the accident.

In a similar incident, that took place on March 29, at least eight people had lost their lives while 30 others sustained injuries after a bus they were travelling in, collided with a truck on the Yamuna Expressway.COLOMBO: At least 207 people were killed and 450 others injured in bomb blasts that ripped through three churches and three five-star hotels in Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Sunday morning. While the country was already on high alert, two more explosions were reported from around Colombo, taking the total number of blasts during the day to eight.

Hours after the attack, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that the government had some "prior information of the attack" but there was no 'adequate response' from their side. "Altogether, we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information, as of now, we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals," Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters.

The deadly attacks forced the Sri Lankan government to declare a curfew in Colombo and block access to social media and messaging sites. Sri Lankan Airlines has issued notice for passengers travelling during curfew, which will remain in place till 6 am on April 22. Seven people have been arrested so far in connection with the blasts probe.

Reuters reported that at least 27 of the dead were foreigners, including three Indians, five from the UK, three from Denmark, two from Turkey and two of whom had dual US citizenship. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said US nationals were also killed in the attacks but he stopped short of revealing the details of the deceased.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but it is learnt that the Sri Lankan agencies are probing the international links of a local group which may have carried out the dastardly attacks. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has urged the people to not propagate unverified reports and assured everyone that steps are being taken by the government to contain the situation.

According to Reuters, police special task force and military have been ordered by President Maithripala Sirisena to investigate the case and find out the group which was responsible for carrying out the attacks.

The blasts in the churches occurred when people had gathered for prayers on Easter Sunday. The attackers targeted places which are frequented by tourists in Sri Lanka.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj had tweeted that at least three Indians are among those killed in Sri Lanka blasts. In her tweet, the Minister said that the Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed to the Government of India citing the National Hospital, Colombo about the death of three Indian nationals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned the string of deadly blasts in Sri Lanka and offered full help to the Island nation in its times of crisis and stated that ''there is no place for barbarism in the region''.

PM Modi also called up his Sri Lankan counterpart and Sri Lankan President to convey his heartfelt condolences over the loss of over 200 lives in the cowardly attacks.

(With Reuters inputs)COLOMBO: Over 160 people were killed and over 400 injured in multiple blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter on Sunday. In the morning, six simultaneous attacks took place around Colombo while two more took place in quick succession in the afternoon, taking the total number of attacks to eight. While no one has taken responsibility for the attacks so far, the first accused has been arrested in connection with the blasts. This is the first major attack that has taken place in the country after the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

Multiple blasts in Colombo: What we know so far

The explosions, some of which are reportedly suicide bomb attacks, led to an immediate clampdown. The government has declared a nation-wide curfew and blocked access to most major social media and messaging sites including WhatsApp and Facebook.

Where the attacks took place:

On Sunday morning, there were six simultaneous attacks in which at least 160 people were killed and 400 injured. These six places were three churches and three five-star hotels namely -

- St Anthony's Church in Colombo

- St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo

- Another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa

- The Shangri-La in Colombo

- The Cinnamon Grand in Colombo

- Kingsbury in Colombo

While Sri Lanka was already on high alert due to these blasts, two more blasts were reported from around the capital city Colombo.

- A hotel in Dehiwela near the zoo

-Housing complex in Mahavila Udyana Road in Dematagoda

The first six explosions were all reported within a short period just as church services were starting. At least nine foreigners were also among the dead.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day. "I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong," he said in a tweet. "Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation."

President Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered the police special task force and military to investigate who was behind the attacks and their agenda. The military had been deployed and security has been stepped up at Colombo's international airport.Multiple explosions took place in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on Sunday morning. At least 160 people have died and 400 have been injured in explosions in three churches and three five-star hotels.

A blast took place in a church in Batticaloa, followed by explosions reported inside three five-star hotels in the city - Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury. Explosions were also reported from St. Anthony's church in Kochchikade while there was another explosion in St.Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya. More than 300 people - including foreign tourists - have been injured.

There are also reports that explosions have taken place outside of Colombo, in different parts of the country.

BREAKING: Six blasts in Sri Lanka Churches and hotels on Easter, 80 injured. pic.twitter.com/HdC8KNGXSc  Zee News (@ZeeNews) April 21, 2019

Initial reports suggest that church-goers may have been specifically targeted on the occasion of Easter.

Meanwhile, the airport in Colombo has been put on high alert while all available security personnel have been called in for emergency services. Leaves of security personnel have been revoked.

There is no report on whether any Indian citizen has died or is injured even as the Indian embassy in Colombo monitors the situation.

Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789  India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) April 21, 2019

The Sri Lankan authorities have not issued an official statement yet.

(This is a breaking news report and more details would be added as and when available)COLOMBO: At least 207 people were killed and 450 injured as a series of blasts hit Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Seven people have also been arrested in a raid on a house in Colombo in connection with the blasts probe, news agency Reuters reported.

"Altogether we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now, we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals," Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said in Colombo.

The eight explosions, some of which were reportedly suicide bomb attacks, led to an immediate clampdown in the country. The government has declared a curfew and blocked access to major social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp.

Six simultaneous blasts hit three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. While the country was already on high alert, two more explosions were reported from around the capital city taking the total number of blasts during the day to eight.

The blasts in the churches occurred when people had gathered for prayers on Easter Sunday. The places that were targeted were frequented by tourists in Sri Lanka.

No one has taken responsibility for the attacks so far. This is the first major attack that has taken place after the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremesinghe held a national security council meeting at his home. In a tweet he said: "I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong." "Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation," he added.

DUBAI: Pakistan`s Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Iran on Sunday to discuss security and regional issues, Iranian state TV reported, a day after Islamabad urged Tehran to act against militants behind killings in Pakistan`s Baluchistan province.

A new umbrella group representing various insurgent groups operating in Baluchistan claimed responsibility for an attack on Thursday when 14 passengers were killed after being kidnapped from buses in the province, which borders Iran.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Saturday the training and logistical camps of the new alliance that carried out the attack were inside Iran and called for Iran to take action against the insurgents.

Iranian TV said that Khan began his two-day visit to Iran, the first since he took office last August, with a stop in the northeastern holy Shi`ite city of Mashhad.

Khan will meet Iran`s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, as well as other officials, in Tehran on Monday.

"During the meetings, improving bilateral ties, border security, countering terrorism and regional issues will be discussed," state TV said.

Relations between Iran and Pakistan have been strained in recent months, with both sides accusing each other of not doing enough to stamp out militants allegedly sheltering across the border. Shi`ite Muslim Iran says militant groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan and has repeatedly called on Islamabad to crack down on them.

Tehran has stepped up security along its long border with Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed 27 members of Irans elite Revolutionary Guards in mid-February in southeastern Iran, with Iranian officials saying the attackers were based inside Pakistan.

The Sunni group Jaish al Adl (Army of Justice), which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for the ethnic Baloch minority, claimed responsibility for that attack.Education

Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu.

Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu.

Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events:

International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu.

EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu.

Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale  an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s  will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets  June Homecoming: Participant  $18 per person; Sustainer  $25 per person; Benefactor  $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler  Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events:

SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available  for information call 610-275-1960

Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above)

SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m.

Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m.

Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.

Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.

Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.  4 p.m.  computers are available during those hours.

Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863.

Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376.

Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com.

The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes:

Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at

other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020.

CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313.

The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events:

Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m.

Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m.

Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30.

Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301.

For Kids & Families

The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443.

Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950.

Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required.

The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950.

Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus.

Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage.

Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun.

Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train.

Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world!

Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class.

Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org.

Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583.

Community Events at the Ambler Y:

-YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register.

Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org.

Health

Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot.

The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information.

Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245.

Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net.

Spring Aquatic Programs  UDHS Pool:

-Summer is just around the corner  Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required.

 Shallow Water Aerobics  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR.

 Adult Swim Instructions  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR

-Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21.

-Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday  Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m.

-Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons.

-Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates.

Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994.

SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com.

Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org.

Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs:

FITNESS CLASSES

Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month.

Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30  9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly.

SUPPORT GROUPS

Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000.

Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30  7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047.

New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m.  12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30  4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931.

Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325.

Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes.

Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com.

Librarytalk

Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744

www.upperdublinlibrary.org

APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS:

Storytimes: Please register in the library.

o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m.

o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m.

o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m.

o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6.

APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS:

North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee

APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS:

NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org.

One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register  contact info above.

Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744.

o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register.

Meetings:

Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m.

Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m.

Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org.

For children and teens at Blue Bell:

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m.

* May 14  Despicable Me

* June 11  Alpha and Omega

* Special Events

* April  watch for date of spring/Easter events

* April 14 at 4:30 p.m.  Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children.

* April 14 at 7 p.m.  Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided.

* April 16 at 1 p.m.  Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King.

* April 16 at 1:30 p.m.  Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes?

* April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button.

* April 30 through May 3  Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults.

* May  sign up for Science in the Summer

* June  sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children

* June  sign up for Summer Reading, all ages

For adults at Blue Bell:

* Daytime Book Discussion Group  fourth Tuesday, Jan  April at 1:30 p.m.

* April 26  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Night-time Book Discussion Group  third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.

o April 19  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges

o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked?

*Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs

* Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class.

* Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class.

* Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m.

* Giant Book Sale, April 29  May 3

o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults!

o Held during library hours.

o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m.

o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join.

* Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series

o May 11 at 1 p.m.  Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society

* Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room.

* Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read.

* Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome.

* Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome.

*Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older.

* Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours

* Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours

* Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday!

Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library.

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* For adults:

* Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn.

* Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net

* Special Events:

* April 14 at 1:30 p.m.  Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian.

* April 19 at 7 p.m.  Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m.

* April 21 at 7 p.m.  Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades.

*May 2 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

*May 10  Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*May 12 at 1:30p.m.  Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

*May 17  Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*June 13 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

Meetings and Lectures

The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833.

The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200.

The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/.

LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings.

Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org.

Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org)

-Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them.

The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter.

For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps.

Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin.

Special Events

The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County.

The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065.

Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members.

Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex.

The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com.

The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348.

The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org.

Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163.

The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu.

The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com.

The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net.

Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages.

13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries.

Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family.

The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler.

JPRN  Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them  Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike.

Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies.

Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately.

Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways.

Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table.

Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp  Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall:

-Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store.

Music and Theater

The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220.

Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html.

Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free.

The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org

Religious News

The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276.

Reunions

St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net.

Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572.

Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779.

Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net

Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net

The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411.

Support

New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149.

PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931.

The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296.

Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656.

Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group  every other Wednesday, 7  8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support  second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner  Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers  Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information.

CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7  8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich,NEW DELHI: While strongly condemning the string of deadly blasts in Sri Lankan capital Colombo and other cities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi o Sunday offered full help to the Island nation in its times of crisis and stated that ''there is no place for barbarism in the region''.

PM Modi also called up his Sri Lankan counterpart and the President of the Island nation to convey his heartfelt condolences over the loss of over 200 lives in a series of deadly blasts in the country on Sunday.

During his telephonic conversations with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, PM Modi termed the blasts as a "cold-blooded and pre-planned barbaric acts".

In his message to the Government of Sri Lanka, PM Modi said that these explosions were another grim reminder of the most serious challenge posed to the entire humanity by terrorism in the region and the entire world.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had telephone conversations with President & Prime Minister of Sri Lanka & conveyed heart-felt condolences on his own behalf & on behalf of all Indians at the loss of over one hundred and fifty innocent lives in todays terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. pic.twitter.com/WOpKo9N7sm  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

The Prime Minister renewed the offer of all possible help and assistance to Sri Lanka for ensuring its security against the challenges such as those posed by terrorism, according to a statement issued by the PMO.

PM Modi also wished for the speedy recovery of those injured in the blasts and offered any required assistance for their treatment.

Condemning the blasts, PM Modi had tweeted, '''Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured."

Multiple explosion in Sri Lanka, 162 dead; 1 suspect arrested

"Hundreds of innocent people were killed by terrorists in Sri Lanka. They were doing prayers in Church and celebrating Easter, at that time, terrorists killed scores of people including children and women. I express my condolence," PM Modi said later addressing a public meeting in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh.

"India is standing by Sri Lanka and is ready for any help in the time of crisis," he said.

#WATCH: PM Narendra Modi in Chittorgarh,Rajasthan, says, "India stands with the citizens of Sri Lanka, in such a crisis India will do whatever it can to help Sri Lanka." #SriLankaBlasts pic.twitter.com/T2eHlxFpGK  ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2019

Expressing concern over the menace of terrorism, PM Modi also took this opportunity to stress on voting in favour of the BJP to strengthen the fight against terrorism in India.

Many world leaders also condemned the blasts in Sri Lanka that killed more than 200 people on Sunday, including dozens of foreigners - with British, Dutch and American citizens believed to be among them.

British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attacks as "truly appalling".

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time," she tweeted.

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear," May tweeted.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, "Terrible reports from Sri Lanka about bloody attacks on hotels and churches on this Easter Sunday."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was thinking of those killed in a "horrific terrorist attack".

"To the beautiful people of Sri Lanka, Australia sends its heartfelt sympathies and our prayers and our support -- and our offer to do whatever we can to support you in this terrible time of need," he said in a statement.

(With Agency Inputs)Hours after multiple blasts rocked Sri Lanka killing more than 100 people and injuring over 300, President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday condemned the horrific blasts and offered their condolences.

Taking to Twitter, PM Modi asserted that India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. He further added that his thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.

"Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured," tweeted PM Modi.

Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region. India stands in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and prayers with the injured.  Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 21, 2019

President Kovind asserted that India offered its condolences to the people and government of Sri Lanka. Reacting to the attack, he said such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in a civilised society.

"India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country. Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in a civilised society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka," tweeted the official handle of the President.

India condemns the terror attacks in Sri Lanka and offers its condolences to the people and government of the country. Such senseless violence, aimed at innocent people, has no place in civilised society. We stand in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka #PresidentKovind  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) April 21, 2019

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted, "Deeply saddened by the bomb blasts in Colombo Sri Lanka and killing of innocent people there. Such ghastly acts of violence are highly condemnable. My thoughts & prayers are with the bereaved families. Pray for a speedy recovery of injured."

Deeply saddened by the bomb blasts in #Colombo #SriLanka and killing of innocent people there. Such ghastly acts of violence are highly condemnable. My thoughts & prayers are with the bereaved families. Pray for speedy recovery of injured.  Chowkidar Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) April 21, 2019

The blasts in the south Asian island nation on Easter Day rocked three churches and three luxury hotels. Sunday's blasts follow a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

Nine foreigners were among the dead, officials told news agency Reuters. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day.

"I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today. I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation," he said in a Tweet.A number of explosions ripped through the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on Sunday (April 21), killing over 160 and injuring another 400.

The explosions took place on the occasion of Easter although the country has only a six per cent Catholic population. The explosions also shatter the peace that the country had been enjoying for several years now after decades of civil war and ethnic tension.

No group or organisation has claimed responsibility for the Sunday's explosions at the time of filing this report although these have clear signs of being a terror-related incident.

Here is a quick flashback into violent attacks in Sri Lanka's history:

Sri Maha Bodhi attack (1985): Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) gunned down at least 146 nuns, monks and civilians in Anuradhapura.

Aluth Oya massacre (1987): At least 127 Sinhalese people were killed by LTTE in Aluth Oya.

Grenade attack on Sri Lankan Parliament (1987): A grenade was thrown at MPs inside the country's Parliament. Two people were killed.

Colombo bus station bombing (1987): A car bomb exploded in the heart of Colombo, killing at least 113 people.

Kattankudy mosque massacre (1990): LTTE targeted and killed at least 147 Muslims in Kattankudy.

Palluyagodella massacre (1992): LTTE killed an estimated 285 people - mostly Sinhalese - in Palluyagodella village.

Colombo Central Bank bombing (1996): At least 91 people were killed when a bomb-laden truck was used by LTTE rammed through the main gate of Colombo Central Bank.

Digampathana bombing (2006): LTTE used a bomb-laden truck and rammed it against a convoy of 15 military buses, killing at least 120 sailors.Easter Day bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and four hotels killed at least 160 people and wounded more than 400, hospital and police officials said, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago.

Politicians and religious leaders were united in their shock and condemnation. Here are some of their reactions.

POPE FRANCIS

"I learned with sadness and pain of the news of the grave attacks, that precisely today, Easter, brought mourning and pain to churches and other places where people were gathered in Sri Lanka," he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter`s Square to hear his Easter Sunday message.

"I wish to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, hit while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence."

WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS PRESIDENT RONALD S. LAUDER

"World Jewry - in fact all civilized people - denounce this heinous outrage and appeal for zero tolerance of those who use terror to advance their objectives. This truly barbarous assault on peaceful worshippers on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar serves as a painful reminder that the war against terror must be at the top of the international agenda and pursued relentlessly," he said in a statement.

U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

"Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels," he tweeted. "... We stand ready to help!"

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL

"It is shocking that people who had gathered to celebrate Easter were the deliberate target of vicious attacks," she wrote in a letter of condolence to Sri Lanka`s president.

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON

Deep sorrow following the terrorist attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. We firmly condemn these heinous acts. All our solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka and our thoughts go out to all victims relatives on this Easter Day, he said on Twitter.

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY

"The acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time. We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear," she tweeted.

SPANISH PRIME MINISTER PEDRO SANCHEZ

"Terror and barbarity will never defeat us," he wrote on Twitter.

LUXEMBOURG PREMIER XAVIER BETTEL

"Even on Easter Sunday, there are those who sow hatred and reap death. The attacks in Sri Lanka churches testify to a real genocide perpetrated against Christians. Let us pray for the innocent victims and work towards religious freedom around the world," he said on Twitter.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER

"It was with horror and sadness that I heard of the bombings in Sri Lanka costing the lives of so many people. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims who had gathered to worship peacefully or come to visit this beautiful country. We stand ready to support," he said on Twitter.

ISRAELI PRESIDENT REUVEN RIVLIN

"The attacks in Sri Lanka, including those at prayer celebrating Easter Sunday are a despicable crime. We are all children of God; an attack on one religion is an attack on us all," he said on Twitter.

TURKISH PRESIDENT TAYYIP ERDOGAN

"I condemn in the strongest terms possible the Easter terror attacks in Sri Lanka. This is an assault on all of humanity," he tweeted.

IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF

"Terribly saddened by terrorist attacks on Sri Lankan worshippers during Easter. Condolences to friendly govt & people of Sri Lanka. Our thoughts & prayers with the victims & their families. Terrorism is a global menace with no religion: it must be condemned & confronted globally," he said on Twitter.

NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN

New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating, she said in a written statement.

"New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence."The Indian High Commission in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday issued helpline numbers for citizens in need of assistance after multiple blasts rocked the south Asian nation.

Sri Lanka blasts: What we know so far

Six blasts hit three churches and three hotels killing over 100 people and injuring nearly 300 people. Subsequently, two more blasts occurred in the suburbs of Colombo.

The helpline numbers issued are as follows: +94777903082, +94112422788, +94112422789, +94777902082, and +94772234176.

Taking to Twitter, the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka tweeted, "Explosions have been reported in Colombo and Batticaloa today. We are closely monitoring the situation. Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may call the following numbers: +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789."

"In addition to the numbers are given below, Indian citizens in need of assistance or help and for seeking clarification may also call the following numbers +94777902082 +94772234176," tweeted the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka.

Responding to the attacks, Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj asserted saying that she is in constant touch with the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. The officials are keeping a close watch on the situation.

Taking to Twitter, she said, "Colombo - I am in constant touch with Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. We are keeping a close watch on the situation."

A blast took place in a church in Batticaloa, followed by explosions reported inside three five-star hotels in the city - Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury.

According to a report in onlanka.com, explosions were also reported from St Anthony's church in Kochchikade while there was another explosion in St Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya.

The blasts occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress in churches.

The blasts took place in the island nation on the occasion of Easter.

By Sunday afternoon, two more explosions had taken place with police officials saying the total death toll could further rise.At least 150 people were killed and more than 300 - including foreign nationals - were injured in multiple explosions in Sri Lanka's capital city of Colombo and the cities of Negombo and Batticaloa on Sunday morning.

The explosions occurred inside three churches and three five-star hotels, ripping the peace that the country has enjoyed after decades of ethnic violence. A set of explosions occurred in a church in Batticaloa, St. Anthony's church in Kochchikade (Colombo) and St.Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya. A large number of Catholics were in the churches for Easter celebrations. These explosions were followed by a blast on the third floor of Colombo's Shangri La Hotel and in the premises of Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury Hotel.

There are no reports yet of any Indian injured or dead in the explosions although the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian High Commission in Colombo is monitoring the situation closely. The Indian High Commission also issued helpline numbers for clarification. PM Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind issued strong condemnations of the explosions and condolences for the families of victims.

Emergency services in Sri Lanka were pressed into action soon after the explosions with the injured being taken to hospitals even as local security officials tried to restore order at the site of each explosion. Local media reported that the military has also been deployed in many places for rescue and relief operations, as well as to ensure law and order situation does not deteriorate.

Leaves of security personnel have been cancelled and Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport has been put on high alert. Sri Lanka's national airline carrier - SriLankan Airlines - has asked all passengers flying out of Bandaranaike International Airport to report at least four hours prior to departure.

Reuters has reported that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called a national security council meeting at his home for later in the day. The country's Ministry of Education has announced that all schools in Sri Lanka will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday.Care and Share donates to Shop with a CopBy By:

Dr. Francis R. Souder, 85, formerly of Telford, died Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 in the skilled nursing unit of Peter Becker Community, Franconia Township. He and his wife Marion R. (Parker) Souder celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary in July.

Born in Souderton, he was a son of the late Elvin B. and Mary (Rittenhouse) Souder.

A 1938 graduate of Souderton High School, he received his undergraduate degree in 1941 from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Souder went on to receive his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in 1944 and completed his internship at Hahnemann Hospital from Oct. 1944  July, 1945.

He served with the U.S. Navy Medical Corps for 30 months in San Diego and Long Beach, Calif. during WW II and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant prior to his discharge. He entered his second tour of duty during the Korean War where he served in Panama City, Fla. as the medical officer for the Panama City Naval Air Station and the Tyndal Air Force Base.

Dr. Souder owned and operated his family practice on Main Street in Telford from 1947-1989. He served on the staff of Grand View Hospital, and as its president, and taught at the Grand View Hospital Nursing School. He was a member of the Pa. Medical Society, the Bucks County Medical Society, Diplomat American Academy of Family Practices, and served on the board of trustees at Grand View Hospital, Sellersville.

He was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Telford, where he sang in the church choir. He was also a member of the MacCalla Lodge #596 in Souderton, the Raja Shrine, and Lehigh Consistory.

In addition to his widow, he is survived by a son, Dr. Ronald L. Souder, and his wife Susan L. of Green Lane; a daughter, Susan J. Souder, and her husband Stephan Russo of New York, N.Y.; five grandchildren: Jennifer A. Souder of Philadelphia; Emily E. Souder of Philadelphia; Kathryn A. Souder of Washington, D.C.; Noah Russo of New York, N.Y., and Rebekah Russo of New York, N.Y., and two brothers: Attorney Elvin B. Souder of Souderton and Dr. Lawrence Souder of Souderton.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 12 p.m. in Trinity United Church of Christ, 101 S. Main St., Telford, with calling hours following the service.

Interment will be private in Trinity UCC Cemetery Telford.

Memorial contributions may be made to Grand View Hospital, 700 Lawn Ave., Sellersville, Pa. 18960.

Arrangements are by Sadler-Suess Funeral Home, Telford.Regional

Army rescue poll officials involved in accident

DIMAPUR, APR 20 | Publish Date: 4/20/2019 12:30:51 PM IST

A police vehicle escorting vehicles carrying EVM machines met with an accident near Bokajan Village in Karbi Anglong District in the night of April 18/19. A press release from the defence wing of the Press Information Bureau stated that the Army on receiving a request from ADG Police (Law and Order), Assam, provided necessary assistance to three policemen and one civilian injured in the accident. The Army immediately swung into action and the Military Hospital at Dimapur was alerted. Patients who had multiple head and chest injuries, on arrival were immediately resuscitated and admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital. A surgical team attended to the injured and provided the necessary treatment. The army further confirmed that the condition of all the injured were stable and they were out of danger.International

Islamist extremists blamed for SL attacks: report

Colombo, Apr 21 (IANS) | Publish Date: 4/21/2019 11:57:55 AM IST

Islamist extremists carried out the first six major suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, The Daily Mirror reported.

Investigators said that two terrorists had on Saturday checked into Room 616 of The Shangri-La hotel, one of the three Colombo hotels where blasts took place in quick succession, the English language daily reported.

CCTV footage revealed that the suspects detonated the bombs in the cafeteria and on the corridor of the hotel, it said. Investigators suspect that C-4 explosives weighing 25 kg were used for the bombings at the hotel.

A suicide bomber, identified as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed, waited patiently in a queue for the Easter Sunday breakfast buffet at Sri Lankas Cinnamon Grand hotel before setting off explosives strapped to his back.National

Judiciary under serious threat: CJI

NEW DELHI, APR 20 (IANS) | Publish Date: 4/20/2019 12:11:10 PM IST

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday said the independence of the judiciary is under threat after allegations of sexual harassment against him, over which the Supreme Court held an urgent hearing.

I will sit on this bench and discharge my duties without fear and favour till my tenure is over, Chief Justice Gogoi said at an urgent hearing on a matter of great public importance after there were media reports alleging sexual harassment charges against him.

Things have gone too far. Judiciary cannot be made a scapegoat, Justice Gogoi said.

There was a larger conspiracy to destabilise the judiciary which has remained independent, he said.

Allegations of sexual harassment have cropped up against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi prompting him to convene an urgent extraordinary hearing on Saturday and assert that the charges by a former apex court staffer were unbelievable and part of a conspiracy by some bigger force to deactivate the CJIs office.

As the allegations by the former woman staffer who had worked at Gogois home office in Delhi and dating back to October stunned the judiciary, Gogoi said he would not stoop too low even to deny them.

At the hurriedly called hearing in Court No 1 presided by him after the allegations were carried by some news portals based on the affidavit by the woman, the apex court said it is leaving the issue to the wisdom of media to show restraint and act responsibly so that independence of judiciary is not affected. The court, however, decided not to issue any gag order.

An apex court bench of CJ Gogoi, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjeev Khanna conducted the hearing at 10.30 a.m. after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urgently mentioned the matter.

A three-judge special bench headed by Gogoi was constituted after a sworn affidavit by the woman, copies of which were sent to the residences of 22 apex court judges, became public.

There was no immediate reaction from the government or any major political party. CJI also said that the woman had a criminal record and two FIRs were lodged against her.

How can she become a Supreme Court staff when an FIR was pending against her, the CJI asked, adding that two criminal cases were also pending against her husband.

The court, which said the judiciary cannot be made a scapegoat, said the media should not publish the womans complaint without verifying its truth.

CJI said this issue has cropped up when a bench headed by him is scheduled to hear many, many sensitive cases next week and this was also last few weeks of the Lok Sabha elections.

The CJI did not name any of the cases.

Besides the CJI, the bench also comprising justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna, said the bigger force behind the controversy has the potential to shake the faith of public in the judicial system. Though the CJI was heading the bench, he left it to Justice Mishra to take a call on passing any judicial order.

Dictating the order, Justice Mishra said, Having considered the matter, we refrain from passing any judicial order at this moment, leaving it to the wisdom of the media to show restraint, act responsibly as is expected from them and accordingly decide what should or should not be published, as wild and scandalous allegations undermine and irreparably damage reputation and negate independence of judiciary.

We would, therefore, at this juncture leave it to the media to take off such material which is undesirable, the order said.Arshad Khan By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The decision of Jet Airways to suspend operations has left not only the passengers, but also tour operators, in the lurch. Several tour operators depend on the full-service carrier to fly clients abroad. Many of them whom we spoke to said such a massive number of flight cancellations is set to impact their business and they are struggling to find alternatives.

According to Indiver Rastogi, president, Global Business Travel, Thomas Cook (India), withdrawal of Jet flights has had an impact, given that its summer, the peak booking season. Rastogi added that Thomas Cooks central control team is in constant touch with customers and is working in close coordination with their airline and tour operations to provide best available options and alternate flights. Our first priority is to enable them to continue with their holiday plans as scheduled, he said.

According to Rastogi, Jets extensive network played a major role in connecting Indias secondary markets to its main gateways. The airline offered multiple customer benefits for direct non-stop flights to short-haul destinations like Abu Dhabi-Dubai and Singapore, as well as mid-and-long-haul stops in Europe, USA and Australia-New Zealand, via its hub-and-spoke model and interline partnerships.

Others too admit that cancellations have created a tough situation in the industry. Thousands of Jet seats were booked well in advance by operators, who now have an exposure running into crores of rupees. The worst part is that there is no clarity yet on the refunds, said Debasish Chatterjee, co-founder of Delhi-based Business Travels. I expect instances of passengers being at loggerheads with operators over refunds and rescheduling.

Another major tour planner said they are ascertaining the quantum of impact. All I can say right now is that even the previously booked tours are likely to become 15-20 per cent more expensive. We are in talks with other airlines to transfer passengers who have booked with us, said an operator. Airfares on international routes are already up by 30 per cent as airlines have restored dynamic pricing.

customer first

Jet Airways, after struggling for weeks, on Wednesday declared temporary suspension of operations as banks refused to infuse the much-needed interim fund. SOTC India said they are ensuring that all their customers who had booked on affected routes are being accommo-dated by other airlines. In case of group bookings, flight changes wont affect the itineraries as they will be accommo-dated on the best options available on alternate flights, said Daniel Dsouza of SOTC Travel.By PTI

NEW DELHI: Ride-hailing platform Ola is in discussions with luxury carmakers, including Audi, Mercedes and BMW, to launch a subscription-based service under its self-drive offering, according to sources.

Ola has been running a small-scale pilot of the self-drive service in Bengaluru currently and is expected to launch the offering in the next few weeks through Ola Fleet Technologies.

The company is also believed to have earmarked an investment of up to USD 500 million (including debt) for the self-drive service.

According to sources privy to the development, the company is in talks with carmakers like Audi, Mercedes and BMW to bring to India a model where users can get access to luxury cars by paying a subscription fee.

Email queries sent to Ola, Audi, Mercedes and BMW did not elicit any response. One of the persons said the format is available in developed markets like the US, but given the high cost of luxury vehicles in India, a direct-to-customer model may not be not feasible in the country.

The person added that Ola sees a lot of potential in bringing this model to India given its scale of operations across multiple categories and cities.

Ola already allows customers to book rides in luxury cars through its 'Lux' offering. In October 2016, the Bengaluru-based company had partnered with BMW for expanding the category.

The company, which competes with the US-based Uber in India and international markets like Australia, has been aggressively ramping up its rides business as well as food delivery operations (through Foodpanda).

It had recently announced that Hyundai and Kia are investing USD 300 million in the company.

Ola, which counts names like SoftBank Group and China's Tencent Holdings among its investors, had received Rs 650 crore funding from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal in February this year.

Ola's electric mobility arm Ola Electric Mobility has also raised Rs 400 crore from Tiger Global, Matrix India and others.By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Reliance on Saturday said it had not violated US Sanctions on Venezuela and had bought crude from the Latin American nation ahead of the sanctions through firms such as Russias Rosneft, after informing US State Department.

This follows reports that Venezuela was possibly evading US sanctions by funnelling the cash flow through Russian state energy giant Rosneft.

The US has imposed sanctions in January this year on the Latin American nation in a bid to oust President Nicolas Maduro whom it describes as a dictator.

Reliance has purchased Venezuelan crude oil from companies such as ROSNEFT long before the imposition of US sanctions, as they do get title to Venezuelan oil in return for a reduction in their prior debt, the Mumbai-based major said in a statement today.

Since sanctions were imposed, Reliance said it has made Venezuelanpurchases with the full knowledge and approval of the US Department of State. Such transactions do not lead to any consequent payment to PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company) and do not violate US sanctions or policies.

The American sanctions impose curbs on dealings with those designated in the sanctions order and it includes PDVSA.

RIL went to state that it would be false to suggest that it was settling such shipments via Roneft to PDVSA.

Reliance, whose twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat were major importers of Venezuelan crude oil, has reduced purchases by about a third.Gurbir Singh By

Express News Service

The Julian Assange case, beyond the babel of voices for and against him, is once again an attempt by powerful countries led by the United States of America to define and control the limits of information transparency. His immediate arrest is a farce. Legendary musician Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame called the images of Assange being carried away forcibly in a London Police van as chilling. It showed England as nothing better than a satellite state of the US, he said.

WikiLeaks founder Assange was charged by Sweden in 2012 for sexual offences including rape. The preliminary investigation did not throw up much and by 2017, most of the charges including rape had been dropped by Swedish prosecutors. Meanwhile, Sweden had issued a European Arrest Warrant, when Assange entered and hid in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in June 2012, claiming he had breached bail conditions. When Ecuador revoked his political asylum recently, the London cops entered and arrested Assange. So, the worst he faces under the UK law is up to 12 months jail for jumping bail.

What is far more serious is if Assange is deported to the US to face charges of treason. Assange was never worried about Swedens rape charges; rather, he claimed, there was an international plot to have him shipped back to the US to face a trial that may result in a death penalty. Cloaked in secrecy, the US federal authorities have been preparing for Assange. The possible charges he may face now are computer intrusion and collaborating with Chelsea Manning for breaking security codes.

NEW WHISTLEBLOWERS

Julian Assange, a journalist, has been part of a new breed of information insurgents like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, who have used their hacker knowledge to expose government and corporate wrongdoing.

Among the big sensational exposes, where Manning and Assange possibly collaborated, was the release of a US military video of 2007 Collateral Murder, where a US helicopter gunship is seen mowing down 15-18 helpless Iranian civilians, including two Reuters correspondents. Among hundreds of other files, WikiLeaks in 2008 also brought to light probes into the brazen extrajudicial assassinations of political opponents of the Kenyan government.

But Assange exposures were not limited to some rogue banana republics. He came down heavily on the US military-corporate establishment and paid the price for it. Its not without reason that the financial establishment tried to starve out WikiLeaks by 2010, by refusing transactions routed through MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, while dozens of German and Swiss banks froze Assanges accounts.

Set up in 2006, WikiLeaks became the new word in journalism as it linked up a chain of small whistleblowers all over the globe to the giant expose machine operated by Assange. From military executions, cyber hacking and whistle-blowing moved to a wide spectrum of corporate exposes.

These ranged from a 2006 report on toxic waste dumping by commodities company Trafigura in Africas Ivory Coast because of which over 1,00,000 people may have lost their lives, to spilling of the beans on Barclays Bank where internal documents showed how the bank had planned its tax evasion.

THE CYBER FRONTIER

In an interview towards the end of 2010, Assange threatened to take down a major American bank and reveal an ecosystem of corruption with a cache of data from an executives hard drive. The expose never came, but was it coincidental that prosecutors in Sweden began investigations into sexual assault charges against Assange soon after?

Assange and WikiLeaks faced their first shutdown when Swiss Bank Julius Baer obtained an injunction in 2008 from a California court permanently closing down the site. The shutdown became a rallying point with the American Union for Civil Liberties, American Society of News Editors and others supporting the right to transparency. The same court then, citing the First Amendment, overturned its order and upheld the right of WikiLeaks to publish hacked documents.

Those who stand with WikiLeaks today face a far graver challenge today. Curbs on press freedom are being accepted in the name of national security and regimes around the world have institutionalised violence against news gatherers as the execution of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has proved.

The days of using copier machines to sneak out documents are past. If corporations are going to hide their wrongdoing under layers of cyber security, news hounds too have the right to break in and let people know. Assange must be set free, and WikiLeaks allowed to publish.

WikiLeaks sensational exposes

Among the big sensational exposes, where Manning and Assange possibly collaborated, was the release of a US military video of 2007 Collateral Murder, where a US helicopter gunship is seen mowing down 15-18 helpless Iranian civilians, including two Reuters correspondents. Among hundreds of other files, WikiLeaks in 2008 also brought to light probes into the brazen extrajudicial assassinations of political opponents of the Kenyan governmentS Lalitha By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: In a desperate appeal to the government to keep the beleaguered Jet Airways afloat, over 300 employees plan to hold a silent protest outside the Town Hall on April 22.

Ground handling staff, cabin crew, administration and sales staff will take part in the protest, to be staged from 3 pm to 5 pm, a highly placed airline source told TNIE. Distressed employees had protested both in Mumbai and New Delhi three days ago.

Jet has nearly 500 employees employed in Bengaluru. We received clearance from both Traffic and Law and Order Police today for our protest on Monday. It is just a silent protest and we plan to hold placards and banners outside the Town Hall to draw attention to our plight, the source said.

The plan to take a march from Town Hall to the Freedom Park has been scrapped as permission needs to be obtained from three police stations, he added. A ground handling staff, planning to take part in the protest, said, It is our plea to the government to save our Airlines. So many of us will suffer if the airline is not revived.

Maldives head to watch IPL today

Maldives president Ibrahim Mohammed Salih will be watching Royal Challengers Vs Chennai Super Kings match at the Chinnaswamy stadium in the City on Sunday. Salih, will arrive at the Kempe Gowda International airport from Male at 1.20 pm, said a reliable airport source.By Express News Service

CHENNAI : Big names in the countrys IT sector prophesied the emergence of new technology and business infrastructure on the back of cloud and edge computing in the coming days, at the SPICON held in the City on Saturday. Around 150 delegates took part in this conference and discussed best industry practices when it comes to agility, automation and cloudification.

There will be a re-engineering of applications to use full potential of cloud, said L N Rajaram, chairman of KirtiLabs, while addressing delegates at the conference organised by the Chennai chapter of Software Systems Process Improvement Network (SPIN). Rajaram Venkatraman, CEO of Veltech Technology Business Incubator and president of SPIN Chennai, who delivered the theme address, attributed USA software giant Sunguards failure to not moving onto cloud computing.

Nobody expected such a big company to declare bankruptcy but they had to pay the price of not updating themselves, Venkatraman said. He also stressed on the importance of the automation wave and claimed that automation of processes has moved from an opportunistic cost-cutting measure to a systematic approach most companies are aggressively pursuing. India can become the automation capital of the world, he said, explaining how India should take advantage of the fact that it is a young country.

Pradeep Shillige, executive vice president and global head of digital systems and technology for Cognizant, also reiterated how the big companies are prone to failure by continuing their traditional business models.Since 2015, around 50 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have had to declare bankruptcy or merge with other companies, Shillige, explained the extent of the situation.

He however, said there is a resurgence of traditional companies of late and that they are hitting back at digital native challengers. This will cause a huge disruption in the tech environment, Shillige said.

Sangita Agarwal, the CIO of Accenture India, who also spoke at the conference and explained how technology has enabled businesses to challenge other businesses in a completely different sector. Ola and Uber are challenging Walmart with their app and business processes, she said.

Dave Norton, executive director, Consortium for IT Software Quality, and Bill Curtis, the founder of CISQ, addressed the audience via Skype. The event also had panel discussions about automation and cloudification.By IANS

NEW DELHI: With just 20 days to go for polling in the national capital, suspense continues over Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress on forming an alliance to take on the BJP.

While the AAP is also keen on an pre-poll alliance in Haryana, which will vote on May 12, the Congress is only willing to discuss a tie-up in Delhi. With both the parties sticking to their demands, the alliance issue in Delhi is in a limbo.

Delhi's seven parliamentary constituencies, which go to the polls on May 12 in the sixth phase, voted for the BJP in 2014, leaving the AAP in the second spot. However, the vote share of AAP and Congress in that election, together, was more than that of the BJP in six of the seven seats - despite the Modi wave.

These numbers for each Lok Sabha constituency suggest that the AAP and Congress should join hands, if they want to defeat the BJP in the national capital.

ALSO READ| AAP names three candidates for Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, Jaihind to contest from Faridabad

Out of the total 977,329 votes cast in Chandni Chowk, BJP's Harsh Vardhan got 437,938 (44.81 per cent) votes, AAP's Ashutosh 301,618 (30.86 per cent) and Congress' Kapil Sibal got 176,206 (18.03 per cent) votes. If AAP and the Congress had been one, their total votes against the BJP will be at least 477,824 - about 40,000 more than the BJP.

Similarly, of the total of 13,13,514 votes cast in North East Delhi, BJP's Manoj Tiwari got 596,125 (45.38 per cent), AAP's Anand Kumar got 452,041 (34 per cent) and Congress' Jai Prakash Agarwal got 214,792 (16.35 per cent) votes. Collectively, the vote share of the Congress and the AAP was the highest - about 70,000 - more than the BJP.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Of the total 11,91,361 votes cast in East Delhi, BJP's Maheish Girri bagged 572,202 (48.03 per cent), AAP's Rajmohan Gandhi 381,739 (32.04 per cent) while Congress' Sandeep Dikshit came third with 203,240 (17.06 per cent) votes. Here the collective votes of the two anti-BJP parties was over 12,000.

Of the total 964,223 votes cast in New Delhi, BJP's Meenakashi Lekhi won with 453,350 (47.02 per cent) while AAP's Ashish Khetan got 290,642 (30.14 per cent) and Congress' Ajay Maken got 182,893 (18.97 per cent) votes. The collective vote share of the two parties in New Delhi was about 20,000 more than the BJP.

The margin between the winner (BJP) and the runner-up (AAP) was the least in the North West Delhi seat where Udit Raj won with 629,860 (46.75 per cent) votes while Rakhi Birla of AAP came second with 523,058 (38.83 per cent) votes. Of the total 13,47,210 votes cast, Congress candidate Krishna Tirath got 157,468 (11.69 per cent) votes. Collectively, the Congress and the AAP got 50,000 more votes than the BJP.

In South Delhi, BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri won with 497,980 (45.34 per cent) votes, while AAP's Devinder Sehrawat was the runner-up with 390,980 (35.60 per cent) votes. Congress' Ramesh Kumar got 125,213 (11.40 per cent) votes out of the total 10,98,400 votes. Here the collective vote share of the Congress and the AAP was 18,000 more than the BJP.

It was only in the West Delhi constituency that the collective vote share of AAP and Congress could not exceed that of the BJP.

The vote margin between the first (BJP) and the second party (AAP) was the highest in West Delhi where Pravesh Sahib Singh Verma won with 651,395 (48 per cent) votes against AAP's Jarnail Singh, who got 382,809 (28.57 per cent) votes. Of the total 13,40,039 votes cast, the Congress got 193,266 votes (14.42 per cent). The collective vote share of the AAP and the Congress here was less than that of the BJP by about 75,000 votes.

Tired of waiting for the Congress, the AAP has announced its candidates for all the seven seats in Delhi. The Congress is yet to release its list of names. The last date for filing of nominations is April 23 and withdrawal of names is April 26.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Continuing its probe into the Abu Dhabi terror module busted in 2016, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out fresh searches at the residence of Abdullah Basiths second wife, and at two other locations near Hyderabad on Saturday. Searches were also conducted at one location in Wardha, Maharashtra.

Abdullah Basith and another youngster, Mohd Qadeer, were arrested by the NIA from Hyderabad in 2018 for their alleged links with ISIS handlers. Officials are also probing if Basith married his second wife after knowing her alleged inclination to ISIS ideology.

After the searches on Saturday, one youngster was picked up for questioning from Kings Colony here, and mobile phones, SIM cards and laptops were seized. The youngsters neighbours identified him as Taha Masood Lamba. Four suspects were taken for questioning and released later in the day, the NIA said, adding that they are likely to be summoned again.

During the searches, a number of digital devices including 13 mobile phones, 11 SIM cards, 1 iPad, 2 Laptops, 1 External Hard disk, 6 Pen drives, 6 SD Cards and 3 Walkie Talkie Sets, other incriminating documents have been seized from the houses of the suspects.

Earlier in August 2018, NIA had arrested two youths from Hyderabad  Mohd Abdullah Basith and Mohd Abdul Qadeer  for their alleged links with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and its handlers.

During the investigation, it was found that at least three persons from Hyderabad, including Basiths second wife, were regularly in touch with ISIS sympathizers through social media platforms and messaging applications.

Earlier, in a supplementary charge sheet filed in February 2018, the NIA mentioned Abdullah Basith was continuously making efforts to propagate the ideology of ISIS in India, for which he entered into a conspiracy with ISIS handlers and his associates, while Qadeer came under the influence of accused Basith.By Express News Service

KOCHI: A day after the three-year-old boy succumbed to his injuries in a private hospital following the alleged assault by his mother, the police arrested his father on Saturday morning for covering up the assault.

Shahajad Khan, 35, from Raniganj in West Bengal who claimed to be the father of the boy was arrested by the Eloor police. He was charged under IPC section 201 and 202, causing the disappearance of evidence of the offence, or giving false information to screen offender and intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform, respectively. The move came after they found contradictions in the statement provided by the father to the hospital. The police have also arrested the childs mother, Hena, 28, hailing from Jharkhand, on Friday.

As per the fathers statement the kid suffered injuries when he fell down from a staircase. But as per the hospital authorities report the boy suffered head and internal injuries. As suspected by the hospital authorities, we too had the same doubt on how these kinds of deep injuries developed on his body? Based on the suspicion we charged Hena for an attempt to murder. His fathers role cannot be ruled out, said the police.

Meanwhile, though the couple claimed to be married for four years the police are having doubts and are also planning to perform a DNA test on the couple.We have already sent two teams to Jharkhand and West Bengal to find the whereabouts of the couple. We want to confirm whether they had any criminal backgrounds. Since their homes are located in a remote place reaching there will be delayed by two days, said S Surendran, City Police Commissioner.Meanwhile, the body of the boy was laid to rest at the Juma Masjid, Kakkanad, around 12.30 pm.By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With just two days remaining for the state to go to polls, the city police have stepped up security to prevent untoward incidents and crimes. According to Kori Sanjay Kumar Gurudin, City police commissioner, over 2000 police personnel will be deployed at various parts of the city to ensure hassle-free polling at all booths. The city police have also sought the assistance of Tamil Nadu police.

The entire security arrangement is divided into polling station deployments, group patrols, and law and order patrols supported by different striking forces, including CISF-1 COY and TN Police-1 COY. Vulnerable/sensitive booths are identified on the basis of various backgrounds such as cases/incidents that have taken place in the area during previous elections and political incidents in recent past. Central paramilitary forces will be deployed at such booths/buildings and webcasting (live camera recording) too will be enabled.

Detailed briefing of group patrols, law and order patrols, SHOs and sub-divisional officers were conducted on Saturday, including explaining their respective duties starting from the distribution centre to the polling booth and back. Police have been directed to be fair utmost and unbiased in their actions.

Pre-poll precautions

Two COYs of paramilitary forces have completed their familiarization of sensitive areas and registered anti-socials in the area. Police will intensify their action against anti-socials, criminals and troublemakers. Strict vehicle checks will be carried out to confiscate any illegal money, liquor, NDPS and arrest absconders.

Kotti Kalasham

High security will be maintained during the final day of campaigning on Sunday till 6 pm. Parties meet at important junctions in the city towards the end of their campaigning to show off their public support and strength. Such situations pose high chances of violations of law and order. All political parties have been called and warned by the police against such violations and have been advised to strictly abide by the Model Code of Conduct.

Post-poll precautions

The city police are also prepared for post-poll incidents. The commissioner said, Very elaborate arrangements have been made on the days of polling and post-polls to ensure free and fair elections. Police will tend to all issues promptly. Maintenance of law and order will be our top-most priority, he added.Kannan Venu By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The final day of the public campaign for the Lok Sabha elections culminated amid sporadic incidents of violence. NDA Thiruvananthapuram candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan and Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan were allegedly attacked by LDF workers at Kazhakuttom.

Kummanam alleged that the LDF workers led by Thiruvananthapuram Mayor VK Prasanth hurled footwears at the open vehicle in which he and the minister were travelling. Alleging police complicity in the attack and threat to Kummanam's life, the BJP later registered a complaint with State Police Chief Loknath Behera.

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Meanwhile, police said the BJP rally had overshot their designated schedule and that resulted in their rally clashing with the LDF's. In Thiruvananthapuram, former Union Minister and Congress Working Committee member AK Antony's vehicle was allegedly blocked by the LDF workers during a road show organised by the UDF for its candidate Shashi Tharoor.

The incident occurred near Veli. Antony and Tharoor, who was accompanying him, got down from the vehicles and walked past the protestors. In another incident, a Congress worker, Ajaya Raj, was allegedly hacked by CPM workers at Vengode near Pothencode. Two CPM workers also claimed to have sustained injuries in the clash. Mangalapuram police said the incidents happened by 7.30 pm.

The scuffle during 'Kottikalasham' later culminated in a house attack which resulted in the injuries, the police said.In Kallikkadu, near Kattakkada, one CPM worker received head injuries in an attack allegedly by the BJP.Several BJP workers sustained injuries when a clash erupted with the LDF workers at Varkala. Several vehicles were also damaged in the clashes.By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Over 50,000 students attended the AP Eamcet 2019, which began on Saturday, for admission into engineering and agriculture courses.The forenoon session was completed at 1.30 pm with maximum delay of 30 minutes at GMRIT in Rajam. At VITAM in Visakhapatnam, there was a delay of 17 minutes due to UPS trip. A majority of the morning session candidates felt that Physics section was difficult compared to Chemistry and Mathematics. A few candidates also said that Chemistry questions were tricky.

Speaking to TNIE, V Navya Sri, a candidate who appeared for the exam, said, Thanks to the mock tests available online, the examination was quite easy. Physics and chemistry questions were little tricky. Mathematics and Physics were little tough, but Chemistry was very easy, opined B Sujith.

The examination was conducted in two sessions  morning session from 10 am to 1 pm and the afternoon session from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm in 125 centres across Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad. In the morning session, 24,669 students (93.6 %) were present out of 26,355 allotted.In the afternoon session, out of 27,367 candidates, 25,737 (94.04%) turned up for the examination.By PTI

LOS ANGELES: Rap king Eminem is celebrating 11 years of abstinence from alcohol and drugs.

The 46-year-old recording artiste, who has struggled with booze and substance abuse over the years, took to Instagram Saturday to share the news.

"11 years - still not afraid," Eminem wrote, in a nod to his hit song "Not Afraid".

The rapper shared the pictured of a coin, which is given to Alcoholics Anonymous members when achieving a milestone in their journey, featured a Roman numeral XI (meaning 11) engraved on it, along with words "service", "unity" and "recovery".

11 years - still not afraid. pic.twitter.com/A8TV0LsLfn  Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) April 20, 2019

Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, nearly died from an accidental overdose in 2007.

The Grammy-winning rapper checked himself into rehab in 2008 and started the 12-step programme.

In 2015, he opened up about his battles with addiction in an interview, wherein he revealed he overdosed on Valium and Vicodin pills that landed him in hospital nine years ago.

Eminem previously said it was his three children -- Alaina, 25, Hailie, 23, and Whitney, 17 -- who gave him the strength to give up drugs.Anuja Chandramouli By

Express News Service

Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan, wife of Pakistans first Prime Minister, was one of the key players in an age when history was being made. She witnessed first-hand the birth of a nation, carved out of the sacrifice of those who fell during the Partitionthe darkest chapter in the history of both India and Pakistanthe horror and aftershock of which continues to reverberate across the subcontinent.

The Dynamo in Silk, who rolled up the sleeves of her elegant gharara to help fulfill the vision of her husband and his dear friend, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, left behind a remarkable legacy that championed feminism and selfless service. It is one that deserves to be celebrated and held up as a shining example of grace in the midst of all things grotesque. It is a matter of almost criminal negligence on the part of historians that a complete and detailed biography of her extraordinary life did not exist before the intrepid duo of Deepa Agarwal and Tahmina Aziz Ayub came together to put together this beautiful labour of loveThe Begum: A Portrait of Raana Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistans pioneering First Lady.

Born Irene Margaret Pant in remote Kumaon, her family was yet to recover from the outrage generated over their conversion a generation ago and were dealing with the overt hostility of the Brahmin community. As a bold, intelligent and enterprising young woman, she was teaching economics in a Delhi college, when she was drawn into the politics of the day and met the man she was destined to marry and the one who would prompt her to change her religion for love. Married in 1933, the dashing young couple threw themselves into the working of the Muslim League.

The newlyweds played a pivotal role in persuading Jinnah who had distanced himself from the party and moved to London to come back and take up the mantle of leadership and represent the rights of Muslims whom it was felt wouldnt be treated fairly in a unified India. Unfortunately, given the many lives that were lost in the bloodbath that was the Partition, Jinnah paid heed and this particular reviewer couldnt help but wish that the Begum had persuaded the Nawabzade to take her to Bora Bora instead for their honeymoon!

In 1947, Raana left for Pakistan. Her efforts in setting up relief camps to provide succour to the many who were deprived of their loved ones and all their worldly possessions has rightly been commended. Jinnah died shortly after these tumultuous events and tragically, Liaquat Ali Khan fell to an assassins bullet in 1951 and only the Begum remained. As an active player in the political sphere, one of Raanas most noteworthy achievements was the establishment of the All Pakistan Womens Association (APWA) in 1949 which went on to benefit millions and continues to play a crucial role in the fight for the emancipation of women in a land where personal freedom has often been sacrificed on the altar of rigid religious dogma.

She made her indomitable presence felt in the fields of education and social service as well. Raana was also her countrys first ambassador to The Netherlands, Italy and Tunisia in addition to serving as the Governor of Sind. She won the Human Rights Award of the United Nations and many more in recognition of her exemplary work.

Told in two parts, Deepa Agarwal handles the early part of her life leading up to the partition and Tahmina Aziz Ayub outlines the latter half of her life in Pakistan. Both provide an intimate glimpse into the heart and mind of a legend. In the Begums own words, Pakistan was visualised as secular and democratic. Today Pakistan is out and out a theocracy and under that garb, every vestige of personal freedom is snatched away. Like her, we too cant help but wish that it had all been otherwise.Madhavi S Mahadevan By

Express News Service

Researching into the history of Kashmiri nationalism for his earlier work, A Mission in Kashmir, former BBC journalist Andrew Whitehead came across the mention of a white woman who, like him, was British-born. She too had studied at Oxford, married an Indian, had India-born children and was, at one time, engaged in the politics of Kashmir. However, more than these commonalities, the very different trajectory her life took, prompted him to start an investigation that led to the writing of The Lives of Freda.

Born in 1911, in an East Midlands family of watchmakers, Freda Houlstons childhood was suffused with a sense of absence and losscaused by the fact that when she was five, her father went to war and never came back. The void pushed Freda towards what was the defining aspect of her life, a restless personal quest which culminated almost 50 years later in her ordination as a Buddhist nun. In Fredas own words: My destiny was to go to India. Meeting a fellow student at Oxford was the start point. With her politics already shaping towards communism, the romance with Baba Pyare Lal Bedi was strengthened by the common causes they championed and their intellectual collaboration. Such was the bond that it overcame barriers of race, colour, class and religion, as well as irritants such as family disapproval and disciplinary action taken by the university.

The two were married in 1933. Bedi, a Sikh, came from a feudal family who were direct descendants of the religions first guru. Yet, meeting her mother-in-law for the first time, Freda was immediately made to feel at home. Though the warmth of the welcome made it easier for her to immerse in her marital familys culture, a predisposition to embrace new challenges seems to have been characteristic of her nature. The narrative traces Fredas days in Lahore as a lecturer in English at a womens college, her forays into publishing, journalism, and the active role played in the civil disobedience movement, including serving a jail sentence. Partition brought a move to Kashmir where the Bedis were part of Sheikh Abdullahs circle.

While Bedi drafted the New Kashmir manifesto, Freda maintained contact with underground left-wing nationalists, joined a womens militia for the defence of Srinagar and revived her teaching career. In the 50s came a new assignment, a six months United Nations posting to Burma with the brief of planning the newly independent nations social services.

The stint exposed Freda to Buddhism and paved the way for the key role played in the rehabilitation and resettlement of Tibetan refugees in the early 60s. It also marked the commencement of a spiritual journey that culminated in her becoming the first western woman ever to receive full ordination as a Tibetan Buddhist nun.

The early 20th century was still a time when idealism was respected among ones educated peers, not scorned. In the context of Indias independence movement, weve heard of Annie Besant and Madeleine Slade (Meerabehn), but few know of Freda Bedi. This well-written, extensively researched workinterviews with friends and family (including her son Kabir Bedi, the actor), combined with the scrutiny of correspondence, tape recordings, newspaper archivesmakes for an insightful, riveting tale of a life extraordinaire.By Online Desk

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police say 207 people were killed and 450 wounded in a series of blasts in and around the country's capital. Six nearly simultaneous blasts went off Sunday morning in three churches where worshippers were celebrating Easter and in three luxury hotels frequented by foreign tourists.

Hours later, a blast at a guesthouse killed at least two people. After the eighth explosion near an overpass in the area of Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo, the capital, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara says three police officers were killed when they went to question suspects following a tip.

Two blasts went off shortly after the officers entered a house in Dematagoda.

Officials say seven suspects have been arrested.

The magnitude of the bloodshed recalled Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war, when separatist Tamil Tigers and other rebel groups targeted the Central Bank, a shopping mall, a Buddhist temple and hotels popular with tourists.

So far, no one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday's blasts.

"Many casualties including foreigners," said Harsha de Silva, the Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution. Only around six per cent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka is Catholic, but the religion is seen as a unifying force because it includes people from both the Tamil and majority Sinhalese ethnic groups.

Indian citizens in Sri Lanka in need of assistance or help can dial the helpline numbers : +94777903082 +94112422788 +94112422789.

 Seventh explosion reported near Dehiwela near #SriLanka's capital. Death toll in the #SriLankaBlasts is on the rise. #Colombo

Read here: https://t.co/nSZRPv7nmVhttps://t.co/6EoQZ0LVMP  The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) April 21, 2019

(With inputs from Agencies)Ayesha Singh By

Insignificant as they seem, but their quiet strength has never been dismissed by artist and observer Kavita Issar Batra. Her eyes have attuned themselves to see beyond the obscurity of discarded flowers, leaves, seedpods, twigs, and pieces of bark, that have separated from their source, now lying lifeless as if they await their slow disintegration. For Batra, in them, lies great audacity, as they dont revel in self-pity but prepare themselves to integrate back into the earth from which they were born.

It was this conversation that Singapore-based, Indo-British artist Batra took forward through her recently culminated first solo show in India called No Number, No Name, at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre in Delhi.

Kavita Issar Batra

The exhibition may be over but the introspection continues. Through her paintings, photographs, video and installations, Batra seems to have expressed a latent angst brewing inside her for a long time. She had decided to submit a significant portion of the proceeds collected from the show to Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, but even after doing so, peace evades her.

Fundamentally, it seems, her art emerges from perturbation for the ecosystem that she supports. Organic and urban detritus have taught me about texture, shape, colour, value, tone, composition, botany, philosophy and rhythm to life. It has become an alphabet to my thoughts and emotions as well as inspiration for my paintings, she says, adding, I document the moment our paths intersect photographing with my iPhone camera to be able to respond spontaneously. Sharing these through Instagram and Facebook is about building community. Most images are taken as found; some a montage of the detritus that I might pick up.

These are then placed on painting and photographed. Batra says that she never photoshops anything. Whether it was her Lotus-based works, or the series titled Where have all the flowers gone, what strikes you is the rawness of implementation. Her love for nature explodes through her small and large canvases and are also reminiscent of her childhood spent breathing and living the freshness that the hillsides of Nainital, Uttarakhand, had to offer.

Then, time jolted her to the urban disarray common to metro cities such as Delhi, and she began to feel torn by the purity she was used to and the lack of it that she now had to get used to. However, it was not long before this largely self-taught artist moved for work to the UK. Twenty years later she moved to Singapore, where she spent another nine years. But everywhere she went, she remained curious about the natural, organic materials that litter streets and pavements.

They lurk in the shadows quietly accepting all that comes their waybeing trampled on or driven over, subject to the vagaries of the weather which all determine their fate. For us humans too, from the time we exit our mothers womb, the only certainty is that we will die. Again, none of us knows how long what we call life will last. We too are changing from infants to children to adulthood and then old age, she says.

It disturbs Batra that society is unable to accept imperfections. Flawlessnessthat we all aspire towardsitself is an obscure concept that thrives on unrealistic notions of beauty. Its nature that stands as an apostle of acceptance. Thus, through her show, Batra has a given chance to whats popularly considered nugatory and utterly inconsequential, a chance to find the uniqueness of purpose.Shevlin Sebastian By

At his ninth-floor apartment in Kochi, Dr KPP Nambiar sits with a book of over 1,500 pages. It is a Japanese-Malayalam dictionary, a culmination of a 15-year effort by the octagenerian which was recently released. The statistics are mind-numbing there are about six lakh words in it. The dictionary has 53,000 Malayalam words. Each headword has the equivalent of eight to ten words. Initially, Nambiar was writing it by hand and over the years the number of pages, which comprised the manuscript, reached an astounding 3,000.

He approached several publishers in Kerala but they rejected it, saying they did not have the necessary Japanese fonts and the possibility of sales was poor. Undeterred, Nambiar flew to Tokyo in 2004 and met professors, Jun Takashima and Makoto Minegishi, at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The duo was producing software for linguistic studies. But they told him that the Japanese dictionary which he had been using for reference was 60 years old. But they asked Nambiar to start again and promised him all the help required. After working seven hours daily for several years, the 81-year-old completed his dictionary.

Last month, at a function in Thiruvananthapuram, Culture Minister AK Balan handed the first copy to Hideki Asari, the Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission of the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi. This is a new era in the relationship between Japan and Kerala, said Asari. The book has now been published by the State Institute of Languages Kerala, in association with the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.

Nambiars association with Japan began in 1965 when he won a scholarship for a doctorate in oceanography at Tokyo University. He spent six months learning Japanese at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies. He then completed his doctoral studies and returned to India in 1969. Nambiar returned to Japan as Resident Director of the Marine Products Export Development Authority in 1981 and remained till 1985. These visits made him fall in love with the Japanese language. He began writing a series of articles about Japan in Keralas leading news outlets.

Nambiar also translated the late Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabatas Sound of the Mountain into Malayalam. When Nambiar retired, at the age of 63, after a distinguished careerwhich included stints at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the Kerala Government Fisheries Corporation (as managing director), and the Food and Agricultural Organisation, he started working on the dictionary.

Interestingly, Nambiar says there is a possible link between Japanese and Malayalam. In English,

the verb is in the middle while the object is at the end of the sentence. But in Malayalam, the verb is at

the end. We also dont end any sentence with a consonant. This happens in Japanese as well.

There are some words that are similar. For example, the Japanese word thumbo is similar to the Malayalam word thumbi (dragonfly). There is a theory that the Japanese and the Dravidian languages are interlinked but so far, no concrete proof has been uncovered, he adds.

When asked about the charms of the Japanese language, he says, It is very soft. There are very few abusive terms. The biggest abuse is fool. Each word has so many nuances. You can say I in a hundred ways. Women use certain expressions and men other phrases. The language reflects the character of the people, who are inherently peace-loving and kind.By IANS

GURUGRAM: Residents of 72 villages in Gurugram's IMT Manesar area may boycott the Lok Sabha elections after the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) served notices to take back Rs 35 lakh from a compensation amount given to the farmers for land acquisition.

The notices were served to meet the directives of a February 8 Supreme Court order to reverse the compensation amount in a time bound manner till June 30, 2019. The villagers have decided to hold a Mahapanchayat on the issue in Dhana village on April 21.

They have also threatened that the residents of 72 villages in the Maneser area would boycott the Lok Sabha elections on May 12 if Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and sitting BJP MP from Gurugram Rao Inderjit Singh do not sort out the matter.

According to Moolchand, the sarpanch of Dhana village, HSIIDC had acquired 1,700 acres of land for the Phase 1 of IMT Maneser in 2002-03, fixing a compensation amount of Rs 75 lakh per acre. "Since the compensation amount was low as compared to the market price, we challenged the HSIIDC decision at the court of the Additional District Judge (ADJ). The court on January 27, 2010 ruled in favour of the farmers and enhanced the compensation amount to Rs 2.81 crore per acre," Moolchand said.

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"But since we had challenged the HSIIDC decision seven years ago in 2003, during which the market price of the said land had zoomed further, the farmers moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court which further enhanced the per acre compensation amount by Rs 37.4 lakh," he added.

But since the farmers felt that the compensation amount was still lower than the market rate, they moved the Supreme Court in 2013. On March 3, 2018, the apex court enhanced the per acre compensation amount by a further Rs 4 lakh. "The farmers took the revised compensation amount from the HSIIDC, but a private company went to the apex court, urging that the compensation given was too high compared to the current market price," said Devender Master of Baskusla village.

"The Supreme Court on February 8, 2019 directed the HSIIDC to take back the additional compensation amount of Rs 35 lakh per acre. This reversal of the court order is unacceptable. We have written to the permanent residents of 72 villages in the area, urging them to participate in the Mahapanchayat on April 21," Master said.

According to another villager Suraj Pal Chauhan, each village has 7,000 to 8,000 permanent residents belonging to several castes, including Jats, Rajputs and Yadavs, who have the potential to disturb the political equation in the region, especially for the BJP.

The villagers also claimed that they had written to and personally met Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh for help in the matter, but he had done nothing.By IANS

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday issued a notice to Punjab Minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for violating Model Code of Conduct during an election rally in Bihar's Katihar when he urged Muslims to not split their votes.

In its order, the Commission cited comments of Sidhu making use of religion while appealing voters to support Congress candidate from Katihar Tariq Anwar on April 15.

It said the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar has forwarded it a video clip showing Sidhu asking voters from the "minority community" to prevent any split of their votes.

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He also asked them to do mass voting for the Congress so as to throw Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of power.

The Commission also cited registration of an FIR against Sidhu for his statements at Barsoi Police Station of Katihar district.Abhijit Mulye By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: Empathy for people and the desire to oppose the politics of hatred and violence are the driving forces behind her plunge into politics, actress Urmila Matondkar, who is contesting the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency as Congress candidate, has said.

In a democracy, every citizen needs to do his or her bit to contribute to the process. I, too, had decided to just join the party to fulfil my part of duty as a citizen. But, when the discussions advanced, the issue of contesting elections came up and I accepted the proposal to be a candidate, Matondkar told this publication on Saturday.

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For me, politics is a responsibility and not just the means to encash my popularity on silver screen, she said.

She also termed the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls as a very decisive election for the country.

She said, We are currently living in an atmosphere of hatred and violence and I thought it is my responsibility to stand up against it. I shall stay in politics to fight this atmosphere of hate and violence.By Express News Service

BHOPAL: The 2008 Malegaon blast case accused and BJP candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat Pragya Singh Thakur has been issued two notices by the Election Commission in a single day on Saturday.

One of the notices followed soon after Thakur claiming in a TV interview that she was among those who had razed the Babri Masjid in 1992.

I was among those who climbed on the structure and brought it down. I am proud to be among those who brought the structure down. The structure was a blot on the country, which was removed, said Thakur when questioned by a TV journalist about when the Ram temple will be built at Ayodhya.

"We will now build a grand Lord Ram temple there," she further added.

We took suo moto cognizance of her interview to a TV channel and after finding it prima facie against the model code of conduct, issued a notice to her, CEO-MP VL Kantha Rao told The New Indian Express.

She received another notice from Bhopal district election officer over her controversial remarks on Ashok Chakra awarded ex-Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare.

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Meanwhile, the CEO-MP VL Kantha Rao has written a letter to all the recognized political parties and candidates to follow the model code of conduct of the Election Commission of India.

He has said that according to the code of conduct, uncertified allegations, personal accusation and any comment on the basis of caste/category or religion should not be made.

Objectionable language or vocabulary and objectionable remarks against women should not be used.

Rao has said that the Election Commission of India hoped that all the recognized political parties and candidates will follow the highest standards of the model code of conduct during the election campaigning so that the election process could be held in a congenial atmosphere.Anil S and Rajesh Abraham By

Express News Service

Opening up on a whole host of issues currently hogging the national political space, the veteran Left leader, in an exclusive interview, explains why the Congress direct income scheme, Nyay, is not feasible, while insisting that he is not a reluctant campaigner against Rahul Gandhi in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency. He asserts that the Sabarimala row wont have a telling impact on which way the polls go in Kerala.

How do you assess the current political scenario after the second phase of the general elections?

After having travelled to eight states and counting, I can say the overwhelming reason that is motivating people to vote this time is their living conditions over the past five years. The effect of emotional appeals by the BJP-RSS  if at all they are working  is marginal. They dont seem to be getting the response they were hoping for.

What is your partys opinion on the Nyay scheme that the Congress has come up with?

There are a number of questions that come to mind. First, how is the money for the Nyay scheme to be raised? If the plan is to siphon off the money from existing social welfare schemes to implement the scheme, well surely oppose it. In our manifesto, we said the guaranteed minimum wage for an unskilled worker should be Rs 18,000 per month, which is much higher than the Rs 6,000 assured by Nyay.

For senior citizens, we have promised a monthly allowance of Rs 6,000, in addition to an unemployment allowance for jobless youths. The funds allocated under all these heads would be a lot more than Rs 72,000 proposed annually under Nyay.

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As to how we propose to raise the money, some taxes like wealth tax, inherent tax or capital gains tax, which have been abolished by the Modi government, could be reimposed. We have been arguing all along about what we call a super profit tax  tax on profits that accrue from other sources of revenue and lead to gross inequality. So, if we tax the super-rich by even 2% or 1% surcharge, it will be more than sufficient to meet what we propose. A situation where one billionaires assets are equal to that of 50% of your countrys population is just not acceptable. Modi has alleged that we would tax the middle class. However, it is by taxing the super rich that well provide relief to the middle class.

In your campaign speeches, you relentlessly attack Modi and BJP, but seem to spare the Congress.

I keep stressing that the country requires the strength of the Left in order to influence the policy direction of an alternative secular government. Take for example 2004. RTI and Rural Employment Guarantee are results of the pressure exerted by the Left. Compare this with 2009 when Left wasnt part of the Union government. What did Congress do?

They paved the way for Narendra Modi to come to power. I do refer to all these in my speeches. A stronger Left is necessary to shift the policies in peoples favour.

The Left was not very keen on a pre-poll alliance. What about the post-poll scenario? After the elections, if the Left gets enough seats to play kingmaker, do you think there will be a government led by the Congress?

The Left is always for pre-poll adjustment among secular democratic forces at the state level. Indias complexity and diversity is such that no national-level formation can happen before elections. Consider our own electoral history. In 1997, Indira Gandhi was defeated and the Janata Party-led government came to power. But it was formed after the election, not before. In 1989, when VP Singh became the Prime Minister, the National Front-Left Front arrangement was put together after the elections.

But none of these coalitions could complete their term.

The UPA gave us a Prime Minister for 10 years. The point is, the formation, whatever it may be, will come into existence only after the elections. It will all depend on the actual results.

Talking about results, do you predict a simple majority for any party, or will regional parties call the shots?

I dont venture into predictions. Predicting Indian elections is a disastrous exercise. Not one opinion poll or exit poll has ever come true. Back when we still had ballot papers and the science of psephology had just made its entrance, an exit poll was conducted. I think it was RK Laxmans cartoon  not sure for which publication  that said about this husband, who came home and told his wife: I made a mistake and stamped the wrong box. The wife began scolding him. Thats when he said, Dont worry. I corrected myself in the exit poll. So, thats India. But Im sure of one thing that the Modi government is on its way out. Thats definite.

Coming to the CPM, at this juncture, can you tell us what went wrong in West Bengal? Do you think the party will make a comeback to the state?

We had a detailed analysis of what went wrong. We have all those documents. But right now in these elections, we are for maximisation of anti-BJP, anti-Trinamool Congress votes. Defeat BJP to save India. Defeat Trinamool Congress to save West Bengal. And for that, we wanted to seek the support of everybody whos against Trinamool or BJP.

You are being labelled as a reluctant campaigner in Wayanad.

It is the media that comes up with such speculations, just to sensationalise. Ive grown up fighting Indira Gandhithe Congress.

You said Rahuls candidature from Wayanad is sending out a wrong message. Do you think this could be a hindrance (to a tie-up) post elections?

We are committed to forming a secular alternative government. This is the decision of our party congress and our central committee. Nobody can change this objective. As to what form such a government will take, will be known after the elections. I would like to ask what exactly is the message that the Congress is trying to convey. Lets wait for their explanation. I would rather not speculate till then.

In Kerala, the Sabarimala issue has been creating a lot of ripples. BJP is very confident of opening its account this time.

The Kerala scenario is very clear. The strength of the Left should be increased to ensure that an alternative secular government is formed at the Centre. Voters in Kerala are very mature and can distinguish between state and central elections.

So, the issues that you speak of may have an impact at the state-level. But at the national level, the issues are entirely different. People are not going to vote on the basis of such issues. They will vote to form the next government at the Centre.

Theres a general feeling among voters that to give an apt reply to the Pinarayi government, youll have to vote for a BJP candidate.

These elections are to form the government in Delhi, not to replace the Pinarayi government. Voters in Kerala will vote for the government in Delhi, not to settle scores here.

You mean to say local issues wont matter and this is not a referendum on the state government?

Local issues dont matter much when it comes to forming the central government. What matters is the performance of the incumbent government. Even when you are voting for the central government, how the incumbent government fared will be an important factor. to consider And the current Left Democratic Front government holds an extremely positive record.By PTI

MUMBAI: A case was filed against the Congress' Mumbai South Lok Sabha candidate Milind Deora at Lokmanya Tilak Marg police station here on the direction of the Election Commission for violation of the model code of conduct, an official said Sunday.

Deora, while campaigning in Zaveri Bazar area on April 4, had made an appeal to the Jain community to not vote for the Shiv Sena as it had hurt their religious sentiments earlier.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Following the remarks, Sena supporters had filed a complaint with the Election Commission on April 8. Deora is pitted against Sena's sitting MP Arvind Sawant for the seat. "We registered an offence on Saturday against Deora under section 125 of the Representation of the People Act and section 171 of the Indian Penal Code," Dnyaneshwar Chavan, Zone II Deputy Commissioner of Police said on Sunday.

Deora, in a statement, said, "In my speech, I was making a simple point that Shiv Sena, in the name of (Prime Minister) Modi, took votes from people in 2014 and then turned against them. Such political hypocrisy needs to be exposed. I strongly feel no political party should either appease or oppose any community on their practices and beliefs.Richa Sharma By

Express News Service

AMRELI (GUJARAT): The mercury is hovering around 40 degree Celsius, but outside a bank in Vitthalgarh village in Surendranagar, a group of farmers from around half-a-dozen adjoining villages have queued up to inquire about the insurance amount they are supposed to get for crop failure. This has been their routine for past few weeks now. All they get from the bank is excuses.

I have been coming here from 40 km away for past several days to ask the bank about my insurance money. Every time I am told to get in touch with the insurance company, but I dont even know what insurance company and whom to approach, says Ishwar Bhai Lohariya, 65, a farmer from Vathela village in Surendranagar, who owns a small patch of land that is his only source of income.

Narayan Bhai Patel in Amreli and Lakshman Bhai Ranwa in Laskar village of Junagadh have similar tales to tell.

In the arid Saurashtra region, which has not received sufficient rain for last four years, one can easily find canal systems constructed by the Gujarat government to bring Narmada waters for irrigation. However, most of them have dried up and are filled with garbage and dry leaves.

Scarcity of irrigation water, pending crop insurance and failure to get proper remuneration for their crops bother farmers across the region. There is widespread anger among the community against the BJP government, both in the state and at the Centre, which was reflected in the 2017 Assembly elections as BJP suffered major losses in the region. But, farmers feel the Congress is no different.

What should worry policymakers is that due to problems faced by the farmers, the younger generation is migrating to urban areas for jobs.

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Growing farm distress has made both the BJP and the Congress give special attention to their election campaign in Saurashtra, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi holding several rallies in the region and harping on the schemes and sops announced and promised for farmers.

Learning from 2017, the saffron party has also dropped its sitting MP from Surendranagar, Devji Fatehpara, as it had lost 6 of the 7 Assembly segments in the constituency. In 2017, the BJP had also lost all 7 Assembly seats in Junagadh and 5 of the 7 seats in Amreli. Of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Saurashtra region, Congress hopes to win Surenderanagar, Amreli, Porbandar and Junagadh and is confident of giving a tough fight in Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Rajkot.

Crop insurance

Cotton farmer Lakshman Bhai Ranwa, who owns five bighas of land in Junagadh, says he has only received 2.5% of the promised insurance for crop failure in 2017-18.

There are lots of problems farmer faces here but we continue to vote for BJP, as decided by our sarpanch.

Gujarat Khedut Samaj, an association with a membership of over five lakh, says farmers are neglected by the government and insurance data presents a sorry figure.

The data shows Rs 22,000 crore crop premium was collected by private insurance companies in the state in 2015-16. Farmers filed claims of Rs 6,000 crore of which only Rs 2,000 crore has been settled so far. Claims for the years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 continue to remain unsettled, said Jayeshbhai Patel, head of the association.

Narmada waters

Lack of water for irrigation is a major issue. We dont get regular water supply from Narmada for irrigation and the groundwater level is 100-200 feet in some areas. In the last two months, due to elections, the government has released some water. Otherwise nobody is bothered, says Bharatbhai, a farmer in Sadli village, Surendranagar.

MSP

Gujarat is the highest producer of cotton and groundnut in the country, but farmers rue the low prices. We are able to sell cotton at one-third of our input cost. The government has not done anything for farmers and all development has been limited to cities. PM Narendra Modi is not like Indira Gandhi; he is an enemy of farmers, says Mooljibhai Solanki of Goradka village in Bhavnagar.

PM Kisan vs NYAY

Goverdhan Bhai Sorathiya 72, who owns two bighas in Botad, Bhavnagar, flashes his mobile phone as he received second installment of Rs 2,000 under PM-Kisan. But some of the other farmers are yet to receive it. Among them is Narayan Bhai Patel, 75, in Amreli, who is yet to receive even the first installment.

We gain nothing, whether it is kamal (BJPs election symbol) or panja (Congress symbol). The political parties treat us like dogs and have thrown the bait of PM Kisan and NYAY, he says.By PTI

PUNE: A co-accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case Sunday denounced BJP Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Singh Thakur's comments against former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare but added that he would still campaign for her to defeat the Congress' Digvijaya Singh there.

Sameer Kulkarni, a Malegaon blast accused out on bail currently, addressed a press conference here and stressed that no one had the right to make such remarks against Karkare who laid down his life fighting terrorists.

"Not only Sadhvi (Thakur), no one has the right to make such remarks. Because making such remarks against bravehearts is sheer ingratitude towards their supreme sacrifices," Kulkarni said.

ALSO READ: BJP would have fielded Godse as well: Congress on Pragya Lok Sabha ticket

However, taking a stand supporting Thakur, he added, "While in custody for several years in the blast case, we, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, were subjected to unlimited torture. It is possible Sadhvi made that statement out of anguish."

"However, realising her mistake, she apologised," he said, adding that her statement should not be politicised.

Informing that he would be campaigning for Thakur in Bhopal, Kulkarni said, "Sadhvi is not a politician but she is fighting against adharma. She is fighting against Digvijaya Singh and to defeat Singh, we would go there (to campaign)," he said.

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He accused the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party of being "anti-Hindu" and said the two parties had made them (blast accused) "scapegoats" in 2008.

"The NCP and Congress came to power on the basis of majority Hindu votes. Senior leaders Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Digvijaya Singh and NCP president Sharad Pawar have taken an anti-Hindu stand from time to time," Kulkarni alleged.

"The Congress and NCP created a fake narrative about Hindu terrorism and put several innocent Hindus behind bars by implicating them in false cases. But it was because of the judiciary and a few honest police officers that several people like us got bail," he said.

ALSO READ: Citing Sadhvi Pragya's Karkare remarks, Ahmed Patel accuses BJP of double standards

Kulkarni got bail in the Malegaon blast case in 2017.

Thakur, an accused in the case who is out on bail, is under fire for saying that Karkare died in the 26/11 terror attack because she had cursed him for `torturing' her when he probed the Malegaon blast as chief of the ATS.

Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town about 200 km from here in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.Vinh Tan international seaport was inaugurated on April 20th (Photo: VNA)



The port was built on 140 ha at a cost of around VND2.3 trillion invested by the Vinh Tan International Port Co. Ltd, from the Thai Binh Duong Group.

It has a 3,000 DWT wharf and two 50,000 DWT wharves, and will have a 70,000 DWT wharf in the near future.

The port will serve the import-export of commodities of Binh Thuan, and provinces in the south central and Central Highlands regions.

Nguyen Ngoc Hai, Chairman of the Binh Thuan Peoples Committee said the port can be easily connected with industrial zones in Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan and the Central Highlands, helping reduce transport costs and spur marine economy growth.

Bui Thien Thu, Deputy Head of the Vietnam Maritime Administration said the Thai Binh Duong Groups building of the Vinh Tan international port is to realize the States policy of encouraging economic sectors, especially the private one, to invest in economic infrastructure development./.By ANI

AHMEDABAD: Union Minister Piyush Goyal has demanded an apology from Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on behalf of his party for allegedly equating the Hindu community with 'terror'.

On Saturday, Chavan had demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fielding Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal in the ensuing polls. He had also asked for the Prime Minister to withdraw Thakur's candidature.

Responding to Chavan's remarks, Goyal, while speaking to ANI, said, "I think Prithviraj Chavan should apologise for Congress' shameful act of terming the whole Hindu community as 'terror'. They attempted to defame a whole community. Congress is an issueless and directionless party. Congress worked towards dividing society and sheltering the terrorists. People of India will never forgive them for the seditious acts committed by them."

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BJP fielding Thakur from Bhopal against Congress' Digvijaya Singh has led to a fresh war of words between the party and the Opposition.

Yesterday, Congress leader Devendra Singh Yadav filed a police complaint against Thakur for her comment on late Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare.

Bhopal will go to polls on May 12. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.By PTI

JAIPUR: The newlywed bride who was abducted by a group of armed men on gunpoint in Rajasthan's Sikar district has been rescued from Dehradun, police said Sunday.

Two more arrests have been made in the case, they said.

Four persons had been arrested earlier.

A police team along with the bride and prime accused Ankit Sevda and accomplice Vikas Bhambu have reached Sikar, officials said.

The accused men were arrested from a court premises in Dehradun on Saturday, Sikar SP Amandeep Singh Kapoor said.

He said preliminary investigation has revealed that the bride and accused Ankit Sevda knew each other.

The bride will be handed over to family members after her statement is recorded.

On Wednesday last, newlywed bride Hansa was abducted by a group of armed men on gunpoint near Rambakshpura under Dhod Police Station area in Sikar district.

At the time, the bride along with her husband and others were on the way to their house.

Following the abduction, members of the Rajput community had protested, demanding early arrest of the accused.By PTI

PATNA: Top Left leaders - Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Sudhakar Reddy - as well as Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar will descend on the soil of Bihar next week to campaign in Begusarai where former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar is pitted against Union minister and firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh.

According to a release issued by the CPI's state headquarters here, Yechury will be addressing a rally in Begusarai on April 23 while his CPI counterpart Sudhakar Reddy will be there on the same day and the day after.

The CPI national secretary D Raja will be arriving in Patna on Monday for a five-day tour of Bihar during which he will also campaign for Kanhaiya, his party candidate, from April 23 to 26, the release said.

ALSO READ: Kanhaiya Kumar not the only JNU Students Union President to enter mainstream politics in Bihar

Akhtar will be in the parliamentary constituency on April 23, the release added.

Meanwhile, critically-acclaimed actor Prakash Raj, who has won the National Award twice and became famous in Bollywood by virtue of his performances as the main antagonist in blockbusters such as "Wanted" and "Singham", landed in the dusty mofussil town on Saturday.

Raj, who claims to have become vocal on politics following the murder of noted journalist, and his close friend Gauri Lankesh in 2017, shared photographs on social media of himself holding hands with the 32-year-old CPI candidate and addressing rallies.

"Begusarai is rising up to Kanhaiya Kumar. As I travel with him, I can see hope in the eyes of the people. Winds of change. I can sense empowerment...I am proud to be by his side," Raj wrote on his Facebook page.

ALSO READ: 'Nationalist' versus 'grassroots' political fight at Begusarai as Giriraj Singh faces off with Kanhaiya Kumar

The noted actor, who is also contesting the polls as an Independent from Bengaluru, has indicated that he is likely to campaign for Kanhaiya till Monday.

Incidentally, Raj will be the second Bollywood personality to campaign for Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai.

Actress Swara Bhasker addressed a rally a fortnight ago after he had filed his nomination.

Known as the "Leningrad of Bihar" because of the strong presence of Left parties, Begusarai is witnessing a three-cornered contest, the third player being less talked about but equally formidable Tanveer Hassan of the RJD who was the runner-up in 2014.

Held by BJP's Bhola Singh, who passed away a few months ago, the seat would go to polls on April 29 in the fourth phase of general elections.By PTI

RANCHI: The RJD will seek an appointment with the Jharkhand Governor Monday to apprise her of the administration's decision of not allowing visitors to meet jailed party president Lalu Prasad, a day after his aides were not allowed to see him at a hospital here.

The Birsa Munda Central jail authorities on Saturday pasted a notice on the wall of the hospital ward, where Lalu Prasad is undergoing treatment, barring visitors from meeting Prasad, citing "law and order" concerns.

The notice signed by jail superintendent A K Chaudhary said visiting convicted Prasad would not be permitted on April 20.

ALSO READ: Complaint filed against Lalu Prasad for distributing tickets despite being in jail

"They are trying to demoralise our leader. Can they give an evidence of law and order problem during previous meetings by visitors? We will tell Governor Droupadi Murmu about it," the RJD's Jharkhand unit president Goutam Sagar Rana told a press conference here on Sunday.

As per the jail manual, three persons can meet the incarcerated Prasad every Saturday at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where he is undergoing treatment for multiple ailments.

"The jail superintendent is helpless as it is being directed by the state and the central government.

WATCH VIDEO | Former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav mocks PM Narendra Modi via dubsmash video

Not allowing Prasad to meet three persons on Saturday is violation of human rights," he said.

A senior police officer refused to take questions on the matter.

Prasad has been sentenced in four fodder scam cases by different special CBI courts in Ranchi and is in prison since December, 2017.

He is facing trial in a fifth fodder scam case in connection with alleged fraudulent withdrawal of money from Doranda Treasury in Ranchi in the early 1990s.By PTI

PATAN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it had not returned Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

Addressing a poll rally at Patan in his home state Gujarat, he also took a jibe at NCP leader Sharad Pawar, saying if he is unaware of his next move, then how Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan can gauge what he will do.

Following the air strike at Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, there was a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter planes on February 27 in which IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by the neighbouring country.

Before his jet was hit, the IAF pilot downed an F-16 fighter of Pakistan.

He was released on the night of March 1 by Pakistan.

Referring to it, Modi said after the pilot was caught, the opposition started seeking a reply from him over this.

"We conducted a press conference and warned Pakistan that if anything happened to our pilot, you will keep telling the world that Modi did this to you," he said.

"A senior American official said on the second day that Modi has kept ready 12 missiles and might attack and the situation will deteriorate. Pakistan announced to return the pilot on the second day, else it was going to be a "qatal ki raat'," Modi said.

"This was said by America, I have nothing to say about this now, I will speak about it when the time will come," he added.

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Asserting his government's commitment towards national security, Modi said whether the prime minister's chair remains or not, he has decided that either he will be alive or terrorists will remain alive.

He also took a swipe at Pawar, who on Saturday said he was "terribly afraid" as to what Modi, who once called Pawar his mentor in politics, would do next.

"Sharad Pawar says I don't know what will Modi do. If he is unaware of what Modi will do tomorrow, how will Imran Khan know? Modi said.

The prime minister also appealed to people of Gujarat to make the BJP victorious on all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state, where polling will be held on Tuesday "It is the duty of people of my home state to take care of the 'son of the soil', give all 26 seats in Gujarat to me," he said.

"My government will come back to power for sure, but if Gujarat doesn't give 26 seats (to BJP), the TV discussions on May 23 will be why it happened?" he said.By IANS

NEW DELHI: Lt Gen (Retired) DS Hooda on Sunday said he was hurt by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sadhvi Pragya Thakur's remarks on police officer Hemant Karkare, killed in the 26/11 terror attack.

Hooda's statement came at a press conference, organised by the Congress to release its national security paln, prepared by him.

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"Yes, it does hurt when such things are said about a martyr, be it from the army or the police. Full respect should be shown to them. These utterances are not good," said Hooda, the former Commander of Northern Army, which carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan in September 2016 after the Uri terror attack.

ALSO READ| Despicable, say eight former DGPs on Sadhvi Pragya's Karkare remarks

Thakur had said Karkare died during the attack as she had "cursed" him for torturing her. "I had told him you will be finished, and he was killed by terrorists in less than two months," she said. However, on Friday Thakur, BJP nominee from the Bhopal parliamentary seat, apologised and retract her statement.T J S George By

The wonder that is Indian elections is losing some of its wonderness. Statistically, of course, it remains a marvel - 880 million voters (total US population is 328 million), 11 million election workers, 2 million voting machines, 2,300 registered parties. But the pride we had in the honourableness of the process has taken some knocks. The trust level has dipped. A feeling has come up - unthinkable before - that transgressions can happen.

Never before have there been so many violations of the election code. Calling for votes in the name of the army elicited protests from former army officers and civil servants, but the misuse continued with no action from the Election Commission. The nation actually saw the EC telling the Supreme Court that it was powerless. It is not. In the wake of the Godhra killings in 2002, the Gujarat government wanted to hold a snap election. In Delhi as well as in Gujarat, the BJP was in power.

But the Chief Election Commissioner took a stand that elections would not be held in a hurry and that was that. An elected MLA in Maharashtra was disqualified by the EC because he had used Hindutva as a campaign issue. Under T N Seshan, the EC filmed election meetings to ensure that there were no violations in speeches.

Todays EC has chosen to be powerless for its own reasons. Even after the Supreme Court shamed it into using at least some of its powers, the EC has let transgressions go unnoticed. The BJPs Gujarat MLA, Ramesh Katara, was brazen in his violation of the rules. As reported by ANI, he told people to press the lotus button. There should not be any room for errors as Modi Saab has installed cameras this time. Who voted for BJP, who for Congress, it can be seen. Aadhaar Card and all cards have your photo. If there are less votes from your booth, then we will come to know who did not cast vote and then you will not get work.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

This is more threatening in tone than Maneka Gandhis warning to Muslims that made the EC punish her. That the same kinds of threats are being made by more than one leader indicates that this is part of a planned strategy. When a leading party functionary says that systems have been put in place to find out who voted for whom, where is the sanctity of elections? Where is the EC whose primary task is to ensure that sanctity?

Half the voting is over, yet the doubts and suspicions over contentious issues remain unabated. The BJP publicity this time makes no reference to development. The emphasis is on ideas like the Citizenship Amendment Bill and the National Register of Citizensideas that have already caused upheavals in the north-east and apprehensions across the country. The slogan, a fitting response to terrorism, continues. Clearly, the tactic is to play on the Hindutva version of patriotism. This took a perverse turn when the party gave its Bhopal ticket to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, accused in the Malegaon blast case that linked saffron with terror. It is a defiant declaration by the party president that policies will be drastically partisan if his party wins again.

It is clear now that three elements make this election different from all the elections of the past. Public loss of trust in voting machines is the first of these. The second element is the phenomenon of people defecting from other parties to the BJP. Some of them have already been rewarded with positions. Others are awaiting their turn. The BJP gains because it is the only party that is in a position to offer rewards that matter.

The third and most pernicious feature of this election is the number of tax raids conducted on the premises of opposition leaders without the slightest feeling of guilt or disgrace on the part of the party in power. Many were raided and crores seized, the intention being to deprive the opposition of ready cash, the oxygen of elections. The BJPs stock of oxygen was hardly touched. Such cheating games were never played in Indian elections before.

This election thus becomes the most deceitful till date. It can have an impact because this is the worlds most expensive election and the bulk of the expenses are in cash. The party with the most black money rules.Conveniently defective machines, opportunistic defections and partisan raids may influence the outcome of the elections. What will be the outcome of that outcome?

By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA/VISAKHAPATNAM: Six persons were killed in rain-related incidents across the State while a couple of flights scheduled to land at the Visakhapatnam airport had to return due to inclement weather conditions. The rains lashed parts of Coastal AP and Rayalaseema bringing down the temperatures considerably and more rain and thunderstorm activity is predicted in the next two days as well.

In Guntur district, three persons died when lightning struck them at three different places. A couple of cattle also perished in the lightning strikes. At Upparapalem in Vinukonda mandal, a 55-year-old farmer Gumma Chinna Guravaiah died when lightning struck him while he was working in the agriculture field. Similarly, a farm labourer, Sk Mastan Bhi (45) died due to lightning at Karampudi when she went to the chilli field with other workers for work. Ch Venkata Kotaiah (25) died due to lightning when he took his sheep for grazing in the fields at Mutharasupalem in Nuzendla mandal.

A 35-year-old person died when struck by lightning near Krishnarayapuram exhibition grounds at Pendurthi on Saturday evening. The incident occurred when the city experienced thunderstorm and lightning activity. The deceased was identified as Eswar Rao, a native of Sompuram village. He works as a labourer near Vepagunta. Police sent the body for postmortem to a government hospital.

In Prakasam district, one person was killed after being struck by lightning at Darsi. Heavy rain lashed Darsi between 5 and 6 pm. Sriram Siva (30), a worker in a circus company, died when lightning struck a tent at Sai Nagar.

At Peddavaram village in Kurichedu mandal, K Samson (57), a worker engaged to look after canal operations, died after a tree collapsed on him. Samson took shelter under a tree when it rained heavily and due to gusty winds, a branch fell on him leading to his instantaneous death.

Unseasonal rains lashed several parts of Prakasam district, including Nallamala forest area, giving respite to people from the intense summer heat. The district witnessed rains at isolated places from April 15. Farmers are of the view that the unseasonal rains will be helpful to overcome fodder shortage for cattle. Dried up tanks also get some water to meet the needs of villagers. After five years, for the first time water flowed over a check dam in upper Markapuram due to unseasonal rains.

According to officials, 10.1 cm rainfall has been recorded in 10 mandals in the western part of Prakasam district since April 15. The highest rainfall of 108.8 mm was registered in Ardhaveedu mandal.

Pedaraveedu, Yerragondapalem, Markapuram and other mandals also received rainfall. The western part of Prakasam district, Markapuram division and part of Kandukur division have been facing acute shortage of drinking water from February.

People are mainly dependent on the supply of water through tankers for their drinking needs. Farmers are also facing hardships due to the scarcity of fodder for their cattle. The unseasonal rains gave farmers a ray of hope to overcome prevailing drought conditions in several parts of the district.

Meanwhile, two flights scheduled to land at Visakhapatnam have to return or divert to other airports due to inclement weather. The two flights, both IndiGo, were from Hyderabad and Chennai. While the flight from Hyderabad returned, the one from Chennai was diverted to land at Bhubaneswar.

Meanwhile, the IMD had predicted heavy rains in Coastal AP and Rayalaseema attributed to pre-monsoon showers for the next two days. In the last 24 hours, highest rainfall of 4 cm was recorded at Mentada and 2 cm at Srungavarapukota in Vizianagaram district, 2 cm each at Tirumala and Venkatagiri Kota in Chittoor and Chilamathur in Anantapur.

On Saturday, maximum temperatures at many places recorded normal. The highest temperature was recorded at Tirupati with 41 degree Celsius, followed by 40.8 degree Celsius at Kurnool and 40 degree Celsius at Anantapur.

As per IMD report, the trough of the low-pressure area at mean sea level over Equatorial Indian Ocean and adjoining central parts of south Bay of Bengal persists. Under the weather influence, thunderstorm activity, lightning with gusty winds speeding up 40 to 50 kmph will continue in all the districts for the next two days.

Vizianagaram village gets the highest rainfall

In the last 24 hours, highest rainfall of 4 cm was recorded at Mentada and 2 cm at Srungavarapukota in Vizianagaram, 2 cm each at Tirumala and Venkatagiri Kota in Chittoor and Chilamathur in Anantapur. The highest temperature of 41 degree Celsius was recorded at Tirupati, followed by 40.8 degree Celsius at Kurnool.Marx Tejaswi By

Express News Service

DAVANGERE: Once famous as the Manchester of Karnataka and currently known as an educational hub, Davanagere has seen its ups and downs over the decades. In the constituency where the closure of textile mills prompted a large-scale migration of people, caste equation holds the key to political fortunes.

After 21 years and four successive defeats, the Congress has fielded a candidate from outside the locally powerful Shamanur family. However, district Congress committee president H B Manjappa was chosen as the party candidate only after former minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa refused to contest the polls and the party turned down his suggestion to field his son S S Mallikarjurn.

Manjappa, who is the Congress first Kuruba candidate in the constituency since 1991 is taking on incumbent BJP MP G M Siddeshwar who belongs to the numerically strong Lingayat community.There are about 4.50 lakh Lingayats, 3.50 lakh Dalits, 2 lakh Muslims, 1.5 lakh Valmiki Nayakas and 1.3 lakh Kurubas in the Lok Sabha seat.

While both the parties are wooing the major communities, Siddeshwar is banking on the Sadara sub-caste of Lingayat community which he belongs to, apart from the Modi wave, well-organised party machinery and his own reputation as an easily accessible leader.

Political analysts feel that Nayakas may not vote en bloc for the Kuruba candidate as they feel that their community has historically been neglected in allocation of funds for development and this could help Siddeshwar.

Inclusion of Davanagere in Smart City Projects and the proposal to set up a fertiliser factory in Harihar may help the areca merchant and former Union minister.

On the other hand, Manjappa is confident of the Kuruba communitys support as he is the first notable candidate from the social group contesting the election from the constituency in two and a half decades. While Kuruba leaders are campaigning rigorously for Manjappa, the active backing of the Shamanur family is also a big factor for him. He also counts on Muslims, who have been traditional supporters of the Congress.

Meanwhile, leaders of Banajiga Lingayat community which numbers over 2 lakh held a meeting this week to decide who to support, but their decision is not announced yet.The MLA count in the Lok Sabha seat favours the BJP. While it has six MLAs, the Congress has only two.Caste equation apart, the priorities of people at large are divergent.

Rangappa, a BJP supporter and former president of Palavanahalli gram panchayat in Nyamti taluk, says the Narendra Modi government could have done better to fulfil its promises including job creation. However, for Chandregouda, a social worker, national security is a matter of greater importance. The NDA government has ensured national security and taught a lesson to Pakistan. He (Modi) needs more time to implement his policies successfully, he says.

S R Patil, a 91-year-old farmer in Honnali, wants a second term for Modi for the country,s development, while shepherds Veeresh and Satish of Belludi village in Harihara taluk recall the pain of demonetisation which affected sale of their sheep.

As industrialisation is yet to pick up in the constituency after the closure of textile industries, labourers are migrating to other cities in search of employment. Water supply is another major issue, particularly in Jagalur and Harapanahalli assembly segments as the Upper Bhadra Project is yet to be completed.

Its a direct fight between Congress party and me

Do you think you will win for the fourth time?

I have a good chance of winning this time too. In the last 15 years, I have brought Rs 9,927 crore to my constituency for various development works. I have been visiting all the villages in the constituency and have been in touch with people regularly. Considering all this, I am confident about my victory.

Are there any pending issues that you want to take care of?

There needs to be a permanent solution to drinking water problems. BJP has six MLAs in the constituency. Also, Tumakuru-Chitradurga-Davangere railway line was sanctioned but the state government failed to acquire land for the project.

How prepared are you to fight your opponent?

I dont consider H B Manjappa as my opponent. Even if Shamanur Shivashankarappa or S S Mallikarjun contested, I would have considered my opponent as Congress. It is a direct fight between me and the Congress.

But migration of people in search of jobs is still a problem?

If the state government allots land, many industries will come up and this will put an end to migration. I brought Rs 658 crore under MGNREGA that prevented migration.

Im a farmers son, will give importance to irrigation

Why should people elect you?

I grew up after a lot of struggles. I worked my way up from the booth level to district level in Congress. I want to work for the people and I have my own plans to solve the problems of the general public and farmers.

What were the failures of G M Siddeshwar?

People of the constituency are not ready to accept Siddeshwar. Apart from MPLAD funds, he has not done anything that one can remember. Though he was the skill development minister, he failed to bring out a scheme for the constituency. Siddeshwar also failed to set up industries.

Siddeshwar says he got Rs 9,927 crores sanctioned for constituency.

The grant comes automatically under various Central government schemes such as Gram Sadak Yojana and others. The case is same with all MPs across country. I dont know where those Rs 9,927 crores were spent as the roads are still in a pathetic condition. However, Gram Sadak Yojana roads built during Congress rule are visible.

What will be your priority if you are elected?

I am the son of a farmer. I want to give importance to irrigation. More than a half of the land in the district are rain-fed and hence priority will be given to fill up tanks. Multi-village drinking water scheme will be implemented.By Express News Service

MANGALURU: The spate of continuous bomb blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday claimed the life of a Mangaluru resident who was vacationing in the island nation along with her husband.

58-year-old Razeena Khader Kukkady, who lives in Surathkal, reached Sri Lanka a week back. Her husband, Abdul Khader Kukkady, an expert in the fertilizer industry, is working for a refinery at the United Arab Emirates. After their week-long vacation, Abdul Khader left to Dubai from Colombo on Sunday morning and Razeena was expected to fly to Bengaluru by Sunday afternoon.

Raseena was having her breakfast in the hotel when the blast occurred at Shangri La, a five-star hotel in Colombo where the couple was staying. She was one among the victims of the blast.

Raseena's family hail from Kasaragod district, and they had migrated from Kerala to Sri Lanka some decades ago. The family has connections to Kasaragod and South Canara region, too, which is why her family arranged her match with Abdul Khader Kukkady from Baikampady in Mangaluru, forty years back.

The couple has a son and daughter who are both living in the United States.

Click here for live updates of Sri Lanka blasts

"Since my sister-in-law's family members and relatives are in Sri Lanka, the couple went for a week-long vacation there. After my brother left to Dubai on Sunday morning, she was to return back in a flight from Colombo to Bengaluru by noon. But her life was just snubbed out in a few hours", said Raseena's brother-in-law Usman Kukkady.

Yatish Baikampady, a family friend of the Kukkadys, said that the couple had a cordial relationship with everybody. "The family lived in perfect communal harmony with all their neighbours and it is a shock to learn that Raseena was killed in the blast", he said.

The couple's relatives said they would make all efforts to bring back the mortal remains of Raseena to Mangaluru for the funeral. Raseena's children are flying to Colombo and other relatives from India are also flying to Colombo, added Usman.According to the International Trade Centre, in 2018, Vietnam was the 11th biggest tuna supplier of China, accounting for a meagre market share with 3%.

Particularly, frozen tuna fillets from Vietnam and the ASEAN member countries are exempted from tax in the Chinese market. The advantage allowed Vietnam to become the leading provider of frozen tuna fillets to the market with over 65% of the market share in 2018.

The VASEP predicted that Vietnams export of the product to China will continue to rise in 2019. In the first two months of this year, Vietnams exports to China accounted for 94% of the countrys total tuna export value.

The association revealed that this year, Vietnam will provide new fresh and frozen tuna products to China.

According to Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, Vice Chairwoman of VASEP, tuna exports are forecast to top US$1 billion this year, US$350 million higher than last year.Marx Tejaswi By

Express News Service

BHADRAVATI: Drumming up a frenzy over nationalism, BJPs calling card in the elections  party president Amit Shah  on Saturday pitched for bringing back Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for a second term to keep the country safe, root out terrorism and give a fitting reply to Pakistan. His remarks seemed to be a rebuttal of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhis jibe, who, in Wayanad, called Modi the weakest PM. If you want to give Pakistan a fitting reply, press the button against the lotus symbol, he exhorted the huge crowd here.

Shah, who held a road show wherein a cheering crowd of over 6,000 people participated, said this election is not about just making the Shimoga Lok Sabha candidate B Y Raghavendra victorious.

He will be MP for sure. Raghavendra should be made MP so that Modi becomes PM again. Why should Modi be made PM again? It is to keep the country safe, to root out terrorism. It is to give Pakistan a fitting reply, which it deserves, he told the charged-up supporters. BJP state president B S Yeddyurappas son Raghavendra is pitted against former CM S Bangarappas son and JDS candidate Madhu Bangarappa.

Emphasising how important the seat is for the party, he said he came even though his own constituency will be voting on May 23. But there was demand from state BJP leaders that I should come here to ensure Raghavendras victory. I had also said that I should go to make Raghavendra victorious. Hence, Im here, meeting you all, he said.Bansy Kalappa By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Election is a season of verbal diarrhoea and the state witnessed a lot of it on Saturday.

In the latest instance of the political discourse hitting new lows, Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar called BJP veteran K S Eshwarappa a nut case.

He was matched by his cabinet colleague Zamir Ahmed Khan who said Prime Minister Narendra Modis wife left him because he is not a good looking man.

While there was no reaction from Eshwarappa who is known for controversial comments on his political adversaries, Khans statement on the prime minister evoked a swift response from BJP leader B Srimulu.

The Molakalmuru MLA wondered if it is the ministers culture to desert the spouse.

In our Indian culture, a man does not leave his wife until death. But I dont know about Zamir Ahmed Khans culture, Sriramulu said.

In Hubballi, state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao called Modi a mafia prime minister. Rao justified his comments saying, I-T, ED and CBI are being misused (by the Modi government). Even media is not free.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

A few days ago, former MLA Raju Kage had reportedly compared Chief Minister to a buffalo whose looks could not be improved no matter how good the makeup was. His remarks had come soon after Kumaraswamys comments that the Prime Minister faced cameras after waxing his face.

On independent candidate Sumalatha, PWD Minister H D Revanna had said, her husband (MH Ambareesh) died recently and instead of mourning, why is she campaigning.Another Minister D C Thamanna had said Sumalatha was inhospitable and she does not give water to guests at her home.

Lok Sabha member L R Shivaramegowda had attacked her saying she was not a Gowdati.

Weeks ago, Union Minister Anantkumar Hegdes statement wondering if Congress president Rahul Gandhi was a Brahmin had sparked a controversy. He had also said any Muslim hand that touches a Hindu girl has to be cut off.

Analyst B S Murthy said the political discourse has not stooped to the level of violence, but it is still bad as leaders seek to entertain voters with their lowly statements.

He said, Both the sides -- Congress/JD(S) and the BJP - have award winners when it comes impulsive low-level statements. They often do it under pressure and in the heat of it. But, sometimes they use slander as a bait to get the other side to respond. Sometimes words do have an impact. If the fight is very close, they use such comments to score in one way or other.

Just the other day, Eshwarappa had called Christians unpatriotic and Congress leader Reuben Moses had offered Harpic and a broom to wash Eshwarappas mouth.

If they could help, then we may need many bottles of Harpic and a lot of brooms.Shan A S By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police and the intelligence agencies have alerted the Election Commission that in Wayanad constituency where Rahul Gandhi is contesting the election, 72 polling booths are under Maoist threat. These booths are considered as critical ones and special security arrangements will be made to ensure that the poll day passes off peacefully in these areas.

Wayanad had grabbed national attention after the Congress chief decided to try his hand in the party bastion. The security arrangements were discussed in a review meeting convened by the Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena here on Friday.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Top police officials, including the State Police Chief Loknath Behera, took part in the meeting. Meena said he was satisfied by the security arrangements made by the security agencies and added that they will leave no stones unturned in ensuring a fair and transparent election.

In the security review meeting, it was informed that more than 1000 polling booths in the state fell in the vulnerable and critical categories. Critical category refers to those booths that are under the threat of the Left ultras, while the vulnerable category denotes the ones where political violence is expected.

The vulnerable booths were decided on the basis of the past experiences too, Meena said.Kannur has the most number of critical and vulnerable booths. More than 100 booths in the district have been flagged as critical and vulnerable.

Meena added that the threat posed by the Maoists has been considered and the security will be enhanced.

To ensure transparency and to beef up safety, webcasting and live videography will be done in the critical and vulnerable booths. In places where BSNL has network connectivity, webcasting will be done. In other places, the proceedings will be videographed.Rajesh Abraham By

Express News Service

When Express managed to get up-close with KC (M) working chairman P J Joseph, he was having lunch at a hotel in Sultan Bathery after campaigning for Rahul Gandhi, the UDF candidate in the Wayanad seat. Joseph is quite thrilled at the tremendous response - from the 25,000-odd Congressmen as well as party leaders - to the song hailing the Congress chiefs candidature which he had belted out at the venue of Rahul Gandhis public meeting here. He tells Express Associate Editor RAJESH ABRAHAM of UDFs poll prospects, steps needed to revive the ailing farm sector, an issue which is close to his heart.

Q. What is the sense you are getting nationwide and in Kerala?

A. There is a strong sentiment nationwide for ousting PM (Narendra) Modi. This view is shared even by political parties opposed to the Congress such as Samajwadi Party (Akhilesh Yadav), BSP (Mayawati), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) and M K Stalin (DMK).

In Kerala also, people want to have a say in who will form the next government at the Centre.

Q. How many seats do you expect the UDF to win?

A. The UDF will improve upon its 2014 tally in a big way while the LDF will be able to secure only a few seats. The NDA will fail to open its account yet again in Kerala. Its not right for me to predict which all seats the UDF will win because that will send a message that we have given up on the other seats. Thats not the case. We are trying hard to win as many seats as possible.

Q. The farm sector crisis is a major issue plaguing Wayanad and your home district of Idukki. The plummeting prices have led to a spate of farmer deaths. But the Left bloc blames it squarely on the Manmohan Singh Governments pact with the ASEAN. Your take?

A. The Congress manifesto talks about a farmer-centric budget as a means of addressing the issue.This will be the first time such an initiative has been proposed. In the farmers budget, the focus is on post-harvest operations like value-added products. For instance, when the pepper becomes oleoresin, the prices rise by 15 times.

Similarly, coconut when it becomes virgin coconut oil, the price goes up four-fold. For coconut alone, there are at least 200 different types of value-added products. We need to focus on pushing these post-harvest operations via the farmers budget.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE



Q.The CPM and the Left leaders have criticised Rahuls decision to contest from Wayanad. They say it has sent out a wrong message at a time when the Opposition is trying to project a united front to unseat Modi. Your thoughts?

A. If they (the Left parties) want to project a united front to oppose Modi then why did they say Rahul is contesting to become the Opposition leader? Does it not send the wrong signal? Are they sure even before the elections are over that Modi will be the Prime Minister again? Despite all this, Rahul has desisted from attacking the Left. He has focused on the BJP-RSS threat to the countrys secular ethos.

Q. Before the announcement of the UDF candidates, you had expressed the desire to contest the Lok Sabha election. There was also difference of opinion regarding this within the KC(M) leadership.

A. I expressed my desire to contest the Lok Sabha election to raise certain issues in Parliament. Not for anything else.

Q. But post- K M Manis demise, is the KC(M) staring at an uncertain future?

A. I do not want to comment on these matters now. Everything will go smoothly. There will not be a split in the KC(M).



Q. You sang Rahul varununde, Rahul Gandhi varununde on the dais, where Rahul and other senior leaders were present. How did this come about?

A. Actually, a team had practised the song and was ready to sing at the election rally here at Sultan Bathery. But they had been denied permission. Later, K C Venugopal told Rahul he should indeed listen to the song being rendered by me. Thats how it happened.

The song was written by a woman and her daughter in my constituency. I heard them sing this song at an election campaign in Vannappuram (in Thodupuzha). I liked it. The following day, I made arrangements to get the song recorded at Muvattupuzha. It was recorded with minor changes The song is now a huge hit.

P J Joseph

KC(M) working chairmanBy Express News Service

CUTTACK/KENDRAPARA : Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday urged the people of Odisha to follow the path of development formulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing an election meeting at Bhatapada under Salepur Assembly segment on Saturday, Naqvi urged people to support Modis call for parivartan (change). The General Elections of 2019 in Odisha are all about parivartan and the wave of change stirred by PM Modi, he said.

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi addressing

election meeting at Bhatapada on Saturday | Express

The Union Minister also campaigned at Qadam Rasul in Cuttack and urged Muslim voters to vote for BJP candidates. He addressed an election meeting at Sutahat in Cuttack where he appealed voters to vote for BJP Cuttack MP candidate Prakash Mishra and Barabati-Cuttack Assembly segment nominee Samir Dey.

In another meeting in Kendrapara on the day, Naqvi said the minorities felt safe under the NDA regime at the Centre.

The minorities faith in the Prime Minister has increased during the five-year rule of the NDA Government, during which no communal disturbances were witnessed in States ruled by BJP. We are determined to mitigate the plight of Muslims by helping them through several welfare schemes, he said, adding other parties have always seen Muslims as a vote bank, he said.

Naqvi blamed the Congress for the plight of economic plight of Muslims across the country. He said 700 Muslims from Odisha had applied for Haj this year and the NDA Government allowed all of them to go to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage. Muslims account for around 14 per cent of Indias 130 crore population and the community play a key role in the developmental agenda of the country, the Union Minister said.

He said the BJP treats all Indians alike. Our country has succeeded in getting Pakistan isolated globally for abetting terror under the strong leadership of Narendra Modi, he added. The Union Minister exuded confidence that BJP would form the Government in Odisha. He said since 2014, the Centre has provided around `4 lakh crore to the state under 106 schemes. But the State Government failed to utilize the funds, he alleged.By Express News Service

CHENNAI : Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and leaders of other political parties have extended their Easter greetings. The Governor said Easter is celebrated all over the world as the day of resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let us all on this festival day resolve to uphold the virtues of love, compassion, hope, morality and faith in our lives so as to create a better future for all of mankind, he said. The Chief Minister said, Let peace, love and harmony fill the air across the world and everyone practise what Jesus Christ preached.. DMK president MK Stalin, TNCC president KS Alagiri, MDMK general secretary Vaiko and leaders of other political parties also extended greetings.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Despite Telangana State Board of Intermediate Educations (TSBIE) attempt to downsize the controversy over the alleged fudging of results, scores of students and parents staged a protest in front of Vidya Bhavan in Hyderabad, on Saturday.

Alleging irregularities in paper correction, they demanded that the Board acknowledge its lapse. Apart from marking present students as absent, cases of non-addition of practical marks of at least 500 students have also come to the fore.

Further, district toppers and students who did exceptionally well in the first year have secured only single-digit marks in the final year. At least 11 such first-year toppers failed in the second year.

Sumith Reddy, from a college in Maredpally, secured 60 out of 60 in physics in his first year, and was shocked to see that he scored only 16 marks this time. I got 85 per cent in the first year, and this time, I flunked in physics and maths, with 16 and 12 marks respectively, he said while protesting against the TSBIE.

Sumith recently cleared the JEE Mains with a good score and was hoping to join a good engineering college. But with a supplementary star mark on my mark sheet, which college would want to take me? All my efforts through the year to clear JEE have gone down the drain, said the dejected teen.

J Anusha, who failed in economics and commerce, faces a similar plight. A Student St Marys Junior College, Basheerbagh, she planned to go to Canada to pursue an undergraduate course on a scholarship, but is now worried about her future.

Similarly, G Navya, of Chintaguda village in Mancherial district, got zero marks in Telugu in the second-year Intermediate exam, after securing 98 marks in the subject in her first year.

TSBIEs reputation at stake?

The goof up has not only depressed students and also angered parents and college management who have demanded the resignation of secretary A Ashok.With around seven suicides reported across the state since Thursday when the results were announced they are worried about the mental health of the students.

Intermediate is a crucial stage and Board has to be very careful. This time however there has been a serious lapse. Board and government should now take some corrective measures of the people will lose their confidence in the Board,  said G Satish, honorary president, Telangana Private Junior Colleges.

T Ramachandran, an auto driver, said he has been making rounds of the TSBIE office since Friday to understand what can be done to rectify the marks. My daughter is a good student and secured 91 per cent in the first year. But this time she got single digit in chemistry. She hasnt stopped crying or has eaten properly since Friday. If anything happens to her, will the Board take responsibility? he questioned.

Allegations baseless

Reiterating that there were no lapses by the Board in correction or issuance of marks memos, TSBIE secretary A Ashok, has called all such allegations false and baseless rumours.

Andhra Rajya Sabha MPs nephew among 10 students to commit suicide after results

Dejected by their performance, as many as 10 students across Telangana killed themselves within a day of the results being announced. One of them was the nephew of Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh CM Ramesh. The youngster jumped to his death from the sixth floor of a residential building in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.

The TSBIE has a helpline for students, but it has failed to stop the suicides, which are common during exams and after the results are announced. Academicians are not convinced about the efficacy or efficiency of the helpline. Calling it a half-baked approach, G Satish, principal of a private junior college in Hyderabad, alleged that the helpline was non-operational most of the timeBy Express News Service

KHAMMAM/ SANGAREDDY/NALGONDA: Here is a darker side to Telanganas colleges than many would prefer to acknowledge. In tandem with the fast-paced development of the States towns and cities, the youngsters are increasingly falling prey to various kinds of addictions. While ganja is old news now, it is the intake of other drugs, including the seemingly innocent cough syrup, that emerges as the larger concern.

The police, having identified the growing menace of drug abuse, have already set their eyes on those supplying drugs, especially to college-goers. It is learnt that a majority of the consumers are students of various Engineering and Medical Colleges. For instance, students as young as 14 have been found consuming drugs.

A doctor from Khammam town told Express: I know many youngsters like this. They get easily trapped in this drug menace when they are lured by their seniors and friends. Some of them want to move to Hyderabad for better prospects. Some students from rural areas, who are habituated to the lavish life in the cities, have become a bait for the smugglers. It is learnt that three people from Bidar of Karnataka have been selling ganja to students for Rs 50 in Zahirabad. The matter came out recently and the police arrested the accused. The police, after coming to know of these activities, have intensified the vigil in the area. Zahirabad Circle Inspector M Saideshwar said that such incidents have taken place in that past, but the situation is currently under control.

Recently, in RC Puram, a youngster on bike rammed a scooty driven by a girl. The guy was found to be intoxicated and was taken into custody. The police found ganja packets in his pockets. The locals state that many youngsters have died in accidents in this area and most of them were found to carry ganja packets in their pockets. It is learnt that the police had not mentioned the word intoxication in the FIR for the deceased based on the request of the relatives of the dead, as they will not get the insurance money.

Call it the official apathy or the lackadaisical attitude of the government machinery, medical shops in Nalgonda district too continue to sell various drugs/medicines without prescriptions. And it is learnt that youngsters abuse these over-the-counter drugs including cough syrups to get high. As Drug Inspectors turn a blind eye, there is no action against any medical store owners for flouting rules. Even sleeping pills are available over the counter.By PTI

HYDERABAD: Passion for a police job drove a 29-year-old man, who was a B Tech dropout, to don the role of an assistant commissioner, but the bluff was called off by the Telangana police who apprehended the man here, police said Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team Saturday caught MV Ravichandra, who was moving about in Secunderabad by introducing himself as the assistant commissioner of police and deputy superintendent of police in the Intelligence wing, a press release from the police said.

During interrogation, Ravichandra reportedly told investigators he had a passion for working in the police force and had claimed before his friends and neighbours he was selected as a DSP in 2012 and was since working in the Intelligence department, the release said.

Fake police identity cards, police uniform and other incriminating material were seized from Ravichandras possession, it said.

Ramachandra was once arrested in 2015 for beating up a person by impersonating as a DSP and was remanded in judicial custody, it said.

Later even after being released, he continued to play the role of a police official till he was arrested Saturday.Parvez Sultan By

NEW DELHI: Amidst uncertainty over alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress is likely to release the list of its candidates for seven parliamentary seats in the Delhi on Sunday. The list was finalised by party president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday.

The names have been given go-ahead by Rahulji today. The list may come on Sunday as PC Chacko is not in the city. He is coming back tomorrow after his arrival, it may be made public, said a senior Congress leader.

According to Congress leaders, the final list has the names of four former Delhi Congress presidents and five of them are former members of parliament except twoRajesh Lilothia and Olympic medalist and wrestler Sushil Kumar.

Sushil is likely to be fielded from West Delhi, which has a significant Jat population. Earlier, this constituency was held by prominent Purvanchali face in Congress Mahabal Mishra.

Lilothia is being considered for Northwest Delhi. The former Delhi MLA is one of working presidents of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit may be given Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha after she refused to contest from East Delhi as discussed by the party leadership earlier.

If she is shifted to Chandni Chowk, former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely may be asked to contest from East Delhi.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

Neither the list has come out nor I have been communicated officially about the development. As a dutiful Congress worker I will follow the direction of the party leadership. We keep doing work on the ground and remain ready to take up any challenge. I am prepared to contest, said Lovely.

Jai Prakash Agrawal and Ajay Maken are running for Northeast Delhi and New Delhi parliamentary constituency. If Mishra is dropped, then there will be no Purvanchali Congress candidate. Mishra may be given organizational responsibility. His name was in the list prepared by the screening committee, which was sent the Central leadership, said an office bearer of the Congress.

If the list comes on Sunday, the Congress candidates will get two days to file their nomination as the process in Delhi ends on April 23.

A party leader said Ramesh Kumar might get a ticket despite reports saying he may not get chance due to a conviction of brother Sajjan Kumar.

Sources say even though the possibility of formation of an alliance has been completely closed in Haryana, the AAP is still open to the alliance in Delhi.Accordingly, farmers will provide information on the batch of material shrimp that they want to sell to be listed on the floor. When there are buyers with similar needs to the sale information, the floor administrators will connect the two sides to negotiate the harvesting and transportation process, and even adjust prices based on the actual size of the material shrimp. The final prices will be reported to the trading floor and announced publicly, so that it can be used as a reference for other buyers and sellers.

In recent years, the shrimp industry has always contributed a great share of the export revenues of Vietnams seafood sector. Shrimp farming has also helped many households to escape poverty and rise to make money sustainably. However, the shrimp industry is also facing many challenges, especially market volatility and uncertain prices, forcing shrimp farmers into hardship and even bankruptcy. There are many moments when processing and exporting enterprises have fallen into a shortage of production materials, failing to meet the contracts signed with importers. Not to mention, the quality of farmed shrimp has also become a hot issue recently, particularly the problems related to impurities and antibiotic residues in material shrimp.

In that context, the introduction of the online shrimp transaction floor is expected to create new transformations for shrimp production and consumption. Specifically, the disclosure of parameters on shrimp farming areas and shrimp quality will help farmers become more aware right from the stage of selecting breeds and feeds, and strictly comply with the production process. When selling their products, shrimp farmers will be able to find reference prices through the floor in order to avoid disadvantageous prices as proposed by traders as previously. As for buyers, they will be informed about the product quality and prices to quickly select the most suitable batches.

In the long term, through the activities on the trading floor, state management agencies will have a practical basis on which to orientate and direct localities to produce shrimp in line with the market demand, towards signing contracts between buyers and sellers on the transaction floor, thus helping farmers feel secure to invest in shrimp production and lead a stable life with shrimp farming.Express News Service By

BULANDSHAHR: Thatched roofs, kachcha roads, dingy huts, a small almost dilapidated school and lots of cattle grazing in the front yard of huts is the usual scene that one comes across in rural India.

Since 2014, one enormous change that rural India, especially Western Uttar Pradesh, has seen is the emergence of toilets in villages under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).

The toilets seem to have struck a chord with the people who are now inclined to give the Narendra Modi-led NDA government a second chance. Take the example of Mahav in Bulandshahr, which saw cow-related violence not too long ago.

Situated around 35 km from Bulandshahr, Mahav is an example of a typical village. Lined by sporadic sugarcane fields and rows of wheat fields on all four sides, the road leading to the village is a narrow one.

A small temple adorns the entrance of the village and leads to the rows of huts which have cows and horses grazing in front of them. Nothing different from the usual villages, or so you would think.

We saw violence but that is a crime according to the constitution. After the BJP came to power, we got toilets and our women are not forced to defecate in the open, village head Sukhbir says as a group of women go past him with covered faces.

Mant, a quaint village near the temple town of Mathura also prides on its toilets. Though there is simmering anger for local MP Hema Malini here, people here are upbeat and want to see Modi back in power for one reason alone  toilets. Bang on the entrance of the village is a board with the prime ministers smiling picture. A little ahead among the many huts is a bright yellow structure, a toilet built under the Swachh Bharat Mission. It seems to be the pride of the village.

Surgical strikes, terrorism and other issues are important but for us the best gift that the Modi government has given us. Life has become easier and schemes like these really make a difference in peoples lives, says a 21-year-old girl shyly as her mother appears and pulls her away from the media glare.

READ| Standing in the way of dignity in Malda

In neighbouring Agra, though residents in and around the city complain of the city not getting enough infrastructure update, the story is quite different in the rural pockets. People here talk about the toilets built with immense pride and also strive to maintain them.

A village elder in the almost non-existent village of Bagal Ghusa in Etmadpur area of the constituency politely narrates his tale. Very At the ripe age of 89, Moumin Shaikh relaxes on a charpoi under the shade of a pepal tree in the middle of the village.

I have been in the village since the time I was born. It took 70 years for the village to get toilets. I am not a staunch political supporter but yes, Modi has definitely given villages a new lease of life with the SBM. If anyone, I would want Modi to come back to power and do more good for rural India, he says with a smile and calls for his afternoon tea.

Saving our dignity

RANCHI: Taimun Khatoon, 62, who had not seen toilets in her entire life till last year, has now been using it regularly which was constructed by the Government at her backyard about a year back. Earlier, she had to walk at least 1 km to the nearest bushes for defecating, but now she claims that her life was made easy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who provided them toilets near their houses.

Modi has really changed our livesnow our children do not have to go out every morning for defecation as he has constructed toilets for each and every household in the village. He has done two great jobs, firstly, constructed toilets for everyone and secondly, provided gas connection for all which has really changed the life of people, especially women in the villages, said Taimun.

Gulnaaz Parveen, daughter of Taimun, who travels a distance of around 30 km daily to pursue her graduation from Ranchi College, said, Modi should remain in power at least for another five years to give a complete makeover to the society.

READ| Toilets not on top of their minds in Gujarat

Not only Muslims, but Dalits also laud the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and are also of the view that if this government is given another chance, it will bring complete transformation in the society.

People who never cared for cleanliness in their entire lives, now keep their surroundings clean even in this remote village after they were told to maintain cleanliness by Modi on TV and radio, said Gopal Mahli of the adjoining Malsiring village.

Good for business

PATNA: Sunita Devi, 45, unschooled but socially aware of toilet importance, at Muzaffarpurs Rajala village said she along with four fellow women members of her family, have forgotten to go in the open in 2015. A toilet built in the backyard of my thatched house had changed the culture of my family. We will return thanks to Modi in election, she said.

Suresh Kumar, who runs a small construction shop of latrine pits, said, The sale of cemented pits for the construction of latrines has increased more than three times. On an average we sell around 100 pits and other materials like footrests in a week.

About 2km away from her on NH57 connecting Muzaffarpur to Darbhanga lies a cluster of around 50 huts-Sikandarghat. The inhabitants are either rag-pickers or housemaids.

Nirmala Devi, 45, and her three daughters, all aged between 14 and 20, said a toilet built at her hut, thanks to local administration, had saved their self-dignity.

We will never forget this and go to vote. But what is bad is that we got only Rs 10,000 out of Rs 12,000 to build a latrine. There is no door, so we hang a curtain to ensure privacy, she said.

Akhilesh K Das, who runs a shoe-repairing outlet near Darbhanga in Bihar, said he doesnt know who launched it but he had got a latrine built with the help of local ward councillor. It still doesnt have a door, and locals use a tin sheet as a makeshift door. Feroz Alam, Ghirani village in Supaul said, It is our right to get toilets as a citizen. The government has done it out of obligatory constitutional duty.

Homes for all

Malikhedi (Bhopal): Housing 365 voters and around 60 families, 57 of which are Muslim families, the Malikhedi village in Huzur assembly segment of Bhopal Lok Sabha seat has traditionally been home to Congress voters.

But the advent of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan envisaged at making the country open defecation free and the houses for BPL families under the PM Awas Yojana could mark a shift in traditional voting pattern in Malikhedi and adjoining Sikandarabad and Mughlai Chhap villages, which too house sizeable Muslim and Dalit population.

30-year-old Wasim Khan, daily wage labourer, said, The twin schemes of Modi government have not only ensured that my wife and kids dont have to unsafely defecate under the sky, but we hope to soon shift into a proper house under the PM Awas Yojana, bidding adieu to the makeshift house, which often used to be thrown away during rains and storm.

In the coming Lok Sabha polls, me and wife will press the EVM button for the PM, as we cant betray a man, who works for our safety and hygiene.

Sources in Malikhedi village say around 20-25 toilets have been built under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and 5-7 houses constructed under the PM Housing Scheme in the village.

Inputs by: Pushkar Banakar, Richa Sharma, Pranab Mandal, Mukesh Ranjan, Rajesh Kumar Thakur, Ejaz KaiserExpress Features By

ARARIA/ETAH/KOLKATA: BJPs star campaigner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, continued his aggressive attack on the Opposition as he toured three states on Saturday. While terming the SP-BSP alliance as fake friendship in Etah, the PM thundered at Buniadpur in North Bengal against Mamata Banerjee over the chit fund scams in Bengal.

In Bihars Araria, Modi warned that those who had plundered the nation will certainly go to jail soon after the NDA forms its government for the second term. Modi accused the Congress of speaking the language of Pakistan, saying, Those who feel pain in their stomachs when asked to chant Bharat Mata ki Jai can neither remain true to the nation nor dedicated to the cause of the poor of the country.

At Araria, Modi asked voters to take an oath by shouting Bharastachari hoshiyar, ghar ghar me hai chowkidar (Corrupt people beware! There is a chowkidar in every house). In Bengal, firing another salvo at Mamata, Modi said, Speed breaker Didi will know after May 23 what is the result of vandalism, looting of money, and stopping the publics growth. Speed breaker Didi has lost her sleep after the first two phases of polls in Bengal.

Eye on Bengal

Eyeing victory from least 23 seats out of 42 in Bengal, BJP heavyweights like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah kept visiting the state and addressing rallies castigating CM Mamata Banerjee for her minority appeasement politics. Modi also criticised the decision to invite Bangla-deshi actor in RaiganjExpress News Service By

Geeta Ben, 30, who works as agriculture labour in Surendernagar district in Saurashtra no more gets up before dawn and walk outskirts of village to answer natures call  thanks to government funding that she has a toilet in her house. Geeta Ben who lives with her family of 8 in Bhaskarpara village is happy to have a toilet but would it be a reason for her to vote for BJP in the Lok Sabha election, she is not sure as she looks towards her husband for an answer.

We will vote for the party based on the decision taken by our sarpanch. There will be a meeting in the village before the election date (April 23) and everyone would be told which party we should vote for, says Ketan Bhai, who has small farmland where they grow sesame.

The toilet in Geetas village was built a year ago but not everyone was lucky to have a private toilet for themselves. Villages across Saurashtra  Bhavnagar, Amreli, Junagadh and Surendernagar complain of half built toilets as contractors never came back after taking government sanctioned money from villagers. There was a target to construct 150 toilets in my village but not even 15 have been completed after 2 years. There is a big scam in this toilet scheme of the government and majority of people dont

even use them, said Kunwarji Bhai P Chauhan, former sarpanch of Karmad village in Surendernagar.

As you travel through the rural belt of Saurashtra one can spot newly constructed toilets outside houses but at some places doors, roof and seats are missing. They (contractors) came six months back in our village and put up a frame and roof. They told us that they will come back in some time to fix the seat and we need to give the money to them to buy it. Since then they havent come back and entire structure is standing and is of no use to us, says Anandi Ben, who lives in Thesa village in Bhavnagar district.

There are scores of people who have similar complaints but toilet is not on top of their mind when they will exercise their franchise. It was a scheme started with good initiative but there are many such schemes that dont work. Even Ujjwala scheme, we dont have money to refill cylinder for `900 and we continue to cook on firewood. We have bigger problems like scarcity of water, crop failure and delayed compensation through insurance and those will be decisive when we vote, said Goverdhan Sorathiya, a farmer in Amreli district.By AFP

DHAKA: Bangladesh has ordered some 27,000 schools to set up committees to prevent sexual violence, an official said Sunday, after a teenager who accused a teacher of sexual harassment was burned to death.

The killing of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi has sparked outrage across the South Asian nation of 165 million people and put police action in the case under the spotlight.

Protesters in the capital Dhaka staged demonstrations for an 11th day on Sunday, seeking "exemplary punishment" for the killers of the girl.

Police say she was lured to the rooftop of the Islamic seminary she attended in Feni, south of the capital, where her attackers ordered her to withdraw a police complaint against the head of the school.

When she refused, she was doused in kerosene and set on fire. Rafi died in hospital on April 10 after suffering 80 per cent burns. At least 20 people, including the head teacher, have been arrested.

Activists say the murder has exposed a "culture of impunity" surrounding sex crimes against women and children, and that fact that those who report harassment often suffer a backlash.

Amid nationwide protests, the Bangladesh government has ordered more than 27,000 schools and colleges to form five-member committee to prevent sexual violence, an official said.

"The committee will be led by female teachers.

They will take steps to prevent sexual harassment and take up any complaints," the director of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, Shahedul Khabir Chowdhury, told AFP.

He said the committees were being formed by an order from the country's high court, which in 2009 laid down a set of guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women and children at workplaces, schools and on the streets.

Rafi went to police in late March to report the harassment and a leaked video shows the local police station chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as "not a big deal".

Police said at least five of those under arrest, including three of Rafi's classmates, tied her up with a scarf before setting her on fire.

They had planned to pass off the death as a suicide.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed that all those involved will face action and police say they are investigating why more was not done to protect Rafi.

More than 100 protesters at the country's elite Dhaka University held hands to form a human chain as part of continued demonstrations over the grisly murder.

"I joined the protest because Nusrat Rafi's murder was a wake-up call for all our women," Dhaka University student Antara Labiba told AFP.

"I am also a victim of sexual harassment. I think most women in Bangladesh face sexual harassment in their families, schools, markets and workplaces," she said.

The Manusher Jonno Foundation, a non-government group, says there have been at least 39 cases of children under 18 being raped in Bangladesh since April 2.

Another eight have been subjected to sexual harassment, the group says.By PTI

LAHORE: For the first time in its history, Pakistan has put on display rare documents of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to mark its 100th anniversary.

The six-day exhibition showcasing about 70 historical documents related to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Martial Law in Punjab in April 1919 opened at the Lahore Heritage Museum here on Saturday.

A year earlier, Pakistan had exhibited the archives of the trial of revolutionary leader Bhagat Singh in Lahore.

The massacre took place at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar (undivided Punjab) during the Baisakhi festival on April 13, 1919, when troops of the British Indian Army under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer opened fire at a crowd of people holding a pro-independence demonstration, leaving scores dead.

ALSO READ: British PM regrets Jallianwala Bagh massacre but hesitates to apologise, UK flags 'financial implications'

"The government has decided to showcase archives of different historical events and famous personalities so that people could know what had happened during that period," Abbas Chughtai, Pakistan's Punjab province government's archive department director, said.

Chughtai said that the archived documents are displayed to mark the massacre's centenary year and the practice will continue in coming days as well.

"We are also planning to exhibit the documents related to the work of Rudyard Kipling," he said.

"We urge people to visit the Lahore Heritage Museum and go through the pages of history," he said, adding that the exhibition will go on till April 26.

The documents include different number of Martial Law Order, copy of the ordinance regarding continuance of trials held by Commissions and Summary Courts, expulsion order of 47 students of different colleges of Lahore in connection with disturbances and a copy of the questions raised by Lord Sydenhamin House of Lords, England about sentence passed by martial law commission to Muhammad Bashir, whose proclamation was an immediate cause in bringing a large mob to Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919.

A copy of assistant commissioner Murree's letter about sending European and Anglo Indians to Murree from Lahore for their safety during the disturbances, a copy of the report about outbreak of disturbances in Lahore, Amritsar, Kasur, Ahmadabad and Patna and the Rawalpindi governor's letter to the chief secretary to declare martial law in Jehlum to teach the people discipline as a punishment for throwing stone on Mr Barton's car, the deputy commissioner of Rawalpindi also features the exhibition.

About the death toll in the massacre, the 3rd September letter of deputy commissioner Amritsar in the documents reported the final figure of death at Jallianwala Bagh to 291 including two women and five children, a copy of notice both in Urdu and Hindi language informing them about how many were killed in the massacre, a letter of the deputy commissioner informing bout whipping of schoolboys in Lahore.Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 22F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 22F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.Sherry Smith/iStock(SUNLAND PARK, N.M.) -- The leader of a militia operating along the southern border has been arrested by the FBI days after the armed group detained over 200 migrants who had just illegally crossed into New Mexico.



Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, of Flora Vista, New Mexico, was arrested Saturday on charges of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the FBI Albuquerque office said.



Hopkins was arrested in Sunland Park, New Mexico, which lies right on the border with Mexico and is just 8 miles northwest of El Paso, Texas.



"This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families," New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement. "Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, and not armed vigilantes."



The spokesperson for the group attacked Balderas and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for the arrest.



"I am confident that Mr. Hopkins will get though this, will fare well," the militia's spokesperson, Jim Benvie, told El Paso ABC affiliate KVIA-TV, while wearing a red "Trump 2020" hat. "The [New Mexico] AG has declared war on American citizens at the order of the ACLU, instructing the governor, in a sense, to effectively find a reason to remove private citizens from assisting and documenting a crisis on the border. It's really sad that she can't use the resources of the National Guard or even the FBI, if they had to, to help protect the border. Instead, they had to infiltrate and set up our camp, and we're confident about our position with this.



"We're not worried about it. It doesn't change anything," he added.



Hopkins was convicted of impersonating an officer and felony gun possession in 2006, according to The Daily Beast.



He leads a group called The United Constitutional Patriots, which states on its Facebook page that its mission is "to uphold the Constitution of The United States of America."



"We uphold this cause against all enemies both foreign and domestic which shall infringe upon the rights of the citizens given by the Constitution," it says. "We are here to serve in time of need at the local and state level and if necessary for our country."



Benvie regularly uploads videos to his Facebook page showing the group's actions detaining migrants.



The group gained attention on Tuesday when it detained over 200 migrants at gunpoint after they crossed into the U.S. near Sunland Park. The group was held by the militia until U.S. Border Patrol agents responded and took them into custody.



A spokesperson for the group told KVIA-TV that the group never points a gun at migrants and they weren't forced to stay.



The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) immediately came out against the action, and blamed it on the rhetoric of the president.



"The Trump administrations vile racism has emboldened white nationalists and fascists to flagrantly violate the law," the ACLU said in a statement Friday. "This has no place in our state: we cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum."



Mexicos Foreign Ministry released a statement on behalf of the government expressing "profound concern about the activities of intimidation and extortion of migrants by groups of militias on the New Mexico border."



The group wrote Friday on its Facebook page that Paypal had permanently suspended its fundraising account.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Entitled Your Pain In My Heart: Vietnam, the exhibition is arranged into two parts reminiscing on the Vietnamese peoples resistance war and their lives during wartime, as well as the countrys medical achievements.

Works on display provide a closer look on the resistance war of the Vietnamese people and army, and the severe consequences left by the war in the country.

The exhibition also introduces to the public for the first time medical equipment provided by Russia to Vietnam, including sets of surgical and first aid tools, uniforms and personal belongings of Vietnamese soldiers.

Retired Russian military doctor Anatoly Levshankov, who worked in Vietnam between 1977 and 1978, expressed his sympathy over the Vietnamese peoples losses during the wartime, comparing the losses with those suffered by Russians during their Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

The event will run until the end of 2019 at the Russian Museum of Military Medicine.The launch ceremony, hosted by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Vietnam Air Defence-Air Force Service, was attended by Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, Vice Chairman of the US Committee on Appropriations Senator Patrick Leahy, and US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink.

According to the Vietnamese Defence Ministry, Bien Hoa airport is one of the areas with the most serious dioxin contamination, as its 52 hectares with over 500,000 cubic metres of soil need to be cleansed. Vietnamese and US agencies estimate that the workload needs over US$390 million.

USAID said it worked with Vietnams functional agencies finalised the assessment of dioxin contamination at Bien Hoa airport in 2016. Following the assessment, USAID signed an agreement on the implementation of the first five-year phase of a project to resolve dioxin contamination at Bien Hoa airport with the Ministry of Defence of Vietnam in early 2018. The agency committed a funding of USS$183 million for the project, which is scheduled to last 10 years using the remediation methods used at Da Nang airport.

Addressing the event, Permanent Deputy PM Truong Hoa Binh stated although the war ended years ago, dioxin consequences still linger, leaving huge impact on human life and the environment.

Statistics show around 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin, over 3 million of whom are Agent Orange/dioxin victims, and the toxic chemical also left effect on the third generation, the deputy PM said.

The Vietnamese Party and Government always define the settlement of post-war toxic chemical consequences as an urgent, humanitarian task, helping to protect the peoples health, ensure environmental safety and create conditions for sustainable socio-economic development, he affirmed.

Politburo member Binh also highlighted the close coordination between relevant agencies of Vietnam and the US in activities to survey, assess and resolve dioxin contamination, and implement projects on healthcare and functional rehabilitation for people with disabilities in Vietnam.

He thanked the US congress, government and people, especially Senator Patrick Leahy, for actively working with Vietnam in addressing Agent Orange/dioxin consequences over the past years, asking the senator to continue supporting and mobilising the US congress, government and people to strengthen cooperation and implement more projects to meet the legitimate needs of many Vietnamese people, for the common interests of the two countries, contributing to facilitating the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership in the future.Three senior officials will visit Shanghai and Hangzhou from April 21 to 24 with legislators.

Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip, Secretary for Innovation & Technology Nicholas Yang and Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury James Lau will join the Legislative Council joint-Panels duty visit to the two major cities of the Yangtze River Delta Region.

Under Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Bernard Chan will also attend.

They will tour the latest developments of Shanghai and Hangzhou in areas such as innovation and technology, economy and finance, culture and conservation, education and tourism and learn about the integrated development of the region.

They will also meet provincial and municipal officials as well as Hong Kong people living, working and studying there.

After the visit, Mr Nip and Mr Yang will depart for Beijing to attend the 2nd Belt & Road Forum for International Cooperation, while Mr Lau will return to Hong Kong.Chief Executive Carrie Lam today expressed some concerns about a new plan proposed by doctors groups for overseas doctors to work in Hong Kong.

Under the plan, non-locally trained specialist doctors who serve in the Hospital Authority, the Department of Health or the citys two university medical schools could be exempted from the internship requirement if certain conditions are met.

Mrs Lam pointed out that the Hospital Authority is not only short of specialist doctors, but also frontline doctors.

She noted the plan proposes to waive the internship requirements, but the terms are different for overseas doctors serving in different institutions.

The terms are more stringent for doctors serving in the two university medical schools and the Department of Health who are required to stay longer in these institutions after passing the licensing examination, while overseas doctors in the Hospital Authority are required to stay for a shorter period.

Mrs Lam said the Government would follow up with the doctors groups on their proposal and she hopes the final plan approved by the Medical Council would treat all overseas doctors equally.



MORE than 107 000 people used Sadcs busiest port of entry and exit, Beitbridge Border Post between Sunday and Friday last week, a 1,6 percent increase from last year during the Easter holidays.





Zimbabweans are on a long holiday that started on Thursday when the country celebrated its 39th Independence before Easter which started on Friday and ends tomorrow. In an interview, the assistant regional immigration officer-in-charge for Beitbridge, Mr Nqobile Ncube, said they cleared 107 367 people between 14 and 19 April, while last year they handled 105 762 throughout the Easter Holidays. He said they anticipated the number of travellers to increase further later from yesterday to tomorrow.





Sunday News understands that the volume of human and vehicular traffic has been increasing in the last few months owing to a number of border efficient strategies being implemented by authorities from both Zimbabwe and South Africa.





During the period 14 April and 19 April we cleared 63 974 entries and 43 393 exits. You will note that in 2018 we had a total of 59 400 entries and 46 362. We expect the numbers to increase even further as more people are still coming in for the holidays. Though traffic has relatively been increasing the situation on the ground is manageable.





To improve on efficiency on the ground we are implementing a harmonised border efficiency plan with all border agencies on the Zimbabwean and South African components of the border.





Off and leave days have been suspended for the period 16 April to 5 May. In addition we have collapsed our four shifts into three. This is to cater for all anticipated traffic from schools closure, Independence Day, Easter Holidays and schools opening, he said.





Mr Ncube said the extra officers from the collapsed shift were covering identified vulnerable points and manning outside counters.





He said they had also intercepted 689 people within the border and turned away 399 mainly illegal migrants, conmen, touts, dealers at the north gate (entry to Zimbabwean border) for violating immigrations laws. He said a further 192 travellers were refused entry into South Africa for various reasons including documentation, overstaying, not stamping passports, among others.





Mr Ncube said seven people were also refused entry into Zimbabwe for either having no visas or no documents or stamping problems on their passports.





We are trying to deal with the high number of refusals from South Africa. Ever since we implemented the gates lock down we are experiencing a decline in Refusals from South Africa and an increase in arrests at our check points. We hope the turned away figures will translate to less touts, vendors and beggars within the border, said Mr Ncube.





South Africas Home Affairs spokesperson Mr Thabo Mokgola said in a statement last week that they had deployed 235 more immigration officers to busy ports of entries including Beitbridge Border Post during the Easter holidays. He said they had also extended operation hours at some busy ports to minimise delays.





An integrated operational plan for port operations will be implemented from Tuesday, 16 April 2019. This operational plan aims to ensure that services are delivered at Ports of Entry where only legitimate people and goods are allowed to enter or depart the country.







MISS Plus Size Zimbabwe licence holder Nilton Makazhu has been accused of fraud by organisers of Miss Plus Size Universe who claim that he is using their brand to solicit for funds as well as duping models into believing they will contest at the international pageant.





Miss Plus Size Zimbabwe has been held for the past three years in Harare with all the winners being promised to travel abroad for the international contest. However, none of them have attended the world contest, something that has irked the international organisers.





Last years edition of the local pageant was held in November, Danielle Francis being crowned queen. She was promised a winning prize of $1 500 and a chance to represent the country at the Miss Plus Size Universe finals in Trinidad and Tobago.





The finals were held this past Saturday in St Vincent (Antilles) and Danielle did not attend and claimed that Makazhu was playing dodge ball with her.





Speaking from her St Vincent (Antilles) base, organiser of the international pageant, Pearl Williams said through some reports from models and other people in Zimbabwe, she was made aware that Makazhu was using her brand to dupe people of their money in Zimbabwe.





Weve heard that Mr Nilton has been using our brand to solicit for money which he then converts to his personal use. Hes using our name and brand in Zimbabwe, giving a false impression to the ladies  more or less exploiting them, telling them theyre coming to our show.





She (Danielle) told me that monies had been paid to him for her trip but she didnt come for the finals, Williams said.





Williams said she had since cut ties with Makazhu and his Iconic Modelling Agency, describing him as a fraud.





Mr Nilton is no longer associated with Miss Plus Size Universe and people must discontinue having any association with him. If they want to continue doing so, they should contact us directly.





We shall be dealing with them directly until we find an appropriate franchise holder in Zimbabwe, she said.





She added that Makazhu has a tendency of making excuses that the model (winner) cannot make it for the world pageant when the day is drawing closer.





Each time the international pageant would draw nearer, hed say to us the country (Zimbabwe) is facing problems and that he failed to get a sponsor.





Contacted for comment, Makazhu said Williams claims were unfounded as he did not receive money from anyone, except Obadiah Musindo, who he said was one of his sponsors.

Nobody gave me money for Miss Plus Size Zimbabwe except Obadiah Musindo who through his good heart, paid for the models boot camp and transportation. Everything else, I funded from my own pocket and Pearls claims are unfounded, said Makazhu.





Asked about the prize monies which he promised the models for winning last year, Makazhu said he was still sorting them out.







NEDBANK Zimbabwe has been ordered to return close to $3 million it had unlawfully taken from its client, Mega Market (Private) Ltd, after making some foreign currency payment to the clients suppliers.





Mega Market had sued Nedbank for unilaterally debiting and crediting its bank accounts applying the new monetary policy, promulgated under Statutory Instrument (SI) 33 of 2019, which made a distinction between US dollar RTGS.





Mutare High Court judge Justice Isaac Muzenda granted an application for a provisional order sought by Mega Market compelling the bank to return a total RTGS$2 898 695.71 unlawfully taken from its three accounts with the bank.





He ruled that there was no legal basis why Nedbank without the requisite mandate of its client proceed to debit Mega Markets accounts not on instruction or notice as the jealously guarded etiquette of banking practice.





Respondent shall cease unlawful debits and or credits of applicants bank accounts pending the finalisation of this urgent chamber application, said Justice Muzenda.





Nedbank ran a bond note deposit promotion early last year, in which a client who deposited bond notes would be entitled to a foreign currency allocation equivalent to 50 percent of bond notes that were deposited.





Mega Market joined the fray and the deal went well until, the monetary policy change in February, when the bank sought to apply the statutory instrument in retrospect.





On March 21, Nedbank unilaterally debited and credited Mega Markets bank accounts virtually applying the new monetary policys market oriented exchange rate.





The development saw a huge sum of RTGS debited from Mega Market accounts to offset the balances due to the bank.





This left Mega Market with an overdraft of RTGS1 188 191.38 after the bank debited to Mega Markets account the some of RTGS2 174 871.54, without even giving prior notice to its client.





In his ruling, Justice Muzenda noted that though the bank did not openly concede, the interbank exchange rate it applied effectively was that stipulated under SI 33 of 2019 in retrospect.





That statutory instrument does not provide for retrospect application., said Justice Muzenda.





It is trite that a statute cannot be applied in retrospect to achieve an individual vested rights unless the concerned legislation expressly states so.







FOR the first time since the inception of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair 60 years ago, organisers have been forced to pitch tents to accommodate more exhibitors as the available space has been taken up for this years showcase.





This puts this years event that starts on Tuesday and ends on Saturday, as the biggest ever to be held in Bulawayo since 1959. The exhibition is running under the theme: Propagating Industrial Growth through Trade and Investment.





In an interview yesterday, ZITF Company chairperson Ms Ruth Ncube said all the space has been taken and the company had to pitch extra tents to accommodate more than 100 exhibitors.





She said: The show is the biggest ever. We sold all possible space and for the first time in the history of ZITF we had to hire tents to accommodate 100 more exhibitors. This year we wont be having VIP parking because we converted that space for extra exhibition space and the halls, which we havent been using for the last four to five years have been refurbished and converted to exhibition space.





A trajectory graph depicting capacity utilisation at the exhibition centre, Sunday News is in possession of reveals that it has been on an upward trend over the last five years. The space being made available for sale rose from a low of 47 612 square metres in 2016 to a high of 57 732 square metres in 2019. The Government has also facilitated for the smooth holding of the event by availing fuel in Bulawayo. Fuel supplies in the city have since last week improved as the Government weighs in to ensure the international acclaimed exhibition is hosted without any mishap.





We spoke to the Ministry of Energy (and Power Development) through our parent Ministrys Minister (Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu) and he spoke to his counterpart that fuel supplies to Bulawayo should increase at least a week before ZITF to enable motorists to sufficiently refuel their vehicles and we are seeing tankers coming to Bulawayo in numbers. We want Bulawayo to be set abuzz. Thats how serious Bulawayo will be next week (this week), said Ms Ncube.





Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is expected to officially open this years ZITF on Friday. By yesterday, a number of officials from different companies were making last minute arrangements to ensure that they are ready for the event. Among the first time exhibitors will be Belarus which is bringing in a number of companies as Zimbabwe and that country continue to improve their economic relations. The United States of America is returning to ZITF after a three-year absence. Other countries that have confirmed participation include Botswana, Ethiopia, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, United States of America and Zambia.





Although all the citys hotels and lodges were fully booked as of the beginning of the month alternative accommodation is still available at most plush suburbs.



A 250-strong delegation of Afghan politicians and civil society figures had been due to meet Taliban officials in Doha at the weekend.

But the event was abruptly cancelled on April 18 amid arguments over the size and status of the group, which included some government officials attending in a personal capacity.

"I'm disappointed Qatar's intra-Afghan initiative has been delayed," Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special representative for Afghan reconciliation, said on Twitter. "I urge all sides to seize the moment and put things back on track by agreeing to a participant list that speaks for all Afghans."

The collapse of the meeting before it had even started, described as a "fiasco" by one senior Western official, laid bare the tensions that have hampered moves towards opening formal peace negotiations.

Khalilzad, a veteran Afghan-born diplomat, has held a series of meetings with Taliban representatives but the insurgents have so far refused to talk to the Western-backed government in Kabul, which they dismiss as a "puppet" regime.

The Doha meeting was intended to prepare the ground for possible future talks by building familiarity among Taliban officials and representatives of the Afghan state created after the US-led campaign that toppled the Taliban government in 2001. A similar encounter was held in Moscow in February.

President Ashraf Ghani's office blamed Qatari authorities for the cancellation, saying they had authorised a list of participants that differed from the one proposed by Kabul, "which meant disrespect for the national will of the Afghans".

"This act is not acceptable for the people of Afghanistan," it said in a statement on April 18.

Sultan Barakat, director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies in Qatar, which had been facilitating the meeting, said there was no disagreement about the agenda.

"Rather, there is insufficient agreement around participation and representation to enable the conference to be a success," he tweeted.

Preparations had already been undermined by disagreements on the government side about who should attend, as well as by suspicions among rival politicians ahead of presidential elections scheduled for September.

The Taliban derided the agreed list of 250 participants as a "wedding party". Some senior opposition figures who had been included refused to attend.

The Taliban also objected to Ghani's comments to a meeting of delegates that they would be representing the Afghan nation and the Afghan government, a statement that went against the insurgents' refusal to deal with the Kabul administration.

The Taliban said holding a dialogue with the "powerless and crumbling Kabul administration is a waste of time" as their aim was to focus on the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.

On April 18, three Afghan intelligence agency personnel were killed and two others wounded in an explosion near a provincial intelligence agency building in the western province of Herat, the National Directorate of Security said in a statement on April 18.

No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community.

Submit hereNatalie Tan, a junior at National University of Singapore, is spending the current semester at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, studying geography. Shes made the most of her time in Alaska, taking part in outdoor activities as well as exploring the city and region.The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.

Community Perspective

Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer.

Letters to the editor

Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer.I have to admit that I was quite surprised by the extent of the coverage devoted to the catastrophic fire at Notre-Dame cathedral last week. On Tuesday and Wednesday the main page on the BBC News app was devoted entirely to coverage of the tragic event, explaining why the blaze was so difficult to tackle, how the building will be restored and, once it is, how it will be more beautiful. There was even a story of the fire in graphics and a piece about the grief that comes from lost buildings. It was as if Brexit, which had been dominating the headlines for months and has already missed two of its deadlines, suddenly didnt matter anymore.

Within 24 hours of the fire, the amounts pledged by Frances richest people and companies had reached 600 million. Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of the Kering Group (which owns the Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin watch brands) was the first to react with an offer of 100 million, only to be beaten in a game of philanthropic one-upmanship just minutes later by a pledge of 200 million from the Arnault family, majority shareholder in the LVMH group (which owns Bulgari, Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith). Cosmetics company LOreal and its main shareholder, the Bettencourt Meyers family, offered 100 million, with a further 100 million from the familys charitable foundation. Oil company Total also offered 100 million.

Aspiring watchmakers and brands looking to fund their ventures on the worlds crowdfunding sites may find such sums hard to comprehend. But they are a mere drop in the ocean for those offering them, who are among the richest people in the world. LOreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, for example, is the worlds richest woman, with a fortune estimated at 53.5 billion dollars.

Even in the context of the huge task of renovating Notre-Dame, the sums seem high. Dresdens Frauenkirche was bombed during the second world war and left in ruins for half a century before it was restored after Germanys reunification. Its total reconstruction took ten years and cost less than 200 million.

Because of the importance of their locations, both buildings have been depicted on watches. A. Lange & Sohne, another German cultural icon that was revived after the fall of the Berlin Wall, featured an engraving of the Frauenkirche on a limited-edition 1815 model to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Dresden store in 2017. Notre-Dame has been featured on one of Paris-based Van Cleef & Arpelss signature poetic complications, as well as on one of the discreet and very rare Patek Philippe handcrafts models from 2014. The Ref. 5077P with a gargoyle watching over the cathedral in the background now becomes a historical record and a poignant reminder.Senior Pastor of the Omega Fire Ministries, Pastor Johnson Suleiman, has declared war on any blogger that writes anything negative abo...





Senior Pastor of the Omega Fire Ministries, Pastor Johnson Suleiman, has declared war on any blogger that writes anything negative about him.





The clergyman while preaching in his church recently, said he will delegate his choristers to report the page of any blogger who writes any untrue story about him, his family or ministry.





He said





''A blogger posted something about my father in the lord about 3 days ago and I sent him a message saying I am giving him six hours to take it down or he would not like me. You know these bloggers, it wouldn't take anything to close them. How many people do we need to report a page? The church has got the numbers to mess up bloggers. I will only direct the Choristers a page to report and they will shut it down. You want drama, we will give you. That we are keeping quiet doesn't mean bloggers should try nonsense, we can shut you down. What does it take to shut down an Instagram page? 100 to 200 reports and they will shut it down. If it comes up under three months, we report it again. Since you face the church, we face you. But we are giving you means of livelihood, don't abuse it.





I have told my people that when I give order that they should, they should just start fighting. Everybody is mad, it is the one that takes off his clothes that people notice. Nobody has the monopoly of rascality.





Pastors have the number to shut down any blogger. Shut up your mouth or we will both shut your mouth and your blog. I told someone that if he thinks he is so relevant, he should not talk about Pastors for six months and his channel will close. What keeps it flowing is because of Pastors. We determine your next video.





Most of the women doing Youtube Channels, ask them for their husbands. Tell them to show you their husbands. Marriage has dealt with them. Life is hard on them so they are bitter.





Nigerians have since reacted to the clergyman's comment about bloggers. Read the reactions below:















Ani Esin, the Security Adviser to Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River State said assassins that came to his house on March 12 were sent beca...





Ani Esin, the Security Adviser to Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River State said assassins that came to his house on March 12 were sent because of alleged election money.





He stated this on Sunday during a Thanksgiving service at the Presbyterian Church in Duke Town, Calabar.





For today, I just had a thanksgiving service to celebrate God for sparing me and my family from an assassination attempt by unknown men. It was a terrible day and that is why I am here to return all glory to God Almighty.





The only statement I could get was that the assassins were sent to attack me because I took election money. But in truth, I never did in any way.

There was no election money given to me, the money that was available was for the general election for Bakassi Local Government Area where I come from and the money was disbursed accordingly.





While I was in the hospital, I was told that the assassins took my car away and on their way, they had an accident while the security agencies were trailing them, he said.





He said security was everyones business, adding that the state government was doing its best to improve security in the state.





With the conclusion of the elections, we hope that things will return to normal because some of the security challenges occurred during the election period, he said.





He thanked the Police command in Calabar that came to his rescue during the ordeal.





He said that the state government placed premium on security of lives and property of residents, adding that more detailed security framework was being worked out to curb further challenges.





Earlier during the sermon, the officiating minister, Rev. Nseobong Ukpuho, admonished Christian to use the Easter celebration to reconcile their differences with God.





Ukpuho, who read from the book of Joshua: 1-9, advised Christians to imbibe the lessons of the Easter period by exhibiting unity, love and peace.



President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sadness over the latest needless violent clashes between Jukuns and Tivs in Taraba State, an...





President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sadness over the latest needless violent clashes between Jukuns and Tivs in Taraba State, and Fulani, Genjon and Bachama in Adamawa State, resulting in arson, injuries and deaths.





Buhari made his feelings known in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Saturday.





He said: Violence and bloodshed for whatever reason is unacceptable and condemnable, especially when it is coming as the nation celebrates Easter, with all the lessons of love and peace for humanity.





Violence has not and cannot be the solution to the resolution of misunderstandings among the people.





Once we abandon reason and good judgement, we are giving violence the chance to take over and make a bad situation more complicated and difficult to resolve.





The president maintained that the primary initiative for ending violence once and for all must originate from the local actors involved in these clashes.





Buhari reassured Nigerians that his administration would not rest on its oars to provide security for all.





He said government would at the same time engage in dialogue with local stakeholders in order to get to the root of the crises.





The president mandated a religious group involved in stitching up broken relationships between communities in Plateau State to work with security agencies in reconciling communities in Kaduna, Taraba and Adamawa states.





The President has also directed the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA and the National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons to scale up their efforts in bringing succour to displaced people.



Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has dismissed claims that he is not a Nigerian by birth....





Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has dismissed claims that he is not a Nigerian by birth.





In his submission at the presidential election tribunal, Atiku detailed how he is a Nigerian by birth, saying he has a right to contest the presidential election.





The PDP candidate had gone to court to challenge the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari, his APC rival at the poll.





But the ruling party told the tribunal that Atiku is not a Nigerian by birth and thus, not qualified to run for president, going by the provisions of the 1999 constitution.





However, in his response, copy of which was sent to TheCable, Atiku said he was born in Jada, Adamawa state, by Nigerian parents and is therefore a citizen of Nigeria by birth.





He also argued that his parents were both Fulani, a community/tribe indigenous to Nigeria.





Below is his full submission in response to APCs argument about his Nigerian origin:





In further response to paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 of the 3rd Respondents Reply, the Petitioners state as follows:





The 1st Petitioner (Abubakar) was born on 25th November, 1946 in Jada, Adamawa State by Nigerian Parents and he is therefore a citizen of Nigeria by Birth.





The 1st Petitioners father, Garba Atiku Abdulkadir was a Nigerian by Birth who hailed from Wumo in present day Sokoto State while the mother, Aisha Kande was also a Nigerian who hailed from Dutse in present day Jigawa State.





The parents of the 1st Petitioner are both Fulani, a community/tribe indigenous to Nigeria. The birth of the 1st Petitioner in Jada, in present day Adamawa State of Nigeria was occasioned by the movement of his paternal grandfather called Atiku who was an itinerant trader, from Wumo in present day Sokoto State to Jada in the company of his friend, Ardo Usman.





That in Jada, Atiku, the grandfather of the 1st Petitioner gave birth to Garba who in tum gave birth to the 1st Petitioner and named him after his own father Atiku.





The 1st Petitioners mother, Aisha Kande was the grand-daughter of Inuwa Dutse who came to Jada as an itinerant trader too from Dutse in present day JigawaState.





That all averments concerning Germany, British Cameroons, League of Nations and Plebiscite are false and misleading in relation to the 1st Petitioner and therefore completely irrelevant more so that the 1st Petitioner is a Nigerian by birth within the contemplation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).





viii. The averments in the aforesaid paragraphs are indeed fabricated, contrived, made in bad faith and designed to embarrass the 1st Petitioner.





In response to paragraph 7 of the 3rd Respondents (APC) Reply, the Petitioners aver that the votes of the 1st Petitioner in the Election of 23rd February, 2019 to the office of the President are not wasted votes, and the 1st Petitioner being a qualified candidate in the said Election indeed secured majority of lawful votes over and above the votes of the 2nd Respondent.





In further reaction to Paragraph 7 of the 3rd Respondent Reply, the Petitioners hereby plead and contend that at all times material the 1st Petitioner has been a Nigerian by birth and has participated in the following career and political activities and has also received the following awards and honours:





. the 1st Petitioner was a civil servant in the Nigerian Customs Service for over 20 years and retired as a Deputy Director.





. the 1st Petitioner has been a Nigerian politician for about 30 years and in 1992 he contested in the Presidential Primaries under the platform of then Social Democratic Party (SDP) alongside the late Chief M.K.O Abiola and Ambassador Baba GanaKingibe.





. the 1st Petitioner contested for and won the 1999 Gubernatorial election in Adamawa State under the platform of the 2nd Petitioner.





. the Former President Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR and the 1st Petitioner contested for and won the 1999 and 2003 Presidential Elections, respectively as President and Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the 2nd Petitioner.





. the 1st Petitioner is the recipient of the National Honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger(GCON).





. the 1st Petitioner was the traditional title holder of Turakin Adamawa from 1982 to 2017 when he was elevated to WazirinAdamawa.





In 2007, the 1st Petitioner contested Presidential election under the platform of Action Congress (AC) and the 2nd Respondent (Buhari) contested under the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).





In 2014, the 1st Petitioner and the 2nd Respondent contested the Presidential Primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the 3rd Respondent for the 2015 Presidential Elections.





In reaction to paragraph 10 of the 3rd Respondents (APC) Reply, the Petitioners contend that there was no admission of conspiracy and criminality by the Petitioners and reference to admission of conspiracy and criminality is false and unfounded.The Fine Watch Club (FWC), which already numbers around 3,500 members offers its members privileged access behind the scenes of the watch industry. This includes previews, visits to manufactures, invitations to private events, access to exclusive products and accessories, private sales of special FWC limited edition watches, and luxury timepieces sold at a serious discount. In March, the FWC offered twenty members a unique experience: a private visit behind the scenes of Baselworld, the worlds biggest watch fair, and an essential event for all watch lovers.

 Fine Watch Club

Two groups of ten FWC members  18 men and two women from France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Dubai  spent an entire day at Baselworld, on Sunday 24 or Monday 25 March, in the company of FWC Managing Director Julien Haenny. Thanks to the FWCs excellent contacts with the Baselworld management and the major watch brands, the doors to Baselworld were opened to the twenty FWC acolytes, who were granted access to areas normally off-limits to visitors. Several of the FWCs major watch brand partners gave the FWC visitors a very special welcome, and treated them to an exclusive introduction to their latest releases, often in the company of the CEO and sales managers. Zenith, Hublot, TAG Heuer, Bulgari, Frederique Constant, Ateliers de Monaco and several independent creators were on the programme of these very personal visits where, rather than being a race against the clock, all discussions, explanations and discoveries were dictated solely by a love of fine watchmaking. So, how did the privileged FWC visitors, who have often enjoyed more comprehensive presentations than those generally reserved for pressed-for-time media representatives, find the experience? Overall, they said they were very pleasantly surprised and impressed by the quality of the visits, the choice of brands, the time and attention they were given, and the seniority of their interlocutors. The Baselworld visit was amazing, excellent, comprehensive, and clearly represented one of the advantages of being a member of the FWC, noted Krish Raman in an email of thanks he sent Julien Haenny a few days later.

 Fine Watch Club

Hublot had a particularly special surprise in store for visitors. It was a mouthwatering vision sure to captivate any seasoned watch collector, and certain to light a fire under fledgling collectors. Three of the worlds most important Hublot watch collectors unveiled to the incredulous and fascinated FWC guests around twenty of the rarest Hublot timepieces. They included one unique jewellery piece that everyone present will surely remember for many years to come.

The twenty FWC members who enjoyed this Baselworld experience represented a range of ages, and included experienced collectors, as well as some just beginning to discover the world of watchmaking. Most of them had never been to Baselworld. Among them was a young man who had travelled from Marseille the previous evening, to be sure he would be in Basel at 10 oclock sharp on the appointed day. At the booth of Zenith, one of the FWCs partners, he saw sketches for a special timepiece developed for the FWC, which will become a limited series reserved exclusively for FWC members. He preordered one on the spot.

Immersion in the universe of Baselworld would not be complete without a typically Baloise gastronomic experience. For lunch, the FWC groups repaired to the Krafft brasserie on the banks of the Rhine which, in addition to its superlative board of fare, offers stunning views over Basels old town, to chat and share their enthusiasm.

 Fine Watch Club

The success of this first official Fine Watch Club event demonstrates that it meets a genuine need among watch lovers as well as watch brands, who were delighted at this opportunity to meet members of the public with a love for fine watchmaking. Forthcoming exclusive events for FWC members include a visit to the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture on 8 May (full) and a TAG Heuer visit on 12 June. June will also see the inauguration of the Fine Watch Club Gallery in Geneva.Voting will close Monday night on a series of constitutional amendments, including extending the term of the presidency

Polling stations nationwide closed its doors to conclude the second day of voting in a referendum on constitutional amendments, with embassies and consulates abroad ending their three days of ballot.

The referendum on the amendments to a number of articles of the constitution, which includes an extension of the presidential term, awaits a final day on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, Egypts National Elections Authority (NEA) said it would not be extending its three days of voting, dismissing reports claiming otherwise.

The constitutional amendments referendum abroad, which started on Friday, took place in 140 polling stations in Egyptian consulates and embassies in 124 countries.

According to Ahram Arabic , the Egyptian embassies in Russia , Uganda, Ukraine , Saudi Arabia and United Arab closed their doors in front of expat voters as the referendum ended 9 PM according to their local time.

Meanwhile, the NEA said it has not received any reports that voters were being bribed to cast their ballots in the ongoing national referendum on the amendments to the countrys constitution.

NEA's spokesperson Judge Mahmoud El-Sharif said that the authority would immediately deal with any electoral violations, including bribes, within the law.

On Saturday, several reports suggested that voters were receiving a food package in exchange for voting on the amendments, which would see an extension of President Abdel-Fattah's El-Sisi's term from four to six years.

More than 61 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the referendum on the amendments to the 2014 charter, which were recently overwhelmingly approved by parliament.

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A blast hit part of the Egyptian contingent of a UN force close to the Burkina Faso border, MINUSMA said Saturday

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned in a statement Sunday an attack with an improvised explosive device Saturday morning targeting a convoy of the United Nations Integrated Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), extending his condolences to the Egyptian government and the family of an Egyptian peacekeeper killed in the attack.

A UN peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded Saturday when a mine exploded as their convoy passed through central Mali, the UN mission in the country said.

The blast hit part of the Egyptian contingent of the UN force close to the Burkina Faso border, MINUSMA said Saturday.

Guterres reiterated that attacks against UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law. He also called on Malian authorities to take rapid action to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Egypt ranked third largest in countries contributing to UN peacekeeping operations in the current period, according to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). There are a total of 729 Egyptian officers and police personnel serving in UN peacekeeping operations in various countries, Egypt's interior ministry said in 2017.

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Professor Mike Ocquaye, the Speaker of Parliament has advised Christians not to use church as auditoriums or cinema halls by visiting just to watch its internal deco, performance and outfits of people.



He said the church was rather a place Christians went to worship, pour out their troubles and expect miracles to happen in their lives and therefore, must be respected as such.



He said this as the Special Guest of Honour at the commissioning of a new church building by the Bethel Kwabenya Prayer Ministry at Kwabenya on Saturday.



Prof Mike Ocquaye explained that many at times, people visited churches especially with nice structures and dont concentrate on worshiping God but focus on the designs of the church and the beautiful dresses and ornaments used by people, which was wrong.



Prophet Dr. Solomon Douglas Nana Tih, the General Overseer of the Bethel Kwabenya Prayer Ministry said the Church expanded its building to get enough space to welcome many people and win their souls for Christ.



The Church he said, also undertook social responsibilities such as providing for orphans, giving children from less privileged homes free education in its basic school and engaging in constant clean-up exercise in the community.



He expressed gratitude to all those who helped to achieve the vision of the Church particularly Prof Ocquaye for his constant support especially when he was the Member of Parliament for the Dome Kwabenya constituency.



The Bethel Kwabenya Prayer Ministry started as a prayer group at a communication centre with a membership of seven at Adenta in Accra and later its membership soared after relocating to Kwabenya.



After a while, the Chairman of the Bethel Prayer Ministry International, the late Bishop Dr Paul Owusu Tabiri declared the Kwabenya prayer camp autonomous until the Ministrys leadership acquired a bigger land to construct its new building.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoHundreds of Asanteman loyalists, including chiefs and foreign dignitaries, have thronged Dwabrem, Manhyia Palace, to celebrate Akwasidaekese to mark 20 years of Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu IIs ascension to the throne.



The event is about an hour away, but almost every space at the ceremonial grounds have been occupied.



A combined team of police and military are conducting strict body checks to avert any unfortunate incidence.



Journalists without accreditation have been restricted to the outer perimeter of the event grounds.



Chiefs within the kingdom, which extends from the Ashanti Region to parts of Bono and Volta regions file in.



The colours of the Ashanti Kingdom, namely green, yellow and black have been used to decorate the ceremonial grounds.



Drums of different sizes with different sounds are being beaten to give traditional ambiance to the place.



Prominent chiefs within the Kingdom are seated in order of their status.



With the exception of former President Jerry John Rawlings who will be represented by the wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, all the other former Presidents of Ghana will be at the event.



Graphic Online has gathered that both former Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor and John Dramani Mahama are already in town.



The former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo is also expected to grace the occasion.



The Akwasidaekese



Akwasidaekese is an expanded form of Akwasidae, celebrated every six weeks in line with the Asante calendar which is based on a cycle of 42-two days and nine months in a year.

Source: Graphic.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe Egyptian foreign ministry has released a statement condemning the series of coordinated bombings targeting churches and hotels in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, which killed nearly 160 people and injured hundreds others.

Egypt expresses its sincere condolences to the families of the victims, wishing speedy recovery to the wounded, and assures that it stands by the government and the friendly people of Sri Lanka in this hardship, the statement said.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi also denounced the heinous terrorist bombings and sent condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery for the injured.

We have to share our historic responsibility to face these inhumane acts, which are not aimed at a particular state but against humanity in general, the president said.

In a statement posted online by presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady, President El-Sisi called for exerting collective international efforts to put an end to the danger of terrorism and curb its activities through a comprehensive confrontation of all its elements.

The president said that terrorism is a bleeding wound for humanity that has repeatedly disregarded the sanctity of life by killing people inside houses of prayer and elsewhere and intimidating everyone around the globe.

"Such terror is driven by poisonous thought and deep hatred of civilisation, progress and prosperity," the statement added.

The head of Egypt's Al-Azhar  the world's oldest institute of Sunni Islamic learning  Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayeb also condemned the bombings, saying I cannot imagine how somebody would target innocent people on the day of their religious holiday celebration. These terrorists have violated all religious principles.

The Egyptian foreign ministry stressed that these brutal acts targeting innocent people and places of worship will not succeed in achieving their goals, and expressed trust in Sri Lankas ability to overcome this crisis.

A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on 21 April, killing nearly 160 people, including dozens of foreigners.

Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawki Allam has also condemned the bombings.

In a statement, Allam said that "targeting places of worship, shedding the blood of innocent and defenseless people and spreading hatred and fomenting sedition among people of the same nation are abhorrent acts that are prohibited by all religions."

The Catholic Church in Egypt has also condemned the attacks, offering condolences to the families of the victims and wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

"The Catholic Church in Egypt prays for love and peace in the face of death and terrorism," the Church said in a statement.

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In 2014, when Otumfuo Osei Tutu II celebrated his Crystal anniversary I had the occasion to celebrate him for his sound sense of judgement, wisdom and political astuteness.



Five years on, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Otumfuos ascension to the throne as Asantehene, I will need to find new adjectives to venerate His Majesty.



As I have previously stated, I did not know Otumfuo before his elevation as Asantehene in 1999. He was a new face and many of my colleagues who also knew little about him were justifiably curious. It took little time however for not only Asanteman but the whole of Ghana to recognize the new Asantehenes inherent qualities.



Irrespective of the trappings of royalty and the aura that surrounds the custodian of the Golden Stool, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has endeared himself to most Ghanaians for his sense of political discernment, uplifting of the role of Asantehene, appreciation of the dynamism of the times and the protection of the deep and rich values of not only Asanteman but Ghana as a whole.



I have observed with quiet admiration as Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has ruled over Asanteman with wisdom and fortitude which has brought greater glory to undoubtedly one of Africas leading Kingdoms.



Through Otumfuos resourcefulness, the management of land title registration in Asanteman has been refined and is currently devoid of the controversy and duplicity evident elsewhere in the country. His Majesty has also through the institution of the Otumfuo Educational Fund and Charity Foundation offered thousands of vulnerable young people educational opportunities to the highest level.



For over a decade, Otumfuo has worked tirelessly in partnership with Yagbonwura, Tuntumba Boresa Sulemana Jakpa I and Nayiri, Naa Bohogu Abdulai Mahami Sheriga to resolve the complex Dagbon crises. The processes leading to the enskinment of a new Yaa Naa earlier this year are a clear manifestation of virtues that His Majesty possesses as our celebrated King.



Otumfuo Osei Tutu IIs relationship with the leadership of various political parties has contributed to the deepening of our political development. He has on multiple occasions intervened when deep-seated differences have arisen between major political players, without allowing the allure of political bias to cloud his better judgement.



His Majestys recent historic visit to Kyebi and an earlier hosting of the Okyehene in spite of the traditional rivalry between the two kingdoms was yet again a great exhibition of his dynamism and desire to spread the spirit of unity and the spirit of one Ghana.



Otumfuos extraordinary charm campaign took him to Seychelles in 2015 in what many thought was an impossible journey for an Asantehene because of the painful history of Otumfuo Agyeman Prempehs exile in that country. Historical visits to Suriname, Uganda, Nigeria, Morocco, England, Netherlands, Germany, Swaziland and South Africa are but a few of the visits Otumfuo has embarked upon as an extraordinary ambassador for Ghana.



Otumfuo, your tenure has enhanced Asantemans enviable position as a tourism destination with many high-profile visitors insisting on calling on Manhyia during official trips to Ghana.



Your tenure has brought a refreshing new aura to the institution of chieftaincy in Ghana, elevating it to a respectable new level and setting a standard for many to emulate across the country.



On behalf of my wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman and my family, I congratulate you on this significant milestone and wish you long years of great health so you can continue to impart your remarkable leadership qualities not only to Asanteman but also to a new generation of Ghanaians who are inspired by who you are as a great custodian of true dynamic African culture and tradition.



Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Afenhyia Pa!







Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Featured VideoMr Ringo Cass Akurugu Azumah, a High Court Judge who was sacked from office, has been found dead in his house in Sakumono Estates, Tema, on Friday.



Neighbours believe he died about week ago due to the near decomposition of his body.



The police had to force his door open after reports of foul odour in his hermitage.



A resident, who sells bags few meters away from his flat, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that on Friday, April 19 at about 0100 hours, he saw liquid seeping from the last floor of the flat where the deceased lived alone.



He said the pungent odour from the seepage, with an accompanying putrid smell, was unmistakable of that of a decaying animal.



Corroborating his claim, a Sanitation Officer, who had earlier on knocked on the door of the deceased to collect his monthly fee but heard no response after several attempts, unusual of the occupant, explained that the overpowering smell emanating from that particular entrance got me alarmed especially because the man lived alone in the house and his car was parked outside.



He said, I swiftly rode to the police station, few meters away from the flat, to make an official complaint of my suspicion.



Another resident who pleaded anonymity, speaking to the GNA at the scene, expressed shock at the passing of the judge, who he said seemed somewhat isolated and was seldom seen around the neighborhood.



The only time you will spot him is when he had to wash his car in the early hours in the day and would hardly even take a walk around,  he added.



On those instances, he said the former judge came across as rather quiet and reserved and was always hesitant to respond to greetings from neighbours or anyone.



This, he said, made him feel there was something wrong with him because of the rare gesture he sometimes showed towards residents, most of whom knew little or nothing at all about him.



Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Afia Tenge, the Public Relations Officer, Accra Regional Police Command, confirming the incident to the GNA said, her outfit on April 19, 2019, received information of the death of Justice Ringo Cass Akurugu Azumah in his apartment in Sakumono from a complainant.



She said immediately, a team of Crime Scene Experts from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters in Accra were dispatched to the scene where a male adult about 60 years was lying dead.



ASP Afia Tenge further stated that, after careful inspection of the body, with no marks of violence detected, the body was deposited at the Police Hospital morgue in Accra for preservation pending autopsy to ascertain the cause of death.



Meanwhile, it would be recalled that former President John Mahama directed the removal Mr. Ringo Cass Akurugu Azumah from office as justice of the High Court on grounds of stated misbehavior and incompetence.



The former President acted upon a recommendation by the Judicial Council.



But sympathizers believe that he was a victim of a purge of the Judiciary in the wake of alleged corruption scandals which nearly marred the image of third organ of government.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoThe Ghana Police Service has described as worrying the recent cases of kidnapping and attacks on foreign nationals in the country.



The fate of three families in the Western Region continues to hang in the balance after their relatives went missing last year.



This week, Nabil Makram Basbous, a 61-year-old Lebanese Consular General and Head of Mission of Estonia to Ghana was successfully rescued after some Nigerians abducted him.



Speaking to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police Command, DSP Efia Tenge this current trend of crime in the country smacks of a cause for alarm.



We have to come together and whatever position that comes from the security enforcement agencies we will make that known. For now, it is very worrying for us to be experiencing this trend of crime in this part of the country at this particular point in time. But whenever we come with any plan, and we have to get all of you informed what actions we have to take, we will make that known.



Police on a manhunt for 3 Nigerians over Lebanese Mission to Ghanas kidnapping



The Ghana Police Service is on a manhunt for three Nigerian nationals involved in the alleged kidnapping of Nabil Makram Basbous, the Lebanese Consular General and Head of Mission of Estonia to Ghana.



Mr. Basbous was allegedly kidnapped on Friday, April 19 by some Nigerians who are currently on the run.



DSP Efia Tenge who confirmed the rescue to Citi News indicated that her outfit had expedited processes to get the unscrupulous persons who committed the crime arrested.



Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service has identified the location of the three girls kidnapped in Takoradi in the Western Region although it will not give the exact location to compromise their safety.



CID Boss, COP Addo Danquah urged the anxious families to remain steadfast, assuring that for the ladies, we know where they are and they safe.



Elsewhere, about eight persons were arrested in the Eastern Region over the kidnapping during a swoop by the regional command in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality of the Eastern Region.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoThe Upper East Region secretariat of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged Ghanaians to pray against saboteurs who for their parochial interest may not want the Presidents human-centered social interventions programmes see the light of the day.



In a press release signed by the regional secretary, Cletus Ayambire Innocent, as the party joins the world to celebrate this years Easter, the NPP noted that Easter is a central feast in the Christian liturgical year.



The press release explained that according to the canonical gospels, Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion.



Ghanaians across the country are gearing up for the celebration of Easter with the expected Christian Conventions and other social engagements.



We wish to implore all Christians to use this period and pray for government and other state officials who in diverse ways have helped His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and his Government to work thus far.



We hope that Easter will give you a reason to celebrate and enjoy the resurrection of life. Celebrate this day with peace, love and bliss.

Source: 3news









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Featured VideoThe Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says there should be no room for hypocrisy on the implementation and beneficiaries of the Free Senior High School Education policy. In a jab aimed at former President John Dramani Mahama, the Vice President said the government had no plans to stop the policy.



I hear somebody (former President Mahama) says we are spending so much on free SHS. Have you heard him? He said we are spending so much.. so we wont have money for other things. Did you hear that? You who said free SHS was not possible. When you did not have free SHS under government, you couldnt pay teachers and nursing training allowance, you couldnt pay National Health Insurance, is it free SHS which stopped you?



Im from the North. I benefitted from free education. It is good for the people of the north and it is good for the people of Ghana, he said to the buzz of vuvuzelas and cheers from the crowd. It must be enjoyed by everybody, he told a cheering crowd at a mini-rally organised by the New Patriotic Party(NPP) at Obo at Kwahu in the Eastern Region.



The walk was preceded by a walk that brought the towns on the Kwahu Ridge to a standstill as thousands of supporters of the party poured on the street.



Joined by the Vice President and some of the partys big wigs, including the partys Youth Organiser Henry Nana Boakye; its National Organiser, Mr Sammy Awuku; the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Eric Kwakye Daffuor; the Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and a host of others, the supported danced music blaring from the streets while the Vice President responded to cheers from the hundreds of people that took to the streets to catch a glimpse of him and the other officials.



Placards



The walk took the party faithful from Atiebie through Mpraeso, Obomeng to Obo where the rally took place.



They carried placards with messages including One village, One Dam, Jobs we have performed better, National ID Cards, we have performed better, Digital addressing system, we have delivered, taxes, we have performed better, and Restoring Nursing training allowance.



The Vice President said the freeze on public sector employment was over with the government employing about 350,000 people.



He said in the last two years, four months, the government had taken at least 40 measures to reduce the hardship Ghanaians faced through reducing the electricity tariffs of households by 17.5 percent and that of industries by 30 percent while doubling the capitation grant for public schools by 100 percent from GHc 4.5 to GHc 10.



Other policies and initiatives included the employment of 100,000 graduates under the NABCO programme, abolishment of fees for postgraduate medical training students in Ghana, increased the share of the District Assemblies Common Fund payable to the disable community by 50 per cent, fulfilled a campaign promise to give 50 per cent of employment opportunities at tollbooths to the physically challenged, expanded Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme with 150,000people, expanded school feeding programme by 500,000 beneficiaries, restored teacher and nursing trainees allowances, reduce excise duty on petroleum, reduce special petroleum tax from 17.5 to 15 per cent, abolish one per cent import levy among others.



He said the government was implementing the One District, One Factory which had so far seen the completion of 60 factories in addition to the execution of the One Village, One Dam Policy in the five regions of the north.



Additionally, he said the government had saved 1.5 million depositors from losing their funds in the banking crisis that gripped the country while at the same time reduce import duties which were a burden on the business community.







Source: Graphic.com









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Featured VideoIn recent times, the behaviour and utterances of some Gospel musicians has left much to be desired and given rise to criticisms about how they must carry themselves.



For some critics, they are representatives of Christ and Christianity does not allow for certain attitudes but Gospel musician, Rose Adjei has stated that not every one of them is a Christian.



In an interview with Graphic Showbiz she said, what people must know is that not every Gospel artiste is a Christian, not everyone has the calling to do the things of Christ.



Some come in with all kinds of motives and they come on board with their own behaviour so it is not fair when we are all branded as bad.



So people should just know not to put everyone in a basket and have at the back of their minds that not everyone who sings about Christ is a Christian.



When asked how she feels when she and others are lumped together with the bad ones, Rose Adjei said it was hurtful.



It hurts, it is unfair but what can you do? In the end you console yourself knowing that you are doing what is right and ask that God takes control.



Expressing her thoughts on the music scene, she said, We have done well and are still doing well but the work can never come to an end. There are lots of things to do and we cannot stop spreading the Gospel.



Again, there are new entrants now who are also doing well and it is a good thing, gradually things will be fine. One thing that I know for sure is that you need to work hard to make a mark as an artiste.

Source: Graphic.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoIf you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found hereABC News(WASHINGTON) -- Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday congressional Democrats may take up impeachment in the wake of the release of the special counsel report, but will consider the political environment when determining any action.



Schiff told "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz the decision whether to begin proceedings to impeach President Donald Trump will be made based on the "best interests of the country."



Raddatz asked the congressman, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, about calls by 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for the House to open impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.



On Friday, Warren tweeted that the "severity of [the president's] misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States."



Asked at a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Saturday if she believed the president should not only face impeachment proceedings but be impeached, Warren said "yes" in response.



Schiff, D-California, said Warren "makes an important point," but added that Democrats will have to take the "political environment" into consideration when deciding whether to undertake impeachment.



He blamed Republicans for being "willing to carry the president's water no matter how corrupt, or unethical or dishonest the president's conduct may be" as the reason theoretical impeachment proceedings may ultimately be unsuccessful in the Senate.



But, he added, that "it may be that we undertake an impeachment, nonetheless."



"I think what we are going to have to decide as a caucus is, what is the best thing for the country?" Schiff said. "Is it the best thing for the country to take up an impeachment proceeding because to do otherwise sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with office? Or is it in the best interest of the country not to take up impeachment that we know will not be successful because the Republican leadership will not do its duty?"



Schiff also claimed Kellyanne Conway, who appeared before him on "This Week," "could not even acknowledge that the Russians tried to help the Trump campaign and did provide substantial help to the campaign."



Conway, the White House counselor to the president, had said earlier on the program that "the Mueller report does say that Russia tried to interfere with this election... The alleged Russian interference in the election was done, was unaided by anybody in the Trump campaign."



"The campaign that I managed in those last few months did not welcome help from Russia," Conway added.



The Mueller report did note that members of the Trump campaign unwittingly shared social media content created by Russian actors. And at multiple rallies, then-candidate Trump repeatedly cheered on the release of hacked emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign, which were released by WikiLeaks in the final weeks of the election.



Raddatz, meanwhile, pressed Schiff on what he told her on "This Week" on May 27, 2018, when he said that the Russia investigation examined a coverup "of a size and scope probably beyond Watergate."



Schiff said Sunday that he maintains that the inquiry has uncovered obstruction of justice that is "more significant than Watergate."



"The obstruction of justice in particular in this case is far worse than anything that Richard Nixon did," Schiff responded, referring to the former president. "The break-in by the Russians of Democratic institutions, a foreign adversary far more significant than the plumbers breaking into the Democratic headquarters. So yes, I would say in every way this is more significant than Watergate."



On Thursday, members of Congress and the public were finally able to read the highly-anticipated nearly 450-page report from special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The report, parts of which were redacted, laid out the "sweeping and systematic fashion" with which the Kremlin meddled in the election with the goal of electing Donald Trump.



While the report detailed several interactions between members of Trump campaign and people claiming to be members of the Russian government, Mueller concluded these instances did not amount to a criminal conspiracy or coordination with the Russians. The special counsel outlined 11 possible instances of obstruction of justice, but ultimately did not make a determination on the issue.



"If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment," the report reads. "Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."



In a March 24 letter, Attorney General William Barr said he, in consultation with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, determined that "the evidence developed during the [investigation was] not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."



Amid calls by some Democrats, including presidential candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., for Barr to resign over his handling of the Mueller report, Schiff said that he's "not ready to speculate about whether he should resign or not."



He did, however, criticize Barr's summary of the report prior to its release.



"Bill Barr views himself as the president's lawyer, not the attorney general of the United States of America," he said. "I think that history will reflect that Bill Barr let the country down when it needed an attorney general of substance."

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawki Allam strongly condemned a series of coordinated bombings witnessed across Sri Lanka on Sunday morning, striking hotels and churches during Easter Mass, killing at least 160 people and injuring 400 others.

In a statement, Allam said that "targeting places of worship, shedding the blood of innocent and defenseless people and spreading hatred and fomenting sedition among people of the same nation are abhorrent acts that are prohibited by all religions".

He called on Sri Lankan nationals to cooperate with security bodies for revealing those behind these terrorist attacks.

Allam offered condolences to the families of the victims, wishing the injured speedy recovery.

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The Catholic Church in Egypt has condemned blasts that occurred at a number of churches in Sri Lanka earlier Sunday and killed about 160 persons.

A series of explosions on Palm Sunday also left more than 140 persons wounded, according to the latest toll.

"The Catholic Church in Egypt condoles with the families of the victims for the deaths and wishes the injured a speedy recovery", it said in a statement.

"The Catholic Church in Egypt prays for love and peace in the face of death and terrorism", the statement added.

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YPC holds so-called Aden commission responsible for continued oil derivatives vessels' detention [21/April/2019] SANAA, April 21 (Saba) - The Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC) on Sunday held the so-called Aden economic commission, the legal and moral responsibility for all the consequences of the continued detention of vessels of oil derivatives and prolong the crisis and the suffering of the Yemeni people.







The company explained that the statement of the General Union of Oil Importers confirmed that that commission lacks the minimum standards of national and humanitarian responsibility and represents a tool of crime to destroy the national economy.







In a statement obtained by the Saba news agency, the company said that the union's statement removed a lot of ambiguity for some observers at home and abroad over the actual reality that the importers are experiencing, starting with the reasons that led them to declare their anger toward that commission, which summarized the arbitrary procedures Illegal which escalate from day to day.







The company said that the statement of the union revealed the lack of national sense in the Aden Commission as it represents a crime tool in the hands of the coalition countries, oil and influential, black market brokers and money laundering.







The statement pointed to the efforts of the General Union of Oil Importers with the intermediaries and through correspondence with the Aden commission itself through its official website and providing all the legal documents of such shipments, including SWIFT.







The statement confirmed that all shipments of oil derivatives on the seized vessels were shipped from UAE ports and through UAE companies and those of Saudi Arabia and not from Iran, as the commission claims.







The statement also referred to the results of the negotiations which resulted in the commitment of the commission to launch the vessels of oil derivatives in full as a gesture of good faith and to complete the understandings immediately after the entry of all the detained vessels to the port of Hodeidah.







The statement said that the Commission did not fulfill its obligations to launch all the vessels that were detained.







Four days later, four of the 10 oil vessels were announced. However, days after that announcement, one ship only arrived at Hodeidah which does not meet the needs of citizens for three days in light of the crisis created by the Aden Commission.







It added that the confirmation of importers added that all the vessels being detained were shipped from the ports of the UAE as required by importers themselves to ship their shipments on ships that have not entered the ports of Iran.







"That represents a gallows created for the commission early on the day, when it had stated that the ships are carrying prohibited materials and smuggled from Iran," it said.











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SabaEgyptian embassies around the world are receiving on Sunday, for the third and final day, Egyptian citizens who wish to vote on the countrys constitutional amendments.

Voters abroad began voting on Friday at 140 Egyptian consulates and embassies in 124 countries. The polls abroad will close on Sunday evening.

Polling stations inside the embassies of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Uganda, Ukraine, Russia, and other countries opened at 9am in each countrys local time.

The Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs is following up through its operations room on the voting of expats, MENA reported.

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), there are 9.5 million Egyptians living abroad in 2019.

During the 2014 constitutional referendum, the number of eligible overseas voters was 681,346 Egyptians, and an estimated 103,000 expatriates participated in the poll.

Egyptians are voting on the proposed amendments to the 2014 charter, which were recently overwhelmingly approved by parliament.

The amendments increase the length of presidential terms from four to six years.

They also extend the second term of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, which is set to end in 2022, by two years, and allow him to run for office for another term in 2024.

El-Sisi was first elected president in 2014 and was re-elected last year in a landslide victory where he secured 97 percent of the vote.

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Press Release

April 20, 2019 ANGARA: BARMM ASSURED OF CRUCIAL SEED FUNDING UNDER 2019 NAT'L BUDGET With the signing into law of the P3.7-trillion national budget for 2019, reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara said the newly established Bangsamoro government is now assured of crucial seed funding to bankroll development projects and rehabilitation of areas affected by conflict in the new autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao. The 2019 General Appropriations Act recently signed by President Rodrigo Duterte includes a P30-billion allocation for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which replaced the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The amount was initially allocated for the ARMM, but would be transferred to the BARMM to serve as its operational funds for this year. "This is in fulfilment of the promise to give the Bangsamoro government full fiscal autonomy to achieve economic self-sufficiency and genuine development," said Angara, who, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government, co-sponsored Republic Act 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) creating the BARMM. "With this spending package, we pin our hopes on the leaders of the new autonomous political entity to change the lives of our Mindanaon brothers and sisters who equally deserve opportunities to be employed, educated and cared for by the government," said the senator, who is running under the platform of "Alagang Angara." The BOL-a realization of the long peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-was overwhelmingly ratified by the Bangsamoro people during a two-part plebiscite held early this year. In February, President Duterte formed the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority to serve as the interim government in the BARMM during the transition period that will last until the first election takes place in 2022. The BOL, added the lawmaker from Aurora, is "a lasting and valuable legal solution to the long-festering problem in Mindanao-so that ultimately peace and prosperity can flourish." In 2015, population in the region stood at 3.78 million, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority. One in two persons in the region was poor, or about 53.7 percent of its population, the government statistics office said. "The solution should ultimately rest on giving the Bangsamoro people to make their own choices-the political and fiscal autonomy to no longer consult with imperial Manila or the central government on matters that are essentially Bangsamoro matter," Angara said. Under the BOL, revenue sources for the Bangsamoro include taxes, fees, charges and annual block grant, and revenue shares from exploration of natural resources, among others. The law provides that 75 percent of national taxes and fees collected in the region will go the Bangsamoro government, while 25 percent will go to the national government. The 75 percent share shall "accrue" to the Bangsamoro government for the first 10 years. The BARMM government will be given a 5-percent annual block grant from the national government, which will be automatically appropriated in the national budget. In the first year following the effectivity of the Bangsamoro law, the block grant should be 5 percent of the net national internal revenue tax collection and the net collection of the Bureau of Customs in the last three fiscal years.Press Release

April 20, 2019 SEN. LEILA M. DE LIMA'S STATEMENT OF SUPPORT TO PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR GLOBAL ACTION'S (PGA) SIX-POINT CALL FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF DEMOCRACY AND RULE OF LAW IN SUDAN I strongly stand behind the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) and other international organizations in urging for the immediate reconstruction of democracy, for the restoration of the rule of law in Sudan, and for demanding justice and accountability from the perpetrators and enablers of the horrific atrocities and human rights abuses committed against the Sudanese people. The unprecedented downfall of the 30-year rule of Al-Bashir regime in Sudan should teach us all a lesson that there are dire and definite consequences for governments that blatantly violate fundamental human rights of those they govern. No ruler or leader should be allowed to brutalize his own people and go unpunished. Therefore, I join the clamor upon the new Sudanese government to allow the International Criminal Court to do its work of putting its deposed leader Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and his inner circle on trial for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity they are accused of under the Rome Statute. As I monitor closely what is happening in Sudan from my detention, I pray that those who are struggling against tyrannical and repressive regimes - including the Filipinos and the Burmese -- will hold on to a common faith in humanity and remain steadfast in the hope that no matter how long and lonely the fight may be, as long as we have persistent courage and unwavering determination to stand up for what is right and just, truth and accountability will prevail and the climate of impunity and state repression will come to pass.Press Release

April 20, 2019 De Lima bewails latest disinformation vs her Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has bewailed the latest disinformation directed against her as she maintained that it is another malicious product of vengeful individuals who have been untiringly working to smear her good name and reputation. De Lima, the staunch critic of the government's all-out war on drugs, said Mr. Duterte's troll army will stop at nothing to peddle lies and spread disinformation against opposition members and dissenters like her. "It has come to my attention that another disinformation against me has been making the rounds on social media at a time when I have been speaking strongly against the Duterte regime's indecency and moral bankruptcy," she said. "These paid purveyors of fake news are working double time to smear reputations, demonize critics of the administration, and propagate hate online for the benefit of no less than Mr. Duterte himself - the top source of fake news - and his minions," she added. Last March 29, several questionable Facebook pages started to share an altered image of De Lima holding a document supposedly asking the Supreme Court "to allow [her former driver] Mr. Ronnie Dayan to visit me even once a week." Apparently, the published photo was an altered version of an image originally published by global news company Agence-France-Presse on Nov. 7, 2016, showing De Lima presenting before the media a copy of her petition for writ of habeas data. In the petition, then Justice Secretary De Lima asked the Supreme Court to stop Duterte and his allies from securing private details about her and using them against her. "It really helps, as it becomes an imperative step nowadays, to verify the authenticity of articles or photos we encounter online before sharing them in our respective social media faces for the world to see," she said. "Very clearly, the photo of me that is now circulating online was altered and should be taken down by Facebook immediately," added the former justice secretary The lady Senator from Bicol said she believes that the Duterte administration cannot easily fool the Filipino public anymore because "people are getting more and more exhausted and vigilant" against fake news, especially now that elections near. "With the barrage of disinformation ahead of the elections in May, people have become more conscious and vigilant against groups and individuals peddling disinformation or fake news," she said. "After all, no matter how blurred it gets, the world will always see the truth." Last March 29, Facebook head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher announced that Facebook took down more than 200 pages, including 67 Facebook pages, 68 Facebook accounts, 40 Facebook groups and 25 Instagram accounts for spreading misleading content and fake news stories. Notably, the questionable pages and accounts were linked to a network organized by Nic Gabunada, Mr. Duterte's social media manager in his 2016 presidential campaign.Press Release

April 20, 2019 De Lima supports call to surrender Sudan's Bashir to ICC Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has joined the global call for justice for human rights victims in Sudan following the ouster of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir who is accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide under the Rome Statute. In an official statement, De Lima expressed her unequivocal support to Parliamentarians for Global Action's (PGA) six-point call for reconstruction of democracy and rule of law in Sudan, including, among others, the surrender of Bashir and other officials accused of same crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC). "I strongly stand behind the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) and other international organizations in urging for the immediate reconstruction of democracy, for the restoration of the rule of law in Sudan, and for demanding justice and accountability from the perpetrators and enablers of the horrific atrocities and human rights abuses committed against the Sudanese people," she said. "I join the clamor upon the new Sudanese government to allow the International Criminal Court to do its work of putting its deposed leader Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and his inner circle on trial for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity they are accused of under the Rome Statute," she added. Bashir, one of Africa's longest-serving presidents, is reportedly being held in solitary confinement in Kobar maximum security prison, following the military coup that led to his ouster. He will be replaced by a transitional military council for two years. The ICC has already issued two arrest warrants for the former Sudanese leader on the grounds that he committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination and rape, and genocide following the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in in the Sudanese region of Darfur. The PGA, which is composed of over 1,350 legislators from 140 parliaments, noted it is important to "surrender without delay" Bashir and other Sudanese individuals charged with genocide and war crimes to ensure that "the course of justice for the victims of atrocities may finally take place." The lady Senator from Bicol pointed out that the downfall of three decades' long rule of Bashir in Sudan should remind abusive leaders from across the world that there are consequences for governments that blatantly violate fundamental human rights of their people. "No ruler or leader should be allowed to brutalize his own people and go unpunished," she said. De Lima, a known human rights defender, added that she hopes that the people who suffer under tyrannical regime, especially the Filipino public, will continue to stand up against tyrants as they continue their fight for justice and human rights. "As I monitor closely what is happening in Sudan from my detention, I pray that those who are struggling against tyrannical and repressive regimes - including the Filipinos and the Burmese -- will hold on to a common faith in humanity and remain steadfast in the hope that no matter how long and lonely the fight may be, "As long as we have persistent courage and unwavering determination to stand up for what is right and just, truth and accountability will prevail and the climate of impunity and state repression will come to pass," she said. Despite being detained over bizarre drug charges fabricated by the vengeful Duterte regime since 2017, De Lima has consistently stood for human rights and spoke against government atrocities by filing meaningful bills and resolutions, among others.BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao, while attacking Congress leader P Chidambaram, said rather than targeting Pakistan for exporting terrorism to India and indulging in anti-India activities, "the Congress party is blaming the Indian government for taking multi-pronged punitive steps against Pakistan including some trade related initiatives".

The BJP on Sunday accused the Congress of acting as an external public relations arm of the Pakistan government, saying it was speaking the language of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

"It seems that the Congress party is not happy that the military and non-military punitive steps initiated by the Indian government have silenced Pakistan and forced it to mend ways," Rao said in a statement.

The Congress party, he alleged, "had lent perverse support to Pakistan time and again betraying Indian interests".

He claimed the Congress was acting as an external public relations arm of the Pakistan government and it was speaking the language of the Pakistani prime minister.

Rao said the statements of several Congress leaders sound like music to a cornered Pakistan that has lost all credibility internationally.

"It is unfortunate and condemnable that there is a race among the Congress and other opposition leaders to make pro-Pakistan statements at a time when the whole country is rallying behind our government and security forces in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack and air strikes in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan," he said.

The BJP Rajya Sabha MP cited Congress and other opposition leaders, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram, Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal, Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, as being "the cheerleaders of Imran Khan".

"They will be handed an exemplary punishment for betrayal by the Indian electorate in the ongoing elections," it said.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram Sunday said that in order to bring a change in Pakistan's behaviour, India must also change its behaviour towards the neighbouring country.

The former home minister also said that a way must be found to normalise India-Pakistan relations so as to answer the country's "biggest external challenge" in terms of security and various other aspects.

"Whatever we do, we have to make Pakistan change its behaviour. That means we must also change our behaviour towards Pakistan. These attitudinal changes will happen over a period of time. But we must make an effort," he said at a discussion titled -- "Beyond Politics: Debating a new Security Manifesto", organised by think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) hereThe Alexandria Port Authority said on Sunday that two major Mediterranean ports will remain closed on Monday due to bad weather conditions.

Azza Reda Al-Ghandour, a spokesman for the port authority, attributed the decision to "high wind speeds to levels that do not allow the movement of ships."

The Boughazi and Dekheila ports were shut down on Sunday after the Egyptian Meteorological Authority recorded a rise in wave height and an increase in wind speed that might pose problems to maritime navigation.

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The top election official told reporters here that after a perusal of reports of authorities including those from the general observers and presiding officers, repoll has been recommended for the consideration of the EC.

Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo on Sunday said he has recommended to the Election Commission to conduct repolling in 10 polling stations in the state.

Eight polling stations falling under the Lok Sabha segment of Dharmapuri and one booth under Tiruvallur Parliamentary constituency have been recommended for repolling, he said.

Also, repolling has been recommended in one polling station falling under the Cuddalore Lok Sabha constituency.

The CEO's comment assumes significance in the wake of alleged irregularities in a number of booths falling under these constituencies when the polling was held on April 18.

In polling stations under the Lok Sabha segments of Dharmapuri and Tiruvallur, repolling has been recommended for both Parliamentary elections and bypolls to the Assembly seats of Pappireddipatti and Poonamallee.

Tiruvallur Lok Sabha segment covers Poonamallee Assembly constituency and Dharmapuri includes Pappireddipatti Assembly seat.

Bypolls were held to 18 Assembly seats including Poonamallee and Pappireddipatti on April 18 alongwith polls to 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.

Polling for Vellore Lok Sabha constituency was rescinded following seizure of cash ahead of the elections.Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi received on Sunday in Cairo Oregon State Democratic Senator Ron Wyden to discuss Egyptian-US relations.

The meeting was attended by Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and head of the General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel.

The Egyptian president highlighted the long-standing relations between Egypt and the United States and Egypt's keenness to strengthen these relations on all levels within the framework of mutual respect and common interest, especially in light of the turbulent situation in the region and the rising threat of terrorism.

The president affirmed his keenness to maintain constant communication with the leaders of the US Congress in the framework of coordination and consultation between the two countries on various issues of common concern.

He also reviewed Egypt's efforts in the field of combating terrorism and extremism, as well as the steps taken internally to reform the economy and achieve sustainable development and Egypt's and efforts to reach political settlements to the existing crises in the region.

Senator Wyden expressed appreciation for the level of cooperation between the two countries, pointing out that Egypt is a pillar of security in the region and praising its role in maintaining stability and strengthening the bases of peace in the Middle East.

Wyden also said that Egypt is a pivotal strategic partner of the US in the region.

Egypts presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady added that the meeting touched upon the ongoing developments in the region, especially Libya and Syria.

The president warned of the dangers threatening national states in the region, stressing that the political settlement of crises must be carried out in parallel with the fight against terrorist organisations in the region.

The meeting also tackled the latest developments in the Palestinian issue, with El-Sisi affirming Egypt's position on reaching a just and comprehensive solution that preserves the rights of the Palestinian people and establishes an independent Palestinian state in accordance with international legitimacy.

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Rites and referendums. Ahram Online visits a number of Cairo districts with significant Coptic populations at the beginning of the Easter Holy week

It is late afternoon Sunday and Magdy Shafik is gathering the few palm fronds he had not sold during the past couple of days. For the few hours leading to the beginning of the evening mass at Virgin Mary Church in Zeytoun, eastern Cairo, Shafik decided to sell his fronds for much less.

As of Friday evening, a frond would cost LE3 each. By the time of the beginning of the Holy week, when church tunes turn into sad tones of prayer that mark the suffering and eventual crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Shafik was making an offer of LE5 for three fronds.

Palm

Amir Tawdros, who sells flowers on another pavement close by this early 20th century church that is associated with a rare apparition of Virgin Mary in the wake of the 1967 defeat, was also making a special offer for the remaining buds he has.

Mariam Boulos, having exited Palm Sunday afternoon mass, was buying flowers to take home for the last sayyami lunch where sugar is permitted on the table.

Palm

According to the traditions of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the faithful start a totally vegan fast 55 days ahead of Easter Sunday. For the last week, devout Copts refrain from eating desserts and fruits. Some also observe a dawn to dusk fast that is followed by a vegan meal.

Boulos said she was happy that the fast was coming to an end, but that she was worried about the expense of the traditionally lavish post-midnight dinner that is usually an elaborate feast of meat, poultry, cheese and desserts.

Palm

We still try to keep the tradition. We also try to keep the tradition of buying new clothes for our children and baking cookies and buying chocolate to offer to friends and family when they come to visit, Boulos said. But things have become really expensive, so in a way the fast was sort of helping with our economisation, added the early 30s lady who was walking in the company of her two young daughters with palm crosses in their hands.

Palm

Badria Wassif, another devout Copt who was exiting the Mar Morcos Church at the heart of the more economically privildged zone of Heliopolis, also in east Cairo, was complaining about cost of festivities.

But what could we say? We pray for safety and peace. These are the most important things. We could compromise on some things, but not on peace and safety. Maybe things would improve, said the late sixies lady.

Boulos came to the afternoon prayer after having went to vote on amendments of the constitution.

Palm

The amendment under consideration in the referendum allow the sitting head of state an extension of two years on his second term of presidency and expanded executive prerogatives and an increase in the quota of parliamentary representation for women and Copts.

Boulos said that she decided to vote in favour of the amendments. I would have preferred a transfer of power, after the second term but I understand that things might need a bit more time. So I thought it about and I decided that I would support the amendments.

Boulos denies that her decision was based on a statement made by the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawdros II, in favour of the amendments.

Palm

The Coptic patriarch said that the amendments were in the interest of the nation and encouraged people to vote.

The Pope expressed his views. My decision was my own and it was not that I was fully for the amendments, but that I thought that the current status quo was better than jumping into the unknown, she said.

According to Boulos, her husband, an architect, who is in his early seventies, decided not to vote in favour of the amendments.

So, each of us made a decision upon our will  away from the views of the Pope, Boulos said.

Bishoi Karim, a university student who was buying palm fronds as he was stepping out of Mar Girgis Church in Heliopolis Sunday afternoon, said he was hoping that the referendum would have been over before the beginning of the Holy week.

It would have been better if it was done before the Holy week, because it is rather odd to be at the church for prayers while we are all the time hearing loud music played by polling stations to encourage people to go vote, Karim said.

I understand that not so many people are aware of the significance of the Holy week, especially for the Coptic Orthodox who are the majority of Egypts Christians, he added.

Karim, however, said he appreciated the fact that the referendum would be done before Easter Sunday that comes in a week.

Unlike Christmas, that was announced an official holiday in Egypt by former President Hosni Mubarak in 2008, Easter is not an official holiday.

The day that marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ contradicts with the Muslim creed that does not acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God who was crucified and who came back from the dead.

However, given that it comes in the wake of the Friday-Saturday weekend and only one day before Egypts most celebrated national holiday (Sham ElNessim), the spring holiday, Easter Sunday for followers of the Coptic Church ends up being a de facto national holiday.

We end up celebrating together, in fact. I know that this might be particularly the case for us because in Shubra we have always lived together for one generation after the other. But this is the way it is, I think, for the country as a whole, said Fatema ElSayyed, a late fifties lady.

Like Zaytoun and Heliopolis, Shubra is a Cairo neighbourhood with a significant Coptic community. On Sunday, Copts were giving palm fronds to their Muslim neighbours. For Good Friday, ElSayyed said, almost the entire neighbourhood join in eating the traditional lunch of falafel and bissara (a baked paste of grounded fava beans, cilantro and parsley with fried onions on top).

For Sham ElNassim, the entire nation observes the tradition of eating salted fish and green onions.

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London climate protesters seek talks with government



London, April 21 (AFP) Apr 21, 2019



Climate change protesters who have brought parts of London to a standstill said Sunday they were prepared to call a halt if the British government will discuss their demands.

Some 963 arrests have been made and 42 people charged in connection with the ongoing Extinction Rebellion protests.

On the seventh day of demonstrations that have occupied key spots in the British capital, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the demonstrators, telling them: "Humanity is standing at a crossroads."

Organisers said they were willing to switch tactics from disruption to dialogue next week -- if the government enters talks.

"We are prepared to pause, should the government come to the negotiating table," Extinction Rebellion spokesman James Fox told AFP.

"What the pause looks like is us stopping an escalation.

"We can discuss leaving if they are willing to discuss our demands.

"At the moment, we haven't received a response from the government... so we're waiting on that."

Extinction Rebellion was established last year in Britain by academics and has become one of the world's fastest-growing environmental movements.

Campaigners want governments to declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025, halt biodiversity loss and be led by new "citizens' assemblies on climate and ecological justice.

"We're giving them an opportunity now to come and speak to us," Fox told AFP.

"If they refuse to come and negotiate with us, then this is going to continue and this is going to escalate in different, diverse and very creative ways."



- Thunberg: 'ecological crisis' -



Thunberg, the 16-year-old activist who has inspired pupils worldwide to boycott classes to join climate protests, addressed the cheering crowds at the Marble Arch landmark, the only authorised demonstration site.

"For way too long the politicians and people in power have got away with not doing anything at all to fight the climate crisis and ecological crisis," she said.

"But we will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer."

She continued: "How do we want the future living conditions for all living species to be like?

"Humanity is now standing at a crossroads. We must now decide which path we want to take.

"We are waiting for the others to follow our example."

Police said they had managed to clear the protesters from Parliament Square and the Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus junctions.

Those charged range in age from 19 to 77. They hail from around England and Wales, with one person from France charged.

The charges are for various offences including breaching public order laws, obstructing a highway and obstructing police.



- Mayor: time to stop -



Calling for an end to the protests, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said more than 9,000 police officers had been responding to the demonstrations, which had left the force as a whole overstretched.

"This is now taking a real toll on our city... this is counter-productive to the cause," he said.

"I'm extremely concerned about the impact the protests are having on our ability to tackle issues like violent crime.

"You must now let London return to business as usual."

In the blazing sunshine on Waterloo Bridge, police lifted protesters and carried them off to waiting police vans.

"I'm genuinely terrified. I think about it all the time. I'm so scared for the world. I feel like there is going to be calamity in my lifetime," student Amber Gray told AFP.

"I don't even feel comfortable bringing children into this world knowing that that is coming.

"And I don't want people in the future to say to me, 'why didn't you do anything?'."Islamic State's 'caliphate' in Syria, Iraq



Beirut, April 21 (AFP) Apr 21, 2019



Ousted a month ago from the territory it controlled across Iraq and Syria, Islamic State jihadists remain scattered in the Syrian desert and still carry out attacks.

Here is a recap of the key events since the jihadists declared their "caliphate" in June 2014 to the announcement of its final defeat on March 23, 2019 by a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance.



- Caliphate -



On June 29, 2014 jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) proclaim a "caliphate" led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi across territory seized in Syria and Iraq, rebranding itself the Islamic State (IS).

In Syria, ISIL had in January seized the northern city of Raqa from rebels.

It also controls a large part of the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, on the border with Iraq, as well as positions in the northern province of Aleppo.

In Iraq, ISIL in June seizes Mosul and Sunni Arab areas bordering the autonomous Kurdistan region in the north.

A badly prepared Iraqi army is routed without a fight.

Raqa and Mosul become the IS's two de-facto capitals.

In July, Baghdadi appears in a video posted on jihadist websites and calls on all Muslims everywhere to "obey" him.



- Atrocities -



In Raqa, the IS carries out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions and ethnic cleansing. It stones to death women suspected of adultery and slaughters homosexuals.

Some of the atrocities are broadcast on video, which the jihadists use as a propaganda tool.

In Iraq, the group seizes the historic home of the Yazidi minority in Sinjar region, turning children into soldiers and using thousands of women as sex slaves.



- Anti-jihadist coalition -



In August 2014, US warplanes strike IS positions in northern Iraq.

Washington then forms a coalition of more than 70 countries to fight the group in both Iraq and Syria. Washington deploys 5,000 soldiers.



- Defeats in Syria -



Backed by US-led air strikes, Kurdish forces in January 2015 drive the jihadists out of the city of Kobane, on the Turkish border.

In August 2016, the US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recaptures Manbij in Aleppo province.

Backed by Turkish tanks and air force, rebels retake Jarabulus, and then, in February 2017, Al-Bab, the last IS bastion in Aleppo province.

In March 2017, Syrian troops backed by Russian jets recapture the ancient desert town of Palmyra.

The oasis city had traded hands several times during the war and become a symbol of the jihadists' destruction of priceless cultural heritage in areas under their control.

In October 2017, the SDF announces the full recapture of Raqa city, capital of the eponymous province.

In September 2018, the coalition launches an offensive against IS pockets in Deir Ezzor province.

On March 23, 2019, the SDF announces the death of the "caliphate" after seizing total control of the last IS outpost in the village of Baghouz neighbouring Iraq.



- Defeats in Iraq -



In March 2015, Iraq announces the "liberation" of Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

In November, coalition-backed Kurdish forces retake Sinjar.

In 2016, Anbar provincial capital Ramadi is recaptured and Iraqi forces retake Fallujah.

In July 2017, then Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declares victory in Mosul after a nearly nine-month offensive led by a federal force backed by coalition air strikes.

In August, the last major IS urban stronghold in northern Iraq, Tal Afar, is declared "liberated", as is the whole of Nineveh province.

On December 9, Abadi declares victory in Iraq's three-year war against the IS.



- Continued attacks -



The jihadists, however, continue to carry out periodic attacks.

In January 2018, a double suicide bombing leaves more than 30 dead in Baghdad.

In Syria in January 2019, a routine US patrol is targeted by a IS suicide bomber at Manbij, killing 19 people including four Americans.

Several days later in northeastern Hasakeh province, five people are killed when a US-SDF convoy is attacked by a suicide bomber.

And in the deadliest attacks since the fall of its "caliphate", the jihadists kill more than 60 pro-regime fighters in a 48-hour period, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says on April 20.Iraq condemns to death 4 IS members repatriated from Syria



Baghdad, April 21 (AFP) Apr 21, 2019



Iraq's judiciary condemned to death four Islamic State group members on Sunday, the first known sentence for hundreds of Iraqi jihadists repatriated in recent months from neighbouring Syria.

In early April, Iraq's specialised terrorism courts began preparing cases against nearly 900 Iraqis accused of joining IS.

They had been caught in Syria by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, and transferred to Iraqi authorities.

On Sunday, the judiciary said it had tried four Iraqis "accused of belonging to Daesh (IS) and carrying out crimes against innocent civilians in order to destabilise Iraq and Syria."

They were sentenced to "death by hanging" in accordance with Iraq's 2005 counter-terror law, the statement said.

The sentence was the first one of its kind for accused jihadists from Iraq who were caught in Syria.

Additional Iraqi suspects are in SDF custody and are awaiting repatriation, a security source told AFP earlier this month.

Iraq has already tried thousands of its own nationals arrested on home soil for joining IS -- including women -- and has sentenced hundreds to death.

The country remains in the top five "executioner" nations in the world, according to an Amnesty International report released last week.

The number of death sentences issued by Iraqi courts more than quadrupled from 65 in 2017 to at least 271 last year.

But fewer were actually carried out, according to Amnesty, with 52 executions in 2018 compared to 125 in 2017.

In addition to locals, Iraq has also tried hundreds of foreigners, condemning many to life in prison and others to death, although no foreign IS members have yet been executed.

Among those awaiting trial in Baghdad are 12 accused French IS members, who were caught in Syria and transferred to Iraqi custody in February.

Rights groups including Human Rights Watch have criticised the trials, which they say often rely on circumstantial evidence or confessions obtained under torture.My tentative assumption is that it is the handiwork of Muslim extremists with support either from the ISI or Muslim terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e -Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad or both.





by Prof. Suryanarayan





The explosions that took place in few churches across Sri Lanka as well as two popular hotels in Colombo on Easter Sunday were completely unexpected. The sudden developments came as a shock to Sri Lanka watchers. The Government has not officially reacted so far nor has any organization claimed responsibility. Therefore, I have no clue about government thinking or of the culprits. Given below are my tentative views.





The minorities in Sri Lanka have been treated very badly by majority Sinhalese as well as successive Sinhalese - dominated governments. Sections of Buddhist monks are in the forefront preaching violence against the minorities, especially Christians and the Muslims. It must be added that the Muslims fared no better under LTTE dispensation. They were driven out of Jaffna peninsula by the Tigers when they were in de facto control of the Jaffna peninsula. Majority of them still live in refugee camps in Puttalam.





Compounding the situation had been the increase in the activities of Christian evangelical groups like the Pentescoastal Mission and Seventh Day Adventist Church. Many Tamils and Sinhalese have been lured into Christianity. It is estimated that nearly 15 per cent of the hill country Indian Tamil population has been converted into Christianity. The on-going evangelisation should be a matter of concern for the Buddhist monks though they have not done anything meaningful to counter this evil except indulging in selective attacks on churches.





Who could have been behind the dastardly attacks? I rule out the Sinhalese extremists. While they are capable of mob violence as in July 1983, attacks on selective targets by suicide bombers is not their way of functioning. Is it the work of the Tigers who still have considerable support among Tamil Diaspora? I rule out that possibility also because there is no evidence of any linkages between Tiger remnants and disgruntled Tamil civilian population in Sri Lanka.





My tentative assumption is that it is the handiwork of Muslim extremists with support either from the ISI or Muslim terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e -Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad or both. What happened today fits in with their long term objective of destabilizing India. The only part of India which is relatively tranquil is South India. The objective of destabilizing South India can be achieved through Muslim extremists from Sri Lanka, encourage them to develop contacts and linkages with Muslim extremists in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It may be recalled that a former ISI chief was Pakistani High Commissioner in Sri Lanka few years ago. He used to visit the Eastern Province regularly and encouraged the younger elements to have education in the Madrasas in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.





The Muslims constitute 7 per cent of the total population of Sri Lanka. Though majority of them live in Sinhalese areas there is a concentration of Muslims in the Eastern Province where they constitute roughly one third of the population. In the Eastern Province they speak Tamil whereas in the Sinhalese areas they speak both Tamil and Sinhalese. The Muslims seek their identity in terms of religion and not on the basis of language. Over the years they are getting more and more Islamised, they have started learning Arabic language. Muslim women have taken to Islamic dress and what is more the younger elements who have gone to Madrasas abroad are getting more and more radicalized. My tentative assumption is that the incidents which took place today are the handiwork of these radicalized suicide bombers.





India should be concerned with these developments, because what happens in Sri Lanka will have a profound impact in Tamil Nadu. We are like Siamese twins what afflicts one will affect the other. The need of the hour is for the two governments to work closely and tackle the common problem.





*Dr. V. Suryanarayan is Founding Director and Senior Professor, Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras. His e mail id :suryageeth@gmail.comEgypt will not be extending its three days of voting in the referendum on the countrys constitutional amendments, the National Elections Authority (NEA) spokesman said on Sunday as Egyptians continue to cast their ballots for the second day.

In a press conference, NEA spokesman Judge Mahmoud El-Sharif dismissed reports that the authority had issued statements saying that there would be an extension on the vote, whether domestically or abroad.

Earlier on Sunday, polling stations opened for the second day to receive voters at around 10,878 central polling stations and 13,919 minor polling stations across the country.

Sunday also marks the third and final day of voting for Egyptians abroad, who started casting their ballots in Egyptian embassies and consulates at 9am local time in each country.

The NEA spokesman expressed the authority's appreciation to Egyptians who participated in voting, which began on Saturday within Egypt, pointing out that citizens have not responded to calls for boycott made by enemies of the state.

El-Sharif added that the NEA has not received any complaints since the polling stations opened on Sunday.

The first day of voting passed smoothly, the NEA spokesperson said.

The results of the referendum are expected on 27 April.

More than 61 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the referendum on the amendments to the 2014 charter, which were recently overwhelmingly approved by parliament.

The amendments increase the length of presidential terms from four to six years.

They also extend the second term of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, which is set to end in 2022, by two years, and allow him to run for office for another term in 2024.

El-Sisi was first elected president in 2014 and was re-elected last year in a landslide victory where he secured 97 percent of the vote.

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Fuengirola town hall has rejected a proposal by Ciudadanos (Cs) for official recognition to be given to Calle Moncayo, an area known by locals and tourists as Fish Alley in English and Calle del Hambre in Spanish. Ciudadanos had suggested that the street, a popular landmark destination for over 45 years, should receive recognition and be indicated on local maps for it to be more accessible to visitors.

Javier Toro, councillor for Ciudadanos, who claimed that the Partido Popular (PP) has chosen to ignore this popular tourist attraction, defined the decision as ridiculous.

A spokesman for PP had claimed that the proposal would discriminate other areas , but councillor Toro hit back saying that they were not discriminating against any other area or sector, but instead intended to give value to Fuengirola.

The intention behind the proposal was to grant a distinguishing element to an emblematic area of our town so that tourists can readily find it, Toro declared.

The councillor went on to highlight several other proposals, including a motion to reduce terrace taxes and to extend the opening hours of the town hall offices, all of which were refused by the PP.

It is a real shame our proposals always seem to run into brick walls put up by the local PP government just because the proposals put forward come from another political party, regardless of the benefits they have for the town, Toro said.Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed on Sunday Egypt's full support for the ongoing Palestinian efforts to reach political settlement.

El-Sisi gave his remarks at a meeting with Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas in the presence of Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Secretary-General of the PLO's executive committee Saeb Erekat.

The meeting took up the latest developments on the Palestinian issue, presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said.

Reiterating Egypt's support for the Palestinian cause, El-Sisi asserted Egypts commitment to bringing about a fair and holistic solution that would help establish a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital according to relevant international resolutions.

Abbas expressed appreciation for Egypt's endeavors on various levels to protect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and ensure their unity.

He also emphasised the importance of coordinating with President El-Sisi to deal with any challenges facing the Palestinian people, especially in light of the detention of Israel's clearance funds and its repercussions on the Palestinian Authority.

El-Sisi also stressed Egypt's commitment to cooperating will all relevant parties to prevent any further exacerbation in this respect.

The meeting also addressed Egypt's efforts to ensure calm in the Gaza Strip.

El-Sisi pledged further efforts to effect a reconciliation among all Palestinian factions to reach a political agreement, adding that Egypt continues to cooperate with the parties concerned to put an end to the financial crisis related to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Head of Egypts General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki and Palestinian Ambassador in Cairo Diab Al-Louh attended the meeting.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, calling them ``an assault on all of humanity.''

In comments posted on Twitter, Erdogan offered his condolences to families of the victims and to the people of Sri Lanka.

The near simultaneous attacks against three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people, according to a security official. It was the worst violence in the South Asian country since its civil war ended a decade ago.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: ``Regardless of the motive, the attack in Sri Lanka is the same as the traitorous attack in Christchurch: cowardly, barbaric and cruel.''

He was referring to last month's attacks against two mosques in New Zealand during Friday prayers that killed 50 people.

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The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy StatementThree Gulf Arab nations have condemned the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka that have killed at least 138 people.

Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all issued statements via their foreign ministries over the attack.

The UAE called upon ``the international community to close ranks and uproot the scourge of terrorism in order to ensure international peace and security.''

Qatar said it wanted to stress its ``its firm stance on rejecting violence and terrorism.''

Bahrain, meanwhile, said ``these acts of terrorism are incompatible with religious principles and human and moral values.''

The series of blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 138 people.

It's the worst spout of violence in Sri Lanka since the South Asian country's bloody civil war ended a decade ago.

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if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS/Alamy

As the Queen marks her 93rd birthday at Windsor today, weve got a look back at the way she celebrated her birthday at the castle half a century ago

The Queens 43rd birthday portrait, taken at Buckingham Palace by Cecil Beaton in 1969 (Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS/Alamy)

The Associated Press reported that, on her 43rd birthday, the Queen remained unmarked by the tides of change sweeping her troubled nation  a reference to the Troubles in Northern Ireland  adding that there were spreading laughter lines around her blue eyes but no grey in her hair. To mark her birthday, a series of new portrait photographs of the Queen were taken by Cecil Beaton in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. In the images, the Queen wore a turquoise evening gown and jewels, including the Vladimir Tiara and Queen Victorias Golden Jubilee Necklace. The AP described the diadem as a pearl and diamond tiara which was bought by Queen Mary from the family of the Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia in 1921, and additional press captions noted that the necklace was presented to Queen Victoria at the time of the building of the Albert Hall. (More on the tiara here, and on the necklace here.) For fans of furniture, the press also helpfully reported that the settee with the carved frame is English, of the Regency period.

The Queen attends a return banquet hosted by President Saragat during the Italian state visit, April 1969 (KEYSTONE Pictures USA/Alamy)

On her birthday then, as she is today, the Queen was at Windsor Castle. The AP reported that she spent that Monday morning working with government papers delivered in locked red dispatch boxes, with a focus on learning a short welcoming speech for the visit to Windsor Castle by Italian President Giuseppe Saragat, which began the following day. Saragat was feted with a state banquet at Windsor Castle on April 22  the Queen wore the Vladimir Tiara  and he later hosted a return banquet. The image above shows the Queen and Saragat on that occasion; youll note that she wore Queen Alexandras Kokoshnik with the Coronation Necklace and Earrings. (Shes also wearing the collar and sash of Italys Order of Merit of the Republic.)

The Queen wears a wreath-style brooch in a formal portrait photograph with Prince Charles, taken in April 1969 at Windsor Castle (Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Work gave way to celebrations in the afternoon, with an intimate birthday lunch attended by relatives and the Queens few close friends. Later on, at teatime, she shared a birthday cake with her two youngest children, nine-year-old Prince Andrew (who was granted a few hours leave from his nearby boarding school, Heatherdown, for the occasion) and five-year-old Prince Edward. (Prince Charles was away in Wales, studying at Aberystwyth ahead of his investiture that July, while Princess Anne was at the Badminton Horse Trials.) Also of note: camera were still filming footage for the famous Royal Family documentary during her birthday celebrations in 1969.

The Queen rides Burmese during Trooping the Colour in London, June 1969 (AFP/Getty Images)

In London, flags were flown and gun salutes were fired to mark the Queens birthday celebrations, but as usual, the public festivities were saved for Trooping the Colour in June, when the weather is nicer. On that occasion, she rode in her annual birthday parade. That May, shed been given a new horse, Burmese, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Starting in 1969, the Queen rode Burmese for Trooping the Colour for eighteen consecutive years. After Burmese retired in 1986, the Queen opted to attend the event in a carriage rather than having to have a new horse trained for the role. (Learn about the brooch she usually wears for Trooping the Colour here!)Scott Eisen/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren repeated her calls for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump on Saturday, saying "this isnt about politics."



"For me this isnt about politics, this is about principle and thats why I asked the House to start impeachment proceedings." Warren said Saturday to loud applause from a crowd at a meet and greet at the Weare Town Hall in New Hampshire. "This is about accountability."



Warren is the first 2020 Democratic candidate to call for impeachment proceedings to begin in such outright terms. In doing so, she distinguished herself from other leaders in her party.



The former Harvard Law School professor and senator from Massachusetts initially announced her conclusions about the 448-page report in a series of tweets Friday afternoon.



Under the U.S. Constitution, impeachment proceedings must begin in the House of Representatives, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,'s office responded to Warren's comments on Saturday by urging caution.



As the Speaker has said repeatedly, one step at a time. Were focused on getting the full unredacted version of the report and its underlying documents  as well as hearing from Mueller,"  Pelosi's spokesperson told ABC News on Saturday. "The report raises more questions and concerns that we believe the American people deserve answers to."



The Speaker is holding a conference call with House Democrats on Monday to discuss the Mueller report and next steps.



Just before releasing a redacted version of the Mueller report on Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr announced that neither collusion nor obstruction of justice took place under the Trump campaign or by the Trump administration.



Special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, however, "established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts," the report said.



The report also documented instances in which the president acted to impede the investigation but concluded that Trump's efforts were mostly unsuccessful, "largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.



The report, Warren said, "lays out facts showing that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help Donald Trump, and Donald Trump welcomed that help. Once elected, Donald Trump obstructed the investigation into that attack."



"The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty," Warren continued. "That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States."



Warren finished reading the report late into the night on Thursday after campaign events in Denver and Salt Lake City and decided she wanted to say something, sources familiar with her process said. So, she turned to Twitter.



The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.  Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 19, 2019

If members of the House do vote to impeach, the Senate is the body that would vote to remove the President from office.In a later interview on MSNBC, Warren said she thought the evidence for impeachable offenses in the report was "overwhelming."

"It is a point of principle and every member of the House and every member of the Senate should be called on to vote: 'Do you believe that that constitutes an impeachable offense?' I do believe that the evidence is just overwhelming that Donald Trump has committed these offenses," Warren said. "And that means we should open proceedings in the House and then the House can take a vote."





Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have announced that they will be sending a $3 billion assistance bundle to Sudan, reported the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on Sunday.

The assistance package includes a $500 million deposit to Sudan's central bank to support the country's monetary reserves, while the remaining amount will come in the form of food, medicine and fuel derivatives.

The last few years saw a shortage in US dollars amid an economic crisis that has hit Sudan, which saw nationwide protests that resulted in the ouster of President Omar Al-Bashir earlier this month.

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Jeddah-based Alkhabeer Capital, a top asset management company specializing in alternative investments, has reported an operating income of SR188 million ($50 million) for the fiscal year 2018 (FY 2018).



The company ramped up its investment activity in private equity and real estate, growing by 14.8 per cent to SR1.5 billion. Additionally, the companys Assets Under Management (AUMs) increased to SR5.6 billion, up 16.7 per cent from2017. Placements also saw a large increase, growing by 59.3 per cent to SR803 million, as the firm pushed forward with the initial public offering (IPO) of Alkhabeer REIT.



The companys fee income grew by 20 per cent from SR53.7 million in 2017 to SR64.5 million in 2018. Moreover, the companys earnings before income tax and zakat amounted to SR56.9 million, experienced a minor decrease of 7 per cent compared to in 2017 results, demonstrating a solid resilience to the challenging macroeconomic factors.



Musaad Mohammad Saad Aldrees, chairman Alkhabeer Capital said: On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to announce that Alkhabeer Capital recorded a number of achievements in 2018, most notably in further diversifying our business and offerings to clients. This is in line with our strategy of maximizing the value of our shareholders equity and providing them with consistent, long-term returns.



The past year saw our company perform admirably, despite a challenging economic environment, providing us with an excellent foundation for the future. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our strategy and are optimistic for what the coming year holds for Alkhabeer Capital, our shareholders and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.



Ammar Ahmed Shata, Alkhabeer Capitals executive director, added: by the grace of god, Alkhabeer Capital managed to maintain its strong financial position in 2018. And we are ready for any challenges that might arise.



Ahmed Saud Ghouth, Alkhabeer Capitals chief executive officer, also noted: Alkhabeer Capital had a number of accomplishments in FY 2018, and continued to deliver despite economic challenges, both in the region and internationally. While our sector faced headwinds in the second half of FY 2018, mainly due to regional geopolitical uncertainty and global trade tensions, we performed well against the sector as a whole.



Most notably, the IPO of Alkhabeer REIT successfully raised more than SR247 million from more than 25,000 subscribers, and we made several strategic investments in the education sector, which we see as essential to the future of the Kingdom and the wider region. Looking ahead, we will continue to pursue opportunities to create value for our shareholders and look forward to what the coming year holds for our company.



Alkhabeer Capital garnered a number of awards for its strong governance and business practices. The company was named Best Private Equity Company in Saudi Arabia by Banker Middle East for the second year in a row. Additionally, the company was also recognized as the Best Asset Management Firm by the Islamic Business & Finance magazine. Alkhabeer Capitals working environment maintained its status as one of the Kingdoms best workplaces according to the Great Place to Work Institute.



Aldrees concluded: I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board of Directors of Alkhabeer Capital for their contribution to our company, and their guidance throughout the past year. I would also like to express my gratitude to our senior management and people for their efforts and commitment. We look forward to the challenges and opportunities of a busy year ahead, which will be transformative for our company and the Kingdom.  TradeArabia News ServiceSaudi Customs held a training workshop for customs officials on the operation of the Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) agreement and the associated customs procedures.

The event was held in collaboration with the Saudi Automobile and Touring Association (SATA) and the International Road Transport Union (IRU).

This workshop follows the accession of Saudi Arabia to the TIR Convention which was signed in October 2018, whereby joining the 74 countries in the Convention.

Attended by 24 customs officials, the workshop focused on defining the key principles of the TIR System, its benefits, and features. The workshop also introduced the technical specifications of the transporting trucks and containers in addition to the TIR Carnet (goods manifest).

The workshop was concluded by field practical training for the trainees on physical inspection of the trucks transporting under the TIR agreement.

Joining TIR will facilitate global trade and secure transit between TIR Members, offering a unified and simplified customs procedures for efficient border crossing operations and reduced delays. Through adopting the global systems and world-class standards, Saudi Customs will contribute to opening new road corridors in the gulf, transforming the trade potential of the region, said a statement. TradeArabia News ServiceA UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP) team has concluded its roadshow to Austria after a productive participation at the recently held 2019 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna.



This years EGU convened over 11,800 global scientists to present cutting-edge research and discuss the latest ideas on subjects ranging from Earth structure and atmosphere and climate phenomena to volcanology, resources, energy, and planetary exploration.



Overseen by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs of the UAE and managed by the National Center of Meteorology (NCM), the Program teams involvement in EGU marked the latest successful stage of an ongoing campaign of international engagement. As part of the agenda, the Program team visited the UAEs Embassy in Vienna in the presence of Hamad Al Kaabi, UAE Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative of the UAE to the IAEA, along with Program awardees, key stakeholders, UAE students in Austria, and senior Austrian officials.



During the visit, Alya Al Mazroui, director of the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, gave a presentation highlighting the Programs achievements and its plans to undertake a host of innovative project in the future. UAEREP grant program awardees also outlined their innovative research projects aimed at advancing rain enhancement science.



Al Kaabi said: We are proud of the programs participation in this global gathering of prominent scientists from all over the world. I am confident that these partnerships will open up new avenues of collaboration between UAEREP, leading educational institutions and specialized companies from across the globe in keeping with the UAE leaderships vision of a knowledge-based economy



He added: Advances in science and technology are offering a technically viable, cost-effective method of replenishing and boosting water supplies through cloud seeding in arid regions and beyond. I have been very interested to learn about the excellent progress already made by the Programs awardees in line with our priority to support international cooperation in all fields of research.



In addition to meetings with stakeholders at EGU, the Program team met with leading experts from the Technische Universitat Wien and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. In conjunction with the Programs awardees, the team also organized a series of oral and poster sessions on the sidelines of EGU to raise awareness of the Programs work and engage with scientists and stakeholders.



Dr Abdulla Al Mandous, director of NCM, said: The UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Sciences participation at EGU is a key step towards facilitating the exchange of new ideas on tackling the challenge of water stress and the potential of new innovations to aid all those around the world at risk.



We are delighted that our awardees played such a prominent role in this leading global event, we are also very grateful that that so many representatives of leading institutions took the time to learn about the advances our Program is making.



Alya Al Mazroui, director of the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, said: Our visit to the EGU in Vienna has given us an excellent opportunity to consolidate our already strong links with those members of the global scientific community working on topics related to rain enhancement. Our visit has opened new avenues for collaboration to help advance innovative research and develop new scientific and technological solutions as part of our ongoing efforts.



The team concluded its visit by attending a townhall meeting with prominent scientists participating at EGU to discuss various scientific projects that were presented during the conference and their effectiveness. Chaired by Professor Volker Wulfmeyer from University of Hohenheim, the meeting highlighted the latest technological solutions that help maximize the benefits of rain enhancement operations.



Participants also answered various queries from the scientific community about the effectiveness of technologies proposed by them and discussed the future vision for dealing with various challenges facing rain enhancement science.



Since its inception, the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science has built a global network with more than 1,200 researchers from over 500 prestigious global institutions including the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the European Space Agency (ESA), and Nasa.  TradeArabia News ServiceA high-level delegation of more than 70 Iraqi businessmen from the countrys private sector recently attended an event organised by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia), said a report.



The meeting was held on the sidelines of the recent visit of Iraqs Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi to Saudi Arabia, reported Saudi Press Agency.



During the meeting, the most important developments in Saudi Arabia in the field of investment and the ways of cooperation as well as encouraging the private sector of the two friendly countries were reviewed, added the report.The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) is set to acquire Shell Saudi Arabia Refining Limiteds 50 per cent share of the Sasref joint venture in Jubail Industrial City, in Saudi Arabia, for $631 million.



The acquisition supports Saudi Aramcos plan to increase the complexity and capacity of its refineries, as part of its long-term downstream growth strategy, said a company statement.



For Shell, the sale is part of an ongoing effort to focus its refining portfolio, integrating with Shell Trading hubs and Chemicals, it said.



The sale is expected to complete later this year, subject to regulatory approval, it added.



The refinery has a capacity of 305,000 barrels per day. The main products are liquefied petroleum gas, naphtha, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil and sulphur.



Abdulaziz Al Judaimi, Saudi Aramcos senior vice president of downstream, said: The partnership with Shell has led to a strong record of performance and delivery of refined products.



Our company will take full ownership and integrate the refinery into its growing downstream portfolio. Sasref will continue to be a critical facility in our refining and chemicals business and we look forward to further optimising its performance and long term viability, he added.



John Abbott, Shell downstream director, said: Sasref has been a long and successful partnership between Shell and Saudi Aramco.



The refinery has operated with good reliability, and has an impressive safety record. Were proud of what we have achieved together over the past four decades and will continue to explore new business opportunities, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceSamsung Electronics Co, will be providing its Saudi customers with the new Galaxy M10 exclusively through Souq.com.

"The introduction of the Galaxy M10 online in conjunction with Souq.com is part of our commitment to consistently provide our customers in the kingdom with more options through a variety of shopping channels. This allows for a smoother customer shopping journey, saving them valuable time and effort," said Y.J. Kim, president of Samsung Electronics in Saudi Arabia.

Commenting on the launch, Ronaldo Mouchawar, CEO and co-founder of Souq.com, said: Following the successful launch of the Samsung Galaxy M20 on Souq.com earlier this year, we are delighted to once again partner with Samsung for another exclusive release. The Samsung Galaxy M10 will be solely accessible for purchase on Souq.com in Saudi Arabia. Customers can order their devices on the Souq App or website and expect quick delivery throughout the kingdom.

The Galaxy M10 features an impressive 6.2-inch HD+ Infinity V display with 720x1520 pixels resolution, and 19:9 aspect ratio. This device also utilises the powerful Exynos processor with 1.6GHz speed, 3GB RAM and 16GB internal storage with space for an external memory card slot up to 256 GB. The M10 features dual rear-facing cameras including a 13-megapixel camera with an F 2.2 wide lens and a 5-megapixel camera with an F 1.9 wide lens, as well as a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The device also has a powerful 3400 mAh battery. The Galaxy M10 also supports dual SIM cards and enhanced security features. TradeArabia News ServicesSaudi Arabia will be hosting the 15th annual Group of 20 (G20) Leaders Summit on November 21 and 22, 2020 in Riyadh. It will be chaired by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

G20 is a premier forum for international economic cooperation. The G20 countries represent two-thirds of the worlds population, 85 per cent of its economy, and 75 per cent of international trade.

Saudi Arabia is fully committed to G20s objectives and prosperity of the international economic system. The country also aims to strengthen its ties with other G20 countries and to reach international consensus on the summits agenda items, said an expert in Saudi Press Agency.

The Riyadh summit will be the first G20 Summit to be hosted in the Arab world. The Summit will be attended by the leaders of the worlds largest economies, as well as leaders of other guest countries, international and regional organisations.

The summit agenda will cover financial, economic and social issues, including energy, environment, climate, digital economy, trade, agriculture, healthcare, education and labour. It will aim to develop effective policies to achieve sustainable and balanced development and create job opportunities.Oman-based SalamAir has launched non-stop flights to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, as well as four seasonal flights to Madinah, catering to Umrah travellers during the holy month of Ramadan.



The new service is the airlines second destination in the kingdom after Jeddah. Return tickets to Riyadh and Madinah are now available at special promotional fares.



Starting June 1, SalamAir will fly four times a week to Riyadh on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, departing Muscat at 10:25 arriving in Riyadh at 11:25. Return flights will depart from Riyadh at 12:20 arriving in Muscat at 15:30. SalamAirs four seasonal flights to Madinah with return to Muscat will be on May 9, May 16, May 23, May 28.



Captain Mohamed Ahmed, CEO of SalamAir, said: The Jeddah-Muscat route has been successful, and we look forward to expanding our network across the kingdom by adding Riyadh and Madinah. Saudi Arabia is a market poised for growth when it comes to the aviation sector. The country recorded 8 per cent passenger growth in 2017 and 12 per cent in H1 2018. Tourism and travel are becoming an increasingly influential sector in the Kingdoms economic diversification strategy.



The captain added: For us at SalamAir, we continue to introduce more options when it comes to convenient and cost-effective travel. Our GCC network is expanding and we will continue with this strategy to meet the increased demand on these destinations for leisure and business travellers alike. Oman is a very popular destination for Saudis looking for short holidays and business travel and we are delighted to contribute in strengthening the relation between Oman and Saudi Arabia.



Today, the SalamAir network consists of 17 destinations including Muscat, Salalah, Suhar, Dubai, Doha, Jeddah, Karachi, Multan, Sialkot, Shiraz, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Dhaka, Alexandria, Kuwait, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. SalamAir recently became the first Oman-based carrier to receive the new Airbus A320neo aircraft, making it one of the early Middle East recipients and operators of the highly rated model. In addition to the delivered aircraft, another five Airbus A320neo are expected to join SalamAirs fleet in 2019. A cost-conscious menu of additional services is also available to guests, which includes extra luggage allowance, as well as seat and meal selection. - TradeArabia News ServiceThe Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) unveiled the country's most up-to-date wellness and medical offerings at an event in Dubai on April 18.



The event, organised in partnership with Thai Airways, saw over 100 people from the medical and wellness industry in Thailand come together with local travel professionals in Dubai to discuss Thailands extensive offerings in the medical tourism and wellness areas at Wasl Ballroom, Le Meridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre  UAE.



The Health and Wellness Roadshow 2019, which took place on April 17 and 18, covered two countries, both of which are key markets for TAT. The Roadshow has seen TAT visit Kuwait (April 17) and Dubai (April 18) and serves to highlight Thailands many offerings to the travel industry in the Middle East region.



This year, eight Thai companies specialising in medical tourism and wellness - Phyathai 2 Hospital, APEX Medical Center, Absolute Health Clinic, Sukumvit Hospital, Verita Life, The Spa Samui, Dr.Saran Clinic and FEMTO Research Group - together with 80 travel agents attended the roadshow.



Thailand is one of the leading destinations for visitors from the UAE, with many of those being repeat visitors. The UAE ranks amongst the top three countries in the Middle East with the highest number of visitors to Thailand. Last year, Thailand welcomed over 128,000 UAE tourists. Thailand is one of the most popular destinations for Arab travellers seeking medical tourism offerings. Statistics show that 20 per cent of tourists from the Middle East visit Thailand for medical reasons. The top three most requested medical treatments are medical check-ups, plastic surgery and orthopaedic surgery.



Pichaya Sais, director of Tourism Authority of Thailands Middle East office, said: The UAE is a key market for us and we are incredibly excited to speak to local agents here in Dubai about our cutting-edge medical and wellness offerings."



Thailand has emerged as a leading destination for medical and wellness tourism and is a world-leader with several JCI-accredited hospitals, specialised clinics and private healthcare centres, which offer impeccable world-class facilities, highly trained doctors, Thai hospitality and affordable prices. Thailand has adopted some of the most innovative and holistic health and wellness programs including the latest plastic surgery procedures, functional medicines, anti-ageing, dental, aesthetic, cell therapy, Lasik, elderly care services and much more. We hope by bringing the roadshow to the UAE that we can increase health and wellness tourism by 5 per cent by Q4 2019. - TradeArabia News ServiceNew Delhi, Apr 20 (UNI) Condemning the BJPs decision to field Malegoan accused Sadhvi Pragya from for Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency in the coming election, the Left parties on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a constitutional functionary, of brazenly endorsing a terror accused .

Shocking endorsement of a terror accused, said the CPI(M) and the CPI in separate statements.

It is well-known that she was an accused and named in several chargesheets in terror related cases. She is still facing trial under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the Malegaon blast case, the CPI(M) said.

The Left party said that the BJP fielding Sadhvi Pragya completely betrays their rhetoric of opposing terrorism.

She has herself further exposed the obnoxious nature of her platform by going hammer and tong against the then ATS chief, Hemant Karkare, who laid down his life in the line of duty during the ISI-sponsored terror attack in Mumbai on September 26, 2011, the CPI(M) said.

The CPI(M) pointed out that the vilification of the martyr has justifiably led to widespread criticism, including the IPS association of the country.

However, the Prime Minister himself brazenly justified her nomination by projecting her as the symbol of thousands of years of religious, philosophical and civilizational values.

Rarely have we seen a Constitutional functionary being so brazen in the politicisation of an alleged criminal activity, it said.

The Party polit bureau also alleged that the BJP and the Prime Minister are indulging in a no-holds barred attempt to polarise the electorate, and could not address the increasing disquiet of the people over the livelihood crisis.

In its statement, the CPI said that the nomination of Sadhvi Pragya is immoral attempt to prove the BJPs claim that there is nothing called terror by hardline Hindutva groups.

The nomination of a terror accused is politically, morally wrong and exposes the BJP of its real face, the party said.

Referring to the statements made by special prosecutor Rohini Salian, the CPI said that Ms Salian was under pressure from the Modi government to go soft on the Malegaon accused.

Though the National Investigating Agency claimed the evidence against Thakur was insufficient to prove her complicity in the crime and sought to exonerate her, a special court in Mumbai last year found that the available evidence was sufficient to prosecute Thakur under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for terror activities, criminal conspiracy and murder, it charged.

The Left party also said that the BJP cannot escape its responsibility by saying that the remarks of Sadhvi Pragya on martyr Hemant Karkare are her personal.

Mr Modis declaration of his fight against terrorism has no meaning when he nominates terror accused as BJP candidate in Bhopal, the CPI said.

UNI KNA AR 2020At first glance, no one would imagine that the Netherlands, a country located close to the Arctic, would fare well in large-scale agriculture. But the country has done just that. By adopting the latest agricultural technologies, it has become a global leader in the industry. In fact, it is the No. 2 exporter of food in terms of value, trailing only behind the United States. The shocking fact is that the U.S. has almost 270 times the landmass of the Netherlands. So, how did farmers in the country achieve this feat? They used a method called precision farming.

Farming in the Netherlands

Precision farming allows agriculturists in the Netherlands to cultivate food using less water and pesticides. The method is basically an updated version of greenhouse farming technology. In some of the greenhouse farms in the country, cultivating a pound of tomatoes only requires about 2 gallons of water.

When compared to open field farming that requires 8 gallons of water to grow one pound of tomatoes, greenhouse farming essentially cuts down water usage by about 300 percent. In greenhouses in Westland, agriculturists grow around 14 pounds of tomatoes per square foot, which is 10 times the yield from an open field farm in Morocco or Spain. At the same time, water usage is cut down by eight times, while pesticide use is almost negligible.

Certain greenhouse farms also use a special double-glass roof that allows for more heat to be conserved inside. Plus, unique coatings enable light to diffuse to even the lower leaves of the plant. In most of the farms, tomatoes are grown in bags of mineral wool. This gives farmers greater control in determining the amount of water and nutrition the plant needs.

Such innovative farming techniques have made the Netherlands a global leader in the export of tomatoes, onions, and potatoes. The country also accounts for over a third of all worldwide trade in vegetable seeds. This is an astonishing achievement for a country that saw a terrible famine kill almost 20,000 of its citizens post World War 2. In fact, the Netherlands actually started investing in greenhouse farming as a result of this horrible experience.

Problems with the Netherlands farming model

While the country has certainly progressed in ensuring food safety, critics are unhappy with the fact that the Netherlands model of farming sometimes leads to massive pollution of water bodies. We indeed see promising examples of farmers doing their best to reduce pesticides But if you look at the facts, like the statistics for water pollution in the Netherlands, there is no other region more polluted by pesticides than the greenhouse region, Herman van Bekkem, campaign leader for Greenpeace Holland, said to DW.

There is also another major problem with food produced in greenhouse farms in the Netherlands  it tends to be less tasty. The taste is not always good Its more the choice of the grower. Many growers go for more kilograms because then the net profit is higher, Leo Marcelis, a professor of horticulture at Wageningen University and Research, said to Yes Magazine.

The low taste of Dutch tomatoes means that tomato farmers from the Netherlands get paid the lowest price per kilo in the entire EU region. The countrys focus on efficiency, practicality, and price has meant that agriculturists often do not care for the taste of the food they grow. They solely want to produce as much as they can.

Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our weekly emailEmail To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required.

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Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required.The archbishop of Paris and Catholics from around France and the world honored the firefighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral, praying Sunday at a special Easter Mass for a swift reconstruction of the beloved monument.

The fire that engulfed Notre Dame during Holy Week forced worshippers to find other places to attend Easter services, and the Paris diocese invited them to join Sunday's Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache Church on the Right Bank of the Seine River.

Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit handed over a bible that had been rescued from Notre Dame to the firefighters, who held a place of honor at Sunday's service.

Aupetit thanked city officials for their support amid "the drama'' of last Monday's fire, and ``especially you, those for whom this Mass is dedicated'' the firefighters who struggled for nine hours to contain flames that consumed Notre Dame's roof and collapsed its spire.

Sunday Mass at the grandiose

He notably thanked fire service chaplain Jean-Marc Fournier, who saved the most precious thing for Catholics from the fire, the chalice containing consecrated hosts that for Catholics are the body of Christ.

Police and a soldier guarded the entry to Sunday's Mass, creating a long line to check bags before visitors could enter the 13th-century Saint-Eustache Church. It was unclear if the extra security was linked to an Easter Sunday attack on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 190 people and wounded nearly 500 others.

Notre Dame's parishioners were joined by Catholics and others from around France and beyond. An Associated Press reporter heard at least six languages being spoken in the crowd.

``Everyone is affected by what happened to Notre Dame,'' said Parisian Michel Ripoche. ``Easter is a holiday we celebrate every year, all our lives. Clearly what happened at Notre Dame added to the importance'' of today's service.

Peggy Godley, visiting from Chicago with her husband and two daughters, "wanted to see what it was like to celebrate a Mass in Paris.''

Priests give communion

"We didn't get to see Notre Dame. We were hoping to be there, but it's too late,'' she said.

Notre Dame isn't expected to reopen to the public for five or six years, according to its rector, although the French president is pushing for a quick reconstruction. Investigators believe the fire was an accident, possibly linked to renovation work.

Notre Dame Rector Patrick Chauvet told The Associated Press on Good Friday that he has "plenty of hope, because I believe that from this suffering there will be a renaissance.''

He said he would fight for speedy rebuilding work.

Culture Minister Franck Riester said Sunday that most of the sensitive spots in the cathedral have been stabilized, including support structures above its prized rose windows.

"There remain some sensitive points in the vaulted ceiling, and so teams from the Culture Ministry, construction companies are working to remove the rubble that remains on the ceiling and progressively cover it up. And after that, we can say that the Notre Dame of Paris is saved,'' he said on France-2 television.



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Pence gives message of hope to those affected by devastating tornadoBy WestKyStar & LBL Staff Apr. 18, 2019 | 04:19 PM | GOLDEN POND

STEAM Inspired Woodlands Nature Station at Land Between the Lakes will feature STEAM inspired lessons on Homeschoolers Day, April 26.

The event will take place from 10 am to 3 pm on Friday, April 26. Admission is $5 for ages 13 and up; $3 ages 5 -12; and free for 4 and under.





LBL will launch into the earth sciences with engaging educational programs and activities based around this years theme  Mission: Earth. Dive into STEAM inspired lessons exploring everything from Archaeology to Astronomy. They are also welcoming special guests from the Ben E. Clement Mineral museum, West Kentucky Amateur Astronomers, Maggie Morgan from the Jackson Purchase Foundation, and Land Between the Lakes archaeologists.





Missions and activities run from 10 am-3 pm. Join the LBL crew as they explore all the wonders of home planet. Organizers recommend planning at least a 3-hour visit to experience all the day has to offer.







Scheduled programs are:

Watered Down

10:30 am, 11:30 am, 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm.

Dive into the water cycle with Maggie Morgan from the Jackson Purchase Foundation.



Weather or Not

11 am and 1 pm

Learn the FUNdamentals of weather.



Animal Magnetism

Noon and 2 pm

Explore how animals use the Earth's magnetic field.





Ongoing activities will include:

Check the Date

LBL Archaeologists will teach you about carbon dating.



Can You Dig It?

Learn the difference between rocks and minerals with assistance from the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum.



Earth, Wind and Fire

Discover how fire is sometimes necessary for a healthy forest.



Far Out

Learn about astronomy with the West Kentucky Amateur Astronomers.



Fly Like the Wind

Make your own anemometer.



Interstellar Art

Create your own planet.



Fourth grade students can go to https://everykidinapark.gov/, get their free Every Kid in a Park pass, and get their family in for free. For more information, call the Nature Station at 270-0924-2299.





GOLDEN POND -A screen shot of the film Capernaum by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki shows protagonist Zain Al Rafeea, a 12-year-old boy living in the slums of Beirut. [Photo provided to China Daily]

When Lebanese director Nadine Labaki was doing research for her film Capernaum, she interviewed many children struggling for survival in Beirut and asked them one question at the end of the conversations.

The question was: "Are you happy to be alive?"

Sadly, most of the answers were in the negative.

The children from poverty-stricken families talked about their miserable situations such as being abused, starving and even being raped and were skeptical about why they were brought to the world.

At the ongoing 9th Beijing International Film Festival, Labaki appeared during a screening in a downtown cinema to share her film's behind-the-scenes stories with the audience.

The film which premiered at the 71st Cannes Film Festival has so far received a lot of acclaim and scooped several honors, including the Jury Prize at Cannes and nominations for the best foreign language film at the 76th Golden Globes and the 91st Academy Awards, respectively.

Labaki, who was inspired to make the film after seeing a mother with a child in her arms begging on a sidewalk in Lebanon, spent five years on the film, including three on research and six months on shooting.

The two-hour film, which begins with a court hearing where Zain, a 12-year-old boy is suing his parents for bringing him into the world, has many flashback shots to show his sufferings.

In the movie, Zain, who lives in the slums of Beirut, escapes from his cold-blooded parents who sell his 11-year-old sister to an older man to be his wife.

Then, after encountering a female Ethiopian illegal immigrant he is temporally harbored by her and takes care of the woman's infant, but his life is soon disrupted as the woman is arrested by the immigration authorities.

The screening also drew many emerging talents in Chinese film industry, including director Dong Yue of The Looming Storm, and actress Li Chun, known for the hit series The Legend of Ruyi.

Speaking about why she made the film, Labaki says: "We can't continue hiding and living as if nothing is happening. I did this film because I want things to change."

Except for a cameo role by Labaki, who is also an actress, all the other members of the cast are nonprofessionals who acted for the first time in their lives.

Zain Al Rafeea, a 12-year-old Syrian refugee who has lived in Lebanon with his parents for eight years, was recruited to play the protagonist Zain El Hajj.

"He (Rafeea) is in a way trying to survive on the street every day. So this made him a very strong and wise character, although physically smaller than his age because of malnutrition," says Labaki, adding that the child actor looked much younger than 12 when the shooting started.

She says the teenager quickly agreed to take the lead "as if he was going to become the voice of all those voiceless kids that he was surrounded by".

Most of the other actors also had similar experiences in real life with regard to what they struggled with and suffered as shown in the film.

Labaki says she didn't prepare a script, but instead the crew spent a lot of time to help the actors understand every detail of the scenes. The raw film footage was around 500 hours.

Speaking about her unconventional style, she says: "I'm not denying the actors' work in general. But in this particular case, we had to just go with the truth as much as we could.

"I didn't expect them (the actors of Capernaum) to know the lines, as most of them even don't know how to read.

"So, we needed them to put the scenes into their own situations and start digging in to find the emotions they needed.

"We had to be very mobile and always ready for whatever was going to happen and to capture it. It was a very organic process."

Currently, the film has 8.8 points out of 10 from the ratings of more than 17,000 netizens on the Chinese review aggregator Douban, also deemed a barometer of popularity.

For those who will miss the festival screenings, the film will have a general release across Chinese mainland cinemas on April 29.

(Source: China Daily)Yuan Mengyuan poses at the reception desk of an international student dormitory of Shanghai Jiaotong University where she works. [Photo/People's Daily]



A 49-year-old mother has passed the national post-graduate entrance exam, and will soon become a first-year graduate school student like her son, People's Daily reported.

Yuan Mengyuan, a receptionist at an international student dormitory at Shanghai Jiaotong University, used to watch her son while he did homework, but later the method was not helpful. So she started reading beside him. When her son entered college in 2015, she decided to go with him and study together with him.

She collected course information from Shanghai Jiaotong University's website and audited Chinese and English courses for three years. Her age made her stand out among students. After knowing her intention, teachers and students welcomed her and encouraged her to join the class discussions.

"I got a lot of inspiration from auditing different courses and developed systematic learning skills," said Yuan.

When her son decided to prepare for the post-graduate entrance exam, Yuan wanted to accompany him too, so she started her own preparation from early 2018, when she began working as a receptionist.

The biggest difficulty was English. "The memory at this age isn't that good, but I didn't give up. Repeating words again and again was my only solution," said Yuan. She has been reciting English words for 700 continuous days. She communicated with international students in English to practice her listening and speaking skills and finished more than 500 sections of online English and politics courses.

She is about to open a new chapter in her life in Guangxi University, majoring in teaching Chinese to international students. Her son will attend Fudan University.

"As long as you work hard, life will surprise you when you least expect," said Yuan.our

(Source: China Daily)Golden girl Kaisha the number one mechanic in Welsh skills competition

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Apr 21st, 2019

A Coleg Cambria student recently hit top gear at a national skills competition.

Kaisha Madeley beat her eight male counterparts in the Automotive Technology category at Skills Competition Wales in Cardiff.

Kaisha, from Wrexham, had earlier won the North Wales regional title and now hopes to compete for a place at Worldskills UK LIVE in Birmingham later this year.

The 18 year-old grew up wanting to become an automotive technician and is now realising her dream with the support of lecturers on the Diploma Level 3 Motor Vehicle course at the colleges new 10m engineering complex on Bersham Road.

The regional skills contest was held at Cambria, so I wasnt too nervous, said Kaisha, who lives with parents Gareth and Lynsey, and siblings Leon, Tori and Dakota.

I was shocked to win and then it was on to the Welsh Skills final in Cardiff, where I wasnt expecting to place anywhere as there were eight clever guys competing and I wasnt used to the equipment or the surroundings.

We were assessed academically and for our skills and ability, as well as how we worked on the vehicles and rigs against the clock in timed sections.

To win was a big surprise but of course Im absolutely delighted, and my family and the motor vehicle team at Cambria are very proud.

A former pupil at Ysgol y Grango, Kaisha is also celebrating an apprenticeship with the Welsh Ambulance Service, where she helps to repair and maintain ambulances and rapid response vehicles.

Her love of cars comes from her Dad, who enjoys fixing and modifying engines, though she plans to go one step further and make a career of it.

I used to watch him tinkering around with engines and the bodywork, I was absolutely fascinated by it, she said.

I know its not a job that girls traditionally do but I love it and am really enjoying learning more.

I would encourage anyone to enter this industry, its hard work but so enjoyable.

Kaisha is now preparing for a shot at the WorldSkills title and promises to do her very best with the backing of the team at Cambria, including instructor/demonstrator Mark Evans.

Mark said: Kaisha is an absolute credit to everyone here at Bersham Road, she performed brilliantly in the competition and is an inspiration to any youngster out there who wants to follow a career in the automotive industry.

Ive no doubt shell do exceptionally well at WorldSkills if given the opportunity, and once again represent Coleg Cambria with pride at the highest level.

Coleg Cambria Bersham Road is one of the most successful automotive training centres in the UK, offering vehicle maintenance and repair at all levels including fast-fit and hybrid vehicle qualifications.

For more on the wide range of courses at Coleg Cambria, visit www.cambria.ac.uk



(Click for large)Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-20 13:43:14|Editor: Yurou

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MANILA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- An explosion rocked inside a police compound in Davao City in the southern Philippines before noon on Saturday, local media reported.

Quoting a sketchy police report, the local media said that the explosion that occurred around 11:30 a.m. local time at the Davao City Police Office compound was due to explosive material inside the stock room of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal.

No one was reported killed or injured in the blast, according to local media.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-20 23:28:24|Editor: ZX

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Admiral Jose Luis Villan of Argentina arrives in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, April 20, 2019. More than 60 countries will send delegations to join a naval parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, and over 30 countries of them will send major navy leaders to participate in the event. (Xinhua/Zhu Zheng)

QINGDAO, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Naval delegations from over 60 countries Saturday began to arrive in the port city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, to join multinational naval events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.

The events will be held between April 22 and 25 and a naval parade will be held in Qingdao and nearby sea areas and airspace on April 23.

A naval delegation from Fiji was the first foreign naval delegation to arrive at an airport in Qingdao at 8:40 a.m. Saturday, followed by naval delegations from Argentina and Peru.

Over 10 countries, including Russia and Thailand, will send vessels to join the events.

The events will serve as a platform for the participants to boost understanding and share experience on maritime security and cooperation.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 00:18:57|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Saturday began to review a package of draft revisions to eight laws.

The laws are on construction, fire protection, electronic signature, urban-rural planning, vehicle and vessel tax, trademark, anti-unfair competition and administrative permission.

Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua briefed lawmakers on the revisions at the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

The revisions were drafted by the Ministry of Justice in collaboration with other departments of the State Council to create a rule-of-law, international and convenient business environment, and to facilitate the enforcement of the Foreign Investment Law.The High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) condemned on Sunday "in the strongest terms" the attacks in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo.

Miguel Moratinos said that "such heinous terrorist attacks that know no religion, country or ethnicity are unjustifiable regardless of against whomever and wherever they are being perpetrated."

"[Moratinos] stresses that todays unspeakable terrorist attacks should not dissuade us from taking a collective stand against terrorism in all its forms and to continue to work to promote tolerance and respect of the other," UNAOC said in a statement.

"On behalf of UNAOC, the High Representative expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and stresses his solidarity with the people and the government of Sri Lanka."

Eight bomb explosions, targeting churches and hotels near Colombo, resulted in the death of at least 207 people and the injury of hundreds.

The attacks are considered the most violent in the South Asian country since the end of its civil war a decade ago.

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Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 00:49:05|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ISLAMABAD, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Saturday said that his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif has agreed to trace militants involved in a recent terrorist attack in Pakistan, and take due action against them after investigations.

Addressing a press conference here, Qureshi said that the militants involved in the recent killing of 14 security personnel of passenger vans in Balochistan, have training and logistic camps in Iran, and his country wants Iran to take action against them.

A Balochistan separatism militants group claimed the attack and Pakistan has evidences that the group is hiding in Iran, Qureshi said, adding that they shared the location of the militants' camps and other actionable evidences against them with Iran after thorough investigation and confirmation.

The Pakistani foreign minister said that he had a detailed telephonic conversation with Zarif on Saturday who condemned the attack and termed it as an attack on security of Pakistan and Iran together.

Qureshi added that his country is waiting for a positive response from Iran to take action against the militants.

A group of militants intruded into Pakistan via Iran border earlier Thursday. Camouflaging themselves in Pakistani security forces' uniform, the militants offloaded 14 security personnel including 10 soldiers of Pakistan navy, three of Pakistan air force and one of Pakistan coastguards from buses and shot them dead.

Qureshi briefed that his country has already taken some useful measures to ensure security at Pak-Iran border including formation of a special force to increase vigilance at the border.

Other steps like increasing the number of paramilitary troops for patrolling and establishment of joint border centers with cooperation of Pakistan and Iran were also taken, he added.

The foreign minister said that Pakistan has decided to fence 950 km- long border with Iran with special focus on the points that are most vulnerable to militants' intrusion, adding that the work on the fencing has already been kicked off.

The two countries have decided to synchronize the border exercises, and a helicopter surveillance to monitor the border for avoiding intrusion is also under progress, Qureshi said.

He told media that Prime Minister Imran Khan will embark on an official visit to Iran on Sunday, and measures to form a mechanism to avoid militancy on both sides of the border will be discussed between Pakistani and Iranian authorities during his two-day visit.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 00:49:07|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The 2019 civil reading event was launched Saturday in Beijing to promote reading among the public.

The event, including recitation and book recommendation activities, will focus on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the organizer of the event said.

During the World Book and Copyright Day which falls on April 23, public poetry recitation and classics reading events will also be held in Beijing.

The 2019 Beijing book fair was also launched Saturday.

An official with the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China said that Beijing has allocated special funds to support civil reading events and the operation of bookstores in recent years. In 2018, the government financially supported over 140 bookstores to improve public reading facilities.

More than 30,000 reading events were held last year, benefiting over 10 million readers, the official said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 06:55:50|Editor: ZX

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NEW YORK, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) is expecting more Chinese automakers, which are indispensable to the dynamic industry and the diversified market, the auto show president said.

"We hope to see more Chinese exhibitors to show their products," Mark Schienberg, the NYIAS president, told Xinhua in an interview on Friday at the 2019 NYIAS.

"I think the Chinese manufacturers would do extremely well here," he said, adding that the Big Apple is an international city with diversified taste and the 119-year-old New York auto show is serving as an ideal platform to connect global carmakers and consumers "under one roof."

"The public and people who are in the market for buying a car usually start their journey in buying a car here at the New York auto show," said Schienberg.

Meanwhile, based on the feedback from the auto show, manufacturers are able to turn a design concept to actually production much quicker than before, he added.

Starting in 1900 as the first auto show in North America, the NYIAS is also one of the most well attended auto shows, attracting more than a million people every year, according to the president.

Data from Foresight Research showed that about 68 percent of the people who came last year to the New York show were 12 month intenders.

The 2019 NYIAS runs from April 19 through April 28 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

The event showcases the latest in innovation and design with more than four floors filled with nearly 1,000 new cars, trucks and SUVs.

The show also features an incredible line-up of world debuts from numerous automakers around the globe.

Schienberg said automobile "is probably the best example of a real global industry" that companies from different countries can play a part, jointly contributing to the vibrant industry.

The longtime auto show organizer said he has witnessed that massive changes have taken place in the automotive industry, citing the robust development of electric vehicles (EVs) as one of the new trends.

With more manufacturers investing in producing great EVs, "you're even seeing electrification in crossovers and pickup trucks," said Schienberg, noting the booming EVs would bring a new landscape into the automotive market.

"Soon we're gonna see a major change though there are still infrastructure issues such as charging stations that have to be dealt with," he said.

An Edison Foundation report based on five independent forecasts projects that EVs will account for 30 percent of all new vehicles sales by 2030, if not before.

According to Schienberg, this year's NYIAS has two new exhibitors, Mullen and Rivian, both debuting their high-end electric vehicles in the show.

Hoping to introduce more boutique kind of companies with great technology and great design to the public, the president also said his team is working to strengthen coordination with other counterparts from the rest of the world, including Beijing and Shanghai, so automakers and car fans can enjoy the excitement from every event.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 07:05:56|Editor: xuxin

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KIGALI, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda discovered 15 bodies that were washed down into the Rwanda's side of Lake Kivu from a recent boat accident on the side of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), a local official said Saturday.

DR Congo authorities on Thursday confirmed that at least 104 people were killed after a boat capsized on Monday night on Lake Kivu in South Kivu province in the eastern part of the country.

The bodies of 13 women, a child and a man were sighted in Lake Kivu in Rwanda's Nyamyumba sector in Rubavu district on Friday night, and the Rwandan authorities notified DR Congo counterparts in Goma town immediately, Rubavu district vice mayor Janvier Murenzi told journalists in the district.

More bodies are still missing, but these newly recovered bodies reduce the number of the missing, Murenzi cited the DR Congo authorities as saying.

The retrieved bodies were wrapped and handed over to the mayor of Goma earlier on Saturday, he said, adding that the district is telling residents to avoid fishing and swimming activities in the area until further notice.Black-necked cranes fly over the natural reserve for black-necked crane in Lhunzhub County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Jan. 1, 2019. As "clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," China is seeking better coordination between economic and social development and ecological civilization and has delivered visible results. (Xinhua/Zhang Rufeng)

by Xinhua writer Gao Shan

CLAREMONT, the United States, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and American scholars called on the two countries and the rest of the world to strengthen cooperation on ecological civilization at an international forum, which kicked off here on Friday in western U.S. state of California.

Themed "Ecological Civilization and Holistic Human Development," the forum is hosted by the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, a U.S. think tank and non-profit organization.

Over 160 scholars from China, the United States and other countries are exchanging views on the latest developments in ecological civilization at the Pitzer College in the two-day event.

"Let's work together to create an ecological civilization," said John B. Cobb Jr., a 94-year-old member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in his welcome remark at the opening ceremony.

"I have said many times that my hope for the future of process thinking is in China," said Cobb, noting that China is now far in the lead in the development of ecological civilization. Cobb has been advocating for green development and more efforts to avoid global ecological crisis since 1970s.

"More and more, we want to learn from you and to share our ideas with you," he told Chinese scholars in his speech.

He noted that China has adopted the goal of ecological civilization and changed policies accordingly.

Cobb is the author of more than 50 books and the founding president of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, donating all of his money to support its operation and activities.

He said that China's commitment to become an ecological civilization has inspired some cities in other countries and expressed hope for more cooperation between China and the United States in future.

"I hope that, as citizens and local communities, we can continue to build ties of friendship and mutual support," Cobb concluded.

Philip Clayton, president of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, urged China and western countries to jointly deal with climate change.

"China became the global leader in the development of ecological civilization in 2007. China has begun to bring attention to ecological civilization in the United States, and many western countries inspired by that movement," Clayton told Xinhua.

Staff members collect data in the Saihanba forest in Weichang Man and Mongolian Autonomous County of Chengde City, north China's Hebei Province, July 12, 2017. China's Saihanba afforestation community on Dec. 5, 2017 was announced to be one of the top winners of the annual UN Champions of the Earth Award for its outstanding contribution to restoration of degraded landscapes, amid the national efforts to advance ecological civilization. (Xinhua/Wang Xiao)

The Chinese government announced its first national action plan to respond to climate change in 2007, becoming the first developing country to formulate and implement the National Climate Change Program. Respect nature, follow its way and protect it. The Chinese leadership has been tirelessly promoting a simple, moderate, green, and low-carbon life for Chinese people, and asked them to treat the ecological environment with the same importance they treat their own lives.

"We have begun an annual series of international forums on ecological civilization that helps the west learn about Chinese ideas of ecological civilization. We are at a phase of new partnership opening up between China and western nations like the United States," said Clayton, adding that as the environmental crisis grows greater, the room for cooperation is much more expanded.

"This is a really important time in the history of our planet. We have an increasingly short amount of time in order to be able to take real, concerted effort to address the climate crisis, and our countries have an opportunity to collaborate and cooperate to reduce the impact of industry and agriculture in order to form the ecological civilization," said Brain G. Henning, Professor of Department of Environmental Studies at the Gonzaga University.

"It's clear to us now that no country will be unaffected by the changes to our climate. I live in Washington State and the wild fires each year are getting worse and worse. And this is causing people all over our country to realize that we need to take climate change seriously and to reduce the carbon pollution in our environment," he added.

Some Chinese scholars introduced the latest development of China's ecological civilization construction, emphasizing the importance and necessity of cooperation in the field.

In her plenary speech, Dr. Fan Meijun, program director of Institute for Postmodern Development of China, argued that new education model is urgently needed to cultivate persons who serve the local community, serve the ecological civilization.

Fan stressed that ecological civilization is a huge project which needs countries to work more in-depth cooperation.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 09:31:43|Editor: Lu Hui

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Statistician Wang Ting (C) explains a registration form for Cina's fourth economic census to staff members of a company in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu province, April 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Bo)

By Xinhua Writers Zhang Yiyi, He Leijing

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Statistician Wang Ting has spent nearly four months visiting businesses and collecting data on their operation, so is well placed to sense the changes in China's economy.

Carrying a hand-held computer device, the 35-year-old from the statistic department of Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province, is conducting the country's fourth economic census.

In the four months from January, over 2 million census workers across the country like Wang need to survey 30 million entities and industrial units, as well as about 60 million self-employed entrepreneurs.

In the "super economic check-up," census workers said they faced a tougher-than-ever task collecting data on enterprises structure, staff wages, financial status, production capacity, energy consumption, and research and development activities.

HIGHER DATA QUALITY

Ning Jizhe, head of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has stressed the need to secure higher data quality. Calling data quality "the life line" of the economic census, he said the top priority of the work was to guarantee data accuracy.

As the Chinese economy is undergoing transformation and upgrading, Zhuang Jian, senior economist with Asian Development Bank, said that accurate and authentic census data was significant for future studies.

To ensure accuracy and efficiency, fresh tools have been employed. Wang said respondents could access the NBS terminal management application and data-checking system through a hand-held computer device.

Previously, census workers had to take down the data they collected first and input to computers later.

"Now we input the information collected in the presence of the respondents and ask for a confirmation signature," Wang said. "Both efficiency and quality of our work is improved."

In the meantime, designated large enterprises in the service sector, with an annual revenue of at least 10 million yuan or over 50 employees, are allowed to fill in the register directly on an NBS website.

Those who refuse to provide the required information or try to manipulate the data will be discredited in the country's credit system, according to the NBS.

NEW FEATURES

Apart from equipping census workers with new tools, the NBS has attempted to make the census more accessible to the public by opening an account on Chinese popular video-sharing app Douyin to share amusing short clips.

Compared with previous economic censuses, the current one pays more attention to the new economy, which tends to be labor- or technology-intensive but asset-light, sustainable, shows rapid growth and is in strategic areas encouraged by the government.

New survey items such as research and development, production capacity, energy consumption and e-commerce sales have been factored in.

"By adding these new items, the census can draw a clearer picture of the new economy while tracking new growth engines," Zhuang said.

During an on-site survey, Wang who participated in the previous economic census, found more small and medium-sized enterprises involved this time, and their business more diversified.

Census workers also feel stronger public involvement. Wang Nan, CEO of ZBJ, an emerging talent-sharing website in China, is looking forward to the census results.

"Companies can better understand industry dynamics and market trends and optimize business decision-making through the data, and individuals can use relevant data as a reference to make smart choices in personal career development and investment," he said.

BETTER GOVERNANCE

In the bigger picture, the census will help provide stronger statistical support for the government to conduct macroeconomic control and roll out long-term plans, according to Zhuang.

For Ning, the ongoing census will help the country to better pursue high-quality development through reform. It will allow the government to better evaluate economic performances, monitor and track the progress.

Upon completion, a database involving all sectors will be established, laying a solid statistical base for macroeconomic control and economic governance.

Statistics will have more say in China's economic governance, policymaking and innovation, Ning noted.

(Xinhua reporter Zhu Xiao also contributed to the story.)

(Video editor: Zhu Cong)Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 11:02:10|Editor: xuxin

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YANGON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's security forces have launched a counter-attack against the insurgent group, the Arakan Army (AA), in its regional military headquarters in Rakhine state, said the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services late Saturday.

Chasing the AA group on Saturday morning near Mrauk U township before dawn, the security forces claimed a dead body of the AA with a grenade, an improvised explosive device and ammunition.

The AA attacked the regional military headquarters as well as security post-2 in Baungdote village near Mrauk U township on Wednesday night, Myanmar's traditional New Year Day.

Government forces vowed to continue security operation to ensure the rule of law in the areas.

Meanwhile, a two-month dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed on five more townships in the state by local authorities since April 2 following a series of attacks on the government forces by insurgents which resulted in casualties and destruction of civilian houses.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 13:12:48|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The China Coal Mine Art Troupe folk orchestra will hold its 18th May Day concert at the National Library Art Center on April 29 and 30.

Musics including "On The Hopeful Field" will be performed to reflect the reform and opening up and all walks of society, said sources with the art troupe.

The orchestra will also adapt musical works with revolutionary themes, such as "Home in Anyuan" and "Suite of Tunnel Warfare."

The China Coal Mine Art Troupe was created in 1947 and launched the May Day concert in 1996.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 13:22:53|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Several explosions were reported across Sri Lanka on Sunday as hundreds of worshipers gathered at churches to commemorate Easter Sunday, the police said.

Local media quoted hospital sources as saying that at least 25 people were reported dead while over 160 injured.

Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara said that two explosions were reported from the St. Anthony's Church in capital Colombo and another from a church in Kantana, in the outskirts of the capital.

Television footage showed blasts in several star class hotels in the capital.

Police said the injured were being rushed to nearby hospitals while the affected areas were cordoned off.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 13:42:58|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The five-year survival rate for Chinese breast cancer patients has reached 83.2 percent, up 7.3 percent over the past decade, according to the 2019 annual meeting on breast cancer held by the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO).

New cases of breast cancer account for 16.51 percent of new cases of malignant tumors in women in China, making it the most commonly occurring cancer in women, according to the meeting.

An updated guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer was released at the meeting.

"The new guideline has incorporated content about drugs independently developed by China and updated content about all breast cancer subtypes of all stages," CSCO secretary general Jiang Zefei said at the meeting.

An intelligent system that helps doctors make clinical decisions was released at the meeting.

According to the meeting, multiple hospitals have built a big data platform collecting clinical data on breast cancer, which will facilitate doctors to optimize clinical decisions.Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli directed officials to make a full vision for establishing a national company for freight and maritime transport aimed at boosting trading links with Africa.



This came during his meeting with Transport Minister Kamel el Wazir, Chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) Mohab Mamish, assistant foreign minister for African affairs Abu Bakr el Hefni and other officials.



Madbouli said the company aimed at reinforcing ties with Africa, as this idea was introduced during the preparatory meetings for Egypts presidency to the AU, in addition to that it was an important proposal different Egyptian export councils.

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Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 13:43:00|Editor: xuxin

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NEW DELHI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- At least seven people were killed and 30 others injured Sunday when a passenger bus collided head-on with a truck in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police said.

The accident took place on Agra-Lucknow expressway in Mainpuri district, 256 km west of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.

"Early today in a road accident on Agra-Lucknow Expressway under Karhal police station here, a speedy private bus rammed into goods truck killing seven people and injuring 30 others," a police official posted in Mainpuri district said. "The deceased include the bus driver."

The injured were admitted to the government hospital in Saifai town.

According to police, the bus was going to Varanasi from New Delhi.

Police officials said they faced great difficulty in pulling out the bodies from the mangled front portion of the bus.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the accident took place when the bus overtook a vehicle and collided head-on with the goods truck coming from the opposite.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 14:13:10|Editor: ZX

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GABORONE, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Attending the 2019 Belt and Road for International Cooperation (BRF) will provide Botswana with a chance to strengthen trust and cooperation with China, a senior official said Saturday.

"China and other forum parties, Botswana included, will be taking stock of what has been achieved and draw a blueprint to further enrich cooperation on the initiative," Kabelo Ebineng, permanent secretary in Botswana ministry of transport and communications, spoke to the media in the capital city of Gaborone before setting off to Beijing.

The African country will be represented by its Transport and Communications Minister Dorcas Makgato at the second BRF slated for April 25-27 in Beijing.

"Our friendship is beneficial to both of us," he said.

Ebineng said that cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative is an action focused on inventiveness that delivers noticeable outcomes, and that the contributing parties would cultivate multi-tiered collaboration with more real results of higher quality.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 14:48:18|Editor: xuxin

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People gather in front of the St. Anthony's Church where a blast took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. The death toll from the multiple church and hotel explosions in Sri Lanka on Sunday rose to 70 while more than 260 others were injured, the country's information department, quoting hospital sources, said. (Xinhua/Ha Pulacheqi)

COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the multiple church and hotel explosions in Sri Lanka on Sunday rose to 70 while more than 260 others were injured, the country's information department, quoting hospital sources, said.

Sources from the Colombo National Hospital, Batticaloa Hospital in the east and Negombo Hospital on the outskirts of Colombo said blood is urgently needed now as the wounded were being rushed in.

President Maithripala Sirisena, in a special message which was read out on local news channels, urged the public to remain calm and cooperate with the authorities to conduct swift investigations into the blasts.

Sirisena also called on the public to refrain from spreading false information unless it is verified from credible sources.

"I am shocked and saddened by the situation that has occurred. Investigations have been launched to look into what conspiracy is behind these heinous acts. Please remain calm and do not be fooled by rumors," Sirisena said.

The Sri Lankan government is expected to hold an emergency meeting after the deadly explosions.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 15:03:25|Editor: ZX

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Candidate incumbent President Petro Poroshenko speaks after casting his ballot at a polling station in Kiev, Ukrain, April 21, 2019. Ukraine's presidential candidates, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and actor Volodymyr Zelensky, on Sunday cast their ballots in the second round of the country's presidential election. (Xinhua)

KIEV, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainians began to cast their ballots on Sunday in a second round of the country's presidential election between actor Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

The polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 8:00 p.m. (1700 GMT).

More than 30.3 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots. 199 electoral districts were set up in the country with over 29,900 polling stations. There are also polling stations created abroad.

Over 130,000 law enforcement officers are deployed across the country to maintain order during the election.

Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has registered 2,700 international observers from 21 countries and 20 international organizations to monitor the voting process in the election runoff.

In the first round of the presidential election on March 31, Zelensky and Poroshenko garnered 30.24 percent and 15.95 percent of the vote respectively. Since no candidate got more than 50 percent, the top two will compete in the runoff.

The results of the second round are set to be announced by the CEC by May 1 and the new president is expected to take office no later than June 3.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 15:08:32|Editor: mingmei

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MEXICO CITY, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry on Saturday said it was "deeply concerned" by the potential for abuse by anti-migrant militias patrolling the U.S. border.

The intimidation tactics used by the militias in the state of New Mexico could "trample the human rights of people who migrate or apply for asylum," the ministry said.

"The Mexican government expresses its deep concern given the intimidation and extortion measures against migrants by militia groups at the New Mexico border," the ministry added.

On Friday, the U.S. media outlets reported that a militia group detained some 300 undocumented migrants who crossed into the United States near Sunland Park, New Mexico.

Members of the group, which calls itself United Constitutional Patriots, wear military-style camouflage uniforms and some carry weapons as they patrol the border areas for migrants crossing illegally.

The group's Facebook page recruits volunteers and purports to be collaborating with the official border patrol agency.

However, New Mexico's Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said on Friday that "regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone."

Mexico's ministry said allowing private citizens to carry out border patrol duties outside the legal framework of the federal government "represents a risk to the safety" of migrants.

Caravans of Central American migrants heading to the United States in search of work have increased since late last year, fueling U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 15:18:35|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China has tightened control over the production and sale of drugs in revisions made to an amendment of the Drug Administration Law.

The measures were made public as the draft revisions are under review at the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

The draft requires individuals and entities who have become medicine marketing authorization holders (MAHs) be responsible for the drugs' clinical and non-clinical trials, manufacturing, selling, and the analysis, report, and response of adverse reactions.

The MAHs should sign agreements with manufacturers, sellers, transporters, and keepers of the drugs to make sure they are capable of maintaining the quality of drugs and managing risks, the draft says.

"The draft makes it clear that MAHs must be responsible for the full 'life-cycle' of drugs," said Tang Minhao, head of the Shanghai Association of Food And Drug Safety. "The MAHs will become the primary target of drug supervision."

The MAH system has been introduced in selected cities and regions for more than four years in a pilot reform.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 15:18:38|Editor: mingmei

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UNITED NATIONS, April 20 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Saturday night that the killing of an Egyptian peacekeeper in Mali may constitute war crimes.

The UN chief issued a statement in New York, giving details of a deadly bombing that took place on Saturday morning against a UN peacekeeping convoy in central Mali, close to the border with Burkina Faso.

The vehicles belonging to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) were en route between Douentza and Boni, in the Mopti region. One "blue helmet" from Egypt was killed and four others injured.

"MINUSMA peacekeepers responded, killing an assailant and apprehending eight others," Guterres said in the statement issued by his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. "The secretary-general expresses his deepest condolences to the family of the victim and to the Government of Egypt. He wishes a speedy recovery to those injured."

Attacks "targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law," the statement said. Guterres called on the Malian authorities to take "swift action to identify the perpetrators of this attack and bring them to justice."

Guterres reaffirmed that the latest casualties "will not diminish the resolve of the United Nations to continue supporting the people and the Government of Mali in their quest for peace and stability."

MINUSMA's mandate from the Security Council began after extremist militias seized control of northern Mali in 2012. After a failed coup, they were repulsed by French military action in the following year.

A UN-backed peace agreement in 2015 signed between the Mali government and various armed groups, failed to stabilize the febrile central and northern regions of the northwest African country.

Since 2013 when MINUSMA deployed, more than 190 peacekeepers have died in Mali, including close to 120 killed during hostilities, according to the UN report.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 15:38:52|Editor: mingmei

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HAVANA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. foreign policy towards Latin America shows that an imperialist offensive is underway in the region, a Cuban political observer told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"Washington has launched an offensive designed in the (19)80s as part of the so-called Neoconservative Revolution, which advocated taking action to recover the relative loss of (U.S.) domination over the region," said Juan Angel Cordero, a member of Havana's International Policy Research Center.

The United States is wary of the newly emerging powers that already have a significant presence in the region, "and they see that as a threat to national security on the understanding that its area of influence cannot be disputed by other global powers," Cordero noted.

With U.S. President Donald Trump at the helm, a conservative White House is taking a more aggressive approach in Latin America, where left-leaning governments rose to power over the past decade and a half.

"Faced with this dilemma, they began to undertake a series of measures to put a stop to their relative decline in dominance, and the Trump administration has resorted to every means at its disposal," Cordero said.

"Washington's response is classic and has to do with the Monroe Doctrine, which holds that the Americas are for the Americans," Cordero said, referring to the policy named after former U.S. President James Monroe.

Over the years Latin American countries have learned to protect certain national interest, said Cordero. This explains why the Trump administration has decided that the most expedient way to recover its influence in the region is to use big stick diplomacy.

"That's why there is an offensive for regime change designed against progressive currents in Latin America, namely Venezuela, but also Nicaragua and Cuba," said Cordero.

Big stick or "hard power" tactics include economic, diplomatic, and psychological warfare as well as media manipulation, with the aim to bring about regime change, he explained.

According to Cordero, the Mexico-U.S. ties illustrate Washington's new tack.

Under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico has proposed bilateral cooperation with the United States to improve life in poverty-ridden southern Mexico and northern part of Central America as a way to stem the wave of undocumented migrants heading to the United States.

Meanwhile, the U.S. response has been to spend more money on sending migrants back to their countries of origin, Cordero said.

It appears that the United States is more interested in preserving its traditional role in Central America's Northern Triangle -- comprising Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador -- of offering certain types of aid in exchange for ensuring its military presence in the region, he said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 15:49:01|Editor: mingmei

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A staff member checks the name list of lodgers of a hotel where a blast took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. The death toll from the multiple blasts which shook Sri Lanka on Sunday has risen to 138, while about 500 people were injured, local media reports quoted hospital sources as saying. (Xinhua/Tang Lu)

COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the multiple blasts which shook Sri Lanka on Sunday has risen to 138, while about 500 people were injured, local media reports quoted hospital sources as saying.

Hospital sources said that nine foreigners were among those killed in the blasts while 13 others have been injured.

Four Chinese nationals were injured in the multiple church and hotel explosions, the Chinese Embassy to Sri Lanka said.

The Chinese Embassy has activated emergency response mechanism immediately after the incident, and embassy officials have visited the injured who were in hospital for treatment. The injured Chinese are now in stable condition.

The Chinese Embassy has reminded Chinese citizens and businesses in Sri Lanka to watch out for safety.

In a special statement, the police urged the public to stay indoors and not gather at the explosion sites which had been sealed off.

Television footage showed ambulances rushing the injured to the Colombo National Hospital, the Batticaloa Hospital in the east and the Negombo Hospital on the outskirts of the capital where the explosions took place.

The government said that an urgent security council meeting was underway, with the participation of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have condemned the attacks and appealed for calm.

According to Police, three churches and three hotels have been targeted in the blasts and security has been beefed up across the country.

There has been no claim of responsibility so far for the multiple blasts.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 16:14:20|Editor: mingmei

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TOKYO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday sent a ritual offering to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, local media reported.

Abe made the offering under the name of the prime minister for the spring festival at the shrine.

The shrine, seen by neighboring countries as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, has long been a source of diplomatic friction between Japan and its neighbors, as it honors convicted war criminals together with the war dead.

Yasukuni Shrine honors 14 Class-A convicted war criminals among 2.5 million Japanese war dead from World War II.

The Japanese prime minister last visited the controversial shrine in person in December 2013. But he regularly sends ritual offerings to the shrine during its spring and autumn festivals and gives donations on Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.The Institute's new branch is set in the town of Tourcoing, part of the Lille conurbation in northern France, on the Belgian border, inside the 1904 edifice which protected the former local swimming pool

With the worlds capital cities now almost overflowing with encyclopaedia, thematic, and generic museums, more and more attention is being paid to museums in the provinces, sometimes in areas traditionally not always seen as visitor destinations.

Provincial cities over a certain size have of course long wanted to compete with their countrys capitals, often by erecting art or other museums as expressions of civic pride. However, perhaps the most successful of these have been institutions calling up memories of local achievements, with the museums built by local businessmen across Britain and the United States to house their art and other collections coming most readily to mind.

However, that was then. Today, there is an alternative trend for provincial towns and cities across the world to bid for satellite branches of metropolitan institutions, often within the framework of local or regional rejuvenation plans.

The post-industrial city of Bilbao in northern Spain has had a branch of the New York-based Guggenheim Museum since 1997, for example. The northern port of Liverpool in the UK has a branch of Londons Tate Gallery, and the former mining town of Lens in northern France has a new satellite branch of the Louvre in Paris.

These institutions have added hugely to the towns and cities hosting them, even if it has not always been so clear why they have landed there. Why the Guggenheim in Bilbao and not a branch of the Madrid Prado? Why the Louvre in Lens and not the Guggenheim?

News that the Institut du monde arabe, the French capitals institute to raise European awareness of the Arab world, had set up a branch in the post-industrial northern French town of Tourcoing thus might have raised eyebrows. What does the Arab world have to do with Tourcoing?

In the event, the citizens of Tourcoing and the surrounding region need not have worried, since the new Institut du monde arabe-Tourcoing, housed in a former swimming pool since it opened in 2016, has been a notable success. Even so, on the day Al-Ahram Weekly visited in early March there was little in the rather bleak northern European winter weather to remind one of the strong sunshine and often vivid colours of the Arab world.

However, the new institute was hosting a remarkable exhibition of early photographs of Algeria that more than made up for any outdoor bleakness, and the building itself is an equally remarkable example of the adaptive reuse of an early 20th-century heritage building. It was originally built for a very different purpose, yet one that was also overflowing with civic pride.

Tourcoing is part of the Lille conurbation in northern France, and visitors to the new Institut du monde arabe-Tourcoing are best advised to take the efficient metro system from the centre of the nearby city. The architecture, glazed brick with decorative brick courses and iron finishing, is typical of the public buildings of this part of northern France, though it is not particularly reminiscent of the Arab world.

Built in 1904 as part of a local drive to improve the fitness of the areas population, with most families having at least one member working in the regions textile mills, the former Tourcoing swimming pool was designed by architect Desire Dehaene on a commission from the local council. He produced a striking street facade that effectively announced the seriousness with which the community took the sporting activities within, as well as a generously proportioned interior that made cunning use of the available space.

The building was a considerable financial investment, and it was solidly built. It soon more than paid for itself as Tourcoing became known for its swimming team, which won many national and international competitions, including the water polo competition at the 1924 Olympic Games. Entering the new institute through the buildings original decorative metal doorway, visitors are ushered through into the temporary exhibition space housed in the swimming pools former changing rooms.

There are apparently no plans for a permanent exhibition in the new Institut du monde arabe-Tourcoing, but when phase two of the project is completed, the original swimming pool area with its striking transparent roof could make an effective events space for discussions, seminars, and musical and other performances from the Arab world.

Algerian Photographs

The photographs on display in the Instituts Photographing Algeria exhibition, running until 13 July, cover a period of well over a century.

They range from examples of the first images of the country taken shortly after the invention of photographic techniques in the mid-19th century to images taken using almost unimaginably different techniques earlier this decade. They include photographs taken by a wide range of different photographers for different purposes and with sometimes very different audiences in mind.

The earliest photographs in the exhibition were taken in the later 19th century when the French colonial authorities in Algeria started taking photographs for survey and reconnaissance purposes, adding to the earlier orientalist images of the country familiar from similar European photography in Egypt.

Companies such as Freres Neurdein in Paris and Leroux in Algiers produced postcard-type images of Algeria that established a repertoire of locations including Algiers, Biskra, Oran and Tlemcen and identified particularly photogenic monuments and landscapes along with distinctive human types. Perhaps inevitably, as in Egypt the latter included familiar figures from the orientalist imagination, among them women, market-traders, Bedouin, and others.

Commercial postcard albums were put together for European visitors to Algeria, perhaps to pore over once they had returned home as tourists often do today. The exhibition includes a high-quality postcard album of images of Algeria put together by Leroux in 1912 that includes much of the standard repertoire, and one can imagine this gracing the equivalent of early 20th-century coffee-tables.

More adventurous visitors to Algeria at the time, or those more able to manage the periods cumbersome photographic equipment, put together their own scrapbooks of images as souvenirs of their visits. The exhibition includes an album made by the Gaumont family of their vacation in Algeria in 1911, and in the same way that many modern holiday snaps taken with mobile phones are similar to standard commercial images, the Gaumont familys pictures are much like those in the postcard albums of the time.

However, not all the images in the exhibition were taken for such purposes, and as technologies improved in the earlier decades of the last century European photographs of Algeria took on a more scientific and less picturesque or touristic character.

Shorter exposure times meant that photographs of human subjects could be more informal and less posed, and better film and improved printing meant that close-up images capturing previously impossible levels of detail could be produced. Even in the later 19th century, photography in Algeria could have an official or even military character at odds with the images produced by visiting orientalist painters or tourists. Photography started to be used for official records, land surveys, and identification papers as was also the case in Europe at this time, with individuals being recorded by the authorities and their images placed in official files.

Anthropologists started to use photography to record disappearing ways of life, with French anthropologist Therese Riviere producing photographs of everything from marriage customs to sheep-shearing, cooking, and market shopping when she was carrying out fieldwork among Algerian Berbers in the Aures Mountains in the 1930s.

Her colleague Germaine Tillion, as an anthropologist perhaps best known for her Le Harem et les cousins, a work on traditional kinship systems, but known to wider audiences for her work in the French Resistance during World War II and incarceration in the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, also carried out photographic work in Algeria.

The exhibition ends with contemporary, perhaps clandestine, photographs of Algeria taken by Bruno Boudjelal, along with human subjects taken in the 1950s by Marc Garanger and press images taken by Marc Riboud in the early 1960s immediately before the end of the Independence War. Some of these appeared in the French news magazines of the time, among them Paris Match, with a rather different set appearing in Al-Moujahid, the official newspaper of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), taken by Mohamed Kouaci.

Boudjelal has rifled through family photograph albums to produce an alternative domestic history of the 1970s and 1980s in Algeria consisting of picnics at the beach, family mealtimes, and social occasions done using a variety of techniques, including black-and-white and then colour prints, faded Polaroids, and studio portraits. Photographs taken by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu during his research in Algeria in the 1950s round off the show.

This period saw the publication of early works by Bourdieu such as his Sociologie dAlgerie and Esquisse dune theorie de la pratique, apparently along with his choice of future career.

The ethnographers gaze that I turned on Algeria, Bourdieu is quoted as saying, I was also able to turn on myself, on the people of my own country, and on my parents, including on the way my father and mother spoke French. While photography is a manifestation of the distance of the observer taking the photographs it also presupposes the proximity of something familiar, he wrote.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 April 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: An Arab angle on northern France.



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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Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 16:54:29|Editor: Liangyu

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PHILADELPHIA, the United States, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative is helpful for unlocking the potential of emerging markets and many U.S. businesses want to know more about it for making investment decisions, according to experts at the 2019 Penn Wharton China Summit held here.

"Belt and Road is enormous. It's no overstatement to say it could be the project of the century," Geoffrey Garrett, dean of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), told the event while commenting on the China-proposed initiative aimed at building trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond.

"My bottom line on this is quite simple: for every emerging market in the world other than China, infrastructure is about the biggest challenge they face. If you want to unlock the full potential of emerging markets, we need to help emerging markets build infrastructure," Garrett said in his keynote speech at the student-run Wharton summit beginning Friday.

The U.S. government, he said, has expected the private sector to "become the big infrastructure developers in emerging markets." However, the U.S. private sector has been disinvesting in Africa as increasing Chinese funds go into the continent, he added.

"Because the Chinese government is thinking about 20 years from today, 50 years from today," he said. "I think that the U.S. needs to follow China's lead and think differently about the way it finances infrastructure development."

Sun Zhe, co-director of the China Initiative at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, said there is a desire on the U.S. side to know more about the Belt and Road.

He told Xinhua on the sidelines of the event that many U.S. businesses want to know how many countries have joined it, and how much China has invested in it and how it cooperates with international capitals, so that they could decide whether to be part of it.

Regarding Washington's recent allegations against the initiative, Avery Goldstein, director of Penn Center for the Study of Contemporary China, said he believes that it is a mistake to have a blanket condemnation of the BRI.

"You have to begin with facts," said Goldstein, a professor of global politics and international relations.

"I don't think it makes sense to simply refer to the entire Belt and Road Initiative as a grand effort at debt trap diplomacy by the Chinese side," he said, noting the positive contribution to the development of participating countries by some projects in the Belt and Road framework.

The three-day Philadelphia event takes place several days ahead of the second edition of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) , scheduled for April 25-27 in Beijing, which is to promote the high-quality development of the BRI cooperation as according to Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The China summit was launched in 2016 and intended to bring students, experts, and business people together to discuss China's social and economic development as well as its interactions with the United States and with the rest of the world.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 16:54:31|Editor: mingmei

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COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the multiple blasts which shook Sri Lanka on Sunday has risen to 138, while about 500 people were injured, local media reports quoted hospital sources as saying.

Hospital sources said that nine foreigners were among those killed in the blasts while 13 others have been injured.

Four Chinese nationals were injured in the multiple church and hotel explosions, the Chinese Embassy to Sri Lanka said.

The Chinese Embassy has activated emergency response mechanism immediately after the incident, and embassy officials have visited the injured who were in hospital for treatment. The injured Chinese are now in stable condition.

The Chinese Embassy has reminded Chinese citizens and businesses in Sri Lanka to watch out for safety.

In a special statement, the police urged the public to stay indoors and not gather at the explosion sites which had been sealed off.

Television footage showed ambulances rushing the injured to the Colombo National Hospital, the Batticaloa Hospital in the east and the Negombo Hospital on the outskirts of the capital where the explosions took place.

The government said that an urgent security council meeting was underway, with the participation of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have condemned the attacks and appealed for calm.

According to Police, three churches and three hotels have been targeted in the blasts and security has been beefed up across the country.

Officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport have urged passengers to arrived four hours prior to their flight times, adding that no visitors would be allowed inside the airport.

Meanwhile, massive rescue operations are underway at the explosion sites, the police said.

Several explosions were reported from across Sri Lanka on Sunday as hundreds of worshipers gathered at churches to commemorate Easter Sunday, the police said.

Police Spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara said two explosions were reported from the St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade, in capital Colombo and another from a church in Katana on the outskirts of the capital on Sunday morning. A third explosion was reported from a church in Batticaloa in the east.

Television footage also showed blasts in some star class hotels in the capital.

There has been no claim of responsibility so far for the multiple blasts.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 17:14:44|Editor: mingmei

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GUANGZHOU, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers are searching for eight fishermen, including three from Macao, who have been missing off the Pearl River Estuary in south China for more than two days.

The sunken fishing boat was initially located Saturday night over 20 meters under the sea and more divers were sent into the sea Sunday to detect and reach the missing fishermen.

The wooden boat, owned by a person from Macao and with eight on board, went missing Thursday night near the Pearl River Estuary, the Zhuhai municipal information office said Sunday. The other five on board are from the Chinese mainland.

Earlier, the boat, 25 meters long and 6.56 meters wide, could not be precisely located as it had shut off its automatic identification system, said the office.

Local maritime rescue authorities have sent airplanes and ships to search a sea area of more than 600 square kilometers. They also used sonar technology and sent three divers into the water to detect the boat.

Rescue authorities from Hong Kong and Macao also joined in the rescue operation.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 17:24:57|Editor: mingmei

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LONDON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the multiple bomb attacks on Sri Lankan churches and hotels that have claimed at least 138 lives and injured hundreds on Sunday.

May said in a statement that "the acts of violence against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka are truly appalling, and my deepest sympathies go out to all of those affected at this tragic time."

"We must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practice their faith in fear," She said.

Several explosions were reported from across Sri Lanka on Sunday as hundreds of worshipers gathered at churches to commemorate Easter Sunday, the police said.

There has been no claim of responsibility so far for the multiple blasts.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 17:30:12|Editor: Lu Hui

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Security staff stand on guard outside the St. Anthony's Church where a blast took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. Sri Lankan authorities said on Sunday that the death toll from the explosions which shook the Sri Lankan capital earlier in the day had risen to 185 while 469 others were injured. (Xinhua/A.Hapuarachchi)

COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan authorities said on Sunday that the death toll from the explosions which shook the Sri Lankan capital earlier in the day had risen to 185 while 469 others were injured.

Local media quoting police and hospital sources said that nine foreigners were among those killed and 13 others were injured.

Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara told Xinhua that a seventh explosion was reported from opposite the Dehiwala Zoo in Colombo on Sunday afternoon.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 17:45:21|Editor: mingmei

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NEW DELHI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Two Naxals were killed on Sunday in a gunfight with policemen in central Indian state of Chattisgarh, police said.

The gunfight broke out inside the forests of Pamed area in Bijapur district, about 440 km south of Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh.

"Today a gunfight broke out between Naxals and joint contingents of district police and Greyhound Force here inside Pamed forests of Kavargatta area," a police official posted in Bijapur said. "Two Naxals were killed in the anti-Naxal operation and two country made weapons have been recovered from the spot."

According to police, the policemen had cordoned off the forest area on specific intelligence input about the presence of Naxals in the area.

Policemen involved in the firefight have not suffered any casualty in the stand-off, officials said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 18:00:25|Editor: mingmei

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MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Up to 17 militants were killed and 11 others injuries as a clash flared up in Chak district of the eastern Wardak province, said an army statement on Sunday.

The clash, according to the statement, flared up in Lawala and Ali Khil areas of Chak district on Saturday and lasted for a few hours, leaving 17 insurgents killed and 11 others injured.

The statement didn't say if there were casualties on security personnel. However, it stated that the security forces would continue to chase militants elsewhere in the restive province to ensure lasting peace there.

Taliban militnats haven't commented.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 18:00:26|Editor: mingmei

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CHUBUT, Argentina, April 20 (Xinhua) -- When autumn arrives at the southern end of South America, an imposing migrant gets poised. Having just spent a reproductive season there, Magellanic penguins will travel up to 6,000 km northwards to warmer waters off Brazil's coasts.

As the middle-sized penguins gathered at the 600-hectare Punta Tombo National Reserve in Argentina's southern province of Chubut, their favorite mating and nesting grounds, it attracts nature lovers.

Located more than 1,000 km south of the capital Buenos Aires, the reserve is home to the largest colony of Magellanic penguins around the globe. Some years, it sees over a million of the birds.

"The colony is made up of around 250,000 couples, around 500,000 reproducing penguins," park ranger Elvio Haedo told Xinhua.

Each year between September and April, when penguins return from winter getaways, they build nests on the reserve's vast brown steppes and red rocks along the deep-blue Atlantic. Soon, the colony welcomes newly-born chicks and later "juveniles that come to find a mate or molt," Haedo said.

Punta Tombo boasts a perfect climate and terrain for nesting penguins as "the nests are in underground caves, food is available relatively nearby, and the shrubs provide protection from the Patagonian wind," Haedo said.

The penguins feed on a variety of fish and mollusks, including anchovies, silverside, hake and squid. They could swim up to 600 km in search of food for themselves and their chicks.

During their six-month stay on this Atlantic coast, dynamic of a breeding season begins with the arrival of males, who have a week to build nests before females arrive.

"Once the female arrives, she inspects the nest, and if it is in good shape, she stays," the ranger said.

"The penguins are monogamous, they mate for life. If the nest is in good shape, it proves the male is strong and potentially good for reproduction. If it's not in good shape, the female will seek a male with a better nest," Haedo added.

By mid-November, first chicks begin to hatch. Five months later, they enter a juvenile stage marked by first molt, which lasts until they turn five years old and become fully independent of parents.

Punta Tombo has allowed public access to the colony for the last 30 years, and asks visitors to take care not to interfere with the penguins' day-to-day life.

Also home to a range of other wildlife, from llama-like guanacos to foxes, ferrets and rheas, the reserve practices sustainable tourism, focusing on protection and conservation of local species and habitat, while catering to thousands of nature lovers every year.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 18:05:29|Editor: mingmei

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DHAKA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A two-day summit on business process outsourcing (BPO) began in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on Sunday with a view to presenting future prospects.

The event, with the theme "Transforming Service to Digital," was organized by the Bangladeshi government's Directorate of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the Bangladesh Association of Call Centre and Outsourcing (BACCO).

Scores of local and foreign analysts attended the summit. Bangladesh's Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wajed Joy inaugurated the summit.

According to the organizers, the summit particularly highlights the road Bangladesh traveled from 2008 by the country's BPO industry and identifies and discusses key points for the road ahead.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 18:05:31|Editor: mingmei

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A meeting was held in Beijing Sunday to celebrate the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, which falls on April 23.

Participants to the meeting reviewed the PLA Navy's history of developing from almost nothing to becoming strong, summarized its experiences on combat, reform, transformation, and military struggle preparedness, and looked into the bright future of building it into a world-class navy in the new era.

It was pointed out that the PLA Navy has gradually developed into a powerful modern navy that can effectively safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests.

In particular, the navy has undergone historic changes and made historic achievements since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which was held in 2012, the meeting concluded.

It also vowed that officers and soldiers of the navy will make their contributions to speeding up the navy's transformation and development and building it into a world-class force.

At the meeting, units and individuals were honored for making outstanding contributions to the navy's development.

Over 1,300 people, including leaders from organs of the Central Military Commission, and representatives of the military units, attended the event.While Einstein's name is remembered the world over, the Arab world's geniuses have been forgotten, even in their own countries

Moustafa Mosharafa was the father of physics in Egypt. Mosharafa met Albert Einstein in Port Said. Although the Mosharafa-Einstein meeting was a very significant event indeed, soon some reduced the genius of Mosharafa just to that event. Overlooking his entire grand scientific career and his efforts in constructing contemporary science in Egypt, they saw that one sentence as being sufficient to sum up his career.

Einstein was a real legend, but the Western media succeeded in augmenting the size of that legend and setting him apart from other giants of science by light years.

Ahmed Zuwail was a living legend  the greatest chemist in the world for long decades. He won the Nobel Prize alone and was nominated for another Nobel. He was singular in theorising and inventive in application. He founded single-handedly a new science: femtochemistry. However, the media in our country succeeded in destroying a part of the legend, keeping Einstein on the pedestal of fame and driving the don of chemistry in his final years to the abyss of disputing over a piece of land for the sake of building a university.

The age of legends started with the death of Einstein and the age of silence began with the death of Zuwail. Zuwail doesnt exist among us as the greatest scientist in our history. But the volume of legends and myths which enhances Einsteins genius is brought up day after day. Much of what is mentioned about Einstein isnt right and many of the sayings and wise quotes are inaccurate. Much of whats said about dissecting his body, brain and head is baseless. The entire world is ready to listen to a thousand legends about Einstein every day. Every moment Einstein lived became historic and every word he uttered  even if it were nonsense  became a source of thought and analysis. When Princeton University in 2018 published Einsteins travel diaries to the Far East and the Middle East, every word in it was media talk everywhere.

The science of physics was fortunate to have Einstein and Einstein was fortunate to have the media by his side. Einstein pushed science forward and the media kept Einstein in the record of the immortals. Not a single day passes in the world without mention of him.

Zuwail doesnt exist anymore in our media institutions, nor in peoples talk. Our nation seems to be bearing a great history and a meagre memory. We became the nation of oblivion; destroying our homelands through lethargy and casting stones on our heroes.

I am one of those who follows whats published about Einstein, whether fact or legend, what concerns science and what concerns thought and religion. I was astonished at the volume of articles published about Einstein and Islam, then Einstein and Shias, and whether Einstein converted to Shia Islam. Reading about the Iranian physicist Mahmoud Hessabi drove me to read about the probability of Einstein being Shia after studying Islamic sects.

The sites Elaph and Al-Arabiya and hundreds of other Arabic and Persian sites published many stories regarding correspondences between the Iranian Shia cleric Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi and Einstein through Mahmoud Hessabi. Stories say there were correspondences between the man of religion and the man of science and that the Iranian scientist Ebrahim Mahdavi tried to buy the correspondence from a Jewish manuscript middleman for three million dollars, but the deal wasnt finalised.

According to Mohammad Baqer Majlesi, in his book, Seas of Lights, translated by Hamid Reda Pahlavi, the Iranian Shahs brother: Relativity appeared first in Shia traces during the Prophets (PBUH) Ascension journey. When he ascended from the ground his leg or his cloak hit a pot of water and it fell and the water was spilt. Upon his return (PBUH) from the Ascension, he witnessed the water spilling from the pot despite the passage of time. This is evidence on the relativity of space and time."

Again according to Seas of Lights, the resurrection doctrine of the dead body and soul, and what had been mentioned in the Prophets (PBUH) family sciences hundreds of years ago, regarding the movement of light and the body, was confirmed by Einstein in the possibility of turning matter into energy and energy into matter. This was the reason behind Einsteins conversion into the Twelver Shia sect of Islam! Nothing substantiates this  not correspondence, not Islam and not Einstein being Shia. However, Einsteins legend succeeded in extending across geography and through cultures, religions and sects, to preoccupy peoples minds throughout the world.

Every single letter uttered by Einstein became as if a holy text. Every slip of the tongue issued by Einstein was as if it were a wise saying. Even his picture where he stuck his tongue out in front of the camera became one of the most famous pictures worldwide. The legendary scientist Albert Einstein didnt have considerable knowledge outside science while he was portrayed as the person who knows everything about everything, and he was omniscient.

In our country, every letter uttered by the legendary Ahmed Zuwail was filtered in search of faults, every slip of the tongue augmented and every move incriminated. Some have stooped so low as to describe him as just a science teacher who was lucky to travel to the United States. I was fortunate to edit Ahmed Zuwails memoirs, entitled The Age of Science, whose introduction was written by Naguib Mahfouz. I saw with my own eyes how figures such as Naguib Mahfouz, Farouk El-Baz, Mostafa El-Sayed and Mohamed Ghoneim treated Dr Zuwail. I was also fortunate to see how the American and European scientific community treated Dr Zuwail.

Dr Zuwail was more than a legend, but the legend met with that absurd Arab ondition which builds its existence around and exerts its utmost for one objective: living at level ground zero.

Our nation has succeeded in killing every legend that emerged among us, so as to  proudly  join in the aggrandisement of the others legends. Geniuses are theirs; we have none. Presence and continuity are theirs and absence is ours. Their countries are countries of glory and ours are countries of nothingness.

Its high time to restore our self-esteem, for our scientists and our great men, and to those who gave us prestige and status. Its high time to stop neglecting the sources of pride in our countries. Science is the solution.

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Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 18:10:33|Editor: mingmei

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SKOPJE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- North Macedonia's presidential election kicked off on Sunday with voting started early morning in polling stations across the country.

Over 1.8 million eligible voters will choose between three candidates running for the sixth president of North Macedonia.

Stevo Pendarovski is the joint candidate of the governing coalition Social Democratic Union Party (SDSM) and Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).

Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is the candidate backed by the right-wing opposition VMRO DPMNE party.

Blerim Reka entered the presidential race with the support of two ethnic Albanian opposition parties -- the Alliance for Albanians and the BESA movement.

The State Election Commission said a total of 3,150 domestic and 419 foreign observers will monitor the election.

The electoral campaign of the three candidates was dominated by issues including relations with Greece, domestic reforms and the country's accession to the European Union.

According to North Macedonia's constitution, a victory in the first round can be achieved only by winning over 50 percent of votes. Otherwise the two candidates with the most votes will head to the second round on May 5. The winner will be the candidate who has won the majority of the votes if more than 40 percent of the registered voters go to the polls.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 18:55:45|Editor: Liangyu

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WASHINGTON, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Despite having already landed an offer in the United States, He Jielin showed up at the job fair organized by Chinese companies on Saturday just outside of Washington D.C..

"I do have an offer here, but I don't rule out going back to China," He told Xinhua when making his way through crowds gathering around the dozens of booths set up by Chinese companies to woo He and his peers.

A graduate this year of Information System Technology at The George Washington University (GW), He is among about 1,000 Chinese students coming here mostly to seek opportunities to put what they have learned abroad into use back home.

Qi Hao, a GW undergraduate who helped organize the event, said the job fair is held because many Chinese students have showed a keen interest in pursuing a career back in China.

"I am definitely going to return to China after I complete my studies here," a University of Maryland student who gave her name as Jiang said, "I feel more at ease working and living in a familiar environment."

This sentiment is shared by many. When submitting CVs, some cite private reasons, including reuniting with family, but more are drawn to the great potential that they believe China has in further development.

"The market in China is much bigger, and with the same language and culture, I may reach a higher position. I might bump against a glass ceiling if I would stay here," a GW junior student who gave his name as Li said.

Data have showed an increasing number of overseas Chinese students who go back to China to work. Li Haozhuan, CEO of the recruiting firm Liepin North America, said that there were about 480,000 students returning to China in 2017, 520,000 in 2018, and this year's number is forecast to top 600,000.

"A lot of students see China as a fertile ground of artificial intelligence and 5G technologies, which are expected to spur future developments," he said.

"A trend we have observed is that more students are searching for summer internship opportunities in China during their sophomore or junior years, we see that as a strong intention of returning to China for a full-time job after they graduate," Li said.

The Chinese companies are equally eager to find the right people.

Tracy Ma, a human resource officer at the medical equipment company MicroPort, said her company has a thirst for foreign-educated students as it is poised to expand into foreign markets.

"We plan to nearly double our employee headcount to 10,000 by 2025," Ma said, adding that recruiting students from top-tier foreign universities is crucial.

According to Ma, her company needs students who excel in foreign languages and meanwhile understand foreign culture and markets. "If we see someone whom we really like, we'll set up a position to suit that person," she said.

"There is really a push and pull that the students are feeling," Li, the recruiting expert, said. Chinese companies, especially those better integrated into the global economy, are courting oversea students while immigration policies and political environment in some Western countries are becoming less appealing to them.

Despite promising prospects, some warn that the path back to China can also have pitfalls for young professionals who missed the drastic changes at home over years.

Zhang Li, vice president of International Data Group China, said that some of the overseas students are somewhat out of line with the demand of Chinese companies and the Chinese market.

"In the previous interviews, some asked for exorbitant salaries that are unrealistic in the Chinese job market, and some were ready to take any pay package on the table, indicating a lack of understanding of their self-worth." she said.

The fact that the overseas Chinese students have been increasingly younger over years also contribute to the situation, according to Zhang, who noted that those who spend college life or even high school years abroad sure will face a cultural shock when they are back in China.

"The advice is to base expectations on up-to-date information about industry trends in China, and keep a close watch on the latest news of the target company," the recruiting expert Li said.

The message is at least not lost on Yang, a recent graduate from Johns Hopkins University who gave his surname, and a visitor to the job fair.

"I have worked for a few months at a small local consulting firm. I'm here today to get a sense of the consulting industry in China so that when I move back I will be prepared."Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 18:55:47|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China is considering tightening regulation over the production and sale of drugs in revisions made to an amendment of the Drug Administration Law.

The measures were made public as the draft revisions are under review at the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

The draft requires individuals and entities who have become medicine marketing authorization holders (MAHs) to be responsible for the drugs' clinical and non-clinical trials, manufacturing, selling, and the analysis, report, and response of adverse reactions.

The MAHs should sign agreements with manufacturers, sellers, transporters, and keepers of the drugs to make sure they are capable of maintaining the quality of drugs and managing risks, the draft says.

"The draft makes it clear that MAHs must be responsible for the full 'life-cycle' of drugs," said Tang Minhao, head of the Shanghai Association of Food And Drug Safety. "The MAHs will become the primary target of drug supervision."

The MAH system has been introduced in selected cities and regions for more than four years in a pilot reform.

The draft aims to monitor drug prices and guarantee drug supplies. Government authorities will monitor drug prices and conduct investigation of cost prices when necessary, according to the draft.

China will also encourage research and production of drugs in short supply, and give priority to examining and approving drugs and raw materials which are in short supply.

Relevant authorities under the State Council can interfere in the production, pricing and imports of certain drugs where there is a shortage of supply, the draft says.

The government should strengthen supervision concerning drug shortages while enterprises should also shoulder responsibilities to avoid damages to public health due to shortage of life-saving medicine, said Song Hualin at Nankai University School of Law.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 19:21:02|Editor: mingmei

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COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Multiple blasts which shook Sri Lanka on Sunday have taken lives of 192 people while more than 470 others were injured, and a curfew has been declared nationwide, Sri Lankan authorities said.

Altogether eight explosions have ripped through the country so far, with six blasts hitting in the morning and two in the afternoon. The curfew has been imposed from 6 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. local time on Monday.

The Sri Lankan government has also imposed a temporary ban on social media to prevent the spread of false information.

Of the dead in the blasts, there are 35 foreigners, the police confirmed. Hospital sources had earlier said nine foreigners were among those killed while 13 others have been injured.

Four Chinese nationals were injured in the explosions, the Chinese Embassy to Sri Lanka said.

Both Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have condemned the attacks and appealed for calm.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the tri-forces and the police are conducting a thorough probe into the explosions.

The Morning explosions occurred when hundreds of worshipers gathered at churches to commemorate Easter Sunday, the police said.

Police spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara said two explosions were reported from St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in capital Colombo and another church in Katana on the outskirts of the capital; a third explosion was reported from a church in Batticaloa in the east.

Television footage also showed blasts in three hotels -- the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels in the capital, which occurred following the church blasts.

The seventh explosion happened from opposite the Dehiwala Zoo in Colombo, and the eighth, which has reportedly been a suicide bombing, ripped through Colombo a short while ago, police have confirmed.

The Chinese Embassy has activated emergency response mechanism immediately after the incident, and embassy officials have visited the injured who were in hospital for treatment. The injured Chinese are now in stable condition.

The Chinese Embassy has reminded Chinese citizens and businesses in Sri Lanka to watch out for safety.

In a special statement, the police urged the public to stay indoors and not gather at the explosion sites which had been sealed off.

Television footage showed ambulances rushing the injured to the Colombo National Hospital, the Batticaloa Hospital in the east and the Negombo Hospital on the outskirts of the capital where the explosions took place.

Security has been beefed up across the country. State Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene said all necessary precautions had been taken to keep citizens safe.

"As a government all necessary action will be taken against any extremist group that is operating in our country," Wijewardene said.

Officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport have urged passengers to arrived four hours prior to their flight times, adding that no visitors would be allowed inside the airport.

Meanwhile, massive rescue operations are underway at the explosion sites, the police said.

There has been no claim of responsibility so far for the multiple blasts.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 19:31:17|Editor: Liangyu

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ROME, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Francesca Manenti was dismayed when her first report on China published in 2013 received little attention. Embroiled in a financial crisis, Italy then had a bumpy ride. "People had no time to look further afield," she said. "Asia was perceived as far away."

However, an about-face followed. Three months after the publication, China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and a global community looked towards China again. The Italian researcher found a new topic of interest.

"At that time, we were not so aware of what the Belt and Road could be," said Manenti. "So we kept studying it month after month."

This March, as a step further in the bilateral relations, China and Italy signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly advance the construction of the Belt and Road. Italy thus became the first Group of Seven member to join the BRI.

"It was the first time that we saw a window of opportunity to increase and improve our work specifically on China," Manenti said.

Manenti has published more research reports on China, focusing on the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's economic and foreign policies, and the impact of the BRI on Italy and Europe.

"It's really a game changer, something really new that gives a new framework for one very important thing -- that is connectivity," she said.

Manenti entered the Rome-based Center for International Studies as an intern in 2013 and is now a senior analyst in charge of Asia and Pacific affairs there.

Founded in 2004, the independent think tank provides data and strategic decision analysis for clients around the world and cooperates with its partners to hold seminars. Recently, Manenti and her colleagues have been preparing for a new research program based on the BRI.

The project is the biggest to fall into Manenti's hands since she joined the institute. She uses the Chinese character "Xiang," which means "towards" in Chinese, as its theme, with the focus of exploring the potential of the BRI for Italy.

She summarized her understanding of the BRI with four keywords: "innovative," "comprehensive," "worldwide," and "idealistic."

"After so many years (when) we were not aware of the possibility to look eastward," Manenti said, "we'd like to give to public opinion and stakeholders all the keys ... for finding this new direction."Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 19:46:23|Editor: mingmei

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BAGHDAD, April 21 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced four defendants to death over charges of joining Islamic State (IS) group and carrying out terrorist attacks in Iraq and Syria, the Iraqi judiciary said.

The Karkh Criminal Court issued the death verdicts after it "considered the cases of the four over joining Daesh (IS group) terrorist gangs and carrying out criminal operations targeting innocent citizens in order to destabilize security and stability inside Iraq and Syria," the media office of the Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement.

"The four terrorists were tried by the Iraqi court after being received from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as they are wanted for the Iraqi judiciary," the statement said without giving details about their nationalities and the terrorist attacks that they carried out.

Since February, the SDF began extraditing hundreds of captured IS militants to Iraqi forces after the liberation of the last IS stronghold of al-Baghouz, which was the last IS-held area in the eastern Euphrates River region in Syria's eastern Deir al-Zour province.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 19:51:28|Editor: ZX

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People shout slogans and wave posters during a rally in Rabat, Morocco, on April 21, 2019. Thousands of Moroccans rallied in the capital Rabat on Sunday to demand the immediate release of jailed activists in Rif protests. (Xinhua/Chadi)

RABAT, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Moroccans rallied in the capital Rabat on Sunday to demand the immediate release of jailed activists in Rif protests.

Organized by several opposition political parties and rights associations, the demonstrators strongly denounced the upholding of the sentence of dozens of protesters, which is up to 20 years in prison over the protest that rocked the north-eastern region of the kingdom in late 2016 and 2017.

On April 5, the appeal court in Casablanca upheld the prison terms handed to the protest leaders after a first instance verdict handed down in June 2018.

The families of the convicts and their lawyers were also present in the march.

Authorities accused the activists of undermining public order and national unity as well as violence against law enforcement agents.

The protests took place in October 2016, when fish vendor Mouhcine Fikri was crushed to death after climbing into a rubbish lorry to retrieve his swordfish confiscated by police.

Demanding justice for Fikri evolved into a grassroots movement, requiring greater government investment and more jobs for several months.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 19:51:30|Editor: mingmei

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DHAKA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Two Bangladeshi tourists have been missing since Easter Sunday bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, Bangladeshi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said here Sunday.

He said, among the missing Bangladeshis, one is an adult man and the other is a child of the same family.

According to the minister, the four-member family including the missing persons went to visit Sri Lanka.

"We hope they are fine at any of the hotels or hospitals. Bangladesh High Commission in Colombo is in regular touch with Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry for updates."

Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attacks and expressed their condolences.

The bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels reportedly killed 192 people and wounded hundreds of others.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 19:56:34|Editor: mingmei

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BEIRUT, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Sunday that Lebanon is in crisis and it cannot wait longer for a solution, local media reported.

"Lebanon is in crisis and we cannot afford to wait longer for a solution. We hope to get over with this crisis as soon as possible," Aoun was quoted as saying by the National News Agency.

Aoun said that the crisis is very difficult but it is not hard to overcome.

"We started with our electricity plan which will be followed by the 2019 budget and then comes the economic and environment strategies," he said.

The president said that the government will study very well the budget and it will not impose taxes on the poor.

"We know who to impose taxes on," he said.

The Lebanese government is expected to convene this week to discuss the 2019 budget which will be transferred to the parliament later on for approval.

The government aims to take measures that would reduce the budget deficit and bolster a flagging economy reeling under 85 billion U.S. dollars in public debt.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 20:06:43|Editor: mingmei

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KABUL, April 21 (Xinhua) -- More than 60 anti-government militants were killed across Afghanistan over the past 24 hours as fighting gained momentum in the conflict-battered country, officials said Sunday.

The government forces in latest crackdown against the armed militants have stormed a Taliban hideout in Panah area of Gero district in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province, killing seven insurgents on the spot and wounding three others, said a statement of provincial government released Sunday.

Similarly, fighting between security forces and the Taliban group left five armed militants dead and two injured in Dasht-e-Qala district of the country's northern Takhar province Saturday night, provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jawad Hajari told Xinhua.

At least 28 militants have been confirmed dead as fighting aircraft pounded Taliban positions in Saiqal Ghara area of Nawbahar district in southern Zabul province since Saturday, said an army statement.

According to army statements, 17 militants have been killed in eastern Wardak province and seven more insurgents have been killed in southern Uruzgan province since Saturday.

However, Zabihullah Mujahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit has spurned the claims made by security officials, saying the militants have inflicted casualties to government forces over the past 24 hours.

Militancy and counter-militancy have gained momentum since April 12 when the Taliban group announced its annual offensive in the war-torn country.It is a bitter irony that Islamists responsible for terrorism across the Arab world are paraded around Washington as advocates of human rights

Spring has arrived in Washington DC, and a sure sign of the change in seasons is the annual parade of Islamist lobbyists who come to the US capital in March and April to advocate, under the guise of human rights, for Islamist causes and to misrepresent the beliefs held by ordinary Muslims.

Just a week before American Islamists descended on Washington to push for Islamist-friendly policies during the fifth annual National Muslim Advocacy Day, their Egyptian Islamist allies did the same.

On 24 and 25 March, Egypt Advocacy Day took place in Washington, when, sponsored by Democratic Party congressman Tom Malinowski, Egyptian activists and Western lobbyists came together to warn policy-makers against Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and encourage the US government to ensure Egypt works to uphold the democratic principle of peaceful transfer of power, according to a statement.

Representatives of rights organisations Human Rights Watch, the Project on Middle East Democracy and Human Rights First were happy to take part in this effort, seemingly unconcerned that the organisers were prominent members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement, removed from power in Egypt in 2013 following enormous popular protests against its abuse of power.

The main organising body behind the Advocacy Day was the Freedom Initiative, a group founded by prominent Muslim Brotherhood activist Mohamed Sultan.

He was imprisoned in Egypt for nearly two years on terrorism charges, until former US president Barack Obama pressured the Cairo authorities to release him in 2015 after he gave up his Egyptian citizenship.

While critics claimed that Sultan was the victim of political persecution in Egypt, he had a long history of involvement with hard-line Islamist activities in both the US and Egypt, openly expressing support for the designated terror group Hamas and leading chants praising the killing of Jews, for example.

Other sponsors and supporters of the Advocacy Day included the Egyptian Human Rights Forum, of which Sultan was among the founders. In previous years, a key Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood proxy in the US, Egyptian-Americans for Freedom and Justice (EAFAJ), has also been closely involved in the annual Advocacy Day. This year, its officials took part in the lobbying, but the organisations name and logo were nowhere to be found on the literature.

Perhaps this was a result of articles and reports exposing the EAFAJs extremism, particularly that of its leading officials Hani Al-Kadi and Ayat Al-Orabi.

The Project on Middle East Democracy, for example, which sponsored this years Advocacy Day, notes on its Website that a number of experts on the Muslim Brotherhood have spoken out regarding the EAFAJs lobbying efforts and condemned Al-Orabis views in particular.

On Twitter, analyst Mokhtar Awad referred to Al-Orabi as a raving sectarian lunatic. He also posted a video of Al-Orabi calling for an economic boycott of Christian businesses, where she states that [Christians] must be made to understand that the [Islamic] crescent must be on top of the cross.

In the days and weeks after this years Advocacy Day in Washington, the EAFAJ held further meetings with congressional staffers and policy-makers to express support for the deposed Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi and encourage lawmakers to force the Egyptian government to release those it labelled political prisoners  in other words, jailed Muslim Brotherhood operatives and terrorists. One report alleges that the EAFAJ even met with Democratic Party presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.

Leading the delegation was EAFAJ President Hani Al-Kadi, a New Jersey-based activist who is referred to in the Arab media as a Muslim Brotherhood leader in the US. Al-Kadi openly supports violent jihadist organisations in Egypt and routinely publishes anti-Semitic and pro-Islamist rhetoric on his social media accounts.

He was a particularly vocal supporter of Mohamed Kamal, the late jihadist leader behind the US-designated terrorist organisations Liwaa Al-Thawra and Hasm. Kamal was killed in an exchange of gunfire with Egyptian police in October 2016.

Along with anti-Christian and anti-Semitic activist Ayat Al-Orabi, Al-Kadi was accompanied by Amr Darraj and Ahmed Shehata. Darraj is wanted by the Egyptian authorities on charges of coordinating terrorist activities in Egypt from his home in Turkey.

Shehata, meanwhile, is a prominent Islamist activist in the US who is closely involved with Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights, another key Muslim Brotherhood organisation, as well as the international aid charity Islamic Relief and the community organisation the Muslim American Society, both of which serve as flagship institutions of Muslim Brotherhood-influenced Islamism in the US.

The visit by President Al-Sisi to Washington on 9 April led to an angry response from Muslim Brotherhood operatives involved in the recent lobbying efforts.

At a protest outside the White House, the EAFAJ, along with other supporters of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, wore Brotherhood insignia and held up placards of Mohamed Morsi.

The Washington Post gave Mohamed Sultan column inches to denounce Al-Sisi and criticise the Trump administration in the US for hosting him. No mention was made of Sultans radical Islamist affiliations, with his by-line merely noting that he is a human-rights advocate and founder of the Freedom Initiative.

It is baffling that US politicians, human-rights organisations and media outlets should offer their support and give their time to these Islamist activists, given the violence and oppression that swept through Egypt under Morsis rule. Admittedly, the involvement of Malinowski is not surprising.

He was a vocal critic of plans to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, and he condemned Trumps very cordial and successful meeting with Al-Sisi on 9 April.

Opposition to Al-Sisi or any other leader should not mean support for a violent Islamist movement. In December 2017, the Muslim Brotherhood officially declared the United States an enemy state on its Arabic Website, and as if that were not enough to encourage Western officials to stay away, Brotherhood members and splinter groups have wreaked havoc in Egypt over the past seven years, supporting attacks on Coptic churches and involving themselves in terrorist attacks and assassinations.

The Brotherhoods sister organisation, the designated terrorist organisation Hamas, needs no introduction here.

For many in the Arab world, it is a bitter irony that a movement responsible for such widespread terrorism, violence and hate in the Arab world is now paraded around the halls of the US Capitol as a hearty advocate of human rights, democracy and justice.

Too often, naive Western activists and policy-makers still offer legitimacy to extremists, leaving ordinary people to suffer the consequences.

*The writer is a political analyst and author of Egypts Arab Spring and the Winding Road to Democracy.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 April, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: The Brotherhood goes to Washington

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Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 20:46:58|Editor: ZX

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Policemen stand guard at the scene after Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was attacked in Ankara, Turkey, on April 21, 2019. Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was attacked on Sunday by a group in the capital Ankara. The assault took place at a funeral of a Turkish soldier who died at a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) attack on Turkey-Iraq border on the weekend. (Xinhua)

ANKARA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was attacked on Sunday by a group in the capital Ankara.

The footage from local broadcasters showed attackers were punching and kicking at the opposition leader.

Kilicdaroglu was later taken to a safe house by security officials. Police dispersed the protestors who were protesting and chanting in front of the house.

The assault took place at a funeral of a Turkish soldier who died at a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) attack on Turkey-Iraq border on the weekend.

Ankara Governorate said in a written statement that necessary precautions were taken for the main opposition leader. Initial security forces were dispatched at the scene after the attack.

Ankara Prosecutor has launched an investigation on the attack.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 20:52:00|Editor: mingmei

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KABUL, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan on Sunday condemned in the strongest terms the serial blasts that hit Sri Lanka's capital Colombo earlier in the day, said the country's Presidential Palace.

Over 200 people were killed and 460 others were injured after eight explosions shook Colombo during the day.

"Attacking churches and hotels and targeting worshipers is appalling, and Afghanistan strongly condemns this heinous act of terror. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, and we stand in solidarity with Sri Lanka on this dark day," the Presidential Palace tweeted.

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, on behalf of the Afghan people, strongly condemned the Sri Lanka blasts and sent his deepest condolences to the victims and their families who lost their dear ones on this sacred Sunday, according to the Presidential Palace.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 20:52:02|Editor: mingmei

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WELLINGTON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extended her condolences to the government and people of Sri Lanka following multiple bombings that ripped through the island country on Sunday.

"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism, and our resolve has only been strengthened by the attack on our soil on the 15th of March. To see an attack in Sri Lanka while people were in churches and at hotels is devastating," Ardern said.

"New Zealand rejects all forms of extremism and stands for freedom of religion and the right to worship safely. Collectively we must find the will and the answers to end such violence."

Ardern offered New Zealand's sympathy and support to Sri Lanka at this difficult time.

Multiple explosions hit churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday leaving over 200 dead and more than 400 injured. There has been no claim of responsibility so far for the multiple blasts.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 20:57:06|Editor: Liangyu

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Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with national lawmakers attending the 10th session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at a symposium in Beijing, capital of China, April 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu has stressed attaching importance to lawmakers' advice and suggestions in order to give fully play to the advantages of the people's congress system.

Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with 54 national lawmakers at a symposium Saturday.

Speaking to these lawmakers, who were attending the top legislature's ongoing bimonthly session, Li said the top legislature will take targeted measures this year to improve its work based on lawmakers' advice.

Wang Chen, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the symposium.

China's top legislature started its bimonthly session on Saturday to review multiple draft laws and revisions to laws.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:02:14|Editor: mingmei

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ISLAMABAD, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday condemned the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, saying his country stands with the people of Sri Lanka during the hour of grief.

"Strongly condemn the horrific terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday resulting in precious lives lost & hundreds injured. My profound condolences go to our Sri Lankan brethren. Pakistan stands in complete solidarity with Sri Lanka in their hour of grief," the prime minister said on its official Twitter account.

The country's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Muhammad Faisal also condemned the explosions, saying on Twitter that "People and Government of Pakistan stand by people and Government of Sri Lanka at this moment of tragedy and against terror."

Over 200 people were killed and more than 400 injured after eight explosions targeting churches and hotels ripped through Sri Lanka on Sunday.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:02:15|Editor: mingmei

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DHAKA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh joined the international community in strongly condemning multiple blasts, which shook Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attacks and expressed their condolences.

Hamid sent condolences to the people and the government of Sri Lanka, expressing shock at the deadly attacks, according to a press note.

Hasina condemned the attacks and wished quick recovery of those who were injured in the attacks, according to a message released by the press wing of the Prime Minister's Office.

The blasts taking place at three Sri Lankan churches, three luxury hotels and other locations killed more than 200 people and wounded hundreds of others, following a lull in major attacks since the end of the civil war in the country 10 years ago.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:12:27|Editor: Lu Hui

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China had built a team of nearly 3.61 million medical doctors as of the end of 2018, sustaining the world's largest healthcare system, the country's top health official said Sunday.

These medical doctors treat about 8.3 billion patients on average every year, said Ma Xiaowei, head of the National Health Commission (NHC), in a report submitted to China's top legislature for review at its ongoing bimonthly session.

As of the end of 2018, the number of China's medical doctors increased by 80.4 percent compared with 1998, and the annual number of treated patients increased by 290.1 percent, according to Ma.

The NHC will actively work with the top legislature to revise and improve the law on medical doctors, he said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:12:29|Editor: Liangyu

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COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Two Chinese nationals were confirmed killed in a series of explosions in Sri Lanka on Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said.

The embassy is verifying the number of Chinese injured in the attacks.

The death toll from the blasts has risen to 207, and over 450 people were wounded, Sri Lankan police said.

Earlier information from the embassy said that four Chinese nationals were injured in the multiple church and hotel explosions that ripped through the island nation on the Easter day.

The Chinese Embassy has activated an emergency response mechanism immediately after the blasts, and embassy officials have visited the injured who were in hospital for treatment.

Security has been beefed up in Sri Lanka as the government imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. local time on Monday.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:22:39|Editor: Lu Hui

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a reply letter to a group of U.S. high school students, encouraging them to make contributions to promoting friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.

The group of over 40 students from Niles North High School in Illinois state, the United States, have written in Chinese to Xi, asking him about his work, life and hobbies.

The students said in their letter that they are studying Chinese, that they love Chinese language and characters, as well as music and Chinese food, and that they would love to have the chance to visit China.

In his reply letter to the students, Xi thanked them for their letter, saying he feels their love for the Chinese language and their interest in the Chinese culture.

Studying Chinese helps better understand China, make more Chinese friends, and also make many friends who can speak Chinese across the world, Xi said.

He praised the students' neat writing and correct wording in Chinese, and encouraged them to continue the efforts to achieve greater progress in Chinese learning.

"I have visited the United States for many times, and was deeply impressed by the beautiful scenery, hospitable people and diverse culture there. I have also made many American friends, including young friends," the president said.

"My job is to serve the people. It is very tiring, but also very fulfilling," he added.

The president said he has strong interest in philosophy, history, literature, culture, music and sports, among others, adding that many of his hobbies have been kept since his middle school years.

Calling the young generation the future of China-U.S. friendship, Xi said he hopes that the students will cherish their youth, study hard and make contributions to promoting friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.

Noting that it is better to see something once than to hear about it a hundred times, the president said the students are welcome to visit China.

Xi's letter was met with an enthusiastic response in Niles North High School, where teachers and students said they can feel Xi's amiability and are moved by his care for young people in China and the United States.

Xi's letter will encourage more local students to learn Chinese, know about Chinese culture and participate in friendly exchanges between the two countries, they added.

Niles North High School, established in 1964, is a public school in the U.S. state of Illinois. Having more than 2,000 students, the school pays special attention to international exchanges and encourages students to learn foreign languages. The school has included Chinese in its curriculum since 2008, and currently has 11 classes of students learning Chinese as an elective course.

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U.S. high school students send Chinese letter to President XiWhile the departure of lifetime presidents in Algeria and Sudan may bring uncertainty to these countries, the geopolitical costs to the Arab world will be less unclear

The Arab world is again in the midst of major upheavals that none can say with certainty will lead to a restored state of normalcy.

Less than two weeks after the Algerian army brought former President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika to submit his resignation, the Sudanese military were faced with a similar dilemma.

To support President Omar Al-Bashir against the will of the majority that had taken to the streets from last December, protesting dire economic conditions and later demanding an end to Al-Bashirs 30-year rule, or take up popular demands and oust a president who clung to power, failing to see the inescapable ending of his despotic rule coming.

Unlike the Algerian former president, Al-Bashir was ousted in what some have called a military coup on Thursday, 11 April. The former Sudanese defence minister read a statement on the official media that announced uprooting this regime, seizing its head, after detaining him in a safe place.

He went on to say that the army and the security agencies had watched the bad administration of Al-Bashirs regime, its systemic corruption, the absence of justice and that the poor became poorer and the rich became richer.

He added that a military council set up by the army, the intelligence agencies and the security apparatus would govern the country for two years, after which free and fair elections would be held. In the meantime, the former defence minister announced the suspension of the constitution, the dissolution of the government and declared a state of emergency for three months.

These measures were accompanied by a closure of Sudanese airspace and borders, with a night curfew that would remain in force for one month.

Not unlike the Algerian situation, the popular mobilisation continued and the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which has led the mass popular uprising against the ousted Sudanese president, called on the people of Sudan to remain mobilised on the streets till the formation of a civilian transitional government. Sarah Abdel-Jaleel, a spokeswoman for the SPA told The Associated Press they will not accept a military coup and insisted on an unconditional stepping down of Al-Bashir and his regime.

The same position adopted by the demonstrators in Algeria. In both cases, the people want to bring down not only the heads of state but the two regimes, thus creating a power vacuum that would be very challenging to fill in case the protesters would insist on keeping the two armies out of the equation, particularly in the transitional period.

Such maximalist positions in Algeria and Sudan would make the transition to a civilian, democratic systems full of traps and most importantly it could backfire ultimately.

The absence of a dynamic party system, the multiplication of the centres of popular protest, the absence of national political figures capable of leading the two nations in the transition to democracy and the opposition to any role for the military in the transitional period are all factors that could make such a transition problematic and highly controversial.

Besides, people power is by definition ephemeral and could prove dangerously destabilising. Ironically, people power could turn out to be counterrevolutionary some time down the line.

How the two countries will manage the pre-transitional period will determine, to a great extent, future political developments in both Algeria and Sudan.

Undoubtedly, those exercising temporary power by force of circumstance are aware of the dangers to the territorial integrity of their respective countries, and in particular Sudan.

The two nations are surrounded geographically with centres on insecurity and instability. Algeria faces the ever-present threat of terrorist groups operating in Libya and on its southern borders in the Sahel. Sudan is also not far away from Al-Qaeda-linked groups in the Horn Africa.

Because Algeria and Sudan are strategically-located, foreign powers have a great interest in monitoring closely the development of the political situation in both and are ready to intervene, directly or indirectly, if the situation gets out of control. The world does not want to see a repeat of the Libyan situation in either Algeria or Sudan.

The mass protesters in Algiers and Khartoum are probably unaware of the geopolitical cost of the radical changes taking place in their countries and I am not sure their street and professional leaders would give serious thought to such a cost.

However, it exists and it could weigh on the course of events in case the political classes and the two armies cant find common ground and steer Algeria and Sudan away from political chaos and fragmentation.

Whether they accept or not, the military in Sudan and Algeria are indispensable guarantors of security and stability. Accordingly, attempts to shut them out are doomed to fail. Responsible leaders, when they emerge, in both nations should have the courage to tell the people the truth, however difficult to swallow.

Those leaders should avoid dancing with wolves, nor enter into any kind of transient alliance with them. By wolves I mean the forces of political Islam.

If there is a lesson to be drawn from the Egyptian experience, from 2011 to 2013, it is the futility of entering into political alliances with these forces on the illusionary belief that they are forces for democratic change.

Democracy for them is limited to the ballot box. Once in power, which they ardently believe is God-ordained, it is theirs to keep for an eternity.

The popular uprisings in Algeria and Sudan, if not properly and peacefully channelled to give way to more open and democratic systems, would further destabilise the Arab world at a time of major foreign policy challenges for Arab countries, at the forefront of which is, undoubtedly, the re-election of Binyamin Netanyahu for another term on 9 April and the expected announcement by the White House of its long-promised peace plan to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Just to give a preview of what could come next, Netanyahu announced a few days before the Israeli elections that, if re-elected, he would proceed to declare parts of Area C in the West Bank, where are located major Israeli settlement blocs, under Israeli sovereignty.

Some analysts interpreted this announcement as an electoral ploy to get the votes of the extreme right. However, the truth of the matter is that he will do just that. Arab disarray from coast to coast, and unlimited American support at the highest level, wont stop him.

This is one of the huge geopolitical costs of the fall of the fossilised political systems of Arab Republican regimes.

*The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 April, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: The costs of uncertainty

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Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:27:44|Editor: Lu Hui

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A group of students from Niles North High School in Illinois, the United States, have sent a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping asking about his hobbies and work.

The following is an English translation of the letter.

Dear President Xi:

Hello.

We are high school students from Chicago. Our school is Niles North High School in Illinois state in the United States. As we are studying Chinese now, we would like to write to you in Chinese.

We like speaking Chinese, and we like our Chinese teacher. We like writing Chinese characters and having Chinese food. We like to say "great," "I love you," "friend," "come on," "just so so," "hamburger" and "tired" (in Chinese). We all love music. But none of us like doing homework.

Do you like listening to American music? China is very big and beautiful. We want to go to China to take a look.

Do you like your job? Is it tiring? Do you have any friends? Do you speak English? How old are you? Which country's cuisine do you like? What are your hobbies? Do you like the United States?

We think you are a good person, and handsome, too. We look forward to your reply.

Thank you!

We wish you a happy Year of the Pig!Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:48:06|Editor: Liangyu

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CHANGSHA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Hunan Province saw foreign trade surge 41.3 percent year-on-year to 80 billion yuan (12 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2019.

Exports rose 60.4 percent year-on-year to 54.2 billion yuan while imports gained 13 percent to 25.8 billion yuan, according to Changsha Customs.

Its trade with the Belt and Road countries soared 55 percent year-on-year to 21.7 billion yuan as it embraced the Belt and Road Initiative to boost economic and trade cooperation with these countries.

Its trade with the Netherlands, India and Chile surged 91 percent, 90.8 percent and 160 percent, respectively.

The manufacturing sector is the pillar of the trade, with tax and fee cuts spurring an annual growth of 47.5 percent to 70.8 billion yuan in the first quarter, the customs said.

Equipment manufacturing saw trade up 21.1 percent year-on-year to 17.3 billion yuan in the January-March period.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:53:10|Editor: zh

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Photo taken on April 20, 2019 shows CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal at Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. CSCL Mercury, a Chinese container ship with a capacity of 14,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), on Saturday became the first visitor to the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal of Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, built and operated by China's COSCO Shipping Ports Limited (CSP) and Abu Dhabi Ports, has a design capacity of 2.5 million TEU and begins with a handling capacity of 1.5 million TEU. (Xinhua/Su Xiaopo)

ABU DHABI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- CSCL Mercury, a Chinese container ship with a capacity of 14,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), on Saturday became the first visitor to the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal of Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, built and operated by China's COSCO Shipping Ports Limited (CSP) and Abu Dhabi Ports, has a design capacity of 2.5 million TEU and begins with a handling capacity of 1.5 million TEU.

"We are honored to be the first ship to visit the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal," said Liu Lei, captain of CSCL Mercury.

"I think it is operating efficiently and has high-level management. I saw the containers being unloaded up and down very fast," Liu added.

CSCL Mercury began service in 2011. Its overall length and beam is 366 meters and 51.2 meters respectively.

"Today is very important for us, as it marks the beginning of formal operation of the terminal", said Naser Al Busaeedi, deputy CEO of CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal.

"It takes fewer than one year and a half from construction to operation. That's very fast," he added.

The operation of the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, a key project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, will further increase the capacity of Khalifa Port and make it a competitive shipping hub in the Gulf region, Busaeedi noted.

China is the largest non-oil trading partner of the UAE. In 2017, trade between the two countries increased 15 percent to more than 53 billion U.S. dollars, representing 14.7 percent of the UAE's total foreign trade.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:53:11|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- A delegation of 100 young military officers from African countries and the African Union on Sunday started a weeklong visit to China at the invitation of China's Ministry of National Defense.

The visit is expected to promote exchanges between Chinese and African military officers, deepen the friendly relationship between China and African militaries, and strengthen China-Africa cooperation regarding peace and safety.

The African military officers will visit military academies, troops, enterprises in the defense industry and high-tech businesses in China.

They will also listen to lectures on various topics, including the Belt and Road and China-Africa military relationship.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 21:58:14|Editor: mingmei

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JAKARTA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian government condemned on Sunday the deadly multiple attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that had killed at least 207 people.

"Government and people of Indonesia conveyed deepest condolences for the victims and their families," a statement released by Indonesia Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

The ministry said that government through its embassy in Colombo continues to monitor the development, coordinate with local authorities and association of nationals residing in Sri Lanka to assure the safety of its citizens from any impact of the heinous multiple attacks.

So far no Indonesian national has been affected from the attacks, the statement said.

An Indonesian citizen who stayed in one of the attacked hotels, Shangri-La hotel, when the attack took place, was confirmed safe, and now is under protection of local authorities.

Several other Indonesians who also stayed in the hotel were also reported safe as they went out from the hotel when the attacks occurred in the morning.

The ministry said that 374 Indonesian citizens are staying in Sri Lanka, of which 140 of them stay in Colombo.

Indonesia believes that Sri Lanka government can appropriately handle the situation. Indonesia offers assistance should the Sri Lankan government need it, the statement said.

The coordinated multiple attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday have killed at least 207 people, injured over 450 others so far.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 22:08:29|Editor: mingmei

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PRAGUE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Czech President Milos Zeman on Sunday sent a condolence telegram to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, condemning the heinous acts of attacks earlier in the day.

"It is difficult for me to express my anger and contempt for those who have planned and implemented attacks against celebrating Christians," said Zeman in the telegram.

"These actions are all the more disgusting that they have targeted and insidiously directed against those celebrating the new beginning symbolized in the resurrection of Jesus Christ," he said.

Zeman sent his condolence to the families of the victims through the telegram. "Our thoughts and hearts are with them and all other desperate and suffering in Sri Lanka and around the world," said the president.

Other Czech political figures, including Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek, also denounced the attacks in their own ways.

Latest figure shows that the multiple blasts which shook Sri Lanka on Sunday have claimed 207 lives, wounding over 450 others.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 22:08:34|Editor: mingmei

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RIYADH, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on Sunday a joint initiative to offer 300 billion U.S. dollars in aid to Sudan.

According to a joint statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, the assistance comes as part of the two countries' obligation toward the Sudanese people.

A total of 500 million dollars will be allocated as a deposit in the Sudanese Central Bank to protect the financial strength and stability of the country, while the remaining amount will be used to meet the Sudanese people's urgent needs for food, medicines and petroleum products.

Sudan has been suffering from fuel and wheat shortage in the last few months, leading to popular protests and the recent military ouster of President Omar al-Bashir.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 22:13:37|Editor: ZX

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Aerial photo taken on April 9, 2019 shows the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government said on Sunday that seven people had been arrested over the multiple blasts that rocked the island nation earlier in the day and killed at least 207 so far. (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)

COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government said on Sunday that seven people had been arrested over the multiple blasts that rocked the island nation earlier in the day and killed at least 207 so far, without providing further details.

They were arrested during a security forces raid on a house in the Sri Lankan capital several hours after the attacks.

The police said over 450 had been injured while 35 foreigners were among those killed.

State Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene told reports that security had been beefed up across the country and he urged the public to remain indoors while a nationwide curfew had been imposed until further notice.

Wijewardene said most of the attacks were caused by suicide bombers, but did not reveal further information.

Eight explosions were reported across Sri Lanka on Sunday as hundreds of worshipers gathered at churches to commemorate Easter Sunday, the police said.

Police spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara said that two explosions were reported from the St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in the capital Colombo and another from the St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of the capital on Sunday morning.

A third explosion ripped through the Zion Church in the east coastal city of Batticaloa.

Explosions were also reported from three five-star hotels in Colombo, while on Sunday afternoon an explosion rocked a hotel, opposite a zoo in Dehiwala in Colombo and another hit a housing complex in Dematagoda on the northern outskirts of the capital.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 22:13:42|Editor: mingmei

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CAIRO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Sunday that his country is keen to enhance strategic relations with the United States in all aspects.

Sisi's comments came during a meeting in the capital Cairo with visiting U.S. Senator Ronald Lee Wyden.

During the meeting, Sisi highlighted Egypt's eagerness to intensify the strategic ties based on mutual respect and interests with the United States, Sisi's spokesman Bassam Radi said in a statement.

For his part, Wyden praised cooperation between the two countries, hailing Egypt a cornerstone of security and stability in the Middle East and a pivotal partner of Washington in the region.

Egypt has been a key regional ally of the United States since the signing of a U.S.-brokered peace treaty with Israel in 1979.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 22:43:58|Editor: ZX

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ULAN BATOR, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The third edition of annual job fair for Mongolian students who can speak Chinese was held here on Sunday.

The day-long job fair was co-organized by the Confucius Institute Headquarters and the Confucius Institute at National University of Mongolia, in partnership with the China-Mongolia Cultural and Education Foundation and the Chinese Cultural Center in Ulan Bator, with the aim to offer employment opportunities for Chinese-speaking job seekers in Mongolia.

"China and Mongolia are friendly neighbors connected by mountains and rivers. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries," Li Wei, cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia, said at the event.

She expressed confidence that the event will help Mongolian youth who are fluent in Chinese find suitable jobs.

For his part, Gombo Bumtsend, deputy director of Neighboring Countries Department at the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted that in recent years, relations and cooperation between Mongolia and China have been rapidly expanding in a wide range of areas such as trade and economic sectors.

"The job fair is an important event to promote employment for Mongolian students and youth," he added.

Around 30 Chinese companies operating in Mongolia, including Bank of China Ulan Bator Representative Office and Air China Mongolia attended the event and introduced their job vacancies.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 22:43:59|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Civil aviation transport has contributed 31.3 percent of passenger turnover in China's comprehensive traffic system in 2018, according to the latest report from civil aviation authorities.

The figure was 3 percentage points more than that in 2017, said the mid-term evaluation report of the civil aviation development in the 13th Five-Year Plan released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

By the end of 2018, China had a total of 235 certified transport airports, which could extend to more than 90 percent of the country's prefecture-level cities, the CAAC report said.

In 2018, China's civil aviation industry handled 610 million air passengers.

China is now the world's second-largest civil aviation market. It is expected to become the largest by the mid-2020s, according to the latest forecasts by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 22:54:08|Editor: yan

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TAIPEI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Renminbi (RMB) deposits held by banks in Taiwan rebounded to 282.28 billion yuan (42.34 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of March, 880 million yuan more than February, according to data released by the island's banking authority.

The rebound in March snapped a decline streak of five consecutive months.

Outstanding yuan-denominated deposits held by the offshore banking units rose by 1.32 billion yuan to 33.99 billion yuan at the end of March from February, pushing up the total balance despite a decline of yuan deposits held by individual investors in March.

However, onshore banking units of Taiwan-based banks cut their positions of yuan deposits by 438 million yuan to 248.29 billion yuan in March due to a redemption of two yuan-denominated bond mutual funds.

Taiwan still ranks as the second largest offshore RMB market, after Hong Kong's outstanding yuan deposits of 608.3 billion yuan.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 22:59:16|Editor: yan

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COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The island country of Sri Lanka was gripped by shock and grief on Sunday, after a series of deadly explosions ripped through hotels and churches in the capital of Colombo and other places, killing over 200 and injuring more than 450.

At least eight blasts were reported during the day, six in the morning and two in the afternoon, as worshippers gathered to commemorate Easter Sunday.

So far 207 people, including dozens of foreigners, were confirmed dead.

Two explosions were reported from St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo, and one hit St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of the capital on Sunday morning, while another one was reported from a church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

Panic-stricken people were seen standing outside St. Sebastian's Church. The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out the doors and windows at St. Sebastian's with broken glass strewn on the street.

Following the church blasts, explosions ripped through three five-star hotels in the capital -- the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels.

The seventh explosion happened from opposite the Dehiwala Zoo in Colombo, and the eighth struck moments later. Most of the attacks were caused by suicide bombers, State Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene told reporters.

On Sunday afternoon, heavily armed policemen and soldiers were seen guarding the Cinnammon Grand Hotel.

"After hearing a loud bang, we knew an explosion has occurred. We immediately evacuated the guests and confirmed the room number of each guest. The hotel is empty now," a staff at the hotel told Xinhua.

Little traffic could be seen on the city's main Galle Road after the deadly attacks, and shops along the road were all closed.

Police personnel were patrolling the Galle Face Green located in the heart of Colombo and near the blast-hit Shangri-La Hotel.

The entrance of the Shangri-La hotel was cordoned off with tight security after the blast. Windows on the second floor of the building were shattered and the furniture inside the rooms were scattered in a mess.

A policeman from the Terrorist Investigation Division who checked Xinhua reporter's passport said, "This is a special moment, please cooperate for the checks for the sake of everyone's safety."

Around St. Anthony's Church where one of the attacks occurred, the roads were blocked for vehicles. Scattered roof tiles and shattered glass could be seen outside the church.

"I never expect this kind of thing could happen in our country," a local woman named Nirmala told Xinhua.

Sunday's blasts were the worst acts of violence since the country's 30-year civil war between government troops and the Tamil Tiger rebels ended in 2009.

"The blasts remind me of our civil war. I hope the government could find out the cause of the explosions as soon as possible, and prevent such bloodshed from happening again," Kolitha, a local in his 50s, told Xinhua outside St. Anthony's Church.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-21 23:44:43|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers on Sunday reviewed the draft section of personality rights of the civil code in panel discussions at the ongoing bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

They were in support of the draft, which is under its second reading, and noted the significance of this personality rights legislation.

Du Yubo, a lawmaker, said the new parts of the draft including strict regulation over clinical trials, human gene or embryo-related studies met the requirement for personality rights protection.

Lawmaker Guo Lei applauded the improvement of provisions on personal information protection and suggested expanding the scope of "personal space" to include virtual online space. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 00:04:59|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Sunday began to review multiple reports submitted to it -- three by the central government on medical doctors, environmental protection, and rural industries respectively and one by the top court on improving court order enforcement.

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, attended the second plenary meeting of the ongoing bimonthly session of the committee.

Minister of Ecology and Environment Li Ganjie briefed lawmakers on the environment report, which notes the steady improvement of China's environment in 2018 and outlines six tasks in 2019, which include pollution control, ecological restoration, nuclear and radiation safety, environmental inspection.

Ma Xiaowei, head of the National Health Commission, briefed lawmakers on the medical doctor report, which reveals that China had built a team of nearly 3.61 million medical doctors as of the end of 2018, sustaining the world's largest healthcare system. The report also acknowledged some imbalances and insufficiencies in the development of medical professionals for meeting the rising health needs of the public.

Han Changfu, minister of agriculture and rural affairs, briefed lawmakers on the rural industry development report, noting that measures taken in recent years to promote rural industry have resulted in remarkable progress.

Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court, briefed lawmakers on how the top court has worked to solve the difficulties in enforcing property-related court orders and the plans to eventually resolve this issue in the future.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 00:25:09|Editor: yan

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KHARTOUM, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's Transitional Military Council on Sunday reaffirmed its commitment to hand over the power to the people.

"The role of the council is complementary to revolution, and handing over the power to the people was a demand of the revolution," said Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, the council chairman, during an interview broadcast by Sudan's official TV.

"The military council has no ambitions in power, and we are keen to begin the transitional period as soon as possible," added Al-Burhan.

He said the council has received more than 100 visions for solving the political crisis from various Sudanese political elements.

The council chairman vowed that no Sudanese political entity, except the former ruling National Congress Party, would be excluded during the transitional period.

In addition, he revealed that 7 million euros (7.87 million U.S. dollars), 350,000 dollars and billions of Sudanese pounds, all in cash, were found in the residence of ousted President Omar al-Bashir.

The money has been deposited in the Central Bank of Sudan, the chairman noted.

Sudan's Transitional Military Council is tasked with running the country's affairs following the downfall of al-Bashir's regime.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 00:30:11|Editor: ZX

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DAR ES SALAAM, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian Minister for Minerals Dotto Biteko on Sunday ordered all gold-processing plants in the southern highland region of Songwe to suspend production following reports of smuggling out of the country.

"Intelligence reports show that some of the gold processors are not honest. They are smuggling processed gold out of the country," the minister said on a visit to inspect mining activities in the region.

He said some of the gold processors in Songwe region, bordering with Malawi and Zambia, were not adhering to regulations provided for in the gold processing business.

In March, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa launched a gold bullion market in Geita, a region in northwest Tanzania, and warned of punitive measures against smugglers.

The launch of the market was in line with President John Magufuli's directive to ensure that Tanzania takes a lead in international gold business.

Majaliwa said the government will not tolerate anyone taking gold across borders in search of higher prices.

Security has been enhanced to control minerals smuggling and to make sure that every Tanzanian benefited from the endowed natural resources, he said.

Robert Gabriel, Geita regional commissioner, said the newly launched international gold bullion market outfit is expected to boost earnings of small-scale miners in gold extraction as well as to optimize government revenues.

According to the Federation of Miners Association of Tanzania, there are more than 6 million small-scale miners across the country.

An estimated 40.5 million people were in direct engagement with artisanal and small-scale mining in 2017, up from 30 million in 2014, 13 million in 1999 and 6 million six years before, it said.

The mining sector contributes around 4.8 percent to Tanzania's gross domestic product (GDP), according to the government.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 00:30:15|Editor: zh

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Nepalese students consult with exhibitors during the Second Belt and Road Nepal China Education Fair held in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 21, 2019. The fair, jointly organized by the Teachers Association of Chinese Language and the Study China Center, Nepal, seeks to explore cooperation between the two countries in academic sector. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

KATHMANDU, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) offers immense development opportunities for Nepal and many other countries, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, speaker of the House of Representatives of Nepal, said on Sunday.

Inaugurating the second edition of three-day Belt and Road Nepal China Education Fair in the Nepali capital, Mahara said it's an opportunity and pride for Nepal to participate in BRI cooperation.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

"Under the initiative, there are many possibilities of cooperation in connectivity, physical infrastructures, energy, tourism and education among others," Mahara said.

China's miraculous development has given a new message to the world, the parliament speaker said, noting that the Himalayan country can learn a lot from the development.

With regard to education in particular, the speaker called for cooperation between universities of the two countries to produce skilled manpower who can work for the welfare of both countries.

"Chinese engineering education is regarded as one of the best in the world. Nepal can gain huge benefits from the progress and development achieved by China in technical education sector," Mahara said in his address.

The fair, jointly organized by the Teachers Association of Chinese Language and the Study China Center, Nepal, seeks to explore cooperation between the two countries in academic sector.

According to the organizers, over half a dozen Chinese universities including Beijing Normal University, Shandong University, Qufu Normal University, Zhejiang Normal University among others, have participated in the fair.

Besides, the event will host separate interaction programs between Chinese and Nepali universities, colleges, scholars and students on education cooperation on Monday and Tuesday.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 00:30:16|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday sent condolence messages to their Sri Lankan counterparts, respectively, after multiple deadly attacks shook the country.

In his message to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Xi said that he was shocked to know the series of explosions in Sri Lanka, which have caused large casualties.

"I, on behalf of the Chinese government and people, as well as myself, send my deep condolences to the victims, and my sincere sympathy to the injured and families of the victims," he added.

The Chinese government and people will firmly stand by the people of Sri Lanka and firmly support the Sri Lankan government's effort to maintain national security and stability, Xi said.

On the same day, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also sent condolences to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe over the attacks.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 00:40:22|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday expressed outrage at the terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, recalling the sanctity of all places of worship.

The secretary-general said that "he hopes the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice."

In a statement issued by his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims, the people and the Government of Sri Lanka, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

He also commended the leadership demonstrated by the authorities and unity of the people of Sri Lanka in the wake of the attacks.

Guterres reiterated the support and solidarity of the United Nations with the people and the Government of Sri Lanka in this difficult moment for the nation.

The death toll from the multiple blasts that ripped through Sri Lanka on Sunday rose to 228 while 450 others were injured, local media quoting hospital sources said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 01:00:30|Editor: yan

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AMMAN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Jordan said on Sunday that it was following up on the situation of Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails as the kingdom's top priority.

Sufian Qudah, spokesman of Jordan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the ministry was in direct communication with the families of the prisoners to reassure them about the situation of their jailed relatives.

"Visits by the families of the Jordanians jailed in Israel are ongoing and the ministry has arranged several visits for the families of the prisoners," he added.

There are around 13 Jordanian prisoners in Israel.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, the second Arab state to do so after Egypt.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 01:20:38|Editor: yan

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NEW DELHI, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Indian Foreign Minster Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday that three Indian nationals were among those killed in a series of blasts that rocked Sri Lanka.

The eight bombs that ripped through three churches during Easter services, four luxury hotels and a guest house killed over 200 people and wounded 450 others.

"I have just spoken to the foreign minister of Sri Lanka Tilak Marapana. He confirmed that unfortunately, 207 persons have lost their lives and more than 450 are injured in the terror blasts," Swaraj wrote on Twitter. "Indian High Commission in Colombo has conveyed that National Hospital has informed them about the death of three Indian nationals."

New Delhi strongly condemn the blasts in Sri Lanka.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister and conveyed his heartfelt condolences at the loss of innocent lives in the attacks.

The Sri Lankan government has announced a curfew and temporary shutdown of social media.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

The island nation in past has battled military campaign launched by the Tamil Tiger rebels, who were demanding separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces. The group collapsed in 2009 after its supreme leader was killed.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 01:30:44|Editor: ZX

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WASHINGTON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The United States confirmed on Sunday that "several U.S. citizens" had been killed in the multiple deadly attacks in Sri Lanka.

"While many details of the attacks are still emerging, we can confirm that several U.S. citizens were among those killed," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terror attacks," Pompeo added.

The death toll from the multiple blasts that ripped through Sri Lanka on Sunday rose to 228 while 450 others were injured, local media quoting hospital sources said.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said in a statement that 32 foreigners from the United States, Britain, Belgium and China were among those killed.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 01:40:49|Editor: ZX

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An injured woman is carried on a stretcher in a hospital in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 21, 2019. Sri Lankan Police said on Sunday that 13 people had been arrested over a series of blasts which killed 228 people across the island nation. (Xinhua/Samila)

COLOMBO, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan Police said on Sunday that 13 people had been arrested over a series of blasts which killed 228 people across the island nation.

The police, quoted by local media reports, said the 13 people had been taken into custody in the capital of Colombo and 10 of them had been handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters that all those arrested were Sri Lankan nationals and search operations were underway to hunt for more suspects.

He said 228 people were killed and 450 were injured from eight explosions on Sunday.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a special commission to probe the attacks.

The explosions were reported across Sri Lanka on Sunday as hundreds of worshippers gathered at churches to commemorate Easter Sunday, the police said.

Police spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara said an explosion struck St. Anthony's Church in Kochchikade in Colombo and another hit St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, on the outskirts of the capital on Sunday morning.

A third explosion rocked Zion Church in the eastern city of Batticaloa.

Blasts also ripped through three five-star hotels in Colombo, while on Sunday afternoon an explosion was reported from a hotel opposite a zoo in Dehiwala and another one from a housing complex in Dematagoda, both in the capital.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 01:55:58|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Sunday killed seven leaders of the Islamic State (IS) militant group in the eastern province of Diyala, a security source said.

A joint force of the Iraqi intelligence service and Counter-Terrorism Service conducted airdrop operations on IS hideouts in Himreen mountain range, some 65 km east of the provincial capital Baquba, Sadiq al-Husseini, head of the security committee in Diyala's provincial council, told Xinhua.

The operations resulted in the killing of seven IS leaders in Diyala, including Abu Idris, dealing the latest major blow to the extremist group in the province, al-Husseini said.

The killed leaders are the mastermind behind IS violence and terrorist attacks in the province, al-Husseini said, adding the operations carried by the security forces were difficult as the IS leaders were hiding in rugged areas and inside underground hideouts.

Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces launched sporadic raids as part of large-scale operations to hunt down IS militants hiding in Himreen mountain range, killing many extremist militants and destroying many of their hideouts.

Despite repeated military operations in Diyala, some 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 the north of Baquba.

The security situation in Iraq was 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 frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 02:01:01|Editor: yan

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RABAT, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Sunday expressed his country's strong condemnation of the deadly bomb attacks that targeted churches and hotels in Sri Lanka earlier in the day.

"The kingdom of Morocco strongly condemns this heinous, terrorist act which is utterly inconsistent with the teachings of all religions and human values," the Moroccan king said in his message of condolences and compassion to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.

He also extended his sincere condolences and deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and the people of Sri Lanka, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 02:01:02|Editor: ZX

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Candidate actor Volodymyr Zelensky casts his ballot at a polling station in Kiev, Ukrain, April 21, 2019. Ukraine's presidential candidates, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and actor Volodymyr Zelensky, on Sunday cast their ballots in the second round of the country's presidential election. (Xinhua/Sergey)

KIEV, April 21 (Xinhua) -- The national exit poll showed on Sunday that Ukrainian actor Volodymyr Zelensky won the country's presidential election by gaining 73.2 percent of the votes in the second round as of 6 p.m. local time (1500 GMT), the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency said.

A total of 25.3 percent of Ukrainians voted for incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, while 1.5 percent of the voters spoiled their ballot papers, the exit poll suggested.

The exit poll was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation among 13,000 voters. Its margin error was plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.

Voting in the second round of the presidential election in Ukraine kicked off at 8 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and ended at 8:00 p.m. (1700 GMT).

The results of the second round are set to be announced by the Central Election Commission by May 1 and the new president is expected to take office no later than June 3.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos on Jan. 23, 2014. (AFP File photo)

TEHRAN, April 21 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian senior official said on Sunday that Iran plans to design a mechanism for financial transactions with its trade partners.

Iran considers the development of payment channel with countries such as Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Mohammad Nahavandian, Iran's vice president for economic affairs, was quoted as saying by Tehran Times daily.

He also said steps have been taken on implementation of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), EU's special payment channel with Iran.

In January, the EU announced the establishment of the INSTEX to secure trade with Iran and skirt U.S. anti-Iran sanctions after Washington pulled out of the 2015 landmark Iranian nuclear deal in May 2018.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday that his country has discussed with Turkey the launch of a financial mechanism similar to INSTEX.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 04:36:42|Editor: yan

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RABAT, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's annual International Agriculture Fair wrapped up on Sunday in the northern city of Meknes, attracting a great number of visitors.

According to the commissioner of the fair Jaouad Chami, some 850,000 people have visited the fair since Tuesday.

A daily record of 32,000 people was registered on Saturday, Chami told the press at the closing of the fair.

Under the theme "Agriculture, Employment Level and Future of the Rural World," the fair attracted 1,500 exhibitors from 60 countries with Switzerland as a guest of honor of this edition.

The fair covered an area of 185,000 square meters.

Since its inception in 2006, the International Agriculture Fair has been a crucial event for the Moroccan and African agriculture industry.

It has provided a precious opportunity to promote the transfer of latest technologies in the field of agriculture and to boost cooperation between stakeholders in the Mediterranean and African countries.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 05:21:57|Editor: yan

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KUWAIT CITY, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Sunday strongly condemned bomb attacks in Sri Lanka.

An official source at the Foreign Ministry expressed Kuwait's strong condemnation of the attacks that led to hundreds of casualties and injuries.

The source reaffirmed Kuwait's firm stance against violence and terrorism, stressing its support for all measures taken by Sri Lanka to maintain its security and stability.

He also expressed sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

Over 200 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured in the series of blasts in Sri Lanka on Sunday.Source: Xinhua| 2019-04-22 06:47:12|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Miguel Moratinos, the high representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), on Sunday condemned the multiple terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.

Moratinos condemned the attacks "in the strongest terms," according to a press statement issued by his spokesperson Nihal Saad.

The UNAOC chief stressed that "the unspeakable terrorist attacks should not dissuade us from taking a collective stand against terrorism in all its forms."

He pledged to continue to work on developing his Plan of Action for safeguarding religious sites to guarantee that worshippers can observe their rituals in a spirit of peace and compassion.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 22 asked Moratinos to develop an action plan to better protect religious sites in the wake of several terrorist attacks on them.

The multiple attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday have killed over 200 people, injured over 450 others so far.Pietele din Iasi s-au umplut de brazi de Craciun

Cu cateva zile inainte de Sarbatorile de Iarna, iesenii pot cumpara pomi de diferite marimi, adusi din import sau autohtoni, la preturi cuprinse intre 37  400 de lei, in functie de inaltime si coroana, dar si de categoria din care fac parte. Fata de preturile de anul trecut, cei care doresc sa isi [citeste mai departe]Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky Unian

Pechersk District Court of Kyiv found invalid the contract on personal guarantee of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky for refinancing loans that were issued by PrivatBank before the state enters the capital. The press service of National Bank of Ukraine reports this.

The National Bank intends to appeal against this decision, but at the same time, it points to a negative tendency in affairs of PrivatBank, because already the third court decision is not in favor of the state for the last three days.

One more court decision provokes legal uncertainty, and therefore, potential risks to Ukraine's financial stability in the future. This court decision also complicates the protection of the interests of the state in litigation in other jurisdictions to reimburse damages to the bank and the state caused by the former owners of PrivatBank, Viktor Hryhorchuk, the head of the juridical department concerning claims and litigations of the National Bank of Ukraine, said this.

On April 18, Kyiv-based court ruled that the nationalization of Privatbank in late 2017 was 'conducted with multiple law breaches.' The court, thus, granted the motion by Ihor Kolomoysky, the oligarch who appealed against the nationalization of the bank he had owned.

District Administrative Court of Kyiv granted the claim of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky against the National Bank of Ukraine and Ukraines Government on nationalization of PrivatBank.Open source

The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked by phone not only with current president Petro Poroshenko but also with presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky. This was announced by the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker on Twitter.



"Secretary Pompeo called both candidates tonight to underscore U.S. support for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity and reiterated our commitment to working with whomever the Ukrainian people choose to ensure the success of a secure, prosperous, democratic, and free Ukraine," the message reads.Pope Francis mentioned Ukraine in his speech in the Vatican on April 21, when Catholic Christians celebrate the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. This is reported by BBC.



"May this Easter bring consolation to the residents of eastern Ukraine suffering from the ongoing conflict ... May the Lord encourage humanitarian aid initiatives and those aimed at achieving a lasting peace," said the Pope of Rome.



In his speech, he also mentioned other conflicts and crises in the world, particularly in Syria, Libya, Israel and Palestine, Sudan and South Sudan, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and other countries.



The Pontiff also condemned the attacks in Sri Lanka, where several explosions occurred in churches during Easter services. He expressed his condolences to the Christian community of the country.



It is noted that thousands of people from different countries gathered to listen to the Pope's Easter speech on St. Peter's Square in Rome. The speech was broadcasted live to millions of viewers around the world.

Earlier Pope Francis mentioned Ukraine and asked for peace in the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas message.



May the Lord, who is born, bring relief to dear Ukraine, which eagerly wants to regain a lasting peace. With the piece that respects the rights of every nation, a country can rise after suffering and restore decent living conditions for its citizens. I assure my closeness to the Christian communities in this region and pray for that fraternity and friendship can be built," the Vatican News quotes the text of the Christmas sermon of the pontiff.The plaintiff was obliged to pay the court fee at the amount of $57

Ukraines presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky, 2019 RBK-Ukraine

The sixth Kyiv Court of Appeal rejected a lawsuit on the possible cancellation of the registration of Volodymyr Zelensky as a presidential candidate.

The circumstances indicated by the plaintiff can only be the reason for the warning, but not for the cancellation of registration of the candidate. The claim cannot be satisfied, the judge said.

The court pointed out that according to the law of Ukraine, the reasons for cancelation of the registration of a presidential candidate can be his own wish to withdraw his candidature, termination of citizenship of Ukraine, leaving Ukraine for permanent residence elsewhere.

The observer of the elections from the social organization Ukrainian association of the actioners Andriy Khylko filed the lawsuit. He was outraged due to the fact that Zelensky gave tickets to the presidential debates at the NSC Olympiysky for free. Khylko believed that this was a violation of the law and vote-buying attempt.

At the same time, Zelensky's chief lawyer, Vadym Halaychuk, said that this lawsuit has no prospect and is totally groundless.

According to the lawyer, plaintiff Khylko is famous for many such lawsuits, in particular, he filed a lawsuit that the meeting between Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron was as if the pre-election agitation.

The Administration of the President of Ukraine denied information that Khylko is the lawyer of Petro Poroshenko.At least 138 people died and 400 were injured during the blasts

Six near simultaneous explosions happened in Shri Lanka. The blasts at three churches and hotels were carried out by suicide bombers on Easter Day. 138 persons died and at least 400 were wounded as a result of blasts, as The National reports.

Sunday morning, three churches were hit: St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo; St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a Catholic majority town north of Colomb; and the Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa. Two churches were blown up by the suicide bombers.

According to the witnesses, the buildings in the surrounding area shook with the blast at St Anthonys Shrine. The explosions occurred during the mass while people were celebrating Easter.

"The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out doors and windows at St. Sebastians, where people carried the wounded away from blood-stained pews," the report said.

The three hotels believed to have been hit were The Kingsbury; The Shangri-La Hotel; and the Cinnamon Grand, all in Colombo.

Easter Day bomb blasts at three Sri Lankan churches and three luxury hotels killed 138 people and wounded more than 400, Reuters reported.

Nine foreigners were among the dead, the officials said.

More than 50 people were killed only in St. Sebastians, and in another one 25 more. The accurate number is still unknown.Open source

The turnout of voters in the second round of the elections of the president of Ukraine is 17.96% as of 11:00 AM, according to the data of the 191 constituencies out of 199 around the country. The press service of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine reports this on its website.

CEC received the data about the activity of voters in 191 constituencies around Ukraine. The total amount of district constituencies is 199.

As of 11 a.m., the highest turnout was recorded in Dnipropetrovsk region 22.86%.

The second round of the elections of the President of Ukraine kicked off in Ukraine on April 21, at 8:00 a.m. Ukraines polling stations opened as scheduled across the country with some minor delays, which were quickly addressed. The voting would traditionally last for 12 hours; the polls would close at 8:00 PM.

Presidential elections are held in 200 districts, 29,982 election commissions have been created. In total, about 30.3 million people can vote. Of these, 325,600 voters changed the place of voting for the second round of elections.The highest activity of the voters was spotted in Dnipropetrovsk region

Presidential elections in Ukraine Open source

The voters' turnout in the presidential elections in Ukraine is 45,21% as of 3 p.m., the data was collected from 190 out of 199 electoral districts around the country as the Central Election Commission reported.

The highest activity of the voters was spotted in Dnipropetrovsk region  50,91% of the voters expressed their will there.

Earlier we reported that the voter turnout was 17,96% as of 11:00 a.m., according to all 199 electoral districts.

The second round of the elections of the President of Ukraine kicked off in Ukraine on April 21, at 8 a.m. a.m. Ukraines polling stations opened as scheduled across the country with some minor delays, which were quickly addressed. The voting would traditionally last for 12 hours; the polls would close at 8 p.m.

29,982 election commissions have been created. In total, about 30.3 million people can vote. Of these, 325,600 voters changed the place of voting for the second round of elections.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!)Runs through 05/18/2019.

Named after the wounded Fisher King of Arthurian Legend, A Prairie Fisher King espouses the notion of home as both a site of idealization and a locus for wounding. Drawing from memory, a narrative is woven in the form of photographs and text of the rural Iowa countryside where my family has lived for generations.

A Prairie Fisher King is an ongoing body of work reflecting on the nature of familial hardship and generational connection through the lens of place. An undertone of violence embodies the emotional distress accumulated with age as well as a looming threat posed upon the landscape.

Initially conceived as a bittersweet love letter to home, A Prairie Fisher King considers the various myths we construct in order to survive in the face of inevitable change. Through the accumulation of intimately described detail a search for reconciliation becomes palpable. I assume the role of reluctant hero and return to seek the damaged king, to seal old wounds and to salve the land.

__________________________________________

Chelsea Darter received her MFA at Columbia College Chicago in 2018 and her BFA from The University of Iowa in 2013. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and featured online by Light Leaked, Aint-Bad, and Fraction Magazine. Her personal work explores themes of place attachment, class, familial connection and local mythologies. She lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico.Subject Quick Links

Click on any of the badges below to see posts from that subject area. This is just a quick way to search for all posts with these labels using one click.

Shenzhen Shenzhen. For months, world leaders have been discussing the use of Chinese telecoms technology and its associated risks. Now Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei is speaking out and harshly criticizes the US. Unfortunately, the US sees 5G as a strategic weapon. For them, it's kind of a 'nuclear bomb', said Ren Zhengfei in an interview with Handelsblatt and Wirtschaftswoche.

Ren even warned against a new Cold War. Especially the American trade war could lead to a more radical and less balanced world. If the West does not want such a conflict, it needs to stay open and accept the rise of other countries, said the head of the Chinese telecommunications company. But the Chinese CEO also expressed admiration for the policies of the US president. President Donald Trump is great because he cut tax rates in such a short period of time - in a democracy no less. He said that he hoped for substantial tax reductions in China, too.

Regarding the spy allegations, Ren offered to sign a no-spy agreement with the German government in order to ameliorate Berlin's security concerns. Germany is currently holding an auction of 5G spectrum. The EU recently expressed that, in principle, it remains open to using Chinese technology in the roll out of their 5G mobile networks.

The US in particular had recently called on the European countries to exclude Huawei . They claim that that the company could use its telecoms products to monitor or compromise networks. So far, no evidence has been made available to prove these accusations. Huawei has repeatedly denied these allegations.

Jetzt die besten Jobs finden und per E-Mail benachrichtigt werden.

Read the full interview below:

You recently praised Donald Trump as a great president because of his economic policy. Shouldnt he be your worst enemy?

Businesses worldwide suffer from a heavy burden. If this burden doesnt get relieved, businesses will have no breathing space. President Donald Trump is great because he cut tax rates in such a short period of time - in a democracy no less.

Chinesischer Telekomausruster Wie gefahrlich ist Huawei? Einblicke in das Innenleben des umstrittenen Tech-Konzerns Huawei steht fur Zukunft. Doch wie eng ist die Verbindung zur Kommunistischen Partei? Wie sicher sind die Daten? Der Konzern ist inzwischen zum Politikum geworden.

Are you saying that Trump is a role model for the world?

His purpose should be to attract foreign investment. But if he keeps intimidating other countries and foreign businesses, then they wont want to invest in the US, and hence his tax cut policy will be much less effective. In fact, I hope that China will substantially reduce its heavy tax burdens.

Why now?

The high tax rates in China are based on the relatively lower labor costs China had in the past. Now labor costs in China are very high. Not reducing the tax rates will hurt China's development, in my opinion.

President Trump has been trying to intimidate Huawei. The US has been trying to persuade its allies, Germany included, to no longer employ Huawei technology or to at least reintroduce security checks. Has the US boycott against Huawei already affected your business?

No, it hasnt. Our business grew by 30.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019 and profits grew by 35.4%. Therefore, I would like to thank all those US politicians who have called on others to boycot us around the world.

Why?

The US actions so far have not actually helped them achieve their goals. In fact, it's done the opposite. The current debate has made people think: Has the US ever been afraid of anyone? So why are they currently afraid of Huawei, a little rabbit? This 'little rabbit' must be making some really good products.

So the US are running ads for Huawei... In your opinion, why do the US take action against Huawei?

Unfortunately, the US sees 5G as a strategic weapon. For them, it's kind of a nuclear bomb. But this is not the case. In my opinion, our technology is more like a water tap from which the data packets go into circulation, meaning into the network. The 5G water tap is simply bigger and wider than the 4G one.

Video-Report Huawei im Visier  Wieso der Tech-Riese in einer Vertrauenskrise steckt

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You make 5G technology sound so harmless...

Had the US not been so fixated on 5G, then it wouldnt have developed so fast. In

fact, before the US started making such 5G into such a big deal, I personally was a bit concerned for its future. At the time, I thought the pace of 5G research was too fast and that many commercial applications didnt require 5G yet.

Do you think the action of the US has been politically motivated, because they fear for their technological supremacy?

Yes, the US doesnt want to be overtaken. Even though the industry that we are in is not that important, they still don't want to see us outperforming US companies. They want to suppress us.

Is Huawei possibly the most prominent victim of the US-China trade war?

I wouldnt say it like that. Weve always had virtually no sales in the US market. So the only impact we might be seeing right now is taking place in other Western countries that have a good relationship with the US.

But hasn't your reputation also been damaged? After the warnings from the US government, confidence in Huawei technology has diminished worldwide.

Our customers, including those from the West, have been building their trust in us over the past 30 years. That trust isn't going to go away just because a few influential people say something. While the whole world is paying attention to this topic, we should take a step back and ask: what contributions has Huawei made to society as a whole.

Do you have any examples of this?

Huawei has contributed about 90.000 patents worldwide. Those are all new patents related to network technology. Second, not only have we connected three billion people around the world, we have also facilitated connections between all sorts of business sector like for example the finance industry. Huaweis disappearance would be a threat to the world.

Donald Trump fears that China is emerging as a superpower that is contesting Americas status as the worlds number one. Is this perhaps more than just a trade war. Is the world possibly faced with a new Cold War?

I worry about that. The American trade war is making the world more radical and less balanced. Some Western countries like to take sides on certain issues. If China and Russia were to start doing the same, then another Cold War could come about again, indeed.

How can this be prevented?

If the West doesnt want another Cold War, then they need to stay open and accept the rise of other countries. We should put our focus back on economic development and make peace. If, for example, Europe were to increase its trade with other countries, then the trade volume could grow by maybe 1 trillion US dollars. There would be less conflict. Also, European countries would have more income that could help them address some of their internal problems.

But the US government and the EU have accused China of not being open enough. Many sectors are closed off to foreign investors.

China has been opening up more and more every day already. According to the Foreign Investment Law that was just approved by the National People's Congress in March, German enterprises, including machinery and car manufacturers, can set up fully-owned businesses in China. That could expand the potential market for German businesses while reducing their costs. And it would bring Germany even more economic prosperity.

But if a new Cold War were to come about, then the world economy would suffer, as would companies like Huawei, Daimler, Siemens etc. Do you fear a new era of protectionism in the world?

I don't think a new wave of protectionism will last for a long time. Large Western companies, not us, are the ones who are the most concerned about protectionism. Their balance sheet and stock prices would suffer and their market would be hit hard if they couldnt sell their products to China's 1.3 billion people.

Research and innovation could also be affected...

Indeed. Some small innovative companies have been developing cutting-edge products. If the US prohibits them to sell their products to China, they can either move to China or to Germany. No company can survive they they cannot sell their products.

A Cold War also has intelligence operations. Chinese law states that companies have to provide assistance in cases that are related to national security. How do you deal with that?

At the Munich Security Conference, State Councilor Yang Jiechi made it very clear that Chinese companies have to abide by the laws and regulations of the countries in which they operate. There is no Chinese law that requires companies to install backdoors or spy on foreign entities. Premier Li Keqiang also reiterated this message at the latest session of the National People's Congress. Hasn't the Chinese government stated their stance clearly enough?

Vita Ren Zhengfei

The manager Ren was born in 1944 as the oldest of seven children in the South-Chinese province of Guizhou. Just shortly before the Cultural Revolution Ren was able become an architecture student at the university of Chongqing in 1963 while self-teaching himself engineering through books. In 1947 he became a technician in the People's Liberation Army. He was then allowed to join the communist party in 1978, before trying to make it as a businessman. The company Huawei was founded by the then 43-year-old in 1987 in Shenzen as an import-company for network parts from Hongkong to the main land. After a couple of years Ren started to invest in the development of his own gadgetry. Huawei was profiting from a governement program at that time, that supported the re-establishment of local networks. Today Huawei employs 180.000 people around the world, 40 percent of which are working in research and development.

The US has accused Huawei of using its technology to help the Chinese government commit espionage. Has the Chinese government ever asked you for a special favor?

No, it has never asked for a special favour. We have been trying very hard to prove who we truly are, but the US government doesn't believe us. Now, they need to provide facts and evidence to support their accusations against Huawei.

Have you never installed backdoors in your equipment?

If Huawei had ever acted maliciously, like implanting a backdoor in our equipment, in any country, then we would have risked losing our markets in over 170 countries. All our employees could lose their jobs. That would be worth than death for me. Therefore, how could I possibly agree to installing backdoors?

So what the Americans are talking about is just a fairy tale? It's not true?

Certainly a fairy tale.

But it's a fact that Huawei employees stole technology. In 2014, Huawei had to pay a fine of millions of US dollars to T-Mobile, the subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, because two of its engineers were using the arm of a test robot.

Just as we take the protection of our own intellectual property rights seriously, we also fully respect others' intellectual property rights.

Has Huawei not engaged in industrial espionage?

There have been isolated cases where individual employees have failed to comply with company policies. After all, Huawei has over 180,000 employees. Those who violate company rules will be disciplined. Our success can be mainly attributed to our focus on our own research, which has taken us ahead of our competitors. This is why the US is coming after us.

Do you trust US tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook in terms of data security?

Complete security is virtually impossible to achieve in all technologies. The costs would be enormous if we attempted to build an information network that guarded against absolutely every risk. Our networks are supposed to guard only against hostile competitors and malicious attackers. We have no hostile competitors amongst Western companies, so we don't guard against Western companies. We also don't guard against the US government, the German government, the Chinese government, or any other government. They will not forward information about us to our competitors.

(from right to left) Sha Hua, Sven Afhuppe, Ren Zhengfei, Beat Balzli, Jorn Petring The founder of the Chinese Telecommunication cooperation Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, warns about a new cold war. Bild: Egill Bjarki fur Handelsblatt

The lack of trust in Huawei technology might be a cultural thing, too. Data protection is a central principle for people in Europe. In China, data protection is not so important. Do you understand the concerns of the European citizens and politicians?

Of course, I do. Huawei adheres strictly to the GDPR. But please bear in mind: Huawei is only an equipment provider. The networks are owned and run by telecom operators and internet service providers. We provide water taps; but others are responsible for the water flow (data traffic).

Chancellor Merkel just spoke out against an exclusion of Huawei from Germany. Has Huawei held talks with either Beijing or Germany on that matter?

I think German Chancellor Angela Merkel is great. I don't know what the Chinese government is thinking. They don't tell me.

Last month, we had talks with Germany's Federal Ministry of the Interior and expressed our willingness to sign a no-spy agreement with the German government, in which we promise that Huawei networks contain no backdoors. I'm also willing to push the Chinese government to sign a no-spy-agreement, that also obliges Beijing to comply with the GDPR.

In your view, what is a good solution for Germany?

European countries certainly do not want to have their data transmitted to China. They definitely don't want to have their data transmitted to the US, either. Germany has proposed to build its networks with equipment from multiple vendors. We support this approach.

But there are still some doubts. Unlike Germany, China is neither a democracy nor market economy. There are many state-owned enterprises in China. How close is Huawei to the Chinese government?

I don't know what the Chinese government is thinking. They don't tell me about it. Huawei is a private company, abides by the laws in China, and pays taxes to the Chinese government.

You're one of the most famous business leaders in China. There is usually a close relationship between people like you and the government. When was the last time President Xi received you?

That was in 2015 in the UK. President Xi was visiting our UK office, so I accompanied him during that visit.

In a recent interview with CCTV, you said that you declined Beijings invitation to attend a ceremony celebrating the anniversary of China's 40 years of reform and opening. How does one decline such an invitation?

I want to focus entirely on Huawei. Its possible to decline these kinds of invitations nowadays. Beijing is changing and becoming more open.

Buchrezension Ex-US-Lobbyist wirft amerikanischer Regierung Dschihad gegen Huawei vor William Plummer, Ex-US-Lobbyist von Huawei, teilt in einem selbst verlegten Buch kraftig aus  gegen die USA, aber auch gegen seinen ehemaligen Arbeitgeber.

You claim to have no special relationship with the government. But New Zealand recently instituted a boycott against Huawei. Shortly afterwards, the Chinese government started to put huge pressure on New Zealand. Is there no connection?

We will no longer do 5G in New Zealand or Australia. The Chinese government didn't understand our intentions and their efforts might be in vain.

Some weeks ago, you sent out an invitation to a Huawei event to some US-journalists. The Chinese embassy in Washington sent out the same invitation. Is there no connection here, either?

We published an open invitation letter to the media. Reports that the invitation was issued through the embassy are false.

At the beginning of the US attacks against Huawei, your daughter was arrested in Canada. What is your comment on that case?

I think the US must present their evidence. Should they fail to present sufficient evidence, then I have reason to believe that she is being held as a political hostage. I think what really matters in the court are facts and evidence.

How often do you talk with your daughter?

We call each other whenever we want to talk. Those Americans who have to listen in on our calls must be working really hard. They don't know when we might make a call, but they have to be ready all the time and wait around.

You have sued the US government in response to the US boycott. Do you think you can actually win this case?

We still believe in the American principle of Separation of Powers, in the independence of their judicial system, and in the strength of their legal system. We believe that we will win.

What if Huawei loses the case?

If Huawei wins the case, it will prove that the US has a great judicial system. If Huawei loses the case, but the US still fails to present solid evidence for their charges against Huawei, it will also prove our innocence.

US-Sanktionen Trump zwingt der Welt seine Agenda auf Nie zuvor haben die USA Handelsstrafen so offensiv eingesetzt wie heute. Der Druck zeigt Wirkung: Auch Europa lasst sich auf Handelsgesprache ein.

What are you doing now to improve your image in the US?

The US has been campaigning against Huawei. We have no plans to increase our market share there. We have no choice but to defend ourselves in court.

Huawei is a leading technology company. Your philosophy is to be modest, passionate, diligent, and to be willing to improve oneself every day...

Hold on. There are many people who work diligently every day, but they can't necessarily create wealth. To me, the most important thing for a company is direction, a direction that creates value for customers. Wealth belongs to our customers. If we just took it but didnt do anything with it, then we would be thieves. The only way a customer will happily give you their money is if you create value for them. That is a fair exchange.

Huawei also creates a lot of value for itself and invests 10% to 15% of your annual revenue in research and development. What will be Huaweis next big innovation?

I think our future innovation will still focus on connecting people around the world with each other. But it's also important to let researchers do their thing. Our latest smartphone, the P30, can photograph objects from one kilometer away. It can also be used as a night-vision device. One can wonder: do normal users really need this?what is the point of these functions is. But this is what our scientists have been dreaming of, and we at Huawei understand.

How important will AI be in the future for Huawei?

It will be very important, and even more important for Germany.

Why?

Because production in Germany is already highly automated and supported by information technologies. I think Germany is well positioned to turn industry 4.0 into reality. If AI is widely adopted in Germany, one person will be able to do a job that currently requires ten people. If that becomes a reality, Germany's working population of 45 million will be equivalent to that of 450 million, making it an even greater industrialized nation.

Handelsblatt Live Huawei-USA-Konflikt: Deutschland sollte sich von den Amerikanern nicht instrumentalisieren lassen

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Should German companies therefore invest more in AI?

Yes, they should. Using AI does not necessarily mean that AI has to be

manufactured in Germany. No matter the origin of the technology, German companies should embrace it, as long as it can create wealth for Germany. Currently, the US is the strongest in AI. Germany needs to overcome its labor shortages if it wants to boost its industrial development.

Do you have any new investment plans in Germany?

Yes, we do. We have established a lot of research centers in Germany and purchased a factory in Weilheim to produce high-performance equipment. We're going to gradually move our manufacturing facilities for cutting-edge products to Europe. We also recently bought 513 acres of land in Cambridge for the production of optical chipsets. And some of our production facilities for 5G base stations may be located in Europe.

How important is Germany to Huawei?

Germany is one of our preferred locations. In addition to our investment in Germany, many technologies and equipment used here in China are also from Germany. Our software primarily comes from Siemens and Bosch. Huawei's collaboration with Leica is a perfect example of our investment in Germany.

May I ask you a personal question? Right now you have reached the age of 74 years. How long are you planning running Huawei?

That depends on how soon Google can come up with a medicine that helps people to live forever.

We have spoken at length about the trade war, a Cold War, European politics, and Chinese politics. Could you ever imagine becoming a politician in the future?

I'm a businessman and will always remain a businessman. I would never go into something related to politics.YEREVAN, APRIL 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Church leader Catholicos Garegin II has addressed a message to the faithful on Easter. According to a news release by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiatsin, Garegin II said:

''In the Name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

God has risen, and all of his enemies have been scattered.

(Book of Hours)

Dearly beloved faithful,

The joy of the Feast of the Holy Resurrection has filled our souls, and the victorious exuberance of the Resurrection is to be found everywhere: in our surroundings, our churches, our families, the entire Christian world, as well as in the budding nature. Christ has triumphantly arisen from the sealed cave, and the angel announces the Good News of His Resurrection from the empty tomb. The chains of sin and death have been shattered by the victory of the Saviour, the doors to the Heavenly Kingdom have been opened, and divine grace is offered to humanity  the priceless gift of inheriting eternal life. I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11.25-26).

The path of eternal life and resurrection in Christ begins in this world. It begins with a change in the life of the person, the rejection of sin and evil, and with a movement toward a way of holiness and perfection. Indeed, wherever human souls are exposed to the light of Christs resurrection, there also the darkness of God-rejecting evil thoughts, corrupting ideologies, divisions and polarizations, intolerance, enmity and dissensions retreat and are scattered. In their stead, cooperation and agreement, faithfulness, holiness, love and happiness are established. God has risen, and all of his enemies have been scattered, proclaims the prayer.

Those paths, which reject renewal in Christ, making life captive to sin and subject to corrosion and destruction, are antithetical to peace in the world, the public welfare, the harmonious coexistence of humanity, the strengthening of families, and all that is good.

The Good News of the resurrection of Christ is an invitation to all  to live in the graces bestowed upon us by the Saviour as a new person, as the Apostle exhorts and says, put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4.22-24). To believe in the resurrection of Christ and our resurrection through Christ as well as transformation of our life, means not only to overcome sin, addictions and spiritual error, but also to be filled with love toward all and to reject everything that tramples justice, dignity and all that is human. It also means striving to spread care and general goodwill as did Christ, who came and saved all creatures (Sharakan - Hymnal). Greed, theft, violence, hatred, enmity and other manifestations of blindness to Gods commandments have no place in the life of the Christian who has received the grace of the Resurrection. Such deeds reject the grace of freedom in Christ from sin and death, they destroy good and undermine the well-being of the human person, the family unit, and national life. Freedom is given in order to choose good and not as a pretense for evil and unruliness (cf. 1 Peter 2.16). Truly, being an heir of the grace of the Resurrection is made apparent in ones lifestyle and deeds, not only personal and familial, but in the help rendered and efforts brought in the life of the public, nation and humanity. Faith is made radiant and fruit-bearing, hope increases, love of others is affirmed as we move forward together.

The passions and resurrection of Christ for our sake and for all humanity, are the expression of divine, boundless love. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (2 Cor 5.15). Love, dearly beloved, does not focus on the self, it does not look for its own benefit (1 Cor 13.5), but rather it is expressed in dedication toward one another and is the foundation of flourishing, ascension and resurrection. It is this great message that Our Lord and Saviour passes on to humanity through His own example. The resurrection of the Lord manifests the mystery of solidarity, community and accord to the world. Christ brought his service to all, and in a similar manner we too must live with each other in a spirit of service, dedication and commitment. It is with this understanding, that we will be able to overcome the difficulties that afflict our state and pan-national life, to solve the problems befallen to us, to strengthen families, to defend steadfastly and build up both our homeland and our diasporan national life. Our peoplewhich accepted Christ as its Saviour and have risen from the ashes of history in faithfulness and the love of the Lord  will today with that same faith and strength continue to fortify its victories and accomplishments. Now, dearly beloved, let us always keep the light and power of Christs resurrection in our lives and in our land, sanctified by the descent of Christ, and continually be renewed by the grace bestowed upon us by our Saviour. Doing so, we will be able to join together toward a revival of a strong homeland and toward new horizons in our life, testifying, that we are a people resurrected in Christ; we are the people of Christ, Gods own people.

In the exuberant Good News of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, We convey our greetings to the incumbents of the hierarchical sees of our Apostolic Holy Church: His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Abp. Nourhan Manougian, the Vicar General of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, His Eminence Abp. Aram Ateshian, to the spiritual leaders of our sister Churches in supplication for the fruitfulness of their service. With patriarchal blessing we greet and bring our well-wishes to the President of the Republic of Armenia, Mr. Armen Sarkissian and to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Mr. Nikol Pashinyan. We extend our greetings to the President of the Republic of Artsakh, Mr. Bako Sahakyan, and to the state officials of Armenia. On this graceful occasion of the Resurrection we convey our best wishes to the representatives of the diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia. We express Our love and blessings to the clergy of our Holy Church and to all our faithful people.

On this grace-filled day of the Holy Resurrection we pray, that the grace of our Saviours Resurrection work miracles in the world; that people be renewed by the good intensions and fulfillment of life, peace and unity and that they may be one family under divine blessing. We ask again that in this year, dedicated to the family, our family ties may become strong and radiant with the light of Christs resurrection, full of love, solidarity and happiness. May the Lord protect our people in his boundless love, and keep the light and joy of the resurrection aflame in our hearts, in our country and in the entire world.

May the grace, love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ remain with us and with all. Amen

Christ is risen from the dead,

Blessed is the Resurrection of Christ.''America needs a leader with intellect and imagination. Failing that even one that actually reads books would do.

The United States of America desperately needs a new leader. It has managed to drag itself down to the level of a cheap and nasty reality television show compered by a complete idiot obsessed by hotels, golf courses and a humongous garden wall.

Britain desperately needs a new leader. It has managed to back itself into a ridiculous impasse by trying to reimagine its future in terms of its past. Only a strong leader can extract it from the quagmire.

TUMBY BAY - Australia desperately needs a new leader. Our core values have been eroded and demeaned by selfish ideologues over several decades now and we need to re-establish our beliefs in equality and a fair go for all.

When you think about it the whole world, except perhaps New Zealand, needs new leaders to take us into the future.

But, more than anywhere else, Papua New Guinea desperately needs a new leader. Over a short period of time it has become the plaything of a trumped up accountant who only knows how to do one thing - and that is to squeeze and pocket the last bit of profit out of everything he touches no matter what the consequences and who suffers in the process.

So what sort of leader does Papua New Guinea need? Is it a father figure like Nelson Mandela or a ruthless dictator like Fidel Castro or someone in between?

And where will it get such a leader, whichever way it decides to go?

A quick perusal of all likely candidates is decidedly uninspiring. So too is a survey of its previous leaders. There is not one there worth bringing back because the job they would face is simply too large.

And why is the job so difficult?

It is, of course, to re-invent the nation. To starting again and do much better than before.

It involves picking up the pieces of a shattered land and putting them back together again so they work for everyone and not just a few wantoks and cronies.

In the Mandela mould, it requires a person who is completely dedicated to the task with an unbreakable will to succeed. Someone who is completely unselfish and who will put others before himself or herself.

Someone who doesnt care about their own personal circumstances and wealth but cares about the health and wellbeing of the children of the future. Someone who will build monuments of the mind rather than monuments of concrete and steel.

Most of all it requires someone of courage and vision who can see beyond the narrow prism of clan and tribe and actually think Papua New Guinea into becoming a real nation rather than one just in name only.

At the other end of the spectrum, in the Castro mould, it could be someone with ice water in their veins who would bend Papua New Guinea to their will no matter what damage that might inflict on its people.

Someone with a grand ideological scheme, who will be relentless and ruthless in achieving it. Someone unafraid of trampling rich and the poor to achieve the dream. Someone who would one day hold up their creation and say, See what I have made, isnt it great? while not noticing the carnage lying about their feet.

Papua New Guinea is currently like a shattered beer bottle lying alongside the road amongst all the pipia and betel nut juice. Putting it back together seems impossible and so does finding someone who could do that let alone even thinking it is something worth doing.

How is it possible to find someone that eight million people and 800 disparate tribal and linguistic groups will recognise as a common hero or heroine. There has never been such a person in the past so why should there be one now?

But, then again, who would have imagined that a nondescript lawyer imprisoned by a brutal and racist government would rise up and lead his people into the future, as Nelson Mandela did.

Who would have imagined that a mere school teacher could stare down the most powerful nation on earth and still survive and prosper, as Fidel Castro did?

How do the people of Papua New Guinea not know that the person they so desperately need isnt even now in one of the cities or towns or in the bush biding their time for the right moment to act?

Maybe he or she needs a signal.

Now might be a good time for that signal.An airlines female flight attendants must have a doctors note to not wear heels [Image: Getty]

A popular airlines 22-page dress code document  which states heels must be at least 2cm high  has come under fire after it was revealed that female cabin crew are being forced to wear them unless they have a doctors note.

Women who work as flight attendants for Norwegian Air are not allowed to wear flat shoes on the plane unless they have a medical letter, its been revealed.

However, the low-cost airline, who fly to Europe, USA and Asia, have insisted the rule ensures employees look smart and consistent.

The airline says employees must look smart and consistent. Photo: Getty

Women who have a doctors note that allows them to not wear heels still have to face tight restrictions. They must carry the letter with them at all times, and it must be updated every six months.

The guidelines were drafted with input from our pilot and cabin crew colleagues and have been well received, a spokesperson for the airline told the Independent.

They also added that the majority of the dress code policy applied to both men and women.

Women employed by Norwegian Air must have a medical letter with them at all times to be allowed to wear flats [Image: Getty]

However, politicians in Norway  where the airline was founded in Norways capital of Oslo in 1993  have accused them of being in a Mad Men universe.

The comment  made by Ingrid Hodnebo, of Norways Socialist Left Party  is a reference to the hit TV series which depicted sexist and patriarchal values at a New York advertising firm in the 1950s.

The year 1950 rang and it wants its rulebook back, said Anette Trettebergstuen, who represents women in Norways Labour Party.

It comes not long after Virgin Atlantic ditched its mandatory makeup rule for female cabin crew.

Emirates female flight attendants have to wear a particular shade of red lipstick, while British Airways asks women employees to put on a minimum of lipstick and blusher.

Got a story tip? Send it to lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com

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Or sign up to our daily newsletter here.Tripoli air traffic was suspended overnight for "security reasons", the Libyan capital's only operating airport said Sunday after clashes intensified for control of the city. At least two flights were re-routed from Mitiga airport to Misrata, more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) to the east, the airport's authorities said on their Facebook page. They said flights had resumed early in the morning to Mitiga, east of the capital. The former military airbase was hit by an air strike on April 8 and has since only operated between 5:00 pm and 8:00 am (1500 and 0600 GMT). The raid was claimed by commander Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army, which days previously had launched an offensive to take the capital. Clashes intensified on Saturday when forces loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord announced a counter-attack against Haftar's fighters. Explosions were heard from the city centre overnight, and some witnesses said there were air strikes. At least 227 people have been killed since Haftar's forces launched their offensive, the World Health Organization said Sunday, adding that a further 1,128 have been wounded. As well as air raids, fighters have been engaged in clashes on the ground. The warring sides have traded accusations of targeting civilians. Haftar's offensive is the latest round of fighting in a years-long struggle for control of Libya following the NATO-backed rebellion that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi. The latest escalation comes years after Tripoli's only international airport was severely damaged during fighting. Since then Mitiga airport has been used for civilian air traffic, with Libyan airlines operating internal flights and international ones to countries including Turkey. Mitiga airport was hit by an air strike on April 8A body has been found in the search for a kayaker who disappeared while paddling up a Queensland creek on Easter Sunday.

Chris Dicker, 28, was last seen in Tallebudgera Creek on the Gold Coast at about 7am on Sunday but his kayak was later found near a bridge without a paddle.

It is unclear if the kayak washed ashore or was dragged to that location. Mr Dickers family were also concerned about his disappearance as he is intellectually impaired and has a medical condition.

Chris Dicker went missing in Tallebudgera Creek on the Gold Coast at about 7am on Sunday but his kayak was later found near a bridge without a paddle. Source: Queensland Police

On Monday morning, a Queensland Police spokeswoman confirmed to Yahoo News Australia a body had been found.

A local resident discovered the body of a deceased male in the vicinity of the bridge around 6.20am and notified police.

Residents said the creek is notorious for strong currents and is known to have sucked kayakers out to sea before.

A report will be prepared for the Coroner.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here.Every two weeks, Alena Konecna packs her bags to leave her own mother and daughter at home in Slovakia and travel some 400 kilometres (250 miles) across the border into Austria to take care of someone else's mother. As citizens across the continent prepare to vote in May's European Parliament elections, 40-year-old Konecna is an example of those who regularly take advantage of one of the EU's most important pillars: the free movement of labour. She's one of more than 65,000 people -- mostly women from Slovakia and Romania -- who form the backbone of Austria's domestic care sector. For two weeks at a time, Konecna stays with the 89-year-old bedridden woman to cook and care for her. "Without care workers from abroad, the 24-hour care system would break down... No one (in Austria) wants to do it," says Klaus Katzianka, who runs the agency that found Konecna her current job and who himself needs round-the-clock care due to a disability. But the arrangement may be coming under strain. - Demographic time bomb - Austria -- along with other countries such as Germany, Greece and Italy -- looked to poorer neighbouring states after the fall of communism to meet the need for carers generated by an ageing population and changing family structures. But it is "problematic to build a system on this," says Kai Leichsenring, executive director of the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research. As eastern European nations become richer and their own populations age, workers there may increasingly choose to stay put, he warns. Western European nations would then have to look further afield -- to Ukraine or China, for example -- to meet the ever-growing demand. In Konecna's case, she started to work as a caregiver more than two years ago in the town of Leoben, nestled amid mountains in the Austrian countryside, which reminds her of her home in Banska Bystrica in Slovakia. Previously the single mother worked in a factory in the car industry. Fed up with the long shifts and inspired by her mother's erstwhile career as a nurse, in 2015 she took a three-month course in first aid and care skills, including some practical experience in nursing homes. She also took a one-month German course, allowing her to watch TV with her employer and read newspapers to her. Care workers can earn roughly double as much in Austria than in Slovakia, although Konecna says it's hard to leave behind her daughter, now 19. "My daughter was often sick when I was away. And I have missed things like my daughter's birthday," she says, adding she would prefer working in Slovakia if wages were better there. - 'Italy syndrome' - Besides being separated from their families, there are other problems in how the sector works across Europe. A study by the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz found inadequate training, extreme working hours and salaries below the legal minimum wage. Up to 300,000 caregivers are estimated to work in private homes in Germany, mostly illegally. They previously hailed mostly from Poland but now increasingly come from poorer EU states such as Romania and Slovakia. Konecna was put off going to Germany by the more gruelling cycle which is common there, with workers staying three months at a time. For many of those from poorer EU member states working in the West, workplace conditions can leave lasting effects. In Romania, more than 150 women were hospitalised at Socola Psychiatric Hospital in the country's northeast last year alone, their mental health having suffered after caring for the elderly abroad -- what has become known as the "Italy syndrome". "I had the misfortune to work all the time for elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's so I spent most of my time between four walls, under constant pressure," says one former hospital patient, a 58-year-old mother of two who worked in Italy from 2002 until 2014. "I devoted the most beautiful years of my life to elderly Italians." - 'Big minus' - Added to the stress of such jobs, there are signs that EU migrant workers like Konecna may come under fire from their host governments. Last year in Austria for example, the right-wing government decided to cut the amount of child benefit paid to foreigners who work in Austria but whose children live abroad in lower income countries. With a monthly salary of about 1,200 euros ($1,400), Konecna says the changes have meant an effective pay cut of 80 euros, a "big minus" for her. Katzianka, who fears difficulties to find carers from Slovakia now, has hired a lawyer for Konecna to contest the change. Romania has also protested to the European Commission over the change, saying it violates EU principles of equal treatment. burs-jza/jsk/rl Women from Slovakia and Romania form the backbone of Austria's domestic care sector 'Without care workers from abroad, the 24-hour care system would break down,'says Klaus Katzianka (L), who runs the agency that found Konecna her current job Slovakian care giver Alena Konecna makes her living caring for an 89-year-old in Austria thanks to the free movement of labour in the European UnionEaster is Christianitys most important moveable feast, with the holiday changing weekends every year.

The weekend celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead will be this month, with Good Friday on April 19, Easter Sunday on April 21 and Easter Monday on April 22.

Director of the Centre for Religious Studies at Monash University, Professor Constant Mews, told Yahoo News Australia the date of Easter was determined by the first full moon of the spring equinox  the moment the sun crosses the equator causing day and night to last an equal amount of time.

Easter Sunday will usually fall the first Sunday after the first full moon.

The date of Easter is controversial because it is based on different ways of organising and classifying the calendar, Professor Mews said.

Its a mix of the Jewish lunar calendar where the month is organised by the moon and the solar calendar based on the sun.

Easter is Christianitys most important moveable feast. Source: Getty/file

Easter does not indicate the exact anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus and while it may seem bizarre, Professor Mews said it was celebrated during spring in the northern hemisphere as it was symbolic of light over darkness.

Professor Mews said Easter most likely fell between March 22 and April 25, but there have been some very rare instances where is has been celebrated in May.

He said Orthodox Easters were celebrated on a different date because they followed the Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar, which means a year is 365 days and six hours long.

Most of the world follows the Gregorian calendar where the year is 365 days, five hours and 49 minutes long.

Do you have a story tip? Email: y7newsroom@yahoo7.com.au.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here.Forces backing Libya's unity government battled to push back an offensive by strongman Khalifa Haftar on Sunday as his troops approached the gates of Tripoli after air raids overnight. Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, galvanised by victories in its eastern stronghold and in the country's desert south, announced an offensive early this month to seize the capital from the UN-recognised administration of Fayez al-Sarraj. But his forces have faced fierce resistance from armed groups backing the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), including powerful factions from the western city of Misrata. The bloodshed has derailed efforts to bring peace to a country where jihadists and people smugglers have exploited the chaos unleashed by the NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. At least 227 people have been killed since Haftar's forces launched their offensive, the World Health Organization said Sunday, adding that a further 1,128 have been wounded. Clashes intensified on Saturday when forces loyal to the GNA announced a counter-attack. "We have launched a new phase of attack. Orders were given early this morning to advance and gain ground," said Mustafa al-Mejii, a spokesman for GNA forces. Sustained rocket and shellfire could be heard in several districts of Tripoli on Saturday, after several days of less intense fighting and stalemate on the ground. Explosions were heard from the city centre overnight, and some witnesses reported air strikes. Pope Francis, delivering his traditional Easter message, called for an end to "conflict and bloodshed" that was killing "defenceless people" in Libya. "I urge the parties involved to choose dialogue over force and to avoid reopening wounds left by a decade of conflicts and political instability," he said. Tripoli air traffic was suspended overnight to Sunday for "security reasons", the city's only operating airport said Sunday. At least two flights were re-routed from Mitiga airport to Misrata, more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) to the east, the airport's authorities said on their Facebook page. They said flights had resumed early in the morning to Mitiga, east of the capital. The former military airbase was hit by an air strike on April 8, claimed by the LNA, and has since only operated between 5:00 pm and 8:00 am (1500 and 0600 GMT). - Night-time raids - The GNA counter-attack put pro-government forces back in control of Ain Zara, in the southern suburbs of Tripoli, where an AFP team confirmed pro-GNA forces had advanced, shifting the front line a few kilometres south. GNA spokesman Mejii told AFP on Sunday morning that "after a long day of military success, our forces are consolidating their (new) positions." Some witnesses spoke of air raids and drones, but Mejii said the blasts were caused by strikes from LNA helicopters aimed at "terrorising civilians". He said they had not caused any casualties but had taken place away from the front lines, without offering any further details. Military sources say the ageing Soviet and Russian fighter jets used by both sides are not equipped to carry out night time strikes, but Mejii said Haftar's forces have a helicopter with night vision capabilities. The UN's Libya envoy warned Thursday of "a widening conflagration" in the North African country. Ghassan Salame told AFP that "international divisions" prior to the assault on Tripoli had emboldened Haftar, who is backed by Russia and seen by his allies Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as a bulwark against Islamists. The White House revealed Friday that US President Donald Trump reached out personally to Haftar, as a push at the United Nations to broker a ceasefire hit trouble. A statement said that Trump "recognised Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources," adding that "the two discussed a shared vision for Libya's transition to a stable, democratic political system." Observers saw Trump's words of praise for the strongman as evidence of US support that explains Haftar's determination to pursue his offensive to seize Tripoli. On Thursday, Russia and the United States opposed a British bid backed by France and Germany at the UN Security Council to demand a ceasefire in Libya. Russia insisted on having no criticism of Haftar in the proposed resolution, while the United States said it wanted more time to consider the situation. Fighters loyal to Libya's Government of National Accord have launched a counter-attack to defend Tripoli Forces loyal to Libya's UN-recognised government have put up strong resistanceOutside a polling station in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, just miles from the front of a conflict with Russia-backed separatists, an armoured police van stands guard. Anna, a 24-year-old from the government-held eastern port city, said her vote was going to Volodymyr Zelensky -- a comedian with no political experience who is the favourite to win the presidency. He's "the only candidate with whom a new life can begin," the architect told AFP. Zelensky has risen in the polls on the back of frustration over economic hardship and corruption as well as the ongoing conflict which has cost some 13,000 lives over the past five years. Anna said incumbent Petro Poroshenko, 53, had done "nothing tangible for us" after being elected shortly after a popular uprising in 2014. Others disagree, praising Poroshenko for securing an Orthodox Church independent of Moscow and containing the fighting in the country's east. Poroshenko "has secured the support of major countries to contain Russian aggression," said Sergiy, a 60-year-old who voted for the president. "I can see how the army has been sorted out," the Mariupol resident said. - 'Tired of lies' - At the other end of the vast country in Lviv, a patriotic stronghold near the Polish border, 67-year-old Yuri also said he voted for Poroshenko. "He is a real Ukrainian," the pensioner said. Issues of national identity have dominated Poroshenko's campaign and the incumbent mocked the spoken Ukrainian of his rival, whose first language is Russian. Yuri said a Zelensky presidency would be "a catastrophe". Lviv is the main city in one of just two of Ukraine's regions where Poroshenko topped voting in the first round. Anti-Zelensky posters pasted near a polling station in Lviv portrayed the poll favourite as a drug addict or warned of the collapse of the national currency if he was elected. Tetyana, 31, admitted to voting for the comedian. "I only support him because I'm against Poroshenko, but of course I'm scared," she said. "I do not have much hope but I really want something to change in Ukraine and with the current president there will be no change for the next five years." In central Kiev, 36-year-old chef Inna said she had backed Poroshenko because he would steer Ukraine towards Europe and away from Russia. Inna lived in Donetsk, now held by separatists, but fled to the capital after conflict broke out. She and her family are anxious about the prospect of a Zelensky victory. "We have nowhere to run" in the event of a fresh disaster, she said. Near the same polling station, Anton Rudyi, 27, said he had voted for Zelensky. If the actor fails, Rudyi believes "it will be easier to force him out than Poroshenko, who controls more than half of the parliament". His partner Marta Semenyuk, 26, also cast her ballot for the comedian. "We're tired of all the lies. On television they talk about wages going up whereas my mother, who's a teacher, spends 80 percent of her salary on electricity and heating in winter." A fresh melody for Ukraine or the same tune again? Waiting in the wingsRafael Nadal admitted that it will be "hard to return to the practice court" after a shock semi-final defeat by Fabio Fognini ended his bid for a record-extending 12th Monte Carlo Masters title on Saturday. The 17-time Grand Slam champion starts his Barcelona Open title defence on Wednesday, as he also fights to keep his world-number-two ranking before the French Open gets underway next month. The 32-year-old said he played "one of my worst matches in 14 years on clay" in losing 6-4, 6-2 to Italian Fognini, having been forced to save three match points at 5-0 in the second set. "It will be hard to return to the practice court," a subdued Nadal said after his fourth loss to Fognini, three of which have come on his beloved clay. "I lost an opportunity in a very important event for me. I'm sad for that." Nadal has struggled with knee injuries this season, and was playing his first event since withdrawing before an Indian Wells semi-final against Roger Federer last month. "There was little chance for me to start the clay-court season in a perfect way," he insisted. "It was a bad day, the kind of day where the feeling is not there at all. It's difficult to find positive ways today." Nadal was close to losing his first set to love in Monte Carlo since the 2005 final, where he beat Guillermo Coria in four sets. "I was lucky to win two (second-set) games to avoid an even worse score," he admitted. "I'm thinking about how bad I played today, (trying to) understand the things. "Coming back from injuries, winning and winning and winning is not easy. "(It's been a) year and a half of not having the chance to play tournaments in a row (due to injury)." - Nadal facing rankings slip - Nadal, who will be favourite to win a 12th French Open crown at Roland Garros, has plenty of ranking points on the line before heading to Paris, with titles to defend in Barcelona and Rome. A slip outside the top two could set up a potential meeting with old rival Novak Djokovic, winner of the last three Grand Slam tournaments, before the final. The 'king of clay' will have to bounce back quickly next week to allay fears he is now vulnerable on the red dirt. "I played one of my worst matches on clay in 14 years," he said. "It's difficult to find any positives -- I deserved to lose." The Spanish great is yet to win an ATP title this season. The last year he reached May without a tournament victory was in 2004. Fognini will face unheralded Serbian Dusan Lajovic in Sunday's final -- the first time since 2004 that neither Nadal, Djokovic nor Roger Federer have made it to the last day in the Principality. Nadal was dumped out in the semi-finals by Italian Fabio Fognini Nadal has not reached the month of May without an ATP title since 2004A Perth mum was left horrified after she claimed her toddler found what is believed to be a used condom in the restaurants main dining area.

The woman, who is only identified as Wendy, said she visited McDonalds at Warnbro, in Perths south, on Friday about 6pm.

"I went back up to the counter to order something and my daughter was with my husband, I don't know how it happened but when my husband next looks at her, she's sucking on a black condom," Wendy told 10 Daily.

"I ran into the bathrooms, washed her mouth and hands and came out and gave her a drink.

A Perth mum claims her two-year-old put an unwrapped condom in her mouth after finding it at McDonald's at Warnbro. Source: Nine News

The parents were disgusted by the find which was unwrapped.

It is unclear if it had been used but the mum told 10 Daily they were getting the two-year-old tested for STIs.

The mum told Nine News she requested for the condom to be given to a hospital for analysis.

She also told the TV network the family had an anxious three-month wait for testing on their daughter.

Pictured is McDonald's at Warnbro. Source: Google Maps (file pic)

The girls parents are considering legal action.

In a statement to Yahoo News Australia a McDonalds spokesperson said they were very sorry that the incident occurred and take situations like this seriously.

We are conducting an investigation into how this happened, the spokesperson said.

Cleanliness and safety are our top priorities and we ensure the Shift Manager on duty conducts what we refer to as a travel path every 30 minutes. The travel path sees the Shift Manager walk through and check all areas of the restaurant.

The spokesperson confirmed the condom was provided to a hospital for testing.

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You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here.Two rescuers have drowned after their boat flipped trying to help a tourist who landed in trouble after wading into waters off Victorias Great Ocean Road.

The swimmer, believed to be a 30-year-old tourist, was wading at the mouth of the Sherbrook River when he got into difficulty about 10.40am Sunday.

Two rescuers have drowned after their boat flipped trying to help a tourist who landed in trouble after wading into waters off Victorias Great Ocean Road. Source: Nine News

A boat deployed to assist the man flipped in the surf and threw the three rescuers into the water.

One of the rescuers and the tourist were winched from the water by an emergency helicopter.

A boat deployed to assist the troubled swimmer flipped in the surf and threw the three rescuers into the water. Source: Nine News

The male rescuer, a man in his 50s, was flown to Melbournes The Alfred Hospital in a serious condition with back and leg injuries.

The tourist was taken to Warrnambool hospital by road ambulance in a stable condition.

The bodies of the remaining two male rescuers aged 32 and 71, both from Port Campbell, were located in the water.

The two men were surf lifesavers, according to the ABC. They were both declared dead at the scene, police confirmed.

The swimmer came into trouble in the waters at Sherbrook River at Port Campbell. Source: AAP, file

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes orGoogle Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoos daily newsletter. Sign up here.Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged authorities in northern Cyprus to acquit two journalists facing up to five years in prison on charges of insulting and defaming Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Sener Levent, the editor of Turkish-language daily Afrika, and the paper's reporter Ali Osman Tabak are on trial over a cartoon showing a Greek statue urinating on Erdogan's head. The image first appeared online at the time of the Turkish leader's 2017 visit to Greece, and Afrika later published it with the caption "seen through Greek eyes". RSF said the two journalists are charged with defaming and insulting a foreign leader and "inciting hatred against a foreign leader with the aim of spoiling the friendly and peaceful relations between the two countries." Their lawyer, who will deliver their final arguments in court Monday, will argue that they should be acquitted, his assistant said. The journalists deny the charges and say the trial threatens freedom of expression and the press. "I hope that the court's decision will not be shameful for our society," 70-year-old Levent said. RSF said in a statement that convicting the journalists would be "a grave error and would send an extremely negative signal to the media in the northern part of Cyprus." Levent is a native of Cyprus, a Mediterranean island whose northern third has been under Turkish military control since 1974. Turkish troops invaded that year in response to a coup backed by the military junta then in power in Athens that sought to unite the island with Greece -- a union staunchly opposed by Turkish Cypriots. Only Ankara recognises the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which it bankrolls and where it has more than 30,000 troops stationed. RSF said journalists today face growing pressure both in Turkey and in the TRNC. Levent also faces trial over an article he wrote criticising a Turkish military operation against a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. Erdogan responded by calling on Ankara's "brothers in north Cyprus to give the necessary response". The following day, a crowd of ultranationalists attacked the offices of Afrika -- a tiny daily with a 1,500 circulation in a statelet of around 300,000 people -- as Turkish Cypriot police stood back and watched. "There is always a price you pay for freedom of expression," Levent told AFP afterwards. "We paid this price.... but I believe that a person should get rid of his fears." Sener Levent, chief editor of Afrika newspaper, has also angered Turkish authorities by criticising Ankara's actions in SyriaFrench Catholics on Sunday celebrated Easter mass in Paris in the shadow of the badly burned Notre-Dame Cathedral, praying that the landmark monument -- and along with it the entire Catholic Church -- can be renewed. The fire at Notre-Dame six days earlier destroyed the cathedral's spire and two-thirds of its roof. The damaged building is now to be closed for years to visits and worship. Deprived of access to Notre-Dame, regular worshippers instead lined up patiently to celebrate Easter Sunday mass a short walk away, on the Right Bank of the Seine at Saint-Eustache church. Throughout, the service was pervaded by the spirit and hope of a fresh start, infused by the Easter celebrations commemorating the resurrection of Christ according to the Bible. - 'Recreate unity' - The flames that devastated the cathedral were a "sign" said worshipper Marie Fliedel, 59, adding that she now felt a "renewal, a communion and a spirit". "I hope Christians react and take note of all that is taking place in this sad period and that this will bring us back together," she said. "This will recreate unity among Catholics. In misfortune, the fire will give strength to find ourselves again and defend our religion," added Francois Toriello, 70. The Catholic Church worldwide has been hit by a series of sexual abuses scandals, including in France where French cardinal Philippe Barbarin was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence last month for failing to report sex abuse by a priest under his authority. Another sombre mark came from the series of devastating bomb blasts that ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing more than 200 people, including dozens of foreigners. - 'Courage, knowledge and prayers' - The Saint-Eustache service, also attended by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, was led by Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit who thanked the capital's fire brigade for saving the cathedral from an even worse fate. "When, for a moment, we thought that the bell towers could also fall, these towers that are so well known throughout the would, courage and knowledge came together with the prayers of all the faithful," he told members of the fire service, several of whom were present in the front pews. Laurence Mahoudeau, 55, who had come with her husband to celebrate the mass, said she had her doubts over whether the fire would prompt major change in the Catholic Church. "Notre-Dame is something that goes beyond our religion, it's historic, it is our heritage," she said. "I don't know if this will prompt a renewal. There needs to be time. We want a strong Church. But it must be something completely different after the suffering and the sexual abuse." With Notre-Dame sealed off because of the fire damage, French Catholics attended Easter mass in Saint-Eustache church in Paris Many Catholics attending the mass at the nearby Saint-Eustache church in Paris prayed for renewal of Notre-Dame -- and, more widely, of their Church Notre-Dame will be closed for years to visitors and worshippers as reconstruction takes place Workers have been shoring up the structure of Notre-Dame following its devastating fire Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, attended the mass in Saint-Eustache church that also paid tribute to the Paris fire service that was able to save much of the structure of Notre-Dame A choir performed during the Easter mass in the Saint-Eustache churchU.S. Rep. John Katko has won three elections. Bob Honold has been behind the scenes of each victory.

Honold, a Syracuse native and political consultant based in central New York and Washington, D.C., produces television commercials for Katko's campaign. The Katko-Honold duo has been recognized before at the American Association of Political Consultants' annual Pollie Awards.

This year, the Katko campaign and Honold won two top awards.

Katko for Congress and Honold Communications won a bronze Pollie in the "Best in Show - Republican Series" category and silver in the "Best Television Campaign - Republican" category.

For both categories, Honold submitted the campaign's complete television campaign ad portfolio. During the 2018 election, the Katko campaign aired 10 television commercials in the Syracuse market.

The ads included a 30-second spot featuring Teresa Woolson, an Oswego County resident whose son died after using synthetic marijuana. She has supported Katko's legislative efforts to combat synthetic drugs. Another ad starred John Walsh, an Auburn native and the creator of "America's Most Wanted."

Honold and the Katko campaign competed against other GOP campaigns across the country. In the "Best in Show" category, finished behind Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's campaign and Indiana U.S. Sen. Mike Braun's campaign. In the "Best Television Campaign" contest, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's campaign beat out Katko for the top spot.

Honold explained that several factors are considered by judges, including creativity, effectiveness, ethical integrity, strategy and uniqueness. Electoral outcome is also part of the assessment.

In many cases, winners of Pollie Awards won their elections last year.

Honold has enjoyed success as a political consultant assisting campaigns across the country. He told The Citizen that he's most proud of his work with Katko's campaign because of his central New York ties.

"John Katko is more than a client and a friend. He's my congressman," Honold said. "And if we had more like him, Washington would function better and America would be even greater. Way more important than the awards, helping John Katko improve the community I love has been one of the most rewarding achievements of my career."

Since Katko first ran for Congress in 2014, Honold has produced commercials for the Camillus Republican. The ads have been filmed in the 24th district and Honold's production work is in Syracuse.

He is planning to shift more of his work to Syracuse instead of splitting time between central New York and Washington.

Honold has been a go-to political consultant for New York Republicans. In 2010, he was the National Republican Congressional Committee's New York state director. His efforts helped Republican win six House seats in the state.

"In addition to his record of service, John Katko is especially well served by having Bob Honold, one of the best political consultants in the country, right in his district," former House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

Love 8 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2A proposed law working its way through the Democratically controlled state Legislature this session would expand parole eligibility in an attempt to cut down on New York's aging prison population.

Interestingly, news coverage of this bill emerged in the same week that one of the state's most well-known elderly inmates, 69-year-old Judith Clark, was granted parole after almost four decades in state custody. Clark's pending release was vehemently opposed by many in the law enforcement community, pointing to her role in a 1981 Brink's armored truck robbery that left two police officers and a security guard dead. Supporters of her release  including the state parole board  cited her age, time served, remorse and accomplishments in prison. Clark became eligible for parole after being granted clemency by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2016.

It's safe to say that most people who opposed Clark's release would be against this bill in Albany that would make inmates who reach 55 years old and serve at least 15 years in prison eligible for parole, even if they receive life sentences. By the same token, most of those who felt Clark's release was justified probably support the expansion of parole eligibility.

As we look at the arguments on both sides of the legislation, we see the answer as to whether this bill is necessary in Clark's case. A system is already in place for people like Clark to demonstrate themselves worthy of parole; efforts to make that system easier for convicted violent felons seem unnecessary and potentially dangerous.

Bill supporters point to statistics that show most crimes are committed by younger people, that recidivism rates decline as people get older and that the senior citizen prison population is growing and potentially becoming a major cost to taxpayers because of the increased medical needs such inmates have.

But those statistics come from a much wider sample size than the small group of violent felons whose crimes earned them decades-long to life sentences. And the truth about the medical costs argument is that most of these inmates requiring taxpayer-funded advanced medical care in prison will be needing taxpayer-funding advanced medical care in a nursing home if they get released.

Moreover, as Judith Clark's story shows, there is a path for people to prove themselves rehabilitated and deserving of a chance to live their final years outside confinement. That path may require considerable effort and patience, but that's probably a good thing.

We urge rank-and-file legislators to reject the older inmate parole bill in its current form should it reach the floors of the Assembly and Senate this session.

The Citizen editorial board includes interim publisher Thomas Salvo, executive editor Jeremy Boyer and managing editor Mike Dowd.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Trump thinks America is his own personal family-held company.

Completely in charge, Trump reports to no one, hires mostly family, follows no laws, believes he holds "absolute legal right" to do anything.

Ever notice how policy decisions advance Trump family business interests?

He is selling out our country for personal gain.

Trump put son-in-law Kushner in charge of our country's Middle East portfolio. Curious that Qatar paid off Kushner's $1.6 billion mortgage on 666 Fifth Ave.

John Katko, why do you encourage Trump to undermine the rule of law, election integrity, support dictators and undermine international democratic order?

Trump's America is no longer a democracy governed by the entire population.

You, John Katko, and Trump were elected to represent us.

You do not tell us what to do. We tell you. Continue to adore Trump and we will vote you out.

John Katko, are you proud of Trump's despicable behaviors, words, actions?

I am not.

I am ashamed of his pathological lying, bullying, manipulation, cheating, sick grandiose sense of self.

Trump knows no personal boundaries, is recklessly impulsive and dangerous. Caught in a lie, he blames others. He has no remorse, shame, or guilt. Nothing stands in his way. Melania said, "If someone hits him, he hits back ten-fold."

Trump is authoritarian, paranoid, an extreme narcissist. Trump abuses power. He uses the Departments of Justice, Treasury, and Republican Party to protect him. A coward, he uses nasty personal insults and threats to destroy anyone. Sociopathic, he has no empathy.

What to do?

Republicans: Please encourage potential Republican candidates to challenge Trump in a 2020 presidential primary. Candidates like former Gov. William Weld, Gov. John Kasich, Gov. Larry Hogan, or Senators Mitt Romney or Lisa Murkowski or former Senator Bob Corker, others.

There are many good, honest, intelligent, well-meaning, experienced Republican leaders who could return to the presidency decency, honor, respect, a desire to put country/citizens ahead of self and to restore our democratic and Republican core values.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Let us remember the arc of the moral universe is long but bends toward justice."

Eric Holder added: "Well, it only bends toward justice because people pull it toward justice. Now is the time to advocate for the values that truly underlie this nation, for the traditions that make our country exceptional. We can do it."

America deserves better than Trump.

Laurie Roberts

Aurora

Love 6 Funny 8 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3Our nation is in big trouble ... the most trouble we've faced since World War II when our very existence was threatened. Now, the very principles our nation was founded upon are threatened again. This time it's threatened by the man who occupies the White House, Donald J. Trump. He is a bigger threat to our nation than global warming or any foreign adversary. Through a perfect storm he managed to become our alleged president.

He accomplished this because there was a third party candidate, a 20-year campaign against Hillary, Russia rigging the election, and Comey stating, 10 days before the election, that Hillary was under investigation again. As with every partisan investigation of Hillary it came to naught. Trump was "elected" by being able to swing four states with a slim majority. He got close enough (with 2.8 million fewer votes than Hillary) to win due to our insane and outdated Electoral College system. You wouldn't get away with running an election for high school senior class president that way yet that's how we elected the two dumbest and most incompetent presidents in U.S. history, George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Add corrupt to my depiction of Trump. If any of the four factors I just stated and were not present we would have a competent and intelligent president by the name of Hillary Clinton. Be that as it may the one factor above that was ILLEGAL was Russia's interference with our election. That Russia interfered is indisputable and any rational person might conclude that the 70,000 vote difference among four states made the difference. What has Trump done about that? Nothing. He has refused to make it a national issue despite the agreement among ALL our intelligence agencies that we need to address this situation. Of course ... those are the same intelligence agencies Comrade Trump has derided as he sides with his is buddy Vladimir Putin.

So now we have a Manchurian president who has diminished NATO, attacked our own federal law enforcement agencies and has created one problem after another which he has proven to be unable to address. The Trump "presidency" is a nightmare and truly patriotic Americans and our allies are frightened about what our nation has become. That might be mitigated if the Republicans in the Senate or his witless supporters found a backbone and stood up to Trump by finally placing their country over their party.

Thomas Hanley

Fulton

Love 12 Funny 11 Wow 1 Sad 2 Angry 4BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Founded in Taizhou, east China's Jiangsu Province on April 23, 1949, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is set to celebrate its 70th founding anniversary Tuesday.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the navy has grown into a powerful modern navy that can safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, as well as a marine force capable of diverse military tasks.

Most importantly, it always has been and will be a force of peace, as it always understands, treasures and protects it.

From 1840 to 1949, China suffered more than 470 assaults by foreign forces from the sea, which made the Chinese know too well the preciousness of peace.

The Chinese navy has never threatened or brought turmoil to any country. It brings confidence in peace and development in a world faced with uncertainties and unrest.

Since 2008, the navy has escorted over 6,600 vessels on the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia. The naval hospital ship Peace Ark has completed multiple overseas missions providing free medical services to over 230,000 people since 2010. In March 2015, a Chinese naval vessel evacuated 621 Chinese citizens and over 270 people of other nationalities from Yemen, which was in civil war, in nine days.

The list of such missions will increase as the PLA navy continues its own growth.

Now as it marks its 70th birthday, delegations from over 60 countries and vessels from more than 10 countries will join multinational naval events from April 22 to 25 in eastern coastal city of Qingdao, which will include a maritime parade, high-level seminars and joint military music displays.

It is a common longing for peace that gathers the navies from different countries together in Qingdao.

It not only shows the navies' sincere congratulations for the PLA Navy, but also their common will to jointly safeguard world peace.

At the media center for the multinational naval events, an album of the Chinese navy's endeavors to maintain world peace has drawn great attention and positive responses from media at home and abroad.

The anniversary events will set up platforms for inter-naval communication and further mutual trust, create more ground for stronger practical cooperation, and improve consensus to work together to face challenges and safeguard world peace.In order to maintain this blog I have to pay for its upkeep including a hosting company, support services, virus and other malicious hackers. If you appreciate what I write please make a donation.By the time you read this, Britain should have left the European Union. Or, perhaps, it's still a member. Maybe there will be another referendum. This uncertainty reveals how divided Britons are about their future and place in Europe. It also tells us a lot about direct democracy, a form of governance Americans have always found appealing.Direct democracy occurs when residents of a jurisdiction - a city, state, country - vote on policy rather than have elected representatives make these decisions for them. Thomas Jefferson believed such a "pure" democracy was best for the United States because it nurtured public virtue and would most efficiently project yeoman values into American life. James Madison warned majorities would exploit it to suppress dissenters and, as the driving force behind the Constitution and its ratification, his argument won the day.So, we do not have direct democracy at the federal level, but states, counties, and cities do. It has always been a fixture of New England politics; residents still meet regularly to discuss their towns' business and approve matters like budgets. During the Progressive Era that straddled the turn of the 20th century, many other states established procedures to permit the public to vote on changes to law and their constitution, some even allowed residents to place these proposals on the ballot rather than have legislators do it for them. North Carolina has a relatively limited form of direct democracy in that the public can only vote on changes to the constitution proposed by the legislature. We have done it quite a lot recently, however. You might recall the General Assembly presented us with six amendments in the election this past November.Americans want direct democracy. Polls routinely show we deeply distrust elected officials. We also have greater confidence in state and local government than Washington and believe policymakers should faithfully reflect the will of majorities. Brexit, however, should give us pause.Brexit is a kind of parable about direct democracy, because in June 2016 the British people voted to leave the EU in a referendum. Britain doesn't have much direct democracy; there are only two modern precedents for the 2016 vote, a referendum on continued EU membership in 1975 and one on changing the electoral system in 2011.After its 2015 reelection, the governing Conservative Party under Prime Minister David Cameron believed only the public could be charged with making such a momentous decision.Cue the current mess. The proposal the British people approved was a simple one asking if the country should leave or remain in the EU and made no mention of an exit process. No one really debated the terms of Britain's departure during the campaign. The result was very close, with 52 percent in favor of quitting.This is the central problem with direct democracy. The public - by which we really mean majorities - sometimes has strong views on important matters, but these tend to be simplistic and incoherent. There is little understanding of how they might hang together in a program of policies. There is no grasp of what these policies will produce once applied to real-world conditions.In complete contrast to the wording of the referendum, the Brexit process has generated a dizzying array of complicated decisions the government and parliament must make. The process of trying to leave the EU has had many unforeseen "knock-on" effects, regarding everything from the Irish border to the future of Britain's trade policy. There is no mandate for any particular option.Direct democracy can work if the public is asked to approve a negative action or stop something from happening. In May 2012, North Carolinians voted to prohibit same-sex marriage. The government's responsibilities were then clear. Sometimes, a direction to act positively can also present a simple task to policymakers. The referendum to add a voter identification requirement to our state constitution implied specific instructions because the U.S. Supreme Court had greatly restricted the scope of constitutionally permissible action. The Republican General Assembly had also telegraphed intentions about what it would do if granted the authority. That in both cases courts intervened to reverse the public is a topic I'll grumble about another day.More often, though, a referendum only obfuscates. Brexit is as complex as most of the conceivable policy matters Americans could consider under direct democracy at the federal level. Imagine asking them directly about Social Security reform, trade policy with China, an income tax overhaul, or climate change. As the Brexit chaos demonstrates, executives and legislative majorities should formulate and implement complex policies on issues like these. The public's role should be to give them the power to do so after an election campaign in which candidates thoroughly and straightforwardly debate core principles and the broad outlines of the course of action they intend to pursue.Have Sheriff Offices in North Carolina, possibly even Beaufort County's Sheriff Office, become too political in the discharging of their sworn constitutional duties?

No, the sheriff is a constitutional officer.

Yes, the Sheriff Office, on strong occasion, often reverts back to political patronage in the dispensation of their sworn constitutional duties.Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision. Instead, we accepted the Special Counsel's legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the Special Counsel in reaching our conclusion. In assessing the President's actions discussed in the report, it is important to bear in mind the context. President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the President's personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion. And as the Special Counsel's report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel's investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and White House documents, directing senior aides to testify freely, and asserting no privilege claims. And at the same time, the President took no act that in fact deprived the Special Counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation.

Obstruction-of-justice law "reaches all corrupt conduct capable of producing an effect that prevents justice from being duly administered, regardless of the means employed."....An improper motive can render an actor's conduct criminal even when the conduct would otherwise be lawful and within the actor's authority...A defendant need not directly impede the proceeding....The requisite showing [of motive] is made when a person acted with an intent to obtain an "improper advantage for [him]self or someone else, inconsistent with official duty and the rights of others."....When the charge is acting with intent to hinder, delay or prevent the communication of information to law enforcement under Section 1512(b)(3), the "nexus" to a proceeding inquiry articulated in Aguilar - that an individual have "knowledge that his actions are likely to affect the judicial proceeding" - does not apply because the obstructive act is aimed at the communication of information to investigators, not at impeding an official proceeding...While "mere abstract talk" does not suffice [to create the crime of attempt], any "concrete and specific" acts that corroborate the defendant's intent can constitute a "substantial step." ....The omnibus clause of 18 USC s1503 prohibits an "endeavor" to obstruct justice, which sweeps more broadly than Section 1512's attempt provision.

The President's public statements during the Manafort trial, including during jury deliberations, also had the potential to influence the trial jury.

If special counsel Mueller believed there was an obstruction offense, he should have had the courage of his convictions and recommended charging the president. Since he wasn't convinced there was enough evidence to charge, he should have said he wasn't recommending charges.

My one-line takeaway: Trump and his campaign engaged in deeply embarrassing and immoral but non-criminal behavior. In attempting to avoid that embarrassment, Trump engaged in more deeply embarrassing and immoral but ultimately non-criminal behavior.  Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 18, 2019

On Thursday, the long-awaited Mueller report finally dropped, like manna from the heavens to the starved mass media. The media quickly swiveled from their years-long contention that President Trump and his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to the contention that Trump obstructed justice in order to cover his non-collusion with Russia. That will be the talking point moving forward: that the cover-up was worse than the non-crime.The Mueller report is interesting in a variety of ways. Here are some of the biggest takeaways:While there were certainly members of the Trump team who acted suspiciously - including Trump, who continued to lie to the American public that no work was occurring on the Trump Tower Moscow deal during the 2016 campaign - the claims that Trump was a nefarious Russian agent were comically exaggerated. The Mueller report itself makes this clear:The report makes similar statements repeatedly. There was no there there.One of the popular talking points these days concerning the Trump-Russia collusion investigation is that it was initiated in bad faith by an Obama intelligence apparatus concerned with taking down candidate Trump. That may be true. But there was plenty of smoke in the early days of the investigation: George Papadopoulos meeting with Joseph Mifsud, a suspected Russian asset, who allegedly bragged that he had access to Hillary Clinton's emails; Roger Stone bringing Wikileaks promises to the attention of the Trump campaign; Trump's dishonesty regarding the continuation of Trump Tower Moscow negotiations; the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting; Carter Page's coordination with Russian fronts while working for the Trump campaign (Page, for example, emailed several campaign officials in July 2016 stating that he had); Paul Manafort's involvement in the campaign while simultaneously doing the dirty work of Ukrainian oligarchs.The Steele dossier - the intelligence mishmash funneled to Obama intelligence agencies via Fusion GPS - barely comes up in the Mueller report. Yet it was used repeatedly as the basis for a FISA warrant against Carter Page, and was presented directly to President Trump by former FBI director James Comey, then reported on broadly in the press. This raises serious questions as to how much the investigation morphed over time into an attempt to "get" the Trump campaign - just how eager were members of the FBI (say, Peter Strzok) to place extra weight on a dubious document of oppo research origin?Attorney General William Barr has come under serious fire for failing to prosecute Trump for obstruction of justice. He has rightly pointed out that there is no underlying crime, and that corrupt intent is one of the elements of the crime. Under that rubric, he stated in his March 24 letter,Today, Barr clarified his standard:But that's not the standard the Mueller report suggests for obstruction. According to that standard:This broadly defined version of obstruction - whereby the president could undertake an otherwise legal act so long as it is capable of producing an effect, even if it does not directly impede a proceeding, so long as a person acts with an intent to obtain "improper advantage" - allows the Mueller report to consider whether Trump tweeting about Michael Cohen being a "rat" or Paul Manafort being a solid citizen amounts to obstruction of justice. The report says as much, in fact. Take, for example, this line:The President does have First Amendment rights. To suggest that public criticism of Robert Mueller or public praise of Paul Manafort amounts to criminal obstruction of justice requires an extraordinarily broad reading of obstruction of justice statutes. That's also true of the presidential pardon power and the presidential power to fire. Trump certainly has those constitutional powers, and simply applying an intent test to those powers turns prosecutors into all-powerful mind-readers. Trump pardoning someone or firing someone with corrupt intent may be impeachable. It's doubtful it's criminal.With all of this said, the report is humiliating for President Trump. He acted embarrassingly repeatedly with regard to Russia during the 2016 campaign - he defended Vladimir Putin, he lied about the Trump Tower in Moscow, he praised Wikileaks - and then he acted even more embarrassingly and immorally in order to avoid the consequences of his original activity. Thus, he instructed Donald Jr. to lie to the press in his statement about the Trump Tower meeting; he tried to push Don McGahn to lie to the press regarding Trump's desire to fire James Comey; he tried, via Corey Lewandowski, to push Attorney General Sessions to talk about his innocence and constrict the scope of the Mueller investigation; he tried to pressure Sessions to "unrecuse" himself and publicly browbeat him to do so; he tried to get McGahn to fire Mueller based on nonsensical accusations of conflict of interest. All of this is immoral, wretched, terrible behavior. But, according to the Mueller report, each of these instances only hints at violation of obstruction of justice; none of these incidents are dispositive.McGahn stopped Trump from firing Sessions and Mueller; he refused to comply with Trump's order to lie about the Mueller incident in a statement to the public. Jeff Sessions refused to unrecuse himself. Chris Christie refused to facilitate bizarre phone calls with James Comey. Rick Dearborn refused to threaten Jeff Sessions, and James Comey didn't end his investigation of Mike Flynn. As the report notes,He Was Just (Rightly) Pissed. This is Barr's point, and it happens to be true. Take, for example, Trump's reaction to Mueller's appointment. According to the report, Trump "slumped" in his chair and then shouted,Trump then added,Note he didn't say he was upset that Mueller might find something. He was worried about the time suck. Trump routinely expresses his anger that the Mueller investigation kept going; he was angry at James Comey for failing to publicly declare he wasn't under investigation (which would have been true); he was enraged at Jeff Sessions for failing to limit the scope of the investigation. Again, there was no underlying collusion to cover up. This was Trump lashing out, his aides stopping him (or, in too many cases, lying to the public but not the investigators), and Trump tweeting his rage at the universe. That's not corrupt intent. That's immature but understandable rage combined with ignorance about the nature of the presidency and the legal system.The Mueller report's failure to lay out a recommendation on obstruction was obviously a roadmap to impeachment for Democrats. Mueller had three options: (1) exonerate Trump; (2) declare that there was not enough evidence to indict Trump on obstruction; or (3) refuse to take a position. Option 2 is obviously the most correct here - it would be nearly impossible to prove obstruction beyond a reasonable doubt, as Barr stated. Mueller's report provides counterevidence for every insinuation of guilt of obstruction. But Mueller went with option (3) instead, which leaves the door open to impeachment and placing the blame on Barr. As Andy McCarthy correctly writes So, my long take on the Mueller report is effectively the same as my short take:Kathmandu, April 21

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has condemned the series of bomb blasts in Colombo on Sunday, which have killed more than 160 people.

In a letter to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Prime Minister Oli said he was deeply shocked to hear the sad news of the deadly attacks. The Government of Nepal strongly condemns such acts against humanity. I firmly believe that the perpetrators behind these criminal acts will be brought to justice at the earliest. In line with the principled position, Nepal unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, said the Prime Minister.

PM Oli also said that the government and the people of Nepal stand by the friendly people of Sri Lanka.